City of Emeryville as Successor Agency to the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency - Regular Meeting

The time is 07:21. This is a regular meeting of the city of Emeryville as successor agency to the Emeryville Redevelopment Agency. I'd

like

to note that all members are still seated. I will now take a, mo do we have a motion to approve the final agenda?

Motion to approve the final agenda.

Madam Clerk, the roll.

Councilmember Pryvors.

Aye.

Councilmember Solomon.

Aye.

Councilmember Welch. Aye. Vice mayor Carr. Aye. And mayor Mora.

Aye. Motion carries.

Now is the time for ex parte communications. Members, do you have any ex parte communications to report? Seeing none, now is the time for public comment for consent agenda items or items not on the agenda. If there are any members of the public, you can come to the podium and you'll have two minutes.

Evening. How you doing? I'm Doug Jones, political organizer for SEIU UnitedHealthcare Workers here with continuing concern about the Emeryville Hospital project that's being worked on. I wasn't able to be here for the last meeting in which you approved the contract to get the EIR study done, but we do have an understanding that EIR is based on a presumption that there's going to be a hospital that will have two twenty five beds in it. I can't say how many times I told you that Sutter is going to want to build a hospital that is too small, and a 225 bed hospital is too small for this community.

It's clear to get this it's important to get this on the record. The current Berkeley Hospital has a capacity of 339 beds. They're asking you to build a hospital that's over 100 beds smaller. So to get it on the record, 140 medical surgical beds include including GYN, 114 perinatal beds, excluding newborn and GYN, 16 intensive care beds, 14 coronary care beds, 55 intensive care newborn nursery beds. That's what the current Berkeley Hospital has, and they're trying to build a hospital that's much smaller.

Not going to serve the community, not just your constituents, but the entire East Bay community if it's built this small. And I'm hopeful that an EIR report that contemplates a hospital that's two twenty five beds includes the fact that the project is going be overrun by patients and their families. That's the fact of the situation and it's important to consider what's going on in Castro Valley right now in an unincorporated community in Alameda County where Sutter Health built that hospital too small. And now, ten years after the building of that hospital, they're building some extra beds on there. Now. Ten years after they built the original project because clearly they're not just losing the Medi Cal patients

Thank you for your comment.

Patients as well. Thank you for the consideration on this. Appreciate you.

Any other members of the public who'd like to comment on the consent agenda or items not on the agenda? Welcome. You have two minutes.

Thank you. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak. My name is Deborah Cohen, owner of Rug Depot Outlet on the corner of Hubbard And 40th Street, as well as a couple light industrial warehouse properties in Emeryville. Today, you are accepting funding for a project that my neighbors and I have been trying for several years to request modifications to. It's unfortunate to see that our main concerns were not better heard and implemented into city plans during the earlier stages of this project.

Nevertheless, I'd like to share them here, hoping there is still room to submit modifications to your funding partners. For a project the size of 30,000,000 and three years of construction on a main artery such as 40th Street plus four of its local access streets, I request that you hear our concerns and implement needed modifications to the plan. Each day, as I engage with more stakeholders and neighbors, I find more issues with this project. But tonight, I'll focus on the most alarming problems that affect not only my business and that of my neighbors, but the city of Emeryville as a whole, safety and traffic, redundancy and spend, and cutting off legacy Emeryville businesses. A thorough review of the public incident data shows that 40th Street and Emeryville, aside from the San Pablo Intersection, should not be a top candidate for redesign.

In 2019, even the BPAC agreed protected bike lanes along 40th ranked number 22 on the list of priorities. The recent Bollard installation at the target side entrance addressed prior safety valid safety concerns as reflected in the data. One reported bicycle incident there between January 2020 and 12/24/2024 compared to three in the previous five year span. A majority of accidents on the corridor between 2020 and 2024 actually happened at the San Pablo And 40th Street intersection. Yet the consequence of closing access to Hubbard threatens to shut off access businesses to shut off access to businesses along Hubbard and therefore Halleck and the business park on

Thank you for your comment.

You'll

have two additional minutes.

Thank you. Most ironically being affected, speaking of multimodal, is Motivate, the largest bike sharing company in The US before before the Lyft acquisition. While Lyft acquired Motivate's technology and corporate functions, its bike maintenance and servicing operations remained a stand alone business right here in Emeryville. The building repair and deployment of the charging stations for the entire Bay Area happen on Hubbard Street. I question how will they receive and deploy charging stations on flatbeds under this 40th Street multimodal plan.

But the problems don't stop there. The 40th Street multimodal project threatens to compromise the safety and utility of Park Avenue by unintentionally turning it into a trailer truck route to support the industrial properties such as ours that will be cut off from 40th. Think container loads of rugs to Rug Depot or ceramic to Pottery and Beyond, bicycle charging stations to motivate, paint trucks to MV Jesse, and countless deliveries to all the industrial and commercial kitchens on Hubbard, Halleck, Haven, Watts, and Holden, making multipoint turns backing onto Park Avenue and then back out again to 40th Street. How dangerous. This not only hurts businesses dependent on large truck deliveries, but it also undermines residential quality of life and safety along Park Avenue with an increase in large 18 wheeler truck activity.

The plan even calls for the removal of parking spaces on 40th Street, Park Avenue, and the side streets I mentioned drawing opposition from local favorites like Rudy's Cantville Cafe. To cut off access and reroute delivery trucks to Park Avenue is truly unsafe. What's most puzzling is how the multimodal project directly competes with safe and well established bike routes in Emeryville, like the 45th Street Bike Route Boulevard and the Emery Greenway. These routes each offer the same destinations as the proposed phase one and phase two bikeway while offering a safer, quieter, and car free

Thank you for your comment.

Yield my time.

So this council's practice is to allow a single person to yield their time once. If you'd like to come speak, you're free to do so.

Are you talking to me?

Yes. So you've you've some one person has yielded their time, but now we have to allow, new speakers.

Okay. I was told a different set of rules today in an email.

I'm sorry. I don't know who told you that. Welcome. You have two minutes.

I'm Deborah's neighbor and was thinking along her lines with this. What's most puzzling is how the multimodal project directly competes with safe and well established bike routes in Emeryville, like the 45th Bike Boulevard and Emery Greenway. They reach the same destinations as phase one and two while offering a safer, quieter, car free experience. We got that. The proposed bikeway, in contrast, funnels pedestrians and cyclists through one of Emeryville's most hazardous intersections, 40th and San Pablo.

Regional bike path seems to be a misnomer and, at worst, will directly lead to more preventable accidents as we push bicyclists toward San Pablo and away from safer routes like 42nd in Oakland to Park or 45th and and and then the Greenway in Emeryville. I'm reading from Deborah's notes, so it won't make sense. But as council saw, I made a video which compares with a GoPro biking from San Pablo to Bay Street via 2 Routes to add, and you can see this on reconsiderfortieth.com, www.reconsiderfortieth.com. To add a two way bike lane on 40th would be duplicative with the existing 45th Street, Bike Boulevard, and the Emery Greenway, which are stunning and safe. Analyzing this project through an economic lens, it's clear that $30,000,000 taxpayer funded initiative isn't just duplicative.

It's harmful. Despite years of planning, its design remains alarmingly outdated, ignoring growing vehicle demand forecasted by changes underway throughout Emeryville such as the Sutter Health relocation. The changes being proposed here are not future proof and will hand cap handicap the utility of our city as and its ability to generate tax income. As we're currently running a deficit, should the council be pursuing plans that are likely to compound our financial financial challenges. While we support improvements to our roads and the expansion of sick bike safe bike, bus, and pedestrian

Thank you for your comment. Proceed. You have two more minutes.

We must recognize that streets like 40th are vital arteries in Emeryville's economic landscape. Trying to retrofit every road to be optimally bike friendly leads to a zero sum struggle. On the other hand, thoughtfully planned projects like the Emory Greenway built alongside the railway and free from car traffic represent the gold standard as you will see by our video. They offer true safety benefits and beautify the city without disrupting key infrastructure. Committing $30,000,000 in three years of construction to the plan as it stands is not productive and should be reconsidered.

There's still are there still opportunities to modify this project before construction bidding? As it stands, we believe this project will be one that's regretted both within Emeryville and what as well as by California taxpayers. You have the opportunity to fix that, and we sincerely urge you to do so. Please visit reconsiderfortiethstreet.com to better engage with this matter, watch videos of alternative bike paths, and view up to date information on project plans and their consequences. Sign up there to show support and join the growing list of concerned businesses and residents of Emeryville. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. If there are any are any other members of the public, you can come to the podium. Seeing none, we will now move to the consent calendar. Members, do we have a motion on the consent calendar?

Mora, before we proceed, I'd just like to the record reflect that council member Priforest left the dais at an abundance of caution after consulting with the city attorney and is recusing himself from any discussion regarding item 13.1.

Thank you, mister Kennedy. We are now at the consent calendar. Members, do we have a motion on the consent calendar?

Motion to approve the consent calendar.

Second. Madam clerk, the roll.

Council member Priforc is absent. Council member Solomon? Aye. Council member Welch? Aye. Vice mayor Carr? Aye. And mayor Mora?

Aye. Motion carries.

We have no action items. The time is 07:34. This meeting is adjourned.