City Council - workshop

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Good evening and welcome back to a regular meeting of the Burbank City Council on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Today's study session is a review of updates to the accessory dwelling unit ordinance. I welcome Fatima Benitez, associate planner, to please present the report. Welcome.

Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. All righty. Good evening, Mayor Takahashi, Vice Mayor Mullins, and council members. My name is Fatima Benitez, Associate Planner with the Community Development Department Planning Division. Tonight, staff will provide the City Council with updates to the Accessory Dwelling Unit Ordinance. This discussion will cover recent updates to state ADU laws, as well as the latest implementation guidance issued by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, also known as HCD. The city's ADU ordinance was last updated on November 7th, 2023 to incorporate ADU legislation from 2022. Since then, new state ADU laws have been adopted, making the current ordinance inconsistent with the most recent requirements. Staff initiated an update to address the recent ADU legislation. However, the release of HCD's updated ADU handbook in March 2026, along with recent technical assistance letters issued to other jurisdictions, required a more comprehensive update to ensure full compliance with state law. This slide lists significant ADU-related legislation adopted between 2023 and 2025 that required detailed review and analysis. AB 976 permanently eliminates owner occupancy requirements for ADUs. AB 1033 allows local agencies to permit the separate conveyance of ADUs as condominiums. SB 1211 allows up to eight detached ADUs on a lot with an existing multifamily dwelling, provided that the number of ADUs does not exceed the number of existing units. It also clarifies no objective standards can be applied to 66323 units, also known as state mandated ADUs. SB 477 reorganizes various ADU provisions. SB 1154 clarifies that owner occupancy applies only when a JADU shares sanitation facilities with the primary dwelling and prevents them from being used for short-term rentals. Lastly, SB 543 defines interior livable space, establishes that the maximum ADU size refers to interior livable space, clarifies fire sprinkler requirements for JADUs, and clarifies requirements to allow any combination of state-mandated ADUs. As mentioned, state ADU law authorizes but does not require local agencies to adopt ordinances allowing ADUs to be sold separately from the primary residence as condominiums. In response to requests from Vice Mayor Mullins, staff evaluated these provisions and does not recommend authorizing the separate conveyance of ADUs as doing so would not align with the city's policies regarding development of ADUs that are appropriately scaled and compatible with single family homes and surrounding neighborhoods. Government Code Section 66323 identifies all state-mandated ADUs that must be ministerially approved. Ministerial approval means the city must approve an application if the project meets the objective criteria. The state-mandated ADUs include one detached 800-square-foot ADU, one accessory structure to ADU conversion, and one JADU. Local agencies may not impose objective standards on these units beyond those that are included in state statute. State regulations also allow local agencies to adopt a local ADU ordinance permitting one ADU on lots that allow single-family or multi-family residential uses. Under government code section 66314, objective standards may be applied to this local ADU. The city's current municipal code includes such a local ADU program, allowing one ADU and one JADU. Government Code Section 66313.5 authorizes HCD to publish and amend guidelines for local agencies to implement the standards or criteria related to state ADU law. As such, HCD is a primary authority to interpret ADU law. Furthermore, Government Code Section 66326 mandates any local AD ordinance to be formally reviewed by HCD. If found to be not in compliance with HCD's interpretation, the City must amend the ordinance or run the risk of HCD notifying the Attorney General of the violation, which could result in additional enforcement action against the City. In March 2026, HDD released an updated ADU handbook. The handbook clarifies that local ADUs must be allowed in addition to the three state mandated ADUs. Under this determination, a single family lot in the R1 zone could accommodate up to five units. Furthermore, under state density bonus law, housing projects containing far more units may qualify for additional residential density and waivers from the city's objective development standards. Furthermore,

My apologies.

The city received a technical assistance letter from HCD requesting to repeal or provide a timeline to update the local ADU ordinance. Staff responded to HCD's technical assistance letter and later submitted a draft ADU ordinance for the review. In March 2026, HCD released an updated ADU handbook which clarified that if a local agency adopts a local ADU ordinance, it must allow all state mandated ADUs concurrently. staff received a preliminary review letter in response to the submitted draft ADU ordinance. In follow-up discussion, HCD provided further clarification on the requirements to allow any combination of state-mandated ADUs in addition to any ADUs allowed under local ADU ordinance. If the city chooses to retain its local ADU program, a single family zone could accommodate up to five units. As noted earlier, projects with five or more units may pursue additional density and waivers under state density bonus law. Staff is also monitoring Assembly Bill 956, which would increase the number of detached ADUs that a local agency must ministerially approve on lots with an existing or proposed single-family residence from one to two units. A recent amendment to AB 956 specifies a local agency is not required to permit two ADUs and a JADU on the same lot. Staff has identified four options for updating the ADU ordinance. Option one, remove the local ADU program, but retain the R1H and very high fire hazard severity zone provisions. Those restrictions include prohibiting new ADU construction in the R1H zone and limiting size of ADUs in the fire zone up to 800 square feet. This option preserves locally adopted standards related to protecting the R1H and Fire Zone based on health and safety findings that were previously supported by the City Council. However, there is a risk that HCD may still determine the ordinance is inconsistent with state ADU law. Option two, eliminate the entire local ADU program and allow only state-mandated ADUs. This would remove the R1H and very high fire hazard severity zone provisions, but offers the highest certainty that the ordinance will comply with state law and receive HDD approval. Option three, retain and update the local ADU program consistent with state ADU law and the HCD interpretation. Under this option, the city would retain its local ADU program and revise it to address HCD's comments. The local ADU would be allowed in addition to the three state mandated ADUs consistent with HCD's interpretation. As a result, an R1 zone property could contain five or more residential units. Properties with five or more units may be eligible for additional units under state density bonus law, resulting in greater number of units than previously allowed. Lastly, option four, retain and update the local ADU program consistent with state ADU law, but reject the HCD interpretation. Under this approach, the city would update its local ADU program to comply with the requirements of state ADU law, but would reject HED's interpretation that requires a local ADU be combined with the street-mandated ADUs. This option would preserve the city's local ADE program, including the R1H zone and very high fire hazard severity zones, while reducing the potential for single-family properties to contain five or more residential units. As a result, it would minimize the likelihood that projects would trigger additional residential density under state density bonus law. However, using this approach could create significant risk that HDD will determine the city's ordinance is not in compliance with state ADU law when the city submits the ordinance for their review. If HDD concludes the ordinance is not compliant, HDD could refer the matter to the California Attorney General for enforcement. In addition, individual applicants can challenge the city's rejection of HDD's interpretation and request HDD to take action. Unless otherwise directed by City Council, staff will move forward with option one and prepare an amended ordinance that removes the local ADU program while retaining the R1H and very high fire hazard set ready zone provisions. Staff will provide the draft ADU ordinance to HDD for review before conducting a community workshop and presenting the ordinance to the Planning Commission and City Council for consideration and adoption. This concludes Stiles' presentation. We're available to answer any questions. Thank you.

Great. Thank you for the presentation. Council, any questions, comments? Yes, Council Member Anthony.

The R1H and very high fire zones We were originally allowed to put that in our local ADU program because the state had said if we don't do a local program, the state would overlay. Is that right? And then so we did the local program, and we were given more flexibility and leeway on what we could build. And then the new letter came out saying, oh, yes, you can do a local program, but we're also overlaying all the state stuff in addition.

That is correct.

So if we do nothing today and change nothing in our code, do the R1H and the very high fire zones remain? Or is what you're telling me with these new letters, the state law can override those protections regardless?

Good evening. Amanda Landry, principal planner with CDD Planning. Currently our ordinance is not consistent with state law so that the interpretation from HCD is that if our ordinance is not consistent, the entire thing could be unenforceable.

What's the inconsistency?

There were, as Ms. Benitez mentioned in her presentation, there were several new state laws that came online the last two years that our ordinance needs to be updated to comply with.

Oh, just not, okay, I see. So there's new language that came in from the state I think my question is the letter to the other city. Hold on. You mentioned it here. It's in the attachment. The Port Hunemi? The technical assistance letter? What is it? How do you pronounce it? Port Huenemi. Huenemi? Where is that? I've never heard of that one before. All right.

Ventura County.

All right. Port Huenemi.

It's 56 miles west of here.

OK. I guess I've got to go there for vacation then. There's a lot of cities in California. So that technical assistance letter has nothing to do with the recent state laws that we need to adopt regardless. So even if we adopt those new state laws and keep everything else the same, what is that letter telling us? That anyone who comes to our desk at the counter can override R1H and the fire zones?

Thank you for your question, Councilmember. So the letter that was issued to the city of Port Winniemey basically stated exactly what was clarified to us by HCD, which if they have a local ADU ordinance, they have to allow one local ADU per that ordinance in addition to the three state-mandated ADUs.

Sure. But the protections is my question, meaning

So, under ACD's most recent interpretation, their requirement that we approve all of the state mandated options would override those local protections.

Okay. It starts with an H. That's why I don't understand. There's no Y and there's no W anywhere. Anyway, okay. Okay. Put up my spelling bee later. Well, that's frustrating. That is frustrating. OK. I have more to say, but I'll come back to it.

Who else would like to go next? OK. I have a follow-up question for the R1H question that you had. OK. So the recommendation is for option one, is to remove our local ADU program, but keep specifically the R1H and high severity zone provisions in there. If we do that, if we keep the R1H single family horse keeping and the high fire zones, would that be considered having our own ADU ordinance? Thank you.

Thank you for your question, Mayor. Our effort with option one to retain those two provisions for the R1H and the very high fire hazard severity zone is to keep them as guard wells. And ultimately, we are going to submit the draft ordinance to HCD for further review. And once they review it, they will determine whether or not that is a feasible option.

If I may add as well, I'm sorry to interrupt We noted in the staff report in the presentation We're fairly certain HCD will push back on that attempt and that it won't prevail ultimately So but we wanted to try and do it to try and preserve some of the local efforts that we have done Although we do know that it probably has a very low chance of success.

Okay And the state-level version of the ADU, many state-level bills, don't have provisions for high-fire zones or R1H in itself?

No, they do not.

So they would be considered the same for at the state level, there was no difference between those homes and the ones that are not in those zones?

Correct.

Okay. And then if I may, unless you have follow-ups on that, okay. So I appreciate on the slides eight with the picture, that helps me visualize it. All right, so what this is, to me this is saying is that if we have a local ADU program that there'll be five total, including the main dwelling, right? Okay, so if we were to not have a local program and just do the state, what would this map look like? How would it be different?

So the diagram will show or only include the existing or proposed single family along with the three state-mandated ADUs. So that would include the one new 800-square-foot ADU, the existing accessory structure conversion to an ADU, and one junior ADU that has to be within the existing or proposed square footage of the main house.

So the blue, the green, and the red.

Yeah. So in total, you will have only four units if we only go with the state-mandated ADUs. Right. Okay.

And then before these changes at the state level, before those changes, were we at four? So this would make it five? With the local program now before the changes, was it a max of four before?

No. Before, our current local ADU ordinance only allows for one ADU and one junior ADU on a lot, but then existing of a post-single family house.

And previously, we were operating under the assumption that we could encourage and guide residents to choose the local option or go with a state mandated option. And in that case, we were under the impression that they had to pick one of the state options. HCD has since clarified that no, it's everything. They're allowed to request everything.

I see. Okay. Okay. So before when the options were to choose between the two, you couldn't have five because you would choose one or the other. And now because the state is saying, no, you can have both, That's why it's five. Okay, thanks. Yeah, Council Member Rosati.

Thank you. Just garbage legislation is what this is. This doesn't do anything for affordability. If they really cared about affordability, they would cap some of the prices and then run it with the deeds. But a couple of questions. Why wouldn't someone just go SB 9 rather than going through this whole mess? What's the difference between SB9 where you can just put four units on a lot and going this route with all these junior ADUs, ADUs, and what's the difference?

So there are pros and cons to either option. People might be interested in doing SB9 because you create new lots and can sell them separately, and they have more ownership opportunities for more fee-simple ownership. With an ADU project, unless the city takes advantage of the state's program to have ADU condos, we currently don't allow that. So they all have to be part of the same property and can only be rented out and not sold separately.

So if you do an SB 9 project, do you have to subdivide or can you just do four units on a lot?

No, you don't. There's two options with SB9. You can propose a second primary and then also do two ADUs, or you could do the lot split, in which that case you subdivide the lot into two separate lots.

Which is more costly. Correct. And you would only do that, I guess, if you were going to sell, right? So let's say you didn't. Let's say you just wanted to do SB9, no lot split. You could build four units. And how would that compare to... this legislation. Density?

The size of the units. With SB9, the second primary dwelling unit is subject to the underlying zone development standards, so the R1. Assuming the lot has exceeded the FAR, an SB9 is still allowed to, with SB9, you're still allowed to have a second dwelling unit up to 800 square feet. With ADUs, specifically under the state mandated program or provision, you're only allowed to get one ADU up to 800 square feet, and you can convert an existing accessory structure into an ADU, but you can't expand it. You can only expand it for the purpose of ingress and egress, and that would be only up to 150 square feet.

But given the fact that the average lot in Burbank is 6,750 square feet, and you stuff four ADUs, don't you have to have a little separation, or are we just going to make it one big fire trap?

The state doesn't require any separation.

That's where I was going with this. If we don't comply with HCD, where does it go from there? We can say, look, we don't want to stuff a lot of people into a high-fire zone because it's not safe. We don't want to destroy our rancher community and abut an ADU next to a horse property because it's unsanitary in health and safety. Where does that leave us? Do we have a good argument? I guess that's an attorney question. At some point, where do we push back and say, this is insane, this is not working for our community?

So Redondo Beach challenged SB9, prevailed, and then the state changed the law. But state legislature has been continuing to whittle away at these. There may be, depending upon how the buildings are designed, there may be building code requirements for separation. And it all depends upon how they configure the units. If they can't make them a certain distance apart, they would attach them rather than separating them. If they can meet the code minimum separation, they may separate them.

But I'm not trying to skirt the rules. Redondo Beach doesn't, they're not in a high fire zone area like us. And they don't have horse property where it potentially could cause a health and safety issue. So these are real issues that isn't working for our, it might work for Redondo Beach, but it doesn't work for Burbank.

So my understanding is that Glendale has been in this process for several years. where HCD made findings that their ordinance did not comply. Glendale readopted their ordinance with new findings and they've been having meetings with HCD and the Attorney General's office. They haven't yet had to repeal their ordinance from what my understanding is, but they're basically under HCD supervision with the outcome as of yet unknown.

I'm just thinking that there are some legitimate legitimate Concerns that we have and that we can base our claim if we're gonna push back on a CD.

Thank you Vice mayor Thank you and on that note With the fight recent fires a year ago Having they looked and evaluated the building and the consequences of having a Regulated policies and what to build because of the disaster that we have I mean has anything changed since the fires So post the fires HCD issued their recent guidance to allow all of it. So So Basically, they didn't take that in consideration and this is something that we have to take in consideration because to protect our hills and protect the houses and up in the hills and the Rancho area. So, I mean, if we can't look at the fires and see the disaster that it caused the whole entire city, you know, how do we live with that knowing that we're causing this that could happen in our own neighborhood? Yeah, I mean, how do we do it knowing that this can be a consequence to disaster for our city as well?

Yeah, so the trick is that under one provision of the ADU law, we're allowed to have our own local ordinance. Under the state reserved units, the law says a local agency shall ministerially approve an application for a building permit for any of the following units or any combination of the following units, and that's where they list their three. one accessory dwelling unit and one junior dwelling unit and one detached new construction accessory dwelling unit. In that same section, which is government code section 66323, subsection B, it says a local agency shall not oppose any objective development or design standards that is not authorized by this section upon units that meet the requirements of what I just read above. And there's additional provisions for multifamily units which allow conversions. So, the law is pretty clear as to these three units that the state has, this is the legislature, this isn't HCD's own guidelines, where they've kind of said, these are the state ones, and notwithstanding 66314, which is the one section where we get to create a local program based upon public safety, this is notwithstanding our program with public safety, local agencies shall ministerially approve an application. There could be more work done on findings, but right now the letters that HCD is sending cities with their interpretations are carving away at the protections of the cities. And as I indicated, this is an effort that Glendale has been in for several years. And as staff indicated, their approach is to involve HCD so that we don't end up in some cyclical enforcement process trying to figure out what we can adopt and enforce and what we can't.

Yes, and that was a point that I, a question and a comment that are we going to engage HCD so we're not looking at an updated ordinance in the near future because we didn't talk to them sooner about the options you presented.

No. After we amend the ADU ordinance with the direction that council gives us, we will submit the draft ADU ordinance to HCD before attending planning commission or city council for consideration and adoption. So we will know beforehand whether or not our ADU ordinance is feasible or if we need to modify it. And then, again, we will present it to city council.

Okay. Thank you. I want to ask you the question regarding the information on page three. How currently anyone really can come in and apply for an ADU permit and we can't prohibit them or stop them from moving forward, correct? How does that changes our Council goals are residential and neighborhood protection. I'm a little confused with the paragraph that you have on page three in the middle of the page in regards to the proposal to be able to sell ADUs and have ownership where currently anyone can build an ADU and to It's different between renting it and buying it. So how does that change the residential and the neighborhood? Because one is renting and one is buying.

Yes, I think staff has over time understood different city council goals and what has been established in our city's general plan, which has been to be very sensitive to the lower scale residential neighborhoods, in particular the R1. However, there are new and emerging plans interests in providing more home ownership opportunities. So that is definitely something that we could look into with council direction and guidance to come forward with that, so.

Well, yeah, I think reading this does not really represent what council goals and objectives because we all talked about homeownerships. And in my own humble opinion, I don't think having an ADU to purchase an ADU versus renting an ADU will change what we try to preserve as a residential neighborhood. Because either way, that ADU is going in there, whether you're going to rent it or sell it. So I wanted just to clarify that this statement I don't recall that Council Goals said we don't want to have people have ownership. And the other question, I think, because we're using it as a condominium, that it says preserve the character and stability. So is a condominium not providing stability in the city? I don't know if the word stability was used appropriately here.

So the ADU conveyance provision by state law is very new and relatively untested in other cities. So staff is looking into how this has played out and how it affects those neighborhoods. If the majority of the council is interested in having us come forward with a more in-depth analysis of this issue, as it would play out in our R1 neighborhoods, staff can come back with a study session that really goes more in-depth into the issue to study any possible ramifications.

Well, I appreciate that because it's a little different than what it says here. And then part of the reason why... For me personally, I wanted to take a look at this. And I think I heard council when it came back that we were all interested to get additional information. I mean, we're looking at increased home ownership opportunities, something we don't have in the city. And we need to make that available to newcomers, people, new generation to be able to have an opportunity to own homes. the equity for between selling and renting. You know, if somebody wants to buy and there is an opportunity, the ADU is going to go there anyway. So you can sell it, you can buy it, whatever you do, that's going to happen. So I personally would like to continue pursuing that. And of course, you're going to hear from the rest of my colleagues, because this is an opportunity that we have. And in my opinion, It does not destroy our neighborhood. It does not destroy what council goal is to protect and preserve our neighborhoods because it's happening whether we like it or not. So giving that opportunity to buy it, I think it's something that we need to take a look at. And I know you guys probably looked at some cities. I ran some reports to see cities, and there's a lot of cities right now. I know San Jose implemented this in 2024. And they have a lot of information online and you can look it up Santa Monica San Francisco Lots of cities have already are already looking into it because 80 user are here whether we like it or not So I wanted just to clarify the statement that was made in the report because I wanted to assure you my goal is to preserve and protect our neighborhood but also give an opportunity for to others to come and enjoy buying a property in Burbank. One last question, and that is with the 4 to 5 ADUs or what the state is looking at right now, how does that The added pressure on our sewer system, that's an addition to our specific plans and the amount of housing that we want in our specific plans. How is that going to affect us with our sewer system?

Yes, so we ran this new state mandate by our colleagues in Irving Water and Power and Public Works, which handle the city's sewer system and water availability and electrical availability. So they're aware of this. They're aware that we will have to comply. As far as we have heard from them for ADU purposes, they believe we have adequate services at this time. Okay, thank you.

Council Member Rosati and then Council Member Anthony.

Just on piggybacking on the Vice Mayor, I agree. I think I would rather have for sale versus rentals. But for me, I would like information and maybe we can look and see how other communities have done it. Mechanically, how does this happen? Is it a lot split? Are they forming an HOA? Whose sewer line, if it needs to be repaired, who fixes the sewer line? Are they separately metered? Who gets the driveway? Who doesn't get the driveway? Who gets a garage? So mechanically, I'd like to know. And I'd like to know a ballpark cost to get that ready to, like, do we have to procure an attorney? Do they have to do a lot split? Do they have to form an HOA? what is the ballpark price to make something like that happen?

Yes, those are a lot of things we'd look into and bring back to the council at a future study session dedicated solely to that issue because it'll be a new program that the city is considering. It's separate from our effort to just come into compliance with state law at this point. But yes, it sounds like the council is directing staff, please let me know, to come back for another study session or a first-step report on ADU condos.

We can do that. Yeah, to follow up on that, would you need us to formally, because it's city manager, would you need us to formally agendize this at the end of the meeting, or is this enough direction to know to come back with a specific item on that?

No. I mean, I'd like to hear from everyone so we know exactly as far as specific direction and if there's agreement so we could focus and get a targeted report so we could bring back something that you guys could actually act on and what you want.

More specifically, if three of you who haven't made a comment on it yet are actually opposed, it would be good to know that before we bring it back.

Okay, fair enough. All right, so Councilmember Anthony next, and then Councilmember Price.

So when did we find out about this? When did this news come to us that now the state law overrides and is in addition to a local order. Because for years, they've been telling us, get your own local ordinance, get your own local ordinance. So when did this change?

So it's HCD's opinion. It's an interpretation.

And when did they release that opinion?

We received the technical assistance letter from HCD December 2025. And they also clarified that interpretation in the updated ADU handbook, I believe, March 2026 of this year. OK.

Why, here's a funny question. Why wouldn't everyone just now get rid of their local ordinance who's been working on it? Like, are we not gonna see a mass exodus of local ordinances now? Because they're throwing their hands up and saying, well, okay, what's the point now?

Well, some cities have embraced this, and some jurisdictions. For example, L.A. County has been advertising that this possibility exists.

What possibility?

That they can now stack local regulations with the state mandated.

But why wouldn't their local regulations already have that included?

So they were just accommodating and implementing state law. So now they're actually advertising that this is available. So some jurisdictions do agree with it. Others are still grappling with what to do.

Now let me ask you, the local jurisdictions like LA County, did they update their local... Or did they simply just say, here's the local ordinance as is, and guess what? Now you can also do the state law.

That's correct.

Okay, so you have to know what you're doing when you walk in and get both. Okay, that seems kind of weird. SB 9, if I wanted to build a bunch of units on SB 9, I'm bound by the FAR in the underlying code.

That is correct, but if a lot is already maxed out on the FAR, they're still allowed to get one SB9 up to 800 square feet.

Just one, that's it?

Just one.

So max FAR plus an 800 if I'm maxed out already?

Correct.

Okay, so there's a limit there. But the state ADU bonuses, they don't look at FAR at all. If you have the lot, you can squeeze them in.

That is correct.

Okay, so if you have a smaller lot and you wanted to maximize, you may go with the ADU. But if you have a nice big lot, you may get more out of it if you go with SB9. So it's kind of based on the lot.

Depending on the configuration of the lot.

But SB9 is specifically for sale. You can't rent those out, can you?

It allows an option, but it's not meant just for sale.

What's the option? What do you mean the option?

They could do a lot split and sell it separately, or they can just build a second unit on their property, a second primary unit.

I see.

It's called a second primary dwelling unit, which, as staff indicated earlier, is larger than ADUs. So ADUs have a size limit. A second primary is bound by FAR, so they can be larger.

Okay, and there's no requirement to sell it or to lot split or anything like that. Can we make that requirement locally? We can't do that. State doesn't allow that.

The conveyance change, that's recent, right?

You said we can do now condos?

That is correct. It's an option that cities can include in their local ordinance for ADUs.

In their local ordinance?

Any ordinance, whether state mandated or local.

Sorry, it would be separate from the local ordinance. It would just be an enabling legislation to allow for condominium splits.

And how does that work with the FAR? Is it still the state FAR? Is it the SB 9 FAR?

It has no correlation to FAR. It just allows a separate conveyance.

OK, so it's kind of an afterthought. If you want to build an SB 9 as a second dwelling, or if you want to do an ADU as multiple little ones, can I then add in, OK, you can do both as a condo. So you don't have to lot split an SB 9. You can do a condo.

This particular provision in the state law applies specifically to ADUs. OK, so forget SB 9.

All right. And I think it's conveyance. It's not specifically condominiums.

We use condominium as just a colloquial term.

So the difference is many lots say east of Glen Oaks going up the hillside have street frontage and an alley. And then street frontage, so lots backing up with access to a public right-of-way off the rear, so in rear yard. So under that circumstance, it's possible if you had a rear yard ADU, and a front yard primary dwelling you could actually do a lot split and if you needed to reserve easements for utilities without actually creating an HOA or a condo map because there wouldn't be any common area instead there would be like easement interest which doesn't require a condo map, it doesn't require HOA and AD rule, CC&Rs, and HOA fees. It's much more simple, bilateral relationship between two property owners to maintain easements. So to Councilmember Rosati's point, there could be many ways, so staff would need to evaluate those. But in a perfect world, if you had alley frontage and street frontage, both units, the for sale ADU and the primary unit would have street frontage and neither would be landlocked. You could just do a lot split. Let me ask this.

If we kept a local ordinance and in our local ordinance we had the restrictions on horse properties, fire zone properties, And then citywide on the state level, we maintained the horse restrictions and the fire severity restrictions. And we went to HCD and said, hey, we want to write a code similar to what Glendale has been doing. We like the conversation that you're having. We'd like to jump into that conversation. And just to sweeten the pot a little bit, we'd like to include our local ordinance to increase to go up to five if they just do condos and if you give us those protections. And what I'd like to say is, for me, HCD seems to simply want to build. I don't think it's in their best interest to say no to anything that increases housing. But we want to build for sale units. And so I think there might be a little bit of an appetite to give them some carrot and say, well, we'll build some density if you give us the protections, but we're only going to build the density if it's for sale, the conveyance properties and the things that have the alleyways. So I think that, in my mind, could potentially get us out of this. Otherwise, we're just going to go with, we're going to end up with option two if nobody does anything.

Hold up. So you're basically suggesting option three plus for sale?

Plus for sale and limit it to for sale.

So you wouldn't be able to limit it for sale under the language that I read, which said the state units under 66.323?

Well, not the state units, but our local units.

Well, you couldn't say the state units had to be for sale.

No, those would be the same everywhere. I'm saying if we adopt an additional local ordinance that only targets the areas that have those available easements, the alleyways and that, and we say those units, we want to increase the density And we'll allow those for sale units and offer that to HCD because we're not trying to limit everything else. But then also ask in return, let us get the horse protections, the fire protections, what's happening in Glendale, that conversation. So we're sort of giving them a little and getting back a little. And at that point, it seems like it's a net zero loss because if they are trying to increase ADUs everywhere and we're saying, well, maybe not here, but we can build a little extra there.

So state legislation is the enemy of creative land use planning. And within six months, there'll be a new bill that makes all that violate state law.

Compromise? How dare you?

In a perfect world, in our world, yeah, we can negotiate with them. I don't think they're negotiating. I think we're going to have to fight for what we want.

Well, I think we should still take a look at what Glendale's doing. To your point, I'd like to get involved.

I think Glendale is in the middle of a statutory appeal process, which is in 66326. It's how you interface with HCD when they don't agree with your ordinance. Ah, okay.

Yeah. Customer Perez, you have a question?

Yeah. I'm going to take us back very quickly, because I know we're almost at time. We're at time. Help me understand. So what we were talking about for sale, this is something in the condos, this is something that we all wanted to look at. But that's a separate item that's coming back, right?

If there's three of you, we would bring that back with more information, pros and cons, and how that would work.

But I thought Council Member Mullins already agendized that a few meetings back or added it to our additional agenda items.

Yes.

Okay. So it is coming back.

Yeah. This provides detail, like Council Member Rosati had indicated.

You know exactly what to bring back.

Well, and I think I know what you're trying to say because I was just as confused looking, wait a minute, you need directions to bring it back? We all agreed that we needed to come back with additional information such as what Council Member Rizzotti said.

I think we all got matching tattoos built for sale, right? Yes.

So it's okay if you need directions again. It was just a surprise for all of us to see it in the report saying, wait a minute, we already talked about this and we thought it was going to have some additional information in this report, but I think you sound like you got three already and plus the mayor is going to speak and the council member is... Anthony, we do want to look at it. We want to see what our options to sell ADUs instead of renting, because we already have a lot of rental ADUs. And we want to know how they did it, all the questions that council member Rosati asked, and how did they break the lot in HOAs and everything else, the sewer and everything else that goes with it.

Yes. I wanted to just apologize for that confusion. The purpose of our study session tonight was to get direction on the options, just to bring basic conformance with state law. We didn't mean to have this be portrayed as an actual discussion on the ADU conveyance. Just some initial thoughts about it as part of our request to get direction on the state conformance. But we absolutely are going to bring back the ADU conveyance with a really robust conversation and address the issues that Council Member Rosati brought up and yourself mentioned.

I think this is coming from frustration because we're being forced this, but yet we want to craft it what's best for our community. So I think it's frustration on our end like, hey, we want to do what's best for our community, and you're coming at it with some new guidelines. So I think that's where the collision is happening.

Well, okay, for clarity's sake, yes, we do definitely want to see that come back. We got the matching tattoos. We would like to see for sale come back. I really appreciate also attention to all of the potential hurdles that Councilman Rosati mentioned. For this, I'm just looking at option three because my whole goal here, and I'm speaking for myself, is... We want to keep some protection of these fire zones. That's a really big deal. But we also want to put something forward that HCD is going to give us a go on, right? I mean, if we're looking at option one and we're thinking they're not going to go with that, my biggest concern is making sure that we put something forward that keeps our fire zones safe. to the point that we've all thrown here, like we are pushing back against state law and that's very difficult when it comes to what is being built. Okay, that's fine. Let's focus on the safety aspect. That's the conversation that I would like to have with HCD. Do we feel like they will push back on that specific aspect? And if not, I would like to focus on the option that gives them what is most likely going to be approved and what they find consistent with state law, but also protects those zones.

Yeah. So if the council directs us on any of these options, we will consult with HCD just to make sure that it'll be acceptable. We don't want to do all this work and give them something they're just going to reject right off the bat. So we will go back to them. We were just wanting to check in with the council as a body and get some direction on which of these options. Otherwise, we were anticipating trying to do option one.

And three feels, for me, the ones that gives them the most concessions, plus keeping our stuff safe. That's just my two cents.

Madam Mayor, so when you say three, that gives us the protections in the high-fire zone area? But what about the R1H? Okay.

All right. Yes, Vice Mayor.

It says retain and update the local ADU program consistent with the state ADU law and HCD interpretation. But it doesn't spell out retain the R1H and very high fire hazard. I'm looking at the PowerPoint presentation. The handout.

I'm looking at the staff report.

So my question is, what's the difference between one and three?

We need clarification. That's a good question. So option three is to retain our local program, including all of our prior provisions to protect the R1H and the very high fire hazard severity zones. But this would also mean that we have to allow any of the ADUs that are allowed under that local ordinance, plus HCD's three additional units. So that means we are accepting that interpretation from HCD that we will now have to approve all of the ADUs.

But given, I'm gonna breathe a little bit of life back into Councilmember Anthony's crazy suggestion. But since it appears the council wants a for sale option to come back for discussion, maybe there's some incentive program where we say our unit, as you were saying, could be sellable, could be a larger square footage, and it incentivizes them doing that one, rather than all of the others, which would probably take up too much square footage on the property.

And if I could, if they come in and decide, oh, no, your ordinance doesn't work, kick it out, what they're doing is reducing the total number of ADUs. They're doing it on their own. And they say, okay, get rid of it, but then you're going to lose housing. I thought you guys want housing.

So can we add, can we keep one with addition to the sales of ADU? So we're protecting, we're spelling out that we're protecting the R1, we're protecting the high fire hazard.

On our local ordinance.

Yes, on our local ordinance, plus that we are looking at the options of ADU for sale. And that will provide the increase that you were talking about.

We can't do it on the state bonus ones, but we can do it on our local ones.

And that's the local ordinance, the 1033.

You mean not allow the fifth, but try to enforce the fire hazards and have one of the state units be for sale? No. You said option one.

Well, option one protects our local ADU program and R1 plus a very high fire zone, right? And how many units are there allowed to be built under option one? How many ADUs? Only the state units. Which is what? Three? Three.

Not subject to local conditions of approval under 66323.

So if we do three, but we allow the sale, can we keep three so that would still remain option one, but part of it as an incentive that we'll have it for sale?

To be determined.

Okay.

And I think, Councilmember Anthony, if I may, it sounds like also you are looking at a way to allow for a larger ADU to be built as well on the property. So I'm wondering if...

Because it's a bigger single unit and less smaller.

Yes, by 200 square feet, which is quite a lot. And I'm wondering if... If there is, this is a possibility of not having necessarily our entirely new local ADU, but to have an allowance to extend the state mandated ADUs in size. So to say like, hey, we'll follow the state mandate, but can we add an extra 200 feet to their mandate? Just that's what you're looking for, for the size.

I don't know if we can do that.

No, okay. No.

Because their guidelines are pretty strict.

Got it. Okay. So that would be considered a local ADU ordinance, even with that one item. Got it. Okay. Looking for solutions here, trying to figure out a way to do it. All right. So it does sound to me that we have two separate things going on here. One is the figuring out how to move forward with our local ADU build. Figuring that out and then also for the for sale option and how and then I guess the third is how to combine those together So maybe this is multiple steps step one is the ad you Determination of how to build the ad use just in general and secondly is the Figuring out how it all works for purchasing and once we figure that out add that on top together Does that sound like a reasonable reasonable process here do it that way?

Just so I'm clear For bringing the city into compliance with state law, we're hearing that we want to go with retain the local program, and then a second step to that would be to implement a local program to allow for the sale of ADUs.

And throughout, we maintain our R1H and high protections. Right, because that has it in the local. And if they try to push back on that, that's option three.

And I just want to clarify that by retaining those local protections, it would only apply to this locally approved ADU. That people could still invoke the state mandate and build those. Yeah.

So, well, then that's my question. How... Because if we do that, then we're basically not getting into an argument with HCD at all. Is there an appetite to have the R1H and the fire zones and try to expand it to all of the state and explain to them that that's their letter? I don't think we can.

I mean, it would have to be in those... So what's the timeline looking here? So if we decide to go with option three and keep our local program, then that may incur folks who do decide to have total five units. It would take a while for that to kind of get some traction for folks to apply and to move forward with that. So if we come back then with the item talking about purchasing, turning them into condominiums, What kind of timeline are we looking at here? Because it may not be that many folks who are going to take that path. We may have time to discuss it without getting too much of an impact, I think. And then we can figure out how we want to work together with those two.

Yes. HCD has given us a pretty strict deadline to comply with bringing our ordinance into compliance with state law. So we need to complete that effort by... late fall. We would need to do quite a bit of research to look into all the factors that we heard tonight about developing a program to allow for the sale. So that conversation would most likely come at the beginning of next year.

And if we decided to keep our local program and it turned out that we were just like, wait, wait, wait, wait, there's too many that are being built and are not turning into condos later, we could change, change and take away our local program.

Correct.

I think it might be worth keeping the local program for now, seeing how it goes, looking into the purchasable condos. And then if it turns out that it's really creating too many ADUs that are not turning into condos, we can take away our local program later.

And then can we also just keep an eye on what's happening in Glendale? Because they're at the forefront of... And they're in conversations with R1H and Fire Zone, right? They're doing both.

Okay, so yeah, keep an eye on that as well. Okay. Yes.

I just want to bring up the fact that it cost about $360,000 to build one ADU. Yes, it does. And to rent it for $2,500 to $4,000 a month, the return on investment on building three or four or five is not very good.

But maybe if you sold it, better. Well, let me ask this. Under either SB9 or the ADU conveyance program, do I have to build something before I sell it, or can I just submit the plans and the permit and sell it and have somebody else?

You could sell it that way, fully entitled.

Sure. Yeah? Yeah.

Sell what? The whole entire property.

If I go in to the front desk here and put down my permit and plans and architecture and design for an ADU, and then say, OK, now I also want to get the SB 9 sale, Does that trigger it at that point, or do I need to build the full thing first and then ask for the SB9?

Well, your buyer, unless they're an investor, won't be able to get a loan on a piece of paper and an empty back half of a lot.

Oh, until it's built. Okay. So it would be more on the buyer's side.

I don't know if that's true.

But that is something we would look into to verify when we come back with the study session.

Well, I think we're all in pretty much agreement about how to move forward with the options. Okay.

So are we clear we're doing option one, correct?

No, I think we talked about doing option three, which keeps the R1H, keeps the fire zone. I just want to make sure, yes. Yeah, it keeps that. It's just also keeping our local program, too, so we can move into looking into purchasable. Yes. Yeah, okay. All right, great.

Can we get a motion in a second, just for clarity? It sounds like a motion for option three and continue with prior direction to bring back a for sale option.

Mr. City Attorney, can we do a motion during a study session? Yes. OK. All right. I just want to make sure. So moved. Second. Please.

I'm sorry. Motion maker was? Second.

And does staff understand the motion? Yes. OK. All right. OK.

So we're going to take a vote. Council Member Anthony? Yes. Council Member Perez? Yes. Council Member Rosati?

Yes.

Vice Mayor Mullins? Yes. And Mayor Takahashi? Yes. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. Normally, we take a break right now. Staff, are you cool with just .. Do you want to need a break? You good?

OK. You can run out and go.

Yeah. We'll have one council member taking a break. So if it's OK with staff, we'll just keep going. OK. All right, so we're going to move right into the meeting. Thank you for your patience while we wrapped that up and moving into our regular meeting. Yes? Okay. So good evening, everybody. We have a full house tonight. And welcome to a regular meeting of the Burbank City Council on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. Please join me for a moment of reflection. The moment is intended to begin our meeting with the positive and collective support of our beloved community. The City Council welcomes everyone joining us this evening. We encourage you to take a moment to reflect on our community and the work we will all be doing tonight. Although each of us has our own unique reasons for being here, we are united in our passion for our wonderful city. As we pause, let us consider our individual contributions and what they mean to those around us. Let us find solace in knowing that by working together with a shared spirit of community and partnership, we will always act responsibly for the betterment of Burbank. Thank you. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Ready, begin.

under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Madam City Clerk, good evening again. Please conduct the roll call.

Councilmember Anthony. Present. Noting the absence of Councilmember Perez, who took a little break, Councilmember Rizzotti.

I am here.

Vice Mayor Mullins. Here. And Mayor Tagahashi.

Here and ready to rock and roll. Thank you. Let's do this. All right, tonight there will be two periods of public comment. Members of the public may comment in person or remotely for all comment periods. In-person commenters must submit cards before the public comment period begins. And remote commenters must be in the queue with their hands raised before the public comment period begins. The first public comment period is for general public comment on any matter concerning city business and or any agenda item. If you are here in person and wish to speak during general public comment, please submit a yellow public comment card to address the council to the city clerk over here. I would like to mention that we are transitioning to a new system for remote public comment this evening. We appreciate your patience and cooperation in advance as we navigate the new system. If you would like to participate in the general public comment remotely, please join via Zoom using the link on the agenda or by calling 818-238-3335. Please note that remote participation is audio only and no video. The meeting ID is 824-4125-6228 And webinar passcode is 818238. If you are already participating remotely and would like to speak during general public comment, please join the speaker queue now by using the raised hand feature in Zoom or by dialing star 9 on your phone. Once the general public comment period begins, no additional comments will be taken. If you are experiencing any issues with joining remotely, please feel free to call our helpline at 818238. 238-5752. An additional public comment period will be available following the one report to Council this evening. Interpreters are also available for assistance with public comment. We have both Spanish and Armenian interpreters here with us this evening sitting in the front row. Please connect with them if you are in need of services. And tonight we have six announcements.

Following our announcements for July 28, 2026. Join the Burbank Police Department at this year's National Night Out event. This annual event aims to promote healthy police community partnerships and provide fun activities and exhibits for the whole family. This year the event will be held at McCambridge Park on Tuesday, August 4th from 4 to 7 30 p.m. See you there. The Burbank City Clerk's Office is accepting applications for one vacancy on the Community Development Block Grant Committee for an unexpired term ending July 31st, 2028. The deadline to apply for the Community Development Block Grant Committee is Friday, August 7th at 5 p.m. If interested, please apply online at burbankca.gov slash bccapplication. As a reminder, any person appointed to fill a vacancy shall hold office for the remainder of the unexpired term. Persons appointed to serve unexpired terms must complete the term before applying to serve on another board, commission, or committee. For more information, please contact the Burbank City Clerk's Office at 818-238-5851 or email cityclerks at burbankca.gov. You can find information and support for individuals experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness including outreach services, housing assistance, local service providers, ways to help, and frequently asked questions at burbankca.gov slash resources. The City of Burbank released a recirculated Draft Program Environmental Impact Report, EIR, for the Media District Specific Plan Update Project on July 11, 2026 for public review. in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act. The public review period will end on August 24th, 2026. And during that time, the public can provide comments on the recirculated draft program EIR to the city's project team. To learn more about the project's progress and to access the recirculated draft program EIR, please visit the project's website at burbankmediadistrictsp.squarespace.com. The Burbank City Clerk's Office would like to remind everyone that the November 3rd, 2026 City of Burbank General Municipal Election nomination period opened at 8 a.m. on Monday, July 13th, 2026, and will close on Friday, August 7th, 2026 at 5 p.m. The nomination period will seek candidates to fill three offices for member of the City Council, one office of the City Clerk, and one office of the City Treasurer. all for full four-year terms ending on December 16, 2030. The requirements for candidates for elective offices of the City are as follows. You need to be a United States citizen, at least 18 years of age, a resident of the City of Burbank for at least 29 days prior to filing nomination papers, and a registered voter in the City of Burbank at the time of nomination. Qualifying individuals may contact the Burbank City Clerk's Office at telephone number 818-238-5851 during normal office hours Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Please note, if an incumbent does not file by the deadline, the nomination period will be extended until Wednesday, August 12, 2026 at 5 p.m. for candidates other than an incumbent for that seat only. Burbank Public Library invites the community to help create a 2026 time capsule that captures what life in Burbank is like today. Community members are encouraged to submit suggestions for objects, mementos, and other small items through an online form available now through September 25th. This fall, the public will be invited to a special open house to view items from the 1976 time capsule alongside the selected 2026 items before they are sealed for future generations. To learn more about the project or submit an idea, visit burbanklibrary.org slash timecapsule. This concludes the announcements for July 28, 2026. Thank you.

All right, we have one presentation this evening, and I'm very excited to do this presentation. We are welcoming our sister city delegates visiting from Ota, Japan. As many of you know, we have several sister cities, and one of them is Ota, Japan. And they've been with us for a couple weeks, and they're here today to share with us some of their experiences. So I'd like to invite the chaperones, Aya Hirose and Takehito Murakami, to join me at the podium. Little pin for you for the city. There you go.

All right, so I think you have some words to share and a video Good evening mayor and member of the City Council and everyone here today Thank you for giving me this precious opportunity to speak tonight. I In my hometown of Ota City, Guma, Japan, the rainy season has just ended and the fufuichi summer has arrived. In recent years, Japanese summers have become extremely harsh, with both temperature and humidity soaring to intense levels. In fact, just a few days ago, on July 17th, a record-breaking heavy rain struck Ota City, causing widespread damage. We left Japan while many of our citizens were still deeply affected and working hard to recover. To be honest, it broke my heart to leave my city at such a difficult time. However, the moment we arrived here, the people of Burbank welcomed us with open arms. You can't imagine how much comfort and relief your warmth has brought to our hearts. We are truly, deeply grateful. Ota and Babank are thousands of miles apart with different cultures, yet people from these two distinct worlds can connect so deeply through pure kindness. This beautiful fact gives us great courage and hope for Ota's recovery. In Japan today, traditional neighborhood ties are unfortunately fading, but our experience here reminds us of a vital truth. As long as we have empathy for one another, people can build trust and support each other, no matter the distance. This visit has reminded me of what truly matters. I'm overjoyed to have met so many wonderful people already, and I look forward to connecting with many people during the rest of my stay. I sincerely hope that our beautiful sister city relationship will continue to flourish for generations to come. Thank you so much for your time and for listening to my story tonight. And next, I'd like to invite our student leader, Ryoto Maruyama, to speak about Sister City Exchange.

Good evening, everyone. Mayor Takahashi, and council members, and everyone who's here tonight. My name is Ryoto Maruyama, and I am honored to be here as a student delegate from Ota City, Japan. To be honest, I was very nervous before arriving. However, thanks to the warm hearts and kindness of our host families and people of Burbank, I am having an unforgettable time. Every conversation, every experience, and every place has taught me something new, showing our cultures and perspective differ while we still share so many of the same values. With one week left, I want to learn and experience as much as I possibly can. This exchange is more than just a trip. It is a chance to build friendships and strengthen the bond between Ota and Burbank. On behalf of all the students from Ota City, Thank you so much for giving this an incredible experience. I am truly proud that Burbank is our sister city of Ota. And I hope this wonderful relationship continues for many years to come. Thank you very much.

Very nice. Thank you. So I had an opportunity to visit with them a little bit. And the delegates came here to City Hall earlier this week, or last week, and each of them got to sit in my chair. So that was kind of exciting. So we had multiple mayors that day. And I just want to say to the group, in my very choppy Japanese, So welcome, I said, I said, thank you for traveling to Burbank. It was a pleasure to have you visit. So my limited Japanese. So as you know, my name is Japanese. And my husband is Japanese. He was born in Tokyo. And my kids were born here. And so we have a Japanese life. But I've never been to Japan. So it was really great to hear stories of Ota. I also got to meet with the Ota mayor who came to visit us and had lunch with him, with the translator help, thank goodness. And it was really nice to learn a lot of similarities between our cities, a lot of things that were the same, and then some things that were unique as well. So I did get, you know, maybe a subtle invitation to OTAS. I'm hoping maybe I can make it over there. If you invite me over, it'd be really great. So then I can get to Japan. All right. And I would also at this time like to, let's see, let's see, present a plaque to our delegation, a small token of our friendship. So here's a plaque. This is beautiful. Oh my gosh, I love it. Celebrating the friendship and cultural exchange. And for those of you who don't know, every year we have an exchange with Korea and with Japan. And every year Japan sends, we either go one direction in Japan and the other direction in Korea. So this year Japanese students come here and our students are going to Korea. So here is a plaque for you. Thank you so much for being a sister city with us. And I think, let's see, I'm trying to find the script here. And I think there's a gift. Yes. Okay. The gift is next. Sorry. I guess the Japanese delegation. Okay. Yes. Okay. Got it. Okay. There's multiple elements to this. Okay. So we're going to do a video next. That's it. Wonderful. So we have a gift for you as well. So here's a gift from Burbank. Thank you. And we do pictures with the gift.

Thank you, Mayor Takahashi, for these gifts. We would like to present a dharma symbolizing luck to you and your city. It is a traditional symbol for goal setting and making wishes. Traditionally, we will paint one eye with a wish, and once it is completed, then we make another wish. I share this with you and the city of Burbank to keep your goals and visions as a forefront and for you to achieve all you have set out for. And in addition to these gifts, we would like to share some accessories with the five esteemed council members. These are Obake products. Obake products is a recycling brand from Ota City, the hometown of Subaru. This name comes from Ota's O and Bake to transform. We turn automotive scrap materials into unique products. While there is some small imperfections, please enjoy these. as part of them.

Thank you.

And before I invite everyone up for a picture, I would like to express my gratitude for this Daruma. So Daruma is, you know, traditional luck and goal setting. What's the word I'm looking for? Not creature, but, you know. what it is, in Japan. And what's so cool about this, not only is it Daruma, but it's also got the city of Burbank seal on one side, Ota on the other side, and in the middle, that kanji means relationship. And the color that they picked is our Burbank color. Right? So very thoughtful. So very much thank you. Really, thank you very much. OK. Now I'm going to invite everybody up to take a picture all together.

Okay, great. Right here. One, two, three. And one, two, three.

Now we're going to do the committee. Okay, right here. One, two, three. And one, two, three. Thank you.

So please enjoy the rest of your stay. Next up, city manager, do we have anything to report tonight?

Madam Mayor, I do not have anything to report tonight. I will defer for the update for the nonprofit coalition.

So I'll just say, I'll just say, change the slide.

Good evening Madam Mayor, City Council Members and City Staff. My name is Shanna Warren and I think many of you know run the Boys and Girls Club but in my spare time I also coordinate the Nonprofit Coalition for the City of Burbank and we are proudly here tonight to provide an update to all of you on the state of the nonprofits. I think some of you will remember that we do this every couple of years. We like to provide an update and share with you all the great work that we're doing and how we collaborate together. So we've put together a PowerPoint presentation. And I've invited some of our nonprofits to come up and speak about the different ways that we partner together. But before we start, I also want to mention that several of our nonprofits are here this evening. Maybe they all came up on.

Please stand, nonprofits.

So we have members of Burbank Nuncawanis, the Chamber, Arts and Education Foundation, Conundrum Theater, Verdugo Dobb Center, Burbank Human Relations, the Convalescent Age Society, Lisa's Care Connection, Zonta, FSA, and Drive Right.

Burbank Community Association.

and the Burbank Armenian Association. So thank you for having us. We're not gonna take up too much of your time, but we'll start with the first slide. So who we are, there are currently 36 member organizations that make up the Burbank Nonprofit Coalition. I won't go through and read all of the organizations. Many of us are here this evening. But this is a complete list of all of us that get together about every month, month and a half. And we've been doing this since 2008. It's a great opportunity for us to get to know each other. to work together, to share resources, to share a calendar, which we also share with the city because you attend so many of our events and we try to keep that all coordinated. And many of us share the same clients. So that is really why the coalition exists. So again, these are a list of all of our current members. What we do, we're keeping the fabric of Burbank strong. The Burbank Nonprofit Coalition collectively and collaboratively develops creative solutions that address the root and symptoms of community issues. And we put together an annual economic impact report for you. So together, we have 1,084 years of collective service. We serve a little over 180,000 community members through our collaboration. There are 469 employees that make up the different nonprofits, adding a local 37,837,000 to the local economy. We have over close to 1,900 volunteers amongst all of our nonprofits that volunteer regularly. And that makes up almost 68,000 volunteer hours. And if you were to translate that into a paid position, that's about 31 full-time employees that help us do what we do every day. We're across, our impact is across many different areas, aging services, education and leadership, social services, workforce readiness, business support, health services, mental health, youth development, community development, housing, and volunteer services. So you name it, the nonprofits are doing it, and we're here to support the city, the school district, the community, and it's a pleasure for us to do this work. So now we want to talk about some of the partnerships that currently exist within the nonprofit coalition. I don't know that Marva is here, so I will call for this slide for her. But many of you know Marva from the Burbank Nunes Lions Club. They have a great kid site program that provides vision screenings for children and adults. They work closely with FSA. They did a lot of work with BTAC and Now Home Again LA. And they provide free eye exams and prescription glasses. to their respective income qualified clients. So this is a great example of how the Burbank Lions Club works with many of the other nonprofits. And now I'm going to turn it over to Brie.

Good evening. Thank you for having us. I'm Brie Ziegler. I'm the managing director of Lisa's Care Connection.

Thanks for having us. I'm Quinn Bebb, the development manager for the Convalescent Aid Society.

And we are thrilled to talk a little bit about our partnership between Lisa's Care Connection and Convalescent Aid Society. So both of us have a focus on supporting seniors and those in need of medical care. Through our partnership, we have been able to pool resources during these difficult macroeconomic conditions when funding is especially sparse to share resources and help create a greater impact with fewer resources. We collaborate on boozing at many community events.

We also work together to present when one of us is not able to make it to an event, we cover for the other. And I let people know that Lisa's helps people with Alzheimer's and dementia. Convalescent Aid Society provides free medical equipment.

And we've also had the honor of co-presenting at several grassroots outreach events with faith-based community.

I think that covers it. Thank you. Thank you.

Our next example of partnership I can cover because it's Boys and Girls Club. We work very closely with a lot of the nonprofits. Some of the organizations I wanted to highlight is the long-term work we were doing with Burbank Temporary Aid Center, which we also do with HALA. We provide free memberships to any HALA members that are in need of after-school programming, summer programming. And we also share resources with them. A lot of times we will get bulk deliveries of donations, and we will reach out. to HALA and all of the nonprofits to say that we've got soap, clothing, whatever it may be, come and pick it up. We want to share it with as many families as we can. We work closely with the Kids Community Dental Clinic to ensure that all of our members receive dental screenings. We do that throughout the year and during the summer. We work closely with FSA, make sure that we refer any of our club members to them if they have any needs, their families, for emotional support. And then Burbank Housing Corporation, I think many of you know that for the last several years we've been providing after-school care for their two Elmwood and Payton Grismer sites. That's changing a little. We're still working closely with them, but we've really appreciated the partnership that we've had with them. And now I'm going to turn it over. Dale Gorman from the Kids Community Dental Clinic couldn't make it. She's not feeling well, but one of her board members is here.

Good evening, Council. Good evening, Mayor. My name is Artin Daraohanian. I'm one of the board members with the Kids Community Dental Clinic. And thank you for allowing us to speak. And I want to highlight that this is a true coalition of peoples coming together, these organizations coming together to definitely help one another. You've heard how our organization has gone in and helped screen some of the Boys and Girls Clubs, some of the different facilities that other organizations have. We are able to provide dentists and dental students and different screeners to go in and help look at low income and look at kids that have deficiencies in their oral health. We also help educate. One of the biggest advantages that we have with the kids community is our longevity with the city. We've been in this city for multiple decades, 40 plus years. We were fortunate to have some of our volunteer dentists come in and receive certificates from this body for 40 plus years of service to the Kids Community Dental Clinic and to this city. And it's only with that partnership with this city, with these organizations, with the school district that we're able to give our kids and our low income community members the ability to stand up on their own and to strive. Thank you.

And next we're going to hear from Gloria with Zonta.

Good evening city council members. And just a shout out to those of you who are my fellow Zontians on the council. As you know, Zonta Club of Burbank area has been around since 1936. We're coming up to our 90th celebration September 26th, so mark your calendar. invitations will be going out soon but Zonta Club of Burbank area is a member of Zonta International Zonta International has been around since 1919 the year that women were granted the right to vote we Our mission is to build a better world for women and girls and we do that through our service projects and our advocacy and a couple of our advocacy projects at which many of you were present. We had our Red Sand project just last year where the grains of sand that were poured into the Umi parking lot were representative of the millions of victims of human trafficking throughout the world. And then we did our soap project. We've done two soap projects, the one just recently where we were in collaboration with the Kiwanis the Sunrise Rotary, the Noon Rotary, Soroptimus of Glendale, a few church organizations that came, and I had actually reserved the library room for four hours, but we had so many volunteers that were able to do the soaps and the makeup removers with the little labels for human trafficking hotline number in just one hour. So we had many hands, and that's the collaboration within our coalition. And again, September 26th, our celebration, and you'll all get an invitation. Thank you.

And next, we're going to have Lori Bleich from Family Service Agency come up.

Good evening, and thank you for having us this evening. I will be brief. I don't need to speak for this coalition, and I just want to thank Shanna for all the hard work she's done through the years to keep this group together. I want to thank the city of Burbank. We are 73 years in your community, moving into our 74th. Burbank talked about mental health when no one else was, and they also went to work to do something about it. You're still doing that every year, And I can't thank the staff and all the representatives of this council that have come before you and that are here now that continue to make a commitment to the health of this community. Mental health, particularly our teens right now, I just want to do a little plea there, are in crisis. Forty percent of them are telling us that they're in crisis. We have a new campaign coming up. I will send you all that information that asks our teens to put a phone number in their phones so that when they need to talk that they will be able to reach out somewhere. We need to build these bridges. Right now services are going away in our community and so this is our way of building that bridge back. Again, I want to thank every department head in this community and that sits here now and that sits here every Tuesday for your commitment to this community and in maintaining Burbank as Burbank always has been, always is now, and always will be. And I want to thank this group here because without this fabric, without this kind of a foundational commitment and partnership, From a mental health standpoint, moments that are difficult would be a crisis, and that is not going to happen in our city. So thank you all for your commitment, and I appreciate the time today. Last year—I'll give you some numbers for those numbers, people— Last year we saw a little over 5,000 Burr bankers throughout our partnerships in this community and offered over 90,000 clinical hours of direct care. The need's there and we're not even getting close to meeting the need. So thank you again.

I'm going to now invite Romick up to speak about Drive Right, and he's also going to tell you a little bit about our new website. And I'm going to have him close it out because I want to be mindful of your time. So the one thing I will say, because I'm going to let you finish this out, is this Saturday, Boys and Girls Club, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., back to school fair. We have over 1,000... Students signed up from all over Burbank free haircuts vision screening dental screening health screenings Panda Express and a lot of backpacks full of school supplies and a lot of giveaways for our families The best part is there'll be over 60 vendors there to provide free and low-cost Information to our families. So if any of you are free and you want to stop by Saturday from 9 until noon, I

Good evening, Council. My name is Rom Kokopian, President of the Burbanker Man Association. And I just want to share the power of what happens when you bring coalition together of supporters and the support system that we have here and WHAT WE CAN ACTUALLY ACHIEVE WHEN WE ALL WORK TOGETHER. SO AS WE APPROACH THE FIFTH YEAR OF AUGUST 3, 2021 STREET RACING TRAGEDY THAT OCCURRED ON ANDOVER, JUST RIGHT DOWN THE STREET, I WANT TO RECOGNIZE THE PARTNERSHIP BEYOND THE DRIVE RIGHT, SAVE LIVES CAMPAIGN. SO AFTER THREE YOUNG PEOPLE LOST THEIR LIVES, THE BURBANK NONPROFIT COALITION HELPED BRING TOGETHER MORE THAN 30 ORGANIZATIONS, COMMUNITY and the Burbank and Glendale Police Departments to promote education, prevention, and safer driving. That community effort caught the attention of State Senator Caroline Menjivar and became the foundation of Senate Bill 1198, the Safer Driving Act, sponsored by the Burbank Community Association. Today, SB 1198 is supported by organizations across California, including the state-leading law enforcement associations, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, major cities, youth organizations, YMCA, street advocates, victim advocacy groups, and, of course, the Burbank Nonprofit Coalition. I also want to thank the Burbank City Council. The City Council is a registered supporter of this bill, and Burbank did not just help start this movement. Burbank is helping carry it forward. And this bipartisan bill is authored by State Senator Caroline Menjivar, with coauthors Senator Barb Archuleta, Laura Richardson, and Henry Stern, and Assemblymembers Laura Davies, Cottey Petri Norris, and of course our Assemblymember Nick Schultz. Through five major legislative votes, SB 1198 has received 69 yes votes and zero no votes. And that's just not symbolic. That demonstrates a campaign created here in Burbank that has grown into a statewide public safety movement. So the realistic conservative's estimate is that this legislation could save approximately 100 to 250 lives over the next decade and prevent up to $3 billion in economic and social and societal costs across California. Also, this bill protects innocent vehicle owners from towing costs when a car is stolen, used without permission, or charges are dismissed. And we've also even closed a loophole so reckless drivers, after their third offense, will not get the same liberties. And finally, the families who lost their young ones during the Andover accident here in Burbank may not know that their pain inspired a community, created a campaign, and helped produce legislation. So as we look forward, we look forward to the day when we can tell those families that the legacy of their loved ones helped create a law that will save lives for generations to come. And it all started from here. And I thank you guys for that, for all your support you've provided. And then we're going to move on to, I believe you guys got a flyer called Burbank Cares. So for the first time, you will have access to all the nonprofits that are part of the Burbank Nonprofit Coalition. So if you go to burbankcares.org, we have created a collective of all the organizations that are there, the services they provide, and we also have a tool that you can use to match anyone who's a resident that needs services They'll go through the 60-second application, and they'll match it with a nonprofit that works best for them. And if you're a donor or a business that wants to match with a nonprofit and wants to donate to a nonprofit, they can do that as well. And what's really wonderful is that we have the nonprofit calendar on there, so it tells you what the events are all throughout the year. And it's a wonderful application to use, and we're really proud of it. And that's all I have to say.

Thank you once again for allowing us to come and provide an update, and thank you for all of the support that you all give all of our nonprofits. We really appreciate it.

Wow, that's great. Thank you. Okay, Mr. City Attorney, will you please report on closed session?

Yes, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council, and for the benefit of the public, the City Council met at 4.30 this afternoon to discuss one item of existing litigation in closed session pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9D1 concerning the case of Amanda Sim versus City of Burbank, which is a personal injury case. The City Council took no reportable action on this item.

Great. Thank you. Bye. Thank you, everybody. Now is the time for general public comment. I will be calling out the speaker's name as well as the person who is next in line to speak. In order to keep public comment moving in a timely fashion, we have a designated seat in the front row for speakers who are next up at the podium. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that we are utilizing a new system for remote public comment this evening. So we ask for your patience and cooperation should we run into any issues. Please note that remote participation is audio only and no video. Meeting ID is 824-4125-6228. And webinar passcode is 818238. If you're joining us remotely this evening and experiencing an issue, please call 818-238-5752 for technical assistance. Remote participants wishing to speak during general public comment who have not yet joined the speaker queue may do so now by dialing star nine by phone or using the raised hand feature on Zoom. Please note, if you are calling from a blocked or private number, you will be introduced as anonymous. Please be ready to unmute when prompted to speak. This is also the last call for anyone who needs an interpreter or those staff will be released for the evening in a moment. The general public comment period is now beginning, and no additional cards or remote participants will be accepted. For in-person speakers, a timer is available on the podium. And please speak directly into the microphone and adjust it down or up if you need. For both in-person and remote participants, please state your name for the record. Interpreters, have you been asked for any requests for assistance? All right. Well, thank you so much for being here tonight. Enjoy the rest of your evening. Madam City Clerk, how many public comment cards do we have for general public comment and how many remote callers do we have?

We have 17 cards for in-person and we have two people joining us remotely via Zoom.

Okay, so that's 19 just under the wire. Y'all get three minutes, but you don't have to use three minutes, but you do get it. Okay, well, all right. Let's see, I need my speaker cards.

There could be One does not have their hand up, so. Got it.

Okay, so we'll find out when we get there. Got it. Okay. So our first speaker is Ron Backs, followed by Chris C. Welcome, Mr. Backs. You get a whole three minutes tonight, believe it or not.

Good evening, Council. Ron Backs. Mr. Anthony, Councilman Anthony, I agree with you 100%, I didn't want to use that term, that these two minute sound bites are an ineffective way to have a conversation. So I'm looking forward to you proposing or supporting a proposal to have a town hall meeting, which I've been asking for for what, three years now? And my comments were not personal. I thought I was representing the citizens of Burbank because of the sanction agenda item, which I called a farce and a charade. And even more so now that I think about it, because Council Member Perez decided to go home, or did say she was going home, and then I think somebody took a read on the room and thought the vote was gonna be two to one or maybe three to zero. So she came back to give cover for the mayor to split the vote two to two. That's what it appeared. The issues that were brought up were the BAL incident, the meetings that you had with agencies or committees that you were representing the city and you were not allowed or authorized to represent the city, and you were told to go back and correct that. I don't think you ever did. The incident that I learned about during that, the St. Joseph's, where there was a... Employment meeting or wage meeting whatever you want to call it and that you represented the city which they're still angry with us I understand and then Glendale with the BTR BTR the BTR the Metro groundbreaking where you said you weren't holding the shovel But the pictures I see show you who were holding the shovel or at least you had your hand on it And I'd hope that the pictures are kind of grainy. I hope you didn't have your city mem City Council member pin on your lapel. I can't tell and The problem is is that everybody knows you're a city council person. So they're not gonna say is that Constantine Anthony? Or is that council member Anthony? Example I'll give, I heard a review of the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, the 1951 version, not the Keanu Reeves version, where the producer wanted Spencer Tracy at the height of his career to be the alien. And the director said, no way. And his reason was sound. Because if people saw Spencer Tracy come out, they'd say, there's Spencer Tracy. Not a visitor from outer space. So it was a good call. Now I'm going to skip these other things here. What I'm meaning to ask is, where are these evictions that we keep hearing about? Staff was here about a year ago. They were asked the blunt question about how many evictions have we had, and they said, we haven't had any in quite a while. So where are all these evictions taking place? Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Chris C., followed by Daisy Quimley. Welcome.

Hi, my name is Chris C. I'm an educator and a lifelong resident. For those who don't know regarding the data center on 100 South Flower Street, it is an existing data center that is changing owners and it's on track to be converted into a high density inference hub. Our concerns lie in potential air and higher water and power use. and subsequent impact on our utility rates and increased noise from the cooling equipment. It's unclear how serious the problems are at this point as the details haven't been made public. I'm concerned that Burbank's current code doesn't clearly define this level of high density computing at all. So this conversion can very much move forward without triggering a prudent review. A gap in our code opens Burbank up to unforeseen impacts. I think it's important that we are proactive now rather than be reactive. So I request that the city to determine if this change of use requires a new permit. And if it does, I require public disclosure of those plans before the permit is approved. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Okay, I'll allow it once. To have jazz hands, that'd be great. Thank you so much. All right, next up is Daisy Quimley, followed by Jim Lane. Welcome.

Good evening, mayors and council members. My name is Daisy Quimby, and for the past 19 years, I have proudly worked in Burbank beauty industry. During that time, I was honored and voted best of Burbank three years in a row. Tonight I am here as a first time small business owner asking for your understanding and your help. I was raised by immigrant parents who worked hard and lived paycheck to paycheck. They taught me to work hard, be honest, and never give up. No one in my family has ever owned a business. I am the first. Sorry.

Let's give her a few more seconds of time at it, if that's okay. Sorry.

My experience has always been behind the chair. I rented a booth for many years and later co-owned a salon that was already built. So I never had the experience with permits and construction. When I leased my own salon, I truly didn't understand how critical it was to obtain permits before the work began. That mistake was mine, and I have never tried to avoid responsibility for it. The moment I learned my mistake, I stopped construction and spent the last eight months doing everything the city asked of me. I hired architects, engineers, plumbers, contractors. I revised plans, paid fees, and worked towards compliance because I wanted to do things the right way. Throughout this process, I have met many kind city employees who genuinely wanted to help me, but almost every conversation changed when The moment that they opened my file on the words code violation, suddenly the answers have become that nothing more can be done. I understand that I made a mistake. What has been heartbreaking is feeling like the one mistake has erased everything else, my efforts to correct it, my financial hardship, and my willingness to comply. Last week, the hardship committee agreed that my situation is true financial hardship, but because of the violation, I couldn't receive the relief I hoped for. One mistake should not erase 19 years of doing things the right way. Today I've spent my life, savings, taken debt, paid rent on a business that has never opened and watched my two professionals lose the opportunity to work in my salon. I recently asked the city how to responsibly close my project if there is no path forward because I don't want to leave problems for my landlords and I'm still waiting for guidance. I am not asking to ignore the rules. I'm asking you to remember that behind every permit file is a person, a person who made an honest mistake, accepted responsibility, and has spent eight months trying to make it right. Tonight, I hope that when you look at my file, You don't just see the words code violation, but you see me. I respectfully ask that you direct staff to meet with me one final time to determine whether there is any responsible path that would allow me to open my business. If there truly isn't, I ask for clear guidance so I can close my project responsibly. I still believe there is a solution. I still believe in this committee. And I hope that you will give me a chance to have my dream still. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Well done. Next up is Jim Lane, followed by Diana Pulver.

That was rough. I don't know the circumstances behind any of that, but if the city can help out, I would encourage it to do so. So I asked this question probably about two months ago. Ms. Mullins wasn't here. I was working in Czechia for a month, and I just came back. So I'm going to ask the question again. It has to do with the Burbank Association of Realtors, the demonstration that took place there. During a hearing where Mr. Anthony was being considered for sanctioning or whatever, Ms. Mullins asked a question. How did she know that the people who called BAOR were the same people that were at the demonstration? She stated that as fact. And since it was a pretty serious accusation all the way around, I'd like to know how she knows that. She stated it as fact. And that also Ms. Mullins and Mr. Rosati pointed out that the people answering the phones and fielding complaints about Moms for Liberty were women of color. Why was this important to bring up? Did they receive racist or ethnic slurs while they were receiving those phone calls? And if so, I'd like some proof of that. Landlords and housing providers, why are you trying to rebrand? The word landlord has serious negative connotations. My parents were landlords for 10 years. I know that this reputation is both earned as well as unfair at times. However, instead of facile rebranding, try to self-police a little more. People become landlords for a variety of reasons, and sometimes people just don't like being landlords and forget that there are rules. As Hyman Roth reminds Michael Corleone in Godfather Part II, This is the business you've chosen. Mr. Rosati campaigned on a platform that housing is a human right. Because housing is a human right, one should expect there to be regulations. Regulation is not tyranny or communism, a word that Trump and the Burbank Fair Housing PAC are frequently using now. It's on the front page of their website. You don't know what communism is if you use it to describe the BTU. It's in fact pathetic name-calling in the spirit of Trump and his hero, Roy Cohn, who with Joe McCarthy destroyed people's lives, many of those in the film and TV industry here in Burbank. The BTU is democratic. Not authoritarian. As David Bowie says in Twin Peaks Fire Walk With Me, I've been to one of their meetings. Anyone gets that reference, you get a gold star. Stop using words you either don't understand or are using to try to destroy people's reputations. This isn't the 50s, although some Burbankians would love to get back to those days. Thank you.

Thank you for your, okay. So I know you really want to clap for everybody who speaks for what you approve of. That's okay. But if we do that, then it stretches out the time for public comment, and also it's hard to hear the next person's name, and the next person who comes up may feel intimidated or not feel comfortable. So please respect the room, and if you agree or like what somebody says, use jazz hands. And if you don't, you can do thumbs down, and that's the respectful way to show your thoughts without disrupting the meeting, okay? Thank you very much. All right, next up is Diana Pulver, followed by Chimay Nayak. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council Members. My name is Diana Pulver. I'm a housing provider and a lifelong Burbanker. As was noted in a recent report to this council, Burbank is one of the few self-sustaining cities in California. This is something to be proud of. But Burbank is still facing a projected deficit of $2.7 million. One of the reasons given for this was rising inflation, something that everyone is dealing with. I have lived through double-digit inflation, and it was not the best of times for business or anyone else. If additional rent control were to be imposed, it will drive housing providers like me out of business. AB 1482 is in place, and it is something that I and many like-minded housing providers can work with. So again, do not LA my Burbank. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Thank you for the jazz hands and hand motions for thoughts. Next up is Chinmay Nayak, followed by, I think, Maya. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and council members. Thank you also, Mayor Takahashi, for meeting with me last week to discuss my school campaign, Food for Future. And thank you for also giving me and the other BUSD students the opportunity to speak. A lot of them are out of town right now or on vacation, but many more students will be joining in the future. My name is Chinmayi Nayak, and I'm going to be going to 11th grade next year at John Burroughs High School in Burbank. I created the BUSD Food for Future campaign last year since I'm extremely passionate about the environment and preserving our planet for the future generations. This campaign aims to add one to two plant-based meal options as well as a plant-based milk option to all school cafeterias across Burbank Unified School District. This is done since animal agriculture is one of the main contributors to climate change with their extreme land and water usage. Last year, we had a lot of success and support from our food service staff with getting these options implemented. But when the options were being tested out, we realized we had a problem. The problem was that most students didn't understand why these options were important. These options were there, but many students had no idea about the environmental impacts of the food systems and were uninformed about this topic, just like I was last year at the same time when I created this campaign. So last year at JBHS, we decided to do various forms of promotion for these options, like giving presentations, putting up posters in classrooms, and even organizing field trips to teach students about these issues. These events, however, were only done at JBHS and reached a small group of people compared to the vast amount of students who go to the school, and an even smaller amount compared to how many people go to the district. However, despite this, the results of these educational events were remarkable. since many students who had never even thought about choosing these options were now trying them out and almost everyone was now thinking more about their choices and trying to make more environmentally conscious and inclusive food choices. Despite this campaign reaching such a small group of students, because of us only knowing the JBHS students, it showed remarkable results. The city has much more power to show even better results on a larger scale to even more people. If the city endorses the plant-based treaty, the residents of Burbank will now be educated on the impacts of the food system on the climate and will be able to make more conscious choices. Endorsing plant-based treaty will not only provide plant-based options for the community They will also educate people and leave them behind with information They can use to make more informed choices and choices that will benefit not only their community, but the world as a whole Thank you, and I hope we can make Burbank a more sustainable city together Thank you for your comment love those jazz hands I

Lots of them. Next up is Maya, followed by, card sticky, hold on, followed by, I think, Nighty. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council members. My name is Maya Bueno and I am here today to urge the City Council to endorse the Plant-Based Treaty and actively support plant-based initiatives within our city's sustainability and wellness planning. Promoting plant-based diets directly aligns with Burbank's commitment to community, to community health and environmental leadership for three critical reasons. Number one, environmental sustainability. Transitioning to more plant-based options significantly lowers greenhouse gas emissions, conserves local water resources, and reduces land use footprint. It will also help reduce biodiversity loss from deforestation, which will help protect endangered wildlife species. Number two, public health. Decades of medical research proved that plant-centered diets reduce rates of chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure, fostering a healthier lifestyle. Number three, economic resilience. Expanding plant-based accessibility reduces healthcare burdens and aligns our local economy with the rapidly growing sustainable food sector. The direction that our climate is leading into urges us to a climate ratio. For example, there's three meat-based options, but instead, two out of those three options are plant-based, making plant-based choices more accessible for everyone to choose from, which will lead to a more sustainable planet. I ask that the councils consider integrating plant-based promotions into municipal events, school programs, including everyday lunches and future climate action plans. Thank you for your leadership and dedication to a forward-thinking, sustainable Burbank.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is followed by Yvonne Oliver. Welcome.

OK. Good evening, Mayor Takahashi and members of the city council. My name is and I'm here today with the plant-based treaty to teach our community about the importance of plant-based food and to ask our city to endorse the treaty and ensure that every city-sponsored event offers clearly labeled satisfying plant-based meals. We are not asking the city to ban any foods or tell people what they must eat. We are asking the city to provide real choice for residents who avoid animal products for health, religious, cultural, environmental, ethical, or for anyone who just wants a healthy meal. Food is also part of climate policy. The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization reports that food systems are responsible for about one-third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. This includes farming, land clearing, processing, transportation, refrigeration and food waste. The food we conserve makes a meaningful difference. A major study of more than 55,000 people found that vegan diets produced about one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions than of high meat diets. Raising animals, especially cattle, produces methane and requires large amounts of land, water, and animal feed. Eating plants more directly generally uses fewer resources and creates fewer emissions. This doesn't mean that everyone must completely change their diet. It means that offering more plant-based meals is one practical way that our city can reduce the carbon footprint of its events. These meals can also be familiar, affordable, and satisfying. Foods like bean tacos, lentil bowls, vegetable curries, chili, pasta, or the classic rice and beans. Plant-based options can also support public health. The World Health Organization notes that healthy diets help protect against diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and cancer, and that replacing red meat with plant-based proteins can provide health benefits. The American Heart Association also recommends foods such as beans, peas, lentils, nuts, and seeds as a part of a heart-healthy eating pattern. Our city wouldn't be acting alone. 77 cities, towns, regional governments across six continents have already endorsed plant-based treaty. Cambridge and Somerville have encouraged plant-based food at city events, and nearby Culver City and West Hollywood have taken similar steps through its policies. I respectfully ask the city council to endorse plant-based treaty and direct city staff to provide substantial, clearly labeled plant-based meals at every city-sponsored event. This isn't just a practical step that expands choice, supports public health, and it reduces environmental impact of the food that our city serves. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Yvonne Oliver, followed by Samantha. Welcome.

Good evening, mayor and vice mayor and council members. My name is Yvonne Oliver. And for the past 20 years, I've had the privilege to teach French here at Burbank at John Burroughs High School. And as a French teacher, I come from a culture that has elevated food to an art form, right? And for us, we have hundreds of cheeses and meat dishes. So believe me, when I say this, Even a French teacher can embrace the idea that a great meal doesn't have to center on meat and dairy. One lesson I teach my students is that evidence matters, and students hear what adults say, but they study what adults do. They're remarkably good at spotting contradictions. We tell them to trust science, follow the evidence, and think critically. Well, the evidence is there. It's a staggering 80% of ocean dead zones that are caused by meat and dairy. We can choose to evade reality. but not the consequences of evading reality. This is an important lesson for my students and for all of us. I know food is never just food. It's culture, it's family, it's faith, it's health, and planned meals are affordable, familiar, and inclusive. They can serve students who keep kosher or halal, students who envision a world with less suffering and cruelty. One minute at a time, we have the power to make that change, and all of us can be superheroes for the planet, for a stronger and healthier world. Our students aren't asking us to be perfect. They're asking us to be honest and to rethink old habits, and that's exactly what we encourage them to do every day. No city can solve climate change alone, but every meaningful change begins with someone willing to lead. So I respectfully ask that you place the endorsement of the plan-based treaty on the agenda for a vote. Let's show our students that in Burbank, we don't just teach critical thinking, we practice it.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Samantha, followed by Cameron Tennyson. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Takahashi, Vice Mayor Mullins, city council members, and city staff. My name is Samantha, and great to see all of you again. I am an organizer for Plant-Based Treaty. We are a global grassroots campaign providing solutions for climate change and protecting the environment by centering the food system. I'm here to ask the city to endorse plant-based treaty as it will provide important information for the community on how to be more sustainable and healthy with our food system. The city can lead by example for the rest of the community and the school district because the students at John Burroughs High School have collected hundreds of signatures for the Food for Future campaign and inspired other students to get active in fighting against climate change by using the food system. Chinmayi's work has been personally inspiring for me as well as the work of her fellow student Chloe. I know that with students like Chloe and Chinmayi guiding the way the future will be so much brighter. So thank you Mayor Takahashi and the city council members for giving them kind words of encouragement and hope to students for the Food for Future campaign. If Burbank leads by example, it would help ensure the success of the student-led campaign in bringing sustainable food policy to the school district. It was so great to see young people from Ota, your sister city from Japan, participate in the exchange program to learn about each other because Japan has recently made a commitment to invest $6.2 billion in alternative protein. So they also know and understand the importance of shifting towards a more sustainable food system for the planet. So please put plant-based treaty on the city council agenda for endorsement with implementation as recommended by the Burbank Sustainability Commission. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Cameron Tennyson, followed by Craig Hample. Welcome.

Good evening, city council members. My name is Cameron Tennyson. I've been a Burbank citizen since 2019. Real quick, council members Rosati and Mullins still haven't shown any support for trans children after the Moms for Liberty came into our town and spread hate. specifically yelling at protesters that trans kids do not exist. I know you see us every time we come up here and we ask, you know, for some sort of just notice that you see us, but you've yet to comment. So tonight, during councilmember comment, please, not for us, but show the trans kids in Burbank that you support their right to exist and that you're going to protect them from the outside hate groups. Tonight, I do specifically want to talk about AI-generated art, and I recommend that the City Council considers instituting a ban that prohibits City of Burbank employees from using AI-generated art for any city-affiliated public-facing media, including social media content graphics for public events or at public events. and other things of the sort. Just to give an example of what I mean, a good portion of the city of Burbank ads for the FIFA fan zone, they use AI-generated art. There have been multiple posts on official city council of Burbank, or not city council, city of Burbank accounts that have used AI-generated art. And I even saw a job posting this past week for a Burbank library assistant, and that job posting was completely AI generated. If we have something that we need art for, hire an artist. We live in Burbank. Finding an artist here is like finding the Titanic in a haystack. This is the easiest thing ever. This band would be the first of its kind in the United States. And personally, I feel like Burbank being at the forefront of this in fighting AI art is completely on brand with the history of our town. For those who don't know how AI art works, essentially, AI models are trained off of millions and millions of pictures, which ironically enough, a lot of these pictures come from productions that started and were created in Burbank. The people of our town have essentially given their art. They haven't volunteered it, but these AI models have stolen their art. And then the art that the city is using by creating these AI-generated ads or event posters, it's not recognizing the people who actually helped make those certain types of cartoons that could be used for AI training. I understand that from a purely productivity-aligned standpoint, using AI art has its pros. It's fast, it's easy, and it's cheap. But Burbank of all places, we should understand that human creativity is very important. And so I would really like if our city council would discuss or have an agenda item in the future where we discuss AI art.

Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Next up is Craig Hample, followed by Mark Scroggs. Welcome.

Good evening, council members. First of all, I'd just like to say, just give some kudos to the nonprofit coalition. What an amazing group of cooperating people. Also, I want to thank all the students who came in to talk about plant-based diets and their concern for the environment. I was just looking at a fire map of North America the other day, And there are just thousands of fires burning all over the world right now. And a lot of this, we know, is from human endeavors. So tonight I want to talk about transportation and some benefits that we have to push human-powered transportation forward. In early 2023, the city council approved the construction of a bike bridge over the LA River. It was not an impulsive decision at all. It was 30 years in the making, really. The vision started in the 1990s to connect Burbank to other parts of Los Angeles with safe network of bicycle paths. So in this 30 years, there were site surveys in 2002 along the river where to put this bridge. There was measure our funding that was approved in 2019. The final agreements came in 2023. There was a community surveys put out in 2008 and in 2009 in the bicycle master plan, it was the highest priority project in the city. This is low-hanging fruit for transportation in a sensible way. We are living with car dependency, dominance, and misery. We now have cars that will go zero to 60 in two seconds. 1,300 horsepower cars It's really amazing. So this bridge fulfills multiple adopted policies, plans, and promises made to the community to reduce automobile congestion and support active transportation. And I'm going to give you a list of these things that have already been approved by councils in previous years, going all the way back to the Burbank Transportation Management Organization in 1991. to reduce congestion. Burbank Sustainability Action Plan in 2008. Burbank Bicycle Master Plan. The first one was in 1975. The second one was in 2009. There was the Burbank 2035 Master Plan. Active transportation element. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Mark Scroggs, followed by Susan O'Carroll. Welcome.

That's kind of cool, that thing from Japan. Good evening, everyone. I'm Mark Scroggs. Last Friday on a Block the Merger update Zoom, the executive director of the Committee for the First Amendment stated, the power of many can beat the power of money when we organize. Keep that in mind. The next step with the Block the Merger is for both sides to set a trial date that could come soon. People need to continue to speak out against this and against all other mergers, like the lettuce industry and the food industry is suffering a lot from these mergers and people not regulating. I will have more specifics and details soon, and ideas soon. I also want to mention a couple other things. Our Congress member, Laura Friedman, is leading a group of California representatives in fighting Brandon Carr and the FCC from pulling KABC's license. On ABC and on their website, there's a QR code for people to sign a petition, but it's great, you know, I told her it's great to be supportive of that because You know, there's a local business here. Disney is local, if that can be considered. At the last meeting, you know, these guys brought up information about an AI center coming to Burbank was brought up. I know you guys are starting to talk about it, but be aggressive. Don't, you know, be passive. These things sneak up on us. El Segundo, last night, you know, they pulled an AI center from there because they had so much public reaction against it. mainly because they wanted to build it right by the LA Times and by all the sports training centers. But they got it moved. The people just moved on. So I want to mention that. And finally, every morning I drive by the temporary center coming home from my gym. The lines are getting longer and longer and longer. I know it's tough out there, but keep it in mind, there was a huge crowd this morning. It was like waiting for a store to open to sell sneakers. So that's it for tonight.

Thank you for your comments. Next up is Susan O'Carroll, followed by David Donohue.

Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening. I'm here to sound the alarm on the infrastructure crisis headed our way if Metro's BRT is allowed to have dedicated lanes and trigger SB 79, which would allow for up to 27,000 additional housing units around a single transit stop and up to about 67,000 along the alignment. Adding SB 79 mandated density places Burbank directly into the increased growth scenario evaluated in Appendix H of the Media District Specific Plan EIR. The findings are terrifying. Just 44,000 new units, less than two-thirds of the units SB 79 would allow for, results in sewage overload. due to a sewer flow increase of 13.83 million gallons per day, bringing the total sewage flow to roughly 22.5 million gallons per day, which catastrophically exceeds the water reclamation plant's existing 8.5 million gallon per day capacity by 14 million gallons per day. The Beachwood Pump Station would also be pushed 4 million gallons past its breaking point. To move this sewage, Burbank would be forced to tear up and upsize 16 miles of gravity mains, crippling our streets with construction. To prevent failure of the wastewater system, the city would be required to require 98,000 square feet of additional property to expand the reclamation plant. Worse, this will cost a staggering $775 million and take 32 years to implement. During this time, we cannot just pipe this excess sewage to Los Angeles. Apparently, there are long-term Apparently, long-term diversion to Hyperion is legally infeasible due to strict regulatory and contract constraints and would cost $60 million in fees over 10 years. There's a potential for electrical collapse. The increased development will also severely exceed available electrical capacity, requiring 164 megawatts of power against only 70 megawatts of capacity. Fixing this vulnerable grid defect will take 10 to 15 years. Water deficit. The city lacks the water to support this cumulative development. This is the future Metro and our state legislatures want for Burbank. A city with inadequate sewage treatment capacity, a city with inadequate electrical capacity, and a city with inadequate water. Who pays the ultimate price? We all will. Just so a bus can go one minute faster. We all need to tell our legislators that this is not okay and ask them to vote against SB 1361 and to stop SB 79. Thank you very much, Madam Mayor and members of the council.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is David Donahue followed by Dennis Belli. Welcome.

Miss Labrada, please.

Hey Burbank, so we are here at 2006 Magnolia Boulevard. We had a pretty strong turnout. Hey, look at that. Fought 50 people or so. Nobody that I saw got violent from my side.

60 protesters versus 10 attendees. Since I'm the one who brought that video and submitted it to the police department in cooperation with the Burbank Association of Realtors,

I wanted to play it for you again. The incident that you see is where a protester violently pushes and blocks a person who was attending. Of the 10 that that person bragged that they were able to keep away from this event at the Burbank Association of Realtors, who themselves had nothing to do with renting or the venue out. The part of this that is really disturbing is the conversation at this dais. This is political violence. I wanted to show it to you again so you could all see it and understand that this is political violence. It's in front of you. You have the support of these people that have been to this lectern speaking to you saying, it's okay. I went there, I wanted to learn a little bit more about what Sonia Shah had to say. And it was a gauntlet. I asked the sergeant at arms if I could blow this, and I was told no. This is what was blown in my ear and everybody's ear. Madam Mayor, would you allow me to blow this in council chambers?

I would prefer you didn't. I think that we all understand what kind of point you're trying to make.

But the decibel level, Mayor Tagahashi, can permanently damage somebody's hearing, and you got to see it. This is unacceptable in a city of Burbank to have this level of discourse where political violence and attacks are condoned, and that when that person has actually been arraigned and indicted by the police department, then everybody is losing their mind. Really? Let the law play out. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Dennis Belli, followed by Chris Yousefi, and that's my last card.

Welcome. Hi. My name is Dennis Belli, and I have to honestly say that I'm kind of impressed by what it is that I've heard so far. The people are well prepared, and they come here to deliver a message, although sometimes it's a little bit frayed, but the point is there. I've lived in this city for 50 years, and I think I've taken it for granted at least half that time. And I have to say at this particular time, due to my age, I'm taking this a little bit more seriously. I'm here about the data center, and I know that there's a lot of concern on individuals, on the part of individuals, and I'm sure that there aren't a lot of people here that should be or that really have something to say but don't know how to say it. It's your responsibility to listen to all of us, and boy, you listen to a lot of different stuff, that's all I have to say. That's some very interesting stuff that I've heard tonight that I wouldn't have imagined, you know, it goes on in this city. But just sitting here has been an experience for me. Anyhow, I would hope... And I'm sure that you're all very responsible in this arena that somebody does at least a very thorough EIR of this situation. Because it appears in other arenas that when these things have gotten going, they have caused some serious issues and some serious damages to the environment. One thing I do find interesting is that there's no one group that rules this group. They're all kind of ruled by little fragments here, little fragments there. It's a very intelligent thing that the business community decided when they decided to promote this stuff because they're sophisticated and they know what it is that they're doing. Please watch out for us. Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Chris Yusefi, and that's my last card in person. HE'S GOING TO WAIT.

MR. YUSEFI WOULD LIKE TO WAIT FOR THE ITEM.

OKAY. SOUNDS GOOD. ALL RIGHT. AND WE HAVE CALLERS OR REMOTE FOLKS ON THE LINE.

WE HAVE ONE PARTICIPANT VIA ZOOM. TELEPHONE NUMBER 3231.

Do I speak now?

Yes, go ahead, please.

Thank you. City Council must ban all surveillance tech in Burbank. Privacy and surveillance concerns with ALPR apply to any company. Investigative reporting found Flock and Axon allowed the federal government, including ICE, to access their records. Privacy experts have indicated have seen equally problematic systems built by other companies. Legal scholars worry ALPR technology poses serious civil rights and civil liberties concerns, including violations of the Fourth Amendment. Surveillance technology utilizes Palantir's Peter Seals AI data centers, increases home water and power bills by an average of 7.1%, and up to 20% in some states. They create toxic water even after processing. We're already experiencing water stress and drought. They create air and noise pollution. none of this was presented to residents or voted on. It seems hypocritical to spend so much of your meeting encouraging and congratulating community members while contractually ensuring our personal rights and safety are eroding. Additionally, your new Zoom system is ableist and ageist and has already negatively affected the community's ability to interact. Stop treating your elected positions as part-time jobs and realize you live here full-time too. By the way, How many members of City Council, Burbank PD, and or Police Commission have traveled to Flock headquarters? Have all of City Council, Burbank PDs, and commissions outside businesses been disclosed? Are any Burbank officials paid consultants for Flock? Have any elected officials signed NDAs with any surveillance technology providers? I implore City Council to agendize canceling the current Flock surveillance technology contract and not replacing it with another surveillance technology vendor. Residents, join Defluck Burbank to secure our community and fully reclaim our First and Fourth Amendment rights. Reminder, trans rights are human rights. Land back.

THAT WAS OUR LAST CALLER.

OKAY. THANK YOU FOR YOUR CALL. THAT WAS OUR LAST CALLER. OKAY. THERE BEING NO FURTHER PUBLIC COMMENT, I NOW DECLARE THE GENERAL PUBLIC PERIOD CLOSED. NOW IS THE TIME FOR A BRIEF RESPONSE FROM CITY COUNCIL, CITY MANAGER AND THE CITY ATTORNEY. DOES MANAGER AND CITY ATTORNEY HAVE ANY COMMENTS?

YES. THANK YOU, MADAM MAYOR. SO I HAVE TWO ITEMS. THE FIRST ONE EARLY ON I THINK starting to open, trying to open up a business. So we have our business development concierge, Cynthia Alba. She is on this. She's in the audience right now. So she heard everything and they may, I know they've been talking. So what I'd like to do is have her continue to work on it. If there is a, if she can, I know if there's a way, Cynthia will figure that out and report back to you guys within a week or so as far as status. And then the other thing I'd like to have is regarding the reuse over at Flower Street, I'd like to call up our community development director, Patrick Prescott, to provide a very brief update.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council, Patrick Prescott, Community Development Director. Briefly, the Flower Street facility that's become an issue has long operated as a telecom and internet infrastructure site. Recent ownership changes are part of normal industry activity, but no proposal to convert it into a modern high-capacity data center has been submitted to the city. and no change of use is currently under review. There has been a request for a modest increase in electric capacity that perhaps Riyadh from Burbank Water and Power could speak to, but staff is continuing to monitor and will inform council if anything changes. There's an item at the end of the agenda regarding data centers, so if council decides this evening that you would like more information on this, we will happily bring back a report at a future date.

Thank you. Anything else? No? Okay. Who would like to go first? Council Member Rosati.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. And thank you for everyone for your coming down and sharing your point of view. I just wanted to say to the nonprofit coalition, I think I say this, and I think all of us say this, that the nonprofits are really the backbone of our community. They fill the stopgaps. I've been fortunate to serve on a lot of the nonprofits, and I know the amount of work that goes involved, and I know the hours behind the scenes, and I just want to say thank you. Our community thanks you, and I think all of us, again, feel the same way. There was a member of the public that brought up town halls. I would love it. I'd love to do it. I think it would probably be a difficult hurdle for staff only because of all the communication stuff that has to go on at a public meeting. But if we could do it, I certainly am not opposed to it. Let's see what the other council members say. A lot of people brought up the data centers. I did put that on a future agenda to discuss tonight for all of us to discuss. I think all of us are concerned. I am concerned. And I think we need to have a robust conversation about that. The gentleman that brought up housing provider versus the word landlord, personally, someone that deals in this field every day, I would prefer to use the word landlord, but the facts are the facts. The contracts in the state of California have changed from the word landlord to housing provider. And in a lease and in a real estate transaction, there's over 100 pages of documents in the contract, and the word landlord is completely taken out of every single one of those pages. The word housing provider has been replaced. So we're forced to use the word housing provider. If you feel like lobbying the people that changed it, I'm with you. I'll sign that petition. Ms. Nya and all the students that came, I just want to say thank you again for your initiative. I said that the last time, and I said it again. I'd like to see initiative, and thank you again for coming to council. To the last caller, this is the part-time job, and all of us work full-time. I can speak to all of our council members. We go to a lot of outside activities. We take phone calls and emails to all hours of the night, 2 o'clock in the morning. So yes, it is a part-time job, and we work full-time. So thank you all again. Madam Mayor, did you have something to add?

For part-time pay.

For part-time pay.

Less than part-time pay. Gladly. Yes, even less than part-time pay. And we gladly serve. And we're happy to do it. And I'm happy to do it. Every week, yes. Every day.

Sounds like Vice Mayor, you want to go next?

I guess it sounds like that's my way in saying I am going to jump on it. I hear you. I hear you. I feel you. nonprofit coalition you said a lot about our nonprofit organizations and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you do I too served on many nonprofit organizations and on their board on their executive boards and a lot of work goes on behind the scenes and without you We will not be able to operate and help so many people are in need in this community. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for every organization that came and spoke that was here represented or wasn't here. You do an exceptional job. So please keep up the good work. Downhaul meeting. We've been talking about it. Yes, it's a lot of work to organize and put together, but we'll see what brings up on the calendar. when it gets put together in the future. We'll look at the city manager here. Daisy, you're here. You and I have had many, many emails back and forth, and I appreciate you coming down so now I can put a face to all the emails and the phone conversations that we've had. I know Cynthia has done a great job trying to help you, and I'm so sorry it's our last conversation, but what we had regarding everything that's been going on with you. I was a former business owner, so I feel you, and I know it's been difficult. So work with Cynthia, and I assure you, if anybody can help you, she can do the job for you, okay? Mr. Lane, thank you for coming down and asking the question. But what I'd like to do is to actually refer you back to the meeting where we had this conversation instead of talking about it over and over. Maybe go back and revisit that meeting and watch the video and I guess you'll have a perspective on everything we talked about that night. All the young generations that came to talk about plant-based. It's wonderful that you are taking the initiative, like Council Member Rizzotti said. I think this is just so wonderful that you guys are standing for something. Coming from Egypt myself, I always have Mediterranean diet, so plant-based is not unusual for me, and Keep up the good work. And it's going to take time. People are going to get educated and get to know more about what you do. So please continue your efforts. And this is something good to educate others about it. Oh, let's see. Susan. Every week you come, there's something new, and you do hit the nail on the head. It is extremely expensive. Our infrastructure cannot handle all this. So thank you for coming down and continue to remind us what SB 79 can do to the city of Burbank. And the data center, we're going to be talking about that at the end of the meeting, because we do have, as Council Member Rizzotti said, we do have an item on the agenda we're going to discuss, and we're going to ask staff for probably additional information at the end of the meeting. But thank you for coming down and speaking about it.

All right. Who wants to go next? Council Member Press.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to start out by thanking Council Member Rosati because I do think it's an opportunity for civic education. All of us up here care very much about this city because we are part-time employees paid much less than the part-time rate, basically a stipend to serve here. So I love to remind folks that your local elected officials are not making congressional decisions. not making city of LA dollars by any means. So all the folks here all have full-time jobs or full occupations in other realms. So they're very dedicated for being here. So I just want to point that out. Thank you, Councilman Rosati, for saying that. And then the other piece I want to address is thank you to Daisy for coming down. I know we've tried to connect and we definitely will. I'd love to hear more in depth about your story, but I do think our business concierge should continue to work with you. And I do think we want to see you succeed. And I just am grateful for you coming to share what is a very vulnerable piece. and putting out there what many new business owners experience in our city and what we have taken measures to try and reduce. I know it's taking us time, but we're working through trying to cut those barriers and working through partnerships with organizations that help folks understand what it's like to start a business because it is not easy. But thank you for coming down and sharing that because I think it puts a lot of the human perspective on it. So thank you so much. Let's see. Thank you for the comment on AI art. Stay tuned. And then for the folks on the data center piece, yes, Council Member Rosati agendized that at the last meeting. We will be discussing it at the end of the meeting. So stay tuned until the end. And then... Oh, gosh. To Mr. Bax, I was not a part of your back and forth with Council Member Anthony, but I just want to address the misinformation and the poorly framed scare tactics addressed at me. Since you said what you call a farce and me going home, I think myself and many of us in this room would call a new mom stepping away to nurse and pump because I have a child to feed. I just want to remind you that I step away, and I have been doing so, and as a regular, you would know this, I've been doing this for the last year. So if anybody has questions about where I am, I am pumping so I can feed my child, which I'm sure the rest of our folks are well aware of. And then finally, on a lighter note, I want to thank the folks for the plant-based treaty for coming down. Thank you for speaking about this, especially the ones of you who are students. I know this is really important to you as you're the next generation that we are leaving with a lot of the issues that we are seeing raised from the overconsumption of meat. And I want to give a special shout out, this is very sweet, to Miss Oliver who came here and is the French teacher at Burroughs. She was my French teacher when I was at Burroughs back in 2012. So thank you for coming down. Really great to see her again. Really great to see all of you doing this advocacy and work. And I'm sure we will be talking for a while. Thank you.

All right, next up, Council Member Anthony.

Thank you. Mr. Becks, I want to give credence to something that you said. It is difficult for any elected official, once they've established themselves, to go in any other space and act without that title. It is difficult. And long before I sat on this dais, I was engaged in public advocacy. I post-attested places. I spoke at public meetings. And it's been hard over the last few years to understand that doing that as an elected blurs the lines. And my colleagues have had many conversations with me about how to appropriately go about that. And look, I'm not perfect. I'm learning every year. But I really do strive to make sure that I'm not blurring those lines, because it can easily be blurred. And as I age, I'm understanding that that is harder and harder to do. And so I will take greater strides to make sure that that does not happen. To the caller that mentioned the Zoom being noncompliant with ADA, I am not an ADA expert, but what we've transitioned to is mandated by state law. So we're following the state guidelines. I don't think we have an opportunity to... change the the structure of this we're complying with what they've given us correct yeah we had a change to absolutely uh comply and most cities are going to using this uh type of zoom uh meeting public comment okay um all i can say is everyone's doing it so there's gonna be some feedback

So I would like to caveat that the council chambers are open to the public. This building is ADA accessible. People can come down here. They have a choice of an elevator. There's also a ramp. So these facilities are ADA accessible.

Yeah, absolutely. What we've built here, we are in extreme compliance. We have...

And further, Zoom allows people to attend from their homes so they don't even have to travel to Burbank. It's available telephonically and from a computer. I'd prefer you not talk anymore about the ADA because I think these meetings are accessible. Okay.

Excellent. And then I did want to say, oh, to the gentleman who came down to talk about not just the data center but all the things that he noticed in the meetings. It was very refreshing to see from new eyes the wide range of topics that we do cover here in the city. And then lastly, Mr. Donahue, I would encourage you to look up a phrase, the paradox of tolerance. Thank you.

All right. Thank you to everybody who came out tonight to speak about what's important to you. Thanks to those who emailed and called and our caller called in. To the nonprofit coalition who came, I agree with my colleagues that it's just so fantastic to see everybody working together. And there's so much that the nonprofits do for our community. Like several of the folks up here, I've served on many nonprofit boards in our community. And that coalition and working together and making sure that services are connected is so key. And I really appreciate all of them doing that. And I also am so happy to see the success, the level of success that they're having. And especially happy to see about the Burbank Cares website and app. I'm really excited to, and I'll have time hopefully tonight to go home and check out the website before going to bed. That'll be great. And another opportunity to volunteer in addition to our Burbank volunteer program. So that's great. Yeah, a couple people, a few people spoke about data centers. We'll talk about that later on tonight briefly. But remember that item tonight is about whether to agendize it. And if we agree to do that, then there will be a meeting in the future that will actually talk about it later in depth. To Daisy, thank you for coming out tonight. And it was very brave of you to speak tonight. I know this is hard to do, especially as something that's so personal for you. So thank you. And we have spoken quite a bit as well. And I'm looking forward to staff's update in a week of what's going on about that. And so please, I hope that you'll keep working on this because I would love to see your business succeed in our city. And then for the folks for the Food for Future and the plant-based treaty, Ms. Nayak, Maya, Neri, Samantha, and Madame Olivier. Un moment pour Madame Olivier. Merci pour votre commentaire à propos de la bonne cuisine française, complètement faite de légumes.

Man, you're showing me up.

I didn't learn that much French. I lived there. Took French one with her, by the way. Bon appétit. So basically I said thank you for your commentary about French food that's completely made of vegetables. So, yeah.

Japanese, French. I know.

It's a multilingual night. No, a little Spanish.

I need a translator.

I did translate it. I did translate it. Yeah. You know, I'm a little multilingual, and every once in a while I get a chance to throw it out, I try to do it. All right. So I, you know, we've spoken, and I appreciate, Ms. Nyack, we've spoken, and I appreciate you coming out tonight, and about the plant-based food and importance of it in the community, and we spoke how I'm a vegetarian. So thank you for sharing that tonight, and we will continue the conversation and see what we can do. Okay? And then... Let's see. There was a mention about AI art. And last meeting, I think, or meeting ago, I asked for a memo regarding SB53, which is city compliance for use of AI in city materials. Did we get a memo about that? Or what's the status of that?

Police Department's still working on that. We usually provide about a two-week window for them to submit.

Okay, I couldn't remember when I asked for that. All right, so I did ask for a compliance memo for SB 53, so hopefully we'll get information back on that as well. And let's see... And then to Mr. Belay, if he's still here. Maybe he's gone. Maybe he's watching our meeting. And anyone else who was here for the first time tonight, I just want to thank you for coming. And this is your first council meeting. And yes, the first time you come, sometimes public comment can be a little bit, if you've never seen it before online, you've never heard it before remotely, can be a little bit interesting. It's an interesting experience that first time. But once you do it once, then you become addicted and you can't stop anymore. All right, and that's all that I got for now. Thank you all for coming out, and thank you all for your comments. Okay. Tonight we only have one. Oh, wait, hold on. Before we do that is the consent calendar. Consent calendar may be enacted in one motion. Madam City Clerk, please read the consent calendar.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. We have two items on tonight's consent calendar. Item one is adoption of a resolution approving a cooperative agreement with Wyatt Trap Incorporated for the Robert E. Gross Park seismic retrofit and renovation. Item two is adoption of a resolution approving Measure M MSP-5 sub-regional fund programming for fiscal years 2028 to 2029 and 2029 to 2030. Thank you.

All right. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar?

I move to make a motion to approve the consent calendar. Second.

All right. We have a motion by Vice Mayor. Second by Council Member Perez. Sorry. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. You can third it. And then Madam City Clerk, if you could get a vote, please.

Council Member Anthony. Yes. Council Member Perez. Yes. Council Member Rizzotti. Yes. Vice Mayor Mullins. Yes. And Mayor Takahashi. Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

All right, we have one singular report to council this evening. After staff's presentation, the city council will proceed with public comment. Speakers will be allowed to speak on the item at the conclusion of the presentation, as long as the speaker has not spoken on this item during the first period of general public comment. Please be sure to submit your public comment card now, as no additional public comment cards will be accepted once the comment period commences following staff's presentation. If you'd like to participate in remote public comment for this item, please join via Zoom using the link on the agenda or by calling 818-238-3335. Meeting ID is 824-4125-6228 and webinar passcode is 818-238. Please note that remote participation is audio only and no video. And please join the speaker queue by using Ray's hand feature on Zoom or by dialing the star nine on your phone. All right, the report to council tonight is the discussion on the Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station and Regional Transit Coalition efforts. I welcome Transportation Services Manager, Karen Pan, to please present the report. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of council. Karen Pan, Transportation Services Manager, and I'm here with my colleagues, Chris Bonomo, Senior Transportation Planner, and David Kriske, our Assistant Community Development Director. Staff is here to provide an overview of existing regional collaboration and stakeholder engagement related to the downtown Burbank Metrolink station. This topic was brought up in March 2024 City Council meeting where Mayor Takahashi requested a report on gathering key stakeholders such as neighboring cities and other involved transportation agencies to share ideas about how to transform the downtown Burbank Metrolink station into a major transportation hub. Downtown Burbank Metrolink Station, located on Front Street and noted in the slide with the blue train icon, is an important asset to the city because it provides regional rail service and local transit. This station area also has other amenities such as protected bike lanes, Noted in green lines in the slide, there's an existing Burbank Channel Bikeway Class 1 that terminates near the station entrance and the Front Street Cycle Track Class 4 that runs along the station frontage that city staff completed in June of 2024. City staff are also working on the future of Chandler Bikeway Extension Class 1 that will provide a connection between the station and the existing Chandler Bikeway along for non-motorized access to residents further west in the city. And this is shown as gray broken lines on the slide. Regarding regional transportation services, Metrolink provides the Antelope Valley line, providing connections from Lancaster, running and stopping at Burbank Airport and downtown Burbank, and ends at Union Station. The second Metrolink line is the Ventura line that runs from Ventura City, stops at downtown Burbank, and ends at LA Union Station. Amtrak is another regional transit providing Pacific Surfliner connecting Burbank residents to go up north to destinations like Santa Barbara, Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo, or heading south to Orange County to cities like San Clemente and going to destinations to San Diego. In terms of local transportation, this includes LA Metro covering all of LA County, our Burbank Bus Pink Route, Glendale B-Line, Santa Clarita Transit, various dial-a-ride options, Metro Micro, Raleigh, which is a rideshare, and then also Hollywood Bowl Shuttle. Given the number of agencies and organizations operating at or serving the downtown Burbank Metrolink station, what is very important is our ongoing interagency coordination among key stakeholders is essential to ensure efficient operations, enhanced passenger experience, and advanced future transportation and infrastructure improvements. And this is noted as one of City Council's goals. So what are our regional stakeholder engagements? First, there's the Southern California Association of Governments, also known as SCAG. And SCAG has a mobility hub design and implementation guide that was published in February of last year. And this helps cities inform long-term planning efforts that enhance multimodal access, wayfinding, passenger amenities, and station area improvements. The guide identifies downtown Burbank as an ideal location for enhancements to improve these connections and staff coordinated with SCAG throughout this process last year and is currently exploring opportunities to secure funding for detailed planning and construction of recommended enhancements. As part of SCAG, as of last month, Mayor Takahashi was appointed as SCAG's Connect SoCal subcommittee. And this Connect SoCal subcommittee was established with representatives from SCAG's policy committees and will serve as a steering group to help implement the 2050 plan. And as the member of the subcommittee, Mayor Takahashi will work with regional leaders on long-range transportation and sustainable communities for Southern California. The second is the regional engagement with LA Metro. LA Metro provides the Rail Network and Integration Study Plan, which studies opportunities to improve transfers and connectivities at three rail stations in the region between MetroLink, Metro, and Amtrak. in the region, and that includes our Metrolink station, and Metro studies and identifies multimodal access, improved way findings, and completion of schedule improvements such as the factors that improve transfer opportunities. This engagement and this plan was between 26 stakeholders and was completed in summer of 2021. The other effort from Metro is their first and last mile plan for bus rapid transits, as well as Metro providing an outlet for local transportation providers like Burbank Bus, where staff and local transit agencies meet bi-monthly as part of this local transit system subcommittee. Next, regional effort is the Southern California Optimal Rail Expansion, also known as the SCORE program, that was implemented to support planned rail capacity improvements, increased service frequency, and grade separation projects and future integrations with rail services. Specific improvements include cross-tracking safety enhancements at downtown Burbank Metro Link Station, which are currently advanced planning stages. The other effort is the San Fernando Valley Council of Governments. This group works to increase the coordination between jurisdictions to improve regional mobility, economy, and safety. The San Fernando Valley COG was formed in 2010 and this organization helps meet our regional interests and Mayor Takahashi also currently serves as a member representing the city. The next regional effort is the Arroyo-Verdugo Communities Joint Powers Authority amongst different cities such as Glendale, La Canada, Flintridge, Pasadena and South Pasadena where they also work on regional efforts and meet bi-monthly and currently Vice Mayor Mullins serves as the Vice Chair. The other regional effort is for the LA County 2028 Olympics games mobility executives subcommittees Currently staff sits on two of these subcommittees part of the mobility hub and regional rail and these subcommittees are comprised of staff from local agencies and transfer transit providers to collaborate on games related transportation issues in advance of the 2028 Olympics And then another effort is, of course, with the state level, and there's engagement through bikeway developments and bridge planning. While there is a number of regional efforts, there is a lot to do at the local level in terms of long-term planning coordination projects, such as three projects. First, you've heard, is the Downtown Burbank Transit-Oriented Development Specific Plan, where we work with different parties to discuss how Station like at the Metrolink can better serve our community. We also have the olive bridge replacement project and Recently this fiscal year. We've added a capital improvement project for the downtown Metrolink station and this new capital improvement project Identifies an approved overhaul to more than a 30 year old station main building facilities including improvements to the pavement plumbing building facades painting and lighting and Overall, these plans and assessments and partnerships have value and helped guide us in inter-agency efforts. For example, staff recently worked with Metro and Metrolink to pursue state grants to improve the improvements for downtown Metrolink Station, and staff will hear back in September of 2026. And staff worked with Metrolink on recent wayfinding signs to guide pedestrians to the Metrolink Station as well, and that was just completed this month. Staff recommends to note and file but to also continue to pursue the city's vision for downtown Burbank MetroLink station through existing network and partnership. And that concludes my presentation.

Great. Thank you for your presentation. We'll take a couple public comment and then we'll return back to questions and comments from Council. So we'll now proceed to the public comment period for this report to Council. And no additional cards or remote comments will be accepted. For in-person speakers, a timer is available at the podium. For both in-person and remote participants, please state your name for the record. And for remote speakers, please note that your name will be listed in the record exactly as it shows on Zoom, unless otherwise introduced when speaking. Madam City Clerk, I have two public comment cards. Do we have any remote commenters?

No.

No? OK, so we have two. in-person card, so you get three minutes each. Our first speaker is Chris Yousefi, followed by Arno Dionysian. Welcome.

Good evening, council. My name is Chris Yousefi, and I'm concerned that our council is not listening to the people in which they serve. With major development, it seems like council seems to be more reactive than proactive in mitigating potential community pushback. From tonight's agenda, at the March 26, 2024 city council meeting, Mayor Takahashi requested a report on gathering key stakeholders, such as neighboring cities, other involved transportation agencies, to share ideas about how to transform the downtown Burbank MetroLink station as a major transportation hub. I did not see residents as key stakeholders there. I didn't see anybody listed, but what I did see is eight businesses, all of which benefit from this transformation. There are two community-type voices over there. One is the San Fernando Valley Council of Governments and the Arroyo Verdugo Community's Joint Powers Authority. And I looked up their meeting schedules, and they meet about once a month, maybe every other month. Some are just board meetings only. So I don't know how much resident input you guys are actually getting from residents. What am I getting at? The BRT is clearly a hot button issue and has been for however long we've been at it for, unfortunately. I am pro-transit. I am pro-transit on our terms. I am pro-transit with our input. It seems like we are behind the eight ball with a lot of these things, and I understand the reality of transit and growth. What I don't want to see is a positive program being held up by community pushback due to lack of involvement. At the end of the day, the city council and all councils represent the people. Town halls, open forums, and the like are a great way residents can voice their concerns and get feedback directly from council. Give us that opportunity, listen to your residents, and just be proactive with us. Again, my name is Chris Yousefi. I appreciate any input, and I believe in the Burbank Dream, and I will fight for the people. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next up is Arno Dionysian, and that's my last card. Welcome.

Hi there, council. Well, I did not expect this to be a particularly controversial item. I was going to come up here and offer some brighter thoughts. But I'm going to change parts of my comment to respond to the gentleman who was before me. I was going to say, first of all, I want to thank council. You guys have made a lot of big investments in the downtown station over the course of the last few years in a way that it made mine. As I'm sure Council's aware, quite a large bit of Burbank's commuter and resident population much happier to be here. As I'm sure Council's well aware, Burbank has a rich history in both rail and as part of the community and the surrounding area. Burbank does not have one train station. We have three Metrolink stations across the system. Those are the downtown station, as you guys have discussed tonight, and two stations by the airport, which is also a massive transit hub in our city. As a resident of the city that is concerned like all about the way developments happen and making sure that the cost of those developments are mitigated, I would like to voice my support for the idea that Maintaining and building a train station is not somehow a detriment to those developments. And maintaining and building a train station actually helps mitigate some of the costs that come up with the developments. The perfect example I'll mention, I think the gentleman might be referring to, was a development that just completed, I think, an opening for lease right across the street from the train station on Front Street that's going to offer maybe not affordable units, I'm not sure, but some housing that previously wasn't there. And that is, I'll be honest, as someone who commutes to that station daily, to look out to the horizon and see this frankly towering building across the station that usually wasn't there, it is a little bit frightening. In recognizing that our city is growing and in mitigating the potential harms of a city that is inevitably growing, a train station is one of the biggest things we can do. And maintaining that metro station will help mitigate the parking and traffic chaos that will ensue from thousands of new welcome residents that we hope to accommodate. So I'm a little bit shell-shocked by how moving people is a bad thing, but I will defer that. Oh, and briefly, yes, the gentleman mentioned that we should encourage resident input. With my last 30 seconds, yes, it is a goal we should aspire to, to have town halls and all these discussions and whatever we can. But there is a certain level of, the residents of the city place trust in city council that you are responsible for representing our interests and you will listen to our voices if we bring concerns. And I trust that city council will represent the city of Burbank's interests as one of the stakeholders among other community members. So, thank you.

Thank you for your comment. All right. We now have completed public comment for this report to council. Does staff have any response to public comment?

Good evening. Karen Pan, Transportation Services Manager. The main public comment is regarding how residents can get involved and provide input on that vision. I think that's a really great question. And the commenter highlighted that there are those regional efforts that have public meetings and there's opportunities to share their input. And there's different layers and different projects throughout the city. We have that specific plan in terms of projects. We do our best to provide our public notices. We use different outlets. and we agree that there's always input from residents and we always strive as a city to provide as much of an outlet for residents to provide that feedback and I think as a city we are always striving to do better and you'll see more of those community meetings, you'll see more of those surveys, you'll see more different outlets and different channels where we provide the link or information about that community. And so there's always better ways to improve it, and I think we always do that. And you'll see from staff the more communication outreach that's done for each transportation project, inclusive of specific plans, inclusive of these plans that we have as a regional effort. Great, thank you.

Yes, further comment.

Yes, quick further comment. My name is Chris Bonomo. I'm a senior transportation planner with the Community Development Department. I just want to also add specifically for this area of the downtown Metrolink station is in the plan area for the downtown TOD specific plan. That process is ongoing and engagement will happen at the end of August and September, the next round of engagement. So be on the lookout for that. It'll be on our public channels. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Let's see. Council, who would like to go first? Questions? Council Member Anthony?

Well, I wanted to ask the Mayor specifically. This was your agenda item. And you've spent a lot of time on these regional boards. Is there anything in particular that you, I mean, I have my own complaints, but it's your agenda item. Is there anything in particular that you're seeing from these boards that maybe is not conducive to sort of that close range planning? I know they do a lot of big stuff, but do you feel that there's, maybe something we as a body should be pushing more for, should be advocating for. We can write a letter and say, hey, maybe we do this instead. I mean, that's kind of my question to you.

Great question. Great question. Yeah, so I think that our downtown Central Lake Station and train throughput station gets discussed quite often on the two boards that I'm on in the sense that it comes up. Because in the region, it's a really highly I think it has the highest thorough put of any of the metro stations.

The two lines meeting.

Yeah, two lines go through there. And Amtrak. Yeah, and Amtrak, exactly. So it has a very high number of individuals that go through that station. And so it does get brought up regularly. And when I brought this up two years ago, I wasn't quite as involved on these boards as I am now. But looking at it now that I've been involved, is that I think part of the success of this transit orientation oriented area, is that everything is cohesive. And sometimes that cohesiveness is not necessarily as cohesive as it would be great to have. And so part of the item tonight, as I was looking at it and the questions I have, is about creating and maintaining that cohesiveness. And I love the comment about residents, too, because that cohesiveness is part of the residents as well. And so I think that, to me, is the main kind of concern and interest I have of how we maintain that. And then how do we? creates that cohesiveness, and how do we as a city, are we the ones who create it, are we the ones who partner together, and how do we do that? So that's kind of where my interest is.

Let me ask a follow-up. When you're in these meetings and they're talking about our station, are they asking you or our staff, or is it mostly from their own information gathered from their staff? Right. Because I feel like there might be a disconnect there, because we see more and deal with more

Yeah. Well, certainly if our staff is there, they will ask our staff. Our staff does not attend every SCAG meeting. I mean, sorry, COG meeting. And SCAG, I'm on the energy environment, so it's in Transpo. And then now that I connect SoCal, I'm just starting on that now. So we'll see as I get there. So if staff is there, that's great. But if they're not there and this station comes up, or the interest of this station comes up, then it's then directed to staff. So for me, I think, and my questions will reflect this later, is that looking for a way that that's easily accessed so that when that question comes up, it's very obvious where I send people. I mean, I send them to David Kriske, because that's like David Kriske is the center of all things transport. But that is one person. And I believe this should be beyond just one person, but more of a district reference in and of itself.

Let me ask one more follow up to staff then. You know, all things being equal, this particular station downtown is an outlier, even amongst other cities and other stations. I know we keep our own information handy for us. Do we do any extra effort to send these regional bodies maybe updates on that particular station and any problems or changes that we have? Or is that basically a reaction to when the mayor says, go talk to staff?

right now a lot of it is reaction we do get public comments or emails about amenities that they want to see at the Metrolink station or if something is not operating correctly but the feedback can vary it could be regarding homelessness vehicles amenities for the station and I think the city does its best to respond to those questions and then through projects is where THE COMMUNITY CAN SHARE THEIR VISIONS. AND THEN WHEN WE HAVE PROJECTS, WE DO OUR BEST TO LIST ANY OF THOSE OUTREACH OR COMMUNITY EFFORTS WHERE THEY CAN PROVIDE INPUT EVEN IF IT'S AT A REGIONAL LEVEL TO IDENTIFY THE MEETING DATE, THE LOCATION, HOW THEY CAN PARTICIPATE. PER EACH PROJECT THAT WE HAVE AND SO IF WE HAVE A PROJECT WHERE WE'RE GOING TO A SCAG MEETING OR IF WE'RE GOING AT THE STATE LEVEL THEIR COMMISSION WILL PROVIDE THAT ON OUR WEB PAGE FOR THAT PROJECT AND I CERTAINLY AT THE COG I THINK THAT'S PROBABLY AT THIS POINT THE MOST WHERE I TALK ABOUT THIS THIS AREA BUT ALSO ON MY ENVIRONMENT SCAG AND WITH CONNECT SOCAL AS I SEE A

this particular station as kind of a gateway station to the valley. Like, this is where a lot of folks go through to get to different areas, but beyond the valley, right? And so I advocate quite a lot about how important this particular station is in the transportation network. And the advocacy is great. I don't mind doing it. It's part of what I think is important. But it also, I think, is something that we can perhaps enhance by having specifically, like, really recognizing it as a, as a hub, as a transportation hub, whatever word we want to use for that. And that's what I say about it. And so I think it would be cool if we all, as a city, recognized it kind of officially that way somehow. And I have some thoughts about how that could be done. But certainly, I think that practically speaking, it already kind of is, just simply because it's used so much through that. At the same time, I have to remind I feel like sometimes, okay, remember that this is a really important mental league station. So, like during the Olympic discussions, for example, I keep advocating for that because it's such an important station for the Olympics, as an example. And so does David, and so do our staff and everybody, but I think there can be a cohesive way to do it. Yes, you want to go first? Okay, so Vice Mayor?

Mike is off. Okay. First, I want to address Mr. Yousefi. The Arroyo-Verdugo meetings, the Joint Power Authority meetings, they are open for the public. And as a matter of fact, there is a meeting coming up August 6th at 4 p.m. in Pasadena City Hall. All the meetings are open to the public. So if you're interested, show up. Definitely this is the date and time. So at the Arroyo Verdugo meetings, we definitely have Mr. Criskey there. He gives an update to everyone who sits on the meeting, which is Glendale, Pasadena, South Pasadena, and Metro board members. Oh, sorry, staff. So I'm trying to really analyze and figure out, do we need to create something else in addition? And I also sit on the SCAC Transportation Commission, which, yes, I attend by Zoom. Most of us are really by Zoom. And when there is something that comes up, there is definitely contact with staff and let them know, you know, there's something came up and we need to talk about it. And I know Council Member Perez used to serve on that as well. So is the question creating another layer to promote something for us in Burbank? Or is the question how do we engage with all these agencies to make it known what we have in Burbank? More doesn't mean better, as we know that. I mean, okay, let's create something else. But what are we trying to accomplish? Maybe we all can be aware now and push more for our station. maybe staff can have additional information when they go, because Ms. Pan and I wanted to compliment you. The report, excellent report. You always have a lot of information. I see you giving updates to boards and commissions. I see you going to transportation commission, to senior citizens, you know, board. So you're out there talking to them, whether everybody's understanding and listening or not but you are out there doing your job as um as good and great as possible as you can do so um maybe we can take a look at our communication should it be better should we maybe be more proactive in talking on our perspective boards and whatever you know board that we serve on so i'm just trying to get a an understanding what are we missing, what are we lacking, so we can move forward with a better option to what we need to get done?

Yeah, that's a great question. And I don't know if we're lacking per se. I think we're doing, staff is doing a fantastic job, and I think that overall, like I said, organically, that station is recognized as an important one. And I think that seeing this list of the different stakeholders and engagement plus residents, It speaks to how much the staff has really integrated and connected with every single group. I think what maybe would be, rather than adding more, is simply coordinating in such a way that it's all cohesive. So in the sense of somebody who has a question about the Metrolink station or is interested in that area, where do they even go to talk about the collectiveness of it? How would they know all these different agencies are involved? the different aspects of the station, because they are, and how do they fit? And not to say that there should be this giant educational web page or anything per se, but just that if that was an interest to them, what would they do? And then I'm also interested, too, in, like, if residents have feedback about the station, or if they work here and they would like to use the station, where they even go to check it out, or if the developers are interested in the station. I mean, obviously, developers that are larger would come to this, you know, talking about it with the city staff, maybe a smaller developer is interested or a business, just kind of having that really clarity that this is a clear, um, clear station for us as a transportation hub. Um, and then I also think about like with grants and funding, which you guys do really well, but if, if there's an opportunity, it'd be great to have this, like, here it is already packaged. Boom. Here's the, the, the, the stations, um, um, information, right? And I was talking to Patrick a little bit about this, and I think that what might be possible is, rather than adding more, creating more effort, is to look at the downtown specific plan and have maybe a section that's like talking very narrowly around the, I mean, you already talk about the downtown station and stuff in the transportation plan, and it connects everything together, but have a section that's kind of like all kind of packaged together, so you could just kind of pull it out, and then it's This is a separate thing, boom, separately that's all contained. So that way it's easy to pull out together. And maybe that's just an idea. But just some way that it can be seen as an actual hub versus lots of different pieces kind of scattered and seeing it collectively, if that makes sense.

Yeah. Yeah, I just wanted to add my two cents on Skag too. So I think a lot of these bodies looking at it, we serve on them. And the discussion is really regional. Right? So a lot of times, especially outside of the Transportation Committee on the Regional Council, we're talking about moving dollars for some of these projects. We're talking about the integration of transportation across Southern California. So I understand how that can feel outside of the bounds of, like, what are we doing here in Burbank? And what does this specific station mean to Burbank? And while you were talking, this is just my two cents, about what that station looks like and the Metro Lane connection, what will be the BRT connection, what is everything there, I was thinking about the loop in Chicago. Yeah. I just kept thinking about that. And everybody knows, okay, the loop. That's like where all of them meet, right? So maybe this is a branding thing. We have to start talking about this as a transportational hub. And that also helps us not only in the sense of people know what to call it, where to look for information on it, but also... It helps us when we go out and look for dollars, when we are talking about what does connectivity and transportation look like in Burbank. Because I don't know, I feel like many of us in the know would be like, that's a transportational and regional hub. If you ask me what I'm going to do when I'm going to the Hollywood Bowl, I'm going to hop on one of the buses that leaves from there and park there and pay $6 to get down to the bowl. But I don't know that if you ask every Burbank resident that question, they would answer it the same way. So how do we get that information out to every Burbank resident? Maybe it is a web page.

So that's great because, you know, now we have kind of understanding and direction. Has staff thought about, I want to hear from you, have you looked at this? Have you thought about what does it look like for us? How do we promote this? our station and what is the plan moving forward even for the Olympics and how do we identify it? Have you guys looked at that?

Thank you for all your comments and feedback. We agree that downtown Burbank Metrolink station is such a transportation hub for all of us and at the same time you will hear public comments saying that I didn't know that the Hollywood Bowl shuttle is there and today we don't have a really good landing page or a communication portal that provides all of that information. You'll see it in segments just like projects and it's worth considering to figure out where is a one-stop shop where they can get information not just about Burbank bus or public parking, that it could be more dedicated towards that Metrolink station. That feedback is really helpful in understanding where we can find a better place for people to get information about. In terms of future, I'll let Chris answer.

Thank you for the questions. I will pick right up where you left off. In terms of future engagement around this mobility hub, as I mentioned, downtown TUD plan is obviously, this is in that area, so it's covered in the plan. There is a small section that absolutely can be built out. per your request, Madam Mayor, about what mobility hubs are and what the offering is downtown. Essentially, what we're looking to do is create connectivity between our various modes. First in Olive has seven buses that stop there on either side of Olive, whether it's in front of Wood Ranch or in front of the parking lot there. And then people, if they want to transfer, they either take it a couple stops down and it loops down underneath on Front Street and they can get off, or they can walk over the bridge. The connections aren't great. The information can be better. We recently rolled out a little bit of wayfinding. One sign on the bus stop says two stops to Metrolink Station, so people can understand that it will act as a de facto shuttle down to the Metrolink Station if they would like to do that. So we... We are definitely thinking in terms of, in the future, how we move towards connectivity across the five between our two big transportation assets. Obviously, it's from buses to Metrolink, but also Metrolink to all of the variety of services and housing and job opportunities downtown. How we make those connections safe, reliable, and easy to access, and so that it's a good user experience for the people traveling. Council Member Mullins, sorry, Vice Mayor Mullins, you mentioned the Olympics. That is something that we are absolutely looking forward to for whether it's in any way possible to improve this experience for people using transportation, especially The Metrolink, which is going to be a workhorse of the Olympics network because no venues will have parking. People will be taking transit into downtown LA or out into the valley in order to then get to shuttle buses or ride into those zones. So staff is working with those subcommittees that Ms. Pan mentioned, one is a specific mobility hub subcommittee where staff is engaged with other cities who have been doing pop-up mobility hubs around the Club World Cup, the World Cup, and are looking at building them out for the Olympics as well. So staff is engaged there. Staff is also engaged with SCAG. SCAG developed a mobility hubs design toolkit on how cities can build their own they saw our, through some previous engagement, they saw our current situation getting a lot of bus riders to the metro link station across the five as a as a really good example of a a place that could use a mobility hub uh... they developed a very very high-level conceptual plan of what that could be uh... including wayfinding better information uh... and uh... in improves pedestrian environment uh... capabilities and so uh... that is something that staff actually is continuing to work with skag on who are looking to identify funding for possibly building that out in the future. There will be engagement around that. Right now it's very high level, but all of that is to say, yes, staff is taking the mobility hub concept very seriously and will engage the community and our partners more in the future.

To also add to that, just thinking out loud, is that we do a lot of public outreach for Burbank Bus. We can include in our communications to talk more a little bit about Metrolink Station as a resource for the city and kind of brand it as there's more to Burbank Bus and public transit. And you guys have access to go to Orange County, San Diego, San Luis Obispo. And so we can definitely add in that effort.

Member Anthony first, and then Council Member Rosati.

So we have downtown Burbank, Burbank Airport north, Burbank Airport south. Who names these stations? They name themselves?

Oh, here we go. Good evening, Madam Mayor, members of the City Council, David Krischke with the Community Development Department. So Metrolink has kind of evolved over the years from the very inception to adding stations, changing names. I mean, we had a brand for downtown Burbank. It was the RITC, R-I-T-C, Regional Intermodal Transit Center. Unfortunately, the airport then created the RITC as we were kind of pulling away from the RITs. No one really knew what it was. So it was, I think, a poor name. So to the comment on branding, probably we could do a better job just with that, some cool name for our hub that you're talking about. But essentially, Metrolink sets the stations. So the other two stations, Metrolink does the naming, and they do it based on some of their standards and then the fact that it connects to the airports. Airport North, Airport South is kind of an unfortunate choice for them, but it's confusing. But it gets people to the airport, so I can understand that. It does, and there's two stations. Not all the lines go to each one, so it's trying to make that clear.

But if we submitted a different name, like... Burbank Transit Center instead of downtown Burbank. Would they accept it?

In theory, I think there is flexibility because at the same time, it's the Metrolink system. They're also very clear to say that the host cities are responsible for the stations. Like that's a big thing for them. So I think that then comes with an ability for us if we think there needs to be a change that we can make it.

Every major city I go to, you know, you get – you get out to a regional hub, and it's called a transit center. It's like the blank transit center. And so if we called it that, and we said that's the new name, and that's the region, that's the area, I mean, that starts the branding, and put up a web page, and we're off to the races.

So what I've kind of seen from the discussion and from what I'm hearing from all of you is we at the staff level have a good idea of the council's priorities. You know, we're huffing it and looking for money, working on projects, trying to interface, so we're doing a lot of work. It sounds like you are not maybe aware, you know, pushing upward to you, you're maybe not quite aware of exactly what we're doing, and maybe we can be a little better at kind of cluing you into what we're doing on the day-to-day and some of the high levels so that you can support your own policies but also support the work we're doing and then it sounds like kind of pushing downward to the public you are maybe concerned that the public doesn't have the information they need to know that these assets are here and these opportunities are there and so maybe the staff within our work ability and work program and information can kind of work to both of those efforts so I think for the council you know we have our pitches for various things you know for downtown Metrolink it's we need we need infrastructure for connecting We need service. I mean, Metrolink is great, but they've also cut a bunch of trains, and maybe making sure you are up to date on what's going on with our needs so that when you're in various boards and meetings, you have kind of at the top of your head, oh, you know, they cut four trains a day on the AV line, and that's, you know, we're already kind of not at our 15-minute service goal, and hey, regional board, you know, we're important, and this is a priority. And so then you have in your mind, okay, here's the two-second elevator pitch for some of these things. All the bridge we're going to be bringing back to you soon with the results of our conceptual study, we're going to have a list and kind of a pitch point for that project. That's a huge capital investment. The bikeway projects, those have their kind of top-level, these are why you want to do this. So maybe we can work up to you to make sure you know what the high-level issues are so you can have that information at your fingertips and then back down to the public, we can look and see about how we could consolidate some of this varying information and not creating new stuff necessarily, but just pointing people to all the other things. And maybe with those two efforts, along with some of the long-range planning efforts that are going on, maybe that gets to what you've talked about with this item and then what we've heard from the five of you about maybe some of the frustrations or at least concerns about information. So that's kind of a thought kind of we had just, you know, sitting listening to the conversation.

Just want to piggyback off that and say, yeah, I think when we're going, like, let's say if we're going to Skag and sitting on a board, it's helpful to know if they're talking about, oh, you know, funding for regional connectivity hubs. I have in the back of my brain, okay, Dave and his team are looking for 1.2 million still for connecting another, for another Metrolink connection, right? And I know transportation moves really fast. So that gets hard sometimes. But having that information at our fingertips would be really helpful. On the other hand, for the public, they're really looking for, honestly, I'm thinking of myself as a member of the public, what am I looking for if I go to a Burbank transit page? I want to see the map that shows me every bus line, every rail line I can take and how they connect, and any other little special perks like the one that takes you to the bowl, the one that takes you to

Back in the day to start like bowl anything that gets me around the student perks that are for the buses I want that available right on one landing page the other thing too is Talking with Skagg and boards and commissions also your your colleague elected officials at both the local and higher level we often will get to a point with pursuing grant money where we've gone as far as we can at the staff level and it's not really appropriate to take that extra step to go pitch a Assembly Member Schultz or Congressman Friedman and say, we need this ABC. So if we, again, have this for you packaged easily, again, all at Bridge, we're already kind of working on that. But some of these other issues, well, the Metrolink service is a really big one. And then things come across our desk. Recently, we did the little letter of support for a cool study that they're trying to, the North County Transit District's trying to get some money to do a study to see how can we extend the surf liner up to Santa Clarita. Small little study, but it's helped us because it just adds more trains to Burbank. So little zingers here and there where you guys have them roadmap and then you can go and are interacting with all the electeds and can make the pitch. So that would really help the staff to support the staff efforts.

Great, thanks. Council Member Rosado, you had a question? I didn't have a question.

I was just going to make a couple of comments. I agree with Council Member Perez. I think branding would be a pretty cool idea, and it would be great to have a landing page that says Burbank moves you or something.

Ooh, nicely done. Just moves you.

Burbank moves you. Moves you. What did you hear? I thought you said bougie. Yes.

That's a different landing page.

That'll be option B.

You can bring your own booze if you want. Anyways, but I agree. I think there should be some branding because it is kind of wonky to say the... transit hub station or whatever. So we should come up with something. And I like the idea of having a landing page, and we'll name it whatever we want to name it. And then some of the speakers, I thank you for coming out and bringing stuff to our attention. I think our staff does a really good job of reaching out to the community. more than once on topics. They'll go to three or four different pop-ups in the community, different locations, different supermarkets, parks, and whatnot. And as far as, I wasn't sure about the comment about the Front Street intro project being intimidating. I don't know if that's a good comment or a bad comment, but I do wanna say that, That was just a raw, vacant piece of land. It was actually cement, and it was just barren, and now it provides housing for people and a lot of tax dollars. So, you know, I think that's a great project for our city. So, again, I wasn't sure how to take that comment, but it does provide multiple things for the community. And lastly... It seemed like there was a comment that we were pushing back against our transit hubs and stations about improving them. I don't see that at all. I think we want to have better connections and to be sleeker, faster, and easier to use. So I don't think I've heard anyone say anything different up here. But thank you.

Yeah, I appreciate you all having this conversation about this. You know, we, as a city, we are a very multimodal city. We're probably the most multimodal city in the valley. I'm trying to think, I mean, L.A., even in L.A., I mean, compared to, we really, we have everything. We have an airport, we have three Metrolink stations, we've got buses, we've got bike lanes, we've got cars, we've got horses, we've got sidewalks where you walk, we've got, what am I missing?

Are you saying Burbank moves you?

It moves you. We've got hiking trails. I mean, we've got like everything here. And I think that really that while we are the media capital of the world and there's a lot of our branding as a city, this can be kind of a little bit of a kind of micro branding, I guess, because it really is unique. We are a unique city that way. I think it would be kind of cool to celebrate that and highlight that and put that as part of who we are. And especially as the Olympics are coming in and as we have had with FIFA now. And this is not just a once in a while thing, but we live and breathe transportation. We actually do. And so I think, sorry, an alarm. An alarm to remember to make a phone call after this. So, no, after the meeting. After the meeting. I was hoping we'd be done by nine. And so I think that this topic is an important one to remind us to keep our focus on that, that transportation is, we are so good as a city as being a workhorse of all these things and really doing our job well, we forget sometimes to shine ourselves outwards to say, how awesome is this? So I think a The Metrolink station downtown is an example where that all comes together, except for horses. No horses in the Metrolink's down. But every other way to get around comes together in that station, and I think that, that also it's part of our identity and it's also an opportunity to leverage all of the other things that are listed here from other regions in the area. So thank you for discussing this and I hope that this gives staff some information on how to move forward and Burbank moves you. Let's wrap that up. I'm going to be dreaming about that tonight.

He's going to be asking for a patent real soon.

Scooting around on my e-bike in my dream tonight. All right. Thank you. If there's nothing else, and that's just a note and file.

I can see it with, like, wheels and a little bit of a flame on the end.

I think this is a note and file, this one. There's no vote on this one, right?

Yeah. We have directions. Perfect. Great. Okay, thanks. Look, if we go out to the public with a poll on what the name should be, it's going to come back as Trainee McTrainface. Oh, Trainee McTrainface.

Yeah. I know. This sounds amazing. Let's do this.

Okay, next up we have council comments, including reporting on council committee assignments, attendance at conferences, regional meetings, and community events. Who would like to go first? Only a week.

Real quick. July 23rd, I attended the retirement and gathering for Deputy Chief Adam Cornels. We're going to miss him. There's a lot of institutional knowledge that is leaving our department, but we wish him well. And then on the 26th, I went to the VFW for a fundraiser for a – I think it was a country breakfast. I misread it. My son was very upset because they didn't have pancakes. They didn't have waffles. They had biscuits, and he did not know what a biscuit was. And so we had to get donuts afterwards. So thank you.

All right, who's next? Council Member Perez next and Council Member Anthony.

So I just had on Monday, July 27th, I met with our new BUSD superintendent, Dr. McCoy. So it was a great conversation, got to know him, and he's eager to meet all of us here at the city and be great partners together.

It's only been a week, but we had family in town, and I went down to the IMAX and watched 70mm The Odyssey here in Burbank. It was a fantastic show. It was packed. It's the number one grossing movie of the weekend. Do check it out.

Vice Mayor. It's part of his duty as assignment.

And the escalator was working.

Yes. I saw posting on that for the movie. I heard it was really good. I had a couple of just meetings with individuals who talked about the data center and then also talked about the infrastructure and the impact of SB 79, some phone calls, and that's it.

All right, I had a number of phone calls and Zoom meetings, and then in addition to that, with community members, in addition to that, on the 22nd Wednesday, I had the tour with the Japanese kids from Ota, Japan, here in the chambers, and they got to sit in all your seats, by the way. All of the seats were filled, so... I got to take turns there. And then on Thursday the 23rd, the Valley Economic Alliance board meeting. And then the 24th, I attended the Job Connect Plus cohort number eight graduation. And I met with the mayor of Ota, Japan for lunch, which was an awesome meeting. And then I did a ribbon cutting for a small business, Marnie Heals. I think you've talked to, Vice Mayor, I think you've talked to Marnie Heals. We discussed a little bit about her business. And then on the, let's see, this morning, or right before this meeting, I went to Detective Rodriguez's retirement celebration. And he was one of our canine. detectives too, so that canine's going to get a new partner. So it was a really great ceremony, just like with, I'm sure, the retirement for Cornelius was as well. And that's it for me. Only a week. It's quick to do our updates when it's only been a week. Okay, so now is the consideration for previously introduced agenda items. As a reminder, this is council's process for adding additional agenda items. There is one request tonight from the July 21st, 2026 council meeting. The council member who introduced the item will have two minutes to provide a brief explanation of the request, along with how the request ties to city council goals. After that, Council will vote on whether or not the item should be added as an additional agenda item for consideration at a future meeting. If needed, Council may provide clarification or additional information to staff regarding the agenda item request. The one item we have tonight is Councilmember Rosati's request for a report regarding data centers, including their qualification criteria, whether they are allowed by right under the city's zoning regulations, and their potential impact. Councilmember Rosati, you have two minutes.

Madam Mayor, thank you very much. I don't think I'll need the full two minutes because I think we're all in agreement that we need to protect our city from the data centers and find out more about data centers and whether we can control them in our community. I think we need to have a robust conversation as well as a report. And I think we should have it sooner than later. And again, I think all of you probably agree. We have members of the public. We've had emails. We've had social media discussion about this. So I think without further ado, that's something we should do.

All right. Any questions?

I wanted to ask do we need to give any specific directions to what information we need to have? Because I don't know that I heard you earlier, Mr. Prescott, we don't have data center right now.

if you have specific, um, direction that you'd like to, uh, um, have us incorporate in the report, we'd like to have that. So, um, but if you don't, I think, uh, we kind of, I mean, the whole, I think we have the crux of the, uh, the, the substance here, uh, within the agenda item. But if you do want something specific, we could certainly, uh, um, incorporate that.

Yeah. I mean, just in, in general, in the report, um, what is the data center and what's the capacity and how might you know, like a lot a little bit more detail to come back because it means something to different people. And who like other cities that have data centers and how they run them. And, you know, just to give a lot, you know, a little bit more detail if we have that information, and if it is in our code or not, because I don't think it is, but it's it will be helpful to know.

Council Member Anthony.

Could I ask for something very narrow and specific? As far as, I don't know what definition.

An additional request?

No, no, no. Just based on what she was saying, just the vice mayor mentioned what is a data center. Can we just get some information on the levels of electricity that's used and water? It seems like those are two components that help with the definition. Noise. Noise. And noise. And noise. Absolutely. Frequency. Yeah. Yeah. The frequency, the noise, the decibels, water, power. Yeah. Yeah.

And then I would just like to add, since this is the first rep report that's coming to council, it seems like we all want to talk about the possibility of what a regulation on data centers would look like. I want to add, what have our, what have other cities done? I'm not going to say our neighboring cities, but what have cities in the nation done? Because there are cities that are grappling with this throughout the nation. It was a discussion when I was in DC at APPA. And to both of your points, there are specific labels on cities that say 20 megawatts, 50 megawatts. I want to have to bring back based on that.

What are we seeing? There will need to be balance in your request if you want it sooner. In other words, we can characterize what we have, how they operate. There are data centers in town. There used to be a data center in this building. It got moved to a different building. So in all fashions, there is a lot of content to provide. And we can give you relevant Burbank thresholds, which So Burbank is unique because we are both the land use police power over development. We are also the utility provider for water and power. So it gives us more authority. It also gives us our own internal knowledge. about consumption and the ability to regulate that. So certainly what's happening globally is really pushing the debate and the public's awareness and I think our experience here is unique for several reasons and we can incorporate that. I think we'll want to be able to break it down for you in meaningful detail and not necessarily jump to what some other community's threshold will be because I think our utility people will be able to give you some meaningful information about our experience. Also, we're analyzing all of our utility capacity as part of the specific plans and our available resource has been part of that debate, so.

I'll make it easier for you. Maybe one or two examples just for reference because we're not in a bubble also. Yeah, relevant examples. Yeah.

Yeah, and the permitting, like, what would require a permit and what doesn't here now? And I'm particularly interested in, I'm concerned about that business pulling a permit. And so if we can, I know we can't control that, but if we can get, like, the report back, I know, as soon as we can so that that doesn't happen before that permit gets pulled, if there is one, hopefully not. Yeah, okay. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, top priority?

Top priority. Yeah, community too. Yep. Okay, so you have enough information?

Yes. Because I got specific plans in the hopper. These are the same people doing the ADU that we just did.

Oh, we don't have special people just for this?

Yeah, so. They're all special. Yeah, they're all special.

We're all special.

What's a reasonable timeline?

Yes.

Madam Mayor, members of the City Council, Patrick Prescott, Community Development Director, our understanding is that the Council's top priority is to get the specific plans adopted. The individuals working on the specific plan, two of them, in fact, were sitting here talking about EDUs with you this evening, and they will also be the people working on anything related to data centers. So we're just struggling to figure out the priority, because there's not a, you can't get blood out of a turnip, as my father would have said. But, so the data center, whatever that is, on flour, there's really no permit that they've asked for. They've asked for a slight upgrade in the power capacity, but we're talking maybe one and a half megawatts, which is minimal. And I think when Riyadh and I discussed this, their max demand so far, they peaked at 2021 for the existing facility at .75 megawatts, which is, again, minuscule. So what I'm hearing, though, is that we need to get a definition of data center. We need to see what other cities are doing. That's going to take a little work. A couple months, probably. Can I ask a question real quick?

Do you need a CUP to open up a data center?

Or can you just open it up by right? There's no such thing as data center in our zoning code. That's what I thought. And the ones that exist, the facilities that exist, they're not... They're not these hyper AI centers. Those are 100 to 1,000 megawatts. Those take acres of land, for instance. What you're seeing is media production storage. You're seeing internet traffic. Some of these facilities are connected to the Burbank One Fiber system that BWP operates. So there are customers as well. So it's more complicated than just like a data center outside of Virginia or outside of, you know, Phoenix.

I want to ask counsel this. If all the stuff that we requested is going to take a long time to get, how would we feel about really paring down the questions so that the first step comes back earlier, it doesn't have as much of the extra stuff that we're asking for, but at least we get a little bite at the apple with a little bit of information sooner rather than later. We can get just some bare bones idea of the thresholds that you're talking about, What we're planning for water and the noise. Like, I think just that. Starting off.

It's Council Member Rosati's items, so.

Then we can add the other stuff in. No, I hear, you know, I hear what you're saying. I know that we have a lot on our plate, and I would agree. I don't think that they're coming to our city, you know, tomorrow, but I think we do need to plan for it, and Yeah, let's take a look at what we're looking at, you know.

Are you okay with just like a pare down, just as simple as it can get? Yeah. So we have just some understanding. So we're not trying to put a whole ordinance together or anything like that.

No, and I think it's maybe education a little bit where we're free to talk about what it is, Mr. Prescott, like what you just explained right now. Because there is a perception that somebody is going to come to your office tomorrow and take a – a business permit, CUP, and open a data center.

If someone came to the planning counter tomorrow morning and said I'd like to open a data center, they would probably ask them what do you mean by that?

Yeah. And I think it's good to educate everyone on that.

And then they would talk to BWP first, quite honestly, and BWP would say, well, we don't have that power. I mean, because we wouldn't be able to... They would consume everything we've got, some of these high density whatever.

But to your point, just having BWP prepared with a little bit of information, do a simple pared down report, and then we can add in all. What are other cities doing? How do we regulate? What's DC up to? That we can do later. It would help the community.

If that's what you're telling us, if that's not a possibility. I'm okay waiting the two months for something full-fledged because I don't need to know a small report. We're talking about it right now. I would rather wait to get the whole thing so that we can define it once and for all, right? I mean, the goal is that we eventually get something on the books in our code because we're trying to be proactive about this.

I would rather be sooner. on something smaller and then add in if we need something later.

But what do you mean something smaller? Because that doesn't sound like anything.

What I'm saying is just the major components of this is we're talking about the energy use, the water use, the noise, the decibel level. Those are the community concerns. Then once we can have that discussion with BWP and with the people who work on the zoning, then it's like, okay, we understand what we're talking about. Then we can start to put in other requests like, okay, what was the ban in Monterey Park? What is happening in Texas? How does that fit? And then they can come back with a second step. There's so much more to this. My concern is if we try to front load it with trying to get a full robust report and two months from now, We're going to have like a thousand people showing up here going, what are you guys doing? Why are you waiting around? And it's like, okay, well, you know, it takes time. And I would rather just do a small something early so that we have at least a discussion on it. Because right now we're talking about, we have no information. We're just trying to figure it out right here.

I'm okay with whatever we get back as long as that is a first step that leads to a second step. Not, oh, here was some information. Do you want to note and file it? You know? That's my one concern. Yeah, but it...

I think I understand council member Anthony's concern. I guess if you give just basic information like Mr. Prescott talked about, what are the steps to open a data center? Because there is a perception that they can go and they can walk at the counter and get a permit and open that center. What he's saying, it takes a little bit more than that, actually, BWP is going to have to get involved and say, we can't provide you with that energy. So maybe when we have that little bit of information, it gives the assurance to the public until staff works on a bigger report. At the time, we can add additional information and what we want to see, and then they can bring it back in the fall. But I see what you're saying. I know we all want to get everything now and today to assure the public that we are not opening data centers because the rumor is already out there. So it helps to calm the rumors down, I understand. It helps to also assure them what it takes to get a data center.

And this will give us the ability to talk about it freely without, you know, we can ask a lot of questions and, you know, and we'll have probably a lot from the audience.

So, to your point,

To Council Member Rosari's point, trying to bring this back top priority, if we were to do just that, like, okay, what is the process for a permit? What do they have to apply for for a BWP? Like, we already know that stuff. How soon can that come back? Just a simple thing like that, and then maybe a little bit of a discussion of limits.

Madam Mayor. What if... I'm trying to measure out the work here. What if in the next couple weeks we get you an email with some high level kind of information, just the kinds of questions that have come up tonight. And then we do a more, a better first step report, more of what you're used to. My concern is that if we bring back something too quickly without enough information, you're still gonna have all the same questions and we're not gonna be prepared to answer them for you. And so then we're gonna be back again. So maybe like a report that's a first step report that's kind of like 40% of of the stuff, knowing you're gonna have questions, and then we come back again with the second step, and probably need to do community outreach, depending on your direction.

And that's why I was okay waiting for that robust first step report, even if it took two months, because Patrick assured us that a hyperscaler is not gonna come here in that time, because again, if we have a little something come up, Staff can do that, but I can tell you as a former staff member in government, that is also asking them to kind of bring you bits knowing that you're going to have the same questions you do now, right? So I'd rather give them the time to bring something that's meaningful so that we can have the real discussion, but with the assurance that, There is a hyperscaler coming. And we can tell the community that. We can get that message out there.

If we put something out in, say, the Whammer or something like that, is it possible to put that information out to the public as well?

In the Whammer, it's in the public.

something like what we're working on. Council's directed us to bring back a report, uh, that kind of thing. Yeah.

Cause to your point, the rumors will fly. What are they doing? What's happening?

Yeah.

I mean, there'll still be a lot of questions and community concerns, but it will be clear that we're working on it. We're moving in that direction. And with indication of ETA when it might be back and let the community know the estimate of how long it will take, I think that will be a big step to reassure the community that we're not just sitting on our hands.

And we could ask PIO to possibly put something out. I think that actually gets it out on social media everywhere where the rumor mill has actually started. I know you said you heard the rumor of like, oh, someone's going to come to the counter. I read earlier there is no process, so anybody can just build a data center, which is not the case.

And I don't think they understand what it takes to get this done.

There is no counter. Yeah.

I was on my morning run and somebody stopped me to ask about the data center being built. And I was like, that is not happening.

Everybody's running around saying they're opening data centers all over Burbank. And I'm like, how are they doing? And they have drive-thrus.

That's the end of my two-minute pitch.

It takes a lot more than just say, can I get a permit for a data center? It's a lot more complicated.

So did your staff get enough direction for us to be able to make a vote?

Yeah, my sense is we're going to provide you as much kind of basic information as we can in a form of informational memo. And then, but after that, we're hoping in two months to come back with a more robust first step report for you guys.

Okay, that sounds good.

Thank you.

All right, and do you need an official vote on that or are we good? Okay, great.

All right, thank you guys.

All right, now is the last thing. Now is the time for introduction of additional agenda items. Do members of the council have any items to introduce? Councilmember Perez first and then Councilmember Anthony.

In the spirit of continuing the AI discussion, I would like a first step report on banning the use of AI art in city materials and social media.

All right, Council Member Anthony.

Thank you. Yeah, we all received a memo in the WAMR about the plant-based treaty this week. I'd like a first-step report to formally endorse the plant-based treaty and direct staff to work with the Sustainable Burbank Commission to curate a list of actionable policy changes that align with the treaty's goals.

Is this requesting your first step? Well, it's going to come back to discuss what that means, right? Yeah. Okay, thank you, because I want to...

Check the... It just came up in the memo this week. Who's taking your meat away?

Remember, Mediterranean diet has very little meat.

Use the jokes today.

I know, man. All right. Over here? Any additional items? No? Okay. So I just have, it's not a report, it's not an agendize for a future meeting, but to request a report back from staff regarding, a full report back from staff regarding the FIFA event, looking at it as using it as a blueprint for community events, and how to bring more events into the city using that report back. IT COULD JUST BE A REPORT VERSUS A FULL ON NOTE AND FILE VERSUS A FULL ON DISCUSSION.

I know that's unique. So let's just, how about this? I know we are working on a whole recap of the FIFA pan test. And that comes up not every, you know, I mean, it's not in the U.S. all the time. So what we'd like to do is provide one kind of a whole analysis of that. And depending on that, I think we may have recommendations. This was definitely an investment. It wasn't necessarily a moneymaker for us as far as city resources go, but it was a big investment in economic development in the downtown and kind of stretching our muscle as far as special events. So I think there's going to be lessons learned from that. And maybe that's more of the tone of the memo, and then you guys can take that and decide how you want to go with it.

Is it possible to get it actually as it may be a city manager's report or something public that we can ask questions here?

I would provide it as an informational memo. You guys can read it. And if you want then to agendize whatever part of that, then we could go for it.

Okay. All right. That sounds good. All right. Thanks. Okay, not quite 9 o'clock, but we were close. We're now ready to adjourn the meeting to Tuesday, August 11, 2026, for a regular meeting of the Council Chamber, 275 East Olive Avenue, second floor. Thank you, and good night.