Environmental Review Committee - Regular Meeting

Commissioner Carter?

Here.

Commissioner Pat Gumkar? Yeah. Commissioner Yang? Is she's going to be delayed. Vice chair Feng?

Present.

And Chair Hanson? Sure. Okay. So

can we move on to approval of the minutes? Does anybody wanna make any comments or anything? Look at them? Yeah. Anybody have anything to say about them?

Hi. Everybody is speaking? I can take your speaker card.

They seem fine.

Thank you.

Go ahead and sit. Right?

So now I'll let you get a chance to look at the minutes. Yes. Any any comment? No. I'm fine. Alex, any comments? K. Can I have a motion to approve? I can.

Do you want to?

I'll second.

Second motion to approve the moment.

I'll second.

Okay. Commissioner Carter?

Aye.

Commissioner Pat Duncart? Aye. Commissioner Yang is still absent. Vice Chair Feng?

Aye.

Chair Hansen? Aye. The motion carries by Commissioner Yang is absent.

Okay. Let's go ahead and move

on to postponements. Do we have any postponements? We have no postponements.

How about one of communications?

We have two speakers in person. Our first speaker is Nazzim, and our second speaker is Anna.

Okay. So you can go ahead

and stand up and come right here, and I'm gonna bring up the timer.

Okay.

So one second while I bring that up. Alright. And go ahead.

Hi. My name is Nazeem. I actually belong to Rotary Club of Cupertino, and I also work with the CCL folks who's a a office. We're focused on in the and creating it and educating people on home electrification. We had a booth in the birthday, you know, day.

I'm mostly here to thank you guys for supporting us and helping us get the booth in the right place and, you know, very good. And we visited your booth, and you guys referred a lot of people to us and there's a lot of traffic and outputs. So part of mostly come here and thank you guys for that. The second topic, and I'm really brief, is we had this home tours for people who wanted to see what it takes to look like to patient. And we got a pretty good turn on and and there was about 248 people signed up, about 225 home visits to see whether they want to.

86% of the people left. They weren't feeling more prepared to do electrification, and greater than 50% are considering replacing their gas appliance. So I wanted to thank you guys for supporting us and want to Yes. Let you guys on it.

Any questions?

Ask question.

No. So how do you sign up for that home the tour?

So we did that last month, and there was many means of signing up, and and we got a lot of turnout. With the next phone call, we can let you know if you're interested in signing up for a home tour.

The email was sent to all of the commissioners before the event. So we ask you to help spread the word and promote.

Thanks. Alright. So next time, we'll just say next time also, we'll

get the email from.

Go ahead, Susan.

Thank you for summarizing. It's nice to know what the results showed so that I really appreciate getting that 84% number. Thank you.

Okay. Are you still speaking on agenda item or just general oral communication?

We would like

to discuss the

of education.

Okay. So I'll call you guys when we get to that item. K. We have person.

Victoria, did you have a question?

No. That's okay.

And we have no hands raised on Zoom chair.

Okay. So that closes the that closes the oral communications then. Do can we move

on to old business?

Do we have any old business?

We have no business, Chair.

Okay. How about new business?

For the subject, we have chair and vice chair elections.

Okay. Should we defer until we have Connie? Or

we skipped over staff reports staff and and commissioner reports so we can

do Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Thanks. Let's do staff

Great. I just have a few. For any of you who are block leaders, we had a incredible block leader presentation last night. Jasmine Liu went and presented, all of our different programs, and we heard wonderful feedback and have been asked to come back and present more. Active transportation plan got adopted by council, so that was a big win for us.

If you have any questions about that, we can email. And for your calendars, the creek cleanup is May 16. Cherry Blossom Festival, we have sue commissioner Hansen, commissioner Carter, commissioner Feng, and commissioner Padguancar signed up for Cherry Blossom. If that changes, let us know. And then the Fremont Unified Earth Day on the twenty second, we have two more of you, and then the next environmental day is April 18. As always, it's eight to twelve. And then, Ursula, if you have anything else to add to that?

No. Okay.

Commissioners, do you have anything to share?

I just wanna apologize. I could not go to Earth I just came from India, and I was sick. So I just completed the last minute. Apologies.

Those of you who did table at Earth Day, did you have any takeaways that you wanted to share?

The turnout was interesting. I thought the venue being smaller was really nice. The music stand was too close to where we were, though. It was so loud. Couldn't hear anybody. So it was interesting being smaller. I kinda think I like the the green better. Is that the library green out there? Because there's more space for a little bit of stand. Does that make sense? Because where we were, it was nice and small. But because the band was so loud, it made it more difficult to kind of it it felt more crowded, but more friendly. Don't know. It feels like the library green could have been maybe

laid out a little bit.

I don't know. What did you think?

I think your comment is what I have also heard that the volume needed to be turned down.

Yeah. It was super loud.

I believe we had around 250 participants, so a ton of thoughts at our at our booth. We played a game where there was a a board where we asked people to identify what type of appliance fuel source they had. And so we had five different appliances that we were asking about, and we had associated dots colored dots that we put on different areas and depending on if they were gas or electric. And then we asked them if those appliances had rebates or if they got permits when they installed them. So it was an interactive conversation that we had with all of the the people and attendees, and then they won a prize.

And Jack did a great job trying to manage all of the prize giveaways because it seemed like that was the big hit is that we got some really cool prizes this year.

But it was pretty much constant. We didn't have and there was actually a fair amount of people who wanted to do the survey and the price was sort of secondary. That was selling's thing. I was fee boosting of the prices. So nice to see that people really wanted to participate in the survey.

Yeah. Did anybody come the second half? Do we

have staff? I was only the second half. It was

what did you feel? No. No. I was sick.

Oh. There was no commissioners in the second half of the event. No.

I I was sick. I just came from India, and I was really sick.

Okay. So I'm sorry.

It was busy the whole time.

Yeah. It was really busy. It was overwhelming. I had to take a break because I was standing in the sun, and it was like everybody was coming.

Yeah.

There were people were very excited about the prizes. So they were really they really wanted to take that survey. Kept saying using my best teacher voice, get in line. Wait your turn. It was kind of like anti it felt kind of a little bit yeah. Please.

So we can sold or given away five times as many flashlights. You I think those are the first thing you ran out of.

Yeah. But I think you went they went over to to the safety guys. Was it safety or emergency the emergency team. Right? Tore The flashlights? Yeah. They went over to the emergency.

We ran out of the rechargeable ones, and then there was the little push button ones that actually were emergency management and somehow ended up in our bin.

Yeah. But the kids like those.

Yeah. I actually sold quite a few flappers even though they're not.

Sure. Were pretty good. I thought that was a good thing. Anyway, so next is cherry blossom. Are we gonna play the game at cherry blossom again?

No. I think we're gonna change it up a little bit. We're gonna do a spin the wheel and associate the prize that they get with the type of question that they answer. So this time, it will be a more formed line, so we won't Okay. Wrangle up to people.

I know. I I really had to take a break because then I have a doubt that the the, board was in the sun, and I was like, I gotta get I gotta gotta move. So it was a lot. But, anyway but Jasmine and the other person did a really good job managing well. I escaped, and I came back. So Great. Thanks for the feedback. Thanks. Thank you for all the work, Jasmine. Okay.

Does anybody else have a commission report? Staff or commission report? I did go to the mayor's meeting. I'm trying to find my minutes here, and I was looking at them. And there was just so much information. It's the report from all of the different commissions. And I think what my takeaway was is that mayor the mayor does a really good job of running that meeting and getting the information out of the commissioner. So she was good at organizing it. People had a fair chance to talk. Everybody gave status on their different.

And I think the minutes have been published for that. Okay. Any questions? Okay. Can we move on then to new business?

Yes. So chair and vice chair elections. Connie just messaged that she's parking now. So I will do my one slide presentation. Can you see that okay?

Yes.

So this is just a review of the shared responsibilities. It seems pretty straightforward. Susan can probably speak more to how it's gone in the past year, but, generally, working with me at least once every three months to help plan the agenda, manage the meetings when you're here in person, and then attend the mayor's commission meetings, which are five to 06:30 at Quinlan Community Center, and the dates for the rest of the year are listed. So wanna make sure if you are nominated or nominating yourself for the the position of chair that you are hopefully able to attend these following dates. And then if you can't attend one of them due to illness or something else pops up, then the vice chair would attend.

That concludes my presentation, but I can leave it up if it goes into questions about what the responsibilities are.

Any questions? No questions. K. Do we wanna take nominations? Where do we wanna start? Vice chair, chair. Where do we wanna start?

I can nominate is Alex interested? We can nominate Alex. Generally, that is what we do. Right?

I would check with that.

The vice chair becomes the chair next year. Is Alex there?

Yeah. I'm here. It's whatever the commission is happy with.

So you are okay with the meeting dates. Right?

Yeah. Those dates, can work around, and I appreciate staff for putting this up because I love a fan's planning.

K? Okay. So alright. You second?

Yes. I've second.

Okay. Can we take a

roll call? Yes. Commissioner Carter?

Aye.

Commissioner Pat Gonkar? Aye. Commissioner Yeh is so absent. Vice Chair Fang?

Abstain.

And Chair Hanson? Aye. The motion carries with Vice Chair Feng abstaining and Commissioner Yang absent.

Alright. I'm okay. Do we wanna wanna go ahead, Alex, and take nominations for our vice chair panel? So we have chair commissioner.

Nomination? I I could you she interest you? One of you can

be I know. More years. So I nominate chat. Okay. I can say that.

Normally, one who nominates a person who isn't here.

Are you here?

Well, I'm I'm fine with this vacuum. K.

He needs somebody

Although I don't look as good in the suit as she does.

Well, we'll see. K. So second is Okay. All in favor, or do we wanna take a vote?

It's like this company you're here.

Oh, am I? No. No. Okay. Scared me.

Yeah. We are the vice chair for the nomination. We are Are you interested?

I'm I'm okay. Sorry.

No. No. I'm we're good. I'll I'll I'll be on the side.

Okay. Commissioner Carter?

Abstain.

Commissioner Hanson? Aye. Commissioner Pat Goenkart? Aye. Commissioner Yang? Aye. Chair Feng?

Aye.

Motion carries with Commissioner Carter abstaining.

Lindsay, how do you wanna do this since this is remote? Do you wanna have Is the position there?

Yeah. Think I'm

I think, Susan, it would be best if you could take care of the rest of this meeting since I'm participating virtually. It it just makes everything smoother for staff.

Okay. That's fine. Or vice chair. Or wanna sit here?

No. Fine. You know, we

Fine. Alright. Or rather.

You should finish the meeting.

Yeah. No. No. You're supposed to switch chair.

Okay. Had the inauguration. Yeah.

Alright. So that would be chair, vice chair. So then the next one is to receive a presentation and provide input on the development of the proposed fiscal year 2026, 2027 capital improvement programs and a five year plan related to sustainability projects. Is that the first one for Chad?

Oh, Michael is here.

I'll bring my program manager. Thank

you.

Sorry. Victoria, you're sharing your screen? Okay. Good afternoon. Hi, commissioners. I'm Susan Michael. I'm the CIP manager. And as you figured out, director Chad Moses, public work behind me for support if we have questions. And so I'm here to give a report basically on the status of CIP. I went to council to go over new projects, but I'm using this as a check-in to just let you know where we are with this sustainability projects for projects and the what's being proposed in the next five years.

So the after the title page, we have this. This is just a tickler to say there is a page under on the city website under public works that has a bunch of CIP information. You can see the tab for projects. We put updates there on various projects when they occur, and there's a bunch of other resources. So do look at that once in while if you have questions, and, of course, feel free to reach out.

Next page, please. We have this is the list of the current projects prior to the pro proposal for fiscal 2627. So the colors are the different types of projects. Yellow gold is the facilities projects. Green are the parks projects. Orange are the streets and infrastructure projects. Blue are the transportation, like, projects. And magenta, our new category last year, are the sustainability projects. And we have two projects. One of them, we reported as gonna be finished by the end of the year, which is the PV project.

But we'll talk more about that in a minute. So the electric vehicle charging station expansion at the service center is underway. We've gone out for bid, and we're trying to sign up a contractor for that project. So we're making progress. Next page, please. We also reported to council that meeting that the LED project was complete. Basically, took all of the existing city's streetlights, and the ones that weren't LED, we converted them to LED. It's a big project, thousands of lights. So that's done finally. And I think on the next page, we also next page, please, Lori.

We also reported that the PV project was nearly complete. And, yeah, I think that that I can give a more of an update on that too. Is the next page? Can you go to the next page for me? Yeah. So I have a picture of each of the sites. It's we did solar panels on the roof of community hall. We put in carports at Sports Center, and we also are doing a carport in the parking lot at outside Quinlan. I did that the right direction.

So

the sports center and community hall are almost done. Both of them have like, the scaffolding needs to be removed at community Hall. And the sports center is can you go back? Thanks. The sports center, the carport, it's it's a big project, actually.

There's a lot of solar panels, and I think it's turned out really well. Right now, they're working on getting the EV charging solutions at the front installed and operational. So as as far as we know, we've met all of our the whole reason to do the project now is to meet the mean two requirements from PG and E so we get a higher rate of return when we sell back electricity. And as far as we know, we've met all of the requirements for those two sites, so that's awesome. So that that project will be wrapping up, let's say, the next month.

So then when we get to Quinlan Take the next slide, Tori. That's what it looks like, which you could see if you look out the window. We had to add a sprinkler system to the carport because of the size of it. So it put a pause on it. We're still gonna meet the requirements for Neem two, but it's because it's a long story.

It's a technical kind of out such that we have another year, which was surprising to all of us. So that's great news. What you'll see when the when the PV project, the park board goes up, we made this one taller than we did at sports centers so that we can get food trucks underneath it and keep the festival activities that happen here at the park going. So it's going well. And probably gonna see more activity this summer, actually, even in the next month, trying to get next stages going. I think it's it's supposed to be done by September. So September, October, actually. So watch that space, and hopefully, it'll all go well.

That's impressive because usually people find out that you needed extra space after the installation.

Yeah. Yeah. You mean the height? Yeah. Well, we try to plan ahead. Next slide, please. So the CIP, I wanted to show the list of projects that are proposed this year for the CIP overall. There's four new projects and two projects that we're asking for additional funding for. The first two are the ones we're asking for additional funding. It's the facilities condition assessment.

It's ongoing improvement of our facilities. We had a report that showed they're very deficient years ago, and this is working on things like roofs and fire alarm systems. We're getting towards the end of the highest priority projects, so that's good. We're making progress. And the city hall index, we're putting $55,000,000 in the budget.

I know that it's going to be approximately $8,000,000 project. We already had $3,000,000 in place, so we wanted to hold the other 5,000,000 while we we're hoping to get the contractor's pricing sometime this fall. The four new projects, two three four five five, less residents. We this is a this came after the March presentation. There's a house that's over by Blue Pheasant.

So if you're looking at the the Blackberry Farm Golf Course, Blue Pheasant, to your right, there's a house. The city owns that. So the proposal is to tear the house down and put in native planting, keep it real simple. So we're working on what is that going to cost. The council asked us to add it to the list.

The golf course, pro shop needs a renovation badly, so we've been asked to put that in here. The sports center courts need resurfacing. That's also become a CIP project because it has some engineering. And we have so the ramp at Stevens Creek Boulevard where you get onto northbound 85, That that intersection needs improvement. It's it's difficult to cross as a pedestrian or bike.

And so the Westport development said that they would do the work, but then they got hung up in permit permitting with Valley Water Country. I'm sorry. Water. So they asked if we would take over the project. So there's there's been funding that's been given to us by the developers as an in lieu fee, and that's what we're using for this project. And the following council approved to move forward with the work as we would. And then we're also working on Memorial Park pickleball adding sound panels. We have to actually rebuild the fence somehow, structurally support it in order to add things. That's what that's on here. Next page.

So the five year plan is those projects in the first year. The next year, we're gonna ask for the last project that's at the highest priority in the facilities projects, which is the fire alarm system of the library. That's a $1,300,000 project. And then we'll also resume funding ADA work and outfalls repairs, those very important infrastructure improvements that are required. And those will continue for all four years.

And we're going to we're hoping to work on the Library Farm Golf Course. The irrigation system needs to be basically replaced. So that is meant for year three. And right now, we've put park shade structures on the last two years. We'll see what happens. The the five year plan is our best guess at what's upcoming. There's two things to highlight. One is that things come up that we didn't see coming, like the sports center courts resurfacing. The people that run the courts knew that it need to happen. We didn't see it as a CIP project, so it wasn't on our radar.

So that kind of thing happens, as we develop five year plans. Secondly, it's important to note that the CIP typically has $2,000,000 every year. That's our budget, the figure that Citi has said. This is your working number. And so we try to stay within that budget.

And as you can imagine, with things being expensive, our our focus is always gonna be health and safety, very, unglamorous projects, like just the street sidewalks right away, keeping bridges from falling down, the infrastructure. So that is where the focus is. And then other priorities come from council and community. And, you know, if you obviously see something happening in a building that's needs repair, we get in there. But that's our next steps.

So if you wanna go to the next page, Tori? Thank you. So so we've also it's not that even though there were no magenta projects on that list, we are definitely working on sustainability as a a focus for projects. The this is actually the work really of Ursula and Tory to come up with what these, the focus is. And it's really something that reflects the words reflect what they're already doing, which is working on reducing overall energy use with improvements to equipment and building envelopes, moving away from natural gas to electric wherever we can, improving our HVAC and power, especially at our bigger places at Quinlan and the library in service of our cooling centers and resiliency centers.

And also then looking to meet water conservation requirements for nonfunctional. So I think if you can go to the next page. Okay. That's not really where it's going, but that's fine. Ursula and Tory have been working with Bayrun to identify opportunities on our real estate portfolio.

So we've got a lot of good information. And what we're basically I think what we've learned is that there's big projects, and there's more that are maintenance projects. So a lot of the efforts are not CIP per se. They're in the working with the facilities group to when a piece of equipment breaks down to make sure that we get high efficiency equipment in there, go towards electric, see where we can make those green power improvements wherever possible. And so the conversation is ongoing. And this reflects some of the bigger projects that we have on the list and things that we definitely focus on. I think that's it. Is that it, Tory? Yeah. That's it.

So we're available if you have questions. I

think at the end of the thing, you made a comment. But I was looking at all the projects, and it looks like they all should have some piece that's sustainability focused, like the bike lanes and just the overall movement to a more sustainable city. Right. That's what it looks like. It's not just the magenta piece, but

Right.

There's, like, the sub piece in there. And then you said that you needed sprinklers at the parking. It said can you explain that? Because they're so big, you needed spring do they overeat?

It is. No. It is because you're creating a shaded structure that's 5,000 square feet or bigger, and it is over 5,000 square feet.

It's for fire.

It's a sprinkler. That Fire sprinkler. Oh, fire. Okay. Yeah. Not

not, yeah, not watering the greens. No.

Fire Attached to the actual structure,

Yeah. Wow. Actually, I see focused up.

This is little. Okay.

Just your hands with have a lawn on your on your car.

Don't have what?

Birds on your car. No. Doesn't need to be water.

Okay. Or bumper. Bumper.

When do we have questions clarifying questions?

That's now. Right? Yeah. And then I

have one more question.

It has to do with the pickleball courts. You were talking about soundproofing. And, I mean, there's ways to soundproof. You can put up barriers. You can change the surface like they did along 85 and change the actual surface of the court, changed the surface of the racket? Do they require that if they're gonna play, that they use quiet rackets?

I I I haven't probably talked to that a little We currently have kind of a request that after certain hours and before certain hours, they use they're all quiet and pick up ball.

Yeah.

The folks that are playing on the court have you know, some have switched over. They're starting to switch back because they don't like the way they play. So we've heard complaints from some folks. She's a big ball that they the quiet equipment doesn't play the same as the home.

Okay. It's just I I know the surface can change, though. Right? I mean, I'm really impressed with how it sounds. Right?

Yeah. I think most of the sound with pickleball isn't necessarily involving the surface. It's

Snacking on the racket? Alright.

Yeah. Smacking the the paddles. And, yes, there's quiet pickleball paddles, but I have heard that they don't. I I can't guarantee it. I don't play pickleball.

Thanks, Alex. We have questions for Alex. Oh, Alex.

Thank you, Susan, and thank you, staff, for putting this presentation together. In the staff reports, it is mentioned that the city is part of a regional coalition of several jurisdictions working together to secure grant funding for resilience centers upgrades. I'm just kind of curious to see, is there a timeline on, like, these grant funding? And, yeah, I'm just kinda curious on that point.

Sure. I can speak to that. Yep. Forming a coalition for bringing the memo random agreement to council in June. It's San Jose, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Cupertino.

I

might be leaving someone out. We're small, but we the MOA allows room for growth. But there's a lot of the climate bond money that's making its way into grant funding. We were kind of excited about a couple opportunities and found it wasn't gonna be quite right, and then maybe we're gonna pivot over to planning. So we're still in sort of looking at which ones we might go for, but all across the county jurisdictions are in a similar boat of trying to get their resiliency. Their facilities, you know, more resilient and ready to deal with heat and cold and air quality and things. So that's the focus of the group. So it's it's sort of in the getting ready to get ready stage.

Got it. Thank you. And one more clarifying question since there are no sustainability colored category projects for the upcoming upcoming fiscal year. In this case, this is more of, a receive and file for the commission. Right? There's no direction that is okay. I see Tory nodding her head. Alright. It's okay. Sounds good. Thank you.

Jack?

Hey. I noticed that when I was reading through the stuff earlier that Quinlan uses about 30% of the natural gas usage for the city.

The city facilities? Yeah. Boy, I can probably say that best.

Corey's our utility enabler. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm here. What was the question? Are you just confirming that it's 30%?

Well, no. I just basically, that's the beginning of my question is that I wanna make sure that I'm talking correctly on it, that it seems to me since we have our thrust is going is getting people off the gas, that us the city is not having something to address that is is a little striking. And this and then the secondary question is I thought when we were talking about electrification, the library was not our territory because it's county. But then almost 15 to 20% of the gas usage is for the library, and we bring it up as our usage. So I'm I don't that my second question is, what am I missing here?

I can switch that. So Quinlan and the library both to electrify. It's roughly estimated million dollar projects each. So we're trying to work on the smaller projects that are achievable before we take on those massive projects. And so those would be the best candidates for grant opportunities as well because they're both tied into, being cooling centers or some kind of emergency shelter for the community.

So keeping that in mind. Your question's about the library. The library building is owned by the city. It's our property. We lease it to the Santa Clara County Library District, and they actually pay the electric bill.

The the the cooling center is a directive from Santa Clara County Emergency Management. And so all three entities have an an interest, if you will, in making the cooling center and emergency shelters aspects of those buildings better. That's part of why the the coalition that Arcelor was speaking of is so important. Yeah. There's a lot of opportunity there, but it is there is some complication as to who benefits the most from that.

Well,

if I was a library county library, and I'm paying electrical bill, I wouldn't want it to be converted to electric heating.

They're paying the they're paying utilities. I

They're gas also.

Yes.

Okay. For the gas? Well

Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So it's not a financial issue in terms of the gas payment. It's more of the fill solving foam, getting the carbon gas, carbon siege down.

No. The library. They had presentation last year. Right? How much we will save if we change?

No. I understand that that that So that's fine. Installation. I'm just trying to under I'm reading these things.

Yeah.

It doesn't make okay. So, basically, what you're saying is, one of them is sitting here. We're looking for grants.

For both of them, actually.

Both Okay.

For both the library and Quinlan. The library is is both who's the owner, who would benefit. That is a three part answer for the lever. For Quinlan, it is mostly that this Cupertino would benefit, more straightforward.

Okay. And for the Quinlan, would that also tie into lifetime of the current system?

Like, if

we start having failures, is this are we going to just fix them or, I mean, replace Geth with Geth? Or are we

We answer that question on a daily basis. I don't know if you wanna answer that question.

Answer that for we did actually have a failure last year, and we just replaced the gas for gas because the to switch over to electric in this was about four or five times the cost of repairing the existing coolers.

Mhmm.

So we evaluate each one of these. Our intention is to switch to electric when possible. But if there if it's cost prohibitive, we potentially stick with the same facility. Right? We're fixing something, and we want to do it in a in a manner that's efficient and cost effective. All that aside, if I think we're gonna get to a point where having gas parts fixed is not reasonable because they don't exist anymore, and we and they'll be looking at transitioning to a letter.

Well, see, I'm I have to I go to the the fairs and with this badge on, I have to tell people, you should you should be switching over now. And and so but we're not I mean, I'm just basically it just it's it's a conflict of of things I have to deal with.

Now we are trying to shift over of where possible. We've had a couple of units go out at the sports center, petrol gas units. And then in that situation, it is you've got a choice. They're about equal gas or electric. So as as those go bad, we replace them with, at least that's that's our intention. Okay. Okay. This to replace the AC unit or AC here was, I think, $1.61700000 dollars when we could replace the broken piece of the equipment for $300,000. And it needed to get done as fast as possible. So we didn't have time to find the units to replace it, so let's fix it. So that's what it was. Okay. So

Okay. Is those just things that they they they stood out? We all would

We're we're segueing into conversations. So I just wanted to make sure there's no other questions and then go to public comment real quick.

Susan?

That's it. Yeah. One comment. You have a comment?

Oh, basically, when whenever we are doing this project, we do some kind of sustainability analysis. Like, are we doing are we using the right material?

Are we disposing? Like, is there a

To be honest, it depends on the project. The tennis course resurfacing, there's only so much you can do there, for example. But the Annex project that we're working on, that is code mandated that you have to do a certain amount of sustainable efforts and make sure you're hitting efficiency goals, and that is built into the project. So, I think one of the keys there is making sure you have professionals working for the city that have, that know how to initiate those conversations, know what questions to ask, and you do. So

So I just point of clarification, Chad. When you talk about moving systems, are you talking about, like, an full HVAC system or, like, putting in mini splits where it makes sense? Because, like, what is that? The social room would do really well to have a mini split in it. Right?

My understanding when that was evaluated, we're ahead to place not check the equipment on the room. Also, all of the, I wanna say, Venti, but and I'm not an HVAC guy, so don't hold me to this, but, like, all of the internal systems as well. So it wasn't just simple. We haven't replaced the the chiller that's broken. Everything's fine. No. We had to replace every

No. That's why I was saying just do localized mini split in the wanted. But that's

Still needed to fix.

The mess. Yeah.

Chiller. So it is you know, that need to be fixed when we're gonna have mini splits in every room. Mhmm. That would have been potentially cost prohibitive. So now we're doing it for every room, and then the additional effort. We are evaluating structures when something goes bad and how can we make it better. And then we look at, is it cost prohibitive? Do you have a limited budget? I I can't just every time we have an HVAC system go down, replace it with electric because we'd be down about $9,000,000 in the last three years instead of done it for a month.

Good budgeting. Okay. Can we move on? We have comments. Any other public comment?

We have no speakers.

Alright. Let's go ahead and move on then. The form of sustainability subcommittee for waste diversion education training program. We'll go ahead and move on to that.

Great. That's back to me. Okay. So we are back to this topic about forming a subcommittee. Staff have worked hard on coming up with some structure that I think will be great for the participation of the subcommittee.

Internally, we have been calling it waste warriors, but one of the things to do for the subcommittee is to help rebrand it. So pardon me as I call it that. That's just a placeholder name. So this program, waste warriors, would essentially be to a training and education program. So this is a measure that's in our cap already, that's free and accessible to residents and employees, and it's doing exactly what you guys had intended on and doing in the subcommittee to talk about waste prevention and diversion.

So we're hoping that with this subcommittee, we can check that one off. This waste warriors program is done by other jurisdictions already. So we've already talked with Santa Cruz, Burbank, Chula Vista, San Mateo, and then San Francisco has a a noncity staff run. But this is a pretty standard model. It almost mirrors, like, master composters.

So so far, the city manager has approved this concept and said, yes. Go forward. We have decided that the curriculum based off of conversations with the other jurisdictions, the most common is about six classes. So we would do them once a week, and then we have optional field trips. We have the space and schedule confirmed.

So we're gonna have two hour classes on Wednesday evenings that are going to go September 2 through October 7 at Monemys Direct Center. And we have some speakers, have agreed to help participate, including Recology HHW program. And then we have some pending tour locations in an organics processing facility and maybe SMART station depending on their construction and timing of it. So we're hoping that this subcommittee will work with us, and so that would be two members, who will help attend at least two planning meetings. And we have some rough dates based off of our timeline to keep our progress going forward.

So the May and the June would be those planning meetings, and then attend at least three of these program meetings. So that was the dates that I was saying, the Wednesday nights. And then we would come back, and those two commissioners would provide an update at our regular meeting in October, so just shortly after the the program concluded. And so what is this subcommittee hoping to do? So during these planning meetings, we're hoping that you guys rebrand waste warriors to what you think would resonate well with your community, help refine our curriculum.

So we have some ideas on how things would get laid out, but we're really gonna go in-depth into all of the different subjects. Right? And not just sorting, but we're also gonna do about reuse programs nearby. We're gonna talk about HHW. We're gonna talk about all of the different things that you can imagine with waste.

And so, essentially, like, one class will be about, organics. Another class could be about plastics. Another class could be about, upcycling. Right? Like so we are have some rough ideas based off of what we've heard from the community, and we have a draft of what we think would be received well, but we really wanna hear from the subcommittee on exactly what you all want to have included in this waste warriors program.

And then another topic that we are hoping to help you get is how do we choose who gets to participate? Right now, we're gonna do a pilot year of 20 slots, 20 participants in this cohort or in this waste warriors program, and we're trying to figure out, well, if we get 30 applicants, how do we decide? Is it just first come, first serve, or is there going to be some sort of we wanna do an application to see if the people are really interested and dedicated, and so we would want this, subcommittee to help us form that application process and then help us decide based off of the application. Well, how do we prioritize the selection process? Mhmm.

So those are some of the things that I'm hoping to get help with from this committee during those two planning meetings. And then the other part would be attending three of the working sessions or and help with things like breakout groups or setup or, you know, running the field trips if you wanted to attend the field trip and organizing carpooling and things like that. And then doing the presentation, but there is an optional if you wanna do a PowerPoint, you could develop that PowerPoint. But I know it's just a week turnover. So we would agendize that for the October meeting, and you could just speak to it, or you could also develop a PowerPoint for that.

So that's all I have for this subcommittee's ideas. So I will take questions.

For can you go back to the dates of the meetings? Yes. Sorry. I'm just checking my calendar, how that lines up. And are these in person or remote?

These are in person at MonoVest direct center.

Okay. Is there an option to have it remote? Or

No. September. We can do the planning meetings remote or hybrid.

Which one are the planning meetings? Oh, the the top secret.

Yeah. The One one in May, one in July. Okay.

And then the two members, part of the subcommittee, would choose between the 11/12, or May 13?

Or is it So that it's basically the May and the June. And so if if there's a specific date for those two planning members, whatever members, if they're like, oh, I can't do I just listed those weeks because I didn't want someone to say they're out of the country or can't purchase, you know, on a vacation that week. Yeah.

But we

have some flexibility for the actual planning meetings.

Got you.

Okay. And then, also, you need to attend the three programs?

Yes. What

do you expect from the graduates of the the course?

Great question. So a lot of these other master composter, master recycling programs do have a volunteer requirement, and we decided not to do that. Our one of our pieces of developing that curriculum that I have an idea and a seed, and maybe this could happen and maybe not because we wanna develop it together, could be a homework assignment to talk to your neighbors about it and get your neighbors informed. And so maybe the waste or the waste warrior participants would go out and talk to their neighbors and come back and do, like, a a final presentation on week six on how that went. So things like that where I'm trying to get it to branch out.

But because we don't have any flushed out volunteer programs already, I think the administrative burden to take this concept and then try to bring them to volunteer events, like, we just don't have enough tabling opportunities or recycling workshops already in place that it it wouldn't make sense right now.

And the bang for the buck is I mean, we have a lot of people in Cupertino. Correct?

Yeah.

And and if 30 people graduate, that's not too many. I

mean Yeah.

This is pilot year.

I've seen a while, and do meet a lot of people even if it's like I mean, to me, it's like part of this requirement would be to do some tabling during our regular festivals. I mean so at least through meeting you know, disseminating their passion, correct information. I don't know. It just to me, it seems there should be some ice I don't know. Some continuous out you know, outreach from whoever it takes to pass the support.

We can discuss that probably. Well, before this, we have nothing.

We have we have nothing.

So it's a plus a 100% or a thousand percent. Right?

It's

infinitely better than nothing.

And Tori mentioned in the beginning, this is still very, very

Yeah.

I would

Oh, I'm just

So for us, at least I see it as we have something. There's something to show, and they provided this platform for these for these individuals to learn off. For there was something Yeah. So the fact that we have this, to me, it's a plus. It's a huge plus, and I appreciate the staff, like, being able to put this together. I think we should focus on, right, what can we do with this rather than

Sorry. I have a question. Just a point of clarification. If we're gonna do composting, does that mean we're gonna have local composting, or are we gonna have to head down to Marshall Cloud?

Oh, we're not going to be doing the composting. That's the master composters program. So this is more of, like, a master recyclers, which is more about learning how to sort, how to divert. And then there would be a field trip, and the field trip that we're talking about is down to Blossom Valley Organics, which is the Recology run organics, and that's, like, the industrial facility. So they can see how bags are pulled out of the the waste stream once they're put in the curbside bin. So this is more focused around, like, the concepts and not actually doing the hands on work.

Okay. Alright. Thanks. Any other questions? K. You ready to move on?

I think we have a public comment.

Okay. Public comment?

Right in here.

One second while I bring up the timer,

but feel free to come on here.

So we think this sounds this is, like, a great idea, and we would like to discuss some community opinions following around the community's waste management education. So we conducted a survey and collected around 50 responses from various locations and age groups in Cupertino. And so according to our data, forty one percent of surveyors claimed that they had never received any education on recycling and compost. The education that people had received was from social media, the news, or from school. And only 34% were completely confident in their ability to sort waste correctly.

People struggle to differentiate between different types of waste, including plastic waste, glass bottles, and just food containers. So, basically, they were unsure of how to differentiate between recycling and composting waste. Moreover, 48% said that they don't compost food waste because they didn't know how to and didn't have the resources to understand how to. And many said that proper waste sorting was difficult due to lack of clear labels.

Just didn't know the waste.

And so majority of people throw their waste that they're unsure of in the trash. It's used to improper waste disposal and ultimately more cost for the city to sort and collect this waste, which leads to increased health hazards and environmental problems. So we believe that more education will lead to more recycling and composting, ultimately better for the environment. So we asked people what their suggestions were for how to improve waste management. Some suggestions which match up with the subcommittee's plans, people advocated for waste management events and workshops for residents, especially new ones, as well as training local business owners and staff on sewing lists.

They also strongly advocated for more descriptive waste bins with clear labels and examples and ultimately just more messages from the city, including flyers and brochures, and more constant communication and resources provided, including, like, information on their website, social media news, free seminars, and more newsletters, and better email communication.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Thank you. We

have no remaining speakers.

And do we wanna appoint somebody? Alex, you wanna do we wanna appoint two people? I am interested.

I mean, it sounds like Connie also seems to be interested from her questions, but I would defer that to her.

Yeah. I'm interested. Yeah. I am also interested.

Yeah.

K. So we need a motion and a second.

Any motion? I move to appoint Connie and Sonali as the the the sustainability subcommittee for waste diversion education With warriors. Yes. I like that.

I I second that.

K. We have a motion to second. Commissioner Hanson? Aye. No.

It's okay. You're good. You're

good. You're chilling. Commissioner Dan Gokard? Aye. Commissioner Yang? Aye. Vice chair Carter?

Aye.

Chair Feng?

Aye.

The motion carries unanimously. Okay.

Alrighty. So then let's go ahead and move on to number five. Receive a presentation about processes and best practices for recovering building materials during demolition or construction projects.

That's me. So next slide, Tori. So this issue of deconstruction is in the climate action plan. And so this is a high level overview of what that what are we even

talking about.

And as I said, it's measured w 1.1 to look at this issue, determine if we can expand our requirements around it, create an ordinance to require. So a little overview of that. And in case you're thinking, wait. Didn't we just do something exciting with c and d materials recently? We did, because now we, under our franchise agreement, items go to Zanker, which does a better job of pulling apart the mixed items, the mixed debris.

But deconstruction is totally different. It's much more, intense, as we will see. So we'll go to the next slide. So basics are, you know, instead of just using heavy equipment to knock down a structure, you carefully disassemble it. And reusable materials that are out there in the market now that they gather, doors, windows, handling, lumber. This is more an example of just things they pulled out, you know, built in shelves. Toilet's still in good shape. Mantle fireplace mantle. Heating ducts can be recovered. So there's a lot of stuff that they carefully assemble.

And this photo is courtesy of city of Palo Alto. Why? And Palo Alto, which does have an ordinance, which we'll talk about in a sec, but the the basic steps are, first, if you are wanting to knock down your structure and build something new, they require a salvage survey. So someone's gonna come in and see what is possible to pull out of your building. Then everything gets removed and separated.

There's a certification process and then to take those materials to approved facilities. It is more expensive. It can be two or three times more expensive than a traditional demolition just because of the increased labor, but the cost may be offset by the cash value of donated materials. So you're not just giving it away. There's some benefit back to you.

One San Mateo County example, courtesy of the Reuse People, showed a case where deconstruction could not be less expensive than the traditional demolition because of donated values, but it would depend, of course, materials are and their condition. And, again, these are all from Powell. Next slide. So as you might have guessed, Powell also already requires this. Their ordinance became effective in 2020, and San Francisco is is working on it.

Other than that, Portland, Oregon comes up a lot in this space for their ordinance in King County, Washington. Next slide. So there are quite a number of businesses working in this space. This is just a few. The reuse people are pretty well known, Greenlinks and Pacific Reclaimed Lumber and Supply.

We actually heard from the CEO of that company at a recent one day conference up in San Francisco. She that's Nicole Tye. So she's been working in the space for a number of years and was talking about it. And moving on to the next slide, for some regulatory and market context. Current regulations in the state already require construction projects to divert 65% of their materials away from landfill.

The original intent of that was the project should work on figuring out the 65%. But in practice, it's become, well, we just put it on the debris box, and the facility needs to figure out the 65%. So that's been the push towards higher diversion facilities. But, really, we need to push it more back on the project to do some separating, but that's the existing state. And then the other aspect is it's one thing to require the deconstruction, and then it's a separate thing to require new buildings to use some of the materials.

You're trying to generate that whole circular thing. Right? You can't just end up with a whole glut of recovered materials that no one wants to use. So that's part of what San Francisco is working on now to see if they wanna not just require deep construction, but also require useful materials. Now certain lead, incentives already exist for doing that reuse and using those recovered materials, but no jurisdictions around here have yet taken that extra step to require it at jurisdictional level. So it's an interesting aspect. And then the other piece is, okay, once you have all that stuff, how do you let people know what's available like a store?

Have you been to?

I've heard of it. I haven't been. So Yes.

It's like a fun family feel trip.

I would totally love that. I'm sure.

You think of doors and windows and, no, there's really cool stuff there.

So this picture at the bottom is an example from GreenLynx of some different lumber that they have on their website. You know? So contractors could go on their site and other businesses have it as well to to see online portals of what's available.

Also woodworkers. Yeah. This old house, some of the wood there is invalid. I mean, it's more the high quality for a woodwork.

Yep. I believe it. Then a final slide is just circling back to the climate action plan measures. And so it's already in the measure to think about requiring reuse of materials. But we don't have any immediate plans to pursue either of those. We're the watching state. We talk about it. Hopefully, that gives you a better idea of what's involved and sort of the implications. Think.

It's a cost effectiveness thing. Yeah. I understand. Yes. It's also cost.

So

can I ask questions?

Yes. Sorry. I took a chat. So

is it, to me, this is it would seem to me that if we had the environment for doing the deconstruction that we would have a contracted specialist or in house specialist go out and determine, is this worth it? Because I mean we had an old farmhouse down the end of our street that they just came in and destroyed. Right? That would have been a great deconstruction progress. But some some houses are pretty pretty cheaply put together, and it's not worth the buck.

So I would hope that if we did move to one direction, maybe I'm not asking this question, maybe I'm just making a statement, that we would be able to not force people into a loss loss situation. But at the same time, I am totally bullish on the deconstruction, but only when it makes sense.

No. I appreciate that. Uh-huh. That's

a lot. So, basically, the sandwich person will come and take a look at what can be sandwiched. Right? And then who's paying you? Is the one of those companies who are paying you? Or

For the materials that we covered. It sounded more like it's maybe a tax write off kind of situation. The CDs. Or No. It would be the individual property owner who's doing the construction.

No. I'm confused. So when we did our house. Right? So our house was very old, and we pretty much demoed it. And they were, like, all the materials. Our our contractor just got this huge truck, put everything in the truck and dumped it, and we all don't know where this is, like, fifteen years ago. Ten years ago? Ten, twelve years ago? We did not don't even know where he put it.

Yeah. Did not go That's not the way they're doing it now. So Yeah. I just recently went to one in Redwood City. We we salvaged that Dutch door. So we had to pull it off the framing material, pull it off the hinges, and put it in the trunk. We paid the recycler, and then he said he was going to continue to demolish. He got money for demolishing, but I'm not sure what the breakdown was of how they get the money back. But that's all part

of the project. So you paid the recycle person?

I paid him, but I'm not sure what the deal was. So the owner gets it or not. That's all details in the contracts.

Yeah. I think there are different ways you can go about it. What I was reading about was it sounded more like It's pretty cool because you donation. Yeah. And you're getting a tax benefit. Sure. Maybe they are buying things from me. I'm sure there are it.

But when they do the demolishing, they're using an excavator. They're just smashing. Everything is smashed and gone. When you're doing deconstruction, there's this really beautiful beam. They're they're salvaging that beam.

And one of our friends did actually, Zaz. They live in Toronto.

We're going in we're going into conversation, and I know so it looks like So if I if

this is the

just dropped off, but I know Shifeng had questions.

Lead time. We are Absolutely. I mean, this I'm a I'm a

little Okay.

In a quick

move on, though. Okay. So you wanna finish?

Yes. So, basically, if we were telling people about construction, we need to kind of tell them about how because it's all comes down to money, as she said. Right? So if I am going to pay two, three times more for the construction, how do I get the money back? I think

You you save it because they'll tax you at a higher rate if you don't do it. So it's all a project thing. It's all we build an incentive

county has a a very good example where they they don't require it, but they have a information sheet about it. Like, if you're interested in this, then here are some people that do the work, and here's a Let's

start that one. Okay.

Alex? You have a question?

Yes. Thank you, Susan. I'm just kind of curious to see, like these are best practices that staff just presented, but do we happen to know, like, what is the percentage of, you know, like, the contractors who actually follow this approach in their demos.

I mean, I so I guess it's everybody in Palo Alto, but what do mean?

Choosing So what do this? So what construction is going on in Cupertino? I don't think they follow that in Cooper.

I think that's a no. But are we gonna do the Cupertino house, the one on Stevens Creek that way?

Oh, the Blush?

The Blush property. Are we gonna do that? Do that. Yeah.

I feel like it might need that prescreening.

Yeah. I think if you tell her about that CRP project, right, we should be able

to Yeah.

I'll see if I can find the name of the fellow that did it. Yeah. I'm with Sydney. It'd be good. For me, Ursula.

But, Sherifan, to your question, was it more like who's voluntarily doing this and what percent of projects that would be compared to overall?

Yeah. I'm kinda curious. Like, is is is there a firm or are there firms in Cupertino that are actually being proactive?

Well, I don't know, but I could I don't know how I'd if I can, I'll I'll try to think of if there's a way to find out.

I I don't wanna waste unnecessary staff time, but, yeah, the these things are hard to track, but it's good information. Thank you for the presentation.

Only

one person I know is our friends in Saratocon. Their house was very nicely built, and then, again, they built it nicely. But they did deconstruction, and it costed them a good amount of money. I can ask them if they got some tax benefit or how they kind of recuperate it. I can ask her. But this is also about ten years ago.

Yeah. No. My friend in Portland did it, but Palo Alto has a bunch of sources. So Palo Alto requires it, so they would have a lot of contractors. Okay. Good. Public comment? No.

We have no speakers. Thank you. That was all. Okay.

So we move on to future agenda setting. Alex, you wanna take that away?

I think this is a Tori item. Right? She's gonna pull up the screen.

Okay.

Let me so here is our 2026 work plan. We are have another seven items. So we just crossed off construction and demolition study. The single use plastics got removed because we're waiting for our consultant to finalize their report, but that is on its way. July, we'll talk about the building permit streamlining and and how that's going.

And then if we're done with the greenhouse gas inventory, we'll have Rincon come and present to that. And then October, we're we've added the subcommittee doing a presentation and talking with local contractors, realtors, HOA, and sharing information with staff. And then the urban forest management plan and water conservation policies if there's updates for this year for this.

I'm a full year, K? Full year.

If there is anything else that you wanted to add or remove, it takes two people.

Anybody wanna add something?

Anybody wanna remove?

I'm okay. I'm okay.

Good. It's good. Okay.

Alright. Anything else for the good of the order? Can we call the meeting?

Alright.

Hi. How you doing is