Okay it is 707 I'm calling to order the Monday July 20th 2026 meeting of the
City of San Landro City Council. My apologies for our tardiness as our
closed session ran just a little bit long. At this point in time I will lead
us in the Pledge of Allegiance please join me if you can.
with the reading and justice for all.
Madame Clerk, would you please take the role
to assess quorum.
Council Member Fred Simon is absent.
Council Member Victor Aguilar.
Council Member James Aguilar.
Present.
Council Member Suha Bowen.
Present.
Council Member Dylan Bult.
Present.
the city of San Luis Obispo.
Thank you.
Vice mayor Meferrals-Walton.
Present.
And mayor Gonzalez.
Present.
The city of San Luis Obispo
conducts orderly meetings and
fulfill its mandate,
discriminatory statements or
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violate the federal Civil
Rights Act of 1964 and toward
the California Fair Employment
and Housing Act.
California Penal Code sections
4.3 or 4.15 are per se
disruptive to a meeting and
will not be tolerated.
Please see the city council
handbook and city council
Madam clerk your announcement, please if you would like to make a public comment during the meeting you can do so in person or via zoom
If you are present at the meeting
Please complete a speaker card and submit it to the city clerk before the item is presented
Then wait for public comment on that item to be called if you wish to participate in public comment via zoom
You can use the raise your hand tool when the item is called during the public comment session
Speakers will be invited to speak and will have a set time to share their comments a count on timer will appear for their convenience
And when the time is up the microphone will be muted all raised hands outside of public comment will be lowered to avoid confusion
Once public comment is opened hands may be raised to speak
There will be a 30-minute window for public comments on items not on the agenda
Which will take place under item 7 public comments as per the published agenda
after this time is up the council will proceed with the rest of the meetings agenda if you have not had the
Opportunity to speak during the initial 30-minute period there will be another chance to do so after item 12 City Council reports
Thank you
so a couple of other
announcements today, we do have Chris Co Okayla here as our acting City Attorney and
For those that were not present at our work session meeting on July 13th, 2026
I do want to let the public know that we did adjourn that meeting in honor and memory of our
former Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty and we observed a moment of silence
We did meet in closed session there was ample discussion deliberation, but there is no reportable action that was taken
We do not have recognitions on today's agenda, but we will move on to the consent calendar
And so what I'd like to see if there are any items on the consent calendar that council members would like to pull for additional
discussion
council member bolt
Yes, I'd like to pull item 5e
Okay, so 5e is being pulled
Council member and I'm assuming that's it
Correct. Okay, and then Vice Mayor, please
I'd like to pull item 5h please
was that alpha a
Or H
There it is H as in Harry, thank you
Councilmember Victor I get that
Thank you mayor. I'd like to move the consent calendar with the exception of
5e and 5h
Okay just as a matter of clarification I will be pulling item 5G. Would you mind
amending your motion accordingly? Okay so we do have a motion by Councilmember
Aguilar to move the consent calendar with the exception of 5E, 5G, 5H. Do I have a
second on that? I will second it but I think that Vice Mayor has a
statement first before I have to second it perfect vice mayor yeah I apologize
I meant 5g not 5h there was so I'm agreeing with you can't mayor no problem
so then I will go back to the motion maker councilmember Victor Aguilar so
councilmember Victor Aguilar are you fine with the suggested update namely that we
approved the consent calendar with items 5e and 5g removed just for the record
again if yes yes and then councilmember Bowen just to clarify is that the motion
that you're seconding yes okay councilmember bolt did you have something
in addition to that no thank you very much so we've got a motion from
councilmember Victor Aguilar with a second councilmember Bowen to move the
entire consent calendar with the exception of 5E and 5G. At this point in
time we will take public comment on the consent calendar. Mayor we have received
one comment card for the consent calendar that doesn't pertain to the
items that were just removed and there are current I'm sorry that does or does
not. Let me restate we've received a number of comment cards for the consent
calendar however the majority of them except for one pertain to the items that
were just removed so we only have one item that still pertains to the consent
calendar. Okay our general process is to take all consent calendar comment at one
point in time so we will continue to follow that process but let's start with
one that is not on an item that's been removed yet then we'll move into the
others how many hands do we have raised online and there are three hands raised
online okay we have a total of how many cards in your hand seven seven okay thank
you let's proceed with our standard of two minutes our first in-person speakers
are Jeff crop followed by an followed by April hello council I'd like to comment
I would like to comment on the cross-town corridor.
I question the wisdom of spending $6 million on planning and design when with the frequency
of how often I hear that roads are failed and not getting the money that they need,
that they are becoming more expensive by not getting the attention that they need.
And here we are putting $6 million towards two roads that are in good condition with
serviceable bike lanes.
And to do what?
To make designs for isolating bike lanes at some future date.
I don't think that this is a wise use of the money at this time.
It can be delayed.
The work will be delayed.
obvious. But here we are spending money on bikeways of major thoroughfares that
are in good shape. Already have bike lanes. Another place where that could be
considered would be Estudillo Avenue where they're talking about a two-way
cycle track when there's bikeways that are just off of the main fair that are
are designated bike routes that are not getting attention.
I can think there are quite a few designated bike routes
that are red on our map of conditions of roads
and they're not getting attention.
The attention for the bicycle pedestrian safety thing
is going to the most obvious thoroughfares,
the most expensive places that need it the least.
question the priorities that are being adapted here. Thank you. Thank you. The
next three speakers are in followed by April followed by John Barsky. The
Alameda County Transportation Commission has 200 million in available
grants. Applications are due July 27th. The city is not applying for any of it
to Fix Lake Chabot Road, a vital fire evacuation route for the Bay of Vista neighborhood.
The city's own 2022 Kittleson report documented the fact that Benedict and Vista Grand Drives
will be over capacity in the event of a wildfire. Other major streets will be congested. The
timed evacuation study conducted by the WEGO startup associated with UC Berkeley recently
concluded that in a best-case scenario, it will take residents an hour or more to evacuate.
Without Lake Chabot Road, 100 to 400 of our most vulnerable residents will be exposed
to deadly fire and toxic smoke. If even one street is blocked, it will be much worse.
The City has known of this dangerous public safety situation since 2023. Yes, there are
funds to fix two of the four road issues but the city does not plan to open the
road once these are fixed supposedly in 2027. As we have been told by Alameda
County Public Works without a geotechnical report the city can't assess
the actual damage to the other two locations and cannot obtain actual
repair costs to fix and reopen the road. Without the actual cost the city cannot
apply for funding, which it could have done from ACTC in 2024 and again in
2026. If the city can apply for grants for bike lanes, street lighting and
emergency trails stabilization repairs, why will they not prioritize fixing a
vital fire evacuation route? This is a capital project that is long overdue.
too. Thank you. Thank you. The next three speakers are April, John Barsky, and Kat
Wellman. Good evening. I'm here to talk about the Casa Peralta issue, and it's
unfortunate that that is being, I guess, postponed for a later date. I moved here
in 2000, and went to the Casa Peralta several times,
and primarily on the weekend.
And it was lovely to see people visiting the home
and enjoying the garden in front of the Casa.
So I was very dismayed and surprised
when the Casa Peralta got into a state
where it was closed, as I understand, in 2019.
And it seems like the decision to fix it
or what to do with it has just been postponed,
postponed, postponed.
And meanwhile, there are parts of the house
which are falling into disrepair.
And my understanding is that there is now a proposal
to have a company come in and reevaluate
what needs to be done and there was an evaluation done
in 2016, the current proposal for reevaluation
redoes some of the things that were on that 2016,
excuse me, 2016 proposal and I think there's something
like half a million dollars that they want to do it.
What I want to suggest is that while you're trying to decide,
I mean, half a million dollars is just outlandish.
But while you're trying to make a decision,
could you please arrange to have the Casa Peralta?
Thank you.
Your time has elapsed.
Thank you.
Your time has elapsed.
Please finish your sentence.
My suggestion is could you pick something like the windows and at least have the money go to fix the windows to help save the house from further disrepair?
Thank you. Thank you.
So I do want to clarify one thing, you can be seated.
The statement was made that we are postponing this item.
I just want to be clear for any future speakers.
What we've done by saying that we're pulling it from the consent calendar,
That means that instead of just approving it by a vote among ten different items,
twenty different items, that it's going to come apart separately for discussion
in just a few minutes. So we'll hear you guys, we'll vote on the other items on
the consent calendar, and then both items 5e and 5g will have their own periods
for discussion. So I don't want anyone to get up and walk away if that's why
you're here. So if we could proceed with our public comment please. Thank you.
The next three speakers are John Barsky, Kat Wellman, and Art Johnson.
Thank you for the clarification on 5G. As someone who was a registered professional
engineer in the state of California for over 30 years, I have looked on the saga of Lake Shabow
road for the past two plus years with sadness and amazement. Not only has
virtually nothing been done to address the problem by the city, apparently
nothing has planned to be done. First it was argued that the loss of that road
would have no impact on the citizens. Then a group of citizens spent their own
money to conduct a study demonstrating the negative impact on the ability to
evacuate during an emergency. Still no action on the part of the city and its
staff. People have asked me to argue for the quick repair of Lake Chabot Road. I
am not going to do that because when you fix something you have to determine the
cause and extent of the problem. That has to be assigned in this case to
professional experts. I am arguing for that process to begin and the funds for
that process to be budgeted. Failure to begin the investigation is equivalent to
putting your head in the sand. Thank you. Thank you. The next three speakers are
Kat Wellman, Art Johnson, and Donald Pollard. Good evening. The City Council
has stated that it wants Lake Chabot Road to be repaired and reopened to
two-way traffic but finding the funds to pay for the repairs has been the
primary stumbling block. So why is the city not applying for some of ACTC's
$200 million grant funding to fix Lake Chabot Road? Fixing and
reopening Lake Chabot Road strongly aligns with ACTC's funding priorities of
safety, transportation and mobility, and community benefit and resilience. First,
safety. Lake Chabot Road is a critical emergency evacuation route for nearly
4,000 Bayovista residents living in San Leandro's only high fire hazard severity
zone. The independent WeGo timed evacuation study demonstrated that
reopening the road would significantly improve evacuation times and could save
the lives of 100 to 400 of our most vulnerable residents during a fast
moving wildfire. Two, transportation and mobility. Reopening Lake Chabot Road
restores an important connection between San Leandro and Castro Valley, reduces
congestion currently running through steep residential streets in Bay of
Vista, improves access for emergency responders, and restores needed
redundancy to our transportation network. Three, community benefit and resilience.
This project serves residents, first responders, businesses and everyone who
depends on a safe and reliable transportation in both San Leandro and
Castor Valley. It strengthens our community's resilience to wildfires and
other emergencies. This is exactly the type of regional project ACTC was
created to support. We have spent more than three years discussing why Lake
Chabot Road matters. This is an opportunity to pursue outside funding
and demonstrate that reopening this critical roadway is a priority. Please
direct staff to submit an application for funding from ACTC before July 27th.
Your time has elapsed. The next two speakers are Art Johnson and Donald
Pollard. Hi everybody, good evening. My name is Art Johnson, Vice President of the
San Leandro Historical Society. I'm speaking tonight on behalf of the
Historical Society myself, as a member of this community.
And basically, we've started this campaign
to save the CASA back in 2024.
There's a little bit of a timeline here,
so I'll try to be brief as possible.
So 2016, as you all probably are aware of,
there was an assessment done by ARG, an extensive assessment.
And we offered, as the Historical Society,
to renew that assessment, knowing
that it was 10 years old for about $20,000
and gift that to the city.
It goes on from there, essentially 14 months plus,
we are where we are today with now a new assessment,
brand new assessment for basically half a million dollars.
And the unfortunate part, the concern for me
and the historical society is that zero dollars
are actually being spent on repairs.
And as anybody again knows,
the longer a building goes in disrepair,
the worse it gets, the more expensive it gets.
Want to be specific about why that number is hard to accept.
So we went through the 2016 report line by line,
and basically six of the nine major work items
in the proposal, background research, code,
and accessibility analysis, structural evaluation,
and MEP review and landscape assessment
are the main cost estimates,
and all of those were done in 2016.
So really there's only three items here that are new.
the geotechnical soil investigation,
the hazardous materials testing,
exploratory demolition, which that line item
worries me just a hair.
But those are really the net new items.
And I just ask that the council basically
doesn't improve this contract as scope,
direct staff to narrow it to a net new investigation work,
soil, hazmat, and exploratory testing.
Send the Casa Peralta back to the facilities meeting
to discuss gifting the property to non-profit.
time has elapsed. The last public speaker is Donald Pollard. My name is
Donald Pollard, San Leandro Historical Society board member and a resident of
San Leandro for more than 50 years. Saving the Casa would be an asset to
San Leandro. It's in the heart of the city. Students could take field trips and
and really see a lot of history about Casa Peralta.
Also, making a public historical museum
would benefit the surrounding community.
We need and should save the Casa.
Thank you for your time.
And that was way under.
Thank you.
Mayor, there are no more comment cards from in the room.
Thank you.
So let's close public comment in person.
we'll move to public comment online.
Our first online speaker is Christopher Bamer.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Okay, I would like to speak about item five F.
So I'm a little concerned that all the council members,
the mayor, the city manager, the city attorney,
everybody wants to go ahead
and just approve this consent calendar.
5F, is it for $5.7 million or is it for $575,000?
That's a big difference.
That's a $5 million discrepancy.
And it's just a typo, but everybody has looked at it
and everybody has approved it.
And now it's on the motion for a vote.
So I wanna pull five F and have some discussion
about what the actual cost of this is
because now that we're talking about the cost of Peralta,
it made me think about 2016,
I was there on a field trip with my daughters
for their school and they were doing the inspection
and the entire house was open,
the basement, all the floors, everything.
So I walked around and inspected the house myself
like I was one of the inspectors.
This house is not saveable.
This is gonna be millions and millions
millions of dollars wasted, right. They had an account for this house. The city has an account,
the Casa Peralta, whatever they call it. They used the money that was in that account a couple of
years ago to finish the new police station renovations, probably to buy some high-dollar
furniture or something. I don't know. Let's do an audit. I want to know what kind of money we've
taken from the Casa Peralta to spend on other things other than the Casa Peralta. And also,
So I think we need to look at 5F
and you guys need to review your documents
a little bit better.
I had some faith in this council,
but with this $5 million discrepancy,
I want some answers and I wanna talk about it.
I wanna pull 5F and I want you guys
to read your documents better and make better decisions.
You should spend the money on the road that's damaged,
not talking about fixing other roads for bike lanes.
I'll be back later with more.
Thank you, sir, your time has elapsed.
our next online speaker is Douglas Spalding.
Good evening council members in San Leonardo.
What a monsoonal weather pattern it is.
Happy El Nino.
I spend more and more time reading the consent calendar
because I find I learned a lot
about our city governance here.
After all, this is where the money is spent.
They say, you know, you put your money where your mouth is,
this is where priorities are determined.
I am happy to see several things on here
that are certainly worthwhile.
The 120 some thousand dollars to building futures,
very important.
The almost a half a million for San Leandro link shuttle.
Great.
Even the nearly a million dollars
to rebuild the bridge to bankrupt, great.
But I find a lot of these consulting services
really quite questionable. And in that, I count among that 5F. So, of course,
spammer, if I can clarify, the 575,000 is on top of the 500 million. So it's not a discrepancy,
it's just to add the two numbers together. But that's just for design. There's not no
construction that goes on there. We're not really getting much bang for the buck there.
I have the same problem with the 5E, the Casa Peralta. 70,500,000 doesn't get us anything more
than an assessment and an estimate. It's no repairs. It's no restoration. I noticed that
in 5L, the Marina Community Center has snug its way in. I thought Casa Prada Marina were
a couple of things the citizens were concerned about, and so they put them in the parcel
tax, but now that that's not going forward, maybe this is the end around. I'm not sure
that these two things are priorities in the public works priority list. Um, and the final
thing I wanted to say, I noticed there's another big ticket item that's covered by the MTC, uh,
uh, grant for 1.35 million. I just want to know how it jives with the plans that are planning.
Thank you, sir. Your time has elapsed. The next online speaker is Imagine Gonzales.
Good evening city council members, Mr. Mayor and San Leandro friends. My name is Imagined Gonzalez.
I am a former member of the San Leandro Historical Society and I'm dialing in tonight on behalf of
a building this city has now spent 10 years studying and no time repairing. A decade ago
in 2016, architectural resources group professionally assessed the Casa Peralta property.
Seven years later the San Leandro Historical Society and the caring members of this community
launched the Save the Casa campaign in good faith and in partnership with city staff.
The historical society offered to pay out of its own pocket to have that assessment brought up to
date by the same firm and much of the same team. That offer was declined, it had to go out to bid.
14 months have passed between this council's direction in May of last year and the contract
before you tonight. 14 months and the Casa is no better off for it. What that process has produced
is a $566,000 invoice, more than half of the $1 million this city has set aside for repairing
the CASA for a second opinion that will not lay a single brick, patch a single roof, or save a
single beam. So tonight I ask you three things. One, do not spend half of the CASA's money studying
the CASA. Two, return this matter to the facilities committee to explore gifting or returning the
property to a steward who will preserve it and three do preserve the building its history
and this community's connection to it don't clear it for a park thank you for your time and have a
good evening. The next online speaker is Angela. Angela you can unmute yourself. Hi can you hear me?
Yes thanks. I'll just keep it brief please don't waste over half a million dollars and half the
the funds set aside for the cost of Peralta on a meaningless assessment. It's been 15
months since the cost was discussed at a facilities meeting in May 2025 where this council asked
staff to get real cost estimates for the project. There's been no meaningful progress on restoring
the house since then despite the efforts of numerous concerned citizens including our
historical society to get the council to prioritize the house. That money is much better spent
toward any of the numerous projects that have already been identified in the 2016 assessment.
This entire situation is emblematic of the deep divide between the citizens and the government
the city and the deep distrust and lack of faith that the former has in the latter.
Please send the casa back to be discussed in a facilities meeting to explore gifting the
property back to the prior owner or to a non-profit that will actually prioritize preserving the
property as was the original intent when it was given to the city which the city has completely
failed in accomplishing. We want the casa preserved. We do not want it torn down to create a park as
Brian Simon proposed in one of the previous meetings. Oakland's shameful failure to protect
its historic homes, including the recent fires at the Peralta House in June and the Cameron
Stanford House in April should be a cautionary tale, not one that San Leandro should seek
to emulate. And the house is saveable. Please don't listen to people who are playing expert
because they looked around during a field trip. Thanks.
Thank you. Are there no more hands raised online?
Okay, thank you. I do have just a question because right now we do have a motion, but
There was, I think, one question that was really focused
on an item that was not pulled.
So I'd like to get a little bit of elaboration.
So I will ask on behalf of the public commenter
to Director Marchesis.
It was a discussion about the approximately $6 million
that will be spent on engineering and design related
to the Crosstown corridors.
And if you could perhaps explore two pieces of that.
First, is this money that has already been granted
to the city from ACTC, federal agencies, and the like,
to which we have made certain commitments?
And then secondly, if you can elaborate,
what on earth could cost $6 million
to put a piece of paper underneath a pen
and draw a few squiggles, right?
That's the basic question that's being asked,
so if you could dig into both of those, please.
Thank you, Mayor.
Good evening.
council mayor and members of the public my name is Sheila Marchesis public works director
The crosstown corridor project has been a long-running project that's been in study
Starting in 2020. We received a planning grant to study
protected bike lanes along both Bancroft Avenue from city limits to the north of Oakland and down to the county limits to the south and
Williams from
San Leandra Boulevard all the way to Neptune, Neptune Drive.
The project has undergone
community outreach and
with that outreach
with the vision of the protected bike lanes along both corridors,
we were able to submit grant applications for both the federal and Alameda CTC.
so I believe that combined about four million dollars a total for
enough to get us to
Through the design so we have a combination of grant and local funding and the five million dollars to
For the consultant
includes the project management stakeholder and utility
Coordination for all the required
Coordination for both of those corridors. So that includes utilities and also Union Pacific Railroad
and that's also the development of the plan specs and estimates to get us to the
complete bid package at that point that also puts us in a very good position to request for additional grant funding for
construction funds
And then the magnitude if you can just
number of
Linear feet or miles or whatever metric because again, it might feel like oh, well, that's just you know
A hundred yards that can give us some sense of the scale. Yes. What comes to mind is three miles
But I'm going to look to our city engineer if I have that number
That is approximately right given the distances that are involved and again to be clear
You have to relocate potentially things ranging
from sewer access, electricity, access, lighting.
It's not even as simple as let's just put up some curbs
to separate bikes.
Correct.
Okay.
Are there any other questions related to that item,
because that was a question that was raised by the public
and I just want to make sure that we had a little bit
of information before we decide whether or not
we want to also pull that item.
Council Member Bellin.
Yes, thank you Mayor.
can you clarify the first amount the five million seven fifty six one eighty
versus approval amendments to the agreement up to a cumulative value of
five hundred seventy five thousand six hundred eighteen I'm gonna hand that
over to our city engineers answer thank you good evening mayor and members of
the council Jason I'm city engineer of Public Works Department the five
would be included. The $5,756,180 is the contract amount for the design of the project. The 500 plus thousand is actual continuously like we do with most design contracts or construction contracts. It will allow us to work more efficiently should the scope change that has a justified additional costs. We could increase the contract up to that additional amount without having to come back to Council.
Thank you and
Director McKee says you mentioned at the end of your comment that
we
received federal funding and a CTC funding to be able to do the design process which sets us up to be able to
go back to both federal funding opportunities as well as a CTC given a CTC's emphasis on
but a bad pipe
Pedestrian bicycle safety as a as a very high priority is that correct correct any further questions
Okay, seeing none then let's proceed to vote on the motion by councilmember Victor Aguilar with a second from was a customer bone
Yes, thank you
All votes are in and the motion carries
Unanimously with six yes votes and councilmember Simon being absent
At this point time we will take up item 5e this item was pulled by councilmember bolt
That's my bolt. I would ask for you to
Lead the first step of this discussion. We'll see where the discussion goes
Casa prata there you go. Thank you proceed. Yes. Thank you. I pulled 5e I
To want to express
That that dollar amount feels extremely high I was in the meeting that we actually had for facilities
It was a great day out there at Casa Peralta. There was some
discussion about a
community group given us some money to
update an
older
scope
for design and
that amount of
was researched and thought about by them and that was as mentioned $20,000 and now
we're at over half a million five hundred sixty six thousand five hundred
ninety six I feel like as the city manager has said before you know things
change in the and the thought that the amount of money we're looking to cut and
and do things within our city,
for me, just to upgrade a 10-year-old study
of the house can raise that munch.
I am not comfortable with that.
I cannot vote yes on that, so I pulled it,
but the idea of it coming back to facilities
and us reviewing some of the options that were there,
And the thought that it goes into a park,
I don't think anybody wants that, but it's an option, right?
And we have to discuss it.
I don't want that to happen.
I'd like to see Casa Peralta saved,
but I think we need to send it back to facilities
to have a real meaningful discussion.
It's been 14 months.
We haven't proceeded in any of the upgrades to this point.
And I'm not comfortable with us saying yes to this,
so I pulled it.
And I would like to send it back to facilities
for us to reevaluate where we're at as a city,
what kind of funds we have.
Because I'm afraid that even if we were to approve this,
which I don't support,
it gives an unrealistic expectation
that somehow we're gonna find some more money
actually do the things that this report asks us to do. If it's this number I can
only imagine what the actual repair costs are gonna be and I don't want to
give an unrealistic expectation of our community that okay here we go we're
walking down this path now we're gonna spend this money and then the next thing
we're gonna do is fix it once we get that's not the case. So again I would
like to see us bring it back I don't know if that's motion needed or how you
you want. So why don't we do this before I take a motion let me just hear very
quickly if there's any other concerns because I'm taking what you say as a
motion that you would like to be the motion maker and I'm fine with that but
if there's any other elaboration such as potentially well let's go to you vice
mayor and see where this takes us. Thank you I also have a concern particularly
around what is the difference between the 10-year report and what is the kind
added value and I would question that that actually that that Delta is
actually worth 560 plus thousand and so I am supportive of sending it back to
facilities I think this is a community asset that is consistently for those of
who are newer to San Leandro and were able to experience it for just a little tiny bit,
it is a truly beautiful, magical place. And I only had the privilege of walking
and being in that space for the first couple of years that I was living in San Leandro and
now it's not open to the public. So I would like to explore all the options to have an informed
discussion about the trade-offs and what we're investing in and what we choose not to for
it to be a transparent process. And I would second that motion to send that back to facilities
to have that cohort of that committee of the council really vet through all of the options
and have that discussion. I don't feel comfortable with spending that amount of money on updating
a plan that is 10 years old. Okay so just to be really clear we don't have a
motion yet but I hear you clarifying the scope of what that motion would look
like. Namely that we consider all options that it's not just limited to
something about this specific study but what are the options for Casa Peralta?
I'm coming to Council member Bowen next. Thank you Mayor. I would love to hear
from our director to kind of give some clarity around what that consulting
service and that amount of 566 with that scope actually looks like to understand
what is being done if it's something like if there's a gap between what was
done ten years ago versus now and just so that I understand better certainly
Brian Simons, Library Director. Good evening, Mayor, Council. So the scope of
of what's being proposed, we need to take a little bit of a step back to that
evening when we discussed it at the Facilities Committee, and one of the
things that we were instructed to do is to investigate what it would cost, to
get an up-to-date cost. We had used industry standard inflationary escalators.
But they're all, you know, giving a near-ish, we use three of them. We use,
they got approximately a similar cost, around 10 million for hard cost, and then
it was also estimated to be about five more million on top of that to renovate
for soft costs. But in that 10 years time, and this is why we were
instructed to go that route is to look at something new,
is in 10 years time, a lot more degradation had happened.
Our chief building official had gone through it,
and he noticed more rot, more sinking of the floors.
So we were in a place where more damage has already
happened to it.
So to just use escalators probably
was not going to be accurate.
So in order to get a real accurate price
and the direction at the time was
to not leave a stone unturned.
To make sure if we were to go down this path
to know as best we could with whatever was available
at our disposal to get an estimate for,
to make sure we're not surprised later on
as we get into the construction of it
that let's say just hypothetically
it was gonna be 15 million
and then we start tearing things apart
and rebuilding, we discover something,
oh, now there's another $2 million, $5 million,
what have you, we wanted to do our best effort possible
and do everything we could to not only redo what was done,
but then add those three elements to dig as deep
as we could to make sure we weren't surprised
by a bid later on to then have to come back
and say, well, we know we said it was $15 million,
but now we're running into more problems
and there's more millions we need to put into this.
So we're trying to stem that off at the beginning.
Understood.
And is the cost, I'm trying to think back
to our capital improvement plan of projects
that we're committed to working on.
The cost of Peralta is included in that correct.
Anybody that can answer that for me, Chair.
Hi, good evening.
Council Member JCD, my city engineer.
The funds to fund this study are currently
within this capital improvement project,
a plan, I'm sorry.
Can you clarify, what do you mean?
Is it included, as in it has already been allocated
to that specifically?
It was allocated to the Casa Peralta project in general.
There was money still in that account
when this decision was made.
So we earmarked a portion of that money to go to the study.
Got it.
So we had specifically earmarked some funds
to go towards Casa Peralta.
That does not necessarily mean that those are the only funds
that we could or would spend towards Casa Peralta.
That's correct.
Okay.
And also the question of potentially
giving Casa Parrata to a non-profit,
is that, what would that process actually look like?
If anybody could just clarify that.
I can clarify to some degree.
What we know is it's a little complicated
because the gift grant deed,
where when we got the property in 1971,
is very specific and it has some specific requirements
that the city is required to operate under.
We have to keep it as a element of historic significance
and can be used for art and history.
There has to be an element of history involved.
In order to move it on to another,
or even for us to do something else with it,
The first thing we would have to do
is offer it back to the donating family.
And then they would have to either decide to take it back
or they would have to decide that they didn't want that
and relinquish that offer back.
And then that would open the door
to potentially gifting it to someone else.
But that would be the first step.
So there would be some legal actions
that would need to take place.
But that's the gist of it.
And can I just take one more minute to add something?
I appreciate that clarity.
I recognize that there seems to be a desire
to go back to facilities.
And if facilities is interested in doing that,
I certainly welcome it.
I also appreciate understanding that the amount that
is that we're putting to it has been allocated towards it.
and I am really supportive of finding ways
to be able to support the Casa Peralta.
I've actually held an organized Easter egg hunts
at the Casa Peralta for like hundreds of kids
that was actually kind of overwhelming.
And then also, we've done amazing projects there
on the environment, so I really do,
I know that the community really does appreciate the space.
I also recognize that hesitation to spend money
when we may not be able to find more money
in the short term for it.
But if we do have the funds already available,
I would like us to be able to work towards
getting Casa Pearl to a place where it is restored.
Thank you, Council Member Victor Aguilar.
Thank you, Mayor.
I'd like to make a motion to move item 5E
to go back to facilities committee for further discussion.
And would the scope of that referral
Include analysis of all possible
Disposition funding sources and the like the totality of the breadth of discussion. Yes. Okay. There's a second on the council member again. I have some motion
Council our bolt second. Okay
Without going into a lot of detail I think that there's
this house has
Significance for many reasons in addition to its historical
Significance to the city. I don't want to get into those things right now because we do have a motion that I support along with
A second look forward to a robust discussion in facilities
signal for the discussion
Please vote on a motion to move this to facilities a yes means take it to facilities
All votes are in and the motion carries unanimously with six yes votes and councilmember Simon being absent
Okay at this point in time. We'll take up five G
I
Pulled it but vice mayor would you like to lead the discussion on 5G the a CTC?
Proposed CIP
Vice mayor
Thank you, I would just like to start off with a little bit of exploration and
Some wonderings that I have in terms of
Just refreshing my memory on the process by which we decide what to submit applications for
Please that's the question. Okay, so we will go to
Director Marchesis there you are if you could please proceed
Good evening, Sheila Marchesis, Public Works Director.
So for projects like projects submitted to Alameda CTC,
we the staff look at the most competitive projects
after reviewing Alameda CTC's notice of funding opportunity.
We review the various categories that they put forth
and we look at our projects that are a highest priority,
and when I refer to highest priority,
I'm referring to our master plan.
So we have a bicycle and pedestrian master plan,
local roadway safety plan,
any other site specific plans.
So when we look at those plans and projects
that we already have supporting documents for,
so the good example is the cross town corridor,
already have a lot of momentum. So we look at the various projects and we make a staff analysis of
which is going to be the most competitive. So for if I may get into the current ACTC funding
opportunities. So for example, they'll put forth eligible project categories. So for this year's
funding opportunity they list six eligible categories and so that's our
first pass of which projects that we have in the pipeline that would be
eligible for these projects and so kind of fast forward once staff has
identified those projects we come to council with the request to support
these projects and then we're also working on the grant applications in the
background. I'm gonna look to our city engineer if there's anything else he
wants to add. No I should just add so the the the release for the call for
projects was at the end of May, May 28th and actually the first workshop for the
grant was in the beginning of June and then applications were due at the end of
this month in one week so it's a very quick turnaround so staff had the charge
of doing a very quick assessment to determine which projects best were most
competitive based on the criteria set by the Alameda County Transportation
Commission. Thank you, I inadvertently turned off my mic. So just to be clear,
the Council as a body, this is the first time we've seen the request to
to submit grant applications to the Transportation Commission,
the County's Transportation Commission.
So we are, and they're due at the end of this month.
They're due in one week.
So just, are we just doing questions
or are we rolling them both?
Just proceed.
Okay.
So just in terms of what we submit applications,
and what is the total amount that we're,
what are the projects, I didn't, I don't,
I pulled up the CAP process, the CAP project,
and I know I don't have the amounts,
but what is the total,
well, what would be the total grant amount
should we be successful in getting all these applications?
If I may just read that for each project,
So we have about, we requested 3.7 million
for the rescue project, 863,000
for the East 14th North Area Pedestrian Lighting Project,
1.394 million for the Fairway Drive Traffic Calming Project
and 495,000 for the Safe Routes to School
Pedestrian Safety Enhancements Project.
OK.
I think just in terms of what are the types of projects that
go forth for submittal, just in terms of our role
and the kind of oversight.
And I would like to have, at least
have like the menu or the universe of projects
that are up for analysis to just kind of understand
what is the universe of projects that staff is thinking
about submitting for the County Commission
for possible funding.
I would say just in terms of timing,
I'm just a, you know, we're a week out
or 10 days out from the deadline.
And I definitely don't want to kind of put the brakes
on any of these very important projects
throughout the city, but the process by which the projects
that are eligible, it seems a little unclear to me.
But maybe it's, you know, I'm not on facilities.
I'm not on ACTC.
So as a member of this council, I just
felt a little bit like in the dark about what were the,
even what was even being considered for analysis
and what projects didn't make the cut.
Because as our, anyway, so I'll just leave that there.
I don't have any time to see back.
So those are all my comments.
No worries, coming to Council Member Bowen.
Thank you, Mayor.
A few questions.
So I'm looking at the different projects
that we were submitting to and submitting.
and for East 14th Street, North Area pedestrian lighting,
fairway drive traffic calming and safe routes
to school pedestrian safety enhancement projects.
That makes sense to me in terms of bike pad safety.
Again, which I'd mentioned earlier is a priority for ACC.
Can you share a little bit about
the regional emergency stabilization
for coastal utility and egress
and why that is a competitive application?
Hi, I can take that, JCD, my city engineer.
So the per the,
Alameda County Transportation Commission guidelines,
they have $200 million,
but there are several different pots of money
that make up that $200,000.
Specifically, there is a program category
called three major trails.
And those three,
one of those three major trails is the Bay Trail.
So $15 million of that $200 million is available
specifically for the major trails program.
And we felt that the rescue project
would compete favorably
and were actually pretty strongly
for that money that's available.
Thank you.
And then the other clarifying question that I had,
and I mean, I do sit on ACTC for Supervisor Tam,
and I also sit on the policy committee,
which actually approves their CIP plan
that then goes to the full board.
I do actually remember in May
when we approved it to go out for bids,
bringing it as public comment for the council as well,
and I think encouraging staff to continue the work
to fund these projects.
And I wanted to dig a little bit deeper
with you, Director Markey says, about that process
for picking the projects.
So we have our CIP plan too.
I get all my acronyms mixed up.
We have the plan that we say, these are our priority projects.
Then we have our master plans,
like local roadway safety.
We have Vision Zero, for example.
And then you have to overlay that
on top of the eligible project categories,
bicycle and or pedestrian capital projects and programs.
So specifically for bike and ped,
complete streets, capital and road improvement projects.
So our crossed on corridors project is a good example.
I think, Dr. McKees, you've actually been pulled
into ACTC meetings for all of us
to give a presentation on it
because people are so excited about that project,
which is why they were so willing to fund that.
Transit related capital projects,
so like the East Bay Greenway Project,
so that we have, no, not that one.
Bus, bus, got it.
And then shuttle and other program operations
and technology projects.
So that specifically are the eligible project categories
and that's why these particular projects are on there.
Did I miss anything?
No, you got that right, correct.
Okay, thank you.
So I'm just gonna clarify
before going to Council Member Regulat.
So we've got major trails at 15 million.
Do you have the funding for the other categories handy?
Yes.
If you could proceed, please.
For the bicycle and pedestrian program,
there's 31 million.
Transit program, 21 million.
Community and transit-oriented development, 35 million.
Technology program, 20 million.
Freight and economic, 10 million.
Three major trails was the 15 million.
The multiple program eligibility,
which includes toll revenues, fund for clean air,
one area grant program
and community action and resource and empowerment
is 68 million.
Six eight.
Six eight.
Thank you.
Councilman Regaleta, coming to you.
Victor, Regaleta.
Thank you, Mayor.
I'd like to move item 5G.
Since I have not made my comments yet,
I'm gonna ask you to pause before accepting your motion.
So there have been a lot of discussions I represent the city of San Landoro and a ctc
and there have been discussions with a ctc about ways to
Bring funding specifically to Lake Chabot Road. That was a meeting with
Supervisors county supervisors
Folks from Bay of vista and
Others around methods to get funding and exploring that funding
I've had individual conversations
with the executive director.
And the reason that I'm struggling,
because our vice mayor has said that she doesn't want
to stop this, but at the same time,
I think there's a certain angst there,
because if there were an opportunity to receive funding
for Lake Chaville Road,
it seems like our efforts to pursue that
there's no opportunity in this as we continue to have those discussions at
the I'll call it at the political level on behalf of this city. And so what I'd
like to see is an expansion of this list for I don't have a better term than
placeholder that if we were able to get some indications from ACTC with
respect to the viability of a Lake Chabot Road investment at this time with a
full recognition that their priorities keep evolving and the like it would be
my preference that in addition to these four that we had a fifth item that
effectively says funding to support this the stabilization of Lake Chabot Road
with a focus on slides two and three. I know that we've got historical design
my recollection is that we do have a 100% design there has been some additional
slippage and we might need to update that so funding for updated design and
I'd work with staff on getting the best language but all I'm looking for is
council for council support to have a placeholder with the recognition that it
might not work out but that we at least have the option to explore and if ACTC
says no that's that's really not going to work it's not viable that's okay we
only have seven days I think the date is seven days not ten that's correct right
so so with that in mind I want to come back to Vice Mayor because I knew you
had this this thing in mind that you were trying to verbalize and I don't
know if I have captured it or not and then I will proceed with other council
members and then we'll look for a motion. yes Vice Mayor yes I don't want
to pool a list of projects that we have these are all very worthy and important
projects but I'll leave that there and then I'll because you asked me a
specific question a colleague clocked in before I did so I'll log off and then
Can I get back on the queue?
Okay, Council Member Bowen.
It's fine.
I was trying to explore, given the,
given the, sorry, I gotta pull this up.
The categories and the priority areas
and the criteria for the projects,
the MacArthur Roundabout is a very good example
of a project that ACTC would fund
and has been part of the conversation
with actually, we as an ACTC
has actually launched a program called CRISP
which is specifically focused on those sort of right away
or those areas around ramps to make sure
that they can be safer and so I was trying to figure out
if we have had past funding in the past for ACTC
or if there would be a potential to get more funding
from ACTC so that we could take those funds
from the general fund that we have allocated
for the MacArthur Roundabout
and then use it for other projects.
I can do a quick answer.
So MacArthur Boulevard Roundabout
was certainly considered for this round.
However, the funding for this capital improvement program
for ACTC is gonna be available in 2028.
And that is after we are hopeful
that the construction of the roundabout is gonna start.
So the funding would be available too late for us to use.
Okay, great.
Thank you so much.
And I love that we've affirmed
that we are going to get it done maybe even sooner.
Okay.
Vice Mayor, please.
I mean, certainly this is just grant.
These are not just grant applications,
but these are grant applications that we'll be submitting.
I understand that adding a fifth one would add an additional application.
Mayor, I just wanted to clarify, are you proposing that we direct staff to have conversations with
ACTC about the viability of that before we submit an application? I'm just worried about the timing.
So the timing would consist of it is my personal intention to speak with ACTC Executive Director
tomorrow.
Because I do want to understand just is it realistic, is it aligned with what they're
doing right now?
Because if it's not aligned, I really don't want to submit something that's going to take
the place of another project.
It's very important to me that we not pursue the wrong opportunity.
And so that's something I want to be mindful of.
But the problem is, as written, there is no opportunity to explore.
And so that's why I'm saying it would be nice if the motion left open that possibility.
And I'm fully cognizant that there were seven days.
And so the most that it could ever take is six to write the application.
But first, let's find out.
and without that ability, without that opening,
it obviates the need for a conversation.
Thank you, and I appreciate, I think this is one of our,
this to me shows two things.
One, how we can support each other in terms of
where the various committees that we sit on
and bring that back to the council,
And I know Council Member Bowen mentioned it at the end of the council meeting where
we provide reports, but I think one, this provides a learning opportunity I think for
me to keep kind of a closer eye on these reports because I think it might have just like slipped.
But second, I appreciate Mayor using your position
at ACTC representing San Leandro and kind of utilizing
that positionality to explore whether this is even
a feasible thing, even if it is a reach.
And I understand that it will put if there is even
if the executive director expresses some sort of like,
It could be, I certainly don't want to put
other projects at risk that where we know
that the analysis shows that we have a higher incidence
of getting it approved.
So what appreciate mayor for utilizing,
and that's the whole reason why you're probably sitting
on that commission to represent us and advocate for that.
But also just as a learning opportunity to make sure
that as these funding opportunities come up
and the committees that we're all sitting in
that we elevated in a way
that it kind of raises the consciousness of like,
okay, grant applications are coming up for BCDC or MTC
or, you know, and kind of understand,
have a better understanding of all the intersection
of all those committees that we sit in, thank you.
Okay, council member Orland and then council member Bowen
in that order.
Thank you, mayor Gonzalez.
I like to again move item 5G to include possibilities
to figure out if there's potential
to build an application to fund Lake Chabot Road
and to have the conversation with Tony Tavares from ACTC.
That's my motion. Thank you.
one moment please and can you I think add into that motion the recognition
that we do not want to put the existing grant opportunities at risk yes okay
thank you for that clarification councilmember Bowen please thank you
just a follow-up question that I just remembered I know that the for each
project submission there are award minimum requests and maximum requests
and then the minimum matches for them. I can't remember Mayor if you might know
or if director Marquis says for ACTC amongst the 14 jurisdictions is there a
cap on how much we can be awarded per jurisdiction or they can just give
family under all of all of the money. There's no cap per jurisdiction but
There is a cap of ten million dollars per project. Okay. Thank you
Then vice mayor you set you had been in there a little bit but you're said okay
So I will go ahead and second the motion made by councilmember Victor again that seeing no further discussion. Please vote
All votes are in and the motion carries unanimously with six. Yes votes and councilmember Simon being absent
Okay at this point in time we do not have any city attorney or city manager reports
Public comment we will take public comment on items that are not listed on our agenda today
But are within the subject matter jurisdiction of this council
How many cards do we have madam clerk?
Mayor we have not received any comment cards for this item. Okay, so we will close public comment in person
Do we have any hands online?
Yes, we have three hands raised online. Okay, please proceed we open to a comment online
Our first online speaker is named Celia Esposito. Noi
Good evening mayor and City Council members. My name is Celia Esposito Noi. I am speaking on behalf of
our family and homeowners in the
Fulton Avenue area next to Assumption Church
As you may have heard, there is a vacant lot there that is owned by PG&E.
It is unfenced, and for quite some time now, there have been homeless encampments there.
Both the Suction Church and neighbors along Fulton Avenue have been documenting the frequency
in which the homeless encampment has been established there, threats to the neighborhood,
possible break-ins to the church.
And we certainly understand while this is not the city's responsibility, we are asking
for assistance from the mayor from staff regarding connecting with PG&E.
This property has been unfenced for well over 60 years.
And the fact that there is plenty of room for fencing and access for those who have
an easement agreement with PG&E, they have never fenced this property and it's become
more and more dangerous.
So I'm asking if staff could work with me and the other neighbors on Fulton Avenue to
see if we can pressure PG&E to attend to this issue and at least fence off their property.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next online speaker is Douglas Spaulding.
Thank you very much.
A little potpourri here.
First, I want to give a shout out to Brian Copeland.
I think a lot of people are very happy.
you so much Brian for yet another incredible edition of comedy in the
plaza. You know I he looks remarkable although I will say I did try to give
him a chest bump and for some reason he ran away. Hmm if I wasn't laughing I'd
be crying. I do not think there's enough time for the the hazard mitigation plan
which is closing on this Friday. I don't know why you don't widen the window and
also why you're not taking public comments on this. It seems like a very
important issue that touches on many things from not just wildfires but what
about earthquakes and what we learned from the we go presentation is we don't
even know where to go to if there's an evacuation. So it seems like there's a
lot a lot of work to be done. Third up I want to say I want to thank the SLPD
for releasing the video in the critical incident report from May 7th, and thank you, Mike Katsakob,
for pointing out it was way overdue. I did watch the video. It's difficult to watch,
but I want to send a compliment, especially to Officer Q, in particular, for his calm demeanor
and de-escalation techniques. I thought the team as a whole worked together very well up to the
moment of the shooting, you know, and then we need more information. So, you know, when and where
the gun appeared, was it appointed to officers and, you know, our use of force things. This
seems very analogous to the the 2019 incident, which involved Anthony Gomez, you know, in a
suicide by cop kind of scenario. And finally, in 10 seconds, I want to say, hey, we say later,
We have a data center debate, uh, make no doubts about it.
Uh, currently the mayor and at least one of the city council persons are in favorite.
Thank you, sir.
Your time has elapsed.
Our next online speaker is Christopher Bamer.
Hello.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Um, I've been called a lot of things in my lifetime, uh, but not a, uh, professional
anything, I'm not claiming to be a professional, but I do know when you build
something, you got to have a good foundation. And once it's
built, you got to have a good roof. Two things that the Casa
Peralta needs very badly, foundation and a roof. So just
those two costs alone are going to be probably over $10 million.
You guys are worried about the windows and this, that and the
other thing. Why don't we use this property to make some
money? Why don't we do a long term lease and have a restaurant
buy it? And they can use some of the special tiles and some of
of the special features and things from the house
in the design of a new restaurant.
And then you can make the waiting area
and all throughout the restaurant history
of the Casa Peralta.
And we can get some tax revenue
and we can have a long-term lease.
And maybe that'll help out somebody, you know,
that's possibly down in the marina,
which is falling apart and it looks like a dump site.
Just some thoughts, I would like to see a complete
and thorough reconciliation of the bank account
for the Casa Peralta.
Let's just say from 2016 till now,
I'd like to see the ins and outs of the money,
where it went, why it went, things like that.
The bus stops around the greenhouse.
I mean, I've spoke about the greenhouse for years.
Now that we've got this brand new navigation center
that we spent way too much money for,
and we're helping a couple dozen people,
There's a lot of loitering going on.
The bus stop in front of Foodmax,
the bus stop in front of the old Goodwill,
the old Goodwill building.
I mean, that's been a discussion for years too,
and it looks great.
They just took the bus stop out
in front of McDonald's on like Friday.
I drove by this morning
and now the new bench has already knocked over.
My daughter's got to use that bus stop to get to school.
And it's not a very safe area right there.
Can we do something about the greenhouse?
Maybe.
Thank you. Mayor, there are no more hands raised online.
Thank you. So at this point we will close
online public comment. Please give me one minute.
Okay, at this point in time, we will move on to our next item
on the agenda. We do have a public hearing
regarding some 2026 liens for non-payment for various
charges. And I think we do have our assistant finance director, if I remember correctly.
Felicia Silva here to present this item. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Felicia Silva,
assistant finance director, Mayor Gonzalez and Vice Mayor Viveros-Walton here to present
the city of San Leandro annual liens for 26-27. So the San Leandro municipal code allows us to
collect certain delinquent fees through an assessment lien on the property tax bill. These
are primarily related to public health and safety and allows the city to ensure fiscal sustainability.
Charges subject to assessment lien include sidewalk
and driveway repair, code enforcement and compliance,
solid waste through ACI or Alameda County Industries,
fire inspections, CUPA,
which is our Certified Unified Program Agency
and wastewater charges for commercial users.
The typical process that the lien will follow is we start with an initial billing for services
that the departments work with the customers and it will be through either issuing a citation
or through a service provided, an invoice is sent by finance and then both program staff
as well as finance work with customers to answer any questions on the billing as well
as to provide potential payment options.
We do everything in our power to work with our customers to make sure that they have
every opportunity to pay before we start the lien process.
Following that we do have monthly statements statements are sent monthly and again working
with the departments to make sure that they're given every opportunity to pay.
We have some legal notice requirements.
It is required that we publish in our local paper, and we did that on July 3rd and July
10th.
We also, in order to reach more potentially affected, we did an additional on July 17th.
So in addition to those published legal notices, we also do send three notices of intent, starting
in May, June, and July.
And in July, they also get information regarding the public hearing details.
After the legal noticing, we have our public hearing, and of course, that's where we are
today.
And after we have our public hearing today then we will go through the collection process
again giving all of our customers every opportunity to pay anything that is outstanding at the
end of July right before we need to submit to the county in August any of those potential
property owners will be taken off the lien list.
With that, I want to point you to a three-year lien summary.
We have three years of history.
I want to call your attention to 2627.
We have a count of 257 accounts that will be assessed.
And then at $753,000, again, an important footnote at the bottom, that these amounts
reflect balances as of July 9th, 2026.
again those ongoing efforts to collect before any account is sent to the county for a lien
assessment and we have been continuing to do that we'll continue to do that all the way through
that august submission to the county our recommendation today is for city council
to take the following actions close the public hearing adopt resolution to impose liens for
non-payment and adopt resolution to overall protests and happy to answer any
questions. Okay so prior to opening up the public hearing I will see if there
are any questions from council members. Okay seeing none the time is 832 832 and
I am opening the public hearing. We have members from the public who are
commenting at this hearing. Mayor we've not received any comment cards from here
in the room but we do have one hand raised online. Okay please proceed online.
The first online speaker is Douglas Spaulding. Thank you very much I just
would like to clarify I didn't hear it in your presentation so I hope it's not
true but you know if someone has overdue parking tickets is that something that
That the city might place a lien on I tried calling the citation processing center, but you can't get a hold of anyone
So I would have asked a question there
Uh, I kind of need to clear my tickets. I need an abstract so I can take the dmv so I can register my car
But there's no way to do that either. So, you know, here's another
Csa, I guess we hired somebody to do our parking for us way down in the south land and
You don't pay well, you're you're you're out of luck. That's uh, that's what that's what stands for due to processing stakes. Thanks
thank you mayor there are no more hands raised online okay the time is 834 and
I'm closing the public hearing I do have a question to follow up on our public
commenter our parking tickets part of this lien process no they are not okay
thank you for the clarification is there any further discussion from council
members. If not I will entertain to adopt staffs three recommendations.
Councilmember Victor Aguilar. I'd like to make the motion to adopt staffs
recommendation. Vice mayor. I second. Okay so we have a motion councilmember
Victor Aguilar to adopt staffs three recommendations. The second from our
vice from our vice mayor. Seeing no further discussion please vote. All
votes are in and the motion carries unanimously with six yes votes and
Councilmember Simon being absent. Okay at this point in time we do not have a
presentation item number nine. Item number 10 is a motion to appoint David
Jackson 10a to be precise the motion to appoint David Jackson to the committee
police review board. I don't know that we really need a presentation so to
speak okay so are there any questions about this item on this item because we
already had public hearing on the nomination do we need do we need public
comment on this item typically we handle this in a minute order that we don't we
normally do not okay because people have spoken at the nomination period okay so
with that being said I wouldn't move because he is my pointy I will move the
the appointment of David Jackson to the CPRB. Vice Mayor. Second. Okay. Having a
motion and a second for the appointment of David Jackson Community Police
Review Board and no further discussion please vote. The motion carries
unanimously with all members voting yes and council member Simon being absent.
Okay thank you at this point we've got item 10 B. 10 B is a second reading of the ordinance. As you will may recall last time I voted no because I wanted a little bit further discussion on this item specifically. So if we can proceed with your presentation. Planning Manager Lee.
good evening mayor Gonzales members of the City Council my name is William Lee
playing manager for the city. The item before you is the second reading
adoption of an ordinance amending the city's off-street parking regulations
and establishing new transportation demand management or TDM requirements
on new development. The council introduces ordinance on July 6th by a vote
of four to one with two council members absent. What does the ordinance do? The
The ordinance has two primary components.
First, it repeals and replaces a zoning code chapter 4.08,
which is the chapter of the zoning ordinance
which regulates off-street parking requirements
for new development.
The amendments serve to simplify
our existing parking requirements.
They update minimum parking standards
to better match actual demand.
They modernize bicycle parking standards
and it requires unbundling of parking for housing projects
of five or more units.
For clarification, it does not change parking standards
for single-family homes.
Second, the ordinance adopts a new zoning code chapter
to add transportation demand management requirements
on new development.
And this complements the parking updates
by encouraging a reduction in vehicle trips
and the demand for parking generated by new developments.
This slide summarizes the reasons
why we're proposing this ordinance today.
First, it supports the city's climate action plan
by reducing vehicle mile traveled
and greenhouse gas emissions through the new TDM program.
Second, the city's housing element
identified minimum parking requirements
as a constraint to new housing production,
and identified that applications for parking reductions
add time, cost, and uncertainty to development review.
This ordinance removes those barriers to housing production.
And third, new state law now dictates
where and how cities may impose parking requirements.
And this ordinance brings San Leandro into alignment
with those state laws.
Just real quickly, the ordinance bills
on several years of work, beginning with the 2021 Climate
Action Plan, 2023 housing element.
It went through community workshops and stakeholder
engagements in 2025 and was and first reading for the council occurred on July
6th. In conclusion staff recommends the council hold the second reading adopt
ordinance 2026 009. If the council adopts ordinance evening it will take
effect within 30 days. This concludes my presentation available into any questions
that the council may have. Do we have any questions? Okay. So I will begin chapter 410,
the transportation demand management plan. There's a mandatory provision for all projects
to have bicycle repair stations. Tell me a little bit more about that, how that would
work as a practical matter for let's say I redo the strip mall, tear it down, rebuild
it on east 14th. But how does that work? Who gets that station? It's a separate bay
in the strip mall. That's a good question. Actually, and to summarize, the transportation
demand management regulations has some mandatory components and some optional
components. Originally when they brought the item forward to the Planning
Commission the bicycle pair station was an optional element and in discussion
with the Planning Commission they felt that it was such a low-hanging fruit
that it required so little capital costs and operating expenses that it
should really just be a mandatory measure that all new commercial and
and residential developments undertake.
So it wouldn't be, in practice it wouldn't be a large,
like physical commitment in terms of space
towards the station, but it'd be the,
it would just house some basic equipment
to conduct the repairs.
So every new building built in the city of San Leandro
will have a bicycle repair station?
Every new building that meets the minimum thresholds
for triggering TDM requirements,
which I forget the square footage
for commercial development,
but I can turn that to you in just a moment.
But it's going to be anything that's a material.
Right, most significant.
The reason, one of the things
that really troubles me about this
is that if we think about what we're trying to do
with parking is have joint use of parking.
We're saying we need to have shared facilities, and much in the same spirit, it strikes me
that we shouldn't have every single new building within the parameters needs to have a bicycle
repair station.
It seems like there are some economies of scale, and that I just don't understand how
That cost imposition on every building is a good thing,
particularly commercial buildings.
We can argue about residential buildings.
Should every residential building have a car repair location
or a bicycle repair location
or any variety of transportation repair locations?
Because people live there,
that's where they're gonna have their vehicles,
their bikes, et cetera.
But to say every new building of any real size
needs to have one I'm really struggling with.
Can you explain the motivation other than, oh, well, it's,
why not have it, as opposed to there's a logic
why every new building should have it?
Right.
I'll say that our TDM consultant for the project
evaluated a menu of different options
for mandatory and optional TDM elements.
And they were selected because they actually
moved the needle in terms of reducing vehicle
trips, reducing the demand for parking overall. And it was, and through
the public process, it was important for, it was conveyed through the
stakeholder sessions. It was important to have, to not be an impediment to
development. So the option, the mandatory measures that were recommended
or ones that staff evaluated and our consult evaluated for kind of the
reasonability and imposing on on new development without being without being a
barrier to development of of in this case commercial development. May I add
through the mayor? There is a good faith effort clause so that if in the
determination of the zoning enforcement official a applicant has made a good
fee effort to comply and it doesn't make sense given their certain parameters
the zoning enforcement official can can waive something if it's infeasible just
so to provide we do like to provide a bit of discretion because not every
situation is alike and then they think the threshold you were looking for
wheeling was the 50,000 square foot buildings yeah thank you so larger
projects thank you so for example could someone meet the requirement by having a
parking station repair station just on the back the loading gate area absolutely
won't it won't have to take up a large space it definitely wouldn't take up
the leaseable tenant space and I think our ordinance is meant to be like an
introductory ordinance some cities take TDM very seriously they're very
stringent requirements that are monitored and they're at quite a cost
this is an introductory level where people make their best effort there are
the mandatory and some optional items but it's meant to still facilitate
development which is which is the primary goal here. Thank you. How good of
council member Bowen please. Thank you mayor. Your questions brought up some
things for me and then I had an additional question. I remember asking
about some of the options that developers could have and I remember the
content saying that they were like low-cost like education etc for like a
A bike repair like could it be something as simple as like having like a pump available or you know
So that if you get a flat tire you can fix it
But it's not like a full like you can come here. It's a one-stop shop to fix your bike
I I think the way you expressed is correct. It's it's the intention is to to have that that those base the basic equipment to allow
Resonance or employees to
Repair their bicycle so that they can get get to work get to home get to where they need to go
Okay, great, and then if we could just go to slide three
around
The policy direction and why we're doing this
Yes that one I really really really appreciate this especially as we're talking to the work plan like how do these things scaffold up?
Like this is directly it is
our Vision Zero plan is that built is that part of our 2021 climate action
plan or is that something separate that we can also I think call out as policy
direction not to speak for other departments but I think Vision Zero is
more about safety and there is some overlap the bicycle and pedestrian
planning looks both at Vision Zero and climate goals and so that's the merging
of the climate and the safety piece it's the pedestrian bicycle master plan but
for this particular item I wouldn't say that it it is rooted in vision zero
policy okay I was just thinking about the fact that we're trying to enable
more people to use their bikes yeah and so I just part of like how do we I guess
because I guess business it was focused on safety for bicyclists yeah got it
Okay. Okay. That's it for now and then I'll have comments later.
So do you have one other question? I know that the parking minimums, there's part of
the work that results or that has been driven by compliance with state law. And then there's
a separate part which is just our desire that's introduced but it's not necessary for compliance
with state law. The concern that I'd expressed at the other meeting specifically focused
on construction in parts of the city where street parking at night is already quite challenging.
And to say that we aren't introducing parking minimums, that some of those parking locations
are residential my concern was that residential neighborhoods could well be
impacted in locations that already don't have enough parking through the
introduction of construction that doesn't have parking minimums and and
specifically said well can we impose an assurance that the people that don't
have parking spaces will also not have cars. So the question is two parts. First,
when it comes to the residential impacts of the construction of those facilities
that don't have parking minimums or have reduced parking minimums, how are we
taking the the the externality, the impact on those neighbors? How are we
taking that into account because it's to the benefit of the builder that's to
the detriment of the existing property owners so I'll just start with that one
how do we take that into account thank you Mary and recognizing that there are
residential neighborhoods in the city that where there are existing parking
problems I think the the updated parking standards the attempt to right-size and
calibrate the parking minimums to the actual demand
that's established based on the use,
and that's based on peak demand.
So I think the intention of the ordinance
is not to create standards that would,
in and of themselves, push the impact
onto residential streets,
but the calibrated to what the actual anticipated demand
of those uses are.
In those neighborhoods, I'll also point out that
in largely single family neighborhoods,
the ordinance doesn't,
the ordinance that the revised parking requirements
don't affect single family homes
so that those standards would not change.
And the ordinance also replies prospectively
to new development, so there'd be no obligation for,
there'd be no, there'd be little effect
on those existing, existing streets
that cover your question.
If I build an apartment complex
that has very little parking,
and it's not near public transit,
I'm assuming that we recognize
that people will then end up parking
in the neighborhood streets near the building.
may I add to that, Whelan?
Yes.
I think one thing to be mindful of
is that the standards are scaled based
on the number of bedrooms in each unit.
So there's not a one size fits all parking standard.
Larger units are required to provide
under the ordinance more parking spaces.
But the feedback we received throughout
many professional analyses of our code
was that we had very, I would say like,
suburban, more old-fashioned parking requirements
that hadn't kept up with the times.
And so the two spaces per unit for the three bedrooms
and the one space per unit for the studio in one bedrooms
is meant to right-size the parking requirement,
not over park.
And so I think you're absolutely correct.
We cannot cap how many cars people have,
trends change with vehicle ownership.
In general, it's getting more expensive to own a vehicle
There are more options like ride share and other things that that make it, you know easier and then even with like autonomous
Vehicles, like I think there's a prediction that in the future there will be less vehicle ownership
But we're not we're not designing this code to that future
We're designing it to what we understand the demand to be today from the professionals we hired
But I do just want to highlight that scaling because it is critical if you have a three-bedroom unit one car is not
Likely to be enough, right?
Okay so I'll end with one last question and that's when I think about Central
Callan. I think about the fact that they are looking for additional parking. When
I think of 1388 Bancroft, it was going to be sufficient parking because the
parking was going to be on the street. And so I'm struggling a bit outside of
our high density network and I think the old map I can't remember if it was the
green zone down East 14th or if that was a blue those one was one color and the
other one was the other color I really don't have a problem with our high
density focus East 14th but I am still struggling with outside of that legally
we have to do East 14th outside of that we're choosing to do it I just I mean I
don't feel comfortable yet, but you probably have the votes. I'm gonna go to
public comment on this item. Mayor, we've not received any comment cards on this
item and there are no hands raised online. Okay, so we'll close public
comment. Any other thoughts, questions, comments? Council Member Bould. Yes, thank
you. I would like to thank Council Member Bould because those were my exact
questions when you ask the beginning of yours. The only other part of that was I
know there's a menu that the Planning Commission looks at and says okay this
is less. So there were some other things that were a little more I'll just say
maybe extringent or cost prohibitive that they chose this one to be a part of
the program. So I think it is the right approach. I was gonna ask what does a
typical bike shop look like in this scenario and oftentimes it's just a room
with like a bike stand and their ability to change a tire, fix the chain.
It's not meant to overhaul a bike for for a long period so it's a smaller space
And and that was captured in the comments, so I was just reiterating that
Anything my comments or anything we can do in the process to help us. You know
Garner more housing and development in our city is what we need to be looking at
And obviously bringing us up to the state codes is very important to us
So I will be in favor of this and I appreciate all the hard work you guys have done for this
process
Thank You council more Bowen, please
Yes, I just wanted to move the item and I love that policy direction is still up there because that's why
Okay, so then I'll offer my comments
So we have a motion from Councilmember Bowen my quick comments are focusing on two things first
I'm not convinced that the evidence points to
The housing minimum is causing the lack of development or the parking minimum is causing the lack of development in San Leandro in particular
I think there's lots of other reasons why housing is not being built in San Leandro and this is not one of them
I am also very concerned about the result on
neighborhoods there are places where we have to make the change I'm totally
fine with that right do we need to be compliant with state law and that's good
and that's appropriate we have talked about driving development into the east
14th corridor and this achieves that goal to the extent that parking minimums are
keeping housing from being built I look at Central Callum looking for more
parking that's just an indication that no they need more parking than what we
let them build parking with and I think that the same thing will happen at 1388.
So my approach and is very much focused on let's do what we have to do to be
compliant and let's focus on the other areas to make sure we understand the
impacts to neighbors and to neighborhoods because I do not currently
believe that that's the impediment to housing being built in the city of San
I do support the densification along East 14th. I've said that since I started on the council. I do support the development of downtown and Bayfair more housing more housing more housing.
But the way that we're approaching this as a bundle, I do not agree with.
I'll come back to someone for a second, please.
Council member bolt.
Second.
Okay, any further discussion on this item.
Seeing none please vote. All votes are in and the motion carries with five yes
votes. One no vote from Mayor Gonzalez and one council member being absent
council member Simon. Okay at this point in time we'll move to our next item
which is item 11. We do not have any council requests to schedule agenda
we've got items and then we've got item 12 our reports.
Please proceed Council Member Bowen.
Thank you Mayor, I just wanna share something
that we had an extensive presentation
at our last stop waste meeting focused
on stop waste, it was the stop waste campaign date,
label update and this is important
and something that I have to get used to
and other council members to be aware of as well.
But the issue with date labels is there's a confusion
over expiration date.
So if you ever buy food, it's like sell by date,
best by date, use by date.
And what's happening because of that
is over 20% of the food that we buy goes to waste.
And we look at food waste and how much of detrimental harm
that causes to the environment.
It's one of the core focus areas of stop waste.
And so California, AB 660, which was signed into law in 2024,
became effective July 1st, 2026,
and what AB660 did was to standardize food date labeling
by requiring the use of best if used by for quality
and used by for safety.
So there's no longer a sell by label
and that was actually something between like the distributor
and then like the grocery stores.
So that wasn't actually meant for consumers.
So that's something for us just to be more aware of
for food safety and then obviously talking
about the environment.
The other thing that I wanted to highlight
is that I had the opportunity to have a very busy travel week.
But I went to the local progress conference last week.
And I just wanted to share a few things that were really
highlighted as critical focus areas for electives
across the country.
But the conversation that we had, which we've talked about,
was really focused on affordability
and how do cities work together,
especially with stakeholders in the community
and in partnership with the council and staff
to figure out ways to identify what are the causes
of people in terms of affordability
and what we can do to move that along.
Immigration we talked about
and then also mitigations around data centers
and the questions around AI also was a big focus area.
And then the one thing that I would have to say
that the facilitators of a workshop
that was one of the most popular said,
five years ago we never had to have this sort of workshop,
but it was really around safety for elected officials,
whether that was to do with just the state
of political discourse and political violence
and so harassment, threats, things of that nature.
And so that was a really interesting thing
that I really appreciated.
And then at AAPI LEAD, which is the only national organization
for local up-to-federal appointed elected officials,
was this weekend.
And the focus was on public-private partnerships,
something that we've been talking about at this council,
combating anti-Asian hate, civic innovation in AI,
and then also being able to hear from our highest-ranking AAPI
elected ever, which was VP Kamala Harris, which
was really wonderful and inspiring,
And then the last thing that I wanna spotlight
and take direction from Council Member James Aguilar,
when he did the staff highlight,
I wanna say that I had a constituent reach out
and tell me that there was like a stop sign
that was faded and could staff do anything about it.
And it was one of those situations where staff could,
and we happened to have a stop sign
and it was taken care of.
And so I really appreciate that promptness.
And then the work that we had talked about
at the last work plan around the really collaborative effort
that the departments have focused on helping our unhoused
and also public safety for our residents.
I had a situation that where we learned
of a potential public safety, a real public safety issue
and staff were able to go out there
with all of the different departments
and find out that here's how we can address,
find starting to figure out how to address it
and that many of the folks were actually on the list
to go to the navigation center.
So it means that there is this pipeline
and obviously we need more housing,
but shout out to staff for being able
to be really responsive in the best way
to figure out a solution and move us forward.
Vice Mayor, please.
Two announcement, or one announcement
and one event that I attended
that I wanted to encourage my colleagues
to explore a little bit.
One, wanted to alert the community and the council
that SLIA is looking for an executive director.
So they're currently recruiting.
And so if you have any candidates
that you think might be a good fit,
all the information is on SLIA's website.
And then the other event that I attended
was on Saturday, June 27th at the Salyander Library.
The Bay of Vista Homeowners Association
along with the mayor and Supervisor Tam
co-hosted a presentation on a study
that the community funded through a UC Berkeley startup
accelerator that specializes in creating models of evacuation and it was a
really powerful presentation and what I just want to elevate for for us to think
about was this is something that the community had voiced in terms of concern
and the the data and the various scenarios actually reflected that
reality. And it was a really powerful presentation and I know that the Bay of
Vista Neighborhood Association, Homeowners Association, has been reaching
out to my colleagues to do like a mini version of that presentation. I would
really I would really want to ask you to consider that. It is it is done by folks
who are experts in this and it is a really compelling and actually quite
scary as a person who lives in that neighborhood thinking about just how
much it matters if you evacuate between one minute to five minutes to ten
minutes and how long you wait and what that could mean for for those folks so
I just wanted to elevate that presentation and also my gratitude for
those who organized it.
It was a really well-attended event,
and it was just enlightening,
but also informative and also a little scary.
I also, since I was not here at the previous meeting,
I just wanted to elevate my gratitude
to the San Leandro team
for a fantastic Fourth of July celebration.
I wasn't here for the last meeting
where y'all probably gave those kudos
and those appreciations, but I did want to elevate that.
And those are all my comments, thank you.
Okay, so I'll wrap this up.
I also, I think one of our commenters mentioned
the Brian Copeland Comedy in the Plaza event.
Very well attended, just really good, wholesome,
lots of laughter, lots of smiles.
So thank you to Mr. Copeland.
And he had a number of donors who donated in-kind.
And they raised enough money to provide 150 backpacks
and new shoes to San Leandro or to folks
that work in collaboration with Davis Street.
Had the opportunity after that event
to join the All-Star Game of the Women's Premier Basketball
Association, which is a developmental league that
hosting games here at the Sandlander High School gym. It is apparently the only
league of its type working with professional players who are looking to
get into the WNBA who have come oftentimes out of college. Many of them
get placed on international teams if they're not placed in the WNBA and so
there's a lot of encouragement to just spread the word because they'll be
playing here at the Sandlander High School gym over the next four weeks and
spend some time with their founder today to explore ways in which we might
promote this activity here. I can tell you that from watching the game,
extremely fast-paced. I mean it's professional quality basketball. These are
D1 players that are looking to make it into the pros, so there's no there's no
lack of activity energy on the court. Join the California Hispanic Chamber of
commerce gathering in Oakland and it's always good to represent the city of San
Landro by being present, meet with a number of business owners who are
thinking about where they operate their businesses. So sometimes being present
is a good thing and I'll leave it at that. Friday also involved a visit to
the Lawrence Berkeley Science Hall or Lawrence Berkeley National Labs. The
Bay Area Council is very focused on making sure that electeds understand
the the cutting edge of technology that is being developed in these labs. Finding
ways to work with activate which is their I'll call it their accelerator to
make sure that businesses find a home. So I continue to encourage folks to make
those connections with those startup companies as we look to expand business
into San Leandro. Grateful for Walmart for their kind of grand reopening after
their remodel. So much joy. It was great to see so many employees. I was
astounded by the number of employees that received certificates for decades
of service at this Walmart location. So that's pretty cool when you see that
kind of commitment to an organization, and the organization reciprocates.
There is an ask from the senior commission specifically, but I have heard this from other
commissions, and that it's good for us to visit them from time to time, just to drop
in and see the work that they're doing, because sometimes I think they feel a little bit forgotten.
And even though what they do percolates up to us to watch them in action, I think can
and provide them some satisfaction.
So it was a specific request to my council
that I promised to bring back to join meetings,
but I'm extending it to all the commissions,
because I know the commissioners do work hard.
From ACTC projects committee, one of the things
I just want to highlight is that the East Bay Greenway has
gone from idea to concept in motion to design.
it's now going to be built.
And so the contracts have been let for contracts approved
for the San Leandro Boulevard portion of that.
And the next step of the,
the next construction contract letting will be
for the East 14th portion of that.
So over the next three-ish years,
maybe four-ish years,
we should expect the East Bay Greenway to be realized.
I know that the original dream had been to put it
along the railroad tracks.
It's not a decommissioned track line,
but it's an inactive track line.
But as a practical matter, that could not become a reality.
And so there was a pivot, and we should
see lots of activity here in San Leandro, construction
activity.
I do want to thank Senator Grayson for coming out
to San Leandro and spending time in Lena Tam's office
and in particular just fielding questions, cold questions,
just whatever they were and addressing them head on
and meeting with constituents about their concerns.
So I'll pause and come back to Councilor Bowen.
I don't do it on purpose.
I just remember something when you started talking Mayor.
I did want to acknowledge,
and I know that we can't do recommendations for everything
and there are many things you want to recognize,
but July is also Disability Pride Month,
and one in four adults have a disability.
And as somebody who has spent a lifetime
trying to acknowledge and fight off shame
around a disability,
I just wanted to acknowledge that for folks.
And I appreciate that and maybe at some point
we can have it be a resolution part of our annual plan.
Thank you.
thank you and the last thing that I will end with is that I do want the
residents to understand that this council is very focused on efficiency
and keeping track of projects a lot just just more focus on projects finishing
on time and on budget I do want to specifically highlight the the very large
scale of project elevate which has reached its first milestone namely the
payment of employees as part of the first bridge cycle. We'll kind of keep
working through monitoring making sure that all payments are processed
correctly but by all accounts we're off to a great start for a project that was
delivered on time and on budget and I know there was an approval today and
consent to just continue some work on it that's all been budgeted for and it's
on the timeline that was expected so I want the community to understand that
we are committed to on time on budget if not ahead of schedule delivery on our
projects and it's something that your council is paying a lot of attention to
So, with that being said, the time is now 9 13 and we are adjourned.