[0:01] ready to kick this off.

[0:19] » Okay. So, I'm going to call this to order and the first item is the report

[0:24] out of the close session. >> Thank you, Member Collins. The council

[0:29] did meet in close session on two items. There was no public comment in advance

[0:32] of going into close session on the first item. The council gave direction to

[0:37] staff to defend the town and there's no refer action.

[0:50] » Thanks

[0:54] Lewis. >> I'm here. Council member Wood Whitmer

[0:59] » here. >> Council Lane

[1:02] » here. >> Vice Mayor Deolia.

[1:03] » Yep. >> Mayor Holland

[1:05] » here. >> All president accounted for.

[1:08] » Okay. And then are there any public comments

[1:13] that How are we going to public comment though? There's only one item on the

[1:18] » for 30 seconds. Just public comment for items that are off.

[1:21] » Okay. And then we'll call public comment for the item. Okay. Does anyone

[1:27] have public comments for items on the internet online?

[1:31] » No one online has indicated they have comment.

[1:34] » Okay, then it off.

[1:40] Good evening, council members, Britney Bendex, town planner. Thank you for

[1:44] having me tonight. I'm here to give an update on our efforts for facilitating

[1:49] onampus housing as part of our housing enrollment programs. uh you may neighbor

[1:54] call that we met on September 3rd uh in the fall of 2025.

[1:59] Uh at that time I presented kind of three approaches we've been trying to

[2:04] consider in terms of assisting in this effort. Uh the first being providing

[2:09] staffing and financial support for grants and start to seek grants and

[2:13] loans that support housing development. The second would be how we use staff to

[2:18] help foster uh the lead public private partnerships uh which we refer

[2:25] to as P3s uh between universities uh the university and a developer. Uh the third

[2:32] was then facilitating a donor-driven development by passing

[2:38] a committee of residents uh like pursuing some advancement of plan

[2:44] development college. Uh so really the direction from the council at that point

[2:48] was to do some high level grant evaluations and then also pursue working

[2:56] with outside. So I'm gonna we have a couple uh different efforts from outside

[3:02] residents. I know one is online participating virtually and uh Miss

[3:10] Flity here Carol 30 she can address what her efforts have been just to give a

[3:16] brief summary of the grant research that we've done. Um, we actually were given

[3:22] the name of a company, California Consulting, which is a firm that

[3:26] specializes in grant writing by council member Whitmer, who met them, I believe,

[3:31] at the uh, League of Cities. >> Yeah, League of Cities. I went to their

[3:36] presentation and talked to them about what we were trying to do, and they said

[3:39] they had experience in that and etc. So, >> so they had a list of 15 common grant

[3:46] applications for campus housing that we were able to look at. Uh, generally

[3:51] speaking, I think some of the barriers are uh the alignment between whatever

[3:56] the programming is for the college and the building that they want to see

[4:01] produced and then also the timing of any sort of financial rewards that could be

[4:07] provided through the grant. So they're not there there are things that are out

[4:12] there but they need to be tailored to a specific program that the building would

[4:18] provide as part of so we could further discuss those opportunities. Uh but I'm

[4:27] going to go ahead and turn it over to ML.

[4:31] Thank you. Well, happy new year. >> Happy new year.

[4:35] » Welcome back. >> Yes.

[4:38] I realize that um I have not kept you all up to date by design on what our

[4:45] activities are at Menllo College and part of it is that I am very hesitant

[4:50] because the Brown Act to engage with you all to be honest with you after my

[4:53] little experience last year. So I've just kept things under quite rapid key.

[4:59] But tonight I'm gonna open the kabala and share it all. So I put together two

[5:03] pages for you of where we are right now. Who is we?

[5:08] The African housing coalition did commit to you all that we would come up with a

[5:13] rough set of plans for Memo College and that could be used for fundraising. This

[5:18] is not a set that would be submitted to the building department for approval.

[5:24] But it turns out that it's a little harder to do a rough set of plans than

[5:28] one might think. If all we were going to do is just go ahead and draw rooms on a

[5:33] piece of paper, that's easy. What's not so easy is the mechanical. If you don't

[5:38] know the mechanical, then you really can't do the plans. So, I have been

[5:42] spending a lot of time on the mechanical um plans

[5:49] to put to incorporate. Um so, where do we stand? the housing coalition

[5:55] primarily Jeff Morris and myself have met three times with the college

[6:00] president and the dean and the development head one time they've been

[6:05] really constructive meetings where they have shared with us the vision for the

[6:10] college what they think their problems are and where they want to take it where

[6:16] they want to take it is graduate programs

[6:20] and so what they shared with us that they need is graduate housing graduate

[6:25] student housing, not under the graduate. And they need staff. Staff in in their

[6:31] words is not faculty. It is the cafeteria workers, the landscapers, you

[6:37] know, um the cleaning team, people like that

[6:40] and adjunct faculty. So, they shared with us that most of

[6:46] their full-time faculty, they already have

[6:50] houses. They rent them. They own them. there's no need there but they have a

[6:55] lot of adjun faculty that come to the campus two or three days a week and they

[7:01] need housing for them so that's our focus is graduate students and a faculty

[7:08] and campus staff okay so um I had two campus tours that were very very uh

[7:16] insightful and interesting with the facility head and I went to the Ariyaga

[7:21] John Ariaga residence And I was quite surprised at what I saw.

[7:29] Um, it is very very small one

[7:34] room units, no built-in closet,

[7:39] shared bathrooms, very large ones on a hall,

[7:46] no ADA compliance, and they don't care about that.

[7:51] um a lot of not a lot but several large study rooms on each floor and meeting

[7:58] rooms plus a security office and they don't like the heating system they

[8:05] currently have which fits to the outside. They'd like to see something

[8:09] different on that. These rooms are really tiny.

[8:15] Really tiny. And I was stunned. There's no closet. no sink, no amenities.

[8:23] It cost $25 million to build that facility. It was built um three years

[8:29] ago, four years ago. You couldn't build it for that today.

[8:34] And I don't think that's what the college is thinking about for graduate

[8:37] students and actually faculty. >> Is that undergraduate?

[8:41] » Yeah, >> it's all undergraduate.

[8:43] » They do have some staff housing that I did not see.

[8:48] » All right. and it's very limited but that is all undergraduate and they see a

[8:53] reduction in their undergraduate student body because it's hard to get visas they

[8:59] have a very large international student population very hard to get vis visas

[9:04] it's scared off applications and reduction in federal funding so they do

[9:10] not see undergraduate growth as as being in the cards they have um I think two

[9:17] graduate programs right now and they were talking about three more at the

[9:21] time that we met. They see the growth there.

[9:24] » Um and they would like to they don't they don't see a big growth overall

[9:29] though that would really just replace the students they're missing on the

[9:32] undergraduate and to add a little bit more.

[9:36] I thought they had a good plan um and they were very very very open with any

[9:41] questions that we asked and ensuring all of their plans. But if we're looking to

[9:45] the Ariyaga Center as being a guide for our multif family housing, it's not.

[9:50] It's not there. >> I never thought it would. It would. It's

[9:52] just a dorm. The dorm dorm like I had in college.

[9:57] » Well, you went to an exclusive college, Carol. I mean, honest

[10:04] dorm does not count for the towns. >> No, it doesn't. So, this is a graduate

[10:09] student housing >> and and

[10:14] that the apartment building would have to have

[10:17] » amenities like >> and that's what we're planning

[10:21] » bathrooms, kitchen, closets in order for them to,

[10:25] » you know, >> so it's a lot more of that.

[10:29] » Yeah. >> Um, so something interesting happened

[10:31] though in December. >> Uh, my husband and I decided to buy an

[10:36] apartment building. ah >> which we did 40 minutes. It happens to

[10:40] be on the high end luxury and in Belmont and so I have spent a lot of time up

[10:46] there with the facilities head understanding the mechanical of that

[10:50] building because it is 40 units and it I think it's very similar to what this

[10:57] multif family would become. And so I I took a look at the mechanical

[11:02] of Aria. I took a look at what we're buying. The same time we bought that, I

[11:06] studied three other apartment buildings that we were

[11:10] interested in investing in in Berling. And again, the the apartments didn't

[11:16] interest me nearly as much as the mechanical because when you buy

[11:18] something, you have to maintain it. And that's usually where you have the

[11:22] problem is on the maintenance. So, with all of that, I went back and kind of

[11:27] revisited my initial thinking on it. And then we had one site visit that four

[11:33] members of the housing coalition, all of which were commercial did and the

[11:38] college doesn't know about this yet because the development head wanted to

[11:44] be involved in that meeting and um there was objection to that. So

[11:51] » objection from the president, >> objection from the four members of the

[11:55] housing coalition, one in particular. And so um they went up there and studied

[12:00] the three locations the college gave to us. College gave us three locations. So

[12:05] in the second bullet here, site locations. The president was very

[12:10] interested in building a structure as you go into the front entry in the right

[12:16] parking lot. And he wanted a threestory building that would have parking not

[12:24] only for the residents of the building, but visitor parking and a lot more than

[12:29] we ever contemplated. A massive parking garage.

[12:35] Um then there was a parking lot that's uh right across from the admin building

[12:41] and they also recommend it's very small. It will not work. It's so small that we

[12:46] would have to tear down the new athletic center that they have just finished

[12:52] which of course we're not going to do. And so that leaves one other property.

[12:56] It's called the O'Brien lot and it is the one that's at the corner of

[13:00] Alejandro and Valparza. And the the four um commercial builders

[13:06] from the housing coalition when they looked at three sites also felt that was

[13:10] the most likely and a fourstory building instead of three because town approved

[13:15] that it's a lot cheaper to build four stories than wider three stories.

[13:21] So that is >> why why would they limit the building in

[13:27] the lot to the right of the entry to three stories?

[13:31] » They felt that the residents of Atheton would be more receptive to a three-story

[13:35] building and they moved to a four. >> That we zoned it for four, right?

[13:41] » You you >> you approved four.

[13:43] » I think we zoned it for four. >> You did zone it for four. And as I look

[13:47] at the property, there's a lot of trees in there. Yeah. That would really shield

[13:51] it. I don't see a problem in fourtory buildings.

[13:54] » It's across from the sports sports, you know.

[13:57] » Wait a minute. Are you talking about the Alejandra? Okay.

[14:00] » See, you guys are talking about two different locations.

[14:03] » We are the the So, what's point number one?

[14:08] » We pull up the map. >> The parking lot to the right of the

[14:10] entry.

[14:18] That's what that's what the president >> That's what the president

[14:24] also have a much larger parking me.

[14:37] » No, she's working. >> Okay.

[14:40] » But I have to join the Zoom. We're waiting for Savannah White some

[14:47] gesturing on a map. We're all

[14:52] so

[14:55] » you didn't answer my question. >> My question was why are they focused on

[15:01] limiting any building? I understand they want lots of parking, but any building

[15:07] to the right of the entry to three stories versus

[15:10] » it's any building period. >> The president suggested that a

[15:14] threestory building he felt would be more acceptable to residents.

[15:21] » Well, but I don't think that's really an issue. But he he was trying to be

[15:26] sensitive. >> Yeah. Yeah.

[15:29] » So, which side of the entries is the threetory building that the president

[15:34] wanted to have? Is it on the right hand side of budding up to the El Camino or

[15:39] is it on the left hand side which is the open space that's going up against

[15:44] Victoria Mana? >> Okay, let's take let's look at the map

[15:47] and point. >> No, it's not the right. So, when you go

[15:50] into Menllo College, right, >> you have the whole Zig parking area to

[15:54] the right, >> right?

[15:55] » That's where it would be. Oh, in that parking lot.

[15:57] » In that parking lot. So, that parking lot would be gone.

[15:59] » Okay. Got it. Right. Thank you. >> And then this new building would be

[16:02] there with a much bigger parking area than just the footprint of the building.

[16:08] » Got it. Thank you. >> So, that's what he wanted, but you guys

[16:10] are suggesting the parking lot off of >> Alejandra. And so, Alejandra, which

[16:16] makes so much sense. >> That's what we originally said we were.

[16:20] » Exactly. Yeah. And so a fourstory building

[16:27] » and it's got a lot of trees in there. It's across from the middle school

[16:33] sports area. >> This is the Alejandra O'Brien lot.

[16:37] » Yeah. Well, I guess it but it's El Camino Alejandra. Okay.

[16:39] » Yeah, that's the O'Brien. >> And you have

[16:43] And then the other place is the entry right here. Yeah. To the right. And uh

[16:48] to the right was this little parking lot >> further over

[16:52] » like there. >> Right here.

[16:54] » Right there. >> Can't see it. You're blocking.

[16:57] » Well, it's right I think what we zoned for four is right there.

[17:02] » Yeah, that's what we talked about. >> It's the parking lot. We did.

[17:06] » No, it's it's just past the parking lot. There's there's a couple bungalows in

[17:13] there. barracks that we did not from World War II.

[17:17] » Yeah. Right. Well, the issue the issue with the Alejandra one is

[17:23] we need the light there and there there's already a light on the other

[17:27] location, >> but we talked about putting

[17:29] » there's not a there's a light at the end.

[17:32] » I think that's a separate issue. I don't know if it needs a light or not. Okay.

[17:36] » Well, there's a another reason that it makes sense to have Alejandra because

[17:40] the Ariyaga residence hall >> which has some amenities in it that

[17:45] could be used by grad students is not that far. It's just across the parking

[17:49] lot right >> on the other side. It's very close

[17:53] » to and so you'd have all your housing kind of in that area.

[17:59] » So that's that's the discussion. It really doesn't matter to the building

[18:04] that that we're designing which parking lot it goes on. It'll fit either one.

[18:10] The only one it will not work on is the small one that we have to tear down the

[18:16] uh f phys. Ridiculous.

[18:19] » That makes no sense. >> No, we're not doing that.

[18:20] » And we didn't we did not differentiate our zoning within me college, right?

[18:25] Like >> is that right, Britney? I'm trying to

[18:30] bring up the zoning, but >> I'm not sure that that's right.

[18:34] » Yeah, >> we have two. We have both a RM20 and an

[18:38] RM40 site on >> we did different

[18:47] we did the RM40 near the administration building. That's right.

[18:51] » And the RM20 on the O'Brien lot. I'm pretty sure.

[18:55] » Well, there was RM20s for Menllo College that were right off of Al Verizon

[19:00] » in their parking lot and then there was the RM.

[19:03] » You mean MEO school? >> Menlo school. And then the college we

[19:07] talked about that area with that parking lot that's on Alejandra.

[19:12] » Well, I think we zoned more than one site for multifamily at Menllo College.

[19:18] One for RM20 and one for RM40. >> I don't happen to have one.

[19:26] I'm just curious enough. >> Yeah,

[19:32] » that would not be hard to do. >> I know. I'm just you know,

[19:35] » but we just want to build >> parks which you know

[19:38] » why build two and you can build. >> So, you know, again, for our purposes

[19:42] getting the plants, it'll work on either.

[19:44] » Okay. >> Doesn't matter. And

[19:46] » yeah, >> you all can decide, you know, where

[19:48] » here is the parking lot in the purple. Yeah,

[19:52] » that aligns with the boundaries of the parking lot and that's RM40.

[19:57] » That's 40. >> Yeah.

[19:59] » Red is the barracks that I mean that's what we've been calling them the

[20:03] barracks. Uh >> that is RM20.

[20:07] » Okay. >> And then this rep represents the parking

[20:10] lot over by the entrance that's right off of Elino Royale.

[20:14] » Yeah. >> And that's also the parking lot. It's

[20:16] not the bunker. It's the perfect >> and I said no.

[20:21] » So So that gives us more flexibility. >> Yes. And these were drawn with Tom going

[20:28] out and walking the site with president and reflecting on the letter that they

[20:33] had sent in 2021. So it's it seems like the sites that you are consistent with

[20:40] generally consistent with what we have here. But in terms of on that corner

[20:46] lot, that larger corner lot, um going back and forth between three and four

[20:52] stories, that's exactly where we would want height

[20:56] » in town. Because across the street is the um

[21:00] » the field. >> The field.

[21:01] » Yeah. >> Right. Right up against El Camino.

[21:04] » Right. We also, you know, amongst the housing

[21:08] coalition felt like you come in the entry and you're looking at a big

[21:14] building, it is not very attractive

[21:18] » to be honest with you. And the building will look like same finish as the

[21:24] Ariyaga center. We wanted to make it consistent with that. So the elevations

[21:29] will look the same, right? It should be one story tall. Aria is three stories.

[21:34] » Is three stories. >> So,

[21:38] um we talked a little bit about about the housing needs for the um college.

[21:44] Part of that story is down below one story and ground dips down

[21:49] » to it, but yeah, it's three. So um the housing needs

[21:55] they the college viewers this as being a a very important recruiting to

[22:04] for them in terms of staff students they have no graduate housing now and then

[22:10] adjunct faculty. Um so they love the idea but they are very emphatic they

[22:18] have no money for it. Right. >> And sorry, can I ask a question? Do they

[22:24] like the idea irregardless of which of those two locations your bullet number

[22:30] one or number three? >> They do. They're very supportive of of

[22:34] our need for multif family and their need for multi. Very supportive. Great.

[22:38] » I've heard nothing but enthusiasm from them and nothing but positive comment

[22:43] and willingness to work with the town. In fact, they are willing to work with

[22:48] the town on fundraising, right? >> Because they are going to start a

[22:54] multi-year, theoretically two-year, $100 million fundraising campaign. They have

[23:00] a new fundraising director who is very um enthusiastic and very willing to work

[23:08] with Athetherton, but I have some concerns about it as she would like the

[23:13] context. And I think that Athetherton residents

[23:17] are best approached by Athetherton residents for this.

[23:22] » Well, we could partner up with some people.

[23:24] » We can partner and we can we can certainly have some talk so that we're

[23:28] not approaching the same individuals and we have to be consistent in the

[23:31] messaging as well and what the plan is for the college. But um

[23:38] I know of one potential donor that absolutely does not want to be by any

[23:42] college recruiting person. But but what what so they're about to launch a

[23:47] hundred million dollar fundraising campaign and what is the purpose of

[23:52] that? >> The purpose is um

[23:57] structures and so I I did say are we double counting this

[24:02] » structure including this housing? >> I I don't think this housing was

[24:06] included but they did mention that maybe there could be some sharing of funds.

[24:11] Now, this was just idle talk of the development head. This was not the

[24:17] president >> and he's relatively new, isn't he?

[24:20] » She's a Yeah, she's relatively new and she doesn't work on campus. She works

[24:25] from her home and comes in for meetings. But I liked her a lot. She's very

[24:29] enthusiastic as one would expect from a development head and really wants to do

[24:35] the right thing, you know, in joining the town or or for the college. So um

[24:41] the challenge is how to best use her enthusiasm.

[24:45] » Yeah. >> For us. So

[24:49] » Winer's been pretty clear that his fundraising was to provide scholarships

[24:56] for students. >> 100 million is an awful big number for

[25:00] scholarships. >> Well, yeah,

[25:01] » it is. Okay. I I had the impression that they were going to do some remodeling

[25:07] some of the old >> Yeah, they have to do that remodeling,

[25:10] » right? Several of their buildings have been

[25:12] » it was going to go for some remodeling and then for

[25:15] » Yeah. academic. >> Yeah. But he, you know, he pretty much

[25:20] previously said that, you know, he didn't have the money to build

[25:24] something, but he certainly would like us to help him.

[25:27] » And he is consistent in that remark with Jeff and me.

[25:31] » Yeah. It's very made very clear. Um, okay. So, we talked a little bit about

[25:37] Aria and what it has. And I think it's important to understand besides the room

[25:42] configuration, it has a cafe, a very nice cafe with a

[25:47] full kitchen where they can make sandwiches and meals. So, we are not

[25:53] putting a cafe in the new structure. We don't need to.

[25:58] They have large study areas in there because the rooms are so small. Well,

[26:03] now we're going to have real apartments where you have enough room for a desk in

[26:07] it. So, you don't need those big study rooms.

[26:12] They have a gym over there. They have a gym next door. We don't need to put a

[26:17] gym in. They have a security office there and they have no solar over there.

[26:24] That's another thing that we have to put in because PG&E now does require under

[26:30] net three that you have onsite storage for your excess energy. So when we built

[26:37] Adam Way E was storing it on the grid. We did not have to have batteries that

[26:42] will have to be batteries >> now for this. So I've called Cobalt

[26:47] which is my solar company to say I need some help from you in designing this.

[26:51] Are we required to put solar on it? >> You are.

[26:56] » Yep. >> Solar ready for sure.

[26:58] » Yep. >> That's different than putting solar

[27:00] panels on it. >> So that it but is there a state law now

[27:05] that would require solar? I don't know about it.

[27:10] » Well, I went to chat GPT and I asked I don't know if the answer is right when

[27:15] it said yes. >> It's a 5050.

[27:17] » Y. So, I think we need to plan we need to plan a room big enough for all the

[27:22] batteries. It's gonna be a lot of batteries.

[27:24] » Where's our >> But we only have to do the batteries if

[27:26] we do the solar. >> If you do it right,

[27:29] » and if we don't have to do the solar, right?

[27:33] » Can I ask a question? In one of the meetings that the

[27:38] mayor and vice mayor had with Stephen, one of the things he did mention is that

[27:42] if there were some programmatic space in this new facility that was dedicated to

[27:49] something of a of a need on campus, whether it's the sports program or the

[27:54] atrisisk student program or something like that,

[27:58] he would be willing to identify a donor that might help fund part of the

[28:02] facility if that facility had a face to that. Did that come up here?

[28:06] » And his excuse me, let me just add on his vision of that would be on the

[28:11] ground floor so that there would not be apartments on the ground floor. It'd be

[28:15] more of a public space uh for this other uh type of a use. No, he did not mention

[28:22] that and I actually brought it up and didn't get an answer about, you know,

[28:25] programs and the programs that he was talking about were were tech programs,

[28:32] » you know, for graduate students where he would marry, you know, a an academic

[28:37] program with a corporate need in the valley.

[28:40] » That was more the vision that he articulated. He never brought up any

[28:45] other programs. >> Wow. So in in our plan right now it is

[28:49] strictly house but there are some meeting rooms that I think are important

[28:53] to put in. >> So we have some of those but no cafe

[28:57] security office no security office and um

[29:01] » no shared bathrooms none of that stuff this time.

[29:06] » So what are we planning second >> are you going to go into the floor plan

[29:10] the the size of the units now? Is that what you have

[29:13] » I'm sorry. >> Are you going to talk about the size of

[29:15] the units right now? right now that's dangerous. I'm going to the units.

[29:19] » So the plan had I think 42 units and we are designing 60 because mathematically

[29:27] it works better and quite frankly I think we're going to need more units.

[29:31] They would love to have a design for 100.

[29:35] They mentioned that it's not what we're doing.

[29:38] » No. >> That's not

[29:39] » Wait. They they would like to see the design have 100 living units. love to

[29:44] have uh both well I got an email from the development head after the meetings

[29:50] with the president saying that she had talked to the president and that they

[29:56] were very desirous of having as many as 100 units

[30:00] » they can pay >> I don't think that we're planning

[30:03] fundraising for 100 >> would all the residents be associated

[30:09] with college in some format that's what their requirement all would All the

[30:14] would all the residents be associated? >> Absolutely.

[30:16] » Yes. >> They don't want outside campus because I

[30:20] do want >> I have the layouts for a studio

[30:24] apartment and a one-bedroom apartment. I'm not planning any two bedroom. And

[30:29] the reason for that is that I think when you get to two bedroomedroom,

[30:34] we tend to have families with children. >> I really don't see children on that

[30:39] campus. Just a playground. we know amenities for it. We're on a busy

[30:44] street. I just don't see it. And I haven't shared that with anybody else,

[30:50] but >> and then if you go to two bedrooms,

[30:54] sometimes have to have two baths. It's just a whole different animal. It

[30:57] doesn't align well as you're building the structure. So, Carol, I think you're

[31:02] absolutely right in that assessment because you know the new uh town homes

[31:06] along El Camino at Middle Plaza that Stanford built for they only have

[31:11] studios and one bedrooms. They do not have any two bedrooms units in that

[31:16] whole massive structure there because there exactly right

[31:21] » that reason then they get all the the grandmothers and the mothers and the

[31:26] » Exactly. And and it's a whole different animal. So this really is focused on

[31:32] graduate students staff. They may be married but they

[31:36] don't bring you know their children they don't have children or it could be two

[31:41] staff living in one you know unit as well with one bedroom I don't know and

[31:47] you know the adjun faculty >> that will be coming in

[31:50] » and staying three days a week is what we were told.

[31:52] » So would that be on a rotating basis almost like a hotel the adjunct? No, I

[31:57] mean they would have to rent and you know because these do have to be leased.

[32:02] » So whether they're there two days a week or five days a week is irrelevant.

[32:05] » It's irrelevant to us. They they'll be leasing it

[32:08] » because they're they're going to we have to build it and they're going to they'll

[32:12] figure out how to manage >> the rental.

[32:15] » They lease their staff housing right now. They have some staff housing for no

[32:21] more than $2500 a month.

[32:24] » Yes. whether it's one or two bedroom. >> Well, that qualifies as affordable.

[32:28] » Yeah. >> When you're building a building like

[32:32] this, it doesn't cover the cost. >> Some of their staff some of their staff

[32:37] and and their their coaches and things like that.

[32:42] They have families that live there now. they can move them and to move people

[32:46] out of the barracks and put them in the barracks or move them from where they

[32:51] are because they have some apartment buildings in some of the dorms already

[32:55] but they do have families living there. Carol and it's not just one or two

[33:02] » there a lot unless we're told to change it's not

[33:06] staff it's faculty and coaches. >> So how big is a studio apartment? about

[33:12] 465 square feet. >> How big is a onebedroom? 650 to 700

[33:18] square f feet. >> So why why so small on the one bedroom?

[33:22] » So we can get more in. >> Yeah.

[33:25] » Right. And I went out and I looked to buy

[33:28] » I looked at Menllo Park and an average size for a one-bedroom and a studio. And

[33:36] the one bedrooms were a little bit larger than this.

[33:38] » Right. That's what I thought. But I looked at the average for the state.

[33:41] It's lower than this. >> Yeah. I that hasn't surprised me. It

[33:45] just seems >> right.

[33:46] » I'm also looking at from the standpoint of what kind of housing stock do we want

[33:49] in the town in general and whether or not

[33:52] » you know it let's >> Right.

[33:55] » I'm looking at it in terms of cost as well. I think the one bedroom is

[34:00] probably going to be about 700. Yeah. By the time we're done the studio maybe

[34:04] about 500. This this is the range it's in right now. Well, there's just going

[34:08] to be residents that are here for two years. It's not housing stock for

[34:12] residents. It's >> it's somebody who's come from somewhere

[34:15] else and they're >> going to be here for two years. They can

[34:18] graduate and they're going to go away. >> It's not it's not residential housing

[34:24] per se. >> Yeah. One thing that the college was

[34:28] very clear on is the faculty do not want to be colllocated same

[34:37] floors same general living area as students

[34:42] even graduate >> they want some separation.

[34:46] » Yeah. So, one could say, well, should we build an L-shaped building where part of

[34:50] it is faculty and part of it is, you know, student, but then you're building

[34:54] two buildings a lot more expensive. >> Well, would floor separation work or

[35:00] they want separation. >> We came up with no they didn't say how

[35:04] to design it. They just said they don't want to all be mixed together.

[35:10] So, what I came up with is a large entry. you have an elevator, which they

[35:16] currently have, straight across the entry.

[35:19] If you go one way, you're going to be faculty housing. If you go the other

[35:24] way, you're going to be student housing. At the end of both buildings, there's a

[35:29] staircase, which is the way it is right now in Araga. There's a staircase at the

[35:34] ends. So, if you don't want to use the entry, if you're on a lower floor, use a

[35:39] staircase. You'll never see the other. How much are you gonna have if you're if

[35:44] you only have a shared entry? Not a lot. >> The faculty the faculty are going to be

[35:49] longer term in terms of their tenure in the area.

[35:52] » I don't know how long faculty stay there.

[35:55] » Did they tell you how many faculty me >> rooms they need because they don't need

[36:00] that many. This is not their permanent house.

[36:03] » They have a house someplace else, but they travel.

[36:05] » Oh, it's a it's a landing spot, >> right? It's a landing spot. So they and

[36:09] that they said they don't need it for regular faculty housing that permanent

[36:15] full-time faculty already own or rent a house someplace else or an apartment.

[36:20] » All right. >> They need it for the adjunk members that

[36:23] come to town three days a week. >> Did you raise the idea of the separate

[36:27] wings with the common entry? >> I have not talked to him about this yet.

[36:34] » Okay. So, I had hoped to meet with the president this week and go over the, you

[36:38] know, three plans, which, you know, I have them scribbled on paper, but I need

[36:42] to put him on drafting paper tomorrow. And he's out of the country. I'll be

[36:46] back, I hope, next week. I've asked for a meeting next Friday to go over with

[36:50] him and show him the actual plans. And of course, I'm sure there's going to be

[36:54] um revisions after that. He'll have ideas that we need to incorporate. And

[36:59] then I have talked to PPG about doing the final CAD drawings. They agreed. So

[37:05] Jeff talked to one person who had PPG and I talked to another. Both principles

[37:09] and both said yes, they would do it and and they were they were fine. They were

[37:13] happy to do it. There's no issue about that.

[37:16] » You might want to think about a larger size. You might want to think about a

[37:19] larger size for the agent faculty in terms

[37:22] » and they will so the graduate student will be the studio,

[37:25] » right? >> The a faculty will be the one bedroom.

[37:28] » Okay. Got it. All right. So, um, again, no gym, no cafe, sub meeting rooms, no

[37:34] shared baths. Every every bath, all electric, because I know that's what you

[37:40] all would like. And it's the county. So, right now, they do have some gas in

[37:46] Orya, but there's no no gas here. And I did talk to my HVAC company this morning

[37:51] that went to a supply house today to talk to them about what um all electric

[37:58] with air conditioning. They have no air conditioning in Ariata that they come

[38:02] nowadays with heat pump, air conditioning, and electric all in one

[38:06] unit. So we'll have to have a utility closet that will have a hot water pump

[38:12] and you know the the HVAC in there. There'll probably be three or four large

[38:18] units on the roof as well to accommodate. We'll have separate

[38:23] metering for the electric water as in most apartments will be

[38:29] common shared. We have a separate meter for water and they'll

[38:33] » separate meter per

[38:38] » we'll have separate for electric. >> Right.

[38:40] » Solar I have called cobalt to say we need your help on design. Let's figure

[38:45] out how many batteries we're going to have to have here and resign the room

[38:48] for it and how the wire >> Well, why don't we double check with our

[38:51] building official? >> Yeah, let's first make sure it's

[38:53] required. >> I don't trust chat GP or

[38:57] » I do think um George, I think you're right about ready,

[39:01] » but what does ready mean? Ready means you have to have a room. Ready may mean

[39:05] you have to have wiring in there. >> Conduit.

[39:09] » Well, wiring conduit. >> You have to have wiring. I don't know

[39:12] about it. >> All you're doing is you're not putting

[39:14] the panel the batteries in the panels on the roof and the batteries.

[39:19] » No, you don't put the wires. >> You don't put the wires in the conduit.

[39:23] You just have to have the batteries. >> You have to have the batteries

[39:26] installed. >> Halfway.

[39:30] Yeah. >> Yeah. So, like for example, this

[39:32] building was solar ready. We had areas for the panels and the inverters.

[39:40] We didn't have to have batteries for here. And then there were conduits and

[39:46] pathways going up to the roof to allow for that future installation.

[39:51] » But you didn't wire. You just had the cond.

[39:53] » Yeah. So the solar installer, >> right,

[39:56] » would install the stansions and the panels, wire it down into the the room

[40:03] like you said. >> Well, I'm gonna Yeah.

[40:05] » And put in the inverters and >> Yeah. We'll have to have the room ready,

[40:08] you know, for the for the batteries. So, I' I've asked Cobalt to I'll just ask

[40:13] them tell me what in their mind it would take to be solar ready on this.

[40:17] » Carol, we have hard stop at six is >> hard. Okay, we're almost done.

[40:21] » Room from us. So, >> why we haven't had public?

[40:25] » Why no ADA? >> We have public comment

[40:28] » because they said they didn't need it, but I don't believe that.

[40:31] » Yeah, I don't think. >> So, I think we're going to have to have

[40:33] a certain number of KDA compliant units. >> All right. So, what's the studio unit

[40:37] going to have? It's going to have a cooktop, a microwave, a secondary

[40:40] disposal. I hadn't planned on a dishwasher, but we can put one in.

[40:44] There'll be a utility closet for the furnace, and there'll be a hot water

[40:48] heater, a bath with a shower, no bathtub, and they'll have a built-in

[40:52] closet. Um, for one bedroom, they will have a

[40:56] galley kitchen, a small washer and dryer in there. They'll have a bath with

[41:02] shower. They'll have full HVAC, hot water heater, and then a bedroom with a

[41:07] closet as well. So, larger. Um, what are we working on now? You talked about a

[41:12] little bit. I'm working on the mechanical plan, the solar design, the

[41:15] elevator bid, and a rough budget. But I have to have the mechanical before I get

[41:19] the rough budget done. So the next plan is to meet with the college uh on next

[41:25] Friday, show them what we have uh ask for their input and they get once we get

[41:30] consensus with the college get the cash drawings from PPG.

[41:35] And just to reiterate, the housing coalition will not engage in

[41:39] fundraising. We leave that up to you all to decide what to do. And as I

[41:43] mentioned, the college is willing to join in that. And that's the update.

[41:50] Do you guys want to >> I have a quick comment.

[41:53] » Wait, before we get to comments, let's take a public comment.

[41:55] » Go ahead. No problem. >> And so that we can cross that out there

[41:59] public.

[42:03] » Okay, great. Now, >> so I think a couple things. One, we have

[42:10] to check about the solar because I'm not sure it's required. And number two, I'm

[42:16] not sure that you need to include washer dryers in each of those units. I've

[42:22] looked at affordable housing that's been built recently, which didn't have

[42:27] washerd dryers, and we could have, you know, a common space where there's a

[42:32] washerdryer. It's not as desirable, but I'm not sure how undesirable that is. I

[42:37] don't know that that's a deal go. >> So, I have them in my new apartment

[42:42] building. they are really tiny. But for somebody who's there three days a week

[42:47] and she wants to do, you know, minimal laundry, it's a convenience for them.

[42:53] Um, I thought I would design in the closet, you know, where they could go in

[42:57] and the plumbing. >> But there's obviously an additional cost

[43:00] if you're having to not not just the hookup, but if you're having to provide

[43:04] a >> certainly is not going to be on the

[43:07] graduate student side. There will be shared laundry over there as they have

[43:12] right now. They have a big laundry room. Um

[43:17] » I would think you could do that for adjunct

[43:20] » staff also. >> They're somewhere else four days a week

[43:25] » all over.

[43:28] So, so Britney, in terms of direction that you

[43:34] guys need from us, do you have anything specifically that we need to give you

[43:39] direction on for this or is this us receiving and then you're going to come

[43:42] back in March and that

[43:45] » specific to the uh the resident effort? I think Carol is on the receiving end of

[43:52] the direction here. She's aware that my suggestion is that we provide you an

[43:57] update in the context of the 2025 annual progress reported in March. Um, George,

[44:05] do you think we need any direction on grant efforts or should we wait and tell

[44:08] them? We're going to continue with the grant conversations we're having with

[44:12] California consulting and other vendors. But there was also a conversation during

[44:16] one-on-one uh with members of council about the possibility that the council

[44:20] authorized staff as we're talking about this uh potential partnership with the

[44:26] college to use town funds to work with a grant

[44:31] provider to seek out and apply for grants on their with them

[44:34] collaboratively. But we can do that at a future meeting. Not necessarily today,

[44:38] but if the council's supportive with that idea, some provide some feedback on

[44:42] » depend upon.

[44:46] » Yeah, we depend on the cost. We have to get a proposal holding that sort of

[44:49] thing. >> So, we're going to present three plans

[44:52] to the president next Friday if we get the meeting. One's a 50/50 split. Half

[44:56] grad student, half adjunk faculty. The other is a 6040. We have 60% grad 40%

[45:03] faculty and staff. and then 2060 depending on what their need is and they

[45:08] just have to give us direction afterwards,

[45:11] » right? >> Uh so title 24 requires PV, but there

[45:16] are exceptions that you don't have to apply it, but you have to go read title

[45:20] 24 >> Britney was indicating it was based

[45:24] somewhat on height of the building from

[45:29] the difference. So but that it's not just solar panels. It might be

[45:33] construction type building classification. So there are some

[45:37] decisions embedded in that type choice. >> Yeah,

[45:40] » I would be interested in learning more about that.

[45:43] » Wait, so so is it required with three stories or with four stories?

[45:48] » They have a different set of requirements once you're above three

[45:51] stories >> and that set of requirements is

[45:56] requires less or more solar. >> More.

[45:59] » More. Yeah, I would say the taller the building, the more required.

[46:05] » Yeah, if you if you don't put solar panels up there, you have to be solar

[46:08] ready as as Robert had indicated. But the exception that I'm reading here says

[46:14] it's based on the roof size. If it's less than 80 square feet, then you don't

[46:19] have to put solar. >> Well, that's something

[46:23] » 80 square feet. That's 8 by 10, right? >> Yeah.

[46:28] Is that wrong? That's what it says. It doesn't mean it.

[46:33] » Well, you haven't yet modeled >> the I mean I I know you you gave the

[46:39] size of the unit sort of general perspective on it, but you haven't

[46:42] modeled that in the specific structure. Is that

[46:46] » Oh, you have. >> Right.

[46:48] » And you come out at these numbers. >> So, it's a Yeah. Um, so it's about

[46:53] 10,000 square feet for the bottom level. And I've even come over the parking lot.

[46:57] So, what do I have? I've got the the unit layouts. I have the floor layouts.

[47:03] I have dummy space for the mechanical rooms right now in the electrical that

[47:08] I'm trying to finalize. Um,

[47:12] we do not have a survey because the college should not have one and we're

[47:16] not planning to do a survey. They didn't want to pay for it and we don't want to

[47:19] pay for it. I don't think it's necessary.

[47:22] » Not at this

[47:25] site. Now they have surveys of the entire college but they are really

[47:31] really >> not useful for this. We're not planning

[47:35] a survey. So we're planning to have roughly five pages.

[47:39] » You know you will not have three plans for the fundraiser. You'll have the one

[47:43] the college decides on. It gives us the guidance but I have them all drawn. I

[47:48] don't have them in a pretty beautiful format to show Stephen Weiner and that's

[47:54] Friday. So, I've got to put it on big drafting paper and then I will give the

[47:59] drawings to PPG to do the final CAD. They've agreed to that. And so, we will

[48:04] turn over to you all a set of drawings with exterior elevation, what it looks

[48:12] like, interior layout, the apartments, a list of what's in the apartments, you

[48:20] know, what we are funding, and a site plan.

[48:25] to use for fundraising. >> That's the idea. Roughly five pages.

[48:31] » And you're you're doing the architectural rendering for the

[48:34] exterior. The skins are >> so I'm not doing that. I'm doing the

[48:38] interior layouts and all but I have all the photographs from Aria and I have

[48:44] their building plans. Well, CPG can do the

[48:48] » I'm hope so because so I'm giving personally I think the Aria building is

[48:55] not very attractive. >> Yeah, it's not good at all.

[48:57] » I'm just saying. Okay. >> I didn't vote for it.

[49:01] » I don't know why we have to be married to it. And when they did it, they

[49:07] slotted it in >> between these other three

[49:13] » buildings. And it has Yeah. So I >> I think it's a matter of cost. So or

[49:20] yeah, >> we we can change that. So I think the

[49:24] front I mean it's going to be glass. Yeah. The stairs are glass right now at

[49:29] the ends. Glass is very expensive. >> It's also hard to heat.

[49:37] » So um it's a matter of how much more cost do we want to add?

[49:40] » Well, you might get more. I mean I I would encourage PPG to be creative

[49:46] » exactly >> within the cost range that they

[49:49] » it does architectural very good. >> Yeah.

[49:54] » So and and I think they're quite creat the the entryway is a fourtory entryway

[50:00] going up. >> It may not be

[50:03] in fact I pretty much envision a fourtory entry going up to have that

[50:07] separation. We've got to have a separation somehow between the students

[50:12] and the faculty, which means you need that central area going up. The center

[50:18] may not be the center as we shift the number of studio and one bedroom

[50:24] » and then glass on the end with the staircase the way it is now. So, you've

[50:28] got three areas of glass. >> Did did um Mr. Can we give you any idea

[50:35] about how many adjunct faculty he's to say? I can't believe

[50:41] there's that many >> there can't be that many like 15

[50:45] » well agile 100 I mean maybe 40 >> we are talking staff as well

[50:51] » it's not just >> in the same bucket

[50:54] » but the staff would be living there more >> okay but and they can

[50:59] admin workers it could be cafeteria landscape

[51:03] any of them >> they're there for the most part they're

[51:06] there all the time but the adjun people they they do have more agile jump. Then

[51:10] they have full-time professors, but there aren't that many.

[51:14] » But he really honed in on that. He honed in that he felt that was the greatest

[51:19] need and it was recruiting problem for them not to have housing, you know, of

[51:25] any kind. >> I do remember that he needed housing for

[51:29] his faculty. >> You know, you should ask him how many

[51:31] adjuncts he has now. >> So, are are you going to meet with him

[51:34] again? Is that your plan? >> I asked for it. I sent him an email, but

[51:37] he's out of the country in Jamaica and so I haven't shut him down today. Yeah,

[51:42] we're going to meet as soon as he's available.

[51:45] » Well, we'll get more answers. I mean, this is the beginning. Great start.

[51:49] » Yeah, you did a terrific job. >> A lot of work.

[51:56] » And we do have the drawings. I mean, I have the drawings. They're on my kitchen

[51:59] table right now. >> Oh my gosh.

[52:00] » And all the layouts. >> Why did you bring them?

[52:04] » Thank you. Well, we don't have time.

City Council Study Session January 14, 2026

Transcript