Clean and Green Commission - Regular Meeting

Maybe have

Is your mic on? Yes.

Today in the future. Oh, that'll take great. Today is 11/10/2025, 5PM. And our first total of business is roll call.

Jennifer Goldstein. Here. Here. Do you have your name?

I'm here. Now we're gonna go around the room and see who is here with us.

Where's Minnead? Is she okay? What is it? Oh, she's off today.

She's okay. So we start with? Alexa Mary. Alexa Mary.

Alex Pearson, the environmental service manager.

Council of management analyst for the area of recreation participant.

I'm Jeff Cook, the salt waste manager for the city of Hayward. Very good.

The pillar of our committee back there.

My name is Linda Throw. I'm the senior secretary.

K. And we're gonna go down the list with our guests beginning here. Hi, everyone. Dwayne Taylor, director of parks and facilities maintenance for the neighborhood area recreation park district.

Virginia Harrington with waste management.

AZ Romero with waste management. Louise Pierce with waste management.

Anita Wallach, do you speak on SkyWest?

I'm a fishman for public comment.

Okay. Very good. And we are in the public comments now. You want to speak on SkyWest. There is a meeting this coming Thursday at the airport at five or six. 05:30. At 05:30, if you would like to make that your statements there, it'd be very simple. It will be at the airport. Would you still like to make the, your final comments today?

It's just brief.

And Thursday also. Okay. Please. You have three minutes.

Take me three minutes to get up there. Good. Yeah.

And then you have two minutes and eight.

Okay. I would just like to say that in this area, we desperately need more open space. The SkyWest area, the former golf course, has threatened species in it. And I just ask you to consider voting to keep that as open space. I believe that's in keeping with the Hayward's Hayward City general plan.

Thank you.

Thank you. Yes.

So I'm speaking in in favor of of keeping SkyWest as part of open space and hopefully part of a regional park or something like that. And I think it there's a time when we have to come to grips with the fact that we are in a climate crisis and to build more hangars or more planes doesn't seem to be what we should be doing in good conscience. So keeping the fact that the science of climate crisis is here, we're experiencing it now, that we need to keep that in mind and keeping this as open space and restoring it planting trees and plants in that area. It's just a gem. It would just be wonderful to keep it as open space and help in the terms of climate crisis.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. And then we'll see you on Thursday also. Okay? Alright. Two other guests have arrived. Who are you? What do you sell? Who are you? What do you sell?

Jason Toro selling sustainability. Right?

92.

With TriState Community Recycling.

Go ahead. Yes, sir. Hi. My name

is Delmar Alge. I'm the senior vice president of Northern California programs with Covenant House. Very good. Thank you very much.

You too. Any other public comments? No? We're going on to our next target, which is the approval of minutes. Yes?

We have an online call.

Oh, we

have okay. Alright.

Mimi Dean, go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi there. This is Mimi Dean, and, I'm gonna be hopefully speaking on a couple of different items. So just look for me in the Zoom room. Sorry. I'm a little sick. Tonight, I just wanna speak about trees, And this is what I'd like to say about trees. Trees are important to us for so many reasons. And, some of those reasons include, you know, they provide a canopy, which can help protect us from the sun rays and keep our keep us cool and keep our homes cool. They provide storm water, runoff protection. They sequester carbon.

They look beautiful. And I was talking to, staff at the airport the other day, and they were telling me about all these trees that are gonna get cut down at SkyWest. And I would like to say that, cutting down trees is always a bad idea. And when you cut down one fifty foot tall tree, you have to plant, like, more than a 100 little tiny trees to make up for all the benefits of that big tree. Not only do they provide environmental benefits, but they also provide monetary benefits.

Street trees alone, for every dollar we spend on a street tree, we get almost $6 back in economic benefits. So, there's a lot of reasons to keep trees. And besides their beauty, that beautiful calming green color, the walking we can do under them, the mental health benefits of trees and open spaces, I just have to say that the trees at SkyWest, some of them, yes, are not doing very well. But, you know, the water table is very high at SkyWest. And for me to be told that the trees are dying because they're not being irrigated, that is just not, reality because, you know, our water table's super high here.

I'll be speaking on another item later, but I hope you heard me about trees. We need them. This area of Hayward Northwest, the A Street corridor is incredibly, impacted by lots of asphalt and industrial space. Thank you for listening.

Thank you, Mimi. Alright. Any other public comments online? No. Alright. Then we go over to, item number one, which is Minutes25Dash114. Pull the minutes. Okay. Okay.

I was absent, so maybe you guys should

put this one here. Because

Did you memo did you memorize them?

I I mean, they look at me, but I wasn't here. I can I'll second.

Oh, okay. So they're totally memorized? Yes. Yes. Okay. Good. So all those in favor, please. Alright. Alright. Okay. Thank you. We move on now to item number reports and action items. Item number two, which is ATT25Dash072. Preliminary plan for a compost hub at the Hayward Community Garden. Very good. Excellent. Love it. Who's doing this? Who's Mister chair Eric Pearson, our environmental services manager, is going to present the report. I just wanted to mention that, as you have seen here, senate bill thirteen eighty three requires jurisdictions

to to take back lot of compost and mulch. Okay. For Hayward, that is in excess of 4,000 cubic yards or 4,000 tons actually. Wow. It's 6,000 cubic yards. Wow. That's a lot of compost. So one of the ways that we can do that is to have compost props for MCD that people can come and collect. As you will hear, is much easier said than done. Mhmm. But we'll go over the details in a minute. Okay?

Go for it. Thank you, director Mary. So Jeff Krump is our solid waste program manager, and Jeff is responsible for managing our contract with waste management and as well as managing our use of compost and mulch. Jeff, please go ahead. Great. Thank you.

On the lower right hand side too there. There we go.

So like Eric said, I'm gonna provide an update on the city's efforts to develop a compost at the community garden that's located off of Whitman Street. And we've been working very closely with Hard on this, and and then getting a lot of, good advice from Stop Waste, the nine compost huts currently operating in the county. Stop Waste has helped all those getting this up and running. And why do accomplish that? Well, it's part of our strategic road map.

It's under the climate champion climate resilience and environmental justice priority, and there's a specific goal called it says continuing to identify opportunities for compost hubs and other distribution methods for compost and mulch and hayward. And just so benefit of our audience, which you

might explain what a compost hub is. Yes.

Thank you. A compost hub, according to the definition in a compost hub program that Stop Waste has, is a site operated by a community based organization or a jurisdiction that provides free compost to residents on an ongoing basis. This slide has a picture of a hub that's operating in Livermore, and it's basically a pile of bulk compost that's available for residents to come when they want and take it for free. And they often have signs like you can see in this slide giving tips on how to use compost, or there's usually a waiver that needs to be signed, and there's QR codes. People can sign the waiver on their phone.

I can mention there's nine hubs currently operating in Alameda County, and only one Berkeley's hub, was operating before 2022, which is the year that s b thirteen eighty three became effective to require jurisdictions to annually procure a minimum quantity of organic material made from recycled organic waste, which for most jurisdictions means buying a whole lot of compost and mulch, like Alex had mentioned. And the original target for Hayward when SB thirteen eighty three first passed was 12/1947 tons per year. That's a whole lot of compost. It would be the equivalent of three bags of compost every year for every resident in Hayward. Every resident, not every household.

But there's a newer legislation that was passed in 2024, AB twenty three forty six, where the state realized it was a challenge for jurisdictions to use all this compost. And this 2346 had various means to help jurisdictions reach their target. And one of them myth, was that if the jurisdiction did a waste characterization and that showed that the jurisdiction was diverting a lot of organics from landfill, then they could lower their target. Well, part is our relationship with Stop Waste. Stop Waste does waste characterizations on a regular basis.

Give me five years to do this. And they had just done one before this fall came into effect, and it lowered the target for every jurisdiction in Hayward by about 66%. So instead of the super crazy 12,647 tons, it's been reduced to 4,268 tons, which is still a lot of compost and a challenge to use. So compost hub is a convenient way to distribute the compost to your residents in your jurisdiction. And for smaller cities, they could put a pretty good dent in the target.

For cities like Hayward, it's not really the silver bullet that's gonna have us meet our target goal, but it is moving us in the right direction. This slide shows some pictures of hubs that are currently operating in Alameda County. The one that looks like it's next to a little shack on the left, that's at a community garden in Alameda. Up in the right hand corner, that's Pleasanton's hub, which is basically just a pile of compost in a field. Mhmm. And then Union City's hub is on the lower right, and they've got a concrete bunker with a pile of compost and the signage I had mentioned to them before.

And I'd like to point

out that none of the hubs operating in the county currently are staffed full time. They're part of a community garden where they're open when the garden's open, but no one's there watching the hub, or they're just in an open field like that one in Pleasanton. This table shows some statistics on seven of the nine hubs in the county. The hours that they're operated per month or per week. The compost used per month is that first column, the cost of providing that compost every month.

And Hayward is similar to Berkeley and on this chart where our compost is paid for through our franchise agreement with waste management, so it's no extra cost to the city to run this hub. Oh, and the development of the hub is paid for through a grant from the state. So jurisdictions throughout the state, if you applied for it, was a noncompetitive grant, given funds to help implement s b thirteen eighty three. So the hubs developed with grant money and can be kept with stocked with material through our franchise agreement. And you'll notice that hours that are operated, they vary widely.

There's some that are always accessible, some like one day a week for limited hours. There's no cookie cutter hub that everybody follows. And I was mentioning that the amount used is not gonna, like, bring us to our target. If Hayward used about 40 yards per month at the hub, it would equate annually to about 8% of that 4,000 tons we're supposed to use. The ways that Hayward currently uses compost to try to reach that procurement target are compost giveaways where this is a photo from the giveaway we just had on October 25.

We own two of those a year and give about 10,000 bags of compost. Our maintenance and service services department uses a lot of compost and mulch. Oh, we keep saying compost. It could be mulch. It doesn't have to be compost that we need. Mainly for landscaping throughout the city. And more recently, we're developing a better relationship with Hard and the Hayward Unified School District to provide them with compost and mulch for use in parks and schools. And like I said, this is paid for through a grant, through the franchise agreement.

Good follow. Thanks.

So here's where we're looking at putting the compost up. It's that red square in the Google Earth image on the left, and that's off of Berry Avenue. The part of the property that is operating as a community garden is by the Yellow Star. That's the entrance off Whitman to the community garden. You can kinda see the little squares where there's plots for the gardens.

And over on the right are two pictures associated with the stars. The blue one's the Barrie and the blue star's the Barrie Entrance, and the yellow star's the Whitman Entrance. And you can see the Whitman Entrance has some nice wrought iron fencing and an entry gate, and the Barrie Entrance is kinda not used. And the Barrie entrance currently is a spot where there's a lot of illegal dumping and littering. These images are taken at that entrance at various times.

You can see there's a mattress there in the upper left, and there's some black garbage bags in that middle picture. I'd like I'd like to point out in these pictures as well that the garden is bordered by multifamily dwellings. There's an apartment complex to the east and an apartment complex to the west. And across the street, it's the Eden Green Space. So this next shot is a bird's eye view of the conceptual design that our contractor has provided.

And it's a very basic design, paving the site, putting up some nice fencing, having bunkers for the material, could be compost and mulch, and having landscaping around the the property as well. And there's a gate so that the compost could be accessed from the community garden. So this can not only serve as a hub for the public to get material, but the material could be used by the community gardeners as well. Yeah. This is the challenge we have to overcome is that in this neighborhood, the conditions for developing safe fence needs to be 20 feet from the property line, and that's where the fence currently is.

But Hard has pointed out that that is a lot of space in inviting people to dump illegally there. So they'd like to have a variance where it's only 10 feet from the property line. And if you fill that 10 feet with landscaping, it even further reduces the chances for dumping. So we need to go to planning and get a variance for that fence. And we also need to create an MOU, a memorandum of understanding with the hard to operate the site.

And, you need to address the funding and cost sharing, hours of operation, rules for people visiting the site, staffing the site, taking care of, litter and illegal dumping because no matter what we do, some of that will probably still occur, and liability. So we have some recommendations. Staff recommends that the city fund the construction and operation of the hub using these grant funds, recycling funds, and our through the waste management franchise and cover staffing of the hub. We can address illegal dumping through the the franchise agreement and waste management. Part of that contract says that they need to collect a certain number of illegal dumping instances per week.

In fact, waste management currently comes by every Tuesday and picks up whatever is sitting in front of that very street gate. And then pay for restocking the compost as well through the waste management franchise. And for more operations recommendations, we recommend that this site, unlike the other nine in the, of the county, be staffed full time. With the history of the illegal dumping and activities in this area and the location of the MFDs, we don't think it would be good just to leave it open and unattended, at least not to start with. And then have it limited hours of operation to begin with, and we just made up these hours.

We haven't coordinated with hard or anything, but maybe one day during the week and one weekend day from, like, ten to 3PM. And just for the design, just start with the basic design. And talking with Hard, we have come up with ideas where maybe there could be educational signage or a picnic table or a shelter for whoever's gonna staff it to make it more comfortable. But start with the basic design and see how things go. Those things could be added later.

And our recommendation is to try it for six months, having it staffed with the very basic design, see how it goes, and then make adjustments as needed. So the next steps with this to would be to get feedback from the committee, and then we'll adjust the design and operation plans for the hub as needed. They'll work with HARD and planning the division to further develop the hub. Very good.

Thank you. Collie?

Oh, thank you. Yep. Yep. Thank

you. So will this so this will replace the two giveaways that we do a year.

We'd still do that.

Let's do that. Okay. And then you said that so if you you you need to be staffed. I agree because I would worry that it would if we just left to open, it would become a dumping for all sorts of things. You know, it's nice open space to roll into dumpings. But who would fund the staffing? Would it be Hayward Staffing or Hart Staffing?

We'd have to discuss that through the MOU. But the through Hayward has recycling funds where we could pay for the staffing. But say if we decide that it wants to become an educational spot as well, maybe hard covers the educational classes or whatever that would be on there.

Okay. We we

haven't discussed that.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, just and it sounds like so developing the the space right now, and that's all gonna be paid for by grants. Right? Getting the mulch and developing the site, if that's all

the site developed, all that is grant funding. And the grant funding has it's supposed to be used in one year. Oh, okay. Okay. The deadline is November 2026.

Okay. Yeah. Because and I agree. I mean, the fencing, I I would agree that you should go forward with the fencing because I agree. I I don't want it to be a further dumping ground. You know, it sounds like that place already is. I think there was a public comment about that too. They're concerned about that location. And

I think that the other part of the

you probably saw the letter, the public comment was, why not use all the various community gardens that are already around? Are we just trying to find one location for this particular?

I I think the comment was to develop more community gardens with the funding. Since they didn't like

this site, I don't know why. Well

sorry. I'm just curious. Sites are hard to find.

Yes. What's your comment on that?

The funding is supposed to be used for using compost, not developing community gardens. You could have a community garden development, but that doesn't mean you're gonna necessarily gonna use compost. Okay. So it's part of the grant funding stipulates. Like, you don't have to make a compost. You can buy a compost predator, buy compost to women, but it has to have something to do with procuring compost.

Okay. So, I mean, in general, I I mean, I think it's great to do. We obviously have to find a way to spread this out everywhere. But I'm I'm really concerned about staffing because we're in the middle of a staff hiring freeze, and, you know, I wouldn't wanna be improving any kind of staffing right now for it. So I don't know how we go forward with that unless there is funding available and other resources not gonna come out of the general fund. So Some of

these funds, they use volunteers. Like, the that would be used in the community garden. They volunteered to have someone. Like I said, they just keep half an off on it. It's not really staffed.

But Yeah. So my so that would be my only, you know, hesitation is that I don't wanna develop a plan that's absolutely gonna help for staffing unless we have an absolute funding source for the staffing. I guess that's my concern now. So I think developing the site, you know, it sounds like we have the funds to do that. We need to do all that. But before we open it up with a staffing model, you know, we need to be very concerned about that, at least for the next, about two two years, three years, while we work on this. Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Yep. Yeah. I have to agree with my colleague. Mhmm. I think considering any kind of staff expenditure is gonna be a no go. Excuse me. I like the idea of it being a training ground. I think there's a lot of opportunity there that our community wants.

And and so anything that we could do with bringing volunteers and to create some learning opportunities should certainly be explored. But, again, because of our where we're at financially, unless there's a permanent funding source for this, it's we're we're not gonna pay for it. It just isn't gonna happen. Did we do outreach to the let me rephrase. We did some outreach to the neighbors, of course. Did we get any feedback from the neighbors about having a a compost site?

We have not done outreach to the neighbors yet. That's part of the planning process when we get to planning. I see. Okay. Alright. Yeah. Although, unofficial outreach, I was out there taking pictures, and one of the residents walked by and asked him, you know, sell my city vehicle. I said, we're gonna make this spot, hopefully, where there'd be a big pile of compost. And

that resident thought it was

a great idea, they didn't like the current state of the empty lot.

Yeah. Right. And and for that reason alone, the empty lot problem where dumping occurs is a great reason to at least give the appearance of development there. I think if there are ways to just scrape the ground and not necessarily put in paving, which is expensive, If we can allocate those funds for other community garden locations or other projects that fall within that funding allocation requirement, I think we should consider that. Putting up the fence might be a good idea. But, again, those are probably for the distances that you're talking about, probably looking at 30 or $40,000,

I imagine.

So if that money can be better spent, I would advocate for that. Also, you know, putting something up on a on a trial basis to see if people are actually gonna use it. In my mind, kinda makes more sense than going all out and, you know, build it and able to come. Doesn't always work that way as we have learned in our real estate market. You know, I think being a little bit more cautious and and, you know, applying some some test to the theory before we go all out, I think might be a good idea.

And if that means then that to meet our our spending requirement that we allocate those funds for other projects, I think it would be a good idea. Okay. But otherwise, I like the idea. The drawings are fantastic. And maybe at some point in the future, know, that will actually be reality. But I but I think we should be a little more cautious as we step through on these commitments financially. And you did say, if I remember correctly in the slides, it was about 4,600 tons.

Yeah. That's the the annual goal or target or required. '46 4048, I think. Forty two hundred? Forty two sixty eight.

That's $42.68. Okay. Thank you for the accuracy. Not that it's gonna matter.

I don't think I'm gonna go out

there with enough shovels on my own to do that. But, you know, we have great mechanisms to make people aware. And I think with our partnerships with the schools and with with the the park district and and some others, I think there's good opportunity for us to make use of that, at least promote it. And, you know, I'm not I'm a I'm kind of a, you know, suburbanite city dweller kind of guy. I I I like to go out and plant, but I have to admit when it comes to mulching, everything I learned about mulching and composting is stuff that I learned in the last year.

And so I have to imagine that a lot of our residents are also likened, that as they become more educated and understanding about what the benefits are to their own piece of land, their their lawns in front, their trees, and so forth, plus vegetable garden, all of those benefits that that attribute to I suspect that people will be done the work interested in making use of this great resource. So thank you for the report. Thanks. Thanks.

Thank you.

Yes. Thank you. I just wanted to ask because this so looks like there's apartment complexes maybe right across the street almost. Is that right?

They're not across the street, but next next hill. Yeah.

Because I was I was somebody about the the odor. Look. Because I know when we go to bag a bunch, like, is that a concern? Because if it's gonna be a large you know, like, I I know the odor of having a couple of bags in the backyard while we're getting ready, but it's gonna be a large pile.

Sounds good. It's done with you.

Well, not everyone agrees.

I I can you know, I don't mind it. I just don't know that I'd wanna smell it out all day every day.

There we haven't heard of any odor issues with the other hubs.

It looks like some of them

are actually so close to residences. And Yeah. I there have been cases where compost that's not made properly is delivered, and that

can hold an order. That's it

gets anaerobic. But in general, it's more than just like an earthy smell. It's not an unpleasant. But that that is something to and so

Yeah. Because, like, you showed me the other one locations. They're big out in the field or in industrial areas, but this is gonna be your you know, get it, you know, hot day and, you know, a little bit of wind.

Good. One feature that the landscape architect included, it would be a cover that can, you know, keep rainwater out of the bunkers, which would help to Yeah. Minimize odors as well. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, maybe anyway, something to consider. Because if I was right next to it, don't know. You know, like like I said, on a warm hot day and the mulch isn't being turned enough. You know? I don't know what it smells like, but something to consider.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joe. I have been at the stopwaste.org compost piles up in the hills, And they have four different piles, and they all smell good. In other words, you know, bad. Alright. So thank you for

Yes, sir.

Contacting StopWaste for help on this. I agree also with the staffing, so make sure that at the moment, we're not able to, especially if you're not really sure what staffing you need. So that's that's important. Go back to the other photo where it shows the so why that big space? Is that for people who drive in and out for collect? Got it. And and for the truck to deliver. And for the trucks. Okay. So we're gonna have this distributors this center for distribution and then also the one at SkyWest. Is that still the plan? Giveaway? Yeah. We still give the Okay. Yeah. The bags would. Yeah. Alright. So eventually, there will be some kind of hours for pulling in, etcetera. Right?

Yeah. Okay. Alright. K. And you are connecting pedestrians from the garden from the Whitman entry into this area? There's a path

that would be Okay. Connecting the two.

And where where would that gate be for pedestrian from Whitman? Oh, it

would be the same gate off to the

Not not the the car gate? Or

It'd be straight across from the bonkers for

the mulch. There's

like Got it. I see I see that. Very good. Okay. Those are all my questions. Thank you very much. Very good report. I'm glad that we're doing this.

Thank you.

Excellent. I like you. Alright. Let's see. That means we not any public comments on this? None? None? We have one on-site. Okay. Go ahead. Maybe you have three minutes.

Alright. You know, I don't see a timer anywhere, but I I won't be three minutes anyway. First of all, I'd like to say that I am a big fan of composting. I think everybody should be hanging out with those little wiggly worms and all those other little critters that do all kinds of magic in our backyards every single day. I know that, s b thirteen eighty three does have does provide a lot of money, especially through your franchise agreement, but also through cal recycle grants and community composting grants.

There's all kinds of money available for, composting in infrastructure, community outreach, and, like, all kinds of activities. So I know that this project can be funded without having to, take any money from Hayward's general fund or any other, funding sources you guys might have. You know, I think that a lot of people don't realize that how important composting is. Right? Like, every time we let food waste or green waste from our yards go into, the landfill, what happens is it produces methane, and methane is the worst gas for global warming and climate change.

So, you know, I'm a big fan of this, and I hope that, we can get this project going. And I especially loved the slide where there was the picture of SkyWest with the beautiful sunset and all the cars lined up to get their bags of, compost. So, I hope that we can get this project going, and I think that worms are wonderful. Thank you.

Thank you, Mimi. Magnus, when do we start? When do we break down on this?

We have to go to the planning.

Yeah. So, yeah, the the next step is gonna be to refine the plan a bit and then submit it to the planning division and modify the use permit. Okay. Alright.

I don't think they don't need city council action.

No. Not lately.

Okay. So you you have our policy?

Oh,

the m o

MOU maybe we will break Oh, okay. So we're, yeah, with the funding.

Do you need a motion from us? Do you need action from us? No. They need No? Okay. Thank you.

Do you have chair? I think you have

Oh, yes.

Yes. I'm a retired teacher from high school, and I did teach one class, environmental action class, service learning class. And I think this is a wonderful opportunity. I'm very enthusiastic about this project because it's a wonderful opportunity to educate students about composting and why it's good and biologically what's happening. There's a lot of information there, a lot of science.

And so this would be a wonderful opportunity to integrate the schools, elementary school students, high school, all of that, k through 12. And, you know, you can have biology and tenth grade biology in the high school. It's very interesting what's going on, and it's, you know, it's quite technical. And so it's just a wonderful thing. And then secondly, when you apply compost to your soil, wherever you're putting it, it it it takes more of the carbon.

So it's also good for in terms of climate crisis. So there's a lot of advantages, and this is a wonderful opportunity. I just wanted to reemphasize my support of this. Could you state your name for the record? Oh, yes. I'm I'm in the bike. Yeah. Okay.

Thanks for the line.

She's Oh, sorry. Alan Fishman. Thank you.

I love playing with worms. One of my highlights was in Paris. There were I actually saw a bird pulling a worm out of the ground. I, you know, I I don't see it in cartoons, I saw the actual thing. Can lay it. Okay. So this is it. We're item number two. Item number three is act 25 dash zero seven zero, parks and open space in Hayward. Alright.

Mister chairman, you asked at one of the meetings for information about parks. Yes. Per capita of public availability in Bengal. We have a report that the environmental services manager, Dan Pearson, is going to present.

Very important. Okay.

Thank you. Yes. Those today I'll provide an overview of parks and open space in Hayward. And joining me today, we have Thomas Thomas from Hayward Area Recreation and Park District. Okay.

So according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, parks and open space can Mhmm. Can be supported support public health by promoting physical activity, reducing stress, proving community connections, and providing environmental benefits such as improved air quality, carbon sequestration, and shade. So both the city's general plan and the Hoomar master plan include goals related to parks and open space. So in the general plan, we have goals to create and support a diverse public park system, provide a system of trails and corridors that connect neighborhoods, preserve, enhance natural areas. And, also, our climate action plan calls for the city to work with HARN to develop and adopt park guidelines.

Here, it has a little over 9,000 acres of parks and open spaces. This slide shows how Hereward compares to our neighboring cities. In the column that is second from the right, we list the acres of parks per 1,000 residents. You can see that San Leandro and Union City have significantly less than Hayward, and Fremont has more than Hayward. And Union City has the highest percentage of residents living within a ten minute walk in public park.

Both the city's general plan and Hart's master plan include goals for the acres of parks per 1,000 residents. So it's shown in the the two right columns. You could see that for local and community parks, the goal is to have two acres per 1,000 residents. We currently have 3.7. School parks, the goal is also two acres to 1,000, and we have only 0.3.

This number here for school parks is less than what was indicated in the staff report. We found that there are several schools that used to be open to the public that has since been closed with gates and fencing for security purposes. Then for regional parks, those managed by the East Bay Regional Park District, the goal is three acres per 1,000, and we have over 17. City's overall goal for parks for over 1,000 people is is five acres, and we considering the regional parks, we have have right now 21 acres, 21.3 acres per 1,000. And if you count the inland and ecological reserve, then then there's much more.

Trails and linear parks, HART's goal is 1.2 miles per 1,000 people, the city's goal is one mile. So but we currently have only point two two miles per 1,000. So the two categories where we are not meeting our goals right now, it would be the school parks and then also the trails and and linear parks. So this map shows a quarter mile radius around each park as well as the the schools that are currently open to the public. There are several residential areas that are outside of a quarter mile radius of a of a park.

It does include the Southgate area, the Longwood neighborhood, Jackson Triangle, some parts of downtown, South Hayward near high school, and then also in the area of Brooks Road. And then this shows kind of what we would be looking at if if all the schools were open to the public. The biggest difference would be in in this area in in South Hayward East. This map highlights the regional parks in Hayward, three of which are managed by the East Bay Regional Park District. The Hayward Regional Shoreline is entirely within the city except for a small portion in North Bend.

Pleasanton Ridge and Garron Regional Parks, portions of those are in Hayward. And then in the Southwest corner, have the Eden Landing Ecological Reserve, which is managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. So this is focusing on Garron Regional Park. The total size of Garron Farm and Dry Creek Pioneer is more than 5,000 acres. This map is just showing the the portion that is Garren Regional Park.

Dry Creek Pioneer is in Union City. And currently, about 495 acres of Garren Park are within the city of Hayward. The area that's shown dark green here is the portion of Garrant Park that is in an island of unincorporated Allegheny County, surrounded by a city of Hayward and also by Union City. And so if this unincorporated island were included in Hayward, then the city's total parkland would increase by about another 1,100 acres.

Can I ask a question now? Can I ask a question? What would it take for us to incorporate that? So we would have to

go through a process with the assistance of our planning division and work with LAVCO to submit reports. We have to look

at an

economic analysis on services that could be provided to the area and probably some type of environment we'll be giving.

How much?

We have to buy it, or what can

just be given to us,

ceded to us. It makes a lot of sense.

That's it sure sure would.

There is no monetary value to this. The expense that we are talking about is related to providing services to the area. Mhmm. This is a parkland. It has no residences, nothing. So we just need to take a look and see if there are costs related to, let's say, safety, police Mhmm. And things of that nature. As Eric mentioned, a good portion of the park, regional park, is already in city of Union City in Union City. Right. That portion is actually larger than the portion that is unincorporated than we are talking about.

Mhmm. So it makes a lot of sense for us to do this. But, of course, we have to discuss it with client department Of course. With police department and fire department to make sure that the services are not going to be unduly impacted. Alright. And could and

the control right now is part, or is it the the county?

It's the regional part is The regional part. And that is not going to change. That is not going to change. They are going to provide services. Right.

Okay. Okay. So let's go ahead. What do you need from this committee to start that we'll start that work, that process. What do need from us three?

Let's hear the rest of the Let's hear the rest of

the Oh, okay. This is exciting. You think

you know what it means. I can carry. We're not gonna change it.

Okay. Alright. Go ahead. Alright. I'll I'll I'll check my next slide.

So just a few more slides here. So when I mentioned that soon, we'll we'll have a a new park in Hayward. In 2026, construction is expected to begin on the new La Vista Park. It'll add about 39 acres of parkland and 2,300 feet of, trails. It'll include basketball courts, dog run, picnic facilities, exercise equipment, as well as garden, and community amphitheater.

This is expected to be completed by the 2037. And then so new parks can be created in a couple of different ways. They can be funded and or designated by city or park districts. And then we also have the park impact fees that are already paid for paid by developers. This table lists the park impact fees that are required to be paid by developers.

They range for residential project from $3,800 to about $26,000 for a four bedroom home. And then for industrial projects, they pay just under $1 per square foot. And that wraps it up. Staff recommends that the committee accepts public comments and then review comments on the report.

Let me go over the public comments first. Do we have any public comments? Yes.

Oh, Mimi Dean, go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi. It's Mimi Dean again. And I really have to say, you know how I feel about parks and open space. I don't think we have enough of it. And so I love hearing about parks and open space.

But I do have to say I'm a little bit confused by some of this data because when we reviewed the environmental justice element and the climate action plan, man, that was probably about two years ago now. We looked at CalEnviroScreen, and we looked at, parks and open space by census tract, not by the whole city. So it's just like, you know, say we have, like, 10 billionaires living in the city of Hayward. That doesn't mean we're all rich. Right?

It means there's 10 billionaires living in Hayward. So and there's still a lot of people who are very disadvantaged. So just because there's all these great regional parks everywhere and all these acres, it doesn't mean that every neighborhood has access within a ten minute walk to these parks. So I was looking at the data, and it said something like 70% lived within a ten minute walk. And then you did that yell, that red oval thing, and you talked about some areas that don't have, parks within a ten minute walk.

And I was noticing that, you know, a lot of them are really, well, like Jackson Triangle. Right? And then, also the A Street Corridor, which is right next to SkyWest. So, I just have a real hard time with looking at the data as a whole city rather than by census tract because the people that are living in the A Street Longwood Corridor, you know, for them to get down to the shoreline, they've either gotta drive their car to Winton Avenue, or they've got to drive their car to Grant Avenue. It's not a ten minute walk.

And, whereas the people that live on Tennyson and Mission, they can you know, down by industrial, they can go right up the hill to thousands of acres of open space at Garin. So, it just I think census tracks are really better way to show the data. I like this whole thing of showing all of it, but I think we need to have the other side of the coin too where we show, okay. This neighborhood is lacking. And we all know that the A Street Corridor has less than one third of an acre of open space per thousand residents.

It is severely lacking in parks and open space. And I love that you had all the information from the general plan and the environmental justice element about how it's important for education and well-being and recreation and all this other great stuff because it's all true. But let's remember that the people in the A Street Longwood Corridor deserve to have open space, and they probably need it more than anybody else because let's think about the way people are living in this part of Hayward. You know? There's it's very densely populated.

Let's look at the enviro screen scores. We know it was incredibly high. So I know where you know where I'm going with this. I'm going to let's save SkyWest as open space. Thanks for listening to me, you guys.

There's three minutes. Alright.

Thank you.

Alright. Any other follow-up comment? Jess, please.

A question. We live very close to Parcel 8, and you talked about wanting to achieve more of the trails and linear the trails. And I know that the city in Hayward was given parcel aid to develop, and I understood that the deadline was 2025 to do that and may have been extended. But the plan was to develop a trail through part of Parcel 8. And I just wonder what's the what's the plan for that?

K. Make sure that you leave a public comment card with your information, contact information, and they will answer your question.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you for asking. Anyone else?

Yes. These are just questions of one, is Pleasanton rich? I'm assuming that's in Heber. I was thinking that was Pleasanton, but that's not correct.

K. Go ahead. And your next question?

La Vista. I didn't know where the. But. Yeah.

Yes. That was the part. Tennis living mission.

Oh, is there anything else? Okay.

Thanks. Feel like you're a part so we can get in contact with you. Alright. Any other couple of comments?

Not yesterday. I apologize. But when I finished my presentation, I had intended to kick it over to Thomas. He has some slides he'd like to

Oh, okay. By all means. Okay. Yes. Sorry, Thomas. We saw a stat of temptation, so let's start all over again. It's in three minutes. Alright. Just one second. Hi.

Good evening, chair and council members. My name is Thomas. I'm a management analyst for the Hayward Area Recreation Park District.

Today, I'm

gonna be answering I'm gonna be trying to describe how district makes decisions on acquiring Park's case, as well as some of the data that we kind of incorporate into our decision making. And then I'd be happy to answer any questions, as well as provide feedback once we've gone through this. So most folks know here, but HARD is the parks and rec provider for the city of Hayward as well as for the unincorporated community. So our district provides park and recreation opportunity for 309,000 people. We receive our funding from property tax assessment for everyone who lives within the district.

And then in 2016, we passed measure f one, which is a $250,000,000 bond for the goal of doing needed repairs, upgrades, and construction. At the time of the passing of this bond, there's about 960,000,000 of deferred maintenance cost that the district had, and so we're looking at maintaining as well as moving forward adding additional park space. We have a ton of parks within our side. We're at a 120. There's multiple different kinds of agreements that we have.

So for example, with HUSD, we have some properties that HUSD leases to us that that we maintain for them and program on them. We also have parks that we own that we lease to HUSD for the purposes of increasing their access to green space. For example, Cannery Park where a bank uses that site at times for reservation opportunities. We also have an MOU where 31 Hayward properties are maintained by Park. There's also additional four or five properties that are part of the Landscape Lighting Assessment District, which I'll be discussing a little bit further.

But we have these 31 parks that each of the the city of Hayward owns. Then we have additional parks on top of this that Hart owns that are former Hayward residents who support within Hayward's property lines. And so this is kind of the agreements that we have, and this is how we sometimes can add park spaces through additional agreements that we build with folks. So some data. I really like to think about making decisions with our the district makes a lot of decisions with kind of the data and having a full view of what we have available. So one of the

data sets that we use is placer.ai,

which tracks how people use our parks and where they're coming from. So last year, had about 5,500,000 people visit Hayward area and recreation park district parks with over 2,000,000 visitors to parks within Hayward. And so about 43% of all of our visitors came to parks within Hayward. 4,000,000 people visited parks in Hayward. 2,000,000 visitors were Hayward residents.

43% of Hayward parks were visited by Hayward residents. So about 57% were from outside with our largest parks that had a lot of people coming in from outside, Albany and Oliver, which had almost a million people visiting, and Kennedy Park, which had almost half a million people visiting. Those two parks are regional draws. They really bring in people from all over. And the remaining parks that we have are really Hayward residents are visiting Hayward parks.

So 83 per 85% of Hayward residents visit parks within Hayward, which is a fantastic number that kind of says that our local parks are being visited by local folks. We've also been looking at doing park maintenance and understanding what the condition for parks are. So when we allocate funds for either new parks or for the purposes of upkeeping parks. Our goal is to have everyone have access to not just a park within ten minute within walking distance, but also to make sure that they're well maintained. So this kind of data allows us to make sure that the parks are distributed evenly in terms of their quality as well as within their quantity.

So it's not just having a park within your space, but having a good good a good condition park because I also say public health and a bad park within your community is all is not a good health provider. Having a good park is, so really understanding how we can provide these. And we're gonna be doing our next park standard evaluation this coming month, but I will invite anybody in March. This park standards evaluation, we have two that are done by Hayward Hard residents or Hard staff. And one that we wanna have community members go out and support us so that we can understand the residents can understand how we're looking at parks and provide us feedback in real time about how those parks look.

And so when I'm coming out for a solicitation in March, I will definitely reach out to anybody in this room who'd be happy to do this. It's a very easy I designed it to be really simple that anyone can do. We've had CAC members and youth do this for us as well. And so this is a great way to kind of connect with hard, connect with the maintenance of our parks, really understand the breadth of the parks that we have. And the last one that I'm really excited about kind of the thinking that we of amenities and how we do parks.

ETC and HARD conducted a community survey last year. The goal of this community survey was to understand what our residents understand of us and what they would like us to provide. We made sure to make this survey tell us something about each of our each of our communities. So we have a table that tells us exactly what the Hayward residents would like in their communities, what kind of programming, and what kind of parks. Turned 95% confident 95% with a 3.8 MOE.

So pretty accurate. So what what this says, it's pretty it's been statistically checked to make sure that it's true. And so we have what Hayward residents want, you know, what Ashland residents want, Castro Valley residents want, all of our communities kind of want, so we can really drill down on what what kind of amenities to those parks. What this is really showing me is kind of what does the Hayward community really want in terms of amenities within their parks. What this is coming out to show is multipurpose and nature trails and open space are the two main things that the residents of Hayward would like a hot would feel as an unmet need as well as is a big desire from the community.

So when a lot of people want it and it also is set to be unmet, it goes up to the top of this chart. So we can see multipurpose trails, community gardens, parks, open spaces, outdoor community pools are at the top. Whereas cricket, where there might there is no cricket pitch in Hayward currently, but it's not something that a lot of people want. So that's why it's kind of at the bottom. And so that's how you can kind of think about the course scaling. Yeah. All this is available on our website. It goes into even greater detail on a lot of stuff. So I'd really if you wanna get dig really into it, this is a great place to kinda take a look at seeing what your community would like within our parks. And it also is helpful for programming.

So a lot of individuals throughout the district want more community special events, and so the district is invested in supporting more community events. So how many parks added to the crux of the matter? So like I said, we had the 250,000,000 bond. And so this bond was used throughout the district. And like I stated earlier, there was a 900 plus million dollar of deferred maintenance.

So some of that money went to support those. We also use it to purchase properties. So when when properties became available and through looking at other parks that are in the site and looking through a regional view, we were able to purchase some properties. So for example, in Hayward, we purchased Big Well and Caronfurr Park, which is right there on Dee And Clay Street. So those are two parks and community centers that will be coming online within the next few years.

They're also used to do major park improvements. So Southgate Park got a new playground, new trails, pickleball, tennis, pickleball, basketball courts, all that. So the training was used for that as well as in Weeks Park. And then there were minor improvements made throughout the park, throughout the district as a whole. So that's basketball and tennis court repavings.

That is energy efficient irrigation system so that we make sure that we're not watering right after a rainstorm, but we also wanna make sure that we fulfill our values of keep of providing clean, green, and safe parks. And so making sure they're irrigated properly is one way of getting at that. And then energy efficiency with our park with this being the sustainability committee, really looking at the future and how do we ensure that we continue to provide. With LLADs as another way that we can provide additional parks. So an LLAD is when a develop development comes into being, they can set aside some park space, and sometimes hard will go into MOU with the city to maintain that park.

So for example, Sohei, Twin Bridges, Eden Shores, those are all LLD parks that we have an agreement with the city to maintain those. So if the development comes online and they provide park space, that is one way that the district can provide additional park space for the community. And the last main one that we really look at is park impact fees. And so this is the local language of the park impact fees and kind of the current balance of those park impact fees. Those park impact fees are meant to be permanent.

So as the population increases, the burden on the park system also increases. And so the park impact fees are meant to lessen that burden by providing either park space or money for hard or the park service provider to build more park space. Currently, the totality of the park impact fees are gonna be going to La Vista as well as about 15,000,000 of our capital measure f one funds are also going to La Vista. So that is the majority of the funding that is currently being allocated that could be used to increase park access in other places is being put into La Vista to increase to create a more regional park. Thank you.

I am happy to answer your questions, but those are the main ways that parks are added to.

Okay. I think we may have one public comment on this, and I need to remind everybody that we're supposed to be out here at 06:30.

Yeah.

So you need to be very precise. Mister Breo, did you have something on parks or yes? On the side of parks? Okay. Please. You have three minutes.

So I'm representing Mission Peak Conservancy. We've been working on parks for a long time. We know a lot about Fremont Parks. Not and I know something about Hayward Parks. In Fremont, we have a new park that's on the drawing boards. It's in the Mission San Jose neighborhood, which is the richest neighborhood in Fremont, and we're gonna be putting in a cricket field there. Cricket fields take six acres of land. That's another reason why you don't have any cricket fields is because you don't you nobody realizes how big they are. Six acres is a lot of land. And in Hayward, you're doing the same thing.

You're benefiting the the newest residents of Hayward who probably aren't here yet who are gonna buy those delightfully new houses up there with overlooking the bay, La Vista. This is the kind of mistakes that are common in the in the political system that we operate both in Hayward, Fremont, everywhere. This is how politics works. And, you know, when we look at the the the new parks that are when we talk about the the the money that's going into the parks, one of the things that is probably too polite to mention is that the money goes it gets paid into property taxes. The property taxes go into the land use authority, which in this case is Hayward.

And then Hayward is supposed to pay the Hayward Area Recreation District for all these park facilities. And in some cases, that money has not flowed freely. That same thing happens in the county, by the way. In Castro Valley, they were supposed to flow through $1,500,000. And because the the the Hard, in this case, forgot to ask for it, and they forgot to tell Hard, and they forgot to give the required accounting annually that they were supposed to give to Hard, the county took back $1,500,000 from Hard and gave it back to landowners.

So this is the the kind of glitches that happen when you're dealing with parks and you have incompetent agencies that are handling the money. And I I'm not even sure if if they were then also, there's the the parks. When you build a park, for example, all the neighbors will complain. They'll ask you to do thorough environmental reviews and stuff. But if you were to do the same thing and take up a lot of land and create in environmental impacts like noise, like air pollution, and if you called it an airport, oh my god.

That's a safety issue. We have to tear cut down trees. We have to, you know, tear down things to make room for the, for the safety of the airplanes. This is how the the system works. So it also, there's a a trail coming online, which I'd

like to remind you all of,

going from Garin to Chenard over the hills, and just wait. See how much opposition you get to a new public trail.

Thank you. Alright. See. So we go with anyone else?

It There's a couple of call night comments. Alejandro, go ahead and unmute yourself.

Hi, everyone. My name is Alejandro Paso. I'm a local resident here on the Mission Foothills. I'm also part of. And, yeah, I think yeah. Thank you for the report. I think something that would be important to compare is, like, the amount of land that we dedicate to cars compared to parks. Because I'm using AI. You know? There's an estimate of, like, 1,200 to 1,400 acres dedicated to freeways and parking.

And why do why do we need to talk about freeways and parking? Because freeways create a lot of pollution, a lot of noise, and, also, parking is one of the most unproductive amounts of land. Like, it's, like, very unproductive land, like, especially in Hayward where, like, all parking is free. Like, we don't charge we don't have any parking meters. So, like, it's not generating any money for the city, and it's taking up a lot of land.

So, yeah, this amount of land is, like, 10 to 11 times larger than the SkyWest Golf Course. So I think it will be important to make that comparison because, yeah, there's you know, if you look at the overall amount of, like, parks in Hayward, you so it looks like a lot. But, like, in the urban areas, it's not a lot. It's mostly land dedicated to cars. So I think it will be really important to make that comparison and, you know, try to balance that because, again, parks, they provide a healthy benefit to the to the society.

Like, parking, like, does not. And it doesn't mean improve businesses. It doesn't mean, like, a lot of businesses have, you know, been closing in Downtown Hayward even though there's a lot of parking even in some of the malls. So, like, parking does not translate to business or, like, you know, economic benefit. And then, yeah, and then also, like, mentioned Roos, like, the the area near Roos Road, There's a project there that, you know, would add some bike lanes and would connect the neighborhood to some of the trails there and also to the parking Tennyson Park.

So I think this report also highlights importance of making sure that the city moves forward with that project on roadshow to, you know, improve access accessibility to trails and the parks in the area. But, yeah, just a couple comments. I think, you know, it's really important that, you know, we we focus on, like, the urban urban areas too.

Thank you. Thank you, Alejandro. And someone else?

Yes. Jimmy, I know you already commented, but you have your hand up. So

Yeah. Mimi has commented already on this item.

So

Alright. It's a different

Mimi, you've already commented. Mimi, you've already commented on this item. So thank you for I

didn't get to hear that.

Okay. Thank you. So maybe the next item.

Okay. You're on first. Yeah. Thank you. Good. Just a couple of quick questions. The the Eden Shores area was showing on the map as 5,744 acres, but I also noticed that the boundary goes out over the water, and that's fairly typical. So I'm wondering if the fifty seven forty four included the entire boundary area or if it was just the land Not the water. Not the water. Okay.

Alright. Thank you for that. I couldn't find that anywhere. I was trying hard to find that. I'm excited about the La Vista Park coming up, 39 acres park, and that's successful to everybody.

I mean, it's it's it's we we think that it's going to have a big draw and help economically stimulate that whole area up and down Tennyson. I think it's gonna be a great advantage there. The park standards evaluation that you're considering, Thomas, doing in March. You planning on doing any outreach to the schools before that happens? Because I have to imagine that that would be something that both the parks and the school district might be interested in inviting some of their young scholars.

Yeah. Absolutely. So this we're doing our fourth iteration of it. So we've done four previous iterations, and we're looking for longitudinal changes. Yes. We would love to have young people join us. The only issue that we've run into and that's we're just kinda thinking through is these parts are pretty spread out, and so the person who would be doing them would need access to a card and move from place to place. And that's the only kind of thing that we're trying to figure out which group to reach out to. But it is in our goals, and I've reached out to different high schools and talked to them as well about this, and try to figure out a way to work with them, and that is something that we continue to do.

Is there any chance that maybe you could do some of those assessments in a Zoom meeting? Do it online so that people who don't have access to cars but wanna participate in the conversation might be able to do that?

Yeah. I've done the trainings online in the past. Currently, I have a video up of the of how to do the assessment. Yeah. That is very like, there is no necessity to be at our headquarters. Uh-huh. The issue is the distribution of parks and just being able to get from all the different parks. And so if we reach out to folks in Hayward, would they drive to Castro Valley to do some of the parks up there or just local parks? And then for me, internally, it's ensuring that we have enough reviews per park. So if we're really near one dense area, then that one park will get 10, and then one will get one. And those would be hard to judge between them if I can't.

Okay. Great. Very good. Keep keep me posted when that happens. I wanna participate in that. Perfect. Thank you, Danny. Else such a great loan opportunity for me. So thank you for that. In the favorite investment priorities that that you did, you mentioned that what what rose to the top were trails, gardens, and what were the other two things?

The first one was multipurpose trails. The second one was open space, parks and preserves. The third one was community gardens, and the fourth one was an outdoor community pool. Outdoor pool.

Nice.

And I will say that the trails and the open space are pretty consistent throughout all of our different sub communities and just rise to the top as a whole. And Parcel 8, there is discussion. There is work being done on the Foothill Trail and the San Lorenzo Creek Trail. And so those will be two trails that are we're currently in the process of developing, which will increase the mileage of trails per thousand acres once it's connected. And the San Lorenzo Creek Trail will be one of the first trails that connect the Bay Trail to the Foothill Trail in the East Bay. So it'll be a really fantastic connection piece.

Excellent. When you ask the question what people want, is it an open ended question, or do you give them a list? It's a

list of about 20 to 30 things, and they pick their top five of each. And then those are you pick your number one, number two, number three, number four, number five. And then I am not that good of a statistician as the consultants are, but they're able to produce a bunch of reports that gave us pretty detailed information about each of these communities.

Okay. Now I have to imagine because it's not necessarily top of mind for most people here, but I have to imagine that an ice skating rink is probably not one of the items that's on that list. I happen to be really enthusiastic about hockey, and my kids were in hockey anyway. So just just know that that's an area of interest that I have.

Yeah. This survey, what is done throughout the country, it's been done 5,000 times. And so that question, I haven't looked at it specifically. Uh-huh. But that question would come up in Minnesota. Right? Sure. So I believe it is in there somewhere. I just don't know

if it was I can check. Okay, Armit. Very good. Anything else? No. That's everything. Thank you. Yep. Yes, please.

Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you both

for your presentations. Yeah. I mean, I school and parks has been a huge issue for me. Mean, where I grew up in Palo Alto Lake, I was not ten minutes from walking from a park, but we had school around the corner, and everyone did. They were safe, familiar places.

And so I think it has has become a real shame that schools I mean, it was partly post COVID, I think a little bit before that, but there was sort of a lockdown of schools, and and they haven't opened back up. So whatever part can do to continue to work with schools, you know, because every community I I think we would be able to, you know, knock down down some of that ten minute walkability if, you know I I mean, to me, it seems like almost an easier ask is to find a local school that is within that quarter of non walkability try to get those schools to open their playgrounds because that that was their public spaces. Right? So after hours, they absolutely should be. We're all paying tax for these facilities.

So I do think it's a real, like, crime that this happened. And so whenever I know we talk about that in HLAC, we've been talking about it for a long time. I feel like we're making it too complicated trying to program the space, and literally, it's opened the gates. And and I think we could really help with some of this, you know, with some of

the

walkability. And as far as those statistics goes, I mean, I I heard the public comment that you have to find a measure of some some amount. Right? And so I think to to look at our measures to show that we're doing pretty good at 76% rate of what was it? 76% within ten minute minutes walk, you think it is pretty good. And and I think, you know, the original planners of some of these neighbors did not have that in mind, which was not great. And I think we can continue to try to do, you know, what we can to to open up parks nearby or, you know, go you know, talk to the to the school district and whatever we can do as a city together with to make that happen and continue to talk about that. And each, like, I think will be important. I let's see. So I'm okay with the measure.

I understand the comment about census tracts. You know, I think there are are obviously areas I mean, where I live in Fairway Park now, there really isn't a closed park, but there is a school. And, you know, that that could be there will be once Bidwell. Once Bidwell comes online. But but I think there are places that are wanting a little bit. But overall, I am pleased to see the statistics. You know, that we are doing pretty good as far as coverage goes in the city. Let's see. Oh, I just I did wanna get to the public commenter. So you said Parsley, the trail there, is that still in the works, or what's happening there?

Yeah. It's still in the works. It's within the planning phases currently.

Okay. So it hasn't been abandoned. It's still

No. Not at all.

Okay.

Okay. And then so wait. Sorry. I'm just trying to get to the walkability part. I do you know, I mean, for the the public comments about La Vista, I'll take a little exception to Kelly's comments here because I you know, when we approved a 175, you know, low income housing project right up in the hill next to La Vista, We did so without Kelly, I hope you're listening.

We did so without any park planning because we knew La Vista was gonna be coming online. And so while while you see it as, like, the high end houses in the hills, that that project was also built without any park. They have no parks up there because we all contemplated this La Vista Park happening. And so it looks like the Hawaii Park, but, actually, this have a 175 unit family, low income housing building that has not even a play pad for kids is counting on that La Vista Park. So while potentially, given our funding, our general fund issues, potentially, we scale back a little bit.

Maybe there's contemplation to be had there. But there are two big communities, impactful communities that will have no outdoor play space if we don't have this park come online at some capacity. So I do stand by that park because I, you know, I hear your comments, but I stand by us needed to move forward on that park absolutely because I was on the planning of my shift when I approved this large, low income housing without a single play pad. And so I'm very anxious to see some amount of park come online for La Vista because people are gonna move in. There's no it's gonna be a real shame if we don't do this.

So I I so we're absolutely there in that one. Let's see. I oh, you know, one thing I wanted to make sure is, you know, you made the the public health comment that, you know, a part that's not well maintained is not right. Doesn't benefit community. So what is is there, like, a sort of in per in perpetuity maintenance fund to allow these parts to know, in good times and in bad, that maintenance will continue? Because it's one thing to put in a beautiful note park. But if, you know, if it's not gonna be kept up or it happens to be a bladed area that gets hit all the time, what is Hart's plan on that?

We got to answer director, or is that Casey take it

on? You can take it.

No. As needed. Okay. So we do think we do

we have built a surplus in case of times if they go

on one or the other.

Part part of my work with this park standards work is to really look at a resource allocation for park maintenance and start looking at how many people are using parks, what the conditions of park, and how we allocating our staff and as

well as resources to be most efficient at it and sustainable.

And so the long answer is yes. We're always thinking about it. And so when

we bring new parks online, that that is a thing that is something that we are looking in whether we can maintain it as well. And the MOU with the city of Hayward has lines in there where it says, as we add parks with the city, we wanna make sure that we have an idea of the funding mechanism to ensure that they maintain safe, clean, and green and to maintain or to continue with the values and mission of the district.

Okay. Thank you both for for both your presentation. Thank you.

Youth commissioner's meet is meeting on the They're in the council chamber. They're in the council chamber, so we're okay? Alright. Got it. You know how you feel about incorporating that area? So what do you need from me or from us to start the ball rolling on that? And aside from that, very good reports. I love that we'll be greener with parks and more open space. Thank you. Alright.

Good. Okay. So that is it on that item. We go now to item number four, ACT 25 dash zero six nine, an update on the implementation of solid waste recycling franchise agreements. An update on evaluation by Cal, recycle of compliance with SB thirteen eighty three. Review and comment. Think Jeff Cromp is going to be presenting today. Jeff Cromp. Go ahead.

Alright. I'll expedite your version. So we have a franchise agreement with Waste Management and, TriState as a subcontractor to provide solid waste services to the city. Quick update on that. Quick update on how recycles compliance review with Hayward, where they're doing that throughout the state to see how jurisdictions are compliant. All recycle and wash, but, really, they're looking at.

This slide just shows that we have

a franchise agreement with the waste management in for ten years, started in 2023. A major part of the franchise agreement, we all want good service and everything, but we wanna divert waste from landfill. And this percentage is based on a cal recycle formula, and it's required that each jurisdiction divert at least 50% of the waste that it generates. And this goes shows from 2000 to 2024, Hayward's always met that 50%. And just last year, we did that as well as we've ever done.

In franchise agreement, there are several things that are embedded in it to help Hayward comply with s b thirteen eighty three. Of course, having mandatory organics service, but Hayward said that since, like, 2010. That put waivers there. Some businesses just don't generate a lot of organics, and you can get a waiver so they don't have to sign up for a service that they're not gonna use. The cart colors, we did that two or three years ago. It went really smoothly. I have a picture of our old color scheme where we had burgundy trash and gray recycling. Then we have the newer carts in the middle there, the pretty blue recycling and the grayish black trash. Monitoring for contamination. I have a picture of a guy flipping a lid.

We don't do that. That's very time consuming and expensive. Waste management has cameras on their trucks to monitor what's being put in. And Tricid was a little delayed getting their cameras set up, but they're all ready to go now. We'll have them all rating in 2026. There's education and outreach requirements where those are taken care of through the franchise agreement, and there's a lot of reporting requirements. Waste management and track everything and supplies the information we need to get to the state. And we've already gone over the mulch and compost from. This is just the monitoring program. The programs go well.

These are images from the two cameras. There's a camera that takes a picture of the bins and carts before they're dumped into the truck and another one in the hopper right after it goes in. You can see on the right that that's a pretty overflowed. You know, they're filling a part. And then in the the left, they're really looking for big plastic bags. That's an organics load, and it has a giant plastic bag. Yeah. There's surcharges that could have been applied for people who don't get their act straight. You get two mornings, and then there could be a surcharge applied. These are some of the stats.

The commercial recycling, they're having a little trouble keeping everything clean for the contamination. Other than that, only 4% of commercial organics had any sort of warning or notice of violation, and 1% of residential organics customers are receiving any kind of warning or notice of violation. And the overages is even smaller. 10% commercial landfill accounts are getting dinged for having an overage, 7% commercial recycling, and only 1% of commercial organics. Part of our contract is to get new litter cans.

We have the big bellies. I'm sure you've seen them around town. On the left, it shows the schedule through the agreement of how they're being implemented. We had a 102 cans in the first year. The current middle of the contract, here's two for four. We're doing 35 cans per year. And then the last five years, we'll do 10 cans per year. And we've been replacing beat up old or aggregate or metal ones for these first few years. Outreach is required. We do a lot of outreach.

We're focusing more on digital now. There's the Facebook page up there because we're focusing on Facebook. We have a little AI chatbot that we just launched, which seems to be doing getting a decent looks. And yet we still mail out the what goes where recycling guide as well. We don't mail out the guide every year because we don't wanna waste a lot of paper, but we did it this year.

It's got a good response. So quickly, the JACE review is the jurisdiction and agency compliance enforcement. That's what JACE, the acronym is. It's a new group from Calvary Cycle, and they're selecting certain cities to analyze and see if they're complying with SB thirteen eighty three mainly. And they have a website where you can go and look at what jurisdictions they're looking at and what the status of the review is.

And I went on their website, and there's 610 jurisdictions in the state they're looking at. In 2023, they started their reviews do it looking at about 25 jurisdictions. And then in 2024, they selected 55 more, one of which was Hayward. And so in August 2024 through about April, mainly me, have have been answering questions from the state about how we're implementing s b thirteen eighty three. One of the things that each city has to have is a implementation record.

All these documents that I just share are SharePoint site with the Calvary Cycle rep. I haven't heard anything from them since April, which is common. When I looked on that website, some of the cities that were started their review in 2023 still haven't received findings yet. So but the ones that did, I saw three that had received findings, and nobody's been fined. They give the cities, like, a hundred and eighty days to have some sort of compliance plan. So that's where that's at. This just shows the things that the Jace website and the letters say they're looking at. Do do you have organic waste services offered to everybody? Do you have an edible food program? The county really runs that for us.

Mhmm.

Education outreach, procurement, that one we're not gonna comply with, but I don't know who is. It will it'll be interesting to see what the state has to say about that. Calvarying, that's C and D waste construction demolition, water efficiency landscaping ordinance. If you have that ordinance where you're requiring that to follow those procedures, record keeping, reporting, enforcement.

With that, any questions or concerns? Good report. Thank you.

Mister? Well, no. Let me just go public comment. Mister Arbello, thirty minutes.

All this waste recycling stuff, people always hear it, and it's just so boring, and nobody pays attention to it, and nobody cares. But it turns out it's actually just fascinating area of work for the politicians. The politicians in Oakland and San Leandro are deeply involved with the FBI chasing them down now with a waste contract with whatever was going on there, and the politicians in the city council of San Leandro are deeply involved in the investigation. It's it's amazing how much involvement they had with that waste. And it's a it's a family run operation in Oakland and San Leandro, and I don't know about Hayward.

And then when we talk about the stop waste and the tri set, that is deeply tied to Alameda County and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. And TriCED was founded it was a political launching pad for supervisor Richard Valle, who is a god here. And he helped to start the Niles Canyon Trail project planning. So he's a god in in our area too for building parks and trails and things. Richard Valle, he launched his career in this stuff, Tricent, recycling, whatevers.

So I just want everybody should should wake up and start paying attention to these guys because I don't know what the I'm still trying to figure it out. Why is this such an important thing, and why does it does it attract and produce so many very, very powerful politicians? Why is this a happy hunting ground for them? Thank you.

Yes, please. Jason

Toro, CEO of TriState Community Recycling. I am happy to announce that we are about a week away from opening reopening our MRF. We did a very large retrofit where we incorporated a lot of automation. This automation basically will capture every piece of recycling that that comes through the facility, and we've actually looked at the future because there's gonna be more items that are gonna be added to the list through SB 54, which is which is targeting more the the plastics. So we're very excited that we're gonna be able to to to capture those.

I believe that we're looking at number number five, which is like the yogurt type of plastic container. And and and TriStead is, you know, it's it's it's a nonprofit. There's there's no big money that's that's that's coming out of it. It's we just founded as a you know, it's about second chances in sustainability. So 70% of our staff are formerly incarcerated.

We use it as an opportunity to provide life changing opportunities for people who have been impacted by incarceration. We actually just started our youth workforce development program for our youth that work in a buyback ages 14 to 24, which incorporates case management, you know, stackable certifications, job readiness skills, and we're also in the process of launching an apprenticeship program to the state to provide training to a certified training for collection vehicle operators. So we're very proud of what we do with Tricent.

Thank you, and keep up the good work. Anyone else? Anyone on Zoom? No? No? Okay. So you're on.

Thank you. Thank you for the update. I you know, one thing I was I was thinking about the big bellies versus, like, you know, these cans here, the three. Like, I I observed so many places I go that if there's three in a row like that, people just choose the first one, and they all get contaminated. But the big bellies, you you have to be more purposeful to actually open those. You might take one more second longer to read it. So I just wonder as far as compliance, especially with our businesses, you know, like, I so often see the ones with the little hole in the front, like, everything goes in all of them. As far as I can tell, it's one big bin underneath there. Because I I don't know if it's really diverting as much as I think we'd like to see, but but they're complying. Right? I mean, I think it's sort of is a holo compliant, or is it actually working compliant? I guess that's my question to you.

I think it depends on the the the type of generator and, like you're saying,

the type of system they have set in.

Yeah. You look at these cans around city hall. You you flip the lid, and it looks like same, and you can say each one

of them. It just depends on where you are.

Yeah. It's almost like the separation.

You'll The thing about the big buildings that after we first got those, I had the keys and go out and open some. And for some reason, the big buildings people sort pretty low. Open their recycling. It's actually recycling. Mhmm.

Yeah. I mean, I think there is something I just felt like have one moment of hesitation that you're gonna have to pull something up rather than dropping it, whatever is there. It's just yeah. Don't know. As far as, like, trying to get our businesses to comply a little bit more on their diversion for, you know, especially places, you know, like coffee shops that have a ton of cups. Like, it all gets mixed up. But organic material and you know? Yeah. Whatever we can do to continue getting that message out there, I think, will be important.

Glad to hear about the cameras, but we're

have come online. Right? Sounds like cameras with checks will be operating. And but then in waste management, the the cameras, that's been working. Right? So the trash is that great, and it's just the recycling rate that will come online in '20 I mean, sorry. If you don't mind asking a question, please.

Of course. Yeah. No. They'll they'll be coming online very shortly. We we worked with a different system than than than Waze. We're working with this company called Third Eye, and the the pilot just took way longer than what we hoped. But we're I I think we have everything hammered

out and we'll

be ready to launch very know, with with the the fines and and all the other stuff that we need to look at. And yeah.

Great. Yeah. Because I know, like, for me, I had one issue with the waste management waste management issue, but it was so awesome. So I went online to give my sort of, like, quick sort of, like, you know, get a response on a comment that I had. And the picture was there of all of my bins out. Like, it did there was a note that said, you know, your bin was not and then there was the picture with all the bins out. So it works. I think having the cameras actually help. Okay. Yeah. And I just like just because I know, Kelly, know I just want a little bit to your comment too. But yeah. I mean, it is a good question. I think, you know, in New York, you know, part of our interest in sustainability is doing everything we can to divert as much material from our you know, from, you know, the landfill as possible. And so I think we all have a interest in that and that that's a goal, you know, for me personally.

I also serve in the community energy board and, you know, whatever I can do to sort of keep these goals going forward. I think some of them end up you know, some of the things I think we've tried to become I mean, for example, like, you know, the plastic peep the plastic bags. You know? I I think we all had good intentions and tried to get everyone to use recyclable bags. But instead, what happened is the the, you know, the market just created thicker plastic bags and called them, you know, reusable.

And to me, that was a sort of, like, terrible unintended consequence. But to keep trying these efforts to do what we can to divert as much from our landfills is totally worthwhile. And so, you know, Trexo is a good partner in waste management. We're good partners in doing this. And so I I personally would continue these efforts to try to move this forward to do what we can for for our city, for our state, and and find them to be, you know, So, yeah, thank you.

Nothing from waste management. I'm surprised there are three folks from waste management, and that is a simple word. They're all agreed.

You say something? I can say something.

Okay. Yes. We want we want to hear from waste management. Are you happy?

Like me to go to the podium?

Yes, please. No more than three minutes. I will repeat after

Yeah. I I

want to hear. I'm happy

I know.

I just need

We thought there was another meeting happening here, but they're gonna have

it over there. Yeah. We're good. Yeah.

So good evening. My name is Virginia Harrington with Waste Management, also known as WM. And we really enjoy working with Hayward and the partnership and get to meet frequently with Eric and Jeff that keep us on their toes. I do feel like our smart truck program, which is what we call our camera system, is going really well, and we're happy. You know, we also want to keep material on the landfill, and that's really the intent to get people to recycle correctly.

Here with me, Elise and Daisy, our recycling education representatives, and they work very closely with particularly the multifamily properties and commercial properties and do flight visits. And that is very genuinely what we want to do is help promote education to get folks to be able to recycle correctly. And I love the first full circle aspects of composting. We do the compost giveaways, and we're working on the compost hub because that's really when there's that green container. We call it the compost container, but it's not it's the feedstock.

So people put their yard waste and their food waste and their compostable paper products in there. That's our feedstock to create the compost, and it comes back to the community for those compost giveaways and and and for the compost hub. So we're very, very happy to be in this community and working with all of you and always want to hear feedback and help you make things better. And we also appreciate working with TriCEV as our subcontractor. So thank you, Jason, for being here tonight.

Thank you very much, and thank you for the toy waste management truck that was donated by you to the Haywood Rotary branch that we did yesterday. Thank you. That was a young lady who was very happy.

Jason, five seconds. Five. Only five. We are going to be having an open house in January. I'll let you know the date, but we invite everybody to come see our our retrofit. We'll be we'll be capturing 95% of

the recyclable material that comes into the Sweet. Absolutely. Yes. Those questions? Carlie Goldstein? Yes.

Thank you. Are you giving away the truck? Okay. That's an. The I'm I'm highly encouraged by the rate of compliance with the residential. So having having a 1% noncompliance rate is, I think, pretty extraordinary. Do we have any comparative values, how how that tracks across other jurisdictions?

No. I mean, it's available. I don't have it on hand, but waste management could show us. Or maybe they're legally prevented from doing so. But I have relationships with other solid waste managers in Alameda County, and they can share their information. They can see how we

can Okay. It's not super critical. I wouldn't put any time into it. I just thought if you had those numbers at your fingertips, it would be great. But, of course, I am concerned about the 40% noncompliance in our commercial sector. What are we doing to fix that?

Well, that one you know, when I

put those stats together, realized I was I was just taking a snapshot in time. That was just one month. Oh. And the commercial varies a lot. That happened to be a prior month. So

Oh, I see. Okay. Time I

give an update, I'll do, like, an

average for over a period of time, which might Or show us how those trends work, and maybe we can come up with some ideas on how to level it out and bring the compliance into a workable space. That'd be great. Also, kind of a curiosity, making a comment here. 610 jurisdictions. But the last time I checked with CalCities, there's only 483 cities. There's counties and other districts, sanitation districts.

Yeah. And that's when I saw that 610. I thought that's a lot, but it's not just cities.

Alright. Thank thank you for that explanation. And, Jason, thank you try Tricent for picking up the game with, with, the new plastics and stuff. There's number fives. I think that's gonna be it. Thank you. Alright. Thank you. Very good report.

Thank you very much. My only comment is that our partnerships work. And in this particular case, Citi, Stop Waste, the waste management, and Tri Cid, and that's for the benefit of everybody. So thank you very much. And I like your comment of the circular. We eat, we put it, and then it comes back to us. So I think that's excellent. Okay. We are now we can now take our time, but please do not because I'm getting very hungry. And we are over on item number five, which is future agenda items for ACT 25 dash zero seven one.

The post 2026 agenda planning calendar review comment is the last page on unpackage. Yeah. Oh, but

Okay. Yes. Go ahead.

It says

to report first.

Oh, yes. Okay. Thank you.

There's no report. The report is in.

Oh, okay.

So That's right. It's usual. Sorry.

Any public comments on this? No? Maybe it's not on? Okay.

Alright. Okay.

This this is something I brought up before, and I really because I'm getting more and more community comments about data centers. And you and I have talked a little bit about it, but I would really like to see us, you know, have some sort of work session or a discussion about data centers. The comments I'm getting right now are, you know, what you know, a lot of data centers rely on water, and I think, you know, Hayward is attractive because of our recycled water facility. But what we're doing to sort of demand recycled water or, you know, have datas if new data centers are gonna come to the city, we're going to sort of ask them to sort of, you know you know, contribute to that. And then also just the concern you know, I think a lot of people have picked up on the one center we've approved on the large one, the stacks.

And And so I'm getting community concerns about this. And then the other issue there is just sort of, you know, how how electricity comes back online after a brownout or even a blackout and, you know, if they've if they have, you know, exhausted their on-site, you know, backup power, like, it looks like for the community when it comes back on. And so I I I would like to see, you know, from a and then also just, like, what we're requiring of them to use renewable energies and and what that looks like from the city's perspective. So I think I think we need to have a discussion on data centers. You know, whether it's here or whether you are connected to a a full council, I'm okay with that.

But it's it's such a big issue all over the country now because of AI Yes. That and Hayward apparently isn't tracked in place for these data centers. It is. We're gonna get more, and I think we need to have kind of maybe a revamp of some of our codes and a discussion on that.

Absolutely. Thanks.

Anything? Yep. Just wanted to pile on on that comment that water usage and energy usage. So, yes, I definitely would like to hear some more about that. And, otherwise, no other comments. Thank you.

And I certainly agree with the with my colleague, Rose, on that, and I appreciate the tree canopy assessment. And, of course, all the reusable dishware. Those are very, very important items. So thank you. Good to Are we okay with meeting just meeting just four times a year? Is there any Yeah. Are we able to cover everything that we need to cover?

Or is there seems we can.

It seems to work.

We are open to more meetings if we want to

have Okay. That may be something of discussion, though. Can discuss where we want.

Oh, I guess it makes just a comment on that. I think until we figure out our hiring situation, our staffing situation, we don't wanna put anymore in steps. I Yeah.

Okay. So for now, we're on. Okay. Let's see. Any comments from my from my colleagues? We are now under committee members staff announcement. Okay. So committee first.

No. I don't Not

the committee for your staff announcement.

Yes. I have two quick announcements. Okay. First, we discussed the reach code at the last meeting in September. Just wanna mention that we will be talking about the EV charging requirements and reach code. It's scheduled for the city council for November 18. Oh, okay.

So I like that. Yep.

Is that yours? And this is if I can put it, I guess so that I just wanted to share that waste management couple weeks ago made a delivery of compost to, Winton Middle School for their gardening club. Mhmm. And, I stopped by there today to give them a compost bin so they can also make their their own compost. And when I was there, they gave me a few pages of their their thank you note with the students' names.

Oh,

nice. And Yeah. And then they a few photos of their when they were mixing in the compost into their planters. So very nice. Yeah. So that was nice to see.

Lisa does a good job. Lisa, the director, the principal, does a very excellent job. Mhmm. Alright. Anything anything from you? No. No. No. Mister Mayer, anything from you? No. Okay. So before we leave, the surprise bag is to the person who tells us how many tons we were supposed to create annually of compost. Create or giveaway? Giveaway. We'll create and giveaway. We're supposed to that was the old Target. What is the old Target?

Oh, the old Target.

2647.

I I think

I think

What was those? Yeah.

So

who's got the guess? Who's guessing?

The audience. I was like, you guys should know it too. Right? I guess my management knows it too.

So nobody knows it? Yeah.

He just he just said it.

Who is it? He said it. It's okay. It's both rejected. What is that? Yeah.

You're very Congratulations, champ.

And with that, maybe it's at June at 06:45. At the end. Thank you. Good meeting you.