March 24, 2026 City Council Meeting

Video

Agenda

• 1. CALL TO ORDER/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: 1. CALL TO ORDER/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE (00:03:08)
• 3. PRESENTATIONS: 3. PRESENTATIONS (00:04:42)
• 3.1 American Red Cross Month Proclamation: 3.1 American Red Cross Month Proclamation (00:05:03)
• 3.2 Youth Arts Month Proclamation: 3.2 Youth Arts Month Proclamation (00:11:17)
• 4. CONSENT CALENDAR: 4. CONSENT CALENDAR (00:17:38)
• 4.1 Mixed-Use Residential Development at 490 East Middlefield Road - Development Agreement (Second Reading): 4.1 Mixed-Use Residential Development at 490 East Middlefield Road - Development Agreement (Second Reading) (00:29:32)
• 4.4 Increasing Safe Parking Capacity at Shoreline Lot B: 4.4 Increasing Safe Parking Capacity at Shoreline Lot B (00:49:58)
• 5. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC ON NONAGENDIZED ITEMS: 5. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC ON NONAGENDIZED ITEMS (01:12:38)
• 6.1 Economic Development Subsidy Report and Amended and Restated Disposition and Development Agreement and Amended and Restated Ground Leases for Hope Street Lots 4 and 8: 6.1 Economic Development Subsidy Report and Amended and Restated Disposition and Development Agreement and Amended and Restated Ground Leases for Hope Street Lots 4 and 8 (01:15:00)
• 6.2 Residential Development at 555 West Middlefield Road: 6.2 Residential Development at 555 West Middlefield Road (01:37:06)
• 6.3 Rowhouse Gatekeeper Project at 922-950 San Leandro Avenue: 6.3 Rowhouse Gatekeeper Project at 922-950 San Leandro Avenue (03:23:50)
• 7. COUNCIL, STAFF/COMMITTEE REPORTS: 7. COUNCIL, STAFF/COMMITTEE REPORTS (04:17:41)
• 8. ADJOURNMENT: 8. ADJOURNMENT (04:35:19)

Transcript

1. CALL TO ORDER/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

[00:03:08] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right everyone, good evening. Uh welcome to the joint meeting of the Mountain View City Council and Shoreline Regional Park Community um of March 24th, 2026. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance.

[00:03:26] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

[00:03:43] Councilmember Emily Ramos: The City Clerk will take attendance by roll call.

[00:03:46] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Hicks.

[00:03:48] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Here.

[00:03:49] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Kamei. Councilmember McAlister.

[00:03:51] Councilmember John McAlister: Yep.

[00:03:52] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Ramirez.

[00:03:53] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Here.

[00:03:54] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Councilmember Showalter.

[00:03:54] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Here.

[00:03:55] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Vice Mayor Clark.

[00:03:56] Councilmember Chris Clark: Here.

[00:03:56] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Mayor Ramos.

[00:03:57] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Here.

[00:03:57] City Clerk Heather Glaser: You have a quorum with Councilmember Kamei absent.

[00:04:00] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. So in recent weeks, the city along with a few of our neighboring elected decision making bodies have been subjected to disruptive, racist verbal attacks by anonymous callers during virtual public comments.

[00:04:14] Councilmember Emily Ramos: The City of Mountain View is fully committed to racial, religious, and cultural equity and justice as we strive to create a welcoming, safe, and inclusive community for all.

[00:04:24] Councilmember Emily Ramos: The the council welcomes respectful, non-threatening public comments on matters within our jurisdiction. Comments deemed otherwise, pursuant to the council code of conduct and the government code, may be grounds for terminating a speaker's comment period.

[00:04:38] Councilmember Emily Ramos: We will now move on to item three, presentations.

3. PRESENTATIONS

[00:04:42] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Please note these are presentations only. The city council will not take any action. Public comment will occur after the presentation items.

[00:04:51] Councilmember Emily Ramos: If you would like to speak on these items in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now.

[00:04:58] Councilmember Emily Ramos: So 3.1 we have the American Red Cross Month Proclamation.

3.1 American Red Cross Month Proclamation

[00:05:03] Councilmember Emily Ramos: We are happy to be joined this evening by Mike Kasperzak, board chair Neal Meta, volunteer Diane Cho, board member Annie Chang, and chapter staff Jordan Chang on behalf of the Silicon Valley chapter of the Red Cross to accept this proclamation. Would you all join me at the lectern?

[00:05:24] Mike Kasperzak: Are you get us me Mayor?

[00:05:36] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Hello former Mayor Kasperzak. You are all we need.

[00:05:41] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right. So the proclamation reads, let's let's find the right proclamation here. Ha. Whereas this March we celebrate American Red Cross Month by recognizing the compassionate acts of people in Mountain View and by renewing our commitment to helping to lend a helping hand to our neighbors in need.

[00:06:01] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Since Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross more than 140 years ago, generation after generation has stepped up to deliver relief and care across our country and around the world, bringing out the best of humanity in times of crisis.

[00:06:16] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Advancing this noble mission, the volunteers, blood and platelet donors, and supporters who now give back through the Silicon Valley Red Cross unwavering in their commitment to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of today's emergencies, and...

[00:06:31] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Whereas their voluntary and generous contributions shine a beacon of hope in people's darkest hours, whether it's delivering shelter, food, and comfort during disasters, providing critical blood donations for hospital patients...

[00:06:45] Councilmember Emily Ramos: supporting service members, veterans, and their families, saving lives with first aid, CPR, AED, and other skills, or delivering international aid and reconnecting loved ones separated by global crises, and...

[00:07:01] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Whereas this work to uplift our community is truly made possible by those who selflessly answer the call for help whenever and wherever it's needed.

[00:07:13] Councilmember Emily Ramos: We hereby recognize this month of March in honor of their remarkable service and we ask everyone to join in their commitment to care for one another.

[00:07:23] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Now therefore I, Emily Ann Ramos, Mayor of the City of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, do hereby proclaim the month of March as Red Cross Month in the City of Mountain View and encourage all residents of Mountain View to reach out and support its humanitarian mission.

[00:07:51] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right, now would you like to say a few words?

[00:07:52] Mike Kasperzak: Of course.

[00:07:56] Mike Kasperzak: Thank you and thank you everyone in the audience. My name is Mike Kasperzak and um I I don't really need a vest in here but I thought I'd wear some of our swag, so um I did want to thank you again for recognizing um March is Red Cross month. This has been going on for a very long time

[00:08:16] Mike Kasperzak: and I think it's been 80 years since the Red Cross has been recognizing the volunteers that really make our organization what it is. And we are one of over 160 societies around the world that are associated with the um international Red Cross and Red Crescent societies.

[00:08:36] Mike Kasperzak: 90% of our workforce is made of our work is made possible by volunteers um who step forward in moments of need, literally at a on a call, 'can you be there tonight to open a shelter? Can you get on a plane tomorrow morning to get off to a disaster?' and that sort of thing.

[00:08:57] Mike Kasperzak: Every day our volunteers bring comfort from disasters, supporting our military families, and of course we have a lot of military families here in Mountain View and associated with Moffett Field, and help ensure that patients receive life-saving blood and blood products.

[00:09:14] Mike Kasperzak: Personally, I am a blood platelet donor and once a month at 7:00 a.m. in the morning I go down to the chapter and sit there for three hours taking blood out and putting it back in.

[00:09:25] Mike Kasperzak: Here in Santa Clara Valley, that impact is real. We responded to more than 100 local disasters throughout the county this year, delivered over 1700 services to military families,

[00:09:39] Mike Kasperzak: And what you may not know, if a a member of the military is overseas and needs to come home for a family emergency, that has to be routed through the Red Cross for the onsite commander to let that um soldier go.

[00:09:53] Mike Kasperzak: And we've helped collect nearly 17,000 blood donations during the course of the year. We over we have over 2,100 volunteers in Santa Clara County and a hundred here in Mountain View, which is really amazing.

[00:10:08] Mike Kasperzak: I was really hoping to meet the people here tonight because with that many people I haven't met them before. They all had something come up today, so and this is just let Mike do it.

[00:10:19] Mike Kasperzak: Um but these people are your neighbors, your colleagues, and your friends, and they are helping to make a difference in our community.

[00:10:28] Mike Kasperzak: We believe that everyone has a role to play, either in volunteering, donating blood, learning CPR and first aid, which is how I got to know Mr. McAlister here, I'm sorry Councilmember McAlister, and uh preparing for emergencies.

[00:10:44] Mike Kasperzak: So the Red Cross is all about people helping people, and so I just wanted to again thank you for this recognition um if you have any questions which I know none of you does, I'd be happy to answer them, but again thank you very much, and thank you Mayor for this proclamation.

[00:11:03] Councilmember Emily Ramos: That's m- this is my proclamation, right?

[00:11:06] Mike Kasperzak: You're getting ahead of yourself.

[00:11:07] Councilmember Emily Ramos: There we go. Okay, thank you very much.

[00:11:10] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you former Mayor Kasperzak.

[00:11:12] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right. So the next proclamation we have is the Youth Arts Month proclamation.

3.2 Youth Arts Month Proclamation

[00:11:17] Councilmember Emily Ramos: We are happy to be joined this evening by Dr. Sophia Fojas, Arts Coordinator with the Santa Clara County Office of Education to accept this proclamation. Dr. Fojas, would you join me at the lectern?

[00:11:29] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Did I pronounce that right?

[00:11:31] Dr. Sophia Fojas: Yes.

[00:11:31] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Wonderful, yay. Um here, you can join me right here.

[00:11:38] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right. Whereas March is nationally recognized as Arts Education Month, which an which is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of teaching the arts to students, as well as to recognize the contributions of arts educators in our community, and...

[00:11:54] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Whereas the 2026 National Youth Art Month theme is Art Connects Us, highlighting the essential role of visual arts in education and daily life, and...

[00:12:06] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Whereas through well-planned instruction and activities in the arts, children develop initiative, creative ability, self-expression, self-reflection, deep thinking skills, discipline, a heightened appreciation of beauty, and cross-cultural understanding, and...

[00:12:23] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Whereas the celebration of Youth Art Month encourages community engagement in supporting arts education for all students.

[00:12:30] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Now therefore I, Emily Ann Ramos, Mayor of the City of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, do hereby proclaim the month of March as Youth Arts Month in the City of Mountain View and encourage all residents to support and celebrate the arts in our schools.

[00:12:47] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Would you like to say a few words?

[00:12:48] Dr. Sophia Fojas: Yes.

[00:12:56] Dr. Sophia Fojas: Thank you Mayor Ramos and members of the Mountain View City Council for recognizing March as Youth Arts Month.

[00:13:03] Dr. Sophia Fojas: I'm Dr. Sophia Fojas, the Arts Coordinator for the Santa Clara County Office of Education and I lead Artspiration, the Hewlett Foundation funded Arts initiative of SCCOE.

[00:13:15] Dr. Sophia Fojas: Um hard act to follow, Mike Kasperzak. He's given me a few hints about what to say.

[00:13:21] Dr. Sophia Fojas: We're about we serve about 240,000 public school students in 406 schools uh across 31 school districts, 32 if you count the county office as well.

[00:13:34] Dr. Sophia Fojas: Um each of us, I'm one of 58 county arts leads, and all of us, of the 58, 24 of us are dedicated leads around specifically around arts education.

[00:13:46] Dr. Sophia Fojas: In Santa Clara County I um support districts in implementing arts education, es- particularly most recently around Proposition 28.

[00:13:56] Dr. Sophia Fojas: Um in implementing a robust arts education program, provide mini grants to teachers with SV Creates um in the ArtsEd Connect grant,

[00:14:06] Dr. Sophia Fojas: conduct the Young Artist Showcase, which this year its theme is My Superpower, the power to imagine, the passion to create.

[00:14:15] Dr. Sophia Fojas: In celebration of Youth Arts Month this month, we had, we hosted two sold-out events. The first one at RAFT for arts educators, the Arts Education uh Resource Fair,

[00:14:30] Dr. Sophia Fojas: on uh March 7th from 9 to 1 with panel discussions, tabling of arts organizations, and a hands-on session with Armando Castellano from the from Quinteto Latino.

[00:14:41] Dr. Sophia Fojas: And then this last Friday, we had a sold out event um the two 2026 Viva Mariachi showcase, our fourth year, and presenting Mariachi and Ballet Folklórico for free um at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater um on March 20th.

[00:15:00] Dr. Sophia Fojas: So, on behalf of the Santa Clara County Office of Education, thank you for recognizing March as Youth Arts Month.

[00:15:15] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. Would any member of the council like to say a few words?

[00:15:23] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Seeing none, I'll use this as an opportunity for your mayor call to action, call to service, call to community.

[00:15:29] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Um, as we celebrate American Red Cross Month, I would like to encourage members of our community to donate blood. There is always a high need to donate blood.

[00:15:39] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I am a proud blood donor myself. Over the course of my lifetime, I've donated 3 gallons of blood. I've donated since I was 17 so I was very excited.

[00:15:47] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Um but uh so I I understand that there's opportunities to donate with the Red Cross. There's also opportunities to uh donate with the Stanford Blood uh Center.

[00:15:56] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Um so I highly encourage if you can, I understand that there are also limitations um due to health, weight, height, um age where you are unable to donate, but if you can um take the opportunity to do so.

[00:16:11] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Um I know in 2023 there was a recent uh ruling or uh regulation change to allow uh those in the LGBTQ community to donate blood finally, and um and that was that was a great victory for inclusion and the need for blood.

[00:16:28] Councilmember Emily Ramos: So um if you can donate, and you have the capacity to donate, it's something I highly encourage people to do. Uh Councilmember Hicks.

[00:16:39] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Well since you've given a shout out to Mr. Kasperzak and the American Red Cross, I think Ms. Fojas may have left the room, but I was going to give a shout out to her,

[00:16:50] Councilmember Alison Hicks: um, and just say that uh for many children uh arts at school is what make allows them to get up and want to go to school in the morning, my children included, so a shout out to her and her work as well.

[00:17:04] Councilmember Emily Ramos: That's wonderful. All right, we will now take public comment for the presentation items. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on the presentation items listed on the agenda.

[00:17:18] Councilmember Emily Ramos: If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker will have 3 minutes.

[00:17:28] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I am seeing none. We will now take virtual speakers. And I am also seeing none.

[00:17:34] Councilmember Emily Ramos: So now we will move on to item four, consent calendar.

4. CONSENT CALENDAR

[00:17:38] Councilmember Emily Ramos: These ite- these items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the council wishes to pull an item for individual consideration.

[00:17:46] Councilmember Emily Ramos: If an item is pulled from the consent calendar, it will be considered separately following approval of the balance of the consent calendar.

[00:17:53] Councilmember Emily Ramos: If you would like to speak on these items, or the next item, oral communications on nonagendized items, in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk now.

[00:18:05] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Councilmember Hicks, do you have an announcement to make?

[00:18:09] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I do have an announcement. I will be recusing myself from agenda item 4.3, the notice of intention to vacate public street and easement at 881 Castro Street, due to the proximity of my personal residence to the project site. Although I will remain on the dais while recused.

[00:18:29] Councilmember Emily Ramos: No worries. All right, would any member of the council like to pull an item? I see Councilmember McAlister.

[00:18:36] Councilmember John McAlister: Yes, I'd like to pull 4.1 and 4.4. And make a c- and yeah. So those. And then a comment on 4.3.

[00:18:52] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right. Councilmember Showalter.

[00:18:55] Councilmember Pat Showalter: I just wanted to make some comments on 4.4 and 4.5, but if we've we've pulled 4.4 we can I can make my comments then I suppose.

[00:19:05] Councilmember Pat Showalter: But um I would just would like to um make a comment on the Housing Element progress report. Um we get this every year and that's good because it allows us to keep tabs on how things are going.

[00:19:19] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And we have a um we have a a really, really um uh challenging housing element because we were given such a big number. We have done the zoning that's needed for it and we're working on the programs.

[00:19:33] Councilmember Pat Showalter: But we did find out that um we haven't really um constructed as many units as as we would like yet. So um the city doesn't do the construction, but we do do the zoning and we do provide uh um housing and I just wanted to thank the the staff for all the work that's been done on this because I know that it's a a very complex item and um you know we'll just uh keep doing the best we can and um we do have some development items tonight.

[00:20:07] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right, thank you Councilmember Showalter. Um what we're going to do, uh Councilmember McAlister do you mind speaking to 4.3 since it's not being pulled?

[00:20:19] Councilmember John McAlister: Uh sure. I will be voting no on 4.3. I've always believed that real estate is irreplaceable and that the city can use that as a continual sustainable source of income, so when I see these things I say let's if the somebody wants to we'll lease it to them and maintain uh control of the property. And so I think uh that's why I'm saying no to it, cause being consistent I voted on no on this last time when it came up, and we have limited land and if we keep you know, occasion comes along and somebody wants to buy it, just lease it. Make sure that we have a structurally balanced budget. So that's where I'm coming from on 4.3.

[00:21:05] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right. Thank you Councilmember McAlister. All right, what we're going to do. So far we only have two items pulled. We're going to go to public comment. Um would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on these items. If so please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk. We will take in person speakers first. Each speaker will have 3 minutes.

[00:21:31] Councilmember Emily Ramos: So I see one speaker for item 4.1. Uh Eli Robles.

[00:21:55] Eli Robles: Uh good evening Council Members, uh my name is Eli Robles representing North Coast State Carpenters, and I'm here to speak about the proposed development at 490 East Middlefield Road.

[00:22:08] Eli Robles: Uh this major project is in a rapidly growing part of Mountain View, and with uh that scale comes responsibility to ensure the work is done safely, efficiently, and in a way that benefits the community.

[00:22:20] Eli Robles: That starts with requiring accredited apprenticeship programs. These programs create real pathways into middle class careers for local residents, especially young people, veterans, and those looking for stable, long term work.

[00:22:33] Eli Robles: Um when apprentices are trained to industry standards, the project benefits from higher productivity, fewer delays, and safer worksites.

[00:22:41] Eli Robles: Uh equally important is ensuring we select a responsible general contractor. One with a proven record of compliance, fair labor practices, and the capacity to manage a project of this size.

[00:22:53] Eli Robles: Without these standards, we risk cost overruns, unsafe conditions, and low road contractors who cut corners at the expense of workers.

[00:23:02] Eli Robles: 490 East Middlefield is an opportunity to set the tone for uh responsible development in this corridor.

[00:23:09] Eli Robles: So my ask tonight would be to adopt strong labor standards to ensure this project delivers not just buildings, but good jobs, community investment, and long-term value for Mountain View. Thank you for your time.

[00:23:23] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. And that seems like the end of our speakers. Oh, we have one virtual speaker, Brian Griggs.

[00:23:37] Brian Griggs: Hi, it's Brian Griggs. Uh I spoke two weeks ago at the hearing. Uh I just wanted to make sure that council knew I was available to answer any questions that may arise on this issue.

[00:23:55] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right, thank you. Um now that we have ended our speakers for public comment on consent calendar, um I we'll go back to the council. Councilmember McAlister.

[00:24:09] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay so I have some questions on 4.1. I know that you uh you discussed it uh March the 10th but I was uh advocating in Washington D.C. for small businesses at that time, but I just want to there's a couple questions that I think flow through a lot of the stuff that we're going to see-

[00:24:26] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Councilmember McAlister, sorry to interrupt, but do do we want to do the balance of the consent calendar before we do-

[00:24:32] Councilmember John McAlister: Oh, well you I thought that's what you were asking me to start.

[00:24:34] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Oh no, um I was just going in order because I don't know if anyone else wants to talk on the balance.

[00:24:38] Councilmember John McAlister: That was public comments, right? Doing it. So.

[00:24:41] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Oh okay. All right. So let's look at the balance first. I see Councilmember Showalter, are you talking about one of the items, or the balance?

[00:24:52] Councilmember Pat Showalter: I would like to talk about 4.3 when we get to that, but the balance um I'll withdraw for now.

[00:24:58] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Oh 4.3 was not pulled.

[00:25:02] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Oh. So do you want to talk about 4.3 now because that's in the balance.

[00:25:05] Councilmember John McAlister: No, 4. 4. what's this say 4.

[00:25:08] Councilmember Emily Ramos: 4. 4.1 you said you wanted to talk about 4.4.

[00:25:10] Councilmember John McAlister: 4.4 is the one I want to talk about.

[00:25:11] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Okay, perfect. Councilmember Kamei.

[00:25:14] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thank you. Um, so the balance, uh, I see the motion um for the balance of the consent calendar. And 4.3 is still on it. So I'm just gonna register my no vote, which is consistent with how I voted when it came out of closed session. Thanks Mayor.

[00:25:29] Councilmember Emily Ramos: No worries. Councilmember Ramirez.

[00:25:32] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve the balance of the consent calendar including item 4.2, adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View authorizing the city manager or designee to submit an application for an award of Prohousing Incentive Program funds in an amount not to exceed $890,000,

[00:25:51] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: to execute and deliver on behalf of the city any and all documents including amendments necessary to receive an award of Prohousing Incentive Program funds, and certifying to the California Department of Housing and Community Development compliance with the Prohousing Incentive Program requirements,

[00:26:09] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: to be read in title only, further reading waived. And, uh, item 4.3, adopt a resolution of intention of the City Council of the City of Mountain View to vacate the existing public street known as Fairmont Avenue between Castro Street and Hope Street,

[00:26:26] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: and a five foot street and utility easement at 881 Castro Street to be read in title only, further reading waived, and set a date for a public hearing to consider the vacation for April 28, 2026, um, registering the the no votes and the recusal.

[00:26:44] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um, very quickly, um, I also wanted to provide a a brief, uh, mostly thank you to staff on, um, the responses to the questions I submitted on item 5, the Housing Element Annual Progress Report. There's a lot of really good, um, information in here and some very encouraging information.

[00:27:02] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I I especially appreciated the update on, uh, the development projects page on the city website, which I think is a very useful resource for the community to see what's going on, um, and, uh, and I think the the commitment here to, um, updating or to providing a development update map, um, once, uh, we've met the federal regulations, uh, I think will will be a great, uh, service for the community.

[00:27:26] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um, and I also appreciated the updates provided on, uh, several of the housing element programs, um, and in particular, um, for, uh, sorry project, uh, 1.6 on the subdivisions. Uh, that was, um, uh, encouraging to hear, uh, that you're, uh, looking at other jurisdictions that have, um, uh, already allowed, uh, subdividing ADUs,

[00:27:53] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: um, and, uh, program, uh, 1.4, uh, related to, uh, the, um, uh, affirmatively affirmatively furthering fair housing obligations, uh, and the, uh, affordable housing commitments south of El Camino.

[00:28:09] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um, I know that's going to be, uh, an issue that the future council will have to take on, but I did want to, um, uh, flag for, for the candidates who are here and for, uh, the community at large that, um, this is, uh, it's it's gonna be a challenging item to, uh, to ultimately implement.

[00:28:28] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And then also, uh, I like to read these because it's a reminder that our charter requires us to read the title of the resolution in full. But we don't have to do that! We can update our charter, so we no longer have to read all of the resolutions in full. Thank you.

[00:28:45] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you to the, for the soapbox, Councilmember Ramirez. Um, that item was our consent calendar with with um items 4.1 and 4.4 pulled by Councilmember McAlister. We are also registering a no vote in 4.3 for Councilmember McAlister and Councilmember Kamei, and an abstention for council, a recusal for uh Councilmember Hicks on 4.3.

[00:29:09] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Uh, it has been seconded by Pat Showalter. So, uh, we are ready to vote.

[00:29:24] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Motion passes unanimously. Yay! And now we will take up item 4.1. Councilmember McAlister.

4.1 Mixed-Use Residential Development at 490 East Middlefield Road - Development Agreement (Second Reading)

[00:29:32] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, we'll do a quick recap again. Um, so you guys discussed this, but there was a couple of items that, as I say, were reoccurring throughout, since we have three development projects on tonight's calen- agenda. And so I just wanted to get clarity for myself and potentially for others, and get a bet- better understanding of staff.

[00:29:54] Councilmember John McAlister: Um, I apologize that I maybe had a briefing available to me, but I was not available to do it. So I will start off with some questions and whoever is going to answer those would be great. Um, who from staff might answer these?

[00:30:14] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Oh.

[00:30:18] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Good evening, Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor, Councilmembers. Christian Murdock, Community Development Director. Uh, I was holding back because there was a mix of Community Development focused and Public Works focused questions, and so I was waiting to uh, listen to the...

[00:30:31] Councilmember Emily Ramos: What department did you say?

[00:30:32] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Uh, Public Works related questions. So I was waiting to listen to the questions uh before uh coming forward.

[00:30:38] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, so you're the eager boy. Okay, so I had about three questions that I wanted to bring up. Um, this new project is going to be putting in, uh, retail space. And I asked the question, how much retail space has been required over the last four years,

[00:30:56] Councilmember John McAlister: And you were able to pull up some numbers. And, but it seems the majority of it has not been, uh, leased, but you say it's sort of under, there's been a total of 16,000 square feet of new retail space in Mountain View based on two projects that are coming on board. And of this, thir- 3,500 is currently leased to tenants and some more is going to do it.

[00:31:19] Councilmember John McAlister: So in this project, there's a lot of new retail space coming along. What, how, oh, you know, and this says since 2022. And this is '26. That's a long time to lease these spaces out. Uh, I hate seeing something built and being vacant for a very long time. I know there's a project over on Ferguson that's still somewhat vacant.

[00:31:40] Councilmember John McAlister: What is the city doing to encourage that this retail space is being rented out and not sitting vacant? I mean,

[00:31:49] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Sure, thank you for the question. Uh, I'd say the first thing that uh the city's done is negotiate in the development agreement uh a $1.2 million uh renovation contribution from the developer to minimize the costs and barriers for businesses and particularly small businesses to open in the space.

[00:32:05] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: And so I think that's a really unique opportunity for this project as compared to other projects to try to minimize that time from construction to uh occupancy for retail tenants. Uh, more broadly, uh we've reinvigorated the broker breakfast uh that we have a couple times a year with the commercial broker community in Mountain View,

[00:32:22] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: And uh we feature opportunities such as new projects coming online or uh key key vacancies that are of interest to the broader broker community to make sure they're getting marketed, they're getting attention, and that we can try to minimize the time that these spaces are vacant.

[00:32:36] Councilmember John McAlister: Do you think any of these new uh locations are going to pull any uh businesses away from downtown?

[00:32:43] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Uh my sense is that this project at 490 East Middlefield is a different market and is probably more localized neighborhood serving uh retail services that are not likely to uh pull businesses away from the downtown.

[00:32:54] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. My next question is, um, I know we've uh had some uh trouble getting our fixed fees and schedules coming along, they've been sitting there for a long time before we got them updated. And so I asked about the extension of the the 100,000 for the first two years and 250,000 in the second extension years.

[00:33:15] Councilmember John McAlister: And so when you the and thank you for the whole staff and the city taking uh on my uh few questions that I asked, but they were very helpful to me, uh as you probably indicated that you saw that I read a lot, I read everything so my questions are sometimes detailed.

[00:33:33] Councilmember John McAlister: So you're putting 100,000. So the the staff evaluated extension amounts from other developments for for reference. Now are those, when you look at other development agreements, have you taken into consideration inflation of the current cost of doing money or the current cost of our new fee structures when you put in these extensions, instead of looking at other developments which could be 3, 4, 5 years old?

[00:33:57] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Um, I mean not for this particular aspect of the the extension fee. Um, that's a relatively small amount of money in the broader context of this development agreement and with most development agreements the city's executed.

[00:34:09] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Um, you know, figuring in some sort of inflation factor is something we could keep in mind in the future uh to try to retain the value of money. Um, over the time range that we're talking about here, which is four years before the first extension would be needed, there's not likely to be a significant devaluation uh as compared to a development agreement with a 15 or or 20 year term uh where that's probably more relevant.

[00:34:33] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Um, also I understand that there's were some discussion at the meeting, but I've noticed several projects where staff has allowed an applicant to do uh street loading duckouts, and you know, starting at Chase, we're going forward like that. Was this a Public Works one? So yes, okay, let me see if I can follow up any more questions with you before we bring on our distinguished uh director from Public Works.

[00:34:58] Councilmember John McAlister: Um, so there was a question about the right, and this was something that sort of saw me that there was a discussion about the city was going to do rent guarantee options, where the city subsidized the rents. And I hadn't seen this in all my years on uh Council that we're baking in that we will rent units and guarantee their rents. So what's the premise for us doing this and where's this money gonna come from?

[00:35:24] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Sure. So um this is not a a model that the City of Mountain View has uh pursued previously. Um, to be clear, it's an option in the development agreement, it doesn't bind the city in any way to uh pursue this and there's no financial obligation associated with the option.

[00:35:38] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Um, should the city be interested in in pursuing the option in the future, it would be entitled to rent uh or guarantee the rents for between 30 and 60 units within the project. Um, the thinking is essentially the city would guarantee the rent at a a given amount, um perhaps 90% of the area median income, and either uh put direct funds in to subsidize those rents to push the rents to lower area median income levels for deeper affordability for lower income uh households,

[00:36:06] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Or potentially could rent some of those units at market rate, which might be up to 100% or more of area median income, thus generating excess revenue that could be used to subsidize lower rents for uh lower area median income levels.

[00:36:19] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: So the particular mechanics and what makes sense at a point in time given the market and other factors remains to be determined, uh but we thought it was an innovative opportunity where there's no up front outlay um for establishment of these units. The developer is constructing them so the significant capital costs to deliver below market rate units is is forgone.

[00:36:39] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: And there's an option then to tailor the block of units, the 30 to 60 units, uh to meet the specific needs at that point in time. And so it's just another tool in the city's affordable housing toolbox if and when the city's interested in in exercising the option.

[00:36:55] Councilmember John McAlister: So what, so you just decided this was this part of the housing element or are you just saying here is some way we can uh secure low-income housing?

[00:37:05] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Uh so this was a concept uh brought forward by the developer in this case. Um, my understanding is they've uh pursued a similar model in another jurisdiction, um not exactly an apples to apples comparison. Uh but it's something that was interesting but very very uh nuanced and it's novel, and so we didn't have the time in this process to figure out all of the details.

[00:37:26] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Uh but we did want to um you know preserve the opportunity to figure this out uh in the future and take advantage of it if we find out that it's likely to be beneficial.

[00:37:35] Councilmember John McAlister: So where would this money be funded from?

[00:37:37] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Um that's one of the many details that would need to be worked out. Uh if there is an appropriate funding source and the City Council was willing to make such an expenditure to achieve uh this targeted uh affordable housing uh goal, then that would be a decision for the Council at that time. Alternatively as I mentioned, there could be an internal subsidy among the units uh depending on the market conditions that could actually uh not require a direct subsidy from the city.

[00:38:01] Councilmember John McAlister: Would this take some money away from CSA? And use that money for them to subsidize the units and so forth?

[00:38:08] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: The ultimate funding decision and eligibility for use of different funds is something the Council would have to to vote on in the future.

[00:38:15] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. And let's see if I have one more question for you. Again your answers or your staff's answers were very uh insightful, so I do appreciate that. Uh the duckouts I will do, yes. Uh thank you. I'll ask about the duckouts and the sidewalks. Thank you.

[00:38:31] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Thank you.

[00:38:41] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: Good evening, everybody. I'm Jennifer Ing, Public Works Director. Ready for your questions.

[00:38:47] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, so duckouts, they brought they came up under uh Chase and now we see it here, and we see it in some other areas where we're not requiring the developer to do these uh spaces for loading and unloading and they're taking up public space and public streets. So why how is this evolving that we are allowing developers to use the public streets to do what should be in my opinion they should be doing on their own property?

[00:39:16] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: Yeah, so we do require developments to provide loading on site uh where there is onsite availability. So for example, the Chase Bank situation um that you brought up as an example, uh there is provisions onsite on the first ground level parking for loading.

[00:39:34] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: Um the duckout that is being provided on El Camino Real is a bus uh island situation in which we want to move the bus out of the way of the oncoming traffic on El Camino Real. Um bus islands are relatively new, uh relatively speaking um kind of technology with respect to how we load and offload uh bus passengers, as well as how we sequence the bike lanes around the bus islands um so that it's safe for all in that vicinity.

[00:40:04] Councilmember John McAlister: Well I understand the buses, that makes sense. But on the Chase there was some well where the the third party delivery food people are going to be parking and they were taking up, well we'll do something on the back side. So...

[00:40:16] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: Yeah, there was a request by the um developer to look for the city to evaluate additional loading opportunities on street.

[00:40:25] Councilmember John McAlister: So am I misunderstanding this one, they're looking for street loading of duckouts not for the bus but just for their own property, for people to do that?

[00:40:34] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: So in this particular situation for 490 Middlefield, there is onsite loading that is available but there are very limited opportunities for a driver. There's only two driveways on on that access this site. There's one on Middlefield and there's one on Ellis. Um and today's rapidly changing uh environment of how we do a lot of quick pickups and quick drop-offs uh kind of situation,

[00:41:03] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: um and with bike lanes being on um Middlefield Avenue, um you know we really want to create a a situation where a I mean we've all seen it, right? Like an Amazon driver pulls up, they don't really they think they're gonna stop for 30 seconds and they they obstruct a bike lane. It happens all over everywhere um in this area and so by creating a duckout for those kind of quick drop-off quick pickup situations um we are uh eliminating the conflict between uh the drop-off vehicles and um you know the vehicles in the travel lane um as well as the bike lane.

[00:41:42] Councilmember John McAlister: Would that be used potentially for park, street parking?

[00:41:47] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: It's not for street parking. It's intended for a quick like a 5 minute or less loading zone.

[00:41:53] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Thank you.

[00:41:55] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: You're welcome.

[00:41:55] Councilmember John McAlister: So is well is that gonna be a current theme or direction that the city staff is thinking about is allowing these duckouts as we go along in most projects?

[00:42:05] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: It's case-by-case basis, right? Depending on what the situation is with the actual uh vehicular travel lane, how much right-of-way we have, bike lanes on the street, but um knowing how our society operates and the demand for this type of quick service, um I'd imagine you might see more moving forward as we uh move our development projects through the permitting process.

[00:42:29] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Thank you.

[00:42:30] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: You're welcome.

[00:42:31] Councilmember John McAlister: And I have one last question. I see the uh chief of the fire department here. And so this is one for maybe the community at large. Since we are putting in an eight-story building now, and fire uh safety and standards is going to be something new that's going to participate, uh so how are we going to handle an eight-story building, and as we see maybe a 15-story building come along, and so if you can uh give us a look into the future, how...

[00:43:00] Fire Chief Chandler: Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, councilmembers. For this one since it's new construction we'll have our fire protection engineer from community development speak to it.

[00:43:15] Principal Fire Protection Engineer Anish Murthy: Good evening councilmembers. Anish Murthy, Principal Fire Protection Engineer.

[00:43:23] Councilmember John McAlister: So are you gonna an- the question was, we're getting an eight-story building here, we're potentially going to get a 15-story building there, what kind of impact is it going to have on our fire department and how will they have the capability to respond to an evacuation of these problems, putting out the fires of these prob- at these buildings. So what is the fire department requesting or requiring on buildings of this sort?

[00:43:47] Principal Fire Protection Engineer Anish Murthy: Well, once you get over three stories, um there are certain requirements for aerial uh truck ladder access. And so that's pretty standard and that's we have a lot of buildings obviously that um are greater than three stories in the city. Um so we would require that. Um we have those in our conditions of approval. Um so that means that the access roads go from 20 feet wide to 26 feet wide.

[00:44:14] Principal Fire Protection Engineer Anish Murthy: Um there are certain requirements for aerial access um trucks that uh they need to have at least one full side of the building, uh has to be a certain distance away from the the street has to be a certain distance away so that that we can use the the aerial trucks for firefighting access. In terms of fire protection, it's pretty standard there you know, all the new buildings of course will have full full fire sprinkler systems and fire alarm systems.

[00:44:40] Principal Fire Protection Engineer Anish Murthy: Um once they get to a high rise, there are increased fire protection that comes straight from the code from the California Building Code, from the California Fire Code, and also from our Mountain View City Code. Um so those are all taken into account and they're all part of the conditions of approval.

[00:44:56] Councilmember John McAlister: Does this particular project have, how many staircases does it have?

[00:44:59] Principal Fire Protection Engineer Anish Murthy: Uh, off hand I I don't know, but it will meet the the code requirements for staircases.

[00:45:06] Councilmember John McAlister: Just a general question, how how far how how would a our ladder trucks be uh affected on this one? How high can they go?

[00:45:14] Principal Fire Protection Engineer Anish Murthy: Um actually Fire Chief, Chief Chandler may be able to to tell you a little bit better about that. Um but um we you know the the ladder access requirements um they're they're actually multiple reasons uh we would use the ladder so we would either try to get to the top of the buildings or use them for firefighting purposes where to actually spray water. Um we use them for rescue operations if needed.

[00:45:41] Principal Fire Protection Engineer Anish Murthy: Um so those are all taken into account but if if you want to know the exact uh height I think Chief Chandler might be able to tell you exactly.

[00:45:50] Councilmember John McAlister: He's eager to tell us about his new equipment, so absolutely. Very eager. Thank you.

[00:45:56] Principal Fire Protection Engineer Anish Murthy: Okay, no problem.

[00:46:01] Fire Chief Chandler: Good evening. To answer your question on the aerial apparatus, our ladder trucks are 105 feet tall. And with a setback can reach stories up to eight to nine stories.

[00:46:10] Councilmember John McAlister: So it can get to eight, ten stories?

[00:46:12] Fire Chief Chandler: Yep.

[00:46:12] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay so we're we're getting there. I mean we're prepared for this.

[00:46:15] Fire Chief Chandler: Yeah we're confident in in fighting a fire in a building of this size. Yeah.

[00:46:18] Councilmember John McAlister: Thank you.

[00:46:19] Councilmember John McAlister: Um, that answers my question 4.1 and if we wanted to uh I would make a motion to pass on that one or we could do it when 4.4 comes at the same time.

[00:46:28] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I see Councilmember Hicks has her name in the queue.

[00:46:32] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I was just gonna say very briefly Councilmember McAlister, we we missed you when we discussed this item in full. Um and some of the items you brought up are ones that uh we discussed as well. Uh I had concerns about the duckouts in pu- in public spaces. Um I think they're and that was something that apparently staff had gone, staff and the uh developer had had discussions about as well before council did.

[00:46:59] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I think it's something that, my personal opinion is that it it they're strengths and weaknesses, and as as and so I agree with some of your questions, and as some of us term out and you stay on council, I hope you keep your eye on that particular issue and make sure it doesn't carve out too much of our street trees and sidewalks, so I'm depending on you for that in the future.

[00:47:24] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And um, and then um, also uh you know, I welcome your questions on uh whether the ground floor retail will uh be rentable. But um, I think in East Whisman in particular, as we densify, people there deserve some they deserve to not be car-bound, and to have some neighborhood-serving retail, and if my memory serves me right, Councilmember Kamei spoke eloquently about that and in more detail than I will right now or will be here for a very long time.

[00:48:38] Councilmember Alison Hicks: But um I think that you know uh I think you are always balancing, you know is this too much, is it not enough, I don't think if if we do our downtown right, I think that neighborhood-serving retail in places like San Antonio and East Whisman as we densify will not I think our downtown is different, we need to make sure it keeps its sense of place, its historic nature, its sort of entertainment district, but I think these areas as they densify need some urban form too and need people need to be able to get out of their car and do various things. So um, I welcome your questions and that's a uh snapshot of what we talked about while you were away.

[00:48:45] Councilmember John McAlister: Thank you for your update. Very helpful.

[00:48:49] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Seeing no other docket, uh names in the docket, we have a motion by Councilmember Clark and a second by Councilmember Ramirez. Councilmember Clark, would you like to speak to your motion?

[00:49:00] Councilmember Chris Clark: I move that we approve uh consent calendar item 4.1 to adopt an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Mountain View approving a development agreement between the City of Mountain View and WTA Middlefield LLC for an eight-story mixed-use building with 460 apartments utilizing state density bonus law and approximately 9,371 square feet of ground floor commercial replacing an existing office building and the removal of 29 heritage trees on a 2.86-acre site located at 490 East Middlefield Road, APN 160-53-004, to be read in title only, further reading waived.

[00:49:37] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you, Vice Mayor Clark, sorry I misspoke earlier. Uh it is we are now ready to vote.

[00:49:50] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Motion passes unanimously. Um we will now move to consent calendar item 4.4. Councilmember McAlister, would you like to speak to your pull?

4.4 Increasing Safe Parking Capacity at Shoreline Lot B

[00:49:58] Councilmember John McAlister: Thank you.

[00:50:00] Councilmember John McAlister: So, safe parking started, I started this program when I was mayor in 2015. And it was to be a uh transitional, it was designed to be transitional to help those who want help to get from uh a vehicle or an RV into a a more permanent housing. And I'm looking as this project now is, seems to be just growing a little bit uh more than I anticipated. And since I've been gone for four years, uh it just concerns me how it's, is it a how effective it is or is it the best use of city's funds?

[00:50:42] Councilmember John McAlister: And I noticed that ongoing operating cost, one of my questions was it's almost fourt- a hundred, 1.4 million dollars for a program that was supposed to be temporary and for people to transition out. And it seems to be growing in using more funds. And I'm wondering from the staff is there, but I did see something in this. I'm concerned about this ongoing costs.

[00:51:07] Councilmember John McAlister: And there is the core functions of the city, that's like public works, public safety, water, streets, and so forth. And then we have these other items that come along that seem to be moving higher and higher, and a cost for per person seems to be getting higher and higher. And I was wondering if there's ways that we can mitigate some of this or do it more efficiently.

[00:51:32] Councilmember John McAlister: Now uh I appreciate one of the questions was is there any time restrictions first established in the creation of safe parking. And when I was here, there was. And now I notice and some, thank you for the staff for the detailed information and background, very helpful, that the average stay now is 599 days. And this was supposed to be designed for a transition, people to get them into per- to permanent housing.

[00:51:55] Councilmember John McAlister: So is it, the question for staff is it that we have more people, are we less effective on what we're doing with our this stay, or are we just allowing this this safe parking lot to become a de facto uh park for those folks?

[00:52:12] Councilmember John McAlister: And I also notice uh on the side that the county is also putting a 120-day length of stay policy with extension available for participants. And it was always designed for those people who want help, we'll give it to them. And and the programming, and those who don't, well they'll be parking out in the streets or wherever they do.

[00:52:31] Councilmember John McAlister: So to staff, what are we, is this ongoing of funds escalating, is it going to be pay- cause it just seems to be escalating. So uh first of all, ask how this stay of 590 day, 599 days, does that seem acceptable to staff or is it just the way it is? And how can we move people out of that transaction quicker?

[00:52:56] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: Uh thank you. Good evening Mayor and City Council members. Kimberly Thomas, Deputy City Manager. Uh thank you for your question and the nuances that you're raising regarding safe parking. Uh safe parking has been an ongoing program since 2019. Uh on the order of 700,000 during that time period has been contributed by the city. The county has come aboard and provided 1.6 million for the existing program scope.

[00:53:22] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: And then you're right, as we're looking at this item for 4.4, we are looking at an increase up to nearly 3 million dollars. So there is a an increase, there is an increase in scope. Uh I think one of the things that was very hopeful, and I remember your time back in those uh days many years ago on safe parking is, is that it would really be a short-term thing.

[00:53:46] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: It would be 18 to 24 months total for the project itself. And unfortunately what's happened throughout our region, and not just our region but throughout the state of California in fact, is that homelessness is extended. It is becoming chronic homelessness. And for our area of the peninsula, what that's indicative of is living in a vehicle, either a passenger vehicle or an RV.

[00:54:11] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: I can let uh Parneet Dinza, our Human Services Manager, talk more about the data and what the throughput is that's coming out of the county. But I can speak to it in a general way and share that we are not meeting the county benchmarks. We did post-COVID, so the program itself is not able to attain the county's benchmark, but it's very close. Very close.

[00:54:35] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: And these types of temporary emergency programs do have longer stays. Another example of that would be interim or temporary housing like our LifeMoves uh program here in the City of Mountain View. And these stays are indicative for Mountain View as well as cities throughout the region. Placement in permanent housing is incredibly difficult and it takes years.

[00:55:05] Councilmember John McAlister: So let me fol- you said the city is putting 700,000 in. But isn't the city also putting in money from the Shoreline Community Fund?

[00:55:12] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: Uh yes. Oh uh council member, what I was referring to was our our our figure going back since 2019. And then what I advised is yes, we're asking to put in additional funding for this increase at Shoreline Lot B. Correct.

[00:55:27] Councilmember John McAlister: So 700,000 plus Shoreline funds.

[00:55:30] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: Plus the Shoreline. Yes, correct.

[00:55:31] Councilmember John McAlister: How much does that total to?

[00:55:32] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: So the total for the current operations if the item is approved tonight with the increase will be just under 3 million.

[00:55:40] Councilmember John McAlister: 3 million.

[00:55:41] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: Including the city and county contribution.

[00:55:43] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. So with with this information about the city saying 120 days or the county, uh how are you going to help me understand are they related? Are we are we going to have to meet their standards of a hundred-

[00:55:56] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: Uh this is actually very new, and I might ask Parneet to jump in on this, but I'll share what I know about it. It is actually new and the county is working through some operational guidance on it and how they will do it. It's similar to what they've done for programs like the Cold Weather Shelter.

[00:56:14] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: Uh the goal is to transition folks quickly. Uh it keeps the uh the emphasis for the family unit that you're trying to stabilize on on trying to get out of that current situation once they are stabilized. But there is a provision to allow, as long as they are meeting certain benchmarks and engaging in case management, to continue with that program. So it's not just a one and done. Parneet, I don't know if you want to add anything to that.

[00:56:44] Human Services Manager Parneet Dinza: Parneet Dinza, Human Services Manager. Um to add on to what Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas shared, um the County of Santa Clara uses the state Housing uh Department of Housing and Urban Development's performance measures for its homeless response programs. And currently HUD does not have a category for safe parking.

[00:57:06] Human Services Manager Parneet Dinza: And therefore the County of Santa Clara uses the category for street outreach to essentially set a similar uh benchmark for safe parking. Um and so for the uh past um fiscal year, um there were 30% of program participants exited into a temporary or permanent housing destination.

[00:57:25] Human Services Manager Parneet Dinza: And the cal- the calendar year, excuse me, 2025 benchmark for exits was 45%. Um so the county was uh a little bit lower than that threshold. Um and then in comparison to the prior um fiscal year, 59% went on to exit to a permanent or stable housing destination. Um and in calendar year 2024, the benchmark was 50%.

[00:58:00] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. So are will you be able to answer the question about the 120 days?

[00:58:05] Human Services Manager Parneet Dinza: Yes. Um so currently uh city sorry excuse me, county funded homeless response programs like Safe Parking and LifeMoves Mountain View um do not have length of stays. However, over the co- limits sorry, over the course of the last year the county has been working with all of their county funded providers to establish a length of stay limit um as part of their programs.

[00:58:32] Human Services Manager Parneet Dinza: And so that is something that uh the provider at our safe parking site, Move Mountain View, has been actively working on. And that will entail for all providers 120 days um with potential extensions of three to four uh further extensions, depending on whether or not that individual is actively participating in case management and actively working on a housing plan with their case manager.

[00:59:00] Councilmember John McAlister: They pull their funding or limit their funding then if that uh stay doesn't exist?

[00:59:07] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: I I would think that's unlikely but we've not encountered that situation or raised that issue with the county so um we don't have a definitive answer but I would think that would be unlikely.

[00:59:17] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Well thank you. Uh thank you for the clarity. That was ver- that was very helpful. And oh, one other question I I asked about this one is about since we're renegotiation with Live Nation, we're giving they rent from us and we're giving up the parking.

[00:59:36] Councilmember John McAlister: And it says uh staff, it says "have not been calculated as this was done as part of various staff workload". So do we is there a way to figure out how much potential lost revenue we are giving up from renting the parking to from to from Live Nation?

[00:59:54] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: Uh I think we had interpreted that question at a staff level perhaps incorrectly, that you were uh focused on staff uh uh resources. Uh not uh revenue that might be incur- uh going to the provid- uh to Live Nation. Um that might be a question for probably our community services team and I'm not sure that we have that information available.

[01:00:16] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: It did not come up in the sessions that I was engaged on on those negotiations. We can certainly get you a follow-up answer though if that's helpful.

[01:00:25] Councilmember John McAlister: Oh.

[01:00:26] Deputy City Manager Kimberly Thomas: Oh, somebody coming up.

[01:00:28] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour Ramberg: Well now you've got the full, the full team. Um Audrey Seymour, Assistant City Manager. Um if your question is are is the city losing revenue from Live Nation because they are not having access to those parking spaces, the answer is no. The only cost that we are incurring is the staff time required to work through these um agreements and and...

[01:00:48] Councilmember John McAlister: So they're just giving, they're giving us back the land and not needing to require...

[01:00:52] Assistant City Manager Audrey Seymour Ramberg: That's correct.

[01:00:53] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Thank you. That was helpful. Thank you. Those are my ques- uh...

[01:01:03] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember McAlister. Councilmember Showalter.

[01:01:08] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Well I am very um pleased to uh move this. Um as you know I've been working on safe parking as long as John has. And and we we really have found in Mountain View that that's some that safe parking is something that works well for our community.

[01:01:26] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Um it's it's a project that um uh people who are very compassionate about homeless uh support and people who are n- who who are very upset about having um RVs um on the public streets support. So there's just really broad support in our community about this and you can't say that about many programs.

[01:01:53] Councilmember Pat Showalter: So um when we talk about the costs of this, uh you know of course we have to worry about the costs. But I think even more with this we have to wor- we have to think about what's the value? What's the value of this program to our community and to the people that get to um you know get to really get their lives uh in a much better place because of it.

[01:02:22] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And and so um that's one of the reasons why I you know I really think that this is um this is a great thing for the City of Mountain View to be doing. Um and I want to thank the staff for the incredible amount of work you've done um and and for all the partners because we don't do this alone.

[01:02:50] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Um we have a whole um laundry list of non-profit organizations that support um these efforts as well and thank you to all of them. Um I'd just like to say too that over the years we've hoped that um some public parking lot owners would step up and help us out and that just hasn't come to pass. So we need to take advantage of the land that we control and that's what we're doing here.

[01:03:17] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And I think that's very smart and I'm glad to I'm glad to see it happen. Now should I go ahead and read this or does somebody else want to talk, you want to talk first?

[01:03:34] Councilmember Emily Ramos: You can read it and then we can go to the next speakers.

[01:03:37] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Okay. All right. I have to take a breath first cause it's quite lengthy. Adopt a resolution of the Board of Directors of the Shoreline Regional Park Community approving a mid-year 2025-26 capital improvement program project to increase capacity for safe parking at Shoreline Lot B, Lot B project.

[01:03:57] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Two, appropriating four hundred ninety thousand eight hundred fifty-nine dollars from the Shoreline Regional Park Community Fund to fund the mid-year Lot B project.

[01:04:08] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Three, appropriating one million one hundred ninety-one thousand, seven and three, seven hundred and three dollars from the Shoreline Regional Park Community Fund to the City of Mountain View's city manager fiscal year 2026-27 Lot B Safe Parking program budget to fund one million sixty-five thousand three hundred sixty-eight dollars in ongoing operating costs and one hundred twenty-six thousand three hundred thirty-five dollars in one-time site preparation costs for the Lot B Safe Parking program.

[01:04:30] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Four, authorizing the community manager or designee to amend the Shoreline Amphitheatre ground lease with Live Nation to extend the term for use of the Shoreline Amphitheatre Lot B for safe parking through December 31st, 2030, and to increase the capacity for safe parking at Lot B.

[01:04:48] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And five, finding these actions to be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act to be read in title only, further reading waived.

[01:04:57] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Then we want to adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View authorizing the city manager or designee to amend the Shoreline Amphitheatre ground lease, this is the exact same thing isn't it? Do I have to read it?

[01:05:09] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Oh.

[01:05:10] Councilmember Pat Showalter: ground lease with Live Nation to extend the term for use of Shoreline Amphitheatre Lot B for safe parking through December 31, 2030, and to increase the capacity for safe parking at Lot B. Two, enter into a lease agreement with the County of Santa Clara for safe parking at Lot B through June 30th, 2028.

[01:05:30] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Three, amend the cooperative use agreement with the County of Santa Clara for safe parking at 79 East Evelyn and 87 East Evelyn Avenue to extend the term through August 31st, 2026.

[01:05:43] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Four, enter into a fiscal year 2026-27 funding agreement with the County of Santa Clara for the provision of homelessness prevention services and programs in an amount not to exceed one million six hundred forty-eight thousand seven hundred and three dollars. And five, finding these actions to be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act to be read in title only, further reading waived.

[01:06:10] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Showalter. I see that has been seconded by Councilmember Ramirez. Next we have Councilmember Kamei.

[01:06:17] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thanks Mayor. Um I'll be supporting the motion. I just had a question for staff. Um so since you had mentioned that the length of stay and there's some new kind of requirements from a coming from the county. Um I'd be interested if you could pass on that information as it becomes available to the council.

[01:06:37] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: In particular you mentioned that there are um potential extensions and then like what's the process for the extension, how long are the extensions, what's the final final extension. I think as those come forward I'm sure all of my colleagues and I would be interested in understanding that and perhaps an off agenda memo or or an email to us would be uh most beneficial. Thanks Mayor.

[01:06:58] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Kamei. Councilmember Hicks.

[01:07:03] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I again wanted to thank Councilmember McAlister for pulling this item. I think it's something that's um important to a lot of people in the city so a little discussion is um worth our time. Um and I agree with Councilmember Showalter that this program is broadly popular. I mean people who are, like she said, both those who are very compassionate on and passionate on this issue and also people who just want the RVs off of the street have both asked me, you know, when are we going to do more spaces.

[01:07:35] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So um so I think it is popular. Um I think that the costs coming from the being paid through the Shoreline community is to me really appropriate because I think it's the fact that we have because there's an industrial park there and the fact that uh we're bringing we have over the past several decades brought more tech jobs to the community, that is one of the things that's making our um our housing less affordable and helping cause homelessness.

[01:08:08] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I think that community should you know should pay for that. Um I also um am glad that you brought up the length of stay issue and that Councilmember Kamei did. I think that is an issue and something that uh council, again, I'm leaving, that means you all, uh will have to work on um because I think it is, I think we saw it as an opportunity to engage with people and help them move on, not long-term camping.

[01:08:35] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um and I think that also ultimately this is a program that we want to go away. Ultimately we want people to be housed in housing. But um I think with the situation I mean I think people can see there's not enough money going towards it and other things so the housing emergency continues and as long as that continues I think we'll probably have some not ideal programs like this. And so I will be voting for it, I will be supporting the motion.

[01:09:05] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Hicks. Councilmember McAlister.

[01:09:08] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, my comments now. Um as I say, I I remember Dr. uh Love in here always asking us to do stuff, and I said why don't you step up and give us some parking spaces, Pat will remember that. And they finally they tried and they couldn't do it, and so the city came along and started doing it. I believe in the pro- program then. I still believe in the program now. I will support the motion.

[01:09:35] Councilmember John McAlister: But we still need to look at the fiscal consequences on the city, are we doing a good job with the taxpayer dollar to get the people efficiently into relocated properties. And so um I understand I was also involved in getting the VTA lot, uh remember speaking with the city manager then and helping get that. So I'm actively working to get these programs working, but we still need to they I want to see the success come sooner.

[01:10:04] Councilmember John McAlister: And I'm sure the people that are sitting there for 590 or almost 600 days would like it too. So I believe in the project, I'm going to support the motion, but we need to keep an eye going forward that the escalation of costs, uh the Shoreline Community Fund is, to me, could be used maybe for something else. Right now, it's not a blank check even though it you know and I don't want that to happen, but I agree with you hopefully someday that this program will get people help people transition into more sustainable housing. And um that's my comments.

[01:10:42] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember McAlister. I'll just add a few of my own comments. Um I don't view safe parking as a solution to our housing crisis. I think homelessness is one of the most tragic and visible symptoms of our housing crisis. Uh safe parking is merely a management tool. As we deal with it, the answer is building housing at all levels of affordability and with focusing on those of the lowest income.

[01:11:12] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Um I I think about friends who have been in either safe parking or in our temporary um or or I forgot what they are called, but like our LifeMoves program. That they had they struggled getting out of it, not through any fault of their own, is just that there's not housing that they can afford to move out of. So um it is one day it it's not an ideal situation for people to be living in their vehicles.

[01:11:37] Councilmember Emily Ramos: But at this point this is the tools that we have. Um until we get the housing that they need and that they can move into. I think about as someone who is is is low income and a renter myself, I am more likely to be someone who would be in that situation, more likely to be there than a homeowner at this point.

[01:11:58] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Um and so I'm I'm in support of this motion because we do need the tools that we can have to help our residents get back on their feet while we find a way to solve our housing crisis. So um thank you Councilmember McAlister for opening up the discussion for us. Um and I believe we are ready for a vote.

[01:12:31] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right. And it's unanimous. We will now move on to Item 5, Oral Communications.

5. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC ON NONAGENDIZED ITEMS

[01:12:38] Councilmember Emily Ramos: This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic within the City Council's subject matter jurisdiction for up to three minutes during this section. State law prohibits the council from acting on non-agenda items. If you would like to speak on this item or the next item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk now.

[01:13:03] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button or in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker will have three minutes. I see one speaker in the queue. Monica Faria, um I'm sorry if I pronounced your name wrong, um please come to the dais and you have three minutes.

[01:13:40] Monica Faria: Hi, good evening Mayor uh Council Members and City Manager. Sorry, a little nervous. My name is Monica Faria and I'm your local uh government affairs representative for PG&E. I'd like to acknowledge my colleague Sergio Jimenez who previously served as your representative. I appreciate his work and partnership with the City of Mountain View and I'm grateful for his support during this transition.

[01:14:05] Monica Faria: Moving forward, I will be your primary point of contact for all PG&E related matters. If you have questions, concerns or need information regarding PG&E, I'm here to help, either by finding the answers directly or connecting you with the appropriate subject matters experts. I value strong partnerships with our local government leaders and I'm committed to being responsive and collaborative resource for you all.

[01:14:26] Monica Faria: I will be reaching out to each of you individually to schedule a meeting so I can better understand your priorities, your concerns, and provide with information of interest. I look forward to meeting you all soon and working together. Thank you for your time.

[01:14:42] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you and we look forward to complaining to you. Um...

[01:14:48] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right. We will now take virtual speakers. I see none. Therefore we will now go to Item 6, Public Hearings. So we are starting with Item 6.1, Economic Development...

6.1 Economic Development Subsidy Report and Amended and Restated Disposition and Development Agreement and Amended and Restated Ground Leases for Hope Street Lots 4 and 8

[01:15:00] Councilmember Emily Ramos: subsidy report and amended and restated disposition and development agreement and amended and restated ground leases for Hope Street lots four and eight. Assistant City Managers Dawn Cameron and Arn Andrews will present the item. If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk now. We're ready for you.

[01:15:26] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: Thank you very much. So good evening Mayor, Vice Mayor, Councilmembers. I am Dawn Cameron, Assistant City Manager, and joining me tonight on the dais is Assistant City Manager Arn Andrews.

[01:15:43] Assistant City Manager Arn Andrews: What? Did I miss something?

[01:15:46] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: Okay. All right, thank you.

[01:15:51] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: So we're here tonight to present recommended amendments to the disposition and development agreement and ground leases for Hope Street lots four and eight, located in downtown between West Evelyn Avenue and Villa Street. Any action Council takes tonight will be in the Council's role as the property owner, not as the land use authority. Council will consider potential entitlements in its regulatory capacity at a later date.

[01:16:17] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: The Council selected Robert Green Company, or RGC, to develop a hotel on lot four and an office building on lot eight in 2016. By 2021, the city was prepared to issue the building permits. However, the pandemic's impact on the hotel industry and construction loan costs made proceeding into construction unfeasible, and the project was paused under the financing extension clause in the disposition and development agreement, also known as the DDA.

[01:16:47] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: Last June, Council approved amending the DDA to extend the financing extension to March 31st, 2026, in order to provide time to negotiate further amendments to the DDA and ground leases.

[01:17:03] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: The recommended amendments incorporate three key modifications to address the changed conditions and to position the city to receive revenue and economic benefits from the development. First, allow the hotel to proceed prior to the office building development, rather than being constructed concurrently as originally required.

[01:17:24] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: Second, change the parking plans to allow the hotel to be built at grade with hotel parking provided via a valet parking model utilizing shared parking with nearby properties, and replace lot four public parking in the planned lot five parking structure. The lot eight office building would continue to include on-site parking for office needs and to replace its public parking spaces.

[01:17:50] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: Third, change the city's financial participation in the hotel to be a transit occupancy tax, or TOT rebates, and reduced rent, with no up-front capital funding. This approach minimizes the city's financial risks and eliminates the obligation to use any city funds on the project.

[01:18:10] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: Exhibit A to the resolution lists the recommended business terms for the amended DDA and ground leases. Based on these terms, the size and scale of the hotel building will be the same as the one that was approved in 2018, with the exception of the new parking plans already presented.

[01:18:28] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: The city will participate financially through a reduced rent structure that begins at no rent for the first five years of hotel operations and increases incrementally to 100% of rent annually by year 21. Extra rent will be due starting in year 31 to partially pay back the earlier rent reductions.

[01:18:50] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: RGC will receive a rebate of 100% of the current 10% TOT rate for up to 15 years. A net present value limit has been set to allow the TOT rebate to end sooner if hotel room revenue exceed current projections.

[01:19:08] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: RGC will pay bonus rent in the event the hotel's revenues exceed the pro forma projections, and participation rent should the hotel be sold or refinanced.

[01:19:19] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: As part of other financial terms, RGC will pay 6.6 million to the city for the replacement of the lot four public parking spaces unless the Council has approved an alternative method to replace these spaces. RGC will also pay past due permit fees, and city will defer payment of certain impact fees until the hotel is completed.

[01:19:40] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: The city's financial participation in the form of reduced rent and TOT rebates is an economic development subsidy according to state government code. The total economic development subsidy is estimated to be 47.5 million over the 55-year initial lease term.

[01:20:04] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: Based on the hotel pro forma for the initial 55 years, it is projected that the city will receive over 433 million in ground rent, TOT, sales taxes, and possessory interest taxes. This is a conservative estimate that does not include any bonus or participation rents received, any future increases in the TOT rate, or sales taxes generated by hotel guests visiting other Mountain View businesses.

[01:20:33] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: In addition to revenue for the city, a hotel will also provide significant economic benefits, with more foot traffic for downtown restaurants, shops, and entertainment, as well as job creation.

[01:20:46] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: The amended DDA includes timeline performance requirements, starting with the planning permit application for the hotel being submitted no later than the end of this July. Based on these performance requirements, the hotel could open for business as early as mid-2029, but no later than spring 2031.

[01:21:13] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: Based on the recommended business terms, the size and scale of the office building on lot eight will be the same as the one that was approved in 2018. The DDA does allow RGC to propose changes to the building size, how parking is provided, and lease rates, subject to Council approval, when they are ready to move forward with the planning permit application.

[01:21:36] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: The city will not be providing an economic development subsidy for the office building. RGC will pay the greater of a minimum base rent or a rent based on a percentage of gross revenues. Similar to the hotel, RGC will also pay bonus rent and participation rent when appropriate.

[01:21:57] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: The amended DDA includes timeline performance requirements for the office building as well, starting with a notice of intent to submit a planning permit application no later than the end of 2028.

[01:22:10] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: In conclusion, staff recommends Council hold a public hearing on the economic development subsidy for the lot four hotel development and adopt a resolution approving the business terms for the amended DDA and leases, authorizing the City Manager to execute the documents, and make the necessary findings for these actions. Thank you.

[01:22:34] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. Does any member of the Council have questions?

[01:22:42] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Waiting.

[01:22:46] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right. Councilmember McAlister.

[01:22:49] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, I just have two questions. One, why does there need to be a public hearing for that particular item?

[01:22:58] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: It is a requirement of the state government code about the economic development subsidy that the City Council must hold a public hearing about the subsidy.

[01:23:08] Councilmember John McAlister: And what would be discussed? The public, I mean, so what...

[01:23:11] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: So the requirements included that the city post the economic development subsidy report, which is attachment one to your council report, on our website in advance of this meeting, and that we post a notice in a newspaper about the public hearing and informing the public of where they can preview the economic development subsidy report in advance of the meeting. So the purpose of the hearing tonight is to hear whether there's any public comment on the economic development subsidy that you are considering granting to the hotel, before you take action on amending the DDA and leases that would grant this economic development subsidy.

[01:23:56] Councilmember John McAlister: So if you're asked to approve it tonight, but then we have to do the meeting before we can have a final approval of it?

[01:24:02] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: Tonight is your public hearing. When you open it up for public comment, that's your public hearing.

[01:24:07] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, great. And the other question I have, since Pat and, Councilmember Showalter and I were here when we first approved it, so it seems like deja vu or, you know, we're not, doing a lot of things happened during COVID. So I, my motto this time on Council is GSD, for those who want to figure it out, get stuff done. So, for us to get this done, what can staff do to expedite the permitting process for this project?

[01:24:44] Assistant City Manager Dawn Cameron: I think it would be most appropriate for the Community Development Director to help respond to that question.

[01:24:53] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Good evening honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council. Christian Murdock, Community Development Director. So there are a couple things that I think are likely to help with efficient processing of the permits, should Council support moving forward with the proposal tonight. The first is that we've offered to the developer the opportunity to submit what's called an at-risk application, and what that means is they can submit for the building permit review prior to obtaining city approval of the planning or zoning permits.

[01:25:23] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: That can save several months typically, if not more, off of the building permit review process. As the name suggests, there is risk in doing so because something could change in the planning permit review and approval process. But nevertheless, most of the time-consuming aspects of structural detail review and so forth, those aspects can be completed earlier in the process.

[01:25:43] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: The other piece here that's helpful is the overall hotel project is largely the same as what was reviewed previously, and so we aren't likely to have to do extensive ground-up review of the project in the same way we did when it was a new submittal. So that is something that should be able to help us more efficiently get through the planning and zoning process.

[01:26:04] Councilmember John McAlister: Is there, is there staff capacity to help get this project reviewed efficiently?

[01:26:14] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: So we do have staff that remain that are familiar with the project in its prior iteration, and that have spent some time working on this item currently. And so I'm not concerned about a staff capacity issue at this point.

[01:26:27] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, thank you.

[01:26:32] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. Thank you Councilmember McAlister. Seeing no other Council questions, would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker will have two minutes. I am seeing no speakers.

[01:26:54] Councilmember Emily Ramos: We will now take virtual speakers. I am seeing no hands. So we will take it back to the Council. Thank you. I will bring the item back for Council questions and deliberation. Please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolution attached to the report. I see there is a motion by Councilmember Clark, seconded by Councilmember McAlister. Councilmember Clark, would you like to speak to your motion first?

[01:27:21] Councilmember Chris Clark: Yes, so we've held the public hearing, so I move that we adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View approving business terms and authorizing the City Manager or designee to execute an amended and restated disposition and development agreement and amended and restated ground leases between the City of Mountain View and RGC Mountain View I, LLC, for the development of Hope Street lots four and eight,

[01:27:43] Councilmember Chris Clark: making findings for the amended and restated ground leases to exceed 55 years and finding that the approval does not constitute a project pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act, to be read in title only, further reading waived.

[01:27:57] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Vice Mayor Clark. We now will go to council, Councilmember Hicks.

[01:28:05] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So Mayor, I don't know if you want us to declare whether we met with the developer, but I don't know if we do that during public hearings, but I did meet with him at one point. And seems like maybe that's neither here nor there. I will be supporting the motion, and I just wanted to say a couple things that are important to me about this economic development opportunity.

[01:28:30] Councilmember Alison Hicks: First, maybe the minor one, is that for people who listened carefully there or read the report, there's valet parking involved with this proposal, and that's something that I really like. That I think that we are losing parking downtown, with our lot 12 affordable housing and various other things going on downtown, but we actually have a tremendous amount of parking downtown, it's just underneath the offices and is not used a lot.

[01:28:58] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I like the idea of the hotel using it. I hope that can be sort of a pilot project, for call it that, for possibly other business people downtown using that valuable unused space as well, that resource.

[01:29:14] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And then the other thing I was gonna say is that, you know, this hotel will be really a great step forward for our, I believe, for our economic vitality plan. It should help us with, you know, more foot traffic, it should help us reduce vacancies downtown, help our existing restaurants and other businesses thrive, add to the diversity of the city's revenue sources,

[01:29:41] Councilmember Alison Hicks: and also make our downtown an even better entertainment zone, community gathering space, urban park, or as Councilmember McAlister says, maybe a community building opportunity. But in order for that to work we have to maintain the other things that we need to make the downtown work,

[01:30:03] Councilmember Alison Hicks: namely, making sure it has a sense of place, preserve the key historic features, make sure we keep a mix of uses on the ground floor. That's what we're, ground floors on Castro Street in particular. And do a good job on an SB 79 alternative plan.

[01:30:23] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I think there are a number of things that we need to do, it's not just approving this tonight, but a number of other ingredients we need to add to the mix to make sure that this is a success. And with that, I will be supporting the motion.

[01:30:59] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Hicks. Before we go to my other colleagues, Assistant City Attorney, I don't have a trigger here to ask for disclosures. Is this something that our colleagues need to disclose whether or not we have met with the applicant or not?

[01:31:15] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Mayor, since you've basically asked the council if they would like to make any disclosures, I think you can do so now.

[01:31:22] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Okay. Um, I guess, so we have most of our colleagues in the docket, if not feel free to add yourself in. Oh, okay. Has anyone met with the applicant? You can raise your hand. All right. Consider yourselves disclosed. Councilmember Showalter.

[01:31:40] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Thank you. Yeah. Um, we have been working on this a long time, as Councilmember McAlister mentioned. And the reason we've been working on it a long time is we think that having a hotel in downtown will really be a wonderful feature for our community. That there'll be all sorts of economic vitality, it'll be a wonderful meeting place, I mean, that there's just a lot of benefits for it.

[01:32:07] Councilmember Pat Showalter: But the economics of hotels are very difficult, they ebb and flow. And we don't, we're not responsible for that, but we're obviously subject to that. And currently, this developer thinks that the economics are a go. So we need to take advantage of that now while we have this opportunity.

[01:32:30] Councilmember Pat Showalter: So. And then the other thing I wanted to mention is the creative way that the DDA has been written up, so that we're not out any current money with this arrangement. The credits that we are giving to for this hotel are essentially credits for future taxes that we're, you know, we won't be collecting like the TOT tax, the hotel tax.

[01:32:55] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And I think that's, you know, that's a very good way to do it and certainly much less of a problem to our current budget. So I want to thank the whoever came up with that. And I think it's a really good idea, so yes I will be supporting it.

[01:33:16] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Showalter. Councilmember McAlister.

[01:33:20] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, I met with the developer in 2019, uh 2016. And uh, so I'll disclose that way back when. My apologies to the Vice Mayor, he was right there with me on all these other projects that I've been talking about that we've seen since we've come back, so we're trying to get those done.

[01:33:39] Councilmember John McAlister: But you know, I, this particular project, now that we have a vehicle, light rail to the Levi's Stadium, it's a great opportunity to bring downtown, we missed the Super Bowl, we're gonna miss the World Cup. So, the sooner we get this done, the city's gonna see, to me, a significant economic opportunity there to tie in with what's happening in Santa Clara,

[01:34:04] Councilmember John McAlister: because we have that simple, easy way to come to Mountain View, park, get on light rail, and get to that stadium without having major congestion, and maybe we might even be able to attract somebody that's doing a concert there to come down Mountain View and stay at our new hotel. But I'm excited about getting this done. Enthusiastic from the get-go. And there's nothing but positive for this project.

[01:34:35] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember McAlister. Councilmember Kamei.

[01:34:39] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thanks Mayor. Um, so I think colleagues have talked a lot about the benefits, so I just want to take an opportunity to thank staff. This is obviously, as some mentioned, a long time in the making, but I think that there was representatives from every department that we have in the city talking about this, bringing this forward, to be as creative as possible.

[01:35:00] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Most of all I want to thank the applicant. You've made yourself readily available time and time again over this last decade to continue the conversation, ask for feedback, and I think that's what's led to today and what we're seeing, and hopefully we're gonna see another project where we've had a decade in the making after this.

[01:35:20] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: But I think what I truly appreciate is the collaborative nature and how it's been so solution-oriented both on the applicant side, but also on the city and staff side. And as Councilmember Showalter mentioned, you know there's some sacrifices we need to make now, but we'll be able to, through the hard work of staff, be able to recoup and hopefully gain some financial benefits on the other end for some of the things we need to do now.

[01:35:47] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: And so I hope that as we are thinking about not only economic vitality but the future of our city, we continue to keep this spirit going, and then be thinking about, and appreciate as we're discussing economic vitality, a mixture of uses. And I appreciate that conversation, it's not just we're talking about retail, we're talking about maybe maker spaces or child care, or something to make sure that we're filling and truly addressing economic vitality in all the different buckets with which that could be. And I know we talked about it in this space as well. So thank you very much.

[01:36:23] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Kamei. Does anyone else have any comments on council? Seeing none, I think we're ready for a vote. Yay.

[01:36:43] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much, congratulations to our, to that development. Um, now we will move on to item 6.2, residential development at 555 West Middlefield, which I think is going to be the big docket tonight. Would any council members like to make disclosures?

6.2 Residential Development at 555 West Middlefield Road

[01:37:06] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you Mayor, I'll disclose that I met with the applicant some time ago.

[01:37:18] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. Councilmember Hicks.

[01:37:20] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I also met with the applicant some time ago.

[01:37:23] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Councilmember Showalter.

[01:37:24] Councilmember Pat Showalter: I met with the applicant some time ago and just a couple days ago.

[01:37:28] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Councilmember Kamei.

[01:37:30] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: I met with the applicant.

[01:37:32] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Kamei. And I did too. Thank you Vice Mayor Clark. We will now move on to the presentation. Planning Manager George Schroeder, I'm so sorry, did I, was that right? Um, and Assistant Community Development Director Amber Blizinski will present the item. If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk now.

[01:38:19] Planning Manager George Schroeder: Good evening Mayor Ramos and Council. My name is George Schroeder, Planning Manager. I'm joined by Amber Blizinski, Assistant Director of Community Development, for this project. Located at 555 West Middlefield Road. Staff has prepared a brief presentation outlining the project, and I'll begin by providing some context regarding the project location.

[01:38:51] Planning Manager George Schroeder: The approximately 14.5 acre project site is located in the P or planned community zoning district. It has a general plan land use designation of high-low density residential, and the existing development consists of an apartment community with surface parking.

[01:39:08] Planning Manager George Schroeder: To the north and south are condominium communities, to the east is Highway 85 and Stevens Creek. To the west is a service station and across Moffett Boulevard, a mobile home park and shopping center. There is an active approval for a mixed-use development on the shopping center site, but the timing for construction is unknown at this point as no building permits have been submitted yet.

[01:39:30] Planning Manager George Schroeder: The applicant, AvalonBay Communities, would demolish the existing parking areas and amenity spaces at the existing apartment complex, and construct three new multifamily buildings ranging from three to five stories, totaling 323 units, including amenity spaces and structured parking for two of the buildings, along with a new surface parking lot for the other.

[01:39:51] Planning Manager George Schroeder: There would be a 1.34-acre park land dedication for a future city park. And the applicant requests a heritage tree removal permit to remove 88 heritage trees.

[01:40:00] City Staff: plan, and replace heritage trees on site. Lastly, the project requests a vesting tentative map to create three lots for the project site.

[01:40:08] City Staff: Building A would consist of demolishing the existing amenity building and constructing a new 30-unit apartment building with above-ground structured parking. Building B would demolish carport parking, construct a new 97-unit residential condominium or stacked flats building, including 10 rowhouse style units with attached two-car garages along Cypress Point Drive and surface parking spaces for the stacked flats.

[01:40:33] City Staff: Building C would demolish surface parking, constructing a new 196-unit apartment building with above-ground structured parking. And the applicant would demolish the tennis courts to dedicate a 1.34-acre future city park.

[01:40:47] City Staff: The park land provided exceeds the requirement by 0.75 acres. And in recognition of this surplus, staff is recommending a deferral on the timing of the park land acceptance, as it would provide flexibility for the applicant and help better manage construction logistics.

[01:41:03] City Staff: There was a previous approval at the site in 2022, where the city approved a general plan amendment to high-low density residential, as well as a similar project to add 323 units with a dedication of a 1.34-acre park in the same location.

[01:41:20] City Staff: The applicant is no longer pursuing that 2022 project due to changing economic conditions. And the proposed project differs from the 2022 project through increased building heights on two buildings, and proposing above-ground parking instead of below-grade. Additionally, eight fewer tree removals are proposed.

[01:41:39] City Staff: The new buildings are oriented towards the pedestrian realm along all three street frontages. Parking areas are minimized from public view by either being located behind or within buildings.

[01:41:50] City Staff: Various on-site amenities are proposed throughout the project site, including open space areas, private residential balconies, a rooftop pool deck, bicycle parking, and fitness rooms. Additionally, a new publicly accessible pedestrian and bicycle path, as shown in orange, runs along the future city park and would connect Middlefield Road with Cypress Point Drive.

[01:42:11] City Staff: The applicant will provide 48 deed-restricted below market rate units at varying income levels, which will be dispersed throughout the new buildings, including both ownership and rental units. The applicant will also pay an in-lieu fee for the resulting fractional unit.

[01:42:26] City Staff: Overall, the project's affordable housing proposal complies with the city's affordable housing ordinance. The project is eligible for a 20% density bonus because it provides more than 10% of the units for low-income households. However, the applicant is not proposing any density bonus units above what the general plan allows.

[01:42:46] City Staff: The applicant does not request any concessions under the state density bonus law, but requests six waivers that would otherwise preclude the construction of the development. And these would be for floor area ratio, setbacks, height, open area, personal storage, and bicycle parking.

[01:43:03] City Staff: The frontages of Building A and B can be seen here. The proposed architectural design is well-articulated with high quality of building elements as well as breaks in massing which complement adjoining land uses. Along streetscape frontages, durable, cohesive materials as well as stooped entry porches and active interior spaces create a strong connection to the pedestrian realm.

[01:43:26] City Staff: Here is the proposed vesting tentative map, which includes the creation of three lots. One for condominium purposes to accommodate 97 condominium units. One for the existing and proposed apartment units, and one for the future city park. Also, the publicly accessible pedestrian and bicycle path is shown in blue on the map.

[01:43:47] City Staff: The project contains 442 existing trees, including 251 heritage-sized trees. And the applicant would preserve 163 of these heritage trees and remove 88 trees, with 39 of those trees to be relocated on site.

[01:44:02] City Staff: The heritage trees to be removed are either in poor condition, are in the development footprint, or in the case of the trees along the freeway, require removal due to regrading. The tree removals will be replaced by 212 new trees on site, and the applicant would preserve 20 of the 21 existing street trees along the project frontages.

[01:44:23] City Staff: Here is the project circulation plan that shows pedestrian and vehicular access. There would remain two vehicular access points along West Middlefield Road, and the seven existing vehicular access points would be reduced to three along Cypress Point Drive.

[01:44:38] City Staff: A multi-modal transportation assessment was conducted which demonstrates compliance with the VTA's guidelines, as well as no adverse traffic operational impacts on any nearby intersection. The project is not subject to any minimum parking requirements due to the site's location within a half mile of major transit stops.

[01:44:56] City Staff: The project includes a transportation demand management plan with various programs aimed to achieve a 10% peak hour reduction. The project is statutorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, under the recent AB 130, as it meets all the qualifying criteria for the exemption.

[01:45:15] City Staff: The applicant also held two neighborhood meetings last year with residents of the existing apartment community, and with the neighboring condominium communities. We also received numerous emails from members of the community and advocacy groups throughout the project review.

[01:45:29] City Staff: The subdivision committee also reviewed the vesting tentative map on March 4th of this year, and recommended its approval to the city council. Here is the full staff recommendation on each permit requested as well as the CEQA findings.

[01:45:44] City Staff: And this concludes staff's presentation, and Community Development and Public Works staff, including the project planner Sam Hughes, senior planner, are available to answer any questions, as well as the city's environmental consultant. Thank you.

[01:45:57] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. We will now have a presentation from the applicant. And I'm so sorry if I'm getting these names really wrong. Charlie Koch, Development Director from AvalonBay Communities.

[01:46:09] Councilmember Emily Ramos: And Joe Kirchofer, feel free to correct me on those names when you get up here. Senior Vice President, Northern California Development of AvalonBay Communities. You will see seven minutes on the clock.

[01:46:25] Charlie Koch: Hi. Charlie Koch, I'm a development director with AvalonBay Communities. I'm here with Joe Kirchofer and other members of our project team to speak to you about the proposed development project at 555 West Middlefield Road.

[01:46:39] Charlie Koch: I want to start by thanking council for considering our proposal and staff for the extensive amount of time that they have put into reviewing the project plans. This project is a new proposal at a site that has a previously approved project.

[01:46:55] Charlie Koch: Council approved it in 2022. That project was originally proposed back in 2016. And that project was proposed at a time that had significantly different economic conditions to the ones that we have today.

[01:47:13] Charlie Koch: Unfortunately, after a couple of years of hoping for those conditions to improve, following that project approval, Joe and I went back to the drawing board and realized we needed to come up with a new design to be able to deliver new housing for Mountain View and for AvalonBay.

[01:47:30] Charlie Koch: We went back to the drawing board and thought about how we could keep a project as close to the previously approved project as possible while improving project financial feasibility. AvalonBay is a long-term owner of the projects that it develops, and we have had a presence in Mountain View and the Bay Area for a long time.

[01:47:54] Charlie Koch: I'm going to keep this presentation pretty high level but happy to answer any detailed questions during Q&A. On this slide, we have some project highlights. I think the fact that we are replacing surface parking lots in this proposal with attractive new housing and landscaping is really the primary benefit of this project for the city.

[01:48:14] Charlie Koch: We're creating 323 new homes without displacing any of the existing residences on site. We're also planning to provide 48 new affordable homes and donating a 1.34 acres of land to the city for the creation of a new public park, which is a significant over-contribution relative to the city's current public park dedication requirements.

[01:48:43] Charlie Koch: In addition, we are offering a $2 million voluntary community benefit contribution. Next slide, please. Here's a site plan which planning staff expertly walked us through.

[01:48:57] Charlie Koch: I do want to highlight that the primary change to make this project financially feasible has to do with bringing the parking, which in the previous proposal was to be underground, into the new configuration, which is in surface parking lots and above-grade parking garages concealed from public view on the street.

[01:49:20] Charlie Koch: This new proposal also maintains as much of the tree preservation as was committed to in the previous proposal, including preservation of certain key stands of heritage redwood trees. Next slide, please.

[01:49:37] Charlie Koch: Here's a rendered view of Building A. A four-story building with 30 units in it. This will be the amenities hub for the new property. And all of these amenities, including extensive ones on the ground floor as well as a rooftop pool deck, will be available to the renters of the existing buildings as well as the new ones.

[01:50:03] Charlie Koch: On the next slide, we can see Building B. This corner of the property is the most prominent and we spent a long time working with planning staff in the original approval on this design. We think it turned out really well. And in the updated project design we have maintained the same aesthetic.

[01:50:24] Charlie Koch: There are also streetscape enhancements included with Building B on Moffett Boulevard. Those include a bus boarding island, a protected bike lane, as well as a widened sidewalk. And all of that aligns with the city's vision for Moffett.

[01:50:41] Charlie Koch: On the next slide, we have a view of Building C. This view highlights a entry courtyard where the building steps back from the street. We think that this really helps create a differentiation in the building massing and helps to welcome residents and the community to the property.

[01:51:03] Charlie Koch: This particular building, as well as Building B, include extensive stoop entries to units to help engage the street. The garage in this building has been configured to face Highway 85. On the next slide, I just want to highlight a few additional project benefits.

[01:51:23] Charlie Koch: There's going to be a new public access easement cutting through the site from Middlefield Road to Cypress Point Drive. That'll be available to pedestrians and cyclists on a otherwise very large block to go around.

[01:51:39] Charlie Koch: We also, as a part of the redesign of the parking, have been able to reduce the planned overall construction duration. That construction duration, as well as the construction emissions in the previously approved project, were a major point of community concern.

[01:51:57] Charlie Koch: And by not needing to dig large pits for those parking garages, we think that this new project design effectively addresses that concern. On the final slide, just to conclude, this is the kind of project that by providing new affordable units, avoiding displacement of existing renters, dedicating a large public park,

[01:52:21] Charlie Koch: and providing high-quality landscaping in a transit-oriented location is the exact kind of project that Mountain View wants for its new housing. And the improvements made to the project design address some of the community concerns that were voiced in the previous approval.

[01:52:39] Charlie Koch: I appreciate the time, and myself and our project team are here to answer any questions. Thank you.

[01:52:51] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. Does any member of the council have questions either for our staff or the applicant? I see one from Councilmember Ramirez.

[01:53:00] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. Two questions. The first is, what is the origin of the voluntary $2 million community benefit contribution? And a related question is, how do we intend to use that money?

[01:53:17] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So, I can start with the origin and I think I would ask for some assistance from Community Development Director on if there's potential to answer the second part of the question.

[01:53:29] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So in the original approved project, the previous one, the community benefits contribution was 1.977. And so I think that the applicant, you know, has just stuck to that commitment of a community benefits payment to the city and at that rate of $2 million. I will...

[01:54:01] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Good evening Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council, Christian Murdock, Community Development Director. Most often, those types of payments, community benefits payments, for example, are something that's prioritized with the Public Works Department in terms of capital improvements.

[01:54:15] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: So depending on the timing and needs in a particular area, it can go towards improvements like park development, park enhancements, bike ped infrastructure enhancements, other sorts of transportation improvements.

[01:54:28] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: And so, it really depends when the timing becomes clearer on receipt of those funds, going through the process with the Public Works Department to try to bring forward a project that makes sense at that time.

[01:54:41] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. Councilmember Ramirez. Councilmember Showalter.

[01:54:44] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I have a couple questions. Um, I think they're for the developer, but I'm not sure. Um, one is, I understand that Building B is being mapped for condos, which, um, is excellent. And, um, I'm just wondering what kind of experience AvalonBay has with condos.

[01:55:03] Councilmember Pat Showalter: You know, I'm familiar with several of your projects in Mountain View and I don't think they include any. So I just wondered about that. And I also understand that you're not going to... the plan is not to sell them as condos initially, but to rent them.

[01:55:19] Joe Kirchofer: Uh, yeah, that's correct. So, um, Joe Kirchofer with AvalonBay. Thank you council members for having us tonight. Um, that's correct. So, we're, our core business is to own, develop, own, build, manage apartment buildings. And so, our holdings in Mountain View, we own over a thousand units in Mountain View. Those are all rental, rental properties.

[01:55:41] Joe Kirchofer: We have very sparingly in other, you know, in other projects done a very small number of condo buildings ourselves. But for this project, as you explained, the plan is to build all the buildings, all 323 new units, operate them all as rentals, but have the option in the future, that Building B could be separated out, could be sold separately, and that could be something that could be converted to ownership housing in the future.

[01:56:06] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Great. Okay. Thank you. And then... Yeah, I guess that's it for right now.

[01:56:16] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you, Councilmember Showalter. Councilmember Hicks.

[01:56:21] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, I have some questions about sidewalks. For people who don't come to council meetings on a regular basis, council members have the opportunity to ask questions in written form ahead of our questions now. And there are a couple that council members submitted on sidewalks, and I'm still not clear.

[01:56:42] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, one of the questions noted that the setback on Moffett is four feet less than the previous project. And another question asks, does the city have a set standard for sidewalks? And that answer says something about five foot detached sidewalks and a five foot landscape strip.

[01:57:00] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I'm left not understanding what the sidewalk along Moffett is here, and also a little concerned that it might be some like a five foot sidewalk which is the sidewalk minimum frankly. And it's, I live in a single family home and it's for people walking by single family homes basically.

[01:57:23] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And with so many more people on the street, it must be wider. So I just want to know what the... I could not figure it out looking at the plans.

[01:57:43] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Sure, I think we'd ask our colleagues from public works if they can speak to the sidewalk... or the applicant.

[01:57:56] Charlie Koch: So the sidewalk along Moffett is designed to be eight feet wide. The reduction in the setback is from the back of the sidewalk to the face of the building. And so that reduction in the setback did not affect the proposed sidewalk width.

[01:58:15] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Thank you very much, that's exactly what I wanted to know. And I imagine because this is more urban then the question here with the answer on the five foot sidewalk and the five foot planting strip is probably for less urban neighborhoods. I imagine here there's no planting strip adjacent to the street.

[01:58:37] Charlie Koch: Yeah, so along Moffett Boulevard that design is to include a protected bike lane, and so that's using up some of the width that, for example, along Cypress Point Drive is being used for a five foot planting strip and then a five foot sidewalk.

[01:58:55] Charlie Koch: So if you have a total of ten feet to play with, and you use eight feet for the eight foot sidewalk, and you need a little bit of space for the protected bike lane, then really the landscaping for us ends up behind the sidewalk.

[01:59:12] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And on Moffett, are there tree wells within the eight feet? There's no additional like furniture strip is what people call it sometimes.

[01:59:24] Charlie Koch: Right, there aren't additional tree plantings between the sidewalk and the curb.

[01:59:29] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So they're within that eight foot stretch?

[01:59:33] Charlie Koch: We have tree plantings behind back of walk within the project site.

[01:59:38] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Okay. Closer to the building instead.

[01:59:40] Charlie Koch: Yeah, closer to the building. Not between the sidewalk and the street.

[01:59:44] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Correct. Okay, thank you very much.

[01:59:48] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you, Councilmember Hicks. Councilmember McAlister.

[01:59:52] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, thank you. Councilmember Hicks, about the sidewalks, that was a concern of mine. But I was more concerned with going down further, where the regulatory... I mean, I just got back from a week in Arizona and their sidewalks are very wide. Washington D.C. has very wide sidewalks.

[02:00:13] Councilmember John McAlister: And I think everything I see around here, you know, it makes it more enjoyable to have a wide sidewalk, it's more comfortable. And I think that should be the new standard as I see we're going to do that. So, following up, I asked the question, how can this standard be changed?

[02:00:30] Councilmember John McAlister: And the staff responded with, a formal regulatory action by the city. Is that something that seems that we could do sooner than later?

[02:00:44] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I think we'll let our colleagues from Public Works answer that one.

[02:00:50] Councilmember John McAlister: Would be nice to get it done before Councilmember Hicks leaves the council.

[02:00:56] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: Good evening, Jennifer Ing, Public Works Director. Uh, one of the things that we'll be embarking upon soon with our friends in community development is the development of the citywide objective design standards.

[02:01:09] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: Now that's primarily targeted for multi-family and mixed-use development, but we'll probably capitalize upon that opportunity to look at sidewalk standards just holistically, rather than just for one particular type of development.

[02:01:22] Councilmember John McAlister: So when you say is... I can't say that word. I mean, okay. Holistically. Well, okay, so that's sort of generic. Is there a way to be more definitive about, yes, we would like to require wider sidewalks?

[02:01:36] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: Yeah, happy to take that feedback. I hear you guys loud and clear. I think that's also an objective that we'll be looking at as staff as we start the citywide objective design standards.

[02:01:48] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. And my other...

[02:01:50] Public Works Director Jennifer Ing: Thank you.

[02:01:51] Councilmember John McAlister: You're welcome.

[02:01:52] Councilmember John McAlister: Since I sort of sidetracked. But where is, uh, Joe? And... Joe can take it or... Joe, I'm trying to hide back here. Okay. So, gentlemen, I met with them via Zoom, and so now here's the question I presented to you before and you have an opportunity to... The question I asked those two gentlemen was, you're building a lot of housing. How are you building a community with all that housing?

[02:02:15] Joe Kirchofer: Sure, that's, I mean, thank you for asking that question. I think it's a great question. Um, I'd go back to one of the things that Charlie mentioned in his remarks. Uh, we're not just a, just a developer. Um, our company is to, you know, yes, we're on the front end of the process developing new buildings. We have our own contractor to build those buildings.

[02:02:33] Joe Kirchofer: But our business model is also to own these buildings over the long term, over decades. We purchased this property in 2013, you know, the other buildings we've owned in Mountain View we've owned for decades. Um, and so our success isn't really measured in just that first process, you know, hey people are really excited to move into this building.

[02:02:48] Joe Kirchofer: We want people to be excited to move in and then excited to stay and stay for a while. Um, and so we, we create community, you know, as part of that process to help us be more successful. Um, and we do it in a few different ways. I'd point out some things as part of the design, the way the buildings have been laid out and designed.

[02:03:05] Joe Kirchofer: Um, we have one, you know, sort of central amenity area in Building A. Um, that's the way the building is currently designed, there's a central amenity building. We've kept that concept with the new amenity building. All the amenities are shared amongst all the buildings, new and old. So there's not any sort of delineation between, you know, you live in one of the older buildings versus you live in one of the newer buildings.

[02:03:25] Joe Kirchofer: Um, and then we've also expanded sort of that concept to the broader community where, you know, you saw on the plan the bike/ped connection that runs through the block. You know, that's going to be open to the public, that's going to bring people from surrounding communities into and through the, through the property.

[02:03:41] Joe Kirchofer: Um, and then obviously the biggest thing we're doing is taking over an acre of space and, you know, currently private mostly parking lot space and opening that to the public as a future public park, which will be a great way to bring both our residents and the surrounding community members together.

[02:03:55] Joe Kirchofer: Um, and then because we are the long-term owner, um, we have our own AvalonBay staff that are, um, operating these buildings, maintaining, uh, you know, doing maintenance in these buildings. Um, so we do, you know, we do resident events, we try to get people together. You know, it's not like an everyday thing, people are busy living their lives, but we try to do, you know, every few weeks there's, you know, something as small as there's donuts in the lobby on Fridays, to sort of wine tasting things, to, you know, get to know your neighbor things.

[02:04:22] Joe Kirchofer: Um, and so that's a sort of a regular part of our programming for the properties. Um, and then we, also one of the things that we pride ourselves on, and if you look at like things like Google reviews and, you know, reviews of apartment buildings, we have our own staff on site.

[02:04:36] Joe Kirchofer: We try to make that part of the reason that people want to stay. And so you see a lot of comments about, oh, that maintenance person was so helpful and was so nice and was so friendly. That goes a really long way in making people feel like their home is a home that they want to stay in.

[02:04:49] Joe Kirchofer: And so those are the things that it's not, you know, it's not something that's on our slides or in our plan, but, you know, the person that greets you as you come in and out every day, um, that's our employee.

[02:05:00] Public Speaker: employee and part of their job is to make sure you feel great when uh when you're coming home.

[02:05:04] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay, thank you. Um, my other question is now for uh staff. The uh Vehicle Miles Traveled, now, things have changed, and the reason I I saw that on the one on Middlefield, I saw it here with some other project,

[02:05:22] Councilmember John McAlister: and each one of these projects that come up uh that says this is gonna be a little impact, and I saw a uh letter from the residents of the Crescent or Crespi,

[02:05:35] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Cypress.

[02:05:36] Councilmember John McAlister: Cypress, whatever.

[02:05:38] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, the streets, yeah.

[02:05:39] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Cypress, yeah.

[02:05:40] Councilmember John McAlister: Cypress, yeah, that was not even close. Cypress. Um, where they were concerns about the traffic. And this is this is a broader question to staff. I'm concerned about the traffic, and

[02:05:50] Councilmember John McAlister: you it says assume or presume and some of these questions come up that, you know, this is this is exempt. And yet, this is a large development. Prometheus is developing on the other side of the street,

[02:06:03] Councilmember John McAlister: and yet they say, well, we have to take these independently, but I'm concerned that there's a cumulative effect. And a this concerns me when I was on council before is that

[02:06:14] Councilmember John McAlister: each of these cannot be looked upon as individual projects, they have to be looked at the totality of all of them. The cumulative effect of all the other building that's going around 'cause that is gonna compound it. And so

[02:06:24] Councilmember John McAlister: staff could you help me understand how you can sit there and say, or just write, that there is no impact of the traffic coming in? There's no impact from across the street with Prometheus? There's no impact

[02:06:36] Councilmember John McAlister: over on Middlefield where Prometheus has their projects that they're gonna be building? That none of these have a pr- have an effect on the traffic? 'Cause traffic causes, you know, parking's gonna be potentially

[02:06:46] Councilmember John McAlister: out in the street if there's if there's not enough parking. There's congestion of people going all at one time. If you have a dead-end street, they're gonna have all these cars coming out. So, help me understand

[02:06:55] Councilmember John McAlister: how you when they say VMT or because you're near a major transit center. And a- and the people on this council, I probably have more experience with light rail and the lack of experience, uh, success of light rail. It's

[02:07:13] Councilmember John McAlister: has very expensive to run, and yet we're putting um the uh people's quality of life based on a light rail system that is rarely used. And I thank the staff for looking into it, but I I'm

[02:07:28] Councilmember John McAlister: pretty familiar with our locations here, and they're very rarely used. Uh, and they don't go somewhere unless it takes you forever to get somewhere. So, someone from staff, please under- help me understand

[02:07:40] Councilmember John McAlister: how you do not include the cumulative and the re- more not by the book which says it's not effect, but from reality.

[02:07:58] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: Good evening, Ed Arango, Assistant Public Works Director. Um, I'm gonna start uh the response on this, I'll take a a first um pass at it. Um, we have Lorenzo Lopez, the city's traffic engineer also

[02:08:10] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: um online, so if I can get him promoted, um, so he can follow up on a response related to your question. Um, so um I do think it's important to recognize, and we had put this in the response and um, that VMT, this is the Vehicle Miles Traveled, is the metric that's being used for CEQA analysis for traffic.

[02:08:31] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: Um, it's the um it doesn't account for, so it says cumulative conditions, it's the trips from the site. Um, as part of our evaluation for projects, um, particularly for um projects of this size, we go through an additional analysis, it's called the Multimodal Transportation Analysis,

[02:08:52] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: that does this um evaluation of sort of the operational impacts associated with a project. Um, so previously historically, um you may remember CEQA processes involved a um traffic analysis that was a Level of Service.

[02:09:09] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: So the Level of Service really did include this operational analysis, what is the degradation to intersections and roadways um as a result of the um project. Again, CEQA um the regulations changed, now um that is no longer a metric, it's just Vehicle Miles Traveled for a project.

[02:09:26] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: But recognizing that there are operational, and um the city staff would want to know those operational impacts, we have um implemented a um additional analysis on kind of these larger developments that identify that evaluation. Um, and we did do that for this project. Um,

[02:09:44] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: I also want to recognize that we also did it for the neighboring project considering the cumulative effect. So, this project doesn't have the cumulative effect, I believe, um, and I don't have the address in my head, but it's at the intersection of Cypress and Moffett, and it's on the Moffett side.

[02:09:59] Councilmember John McAlister: 400 Moffett.

[02:10:00] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: 400 Moffett, thank you. So 400 Moffett, um, so the timing sequence was that the um the 555 Middlefield project, um, the background conditions didn't have 400 Moffett included,

[02:10:11] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: but the 400 Moffett project did have the background as there's a 555 Middlefield project that's coming, let's take a look at that cumulative um effort. So, at this point I'd like to have um Lorenzo um provide impact uh information on what that analysis showed and um what staff um saw from the results.

[02:10:34] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I see Mr. Lopez has been promoted to panelist. Uh, go ahead.

[02:10:40] Lorenzo Lopez: Thank you, Ed. Uh, Lorenzo Lopez, City Traffic Engineer, hopefully you can hear me well. Um, as Ed mentioned, a a Multimodal Transportation Analysis was was done for the project. Originally in for the in 2022, that an MTA was done, and then

[02:10:58] Lorenzo Lopez: uh an addendum to that MTA was done in in later in 2022 after council had uh requested the trees to be evaluated and number of parking spaces were decreased due to uh saving some of the redwood trees on site.

[02:11:16] Lorenzo Lopez: And then recently in February of 2026, a supplemental MTA was done to compare the differences between that previously entitled uh project and and the currently proposed project. Um,

[02:11:31] Lorenzo Lopez: what what Ed was mentioning was Vehicle Miles Traveled, but the actual Level of Service, which is what we still still look at in traffic, um, what still the Level of Service at the intersection of Moffett Boulevard and Cypress Point Drive

[02:11:47] Lorenzo Lopez: would still operate at Level of Service B, which is acceptable under our city standard, which is uh all the way up to level all the way down, I guess you could say, to Level of Service D. So that intersection will still operate at Level of Service B,

[02:11:59] Lorenzo Lopez: um which is the same as what was prepared for the previously approved project in 2022. Um,

[02:12:07] Lorenzo Lopez: I'm hoping that's answering some of your some of what you're asking. Um, Ed did mention the project 400 Moffett across the street, across Moffett from this site, and that did account for this 555 Middlefield project in in the cumulative conditions.

[02:12:26] Lorenzo Lopez: Uh, let's see if there's anything more to add. We did look at the number of trips that would be added in the peak hours, and they're very minimal, um,

[02:12:48] Lorenzo Lopez: very minimal that would be accessing Cypress Point Drive, so the difference really is the existing conditions traffic will be shifted from the the A and B areas of the site down to C, and and that is not considered a uh significant impact.

[02:13:07] Lorenzo Lopez: Hopefully that captured everything you asked.

[02:13:18] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Um, so since the parking garage is at the very back, so all that traffic is gonna go on has the the only have one way to get out on that street. To correct?

[02:13:29] Lorenzo Lopez: That's correct.

[02:13:30] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. So,

[02:13:32] Councilmember John McAlister: you know, um,

[02:13:35] Councilmember John McAlister: maybe this is more of a comment, so I should hold off on that. Um,

[02:13:41] Councilmember John McAlister: what happens if you do find out that the your calculations underestimate what's happening? Do you have a Plan B to correct the situation?

[02:13:55] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: Um, in this specific case, um because of the configuration of Cypress Point being a cul-de-sac, um, again we did evaluate the um the additional traffic that's gonna be planned on Cypress, um to minimal uh increase in

[02:14:14] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: um service, so the kind of Level of Service of the street is gonna stay relatively consistent, and I'll need Lorenzo to kind of help me uh confirm that that's the case. Um, but we would have to evaluate um some options there.

[02:14:32] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: Um,

[02:14:33] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: So as far as volume, um again we don't expect that that the volume is gonna be so significant that it's gonna be difficult for the residents there, um the new residents at for the um current application to be able to exit and access

[02:14:47] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: uh Cypress as well as the residents that are on the south side of Cypress. These are the I believe the rowhomes and apartments on the south side of Cypress. There's several uh access points there, um and again it's um the the traffic that volume that we expect is going to be the increase is going to be not a significant level that is going to create um a burden on the residents or uh impact to the traffic.

[02:15:14] Lorenzo Lopez: So I would add that um the estimates that are used to to look at the additional trips are used from the ITE, the Institute of Transportation Engineers uh Trip Generation Manual, and those are typically conservative numbers,

[02:15:37] Lorenzo Lopez: so there is some wiggle room if if it is a little bit off, but it's it's looking at the numbers provided in the analysis, we're talking about um approximately 100 total trips in the a.m., that's both in and out, and the same in the p.m., in and out, on on that for the project.

[02:15:57] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: If if I can have Lorenzo follow up on um what sort of um what does that mean for 100 trips on a road like Cypress Point?

[02:16:07] Lorenzo Lopez: So that that would mean um

[02:16:11] Lorenzo Lopez: th- those additional trips are are accessing all of the driveway access points on on Cypress Point, so uh not just drive the the C building area C or block C, I guess it's called. Um,

[02:16:27] Lorenzo Lopez: it's again it's it's minimal. We uh I'm trying to find that detailed number, but

[02:16:35] Lorenzo Lopez: uh I don't I don't have that handy right now.

[02:16:41] Councilmember John McAlister: So I have a question to uh traffic uh, to Lorenzo. Lorenzo, you quoted a book. When was that book last updated, your reference guide?

[02:16:53] Lorenzo Lopez: Uh, I thought it was 2025.

[02:16:55] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. And was are you using the 2025 numbers or are you using some prior?

[02:17:01] Lorenzo Lopez: I'm using, we're using, it was using the 2025 numbers. The the consultant used the 2025 version.

[02:17:09] Councilmember John McAlister: So another question is if we have these 323 new units and most of the parking is gonna be at the end of the cul-de-sac, how is that gonna be a minimal impact for all those cars to be coming out? How do you what do you consider minimal? Is it numbers or is it reality of people's per- perception?

[02:17:28] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: So again I'm gonna have um Lorenzo Lopez, as traffic engineer, kind of provide a supplemental response. But um the capacity of Cypress relative to the additional trips that are going to be added is what we look at. So it's a actual metric

[02:17:42] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: um of what the the road can handle and what does that mean for the Level of Service once you introduce these new trips.

[02:17:50] Councilmember John McAlister: Is there gonna be street parking on that?

[02:17:52] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: I believe there's street parking available today, and that will remain.

[02:17:57] Councilmember John McAlister: So so you're using numbers to to indicate minimal or minor adjustments, okay.

[02:18:05] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: When we say minor that there a minor change in um um traffic amount um when you look at the the street holistically. On kind of Level of Service is when it degrades. The more traffic you add to the street, the further it degrades, it slows down it an ability to you know move down the street. But again, this is a relatively

[02:18:23] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: uh low volume street 'cause it is just residents. Um, you heard the the trips um that are going to be generated from the site, 100 a.m. trips, 100 p.m. trips. For a residential street um like Cypress, it's it it doesn't degrade the the Level of Service there, and traffic will flow continuously.

[02:18:47] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: Um, just to add to give you some perspective, the additional trips that this project adds um are less than 20 in the a.m. and the p.m. peak at the intersection of Cypress Point. So those those numbers to me are are very um insignificant, very small numbers.

[02:19:09] Unidentified Speaker: Good evening, I want to add a little bit of additional perspective. So when a level of service at the intersection, the signalized intersection is at level of service B like boy, um it would take quite a bit of delay to get that intersection to operate at below a level of service D like dog.

[02:19:26] Unidentified Speaker: Um D, A, B, C, and D are all acceptable thresholds level of service that the city uses, so really when we fall into categories of level of service E or F um that we really worry. And again, at this point as a city, uh we're not really using level of service as a CEQA metric, it's really how we track it um as a city for operations of the traffic signal and how that intersection operates.

[02:19:52] Unidentified Speaker: When we're looking at the number of um cars that would be accessing Cypress Point Drive, that's over a prolonged period of time. It's not like a school where there's an exact 15 or 20 minute drop off and pick up, right? These are spread throughout um you know the morning hours and the evening hours,

[02:20:10] Unidentified Speaker: and you're all very well aware that since COVID, all of those peak hour times for a.m. and p.m. are not clearly defined like they were before. With the hybrid um situation, with people working at home, you know the peak hour in the morning is no longer defined as 7:00 to 9:00 in the morning, and the peak hour in the evening is no longer defined as 5:00 to 7:00 in the evening.

[02:20:32] Unidentified Speaker: It's much more spread out. And so when the concern is, you know, how are the vehicles queuing or stacking, you know, are they potentially going to drop a block driveways um as they're coming down Cypress Drive and then, you know, turning the corner and trying to get into the driveways for building C, um we don't see that as a concern because,

[02:20:52] Unidentified Speaker: one, that time period in which all the vehicles are accessing are spread out, and two, there are multiple driveways for this particular development for vehicles um to be able to go in and out of, um further um dissipating, if that's the right word, further dissipating how um how the traffic maneuver in and out of the site.

[02:21:13] Councilmember John McAlister: Can you help me understand the relationship of this project and your numbers with, because there's a major transit system, the transit station, how that affects your calculations? Light rail and the train station? Because you said it's a reference to a major transportation hub.

[02:21:30] Unidentified Speaker: Yeah, I'll start with um our VMT screening threshold that our city has adopted is very similar to what other agencies in this area have also adopted and was worked out in conjunction with VTA, which is our Congestion Management Agency. And so this particular project has met those screening thresholds,

[02:21:49] Unidentified Speaker: one of which is a residential development within a half mile of a high quality um transit um facility, in this case that would be light rail. Um, and that has um that has brought us uh I think there were a couple of others uh screening metrics that this project met, but that has um brought us into the category of why um there's not a whole lot of analysis right now. State law.

[02:22:20] Councilmember John McAlister: State law. Okay, that answers my question. I do have one other question for the developer.

[02:22:24] Unidentified Speaker: Thank you.

[02:22:25] Councilmember John McAlister: Thank you guys, thank you for your response too. Very helpful.

[02:22:30] Councilmember John McAlister: Do you guys know the demographics of how many children are in your projects usually? Do you have a sense or is it...

[02:22:36] Public Speaker: Um I have a sense, I don't know if we have actual numbers for that. Um school-aged children it is um it is some, I'd say the the majority of units do not have school-aged children, but we do have a you know a sizable percentage, you know less than say probably less than 40% and but then it that varies um depending on the type of apartments, depending on location, depending on the community.

[02:22:56] Councilmember John McAlister: So you have 500 units, how many kids? Ballpark, do you have any idea how many school age kids are gonna be?

[02:23:01] Public Speaker: So so this the the 400 units that are there today um are heavily weighted towards um studios and one-bedrooms just because that's the way this property was built. Um and so I'd say I mean this property may have as low as 10% children, so you know 40 kids, something like that.

[02:23:15] Councilmember John McAlister: I said 40? Oh 40. School age kids. Okay.

[02:23:20] Public Speaker: Yeah, yeah sorry. Um yeah it's that's that's probably a high estimate for that for that property. Um the new the 323 new units will do um we'll do some to balance that out. That's weighted more towards two-bedrooms and three-bedrooms. Um and so we would expect more kid like as a percentage more kids, but you know not not hundreds. It would be...

[02:23:39] Councilmember John McAlister: So currently there's 40, and you haven't calculated potentially what that the new units?

[02:23:44] Public Speaker: Correct, yeah.

[02:23:46] Councilmember John McAlister: Thank you. That was helpful. Thank you. Thanks.

[02:23:50] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember McAlister, Councilmember Kamei.

[02:23:53] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thanks. Um, so I just had a quick question for staff, and apologies for not submitting it earlier in advance. I had a discussion with the applicant when we met about um the the park, very excited to continue with the same acreage of the park. And we were talking a little bit about park delivery,

[02:24:11] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: so um in speaking with the applicant, they were talking about a um maybe the entire length of construction and completion would be about six years. And working with staff on making sure that we expedite uh park delivery so that when they're on their last phase of building we would be able to do that.

[02:24:33] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: I don't know if park um park if staff wanted to talk more about the the park and what they're envisioning. I know we're going to be adopting our Parks and and Rec Strategic Plan shortly, um, but they're I know this area is in desperate need of open space. So I don't know I apologize I I didn't think of the question prior,

[02:24:51] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: so I don't know who from staff feels comfortable answering this, but um sounds like the timeline could be doing some initial work on um before the project is fully complete. So looking to staff if they have anything more they want to add about how we're going to expedite open space in this area.

[02:25:11] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Okay, apologies, I can take the okay. Thanks, thanks Mr. Arango.

[02:25:20] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: Thank you for the question. Again, Ed Arango, Assistant Public Works Director. Um, so um if I'm understanding your question correctly, um kind of looking at for uh what is the um kind of park delivery process associated with the project while it's going happening under construction? How do you think it...

[02:25:36] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yes. Well, in my in my discussion with the applicant, they said that they may be able to work with the city so that we can start some of our planning process instead of our outreach as they are completing, because they're going to be using the space for the majority of staging. So just, you know, for the residents in the area who have been clamoring and asking for open space,

[02:25:56] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: when when they will be able to kind of expect that outreach process and be able to feel like we can bring that online as fast as possible, that's what I'm asking.

[02:26:07] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: Yeah, absolutely. So um, uh once um, we can do this in parallel. And we've been talking to the applicant about, you know, expediting that process, how is that gonna work? Um, they're motivated, we're motivated um to kind of move it forward as fast as possible. So there's gonna be in parallel um an opportunity while they're using the site um for kind of their last phase

[02:26:30] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: and we're approaching that point where um they're coming to the end of their project, um the city receives the actual parcel, and it's time for us to to obtain the parcel, they can still use it while we start that park development process, which will include our standard very robust park delivery process. Um, multiple public meetings to engage the public to get that feedback.

[02:26:51] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: Again, similar to um what you've heard previously on our park development process, it's a clean slate. And we don't have any predetermined um amenities on the site, so then at that point we'd you know reach out to the public, go through a community development process, um what amenities would you like to see? We come back again with some alternatives on some layouts, and then finally kind of a recommended alternative,

[02:27:12] Assistant Public Works Director Ed Arango: and then go through the um Parks and Rec Commission process, City Council process as well. But we'd start that as early as possible while the site is being developed, and the park site um could still have some construction activity on it, um recognizing that we can do this this concept in parallel and then move it along faster.

[02:27:27] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great, thanks.

[02:27:30] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember McAlister, Councilmember Kamei. Uh, I'm seeing no other council questions in the docket, so now we will go to public comment. Yay! Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide public comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button on Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk.

[02:27:54] Councilmember Emily Ramos: We will take in-person speakers first, and because we have uh a larger amount of speakers than anticipated, each speaker will have two minutes. So we will start with our in-person comments. Ali Saperman.

[02:28:18] Ali Saperman: Good evening Mayor Ramos and members of the City Council. My name is Ali Saperman, and I'm here on behalf of the Housing Action Coalition. We're a member-supported non-profit that advocates for building housing at all income levels. HAC is here tonight in strong support of 555 West Middlefield Road, and we urge the council to approve it.

[02:28:36] Ali Saperman: This pipeline project delivers 323 new homes, including 48 deed-restricted affordable units on underutilized surface parking in a transit-rich corridor without displacing a single resident. This that combination is rare and worth recognizing. The redesign before you tonight is above-ground rather than underground parking. This is a pragmatic adjustment to ensure financial viability,

[02:28:59] Ali Saperman: and it comes with a direct benefit: less excavation means fewer construction impacts for existing tenants and faster delivery of housing in this region that we urgently need. There was a lot of dialogue tonight about the Housing Element progress, and we appreciate the city's commitment and work to meeting its housing goals.

[02:29:14] Ali Saperman: Mountain View has committed to over 11,000 new homes by 2031, and in order to meet the need, the city should move forward its pipeline projects. The workforce that sustains this city deserves the opportunity to live here, and this project helps make sure that that is possible. Tonight you all have the opportunity to turn nearly a decade of planning into homes. We urge you to take it. Thank you.

[02:29:47] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. Next up we have Daniel Shane.

[02:29:52] Daniel Shane: Well, since uh I only have two minutes to talk, I think I'll read my statement to you. I appreciate

[02:30:00] Public Speaker: take the opportunity to speak to the council members on why they should soundly reject this proposed project as designed without substantial revision. City Council approval of this project and cutting down the hundreds of evergreen trees that form an effective dense vegetative barrier between the freeway Highway 85 and our homes is tantamount to creating a significant public health hazard.

[02:30:23] Public Speaker: Human exposure to toxic tailpipe emissions are one of the leading cause causes of cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and heart disease and have been linked to dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Scientific studies in the United States and other countries have shown how effective highway vegetation barriers can be to improving air quality, reducing high levels of noise and air pollution, and protecting public health in near roadway communities.

[02:30:51] Public Speaker: The core mandate and primary responsibility above all else for any City Council is to the protection of public health, welfare, and the environment. Protecting property and housing are secondary to these higher goals because without these what good is the rest? Now, I'm not opposed to building more affordable housing. On the contrary, my daughter and her friends are in desperate need and dire need of finding housing.

[02:31:25] Public Speaker: But we can do better and smarter housing, and we can integrate the natural environment through better designs. And this is not a better design. Uh, all a person needs to do is stand in front of an impressive wondrous and continuous barrier. As you I think it was handed out to you you can see a a photo of the barrier.

[02:31:48] Public Speaker: Uh it extends high above the sound wall and uh it's uh rows of tall evergreen trees, dense foliage and overlapping canopies. That cannot be replac-

[02:32:04] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you. Um next up we have Sayo Nomura. And then uh it doesn't look like we have any more in-person comments and we'll go to the virtual public comment after this.

[02:32:18] Sayo Nomura: I go on here?

[02:32:19] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Oh, please speak into the microphone so we can hear you.

[02:32:21] Sayo Nomura: Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Sayo Nomura. I would like to raise the concern about the CEQA uh exemption about the public safety on this project.

[02:32:34] Sayo Nomura: On March 4th, the builder stated that this project would have minimum impact. However, the construction conclusion has not been adequately verified under the current design. The product has significantly changed.

[02:32:49] Sayo Nomura: The Block C increased from four to five stories. Over 500 parking space are concentrated, and the main access has been moved to the end of the long narrow dead-end street. These change directly affect safety and emergency access.

[02:33:12] Sayo Nomura: Despite this, the project received the CEQA exemption. But the exemption assumes there are no significant impacts. If that assumption has not not been properly tested, the basis for the exemption is no longer valid.

[02:33:32] Sayo Nomura: This may also qualify quality as a unusual circumstances under CEQA given the single access point on the constrained cul-de-sac.

[02:33:50] Sayo Nomura: Finally, I was told the fire department reviewed and then approved this project, but the analysis has not been shared. Without it, we cannot verify that this project is truly safe.

[02:34:07] Sayo Nomura: I respectfully ask the council to delay or deny approval until these issues are addressed. Thank you very much.

[02:34:19] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you. Next up we have Carol Mitchell, followed by Alex Brown. Closing out uh in-person comment.

[02:34:26] Carol Mitchell: Hello, my name is Carol Mitchell. Excuse me. I've been a Mountain View res resident for 50 years. I moved to Northern California from Southern California in 1977 to take a job with National Semiconductor. I... I...

[02:34:44] Carol Mitchell: Hold on. I brought my mother with me. We rented a townhouse on Cypress Point Drive, right across from where uh the intention is is to build all of these apartments, condos, etc. Um, I've said this before, you know, like Dan, uh well here's the here's the real point.

[02:35:08] Carol Mitchell: At the end of Cypress Point Drive there's a there's a hill. A hill, okay, on the left side. That hill is on the other side of Stevens uh Stevens Creek Trail. And as Dan said, he is an environmentalist. I can attest to that because of what he went through at Katrina in New Orleans. Okay.

[02:35:33] Carol Mitchell: So, you dig into that hill with all of these cars going down in and out of of Highway 85, okay. All those gases are going to come into our development. So there's 80 -- and that's another point here is that uh at the end of Cypress Point we've got two driveways.

[02:35:56] Carol Mitchell: Let's say the first one that goes into Cypress Point Woods there's 20 garages. You go down a few feet, there's another driveway with 20 garages. Hypothetically, what if everybody went out at -- I mean, you know...

[02:36:13] Councilmember Alison Hicks: If you could address the council.

[02:36:15] Carol Mitchell: They're they're indicating that oh the traffic won't be too heavy, they won't all go out at the same time. But 20 and 20 is 40 garages just within a few feet. So, as you come out of those driveways, where's this constructi-

[02:36:34] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you, your time is up. Your time is up, you get everyone gets two minutes, thank you. Alright, Alex Brown.

[02:36:49] Alex Brown: Hi friends. I like it. Good project. Thank you. I would think it'd be really fun to see every single car in all the garages all try to leave at once. I feel like if there's enough motivation for people to leave all at once, they'll probably figure it out. Thanks.

[02:37:11] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you. We will now move on to virtual public speakers. Um starting with um Matt Regan.

[02:37:23] Matt Regan: Good evening Madam Mayor, council members. My name is Matt Regan, I'm here representing the Bay Area Council. We're a business-sponsored, employer-sponsored public policy advocacy organization representing about 400 of the largest employers in the Bay Area, including several in Mountain View.

[02:37:39] Matt Regan: Um, I I was somewhat fascinated by the earlier conversation about homelessness and the problem that Mountain View is experiencing with uh with RVs. And so I did a little quick quick research with my new best friend ChatGPT and uh discovered that in the last 20 years, Mountain View has created between 50 and 60,000 new jobs.

[02:38:00] Matt Regan: Congratulations. You're the envy of the developed world. In that same period of time, you approved 4,900 new homes. Demographers, if you ask them, will tell you in order to maintain housing affordability, for every 1.5 jobs you create, you need to approve a new home. Mountain View is at 12 to 1.

[02:38:21] Matt Regan: So you ask why you have a an RV problem? It's basic math. You're not approving enough housing commensurate to the job creation that is happening in your community and around your community. You have the opportunity tonight to start redressing or addressing that problem and reversing that problem.

[02:38:39] Matt Regan: You have 323 new homes, 48 below market rate. Um, it's a good project. We first looked at this in 2015. This is a poster child as to why projects are so expensive to build, so difficult to build in California and in this region.

[02:38:56] Matt Regan: Please approve it tonight. Uh, this is an an opportunity to start addressing the problem and and and stemming the flow of people into homelessness. Um, so we are strongly in in support of the project. Please vote yes. Thank you.

[02:39:11] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you. Next we have someone I I don't know I don't see them in the the virtual queue anymore but it should be under Motorola, but it doesn't look like they're there anymore so we're going to move on. To John Lindquist.

[02:39:28] John Lindquist: Hi. Um, thank you very much. And I want just wanted to add something to what Councilmember McAlister was talking about and the um congestion at the light. The light congestion isn't going to be the issue.

[02:39:44] John Lindquist: The issue is going to be that the traffic will now be traveling almost the entire length of Cypress Point Drive because I I I live on cy on in the complex there in the uh condo complex. And um when I'm walking my dog over in that area most people are turning into the first and second driveways.

[02:40:04] John Lindquist: Very few go down towards the end where there really is nobody parking. So now all of a sudden you're going to be transferring most of those residents all the way down to the end of Cypress Point. Also the end of Cypress Point has kind of a loop. So it's only one lane and it's kind of a narrow one lane.

[02:40:24] John Lindquist: So people are going to be rounding that to be able to get into that three five-story parking garage. I do understand the need. I just wanted to bring that up and make sure you were aware of it. Thank you.

[02:40:38] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you. Next we have Rashmi.

[02:40:48] Public Speaker Rashmi: Hi, can you hear me? Sorry it took me a moment.

[02:40:50] City Clerk Heather Glaser: We can hear you.

[02:40:51] Public Speaker Rashmi: Okay great. Um yeah, Rashmi Sahai speaking um as a member of Green Spaces Mountain View. I just wanted to kind of support the comments that um Mr. Shane brought up about this project and the important need of um protecting it from the emissions from the freeway.

[02:41:11] Public Speaker Rashmi: Um I think it sounds like this is a project that's been in the works for a long time. This is not a new concern and the the residents, all the residents who live there and will be living there do deserve clean air just like the rest of us. And so it is a critical part of this development to maintain um that urban forest.

[02:41:30] Public Speaker Rashmi: Also we have a biodiversity and urban forestry plan coming up and one big part of the plan is kind of protecting the very little remaining um urban forests that we do have. Um so this is a great space to do that. I think it's a great project by the way.

[02:41:47] Public Speaker Rashmi: This is the first time I saw all the details with the bike path, I'm a biker, um and some of the the tree relocation that's going to be happening. Um but I do think if there's any way to take one last look at that um beautiful urban forest that's providing a protective barrier between the residents and the freeway emissions I would highly highly encourage um you to do so.

[02:42:11] Public Speaker Rashmi: I would also say for any new plantings that are coming in, it sounds like you are going to be putting in a lot of trees and other um beautification plantings throughout. Um please keep in mind again that we have this biodiversity and urban forestry plan um almost approved and um we're looking to see native plantings and as much as possible native trees going into those spots.

[02:42:33] Public Speaker Rashmi: So that's just something to um keep uh on your radar as you're making those plans. Thank you so much.

[02:42:41] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you. Next speaker is Hala Ashawani.

[02:42:49] Hala Alshawani: Oh yes, good evening Mayor, uh City Council and City Staff. My name is Hala Alshawani. I'm a long-time resident. Sorry, my voice is not all there tonight. Um I um I'm one of the people that have a family that lives on Cyp Cypress Point Drive so um I've I've been there almost um uh very, very frequently, weekly and more, the last six seven years.

[02:43:20] Hala Alshawani: Um this project could have been a great project because it really does provide much needed housing. It's near transit. It's an infill uh project, so it it's wonderful that they're keeping all the people in there and adding to it. The really two unfortunate things that stay in there is the disappearance of the the green barrier at the end of the street where it protects all the residents,

[02:43:46] Hala Alshawani: not just um you know the ones on Avalon side but uh on Cypress Point side. All the hundreds of people that live there to have cleaner air. I'm glad that the developer moved the garage to face the highway, that's a great idea, I think that's a fantastic thing to do so that the new residents don't have to directly be in view of the cars and the pollution that it emits.

[02:44:12] Hala Alshawani: Um I wanted to mention something about the safety though of um the residents, the bicyclists, the pedestrians. There are 500 parking spaces, really the only exits and and entrances to them is at the end of this substandard dead end street.

[02:44:33] Hala Alshawani: And I'm really concerned about the safety. I know the reports keep saying it's okay, it's not a problem. Just go down the end of the street and imagine 500 cars going in and out in addition to the other hundreds cars in there. That would be my...

[02:44:52] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you. Next we have Kelly Stevens. Or Steffens.

[02:45:00] Kelly Steffens: Hi, my name is Kelly and I was born and raised here in Mountain View and now I'm an adult owning a condo on Cypress Point Drive. And um I share some similar concerns. I plant trees in the community with canopy and taking away all of those heritage trees is something you can't just get back by planting new trees.

[02:45:25] Kelly Steffens: It takes a long time and I feel like it's counterproductive to all the work we've been putting in to create a bigger urban forest in our community. And also yeah I'm concerned about the issue of the traffic, the health, and also um just having such a high-rise building, I'm concerned about that.

[02:45:51] Kelly Steffens: Um maybe some solutions to this project would be maybe a two or three story building and um taking away less of the heritage trees. I'm a little bit concerned about all the high-rise buildings going into Mountain View. Um like in a lot of places I can't even see the mountains anymore, which is just I guess that's a personal feeling but yeah that would just be my um thoughts about this project. Thank you.

[02:46:22] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you. And we have our last virtual speaker, Edie Keating.

[02:46:29] Edie Keating: Thank you. I support this project. My personal favorite feature is wide sidewalks. However, my reason for support, my main reason is that this is infill housing, which is almost universally and environmentally favorable situation.

[02:46:50] Edie Keating: One of the long-term outcomes of this project will be fewer cars on 85 commuting into the region. This benefits our whole community. Thank you.

[02:47:03] City Clerk Heather Glaser: Thank you. And that seems to end public comment. Um so I will now bring the item back to Council questions and deliberation. Please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include the reading of the title and resolutions attached to the report. Councilmember Ramirez.

[02:47:24] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I have um several uh observations and remarks so uh feel free to take a nap or walk around the block if you don't want to hear me drone on. Yeah, right. Um so first I'll I'll start with uh a practical reality that state law has made serving on a city council both easier and harder.

[02:47:48] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Easier in the sense that we have uh very little discretion. Many of the decisions are made for us and this is one of those uh examples. Harder because we still conduct public hearings and we have to hear um uh and and reflect on and try and uh take action on uh the concerns and ideas from the community.

[02:48:10] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And it's a frustrating position to be in where there are many people who have spent a great deal of time learning about the projects, reading the staff reports, talking with city staff, um participating in community meetings, including public hearings, you know spending hours sitting in a room like this uh only to be given two minutes that we hear and then not feel heard because our ability to meaningfully modify any given housing proposal is constrained under state law.

[02:48:43] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um so I'll I'll start by moving the staff recommendation uh including uh adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View conditionally approving a planned community permit and development review permit to construct a 323 unit addition to an existing 404 unit residential apartment complex with new above ground garages, a new amenity building, leasing office,

[02:49:07] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: and a future 1.34 acre park public park dedication to the city, utilizing state density bonus law, and a heritage tree removal permit to remove 88 heritage trees on a 14.5 acre site located at 555 West Middlefield Road, APN 158-49-001,

[02:49:24] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: and finding that the project is statutorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to section 21080.66 urban infill exemption of the public resources code, to be read in title only, further reading waived.

[02:49:38] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Adopt a resolution of the City Council of the City of Mountain View conditionally approving a vesting tentative map to create three new lots including one lot for a future 1.34 acre public park and one lot for condominium purposes with 97 condominium units on a 14.5 acre public site located at 555 West Middlefield Road, APN 158-49-001 to be read in title only, further reading waived.

[02:50:03] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um I know there it is a it is a disappointing and frustrating experience right to to participate in good faith and then find that there's there's not a lot of leeway or latitude to um make the modifications that I think many in the community have requested uh of of the city council.

[02:50:23] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um so I'll I'll share a few uh observations about things that I do like about the project. Um it is, as many members of the community have shared, fundamentally a good project. This is precisely where we want the housing that we're going to construct: walking distance from downtown, from uh the Caltrain station.

[02:50:45] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I know Councilmember McAlister hates the light rail system but for the five people who will use light rail it is walking distance nearby. Um they're for the five people too, right? Those five people are people too. Um and uh a lot of things that we we wouldn't be able to require under other circumstances, right?

[02:51:07] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: It's it's actually remarkable to me that the applicant is voluntarily uh providing a $2 million community benefit. I think that's that's a it's an acknowledgment of uh the uh uh commitment made to the council that worked on the prior iteration of this project where there was a discretionary legislative action.

[02:51:29] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: The council did have some meaningful ability to influence the project because there was a general plan amendment and a rezoning that doesn't exist in this application. So I I personally greatly appreciate the fact that you've retained that commitment uh and that allows I think likely the future council to invest I hope uh in the community that is hosting the development.

[02:51:52] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um the applicant doesn't have to condo map. Um and that that's actually remarkable too, right? With the condo mapping it comes a requirement to provide um you know a park or uh a an in-lieu payment an in-lieu uh fee payment in lieu of a park.

[02:52:08] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Uh so the fact that there is a condo mapped building and a dedication of land uh to the city for a park is is a remarkable benefit. I don't know how many projects the next council, right, in potentially eight years, will see that includes a dedication of, you know, over an acre of land.

[02:52:26] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I think that will be increasingly rare. And I think that's a tremendous amenity for uh a a park deficient neighborhood. So I think that's very commendable. Um the project actually includes fewer uh tree removals than the prior iteration.

[02:52:45] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And again that's, you know, I know it's not easy for um our community which has come out repeatedly in support of heritage tree preservation. Um so I I know you know it it's not sufficient but um I think it is also a testament to the the work both of city staff and uh the applicant to hear the community and and reduce the number of trees that that will be removed from this project.

[02:53:19] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um this project also... I I wish for every application that we review we can have sort of a uh state law 101 for the community because there are so there's the the number of state laws that are being um uh utilized for the benefit of this project is is pretty extraordinary.

[02:53:40] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um one of the laws is uh a prohibition on cities from imposing minimum parking requirements. This project could provide zero parking spaces. But they're providing instead 851, voluntarily. Uh I'm curious to know how the community would feel if the applicant were to provide zero parking spaces. Um we we would probably hear a a different set of concerns.

[02:54:08] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um but this applicant is providing 851 new parking spaces that come at a tremendous cost. Uh and I think that's noteworthy too, right? We will see I think most projects, probably all projects, notwithstanding the reality that we can't impose a minimum parking requirement, still voluntarily provide the parking that is necessary to make the the project work.

[02:54:34] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So I think you know I I tend to be generally supportive of reduced parking, but I think many in the community do appreciate that this is a project that will be uh I think more than adequately parked. Um and incidentally with that parking um I'm um concerned about the uh the divergence of our local regulations with state law, right, where state law says at least AB 79...

[02:55:00] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: um that parking is excluded in the FAR calculation but Mountain View City Code says that parking is included in an FAR and I think that's that's a thing that I hope we do fix at some point.

[02:55:15] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And speaking of SB 79, on July 1st, um the effective date of SB 79, we can see even less discretion for this project and others like it. Um much uh taller buildings, much more dense buildings, without any community benefit obligation, um and potentially with without even the dedication of land for a park.

[02:55:41] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I think the project proposed um does make an effort to integrate into the existing community. I think there are members of the community who would disagree strongly with that, but um it's you know a five-story building is different from an eight-story building which would be uh available to the applicant by right if they used SB 79 to redevelop these sites.

[02:56:07] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And because there is no demolition of existing buildings, they would be able to use SB 79. Um a few more things then I'll stop. Um I also really appreciate um the proportionality uh the the compliance with our below market rate housing ordinance right and actually having um a BMR unit mix that is proportional to the market rate mix.

[02:56:32] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So many projects that we've seen in the past few years have used the state density bonus law uh concessions to not have proportional unit mixes. So we'll have the market rate units be the family sized units and then the affordable units be the studios. Which means we're not creating housing that is affordable for families in Mountain View. So I I appreciate and commend the applicant for uh not using a concession for that purpose.

[02:57:00] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um the last thing I want to speak to is um I I met very frequently with Daniel Shane over the years. Um and I I really do appreciate the work that you've done not only on this project but in a more holistic sense um on the work to develop objective standards to protect you know trees generally but the the specific category of of tree groves that you've educated the council on that has a public safety or public health nexus.

[02:57:33] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And I I think the way you did that is is exactly the right way. I've I've seen you participate in uh PRC meetings and Council meetings extensively on the biodiversity strategy, uh the parks and recreation strategic plan, um encouraging and and also the objective standards work that the staff are working on um to develop objective standards in order to preserve this type of tree canopy.

[02:57:58] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And my sadness is we haven't been able to do the work fast enough to actually make them to to create those objective standards and then to make them enforceable. And I really hope that with the biodiversity strategy adoption which I think will happen very soon um and also with the work on objective standards that the city will continue to work with not only Daniel Shane but also many other others in our community who have been uh providing a lot of very valuable information for us to consider as we develop those objective standards so we don't have these types of outcomes in the future.

[02:58:32] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Uh I know that's hard work, and it's work that you know as a music student I am not well suited to do. That's why we have technical experts in our community help us, and that's why we have a great staff who can work on objective standards that we can enforce in the future.

[02:58:47] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: It's not something that is enforceable now, but I I do want to recognize that we have received extensive community input on that, and I I think all of us on the council would love to see objective standards that achieve these community goals developed as quickly as possible.

[02:59:05] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So, um a lot to like. Um I know that's not um it's not a perfect project for many in our community but I do think it is a very good project. I think it is consistent with Council priorities, um community priorities. It's not like the 10-acre project we approved that has zero parks and you know very little to offer.

[02:59:26] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um I think this is the kind of project that we would want to encourage, and especially as we see state laws utilized in the future, I think many of us will miss working with an applicant who provides this type of project uh over the next several several years. For the candidates in the audience, I'm not sure why you want this job. It is a thankless job. Good luck to you.

[02:59:51] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Ramirez. Uh Councilmember McAlister?

[02:59:57] Councilmember John McAlister: Oh. You were up ahead on this queue and then you dropped down, but um if you-

[03:00:04] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Oh. So did- let him go? Okay, so you you prefer to just go last, is that what it is? Okay. Uh Councilmember Showalter.

[03:00:14] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Alright, well, um following up on what Councilmember Ramirez said, we really are constrained by um state legislation, and um that's a big deal in this case. Um but I I wanted to go over um uh a little bit about what the we heard from comments. I thought it was it's just fascinating how we have hyper-local um commenters.

[03:00:43] Councilmember Pat Showalter: We have people, you you live right there, you're experts on how that area works. And you've you've thought about it and you've come to us and you've said, what's really left that isn't making you happy is this row of trees. And um we we hear you, as um Councilmember Ramirez said, but at this point um it's one of the things that's that's going to go by by the by.

[03:01:06] Councilmember Pat Showalter: New trees will be planted, but they will take a while to grow. But then I think the other thing that was so interesting in the comments is we had somebody who spoke on the regional level. And it was just, you know, here we are. We have had we're in a sense we're the envy of the world. We've created tens of thousands of jobs.

[03:01:26] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And we've been building as quickly as we possibly can, or it seems to me we have. And um that's just in no way shape or form keeping up with that job growth. Now of course, everybody who works in Mountain View doesn't live in Mountain View. And everybody who lives in Mountain I mean, you know, we move around. So it's not just us that needs to build a lot of housing, it's the whole region.

[03:01:49] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And um really the whole region didn't respond, and um that's why this these state um uh regulations were passed, because it's a critical problem for our entire state. But I wanted to go over a couple of things that have changed since we started on this project. Um we approved the first one and how this one is different and better.

[03:02:15] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Um one of the things that everybody objected to, or many people objected to initially, was that um this that beautiful grove of trees, of redwood trees outside of where building A is going to be, were going to be demolished. And and there was such a hue and cry about that, that the the project was redesigned to save those trees.

[03:02:37] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And that is going to be a wonderful amenity for everyone who lives there now and and in the future because they really are a beautiful ring of redwood trees. Um then another thing was um this was of course before the CEQA um regulations had changed a little bit, the air pollution associated with the construction led us to needing to um adopt a statement of overriding consideration.

[03:03:01] Councilmember Pat Showalter: That's basically saying, you know, um there's going to be pollution problems from this. And those pollution problems that we were talking about in that were really related to the construction. Um and that construction impact was related to digging, primarily related to digging those huge holes for the garages.

[03:03:23] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Well, we're not doing that's not being done any longer. We're not going to build huge holes for the um uh uh garages, they're going to be above ground. Which is going to mean that the construction is much cleaner, and it's also going to mean that it's much faster. And that also makes it cleaner because it means that the time that you're exposed to um the air pollution that comes with construction is going to be shorter, which is important.

[03:03:53] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Um and then of course the third thing uh that we heard we've heard about a long time is the line of trees along Stevens Creek and the highway remains a concern. The redesign of building B has the parking function as a protective barrier between the highway and residents. It's not as green, it's not as beautiful, but it does provide some kind of a barrier, and then of course we will be adding more trees.

[03:04:22] Councilmember Pat Showalter: So I think that um on the balance, this is an excellent project. And but but there's always a balance. And we're, you know, we are sad that um we can't save absolutely all of these trees that we would love to save. But at the same time, we're happy that we're going to be able to provide um a lot more housing um in an area that um is is really um a very desirable place to live.

[03:04:53] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And we know that AvalonBay has um we have we have many several of their communities in our area, so we know that they do a good job. And we can expect them to continue to general to doing a good job. So that's um so I feel that on the balance this is really an excellent project, but it is always a balance. And um so with that of course I will be uh voting yes. Thank you.

[03:05:20] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Showalter. Councilmember Hicks.

[03:05:24] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, this project has been going on for, as people have said, about a decade. There was a gentleman who spoke virtually and said that's a testament to how slow we are. I want to I just want to remind everyone that we approved this project several years ago. And so this is our it did not take us 10 years to approve it.

[03:05:46] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And it was also originally a gatekeeper project which we usually like to pay a lot of attention to and allow, you know, work on a bunch of changes because they're asking for either general plan or zoning changes from us. So, that said, um in many ways this is a great project. You know, housing built over surface parking near our largest, one of our large uh transit depots.

[03:06:12] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um you know, who what what could be bad about that? And many changes and improvements have been made over the years. At the same time, I have a great deal of sympathy with a lot of the things that uh nearby residents have said. And um ideally I would like to make more changes.

[03:06:35] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um for a number of reasons which you've already heard we're not going to do that, and there is a you know we are living in the midst of a housing crisis. So instead of proposing changes, for me this is an opportunity to name several objective standards that I wish we'd had when this project started and that I hope we can have for the future.

[03:06:58] Councilmember Alison Hicks: You know, I see Mountain View with all the jobs that are created becoming a a denser, more urban place. And I want to make sure that we don't just become kind of a a suburb on steroids. That um instead we're a you know that we create good urbanism, places where people want to be.

[03:07:15] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So, my short list is, um first I'm wishing that we could have the units facing within this area, uh within uh what we call the Moffett Precise Plan, have said they would like uh Moffett to be generally they've told me they would like Moffett to be a little more like Castro Street, more walkable, with a tree-lined street and with some public spaces that they can partake in.

[03:07:47] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um I I wish that the units facing Moffett were live-work spaces. And I'm going to call people's attention to the next developer that we'll have up, City Ventures, has an excellent example of live-work uh in their Southern one of their Southern California developments that could have been used in this area if we had had this objective standard in the past. Um and I will forward those on to the community development director.

[03:08:16] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um so that's that's one thing I would like to have, uh live-work standards for situations like Moffett. Um another is uh I'd like us to be a little more aware of I'm concerned about the exit onto a small pedestrian oriented street. I don't know if that in any way can be worked into uh objective standards. Um I would prefer more exits onto our larger, more car oriented streets like uh like Moffett and Middlefield.

[03:08:49] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um I also value urban forestry. I think this is on this uh the the woods here uh that uh what are we referring it to? A vegetation barrier. Um I do think we should see whether there are ways that we can uh pay attention to those upfront, not at the last minute when we can't do anything about it. Uh perhaps our council our uh sustainability staff can highlight that as well.

[03:09:21] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um I'm interested in sidewalk standards, which I won't belabor because we've talked about those already, but when we have um you know when we have taller buildings, more than two stories, I think we need uh as Councilmember McAlister said, most cities then have um much wider sidewalks.

[03:09:41] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And I also we've spoken about this in the past, I think that um stoops in this area are not particularly appropriate. And um that the frontage facing Moffett could be better used for example uh using live-work development instead of uh instead of somebody's bedroom or living room facing an urban sidewalk where I don't want to walk by it and if you're living there you don't want me to walk by it.

[03:10:09] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So those are my objective that's my objective standard list. And with that I will be supporting the motion.

[03:10:16] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Hicks. Councilmember McAlister.

[03:10:20] Councilmember John McAlister: Thanks. Well, uh a little déjà vu, I approved this project back in 2017 so things move quite quickly here as time goes. So um um I had a nice chat with the developer and we talked about a few things and they were talking about you know this jobs are coming and then I got a kick out of the guy says well we uh generated a lot of new jobs and then ChatGPT is going to come to town and eliminate thousands of jobs, so uh there's a balance to that. Um so that was interesting.

[03:10:57] Councilmember John McAlister: Um the project it does work. I know I I feel uh Councilmember Ramirez's pain that 79 didn't kick in sooner so we could get those 8-story buildings, but I think this is a good transaction in the area. Uh we talked about balconies, and I learned something about balconies that you know they cost money and who uses them and so forth. Again I was in other parts of the United States and they do a lot of balconies for outdoor space for people.

[03:11:28] Councilmember John McAlister: And um you know it costs some money but it uh I thought aesthetically and I sent some pictures to our community development director about uh Scottsdale has a lot of apartments with greenery on them and I thought that was great. It gets awful hot there but it adds some beauty to it and it gives people personal space that they wouldn't have normally. So that was nice.

[03:11:49] Councilmember John McAlister: Um parking, you said it was voluntary. Uh I talk it's good business. If you don't have parking, you're not going to have people sticking around, so that was good that they realized that it was nice to have the parking there. Uh yes they may have not required any, but it it's helpful for them to put that in.

[03:12:09] Councilmember John McAlister: Uh what else that was it was nice about it? Well overall it was you know as they say we have to do it, but I I approved it then, I think it's been approved then. The forestry at the end of the street, I do have a bit of a uh sympathy for you, because I live across from Highway 85.

[03:12:28] Councilmember John McAlister: I hear the noise, I feel the smoke, I mean I moved here when there was no 85. I was here when there was no 280. I was here when my street was a dead end street, and things have evolved since then. So when we lose those trees, uh I hope that we can get the forestry coming back along the way too because that's along with nature it works as a sound barrier and it hopefully absorbs some things.

[03:12:55] Councilmember John McAlister: Um I'm still going to be at uh discussion points with VMT, what they consider VMT. And I appreciate Councilmember Ramirez the five people that use light rail. And um I bring that up because that was also the one on Middlefield.

[03:13:11] Councilmember John McAlister: I'm working with some people now, I've been involved with that light rail since 2017. I'm quite familiar with light rail and and back then they were using it as a standard to say well there's light rail so we can we build this. Well the use of light rail is in theory, and all these things about how we're going to determine it is to me is theoretical because I know the reality of light rail is uh and even VTA understands the reality of light rail it's not as used as they had intended it.

[03:13:35] Councilmember John McAlister: So as we go forward I will always be asking staff to be okay you have the theory but let's take a look at the reality and ask for a plan B, and uh hopefully that will come along.

[03:13:56] Councilmember John McAlister: So uh I'll support it. There is a I I do like the transition from the one side of the street uh on Cypress instead of having a big, I think that was good because I saw some other projects that we had where it wasn't so overwhelming to the people on the on the south side of Cypress. That was nice.

[03:14:15] Councilmember John McAlister: What else can I say that uh it's it's moving along nicely. I hope they get everything done sooner than possible because they say they use internal financing which is always tough, and yet they say they can get this done, and uh I've seen a lot of projects where people promise but they don't deliver because of whatever reasons.

[03:14:32] Councilmember John McAlister: It sounds like these gentlemen are going to be able to well it's been 10 years so hopefully yeah I was going to say you get things done but it's been a while, so uh good luck with the project and I will I'll get support and I'll vote for it.

[03:14:50] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember McAlister. Councilmember Kamei.

[03:14:53] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thanks Mayor. Well I feel like now is the time that I need to confess I'm one of the five people who take light rail. I I live I live in Whisman um right next to the light rail station and it's me. I'm one of the five. Um um but uh you know I I feel on the one hand I feel fortunate that we get to talk about the Whisman area, my neighborhood, for a the second meeting in a row.

[03:15:18] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: On the other hand, and I shared this with the applicant, having to see this project again it is difficult for Council um because we know how difficult it would be for the residents and the community. And uh really appreciate the continued engagement of of the residents, as someone who lived across the street and was recused out for a long time, uh I felt fortunate to be able to move to a different part of the area to continue and to try to find ways to be part of the conversation.

[03:15:48] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Um and so I'm not going to belabor the points that colleagues made about the constraints that we face um by state law and and other changes in these last four years since the um project approval. So I'm going to look for the silver linings, which I know Councilmember Ramirez will appreciate um as our as our optimist on Council. Um is that um the the community benefit side of things.

[03:16:15] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: So as Councilmember Showalter mentioned, the significant environmental impacts to residents has been reduced. We are now um going to be soon approving our parks and rec strategic plan. The Moffett Precise Plan is moving forward. Our streetscape plan is going forward. So there I think there are ways for us to use the other plans that are the biodiversity strategy, there will be other tools and mechanisms hopefully um that we will be able to use as tools especially my question about the park that we can incorporate into the park.

[03:16:50] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: And perhaps that would be a great way to tap into Mr. Shane's great knowledge on what we can do in that space to make it um honestly a community gem, ecological gem in that area for a space that really needs um access to to a park.

[03:17:07] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: So um want to thank the applicant for this journey we've been on where you've kept your commitment to the $2 million, over 1 acre of park and have found a way to I think um keep the design elements I thought were were quite nice. Um the we went through the renderings of what the original project looked like in 22 versus now, and the articulations and kind of the the points of interest um are are much I think more in tune to uh where we are now and how to unify the entire property um together. So I'll be supporting um the the uh project. Thanks.

[03:17:50] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Kamei. Back to Councilmember Ramirez.

[03:17:54] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you Mayor, very briefly. I just like uh Councilmember McAlister and I don't often agree, so when we do I want to elevate and appreciate um uh our collaboration. You said parking is good business, so I just want to let the staff know, I'm looking at all of you and the City Manager, that Councilmember McAlister and I agree that we should not have parking minimum requirements at all. They should be abolished because they're not necessary since parking will be voluntarily provided. Thank you.

[03:18:26] Councilmember John McAlister: Is that what you're saying? Yeah. Because it's good business.

[03:18:31] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Ramirez. Um I'll close up with my comments before we get to a vote. Um I I actually on my way to downtown I would pass by this uh general area. I am not a frequent user of VTA so I would be like a a .1 user of VTA, so I'm trying. I'm really trying to get out of my car more.

[03:18:52] Councilmember Emily Ramos: But what I actually use the transit center more is for Caltrain. And Caltrain is a very utilized um transit uh thing. Um and like uh if I need to go to San Francisco or Redwood City um uh that is I I literally walk past where this development is going to be and take that. Um get my steps in and everything.

[03:19:17] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Um so it is a good location to increase housing and it's been a long road. And I I recall when it was last on Council, I wasn't on Council when it was last on Council and I was just thinking it's like man I'm glad I don't have to deal with that and now it's now it's back.

[03:19:34] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Um so um I will be supporting this this project. Um I echo a lot of my colleagues um um push for as we do our uh objective design standards citywide that um knowing what our community needs are and making sure that they don't just become a generic block of housing but actually are tied to what the local community needs are.

[03:20:00] Councilmember Emily Ramos: is pushing for. Uh, things like protecting our, our, our, our vegetation barrier to the freeways, which, where, where I currently live, I don't have that. I'm like in between 85 and 101, so I'm probably gonna die. But, um, uh, so, um, I would, you rub off on me, Councilmember Ramirez. Um.

[03:20:24] Councilmember Emily Ramos: So, um, I'm hoping that, that, uh, as we move forward and, and we look at our biodiversity plan, that we can find ways to, to include in these objective standards. So when it comes time, when these developments come forth, that it's, it's the first thing that they're looking at, not something that is over time,

[03:20:43] Councilmember Emily Ramos: um, as they're already moving in their, their development process, and it hits Council, and then we're like, what about the trees? It's like, we should have thought of that at the start. Um, which hopefully will make it better for the rest of us. So, uh, with that, let's get to a vote.

[03:22:22] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Motion passes unanimously. We are going to take a five-minute break. I was trying to get a break every two, two hours, um, we went a little far, but we'll be back at 9:56.

[03:23:39] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right, we're going back in session at 9:57 p.m. Yes, I'm calling it out at 9:57 p.m. So we're going to head to the new, uh, to the, um, next item,

6.3 Rowhouse Gatekeeper Project at 922-950 San Leandro Avenue

[03:23:50] Councilmember Emily Ramos: 6.3 Rowhouse Gatekeeper Project at 922 to 950 San Leandro Avenue. Would any Councilmembers like to make disclosures?

[03:24:05] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. I met with the applicant.

[03:24:09] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. Councilmember Kamei.

[03:24:10] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Thanks, Mayor. I met with the applicant.

[03:24:13] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. Councilmember Hicks.

[03:24:15] Councilmember Alison Hicks: I also met with the applicant.

[03:24:18] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. Any other disclosures from our Councilmembers on this item? Okay. All right. So, Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro and Senior Planner Edgar Maravilla will present the item.

[03:24:35] Councilmember Emily Ramos: If you would like to speak, um, if you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the City Clerk now. Take it away.

[03:24:46] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Fantastic. Uh, good evening, Mayor Ramos and Councilmembers. Uh, as was just noted, I'm Rebecca Shapiro, Deputy Zoning Administrator, and I'm joined on the dais by Senior Planner Edgar Maravilla, who is the project manager on this item. The project before you is a, uh, 38-unit rowhouse project which requires legislative land use changes.

[03:25:08] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: The project is located on an approximately 1.69-acre site which is comprised of two existing parcels that are on the west side of, uh, San Leandro Avenue between San Pablo Drive and Terra Bella Avenue. The property is currently in the General Industrial or MM, as we refer to it, zoning district and also has a General Plan land use designation of General Industrial.

[03:25:31] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: The site is surrounded by industrial uses to the north, uh, it has State Route 85 and Highway 101 to the east, uh, single-family homes located to the south that are fronting on San Pablo Drive, and a future city park to the west.

[03:25:46] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: The existing General Plan designation and zoning for the project site does not allow for residential uses. And so as such, the applicant is requesting a General Plan amendment and a Zoning Map amendment to allow residential redevelopment of the property. The project also requires Planned Unit Development and Development Review permits.

[03:26:05] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: It includes ten below-market-rate units and it utilizes provisions of State Density Bonus Law. In addition, the application includes a Vesting Tentative Map to facilitate individual sale of the rowhouse units. Uh, and for your reference, the State Density Bonus request includes one concession and four waivers, which I'll discuss in more detail later in this presentation.

[03:26:27] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: The requested General Plan map amendment from General Industrial to Medium-Density Residential, and the Zoning Map amendment from MM to R3-1.5, which is one of our multi-family or multiple-family residential zoning districts, are subject to City discretion, uh, and are necessary for residential development to proceed.

[03:26:47] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: If approved, the rowhouse project is consistent with the densities and uses allowed through the proposed legislative land use changes. Uh, and more specifically, under the proposed rezoning, the R3 zoning district allows rowhouse developments at the proposed density through the PUD permit process. And the project is consistent with the applicable Rowhouse Standards and Guidelines, which are referenced in the R3 standards, uh, and pursuant to their State Density Bonus request.

[03:27:14] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: The 38 units would be constructed in four three-story rowhouse buildings that are shown here on the site plan as Buildings A through D. Uh, with the units roughly split evenly between the buildings. Building A is oriented towards, uh, San Leandro Avenue on the right side of the site plan.

[03:27:32] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Uh, Buildings B and C front on the project's central common open space, and Building D will face the future city park, uh, off to plan left. Uh, pedestrian and vehicle access into the property is provided from San Leandro Avenue.

[03:27:47] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: And this vehicle drive provides access to 14 guest parking spaces, as well as the garages for each of the units, and provides for city emergency vehicle and solid waste vehicle, uh, access.

[03:27:58] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: In addition, the project proposes a ten-foot-wide publicly accessible pathway along the southern property line, which is the bottom of the site plan. Uh, and that will provide access to the future city park and includes amenities such as benches, a row of California native trees, a bike fix-it station, uh, and it will have a temporary fence or gate that will block access to the city property, uh, until the city park is developed.

[03:28:24] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: The proposed buildings share a simple Craftsman bungalow style, uh, inspired design, uh, with a mix of three primary exterior materials including stucco, board and batten, and lap siding. The building design features, uh, a fairly straightforward hipped and intersecting gabled roof forms.

[03:28:43] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Uh, and as proposed, each rowhouse unit will, will have three bedrooms, uh, one private balcony, a small front yard area, and all of, uh, the front yard is anchored by a porch and drought-tolerant landscaping.

[03:28:57] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: As noted earlier, the 38-unit project will provide ten below-market-rate units, which is equivalent to 25% of the total project units. Three of those BMR units will be available to low-income households, uh, earning up to 80% of area median income. Five units will be, uh, affordable to moderate-income households earning up to 120% of AMI, and two units will be affordable at, uh, above-moderate income levels, up to 150% AMI.

[03:29:27] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: All of the units in the development, including the BMR units, are three bedrooms. Uh, and eight, the eight low- and moderate-income units qualify the project to utilize State Density Bonus Law. The proposal meets the city's BMR requirements, inclusive of the one requested concession.

[03:29:44] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Pursuant to State Density Bonus Law, this project would qualify for a 16% density bonus, uh, up to two concessions or incentives, and unlimited waivers of development standards that are necessary to construct the project. The applicant is not requesting, uh, any bonus density but is requesting one concession and four waivers, as shown on screen now and discussed in more detail within the Council report and in the project findings.

[03:30:10] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Ultimately, staff's analysis found that the concession and waivers are necessary for cost reduction and physical construction of the project, uh, pursuant to provisions of State Density Bonus Law.

[03:30:22] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: The project proposes to remove 31 onsite trees, five of which are heritage trees, and will plant 94 new trees, uh, which is approximately three times the number of trees to be removed, and is, uh, coincident to that, expected to provide roughly three times the existing tree canopy at tree maturity after 10 years.

[03:30:46] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Overall, the landscape plan complies with the city's water conservation and landscaping regulations and includes a strong focus on California native species. The project proposal also exceeds the objective design requirements for private and common open spaces.

[03:31:03] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: The Vesting Tentative Map would create 38 residential condominium units via a one-lot subdivision, allowing individual sale of the units and common ownership of the shared improvements. Staff reviewed the subdivision and found the project is consistent with the requirements of the Subdivision Map Act, city subdivision standards, and the General Plan.

[03:31:24] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: A draft Initial Study was prepared for this project, which found that the project would not result in any potentially significant environmental impacts with implementation of city code requirements, standard city conditions of approval, uh, and mitigation measures that are disclosed in the Initial Study, Mitigated Negative Declaration and, uh, the Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program for the project.

[03:31:46] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Uh, the city did not receive any comments on the Initial Study during, uh, the document's 30-day public comment period.

[03:31:54] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: The applicant hosted two community outreach meetings. Uh, one prior to submitting their planning application, and a December 2025 community meeting where the six attendees expressed appreciation for the design, including that the revised site plan created a larger buffer to the adjacent homes to the south, and that the applicant had revised the project to address prior community feedback.

[03:32:18] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: As part of the city's collaborative design review process, the applicant also voluntarily attended one Design Review Consultation meeting and worked with staff to refine the project to address design review feedback, as, uh, also discussed in more detail within the Council report.

[03:32:33] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: At the EPC hearing in February, uh, commissioner and public input on the project was positive, with particular notes of appreciation on the project design and the outreach efforts by the applicant. One public comment expressed concern with the city's parkland in-lieu fee methodology. The EPC unanimously recommended that the City Council approve the project, including the legislative land use changes.

[03:32:58] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: In conclusion, city staff and the EPC recommend that the City Council adopt the Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration pursuant to the CEQA guidelines and approve the proposed project, including each of the project recommendations shown on screen and in the staff report.

[03:33:13] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: These actions include the introduction of an ordinance to amend the Zoning Map for the project site, which requires a second reading if the recommended actions are passed tonight.

[03:33:23] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: In addition, staff has identified, uh, a late-breaking correction to the parkland dedication fee calculation that's identified in both the project and Vesting Tentative Map resolutions, which requires some, uh, minor revisions to two recitals and one condition of approval in both, both of the resolutions.

[03:33:41] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Uh, the language of those changes is shown on screen now and in the desk item that was provided, uh, to Council on the dais. Staff recommends that these conditions or these changes be included with any Council motion, uh, to approve the project per the EPC recommendation.

[03:33:56] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Uh, and that concludes staff's presentation. City staff, uh, from multiple departments are here tonight, and the applicant team is also available for questions. The applicant does also have a presentation for you tonight. Thank you.

[03:34:10] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. We will now have a presentation from the applicant, Keon Malek, Vice President of Development, City Ventures. You will see seven minutes on the clock.

[03:34:23] Keon Malek: Good evening, Mayor and Councilmembers. My name is Keon Malek, and I'm honored to be here tonight to present to you the Arbor Square project on San Leandro Avenue. Next slide, please.

[03:34:36] Keon Malek: Uh, for those that don't know City Ventures, uh, we are an infill developer. Uh, so we focus on developing underutilized parcels in existing urban areas, uh, to meet the large demand for missing middle ownership housing. We love working in the City of Mountain View, and this will be our third project here in the city.

[03:34:55] Keon Malek: What you'll see on the next slide is not the site plan we are proposing tonight, but it is a site plan that we, uh, started with five years ago. Uh, as an infill developer, it's important for us to join the fabric of the community and not work in a vacuum.

[03:35:11] Keon Malek: Uh, so at the onset of the project, we met with the community, and as you'll see on the next slide, um, we gained some really valuable feedback, uh, that really focused, uh, around creating a larger separation between our proposed buildings, uh, and the existing single-family homes to the project's south. Um, on a future slide I'll go over how we incorporated those comments into the design. Next slide, please.

[03:35:37] Keon Malek: Like I previously mentioned, this project was kicked off five years ago. Uh, it's a complicated site. It's a land use assemblage with multiple property owners and a land use change. Um, so at the onset of the project, we met with Councilmembers, we met with, uh, city staff, really to understand, uh, the vision for this site.

[03:35:57] Keon Malek: Uh, we then had our first community meeting in October 2023. Uh, after multiple submittals, uh, to the city, I think we had about 15 to 20 site plan changes. Uh, we then, uh, were at a point where staff felt, uh, comfortable with our, our plans, and we were then agendized for the, uh, DRC and the Airport Land Use Commission, uh, where we received unanimous recommendations of approval from both bodies.

[03:36:20] Keon Malek: Uh, we then, uh, incorporated those comments into our, uh, final submittal, uh, which we shared with the community just this last December. Um, and then we had, uh, our February EPC meeting last month, where we were very grateful to receive, uh, all positive comments, uh, uh, from the community during the public comment period. And that brings us here tonight to respectfully request your approval, uh, of the Arbor Square project. Next slide, please.

[03:36:49] Keon Malek: Most of you are already familiar with the project site, but I wanted to restate that this is a 1.69-acre site that today is mostly a vacant industrial building, an empty surface parking lot, and an empty dirt lot. So as you'll see on the next slide, this is a fantastic infill site, uh, and it's a great opportunity for more housing, uh, more ownership housing here in the City of Mountain View. Next slide, please.

[03:37:19] Keon Malek: Uh, so, we are proposing 38 homes that'll be marketed towards first-time homebuyers, small families, families looking to downsize, and below-market-rate buyers. Um, on the, uh, next slide, please.

[03:37:33] Keon Malek: Uh, we heard through the grapevine that, uh, not many projects have been able to incorporate 25%, uh, the 25% affordability requirement. Um, and we learned that this is a very important factor, an important policy for the city. So from the onset of the project, we incorporated this into the project plans, and we're proud to say we're, uh, we're planning for 10 out of the 38 homes to be deed-restricted affordable, uh, units. Next slide, please.

[03:38:00] Keon Malek: The goal of the design of the project, uh, was to create a strong street pedestrian experience. Uh, by orienting our front doors to face the future city park to the west and the San Leandro Avenue right-of-way to the east, uh, really to embrace both public ways and as opposed to turn our backs towards them with garages. Uh, next slide, please.

[03:38:25] Keon Malek: Most importantly, we incorporated the community's feedback, uh, into the project design, uh, by orienting the project driveway, uh, row of canopy trees, and shared-use path all along the south property line to create a significant buffer between our proposed homes and the, and the exis- and the existing single-family neighbors to our south.

[03:38:47] Keon Malek: So, uh, as you'll see on the next slide, uh, in our December community meeting, uh, we received all positive, uh, comment cards. Uh, getting 'looks great' and 'good job' is very much appreciated, uh, but I'd like to read the top card that says, 'Unlike many other developers, City Ventures actually listened.'

[03:39:06] Keon Malek: That means a lot to City Ventures, it means a lot to staff, uh, who have worked on this project for over five years. Uh, so that comment is very much appreciated. Uh, next sl- next, uh, slide, please.

[03:39:18] Keon Malek: The goal of the design of our shared-use path along the south property line was simple. It's for everyone to feel welcome to use it. So if you're looking to go on a walk with your family to the, uh, future city park or looking to walk your dog or looking to tune up your bike at the, at the fix-it station, there's a safe place to do that.

[03:39:35] Keon Malek: Whether it's during the day under the shaded canopy trees, uh, or at night under, uh, a well-lit, uh, pathway. Next slide.

[03:39:44] Keon Malek: Uh, we're also very excited about the San Leandro Avenue, uh, right-of-way expansion. Um, we're proposing a 7-foot new sidewalk as well as an 8-foot landscape strip that will include a double row of trees that will not only soften the architecture along the project frontage but also create a, a more enjoyable pedestrian experience along San Leandro Avenue. Next slide, please.

[03:40:07] Keon Malek: Um, and we're also very excited to be proposing 94 new trees onsite. Uh, the majority of the planting onsite, uh, is native species. Um, and at full maturity, uh, about a quarter of the site will be under a tree canopy. So we're very excited to be proposing a, a very green, lush site. Next slide, please.

[03:40:28] Keon Malek: Uh, Mayor and Councilmembers, thank you so much for your time and we really, uh, appreciate your consideration to join the fabric of this community. Uh, we hope we put together a proposal, uh, that you and the community would love to see built.

[03:40:45] Keon Malek: Uh, and I do want to give a special thank you to staff, especially Project Planner Edgar Maravilla, who's been an absolute pleasure to work with, uh, over the last five years. Uh, so, uh, thank you, Mayor, thank you, Councilmembers, and thank you, staff.

[03:40:58] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Okay, thank you. Does any member of the Council have questions? I see Councilmember Ramirez.

[03:41:05] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you, Mayor. Uh, first, I really appreciated your, uh, presentation. Uh, really nice seeing actual comment cards from the public referenced in the presentation to Council. And, um, that evolution, I think, is, uh, is very valuable for us to consider.

[03:41:22] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um, I wish, uh, Albert Jhing were in, uh, the audience, because he would ask the question that I'm going to ask, uh, which is, I didn't, I thought I understood the calculation for the park in-lieu fees, but now I definitely don't. Right? So, um, we're, uh, adding two new units, right? 20- the, the park fee is based on 28 net new units.

[03:41:46] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um, when it was only 26, the in-lieu fee was 86,000, uh, 200, sorry, uh, yeah, 86, no, wait a second. That's the cost. Oh, here it is. Okay, sorry. Oh, $862,784. Now, with 28 units, the in-lieu fee is $864,032.

[03:42:11] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: It's a trivial increase. Right? If I were to reverse engineer it and subtract two units each time, it, it would not go to zero. Right? So I'm, I, I'm, uh, really struggling to understand that, that calculation.

[03:42:26] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Absolutely. Thank you for asking that question. I, I agree that it, we were also a little surprised in, in planning to see the, the delta, but, um, I, I would like to invite our, my colleagues from Public Works up to provide a more detailed answer.

[03:42:38] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: My overarching understanding is that the reason for the, kind of nominal increase is because the parkland fee, uh, dedication fee calculation, um, is determined roughly on the basis of the proportion of the residents added to the neighborhood area, um, uh, rather than, um, like number of units specifically.

[03:43:01] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: And so because adding two units doesn't substantially change the proportion of residents, uh, being introduced to the neighborhood, which is a proportionality that gets carried over to the responsibility of the project towards the parkland deficit in the neighborhood, that's why there's not a substantial increase.

[03:43:20] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Because adding two units to a project is a fairly small change in terms of the, the size of the project as a proportion of the neighborhood area. Um, Public Works staff may be able to provide a better explanation, uh, to that question though.

[03:43:36] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: I think that that would actually be beneficial. If you were to graph it, right, so, uh, the number of units, right, if it's one unit, it's probably not going to be $800,000, right? At what point in that graph would there be a spike to get us to 800,000? Would it be going from 15 to 16?

[03:43:56] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: Yeah, I think it depends a little bit on the size of the neighborhood area and the size of the park deficit in that area, but it would probably have to be a much larger than two units to see a significant, uh, change to the, the calculation.

[03:44:10] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: That doesn't make sense to me, but okay. I think, if, I don't know if you want to help explain, it, it is, um, far less than intuitive.

[03:44:31] Quinn Byer: Good evening, Councilmembers. I'm going to try to explain this. So it is a complex, uh, method of calculation, and I actually had to build out a spreadsheet... oh, I'm sorry, I'm Quinn Byer, Principal Civil Engineer for Public Works.

[03:44:48] Quinn Byer: Um, so I'm going to try to explain this. It is, it's a bit of a complex formula, and I actually had to build out a spreadsheet to to be able to wrap my head around it. Um, basically, we take a look at the, um, each planning area, and within the planning area, we identify the existing park acreage, and we identify the existing population.

[03:45:00] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: we look at um the number of residents and the with the project based on the number of units there's a factor for how many additional residents would be added

[03:45:11] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: and the project would be paying under this new methodology the project would be paying its proportional share.

[03:45:19] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: So with a uh development such as this that is providing thirty just 38 gross units um subtracting out the credit when you go from um 10 till 8 to 8 it really has a minimal effect

[03:45:36] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: because within the planning area um there's about 9,700 residents within the planning area. So the project's proportional share of that is really minimal, it's actually just 1%.

[03:45:49] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: So as you drop by two units um at a factor of I think it's two persons per unit it just reduces it um they get credit for for far less people over 97 people within that population.

[03:46:07] Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro: So the proportional share it becomes it's very minimal.

[03:46:12] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: So I I think what I'm struggling with is the non-linearity of that graph right the when you use a term like proportional it intuitively it would suggest to me that there would be some some kind of linearity in in the in lieu fee based on the you know the number of units or the number of people that we're adding.

[03:46:34] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Like I I would love to know at what point you go from you know twenty thousand dollars to six hundred thousand right it it's it's a mystery to me. I'm not going to make you spend too much time explaining it maybe I'll have Councilmember Clark explain it to me because it sounds like he understands.

[03:46:51] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um but but thank you for the effort. Um and I hope Albert Jeans who may be listening and can provide a comment in Zoom can can help me understand that math too. I have a completely unrelated question um for um community development staff and it's informed by a very thoughtful set of questions that Councilmember McAlister has asked over the years.

[03:47:11] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Is staff concerned at all about the erosion of the industrial base right we're losing a lot of blue and we're getting a lot of orange. At what point should we be concerned about that?

[03:47:25] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Um I think I I heard two questions asked there um you know one speaks to staff's kind of cognizance of this potential issue uh and um the second being you know where is where is the line of concern.

[03:47:40] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Um the short answer to the first question is is absolutely uh it's something that has come up regularly um it definitely came up when city staff was working on the Terra Bella visioning project within this this very neighborhood area. Um and so I I think it is something that's front and center uh on the minds of staff.

[03:47:59] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Um at the same time um we have frequently looked at our non-residential land in the city as an opportunity to create um housing sites with zero displacement. Um so there are there are in any of these scenarios sort of pros and cons to our kind of attention and the attention of the market on existing non-residential uh properties in the city.

[03:48:22] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Um I think um I don't have a simple answer for you on the second part of the question um and um there may be people in this room who have experience with sort of planning efforts in this this neighborhood or in other locations that are similar to this that um may have um a metric for you.

[03:48:39] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: I think the simplest answer I can give at this time is it's sort of the balance of residential and non-residential land in the city is something that planners spend time thinking about.

[03:48:49] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: Um it's it's something that I spent time thinking about when I've worked on long range projects in the city in the past um but I I don't have a a figure for you um that I can give as far as sort of is there a point at which it's it's we need to be concerned about the the erosion of industrial land in the city.

[03:49:06] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Okay thank you.

[03:49:08] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Councilmember McAlister.

[03:49:13] Councilmember John McAlister: There's two items we agree on. Yeah Mayor since I'm a boomer and I'm used to seeing these projects before that we talked about this uh erosion it is a concern you know because there's a big push to do a lot of housing

[03:49:28] Councilmember John McAlister: but you know we need we need the small industrial base for the car repair the plumber the electrician those kind of people that come through our lives. So that's a statement not a question. So let me get to the question.

[03:49:39] Councilmember John McAlister: Um so I asked introduce this was more of a question of policy or just not policy but interesting. I asked the question what is the average cost of an acre in Mountain View and they came out with 7.8 and I know there's a lot of variables.

[03:49:52] Councilmember John McAlister: And then I asked the in lieu the starting following up on your in lieu question. In lieu of the eight and that was probably a little more money eight hundred thousand six eight hundred sixty two thousand dollars is equal to point one six land.

[03:50:05] Councilmember John McAlister: What is how does that number equal the cost of an acre and it came out to 5.4 million dollars. So it's a question is if we're trying to get a deficit we're always going to be in a deficit because the amount of money that we collect never equals the the cost of a land

[03:50:22] Councilmember John McAlister: of a to actually buy land in in Mountain View. Is that a true statement or help me understand the correlation between what we charge is is below what the cost of land is.

[03:50:35] Councilmember John McAlister: Is there any way to get the correlation that what we charge will get us to the point of what land's worth?

[03:50:50] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Good evening Honorable Mayor Vice Mayor and Council Christian Murdock Community Development Director. Um I'll take the first part of this and if there are any further questions about calculations public works staff will probably need to address them.

[03:51:00] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: Um the fundamental premise of the the methodology we're talking about is proportionality. And so I won't say state law I'll say federal law or US Constitution instead um which limits uh which limits the ways in which the city can require a specific development project to address existing conditions.

[03:51:19] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: And so we've identified there's an existing deficit in many of the city's park planning areas. And it's not the burden of a a given development to rectify that existing deficit it's their responsibility to address their proportionate impact to that deficit.

[03:51:34] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: And so this calculation methodology yields a less than full cost to address the deficit hence you're seeing a you know 5.4 million dollar per acre equivalent valuation for a you know seven or eight million dollar actual um cost of land uh and that's driven by this proportionality of of the impact.

[03:51:55] Councilmember John McAlister: So it is what it is.

[03:51:57] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: That's not what I said but um what I'm saying is there there's a proportionality to the contribution from this project given its particular circumstances in this park planning area.

[03:52:07] Community Development Director Christian Murdock: And so that will deviate depending on the circumstances in different uh park planning areas different scales of projects that may have more or less uh proportionate impacts on that existing condition.

[03:52:19] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay thanks. Also going back does this property owned by Prometheus at one time or was looking at because I thought there they were talking about because I know somewhere in that property line they were pushing properties right next higher buildings right next to the property line that's why it looks sort of familiar.

[03:52:38] Councilmember John McAlister: Well that was before their time. So.

[03:52:40] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: So um I I can take a stab at that question yeah I've been around for a little while. Um to my knowledge Prometheus has not owned this specific property they do have an active proj a project that was similar type uh just over on San Rafael

[03:52:54] Assistant Community Development Director Lindsey Hagen: um so like in the same block but a block to the west. Which backed up to houses. Which does have adjacency to single family homes to the south. Not quite as much adjacency but...

[03:53:04] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay thank you.

[03:53:07] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember McAlister. Any other questions? Seeing none would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk.

[03:53:23] Councilmember Emily Ramos: We will take in person speakers first. It looks like we only have one we have oh great we have two speakers. Um each speaker will have three minutes. Um so we'll start out with Travis Bowie.

[03:53:41] Travis Bowie: Well good lady evening uh Mayor council members I'm Travis Bowie. I own and manage the property just on the north side of this development.

[03:53:56] Travis Bowie: My business partner and I developed that in 1985 and believe it or not that is the newest development in that area. So when City Ventures came along we were pretty thrilled that there was something new happening in the area.

[03:54:16] Travis Bowie: Uh the idea that it's an opportunity for first-time home home owners is something that's really needed. The community's behind it it's good for my business well except for the construction time you know I'll be looking at dust and noise and uh I don't know how many construction pickups parked in my parking lot.

[03:54:54] Travis Bowie: But I'll be glad to deal with that because I think it's really a good project and I think the uh City Ventures should be congratulated on doing a really nice job of listening to the neighborhood and the city of Mountain View and their park on the west side is going to make this really really nice and I hope you all approve that tonight. It's something we really need so thank you.

[03:55:31] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you. All right as if he was summoned we have a virtual public comment from Albert Jeans.

[03:55:40] Albert Jeans: Can you hear me?

[03:55:42] Councilmember Emily Ramos: We can hear you.

[03:55:43] Albert Jeans: Great yeah I wasn't planning to comment because I am in favor of this project but I couldn't resist Councilman Ramirez's invitation to speak. It's true I mean yeah in fact the formula is nonlinear in terms of the number of residents.

[03:55:59] Albert Jeans: Um in that extensive explanation that I emailed to you a few weeks ago that explained my interpretation of the formula you can see that it is nonlinear in n. It's actually quadratic.

[03:56:12] Albert Jeans: I'm not sure you know exactly how that graphs out but that could explain as um Ms. Shapiro said why the incremental change due to those two extra units is so minimal. It probably the thing starts off steep and then kind of levels off as the number of people increases or whatever like that. So anyways that's all I have to say.

[03:56:36] Albert Jeans: Um yeah I'm all in favor of the project it's they really listen to the residents and it's the least impactful three-story development that I could imagine for that unit for that block. Thank you very much.

[03:56:50] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Mr. Jeans. All right uh now we will bring it back to council. So um for questions and deliberation please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolution and attached to the report. Councilmember Kamei.

[03:57:07] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Great thanks Mayor. So um I made the motion I'll read it first and then I'll make some comments.

[03:57:12] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: So adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View adopting an initial study mitigated negative declaration for 922-950 San Leandro Avenue residential project pursuant to sections 15064f3 and 15070 of the California Environmental Quality Act to be read in title only further reading waived.

[03:57:36] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View adopting a general plan amendment to modify the general plan land use map to change the land use designation for the properties at 922-950 San Leandro Avenue from the general industrial to medium density residential as recommended by the environmental planning commission to be read in title only further reading waived.

[03:57:57] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Oh I didn't know there was a whole back okay introduce an introduce an ordinance of the city council of the city of Mountain View approving a zoning map amendment of the properties located at 922-950 San Leandro Avenue from the MM general industrial zoning district to the R3-1.5 multiple family residential zoning district to be recommended by the environmental planning commission to be read in title only further reading waived and set a second reading for April 14 2026.

[03:58:25] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View conditionally approving a planned unit development permit and development review permit to construct a 38-unit rowhouse development and related site improvements utilizing state density bonus law replacing a multi-tenant industrial building and two single-family homes and a heritage tree removal permit to remove five heritage trees on a 1.69 acre site located at 922-950 San Leandro Avenue to be read in title only further reading waived.

[03:58:55] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View conditionally approving a vesting tentative map for condominium purposes with one common lot on a 1.69 acre site located at 922-950 San Leandro Avenue to be read in title only further reading waived. Okay that's that's everything.

[03:59:15] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Um and so I think I I'll do my best to keep my comments brief which is just uh Mr. Malik I think you're the happiest developer we've ever had come and present at our council so we really appreciate that especially given the the late hour.

[03:59:28] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: And I think you have every reason to be thrilled to present this project. I'm thrilled to make the motion for it I know it's been a five-year journey that we've been on our you know we've had whole lives I know you're you're expecting a you know family my family's grown in that time.

[03:59:44] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Um but I think that lens has really led to the product type and the approach that you bring to to what you're having forward um here in Mountain View. And so we have been talking about missing middle how we can create uh home ownership.

[04:00:00] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: But what I really appreciate about your comments tonight was talking about uh opportunities for people who want to be kind of on the beginning entry-way first-time homebuyers or those who want to downsize. How many of our seniors would love to be able to move in something uh something else and I think the different BMR ranges allow for our seniors who may be on fixed income to be able to move in.

[04:00:23] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: You're meeting that 25% which is thrilling and it will be a testament that will be able to share with all other future developers that it is possible to get um no matter what the economic drivers are or conditions uh City Ventures made it happen so we can ask them to make it happen too.

[04:00:43] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Um and then the uh it's also just so great as a member of council be able to look at a project earlier that has a city park and this one to have a city park. I mean how how fortunate are we um to be having our new new homes and and new parks for our residents.

[04:01:03] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Really appreciate the shared youth path and um I think you'll probably hear some comments on about how you did that with different materials. But I think this is um something I have spent my entire time on EPC and Council talking about working on and to be able to to see this come into fruition is very exciting. Thank you.

[04:01:24] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Kamei. Assistant City Attorney.

[04:01:28] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Yes uh Councilmember Kamei I just wanted to make sure for the record we noted that your motion included the corrections that staff has put on screen.

[04:01:39] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Do I need to read those too?

[04:01:41] City Attorney Jennifer Logue: Uh no just uh as noted in the record in the resolution...

[04:01:45] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: As noted by staff we have the recommended revisions to attachment four and attachment five. Thank you.

[04:01:53] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Is that acceptable to the seconder of the motion?

[04:01:56] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Yes.

[04:01:58] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Okay all right thank you. Next is Councilmember Hicks.

[04:02:03] Councilmember Alison Hicks: So I will be supporting the motion and I will for many of the reasons that Councilmember Kamei uh mentioned and I will not be repeating them tonight just you know a just understand that I agree.

[04:02:16] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um and I there were a couple of additional things that I thought were great about this project that that you didn't mention. One is that as a person on the Council's Sustainability Committee I really noted that it's an all-electric project with solar panels but also the design allows for the mechanical and solar to be met without public views of the equipment. That's that's actually pretty nice.

[04:02:41] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um so and something I I haven't seen before. Also a wide sidewalk I appreciate that.

[04:02:49] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um and uh so I appreciate all of that will be supporting the motion. I also of course have my objective design standards which I wish we had in the beginning that that this brings up for me.

[04:03:04] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um one is that um I we're getting a lot of craftsman-based rowhome architecture and I'm I'm wishing that we could move on from that in some ways and you're um you're some more varied architecture.

[04:03:20] Councilmember Alison Hicks: And our your City Ventures website which I I spent some time on um has some great examples of some other um I particularly like the architecture in Sebastopol. It had some kind of simple classic timeless you're nodding your head you know that you've looked at your website.

[04:03:43] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Anyway architecture that I think that I would like I I hear you work in Mountain View frequently I would like you to bring that here at some point.

[04:03:51] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Also you're I really appreciated the Live Work design which I don't think would be appropriate here but um to see you bring that to streets that would be appropriate or other developers bring that here I thought that City Ventures did an excellent job of executing that.

[04:04:09] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um uh in addition to that I find almost all of our rowhomes very kind of driveway-bound with uh you know bedrooms and so forth that look out over a lot of concrete.

[04:04:25] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um and I've been seeing east coast developers uh doing um sort of shared driveways different I guess on this development you've done um you're doing stamped concrete so different pavement types.

[04:04:40] Councilmember Alison Hicks: Um greenery integrated in you know people are not going to be driving on that driveway very much. So more shared streets woonerfs I'm hoping we can have for our rowhomes some of those sort of objective design standards but otherwise you know I I love everything you're doing and I will be supporting the motion.

[04:05:01] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Hicks. Councilmember Ramirez.

[04:05:06] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Thank you Mayor I agree very strongly with um the remarks from Councilmember Kamei and Councilmember Hicks. But I am going going to repeat some of them because they merit um I think uh elevation and and praise.

[04:05:20] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um the reason I'm supporting this project is because of the compliance with the 25% uh BMR requirement. Um it's been extremely challenging to make available ownership um opportunities for um moderate income people and you provide that.

[04:05:39] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um you're not asking for a deviation from our standards. Um and I think that's not only you know commendable and important but as Councilmember Kamei was saying um uh something that we want to showcase so other future developers will emulate what you're doing.

[04:05:56] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Uh that's extremely important and and one of the reasons why even though I have a history of being fairly um negative towards this particular um housing typology I think this this project uh is uh an important example of you know compliance with stay- or sorry with our local regulations is achievable uh and it helps us achieve um uh important community goals.

[04:06:21] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um I also want to uh speak to what is possible by virtue of the fact that this is a gatekeeper. We have actually some discretion. This is a project that you know future Councilmember Donahue will be able to make changes to.

[04:06:35] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um but uh as a consequence um we've been able to work in good faith with the applicant to do things that we would ordinarily not be able to require like allow for an all-electric project.

[04:06:48] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um or uh I think uh achieve some of the other goals that you've done through design working with um with city staff. I think that's that's also important and I think why it's important for us to think about other opportunities where um uh the gatekeeper process and the discretion that it allows for is worthwhile right it allows us to do things that we can't do with conventional zoning especially under the new state laws.

[04:07:16] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um I I want to speak to some of the the concerns I have about uh the opportunity cost. I think um the erosion of the industrial base is concerning to me um and maybe that you know that graph at which we should be concerned looks kind of like the graph for the park in lieu fees where it's not really clear at what point um there is a substantial enough impact that we need to be um uh alarmed.

[04:07:43] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um but trusting the staff that in your evaluation of this project this is not that tipping point um and the merits of the project are are so uh strong and encouraging that notwithstanding that industrial to residential conversion uh we should support the project.

[04:07:58] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um the last thing I I would love to ask the applicant if he'd be amenable to a a voluntary additional condition this is something that we talked about in our meeting.

[04:08:08] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Um I'm fully expecting you to construct the project. But in the event something goes catastrophically wrong um would you be amenable to a condition where the city would have the first right of refusal to explore purchasing the property.

[04:08:22] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: And the reason I ask is we're assembling a community park immediately adjacent to your strategically located properties and if for some reason the project doesn't proceed I think the city would love the opportunity to work with you potentially to acquire those properties for an even larger community park. Is that something that you'd be amenable to?

[04:08:48] Public Speaker: Uh thank you for that question. Uh you know when you asked that question early on and previously you know it was something that uh what I previously mentioned was we are a uh developer and homebuilder.

[04:09:02] Public Speaker: When we develop these projects we know all the costs that go into them we know what makes them tick we know what conditions will and won't make them work and staff is well aware of all the conditions that we had to work with to make sure that this is a constructable project.

[04:09:16] Public Speaker: Uh this is a project we are 100% building. Um we have uh multiple active projects in the Bay Area right now. Uh we have a project in Los Gatos that we're pulling the site costs for to plug in for this. Uh so all that is to say uh we are 100% building this project.

[04:09:33] Public Speaker: Uh we don't believe a conditional approval to to mandate the first right of refusal is necessary because we're committed to making this happen and I think uh our neighbors to the south are also committed to uh seeing this housing happen too. So I would respectfully decline uh your request.

[04:09:50] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: That was a lot of words to say no. But I couldn't couldn't you know help but make the the attempt. Thank you. Thank you everyone for your work on the project.

[04:10:00] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Ramirez. Councilmember Showalter.

[04:10:04] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, I'm I'm just gonna add a couple of things. Um, I uh I I'm actually personally very fond of rowhouses because I spent the first nine years of my life in a rowhouse in Baltimore. And the reason that it was such a great place to live was 'cause there were lots of kids uh to play with, and there was great places to play. And that's what I see in this um development because, you know, there there there will be relatively uh more families there, and they can go play right next to the uh and to the park.

[04:10:38] Councilmember Pat Showalter: So I think that this is, you know, just a great, you know, a great site and in combination. So I'd like to I mean I'm I'm looking forward to going to the groundbreaking and the ribbon cutting. Um, that said, another thing I want to thank you for is the land um assemblage. Uh, one of the things I've been promoting with Gatekeeper all these years is the idea that um there are places where we have two zone kinds of zoning, um and you can put them together and make a good project.

[04:11:06] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Um, and that's what the Gatekeeper is for, and and it it the Gatekeeper process allows for some innovation to do that. So thank you for doing that and for taking advantage of that. And um uh also uh along with those um those uh rowhouses on the East Coast, they didn't have garages, but they had basements. And um I know those of us who've moved from the East Coast miss our basements because where where do we put all all of our you know stuff? We put it in the

[04:11:39] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Garage.

[04:11:40] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah, we put it in the garage, exactly, you don't even know.

[04:11:43] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And then and then another thing that um I've observed from um viewing some uh elder people in my family who live in um townhouses is, if you can have a um built-in uh elevator as an extra, um it is really uh a wonderful amenity. Um, the ones I've seen are are like, you know, they're just big enough to put a person and a suitcase, they're like you know 3 ft square, but um but they do allow people to live there for about 10 years longer.

[04:12:18] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And um that's you know that's important. So I'm just gonna I'm going to drop that concept out there as somebody who does this kind of uh you know development. Maybe you can't do it here, but you can do it in another one. Um I I've seen it really make a difference. But anyway, this is wonderful. Thank you very much for your great work and we look forward to getting it constructed.

[04:12:41] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Showalter. Councilmember McAlister, would you like to speak to your second?

[04:12:46] Councilmember John McAlister: Uh, sure why not. Well I yes, uh but I have a question first. When you guys say the middle income, what kind of income are we respect talking about? Anybody want to take a stab at that one? No, but I was curious with the chart. I was there a chart in there Mr.? Thank you. Well, as he looks for that, the reason uh but I I like the project.

[04:13:15] Councilmember John McAlister: And that's when I mentioned that the previous project before they were building next to the property line and I appreciate to take a lot of the stress from us by moving at the property line moving the buildings to the other side and not impeding on the neighbors and the people looking down and all that stuff. That was a great uh benefit to me, because then we heard about, you guys also realize you listened to the neighbors there and uh this project does not impact them which is nice.

[04:13:45] Councilmember John McAlister: Uh which I also liked, and this is for Councilmember Ramirez, the two-car garage. So many of these projects have a one-car garage, they have three bedrooms, so you know sooner or later there's going to be more cars than there are bedrooms and there's going to be people driving around. So this impact was was good to see that it's going to minimize parking even though the parking's a little bit but it will be nice to see that you have a two-car garage. That is nice.

[04:14:11] Councilmember John McAlister: And then also you have guest parking. Were you gonna answer answer my question? Oh, please. Answer it.

[04:14:21] Housing Director Wayne Chen: Uh good evening Mayor and Council. Wayne Chen, Housing Director. Um yes, so the um project will include um affordable um housing at three levels, at the 80%, the 120%, and the 150% AMI levels um all in compliance with the BMR requirements. So at the 80% level it's uh about $317,000. At the 120% level about 715,000. And at the 150% AMI level about uh $160,000 per unit.

[04:14:54] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Actually I was looking for the income, not the cost. That's what they're gonna sell the properties for. But what was the income level expected?

[04:15:02] Housing Director Wayne Chen: I don't have the chart in front of me, but I know for um the the three bedroom units they um imply a four uh person household. And a four person household at the 120% AMI level I believe it's about 225,000. So um the 80% AMI level will be a little bit below that and of course the 150% will be a little bit above that. Thank you.

[04:15:27] Housing Director Wayne Chen: Um thank you very much Christian. Um so okay so Santa Clara County, the hundred and uh 20% level is 234,000. At the 80% level it's about 160,000. So at the 150% level which HCD doesn't calculate we we we work with the developer to interpolate that, that should be around probably about the $270,000 level or so.

[04:15:54] Councilmember John McAlister: Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Well the the reason I ask is because my daughter just bought a townhouse in San Jose, Campbell, and so when I was looking to the incomes and it was a million dollars plus for the property but the fact that it was a townhouse, it was affordable, it met her requirements. Um goes to back that I've been always liking ownership. The townhouses is the entry level ex- other than a condo conversion.

[04:16:21] Councilmember John McAlister: And so this is I'm glad that you have this in. I didn't ask the asking price of the higher ones though so um we'll let that go. But it was just uh I can appreciate what's being done in the way of townhouses and getting those people in and getting around out of the house. But don't hear that. Um but so that it's thank you for that and uh that's all I have to say about the motion. I appreciate it. It's great. Putting it in.

[04:16:44] Councilmember John McAlister: I like, I would like to see more rowhouses because it does allow people to get in. I know it's not some of the people's liking on the council, but it's it's the start of ownership and that makes, somebody who owns something is to me is going to be more committed to the community and uh that's what I like to see is people committed to the community willing to help out. Doesn't mean other people aren't but I think they just have a start going that way so I support the motion. I was glad to second it with my colleague.

[04:17:14] Councilmember Emily Ramos: All right. Seeing no other comments I am just going to say yay more housing and let's vote.

[04:17:26] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Motion passes unanimously. Woohoo. Um all right, so now we move on to Council, Staff, and Committee Reports. Does anyone have any Council, Staff, and Committee Reports?

7. COUNCIL, STAFF/COMMITTEE REPORTS

[04:17:41] Councilmember Pat Showalter: You know, I really have a long one but I'm gonna spare everybody. I'm passing out two graphs um and you have been um uh forwarded by the uh the um clerk with the presentation from BAWSCA. And um you know BAWSCA is our Bay Area uh Water Supply and Conservation ad-. And we get this report every other month from um we get these this report every other month from the San Francisco PUC about what are the water conditions in um in uh in the area.

[04:18:21] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And I wanted to share this one with you um because uh I think it's it's it's very telling. The the one I wanted to show with you is the upcountry snowpack. You can see the the line um for this year is the red one. Um the stars are we're not quite to the end yet. And you can see the lines for um the previous few years. 2015 was a very dry year, that was the year when we you re you know when you flew over the Sierra you saw sort of nothing but um open areas, you didn't see hardly any snow.

[04:18:58] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Then um in uh the in 2020 uh 3 it was a gangbuster year. We just got huge amounts of snowpack. And um and then uh you see this black line as very very standard um level. But but the reason I wanted to show you this is because you see how this line this red line is turning down? Um that means that um we're expecting uh it to intersect when it with the with the uh with the other lines um we're we're expecting to get it to get much closer to the 2015 line than it is to the blue line above it.

[04:19:43] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And what that means is um although we have plenty of water in our reservoirs for water supply for us to drink and and uh uh irrigate our lawns and flush our toilets and take showers and all the things we do with our water supply, it does mean that the fire danger is going to be worse this year. So that's why I wanted to share this snowpack with you just to say that um you know these things are all connected. And um uh we um will just have to wait and see what happens, you never know.

[04:20:19] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Um and then sadly we always always have to talk about rates, everybody is concerned about rates. And um the other page I I took out from this uh this uh presentation is um shows how the rates have gone up. And um that is uh largely because we use less water. The system costs approximately the same thing to run and um but we buy less water because we're all doing such a good job at conservation. And um so that means that the rates per unit have gone up a little bit.

[04:20:57] Councilmember Pat Showalter: So I wanted to share those things with you and um if anybody wants to talk about it more I'd be glad to. The presentation I I sent you the presentation because it really does have a lot of really pretty graphs which I think are fun to look at and I thought some of you might think was fun too. Um and I'll let Emily, you can talk about uh us going to uh um NLC.

[04:21:22] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Uh I just wanted to report that I attended the Cities Association meeting on March 12th uh where we held a study session on automated license plate readers. Thanks.

[04:21:38] Councilmember Emily Ramos: How exciting. All right Councilmember McAlister.

[04:21:41] Councilmember John McAlister: I just want to say I have something for section 8. So that's I agenda item eight so. I'll wait til you guys are done with your

[04:21:51] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Does anyone else have

[04:21:55] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Just to clarify, section seven as in future new business?

[04:21:58] Councilmember John McAlister: Oh yeah, it's seven right? It's today. Oh it's seven in this one? Okay. So wait till you're done with your comments.

[04:22:04] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Okay. All right, so um does anyone else have anything, 'cause I'll just report out my things. Um, thank you to Vice Mayor Clark for handling the last meeting because I was at the Yale School of Management Mayors Caucus which was really exciting and you're gonna really love it next year, I'm I'm so excited to see how you're gonna.

[04:22:24] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I I really hope they invite you because like they invited me because of how well uh Councilmember Kamei did and so I'm just like please, I promise Vice Mayor Clark is really good.

[04:22:35] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Um so um so I went there and we had really interesting conversations um on the national level, uh it was very mind-blowing. Um next uh after that um I went to the VTA PAC meeting um where they went over, the big item was talking about um the um what the lessons learned from Super Bowl and how they're gonna take that lessons to FIFA. Um then I also a FIFA, FIFA.

[04:23:06] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: FIFA.

[04:23:07] Councilmember Emily Ramos: World Cup. Um soccer or football depending on what country you're in. Um then uh I also attended the State of the County.

[04:23:25] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I threw the first pitch for the Mountain View Girls Softball Opening Day, it made it over the plate but a little bit to the left. Um I also opened the Town Hall for Congressman Levin shortly after that. And then um as uh Councilmember uh Showalter mentioned we had our adventure in Washington D.C. for the National League of Cities Congressional Summit where we also spent some time with our federal lobbyists lobbying for federal funding so that we can do really good stuff in Mountain View and continuing to evangelize our wonderful city and explaining to D.C. that we are the best city and that's why they should give us the most money.

[04:24:00] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Um and so it was hopefully a productive trip. Uh we met with the the Department of Transportation to as um to see if we can get some money for our grade separations, that's that's a big one, we're hoping that they're they'll be opening up that grant soon. We have three appropriations requests um at $2 million each uh that we are hoping to get money for. We I feel very good about how we were received um and hopefully that will translate to money to our city. So yay us. Um now Councilmember McAlister, what item seven would you like to bring us forth?

[04:24:39] Councilmember John McAlister: Well I'll just make a I did attend the VTA meeting. So the main meeting. The board meeting. So I did attend that and we discussed uh it was interesting that they were doing a uh an auditor's report and how again they're going over items that we did four years ago. And that's one of the concerns about VTA is the board changes all the time so no one ever remembers what they done before and they're repeating the same problems again. So it was interesting that they had 28 issues to resolve.

[04:25:13] Councilmember John McAlister: So they had 28 action items and this could relate to our city. They had 28 action items. 16 of the action items would only change things by 2%. So I I mentioned to them, you're spending all this time on two items to make minimal amount. And so um we have issues with VTA but they're still going along. So to number seven, um and this goes for advocacy, I think the city which we've been leading in the past needs to take our some of our our stance and lead the charge on legislation uh about the condos, the liability act,

[04:25:52] Councilmember John McAlister: I think we should not wait for somebody to come to us, I think we should be proactive. And I would like to see our representative on the Cities Association to say Mountain View wants to lead on this, be proactive and say let's get this legislation going. Let's get our legislators doing it. I know there's some work on it. We could have frivolous lawsuits that are still affecting our small businesses. We should lead this instead of waiting for other people to come to us.

[04:26:21] Councilmember John McAlister: Um there's some concerns about the Brown Act that it's got to be more current or more applicable than what they have done and so we need to say you know especially Zoom meetings where they're saying well you can't do well technology changed and people are changing, we got to be more flexible so. Um, and so I I think the City Manager had an item that we were talking about, maybe I missed it, but I would like to see us be that leading force and and and drive legislation and not waiting for people to do it for us. So that's what I was talking about.

[04:26:55] Councilmember John McAlister: Can we get an ad hoc? Can we get some people to do it? How we go about doing it? And if council is behind doing that where we will be you know getting other people together 'cause we have lobbyists but I think we have a great person at Cities Association right now that could advocate for these types of things. And so that's what I my section seven item seven is about.

[04:27:23] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Uh I think Councilmember Ramirez has a response to that 'cause I know that he was talking about a bill recently.

[04:27:33] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: Well I I don't want to put words in Councilmember McAlister's mouth but uh if you mentioned the condo liability law, there there actually is a bill um that was introduced AB 1903 that addresses that very issue. Um and um I I'll I'll trust the staff who um helped assemble our legislative platform but I think we actually have a policy position um so uh if it makes sense and I I I I think I agree with what you're suggesting

[04:28:00] Councilmember Lucas Ramirez: and you know if we wanted to say you know take a formal position in support of AB 1903, you know I would be very comfortable supporting that.

[04:28:08] Councilmember John McAlister: Yeah, no that's what I mean instead of wait they it's coming to us, yes the ci- city should write a letter, should go to the Cities Association and say support this, anything to move the project to say this is important to us, let's get it done. Instead of that's what I'm saying being proactive about getting stuff to legislators and letting them know how we feel versus waiting for something.

[04:28:32] Councilmember Emily Ramos: I'm gonna let the City Manager reply to that.

[04:28:36] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: Thank you Mayor, Councilmember. So this is on our radar and our Intergovernmental Affairs Manager Christina Gilmore will be working with Dane Hutchings, our um California public policy group, um our state lobbyist essentially on this item. And uh we are happy to work with Councilmember Kamei um to uh bring this forward in a way that uh would generate regional support.

[04:29:04] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: And so I think staff um staff is aware of this and so we we are working on it. And I think there will be opportunities for us to advocate in a more um strategic way than than just sending a letter in, which I think is what you're getting at Councilmember McAlister. And I will say we have um initiated and led legislation over the past several years and we've been pretty successful in those efforts too

[04:29:34] City Manager Kimbra McCarthy: and we work really well with not only our own legislative delegation but we've also had some past wins with um delegates or legislative delegates that are in our region, not necessarily our own um assembly members. So uh we do have a good track record so I will certainly take note of that and we are on top of it.

[04:30:00] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you City Manager McCarthy. Councilmember Kamei.

[04:30:04] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yeah, I'm I'm happy to answer this question. So um a couple different things. So I sit on the board for the League of California Cities statewide and today they held a briefing for 90 minutes going over every single bill and every single position. So I can um my understanding is that everyone gets those invitations on council that comes from Cal Cities, so uh but I'm happy to kind of uh push that through our City Clerk to kind of highlight, but um where they go through and they do a breakdown. Cal Cities takes their own positions, so they email that out.

[04:30:38] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: I think when it comes to um Cities Association, so Cities Association of Santa Clara County with the 15 cities, I sit on the Legislative Advocacy Committee. I have for multiple years. We go over bills and as soon as there are bills that are proposed I forward them to the City Manager and our Intergovernmental Relations Manager to ask them have we taken a position, um is this on our radar, we go back and forth because my understanding is when I'm there representing the entire city, so if we have taken a position we share that. If there are bills that we want to bring to the Legislative Advocacy Committee for the greater board to vote on we can also do that, so we have that discussion.

[04:31:20] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Um and so whether it's AB 1903 or others, um we we do do that. So um perhaps there's a way uh I know that our current um state lobbyist also does a recap that um Ms. Gilmore forwards to us on the bills, and so perhaps there's a mechanism with which we can work via our City Manager on if there's, you know, anything else we want to call out, but I I would say there's different uh processes in place with which we're trying to advocate the strongest for for the city. Um and hopefully that helps answer a little bit.

[04:31:59] Councilmember John McAlister: No I well that's what I want I want us to be proactive versus wait and see. And I've seen a couple times where we wait and see versus hey this is important to us let's get it done.

[04:32:11] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Thank you Councilmember Showalter.

[04:32:12] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yeah I just wanted to bring up that Silicon Valley Clean Energy is also very act active on the advocacy front. We don't necessarily advocate independently, although sometimes we do, primarily we do it through the trade association, I think it's called LEAN, I I can't remember what the acronym stands for, but anyway we um uh I'm on the Legislative um Action Committee and uh fact I just got to be the chair of it. Uh so so that's good.

[04:32:42] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Um and uh but but we of course concentrate at Silicon Valley Clean Energy primarily on sustainability um issues. And um uh but uh I think Councilmember um McAlister everybody everybody agrees with you and and we, you know, when we had for instance when we had Josh Becker come, we you know we asked him, 'can you can you um work on uh condo liability?' And he was like 'oh, yes I can!' So they they you know our I think our um our legislators are very amenable to hearing from us.

[04:33:22] Councilmember Pat Showalter: And Sam Liccardo who we met in Washington was thanking us for uh because he had worked with our housing department for providing suggestions for um the disclos- is it the disclose? what? Unlock, unlock, the Unlock Act that was um uh rolled into another housing pack that that actually has bipar- for one of the few things that has bipartisan um uh agreement. So yeah I think we really to me that's one of the most important things we can do under the innovation um category that we all think is so important here.

[04:34:03] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Do you think that covers what you need Councilmember McAlister?

[04:34:08] Councilmember John McAlister: I just like to have a discussion to get people thinking that okay let's you know it hasn't happened in a long time and I just 'hey, let's I know we do these things but we let's be again be proactive, but I'm glad to hear that there's avenues and I always like to bring certain things up just to make us aware.

[04:34:28] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yep. Uh so and I can work to fo- sorry to jump in, I can work to forward usually they do the recordings of the the Cal Cities when they present all the legislative bills, so I can forward that to the the City Clerk to forward onto folks 'cause it's it's just interesting to to see and sometimes they do the summary with an attached PDF which I find helpful, so.

[04:34:49] Councilmember Emily Ramos: We also do have the Cal Cities Summit coming in April where we can go and lobby.

[04:34:54] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Yay.

[04:34:55] Councilmember Emily Ramos: And are you signed up?

[04:34:57] Councilmember Ellen Kamei: Are you signed up?

[04:34:58] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Just got back from Washington, I don't know that I...

[04:35:01] Councilmember Emily Ramos: Oh. So April 21 22 23 I think.

[04:35:07] Councilmember Pat Showalter: Yes.

[04:35:08] Councilmember Emily Ramos: It'll be fun, you should all join us. And so I guess on concluding that item, put me in coach, let's go. Um so with that, I see no other speakers.

8. ADJOURNMENT

[04:35:19] Councilmember Emily Ramos: The next City Council meeting will be held on April 14th, 2026. This meeting is adjourned at 23:09.

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