Good evening. I'm Cindy Darling, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the regular
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
on the City's website. As some attendees may be participating in their first Walnut Creek City
Council meeting, I wanted to welcome everyone and talk briefly about the public comment process.
For each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for public comment on that item.
Thus, if you desire to speak to 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 public comments for items not on the agenda.
Any comments during public communication should not relate to an item that is on the agenda this
evening. Consistent with section 9.5 of the City Council handbook, 30 minutes will be
initially allocated for public communication for items not on the agenda. Additional time
for public communications for items not on the agenda will be provided at the end of
the open session portion of the meeting if necessary. If you desire to provide a public
comment, please complete a speaker identification card and line up behind the lectern at the
appropriate time. Wait your turn and then when you approach the lectern please
state your name, 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 in the council 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 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
website for public review and are included in the meeting record but will
not be separately read into the record. All right after that stirring intro
video. Good evening I am Cindy Darling the mayor of City of the City of Walnut
Creek and welcome to the Tuesday October 21st, 2025 regular meeting of the Walnut
Creek City Council. Please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Thank you all for doing a good job with that.
And now City Clerk Suzy Martinez, would you please call the roll.
Councilmember Davini?
Here.
Councilmember Francois?
Here.
Councilmember Silva?
Here.
Mayor Pro Tem Wilk?
Here.
Mayor Darlene?
Here.
All right.
I would like to invite, is it Brianna's going to come up?
All right.
Our first proclamation tonight is on pedestrian safety
awareness night or month.
We have a whole month of this.
It's something that we work at tirelessly in the city
with our Vision Zero plan and our pedestrian planning,
bike planning, and probably a topic of conversation later.
So I just wanted to welcome Brianna and ask you to give
a short spiel on what we do for pedestrian safety.
Of course, thank you, thank you council members.
So again, my name is Brianna Byrne.
I'm an associate traffic engineer
here at the city of Walnut Creek.
For the larger crowd, Walnut Creek,
we are Vision Zero City.
We are trying to eliminate fatal and serious
injury collisions within the city.
This includes drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists.
And as pedestrians and cyclists are more vulnerable,
they're more susceptible to these types of collisions.
So, as engineering, we're looking to improve our streets
and we do work with our community partners.
So with me today, just for a very quick couple words,
is Kate Ming.
We have a Walnut Creek walk and bike group.
Thank you.
Welcome, Kate.
Hi, yeah, I'm Kate Ming and I'm with a pedestrian
and bike advocacy group here in Walnut Creek.
We're relatively new and we're all very excited
to make Walnut Creek safer.
Fatalities due to car accidents has increased something
like I think I read today 80% far,
far more than any other country.
And we really need to work on that.
And I really would appreciate working with
the city of Walnut Creek to make our place safer,
where we live safer.
I think one of the biggest things to do
is actually slow cars down and create more sidewalks
would be something I would very much advocate for,
but thank you.
Thank you, and we'll come around
and do the picture with you now.
But first, since I have so many young people in the room
who are going to be learning how to drive
in just a little bit.
Do you see what I'm holding in my hand?
Should you be scrolling and looking at TikToks
while you are driving?
Should your mom be scrolling and looking at TikToks
while she's driving?
No, so that that's my pedestrian awareness thing for it.
And now we'll come around and do the proclamation
and join for a picture.
Thank you for volunteering on this.
It's really important.
Thank you.
That's okay.
I think we're glad you guys had a good meeting.
Now our second proclamation tonight
is on Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
And this is something that I know many people think,
well, that's not a problem in Walnut Creek,
But domestic violence knows no boundaries.
It doesn't limit itself to one socioeconomic class
or anything like that.
It is everywhere, and it's something that we as parents
need to make sure that we're educating our children
as they're developing relationships
to look for in a relationship.
Is the person treating them with respect?
Are they controlling them?
Things like that.
And it's important to educate it.
And it's also important to reach out if you see somebody in your family, in your friend group,
that seems isolated to make sure that they know that if they are experiencing somebody trying
to control them, somebody trying to bully them into doing things they don't want to do,
that they know that there's a place and a group of people that are willing to help and help them
safely because it is literally, I mean, we all as women think that we are in danger walking
the streets at night but unfortunately the statistics bear out the most dangerous a woman
is at is with their domestic partner and we'd wish that was not true but it is and so we are
recognizing Domestic Violence Awareness Month. We've been recognizing it since 1989 and it's
It's just a chance this year to say
we are with survivors always,
and we believe women when they come forward.
And we recognize, advocate for victim service providers
and organizations.
And tonight I would like to invite Stan
for families free of violence who worked tirelessly
to help prevent domestic violence
and extend hope and healing to the survivors
and victims of domestic violence.
So come on forward, introduce yourselves,
and then we'll come around and do the proclamation
in the picture afterwards.
I just want to thank you for that intro.
Rather than just calling us up, you really
highlighted the importance of this issue,
and I really appreciate that.
Especially with so many young people in the room,
I think it's really important.
So my name is Robin Binder.
I'm the client services director, one of two client
services directors at Stan, and I'm
joined by Leah Johansson, who is our clinical coordinator.
And I just want to thank you for having us
and for participating in this proclamation
and for recognizing Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
As you said, it's an incredibly important issue.
important that the community is aware of some of the risks, but also some of the services.
I just wanted to share a little bit about some of the work that we do very, very briefly.
So Stand for Families Free of Violence is an agency that serves all of Contra Costa County.
We offer a 24-7, 365 crisis line, crisis and resource line.
You can reach out any time.
We receive between 12,000 to 15,000 calls per year for people looking for support or
resources.
approximately 240 families in our emergency shelter,
10 families in our transitional housing units,
and assist five to 10 families in finding
permanent support of housing
following our services each year.
We also offer a wide variety of services
for community members who don't reside with us,
including prevention-based support groups
for approximately 1,000 to 2,000 teens a year,
a Youth Against Violence Leadership Program,
and individual therapy for 100-ish children
that are exposed to domestic violence each year,
And roughly 100 participants in our nonviolence program,
which is our Badgers intervention program.
Another way that we serve the community
is through our lethality assessment protocol,
which is a differentiated response aimed
at decreasing the domestic violence homicide rate.
In Contra Costa County, we've seen a 50% reduction
in DV homicides in jurisdictions
that partner with Stan in our LAP program.
Walnut Creek Police Department is one of our active partners
in the LAP program since 2020,
and we're so grateful for the partnership,
and so grateful to be here, thank you.
do you want to say anything?
Just introduce yourself.
What she said.
I'm Leah, and I manage the children's counseling program.
And it's very taxing and very fulfilling work,
and I can't see myself doing anything different.
Thank you both for the work you do.
I think we should give them a big round of applause.
And now, we will do the whole picture thing.
Great, let's do it.
All right, and now it is time I'd like to invite
the chaperones, Amanda Landis and Jen Pickett
up to introduce the next presentation.
Good evening.
Thank you to the council for the opportunity
for all of these amazing young ambassadors
to speak to you tonight.
My name is Jennifer Pickett and I'm a teacher
in the Walnut Creek School District.
This year I had the privilege of serving
as a teacher chaperone for the Walnut Creek chapter
of Sister Cities International Youth Ambassador Exchange,
or yay, an extraordinary life-changing experience
for Walnut Creek students and all who participate.
WCSCI is a community-run nonprofit dedicated
to fostering peace through mutual respect,
understanding, and cooperation,
one individual, one community at a time.
Since 2012, the year that many of our participants were born,
WCSCI has organized an annual youth ambassador exchange
for eighth grade students connecting Walnut Creek
with our two sister cities, Nocetto, Italy,
and Chiafoc, Hungary.
The two exclamation points in yay
represent the connection between our sister cities
and, in my opinion, the enthusiasm of all
who are involved in this program.
Through a 10-day homestay abroad each fall,
students live with host families, attend local schools,
and experience life as teenagers in another culture.
Although not organized by the city or the school district,
the exchange enjoys strong support from each.
We are grateful for that.
as well as from parent and teacher chaperones
who help ensure a safe and enriching experience.
The program is entirely volunteer run with coordination
from WCSCI members and each year's participating families.
During host week, the following spring,
our Italian and Hungarian guests visit Walnut Creek.
It's a chance for the American families
to reciprocate the warmth and hospitality their children
received abroad.
My name is Amanda Landis, and I was honored
to go with these young children in my fellow chaperones
to She a folk hungry.
I'm also a proud of Walnut Creek's teacher.
At Tice Creek, I teach seventh and eighth grade,
and I got to meet, I had a couple of my own students,
but I also had more and got to learn more
about more of the students here in Walnut Creek,
and it was a life-changing experience.
I had the most amazing time,
and I am so grateful for the support of the city,
and for Deborah and Kristin and all of your hard work,
I can't even put into words how much this trip meant to me,
even though I didn't have any of my own kids with me.
But it makes me want to plan for my youngest child
to be able to do something like this,
because it is an incredible opportunity for all
of these young human beings.
And for the young human beings in Chiafolk and Nocetto.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So first up, sorry about that.
For the hungry ambassador group, we're
going to start with our people.
We've got 11 people who came to hungry with me.
And we're going to start it off with Colter Eisenberg.
No pressure.
Hello, my name is Colter Eisenberg.
I go to school at Walnut Creek Intermediate, WCI.
And one of my favorite memories from Sheofo,
was the Talpoko Lake Cave because I have never done anything like it and kind of
traces back to the fact that I wanted to be a marine biologist when I get older.
The water in the lake cave was extremely clear. It was naturally filtered as well
so you could just pick it up and drink it and every once in a while use the
official and biased so thank you for your time. Thank you and and very brave
to go first. Hi my name is Donna Asani and this is and I went to you know
Hungary and I go to Tice Creek Middle School this is a photo of me and my
matchpana on our first day and I chose it because we really bonded and clicked
that day and I really enjoyed how she took me to explore no cheddar together
and it just reminds me of like our time together and all of our fun moments on
this trip. Thank you. Hi my name is Lisa and I go to WCI. I chose the Topolka
Cave as my most memorable moment because it was very fun and it showed
teamwork. Even though only one person had the paddle, we all helped out and it was
just a really fun experience. Thank you. My name is Gavin Curdie. I go to
at the Tice Creek School, and I went to Sia Folk Hungary.
My favorite experience was going to the ranch
on the second day, because I got to bond
with every Hungarian, and I had a lot of fun there
doing ranch activities, and just having
a great time in bonding.
Thank you for your time.
My name is Kai Steinberg.
I go to WCI.
I went to Sia Folk Hungary, and some of my favorite things
were meeting all the Hungarians, they were awesome.
The Americans were awesome, too, meeting new people.
And I really like seeing how they do things differently
like across the world.
That was really an important experience for me.
And I don't know if I've ever laughed more ever in my life
than on the trip, especially on the train with Gavin.
Thank you for your time.
Hi, my name is Kira.
I go to WCI.
And my favorite moment of the trip
was we, me and the Hungarians and the Americans,
we all went around and gave each other hugs
and it was really sweet and I miss them.
Hi, my name is Kevin Yoder and I go to WCI.
One of the most memorable parts for me
was when I visited the shoes on the Danube
with my match on family day.
The story behind it is in World War II,
they lined up the Jews and shot them into the river.
But before that, they took their shoes off
because they're expensive.
And it really just stuck with me
that they valued the cost of the shoes
more than the lives of the Jews themselves.
And I still think about it to this day.
Lylan, fortunately, is not with us tonight.
Hi, my name is Ria Lokesh,
and I go to Foothill Middle School,
and my favorite part of this trip was the farewell party
because we got to perform our dance
that we made for the Hungarians.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Reece Devine.
My favorite part, I go to Foothill in eighth grade.
My favorite part of the trip was going to Budapest.
We learned a lot about the history of the parliament
and a bunch of the history from the King's era.
Thank you.
Thank you.
My name's Spencer Regenstein.
I go to Foothill Middle School.
My favorite part of the trip was family day
because we got to see some really cool places
like this castle right here.
And I also just really liked the group dynamic
of the whole group.
and made the trip a lot more fun and memorable for me.
Thank you.
All right, so we're moving on to Noceto.
Our delegation traveled to Noceto, Italy, a sister city
partnership established in 1987.
Noceto, meaning walnut tree, is a picturesque town
in the Emilia Romano region near Parma.
Known for its historic charm, welcoming community,
and rich culinary traditions, including
Nocino, a nut liqueur, its world-renowned ham,
Prosciutto di Parma, and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.
Our 14 incredible student ambassadors
were each paired with an Italian host sibling,
joining in school visits, cultural outings,
and family activities.
Watching them form genuine friendships and growing
confidence was truly inspiring for the three of us chaperones.
After one group event, several American students
rode bikes home through the town with their host families.
Many of the kids enjoyed exploring the city after dark
without an adult.
On the train home, after a day spent together
exploring Cinque Terre and swimming in the Ligurian Sea,
we couldn't help but smile as the American and Italian
students bonded over music lyrics and talk of celebrity
crushes, including romance apps.
They are teenagers, after all.
At Chaperones, we were especially
proud of how our Walnut Creek students came together
as a team, sharing openly, supporting one another,
and problem solving with maturity and kindness.
Traveling abroad isn't always easy,
but they faced each challenge with empathy and courage,
reaching out for guidance when needed.
Seeing their growth in confidence, compassion,
and collaboration was one of the most rewarding parts
of the journey.
An unforgettable moment of joy came
when our students performed their self-choreographed dance
and rocked it.
And the Italian crowd began chanting,
di-pwee, di-pwee, which means more and more.
Their host siblings jumped in for a second performance,
a spontaneous celebration of connection
that captured the very heart of this program.
These are the memories we'll hold forever in our hearts
as they embody the Sister Cities yay mission,
creating transformative opportunities
that foster independence, global awareness,
and lifelong friendship.
Before the No Chet and ambassadors speak,
I, on behalf of the 25 incredible yay ambassadors,
six magnificent chaperones and their families,
would like to extend our deepest gratitude
to the yay coordinators, Kristen Decker and Debra Nip,
and Walnut Creek Sister Cities,
and all involved in putting on this program
for your dedication and countless hours
ensuring this program continues.
It continues to create meaningful lifelong memories
for Walnut Creek students and their families.
Con grade tatudine, en finita, and cusunun.
Hi, my name is Alex Hill.
I go to Foothill Middle School.
I'm in eighth grade.
My favorite part of the trip was hanging out
with my host family because they were super kind and nice.
Thank you.
Hi, my name is Amelia Pickett.
I go to WCI, Walnut Creek Intermediate.
And my favorite part was meeting my host sister, Marta,
because she was just really special.
And most of our talks were like on our phones,
so it was really fun to see her in person,
and I really miss her, yeah.
Hi, I'm Benny Giardini.
I go to Tice Creek Middle School, and I went to Noceto.
One of my favorite experiences from the trip
is going to Milan and getting to walk around
and talk with our ambassadors
and really getting to know them, thank you.
My name is Callie Dudley, I'm an eighth grader at Foothill Middle School and something I
learned on this trip is you need to live in the moment and don't be constantly taking
photos because the memories you make and the memories I made while I was in Italy for this
week are going to last so much longer and be so much more vivid than the photos I took.
Hello, my name is Kiran Paniel, I'm an eighth grader at Foothill Middle School.
My favorite part of this trip was just being a part of something that was bigger than myself,
getting to truly be in someone else's shoes, and just change as a person.
Thank you.
Hello, my name is Luke Deviney, and I go to Tice Creek.
One of my favorite memories from Italy was probably going to my match's grandparents'
house because I felt like I really bonded with them and we played soccer
and Frisbee and I just really got to know the family. I also really enjoyed
the history and just meeting all the people in Italy, it was an amazing
experience. Hi my name is Madeline I go to WCI and I'm a part of the Italian
delegation. This is a photo of me and my ambassador and my host family at the
farewell party. This moment was so meaningful to me because it really
summed up my week. I care so much about them and I will never forget moments,
small moments like making pesto pasta from scratch or watching them Wicked
movie but in Italian and I actually told my mom the other day that I was feeling
a little homesick and I just miss them so much and I want to thank you Wanna
Creek sister cities for such an incredible experience. Hello my name is
Oliver Breedy. I go to Warner Creek Intermediate Middle School. My favorite
part of the trip would probably be swimming in Chiguatera with all of the
everybody in the group including the Italians. I feel like everybody just
really bonded in that moment. We played games on the beach after like volleyball
and it was just a really fun moment. Thank you. Hi my name is Peyton Butler. I'm a
13-year-old student who goes to Tice Creek Middle School and this
photo is me and my ambassador with my ambassador's little sister eating lunch
at the grandpa's house and my favorite memory was probably Cinque Terre because
I spent a lot of time with my ambassador and a lot of time like exploring Italy
and I feel like it was just a really great experience. Thank you.
Hi my name is Victoria Jenkins. I go to Tice Creek Middle School and I went to
Naceto, Italy and my favorite memory was an afternoon in Cinque Terre because
this was the day that I feel like me and my match Sofia really clicked and I ate
so much focaccia and it's one of my favorite foods now. Hi my name is Willa
Pickett I go to Walnut Creek Intermediate and one of my favorite
memories from the trip was meeting my host family and getting to know my host
sister Julia. We had so many fun times together and they even taught me how to
eat pasta the authentic Italian way which I was terrible at but I had so
much fun on this trip and I want to thank everybody. Hello, my name is Javier
Contreras. I am a 14 year old student at Warner Creek Intermediate. My favorite
part of the trip was going to the Parmesan factory in Parma because it is
an important part of Italian culture being exclusively made in Parma
for reasons I do not know but I wish to find out. Thank you. My name is Xavier
Monteiro. I attend Warner Creek Intermediate. My favorite part of the
trip was the beach day in Cinco Terra when we went to the beach and explored
which time was it that we walked around?
No but it was really amazing especially the old church that gave such a good
view of the ocean and all the fascinating places that we went to over
the trip it was a really good time and I will never forget it.
Hi my name is Yuval Levy-Maruk I go to Foothill Middle School this is a photo
of me and Benny over there on top of a castle on Friday that we went to but my
favorite part of the trip was going to Milan and walking around for nine miles
and and then you know so fun the train station was closed because there was a
soccer game so we had to walk to another one. So yeah it was a lot of fun. Hi good
evening my name is Kristin Decker and I'm one of the co-directors of the Yay
program and I hope that what each of you can take away from this is that we're
not only uniting the Walnut Creek kids but we are definitely uniting the kids
with their hosts in both Naceto and in Chia Folk. This is definitely like
Kelly brought up a life-changing opportunity and we really enjoy the
support of the city in this and our hope really is that we bring empathetic kids
and families to this program to get this once-in-a-lifetime experience. So thank
you again for your support yeah. You guys want to do a picture? Okay Kelly is that
okay? Thank you guys for all being here now all the young people can come up and
you guys can be the short people and we'll be behind you. Okay all people from
Nochetto and Schiavoke. Next on the agenda is the consent calendar. Does any
council member wish to pull an item for discussion? Or any member of the staff
wish to pull anything? Anyone? Anyone? You would like to make a comment but not
pull see to see I know why don't you just go ahead and make if it's just a
remark why don't we go ahead and do that and then we'll do it as a whole well if
anyone from engineering staff or arts and recreation staff can hear this I
really want to thank you for all of the work that you did on the Tice Valley
fields and the lights it has been a long time coming I was on that soccer board
for six years and that's all anybody talked about was lights and all weather
turf. So it's finally great to get one of those items accomplished thanks to
Measure O. And would you like to make oh does any member of the public wish to
address us on anything on the consent calendar? It's a two-minute limit. Anyone?
Seeing no one I will bring back up here for a motion. Move to approve the consent
calendar items 2A through 2E. And I'll note there is an addendum changes for
2d so would that be incorporated into your motion well she's still discussing
yep a second all right roll call please
Councilmember Silva aye Councilmember Davini aye Councilmember Francois aye Mayor Pro Temville
aye Mayor Darling aye all right next on the agenda is public communication and
this porting portion of the meeting is reserved for items comments on items not
on the agenda and under the Brown Act the council cannot act on items raised
during public communication but we may respond briefly to statements made or
questions posed. We may request clarification or for the item to staff.
Consistent with section 9.5 of the City Council Handbook, 30 minutes will be
allocated this time for public communication for items not on the agenda.
Additional time for public communications for items not on the agenda
will be provided at the end of the meeting. Written comments submitted have
been posted to the City's website for public review and are included in the
meeting record but will not be read separately into the record. At this time
I will note that it is 639 and we will go till 6709. So step on forward and you
get your two minutes. Good evening council, mayor, council members and other
fine people in front of me. I'm Linda Rymak-Colberg. I'm here this evening
representing Shadelands Walnut Creek which you'll be happy to hear is hosting
Once again, it's annual Made In The Shade Fall Festival.
This year on Sunday, November 2, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
at the Shadelands Sports Mall, 2640 Shadelands Drive.
It's free and family-friendly,
and it's a popular all-community
Made In The Shade Fall Festival.
And you're wondering what to expect.
And I will tell you.
Non-stop live music, food trucks,
ice cream, craft beer, Cali Craft will be bringing its best craft beers and drinks to the table.
Exhibitors representing Shadelands and businesses and non-profits outside of Shadelands.
Giveaways, face painting, demonstrations, sports activities for all ages including yoga, soccer,
gymnastics, basketball, taekwondo, and batting cages,
and again, free and family friendly.
Making special appearances will be the Project Pink Wheel's
Pink Fire Engine, a big pink fire engine that
goes around different locations, bringing cancer awareness
to people and populations out there.
It'll be out there honking its horn and rolling its siren.
And the doors are open, and the kids can jump on in
and see what it's like to sit inside a fire engine.
And the Joy Bound People and Pets mobile adoption ban.
Also, branded Made in the Shade sunglasses will be available
as long as supplies last.
So, visit Made in the Shade.
That's visitshadelands.com slash MadeShade
for more details, for more descriptions,
for a list of food trucks that will be there and exhibitors.
Thank you so much. I will add that Made in the Shade is presented by Shadelands Walnut Creek.
Hope to see you all there. Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Good evening, Mayor and City Council members and members of the public.
My name is Kayla Chernage, and I'm a field representative for Assemblywoman Avila Farias of District 15.
And with the conclusion of the legislative session, we wanted to provide you all with an update on the legislative work the Assemblywoman has accomplished.
So, eight of her bills have been signed into law by Governor Newsom, each inspired by the
needs and voices of the Contra Costa community.
The Assemblymember has put forward policies that make a real difference, expanding access
to affordable housing and childcare, supporting families experiencing homelessness, protecting
voter rights, and strengthening our education system.
These new laws will build stronger, more equitable communities and ensure that every Californian
has an opportunity to thrive.
Working with her colleagues, the assembly member
helped secure $3 billion in annual electricity bill credits
to help lower utility costs during the hottest
months of the year.
Additionally, she worked to extend California's cap
and invest program to stabilize gas prices and clean energy
jobs.
Beyond policy, our district office
is engaging in the community and hosting
several events in October.
Our fall festival and pumpkin giveaway on October 24th in our district office from 3 to 7.
Our coffee meet and greet in Brentwood on October 5th from 9 to 11 a.m.
And lastly, our immigration town hall on October 27th at Los Madonnas College.
And that is from 6 30 p.m. to 8 30 p.m. We look forward to seeing you all there.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
And let the assembly member know that if she ever wants to come and do a tour of Walnut Creek later
when we get to announcements we'll talk about Senator Grayson came in did that
and we are always willing and eager to host any of our elected representatives
who want get a little tour of Walnut Creek and thank you very much any other
public comment okay and seeing no other public comment we will close that and
bring it back up here city attorney is there anything to report out from closed
session thank you madam mayor the city council this evening in closed session
authorized by a 5-0 vote a settlement agreement with the Heather farm gardens
and also directed that we bring back a lease agreement for council
consideration and public input at your next regular City Council meeting thank
you thank you now on to the city manager anything to report yes good evening I
have three updates tonight and they're all positive news which I think is a
first for me and all the updates that I provided.
The first is that your council may recall
quite some time back, the city applied
for pro-housing incentive program
or PIP funds from the state for a million dollars,
pleased to announce that we were awarded that funding.
And it's nice that the information embargo
is finally lifted, that we can share that information.
So this is a million dollars to be used
to support affordable housing and homeless-related programs.
We're working through all the details.
It'll be a little while yet
before the money is actually received,
but wanted to thank your council
for all of the policy guidance related to this matter
to staff for working through the application.
And I'll just note, you may recall that Walnut Creek
some time back received a pro-housing designation
and that was really instrumental in us receiving this grant.
So it was a culmination of efforts.
And most importantly, we'll be able to use this money
to help folks in the community.
The next two are folks that I'd like to recognize.
I just thought I would, it's a bit unusual,
but give a shout out.
You may recall our consultant, Ken Hampion,
who's done our priority setting
for several years with the council.
He is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award
from the International City-County Management Association
for his over 30 years of contribution to the profession,
not only as a former city manager,
but as an author, as an instructor,
and certainly as a consultant and a mentor to many,
including myself.
So congratulations, Ken.
I guess there's a good chance he's watching this
because he is still a government nerd.
So thank you, Ken, for all that you've done.
And I should also note,
he is a Walnut Creek resident, possibly most importantly.
And then last, want to recognize our city clerk,
Susie Martinez, who recently received acknowledgement
from the International Institute of Municipal Clerks
for her continuing education and contribution
in meeting the high standards that are required
of that accreditation, accredited organization,
and she just received that acknowledgement today,
so thank you, Susie, for your commitment
and your great work.
All right, and congratulations to all the staff,
and the Ken, because he is our resident
and he helps us every year.
We wouldn't be able to do the things we do
without the staff, and whether it was figuring out
what to do about Heather Farm, how to run the meetings,
we couldn't do it without you guys, so.
Next on the agenda is city council member reports
on AB 1234 activities and a chance to brief us all
on what you've been doing.
Council member Dafini, you wanna start tonight?
Sure, thank you.
Good evening.
Had a few fun events over the last couple of weeks.
Most of us here, we're down at Cal Cities in Long Beach
for sort of city education advocacy,
connecting with different cities and council members
and mayors across the state,
and I had a great time there,
and I had a short story from there.
We were listening to a parking lecture,
which may not sound interesting,
but I was actually quite intrigued by the lecture,
and the woman who was running it said she started off
by writing tickets to college students at UC Santa Barbara.
And as soon as she said that, I was like, oh yeah,
I know this lady, she's written me tickets before
when I used to go to college there.
So, it was a small world.
Attended Taste of Walnut Creek,
which had 30 different restaurants.
It's an annual event, you buy one ticket
and then you get to walk around town
and sample all the restaurants downtown,
or almost all of them.
It was a really fun event,
and it's a great way in the future
to get to know all of our restaurants downtown.
I found where a couple were located that I'd heard the names
and hadn't quite figured out where they were,
so had a good time doing that as well.
Had a tour of the Lesher.
Thank you to Carolyn Jackson and to Emily Enders as well,
who did the Bedford Gallery portion of the tour.
Was very interesting to go backstage and see,
especially in the main theater,
the size of the equipment there,
the scale of it is just quite impressive.
You don't necessarily appreciate that
when you're out in the seating area.
So there are many other interesting areas as well.
And the Observations of Life art exhibit
is still at the Bedford.
It will be there until December 14.
So go check it out.
Let's see, attended Coffee with a Cop at Rossmoor.
This was a very impressive event.
It totally exceeded my expectations.
We had, let's see, Chief Knox, Captain Hibbs, Captain Slater,
and maybe 20 other members of city staff and police there.
About 150 residents, mostly from Rossmore,
broke out into tables.
Police officers sat at each table
and it was a great connection event
between law enforcement and our residents.
So I look forward to attending more of those
Coffee with the Cop events.
And finally got a tour of Heather Farms, phase one.
Thank you Rich Payne for the tour.
And what I would say is at this point you don't see a lot
because there's a lot of this sort of like
infrastructure upgrades but really expanded
the natural lake there and opened up the visibility.
So that's something you'll appreciate immediately
when you walk through the space is really that lake
that's always been there but not quite as visible
now very prominent and quite
pretty.
Thank you.
Councilmember Silva?
Thank you very much.
On the same note as the annual
conference of the league of
California cities there were a
number of good sessions.
I agree with you the parking
session was very interesting and
very good but it was most
important was that basically we
do 95% of the things that the
consultant recommends so we are
a top performer and they had a
police officer, Captain, I was police chief
of Seal Beach explaining how they were managing parking
and they were doing it the inverse
that we would do it downtown
and they realized they were doing it incorrectly
and so they changed their methods.
I'm also attended two other sessions,
one on Santa Ana's streamlining efforts
related to building and permitting
and I pass that information on to our staff
and one on the general plan update process
and how to be more efficient with that.
the mayor was there, the city manager,
and we were in three different parts of the room
and we came away with the same impression
at the back of the room at the end of the session.
So hopefully that brings on some new ideas for that.
Also during the conference,
this board of the League of California Cities
had its fifth meeting of the year
and I was re-elected to sit as a director at large
and sworn in on Friday at the general meeting.
And then also as an announcement,
I have been appointed to the board of the Institute
for local government, which is a nonprofit
that represents and provides services
to local government across the state,
counties, cities, and special districts.
And I will be serving on that board.
And finally, I will mention,
and we will be talking about it later this evening,
there have been a lot of meetings
over the last few weeks and months
related to the ABAGAN,
the MTC Transit Oriented Community Strategy,
and we'll talk about that later.
Thank you.
Councilmember Francois.
What are you up to?
Thank you, Mayor.
As a liaison to the Chamber's economic development working
group, I attended their October 15 meeting, which was in person.
And we had a wide-ranging discussion
about the future of business in Walnut Creek.
We talked a lot about AI.
And I think it was a discussion that there's
interest in attracting AI to Walnut Creek,
and it's what type of AI, where,
and it might take the form of a satellite campus.
We also had kind of discussions about the vacancy rates
with office space in and around downtown
with the office complexes on California
and Mount Diablo being almost pretty well leased up
And same with Growers Square, given its proximity
to downtown and the amenities and the services.
And then just a few blocks beyond,
kind of near the BART station and the Golden Triangle,
it's a bit of a different picture.
We're still doing well, relatively speaking,
compared to some other communities in the Bay Area.
But it opened the conversation to what could it be?
How can we reactivate that space?
There was some conversation.
AI was part of that discussion.
Also education and the future,
the evolving nature of higher education,
community college, four-year colleges
that may be looking beyond the traditional campus environment
to splitting that up and offering instruction
in a more traditional office setting.
So I think it's interesting thing to keep in mind
as we go through our general plan update
and associated rezoning process.
There was also a fair amount of conversation
about flexible zoning and parking standards.
A little bit of a discussion about Measure A.
I think we'll have a further discussion on that
at our next meeting, which is November 19th.
So, all in all, a great group.
You know, we show up bright and early at 7.30 in the morning
and Bob feeds us, and people really brought
a lot of great ideas, and I thank Erika Vandenbrand,
our community development director for being there as well,
and touting our housing forum
that's coming up a little later this month.
Okay, I think I covered that one.
Then on Saturday, and I won't steal
the mayor's thunder on this, I did have the opportunity
to attend the No Kings Rally that was held
at Broadway Plaza, and was very impressed
with really seemingly, I know the police were there,
but I didn't see them.
And there were estimated 5,000 peaceful protestors,
pro-Americans exercising their First Amendment right.
And the mayor spoke and I'll let her speak to that.
But it was glad to see that go off without any issues
or hitches here in Walnut Creek.
And then just finally, right after that,
I went to the farmer's market on Sunday
and had a good conversation with several folks there.
I did misplace my license, though,
on the way to the farmer's market,
and I was getting a little panicked
because I have a trip planned later this week.
So where I'm going with this is I'd like to give a shout out
to Officer Greg Swift, who's a relatively new member,
I think, to the department,
who not only tracked down us at home and called us
and said, I've got your driver's license,
I got it from Starbucks this morning.
And I said, okay, he had no idea who I was.
At least he has a good poker face,
he didn't let on at all.
He said, I'm right outside your door.
I drove over and I delivered your license to you.
So I thank you for going above and beyond,
and I know that you guys would give that treatment
to anybody in the community,
and it's really well appreciated.
And that's my update.
Thank you.
Mayor Pro Tem, what you been doing?
Thank you, and I actually heard from several people
that there were so many people that were downtown
for the No Kings Rally that they couldn't actually
make it up the sidewalk and walking.
They had to pretty much stand, stand put in.
Going upstream was just about impossible.
So it's great to hear that there was truly
just a terrific community rally for that.
As we heard from some of the other council members,
I attended the League of Cities annual conference.
What's great about that is the sessions are terrific,
but it's really understanding so many of our colleagues
that are other council members and mayors
up and down the state that are experiencing
the exact same issues that we are,
whether it's parking, whether it's e-bikes,
or fire mitigation, all these kind of things
that we're able to work together and collaborate
and come up with somewhat either whether it's solutions
or movement in the right direction.
And so I really get so much out of that
It's great to see that level of involvement.
We had four of our council members,
as well as our city manager, and assistant city manager,
and I think we represented Walnut Creek well.
As a liaison to the Diablo Regional Arts Association,
we had the board meeting last week,
and on Broadway was the most successful fundraising night
that DRAA has ever had.
Exceeded everything that we'd ever done previously.
Great to see that, because we know how important the arts are.
And after everything that's happened in the last 5 to 10
years, COVID in there, the Lesher Center of the Arts
is the major arts arena and area in the entire East Bay.
It really is.
There are a couple of places in Berkeley
that would probably argue with that.
But for what I hear from not just myself and my wife,
but from people in the community,
this is really where it's at.
So it's great to see that those donations
and the DRA continue to thrive.
And along with that,
the center rep has its next production,
Woman in Black, that'll be from November 5th
through November 23rd,
described by the San Francisco Chronicle
as a white-knuckle thriller.
So we'll find out.
Then there were several things that I attended
with the mayor and tenants as well,
and I won't go into detail on all of these,
so you'll still have something to talk about.
One of them was the Rossmer Diversity Festival.
And again, I think this is terrific to see in our community
with hundreds of people that come together,
a variety of different, whether it's ethnicities
or cultures all coming together to help understand
and educate what their upbringing was
and what it's like in the areas
of the world that they're from.
And the mayor spoke about, again,
it's just a terrific festival and so needed at this time.
As the liaison for County Connection,
I mentioned at the last meeting
that we were reviewing the Route 4
and that we were gonna be voting on some slight changes
to our free shuttle on Route 4.
The board did approve those changes.
There was a couple of people from the community
that had some outreach mentioning
this could be a little bit more inconvenient for them.
We're working with them.
Hopefully they understand a little bit more now
that by it being lead times now of every 15 minutes
for the shuttle, rather than every 20 minutes,
it'll actually be more convenient.
And if it's not stopping right where they were before,
which is typically at South Broadway and Newell,
it's a couple of blocks to where the stop is.
So it shouldn't be a problem.
That said, County Connections staff will be working
to make sure to listen to any kind of resident concerns
that happen once this comes into effect in January.
So, beware of that, especially if you take the,
whether you get on or off the bus
at the south end of Broadway Plaza.
And CCTA, Contra Costa County Transit Authority,
had a workshop yesterday looking at some of the vision
that's happening in the future.
We're talking long range vision.
10 years, 20 years of how we can work together
to make sure that transportation works most effectively
and get people out of their cars and onto public transit
or make it more efficient for whatever they're doing.
And then lastly, today, I was joined with the mayor
at White Pony Express, where we helped them
to onboard some food that came from where they,
I guess they were donations from Whole Foods.
Okay, donations from Whole Foods, we loaded the van,
off it went to help feed those people that are in need.
And that, it's great to actually have hands-on
with some of these events where we know what we're doing
is turning into immediate solutions
for people that are in need.
So that's my update.
Thank you.
It's been a busy couple weeks.
As I mentioned to the assembly member staff,
we did a tour with Senator Grayson,
the city manager, Mayor Pro Tem and I took him around.
We walked around Broadway Plaza
and talked about Smash and Grab, Prop 36,
all the different kinds of things that we're doing
to cut down on crime in that area.
Then we jumped in the van,
and this is the point at which it started to rain
like nobody's business.
and of course we had left all of our umbrellas in the van,
but we took him down to Trinity Center
and he had never really been there.
We got, okay, we are back in session
and next on the agenda is consideration of the item
to approve transmittal of a comment letter
to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission
regarding the transit oriented communities policy
and its implementation.
And I invite community development director,
Erica van der Ran forward to provide us
an excellent presentation.
Thank you very much Mayor Pro Tem Council.
Again, I'm Erika Van and Brown Community Development Director.
And I'll just start with the presentation.
So overall, to share with you the TOC policy requirements,
its implementation and then call for flexibility.
So whenever the MTC adopted its TOC policy
in September of 2022, it had four goals.
To increase affordable housing supply in transit areas,
increase the density for commercial office development
and prioritize transit and active transportation
near stations, and then also to create equitable
and transit-oriented communities.
Now recall that in 2022, there were a lot of things going on,
one of which was we were coming out of COVID,
and then the other is that the jurisdictions
in the Bay Area were all in the midst
of updating our housing element.
So this policy is intended to be used by MTC for funding,
and so for funding, it's future one bay area grant.
So in the past, we have received quite a bit of funds,
most recently about $8 million through OBAG-3,
but there's also the potential to apply it
to other discretionary funds, transportation funding,
as well as regional housing bonds
if they're ever put on the ballot in the past.
So why this matters is what level of compliance is actually needed in order to access the
funding.
So is it you have to be fully compliant, partially compliant, or where on a scale?
Now this is important in terms of priority development areas.
So this was a concept that was first initiated in 2008 and these PDAs, although this isn't
showing up properly on the screen, they were voluntary.
It was a collaborative process and it served as the foundation for west and north downtown specific plans
and this was something that was sponsored by MTC and
Worked in concert with the city and then the community to develop further plans
So again, the PDA is the area on I guess stepping back for one second
We have two areas which are subject to this TOC policy one is around the Walnut Creek part station
and the other is around the Pleasant Hill part station and
the area on the left that has the I guess that it's bounded by the
Block by the black is the PDA the circle is
One half mile of in around the BART station the TOC area
And then the green area is the west downtown specific plan
And then the yellow area is the north downtown specific plant
And you can see that these specific plans are a subset within that PDA
It was done with intention to be able to focus growth around our transit station in the Walnut Creek Park station
On the right-hand side, there's also a PDA,
which is the Contra Costa Center PDA,
as well as the city boundaries.
But what you see there is that the PDA
around the Contra Costa area, the station,
does not include the city and it's within the county.
And these are important as we go through and look further.
One other particular thing of note over here
is that the geographic areas of the PDA
and then also the planning areas for the specific plans
were done voluntarily in concert with both MTC and the city,
whereas the circle, that's one half mile radius
around the stations is just a blanket unilateral approach
to an area around the BART stations.
So, to give you a little bit of context,
around the Walnut Creek BART station.
So the idea of a half-mile radius
is intended to be about a 10-minute walk or so.
And keep in mind that it's a 10-minute walk,
not a 10-minute flight, which is really important,
because if you look at two particular areas
that on the far left-hand side
that are identified with the two red dots,
that is about a half mile radius.
And so if you walk, that's as far as you can get,
so all the rest of the area that's to the left of the 680
really is outside a half mile capture zone.
But the policy does not recognize that.
Second thing is that if you look at the topography,
it also doesn't recognize the fact
that there is a freeway there that acts like a river.
And so if you look at the picture
on the top right hand side,
it really shows you what it's like to cross over that river
and get to one point in one walk zone.
And also on the opposite side of,
on the west side of 680,
what we have there is a very steep terrain
and it really is not conducive
to the types of land use densities
that they're asking for that I'll talk about
just a moment. Similarly around the Pleasant Hill on Bart TOC area on the
part on the right hand side you can walk the Google doesn't let you put a dot in
the middle of the freeway so we had to go a little bit further but so it's
about you know six tenths of miles opposed to half a mile but you can walk
to the end of the freeway cross over the freeway from the Pleasant Hill Bart
station or you could walk to the IHOP going the other way and that's really
about half mile distance. And so all the area that is to the left in the capture
zone really is far outside of what a half mile walk would actually be. So why
this matters is because there are four components that one has, that this
jurisdiction needs to be compliant with for this policy to be eligible for
for funding water densities for both residential and commercial which gives
you 25 points and then there's affordable housing which gives you
another 25 points for housing policies from what they call the three P's
production preservation protection and also commercial stabilization and then
you have the kind of the transportation side of the house that parking management
and then transit station access and circulation and those count for an
additional 50 points altogether. So we're okay on generally speaking on the on the
transportation side we don't have parking maximums for most of the area
but we're not doing significantly in terms of the number of points but on the
density and housing there are significant issues which arise. So
specifically, on the residential side. So we, in order to be compliant, that
increases the densities that are above our certified housing element quite
substantially, to 50 units per acre minimum over that entire area. So at the,
it's evaluated for the entire circle area that I'd showed you earlier, not just
simply the North Downtown and West Downtown areas.
We are not able to meet those residential densities
at either the Walnut Creek or the Pleasant Hill TOC areas.
And we don't see a scenario that,
with the way that things are currently constructed,
that we would ever be able to meet it.
And that even the area in the rubric,
as we've been calling it,
to be able to get partial credit,
we don't even meet partial credit
because they have so much area that is not zoned
with that level of density.
It also requires an intensified housing capacity
near the BART station, which directly contradicts
the guidance that we are given by HCD
and for our housing element,
that if we are going to be meeting
to add additional capacity, either to have a buffer area
or to have a mid, I guess mid-plan review,
then we would need to be looking at areas
that were outside of the transit area
and single-family homes.
So single-family homes owned area.
So just so that you're aware of that.
Can I ask a question on that one?
Eric, on the 50 units in here.
So is it true that we meet that standard
generally within the PDA area?
but we don't meet it within the entire
half mile radius circle.
We don't meet it within the half mile radius circle
and the way that we're able to get there
in the PDA or the North Downtown
and the North Downtown and West Downtown specific plans
particularly is that we have developed,
there are projects that have yielded that amount or greater
but they've had density bonus,
which is allowed by state law
but this policy doesn't allow us to take credit
And then also in the North downtown specific plan there's community benefits and upon which the
Density bonus can be on top of that. And so we've been able to get
many projects that would get those types of yields and in terms of
Multi-family housing, but the way that they have it calculated we can't meet that requirement
Similarly for the commercial office density and for those of you who have been listening to our business community
We've been hearing that there is a dearth of folks that really want to actually populate,
you know, the commercial office, but their requirement is that there be 2.0 FAR or higher,
and we don't meet those minimums at either the Walnut Creek or the Pleasant Hill transit-oriented
community areas.
On the left-hand side, you know, there's a map from our general plan.
And there are certainly parcels that meet it.
But whenever you take the entire area that's in that circular area for, you know, for the
commercial densities, we don't meet it.
The other thing, too, is that the policy has not considered economic impacts.
And so that the densities that are being proposed
for the commercial office and the commercial areas
really contradict what our specific plan strategy is
to try and move certain businesses
like the different automobile dealerships, et cetera,
out of the downtown to allow density
with near the BART station.
And it doesn't recognize the economic implications
for the city and doesn't provide for a way
to be able to have an alternate pathway.
Okay, then there's what is called the three Ps,
which in housing element speak
was affirmatively furthering fair housing.
So we went through a very substantial effort
as you are so well aware to go through work
with the state HCD to get our housing element
adopted and certified so that the requirements that this MTC TOC policy
has exceeds what was required for our housing element by the state and this is
not fully inclusive but it highlights most of many of the policies and the
challenges that are there so that for example the City of Walnut Creek has an
inclusionary housing policy of ten percent. The policy the TOC policy would
require 15% and what we've been hearing from the development community is that
even 10% is you know a push and in order to prove to MTC that 15% is not viable
we would have to undertake a very significant and costly study to
demonstrate that and this is despite the fact that even this the builders remedy
projects only require 13% affordability.
Similarly, there's, you know, there's a group of policies that are options that
you can choose amongst, and these funding policies have a, this one has a four
million dollar commitment over four years to be devoted toward affordable
housing. Even in the best of years, the kind of revenue that we receive only
accounts for up to 2.8 million, and that's assuming that we have significant
commercial development occurring. So we get commercial linkage fees and then
fee in lieu for housing. Excuse me, the 2.8 million that's averaged across a
number of years to see what we correct in four years. Yes. That's four years for
four million. That's correct. Legal assistance, so that the policy requires
300,000 over four years and we have over four years 33,000
devoted from our community development block grant funds.
Similarly, fair housing enforcement,
300,000 over four years, we have 24,000
over that same time period.
There's also options for foreclosure assistance,
$300,000 over four years.
We have zero devoted to that.
And then public and community land trusts,
$1.2 million over four years.
We have zero because we don't have any public or community land trusts.
So then going on to non-monetary policies because it's not always about money.
So there are rent stabilization, just cause eviction policies that we do not have in our
housing element, but they would require if we don't choose one of the monetary elements.
Or their policies that are there for single-room occupancy preservation or mobile home preservation,
which we're not eligible for because we don't have those products within our community.
And then there are also tenant anti-harassment protections, which again, we don't have in
our certified housing element.
So that's an overview in context.
And so we have prepared for your consideration a letter, a comment letter to go to MTC that
first addresses the TOC policy requirements, the lack of clarity about how it would actually
be used, the unworkable nature of the compliance options for policy implementation, and then
also calling for flexibility and alternative paths for compliance that rely more on the
PDAs and the work that substantial investment had been made by both MTC and our community.
And the MTC Board starts meeting tomorrow, but with this topic being taken up on Thursday
morning to be able to have discussion.
With that I will end and answer any questions you have.
I'll just kick it off.
what you're looking for from us tonight is in response to the challenges that
you've laid out here the staff recommendation is to put together a
letter just saying that's nice but this is this is an option that we want to
have as far as more flexibility. More flexibility and also for MTC's board to
recognize that the implementation of the policy as MTC's staff is currently recommending
is not workable.
And I guess I should also clarify that there's at least some level of recognition of that
by MTC's staff and that just this late this afternoon, they sent a revised scoring matrix
which read Jigger somewhat on the transportation side,
the points, but largely the points remain the same
in their allocation on the housing and density side,
which is where we have the most challenges.
Okay, questions for staff?
I know you have questions.
Well, I do because thank you very much to staff for this
and all the work that you've been putting into it.
And I know it's both the transportation side
and also the land use side.
As a representative to the executive board of ABAG,
we had an opportunity to look at this.
And I will say this, sitting on a regional board
is very different from sitting on a board here.
Staff assumes that they're right
and that we will rubber stamp.
And so they go very quickly through every slide.
They don't pause for questions.
And it's a bit hard to understand
because they're stuffing 20 pounds of material
in a five pound bag.
So every slide has five pounds worth of material on it.
I don't know if you see this at MCE,
but you see this at MTC and you see it at ABAG.
So some of my questions are really to try to get
at the core concerns that I think we have
from a flexibility standpoint.
But I'm gonna start with, are there other communities
or agencies that are concerned about this?
There are, and the list of concerned entities,
so this is part, but not entirely.
So it includes the Walnut Creek Chamber of Commerce,
East Bay Leadership Council,
the cities of Concord, Orinda, and San Jose,
the Chambers of Commerce for Concord,
Pittsburgh, Livermore Valley, San Leandro,
the San Mateo Chamber,
and the San Mateo County Economic Development Association,
the Alameda Chamber and Economic Alliance,
the San Pablo EDC and Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group,
along with the Realtors Associations
for East Bay, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Santa Clara County,
Silicon Valley, California Apartment Association,
and the San Francisco Apartment Association.
What kind of response do you hear?
I know the type of response I've heard when I raise issues.
What type of response are you hearing when things
like, when looking for greater flexibility, this doesn't work.
What are the suggestions you hear?
Flexibility has been interpreted by staff
because we really haven't had access directly to the board.
But flexibility manifests in more complexity.
And the requests for greater flexibility
shows more complexity.
And so in your packet, you have the administrative guidance
that is a little bit like putting your taxes together.
Only if you're doing alternative minimum tax.
That would be more fun actually.
Can you go back to the map that showed
where the west downtown and north downtown specific plans
were, I think four of us were involved
in these two specific plans,
probably on the planning commission,
on the transportation commission,
then you came to council in 2016.
Did we just do these out of the goodness of our heart
or was somebody else partnering with us on these?
So MTC and ABAG had come up with a concept for these PDAs,
and that was the impetus for doing these plans.
And MTC provided over $1 million in match
to our half a million dollars in city commitments, staff time
to produce these two plans.
And so the west downtown plan was adopted in 2018,
and then the north downtown specific plan
was adopted in 2019, which in the planning world,
the ink is barely dry.
So MTC invested a million dollars
of their collective monies from across the Bay Area.
In our two plans here,
did they have anything to say
about the footprint of these plans
or what the goals were?
So at the time that they were being proposed
and the grants were awarded
and then the plans were adopted,
they were highly supportive
and that these plans helped achieve
a transit-oriented community.
So they're changing the goals?
They're changing the goalposts?
They're changing the game?
Yes.
In a word, yes.
So what's so sacrosanct about a half mile circle
around a transit station?
Well, there's nothing sacrosanct per se.
And so what half a mile is meant in the transportation world
is to represent about a 10-minute walk, which
is a comfort area to be able to walk to transit.
However, these are as the crow flies,
as opposed to as the person walks.
And so in many areas that are within this half-mile
circumference or a radius area, it's actually, you know, half an hour or longer to be able
to act, to walk there. And on the west side of the freeway, not very pedestrian or bicycling-friendly
conditions.
So I walked one of these, I walked up Oakvale this morning. It took from the corner of Trinity
in Oakland, across just the overpass, took two and a half to three minutes, you're huffing
and puffing because it is a 30% rise at minimum, and then you have to turn and you have to
huff and puff all the way up. It was close to 15 minutes total. And even walking downhill
to the BART station took 16 minutes, and that was in walking shoes and not caring about
what you looked like by the time you got there.
There was a lot of additional density in housing units
for both the north downtown
and the west downtown specific plan areas.
What did that look like when we were done?
Because I think that got translated into ARENA numbers.
Yeah, so it was about, I guess, 3,600 units
that were added through the increased density.
And one, if you take into account
the buffer requirements for affordable housing
within our housing element, it's just under half.
So roughly half of the new units that we planned for
in the yellow and the green equated to half of what we,
the units we planned for equated to about half of what we had
to produce or promise to produce for our housing element.
Correct.
So did we just throw a dart at the wall
at the housing element?
Or I remember going around and around and around
that there were tables and tables and tables
that every site had to be certified,
that in fact, it would produce the density.
That's entirely correct.
So that the work that we had done
to produce the North downtown
and West downtown specific plans formed the foundation.
And then from that foundation,
we needed to apply the requirements for the state HCD
and go through and justify each and every site.
And that process was quite detailed.
And in fact, through the public comment process,
several sites ended up having to be taken out
within this same area.
And so there was quite a lot of work that went into it.
So when you say all this to the staff at MTC,
what's their response?
Their staff says that that's the policy, and that in order to comply, that one must meet
the compliance requirements, and if we're not able to or willing to make the changes,
then we don't care enough about having access to the dollars.
So let me see if I can summarize that the way someone else expressed it to me as well,
which is you don't care about the money,
therefore you don't like our carrot,
when in fact what lack of the funding is a stick.
So I would even go further,
I would say that our community cares very deeply
about having access to the funds
because it's very critical to be able to have safe streets,
safe routes to school,
and a lot of these access improvements
that make our community safer
and more accessible to transit.
So I would make the opposite argument
that based off of our past
and this council's past behavior,
that we care very deeply.
I think I'm gonna start getting,
yeah, the encouragement.
Thank you, Erica.
For Tim?
Yeah, thanks.
I have a question a little bit more related
to the staff report regarding in lieu fees,
and it mentioned that on one of the point scales
that we don't have as many in-loofies,
therefore we're not gonna get as many points.
And why do you think the in-loofies
have been less than it was before?
And it's my guess, but is it because
that more developers are including affordable housing
within their developments?
So it's a combination of that and the fact
that there's just simply been less development
because of economic conditions.
So, if I make the natural next step,
we've got the state mandates which provide,
which encourages development
to have more affordable housing.
And if they put more affordable housing,
they get bonus units that they can put
in the development projects.
Therefore, they are building those.
We're getting less in lieu fees for affordable housing
and then being penalized for that.
Do I get that right?
That logic is accurate.
Okay.
Thank you.
Can I build, well, actually let me build on.
Let's finish going through everybody else.
So I always find when people sort of pose
contradictory philosophies,
that like I try to get inside their head like what,
and I'm interested in the answers to the questions
that council member Silva brought up.
But specifically, when we talk about proposing two
contradictory, I mean, there's the circle,
and then there's the planned development areas.
Do they respond to that half-mile radius
versus planned development areas?
The fact that within a few years,
they're proposing contradictory pathways
to go about achieving, you know,
transit-oriented community status?
So, no, they don't.
But not that I would characterize myself
as getting inside anyone's head,
but what I would say is that whenever this policy
was being worked on and developed in the midst of COVID,
it was prior to a lot of effort
that have been put in by the state.
And so this policy was adopted before we certainly,
and in fact, most of the Bay Area jurisdictions
had our housing element certified.
So I guess that's one thing.
Second thing is that a good idea on paper
and then how it manifests in the real world
hadn't really been vetted
because everyone was focused on coming out of COVID,
And then also our housing elements.
And there had been legislation that
had been kicking around for quite a while at the state
level, which ultimately most recently resulted
in the passage and the signing into law of SB 79, which
talks about half a mile radius around major transit stops.
However, Contra Costa County is not
included in that state requirement.
So this puts us out of sync with what state law requires
currently.
And that SB 79, you had to have a city of greater than like
400,000, I think, in order to qualify for that?
So first, you had to be in an urban transit county.
And so you had to identify that there
were certain levels of transit occurring
and meet certain conditions.
And Contra Costa County did not meet that condition.
I know we're getting off a little bit, but around the state,
did actually, like roughly, I remember it was very few.
I was like six or seven.
So we took this concept that only applied to eight counties
and now we're, OK.
So I was curious if we, based on your preliminary projections,
and I know there's a lot of uncertainty, what
do you think will be the lack of funding?
Or how much funding will we not qualify for?
If we were getting $8 million in O-Bag 3,
then what were we projecting for 4,
and where do we see how much money we
would be in a shortfall?
That is an excellent question, and it's one that I can't answer.
And the reason why I can't answer it
is because usually, whenever a process like this
goes through, you know what the goalposts look like.
We don't know what the goalposts look like.
for what compliance level would one need
in order to be eligible for OBAG for and subsequent funds
as well as for any future housing funds.
And so that's an issue.
And then the other issue is that in complying
with even partially with these requirements,
how many points is good enough.
And that goalpost keeps changing too
in response to feedback.
Because I'm seeing roughly like $3 million
we'd have to spend on the areas where we were short
on our spending just to comply for points
to then get maybe a few million back.
Did we look at it through that?
I'm sure that all of you as counsel
are looking through the lens of the budget
And having just most recently had to close a budget gap.
Thank you.
Council Member Francois.
Thanks, Erica.
You kind of touched on in response
to Council Member Davini's questions,
but is there a rough idea of how many points
we would need to be eligible for the same amount
of funding we had received previously?
No, because again, that hasn't been established.
We're confident that 51 is too low.
I'm not confident of much of anything at this point, quite honestly, because the point scoring,
et cetera, keeps moving around and, you know, I had given you the most recent one in your
council packet and then there's a new one which was produced today.
Generally, then, the PDAs were developed not, I mean, I think there was a proximity to BART
that factored into them, right, and it was done at a regional level, but then it was
also reflecting kind of walkability and the economic factor, which I guess the straight
half-mile radius doesn't take, what properties are likely to get redeveloped that are in
close proximity to BART?
So the original PDAs were, you know, there was a flavor, if you will, that was transit-oriented,
and that's what, you know, we see reflected in our community.
And by putting a half-mile radius around an area, it doesn't necessarily mean that all
the area that's there is conducive to the level of densities that they're requiring.
Right.
And I'm in support and then we'll get to the comments and I guess in a little bit just kind of as a practical question
What you know?
What ability do we have to influence that the policy is done now as I understand it
So it's now the implementing guidelines do we are we still in the running to try to influence?
Those and how this is implemented
There is a an MTC board retreat on
Thursday dealing with this specific area.
And I would say that the greatest potential
is to influence its implementation,
but if there's heartburn,
we should know about the policy itself.
We should also articulate that.
Okay, I thought of another question.
Then what, looking out kind of on the landscape,
what agencies are scoring 80 or, do we know?
Like 80 or above?
So, I guess two things.
One is that City of Concord,
even though that they have said
that they have significant concerns with the policy,
I think that they had a draft score,
at least in the last go round, of about in the 80s.
But they still have concerns about the policy.
Other jurisdictions, and I can't recall them
off the top of my head, but they're very flat,
and that they're not yet developed.
And so it's an easy thing to be able to imagine a future.
But for areas like ours that have existing development,
have strategy in place and have plans and focus,
it's presenting heartburn.
That's interesting that Concord is scoring that highly.
One, was there any thought given?
I like the PDA comment.
I think that's a really logical one
and should be part of the comment letter.
Now that SB 79 has come online,
I know Concord's a little bit of an outlier
because they're in Contra Costa County too,
but is there an ability to say,
it shouldn't be one size fits all,
even SB 79 recognizes that,
that some counties with more art stations essentially
should, are subject to those higher density limits
and counties like Contra Costa are not.
that is a policy choice and decision
to make that recommendation.
Okay.
Can you clarify that last part?
You said the county is not responsible
because I was wondering with the Pleasant Hill Bar station,
you're saying that the density doesn't apply to the county?
It doesn't apply, SB 79 doesn't apply
to Contra Costa County, so we're not one of the eight counties
it's subject to.
But correct me if I'm wrong,
but I believe like we're responsible for two stations,
not two stations together to independent report.
I mean, we have to file and be compliant with both.
That's correct.
Concord has two to be compliant with,
which I can't figure out how they're compliant
when they don't have access
to the Concord Naval Weapons Station yet, but.
So the county and Pleasant Hill and Walnut Creek
are responsible to file for the Pleasant Hill Bart station,
except Pleasant Hill has too low of a percentage
land in the area and so they're exempted from the station with their name on it.
I was gonna say we should be able to take the name back then and then the
other okay okay okay we're getting into comments I had a couple quick questions
um so thinking forward it sounds like there is the retreat for the MTC board
and the goal of this letter is to sway them to include another option beyond
what the staff has been presenting them correct and are we anticipating so the
audience for this letter is not MTC staff it is the MTC board that's also
correct okay and then so the call for flexibility and an alternative path to
compliance is our desired outcome yes for example around the Walnut Creek
Park Station, if we took a different geography that went further down on the
east side of the freeway that begins to mimic our West Downtown specific
plan, we get very close to the land use densities that they're asking for. And
what it also does is acknowledges the significant investment that the city has
made in putting free transit to be able to extend the reach to BART and so
that's one thing and then the other thing too with regard to the Pleasant
Hill BART station that if you look at it right there the areas of the city that
are in that capture area there are bits and pieces and that collectively it
it works out to about 32%, which is a trigger
because it's above the 20% cut off that they have.
So identifying an alternate pathway for that also
because to comply with their requirements
would really upset the apple cart
in terms of the city's economic development strategy
and our growth strategy.
Okay, and then, so if we put this forward
to the MTC board on Thursday and ask them to consider this,
are they likely to take action on Thursday?
They will not take action on Thursday.
They're hearing input.
And so in the most recent communication
that we received late this afternoon
is that it's a listening session
and not any decision-making.
And so the strategy right now is to use this letter
to convey our concerns during the listening phase.
If they end up coming out and basically not modifying
the approach and going with the staff recommendation,
is there any other recourse for us besides telling MTC Board
we don't like them anymore?
We can choose not to apply for funds.
So it's basically, there's not a way to deal with it.
Okay, all right.
I'm sure that you as an elected body have ideas, but.
Okay, why don't we go ahead
and open it up to public comments
because I think we are veering into our comments
rather than questions.
So why don't we go ahead and do that?
Is there anybody here that would like to provide
public comment on this agenda item?
Seeing no one, we'll bring it back up here.
Why don't we do a round of,
to see where we are on the letter.
Anybody wanna?
Now let's start.
I think this is the age old conversation
ever since I've been on the city council since 2016.
And that is that we're trying to continue
to fit a square peg into a round hole
that one size fits all.
We're constantly battling whether it's the state,
whether in this case MTC.
As I said, when I first came on board in 2016,
Walnut Creek has and continues to meet its obligations,
but we can't meet every city's obligations.
And it feels like in too many cases,
we're being asked to do things
that just don't make sense for the city,
yet we continue to do what's asked of us
each and every time.
I mean, here in this particular example,
we've got stations that are bordered
between the freeway, county jurisdictions.
These ones don't border the open space,
but we've got bordering on open space
that doesn't allow us to build there anyway.
We do what we can, and I'm in complete support
of this letter.
Who else wants, you wanna take a shot at comments?
I'm in complete support of the letter.
I think we need to make it clear,
while I love the one size does not fit all,
really think about putting this in the middle of Orinda,
and you will see, I mean, it's a ball with no downtown,
and yet they have the same standards to meet.
What concerns me about this is they've taken an arbitrary circle that is out of some textbook
that says about a half mile when it's not a half mile.
It is a reasonable walking distance that somebody would walk rather than drive their car and
park.
And they're trying to cover the whole half circle, or the whole circle that's a half
mile, as opposed to selecting the sites that with the areas within a transit proximate
area that are truly transit oriented and recognizing that some are not.
So we have no way to dispose of the single family homes with no good infrastructure for
walking, biking, or even driving, really, that are straight uphill.
We're having to somehow figure out how to compensate.
I made a comment to one member of the commission last week and I said, it's feeling like what
What they really want us is to do the three P's, and they're not going to let go of forcing
us to come under, to have undervaluation in order to get the three P's.
I said, but that just sounds like conspiracy theory and she goes, yep.
So just understand it was a different commission when this was developed with a different set
of values.
So I think we've got the best shot now of counteracting this.
But I think what I worry about most is that they'll just slow it down when fundamentally
it is flawed.
Slowing down something that is flawed is still flawed.
And so that's what concerns me most about getting them amped up, the Commission.
I think they'll slow it down no matter what, because I'm my read of the tea leaves.
But I'm afraid that they'll slow it down and staff will continue to just turn at this
methodology that they've invented that they don't want to let go of.
All right.
Councilmember Defeney?
Well, well said.
Mayor Pro Tem Wilk and Councilmember Silva.
I find this to be, I think it would be interesting to hear someone come in and defend this in
front of us you know to actually apply logic to to what they're doing I mean
there's an intent but the execution and the application are are poor so I'm in
support of the letter thank you council Francois yeah I I too am in support of
the letter I you know I thought some of the points that are raised in terms of
the alternative means of compliance were compelling I think you know in
addition to building upon the existing PDAs if we can get a reference in there
to and adopted specific plans that were funded by MTC. I think that that's
already there using certified housing elements but it's if we can't meet it
I'm really shocked to hear that Concord can because I think that we've done a
lot in terms of proactively planning for additional housing in and around the
BART station, both BART stations.
And so the 10 minute walk was also something,
when you use that example of shifting the pin
instead of straight in the middle of the BART station
where it actually would be a radius
that is an actual 10 minute walk,
I think there should be emphasis on that.
My concern is, and I also think would suggest
consider adding a graphic to this letter,
I think that adds, you know, especially the one where you compare the radius to the PDAs,
I think that's very powerful. I worry that it would, you know, letters tend to go off there.
I'm really encouraged by who the chair of MTC is and that she's our neighboring,
from on our neighboring city council. So I know that we have influence there, but I also,
if we don't have a spokesperson there to speak to this or Contra Costa does, and I'm worried
that it falls somewhat on deaf ears, that this is going to take a concerted
effort, an organized effort, a lobbying effort, so to speak, to get them to
really seriously consider an alternative means of compliance, and that would
require the people on that board firmly directing staff to do that, it sounds
like, because otherwise they will do other things, and that won't be good. So
So thank you for calling this to our attention, bringing it to the housing committee and to
the council and for drafting this letter and I'm in support of sending it.
I too am in support of the letter.
I like the addition under the Building Upon Existing PDAs and adding in the language about
the specific plans funded by MTC.
And I think putting in, I'm not quite sure where it goes,
but emphasizing the amount of time, energy,
and public input that went into the housing element
and that the housing element has been certified
to meet our RINA goals.
And referencing the RINA goals might not be a bad addition.
I don't wanna get into wordsmithing up here,
but since my name's gonna go on and I get to, yeah.
So I would like to see a couple modifications
to beef up the idea,
because I think what could be compelling
for a decision maker is we're not saying
we want an alternative path to compliance
because we don't want to comply.
We're just saying we want an alternative path to compliance
that builds upon all the site-specific efforts
we've done to meet our state and local goals for housing and that that is the path to success
is the amount of time and energy that have gone into those things. So getting that
flavor in there and letting them know that we're not trying to not do what we need to
do we're just trying to tell them this is a much more efficient way to do it.
Anybody want to make a motion? Move to approve the transmittal of the letter
with our comments tonight, commenting on the transit oriented community's policy
and its implementation to MCTC by hand because they're starting their meetings tomorrow afternoon
at the embassy suites in Walnut Creek. Second. Will call please. Councilmember Silva? Aye.
Mayor Pro Tembo? Aye. Councilmember Davini? Aye. Councilmember Francois? Aye. Mayor Darling?
Hi and it sounds like I might be on a mission here in the next day or so.
I know but I think as mayor I would tell us yeah. All right thank you very much this was
entertaining. Moving on speaking of entertaining we have gotten to consideration and direction on
the city's e-bike safety action plan and I kind of wanted to set a little bit of a stage here
because we saw a lot of questions and comments in here that came from the public about what
we're trying to do here. And we in the city have a bike master plan, we have working hard on safe
routes to school, we have a vision zero plan, we have many different efforts that we're going to
try to make sure that we move people out of cars wherever we can to other modes of transportation,
whether that be mass transit, micro mobility, walking, riding, and so that's our overall goal.
And the micro mobility represented by an e-bike is a clear part of that goal. The challenges that
we're seeing really have come about as we have discovered when you take this really great micro
mobility which is really fun to ride and then you give it to a bunch of 13-year-olds you have some
challenges and that's what we're addressing here today. We're not backing
away from our commitments to sustainability and micromobility, we're
just trying to improve public safety. And now I'm off my soapbox, you may do your
presentation. Madam Mayor, Member City Council, good evening, Charles Ching, I'm
the Assistant City Manager. The item that I will be presenting to City Council
tonight is the e-bike safety action plan which outlines city's efforts, city's
current efforts and future efforts around promoting the safe use of e-bikes in Walnut Creek.
E-bike use has been growing in popularity in recent years. According to the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, e-bikes are the most popular alternative mode of transportation
for the past couple of years. And because of this, we've been seeing a record number of
e-bike related injuries. Last year, there were 45,000 e-bike related injuries
recorded. That being said, I want to reiterate what the mayor said. The idea
of this action plan is not to condemn the use of e-bikes.
E-bikes is an alternative mode of transportation. It has a lot of benefits,
especially around sustainability and the environment. On a more local level,
e-bike trips in Contra Costa has been increasing year-over-year in 2021 it was
at 3.6 percent in 2025 it has more than doubled to 8.2 percent and so the
popularity has has been hitting Contra Costa County as well. Is that percent of
all trips or percent of bicycle trips? This is percent growth of e-bike use
year over year. In compare but it is 3% of what? Compared to 2020. It's just
measuring the growth. Thank you. Yes. So before I jump into the actions, I want
to talk about the three most popular and the three types of e-bikes. There's a
class one, class two, and class three e-bikes. Class one and class two are the
most similar of the three in terms of requirements. They're both pedal assist
bikes and helmets are required for anyone riding an e-bike under the under
the age of 18. There is no minimum age in using class 1 and class 2 e-bikes, no
requirement for a driver's license, and both can has a speed limit of 20
miles an hour. The biggest difference between the two is that class 2 e-bikes
have a throttle whereas class 1 e-bikes do not. For class 3 e-bikes, class 3
e-bikes do not have a throttle. They are pedal assist but they can go up to 28
miles per hour and that's why there's a minimum age of 16 years old and above
before you can use class 3 e-bikes. Now, I did reference a California vehicle code section
underneath that an e-bike must have fully operable pedals and electric motor for it
to be considered an e-bike. The reason why I put that on there is because I did not want to confuse
class 1, 2, and 3 e-bikes with other types of two-wheeled motorized vehicles that we're seeing
on the streets. We have emo-peds, we have e-dirt bikes and e-scooters. Now these three
are governed by different rules and regulations around usage. Emo-peds requires the use of
helmets for anyone operating it under the age of 18 and must have either an M1 or M2
driver's license. M1 and M2 driver's licenses are licenses required to operate two-wheel
vehicles. E-dirt bikes, helmets are required for all ages. These do not
require a driver's license because these are not made to be operated on public
roads. These can go up to 28 miles per hour. And then for e-scooters, these are
you will need a valley driver's license to operate an e-scooter. You will need a
helmet for for anyone operating it who is 18 years old or below in a maximum
speed limit of 15 miles an hour. So myself along with other staff with the
city came up with an e-bike safety action plan which really revolves around
five pillars. First is a public education campaign talking about safe use of e-bikes.
Safety checks and enforcement will continue to be something that will be
really important as we encourage the use of the safe use of e-bikes, statewide
legislation and local policies continuing to to monitor statewide
legislation around e-bikes, the continued improvement of bike
infrastructure, and also partnerships within the community. So as for our
public education campaign we feel that there are four sides that we want to
our public that we want to deliver a message to the public. One is a new city
e-bike web page. Two are educational videos. We understand that a lot
of people digest information better through videos. Social media is such a
powerful tool and we deliver a lot of our messaging through social media right
now. And last but not least, in-person outreach. So four weeks ago we launched
our new e-bike city webpage. This web page can be accessed through both the city website and also
the PD website. Our new web page has a lot of valuable information about the different types of
e-bikes, training videos, training resources, and FAQs around the proper use of e-bikes.
As of today we've had 575 unique website views from from the day it was launched.
But we've also gotten a lot of success with our newsletter articles and also our social media
social media pages. As you can see we've gotten over 244 000 touch points just on online outreach
alone. And then finally in-person outreach we've done as city staff a lot of in-person outreach.
the police department held its first ever bike rodeo in July. We've had several dozen
people come out and participate. We've also got a few local businesses to donate
giveaways and safety supplies to the participants. We're also leveraging our connections with the
schools. We feel that the schools are a very important resource that we can use.
So earlier this month Public Works and PD participated in the National Walk and Roll
event at WCI which was very well attended. We've done outreach at Foothill Middle School
and we do have scheduled presentations for at local schools and also at
parent teacher's association scheduled in early November. So there's just more photos on the bike
rodeo. As you can see we have PD personnel just teaching the kids in the parents on proper
bike use and proper e-bike use. Next is statewide legislation. There's a number of legislation out
there that we're continuing to monitor and there are five that I wanted to
highlight that have been signed into law. One is Senate Bill 381 authored by
Senator Min. This was adopted in 2023 which prompted the Merida
Institute out of San Jose State to conduct a study on e-bikes to inform
a future legislation. Under the bill the report is due on January 1st, so we will monitor
to see what the report has to say around e-bikes. And then there are two assembly bills authored
by Assemblymember Davies around safety of e-bikes. One is the requirement to equip a
a bike with a red reflector, a flashing reflector when you use an e-bike at night. That is AB-544.
And then AB-545 prohibits a person from selling a device that enables you to modify an e-bike.
That's one of the biggest problems that we're seeing with e-bikes right now is although
their speed is limited out of the box, there are vendors of kits that allow you to modify
these these bikes to to go faster and clearly more dangerous. So this bill goes into effect
in January of 2026. AB875 is another bill that authorizes the the impounding of of two-wheeled
vehicles that are not considered e-bikes that are being operated illegally or in an instance
where a class 3 e-bike is being operated by a person under the age of 16. So it gives
police or a peace officer the authority to impound those vehicles. And then last but
not least is AB 965. This prohibits a person from selling a class 3 e-bike to anyone under
the age of 16 who is not authorized to operate a class 3 e-bike to begin with. Like I said,
We will continue to monitor legislation that is being considered and we'll report back
to City Council if there's anything that is of significance.
And then although a lot of our action plan revolves around legislation and education,
we feel that e-bike safety checks and enforcement is still a very important action that needs
to be taken to encourage safe e-bike use.
So you can see, Walnut Creek Police Department has done many enforcement efforts throughout
the past couple of months.
We had one not too long ago with our partner, East Bay Regional Parks District.
This has resulted in many stops, several dozen citations, and we've impounded two e-motorcycles
in the process.
And to further improve our delivery of service, we are actually sending a police officer to
a post-certified e-bike instructor course.
This is a new five-day course that is being put together by post to just convey best practices
around policing of e-bikes.
And then bike infrastructure.
I think it's really important to highlight the city's commitment on improving the city's
bike infrastructure. Parks and recreational facilities is a city council priority and under
the city's sustainability action plan the city council has committed to increasing bike facility
miles by 25 percent by 2030. To date our bike network has increased by 12 percent
And in the next year, by 2027, we have about 7.67 million in bike facility projects that
are slated to start. So we understand that bike infrastructure is probably the best way to keep
bikers, pedestrians, and autos safe by separating them from the road. We understand bike
infrastructure is very expensive, but the city continues to invest in bike infrastructure.
And this slide just shows the infrastructure that is currently in development and that
are being planned in the future.
North Broadway, Parkside, Arroyo, and Walden is already funded and is part of the $7.67
million project.
We have several in our 10-year CIP, and matter of fact at our last City Council meeting,
council approved connecting uh the bike the bike infrastructure we have on Geary to treat. So
just furthering the city's emphasis on improving bike infrastructure throughout the city.
And then finally we understand that a lot of the work we can't do ourselves and so we're really
leveraging a lot of our partnerships. The city is part of the e-bike safety coalition. This is a
group that is being spearheaded by the town of Danville. It's made up of different Contra
Costa cities and Alameda cities tackling the use of e-bikes and the safe use of e-bikes.
We, like I mentioned earlier, PD has done enforcement efforts with partners with East
East Bay Regional Park District.
We've tapped the Youth Commission
who's committed to further the message on e-bikes
and has committed to making their annual project
something around e-bike safety.
So we're partnering with legislators,
schools and school districts, parents, the public,
small businesses and other stakeholders
within the community as well.
So this is a photo of the e-bike post done
by our youth commission and just further emphasizes
that we are going to tap into our partnerships
throughout the community for this.
These are photos at the WCI Walk and Roll event
earlier this month.
And then I want to take this opportunity
to kind of clarify the rules of the road for Walnut Creek.
First, our Munich code considers e-bikes as bicycles.
And bicycles obviously must follow the traffic laws,
just like any other vehicle.
Bicyclists are restricted from riding on sidewalks,
unless they are designated sidewalks for bikes.
And we have very few of those.
And the part that's a little hard to police
is people under the age of 16 are
allowed to bike on sidewalks.
So that's the rule of the road
for the city streets and sidewalks.
The city also has a lot of open space.
So these are the rules for bikes and e-bikes
in Walnut Creek trails.
So in Walnut Creek trails,
class one and class two e-bikes are allowed on all trails
where regular bikes are allowed.
And they are allowed on all double track trails
and single track trails unless it's identified
that it's not allowed by signage.
So I'll repeat that.
So for class one and class two,
they are allowed where all regular bikes are allowed,
which is double track trails
and single track trails unless it's signed,
that it's not allowed.
Regardless of what class of e-bike, one or two,
they must, the maximum speed is 15 miles an hour.
Class III e-bikes, e-scooters and e-dirt bikes
are not allowed in open space.
And before I open it up to questions,
I wanted to play this video that we,
this is one of many videos that we shot around e-bikes
that we use, that we will be using on our website
as well as social media.
I'm officer Adamson.
Let's talk all things e-bikes.
I've got some great tips for you.
E-bikes are a fun and easy way to get around Walnut Creek.
Whether you're new to e-bikes or you've been riding for a long time, here are some great
things to keep in mind before you roll out.
First thing we want you to decide is which class of bike is best for you.
For riders under 16 years old, class 1 bikes are a phenomenal option.
Avoid bikes with throttles and stick to pedal assist on you.
If you're in the market to buy an e-bike, you want to shop at a trusted local bike shop
and make sure that your bike is street legal and safely put together.
If you're an e-bike rider, it's important to know that you must follow the same rules
of the road as cars, watch your speed, look out for traffic and joggers, and always use
hand signals when you turn or stop.
It's really important to know where you can and cannot ride your e-bike.
You are not allowed to ride your e-bike or e-scooters on sidewalks downtown, and it's
important to make sure you ride in the bike lane, or use the vehicle lane if your bike
lane is not present.
Make sure you protect your head by wearing a proper bike helmet, and make sure it fits
you right.
under 18 years old, humps are required by law. Before every ride, it's very
important that you check your tire pressure, your brakes, and your chain. Now
that you know the rules of the road regarding e-bikes, make sure you ride
smart and ride safe. And that concludes my presentation, Mayor. I'd be happy to
answer any questions. Thank you very much. Questions, clarifications?
Councilmembers Silva? Thank you very much for the presentation and all the work on
this, and I'm sure it feels like you have put in about an hour for every letter
that we have received about this issue. Could you go back to the slide where it
talks about double track and single track trails? Because I could hear the
words you were saying. It says, allowed on trails where regular brakes are allowed.
So if I resort the words here, allowed on double track trails in all
instances and in single-track trails if this says if they are identified by
signage not if they are not identified if they are identified by signage to
that it is not allowed that's not what that says okay I think we should be
clear if you're out there and there's a single track in the open space if
there's a sign at the top of it that has a little bike with the arrow through it
don't go on it. That's correct. Okay. Absent the signage, bikes are allowed. Let
me, Mayor if I may, we'll double check that and get back. Thank you. And my
suggestion would be before you actually not only check it but use the symbol to
remind you whether it's a yes or a no because we need to get that clarified
because we're gonna have people calling and phoning in and emailing us about
this issue. Thank you. Other questions. Got a quick question to clarify, I think
it was the slide before this one. So juveniles under 16 are allowed to ride
on sidewalks and it seems to me that that's been actually one of the big
problems when it comes to before and after school because that they're
riding on the sidewalks and parents are either walking or students are walking
to the sidewalk walking to school as well. So that's the case for bikes and
e-bikes and does that include scooters too? No. So this is only for bikes and
e-bikes. Okay all right and so either way on side I mean it just doesn't nothing
either way on sidewalks I didn't know that. Okay. Are cities able to enact
their own registration or licensing of e-bikes similar to a DMV so that if
people buy them we have a record of whether it's their age or some kind of
registration. We've seen other cities implement this this model so yes we are.
We are. We are. We can if we decide we want to. Okay so we're not
right now but we can. That's correct. Okay. Can I add to that just a little bit too
the law is evolving with e-bikes and so even if you look at the Moran
example where there's specific state legislation with regards to the
regulation of e-bikes so we just should keep an eye keep an eye on the state
legislation because there is attempts to get this to be more rationalized across
the state instead of case by case and and when the state gives specific
authorization to specific counties to do certain things it suggests an
implication that the authority doesn't otherwise exist for general law cities
okay expand on that your question the the registration of e-bikes in Walnut
Creek like what does that look like you're saying if you buy a bike online
anywhere and you want to ride it in Walnut Creek you'd have to register it
with the city?
No.
No, what is that?
Yeah.
Pro Tem Wilkes' question was, if there's an ability for us
to register e-bikes.
And I said there are other cities in California
who have done that, but not in Walnut Creek.
What does that mean to register them?
City of Beverly Hills is a good example.
have an e-bike registry program to where if you are to purchase an e-bike you will register
the purchase with the city and you will sign a commitment that you will follow the rules both the
parent and the child would follow the rules around e-bikes.
Thank you and lastly it's regarding education I assume that there's going to be a lot of outreach
to schools, school administration.
Has there been thought to doing something,
I think they still do every 15 minutes
when it comes to DUI for high schools,
but is there a thought to doing some kind of education
that is almost a,
a quote, scared straight for e-bike riding,
just to really get the information through
to students who might think, you know,
I'm invincible, doesn't matter, I can do whatever I want.
I'll defer to Captain Slater on that.
That's probably less a question than more a thought suggestion.
But good evening, Madam Mayor and members of council.
I'm Captain Slater, your operations captain.
And prior to this appointment, I was your traffic and outreach
manager.
So I'm somewhat versed in this topic.
And I appreciate the question very much
about the scared, straight comment.
We don't want to make people afraid to use e-bikes.
But we are concerned about people modifying them,
making them illegal, making them unsafe,
and obviously putting themselves and other people
making them unsafe by being out on the road
illegally, improperly, and unsafely.
So our target age-wise is middle schools,
and we are working very closely with the schools
who did not have this on their agenda
to have us in and do some type of public safety outreach
Thanks to our PTA members,
it looks like we're making some traction
and we're hoping in the second week of November,
we will be able to go to our middle schools
and do a small assembly.
Maybe, we were told it might be doing their...
In lieu of PE, they'll take a quick time
that we can do the small groups
to really get in depth and answer questions
since that's the target rich environment for that age group.
When it comes to the high schools,
We have plenty of students that are not quite eligible
to have a driver's license and still using these things.
So that's likely going to be a webinar
for the parents and students to do together.
And we're trying to do that same thing around the same week.
So we can be target rich with our environment
for both our students on all aspects of our public schools
and try to make a dent in this,
making sure that Christmas presents that are made,
the right purchases are made for Christmas,
and then making sure that everyone stays safe.
I am happy to report that with all of the outreach
that we have been doing,
and not just within Walnut Creek, but the entire area,
we have seen a reduced number of,
I would say, e-bike riding around town.
Maybe that's because it's getting darker,
maybe because it's getting school back in session,
but we're liking to see this trend
because it makes us easier for us to focus
on the enforcement, excuse me, the education,
and then trail back on the enforcement as necessary.
Thank you very much, and certainly this is probably
the most hot button issue in Walnut Creek right now.
Maybe all cities, I get more emails on e-bikes
than any other topic right now.
Thanks, any other questions?
For Captain Slater, what sort of enforcement challenges
is PD seeing with e-bikes?
That's a very good question.
As you may expect, if it happens to be a student
or a juvenile, a teenager that is writing these illegally
and they see a cop, we have seen them try to run away
and that could be dangerous.
So you will not be seeing us chase down
and have an accident awaiting to happen
with a very inexperienced rider on our public streets.
But we do have ways with technology to try
and if we have someone flee and we have the availability,
we have been able to track people through our use of drones.
We can't do it in advance,
but we can do it after a violation has occurred,
such as a fleeing violator.
And then we have had some success stories
in contacting those teenagers and the bad news
and what I want people to see that are listening to this.
If you do run and we do catch you,
you will be held accountable
and you will receive a citation.
And what's worse, you'll likely have your,
if it was an illegal motorcycle impounded.
We've had that happen several times
because we're here to make sure that our streets stay safe
and that our riders stay safe,
and that's the message that we're having to send,
especially if they're fleeing from us.
So, I mean, I think you're looking at
kind of more egregious safety issues,
not necessarily is that person 16 or 15
on a class two or a class three,
but are there a pack of e-bike riders
in the middle of Ignacio Valley Road?
So if that happens, that is gonna draw a lot of attention
and is likely going to be illegal,
it's not where it's supposed to be following the rules of the road like any other bicyclist
which is supposed to be off to the side or at a designated bike lane as mentioned earlier.
But we are not just focusing on someone riding a bike and making that a violation or having
that be an issue. We're looking for the behavior of the rider. So if a person is committing issues,
riding where they're not supposed to, riding recklessly such as popping wheelies,
then they will get attention and then we will make enforcement. But for everyday use of riding,
we are not going to be out there for looking for those type of violations and making those
specific enforcement stops. And the average citizen then if they see some sort of activity
like that happening should call the non-emergency line and let PD know about it? Correct, but if
someone is doing reckless driving we do want that to be called in immediately so we can try to
address it because there's not much we can do after the fact. We get calls before saying,
I just saw a car run a red light.
Well, I'm sorry, but we weren't there,
so the laws do not allow us to do anything at that time.
But that reckless driving behavior
is probably gonna continue as they drive around town,
and please call that in so we can do our best to address it.
Okay, thanks very much.
All right, so if you were a parent going shopping
for a Christmas present for a first-time e-bike rider,
which e-bike would you recommend?
That's a loaded question just because there's so many options.
And I know what Officer Adamson said, so you can't contradict him, because we are recording
a video on this.
I would say if you look at the class, especially that's up there right now, you have to pick
the one that's going to be best for your teenager on their skills and abilities and interest.
And knowing where you can write it is going to be a big factor, especially if you want
to go into the open space.
So it's going to be between a class one and a class two is how I would say it's going
to be based on that personal preference and where you want to ride it between
city streets and on our and the limited areas of our open space. Okay and then
where on the e-bike can you look to see what class it is? Well when you go to
purchase one the retailers should be able to tell you exactly where. The
police department actually has four that we can use for our for enforcement
purposes and they're actually located on the mainframe near the battery pack.
Every bike that goes for sale has it on there. And if you're a parent is there an
easy way to look at your kid's bike to see if they've modified it? Or is that
something you have to have a higher level of expertise to figure out? I would
have to do some more research to let you know. I'm just doing a pop quiz to see.
That's good. You're testing me. That is the one question I would have to do some
more research on. I can't answer that without a little additional training but
my traffic team can tell you they know. Yes. All right thanks.
Officer Adamson and I recorded a separate video on e-bikes
courtesy of Mike's Bikes and we got to go down there
and show them, look where the stickers were and everything.
So hopefully that one will be out soon.
So I appreciate your question about the alterations.
Is there any way we can work with local retailers
from the targets to the Mike's Bikes, et cetera,
to put signage up in the bike shops
that says this is what the rules are
and these are the alteration packages.
do not x marks the spot no so that's I believe that's already good being done
especially with the the legislation that's about to be passed but we are
continuing to work with those retailers and we have every intention of having
another bike rodeo sometime this school year I'm assuming next spring and I
guarantee that we will be messaging with them to make sure those signs are posted
before sales are made I was trying to get ahead of the holiday buying because
And unfortunately, I think a lot of those kits
are available on Amazon.
You are correct, but I can promise you this.
Our crime prevention specialist will be reaching out
to those known retailers that we already work with
to make sure that it's messaged
before the holiday shopping starts.
Maybe we need to talk to Amazon about putting a notice,
warning before you buy this.
Yeah, that works so well on Amazon.
Any other questions?
Yes, thanks.
I was wondering, why are the class two,
I mean, I know there's these apps
that allow the class two to be modified,
but because I think the kids are sort of doing this
on their own, it's not like they're going down to the store
and purchasing the modification kit and then taking it home,
like they've figured out the hack on their own.
What is it about the class two
that makes them so easily modifiable?
Because I mean, some of these vehicles
are going 30 plus miles per hour
and don't have the brakes equipped to handle that speed,
So, yeah.
Well, I can't say with certainty,
but we do have a officer going next month to e-bike training.
And I believe he's going to be given
some of the most current trends that
can help answer that question.
My best guess would be that with our younger generation being
so tech savvy, they like to tinker.
And this is just something, hey, let's see what I can do.
And it's not very complicated when you get to use their app
and start modifying.
But as soon as they do, that can significantly
change the speed, which makes it extremely dangerous and unsafe.
And then I was curious because talking to some parents
or some residents, they'll tell you the story about how I was
walking down the street, and that bike came whizzing by me,
and it almost hit me.
And they'll say something like, if that bike had hit me
or injured me, I'm going to sue the parents.
So I'm curious, and maybe this is
question for a city attorney, if these are classified as bicycles and you know
what what is the liability to the parents if if the kids injure someone on
on the bikes and is and what's been going on in the state with these these
types of cases like and then what if they've modified it versus not modified
And so we would have to look into that. I mean that that's that is negligence
Whether it attributes to the parents or not. I would have to look at what the case trend is
Associated with that and we can report back to the council on that
Okay, cuz I mean I'm picturing like a 12 year old on a bicycle kind of loses control and it's somebody
I can't imagine there's like that much liability to the parents that sort of just seems like
What might happen in life? But well, so let us let us report back to you because there are
provision responsibilities.
And it, you know, I don't,
we'll have to look at the case law,
but I could see where it's a little bit inverted
that the older that the person gets,
or obviously if they're emancipated or something like that,
then they have their own liability associated with it,
but we can report back to the council on that.
All right.
Mayor, if I may, if we could go back briefly to the slide
with the open space, maybe Mike Vickers,
our assistant's public works director can come up
clarify council member Silva's question there. So I have the municipal code here
or the shorter version of it and it clearly states that bicycles are
authorized on double track trails or eight foot or wider trails and less
otherwise posted and for example the pig Kovar trail is a single track trail
where bicycles are authorized and it is posted stating that bikes are authorized.
So the signage says affirmatively they're allowed not the reverse. It's both. Oh, it's both
It's both so so at the beginning of the pig kovar trail if you were to go through the gate
There's a regulatory sign that says, you know, no smoking none of this, but it also has a symbol of a bike
Without a line through it meaning that a bicycle is authorized there and then we have other single track trails where we have these
four-foot signage markers that with a line through it,
with a mic.
Four foot.
Sorry, four inch.
It could probably be that way,
that size would be more helpful, but it's four inch.
Yeah.
Four inch is not four foot.
Okay. That's correct.
So, and in those cases, it either says thumbs up, yes,
or thumbs down, no?
Yes.
That's correct.
Okay. Thank you.
So it seemed like it'd be hard to have every track,
every trail, every single track trail marked,
perhaps they are, but is the assumption that they're allowed
unless told otherwise or they aren't allowed
and less approved on the same?
Unless posted, unless otherwise posted.
So a sign should be posted at the markers.
And if we don't see a sign, what is the sort of?
Well, so if you don't see a sign,
that would typically be a double track trail.
If it's a single track trail, then staff should sign it.
One of the challenges we deal with often
is signs are removed from other hikers or bikers.
And we try to stay up on that,
but the sign should indicate.
So all single tracks should have a sign on it
that tells you yes or no?
Yes. Okay.
All right.
We have learned a lot here tonight about e-bikes,
and open space, and motorcycles, and e-scooters.
Is there any comments people wanna make?
Public, oh, that's right, public comment.
You've been waiting.
Step forward.
I'm shocked to hear that mics are allowed on the sidewalk.
I'm shocked.
I just want to make sure you state your name.
You don't have to state your city.
I'm Ron D. Cristoforo, living on Botello Drive 20 years.
Behind me is Zama Park.
Before I get into the bike, we want speed bumps.
They race down.
We want speed bump or crosswalk or other cities
at the beginning of the street.
They have a sign in the middle of the street
that says this is a slow zone.
So we demand this.
We want this on Botelho Drive.
I'm there over 20 years.
And now getting into the bikes,
in Long Island in 1980, we had mopeds.
17 miles an hour, and we had a license plate,
but you didn't have to have insurance,
and you didn't have to have a driver's license,
and this is going quick, yeah.
Well, anyway, I wanna say that anyone under 18
should have a license plate on their bike,
So we know, so we know who they are.
And older than that, they don't have to.
And I don't have the time here to go all of this,
but I did want to say that this is going to get worse.
The traffic, downtown, I have coffee on Locust Street
every weekend in the summer.
I've never seen the police, never go after these kids
with the bikes back and everything, you know, never.
The police are busy, but they're not on Locust Street
and the good weather on the weekends.
And I only have what, a second left?
I wanted to say in my heart, John William Perry
from Long Island, went to NYU Law School,
and died September 11, September 1st, 2011,
under 50 tons of cement on the ground floor,
50 tons of cement, and all I know is
six months later, they found the whole body.
So I thought I would have, yeah, I couldn't believe
what this went.
One of the things you can do, if you have additional input,
the city does accept input via email,
and so you can provide input.
This is something we're gonna keep working with.
No, I'm not an email.
I wanna come to all the meetings.
Okay.
Because I'm around delicate, older people
that get knocked down,
and they're gonna sue you for millions.
I tell them this.
I appreciate this.
Thank you for your comments.
For millions.
Thank you for your comments.
So, and license plates.
Thank you for your comments.
You can write down.
Thank you for your comments.
Excuse me, sir.
Can I give you my phone number?
Sir, your time is up.
All right, thank you.
I mean, my phone number.
Excuse me, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you for your input.
Sir, additional public comment?
Thank you very much.
We'll go ahead and close public comment now.
final direction to staff comments.
Why don't you start?
Thank you very much for the thorough overview on this.
I'm glad to see that we're paying a lot of attention to it.
I'm sure that you're collaborating
with many of our fellow cities up and down the state
that are dealing with the exact same issues
and look forward to hearing how this goes
and maybe an update in this time next year,
how this has gone, any other potential improvements.
Council Member Definney.
Yes, thank you for the work you're doing on this.
And that's impressive, 240,000 contacts
through the outreach campaign, so kudos.
I believe this is a really important safety issue.
E-bikes are a great technology.
I certainly support their use in improving the infrastructure
to use them on.
But as wearing my hat as an ER doctor,
I'm seeing a lot more of these injuries.
So it was our local trauma center.
And I can tell you that speaking to leadership
at the hospital, whether it be from the trauma service
or the ER, they're alarmed by the increase in accidents,
the severity of the accidents,
and very much support instituting good safety measures
to protect our children.
We currently have a 15-year-old in the ICU right now
with a severe head injury,
and I'm afraid we're gonna see,
unfortunately, more injuries like that.
So I think it's important to promote bike use,
and e-bike use, but certainly the one that seems
most problematic is the class two.
They have 750 watt engines, they're easily modifiable
by the kids, the information's out there now online,
and these are the bikes we're seeing,
bop and wheelies, traveling 30 plus miles per hour,
and these bikes are heavy, the brakes aren't made for that,
And we don't need a lot of data and studies to know
that seeing an 11 year old or a 12 year old
riding a bike like that is just not safe.
So other communities have pushed for changes
and it happened at the state level.
So one of the bills that you didn't mention
but I know you're aware of is 1778 for Marin County.
And that was supposed to be a state bill.
So that was gonna basically designate them,
designate when something is an e-bike related trauma versus just a bike.
Right now, they're all lumped under bikes, so it's hard to tease out the data.
There's not as much out there as we would like to see.
But even with the sort of lack of data that we have, the Consumer Product and
Safety Commission that studied this issue from 2017 to 2023, looking at e-bikes and
other micromobility devices, found that for kids under the age of 14, they
represent 36% of the injuries, and they only comprise 18%
of that population.
So they're having injuries at twice the rate.
Marin found even higher rates.
They found five times the rates in the 10 to 15-year-old age
bracket for evac accidents compared to other age groups.
So what are some action items that, in addition
to what we're doing, continue educating both the public
and the parents, continue engage with e-bike groups.
We got comments about from biking groups
that maybe hadn't been reached out to yet,
but certainly want to work with them.
I can imagine that while they're advocating for bikes
and they're advocating for bike routes
and they're advocating for e-bike usage,
they also have the, I'm sure the compassion
to know that we need to regulate
or be wary of the injuries we're seeing to our young folks.
So this technology is growing much more rapidly
than reasonable safety measures have.
And, you know, we're seeing the results of this
in our hospitals and our trauma centers.
And, you know, I look forward to, you know,
hopefully moving the needle forward on us.
Thank you.
Council member Silva.
Thank you very much for your work in this arena.
And I know it's difficult to what, on the one hand,
say this is an important means of transportation, which it is.
That it helps to reduce vehicle miles travel and greenhouse
gas emissions at the same time, that if it is being operated
unsafely because it's fun.
And it's fun in a somewhat dangerous way
if you're too immature to understand the risks.
that it also has those challenges with it.
I appreciate the information about the percentage of youth,
et cetera, that are using them, what the safety standards say.
I think one of the things that we have to be,
I'm past PTA president at Los Lomas, and one of the things
that was very helpful was not to come to PTA meetings,
because very few people come to PTA meetings,
but somehow getting the administration
to tell their parents that they need to come
to an assembly themselves.
Because when parents understand the risk, including
the data showing, when parents see
the videos of what's happening on the Iron Horse
Trail in the summer, they kind of go,
they can help take the reins.
If they don't understand the risks,
they're going to buy the equipment.
Or they're going to let the kid buy the equipment.
Or play with it in somebody else's garage
and get on a friend's bike.
So I think it's a two-pronged education approach
not only of the writer, but of the parent who
is funding the writer.
I can't imagine what the parents of the 15-year-old
think that something went wrong.
And I think that's important.
I would also, I would like to hear a report back on this
when the officer is done with the post-education,
because that would be really helpful.
What do you learn in five days that there's
There's got to be some really interesting information that's going to be helpful to us.
And then I would also like to hear a report back maybe in the spring because we have to
get to these parents in these schools and the youth in these schools before summer because
during summertime is when the real activity on the Ironhurst Trail and the Canal Trail
was occurring.
Thank you.
Councilmember Francois.
Hey, thank you for the report.
Really good information.
I too read the letter from bike East Bay
and I recall them coming to planning commission meetings
when we were adopting our bike master plan
and I think they raise a valid comment
that it's been a while.
Since we've looked at that or updated it,
I'm proud of the efforts we've made
to expand the bike network here.
I do feel, I personally would like more data
and information before considering regulation.
So I think that the right approach for now
is certainly education and safety,
and that ideally I think there should be one set of rules
that applies to every community in California.
It shouldn't be one rule in Walnut Creek
and a different rule when you cross over to Pleasant Hill.
I just think that's unworkable.
And that I know the state has done the study
and so they'll have a lot of data and information on that.
Could be my anecdotal view.
I am on the Iron Horse Trail quite a bit.
I don't see it as an issue.
I'm there in the early morning,
which probably, maybe a lot of the reckless behavior
is not happening, but I'm also there on Saturdays.
And I see people generally, on the stretch that I'm on,
at least, complying with the rules.
You know, if they're walking, biking, or running,
they're on the right side of the trail.
they call out when they're passing.
I've also seen packs of riders, I assume on e-bikes,
in the middle of Ignacio Valley Road.
And I said, who do I call?
I should call the police.
I should let them know
that there's an unsafe behavior happening right now.
So that makes the alarm bells go off in my head
that I wanna stop that unsafe behavior.
And I'll tell you, on my drive from Bart to here tonight
I was stopped at a red light going southbound on Oakland
and the traffic going westbound on Ignacio
had the right of way.
An E-scooter crossed against the red light
in the face of oncoming traffic on Ignacio, no helmet.
And I thought I couldn't believe I just saw that happen.
So I think that it,
I don't know that there's a simple solution to this
like ban all 16 year olds from having a class two bike.
I think it's education in terms of safety and enforcement
in terms of when you see something illegal
like that happening,
there needs to be consequences for that.
I think one other thing and it's nomenclature maybe,
but we called it an action plan
and probably Mike East Bay was like,
what, wait a minute, where's the plan?
How come we didn't reach out to us?
And I don't know if we really meant that it was a plan
as opposed to kind of principles
or kind of guidelines or things that we're working on.
They're action items as opposed to a plan.
I mean, I think it's a great technology.
I guess I do have a class two bike.
And just learning the differences between the three.
And it's really convenient to be able to go
kind of from my house to downtown or out on the trail.
And I enjoy, and I see my other neighbors using it
to commute to work as well.
So I think we definitely wanna promote the behavior
and ideally have it be done in a safe manner.
Thank you.
And I think just my summary,
I think you guys are doing a great job.
I think the impetus is to work on education first
and enforcement as a secondary basis.
I think targeting the captain did target,
talk about targeting behavior.
and I think that's the appropriate way to go.
As far as regulation, I think I would like to see us
see if there's possible once the Maneta study is out,
see if there's a push for state legislation
rather than trying to do it on a city-wide basis.
I do wanna keep our eye on the importance of
micromobility because teenagers have been
hurting themselves in a million different ways
with their desire to test the boundaries.
And I think one of the commenters talked about,
they can hurt, teens are hurt in vehicle accidents,
as well as e-bikes.
So recognizing that it's the age group
and the behavior that they are prone to,
that we wanna try to help them understand
how to be more safe about it
and get that message across to parents.
I think you guys are doing a good job.
I look forward to hearing you guys come back
in the spring sometime perhaps,
and hopefully the message gets out before Christmas.
So thank you very much.
If there's anything else for the good of the order
at this point, and with that, we are adjourned.
Thank you very much for everybody.