Dec. 3, 2025 Environmental Planning Commission

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Transcript

Segment 1

[00:03:31] Chair José Gutiérrez: The time is 7:02 and I call to order this meeting of the EPC on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025. Good evening everyone, welcome to the Environmental Planning Commission meeting of December 3rd, 2025. For those joining us in person, please note that due to our hybrid environment, audio and video presentations can no longer be shared from the lectern. Requests to show an audio or video presentation during a meeting should be directed to EPC@mountainview.gov by 4:30 pm on the meeting date. Additionally, due to our hybrid environment, we will no longer have speakers line up to speak on an item. Anyone wishing to address the EPC in person must complete a yellow speaker card. Please indicate the name you would like to be called by when it is your turn to speak, and the item number on which you wish to speak. Please complete one yellow speaker card for each item on which you wish to speak, and turn them into the EPC Clerk as soon as possible, but no later than the call for public comment on the item you are speaking on. Instructions for addressing the commission virtually may be found on the posted agenda. Now I will ask the EPC Clerk to proceed with the roll call.

[00:04:37] EPC Clerk: Commissioner Dempsey?

[00:04:40] Commissioner Hank Dempsey: Here.

[00:04:41] EPC Clerk: Commissioner Donahue?

[00:04:42] Commissioner Paul Donahue: Here.

[00:04:43] EPC Clerk: Commissioner Yin?

[00:04:44] Commissioner Joyce Yin: Here.

[00:04:45] EPC Clerk: Commissioner Cranston?

[00:04:46] Commissioner Bill Cranston: Here.

[00:04:47] EPC Clerk: Commissioner Pham?

[00:04:51] EPC Clerk: Vice Chair Nuñez?

[00:04:52] Vice Chair Alex Nuñez: Here.

[00:04:53] EPC Clerk: And Chair Gutiérrez.

[00:04:54] Chair José Gutiérrez: Here.

[00:04:55] EPC Clerk: All commissioners present, except for Commissioner Pham.

[00:04:58] Chair José Gutiérrez: Thank you EPC Clerk. Moving on to section 3, minutes approval. We'll be discussing the 3.1 Environmental Planning Commission meeting minutes of February 19th, 2025, March 19th, 2025, June 18th, 2025, September 17th, 2025, October 15th, 2025, and November 5th, 2025. EPC discussion, do we have any? Nope. Okay, public comment. If anyone in attendance would like to provide comments on the minutes, please fill out a yellow speaker card and provide it to the EPC Clerk. If anyone on Zoom would like to provide comments on the minutes, please click the raise hand button in Zoom and press star nine on your phone. Phone users can mute and unmute themselves with star six. EPC Clerk?

[00:05:44] EPC Clerk: We have no attendees in person, and none online.

[00:05:50] Chair José Gutiérrez: Okay, sounds good, but for the record we do have someone in the gallery. Just thank you so much for being here, we appreciate you, thank you, thank you. Okay, if someone can please make a motion to approve the minutes, and the language I have here in case you need it specifically.

[00:06:06] Vice Chair Alex Nuñez: I'll make a motion.

[00:06:13] Commissioner Joyce Yin: Second.

[00:06:14] Chair José Gutiérrez: Okay, so moved by Vice Chair Nuñez and seconded by Commissioner Joyce Yin. And the motion is...

[00:06:26] Vice Chair Alex Nuñez: I make a motion to approve the Environmental Planning Commission minutes of February 19th, 2025, March 19th, 2025, June 18th, 2025, September 17th, 2025, October 15th, 2025, and November 5th, 2025.

[00:06:42] Chair José Gutiérrez: All those in favor? Or if you'd like to have us vote by... okay, great.

[00:07:16] EPC Clerk: The motion carries with six yeas and one absent.

[00:07:22] Chair José Gutiérrez: Great, thank you so much EPC Clerk. Thank you team. Moving on to section 4, oral communications. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the EPC on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic for up to three minutes during this section. State law prohibits the commission from acting on non-agenda items. If anyone in attendance would like to provide comments on non-agenda items, please fill out a yellow speaker card and provide it to the EPC Clerk. If anyone on Zoom would like to provide a comment on non-agenda items, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or press star nine on your phone. Phone users can mute and unmute themselves with star six. EPC Clerk?

[00:08:00] EPC Clerk: We do not have any members in public, in person, and none online.

[00:08:10] Chair José Gutiérrez: Great, thank you sir. We'll move on to section 5, new business. 5.1 2026 Environmental Planning Commission meeting schedule. Staff presentation from Diana Pentoli, Principal Planner. The floor is yours.

[00:08:28] Principal Planner Diana Pentoli: Thank you. So this is our annual scheduling for the next year's EPC dates. Staff would like to just make a correction or note a correction. The proposed meeting dates in the memo are correct, just the year is wrong which says 2025. I am very sorry about that, so just a correction on that, all the dates are correct, the year is for, this is for 2026, so it is all 2026 dates. Yeah, and this does consider the League of California Cities Planning Commissioner's Conference which will be in March, has been accounted in there. It does adjust the meeting dates for any of the holidays which are observed, where the city hall will be closed as well. So yeah, that's it. Thank you.

[00:09:29] Chair José Gutiérrez: Okay, thank you. Any EPC questions? I had the year question, but I'm glad you resolved that, which is great. Being that there are no other questions, any public comment?

[00:09:43] EPC Clerk: We do not have any members in person or online.

[00:09:47] Chair José Gutiérrez: Okay, moving on to EPC deliberation and action. The staff recommendation is as follows, any changes from the staff recommendation must be described with the motion. Would anyone like to opine on that matter? If not, a motion would be gladly accepted to approve the EPC public meeting calendar for 2026.

[00:10:07] Commissioner Paul Donahue: So moved.

[00:10:15] Commissioner Bill Cranston: I'll second it.

[00:10:17] Chair José Gutiérrez: Very well. On a motion made by Commissioner Donahue and seconded by Bill Cranston, the motion is...

[00:10:27] Commissioner Paul Donahue: The motion is to approve the EPC public meeting calendar for 2026.

[00:10:50] EPC Clerk: The motion carries with six yeas and one absent.

[00:10:56] Chair José Gutiérrez: Awesome, great, thank you everyone. Moving on to section 6, commission, staff announcements, updates, requests, and committee reports. Excuse me, our EPC liaison, the floor is yours.

[00:11:08] Principal Planner Diana Pentoli: Thank you. So first of all I would just like to note that the December 17th, 2025 EPC meeting, which is our next meeting, is going to be canceled as there are no discussion items on the agenda. The EPC will regroup next year with the first meeting scheduled for January 7th, 2026. With that I would also, you know, as we come to the end of the year, should be noted that today is Commissioner Yin's last EPC meeting, because her term is going to come to an end at the end of December this year. So on behalf of the city I would really like to thank you for all your contribution, you know, as a commissioner, and you know, your insight, your diligence and commitment have strengthened our community's planning efforts, has helped staff, and it has been an honor to work alongside you as well. So thank you very much.

[00:12:06] Chair José Gutiérrez: I'm sorry, I got to, I got wrapped up in the moment. Commissioner Yin, would you like to share your thoughts? A mini impromptu speech, per se.

[00:12:16] Commissioner Joyce Yin: Sure thing, yes. Really quickly, I don't want to take too long, but I do want to thank everybody up here, and everyone who has worked really hard to put this all together and make things happen for us. Um, Diana, you've been our liaison, as has Eric and Martin earlier when I started, so thank you all for, for, you know, herding us and working with us. And uh, for you guys, I mean, I think that's been the biggest experience here, I like really truly have enjoyed working with all of you, and I, I respect all of you, and I enjoy all of you, and really I've learned a lot from every one of you here. So I think thank you for that, um, it's been quite an experience. I will miss you guys, and I hope to at least, you know, continue personal relationships in the future. So, thank you.

[00:13:24] Chair José Gutiérrez: Vice Chair Nuñez.

[00:13:26] Vice Chair Alex Nuñez: Um, if I may, I also have a, um, I'm going to miss you. Um, I have learned so much more from like planning just from being around you, it's like osmosis of, you know, just insight and knowledge. Um, porosity, grid, um, you know, like architectural like, you know, livable design, right, like all these things that I didn't have an appreciation um, or awareness of going into being a commissioner, um, really have helped inform how I look at the items that come before us, and have come before us, and so I'm glad I asked you that early, um, in my uh term. And I'm just going to miss you very much, I appreciate that you know, as much as um any of us can be really looking at issues in the authentic lens of what are the values and things I care about, I think you've, at least how I've experienced, you've embodied that, and so I'm just really grateful that I've had, you know, some like, like, almost like a kindred spirit in that way on the commission. And so I'm just going to miss you and I'm grateful.

[00:14:43] Chair José Gutiérrez: Commissioner Dempsey.

[00:14:46] Commissioner Hank Dempsey: Well, at just at the risk of being somewhat redundant, I will, I will simply say I am going to miss working with you, Joyce. I really enjoyed getting to sit next to you, I looked forward to that. I liked being able to, you know, lean over and gossip with you a little bit and at quiet parts. And I want to recognize just how valuable it was to have an architect here, um, because just like with Alex, I actually learned a lot from hearing you talk, because I'm really a dilettante, but you're a content expert, and that's really valuable. We need more content experts and probably fewer dilettantes. So just for, for bringing that expertise and sharing it with us, with staff, with the community, that was really valuable. And, and also you're just really nice and I liked getting to work with you. So thank you for giving us all the years that you did, um, we're gonna miss you, miss you.

[00:15:37] Chair José Gutiérrez: Thank you Commissioner Dempsey. Commissioner Cranston.

[00:15:42] Commissioner Bill Cranston: We started at the same time, you're the only other person who's been all here on the commission as long as I have, and uh, so we learned together. Um, the, I would agree with uh Commissioner Dempsey that uh, losing the architectural perspective on things, I think will be, hopefully we've all absorbed some of it um, along the way, so we can bring that going forward, but it's been something that just, you know, allowed us to think about things in a way that we wouldn't have, I certainly wouldn't have thought of necessarily before, and um, I learned from it. And so, uh, it's a shame to see you go. Um, hopefully uh, you'll get other ways of serving the city, 'cause I think you've, you've, your contribution has been great. Um, but uh, I will make sure that, I am gonna make sure that we stay in touch, because I've enjoyed our time working together and your insights on things, so thank you for your time and investment in the city.

[00:16:45] Chair José Gutiérrez: Commissioner Donahue.

[00:16:48] Commissioner Paul Donahue: I think a lot of it's already been said, unfortunately, but um, but yeah, I have enjoyed working with you and I found uh, when I joined you were especially welcoming, uh, and I, I found that to be very helpful to, to get me kind of integrated into the, into the commission. Um, so that was definitely great. And, and, I think that you have very insightful comments and, and thoughts, and um, yeah, the architect perspective, um, like you can look at the plans and notice that there's a transformer there instead of a walk through or whatever, which I didn't pick that up, uh, so, um, yeah, just, just because you're used to looking at that kind of thing, I guess, I don't know, but definitely you have um, uh, I think made our community better, uh, from your participation here, and I think that's really important. So, thank you.

[00:17:48] Chair José Gutiérrez: Thank you Commissioner Donahue. And then finally from my perspective, when I first joined the commission, uh, I think you're the first person I spoke with. We met over a Panera. And after our conversation, which was supposed to be just like a half hour, I think we ended up with maybe an hour, an hour and a half discussion, a get to know you session, I felt, I mentioned this to one of my best friends, I'm like, I just met someone who is super nice, she's part of the EPC. I don't know that she's a politician because she's genuinely nice, right? This is great. I, I, I felt welcomed. I felt heard. Right? And throughout the last four, you know, years of working with you, serving with you, I have found your perspectives to be quite informative and passionate, right? But it came from a perspective of knowledge. And when you hear that, because I review the meetings afterwards, I always do, and I watch 'em. And then I see your contributions, and I just think to myself, 'Man, especially the last meeting, when you were like, let me tell you something, you missed that opportunity of design at a gateway over there by the Chase Bank and you, you know,' and when you pointed out your rationale as to what they missed, and how that could have been an opportunity for the betterment of the community and the city and how we look at gateway projects, it's that type of knowledge, it's that type of passion that we're going to miss. And that's because we're gonna miss you. And so I want to thank you for serving with us and for your time and your expertise, for your patience, um, but also for your drive, because to be here and to keep that sustained and with such passion and such knowledge, it's not an easy thing to do. So I hope you stay active. And if you run, hey, I'll vote for you. You know, for City Council, I'll vote for you, man, no worries on that front. But thank you so much for being part of the team. Thank you for leading our team as a former chair of the EPC yourself as well, and speaking on behalf of everyone here in general, once again, we will miss you. Thank you. Diana, do we have anything else? No? Okay. Commissioner Yin?

[00:20:00] Commissioner Joyce Yin: Just wanted to say thank you everyone. Um, and I appreciate that you appreciated everything. We won't go back and forth on that, but um, yeah, I, I hope to continue our relationship. And I don't think you'll hear the last of me, I may be at the podium pointing things out, so I'll see you later for sure.

[00:20:24] Chair José Gutiérrez: Awesome, awesome. Okay, and with that, we move on to section 7, which is our adjournment. So I can now say that the meeting is adjourned at 7:19 pm. Thank you everyone, and happy 2025!

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