Good afternoon everyone. Um, the
Hillsboro City Council meeting is called
to order. Um, city clerk, may we please
have the roll roll call.
>> Thank you. Mayor Cole Adams present.
Chang
>> present.
>> Braxdale present.
>> Cole
>> present. Um, I will ask the council to
announce conflict of interest on the
close session items. Let me first
outline the close session items which is
conference with legal counsel for
existing litigation.
Town of Hillsboro v persons interested
in the matter of the proceedings for
resolution number 22-83 adopting maximum
rates for water service charges Samonteo
Superior Court case number 23 CIV
01028.
Do we have any conflicts of interest on
this closed session item
from the council?
Seeing none,
um
is there any public comment on the close
session items? Anything on Zoom or in
the chambers?
>> No, Mayor Cole. Thank you.
>> Okay, with that said, we'll now adjourn
to close session.
Good evening everyone. Um it's March
9th, 2026. The time is uh 6:04.
The Hillsboro City Council meeting is
now called to order. Um city clerk, may
we please have the roll call.
>> Thank you, Mayor Cole. Adams
>> present.
>> Kle
>> present.
>> Ragdale
>> present.
>> Cole
>> present.
>> Thank you.
>> Um please join me in pledging um
allegiance to our flag.
To the flag, United States of America to
the republic stands one nation under God
indivisible, liberty, justice for all.
Welcome. I'm so pleased to see everyone
here in the chambers today. We do have
guests from um Japan. Welcome to join
us. Uh exchange students and of course
our Hillsboro Youth Commission. um also
here. Thank you for joining us today.
Um
we have um do we have any report from
close session? City attorney Dez. Thank
you, Mayor Cole. Just wanted to announce
for the public that the council did
convene in close session prior to this
meeting uh to discuss one matter
conference with legal council existing
litigation. Uh direction was given to
staff and I also wanted to note the
council decided not to appeal this
matter uh but otherwise there was no
reportable action. Thank you.
city attorney. And uh next
item is a presentation from our
Hillsboro Youth Commission.
Welcome.
And when you get up to the podium, if
you could just introduce your name. I we
don't I don't have it in front of me,
but I'm super honored to uh have you
join us today.
» Hi, I'm Anya. I'm the chair of the HYC.
» Um, you can open up the presentation and
as each of your colleagues move up, they
can introduce themselves. Yeah.
>> Okay. Thank you everyone for being here
today and thank you to the city council
for inviting us to speak. Um, yeah,
we're just here to share a little bit
about what we've done over the past few
months and what we're planning on doing
um in the coming uh spring. So, um,
yeah, this is the list of the Hillsburg
Youth Commission, and we're really happy
that, um, all eight people, uh, are
joining us today to present, and they
will also introduce themselves as they
present. So, I'll start off with, um,
Ava and Tanish with the age friendly
city subcommittee.
Hi everyone, my name is Snishk and I'm a
member of the age friendly city
subcommittee and I'll just be going over
some past events we've had held in this
past year. So one of the biggest events
we had was the elderly tech day where on
November 9th we taught elderly people
and fellow seniors about new and
upcoming apps. We went over useful tips
and tricks regarding cyber security. Uh
we answered any questions they had and
we had snacks for everyone to enjoy and
up in the upper right of the slide you
can see us at giving the tech day
presentation. Uh, another event we ran,
we recently just finished was a
Samaritan House coat drive where we
collected winter coats for kids and we
had over or around 17 coats donated
which is really nice and uh you can see
in some of the bins we put out u right
in front of the town hall. Yeah.
Hi, I'm Ava and I'm also part of the
subcommittee.
Um, for the our future initiatives
include an elderly game night and we've
done similar events in the past where we
bring games and snacks to play with the
seniors at Pacifica Senior Living and
we're hoping for this event to happen in
mid to late April. We're also planning
on doing a chess tournament at Crocker
Middle School in the NPR in late March.
Although it's not confirmed yet, uh
it'll be a great way to connect people
of all age groups and we'll have members
of the community come together to play chess of all ages and enjoy
snacks and the weekend together. You can
see the flyer is for the upcoming chess
tournament and the picture at the top is
from the past um elderly game night.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
» Hi everyone. My name is Alexa. I'm one
of the vice chairs of the Hillsbor Youth
Commission and I'm also on the
communication subcommittee. Um I wanted
to talk about one of our projects called
Hillsbor Highlights. Um this initiative
was actually suggested by Mayor Cole um
in an effort to make a digital archive
to preserve Hillsborough's history. So
um so far we've done I believe seven or
eight former mayors. We've done Mr. Al
Royce, Mr. Chick Adams, Mr. Thomas
Casten, and yes, we plan to release an
episode once every one or two weeks. And
if we could just play the introduction
and then a clip um from one of the
previous interviews.
>> Welcome to Hillsboro Highlights. I'm
Alexa
>> and I'm Kyle
>> and we both serve on the communication
subcommittee of the Hillsbor Youth
Commission.
>> Hillsboro has a lot of history, yet most
of it is going unrecorded and getting
lost forever.
To preserve our history, we are
interviewing and celebrating the people
who have made the biggest difference in
Hillsbor, ranging from mayors to
longtime residents.
>> Our interviews or episodes of Hillsboro
Highlights will be published both on our
YouTube and on our website.
>> In season 1 of Hillsboro Highlights, we
interview former mayors such as Thomas
Casten, Lawrence May, and Chick Adams.
>> Through these interviews, we've learned
a lot from how Mr. Adams prioritized
safety by clearing street signs to how
Mr. Roy supported the creation of our
own youth commission. We also learned
what the most knowledgeable Hillsborough
veterans think is important for our
town, ranging from community to housing.
>> We hope you enjoyed this season of
Hillsboro Highlights as much as we've
enjoyed creating it.
>> Um, and then if we could just play um, a
moment from the interview with Mr. Shik
Adams.
>> Okay. Thank you so much for your time,
Mr. Adams. Is there anything else you'd
like to add?
>> Well, I did want to tell a story. Um,
one of the things I I did when I was on
the council was uh mediate a dispute
between the Kingdom of Tonga and the
neighbors because, and this is something
people probably don't know, the Kingdom
of Tonga used to have a consulate office
in Hillsboro. It was a mansion and when
the king of Tonga was in town, uh, all
the Tonga
residents in the county, and there are a
lot of them, would kind of assemble at
the mansion and they'd have feasts in
the backyard. They'd roast pigs and
they'd just party. And the neighbors
kind of came unglued at one point and
came to the council complaining about
this. So, we convened a meeting of the
uh uh the representatives of the Kingdom
of Tonga, a neighborhood group, and the
Secret Service because it's a foreign
government, so they're entitled to
Secret Service protection. What we
discovered, very interesting, is that
all the trash that was in the street,
which was the neighbor's big complaint,
came from the Secret Service agents.
>> Wow.
>> They were parking their cars on the
street while the party was going on, and
they were throwing all their trash out
the window.
So that's how we resolved that.
>> It's quite a story. Thank you so much.
>> It was fun. It was fun.
>> Wow. Thank you so much, Mr. Adams, for
your advice and your time and stories.
>> Well, thank you guys for preserving our
history. It's It's great that you're
doing that.
>> Yeah. So, we're just really excited
about this. Um there's a lot of really
interesting things we learned and we're
excited to like experiment with the
different editing. Um you guys might
have noticed there were a few angle
changes.
>> Yes. Yes, we we'll work to three, but
for now it's two.
>> Thank you.
>> I'm Brody Friedberg. I'm one of the
other vice chairs. I'm also on the
communication subcommittee um and I
worked on the interview with Miss Mali
uh last year actually. And so
fortunately this year we were able to
publish that actually as an article uh
due to a lack of video footage. Um but
we have had noticeable traction on the
article um and we've heard positive
feedback already. Moving
forward, the communication subcommittee
has also hosted several events this
year. Uh you can see light up the town
on the upper left. Uh I was in the Olaf
costume actually. Um so that was a fan
favorite. Um and then underneath that uh
we were also uh a part of the team that
drafted the ebike article on the cover
of the quarterly newsletter. Um and so
we did an interview with Dr. Blake
Taylor, a neurosurgeon who grew up in
Hillsboro and uh drafted this article
and then it was uh later edited and
published.
» Another one of our events was um a final
study event um in December of last year
and that was prior to um high school
winter finals. So students were able to
come to the town hall and share food um
study space and a golden retriever
therapy dog which was super fun. And we
had over 35 students from Crocker and
other local high schools. Um also in
November of last year we um in honor of
Veterans Day we held uh treats for
troops with the town. So, we um had a
donation drive uh at Crocker and at the
town hall to um send care packages to
soldiers in Eastern Europe. And along
with that, we had a letter writing drive
at Crocker and many adults also wrote
letters during the Veterans Day
ceremony.
Hi, my name is Jesse and I'm a member of
the environmental awareness
subcommittee. So, first of all, monthly
our team publishes Instagram posts to
the HYC Instagram. And as of recently,
we've been trying to promote the Little
Public Library. That's actually just
outside of town hall here. And also, um,
end of October last year, we began
revising the town's climate action plan,
which hasn't been updated in over a
decade. So, we actually met with Vice
Mayor Ragdale to discuss, um, possible
future updates and edits that we will
continue to work on throughout the rest
of the year.
Um, we are also currently planning an
environmental awareness week at Crocker
Middle School where we're collaborating
with Rethink Waste to put on a
schoolwide presentation and also our
subcommittee partnering with the Crocker
green team is going to be putting on a
variety of activities throughout the
week such as we're going to have a bike
powered smoothie exhibit. We're going to
have way sorting games and educational
tableling going on on the blacktop and
we're also going to be putting on a
thrift shop on their blacktop. We're
going to be collecting clothing
donations from the students um the weeks
prior and then redistribute them on the
blacktop to kind of promote sustainable
shopping practices. And also this last
month we compiled an environmental
opportunities resource doc with intern
volunteer and work opportunities um in
environmental organizations throughout
the Bay Area.
Hi, I'm Lauraai Johnson and I'm a part
of the health and wellness subcommittee.
Um, along with what Jesse said,
something we do is post Instagram posts
every month and we like to specialize
ours based on certain national
awarenesses based on that month
surrounding health and mental health.
Um, at the bottom you can see some of
the awareness posts that we've done so
far. We talked about teen violence
awareness month which is very important
and we always include certain data and
research that we've done on the topics
um within the post and in our bios.
We've talked about cancers um donation
for blood and also just promoting
different
events that our subcommittee will
specialize in and want people to go
which will talk more about.
» Hi, I'm Ella. Um this past fall we took
all the information that we learned last
year from our mental health survey. We
partnered with Crocker students to
create the Crocker health wall, which is
like a bunch of posters that we
partnered with on various health topics.
And then this Friday, we're going to
Crocker and we're doing the tableabling
event that we did last year, which is
really successful. We're giving out the
mental health resource cards pictured
above. And then we're doing health
trivia and they can get like fidget toys
and stress toys. And there's a picture
below of the event last year.
So, in addition to our four main
subcommittees, we have um two sort of ad
hoc subcommittees. And the first one
focuses on ebike safety. So, as everyone
knows, ebike has been a pretty big
priority for the town. And we've been
trying to contribute to this effort um
with assistant city manager Brown, Mayor
Cole, Police Chief Colola, um
Superintendent D Archie, Vice Mayor
Ragdale, and Cocker student Nathan Kim.
and we um have been collecting survey
responses for the teen ebike safety
survey. We have about 41 responses right
now from fifth through 12th graders
living in Hillsbor. Um and we are just
really um trying to represent the youth
voice and that is also being heard by
local assembly members like Diane Papin
as well as Samonteo County Supervisor
Jackie Spear. And then we are
collaborating with other youth
commissions in California to distribute
similar copies of this survey so they
can send it out to their own towns and
we can gather even more data on um ebike
use in California.
And finally, we have another ad hoc uh
subcommittee sort of focused on youth
injury prevention. A really big issue
recently has been um injuries for teens,
especially female athletes. Um, for
example, female athletes are two to
eight times more likely to tear their
ACL compared to their me male
counterpart. And a lot of this is due to
factors like overuse, injuries, uh, not enough emphasis on nutrition in
recovery and uh, specializing in a
specific sport too early on. So, we're
working with um Erica, Lauraai, Kiara,
Ella, Trisha, Jesse, Ava, Kyle, Brody,
Alex, Nia, Raj, Antich to um distribute
educational resources to coaches,
athletes, and parents to um spread
awareness about the risks and what
athletes can do. Um, so we're doing this
through the Hillsboro recreation
brochure, uh, distributing pamphlets
during the sports information night and,
um, working with the AYSO to, um, give
advice, uh, for the coaches training.
And we are also supported by Vice Mayor
Ragdale and Hillsboro recreation
director, uh, Mr. Tony Jakamazi.
And that's all for today. Um, we wanted
to thank you all for being here and
listening to what uh what our updates
are and we are also open to answering
any questions.
>> Well, thank you. Thank you so much. I
have to say I'm a bit jealous just
listening to all the things you guys are
doing. You certainly are your your
success rate is quite impressive. you've
only um been doing this for a few years
and you've accomplishing so much.
Preserving the history of the town,
promoting wellness, um taking care of
our seniors and communicating with them
and connecting with them, addressing
issues of public safety, injury
prevention, the list goes on and on. I
am just so proud of you all. And before
I do a special mayor's applause, I would
like my colleagues to comment on
anything they've heard. I'm just totally
overwhelmed. Let me let me take this
opportunity to also recognize my
colleague, Vice Mayor Ragdale, who has
been mentoring the Hillsboro Youth
Council and I'm I am super happy she's
in charge of this job and I I think it's
just wonderful. Thanks to all of you.
I'm so proud of you all. Yes. Any of my
colleagues would like to add to that?
I I it's I'm so impressed always with
what you're doing and the uh PowerPoint
was very professional and your
presentations were so self- assured.
Well done. Um I do have a question and
I'm I'm I hesitate to ask because you
have so many things on your plate, but
last year you helped with the Pride
recognition event and helped turn it
into really a talent showcase which was
so effective. Is that something that's
on your schedule uh to work on again
this year?
Yeah, a lot of us are really passionate
about um helping with this Pride event.
We actually did want to meet with you to
talk a little bit more about the
details, but yeah, that is something
we're definitely interested in helping
with.
>> Great. Wonderful.
>> Um yes, Vice Mayor Rexdale.
>> Okay, you guys know I can go on and on,
so I'm really going to try not to. Um,
but first, because you guys are a um
committee of the city manager's office,
um, I don't want to really take cra I
mean, I mentor you guys because I love
you, but I I don't really put in the
hours. I'm I'm always here if you need
anything, but I want to especially thank
um, assistant city manager Mandy Brown
and um, I always forget his title
because he does everything. Uh, William
Lee, as you guys call him, Mr. Lee. Um
but they have done so much work with you
guys and um uh just I'm so grateful. Uh
you guys take an idea and just take it
from here to here.
You know the the idea behind uh
collecting which was uh our mayor's idea
collecting um we've got these great
former mayors. They're around. They're
still in town. They love our town. They
want to talk to you. and you recorded
them. That's fantastic. And uh former
mayor Maluli is still around and she's
on the line, so I bet you could still uh
record her. Um she has so many great
stories to tell. But you know, you you
took an idea. I'm thinking I'll just
take some notes and and here you've got
a YouTube channel.
It's so incredibly um impressive.
Everything that you've done um is just
so impressive. the um teen violence
awareness that comes from you guys,
right? You know, as I've said before,
when you talk about the mental health,
the parents, the teachers, you know,
we're we'll be listened to a little bit,
but it's not the same as coming from you
guys. And that is so meaningful. And I'm
so happy you're going to Crocker this
coming week. And uh that is just
fantastic. The the ebike article came
out, should be in your mailboxes today.
um so impressive and you guys were
edited by professionals and also edited
by a committee. Two things that are very
hard and you um did so well with that
and I love the article. I love the way
that it came out but also the process.
Um you know it's not easy to deal with a
bunch of adults who who have an opinion
and you guys handle that with such grace
and um I really appreciate it. Um and uh
one last thing, ebikes, the uh draft
model ordinance is being heard tomorrow
morning. Uh at the board of supervisors
meeting, uh if you can, you know, log on
in between classes. The meeting starts
at 9 and it's the fifth item on the
agenda, so it'll probably come on pretty
early, but your voices are so important
and thank you so much.
>> Thank you. Um yeah. Yes. Um Council
Member Schwang. Um again I want to join
my colleague to com commend you for your
determination and your hard work but
most importantly it's the heart. I think
that your heart shows in all these
projects and then you make the
connections with the teens at Crockers
uh with the seniors. um you think from
the perspectives and making that
connections and I think in these days
that is the most precious things that we
need to have human connections and
through that you learn from each other
and then you're able to make changes
that is impacted our town and it's it's
um quite remarkable so I I want to thank
you all for your creativities and your
heart and you know just onward thank
you.
>> Thank you so much. We're very proud of
your work and keep it on, keep it going.
>> Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, but yes, go
ahead.
>> I also want to echo what my colleagues
have said, but I want to emphasize the
fact that really successful programs,
uh, the message has to be delivered by a
trusted source. And there's no more
trusted source than you to other peers.
So, the fact that you're saying things
really matters to people much more than
uh let's say the elderly talking to you.
But I do want to commend you as well for
reaching out to other age groups to make
that community connection and it
requires patience and planning and we're
very grateful. So, thank you.
>> Thank you. So, a special mayor's
applause for this amazing team,
Hillsboro Youth Council.
Thank you all for your kind comments and
for all your support and especially to
Mr. Lee and Assistant City Manager
Brown. We really appreciate all you guys
do for us. Thank you.
>> Thanks again.
If I may, Madame Mayor, um the youth
commission, we have a few um Berlingame
High School school students who aren't
necessarily with the youth commission,
but they are hosting these five exchange
students from um Edgawa, Japan through
the Berling game club of uh through the
Rotary Club of Berlingame and Hillsboro.
So um and Lauraai who is on the youth
commission is one of the hosts and also
Abby and also Brendan. And um we just
want to welcome because I think after
the the city manager's update they will
leave. But we do want to welcome our
friends from Japan.
>> Yes. And thank their hosts.
» And thank the hosts.
>> Sure. Of course. Okay. So the next item
on our agenda is um the town updates and
that will be presented by city manager
Doug Davis.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor.
Thank you, Mr. Lee.
Okay, first up on our town update, I
want to talk a little bit about the
there we go about the project at 101
North El Camino Rail in Sonteo. Uh
Horizon Treatment Services has a plan to
open a new sobering station in Sonteo.
This is uh after the behavioral health
provider Star Vista in Berling game
closed. Uh as an alternate to jail, a
sobering stations are where police bring
individuals who are under the influence
of alcohol or drugs for detox and
potential potential connection to
community services that can assist them
in moving forward with their lives.
The town has been monitoring during this
idea for a while along with our our
residents uh the city of San Mato and of
course our Roseboro school district to
stay informed with everything we can.
There have been some concerns expressed
uh and we have received several emails
about this as well. While state law may
restrict the authority that the city of
San Monteo has in regulating this
project, everybody should know that we
are taking in as much information as we
can on the topic, listening to the
concerns of our constituents. And I
wanted to add just here are some of the
sponsors uh for this project and this
would be a direct way if you wanted to
communicate with some of the individuals
who are directly involved with this
project. But of course, we're also
welcome your comments here uh at the
city manager's office and to our city
council as well.
I would go on and talk about the team
ebike sura is a much better spokesperson
than I am. So I think you've heard about
this, but they have received a lot of
information uh for them and I do know
they are giving out some type of uh gift
card. I'm not sure if that's going to be
a random selection or for who has some
of the best ideas in the survey. Also,
we have an ebike contest uh that's
coming up. This is for a video contest
in association with the California of
Youth Commissions and this will be the
most impactful safety message that can
be delivered in a 30-se secondond video.
Deadlines for those are March 10th and
there is additional uh $500 prize for
whichever one is selected as the winner.
The Hillsboro Police Department along
with AMR uh American Medical Response
and the Sanonteo County Health
Foundation are sponsoring a diaper
drive. This will be going on through
March 15th. Anytime between 8:30 and
5:00 PM, you can come to the Hillsboro
Police Department to make a donation
uh there at the facility in the lobby at
the police department. And again, that's
8:30 to 5:00. And that's going on up
until March 15th.
Rethink Waste Trash to Art Contest,
which we've had some winners in here
before, uh is hosting another uh
contest. The deadline for entry is March
30th. Um, and this is open to third
through fifth grade students and again
put on by Rethink Waste. And I believe
one of those is actually one of the
projects that we saw here in in council.
Yeah, the center one, the train there.
We have a save the date coming out for
April 26th uh for our townwide drill. Uh
there'll be more information coming out
about this through our CIRC group and
also through the online eblast and on
our town website as well where we'll
have more specifics about what the drill
will be about this year and also about
uh the exact times generally in the
morning a and ending sometime in the
early afternoon. But it's a great event
out there. If it's your first time
coming out to one of these, you'll
you're in for quite an experience as far
as learning and meeting some of the
other people uh that are more heavily
involved in our SER program as well as a
lot of our first responders. Another
save the date for Hillsboro
Beautification Foundation. This is the
Celebrate May event which is being held
May 7th. And if you're interested in
learning more and applying for it, you
can do so at the hillsboro
Beautifification Foundation.org
where you can then get specific
information about the event, but it will
be uh Thursday, May 7th this year.
Also, the Sanonteo County Leadership
Corps application is now open. This is
for both other programs, both the
leadership corpse and the emerging
leaders program. Uh application for the
classes uh for the upcoming 2027 session
are due by May 1st, 2026.
So if you're interested in that, I'd
highly recommend it. Most of our town
staff have been through this and we try
to send town staff through each one of
these as they present themselves. But if
you're a member of the community and
you're interested in this, it is a very
worthwhile program. I've been through
and I believe all of our council members
have have been through this as well.
And just a reminder, short-term rentals
uh and our ordinance related to that,
they are not permitted. And a short-term
rental is classified as anything for
under a 30-day period of time. And I'd
remind people that if they do see
short-term rentals that are listed,
oftentimes they'll use the word
Hillsboro within the rental description.
And a lot of times these are uh in our
adjacent neighboring communities.
They're not actually within the town of
Hillsboro, but our code enforcement uh
is is taking a look at these and and
addressing the ones that may be
inappropriately listed for Hillsboro for
under that 30-day time period. But just
a reminder to our residents, there is a
short-term rental ordinance and it's
anything under 30 days within the town.
The voting contest for the stickers is
out, and if you've ever gone to the
voting day, you'll see everybody walks
out with a sticker on that says, "I
voted." Uh there's two types of
stickers. There's one uh that'll be a
submission for students ages 18 uh and
under and this will be for the I voted
contest and this is to actually make the pattern that will be on the stickers
that are given out at the voting booths.
And then for future voter contest,
another sticker that those who are under
18 and not able to vote that is open to
our residents age 19 and older. The
deadline to submit your design for these
stickers will be April 6th, and you can
do so at the at the Berling game uh code
down there at the bottom. I would read
that, but I would mess that up for sure.
Uh and we have the El Camino project,
which we've talked about several times
in here. I'm hesitant to give out any
specific dates on exactly when this has
happened. We've gone through a couple of
iterations with it with CALR and also
whether permitting can cause some
changes and when this will happen. But
the second that we get a firm date on
exactly when these projects will start,
we'll be putting out as much public
information as we can. I want to thank
our public's works uh crew um over here
for uh working so closely with Calrans
and making sure that we have the least
effect uh as possible within our
community. It's something that needs to
be done. It's certainly going to be a
great improvement of the El Camino. uh
we may have to just put up with a little
bit of disruption here for about a week
or so as that project moves through the
town of Hillsboro.
And then here's some tentative uh things
for upcoming agenda items. Again, these
are tentative, but we're scheduled to be
talking about these items. So, if you
have an interest in this, keep an eye
out on our website to see exactly when
they're agendaized. But this is our
future April and May meetings. Then our
final page that we always come to here
in the end is our our ways of getting
information from the city. Again, I'll
always say that SMC alert. If you're
going to pick one, that's probably the
one you want to have. Uh all of them are
great. I have them all on my phone. Just
you can put in for whatever amount of
detail information you want on them. And
I again, the lowest point of entry is
probably NIXL, which is very, very easy
to use. If you can text, you can use
NIXL. Um and that's all I have, Madame.
Thank you.
>> Um thank you, City Manager Davis. Um so
we will now um open for um public
comments. Um do we have any public
comments in the chambers that on items
that are not on the agenda?
>> Thank you, Mayor Cole. I'll just ask if
there's anyone in the room who would
like to provide a comment that on an
item not on the agenda to submit a
speaker card. Uh the speaker cards are
available at the back of the room um by
the door. Um but I do have some raised
hands on Zoom that I can proceed with.
Uh the first is George Lance.
>> Hello, George.
» Hello. Thank you for the opportunity to
speak. Um and I would like to ask the
city council to consider a resolution
uh to state that they will never do an
anti-semitism resolution restricting
virtual public comments to silence
unpopular speeches. Viewpoint
discrimination.
This meeting's public comment period is
a limited public forum. In the forum
like this, you can talk about the time
and manners, but you cannot uh engage in
viewpoint discrimination. That's settled
constitutional law. So, please um you
know, understand there's people with
varying points of view, but Supreme
Court held in Rosenberg versus
University of Virginia that viewpoint
discrimination is unconstitutional.
Mattal versus Tam said that plainly that
speech that offends is protected. Um, a
problem we have is in 2023
when the Jews started their genocide in
Palestine, they compelled boards like
yours through the Anti-Defamation League
to put through anti-semitism resolutions
that conflate Zionism and Judaism and
uh, Israel and genocide with
anti-semitism, which in today's age is
the worst possible thing you can do. But
um we as citizens for over two years
worth of genocide have lost our right to
speak at these meetings because of how
trigger-happy uh the mute button was.
And I think there's some time for
reflection now. And I think the public
should look back at uh how city councils
across the country were influenced by
the ADL in anti-semitism resolution and
um and zoombombing toolkits which have
been uh publicly disclosed in
jurisdictions throughout California
especially. Um the Anti-Defamation
League is a very polarizing group and to
see that they have this influence over
boards and bodies to silence the
bloodned uh right and you know un
inalienable right you know nature-given
right you know to speak um and I just
want to think that it's time to look
back at this and how that time was
needed for free speech and that time was
used for grand sta grandstanding of
politicians uh defending the poor victim
Jews from their criticism that everyone
else is allowed to get except for them.
Every single time anyone criticizes Jews
for anything, you hear this Saabb story
and your board shut down free speech.
The public does not want anti-semitism
resolutions. First of all, that's a bad
term if you look into the enmology.
Second, the public knows who the problem
in the world is and they're very much
united against a common enemy. We do not
want to go to war for Israel and most of
the public is really questioning Jewish
supremacy and they have this supremacy
on silencing free speech at boards like
yours. Thank you.
>> Um thank you George Lance. Um next um
speaker in chambers or by Zoom.
>> Yes. Thank you Kathy Milligan.
>> Hello Kathy Milligan.
>> Hi. I'd like to address the um 69 bed
residential drug rehab program. I'd like
to hear when the Hills when Hillsboro
was first made aware of the proposed
program um and are they concerned about
the close proximity to South School and
the inevitable stress that this project
will put on our Hillsboro police. I know
that the county, our representative was
aware since at least October of 2025.
And I do not understand why
our city council didn't feel that we
should that you should notify the
residents that it will affect. It seems
unfathomable
to me that you don't think we should
have had the time to consider the what
impact this might have on our town
and on the safety of of students right
down at South School.
Also wondering if you have any
confidence that Horizon can handle a
project this large given that it's much
larger than any project previously
undertaken in Berlingame or San Monteo
or actually even Northern California at
69 residential beds. This is a behemoth
and I would appreciate some I would like
to hear from the town on why they chose
this path. Thank you.
>> Thank you Miss Milligan.
Um, next speaker.
Yes, Joshua.
» Uh, yeah. Hi, this is Josh Coopermanman.
Um, hi to the town council. Um, my
original reason for coming at to the
public session was to alert you to an
article which was in the Daily Post, the
PaloAlto Daily Post on Friday, which
indicated that there have been problems
with the flock
uh, cameras that other jurisdictions
around the country, partly for
immigration purposes, have been logging
in to the U city's network in Los Altos
and um worried Los Altos a lot. Uh two
other cities have terminated their flock
program. I don't know what vendor you
use. Um all I'm trying to do is to alert
you to the fact that um the data that we
collect um in any license plate uh
surveillance
um can be used for purposes that we did
not intend. And I hope this town um if
it hasn't already to this point will uh
consider through its town council um any
requirements to restrict use of this
data um to purposes that the town uh is
accepts. Um any event that uh also to
alert you to the fact that uh Crystal
Springs Upland School I I'm a four doors
from it has asked the neighbors for a
Zoom call on Wednesday I guess to go
over the fact that they're asking for an
increase in stu in enrollment. Uh, I can
only tell you I have called Crystal
Springs numerous times, particularly at
3:00 and 4 in the afternoon when the
cars are sitting um and and held up at
the entrance to Crystal because they are
waiting for their pickups of their kids.
Um, it's really annoying to look to the
neighbors, adjacent neighbors, including
myself. And I hope that the town in in
the in looking through this process, the
EIR process, will put sufficient
restrictions
on Crystal. So if we're going to have
another 50, 100 students with another 50
or 100 cars, we don't make the town does
not allow Crystal to make the problems
worse. And finally, in my last 33
seconds, and I'll do it very quickly, I
hope the town of this um George Lance's
comment, I hope the town council does
not go down this rabbit hole. Um there
are a lot of people in this town who
don't agree with him and his views, and
I hope the town council understands
that. Thank you very much.
>> Thank you, Mr. Cooper. Um any additional
um public comments? Thank you, Miracle.
I don't have any speaker cards and no
additional raised hands.
>> Okay. Um,
we will now close public comments. And
the next item on the agenda is
announcement of a of conflicts of
interest um from the council that needs
to be disclosed on items that that are
on the agenda. Any announcement of
conflicts of interest from any of my
colleagues?
Seeing none. And with regards to the
consent calendar, do we um are there any items
um that we need to remove? We'll start
with the public first. Does the public
wish to remove any items from the
consent calendar?
Seeing none, we will then proceed with
the council. Any council member wish to
remove any items from the consent
calendar? Through
>> the mayor, I' I'd like to pull um item
four. Um, I don't need the I don't have
questions for the consultants or
anything. Um, but I wanted to pull
forward, please.
>> Thank you. Any other items to be removed
from the council by council members?
Okay, just item four. Um, so we we will
move with items. We'll move for approval
on items one, two, three, four, five,
six. I'm sorry. One, two, three, five,
six, seven, eight, nine,
and 10. Do we have a motion?
>> So move.
>> Second.
>> Okay. May we have the roll call?
>> Adams.
>> Yes. Schwang
>> I.
>> Crawlic.
>> I.
>> Ragdale.
>> I.
>> Cole.
>> I.
>> Thank you.
>> Okay. We'll get back to item four and I
will ask my colleague um Vice Mayor
Ragdale,
>> please proceed.
>> You'll be shocked to know that I had
comments on ebikes.
Um so one comment and one request. Um
the comment is on the letter that uh the
mayor signed on behalf of the town. I
just want to say I love the letter. Um I
love the language in the letter
especially the um asking for we are in
support of your bill but also there's a
few other things we would we would like.
Uh there are a lot of bills. last count
I think they were nine but there may be
even more by today. Um they're beyond
the um county model ordinance which
they're talking about tomorrow. Um so
with regard to um uh Assembly Member
Papins bill
um AB
2595
um to have a
uh pilot project for Sanonteo County. Uh
I know they tried this for the whole
state. It ended up regarding restricting
the age for the different classes of
ebikes. They tried to get this for the
whole state. they compromised and Marin
County had one, San Diego County had one
and uh assembly member Papen heard her
constituents at the town hall that she
had that you know most of us don't want
to wait until those pilot projects are
done and so she's put forth this bill
for um Sanonteo County. My understanding
from talking to advocates is that it's
still going to be a hard one to pass,
but um I would um I would propose that
we add to our letter um for so she says
for class one, it's age 12 and up. I
would propose that we add propose to the
council that we add to the I know we
haven't done the letter yet. when we do
a letter um for class two that it's a
higher age 15 or 16 just uh right now um
the way her bill is uh 12 year olds
could ride the class 2 with the throttle
um so I would propose that we take the
class one um restrictions that San Diego
has which is 12 and the class two
restrictions which is 16 15 is fine um
that Marin has and combine them in a San
Monteo County bill.
>> Okay. So, that is a suggestion for an
amendment to that letter. Um I believe
that's Assembly Bill is that
>> 2595 and I think it's new. I don't think
we've done that. We haven't done that
letter yet. So, I I love the letter that
we that we have and I would just add um
we're in full support of class one age
restriction, but we would also like a
class two age restriction.
>> Okay. So that's a feedback to the staff
to modify that letter that hasn't been
signed yet. Any additional comments or
suggestions along those lines from
council?
>> Council member Rex.
>> Yes, I agree with that recommendation.
Okay. So with regards to item four, any
additional comments? Um Vice Mayor
Rexdale?
>> Not from me. If there are no others,
then I would move um for approval on
consent item number four.
>> Do we have a second?
>> Second.
>> Okay. Um, all those in favor of item
>> I
>> Thank you.
All right. Um,
moving on to the next item on the
agenda, which is um an old business
accepting item 11. Accept sewer rate
study and authorize implementation of
the recommend recommendation and that
will be presented by assistant finance
director Rich Santiago and Gabe Sasser,
our project manager. Hello, Ra.
>> Good evening, council. Uh, yes, tonight
we bring forward the sewer rate study
report. Um, and if accepted, direct
staff to uh mail the notice of public
hearing uh on the proposed rates. Uh,
the last sewer rate service charges, uh,
they were adopted during the last 218
process in June of 2021. And this past
July in 25, we adopted the fifth and
final year of that rate series, which is
why we did a new report and study. Uh
last month, February 9th, we had a city
council study session where the uh rate
study was introduced with the rates by
our consultants, HF&H as uh Mayor Cole
um mentioned. And so tonight, they are
going to present the report. Online we
have uh Gabe Sasser, project manager. uh
Rick Simson, senior vice president and
also uh Ludy Karu uh from Best Bessing
Creger and I think Gabe will share his
screen.
If not, we have the the PowerPoint.
» Hello, Gabe. Welcome.
>> Oh, yes. Thank you. Sorry, just getting
this online.
>> Sure.
>> All right. Can you see my screen?
>> Yes. Yes.
>> Wonderful. Well, good evening, Mayor
Cole and council members. As Rich
stated, tonight we're here to present
the final sewer rate study. The sewer
rate study covers annual costs over the
next five years.
It includes a five-year schedule of rate
increases, including a cost service
alignment, which would require 3% annual
revenue increases.
Residential indoor water use was
analyzed as part of this study as this
input determines the equivalent dwelling
unit charge for sewer rate customers
because average annual water use indoor
water use declined
uh in conducting the cost of service.
This means that costs are shifting from
the residential customers to the
commercial customers who discharge more
flow than a typical residential
household.
As Rich stated, tonight's goals are to
present the rate recommendations based
on feedback received from February 9th
and in and to accept the final report of
the sewer rate study to establish the
public hearing for May 11th, 2026 and to
authorize staff to mail a proposition
218 notice
at least 45 days in advance of the
public hearing.
Sewer rates were last studied in 2021
and established rates through fiscal
year 2526. The current sewer rate study
covers the next five years with rates
going into effect July 1, 2026 of this
year.
And the sewer rate study considers
capital improvements as well as the
public works department's uh intention
to continue to address inflow and
infiltration through pipe replacement as
well as addressing homeowners deficient
sewer laterals.
The revenue requirement consists of
annual operating costs which are
increasing by 3% and as part of that
projection no additional headcount is
anticipated.
San Mato and Berlin gain treatment costs
however are projected to increase by 5%
annually. Capital expenditures averaging
$5.1 million per year are planned as the
town continues to address its collection
system.
And debt service is also a component of
the expense projections. $3.8 8 million
annually for the first four years of the
study, followed by a small half million
reduction in the final year based on the
2023 refunding bond schedule of
payments.
This is just a display of the revenue
requirement projections or the cost
projections as you may know them shown
by the stack bar chart and those can be
compared to the revenue at current rates
the horizontal black line.
revenue requirement projections are
exceeding the revenue at current rates
and in each year this occurs there's an
operating shortfall that must be
addressed by an increase in revenues or
a combination of the use of reserves.
The final sewer rate study that we're
presenting tonight recommends five
consecutive 3% revenue increases.
And in turn, this results in the reserve
fund balance graph that you see by the
dark green line on this slide. So this
shows the town's sewer enterprise fund
balance at the end of each fiscal year.
With 3% increases in the first two
years, the town is increasing revenues
while also making use of existing
reserves. Thus, the small drop in the
reserve fund balance. But beginning in
fiscal year 28-29, the reserve fund
balance remains steady such that the
reserve fund balance is sufficient to
meet the target reserve. And that means
that the town can not only fund its uh
daily operating cash flow needs but also
its cash funded capital infrastructure
planned
as part of this period
with the 3% revenue increase in 2627.
We conduct the cost of service and in
conducting the cost of service and
accounting for the change in the indoor
water use assumptions which inform the
sewer charge per equivalent dwelling
unit or edu. This means that one edu
would be charged $4,386.89
or an increase of 1.8% 8% in the first
year
and as I touched upon and so you can see
that in the second table where we've
rounded to 2%. So residential revenues
would increase by 2% and commercial
customers would increase by more based
on this commercial customers who
discharge more than the average single
family household.
After July 1, 2026,
all rates would increase by 3%
thereafter with the intention of
providing 3% annual revenue increases as
shown on the previous slide.
With the recommended rates, we're
requesting the following actions of city
council to accept the final report to at
the public hearing for May 11th, 2026
and to authorize staff to mail the
proposition notice of any rate changes
at least 45 days prior to the May 11th,
2026 public hearing.
And with that, I'll return it to Mayor
Cole.
>> Um, thank you, Mr. Sasser. Um I will
bring the um discussion to the council
for first clarifying questions and um we
will then proceed with the public
comment and then come back for
discussion.
Um any questions? Any clarifying
questions from the council?
Yes, council member Schwam.
>> No, did you say no? I'm sorry.
>> No, because we have already done the uh
study sessions.
>> Yeah. Okay. Council member Adams, you
may proceed.
>> Thank you very much, Rich. And uh Gabe,
I have a clarifying question on slide
number five,
uh you have talked about our debt
coverage is 3.8 million annual debt. And
then on page nine of the document from
the actual sewer rate study existing
debt service is a little hard to figure
how how it gets to 3.8 million. So if
you could just show me this is the top
paragraph under existing debt service.
The town has an outstanding bond
obligation totaling 17.1 million as of
June 30th, 2025, of which a portion was
used uh for sewer improvements of the
annual debt service of approximately 2.6
million during the planning period. The
sewer fund's share is approximately 1.4
million 55%.
The town also has a state revolving fund
loan for previous sewer improvements
with a principal outstanding of 7.9
million. Annual debt service is
4 million. So if what I'm are we to add
2.6 million 1.4 million and 4 million to
get to 3.8 million which is on the slide
it's the slide before this one.
>> Mhm.
And before this one, slide five. There
you go.
The last bullet.
>> Understood. Uh, excuse me. I'm just
bringing up my notes area to be able to
speak to that.
» I have a second question, too. So,
>> yes, that's fine.
>> If you'd like to ask that one, I can
maybe I can address that one right away.
>> Okay. the one that when we last had this
presentation which I I brought with me
uh the recommendation was 3% 3% 2% 2%. So something happened. If you could
give me a narrative of how how we bumped
it up and also can you clarify that this
is actually the maximum that we would
charge and that we actually do have the
opportunity
to uh revisit this annually.
>> Yes. I'll start off with the latter half
of that question. Yes. The rates shown
on slide eight would be the ones
included in the notice and they
represent the maximum annual charges and
that of course city council could
revisit those charges annually if
desired to implement something lower. If
you wanted to course correct and
increase the rates beyond what was
previously noticed, you would need to
follow a new Proposition 218 procedure.
Um,
and the sorry could you remind me of the
first half of your question?
>> The first half of the question was when
we last visited this it was 3% 3% 2% 2%. And now it's 3% for the next five
years. So something must have happened.
if you could just I don't want every
detail but oh we looked at this and
therefore we increased the maximum.
>> Yes, we revisited the reserve totals
that were modeled and made adjustments
to those. Uh so it's really a a
calculation
adjustment on our part. uh we were not
reflecting the proper minimum reserve
total. And so because that pushed up the
red line as you see on slide seven that
adjusted the target reserve higher and
so that meant that at the present rates
the
uh reserve fund balance would fall below
the target reserve. So we increase those
amounts so that uh the reserve fund
balance would continue to meet the
target reserve by the end of the fifth
year or come as close to it as you see
there pictured.
» And we would potentially be able to get
this information about the size of the
reserve so that we could make a
determination about whether we wanted to
use the maximum
in future years.
>> That's right. Yes.
>> Yeah. Okay. Thank you.
>> As for your other question,
um I'd like to say that in
fiscal year 2627,
there's a $1.4 million
portion of the 2023 refunding bond
attributable to the sewer enterprise. So
that is a bond that's shared between the
water enterprise and the sewer
enterprise. 55% of that obligation
the sewer enterprise is responsible for.
So that's 1.43
million. The state revolving fund loan
is $431,000
in fiscal year 2627 and the San Mateo
clean water debt is $1.93
million. All told, that's $3,88,268
for debt service.
Thus the 3.8 million.
>> Okay. So, it's slightly different than
what we got in our material, but you've
just justified exactly what you would
want from the slide rather than from
page nine. I can certainly uh revisit
that in the report to make sure that
that's accurately depicted.
>> 1.4,431,
1.98938
million.
>> Yes, I'll just correct you there. That's
1,437,700
for the 2023 bond.
431,8001
for the state revolving fund, 1,938,767
for Sanonteo Clean Water.
» Thank you.
>> Um, thank you, um, Council Member Adams.
With no additional questions, I do have
one clarifying question. Um
on page 92 um I just wanted and and I
you may not have the exact details in
front of you on this question regarding
um replacement of aging infrastruct
infrastructure and building weather
sewer system capacity assurance. Um are
we seeing a rise in the need to build um
in terms of our contribution to with the
San Monteo uh county regarding uh a
sewer system? Are we seeing a rise in
the cost over the past let's say five
years in terms of that cost having gone
up over the past five years
>> in in construction or
>> Yes. Um yeah, I mean it it is and uh we
put that as part of our budget too in
our five-year capital. There's also an
inflator for um any type of um CPI index
or anything with rising costs as well.
So that is part of the factor when we
did this rate series as well.
>> So in in reality over the past five
years we've actually seen the cost of
building that infrastructure gone up.
Yes. Okay. That's what I thought. Just
wanted some clarification on that. Thank
you. Um, any additional questions before
we take it to public comments.
Okay. Um, any public comments on this
issue?
>> Thank you, Mayor Cole. I don't have any
speaker cards in the room for this item.
Um, but we do have a raised hand on
Zoom. Joshua.
>> Hello, Joshua.
I'm sorry you're on mute. We can't hear
you.
Uh I just wanted to ask whether there's
a sufficient uh safeguards for inflation
built into the cost of of replacement uh
cap the capital funds as well as the
cost of replacement of other items that
are not within the uh multi-year capital
budget.
» Do we have um any comments on that or
response? Yes, there is um
getting acknowledgement from our public
works director as well.
>> Okay.
>> The the answer Josh, did you hear that
response?
>> Uh I didn't hear that. I I just heard
that the public uh works director was
going to comment on it.
>> No, I was just saying yes, Josh, there
is in place.
>> Uh and what kind of percentage are you
looking at? My my concern of course is
you still have the debt service for
those bond issues that the town did many
years ago. They're going to run off I
believe not in this 5year cycle but
further on but until then you have a
fair a fair good amount of debt service
you have to advertise annually.
>> Um the question also would be Mr. SASA
does that 3% include that buffer with
regards to what Josh is asking or is
that a different question?
>> Yes, I can speak to this. Yes, there's a
3.3% annual capital construction cost
index
uh annually assumed. So yes, we are
accounting for projected cost increases
for labor and uh capital materials.
I is that adequate given what you know
what infla you know what we're currently
going through with inflationary
um aspects
you're talking about a five-year I mean
you're it's kind of a look see on a
five-year basis and you once you do your
rate study you can't go above the
maximum
>> authorized
>> understood yes so uh within the last
five years there have certainly been
higher inflationary ary periods that
represent really an outlier. We used a
10-year compounded annual growth rate
which results in a 3.3% increase really
to smooth out some of those uh
inconsistencies
over the last five years that we've
seen.
>> Well, but to a certain degree you're actually admitting that perhaps
inflation could be higher than the 3%
that you budgeted. My my concern is that
and I sat on the FAC for many years and
I've helped the town on these bond
issues. My concern is you don't you know
once you put this in place you're you're
it's going to be there for five years.
Your your top level of uh rates cannot
exceed that top level. even if your
inflation ba basically it'll mean you
won't be putting as much money into your
enterprise because you'll uh you'll have
fewer dollars to for improvements.
>> This is true and that's why the town
also has reserves and can make use of
those reserves.
>> Well, the town being the town itself or
the water and sewer the enterprise fund.
>> The sewer enterprise fund. Yes. Thank
you.
Okay.
I'm sorry. Did you
>> I I'm just I just want to make sure that
the town council's, you know, has has
weighed in on that on the percentages
that the assumptions here and and and it
looks like according to Gabe uh past
history which showed it was actually a
little bit higher. Um, I just hope that,
you know, having worked with the town
for many years, you know, the part of
the reason this debt's out there still
is because the town didn't put money
into the enterprise for many years and
got behind the eightball, so to speak.
And it be a shame if we made the mistake
again, same mistake again.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Um, those points are well
noted. Um I think the understanding is
that it's factored into this current uh
study.
>> Yeah.
>> And if anything changes with rising
costs or anything within the five years,
I mean we wouldn't want to do a new
series uh rate study but we would
obviously conduct one if we had to. Um
the last one we did get all five years
but obviously we would have to revisit
that if
>> okay
>> uh the revenue requirement changed.
>> Thank you. Any additional public comment
on this issue?
No additional raised hands, Mayor Cole.
Thank you.
>> Okay, seeing none, I'll bring it back to
the council. Um, any further discussion
or do we have a motion to um could you
please go to the slide that presents the
um issue in front of the council at this
time, please?
>> Yes. Go ahead.
>> One comment through the mayor. Um, you
know, this item has been before us and
uh I just really wanted to appreciate uh
Council Member Adams for noticing
differences from the past presentation
and uh Mr. Coopermanman for um bringing
up these issues. I just greatly
appreciate it. Thank you.
>> Thank you. I agree. All right. Could you
just go to that last slide so we can be
clear again? I know we've gone on on
this discussion so we can um know what's
>> Sorry about that.
>> Yeah,
» sorry about this. Well, while he's
pulling up, it's just yeah, accept the
recommendations for the sewer increase
and changes uh from the HFNH report and
then approve staff to mail the notice of
public hearing uh for the town of
Hillsboro sewer rates and set the public
hearing uh no less than 45 days uh after
the notice has been mailed. The next
time we would do this would be the
public hearing in May, May 11th.
>> Do we have a motion to accept the
recommendations?
>> Second.
>> Okay. Could you please um take the roll
call?
>> Thank you. Mayor Cole Adams,
>> yes.
>> Schwang,
>> yes.
>> Kwick,
>> yes.
>> Ragsdale,
>> yes.
>> Cole,
>> yes.
>> Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Sasser. And
thank you, Rich Santiago, for the
presentation.
>> Thank you.
The next item on our agenda is item 12,
which is um an introduction of an
ordinance amending chapter 17.52 of the
Hillsboro Municipal Code relating to
accessory dwelling units and junior
accessory dwelling units and finding the
action to be statutoily exempt from SQA.
And that will be presented by our
assistant director of building and
planning, Liz Ruis. And I believe we
also have um city attorney Todd Lashman
um partner of BBK. He will be available
for questions
online by Zoom.
>> Hello Liz. Thank you.
>> Good evening
>> and thank you for the introduction. Um,
we've been talking about some of these
changes over the past couple months. And
on September 8th, I presented to the
council a discussion item that previewed
some of the discretionary amendments
that are included in this revised
ordinance. Um during that discussion we
talked about some of the options and
made staff recommendations, received
direction from council and based on that
direction from council. Um during that
discussion, uh staff incorporated that
council feedback into the proposed
amendments and we're now presenting that
ordinance for introduction to amend
chapter 1752. Those proposed amendments
include the required amendments to bring
the town's ADU regulations into
compliance with state law. It also
reorganizes the chapter to more closely
track the template provided by our city
attorney's office and to also more
closely track the exact structure and
terminology that the statutes use. And
then it also incorporates those
discretionary amendments that we um that
are informed by the discussion that we
had on September 8th. So the majority of
the town's underlying development
standards remain largely intact. Um but
the updated format includes the clarity
uh improves the clarity rather and
reduces um some ambiguity in terms of
some of the discretionary processes we
had included and also strengthens the
legal defensibility of our ADU
ordinance.
First, I'll review some of the updates
that are included in the revised
ordinance to align with state law. I
won't go over all of them. They're included in detail in the staff
report and also outlined in the red line
and clean um copy of the ordinance
language attached to the staff report.
Um but the first one is uh the the
revised ordinance just clarifies that
the allowable square footage referenced
in the state law refers specifically to
interior livable space. Previous
versions just refi referred to square
footage and jurisdictions were implying
that as they saw fit. So this um updates
that language to clarify that it's
interior livable space. The um updates
in compliance with SB543
clarifies what impact fees and school
fees can be assessed to ADUs and JADUS
and those thresholds are related to the
applicable square footage.
SB 543 also codifies HCD's
interpretation about the number of ADUs
and JADUs that are allowed on a site. So
HCD's interpretation has been this for a
while, but this update under SB543
actually brings it into the statute,
which clarifies that on a single family
residential parcel. Um, an individual
could create an ADU through the
conversion of existing space. They can
also have a junior accessory dwelling
unit and they can also have a detached
ADU. All three of those types would be
allowed on a single family property.
The update also includes new statutory
requirements clarifying application
completeness and very specific
procedures and timelines associated with
our review. It allows us a 15-day
completeness determination. There are
very clear deficiency and noticing
require I'm sorry, deficiency notice
requirements associated with those
reviews. it aligns with the process that
we already have in place thanks to our
ADU specialist. So that won't be um a
change in the way we do things, but it
is something that's now in in the state
law.
New uh to us and new to everybody is a
ministerial appeal procedure. So this
now establishes a state required appeal
process for ADU application completeness
determinations and for permit denials.
Fortunately, we've never um had somebody
interested in appealing um a
completeness determination or a denial.
We've I don't believe we've ever denied
an ADU. We've always been able to get to
a place where they're in compliance and
approvable. Um but this is a new process
that all jurisdictions are required to
implement. Because the town does not
have a planning commission, these
appeals would be heard by the city
council. Um and the state law is very
clear about what the city council would
be reviewing these because this is a
ministerial project. The appeal would be
limited to reviewing the objective
compliance and those applicable
standards. So it would be a very
specific scope that the council would be
reviewing those appeals under. But
that's a new possibility that wasn't um
didn't exist before.
um ADUs and JADUs are now um defined by
classes. So this is um these are the
state defined classes. It really doesn't
change anything other than what we've
been calling them. So now they have a
term class one and this applies to
conversions
um and limited detached units. We were
formerly calling these building permit
only ADUs and JADUs. So now they'll be
referred to as class one. And then there
are class two which are ADUs that meet
all of the objective standards. We
formerly called these ADU planning
permits. So nothing about the process
really changes other than just how
they're classified as either class one
or class two. Um, something that's not
in the presentation, but is in the state
law and is in our revised ordinance is
that the new language clarifies that we
are allowed to charge for planning
review for both class one and class 2
ADU reviews, which is great. It allows
us to have some mechanism for cost
recovery for those reviews. And both
classes also receive an ADU um permit
approval letter before they move on to
building permit. So that will be nice.
That's the way we were doing things
previously. And so it's nice that the state law update uh reinforced our
process.
And as we discussed on September 8th,
our recommendation was to remove the ADU
deed restriction um prior to the
certificate of occupancy. This is
reinforced by the state law requirement,
but it does maintain the requirement for
a deed restriction for JADUS. So that
remains in um in our revised ordinance
consistent with state law.
Moving on to some of the discretionary
revisions. Um one item that we discussed
in September were the notice of
application requirements and the
preconstruction notice requirements. and
we discussed some of the complications
that come with that. In our prior
ordinance, homeowners were required to
notify adjacent neighbors within three
I'm sorry, the town was required to um
notify adjacent neighbors within three
business days of submitting an
application. Um and then the applicant
was also required to notify adjacent
neighbors at least 30 days prior to
commencing construction. We discussed
many of the um complications with these
requirements. Also, the noticing is not
required by state law. So, we were
worried about some of the legal
implications of having those processes
required by code. Um uh our discussion
in September, we talked about revising
the noticing to have a new notice at the
time of permit issuance. And in
discussing this revised process with
Todd Lysman with BBNK, he suggested that
we entirely eliminate the noticing
requirement from our code and have it be
a a town policy that staff um does this
noticing requirement. The noticing would
be issued by the town rather than the
applicant. It would occur at permit
issuance and the notice would clearly
state that the ADU approval is
ministerial. It would include contact
information for any construction related
concerns. And as we discussed um in
September, staff would coordinate with
the CCAC and the city attorney's office
to ensure that the language is um
informative and clear. The extra benefit
of pulling it out of our code is then it
allows us to amend this process as we
see fit without having to come before
the council and and amend the ordinance
in any way. It allows us to update that
noticing policy as appropriate in a more
flexible um format.
The notice of limited remaining
development capacity requirement was
that notice that um required a deed
restriction um when 500 square f feet of
remaining um square footage was
remaining on the property. And because
of all of the ADUs and JADUs and
conversions, that deed restriction was very complicated. and we discussed
in September that um the recommendation
from the city attorney's office was to
eliminate that from our ADU ordinance.
So, this revised ordinance um eliminates
that requirement, which would be more
consistent with state law and will be
clearer for applicants as well. And a
property owner understanding what
development capacity is remaining on
their parcel, it it can be determined
through other venues. This was not the
most appropriate way to do that. So
staff is available to assist property
owners or realtors with that
determination outside of the AD
ordinance.
Um for the landscape requirement, we
worked with CCFD to review um the
language. We ran into a bit of a
conflict between the code and practice
because some ADUs are allowed to be four
feet from the property line, but in wooi
and highf fire areas, landscaping has to
be 5 feet from habitable space. And so
we ran into an issue where there were
landscaping requirements in places that
we couldn't require landscaping. And so
we the revised ordinance includes
language that when it's not possible to
install fires safe landscaping between
the ADU and adjacent parcel, a solid
fence that's made with non-combustible
material would be an appropriate
alternative. The amended language also
clarifies
um that landscape screening must not
only be installed between the ADU and
adjacent parcels, but also between an
ADU wall that faces a public right ofway
and that right ofway. So, it adds
screening um as visible from the public
right of way as well, which I think is
really responsive to some of the
feedback the council has heard from the
community and certainly that staff has
heard from the community. Um but we're
doing it in a way that ensures public
safety and is um consistent with
regulations.
So um our recommendation tonight is to
introduce and wave further reading of
the ordinance, but of course I'm happy
to answer any questions or provide
clarification.
>> Thank you, Miss Ruiz. Um I will bring it
to the council to ask for clarifying
questions if you have any.
Vice Mayor Ragdale.
» Thank you, Liz. Um, and once again,
thank you for reminding us of what we've
heard before because that's it's
helpful. Um, I had just a a couple of
questions. Um,
com comments, but not not opinions. Um,
with regard to converted, um, I don't
see a definition for converted under the
list of definitions, and I thought it
might be helpful because when I first
read converted, I was thinking
legalizing uh, you know, prior ADU that
you didn't get a permit for, which I
know we have a process for that, too.
So, um, I just thought it might be handy
to have, um, a definition of converted
under uh, 17.52.01.
definitions.
Um, and then I was wondering, this may
never come up, um, but if there are
appeals to council for a denial, um, if
we wanted to add in noticing provisions
or just state that the town will take
care of the noticing
since it probably won't come up, but
>> sure. I hope it won't come up, but in
the case that it does, I would assume we
would follow the noticing requirements
that are consistent with any item that
would be coming before the city council.
We can certainly talk with the city
attorney's office about what those notic
>> Yeah, the 500 bead and all that. Okay.
>> Yep. Um,
oh, on uh page 159 of the packet, there
were a couple of um
couple of places in the red line where
it said error reference source not
found. Um, which I I understand that
probably happened with the red line and
the edit. I just wanted to I just wanted
to point those out for the for the
final. Um,
and then a question with regard to um
the rent reporting. If they're not
planning on renting it out, you know,
for the next couple years or whatever,
do they still is there still paperwork?
>> So, we've incorporated the rent
reporting into the building permit
application, which I'm really excited
about because it's less paperwork that
we have to mail to people. So, it's uh
if they're not intending to rent it,
they just click the box saying, "I'm not
intending to rent this at this time."
Okay.
>> Um and then if they do, then there's a
series of other questions that they
answer.
>> Okay? So, if they're not intending to
rent it, they don't they're not going to
get an annual ask until such time. And
then if they do decide to start renting
it out, they could just let the town
know or
>> Yeah, that's a good question. Um, yeah,
we can figure out certainly how to allow
um how to inform residents if they
change their mind about rentals. We
would certainly want to know that.
>> Yeah, yeah, maybe just sending a letter,
putting something in the e-news. If
you're renting it out, let us know. It's
good for our numbers. Um, and then the
last thing is um we have the FAQs on the
I don't know if it's FAQs exactly, but
we've got the ADU resources on the
website which are fantastic. Um, and
just reminding that they would need to
be updated with these new requirements,
which you of course already knew, but
just uh pointing that out.
>> Thank you.
>> And, uh, thank you very much.
>> Thank you. Um, Vice Mayor Rexdale. Um, I
also have a few followup on something
you brought up regarding the appeals
process. You said it will probably
follow what we already have for appeals
for city council and that can be
protracted. It can take a month or two
or three.
Do we uh is there a state law that says
we must complete an appeal process by a
specific time period?
>> That's a great question. Do you know
>> actually don't know the answer, but Todd
Lman's on. So Todd, do you know the
answer to that question in terms of the
appeals? Is there a mandated uh timeline
in which the appeal needs to be
completed and heard?
>> Hello, mayor and council. Um it's a
pleasure to be with you. The law itself,
the state law on ADUs does not set forth
a timeline specific to the appeal. It
does say, however, that from the date
that the city receives a complete
application, the city must approve or
deny within 60 days. I assume that the
appeal is taken from a decision to
approve or deny. So, I would we can sort
out how that would work in practice. I
would argue that the the city's
obligation in terms of the 60-day
deadline is satisfied when it approves
or denies.
>> Um yeah, as you know, the council meets
once a month. So I think just having
some clarity on that so that we can have
consistent information to the residents
um in terms of expectation and also with
regards to um
cost recovery which is now included in
the state law. We did not have any
impact fees before for any of our ADUs
over 800 over 750 square ft. Is that is
this new to us as well as a town? It is
not new to us in terms of the impact
fees. Um I think it's the school fees
that was new. Oops, I can't reverse the
slide. Sorry. There we go. Um
>> that's correct. Mayor and council
is the school fees that's new to us.
>> Yes.
>> Correct.
>> Oh, so over 7 larger than 750 square
feet. We can we currently do not.
Correct. But we there's now state law
that says you can impose impact fees for
school fees or
>> so impact fees are separated from school
fees in this. So impact fees can be
imposed on an ADU that's 700 can sorry
cannot be imposed on an ADU that's 750
square feet or less or a JADU that's 500
square feet or less. And then um ADUs or
JADUs that are 500 square f feet or less
are exempt from school impact fees. So
now anything more than 500 can have
school fees assessed and then ADUs over
750 and JADUs over 500 can have impact
fees assessed.
>> Okay. So in other words, we do not have
impact fees currently but we can
according to the state law. Is that
okay? And and another question I have is
the deed restriction. Um is this new law
stating that we cannot have deed
restrictions on um ADUs? It exempts um
JADUs. That's understood. Just
specifically on ADUs. Is it is the law
stating that we cannot have a deed
restriction on an ADU?
>> It's the reverse. So the state law
requires a deed restriction for a JADU.
It's silent on deed restrictions for
ADUs. We previously had deed
restrictions for both. Um and and Todd,
correct me if I'm wrong, but the advice
from BBK was follow state law. It
requires deed restrictions for JADUs. It
does not say anything about deed
restrictions for ADUs. However, in
conversations with HCD, they see deed
restrictions on ADUs as a barrier to
development. And so it was um advised
that we eliminate the deed restriction
for the ADUs.
>> Okay. Um Mr. Lashman, are we allowed to
have deed restrictions on ADUs according
to state laws?
>> No.
>> Thank you. Um let's see. Okay, I have
one other question on page 137 regarding
um minimum this is just the objective
standards
story limitations under this is on page
137
and
it states that clarifying that detached
ADUs are limited to single story while
allowing attached ADUs to match the form
of the primary dwelling subject to the
25 ft height cap. That's taken into
account if an ADU is built on a hill
since a significant number of our homes
are on hilly topography. Is that does
that take into account the hilly
topography where you got you have all
these uh rules that you
>> It does because the height would be
measured from existing grade. So as the
topography slopes down the height
limitation would follow that topography.
>> Okay, that that's what I thought. Just
wanted clarification on that. Um,
and I think um I think Vice Mayor Rags
still asked this question about renting.
It would be important for us to keep
track of residents who decide to rent
the ADUs because those numbers will be
important for our arena numbers going
forward. So, absolutely. Yeah. Thank
you. Um, yeah, Council Member Crowley
has additional questions.
>> Thank you. Thank you, Liz. Um it is
unfortunate that we can't require
screening um in the 4-foot setback
because that is an impact on the
neighbors. So my question is are we able
to and do we encourage applicants to be
considerate of neighbors when planning
their ADUs or are we not allowed to use
that language?
>> Um so when they're working on a class 2
ADU where it's an ADU planning permit,
there's certainly more conversation with
the applicant. We can't legally require
it or suggest suggest it. Um, but in our
experience, for the most part,
applicants want to be good neighbors.
Typically, it's somebody who who lives
there and they're familiar with their
neighbor and they're building this. Um,
so they don't want to create conflict.
So, it certainly comes up in
conversations. Um, and the exemption for
the screening is is intended to be when
they cannot do the screening for fire
purposes. Um but the goal is that they
would have screening um when possible.
And then an additional um objective
standard that was added um to follow the
template that BBNK provided uh also adds
um preventing sight lines from ADUs into
adjacent parcels. So having more
consideration about where window and
door placement is related to neighboring
windows and doors. So I think that that
will um enhance that consideration of of
the neighbor and placement.
>> Yeah. And I do think the wall is a good,
you know, substitute. Um and then um
just building on what the the mayor said
too, um will we as part of our kind of
uh housing element cycle start to um
start to communicate? Or are we already
with our ADU owners like on a regular
basis? even if they check, they're not
going to rent it. Do we stay in touch
with them, encourage them, and and is
there a method of collecting data that
we'll need to use for H?
>> So, we do have the method of collection
that I mentioned that's that's tied to
the building permit. So, as those new
building permit applications come in,
we're able to collect that rent
reporting information and then now that
it's digitized, it allows us to put them
in an annual update cycle. So, I think
that that addresses, you know, a certain
um portion. I welcome feedback on how to
capture people who have ADUs that maybe
didn't plan on renting but are shifting
gears and may want to rent. Um, and I
think certainly through um an upcoming
ADU mixer that we're planning. We hope
to get the word out and to engage people
who have an ADU and either may or may
not be considering to rent it, but that
may sway them. Um, so certainly
communication is a huge part of that.
we try not to do too much
unsolicited communication, but I think
using our newsletter and um hopefully we
can get involved with um the youth
commission. I think there are other ways
to get uh that information out so that
interested parties can come to the town
and learn more rather than the town
pushing um forcing it on applications.
>> So I I don't but at this point we don't
have any kind of targeted communications
with people who have built ADUs.
>> No, not specifically. I just wonder
maybe that's something we could consider
if it's just once a year. Hey. Yeah.
>> Thank you, Liz. Appreciate it.
>> Yeah. Um um thank you. One last question
I forgot to ask. Um
regarding the restrictions, the state
restrictions or or guidelines, the 2025
state guidelines, it states for interior
foot uh dimensions, decks and garages
and not well, it did not state that. It
just basically said livable space. So
that would exclude decks and garages. Is
that correct? Is that Mr. Lashman? Would
that be correct as well in terms of what
the state is stating?
>> Livable space does not include garages
>> or decks for that matter
>> or decks.
>> So you could build an ADU and at a deck
and a garage. I'm just, you know, these
are the questions we get from residents.
you know, you're walking on a trail,
they want to talk to you about an ADU,
and these are the kinds of questions we
get. I've just wanted some clarity on
>> sure
>> what the law states.
>> Certainly, an ADU could have those
items. Um, but because the state law
specifically refers to interior livable
space, it allows us to apply
discretionary review to any of those
items that are outside of the ADU's
interior livable space. So, if somebody
is doing a deck or they want to do um a
garage or even if they have, you know,
some type of storage, we've seen people
get pretty creative with what they're
calling their ADUs. And so, I think this
really clarifies that it's intended to
be for livable space. We want to
encourage people to have ADUs and to
have the livable space to allow that
flexibility, but it allows us more teeth
in terms of the extra amenities
um and applying a discretionary review
to those items. Yeah. Well, my question
is not meant to intend that I object. I
just wanted to understand what the rules
are. Okay. Thank you. Um any additional
uh questions from the council? Thanks,
Liz. This is such a complicated issue.
So, let's move forward and and see if we
have a um we need to now have a motion.
» Mayor, would you like to open public
comment?
>> Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm sorry. Thanks
for reminding me. We were carried away
with our own conversation, right? No
problem.
>> Um, do we have any public comments on
this?
>> Thank you. I'll just give it a moment to
see if there's anyone on Zoom who would
like to provide comments or there's
anyone in the room who would like to
um not seeing any raised hands on Zoom.
So, thank you.
Okay, seeing no public comments, we'll
bring it back to the council for um a
vote on this recommendation to introduce
and wave further reading which is
important here because we are changing
the ordinance and this will we're waving
future readings um of the ordinance
entitled ordinance of the city council
of the town of Hillsboro amending
chapter 17.52
of the Hillsboro municipal code relating
to accessory dwelling units and junior
your accessory dwelling units and
finding the action to be statutoily
exempt from SQA under public um
resources code 211080.17.
>> So moved.
>> Do we have a second?
>> Second.
>> Okay. Um motion by Kwick, seconded by
Chwang. Do we have Could we take the
vote, please?
>> Thank you, Mayor Cole Adams. Yes. Hi.
>> Cru I. Ragdale. Yes. Cole.
>> Yes.
>> Thank you.
>> Thanks, Liz.
>> Thanks for walking us through this very
>> this very complex issue. Oh, you're
still with us. That's right. You are
moving on to another complex issue.
>> Okay. Well, we appreciate
>> trifecta.
>> Yes. Thank you. Um so item
13, acceptance of the 2025 general
planning annual progress report which
will be presented by these Ruis our
superstar for the evening.
>> Thank you again. Feels like it always
happens this way. I have multiple
presentations in a night. Um you've
heard about this from me every year for
the last several years, but tonight
we're talking about the 2025
um annual progress report. Uh as you
recall, uh California state law requires
that all local jurisdictions prepare and
submit an annual progress report on the
status of their general plan
implementation and also the housing
element. We must provide this to the
city council for acceptance prior to
submitting to HCD and LCI, which is the
land use uh office of land use and
climate innovation. That's due on April
1st to them. The period covered in this
report is the calendar year of 2025. So
that's January 1st to December 31st of
2025.
And these accomplishments reflect the
third year of the current reporting
cycle. We're in cycle 6, which runs 2023
to 2031.
So the annual progress report is
intended to demonstrate um that a
jurisdiction is actively implementing
the goals, policies, and action items
outlined in its general plan and making
progress towards hitting the targets
identified in our housing element. Our
general plan APR identifies just as a
reminder of our allocation for arena 6.
Our total allocation is 554
and that breakdown is divided up into
very low, low, moderate, and above
moderate. And then um the the bottom
chart shows the town of Hillsboro's
approaches. is there's five approaches
with ADUs, pipeline projects, vacant
parcel opportunity sites, subdivision
and lot split opportunities and
multifamily opportunity sites. So our
total strategy includes a 51 unit
surplus for a total of 605. That surplus
is something that's required by HCD. Um
and that's just a reminder as I'm
talking about these numbers. So for our
2025 APR in the upper right hand corner
you can see the housing applications
summary. So these are applications that
were submitted uh and approved within
the 2025 calendar year. We had uh 56
applications submitted each with one
unit. A total of 55 were approved. That
56th one just hasn't been approved yet.
It's not that it was not approved. Um
and then the upper right chart shows the
units um by structure type. So you see
that we had 53 that were entitled. The
reason it's different than the number of
applications approved is because those
are applications that were applied for
and approved in 2025. The other one is
entitled. Um we had 58 permitted. So
that means that we had 58 units. You can
see 56 were ADUs. Two were single family
detached and those are net new
construction. So we don't get credit if
somebody demolishes a house and rebuilds
that has to be a new house on a vacant
lot. And then 41 certificates of
occupancy were issued which is the 41
completed units. So if you look at the
chart on the bottom that shows our total
arena allocation on the far right hand
I'm sorry on the far left hand side and
then each year of the cycle so far we're
in we just finished the third year. So,
we have our totals for 23, 24, and 25.
And I made the number for 2024 in red
because in the attachment included with
the staff report, it said 43, and that
was an error. I just wanted to point out
that it's 44. It doesn't matter for
purposes of accepting this because this
is for 25, not 24. And the um 2024
that was submitted to the state and
accepted by the council reflected the
correct number. It was just that my
chart included in the attachment was
incorrect. So you can see that for 2025
um our total number of units permitted
by income level is 55 total with 18
applied to very low, 11 to low, 12 to
moderate and 17 to above moderate.
And the methodology that was accepted by
our housing element allows us to project
assumed affordability levels for any of
the units that we don't have rental data
for. Um, and that methodology was
included in our housing element and
certified by HCD. And so we do use the
income rent reporting that we have uh
for anybody who completes it. But then
for those units that we don't have that
data, we do apply that methodology and
project out our assumed affordability
levels.
Um, one of the requirements of the
annual progress report is the surplus
land inventory. And uh this chart um
this inventory has not changed since the
city council resolution of in 2020
adopting um these four remainder parcels
as surplus land. Um so nothing has been
added since then and this is what's
included in our 2025 APR as well
and I'm happy to answer questions.
>> Uh thank you Mr. Ruiz. Um any questions
from the council?
Um I I just I'm sorry. Go ahead, Vice
Mayor. Um Rexton.
>> Uh not a question. Just um Thank you.
Thank you. Um and looking
through the general plan, the general
plan was uh very informative and uh I
loved it. Um on page 177 just um action
PS3.2 two um we referred to zone haven
and and now it's Genesis protect which I
saw we had made that change um uh on the
next page. So
>> thank you. I'll make sure to update that
before we submit.
>> But um I was I was so happy to see it
and um great job with the numbers. I
know it's it's a challenge with the Rena
numbers and we're doing what we can.
Thank you.
>> Thank you.
>> Um thank you. I I just have one um Go
ahead. Um Council Member Adams,
>> you have a question.
>> Thank you, Madame Mayor. Uh on page 175,
uh item
uh OSC 4.1, town will adopt a and
implement a creek protection ordinance.
And uh then in the final column it
simply says town complies with SQA
requirements. So have we a creek
protection ordinance? We do not have a
specific creek protection ordinance. Um
what we do is anytime construction is
proposed within a 20 foot buffer of a
top of bank, we have a biological
assessment done in compliance with SQA.
Um, so that's that's our way of
addressing that, but
we certainly um
can and should adopt a specific creek
protection ordinance. So that's
something we can bring back to council
for a later date.
>> I would agree. I think that would be
really a good idea. Thank you.
>> We'll do.
And my followup clarify clarifying
question on page 172 um
under the jurisdiction reporting year
for 2025
is the above mod rate of 17 is that um
single family residents for the year
>> um
>> or does that include ADUs as well?
>> It includes ADUs as well. So two of the
17 are are single family dwellings. Um
and then 15 are using the methodology to
apply the um allowed assumed
affordability.
» So two for 2025 single family residents.
>> Correct.
>> Is that about right?
>> Yes.
>> Is that new or remodeled or what we
consider a new?
>> Those would be net new. So
>> net new.
>> Yes. So it has to be a new single family
dwelling on a vacant lot
>> and the rest is all ADUs. Correct.
>> That's informative. That's interesting
to know just to get a sense of the
productivity. Um so in terms of um total
production we're approximately 24%
of our target um let me just clarify
2031
that's January of 2031. Is that correct?
>> Correct.
>> Okay. So effectively 2030 will be
December in terms of of deadline is
December of 2030.
>> So the so yes so it's by calendar year
the then a portion of 2031 is used as
the projection year. Um I I don't claim
to be able to explain HCD's methodology.
Um, but yes, it is an 8-year cycle and
their chart shows 9 years. So,
technically the end of 2031 would be the
end of our data. Um,
>> but it does not include 2031. It ends in
2030.
>> Correct. At the end of 2030. Yes,
>> it ends in 2030. December of 2030.
>> Oh, we have till 2032, right? So, we
count 2031.
>> No, we do not have till 2032. Or do we?
Could we get a clarification on that?
Yes, I can get you the exact date when
it cuts off because I know that there's
a portion of 2031 that is a a buffer.
» Okay. I just bring that up because when
I look at HCD sites, it it specifically
says December of 2030 would be the final
reporting date for Reena um six, I guess
is where we are for Arena 6. If if
that's it would be good for us to
>> sure
>> to know that.
>> Yes. What happens is because the
calendar year ends at the end of
December, but then the APR reporting
doesn't happen until April 1st,
>> right? The APR reporting doesn't happen
till April of 2031.
>> Correct.
>> But the actual calendar year for
reporting in terms of the year they will
be taking into consideration is December
of 2030. Yes. Is that
>> December? Yeah.
>> Okay.
I just need to clarify that. Um Okay.
Sure. Um
so that's um we're 37% there in terms of
time.
37 and a half% doesn't matter. It's just
I just needed to know what the actual
drop dead dates are. Sure. Yeah. Thank
you.
>> All right. Well, thanks for all the work
you're doing. I know this is a very
tough um corner to be dealing with. Um
especially people in Sacramento. Um
don't want to badmouth them or anything.
I don't want to but I just know it's
really really hard work keeping up with
all the changes regarding what HCD is
doing. So I really appreciate your
excellence and your hard work. really
appreciate. Well, unfortunately, our
community is following through with
their commitment to
>> meet the ADU production goals. And so, I
think, you know, you can see in the the
first three years, we exceeded what HCD
initially thought we would be able to um
to hit. So, I think that that's positive
and we're just continuing to do
additional outreach and streamlining the
ADU process. So, I think um that we're
pretty confident in building and
planning that we can continue to hit
those numbers and hopefully continue to
exceed them.
>> Okay, great. And um do we need to do
anything um here? Are you making a
specific recommendation just to adopt
>> or just to accept this? But let me see,
is there any public um we just asked
some questions? Are there any public uh
questions or comments on this?
>> Thank you, Mayor Cole. I'll just see if
there are any uh public comments on this
on Zoom. If there are any raised hands
and I'm not seeing any. Thank you.
>> Um okay. So just the recommendation to
accept the 2025 um general plan annual
progress report. Do we have a motion?
>> So move.
>> Second.
>> Okay. All those in favor say I.
>> I.
>> Thank you so much, Liz.
>> Thank you. And one more by me and then
>> Yes.
And that's it.
>> Triple crown.
>> Okay. Next item. Item 14
is the preliminary discussion regarding
Crystal Springs Upland School proposed
enrollment increase.
» And
>> thank you. Um, so I'm just going to do a
brief introduction and then I'm going to
hand it over to uh Kelly Sertino, head
of school at Crystal Springs Uplands. um
and she'll discuss uh the potential
project a bit and then I'll explain more
about the process. So, just to sort of
outline the framework, uh the purpose of
the discussion tonight is to inform the
city council and the community that
Crystal Springs Upland School has
initiated a request for a general plan
amendment to allow for an increase in
approved student enrollment. um
enrollment levels are set by our general
plan which are also reflected in our
zoning code but then further confirmed
and set by their permit to operate. Um
so tonight I will provide a brief
overview of the required SQA process and
process um associated with an enrollment
increase. But primarily we want to
receive council feedback input regarding
any issues or areas of concerns that
should be considered in defining the
scope of the environmental review. So no
action is requested tonight. This is a
preliminary conceptual discussion just
intended to inform the forthcoming
environmental analysis. Um, and uh,
Crystal has initiated their own neighbor
engagement process. They've mailed
postcards to neighboring properties and
they're hosting a Q&A on Wednesday,
March 11th. Um, so they took the
initiative to to reach out to their
neighbors and they're handling the the
neighbor outreach at this point. Um, and
I will hand it over to Kelly Sertino and
then I'll walk through um a bit more of
the the specifics.
>> Welcome.
» All right. Good evening, members of
Hillsboro City Council. As Liz said, my
name is Kelly Sortino and I'm the head
of school at Crystal Springs Upland
School. I'm grateful for the opportunity
during this study session to provide a
highlevel overview of why Crystal is
seeking an increase in student
enrollment at our upper school campus in
Hillsboro. As Liz mentioned, our
presentation is purelyformational. We
are not seeking approval for anything
right now. Instead, we are deeply
interested in your thoughts about
additional areas of study as we embark
on our SQA review. But before I go into
the rationale for our request, I want to
start with the punchline.
Plain and simple, Crystal is Hillsboro's
only high school. We are a world-class
school located within a world-class
town. We know families choose Hillsboro
for its top-notch K PK through 8 public
schools and we provide a top-notch
options for families who would like to
continue their high school education in
their hometown. As such, I would argue
that our relationship is deeply
interconnected and symbiotic. What's
good for Crystal is good for Hillsboro.
And likewise, what is good for Hillsboro
is good for Crystal.
Unfortunately, many Hillsboro families
who would like to stay in the town of
Hillsboro for the entire entirety of
their prek through 12 education face a
difficult choice when their child is in
fifth grade. You see, Crystal has 72
spots open for sixth grade on our middle
school campus in Belmont. But due to an
enrollment cap cap of 350 students in
our high school, we only have 14 to 25
spots available for our high school in
any given year. Hillsboro families often
play a numbers game. Do they stay in the
great public school system for middle
school by attending Crocker and then
cross their fingers and hope to get one
of the few spots available in 9th grade?
or do they take advantage of the many
spots available at Crystal in their
middle school to guarantee enrollment at
Crystal's high school later? Many
Hillsboro families choose this latter
option. However, if we were able to
increase the number of students who
could we could take in our high school,
more Hillsboro families could
proactively stay at Crocker to finish
their middle school experience while
also gaining admittance to Crystal for
high school.
So, why is increased enrollment good for
Crystal? As one of the smallest high
schools in the Bay Area, Crystal size
has long been one of our defining
strengths. At the same time, the
Hillsboro campus's enrollment cap
significantly limits our ability to
bring talented new students into our
high school. We believe that a gradual
measured increase in our upper school
enrollment will not only allow us to
expand the number of students who can
take advantage of our distinct program
but also broaden opportunities for all
students in meaningful ways.
First, we could offer greater depth and
flexibility in our academic course
offerings. The increase will enable
Crystal to optimize class sizes for
specialized subjects and expand course
offerings such as advanced STEM courses,
fine arts, world languages, and other
electives that require a higher minimum
enrollment base to be financially and
pedagogically viable.
Next, we could offer expanded arts,
athletics, and co-curricular
programming. As you might have heard,
Crystal was named the division 5 sports
school of the year in the entire state
of California in 2023 2024. This year
alone, our girls cross country team won
their third state championship in four
years. We had the individual state
champion in girls golf. Our squash team
won the division 4 national
championship. And just this weekend, our
boys soccer team were the runners up in
the Division 5 Noral State Championship.
However, alongside this incredible
success, we have had to cut sports teams
like boys lacrosse, girls softball, and
co-ed badmitten because we do not have
enough students to fill a competitive
team. Some of our teams like girls
basketball only have one varsity team
versus a freshman JV and varsity team to
help differentiate skills and
experience. and we are often faced with
tough decisions such as do we add a
girls varsity flag football team or will
it cannibalize our other sports in that
same season. Having a few more students
would help address all of these issues
and enable Crystal to continue to excel
in our co-curricular programming.
Next, expanded enrollment would allow
for more social connections,
friendships, and experiences across
grades and interests. Adding additional
new 9th graders to our high school will
ease the transition for this group and
provide more social opportunities for
all students.
Finally, the proposed expansion creates
financial flexibility and feasibility
that ensures the continued long-term
viability and stability of Crystal as a
local asset to Hillsboro. Furthermore,
our analysis shows that the existing
campus infrastructures, classrooms,
utility, and the like can comfortably
support more students.
In short, this is not an initiative
about growth for growth's sake. Instead,
we are interested in determining the
appropriate number of students beyond
our current limit of 350 based on the
findings of an independent SQL review in
order to help us more fully realize our
potential as a school.
So, why are we asking for expanded
enrollment? Now,
by August of 2026, we will have
completed our mansion renovation
project, which is a full basement to
attic seismic retrofit of the historic
110-year-old building. At the end of
this project, we will have added six
classrooms to our CA campus, helping us
feel more confident we will have ample
space for an expanded number of
students.
Also, in recent years, several of our
peer high schools have expanded
enrollment, making Crystal one of the
smallest high schools in the Bay Area,
as you can see on the chart on the
right. Expanded enrollment will put us
more in line with our peer schools and
level the playing field across all
metrics.
And finally, last year, due to only two
students leaving in the eighth grade and
our graduating a smaller senior class,
we admitted the smallest number of new
9th graders in over a decade. Our demand
continues to be high and it is
heartbreaking that we must turn away
many qualified mission appropriate
students, many of whom are from
Hillsboro every year due to our
enrollment cap.
We know that the the biggest concerns
when it comes to expanded enrollment are
the potential perceived and real impacts
on our neighbors and on the town. As you
know, we are engaging in a SQA study
which will identify any potential
impacts and create recommendations on
how to mitigate them. Additionally, we
are already thinking about ways to
potentially mitigate the biggest impacts
through a proactive impact management
framework. First, regarding traffic, we
are committed to a transit first
strategy. Rather than just monitoring
traffic, we are open to implementing a
comprehensive transportation demand
management plan. This could include
expanding our internal shuttle services
and implementing staggered arrival times
to significantly reduce peak hour
congestion.
Regarding parking, we are starting to
address neighborhood parking by moving
from passive monitoring to active
enforcement. We've already incorporated
neighborhood parking violations into our
student code of conduct, ensuring that
our students respect the residential
character of the surrounding streets. On
noise and environment, we understand the
importance of quiet enjoyment and are
grateful that our neighbors often
positively comment about the joyful
noise that they hear emanating from our
campus. We intend to continue our
commitment to weekly quiet Sundays,
ensuring a closed campus with no major
campus events. We believe in managing
the impact of our activities through
scheduling and clear communication. We
have also established a dedicated
community liaison on our staff to
provide a direct line of accountability
for our neighbors. And finally, on
public resources, we recognize that our
growth must be sustainable for the
city's infrastructure. We are prepared
to discuss proportional impact
contributions to ensure our local fire,
police, and emergency services have the
resources they need to keep both our
students and our neighbors safe. We want
to be a contributor to the city safety
net, not a strain on it. We believe
these measures show we are serious about
being a good neighbor. Ultimately, we
are open to further conversations about
additional mitigation measures with both
city council and our neighbors to ensure
the least amount of impact for everyone
involved.
Finally, I want to highlight that when I
say we truly want to partner with city
council and our neighbors, this isn't an
empty promise or aspirational dream.
Instead, we have a proven record of
partnership with Hillsboro over the
years. Unlike some of our peer schools,
Crystal has been at or under an
enrollment cap of 350 students since
2017 when our Hillsboro campus began
serving only grades 9 through 12. The
only exception was 2021 when we were at
353 students, three students over and
that was when admission yield was
unpredictable due to the pandemic. But
in proactive and transparent
conversations with city staff, we
quickly got back into compliance the
final the following year. We really take
our enrollment cap seriously.
When we built and opened our middle
school campus in Belmont in 2017, we
were required to have a traffic demand
management plan that limits and tracks
the number of single occupancy vehicles
going to and leaving our campus. By
implementing a robust bus and shuttle
program, which is included in the cost
of our tuition, we are consistently
significantly below these limits since
the opening of that campus. For example,
for the last three years, we have been
between 50% and 70% of the limits for
each measurement period.
We are proud to be a good community
partner with the town of Hillsboro,
offering upper athletic facilities like
our soccer fields to Hillsboro's AYSO
program, as well as our meeting and
gathering spaces for a variety of
Hillsboro events.
And finally, we have a proven track
record of proactive communication and
relationship building with our closest
and most impacted neighbors. We offered
one-on-one meetings and town halls
during our back turf field project and
mansion projects. We also proactively
sent or send quarterly written
communications to our neighbors, letting
them know of the impacts from events on
campus like homecoming and graduation,
inviting them to take part in community
events like free flu shots. Each year on
Valentine's Day, we hand deliver cookies
to our neighbors to let them know how
much we appreciate their collaboration
with us. As you can see, we care deeply
about being good partners, neighbors,
and stewards in the broader Hillsboro
community.
So, just to outline our next steps, uh
we have already completed a traffic
study in April of 2025 prior to the
start of our mansion construction
project, which can provide a baseline of
our current traffic impact at our
current student enrollment of 350
students.
As Liz noted in her section, we are in
the RFP process for SQA consultants to
complete the environmental impact study.
In two days, we are holding a proactive
neighbor town hall to share a similar
presentation as we've just shared with
you in order to get their thoughts and
concerns.
And finally, we look forward to seeing
you in a more official capacity at a
future city council meeting when we
bring forth a more formal proposal.
As I hope you can see, we are proud to
be Hillsboro's only high school. By
optimizing our student enrollment to be
more in line with our peers, we ensure
that Hillsboro, a town defined by
excellence, continues to host one of the
premier educational assets, not only in
the Bay Area, but in the country.
Expanded student enrollment will not
only allow us to remain worldclass, but
also reinforce our status as a source of
pride for current residents and a draw
for future residents. We aren't just
asking for more students. We are asking
for the opportunity to more fully serve
our Hillsboro community. So, thank you
so much for your time, consideration,
and partnership.
>> Thank you so much. Appreciate that, Miss
Terry. Um I will um Liz, do you I have
just a just I think two more slides just
to provide an overview of the squa.
>> Sure.
» Thank you. Oops. Um so just to outline
the process, we started with the general
plan amendment request that was
submitted um and completed. We've
initiated the SQA review RFP
um for a consultant. We have proposals
that we're we're reviewing. So that's in
process. The current step is just the conceptual review um discussion
item. We really want to identify any
areas of concern for inclusion in the
sequest scope. Um and then the next step
would be at a future publicly noticed
public hearing. Um, city council would
potentially consider certification or
adoption of a SQA document and a pl
general plan amendment as well as a
zoning code amendment. And then finally,
the permit to operate would need to be
amended to reflect any increase in
enrollment.
And the the precise sequencing and
timeline will be better defined once we
have a SQA um consultant on board and we
better understand the full scope of the
environmental review. Um, I already
talked about that. So, just for your
consideration as you're thinking about
any items that you want to ensure we
include in this environmental review,
um, even though the increased
enrollment, as Kelly mentioned, um,
wouldn't include any construction, the
increased enrollment is considered an
increase or an intensification of the
land use and therefore requires the SQUA
review. And so, um, the SQA
review would consider potential
environmental impacts related to these
items. And it would be traffic
circulation and parking. As Kelly
already mentioned, several of these
items, queuing and pickup and drop off
operations, pedestrian and bicycle
safety, school related transportation,
uh, demand management, noise, utilities
and infrastructure capacity, emergency
access and evacuation, cumulative
greenhouse gas and air quality impacts,
as well as impacts to public services,
including fire and emergency response
and police services. These are just an overview um highle view of some items
to consider. Um but at this point
uh Kelly or I can answer questions or if
there are any uh elements of the environ
environmental review that you want to
specifically call out that are not
addressed here. Um that is what we're
asking of you tonight.
>> Thank you and thanks for outlining those
um comments. Could you go back to that
previous slides? That that's helpful as
we discuss it. Any um questions from the
council? Yes. Um Council Member Adams.
>> Uh thank you very much, Liz and Kelly.
Uh couple of questions about the SQU. Uh
and a and a question about uh this this
notion of being able to add new students
and families. What is the number that
your enrollment is confined to in
Belmont?
and how can you protect against
a creeping enlargement of that
enrollment that would not actually allow
more spaces to be available?
That's a great question. Um, so
currently in Belmont, we are capped at
240 students in our middle school.
However, uh, we are currently at 220 and
to my knowledge, we've never been over
220. I'm looking at my, um, staff. So,
we've never been over 220. So even
though we have an enrollment of 240, we
actually prefer to be under that. And
the reason um is actually in relation to
the optimal size of each grade and each
uh section of classes within that grade.
So we have about 72 students per grade
um which allows us to have four sections
of 18, which is just perfect uh for a
middle school. And so even though we are
allowed to go over to 240, um it just
wouldn't really make sense um for us to
try to cram more students in. Um I think
I' or my faculty would revolt and other
things. So um but the maximum we we ever
could get would be an additional 20
students there. Um which would but again
I we we we have no intention of doing
that but in full transparency we are
limited to 240.
>> That's great. And then in the squa does
is does it the squa drive the numbers
that you consider or do you have numbers
that you're considering and then look at
the squa impact of each? Um we are not
coming here with a particular number in
mind. We have done some analysis just
above the 350 number for our own sake to
feel confident um again with the
infrastructure we currently have on
campus. Uh but our hope is that truly
through the independent SQUA review they
would come back to us to say here's the
number um that we feel like your campus
could um reasonably accommodate without
having a significant impact. Um and then
that would be what we we bring to you
all. Um there is a limit um in my
understanding in the current general
plan for all independent schools uh in
Hillsboro which I believe the limit is
517 students and that is what our only
other independent school um in Hillsboro
NEOA school is currently at.
>> Thank you Kelly.
>> Thank you. Any additional questions from
the council?
member Chuang.
>> Thank you. Uh I really appreciate uh
your presentation. Um and really the as
far as the squa addressing the the
traffic uh you heard our public comments
uh regarding the concerns about the
traffic and um and you mentioned in your
presentation that with uh your middle
school there is a traffic demand
>> management plan EDM, right? And so um
because for high schoolers they probably
have more freedoms in terms of uh the
vehicles that they will be able to
utilize uh to come to campus and you
mentioned something about you know
shuffling the arrival times and things
like that. But more importantly what is the TDM that you spoke of and
how is it um addressing the traffic
alleviation of the congestions or the
timing? Yeah. So, in um for for Belmont
um we have uh requirements in terms of
our start and end times. Um for those
that don't know, we share a property
line with Rston Middle School. And so,
um and the Rston corridor is um a
well-used corridor between the 101 and
92. Um and so one of the restrictions
not through traffic demand but rather on
our school is when our start and end
times can be uh to make sure that we are
offset from rston. Um the second is a
requirement of um how many uh single
occupancy cars we can have coming on and
off our campus during those peak times,
the arrival times and the dismissal
times. Uh my understanding and again I'm
looking here is twice a year. Is that
correct? that we twice a year we're
required to um do traffic counts um and
submit those to Belmont uh to ensure
that we are below uh below those um
below those single occupancy vehicle
counts and again have it somewhere here
but um but right now we we have been
within 50 to 70% of those limits and
part of that is um when we when Belmont
required the traffic demand management
plan when we went forth to um get
approval for our middle school. Um we
knew in order to meet those single
occupancy vehicles, we were going to
have to expand our our uh transportation
program. So we currently have a very
robust bus program that goes up and down
uh the 280 across um that we also have
shuttles that pick up from Cal Train um
in our Belmont at the Bilman station um
here in Hillsboro at our Sanonteo
station that's only a mile away from our
campus. Um and we current and so all all
that was something that we automatically
had to put into place to ensure that
compliance in Belmont because many of
our students uh do attend our school six
sixth grade through 12th grade they get
very used to taking that public
transport or the transportation that we
offer um it's sort of fun to be on a bus
with your friends. Um and so we actually
see that to the question about cars um
coming on campus in terms of older
students. We actually do restrict
parking on campus only to seniors and
because of the number of parking spots
we have, we actually cannot um guarantee
that every senior gets a spot. So, we
also have an arrangement with St. Bart's
uh co church which is right off of Alama
um and Upland's where we have off-campus
parking for sophomores, juniors, and
some seniors uh who who don't have
access to um our campus for parking. And
again, they take shuttles and buses to
get on on campus. Um, so this year we've
actually because of our mansion project,
um, we've had to reduce the number of
parking spots on campus. So I've
actually put more um, on St. Barts.
>> Thank you.
Um, yes, Council Member
Crowley.
>> Thank you, Kelly, for this um,
presentation. and uh we do appreciate
the partnership and also that um that
Crystal Springs Upland School is a great
caretaker of that community resource
which is the Upland's mansion. Um so I
have a a couple of questions. Um so at
one point your campus was 6 to 12 on
that same campus. Did you ever go above
350 then were there more students?
>> Yeah, good question. So, yes, I my
understanding is since our our founding
and since we moved on to the Hillsboro
campus in 1956, we have been a grades 6
through 12 campus until 2017. Um, I do
believe that um again, I don't have the
full data. Um, if that's something that
the the city council would like in the
future, I'm sure we can grab that. Um,
but uh yeah, in the 2010s to 2017, uh we
were not always below the 350. We were
sometimes cresting above. And my
understanding is that the head of school
at the time um did talk to Hillsboro and fines were assessed um for that
overage. Um and part of that was again
it it was hard for us to get um grades 6
through 12 at a total cap of 350
students
>> but but it was a minimal overage at that
time. It wasn't like 400 or something.
>> No, just a couple.
>> Not to my understanding. Um and again
part of that has to do just with the um
>> the trickiness the art and science of
the admission process, right? We admit a
certain number of students every year,
but we don't know who's going to say yes
and who's going to say no. It was never
um an intention on the part of the
school to go over the 350. But also once
>> it's always been 350 basically what
>> to my knowledge. I don't know about uh
the general plan if there was a general
plan before that had some number lower
than 350 but for the last
>> No, I just wondered when you were 6 to
12 if it was significantly higher.
>> No, no, no, no, no. And that was
actually the impetus honestly for us to
have to find another campus uh another
because we knew we wanted to be able to
admit more students. At that point our
sixth grade class was only 36 students
and our high school class was about 60
to 65 students. And we knew through the
demand that people really wanted to go
to Crystals. So um our board of trustees
um decided because we knew we were
limited to 350 the only option was to
seek a campus outside.
>> Yeah. I remember when all that
>> Yeah. that went on. Actually, I think
our council um testified to Belmont that
you were good community partners.
>> Thank you. Thank you so much for doing
that.
>> But it's it's true. And then when you
showed the slide with the uh comparable
numbers with Sacred Heart Menllo, were
those high school to high school?
>> Yes, that's high school to high school.
>> High school to high school. Okay, great.
And did you say Noeva has 570? They're K
through 12.
>> I'm sorry. No. So, um so they're a K12.
their total number. I don't have the um
what I put up there was just their high
school campus in San Monteo. Uh for
their K8 campus here in Hillsboro, they
are at 517 students which is the total
cap um through the
>> So they're at 517
>> 517 just K8 and then they have
>> another I don't have the slide in front
of me but it's 400 to 500 students at
their um high school campus.
>> Thank you. Those are all my questions. I
mean, I I will say I think um you're you
you're at the heart of it looking at the
transportation plan. The only complaints
I've ever heard is traffic and then
speeding on uplands. Yes. So, thank you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Crow. Any
additional questions? Yes, Vice Mayor
Ragdale.
>> No questions, just a few comments after
public comment. Thank you.
>> Um I don't have any further clarifying
questions. Any public comments on this
issue?
>> Thank you, Mayor Cole. Is there anyone
in the room who would like to provide
public comments?
>> Oh, actually, if you'd like to provide
comment, you could go to the podium.
» I went to Crocker Middle School. if you
could go to the podium so they can hear
you.
>> Sorry. Just just go ahead and address
the council and then they'll
>> My name's Grant Baker. I grew up in
Hillsboro, went to South, went to
Crocker. Uh I'm a local practicing
attorney. I actually some of the people
in this room. Um I had a question. What
is the present enrollment of Hillsbor uh
res uh you know, students that grew up
here versus non
Yeah. that go to the Uplands campus.
I actually pulled some slides in our
appendix that I think that um
let's see
17.
This is just classroom. There we go.
Hillsboro families go. Um,
no. I think a little bit back
I think further 17.
» This is our upper school enrollment of
Hills families.
» Thank you.
>> Okay. Is that's your 10% approximately?
Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Any additional
questions from the public? Any other
public comment?
>> Oh, thank you. Um, and then let me just
there's anyone on Zoom who would like to
provide comments to raise your hand.
And I'm not seeing any raised hands.
Thank you. Just just for clarification,
that was actually the wrong slide. Slide
14 has that was just the applicants that
we get every year. Um, slide 14 has the
actual num percentage of students, which
I think is closer to 20%.
There we go.
>> Gotcha. Right. Um,
>> this would be between both of our
campuses. Um, we didn't disagregate it
for middle school and upper school
because that's challenging to do because
um, some families have kids at both
campuses. So, not to double count, but
I would argue um I would guess it's
relatively uniformly distributed between
middle school and upper school.
>> Yeah. Um, Kelly, before you leave, I
have one follow-up question before we
bring it back to the council. Um, your
comments on greenhouse um, gas emission,
you you noted in terms of parking,
restricting on campus parking, etc. Um,
with regards to just maintenance in
general of camp of the campus, um,
maintaining of your sports spaces,
fields, etc. Um, have you have your
campus converted to electric as much as
possible?
>> Yes, our our mansion project is moving
us entirely to electric in that
building. Uh, we are currently looking
into solar um to become netneutral on
our campus and our two biggest fields um
have been converted to turf fields. So,
use of water, all of that has gone down
dramatically.
>> Okay, great. Thank you. Um, seeing no
additional questions from the public or
is there additional question from the
public? None. Okay. Thank you. And
additional question from the council
before we move forward.
>> Yeah, just uh one question. Are there
electric charger electric car chargers
on campus?
>> Our Belmont campus has four. Uh,
currently our um Hillsboro campus does
not, but after the mansion project,
we're hoping to add four onto our campus
as well.
>> Thank you.
and we do make that free to use for our
faculty.
>> Okay, thank you. Thank you for the
presentation, Kelly. That was very
helpful. Um
seeing no additional questions, um
comments, finalizing feedback is
basically the issue of traffic and which
Kelly has addressed appropriately and um
internal shuttle shuttle services which
will probably be expanded as you noted
and um circulation, parking, noise. Um,
basically the town will move forward
with the staff in Crystal Springs to
pursue the SQUR analysis. Is that my
understanding?
>> Correct. Um, we will select one of the
proposals for the environmental
consultant. Um, and then they'll do an
initial study to determine what level of
environmental document is appropriate.
Um, then move forward with that which
will inform
um what Crystal is asking for in terms
of enrollment based on the findings of
the environmental review.
>> And and how long do does the SQA
analysis normally take? Um, it depends
on which consultant we select, but
several months.
>> Several months. Okay. Um, any I'm I'm
sorry. You have a question.
>> Oh, good. Go ahead. Yeah.
>> Um, so starting with I did check with
our council since I do not have a
financial interest in Crystal. Um, and I
don't have any current students at
Crystal, but we were a Crystal family
for 11 years. So, um, the money only
flowed one way.
So, in terms of conflict of interest, I think I'm good, but just wanted to,
um, be, uh, you know, upfront about
that. Um, I wanted to thank you for
always being such a good neighbor. Um, I
have handed out those Valentine's
cookies. Um and uh the with the
newsletter and the flu shots and having
the uh the meeting with the neighbors
and um there have been other schools not
in our town that have decided to
increase their enrollment and then ask
permission after it was found out and
that's just not how Crystal operates.
And so um I just really appreciate this
process and your cooperation with the
town. Um I think the the SQA issues I
think you have them. Um uh down there
the the only thing that that I would add
is um the issue of new drivers
uh with I think a lot of times the new
drivers are better than the parents. Um
but just the issue of you know new
drivers um in the neighborhood um
something that you know should be looked
at and um
also with re and I don't know how you
can control parents but I know it is
part of the code of conduct not to park
within the neighborhood and um and
you've got the St. art option with the
shuttle, but um you know controlling
parents if there's there's any way to um
think about ways to encourage the
parents to also not park where they're
not supposed to park. And um other than
that, I I think you've you've got the
issues up there. Thank you.
>> Okay. So,
>> yes, Council Member Adams.
>> Uh I also did not check with our lawyer.
However, here goes. Uh I was uh on the
board of uh Crystal, the board of
directors when uh we proposed uh
building a gymnasium.
And I can attest to how well the board
does respond to neighbor criticism if
you in fact visit our underground gym,
which did not start as an underground
gym. and uh that's just an endorsement
of process and I think you have handled
this process really well. So thank you.
>> Okay. Thank you. Um do you feel like
we've given enough directives? Um we do
not need to officially vote on anything
just basically to give directives to the
staff regarding the secure. Is that
correct?
>> Feedback.
>> Yes. And again I echo the comments from
my colleagues. Yes. Good luck with all
the planning. Thank you so much.
>> Thank you.
Okay,
next item, 15,
discussion of proposed changes to
homebased business regulations.
And that will be presented by our city
attorney, Marodak.
» Good evening, Mayor Matt. Madame Mayor,
members of the council,
back one more time for a reality check
and further input on our efforts to
update the business regulations and
eventually the special events
regulations
so that they are in alignment with
current thinking about town values and
town practices.
So just a brief history, the current
regulations regarding home businesses
were adopted in 1999 and have not been
changed in any significant manner since
then. So time for review
in a slightly different context. Uh the
council had considered amendments to
commercial uses and special events back
in 2024. We had an extended study
session at that time, considered
amending the ordinances, but didn't
really get to the heart of the issues
that we were trying to address. Council
appointed a subcommittee uh and we have
then worked diligently since that time
to better define the issues and come up
with a sensible approach.
In November of 2025, we daylighted our
initial thinking on some of these
issues, got feedback from the council
and also from members of the community
uh regarding both the updating of the
home business uh regulatory scheme and
quite separately uh regulation of
special events. And for our purposes
tonight, we'll be focused solely on the
homebased business regulations. Special
events will be brought forward at a
subsequent meeting.
So just as background uh as we looked at
the situation uh as it has evolved now
uh in our community, we find that some
of the
things that were present in 1999 are no
longer present. And many things that
weren't present in 1999
have been invented and become part of
our lives. cell phones, the internet,
uh, and in particular, uh, over the
course of the pandemic, an increasing
appreciation that much of the work that
we thought had to be done in offices or
other commercial settings could be
profitably
and carefully carried on in residences,
which then encouraged many people, we
think, in town to do just that. but
without registering their homebased
businesses and without really careful
consideration of whether the changed
environment needed a changed regulatory
scheme. Uh it is important to note that
uh the town does provide services that
result in a safe secure environment for
conducting a business. And it's
appropriate that those businesses
register so that we can keep track of
them, so that we can better serve them,
and that they pay when appropriate their
gross receipts tax to help pay for the
services that they enjoy over and above
the services they get on a residential
basis.
So based on the feedback that we got and
the research and discussions had by the
committee the first thing that uh we
noted was that we have more than,00
businesses registered with the secretary
of state that show their principal place
of business being in the town of
Hillsboro. Somewhat surprising. Uh and
yet when we looked a little further, I
think we found that the majority,
perhaps the vast majority of those were
entities that had been formed primarily
to hold title to the residential
property, either to limit liability or
for privacy purposes or both. And that
they weren't really conducting any
further businesses. So, it wouldn't
really be fair to them or meaningful to
designate those kind of businesses as
homebased businesses that need to be
further registered with the town or to
be subject to a gross receipts tax.
Once we daylighted the staff report uh
for our presentation tonight, we
received two pieces of public comment
regarding the exemptions that I would
share with you now. even though they're
not up on the screen. Uh the first was a question from a resident who wanted to
know whether remote work
would be classified as a homebased
business. And I think with proper
definition, the answer to that would be
no. Uh, for example, uh, if I've got my
office in San Mateo, but I lived in
Hillsboro and I wanted to
contact some clients or the like from my
home, that wouldn't really be conducting
the business from Hillsboro because I'd
have a principal place of business
elsewhere. And we think that the
regulations we propose would follow
through in that regard. So again, if
you're just home doing remote work, if
you've got an EMP, you're an employee
and you're doing remote work, that's not
going to be a homebased business, at
least as far as we've thought about it
in committee. Uh and then today, uh we
received an inquiry from a resident who
has companies that license intellectual
property. They receive passive incomes
at uh their residence. They've had to
register those LLC's with the Secretary
of State, but they're not carrying on
any active business from that location.
They're basically where the checks get
sent. Uh so I think we can also figure a
way to exempt those kind of passive
investment management
uh uh entities that aren't really
conducting business in the town. But we
want don't want to go too far and start
exempting people who really are carrying
on the business and just want to
characterize it as passive. So, um,
that's our starting point for the
exemptions. And an entity that's located
outside of the city and it's has its
principal place of business, let's say
in a Berling game office building across
the freeway, but an owner of that or an
employee of that business is doing some
work from home, that's not going to be a
homebased business either. Um, but
somebody who's got a nominal office
outside of Hillsboro, but is conducting
substantial business activity from the
home really ought to have a home
business license and pay the gross
receipts tax. How we get that
carefully defined in the regulation is
the next step to come.
There's always a concern when somebody
is conducting a business from their
residence. Well, what about the big
business events that they might want to
carry on whether it's a party, a
conference, business meetings, etc. And
I would say that that our conclusion is
that those kinds of events should be
regulated under the rubric of special
events. So that whether your event is
personal, social, business, nonprofit,
political fundraising, regardless,
you'll be subject to special events
regulation. And it really shouldn't be
part of our homebased business
regulation analysis.
In order to make the homebased
businesses more effective, more
attractive, perhaps more economical,
the committee is recommending that we
actually allow employees
uh to come to the site with the proviso
that they park on site. And these
employees would not be the same as
gardeners, nannies, or other
personal employees or residential
employees. These would be secretaries,
assistants, co-workers, whatever. So,
we're recommending that there be a
maximum of two. Uh, so that might make
running your business from Hillsboro a
little bit more attractive. We also know
that many businesses need to receive
deliveries, but as we found out during
the pandemic and subsequently, so do a
lot of residences more and more as time
goes on. So, we'd like to factor in that
a homebased business can receive
deliveries, but they ought not to be in
excess of what normal residential
deliveries are. and how we define that
will be artful.
I also want to emphasize that the
regulations will apply
throughout the residential property so
that if you are devoting your ADU to a
homebased business, if you set up some
cubicles in a garage, if you're renting
out rooms for people to conduct their
business, all of those would have to be
subject to homebased business. Licensing
enforcement always a key. Uh the first
thing that we've we've found in
committee is that the current business
application
is cumbersome. So, we hope to work with
staff to
make that application simpler and to
focus in on
the factors that could affect whether
the homebased business is going to have
an impact on neighboring properties. So,
that's the first step. And then the
second is how will we know if somebody
is conducting a homebased business? It's
mostly through observation.
Sometimes a neighbor will report unusual
activity. Sometimes a code enforcement
officer will be go driving by and notice
something. Sometimes people come in for
a building permit. And you ask, why are
you doing this? Well, I'm opening an
office with a a separate area for an
employee. And then we'll know. We'll
also continue to monitor the filings
with the Secretary of State. And then if
we see a a new uh filing, then we'll
make an inquiry. Is this simply to hold
title or what kind of business are you
conducting?
If we find an instance where somebody is
conducting a homebased business, but
they just don't want to get that
license, then what do we do? Well, it's
an infraction under the code under
section 5.06,
chapter 5.06,
but we often times try to handle these
things in
uh a friendlier and more proactive way.
So, we would do it with the code
enforcement process and that typically
involves the code enforcement officer
delivers a warning letter and tries to
get voluntary compliance. If that
voluntary compliance isn't achieved,
then we schedule a hearing with the code
enforcement or the administrative
hearing panel. There's a citation that's
issued and a decision and order is
issued by the hearing panel. If the
resident still doesn't comply, then the
last step is to take that decision and
order down to court, file uh for
injunctive relief and ask the court to
enforce it. And then if the resident
does not comply, he or she is violating
the court's order. And the courts take
that very seriously and they enforce
their orders with fines, imprisonment,
or both. Hopefully, we wouldn't get to
that matter. we very rarely do.
Um so uh those were the conclusions that
we had uh for the permitting.
Once a business is permitted,
uh they should be expected to pay the
gross receipts tax. There is no
exemption in the code for homebased
businesses. I understand we may not
always be collecting the gross receipts
tax from homebased businesses. Uh but if
we have additional
enforcement
resources at hand through an outside
service, then that's something that we
can include in our recommendations and
in our ordinance changes. So I believe
that is the presentation. and I'm here
to answer questions. And after we get
the last round of input from the council
and from any members of the community,
our next step would be to bring you back
a draft ordinance for first reading and
uh consideration while moving in
parallel step with the special events
regulation on its own track.
>> Questions? Yes. Thank you. Um Mr. Hudac.
Um, I will open up to the council for
questions, clarifying questions.
>> Yes, council member Troy through the
mayor. Uh, thank you, Mark. Uh, and
thanks the ad hoc committee uh for
working hard on this. Um, I think the
separation of the special events versus
the home uh grown business um it's a
very smart way to make that distinctions
and I truly appreciate your
presentation. uh it lends some clarity
to that. One of the questions that I
have is that you know we do have
property owners who rent their homes to
tenants and the tenants may desire to
your points you know um Hillsboro as a
address for their their business. Um
but in general tenants tend not to be so
invested in in our community. So to what
extent would we be able to get that
message across that if there are tenants
who live in town who wish to have
business or are trying to understand the
distinction between remote working from
um home business how where how would we
suggest that we we uh provide those
information to them?
>> Yeah that's an excellent point. Uh so
first public education
um and whatever we do it'll go into the
newsletter and we hope uh to educate
people that way.
People who intend to rent out their
homes or their ADU might want to
consider whether in their lease
agreements they will or will not allow
tenants to conduct a homebased business.
Uh and then we would encourage landlords
who are going to allow homebased
businesses to let us know so that we can
follow up and be sure that the tenants
when the if and when they do start their
business have come down and registered
with us, you know. But if we don't get
that notice from the landlords, then
it'll be just as if they were any other
owner and we'll use the same enforcement
tools, observation filings with the
secretary of state, etc. But having the
landlords involved and I think sometimes
landlords are surprised what their
tenants do. Um, and so with some
education to them, perhaps we can make
them part of the process as well.
>> Thank you.
Um, additional questions. Additional
questions from um, Council Member
Crowley.
>> Yes. Thank you. First of all, I also
thank you Mark and thanks to the
subcommittee. Uh, great work. It's very
reasonable and that's a lot of work to
get there. How does I just have two
questions. How does the gross receipts
tax work?
Uh well, you're supposed to report how
much you got
and it's
75 of 1%
although we have a chart which allows
you to sort of estimate and pay the
midpoint.
If you are doing business in Hillsboro,
but you also have an office in Berling
game and you have one in Southern
California, then you have to engage in
the aortionment process and I do that
with clients sometimes. It's really
complicated.
Um, and so when we would have a situ
situation like that, we would be
in conversation
with the business owner to be sure that
we understand how they're making that
allocation and whether it's fair and and
you know they if they're making that
allocation to Berling game, you know,
they should be paying the gross receipts
tax in that location. They have it in
Foster City. They should be paying
there, but they don't pay twice on the
same gross receipts.
>> I remember when I helped my gardener get
his business license couple number of
years ago. It seemed like he had a
choice between a percentage of what he
was making in Hillsboro or and and you
could pick what was less or like a $100
or $125 or something like that. Is that
not
>> Yeah, there's a certain dimminimous
um
amount. I don't remember off the top of
my head what it is. Um
but he should be paying on whatever he's
making so long as it gets above the
threshold.
>> Okay. Yeah. I can't remember how. And
then my second question is it sounds
like for people who are renting who are
running consulting businesses out of
their homes. So they're really just on
the phone or on Zoom. They're not no
clients. But these are the kinds of
businesses we would like to get a a
business license. Is that right?
>> That that's right. You know, the same as
if they had were doing that from their
office in Berling,
>> right?
>> They don't want to pay the rent there
any longer. They want to do it from
their home. Fine. and we can support
that along with employee support, but
they have to come down, sign up, and pay
the gross receipts tax just like they
would if they were in Foster City.
>> Thank you. I appreciate it.
>> Okay. I um I have um the the the
subcommittee is Council Member Adams and
Vice Mayor Ragdale. Is it okay if I um
ask my questions before we get back to
you? Um yeah, I I have a followup to
what um council member Krich just asked,
which is the tax receipts.
So,
how do we verify how much revenues or
income a business owner in town makes?
Are you ask are you suggesting they will
have to disclose their prop their tax
returns to the town to verify how much
they owe for the tax receipts?
>> Not the tax return itself, but they're
supposed to tell us in good faith how
much gross receipts they're making. And
we have an audit right
>> and and we have a what?
>> An audit.
>> So they can be audited.
>> Yeah. theoretically when they get this
business license.
>> Yeah. When they submit their gross
receipts tax calculation, if we have
reason to believe that that's not uh
accurate, then we would follow a process
and ultimately would have
make them show books and records.
>> Okay. Um I'm still stuck as to how we're
going to enforce this. Basically, the
tenant of this proposal is that we allow
businesses to operate within the town of
Hillsboro. Is is that understood?
>> That's right.
>> Okay. And then with regards to for
example, I mean when I've thought of
this,
if an individual wants to run a very
boutique chic restaurant out of their
home, let's say they have four guests
twice a week. Um, that may not pose much
of a traffic impact in the community.
Um, but they're now running a restaurant
out of their home. Is there any way we
can monitor that with regards to fire
risk or emission risk with regards to
what's happening at that site? So, if
they're running a restaurant,
in your example, they're going to have
to comply with all the county's
regulations that come along with a food
service business, including health
regulations and safety regulations. So,
that wouldn't necessarily be something
that the town would undertake. It would
be something that the county undertakes
in that particular example.
>> Okay. So, if they declare that they
running a restaurant, they will then
need to go to the county and get those
certifications.
>> That's right.
>> If for example, I'm running a medical
consulting business out of my house and
I average about three to four patients.
I'm not doing any surgeries. I'm
basically talking to them. Maybe I check
their blood pressure. I write notes. I
put together a report. Some of my
patients may be elderly and have many
medical problems. And occasionally
they have complications while I'm
evaluating them. I call the ambulance.
The fire truck gets there. The ambulance
gets there. What requirements will be
required for me to run such a business
out of my house or is would that be
precluded from happening? So I don't
think you're procluded.
Whether you have any medicalbased
restrictions I think is between you and
the medical board.
But if you were required to call in
our emergency services because one of
your patients is having an episode while
in your consulting room. That's kind of
gets at the reason why number one, you
ought to have a license because we know
that you're there and that's what's
going on. And two, that's why you pay
the gross receipts tax because we have
those services available to support you
in an emergency. Now, whether you have
to have sterilization equipment, whether
you have to have a special kind of
security for your medical records files,
I don't think that's the town's concern.
I think that's the medical licensing
board's concerns.
>> Um, precisely. I I um I I I I've not
been able to square this thought in my
head in terms of having certain
businesses in town that could impact not
only traffic but also
excuse me but also emergency services
depending on the service. Even if it's a
psychological
or therapy therapist evaluation, some of
those patients may have an episode and
you need to call an ambulance.
>> Yeah.
>> But you know, for that matter, you could
be carrying on an investment advisory
service
and you're there meeting with a client
and she has a heart attack and you call
up. Well, you know, it's the same kind
of thing. That's part of why we want you
to be licensed and it's part of why you
should be paying the gross receipts tax.
But you're giving investment advice. The
town isn't going to be involved in
regulating you to that extent. That
would be between you and the financial
regulatory bodies, FINRA and whatever.
>> Yeah. the the risk of that happening as
a financial advisor is significantly
less than the risk of that happening in
front of a physician because almost all
my customers
have a slightly higher risk of that
complication compared to the general
public. So um that that comment is well
noted and also with regards to um the
impact of traffic
I don't fully understand how that's
addressed in this because the words
occasionally
that's again vague and ambiguous. What
is occasional? How many times a week is
occasional or how many times a month for
that matter? Um, and and what I what I'm
struggling with, I I'm still trying to
how
what is the benefit to the town to have
homebased business that you pay a
license for,
but the town has not established the
infrastructure to service. We just
talked about emergency vehicles. We just
talked about the impact on traffic
parking.
What if your home does not cannot
accommodate two or three parking and
you're on a parking strip and that is
happening every day and you're on a very
tight corner and there's not enough
parking strip and your street doesn't
have sidewalks, let's say, which a lot
of streets in Hillsboro do not have.
>> No, if if you can't provide parking for
your employees on site, then you can't
have employees.
Um
I I think the proper way to think about
>> I mean customers who will come for your
business.
>> Yeah.
>> You can't have customers if they can't
park either. So, um, the the the purpose
of having the homebased business
expanded is to allow our residents to
make better, broader use of their homes
in conformance with the thinking, at
least we believe, that many residents
have that it's proper to live and work
within Hillsboro.
But we don't have to provide them with additional infrastructure,
at least not very much. What we need to
do is get them to pay a fair share for
the infrastructure that we already
provide.
That's consistent with the additional
burden they're putting on by having
employees and customers come to their
home. But we don't have to provide them
home.
So, my understanding about the business
license, the last time I asked about
this, it was I think it was $50 or $49,
something to that effect. I don't
somebody someone quoted it the last time
it came came up again. I think I am
still stuck on what is the benefit to
the town if the town is not designed for
business. I am concerned about the
negative impact in terms of I mean just
full transparency I pay four different
medical centers to do my consulting if
you're telling me I could pay $49 and
bring all my patients to my home. Well,
not just me but a lot of people who
would take that option. So, I'm just I I
just want us to think this through in
terms of the impact to the town and the
potential impact on traffic and other
issues. I brought up the issue of the
restaurants, potential increasing fire
risk and emissions. And we need we will
need to have the staff to not only
regulate it, but also enforce it. And do
we really have the staff to do that?
>> Sure. If 20% of our residents take you
up on this offer, do we really have the
staff to enforce this?
>> So,
other committee members can weigh in,
but from my perspective,
it's not so much what's the benefit to
the town as the municipal entity. It's
what's the benefit to our residents who
would like to have this additional
freedom in their homes. balanced against
the impacts that they might have on
other residents. So, it's not like we're
going to make a million dollars in gross
receipts tax from these homebased
businesses. That's not the point. The
point is to satisfy desires of an
important segment of our community as
we've perceived it in wanting to have
more freedom carry on these activities
without doing undue harm to their
neighbors. And if we didn't if the town
didn't make a dollar, if the town just
sort of broke even, that would be okay
so long as the needs of the residents
are carried forward. That's the way that
I've seen it. And I think that's the way
that I've heard it in committee, but
maybe I'll yield now to the council
members on the committee.
>> Yes, Council Council Member Adams.
Uh I think the important thing that we
worked on with this is well written in
the document. The town provides a
variety of services that keep that
create a safe and serene setting.
Okay. So the serene setting is how we're
looking at the impact on people who
don't have businesses in their home and
don't intend to ever, but also those who
would like that flexibility, but we have
an ordinance that we haven't actually
looked at in 26 years. So this process
of asking these very same questions will
help us refine it before we get to the
ordinance part. Again,
you mentioned restaurant. I thought we
had said restaurants were prohibited
because they are ongoing with lots of
traffic. So, we we'll look at that. Uh
we also mentioned uh people who rent out
their home in our current uh ordinance.
Renting your home is a business and you
are required to have a business license
and also pay a gross receipts tax. So
putting all these things together in
this process is not only looking at
what's already happening in our town,
some of which is destroying the serenity
of neighborhoods,
but some of which isn't impacting
anyone. So how can we have a balance
that is part of the 21st century but
also does not sacrifice that serene
setting and that business businesses
operate in a respectful manner. I
thought that was a great sentence for
what we're trying to do. So,
we will take all of these
considerations, I think, and need to
reflect again. And uh that's why we're
doing it, not just for council, but for
the entire town to really think through
what they may have seen already
happening and what they would like to
have happen. But when this was
instituted 25 years ago,
there was an uproar that we were could
have any businesses. There were no
employees allowed anywhere.
We've stretched that a little bit in
this and I think it will help us with
enforcement because we'll have clear and
fair regulations.
But enforcement is something that our
code officer will have to work on. But
neighbors will have to recognize that we
can't be everywhere and they need to let
us know if there's something that's
disturbing that serene setting or not
being respectful.
>> Yeah. I think because this could
potentially change the character of the
town, perhaps a study session to bring
in more residents to weigh in on this
conversation will be helpful. is
something the subcommittee could
consider to open it up to a study
session and more discussion. Um,
words like serene sounds really
beautiful and I'm just not sure once you
ask people to pay for business license
and you tell them you give them all
these restrictions, you know, you it
seems like we want to have it all. we
want to have and I'm not necessarily
totally opposed because like I said I I
paid three or different three to four
different medical centers to see my
patients and if I'm given the
opportunity to bring them to Hillsboro
not just me but maybe many of the
physicians or psychotherapists in town
will take that up and say I pay 49 even
$400 a year to get a permit and I'll
bring in those patients to my home. So I just think we need to be very careful
once we open up this potential Pandora's
box. We have to be clear with ourselves
and with the community. We are now open
for business in town and how we get to
exclude one group like to say if you
have a private restaurant where you
hosting four to six individuals is not
the same. You you're not allowed but
this other person is allowed. That could
be legally tricky. Yes. Go ahead,
Council Member Krollic. Oh, Leslie, go
ahead. Sorry, Vice Mayor. Uh,
>> so when when I when I read this and just
the questions, I was thinking of paper
pushing business activities just like
the the consultant that know we have all
over town. They're taking phone calls
and they're on Zoom. But when you
started, and I'm glad you did, it didn't
even occur to me that we were going to
open the door to allow businesses that
have customers coming and going. I mean,
I I I I don't think we should even open
that door. And to have a study session
that that's a possibility, I think is
opening a Pandora's box. So, a
restaurant or a medical office or a
therapist where people are coming and
going, I I to me, I just don't see us
entertaining that. To me, that really
would change the character of the town.
And I didn't read this to that that that
was the sort of business that was being
entertained, but I have to ask the
subcommittee what you were thinking.
>> Um, so I'll speak for myself. I I love
our subcommittee. Um, but I can't
completely speak for everybody because
some things we haven't talked about. But
um in my view,
we're talking about um codifying
basically what's happening right in town
except for the fact that these
businesses aren't registered and people
aren't paying the grocery receipts tax.
But to me, ideally, it still looks the
same, still looks residential. people
are doing their consulting calls, um,
making their crafts, selling them on
eBay, leaving their house to go mail
them at the post office. So, ideally, it
will be this the serene environment that
we're used to. Um,
I would say I know it's this is going to
be the trickiest thing. Well, maybe not
the trickiest, but tricky to um define
substantial business activity.
You know, we need to try um it's kind of
I know it when I see it. Um but um you
know, unusual traffic and parking
impacts um noise. We h we have our noise
ordinance, so not as worried about that.
But you if there is a lot of coming and
going then that's not looking like a
serene residential environment if
there's a if there's a lot of coming and
going. Um so and I wanted to um
uh let's see.
Yeah. Um I wanted to just to have you
Mark because you had mentioned in our um
subcommittee and also you referenced
Foster City in you know in particular
but can you just uh let us know what um
other towns have? It doesn't have to be
the exact numbers or anything, but other
towns do also have a home business
regulation and gross receipt tax. So,
we're not
>> Yeah.
>> We're looking to join them, not to be
unusual.
>> Yeah. So, in some locations that I've
had to look at for clients,
they'll have
kind of a threshold license.
one employee working out of your home,
you pay a flat fee. You don't pay any
gross receipts tax. That's not uncommon.
Um, and it could be something that that would be the way the council would
want to handle it here. Um, in other
locations,
no matter what kind of business you
have, you have to pay although you
oftentimes get to thresholds and stop.
So the maximum would be X. Um so that no
business is carrying more than its fair
share just because it
has a lot of sales and gross receipts
that are generated outside the town but
happen to be the home office is located
in one one particular area. I've got one
client in Foster City. They have maybe
three or four individual offices on a
tower in one of the office buildings
there and they sell nearly a billion
dollars worth of computer equipment
worldwide. Well, if you applied the
gross receipts tax to all of that,
city's budget would be in a lot better
shape. Um so it's different in each
local
and the kinds of services then that are
provided are different because there are
business districts in Berling game for
example where
a strong percentage of the services are
business related of one kind or another
quite distinct from the services that
are provided in the residential
sections. here. It's so homogeneous that
you couldn't say that. So, it's just
it's different from one city to the
next.
>> But, but other ones do have um home
business regulations as well.
>> That That's right.
>> Thank you, Mayor.
>> Yes, Council Bunk. I
>> I I think that, you know, uh I
understand the concept of the home
business or the regulations that we want
to provide. I think that it's really
similar to having schools and having any
kind of entities that when you have the
sort of the impact on the public, right,
by neighbors, by the roads that they
travel, by the emergency service they
may utilize. I mean it at the end of the
day
we are a bedroom community and so the sort of my take on the home business
and the register or the uh regulation of
it is more from the public impact. If
it's going to impact the public, to what
extent to what extent do do the police
need to reinforce the speeding drivers?
To what extent do the public were have
to maintain the road? You know, to what
extent would the neighbors be impacted
with the traffic or the noise or
whatnot? I think from that perspectives,
it's not so much that we're interested
in getting
more in our budget for those revenues
that we collect. We're not in the
business of making money. We're really
just passing through our services and
making sure that the services up to the
pars for protecting and serving our
community. And so by that notion when
we're looking at those business, we're
looking at the homeowners or the the
tenants or whatnot
the honor system of providing their
gross receipt and unless it raised of
some concerns, we're not going to check
on them for that matters. But really
just on the perspective of the public
impact that I think that we're looking
at.
>> Yes.
Council member Adams. Yes.
>> Thank you, Madam Mayor. And just most
people who are doing this uh and there
are a lot of people who are having home
businesses are taking a tax deduction
for the space within the home. And so
they have acknowledged that this is a
dedicated business. But I think council
member Schwang is exactly right. It's
the impact that we're looking at. Um,
many streets in Hillsboro are
substandard streets. Many don't even
have parking uh strips.
So, parking, noise, traffic are things
that we've always looked at, but we need
to look at it and that's how we will
regulate this
to continue. Uh but I think we need to
recognize that we have to do something
because this is happening in more places
than we expected. But also some are
quite exaggerated in what they have
attempted to do. So in order to be fair,
we need to have clear regulations that
are well understood and are actually uh
we educate the public with our
intentions.
>> So what I what I just um heard was
enforce some of the current ordinance on
parking, traffic, noise,
fire risk emissions. All of these
currently exist in our ordinance. Right?
that that's one option would be to
enforce what's already in the ordinance
and find ways to enforce it more
strictly so that we don't impact our
neighbors. What I read, however, were
exceptions now to bring to allow to
legitimately legalize the process for
residents to do business out of their
home and those businesses could
potentially impact their neighbors in
terms of parking, traffic, etc. I think
more clarity maybe I think council
member Crowley maybe maybe is probably
right maybe we don't want to open it up
to study session at this point but maybe
we just need more discussion along those
lines. Yeah.
>> So two things that I hear that probably
need more discussion in committee. One,
are there certain classifications of
businesses which we should not allow
like a restaurant? And two,
are we not comfortable
with having customers, clients, patients
come to the residence, an employee or
two, okay? But not having
uh
other people come. So those are things
that maybe need some further discussion
in our committee having another study
session. I don't know how much public
comment we have outside of the council,
but I don't think we're getting that
much feedback. And when we do get it,
it's pretty targeted on what one
particular resident is is concerned
about. Uh so maybe one more turn with
our committee. Uh, and then and we may
or may not be ready to bring you back a
draft ordinance for
>> Well, I think this is such an important
subject for the town that at some point
if we don't feel like the residents are
hearing this conversation, we must bring
it to them and be as transparent as
possible. Um, but um, thank you and and
I know it's not easy to address this, so
I really appreciate the work you and the
subcommittee have done on it. Thank you
very much.
>> Mayor Cole, would you like to open
public comments?
>> Yes.
>> Thank you. If I may, I'll share that as
I did with the November study session on
this topic, I did uh contact the 20 this
time 29 U um permit holders of homebased
business permit holders to notify them
of this item uh on the agenda this
evening. So, just wanted to announce
that.
>> Thanks for letting us know that.
>> Uh Dan Kapont, I'm sorry. I I'll just
ask if there's any members of the public
who wanted to speak first
and if so uh raise your hand.
I'm sorry I mentioned Mr. Mr. Kapon
because we had spoken earlier. So if he
doesn't want to speak then okay that's fine.
>> All right. No worries Dan. Thank you.
>> Okay. Um
I I I believe we've given enough
directives on this subject to come back.
Okay.
>> Through the mayor. Um I I love the the
summary that um Mark had. The only thing
I'd add is something that we could talk
about is the um minimum threshold and
possible maximum gross receipt tax. I I
think that was a that was a good point.
I'm sorry. Are you asking that we
discuss that now or bring it back for
further discussion?
>> Bring it back. Something the committee
should talk about.
>> Oh. Oh, I see.
>> To bring to bring back after we talk
about
>> Okay. Thank you.
>> Okay. I've got all my notes.
>> Thanks everybody. It's really helpful
and and I know on the committee and
again w with the council everybody
appreciates that this is
a difference in how we're thinking about
the town. You know, back when I started
working with the town back in 1985, if
somebody said you could do some business
in the town, the residents I don't think
would have stood for it. Look, times
have changed. Our residents have changed
and uh it's still something that's
difficult to wrestle with and it takes
time so that we don't enact something
and look back and people say, "What the
heck were they thinking?"
>> Well, that's why we're all trying to get
it right. So, thank you for your
feedback.
>> Thank you. Thank you.
>> Okay. Um moving on to city council
items. Um do I I will go last. Do any of
my colleagues have uh city council items
to report on? Starting with council
member items.
» Thank you. This is not my slide, but
>> is this another Are we being Oh, there
we go. Um, so this is reporting on last
month's next slide.
and giving you a preview of uh we're
coming up on Earth Day as Shorewood
Environmental Center in St. Carlos uh
will be the site of the Rethink waste
celebration of Earth Day facility tours
uh planting at plants and uh compost
giveaway and raffle prizes. I really
want uh the community to come on
Saturday, April 19th.
Uh telecommunications is moving along.
Uh an RFP has been responded to. So
vendor selection is in process. Thank
you to uh our assistant uh city manager
and uh we're excited to see what comes
out of that plan. Next,
undergrounding utilities. The initial
analysis is complete from an engineering
firm. Uh we will be meeting this week to
discuss next steps and how to present
those results to the community. Again,
thank you assistant city manager.
Next slide. Uh Hillsboro Hillsboro
Beautification Foundation, as you heard
earlier, Celebrate May tickets are on
sale. You can buy them now. And if you
don't want to go to the Hillsboro
Beautification Foundation website, you
can also find the information in the
town e newswsletter.
Next,
leadership council San Mateo. Uh I was
put through my paces again for a full
day at Franklin Templeton campus on the
social dimensions of health and this was
a housing uh discussion
uh where we all
as you can see stood up and did things.
Uh next
uh Tobin Clark ad hoc committee
continues to meet. uh a draft is being
uh developed
uh going forward next
and uh an alert to everyone that this is
the month the probably the last month to
deal with Scotch broom. Uh this is
something that uh firewise at uh David
Weisberg and I have talked about at this
moment you can easily rid your property
of scotch broom only in February and
March. After that this very highly
invasive and highly flammable plant is
not able to be removed so easily. And uh
we have a little video of how easy that
is. Let's see how technology this will
be the second appearance uh by former
mayor uh Chick Adams. He is
demonstrating here that at this time of
year
they just pull right out.
And some may be a little bit harder,
but you can still just pull them right
out. Highly flammable, very invasive.
those yellow flowers uh spread this
plant all over our town and make it much
more dangerous in fire. And that's it.
Thank you.
>> Thank you and thanks for that
demonstration on how to remove this
scotch. Appreciate that. Yeah, council
member Schwang.
>> Thank you. Um I attended the SAM
Transport meeting, the one shoreline
board meetings um and also sir training.
Um so just highlight that Samr um just
started the AI dash cam to enhance
safety across Samran bus fleet. So I
thought that that was uh very
interesting to apply the technology to
keep our drivers and operators safe and
also the customers the writers. Um and
this is international women's day and I
do want to highlight that uh there are a
lot of competent excellent women in the
transportation um the CEO is trans you
know of of uh the CEO of SAMR and um the
uh executive director of Calrains um and
u I do believe that MUN in San Francisco
is also female executive director. So,
just want to um highlight that. Um the
other one is that um I I attended the
council of cities in San Carlos and they
um really uh uh presented about their
excellent child care programs. They
actually collected about they well they
act the council actually not only
streamline the child care application uh
for the centers to set up but they also
set aside $1 million impact fee from the
impact fee to provide grants for
nonprofit and profit um childcare
programs. One of the interesting notion
is that uh many of the schools uh
district now offer um transitional
kindergarten and that push the child
care age to a younger age group four and
four uh infant to four and that makes
that requires different uh state mandate
on the setup and so it push a lot of uh
child care out of business because they
just don't have the client that
originally set up for. So, I thought
that was uh very interesting to
highlight. Um the SER training programs
uh we just well CCFD and the SER
instructor just finished up um one um
and had a really uh great
graduation and skill days and we have
about seven those were residents who
took the class. The next one that is
going to start in mid-March will be in
Mandarin Chinese instructions. Please
share with your friends and network to
see if there are people who are
interested in signing up. Um a lot of uh
past uh graduate have uh you know voiced
that um the compliment of learning that
in their um mother tongue the Chinese
instruction was very helpful. So
hopefully we'll have another successful
session.
So that's about it.
>> Thank you, Council Member Trunk. Yes,
Council Member Crowley. Thank you,
Madame Mayor. Um so parade planning is
underway. Um so please mark your
calendars for um May 25th, Memorial Day.
Um, and I want want to thank um the HPD,
thank you and CCFD center truck and the
mayor and William for welcoming our
Japanese exchange students today um from
our Rotary Club in uh Edagawa, Tokyo,
Japan. Um, and I also want to thank
Council Member Adams who's going to be
covering for me on April 1st for the San
Francisco airport roundtable. Thank you
very much. And I'm planning to go to Fun
Run on May 3rd. I didn't go last year,
so if anybody else wants to come, we
could, you know, we could get up early
and we could all kind of do it together.
It' be kind of fun. I walk it. I don't
run it. Um, and that's it for me. Thank
you.
>> Thank you, Council Member Kley. Um, Vice
Mayor Ragdale.
>> Thank you. Um, I've got a little
presentation, but I'm so glad um,
Council Member Schwang that you went to
the child care one because I was sad to
miss that. I was out of town. And, um, I
will walk the, uh, the fun run with you.
So, Yes. Um Okay. So, what have I been doing?
Talking about ebikes all the time. Uh
talking to various people about ebikes
and having opinions on ebikes. Um our
ordinance committee, we just talked
about that tonight. Uh the mayor and
city manager and I went to a talk on
vehicle license fee and the lack thereof
and what that means for all of our
finances. That was sobering. Um the
volunteer party was fantastic and thank
you to staff and to the Krix for
seamlessly hosting and also for um
everyone being so nice. I brought my
friend and uh she she had a great time.
Um so I really appreciate that. Um, I'm
not sure, Christopher, you might know if
we all have to do this. Um, I think we
do SB827,
financial training, we have to do every
two years. I was able to get it free
webinar, but I think it's for everybody.
>> Correct. So, anybody who does ethics
training and you're in the cycle, just
get it completed before the next two
years are up. Um, and I think this is
your current year for ethics. Um so yes
but yes all of everybody in essence all
elected appointed officials.
>> So if you get a chance to do it for free
from your various um boards go ahead and
do it. Um felt very well prepared from Jan and Rich. I'm like I I know
the financial training. It's a it's a
new brand new requirement. Oh,
>> to add. So, we do the ethics, we do the
learning about sexual harassment, and
now they've added financial training
every two years. Um, so I just went
ahead and got it done because it was
free and I already know so much from our
staff. Um, okay, next slide.
Um, PCE, I am now vice chair of the
board. So, very exciting. Um, we had,
this was a great night. Um, we had
talked about our community advisory
committee. We sunseted
um to open it up to hear from everybody
and not just the early adopters that
tend to be the this community advisory
committee. They were amazing and a lot
of them came to this event, but it was
in Half Moon Bay and there were um I
think 70 people total somewhere online.
Um, and they introduced PCE and then did
a deep dive into solar and battery
storage and then broke out broke into a
lot of subgroups and talked about um
solar and battery solar and battery
storage for um on your house or portable
for renters and divided up into the
groups and people really seem to feel
heard and the staff took it in and it
was a great success. So there will be
more. The next one will be in May. Um,
Bosa, we had our board policy committee
that's every other month and then the
board meets every other month. Um, the
big news from Hillsboro Recre is another
title for Dr. Mayor Commissioner Cole is
also the chair of Hre and right then and
there then then she handles a meeting
right after that happens and she did
obviously a fantastic job. Uh, next
slide. Um, this is just a picture from
the community feedback forum. Next
slide. Oh, commute.org. This guy, he's
worked for commute.org for 25 years.
Uh, Richard Fontella, he was uh honored
at our our last board meeting. I just
thought that was so impressive. He's
basically been there almost the entire
time commute.org has been in existence.
And he looks so young. So they must be
um they must treat the employees well
there and I believe that's my last
slide.
>> Yeah. Thank you.
>> Um thank you. Um thanks to all my
colleagues for the hard work um
throughout the months. Um I just to echo
the town volunteer party. We are
codifying that experience or at least
formalizing it. And I really want to
thank um Council Member Krollik and her
husband Jeff Krick for hosting it at
their home. Hopefully going forward
we'll use some town property in the
future. That's the hope and we can have
it in the fall. But we did present a key
to the town uh two keys actually, one
for Kitty Mulli and Paul Rean. So we
told them they have backup key. If
anyone can get in, they can help each
other get back in. So, we're very
honored to have had their service over
the many decades. Um, so I will use my
time, not much else to report. My
colleagues have reported on similar
committees we attended, but I'm going to
use my time to um just take a moment to
reflect on someone whom we love very
much and our beloved Dina Gunnin who we
lost a few weeks ago. I just love this
photo. to me just captures everything we
love about dinner. And in reflecting
about her, I've been emotionally quite
sad and distracted um hearing her sudden
pass uh a few weeks ago. Um so Dina was
actually born in Hollywood, California.
And when I think when I saw that I said,
"Ah, that explains a lot." She has a
certain professional flamboyancy about
her. and you know, she she's got her
hands in there doing the hard work, but
she just carries such grace about her in
just about everything she does. And I
have it has been my honor actually to
have known her and worked with her on
several emergency preparedness for our
communities um as well as at CCFD. She's
very generous, always thoughtful, always
dedicated in serving the community, and
she always had a smile, and she was
always filled with such boundless
energy. And um
when I reflect on the time I've known
Dana in the conversations we've had on
community service, she no matter what
the subject is, she will find a way to
get it done. She's a can do kind of
person. She was a can do kind of person
and she um she really inspired me in
sort of a very basic way and I really
will miss her dearly and um my thoughts
have been with her and her especially
with her family over the past couple of
weeks. So I would love I would like to
close this um this meeting in in memory
of of Dena unless any of my colleagues
would like to add to anything I've
stated.
Yes,
council member Chuang. Um I I work
closely with uh Gina on many of the sir
trainings and um certainly she has a big
heart and and absolutely everything that
the mayor Cole had mentioned her
personality about her can do uh you know
attitudes and he she really has a deep
uh convictions and and and passion about
emergency preparedness and um she really
just uh it's contagious um to to be able
to uh get inspired uh for the work that
she's done and also to be engaged in the
um the daunting task of emergency
preparedness at sometimes. So um she
will be dearly missed and um certainly
um at the last the week that she passed
we we still have the s training going
and so cause Chiao is the uh is the sir
coordinator for central county fire and
he led the class all the instructors and
the volunteers came for to support him
and the class and everyone everyone's
day for the entire class. I had a
picture of that and it was just really
um heartwarming to know that the spirit
of Dena was with us and that everyone
wants to make sure that this sir
training course gone through smoothly
for all the participants and in memory
of her. So it was it was lovely.
>> Yeah. Council member Adams, did you want
to make a statement? I I I could go to B
>> Why don't you go next?
>> Yeah.
>> Um
this is really hard to think of Dena in
the past tense. I think we're all
feeling that. Um she had such a presence
and I think that however well you knew
her, you really felt like you knew her.
uh she was so relatable, so natural, and
that made coming to something like a a
Cert class um doable because it's it's a
daunting thing to go to your first one.
and she just made everyone feel at home.
And uh you can see the um I know there's
a GoFundMe and you can see the there's
people from you know Berlingame,
Milbury, Hillsboro, other family friends
um all donating and we we all kind of
feel like she was ours and she she's
served our greater community and um and
her family helped as well. sometimes
they they would come to um cert events
or other events and um just such a huge loss.
>> Thank you for those comments.
>> I'm ready now. Um I have to read this
because uh this is an emotional thing
for I think anyone who knew her and for
all of us now. But I had written to
cause because I felt that his uh tribute
to her was so heartfelt and he's a great
leader himself.
Um, but this is what I said of Dena. She
was quiet and confident leader. She was
kind, organized, wellspoken, and smart.
Plus, she was warm and funny. She handed
me some Valentine sweethearts at our H&N
meeting the week before she died. It was
a thoughtful and sweet gesture that
typified her unique combination of
professionalism and humanity.
This is a terrible loss for her family,
but also for our community. We were very
lucky to have her helping us for several
decades to be better prepared to weather
emergencies and to be better people.
That legacy will continue for decades
more and touch many more lives as we
honor her through our own actions.
>> Thank you for that for those comments.
Yes. Um, yes, Council Member Kruik.
>> Very well well said. Um, just our hearts
are with Dena's family and with her
friends and with her colleagues at CCFD
because they really are a family and um,
she was irreplaceable.
>> Thank you. And with that, we will close
in love and memory of our dear friend
Dana Gunning.