Walnut Creek City Council - Walnut Creek Meetings

Transcript

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Immense to the mayor of the city of Walnut Creek and I'm delighted to welcome you to our Tuesday August 1st

2023 regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council if you will please stand and join with us in the Pledge of Allegiance

With the city clerk, please take the role

Councilmember darling here councilmember Francois here councilmember Wilk there mayor pro tem Haskew here mayor Silva still here

Before our business meeting begins this evening

and we have three special presentations.

And the first is a sombering one,

but we're so glad that we are able to talk about it.

We need to recognize the challenge of Parkinson's disease

and how it is affecting the members of our community

as well as those around the world.

Parkinson's is a silent and wicked epidemic

that is affecting more than 375 members

of our Walnut Creek community.

Although the disease was actually identified

more than 200 years ago, there is still no known cure nor effective treatment for this

intruder that usually strikes those who are around the age of 60 and robs its victims

of cognitive abilities and reduces their physical abilities to be able to walk, to stand, and

in most cases it reduces their ability to care for themselves.

We have a Parkinson network of Mount Diablo that provides countless and valued and necessary

services to those who are afflicted as well as the caregivers and the Robert

Jayhoff family who died at the hands of Parkinson's and the Rossmore Rotary

recognized the need to raise funds for this organization by holding their fourth

annual golf tournament on August 21st at the Rossmore golf course and so we are

very pleased this evening that we are able to recognize the Jayhoff family for

work that they are doing with Rossmore Rotary and the Parkinson Network of Mount Diablo and invite

you all to participate in the fundraising but just to basically state that August 21st,

2023 will be Parkinson's Awareness Day in Walnut Creek and I'd like to call up a member of the

family. I'd like to sign a bill for congress. I'll just say a few words real quick. So Mayor

Sylvan, the members of the City Council. My name is Carol Jayha and on behalf of

the Jayha family I would like to thank you for this proclamation. We are honored

that the City of Walnut Creek has recognized our efforts to help those

afflicted with Parkinson's disease and their caregivers. As we embark on our

fifth annual golf tournament actually for Parkinson's I'd like to give you a

brief history of how we arrived here. It all started with a round of golf to

honor the one year passing of my uncle, Bob Jayha,

from the disease of Parkinson's.

Since then, we have lost my aunt, Selma Jayha,

to a form of Parkinson's.

And my dad, Ron Jayha, Bob's brother,

who's sitting here today with us,

was diagnosed about eight years ago

with the same form of Parkinson's that his brother had,

which is an unlikely occurrence, actually,

because it's not considered to be a hereditary disease.

So as you can see, we are very familiar with this disease

and the way it affects our loved ones and those of us

that take care of them.

So this first golf game, we had so many people wanting to play

and honor my uncle that the following year,

we decided to make it a fundraiser for Parkinson's.

We wanted our efforts to go to a local charity that

support our cause.

And we found the Parkinson's Network of Mount Diablo.

And we wanted our funds to be right here

in Contra Costa County.

they do. All the money we give them stays right here in our county. So, we have forged a really

great partnership with the Parkinson's network in Mount Diablo. So, over the past four golf

tournaments, we have been able to raise close to a hundred thousand dollars for their organization.

And this program has now, our funds has now allowed them to start a respite care program,

which is a grant that a family can apply for, which will give them six hundred dollars a year

to use as they wish and it will provide a skilled care person to come into your home for you.

This will give that caregiver a chance to take a break, which is very well needed because most of

the time it's a spouse or a family member that is taking care of these individuals.

So we are grateful to our partner, the Rossmore Rotary Foundation,

who has helped us in our efforts to spread awareness of this horrible disease

and to help us raise funds to support those that are afflicted with Parkinson's and their caregivers.

So, if you'd like to help us with our golf tournament and support us, you can go to the

JayhawkGolfClassic.com, or you can just reach out to me, Carol Jayhawk, I'm a local realtor,

so I'm really easy to find.

And if you would like to support the Parkinson's Network of Mount Diablo and what they do for

our community, you can visit their website, it's pnmd.net, or you can reach out to me

also, I am now on their board serving.

So thank you very, very much for this recognition, we truly appreciate it from all of us.

Thank you very much, and thank you to the entire family.

So our audience this evening is more filled than it usually is because we have some special

visitors from Kita, Japan joining us this evening.

And we're going to start with a special message from the mayor of Kita.

Remote.

Thank you.

I'm going to show you how to do this session.

Today I'm going to show you a new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version of my new version.

I'm going to show you how to do this session.

As the mayor said, the high school students from Kita City, Japan, are now visiting us

here in Walnut Creek, and they have a presentation to make, and we're looking forward to it.

It's a whole group of them.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm Yura.

We are high school students from the Kita City in Japan.

Our presentation has three parts.

First, we are going to introduce our city's basic information.

Second, we will explain the geography of our city.

Finally, we will describe some flowers, recommended place to visit, and a couple famous residents.

Please enjoy listening to our presentation.

Now I will hand it over to Saki and we use a basic information on kita city

Hello, I'm Saki. I'll tell you about Kita City's basic information

next slide, please

there are about

356,000 people there, which is about five times as many as Walnut Creek

the area of Kita City is

which is about 20% of Walnut Creek sites.

Kita City is rich in nature.

There are some parks and gardens.

You can see cherry blossoms, azaleas,

hydrangeas, colorful leaves, and so on.

Hello, I'm Saya.

I'm going to tell you two symbols of Kita City.

First, the pink logo is composed of flowers.

It's composed of three petals of cherry blossoms.

It shows the initial letter of Kita City, which is famous for cherry blossoms.

Second, the black symbol symbolizes a powerful and energetic city.

It was created by designing kanji, or Japanese writing, for Kita.

Hello, I'm Chisaki.

This is the map of Japan.

There are 47 prefectures in Japan.

Like states in the United States, Kita City is located in Tokyo, which is the capital

of Japan, where many people live and prosper.

Tokyo has a population of about 14 million and a population density of about 50,000 people

per square kilometer, which is one of the highest population densities in the world.

hello I'm Hinano I will tell you Kita city's geography too. It is located in

the north of Tokyo as Kita means north in Japanese. All of Chinese sewers in

Tokyo it has 11th most people living there. There are a lot of troll hills in

Kita city and there are 11th train station in Kita city. So the

transportation is convenient. Also, the nature here is beautiful.

Hello, I'm Yume. Thank you for giving us chance to talk about Kita City. Today, we

would like to talk about one of the most famous parks in Kita City, Asakaima Park.

At Asakaima Park, we can ride a monorail called Askalgo. People using wheelchair

and they can use the monolayer and it is very popular during the cherry blossom viewing season.

Please enjoy yourself at the parks if you come to Kita City. Thank you.

Hello, I'm Momoka. Let me tell you about the cherry blossom in Kita City. There are two parks

famous for cherry blossoms, Asakayama Park and Otonashi Shinsui Park. Do you know hanami?

It means flower brewing in Japanese. When Japanese people do hanami, they can do two things.

They can either walk through the park under the cherry blossoms

or they can enjoy a picnic with family or friends. Cherry blossoms are only in bloom

for about two weeks. When the scenery turns pink, Japanese people feel very happy. Hana

Mi is very fun for everyone. Now Joe will speak about literature.

Hello, I'm Joe. I will talk about the history of Kita from the aspect of literature. Kita

had been a choir village. Though it was near the Tokyo University, the PAP University of

Japan, a lot of prospective novelists came to live there. One of these novelists was

Rionosuke Akutagawa. His works are known for its excellent expression and

stories that were based on Japanese classical literature. However, in 1927, Rionosuke died

Yang practically. This event made as a novelist lived Kita. But this is certain that Kita

plays an important role in Japanese literature history. Thank you. Hi I'm Mayaka. I'm going to

talk about Kihuruka Gardens. It has western style buildings and western and Japanese style gardens.

it was originally the house of a Japanese diplomat now it's a national property and open to the public

this garden is well known as the one as one of the best places for roses

and we can also enjoy cherry blossoms, really colorful leaves and so on

Library scenery can be found there in any season. If you come to Tokyo please visit there.

Hello I'm Gyo. I'm going to talk about Japan High Performance Sports Center in Chita City.

It is one of the biggest sports centers in Japan, so there are a lot of facilities for a suite.

For example, training zones, pools and dormitories. And there is a National Sports Science Center,

So they can use the newest technology for better performance.

Also, Kita Sports Festival is held there every year.

So a lot of top athletes and a lot of comedians come to this festival.

So we can enjoy playing sports with them.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Wakka.

I will introduce you to H. Shiba Sawa.

He was a Japanese businessman that lived in Kita City.

he founded many companies and is called the father of Japanese economy.

He will be printed on the new 10,000 bill beginning next year.

He contributed the lives of more than Japan.

He is a great person and we are proud of him.

Now this is the end of our presentation.

we hope you enjoyed it because we love our town we are so happy to have this opportunity to introduce

it to you if you are interested in our town kitaku tokyo or japan we are waiting for you

thank you for listening everyone bye does the leader have anything he or she would like to say

otherwise shall we have a photograph that would be lovely all right

And before we go to the next item, which is a presentation by the Youth Leadership Commission,

I really want to acknowledge the families who are hosting our students from KITA.

Could you please rise and wave, because without these volunteer families in the community,

it's really hard to do a student exchange program.

thank you what that you've opened your homes for this period of time and enjoy

the rest of Walnut Creek and your days in Walnut Creek thank you for being here

this evening. And Mayor if I could just quickly say I was invited by Keita I

went with to Keita City in 2018 two former mayors and myself were invited we

went there and the hosts of Keita City some of whom who are here could not have

more gracious. It was most wonderful tours. It is a beautiful city. If you get a chance to go,

please let us know. We'll be able to put you in touch and I want to thank you for that hospitality.

We hope that we could show you just as much and as you leave, if you turn to the right,

there's a display case and some of the gifts that were provided to us that were given to us from

Quita City are actually in the case as well as you leave. So thank you all very much for coming as

well. Thank you. Next on our agenda is another group of our youth. Our local youth who have

have been members of our Youth Leadership Commission and I think they

are all here to say a little bit of a fond farewell because many of them, if

not all of them, are heading to college in the next few weeks. Please come

forward. Hi there, my name is Riley Patrocco. I'm the current Vice Chair of

the Walnut Creek Youth Commission and today we're saying goodbye to seven of

of our seniors that have just graduated this year.

So a little bit about the Youth Commission.

Our purpose is to engage the future leaders of Walnut Creek

by encouraging youth to take an active leadership

role in the community.

Our commissioners interact with and learn

about Walnut Creek local government.

We complete a policy or service project every year

and provide a youth perspective on issues within the community

to the Walnut Creek City Council.

So with that, let's say goodbye to some of our seniors.

Thank you, Riley.

Hello, everybody.

My name is Prop Dupre-Zahn.

I'm the chair of the Youth Commission,

and in just about a month, I will be studying economics

at UCLA.

I just wanted to say thank you to the Youth Commission

for an incredible four years.

The Youth Commission has given me some of my best friends,

my favorite memories, and is genuinely by far the best thing

that I've gotten involved in in high school.

It's been such a treat learning about the inner workings

of local government in Walnut Creek,

and I'm very grateful to have this sense of community

instilled within me at a very young age,

because I think it's made me a better person,

and I think it's going to be very beneficial to me

in the future.

So thank you.

I'm back.

So my name is Riley Patrocco, as I already said.

And in just two months, I will be studying communications

at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

and the Youth Commission has definitely given me

a new perspective on life.

I never thought that I would be interested in politics

until Rebecca Joseph convinced me to apply,

and I've loved every single second of it,

and it's given me such a great opportunity

in the place that I live.

Hi everyone, I'm Abigail Stoper.

This year I served as the Youth Commission's

Communications Director, and in 16 days

I will be going off to George Washington University

to study political science,

which is actually something that the Youth Commission

made me realize is something that I wanted to do.

So I'd like to say that being on the Youth Commission

the past four years has been one

of the most impactful experiences in my life.

I've learned that we all have the power

to make a change in our community

and that no change isn't significant

no matter how small it may seem.

Hello, my name is Drelene Chu and late next month,

I'm gonna be heading to the University of California, Irvine

to study biological sciences.

It's been a wonderful four years of serving my community

in the Youth Commission.

I've learned so much, met so many amazing people,

and hopefully made change for youth across the city.

I joined the Youth Commission four years ago

when I was a freshman, and about four years ago

around this time, I was introducing myself to you guys,

and now I'm saying goodbye, and it feels like

I've been kind of growing with the Youth Commission,

and I'm really excited for this next chapter in my life,

but I'll always remember what I learned here in Walnut Creek.

So, I love you, Walnut Creek, woo!

Hello, everyone.

It's a pleasure being here, as always.

My name is Rebecca Joseph.

And in about six weeks, I'll be moving to Palo Alto

to study the government and economics up there,

but AI and cognitive thinking at Stanford University.

But I just wanted to say thank you to not only the council

members, but also to Carla and Rindy as well.

They have supervised the Youth Commission for the past three

years that I've been on it.

And they've been such a great support to me.

I entered the Youth Commission being very, very shy.

And the Youth Commission not only gave me an opportunity

to meet amazing people and learn about our government,

but also find confidence in myself and in my voice.

And I'm so thankful for the opportunity

that everyone here has presented me.

So thank you.

Hi, I'm Justine Simons, and in like 20 days,

I'll be leaving to study sociology

at the University of San Diego.

And I just wanna say thank you to all of Council,

my commissioners and to our liaisons who really supported us and allowed us to have a voice in

the community. I think it was Francois that asked us like what would we take from this or something

like that and it was just for me the importance of your local government and being involved and

a pride I took in my community being on the count being on the commission and when my friends are

like who's Wilk or who's Silva or anything like that I'm like how do you not know who these people

Oh, it's so important.

So just thank you for that lesson

and I'm so grateful for my time here.

Hi everyone, my name is Annika Ramaswamy

and in exactly three weeks,

I will be going to the University of Michigan

to experience the super harsh winters

and study political science and public policy.

As someone who hasn't gone to school in Walnut Creek

but who has lived here all my life,

the Youth Commission has been a really great opportunity

for me to feel more connected with my home city

and to get involved here as well.

And I wanna say thank you to everyone

who has helped make this the experience that it has been.

It's been an amazing opportunity to meet people,

serve the community and learn so much about local government

and honestly led me to choose a major

in political science and public policy.

So thank you so much.

Two of our youth commissioners are not here with us today

because of scheduling conflicts,

but Isha Jane will be attending Northwestern University

and Richard O'Donnell will be going to Williams College.

We want to thank you again for an amazing time

on the Youth Commission.

The ability to sit down with local government officials

at such a young age is a very empowering experience,

knowing that you guys are listening to us

and value our opinions.

And I'm sure that all of us can attribute

at least some of our future successes

to you all and this experience.

I want to thank you guys all for taking a chance

on all of us and our ideas, such as a seat at the table,

which I think is approaching its one year anniversary

in just about a few days.

Also, we want to thank Rindy and Carla

for being the best staff liaisons ever.

There are two of the most incredible women I know,

and I don't know how it's possible to know the answer

to every single one of our questions,

but they do, and they put up with us in our antics,

which is a feat within itself.

So we wanna thank you, and that's it from us.

So thank you for being here this evening

and saying goodbye.

Let's get a picture, but I also wanna know

if you could all sing your fight songs.

Have you memorized them yet?

Thank you very much for everything that you did during your years on our Youth Commission.

We know that you gained a lot, but we gained a lot as well, having your insights on so

many of the parts of the work that we're doing.

Best wishes to all of you, and we look forward.

We know you're going to watch our meetings from afar.

First and third Tuesdays.

It's wild.

And best of luck in your college endeavors.

Thank you.

Aren't they great?

The first business item on our agenda is our consent calendar.

Before I want to start it, I'm going to make one last announcement.

If you intend to make public comment this evening,

please submit your yellow public speaker card

so we get you into the queue.

First priority will be given

to those who have submitted cards.

Consent calendar, we have six items

on the consent agenda this evening.

This is in addition to the two items

that we have public hearings on,

which is the housing element

and also the proposal for a general plan amendment

related to the Honda property.

We're not taking comment on those items yet.

If you have wish to make comments,

please submit your speaker card.

Council members, we have six items.

Does anyone wish to pull an item from the consent calendar?

I do, Mayor.

I'd like to pull item 2C.

Any other items to be pulled?

Does anyone wish to speak on an item

on the consent calendar?

Again, it is not the housing element.

Then please step forward.

you must be Mr. and Mrs. Curtis.

I assume you're married

because you have the same last name

and that is very presumptuous of me.

So please step forward

and we will take your public comment

after we entertain a motion on items A, B and D through F.

Yes, I'm happy to make that motion.

I move to approve consent calendar A as amended,

B, D as amended, E and F.

Second.

We have a motion and a second

on the consent calendar items A, B, D, E, and F,

and a number of them have been amendment.

Could the clerk please take the roll call vote?

Mayor Pro Tem Hask you.

Aye.

Council Member Wilk.

Aye.

Council Member Darling.

Aye.

Council Member Francois.

Aye.

Mayor Silva.

Aye.

Motion carries unanimously.

Item 2C is the adoption of a resolution adopting

the cities of Walnut Creek's local roadway safety plan.

And we have two speakers that would

like to speak on this item.

And you will each have up to two minutes.

And then we'll check and see if anyone

is wishing to speak in remotely as well.

OK.

And, um, I'm Mrs. Curtis.

I'm Carol Curtis.

Oh, I don't think that's on.

I'm Carol Curtis.

You will have up to two minutes.

The timer is working for you.

OK.

Honorable mayor and council members,

I introduce myself, I'm Carol Curtis, a longtime resident of Walnut Creek, and I want to thank

you for creating bicycle lanes on March Banks Drive.

According to the local roadway safety plan, Ignatia Valley Road is a high speed, high

collision thoroughfare.

Cyclists going on to March Banks Road and on to March Banks Road, instead of on that

especially congested area of Ignatia Valley right by John Muir Hospital, is a great idea

and I'm really glad it has the Council's wholehearted support.

As the City moves toward Vision Zero, I urge you to consider more than just countermeasures,

as were described in the report, such as travel speeds, turn lanes, traffic lights, and that

sort of thing.

I ask you to also think about the sorts of vehicles you allow on our streets.

Our residential arterials should never be forced to absorb commercial traffic as part

of a shared use policy.

These streets are doing all they can to accommodate cars, motorcycles, small delivery vans, scooters,

bicycles, and pedestrians.

Please don't even consider adding commercial vehicles to that mix.

We know that some are tractor-trailer trucks and semis do not belong on our residential

streets.

When you adopt this safety plan, you will be making commitments to your constituents.

Commitments I hope you will honor when considering whether or not to relinquish lot A to speaker

senior development partners.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you very much.

It's Mr. Curtis.

My name is Steve Curtis.

I'm the lesser half of the Steven Carroll Curtis team.

Mayor Silva and council members, I'm speaking regarding the roadway safety plan.

I'm generally in favor of the plan,

but have some reservations due to the,

what may be perceived as a conflict of interest

on the part of fair and peers.

They participated in this report

and also represented the speaker development

in their project was in creating a, excuse me,

with impacts on this, that have impacts on the safety plan,

mostly because while representing the developer,

their report seems to contain significant flaws

in the calculation of the parking needs

of the Southern Hills Ranch project

and the impact on the neighboring parking.

I believe their analysis should be further reviewed

prior to accepting the report, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Council Member Wilk, you had a question

or comments on the roadway safety?

Yeah, more of a comment.

So, this is to the team, transportation and the SMEDR,

essentially.

So, it was hard to tell from the plan itself

where there were or weren't edits.

I don't think that we actually gave direction.

It was more about comments and what we thought

about some of the different aspects of it.

So, it was hard to tell what was exactly incorporated.

I just wanted to make sure that the comments

that we provided a couple of weeks ago at the meeting,

especially concerning not curtailing traffic flow

in the major roads was understood

and if not incorporated,

at least part of the plan moving forward.

I just, that was the thing that was

a biggest concern to me.

Would staff like to address that, please?

Okay, good evening council members,

Medard Boardman, traffic engineer.

So I just wanted to address your comment.

Generally the comments that we received from council

incorporated some red lines,

some minor text edits and some clarifications.

We also included an appendix

for additional clarification.

I think regarding your comment in particular,

which I think the resolution really speaks to.

If you want to take a look at that,

there is on page two of the draft resolution.

The second to last line says,

whereas the city values the people of our community first,

because human life and health are paramount

and should be prioritized before speed,

vehicle throughput, convenience for drivers, mobility,

and other objectives for the transportation

and circulation system.

What this language really tries to say

is that when there are trade-offs

that need to prioritize certain decision,

then this language sort of helps guide that decision.

However, it's not an overarching one or the other.

There will always be an emphasis looking toward

trying to optimize efficiency, and so if there is,

I think specifically your comment was related

to the slip right turn lanes along some of our major

arterials and removing those.

And we don't wanna ever create a condition

where frustration for drivers is so high

that it also creates an unsafe condition.

So that is also part of that balance,

is ensuring there is that safety aspect from both sides.

thank you that helps and with that I'll make the motion to approve item 2c second we have a motion

and a second to adopt the resolution which adopts the city of walnut creek's local roadway safety

plan a path to vision zero would the city clerk please take the roll call vote council member

will aye mayor pro-tem haskew aye council member darlin aye council member françois aye mayor silva

aye motion carries unanimously thank you the next item on the agenda is public

communications. Now before everybody jumps up we have a number of speaker

cards here so we're going to take this in an orderly fashion. This portion of

the meeting is reserved for comment on items that are not on our agenda this

evening. So again if you're here to speak on either the housing element update or

the proposed changes to the Honda property, just wait your turn it will

come in a little while. Under the Brown Act during public communications on

items not on the agenda, the City Council cannot act on items raised during this

time period. We may respond briefly to statements made or questions posed. We

may request clarification or we may refer the comment to our staff. Consistent

with section 9.5 of the City Council handbook, we will allow 30 minutes and

it's now 645 at this time for public communications for items not in the

agenda and then we will allow additional time if necessary at the end of the

meeting after our regular business for others who might wish to speak to us on

these items. I will also further clarify that we will take comments from those

who are here in the room at City Hall as well as those who are joining us

virtually on Zoom and so if you are joining us virtually please raise your

hand at this time to let us know that you wish to make public comments. If

you're joining us by audio only please press star 9 so that you we are aware

that you are in the queue in the virtual room. Also public comment is limited to

two minutes and that includes whether you are speaking on behalf of a group

or whether you are speaking individually so it is two minutes only and again it

is 6 45 so this first portion will be allocated for the next 30 minutes which

will be at 715. I'm going to call out the first five who can come up and join us to

the side. Peggy White, Jill Dresser, Donna Colombo, Julie Brown Martin, and Mike and

you, although you're together, but it's two minutes for the two of you. So please, first

speaker.

Good evening, Mayor Silva and members of the council. I'm Peggy White. I'm the Executive

director of the Al being arts association, the proud nonprofit partner of the Lesher

center for the arts.

I'm here tonight just to share some fantastic news about our Lesher center presents head

liner series.

Last night we closed the second season with five time Grammy award winner Diane Reeves.

It was an incredible evening.

And the audience jumped to their feet with a warring standing ovation.

It was quite amazing.

We kicked off this series in January 2022 with Leeann Rimes.

Since then we have presented 18 headliners and the common factor is every single one

received a standing ovation isn't them fantastic it's been so well received by our community

and we are very excited about the success of the series.

If I had to spotlight one just major achievement it would be our Festo Cultural.

I was amazed by the power of this festival.

It was the most ambitious festival we've ever done today.

There were four headliners.

We had the Newsmaker, Lesser, Speakers Series,

and an Avara,

and the Heights, the Bedford Gallery exhibit

about faces, and Ice in a Cake was our free street fair,

which really embraced the vibrancy of Latin culture.

This festival garnered major press coverage.

Diablo Magazine, East Bay Times,

Walnut Creek Magazine, and there were feature stories

on every single morning TV news show.

KTVU, NBC, ABC, and CBS Morning News.

We welcomed 7,000 patrons and 1,500 new patrons,

and next year we're coming back strong with 14 headliners.

I wanna close with a warm acknowledgement

to Carolyn Jackson, the amazing General Management Lecture

Center, it's such a thrill to partner with her.

And all of you for being such great partners and supporters.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Peggy.

And thank you for the partnership between the city

and the Diablo Regional Arts Association.

You make that center a true part regional powerhouse.

And so thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good evening, Mayor Silva and City Council members.

I'm Jill Dresser, a Walnut Creek resident,

longtime Bedford gallery docent and arts commissioner. I wanted to invite the city

council and the public to what's going on at the Bedford gallery right now. The

current show is called Sight Unseen International Photography by Blind

Artists. Can you pull your microphone up closer to you? This exhibition showcases

visually and emotionally rich work by 13 of the world's most accomplished blind

photographers who use photography as a medium to bring their inner visions into

the scene world, exploring ideas about the nature of scene. This show will be up

until September 17th. The Bedford Gallery is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon to

five, and before many evening shows at the Leisure Center. The gallery is

thrilled to announce a new pay-what-you-can community model for

regular gallery admission, which just went into effect in July.

Pay What You Can removes barriers to entry and gives every person the opportunity to

experience the Bedford Gallery's exhibitions at a price they can afford.

Visitors choose what price is right for them, although the gallery will have a suggested

admission.

The Bedford Gallery continues to offer art projects on the first Friday of every month.

That would be this coming Friday.

In addition to free entry, visitors can get creative in the letterer art space with an

exhibition-themed art project.

That would be noon to five this Friday at the Bedford.

And finally, the gallery would be hosting a cocktails and conversation with sight and

scene curator Douglas McCullough on Thursday, August 24th from 5.30 to 7.

I want to thank the City Council for your continued support of the arts in Walnut Creek.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. And thank you for your work on the Arts Commission.

Next speaker, please, is Donna Colombo. Good evening.

Good evening. Good evening, Council members, staff, and members of the community. I'm Donna Colombo.

And I'm representing the Walnut Creek Homeless Task Force, and I extend my heartfelt appreciation

to your unwavering support in our mission to seek compassionate solutions for homelessness

and work collaboratively with local and regional organizations to develop safety net services

and the means for affordable supportive housing.

Tonight, I want to share with you an announcement and extend a cordial invitation to our annual

community forum, scheduled for November 13th.

This year, our focus will be on a topic of utmost importance, affordable housing.

We aim to delve into the most essential aspects of building such housing and the process of

making it accessible for all considering perspectives from the city, affordable developers, affordable

housing developers, community and homeless services, and individuals with lived experience.

We're pleased to offer a hybrid meeting format.

You can join us here in person, council chambers, or virtually via Zoom at 6 p.m. on November

13th.

We believe this arrangement will allow us to engage in a broader audience and engage

in meaningful discussion.

Details, I can't see my notes.

Details and updates on the event will be posted on our website at wchomelesstaskforce.org.

It's not there yet, but it will be soon.

Please mark your calendars and let us unite to create a positive impact in our community

through constructive dialogue and collaboration.

Once again, thank you for your continued support and dedication to our cause.

Together we can bring about positive change and work towards a better, more inclusive

future for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you, Donna.

And could you say the website where we get more details and the date of the form again

and speak clearly into the microphone and slower maybe?

Please.

So the website is wchomelesstaskforce.org and the date of the forum is November 13th

and it will be at 6 p.m. either here in council chambers or via Zoom.

And on the website we will post a registration link.

And our mayor will be one of the panelists.

So we hope you will come.

I don't know if we will get the same media publication as the Regional Center for the

Arts and Leisure Center, but we hope so.

We should only hope.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for being here.

And we have two speakers from the Mount Diablo Interpretive Association.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor, Councilmembers, and staff.

My name is Julie Braun-Martin, and Mike Brandy is with me.

And we want to tell you about our project, because it's a project for the future generations

of the children of Walnut Creek.

We want to build an education center at Mitchell Canyon

in the Mount Dabble State Park.

It would be a place that would be accessible by field trips

for all the students.

It would be ADA compliant, so it would address all

the public's needs as well.

Right now, we have a 20-year-old trailer

that is not ADA compliant.

Children would learn about environmental literacy,

natural history, science, and use

the resource of the mountain to do so.

And so we're really excited about this project,

We're in the process of raising $3 million and I'm going to let Mike talk about this

little bit while I give you a pamphlet.

Thank you very much.

Why don't you just hand the pamphlets to one person and she'll pass them down.

That would be great.

We are a non-profit and our sole purpose is to support Mt. Diablo State Park.

We've been in business for 50 years, a very small non-profit.

We're all volunteer, no paid staff.

We've never fundraised so we're embarking on a mission to raise $3 million to build

this education center. This will be a 1,500 square foot education center at

Mitchell Canyon. We get about 35,000 visitors a year out there and

practically no school field trips because there's no place for them to go.

So our goal at MDIA is preservation through education

and we want to be able to really reach out to the education community to bring

them to the park and have a place for them to go. So we just started this

fundraising last November, and we have raised $800,000 from the community, from our board

members, from organizations like Rotary and Corporations, but we have a long ways to go.

We're very pleased that this year Rebecca Bauer-Kahn, Assemblymember, championed item

in the state budget to allocate $1 million towards our project, so we're now up to $1.8

dollars and we seek your support, endorsement, ideas, and if anybody wants

it named after them a million dollars. Thank you very much and best wishes with

what you're doing on your fundraising effort. Thank you. I am now going to turn

and take some speakers that are joining us virtually but before I call them out

individually I'm going to call up Bob Linshied, Zachary Gordon, Molly Klop, Jessica

Owens and Jane Emanuel. So you can just wait. I'm going to have you wait while we take some

speakers on Zoom. Bob, I'm going to have you wait while we take some speakers that are joining us

virtually. Okay. All right. The first speaker would be Kathy Hemingway. Good evening, everyone.

My name is Kathy Hemingway. I'm the executive director of Walnut Creek Downtown Association

and I'm here tonight on behalf of the Arts Alliance. I'm happy to announce that today,

being August 1st. It's the first day of arts around August. It's the third annual program

that celebrates. It's a month-long celebration of the arts, including visual culinary and

performing arts, of course, and wanted to let everyone know that we have over 20 programs that

that are going to be featured throughout the month of August.

The first one that kicks off tomorrow evening

is the Walnut Creek First Wednesday.

So First Wednesday is a street festival

that will include live entertainment,

65 vendors, food trucks, and lots of kids activities.

So it's a wonderful evening in downtown.

It's on Cypress Street between Locust and North Broadway.

and the event takes place from 5.30 to 9.

And then another favorite that Walnut Creek Downtown

is organizing is the Moveable Feast.

The food tour includes nine downtown restaurants.

They come together to produce a food tour

as well as an art tour

that includes three restaurants per evening

and a public art tour in between those restaurants

led by our Bedford Gallery docents.

The tours will take place on every Wednesday evening

in August beginning next Wednesday, the ninth,

from six to 9 p.m.

And we are grateful to our city council members

for participating as hosts each evening.

So if you would like to find out more information,

please visit our website at walnutcreekdowntown.com.

And we invite everyone at Walnut Creek residents

and visitors to come downtown

enjoy all of the activities throughout August. Thank you. Thank you Kathy and I think we're all

looking forward to many wonderful things happening downtown in August. Thank you. The next virtual

speaker we'll hear from is Diane Young. Hi, good evening Mayor Silva, members of the city council

and city staff. I'm Diane Young, I live in Walnut Creek and I'm the co-chair of community service

Day which will take place on October 14th, 2023. In 2011, Mayor Silva created Community Service Day

fulfilling a long-held dream to strengthen the ties between members of our community

and our local non-profits. Well, it's 2023 and Community Service Day is still going strong.

Did I mention it's on October 14th? Originally, our goal was to host 50 projects completed on a

single day. We've had our challenges including years where our fires forced the cancellation

of all outdoor projects and then of course the pandemic. We soldier through it all and

for 2023 we are approaching what used to be normal again with a wide variety of projects.

What kind of projects? All kinds of projects. Projects for all ages, indoors and out. You

can help at a library, park or neighborhood school. You can paint a fence in Civic Park

or one at the Equestrian Center at Heather Farm.

You can even paint parking meters downtown.

Alas, you cannot work off any parking tickets this way.

You can help out at the Lesher Center Costume Shop,

Lindsay Wildlife Experience, Ruth Bancroft Garden,

White Pony Express, or get your build on

with Habitat for Humanity.

You can hike into the open space or clean up a creek.

There's even a project skimming the pond

at Heather Farm Park, so if you've ever cleaned a pool,

this one could be for you.

By the way, in addition to Mayor Silva,

every member of our current Council as well as the City Manager and City Attorney and many members

of City staff have participated in many, many service days. It's great to have such strong

support throughout our community. For more information, visit www.walnut-creek.org slash

service or watch for our ad in the nutshell. We look forward to seeing you on October 14th. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I'm going to come back to the room and I think Bob Linshied was first back in

the room. Thanks Mayor Silva, members of the Council for the record I'm Bob

Lynch I representing the Walla Creek Chamber of Commerce. Tonight it seems

timely that I speak about leadership Contra Costa since you recently

beforehand recognized the Youth Commission which is a stellar youth

development program. You'd be interested to know that we're in our 36th year of

of leadership Contra Costa.

In fact, there are several members of the incoming class

who were born 12 years after it originally started.

So it's kind of interesting that after the pandemic,

when we lost two years of leadership Contra Costa,

we were able to bring it back to the graces

of Kaiser Permanente who sponsored a number of scholarships

for nonprofits to afford the tuition.

The audience may wonder, okay, what is Leadership Contra Costa?

Leadership Contra Costa's nine-month program that brings together community members asking

them to step out of their daily lives and participate in monthly topics in wide range

of subjects to make Contra Costa a better region, and their role in creating it.

These monthly day-long sessions include in-depth looks at social justice, health and aging,

business and the economy, environment sustainability, arts and education, and of course housing

and transportation, which is concluding at the end of our session.

It's a very inclusive program, so much so that I actually made a list of city people

that have been involved in leadership Contra Costa not withstanding is our

mayor and Mayor Pro Tem our city clerk members of our community development

and and planning departments the arts and in recreation and I knew that if I

started naming them I forget somebody including the city manager's office so I

just want to acknowledge I've handed out the yearbook for you all and I just

want to acknowledge city manager and his support for this development program.

Thank you very much Bob for being here. Next speaker please. Good evening mayor,

council members, city staff, community members, and friends. I'm Zachary Gordon,

general director of our region's own professional opera company, Festival Opera.

Festival Opera is in its 32nd year producing and performing fully staged

opera at the Lesher Center for the Arts. As part of the Arts Around August

festival you just heard about that is happening all over downtown this month.

There are a couple of our events that I would love to share with you. Sunday

August 6th at 4 p.m. right here at Civic Park we will be presenting a free

outdoor concert of hits from the opera stage. The program will have something

for everyone whether you're opera curious or a die-hard fan. A cast of six

sensational artists will serenade you, family and friends, while you enjoy a

picnic that you can bring. Next up we bring Bizet's blockbuster opera Carmen

to the Lesher Center on August 18th and 20th. This edgy all-new production

updates the story of Carmen to the here and now with a sensational cast of

rising opera stars from around the country. These performances also feature

the Festival Opera Orchestra and Chorus and the Grammy-winning Pacific Boy Choir.

Information is available at festivalopera.org. We're grateful for your

support and I hope to see you all there and I will leave some postcards on the

table in the back. That'd be great thank you so much. Next speaker please. Good

evening Mayor and City Council members as well as staff my name is Molly Klopp

I am the board chair for Trinity Center of Walnut Creek and because Bob's here

I'll say a proud graduate of Contra Costa Leadership Program. I also want to

recognize Leslie Gleason our executive director from Trinity Center who is here

and we're here tonight just to give you an update

on what's going on at Trinity Center.

As you know, Trinity Center is Walnut Creek's prized gem

of an organization that is a doorway to opportunity,

providing essential safety net services

and a pathway forward for our vulnerable populations.

We advocate for those who are seeking housing,

financial stability, and wellness.

We also serve as one of two county designated care centers for Contra Costa County.

That means people who call 211 get referred to Trinity Center for referral and treatment.

And we see on average 60 to 80 visitors a day.

In a month, we are lately seeing new arrivals ranging from 72 to 106 people per month.

They come from all over the county.

We provide them with essential services such as food, showers, laundry, and then those

recovery services they need through case management service, our programs, computer services,

mail services, etc.

We work closely with our partners such as loaves and fishes, am I already down to 32

seconds?

I better go fast.

And we are recovering from a significant water incursion event, but thanks to St. Paul's,

managed to stay in full operation for the last 11 months. In addition to our

current programs we're looking forward to the winter evening program which is a

program we operate on behalf of the city of Walnut Creek at the Armory and we are

constantly looking for ways to reduce the cost of that and make it more

accessible to more members so that's coming up soon for us. So together

working together we can really improve services to these vulnerable people in

our community so thank you for your support. Thank you so much for the work

that you do every day in our community and also for the work that you are

queuing up for for this winter nights program because that's a really

important adage really important thank you we'd like to do it year-round if we

could just figure that out yes next speaker please good evening mayor and

Council I would first like to thank you for allowing me to speak here tonight. My

name is Jessica Owens and I'm a union carpenter apprentice. I would like to

talk to you about the importance of having labor standards in the city of

Walnut Creek and the overall positive impact it will have on the city. Today I

stand before you as a living testament to the transformative power of labor

standards. As a single mom I have experienced firsthand the great impact of

earning a livable wage and having access to health care. These crucial pillars

have changed my life and the lives of countless others. I recall the days when

making ends meet was a constant struggle juggling between work and child care

responsibilities. The burden was heavy and I often felt overwhelmed. Once I

joined the Carpenters Union and began to earn a livable wage, the weight started

to lift and the future for me and my kids became brighter. Having access to

health care is another vital aspect of labor standards. For a single mother like

myself this was more than just medical assistance. It meant peace of mind, the

fear of failing or falling ill or not being able to afford essential medical

care was a constant source of anxiety. However, with the health care coverage

provided by my employer I would seek treatment when needed focused on my job

and provide better care for my family. Furthermore is the access to a state

certified apprenticeship program. I myself am enrolled in the apprenticeship

And my overall quality of life is better because of it with the apprenticeships training programs and opportunities for advancement

I am constantly improving my skills and building a career that I am truly proud of

I hope you understand the importance of having having such labor standards and with your leadership

I look forward to seeing developers and contractors being held to these standards for the betterment of Walnut Creek

Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please

next speaker, please

Good evening Mayor Silva and City Council staff. I'm happy to be here this evening. I'm Jane Immanuel

live in Wanna Creek. I'm the current chair of the Arts Commission and a Bedford Gallery docent.

So I wanted to tell you that we are in our

17th season of the public art walking tours and today was most one of the most special

occasions that I've had to do a public art walking tour as I led the

students from Kita around the city.

It was a wonderful time.

I'm sorry they're not still here,

because I wanted to point out that Saki Fugayaki was

a pianist.

I called out to the group when we were at Waterlight,

and there was a piano.

I said, hey, does anybody play the piano around here?

And I shot her hand, and she came and played,

really played, the most beautiful piece.

I had tears in my eyes.

So we went on down to Bullman and Bulldog

and Bullman and Bulldog were really tired from smiling

for all the pictures they had to post for today.

It was a wonderful day and it was wonderful

to see them here tonight giving their talks.

I wanted to also say that we will have

a Family Day public art walking tour on August 19th

as part of Arts Around August.

And we'll be featuring the murals

And we hope that everybody watching will bring their children or grandchildren and their friends as well and come for a tour of the murals around the Walnut Creek.

And also, I wanted to very quickly mention that there's a new mural in town and that is in honor of Trinity.

And I've enjoyed touring the mural with the public

and telling them about the young people

who are helped to get out of homelessness

and find their way in their struggle in Walnut Creek.

So thank you very much for your time.

Good night.

Thank you very much, Jane.

Two others here in the room and then we will probably

be done and have to delay the rest

until after the meeting.

Pete Bennett and then Ahmad Rahimi.

Hello. My name is Pete Bennett.

I have lived in Contra Costa County since 1978.

I have an unfortunate story.

I have lost multiple businesses.

I've had family murdered.

I've had friends murdered. I've had roommates murdered. I've had customers murdered.

Clients murdered.

I have lost millions of dollars.

I have come to this city

Since 2011, I've actually been homeless.

I live in my van now before I lived on the streets.

I was beaten up in Walnut Creek.

I was arrested in Walnut Creek.

I was run off the road.

My car was totaled in Lafayette from somebody by Walnut Creek.

My family got murdered in Utah.

My girlfriend and daughter was the one in the Amber Alert.

I stood in front of this county or this body

and the other Lafayette, Danville, Concord, the county.

13 years, nothing.

I'm homeless.

I have no money other than Social Security now.

I lived on the streets eating out of garbage cans.

Surviving.

One person here did something for me.

Unfortunately, everything that he gave me

was stolen right outside here.

My cars have been taken my property's been taken my assets taken in the millions

Walnut Creek police comm I'm gonna start telling my story and you'll have links to my other blogs

It's pretty bad

Next speaker, please

Good evening the honorable mayor and the city council members as well as the city staff

I'm here. I'm a resident of Corta de Mayo and

We did have a drainage problem on the street and I contacted the city

public works staff a couple of years ago and started bringing that up and

you know, I see a lot of work going on in the city streets and

and

again at the beginning of the year I brought it up with the city public works staff and asked them to come out and

Visit the site and I sent them some pictures of what happens when there's rain, you know, we get a couple of huge puddles

in our little court and

that causes a lot of a splashing of

water over the yard of our neighbor and also it brings in a lot of water into our

garages when we take the cars in the garage the city staff were nice enough to come out and take a look and

verified the issue. However, at the very end they said that they're not going to do anything about

it. That's basically what the last person who came out, one of their field staff told me,

and you know I'm here to appeal to you to see if you can get them to do this. This is minor work

but it will help the drainage on the street. We also have some large like about an inch gap

between the pavement, the asphalt pavement and the gutter there and that also needs to be

addressed. It's just causing a more and quicker deterioration of the pavement there and I'm saying

this as a retired member of a major public works agency. And also I have a couple of quick issues.

One is regarding the Bancroft Road and an Iron Horse Trail crossing.

The median on Bancroft Road looks beautiful with the plants and the shrubs.

However, it does cause a sight distance issue.

If there are children crossing, they are not

going to be as visible to the vehicular traffic.

So I would suggest maybe trimming.

I'm going to stop you there because you have exceeded your time.

but I'm going to refer you to our director of public works.

Both issues fall into her area of expertise and authority

and I think you need to discuss the items with her.

Okay.

Thank you.

And she will probably meet you out in the lobby.

That's great, thanks.

It is now 717 and that concludes our 30 minute time

at this point.

Any others who wish to speak to us

during public communication for items

that are not on the agenda?

This will be taken up again at the end of the meeting.

We will now go to our first item of public hearing.

Oh, that's true.

Council, council member and staff announcements,

reports and activities.

Do we have any closed session?

City manager report?

I do not have an update this evening, Mayor.

Members of the council, council member Darling.

I was out of town most of the time,

but I did attend the Rossmoor Golden Rain Foundation,

briefed them on the local roadway safety plan

at which they were very interested in hearing about.

They are also looking for,

they're having challenges with homeowners insurance

out at Rossmoor, and I think many of us

are also having the same problems checked around for them.

There's not anything currently going on a legislative front,

but encourage them to speak to their local legislators

and start raising the issue with them.

I'm not sure where the relief is gonna come from that,

but that's it.

Thank you.

Council member Wilk.

Just a couple of points on county connection

where I sit on the board of directors.

We renew the general manager contract

and we have a proposal now

that is being looked at by MTC

to eliminate express route surcharge on buses

when using clipper cards.

So this is going to outreach and hearings.

and we'll hear more about that.

And then the only other thing that I have to report on

is that former Mayor Francois,

current Council Member Francois and I

are on the Ad Hoc Governance Committee.

We discussed on our committees

on how this will be reporting to Council

and that will be coming to Council in the weeks to come.

Thank you.

Council Member Francois,

and yes, he did report on the governance.

I can cross that one off the list.

There we go.

Okay, thank you, Mayor.

I attended the Economic Development Working Group meeting

put on by the Chamber of Commerce.

We had a good presentation from representatives

from the Central Sand Sanitary District.

Our board director, Florence Weddington, attended.

These meetings are bright and early, 7.30 in the morning,

and she was there.

The general manager of the district was there,

as was the Development and Services Director,

talking about how they can be a partner

in terms of helping economic development in the city,

but also helping everyday residents

who are trying to have a sewer repair

or sewer hookup issue,

and had some pretty impressive turnaround times.

So we have to challenge, I think PG&E

to try to beat Central Sands permitting timeframes.

We also had an update from our terrific assistant

city manager, Terry Kilgore,

on our economic development action plan

and objective design review standards.

So the chamber was happy to hear that.

Along with the mayor and the Mayor Pro Tem

and former mayor and current council member Wilk,

I attended the League of Cities East Bay Division meeting,

which was out in Pittsburgh at the Yacht Club.

And it was a lovely venue right on the water

there on the Delta.

And we had a presentation from Hafsa Kaka,

who is a senior advisor on homelessness

to Governor Newsom.

And she was talking about the efforts the state is making

and the partnership the state wants to have

with local agencies on addressing this issue.

We also, there was also a new board of directors slate

that was voted in, and that include the new,

the outgoing president is Pittsburgh Mayor Chanel Scales Preston.

The incoming president is Melissa Hernandez of Dublin.

Do you want to report on Recipals March?

You can go ahead.

Okay, along with the mayor,

I serve on the Recycle Smart Board, the current mayor,

so there's no confusion.

And we approved two contracts, one for the newsletter,

and we had an interesting discussion about that.

It comes out quarterly and it's like the city's nutshell.

Most residents find it very useful and informative

and put it up on their fridge

and can get good recycling tips from it.

And we made a concerted effort not to go digital with that

because with those types of publications

that come out less frequently, monthly or quarterly,

the evidence shows that people actually do like it

in paper still and won't pay as much attention

if it's online or if there's only an online option.

We also approved a consultant to help us

with the franchise contract.

And so HF and H, Rob Hilton's firm is going to help,

is going to represent the agency on that

and provide his expertise through kind of a multi-year

process of developing a new franchise agreement.

And we had an update on our annual schools program

and pleased to say that several Walnut Creek

elementary schools had attained waste buster status,

which means that they have diverted,

They've met the authority's goals of trying to divert

75% of material out of the landfill.

So proud of that and looking for more good work

to come from them.

One issue where we still need to make a little bit

of headway is on reusable food ware.

Some of our sister cities in Lafayette and Arinda Moraga

have made some headway there and so I'd like to see

our Walnut Creek schools do that as well.

Council Member Wilk reported on the council governance,

and then I think we were all at the national night out

with our law enforcement brothers and sisters.

This evening, which is at Broadway Plaza,

is still going on for another 35 minutes.

So if you're watching us and would like to go out

and interact with the community

and good folks of law enforcement, please do so.

And that's my report.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Yeah, there's the bomb division,

there's the drones flying overhead,

there are many, many things to see

and all of the officers are anxious to share with you.

Thank you for reminding me.

I have a couple of items to report.

One, I think two of them are from

when I couldn't work my computer at last meeting.

The first one is I miss telling everybody

about a presentation that we had

Contra Costa Transportation Authority by 511 Contra Costa org and I'm going to

repeat that because you want to know what their website is 511 Contra Costa

org they are an amazing sub sub subsidy sub small part of Contra Costa

Transportation Authority they have the e-bike subsidy program that I think one

of our council members took advantage of.

They have many projects that are youth-oriented,

including programs around figuring out

how to make stray hoops to school safer,

activities and games for the whole family,

and real money could be had if you're a computer

and you're looking for ways to modernize your commute

on using public transportation.

So it's a really interesting website

and fun and honest to goodness there are contests that are fun. The other thing I think I didn't

do was the Rev. Tax Committee of the League of Cities had a meeting early in the month and

one of the issues that I have been working with them as did every member is about making sales tax

more equitable among the cities taking into effect

that when Amazon puts the distribution center in a city,

that becomes the point that gets all of the sales tax.

And those cities think it's a really good idea.

We who are book, brick, and mortar retailers

don't think it's such a hot idea at all.

And they've done some studies.

And if we can have what is looking to be

a reasonable solution to make everything more equitable,

we would get approximately 10% more sales tax

from the fact that we would get allocated it

from internet sales.

So it's really important.

10 years, 10 years we've been working on this.

So it's exciting to have a movement

And it was the city managers that worked together

that made it come out.

On my regular job,

on all the things I was supposed to just limit it to,

I went to the accessible transportation meeting yet again.

And one thing happened that was pretty amazing.

The accessible transportation,

which is also related to Contra Costa Transportation

Authority is trying to find ways

that the elderly and the disabled

can take public transportation start to finish.

They don't have to change buses,

they don't have to do all kinds of things

that are beyond their capacity

and stopping them to getting their help that they need.

We have a program in test on East County,

and it turns out that they have managed to figure out

how to put a test program in West County

using one city's program and expanding it to a bigger area.

We're really excited because we're also forming

an organization to help communicate

with all of the four bus systems that work with us

and get people to know about it

and make it fiscally possible

that they can take advantage of this.

I have a farmer's market reminder every Sunday almost.

A council member will sit at a booth about in the middle

and talk to you or anybody that approaches us civilly,

I might point out,

about things that are of concern for them.

We do miss a few weeks, but not many out of the year.

So please remember, my hours are religiously 10

and not a minute sooner to noon

and not much of a minute later.

So the other thing is there was

a Walnut Creek historical celebration for their members

and it's lovely to reconnect with that.

And finally, I went on a tour offered by PG&E

where they were showing how since 19, excuse me, 2021

when they first had the power outages

and they could shut you down for days on.

And how far they've come in figuring out

how to limit who is affected by the power outages,

how to find them faster so that fires don't happen.

And it was really totally impressive.

I learned so much about weather and fires

and the dangers of the power.

they're really making an investment

in saving our communities all over California,

Northern California.

I'm done.

Thank you.

Just a few things from my part of the world.

I'd like to congratulate Safeway

for its grand reopening of its downtown Walnut Creek store.

They just went through a major renovation

and now they not only number the aisles,

they also label them according to the names of streets

in Walnut Creek.

So just so you know, pizza is now on Walnut Boulevard.

The Country Wood Shopping Center store

is also undergoing a renovation, and we'll be reopening.

They're open, but we'll have their grand reopening

in the next few weeks.

Two weeks ago, the National League of Cities

held its summer leadership conference in Tacoma.

And participating in that, I'm on the advocacy committee

for community and economic development.

and probably the most fascinating part of the discussion

was something called the City Health Dashboard.

This is done in conglomeration or partnership

with New York University, and they're taking census data

as well as data from the American Community Survey

and aggregating it.

You just Google City Health Dashboard,

put in Walnut Creek, California, or any zip code,

and you can get a vast array of data.

Some of it is not quite accurate,

in part because they don't count privately owned

open space as public parks.

And so we don't fare as well as we could on the parks.

But it is really interesting to look at

as well as you can do comparative data

with other communities around the country,

all communities over the size of 50,000.

So that's their cutoff point

for what they've been able to do so far.

And finally, I will say that yesterday I participated

on behalf of the League of California Cities

on an informational panel at the annual meeting

of the Contra Costa County

and Alameda County Special Districts Association.

So the comparable of our League of California Cities.

They were hearing about the measure that is proposed

to hit the November 2024 ballot

by the California Business Roundtable.

It was interesting to hear their arguments

of why it's going to benefit all of us.

And I had the opportunity to explain how it will dramatically

and negatively impact the city of Walnut Creek.

And we're going to have to keep an eye on this

because it was, we had to explain that Measure O is at risk

if that statewide measure passes.

They're telling people it's not,

but then they were corrected and they went, oh.

So we have to be mindful of that as we move forward.

Thank you very much to my council colleagues

and all of the members of the community that were here with us tonight earlier

for all that you do for our community and

the surrounding areas and that concludes our reports this evening and now we're

going to go to item five the public hearing

on the preliminary review of the proposed general plan amendment

and rezone that would allow for higher density mixed use

development with a residential emphasis at what we

considered to be the Walnut Creek Honda site.

And who is going to start us off,

or do we have an introduction from executive staff?

Thank you very much.

So this is a request for a general plan amendment

and our associate planner, Jessica Gonzalez,

will lead us off on the explanation, thank you.

Thank you, good evening, Jessica.

Hi, good evening, thank you mayor and council members.

Again, my name is Jessica Gonzalez, associate planner.

I'm gonna have to speak into that.

Okay.

Firmly.

Okay.

Lean in, speak loudly.

All right.

So as mentioned, this is a preliminary application

for a potential general plan amendment

at the Honda One Creek dealership.

Before I get started with the presentation,

I just wanna clarify that this is not

a project reviewer application.

What is before you tonight is a preliminary application

which provides a process for the council

to review general plan amendment request early on.

As stipulated in the municipal code,

the council can either deny the proposed amendment

if council believes the proposal

should not be considered any further

or you may direct staff to process a formal application.

Getting started with the proposal location,

the site is comprised of four contiguous parcels

bounded by North Main Street, Locust Street,

Lacoste Avenue, and Giamona Drive.

The site totals approximately 2.77 acres in size

and is all under the same ownership.

And the existing development at the site

is currently the Honda dealership and service center.

And so just to clarify, this is a, again,

preliminary application for potential

general plan amendment to change the land use designation.

The ownership has indicated their desire

to completely redevelop the site

and noted their intent to move the existing dealership

and service center to another location

within the city of Wanak Creek.

And so just to give some context

in terms of the location area,

I've included some street view photos

from the four corners of the site.

And as you'll note, the site is surrounded

by various retail uses, multi-story office buildings,

as well as multi-story mixed use development.

So moving into the general plan land use designation,

the existing land use designation

is mixed use commercial emphasis, or MUC.

That designation allows a combination of ground floor retail

with office and or residential uses above the ground floor

with retail required on the ground floor

for that commercial emphasis.

The applicant is requesting general plan amendment

to change the existing land use designation

to mixed use residential or MUR,

which is intended to encourage a combination

of ground floor retail with office

and a residential above the ground floor

where residential must be the primary use.

So moving into the zoning,

The concept location is zoned mixed use commercial

and the MUC allows a density of one residential unit

per 875 square feet of lot area

or one residential dwelling unit per 675 square feet

of lot area through the provision of community benefits.

And the proposal would be to change that

to mixed use residential,

which allows a density of one dwelling unit

per 425 square feet of lot area.

And so I just want to clarify that the site is located

within the north downtown specific plan.

This is discussed thoroughly throughout the staff report,

but just in summary, the site is located

within the arts district of that plan.

And that encourages arts and entertainment uses

on the ground floor.

The plan also outlines where street activating uses

envisioned. And as you'll note on the figure 3.2 on the screen, retail activating uses

are envisioned along three frontages of the site. And then lastly, the plan also outlines

the developments of Giamona Plaza as a potential community benefit. Oh, and then also just

to clarify, any future potential project would be reviewed against the specific plan policies

and provisions.

And so getting into the proposed concept, the concept is to completely redevelop the

site with a mixed use development based on the MUR density, that one unit per 425 square

feet, which could at this site allow for 284 units.

The applicant has submitted a massing study as part of their concept plans.

And that study really just depicts the available development envelope based on the allowed

FAR in height, which are regulated by the specific plan.

And also it depicts the potential increase in height in FAR under that same specific

plan through the provision of community benefits.

And as you'll note in reviewing those massing plans, a change to the land use designation

only increase the density, it would not change the allowable height or FAR.

And so as described in the report, the request before you tonight is for the general plan

amendment, the change in land use, but if a general plan were pursued, a future project

would also require a rezone specific plan amendment to the maps and a development agreement.

And so with that, staff recommends the council review the available options on the screen,

which are to either provide preliminary comments on the proposal and direct staff to process

the general plan amendment to change the land use designation from MUC to MUR, or to deny

the application.

And that does conclude my presentation.

I'm available for any questions, and I also know we have the project applicant, Gordon

Walton, with a presentation as well.

Right before you sit down. Let's see if council has any questions for staff

Councilmember darling. I just want to make sure I've got the height firmly in my head. So under measure a

The maximum they could do is 50 the north downtown specific plan

It's 35 unless they provide community benefits under that plan

Yes, so the measure a height limit for the entire site is 50 feet

What is allowed under the north downtown specific plan is shown on the screen that figure so

Kind of that lighter

Yellow this kind of there's the backward sea around the site and so that area is limited to 35 feet in height

with that orange area in the center that has a

Higher allow it's allowed 50 feet in height and so through the provision of community benefits

they can increase the height to the the rest of the parcel do you it's been a

while since I've looked at the north downtown plan why was that little area

allowed a higher does anybody remember I see because it already was oh okay it

was already right we just we discussed whether to increase it to save you

walking up here I think you can just not in confirmation rather than reduce

Everything basically it was a donut hole already. Okay, it's a pre-existing donut hole and nobody ate the donut hole

So, okay, that makes sense. Thank you

councilmember Wilk

Thank you and thank you for the presentation

So just a few questions for you. So just to be clear staff is not making a recommendation on this, correct?

No, we're just presenting the available options for the preliminary application. Okay, great

What's an example of the difference in if you showed it actually there's one of the slides here

There was a little box in the right hand corner and then we moved on to it before I I could read that's the one

Okay, so the difference between in a 50-foot high mixed use commercial versus mixed use residential

so it looks like the difference in terms of permissible units are up to 284 in the proposed and

in the existing of a 675 square foot it would be up to

Right read that right yes, so about a hundred more give or take

Can I verify something here, but that would require even though that's not being asked here for the additional height and

Floor area ratio that would then trigger the need for community benefits during the project phase. Yes

You can't squeeze it into the right the lower to the right now

What would be the difference in commercial space available in a mixed-use commercial versus mixed-use residential for example

It looks like that

Right now come on an MUC

Commercial would have to be at least on the ground floor and if it's a mixed-use residential

I just want to make sure I have this right if it's a mixed-use residential

It's encouraged

to have

Ground floor commercial, but doesn't have to be it could be residential being the total use. Yes

and

Has has this particular site brought any potential?

Application or proposal forward during the current MUC which was adopted in 2019

Have there been any applications that have come from this property owner?

I'm looking to her senior staff who's been here a lot longer than I have and I'm seeing a no. No, okay

and this, Jessica, this was before you as well,

so maybe we'll just get Chip to nod up or down.

When we reviewed this in 2019,

I believe the council didn't wanna change

to the to move to multi-use residential

for a variety of reasons,

including changing the zoning designation

on the just completed specific plan.

So Janine, as you're making your way up here, I guess,

is that correct?

We didn't make that change because we had just completed it

And there were a few different reasons

as I'm trying to remember why we didn't approve it

at that time.

Janine Cavalli, Senior Planner.

Yes, so towards the very end of the specific plan process

right before adoption, the request was made

from the property owner to change it from MUC to MUR.

At that time, the environmental project,

the environmental review had already been conducted

and would have to have been redone.

And so that was one of the primary reasons.

We did not, and it had already gone

through an extensive outreach process,

including an advisory committee

that two council members were on.

And so that was some of the analysis that was,

or the discussion that led to not making that change.

But what was changed at the last minute

was to allow for some increased density on MUC sites

through a community benefit,

but it doesn't allow an increase in density

up to the MUR allowance.

Okay, unless there was a rezoning

on a general plan amendment.

That's correct.

Okay, thank you.

And then the last question I had,

if we can go back,

there was, you had a very colorful map on one of these.

It was maybe slide four or five, that wasn't it.

That's it.

Okay, so this is the property, it's blue outline, right?

Yes. Right there.

And so purple is mixed-use commercial,

and we can see the other mixed-use commercial around there,

and then right across, it looks like,

what's the light blue?

It says OC.

Office commercial. That's office space.

Okay, and then the red is?

I believe that's PR, pedestrian retail.

Pedestrian retail.

So it's literally on the end,

So that would be looking to move from mixed use commercial

to mixed use residential which,

what is the color for that?

Dark purple to light purple.

Dark purple to light,

and I'm looking for some light purple on here

just to compare.

It's right over there.

Oh, the lavender, got it.

Okay, okay, I see like where the lofts is.

Okay, great, I think that was it.

Thank you.

Council member Francois.

So while we're on this particular slide

and kind of following up on council member Wilks questions,

I think Janine, if you can remind me,

kind of the thought process that went into

where mixed use commercial went

and where mixed use residential went and why,

you know, why this site was designated mixed use commercial

when we adopted the North Downtown plan.

The primary reason for identifying that site

as mixed use commercial rather than mixed use residential

was for the requirement of commercial retail

on the ground floor.

So we wanted activated uses.

it's within the identified arts district

and within the, or adjacent to, rather,

the proposed Giamono Plaza,

which we would want to be activated

with ground floor retail restaurant type uses.

The FAR, thank, that's helpful.

And the FAR and the height are the same under both.

So the, if you did a mass,

I think it was in the staff report,

which was very good, by the way.

If you did a massing study,

it would essentially be the same box,

whether it's mixed use commercial

or mixed use residential?

That's correct.

Just to elaborate a little bit,

within the downtown specific plan,

FAR and height are not tied to land use.

Rather, they are tied to site-specific locations.

And the FAR was intended to match the allowed height

under the measure A.

And we wanted to preserve that height

only allow an increase in height if a community benefit was provided. If a

community benefit is provided you can increase the height which then also

allows you to increase the FAR even higher to match that height. So really

FAR and height are very similar ways of measuring or demonstrating an

allowable development potential. So even with this proposed change the

site would remain in the arts district. Correct. And what's this how is that

it's not changing because it's staying in the arts district is the substantive

change then instead of ground floor arts retail uses being required or mandatory

now they're being encouraged? Correct. And let's see I think that's it for right

now. Councilmember Darling? My fellow Councilmember Francois made me realize

that I so going from MUC to MUR results in a lot more units. Is that number of

units extra units that are allowable related to the provision that requires

commercial on the ground floor or is it related to the one unit per 675 square

feet or one unit per 425 square feet? The calculations were just based on the

potential allowable ratios. So the one one dwelling unit per 425 square feet. So

you could have a higher density under the MUC and get the same number of units.

No, no, the MUR allows you to make each of the individual units smaller.

So even though the massing of the building can be the same, you can generate more units

under the MUR within the same massing structure because it goes down to 1 per 425.

But if you said you could do MUC with 1 per 425, you could get the same number of units?

You changed the density.

Correct but that would require its own separate amendment to the yeah that yeah

Mayor Pro Tem. Do you have any questions?

Clarifications, please

So again, we are not here to approve a specific project

we're here to actually consider allowing the consideration of

a general plan amendment for this site and a specific project if

The site were to change would then come forward from this owner or potentially a different owner. Yes, that's correct. The

This general plan amendment consideration would include the environmental that we were unable to do at the very end of the north downtown specific plan

I'm getting the getting the

The

It's part of the Arts District. This doesn't change its location in the Arts District

So it was that there would still be a requirement

Related to activating the ground floor related to arts

Arts and recreation actually it also included commercial recreation opportunities. Yes, that's correct

So any any future project would still be reviewed against the policies within the specific plan and how they measure to though

We could actually make make that part of the requirement of the change

That can can those requirements carry forward and yeah, they would is when I reviewed the plan again, they would still

Apply you would just have the base designation for the parcel

The MUR but the district itself the arts district does encompass the parcel

Just has a clarification on that because you said that it would they would be required to provide

Ground floor arts retail and I thought we had to establish that they wouldn't that'd be encouraged instead of required. So under the current

General plan land use and zoning designation ground floor retail is required

Per the north downtown specific plan and one of the figures I showed earlier the plan encourages ground floor retail

Activation along three frontages and so any future project would still be reviewed against that

you know guiding principle and encouraging policy. Sure. I think the Arts District policies, which page 52 don't require

Arts District ground floor, it's encouraged. Yes.

So rather than sit with empty spaces.

The

there was, I think there were a number of people asking questions

about what the 80 foot and 100 foot setback is

and I got an answer from staff that that's actually,

sidewalk, that's actually a cross width of the street,

not a setback from the street for the property

because otherwise you'd be kind of crossing over.

Yeah.

Okay, but we still aren't able to determine

how much more additional setback may be required.

Yeah, so my understanding from the public works

and engineering staff as we would need a survey

to determine exactly how much.

Okay, so it could be a foot, it could be two feet,

could be a few feet, but not 80 feet additional.

Yes.

Okay.

I think that's, the Gia Mona Plaza,

are we able to see when looking at their,

I guess I can ask them as well, so warning, warning.

The, is that reflective of what the plan envisioned

from our perspective as staff?

Other than note, you mean in the conceptual discussion

or the massing study?

In the massing study.

Other than just noting their intent to comply

with providing that development,

they're developing Giamona Plaza,

there are not enough specifics for us

to kind of determine how much they intend to develop.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions for staff?

And I think we will invite the applicant,

property owner representatives to speak.

City clerk, do we allow 15 minutes?

We allow up to 15 minutes for up to multiple speakers,

but as you.

But as you were, but as you watched earlier,

it takes a while for people to get up and back

from the microphone,

so and the clock is would be ticking at the same time.

Okay, all right, thank you.

Thank you for your time saving.

My name's Gordon Walton.

I'm a 29 year resident of Wall Street.

And, how do I work this?

The Rob family, I'm a 29 year resident of Walnut Creek and partners in Walnut Creek

Honda with David Rob, Nancy Rob, and myself.

The Rob families owned that property since 1950.

Our families have owned and operated Walnut Creek Honda since 1973.

Both of my sons who are also residents of Walnut Creek are very involved in the business

and we intend to continue to operate Walnut Creek Honda in Walnut Creek for many, many

years.

Our business goal is to relocate Walnut Creek Honda to a more modern facility that would

be more appropriate area.

And as you all know, you've driven by it a million times, it's a pretty old facility.

Some of it's been there for 100 years and we think it's time and there's an opportunity

for us to relocate within the city and give a new modern facility.

The existing zoning does not allow for a land value that will allow us to do that because

Because of the acquisition price of the property and the construction cost of a new facility,

it doesn't allow us for that.

We would be committed to do to relocate it within Walnut Creek.

Kate Walnut Creek haunted within Walnut Creek.

Continuing to operate, you know, full business and we would be happy to do that in a development

agreement. So we request that you guys can you all consider letting the study

go forward to let that happen. You are brief. Yeah there's some there's some

other benefits here you can all read I don't need I don't need to read them all

for you but you know the main thing is is that there's a we have an opportunity

here. I've been a resident for Walnut Creek for 29 years. I've

worked in Walnut Creek all my life. And we have an opportunity

here right now where the Robs are willing to consider a sale

of the property and future development. We're not

interested in being developers, but a sale of the property and

relocating the business up North Main Street. So we've got a

window to be able to do this and I'm requesting the consideration for zoning

are you willing to answer some questions if I can't mayor pro tem do you have a

question well I'm not sure it's appropriate but yeah I have a question

which is what kinds of what would happen if we didn't say yes most likely what

what happened is nothing.

We would just stay where we are.

Because, I'll give you an example,

we did this in Oakland.

Now we don't live in Oakland,

we don't have the same passion for that,

but we have a Oakland Acura as one of our dealerships.

We were able to acquire a piece of property

for $5 million through the city.

And it still took us $27 million to complete that facility.

It costs a lot to build a dealership.

And there's just no way, right now with the current zoning,

there's no way that we can realize enough income out

of the property to purchase property in Walnut Creek

and relocate.

And certainly, the Rob's don't want

to just do it to trade pieces, right?

We can't just move up to street in a different facility

and not realize any benefit out of the sale.

so I'm sorry, can you hear me?

I don't ever want to keep going,

if you've got more to say.

No.

So have you figured out sort of the neighborhood

you're looking for to develop if, you know, it's.

We have because we're in negotiations

and so there's some other things.

I'm not at liberty to discuss who it is,

but it would be on the other side of the overpass.

So it would be appropriate location.

I think that was. Yes, yes, yes, yes.

And it would be a much fancier store and and, you know, quiet,

quiet service area and things like that.

All the things that we now expect out of our development are our auto people.

I'm sorry, I don't understand.

It would be a fancier, more modern. Yes.

And it would be quieter because we expect that now

For most of the auto dealers that we have to keep the service area

Substantially quieter than the oh

Yeah, we we use a lot less of that now, right because we use electrics mostly

But the areas that we're looking at are not residential

Councilmember Francois. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your dedication to the city and to the rob family for many years

Does the group own the entire block or is it yes, okay and

Thank you for answering some of the questions already about the dealership if

Do you envision that the the dealership would be the new dealership would be similar to what you did in Oakland?

I mean is it going to be more of a it's going to be fancier, but it'll be more of the conventional

Kind of dealership with showroom and storage and service

It will have all those things, but would be

layered because we have you know, there's four 4.5 acres there and in this you know

We would have to use all the money just to buy the land here. So

No, it would it would be similar

And encompass all those operations, but storage would probably be underneath

And by this project going forward it provides a revenue source for the redevelopment of the ship to happen

Let's see and and you're not the developers of of this site if it goes forward it would be another we are not developers

We are not

We have no desire to be but but you're familiar with our plan and the years that went into that

I am importance of Geomonas Plaza

Yeah, and and the intent would be to kind of respect what we envision through that. Yes. Yes

I wish I had known about that whole thing when it was happening because I might have been able to get involved with it

I wasn't looped in on that at the time

And then just you know, finally, I'm not sure that I've really

kind of thought through a question on this yet, but but you know hearing from staff that that we consciously

made the decision to keep that site mixed-use commercial because of the importance of

Ground floor retail there and activating that space. I

and that it's located in the Arts District

and bordering the plaza.

It might just answer my own question.

Let's probably keep going.

I think that that, in some regards,

kind of, it'll solve the problem itself

because if that plaza goes in,

it will be an active frontage of your site.

But I think that there would be some expectation

or desire on the city part to see not just necessarily

a gym or something or a leasing office on the ground floor

of that kind of real important corner near the downtown.

And is that something that you, you know,

would be open to talking about as part of the negotiation?

I'm not a developer, but wouldn't that be part

of the application for the development?

Yeah.

You know, and then how that whole process?

It could also be part of this discussion.

What's that?

It could also be part of this discussion

in terms of the terms of the agreement

related to the general plan amendment.

OK, well, I think that's something

that would have to be worked out as we consider it.

Yes.

Exactly.

Right.

And then final question.

In terms of, do you envision the sales volume

of the new dealership to be the same, hopefully not less?

Well, right now, because we've experienced 2022 and 2023,

our volume is down a bit.

but I expect it to be pretty close to 2017, 18, 19 volume.

And the service volume will probably continue to grow.

Our service volume grows, has been continued to grow

about five to six percent per year,

year over year over year over year.

Thank you.

Okay.

Council Member Darling.

Thanks for coming and kind of walking through all this.

I don't need to know the exact detail,

but you say there's a window now

to sell the property and buy your new property.

As you've heard us describe,

there's a couple different things

that'll need to get worked out.

How big of a time window do you think

it's gonna take to, that you need to fit through?

How small a window are you gonna try to fit this?

Well, I've been told it takes about a year

to do this process.

I would say that we probably don't want it

to take much longer than that.

As long as you weren't saying 30 days, I think we're-

We've had some that have said that to us.

Yeah.

No, we understand.

Part of the reason, we've talked with several developers, they're calling us every day.

But all of them right now are in kind of a holding pattern, based on the things that

have happened over the last, you know, the economy and interest rates and things like

that. So we've been led to believe that that if we to use this time wisely while

while they're considering their engagement would be to get this done.

Right. All right that helps me thank you. Right. Councilmember Wilk do you have any

questions? I think you've answered my questions as well. Okay. So thank you very

much. Okay thank you. Did you draw this short straw to because you had to come

here and defend it? No, the reality of this is that the future of the business

is my responsibility, right. We're equal partners, eventually I will be,

it'll be me and my sons, I have a four-month-old granddaughter, you know,

someday we hope she's in the business. So I'm very serious about this. We're very

very serious about this. The little history, my father bought Walnut Creek Honda from the

lanes in 1973. In 1982 he decided he needed to retire. He couldn't do it anymore. So the

Robs bought Walnut Creek Honda from my family. I stayed on. And now I'm an equal partner

with the Rob's and the leadership. Thank you. We've been in the families a long time.

Thank you very much. Thank you. We're now going to see if there's any public comment on this

item. We will open public comment. You have up to two minutes to speak to us. If you have public

comment and you are joining us on Zoom, please use the raised hand feature to advise us that

that you want to speak, or press star 9 to let us know

if you are calling in on a basically you have phone only,

and up to two minutes per person.

Sorry.

And welcome.

Hi, welcome.

Thanks.

It's very nostalgic to have homegrown businesses

in our community, and I think we want to support them

and move the project forward.

It looks like a win-win. I hope that when the developer gets involved, we can see some

affordable housing as part of it, but that's the next phase, and I think we should move

this forward.

And you were so excited you didn't tell us who you are, because I thought-

Oh, yeah, Jan Warren. I'm sorry, Woodlands.

It's freezing in here tonight, by the way. Y'all all wear jackets and stuff.

We should rent blankets, do a fundraiser for Trinity Center.

Next speaker, please.

Hi.

And speaking of Trinity Center, I'm Leslie Gleason, as mentioned earlier, I serve as executive

director of Trinity Center.

Of course, we're going to support something that adds housing to the community, although

not all housing is the same with respect to meeting the needs of the people most in need

of it right now.

However, if I'm picturing this correctly, at one end of the parcel is in fact the wall

where the aforementioned mural is, right across from the exit to target.

So we would respectfully ask that if this goes forward, there'd be some consideration

of that and how that might be moved or preserved or something.

So thank you.

Thank you, Leslie.

If there are no others here in the council chambers, we will turn to our virtual attendees

and it looks like Margaret Ray wishes to speak. Yes, hello. We were just wondering what time

enough service would in fact be moving. Would it be the body shop as well? Not in the near future.

So we will get that question answered and when we take it back to staff. All right.

Thank you. Thank you. I see no other individuals with their hands raised and so I'm going to

close the public comment period, bring it back for additional questions, but there was a question

answered, I don't know Mr. Walton, if you have a sense of time, if it's anybody in terms of

once, let's say this happened in a year, how much time before you would be opening a new service,

new dealership and what would be the and would there be a gap in time for the

business the service portion of your business and come on forward please we'll

see if you can answer the question we can't have a gap in service so our if

it would best case scenario probably 18 months after that after the so there'd

be an overlap of time going on in order to get the service portion of the

business up and running before you close it here at we will move we will close

one night and open in the next in the new place the next day okay that just

like when we were up up the street and on North Main Street at 2555 and we

moved down overnight we were open the next day there we know no interruption

in service all right I think we answered the customers question okay thank you

any additional questions for staff before we discuss so I do you have a

question for Sam in terms of the the density that you know the it looks on

paper like a large increase but but that's assuming that under the MUR that

those units are built at a very small density like less than 500 square feet

right yes okay and then that there was I can't remember where I read it but I

read it somewhere about the um the housing fees and it it was counter

intuitive to me that under the existing zoning that essentially the how the

affordable housing fee was the same under the existing and the new zoning

how and how how is that the case for the inclusionary housing fee that's based

on the livable square footage so it's not based on the unit counter density

but the livable square footage is wouldn't it be the same because the box

is this right so maybe someone maybe the housing manager or our community

development director can elaborate because it was a little bit counter

intuitive or maybe you can just present what we what the housing fees are hi I'm

Stephanie by I'm the housing manager and you talk straight into this micro that

sure is that better oh that's much better okay so the inclusionary housing

fee is calculated by the livable square footage and and then there is if there's

a affordable unit fraction of the total calculation and that's also factored in

but in terms of the actual the number of units don't taken are not taken into

consideration unless there's affordable housing to be factored in in terms of

it becoming a fraction of right the total fee does that make sense it does

so the livable square footage of both scenarios is roughly comparable right

The fee is charged on the livable square footage, and that's why it's about the same.

Correct.

Can I ask a question here?

If the box is the box, let's just take it out to its height and FAR.

If it stays mixed-use commercial, it can't go 100%.

Let's just ignore the ground floor at the moment.

It can't go 100% residential.

So if it's mixed-use residential, you've got more of the box devoted to residential.

are going to generate greater living space,

therefore a greater fee.

Right.

And if only half of the box, under the mixed use commercial,

if it's half residential, half office, just,

then only half of the box is applicable to the fee.

Right, and there's less livable square footage

to apply to the population.

I think maybe there was a misinterpretation

of what the question might have been from Council

that generated that answer.

Okay.

What is the affordable level if the units are included?

Let's say if it was 171 units versus 284.

What's the calculation?

For affordable units to be provided as opposed to in Lufi.

No, so if there were half of that calculation

and units of half of the units were affordable.

For example, is that what you're?

Let's take the 284 is it 10% or 28% for very low make sure is the question. What's the inclusionary requirement, right?

So that's it's I believe it's six and ten percent one for purchase of one for a rental

I don't have that calculation off the top of my head

It's rather awkward to ask was to do math and you know and sort of real time here so I apologize for that oops

It's different if the units are included on site and therefore they wouldn't be subject

to the inclusionary fee.

So if 100% of them were included on site, then the number would be zero because there's

no fee in lieu.

No, let's see if the city manager understands my question because I'm clearly not saying

it right.

I think I can answer a little more generically.

So if we're applying the percentage that the city attorney noted, the 6-10%, the number

of units, doubles, you would have roughly double the number of affordable units.

Right, so if it's changed to mixed-use residential and it has 284 units, is it 10% of those would

be required if they don't pay the fee on-site?

That's correct for, I'm doing this a little bit by recollection, I can check, but I believe

if it's rental-

Let's assume it's rental.

If it's rental, I believe it's 10%.

The standards are six and 10.

Six for owner occupied, 10 for rental.

Okay, so 28 units.

Yeah, 28 units roughly.

28 units or a fee.

Bar come.

Not that we're negotiating here,

just trying to get us a scope and.

The request for a general plan amendment comes

not that often for something of this magnitude and scope.

We did it for Broadway Plaza.

We did it for the Orchards.

We did it for,

we're currently discussing it with Toyota Walnut Creek.

We did it for the senior housing

that's now in the shade lens.

And generally as part of the request

for a general plan amendment,

there was an agreement of some type,

I won't call it a community benefit

because it gets confused with the program,

but some kind of benefit to the community

for the granting of the general plan.

Have we talked about that?

Is my recollection correct?

Sorry, I was starting to look up something,

but if the question is,

have we considered some type of public benefit

as distinguished from the community benefit,

that's a defined term under the two specific plans,

when we are increasing the intensity

of residential development on a property

through a general plan amendment.

We're seeking a general plan amendment.

That's right, the answer to that is yes, we have.

And we did that with Broadway Plaza,

which wasn't related to residential,

it was related to increasing the intensity of commercial.

All right.

Any other questions for staff?

All right.

So let's bring it to council.

Who would like to start their thoughts?

Council Member Wilk?

Council Member Darling's reaching though pretty fast.

Yeah, you're here.

Go ahead, good.

I appreciate, thank you staff for bringing this forward,

and I appreciate the applicant of being here as well.

I'm mixed about this because I'm concerned

about the loss of the leadership downtown,

and I'm very concerned about this

general plan amendment request.

In fact, I look at general plan amendments

more seriously than maybe almost any other agenda item

when it comes to development and community because that's why people

build, that's why they buy, that's when people are making their plans. And Mr.

Walton seems like a very nice person and imminently likable and I believe the

applicant has the full intention to move the dealership within Walnut Creek but

as I've seen and as we've seen in the past applicants with similar intentions

have changed course midway through leaving me at least feeling like there's

there's been a bait and a switch.

I'm not saying that would happen here,

but the Fuddruckers property was approved partially,

at least in large part, as far as I was concerned,

that Fuddruckers was going to be there, and it's not now.

And prior to me even being on council,

I was sitting in the audience and listening to,

when the discussion at the old McDonald's property,

there were gonna be hotels on the top, hotel space,

and as opposed to all apartments or condos,

and I think that's now changed as well.

And we've seen these change midcourse

for a variety of reasons.

So I'm not saying this is not the full intention

of the applicant to have another Honda property

in Walnut Creek, but there's not a guarantee.

And I'm in favor of housing downtown.

I voted for projects previously downtown.

I think that's where the housing is needed

when we're looking at building the housing

and maintaining arena numbers.

So this is about not wanting housing.

zoning already allows for mixed use commercial I just don't see a reason to

really change that nothing that I've heard here is compelling me to feel like

that should be changed and and just like the applicant reading through the agenda

report giving lofts on Main Street as an example of their previous zoning change

if this does change to mixed use residential we'll see more requests from

other potential owners or developers for changing their zoning using this slot as

as an example, well, this is mixed use residential,

and we're just gonna see that creep continue.

And so why those should be allowed?

Because this was allowed.

So we could also see a potentially aggressive developer

come in for this site.

We don't know who the developer would be,

who decides to fight or even seek litigation

to build whatever they want,

especially considering it's within one half mile from Bart,

and we know how the state has made

those kind of allowances in the past,

and I'm concerned about that potentially as well.

But again, residential is allowed here as it is.

This is a retail and commercial district

and I wouldn't want that to change,

especially as it's a pre-approved arts district

that's still part of the Walnut Creek vision.

And this proposal is similar

to what was brought to council in 2019

and denied then for the reason

that we had discussed just before.

And it's been mixed use commercial

since the adoption of the North Downtown Pacific Plan

four years ago and not one proposal has been brought forward under that designation.

It's just sort of static and then now we have this proposal to change it again.

So the land value and the land value question I thought was interesting

because the land value question for mixed-use commercial should still be substantial and

presumably a new dealership wherever it would be would be on land that was built and purchased

that was also mixed-use commercial or maybe even just commercial or retail.

it certainly wouldn't be mixed-use residential, so it should be more of a like for like.

So in general, I like the fact that this is mixed-use commercial. I think this is where

it makes sense. It's in the walking district of Walnut Creek and should it be something

where it is then all residential and whatever our best intentions here and everybody's best

intentions, if it changes to single-use residential only, we have just lost a huge area that is in our

core area of downtown between Target and Leisure Center where we're talking about an arts vision

and that's gone. We aren't going to be able to get that back afterwards and that really does concern

me. I think this, I think this is, has all the best ideas but I would not, I would deny this

application based upon those reasons. Councilmember Darling. Thank you and thank you for coming and

talk to us about this. I think I see the city's interests are definitely retaining the dealership,

definitely looking for a package that includes the street activation that we are looking for

in that idea of the Arts District in Giamona Plaza. I think with those two things I am willing

to entertain a higher density and the density that you're looking for on this parcel to

make it more economically viable for you.

So I would be comfortable if we could go through and lay out public slash community benefits

and I'm mushing those all together, lay out a vision for what we're still getting on that

ground floor but give you the higher density and you're not going to be able to talk to us.

I'm not just telling you. But I am willing to engage in the higher density in the floors above

the ground floor and move that concept forward. I think as we go through this I would want to see

and a development agreement that memorializes these interests and memorializes the commitments

that are being made because like council member Wilk I think you know we're we're dealing with

one party now we know we'll be dealing with the second party we want to make sure that whatever

commitments we make are carried forward um and my last little thing is I do love the mural and I know

that we don't want to make people not tear down buildings that have murals but I think when we

and we look at the development and we look at the art.

I would like to make sure we retain the flavor

and the commitment because the kids

who put that mural together were very inspiring.

So that's kind of my thoughts right now.

Council Member Francois.

I appreciate both my colleagues speaking

from their heart on this issue.

And I think that this is an appropriate location

for higher density.

I think that, I understand Council Member Wilks' concerns

and I think they are valid.

We put a lot of thought and effort into that plan.

And so I think there needs, if this goes forward,

if there's a majority to support this, that there,

and we have the precedent with the Toyota dealership

of not quite yet the precedent,

but we're moving towards having a precedent

of having kind of a framework with a development agreement

and our expectations for what the community benefits

will be as part of this,

I think will be extremely important.

The plaza being one,

the activation of two or three of those street sides

being another, the dealership, of course,

you know, like we did with the BART project,

that the dealership relocating is phase one

before the multifamily is allowed to move forward

and get billed.

the only other thing I would add would be that I wanted to,

if we were to do this,

that it has the look and feel of what's in that plan

and that through our negotiation process,

that we're not saying the developer

doesn't have the expectation that this is the base

and I'm gonna double or triple that

through some other state law,

that through our negotiations and the development agreement,

it's clear that we are allowing for a substantial,

potentially substantial increase in density,

but not a two or three X substantial increase in density.

So I'd wanna see that it be balanced

and not be something, you know,

and along those lines, I think the height comes into it

because there was, it does, it's the height, the FAR,

that box that is being built out essentially be the box

that's reflected at the maximum levels in the specific plan

and not something a great deal more than that.

So I, and that's going to require I think some legal work

and some thought through the development agreement process,

but I think we could get there.

I mean, it's a matter of just putting it to paper

and both sides agreeing to it.

So I'd be inclined to see this move forward

kind of with those reservations put on the record.

Mayor Pro Tem.

The Honda dealer, I bought a car from the Honda dealer

a couple of years ago and it got killed

in a freeway accident, but it saved the life

of my then husband, so I am grateful

for the quality of the cars.

So I've been thinking about this because I was

on the downtown specific plan with Mayor Silva.

And we were looking for opportunities

to build in more residences into the area.

And we were looking for opportunities

to use a different, more creative approach

to the building, hence the art designation.

I don't know how practical that was.

I think it would be lovely to have an art district

and have all kinds of wonderful galleries

and walking areas and that sort of thing.

I don't know that our community in general can support it.

I'm hoping that if this comes through,

you're moving your business,

and I'm thinking that if you can move it closer

to similar businesses,

you're more likely to have more businesses

in addition to having a more appealing showroom

et cetera, I'm hoping that that means more sales

for your organization or go more money for Walnut Creek.

And I'm concerned that it doesn't exactly fit

right now where it is.

I am also concerned that there are to fully look

at all the buildings that are downtown

and protecting the spaces for businesses,

there are sure a lot of empty spaces

and the larger they are,

the more likely they are to remain empty.

And we need to be smart about the fact

that businesses are going to change.

Retail is going to change.

My husband, my current husband,

is a really good example of this.

He went to a store to try something on

and bought the style of pants that he wanted,

and then he ordered three more pair online.

It's going to change.

We're gonna have to think of retail and food things

in a different way rather than keeping the same old,

same old.

So I think we're running risks.

This is an ideal place to also take advantage

of transportation right within walking distance.

I haven't ever tested it,

but I think it's like one of the closest business properties

that we could have housing next to, Bart.

And so I think that with the ability

to have the encouragement of businesses

on the first floor keeping our opportunities

as open as possible, I'm leaning towards supporting it

being a M-U, M-U-R.

Did I get the right letters in the right place?

Mer, mer, yeah, yeah.

So I'm thinking you've got a good deal

and Walnut Creek will benefit from it.

Thank you very much, like my colleagues have said,

for coming here this evening and for presenting your idea

and for telling us the origin story of the Rob's

and the Waltons and the Lanes and the Horse and Buggy

and I want to know what part is a 100 year old piece

of that building, although I suspect it was

where the old Irish pub was.

The North Downtown specific plan,

Mayor Pro Tem was correct.

She and I worked on that.

We started that work in 2016.

So we're now talking seven to eight years ago

and a lot has happened in the economic workings

of not just Walnut Creek, but the entire world.

What we thought in 2016 and 17

that was codified in 2019 was that we could expand retail

beyond our really concentrated area.

We thought we could get more office.

The reality is not going to fulfill that.

But we do need more housing

because that's the other reality that has come to fruition.

So, in short, I'm willing to consider this general plan amendment or direct staff to

process it.

But I want to also make a couple of comments about the North Downtown specific plan.

It did not envision that Honda was going to stay where it's located.

That was not what is intended with a mixed-use commercial.

None of the density designations, the FAR, et cetera, was about a dealership.

It was that the dealership would somehow move north, but it needed to be able to find its

way there through appropriate land valuations and procurement, etc.

The arts district was a vision, but it was also a vision predicated on multiple floors,

conference center, hotel space, maybe a bigger arts center.

It was really an open vision, but now when you come to the point where you're looking

at where are we today and moving forward, you have to figure out what your best opportunities

are.

And I think many of those visions for the upper stories are not going to come to fruition.

We could leave it at mixed-use commercial, but they would not get the density of housing

because they can't go to basically 100 percent of the upper floors.

they would have to leave it partially commercial.

It would be empty office space.

It would not tenant.

I don't think the,

it wouldn't have the same valuation

in terms of being able to move the area forward.

But with additional residents living there

and the opportunity that some of it

would either be affordable

or also be able to generate the fees that we use

to leverage more affordable units.

We have a greater opportunity to move forward.

plus people living there, activate the streets by themselves and they shop and dine downtown.

The reason we said no in 2019, I was mayor, I was sitting holding the gavel at that time,

was because it was 1145 in a 12-hour operation and opportunity and we couldn't reopen.

It was going to take a year to reopen everything, go back and integrate in.

it was not the only request that night.

There were a couple of other requests.

We were going to have to stall.

And quite frankly, I'm really glad we didn't

because we would have ended in the middle.

We wouldn't have gotten through it

because we would have been in the middle of COVID

when we were trying to figure out.

I think it is a good place for residential.

I also think it aligns with the surrounding units or uses.

We have residential, we have retail,

We have a big box retailer.

We have transportation nearby

and we have office uses.

And I'm not quite sure what you call

the AT&T Mobile Switching Center.

People don't even know what's in there,

but it's a really pretty building.

And I think what we have to do is like council member

Darling said is really focused on a development agreement

as part of this, wherein we are locking in maybe not,

maybe not the amounts, but that we still expect

Giamono Plaza, that we still expect ground floor

retail commercial uses of some ilk, including the arts,

and that maybe it can look like Brooklyn.

I don't know what it can look like.

I never, creativity, that's the next stage of the process.

But I think we have an opportunity

and still be able to retain the entertainment concept

that could align with the Lesher Center for the Arts.

So we need a motion.

There I would move that we direct staff

to proceed with a general plan amendment for MUR

for the Honda site,

consistent with the letter of intent that was submitted

and are concurrent with the negotiations

for a community benefit through a development agreement.

Can you change that to public benefit?

Yes.

I would second the motion.

Can we have a roll call vote please?

Council Member Francois.

Aye.

Mayor Silva.

Aye.

Council Member Darling.

Yes.

Council Member Wilk.

No.

Mayor Pro Tem Hask you.

Yes.

Motion carries four to one.

Thank you very much for being here

and for presenting your,

and we look forward to seeing this in the future,

and we're going to take a break until quarter to nine

so that we can reconfigure everything.

Thank you very much everyone.

Then I looked up and realized oh they're not paying any attention so we're ready to reconvene

and I want to welcome back everyone to the August 1st, 2023 regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City

Council. The next and last item on our agenda this evening is a consideration item for the

second addendum to the adopt... we need to go before you start we actually need to go back and

make sure we are clear in our direction to staff regarding the previous items city attorney.

Madam Mayor, I just wanted to clarify that the motion that the Council just adopted,

the Council had had a significant discussion about potentially activating the ground floor

and staff wanted to understand if that was part of the Council's direction in terms of

the discussions we have with the property owners as part of potentially the development

agreement that's adopted.

That was certainly my intent as the maker of the motion and I'll let my colleagues

speak for themselves. That was my intention as the seconder although it

wasn't from my perspective the North Downtown specific plan never envisioned

a hundred percent it was of retail at the ground floor it envisioned it closer

to what would be Gia Mona Plaza and the downtown core area. Yeah thank you staff

understands that we'll reflect that in your direction. And in your staff notes

you have that retention of the dealership. Absolutely yeah that was part

of their letter of intent that they submitted to us as well too. Now the last

item is item number six a consideration item on the second addendum to the

adopted six cycle housing element update. Welcome. Fyner in the community

development department and I'd like to say that first to start off by saying

that while I'm standing before you I'm not alone in this project or in this

in this process. Really everything we do is a team effort and this the housing

element update is by no means an exception to that and specifically if

you'll indulge me just for a moment I want to recognize Stephanie Brynan who

is our housing manager who has was able to jump in and really take over almost

all of the project management duties for the last four months which has been a

tremendous help. Also our new assistant community development director Sung Kwon who has also helped

obviously with you know overall management but providing assistance and actually some knowledge

he prior to coming and joining us here at the city he worked on a house a six cycle housing

element for another Bay Area community that has been certified. So in addition to our consultant

staff having experience with certified housing elements. We now have in-house staff as well with

that. I also want to recognize Erica Brand, our community development director who has also spent

quite a bit of time and effort on this, I want to call it a project, but whatever you want to call

this update, and has been a tremendous amount of help as well, certainly from our city attorney's

office. Claire Lye who is assistant city attorney who has been in many many

meetings has been a great deal of help and city attorney Steve Mattis has also

had a heavy hand in or not a heavy hand that's a terrible term to use a large

hand in this process you know making there's the normal just making sure

everything's legal but Claire has of course also done a lot of this in

writing certain things in addition to making sure that everything's nice and

legal and down in the trenches with me we've got our consultant staff we have

Erlonda Martinez and and Hita Mosesman from Harrison Associates and Nancy

Bergado from Bergado Planning all three of them are attending via zoom and

they're also be available to jump in and answer questions if I stumble and if

anybody else here is not able to answer that so thank you again for

indulging me I just I wanted to make sure that gift credit where credit is due

really well thank you for doing that I think that's really helpful for us to

understand that it takes a village to build a new village. Yes so with that

let's go ahead and jump in a question some may be asking is wait housing

element why are we here again so just there's a very brief bit of background

the public review draft of the housing element was actually released a little

bit over a year ago and there was a 30-day public public review period

followed by a 90-day review period by the state and we received comments

in December last year from the state as to what would be needed to amend our or

to complete our draft housing element. This council adopted a substantially

compliant housing element on January 24th of this year and then following

conversations that staff had with HCD staff where they were giving us a heads

up as to some concerns that they had with the adopted element, this council

adopted what we're now referring to as the first addendum but at the time it

was just an addendum to that adopted housing element.

We received a letter from HCD,

that's by the way, the California Department of Housing

and Community Development.

We received a letter from them on March 27th,

asking for additional information and analysis

as a prerequisite for certification.

We have, in addition to actually working on providing that

and updating the housing element accordingly,

We've also had a series of meetings

and calls with city staff and HCD staff

to make sure that we are very clear in our understanding

as to what the state is looking for.

And what we have before you tonight is a second addendum

to the adopted housing element update.

It's been provided to you in the form of a,

what we're calling a consolidated addendum,

which merges the two addenda.

And I just wanted to be able to say that word publicly.

But basically, the important thing is that it's hopefully

for ease and understanding.

The adopted housing element, which is this big book

right here, what you have in this consolidated addenda

is the sum total of the changes, both those that were

adopted in the first addendum and those that are being

considered tonight.

And so that way you can easily compare without having

to look through between three different documents.

Also, I will say that attachment five to the staff report

is kind of the Cliffs Notes version of the addendum,

the consolidated addendum,

because that document itself is fairly long.

So hopefully that was of some assistance

in being able to go through what is before you tonight.

Assuming that, or I should say,

if the council does approve the second addendum tonight,

we would, of course, then at staff level,

take steps to basically consolidate everything

into one document, send it off to the state.

They have 60 days then to review.

So we would hear back by October of this year,

whether or not they would be certifying

or if they had some additional requests of the city.

So the comments that we received in the letter from HCD

really came, there was actually three numbered comments.

There were kind of high level comments

and the general areas that they covered

were requests for enhanced descriptions and analysis

of the base conditions in the city,

enhanced programs for both for affirmatively

furthering fair housing, AFFH,

and as well furthering housing mobility

with a specific interest in reducing

governmental constraints to the development of housing.

And then also asking for some clarifying information

and analysis regarding our site's inventory.

So I'll just quickly go through those.

In terms of the base conditions,

really what they were looking for

is a description and analysis of our development review

process and for the purpose of identifying constraints

to the development of housing.

Those then were addressed through enhanced programs.

So with specifically to reducing constraints,

what's been added in the second addendum

is basically further commitment to completing

a parking study that's currently underway,

parking demand study, residential parking demand study,

and specifically committing to reducing

the parking requirements and keeping with that study

when that happens.

Also conducting a building envelope study

and amending the zoning ordinance as necessary.

Basically what that means is confirming that

our densities that are allowed under the zoning

and general plan are possible and consistent

with our other development standards.

Setbacks, lot coverage, FAR, things of that nature.

And if it's determined that they're not,

which I would not expect to happen

because we're generally pretty careful

in crafting our development standards.

But if it does, then we would be looking

at amending the zoning, those development standards,

or we would be committing to amending the zoning

appropriately so that the development standards

are in line with the allowable densities.

And then lastly, we'll also be reviewing our design review

and use permit findings that apply to projects

that are not streamlined, for example,

under Housing Accountability Act or SB 330.

Then lastly, also amending the zoning ordinance

to allow larger residential care homes by right

in residential zones,

so be with seven or more residents.

Typically those currently require a use permit.

And to also allow emergency shelters

as is required by state law.

Some other enhanced programs.

Could you go back a minute and just let us absorb

what you just said?

Certainly.

Because it's so nice to see it just in a few bullets

as opposed to 96 pages.

Yes.

So allow residential care homes by right

in residential zones.

Currently, we require a CUP.

In most cases, I believe that is the requirement.

Or use permit.

Yeah, and there's also-

And emergency shelters.

All right, anyone else?

Thank you.

Certainly.

So some other enhanced programs are meant to address

other interests of the state regarding housing choice

and housing mobility, the ability to move within the city

and to move up the ladder, if you will.

And so to that end, the second addendum includes

amending the zoning ordinance to allow ADUs

on faith-based properties.

So for example, being able to build ADUs

on a church property where there isn't currently a house.

Also, we are including an ADU monitoring program,

which in addition to just monitoring permitting

and production of ADUs, which we do already,

we would be also following occupancy, rental rates,

things of that nature.

And also we are committing to adopting a quote,

permanent SB9 ordinance.

And actually I will tell you that actually,

just this last Thursday, we had a study session

at the planning commission taking input on that.

So that is already moving forward.

For the mid cycle review, that was something that was added as part of the first addendum.

Basically mid cycle review to review our progress towards meeting our goals halfway through

this eight year housing element cycle, we're adding a commitment to changing the development

standards as necessary to reduce constraints if progress is not being made towards meeting

our goals.

Also, we have added a program that we'd be looking to complete capital improvement program

projects that serve low-income housing sites and areas with higher rates of poverty, rental

cost burden, and residents with disabilities.

And I will say that in general, our CIP program is already aligned with those goals, but this

This is something that we are adding in

for the state's benefit.

Also adding a program to participate

in the county's neighborhood preservation program.

This is basically a low interest loan program

for lower income households to be able to pay

for repairs to their home.

And then we're also adding a new sub-target

of 100 units to an existing program

that was added in the first addendum

that has an overall target of 200 units.

We're saying now that 100 of those 200 units would specifically come from programs that

were added in the first addendum that would add overlay zones in some of our single family

residential districts that would have the effect of reducing our lot area requirements

consistent with General Plan and allowing duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes on larger

lots whereas right now you're limited just to single family homes.

And then lastly, to go to our sites inventory, the main thing that the state was looking

for with regard to that is they wanted us to identify the factors that we used in evaluating

housing sites in the sites inventory, with particular interest in the non-vacant sites,

which is almost everything in Wanted Creek since we're built out.

So we identified eight criteria, and you can see them there on the screen, a lot area,

building age, proximity to transit, proximity to other new high density development, improvement

to land value ratio, which I can translate

in plain English to basically cheap buildings

on expensive land, which then are more likely

to be redeveloped.

Floor area ratio, which to translate again there

is basically small buildings on large parcels

that again are likely to be redeveloped.

And then also looking for sites where the existing use

that's there now is similar to what had previously been

on a site that has since been recently redeveloped

into housing.

So for example, you know, bank being redeveloped

into housing and well this site has a bank

and it's very similar and the other things are similar

that points to the feasibility of such redevelopment.

And that's not to say we have any proposals

for banks being redeveloped,

those just came to mind as a use.

And then of course sites that are for sale

or for lease, that's an indication.

And so basically the second addendum states

that if a site needs at least three of these criteria,

that means that it's a prime opportunity for redevelopment.

And I would say that almost the entirety

of our housing sites list or inventory

does meet at least three of these criteria.

Many of them have far more.

There's a small handful of sites that don't,

but which due to other circumstances we feel

are still prime sites for redevelopment.

And so in those cases, we actually created

what we're calling site profiles that are in the addendum.

And they have, you know, there's obviously photographs,

that's what the first thing I think of because it's the first thing you see but

there's a narrative explaining the specifics of that exact property and why

it is a good site to be included in our sites inventory. I will say that as part

of this whole process we removed one site and reduced another. Both of those

was to accommodate the removal of the Ford dealership. After a great effort we

were able to get a hold of the property owner and they stated that they did not

want to be on the sites inventory list so we removed them there was a large

number of units allocated to that property so of course then we had to

look to make up for that number and we've identified seven additional new

sites where the existing zoning does comply I mean the existing zoning

provides the capacity meets the standards with regard to the site

factors and this actually is a good segue for me to mention that we have an

a radishheet that was distributed earlier, and the reason for the segue is that in the

site's inventory in the second addendum, it shows actually eight new sites. One of those sites was

added in error, specifically 3000 to 3050 Citrus Circle. That site, actually, we have an application

on file for a general plan amendment and rezoning. That, of course, is a legislative act that would

be need to be taken by this council and that has not happened yet and so

therefore we are not including it in the site inventory however the I think it's

46 units that were allocated to that or that are being requested by that

application and that were included in the site inventory that's over and above

our arena and our state mandated buffer over the arena so essentially we're not

we're still okay numbers wise. Other things that were mentioned that are

included in the errata sheet is staying on sites first. There's a site 122. It's

basically the Diablo Hills golf course. We've received inquiries about looking

to develop a small portion of that golf course for housing that's allowed under

that planned development. One of the parcels, for some reason the county

assessor says it's on North San Carlos Drive which is Heather Farm Park. In fact,

It's not, I think it's 1551, March banks, so we're making that correction.

And then lastly, with regard to the timelines that are in the programs that are contained

in the housing plan, the dates that are in those timelines were all put in place under

the assumption that we would have received certification from the state by March.

That hasn't happened yet, of course, so we're looking at basically moving forward the dates

proportionally as certainly at least those that would cut the deadlines that were coming

within the first two years to accommodate just the change in circumstances. Our recommendation

is that this council approve the resolution confirming and approving the second addendum

before you with of course the errata sheet. If something happened with that image I don't know

what. The housing element does look better than that and with that I'd be happy to answer any

questions. Thank you very much and again thank you to all of you for the work

that you've been doing. Questions for Andy or other staff members about the

presentation and what we're doing? Okay councilmember Wilk. Thank you Andy. Just a

few questions and I think I know the answers but you'll be confirming them

for me. Are parking minimums changed in these areas that we're looking at for

the housing element or have we changed any parking minimums?

Parking, oh, parking minimum, I'm sorry,

I was confused with parking maximums.

We have not at this point yet the,

in terms of city action to reduce parking requirements,

that would be predicated on the completion of a parking

or residential parking utilization study

that's currently ongoing.

So we don't even have the data yet for that,

but that one of the programs contained in the the addenda

does commit the city to following through

on that program and reducing the parking.

I will say that the state, however, has adopted,

I think it's AB 2097, as I recall,

new state law that went into effect

the beginning of the year

that effectively waves parking requirements

or most parking requirements

anywhere within a half mile of a major transit station,

which for Walnut Creek are the two-part section, sir.

All right, thank you.

Is anything changed with rezoning

single-family neighborhoods? In terms of mean like changing it to multifamily

zones like that? No, we're not proposing you know the R8 will stay R8 what we're

looking and in fact the the densities would remain the same. What we're looking

at is reducing the minimum lot size to in some cases to comply with general

plan but also allowing rather than just single-family detached homes allowing

plexus you know duplex triplex four plexus on properties that are large

enough such that the density allows additional units.

Okay.

Thanks.

And the last question.

If I may just add to that, there are programs that would require the council to consider

some changes to achieve the 200 additional units that Andy referenced.

And so that's, I think, what Andy is speaking about.

So this housing element doesn't change those zones.

But the council will have to consider some programs that would allow those 200 units

to be achieved.

Sure, great. Okay, thank you. And the last question, I think probably Erica, I'm going to

probably put you on the spot on this one. We're talking and you mentioned something about citrus

circle, and I just wanted to make sure that that wasn't part of something that was now being

proposed differently. That is entirely correct. And as Andy had said in the errata, that item or

that site was included in error. And so in the errata sheet, we've asked, you know, said that it

should be corrected to be not part of this addendum. Great, just wanted to confirm that.

Those are my questions, thanks. Thank you. Painless. Mayor Pro Tem, do you have any questions?

Councilmember Darling. Thank you and thank you for persevering on this, Andy.

Just two quick questions. It sounded like the requirement relative to the CIP

focusing on areas. So, for example, a while back we were looking at using money from our CIP to

underground the utilities, so 699 YVR would be feasible. Is that the kind of thing we're talking

about there? There's things like that as well as bicycle and pedestrian connectivity improvements

that would serve the areas where that would among other things serve, for example, the lower the

the sites that have been identified in the sites inventory

as supportive for lower income developments,

things of that nature.

As I mentioned that,

you know, Wanna Creek does a lot of things very well

and it was, you know, when the state had asked us to,

you know, look into things like this,

it was very heartening to see that the CIP program,

the projects contained there in really already aligned

with those goals based on the decisions

that this council has already made.

Okay.

And then on the process,

once we have an adopted housing element

and we do a mid-cycle review,

what are the metrics that we use to look at

in that mid-cycle review?

Well, there's a number of things.

Some of it is just housing production,

but perhaps really more importantly,

we'll be looking at things such as that

building envelope study to see

if, you know, basically if the zoning needs to be,

if the development standards need to be amended

for the densities to actually be achievable

as one such metric.

And this is one where I would actually want to defer

to our consultant, probably Arlanda Martinez,

she could answer this question a lot more thoroughly

than I can.

And so we can go ahead and bring her in.

Hi, everyone, can you hear me?

Yes.

Can everyone hear me?

Yes, yes, we can hear you we can't see you though. I don't think I can hear you one second

We're just gonna bring them all in so that we have

In addition to Orlando we have Hita Moses men both from Harris and then Nancy Bergado from Bergado planning and I

would presume that there'll be a microphone working somewhere among the three of them to be able to

Answer this question help me out

And if not, if the technical difficulty is running,

if that prevents us, I can see that.

Can anyone hear me now?

Yes, we can.

I'm sorry.

Thank you, Andy.

So just to repeat the question,

make sure that I understood correctly.

We were asking how the progress of the programs

would be measured.

Is that correct?

Yeah, that's correct.

Yes.

So every year, every jurisdiction in California

has to submit the annual progress report.

I'm sure you're all familiar with it

and does need to be approved by council every year.

And if you're familiar with it,

you would see that there are several tabs in this report.

And one of them tracks the progress that the city makes

towards meeting the arena.

and that is measured by the number of approved permits,

building permits for all the units

that the city needs to meet.

And then there is another tab that presents the progress

that the city has made towards the programs

that were adopted on the housing element.

and there hasn't been a formal process where, you know,

the city has to meet a certain number of units

or anything like that,

but as long as the city is showing enough progress

towards meeting all of the measurable actions

that were put in the housing element.

So for instance if one of the programs commits to, for example, it commits to assisting 30

people per year with Section 8 vouchers then the City would need to show sufficient progress

towards that.

Okay, and we adopt that as we as the Council should know this, we as the Council adopt

this on an annual basis and then submitted to HCD so there is monitoring on our progress

as we go forward? Yes, that is correct. Thank you. Council member Francois.

Thank you. Thank you Andy, consultants, staff for tremendous Herculean effort on this housing

element. Can I, I'm curious on on the uh with the Ford dealership if they if they explained

sort of why they didn't want to be included on the list or what were some of their reservations?

I can answer that because I'm the person who reached out to them directly and I'm

okay so I'm Erica Vandenbrandt and I am the community development director and I reached

out to the Ford folks directly and spoke with their general manager and what they had told

me at the time is that they had no intention or desire to look toward a sale of the property.

They wanted, they liked where they were, and they felt that they had made significant investments

into their business and were not interested in moving at this time and or within an eight-year

period. And so that confirmed the conversation that they had had with our state reviewer that

had reached out to them directly. Okay. Can I ask a follow-up question? Yeah.

they didn't seek to change their zoning or their general plan land use designation which

they just are not interested at this time of moving into that next phase

that is correct um i'd ask that too and they um are very happy with where they're at they're

happy with their business model and um that's where we left it okay um and then my understanding

is that there are, there could be some zoning changes

that we have to make by January 31st of next year,

is that applicable to us or are we not under that?

And if so, what changes,

what's the magnitude of those changes?

I presume you're referring to,

if we have a rezoning program essentially

where we actually have to rezone lots

in order to meet our arena numbers,

and we don't have to do that

because we are able to accommodate our arena

and the state mandated buffer

through our existing zoning and general plan.

There are some programs that do call for amendments

to certain aspects of zoning.

For example, I was on one of my slides actually,

things about it with regard to ADUs

and adopting an SB9 ordinance.

There are timelines for those.

But those aren't the state mandated attorney general

gonna come and get you kind of stuff.

We do, of course, intend on meeting those timelines.

I mean, we established them.

Can I just supplement that a little bit?

The housing element that's before you, as Andy says,

does have certain programs that HCD has wanted us

to have timelines on, and those do have timelines,

but they're not the January 31st, 2024 timeline.

They're different timelines.

And for the reasons that Andy has stated,

we didn't have to rezone properties

meet our arena obligations. One of the issues that staff is working on and someone on staff

or Claire can clarify this. We're putting together a list once the council acts on the

final housing element that we'll put together a list because there are a series of dates that we

have to meet going forward to implement this and we can share that information with the council and

then that'll serve as a guidepost to staff to make sure that we're preparing documents far enough in

in advance for the council to consider them.

So I mean, on that point then, you know,

there were some questions about monitoring

and the annual report.

Is staff envisioning this is gonna be something more

than what we've typically done,

which is kind of the spreadsheet that shows

how many units were produced last year

that gets submitted to HCD.

So what is our new normal going to look like

in terms of the implementation plan of the housing element?

So, once the housing element is certified, then we essentially will have a very complex

set of matrices that we're able to share with you as council and the community and certainly

HCD that identifies each of the programs and the various factors, the timelines, et cetera,

and that internally we'll have a work program that focuses on each one of these things.

so that it will be what I will refer to as multidimensional,

very comprehensive, and intended to really further

very rapidly the production of housing within the city.

That's helpful, and you're envisioning

kind of quarterly or half-yearly updates

to the council on?

Well, we haven't envisioned exactly what,

how often that will need to occur,

because sometimes, you know,

certainly there are annual reports,

but then there are other things that need to occur

that you'll need the information much more frequently

than on an annual basis.

It may actually be more frequently for some things,

annual for some and others.

And we still need to deal into those details

with the work program.

And the last one for me that sort of dovetails to this,

because I know there were some amendments made

to the program H4J, the Measure A consideration.

And the previous draft had sort of a mid cycle review timeframe associated with it that you know that we would consider

you know

The council would consider announces take action on a measure a ballot

Proposal if we're not on track to produce housing or we've identified measure a as a constraint

So on track by when is a little unclear to me

Or is it clear to staff yeah that the pot the policy is really the midterm of the of the housing element cycle

That's where it fits. That's that's that's where it fits in the chart and then but there's gonna have to be an analysis done before

That because one of the programs is an analysis of whether or not

Height restrictions in the city are in fact inhibiting the ability to build

housing units. And so that's a study that will have to come before that so that the council can

have that information when you get to that point. And it's also factored into, are we making progress

on the housing element goals, if you will? So if we are, you know, if we're at some percentage close

to the halfway point of meeting, then we can, you know, we can find that we're making progress if

From a practical standpoint, if we've only met 10% at that point, then that's a compelling

argument for why the council could consider a Measure A ballot measure.

Ultimately as the council is well aware, the maximum authority that any council has, this

council or a subsequent council, is to place a measure.

The actual modification would have to be something that the voters would have to approve to Measure

Okay.

say that absent the change in state law.

We did see with SB10 that the legislature allowed SB10 developments by a supermajority

vote of a council to oversize a local measure.

Thank you.

I have a couple of questions.

Thank you very much for highlighting the summary of the high level what the changes were.

There was one, can you explain what is different between this new program on the 100 units

in single family overlay zone that would allow for duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes?

Is that in addition to what would be allowed with ADUs and SB9?

Yes.

Okay.

So, it would be a duplex that suddenly can add more?

Okay.

more. Okay, I just wanted to because it seems like we're already at the four-plex level with SB 9,

but that's the midpoint is at the end of 2027, is that what we would assume?

What was it that the director said about us doing math?

Well, 24, 25, 26, 27, that's eight, that's four, which is half. That's correct. So our annual

report that would come out in April of 28 was really going to give us a read on

where we are. Is that a safe assumption? That is a safe assumption and the

council will want, as you would be doing anyway when you do the 27 report and the

26 report, you want to be kind of thinking about are you are you making

progress towards that? I mean clearly we're going to be monitoring this every

day we're gonna be calling going how's that doing how's that I think that is a

that that is itself its own work program so what is the metric and I know we got

the and metric means the measure is it entitled projects or is it building

permits and how many building permits I mean a multifamily apartment building

doesn't have 150 units, doesn't have 150 building permits, what's the metric and how

does HCD actually translate the metric of building permits into units or is that in

those tables that are very hard to read?

It counts by units.

Units that have received building permits.

Okay. So it is the number of units that's received building permits. All right.

That is good to know. And the program for missing middle, HCH 6J, can you explain it a little more?

Because we're kind of being we're being very surgical, as I can see it, where we're taking

different zoning categories and we are reducing the minimum lot sizes so that

more units can be actually on an acre. Correct but consistent with the general

plan. Tell me how that works because are we then limiting the number of smaller

lots means like given an acre if we make can we make more units per acre and does

that change the three to six one to three I live in a one to three who would

have known yeah it would be within those ranges spelled out by the general plan

okay so how does that get us more units right now the way our zoning ordinance

and general plan are laid out there are some there basically there's more

residential zones broken down at a finer rate than there are general plan land

and use classifications for residential.

So basically you say you'll have a general plan

land use classification in which there may be two

or three zones that each take a segment

of that overall range in the general plan.

And so we would be looking at changing the zoning

such that the minimum lot size and density allowed

in that zone would match the maximum allowed

by that larger general plan range.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions before staff,

before we open it for public comment?

Day two.

It's now an opportunity for the public

to comment on this item.

We will allow up to two minutes per person,

either here in the council chamber or on virtually.

If you wish to speak to us on this item virtually,

please use the raise hand feature to let us know

or press star nine if you are connecting

with us only in audio.

And I think we have one speaker, which is Jan Warren,

and I don't know if any other speakers here

in the council chamber are, so Ms. Warren, come on down.

Where is everybody?

Are you still Jan Warren?

I'm still Jan Warren, Primrose Lane,

Walnut Creek, and the Woodlands.

Good evening, I got down here earlier

than I needed to tonight.

Let me get started here, two minutes.

Looking at the site selections that might provide very low and low income housing, a

large number of them have multiple parcels with six to eight parcels.

One has 10, one has 20.

And so what we saw at the meeting on May 2nd and this evening is that he had all the parcels.

But a lot of times, I mean, if you've got multiple parcels, you don't own them all so

that it can be developed, but you've got to come before the city and get these changes,

the zoning, the general plan, all these things, which make it slow down and make the development

be—she's always frowning at me—make the development more costly.

I'm concentrating on what you're saying.

So, you know, I think that's an impediment as we're trying to build more housing and

we've got all these things that slow down the process every time.

So, how would you, I'm going to ask you a question.

How would you fix that?

I think we need to, Mr. Francois said at our, earlier we were at the golf course that we're

going to be starting on our general plan in 2024, is that correct?

Not necessarily.

Okay.

I think that we need changes.

It's outdated, and it means that you have to have more changes than if you were up to

date on your general plan.

So I think you need to begin to look at that sooner, because I think it's a problem.

But anyhow, I agree on the metrics, and I would like to at least do a range target.

You don't have to have a specific number,

but mid-cycle you need something specific

to know how we're doing,

because like how many permits

for low-income construction have we given this year?

How many permits have gone out?

I mean, we have big numbers,

we have a lot of housing that we need to build,

And we need to make it easier for it to be developed

because we can't develop it, so.

Okay, thank you.

We have two speakers joining us virtually.

Chance Berejky.

All right, good evening, Mayor Silva,

members of the council, is my audio all right?

Yeah, a bit faint.

Speak on-

Okay, give me one moment here.

Hey, how's that?

Better, thank you.

Okay, perfect.

I won't repeat myself there, but my name is Chance Beretsky, and I'm here representing

the members of East Bay for Everyone.

Our organization recently provided a comment letter on the second housing element addendum,

and I'm here to just address the broad strokes of that letter in a way that's a little more

direct.

So looking at the statistics, over the past five years, the city has approved building

permits for an average of 175 new units of housing per year.

And in order to meet the target of 5,805 units in the housing element, the city will need

to issue permits five times faster.

We're optimistic about the city's ability to get there, but in order to do so, we think

that certain programs in the housing elephant need to be updated to have more concrete targets

for accountability.

And most importantly, that would include program H6K.

We think that should include a formal commitment to specific rezoning actions if a target of

of 2200 new units isn't reached by January 31st, 2027,

when the mid-cycle review is done.

And that'd be units permitted, not simply envisioned.

And we'd also suggest that the city look

to San Francisco's mid-cycle review program

for an example here.

They have specific commitments in there

that we think provide a pretty solid working example.

And then programs H4J on measure A height limits

and H6J on triplex and four-plex zoning and lot resizing.

Also, both need formal targets, and I don't really have time to go over those in detail,

what we suggest, but we provide more details in our comment letter.

Those two programs are important in particular for housing mobility, and we know that is one

issue area where HCD kind of focused down on the city's housing element.

And more broadly, the need for more target, more concrete targets and commitments here has been

consistently expressed across many public comments, many comment letters from interested

organizations and stakeholders and you know just this evening in the meeting and it's also been a

common theme in hcd guidance to other cities on housing elements so we feel that these specific

adjustments would put the city in a better position to secure hcd approval i we don't want to see

another rejection any more than the city does thanks very much thank you next speaker please

good evening can you hear me okay yes hi my name is kevin burke uh i'm also with east bay for

everyone. Thanks very much to staff for the presentation and for all the work on the housing

element. I probably spent about 200 hours myself in collaboration with our group evaluating the

housing element and gathering feedback from the community. In January you might remember I offered

to bet anyone in the room $100 that the housing element was going to be rejected and then that

turned out to happen. I think this update is better but I'm still pretty concerned about it.

if you look at the feedback H&D is sending to other cities,

they really want concrete targets in the programs.

I mean, I know there was just some discussion from staff

about a number of building permits,

but as it is, there's nothing concrete in the document

about the number of permits or the number of parcels

for any of the programs.

And I think that's gonna be a big problem

because I mean, we're going on the document, right?

That's all we have to try to go on is that,

like that's the promise that you're making to the state.

I'd also like to remind the council

that there's $7 million in safe routes to school funding

be forfeited unless HCD finds the housing element in compliance by December 31st. If this draft gets

rejected you have one more shot of this and you're only going to have a few weeks in October to put

that together. That includes a seven day review period and then two months for HCD to review.

My son is going to Walnut Heights in three years. I'd really like for there to be sidewalks

to Walnut Heights and for us not to forfeit that money. We tried to reach out to everyone

in the community who submitted a comment on the housing element and get the feedback on

The draft document that we sent to you with proposed amendments, I'd encourage you to

take a look because I think that they addressed a lot of the concerns you raised in your questions.

I also think they make the housing element more likely to be accepted.

If you're willing to incorporate those amendments, I'd be really happy to write a recommendation

letter to HCD in support of the housing element, but yeah, as it is, I am pretty concerned

about it.

Thanks very much for your time, and I'm happy to talk more about this with anyone who's

Thank you very much. I don't see any other speakers. I'm going to close

public comment and bring it back to the council for additional discussion with

staff and questions. I'm going to start with a question for staff. You've had

numerous conversations with the Housing and Community Development Department and

management there. We have numerous recommendations that we make more

concrete. They're ideas in a in a letter that was sent to us. How do you what do

you think of those ideas? Where do you think we are with HCD and so if I may

madam mayor as you had noticed speak I don't I don't know I don't know what's

going on with this. I'll try, I'll lean really in. Oh, yeah, the closer you get,

the better it is. Thank you. So in terms of the, I can respond to this, we have had

extensive conversations with HCD where they have essentially been serving as

our coach and our guide through this process so that we're able to learn and

have the benefit of those that have gone before us that have had their

housing elements approved, and they have offered a specific language which we've

have incorporated into this latest addendum in order to be able to be

consistent with the language and the programs that they have approved for

other jurisdictions. We've also gone through and done a very strong level of

effort in identifying timelines, metrics, and so forth.

And in our consultation with HCD, they had identified that we were consistent with similar

jurisdictions, programs that they had approved, and they showed us specific language.

So I think that there's that.

With regard to the specific suggestions, many of them are very detailed and that as

the programs come forward and there are more discussions with council and the community

on the programs, there will be an opportunity to be able to help shape and fashion that

as we go forward.

But at this point, the document that you have before you, while HCD can't bless it or prove

it a priori without doing one last check of it and so forth the indications

that they've given to us is that we are meeting the mark and that the mark is

consistent with other jurisdictions housing elements that they've approved

any further questions for staff Mayor Pro Tem I finally have a question so it

it seems like this is putting the cart before the horse,

measuring how successful the city is doing

for what the city can do to encourage development

by the number of permits we issue.

That's only half of the transaction.

What if nobody shows up and asks for a permit?

How do, you know, how do we, how do we, do you,

Do you see the, thank you,

looks like Steve's interpreted my question.

The council will appreciate that

if we get to the midpoint

and we are substantially below the production

that has been anticipated

in terms of building permits having been issued,

we are gonna have to look at some additional issues

to try to incentivize housing development

to come to the fore.

Those will be within the council's discretion at the time.

they will be subject to review again by HCD at that point.

And so we will have to do certain things,

but it is premature right now to just assume

that we won't make the numbers.

And the programs that exist in the housing elements

as before you do call for further consideration

if we're not making reasonable progress against the numbers.

And so as Eric has indicated,

The HCD has had a chance to review all of this language

and they've been giving us very constructive guidance

as well as the consulting teams

that the city has been using.

And so we are reasonably comfortable

that this language is language

that is sufficiently specific enough.

I don't, and I would also just say specific

to the one letter we've received tonight

from East Bay for Everyone.

There are some very interesting suggestions in there

as Erica was indicating before.

Those can be considered by the council

as you're doing the implementing actions.

So it's not as if the city is in any way

rejecting those suggestions.

It's just that they can be considered

as you go through the implementing steps as well too.

And I assume we would consider these ideas

along with any other numerous ideas

that may evolve over the next 24 to 36 months

and how to encourage more housing at all levels

and at all, and of all types.

That is correct.

And if I may add, in the previous item,

there was an opportunity to consider

what the implications were and so forth

for additional housing.

There are many opportunities there in front of us,

but with additional ADUs,

with additional SB9 units and so forth,

that we haven't had a track record with

because these were so new

and we have specific programs in there

to accelerate the use of those types of,

for those products and so forth,

as well as to streamline many of our processes

in order to create units faster and quicker

within the community.

So is it fair to say that one of the most important things

we can do is actually get started?

I would agree strongly with that.

Council Member Wilk, do you have any questions?

Council Member Darling?

Council Member Francois?

Just one, and I think you've answered it already, Andy,

but this Warren's question, I think maybe

if you could elaborate on it,

that we're not under any deadlines to do rezoning

because our plans and zoning now already allow us,

they already would enable the production of 5,800 units

without us changing the zoning or general plan.

Yes, that is correct.

So the plan and the zoning that we have in place now

not a constraint to producing the 5,800 units that we need to under the housing element.

Correct.

Okay.

And that the zoning changes that we're talking about are more related to the affirmatively

furthering fair housing, not the Reno target.

I would say that there are a mix between that and then really verifying to the state satisfaction

that our development standards do support the densities that we allow but

as I had mentioned we're very confident that they do okay that was what that's

all for me so time to deliberate councilmember Francois can I start with

you you can I am I think that you know we've been at this for a while

And as have a lot of cities throughout the state and and I I definitely appreciate the persistence and the diligence of staff and our consultants and and the public including East Bay for everyone.

You know, hearing hearing the 200 hours that Mr. Burke put into this, I think is genuine that they that they share the concern and the interest of wanting to see additional housing opportunities for people in our community.

community and I we on the council share that concern as well. I think we're at

the point now where the perfect could be the enemy of the good and that I'm of

the you know firm opinion that we need to get this plan back in certified and

start moving forward with the implementation phase. That we've we've

had we've really had an a lot of public review and comment we've had a couple of

addendum now we've had a lot of constructive conversations I think most

recently with HD HDD staff and I'm grateful for that but but now is a time

really if if the you know the state is asking us to be partners with them on

adopting new plans that allow for additional housing opportunities now now

is the time to actually adopt the plan and start implementing it so that we can

actually do what our common goal is before we're one two or three years into

the cycle before we've even started. I think that that would frustrate a lot of

the efforts. I applaud that we've kind of pushed ourselves maybe a little out

of our comfort zone on some of the programs and policies, but that that's

what the state is pushing us to do and and that I think we have a good track

record. There's there's issues and constraints with affordability and and

and it goes to what the mayor pro tem said about we can set the table but we can't make the land

any cheaper and we can't make the construction costs really any cheaper so there does there's

a subsidy factor that comes into this as well and that's where the state if it really is is intent

on being a partner can can help out more i think than it has been i think it's making efforts in

in that regard, but there's really,

there's a lot we can do, but there's kind of,

there's a limit on what we can do.

And so I think we're there,

and I think we're ready to move forward with this,

and I think it's gonna be interesting,

because we thought about that it wasn't

one of the five priorities,

and neither was the general plan update either,

by the way, either.

But we're gonna get, well,

we're gonna get general plan ready, though.

That this hold this new model of kind of the monitoring of the housing element

programs and policies I think is going to take on a new shape and form this

multi-dimensional aspects that we have not it's gonna be unlike what we've done

in previous cycles and I appreciate the city attorney explaining that there's

that's the opportunity to that there's not no to some of these suggestions but

But not yet, like let's have a conversation a little bit further down the road when we

see what the numbers are actually showing.

So I'm ready to move forward and support this and if, yes.

Councilmember Darling.

Oh, you want to go next?

I do.

Oh, I want to go next.

Which child do you love more?

Let's all fight over.

Let's go out and, you know, arm wrestle.

I, you know, this is so out of my comfort zone.

So I first wanna say the effect on the city

of this excruciatingly long process

has yielded an extraordinary lift by staff.

It has taken people away from jobs

where they could have done things to further us on the way.

It probably, I ran this by the city manager

and he didn't exactly acknowledge it,

but it probably cost us in terms of extra payroll,

consulting fees, all everything.

A million or so dollars to get as far as we've gotten.

And we could have used those million of dollars

to do some pretty clever things with it if we...

So I think we really have to be very careful

as we go forward on this.

Walnut Creek has been the poster child

for supporting lower income housing for a very long time.

I have not heard of any other city

who has worked hard and put money in the process

to help fund and develop low income housing

of a city the size of Walnut Creek.

We have been asked to,

there have been times when other cities came

and asked us to come and consult with them

how we managed to accomplish it.

Our hearts are truly in the right place.

It has been my personal goal to improve

all of the processes that are done

at community development almost since I was on council.

There are 10 years of trying to say that we process

with the word, even if it doesn't quite fit in the box,

we process the initial permit request with a maybe

instead of a flat out no, we will never do that again.

And I'm seeing that this is actually happening

under the current people who are in charge.

You said this more elegantly than I can.

Perfection in the housing element

doesn't always guarantee the economic conditions

that expect that help like financing,

market attractiveness,

dealing with neighborhood resistance.

There are all kinds of outside things

that we have to deal with in order to meet

all of these other things.

And I sit here and I wonder how the less well-to-do cities

have survived going through this process

because we had the million dollars,

imagine, well, it was imaginary number.

We had the million dollars to spend on this.

What do the lower income cities

that are dealing with it on a much more day-to-day basis,

what do they do?

The process is absolutely disgraceful.

Council Member Darling.

I'm a planner and I like planning processes.

No, I have been in government planning processes

for my whole career and there's always this tipping point

as council member Francois says,

is the perfect becoming the enemy of the good.

And we're at a point where we have come up with a very,

we're building on the work that we did

with the west downtown and north downtown

to go through and make sure

that we have enough sites available

to meet our renin numbers.

We have gone through and come up with the programs

that we need to make sure

that we're affirmatively furthering fair housing,

that we're promoting ADUs,

that we're looking at our parking standards.

We have the body of work together

and we are hoping that the extensive outreach

and work with HCD has gotten us to a point

where we are meeting what they need.

And so now it's time to trust us

as your local elected officials

who are accountable to the city,

we have a good plan, let's get it to HCD,

let's get into implementation.

And if, and that's the point where we could say,

we're moving into adaptive management,

we've got our goals, we've got our programs,

we've got where we wanna go, and now we look at it,

how are we doing, are we meeting those goals?

If we're not meeting the goals,

how do we tweak the program, how do we adapt to it?

and it's time to start that adaptive management cycle

and get out of continuing to grind on the actual plan.

So-

I can't take more redlining.

That I'm prepared to support submitting this to HCD

as it stands with my firm commitment

to everybody that's worked with us on this.

A lot of people care deeply as we do

in making sure my kids are both moving to Sacramento.

I want to make sure that we can continue to have our the next generation live

here in Walnut Creek. It's important for our economic vitality.

It's important for our families. It's important for our social structure.

We're committed to that and it's time to submit the plan so we can start doing

the hard work. Council member Wilk. Well I agree with

my colleagues on this and I just have a couple of other pointed

comments to make though. First of all thank you for your many hours of work on

on this. We spend a lot of hours in the dais, that is a fraction of the amount of hours

that you have spent in planning. And so I really appreciate that. And we're in the position

in Walnut Creek, even though we've approved, as I believe Mayor Pro Tem Haske said, we've

approved more housing downtown in our areas than the entire area for more years than I've

been on city council for. And we're given accolades by our state legislators and our

federal legislators for the kind of work that we've done on this.

Not only have some of the smaller cities not held up their end of the bargain, but neither

have the larger cities like San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose.

And maybe if they had, we wouldn't be in this housing crisis and dealing with a state mandate

that has a one-size-fits-all, even for those cities that have done the job that they're

supposed to do, like Walnut Creek has.

As we talked, I believe it was Councilmember Francois that said that essentially the city

doesn't build.

We can't set metrics for permits and for building when the city just makes available those areas

that can be built.

In fact, we just did it earlier tonight, and we now have approved more density in an area

that didn't have it previously.

And so we do this as it comes along.

And I consider ideas no more or no less than any individual or group.

When we get a letter, when we hear from public comments, I weigh them equally.

What I don't appreciate are veiled threats of doing something to impede grant funding

if we don't do something that somebody wants.

That I don't appreciate.

I can agree with the recommendations and the housing element, and let's approve this.

Let's start to move forward.

get this behind us instead of going round and round and round and I will approve it.

Thank you to all my colleagues. I'm going to echo their thoughts. I mean first and foremost

this is a big thank you to staff and the community for working with us. I'm even going to send

a thank you note to HCD when they finally approve this because it can't be easy what

they're doing. There's a lot of us out here trying to find our way and our unique ways

to getting our housing elements approved.

But more importantly, it's not just about getting

a housing element approved, it's about taking the steps

to increase the likelihood that we will tackle

and better achieve the housing affordability

and supply problem.

It is not a theoretical exercise.

It is a implementation and a getting it done exercise.

I'm really excited.

Not because we're about to be done,

but because if we can be done with this phase,

we can move into the phase where we actually tackle

some of these, the parking reduction standards.

So we've already done in the past,

but the ones that we already started

that have been put somewhat on the back burner

where we had to worry about this.

The ADUs, the templates that we're going to provide.

We have the funding from grant fund,

we got a grant from the state,

I think it was an SB2 grant.

And we're doing that, but we can't get it done

because we're busy working on a plan.

SB9, we're working on it, but we can't finish it

because we have to finish a plan.

Are we getting a theme here?

Let's get going.

I am excited and while I know it might take

a few months beyond the end of 2023

to get these significant first steps done,

let's not make it too long

because we really need to finish the things

that come at the front end that are gonna have

big impact on where we're going. I will entertain a motion.

Madam Mayor if I may, just one, we wanted to make one minor edit to the resolution just

to reflect the total number of meetings that we've had with HCD, and that is on recital

five of the resolution. We, it presently references meetings that took place on March six and

March 8th of 2023. We just want to add at the end of that, that we had an

additional four meetings with HCD between April and July related to this

addendum. How many meetings was it? Four additional meetings. I move to adopt the

resolution confirming and approving the second addendum to the housing element

with the errata and with the revisions to recital five as noted by the city

attorney. And Sal seconded. We have a motion and a second with the city clerk

please take a roll call vote. Councilmember Francois? Aye. Councilmember Wilk? Aye.

Councilmember Darlene? Aye. Mayor Pro Tem Hask you? Aye. Mayor Silva? Hallelujah yes.

Motion carries unanimously. Is there any further business for us this evening?

Pardon me, I'm sorry you... Madam Mayor there's no other public comments right?

All right. There's no one. Oh that's right we were going to reopen public comment.

Thank you that's why I asked. We're gonna reopen public comment if anyone is

joining us who still has public comment tonight please raise your hand and we

will bring you in or here in the council chambers. There's this public comment on

items not on the agenda. Seeing no hands raised we will close that and we are now

concluding our August 1st meeting and we will have our next regular meeting on

Tuesday September 5th.