December 6, 2022 Joint Special Meeting of Mountain View City Council and Shoreline Regional Park Community

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[00:00:01] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Government code section 54953E as authorized by resolution of the city council. Please contact 55 clerk at mountain view.gov to obtain a copy of the applicable resolution. All members of the city council are participating in this meeting by video conference with no physical media location. Meet members of the public wishing to observe the meeting live, may do so at mountain view.legistar.com, youtube.com forward slash mountain view gov, 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 by visiting mountain view.gov forward slash meeting to enter the zoom meeting or by phone by dialing 669-99128 and entering webinar ID 843-51267142. Any emails received by 430 p.m. today or received directly by the city council. This attorney lobe will make a closed session announcement, and then the city council welcomes public comment on the items listed for closed session.

[00:01:01] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Good evening, this is Jennifer Logue, city attorney for the city of Mountain View. Item 2.one on the closest agenda this evening. The city council, acting in its capacity as the board of directors of the Shoreline Regional Park community, will meet in closed section, closed session for a conference with real property negotiators pursuant to government code section 54956.8. The property, um, at issue is a portion of 1345 Shorebird Way. The agency negotiators are Angela LaMonica, uh, real property, program, administrator, and public works director, Don Cameron, the negotiating party is Google, LLC, and under negotiation are price and terms of purchase. Item 2.2 is a conference with legal counsel regarding existing litigation, pursuant to government code section, 54956.9, the name of the case is Cellerina Navarro, Janet Stevens, Armando, Covarubius, Evelyn Estrada, Gabrielle Jaime, Alma Aldacco, and all others similarly situated versus the city of Mountain View, United States District Court case number, 21 dash 05381. Thank you.

[00:02:33] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on the closed session items listed on tonight's agenda? If so, please click the raise hand button, Zoom, or press star 9 on your phone. A timer will be displayed on the screen. See no members of the public wishing to speak. Uh, the council will now close, recess, to close session and return to this webinar at 6.30 PM for the regular session. See that.

[00:04:35] (archive recording) Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the joint special meeting of the Mountain View City Council and the Shoreline Regional Park community of December 6, 2022. City is piloting the use of Zoom automated captioning for this meeting. Content represents unedited, unedited versions of computer generated captioning of city council meetings, which should neither be relied upon for complete accuracy, nor used as a verbatim transfer. Please select show captions in Zoom to view captioning. You may also click on the carrot, up arrow next to the show, captions button, to select your preferred captioning language, ultra captioning settings, such as font size, or view the full transcript in a side panel. I will now read the usual announcement as required. This meeting will be conducted in accordance with California government code section 54953E as authorized by resolution of the city council. Please contact city.clerk at mountain view.gov to obtain a copy of the applicable resolution. 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.lugistar.com. youtube.com forward slash mountain view gov 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 by visiting mountain view.gov forward slash meeting to enter the Zoom webinar or by phone by dialing 669-900-9128. And entering a webinar ID, 843-51264. Sorry, 7142. Any emails received by 430 PM today were received directly by the city council. Please 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, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. City clerk will take attendance by roll call.

[01:31:39] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Here,

[01:31:39] City Clerk Heather Glaser: council member, can I?

[01:31:41] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Here,

[01:31:41] City Clerk Heather Glaser: council member, labor.

[01:31:43] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Sure.

[01:31:43] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Metachek.

[01:31:45] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Here.

[01:31:46] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Show Walter.

[01:31:47] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Here.

[01:31:47] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Spice Mayor Hicks.

[01:31:49] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Here. Here.

[01:31:50] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor Ramirez.

[01:31:52] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[01:31:52] City Clerk Heather Glaser: You have a corn.

[01:31:54] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Great, thank you. We will now proceed to item 4 consent calendar. These items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the council wishes to remove an item for discussion. Any member of the council like to remove an item for discussion. Council member show Altered.

[01:32:12] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Well, I don't want to remove an item for discussion, but I would like to make some comments. Is this the appropriate time?

[01:32:21] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Will you be seeking any changes to the item?

[01:32:25] Councilmember Pat Showalter: No. Just like to make some comments.

[01:32:28] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Got them. Sure, go ahead.

[01:32:30] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay, well, I have 4.one. That was some change to our council policies. And, um, I'm just really glad to see that, that, um, in particular, the changes to how we can distribute the reports that we collect when we go to regional bodies that we serve on, um, has been made, you know, really clear. Because I think that when we serve on these regional bodies, we, you know, we want to go to the, um to the meetings, and we want to represent Mountain View, and we want to come back. with information that we've learned and share it. And that's been a little awkward previously, and this allows us to either send reports, you know, send send reports that we want to share to the clerk right after the meeting, or after item eight. And I think that that could be a big improvement. So I'm really glad to see that. Um, and then, uh, I, um, I'm really about 4.3. This is the application for the state's pro housing designation program. We have gotten a reputation for being strong on housing, um, in the region, and I'm I'm just really glad to see that we're going to try and make this official. I think that's good. There's a lot of, um, uh, benefits from grants and that sort of thing, so it's a good thing. And I just want to bring it to, you know, the public's attention that we're doing this. Um, and also say to the staff, if there ever gets to be a point where advocacy on the part of city councils, men, city council members, would be valuable. I hope that you'll let us know what that is. And then the last one I want to talk about is item 4.9. And every, this is the fiscal 20, 21, 22, annual compliance report on our, on our fees. And every year, this is on the cassette calendar. And it just always bothers me because this is an incredibly jam packed, um, document. It explains what our impact fees are, how much money, um, has been collected over, you know, with them over time, and what we're doing with that money. And I think that that's something that, you know, it's just really important. And so I want to, to thank the, uh, you know, the finance department and all the departments that work on this, and just bring it to the, um, attention of the public, because it is a very informative report about, you know, um, some of the finances of the, uh, of the, um, the city. And I think many people would be interested, you know, and looking at it. So, those are the things I wanted to comment on, and, um, if there aren't any other hands, I could make a motion, but...

[01:35:23] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: I do need to take public comment.

[01:35:25] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Ah, good point. Okay, sorry.

[01:35:29] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Problem. Would any member of the council like to pull an item? If not, then would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on any item on the consent calendar? If so, please click the raised hand button in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone. Timer will be displayed on the screen. For speaker, allocate 2 minutes. The 1st speaker is Bruce England. I will note that I do not have the ability to mute or unmute speakers, so I will need the assistance of staff.

[01:36:08] Bruce England: think we got it. Do you hear me now, mayor?

[01:36:11] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes, we do.

[01:36:12] Bruce England: Great. Excellent. Thank you. Yeah, I wanted to comment. This is Bruce England, Wisman Station Drive. I just want to comment on item 47. 2310 rocks Rock Street, public improvements. I've commented on these things before. I find that the reports are too brief. They don't really tell what sort of improvements have been made, say, to street lights, fire hydrant placements, sidewalks, and things like that. And even though the report notes that the city engineer has approved it and inspected, which is great, there also should be the ability for city council members to easily recognize what the changes are and members of the public too, um, without necessarily having to go to the site to see them. It seems like a rubber stamp sort of process to me. I don't know if you council members agree with me on that, but that is how I feel about it. Thank you.

[01:37:05] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: You very much. Being no other members of the public wishing to speak, we will return to council for action, and I will note that a motion to approve the consent calendar should also include reading the title of the resolutions attached to items 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3.3. Sounds a member show welcome.

[01:37:30] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay, I move the um, consent calendar, including item 4.one, adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, amending city council policy, A13, city council meetings to modify provisions, governing attendance, parliamentary procedure, decorum, and written communications, to be read entitled only, further reading, waived, and adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, omitting the city council code of conduct. to modify provisions, governing rules of procedure and decorum, to be read entitled only, further reading waived, and then item 2, 4.2, adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, modifying city council policy D 13, Mountain View employee home buyer, and relocation assistance program, to be read entitled only, further reading waived, and item 4.3.3. Adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, authorizing application to, and participation in, the pro housing designation program, to be read entitled only for the reading waived.

[01:38:37] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Bye, Smur Hicks.

[01:38:41] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Uh, second.

[01:38:43] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Are there any questions or comments? If not, then we'll take a roll call vote.

[01:38:52] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Counselor Rachel Walter?

[01:38:54] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes.

[01:38:54] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mayor Hicks?

[01:38:56] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Yes.

[01:38:56] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Abbe Koga?

[01:38:58] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I

[01:38:58] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Kame?

[01:39:00] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[01:39:01] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Lieber?

[01:39:02] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Yes.

[01:39:03] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Mattachek?

[01:39:05] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[01:39:07] City Clerk Heather Glaser: And Mayor Ramirez.

[01:39:08] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yeah.

[01:39:09] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Motion carries unanimously.

[01:39:12] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Now move on to item 5 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 item for up to uh, and well, I'll adjust the time, depending on the number of speakers, uh, during the section, state law prohibits the council from acting on non-agenda items. Would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the race hand button in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone. Timer will be displayed on your screen. Let's go ahead and allocate 2 minutes. The 1st speaker is Stephen Goldstein.

[01:39:50] Steven Goldstein: Thank you for your time. I just wanted to address that. Recently, the TSA has terminated the case manager regarding rental assistance, and from my understanding, rental assistance program is supposed to continue until February, uh, 28th, because that's the end of the state of emergency regarding COVID. But they're now not have anyone to handle any cases, and because of that, they're not providing any mental assistance anymore. And I think that's a critical situation that I believe I emailed the information to the city council quite a few days ago when I learned about this, and it seems like it's not being addressed, and I think it may be important that if there is, in fact, allocated funds that have not been used yet, and yet, at the same time, there's no case manager at the CSA, well, then, you're, in effect, now, uh, not providing the services that, uh, are supposed to be provided. I'm just a bit surprised about that. Uh, what's going on now is that I've had to, uh, apply for rental assistance through agencies other than the CSA in order to get access to the same benefits. So I would figure that the city should be dealing with that immediately. Thank you.

[01:41:17] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. The next speaker is Alex Gotzis.

[01:41:37] Alex Gotsis: Hello there. Uh. I just wanted to raise, uh, an issue that has been of, of concern to members live, uh, of the community living on Ortega Avenue and the surrounding areas, there's been recent, uh, Recent, uh, organization around, Uh, aspects of RV parking. And I think it's important that the city recognize the hardships of living in a vehicle and take a compassionate approach as opposed to a punitive one that gives people tickets and fines, uh, uh, compounding the root of the problem. Uh, I think it's important to provide more resources to those living in RVs, including, uh, safe places to park, uh, moving in the direction of expanded access as opposed to what seems to have been the trend in recent years. Uh, just for context. I am a resident on Ortega Avenue, and I have not had any of these, uh, residents, uh, perform any, a, uh, disruptive action, and there should be more safe areas for RVs to park. And they are people too, who are members of the community. Uh, some for 20 plus years as I've had discussions with some of them. And I can see that, uh, many people, uh, in the area, would just like to see them go away rather than try and address their needs in the roots of the issues. Thank you for your time.

[01:43:40] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. The next speaker is Natalia, Clearskina.

[01:43:48] Natalia Kliushkina: Hi, hello. Um, I would like to order the issue with Hacing, um, for the recent months, that there is a city, graffiti. Uh, So, city graffiti, regulations we have here. But no wants to respond to our report. So basically, for the last months, we reported multiple graphic reports on the drugs we see on our street. Those tracks are inhabited, and um, there is no actions, um, no, any answer from their abandonment, uh, from the city graffiti, graffiti, abandonment hotline, which we call, which is 650, uh, 903-6767. Also, I have left. I have left several reports for the Asc city, Mountain U, for the graffiti, graffiti, and this is, um, like my reports were redirected to police. They called me, and they say they have no idea what to do with those reports because they are completely different department, and they don't know how to react to this. Uh, regardless, I had a confirmation email that my ask city mountain, your report, both redirected to the graffiti, uh, following to the graffiti department. So I have confirmation of that. So basically there is no way to do anything from our side and no way to react to the graffiti on the city streets.

[01:45:29] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much, Natalia. Next speaker is Peggy Murphy.

[01:45:40] Peggy Murphy: Okay, I'm turned on now. I'm gonna, uh, resident of Ortega, and, um, I too feel for the people who live in their RVs, but there has to be a better situation than this. There's graffiti all over the RVs, which they were supposed to be cleaned up and they're not. They, uh, the res, the RV residents leave stuff all over the street and they're just an eyesore and my property value has been seriously damaged by the eyesource of the RVs. As I've said for many years now, I would like to see a safe parking lot, like Moffat Field, for all of the RVs that can stay there forever and, uh, have police and sanitation and showers. I realize this is very difficult to do, but there's got to be a better solution than just having them park on Ortega. Thank you. I think they They could park on that.

[01:46:44] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: The next speaker is Megan Fraley.

[01:46:52] Megan Fraley: Hi, thank you, counsel. Um, I'm a Mountain View resident and I just wanted to, um, speak today in support of, um, Mountain View Council and continued, um, kind of complex thinking about the housing crisis that we're facing in our state. Um, I understand that um, due to the settlement. Uh, few RVs have moved Ortega Street, and there's some distress being expressed by residents, um, or on Ortega. I drove down Ortega last night, and I'm sure there have been times where there have been more than 3 RVs, but given what I had heard in terms of the amount of vitriol on a Facebook page being directed at these people. Um, I was surprised at the staggering um, kind of unimpressiveness of how many RVs were there. Um, I'm sure that it is painful to see the RVs being a resident of work on Ortega. But I think sometimes what's painful for us is to look at the reality of our world and the reality in the state of California that we are facing a housing crisis, crisis, and there are families who have no other choice. And so while I feel for the residents having to look at the pain of other people, these are humans, and from my understanding, there has been pictures taken of these families. Um, and I would ask the city council to just think about if there's ways to protect um, mountain view citizens that are living in vehicles from harassment and discrimination. Um, and I would also ask, um, if we can look at easing the 72 hour abandoned vehicle rule to allow RV residents to park for a longer period of time without having to move. Um, I think we all know these are our fellow brother and sister. Um, and these are children, and we need to actually just think about how we, together as society, can respond. and live with some compassion and, um, allow these people to have dignity that they very much deserve. Thank you.

[01:48:54] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. The next speaker is Tim McKenzie.

[01:49:01] Tim McKenzie: Uh, Kyle, um, yeah, I just, I want to echo some of the comments that were made before, specifically asking for a, uh, a pause on the 72 hour enforcement of the 72 hour traffic enforcement, uh, rule, uh, from the city website. It says it's that that rule, the 72 hour rule, is supposed to be uh, dealing with abandoned vehicles, and if people are living in vehicles, kind of by definition, they are not abandoned. Um, so it seems kind of, uh, it seems counter to the stated goal of the policy to be enforcing the 72 hour rule for uh, for people, for RVs that are inhabited by people. Um, and additionally, just enforcement, like, I, I, there was the Mountain View voice article a month or 2 ago talking about police officers going and marking RVs with chalk, um, that seems like a huge investment of resources that could be better spent by the city. It seems a little below the dignity of our police officers to have them go marking the chalk. And if we're gonna go by a, by the letter of the law, rather than the spirit of the law, um, the text of the ordinance says that, uh, the, as long as, I forget the exact distance, I think it's a 1000 feet or something like that, have, the vehicle has moved a 1000 feet, uh, then it's fine, even if they go back to the same spot, and looking at the odometer counts. So marking with chalk actually seems kind of counter to if we're going by a letter of the law, and the spirit of the law seems contrary to enforcing it for RVs that are inhabited. So I'd recommend looking into a pause on the enforcement of the 72 hour rule. Thanks a lot.

[01:51:02] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. The next speaker is Marguerite.

[01:51:08] Marguerite: Hi, my name is Marguerite. I live on Ortega. Um, and I'd like to um, offer some of my thoughts on the RV situation. Um, and I just wanted to, um, say that, um, I walk on Ortega almost daily on the sidewalks and I drive down Ortega, um, because I commute as well. And I've never had an issue with any, uh, trash or like creating a hazard. I'm not experienced any, um, detriment to my living, um, on Ortega by the arrival of the RVs since the settlement um, went into effect. Um, and so I just wanted, uh, with my remaining time to highlight, um, a few of the things that I just wanted to offer, um, respectfully to the to the city counselors, um, uh, just as a thought from an Ortega resident myself. Um, first, I just want, um, to really promote, um, that these are people living in RVs, right? These are people, these are families. Um, these are people who are on hard times and, um, it is really difficult to live in an RV. and battling tickets and being buried in fines and being threatened with being towed and taking pictures of, you know, other residents who are taking pictures of the RVs. That's like a really hard thing to deal with. Um, and I just want to, um, promote the, uh, compassionate approach to this that really centers the people who are dealing with this hardship. And to that end, I want to offer some ideas, um, to help promote that, um, so that these people have it, um, you know, that the city has their back. Number one, to hopefully maybe ease the 72 hour abandoned vehicle rule to allow RV residents to park for a longer period of time without having to continuously move every 3 days. Um, cause that's that's hard to do. Um, number two, uh, to look into expanding the lots and, um, offering resources like free RV repair clinics.

[01:53:13] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. The next speaker is Bruce England.

[01:53:20] Bruce England: Thank you, Mayor Bruce England, Wisman Station Drive. I want to echo a lot of what's already been said on this and I'll be brief, but bearing in mind both reasonable concerns and need for compassion and understanding across the board. We all need to share the load within our community. Um, and keeping the dialogue open and having the city respond in, um, constructive and reasonable ways. That's what I'm asking for in general. I agree with the ask for easing the enforcement of the 72 hour parking limit, even if it's a temporary measure. I know that all this is being explored, expanding safe parking for sure, which has been talked about for a long time, that's a very hard one to accomplish. And specifically, I am interested. And I know others are too, in looking at places like Croissanto again, where not the park side of Croissanto, but the side adjacent to the train tracks, is actually a pretty suitable place for the RVs to be, I think. And if there's any way that that can be considered or explored, I would sure support it. Thank you.

[01:54:27] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. The next speaker is Dennis.

[01:54:35] Dennis: Hi, thank you for the opportunity to speak. Yeah, I'm also a resident on Orteg Avenue, and since October, I've encountered many issues personally. Um, anything from people sleeping in the park or going through obvious drug withdrawals in the park by, you know, uncontrolled shaking, um, trash on the street, trash on the sidewalk, um, noise at odd hours, um, you know, walking down the sidewalk through like clouds of marijuana smoke. Not to mention, you know, noise and pollution coming out of the vehicles. Um, so I would like to ask the city to please increase enforcement of the 72 hour rule. Please respect your laws and enforce, um, you know, things like abandoned vehicles, abandoned RV trailers, um, the websites, your website says that there's laws against those things, but, um, the police officers are saying they're told not to enforce those flaws. Um, so I think this is really not serving your community, and I'd like you to ask to please have stricter enforcement of your city laws. Thank you.

[01:55:43] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: I'm okay. Thank you very much. The next speaker is Alex Brown.

[01:55:51] Alex Brown: Hey, friends. I live in North Bajor. I'm in San Diego Vella. We've had people living on in their vehicles alongside the streets for years since I moved out here. Uh, I've never had any of them. Every single person I've met, who's been living on Space Parkway or La Bonita, has been nice, a good person, some of grumpy? That's fine. They're people. Uh, they don't need sympathy, don't need pity. They're humans. Leave him alone. Let them let them live. Uh, if there are other problems people have with the city, if there's things that the city can do to help people in their communities and their neighborhoods. Cool. Let's do it. Let's, uh, clean the streets. Let's add more public toilets. Let's do things that help everyone. But let's let the focus be on a positive thing where we're helping people, not trying to other and demonize your neighbors. The people who live alongside you, who, you could instead, you know, meet and be friends with. You know, like a person, like a human being with a soul. Thank you.

[01:57:02] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Being no other members of the public wishing to speak, we will proceed now to item 6. Valley Transportation Authority, board of directors, Mountain View nominee for alternate. I will now call for nominations for one council member to stand for election as the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Board member alternate from the group 2 cities for the 2 year term beginning January 1st 2023. Uh, and then I believe we could also invite, um, public works director Don Cameron, if she's not already in the panel, uh, to answer any questions. Does any member of the council have questions? mean, none. 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. A timer will be displayed on your screen. Being no members of the public wishing to speak, I will now bring the item back for council deliberation and action. Council member commit.

[01:58:27] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thank, uh, thank you, Mayor. I defer to Counselor Matchick. I not sure she has a question, so I'll just.

[01:58:34] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Sure, no problem. Meta Jeff.

[01:58:37] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: No, I didn't have a question. I had a comment. Um, so it seems like, you know, based on the criteria, that, uh, council member Kame is the only one that meets the criteria. Um, she served on the pack. Uh, she um, has 4 more years on the council. And um, they're looking for somebody who could potentially, um, Be the representative in 2 years. I've got that right. Um, and a lot of us won't be on the council. So, um, I'll nominate council member command.

[01:59:15] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you Council member Lieber.

[01:59:18] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to 2nd that nomination.

[01:59:22] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Any comments or questions? If not, then we'll take a roll call vote.

[01:59:32] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Matachek?

[01:59:34] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[01:59:34] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member labor?

[01:59:36] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Hi.

[01:59:36] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Abay Koka. Council member Komei.

[01:59:40] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[01:59:41] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member show Walter?

[01:59:42] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes.

[01:59:43] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mayor Hicks?

[01:59:45] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Yes.

[01:59:45] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor Meritz.

[01:59:47] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yeah.

[01:59:48] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Motion care, team, and wrestling.

[01:59:50] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Great. Thank you very much. Uh, so, I'll now read. So we'll move to public hearings, item seven. 7.7.. one is the downtown precise plan temporary office limit and phase 2 prioritization. This item will not be heard this evening. The this item will be re-noticed for discussion on the future date. And that brings us to item 7.2, uh, 1265 Montecito Avenue Affordable Housing Development and Funding Appropriation. Uh, while we bring in all of the panelists, would any member of the council like to make disclosures? I will start by disclosing that I met with the applicant. Council member Matt Jack.

[02:00:34] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: I've met with the applicant a couple times and I've been to the site on my own.

[02:00:39] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Council member .

[02:00:42] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. I also have met with the applicant a few times and visited the site. Thank you.

[02:00:48] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Council member of Big Toga.

[02:00:51] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. Ive also met with the applicant several times and have been by the site.

[02:00:57] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Bye, Snur Hicks.

[02:00:59] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Yes, I met with the applicant and have been to the site.

[02:01:04] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Council member show Walter.

[02:01:07] Councilmember Pat Showalter: I met with the applicant in the past and just visited the site again today.

[02:01:12] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Very good. Thank you very much. Now we will proceed to the staff presentation. Senior planner, Edgar Maravilla, and senior housing officer, Deanna Talavera, will present the item whenever you're ready.

[02:01:29] Edgar Maravilla: Thank you. Let me go ahead and share my screen. Okay, thank you. Good evening, mayor, council members, and members of the public. My name is Edgar Maravilla, senior finder for the city of Mountain View, and today I'm here with Senior Housing Officer, Gallo, Alabama, and deputies only administrator of Rebecca Shapiro, 2%, a 100% affordable housing project proposed at 1265, one to see though. The project is located on the southwest corner of Montecito Avenue in North Shoreline Boulevard. Approximately one. 4 acres and has an existing 12,300 square foot vacant 2 story office building, proposed to be redeveloped into an 85 unit, 100% affordable housing project. The parcel is surrounded by multiple uses, including to the north, a shopping center anchored by a Safeway grocery store, to the south, a 3 story multifamily residential project, to the east, a self-service car wash, and to the west, a 2 story multifamily residential project. This is a known for project, and has gone through 2 additional meetings to release funds as shown in the slide. The project was also presented at several meetings, including a neighborhood meeting, no for review, city council funding reservation, 2 development review committee meetings, and environmental planning commission meeting, recommended approval in today's meeting. The project is a 100% affordable housing project proposing 85 units affordable between 30 to 60% of the average median income. The site has an existing general plan designation of neighborhood commercial, and the zoning designation of CN, neighborhood or commercial, not currently allowing for residential uses. To allow for residential uses, the applicant is requesting a general plan map amendment to identity residential, and his only map amendment to R 4 high density residential. The project has also been processed by way of a development review permit a heritage to remove 6 heritage trees located within the proposed building footprint in the bottle retention area. Further, the project was also evaluated by way of an initial study pursuant to the California environmental quality act. Site plan. Parking for the site is provided in an at grade podium garage level, tucked behind the building area where you erase entry plaza along Montecito Avenue. Vehicle access to the garage is provided via single driveway entrance to and from Moncito Avenue along the westernly property line. The project includes a bicycle room facing North Shoreland Boulevard, allowing for easy access, showing shown in blue. They're also several open spaces, amenities, including a small gathering space with a barbecue area in the southwest corner shown in orange. A children player and other smaller amenities shown in yellow. These spaces are connected via exterior stairs to a larger landscape podium courtyard on the 2nd level. The project also includes offsite sidewalk upgrades, specifically the sidewalk with, will be extended from 5 feet to 10 feet to accommodate landscape and 10 new street trees, shoveling purple. The project was reviewed by the Bummer Review Committee and recommended for approval with 2 conditions. To bill in the board left by the removal of the 2nd story balconies on the west elevation to meet fire clearance. And to work with staff to provide a high quality smooth stucco finish. Overall, the design is a simple modern design with a mix of 6 primary materials, including stucco, horizontal fiber cement siding, vertical cement siding, cedar siding, decorative metal panels, and accent steel, and limited locations such as the project frontage. The color palette is primarily gray and a warmer orange color with a bright red accent color employed at key locations. Overall, the project is compliant with the applicable R4 zoning regulations pursuant to the prohibitions of the state density bonus law, the R4 standards allow up to 80 units per acre and 84 units per this parcel size. The project is proposing 85 units, one more than the allowed city density. For that reason, the application is requesting a one. 2% state density bonus. Per state density bones law, the project qualifies for foreign incentives, concessions, and unlimited waivers. The project is only requesting one concession to provide no additional personal storage. The proposed units will include bedroom closets and some units have additional common area closets, but no additional personal storage above the typical residential storage would be providing. The project site is located within half a mile of a major transit stop downtown transit center, thereby qualifies for state density bonus parking requirements, which are .5 of a space per unit. Therefore, this project is only required to provide 44 parking spaces and they are providing 45. Well, throughout the project is compliant with the applicable R4 zoning regulations, pursuant to the allowed prohibitions of the state density bonus law. The next slide will be presented by senior housing officer, Talabama.

[02:06:50] Deanna Talavera: Thank you, Edgar. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor, and council members. My name is Deanna Talbar. the senior housing officer with the housing division. As Edgar mentioned, the project was brought to the NoFA Committee and the city council in June of 2021 where a funding reservation of $16000000 was approved. Of that 1300000 was approved and appropriated for pre-development activities. Today, the city council is being asked to appropriate the remaining $14.70000 of the loan reservation. I'll quickly highlight 2 of the project sources of funding. The 1st is the city of Mountain View's loan. Um, the city of Mountain View approved a reservation of $16000000 in June of 2021. And the 2nd is the anticipated funding from Santa Clara County. The project will apply for $18000000 in county funds, which are included in the city's MOU with the county. Per the MOU, if the county is contributing more funds than the city, the county will own the land, which is the case in this project. Following our review and evaluation of the project. It does meet the city's goals and objectives to expand affordable housing opportunities to households that are otherwise left out of the Mountain View housing market, particularly families. There's a high demand for affordable family sized housing units, and these 2 and 3 bedroom units will serve extremely low and low income households. The project also meets the city of Mountain View strategic roadmap goal of increasing the quantity and diversity of housing options, including assistance for the unhoused. In fact, this project will bring much needed rapid rehousing units to our community, which will increase opportunities to serve many of our unhoused residents in Mountain View. Finally, we're excited to work alongside charities housing in the county to move this project forward. With that, I'll hand it back over to Edgar to continuous presentation. Thank you.

[02:08:51] Edgar Maravilla: With that said, here's the 4 more recommendation as shown in the staff report. Staff recommends the city council approved the proposed project as conditioned inappropriate, the requested funds. Thank you and that concludes staff presentation. More than glad to take a question to the reminder. The project, applicant also has a presentation, and they could also help assist in answering questions. Thank you.

[02:09:15] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Edgar and Deanna. We will now have a presentation from the applicants. Kathy Robinson, Director of Development, Charity Housing, and John Sheehan Principal, Studio E Architect. Whenever you are ready.

[02:09:35] Kathy Robinson: Um, Good evening, mayor, and members of the city council. This is Kathy Robinson. Um, I am the director of development for charities housing, and with me this evening is, uh, from charities housing is also Joe Head, our director of new development, um, John Sheehan, a principal at Studio E Architects, Kevin Bassett, Studio E Project, um, architect, and Laura Burnett, of the landscape architect. And so we, any and all of us are available to answer questions after our short presentation. Kevin, can you bring up the presentation that we have, please?

[02:10:22] Unknown Speaker: I'm promoting Kevin to panelists, so we may need to give him a few seconds.

[02:10:27] Kathy Robinson: Thank you.

[02:10:32] Unknown Speaker: Kevin is now in the panel.

[02:10:41] Kathy Robinson: I'm just gonna take a few minutes and and tell you a little bit about charities housing. Um, many of you know us. We have a couple of other developments in the city of Mountain View. So I'll be very brief so that the architect can really present the meat and potatoes of all of this. Kevin, you want to advance, please? Thank you. So charity's housing is a nonprofit housing development corporation. Um, we've been in business about 30 years and we, um, primarily focus our attention in Santa Clara County. We have a portfolio of about 1,400 affordable apartments. That's our specialty, and we have a number of developments under construction and in an entitlements as well. As Edgar explained, uh, our Modecito Avenue affordable housing development is 100% affordable, um, although we are leaving ourselves a little flexibility to go as high as 60% AMI, we actually have performed it at this point so that we can serve fat, and it works to serve families from 30 to 50% area median income, and our average affordability is actually below 40% AMI at this time. Um, we're targeting large families, um, and as you can see, half of our, uh, units are 2 and 3 bedrooms so that we can really serve families who are really struggling at this time to find places, um, to live in our community. Just a couple words about the Montecito site. It's such an excellent site for affordable housing. It's proximity to bus routes and the Caltrain station and the safeway right across the street, parks and schools. Really, when we're looking for sites for to build affordable housing, we're looking for rich sites that just like that are very rich in amenities that people can walk to and easily get to. So this is really an ideal site from our perspective. Um, Sustainable strategies are important to charities housing. They're important to our, um, our design team as well, because charities owns and manages all of our developments for 55 years plus. It's really important to us to build into these new developments, all of the sustainable features that we can, um, so that the buildings and the communities are, um, affordable to operate and sustainable for the long term. This will be an all electric building. Um, Oh, that's that's fine, Kevin. Sorry. Um, The, and I think our last slide is just, just indicates the services that we provide for the families that will be living in the development. We, um, this is standard in all of charities, housing developments. We provide service, um, enriched housing so that people can become successful and and be the best that they can be. So that includes a whole litany of services, food delivery, case management, if people need more intensive services to be successful. And with that, I would like to introduce Kevin. Bassette from studio E architects so that he can provide a little more detail about the design of the building and our thoughts around that. Thank you very much.

[02:15:08] Kevin Bassett: Thank you, Kathy, and thank you, council members. Um, so I wanted to begin by, uh, describing how we arrived at the current massing strategy. We identified the zoning envelope for the R4 zone, which is a 15 foot setback on all 4 sides and a 60 foot height limit. Within that, we developed a conventional layout of double loaded corridors, 5 stories high. And then if you look at diagram three, you can see we actually were able to increase the number of affordable units and reduce the bulk and mass of the building by splitting it into 2 and connecting the 2 halves with an aerial bridge. This allowed us to create a larger entry plaza for the residents and also take landscaping up and over the building and spill down into a rear play area. Over the last two and a half years, we work with planning staff to further refine the massing by adding rhythm with recessed balconies. Uh, we've lowered uh, two quarters of the building nearest to the intersection and adjacent structures to better relate to the lower scale residential on either side of us. We've added bay windows at the corners to improve the transparency along the street frontage. And, uh, in the last image you can see, we have continued to bring the eye down and reduced the scale and bulk of the building and activate the street frontage through the use of awnings, um, accent materials and planting along Montecito Avenue. This is a aerial view of the project as seen from Montecito Avenue. You can see the corners of the building are stepped down one story to better relate to the two story buildings, uh, neighbors to the, uh, east, and they're clad in an accent material of vertical bat and siding with a red oxide color. This is the ground floor of the project, showing how we have pushed all of the common residential program of the community room, offices, lobby and mail, up towards the front of the site, which is accessed off the large entry plaza. There's a large stormwater basin along the sidewalk, which captures and treats all of the roof runoff for the entire project. and provides an interesting, low, lush landscaped frontage for the project. The parking is accessed from a driveway along the west side, and is tucked behind the common area, so it's less visible. There's bike storage and a manager's unit with a private at grade entry patio at the intersection of Shoreline in Montecito, and all of the mechanical spaces are pushed to the very back of the site, including the transformer, trash, and utility spaces. And there's a laundry room with direct visual access to the play area and teen spaces. On the upper levels, this is level two. You can see the massing strategy at play with the two buildings at an angle to each other, connected with an aerial bridge with a landscaped podium that connects the front plaza and the rear play area. These are eye level perspectives from Montecito showing how we have used accent materials and have stepped the parapets up and down and back and forth and added awnings and detail to the private balconies to further reduce the scale and bulk of the building. The ground floor has enhanced materials, such as tongue and groove siding and floor to ceiling storefront windows, to further activate the street frontage. And this is a view of the entry plaza with an accessible ramp, and a staircase with an entry trellis that welcomes you up to the entry plaza and spans over the stormwater treatment area that runs along the entire length of the project. And at the rear, we've taken the same care to apply the materials from the front of the building to the rear. So the stair tower is clad in the same accent material, and the rear play area has a rubberized surface with natural play elements, including boulders and climbing logs. And the rear elevation has a lot of the same elements as the front, including parapets that step up and down, lap siding accent material at the recess portions of the exterior wall, decorative balcony guardrails, and the accent, the vertical red oxide batten materials at the step down volumes and stairs. And that concludes our presentation. Thank you.

[02:19:31] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Does any member of the council have questions? Vice Nur Hicks.

[02:19:41] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Can we close the slide, please? So, yes, I do have a question first. Um, I, I actually think this is a really well designed project in terms of, I'm very impressed with the landscaping and the architecture, but, um, now I'm going to ask a question. We did get that. I'll save that those comments for comment time. Um, we did get one public comment letter that I thought was something we should, I should ask about. Um, it was a person saying we're gonna see, hopefully, a lot more pedestrian activity, um, walking across the street to the grocery store. Or, uh, I know I sent my kids to the grocery store when they lived at home with me. and walking other places. So there was, uh, the question was on how the sidewalks would be enhanced, uh, the author of the letter said that they were broken up now. I, um, I imagine they'll be repaired, but will there be additional crosswalks, um, to different places in the, you know, we were shown all the different places you could walk? Additional crosswalks, particularly to the grocery store, put in by the city, and, um, also, well, maybe I'll start with that. Will there be, I assume, there'll be improvements in the sidewalk if it's broken up at this point or in poor repair, but will there be additional crosswalks? And then I'll ask another sidewalk question.

[02:21:18] Rebecca Shapiro: Uh, Vice mayor, um, if you can give us a couple of minutes. I just want to confer with Dawn and Edgar to see who best can respond to this question.

[02:21:27] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, then I'll move on to the 2nd question about sidewalks. I feel like I'm seeing different things in different places. I believe that, uh, Mr. Marvia said that the sidewalk would be expanded from 5 feet to 10 feet if I heard him right, that comment kind of flew back fast for me, but, um, is there, is that gonna be a template sidewalk, I also saw a planting strip on the sidewalk. I just am interested in how the city is improving walkability around areas like this, and, in particular, again, I'm remembering when my children were younger. And I wanted to make sure they could go out and do things around and be safe while they walked places. And, of course, I'm interested in the safety of adults as well. So, how wide will the sidewalk be? Will there be a planting strip? Dividing it from the street? How is all of that gonna work?

[02:22:28] Rebecca Shapiro: Um, I'll let Dawn, um, answer the crosswalk and intersection questions, and then, um, Edgar should be able to respond to the width of the sidewalk. So.

[02:22:44] Dawn Cameron: Good evening, mayor and council members, um, Don Cameron, Public Works director. What I want to note is that the intersection of Shoreline and Sterling is part of our Sterling Bike Improvement project. It's a federal grant funded project to make a series of bike and pedestrian improvements, and as part of that, we will be upgrading that intersection to a protected intersection with enhanced pedestrian crossing facilities. So that is a city project where almost nearly done with design. It will be under construction soon. That project also includes adding a mid-brock crossing across shoreline to improve access to Safeway. Well, that may not directly benefit this development, it will overall improve community access from the other side of shoreline to the safe way. So, uh, so that's the piece I can speak to. As for what the development will be doing for its exact frontage along the sidewalk. Edgar, can you provide more information on that?

[02:23:46] Senior Planner Edgar Maravilla: Yes, that definitely. So they will be going from an existing monolithics sidewalk with no landscaping to a detax sidewalk, which will be a 5 foot walk with 5 feet landscaping to include 10 new street trees.

[02:24:03] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: So, if I understand it, it will be a 5 foot sidewalk and then 5 feet of landscaping.

[02:24:10] Senior Planner Edgar Maravilla: Correct.

[02:24:11] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay. Well, I'm not gonna complain about that for this particular project, because we're too far along, but I think for a building of this height, we should actually 5 feet is, I live in a single family neighborhood, and we have 5 foot sidewalks, they're kind of the minimum for people to walk side, 2 people to walk side by side. So, for future projects, I'm gonna be more on top of it early on. Unfortunately, I read this letter late in the process. And I think we should be getting more than 5 foot sidewalks, but I'm glad to hear about the planning strip. Thank you.

[02:24:51] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Assistant city manager, Shvastava, did you want to respond to one of the questions?

[02:24:57] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: Sorry, just a comment from the vice mayor. I think these are very helpful. Um, but we're gonna have to build it into our, um, street plan, um, so that we are not catching applicants off guard. Um, and so, I think, um, you know, maybe, maybe I could work with, um, Dawn to see where we have the opportunity to, um, widen sidewalks, uh, and provide street trees, because the space we take away, um, take 4 sidewalks takes away from the building area, where we're actually taking building area away from, so we, we're trying to strike that balance.

[02:25:38] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Council member, Matt, check.

[02:25:42] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. So I'm concerned about the number of parking spaces, um, given concerns we've heard about other recent, um, affordable housing developments. And so I was wondering what the backup plan is for additional offstreet parking, for this development. If the amount of parking that's provided, um is not enough.

[02:26:09] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: Um, Council member Matachek, um, as you know, the city's not required to require parking. Um, and I don't believe we have a backup plan. Our assumption is that, um, charities will be informing people, uh, about the number of spaces, and maybe I can have Kathy respond to that, um, to make sure that they're monitoring the parking.

[02:26:35] Kathy Robinson: Yes, I can speak to that. Um, Parking over, over time, as you, as you can imagine, has changed from, uh, when local jurisdictions have pretty significant parking ratios required per unit, and, interestingly, in another, in a number of our developments were, were substantially overparked. We built expensive parking spaces that aren't being utilized by anyone. Um, 50% of the units in this development will be for people with 30% of area median incomes and below, and our information, what's proven proven to be, um, the experience in the developments, many of our developments, is that people at that income level, often do not have cars. They just simply can't afford them. You can't afford the upkeep, can't afford the insurance, the registration, and um, our property management, um, monitors that very closely, and, um, we don't allow cars to be parked, um, that aren't registered and aren't insured. And, um, so that the, so parking spaces are available for folks who do have cars that they're utilizing. Um, the backup plan could potentially be that if, it appears that people need assistance with accessing alternative forms of transportation, um, we have, on occasion, provided transit passes. Um, that is effective in some cases, um, for those who need to, you know, need have that access and that the system takes them where they need to be. Um, and so we, we, we care a lot about being good neighbors and not impacting our, the surrounding neighborhoods with people parking from our development, and, um, I'd like to assure you, we'll, we'll be very diligent about it.

[02:28:51] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Are the spaces assigned? Are they just open?

[02:28:53] Kathy Robinson: Yes. No, they are signed. They're signed. So we know who has cars, and who's parking in the parking lots.

[02:29:02] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay, thank you.

[02:29:03] Kathy Robinson: You're welcome.

[02:29:06] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Are there any other questions?

[02:29:11] Councilmember Sally Lieber: I have one question.

[02:29:12] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Oh, I can't remember, leave her. ahead.

[02:29:15] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Harry Mayor, um, thank you so much. I just wanted to confirm my understanding of things is that the, the number of parking spaces is pursuant to the state law. Um, so it's not really a decision that we can make at this level, because I know that we'll get questions from the community later about it. Am I understanding it correctly?

[02:29:40] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: Correct. You are right. Um, Castor, I'm Believer.

[02:29:43] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Okay. Just wanted to confirm for the public that are tuning in. You very much.

[02:29:51] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Bye, Mayor Hicks.

[02:29:53] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: All right. Council member, not a checks question triggered another question for me. Um, so are the parking spaces going to be, um, bundled? In other words, does each person, uh, each apartment get one space, or if I don't own a car, and my neighbor owns two, can they bought, you know, get two spaces while I have zero? How will that work out?

[02:30:21] Kathy Robinson: My expectation would be that, um, when, as people move into the development, they will have the ability to, um, sign up for one parking space if they, if they have a car. And then, as the building fills up, if there, if there are extra parking spaces left over, then people with more than one car would be assigned to second space.

[02:30:48] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay. Thank you. Very much.

[02:30:54] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: I've got, uh, a quick question related to the, a challenge of, uh, steering tax credits. I know it's uh, competitive. You don't have a great deal of time to do it. Um, and I'm wondering if, uh, staff can maybe share, if, is there any way we can work collaboratively with the applicant to maybe expedite, uh, the building permit process and make sure they, you know, are able to get their application in time for, for tax credits?

[02:31:25] Assistant City Manager Aarti Shrivastava: Um, I can respond to that, mayor. Um, we're happy to work with Kathy and her group to see whatever we can do to expedite, um, the review for the building permit. Um, I think based on charities um, past experience with the city. Um, I believe that we'll probably have a very successful 1st building permit application. Um, and so, um, we could certainly um, work with them um, on, um, a timeline.

[02:31:54] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Very encouraging. Thank you. And then maybe for my benefit, benefit. What would be the deadline, um, to, to compete, uh, for tax credits?

[02:32:05] Kathy Robinson: Well, our expectation right now is that, um, assuming council approves this evening. Um, our architectural team is ready to start working on, um, uh, the building permit plans, the construction drawings right away. And our intention is to try to apply for tax credits the 1st round of next year. 2024. We were amazingly successful this year. We just had 2 projects, approved by the tax credit allocation committee, and this last round that was just awarded, and, um, so if we're successful, Um, we don't have a schedule yet from, for the tax credit allocation committee, but if history repeats itself, the first application round will be somewhere around March or April, they'll award two months later, and then we have to start construction in 180 days every risk losing our credits. So we have to be ready to start construction by, um, fall of next year, spring of the following year at the very latest. So it gives, maybe, so there's probably... eight months of... time that we have to be in the building department before we're gonna absolutely have to have building permits granted.

[02:33:37] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yeah, fantastic. Thank you. And I don't think it's a secret to anyone that, uh, the challenge with time is that it is not our friend, especially with inflation, construction costs going up astronomically. So thank you very much. Are there any remaining questions? Not then, but any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item. If so, please click the race hand button in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone. A timer will be displayed on the screen. Uh, we do have several members of the public wishing to speak, so let's allocate 2 minutes, and we'll start with Allie Saperman.

[02:34:12] Allie Saperman: Good evening, Mountain View council members. My name is Allie Saperman. I here on behalf of the House of Action Coalition to speak in strong support of 1265 Montecito Avenue, which the Housing Action Coalition enthusiastically endorsed. With our affordability crisis, it's critical that we invest in new affordable homes that are located near amenities, especially development near transit. In terms of affordability, bringing a 100% affordable project to the city of Mountain View will enable the most vulnerable to have the opportunity to flourish. This project creates 85 affordable homes. There's an abnormal mix of homes of varying sizes that allow for a diversity of households, with a mix of new homes at different income levels, 28 units for those earning, earning 35 AMI or below, 15 for those households at 40% AMI are below. Another 15 units for those earning 50% AMI or below, and 26 units at 60 AMI and below. It will also include 482 rapid degree housing households. Sorry, um, which will uh, be critical in serving Mountain View's most vulnerable. In terms of transit oriented development. This project is extremely well located for transit, within half a mile of the development. There are numerous BTA bus stops, a ETA light rail station, and Mountain View Caltrain station providing accessible and environmental, the friendly transit for existing and future residents. The project also includes 85 bike parking spots. There will be 45 parking spots for a home to park ratio, about .5, a figure that has lower the most surrounding developments. We commend, um, this uh, project for prioritizing space for people over space for cars. Really hope that you approve 1265 Montecito Avenue tonight without delay. It's so important that even though I'm losing my voice, I had to call in in support. So I hope this moves forward tonight. Thank you.

[02:36:10] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much, Ali. The next speaker is James Kusmal.

[02:36:16] James Kuszmaul: Good evening, council members. James Gusmal speaking both on my personal behalf and on behalf of Mountain VMB. Um, I just want to say this is a excellent project that we wholeheartedly support, uh, salt train, more affordable housing, and to our community help, uh, Reduced housing prices and provide affordable housing for everyone. This is right next to the Safeway use on a weekly basis. I strongly look forwards to being able to walk by it every week and seal welcome all my new neighbors to the neighborhood. Um, the 2 comments we had are more about going forward rather than this project in particular, um, which are, firstly, this project needed to use a state instity bonus and reliance state law to reduce the parking minimums. Um, uh, this helps signals that both for affordable housing and for making market right housing more affordable, we really need to be able to reduce parking them so that people aren't having to build parking they don't need or don't want. Um, and I would encourage council to continue to look at improving that situation, since even this project with the state density bonus benefits is still building technically one more parking spot than is strictly required. And the 2nd category is, I would, we would love to see more spots throughout the city, uh, zone to allow the started development without council intervention. Um, the fact that we tend to focus these developments on, uh, high traffic, car corridors, tends to run me the wrong way. It can be good for some types of transit access, but suggest that the only appropriate place to put portable housing is on the noisiest and most polluted corridors in our cities, which is antithetical to what I think the city should be encouraging. But overall, it's a lovely project. Um, I look forward to us as seeing this come online alongside the steerland and shoreline, uh, road improvement so that there's better by competition access to this project. And thank you.

[02:38:14] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. The next speaker is David Watson.

[02:38:20] David Watson: Hello, uh, I uh, I'm David Watson. I am also a member of Mountain View Yimby. same as James. For the most part, I just want to sort of agree with everything you just said. I, uh, actually, uh, really excited for this because I I also live on Montecito, uh, not not too far from this project. Uh, and I'm really happy to see them forward. He talked about park, there being parking minimums, and again, I, again, echo, parking minimums, on a, on an affordable project, or really any project, are bad, bad policy, and we should, you know, not require especially affordable housing developments to provide any number of parking spaces because it makes it more expensive to provide this important service of affordable housing in our communities. Um, I, I know I've spoken to more than one of you about, uh, uh, the, uh, Donald Shoop's high cost of free parking, and he's very clear that, uh, there's a lot of evidence, including literally from studies of Mountain View that, uh, parking requirements are, uh, bad, uh, and unproductive, and uh, we should uh, get rid of them. Uh, so, uh, I'm happy, uh, I'll be happy to see this this project moving forward, and I hope that we can do whatever we can to make other projects like it, uh, possible uh, in the future. Thank you.

[02:39:47] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. The next speaker is Bruce England. Bruce, if you're speaking, we cannot hear you.

[02:40:08] Bruce England: Okay, do you hear me now?

[02:40:10] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes, we can.

[02:40:11] Bruce England: Excellent. Okay. Thanks Mayor. Um, okay. I'm going to speak for 2 different organizations here. I'm going to split this up. I hope it'll be clear. Speaking for Mound View coalition for sustainable planning only. It's great to see this project moving forward. Among other things, it provides much needed housing at all needed affordable levels. Kudos to charities housing and community development for their great work moving this forward. The natural materials are great to see and all aspects of the building materials, choices, and included amenities and open spaces. We support the inclusion of unbundled parking, as well as limiting parking overall, and seeing the permit process for this project expedited as much as possible. Now, also for MVCSP and for Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition Mountain View team. We're disappointed that the headset you right away extension apparently can't be entertained through association with this project. If we had it, we could have direct access for pedestrians and bicyclists, directs Manor Park, Farley Street, and the Permanente Creek Trail to the West, we'd be able to further leverage other ped bike improvements in the area. Even though I appreciate the challenges with gaining approvals for these uses from the SFPUC. I feel the city, and we feel the city should engage with them whenever opportunities arise. Thank you.

[02:41:29] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. The next speaker is Jordan Grimes.

[02:41:36] Jordan Grimes: Yes, good evening, counsel, honorable mayor. Jordan Grimes on behalf of Green Belt Alliance. We have endorsed 1265 Montecito and strongly urge your approval of it tonight. Uh, we really appreciate the extraordinary effort the council has gone to in order to make this project a reality. You have truly gone above and beyond what most cities would do and really do deserve commendation on that. We do not see this kind of effort everywhere. And Mountain View has consistently been a leader in this regard. Um, I should say that Greenville does not endorse every project that comes before us, uh, nor is every project we review, an easy vote by our endorsements committee. Um, this one was. Uh, and that's because it perfectly embodies exactly what we look for and talk about in terms of smart development principles. It is close to high quality transit, to services, to grocery stores, to schools. It is in an area rich in both resources and amenities. The sustainability, green aspects like rooftop solar, uh, the 100% electric component, uh, considerable bark, uh, bike parking, uh, drought tolerant landscaping, et cetera, are really 2nd to non-in projects that we've seen across the Bay Area. Um, And then just when it comes to affordability. Um, uh, this is gonna sound like a broken record to everyone here, I'm sure. But there's obviously an extreme dearth of extremely low and very low income, not only in Mountain View, but across Santa Clara County. Um, this will go a long way really to, uh, to helping families afford to live in the area, as well as to helping with Rena, um, and really showing a good faith, uh, effort at a time when many cities are are struggling to do that, uh, during during the housing element process. So we really appreciate all your work here, and we, uh, urge you to approve it tonight. Thank you so much for your time and have a great evening.

[02:43:36] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: You very much. The next speaker is Ingrid Granados.

[02:43:47] Ingrid Granados: Hi, can you hear me? Good evening. Hello?

[02:43:58] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Well, we can hear you.

[02:43:59] Ingrid Granados: Okay, there we go. So my name is Ingrid Granado, so I'm here with Destination Home, and I'm strongest supporting the proposed general plan amendment for the 100% affordable housing development. At 1265 Montecito Avenue. As we continue to grapple with the severe housing crisis and the homelessness crisis, this new 85 unit development will bring several dozen desperately needed affordable apartments to our community. We are particularly happy to see that this development sets aside apartments for extremely low income households of families that are enrolled in the rapid rehousing programs, which is precisely the type of housing that we need, um, to really address the homelessness crisis and end homelessness in our community. The development consists of 2 and 3 bedroom apartments. It includes play areas, a community room, and other common open spaces. These amenities are a great fit for struggling families. 1265 Monacito is situated close to grocery stores, transportation, as others have mentioned, such as the bus, light rail, the Caltrain. It's also close to parks and pharmacies, elementary schools. These are all amazing amenities, um, that really make this location great for families, have access to community resources. Building more affordable housing remains the most impactful action that we can take to address our homelessness crisis. And we urge you to approve this proposed development without delay. Thank you for your time and your continued leadership and commitment.

[02:45:19] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. The next speaker is Philia Pamer.

[02:45:26] Celia Pamer: Uh, hello, um, I'm Celia Pamer, um, I am also throwing my support in for this project. Um, as a former uh, neighbor to that area for 10 years. I left off Granada. Um, I think this is such a good improvement to the neighborhood that used to be an office park that was almost always empty with, somehow always a sprinkler had broken and pouring out onto the sidewalk. So it's nice to see that this is gonna be updated and upgraded to be a much more usable space. I'm sure the businesses across the street will be great for residents, but also the residents are gonna be great for those businesses. Um, there's some, um, ones over there that have always sort of struggled and having so many people able to walk to them will be great. Um, also, um, I know, um, council member Hicks uh, was looking at transportation. I'm glad to hear that that intersection's going to be improved, but there'll also be the improvement to the overpass over central and the train tracks along shoreline. So hopefully future residents will also be able to actually get their stroller up that hill, which I struggled with. Um, so I'm really excited for this, and I hope that council continues to encourage this project. Thank you.

[02:46:41] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. The next speaker is Jessica Martin.

[02:46:50] Jessica Martin: Hello, everyone. My name is Jessica Martin. I'm speaking on behalf of Silicon Valley at home. Um, and we just want to, uh, express our strong, um, support of this project. Um, we think it is wonderfully designed. Um, we really love the fact that it's, you know, surrounded by transit. Um, and we are especially pleased by, um, the inclusion of so many, um, family sized apartments, um, including, including a few that are, um, designated for rapid rehousing families. Yeah, so we just, thank you and we, would like you to support this. Thanks.

[02:47:44] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. The next speaker is Alex Brown.

[02:47:49] Alex Brown: Well, I agree with the previous speakers. Thank you.

[02:47:55] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: You very much. The next speaker is Hala.

[02:48:02] Hala Alshawani: Yes, good. Hello? Hello, can you hear me?

[02:48:11] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes, we can.

[02:48:12] Hala Alshawani: Okay, good. Good evening, mayor, and city council city staff. My name is Hala, Alshawani, a longtime resident of Mountain View. I wanted to also express my support to this development, and this project, having projects, residential projects that are 100% affordable housing, especially for low and extremely low income families, is really great. This is what we really need in mountain view, more and more of these developments that are designated for affordable housing as many as possible. The only hesitation I have about this project is the fact that they are removing six redwood heritage trees, mature heritage trees. And I wish there was a way that they can, um, incorporate these heritage treason to the design, um, or maybe even move them. I'm not sure how large they are. Some redwood trees actually can be, can be relocated. Um, that's really the only downfall that I see about it. But overall, you know, providing that many units with 100% affordable is a great, great thing to do, and I'm very pleased to see that project take place soon. Thank you.

[02:49:32] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Being no other members of the public wishing to speak. will now bring the item back or council deliberation and action, and I'll note that emotion to approve the recommendation, should also include reading the title of the ordinance and resolution attached to the report. Council member show Walter.

[02:49:52] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Well, I just like to add to the sort of choir of people that are, um, singing the praises of this, uh, this project. People have been, you know, I've seen it a number of times, especially through Nova, and I was very, very pleased to be able to support it there. And I'm so pleased to be able to support it here. Um, But one of the things that I always, I kept count on, ever since I was on the planning commission, and, um, watched Affordable Housing projects go through, luckily, in Mountain View, we watch a lot of them go through. And it's like, I do count of the number of financing, uh, parts that are with each project. And they, over the years, I've seen them range from 15 to 7. This one's at nine. And I just bring that up because I think it's demonstrative of how much, um, really skill and expertise is involved in, um, in getting these projects through. And we have developed the staff expertise to do that. And I'm really proud of that. I'm really proud of our city for doing that, and for continuing to do it. And I'm really proud of the staff that has that expertise. So I just, you know, I want to mention that. Um, and, uh, it looks like there are a lot of other hands, I'd be happy to make emotion, but are there comments, or, uh, mayor? What's the... Okay, I'll go ahead and make...

[02:51:24] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Go ahead and make a motion.

[02:51:25] Councilmember Pat Showalter: That fine. Okay, um, I'm gonna move the, um, staff recommendation to adopt a resolution of the city of Mountain View, adopting the initial study, negative declaration, for the 1265 Montecito Avenue residential project, pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act, to be read entitled only, further reading waived. Adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, approving a general plan amendment, map amendment, from neighborhood commercial to high density residential, for the property located at 1265 Montecito Avenue, to be read, entitled only, for their reading waved. Introduce an ordinance of the city of Mountain View, approving a zoning map amendment, from the CN Neighborhood Commercial Zoning District, to the R4 High Density Residential Zoning District, for the property located at 1265 Montecito, to be read entitled only. Further reading wave, and set a 2nd reading date for December 13th, 2022. Adopt a resolution of the city of Mountain View, um, approving a development review permit to construct a 5 story affordable housing development, with 84 affordable renting units, and one manager's unit, with at grade parking and a state density bonus, with a development concession, and a heritage tree removal permit, to remove 6 heritage trees at 1265 Montecito Avenue, to be read a title only, further reading waived.

[02:52:58] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Very much. Bye, Snur Hicks.

[02:53:03] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: I can second that motion as I'm strongly supportive as well. I'm going to, um, as probably other council members are going to make a few comments on why I support the project. Um, and I won't list all of them because, uh, speakers have been very articulate tonight, and I would, um, you know, say a lot of the same things they said, but the, the several things I wanted to highlight is 1st at the beginning of our council meeting today, there was some talk of, uh, homelessness and people living in RVs, and I think the, really the, the solution that, probably all speakers and everybody attending this meeting would, would like most is that those people be housed. And I think this is a step in that direction. And I wish it were a quicker step. And then the other things are, you know, I really appreciate the architecture and landscape architecture of this project, and I'm raising that in particular, because sometimes people believe that when there's affordable housing in their neighborhoods, it's not as attractive, but I actually think this is, I actually really think that the cladding is excellent. The, um, the, the massing, I like the way the architect explained, how they, they got to the particular shaping. I think some of the people in attendance don't like rectangular buildings, not rectangular buildings. They're creative shapes. So, um, so there's that. I particularly appreciate the play area because it's not plastic, rubberized surfing, surfacing, with a standard plastic and metal play structure that, frankly, a lot of the kids I've been around get, um, tired of. It's, uh, you know, a more natural space, and so it's nice when kids can go outside in the city and be in a natural space that leads to more creative play. Um, and then I look forward to... I like the fact that the grocery stores across the street in other pedestrian oriented amenities, and I look forward to continual improvement of pedestrian amenities in biking amenities in the area so that, um, people really don't feel that they need cars. They can.

[02:55:22] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Council member, I'll be Koka.

[02:55:25] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. Um, I'll try to keep it short as well as I do also, um, echo a lot of the comments that have already been made and 100% supportive of this project. Um, very happy to see it moving forward. I was actually thinking, it's moved relatively quickly compared to other affordable projects we've had in the past, um, and is they see the number of steps it takes and the funding, the complicated funding scheme you have to come up with. Um, I really, um, appreciate that it's, I think, moved along, uh, fairly, uh, you know, fairly a good clip. And so, um, thank you to staff for your hard work and thank you to the applicant. Um, I have high regard for cherry's uh, housing. I had the opportunity to serve on the board for a short while before I came back onto council. So, um, I am very familiar with their work, and they have another project in Mountain View, and, um, their high reputation, so it's great to have them provide another project. I think this is a great location, as mentioned. I think it does provide opportunity for walkability, as mentioned already, but the shopping center, but also as a family, focus or the project that allows for families to live there, there is a elementary school close by. Downtown's not too far. I actually used to live in the Rexman or neighborhood very close to this area. So very familiar with the walkability. And as much as, um, I mean, I do, I will say I am, um, you know, sad to see some, the heritage trees, um, remove being removed, but, um, you know, it has many benefits to the project has many benefits. So, um, it's a good one. And as I will just comment, though. I appreciate the comments about parking and trying to reduce parking. Um, But, you know, I shared my story at the other affordable fund housing project that we opened. I forget when it was. It was maybe the summer. Um, you know, I was approached by it when of the residents there saying that there was not enough parking in their project. And, um, unfortunately, transit is, you know, not quite sufficient. I do worry, um, you know, being on VTA. We talk, we're talking about, not so much VTA, but other agent travel, um, transportation agencies facing a physical cliff, but we all, um, in the transportation world are experiencing some challenges. And so, um, without, uh, you know, real guarantee that, uh, service levels will even continue at what we have now, I think, um, we do need to continue to provide some, um, parking for folks who do need to get to work in a car. So I think this is a good balance. And the fact that we are reducing parking requirements is a good step forward. So with that, um, I just want to offer my uh, comments of support. Thank you very much.

[02:58:34] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. I'm the number commit.

[02:58:37] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thanks, Mayor. Um, just wanted to um, thank staff and the applicant. I think that this, um, you know, required some creativity from the last time we saw the the project, and I just want to thank, um, both parties for bringing forward such an incredible project. I've been excited, um, all night to see this. I think, as was mentioned in public comment. So I won't add anything additional, but there's 2 things that I wanted to highlight that I think are really important. This is a, I believe the 3rd or 4th. Um, measure A funded project that will be coming into the city of Mountain View. I'm really happy about that. I think that that is something that we should all be proud of. you know, the city, our partners in the community. I think it's also important to be changing the face of our unhoused community. And with rapid rehousing. These are people that may have had a unfortunate emergency incident like, you know, healthcare emergency or. laid off, um, who are, you know, looking for a more stable housing situation and because of the 2 to 3 unit, um, bedroom units will be able to do that for our families, which I know is a priority for our entire community. So I just wanted to highlight that. And hopefully we can continue to see creative partnerships. Um, the other thing I want to mention is, yes, the county is contributing more, so it will be owned by the county. Um, and I just want to continue to express my, um, hope that we can have city owned property and, um, making sure that that is on the table still as well because I think that that's, it's a difference of $2000000 for the site. Um, and I really think that, you know, having things within the city's review, um, in perpetuity is something of importance. So just wanted to highlight that. Thanks Mayor. Oh, and I'll be supporting the motion.

[03:00:35] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Council member Lieber.

[03:00:38] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. Well, um, I really believe that this is uh, going to be a, uh, beautiful and and very useful, uh, asset for the city, and so I want to give my compliments to charities housing and city staff, and our county elected and county staff as well. and the voters for making this happen. It's obviously going to be a tremendous benefit for the families who live there. But it's also an enormous benefit, for anyone in our community, who might be reliant on hospital workers, grocery workers, um, childcare workers, um, anyone who is at the lower end of the wage scale, but is an essential worker for everyone else in our community. And I think that this, uh, this development and others like it are going to really be a boon for everyone in our community in that sense. Thank you.

[03:01:42] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. I have to remember Matt to check.

[03:01:46] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thanks. Sounds like a lot of us are very familiar with the area, 'cause we lived there. close by, and I did as well. I lived on Montecito, just a few doors down from this project. Um, so yes, I'm also very familiar with it. Um, I do appreciate that there are larger units. I know there's quite a demand for that. Um, you know, but I think we also need to keep in mind that, um, the county is prioritizing who will be living in these units. And so this is a county wide, um, benefit as opposed to just a mountain view benefit. Um, I, um, appreciate that this is a compliant project. Um, although I will say I do have concerns about the parking, um, while they are providing a very modest, um, Or they're leveraging a very modest amount of the state density bonus law, um, that allows them to use the, uh, state rules regarding parking, but, you know, you can always provide more if you want to. Um, if you think that the residents that are going to live there. Um might need it. Um, as we heard, you know, there is at least one other complex where um, parking is a challenge. And I, you know, We, we don't have great public transit here. I feel like we just have to admit that. We really need it to be better. Um, and in the meantime, I struggle with asking our most vulnerable residents to commute by bicycle or, you know, what if you have 2 jobs and you're racing between those? Um, that's tough to do. Um if you're on a bike or trying to use public transit. Um, and so I think we need to recognize that, A lot of people still are using vehicles, and I personally don't want to make it harder on folks who are struggling, uh, by not giving them a place to park. Um. I wish there was more personal storage, you know, when you have these larger units. You might have more stuff you want to store, um, especially bulky things. Um, so I'm kind of disappointed that, uh, that is not being provided. Um, I also am, uh, disappointed that the city isn't providing, um, more funding for this project, um, so that we owned the property. I, I do think there are huge long term benefits for the city owning the property. And so I wish we would have done that on this one. But it is a compliant project, like I said, so I'll be supporting it. Thank you.

[03:04:32] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. I'll take a quick turn. Um 1st I will be supporting the motion. Uh, I, I'm grateful uh, that the applicant is uh, providing the focus on uh, family units. We are in desperate need of family units and it's great to see so many in one project. Uh, I'm also uh, glad to see that we're focusing on extremely low and uh, low income households. Uh, so pushing down the AMIs to the greatest extent we're able to, I think, uh, is has also been a focus for, for this council. Um, and this project, uh, does vote, and that's very exciting. Um, I do appreciate. I appreciate that there are, you know, compromises made along the way. I personally support the, uh, the parking reduction, uh, the affordable housing, uh, provider is a very experienced one and I'm trusting them to right size the parking, um, based on, uh, the needs of, of, uh, the, the people that they serve. Um, but I, I understand. I think so the point is well made that, you know, that's that's maybe a trade-off for some people. Um, and uh, I think the other challenging point that has come up is, uh, the, the difficulty in finding funding for all of the projects that we want to deliver, um, and, uh, you know, with the $66000000 deficit projected based on the study session we had in August, um, you know, we, we have to make some, some trade-offs, and I think using our funding as prudently as we're able to, and uh, leveraging the external sources of funding as best as we're able to. Um, I think will will help us deliver as many projects as we're able to. Uh, so, um, very supportive of the project. Thank you, staff for your good work. I agree with camp member Abby Koga. It's great to see a project, uh, that requires a general plan amendment and rezoning, um, go through the process very quickly. Uh, that's very exciting, uh, and thank you also to, uh, charities for, for, um, uh, working on this. I'll note, uh, 100% of our uh, public speakers support of the project, 100% of the council supports the project. I wish you were here in the panel, Kathy, because I'd love to ask you, don't you wish that the city of Santa Clara, we're more like the city of Mountain View. And with that, uh, let's have, uh, the, uh, roll call vote.

[03:06:43] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member show alter.

[03:06:47] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes.

[03:06:48] City Clerk Heather Glaser: By Mayor Hicks?

[03:06:50] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Yeah.

[03:06:51] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Abbe Coca?

[03:06:52] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I,

[03:06:53] City Clerk Heather Glaser: council member Kumei.

[03:06:54] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[03:06:55] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Labor?

[03:06:56] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Yes.

[03:06:57] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Matachek?

[03:06:59] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[03:06:59] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor Ramirez.

[03:07:01] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yeah.

[03:07:02] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Motion carries unanimously.

[03:07:04] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. We will now proceed to item 7.3. Downtown precise plan, update phase one. and bring back senior planner, uh, Edgar, uh, Maradilla. Um, you're doing double duty today. Thank you, and also long-range planning manager Eric Anderson. Uh, uh, and uh, whenever you're ready, feel free to begin the presentation.

[03:07:27] Senior Planner Edgar Maravilla: Sounds good. Thank you. Let me go ahead and share the presentation. Okay. Good evening again, mayor, council members and members of the public. As previously mentioned, my name is Eric, I'm gonna be, yes, senior planner with the city of Mountain View. And today I also have the great pleasure to be presenting the downtown precise plan update. And today I meet here with Long Range Prime Manager, Eric Anderson, and the project consultants, which include Muchuro Karu. Uh, Rick Williams, of Van Meter Williams, Paula, and Libby, Saipo, uh, Saipo consulting. Here's an overview of the project. In 2019, council proves the scopal port for the downtown precise plan to encompass area A, G, and H, historic preservation, development, and design character, and ground floor activation. Since then, staff helped several stakeholder meetings with developers, property owners, business owners, and neighborhood groups. In neighborhood groups, information gathered at the event present was presented at 2 study sessions, one with the environmental planning commission in May of 2021 and one with city council on June 2021. At these study sessions, council directed staff to remove the historic preservation component from the downtown precise plan, directing staff to instead update the city's historic reservation ordinance. This is a separate process that is currently ongoing. Council asked staff to update the design standards. Supported, disallowing administrative office on the ground floor of Castro and the side streets of area H, more information on the upcoming slides, and council ask staff to conduct an economic vitality analysis for area A, G, and H. At the most recent September, 2022, environmental planning commission, the environmental planning commission recommended approval of the downtown for Sachman phase one with the following comments, include a standard for corner lobbies, which has been included, prohibit non-conforming admin office uses after a period of vacancy, only if it does not require more outreach, per staff analysis, modifying the non-conforming language, would require more outreach to business owners. Intent and overview. The goal of the downtown precise line update are to provide clear design and historic design principles, provide objective design standards, encourage active uses that preserve the look and feel of downtown, and strengthen the pedestrian level experience, as mentioned in the previous life, specific outreach was conducted to multiple stakeholders. In February 2021, meetings were conducted with business property owners, chamber of commerce, development community, and neighborhood groups in August and September of 2021, 2 open house meetings were held in person in downtown. In August 2022, the draft amendment were posted online and a presentation was given to the downtown committee. Ground floor office to encourage ground floor activation and for the direction received at the June 8, 2021 city council study session, the downtown precise line update would disallow administrative offices only on the ground floor of buildings fronting Castro in the size streets of Castro in area H. Existing administrative offices would be allowed to continue. This change does not impact offices such as law firms, architects, and other local services. Administrative offices would continue to be allowed on floors above by way of a prohibitional use permit. Development and design character. Main G and H were updated to be consistent with one another. They now follow a similar flow. Uses were organized into charts making them easier to read. Multiple figures were included, like the figure on the screen, detailing minimum requirements. And guideline paragraph were converted to objective standard. Specific development and design standards now include Area H to be allowed in maximum office FAR of 2.75. Buildings will require character changes at least every 75 feet, new historic adjacency standards. Buildings must provide traditional building material, and minimum window and frontage design standards to strengthen passive pedestrian activation. Economic analysis, a high-level economic analysis was conducted. The key findings show downtown has desirable characteristics, but competes with your retail region that is mature and well developed. Restaurant and fitness uses are growing in the retail world. Downtown currently allows for both uses. The findings also highlight the proposed updates would not change feasibility of projects slash updates as many of the standards were previous guidelines, which staff would strongly recommend. Now we will be able to require through the development review process. Further, the economic analysis evaluated constraints and found that retail rents do not financially support building upgrades, restaurants rarely financially support exterior building updates as interior upgrades can be sizable. The analysis also evaluated possible city interventions, such as enhance the public room and public experience of downtown, including nighttime lighting, more seating, open space, landscape, and areas that expand and promote activation. Much of what is being proposed by the ongoing streetscape improvement in the outdoor pedestrian mob being undertaken by the public works department. The analysis also recommends the city promote a diverse set of retail offering and experience in high quality shopping environment, something that could be further explored by the ongoing citywide economic vitality analysis being led by the economic development division. And overall, encourage upgrades and other complementary info development. With that, staff recommend approval of downtown precise plan and Here are staff recommendations as shown in the staff report. Thank you for your time, staff, and the consultants are happy to answer questions.

[03:13:54] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Does any member of the council have questions? Can we remove the screen share, please?

[03:14:02] Senior Planner Edgar Maravilla: Yes.

[03:14:02] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Bye, smear.

[03:14:04] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Thank you. Yes, thank you. I think this is, I generally really appreciated, uh, the recommendations, but I'll save those comments for later. I have several questions. One is that uh, the uh, economic analysis, part of the economic vegetality strategy that I think was attachment 8 that you referred to. Um, Uh, it said a lot of things that I appreciated and agree with that, you know, retail and and, uh, areas with retail and restaurants, retail is changing a lot. There's a lot more online shopping, things that I think all of us know. So that, uh, places like our downtown have to be more of an experience, there has to be more places making. They have to be more destination oriented. So the economic analysis said that in multiple different ways. My question is, I think that we're gonna have, the economic vitality strategy will come to council. But my question is if, uh, if suggestions come out of that regarding place making, and particularly ones that would apply to the downtown, would there be a way to circle back and put those into the precise plan, particularly in the areas we're looking at, AG and particularly age, which is, I mean, it really is the, if you're talking about experience, destination, place making. It is the primary place at this point in Mountain View. So that's my question. How will we come back and re engage if we get suggestions from that dialogue that we may have at a future. time.

[03:15:58] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: Vice mayor, if I may address that question. The answer is yes, we have several opportunities. Um, you know, even with the castro pedestrian mall, we're putting many of these principles in effect for the pedestrian realm, both in the interim, and then we'll be looking at it for permanent. So that will be very encouraging where the city looks at the public realm. But the precise plan, um, was intended always to have a phase 2, where we look at the overall precise plan, and we could certainly circle back with many of these recommendations, um, as well as the ones we develop through the economic vitality strategy. to make sure that they become part of either the public realm or the streetscape plan, um, so that, um, you know, many of these, um, um, buildings that are older can be positioned in a, in a better way, uh, to capture the, the market. And then some of these will involve education and our work with the chamber. In fact, we just had a meeting where we talked about, um, how important it was for the chamber to be a partner in in making sure that businesses understood, uh, what their options are. And then we will have to look at many of the development standards and putting parking as part of all this.

[03:17:22] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Right. Yeah, so I just want to make sure that if some things come out of that, that should, that would require precise plan amendments that we'll be able to do that. Sounds like we will be. That's good. Um, my second question is that a lot, so I, um, live in the downtown area and have a lot of neighbors who also live here. Um, and I get a lot of comments on, uh, I appreciate the fact that there's note that you're recommending not to have administrative office on the ground floor. But I give a lot of comments on, um, food services on the ground floor that are not open to the public. Um, and in particular, there's one on, uh, church in Castro that that people complain about to no end. Um, and so, I'm wondering whether we need, uh, something, in addition, I mean, it's not an administrative office, do we need some, some clarifying words about no, um, food service. No private food services on the ground floor, or no lobbies on the ground floor. That's also, I think there's a building on Villa called Bryant Plaza. But I've also heard a lot of complaining about because it's a lobby on the ground floor, and it's designed as a lobby. So, I'm wondering if we should insert, if there's any, if you think there's any usefulness in, I mean, I guess it doesn't hurt to insert a few words, just to be super specific about those 2 things so that, so that nobody says that by right, they can do that, uh, you know, and then it's no longer a public. It's not open to the public. It's not activating this space. So what are your, um, police,

[03:19:20] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: but I would say, lobbies are typically on the ground floor, and we have several examples of building lobbies. I mean, if you look at some of the busiest, most pedestrian friendly cities. They do have lobbies, and people do go in and out. So, we do see this as a ground floor use. Um, and so what I would suggest, uh, vice mayor, is for us to maybe take it up as part of the whole gamut of land use discussions, um, as part of the next phase. to take a look at, um, you know, what truly activates the street. What's the reality of the world, um, you know, because one of the issues we have to look at is, is it better to let something sit vacant as opposed to allowing a certain use? And so some of these things we want to sort out and bring back to you. As a result of some of the economic analysis and the economic vitality strategy. So my suggestion would be, um, Um, to give us a little time to look at that before we make any changes. Uh, but lobbies, um, I do know, um, six, I think 660, the the low Boulanger, um, building, for example, has um, a building lobby on the ground floor and um, um, an entrance. And so, um, we do have some of those uses. So it'd be very hard to prevent them. Um, So I would suggest not making a change at this time, but giving us some time as part of the phase too, to look at those issues.

[03:20:54] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Yeah, that's, I mean, I'm, I, uh, So I'm mulling that over now. Um, but I have to say at the same time, the precise plan, uh, amendments that are being suggested talk about on the first three blocks in Area H, um, allowing, uh, the buildings to go up beyond the current one and 2 stories in many places, to multiple stories, with step backs. That all sounds fine to me. But it could, if we allow lobbies, it could create a situation where much of the downtown is offices with lobbies on the ground floor. And that's not going to be a vibrant situation. That's not something, you know, if we don't do, if we allow that by right, I'm gonna be very unhappy. So, you know, one lobby after another, stretching down much of the downtown is something that I really would not, or private food services. Um, I think that we need some language. You know, I do what you recommend, but those are things that are concerning to me, because they have happened in the past. And then my last question is about, um, I think on pages, uh, 67 and 95. It refers to Parks and Open Space in the downtown. Um, and it, I think it says that there, we should have, uh, 10 feet of open space and a 6 foot walkway minimum. I believe the walkway is a sidewalk, so that the, the 10 feet could be a planting strip with a 6 foot, 4 foot planting strip with a 6 foot foot sidewalk. I'm here, I'm, um, concerned that, um, that as go taller. When I go to other cities, the 6 foot is a fairly minimal sidewalk, when I go to others, I went to Chicago, they had 30 foot sidewalks. I don't think we need that here. But a 6 foot sidewalk is pretty narrow, if we're going up a number of stories, like 4 feet. Um, you know, volume of new people that we're putting on the street. Um, it would tend to push people into the street, um, and also not allow kind of sight lines so that people can see around corners. Um, and I think we ran into this problem when I was recused from it, but I listened to it when we were doing the Sobrado office on the corner of church and, um, Church in Castro. And I think that this, so that building was, uh, is the plan is to build it to a fairly narrow sidewalk and take out the green space. And I think the green space allowed sight lines for people, so when kids run out of the library and pioneer park, for instance, you could, which my kids did a lot. And then cars are pulling out. It was safer. And I think very narrow sidewalks, on very, in very public places, are not a good... with higher buildings are not a good idea. I'm not concerned about Castro Street if we close it to cars. People can spill out on the street and not be pushed into the street, but I am concerned in some other areas, and I'm concerned where the police station is right now, that if we build, I'm all for in this, that's area, um... Jesus, is it area A or G? You know, I'm concerned that if we go up several stories to a three or four story, cousin project or police station, I know it's an urban area, we can build the sidewalk right up to the building, but if that's gonna be a six foot walkway, or a 10 foot setback, I think that's not adequate for, and I think we'll run into the same problem that we did with the Sobrado building, and people will council members will say, yeah, it doesn't look right. But there's nothing we can do, because it's by right. And I think, I think, I'm wondering what you would suggest doing about that, maybe it's something that you, I'm not gonna change it all right now, but maybe it's something that you look at and come back to us, because I think it's a problem.

[03:25:38] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: Yeah, I think, I think, um, that's certainly, um, something that we will need to take a look at, um, and, you know, for example, the Sobrano Building was in Area J. So as we do the precise plan phase two, I think some of the questions we're going to have to ask ourselves is, um, you know, what kind of streetscape do we need? Do sidewalks have to be wider? Do we have to raise FARs and densities to make up for the difference? So we need to kind of um, Do a little more careful looking at this, but we can certainly make notes um, for that 2nd phase and make sure that we're including, um, some of these, um, some of these recommendations.

[03:26:19] Eric Anderson: Let me, sorry, um, assistant city manager, let me just jump in here. The standards in the precise plan at this time are for private property. They're not for sidewalks. So we developed a new standard that sets minimum width for pedestrian paths through open areas on private property. Now that updating the sidewalk dimensions, if that's something that you're interested in doing is part of phase two, that could apply more broadly to the precise plan as a whole, um, especially along with other, uh, public, uh, improvements that are happening, uh, you know, like the pedestrian, um, closure of, of Castro and other, other improvements. So, focusing narrowly here on private property.

[03:27:10] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, that's good to know. I'll say I'm recused from phase two, so I'm not talking about that. Um, so, but it is something that I'm concerned about, actually, I've brought this up under the previous agenda item. I'm actually concerned about it all over the city. that as we go taller, we need to, you know, we can't create tall, auto oriented suburb. We're trying to create an urban place that allows people to walk and allows crowds to walk on the street without being pushed into the street, and, you know, allows sight lines, and, um, looks and feels appropriate, so you don't feel like you have to get in your car, because it has a tiny little sidewalk next to a tall building, you know, where you're squeezed between a tall building and a street. on a busy street. That's what I want. And I think we're not Mountain View in particular, but I think much of Silicon Valley is kind of not looking at that enough and ignoring pedestrians. So, yes, I would like to see that wherever we can. And those are my questions. Thank you.

[03:28:19] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Council member show Walter.

[03:28:23] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I was wondering whether on medical offices and dental offices would be included in the administrative offices that are, um, uh, not allowed, or would they be allowed?

[03:28:41] Eric Anderson: Uh, so, um, yes, they would be allowed provisionally, but we have a, um, uh, standard that says that, um, you can't kind of close off the windows or reduce the pedestrian interest with a provisional use. So, um, a dentist office or a medical office would have to be, um, designed in such a way that there is some kind of, um, retail or shopping interest in the front. A good example of that is the, um, there's an optometrist on Castro Street. And so, of course, that has a kind of shopping experience in the front. There are also a number of other, um, medical, uh, uses that are, um, sometimes associated with, like, spas and things like that, that, um, where there might be some kind of, you know, um, uh, products in the front, uh, for, uh, you know, spa type products, shampoos, soaps, things like that. So, those types of things would be appropriate.

[03:29:49] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Good. I think that, I think that that's part of what we can fight the Amazonization, is that the word? of, of, um, our shopping areas. But one of the things that, um, I was really surprised by, as I read through this, was kind of the lack of discussion of windows and what needs to be in windows. You know, it seems to me, when I think about, um, the, uh, the vibrancy of, um, of the downtown. What really is a bad thing versus a good thing, is vacant storefronts with dirty windows. And there's nothing in here about that. And I think that is a big, um, or is there? Did I just not see it? I can't say I was studying some other things a little more than I studied this one. Is there something about? Um, you know, vacant windows?

[03:30:52] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: Um, I'll let Eric expand on this, but, um, I think we look at development, um, and then if there are issues with operational, we have to kind of do the high touch. going and meeting with property owners and trying to get them to comply because that's really what you need. Um, we could write the rules, but, and the property owners know what the rules are, which is, they're supposed to keep their property clean. They're not supposed to, um, you know, um, leave the property in disrepair. But a lot of this then becomes, um, sort of the back end with, uh, planning, economic development, sort of combination of people going in and meeting with them. So, uh, I'm afraid it's probably not something we can resolve with a precise plan or just having wording. It actually requires us, uh, it's implied, and, um, Even if we did word it that way, we would still need to do all this additional work. We have the tools in order to enforce it. Um, I think the problem is property owners are just not interested or resisting. And that's been our history.

[03:32:05] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Well, I think, you know, it seems to me that 10 years ago, if you had said that, I would have thought, yeah, that makes perfect sense. But now, when I walk down Castro Street. I say 20, 30, maybe 40% of the storefronts are vacant. This is not sort of a one off kind of problem. This has gotten to be a pervasive problem. And, um, so I think that we need to, or I would posit that, that, that maybe we really need to be hitting it on all fronts. And, and having it included in the planning document is one of those fronts. And I also am a proponent of, maybe this is getting into comments. Um, I think it's more valuable to have explicit, um, uh, explicit statements of what is expected and required than implicit ones. And, um, I was looking for comments about windows, and I didn't find them. So I would think that that would be true for, you know, for other owners. So I really think we need to, um, if what we want to do is make our downtown vibrant, which is what I want to do, I think that's what we all want to do. Um, we've got to get on top of this, um, this, uh, uh, you know, this vacant windows problem. And I would, you know, I'm not sure where the appropriate place for that is. Um, but, um, I would think we, you know, we need to have some sort of a rule that says, basically, um, something along the lines of, you know, if you're, if you're, property is vacant for more than, say, 3 months, 6 months, you've got to put in, um, attractive displays in the window and, or, um, allow the city to do it and pay the money. I mean, I think we need to work on some stuff like that. So, um, I'm not sure whether this is the right place for them, as I said, but I just feel like it's not a one off issue anymore. It's gotten to be really pervasive. So I'm very concerned about what is the best way to tackle it.

[03:34:21] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: I think you bring up some really good points, um, council member, and ones we've been asking ourselves. These issues are exactly what we hope to tackle in the economic vitality strategy and bring a slew of, um, issues and items. And to the extent that we could fold it as part of a land use document, we will look at doing that. Um, so I know that, you know, we have to look at what rights the city has on private property, and so we need to sort some of these issues out. But we get the and then we've got the economic vitality strategy that might have programs. We have the phase 2 update that could build in any land use items. Um, and then certainly we'll be working with the chamber on doing a lot of the outreach. Um, and I think areas A, G, and H are the ones that we want to focus on. And they're very aware of the, uh, not just the council, but the community's frustration about this.

[03:35:19] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Thank you. And I would also wonder, does this fall into the realm of a public nuisance? And is there some, is there some hook that we have through that?

[03:35:31] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: Yeah, we have used that in the past. So, you know, we try to the high touch. We work with the chamber, and then, you know, our, our, what I call our last resort is, you know, reluctantly to move into the enforcement realm. Um, because we know some of these property owners are hurting, they're not able to, but we also know those who are um, just resisting, um, a lot of this. So we'll have a slew of actions. We can recommend as part of the economic vitality strategy. And some of these can get folded into the precise plan, but some of those will have to be other actions that we work on.

[03:36:10] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay, thank you.

[03:36:13] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Council member labor.

[03:36:16] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Well, perfectly timed mayor, 'cause I want to echo council member, show alters, comments, 5000 10,000, 20,000%. And I'd like to know about the businesses in area H that are boarding up with raw plywood. And how do we, where does it go? to prohibit that? Um, and I think it's way beyond the chamber. We've kind of played footsie with that for, you know, quite a while now, like the entire time that I've been on council, and we've coddled the property owners, some of which are low income and struggling, many of which are not. And it's really that they don't just, they just don't give a damn. And so how do we get to the point of actually moving? Is it in this precise plan that we can say, you don't board up with raw plywood in area H? And if not, where do we, where do we put that? Because it's got to stop at some point.

[03:37:27] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: Yeah. The precise plan allows us to go in and force some of this, because the rules are very clear, and raw plywood is not one of the finishes they're allowed to have. And so, let us get back to you. I think we can certainly report back to the, um, to the council as part of some of this work, um, uh, in terms of, I know we're working with economic development, planning, and public works are working in sync, um, on, on several things going on, uh, along Castro, and we can expand that, uh, frustrations, um, on the side streets and kind of back to the strategy.

[03:38:08] Councilmember Sally Lieber: I think we've got to get, we've got to find out here on council, how we get enforcement, at least on Castro Street, and, and economic development, the chamber, uh, we're gonna talk to people, all these different things don't work, and so we've been trying that through a lot of different venues, and it's gotten to a breaking point. So that's what I really want to have some hard answers about, and on the subject of, uh, the windows, uh, I was really frustrated to read that, um, um, I guess it's page eight here about the, um, the administrative office uses on the ground floor. So, way back when we had 303 Bryant Street, on the corner of Bryant and Dana, and it was gonna temporarily, for a couple years, be administrative offices for PayPal. And then it was gonna go to ground floor retail, and, and, but we gave him, like, a couple years to, you know, do this. So now, flash forward, it's, um, 20 some years later, And the windows on that building are all black mirrored windows. So it is absolutely positively the dead zone. And I can say that there's no woman who wants to walk by there. And, um, you know, I, I just, I didn't see anything in here about, um, people that are, that are just, you know, gaming the system, all, all that I see is, is permissiveness. For the black mirrored windows, because we're going to grandfather it in, and then just leave it that way. And, and, and so I want to, Like, how do we get, what should we be doing to get to the point that we don't have this going on in this kind of gaming of the system going on?

[03:40:28] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: Um, um, Council member, I think I'll let Eric maybe respond to, I'm not, uh, I don't have the background of the Bryanton Dana project. Um, I'll let him respond to the history on that and we can discuss what the precise banking do.

[03:40:44] Eric Anderson: Sure. Um, so, I, you know, I don't have all the history on the project, clearly, you know, that the building, uh, is in a location where, as part of area age, on the cross streets, it was encouraged. It's always been encouraged that there be retail there, but, uh, administrative office allowed as a provisional use. They do have a provisional use permit for ground floor office in that location. Um, this was exactly the discussion that we had with EPC, uh, and EPC was asking whether there should be some kind of phase out. You know, just in general. It's good to remember that when a use or when a location has a provisional use permit, that use permit does run with the land. Um, and so, uh, the city can't, um, well, um... In general, in in historically, the city has, uh, allowed uses to continue, in such situations, when they become non conforming, until such a point as they become vacant for a period of time. Now, the language in the draft language before you doesn't have that, you know, must become conforming, uh, if vacant for a period of time. And that was a lot of discussion with the EPC. Should we, um, force them to become something other than admin office? Uh, if the, um, uh, if that space is vacant for a period of time. Um, staff determine that it would, it would require more outreach with the property owner, that, um, it could, uh, uh, that, you know, we had published this draft previously, um, and that, uh, to, to change this between EPC and council, uh, could be an issue with this and a few other property owners in the area. Um, there, we did account of how many admin office uses there are currently on the ground floors in these areas. Uh, and there's only about two or three, um, including 303 Bryant. So, um, the, um, you know, the gaming of the system, you know, I think, is a consideration for council, and if you're concerned about this particular location, uh, it certainly, um, uh, council can can direct staff to, uh, or can can, uh, adopt the recommendation with a modification to end that, um, uh, that non conforming status after a period of vacancy. Um, but, uh, that was the discussion with EPC and and the, um, uh, um, and the status of of 303 Bryant. Does that answer your question?

[03:43:52] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Uh, partially, and I want to confirm my understanding of it. Um, So, my my sense of things is that it will likely never go through a period of vacancy. Because it's office space, it's in a prime location, they've, they've been, we've been permissive about allowing them to completely black mirror out their windows. And so, um, so there's never going to be a, a time when it's vacant for, you know, 6 months and we can say, hey, you know, now we need back to what you agreed to. Um, initially or what the conditions of development were. Um, and so do we have, uh, anything that deals with, you know, I noticed that the, the office that's, um, at 250 Bryant Street. Um, Their windows are obscured, but I think that they're translucent. And so they don't give the same, uh, sinister, we don't care about the street at all. You know, we're only here to suck out what we need. And take off. Um, but do we have any way to deal with the mirrored, uh, windows? I know that down here in area, E or whatever's below, E, you know, where, uh, uh, the vice mayor talked about the, the folks that have a cafeteria on the ground floor, and then there's smashed food against the window that just sits there for like 2 months. And, and no one cares to clean it up, and, and I don't know how we could deal with that. But do we have any rules about black mirrored windows?

[03:45:56] Eric Anderson: Um, I think Edgar can confirm, but there are standards, um, uh, yeah, there is a standard that a minimum of uh, 60% of the ground floor building facade along Castro and 45% of the ground floor building facade across streets shall have windows or doors. Um, This is, um, let's see.

[03:46:23] Edgar Maravilla: Yeah, yeah, Eric. Yeah, we also included standard language in area A, G, and H, uh, the only transparent glass shall be used for windows or placing at the ground, uh, floors. So that is a new standard was previously a guideline, but that it will be a standard requirement.

[03:46:45] Councilmember Sally Lieber: I do see that it says mirrored a reflective glass is not allowed at a, on a street or public open space facing building facade at any level. Only transparent glass shall be used for windows of glazing on the ground floor. That's for area H. So fantastic. So what can we do about 303 Bryant and how fast can we do it?

[03:47:13] Eric Anderson: Um, You know, I'd have to look into any past permit that they might have had for that facade. Um, you know, if it's it, as a nonconforming situation, um, it could be a situation where they might need to ask for another permit. Um, although this is one of those, uh, fairly, um, uh...

[03:47:43] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: Yeah, that's the worst case scenario, but that's something that we can look into in terms of enforcement of any kind of previous permit or previous design review.

[03:47:54] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Okay, I would, I would um, really, really appreciate that. And I know that we have various places in the downtown that I've forwarded the addresses to stay off and said, hey, this is really off from what the, the, the, developer agreed to and, um, You know, luckily, I was here 20 years ago. So I remember some of these ironclad commitments from various folks and, uh, I think that, um, I'm really interested to see what, what we could do because, Uh, they're just laughing all the way of the bank and, and it's beyond the chamber. It's beyond economic development. It's, Are we going to be real with people? Because I know that, you know, homeowners. We have code enforcement. And if somebody is straying on their outdoor storage and, um, Or they have a condition where they have maybe some hoarding going on or something like that. We have actual people that go in. And you know, help to get it to stop. But, but then when it's major office buildings, we're just kind of not able to really get to the point. So thank you so much for your comments.

[03:49:18] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Council member, Council member Kame.

[03:49:23] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Um, I had a couple questions. Um, so, um, one of them was about the pipeline provision. So I know that there was another question, um, that was submitted via council questions about the projects, but, um, might be exempt, and I know that in our staff report, it listed a September 22 date, I do know that there's another project that has been in the works for, gosh, I think since I was on planning commission, so over 4 years now at 705 Dana, where they were trying to acquire the parcel next door, and then that didn't work out, and it's a long-term ground lease. And so, there isn't as much flexibility there. And so, um, you know, with that September 20, I think what is it, um, applications received by September 15, 2022. Is there any way that that council can give feedback tonight that can maybe extend that to the end of the year, you know, December 31st so that that last application that I know that's been hanging out there for quite a few years can be also grandfathered in, or will that not be an issue given that it would be a long-term ground lease without a lot of, um, different provision that can go forward.

[03:50:38] Eric Anderson: Well, that's really up to city council. I mean, our goal with this, um, uh, these amendments is that they would, um, they're they're largely designed and they're largely, um, focused on, uh, standards that have already been part of discussion with, um, you know, over the last few years because this has been general direction from council to have buildings look more historically appropriate in downtown. Um, in addition, the, um, the FAR cap, the Max 2.75 FAR office, which would, uh, which is part of this, um, uh, um, uh, precise plan amendments is higher than the project that was submitted at 705 West Dana. Um, and then lastly, they are proposing ground floor, um, you know, not office on the ground floor. And so again, that is consistent with the major changes that we have in the precise plan. So it's really up to council when you want to set the, um, uh, the grandfathering, uh, or the, um, pipeline provision. But, um, you know, this particular project, um, and, you know, the, I can't speak for them. Obviously, there may be other issues that they have, uh, with the, um, uh, the precise plan amendments, but we, we did talk to them during the process. Um, and so, um, uh, it really is up to council and and whether the, um, uh, there are specific standards that, uh, you may want to grant that flexibility to for for that project. or other projects that might come in in the next month.

[03:52:37] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay. I think high level, what I'm hearing from staff is, given the staff recommendations tonight, that project shouldn't have an issue because they're pretty consistent with the direction that we're going in in relation to the downtown precise plan amendments. So we don't need to worry about the pipeline provision date. I think that's what I'm hearing. Is that correct?

[03:53:03] Eric Anderson: I mean, I would say, again, I can't speak for the applicant on this issue. Um, they, you know, they may be, you know, planning to speak tonight or something like that. So, um, it, it, I, I think the, um, you know, we have been keeping an eye out on four projects, and, um, things that we've been reviewing informally, as we've been developing these, and, and kind of looking out for these potential issues. We've also been very transparent with the community about these standards. We haven't gotten comments of concern on these standards. So, um, from those particular applicants. So, I think that's what I can say. Um, and that we continue to recommend an earlier pipeline provision date because when you set the pipeline provision date later, uh, you might get, uh, shenanigans, you know, people submitting things, have, you know, half baked, um, And so that is something to consider as well.

[03:54:10] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay. So this is what I'm going to surmise from the staff answers to my questions. So I'm comfortable then with the staff recommendation of the September 15, 2022 date. It sounds like the project that I was asking about that's been in the works for several years, would adhere to the direction that we're going in, not consulting with the applicant, but that's what it sounds like. So, That is what I am going to take away from this exchange. And so, um, that that's fine by me. Um, my 2nd question has to do with, we've received some, uh, constituent emails about, um, vacancy tax. And I know that we, as a council, have discussed that a bit. So is that something that council can expect to hear as part of the economic vitality, um, study uh, report or when will that be part of the, that is, okay. I'm seeing. Council member commit.

[03:55:09] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Yes, you can expect that issue to be reviewed as part of the economic vitality strategy. Um, and we'll bring that and other, other options for council to look at for vacant buildings and vacant dead wrong.

[03:55:23] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay. So I think, you know, I'm going to save my comments related to our relationship with landlords for that discussion. Um, but I do want to add something to the specific amendments that I thought was lacking and I'm not sure the place where we can put this in, which is, um, last year in particular, when I was mayor and I went in, I did visits with, um, businesses on Castro. A lot of the feedback I received was about lighting, particularly related to safety. And that often, there are issues in certain parts of the downtown area because it's not as well lit, so in particular, um, Cherry Lane, um, in area A, uh, A, that, um, is right next to our public parking garage, you know, cars drive through it. There's also kind of random parking spots. It's quite dark. It's not very safe, but we have a crosswalk, a pestrian walkway that brings you to that parking garage, and that's not very well let either. So I don't know where that amendment can be, and I would maybe put that under the bucket of, like, lighting, infrastructure, um, because a lot of the comments I got were related to safety. So I'm not sure where we could include that, but I would say to me, that includes all areas of the downtown precise plan. Um, so would look and ask to staff about where we can discuss that as a council.

[03:56:55] Public Works Director Dawn Cameron: If I may, Don Cameron Public Works director. I will note that about 3 years ago, I believe it is, we completed a downtown lighting study that went through the entire downtown area and made recommendations for, you know, improving and enhancing lighting overall, but also taking into consideration dark sky compliance. What we need to do is, uh, go back and look at it again, and the goal was that all the recommendations combined would, of course, be, uh, dealing with what we would do in the public right away, which is mostly what you're talking about here. Will, will be major infrastructure projects, uh, fairly costly, and one of the goals was to look at putting in, um, into the capital improvement program over time, you know, starting to work on these lighting enhancements, uh, throughout the downtown in phases. So, we will take this back and I'll make a note that we need to look at that and see what we can start integrating into our five-year CIP starting next spring in terms of both money and project management.

[03:58:08] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you, because I think to me, um, you know, the, the CIP, you know, project list sounds like the right place, but I feel like it's also kind of tied into what we've been talking about with like the pedestrian mall and the infrastructure. trying to create there. So I see those as closely aligned, and so hopefully we can kind of weave those together as well. Um, which I'm sure you're already doing, but just wanted to ask that question. Um, and then the last question I have is about the amendment table. So for, um, one, I appreciate the table. I know that, um, we've been talking about, we talked about tables in a, in a different, um, meeting, but I, but I really appreciate the visual, visual representation. But when it talks about areas implemented. So, and it talks about the previous standard guidelines. So there's none. So, when was this implemented? Because council would be approving the amendments tonight. So can I get some clarity on that?

[03:59:13] Eric Anderson: Um, sorry, are you asking about a specific standard?

[03:59:17] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Um, all of them, because a lot of them say none or it says a previous standard and then it says areas implemented. So when we have tonight's action, then will these be implemented or I'm just trying to understand that part of the table, the visual representation.

[03:59:33] Eric Anderson: Yes, sorry. I think the, we were just trying to be efficient in terms of space because those particular categories had less information, so we stacked them. They're not related to each other. So, um, in all of these are new standards that uh, are before the council tonight, and if council approves the stacks of recommendation, they would all be, um, uh, they would all be uh, adopted uh, in the areas so designated. When it says previous standard or guideline, that's really just saying, is this taking a previous, previous language and modifying it or promoting it from a guideline to a standard, that's all that section is talking about? Does that answer?

[04:00:19] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes. So I'm just going to reiterate to make sure that I heard correctly. So, on the table when it says the previous standard guideline, you're just telling us what the current status is for the city in the downtown. And then for the areas implemented, This is where on our downtown precise pan map. These will be implemented when we, Fingers crossed, approve everything tonight.

[04:00:42] Eric Anderson: Correct?

[04:00:43] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, perfect. Thank you for the clarification. Thanks, Mayor.

[04:00:47] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you Compliment reliever.

[04:00:51] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, mayor. I'm sorry to double dip, but, uh, a question was occasioned by, um, some of the answers that were given to council member committee's good questions. And so I'm, I'm very glad to hear that council will get, um, information about a vacancy tax, uh, for, for our downtown. And is, is there a process by which we could, uh, get information about, uh, an eminent domain strategy in terms of the, the buildings that are just derelict?

[04:01:33] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: Council member, I think we'll have to take that back and discuss it because, um, um, eminent domain implies the city would, would take it over, and I don't know that we have a funding source, and I think I'm going to have to definitely discuss it with the, City manager's office, um, public works and the city attorney's office to see what options we have, and we can fold. Any and our options related to vacancy into the economic vitality strategy to look at best practices. And based on what we find, you may or may not find that as a recommendation, but we can certainly look at it.

[04:02:14] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Yeah, I think that there would be, um, there would be very helpful. And from the council perspective, it would be very helpful to, No, um, what are the parameters on, ongoing, um, situations? Uh, how many years do we need to wait with buildings that are are completely derelict? Um, before we could, we could take an action and, um, I, I think we've kind of gotten to that point. Thank you.

[04:02:53] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. I did have, uh, one question related also to uh, the pipeline provision. Um, I believe, somebody had submitted a question in advance of the meeting, um, and the staff response indicated that the Marwood project would be exempt, including their proposal to revise their parking. Um, and I, I wanted to better understand that, um, I, I had, I had thought that they had submitted a new application. Um, so I'm curious, can that help me understand how exactly they are benefiting from the exemption if, if they are basically started from scratch and submitting a new application, or am I wrong in thinking that?

[04:03:42] Eric Anderson: Uh, so they're submitting a modification to their previous approval. Their modification has very little change to the, uh, the building itself. Um, I will note that, um, you know, we used a number of, um, kind of, uh, a number of projects, uh, that got council approval to help kind of guide, um, some of the standards. And so I don't expect the Marwood project to be inconsistent with any of the adopted standards. Um, nonetheless, it, you know, it's, um, it, it's possible. Um, the, Um, But yes, to just clarify, they are submitting a request to a modification of a previously approved project. Um, and we're reviewing that now, uh, along with the development agreement, um, to, uh, to help support the the additional parking downtown. So, uh, that's what their, uh, um, that's what their project request is and that would be the, action that the council would be making with the project.

[04:05:07] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Okay, and I know we've done outreach, uh, and I'm guessing that Marwood was included in the outreach efforts. Do you happen to know if they submitted any comments about any of the modifications proposed in these amendments?

[04:05:24] Eric Anderson: No, they haven't submitted any comments about it. Yeah, and I, you know, I'm the project planner for Marwood as well. And so I've certainly been speaking with them directly about it, um, making sure that they're looking at it and reviewing it, uh, and letting me know if, if they, um, you know, through the, you know, through the outreach process, letting the city know if, if there are any concerns. Um, and we would have included that with any public comment to counsel.

[04:05:54] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Okay, great. Thank you. Bye, smer hits.

[04:06:00] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: So I'm sorry, I'm double dipping as well. I don't, I never know whether to put things I'm going to say into comments, questions because they seem to slide from one to another. Um, but I'm, I'm thinking a little more deeply about the issue of, uh, ground floor lobbies, about disallowing administrative walkuses, but allowing ground floor lobbies. It's, it, that's, uh, that idea is concerning to me, uh, particularly because, uh, you know, many, many of the developers I talk to prefer to just administrative office and don't want to be bothered with anything else, and it seems like we could end up with one after another, uh, building that's kind of like the, um, the, is it 303, the Brant Plaza with the, entire bottom of it, a lobby? Now, I can keep putting in lobbies as a certain small percentage of, you know, no more than a certain amount so that you can get into the building. Basically, but I'm wondering if staff has some way to make sure that, I mean, I think we're just opening up the door to making, saying we're disallowing administrative offices, but in reality, allowing them, because the first floor is a lobby, and the rest of the floors are administrative office. So, I would like to hear some way of preventing that, or I think we'll be sorry later, and I'm wondering if you had any ideas on that.

[04:07:31] Eric Anderson: Sure. I... You know, we did talk about this a great deal, and we discussed a lot of potential quantitative standards for limiting, you know, how much of a ground floor can be an entrance to upper floor uses and things like that. Um, I, in the end, uh, there, there is a lot of discretion that goes into these kinds of, uh, review, especially at the informal review stage, of where the, The boundary is between a lobby, you know, a space that's primarily just about entering and exiting the office as well as maybe some kind of, you know, desk or something like that to help orient people. Um, and something that really adds to the admin office space in the building. So, um, you know, uh, any kind of, um, you know, meeting space or anything like that certainly wouldn't be allowed, um, on the ground floor. Uh, so that is, I think, something where we would be, um, uh, applying that, uh, kind of definition, uh, through the review of informal, through the informal review process and then the formal process, formal review process. Um, and then I think, um, it's also good to note that the office FAR cap is also intended to help kind of encourage, um, uh, ground floor retail because, you know, if you are allowed a 4 story building, but you're only allowed 2.75 FAR of office. Then there's potentially, you know, um, you know, almost, uh, uh, potentially about one FAR worth of additional building area you might be allowed. Um, that, uh, that would have to be some kind of ground floor commotion.

[04:09:35] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, that's that gives me more information. I have to say I am a little concerned about just kind of because of the developers I've talked to and how many of them just want to do administrative office, plain and simple. Um, and I'm afraid with the discretionary review. I mean, for me, I feel like that doesn't give me anything to hang my hat on, that I, you know, just to say, I hope that discretionary review takes care of it, because that, it hasn't, you know, kind of all up and down the street, um, you know, whether it's, uh, private eateries on the ground floor, or, or lobbies. Um, you know, they're kind of proliferating. So, I'd like something a little more, something with a little more traction. Um, something that they don't say we get it by right. Um, and, you know, because I think that if we're all ground floor lobbies and private cafeteria, not a vibrant space. So, um, so I'll be thinking about that. Thank you.

[04:10:45] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Are there any remaining questions? If not, would any member of the public on the line like to provide comment on this item? If so, please put the raised hand button in Zoom or press star 9 on your phone. A timer will be displayed on the screen. Let's go ahead and allocate 2 minutes. The 1st speaker is Bruce England.

[04:11:09] Bruce England: Nope, you don't hear me, okay. Do you hear me now?

[04:11:12] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yeah.

[04:11:13] Bruce England: Thank you, mayor. Uh, 2 minutes. Okay, here we go. Speaking for Mount Bruce England, Wisman Station Drive, speaking for Mountain View Coalition for Sustainable Planning, carrying forward what council member Hicks already said, and others. Coverage for ground floor retail is good, but I'd like to see ground floor retail will be truly public accommodating with no dead zones with spaces level with the ground, supposed to raise to ensure full accessibility. Um, and then all the points about vacancy vacant windows and storefronts, uh, equal uh, concerns on that as well. On the lighting thing, I wanted to make sure I got that in, that, um, there's a note in the report about incorporating a dark sky compliant lighting, and for Green Space's Mountain View, I want to note that lighting decisions relating to safety can be readily accommodated through established dark sky standards. Just increasing lighting is often not the way to address or improve safety. We trust that public works and community development will take all concerns into account when they tackle updates to the lighting ordinances in the near future. Also on the windows. The report is searched so that Windows standards ensure buildings have a more traditional punched window appearance instead of more modern glass curtain wall appearance. This is great for reducing light leakage and to prevent injury to birds flying in the area. And I'll leave it at that. Thank you.

[04:12:36] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Next speaker is James Kuzmal.

[04:12:43] James Kuszmaul: Good evening, counsel, James Kusmal, speaking for myself tonight. Um, the 1st thing I wanted to note was on amendment 2 regarding the maximum office far. It's very confusing as someone trying to follow these things, how this interlates with the proposed, uh, temporary office cap that I refer to calls even the same far. Um, and so I'm just confused. So, why that's also coming forward tonight. Um, Although, on the merits of that, I would also note that it is unclear to me how a far cap on office serves any of the pros purposes, given that we already have amendment one to incentivize ground for retail over offices, and given that fundamentally, even if we, even for all the fiddling we do about, um, trying to regulate ground for uses and facades and as such, when it comes down to it, if we went to support ground for retail, we need to be able to have customers downtown who will use that retail, and office is a key component of that. It also hits home for me a bit since my employer right now is moving offices to card oriented Hellscape in Santa Clara. And I greatly wish that we had more office downtown Mountain View, though. Perhaps we could have moved into. Secondly, on Amendment 3, the increase in the height cap, I appreciate that height caps are increasing and it's being made simpler. I still don't see any justification for having any height cap, particularly when having those sorts of arbitrary caps on building height, just push more competition for ground floor use. Um, so I would really like to see that reduced or, or the hike hat loosened or moved so that we can get more office and housing above ground and more ground for retail on the ground. And lastly, to council member Hicks notes about sidewalks, I would, this is perhaps a bit more out of order, but I would look forward to us being able to widen our sidewalks, as more developments go in, and perhaps use some of the street space current leaves for parking for that, since that will, the increased density will both make it easier to walk places. And if we're making our sidewalks wider, that makes it easier for people to walk places instead of driving their cars. Thank you.

[04:14:46] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. The next speaker is Peter cats.

[04:14:55] Peter Katz: Good evening. Thank you, Mayor Ramirez and state members of the city council. This is Peter Katz, CEO of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce. I want to start by complimenting city staff on undertaking a very important and needed revision of the downtown precise plan. We recognize that tonight's presentation covers only phase one, which is largely architectural, and we applaud the desire to keep the look and feel of downtown unique and distinct. As Vice Mayor Hicks said, we need to incorporate the points raised in the economic analysis and the ones we assume will come out of the vitality plan, we are eager to work closely with the city on these items in phase two, especially those related to permitting and requirements, permitting requirements, and processes. For phase one, as council member show alter noted, nowhere is there mention of addressing empty storefronts. These blank spaces sap the vibrancy of the street, negatively affecting both the ambience and character of downtown, as well as income for our businesses, many of whom are still barely surviving. The chamber and the city have worked repeatedly, with some landlords to activate their windows, with displays, pop ups, and artwork. We even partnered with theater works to promote an upcoming performance, which was a win win all the way around. However, as assistant city manager Shravastova notes, other landlords remain content to simply do nothing, despite numerous attempts by both the Chamber and the city to engage them. While these owners may not feel the pain, their actions have been devastating impact to those around them. And, as council member Lieber notes, we lack the teeth to really affect the change. We urge the city to take action to deal with these specific circumstances in constructive ways, like being required to display artwork, or otherwise activate the window space. We have many ideas and resources that can be toy quickly, and the chamber eagerly will make them happen, but permission is needed, either from the landlords willingly, or from the city, if new rules are added to the precise plan. Thank you very much.

[04:16:50] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Peter. The next speaker is Carlos Valdes.

[04:16:58] Carlos Valdes: Can you hear me?

[04:17:00] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes, we can.

[04:17:03] Carlos Valdes: Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Carlos Valdes. I am a field representative for Carpenter's Local Union 405. I'm going to talk about the need for area standards for our community, especially for projects like this. What is area standards, you may ask. Any standards stands for healthcare, apprenticeship, and livable wages. Uh, let's begin with healthcare. Do you know that nearly 50% of California construction workers rely on some form of public assistance? Also. One out of 4 construction workers in California, lack health insurance. That's 2.5 times the rate for all California workers. When it comes to apprenticeship, construction apprenticeship programs are a proven escalator to the middle class. Training tens of thousands of California residents every year, at no cost to taxpayers, because of increased wages and lack of student debt, construction apprenticeship can be a better option than a traditional undergraduate program for many young people. Liverpool wages. Liverpool wages, uh, there are needed, um, for, uh, you know, uh, allowed the workers and their families to live in this uh, community that they work in, is also means that those wages go back to into our community, as they spend their earnings, and their tax dollars will keep, help funding our local schools and governments. So, it would be, uh, a right move to make these every standards a must for projects like the one that's on the table. Thanks.

[04:18:58] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Next speaker is Robert Cox.

[04:19:07] Robert Cox: Can you hear me?

[04:19:09] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes, we can.

[04:19:10] Robert Cox: Can you hear me? Okay, hi, I'm Robert Cox speaking for Liverpool Mountain View. We support the staff recommendation, the most important point of which is to remove the conditional use permits for ground floor administrative office in the historic retail district. We urge the council to stay firm on this point, even though there are currently some ground floor because he's in the historic district. Right now, some downtown businesses are languaging, while others are thriving, but I've been told by those in contact with the businesses, is that adaptation is the key to our new takeout option are faring better than those who simply maintain their traditional offerings. Staff should be collecting best known practices for post-COVID success and spread the word to help make our downtown businesses successful. Beyond that, we need to acknowledge that the property taxes on some of our historic buildings are so low that the landlords may not see any urgent reason to rent their buildings out. Other Bay Areas cities have dealt with this by imposing a vacancy tax. The money raised by such attacks could be used to help landlords, or willing to rent their buildings out, and improve them and attract more customers. Above all, let's stop complaining about why things aren't like they were and embrace a new post-COVID 21st century vision for our downtown. Remote work has isolated people, and a thriving interactive social downtown will be the remedy. We have often called our downtown mountain view, our communities living room. Let's legislate like we believe it. Thank you.

[04:20:55] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. The next speaker is Helen.

[04:21:03] Hala Al Shawani: Yes, hello, good evening, mayor, and city staff, city council. This is Hala Al Shawani, longtime resident of Mountain View. Um, I am very supportive of the staff recommendations to our council, and I am very proud of our council members pushing our staff to even do more, and include more, um, community input in the changes for the, um, amendments to, uh, the precise plan for downtown. Um, I strongly support the comment from counsel about having transparent, clean windows, and absolutely no office use, uh, buildings or office use in the 1st level floors, uh, the historic uh, portion of Castro. In fact, all of Castro Street. It needs to be a public realm, open to the public, interactive, clean and inviting, 1st floor all over the street. I also strongly support Vice Mayor Hicks in requiring that the lobbies are not allowed, or allowed in a very limited space, so that it's fair for the business to have an entryway, but it's not taking advantage of that provision and making essentially the 1st floor, a lobby, because that really just means a dead zone for the public. Um, one thing I just came to my mind when, uh, Vice Mayor Hicks was mentioning that, uh, when I've been to big buildings in other cities, uh, where there is, uh, office or even residential, though I often have a small coffee shop, or some kind of retail services within the lobby, actually, right next to the front desk, so that it is friendly, it is inviting, uh, and it's open to all. Thank you very much.

[04:23:06] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Ella. The next speaker is Alex Brown.

[04:23:11] Alex Brown: Hey, friends. As someone who goes downtown pretty often. I also want, the land used to focus on the people downtown, not the maximizing profit of the people who were speculating on the land values, were just holding on to a building that they inherited decades ago because they can. A city should be for its residents, for the people there, for visitors. The ground floor is the most valuable part of it. It's the most accessible. It has a lot of opportunity to have synergies between businesses where people go to one thing, see something that they might want in a window. Stop at that store. Uh, but in order to do that, we have to limit the ability to just parasitize the city and extract as much money, like, through tech startups, as you possibly can. It's not, it's not fair, it's not good, it's not helpful to the people. Thanks.

[04:24:13] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Being no other members of the public wishing to speak. I will bring the item back to council for deliberation. And note that the motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolutions attached to the report, Council member Leaper.

[04:24:31] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. Um, well, I would be prepared to make a motion, but I'd like to know from staff. How can we encompass, um, some of the comments that have, uh, been offered up in terms of the, uh, ground floor, administrative, uh, offices, and, uh, the, the lobbies and, um, those other, uh, forms of dead zones.

[04:25:04] Aarti Shrivastava: Um, I, I can sort of list some items, um, if the council wishes to adopt it, but direct staff to follow up on some of those items, we can do that, and some of those will come back as precise plan amendments as we review phase two. Um, others, we may just be doing follow up, um, code enforcement or the economic vitality strategy. So, um, I can list the items, um, that, um, I heard and, uh, um, that could just be, um, added separate from the motion on the, um, uh, on the precise plan itself.

[04:25:41] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Okay. And, um, mayor, I'd be ready to make a motion when the time is right, but I see that my colleagues have, uh, things to say as well, so I'll hold off on that for, for now.

[04:25:57] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Bye Sner Hicks.

[04:26:03] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Yeah, so I would actually like to hear a Ms. Shvastava's list before we go to the motion, so I would know whether I wanted to, um, you know, change, uh, if something is not on the list, maybe we, uh, put it into the motion. So I, are you prepared to? I have another comment or two, but are you prepared to read your list off at this point or later?

[04:26:35] Aarti Shrivastava: I could read it if I was starting to number some of them, but I could do it as I'm reading. Uh, the first item is to, um, follow up on looking at wider, um, sidewalks. Um, along, along these streets, and I will include internal pathways or distances between buildings as part of it.

[04:27:00] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Um, since um... In next to the Sobrano building, there was like a sidewalk and a green space. And I think that's the way it's, um, called out in the, um, in the downtown precise plan. It's, uh, ground level open space. Because I think on, like, some very public blocks, like, uh, the one with the library on it. Those 2 things kind of get mixed sometimes. I thought it was appropriate the way it was named in the precise plan. So wider sidewalks and, you know, flaming strips or whatever. I'm sorry, I interrupted you. What else is it on this?

[04:27:43] Aarti Shrivastava: Sure. So wider sidewalks, and that's kind of along the street, but also, as they may exist in internal pathways. That was my intent, and we follow up, um, um, okay. Um, the 2nd item had to do with vacant storefronts, um, and follow up on strategies, um, uh, with the economic vitality strategy, and that would include the vacancy tax, or, um, you know, other issues, programs, um, and ideas that would allow the city to be a little more, um, give the city a little more authority to get involved, um, if if there were recalcitrant. landlords. Um, The 3rd was just code enforcement in general, um, you know, boarded plywood and, you know, windows and other things. So I'll just add that to the vacant property list. Um, mirror glass, I think we confirmed that our current rules won't allow it. One of the things we will do is go back and look at past projects, the ones that were mentioned, to see if they're deliberately flaunting any of the rules that were in effect at the time, so we could go code force. And then alternatively, um, in the downtown precise time, we could look at other options, uh, to see how do we treat projects that are already approved? But, you know, do we wanna phase some of these things out, but we, we, we can't do it today, but we'll follow up on that. Um, that's item 3. Um, Item 4, I think, um, uh, she would be coming back with a CIP program related to the lighting study. And the findings of the lighting study related to, um, safety and security in the downtown. And I could say that we will certainly look at that, um, and it, the dark sky ordinance and coordination with that when we do, um, the, the precise plan part two. Uh, for private property. Um, if there are any, um, So that's item four. Um, let me see, what else? There was some discussion about eminent domain. I don't know, um, if there are specific properties, and I know we have one on our list. We'll certainly follow up on that. I don't necessarily see it being incorporated into a precise plan. But I'll just call it item 5 follow up on, um, the eminent domain, um, options for certain property. Um. Um, I will hold off the issue of ground floor lobbies. I'll certainly call it item 6 vice mayor, uh, because it's certainly an issue we need to address. Um, and That is my list.

[04:30:52] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: So, uh, uh, so a couple questions about the list, uh, you said, hold off on ground for a lobby. Is that something you're gonna look into and come back? to speak about it?

[04:31:04] Aarti Shrivastava: Well, we have we have 2 options, and I wish I had the chance to maybe talk to our, um, our urban planner, um, uh, planning consultant, um, or maybe Eric could could follow up, but an example of what we would typically include. And I, I, right off the bat, I, I don't know if that's the right number. Um, we could say something like, um, you know, lobbies are limited to X feet, right? You could reasonably expect that 25 feet should be enough for entry and to deal with any, you know, ground force space up to a certain depth, um, beyond which they all need to be retail. Right? Um, or the active uses. That's an example. Or we could say 25 feet or 50%, whichever is lower or 25 feet and 20%, whichever is lower. Those are examples of a standard we would typically apply when we were trying to limit. So that we give them enough space for what they need, but no more than a certain percentage. Um, that's an example of what we would use. But, um, Today, if you had to ask me, I would say the 25 feet is reasonable. Um, if you want, if counsel wanted to apply it. Now, ground floor is lobbies are not specifically allowed, but they will be used because, you know, offices are only allowed on the upper floors. Um, so we know they'll use them, um, and, and like Eric said, we have the ability to, to design review to require other active uses and for people not to kind of use up all the front space. But if counsel's interested in a specific standard, I would recommend the, the 25 feet, um, and not having the chance to really talk this through, I think, Eric and I thought this would be a reasonable. Um, standard.

[04:33:02] Eric Anderson: So, um, yeah, I did, I did get a chance to, uh, hear from the, um, uh, the urban design consultant. Um, I think one way to think about this, we could limit it to, um, you know, 20 feet or 25% of the building frontage, whichever is less. that's kind of the 1st thing that our team mentioned. Um, and I think one way to think about this is that if you have a fairly narrow building, um, so let's say you have a building that's only 20 feet wide or something like that, then you really wouldn't, you wouldn't have enough building width to actually have a lobby in that case. You would really be limited to only access to upper floors. And so I think we could probably structure that standard. Um, you know, for example, we could modify that footnote that's, um, that's on page, um, uh, On page 77 of the amendments. Um, to say something like, um, lobbies know wider than 20 feet or 25% of uh, building width, um, are allowed as well as access to upper floors. So that way we're clearly saying that even if you have a skinny building, you always can have the access to upper floors, but you don't necessarily get a lobby if you're, unless your building is wide enough to, um, to have that 20 feet, which would be 25% of the building width.

[04:34:44] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: So, I thought you were going to say you would come back to us with some options after consulting with your urban, whatever, designer. But, um, but if you're comfortable with that and if counsel's comfortable with that, as is, I would be open to either, either coming back with options or adopting what you're suggesting now, if, uh, if counsel is comfortable, if you're comfortable and counsel is comfortable with that, either one, I'm open to either one. Okay, so having said that, let's see. Um, and the one other related to lobbies that I guess was not on your list is, um, uh, private food services on the ground floor. That's another one. I think we need to disallow. Would you, would it be better to just, uh, add that as an additional amendment right now, or would you want to come back in some way?

[04:35:43] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: Um, you know, I, um, Eric, um, this was, this issue, uh, occurred in Area J, but I want to look at our current list of uses to see if private uses would be allowed in AG and H. I, I don't believe they would, but, um, So we'll have to tackle Area J as part of downtown phase two. Mm-hmm.

[04:36:07] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Yeah, I just, uh, you know, it came up, there is one in area J, but I don't know, at this point, if I, if I bought a building in area H and put office on, on top. Would there be anything to stop me from putting private food service on the ground floor, just because it's now in Area J? doesn't mean that's the only place somebody can do it.

[04:36:32] Eric Anderson: I, I think we'd have to look at, you know, our definition of restaurant, um, you know, the, you know, I think the, the kind of common definition of restaurant is, is something that, you know, generally serves the public, right? I mean, that's a, you know, a private office, you know, food, you know, food service for a private office, you wouldn't really call a restaurant. Um, but I think we'd have to look at those definitions. Um, I'm sorry, I don't know under what land use the, uh, site on the corner of Castro and, um, and perch, uh, that situation was approved as, whether it was approved as a restaurant or whether it was approved as an accessory to the office use. Um, and if it is the latter, then the uh, the situation would be resolved already. It wouldn't be an issue that we'd have to worry about for, um, uh, area age. But if it was the former, then that could be something that we could come back and report back to you all.

[04:37:52] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: So I think what I would like to ask is that that be put on the list. on Ms. Shvastoba's list.

[04:38:00] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: We'll add to.

[04:38:01] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Item seven, which is to look at food service, disallowing food service uses on the ground floor. Thank you very much.

[04:38:10] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: Private food suit, okay.

[04:38:13] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Okay, so my additional comments are, don't worry, they're not too many. My additional comments are, um, I, uh, completely agree what council with what council members show Walter said about Windows. I have concerns, not just about dirty and blank and mirrored windows. Um, I guess council member labor brought up some of those, but also about, um, uh, what needs to be in the windows. Uh, I, I, I think, uh, it was Mr. Anderson who said a shopping experience, something that adds to vibrancy. And I think, but I think that, so I wanted to say that I agree with that whole realm of discussion and would push it even a little further, to be more windows more, you know, showcasing more vibrancy. But I think that can be part of a program, an economic vitality program, and it was even mentioned in the economic analysis in attachment aid, that there could be a... I could probably find it here, somewhere where I took notes. But, um, that we could have a program that would interact with, um, I think Mr. Katz also brought this up, but that could interact with, um, with, uh, property owners and business people to get to get those windows to be more vibrant. in addition to clean and not mirrored. So I think that can be put off. But I agree with that. The one additional thing that I would like to maybe add, because I think it's a pretty simple amendment is that, um, we have several buildings in the downtown that the entrance is not at grade level. One of those is the Bryant Plaza that we've been talking about, and another is the Kaiser Building and the 444 Bank of America Building. I think that really detracts from public use when, you know, what's the 1st story is above my eye level, and I can't see, and or, you know, is fairly high. It kind of says to me, it kind of reads as this is not a public space. And in fact, those 3 buildings, the ground floor mostly is not public spaces. They're lobbies and things that you're not allowed in. So, I would like to say that, at least in areas H, G, and A, that entries need to be at grade level, that they're not, you know, apply. So that, that would, I think that's a pretty simple thing to add, and I would propose adding that. And I see council member show order is. Looks like she has a question about that.

[04:41:09] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Mayor?

[04:41:10] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Well, I, I'm inclined to, no motion has been made, so I'm inclined to, inclined to continue based on the order of the hands that we're up, but you're welcome to speak to it later. Um, but I, uh, I'm, I'm going to, Count on staff support. Uh, and require, I'm trying to keep track of all of the ideas as, as they come in, but I think, you know, once the motion is made, it might be good to do a recap of all of the other ideas that are being incorporated. Vic, did you have anything else?

[04:41:44] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: No, the only one I didn't incorporate the rest of them. I think, uh, staff will come back at some phase 2 or whatever, or economic vitality. The only one that I'm proposing is that, um, that entries, that entries be at ground level, that they not be built up in some way. Uh, that's the only.

[04:42:06] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: So, vice mayor, I'll ask, I believe there is such a requirement. I think, um, Eric, can you find it, um, where we, we look at grade level entries? Um, Edgar, is it is it there? Did we have the, uh, grade level entry standard?

[04:42:27] Edgar Maravilla: I, I can double check, but I, if I recall, we had something in there pertaining to entries being within a one foot, uh, upgrade. Um, but, and that's just me uh, going off from my memory, but I can, I would double check it.

[04:42:43] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: So let us let us look for that. Council member, Hicks, and we need a little bit of flexibility because, you know, grades are not that easy to match and standards become very rigid. So, um, sorry, if people can, um, make their other comments will take the time to review that.

[04:43:01] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: No, I agree with that within a certain reasonable number of fees. Thank you.

[04:43:09] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Council member, Abi Coca.

[04:43:13] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, Mayor. So, in general, I support staff's recommendations. Um, I guess where I'm having little, I guess I'm a little, uh, confused as to what we're doing with this growing list of items, um, because I actually have concerns with several of them. And as I start with the preface that, um, I think, as I listen to the examples that are being provided, um, what I've seen over time is that, uh, and I, I, I guess my, my assumption was that, I think we used to require retail on the ground level. But the examples where we don't have retail there anymore. Most of them, if I recollect historically correctly, have been done by waivers. So church and castor street and I wasn't on council at that time, I believe, or I had to recuse myself because of where I lived. We did require, I believe I required retail, and that, uh, development, was able to get a waiver from not having to have retail there. I don't know, you know, if we specified or it was specified, what was gonna go there, but we, the council basically waived the requirement of retail. Um, when we talked about, I think, if it's, if I'm correct in the, the parcel, I think it's Villa and Bryant, um, that one, there's a big lobby, um, that we had required retail again. The coffee shop was being talked about. But again, this is when I wasn't on the council, I don't think. Um, the applicant came or the, the, the parcel owner came and said he had tried to um, put in a coffee shop, but the size of that part, the space was not conducive to a coffee shop. So the council at that time waive that requirement to have retail. So I guess this is where I'm my, you know, I would question, ask staff, if we were just to say, require retail on ground level, would we be able to resolve a lot of these issues? Um, because that's how it seems like these over time, you know, we've had these exceptions happen, and that's what's created these challenges. So, um, yeah, a good staff maybe respond to that.

[04:45:50] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: I can take a stab and then I can let Eric or Edgar specify. I think that's exactly the reason why we're even a disallowing administrative office because it used to be allowed with a provisional use permit and we wanted to make it very clear. Um, so we have taken some of the our, our lessons learned from past, uh, from the past to say, we're taking this option off the table right away.

[04:46:17] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Yes. So I appreciate that. I guess it's now just like maybe a nuance of terms, but, um, it sounds like some of these, you know, the conversations going, well, what's the administrative office or what's the cafeteria, you know, for a company considered? So, like, rather than getting into the, you know, the wording, if, well, I guess it would be, but maybe flipping the wording to say we require retail on all ground levels parcels, could that potentially just, um, take care of all of these issues we've had?

[04:46:50] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: Um, I would say, um, the issue of ground for uses, um, we plan to tackle as part of the economic vitality strategy and downtown phase 2, because what we are learning is, is retail is no longer a viable use, and we have to expand the list of uses, but expanded in such a way that they're still pedestrian oriented. So we may not be able to make the change today. But it's definitely on our docket. I mean, it was, you know, shown to us by the economic vitality analysis we did. And, you know, we don't have to put a number to this one. We are gonna tackle it.

[04:47:31] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Okay. So, um, I understand that. And, you know, I guess that would be, or my response would be that retail, you know, the face of retail is changing. So we just need to be inclusive of what retail means in this day and age. And also just, you know, into the future too, to word it in a way that would, um, would go with the changing times as to what retail or, you know, I don't even, maybe saying public serving business. I'm not really quite sure what the wording is, but I think even if you understand. It sounds like we're heading that way. It's just challenging for me personally because I believe I will be conflicted out of phase too. Um, so, um, you know, this is, yeah, a little tricky for for me. And that's what's happened in the past as well. Um, in terms of, um, in these, I think these really relate more to the economic vitality strategy, but some of the items I heard about a vacancy tax or, um, uh, so, you know, I look at this, I, I, I don't know folks know, but for, uh, very, when I was much younger, um, for a while, I owned a small business and I learned a lot about how challenging it is to run a small business. And when I would, I see some of these items, you know, issues like a vacant tax coming up. Um, I, I'm a little, I'm cautious of that because what I guess what I'm looking for is how do we incentivize, how do we, you know, help, especially in this time of, uh, post-COVID, my potential economic down to turn. I am, um, concerned about, um, Anything that looks like we're penalizing businesses instead of supporting and trying to foster them. So, um, and I think, and I remember, um, there's a leadership Mountain View group that did a, a study, um, and they went door to door on 20 or so businesses, and I remember their report out was that each business is very unique and different as to why they're in this situation they are. So, um, I just wanted me and maybe include it being included in our by economic vitality strategy, but I don't want us to just, um, you know, make assumptions and have these blanket, oh, we need a vacancy tax. assumptions. I think we really need to look at each business case by case. And include, and then with eminent domain too, I think there's really only one, um, really one potential for something like that. But I would say, you know, I'm doing a lot of eminent domain at BTA right now, and at the end of the day, we still have to offer the property owner, fair market value for their properties, and I just don't see where, you know, we have that kind of funding right now to be doing something like that. So, I'm not really interested in looking at something that we just, I don't think, is, you know, realistically in the realm of possibilities at this time. Um, this, I do support, um, the, well, the issue of lobbies too. I think that one I go back to maybe this question of, you know, ground floor uses because the lobby, like, for instance, at 650 Castro that has, you know, one ounce coffee on one side and vitality bowl on the other, I think that works perfectly fine. Again, at the Bryant Street, what I am, project, if we had a coffee shop in there, it might have been okay. So, um, I think, um, yeah, as long as we can find a way to, and maybe the, I, I, the proportionalization of how big that lobby or why that lobby can be might be the answer, but again, I would just go back to, you know, what, what, how are we going to ensure ground floor being some kind of retail establishment? Um, So yeah, so my question was with those 6 or 7 items, are we going to vote on each one at this point or what is the, are you going to study them all or and bring it back? And then if you are, you know, I would say not interested in eminent domain. Um, you can study the vacancy tax, but again, I think we really have to be, you know, careful and mindful and treat each, um, business case by case. So can, um, yeah. Well, how are we moving forward? I guess is my question. Thank you.

[04:52:17] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. I think that's an important question, and it might be good to check in with staff, are some of these items, something that you would like to receive direction on today, and are there other items that you'd prefer, uh, that would be discussed in the context of goal setting, for instance, is that something you could help us, um, better understand?

[04:52:44] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: Yes, council member. Um, um, uh, Mayor, um, we, items one through 7 that I listed. happy to go over them again. Uh, we were gonna take back with us and I could, I could point, um, Which issue, which which project would address it? Many of these would get taken up in the economic vitality strategy, but would get implemented in either the downtown precise plan or another ordinance, depending on what the implementation item is. So, we could have a generic, um, goal around studying it, um, in the economic vitality strategy and then coming back as part of the, um, downtown precise plan phase 2 or other implementation actions. Um, for these, and that gives us some flexibility, I think. Um. And then, um, on the issue of raids and balconies, I could just say, vice mayor, we took another look at, um, areas A, G, and H. We don't specifically have, A grade requirement for entries. Um, and so we could do one of 2 things, which is come back, take another look at it with our urban, um, design consultant, and recommend it as phase 2. Um, That would, that would be more comfortable for me because we have to think about a lot of things like, uh, um, you know, uh, accessibility and building codes and I, I don't feel prepared to throw out a number that's not gonna cause a problem. Um, so, We can we can throw it in as item 8. to address in the downtown precise plan. Phase two.

[04:54:34] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: I mean, I would do that. I don't know if I'm speaking out of turn, but I would say added a list.

[04:54:41] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Well, I, when the motion is made, we'll clarify which items we would like to, to elevate, uh, council member, Abbe Koga, did you want to add anything else or do you have a new set of ideas?

[04:54:50] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah, I'm sorry, I did forget. I forgot to mention one thing as we were talking about, um, or I was started talking about, you know, incentive, incentive, and this might be more, it probably is more under economic vitality, but when I read the analysis, and it's something that actually I noticed as I walked and been walking downtown, um, Some of the buildings just look really tired. And the, you know, and I've been thinking, yeah, that we just need, we need to do some facade improvements, but those are very a lot, 250 to 500,000. I've been I've heard from property owners. So, you know, when we were talking during COVID and ARPA funding and we were talking about business grants, I was actually thinking of, you know, can we do bigger grants that could help with things like facade improvements? Um, so, yeah, so, you know, as I know, I think, I think we're really now, right now talking about standards and requirements and whatnot, but that's really something that I think we need to pursue is, and I, you know, I talk to some business owners about it. And, you know, they had said, well, the challenge with that is that if you improve the facade, then the property owner increases the rent to try to make up for the cost of the facade, you know, the improvements, which I read in the report too. So that's where the grant idea is in my mind. And perhaps like we can, you know, tie that to something where we provide the grants under the, with the understanding that the property owner would, you know, charge, Current rents or, you know, a reduced rent or something. so that there's an exchange and that benefit. So, um, yeah, I don't know if that's more economic vitality, but that was some, this is something that I've really been thinking about for quite a while since COVID started and we started seeing these empty star films. you.

[04:56:52] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Council member Mattachek.

[04:56:56] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Well, I feel like we've gone well beyond what, um, was the original topic for tonight. Um, so I do want to start with the original topic. Um, I, I do support, um, and appreciate staff's efforts to, um, come up with modifications to the 3 areas that I'm hoping we can, um, prove tonight. Um. I also want to acknowledge the APC's input because I think they added, uh, a couple things that, um, are important. Um, and I appreciate that staff wants a little bit of time to take a look at one of them, um, before, um, moving forward with that. But, um, of all the other things then, that we're talked about here tonight. Um, I know I feel a sense of urgency, uh, to do something downtown. Um, because it, it definitely needs, um, our attention as well as the attention of the property owners and the business owners, the chamber. Um everyone else involved in this. Um, certainly the code enforcement items. I don't see any reason to wait on those. Um, I think they should be done. Um, as soon as possible, uh, especially the plywood. Um, that really is an eyesore downtown. Um, all the other items on the list. You know, I heard, you know, phase two, economic vitality strategy. And part of me is thinking, gosh, isn't there anything we could do sooner rather than later? Um, that we feel like we don't need to wait until phase 2 um, or that to complete the economic vitality strategy before we do something about it. And I guess the one that kind of, Stands out for me, is uh, doing something about the, um, state of the windows, uh, on Castro. And um, I did listen to, No surprise here. A committee meeting? Uh, it was a joint committee meeting uh, between the downtown committee and the visual arts committee. And it was a really good meeting, very informative. Um, and I heard the challenges that there are to get either the property owner, the business owner, to do something in their window. Um, and there was really only one case that we heard about, um, where that happened. But maybe if the city was more involved, we could do something about that because I, I don't really want to wait a really long time and have, you know, this completely buttoned up program. I feel a sense of urgency to do something like right now. Um, to address that. Um, and I don't know if that's possible, because then I get to, 0 my gosh, you know, we have, um, we typically prioritize things as part of the work plan. And, um, we have talked about a lot of things here tonight, that I think are more than simple things to do that, I do think they should be part of the discussion about the work plan. Um, well, I appreciate staff's willingness to look at them all. Um, or it's part of this, uh, phase 2 or part of the economic vitality. And maybe we need to take a look at the overall scope. But I am hoping we can figure out something we can do sooner rather than later, uh, to address the, Just the look of the windows, uh, in downtown to make them more interesting. It's great, um, kiwi, um, has now opened a starfront, um, as we noted, it's interesting how they went from strictly online to now having a starfront where a lot of other businesses go the opposite way. Um, but it's great, and I hear people, as you walk downtown, you know, talking about them, which is awesome. But how do we get more activity? Quickly in the other windows? Um, and I don't know if the staff has any ideas about that? Or how we could maybe prioritize that? But that one is really, really important, I think, uh, to do, uh, to make downtown more interesting. Thanks.

[05:01:31] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, RT.

[05:01:36] Assistant City Manager/Community Development Director Aarti Shrivastava: If I may respond, and I might have to rely on the city manager to help a little bit here, but, um, I think the very things that frustrate council do frustrate staff, and we would, we would love to spend time on some of these things. Um, um, I'm just trying to count on my fingers, the people I have. I'll just give you an example. Um, you know, 2 out of um, almost 3 positions in, in, in economic development are vacant. We're looking to fill it, but it'll take some time. And that's the reason why I'm recommending folding it into already existing work. So the work we have is economic vitality strategy, which is already started. We have work with the ad hoc committee and the pet mall, and so we can build some of this into that. And then we've got the downtown phase 2, which is a little more long term, but can really solidify a lot of the requirements. And so I would recommend that we, we take, if council is interested in some short-term stuff, and see what we can fall into the work that's being done by the downtown team as part of the ad hoc committee. But I do want you all to keep in mind that it's the same people. Trying to do all these things and we will do our very best. But, um, the very reason that these haven't been possible is because we have tried over the years. And, and, and, I think, the things that we might be thinking of are still not the greatest tools, and we might have to rely on the set of tools that come out of the economic vitality strategy to really be effective. So, um, With that caveat, I could offer these 3 efforts and to see if we can, we can do some immediate things as part of the ad hoc committee. focused on Castro. I, I do feel compelled to bring up the, well, the ad hoc committee really has a great ability to handle what's happening in the public right away and the next meeting is planned for Thursday and starting to get feedback on what the city's design, standards and requirements and guidelines would be for, um, businesses to use the public right away in order to, kind of lift the over aesthetics and images of what's happening in the right away. Now, if we can find a way to leverage that in terms of businesses taking more pride in their facades, into their windows that would be great. But even the staff working on the Castroped Mall, has also found it very, um, challenging. to really encourage the businesses in the property owners, to improve the look of their buildings, to to deal with the windows, because it's private property, it's private business buildings. So, you know, we will continue to kind of leverage the work we're doing, the pad mall and our discussions of the businesses that take greater pride. You know, we, the pet mall itself isn't going to be a total solution to economic vitality and revitalizing the downtown. If you're not a partner in this and doing your part for, for the buildings themselves that are fronting the pet mall. But we have the same tools that you've already heard about, where we can use code enforcement. We can use code enforcement, we can encourage. Um, but after that, we really need the economic vitality strategy to to really see what other tools that, you know, we can make use of.

[05:05:34] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you Also member show, Walter?

[05:05:43] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Well, I was just gonna make a, um, comment about how, uh, worrying about, um, grade level entrances may be at odds with flood protection needs and flood risk reduction, so we have to be careful about that. And, um, so, I'm just gonna put that out there. But since the conversation has progressed, I'm also gonna add a couple more things. One, I would urge everybody to go up to the town and country in Palo Alto. It's kind of on the, isn't it on the corner of Barcadero and El Camino? Everybody okay? Okay, yeah. All right. They, I was there this summer and I would imagine it's still there. It's been upgraded. They had quite a few vacant storefronts there, but what they had done with them, is they had put, um, essentially, either really nice displays in the window, or they had put butcher paper in the window that was covered with artwork, that, essentially, um, some of it advertised some Palo Alto activities, some of it, um, just talked about, you know, what town and country was, but it was nice. It was attractive. It was clean, you know? And I just, I don't know how they did it, and granted, that's one shopping center, so the governance is much more simplistic. But I was gonna ask the attorney. I mean, what would happen if the city of Mount View went to the vacant storefronts, put them with, you know, that have been vacant, covered them with butcher paper for Christmas, and had CSMA draw pictures on it? I mean, you know, what's the worst that could happen? They go rip them off? I don't know. I just think we need to sort of think that we need to get to the point where we don't always think that this city has to do the work. We have some real, talented, um, institutions in our community that might be able to help us out, as well as the, the, um, the performing, I mean, not the, the, the graphic arts committee. So, just... That idea that that staff always has to do it. I think sometimes what we need to do is give permission for some of our other community institutions to take part. And, um, That's all I'm gonna say. But anyway, I'm gonna support the ocean. I like it. I, um, I would really appreciate getting something done pronto in the downtown, but I don't think that's too likely, but I mean, I'm all for it. If we could possibly do that, and, um, I really don't think the idea of CSMA and butcher paper is all that bad. So, that's it for me.

[05:08:43] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much, Councilman Believer.

[05:08:46] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. Well, I'm prepared to make a motion if the time is right. And so I'd like to go ahead and um, move that we adopt the adenim to the 1999 and 2004 downtown precise plan, initial study, negative declarations in the Mountain View, uh, 2030 General Plan and Greenhouse Gas Reduction. Uh, program, final report, uh, environmental impact report, and compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines. 15162 and 15164. And 2nd that we adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, amending the downtown P 19 precise plan to update design standards and guidelines in areas A, G, and H, and disallow administrative office use, and ground floors of Castro Street, and side streets of Area H to be read in title only, further reading waived. And that we, um, receive follow-up information from staff on how the 9 priorities that were identified slot into the existing work going forward from staff.

[05:10:11] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. And staff for our benefit, would you mind running through those items one last time?

[05:10:17] Aarti Shrivastava: Yes. Item one is to take a look at widening sidewalks and internal pathways. Um, and I'll qualify, uh, especially where we have taller buildings, um, alongside them. Sorry, item 2 is to look at tools that we can put in our toolkit to deal with vacant property. Um, And and that would be a gamut of, you know, running from incentives to, um, to a vacancy tax. Um, item 3 would be, um, to review the, um, the issue of windows, um, and to take a look at a variety of incentives, um, and working with, um, Um, with property owners, but it would also include, I think, some follow up on a particular project that we will be doing. Um, I'm going. Mom, item 4 will be, um, Let's see, um, the lighting, um, the downtown lighting study, um, following up on that, um, and what we're gonna do with the public realm. Um, and then fold in, um, um, lighting standards for the private, um, development of Sparta phase 2. Um, item 5, um, would be, uh, to look at the issue of eminent domain for a particular site. Now, this wouldn't be folded into any strategies, but I think we might have to separately follow up on this. Um, Item 6, um, Oh, is ground floor lobbies? The issue of ground floor lobbies. Um, and making sure that they don't take up on the food breeze. Um, item 7 is disallowing food uses. And item 8 is, um, making sure that entries to buildings a generally at or about grade level and we will take into account a variety of issues as we study it, including access and flooding and.

[05:12:58] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: So that's the list?

[05:12:59] Aarti Shrivastava: That's my list.

[05:13:01] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Okay, thank you. And, uh, checking with the maker of the motion council member labor. Is that the direction you're including in the motion?

[05:13:11] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Uh, yes, that we receive information back from staff about how that, that fits into the, the main projects that we have moving forward.

[05:13:23] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Okay. Thank you. Uh, Council member Kobay.

[05:13:27] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Second.

[05:13:30] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Are there any remaining questions or comments, Council member Matachek?

[05:13:35] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yeah, sorry. Can you please clarify number three? I had some other stuff written down. Does that include the code enforcement issues?

[05:13:47] Aarti Shrivastava: Um, yes, the item, so, so Windows, um, there are many issues related to that, um, basically working with people on, on displays, but also following up on specific code enforcement, um, related to Windows.

[05:14:03] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay. And then what about, um, the item council member, Abbe Koga, brought up about facade improvements?

[05:14:14] Aarti Shrivastava: That would be grants. Um, yes, that would be in, um, so if they're not related to vacant properties and they're related to just properties in general, looking at facade improvements. Um, I guess they would be a different item, item nine. I was, I was putting them into the list of incentives all the way to looking at punitive, but, um, if I know we're going to be looking at grants and other options, but, um, trying to figure out, um, I had lumped it into vegan properties, but, you know, they don't necessarily have to be vacant. You can pull that out. As a separate item if counsel's interested. You know?

[05:15:02] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Like, council, council member, Matt, check, did that, uh, answer all of your questions?

[05:15:07] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Okay.

[05:15:07] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Council member, I'll be okay.

[05:15:10] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Um, yes, so I, it was primarily interested in it being a part of vacant properties because I had heard, or, you know, that, and I've seen, I think, that that's one of the barriers to getting new tenants in. Um, but, um, you know, I'm, I certainly open to looking at just facade improvements in general, and frankly, the, the barrier to entry because of the, the requirements that are very costly for businesses when they, they want to start downtown. And then I just want to say, you know, I'm not going to not vote for this motion for one item, but I really am not interested in imminent domain.

[05:16:03] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. City manager?

[05:16:05] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, thank you, mayor. So I just wanted to provide a clarification about the funding, uh, for potential business grants and kind of what's potentially coming um, down the pike. So, if council will recall, and I know it wasn't that long ago, but there's been so many things happened since then. During the budget adoption in June, uh, council allocated various funding for many ARPA, um, funding programs. Um, there were a couple buckets of funding that council allocated that at that time, staff had not yet had a fully baked or developed program, it was just in the idea iteration phase of what council was interested in. And then staff was going to uh, bring a recommended program or project back, um, to counsel. So one of those buckets of funding was $500,000 for some sort of business, uh, grant or program at that time, we thought maybe it could be for sustainability, improvements or things that, um, small businesses would need. And, um, what I'm hearing now, and what I've been hearing at various points at other agenda items, and certainly in the, um, subcommittee, the downtown subcommittee meeting is that council would be interested in taking that funding and really looking at, um, how we might be able to bolster window improvements or other, other improvements that might, um, just help with some of the visuals and the aesthetics. So, that is something that staff is going to currently be working on. Uh, we just received the ARPA funding just, I think it was only like a month, month and a half ago. Um, and that is just the funding from the federal government. So that's why this is kind of taken a while. And just also as a reminder to counsel in the public, that funding does not have to be spent until the end of 2026. So it wasn't like we have to, you know, immediately jump on it and spend it right away. But obviously, this is very important to counsel and to staff. And I just wanted to note that, um, I am hearing you, and I'll put that on the table for you all. Um, because that's that's that's where I'm hearing that you're going. Um, I'll also mention that the 2nd another pot of funding that you all allocated was another, I believe it was another half million, um, for workforce development. And that is also something that, uh, staff is working on some sort of, uh, program or recommendation on where council might be able to allocate that funding, uh, for programs for folks that are residents of Mountain View to help them, um, with training or needs and getting into the workforce. So not necessarily directly related to this agenda item, but I wanted to at least flag it because those were your 2 separate buckets of funding that we hadn't yet quite identified what we were going to do with. So I wanted to point that out. Um, then the 2nd um, item that I wanted to point out was just the capacity of staff. So as our team mentioned, um, we, you know, we've had staff leave the area. Um, just like many other agencies and just like you've been hearing me talk about the past couple years. So, we are really trying to build up our economic development division right now, and we are in the process of, uh, recruitments, and you will also have a position brought to you at midyear in February to approve a new position, um, in economic development that will that will help with all of these efforts. But it's gonna take time. So also in February, you're going to have your work plan process. So I'll just remind all of you. that all of these things that you're talking about tonight and housing element items that you'll be talking about next week and all of the other items are all gonna be on this really long laundry list of things that staff is gonna have, you know, the next couple years to work on. So you'll be hearing me talk about discipline with adding more things because we're just gonna have to get through all of these really important projects and priorities. So, um, I just wanted to let you all know that, that that is a priority right now. We are in the middle of recruiting and hopefully filling a position. Um, and then you all will have the opportunity to approve a new position in February. Um, so I hope that adds a little bit more, more context, but, um, I think this is all very important and, um, staff, staff certainly hears counsel and shares your, uh, concerns and, um, priorities for downtown. So I just wanted to take note of that and let you know what's going on.

[05:21:09] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you very much. Council member Libra?

[05:21:12] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Thank you, Mayor. Well, I think that the facades are incredibly important. If you stand on one end of Castro Street, and you look down the street, you see mostly the brown color of the recycled paint that the city offered for free at one point in time. And, um, you know, it is not necessarily our vacant properties, but some of the properties that do have active businesses in them that have drooping awnings that are hanging free and flapping in the wind, um, uh, large populations of pigeons, et cetera. So, I think that is very important, and we do have this one time only federal money that can be used between now and 2026. So I'd like to suggest, um, bringing it to our goal setting, to set some parameters on it, so that we can ensure that we aren't just using the public's money to help out absentee landlords who have, um, uh, dilapidated buildings that they haven't used their own funding for over many, many years, but that were really, um, bringing to it some, some elements where we're, we're helping, uh, legitimate striving businesses, um, that are here in in town. And, and we're getting some benefit for the taxpayer dollar, because we've talked a lot over the past couple years about, well, we'll use next year's money, and we know that with a, a very large deficit at the state level, $25 billion, perhaps, uh, 50000000000 in the 2nd year. And also, what's going to surely be, um, a growing unwillingness at the federal level with the changeover in the house. Uh, to fund, um, certain things. Uh, I'd really like to see us make judicious use of that money that we have. And so I'd like to suggest that, that development of those parameters come back at our goal setting, because we really do need to take fast action for the downtown. The downtown is on life support right now. And, um, If we don't pull up on the rudder. uh, aesthetically, and in terms of our code enforcement, um, in terms of, uh, good practices around, uh, Greece disposal, and garbage disposal, and all those good things, then, well, um, have, uh, have a larger situation that we need to deal with. So, I think we do need to move towards that. And I think that, in our February goal, goal setting is a very good place to do that and make sure that, uh, we're using this, uh, one time money in the best way possible. Thank you.

[05:24:20] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: A quick check in with staff. Um, is, is it important for us to provide direction to develop those parameters through the goal setting process, or the staff already have a process that you are using to come back to council with recommendations for the use of the ARPA funding?

[05:24:40] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, thank you, mayor. So it was always staff's intention to come back to council as a separate agenda item and seek your approval of what the program would be. Um, timing wise, I'm not sure that it would coincide with that exact date of goal setting. Um, but certainly, if you all give, give the, you know, go ahead that that is what you would like, um, staff to at least be planning for and um, trying to formulate, then we will bring back a separate agenda item just about that program. So you all can give proper direction on what you want to do and the final approval of it.

[05:25:24] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: All right, so I, thank you. That's helpful. I'm a little reluctant to force you to come back at a specific time if you don't have the capacity to do the work. Um, but I think it's probably fair to say that, that, based on the comments we've heard, the council would like to work on this, uh, as expeditiously as is reasonably possible. Um, Council member, Matt.

[05:25:49] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Uh, thanks. And so, we started out this conversation talking about the downtown area. Um, the 1st 3 areas and then phase 2 and economic vitality. And I was right there with everything until we got to number 9 facade improvements. And while I know, um, using some of the ARPA funds to provide grants to address, uh, facade improvements downtown is really important. I don't want us to forget about our other businesses throughout the city. And, um, I think they're just as important as the ones downtown. So, I, I don't want to use all the ARP funds on just downtown. I think we need to make, we need to have a program where businesses throughout the city. Are eligible for those grants. Thanks.

[05:26:41] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. And then for my benefit, I think that's an important distinction to make, um, does staff need any clarification or additional direction regarding the facade program, um, or is, Is that going to come back as part of the broader discussion about the use of ARBA funding?

[05:27:05] Aarti Shrivastava: If I may add information. I think the economic vitality strategy was going to look at best practices and what is worked in facade programs. Um, I know we used to have one back when we had a redevelopment, um, and we tried different things and and and ended up in a certain place. And so, I think the consultant team has the ability to really provide some best practices that we can use. Um, and then, you know, when, when, when counsel gives us direction based on, um, the, the building blocks of what we can use it for, then we can target it towards the best practice programs.

[05:27:46] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Are there any remaining questions or comments? Are there, uh, staff, do you have clarity on the motion? We've had you read it a couple of times now, but would it be helpful to go through it one more time? Or is everybody clear? Okay, I'm giving the impression that everybody's clear. Okay, well if there are no remaining questions or comments, Let's take a roll call vote.

[05:28:12] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Bounce member labor.

[05:28:13] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Hi,

[05:28:14] City Clerk Heather Glaser: council member Kame?

[05:28:15] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes,

[05:28:16] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Abbe Koca?

[05:28:18] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: I

[05:28:18] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Matachek?

[05:28:21] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[05:28:21] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council membership, Walter?

[05:28:23] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes.

[05:28:23] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mayor Hicks?

[05:28:25] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Yes.

[05:28:26] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor Ramirez?

[05:28:28] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yes.

[05:28:29] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Motion carriers unanimously.

[05:28:31] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Great. Thank you very much. That was a very comprehensive discussion, but an important one, and once again, we're very grateful to all of the staff who have been involved in this effort. Uh, going back to its prioritization, I think, in June 2019. So it's great to get phase one, uh, uh, complete. Thank you again. Um, we will now proceed to item 8 council staff committee reports. I've got 2 I'm gonna try and roll through pretty quickly. The 1st is in accordance with, I believe, it's council policy, A2, uh, I'd like to disclose that, uh, uh, participated in the uh, national league of cities, uh, uh, conference in Kansas City, along with several of my colleagues, and I believe that they will share substantially similar information. It is a taxpayer funded trip and so we are required to disclose it. Um, uh, lots of really good, uh, opportunities and content, and uh, I'll share, um, 2 of the, the, uh, workshops I've participated in that I thought were particularly interesting, were, uh, discussions about state preemption, uh, on local, uh, housing and homelessness policy, although, It was a different type of preemption from what we often see in California, uh, often a sort of a red state, blue city dynamic, interesting, but different from us. Um, and then also, uh, uh, in, uh, workshop that uh, council member, show alter, um, also join, uh, regarding, um, uh, disinformation and misinformation, and how, uh, local jurisdictions, uh, uh, could try and address that concern. Um, and then, uh, many of you, uh, I think all of everyone in the council, at least. um, dissipated in the uh, tree lighting uh, celebration last night. Um, unfortunately, uh, you know, the Grinch and I were unsuccessful in our efforts to disrupt it, but everybody had a good time, notwithstanding, and I did want to take an opportunity to share my sincere appreciation to, uh, all of the staff were involved in putting together that phenomenal event. And in particular community services, director John Marchant, uh, recreation manager, Christine, uh, Crosby, uh, the event chair, Marine, uh, uh, uh, Pierachi, uh, Pierachi. Sorry, uh, and uh, event coach here Greg Milano. And then also event committee, uh, members from the recreation division, Michelle Peterson, Ashley Biddle, Jessica Morgan, uh, Fabiana Carvallo, and Alejandra Hernandez, uh, event committee members from the parks division, uh, including Barry Gomez, and event committee members from the performing arts division, Steve, Stephen Crandall and Justin Hall. Uh, and then, uh, above and beyond the committee members, it took the following staff to make the night a reality. All available full-time recreation staff that worked on a variety of aspects of the event and were on site, full-time staff from parks and recre- sorry, parks and performing arts, assisted leading up to the event, and we're on site in over 20 hourly staff from parks, performing arts and recreation, assisted to ensure appropriate staffing last night. It took truly took a village to put on that event. Um, and then in addition to city staff, involving the, uh, involved in the planning efforts, Peninsula Youth Theater, uh, was integral in assisting with the script, uh, finding our Grinch and orchestrating the skit, uh, that I participated in with, uh, the Grinch and Santa, and representatives from Peninsula Youth Theater, included Val, uh, Ziden Yacht, Husky, my, my apologies. I knew I was going to struggle with that, who, uh, played, uh, the Grinch, you as a 16 year old actor, who, I thought, did a phenomenal job, especially in that part where, um, Samsung took a little bit longer to get to the stage than I think we were comfortable with, but he really helped out. Maybe that, um, uh, hearing stuff through uh, that time period and then, um, uh, Siobhan, uh, Phil and uh, Karen Simpson, the executive director. So again, uh, my sincere appreciation to to everyone who, uh, helped out last night. It was a tremendous, tremendous event, we probably had several 1000 people, um, and, uh, as always, it's been a pleasure working with, uh, CSD and all of the staff, uh, this past year as mayor. Council member Metachek.

[05:32:54] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Thank you. Yes, it was a fabulous event last night, and I also want to thank staff for all the heroic efforts they go through to put these events on. It was phenomenal. Um, I also attended the NLC conference in Kansas City. And, um, you know, I really can't say enough good things about it. I um, had a lot I wanted to say, but in the interest of time, Um, I really appreciated a lot of the keynote, uh, speakers at the general sessions, including Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who talked about a lot of things, but one of the things that really, um, hit home with me was uh, the importance of nature to your mental health. And I thought, oh boy, I can really relate to that. There's nothing like a great hike. Uh, to recharge your soul. Um. The workshops were great. Um, I attended um, quite a few, and um, they were very well done. Um, and I also had participated in a bunch of the mobile tours. And, um, the Kansas City streetcar, um, is an incredible form of public transit that they have. Um, it's free. It's supported by, um, a downtown tax on both residents and businesses, and it's incredibly efficient. And it brought together 3 parts of downtown that are separated by major freeways because it crosses them. And it, it, um, it, it just is a fabulous system. I was very impressed with it. Um, I went to the revitalization of the historic 18th and vine, District, um, where the older buildings, some of which were public buildings. One of them says public works on it. Um, are being revitalized. Um, an elementary school is being redone. And the uh, people that are responsible for get kickstarting this redevelopment, spoke with us, and they were just phenomenal. Um, their vision, their, their drive, it's gonna be great when this is done. Um, and then I also, uh, toured sports venues, um, and that was really interesting. sports are huge in the area. Youth sports in particular are very huge in the area. And um, I visited a fairly new sports field. Um, that, uh, the staff of Kansas City identified as something that they needed, because people were going to other cities, and spending their money on restaurants and hotels for these tournaments, and they thought, wait a minute, this is our leaky bucket analysis. There's money to be, um, retained in the city, so they built up this incredible, um, use sports complex. Um, I think it was 78 acres. Um, and it included an all-inclusive playground. But ours is going to be so much better, I must say. Wait, I shouldn't have said, Bobby said that. Hopefully they're not going to watch this. But anyway, um, I was glad they thought about it. Um, I also attended a Silicon Valley Regional Interrobability Authority meeting. Um, I'm the alternate for the North County cities, um, and I attended, um, as the alternate. Uh, I also participated in the Santa Clara County airport land use commission meeting. Um, we are still working on an update to the San Jose Airport comprehensive land use plan. Uh, there was a Mountain View item, and I've accused myself. I feel like that happens. It seems like almost every month. Um, and then we had 2 council committee meetings, the Castro Pedestrian Mall ad hoc committee meeting where we, um, went with staff, uh, walking down Castro Street. And, um, just talking about a lot of things that I think we'll probably continue the conversation about at our meeting this week. And then, um, the other committee meeting was the finance and investment review committee meeting, where we reviewed the annual comprehensive financial plan, the AKFR. Um, with the outside auditor and members of the city's finance team. And that's it. Thanks.

[05:37:09] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. I am Rusty. I forgot to move to continue the meeting past 10 p.m. And we will need to take a quick break to do that. Can I get a 2nd please? Council member of Akoga. Thank you. Uh let's do a quick roll call vote.

[05:37:27] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mary Ramirez?

[05:37:28] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Yeah.

[05:37:29] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilman Bradley Coca?

[05:37:31] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Hi,

[05:37:31] City Clerk Heather Glaser: cancel my brick, May.

[05:37:33] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes.

[05:37:33] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Cancel member, Libur. Council members, Metachek?

[05:37:38] Councilmember Lisa Matichak: Yes.

[05:37:38] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Council member Shelter?

[05:37:40] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes.

[05:37:40] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Bicinger Hicks.

[05:37:41] Vice Mayor Alison Hicks: Yes.

[05:37:42] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Ocean carries unanimously.

[05:37:45] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. My apologies. We had been so good about finishing our meetings before 10 PM, but I forgot about that. Can't remember I'll be okay.

[05:37:53] Councilmember Margaret Abe-Koga: Thank you, mayor. I also wanted to uh, report that I also attended the National League of Cities conference and um, I went a little early as I was invited to participate in a focus group on the impacts of corporate landlords and local housing markets, which is very much tied to the, what the mayor is talking about. It's the challenges, very different from our challenges, frankly, I learned, ended up learning a lot, but in, um, various cities, but in the, like in the Midwest, um, these corporations come in and buy up, you know, 100s and 1000s of units of, um, housing and then make it more unaffordable. Um, and what I learned was, um, the preemption issue was, was, as the mayor described, um, when cities want to try to move to implement tenant protections, um, if they're a blue city in a red state, the state legislature comes in and stops any attempt to do so. And so it was very interesting. I wasn't really sure why I was invited to represent Mountain V because, you know, our experience is very different, but I think I think I was able to share some of the measures that we have taken to try to continue to provide affordable housing opportunities. So, I found it a very interesting informative exchange. And I did end up going to workshops, focused on affordable housing. But I have to say many of them, there's like strategies on how to provide more affordable housing. Um, they're like 5 tools or um, you know, uh, and whatnot. We've actually checked every books off. So I felt like we could actually teach these workshops rather than, yeah, I just have to say, I didn't learn anything new. Um, but I did attend one on palette homes, which is something that I've been very interested in their like tiny homes. Um, and I thought that was a interesting concept. I know some communities around us are looking at that or starting to implement. So, um, I, it was interesting and, um, informative to learn more about the, the, that type of housing, um, option. And then, um, I attend, I, so I chaired an ad, VTA ad hoc grade separations committee meeting. Um, I think I mentioned, uh, The chair has created this committee and um, it's comprised of uh, Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Sunnyvale, um, in an attempt to try to coordinate, work closely together, um, keep informed of each other's projects and see, um, where we can, you know, coordinate timing wise and also, um, share our experiences and where we are on our projects. And then we also have Caltrain staff at these meetings in addition to BTA staff and our staff. Thank you to Miss Don Cameron for staffing these meetings, but, um, it was actually a very fruitful meeting we had where we came up with some some of the challenges that we're all experiencing. Um, one of them being, of course, funding. And, um, one of the questions that we've asked, um, that be, uh, brought up or opposed to the Caltrain or it is, um, the idea of cost sharing. Um, like, at this time, the way it works is, um, you know, Caltrain is in charge or they take charge of the projects, but the city's, um, in cornation with ETA who helps us with, um, finding grants, or in charge of finding the funding. Um, to fund the projects. And there's a bit of a disconnect there because, um, Caltrain, you know, I feel that if they're not in charge of finding the funding, they don't under, or they're not as, um, aware or they're not as cognizant of the challenges of funding and and how cost, you know, drivers can affect whether these projects can actually, um, be completed or not. So, um, that was one of the items that came out of this meeting that we are asking for follow up on with, um, Caltrain. So I am very encouraged. We were going to be meeting every other month, um, through next year, um, and, um, probably until these projects are completed, but, um, I will continue to, um, provide updates on that. And then my thanks to our staff for a wonderful tree lighting event. It was a huge of so many people out there. I want to say maybe double what we had last year and so every year gets bigger and more festive. So I'm very grateful to all the hard work, but into that. And I also wanted to mention, I attended the cups and gobblers program that the police department and the public safety foundation put on where they provide Thanksgiving meals to um, our, um, lower income families. And I think there were 600 meals delivered this year, um, 26 years, I believe they've been doing this. And again, I just want to thank our our police department, um, personnel, um, who do this really as a volunteer effort, um, for doing that and providing this, um, this great service to our community. Just so proud of our employees, our staff here, our organization. So, um, many thanks to everyone. Thank you.

[05:43:56] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. That's the membership, Walter.

[05:44:02] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Well, I'm just gonna follow up on a little bit because most of these things, um, I've already been reported on. I too attended the uh, National League of Cities conference, and it was um, great fun, but boy, was it cold? I was 18 degrees on several mornings. That is, that is really cold. And, um, uh, we just are not acclimated to that. And, um, and frankly, I'm very grateful that I don't have to be acclimated to that. But anyway, uh, I would have to, um, uh, just, ditto, what, um, Mayor Ramirez said about the disinformation and misinformation, um, seminar, that was really interesting. We, um, we sat next to a journalist who, uh, sort of a journalism professor who, who was also a council member, and had a, you know, a very interesting discussion about how to, um, really convey the truth to, um, your, um, to your constituents, and that you're trustworthy. And because, um, you know, if the information comes from, uh, a, um, a source that isn't considered trustworthy, people don't, you know, people don't believe it. So, the idea of thinking about both of those things, and how to promote them, I thought, was really good, and also sort of setting up a system of people in your community that help you get the information out. Um, I thought was interesting. Another thing I really enjoyed from the Sanjay Gupta talk. Uh, was the, um, the concept of planning for good public health for your community. You know, what can you do to land from a land use planning point of view to promote good public health? I mean, clearly, making the community walkable, having good parks, those are things that you can do. And obviously, there's quite a bit of programming, too. But anyway, it was just something that I've been thinking about. And I think, um, uh, uh, we all should just kind of noodle on. Just what does that mean? And how can we put that into practice? And, um, into a BCDC meeting? And we are soon going to have a workshop on Bay Adapt, which I'll be talking to more about. And, um, I also want to, um, mention the neighborhood committee meeting we had last Thursday. We had a very robust discussion about our work plan for the next year. And, um, uh, I think one of the things, um, Everybody's very positive about the, you know, about the neighborhood meetings we have where they're staff representatives from, from each department that are available to answer questions by the people in the region, and, or the, or the district or the area, or whatever, in the neighborhood, whatever we call these groups, um, That that's really a very valuable service that we perform, and we want to continue to perform it, but we're interested in finding out how the community feels about having those be, um, virtual, because, um, it could be easier for people with child care issues, et cetera, et cetera, to take part. Or is it much more important to go, um, back to having them in person? And so I think that that's something we might want to figure out a way to query the community on. Um, and staff is gonna be working on that. So, just, just those few things, and, um, and the tree lining, yes, it was delightful, and, uh, the staff did a fabulous job, and, um, we went out to dinner afterwards, and we weren't the only one. So, um, it was, uh, I, uh, I hope that it was good for the businesses, and, um, our community, as well as the, you know, just all the residents that had a great time. Thank you.

[05:48:14] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Council member, come in.

[05:48:16] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great. Excuse me, great, thank you. Um, so I also attended the National League of Cities. I think one of the best parts was visiting the hometown of our city manager. So that was really fun, um, and get to get to learn about the, the place that gave us such a wonderful city manager. Um, and then just wanted to also report that we had a car comedian and council appointment review committee on the 21st. I attended a check finance committee meeting. We're actually holding our board meeting tomorrow. Um, we were talking about an interim executive director, so I will keep uh, council updated on the next steps there. Thank you.

[05:48:58] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you Council member Lupas.

[05:49:00] Councilmember Sally Lieber: Um, thank you, Mayor. I also got to go out of town. Um, I was in Sacramento yesterday for the swearing in of the new members of the legislature, and it was really impressive to see all the families that were gathered there and the real joy that's in public service that I know all my colleagues here, uh, really feel. And then I was able to be back for tree lighting. And it was so inspiring to see families being able to bring their children, and everybody taking photographs, uh, in our city manager's daughter up on stage as the 8th council member. Up there was very, very impressive. And then I wanted to report that I had a little meeting with council member Show Walter the other day, to talk about funding for estuaries, and how the San Francisco Bay gets only a small fraction of the money that some of the other estuaries in the U.S. get. And so I know that's something that she'll be following up on. And I'll be following up on as well. And talking about federal legislation. I wanted to see if it would be possible to get a straw poll going here, to support at the federal level. The pregnant workers Fairness Act. And this is HR 1065. Um, the, uh, Pregnant Workers Fairness Act at the, the federal level. And, uh, this is a, a bill that was sponsored in the House that has already passed the House, but not yet the Senate, uh, by Gerald Nadler from New York. And it is a bill that fine tunes, uh, some employment practices, uh, to say that it's an unlaw, unlawful employment practice, to fail to make reasonable accommodations of, uh, workers that are pregnant unless the accommodation would impose an undo hardship on an entity's business operation. Um, and, uh, I think that this is, um, something that we can add to our federal portfolio and and help to put our name behind, uh, to make sure that there is, uh, fairness for pregnant workers.

[05:51:29] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: If it's okay with, okay, your council member Libra, it might be good to have staff, do a quick check with RPPG. Just discern whether it's consistent with our adopted platform. And if it is, I'm happy to sign a letter uh drafted by staffs and RPPG, RPPG.

[05:51:45] Councilmember Sally Lieber: That, that would be very satisfactory, and, um, if, uh, issues, um, related to this policy area or not, um, part of our portfolio, we can, uh, always consider adding that because I think it, it should be part of, um, part of what we put forward in terms of our, our policy goals and objectives.

[05:52:12] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Uh, city manager?

[05:52:14] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Um, thank you, Mayor and Council member Labor. Yes, I think we can, um, certainly ask our legislative advocacy firm, um, for any feedback, and then council will also consider your ledge platform in January. So that's when it's going to be coming to you. Um, it's going to be the 2nd meeting in January. So, um, as mentioned, if there is a gap, and you want to add this topic, uh, to our, to your platform, you can certainly do that next month too.

[05:52:49] Councilmember Sally Lieber: That would, that would be very satisfactory, and I'll note that, uh, the bill is co-authored by Congresswomen, uh, Ann Ashu and Jackie Spear, who has made it a, a special priority in terms of her equity issues.

[05:53:06] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, and thank you for uh, drawing our attention to that legislation. Pretty sure it will be consistent with our platform. Are there any remaining reports, comments, questions? If not, then we'll move to item 9, close session report, City, Attorney Log, do you have a closed session report?

[05:53:26] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Thank you. I do have a closed session report this evening. In closed session, this evening, city council took final action on item 2.2 on the closed session agenda, which was a conference with legal counsel regarding the existing class action lawsuit filed by plaintiffs, Cellerina Navarro, Janet Stevens, Armando, Covarubius, Evelyn Estrada, Gabrielle, Jaime, Alma Aldacco, and other similarly situated against the city of Mountain View view. The city council voted to approve settlement of the claim for cost and attorney's fees submitted by legal counsel for plaintiffs in the amount of $750,000. The vote passed with six eyes, and one no vote by council member Shawalter. The settlement of the claim for costs and attorneys fees and the amount of $750,000 will require final approval by the United States District Court. That's all I have this evening.

[05:54:34] Mayor Lucas Ramirez: Thank you. Um, that brings us to item 10, Adjournment. Thank you so much for joining us. The next city council meeting will be held on December 13th, 2022 until then stay healthy. The meeting is adjourned at 1055 PM. Thank you, everyone. Take care.

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