Library Board of Trustees - Regular Meeting

So I'd like to call this evening's meeting of the Burlingame Beautification Commission to order. Let's begin with the roll call.

Commissioner Bauer? Here. Commissioner Danica? Here. Commissioner Kirkley?

Here.

Here. Chair?

Here. Chair

Bate is absent. Commissioner. Commissioner.

Has everybody had a chance to review the minutes from our previous meeting on May 1?

Yes.

Would anybody like to make a motion to approve the minutes?

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes for May 2025.

I'll second it.

So do we take a roll call, though, that to approve the minutes or just a show of hands?

Favor. Favor.

Oh, all in favor. So

Aye.

Aye. Do we have any correspondence?

No. Alright.

Are there any comments from well, so as there's as there's nobody in the room there, there's no way for there to be comments from the public about anything not on the agenda, so I'll skip that part. And there doesn't appear to be any old business. So the only thing we have on the agenda today is the new business, which pertains to the residential, commercial, and multifamily landscape award nominations. And we'll be voting on those three awards today. So there's a staff report pertaining to this agenda item.

So We have the staff report here, but Yeah. So just the list of numbers in your email. Yeah. It was.

Yeah. It just states that the staff recommends that the commission review the nominated properties and vote. So with that

You wanna start with the residential?

Yeah. Let's start with that.

The list.

Yeah.

Are we able to get to the parks shared drive?

Nope. Not in this one.

Okay.

I didn't know you were gonna do that. Oh, that

was so

easiest way to

I'm not savvy like that.

I'd have to log out and start over again. Because I'm in Or can we go to the website? And then Yep. We can go to the website. Mhmm. Go to that. Cool. Stop. Too far from the mouse thing. The government. I know. I'm doing Yeah.

Need to be about two feet closer for to get in range.

Okay. You wanna try and do it over there? See if you're closer to the door. You're just too far over.

What I should have printed is the photos.

Yeah. Well, so

You need the

Winter is great. I

just use the one at work. Yeah.

Come on. Not a penny out of my pocket.

It's what they do. I rate them. You're so close. Know.

It's not there. It's that door.

Oh, over here. That's the door where you wanna be close. Yeah.

I think

we're okay not seeing staff. Yeah. Yeah. And

then if you could while you're there, pull up the meeting and share the screen. To the left.

Starting Okay. With the residential Which is

the right column.

Okay. So everyone's pretty aware of who they nominated, and, hopefully, they had

the opportunity to look at everyone else nominated and pull down here.

You wanna go to the business because that's the order they're in?

Okay. Okay.

Go to the business?

Yeah. Good news. Because that's the order they're in. It'll be easier. K. So we have Morning glory.

It's pretty with all the flowers and birchwood.

I'm sorry.

Penflora Designs. Designs. Mhmm.

Yeah. Adios Skincare. 840 Road.

I don't think it's eligible since it won last year. Oh, no. Earl and Game Senior Living, Myrtle Road.

Sweet. Let me back and put this.

Test.

Who is the sheriff?

I am actually. So Alright. So comments here. In the past, we've favored a lot of downtown businesses. And one of the interesting thing is we haven't had a lot of downtown businesses have limited landscape area. In other words, they basically star front. This year, it's a little bit different. So there's a there's a real mix up here. I mean, there's some others as well. I think they were being an interesting thing out near Rollins Road.

There are two nominations that included that. It's a little bit of an oasis out there all by itself. And then the hotel's been re been included because just because we we the value to the hotels out there. I'm not sure. Since I nominated, I'm not sure that the Embassy Suites is, worthy of an award. There's yeah. It's up to you, of course. But, Hyatt might be a good one because you can go inside, but I'm that's for next year. Anyway, so that's just kind of an overview. If anybody has any favorites or if they wanna, make a comment about any of these

I can appreciate that you'd wanna nominate something like the Embassy Suites. I mean, I think we nominated the hospital one year too

It does.

To include the larger businesses. I didn't nominate the morning glory, the first one, but I actually thought it was quite pretty even though it's now under construction. But Penflora is a brand new little Yeah. Penflora, the next one.

Taken on the two storefronts, not just the one.

It's a little hard to see with the glare on the windows, but but they've kind of made an effort.

Succulent museum. I

like Pennflora and the Morning Glory. I appreciate that they're trying to do as much greenery as they can with the limited availability they have on the sidewalks. I don't know. I'm just really attracted to, like, the super green spaces. Obviously, again, like, they're kind of at a, you know, they're right on Burlingame Avenue. They they have limited capabilities in terms of what they can do, and I think they've done a good job with what they have. But I was actually looking at the skincare facility. I thought that was something that really stood out to me. Oh, Hatties? Yeah.

Just seems really inviting. And then I also I nominated the Burlingame senior living facility, but I just love that space. I like the mix of the different plants, and I like the pop of the purple with the big trees. It brings some more warmth to space that feels, I think, otherwise a bit I don't wanna say old. That sounds bad. I shouldn't say that. I'm the youngest one here, so we're just gonna stop that sentence before I finish it.

I did actually nominate Padias, but I was wondering, is there a concern since she is a former commissioner, or there's no conflict of interest there? Even know that. You took her place. Oh.

Oh, okay. There's no conflict then. Okay.

Mhmm. It's very pretty with the little fountain and the flowers, and it looks very nice and neat and clean.

I thought it was interesting that both commissioner Kushner and I independently decided to nominate 840 Hinkley. I I feel like that general area has been a little bit more ignored in the past, not intentionally, but it's just less traffic. So I I think we've tended to focus focus on the downtown areas more. So I liked all of them, all of the nominations. But for that reason alone, I think something something to consider.

I mean, I'd love to highlight more businesses besides the downtown. I think that was, like, a really spot on point.

That's a sunken court. There's two of those in the back, and that's why it's it's like an oasis.

So Yeah. Yeah.

So as far as voting's concerned, should we write down on a piece of paper and hand it to America?

Yeah. Why don't you do your top two? Right. Top two? Yeah. Let yourself sorry. And there was also outside nominations for the businesses. Are they

not on here? Yeah. There were pictures. That was morning glory.

It'll work.

And Heidi is Right there.

And the pictures are already included. Yeah. Why aren't you right write your top two down. Okay.

One and two?

Yep. One and two. Number one and two. We're all We'll have to be our winner for number one.

Sure.

If not, we'll have to eliminate some and make it easier.

The fast that he went on to sometimes change our load versus. No ties.

We need a hat to put them in or something. Okay.

Oh, wait. Did you guys put two on one piece or one on You can put it both on the same page. I just You can do it too. It doesn't make me

feel. Disguise your handwriting.

Yeah. Okay.

Who wants to read them off?

Thanks. Good. There we go. This is teasing. Alright. Let's see what we got here. Okay. You guys are not making it easy. Let's see. Alright. So if we're gonna go with, like, the majority, have Penflora twice. We have that is the only one. What's this one say? What's that? 840 What's the 40.

Oh, Hinkley. Mhmm. 840. Hinkley. So that's this one too, the Hinkley Road. So there's two for Hinkley, 840 Hinkley, and two for Penflora. There's only one oh, I lied. There's two for senior living. So our top

Oh gosh.

Yep. Well, now we're down to the three. So we have Penflora, the senior Levine. Right? Mhmm. Right here. Because that's this one. And then the Hinkley. So you're voting on those three.

One vote.

One vote. So which ones again? Henflora. Henflora. Henflora. Henflora. Henflora. Yep. The business one on Henflora. Uh-huh. Yep. 840 Henflora and senior living. And senior living. Okay. Right. Because that's one and twenty. So do we vote again? Yep. One. Just one? Just one. Just one. We're not we're narrowing it now. And then Hinkley Hinkley. Yep. Senior living. See how living.

We've never not come to it.

Worry. We'll be fine. Babe. I'll pass that

on down.

See if we can get a consensus. Penflora, Inkley. Penflora senior living. So if we're just gonna go by a majority vote, and you'll have to decide Penflora's twice. Includes once, senior living's once. Are we good with Penflora? Sure.

You bet.

Alright. Pennflora disc. And then let's this time go on. You can go to the next one, Rich.

K.

Let's get them some paper. We're gonna

give you

some paper.

Oh, okay. You're gonna bypass the agenda.

Love the

reading the minutes. I'm loving it. I mean, it's a great use of paper. Right? But that makes life easier for the best. Yeah. Okay.

20 base water.

They like that. Mhmm.

$10.95 dollars.

$15.12 for 11.

$2.12, $2.14. $5.12 per room, and an 80 care room.

That's it.

Scroll backwards again. And 80.

512

212214 1512,

1095,

So

I haven't any real comment about all these. Each one of them is really great. Just as an aside, the $2.14, $2.12 address, and that was Myrtle. They could have done a film war nineteen thirties movie in that. I don't know if anybody walked down that little walkway between, but it goes all the way. It's it's landscaped all the way back to the back, and there's a little island in the back back there. But this is this is right out of the nineteen thirties. I think the 1928 is when the building was built.

It really stands out on its block.

Yeah. But that's just a comment, not necessarily a recommendation. The rest of these were just gorgeous. I I boy, we can't make a mistake. So I leave it to all of us to to pick. Some of the some of the landscaping has been was spiral hedges and things like that are pretty phenomenal. This is North Park. North Park's been around. Unfortunately, it's like an iceberg. You can't get through that gate.

If you would, there would be all of this similar everywhere, including ponds and ducks and that kind of thing. But the award is mainly based upon what can be seen from the street or what anybody walking by could, could view. So that should be not part of the consideration.

Second books. Further comments.

That seem to work out pretty well.

I think so. Let's go. So two. Right?

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you. Mhmm. Let's see. There

should be music.

Okay.

I know. Some

soft jazz in the background. Get the creative

So I see it up.

Two for North Park. Three for North Park. Mhmm. And no multiple votes for any other property.

No? Well, that makes sense then.

If you're in agreeance, that is your winner unless we wanna discuss something further. But you have three votes for 1080 Carolyn North Park. And Okay. No other duplicate votes.

That was easy peasy.

Great. K.

K. Who won the next one? The North Park apartment.

North Park.

Alright. K. Go on.

Okay.

Now we have residential. We

had three votes.

Ready for the next one?

Yep.

Yes. So residential sustainable landscape award nominees, 1801 Adeline, 1461 Columbus, 2508 Easton. 1532 Carol Avenue. 129 or 8?

29.

29, Costa Rica.

1100 Drake.

1140 Balboa. 628 Vernon Way. 201 Alita. Seventeen thirty five, Sebastian. Thirty twenty four, Atwater.

That includes the nominees. Got it backwards again.

Sure.

Please. 24 Atwater. Seventeen thirty five, Sebastian. Two zero one, Anita. Six twenty eight Vernon.

Eleven forty Balboa.

1,100 Drake.

One twenty nine Costa Rica. Fifteen thirty two Carol. Two five zero eight. Fourteen sixty one Columbus. No one hour.

I'm gonna go up to the top so we have all the numbers. Yep. That's the very

So it's sort of an overview. We picked little pieces and parts of, Burlingame. I happen to take the part that's on the other side. Some most of it's on Trewsdale, which is, the old Mills Mills of state. So these are some of the newer homes. Some of the older homes, of course, are more established and they tend to draw your eye to them. Just also just for general knowledge, agapanthus and roses are sustainable. The agapanthus, green and lush, they seem to be, but they're they don't take that much water. Roses are part of a genus, I guess, similar to blackberries and that kind of thing. They they they look like they take a lot of water, but they don't.

So from a sustainable standpoint, don't let that change your mind about some of these places. One of, one of the and this happened to be one of mine, and I'm not I'm not lobbying for it, but it's an Eichler home. It's over there. That's the last one. And it looked like a lot of gravel.

And I and I have in the past said, gee, you know, this is gonna be an example. I hate to see everybody do that. But that seemed appropriate if you're not familiar with Eichler Homes or they were built in the sixties, '64, '65. And, so they're much much more modern open space and so it kind of the the landscaping is appropriate for that particular house, but you might not like it for that reason. Some of these others are just absolutely gorgeous. And like I said, if we threw out the winners here, we can just resubmit that whole list and do just fine. So that's, kind of an overview. Any more comments?

I thought it was interesting. When you think of sustainable landscaping, what people come up with, seems like a lot of people put drought tolerant plants in, but, like, a lot of drought tolerant plants. And in fact, I even nominated one, and they have a lot of plants. But they're all drought tolerant, they have drip water system throughout. And so it's, you know, it's it's a certain look.

And then I chose another one, which I felt was very plant, with a little bit of gravel, a little bit of fountain, a little bit of sustainable plantings, and that's a different kind of look. You know? And I guess it just depends on what you care for, and then you were picking something that was more gravel and sparse plantings. So, I was a little concerned. One of them, I think it was Adeline, had grass, and I didn't know if that constituted sustainable landscaping because it is it takes a lot of water. But, yeah, there's a lot of different looks there, and they're they're all attractive.

I thought that what was nice was there's some smaller homes that really did a whole lot with what they had, and I like those a lot as well.

So Yeah. I think it was yeah. Adeline had grass in there. I think the So I was a little concerned by the water consumption there. But

Yeah. 1129 Costa Rica is one of the smaller homes that

Yeah. They kinda divvied up the got it. Had a little bit of everything in there Yeah. With some gravel pathways and seeding and drought tolerant plant. And that blue hot air is actually a little bubbling bubbling fountain. I don't think it actually I don't know if you could tell or if the

So we don't have sound.

Yes. Be realistic. Music playing.

But then, like, the one above it there, that's more of, like, drought tolerant plants, lots of plantings, things. So different look. Any other comments?

Alright. Top two.

Let's do it.

Feel like you should stand up at the podium, and the winner is Alright.

Costa Rica. Easton. Costa Rica Easton? Oh, boy. Easton. Oh. Let me see the last two. Vernon and Costa Rica. So we have three for Costa Rica and three for Easton.

Can we look at those two again and refresh our memories?

Think we're both again. Keep going down. Where's this?

It was

Costa Rica. And that one. Mhmm. That's so funny. So two for Costa Rica and then two for Easton. Oh, no. Yep. Talk about it and see if you can convince somebody to turn.

Okay. I will say that I had originally put in Costa Rica, and then I shifted to Easton because I appreciate what they do with the smaller space, and I appreciate, like, the the more drought resistant plants. But, honestly, what did it for me is the trees. I feel like something that people overlook often when they think of sustainability is shade and keeping things cool. Mhmm. And I feel like the trees for me were a big win in that and also just in general, the Eastern, they had, like, a similar mix of the same plants, but the trees for me were the the selling point.

That's exactly why I voted to the Eastern one as well. I was thinking about the trees. I mean, I do like both places a lot, but I think shade is overlooked.

Like, if this had just, like, I don't know, maybe, like, one or two, like, shady trees, I would just be, like, sold totally. But I I instantly thought of shade. That was definitely my selling point.

And I voted for Costa Rica. I'm stuck with it because I just like how much they they did with such a small space.

And I too voted for Costa Rica because I just felt like it represented all different kinds of things that people could act as an example Yeah. For people of what they could do for sustainable landscaping. Not all gravel, not all plants, you know, a little bit of everything, but it's still very well organized.

As an as an architect, the house is is pretty, two two in one ish, and it's not much.

So It's a little small house. They did so

much. So that was that was my thought. However, the East of the house is pretty sweet. Mhmm. So one of us has gotta make it.

I think either one would be a good winner. So And there's

next year too. So you know?

Yeah. I don't think there's a negative.

I mean, maybe the trees will grow bigger at Costa Rica, and they'll have more shade for a nice top year.

Well, let's give let's give them a year to do that. I'll change my vote to Houston if that makes things easy.

Easton, it is. That's good. Alright.

And I'm gonna go plant a tree at Costa Rica.

Stop by. Well, they some, like, they just look like they were, like, smaller.

Like Yeah. Well, Do they need a two

Kudos to all these nominees.

They are all winners. They're all winners. There was no bad option.

We each went to 24 different sites for those of you who are looking for gas some and help with the gas. And I thank you all. Yeah. Chairman, and you get to be this nice too. So yeah.

Look at me.

Yeah. Yeah.

Find me around the neighborhood looking at trees.

Yeah. We did have the luxury of many great choices this year, and we were also very efficient in choosing all three awards. Under reports, do we have any reports from either staff or any commissioners?

Secretary Forrest has another bouncing baby boy. Oh. Cute as a button.

Boy. What?

The other day.

That's why she's not here.

I I

get it. Yeah. Okay.

Any tree stuff? Yeah.

Well, thank you to acting recording secretary Diaz. It's been very helpful for us and the office in keeping all of our heads on straight because there's always lots of tree things and lots of inquiries from the public. If you live, Lyon Hoag area or kinda downtown south of Pride Edge Hill, we have our grid pruning going on. Our contractor, WCA, is out there doing our typical grid pruning. So it's our goal to, trim, inspect every tree every once once every four to five years.

So this is part of that typical cycle, and they've been great partners for us to in achieving that goal. That grid pruning that we do is preventative maintenance, and it has really paid in spades, over the years in preventing, branch loss, tree loss, damage, or injury. So we've been very fortunate of that. I know we're all certain to enjoy, some summer weather finally, but we're already thinking about winter and preparing for, storm season, whatever that may end up being. We're in very good shape.

We've had meetings with Caltrain or joint powers regarding the railroads and trees along there. Interestingly, we've received a lot of calls in the last several months about easements. I mean, more so than probably years prior combined. We were able to join Central County Fire in a joint public presentation with the BNN, the Burlingame, neighborhood network, talked about wildfires, trees, ownership, how to address trees in our in the urban environment. And I think it's just worth stating here, this is my rough calculation, but about 90% of the easements in the city Of Burlingame are privately owned.

Even though, utilities can access them, public employees can access them for the purpose of utilities. The trees, vegetation that grow in there are generally the responsibility of the adjacent property owner. Very few exceptions, and this is our history lesson here. Early on before the city was incorporated, a lot of these subdivision maps were accepted by the county of San Mateo, and they did not accept the alleyways at that time. Later subdivisions that maybe came along in the forties, fifties, or later, those typically do have alleyways easements that were accepted by the city.

Takes a lot of work on staff end to get into those subdivision maps, interpret them. Sometimes we need to pull in our partners in public works and the legal office as well. Other than that, on side, we will probably have our largest planting this October. Recording secretary Diaz has a lot of work ahead of her there. So, we're getting all those letters out, and we've just found over the years that planting in the fall garners the greatest success rate.

When we're planting later, springtime, it just gets dry so fast, the trees don't have a chance to root. So when we plant in the fall and they can get the natural precipitation, they tend to do better. Always continuing our education process with the public and trying to get them to water trees. And on the park side, we are really getting our head in the game for Town Square, generally opening up this late fall, hopefully, for the holiday season. We're fortunate in receiving an additional staff member to help, maintain that area because we're expecting a lot of the public to get out and enjoy this public plaza.

I think that kinda wraps up what we have going on. The only other project, and it's not really pertinent here, but the Parks and Rec Commission did approve some sport court lining at Victoria Park. It's gonna look similar to the sport court that's out here. That work will be starting at the end of the month here.

Thank you for the report, sir. You're almost done.

I don't have a

report. No.

Two things. One is, really appreciated the buy the numbers.

Oh, that that coming through social media?

Yeah. I think, now you know where I spend my time. Facebook, I think, is on that's the only one I kinda do. Anyway, I thought it was really good. By the numbers is the numbers of trees, planted, know, had all the statistics in berling game. It all tree oriented. So that was a really great job. And number two, trees of berling game booklet is coming around. It should be finished in a week or two at the most. All it needs is the photos and kudos to Laura Hesselgren for taking those photos.

I'm getting a thumb drive tomorrow that has all her pictures and then we'll boil those down to the ones we'd like to include in the book. And that ought to do it for that And the next thing is publication and, Pulitzer Prize. Yeah.

Love it. Happy there.

Okay. It's for me. Thank you.

I think that was our our last report. Are there any upcoming agenda items?

Next month, the historic historical society will be coming with two, another die two diagnostic panels Mhmm. For you to review and improve. One for the cupola, and what was the other one? Blinds Hall. Blinds Hall. Blinds Hall.

Not the baseball field?

No. The Lions Hall. Remember someone where we put in front? Yep. So that we'll see in January 5. The baseball society next month.

Great. There it goes.

Alright. Well, that covers tonight's agenda. So we'll see you all again next month on September 6.