Walnut Creek City Council: 11-14-2023

Transcript

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and we do not take public comment on proclamations,

but I will allow you to speak during public communications

on items not on the agenda.

So thank you for understanding

and look forward to your comments.

Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday,

November 14th, 2023 special meeting

of the Walnut Creek City Council.

The city council is conducting its meeting

under state laws and the Ralph M. Brown Act.

and the city council is in attendance

in the city council chamber along with city staff

and members of the public and we have no members

of the city council who are requesting this evening

that we take action on an item that would allow them

to participate in a meeting remotely

due to emergency circumstances.

And now if you will please rise

and join us in the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America

to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice

for all. Would the city clerk please take the roll call councilmember darling here councilmember

Francois here Mayor Pro Tem Haskew here Mayor Silva here and councilmember Wilk is absent due to a

scheduled trip. I am very pleased this evening to be able to issue this proclamation to the Walnut

Creek Education Foundation. This school year, the Walnut Creek Education Foundation is celebrating

its 40th anniversary. The foundation was founded in 1983 after severe state funding cuts threatened

the elimination of elementary school libraries. Over the last 40 years, WCEF has grown to become

the main fundraising partner of the Walnut Creek School District and its seven schools.

Then some 20 years ago, WCEF joined forces with the Los Lomas Foundation to create a stronger

partner supporting some 5,000 students from K-12th grade. Today, WCEF is a $1.5 million

per year fundraising partner for these eight schools, supporting a variety of programs and

classes to ensure that all students receive a comprehensive education. Throughout its history,

WCEF had been a volunteer driven 501c3 and I am proud to have once served on its board of directors.

The goal of this anniversary celebration is simple, to celebrate, engage, and honor the work of WCEF

volunteers over the last 40 years. So as mayor and a former volunteer for WCEF and board member,

I am pleased to recognize on behalf of all of us on the Walnut Creek City Council the 40th

anniversary of the Walnut Creek Education Foundation and to thank the foundation for

its work to provide accessible and enriching education for students who attend public schools

in Walnut Creek. And if Joanna Grossman will meet me at the podium, I will present the

proclamation. Thank you, Mayor Silva and esteemed members

of the City Council. Tonight, I stand before you as a proud representative and as the executive

Director of WCEF, as the child of two retired school teachers in Sacramento.

This is my dream job, to be able to support our teachers and our students here.

And I also want to recognize our co-presidents this year, Erin King and Ina Rasputek.

We stand before you with a deep sense of gratitude and pride as we accept this proclamation,

recognizing the invaluable contributions of the volunteers and donors who have laid the

the foundation of support for eight public schools,

thousands of students in our greater community.

And I say that again, it's the volunteers and the donors

that I stand here representing.

And again, I'm very honored to do so.

Rita Pearson is an educator.

She once proclaimed that every child deserves a champion.

And the wonderful and unique thing about WCEF

is that we are a champion for students and teachers.

And so more champions and more teacher for students

is exactly why we exist.

We want to be a funding source that is stable

for critical needs for our schools

and enable our expert teachers and administrators

to do the jobs that they do so beautifully every day.

At Los Olmos High School,

our impact extends far beyond numbers.

Mayor Silva wonderfully summarized our 5,000 students

as well as our 3,300 families.

it really translates into tangible support

for those 5,000 students.

And the impact extends far beyond members.

It touches the lives of educators.

It enhances the learning environment,

and it fosters connections

within our diverse school communities.

At Los Alamos High School, where I have a senior,

seven distinct elementary schools

and middle school communities converge,

forming a rich tapestry of diversity.

And WCF is really that unifying thread

that brings those schools and that community together.

Through the generosity of our donors,

we weave a fabric of equity in education as well,

ensuring that every single student receives

the same type of education through our funding.

We cultivate an environment where every student,

irrespective of their background,

can not only thrive, but also succeed.

And can I allow Erin King to say a few words?

Sure.

So in reflecting on WCEF's 40 years of service,

our mission statement serves as our guiding light.

WCEF is a 501c3 volunteer-driven nonprofit

whose purpose, as encapsulated in our mission statement,

is to deliver comprehensive programs

and wellness initiatives that empower every student.

The word potential was carefully chosen,

where we cannot predict the future of 5,000 students

as they are yet to unfold.

However, we steadfastly believe that a rich education

complete with creative outlets and hands-on activities

driven by student choice are the keys

unlocking their full potential. Founded in 1983 by a dedicated group of

parents, WCEF emerged in response to a shortfall of state funding. Over the years

we have faced challenges, but each time our community rallied, raising over 15

million dollars to preserve essential components of education, including art,

music, libraries, wellness, and so much more. This is a true testament to our

community's collective determination to provide students with the resources they

need and deserve. Looking ahead our goal for this academic year is to raise 1.5

million. This ambitious target will fund 20 salaries of elementary art music and

science lab teachers and specialists, 12 additional elective classes for middle

schoolers, credentialed librarian, 13 additional elective classes at Las Lomas

high school, and support for the Los Lomas Wellness Center as well as College and Career Center.

We extend our sincere gratitude to the more than 900 donors who stand with us in support of WCF in

our schools, our 40th anniversary platinum business partners Kaiser Permanente and Smile Power,

and our local business partners. We also acknowledge our partner districts Superintendent

Marie Morgan, Superintendent Dr. John Nickerson, and the Wollong Creek School District,

Las Lomas teachers and staff, as well as our PTA, PTO, and PTSA partners at our eight schools.

Their support is a cornerstone of our success. In closing, we acknowledge that it truly takes

the village and ours is vast and remarkable. May silver and esteemed city council members,

Your recognition tonight reinforces the great schools as a connective tissue of our community.

Together, let us continue to build a future where every student has the opportunity to thrive,

learn and become engaged, thoughtful leaders of our community and world, so desperately in need.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you for being here this evening. It will be a few minutes

before public communications is opened because we have a few other items on the agenda in the

meantime. The next item is a presentation from the city staff and I think the nonprofit partner

on the economic and social impact of arts and culture in Walnut Creek. Good evening.

Good evening Mayor Silva and members of the council. My name is Elizabeth Orcutt. My pronouns

are she her and I'm proud to be our community relations manager for the city of Walnut Creek's

Arts and Recreation Department. And tonight I come with more really great

news. So I will be presenting the Economic and Social Impact Study of

Nonprofit Arts and Culture organizations and their audiences here in the city of

Walnut Creek, how it directly impacts us from this national study. This newly

released iteration of the survey is building upon a 30-year legacy. So they

know what they're doing, they've implemented the work of brilliant

economists and continue to develop and enhance the way that they're giving us

these numbers. So before I dive into those numbers though and how they

pertain to us here in the city of Walnut Creek, I want to highlight again that

Americans for the Arts, the national organization hosting this survey, uses

complex methods and calculations derived by those economists to provide this

trusted data. It will help us increase support for arts and culture, inclusive

equitable policies and programs and a thriving local workforce. When we invest

in arts and culture we invest in an industry that strengthens our economy and

builds more livable communities. I want to encourage you to picture a recent

arts and culture experience that you have had and I know you're all

wonderful supporters of the arts and culture industry here so start to

picture that what that process looks like all of the steps that you go

through to make that a successful experience for you your family and your

friends, perhaps it's from purchasing the tickets,

getting your tickets scanned at the door

by our smiling staff, scanning said tickets,

making your dinner reservations, parking in the garage,

perhaps a ride share, taking part,

your means of getting there.

And also the technicians that are on site designing,

operating the lights and the music,

perhaps even the performance or exhibition

that represents endless hours of rehearsal and practice.

This single experience is multifaceted and representative

of this thriving industry.

Of the facts and figures

that we'll continue to dive into tonight,

if you walk away with two,

I would love for them to be these two.

So let me know if you have dreams about them tonight.

But in 2022, Arts and Cultures are non-profit

arts and culture organizations

and their audiences generated 36.1 million

in economic activity in Walnut Creek.

Attendees at the city of Walnut Creek's non-profit

arts and culture events spent an average of $34.64 on top of the price of their admission

and on-site refreshments.

So that's in addition to those costs, that's the average spend.

So zooming back out a little bit, this survey used, it's truly a collective effort.

Americans for the Arts partnered with almost 300 local, regional, and statewide organizations

and it includes detailed findings from 373 studies,

including all 50 states and Puerto Rico,

ranging in population size from 4,000 to 4 million.

So quite the array.

This study could not have been completed

with said participants, and the city of Walnut Creek's

Arts and Recreation Department is really proud

to be one of these partners, research partners.

Separate of the economic analysis

that takes place for this study,

This survey was comprised of two main parts,

an audience intercept survey

and data reported directly by non-profit arts

and culture organizations.

To measure the impact of spending

by audiences here in Walnut Creek,

data was collected from nearly 2000 attendees

between July 2022 and June of 2023.

We used passive promotion

and ramped up targeted solicitation at 36 shows

where we use support from staff and volunteers.

Of that data collected directly

by the participating nonprofit organizations,

we worked with 29 really closely.

And so we are really grateful for them

and I'll get to their names in a moment here.

But of those 29 directly related,

they have an aggregate total attendee

of almost 450,000 in 2022 alone.

That's reported directly from those 29.

So as you can imagine,

if we were working with even more organizations,

what that number would look like.

And that's all included here in this study.

The spending by their audiences, that nearly $450,000,

is directly responsible for $15.6 million.

And I mentioned those participating organizations.

I will leave this up here for just a brief moment

because while the Lesher Center may be the biggest influence,

these 29 organizations provided incredibly valuable data that

helped us shape the full picture

of nonprofit arts and culture here in Walnut Creek.

So we are really grateful for the time that they took

out of their busy nonprofit schedules

to participate and provide information for us.

We're grateful for that,

but we're also grateful for the arts and culture

that they contribute to our city as a whole on the regular.

So arts and culture is commerce,

even though it's often lauded as an amenity

that improves community livability,

which is true, it's important that they receive the proper recognition as businesses.

They employ people locally, purchasing supplies and services from nearby businesses, and engage

in the marketing and promotion of their cities and regions.

In fact, they're very active doing business, has a positive impact on our local economy.

We're proud to contribute data gathered through this survey to the city's economic development

action plan that's currently being created by staff and alongside with our community

partners. So the information from this study will be reflected in that analysis as well.

So here's that 36.1 again. So again let me know if you have dreams about it tonight.

But in 2022 arts and culture organizations and their audiences generated 36.1 million dollars

in economic activity in Walnut Creek. 20.5 of that is spending by the organizations themselves

whereas the 15.6 is event related audience spending. You might be curious how this compares

to the last arts and economic prosperity study that happened in 2017 and while it's not recommended

that we directly and we directly compare it's a little bit of apples to oranges if you will

I will share some information um if we can keep three things in mind that in addition to ongoing

recovery from the effects of COVID-19 the methods and economic calculations used to measure the

fiscal impacts have changed so those economists that we're working with they're continually

changing that structure.

Plus, the different activities, groups, and individuals have been surveyed and cannot

be directly compared.

Lastly, the latest survey includes an additional social impact markers that were not previously

implemented.

So with those caveats in mind, the total economic activity from the 2017 survey, which covered

years 2015 to 2016, was higher at 41.5 million.

And this comes as no surprise to us due to the post pandemic decrease in audience numbers

across the country, across the industry, and it's reflected here as well.

However, as you can see, the average dollar amount spent per person has increased from

31.90 to $34.64.

Arts and culture jobs are highly local in nature.

Dollars spent on human resources typically stay within a community for longer, thereby

having a greater local economic impact, if you can imagine all the multipliers

that take place with that. So this economic activity directly supported 593

jobs in Walnut Creek and generated 5.9 million dollars in tax revenue. In the

same vein of retaining local residents and their discretionary dollars, here in

the community, let's dive into audience spending for a moment. For this survey,

local is defined as a resident of Contra Costa County. So when people attend a

cultural event they often make an outing of it as we were picturing in the

beginning there perhaps dining paying for parking public transit enjoying

dessert or a nightcap after a show and returning home to pay for childcare pet

care attendees of the city Walnut Creek's arts and culture events spend that

average of $34.64 on top of the price of admission and on-site refreshments this

is vital income for local merchants and a value add that few industries can

compete with. This spending generated a total of 2.6 million dollars in tax

revenue. Of the nearly 2,000 audience survey respondents here in Walnut Creek

we captured their zip codes and so that led us of their primary residents

excuse me and so that allows us to determine which attendees were local

residents of the county and which were visiting from outside the county which

garnered some interesting information for us. In the city of Walnut Creek a

little over 70% of those 450 attendees were residents and 28.2 were non-residents. Non-local

attendees do spend an average of about 40% more than our local from the county attendees,

which can be expected for additional transportation, overnight stay, and additional meals. Of the

non-local survey respondents, a little over 93%,

reported that the primary purpose of their visit

to Walnut Creek was specifically to attend

the performance event, exhibit, venue, or facility

where they were surveyed.

This is up from 65.5% in 2017,

which I found interesting.

77.2% of non-local attendees responded

that they would have traveled elsewhere

for a similar arts and culture experience.

And so to me, this makes me really proud of the investments that we've made in arts and

culture here in the city of Walnut Creek.

In doing so and supporting the Headliner Series at the Lester Center for the Arts for Center

Repertory Company.

All of our wonderful at the Bedford Gallery, all of the investments we're making is making

a difference because people are wanting to travel.

So we want them to travel here.

So thank you for supporting those investments.

And I've been sharing how the arts and culture industry powers our economy and supports local

but it is important to note the social impacts as well.

As you can see by these numbers, audiences are in agreement

that the activity or venue is inspiring a sense of pride

in the neighborhood or community,

that they would feel a great sense of loss

if the activity or venue were no longer available.

And the venue or facility is an important pillar

for them within the community.

So it's clear from our personal experiences

and the data from AEP 6,

that shared cultural experiences strengthen

a sense of belonging and community pride.

So with that, the essential,

the essentialness of this industry when the arts are funded.

So we have this updated data that showcases

their positive effects on our economy

and the lives of ourselves and our neighbors.

In fact, these survey findings tell us that

even if someone in our community

isn't directly interacting with the arts,

which we all believe that they should,

even if they're not, they're still benefiting from them

and having them here in our community.

So it's undeniable that arts and culture experiences

are an integral part of what makes Walnut Creek

a thriving city.

So as some of our biggest champions,

our ask of the city council and everyone in the chambers

tonight is that you keep these facts and figures in mind

and share them far and wide as you're promoting arts

and culture throughout Walnut Creek and the greater region.

Together we can share the impactful role

of arts and culture.

I have a couple of thank yous, but I did want to pause

if you had any questions for us.

questions from Council members for Elizabeth.

Interesting data and I look forward to

seeing what else you wanna tell us.

Thank you.

I do wanna wrap with three quick thank yous that,

to pay special not acknowledgement to the volunteers,

the ushers and the staff that helped promote

our participation in the Arts and Economic Prosperity Study.

They helped us solicit those survey responses

and to help spread the news

that we were collecting information,

to the community organizations that we showcased

and I have on a handout I can share with others,

that perform or do business in Walnut Creek

and especially here at the Luscious Center for the Arts,

to all of the individual patrons

that took a couple minutes out of their cultural experience

to complete the survey.

You can imagine you're there to see a show,

why would you want to stop and take a quick survey?

But it was really useful information for us to have

and will help us to increase our arts and culture here.

So that's really valuable information

We're grateful for, and then lastly to you,

thank you for your time and attention this evening

for allowing me to present these really exciting findings

and your ongoing support and leadership of arts and culture

here in the city of Walnut Creek.

The Mayor Pro Tem, first of all, thank you.

And thank you to all of the representatives

of our arts organizations who are here tonight.

The Mayor Pro Tem has questions or a comment,

and I actually do have a couple of questions.

Would you let?

No, would you like to do questions?

Because I'm only going to be saying nice things.

Well, my questions are nice.

Okay, I'll ask a couple of questions.

You had 449,289 attendees.

That's not just at the Lesher Center.

No, I did see.

So we were looking at other venues and events.

Can you give us a couple of examples

of the other venues and events?

Certainly, and the meat of that to keep in mind

is that those are the survey responses,

and so with that economic analysis

and all of their number crunching,

they're able to expand that for what it would look like

for the city as a whole.

So that's how they use that.

The survey responses we collected in person

at the Lesher Center, plus the data

from those 29 organizations.

So they use those to kind of help us garner

what it would look like for the city as a whole.

So while we didn't do direct audience intercept surveys,

is what they call them, between either digital

or paper ones that we had on site,

we didn't do those at a lot of our other locations,

any locations necessarily, but that's where that data

from those participating organizations

proved really helpful.

So for example, the Art and Wine Festival,

because I saw the Chamber of Commerce

was acknowledged on there.

So we weren't out doing audience intercept surveys

while people were enjoying an Art and Wine Festival.

Correct, yes, we were not.

Okay.

We were able to extract the data.

Exactly. That's a much better word for it.

And when is the next time we would do this survey?

Because it's labor intensive, I can recognize that.

It's hosted every five years.

This one was postponed, I believe 16 months or so

due to COVID-19.

So I would imagine that we'll do five years from this.

They won't go back.

So everyone's doing the survey at the same time.

So you get data from other regions and communities

as well.

Correct.

Great.

That's more of a cross-section.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Thank you very much for all you're doing.

Thank you for all the work that went into this.

This is, I assume, part of the strategic plan process that the Lesser is putting together.

Maybe you could just put it a little bit in context of what you're planning on doing with

this information.

Certainly.

Well, some of the numbers, I think it's been exciting to connect with our managers and

especially our general manager, the Losers Center for the Arts.

We actually have our executive director of Diablo Regional Arts Association here with

So if you want to capitalize on this but it is exciting to see which

numbers stand out to our different managers what how we're interacting with

them in fact one thing number that I was really lighting me up today I shared

with Carolyn earlier is that I think it was over 35% of our non-local attendees

that were surveyed it was their first time at the Luscher Center and to me

that is a huge win and that's showcasing that our investments in our increased marketing,

our thinking of ourselves with this more regional footprint is really paying off because that seems

like a really big number to me that I was excited about. Thank you Elizabeth Carolyn Jackson,

General Manager at the Lesher Center. This is very directly tied to our strategic planning in that

one of the goals that the council set as we looked at coming back from COVID was how is the center

going to be a regional draw at the same level as it was previously, what's going to be needed

for that? And we really focused on programming being the driver for that programming and then

marketing that really successfully. So I think what we're seeing with these numbers is it makes

a big difference when we attract outside of the county in terms of the impact that we then have

in Walnut Creek and on our local businesses. And it just quantifies the value beyond, like Elizabeth

said the value to our community of what we're doing but the value of the

headliner series center rep Bedford gallery the scale and quality of what we

do is essential to then driving that arts tourism driving that economic

activity downtown and making our entire you know downtown and city really

vibrant so I think it just again was committing to like we're on the right

track right we're seeing the results despite the impacts of the pandemic

we're still seeing really large numbers from this economic impact study even

though, you know, we're still on that road to recovery. So thank you.

The 36 million stuck with me. I remembered it. But I'm wondering, have

other theaters, you know, in San Francisco, other or maybe other Palo Alto,

other more regional theater, did they experience a similar drop in revenue or

do we not know? I don't know about the exact numbers in revenue, but when we

were getting the initial results from the Arts and Economic Prosperity Study, their

project leads did reach out to be like, just so you know, the reported attendance compared

to, you know, the previous study is lower. And this is what we're seeing across the board.

Nobody's reporting higher numbers. So they kind of gave us that heads up of like, this

is going to have an impact. We don't know how much it because we haven't done the analysis,

but we know that the reported attendance is low.

And that was covering the years like 2020 to 2022 or?

For audience or for organizations reporting their audience attendance, it was the fiscal

year 2022.

So depending on your organization, that was either calendar year 2022, or July 21, right

to June 22.

Thank you.

And remind me, did you, do you have national figures, or are they still processing that

data?

we do have that.

I don't have it right at the right time.

Did I blank out at one point?

No, I just don't have that one memorized, actually.

We do have it, so I could provide that to you.

All right, thank you.

Again, very reflective.

So we are consistent with other regional theaters.

Broadway and New York, I mean.

Broadway is actually not included

in these, similar to the same as movie theaters.

It's all on its own.

We're very much on standard, and we're actually, we are blowing the median out of the water

as well from our cohort, so you can share it, break one out by your population.

So within our population cohort of 50,000 to 99, we blow that median out of the water.

Thank you.

And just a shameless plug, if you haven't seen a tale of Georgia McBride, it is fabulous.

It's edgy.

It's funny.

painting, and one of the actors cut his finger at the night the performance we were there.

The show stopped. We thought there was going to be a scream of, is there a doctor in the

house? No need. Came back on. But anyway, it's a fabulous production.

Yes, he's doing great.

He's perfectly fine.

There's got to be some more to, it's got to go for another week or so, right?

Yes, because it runs through November 26th.

All right, there you go. Georgia McBride.

It's my turn. Mayor Pro Tem, thank you. The theater of course has been one of the

things that has made my heart go pittypack for many many years. So I want

to emphasize that almost everybody who attends the theater goes away with a

giant smile on their face, but for those pieces of art, plays and operas that are

designed to be tragedies and then they go away with the appropriate amount of

sadness. The programs that we put on for the youth, the Arts Access, would you

tell us a little bit about that please? I might bring our wonderful executive

director of Diablo Regional Arts Association up to tell us that's a

program of DRAAs, is there Arts Access? She can tell us a little bit more about

about that. Thank you so happy to be here thank you for the opportunity and our

Tescue school time programs started many years ago and it was to bring kids from

title one schools to experience arch programs at the leisure center of the highest

quality that they would not have had the opportunity to do otherwise and it was

more than just a field trip we did study guys we did pre and post activities in

the classrooms. Our goal was to make sure these students had access to the

wonderful programs for the Lesher Center. I must admit since COVID it's been a

little bit of a challenge but I'm excited to share that we've got we're

working with four major performances this upcoming year with a focus on

Title I in schools and we're also going to be doing more in the schools. We're

expanding our artists and residency program. We have 11 artists that will be

visiting classrooms and various community organizations.

So hopefully that will have impact as well.

That's kind of the evolution of the program.

And we hope that will make a huge impact

for these students as well.

So thank you.

So is there a variety of things presented at the theater?

For example, what kind of plays?

What kind of age groups?

What kind of classical performances?

You're speaking to my marketing heart right now,

so thank you for teeing that up.

There's something for everyone

at the Lesher Center for the Arts.

We have all genres of performance art,

dance, music, theater, musicals,

a wide range in each of those areas as well.

So if you're a tribute band fan, they're there for you.

If you're a jazz band, they're there for you.

If you wanna see a wonderful ballet, we have that as well.

So there's this huge range of opportunities

with both our in-house programs

and our wonderful rental clients

and our cornerstone producers, some of which are here.

I see you, California Symphony,

who have been longstanding clients of ours.

And in addition to the performing arts,

you can have a visual art experience

with the Bedford Gallery

and with our public art walking tours.

And with every ticket to the Lesher Center,

you are able to go before the show

to visit the current exhibition in the gallery.

so make time not just to go to dinner beforehand,

but to make sure you can stop in the gallery

before you go find your seats,

so that you have that full, well-rounded experience.

Thank you.

The commercial is done.

The only other thing I wanna note is, Elizabeth,

I think this is your first formal presentation

before the council, yeah, did a fine job.

Thank you.

And it's easier from this point forward,

so thank you very much. Thank you.

It helps to have such exciting news to share with you,

So thank you again for your support.

Thank you very much.

There's a large list of holiday entertainment as well.

I announced a lot of it in the mayor's report

that was recorded on Friday.

But get your tickets fast,

particularly to things like a Christmas carol.

It is the Christmas carol for the Bay Area,

according to the critics.

Next item on the agenda is our consent calendar.

We have two items on the consent calendar this evening.

Does any council member wish to speak

to either of those items?

Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion.

Do you want a public comment?

Oh, well, maybe.

Does any member of the public wish to speak to us

on the consent calendar?

I don't see anything?

All right, now I'll entertain a motion.

Move to approve the consent calendar items to A and to B.

Second.

We have a motion and a second

To approve consent calendar items 2A and 2B,

would the clerk please take the roll call vote?

Mayor Pro Tem Pascu?

Aye.

Council member Francois?

Aye.

Council member Darlene?

Aye.

Mayor Silva?

Aye.

Motion carries unanimously.

Now we're back for public comment on items

not on the agenda.

This is an opportunity for members of the public

to make comment on items that were not

on our agenda this evening.

This will include the proclamation

that was referenced earlier.

Under the Brown Act, the council cannot act on items raised

public communications but may respond briefly to statements made or questions

posed, may request clarification or refer the item to staff and consistent with

our handbook section 9.5 we will allow 30 min up to 30 minutes at this point in

time for public comment and then we will defer any that exceed the 30 minute time

limit to after the rest of our business items. Each person will have up to two

minutes to speak and so I will call out your names Amelia Whalen, Heidi Hernandez

Gaddy, Craig Davini, and Vincent Morales. If you will line up that would be great.

So I just go for it? Okay, hi. So I'm Amelia Whalen. I'm the wellness

coordinator at Los Lomas High School. For those of you who know me keeping this to

two minutes is like a heroic act but I'm gonna do my best. But I'm here to

represent Los Lomas, and more specifically,

the Wellness Center, which I oversee,

to thank Walnut Creek Education Foundation

for all the support that they've provided to us

and our students over the years.

They've had a vital role in supporting student mental health

at our school for a very long time,

and had a very important role in us

creating the wellness centers in 2017.

Fully understanding the importance of us

having a comprehensive mental health space on campus,

providing a safe community for students

and extending services to them and their families.

Because we've been able to create these centers,

we've been able to support student mental health

in many ways.

Last year alone, approximately 500 students came through,

either seeking some sort of ongoing mental health support

or drop-in services.

I really can't emphasize enough the importance of WCEF

and us being able to accomplish this task

and being able to de-stigmatize mental health

at our school population and just ensure

that students and families get access

to the support that they need.

Through their ongoing support,

we're able to continue doing this

and I am very, very grateful for everything

that's been done for our students

because of everything that they've offered, so.

Thank you all.

Thank you very much.

Could I just have one quick,

just to say thank you for everything you guys do at the Wellness Center. My

children went through Los Lomas before then and my daughter lost a friend to

suicide and then when she went to college she started in a peer support

program there and when I told her that it was now happening at Los Lomas she was

so grateful because you know hopefully you guys could reach kids like her

friend before they get to that point. So thank you. Thank you so much for your

kind words appreciate it. Next speaker. Good evening. My name is Heidi Hernandez

Gaddy and I'm proud to stand in front of you as the board president of the

Walnut Creek School District but really I'm going to speak about my own

experiences with WCEF. For 40 years WCEF has supported the Walnut Creek

community with a sharp focus on ensuring our children have access to the best

education our community can provide. This institution has been powered by

generations of volunteers who have supported WCEF and the Walnut Creek

School District community, growing from modest supportive libraries to

providing essential funds that cover the education funding gap that prioritize

our children not only in the classroom but as you've just heard through their

wellness and well-being. I joined the WCEF board when my oldest child who's now a

senior at Los Lomas was in the first grade as a site representative for

Walnut Heights Elementary. And over the years since I first supported WCEF

from a $650,000 a year organization in just these 10 years, we've seen a

thoughtful move to collaborative fundraising and a foundation that

supports 1.5 million dollars in essential programming for the Walnut

Creek School District and our Los Lomas High School. WCEF has been an integral

partner in the provision of an excellent education for our students for their wellness and well-being

and for our community as a whole. It is an expression of what we all do when we act together.

Thank you, WCEF, to the current board of directors and the generations of volunteers,

past, present, and future, for taking the time to invest in our students and our community.

I look forward to being a supporter of this institution that plays such an important role

to our children's education in our community from years to come. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much. And could you take a moment and introduce the superintendent who's here and

perhaps other members of the governing board?

I would be delighted to. I would love to welcome Marie Morgan, who is the superintendent of the Walnut Creek School District.

And we have current and past board members, Amy Moss and Katie Pena, here with us today.

Thank you.

I think it's safe to say that WCEF has also provided a pipeline for leadership in our community that shouldn't be underestimated.

Thank you very much. The next speaker looks very familiar. We were on this

dais last night together for the Affordable Housing Forum. Thank you.

Hi Vincent, nice to see you. Good evening. My name is Vincent Morales and the

chief business official at the Walnut Creek School District

and on behalf of our district I want to thank the city for recognizing and

celebrating the 48th anniversary of Walnut Creek Education Foundation.

They had been a vital force behind our student success.

the foundation's impact is tangible funding art, music, science, electives among other things that

our schools and our students thrive and for that we're truly grateful. Congratulations to the BCF

for 40 years many more. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next speaker please. Good evening Mayor Silva,

council members. My name is Craig Divini. My wife and I, Jennifer, have been living here in

Walnut Creek for the last 18 years raising our three boys. My oldest is now graduating from

Las Lomas with Jack back here and my youngest is currently a sixth grader at Tice Creek and

my wife and I have been supporting WCEF at the gold member level for the last five years and I

just wanted to share with you how it's impacted our lives the most and that was probably through

through the opening of the Tice Creek School.

I know that wouldn't have been possible

without the funding that was provided by WCEF.

We were attracted to the K through eight,

kind of smaller environment,

allows the middle school kids to be big fish

in a small pond instead of a small fish in a big pond.

We liked the project-based learning

and we were really inspired by talking to the teachers,

hearing their enthusiasm for opening this new school.

So it's been a big contribution to our lives

and we really appreciate the WCEF, Joanna Grossman

and all members of the WCEF

for what they put into this organization.

And thank you to city council for recognizing them.

The value it brings to our community, to our students.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Are any other members of the public here this evening

that would like to speak on an item

not on the agenda tonight?

Yes, please come forward.

Good evening, Mayor Silva, esteemed members of the council,

and my Roland Creek School District board members

and, of course, WCA board members.

Try to speak into the microphone.

And to do that, you need to probably look at us

more than the audience.

OK, let me do that.

I know you want to make them feel comfortable,

but then no one can hear you.

Good evening, I'm Sonali, a proud Roland Creek parent.

And I've also been a Roland Creek board

for the last six years, with a daughter in sixth grade at Tice Creek and a son

who's a Los Lomas graduate and now a freshman at Lucy Berkeley, I've had the

opportunity to view the full spectrum of how WCEF is enabling our kids. During

parent outreach as a side trap, I always emphasize that our contribution is an

investment that I have personally seen maturing into successful returns. Without

Without any doubt, the role of WCEF in providing elementary art, music, science, PE, and library

is crucial.

But as a parent, I felt that it is in the middle, and especially high school, that the

role of WCEF really kicks in in high gear.

Electives ranging from woodshop and auto shop to AP lit, AP computer science, and numerous

medical and engineering pathways, pathway classes to choose from, gives our kids the

opportunity to explore and excel.

The norm in the State of California is for high schools to have five periods.

Even good school districts bordering the Silicon Valley are offering six.

Our kids get seven.

Talking to parents with elementary and even preschool age kids, I find they immediately

relate to this as something tangible that you can hold in your hand.

It's your child's schedule comprised of seven periods.

The sheer opportunity of being able to offer them ten extra periods each week opens up

possibilities and supports their potential towards a successful path

after high school. Having recently traversed the competitive universe of

college applications, I appreciate the fact that WCEF enables our students to

bring a full high school experience to the table. It was because of the seven

periods and a wide range of electives, both funded by WCEF, that my son was

able to take 10 AP classes, an honors class, leadership for three years and even

squeeze in a TA position in his senior year and each of those helped him get

accepted at his dream school. Our kids are going to great universities or

forging their paths whenever else their passion and creativity takes them

because our community is fortunate to have this foundation which catalyzes

whatever we can give it. So please complete your sentence. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Next speaker please. Good evening everyone. My name is Kieran Saluja and I

am a mother of three kids in the school system. I have a fifth grader, a seventh

grader, and a ninth grader, and I have also been a parent volunteer at WCEF and

I just have to say I am beyond grateful to WCEF for the opportunities and the

support that they provide all students from TK to 12th grade. When I look in

this world that we're living in, it feels ever more competitive and demanding

of our kids in particular and the funds that are raised really gives our

students the chance to explore interests, discover new passions from a very young

age like for their whole academic career so that they can I think enter the world,

graduate from high school with a little more direction and a little more

guidance on what comes next and it's so wonderful that we actually do all this

with a keen focus on also their social emotional well-being through the Wellness Center.

So I just want to thank WCEF and its community of donors for the gifts that we are giving

to our children, and I'm so excited for another 40 years with WCEF.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Sarah, anyone else here that wishes to speak to us on items not on the agenda?

And I will close public community comments and bring it back to council.

Thank you all very much for being here.

And we are now going to the next item on our agenda, which is council member and

staff announcements, reports on activities or requests.

I will start with the city attorney.

Do we have any reports on closed session announcements?

There are no reports this evening, Madam Mayor.

Thank you.

City Manager.

Yeah, good evening, Dan Buckshi, City Manager.

I do have one announcement I would like to acknowledge

and congratulate our deputy city clerk, Amy Hevener,

as this is her last meeting with us

as she will become the town clerk

for the town of Moraga come Monday.

And I think I can safely speak for everyone

that I'm really proud of Amy in accomplishing this.

This is not an opportunity that just came out of the blue

and fell in her lap.

It's one that she's worked towards

for the last several years.

Amy started here at the city eight,

almost nine years ago now,

I think you're sneaking up on nine,

and starts as an executive assistant

working in public works,

and did that for four years.

And while I'm sure she really enjoyed

working with Heather in public works,

she decided to move on over to the city manager's office.

I mean, can't blame her for that, really, but.

And took a position as an assistant

to the city clerk in 2019.

And as we all know, within a year of doing that,

COVID hit and we transitioned to Zoom,

which is a really big deal in city clerk world

running meetings.

And I'm sure as you all recall,

Amy was the guru running the mayor's conference

Zoom meetings as there were some folks

who were not well versed in that technology.

So Amy ran that for quite some time

and did a great job of doing so.

And then Amy pursued her municipal clerk certification

in 2021 and became our deputy city clerk in 2022.

So this has been a nice progression

and a lot of investment in Amy and professional growth.

And it's nice to see it come to fruition

and wish you all the best, Amy.

All right, to the council members.

Mayor Pro Tem, I didn't draw the short straw.

Since we only had a week,

it was hard to get some stuff in, but I managed.

I went to the Walnut Creek downtown meeting

and they reviewed some of our holiday plans coming up

as well as we did for the board,

a review of the arts in August

and the review of the committee

that gave the information about

how maybe we should change it

to something more completely summer.

Won't sound as good as arts in August,

but we've got creative people, we'll solve that.

We also heard about the Chinese delegation

While our mayor was being a Chinese delegate in China,

China sent some people so that we wouldn't miss her

and they had a lovely time learning about Walnut Creek.

I also attended the trans pack meeting

and we're planning on sending out the information

for the organizations that we support for the elderly

and the people who need assistance.

And see, did I write something?

And that's it for that.

And may I say that the Veterans Day service commemoration

that we had at the theater on Saturday

was among the most moving that I think we've done

in all the time I've attended them

and I've attended a great number of them.

So thank you very much, Mayor Silva.

and also Betty Burkhardt and all of the people

that helped put it together, it was amazing.

So thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem.

Council Member Darling.

It's only been a week, so this will be short.

I did, the Walnut Creek Homeless Task Force

got together with a number of folks

to have a workshop last night

that Mayor Silva represented us at.

We are going to be debriefing on that on Wednesday

and we'll talk about how wonderful you did here

helping to run the meeting.

But there was a lot of good messages that came out of that.

The focus was on myths around affordable housing.

And I think you guys did a great job

of dispelling some of it.

I even learned as much as I've worked around the stuff.

I learned a lot from it.

MCE will be meeting later this week

and considering the city of Hercules joining MCE,

I think at that point, there might be two cities left

in Contra Costa County that are not MCE members.

So we will be considering that this week

and I look forward to reporting that

we let them come on board.

Council Member Francois.

Mayor, I have a few meetings later this week,

but I did not have any in the last week,

so no report from me.

Well, I have a few things to report.

First, I would like to tag on to the Mayor Pro Tem

and say thank you to the Lesher Center staff

the communications staff for everything you did to make Veterans Day come off so smoothly.

And it is always an honor to be able to honor those who have served.

And it was shocking when I was looking at the data to realize that over the 17 years

I've been on this council, the number of times I've had to announce the number of veterans

that we have, it's down to 16 million and only 120,000 from World War II.

And that's rapidly declining because they are coming onto a hundred.

And so we have to be mindful of that I think every day that those who really set the framework

from the middle of the 19th, 20th century to today have, are departing very rapidly

now.

But thank you again to staff for that help.

I also want to thank staff for the work that they put in the communications team to help

the affordable housing forum last night,

and that forum will be repeating virtually,

and so hopefully we can get a schedule for that

so we can post that and people can watch it,

because there was some interesting information.

And Vincent Morales was the participant

from the Walnut Creek School District

really representing employers.

And he talked about 80% of the Walnut Creek School District's

budget is in salaries, but they're not all about teachers.

And just about every employee of the district

is in need of affordable housing

because they don't meet the income requirements.

They are rent burdened or cost burdened for housing

to be able to live in the community.

And I wanna thank the chief and Stephanie Brynan

who are housing manager who participated as well.

And the chief was not only an interesting presentation

on crime statistics related to multifamily housing

is what it really came down to.

But also you had some interesting statistics and studies

just on housing affordability and its importance.

And we have to keep things like that in mind

as we talk about it.

I did the farmer's market on Sunday,

and I wanna tell you, it was fascinating.

I started at 10 30 rather than 10.

And so I ran until 12 30.

I had more people talk to me,

new residents of the community.

I was handing out every booklet that we could find.

Oh, try the Arts and Rec Guide.

It's almost stale, but use it as a guide

for what you might be looking for

because the programs don't change that.

Oh, here's the Lesher Center, here's this.

Oh, here's a map of the open space.

Here's how you find it.

That makes me feel so good because new residents

are so excited to be here and that's great,

plus interesting conversations on other topics as well.

This, today I had the honor of welcoming 40 students

from our Friendship City of Kita City, Japan,

which is right outside of Tokyo.

They are eighth graders.

They are visiting the students at Seven Hills.

They have an exchange with Seven Hills School.

And they have been here for 10 days.

They had fascinating questions, really good questions.

Like, what's the city's specialty?

I said arts.

Or what makes us, you know, I wasn't quite sure

what that meant, but you know,

from an eighth grader, you'd think,

hmm, okay, what do you mean?

It's not agriculture, it's not manufacturing,

it's arts, shopping and dining, health care,

and even some of the local residents

who were participating with them had an interesting comment

that they learned something in the conversation,

so that's a good thing.

This week is the National Conference

for the National League of Cities,

and we will be making recommendations on federal policy advocacy points of view and I will be in

attendance representing Walnut Creek and last week um about leaders of the League of California

cities so representatives of the policy committees the division regional divisions and departments

met to do a preliminary assessment of 500 pieces of input on what should be the focus of the League

of California cities for the coming year no surprises out of the top 10 items

three of the more fiscal sustainability which aligns with also the threats of

the California Business Roundtable and the change in the way those that would

occur and then public safety and housing and homelessness so more to follow on

that thank you all for what you do and what I know you will continuing to

Continue to be thinking about as we go through the Thanksgiving holidays

next item on the agenda is the public hearing and

This is a request to provide alternative public benefit for phase two of the way mark at the public Walnut Creek transit village

And before we begin and before staff begins. I'm going to ask each of us to report ex parte contacts. I

Went out with Ryan McNamara this morning to walk the area to get an idea of the layout

So that's when we discussed the issue that's on the agenda tonight

And I too spoke with Ryan this afternoon and exchanged some email messages about the item that's on the agenda. I

Had a zoom conversation very short yesterday a little bit

Trying to even figure out what we were talking about

And I had a coffee meeting with Ryan McNamara and Brad Blake yesterday and a phone conversation with Brad Griggs today and

No, I wouldn't tell them how I was voting

Because I don't know yet. All right

We're gonna start with

Chip good evening

Set the stage. Thank you mayor pro Tim council. My name is Chip Griffin

I'm a principal planner with planning division community development and tonight

we're going to take a look at a request from the Walnut Creek Transit Village in

regards to the public benefits associated with the Weymark, specifically

the Pringle Passage. I had the same problem two weeks ago. There it is, okay. So

specifically, the Walnut Creek Transit Village Phase 2, it's also known as the

Weymark, requests that the City Council allow a change to the public benefits

associated with the increased building heights, height allowances from

with a general plan about it.

Let's see if I can get rid of that.

Request would be to exchange the benefit of public access

through the Pringle Passage in exchange for limited use,

limited public use of the Great Hall.

All right.

In context, I think we all know where the transit village is,

but for those in the audience, and I am a planner,

so I put the land use designation

and zoning designations up there.

It's mixed use residential,

and it's a planned development zoning PD 2113.

I'm sure we all have memories of that.

Shown here is a Walnut Creek Transit Village.

Phase one here where the cursor is is the new garage,

the parking garage, which was phase one.

Moving north is the original BART garage.

This here is phase three and building one

and building two of phase three.

And this would be the Pringle Passage area

or alignment between the two buildings.

Over here is phase three, and that is to be determined.

I would expect a redesign for phase three coming soon.

In context, we have North South

running North California Boulevard here,

Ignacio Valley Road in this area running east to west,

and then we have the North South Caltrans Corridor

And Pringle Avenue up here is the boundaries

of the transit village.

We also show the yellow line would be the alignment

for the rail.

And then right in this area, right in the center,

is this station.

It's surrounded by the Golden Triangle

to the north of Business Park,

the Ignacio Center to the east.

We have Target down here to the southeast.

And then here's the Vaya.

So that's our surrounding context.

In context for phase two specifically, we have building one and building two.

The Pringle Stare over here, which I hope everybody's seen, it's beautiful.

We have the Pringle Passage right in this alignment here between,

leading from Pringle to the to the BART station itself.

In this area, this building right here at the end is the Great Hall.

And station access can be provided vehicularly with pedestrians and bikes here,

and then pedestrians and bikes here.

We also show this would be the gate at the other end of the Pringle Passage

from the stair and I think that that does it.

So the benefit package was approved by the City Council in 2012

and included many entitlements including a general plan amendments

and specifically for tonight we're talking about a height increase

of the eastern side, which is shown here in blue,

the height allowance originally was 35 feet while this side

where phase two is was 50 feet.

So there's a general plan amendment to increase that.

I think you have that backwards.

You were pointing at the phase two and calling it, okay.

Well, this would be phase three, I'm sorry, phase two.

just in case for those who are watching from home.

Okay, correct.

That's actually phases 1 and 2 right here and phase 3 in the green, which had a height

limit of 35 feet over phase 3.

The general plan amendment brought the entire Walnut Creek transit village area into to

measure a maximum allowance of 50 feet.

And in doing so, there's a general plan policy that allows the development to offer certain

and public benefits for that increased height.

In this case, it was construction of the entire,

or the parking garage first before construction

of the other phases.

The reason for that is because those were surface parking

lots and had to replace those parking lot,

those parking areas while the other two phases

were under construction.

And that parking garage also included an expanded

bus terminal, I think, and Mayor Syll will probably

let me know if I'm right or wrong.

There was 12 bus, if it was a 12 bus terminal previously.

I think that's pretty close, yeah.

Yeah, and it was expanded to 15, correct, okay.

And also improved bicycle pedestrian facilities

around and through the site.

I'm gonna bring up a map here,

and there's a lot going on here, I get it,

but it's the best representation of bicycle

and pedestrian circulation that I could find,

And it was actually part of the entitlements.

So what's shown here, focus on the brown arrows,

if you can see them.

Those are these arrows here.

There's a cluster of them over here.

And that just shows the bicycle circulation.

There's bicycle circulation all kind of ends up right here,

where there's lockers and other facilities for the cyclists.

So that was done.

That was part of the public benefit.

And also the green arrows.

the green arrows represent pedestrian pathways.

And as you can see, if the blue arrows weren't there,

you would see a lot of green arrows.

But as you can see, there's green arrows,

there's a lot of pedestrian pathways,

two through and around the site.

And it includes a passageway between buildings two and three

and phase two and also between buildings three and four

in phase three.

What this would do is eliminate this pathway here

and folks would just come around this way

or go around this way as they've always done.

In the case of phase three,

this has been the pedestrian pathway for decades.

And myself, in negotiating with the developer,

this path is here to stay.

So we'll make sure that this is designed

a little bit better, but more defensible space,

less attractive nuisance and built for a pedestrian pathway.

And moving forward, so what's the proposed benefit exchange?

The exchange for that access Waymark proposes

that the Great Hall be made available four times a year

for specific events and with specific restrictions.

Those restrictions are listed in bullet points

and they're also in the staff report.

The Great Hall, what is it?

It's this building, I think everybody's at least seen it,

if not have been in it, it's a beautiful building.

It's right next to the entrance gates to the Great Hall.

As you can see there, and we'll talk about public art.

Actually the applicant will really focus

on some public art.

It's been brought out to these columns here,

but the use, the public benefit would be the use

of the Great Hall shown here.

And I'll just run through some photos

of the inside of the hall.

It's a large space.

Again, the applicant's gonna go through

some of the specifics of the space.

And then there's lock-off rooms in there.

There is, I think, at least beverage service,

if not food service, we'll find that out.

However, and as far as the public art

that is within the Pringle Passage,

we wanted to make sure that the art that's in the passage

would still be available for public viewing.

And we have worked out a solution for that,

and it would allow a person to make a phone call

or inquire with the leasing office

to go see the public art,

whether they're an individual or a group,

they could either schedule it for a larger group

or get fairly quick access with the leasing department.

It would be available during the regular office hours

and there would be signs at the gate here

on the station side and then at the stair

for folks on directions on exactly how to do that.

With that, staff recommends that the city council

determine that the previously prepared Environmental Impact Report is sufficient for this proposal

and adopt a draft resolution approving the proposed public benefit to include the use

of the Great Hall instead of private access over Pringle Passage.

And as I said, Brad Griggs and the associate are here tonight, Ryan, I believe, is here

tonight to answer any questions and provide a presentation.

Thank you very much.

Council has any questions for staff. Councilmember Darling? Just a quick one,

thank you for walking us through this, it's like a trip down memory lanes. The

art inside the Pringle Passage, does it include the big planters and smaller

benches? Are those part of the same installation? I believe so. I was not a

part of when the when the actual art package was approved with the Arts

Commission but it did change since we since you thought as a planning

committee. Yes it did. It does include certain installations I think to benches and

planners in a form of tile mosaics and and other items that I'm sure the

applicant will be able to. Okay and I and just I think you you talked about this

But I want to be very clear that we're not talking about phase three and that major thoroughfare through there

We're just talking about Pringle Passage tonight

We are we are not talking about phase three and you recognize that talking about face three be bad

Thank you

Councilmember Francois, thank you mayor and thank you chip for the refresher on the project

It turned out beautifully by the way

I'm really pleased with how it looks and I was there at the grand opening as I think a lot of us were

If you could just confirm for me, the public benefit,

and it was a package of public benefits

that were provided, right?

The public benefits were needed or desired

by the council back in 2012

because of the increased height limit on the phase three site.

Correct.

Not on the phase two site.

There was no need to increase the height.

There was no availability to increase the height on the site.

Okay.

And then was the Pringle Passage

more than just a concept.

There was going to be some sort of easement

dedicated for public use,

but were there any parameters put around?

Was it gonna be open just like a public street 24-7?

I know there are gates there,

but what was, was there anything in the record

in terms of what the history of its purpose was?

Originally, I, you know,

over the 10 years that that project was developed,

I don't know that it really boiled down to that yet.

I think it was just public access.

When we got towards the construction phase,

there was started talking about hours or limiting hours

and that kind of thing.

And then I think as COVID hit, I believe,

as the project came out of the ground

and really developed further,

I think it became clear to the developers

that this space might not be the best location

for have to be open, especially 24 seven.

Okay, and I think just one more for now.

I recall a main topic of conversation

when we were on the planning commission

was the replacement parking and the desire

for the replacement parking to be constructed first,

which indeed happened.

And I thought that what was constructed

was more than one-to-one of what was on the surface lots.

I believe it was, correct me if I'm wrong,

but I think it was 951 spaces were required

and it built 990, is that, or is it six?

There's more.

911.

Okay.

Let's see.

I think that's, Council Member Darling

had my question about the public art.

would like a little more explanation of what's inside up the stairs and I've

walked it but I can't say that I really paid attention to every mosaic I should

have but if you can just describe kind of what what's within the confines of

the project that would be helpful. You can turn to your art friends and ask

them to the microphone. I think we're gonna see that with their presentation.

Okay well also but we may have some questions for staff from the arts as

well. Mayor Pro Tem. Does the Pernell passage represent any kind of risk for

the people who live in the in the development? I would go I would I would

assume yes otherwise we might not be going through this exercise. Okay like

homeless people coming. And I hate to say it that way because people

see homeless people and they go, oh they must be criminals. That's not always the

case. But are there any safety issues? Good evening Madam Mayor, City Council. I

have not personally walked this property but I have looked at it on a map. So my

understanding, and Captain Brown is joining me here, he'll have some more

information because he's walked it a couple of times. It is in very close

proximity to residents so it could be a haven for peeping toms, people loitering,

certainly littering and things like that but I'm going to turn it over to Captain

Brown he'll have better information than I do. Thank you.

Good evening Madam Mayor, council members, Andy Brown, the administrative division captain for the police

department. I did walk this passageway and spent some time with the leasing

manager today and last week as well. And the walkway is adjacent to some, you

know, private patios that are, you know, very low and so line-of-sight as people

are walking through there. Also you could theoretically easily access the

patios if you so desired. We haven't had any major issues or significant events

there from a crime standpoint, but it certainly could happen. I don't know if that answers your

question, if you have further concerns with the area. It just exposes, it's possible that

there could be issues in the future that just hasn't been.

Thank you. Actually, let me do a follow up there, but the gates have been locked, have they not?

So the opportunity has been restricted.

I believe the gates are locked during the evening,

but I'll let Chip answer that or the applicant.

They were locked this morning.

It's my belief that the Pringle Passage

has never been open for public access.

So what could, this is a could

based on the environmental design

as I think was the phrase that the chief used last night

and when we were talking about affordable housing

and how to design any housing multifamily,

how to design appropriately, okay.

Follow-up question.

Could you talk either chief or Captain Brown

about the two jurisdictions,

is it BART and Walnut Creek PD that has jurisdiction

over the Waymark or where do those lines,

kind of where are they delineated?

The Waymark is Walnut Creek's jurisdiction.

And so then there's the BART property adjacent.

And that obviously is is patrolled by Bart police department

Both both of the garages the station everything that's not the waymark essentially right now, correct? Okay. Thank you

So I will have a question for the public art staff

eventually in terms of the value of the public art that's in the passageway as opposed to the stairway or the

and so if they can work on figuring that out or if they can answer now if they're ready, tap dance.

You don't want to see that.

For the record, Kevin Saffine, Director of Arts and Recreation.

I'm going to have to ask my friends to help me out with this a little bit.

There were two pieces of public art that were part of the Weymark development.

One is on the corner of Pringle in California called the B effect, which is not affected by this.

It's spectacular, by the way.

And the other is the series of mosaics at the exterior stairway up through the passage

from Pringle through to California.

I can give you the total budget, and then I'll need a little help on the specific budget

for the mosaics if you have that, Emily.

So give us the total budget, and then after the applicant makes their presentation, we

will get a little more detail.

So the total budget for both combined was $816,000, and I'll have the number specifically

for the mosaics in a moment.

Okay, great, thank you.

And that is 1%, that reflects 1% of the construction costs

of the phase two, the Waymark itself.

Correct, and you may have added a little bit

with some more mosaics, but that was the dollar amount

for as required by the public art master plan, yes.

Okay, short answer is yes, but they did a little bit more.

Thank you.

Yes, Mayor Pertin.

This is to remind me to remind the applicant to ask that what do you do in ordinary circumstances

when you're doing a sort of upper class, middle development of art-wise, whether you've got

this law or not?

That's my question.

Think about it.

Please.

All right.

Thank you very much, staff.

We will now open the public hearing and hear from the applicant.

Thank you very much.

You will have up to 15 minutes to present to us.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor.

Good evening, City Council members.

My name is Ryan.

I'm with Blake Creek's Properties.

I'm here to represent Walnut Creek Transit Village Associates.

My presentation will be relatively brief since Chip did such a good job outlining the issue

that we're here discussing tonight.

So as Chip said, the real concern that we're trying to address tonight is one of safety.

I would point out that the gates have been closed.

We've done that because we saw safety concerns early on, and we've had those concerns stated

to us by residents.

So it's something that we're very sensitive to.

This is just an outline of the property.

And you can see the Pringle Passage down the middle and the alternative route that goes

down the side of the property that BART patrons would use to go to the office space.

I would point out that I think, and Greg's reminding me of this, when originally designed

there was supposed to be retail going down that baysail.

And a public passage with retail makes total sense.

I don't know if it was a leftover, you know, when we converted that retail to apartments.

But just given where it is today, we wouldn't have designed it probably thinking about public

access 24-7.

I think as the science says right now, it's 7 to 10 p.m. but those night hours are obviously

a concern.

I'll also add that the public path of travel by pushing it down to the corner of Pringle

and Northern California puts it by where the retail is now.

most of our retail space, with the exception of a coffee shop near the Great Hall, is on

that hard corner. So anything we can do to increase foot traffic there is a benefit for

those retailers. This shows you some photos of what the paseo looks like. As pointed out

by the police chief, it's a meandering path. There's a ton of landscaping there that looks

great and it's a beautiful passageway, but it just gives a lot of opportunities for people

that are, you know, peeping Tom's or anything of the like to hide, wait for it to be dark,

try and set up camp, or access the patios that are on the ground floor.

This is a good representation of what kind of art we have within that Pringle Passage.

These are six benches.

You can see the mosaics at the bottom, and these are about three feet long by, you know,

two feet high.

they're not very big, but those are along the passageway.

These are two other planters that are part of those mosaics

within the gates, larger pieces.

And as stated, if anybody wants to see this art,

they're welcome to come to the leasing office

so we can schedule a tour.

And if Walnut Creek wants to have scheduled tours

with our leasing office, they're welcome to do that.

This is art at either end of the Pringle Passage.

The staircase, as Chip pointed out before,

and then on these two columns shown in the lower right,

that's mosaics that we actually added late in the game.

So I think that costs us another $50,000 or so

to have those installed.

Here's the B effect.

There was also mentioned earlier, it's a great piece.

It's on the corner of Pringle in Northern California

near the retail, so that art will stay available

of the public.

Here's the same picture you saw before, the Great Hall.

The Great Hall space is about 4,500 square feet.

It has a wet bar.

It has opportunities for catering,

if food is brought in, to keep that warm.

It has a very large projector screen.

It'd be great for speaker presentations, chamber

of commerce meetings, things like that.

Oh, and the capacity of the Great Hall

is a little over 350 people.

So that's really it.

Again, chip covered everything,

but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

Mayor Pro Tem, did you have a question?

I did.

So I did want to know the contrast

with what you would do ordinarily.

Do you, for a similar upper middle class kind of building,

would you put natural art,

whether you had your arms twisted behind your back or not?

Well, from my experience,

I've always been required to put public art in,

so that's an easy answer for me.

The art that we would put in otherwise, which we do,

if you're in the Great Hall,

you'll see the big mural of the coyote,

is all focused on where it can be enjoyed by our residents

and gets the most visibility from that standpoint.

On the exterior of the buildings,

you know, if there's an opportunity for art

that rethinks makes sense,

then we'll do it unnecessarily in every project

you put public card unless required.

Okay.

I have a couple of questions about the use of the room.

The availability is limited to, according to your rules,

limited between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. Monday through Friday

and no holidays.

I understand everything except if you have an evening

meeting starting at say six o'clock,

It is more likely than not closing it at 9 p.m.

is cutting that opportunity for that group short.

Is there any flexibility in that?

Yes, that's a good point.

I think there's certainly a flexibility in that.

You know, the one thing that we're cognizant of

is noise and the impacts on residents.

So if we get an application that we thought

that wouldn't be an issue,

we'd be happy to extend those hours.

Okay, the second one is you have no religious

or political organizations.

And I think when I was talking to you,

I used the example of last year

when Walnut Creek was going to host the mayor's conference

and we all know mayors are very quiet people.

Is that a political organization or are there,

how would you measure something like that?

that is more ecumenical than just a political campaign.

Yeah, our intent there is more around fundraising events

or anything that can be perceived

where we're showing favoritism

to one political person than the other.

So we can modify that language to specify that,

but what you described

would certainly be allowed and appropriate.

Okay, my cohort says that it would be

governmental experience, not a political experience. Okay, all right. I think, oh,

the groups are responsible for cleaning up the room, but, you know, anything that happens outside

of the room that's sort of beyond their scope, is that covered by, do they have to make special

arrangements? It would probably be dependent upon the application if we

thought something was going to spill out into other areas, but in general I would

say no. I mean anything that's outside of those walls is a responsibility of our

property manager. And security is clearly an issue for you and your tenants.

Would the group be responsible for additional security? Again I think that'd

to be a case-by-case basis, but we have onsite security,

so there's a basic level of security that we would provide.

And if, for whatever reason, we thought more was required,

we would work that out with the applicant.

Okay. Thank you.