A big .
good afternoon everyone. >> I'd like to call to order this meeting of the same as the
city council for the afternoon of october 22nd. >> toni, would you please call the roll present torres cohen here or present your one? >> yeah, I can hear foley here
bartra hear me? >> hear me. There you have a great thank
you. >> all right. Now if you're able, please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation individual
liberty for all. >> all right. Today's invoking section will
be provided by students who are visiting from our sister city of okayama.
>> and councilmember foley will tell us more. >> actually, these are the students we took to okayama. >> not the visiting. Oh, to visit?
I thought so from my dad. >> oh, no. I was misinformed. That's okay. During the summer my husband and I chaperoned a group
of students from branham high school and silver creek high school to participate in a cultural exchange with our sister city, okayama, japan. >> during this exchange these
students lived with japanese families experience the japanese culture and spent
their days in tours organized by the okayama international department within the city
of okayama. We were joined on this trip with kathy sakamoto and her
husband jerry. Kathy leads the san jose okayama sister city program. In 2027 we will be celebrating 70 years of this relationship by joining them on this chain
exchange where students from taiwan and korea, china, guam and bulgaria.
each group of students was asked to present information about their hometown and
country. Additionally, they were asked to provide some sort of entertainment and some sang and some danced. Our girls showcase their
martial arts and soccer skills. Our boys made the formal presentation complete with
japanese translation from one of our students. For my invocation this week I
have asked these students jasmine, danny, elaine, alex eiji and gracie to perform the
song they shared with the other students. >> perhaps you know it.
do you know the way to san jose ? >> I want to thank these students. It was a blast chaperoning them.
>> so much fun to go to japan. I want to thank these students for taking time out of their
really busy school schedules to be here to perform for us. >> take it away.
do you know the way to san jose ? I've been away so I make a long
way. Do you know the way to san that I'm going back to find some
peace of mind is there is a great big freeway but a hundred kids out by car in a week maybe
two to make use of. We started it's so great and all those homes and everywhere
are parking cars and pumping gas. You can really read the jose.
>> they got a lot of space. >> there will be a place where I can say I was born and raised
as they say. I'm going back to find some peace of mind. Same thing for jimmy is a magnet. He can play you are always the
moon with a dream in your heart your dreams turn into dust and go away and there you are
without a friend. You park your car and drive away.
>> I've got lots of friends the sensitivity jose. Do you know the way to say that
to thank you so much for shade. All right, we're on to ceremonial items.
councilor bottura, if you would join me at the podium we will recognize and proclaim hindu american heritage month . >> good afternoon.
never stay in a joyous happy hindu heritage month which we are proclaiming today.
today we gather not only to celebrate the rich tapestry of hindu culture but also to
reflect upon the importance of hinduism a heritage that has worn itself intricately into
the fabric of our diverse society. >> hindu heritage month is a
special time for the hindu american community to come together to honor the timeless
wisdom traditions contributions of hinduism, hinduism with its ancient roots dating back
thousands of years stands as one of the world's oldest religions offering insights
into the nature of existence and the path to enlightenment. Hinduism not merely a set
of beliefs. It is a way of life for many of our resident.
it fosters a sense of community compassion and a deep connection to the divine hindu
american community and reaches our lives in countless ways. Contributing to the cultural
mosaic that makes the bay area a beacon of diversity. The values are peddled by the
hinduism are principles that resonate with the very essence of our shared component
humanity through unity, understanding and mutual respect.
we can continue to build bridges that connect us all irrespective of our background
or beliefs. Once again happy hindu heritage month to you all made this
month and the next week continuously filled with joy, reflection and deep
appreciation for the legacy that hinduism empowered in our community.
I have invited many of the organizations in bay area which work tirelessly to increase
understanding of hindu culture, hindu traditions, hindu values while respecting the cultural
values and ethnicities of all other nations or other heritages.
we want to build a unified community which celebrates every culture, every ethnicity,
every background. And today I have about 20 of them here.
that's what they work on year round celebrating these things. I am sure I have missed
inviting some of them but the fact that you have plenty of them here from diverse ones
which they support their activities is showing you how I'm trying to create unity
among hindu population and the american population and all of the san jose residents.
so mayor, I present to you this group of people to give the proclamation to and they are
going to give a benediction and to give the blessings to all of us to promote our well-being
. So priest swamiji, if you can start reading the all all
of them are going to read at the same time so they have 30 minutes.
yes. Yes, please. Just the english one meaning yeah. >> thank you. Bhattacharjee and me here in
meeting us and to be happy to be here so may the hall to bless all of us being in the
heritage day in october. So a good month to be here and presents all of our angel
communities here and I especially thank our center here.
and what a tragic uniting all of us. >> may the sun god mitra what
an audio map hinder bruhat city and all graduating mahavishnu and all that they with us
showered their blessings upon us. Salutation to brahma salutation
two while you are that for self negation a brahma salutation to brahma I shall always abide by
her my righteousness I shall always speak the truth may that protect us all or peace peace
peace. >> thank you. >> thank you.
yeah. Yes we had they all have the proclamation right? So you're going to you're going to write. Yeah.
that's excellent. Welcome. We made the crowd it a little
bit for the photo here and I don't know if we're able to do that. Okay. You can make it into the materials.
>> yeah, go ahead. Make sure everybody can see the camera.
yeah. And thank you for being me. Thank you very much.
and keep doing what you're doing so thank you. Where are you?
okay. You're okay. Very quickly. Here we go. Think everybody thank you for doing all right.
the one all right. Tell her to what if you join me at the podium?
we will recognize luis valdez leadership academy. Come on down.
all right, all so that way the podium don't get in your way. Perfect.
>> well, thank you so much for being here today. I am honored to recognize luis
valdez as leadership academy that established in 2007 a now california distinguished school
for their exceptional commitment through leadership, excellence, responsibility and
resilience to prepare students for success beyond high school .
the dedication of the teachers ,the administrators and support staff of luis valdez
leadership academy have worked tirelessly to create an environment where students can
thrive academically and personally their collaborative efforts and unwavering support
have not only fostered cultural excellence but also have also been instrumental in earning an
esteemed title of california distinguished school. This recognition is a testament
to the hard work and dedication of the entire school community reflecting their deep
investment in the future of their students. >> again, I want to say thank
you to everyone luis valdez leadership academy who have made this school as an amazing
as it is today. >> please give them a big applause and I believe we have
a speech from our representative from luis valdez academy.
>> hey, thank you so much. My name is dr. Sherry segura and I am the superintendent and
ceo of the foundation for hispanic education schools. We are so honored.
thank you so much. To be able to share this space with you and our sincerest
gratitude to councilmember doane for allowing us to be here today.
>> we're celebrating the hard work and achievements of our and the dedication of our
staff. >> this is a really important award for us because it is about closing the achievement gap. That is what we dedicate our
time and energy to every single day to ensure that a zip code doesn't protect predict
the outcome for any child. So thank you very much. I just want you to know we
serve 99% latino students. We are located in east san jose. 88% are socioeconomically disadvantaged. They're labeled as that.
but we know that they have a lot of gifts and so we celebrate that and we lean into
that every single day. And I just want everyone here to know that when we invest in our youth these are the outcomes that we can get from investing in our youth is
eliminating that achievement gap and I would really like to just introduce dr. Silva.
he is the principal there but I would like mr. Luis valdez the namesake and very famous
namesake that we have. We're very fortunate to have him here today so please come
up. Thank you so much. >> this is a wonderful occasion
to celebrate w l.a. As a distinguished school. I can't think of anything more
important in this life than education especially education. The research, the wonder and
the power and the privilege of biodiversity in the human race.
we all have something to give. >> the creator has endowed us all with the gift of genius in
different ways and we bring that genius to the table to create a better life and a
better world for all. >> it has been my privilege to grow up in san jose.
I went to grammar school in evergreen, graduated from james luke high school in san jose state university. So san jose is literally my home in that sense but it
was with wonder that I now view this growing megalopolis and know its significance in the
world. >> and so I'm very proud to be here to celebrate the evolution
of l.a. As an institution in our beloved community and to also spur forward the city
of san jose to achieve its greatness through its young people, through its
neighborhoods, through its high schools, through its educational institutions.
may we all bond together with the promise of the future, the promise of democracy to keep
the world alive and open and fair to everybody, especially in this election year.
can we buy san jose gave kamala harris the l.a. Equivalent of a thank you so much.
are you receiving the commendation? Yes.
thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
thank you so much for everything. Thank you.
I appreciate. Thank you. My pleasure. Thank you again. Thank you. >> all right.
and on to our final ceremonial item councilmember ortiz. Please join me at the podium
and we will recognize and proclaim lights on after school day.
>> it looks like we're inviting folks to come on down. >> hey, and congratulations,
you guys. >> yeah. All right. For the moment everybody's been waiting for not just joking. Good afternoon, everyone. This thursday is the 25th annual lights on after school day a day to celebrate
afterschool programs and the essential work that they do for our families, for our working
families. Afterschool programs are a lifeline. They provide structure and childcare for the afternoon hours and give students
structure, safety and new opportunities to grow, play and learn together.
>> san jose is home to many incredible afterschool programs some of whom are in attendance
today. The city is also a provider itself through the parents
department's rock program serving students at 20 elementary and middle schools
and offering homework assistance, recreation and of course steam education
programing to show the immense gratitude the city has to the educators, supervisors and
workers who make our city's afterschool programs possible. It is my honor to present this
proclamation of this thursday as lights on afterschool day 2020 four.
>> and now I'd like to please invite your honor's director john sis ereli to speak and
introduce a video highlighting the great work of the rock program.
well thank you councilmember. Good afternoon everybody. As you mentioned, it's the 25th
year anniversary of this program. This is a national program is the only national program like it. So we'll be celebrating with
over a million other people and students on thursday across 8000 locations in the country
to amplify amplify the voices of our youth and and the importance of the program.
and I think it's interesting that the one commendation just before this was talking about
right, the investment in our youth, the importance of educating our youth that's
exactly what these people standing behind you, behind me I should say do every day.
>> we have over 18 hundred young people enrolled across 33 programs right now in the city.
we've we've been operating afterschool programs for about three decades although the
current program which is rock after school is about 15 years old now we've distributed more
than $5 million in scholarships to youth in their families so that they can access programs
like this afterschool have a safe place to be where the lights are on and so I want you
to join us and our partners for example, ymca catholic charities think together the
county office of education and many other partners on this thursday.
a couple of fun facts also this month the santa clara county office of education has their
college and career month and in march we'll be hitting up all the council members of course
like we do every year for our national education association's read across
america program that we do in partnership with the library. So really fun programing go sit with the kids and read a fun book to them. And so I want to show you a
video of what it's like and a day in the life you might even see some of the people standing behind me on the on the video. >> so if we can cue that up. Thank you.
so this is the rock after school program. It's going to be kids get out
as soon as the bell rings they come here and have a good program where they can have fun
and hang out their friends and some of the parents, you know, they work in late anything like that, whatever it may be or here to keep an eye on the kids, make sure they're
engaged. I like running the structure program but at the same time like, you know, let the kids the kids but some have fun.
let them hang out. Hey that's that's what the program for we get to play we get to do some crafts we get to eat you know that's the cool part.
I've had groups of kids that come return year after year and every year I see them again and
again and they are growing, they're changing and it's just it's really it's rewarding to
see their progress and different social activities and situations and seeing their art
grow. I see a lot of kids practicing their instruments here all the
time. It's just it's it's a lot of fun. I really love working with these kids. We provide a service.
we're like they enjoy coming because I've had a couple of kids like me said gary.
why didn't you come yesterday like you know I want to come to rocks I got that makes me think
like oh they want to come to rock and not like oh man, not another day I rock.
the thing I like most about this school program is that the teachers are very nice.
I got I got a good amount of friends so my favorite things I like to go outside and play with my friends is when I get to go outside and when and then that's that's what I like
the most about my afterschool program is probably homework time just because it's like
it's peaceful and it's quiet and then I get my work done. I like how we have fun like
crafts. My favorite part would be the staff because I've known mr.
steven for I think two years now and he's like that's my favorite part. This stuff they're really nice. Mr. Steven is a really cool guy.
he's someone that you can trust. He's super awesome and I don't want to leave next year because he's going to leave. >> I like playing on the
playground because you're going to swing some play with your friends. You should go to the after school program because it's really fun and you can meet a
lot of new people over there. Thank you. >> and you can see it's as much
fun for our staff as it is for the kids. That's why they're staying in here. This is what we do. This is what we love to do in
parks recreation, neighborhood services. So thank you councilmember ortiz and the city council for recognizing this day.
>> thank you. One more round of applause for the rock program.
now I'd kindly ask the mayor to please present the proclamation to our thank you guys.
thank you so much for your work . You guys
okay? We are on two orders of the day .
I have one item I would request that the council vote to add to the consent candidates item
2.17 which is adjustments in city council appointments of committees, boards and
commissions. It requires a two thirds vote of approval to be placed on today's consent calendar. May I have a motion to take a vote to add it to the consent
calendar? Second. Thank you toni. Can we please vote on that and I'm sorry let me ask before we vote did we have any comment
cards on that item on 2.17 just okay, we're not on consent yet. >> this is just on whether or
not we should add 2.17 to consent. Okay then let's vote.
still waiting on one. >> I don't know who it is though.
it's the crashes in the back. I think we have to oh I knew I was looking. >> I didn't see that she was gone. Motion passes nine with davis
absent. Okay, great. So 2.17 will be added to the consent calendar today it's and should be that is attached to the agenda does anyone else
have any changes to the printed agenda for today? >> okay. Not seeing any others let's move on to the closed session report nor thank you mayor.
the city manager has something to report coming out of closed session.
>> thank you, nora. I am very pleased to announce a unanimous city council
confirmation of my selection of paul joseph as our new permanent chief of police.
paul will assume the position october 28th, 2024 chief joseph will lead the department with
an annual operating budget of 543 million with 1172 sworn officers and 570 civilian
employees. He will lead one of the leanest and most efficient major city
police agencies in the country. He'll be responsible for the core services including crime
prevention and community education, investigative services regulatory services response to calls for service and patrol support and the department's strategic support
. As we all know, the chief of police position plays an important role in the leadership of the city. Chief joseph will continue
working with community city leaders and stakeholders to continuously evaluate and
evolve how public safety services are provided in san jose. He is also a courageous and collaborative leader who is unafraid to try new policing
techniques, engage in important dialog with our community and build deep lasting
relationships and accept constructive criticism. Chief joseph brings over 30
years of broad and progressive law enforcement experience to the role he joined the san jose
police department as a police officer in december 1994, progressing through the ranks
to his present role as acting chief of police chief joseph previously served as the
assistant chief of police with wide responsibility for the department's operations as a police captain he was the commanding officer of the department's western patrol
division and as a police lieutenant he worked in the homicide unit robbery unit and
patrol divisions in his tenure with the san jose police department. He launched innovative initiatives including the mission street recovery station
dui pilot and helped design the mobile crisis assessment team chief joseph is a member of the
california state bar. He holds a juris doctor from the university of california
college of the law san francisco and a bachelor of arts in political science
from california state university northridge. He also attended numerous law enforcement leadership training programs including the police executive leadership institute
administered by the major cities chief association among other significant trainings.
please join me in congratulating chief joseph. He was joined by his wife judy
joseph stepdaughters katie and grace and stepson justin. We're also joined by just a few
of our amazing and hardworking men and women of the police department. Would you all please stand to to recognize your support of chief joseph?
>> and I'd like to ask chief joseph to come down to the podium to say a few words.
>> thank you. >> thank you. I did all that.
>> jennifer maguire, city manager I really want to thank you and your staff and the city
manager's office for trusting me with this enormous responsibility for undertaking
a comprehensive search and nationwide search. I know I competed against some
pretty qualified people. There were a lot of great people in this industry and and
I'm honored to have been selected from amongst that group to the mayor and the council. >> thank you for confirming that choice.
I pledge to always work with you to solve the various issues that it is that we're going to
face for the community. I know there were voices in the community that spoke to all
of you and spoke to the city manager in support of me. I know I wouldn't be here
without that and I know I would not be able to address all the issues that we face as a
community without support from that community. Lastly, you know it's a one
team approach here all the departments in the city and the city manager's office but we have a team at the police department and I got to say I'm honored I'm honored that
members of my team are here today. >> that's very moving to me that they're all here. I will have no success without them.
>> they're the ones that make the difference in the police department far more than I do. So thank you guys for coming. Thank you, jennifer congratulations, chief.
I'll just say on behalf of the council, thank you for 30 years of service to our community
you've done a tremendous job and we were very lucky that you want to continue to serve this
city and I know you're going to do a great job of keeping our community safe, looking after
our officers, making the department strong and effective and we're just we're just very
lucky to have you. >> so congratulations again to you and your family. >> all right. We're going to move on now to the consent calendar.
>> do we have any items that members of the council would like to pull from consent?
yes, I would like to pull item 2.4 2.4. >> okay.
>> kills for the I would like to pull through for any others mayor I'd like to fold 2.14 yup. >> okay I've got that just for comment.
great. And then I have a memo on item 2.17 so 2.17 so I will pull
that. That was the one you all were kind enough to add to consent
today. >> any others? >> okay so we will take them
one at a time. We're going to go and order a councilor to one. >> do you want to comment or make motion 2.4? >> yes.
the reason I pulled the item 2.4 is I want to bifurcate the mayor and councilor excuse
absence and I want to make sure that we vote separately for councilmember wilmer torres
absent request. Okay. Do we need a vote of the
council to bifurcate or is that I don't think is that at my discretion?
>> how do we do that? I don't think you need to make a motion part of the motion me to bifurcate and then take the action on one so so that could be included in the motion
or so yeah yeah makes sense. >> okay so there's a request to bifurcate 2.14 but we don't
have a motion yet so that's noted. Councilor foley do you want to comment on 2.1 for yes thank you. I just wanted to pull this item
two to command the department of transport and staff on their work to implement the transit
first policy adopted in 2022 which I was a huge proponent of as our city grows the need
for high quality, fast and frequent public transportation is going to be critical.
>> while vta operates the busses those busses operate on our street network which is why
we adopted the first transit first policy to acknowledge our responsibility to ensure
transit runs smoothly and quickly. What we are approving here is the deployment of systems that optimizes signal timing to give busses green lights when
possible and minimize their time waiting at red lights working with our vta partner to
make transit faster ensures that public transportation is a more desirable option for
travelers aligning with many of our city's goals around climate smart and reducing
congestion. I'd also like to take this opportunity to challenge and challenge other agencies with roadways in santa clara county to also adopt transit first
policies for example, the county has jurisdiction over expressways but unfortunately
does not have an adopted transit first policy. The city of san jose is a
leader in this space so I'd like to recognize that while also encouraging other agencies
to join us to make santa clara county a more transit friendly area.
>> thank you. >> great. And I will move the consent
calendar with the bifurcation requested. >> okay bifurcating two point
for a bifurcated the councilmember torres portion of 2.4 specifically that would
be 2.4 a and b its own separate item and your motion includes b through f yes.
>> okay. And I was going to comment on item 2.17.
councilmember hoping you're including my memo in that. Okay great commentary just been
given you no that's okay I'll just just for the public since we just added this today under
orders of the day I brought forward a recommendation to the council that we reassign
councilor torres's appointments to various other council colleagues given that because
we're torres has recently been absent from all committee, commission and board meetings
that I'm aware of over the last two weeks. I think that the public deserves to have other council colleagues fill in in those roles.
so that's why I've brought this forward. This would be if approved in
effect until I bring forward my annual appointment memo to the council for consideration
in january. So this would be a temporary appointment reassignment an
appointment for the commissions and committees and boards where councilor torres has been
serving and there's a full list in the agenda item so that is included in the motion unless
there are any other questions or comments I think we can proceed with a vote.
I'm not seeing any hands up. What do we actually start with public comment if we have any. >> this is on item 2.4 so I'm going to go ahead and take it now rather than on the vote for
2.4 a just in case. So melissa, come on down. >> hello.
thanks for taking my comment. I'm a small business owner on luna park district three and so
I just wanted to bring up representation. I do look forward to moving forward in that area with representation other than on my tours as office.
>> so I definitely look forward to moving on. We need to progress and not
stand still so I thank you mr. Mehan for bringing that up. >> thank you.
>> back to council. Okay, thank you. It's sworn to a vote toni which
be taken first and this is the vote on the all of the items except for 2.4 a okay motion
passes nine zero with davis absent and now we'll go on to 2.4 a and I don't think we're
waiting on a motion on that one . I think it was moved to be
voted on in a by 4 to 2 by four right to vote. >> so now we need to vote on now one now 2.4 a but we don't have a motion to approve or not approve 2.4 a we had a motion
to approve everything else so now 2.4 is up for discussion. >> okay.
do a further discussion or a motion on two point 4ai move to approve on the 2.4 a come to
move a second you move to approve 2.48 to be voted on right now we know we're going
to vote on it items up now we need a motion on whether or not to approve or reject point
of council remember? >> yeah. Councilor duane I suspect that
now that we've isolated 2.48 now it sits with you as it relates to what you want to do
with it. Yeah so so I don't know what your intent is but well I want to make sure that we move it forward so that we can make a separate vote.
>> right? But it's been separated out now we're taking up that item now we're waiting on a motion a motion to to move it forward for vote.
>> but I've got a motion to approve. Yeah, well, that's because is
there a second? The motion to approve is the unexcused right? He's not correct. >> I just want to make point but let let's clarify this
please. >> my motion is to make sure that we vote on council member
torres absence excuse. >> so now we can vote on it yes or no?
>> correct. Okay that's it. We separate out we need a
motion to approve or reject because you because you're council member we've I okay I
motion to to reject his excuses okay so you're moving a no vote on item two point for a look to
reject yes councilor minutes just point of order there was a memo that was submitted so this
is not submission of your memo or it is submission of your memo is to include my exactly
what I stated on my memo. >> right. Okay.
okay. Why do you just move your memo? Would that work elsewhere? Yes. Okay. So second okay I'm not hearing
a second. Do we have another motion because from our batra what?
I didn't raise mahan so all right, we need a motion. Mary getting a motion on what?
>> you moved your memo. >> it did not get a second so when another motion I'll move
to approve the item granting the unexcused absence. >> okay we've second I'll
go ahead and second. Okay look, I'll go and make clear I'm going to go and say
what I said to the press outside. >> I'm not happy with the situation we're in. It's not fair to the community. You heard that from a small
business owner in the district I believe councilor torres is holding his seat hostage and
denying representation to 100,000 residents of district three. >> we've all called on him to resign. He should resign at the same
time after getting some insight from the city attorney, I personally am not interested in
litigating whether or not he was sick two weeks ago so I will be supporting the motion
and moving forward should he continue to request excused absences. I personally will want to hear a better explanation for what the illnesses when I leave it
at that. >> this is a difficult and unique situation.
we've got to move forward as best as we can situation we haven't been in before so there's a motion I don't know if we have any other comments or if we can move to a vote.
there was a second councilor cohen okay, let's vote somewhere.
to be clear we have voting yes means we are excusing his or her accepting his request for
excuse. >> he submitted a memo requesting that two weeks ago he was ill and as has been the practice of the council, the request is that we accept his
excuse as illness for missing the meeting two weeks ago. Whether or not the council
should choose to do that for multiple meetings is a different matter. >> fine. Okay that's what we're voting on.
motion passes 8 to 1 with davis absent and dwan voting no. Okay.
thank you. Let's keep going. We have approved the rest
of the consent calendar so we're on to item 3.1 which is the report of the city manager. >> thank you, mary. Do you have a brief report today?
the second annual neighborhood conference called empowering residents to build safer,
stronger communities will take place this saturday, october 26th from 8 a.m. To 2
p.m. Right here at city hall in our rotunda the annual neighborhoods conference brings
together residents, neighborhood leaders and city representatives to share resources and collaborate on ways to improve our neighborhoods.
the conference underscores our commitment to supporting residents and making san jose's
neighborhood safer, cleaner and more connected by fostering partnerships between the city and its communities and furthers our city council focus area of clean up our
neighborhoods organized by the parks recreation and neighborhood services department. The event is part of beautify sj is ongoing efforts to
promote cleaner safer neighborhoods through initiatives like community cleanups, blight reduction, dumpster days and graffiti removal.
last year's conference drew nearly 250 attendees sparking meaningful connections and
empowering neighborhoods with resources to create positive change. This year aims to build on that success with even more opportunities for
collaboration. I invite you to join me and other san jose neighbors this
saturday in the rotunda. >> thank you. >> thank you jennifer.
>> appreciate your report. >> we're on item 3.3. This is the city manager's
annual report and we have a presentation we'll turn to gems this is ready?
yeah. Good afternoon, mayor members of the city council.
I'm jim shannon. I'm the city's budget director. I'm joined up here by assistant director bonnie duong and our financial status coordinator. Thank you bondo together we're
going to provide a brief overview of the city's 2324 annual report which complies with the city charter and is a city manager's vehicle for summarizing and analyzing the
city's budget performance for the preceding year. The report provides a technical comparison of budget to actual revenues and expenditures in each budgeted fund for last
year and as appropriate explanations concerning material differences between
those amounts. It also provides the city council with a comparison of estimated to actual ending fund balances for all funds as well as a summary of the 2324
year end reserves by fund based on the analysis of prior year performance updated information
for the current fiscal year and past direction from the city council. The annual report recommends a number of 2425 budget adjustments for your
consideration and the report here is going to highlight just the presentations.
it's going to highlight a few things from the report but just wanted to emphasize that this sort of massive document that you see before you probably not everybody's going to read every
page of that document but I really want to emphasize the process by which we go through to put this report together is really important. So the work that the finance
department does that the departments do that the budget office does is sort of to go through all the city's funds, figure out what's what's going on, catch the small
issues and problems now before they become bigger issues later on down the line is really the
value of of what this report gives us. So I just want to highlight that for everybody here. >> so moving on. >> revenues generally performed
as expected and overall expenditures ended the year within or below budget across
all of those of those funds looking in the general fund specifically we had an
extremely small surplus and most other funds ended the year with balances at or above the
estimated level just looking at the general fund when we look at the actual available general fund fund balance, the variance was .05 percent of the combined budget for modified
revenue and expenditures and that's about as close as we ever want to be.
>> so it was really, really tight this year and we'll talk a little bit about that. We do have a number of actions as I said to close out the last fiscal year adjust 2425 as
necessary and in accordance with council policy one dash 18 we recognize in grants and reimbursements and we address a few urgent needs a couple in the general fund and others and
some special and capital funds . >> a real quick spin through
for some of the economic indicators here that we keep an eye on from one year to the next. >> so pretty you know, a slowly growing economy with some sort
of you know, a little bit of warning lights out we need to keep an eye on. So employment good news is we had growth but it was very, very slight.
so just point 3% growth in jobs from year end june in 2024 to 2023 unemployment rate did tick
up a little bit. So we're at 4.1% at the end of june versus 3.7% the prior
year. >> our residential real estate is doing decently so the properties the changeover was down a little bit year over year by 3.3%.
but the single family home price was up by 6.3%. Hopefully we see that number
of transactions go up a little bit as interest rates start to come down. Construction activity evaluation. Private development and
rehabilitation and work was up by about 22% almost year over year.
that was driven by increase in residential and industrial but a decrease in commercial.
I'm looking at some of the major general fund revenues this is just some of them I
wanted to highlight here. >> so good news is property tax continued pretty good growth so we got a 6% year over year growth for property tax receipts.
that's good news. That's the single biggest source of revenue in the general fund and it's a reflection of that you know, strong real estate market still
I think commercial will sort of see where that hits us in the upcoming years. But really the thing that made this year in close process challenging was sales tax.
so we ended about $10 million down year over year and just about that much below our
estimate for the year for 23 2024 it was really challenging. We had I we look at quarterly
sales tax information all those quarters for last fiscal year when you compare them to the
prior year range from a growth of 7.7% to a decrease of 9.9% and that fourth quarter really
was down quite low. It was that 9.9% I think was 9.3 was the fourth quarter
drop. >> so that was reason why we sort of ended the year a little
bit lower. What's going to make that challenging is to make sure we make our budget targets for the current year. So we had assumed we put the
budget together for sales tax that we needed about a 3.5% growth in sales tax based on where we thought your investments were going to end. But because we ended lower
we're going to need growth rate of about 5.6%. So that's going be something we have to keep an eye on as we go through fiscal year. >> couple other notes here.
utility taxes a little bit up, business taxes a little bit down real property transfer tax or measure e is down year over year but we expected that so about 50.7 million is where it
came in at and our budget was 50 million. So that's at least that's about where it was and we expect that to be about the same this year and hopefully grow a little bit
in the out years. >> the franchise fees looks like it's a big year over year increase but it's just really a reflection of the timing of payments of when pga and
pays us that franchise fee. So they sort of adjusted when that happens and so now 23, 24
and onward are going to be more regular just regular dis disbursements and a little bit
increase for fees charge fees rate and charges and our top at 6% growth although we're
still below pre-pandemic levels of about 20 million. So again getting into the
general fund we have we ended the year about $24.5 million of additional fund balance
above the estimate that we used to build the 2425 adopted budget.
that's what our goal is to try to make sure that we capture all the estimated year end fund balance and then spend that in 24, 20 2025. That's part of our process.
so it's it started as 24, 20, 24.5 million but when we adjust for the technical adjustments
to re budget funds for projects and programs already in process and some other technical adjustments, the real amount drops to about 2.4 million and as I said that's super super
small. It's .05 percent of the combined budget for revenues and expenditures that was primarily all generated by expenditure savings because that sales tax
number came in lower. Our revenues overall were a little bit below our estimate so we really generated out by savings mostly within the citywide expenses category and
the high level we have here is how we are recommending to disburse the additional ending
fund balance in the general fund. So again we have that 24.5 as our starting point we take away 22.1 for the re budget and clean up actions that are
required to continue projects and programs already in process. So then we got our $2.4 million of that. We're recommending about $1.6
million for a category called require technical rebalancing actions which are actions that
align already approved revenue estimates and expenditures with the most current tracking
information reallocate funding for ongoing appropriations based on updated needs correct technical issues in the 2425 budget or comply with actions previously authorized by the
city council. And then we've got a net zero category of grants reimbursements and fees where we're recognizing $3.3 million of revenues and a corresponding
amount for offsetting expenditures. And then we do have a couple
of budget adjustments that the city manager is recommending to for council to take action on
now in advance of the proposed budget when we normally would bring new items forward and we'll talk about those in just a moment. >> so here is a partial list
of the number of actions that are in the annual report and when you see a negative number
here again that's a reminder that we are spending the fund balance so we're for example in
the first item are general liability claims. We are taking $5 million of the
fund balance and adding it to the general liability claims appropriation to make sure we have some capacity for the city to pay out settlement claims. We also had some year end
transaction at the end of the year for some worker's comp claims that we had effectively
charged to general ly liability. So we need to reimburse that up appropriation. I do expect we probably have to revisit this as part of the
mid-year budget review to make sure there's sufficient capacity in that appropriation
11. 9 million for the coyote creek project and that money was we actually got from valley
water last year but we didn't appropriated we're going to appropriated this year to continue that work. We have another million dollars for our contingency reserve to
make sure we're in compliance with council policy one dash 18 making sure we have at least 3%
of budgeted general fund expenditures in our contingency reserve.
we've got to and $50,000 to do some election polling to get us ready for the 26 election cycle as council has given us direction to look at parks, potential parks measures,
infrastructure measures or other new revenue measures and so we need some polling there
to work on that. >> now you'll notice that's a lot more than two point $4
million of fund balance, right? So we are spending more fund balance than we have because we have to make some of these fixes. And so the next items that are
positive are things that are adding to our fund balance and we're sort of bringing forward actions as part of the annual report earlier than we otherwise would have.
these are things we would have done probably as part of the mid-year budget review or as part of the proposed budget process to recognize sufficient amounts of ending fund balance.
but we need to sort of generate some savings here to be able to pay for some of the actions that we know we need to do. And so we do have some savings of $2.3 million almost for the
elections. The ballot measures the appropriation because we're not doing a ballot measure in this november's election. We have some savings there.
so we're taking 250 of that savings and putting it toward toward polling. The rest of that is going toward fund fund balance when we we we have a reserve
currently in the general fund to potentially buttress ourselves against fema not
reimbursing us all we think we're owed for the covid response.
>> however, because we've got after some reconciliation we have some additional fund balance in the emergency reserve fund we can put that reserve instead of in the
general fund we can have that being an emergency reserve fund also bring back into the
general fund some money that we had ceded to the emergency reserve fund in prior year.
so that's another $2 million there. And then we do have some late fees in the water utility fund which unrestricted in their use and we can bring that into the
general fund so those actions there provide us a little bit of capacity to do some of the maneuvering we need to do to make sure that we comply with council direction and provide
us a little bit of capacity for these two urgent fiscal program needs. One of them the first one is for adding 4.0 animal health technician positions in the
public works department within the animal care services division to increase our
surgical capacity for spay and neuter. So we want to make sure that we
can get through those animals and get them spayed or neutered that are in the facility so they can get turned around for adoptions quicker and also increase our capacity for a
trap neuter and release program. So we want to bring those forward now instead of waiting until july for the new budget to start and then we have
$350,000 for a some temporary staffing in a city manager's office to drive leadership
around policy development coordination and execution both within the organization and
with external partners including the host committees to making sure that we are
maximizing the potential for those sporting events like fifa and the super bowl and the ncaa
men's basketball tournament to make sure we can maximize our economic growth opportunities
which council I know was also very interested in based on the past budget direction.
so we have those who are bringing forward now in advance of the budget process given their importance and just a couple of notes on some special and capital funds.
>> so looking at some revenues here, the yellow bars are our construction and conveyance, our c and c tax. So this is generated from real estate transactions while we
are down from the epic high of 2122 we did grow a little bit in 2324 and I think we
ended the year with with another what I see in my notes another to 3.2 million above
where our estimate was. >> so that gives us a little bit of capacity across the
parks funds in the fire and the library capital funds and then are the the darker bars there are building and structure and construction excise tax which is down from some of the prior
year highs but did perform a little bit better at year end than we had anticipated.
so that gave about $6 million or so to the traffic capital program which will provide some needed buttressing since that is a pretty tight type program there.
>> and then we do have in the airport operating fund so we we did have passenger activity
that did drop a little bit from where we were the prior year. >> so we're down at 11.9 versus
the 12.1 and the adopted budget did assume 12.5 million of passenger growth. But the airport we're looking at that. I know councilmember batra had
sort of a similar question when we did the bi monthly financial report last last week. >> we don't expect to hit that estimate any more kind of based on where july through september
data is probably going to be somewhere around where we were last year maybe a touch lower
and I think the good news is that the airport budgets you know pretty defensively so I
think that decrease in passenger levels are probably still going to be good from a revenue perspective and a cost perspective and the airlines are responsible for making sure
that they meet all their costs for the terminal operations and air operations.
so we should still be good there although it is tough to see that passenger level go go down and then the rest of the document has a number of other adjustments for cleanup actions
to reconcile funds. You know, we do this across all 140 funds, not just the general
fund and a handful of capital funds. The book covers the entire city's city's budget and we have a number of adjustments to recognize grants and
reimbursements. If you project accelerations and and adjustments throughout
the different traffic, the different capital programs and with that I think we're just about done and I just want to maybe just before I think everybody just just kind
of remind you know, kind of where we see the fund balance was very, very tight. We're starting off in a little bit of a defensive position for some of our revenue so this is
going to be a tight budget year getting through 23, 2024 and heading into 2425.
so we're going to really be sort of really careful even more on tracking and monitoring our revenues and expenses. So we do have another fund balance target that we need to
hit for 2425. >> we assume as part of the forecast we have $30 million of fund balance on an on ongoing basis and so starting a little bit lower in revenue
perspective is going to make that challenging. Well, we'll see it in next item
but we you know the liquidation of prior carryover incumbrances of that $7.6 million in the general fund that's going to help us meet our current fund balance target for 2425.
so we're not really going to get any new new money but does give us a little bit of a
headstart to make sure we can meet at least this year's forecast perspective.
>> so just one to provide that that context and we'll be providing updates throughout the year through our bi monthly financial reports, the midyear and other processes.
and I'll just close by thanking my awesome management team for the incredible work that the budget office does and the departments do to put this report together and with that
we are available for questions. >> great. Thank you jim. Appreciate the work you and the budget office do. Thank you to you and the city
manager and everybody for bringing forward the annual report to we have public
comment toni I have no cards. >> okay. Come back to the council.
I see a few hands will start with councilor batra jim jim thank you very much for that
massive report that you put together and since it still shows a little positive amount
I continue to admire the level of accuracy that you have been able to predict things at and
the only time I'm going to wish that you are wrong is when you start predicting deficits which
you're not. So I'm glad on that. I do have a couple of questions
or clarify now one, the sales tax down, is that probably being affected by the
more switch to the online purchases? >> any idea any thoughts?
you know, I think the you know, when the supreme court sort of allowed for more of the
online sales tax to be collected by local municipalities in 2018 and so
called the wayfair decision, I think we started to gain some of that back I think were more
like a steve and selena can can weigh in or my colleagues can weigh and I think we're just seeing a little bit of a softening of the economy sales tax grew pretty strongly
post post covid and I think we always expected that to taper off somewhat.
you know it's been a little bit erratic but it's probably reflective a little bit of some
of the layoff notices that we've been seeing just sort of the overall softening in the tech sector is going to have a little bit of a spillover. And so we also are seeing a
slowing in inflation. >> so as in when flexion was high, you know that is good in
some respects for some of the city revenue sources. So that means of revenues is higher also. So we're starting to see some of the backing off of the
inflation growth which also is going to impact the sales tax numbers too. But I think it's more overall sort of a softening of the economy.
>> I think yeah. >> and I think what some of the key indicators are the
transportation categories and the construction categories look like they're sort of leading the way in the decline as came in. Do we get all of the sales tax
for any purchases done through online for consumption in san jose we get so in san jose
if the if the business is in san jose as a retailer for the most part we will get those
sales tax. >> yeah you know we'll do it. Hello I'm selena obando so
online transactions are actually captured in the county pool and the county pool is
distributed out to the different jurisdictions within the county.
we're san jose receives about it ranges but it's about 50% of the total county pool so we
definitely it's different than if you just go to the store across the street we'll get
100% of that sales tax county pool you only get roughly about 50%. But also we're getting a portion of if you live in santa clara, if you live
elsewhere it's just the way that the online transactions are done. >> okay. How does it work if you if you are a you are buying an online
transaction but the in in san jose different no I think that's the same that's the same
exist it all goes through the county pool because it's done by point of destination instead
of point of sale okay and the construction revenue where we are the constructions money
show there 1.3 billion is that for the completed construction projects the value of the
completed project but anything which is in progress doesn't show up in there right?
>> that's a valuation of the project when they pull the building permit.
so there's a schedule by which the the valuation of that project is kind of part of the building permit and then they pay the tax based on that valuation in the building the
building permit? No. Does this include the projects which are affordable homes which don't pay any property tax?
>> yes. The valuations include affordable housing does pay construction taxes. >> okay. So okay.
and the employment trigger is that is snapshot at the end of the year or is it the
average age or that is as of as of june. >> so the number of of
currently employed people at the end of june of 24 and june of 23.
okay. And is it a pretty accurate or it's a sort of a with a degree
of range of error and it's the same level of data that is reported in all the economic
circles. >> so I'm not sure how accurate is but it is accurate enough that sort of everybody relies on it from the local levels all the way up to the federal
level. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. I make the motion to accept the report then.
>> great. Thank you. Okay.
we have a few more hands up before we vote so we'll go to councilor cohen next. >> thank you. I first I just want to thank jim bonnie the whole team for
the responsible handling of our budget. I have always feel we're in
good hands when I when I see these reports every year we're definitely, you know, have to
be very cautious going forward because things are not quite, you know, booming. But I feel like at least we have a handle on it and I'm glad for the pre-warning
of some of these softening is that we're seeing I wanted to just sort of ask a little
further clarification first on the on the question about sales tax.
so I would I would argue that 3% change is probably a flattening a leveling of our
sales tax because of the big increase that we've had in the last few years. Is that a a another way a way of looking at it that we've we're still higher than we were
a couple of years ago in sales tax? >> is that true? For sure we are higher than where we were several years back.
>> yeah. Yeah okay. Yeah because I was watching some presentation last week from chris thornberg about the economy and he's pointing out
that if you look at trend lines retail and sales people purchasing cars, consumer
purchasing it's actually pretty high overall and so just we're going to have to we're going to
see some leveling and dropping of that probably naturally. So we're you know given even
though that people out there there's a there's a sentiment that the economy is softening
or is in trouble, all the indicators such as consumer spending are actually up year over year for the last several years. So I just want to you know,
while I'm certainly not saying we shouldn't ignore this, this is an important trend. I just also it's important to understand that this might not may not be, you know, some kind
of indication of a future significant softening but we're probably due for some leveling
off or small drop for sure. >> I would agree with that for sure. I think you know, it's been a little bit stickier. The transition from services to
goods has been a little bit stickier than I thought it would be. So we've had higher sales tax for longer but we do expect the softening.
there's also a fun chart that I showed it when I talked to other groups. I don't show it to city council very often but you know sales tax as a percentage
of california spending is been declining for 40 years. And so we had a little brief
respite in the covid where we ticked back up. But I do think that will continue to or the california state department of finance continues to see that as a
proportionately decreasing revenue as a as a percentage of the economy in california
ongoing for basis. So it's just something to watch out for, right.
and that's a natural due to the fact that there's become more of a service economy than a purchasing economy and the state will have to figure that out going forward.
>> I have one other question. This is related to the san jose clean energy portion. I don't I don't know that you put a slide in there but the the goal is to have one how
many days of of reserve are we expected to have in the in sense of clean energy is 180
days is that correct? Correct. So we're at 168 right now. Is that do we have are we worried about the fact I mean everything looks great in
san jose. Clean energy's numbers. I mean I'm excited that we're, you know, operating where we are and still offering lower rates for residents so showing
that it's working. But are we a little concerned about that or is it is that within the reasonable range at 200 68 days? >> no, I don't think we're
concerned anybody clean energy can certainly join me here. But I think you know, the that
fund health has has grown considerably over the past few years. So I mean we didn't used to have a reserve at all really and we had a commercial paper
to pay it back. We since foley paid off that commercial paper loan and we're now building reserves. So I think I would say we're feeling pretty good about where
we are in the san jose clean energy fund. I don't know if lori wants to weigh in on my follow up question. We had heard I know we heard in the spring we had hit our 180 day reserve and that we were starting now to spend on
programs. Now we are a little bit below. Do we feel this is going to
affect our ability to spend on programs going forward and is there a reason why the number I
think the number had been like 100 890 million and now it's to night it's over to 20. >> is there a reason why it's that reserve number has gone up ?
laurie mitchell, acting esg director, director of energy and thanks councilmember for
the question. So our reserve target right now is still 180 days.
>> we are evaluating whether we need to grow our reserves beyond that to make sure we can
stabilize rates with the varying costs that the pta and all of that. >> we are still on target for that we hope to end this fiscal year above 180 days but it will
come back with a report on that and there's no change in our spending on programs we will
continue to offer those programs that council approved with the budget this year.
>> okay. Thank you. I'm I'm remembering wrong in that this that the number to reach 180 days has grown or is that just because of the scale
of what we're offering and the and the in in fact that operating expenses have grown is that has something occurred in the last few years to increase our what our target is
for 180 days. >> yeah you are remembering that correctly.
the main reason that we're considering that is when power supply costs have increased and
so that that's increased our cost. But also you know when we obtained our credit rating last spring the rating agencies in order to move up in that rating
did want us to achieve higher reserve target. So it's something we're still
evaluating and we'll bring back to council any updated policy on that but likely we will recommend going a little bit above that 180 days while still maintaining competitive rates
and offering programs. >> great. Thank you so much. That's it for my questions. >> thanks, councilmember councilmember for
you jim, thank you for the presentation. >> I always like to hear your
reports and meet with you have the one on one briefing. I really appreciate the detail
that you provide and as councilmember batra said, the confidence that you instill in
us that the numbers are accurate and that you're you're watching out for us you know
every year we come up to this point and we think we're going to have this huge ending fund
balance that we'll be able to use and play with. But this is the year we don and
you every year you actually warn us that be careful about that depending on that ending
fund balance it's not going to be there and this year it's not so I'm think this is good early
advice for us or something to think of of next year as we look at the budget in 2526 and
the impacts of our on what's happening in the economy at that time.
just a couple of comments really and that's in relation to the personnel increases
at the animal shelter increasing by a staff of four and then also including the
leadership staff on the road to 2026 that road to 2026 bringing in when the super bowl will be
in santa clara and and the world cup will be two in santa clara but have a huge
impact on the city of san jose that could be an economic boon for us and so we need to make
sure that we take advantage of that and getting someone a team in place, a high powered
team who can really move the needle on on awareness and activities and events and
everything that we need to to gain public awareness that we're going to be ground zero
for fifa when it comes to the city of san jose. I think that's really
insightful and brilliant and with that that's those are my only comments.
>> I just wanted to highlight those two things. Thank you. I appreciate that. Vice mayor carmen thank you. >> thank you jim and your team
for your presentation and all your hard work. >> I know it takes a lot to get
to where you are today so I just wanted to publicly publicly say thank you.
I know you mentioned the correcting of the technical issues.
you know, as you go through this process and that it sounded like you had mentioned
when councilmember batra talked about, you know, changes the encumbrances of 7.6 will happen
sort of in the next budget cycle. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay. And then the other thing I
heard and I just want to clarify on the affordable housing there's affordable housing pay property tax because I heard you say that they pay construction taxes but
do they pay property taxes? >> I believe they do not pay property taxes. >> they do not. Okay. And then I too I'm delighted
that investments now for the future on the road to 2026 is going to be critical and just,
you know, wondering is that in any way in jeopardy or anything like that or in this next cycle
we will ensure that we have a good team because I think that you have to invest in order to
be able to get to where you want to be by then. So I'm also a little bit concerned about that. >> I mean right now we have council direction to go forth
and make this a successful event for san jose and so you know that's what the direction
that we are moving under every budget process council has the ability to change that that direction but right now we're operating on the assumption that we need to continue that.
>> great. Great. Well thank you so much. Right. Thanks, vice mayor. Thanks again for the
presentation and answering all of our questions on the city managers annual report with a
motion and a second. >> I don't see any other hands, toni. Let's vote. Okay. Thank you know item 3.4 which
is the encumbrances audit report have a brief staff presentation when joe and his
team are ready. >> good afternoon joy city auditor I'm here with alison
polly for 100 encumbrances department should regularly review all encumbrances to ensure timely liquidation. Also in the box are drew covid and victor lowe from the
finance department. I'm going to turn over to ali to walk through the findings
and then drew and victor have the administration's response to talk through some of the
work today. >> good afternoon. I'm alison polly from the
office of the city auditor. >> I'm going to start with a brief background and
incumbrance is an amount of money that is set aside to pay for the estimated expense
for contracted goods or services. >> it's a budgetary tool to ensure that funds are available to pay invoices when needed in fiscal year 2425 the general
fund had $84.5 million reserve for encumbrances. This is about 5% of the overall
general fund uses. >> the city policy manual includes an encumbrance policy
. >> the purpose of the policy is to ensure the timely liquidation of encumbrances as in the policy departments are required to liquidate
encumbrances and six months after the term of the agreement ends or when the encumbrance is
no longer needed. Liquidating encumbrances releases those funds to pay for
other city needs on a one time basis. >> this is why it's important
to have ongoing monitoring and prompt liquidation of encumbrances when they're no
longer needed. >> our report had two findings. The first finding was that city
staff should review expired and unused encumbrances. >> more than a third of all
encumbrances in the city's operating funds were not used within the previous fiscal year
. >> or they related to purchase orders or contracts that had expired. Based on our audit review. We found that 1300 older
encumbrances may not still be necessary or were inaccurately reported in the reporting to or
from the financial management system. We estimated that these encumbrances total up to $30 million. This includes encumbrances for
purchase orders that were at least six months expired as of june 2020 for encumbrances
that were created two or more years ago that had no recorded activity in the most recent
fiscal year. >> and it also includes encumbrances that were two or more years old that had no recorded spending or no recorded activity at all.
I want to note that this data is the best available but the standard report does have some
inaccuracies that we will cover when we talk about the second finding. >> additionally, some of these encumbrances may still be valid.
>> these estimates that you see here are based on our audit review.
>> city staff have begun the process of reviewing these encumbrances as well as more recent encumbrances and liquidating when possible. Finance will discuss the actual
liquidation in their response and these totals were included in their supplemental memo.
>> during our audit we reviewed a limited sample of older encumbrances by working with
department staff to look into the details further. Of the 28 encumbrances we reviewed with staff. 21 of them needed to be liquidated and that totaled
$950,000. Five of the encumbrances had already been liquidated and were included in the financial management system report erroneously only two which
totaled $109,000 were still valid. >> we had one recommendation in
this finding which was that the administration should immediately require departments to review encumbrances to liquidate or correct as needed .
>> our second finding was that consistent monitoring and accurate reporting tools would
facilitate the timely liquidation of encumbrances. We noted that some department
fiscal staff were not aware of the city's encumbrance policy. Further guidance to staff and requiring regular reviews of encumbrances at the end
of the fiscal year would improve encumbrance management .
>> we recommended updates to training and to the city's encumbrance policy to address
these issues. >> additionally, the primary reporting tool and encumbrances
from the financial management system has inaccuracy issues. This includes inaccurate
encumbrance balances missing dates and also the inclusion of some canceled encumbrances.
>> reporting errors like these make monitoring encumbrances more difficult for city staff.
we recommend updating the report to fix these problems or to create a new report on
encumbrances. >> and with that I'm going to turn it back over to joe.
thanks, ali. So overall our report our report has five recommendations
we want to thank the finance department information technology department, the city manager's budget office for their time and insight during the process.
I'm going to turn it over to drew covid for the administration's response now and then we'll be available for questions. >> thank you.
thank you, joe and ali. So the finance department agrees with the findings and
the recommendations from the office of the city auditor. We have already begun the process of implementation of these recommendations. We expect all in all
recommendations to be implemented by the end of the current fiscal year.
however, we have already made significant progress on liquidating a number of encumbrances. We started with a what we called the phase one of the
liquidation which focused on encumbrances that were either had expired six months or more
before or encumbrances with no expiration date that had no activity over the last six
months. The total number of those encumbrances was 3850.
in that universe and almost all of them were reviewed and considered for liquidation.
of that amount almost 53% had either a full or partial liquidation totaling nearly $30
million of encumbrance liquidations 7.6 million of which was attributable to the general fund. We have we are working on the second phase of the incumbrance
review at this point which consists of all outstanding encumbrances with a focus on
those that were closed or expired as of june 30th 2024 and we expect to have those
results prepared for the mid-year budget february 2025. And additionally we've also
completed the implementation of recommendation three b which was to identify and communicate
the points of contact with the departments to ensure that they had the resources that they
needed in order to execute the liquidation of their encumbrances.
and additionally we are actively working with the it department and our report
reporting vendor to get the remaining balance report corrected so that it is
accurate for the departments to be able to report and liquidate their encumbrances as
necessary. That concludes my staff's response.
>> great. Thank you both for the audit and the staff response. >> let's see if we have any public comment. No public comment inside.
okay. Come back to council. See if we have any hands up. Councilmember batra, thank you very much for that audit. And as a dcd I'd asked some
questions about it. I'm going to ask the similar questions again on these encumbrances. What's the oldest one you found during your audit?
the one which could have been liquidated? Any idea?
>> there were some very old encumbrances. This is testing my memory but
there were definitely some from the early 2000s that were included. >> but I want to make sure it's clear that some of the oldest ones were very small so there
was just a small amount of money left but there were some that were very old. >> okay. And when you liquidate these encumbrances, these will become
the funds available to the general fund for next year. Thanks.
>> so for those encumbrances within the general fund, yes they would fall to fund balance
significant no amount of the liquidations were in some of the other operating funds
that are served different purposes. They wouldn't follow the
general fund and that would bend 2020, 22 million but we already have our budget so this
would basically be sitting as a separate surplus, right? These don't get allocated to
anything automatically because they they would basically the funds put aside.
yeah I'm going to I'm going to ask jim who's in the box to kind of talk about the
budgetary implications if that yet. Thank you for that. So the answer to your question is yes they would require separate council action to
appropriate those those funds to a new action so we would bring those so those would you
know, in the normal way of doing it those would fall to our ending ending fund balance and then be available as beginning fund balance for the 2526 budget process.
>> thank you. >> and what's the optimistic estimate of how much we may
find in this so-called magical money? >> at this point we don't have
we don't have an estimate. We went we went through the the old the oldest of the
encumbrances first the ones that had either already expired or the ones that had no
activity within the last six months. And so we think we've captured a great deal of the initial liquidation. So with that said, there's
still thousands of encumbrances to go through and and either liquidate or remain as
encumbered. But it's difficult to to present an estimate for what that might look like but that's what we'll come back with in february with the final number.
>> okay. Thank you. You expect to clean up whatever
this is before our next budget's time right? >> yes.
as part of so the current effort is to, you know, clean up old encumbrances and ensure
everything that can be liquidated is is liquidated that will provide, you know, potentially as jim had mentioned, $7.6 million for the the following year's budget and
then whatever else comes from the second phase of the liquidation process and then on an ongoing basis we expect to be current with the liquidation review process as part of the
year end close. So there may be some additional funds each year but that should
be a relatively small amount because will be not having older stale encumbrances that
have been sitting around for a long period of time but this one seems to be the timing is
really a good timing for us when we are looking at a possibly a deficit of the
budget finding this money which has been sort of reserved for us in places spread around.
>> and so I think joe, what triggered this audit so initially got on my radar a few
years back and in talking with a member of the public who had reached out to my office to
better understand the budget and walking through I noticed the reserve and just kept an eye on it over the years and then I talked with the previous finance director and assistant
finance director about you know, the process and just determined was a good time for
us to take a look. Hello. Thank you. I think this is a great timing when we really need every dollar for balancing our
budget, finding this kind of money which is allocated but not needed or not required.
so this was a great time for doing this audit and planting this money.
I know you're going to fix the system in future. We're not going to have this
one time gains which will be good in a bad. Okay.
so thanks for the timing of the budget and finding this money without affecting our services
and releasing some money for next year when we need every dollar.
okay. Good timing and thank you thank you to the department for accepting all the recommendations to clean up the future.
okay so joe, keep fighting so hard it where we don't hurt anything and still find some
money. >> right. All right. Thanks. >> thank you. Motion to accept the report,
sir. >> second great. Thank you, vice mayor. Thank you. I just wanted to make a quick comment and maybe get your take
on this because I think that encumbrances do have a place and there's nothing wrong with
having an encumbrance. >> so I don't want the message getting out there saying that
oh you know, if you have this money you better use it or lose it right? >> because I think that that causes sometimes decisions that perhaps are not as keen.
so so I just I just want to ensure that, you know, there is a place for encumbrances and
you identified something that's going to be done in you know, the next fiscal year.
I know that it can carry over and all of that so there's nothing wrong with that. It's just a matter of you know, it's not a situation of oh, you better hurry up and use it
before the end of the fiscal year or else you're going to lose it. So I just want to clarify that know I just quick comment. >> absolutely right.
encumbrances are a very important purpose in terms of for for departments or the
organization probably to manage the budget. But like any process it needs to be managed and needs to be monitored and that's you know what this order was all about
and the whole second finding is about improving those processes. So keep an eye. >> keep a handle on things moving forward.
>> great. All right. I don't see any other hands
with a motion a second let's vote. Motion.
great. Thank you all right, rhonda, item 3.6 actions related to the
west san carlos street urban village streetscape improvements project.
>> I don't believe we have a staff presentation so we'll go to public comment first if
we have any. >> I have no cards. Okay. Coming back to the council move approval right to their hands toni let's vote on 3.6.
>> motion passes nine zero. >> great. Thank you.
okay so right to item 8.1 citywide planning activities semiannual status report.
we do have a staff presentation on this item .
>> good afternoon mayor city council ruth cueto principal planner with pdc with me today
is martina davis, division manager and our department director chris burton.
today we're presenting on the citywide teams work plan update citywide is the department's
long range planning team and includes teams like the general plan team which is responsible
for the general plan's maintenance and updates the housing team responsible for implementation of the housing element ordinance and policy which maintains the city's
ordinances the urban village and station area planning groups, special projects team
that currently oversee the sb 1333 rezoning work plan. We also housed the destination
home planner, a grant funded position that focuses on process ing and affordable 100%
affordable entitlements. We are currently foley staffed 19 members not including our
deputy director which that position is currently vacant. >> so over the summer we began
thinking through our team's work plan considering changes to the customer service charter and how we present our work to city council and to the public, we would typically look at work
plans across 1 to 2 years but coming out of the tremendous effort that was the housing
element update we decided to take a longer view of the work plan one of our major efforts currently underway is the tri element update looking at policies related to
environmental justice, safety and open space. Once that work is done the team
will shift to the next general plan four year review another multi-year process and that
review will look at plan jobs and jobs to employed residents goals, environmental indicators
as well as affordable housing needs. We also anticipate having to
add additional residential housing capacity in the general plan during that time in
anticipation and preparation for the seventh cycle housing element we've updated the way
we show our work in the customer service charter shifting from full time
equivalency to hours more of a consultant model and that we think that helps us better
capture the costs of producing this work. You'll see in the next few
slides that a lot of our work capacity is spoken for. Some of this is implementing
the six cycle housing element work plans and policies. We also have ongoing urban
village planning work across the next seven years. A new approach to our work plan
is to categorize our our work as either state mandated or city priorities state mandated
or those that we are required to do per state law. For example the housing element
policy and programs updates and city priorities are those directed by council.
equally important like legislative review and ordinance updates.
but these usually have some more flexibility in terms of deadlines. >> and with that I'll hand it over to martina. >> okay.
so this is what the new citywide planning customer service charter dashboard looks like. On the left you will see information on our active
workloads and the number of active projects we have the number of hours we have and in
any given month and the hours we've committed to work in any given month. So you'll see right now slightly overcommitted on the right is our future workload
through fiscal year to 31 yahoo and you'll see that we've got about 19,000 about 20,000
hours a year and already almost 80,000 hours worth of work that we've identified through the
fiscal year. >> so taking a closer look at that future workload by
fiscal year again you can see here the pink being the state mandated items, the gray being
the city priority is I'll speak quickly on those two lines. So the 1968 is the yearly
productive hours based on our current 19 staff members. >> I'll mention that that is
highly dependent on the budget. >> so we included this red line showing the general fund yearly projected ours about 16 3% of our staff capacity is actually funded through
development fees so that can fluctuate as you know the development industry changes so
you'll see that the general fund covers not even our mandatory items.
>> so just something to think about and again getting into a little bit more detail on this
upcoming work so we'll show you again this fiscal year we're already foley committed so we
have 102% of our capacity committed through next june and next fiscal year.
we're actually already 72% committed between those state mandatory items and city
initiatives that we have identified where council has directed us to do.
>> and again just going out further years rate it goes down but even in these out years
even through this goes through 2930 we're already almost half committed with mostly mandatory work. >> so again just one more level of detail if you want to know
the city priorities. Some of the ones that we're working on this fiscal year
billboard policy six four update the pleasant hills guiding principles which was just adopted by council last week super graphics update for those 2026 events and the
county more every quarter or ones we're working on currently next fiscal year.
again we're already half committed with state mandated work the 18% of our capacity we have committed right now to city priorities include zoning updates for the smoke and vape
shops, special event permitting ,aligning agriculture zoning with the county and there's a
couple more items on that list . Another thing I want to mention is that this is the work we have identified now so things continue to come up.
one thing that's sort of lurking in that is likely to add a decent body of work to our work plan is the transit oriented communities compliance .
>> that's a policy out of mtc metropole, the chair and transportation commission that
they will be tying future transportation funding to ensuring we have certain land use policies in place including minimum densities and certain parking requirements around our
transit stations. So we're still wrapping our heads around the workload that could be involved in that. Another example of things that come up is as you probably know
the state constantly changes laws on us so there's a constant unknowable amount
of zoning changes that we typically have to do every year based on state law changes that
can be difficult to predict and with that that concludes our presentation so we are happy to
answer any questions. >> great. Thank you, toni. Any public comment? We do not look back to the council then if everybody hands
up we'll go to councilor butler first. Thank you for the presentation
,chris. I have a clarification to get. I was at one of the community
meetings recently and I received a criticism for our planning department saying that
the planning department is a profit center and city is not making enough profit out of it
to educate us little thank you. Council member chris burton, director of planning building
code enforcement I've heard similar things. >> I think the the actual
intent is that pbc is a potential revenue generator for the city.
obviously you know as far as the budgets concerned one of the biggest proportions
of general fund contribution comes from property tax and given state law in california the only way to really increase property tax is to modify existing buildings or build new
ones. So absolutely we're an important part of the future fiscal health of the city which is why we often bring a fiscal lens to some of the land use
conversation that we have as far as direct revenues through fees we run cost recovery so
we're definitely not a profit center from that perspective it would be accurate to describe
it was a cost recovery center than a profit center. >> so operationally we are a
cluster covery operation. >> that's correct. Okay. All right. And I I appreciate you having a look for the longer term not
just for one year because a lot of the planning activities are erratic in a way and keeping
the staff or just stick to that level. I think it's a pretty difficult
task. So appreciate what you're doing and some of the efficiencies you have brought into your work. >> one on the code enforcement
part of it how are we handling our code enforcement because especially when we have those
tier one, tier two tier threes I've heard from some of the community members that it's not
clear to them what will make them go from tier two to tier one because as you know that in
my district I've been trying to get all of these mom and pops to get their properties from
tier three to tier two 3 to 1 and at the last meeting I attended with them they were
saying it's not really clear to them what makes them a tier two two tier one is there some kind
of published literature available or some kind of a presentation can be arranged
with these people to help them understand the yeah. Councilmember there's certainly
more outreach that we're happy to do. We can organize a follow up and then we'll be including this as a part of the studies session in december on code enforcement
where we can drill in a little bit more on the multifamily program that you're referring
to. >> okay. Thank you very much. I am going to seek your help to get most of them at least move a notch up and there tier
levels. Okay. I'll make a motion to accept the report. >> okay. Thank you.
do have a second? Great. Thank you, vice mayor for your
thank you. >> thank you so much for your presentation and obviously when
you were at 102% of what you're supposed to do, it's you know I mean it's it's difficult and
given that you had that one chart where you had this series of well, we're already
committed way into the future it seems like there's a lot more work and continues to be
so even though I know that many of the new applications have not, you know, generated the
the revenue necessary to keep things going as quickly. >> and I'm just wondering have
there been other sort of paradigms out there in in throughout the nation or
whatever who who funds, you know, building planning and building differently because I
think that this, you know, as you see is not sustainable and then you sort of get it is sort
of feast or famine right? And then when there's so much work and you're having to
go outside to be able to get those additional people to to assist when you're when you're
sort of drowning in it, I'm just wondering if this is a time to take a look at what
other ways are what other structures do other do other departments you and the other
planning departments use to be able to at least sort of even out balance out I don't know,
you know some of the work and maybe there's some work that can be looked at differently.
I don't know. I just feel that it's it's we always get the complaints oh
you're too slow you're too slow you're not doing it you know but but at the same time, you
know, given your work plan right now you're never going to catch up.
>> right. Because you're sort of in this cycle. >> so I'm just I'm just wondering if there's been anything out there that can
look differently because there needs to be something some change of some sort.
>> thank you vice mayor and yeah, we'll we'll never catch up. >> it's the nature of the job but that's how we like it. I think there's a couple
of parts to that. So one yes absolutely there are other cities that have different structures around how they support their long range policy work through a variety
of different sort of avenues. So I think there are other cities that have looked at that. I think the one sort of major caveat I'll put on this that
has really changed significantly for us over the last, you know, five slightly
more years when we adopted the general plan back in 2011, you know, the plan was to you know
,look at all of the various different facets in our general plan all of the planning we did and then sort of use the urban village process as a means of continuing that planning
agenda by looking at individual areas an ongoing basis. Now we knew that that would
require additional capacity on our team so we actually increased what was at the time
a general plan update fee that's charged across all development and so that's what's paying for that sort of 60%. >> yeah.
what's changed significantly over those last five years is the introduction of new changes
and new mandates from the state. So all of that capacity that we've built in the system to allow us to do the planning work we knew we needed to do
has been consumed by a lot of those changes at the state level and as a result we're
sort of falling behind on some of the other work we would typically do and so that's the big shift. So when when we started this work to really kind of look
at this path forward, this is really a path to 2031 because that's when our next housing
element will be do we know that we're going to have to start that process 2 to 3 years in
advance so we don't end up in the same place we're in now because the state changed the law and us again on how we process the housing element and all of a sudden we had 30
builders remedy projects that are causing havoc with that land use process. So we're trying to get ahead of that now ahead of that we know that we don't currently
have enough residential capacity in the general plan if oecd decides that we're going to have to provide space for even more housing, right? So that means we need to update
our general plan here. There's at least two years worth of work in that. So I'm already backing up five years from 2031 from there and that's you know, a year and a
half away. So so this is really what we're trying to do is make an
assessment of all the work that's out there, especially driven by changes in state law and new state mandates so we can set priorities within the department and give the city
council a realistic view of what's coming and what capacity we have left because I
know there's you know, an explicit interest in continuing to refine our process.
you know, some of the policy work will bring before the end of the year is really aimed at drives in our process, you know, much more efficiently, you know, as we look
at different ways to explore housing production throughout the city. But all of that gets put to the wayside at some point because we have to meet these other
requirements. You know, we're right now we're writing or updating to general plan updates. We're writing a new environmental justice element
in the general plan. This is all work that wasn't necessarily planned for when we
established the sort of operational structure of the team. Yeah, I guess you know when I hear martina talk about the transportation plan and how you
have to have a plan or else you're not eligible for some grants, you know it's sort
of like it's tough because you you want to be able to be eligible for these grants so
that you can do the work so that you know, I mean it's sort of like chicken and the egg right? So I just I just feel that, you know, perhaps as we're looking
at the next budget cycle how you know, how things can be done a little bit differently
and I know it's tough because of all the mandates but at the same time they're not going to
stop so thanks for asking for so you know based on the presentation appears we're
spending the majority of our time on state mandated work that may or may not facilitate
housing jobs, investment in our community. >> and while I'm in favor
of fair rules being applied to all cities to ensure that everyone's doing their part,
my sense is that the state often engages in a form of centralized planning that
doesn't always result in the outcomes that our community needs. >> and so I'm curious how your department is aligning with and informing the work of our
interim governmental relations team to ask the state for a reprieve from requirements that
are not actually driving outcomes and to help inform the state of the impact that their
mandates are having on our ability to do any other work that might actually unlock
housing supply for example. You know thank you, mayor. We work very, very closely with
intergovernmental relations typically myself and jared actually do the bulk of that work for our team. >> so we are we regularly are in contact with the league
of cities with individual state legislators. We definitely have influenced
some bills in certain areas. >> we we have mixed success rate.
>> the state has decided that cities are the problem in a lot of ways, you know so we
definitely do make our voices heard as a large city that has a pretty good reputation in sacramento we can get somewhere. But again I would say mixed
success but it is something that we spend a good amount of time doing.
>> okay. I'm glad to hear that. I would also suggest that we might want to extend that education to nonprofit partners who are deeply engaged in
policy and advocacy work and sometimes I think may not foley understand the extent to which
statement rates are driving a lot of paperwork, a lot of compliance versus getting to
the heart of how we unlock housing supply. So I am curious to that point
with the limited capacity we do have, how do you all think about and ensure that we're
prioritizing council directed policies and the program aims and policies in the housing
element that we believe are most likely talking about highest roi here most likely to
drive investment in the jobs in housing that we need. Yes.
so that that is our ultimate priority when we look at especially market rate
housing production over the last five years, it's you know, effectively dropped off a cliff
in 2024. To date we've not issued any new building permits for market
rate multifamily housing and it's unlikely that anything will get through in the next
two months that would change that number. So you know, our biggest focus is how do we really address those issues? >> I think we've done a lot
both internally from a process standpoint and from a policy standpoint and we're taking
those next steps. We intend to be in front of council before the end of the year with a policy that allows for a ministerial approvals and that is the
ultimate streamlining right and sort of taking something like sb 35 one step further so we
can continue to advance multifamily housing throughout the city. >> so absolutely the case I mean I think you know obviously it's always a balancing act and
I think this is why we wanted to go through this process in particular is to give counsel a
little bit more insight for your consideration as the policy pieces come forward so
you know, when we look at sort of that that small percentage that's sort of city priority
versus state mandate obviously we know that 2026 is foremost in that list because it's under
a time constraint. We know that there's work we want to do around super graphics that as I said ministerial approval for housing development.
>> obviously the the work that was there's some work that's already underway that has been
time crunched because of other things coming along. So the housing element taking longer than expected so things like the monterrey corridor work has been ongoing for some
time and again it's sort of in that small percentage because we're just trying to get it
over the goal line at this point to free up more space for other policy priorities that sit behind it because there's a cost to putting things down and then sort of having to come
back to them and pick them back up again. >> yeah, switching cost and then you mentioned that we haven't had any multifamily approvals.
what do you project in in terms of volume of applications? I know it's impossible to know
for sure but I ask because we have a citywide planning fee that's supposed to help
facilitate our work on these policies. I'm just curious I guess the point is with with what I think may be lower volume if that's correct, how are you thinking
about the budget and staffing levels that you'll have to not only complete the state mandated work you've outlined but the city prioritized for. >> yeah.
and so if I just go back on the slides for say sort of that one slide that I have the chart
with the two lines on it is exactly sort of that point so right now and again you know
the the nature of our work often falls this way that you know we went on an aggressive
hiring strategy to ensure that we were filling all the positions we had in the budget
and available and we filled all those positions right as development started to decline
and slow down. And so now we're sort of facing that challenge in our is essentially we run fund 239 which is the gap above the lower dotted line up to the top
one sort of just represented in sort of hours available by staff labor sorry I didn't
follow that represented by work so it's represented by hours available productive hours
essentially in staff labor so that that's that fee right that's added on that's the 7100
yearly projected hours in the general fund the sorry no the the delta between the 7100 is
what the general fund pays for so we could take some money into it and then the fee is
what's so the fee is the delta so delta 2000 yeah. Okay got it. >> so we've been building a reserves so the intent and a general plan update fee is that
you build a reserve so that as policy work comes along and as you need to do those bigger full year reviews that the resources are available and fund 239 to draw down on
against those where we've added a lot of this state mandated work and where we've added
other policy priorities quite often what will happen through the budget process is we're
allocating funds out of 239 to cover it's not just staff time. There's also cpi and consultant
costs. So something like the pleasant hills work that we just completed right? That's I can't remember the exact number it's somewhere
around 250,000 out of that part . So we're depleting that fund as we move forward. So we're going to have to look at that you know as we get into
the next budget cycle and beyond as to sort of how that impacts and essentially what
that means is that top line will come down so the available sort of productive hours will
reduce which will continue to put pressure on how much capacity we have to do additional work. >> right? So depending on how that goes,
we may not be able to add much to the gray that we have there today. >> yeah, that's already been planned and part of the intent of really sort of drilling down
on this. So in the past we've typically done this work by looking at fte is a full time equivalent employees which is certainly not an exact science.
it's a bit of a ballpark. So we're trying to get much more in depth and in detail so
we can make more informed decisions on how we plan this work. And then also as we're doing workload assessments, you know whether it's through the rules
process on new policy objectives or if we're responding to council's interest in new policy objectives here we can give you a more accurate impact sort
of based on these this analysis. >> so this is part of our ongoing operational shift so we can monitor these so we can see what's coming.
we can make decisions ahead of time and hopefully avoid difficult decisions in the
future. >> yeah, I appreciate you doing this analysis. Well, I'll look forward to supporting the ag your work that I know you all will inform
see what we can do if anything to lessen some of the state mandates or simplify or
streamline them in some way and then I'm sure you'll keep coming back to us to help us understand the tradeoffs that we're making in terms of which body of work you're pursuing
and which are getting shifted out to future years. Okay, we had comments from a
few colleagues. Let me see if anyone has added their name. We'll take councilor davis. >> thank you. I'm sorry I missed your
presentation. I was over at the county for the blue zones item over there
but I wanted to make sure I understood. I didn't see it in in the presentation and for today but I. I see that it's in the
presentation a fuller discussion about the presentation for said a fuller
discussion about urban villages. So do I understand correctly that the only urban village plans that you're working on right now were have been
already underway? You're not undertaking any new ones until you kind of take
another look at that process. >> is that correct? Yeah.
so we have three urban village plans underway. Two of them are kind of at the
very beginning stages. So we have five wounds which is nearing the end. The combined pavement plan and then saratoga urban village and wrong side alum rock urban
village yeah yeah. So those will take us probably about a year and a half to
couple of years and during that time we'll start that analysis on the urban village planning process and we're definitely doing these ones with that in mind you know where are there
opportunities to change and streamline and throughout this kind of more traditional urban
village process? >> so I'd like to suggest and you came to us with over 100%
and you I think are asking for us not to just accept this but to give us your to give you our
comments. Is that correct? Okay. I see a nod from chris so I'm taking that as a yes. You want to hear what I have to
say? >> I think it would be wise to review the current urban
village plans and to see what development has happened or is even in the pipeline for those
current urban village plans before you move forward with any of the others that are in
the beginning stages? >> I think that makes more sense in terms of I understand
you have a consultant on boarded and you have a consultant rfp closed but we
don't we don't have to utilize all we don't have to spend those dollars and we don't have
to spend that time. >> I would suggest given that I have a number of urban village
projects in my district, most of which haven't gone really any projects done and a few
that only just have a few maybe 1 or 2 projects in the pipeline.
>> I would suggest that this is not been the strategy that back in 2000 1011 we we our
predecessors anticipated it would in that we don't have 70 or even a dozen santana rows in
in the city of san jose because that lightning didn't strike twice and and I don't know that
that's the way for us to move forward with our development so I would I guess I would ask is
can we meet our housing element requirements without doing urban village plans in a in a
better streamlined way that takes much less work? Yes. So some amount of the urban village planning work is was included or baked into some
of the housing element work certainly not the whole thing but there's some anticipation
that will advance with those plans but that's only a portion of it.
I mean, you know 60,000 units over the next eight years or next seven years at this point is going to be difficult to meet regardless. I think the biggest opportunity
areas will likely be those areas that already have plans approved or other growth areas
like north san jose and downtown. So that's really where we're probably looking to see significant gains. So it definitely take the point
I think there's there's definitely a conversation that needs to be had about how we approach urban villages. >> I think as we approach another four year review
probably in about 2026, I would suggest that that's a great time to have that conversation
on kind of what the future of urban villages look like how we can sort of continue to effect that process so that is more efficient. There's definitely some work
again that we included in the housing element that sort of looks to streamline this
where we've adopted citywide guidelines and standards for design.
we're currently working on a process that will look at standardize mitigations for secure all of these things in theory should compress that that issue right where we don't
have to look at each of these as individual plans is that we can just create a framework and
say this applies to all and maybe there are some sort of smaller modifications around
sort of specific colors on the map on specific sites that we change. But generally speaking here's the plan like what are the just the edits rather than writing a
new plan each time? >> yeah, I foley support that. I do think also one of the one
of the main drawbacks of the urban village plans is it's good to go out and get
community input on those plans but there's a lot of agitation when when you go out and say
and you put those colors on the board because people think they're going to happen like that and they they don't necessarily even happen at all. >> and so there's a lot
of there's a lot of community education that has to go around that and a lot of engagement
that has to go with each of those plans. And I just think it's not
because we haven't seen those realized. >> I mean the first urban
village plans were with district one, the first three that when I was here and it was
a huge long before me process engagement process in the number of projects that have
come out of those three it was a tri village three plans is maybe half a dozen. I mean jared would probably know better than I would but maybe half a dozen out of three
plans and we I know the pulte homes are open and that's maybe it.
>> I just I just don't think we've gotten the bang for the buck.
and if you were looking for what should we not be doing? I would say the urban village
plans are what you should just just put it down and focus your focus your resources on quicker
wins. That's all I have to say. >> thanks, councilmember.
appreciate that perspective and I think it's certainly not planned out as past councils
had hoped and the communities I think we would say makes a lot of sense. >> okay. I don't see any other hands. Please remain we've had a
robust discussion. Did we have a motion I think we might have from councilor batra
to kick off. Okay. I'm not seeing any other hands, toni. >> let's vote. >> motion passes ten zero.
okay, we have one more item that may be heard before 6 p.m. That is item 10.2.
>> this is a text amendment to the general plan and I believe ruth is kicking us off.
>> all right. >> I'll get it started. >> good afternoon.
ruth coto, principal planner with the city white team and I also have my colleagues from
the airport supervising planner ryan shelton and planner john wilson.
we're here to discuss the general plan text amendment for a proposed modified airport
influence area and other associated tax changes. >> so some background on the
work that has been done so far and why we're here today. A major amendment to the
airport master plan was adopted by city council in april of 2020 which included among other things plans to update airport facilities, updated aviation demand forecasts and
new noise contours based on forecasts after the airport master plan was adopted from
april 2020 to december 2022, the santa clara county airport land use commission also known
as the ala arc started work on updating their plan for this airport and the airport
influence area. Eia to reflect changes to the san jose adopted master plan.
>> the california public utilities code requires that the auc plan be based on the
airport master plan. However, when the auc released their draft plan the auc had
inflated the aircraft operation by 50% and proposed to expand the air by proposed and
expanded eia in san jose between march 2023 and march 2024 city staff met with alec
and county staff six times and sent several letters detailing the city's issues with their
draft plan such as air core aircraft operation numbers, the inflated noise contours and the
expanded eia. Additionally, the city provided the a look with a report by h
and b t h and tb corporation, an aviation consulting firm which analyzed the airport's
long term aircraft operations forecast and the airport master plan that found the forecast to
be on target. Caltrans aeronautics sent the ala a letter agreeing with the
city's approach to use the airport master plan data for the amended auc plan and the
eia in march of 2024 the ala adopted the their plan with the 50% inflated noise contours and
expanded airport influence area against the objections of the city.
the city's main concerns with the noise contours and air in the san jose mineta airport
land use combat compatibility plan are foremost that the ala did not follow the public
utilities code which states that their plan and the eia should be based on the airport
master plan. The alec assumed an unsubstantiated 50% increase in
operations aircraft operations when calculating the noise contours for the airport.
these inflated noise contours were then utilized to create an expanded eia in san jose.
this expanded eia would add an additional 240 acres of land to the air in san jose if the alec
adopted eia were utilized by the city, these additional 240 acres would need to be referred
to the look for a determination of consistency with their plan for any general plan amendments
rezonings municipal and building code updates this referral process can add
several months to the timeline of a project. It also means extra costs for both privately or city initiated projects for reference the map above depicts
the prior airport influence area in green the ala adopted eia in red and the proposed
modified air and blue. There are lines that overlap in many areas but you can see that
the eia shrunk the one that the city is proposing on the west and north boundaries because we
do have quieter aircraft and the removal over runway there is an expanded eia in the
southern boundaries. The city is not disputing the changes in the north or west just those in the south. >> these two maps depict the area where there is a
difference between the alec adopted eia and the proposed modified eia.
one area includes part of downtown and the part of the area included in the diridon
station area plan. The other area is south of downtown and includes residential and industrial uses . The general plan text amendment
proposes a modified area which we which would be represented in the general plan and the
diridon station area plan with updated maps. Additionally to provide
consistency and clarity the text changes will use consistent naming convention
for the airports and san jose update the language to differentiate between the alec adopted air from the city approved modified air and includes a section that
provides background and justification for the modified air if the general plan text
amendment and overrule are approved by the city council, the city of san jose will
utilize a modified air to determine which projects will be referred to the look for
consistency determination with a local plan and these final slides include the
recommendation for the overall and the general plan text amendment and we're here if you
have any questions. >> great. Thank you, toni.
to have any public comment on this item? No. Okay. >> turning to my colleagues, we'll start with councilmember
cohen. >> yeah. Thank you for bringing this forward. I'm just going to briefly say it's frustrating that we don't
have alignment on this and that we have to take this action to overall. >> but I will make a motion to accept a staff recommendation. >> motion passes ten zero.
great. Thank you all. >> okay, so we have a few items
that were agenda ised to not be heard before 6 p.m. That's item 7.1 10.3 and 10.4 so we will
recess until 6 p.m.. Take up those three items and then do open forum before
adjournment. Thank you .
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>> welcome back. We were back from recess and continuing on with the agenda
toni do you want to call the roll just to confirm that we have a quorum hermanas torres cohen ortiz davis you're don kendall was here foley here. But you're here to me here,
mahen here you have a quorum. >> okay. Thank you. All right. We are picking up with item 7.1 blue zone's assessment
readiness and feasibility report and I'll turn it over to angel. >> we're ready. Mayor city council members angel rios, deputy city manager
joining me here in the box is the vice present of blue zones and margaret brown, our point
person under children youth master plan program manager and pianist laura brousseau, an
assistant to the city manager peter hamilton and the blue zone's assessment readiness and
feasibility report that you're going to hear about today is a cross reference report from the neighborhood services and education committee. First I'd like to take a moment
though to acknowledge the work that has made this report possible. City funding for this effort was originally proposed by councilmember deb davis through
the 20 2324 budget process and that was eventually approved by the council a.c. The inner city
committee provided additional guidance and feedback that guided this work.
the city funding was further augmented by additional grants from the county of santa clara
adobe santa clara family health plan and the health trust. I'll also note that from the
start we embedded the blue zones framework into the work of our cities children and
youth services master plan as both efforts aim to coordinate across agencies and community
partners to improve the well-being of our residents. So to tell you more about the
report's findings, we're pleased to have margaret brown here today and I'll turn it
over to her. So she can kind of go over the report. >> great. Thank you, angel. Thank you all for having us
here tonight and putting us on the agenda. A very exciting time for us. The culmination of really more than a year's worth of work we kicked off this process in
january. We'll look at that timeline a little bit more here in a few minutes. I want to first say also a great thank you and I was
remiss in not acknowledging this in the county meeting earlier but I just want to say
thank you to deb's team that have supported the planning nicole airdrops and mary and as
well as cindy chavez and her team with coming to the table angel and laura and his team
that have been working behind the scenes and to our steering committee who are listed inside
of that report. So I just want to say thank you.
their work has made this possible. It has been at times you know,
late nights and early mornings as were some of us on the east coast and some of us on the
west coast. But it's all worked out. And couldn't be happier today to be able to present this this report as we get in with the time that we have.
I want to quickly go through just a couple of things. First, I want to orient anyone
who is not familiar with blue zones and just what is blue zones? Blue zones. First of all, our purpose is to empower everyone everywhere to
live better longer. This work this purpose was developed out of the the
research of dan buettner senior and the national geographic team that sought to find the
longest lived populations in the world. The learnings and observations from those longest lived populations places in the world where individuals are living to
age 100 about ten times the rate that we do here in the united states on average. >> and it was through those research study understanding kind of the environmental
factors that lead to that extra long healthy life. With that blue zones has
brought those learnings as power nine into what we call the life radius focusing in on
the people we spend our time with, the places where we spend our time and the policies that
are creating environments that really help with that choice architecture what do people
have access to inand throughout their daily lives in terms of food built environment? How is that kind of guiding us or helping or preventing health happiness and well-being as
well as alcohol and tobacco? >> the assessment process that we kicked off in january is a
process by which we get a preliminary free understanding of the community so we do that
through robust planning. We spent the first really 4 to 5 months understanding who do
we need to engage with, who do we need to talk to? >> he needs to be in the room.
additionally, what are the reports, documents, plans, comp plans, master plans, studies
that have already been completed and what can we learn from those? And fold them into this framework. We also completed some data
analysis was using the well-being gallup data to understand what is kind
of driving overall well-being here in the city of san jose as well as where are the value,
where's the value in the potential impact for the future. >> if this project is to move forward we would begin that project with a nine month
foundation and planning phase. It's very important to call out that during this phase there would be nine more months of dedicated time within the community to work alongside the
community and community stakeholders to design exactly how these recommendations and
potentially other evidence based measures show up for them in their communities.
so this is not completed the work is not completed. We would have to continue to
convene do some additional learning. Importantly complete an
oversample using data so that well-being measurement set metrics and targets for impact
that would be realized over what's called transformation a 3 to 5 year process that
culminates with certification. So that is really the process for our blue zones project.
>> I want to quickly showcase I'm here today on my own but we have an entire team that's been
dedicated to the san jose project. Some of these individuals you
have probably met spoken with, seen in other presentations they have really been either
working directly behind the scenes or here in the community as part of the assessment
process to help bring together this report that each of you have at your desk today.
>> I'm just calling out some of the engagement that we have had. Over 100 individuals participated in sessions to really understand key sectors
of policy. These are really leaders that are working in and in key neighborhoods in organizations, nonprofit organizations on the ground with schools in your
work sites, etc. To drive some of these strategies on the ground today or either leading
efforts that are addressing some of the the areas that blue zones works leadership
discussions we we we brought together a health care roundtable. We had a sports roundtable. We had other leadership discussions.
some of you may have participated in that and also had some broad open to
community type presentations also had an opportunity to invite the community in to
learn more about blue zones. We had over 130 participants and that night alone so in
addition to that there have been others since then that have come to the table, had discussions and have helped inform the process. >> let me go back if it allow
me here on the screen is what really is a very challenging process of all of you in front
of you. I have a couple of documents. You have a very robust bound
report version and then you also have a one page or kind of summary document that that
attempts to pull together what we learned over the nine months of being engaged with san jose
in the report is much more detail on each of these items that are on the screen now I
just want to call out a couple of a couple of things. First of all while we were looking at the whole of san jose, we did align with the children and youth services
master plan and put a deep emphasis and focus on those pilot communities that are
called out by the cia. And so we really looked at seven trees poco away so
almost mayfair etc. And really spent some time in those communities these
recommendations opportunities are not necessarily foley dedicated only to those
communities but I think these are the recommendations that most closely aligned to the c,
y, s and p and all of these would have a tremendous impact especially on the east side of san jose. So for example, when we're looking at built environment
you know a lot of individual that participated in these sessions called out in their
own way things like we would like to have walkable complete streets in our community youth
the youth commissioners that participated we simply would like to have a place to gather
with people our age that is safe and accessible many of them that participated also
said, you know, it's you have to wait till you get your driver's license in order to
like drive somewhere to meet your friends to sit down at a coffee shop or in a park and
come together. So we would like to have that in our neighborhood on the east side when looking at things around seniors seniors who are living there is it safe for
them to be wheelchair accessible? Is there a complete streets that allow for safe crossing pedestrian causeways etc.? So there's a lot that goes on
in the built environment. I think one of the most important is simply amplifying greenspace, developing the tree canopy, bringing in quick build demonstration projects that
help amplify the need there and also bring the user engagement and a little bit more on the
food systems side it really is looking at how do we build a system around food through
culture, food accessibility that is healthy food and healthy food options. So while there are some local markets there that do have fresh fruits and vegetables,
etc., there's also the need to bring in things like grab and go quick healthy meals, food
skills development, other types of issues around food that can help amplify the availability
of that food and connect it directly back with the community in the areas
of alcohol and tobacco. I would say while there's some great policies in place, we
really need to work on reducing the total number of outlets that are tobacco, alcohol
selling and providing these products and especially around youth areas where youth are
regularly convening and there's some great some detail there in that as well when it comes to
schools, you know, we saw firsthand a lot of great work happening in the schools, a lot
of great partnerships with public health and other agencies there. But really a core recommendation is to revitalize the wellness committees and
create a structure by which you can bring youth leadership into that process as well as parents, teachers, etc. Worksites definitely a need to engage more worksites in this
process including those work sites where individuals living on the east side are
predominantly working. That can be small work sites, large work sites but really a
need to engage them, understand how we can support them optimizing the environments to
increase not only total access to health and benefits but environments that can support
health and wellbeing long term and then some really key things with restaurants and grocery stores you have wonderful environment of restaurants in grocery stores available on the
east side culturally diverse many options. I think there's some
opportunity there to strengthen the overall health profile in partnership with those restaurants. That does not diminish their bottom line but helps to
actually boost their bottom line as well as making it more accessible friendly price point
friendly to families that are on that side of the community and then finally bringing in
civic faith based organizations ,volunteers and ambassadors to be aligned in this way offering
this similar type of programing within their institutions and creating a social gathering
place that's focused on creating a culture of health and well-being. >> so these these things are color coded and where they align and touch in on the
children youth services master plan with the blue zones we would imagine a process by which we would be setting up leadership structure and committee structures and would
be bringing in youth as ambassadors to be serving in each of those areas to help
make this more especially designed and tailored to the needs of the youth and
especially in the areas that that overlay is with the c y s&p we have from this process
put forward an initial recommendation for a blue zones project that would be focused
on the east side in these core communities we are actively in this process engaging with
other cross-sector leadership to really take the next step that is you know, not just a
city focused or county focused initiative or city county nonprofit partnered initiative
but how do we engage with those that have already been at the table in the way of for example
adobe and how do we increase that and get more of your private sector at the table
joining in with this effort, investing in this process and that that work is underway and
we hope to have an update at a later time. I will say we have some great partners here in the city as well as within the county that is working alongside us to make
that a reality. And with that I will turn it back for some closing remarks
and questions. Great angel. >> does that conclude the
report? Yes. Okay, great. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate the report. We're going to actually go to
public comment first and we'll come back to the council toni, ali, victor and that's the only
speaker I have for this item. Okay. And I see ali coming down.
>> good evening. Hi everyone. >> my name is ali victory and I
am here as a resident of 951111 of the target zip codes. >> been there for 43 years.
raised our family there. I am also the present of the seven trees neighborhood
association. The present of the d7 leadership group and the
secretary for the d.k. G. Zeta theta chapter which is an educator society made up
of retired and current teachers. >> I'm busy all three of these
groups have asked me to speak on their behalf in support of blue zones and to encourage
you to continue with this project and with the collaboration between the
county and the city. >> and now I'm hearing nonprofit and profit for profit
like adobe. So as residents of the seven trees we are excited about the
prospects of building a stronger, safer and healthier community. We've done a lot of work. >> the city has done a lot of work the county has done a
lot of work and there's still a lot of work to do. >> and the surrounding neighborhoods of c of d seven know that improvements in one neighborhood like seven trees
in santee will radiate out to all of district seven. >> and as educators we know
that the alignment of blue zones with the youth and children's master plan and
focusing on the on children will benefit not only today but the future as healthy children
are able to learn better, make better decisions, raise healthier families. >> so really thank you. Thank you dave for all of your work on this bringing us the
possibility of the blue zones and we hope that you support it and bring it to us.
we are so excited and ready to work. >> thank you.
council. >> great. Thank you, toni.
okay. Coming back to my colleagues, I'm going to turn first to councilmember davis who has been leading the charge on this effort.
>> thank you, mayor, for for those of you who don't know, it was really the pandemic as a as
a traumatic event but also where health disparities were clearly revealed to us on
council in very, very stark life and death terms that that really got me interested in in
bringing this to us as a way to transform our community. And I think for many people,
especially our youth and we heard this over the summer there is still an uphill
recover process from the pandemic still taking place. >> and so I, I am convinced
that now more than ever our community needs us to bring a transformative process to them
to to do things differently to help them thrive. And this very, very large
report is large because there are so many things that the blue zones project brings to
the community all at once. >> it would you saw in the kind of the eye chart slide bringing
together schools, worksites, restaurants, grocery stores and churches it's really meeting
people where they are and going so deep into the community in a way that frankly laura did for
the children youth services master plan to see what people want it for their youth and
wanted out of our services that the city in the county and it's it's kind of taking that information out and then going back out and really pulling them in to a project that that
is transformative for them individually, for their families and for our community
writ large. I feel really strongly that that we need to that we need to
do this. And I just want to say that I'm very grateful to christine kraft who worked in my office for a year to actually nine months to help us get all
of the funding and I'm very grateful to the adobe foundation, the marin council
for the the budget message in in accepting the budget in 2324 that helped provide the seed
funding for this the health trust the county of santa clara and the santa clara valley
family health plan for supporting the work of the assessment and I would be
remiss if I didn't also thank supervisors cindy chavez and her whole team who coordinated
with us so that we could do this in partnership with the county and we really have found
very early on deputy city manager angel rios found a nexus between the blue zones
work and the children youth services master plan work and so I'm thankful to him and to
laura brousseau and and peter hamilton to come on in in just the last couple of months to help us get this over the goal line and very thankful for the leadership, the creative
thinking, the work and and the guidance during this phase. And so today we have the
results of the assessment which focus in on those three zip codes that are identified as
pilot sites in the children youth services master plan. >> and if you saw the memo from
from myself and my colleagues these these zip codes are (951) 169-5112 and 95111 so
that's the the mayfair mayfair parkway and santee seven trees areas and this is not a cheap
program. I just want to be clear and I'm not asking for any money from
the council and we didn't ask for any money from the county earlier today because it's
really important for us to bring in private philanthropy and and worksite dollars into
this into this process because the transformation that we're going to have to do at the city
and that the county's going to have to do will involve re kind of reorienting the funding that
we already that we already have and use to really make sure that we're providing equitable
bowl spaces and equitable mobility options for for the east side in a way that I think
we haven't really done before. So it will also require a transformation at both the city
and the county. >> and I just want to say I'm glad I have a little bit
of time left if you if you didn't see that on the placemat .
one of the most startling statistics in this is the cost of status quo of doing nothing
the blue zones team conservatively estimates that without a transformation the
annual medical and productivity cost will increase annually by $1.9 billion over the decade
which means that san jose will incur a cumulative burden of $15.1 billion more in
medical costs and $7.6 billion more in lost workforce productivity.
that's a huge drain on our economy and I know you can look at those and go well, medical
costs we don't we don't pay those but remember that we're a large employer for the city
of san jose and we do pay those costs for our community as well.
>> so I don't think we can afford to really do nothing and we have this opportunity to
build on the develop the partnership that we've already developed with the county to
bond our two levels of government to transform positive outcomes for children
and youth in our community. >> and so with that I would like to move the memo written
by myself and council members foley, ortiz and dewan with some additions because the
county basically passed a very similar motion earlier today and they added in item to a one
in the identification of service duplication and gaps they added child care services
into that list and then into a two an assessment of infrastructure assets and gaps. >> they added child care facilities.
>> thank you. Thank you council member let's go to those very thank you so
much. I want to commend my colleague councilwoman deb davis on this.
>> this is one of those things where she has planted the seeds of whose trees and fruit she
will never see. >> this is this is a very, very long, long, long term vision
and I'm just honored that she's going to leave that legacy and whenever someone says blue zone
they're going to say have davis davis steve davis. >> and so I think that it is it
is it is something to commend and you know, to be grateful for because I think that you
really on to something because it really it really is more it encompasses a more holistic
view of the whole child, the whole family the whole community, the whole
environment and making it better. So thank you.
>> thanks vice mayor, customer and others now. >> thank you, mayor. I wanted to quickly thank councilmember davis for your leadership on this as a member
of the neighborhood service and education committee we did hear blue zones and the update in
the status updates a few times and so so it's it's I'm happy to be here today so my all
of our colleagues can see the great work that's been put in as well as the work that's
before us and and I'm especially grateful for for the inclusion of the 95122 zip
code which includes welch park and metaphor in my district as part of that gap analysis to see what kind of transportation and library and use services we can better provide for for our
committee because we do need to do better and I am grateful for that and I look forward to
building on on the solid foundation you've helped spearhead. >> so thank you. >> thanks, councilmember. We'll go over to
councilmember ortiz. >> thank you, mayor. First I just want to start by
thanking both our city staff and our blue zone staff for their work on this really
important report. >> and of course I want to join my colleagues in elevating councilmember davis for her leadership on this issue. >> as you come to the final
months of your your term, I just want to let you know that this is a great gift to
district five and district seven and to the east side and that we really appreciate your your leadership, you know, coming all the way from willow glen but you you still
prioritize our our most hardest hit hit neighborhoods so I just really want to elevate you and thank you for for that work but the support is a terrific needs assessment and detailed look
at where the city is in regards to our public health in particular it shows the need to
address the historic inequities that continue to be felt in our east san jose neighborhoods
regardless of it's district five or district seven. You know the residents of the
two neighborhoods in my district mayfair and polk way that are part of it
children and youth master plan pilot project are working class families immigrants most
of whom are people of color and come from these working class working poor backgrounds and
one of the big takeaways in this report is there are severe differences in the environment
. Our people are growing up throughout the city and depending on what zip code or what neighborhood you know you're raised in and
undoubtedly has an effect on our residents health in particular areas like east
san jose are in dire need of investment in their built environment including east san jose's parks and green spaces and I'm glad to support our memo with
councilmember davis leadership along with councilmember foley and council member dawn to heighten the city's coordination with the county on the pilot program areas.
>> and I'm hopeful that private funding can yield some real results so that all san jose
residents can live long and healthy lives because regardless of what neighborhood
you're born into or where you live, you deserve to live long and healthy life here in
san jose. >> so thank you so much. >> thanks councilmember councilmember for I too want to acknowledge councilmember davis I remember
when she brought this in and I actually didn't make the connection between covid and where we are today. But listening to your presentation on blue zones
actually made me think about project cornerstone and the 41 developmental assets that our
children need in order to thrive and be successful all blue zones takes it a step
further it incorporates the whole family, the whole community and encourages us and
really demands us to make the changes we need to make our environment better for all
around us and focusing on the three zip codes that are that are part of the pilot pilot
program makes absolute sense. If we're going to see success we must start there and we must
be successful. The families in those communities deserve it. So thank you dev for bringing this forward and for allowing me to participate in your brown
act. I look forward to seeing it go forward and I'm truly proud to be part of your legacy that will be going forward. This will be called the dev
davis blue zones I think. >> thank you. Thanks councilmember said
another hand going up. >> all right councilmember minutes I'll just say thank you
for all the work councilmember davis and I also wanted to highlight 95111 also encompasses areas in district two the roundtable area the project hope areas eatonville
neighborhood. There's an eatonville community center for example that has I think some vacant space. I know part of the goal is to establish an office in that
respective area so I just wanted to highlight that this isn't only san jose, it's south
san jose as well because many of the neighborhoods that are impacted by everything that
councilmember davis has mentioned really are in all parts of the city and I think oftentimes we forget that. So I just wanted to highlight 95111 south san jose and some
of these areas that need assistance as well and and councilmember you know many
have referenced kind of the pilot locations in alarming really disturbing statistic
that really came out of this blue zones report from dr. The never out of the university
of oxford found that residents living in these zip codes have a shorter lower life expectancy
of 3 to 5 years. So if you know so when we went back and jumped in and kind
of looked at took a deeper dive, we found that on average residents east of one on one
and in these high need areas are have shorter lifespans. And so I think that in and
of itself is kind of really our call to action right? Which is how do we how do we
impact the built environment, how do we impact access to better food and nutrition? How do we how do we level the playing field a little bit around, you know, the
disproportionate access to alcohol and tobacco and other things that are impacting our young people and other families. >> and so yeah, that was an
alarming statistic that I just wanted to share. Yeah. Yeah. And I appreciate that and I think I'm not the only one up
here but my family lives in the 95111 area code and in some of those neighborhoods and so
you know the statistics bear out that maybe some of my own family members won't live that
long if they continue to live in that area or less the area gets improved and gets the services and all these different things a wraparound sort of work if you will the
blue zone related work I think is super important. >> I would also say that
because as an example the roundtable area falls in in the 95111 area I don't know if
that's too many ones but what I what I can tell you is we've been I've been actively working
in that space for many years and in that neighborhood trying to improve a lot of the traffic patterns and things of that nature. So I'd like to think that some
of that work is already naturally has been happening by some of the work that we as council members and the community folks have been doing.
and so I'm hoping this when it gets up and running to helps supplement some of what's been
done already. >> thank you. >> thanks. Councilmember scored a councilor one on one to echo everything that the rest of our
colleagues have already said is you leaving an incredible legacy you're bringing what
back to the basic you're bringing family value the traditional programs for a news
not only changing the generation right now but changing that generation for
the future. >> and I just want to say thank you very much for that. Thanks, councilmember. Well repetitive at this point but I also think councilor
davis and supervisor chavez for bringing forward this work and bringing blue zones to san jose
to do this assessment. It's quite a for those who are up in the audience that are
watching online quite a robust assessment. >> I appreciate that it doesn't
reinvent the wheel that it's really aligned with the children and youth services master plan on the work that we already do to support young people in the community and
think about how to support families and growing healthy young people who can achieve their full potential in san jose. >> I also think anything we do
that takes a holistic view better aligns. >> what we're doing with the county is is a good thing and trying to get upstream of things that we spend a lot
of money on later like homelessness and crime and blight and all the rest so
various supportive of of where we're trying to go with this I do think one of the lessons
actually from everything I've learned about blue zones over the years is that so much comes
down to culture and so the question I have for staff is what we're hearing from
community leaders and I saw the things I appreciate about the assessment you actually name the names of people you interviewed and have pictures from the community meetings
which I think is really helpful but to me the success of this will be partly do we get
private and philanthropic entities to want to fund the work and have a multi-year view
but how bought in or the community leaders and are they ready to embrace and help lead the kind of cultural change if you will that the city that the city needs?
>> so I'd love to hear a little more about how we're measuring or sort of validating the buy
in of community leaders as we move forward. Yeah, I think that that's
really kind of the the the big challenge and the opportunity. Right. And this will only work if the community embraces this right? This can be an outside in kind
of approach, right? I think from a I think what's unique about this is that I
think with by leveraging blue zones I think we're going to be able to attract other funders
that we have historically not attracted into our community. So I think that's a big plus.
but but all this work you know ,if we do this work correctly will leverage the work and the
infrastructure that we've put in place around the children youth master plan right. And that is all community based at all levels children, youth, adults and at the end of the
day they're going to have to kind of drive the agenda. They're going to have to drive
the priorities and the way we're approaching that to pilot launches is this work they will have the ability to take a look at this report identified the seven strategic strategy is
that they themselves identified through a robust community engagement process and they
themselves identified the priorities and recommendations that they want to advance and
then we'll be helping to see that with some of our initial, you know, seed money that that we're funding towards these and with the goal being that they operationalize this into the
culture of the neighborhood right at all levels. So we know that that's not an
overnight thing that's that's not a sprint that's kind of a long game but but it starts with with with you know, starting with a different vision of the culture in a
different outcome and that's what I think people have been really excited about is is I
don't think we just need another program right? I think what we need is they want it to look and feel different and that's why people are I mean we've had to cut off
at some of our meetings because of space. We have to keep going to bigger locations because you know, we're you know, we're getting rsvp list of 100 plus people
and we're like well we got to start expanding. So that's a good problem to have. So yeah, bottom line it has to be a community driven strategy
. The children youth master plan is structured in that way and ultimately they'll help define the performance metrics and then we'll we'll measure those
. Okay, sounds good. I appreciate all that.
I will one follow up and then I know we've got a motion a second and I don't want to hold us up to have other important business this evening I do want to know so tonight we're being
asked to accept the report and some next steps that make sense to me. I'll be supportive of that as we continue the process. >> and I know this there's
there's a note I have around I'm coming back to the council in the new year and as we lead into the budget process talk about assigning staff resources to work, what is that?
what are the validation points? What should we just to kind of backwards plan from the success that we want to see we come next spring and to talk about this what should we
expect to see in terms of communities support engagement?
what tells us that there's real buy in? So I'll be making phone calls
and listening myself. I'm sure council members will but I'm just curious how do we how do we know that there's kind of how do we validate that there's sufficient bottom up
support and engagement and excitement that people are like yes, we want to go do this
because I mean to me that's what will make it exciting and successful and worth going out and raising the money and pushing it and committing to a five year program is if people
are coming out of the woodwork saying we really want this. >> yeah I can only speak to
this from my experience in other communities we've got a little over 90 communities in the united states today you all probably have heard or seen in the news
riverside county is actually launching a blue zones project right now.
they have begun that process and have begun hiring their team actually this week they're
doing their kickoff event so they're in that transfer in that foundation and planning phase. And where we are today is we're delivering a final, you know,
report to get moving to that next stage. What I would anticipate and
probably what many of you are already experiencing especially after today when we've made
this public councilmember davis her team has done an excellent job of sharing this out very
broadly connecting with all of those community members that have participated in this.
we see why s&p there participated with us along the way and they are continue ing
to get outreach to their offices to say when is this happening and you're going to probably see more of that. We've been very intentional about keeping the website up to
date, giving them appropriate materials and channeling them in the right direction because
what we what you will see and what happens in other communities is there will be kind of a growing demand where you will get calls, you will hear conversations.
people will be asking and so the work that generally happens from now until what you
reference the spring is that if we do our job right blue zones in partnership with the city
and county as we will have said can we bring the funding together?
we will have those meaningful conversations with those private nonprofit philanthropic
stakeholders and if we are successful we will then be able to say do we actually have the
demand? We will know from the conversations that we are having. We will know from the leaders such as angel and others that
are engaging directly is this is this what if the community wants it then we'll be ready to
say okay, we can move forward but you do want to have demonstration of both of those points and there'll be other opportunities to engage along the way and to ensure that that
is shored up before you commit and move forward to the next phase. Okay. Appreciate it. Thank you.
all right. I think we have a vote to take. >> I don't see any other hands
up, toni. What's folk? >> motion passes unanimous lee
all right. >> thank you all very much. Okay, we are on to item 10.3.
we have a short staff presentation about a planned development program for a
property located at 3464 ampm avenue. >> we'll wait for chris and the
team to get down to the box. >> thank you. Mayor chris burton, director
of planning building code enforcement joined today by john to our division manager for development review and david keene, principal planner for environmental review on
route. >> so the project members the project before you is a plan
development rezoning plan development permit a tentative map with associated
environmental impact report and sorry am indeed my apologies I knew that was coming to projects the zoning includes as I said a plan development rezoning that will allow the
demolition of a single family residence as well as associated accessory buildings.
the removal of 23 ordnance size trees and the construction of four two storey detached
single family residences and an approximately 2.6 acre gross site as well as associated best
in tentative map for the subdivision. >> the property is located just here off of amber avenue and you'll see that it has a general plan designation, a
residential neighborhood and an existing zoning of one five single family residence.
>> the proposed zoning does conform to the r15 zoning district. It just includes some limitations on setbacks because of the unique nature of the
site. It's actually graded there's a hill associated so we were trying to work with the applicant to deliver the most efficient site plan.
>> the project was reviewed for conformance with the general plan as well as the objective
standards contained within it regarding density and air as well as the municipal code for
zoning and tree removal rules as well as the subdivision and of course with sequel the
environmental review is an mitigated negative declaration which was circulated back in
june of this year. We received full comment letters that were addressed by
staff in formal responses to the comments back in august the mitigated negative declaration
found impacts related to biological resources hazards and hazardous materials as well
as noise with implementation of the identified mitigation measures included those in the
mitigation monitoring and reporting program all identified impacts would be
reduced to a less than significant level. So staff is recommending adoption of a resolution adopting the residential subdivision project mitigated
negative declaration approving an ordinance rezoning the site from 152015 pd adopt a
resolution approving subject to conditions the associated investing tentative map as well
as adopting a resolution approving subject to conditions the associated plan development
permit and with that staff is available for questions. >> thank you chris.
>> toni do we have any public comment not for this item. Okay. >> and I should just note because we have a lot of folks here I suspect for the next
item if you wish to speak there are comment cards down at the bit where these plastic or
glass boxes I think they're plastic at the base of the staircase here if you fill out
a comment card and turn it in, put it in the box, then we'll we'll know of a sense of how
many people want to speak but no public comment on this item on this item that we will come
back to the council. >> we'll start with I believe this is in councilor condos
district so we'll start with the council member thank you mayor. >> I want to just start off thinking crisp and your team for the presentation as you
mentioned the of the proposed development area is situated on the hill overlooking
surrounding neighborhoods and I have heard from some residents around concerns with the sight
lines and privacy issues thereby created by the by the hill structure.
so my question for you is how many units could this site yield without the this pd
zoning and with the conditions of of on of the site on the public street yeah john to
division manager so with the speed with three provision which would let them utilize the maximum development that the general plan designation which is eight dwelling units
to the acre 21 units however you went and you net out a street probably about 15 units
is what they can theoretically design you know give us some grading that might be a bit
lower but here there are they're proposing okay not many. >> right. Okay. Thank you.
so it's about 15 unit 15 to 21 give or take. Okay. And then is the applicant here with the applicant come down and I have a question for for
the applicant I'm sorry. I should have warned you while I was talking to kristen.
got you closer to the to the mike. How are you doing? I mean councilmember no, I know I have I know that you met with a few of the neighbors to
gather feedback before you know, before coming here, correct? >> correct. And so what were some of the comments that the neighbors
suggested from those meetings? Good evening, mayor councilmember ryan.
the applicant would be on capital. So we did meet with the neighbors didn't really what you just mentioned the privacy issues certainly we presented
our projects as some that provides trees around the sites, the perimeter but also
around the laws to help address provide screening and shading for that area. So that's what we chose to do to mitigate the concerns. >> gotcha.
and so so of the okay. All right. And so how many how many
meetings did we have with with the community? >> there was a phone call and
then there's a virtual meeting. So two conversations. Okay.
all right. Thank you. Thank you, ryan. That's all for now and so you know, like like I mentioned I heard from from neighbors I
actually went door to door to every every home surrounding the the the project and you
know, my goal was to, you know, bring the applicant and a few of the neighbors to come up
with with something to bring additional mitigations. And you know, I am someone disappointed a while I understand the applicant's responsibility to maximize the
opportunity to produce a product that sells which is what we talked about with with the additional balconies overlooking that appears you know floor balconies appear to
be excessive and so you know while we aim to facilitate development in san jose, you
know I think that that balance of you know the residents is quality of life is tough is
tough and I know some folks were really disappointed but alas you know I that's why I'm
grateful for my colleagues who who worked together on on the memorandum that we put forth
that looked to establish additional conditions with regards to the issue we
mentioned requiring to modify that landscape plan to to include better shading and
screening and more importantly the condition to minimize the loss of neighborhood privacy by
strategically placing shading and screen foliage for the surrounding neighborhoods.
and I think with these additional conditions I think we sought to address those
privacy concerns. And so with that I like to move the memo authored by by my colleagues and I don't thinks councilmember has voted as you could or did you should
okay. >> all right. Got it. Thanks, councilor. I appreciate your work on this .
any other questions or comments from colleagues? I'm not seeing any.
>> okay, toni, let's vote. >> motion passes nine zero with davis absent.
>> okay. Thank you, toni. All right.
thank you. Just staff so we are on to item 10.4 which is the conditional
use permit to allow construction of a new commercial retail building
at 50 to 87 prospect road. We have a couple of recusals so I want to start with those
councilmember foley and then I'll go to councilor batra. Thank you mayor or I need to
recuse myself due to a financial conflict. >> okay. Thank you. Councilmember and councilor batra I have a conflict
of interest as I own some of the shares of this costco company.
>> okay, great. So council members foley and batra will leave the chamber. We will still have a quorum. >> we'll be able to make a decision this evening which is
good news, toni just before and I will I will get into a few since we have a large group
here I'll I'll lay a couple of ground rules but just before I do that and I'll kind of lay
out the sequencing here how many comment cards do we have at this point? >> 4646 okay. >> it's a lot. So what we will do process wise
is we'll hear the staff presentation. >> the applicant is then given
five minutes to present. >> we then go to public comment given the very high volume
of cards we will not be able do the full two minutes. I know many of you reached out requesting to have time to make your case. I'm going to start by limiting
to a minute and a half and see how we do. I understand you all are here on an evening put a lot of time and effort into be here so I do want to try to give everybody
an opportunity to be heard. I also need to keep quorum and make sure we hear from everyone in the chamber if we're running start to lose people. >> I make further reduce it but
I must start at 90s after that will come back to the council for deliberation and emotion.
>> so we'll start with the staff presentation. Thank you mayor.
as noted this is a conditional use permit for the westgate west center for the proposed
costco project. >> so here you'll see the project location on the corner
of lawrence expressway and prospect road. The site has a general plan
designation of neighborhood community commercial and an existing zoning of commercial
general. >> the project includes the demolition of existing three
single storey commercial buildings that total a little under 180,000ft2 the removal
of 115 trees 73 which of ordinance 42 a non ordinance size and proposes 198
replacement trees and will include the construction of 165,000 square foot costco
building this is a conditional use permit that includes the new construction but also
includes the determination of public convenience and necessity which needs to be
heard by city council in conjunction with the type 21 abc license for all sale
of alcohol. The project also includes saturday construction hours
from 8 a.m. To 5 p.m. And five 24 hour concrete pours. >> the project was reviewed for
conformance with the 2040 general plan as well as the municipal code. The citywide design standards and guidelines as well as council policy six dash 30
public outreach and with the california environmental quality act for environmental
review. >> a notice of preparation went out back in january of 2022 we
held an environmental scoping meeting that month. The draft environmental impact
report was circulated back in december of last year and then the final environmental impact
report containing the the first amendment the draft eia and the mrp was completed on september
13th of this year and impacts from the project can be mitigated to a less than
significant level with implementation of mitigation measures.
these include air quality during construction nesting birds hazard and hazardous
materials from past uses on the site and construction related noise. The environmental impact report did not identify any significant or unavoidable
impacts we did study project alternatives that included a no project alternative as well as
three other alternatives beyond the no project alternative. The alternate placement on site
would be the environmentally superior option because it did reduce noise and vibration
impact for residents located on the east side of the project. However, this alternative would
not foley realize the project objectives and would result in similar impacts for the other
resource areas to the proposed project in response to the circulation staff received 387
written comment letters during public circulation and and these raised concerns relative
to site access pedestrian safety traffic and parking perceived incompatibility with
the urban village goals alcohol sales, air quality and hazardous materials.
all comments were addressed in the first amendment and none of these comments identified substantive inadequacies in the draft environmental impact report recirculation of the
air is therefore not required. >> and so last lastly staff is recommending adoption of a
resolution certifying the westgate west costco air as well as adopting a resolution
approving subject to conditions a conditional use permit to allow the demolition of said buildings and the construction of the new costco building staff has won additional
condition the following further discussions will be adding and so I'm going to hand over to
john to talk to the junta division manager made some public comments with c prior to
this hearing. >> propane sell sells staff has an additional condition to add
to the resolution a prohibition on the sale and refilling of propane.
this aligns with what was analyzed in the air which was expressly stated that propane
would not be sold at the site. This lounge should be added to condition below condition number seven f in the youth authorization section of the conditional use permit
resolution the conditional read as follow seven propane sales and refilling the sales of propane in propane refilling is prohibited and with that steps available for
additional questions. >> okay. Thank you for the staff report
and recommendation. >> we're going to now turn to the applicant and the
applicant. >> once you get started we'll have five minutes.
>> we're having your back. >> we're having an audio issue for the broadcast but it's back
so don't worry about it. Okay. >> thank you, toni.
>> go ahead, sir. >> there you go. Good evening.
me and me and vice mayor comey and the san jose city council. >> I want to first thank you
for allowing us to present the proposed costco at the west gate west mall tonight.
my name is michael kumar. I'm the avp real estate development for costco wholesale san jose has been home for us for over 30 years with five successful warehouses
in the city. >> we have a strong roots in the community and our membership has grown along with the successful growth of the city of san jose for years our
members have been asking for a new warehouse in west san jose. We are excited to have found a
home here at the westgate west mall. >> as you have heard, many of the neighbors have significant concerns about the location we've listened and
made changes to make the project better working with the landlord we're creating a new revitalized mall that will improve pedestrian and bike safety along lawrence
expressway. We are contributing 2.5 million toward pedestrian safety at the
intersection of lawrence and prospect. >> this location is convenient
to where our members live as as you can see from the graphic above and which will we believe
will help reduce travel across town to the other existing warehouses.
>> this project will not have a fuel station but it will be creating over 250 to 300 new
jobs paying an average of $29 an hour. >> the city's own office of economic development estimates that approximately over $2 million of annual
sales tax will be generated from a big box just like costco .
>> we have spent significant time with the community and stakeholders over the past
three years, including participating in nearly 40 meetings with neighbors the
high school district, adjacent medical office owners shopping center tenants and costco members. >> we have currently received over 3000 community letters
of support of which over 450 support letters from district one has expressed their support
and will provide that to the city clerk. We have listened and learned
the project before you this evening is responsive to the community concerns and achieves
costco's objectives. >> as noted on slide above as proposed on the on the site
plan some highlighted modifications along graves on the west side at the cul de sac
that driveway that existing driveway is going to close. >> no costco delivery trucks
will be on will come through graves we are closing the eastern graves driveway
at night to all truck traffic actually close at all at night related to traffic and the
project design eliminates all existing loading docks that currently exists about ten
of them the faces of residences the costco loading dock itself not in yellow is facing south.
it's a little bit different than our prototype. >> it will have a wall and a
wall on the side and a roof on top to help muffle the sounds. >> we're also adding a six foot
tall screen wall along graves and shifting the building to align pedestrian safety.
>> we've agreed to contribute 2.5 million to address the existing pedestrian and bike
safety. >> we're improving pedestrian path at graves two from graves
to prospect on along lawrence improving the lawrence driveway intersection and I want to also
thank you vice mayor for coordinating the effort to identify the set of improvements to crease pedestrian safety and help minimize the distance for
crossings. To summarize the project benefits we're revitalizing an
existing shopping center. We're reducing truck traffic on graves over the prior condition
which was over 18 trucks to less than six eliminating the existing ten loading dock doors
that faces the residents right now improve pedestrian and bike safety along lawrence increased
tax revenue by cities estimates by 2 million promote economic growth by 203 to 300
well-paying jobs. >> so tonight I respectfully ask that you support the memo
from the mayor vice mayor, councilors cordova's and cohen .
>> along with me tonight is our landlord representative henry avila from first washington and
consultants if you have any questions. >> thank you very much.
thank you. >> appreciate that. We're going to now shift to
public comment. One thing I failed to mention is just that in the interest
of allowing our clerk to do her job and everyone to exercise their free speech rights, we do
ask people to not cheer or boo or otherwise disrupt the meeting.
>> people will frequently use jazz hands if they want to show support.
you can shake your head no whatever you're silently choose to do but we want to just keep
things moving along because we do have a lot of speakers we want to hear from everyone.
>> toni, let's jump in. >> so I'm going to call your name. You can also if you didn't hear me, the names will show up on the transcript as well.
I'm going to call the first 3 or 4 speakers. No particular order first
person on microphone just you know, start talking. Everybody else can sit in the
front row where it says reserved while you wait your turn. So let's start with joe glynn, leah tennis, canada, robyn marrow and eileen.
>> and I'll call a fifth person. I also have gary come on down.
thank you. Good. >> mr. Mayor and council
members. My name is joe glenn. I'm a 25 year resident
of district one, a longtime resident in the city of san jose.
vice mayor kamei as the new council member and january 23rd you gave me the opportunity to
sit in front of you and talk about issues in our neighborhoods. And this project was active and we spoke about it and you listened.
and I'm here to give you and mayor mehan the councilmember colon and
candlestick my support for this project because these recommendations were some
of the areas we spoke about public safety particularly pedestrian safety with our
children at that intersection. >> this will provide public infrastructure.
sure. This desperately needed as we transform this area to an urban
village concept but save the saratoga is right behind it. This gives the impetus to get
those improvements done and funded. And for that I thank you.
>> thank you. Next speaker your no vote on the west cape west costco
project is a vote to protect san jose protect student and resident safety, protect our
roadways, existing businesses and protect our residents from noise, light and air pollution.
this is not the time for a yes vote. >> traffic and safety studies around the proposed site are still lacking. >> a yes vote now for the
project would be based on insufficient analysis especially for the cut through streets that border country lane elementary school. >> that study was not done
because it was not required. How has the bare minimum become the standard?
how can you rubber stamp this project when you do not you do not have a complete
understanding of the traffic safety and health risks risks. >> your voice vote would impose
on the community. >> please do not trifle with people's lives and safety. >> if you must vote yes, do your homework. Get the full picture complete
all of the relevant analysis whether or not they are required or then commit
substantive mitigations that meaningfully address the problems and guarantee those in
writing. >> that's how you tell your constituents that you hear them
and you have their back. >> finally push costco to be the good neighbor they profess
to be and challenge them to put some real skin in the game. >> I urge you to use this
moment to protect our city's goals. >> thank you. Thank you. Next speaker I'd also like to called on mark barbarous and
amy. >> go ahead. The kimberly horn noise
analysis does not mention shopping carts anywhere in their document. Costco parking lots swarm with vehicle and shopping cart traffic in their parking lots.
>> the study whitewashes the parking noise issue by saying parking noise events would be
instantaneous and short term and duration. >> at costco I've never had an
instantaneous or short term trip pushing a shopping cart back to my car. >> the questions we all need to ask are was shopping cart noise included in the noise analysis
? It is not called out in any way. If it was, how was it modeled? Were there sound levels of carts crossing the ada
truncated dome pads model? Those pads increase the noise exponentially.
will solar panels reflect sound down into the neighborhood? >> has this been studied?
what type of carts will be used? >> metal or plastic? Any noise analysis is incomplete and deficient without accounting for shopping
cart noise and needs to be redone. Please require a thorough accurate noise analysis and require appropriate sound mitigation for this end tested
first of its kind with roof parking. Community disrupting design. Thank you. >> thank you. Next speaker.
>> good evening mayor and city council leah tennis center present and ceo of the san jose
chamber of commerce. Our role as the chamber is to serve as an advocate for the
needs of the local business community and the economic growth of our city. I'm here to express the chamber's strong support for the proposed costco warehouse.
>> this project aligns not only with the mission of enhancing economic opportunities but revitalizing key commercial locations. >> a couple of specific notes
that we pulled out. >> one the project is consistent with the city's
general plan and zoning code. This is the direction that the city took.
when a project aligns we should maintain that alignment. >> it strengthens san jose's retail tax base as was mentioned an estimated $2 million in annual sales tax is
beneficial to our city, creating 250 to 300 well-paying jobs with career opportunities.
>> again as a positive for our workforce. >> and lastly costco has shown
to be a partner over three years of conversation design changes and contributing $2.5
million to additional traffic needs. They are showing to show up. >> if existing shopping centers like westgate west cannot add new retail to remain
competitive, it does pose a significant economic challenge for us in san jose.
costco represents a positive transformation of that shop. >> thank you that your time.
next speaker. I'm also going to call maybin and josh jiong.
>> my name is robin morrow. I represent c.w. Strong restaurants.
we operate dave's hot chicken in the san jose market in east bay.
I have a dave's hot chicken in the same westgate shopping mall where the proposed costco will
be going and we are in strong support of costco joining us. >> we believe that having any
empty spaces in a business district is not good for the city.
>> it's not good for the community and its residents may create all sorts of hazards and
potential crime. And just having a thriving business community where it's a
safe place for families to come and to shop and to spend time and to dine and will only I
think add more value to the area. I understand that there are
resident concerns and I think this is the right forum to address those. And it sounds like costco's done a good job trying to mitigate all of those concerns.
so I think it will be a very positive addition to that space. >> thank you. >> thank you. Next speaker.
>> good evening, mayor, vice mayor and council members. My name is mark barber's.
I just grabbed a copy of the mercury news tomorrow's edition. Great article in it. I read in a reversal from the planning commission decision
the city council blocked costco development directly across from a high school.
this location would have been the first costco in the nation with parking on the roof a sign
of too small a site something reserved for south korea. It had an entrance through a
quiet neighborhood and all night loading operation feet away from residents.
the council stated that schools although fulfilled did not reflect the needs of the
community. In addition, the 32 million revenue number was found to be
grossly inflated as the baseline was taken after existing tenants were expelled
from the site and it did not consider predictable cuts and closures at local businesses
such as sprouts trader joe's and even more. Having protected the
neighborhood council members can now sleep well at night along with residents on graves.
>> thank you. >> thank you. Next speaker I'll also called
on paul wilcox and dangling. Oh yeah. Okay.
um. Hi everyone. So I'm an east san jose negative. I'm a current country lane elementary parent.
I'm also an educator and we have one important rule never hurt children.
you never put them in harm's way. So why would anyone want to put a card magnet warehouse right next to two schools? >> so I made this map because
there's no study done on the country lane neighborhood. And as you can see, country lane already lacks some safety measures. >> and a costco makes 5 to 10
year olds even more vulnerable to vehicular violence. Closing graves avenue at night
doesn't help those kids. >> so the kids aren't here tonight and they have no voice
. >> I protect and care for other people's children as part of my job. >> I don't know how to explain to you that their lives and
safety are always more important than money. >> it would be so disappointing
to see council members lose your home, your humanity, your ethics and your legacy over a
business. >> so voting no is not easy but it's obviously the right thing
to do. Thank you. Next speaker.
good evening. >> my name is jackie chan. I urge you vote no on the
project because if you don't please ask costco to close the eastern interest on grace
avenue. >> why? >> because this project didn't create 1 million extra traffic to this area. >> the traffic is going to flow
. They can congested the already busy south whole ga prospect
and the lawrence street. >> so if the caucus members cannot find the way it
got there they can find the east coast use the entrance and the flooding into all the nearby streets. >> and think about that and just go there.
so you see think about the case there. There are risks. There are simply being endangered. >> so please put a human on
behalf of the commercial protect our case. >> vote no on this project.
thank you. >> thank you. Your next speaker.
>> hello, my name is mabon and I'm a junior at prospect high school.
I'm skipping soccer practice to be here today. And I'm speaking on behalf
of lots of my friends who couldn't make it due to sports matches at academic club meetings. Some of you may think that thousands of extra cars from
costco won't increase safety problems around my school. But in my experience they will.
most days I ride to and from school in a car. But because the traffic is so
bad on prospect road many of my friends and I drive to the other neighborhoods to get dropped off and picked up at the back of the school riding to and from prospect
high school for school sports practice or band events. There's often lots of traffic
that we crawl through light after light at these times. It's pretty common to see
drivers block bicycle lanes, make illegal u-turns run red lights and make other poor
decisions. The school track and field are located right next to the traffic flow. And as a member of multiple sports teams, I know firsthand
that athletes have to deal with the air pollution and noise during practices. >> if costco is across from our school most students will not be able to eat and buy things
there. But we'll all have to deal with the increased pollution traffic and safety problems. Thank you. >> thank you.
next speaker I'd also like to call emily ding and christel and kyle.
>> so that's emily christel and kyle. Go ahead. >> good evening. My name is paul wilcox. I'm a 13 year resident of one
of the neighborhoods abutting the costco proposal. >> I'd like to urge you to
reject this. I'd like to make a common sense argument. Compared to the nearby sunnyvale costco which is a pretty typical costco.
>> this project is about 20,000ft2 larger on a lot. That's about 35% smaller.
we've all been to a costco on a weekend and we all know how wild it gets.
this project doesn't make any changes to prospect boulevard or to laurens expressway.
you've been on lawrence that turn into this lot can take 8 or 10 cars.
>> you're seeing only eight people going to the costco. >> I've heard our neighborhood
associations be accused of being nimbys. >> and I've spoken to a lot
of the folks that are here and I can assure you we're not. >> we want this mall to thrive.
it's thrived in the past and it can thrive in the future. It just needs the right
businesses that are the right size. We need markets. We need restaurants. We need coffee shops. >> we need clothing stores.
we don't need a giant box mall shoved into a tiny neighborhood mall.
thank you. >> thank you. Next speaker I agree with all
of them. Say no to this project. >> it is too close to the high
school and I meant an adventure school here. So in the costco the plan the
new driveway you see that would be opening up by river the sidewalk between the trader
joe's and the previous modified for the customer to enter and exit the costco side from the
fifth avenue. This way or create cuts through traffic around the country an
elementary school and nearby street to the north. This means much more traffic
and the danger to the kids walking and biking to the very cruise by country and in
school. >> so I strongly to ask you to consider this request before
you make this final decision. >> thank you. Next speaker hello.
I'm kyle. I'm a junior at prospect high school. When I'm taking this school there are often like pa where there's a lot of cars and often
there are like cars that are passing in the sidewalk when the light turn or the crossing
sign turns green. So also when school is getting out there's often a lot of cars
like around the area and a lot of people trying to leave at the same time.
costco is only going to make the traffic worse and I don't want like other people to get
hurt because of the large amount of traffic in the area. So yeah, thank you.
>> there's a second photo as well. >> hi, I'm a 13 year resident
of the community. A no vote is a vote for safety because no traffic safety was
study was required. >> none was conducted. >> it's common sense that more
traffic equals more accidents. >> now you have seen that they are proposing to do some
changes. >> I didn't know I could do a slide view which would be just around the costco. However there are no safety updates that have been proposed
for all of the communities where that traffic is going to flow through all of our
neighborhoods. >> if san jose is serious about a vision zero and reducing
accidents then you should vote no. >> and if you are going to vote yes then please require ask for more mitigation to protect the safety of the residents or
you're just setting us all up for accidents. >> thank you.
>> thank you. Next speaker before you go, I'd like to call down hannah
kanazawa. Kurt maas, tammy and gary smith. >> go ahead. >> good evening, council members.
my name is emily and I've lived in the country lane neighborhood all 25 years of my
life just steps away from the proposed costco site. >> this project contradicts
san jose's vision for its neighborhoods. >> instead of a transit oriented, pedestrian friendly urban village, we face a big box warehouse generating
massive traffic congestion and with multiple costcos within six miles in suitable
commercial areas. >> do we really need another in our residential neighborhood?
>> if you can't oppose this project outright at the very least please close all public
access driveways from graves avenue during all hours to protect our beloved residential
streets and schools. We need solutions that align with san jose's and vision 2040
plan and urban village goals. Please make your decision as if you two live in this
neighborhood. Please prioritize our community safety and livability over this
ill fated development. >> thank you. >> thank you. Next speaker. >> hi, my name is curt ma and I'm a neighborhood resident.
>> although I do not support the costco project, I was happy to hear some dialog at the
planning commission meeting on september 25th that spoke to addressing cut through traffic
which is a big concern of ours through the neighborhood that might result from the costco build. Lynette diaz from costco said quote to be overly cautious we
are wrecked or we are committed to taking cut through traffic counts through the neighborhood now and after the store opens in a year from there. >> and if there are issues
we've committed to addressing those. >> so that came from lynette from costco and then manjeet then wait from the department of public works chimed in and
reference council policy five dash six and she said that based on the post studies if
the traffic volumes and speeds exceed our policy then we can use the $50,000 contribution that was mentioned and use it towards traffic calming measures in the neighborhood.
>> I feel this is a positive step in developing better relations from costco and the
city with the neighborhood. So to the council if you are going to approve the costco
plan I do request that the traffic study and possible mitigations be a condition for
approval and there be a documented plan of record to ensure that these follow up actions are committed by costco. >> public works in the city.
thank you. Thank you. Next speaker.
>> hi, good evening mayor and city council members. I'm tammy cook.
my daughter went to country lane elementary. She's currently at marland middle school. Soon to go to prospect high school.
I am on the moreland middle home and school club board. My concern is student safety.
country lane elementary sits between teresita and britain. >> I live on teresita.
>> cut through traffic on these two streets will put kids in grave danger of being hit when
walking home and these small children cannot be seen over the hood of the big suvs.
they're going to cut through our neighborhood getting to costco and I do see through
traffic now hundreds of prospect high school students cross the dangerous
prospect lawrence intersection daily. Additionally, portland middle and country lane students also crossed us to get to their homes in the english estates
neighborhood. >> the left turn pocket surrounding costco will all exceed storage capacity. >> nothing is being done about it.
angry drivers will run red lights and it's only a matter of time before a student is hit
severely injured or worse. Costco does not belong at this location.
>> an urban village development will serve the area better and bring in revenue for the city
and most importantly keep our students safe. Please vote no. Thank you and thank you for the minute and a half. >> thank you.
next speaker I'd also like to call on ben, lydia and austin. >> go ahead.
good evening. My name is hannah kanazawa and I have lived in skinner's hay
and been a long time resident for the last 25 years and I was married in san jose.
I had children in san jose and raised them through the san jose public schools
my neighborhood. >> and I want to describe that because that might shed a
little bit information and like are those of saratoga cupertino campbell and santa clara.
my school age children often had friends in every one of those cities because we are
on the edge of san jose. >> and as you can understand this proposal is right on the
corner of that finger border. And as a longtime edge of san jose resident I have felt that
oftentimes unless there's money involved we get sort of neglected and we get
ignored. >> and I don't want to see this costco giant's proposal
overlook all the impact it has in our community. >> tonight you guys unanimously
voted towards the blue project and that to me gives me a sign of hope that you really believe
in equity. Costco is a membership based company. There's no equity in that. >> thank you. Next speaker.
good evening everybody. Aaron councilmembers a who I oppose the I oppose the
proposed costco warehouse. If you'd just lift your mic a little.
there you go. I oppose the proposed costco in west case west gate west 96 new
pull top led light fixtures 76 ground level led light fixtures is not progress for the city
of san jose or neighboring cities. Light pollution will be generated from artificial led light sources. Light pollution travels up to
120 miles from a major light source before voting on this project consider the impact
of light pollution will add to the current challenge at lick observatory on mount hamilton a
recent sfgate news article the date of july 16th, 2024 states two years ago lic was ranked
among the top three most light polluted astronomical sites. It's now the worst.
data from the observatory shows light pollution proliferating at a rate of 7 to 10% a year.
within a decade lick observatory is astronomers won't be able to see the stars in the sky and the scientists quoted says we need people to understand the consequences and
to be aware that this is a massive issue and part of that is by educating them on the
work we do at this observatory . San jose has a history
of wanting to protect the night sky so let's do that. Let's vote no.
costco's 24 title 24 lighting is not in compliance. Thank you.
next speaker. >> good evening. Council members.
>> my name is ben and I'm a senior at prospect high school and I have walked driven as well as run cross-country in the area for many years. Many of my peers have been
concerned about the changes that will negatively affect us as students of costco where to go in however, we feel that no one has really ever listened to our safety concerns about
costco as store students can't even shop out without a membership.
>> it doesn't matter how well you follow rules and laws with increased cars more accidents
will happen. As a pedestrian myself I've narrowly been hit even with following safety precautions. I find it ironic that many of you are likely not for large
corporations or businesses unless of course it benefits you. I will never forget when I vote and going forward that the city of san jose's leadership is not
for the little guy but rather big businesses. Your unwillingness to offer
meaningful mitigation strategies that the local community has been asking for
says I need to know our safety and well-being should be more important than making money
at the end of the day. >> thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. I'd also like to call on sara ludwig and becky.
good evening council members. My name is lydia and I'm a junior at prospect so I love to
bike. It's one of the best parts of my day. Seeing my other friends on their bikes and just like getting exercise and stuff but
especially when we're leaving school it can get really scary because there's a lot of cars.
there's parents who just want to get back to work their students who maybe shouldn't be driving yet and there are a lot of legal maneuvers people do u-turns they're not supposed to
people literally park in the bike lane waiting to pick up their kids and try to weave
through traffic and it's really scary because I'm I've almost gotten hit and I've a lot of friends who have almost gotten hit. Pretty much anyone who bikes to
school has almost gotten hit. >> and if you're going to add 11,000 more car trips, that's
not the number is not going to go down. More people are going to get injured. More people are going to get hurt and that's just that's not
good for anyone. And I just want to feel safe biking to school and I want all my other students to be safe too. So I hope that if this costco
does end up coming here that you guys find a way to keep us safe whether that be a crossing
guard or other measures just to make sure that no one's getting hurt. >> thank you. >> thank you. Next speaker I.
>> good evening, council members. My name is austin and I'm a current student at prospect high school. A driver, a biker and as of one
week ago and eligible voter I urge you to consider the safety of prospect students every day
I walk I watch student drivers history flight out of prospect while other students absent
mindedly weave through the cars of distracted drivers and adding an additional 7000 cars
a day is nothing but a recipe for tragedy in an already hazardous area.
bottom line council members who do you are elected officials represent the people the
community, the students or the money commissioners. >> I urge you to vote no on
this costco warehouse proposal. Thank you. Thank you.
>> going to speaker I want him and fred hello. Thank you for your time.
my name is ben. I'm the father of a young country lane elementary school
student and I twice a day I take my life in mahan. The cross grades are avenue
with them to get to school. I'm here to ask you to not approve this project as it
stands or if it is inevitable to not approve without implementing more serious
safety measures. I'm under no illusion that this is ultimately about anything
other than money. You guys have to weigh the costs potential tax revenues
and lawsuits against the costs of wrongful death and injury lawsuits resulting from the
dangerous conditions on graves avenue that this project will bring if this project proceeds
as proposed, I fear there are going to be speed bumps on the ominously named graves avenue
one way or another. And so I'm urging you to ensure that these are intentional
speed bumps that have been planned by this council along with other traffic control measures and not speed bumps from children who are just trying to get to school.
>> thank you. >> thank you. Next speaker.
>> good evening. My name is sarah. I'm a parent of four children,
all four of which have attended country lane elementary and all who have or will attend
prospect high school in my daughter's epq government class last year the question
was posed. What is the primary goal of elected officials? >> the answer to get reelected and further political aspirations.
>> I bring this up because as a local community we do not feel heard by our officials and the
limited concessions touted by the city and costco do not move the needle.
>> all graves avenue exits from the site need to be closed during costco business hours.
>> this street will never be able to safely handle the cars that will be dumped from
costco. Living six homes away from graves and having walked for over 12 years with my four kids to country lane elementary I can tell you you are putting
lives at risk. >> if you are unwilling to close both entrances you need to consider a mitigation strategies that discourage use. Add speed bumps to the backside
of costco. Add stop signs along graves raised crosswalks, real time speed signs and remove that gigantic costco sign on the eastern end of the building
encouraging customers to use graves. >> prove to us you will put the safety of the people you represent before money and listen to what we have been
asking for you represent us not costco. >> thank you.
thank you. Next speaker. >> good evening mr. Mayor and
city council members. >> my name is becky and I have two kids at prospect high
school. I urge you to vote no on this proposal. After hearing our concerns, the city did conduct an additional traffic assessment to
cover school dismissal. Unfortunately that was conducted at the wrong time.
why is this important? >> at the planning commission meeting one of the
commissioners said that people always talk about people dying but that doesn't happen.
>> last week one of my daughter's oldest friends a former san jose resident and a
senior in high school was killed in a car accident while she was driving to school.
you cannot live in contrast to an already congested area and say that you won't see an
increase in accidents and be. It would be negligent to pass this proposal without it
without a proper study and assessing ment of traffic. >> please please consider our
children's safety and vote no on costco. >> thank you.
next speaker I'd also like to call jennifer and amy. >> hello mayor council people.
>> my name is kim and I live at ground zero. >> that means I live right
at graves avenue and camejo drive right next to a costco. >> costco.
I believe is not the right place for this location. And I guess I would ask all
of you if any of you have children and you would put them at the risk that you are
putting the children at west valley. >> we are concerned about our
neighborhood because we feel you are not. We are concerned about the safety of our kids residents. >> about the 4 million cars that will be coming into our
neighborhood every we hear about the pollution, the construction debris and the
noise about the serious health dangers to compromised residents.
and your level of concern that will be obvious if you choose to approve this project.
>> we challenge you to think about your decision. Here's a guide on the screen to
help you look at that. >> if you decide to vote yes on this and there's no other
location and no other point in time you can see what the issues are that you will have
to deal with. >> close graves avenue, improve pedestrian crossings, provide
better vehicle pick up and drop off for students. >> these thank you next speaker
. >> good evening. My name is fred and I've been
living in this neighborhood for 63 years. I voted for you, mr. Mayor.
here and I voted for you, rosemary. I expect you to represent our
interests, not costco. You have given you all the reason why this is not the
right location for costco. >> you are ignoring it. That is wishy washy answer.
costco is given to remedy the problem that exists in that area.
I'll give you the example right now. >> the smart and no setting is
about 70 yards away from our house. You are bringing it right next
to graves avenue and going to see a story out as a parking lot.
>> why aren't you listening to what people are saying? You're going to create a
problem that you'll never be able to correct it. The traffic over there already
is too much. >> I live there. The entrance on graves for
costco is outside my bedroom. Please consider the reality. >> thank you.
next speaker. >> good evening. My name is jennifer.
I'm a long time resident of this neighborhood. With respect to council members
cammy cohen, ken dallas and may may or may hand I know you're recommending approval of this
project based on certain conditions and I you know, from what I here tonight costco is
saying they're willing to accommodate some of these conditions but who is actually
going to ensure that these conditions are met? >> my understanding is that a
lot of these conditions are voluntary and unenforceable. >> if they just change their
mind later and decide not to move forward with them. >> so how is that protecting
the west valley neighborhood if you can't enforce the conditions that you're basing your approval on? >> unless these conditions can be guaranteed and our safety
and neighborhood well are our safety and neighborhood well-being will be in jeopardy
. My father right behind me was hit by a car turning into the
shopping center and he suffered severe injuries and thankfully he's okay.
but next time he may not be okay and I fear that adding 11,000 more car trips will put
him in jeopardy. >> the students that live local schools in jeopardy and the
neighborhood in jeopardy. >> please vote now. Thank you very much.
thank you. >> next speaker, I'd also like to call susan kaufman. Frank, connie and ron. >> go ahead. Okay.
my name is frank and I taught the first time I've talked to the city council.
it's been many years ago but I frankly have a question frankly speaking of you, councilmember
and mayor mann and especially rosemary carmine from our district, I like to see a show
of hands that if this class is going within a block of your home, if you would vote for it
. >> I don't see too many hands going up there, huh? >> some people think it's a little bit funny but it's not funny for the reason to listen
to these folks today and my my daughter just said, you know, I got run over by a car on
my bike and I wouldn't be able to walk for about three months. >> but if you would go inside
yourself before you do your official vote and you wouldn't put your hand up, I notice when
I asked if this costco was going next to your home then think about that when you do
vote tonight. Okay, thank you. Next speaker hello.
there are many reasons that a costco warehouse does not make sense at this location and
would be detrimental to the community. But I'd like to focus on prospect road transportation studies show that costco would adversely affect traffic
circulation in several areas but especially along congested prospect road which currently
has three intersections rated lausd or d plus left turn lanes here are predicted to
experience volume increases ranging between 19 to 99% and their left turn pockets already
have queues beyond capacity. >> the biggest concern, however is this costco can't get
customers in and out of its main entrance in an acceptable and safe fashion.
>> transportation data show the prospect road entrance would have the greatest vehicle loads
by far. >> while costco shoppers can enter the site, the driveway here is insufficient to get them out of the site in peak traffic.
>> the queue to exit at the main driveway is predicted to back up by several hundred feet
due to a 99% increase in traffic turning left. But traffic turning right is
predicted to increase by zero. >> why is this? Because the driveway and the
intersection can't handle the load to fix the problem. The two hour transportation
analysis diverts all 135 costco cars through. >> thank you.
next speaker whoops. >> hello my name is susan
kaufman. >> I'm a green drive homeowner for 64 years.
I played at the costco proposed site when it was still a plum orchard.
>> my career has been as a county and a city land use planner.
>> I'd like to start with a visualization. Imagine 165 square foot costco
generating 11,000 car trips per day. >> and 24 seven noise and
air pollution and two years of horrible construction impacts proposed only 100ft
from your peaceful and quiet chair street homes. >> what would you do?
>> you wouldn't care about tax dollars. You would fight it tooth and
nail. You would be in this line asking for the project to be
denied. Please put yourself in our shoes. >> I like costco but this low creation across the street from our cherished homes and a
school is inappropriate and totally incongruous with land use principles. >> it's the wrong location for such a project with huge impacts.
>> if if the only thing that you needed to consider was the zoning.
>> thank you. Next speaker I'd also like to call I'd also like to call
julie reynolds mark hollinger and yuki about the proposed costco project is minimal
except for the size of its lot and its parking. >> every costco member knows
that the best find at a costco is a parking space. Unfortunate innately this
costco just doesn't have enough of them. >> compare this to the
sunnyvale, costco and the napa costco that just opened. Both our smaller warehouses and
much larger lots and have a 150 to 300 more spaces than this one.
costco claims it is adding parking yet it will reduce surface parking by 100 spaces
with the majority of costco's parking on the rooftop. >> the customers will take the
path of least resistance and gobble up the surface spaces first.
>> nearby businesses have to share first come first serve parking with costco members
with no protected parking. These businesses will lose customers who can't park
nearby. Vote no on this project and protect businesses and
residents from this forever mistake. >> thank you.
>> >> thank you. Next speaker. Okay.
just like that. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> good evening. >> where is the common sense?
>> this is the wrong site and too small for a costco looking at this site map.
the yellow is the operations area, the x's of the homes and neighborhood along graves
avenue. >> have any of you seen the operations area of a costco?
>> well, take a look at some of these pictures and have a look. Costco claims to be a good neighbor yet they put want to put a nine by 32 foot lit
costco sign right on a graves avenue driveway encouraging neighborhood cut through
traffic right by the country lane elementary school that driveway should be closed. The sign and costco don't belong there. This proposed operation area is
half the size at most costco's. They don't have enough room. It's where all the dirty work
as you can see is done. It's usually not seen because it's ugly, it's dirty, it's
noisy and now they want you to drive through it and us to live across from it. >> close graves drive. We use a wall like other locations to contain the sites
,smells and sounds of this dumping grounds. It's in full view of the public and neighborhood every day. And don't believe it if costco tries to tell you the
operations side of the warehouse won't look like these pictures because they have no room inside to do all that dirty work. This project doesn't make
sense. >> please say no to costco. >> thank you. Next speaker. >> greetings. My name is julie reynolds
crabby and I am the current present of the prospect high school parent teacher student
association. >> I'm here to urge you to vote no on this warehouse proposal.
>> it is unsafe for our students and our community as a whole.
this location is absolutely inappropriate for a warehouse. Just look at my map.
please, you guys. I don't know if you see that. Look where that is and look at all the things around it. It's less than 50ft from the front yards of homes.
>> it's close to several parks across from senior centers is 770 feet from prospect high
school who has 15 hundred students and it's 1049ft from an elementary school.
>> it proposes to bring 4 million extra car trips to this area every year an area already
plagued by congestion and frequent injury accidents. >> it's larger than a normal costco. >> the site is one third smaller and it doesn't have
even as much parking as sunnyvale. It also doesn't fit the land
use designation of neighborhood commercial. >> sadly the consultants
haven't adequately addressed any substantive issues that we've been raising for the last
three years until they were forced to by your memo. What does that tell you?
we will. You will hear from the suits tonight that they've already
done so much but trust that is just. >> thank you.
next speaker I'd also like to call down dale lavezzi livesey I think it's dale lindsey and
doris lindsey and dinah sloan. >> go ahead. Council members.
mayor mehan this costco is one of extremes the largest costco on the smallest area lot the
least amount of parking for the highest anticipated traffic roads least equipped to handle
that traffic especially near schools. Noise levels pushed right to
the allowable limit. A decision that goes completely against san jose's forward
looking plans for the future and an overwhelming response of 4600 petition signers
against the project. >> who pays the price for this? It's the families, the students
and the residents of west valley. These are the people who be stuck in traffic dodging cars on their way to school and coping with constant noise and
congestion all while being told this is good for the community. But let me ask you is this good
for the community? Is that the story that you want to tell?
the corporate expansion and development deals that take priority over neighborhood safety, over the voices of residents who have been respectfully and passionately
asking for a different outcome for years. Look, we recognize that all
projects are about compromise but there are some compromises that you just don't make.
voting yes on this project sends a clear message that san jose's future belongs more
to developers than to its own people. The tax dollars outweigh the safety of our students and the well-being of residents. >> you have a choice here.
we're counting on you to stand up for your community. We urge you to say no to this
project. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. >> good evening mayor and council member.
my name is yuki. Hi. I'm a mom of two young children
who are attending culturally elementary. I live in the townhomes on
grace avenue and serves on its hoa board. >> I strongly opposed to cape
apps to exit and grace avenue open for three reasons. >> first the idea of exit that
allows vehicle access but restrict patron access is impractical. Union reality where vehicles can pass pedestrian can pass to second.
>> the added congestion is an unfair burden on local residents.
as the photo shows there's already a long line of vehicles that joined us dismissal time
to get out of grace avenue. My time my drive to my daughter's afterschool class
will double in time. >> third I know over 15 case leaving in a townhomes cross
grace avenue every day to count running elementary school. More traffic well post now
lives are at risk. >> I pledge to city to prioritize the safety of our
children and close all costco exits to grace avenue. >> thank you for your attention
. >> thank you. Next speaker. >> hello. My name is dana sloan. I'm a 29 year resident of the
country lane elementary school area and I'm here to urge you to vote no.
>> as you've heard repeatedly, this intersection in this area is not ready to handle the
volume of traffic that will come with a costco. I chose that neighborhood
because it was pedestrian and bike friendly. There are lots of people walking their kids to and from school walking their families to the parks that are nearby.
it's why I cherish the neighborhood I live in. Please protect my neighborhood.
we all want that shopping center to thrive and do well. But costco is not the right
tenant. It is not the right business to put there for many, many years to come. We need appropriate businesses for the site and and businesses
where people will walk and bike . Nobody rides home from costco
on their bike with what they bought at costco. >> nobody walks home from costco with their purchases. >> I urge you to vote no if you can't vote no at very least
protect those of us in the neighborhood beyond graves by putting appropriate measures in
place and not having access into costco. From graves. >> thank you. Thank you. Next speaker.
sorry. Good evening. I grew up in this neighborhood.
I'd like to refer to the council meeting memo dated october 17th from today's
agenda the conditional use permit recommendations for addressing the traffic
concerns. Item one h. This was signed by some of the members of the council here and the mayor. First of all, I appreciate your
willingness to work with these compromises for neighbors concerns. Thank you for that. However, I take issue with the fact that there are no clear
penalties stated and if the applicant doesn't adhere to the recommendations noted for
resolving traffic issues within the noted two year time frame. Who's going to enforce this and
how will it be enforced? What are the thresholds to determine if the improvements are needed? When and how will the study be conducted?
do you know will you be around to deal with this? I have served as a financial
compliance director for some of the world's largest companies. It's been my experience that people don't tend to take action to fix problems unless
there are penalties for not doing so. >> please reevaluate pushing this through before fixing fixing these enforcement gaps. >> on a broader note, all other
local costcos were built in commercial zones before residents moved to those areas.
this is the first costco to go into a neighborhood community zoned land use district in the bay area. Have you considered. Consider the precedent this
will set for disrupting other districts in your city in the future. >> thank you. >> thank you. Next speaker I'd also like to
call ruthanne and michelle. >> good evening mayor and city council members.
>> hold on, hold on. Doris. >> michelle, rupa. Toni lebaron and looks like mark. >> no, go ahead.
>> good evening, mayor and city council members. I'm doris livesey, a 50 year
resident of west san jose. I want to start by saying I am a costco member.
I love costco but god forbid not in a residential neighborhood. We need something else there. >> some of you said here a couple of years ago and voted
to impose el paso into our residential neighborhood and now with no actual traffic
statistics because it hasn't been built yet. >> only data studies.
costco wants to impose itself into another neighborhood. All other area costco's were
built first in regional commercial districts not neighborhood commercial and
then people chose to move in next to them. >> isn't that how it should be?
a store first in the four homes. Costco is a private membership store. >> it's not for everyone but everyone will be impacted by
traffic. 11,000 cars. As you vote please remember the
little girl who in the late 19 70s was killed while crossing prospect to go to high school.
the light at dial drive was installed as a result. I shudder when I think of that
when I'm stopped at lyle at the light at while a child was killed. >> that's why this light is here. >> with the significant volume
of traffic that costco will bring, will more of our children be killed?
please vote no. Find the tax money elsewhere. >> thank you.
>> thank you. Next speaker. >> good evening, mayor.
city council members. My name is michelle. Vinod. I own bikram yoga san jose and I support the costco project. I've been in that mall that
precious mall for 22 years. Our first studio nine years there was in the old galactica
arcade. Maybe some of you remember. Then we moved eight years into
the fencing academy and currently now we're told two ballet and genius kids used to
be this gem of a location we deliberately picked and sadly when orchard supply closed is
when the vitality of that center started to go down. >> yes there was starbucks and
superduper but the vacancies have been really large to the point now where these buildings
are boarded up and the area is shady sketchy dare I even say unsafe?
just give you a little bit about our business over the last 22 years we've had over a million to visitors so I'm a big studio then our growth potential now has gone down a
lot. We used to get like 200 new people every month. Now we're getting like 50 new people. The second and final point is
as long as I've been there it's been a hodgepodge of different businesses.
>> there's never been a sense of order with traffic given all the traffic issues which I
agree. But for the first time with somebody seismic like cosco, the center's going to have some sense of cohesiveness and better traffic.
>> thank you. Next speaker I'd also like to call I called mark noth but I
think it might be merle. Go ahead. Good evening, council members.
my name is toni la baron and I'm in favor of the cosco project. I work for michelle and I've been a member of that studio for 20 years and now I work
there. >> I've watched that corner slowly die with most of the business leaving. It's really sad. And michelle gave you some
numbers. Our members have declined. I'd like to see cosco be
approved and be back to that vibrant mall that it used to be.
please vote yes for the cosco project. >> thank you.
>> thank you. Next speaker I might also like to call mark dobson and shirley peck. >> go ahead. Good evening.
my first sentence would be please vote no on cosco. >> as a resident of the country
lane neighborhood and I have those three schools I think the traffic generated by not I
think I know the traffic generated by cosco is going to make it very, very unsafe.
>> country lane has little kids most of us cannot see them. And as a prospective mom I worry for all the kids who do their sports especially
cross-country who run. My kid does that and now I have to be thinking about is he
going to be coming home or not? Yes, that mall can do with more businesses but it should be
multiple different small businesses. Definitely not costco. And talking about businesses this is interesting because I did not grow up here and this
is my first introduction to will the elected officials really listen?
>> so I'm urging you again please do listen and keep the safety of the neighborhood.
the most important thing. >> what? No one cosco thank you.
>> thank you. Next speaker I'm going to call the last three cards two of ramesh, steve and kevin. >> good evening. I'm quite sure that by the end
of this meeting you will rubber stamp the recommendation by the planning commission because as
a member of your planning commission stated the project will generate revenue for the
city. We have to approve. Yep. That's what he said we have to approve. This is definitely the wrong
location for a food warehouse period. >> projected 200,000 plus
increase in traffic. >> oh my god. What are you thinking? Children attending schools nearby country lane in prospect.
they walked this area increase in traffic will be challenging. >> even now our neighborhood is
being shortcut to get away from traffic. >> five costcos in san jose.
I believe the action to be a first invasion of a living area active quiet neighborhood with
schools parks and families walking the streets. >> you know as well as I know
there's there is a much better location for a warehouse. >> warehouse that's what it is
in a community especially when there are two other costcos within a short drive of our
area. >> we don't need a. >> I ask you if you cannot vote
no on this project this seat. >> thank you. The next speaker discussed in
your time is up that it's thank you. >> good evening mayors and
council members. My name is shirley pack. I work at westgate west mall and I strongly support the costco project. >> I think westgate mall is a
mall and let it be a mall and that we do size costco just feet where it is and it can
provide jobs for people. >> it provides shopping convenience to the neighborhood
and revenue for the city. >> so I strongly support the costco project.
>> thank you. >> thank you. Your next speaker.
>> hello council members. >> so here you have heard a lot of speakers today talk about
safety. The students have talked about safety. The parents have stopped. The parents have talked about safety and everyone's talked
about safety. How do we evaluate safety? The one thing that we have to do is that we have to go back and look at data. Where is the data?
here is the data. When you look at the data within half a mile of prospect
school radius you find that about 10% of the collisions involve pedestrians and vehicles. Right. And what is the duration under
which these collisions occur? >> they occur between 12 p.m. To 3 p.m. And 3 p.m. To 5 p.m..
so these are the critical times for the collisions. However, what did the city of san jose do? They did not evaluate this at all completely.
I put this in the data comment and I asked for a response. Guess what?
there was no response at all. They completely chose to ignore it. This is an abject failure. How do we define safety and how are you going to ensure safety?
switch police. >> so the next set of things here in addition to this let's
look at this project. You have a land use violation over here. You are putting it in a neighborhood community commercial parking.
that's not adequate noise. You are at the threshold of 55db homes. >> you are within 100ft school. >> you are within 2000ft. Traffic land conditions they
are all adverse. >> now scroll. Okay.
your time is up. Thank you miss kevin cooney. >> I'm a 20 year resident
of tennessee and I'm here to urge you to vote no. I have two kids.
go to prospect. They biked to school almost every day and they bike home late in the evening multiple nights a week as do a lot of their friends.
there's been some talk about the buildings being boarded up and empty and yes, that's concerned but that's not due to a lack of interest. Multiple businesses have come
to the owner asking to move in including the the ace hardware and they were pushed away.
tenants that were there have left because rents were way raised well beyond their means
. That's our safety. According to the san jose police department in 2022 there were 32 pedestrian traffic fatalities in tennessee.
that number has been increasing. The police department lists several key factors in causing traffic traffic fatalities. >> I'd like to highlight a few
for you. Number one, pedestrians crossing nonresidential multi-lane roadways like prospect in lawrence. Number two inattention to
distraction including cell phone use. >> think about the last time you were in a costco parking lot. Most drivers are not paying
attention because they're trying to find a parking spot. Many high schoolers not the
ones here I hope are using their cell phones as they leave the school. The traffic assessment that was done later was done at 3:05 p.m. Which is 15 minutes after
school dismissal. That does not actually represent what the traffic
situation will be. You should we do that traffic assessment. >> thank you. >> thank you. Next speaker.
my name is steve. >> I'm a strong supporter for costco here.
I live in the neighborhood and I have always right next to the proposed site.
I am a retired civil structure mechanical engineer was the mba and I worked for 45 years as an
engineer for public and private entities. >> I have reviewed a lot
of amendments, all study reports and I feel the restriction put on this project
so we overbought. >> for example I like to see we open up the entrance to grave
avenue that well allowed the elevation of traffic to be restricted to many other place
. >> so I urge the council to approve this project as soon as
possible. Thank you. >> back to council.
all right. >> just before I turn to the vice mayor, let me just make a
couple of points and then I have a chime in at least another time or two as
we go around other council members. >> first of all, I want to
thank everybody who came out. I know it's it's a it's a tuesday evening.
it's late. You all have a lot of the things you'd probably prefer to be doing. So I appreciate people taking the time to engage in it, not
just engaging you tonight. >> I know you've been engaging very closely with the vice mayor's office mine and others and been very active and involved for a long time and I
think that participation has made this project better. >> I went out last night and
walked around the site, walked around the neighborhood by myself just to get a feel for
it saw signs in some of your front yards and I know there are many genuine concerns that
the neighborhood has. >> and I just I want to make a general philosophical point and
then a much more technical point that's a response to something that was raised and
then I'll turn to the vice mayor. >> you know, on this question of land use approval, this is the philosophic point. I will just say I don't I
appreciate all the comments. I think there are a lot of good points raised a lot of good questions and criticisms very valid. >> I do not find it at all
convincing or compelling to be accused of making decisions because of the money or because
of some support for big business. That is not what is motivated
any of us to run for office. >> I want to be clear about that.
when we take up land use issues they actually tend to be the hardest decisions we have to
make as a council because we all run by knocking on your doors to represent the
community. >> you do what's best for the community. The challenge with land use decisions is that they tend to always have broad or dispersed
hard to measure benefits in terms of jobs tax base that yes we use to hire police officers,
maintain parks, expand libraries hours, pave roads etc..
the benefits tend to be housing . We need housing supply.
the benefits tend to be diffuse. The impacts tend to be very acute I.e. Disproportionately borne by the very people who live right next to that site.
that's why I went out to walk around your neighborhood last night and we have to recognize
that that is the reality of investment in our city. And it's not to make an excuse.
some projects are good, some are bad. I'm not I'm just being a philosophic point here. I want you to know these are some of the hardest decisions
we make. We weigh them. We think about them. We spend months on the big ones diving into the data. We have professional staff who
we rely on because of the very nature of how much can we mitigate impacts and do what's
right for the immediate neighbors of new jobs, new housing, new infrastructure,
new homeless shelters, new schools and so on and on and on .
how much can we help the community and minimize negative impacts maximize benefits while
still allowing investment in our city that continues to create jobs and housing and
things that overall in the long run the city really needs. So that's the context. This is not about the money. It's not about business versus the people though I know it
feels that way and if some of you still walk away believing that you're entitled
to your opinion but I want to be very clear for me and I think for all my colleagues
that's not what the discussions about. It's about the fact that we have people who own land in the city who have property rights. We have a need over time for
things like jobs and housing. Yes, tax base is useful because we use it to pay for services.
we also acknowledge and the reason we spend so much time and study these things we
acknowledge that every time we add jobs and housing there are impacts particularly for the people who live right next to them. That's what makes this so hard.
so that's why the memo we wrote has so many conditions that gets to my my narrower legal
point that I just want to make because it was raised a couple of times. What accountability is there? Well, this is a conditional use permit.
>> after being built there will also have to be a certificate of occupancy. So these are legal entitlements we are giving to someone if they pass that como certain
obligations and some right to enforce. And so this is I just want to
be clear that it is a conditional use permit. >> and anyway so there is a
there is a process here that this is not just a okay. Good luck.
we wrote some nice things on paper. We hope you pay attention to us. I don't want you to think there is no leverage here.
I want your neighborhood to be safe. I take your concerns very seriously. Living next to two major expressways and a very large
commercial district is concerning. >> there are a lot of impacts
from that and we do need to weigh those. And frankly I don't think the city, the county or your transit or vta have done a good enough job of thinking about
throughput and traffic safety and all the rest. So I acknowledge that up front that is broader though than this very specific decision. So I just wanted to frame up
this a little bit based on some of the comments I heard, many of which by the way most
of which I thought were very substantive, very thoughtful. And again, I appreciate you all being so engaged and so well informed. You asked a lot of good
questions. >> okay. I almost certainly have more to say but I'm going to turn to my colleague and his district. This is that's our vice mayor
rosemarie kamei, who I know has been working very closely with many of you for a long time now
as well as the applicant to try to make this as good of a project as it can possibly be.
vice mayor you have the floor in terms of colleagues. Anyone on the dais can
certainly call up the applicant to answer questions or others community leaders.
so you're always allowed anyone here is allowed to ask someone to come to the podium to answer
questions not to extend public comment. >> just to be clear.
>> thank you so much mayor mehan. >> I really want to thank all
of the speakers. I know you've taken time out of your valuable day to to be
here with us to share your thoughts. I also want to thank two
community members who weren't able to make it because I've spoken to so many over the last
year, year and a half as well as prior to my taking office. I want to thank west valley say
west valley. I know you've done a lot of work. I've worked with you very closely. I particularly want to
recognize mark polgar and connie teachey. You guys have been really, you
know, opening my eyes. This is not a perfect process but I certainly want to say how
much I appreciate your perspective and bringing the neighborhood perspective
forward. I want to thank the multiple jurisdictions.
>> this is a very complicated, challenging place because it's not just about this project.
it's about, you know, dealing with the county roads, dealing with the school districts,
dealing with city saratoga. It's so it's it's not a simple area to begin with.
so I want to thank all the city staff that have been involved in the project the project
presenters and all that was brought up that brought us here today. I would like to thank the mayor and my colleagues who signed on to the memo which has been
updated today. I did in fact add additional streets for review and I'll
talk about that a little bit later. Your contributions really have made this a much better project. Earlier in the in the session
someone mentioned about how these conditions are enforceable and in fact I think
that the mayor just responded to how that would be. >> and over the last three
years we've had many, many community meetings large and small to aggregate the opinions
and concerns to identify opportunities. >> I understand the challenges.
I don't live that far away. >> I mean I go through lawrence expressway every day and I see
the challenges. >> I think that with or without the costco this is still a very
big challenge over time. And I think that our doing a urban village plan for that
area is going to bring much more certainty in terms of what is to come in the future.
and I know some of you have already expressed interest in participating in that which encompasses a larger area surrounding the vicinity. Today, as has been mentioned,
we are here to decide on the conditional use permit and a determination of public
convenience or necessity. And this is really a unique situation.
ordinarily a commercial project of this type would be allowed under our general plan if they
didn't want an alcohol license it would just happen without the the public process and it
would be reviewed through an administrative process and never come to the city council
or the planning commission. However here a conditional use permit is required because costco proposes to sell alcohol for offsite consumption which is very different.
>> we also had the benefit through this process to have a full environmental impact
report which provides greater transparency on impacts. My office and I have helped
continue as talks with community members and representatives of costco to
improve the project and mitigate its its impacts. Beyond standard conditions
of approval costco costco has voluntarily agreed to a large array of additional improvements recognizing the need to be a good neighbor and that's really included in the
memo. If you've had the opportunity to look at the memo that we've
brought forward, it has over four pages of conditions that we have worked with together
and I have incorporated many of your suggestions to the to the memo with respect to graves
avenue access traffic and parking. One of the things I will say is
that and it was brought up by doris's mr. Lindsey son he brought up the idea of you
know, it's one point h I added today the additional streets for traffic calming policies
and streets to be considered for the study. It's cordelia avenue happy valley avenue brunton avenue. Larson avenue fields avenue. Teresita avenue.
graves avenue country lane and inglewood drive. And at the planning commission
the cap was put at $50,000. >> and one of the things that I've asked costco is that when
the study is done and there are impacts that they would pay for whatever calming measures
needed to be made for the area. >> so I know that that's a really, really big, big
concern. And and as far as I can understand, costco has agreed
to that. So everything that's in these in this memo will be attached
as a condition and there are other prohibitions that I have added especially on
construction related traffic. This is something that had not come up previously but I know
that it's 21 months of construction that was proposed including saturday
work which was on on the on the agenda item. >> it said saturday 7 a.m. To 7
p.m.. I have narrowed it down such that in the beginning it would
be only for the six month period and then any kind of other saturday work would
have to be done within the the the building after structure is up. >> so there are a number of conditions with respect to noise impacts as well with
respect to asset as esthetics, privacy, light and glare. >> and I know that there was an
issue as to whether or not title 24 energy standards would be applicable when they change and we have added the the standards to be in place at the time that that building permit
is issued. So it would be more up to date as to what would be required
with respect to pedestrian safety. >> I know what a challenge it
is in that entire area. >> and you know, I, I continue to say this and safety for the
kids is a big deal for me and I spoke to costco and I think that's why they agreed the the
if you if you look at my memo or our memo you will notice that there's there's a diagram
that demonstrates the improvements. >> I have worked very, very
closely with our department of transportation to ensure that these improvements really, really will help on the safety issue and the 2.5 million just didn't come out of the sky.
I got them from our traffic engineers and they assure me that this is sufficient to
be able to address. >> it doesn't address all four corners but it does address the
two corners necessary to provide improvements. >> and I and I am committed to
find a way to be able to improve. The other pork chop one is in
the city of of saratoga and the other one is just across the street near the the other side
of lawrence expressway. >> so I will be committed to look for other types of funding
safe routes to schools or other types of funding to be able to do that. I also am committed to ensuring that the students at country lane are safe.
I don't think it's acceptable to to just be satisfied with a crosswalk.
and by the way, the crosswalk was changed from feels to be and ensure that it's going to
be something that will work. >> I'm not going to go through every single detail here but I
certainly want you to know that everything in the memo is enforceable and I guess I
should ask staff to make sure that that's correct. >> yeah.
these are the conditions of the project and at the very end there's a revolt clause that they violate the conditions of the permit. >> we have the ability to take
them to a hearing to revoke their permit. That's how the enforceability of conditions work. >> yeah. And I know that there was a and
I guess this is a question for the applicant because it was brought up in terms of the sign
that faces graves such that because it's a larger size sign that it may encourage people to
go that way. >> I don't know. But if there is a way to either
reduce it or move it or I believe you're referring to the sign on the east side.
jason graves. Yes we will. We can look at looking at reducing it. >> so we'll work it will work with staff or even consider
consider even you know, moving it over to a different place or whatever.
>> we'll we'll we'll cooperate and work with staff on that to reduce and relocate it.
>> okay. Thank you. Thank you. And and staff has already mentioned the no propane to be sold.
that was something that also came up. I know that there are a lot of conditions in in our memo. And with that I would move our memo with this little added
item on the sign and make it as a condition of of the item. >> okay.
thank you, vice mayor. So we have a motion a second with sara cohen. I'm going to turn to councilor cohen next. >> thank you, mayor.
first I want to thank the members of the community and not just for being here tonight
but helping in meetings that I've had with you in the last few weeks.
orient me on this neighborhood and your concerns. I would have come out into the neighborhood but as you can see I'm not very mobile right now so I'm was helpful to be able
to use the street view and be able to navigate my way around the neighborhood. But I appreciate that you know our area berryessa has a costco and it opened on hostetter road
and in an area that you know is a mix obviously of types of uses but with some residential nearby the northeast san jose costco has has made the community better.
it's obvious that there's more cars on that road in some sense the traffic has actually slowed
down significantly because of that traffic which you know, actually, you know, can be
frustrating to people who like to speed through these intersections but can make intersections, you know, safer for use as well. You know, having been through
these big development projects in my district and I know many of us have been through these,
I know how difficult it is to to balance the competing interests, the interests
of neighbors nearby, the interest of the people who are building the project, the
interest of the city interests of of businesses nearby. It's a tough thing and I want
to thank councilmember combet for navigating this and working with residents to make this
project better and put a lot of conditions on it. I want to thank costco and the team there as well for working well with the council member to to accept you know and make
offers on on these concessions. I know it's been mentioned already by both the mayor and
council member and the vice mayor about, you know, these these being conditions
of approval and not recommendations. We're not recommending that the developer do these things. These are conditions of approval that are binding
when the council votes on them. So it is important for people to understand that, you know,
this is one of the most thorough concessions lists list that I've seen in any project
that we've done. >> and I you know, I've been through some big projects myself having 24 pages of concessions with 20 independent concessions along
with a lot of some items. There's a lot that went into this and a lot of thought and I know that it was based on a lot of conversations with all the people in this room and many
others. So I want to thank everyone for their engagement. I want to address one other thing. >> you know the question of of
parking on the roof. You know, we've I've made these comments a lot about our our
wasteful land use decisions in the past of this council of the city of the planning of this
city. You drive through my district in san jose you see buildings
with giant paved parking lots that in my opinion are not the best use of land and I do
actually appreciate becoming thinking outside the box and becoming a better stewards
of our land. And so having parking on the roof is actually can be a
positive improvement as opposed to large parking lots with cars ,you know, taking up a lot
of space. So I really think that that's helpful. In fact one of the cry complaints has with developers has been the fact that a lot
of the buildings across the city of san jose have what I consider to be wasteful roof space. We've talked about other uses of those roofs green roofs,
solar and you know parking being on the roof is another. >> I was just in seattle a few
weeks ago and went to a a target there which does it this way in a residential neighborhood with parking up on the upper floors and the store built into the building and
actually, you know, while it was unusual and different at first it was something that
worked well in that community and so I think it can work well . And so I just want to thank thank costco for for good use of space here.
and then the last thing I think is really important about this these conditions of approval is the continuing interest of the vice mayor and costco to do and the planning staff and d.o.t.
to do traffic studies going forward. >> we don't always know exactly where the impacts will be but knowing that there will be a monitoring of those impacts and
work to try to mitigate those impacts in the future is really important for the community.
I can't speak for other council members and what they do in their district but I certainly know as a council member that when we hear about traffic impacts from these projects we
work really hard to find solutions. Whether it end up ends up being extra stop signs that are needed or speed bumps or rerouting of traffic.
we will find those things out and I know for a fact that I believe that vice mayor is
interested in being and continuing to follow up on that and not just leaving it at the
after tonight. So I think that's an important concession as well. So I'm I'm happy to see that we've come to this point and we're able to make some
improvements to this project from where it started kind of some kind of interestingly
as the vice mayor pointed out, if it weren't for the fact that this were a project that had that needed a conditional use permit for alcohol, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to
have this conversation with the community and make the project better. It would have been had to have been accepted and installed just as it was originally
designed. So I guess we got to opportunity out of what was an unusual circumstance. So I want to thank vice mayor and the members of the
community for getting us here. >> thanks, councilmember. Appreciate your comments.
and to go to councilor a condolence no thank you mayor. >> yeah I'm really no I'm I'm
grateful and happy to see so much community involvement throughout this process.
>> I know multiple public hearings and meetings and you know, I'm especially thankful
to everybody who took their time to come you know, be here almost 9:00 on a on a school
night especially our high school students and you know, as we consider developments in our city, it's our responsibility to seek input from our community members.
and I know vice mayor kamei has taken much of the community's concerns and drafted a very
thoughtful memo which I was happy to join. You know, mayor, I actually too
went out there last week during school hours. I sat in the parking lot and you know, I saw firsthand some of the concerns particularly regarding particularly
regarding traffic and safety. And so I do believe that the conditions of approval included
in this memorandum which is substantial will help mitigate those concerns.
I also appreciate that the city will assess traffic flow and the impact after the costco is
built which will help our department of transportation better assess that the impacts
as a city I know we're always trying to bring economic vibrancy to our neighborhoods
and enhance our ability to be able to serve and provide services to our constituents.
>> in fact I too have a costco in my district and in fact I think it's a business costco if
I'm not mistaken and I've heard from my residents on the value of this amenity in our district
and you know we can and we should address the community's needs and concerns to the best
extent possible. And I do believe that our memorandum does that and the
specifications tailored to address these issues while still capturing the benefits
of this development. So thank you vice mayor, for including me in your in your
brown act and I appreciate your leadership on it. Thanks councilmember just on
the issue of cut through traffic, if I could just ask staff assuming this is passed
with the memo adopted as is the motion on the floor actually first let me ask for a friendly
amendment because I think with the addition of three more local roads we need to update
it to say and let me just be clear as on item one h if adverse effects to any of the
says six residential streets but now I believe it's nine in the list is that accurate?
>> vice mayor okay so if I could ask for a friendly amendment to just make that
nine so or specify in all nine of the streets you listed which were cordelia happy valley
brunton larson fields teresita graves country lane and inglewood.
>> great so staff if you could just tell us just so it's clear what the community as one
of the conditions of four pages of conditions is that were imposed which I think councilor
cohen's point is the most conditions I've ever seen placed on a project since I've been on the council. >> what will happen here assuming this passes?
so we will conduct a study within 12 months. >> what should the community's
expectation be? Who's paying for it? I know it's it's written out here that we've read but I'm not sure the community has. >> so if you all could just
tell us so could you clarify it conditions in general or to civically the just one h sorry
that I'm interested specifically when I was walking around last night I think to the point many folks here are making on the one hand this is not a small strip mall is a
large I mean this site alone is ten acres but it's part of a much larger urban village with
a lot of commercial space. That being said, there's a tiny wall behind the site and then a
net a residential neighborhood. >> so the question I think one of the big concerns I heard repeated and I saw as I walked around was one of the driveways out is into that neighborhood
and certainly I don't think is going to be the case because you've got two other major roads and other ways to get in and out. But were it to be the case that
11,000 cars were going through that neighborhood, that would be a real problem right. So I'd like to know what the study means, what how it'll play out, who pays for it, what
happens next? >> good evening and this is me and you've been with the
department of public works and so yeah, so within a year after occupancy and once costco is operational we will reach out to costco and have them submit at their expense a study
regarding post studies regarding speeding and traffic volumes within those specified
streets that we've laid out in the condition and then we'll we'll evaluate the study
against our traffic calming policy that was recently updated by the department of transportation and within that policy there are thresholds for both volume and
speeding. And so if there are adverse effects as a result of that
study then we'll engage further in fdot or traffic calming team up there as well as vice mayor
kamei office and the community to determine what the appropriate traffic calming measures would be. It would be necessary within that within that neighborhood
and what might be examples of those too if you could? >> I think they've been
referenced but just could be more about additional crosswalks, stop work and studies if needed speed radar signs, that sort of thing. We I would like to say speed
months but usually fire doesn't like those because it does slow down the response time so we would look at more pedestrian types of improvements within that neighborhood and to come
further from the streets. >> okay. Thanks. I appreciate that. >> and then it says that those improvements would be designed
and constructed within two years of issuance of the of the study.
>> that is correct. Okay. Okay, great. Well to me there's an important provision in here. There are many others and I
know vice mayor, you've worked very hard to listen to the community to categorize all the
concerns too. I know you spent countless hours researching them and figure out what mitigations are viable here including millions of dollars in funding from
costco. >> but we will need to keep monitoring this closely and do
the studies both in the neighborhood and the cut through traffic that folks are
worried about as well as the the turn lane off the expressway there and to what
extent it backs up traffic. I mean look, I think in general as I as I mentioned, this is an
area where you have a lot of different jurisdictions, you have a lot of growth, you have a lot of continued growth pressure. >> I think you're going to see
this urban village built out over time and we're going to have to work hard together
particularly with vta to identify improvements that make the roadways safer for
alternative modes like bicycling and walking but also transit because the traffic is
is really I live not far from an express county expressway myself and it's similar it's
extremely backed up and when it's not it's extremely fast and both are concerning sit in
a lot of traffic or people are going too fast so we have a lot of work to do around traffic safety. It's a major focus of ours. >> we're not going to have one
applicant foley fund the improvements that are needed there and fix it.
>> it's a much bigger challenge but you still have my commitment that I'll be working closely with the vice mayor city of saratoga county and vta to work on the
mitigations that we need to make that area safer. But I know it's a challenge and
it's not going to be fixed overnight. It's it's been decades in the making unfortunately. But I do think you'll see some meaningful improvements there
with the investments costco is committed to make. So vice mayor will, thank you
for bringing forward a very thoughtful memo with a lot of mitigations that I do think make meaningful improvements. As always these projects are difficult acute local impacts
broader benefits including more amenities and services including more jobs in other
cases housing. And it's always tough to weigh what's in the best interest
of the city in the long run. But how do we minimize the local impacts of that? So again, thank you all for being so engaged and thoughtful.
this is not the end of the conversation. I know we'll continue to engage
out in the neighborhood and do our best to support you all. >> we will motion on the floor.
I don't see any other hands. I'm going to give colleagues a last chance to weigh in if they have anything else they would like to ask or say okay then we're going to move to a vote.
toni, would you please vote? Sorry I can't take questions right now.
we're in the middle of voting. I still have two votes left. There we go.
>> >> motion passes 8 to 0 with foley and boxer recused. Okay, so that was item 10.4
which was our last agenda item. We do still have open forum which is an opportunity for
members of the public to comment on any city business that was not on today's agenda
and then we will adjourn. >> thank you all again for being here.
>> mark dobson james kirk campbell and I'm not sure if steve binetti is still here so
that's mark james kirk and steve oh la vista, yes, la vista.
>> come on down. I did not know you were going to make it back.
yeah, we'll just line up with you at that point. Yeah, well, you know it's been
okay. >> we're waiting on our first public speaker for toni who's up first? Who? Whoever gets to the microphone
first. So again, that's james kirk, steve levasseur looks like
she's talking to the abbey team where? Yeah.
okay. >> a minute and a half. So I just want to say I
attended a in district ten a brunch the other morning and I was very disappointed because
like I said before I am I'm currently homeless and I wanted to find solutions and I
created a survey and I began to do these surveys and I tried taking the survey to the brunch
and basically they said that I couldn't do the survey. I couldn't like to make any
announcement about the survey which was fine, you know, although I wasn't thinking in
public space. She told me basically to go outside and do it and I just was a little disappointed because I think it's something that could really be helpful
and beneficial from a community perspective. And then there's also a public
safety aspect of the data and I know that some of the data collection efforts they're not
actually being ethically done. I've had people in transit give me their ipad and then they've
changed my answers on ipad because there are two difficult for me to actually like understand the question and he couldn't explain the fact that three minutes he was on the bus
doing the survey and basically I just don't think that's right and I'm going to be coming back
with some more data, a lot more data and I'm hoping that it's going to be, you know, helpful
and I'm just hoping that I get community engagement between everyone I've I've tried to
meet with what I have met with . >> thank you. Next year go ahead. >> okay. So on ten 14 an encampment near
I'm sorry it got swept okay. >> I can't read this. It's different from what I'll
just say this 120 million you guys have allocated a 27 million plus 4.8 million.
>> no vouchers, not a translator, not a no money, no resources, not a blanket.
>> I will be at every meeting until these people get served. The homeless people to two letters nothing in spanish. >> I was told that valley water took tools from the homeless
they were supposed to be they were supposed to go. >> I don't know what I mean by
that mayor it seems like you don't have a plan. >> why are these homeless mother there's a homeless mother of a 13 month old who hasn't gotten any housing or
whatever. There was no deposits, no rehab, no food, no showers, no
jobs, no mental health, nothing. >> there was there's nothing like you guys got all of this money in there. >> what's the protocol for
encampments who are being swept like I know the clean water act is supposed to the clean water
act you got certain money for but you don't have there was no protocol.
>> there were no social workers. There were no there was nothing and I told I tried to warn them two months ahead this was on san carlos and burned right
behind. Thank you. Next speaker good evening.
I'm going to ask you to accommodate me and not cut me off after 1.5 minutes because what I have to say is pretty serious and I can't do it in 90s I'm here to talk
about a big problem I've been having with the city for 14 years.
ada violations, discrimination and hate crimes against me and others that are disabled and
I've been asking for the last year for directly too many of the people in the city to
try to address this issue within asked do you have to run the clock?
>> yes I do. Can I ask for accommodations on this not run the clock please.
it's very disturbing. I can't even concentrate on what I'm saying. Can you take it off the screen, toni? >> let's let's take let's take
the time. I know you're all tired. I know it's been a very
difficult and we also have to be fair to everybody. >> but if we could just take it off the screen, take it back to a minute please. >> so I'm trying to get this
resolved. I've been asking the one thing it would be very helpful is to send a simple email to all the city employees, especially those that interact with the
public and ask them to read title three of the ada so that they are aware of it and then
we can stop a lot of this discrimination and hate crimes .
>> I've asked mr. Mayor you've told me twice to schedule a meeting with you.
>> I've tried that and it hasn't worked and and I'm running out of time.
>> I'm at a point now where I've asked the department of justice to look into this
and they told me to come here one more time and address the city, ask for help and if they
can't help you to file a complaint and include all the names of the people I'm asking
I've been to all nine of the districts and there are issues in all nine districts that
affect disabled people hazards and there is progress on this. >> the sidewalks have been
repaired that pose a significant hazard but unfortunately I'm trying to
find and I'm sorry I'm sorry I can't give you five minutes right now.
I can too. I'm sorry I can talk to you offline but I got to let I
got to adjourn to let my colleagues go. >> okay. >> all right. Any other public comment? Go ahead.
>> hi. My name is gary. I'm a ellenbrook high school
student journalist from the school's new picture epic is a fine if I just like to ask like
a few follow up questions since it's over not this wouldn't be the appropriate but if you want
to step aside maybe somebody could just come over here. Okay, so sorry but this isn't
like an interview time. Yeah that's okay that any other public any other open forum
public comment no. >> all right. Thank you all.
we're adjourned. Have a great evening and