Good evening and welcome to the Walnut Creek City Council meeting of May 7,
2000. I am shouting. Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday, May 7, 2024 meeting of the Walnut
Creek City Council. The City Council is conducting this meeting from the City Council Chamber.
This meeting is being video streamed and can be viewed live or later at the City's website.
As some attendees may be participating in their first Walnut Creek City Council meeting,
I wanted to make everyone welcome and to talk briefly about public comment process.
Each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for the public to comment on the item. Thus,
If you desire to speak on an item on the agenda this evening,
please hold your comments until the city council considers that item.
Additionally, we have a section on the agenda titled public communications,
which is for communications for items, not on the agenda.
Any comments during public communications should not relate to an item that is
on the agenda.
Consistent with section 9.5 of the City Council Handbook, 30 minutes will be initially allocated
for public communications for items not on the agenda. Additional time for public comment
communications for items not on the agenda will be provided at the end of the open
session pointed of the meeting if necessary. If you decide to provide public comment,
please complete a speaker identification card. They're up at the board or and can be had at the
desk and give them to our people over there. Wait your turn and when you approach the left turn
please state your name and city of residence for the record. You will have two minutes to address
the City Council. Please keep in mind that this is a city business meeting. The City Council has
adopted rules of decorum to ensure that meetings are conducted efficiently and effectively and that
all members of the public have a full, fair, and equal opportunity to be heard. The City Council
handbook outlines decorum expected at the City Council chamber and can be found at our website.
All remarks should be addressed to the City Council. Please do not use threatening,
profane, or abusive language which disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly
conduct of the City Council meeting. Again, each speaker will have two minutes to make your remarks.
written comments submitted and received up to two hours
before the meeting have been posted
to the city's website for review
and are included in the meeting record,
but will not be separately read into the record.
After that lecture, it is now time
to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Please join me.
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.
There are more people in this room right now than we have really space for them.
We are open on the third floor or we'll ask them, we'll ask you to go out into the hall.
I have people who if you're here for another item rather than anything that has to do with
the beginning, you may want to be out there.
Please stay, leave the doors open because we may need them for an emergency exit and
do not repeat, do not lean on the light switch which is right by the door.
If you're standing in the door,
maybe you wanna find another place closer inside,
but you may wanna also be on the outside.
If I could just add to that, Mayor,
so we do have a maximum seating capacity of 114,
and beyond that is a fire code violation
that we need to follow.
So folks that are standing against the walls,
please either grab, or there are a few open seats,
or we do have a monitor in the lobby
that is broadcasting everything.
I respectfully ask that you view it there
so that we can all be safe.
Very much appreciate such interest
in the meeting here today,
but we want to make sure we're operating
in a safe manner in accordance with Fire Code.
So thank you for your cooperation.
Yeah, the reserve seats may be open,
so there are three more seats here.
Okay, thank you everybody for your cooperation.
City Clerk, may I have the roll call?
Council member Francois.
Here.
Council member Silva.
Here.
Council member Will.
Here.
Mayor Pro Tem Darling.
Here.
Mayor Haskew.
I'm here too.
And I'll just note for the record
that this is also a concurrent meeting
of the parking authority.
Thank you.
All right, we have several proclamations to deal with.
The first one is the proclamation
for national police week.
Let me read some of it.
in, whereas in 1962 President John F Kennedy designated May 15th as Peace Officers Memorial
Day and the week in which that falls, date falls, as National Police Week. It is important that all
citizens recognize the duties and responsibilities of their police department as well as their
sacrifices. And the women and men of the Walnut Creek Police Department are committed to protecting
and serving our community through professional conduct and proactive enforcement of the law.
Now therefore be it resolved that I, Lawela Hasku, mayor of the city of Walnut Creek,
on behalf of the Walnut Creek City Council, do hereby proclaim May 15th, 2020- 2024 as Peace
Officers Memorial Day in honor of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice as well as those who have
become disabled in the line of duty. Be it further resolved that the week of May 12th through 18th,
2024, will be recognized in the City of Walnut Creek as National Police Week as we extend our
appreciation to the women and men of the Walnut Creek Police Department for their courage
sacrifices and dedicated service to our community, and may I have somebody or many people come
forward to accept this proclamation.
Hi, good evening, Officer Shane Blatz, POA President of Walnut Creek Police Department.
I just want to say on behalf of our department and our membership, we definitely take a lot
of pride working here for this city, and we're very honored to receive and accept this, so
thank you.
And now there is a proclamation for Jewish American Heritage Month and I will read the
proclamation and then if hold on there's where's my name Jenny Rabbi Rabbi Jenny Shabom if
you are here be ready to come and accept it please.
So whereas since our nation's earliest days, Jewish Americans have been an important part
of the American story and have greatly contributed to all areas of American life and culture.
On April 20th, 2006, the federal government proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage
Month stating as a nation of immigrants, the United States is better and stronger because
as Jewish people from all over the world have chosen to become American citizens.
So many generations of people from all over the world, including Jewish individuals and
their families, have come to the United States in search of a better life for themselves,
their families, and their descendants.
Jewish Americans enrich every part of American life as educators, as entrepreneurs, as athletes,
artists, as science and entertainers, as public officials and activists, as labor and community
leaders, as diplomats, diplomats and military service member, public health heroes and more.
In recent years, Jewish Americans have increasingly experienced acts of anti-Semitism,
acts that are unconscionable and carry terrifying echoes of the worst chapters
in human history. These acts of anti-Semitism do not just strike against the Jewish individuals,
they are a threat to other minority communities and I take it personally myself. I added that
that isn't here. The city of Walnut Creek celebrates diversity and has an obligation
to condemn and combat discrimination, bigotry, hatred, and anti-Semitism wherever it exists.
I will ask you, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, on behalf of the City of Walnut Creek Council,
to hereby proclaim the month of May 2024 as Jewish American Heritage Month in the City
of Walnut Creek and encourage all Walnut Creek to celebrate diversity and support opportunities to
to learn more about Jewish American history,
culture, and contributions.
And would the rabbi come forward, please?
Two rabbis.
Two rabbis.
Oh, sorry.
Sorry.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I'm Jenny Shabon.
I'm nice to see you.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I bet you have something to say.
Thank you for having us.
My name is Rabbi Jenny Shabon, and I
serve as the rabbi of congregation Benetikvah
in Walnut Creek.
Rabbi Jill Perlman and I serve as the Rabbi of Temple Isaiah and Lafayette, which also serves
Walnut Creek. On behalf of our communities and the greater Walnut Creek Jewish community,
we are grateful for your work to adopt this resolution, beautifully written, recognizing
Jewish American Heritage Month. During Jewish American Heritage Month, we celebrate and reflect
on over 350 years of Jewish life and contributions to American society. We celebrate and lift up the
ways that Jews and Jewish values have helped to shape and impact our country
and who we are through music, thought, scientific breakthroughs and more. Our
people's story is one of resilience and hope and has inspired so many through
hardship to dream of better tomorrows and a time when we can all be free.
Well this is certainly a time to celebrate Jewish contributions. We must also note
as you have shared the still present and rising threat of anti-semitism in our
midst and how we even right here in this chamber are not immune. During Jewish
American Heritage Month not only must we celebrate Jewish Americans but we must
also use this time to rededicate ourselves to fighting anti-semitism and
baseless hate all year long. We call upon you as our leadership and all people of
conscience to refute anti-semitism however and from wherever it emerges.
Thank you for adopting this resolution. We appreciate the support of the Jews
in our community and all the work you do to lead us and we look forward to the
many ways we can partner together in the future. Thank you.
Thank you. Don't put it anywhere.
Push it the right way.
Excuse me. Okay.
Um, so, uh, we have the presentation, the youth presidential service awards and
with the youth council come up commission.
Thank you.
Well, thank you for having us tonight council.
My name is Ella Copper and I am this year's chair of the Walnut Creek Youth
Commission, and tonight we are here to celebrate and recognize a few of our
youth here in Walnut Creek who have served our community.
Um, the presidential volunteer service award can go to any Walnut Creek youth
who has served our community
and it is for grades K through 12.
And without further ado,
I will turn it over to Anna Sophia
who will introduce our first recipient.
Hello, my name is Anna Sophia Ivanova
and I am a freshman at Los Lomas High School.
Today, I'm going to be presenting the gold winner
of the Presidential Service Award, Logan Book.
Logan Book volunteered 102 hours
for the Contra Costa County Sheriff's
search and rescue program.
He assisted with the team trainings, logistics,
and search preparations,
and is excited to continue his work assisting the team
and the community.
Logan Book, please come up to receive your award.
Congratulations.
Good evening, everyone.
My name is Julia Chow,
and I'm here to present award to Emily Kim and Ethan Kim
on behalf of the Walnut Creek Youth Leadership Commission.
As student ambassadors
the local food rescue organization, White Pony Express, siblings Emily and Ethan Kim
introduced new volunteers from nearby charities and youth organizations. Ethan, who's also a member
of our youth leadership commission, is unable to be here today. As volunteers with White Pony Express,
they sort food at the distribution center every weekend while visiting farmers markets to raise
awareness of food insecurity in the community. On some weekends, they go on truck runs to whole
food source across Contra Casa to rescue and deliver food items.
Can Emily Kim come to receive her rewards?
Hello City Council and members of the public.
My name is Adam Tarr and I will be presenting the award for Alexandra Pearlman.
Alexandra Pearlman started volunteering at the Agnesio Valley Library in August.
She helps first through 8th grade students with math every weekend.
She also started volunteering at an online tutoring platform called UPGEEV, which is
for low-income middle and high school students, and she mostly helps with reading and writing.
Alexandra Perlman, can you please come up to receive your award?
Hi, my name is Renee Joseph, and I'm excited to present this award.
So this award is for Shruti Shyam.
She volunteered at the county library for 60 hours doing tasks from taking books off
the shelves to volunteering at events hosted at the library. She also
volunteered at her music school at Sruti Swaralaya for 80 hours where she
helped teach beginner students about the art of Indian classical music. So Sruti
Shyam, I'd like to call you up. Thank you and actually you don't get away without
having your picture taken. So I'm at least calling it from here. So would
you all winners and presenters come up here and the council will join you in front. And the party's
not over now we have a presentation from the Walnut Creek open space celebrating the 50th
anniversary and welcome. Thank you for having me. Good evening, Mayor Haskew, council members, city
and staff. My name is Andrea Balochi and I'm currently the president of the Walnut Creek
Historical Society. We're here tonight to invite you and the Walnut Creek community to join us.
in our celebration of the 50th anniversary
of the Walnut Creek Open Space.
June 6th, this year marks a 50 years to the day
of the passing of measures F and G,
which ensured the protection
of our beloved natural spaces from development.
The Walnut Creek Historical Society
is partnering with the City of Walnut Creek
and the Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation
on a year-long celebration featuring a calendar
of projects and activities for the community
to participate in and a passport to adventure
highlighing our spaces, namely Shell Ridge,
Akalani's, Lime Ridge, Sugar Loaf,
Borges Ranch, the Howe Homes set estate,
and our very own Shadelands Ranch.
Local artist, Ally McKay, who may of you have known,
she's done some more big belly art,
she's done lovely murals down by Sasa.
She came up with the passport cover
featuring the infamous Wollin Creek tree
and the eagle from the, that's evolved actually
from the Wollin Creek Open Space's original logo.
She also created individual logos for the spaces,
the circular logo that we've been using
in all of our communications and publications,
and then she also created individual logos
for each of the spaces,
and they will be used in the passports
so that when people actually go to the spaces,
much like the national parks,
you can put them on the pages of the spaces you've visited.
I think you each have a copy, right?
So you can see it, okay, thank you.
The 50th anniversary celebration will begin
with a kick-off event at Shadelands Ranch Museum
on Thursday, June 6th from 4 to 6.
This free community celebration will include presentations
and acknowledgments, live music, community outreach
from local organizations, refreshments,
and the launching of the Walnut Creek Open Space exhibit
inside of the museum.
The exhibition at the Shadelands Museum will run
from June 6th until early August and will showcase
a visual timeline of events and milestones featuring maps,
memorabilia, communications, and photos.
Our museum will also feature an art show presented
by the Valley Art Gallery of Walnut Creek.
So the whole bottom floor of our museum at Shailin's
will be filled with art and photography from Valley Arts,
which we're very grateful for.
And we also have a special wildlife exhibit
generally displayed by Lidlindsey Wildlife Museum.
Not live, but they have taxidery and one of our rooms
will completely be devoted to wildlife education.
We're very grateful for these organizations' participation
in this monumental occasion.
The Walnut Creek Historical Society Board has thoroughly enjoyed working with the Walnut Creek City staff,
namely Mike Vickers, Belinda Tran, and head open space ranger Corey Frazier,
as well as the Walnut Creek open space president Leslie Hunt, to bring the celebration to life for our community.
We invite you to drop by the Shadelands Museum grounds on June 6th to be the first to pick up your 50th anniversary commemorative passport,
and enjoy a fun evening launching our celebration of the land that we enjoy as our Walnut Creek open space today.
The celebration will then continue on Saturday, June 8th, at Borges Ranch, with a day filled
with activities for people of all ages.
Free shuttles from Northgate High School will take groups up to the ranch to enjoy Lindsey
White Wild Animal displays, the 4-H demonstrations, a petting zoo, pony rides for children, and
mechanical bull rides for adults, food trucks, and more.
So more information for all of these events can be found on the Walnut Creek Historical
Society websites and the city websites as well.
so we look forward to seeing you there.
Okay, but you don't get away without a picture too.
No, you didn't need my picture.
I'm suggesting the council each come with their passport.
All right, should I hold that?
Council glad we're finished with that part of the thing.
We are now up to public communication.
No, oh, excuse me, yeah, I turned the page too fast.
We're up to consent calendar.
Does any council member wish to pull an item?
Seeing none, does anybody in the public wish to come
and talk about an item that's on our consent calendar?
I see none.
Do I have a motion?
Move to approve consent calendar items A through H
with the amendment for the CCTA agreement
that was presented at the dais.
Second.
Thank you, may I have a roll call vote?
Council Member Silva, aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Darling, aye.
Council Member Francois, aye.
Council Member Wilk, aye.
Mayor Haskew, aye.
Motion carries unanimously.
All right, now we're up to public communications.
This portion of the meeting is reserved for comments
on items not on the agenda.
Under the Brown Act, the council cannot act on items raised
during public communications,
but may respond briefly to statements made
or questions posed, request clarification
or revert the item to staff.
Consistent with section 9.5 of the city council handbook,
30 minutes will be allocated at this time
for public communications for items not on the agenda.
Additional time for public communications
not on the agenda will be carried
to the end of the meeting if necessary.
I would like to remind members of the public,
If you would like to provide comments,
please fill out a speaker card
and it needs to be completed and turned into the city clerk.
You will have two minutes to address the city council.
Please keep in mind that this is a city business meeting.
The council has adopted rules of decorum
to ensure that meetings are conducted
effectively, efficiently,
and that all members of the public have a full, fair,
and equal opportunity to be heard.
The City Council Handbook outlines decorum
expected at the chamber and can be found on our website.
All remarks should be addressed to the City Council.
Please do not use threatening, profane, or abusive language
which disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes
the orderly conduct of the City Council.
Okay, if you have a public comment, please come forward.
I have several cards.
If you will line up behind the podium, that would be great.
You can start.
Yes, good evening council members.
My name is Marty Veluba,
and I'm a lifetime resident of Walnut Creek,
and I'm here to state that the city of Walnut Creek
has an avenue to challenge
the East Bay Mud Walnut Creek Pre-Treatment Plant Project,
which the neighbors of Occulani's Ridge firmly oppose
based on numerous safety issues
presented at the April 16th City Council meeting.
And I'm gonna go ahead and submit a document
that will explain further.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Bill Patt, resident of Martinez.
Just wanna thank the mayor and city council
for recognizing the Jewish culture in our society.
To honor Jewish American Heritage Month,
I would like to pay tribute
to some famous Jewish Americans.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk,
I also want to recognize the American Jewish recipients of the Medal of Honor,
Civil War Benjamin Levy, World War I, William Shemin, World War II, Benjamin L. Solomon,
and Vietnam War Jack Jacobs.
Thank you.
Next speaker, please.
Hello, my name is Barbara Gennis, and I've been a resident of Walnut Creek since 1996.
I want to congratulate the Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation for, oh, okay.
congratulate the open space foundation for being an advocate for the native plants and wildlife in
the Walnut Creek open spaces for 50 years now. Hopefully we all realize how important this
organization is for the city of Walnut Creek. It's also very essential that city staff, especially
those responsible for protecting our open spaces, also value the Walnut Creek open space foundation
and their suggestions, opinions that come from years and years of service to the city in protecting
and preserving our open spaces for 50 years now. City Council also mentions open space protection
and its priorities for the next couple years. This too is very important for the Council and
citizens to remember. I just wanted to mention three items about the open spaces. Did you know
that in October 2023 the California Department of Fish and Wildlife declared the native plant
lime ridge woolly star or lime ridge ariastrum as an endangered species.
It exists only in lime ridge open space nowhere else in the world does it exist. Also did you know
that the threatened alameda whip snake lives in that lime ridge open space is classified as
threatened by both California and federal government. Third item did you know a biologist
hired by the city found red-legged frog tadpoles in the lime ridge open space.
Those tadpoles didn't just fall out of the sky so the presence of these tadpoles
prove that the red-legged frog also exists in Lime Ridge open space and it's
considered endangered by the federal government. The items listed above should
make everyone stop and realize that the Walnut Creek open spaces are very
valuable to the citizens of Walnut Creek and even more importantly the open
spaces are homes to lots is the home to lots and lots of native plants and
wildlife that greatly deserve to be protected, conserved, and preserved. Thank
you for all the people that helped with the open spaces. Thank you.
Good evening. I'm Marjorie Wallace and I'm a member of the Mount Diablo Unitarian
Universalist Church in Walnut Creek, and I'm happy to be here with other church
members in support of our Jewish friends and neighbors who are exercising the
their First Amendment right to freedom of religion and their right to dignity and respect
as all people are entitled to.
And I just want to leave you with a really short vignette that I got from my Lakonada
Presbyterian minister when I was a little girl a long time ago.
And he told me the story of a Protestant minister who I believe ended up murdered by anti-Semitic
Nazis at Dachau, and this Protestant German minister said, when they came for the mentally
infirmed and physically infirmed, I was neither, neither, so I said nothing.
When they came for the homosexuals, I said nothing, because I wasn't homosexual.
And when they came for the Jews, I said nothing, because I wasn't Jewish.
But when they came for me, no one said anything, because there was no one left.
Thank you.
Hello, my name is Elise Furnacci.
In 1974, the citizens of Walnut Creek voted to set aside approximately 2,500 acres of
undeveloped ridgelands purchased with the proceeds of a bond issued with the intent
that they remain in a near-natural state in perpetuity.
I've personally spoken with Audrey Bramhall and Hardy
Miller, two members of the original founding people who
formed the open space, about the problem at Sutherland Drive
and the Poppies.
They both took strong offense to creating
an attraction and a garden in the open space.
That was not the intent nor the purpose.
This personal habitat restoration directly
flies in the face of the natural mandate.
It is not natural to weed, seed, water, and garden
in the open space, nor to create trails without approvals,
which draw thousands of people every Saturday and Sunday
and spill into the weekdays too.
A small group of people have commandeered a garden spot
in the open space without regards to those of us
who have paid premiums to live on quiet, dead-end streets
in a quiet, safe neighborhood
where we could look out for one another.
This is all gone due to the attractive nuisance
and its effect of completely filling our streets
with cars, strangers, substantially increasing
the chances of catastrophic fire danger
with traffic making emergency responses impossible.
Now that the effects of this less formal restoration project,
which is a quote from the words
of the Open Space Foundation are known,
it's time to completely and immediately stop gardening
in the open space and allow the original intent
of near natural to return.
This neighborhood plants the Virginia Court in Sutherland Drive neighborhood plans to
fight and fight to restore our habitat at every level of government to fight for our
rights to have our homes and safety and property values not undermined by the very few people
who do not live in the neighborhood and tend this attractive nuisance which ultimately
leaves the city responsible and exposed for all damages.
We would like to request to be on your agenda for further discussion of this situation at
the next council meeting.
Next speaker, please.
My name is Susan Bomba.
I live at 131 Sutherland Drive.
I've been a resident there for nearly 40 years.
As a newly retired couple in empty nesters, for the first time we are fearful of leaving
our home due to the hordes of people that parade down our street, sit in their cars,
litter on my lawns. I'm also fearful that my homeowner's insurance could be
cancelled once the insurance companies use their satellites to see the lines of
cars and the trails of people in the nearby hills that the newly trails have
been attracting. This restoration project has created tremendous stress in our
neighborhood. There are no sidewalks, there's people up there at night, I've
I've called the city police the non-emergency number.
I've been told not to worry about it.
We've had to ask people not to go to the bathroom,
not to smoke.
I've had to pick up litter, empty cars.
I couldn't get out of my driveway
to drive my daughters to the airport.
I had to get out and physically stop people.
It's gotten completely out of hand.
Because our streets are in the county,
the county is telling me that they can't man it
over the weekends.
They don't have the resources.
It's the city's problem.
The city is telling me because they're county streets,
it's the county's problem.
We would like to be on the agenda to problem solve with you
to protect the serenity of our neighborhood
and to return to our natural habitat,
a safe and quiet neighborhood.
Thank you.
Please, please, no clapping anymore
if you wish to raise your hands like that, please.
Thank you.
Hi, good evening.
My name is Aneena Dawson.
I've been a long-time resident of Walnut Creek over 20 years.
I'm a business owner in this community.
I'm a former board member of the Historical Society
of Walnut Creek, and the reason I'm here tonight
is to very humbly offer my appreciation
for the proclamation that you gave tonight
about Jewish Heritage Month.
I've really been so proud of our city's government
over the last several years that I've lived here
that on issues of social justice,
you all have done the right thing
and really protected the values of this community.
So with sincere gratitude, I thank you tonight.
Honorable members of the city council,
I am the Reverend Leslie Takahashi.
I am a resident of Martinez.
I am also, though, the lead minister
at Mount Diablo Unitarian Universalist Church.
So I spend quite a few hours here in Walnut Creek.
And I want to also say that I am grateful to you
for your proclamation of Honoring Jewish Heritage Week,
And also to say that all of us need to re-commit
to making sure that we do not take for granted
because of a proclamation the need to continue
to be diligent about protecting the rights for all
to live in a city free of hate.
My colleague Rodney Lemry spoke here a couple months ago
against expressions of hatred that have been experienced
by the Jewish community and our Jewish kin.
And we understand that these have continued.
So we want to, again, say that we encourage all community
members, regardless of their faith backgrounds,
to show that Walnut Creek is a city defined by unity, love,
and mutual respect.
And I know there are many in the room with us today
who share this value of embracing love,
and I'd just invite them today, if you share this,
to just raise your hand for one moment
and to invite our Jewish kin to just look around
and to know that you are not alone.
may Walnut Creek be a place and sanctuary
for healing in this broken world.
Thank you.
Next speaker, please.
Hi, my name is Pam Whitman and I'm a resident
of Walnut Creek and I've wanted to write something
about a virus in Walnut Creek.
We all know that when someone has a cold or flu,
that they are not well and we avoid them to prevent us
from getting the same cold or flu.
This is a virus.
We can reduce our chances of getting sick
by using a mask, washing hands,
and distancing ourselves from them.
We all learned this before kindergarten
and had a larger crash course
when COVID affected the world in 2020.
Of course, there are some who think this was not real
and science was wrong.
A computer virus is defined as malicious software
and causing damage to data and software.
The intent is to disrupt systems,
operational issues and result in data loss. Maybe there are some people who
think this is not real. Either way, if you believe it or not, viruses exist. They
search for the vulnerable to infect the host and make copies of itself. It
appears that we've been having a virus at the Walnut Creek City meetings that
keeps trying to look for the right host and make copies of itself to weaken and
disrupt the system. I am sure that we are not the only city the virus has been
trying to infiltrate. Walnut Creek and its neighboring cities work very hard to
protect our communities to stay healthy and strong. We build our communities with
being inclusive to all people. Our immune system has a strong foundation. When we
get viruses it challenges our system. However, we have been getting vaccines to
reduce the impact a virus can have on our system. This virus has affected the
community to respond and in the end our immune system will prevail and become
stronger. We refuse to be a host to this festering virus. We are we are a
community that is ready to wear that mask, wash our hands, and distance
ourselves from viruses. Hey ex-speaker, please. Hello, my name is Christine Donahoe.
I'm a resident of Walnut Creek and I want to read this on behalf of my
neighborhood, our friends, and families. We are writing on behalf of our family
to express our unwavering commitment to fostering an inclusive and welcoming
community here in Walnut Creek. As residents who have deliberately chosen
this city 25 years ago as our home to raise our children, we hold deeply rooted
values of respect, tolerance, and acceptance. In recent times we have
witnessed instances of hate speech that have deeply troubled us. We want to make
it unequivocally clear that such rhetoric has no place in our city nor in
any civilized society. As parents, neighbors, and community members we are
deeply concerned about the impact such messages could have on the well-being
and development of children as well as the fabric of our community. We believe
in the strength of diversity and the power of unity. Our city is enriched by the myriad
of cultures, backgrounds and perspectives that its residents bring. It is the diversity
that makes Walnut Creek a vibrant place to call home and we are committed to preserving
and celebrating it. Therefore, we urge the City Council to take a firm stance against
state speech and to continue promoting policies and initiatives that uphold the principles
of equality, inclusion, and mutual respect. By doing so, we can ensure that Walnut Creek
remains a safe and nurturing environment for all of its residents, both present and future.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter and we stand ready to support any efforts
that promote unity and understanding within our community.
Next speaker please. Hello, my name is Chelsea Wexler. I'm a Walnut Creek resident for
30 plus years. I have a letter here that my husband wrote. We are Jewish, we've
raised our four girls Jewish, our rabbis here, and he wanted me, he's not able to
come so he wanted me to read this to you and this has to do with previous guests
that you've had speak.
Good afternoon, Mayor and City Council.
I apologize for not being personally present
to express my thoughts
on this very important Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Holocaust was real.
I lost my grandfather's four brothers
and their families to the Nazi atrocities.
There is no room in our country, state,
and definitely not in our beautiful city
for such vile sentiment against Jews or anyone else.
I've been a Walnut Creek resident for 40 years
and can proudly report
that this city does not support or stand
for the venomous language spoken by a fringe anti-Semite
that has sullied this chamber.
I can only hope that the Nazi sympathizer
gets the help he clearly needs.
Next speaker please.
Good evening.
My name is Hardy Miller.
I'm a 56 year resident of Walnut Creek.
11 Old North Loop in the city here.
I'm here to speak about the open space.
From the mid-70s, well, first of all,
you've heard reference to the election in 74,
we know about that.
I was involved from the mid-70s to the mid-80s
in the foundation, the R8, and the city council,
park and rec, and managing the open space.
The election, what wasn't said about the election,
which I think is important, it was a community election.
It's like a circle was drawn around Walnut Creek
and like a sphere of influence whether you were a county
resident or a city resident, you voted.
And not only did you vote, once the vote was favorable,
you paid for 30 years.
So my theme here is county residents on this issue
and managing the Walnut Creek open space,
I think they should have standing.
I think their input is important.
And so I'd like to urge you to listen to them
just like you would listen to somebody's city resident.
Thank you very much.
Nice to see you, Hardy.
Next, next speaker, please.
Okay, good evening.
My name is Mary Taylor.
I'm a resident of Walnut Creek.
Previously served on the DEI task force,
currently served on the Chief's Advisory Board.
And I am here to commend the city and the council
for the commitment to DEI.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion is so very, very important.
I understand you've had an agreement with Ready Set
to make sure that it is implemented.
And Christine did such an amazing job of her description,
so I don't need to repeat all of that.
But I just want to say, I appreciate your efforts.
You've taken it seriously, and we look forward
to the results that will come out of it.
Okay, thank you.
Next speaker, please.
Good evening, my name is Susan Hildreth.
I live in Rossmore in Walnut Creek.
And I recently was appointed to the Measure O Oversight
Committee and I was very pleased today to receive an email
telling me that I needed to take my diversity, equity,
and inclusion training.
And I'm happy to do so and I'm echoing Mary Taylor's
sentiments about your commitment,
the city's commitment to inclusivity.
I'm also here speaking in honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day
and your proclamation on Jewish American Heritage Month
I know we are an inclusive community and we do everything we can to defeat anti-Semitism.
I don't need to repeat all these wonderful words, but we are here to make sure that our
community remains inclusive.
Thank you.
Next speaker, please.
Hi.
Good evening.
My name is Annette Ramirez, a local 856 Teamster Union representative.
As you may already know, the Teamsters members which are seated here in the back, our chassis
team of dispatch employees are currently engaged in contract negotiations, and we just want
to respectfully urge that the City recognize the importance of safety dispatch, telecommunications
and the hard work that the Teamsters provide for the City.
We do realize that Police Safety Week has been acknowledged as well as telecommunications,
So we just urge that the city allow us to negotiate a fair contract and fair wages for
our city workers.
Thank you.
Next speaker, please.
Good evening.
My name is Crystal Clark-Briffa.
I'm a resident of Walnut Creek at Virginia Court in Sutherland, right next to the Shell
Ridge open space, and would like to share some recent happenings created by the activities
occurring at this trailhead.
Based on the history of this open space, the original intention was for the space to be
available to Walnut Creek residents. With the recent addition of the native
flowers and poppies, it has now become an attraction nuisance that is causing
many unsafe and hazardous conditions in our neighborhood. The open space area is
supposed to be remaining as close to a natural element as possible. The
volunteers continue to seed, plant, and water flowers on the mountainside. These
activities are not natural. Watering and seeding would be considered gardening.
The open space now acts as a state park within Walnut Creek. On the weekends
alone, thousands of cars are coming blocking fire hydrants and driveways, the
intersection of Virginia Court in Sutherland is like a loading zone. People
are dropping off passengers and can barely turn around because of the
congestion. There are numerous dogs off leashes that run in the streets and
trample through our properties, increased litter on the streets and properties
getting marred because of people parking in their cars and stepping onto the
properties. These activities are not isolated to the weekends, it happens
during the week as well. For the times it has happened during the week we have also
not had our postal service or garbage picked up. There have been people
smoking in the open space and if emergency vehicles needed to get
through it would be quite challenging and may not even fit. The families with
children, me being one of them, cannot even have their kids play in the front
yard because of the number of speeding cars and traffic. There are numerous
other issues caused by this attraction nuisance. We want our voices to be heard
and our concerns to be addressed and have a prompt resolution to this problem.
Thank you.
Next speaker, please.
Good evening. I'm Sherry Goldsmith, been a resident.
I'm Sherry Goldsmith, good evening.
I've been a resident for 24 years.
I'm a graduate of the Walnut Creek Citizenship Program,
and I've been a Bedford Gallery Art docent since 2012,
and I love this city.
I want to commend you for being a council that's full of integrity
and courage and what you have done.
And I wrote something down I want to read to you.
Way back in 1790, George Washington
came to the city of Providence, Rhode Island,
where I happen to have many cousins.
And he wrote and read a letter
to the brand new Jewish community that was there
way back in 1790.
And he reassured us that those who fled
from religious prosecution and tyranny
would have a good life in the new nation,
and that was a magnificent gesture on his part.
And on my father's side,
my daughter is actually fourth generation American.
There's a lot I could say,
but I wanna volunteer my services.
In my 20 years working at media, sadly, I'm no longer there,
but people don't read newspapers very much these days.
But I was at the Contra Costa Times
and I also worked with the LA Daily News
and the Denver Post and the Mercury News
and on and on and on.
And during those years, my function was to create partnerships
and interact with educational curriculum
that is not taught in the schools
and is not in the textbooks.
So all those years, there was always
March Women's History Month, February Black History Month,
Hispanic History Month, Asian American History Month.
Not one time in 20 years was there
an American Jewish heritage,
where the kids actually learned about
the enormous contributions that Jewish Americans
have donated and given so proudly and happily
in medicine, in science, in music.
So I will volunteer my services to help create curriculum.
I've had many partnerships with people like Oracle,
Wells Fargo, you name it, and I would like to help develop a curriculum because if the
kids don't learn it...
Yes, your two minutes are up.
I'm sorry.
...start in elementary school.
Let me just finish this one sentence.
They don't learn it, and it is frightening when I hear people say the youth who are supposed
to be our future leaders.
They're just ignorant about way too many things.
Thank you very much for listening.
Next speaker, please.
Two-minute reminder.
Yeah, right. My name is Evan Smith. I live off of Sutherland Drive. I have a prepared
statement. Perhaps insignificant in the scope of things, I appreciate your attention on
the matter of the Shell Ridge open space. A good deal of work has been done at the Shell
Ridge open space in the name of improvement. So to begin with, I'd like to be clear that
I'm not opposed to the use of the space. I am, on the other hand, opposed to the development
of the space and to the promotion of the development.
As much as I do appreciate the good intention
and the hard work, I'm here to consider
the unintended consequence.
The primary observations that I make,
aside from being an attractive nuisance,
I propose that there is nothing natural
about the natural habitat.
With that in mind, I submit that the Council,
that the development must come to an end.
In short order, return this open space
to its natural habitat.
no more water, no more planting and seeding,
no more trails, and no more fences.
We have allowed the development of the space
and this is having a significant impact on our neighborhood.
It was never like this before.
The traffic is new to the development
and it is simply not acceptable.
Our quiet little neighborhood
has been turned upside down by the traffic.
We have significant concerns about the exposure as well
to entirely new communities.
We are concerned about the safety.
our safety and the safety of our beloved children and our pets we are concerned that the security
of our homes and the property have been compromised as well. Please understand that we take no pleasure
in any of this but we must protect the interests or our interests. We have paid dearly for the
privilege to be here and we simply cannot expect to be uh we cannot be expected to tolerate the
the conditions that have been levied on the neighborhood.
So with that said, we must demand
that development comes to an end in short order.
Oh, I've already read that one, sorry.
Yeah, so, three to four.
Thank you, appreciate it.
It was done with emphasis.
Okay, is there anyone else that needs to speak?
I'm seeing no one coming forward.
So now may we take, we're gonna take a 10-minute break.
So see you after that.
Welcome back.
We're on to the next item
and that would be council member and staff announcements
and report on activities or requests.
Attorney.
Thank you, Madam Mayor.
There were no reportable actions
in closed session this evening.
City Manager.
Yeah, good evening, Dan Buckshi.
Two updates this evening.
One is related to the A3 Mental Health Crisis
Response Program that has been a region-wide approach
for just what it sounds like,
mental health emergent care.
And I wanna highlight that a dashboard is available
that contains a considerable amount of information
about usage of this program,
and it is being very heavily used,
even if we're being a relatively new program.
You can check out the dashboard at cchealth.org.
This is a collaborative effort with the 19 cities
and Contra Costa County.
And just to give you a sense of scale,
the program is now receiving 400 calls a week
and is sending over 50 in-person responses
to teams of clinicians,
sometimes paired with law enforcement
are being dispatched on a weekly basis,
and the average response time is 20 minutes overall,
county-wide 18 minutes for Walnut Creek.
So these are calls that we don't know
where they would have been going otherwise.
They may not have been made,
they may have been going to law enforcement,
or may have been going to a hospital,
but now there is somebody to receive those calls
and to respond in person to help address someone
in a mental health crisis.
Wanted to highlight that,
and then the other thing is that to acknowledge
that this week is municipal clerk's week
and it's the 55th anniversary of that.
So I want to acknowledge the fine work
of our city clerk team.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I'm gonna do Cindy Darling, Mayor Pro Tem.
I'll go first.
So this is a report of the things that have happened.
I did after the last council meeting,
I went to the community choice aggregate statewide meeting
that was down in San Jose.
and as Marin County's, or MCE's representative.
And MCE was proud to receive three separate awards at that
to recognize the work that we have all done
to help our communities with their sustainability
and with equity.
Earth Day, several of us went out
to celebrate Earth Day at Civic Park.
Kevin and the mayor and I were all there
and that was lots of fun.
The League of California Cities,
several of us, I think almost all of us went to that
and heard from Rob Bonta talking about
potential legislative fixes in various and sundry things
that are important to us, and that was good to hear.
The Heather Farm, the gardens at Heather Farm,
the building reopened, and my husband and I
had our wedding venue there 28 years ago,
and so we went down to go check it out
because we were also shopping for wedding venues
for our children, and you know, he's a thrifty man,
I thought that might be good.
But we did discover we went out onto the deck there
and 28 years ago you could see Mount Diablo,
but those trees have grown up.
So you can no longer take the picture that we took
when we had ours.
Many of us were at the author's gala,
celebrating our library.
And then I went to the Walnut Creek Watershed Planning
meeting, they had one here in Walnut Creek,
focusing on different restoration opportunities
within Walnut Creek when the Watershed Council
finishes that report, it will be a good tool
for a lot of the jurisdictions around here
as money becomes available to do wetlands
or other restorations.
It'll be a great way to coordinate that.
And then the last thing is I missed the law enforcement
thing the other week because my daughter and I
went back to the funeral for Tobin Bolter
who was a Walnut Creek Cadet and Pleasant Hill Police Officer
and then went to Ada County and died in the line of duty.
and his wife, Abby, is a longtime friend of ours,
and we first met Tobin.
He was a scrawny little seventh grader with a crew cut,
and the girls were sitting there at the church youth group,
and they saw this really weird guy, like, checking him out,
and then he gets over, and he army crawls across the room,
and he pops up in front of them, and he goes,
hi, I'm Tobin.
And that was the day he decided he was gonna marry Abby,
and so we all miss him terribly.
So, that's it.
Thank you. A few things to report on the League of California Cities had its
annual city leaders summit in Sacramento just after our last meeting. There were
more than 400 elected officials and appointed officials that were there. We
were learning from each other and also advocating with our legislators in
Sacramento on various bills and objectives that we have. One important
item that we discussed numerous times, Council Member Wilk was there as well, was related
to the initiative that has been brought forward by the California Business Roundtable to change
the way we do taxes in the state. And it will go in front of the state Supreme Court tomorrow
for a hearing on whether it will be allowed to make it to the ballot because it is fundamentally
not an amendment to the Constitution, it is a revision. And revisions can't be done by
referendum so we'll see how this turns out in the next 45 days. We had we
attended two sessions I think you were at both of those sessions where they
discussed the impact at the local level if this were to be adopted by the voters
and fundamentally it is catastrophic and we'll continue to have conversations
about that. There was also a press conference on it in the Capitol Park.
Another session that I attended that was really interesting and I look forward to
having a conversation about it first at our housing and community development
subcommittee at the council was related to housing and homelessness and some
innovative solutions for temporary homeless housing that they're doing in
Santa Barbara County and we're looking forward to Hope Village here
but those are also very expensive and they're trying to get it where they can
get temporary housing done in a matter of weeks
for less than a quarter of a million dollars.
And it's been working in Santa Barbara County,
so there may be some good lessons to be had there.
Finally, I will mention, but I will hand it over then
to my colleague, Matt Francois,
who also is a member of the Recycle Smart Board.
We have issued an RFP for a new tenure contract
for collections services at,
well, the collection will come next,
but post-collection services for Recycle Smart.
And we had more than a dozen interested parties
and potential providers attend
the pre-proposal conference.
And this is to secure, ultimately,
the contract for garbage recycling and organic services
for the six entities that are involved in Recycle Smart,
which is Danville, Walnut Creek, the La Marinda communities
and the Contra Costa unincorporated areas
that weave us together.
We'll be worth more than $60 billion.
And so I'm at a billion, million, million.
Ah, well, I like the billion number, but.
And so that will be continuing to work forward
and that would be all.
Maybe I can hand it to Matt and then he can.
Okay, thank you, Mayor.
I, along with you, attended the big band of Rossmore event
on the 17th, which is, was a combination of a big band
from the Rossmore community,
but also from a lot of our local middle schools
and high schools, which each got to perform first,
and then they did an ensemble together,
which was really fun to see and participate in.
very impressive talented young people. One woman was a singer from DVC who I think got a scholarship
to go to the prestigious Berkeley School of Music in Boston. Glad to attend that. I also attended the
board of directors meeting of the Chamber of Commerce and we received a really interesting
update. They had an economic impact study done on the Revel half marathon. That was
the half marathon that didn't happen because it was scheduled for the first weekend of March.
And if you'll recall, it was very stormy that day. And it was supposed to start at the summit
of Mount Diablo and run down to Arbolado Park. But there was snow on the mountain and rain and
winds exceeding 40 miles per hour so it got canceled but most of the people
that had signed up for that half marathon were all were from out of town
they were already in town and they had booked
you know lodging and accommodations and gone out to dinner
and so from that one event the consultant compiled that it raised
over three quarters of a million dollars and they attributed that to the number
of out of town residents that were here for the event and the sponsor
of the event being revel that a lot of serious runners will go because they are sponsoring
that event.
So that was really interesting to hear about and keep in mind in terms of future events
and sports tourism that we can support and promote here in Walnut Creek.
Also I'd be remiss not to mention that June 1st and 2nd is the annual art and wine festival
for the chamber at Heather Farm Park.
That's always a fun event.
There's opportunities to volunteer at various different booths there.
and so looking forward to that coming up on our calendars.
I did attend the Recycle Smart board meeting on the 25th,
and as Council Member Silva mentioned,
we are in the RFP process for post-collection services now.
We do have the opportunity as board members
to tour some of the facilities of the proposers
that have put in bids,
so I'm going to try to take advantage of doing that
to compare and contrast.
We adopted positions on our legislative agenda
and I believe Council Member Silva is on that committee
where essentially requiring and promoting
additional recycling of textiles, propane cylinders,
EV batteries and solar panels.
There will also be additional procurement options
for cities that we want to be watching.
One bill that would give us additional options
and avenues to comply with SB 1383.
So we're strongly supporting that measure.
I did have the opportunity to attend Earth Day
on April 20th here at Civic Park.
And I know that there were activities happening
all throughout the district
and wanted to thank again, Recycle Smart staff
who took time out of their weekends,
including our executive director to attend all those events
in Danville, Lafayette, and Walnut Creek.
That was a fun, fun time.
In listening to you, I realized I did other things too,
so thank you.
Yeah, there were a few.
Did attend the East Bay Division meeting
with my colleagues here and heard from the attorney general,
potentially governor candidate.
And interesting to hear that his strong take
on combating organized retail theft
and the activities that he's doing in his department
to make progress on that.
And then finally, was enjoyed attending
as always our annual author's gala,
raising money for our library foundation
here in Walnut Creek.
Had a great author, lead judge,
Lise Perlman, who wrote a book about the Lindbergh kidnapping.
And very interesting read.
I'm still working my way through it,
but it was a pleasure to meet her
and to celebrate the libraries.
That's my report.
Thank you.
Thank you, Alexa.
Kevin, please.
So I'll round it up.
Well, first, I just wanted to acknowledge and thank
all the speakers that spoke earlier.
It was a diverse view on a variety of different areas,
But it was celebrating diversity and welcoming.
And while a lot of those speakers have already left,
I recognize a lot of them that I didn't recognize.
And it just shows that love defeats hate,
and Walla Creek proves it.
A couple of people mentioned about Holocaust Remembrance
Day, which was yesterday, and a day
to remember the horrors of the Holocaust
and to make sure that we don't make those same mistakes,
to remember the six million Jews and millions of others murdered
by the Nazis.
And we must never forget.
And this is why it's so important that we all stand up against anti-Semitism and hate.
And why everyone who came tonight to speak out against hate is important
for our democracy and our freedom.
And so I am so proud of Walnut Creek and the community around us
that came to show their support tonight.
A couple of my colleagues have talked about some of the things that I did with them.
One of the areas was the Cal Cities Leadership Summit that Councilmember Silva had mentioned.
The other thing that they talked about there that I attended was about public safety.
and there were a couple of very important sessions on that,
including what we can do to combat organized retail theft,
as we heard the Attorney General talk about
in the East Bay as well,
but also some of the modifications
that could potentially be made to Prop 47,
where we are able to take control a little bit more
to ensure that people that commit crimes
have consequences and accountability for them.
So that, along with the Taxpayer Act,
were really two of the biggest things
that came out of that leadership.
something for me. Yes, it was Earth Day, Authors Gala, the same things that we've
heard about. Something I hadn't heard about was First Wednesday, that was, we,
Walnut Creek downtown sponsored that. It was the first Wednesday in May, and it's
going to be in the first Wednesday in August, and if you missed it, it was
amazing. There were thousands of people that were there, it was the largest that I
have ever seen. There, we see Walnut Creek downtown waving hands in the back.
back. It was so many booze, activities for everybody, music, food, drinks, be there in
August. It was incredible. I also want to mention that this Saturday, May 11th, is the
Walnut Creek Aquanauts Celebration of Champions. We've heard a lot about swimming in Aquanauts
over the last couple of months when it comes to Heather Farm, but this is a chance to see
our own worldwide renowned aqua nuts, including the US Olympic team, the one that is looking
at going to the Olympics this summer in Paris, that's going to be at the Heather Farm Swim
Center this Saturday.
So check that out.
And I represent Walnut Creek on the board of directors for County Connection.
So keep an eye out for in the next couple of months, there is going to be the summer
youth pass marketing program which will be coming out for the fall. We'll see more about
that as the time comes. And the last thing I want to mention is I was at the Walnut Creek
Police Department awards and honors along with our mayor this last week and it's truly
something to celebrate the people that keep us safe and the public safety and to catch
the bad guys in Walnut Creek and to make Walnut Creek feel not just that it's a welcoming
community that we've heard about for all these times, but that it's a safe community.
And with that, I was inspired to do my annual ride along, which I did on Friday night, with
Corporal Maury, and it was quite an experience, just being able to see what the police officers
do during their shift on a nightly basis.
Sometimes there's flare-ups and sometimes there isn't.
This happened to be a fairly quiet night, but just to see all that they go through and
the eagle eye in being able to find cars where there's just something not looking quite right
and sure enough turns out there's some issues there or are following up on alarms that are
coming whether it's from churches or homes.
It's incredible and anybody can do a ride along.
Just call the police department and you can schedule a ride along as well.
But it was terrific.
Kudos to the Walnut Creek PD.
You do a great job.
I think everybody that comes to Walnut Creek lives here, works here, plays here, really
appreciates the work that you do.
So thank you, that's my report.
Gosh, we were busy.
I had lots of time at the Contra Costa Transportation Authority where we got a legislative update
and had a presentation about expanded ferry service.
It looks like Hercules has been the one that comes in after Richmond.
I attended, oh, I am the chair of the mayor's conference, so of course I attended it.
We had two presentations, one on what
we have to do about the Bay rise as the things, the ocean,
which affects the Bay, it all comes out,
and it's all going to cost us money.
It was followed closely by an announcement
that they're starting a program about the serious nutrients
in the Bay, which is killing it.
And therefore, we're all going to have
shoulder a lot of expense while we figure out how to fix our water cleaning system,
central sand system, and so I've left that in the hands of our able-bodied city manager
who will make sure that we survive.
Not my job, not my job.
Okay, the Mayor Pertam and I attended the Little League Jamboree.
Yeah, it was fun.
Yeah, it's a big, big gathering of all these baseball teams with kids who have challenges,
coordination and mental, all fascinating.
and they all get together and they all play baseball
and apparently everybody scores a run
no matter what happens.
I attended two committees
for a Contra Costa Transportation Authority.
One was as a substitute for somebody else
and one of the discussions was making CCTA
more known to the community
because here it is doing all the transportation stuff
for our whole county and if I ask somebody,
What is CCTA?
They look at me with this kind of stone face.
I have no idea expression.
So we wanna make ourselves better known.
And for the people who are employees of the city,
they reminded us that our Measure J calendar
needs to be done probably earlier than usual
because they got a lot of busy stuff.
And I wanna be proud of you guys, so please do that.
While I'm talking about transportation,
this morning I was at the redefining mobility extravaganza
where largely we were talking about autonomous vehicles
and how they're going to be entered
into our transportation, including transportation
of goods and people first and last mile.
And let's see, did I get everything?
No.
This year for Memorial Day, we're hoping to have letters
from our citizens or even friends of our citizens,
anybody who has a letter or writes a letter
about somebody they know that was serving our country
and that is no longer with us.
So ask your parents, grandparents, search your closets
and see if you can find those letters
So that we can live real life stories in memorial day and that does it for me
And now we're on to the next item
which is a
seat at the table pilot program
for
Our youth commission ish
All right. Good evening mayor haskew and city council
My name is rendy azzavito and i'm an administrative analyst in the city manager's office
And i'm also staff liaison to the youth leadership commission
and I'm here to discuss the A Seat at the Table pilot program
and the future of youth seats
on the Arts, Pros, and Transportation Commissions.
So first, a little bit of background.
The Youth Leadership Commission was formed in 2017
with input from the Public Education Committee.
Their purpose is to engage the future leaders
of Walnut Creek by encouraging youth
to take an active leadership role.
And each year they select a policy
or service project to complete.
In 2021, they identified a policy project
that initially aimed to lower the voting age
in Walnut Creek, but given the complexities,
they pivoted to adding youth seats on city commissions,
which would still add opportunities for youth input
and engagement here at the city.
They developed their proposal
after doing research of other cities,
and after feedback, or they took it for feedback
to each of the city's commissions,
as well as the public education committee.
After receiving that feedback,
they modified their proposal and presented it
to the city council in August of 2022.
This program, which was dubbed a seat at the table,
is a one-year pilot program to add youth seats
to the arts, pros, and transportation commissions
for high school age students in grades nine through 12.
These commissioners serving in youth seats
have a preferential vote,
which was modeled after the youth seats on school boards.
A preferential vote is an expression of opinion
that's recorded in the minutes,
but it's cast before the official vote
and it does not count towards the outcome.
The commissioners serving in youth seats
must also meet expectations that were set for them,
which are included in your packet as attachment one.
And they were recruited from the public at large
rather than from Youth Leadership Commission
existing members as a way of increasing opportunities
for youth here at the city.
And their staff appointed as opposed to council appointed.
Council did approve that a seat at the table pilot to begin in August of 2022 and shortly
after staff began a recruitment process that included a written application that was modeled
after the applications used for adult members.
They also we also put together a panel interview with members of the Youth Leadership Commission
as well as representatives from each of the arts pros and transportation commissions.
And in all, we had 13 applicants, 12 of whom were invited for interviews, and one who didn't
move forward in the process because they were not in Walnut Creek resident.
And with the recommendation of the Youth Leadership Commission and other panel members, staff
did appoint the following people, and I'll just move from left to right.
On the left is Skye Lamau.
She was at the time a 10th grader at Los Lomas High School and has been serving on the Arts
Commission.
And the center is Angie Yow at the time she was a 9th grader at Northgate High School
and she's been serving on the Transportation Commission.
And on the right is Karlyna Meyer who at the time was in 10th grade at Carondellet High
School and has been serving on the Prose Commission.
These commissioners participated in an onboarding process that was similar to the process used
for adult commissioners and included a commissioner orientation with introduction to the city,
about city departments, guidance on being a commissioner from the city clerk and one
of the staff liaisons to the commissions, Brown Act training from the city attorney's
office and they also participated in ethics training.
So as I mentioned, this was a one year pilot initially set to run from September of 2022
to August of 2023.
It was temporarily extended in order to maintain youth representation while allowing time for
the program to be evaluated and for council to consider the future of these youth seats.
And so the commissioners who were appointed have been serving from fall of 2022 to present.
With the direction of the council, we staff evaluated the program based on the following
criteria.
Is there adequate youth interest?
Did the youth members meet the expectations for attendance and participation that were
set for them?
And do both adult and youth members express a favorable view of the program?
A survey was developed that was sent out to the folks involved with the pilot.
And in all, we had nine adult commissioners, three from each of the participating commissions
respond to the survey, as well as the three staff liaisons, eight youth leadership commissioners,
and three commissioners serving in youth seats.
A summary of the responses as well as charts were included in your packet as attachments
two and three, but the key takeaways are that youth members have met the requirements set for them.
Youth members have had a positive experience in the program and a majority of those surveyed
would like the program to continue, which brings us to the things before you today,
the future of the U-seat and on the city commissions. So, the recommended action is
to discuss and provide direction to staff on the seat at the table pilot program and the future of
of the youth seats on these three commissions
and provide direction on the options
for term length, appointment to the commissions,
and term dates should these youth seats be made permanent.
To that end, I'm gonna walk you through
a few recommendations.
And there's a slide for each of the choices
as well as a summary slide at the end
that I can put up during your deliberation.
These options were presented
to the Youth Leadership Commission for permanent elements.
so their input is provided here.
And on April 16th,
we brought them before the Public Education Committee,
which Mayor Haskew and Council Member Francois
are members of that committee
for their recommendations as well.
So for the options for the future
of the a seat at the table program,
there are three options here before you today.
We could extend the pilot,
extend it two years and hold a new recruitment
and then evaluate the program again in 2026.
Option two would amend the municipal code
to make the seats permanent.
And option three would end the program,
which could be discontinued in June of 2024
or at a date of your choosing
and would excuse current youth members from service.
Given the positive feedback in the survey,
staff is recommending to make these seats permanent
by amending the municipal code.
And when presented to the public education committee,
they also express support for the program
and appreciation for the contributions
for the commissioners serving in youth seats
and supported staff's recommendation
to make them permanent.
Next, for appointment to the commissions,
the three options are to have them be staff-appointed
with input from the Youth Leadership Commission
and adult members of the three commissions.
This was the method that was used during the pilot program
and does not include any council involvement
in the recruitment and appointment.
Option two is that the commissioners be council-appointed
with input from the Youth Leadership Commission
who would recommend candidates for consideration
who would then be interviewed and appointed by council.
Or option three would be council appointed
using the same process as adult commissioners
without Youth Leadership Commission involvement.
So when staff presented this
to the Youth Leadership Commission,
they recommended option one with their thought being
that it would amplify youth representation
by including youth in all aspects
or all parts of the recruitment process.
And they also let us know that they felt
that the opportunity to sit on a panel
with adult members of the commissions
gave them the opportunity to build relationships
with adult commissioners.
Staff did agree with this recommendation
and the Public Education Committee also agreed
with staff appointment with involvement
from the Youth Leadership Commission.
So next is term dates and there are two options here before you.
One is to align with the school year so September through August.
This is aligned with the academic year but is
off cycle from the term dates for used for adult commissioners.
And option two is to align with the calendar year so January through
December. This is on cycle with the adult
commissioner selection process but off cycle with the academic year.
Youth Leadership Commission did discuss this. Some commissioners felt that aligning with the calendar year would help new members appointed to these commissions feel a part of the commission as they would all start at the same time.
But ultimately they recommended it be aligned with the school year in order to help commissioners balance their academic responsibilities and to allow juniors and seniors to have more full terms.
Staff did agree with this option, and the Public Education Committee also agreed with
option one to align with the school year.
And then lastly, in terms of term length, we presented three different options.
The first being a single two-year term where those commissioners would not be able to apply
for a second term.
Option two is a two-year term, but with an option to reapply through a competitive process.
So it would not be an automatic appointment, but instead a competitive process, which is
the current Youth Leadership Commission practice.
And option three is a single term with a maximum length of four years, depending on the commissioner's
age at time of appointment.
The Youth Leadership Commission recommended option two, feeling that a two-year term rather
than a four-year term would allow for more frequent openings on the commission, thereby
increasing opportunities for youth to serve, but that having an option for a second term would
allow personal growth for individuals serving as commissioners. Staff did agree with that
recommendation for option two. And when we presented it to the public education committee,
they were split. So one commissioner or one committee member agreed with the staff and
Youth Leadership Commission's recommendation, feeling that this option would allow the city to
to retain excellent commissioners for a second term,
and based on the competitive application,
would still provide opportunities
for new youth to be appointed.
And the other committee member felt that
because students have such a limited time
to serve on the commission, only those four years,
limiting to one two-year term
would give more students the opportunity
to gain experience as a commissioner.
So in terms of next steps,
If council provides direction to staff
to make these youth seats permanent,
then staff would bring forward municipal code changes
for a council's consideration, introduction,
and adoption at future council meetings,
and would make any necessary amendments
to council and commission handbooks.
So again, the recommended action is to discuss
and provide direction on the future of the youth seats
and to provide direction on the specific program elements
for those permanent seats.
And with that, I will open it up for questions,
and I do have that summary slide next whenever you need it.
Okay, who would like to make a question or a question?
Yes, yeah, please.
Just a question, thanks, Renee, that was great.
I'm just curious, how was the attendance for the meetings
for each of the seat of the table
at the different commission meetings?
So my understanding is that they did,
two of the commissioners did meet the 75%.
one did not. It was on the Transportation Commission. However, they did alert their
staff liaison ahead of time. They were not able to be there due to an emergency situation.
And the Transportation Commission also meets less frequently, so there was kind of fewer
opportunities. So. Right. Yeah, you missed one year below 75 percent. Right. Okay, thank you.
That's my question. Please. So looking through, thank you guys, and I remembered when I was
reporting out what I did. I forgot that I came to talk to the Youth Commission,
which is my favorite thing to do all year long, and tell them what I eat for
breakfast because they always want to know. Going through the charts, it looks
like there was one adult member of the commission who was less than favorable
about it. Do you have any insight into what was going on there? Yeah, so we did
have one member of the Prose Commission who did not support the
continuation of the youth seats. But I did look at their survey response and so
they clarified that it was not about suitability but it was about staff
resources and they felt that it would they would be better spent serving
existing commissioners and commissions. Okay, so it was more that. Okay, alright it
wasn't anything about the kids themselves. Thank you. Thank you, Wendy,
very much for the report and thank you to the Youth Commissioner members who
are participated in getting us started in this journey and helping to
contribute to the successful outcome of the pilot program and for being here
this evening. I have a couple of questions looking at one is to when the
term would be either student school year or calendar year. So if
If it's the school year, the recruitment process would have to occur at the end of the prior
school year.
Do you have a calendar that you can just outline so that we avoid summertime because recruitment
during the summer makes it more difficult for participants?
They can't change their family's summer vacation plans usually.
Yeah.
So typically what we do for the Youth Leadership Commission and what we did for the youth seats
last year is we open recruitment at the kind of right at the end of the school year and
leave it open during the summer and then um the actual interviews and all of that take
place after school is back in session in September literally September.
Does that make it more difficult for the timing to work for the commission meetings it's not
like the city count those the commissions that they're appointed to are not like the
City Council or the Planning Commission or the Design Review Commission which
meet twice a month at a minimum, does that make it harder for them to actually
have enough opportunities during the course of the calendar year or school
year? Well they still do serve an entire year I guess but just from September
through August maybe I'm misunderstanding your question. I guess I
don't I'm trying to ask my make my suggestion in the form of a question I
I wouldn't I'd fail at Jeopardy to the
What happens now if it's an appointment for two years
What happens if someone needs to resign midway through their term?
Is there a process in place for a one-year appointment to fill the vacancy?
Yeah, what does it work the public education we also talked about this at the Public Education Committee?
So we would create a vacancy list
or an eligibility list, I mean, for any vacancies
that arose on the commission.
And have you had any conversation
with the Youth Leadership Commission
and or these appointees on how to extend their education
into their own schools?
How to reach 30, 50, 100 students like them
that might be interested in understanding civics
and local government better as liaisons,
essentially to their peers?
Yeah, I mean each year, so the commissioners
have worked on specific projects
to reach out to different schools.
They're working on a transportation project right now
to help share information about the city
and different transportation options available.
And they also do reach out to their peers
and they are tasked with being representatives
of their peers and I do believe they take that seriously.
And one last question, I think, if I
can read my own handwriting.
How do the, what process or policy
is in place in terms of who's eligible to apply
for these three seats?
For example, a city council member cannot be
a member of a commission, even though it
might look fascinating to spend even more time at City Hall.
But I noticed that are the Youth Leadership Commission members
precluded from being representatives selected
for these positions?
So the positions are subject to the Brown Act requirements.
The Youth Leadership Commission, though, is not.
So I guess technically, they're not a student.
I guess I'm talking about opportunities
for participation.
If you get two jobs, you know,
if there are 18 jobs available
and someone is eligible to have two of them,
then that means there's one person that's potentially not-
Yes, in practice we have said that they had to make a choice
if they applied for both between the two.
Between the Youth Leadership Commission?
Or serving on a youth seat that they would not.
Okay, so we are not appointing
Youth Leadership Commissioners to sit in these seats at the-
Correct. Okay.
Yes. Great, thank you.
Thank you, Mayor.
Anybody else?
All right, I believe it is time for public comment.
Is there anybody who would like to come forward
and make a comment?
You are limited to two minutes.
Perfect.
Well, I just want to say thank you all
for listening to our presentation
and always giving us the time to speak here.
I just want to talk a little bit about what this program has
meant to me.
As I'm entering my third and final year on the Youth
Commission, I've seen this project go from just a few words
on some paper, to being voted on here,
to even interviewing who's now on our commission,
and I think it adds a lot of value,
and especially as we advance our goal
of creating the next leaders
and just trying to make a more civically engaged youth,
this has been really important in sort of extending that.
And also, I love getting my monthly updates on Pickleball.
Not only are they very informative,
but they're very entertaining to me.
So thank you so much for all of your consideration.
Next speaker is B, please.
Hi, my name is William Montgomery.
I'm currently in my first year on the commission.
I'm a senior at the Corollain School in Dublin.
Although I'm a Walnut Creek resident.
And I just want to say, I think my service
in the Youth Leadership Commission has been a great honor
that's been extended to me.
And right now we're working on this project
to increase the education of Walnut Creek Youth
about public transit.
We just recently did a presentation
at Walnut Creek Intermediate on that topic.
And in doing that and in other endeavors,
we've worked with our youth representatives
on the transportation and other commissions
who have also spoken to us
at our Youth Leadership Commission meetings.
And so I think, so I can just say personally
that I think this program is a great asset to the city.
I think, you know, if we pride ourselves
as being a democratic institution, a democratic body,
and I think it's profoundly democratic
that we should have some representation
for a large swath of our population,
our youth population on these civic bodies.
So I speak strongly in favor of these youth seats,
and I think they should be maintained for the future
and in perpetuity.
Thank you.
Next speaker, please.
Hello, everyone.
My name is Julia, and I just wanna say
this is my first year in the commission,
but as I first joined,
because I wanted to make a beneficial impact
on my youth community,
I feel like this is just a really wonderful program
to get our youth engaged with our local government,
because I feel like I know a lot of people
that are very connected with our community,
but this provides a perfect opportunity for these people
to provide their voices and advocate for others.
So I just want to say that I hope to speak in regard
of this program positively and provide high encouragement
to continue this program and motivate connection
through Wanna Creek, thank you.
Next speaker please.
Hi, I'm Renee Joseph.
I'm serving on the Youth Leadership Commission
for my first year and I'm speaking on the behalf
of Keene Patraca who is also on the commission.
For the last two years the seat at the table
has allowed youth to be more involved in our government
and as well as making local government
more accessible to youth.
It is not only necessary to make sure
that our youth has a voice in our government,
but also to ensure that our youth
wants to be involved in our government.
It's an excellent opportunity for us
to have a voice in Walnut Creek,
and I sincerely hope that you continue this program.
Next speaker, please.
Hello, my name is Angie Yao.
I'm a sophomore at Northgate High School,
and I had the amazing opportunity
of serving on the transportation commission.
And I just wanna say that thank you
to the Youth Leadership Commission and the council
for giving me this amazing opportunity.
And I really got to learn a lot about the city
and I really felt like I had a deeper city involvement
through this program.
And I do think that it is important to keep youth voices
as the youth are the ones who are growing up in the city
and who are gonna impact the city in the future.
So it's really important for them
to be more involved in the processes.
And I really enjoyed learning about
a lot of the different programs,
such as like the local roadway safety plan.
And it's really been like fascinating for me too,
as like, I've just gotten my driver's permit,
so I've just been like driving around,
sometimes it'd be like, oh, you know,
there's like the sign that I kind of heard about
in this commission.
And I just really feel like I've been super involved
and more connected to the city through this program.
And I really do hope that it continues.
So thank you so much.
Andrew, can I ask you a question?
Yeah.
Thank you for being here.
service on the Transportation Commission. If you were given the opportunity to
apply for a second term, would you apply for one? Yes, definitely. I really enjoyed
my time, so I would definitely want to apply for a second term. And can you
elaborate a little bit on what a second term would mean in terms of your growth
and experience and education about transportation issues in the city? Yeah, so
I think for like the past two years, I kind of came into the Commission. I knew
about transportation but definitely like not at the point that I am right now I
definitely learn more about different policies like I've mentioned like local
roadway and safety and also like the safe routes to school all those which
really apply to me and I do believe that if I were to like continue I could
definitely I definitely like to learn more about the progress because a lot of
these things are still in progress they haven't been completed and I definitely
I definitely want to learn, like more be more involved as part of the youth and I yeah I want to see the continuation of these projects and see the outcomes. So I think that would be really beneficial to me. Okay, thank you. Thank you.
Next speaker please.
My name is Brendan Moran.
I am the vice chair of the PROS Commission,
and I've been on the Commission for more years
than I can actually name right now.
When I go home, I'll do the math.
So I thought I'd just give you my thoughts on my take
on the Youth Commission,
because I've had experience on the Commission
without our Youth Commissioners and with.
And the experience that I've had,
I'll be completely honest, when it started,
I thought, I don't know how this is gonna all pan out,
and I have been in the past two years,
extremely impressed with my experience
with Commissioner Meyer, who's not here.
Shout out Carlina.
They've been prepared, knowledgeable, confident.
Councilmember Wilk, she was probably here more than I was.
And so I support the Youth Commission continuing.
And just also as a kind of a 30,000 foot view,
we need to build the bench civically
because there's a lot of people that show up
to city council meetings
when things get a little hairy, right?
And we get a lot of support.
We need people that are gonna be here when it's boring
and they want to have a seat at the table
and be involved civically.
And this is a great example of that.
And I think we should support it.
The last thing I'll say is, you know, I was this young adult when I was in high school,
and I'm sure a lot of you guys probably were, too.
And I had to resign myself as president of the student body with what color confetti
we were going to have at the senior prom.
While these guys get to voice their opinions on multi-million dollar projects, and I think
that's really, really special, and we should continue it, and so I support it.
Thank you very much.
Boring?
not you. Is there any more public comment? I see none so let's bring it back to
council. Do we have any more questions and or comments? Who would like to go first?
Yes, I'm in comment mode. I just want to say I am so glad this has worked out. I
know when I was on the Education Committee at first came forward to it. I thought,
well, you know, but I was really eager to see how it would work and I'm really
happy that it's worked out. I think I am ready to support the recommendations from
the Youth Leadership Commission on this one and keep a seat at the table for you
guys. I think you've really done a great job. No, I mean this is terrific and when
we when we voted to approve a pilot program this was exactly the outcome
that we were hoping for and the fact that we're yes there is an option there
of just ending it, but it sounds like we're all very positive about this. So it's, it's more about
this is great. How are we going to enhance this and what kind of changes modifications we make to
it? So I'm really thrilled. I knew, I knew it was going to be positive and people were going to
enjoy it and I can get a lot out of it as well. So I'm so glad that that's the case. Matt?
Yeah, I too am thrilled with the progress. I commend the Youth Leadership Commission for the
diligence that it took two years ago, three years ago. All the research, all the homework that you
did that went into this when it was presented by your predecessors and now you are the beneficiaries
of it as all of us are. So I do support the recommendations of the Youth Leadership Commission
in staff. I opted for the two-year term with an option to reapply and I still believe in that.
I think it's consistent with what we do with our youth leadership commissioner. It's not an
automatic. They have to kind of show up and participate and do a good job and I think
that's been the case with all our current commissioners and I think listening to
Commissioner Yao too and her explanation of that. These a lot of these issues are still in progress
which I fully we deal with a lot of those boring issues that are still in progress and it takes a
while to work through them and to kind of to reach the other side and so it'd be nice to kind
of see the completion of something that doesn't necessarily get done in a two-year term. So I am
supportive of the youth leadership and staff recommendation and just and I appreciated
council member Silva's question about how do we expand the outreach and I think one of the youth
Commissioner spoke about a presentation they gave to WCI and if there were more opportunities
for the Youth Leadership Commission to do things like that and each of our youth representatives
I think that would be a really good thing.
I didn't actually talk about the different recommendations here and I think for the most
part I am aligned with what staff and the public education committee came down with.
I think aligning with the school year makes perfect sense.
appointing with the Youth Commission involved in the interview process, again, perfect sense,
I'm on the fence with the term length. And it's not because I don't think there's more value out
of four years than two, and there is. And it's encouraging to hear that, yes, of course I'd
reapply for two. But if, but the counter of that is, if this is an opportunity for use to have this
chance to have a seat at the table of commissions, and we only have three commissions, then that
theoretically means that over the course of four years there'll be three students in Walnut Creek
and only three students that have that opportunity. Yes there are reappointments to the Youth
Commission but there are what 14-15 students to that and they're constantly rotating off because
they're graduating so there are more opportunities there and I just feel that while that's fantastic
that they would want to be able to reapply.
Are we missing an opportunity to double the amount
of students that can experience that kind of opportunity?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, everyone, for your presentations
and your thoughtful remarks.
I think what this program proves over the last two years
that good work yields good results
and that evaluation is the way to get to enhancement.
I agree with the recommendations that have come forward, but I err on the how many terms
you can have to the one term for exactly the reason that Councilmember Wilk said this.
It's because it is an opportunity to double the impact, to double the number of students
who can participate.
It does not mean, however, that the Commissioner Yao, that you wouldn't be able to come back
and participate from the seat you're sitting in now.
You wouldn't be able to sit up here, but you could follow a project as long as you wanted
to.
And that's what the value to the public is.
But I think we have to weigh the benefit of the greater number of people that can participate
because it's a limited number of seats that are available.
Yeah, I just wanted to make clear.
So when I said I'm in favor of the Youth Leadership Commission, I think I am willing to defer
to them on the issue of whether or not, how you get the greater benefit, whether or not
you allow one youth commissioner the opportunity to come back and give more, or if you give
the opportunity to two separate commissioners.
So I am in favor of the two-year term with the option to reapply for the second term.
There's a trade-off there, and I'm willing to defer to the Youth Leadership Commission
who understand, you know, thought about this deeply.
Well, if anybody did the math, they know I'm the one that didn't vote them.
And we spent a fair amount of time talking about it.
And I still think that part of this is to give as many youth as possible the chance
to have the opportunity to participate.
And as Council Member Silva said, you ain't getting off the hook just because you're not
sitting on this side of the thing.
You can continue to follow up.
And I think we still have an obligation to make it as available to as many students as
possible.
So I like the two-year term, if, you know, I could get really nasty and say, now, one-year
term and then we need four people instead of one, I like the two-year term.
But I think just having somebody who starts in their freshman year technically is the
only person that can have four years.
If you start in your junior year, you can only have two years anyhow.
So we're not really, really cheating that many people out of an opportunity.
So I'm with the two years, but one time, no re-up.
Everything else is wonderful.
Thank you all.
Yes, you all have all the youth commissioners
and all the people who were on the commissions as well
did a great job and made us very proud of you.
So can I have a point of clarification of staff?
Sure, of course you can.
If the votes go the way I think they may,
would our current representatives on the commission
who would have served their two years essentially,
would they be eligible to apply
to be on the Youth Leadership Commission.
Yes, I would.
Okay.
And before we vote, I'd just point out
that two of the three would really only have
one more year left to serve in this particular instance.
And of course, we could always expand the program
to the DRC and the Planning Commission
and give additional opportunities
for members of our youth community to serve.
I have an actual technical question.
So if you only have, if we were to,
If someone's interested in applying,
but they only have one year available on their,
they're going to be a senior, they only get one year.
Yes, they would be able to apply,
but it would only be for one year.
And so do you, when you apply,
do you have to make to the best of your ability
the two-year commitment?
You can't apply knowing you can't serve for the two years?
We have not made that requirement.
We've allowed people who are going to be seniors apply
to have that opportunity.
So I'm willing to make a motion, but I'll cut this
and I'll do this fine with me.
I make a motion that we make the youth seats
on the arts transportation and prose commissions permanent
and amend the municipal code to make those seats permanent,
that we make these two year terms,
but I'm not going to make a motion
that includes the option to reapply
that they are appointed, they are staff appointed
with the involvement of the Youth Leadership Commission
and the interview process and recommendation
and that the term dates are aligned with the school year
so that recruitment occurs in the later portion
of the previous school year so that they're ready to go.
May I have a second?
Second.
Thank you.
All right, may I have a roll call vote?
Council Member Silva.
Aye.
Council Member Francois.
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Darlene.
I.
Mayor Haskew.
I.
Motion carries unanimously.
So I will make the motion that we limit
the seat at the table program to one two year term
in order to ensure that more of our youth
and the community are able to participate in the program.
And I will second that.
May I have a point of clarification?
Didn't we just take,
what's the difference between the first motion
and this motion?
Only one, only one, they're two year terms,
but only eligible for one.
I see.
Sorry, if that wasn't clear, I won't remake the motion,
but fix it on the minutes.
Anybody have an opinion about whether I thought,
I thought it was a separate one?
Yes, yes, all right.
May I have a roll call vote?
Cause I think I have a, I know I was a second,
so may I have a roll call vote?
Council Member Silva?
Aye.
Mayor Haskew?
Aye.
Council Member Francois?
Aye.
Council Member Will?
Aye.
No, motion carries four to one.
Thank you very much.
And we appreciate all the work you've done
and it's great to see you and enjoy your next year.
And for those of graduating have fun in college.
Okay, thank you.
We're on to our next item and I have some,
I wanna take a moment to explain the process
public hearing item number 6a in order for the city to levy assessments to the downtown
walnut creek business improvement district and the downtown walnut creek south business
improvement district the city council must first conduct a public hearing which must
hear and consider all protests against the levy of the assessments if written protests
are received from owners of businesses in the proposed area which will pay fifty cents
or more of the assessment proposed to be levied, no further proceedings to levy the assessment
shall be taken for a period of one year from the date of the finding of the majority protest
by the City Council. If there is no majority protest, then the Council may adopt the resolutions
confirming the assessment report submitted. Written protests must be received by the city clerk at or
before the time fix for the public hearing which is that today or next week next time it's today
at this time we now open the public hearing for item number 6a for downtown walnut creek
business improvement district bid and the and the downtown walnut creek self-business improvement
bid s bid i invite anybody with an undelivered written protest to present it to the city clerk
immediately. No further protests will be accepted and while we're waiting for any protests may we
have a presentation. Good evening honorable mayor and city council Angela Sway economic development
manager. As Mayor Haskew explained this is the annual renewal of the downtown bid and S-BID.
The annual bid and S-BID assessment renewal is a two-step process. The first meeting was held
on April 16th, at which time WCD presented its annual reports and proposed budget for
fiscal year 2025. Tonight is the second meeting and serves as the public hearing.
I'm happy to answer any questions and I have representatives from WCD here as well. Thank you.
Thank you. Are the represented, nobody's handed anything in, correct? Then we can move on. Is there
any comments or questions from the council? Is there any public comment? Then
we move on to the next step. I was in front of me. Okay, let me try this. I moved
to adopt the resolution confirming the downtown Walnut Creek Business
Improvement District bid annual assessment report for FY 2325 and
levying annual assessment for FY24-25
and adopt the resolution.
Confirming the Downtown Walnut Creek South Bid
annual assessment report for FY2023-2025
and levying the annual assessment
for fiscal year 2024 and 2025.
Second.
Okay, may I have a roll call vote, please?
Mayor Pro Tem Darlene.
Aye.
Council Member Wilk.
Aye.
Council Member Francois.
Aye.
Council Member Silva.
Aye.
Mayor Haskew.
Aye.
Motion carries unanimously.
We're going to have a five-minute break now.
We'll see you again at 8.15.
Ready?
No.
Okay.
Before we start this next item, I've got to ask the council if there were any party contacts.
Anybody have a conversation with these people?
Starting with Cindy Darling.
Well, I was on the sub-committee, so I had many conversations with these people.
Got it.
Cindy Silva.
Ditto.
Okay.
I have met them.
Oh, good.
Did you talk?
I'm not on the committee, but we briefly discussed some of the projects.
Did you talk about a potential item?
We talked about the item that is up for consideration.
Thank you.
And Matt?
two uh met with the applicant's representatives and had general discussions about the project
and the progress. I did too um so we've all met all the appropriate people and now would you please
take over. Yes thank you. Thank you. Good evening uh mayor and council members my name is Darren
Neufeld. I will present on the proposed mixed use special districts. The applicant the applicant
and Toyota Walnut Creek is seeking to create a new mixed use special district overlay shown
here in gold to the current Auto Sales Service and Custom Manufacturing or ASCM district
in the North Downtown specific plan area.
In addition to the automobile uses currently allowed at the sites, which are within one
half mile of the Walnut Creek barge station, the new mixed use special district would allow
for potential mixed uses, including office, multifamily residential, hotel, and or other
compatible non-residential uses.
The applicant would be required to enhance operations of its current auto sales, service,
and ancillary uses through construction of a new auto sales and service facility located
within the mixed use special district area.
To do so, the applicant is seeking amendments to the Walnut Creek General Plan, North Downtown
specific plan, municipal code, and approval of a development agreement.
This proposal seeks to advance the vision for the north downtown and facilitate the
enhancement and long-term viability of the Toyota Walnut Creek dealership by allowing
for redevelopment of land within the mixed use special district with other potential
new uses.
The new mixed-use special district overlay would set forth permitted uses as well as
the specific development standards and design guidelines that would govern future development
of projects within the district.
There is no specific development proposal at this time.
In exchange for legislative changes and approval of a development agreement, the applicant
or future developers would be required to provide benefits to ensure development certainty.
These include a full service auto dealership, multi-use pathways, and affordable housing
above inclusionary housing ordinance requirements for a total of 12% affordable housing.
The City Council is being asked to consider and certify the Supplemental Environmental
Impact Report, or SEIR, and to approve the requested mixed-use special district, amendments
to the general plan, North Downtown specific plan, zoning, and a development agreement.
On October 15, 2019, City Council adopted the North Downtown specific plan to guide
the development of a vibrant mixed use district with residential, commercial office, retail,
restaurant, civic, hospitality, arts, auto sales and service, and entertainment uses.
On February 16, 2021, City Council considered a request by applicant Toyota Walnut Creek
to proceed with an application for a potential general plan amendment that would authorize
multifamily residential, hotel, office, and or other compatible non-residential uses
in the ASCM general plan land use designation as part of the mixed use special district
overlay.
On May 18, 2021, a joint public meeting with the City Council, Planning Commission, Design
Review Commission and Transportation Commission was held to introduce the proposed legislative
amendments and commence conversations between the City's advisory and decision-making bodies
and the applicant with the intent of refining the focus and direction of the proposed General
Plan, North Downtown's Pacific Plan and zoning changes.
No formal action was taken.
Public review of the supplemental EIR was conducted in summer of 2023, and two public
comments were received during the required 45-day public review period.
Throughout the process, the Ad Hoc Committee met to discuss the project.
At its April 11, 2024 meeting, the Planning Commission recommended to Council to certify
the supplemental EIR and adopt CEQA findings, adopt the general plan, specific plan and
zoning amendments, and approve the development agreement.
The North Downtown Specific Plan envisions the area's evolution into one with vibrant,
mixed uses with integrated residential, commercial office, retail, restaurant, civic, hospitality,
arts and entertainment uses, while continuing to be an important job center and location
for automobile sales and service.
Among the goals of the North Downtown specific plan is to harness and direct market demand
for more urbanized development near the Walnut Creek Bart station, while also preserving
and enhancing the strong sales tax base in the area, especially the auto sales and service
uses which are concentrated within the plan area.
Additionally, the North Downtown specific plan seeks to protect and enhance the existing
jobs and auto sales and service industry in the plan area, including promoting new, urban
showroom designs for auto dealers, dealerships looking to redevelop their properties.
By way of background, the North Downtown Pacific Plan currently has two special districts,
an arts district, shown here in red, and Makers Row, shown in blue, which are intended to
create opportunities for handcrafted manufacturing, including brewing, ceramics, jewelry making,
shared technology and tool space. The proposed mixed use special district overlay would become
the third special district in the plan area which is indicated here in purple. The proposed mixed
use special district is 6.2 acres located on sites A, B, and C, approximately one half mile
from the Walnut Creek BART station. It is generally bounded by North Main Street to the west,
Pine Street to the North, Civic Drive to the East, and Ignacio Valley Road to the South.
It consists of a total of 10 parcels, referred to as 2100 North Main, which is Site A,
2150 North Broadway, Site B, and 2100 North Broadway, Site C, and is located entirely within
the boundaries of the North Downtown specific plan. The applicant also leases land at Site D,
where they operate the current dealership and site E at 1435 Pine Street within the boundaries
of the North Downtown Pacific Plan area that is near but outside of the proposed mixed use
special district on sites A, B, and C. The mixed use special district is intended to provide
opportunities to maintain and enhance auto sales service and related ancillary uses in a transit
rich urban environment by creating opportunities for more intense mixed use development.
The project site location in proximity to BART is ideally suited for the development
of a larger mix of uses.
This would enable redevelopment by facilitating the future development of a more intense multifamily
residential, hotel, and or other compatible non-residential uses at the project site.
The amendment to the North Downtown specific plan area would include additional Florida
area or FAR.
However, for 100% residential buildings in the mixed use special district, FAR does not
apply.
Rather, buildings would be subject to a maximum density of 107 dwelling units per acre.
Under any development scenario, the maximum total residential units analyzed for the mixed
use special district would be 658 using the base density.
By way of background, the city's base inclusionary housing ordinance requires either 10% low income or 6% very low income housing units
to be built along with market rate units.
The development agreement requires 12% of the units need to be affordable to low and very low income households, which provides a blended
percentage in which 9.6 percent of the units being affordable to low-income households
and 2.4 percent of the units being affordable to very low-income households.
If affordable units are constructed with market-rate units as an integrated development, the unit
mix, that is the number of bedrooms per unit, of the affordable unit shall be the same proportion
as the unit mix for the market rate units.
If only standalone affordable units are proposed,
that is market rate units will not be integrated
with standalone units,
then there is no unit mix requirement.
Under no circumstances, however,
shall the standalone affordable units
be single room occupancy units.
The standalone affordable unit must be comprised
of a mix of studios, one bedroom, and two bedroom units.
The next will be no more than 50% for studios, at least 10% one bedroom and at least 10%
two bedroom units.
Each unit must be at least 350 square feet.
The development agreement also requires an affordable housing payment.
That can be offset if more than 12% affordable units are being constructed.
The project would exceed the current inclusionary housing requirements in accordance with the
including inclusionary housing ordinance any voluntary affordable units
that is excess units above the 12% required constructed as part of the
project are subject to the inclusionary zoning credit transfer transfer
provisions for purposes of other housing developments constructed within the city.
State density bonus if pursued in the future for the mixed use special
district could allow additional units as well as allow heights greater than the
maximum allowed by Measure A, which limits heights within the city. The
proposed 12% affordable units can be used to create additional density and
other reduction of standards. However, through the development agreement and
recognizing the importance of Measure A, the applicant has agreed to limit maximum
building height, if density bonus is utilized to 89 feet.
The graphic on the right shows the maximum 89-foot height with the green bar.
For comparison, this is below the height of California Plaza, which is 158 feet, and what
could be achieved in theory utilizing the density bonus for this project, which is 18
stories.
Without limiting the number of incentives or concessions as authorized under state density
bonus law for an application for a subsequent approval within the mixed use special district.
The city would grant an additional two incentives and or concessions to be applied at the developer's
election within the mixed use special district. Incentives and or concessions include things
like increased density, a reduction in site development standards, such as a reduction
in setback or minimum square footage or other regulatory incentives or concessions, for
example, special parking requirements.
The North Downtown Specific Plan includes a proposed east-west multimodal path along
several of the parcels in the proposed district, as noted on the right.
The development agreement provides for dedication of a public trail easement located along the
southern edge of site A. When a development project comes forward, the pathway would be
constructed by the developer. The easement area must be 16 feet in width for at least 80% of the
length and evenly divided between hardscape pathway and landscape areas. The pathway cannot
be less than eight feet wide. If the developer acquires ownership of site D or has entered into
a purchase agreement to acquire all of Site D, then a public trail easement eight feet
wide will be dedicated for future improved pathway along the southern edge of Site C.
If the developer does not convey the Site C pathway easement, then the developer of
the auto dealership shall pay the city $500,000.
The city may use the money at its discretion towards the cost of providing a pedestrian
connection between the Iron Horse Trail shown here in the solid green line on the right
and the North Downtown specific plan area.
The development agreement has an initial period of 10 years with the ability to extend for
another 5 years.
A full service dealership needs to be developed with a minimum building area of 45,000 square
feet for auto sales, services and ancillary uses.
The dealership must be located on sites A or B, or can be constructed in part on site
D if it can be acquired.
As mentioned previously, a pathway would be dedicated and constructed at the southern
end of site A, and a pathway easement would be dedicated on site C if site D is acquired
for auto uses.
If a multifamily housing development is proposed to be built, 12% affordable housing would
be constructed, which is above the city's inclusionary housing ordinance.
The developer will also pay the city $450,000 to be used for the city by the city for affordable
housing programs.
Environmental impacts associated with the development of the North Downtown Specific
Plan were previously evaluated in the North Downtown Specific Plan EIR, which was adopted
by the City Council in October of 2019.
The EIR analyzed the impacts of this specific plan, which resulted in impacts to air quality,
greenhouse gas emissions, noise, hazards and hazardous materials, and traffic.
Of these, traffic impacts were significant and unavoidable, primarily based on level
of service and impacts to Caltrans freeway segments.
The rest of the impacts were mitigated to less than significant.
The supplemental EIR for the Mixed Use Special District was prepared to analyze the changes
to the North Downtown specific plan EIR associated with the redevelopment of sites A through
E by the applicant.
Although no specific development proposal is being made, the proposed district would
allow for additional and more intensely developed uses and redevelopment of sites within the
district.
The mixed use special district and redevelopment of sites D and E would not result in any new
or more significant impacts than were already analyzed in the North Downtown specific plan
EIR.
There is no specific project proposed at this time.
Because there is not a specific development proposal, various scenarios were developed
in order to study a reasonable possibility of future development and to study the environmental
impacts of the proposal.
In each of the three scenarios detailed on the following slides, a full service dealership
would be developed along with other possible uses.
Any future development must fit within the envelope of what was studied in this SEIR
and comply with the maximum number of use types indicated in the scenarios below.
These three scenarios do not represent or limit how actual subsequent developments can
take place. Rather, they were developed based on a reasonable and most comprehensive scenario
of what might occur in the future within the Mixed Use Special District.
All scenarios include auto sales and service of 142,094 square feet and 40,564 square feet
of office. Scenario 1 has an office emphasis with roughly 473,000 square feet of additional
office that could be developed, resulting in a total of approximately 514,000 square
feet of office space. Scenario 2 includes a mix of multifamily residential and hotel
uses with 132 multifamily dwelling units and 723 hotel rooms.
Scenario three emphasizes multifamily residential with a total studied of 658 multifamily residential
units.
Scenario three reflects the most impactful scenario for almost all environmental topic
areas under CEQA.
Where scenarios 1 and 2 represent the most impacts on a particular issue area, those
were evaluated in the SEIR.
The use of these scenarios ensures that the SEIR provides a conservative analysis and
enough information so that decision makers and the public understand potential environmental
impacts and consequences of the proposed project.
Other impacts from the project were potentially significant.
The SEIR identifies mitigation measures to reduce those impacts to less than significant.
All of the impacts from this project can be mitigated to less than significant.
There are no statement of overriding considerations for this project.
The issue areas on this slide are those with potentially significant impacts that can be
mitigated below significant.
other issue areas were either less than significant or were not impacted by the project.
The SEIR was circulated on June 30th, 2023 and the city received two comments before
the end of the 45-day public review period. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife
recommended modifying the project's mitigation measures to roosting bats. The city was amenable
made a minor modification to this mitigation measure. If bats are excluded from structures
during construction, bat houses shall be installed adjacent or as close as possible
to the structures to provide roosting habitat. And the East Bay Municipal Utility District noted
that the project requires a water supply assessment and commented on the SCIR's notice of preparation.
The water supply assessment was completed and returned to the City in February of 2023.
The project would be subject to applicable regulations of the East Bay Municipal Utility
District. Staff is here today before City Council seeking several actions. Specifically,
staff recommends that Council adopt a resolution certifying the Supplemental
Environmental Impact Report, including adoption of relevant findings and the
mitigation monitoring and reporting program, adopt a resolution approving
amendments to the general plan and North Downtown specific plan to provide for
the new mixed use special district, introduce and waive reading of an
ordinance amending title 10 planning and zoning of the Walnut Creek municipal
code and the zoning map for the creation of the mixed use special district
overlay inclusive of amendments to the zoning map and introduced in wave reading of an ordinance
making findings and approving a development agreement between the city and toyota walnut
creek property holdings llc this concludes staff's presentation and we are available for questions
do I see a hand? Yes, I do. Councilmember Francois. Thank you, mayor. Thank you,
Darren. Great staff report. Very comprehensive with a lot of attachments and also nice PowerPoint.
In terms of the dealership, I know that's one of the key development agreement terms is a commitment
to a full service auto dealership. I think you touched on it what the potential location would
could be on one of several parcels, is it?
Yeah, for the development agreement,
sites A, B, and C.
There are others, Claire,
I don't know if you want to clarify.
I know that there are some other requirements
in that what can be built on sites as well.
It's most likely to be on A,
it could be on C,
on site D, which Toyota Walnut Creek leases right now,
doesn't own. If they actually obtain ownership interest in site D then it
could go on site D as well. Okay so A, C, or D. If they acquired D. If they acquired
D. That's correct. And then in terms of the size. You might get clarification there couldn't it
be also it could be on site B as well. It just it has to be in the North
downtown specific plan area on property they own and control. It could be but it
would likely require them to have acquired D
for that to happen because B may not be big enough for it.
Oh, we'll let them figure that out.
And then in terms of the current size,
is it, I know that I saw the reference to 142,094
is what's committed to in the agreement.
Is that comparable to what's there now or bigger?
Now, the current uses on site D and E
are 24,001 square feet.
And the proposed site, the proposed dealership is 45,000 square feet.
And that's based on, and the applicant can speak to this, but that's based on current
kind of market comparables for urban dealerships.
Okay, I'll ask the applicant about that one.
There was a reference in the staff report to the commercial linkage fee, and I looked
to the ordinance and I think I've figured out
what's happening there, which is a commitment to,
just so looking for confirmation that it's a commitment
to pay a certain amount for a commercial linkage fee
that would, and it would be the fee in effect
for a period of five years.
And if the project is a mixed use project,
which under our code would be treated as residential
and pay the, and have to comply
with affordable housing requirements for residential,
then it wouldn't pay the commercial linkage fee?
Well, let me take a look.
I wanna look at one thing because the wording
in the development agreement is that they pay
the commercial linkage fee for the non-residential uses
at 125%, but if they're meeting
their affordable housing requirement,
they're essentially offsetting that obligation
that is the intent of the commercial linkages.
I guess the thing that held me up in the staff report
was it said they'd had five years
to apply for an exemption,
and I didn't understand what that referred to,
and I think it refers to if that building
were to be mixed use, is that right?
Let me take a look at that.
Okay.
And then, let's see, I think the only other one I have
for now is on the height limit.
I didn't see a reference in the staff report,
but the agreement would be if they went
density bonus route, it would be a higher height limit than is allowed by Measure A,
but that they would be entitled to under the density bonus law capped at 89 feet.
Correct.
And what is the height limit now on those parcels?
For sites A, B, C, D, or sorry, the northern portion of site A is 35 feet, sites B and
C is 35 feet.
southern most and the majority of site a is 50 feet all right thank you those
were my questions for now anyone else okay thank you very much for the report
the just to affirm I was on the ad hoc committee but there there were so many
meetings that some days you just you know the legislative amendments that
we're going to make in terms of the zoning the general plan amendment and
specific plan amendments to basically create the mixed use special district
overlay really apply only to those parcels A, B and C. Correct. But the
environmental reviewed the other two parcels included into it including the
development capacity of the sites D and E as well. Yes, sites D and E were included
in the analysis assuming everything on-site D and E would be demolished and
and potentially rebuilt with no net new.
With no access to the development intensity
that was afforded through the mixed use special district?
Correct.
Because that would have to be done legislated
at the least separately.
Yeah, sites D and E will retain the ASCM land uses
and whatever's allowed under those land uses.
Okay, thank you.
Just a quick question on,
and thank you very much for the report.
So would this go towards our arena numbers?
Is this part of that?
So yes, it will count towards our arena obligation.
No, it was not included as a site in the housing element.
So these are additional units that will count
towards our arena obligations.
For right now, that's what I have, thanks.
And I have swum in so many details surrounding this project
and I think that was an excellent summary
and I am happy, no questions.
Thank you.
I don't have a question either
so we're moving on now to, I believe the applicant.
Good evening, Mayor Haskew, council members.
My name is David Bowlby and I'm speaking
as one of the speakers on behalf of Toyota
and I'll have to just pause for one moment
and say a tremendous thank you to the staff
and all the time and effort that has been put into this.
And I noticed the timeline,
it's actually been a little over three and a half years
that we've been working on this,
and I really want to acknowledge the effort and time
that staff has put in, and in particular,
the last part of this, Erica and her staff,
it's just been phenomenal the work that they have done.
I also want to thank the two ad hoc committee members, too,
Council Member Silva and Council Member Darling, too,
for their efforts and time that they put in
above and beyond, so thank you very much.
And I also tonight want to introduce Nick Price,
who is with us and he's the CEO
of the Price Family Dealerships and Organizations,
and they're an owner of Toyota Walnut Creek,
and he's also the managing manager
on the board of directors, which is basically a term
they use, but he is a director of the board of directors, and he's here with us tonight,
and they have made a tremendous investment in our community.
And we also have Stephen Scanlon, who will be presenting with me this evening to talk
further a little bit more about Toyota.
I want to also pause for a moment, and I normally don't do this at all.
I am a consultant, but this is a very unique process, so therefore it's a unique presentation.
And I want to acknowledge and thank the city for the opportunity to sort of step outside
of the box and see how we could be creative in a way to retain a very long standing commitment.
Now I'm stuck because I'm waiting for their presentation is that ours?
Yes.
Sorry, I'm going to pause it here.
I think that's anyways, I'm gonna let you guys get our presentation up as I continue
speaking.
there's a long-standing commitment of Toyota here and I too felt compelled to
want to speak because I think this was unique and my commitment to this
community and this is something that we can all be very proud of.
I'm sorry we don't have the PowerPoint presentation.
Can we stop that timer?
And like I said this is going to be a very unique process, we don't normally do this.
take care of that. Yeah now I hopefully it's not my responsibility to entertain
at this point. I don't have well I could talk but well wait you know if worse
comes to worse we can move on because I don't I don't want to hold the meeting
up either. This is rare. Oh it is like I said Madam Mayor everything has been
it's it's been a very like I said a very unique process and you know it's
normally we do our project, we come forward and we move it ahead.
So what we can do is, I really don't want to delay, I mean we have, it actually is a
really good presentation and it's kind of cool, but I also don't, you know, no I am.
You know what we could do?
We could run the Planning Commission one.
Can we just pull that up and no I really, honestly.
I, is, yeah, we can just, should we just do it?
No, from Planning Commission.
I'm sorry, Madam Mayor.
Again, I'm trying to entertain folks.
I really, what does one do?
I'm, and the camera's rolling, oh my gosh.
Well, we had to, we didn't know.
Yeah, PF should work, yeah.
There we go.
Don't go there with, yeah.
All right, let's get back on track.
And I get it, and I compose myself.
Yes, there we go.
Can we get rid of the extemporaneous stuff,
make it just a full screen on it?
I mean, if not, that's fine, we can, there we go.
All right, well, thank you, thank you very much.
So what I wanted to do is just do a quick brief history
of the dealership itself.
And I thought it was kind of fun to pull up in 1939.
and the outline there is the dealership.
And that's what this site looked like,
what we were talking about this evening,
that Toyota owns.
And then you can see our community has definitely changed.
Fast forward to when the dealership was built.
And again, we've got the outline there
of where the current dealership is.
And what's really interesting during this time,
because the dealership, that's when it basically opened,
but it was being built and what have you.
So on May 21st, 1973, BART opened up,
and we have our dealership.
And you can see there, we have the courthouse,
we all can recognize it, where the post office is,
and the small industrial condos that are adjacent
to the southern end of the larger parcel there,
that they were still there.
And 680 was opened up in the late 1950s,
and a March of 1960, Southbound, South Main,
was opened up on 680.
Let's look at present day.
And what you can see here is vastly changed.
We've become more urban, yet we are still
a suburban community with the various other aspects of us.
But you can see how we've developed into a more urban area.
And yes, we still have the courthouse there.
We still have the post office.
But you can see the Breo, which is over there in the corner.
I think some of you are on the council
when that project went through.
We have Cal Plaza, the residence in the transit village.
And we've got Civic Park,
which is just right across the way too.
So you can see we've definitely in 50 years
from when the dealership was there, we have much grown.
What I wanna do really quick is
I'm gonna give you a quick peek into the impact
that Toyota has had on our community.
And we normally don't get to see this.
This is information that, you know, it is quote unquote public,
but I thought we thought it was very important
to give the community and to give the council the impact.
And you can see these are average annual approximate
numbers, but the sales revenue, $175 million per year
in sales tax revenue was $13 million.
And through all of that, we pay our local suppliers
for various aspects of the dealership, $6.6 million.
And then you can see down the list,
the commitment, the sponsorships, the philanthropy.
This is a significant business to our community
and they're important to us.
And I think the next slide really also shows
the importance from a labor standpoint.
And you see our payroll and benefits annually,
approximately, that Toyota has,
coupled with our training budget,
and then the number of employees that we have.
And the hope is to being here tonight,
to be able to in the future,
if we're very successful here,
to increase all of those numbers.
And I think it's really a good segue at this point for me
to have Steven Scanlon come up on behalf of Toyota
and talk a little bit more about, you know,
why we're here and the unique aspects of this.
So I'm gonna turn this over to Steven
and he has the luxury of it all being ready to go
so he doesn't have to entertain other than just say stuff.
Okay, thank you David. So I'm here to give you the background of why we're
here. Toyota North America needed to find a marriage partner in 2017 to take over
the existing dealership otherwise the franchise was going away. The current
owners, we call them the board, because of the relationship with Toyota Toyota
brought them in.
Part of that marriage required some kind
of a creative solution.
The dealership is on very expensive land.
Dealerships today are very expensive to build,
and typically they're going out on suburban edges,
even in rural areas.
Urban dealerships are even exponentially more expensive.
So by bringing the current owners in,
we had to come up with a Toyota, and the owners had
to come up with a creative solution to retain the dealership
in Walnut Creek.
There are not other sites to go to.
Walnut Creek is relatively heavily developed
and appropriate dealership sites don't exist.
We did explore the market.
So that put us back into the current dealership sites
with a notion of a creative solution.
And the creative solution became zoning, monetizing the land
and using that to create proceeds
to pay for a new dealership.
Also taking into account the location,
we think and firmly believe that it's unique it's a unique location next to a
BART station where intensity and further development is appropriate. It
alleviates other parts of the city from the burden of the additional traffic and
other things that are more appropriate next to a TOD. And we feel like the
proposal that we have before you response to that it's a creative
solution we worked very successfully we believe with staff in formulating a
proposal a rezone and a land use that is appropriate for the area. One of the
things that was interesting and I think David mentioned it three and a half
years so if you if you wind the clock back three and a half years February
19th, 2020, three and a half weeks before the pandemic hit. So part of what we also
had to do was come up with a development proposal and rezoning that took into account. We didn't
know what the world was going to look like in post-pandemic America. Would a dealership
go? What was the nature of the dealership? How is dealership development being affected
in the post-pandemic world.
That brought us to a two-state solution.
Stage one, land use, rezoning.
Stage two, a dealership proposal with whatever
the zoning looked like at the time
and where the market reality is in today, 2024.
So it was not a typical process.
We didn't have a project to bring in and ask the city,
hey, can we build this?
that meant that in addition to the land uses and being flexible we also had to
come up with and develop everything from guidelines zoning got sorry
developmental guidelines zoning guidelines all of the different things
that a future project in stage two that could be hospitality could be
residential could be commercial all of those would respond both within the
north downtown specific plan but also the mixed use district so a little bit
we were shooting over the horizon.
And what we think we've done is actually deliver that.
We have a project that has that sense of future looking,
but responds to where we think the North Downtown Plan wants
to go and needs to be.
And Eric and her staff were just great to work with
in getting through the nitty gritty details of setbacks,
courtyards, some of the more intricate pieces
of planning for three different land uses
that we're not really sure which one ultimately
will be the successful one.
We also saw the opportunity initially
to implement some of the key goals in the North Downtown
plan, which one was retention of the dealership.
Second was we're in a BART TOD environment
and building intensifying development,
proximate to that made all the sense in the world
as part of the specific plan and then finally the mid-block path. So we were
here I actually started on this project in on March 10th 2018 believe it or not
but we've been here working through this for about three and a half years
intently and we think that this project meets all the goals of the north
downtown plan and the express community benefits that the city has asked for so
We're happy with where we're at and we're looking forward to stage two hopefully very soon
Thank you
You have a little more time in your presentation does anybody else want to
Stick up. All right, we're gonna
We're gonna say you're done. I
Think that staff has done a phenomenal job of presenting the project and our goal tonight really was to just summarize why our purpose here
was in order to retain and remain here in Walnut Creek while offering the opportunities
and community benefits to see goals achieved so that we can derive the revenue from the
sale of the land in order to stay here. So with that, we are here to answer any questions
you may have. And I know it seems short given the amount of time we spent, but I think the
staff has done a phenomenal job of presenting. So thank you.
Thank you very much for those words.
Are there questions?
Matt.
So I had just one, just to confirm the square footages
on the dealership, because I think
I saw something in the slide.
It's basically a one-to-one replacement.
Is that right?
About 45,000 square feet?
So the original, the current footprint of the dealership
today is 90,000 square feet plus or minus.
OK.
That trends, the 142 number that you saw in the report,
That's what we studied to expand the impact.
So that whatever we came forward to.
We have to stand up.
Oh, sorry.
Whatever we brought forward, there
was enough studied so that we had some expansion capability.
The commitment to the integrated dealership is $45,000.
That's based on an urban Toyota program,
and it comes directly from the manufacturer.
And it would have all the full components that are in the dealership now.
Yeah. The ancillary uses could be located remotely.
Or if we expanded beyond hypothetically, you know,
we allowed for 50 service Bay's and we needed 65,
we could expand the other 15 to a separate location within the mixed use
special district. Okay. And that's been studied in the IR. That makes sense.
Totally studied. Thank you. Kevin, please.
clarification if I may I'm sorry the council member I just wanted I just
thought of it we would we're looking at the totality of the mixed-use district
it's a B and C and then D and your answer but we could build a dealership
on any of those parcels so it isn't just relegated to one specific one so the
opportunity can be on parcel B could be on parcel a or or C to our combination
thereof so I just I just wanted to make it clear that it isn't relegated to just
one specific parcel.
I think my question may be more towards staff and Erica, but whoever feels capable of answering
this.
So, not to say that I have any doubts that this is what the plan is and moving forward,
but we've been victim of a bait and switch before when it comes to developments when
we're told that a private business will be staying there or part of the development,
and then it changes, and then the development, the residential is there, and now the business
this is gone. Obviously we hope that doesn't happen, but what kind of guarantees, what
kind of obligations is it that commitment for the Toyota dealership to be part of this
project, how enforceable is it, and what happens if they pull out after the project's completed
or while it's occurring?
So there are a number of protections to address that specific issue. The first one is that
one of the exhibits of the development agreement
has Toyota Walnut Creek agree to a non relocation covenant
so that they will remain in Walnut Creek
for the duration of the development agreement.
And that's either 10 years or potentially 15 years
if the development agreement is extended by five years
as there's a process for.
Secondly, the way that permits are pulled
and the timing for permits that are pulled
for other types of uses are tied to the development
of the auto dealership as well, too.
So there are timing mechanisms and triggers
that require them to commence design and permitting
for the auto dealership early in the process,
that require them to commence construction
of the auto dealership at certain times,
and that also require them to complete
the dealership at certain intervals
such that they can then pull certificates of occupancy
for other types of uses out there.
There is a provision in the development agreement
that says, hypothetically, that let's say
they are ready to pull certificates of occupancy
on some of the, say, housing units,
if housing units go on site A, and it's more than 25%.
We didn't want the housing development
and the applicants in particular
did not want the housing development to be stopped
because they haven't finished construction
of the auto dealership.
So there's a provision in the agreement
that requires them to deposit $2 million into an account.
And this is after they've commenced construction
of the auto dealership,
but say they haven't completed it and opened it yet,
they have a process where they would have to deposit
$2 million into an account.
And if they don't actually get a certificate of occupancy
and operate the dealership within two years,
they forfeit that $2 million to the city plus interest.
On the other hand, if they actually
do meet their timing requirements,
they get the deposit back plus the interest on it.
So there are a number of mechanisms
that require them to build the necessary components
of the project, including the dealership.
The last thing I would say is that the proposal from Toyota
has been throughout and I think it's their expectation,
Mr. Scanlon's can speak to this more,
that it will in fact be a Toyota dealership
that will be there.
But in discussions both with the ad hoc committee
and with staff, we did recognize that there's a possibility
that it maybe wouldn't be a Toyota dealership.
It'd still be a 45,000 square foot auto dealership
that would be built there.
And so there is a process pursuant to which they can make
a request to the city manager, the determination
of which is ultimately a pillable to the city council
for them to substitute a different dealership in there,
looking at metrics like similar economic revenue
and tax revenue that you might get
from the Toyota dealership.
So all of those components are in the development agreement
right now to try to address those concerns,
Council Member, that you're identifying.
So let's say hypothetically, cover your ears,
But let's say hypothetically, we approve a GPA,
we approve rezoning, and then they sell
to a housing developer.
And it's now been, we have now changed the whole zoning
and general plan amendment for that.
Is that possible?
So it is possible for them to sell a portion of the site
to a housing developer.
It is not possible for them to avoid the requirements
to do the things that they are required to do.
So if they sell to another property
under housing developer, hotel, office, whatever,
they have to enter into an assignment agreement
and that assignment agreement
is subject to approval by the city
and it has to allocate out the responsibilities
that are in place.
And so if, for instance, we had a situation
where they hadn't commenced the auto dealership component
of this, either the planning or the permitting,
then there would be retained obligations
that would be allocated out in the various agreements
to ensure that the city retains the ability
to enforce those obligations as they go through.
Okay, great, thank you.
Any other questions?
I see pensive looks.
I just wanna address from another perspective your question
because as the ad hoc committee,
we were continually asking to understand better
how dealership that industry works and operates
and what the constraints are on these franchise operations.
They don't just get to go anywhere they want to.
It's not like a mom and pop,
it's not like a liquor store or a used car dealership.
And so they have constraints on them
from their manufacturer that doesn't allow them
just to pick up and move to Concord.
No, I know they couldn't just move the question,
really was more of what if, take a different scenario here.
I'm going to rezone my, you know, an area across
it's an office and it rezones into residential.
Oh great, now I'm just gonna sell it
rather than say that I'm going to build it myself.
That was what I was getting at.
Just that it's going to retain a card leadership
and according to our city attorney that is put into place
and it would actually come to city council
if there was any change in that.
So that makes me feel comfortable.
Well, they'd have to ask if it was to,
for example, if it was all to,
somebody wanted it all to become residential,
there's constraints on this,
the environmental doesn't even support that
because it's only been studied up to a certain level
and it would have to come back here
for a series of amendments
that would probably be a 10 year process.
if we, Madam Mayor, if I may, I wanted to respond
to a couple of questions that were asked earlier
that I told the council I would get back on.
Yes, please.
What I just want to confirm,
and I apologize for misspeaking earlier,
the auto dealership is specifically authorized on sites
A, B, and D if they acquire it.
I said C before, that's actually where it's likely
that the standalone affordable housing would go
if they go in that direction.
The second thing to council member Francois's question,
the staff report is correct, that the commercial linkage
in lieu fee, there's a potential five-year deferral
on the payment of that, so that if they are able
to meet the standard under the commercial linkage fee
of 65% housing, then they could be exempted from that.
There's also, and I'm not, I don't wanna confuse the issue,
There's also a five-year limit or a five-year time period
where the current commercial linkage fee plus 25%
is locked in at its current level for five years.
And so for instance, if they actually had to pay
a commercial linkage fee in the sixth year,
the seventh year of the development agreement,
they would pay the then existing fee plus 25%.
If they pay it within the first five years,
it's the current fee plus 25%.
Any more council concerns?
No, no
No, not particularly. I was actually looking at Matt. I think I think we're done here
I'm bringing it back to council for comments and decisions
public comment
comment, although
Public comment. I always remember public comment until I don't is there any other public comment to be made or had? Oh
Please come forward
Thank you, Mayor and Councilmembers. My name is John Dalrumple. I'm here representing
several hundred electricians, plumbers, sprinkler fillers and sheet metal workers, some of which
I'm sure have bought cars from the dealership over the years. You know, this is a, there's
a lot very positive you said about this, this development. I, I, I'm honored developments
in many, many jurisdictions for these trades and, you know, this type of reuse, rethinking,
know, how do we take advantage of what we have and then respond to what our new
needs are, right? So additional housing, particularly through close to a BART
station. So there's a lot to be very, in creating sort of, you know, the kind of
synergies when you have multi-uses that could be really dynamic and bring a lot
to a community. But this is also going to require hundreds and hundreds of
construction jobs, right? And the questions are going to be, are these going to be high
quality construction jobs? We've asked to meet with the developer to talk about
about that. This has been a really rough, rough time for construction workers. Loans
for construction are very difficult to get. There's a high unemployment. A job like this
offers a lot of promise to the local construction workforce, in which there are actually hundreds
of them in Walnut Creek. You know, are there going to be apprentices on the program, so
the opportunities for our young people and for our veterans, so through our signatory
contractors is where homeless or hard hats, folks coming out of the armed services, they
find jobs where dignity, the government, the kind of respect they deserve, but that we
have to have the jobs to place those veterans, returning veterans, you know, to work.
So we're hopeful.
We've asked to meet.
We hope to talk in the next few weeks about, you know, how can we bring even greater benefits
to the community by having, you know, good, you know, there's going to be a few tens of
millions of construction wages, are they going to be spent here in this community or taken
elsewhere, for example, additional benefits.
So there's a stake for this council and for this community about who builds these kinds
of projects.
So we look forward to those discussions.
This has been a good part, obviously this dealership has been a very good corporate
citizens within this community and we're hopeful that that will continue by the use of the
local construction workforce.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Good evening, Mayor, Council Members.
My name is Chris Palomo and I'm a field rep for the NorCal Carboners Union out of Local
152 representing all of Contra Costa County.
I'd first like to thank you guys for allowing me to speak tonight I'm here to discuss with you the
importance of making sure that there are labor standards enforced on a potential project of
this magnitude. The blue collar men and women who will build this potential development deserve
more than the bare minimum standards that deserve a commitment to area standard wages health care
benefits and the use of a state certified apprenticeship program. By ensuring that the
workers are paid the area standard wages you are given the workers a fighting chance at the middle
class and making ends meet to support their families in a time where everything costs an arm and a leg.
Second, making sure that every worker has access
to healthcare is essential.
Healthcare shouldn't be a luxury for the fortunate few.
The physical wellbeing of our workers
directly impacts our productivity, morale,
and overall quality of life.
By implementing healthcare benefits on this project,
you're not only prioritizing the welfare of our workforce,
but are also strengthening the entire community's
health and resilience.
Lastly, the use of estate certified apprenticeship programs
are a vital investment for the future of our workforce.
Apprenticeship programs provide invaluable hands-on
experience and knowledge,
creating a pipeline of skilled and qualified workers
who are not only ready to meet the demands of today,
but are also equipped to address the challenges of tomorrow.
By enforcing these labor standards,
you as the leaders of Walnut Creek
are not only ensuring the success of this future development,
but are also signaling Walnut Creek's commitment
to sustainable growth, quality job creation,
social responsibility, and setting a precedent
that will benefit this community for generations to come.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
Are there any other public comments
Before I bring it back to council, I am seeing none.
So it's back to council, we come.
Does anybody wanna make the first comment, please?
Mayor Pro Tem, darling, you're on.
I will start.
Because we've been at this for a while.
This was a project and I appreciate the vision
that Toyota Walnut Creek brought forward
of using every bit of flexibility and creativity
that all of us in the room could find
to come up with a solution that would help them
meet their needs, and meeting their needs
was very consistent with meeting our needs.
I think all of us in the room had a very high priority
on improving that Toyota dealership
and making it something that is Walnut Creek worthy.
And that was one of the underlying things
that we negotiated in the development agreement
and in the whole plan.
We also worked very hard at improving,
implementing the vision of the North Downtown Plan
related to accessibility and people,
pedestrian passage through there,
and including the pathway was really an important part
because without these parcels,
that path was not going to happen.
And so we really appreciate the flexibility
that Toyota Walnut Creek has on a difficult site
in a difficult situation,
because we don't know exactly
what the project's gonna look like,
but the commitment to getting the path in there
was really important to us.
And then the commitment to the affordable housing
that helps all of us in the community,
it helps from a public safety standpoint,
because kids who grow up in affordable housing
grow up stronger.
And it's an important part of what we as Walnut Creek
wanted to do.
and I really commend the team at Toyota Walnut Creek
and the city of Walnut Creek coming together
and playing the what if game for three years
on well, what if this and what if it's a this
and what if it's a that?
And I think we've come up with a development agreement
that has a lot of interlocking pieces
that take advantage of the flexibility
so that you guys can get what you need
out of this project, but help all of us achieve our goals.
And so I am prepared to support this.
Well, we wouldn't be here tonight
if we weren't prepared to support,
the two of us weren't prepared to support it
because we wouldn't have let it out of the committee
and the discussions.
Thank you to Toyota Walnut Creek
and your representatives and your consultants.
This has been a long road during a difficult economic time
and a difficult health time.
And it gives you great pause when you're having
these long-range discussions about where we're going
when you can't see what's behind the curtain
that's right in front of you
because it was such a tenuous period of time.
I think this is very exciting, what we have in front of us,
because what we've done is come up with a way together
to basically achieve some very long-range
strategic goals for our community.
One of which was to retain and allow for the expansion
and modernization of our urban auto sales
and service dealerships.
That is a really arduous task.
This is not a community at the fringes of an urban area
that has acres and acres and acres of flat land.
You can just park cars and drive by
and there's a showroom somewhere off in the distance
back from the street.
This is going to have to go vertical.
it's going to be more intense and parked because the rest of that land that has been used for
50 years for parking cars, new cars, needs to be there to fiscalize it in order to make
it economically viable to rebuild these dealerships.
And this is a model for how to do that, how to retain the tax revenues and the high tech,
these are high tech jobs nowadays in these dealerships.
There's no grease monkey back there.
not of Greece in half of these cars. It is forward thinking in just creating a mix of
transit-oriented land uses in this area so that we have the opportunity to embrace multifamily
housing, affordable housing, hotel uses, office uses, all within a half a mile of the BART station.
it's also a way for us to facilitate the actualization of the North Downtown
specific plan. One of which was to create it easier to get from the Iron Horse Trail
to the BART station through these very big blocks and the only real route was Ignacio
Valley Road which is not very pedestrian or bike friendly. So how can we create these mid-block
connections between civic to Broadway and Broadway to north main and although we are not able to get
the whole thing done in this we have a we will get a path from north main to Broadway
and we have a path for the future a pathway for the future a virtual one of how we can actually
finish the pathway between civic and north Broadway.
We're able to, one of the things we talked about
when we met three years ago in May
with our transportation planning design review commission
and the council was we talked about,
we wanted to ensure that we also were able to accomplish
some of our housing goals because that is a big issue
in this state, it's a big issue across the country.
We talk about we need more housing
and we need more greater affordability of housing and working together you're going to help us
achieve that goal and achieve it in a way that more people are going to be able to live in
Walnut Creek of all at all income levels and we're going to be able to embrace and welcome
those new members of our community and we have been able to do it with you in a way that we are
going to be able to achieve these intensification objectives without overdoing it, within some
constraints that are voluntary that allow us to achieve the objectives without overkill.
And so thank you to everybody, and thank you to our staff and our attorneys and the consultants,
because I was just fascinated to read an environmental document that really didn't have a picture
of what it was going to look like. It was just a series of scenarios. So thank you all.
I'm delighted to be able to support this, and looking very forward to hearing the first
development when other conversations will ensue related to actually what the specifics
of the build-out will be.
Sure. Well, things are changing the auto industry. We've seen that between all the dealerships
that are out there. As we've my family has bought cars in the last five to seven years.
Everybody knows what they want when they get there. They know what the price is. It's almost
like you're just ordering now as opposed to walking the lots. And so I was even wondering
over the last couple of years, well, how are car dealerships going to continue to have
these massive acreage of cars on them that are in prime real estate areas? And I think
and now we're seeing that how those solutions are coming to fruition and we
love Toyota we're we've been a Toyota family we certainly go to have been to
Broadway Toyota and it's yeah and we obviously I want to be able to keep
Toyota in Walnut Creek I think that's important for everybody but again we
have figured out how this can work now with with all of these lots of land
something like this that we're looking at potentially and and that we've now
seen this is good for housing and we talked about that the area makes sense
walkable to downtown it's walkable to to Bart it's walkable to City Hall because
of course you're gonna be having to do that a lot if you live there but this
could also really give a great boost for commercial in the area and I I envision
when this project is completed that there will be other commercial
opportunities that really attract people to come there that are going to be residents
in that immediate area, so I really do look at that as a boost.
I also appreciate the public comment from people that spoke regarding labor and apprentice
jobs.
I think apprentice jobs are critical.
We even had the Youth Commission here before, which essentially they are – these interns
are apprentices in what it's like to be in local government, so I think anything that
we can do to help to have that kind of a labor force
become more familiar and trained,
I think is terrific as well.
But I'm in favor of this project
and thank you all for your three and a half years
of diligent work to get to this point.
Matt.
Okay, it's hard, you guys are a tough act to follow,
but I wanna start by thanking the two members of the ad hoc
who put in, I know, countless hours working on this.
On behalf of all of us, thank you for your service
and to our community development and city attorney staff
who were right there with them,
I think each step of the way.
Thank you for your tremendous value that you've added
in terms of the development agreement and the entitlements.
When council member Wilk and I
were on the legislative committee,
back when you were mayor and I was mayor pro tem,
this project was just in its infancy.
And when we would talk to legislators,
this was one I would cite about how we're being proactive,
innovative, and thinking outside the box
in terms of housing.
And to each person that we spoke to got excited about that
and understood that not only did we have
a robust housing element,
but that we were looking for other opportunity sites,
including in areas that had auto sales
service previously, maintain that important sales tax component, but provide for opportunities
for housing. So I'm thrilled to see this come forward. I think for a lot of the reasons
that have already been stated that we are, it does check a lot of boxes for us in terms
of the specific plan. That critical connection from the Iron Horse to the BART station, which
is so difficult to try to accomplish, I think we're going to make some real headway with
that on this project.
I think another thing that was telling to me is that when you look at the supplemental
EIR that all the impacts were mitigated to a less than significant level.
We had no single significant unavoidable impact, which tells me that there's a good project
at the right location, at the right time, in the right place.
And so I think that's worthy of noting.
I do think it will be a catalyst and serve as a model
for other potential dealerships in this area.
Let's see.
I do, too, appreciate the public comment on labor
and appreciate the need for apprenticeships.
I think there's no specific development proposal
at this time, but there does seem
to be a willingness to talk about in the future,
and I appreciate that.
And so with that, I am prepared to support the project.
Thank you.
Well, one of the good news about being the mayor
with this council is you don't have to be the brightest
bulb in the door because y'all said some really good stuff.
And so I'm gonna be short and just say,
oh my gosh, do I admire persistence?
And you persisted like nobody's business.
And because of that, I believe that you are going
to make creativity in Walnut Creek development
a whole new concept around things.
And I believe because of your courage and persistence
that we are gonna have unstated
but well-recognized standards that have been higher
and Walnut Creek is a pretty snobby city already.
So we're gonna be even better because of your persistence
and your creativity and your work on this.
With that, who would like to make
all of the appropriate motions?
So I would start except I think we have the slide
from the Planning Commission and front of us.
I think we can do this off of the staff report.
Okay, you go first.
I move to adopt the resolution
certifying the Supplemental Environmental Impact Report.
I'm not gonna read the number.
for the Walnut Creek Mixed Use Special District Project,
including adoption of relevant findings
and the Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program.
Second.
Is there anything else that we need to cover yet?
Okay, all right, all right.
That being the case, may I have a roll call vote please?
Mayor Pro Tem Darling?
Aye.
Council Member Silva?
Aye.
Council Member Francois?
Aye.
Council Member Wilt?
Aye.
Motion carries unanimously. Can we do the rest as a bunch Steve? Oh okay thank you.
Move to adopt the resolution amending the general plan and the North Downtown
specific plan for application Y 21-25. Oh that's really disgusting that it's
that many dates in there. Move to introduce a way of reading of an
ordinance to amend title 10 the planning and zoning section of the Walnut Creek
Municipal Code adopt an overlay zone and amend the zoning maps to create a mixed
use special district overlay located at 2100 North Main Street, 2150 North
Broadway and 2100 North Broadway in the Automobile Sales and Service and
Customer Manufacturing District in the North Downtown specific plan for the
Walnut Creek mixed use special district project and introduce and move and I
moved to introduce and waive reading of an ordinance and make findings and
and approving the development agreement
by and between the city of Walnut Creek
and TWC property holdings, LLC
for the Walnut Creek Misuse Special Use District,
Special District Project.
And I will second that.
And I will ask for a roll call vote.
Council Member Silva.
Aye.
Mayor Pro Tem Darling.
Aye.
Council Member Francois.
Aye.
Council Member Will.
Aye.
Mayor Haskew.
Aye.
Motion carries unanimously.
Thank you, congratulations to the applicant
And I believe that takes us to the end of the meeting.
I'm just checking in case.
It does.
We are now adjourned.
See you next meeting.