City Council - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

Good evening and welcome to the meeting of the Hercules City Council. Today is Tuesday, May 26. My name is Chris Kelly. I'm the mayor and I'm calling the meeting to order. May we have the roll call, please?

Good evening. Council Member Grimsley. Present. Council Member Butteray. Present. Council Member Bailey. Present. Vice Mayor Walker-Griffin.

Present.

And Mayor Kelly. Present. Thank you. Thank you.

We had no closed session items this evening. Council Member Bailey, could you lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, everyone. Tonight, we have, actually, we have a couple moments of silence. One moment of silence is for Hercules resident Anthony Ragazar, who died in a traffic accident last week. Most unfortunate. And we also have a moment of silence for Mel Banigan, who was a resident of Hercules, a high school graduate, and he died in his sleep a few days ago. Could we please have a moment of silence for these two people? Thank you. And now moving on, introductions and presentations. So tonight, we have an introduction of our new Public Works Superintendent, Chris Morris. Mr. Dombek.

Yeah, thank you Mayor Kelly and members of the council. The Public Works Department is pleased to welcome Chris Morris as the Superintendent of Public Works. Chris has been with the City of American Canyons Public Works Department for the last 18 years, having started as a maintenance worker, one, and advancing to his most recent role as maintenance supervisor for the Wastewater Collection Division. Chris recently prepared the City of American Canyons Sewer System Management Plan, Under his leadership, the division won the California Water Environment Agency's Small Collection System of the Year in 2025. Chris has a grade three water distribution operator and a grade four collection system maintenance certification. And in addition to his extensive collection system maintenance and repair experience, he has experience with paving, plumbing, heavy equipment operation, and emergency response. In addition to all of that, he is currently working on a bachelor's degree in business management and communications. Chris has been with the city for a little over one month and has hit the ground running. He's assisted in the update of the City of Hercules sewer system management plan. He's also assisted in preparing procurements for HVAC work here at City Hall. electrical upgrades at the swim center and upcoming refreshment of the janitorial HVAC and street sweeping annual contracts. Chris is a Napa Valley native and currently resides in American Canyon with his family and 11 year old son. The Public Works Department is very pleased to have Chris leading the team and we look forward to a very bright future with him in this role. With that, maybe let Chris say a few remarks.

Please, yes.

I appreciate it. That was a lot. I've met most of you guys already. I appreciate the opportunity. I'm excited to contribute. I've spent my whole professional career at one city at American Canyon. It's nice to spread my wings sort of and learn how another city operates. I have a lot I can teach the maintenance staff, but I also am learning I'm here to learn a lot and contribute as best as I can. So I'm really thankful for the opportunity, and I hope I serve you guys well. Thanks.

Thank you. And don't go away. Maybe the council will have a few words. So I'll start here with Council Member Grimsley.

Hey, Chris. Hi. I just wanted to welcome you. Thank you. And it was really nice to hear a little bit about your experience, so I look forward to getting to know you. I sit on the wastewater subcommittee along with Council Member Batra, so I'm sure we'll have some things to chat about. Also, I used to work for the business school at UC Berkeley, so we can chat about that as well. Welcome aboard.

Yeah, thank you. Yes, Council Member Battarai.

Thank you, Mayor Kelly. Welcome aboard, and I look forward to work with you, and let's make the impact together. Thank you. Thank you.

Council Member Bailey.

Yes, Chris, just wanted to say welcome and thank you. I think the work you do is important. I think what we're finding is that we spend about $1 million a year on roads, road improvements. We just completed a project up on Falcon, so we look forward to, I guess, in the future, what our next project's going to be. I also work a lot with . So when the communities have issues, I usually reach out to your team to try and figure out how we can resolve those. And we've made some progress over the past several years. So looking forward to working with you. You're welcome. Great.

That's great. And I have a lot of field experience, so I'm glad to contribute. Outstanding. Thank you.

Vice Mayor?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Superintendent, really excited to welcome you to the City of Hercules team. As a frequent flyer of the Sonics and American Canyon, I can say you come from a lovely town, amazing work over there, and so I'm really excited to see what you're going to bring to the table.

Thank you, and I wanted to say I was blessed and grateful to work with a lot of great people at American Canyon, and I learned a lot from them, and hopefully that translates and I can spread it here, you know? Too easy. Love it.

And I'll just add in my two cents, I welcome you as well. You know, it's a tough job here. There's a lot of multitasking, and you've got a great staff to work with. So we really hope you enjoy this and learn a lot and can contribute to it. So thank you very much, and we're sure we'll see you around. Thank you. I look forward to it. Okay. So we'll move ahead now. Mr. City Manager, any additions or deletions?

No additions or deletions, Madam Mayor.

Okay, so the next item is general public comment, and this time is reserved for members of the public to address items not included in the agenda. In accordance with the Brown Act, council will refer to staff any matters brought before them at this time, and those matters may be placed on a future agenda. Anyone who wishes to speak will have three minutes. City Clerk, do we have anyone who wants to speak on any items not on the agenda?

I will turn to my Zoom attendees. If you'd like to make a public comment on an item that is not on the agenda, please use your raised hand icon. Sarah Creeley, go ahead.

Hello, thank you. Dear Hercules Mayor and City Council members, I sent this letter to you today and I would like it to be a part of the public record. I cannot think of anything more important than the safety of our children driving by the sidewalk on Refugio Valley Road between Midship and Malibu as I drive to work in the morning at Hannah Ranch elementary school. I have seen children on more than one occasion on multiple days walking in the street because there is so much slime on the sidewalk. There is water, plant growth, algae, slime that is covering I think over half of the block and there are cars parked all along where that water and slime is, and children are walking in the street. And today I went and took pictures of cars driving by the big trucks that were parked where the slime was, and you can see there is not a lot of room. I emailed those to all of you, except Dion, your address with the city council, when you emailed the entire council, it didn't work. And so I can get it to you in a different way, but it's really frightening to see the little amount of space between these big parked cars where the slime is and where people are not walking. There were no footprints in the slime. And a lot of children, middle school students, elementary school kids, they walk to school, to and from school. So this is a hazard that I am requesting that you clean this sidewalk in order that no one be killed because they're in the street. And you can see in the picture where the cars are going by with those big old trucks parked where the slime is. There's so little room. And the thing that really frightened me was when I saw a sign saying that the Multicultural Festival will be at Hannah Ranch Park. That tells me there will be many people walking on June 7th to the Multicultural Festival from our you know, all around our neighborhood. And there's no, the sidewalk is terrible. So I'm urging you to please go look at it because the pictures don't even show the severity of how bad it is. But it's terrifying to me because I know in the morning when I'm driving to work as a teacher at Hannah Ranch that there's a sun glare everywhere. and so sometimes drivers it's hard to even see because of the glare from the sun and i can only imagine if there were a child in the street unexpectedly a driver could plow into them i mean it's it's really an urgent issue and i know it's one that's been years long so i think it has to be people have to keep an eye on it the city has left cones there that say city of hercules thank you miss creely we understand and we will refer that to um

to the city manager and to the city staff. Thank you for letting us know.

Thank you. It's really terrifying.

Are there any other public comments? Would anyone else like to make a public comment on an item that's not on the agenda? Please use your raised hand icon.

Seeing none, that will end public comment. Okay, thank you. Now we'll move on. Tonight we have a public hearing, and our first public hearing is approval of an addendum to the Hercules Newtown Center Environmental Impact Report Design Review Permit Vesting Tentative Map and Plan Development Plan for the emblem Hercules Apartments at a new address, 1601 Willow Avenue, also known as the Loop Site. So for this item, Mr. City Manager, Mr. Rood will introduce this, thank you.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Tim Rood, your Community Development Director. We have a presentation to guide us through this admittedly lengthy staff report, so thank you in advance for your patience. Before you tonight is a recommendation for the approval of an addendum to the Hercules Newtown Center EIR, together with three entitlements for the emblem Hercules Apartments at 1601 Willow Avenue. Design Review Permit 2504. Next slide. That's the title. That's fine. Vesting Tentative Map 2502, and Plan Development Plan 2502. The applicant is Cortera Multifamily Communities, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lennar Corporation, and tonight I will walk through the regulatory framework that governs the city's review, the project's consistency with that framework, and the determination under the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA. I will move through the agenda in this order, a brief project overview, the state housing law context, which is the most important framing for tonight's hearing, the local regulatory context, the project description, the objective development standards, and the state density bonus law waivers requested, the required findings, the CEQA determination, and finally staff's recommendation. Next, please. At a high level, the project proposes 180 apartment units on the 6.72-acre loop site. The unit mix is 102 one-bedrooms, 66 two-bedrooms, and 12 three-bedrooms in six three-story buildings, each 44 feet in height, plus a one-story clubhouse. The overall gross density is 26.8 dwelling units per acre with a net density of 35.4 units per acre on the buildable portion of the site. Importantly, 18 of the 180 units or 10% will be deed restricted to very low income households. That 10% set aside is what qualifies the project for builder's remedy 2.0, which I'll discuss in a moment. This is the overall site plan. The site is bounded by Interstate 80 and its off-ramp on the west, the State Route 4 ramps on the north and east, and Willow Avenue along the south. The six apartment buildings are arrayed across the western and southern portions of the site, with the clubhouse anchoring the Willow Avenue frontage. Vehicular access is from a single full-access driveway off Willow Avenue, with a secondary emergency vehicle-only access to the east. I will let the applicant walk through the site planning rationale in detail, but from a regulatory standpoint, what matters is that the development is concentrated on the buildable western and southern portions of the parcel, leaving the northeast, which contains the seasonal stream, wetland, and riparian habitat undeveloped behind a 50-foot buffer. Next, please. This view highlights the sensitive features in the northern portion of the site. The FEMA regulatory floodway shown in blue, the cattail marsh, and the willow riparian tree canopy shown in green. The 50-foot development and construction exclusion buffer is the key design move that allows the project to avoid direct impacts to these features. That buffer is also what supports our biological resource conclusions in the CEQA addendum and our coordination position with California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which I'll come back to. Next, please. This rendering shows a typical apartment building elevation as viewed from Willow Avenue. The applicant will speak to the architectural character, craftsmen influenced with a unified palette across all six buildings and the clubhouse. From a regulatory standpoint, staff has confirmed the design is consistent with the objective standards in the Newtown Center Zoning District and the Scenic Road and Highway Overlay District.

Next, please.

This slide shows the retaining wall along the north edge of the project site. The wall ranges from 5 to 18 feet in height and uses a gravity block mechanically stabilized earth system with a geogrid reinforcement. Beyond addressing the grade change, the wall is doing a second job. It serves as the permanent barrier required by mitigation measure Bio-3 to prevent humans, pets, and development activities from intruding into the aquatic and riparian habitat and the FEMA regulatory floodway to the north. Because of the grade differential between Willow Avenue, the building pads, and the wall location, the wall will not be readily visible from Willow Avenue, but it will be visible from State Route 4. Next, please. This is the most important slide of tonight's presentation, so I'd like to spend a few minutes here. Four state laws govern the city's review of this project, and together they substantially limit local discretion. The Housing Accountability Act prohibits the city from denying or reducing the density of a qualifying residential project that is consistent with objective standards unless it can make written findings that the project would have a specific adverse impact on public health or safety. Under the statute, that means a significant, quantifiable, direct, and unavoidable impact based on objective written health or safety standards that were in effect on the date the application was deemed complete. Because Emblem is a purely residential project, the Housing Accountability Act applies. Next, the Housing Crisis Act, SB 330, as modified by SB 8. These laws created a preliminary application process that lets a developer vest or lock in the city's ordinances, policies, fees, and other rules in effect at the time the preliminary application is filed. This applicant filed their SB 330 preliminary application on October 21, 2024, and submitted a complete, full application within the 180-day window. That date, October 21, 2024, is the operative vesting date for this project. Builders Remedy 2.0 is why the vesting date matters. The State Department of Housing and Community Development certified the city's current housing element on January 9th, 2025. The applicant filed their preliminary application in October 2024, prior to that certification. Because the project vested under SB 330, while the city did not have a compliant housing element, and because it includes 10% very low income units, it qualifies for the builder's remedy. Under the builder's remedy AB 1893, the city may not deny or reduce the density of the project absent specific health and safety findings. And the project is not required to comply with subjective local zoning or general plan standards or with any standards that don't facilitate development at the proposed density. Finally, under state density bonus law, because the project commits 10% of the units to very low-income households, it qualifies for reduced maximum parking ratios, one space per studio or one bedroom and 1.5 spaces per two or three bedroom, as well as for development standard waivers under government code section 65915. The project is requesting four such waivers, which I'll review on a later slide. The combined effect of these four laws is that the council's review is limited to objective standards. The project cannot be denied or downsized without specific health and safety findings, namely that the project would have a specific adverse impact upon public health and safety. Specific adverse impact means a significant quantifiable direct and unavoidable impact based on objective written public or safety standards that existed on the date the application was deemed complete. Next please. A brief timeline for the Council on how we got here. In 2001, the City adopted the Central Hercules Plan Regulating Code, a form-based code that established four sub-districts, including what later became the Newtown Center. In 2005, the City entered into a Disposition and Development Agreement with Hercules Newtown Center, LLC. That agreement identified the loop site as an additional town center parcel Meaning it was important to the town center vision, but was not required to be developed under the agreement in 2009 the city created the new town center zoning district through zoning ordinance amendment 0801 and the new town center environmental impact report was certified and In October 2023, at the property owner's request, the City Council passed a resolution terminating the DDA as it relates to the loop site. That action is significant for tonight because it confirmed that this parcel is no longer bound by the DDA's CHP Central Hercules Plan Regulating Code obligations. Then in October 24, the applicant filed its preliminary application, and in April 25, submitted the complete entitlement applications now before you. Next, please. On the local framework, the general plan land use designation is Newtown Center, which expressly allows residential multifamily, commercial, or mixed-use development. The zoning is also Newtown Center, governed by Chapter 13-18 of the Hercules Municipal Code. New Town Center zoning generally requires consistency with the Central Hercules Plan Regulating Code. However, as an additional Town Center parcel, the loop site was allowed but not required to opt into the CHP Regulating Code's objective standards, and the project has not opted in. The project remains subject to all of the objective general conditions, performance standards, and development standards under the municipal code. The scenic road and highway overlay district under Chapter 1325 also applies to the project, and it has been evaluated for consistency with those standards. For CEQA, the project is being processed as an addendum to the Hercules Newtown Center EIR certified in February 2009. Next, please. This table shows the unit mix in detail. The project provides 180 units across seven subtypes, with 18 affordable units distributed across all unit types and sizes. 10 one bedrooms, six two bedrooms, and two three bedrooms. The dispersal of affordable units across all buildings and unit types is consistent with state law requirements and ensures that affordable housing is integrated throughout the community rather than concentrated in a single building or unit type. Next, please. Two distinct issues are noted on this slide. On the left is the project's affordable housing commitment. 18 very low income units distributed across all bedroom counts, thereby satisfying the builder's remedy 2.0 threshold. On the right is the no net loss analysis required under government code section 65863. In the city's housing element, the loop site was credited in the site inventory with the capacity for 402 extremely low and very low income units. And the approved project is providing only 18 very low income units and 162 above moderate units, a very different distribution by income category from what was assumed. State law requires that when a project approval reduces the residential capacity assumed in the housing element, the city must identify additional sites to maintain adequate capacity for each income category. Ramey and Associates prepared a no-net-loss memorandum dated November 14, 2025, identifying replacement capacity created by this project, or the need for which was created by this project. And those are the Sing parcel and the West Coast Drilling parcel, which together provide capacity for 277 very low-income units as well as the pending projects at the Bayfront, which provide an additional 285 units across income categories. In sum, the revised site inventory satisfies the city's no net loss requirements for all income categories.

Next, please.

Objective development standards. This is a summary of how the project measures up against the objective Newtown Center development standards The project complies with seven of these standards as proposed density building height all setbacks parking quantity under the state density bonus law maximum and the monument sign dimensions Four other standards require waivers under state density bonus law. A one foot reduction in the carport space width, a less than 50 foot surface parking setback along the secondary emergency vehicle access, landscape island spacing greater than every six stalls in order to accommodate the carports, and an inability to comply with the Central Hercules Plan town center street type because of the freeway interchange that physically surrounds the site. I'll explain each on the next slide. One quick note on density, the range shown in the Newtown Center zone is 30 to 75 dwelling units per acre. The project's gross density of 26.8 is below the bottom of that range, but the builder's remedy provides a separate compliance path. A project meets minimum density requirements if it proposes at least 30 units per acre or half the density determined appropriate for the site under the government code, which is 15 units per acre. So the project's gross density of 26.8 satisfies that test. And the net density, excluding the environmentally constrained areas, is just over 35, which is the zoning minimum. Next, please.

Oh, I'm sorry. That is correct. Thank you.

Government Code Section 65915 entitles a qualifying density bonus project to waivers of any development standard that would physically preclude the project from being constructed at the proposed density. Each of the four waivers requested is the minimum deviation necessary to achieve the project's residential density. First the carport space the code requires a minimum of 10 feet the project proposes 9 foot wide carport spaces The site cannot accommodate the proposed unit count with wider carport bays Second air conditioning condenser location the project prohibits placing condensers between certain building facades and the street The site geometry at the proposed density requires placing some condensers in these locations They will be screened with landscaping Third, the surface parking setback. The code requires a 50-foot setback from a street. The project provides less than 50 feet along the secondary emergency vehicle access only. Increasing the setback to 50 feet at this location would reduce the buildable footprint required to accommodate the proposed unit count. Fourth, parking lot landscape islands. The code requires a landscape island every six consecutive stalls. The project proposes greater spacing to accommodate the solar carport runs. Strict compliance would reduce the carport and building footprint needed to achieve the residential density. Staff has reviewed each waiver request and finds that the applicant has demonstrated the necessity. I will note that the staff report includes a fifth waiver topic, the Central Hercules Plan Town Center Street type, for which staff's perspective is that the standard may not actually be objective and may not actually apply, but the applicant has nonetheless requested a waiver and staff supports that waiver. Next, please. Because the project is processed under the Builders' Remedy and the Housing Accountability Act, it is not required to comply with subjective standards. But staff has analyzed all the standard findings, and we believe that each one can be made affirmatively. The staff report contains the full text. This is a summary. Finding 1. Compliance with the zoning in general plan the new town center general plan and zoning designations expressly allow residential multifamily So no general plan amendment or zone change is needed Finding to best interests of the public health safety and welfare The project proposes 180 units including 18 very low-income units on a transit proximate infill site frontage improvements include Willow Avenue realignment with a left turn lane a mid block crossing and rapid rectangular rapid-flash beacon warning Signs as well as a median refuge all located at the westernmost point Possible on the site where the vehicular driveway is located This provides the greatest possible sight distance for cars decelerating as they come off the freeway and is still several hundred feet away from the Sycamore Avenue intersection The project also provides all-electric construction, solar carports with battery storage, and EV charging infrastructure. Finding three, the site design provides a desirable environment. The development is concentrated on the buildable portions of the site with a 50-foot buffer preserving the stream, wetland, and riparian habitat. Retaining walls address the grade change. The driveway and mid-block pedestrian crossing are coordinated with the Willow Avenue realignment. Finding four architectural character, a consistent West Coast craftsman-inspired palette is applied across all six buildings in the clubhouse with downcast LED lighting, matte finishes, and screened mechanical equipment consistent with the scenic road and the highway overlay district. And finding five landscape, the project will provide 176 trees with MWELO, or model water, oh gosh, help me out, Glenn, model efficiency, model water efficiency ordinance irrigation with frontage landscaping. Next, please. Findings for the Vesting Tentative Map and Plan Development Plan, again, are contained in the staff report, so this is just a summary. On the Vesting Tentative Map side, Government Code 66474 requires findings of consistency with the General Plan, the Zoning, and the Central Hercules Plan as the project uses are permitted with the project site itself and with Plan Development Plan 2502. So all of those things are required to be consistent with each other. The site is physically suitable for the type and density proposed. The Hercules Newtown Center EIR mitigation measures as applied to the project are appropriate. The map will not conflict with easements or access and is consistent with Title 10 Chapter 2 of the Municipal Code. For the plan development plan, Hercules Municipal Code 48.600 requires five findings, that the use and density are consistent with the general plan, that streets and thoroughfares are adequate, that any exceptions are warranted by the design and amenities, that the surrounding area is compatible, and that utility services are adequate. Each finding is supported in the staff report.

Next.

Beyond the zoning consistency, I wanted to flag three housing element policies that the project directly implements. Policy H1.1 calls for facilitating development of housing affordable to lower income households. The 18 very low income units processed under the Housing Accountability Act and Builder's Remedy directly implement that policy. Policy H2.5 calls for high-quality rental housing for large families. The project includes 12 three-bedroom units plus a clubhouse, dog play area, and amenity spaces. Policy H2.7 encourages infill development. This is a vacant Newtown Center parcel listed in the city's housing element sites inventory, and the project develops it as a transit proximate infill site. And as discussed, no net loss under Section 65863 is satisfied through the replacement sites identified in the Ramey Memorandum, which leaves the city with a small buffer in its capacity for very low-income units.

Next.

CEQA California Environmental Quality Act review the city is the lead agency then Hercules Newtown Center environmental impact report was certified in February 2009 that EIR analyzed approximately 35 acres of the Newtown Center zoning district including this site which was analyzed for up to 375 dwelling units as well as 31,000 square feet of office and 156,000 square feet of retail The proposed 180-unit residential project therefore represents a substantially reduced development intensity compared to what was previously analyzed. Under CEQA guidelines section 15162 and 15164, an addendum is the appropriate environmental document when none of the conditions requiring a subsequent or supplemental EIR are met. The addendum prepared by the city as lead agency dated March 4th, 2026 makes that determination based on five findings. There are no substantial changes proposed in the project requiring major revisions to the project EIR. There are no substantial changes in circumstances requiring major revisions. There is no new information of substantial importance that was not known at the time the EIR was certified. The project will not have one or more significant effects that were not discussed in the program EIR, and the applicant has agreed to all applicable mitigation measures. The addendum, together with the Hercules Newtown Center EIR and its mitigation monitoring and reporting program, constitutes the complete CEQA record for the project. The MMRP applicability matrix, attached as Appendix A to the addendum, identifies which of the original mitigation measures apply and how each is satisfied, either through the project design, through a condition of approval, or through both. Next, please. We're in the home stretch. The project requires coordination with four outside agencies and that coordination is fully reflected in the conditions of approval. Caltrans is involved because work in the I-80 off ramp right of way and along Willow Avenue may encroach on state right of way. A Caltrans encroachment permit is required before any such work occurs. No city approvals authorizing work in the state right of way are valid until Caltrans issues that permit. For CDFW, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the site contains a tributary of Refugio Creek and associated emergent wetland and riparian habitat. CDFW has jurisdiction over activities affecting the bank, bed, or channel of any river, stream, or lake under the Fish and Game Code Section 1602. Although the project avoids direct impacts through the 50-foot buffer, construction in proximity to the waterway may trigger a lake and stream bed alteration agreement. Coordination with CDFW is extensively reflected in the addendum and the conditions of approval the conditions require temporary construction fencing that it excludes special status species and biological monitoring and From US Fish and Wildlife the California red-legged frog a federally threatened species has potential habitat on-site No such frogs were observed during the 2020 or 2025 biological surveys. There is currently no federal nexus for the project. No federal permit or authorization is being sought, such as a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit. Section 7 consultation applies only to federal actions, so without a federal nexus, Section 7 consultation is not required. If circumstances change, for example, if a federal permit later becomes necessary, or if take of California red-legged frog is identified, the applicant shall pursue the appropriate U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pathway. This approach reflects U.S. Fish and Wildlife's guidance on when consultation is and isn't required. Finally, the Bay Area Regional Water Quality Control Board was consulted early and throughout the review process for stormwater and water quality issues. Mitigation Measure Bio-4 requires compliance with NPDES, National Pollutant and Discharge, almost there, Erosion Something Provision C-3 requirements, and the project's stormwater control plan addresses those requirements. Before we proceed to the last slide of the staff presentation, I would like to thank my staff for preparing this very thorough report. This is an unusual project, and it required quite a large team of staff and consultants to prepare this material. Next, please. In summary, staff recommends that the City Council adopt a resolution taking the following actions. Approving the addendum to the Hercules Newtown Center EIR, approving design review permit 2504, vesting tentative map 2502, and the combined initial and final plan development plan 2502. This concludes staff presentation and the applicant team has also prepared a presentation for council.

Thank you, Mr. Root. And maybe we can hear from the applicant now, if that's okay with the council here? Yes.

Good evening, Mayor Kelly, city council members, and city staff. My name is Nathan Tuttle. I'm a senior director with Cortera. And it's my privilege this evening to be with you to share our thoughts about the emblem Hercules development for your consideration this evening. Sorry, Tim. Maybe I'll get closer, okay. I would like to thank city staff for their tireless work on this detailed entitlement process over the past 19 months. I don't know that I've ever seen a staff report this thorough and detailed. I agree with Director Rood's comments that they've done a fantastic job on getting that done. And we certainly agree with their conclusion and their recommendation for approval of our application. Next slide, please. I am joined this evening by members of our project team listed on the slide before you. Our land use council and our project architect are here in person. Our civil engineer and our traffic and transportation consultant are joining us by Zoom this evening. Next slide, please. Just a little bit about Corterra, we're an industry leading multi-family development and investment management platform. We combine national scale with local expertise to deliver communities that set a new standard for quality and consistency. Our team spans 12 regional offices and we cover about 30 states. The company has over 127 communities nationwide and has delivered 11 communities in Northern California with eight others either under construction or in the pre-development phase like Emblem Hercules. Our developments are thoughtfully designed, offer consistent quality with amenities that foster a sense of community. Next slide, please. I think the site context has been covered very well by staff. I'm gonna go ahead and ask our architect, Mr. Kelly, to come up and talk to us a little bit more about the design details.

Good evening. Chris Kelly, Vice President of LPS Architects. Nice to meet you, Chris Kelly. Yeah. So emblem, sorry, next slide. Emblem Hercules is a gated community off of Willow Avenue with 180 units over five acres. It's organized with an internal loop street, so that pushes all of the buildings out to the perimeter edge, which creates that street wall that you see when you drive by on Willow Avenue. These are three-story walk-up garden apartments. Each external stair is served by four units per floor. And adjacent to the bottom left corner where our gated entry is, is our clubhouse. It's a 4,300 square foot amenity. It's got property management offices on site, a fitness center, an interior lounge space, and then also an exterior lounge space. A few interesting facts that may be, actually, Tim, I think you covered even these. It's an all electric community. It has a 500 kilowatt photovoltaic system. It's quite large. To translate that, that's about 845 photovoltaic panels. They're all gonna be covered on the carports, and the carports comprise 67% of the total parking spaces. We also have a battery backup system. And that battery backup system is 400 kilowatt system. And all of these, both the level of photovoltaics and the battery backup system go well beyond the standard building code requirements. We also have electric vehicle parking on site that comprise 82% of the total parking spaces. So it's either one of two ways, where there's a receptacle or an outlet that you plug into, or there's EV charging stations. So quite substantial on the electric vehicle parking as well. In addition to that, we have long-term and short-term bike parking for a total of 106 bike parking spaces that serve about 60% of the 180 units on site. The next slide. I think we covered the below market rate homes, but there's 18 of those, or 10%, and they're spread out across all six buildings, and spread out also between one, two, and three bedroom units. Next slide there. I have a couple of renderings to take a look at. So as you drive along Willow Avenue, this is just to the right of the main entry. This is the clubhouse. And then the clubhouse is really rear facing here. So the exterior lounge is out there. We have a four foot high glass wall. It's a mix of glass and CMU. And that's to mitigate the train noise across Willow Avenue and then we did a double tier of that retaining wall to just kind of soften that front edge as it as the Terrain tapers if you will next slide Then the overall architectural character, it's more of a traditional style, so it has a darker color base to it. It has fewer larger gestures as far as the gable ends. It has board and bat siding, so it has a vertical orientation to both the single hung windows and the vertical siding. It's a mix of plaster and siding. So every unit has an exterior deck. And then we take those decks and extend them out about 18 inches to create a little bit more relief on the facade. So this kind of defines the street wall as you drive down Willow Avenue. Next slide. And then I think I'm going to turn it back over to Nathan to talk about the community benefits.

Thank you, Mr. Kelly. We believe emblem Hercules offers several benefits to the community. Well-located workforce housing near jobs and transit. It will enhance the pedestrian connectivity to the transit center and nearby retail off Sycamore. Effective use of a really challenging highway interchange property that's laying dormant for years. As Chris described in his all electric, it is an all electric development and the use of onsite solar production and battery storage systems will minimize impact on the electrical grid. And of course the physical benefits through impact fees and future property taxes that will be used to fund city priorities for schools, utilities, and traffic mitigation. Next slide please. Our ideal timeline is to receive city council approval this evening and then secure our building permits by the first quarter of 2027 and to start our two-year build schedule from there. It's anticipated that the first apartments would come online as early as 14 months from starting construction. Next slide, please. I just would like to thank you for your time and consideration of our proposal this evening. We feel like it's an important one. We feel like it will contribute positively to the Hercules community. We look forward to your deliberations, and our team is available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Mr. Tuttle, and don't go away. I'm going to bring it to council now before we open the public hearing and see if council has any questions. So are there any questions here about the development? Oh, Council Member Grimsley.

Hi. Thank you for being here and giving the presentation. I did want to revisit the entrance and exit for the structure. I'm thinking about impact to traffic. I take that exit off the freeway coming into Hercules frequently as do a lot of other people. Some of us travel along Willow Avenue. Also there's a pedestrian flow through Willow Avenue in that area too. So both during construction and then once the structure is completed. I'm concerned about the impact to both pedestrian and automotive traffic. So for the question, it was about the entrance and exit and where those are located, just for clarity.

Maybe if we could go to the first slide after that. So you can see on this slide, and I do have our traffic consultant and our civil engineer on as well if we need more detail. The entrance is where... Yes, Mr. Dombek just pointed to the entrance there. So it's about 630 feet from the beginning of the off ramp there as you come onto Willow Avenue and another 640 feet until you get to Sycamore from the entrance to the property. So there's quite a bit of distance there. There will be a mid-block crossing that we've discussed at the entrance of the property that will have flashing beacons facing both directions of traffic. the sidewalk we do have a sidewalk that continues from the development down to sycamore but we are not continuing pedestrian walkways to the other direction past our entry so there won't be any pedestrians on that side of of the roadway on our side where the development is does that help at all yes thank you very much i appreciate that and the vice mayor has a similar question

Yes, thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you both for the presentation. 33-page-long staff report is absolutely insane. So just thinking about this, obviously it's right next to 80 and then wrapping on to Highway 4. Just thinking about, like, I know that you mentioned, like, the environmental impact, like, health studies like that, but how do you examine, say... being right next to the freeway, the impact on, say, cardiovascular issues such as, like, asthma, because just looking at it, not a doctor or anything like that, I do wonder what that proximity is going to do to impact people who are sitting right there basically the majority of their time.

I mean, I think those things are studied through the EIR process and the air quality mitigation measures that are in the CEQA documents that exist. So I don't know if you have anything to add.

Our environmental consultant is also on the line, if you'd like further elaboration on it. If I could just elaborate a little bit further on that. Yeah, I mean, essentially mechanical ventilation is, you know, added in these as a condition of approval. Do we have Olivia on the line?

Yeah, I'm here. Hi, can everyone hear me? Yes. Good evening. I'm Olivia Urban. I'm a principal with M Group. The question regarding health impacts to new residents, There is a screening and there is a requirement, as was mentioned, for all new multifamily to have advanced HVAC filtration systems. So this would be equipped with that kind of system, and that is enough to remove those finer particulate matters that would be associated with on-road vehicle emissions.

Thank you.

Council Member Battarai.

Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you for the presentation. I also wanted to touch base on a couple of things. You also mentioned that 180 space for the bicycle, I believe. Is that correct?

106. 106.

Okay. And then do we have a, we'll have the dedicated, you know, the bicycle lane for that or how we, how, you know, I want to see the impact of that as well since we expect.

So the city is also evaluating road improvements on Willow in this segment. It was a component of the Foxborough neighborhood it was added on to that project so it's currently under contract for design however in part because of the development on this location as well as sewer upgrades that are needed on Willow there will be a road improvement on that segment likely in Well, possibly in the summer of 27, but more likely in the summer of 28. And at that time, we will be evaluating the addition of bike lanes on Willow Avenue. We're also looking at the off street pedestrian sidewalk, although there's some additional complications in terms of the property ownership for that area, but those are all being considered as part of the city's project.

Okay, thank you for the clarification. Can I also go back on the, not this slide, but the other slide, the staff's reports probably, maybe second, last slide.

Not this one, probably the other one.

My question was to probably our staff, you know, your recommendation between option A, one, two, three, four, I believe. I just wanted to get a distinction between for the sake of simplicity to make understand and make an informed decision here, not only for the council, but also for the resident. Can you please give me a high-level definition of Number three and four, particularly, your distinction between three and four. Hold on. Your slide page number 20, the last recommendation page, I believe.

Oh. Not the staff presentation.

Staff presentation.

We'll get that up.

The second one, yep. Yeah, can you please help us to understand number two and the difference between number three and four?

Yeah, those are two completely different types of approvals. The plan development plan is required in certain areas or allowed under the Muni code, and it's a flexible option that essentially allows for customized zoning standards that are specific to that development. The vesting tentative map is a subdivision of the property. And that is essentially the applicant can speak to their reasons for doing that. It might allow them to, you know, it's helpful to them, but they should really speak to that. Nathan, like, why did you want the vesting tentative map at all?

Well, it vests your rights and the development, you know, the time of approval, so.

I mean, why subdivide at all?

We don't have to. We just like to provide optionality in our developments for future if we want to subdivide further, so.

So, for example, for financing purposes, it might be beneficial to have the various buildings located on their own parcels. So those are two distinct entities, and they each have a distinct set of findings required in the code.

If I understand correctly, so developers' expectation or request is number three, I guess, the past? We can go either one or...

No, all four of these approvals are required to enable the project to move forward.

Okay, so are we making one of those?

No, you are approving four different items. The CEQA addendum, the design review permit, the vesting tentative map, and the plan development permit. Okay, thank you for the clarification.

Last number, please. You mentioned that our annual revenue, tax revenue would be 3.1 million or something? on the presentation, I believe.

You're expected on your community benefits.

I think that's the last slide on your presentation.

Yeah, that one.

Can you elaborate on that one? So it's a one-time or is it ongoing?

It's over a five-year period.

5-year period, okay. And then do you know the timing-wise? It would be like a 3.1 divided by 5 each year equally, or it just goes back and forth? I just wanted to see how that works.

Once the property is fully developed and paying a full property tax after development, that's our estimate for escalation of property taxes over a 5-year period. Thank you.

Thank you for the clarification.

Mr. Mayor Bailey?

Yes, I want to thank staff for the report as well as the developer. I did have some concerns over this. We understand there's a clause in the law that sort of forces our hand on this, but I don't think it's, you know, if the developer decides to loan R, that it's fair to a community to force those on us. We list the benefits here. For folks maybe in the audience this may look like benefits, but there's lots of challenges, right? We mentioned estimated annual property taxes. Well, those bring service needs, police needs, fire needs. So there's a cost. So we don't really see an improvement as a community. The council knows this. So you mentioned that part of your presentation I think was that you know, there were benefits to the community. I'm looking for where those are or what concessions are you willing to make? The community has asked lots of questions about that crosswalk, for example. It seems unsafe for those of us that live in the area because of the speed at which people exit the freeway. It's the first place to stop. So you can answer these, these are just general questions. I'll put two or three out there and let you answer. But that seems unsafe, and so the community has asked about stoplight there instead to make it safer to cross. They've asked about extending the sidewalk. You don't have to, but you could. Lennar is a $32 billion business, $2 billion in profits. So if we're looking to partner with the community, many of which are here today, these are things that I think the company could do to help us along the way. And I also have issues. I heard your answer to the Vice Mayor's question about pollution. But if you open the windows the stuff from the freeways got to come in But if you can address just the stop sign the question and the safety of that and then the sidewalk extension and I have a couple additional questions Thank you for the questions.

I think I'd like our traffic engineer who's on zoom to address the safety of the Mid block crossing and the city's consulting traffic engineer is also available

Hello, Gary Black with Hexagon Transportation Consultants. Regarding the safety of the crosswalk, the question is the sight distance. The vehicles either coming from Sycamore or coming off the freeway need to be able to see the crosswalk in time to stop if there's a pedestrian in the crosswalk. And so what we studied was the distance between the crosswalk in the off ramp and the distance from the crosswalk to Sycamore. They're each about 600 feet away. And there are standards for how far that distance needs to be in order for cars to be able to stop effectively to make the crosswalk safe. And those standards are related to the. Speed of the traffic on the road, the site distance available at that crosswalk 600 feet. That's adequate for cars that are going 60 miles an hour. The advisory speed on the off ramp is 35 miles per hour. and the speed limit on willow is 35 miles per hour so in our judgment it's extremely unlikely that cars would be going faster than 60 miles an hour on willow even coming off the freeway and therefore they would be able to stop in time if there was a pedestrian in the crosswalk And the crosswalk would be enhanced with lights that flash when there's a, when there is a crossing and that helps with the visibility. Your other question regarding extending the sidewalk. I believe that's talking about a sidewalk on the north side of Willow that would. Go over the freeway on ramp. Um, and we did look at that, but we found that that would not be a safe condition because the. Site distance for a crosswalk across the ramp would be inadequate. So a car would come off the freeway around the turn and potentially there would be a pedestrian in the crosswalk that they would not be able to see in time to stop. So, um, it wouldn't be a safe condition.

Okay, thank you for the opinion there. I think that in the past, we have discussed a roundabout as you exit the freeway to slow traffic down. And I think there are solutions that we could work towards. Again, not required, but if we're looking to work with the community, there are things that could be done to do that. And I hope that staff has looked at those old plans while I've been on council, so within the last eight years, where that was a talking point to put a roundabout there to slow traffic down. I don't want to focus too much. I know many people have questions. We have the public here. Another question I had was with regard to parking. We mentioned this is a convenience to transit. The chair of our transit... Our transit organization is here, and I'm a director on that board. That is not how folks use our transit. So my question is about parking. I listened to the Planning Commission report. I couldn't find it in ours, but I was flipping backwards and forward. But in the Planning Commission, when you guys came and spoke, we were charging for parking extra. Did I hear that correctly?

can speak to that if you like one of the environmental mitigation measures requires that parking be unbundled which simply means that your unit doesn't come with a particular parking place you separately lease the parking space or spaces that you need for your household and it's a separate lease from the unit itself so that allows people who don't have a car to not pay for a space that they're not using and also allows people who want to have two spaces to you know potentially be able to do that if there's availability.

I appreciate it. I'd ask of our developer, because they make $32 billion a year. So they probably could afford the parking. My concern is this. There's not ways to put parking there for people to park on the street. So my opinion, not being a traffic expert, is if we have 239 parking spots, there are 78 two and three bedroom units. So basically, if a two bedroom unit needs two spaces, and if you sell those, you're not going to have any visitor parking there. So this does not contain itself. And there's a fence around the whole thing, is my understanding. So these create parking issues. I don't build projects, but we have lots of products around town that have parking issues. And I'm willing to go out with you after this meeting or tomorrow and show you some of those places where the developer told us that we could do this, and then we struggle with actually doing it as a community. Because the developer leaves, generally speaking. I mean, they have someone managing the building. But we have those challenges. So this looks like it's going to be a challenge. And again, if the expectation is like in San Francisco, where you go hop on Muni to get to where you need to go, that's not the way our folks take transit. And looking at an agenda from West Cat will show you where our residents go. Many go to San Francisco. There's not many places else you can get timely. You can go all over the Bay Area. We link to everybody. But there's not many places you can get timely. So I'm concerned about parking. I'm wondering if someone can talk about why you guys believe that there won't be a parking issue there, because the city's going to hear about it. We hear about Safeway. We don't own that parking lot, but I get emails all the time about a parking lot I have no control over. It's not Hercules Center, it's Safeway Center. So if you could talk a little bit about that, I'd love to hear those comments.

Thanks for the question. I mean, parking's an issue everywhere, right? And it's one of the things that we pay a lot of attention to when we plan our developments. The unbundled nature of the parking here is somewhat unique in this city. You know, it's really the developer's issue, the parking. I mean, we can't lease a unit if we don't have parking. If we've leased all the parking, then the people that come to lease won't have parking. That means the price of the unit will have to come down until it leases to someone without a need for parking. So it's really a developer issue, because as you say, this is an island, there is nowhere else to park. So we won't be leasing to people who have cars and can't park there.

there'll be continuous turn. There's a project similar to this in another city where they just continuously people moving out.

There may be a lot of turnover, yeah.

And so, again, and to the public, I don't want to, we have no power to do anything about this, but the developer has lots of money so they can do it on their own if they choose. The other question was just the exterior of the buildings. Now, again, we have had lots of legal explanations that we can't control that, but the building's pretty plain, right? On the exterior the bet I can drive you around town look at other developments and you'll see that this is uniquely plain in Hercules So if you want to have that conversation, I'm willing to do it folks often do that with the mirror But I'm more than willing to meet up with you and take you around town, but it's very plain I wonder if there's some enhancements you guys could do. I know this is it's less expensive to build right, but it's very Plain no offense taken

We like the look of this development. We think it's modern. We think it's clean lines. We think it works very well. We believe it's financeable in this market, which a lot of developments are not. And that's kind of the bottom line is we like this design and we like the way it looks.

You're the one who said partnering with the community, so I'm asking you to do that. I'm hearing no at each of these requests, but I do hear you. So did I, and I want to apologize, I made a comment there was a stop sign at the crosswalk. Is this just a crosswalk or is there a stop sign there as well?

It's exactly like the mid-block crossing out here at the entrance of Civic Drive with the median refuge. So you only cross one lane at a time, push the button, the lights flash, exactly like that.

Again, I'm not a traffic person, but that just seems to be a bit of a safety issue. The mayor's allowed me a lot of time here. I will have maybe some more questions after we do public comment, but I think there's lots of issues that we could improve. Not that it's terrible, I'm not saying that, but it is the minimal required by a law that's imposed on us, is what I will say, which doesn't feel like a partnership as someone who represents 26,000 people here in the city of Hercules. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

The Vice Mayor has a related question.

Yes, it's a couple questions, so I apologize. Hopefully I don't take too much time up here. But the idea of leasing parking to people, I think that's just honestly just kind of insane, for lack of a better term. A lot of our city's commuters, you know, looking at the transit center, to echo the comments of my colleague right here, a lot of people do take the links into San Francisco, sure. But there's only one bus that takes you into Central County. It's the 30Z West. I used to take them. I went to DBC. about runs every once every two hours. Also, if you wanted to get to the North Bay, which a lot of our city does work in the North Bay, Vallejo, Napa, et cetera, there are no bus lines that take you directly from Hercules. You have to take a bus from Hercules to El Cerro Del Norte to go right through Hercules to go back. So I think that in the spirit of it, I think the idea is there. But I don't think it's subjective to the actual reality of what a lot of residents do. The other thing I was thinking about is this place, it's been mentioned, it is an island. And when I think about the people who would be tenants of this thing, There are going to be families here, and I didn't see anything talking about play spaces or anything like that. Maybe I missed it, but I would definitely encourage you to have one in there, especially for those in all abilities, play spaces, what we call it now. So that way someone with maybe a walker or a wheelchair can have a good time too. Because right where it sits right now, you're not going to be able to walk comfortably anywhere. to refugio foxborough park basically any other park in the city without having to walk at least a mile mile and a half and trotting around a little five-year-old i can only imagine the headache that's going to be also given the fact that it's on a hill pushing a stroller around i think honestly what may make for a miserable experience so i think that that's something that uh needs to be added too because like the like my colleague mentioned that this is something that uh is being moved by the hand of Sacramento. So some of you may have seen my comments on Facebook. They think that sometimes people may believe that we just come up with these random ideas. Sometimes you can't, but a lot of times, as you saw through the presentation, there's a backstory to it, and this backstory is extending almost 30 years. The last thing that I wanted to mention was when you design this, please include amenities for those. I know that you already mentioned one with the flashing cross lights, but amenities... that are exterior to the property for those with visual and hearing limitations. There is a sign. It's pretty much crossed out. It would be right where that white border begins with the mid-block crossing. There is this sign that's always being taken out. I don't know. Someone's always running into this thing. I don't know who likes it or who doesn't like it or something like that. But I worry about people swinging around that curb and coming down. Will people naturally decelerate? Yes, but it's often because we have a police officer sitting right there. Now, there's going to be that time where that police officer isn't sitting right there and someone's going to swing around that. And I worry that there's going to be that one person who maybe, again, has visual limitations or hearing limitations that can't either see or hear a car coming and then leads to a fatality. So I would also encourage you guys to have that. Thank you, Madam Mayor, for my comments.

Thank you. And I have a few questions as well. So, Mr. Tuttle, these are going to be apartments. Are they going to be built to condo standards? Is it possible they could be turned into condominiums in the future?

We don't have plans to do that.

Okay. Will they be built to condo standards or no?

We're going to build them as apartments.

Okay. All right. And the parking, you said, is extra, right? So you have to pay for a parking space?

Yeah, that's not our choice, just by the way. That was imposed on us by the environmental documents. So it's... yes parking will be unbundled so it will be separate from the lease so you will take out a lease for one price and then you'll take out a parking spot for another price but that is okay and not a business decision that is okay i understand just yeah okay and do you know how much your parking space might cost or not aware of that no whatever the market will bear

Okay. And this is a gated development, is that correct?

Yes.

And I would say in most of Hercules, I don't like gated developments. But given the nature of where this is located, I can understand why you might want to do that. And then I would like to speak to Mr. Black about the transportation, the ingress and egress for the regular cars. So is Mr. Black still there?

Yes, I'm here. Thank you.

Hi, thank you. So the driveway and the mid-block crossing for pedestrians, that's about 600 feet, say, from Willow and Sycamore, and also from the off-ramp from the loop site.

Yes.

So let's say some cars are coming off the freeway, you know, Highway 80, making that loop and coming down. And let's say two or three people are coming home in the afternoon at the same time. When they pull into that driveway, will there be enough space for them to pull in without getting rear ended before the gate opens?

Yes, the gate is well, this diagram doesn't show the location of the gate, but it's well into the property.

It's into the property. It's not just right there on the street.

No, it's not right there at the back of the sidewalk. Perhaps someone could put up a diagram showing where the gate is.

I just want assurance of that. I tried to look and blow it up to about 200%. Okay, I can see that there. So you kind of go into the driveway and then the gate is a little ways in, right?

Yes.

Okay. Okay. I do think the sidewalk that you're going to add there over to where the Safeway Center is, is a really good idea. I don't think you should add a sidewalk on the other side because of the danger with the cars coming off the loop there. Then for the crosswalk, there will be a pedestrian refuge. in the center right and they'll be flashing lights and so forth so hopefully it will be pretty visible another question that i have is mr black when you are driving say from sycamore you turn left to go on to willow and then you wanted to make a left turn into the development um is there a left turn lane there no or you just just one lane of traffic

the the project would add a left turn lane there's not a left turn lane there now but the project would add a left turn what we call a left turn pocket to turn to the site um that would be separate from the through traffic okay so that you wouldn't get hit in the rear by somebody barreling up the street say from the safeway or from the the gas station

that's yeah that's the design yeah okay all right thank you very much um so right now we are going to go to any comments um city clerk do we have anyone who wants to comment oh i think i better open the public hearing right so we are now opening the public hearing for the emblem apartments is there anyone who wants to comment from the public

I'll start with my in-person attendees. If you would like to make a public comment on this item, I'd like you to come up to the podium.

Good evening council members, staff. Just had a couple of questions related to the CEQA analysis that was done. I didn't see any reference in the updated addendum related to a health risk assessment and my question to staff was wasn't HRA prepared for this updated project because all of those criterias have changed. including a more robust GHG analysis since 2009 when the original addendum was approved. So my question was specifically tied to that. I also had noticed in the noise portion of the noise consultant's report, it talked about really no exterior meeting spaces, although as I know, there are balconies on all of these units, and so my question, back to the CEQA consultant, is did the noise assessment also contemplate the exterior decibel levels and are those exterior decibel levels on those decks that would be immediately closest to the freeway below the city's general plan DBA threshold. Thank you.

Would anyone else in our in-person audience like to make a public comment? Please come up to the podium and please state your name.

Council and fellow residents, two questions. I didn't see any additional lighting being placed in this location where the crosswalks and driveways are. We all know that's pretty dark coming down that. And until your headlights at nighttime get steered down that roadway, Sycamore, you can't see. And our friend Chad GPT says that's not enough space at 60 miles an hour. It's not enough space at 40 or 30. So the compression zone on a downhill at that speed is a recipe for something none of us want. My other question is, what mitigation measures will be taken during construction, which is slated to last about two years? Cement trucks, gravel trucks, pickup trucks, lumber trucks, everything going in and out of a single ingress-egress point, that same compression zone going downhill. They're gonna take a while to get in and out of that driveway space. And no offense to our hardworking construction folks and developers, but not everything stays on their tracks when they're going in and out. What will we do relative to cleaning up the debris and stuff in that area, which would then make it more dangerous? You don't have a crosswalk yet. You don't have lighting yet. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Is there anyone else in our in-person audience that would like to come up to the podium and make a comment? Seeing none, I'll turn to our Zoom attendees. Christina Haymans, please go ahead.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Hi, this is Christina Herman's local resident, and I also have children in the schools at Hercules. My main concerns, of course, you know, traffic safety. I know that with a quick Google search, I was able to find that since these have low income housing units that increased traffic kind of gets overlooked, but that is a major concern. So with everything in mind to our community, traffic, safety, schooling, where are these kids going to go to school? I strongly urge the developers and if you care anything more than a money grab and you really care about this community and you want to show us that you care, I strongly request that one, you sit there and you see how long it takes to get from your community proposed into panel during a morning commute secondly i strongly encourage you to try to drive to the local elementary schools during that time and imagine now that you've increased this traffic by you know call it even 20 cars to get to ohlone or to get to lupine where i have watched every time that i drive by lupine at pick up and drop off there is nearly a head-on collusion as people try to go around stopped cars that are trying to get in and out of the parking lot so that's already a safety concern and this is going to make it much worse and lastly i i encourage you to you know just try to walk from that area to safeway or to a park see how long it takes you imagine that you have a wheelchair and you're trying to get there saying that you're going to add a crosswalk to cross the street and then go down to the stoplight and then cross again it's it's a lot and if you have any sort of disability or you have a young child i especially encourage anyone in the development team with a young child to try to take that child somewhere from the proposed site and i highly doubt that this is going to go into your developmental plans because they seem pretty set and it seems like the state is forcing hand but these are major concerns as a parent thank you

Thank you, Susan Keefe. Go ahead.

All right. Am I unmuted now?

Yes, we can hear you.

Great. Thank you. I'm actually impressed with this development. It has a lot of features that I really like. Just a couple of thoughts. I assume there will be young families, but there won't be a lot of children. So if there's any space for something like a little tot lot or something to be edited, I think would be a good idea. I do think the comments regarding traffic signals, lights, and crosswalks are very important and should be really looked at. And lastly, I think that this might be a really worthy project for your $5 million donation to affordable housing, and especially if these folks would consider increasing the number of affordable units that they have. This might be a much more appropriate infill development for those funds. Thanks.

Thank you. One last time, I'll turn to my Zoom attendees. If you'd like to make a public comment on this item, please use your raised hand icon. I'm seeing none that will end public comment.

OK, thank you. So this closes the public hearing. I'm bringing it back to council for comments. Yes, Vice Mayor.

This is a question for whoever wants to answer this. For the workforce that will be developing this, who are you choosing to come out and actually build the site? If you guys can answer that.

Typical of all of our developments, we run an open bid process. So whoever would like to bid on the work is welcome to do so.

Say that one more time for the folks in the audience.

Is this not on?

Okay.

Maybe I'm just not projecting enough. At all of our developments, we have an open bid process. Anyone can bid on our projects to do the work. We don't exclude anyone, so it is an open bid.

Well, I would just like to put it in a little note because I'm a big believer that the people who build our community should be able to live and work in our communities. So if you can get in touch with the Contrast of Labor Council and the Northern California Carpenters, I would greatly appreciate that because what we've seen sometimes, not by all folks, is that there's this... Thing going around where sometimes people don't want to pay people properly to do the work to build these communities And again, I believe that if you're like my friends who grew up here in this city If you want to build the city, you should be able to live in it. So it's my only comment.

Thank you madam mayor Any other yes councilmember Grimsley?

I'm thinking madam mayor. I just want to comment that we've heard several community members make concerns heard and known here tonight I everything that I heard I think that we should take time to explore and get answers to. I think our community members deserve answers. So I would really like to press pause on this and make sure that we are meeting the needs of our community. Thank you.

Any other questions here or comments? Council Member Bailey?

Yes, to our developer, to whoever wants to speak on behalf, is there anything that you guys can work with us on? Or is the answer, we've heard issues of safety. We mentioned flashing lights. We have some of those in town. They don't always work. The speed coming off the phone was very high, so we heard that from the community as well from those of us on the dance. So is there anything that you can work with staff on to improve this? Even with the traffic calming or the island that we're building, is that actually an island or is it markings? This is as you exit in between the street. Can we enhance any of these items? Again, we can't impose it. That's why I'm asking, because I would normally take a different position. But we did have good work with another developer, D.R. Horton, who worked with us to make lots of improvements. They did it because they believed in the community that they were working with. And so I'm asking if you guys have any interest in that.

We're more than happy to work with staff on design elements like the mid-block crossing and we have been to make sure that those are safe and effective. So we're more than happy to do that and we'll continue to do it. I don't have that construction detail here tonight. We have our civil engineer on and our transportation engineer if they want to comment on whether that's a raised area refuge or if it's just curved. I don't know.

To the mayor, I'd like that. If that's your question. Yes, and if staff could bring up for us the picture, the image, because we do traffic homing in the city. Our budget is $20. $3 million compared to the $32 million. And so we do what we can. We often use paint because it's less expensive for us. But paints or thermoplastic is a good way to do calming. But what I'm referring to are the hashed areas there in the middle of the street, as pictured here, where you exit the freeway just before you get to the entrance of the project site where folks will enter and exit. Because the raised do better. We can't always afford them as a city. But that's my question.

i don't know if gary if you want to address that or jason neary from civil we could recognize we would have to design it at the base here but i you know we'll have to go through what works for the design and what works for the traffic flow through this corridor but we're willing to do that with staff and make sure that it's safe and effective to walk on so i'm just going to make sure that our city management that is captured the way we need to capture it is that we're that we can

that we're willing to work through that to enhance it, because I think that's important. I sit on the Traffic and Public Safety Subcommittee, so we discuss these issues, these high, this is one of those areas. A member of the public mentioned lighting. The reason the lighting is so far away, and we have an asphalt sidewalk, is because the city put that sidewalk in, and we don't have the funds to do a concrete sidewalk, which you see most places throughout the city. The lights that we chose are not part of our normal plan, it's what we could afford to make it as safe as we could, which is why I asked the question. I know the mayor and I disagree on that, but extending the sidewalk in preparation for whatever else comes. Because again, I don't know you're going to get teenagers to cross the street, walk up the street, and cross the street again. They're going to cowpath it anyway, is my opinion. But let's set the sidewalk aside with what I'm calling the traffic calling measure. It would be great if we can get something that is structurally there as opposed to just thermoplastic or paint.

Yeah, we're definitely willing to look into that and figure out if it's feasible. I don't know at this point.

The island would have a raised curb. It's not just paint.

That was one of my questions there. Okay. I think that's what I have to ask. Okay. Yeah, appreciate it.

So, yes, Mr. Tittle, I actually like this development. I think it's good. I think it appeals to a certain sort of person, maybe not someone with a lot of children, maybe a worker who's got a smallish car and is going to go and work or work from home and so forth. They may not want to live here forever, but it may serve a purpose for a period of time. I think we've expressed some interest in knowing more about what's going to happen on the traffic and the driveways, and so we'd like to see some closer designs as you move forward with the project, because we're all concerned about safety there. So if I can express that.

Understood, and I appreciate the vote of confidence in the development. We would request that you authorize staff to work with us on those details, because they'll... they'll be best to work through the specifics on those.

Okay.

Madam Mayor? Yes, please. So I think the council would like to see what this is though, right? And that might be through the Planning Commission, I will yield that, but I think we'd like to see what the final product is before it's built. So staff usually can do, I think it's 10%, I trust staff to know the numbers of an adjustment they can do, but I think this is important that the community would like to know what to expect. So we have to do that in some type of a public forum.

And when you say the final product, what are you referring to specifically?

The issues we talked about are the whole safety aspect, right, is what we've been talking about. So it's the lighting, it's the crosswalk, how that ties in with the median, just that final product. Because we don't have that in front of us that I'm aware of.

There are various conditions, if I may. Council member through the mayor there are various conditions of approval that come into play here including I believe the requirement for new street lighting along the new stretch of sidewalk.

Is that not correct?

Yeah, the city standard for sidewalks include street lighting so they would there would be new lighting, you know for the Sidewalk on the northern side that connects directly from the project to Safeway distance of just a few hundred feet without crossing any streets

And I believe you, just for clarification, I'm looking at the conditions of approval, the attachment, and I didn't see that, but maybe I'm, again, we had quite a thick packet for this, because it was 36 pages plus the other attachments.

The conditions of approval are Exhibit A.

Correct. And which one is that one with the lighting? Because I have what's labeled draft conditions of approval, emblem, her... Am I looking at the right one?

Yeah. Yeah. I don't have the entire packet here, so I can't give you the number of the condition, but I think the city engineer could confirm that this has been discussed and the standard and the condition were written to incorporate that requirement.

Yeah, I think it might take a long time to figure this out. It appears to me that in principle, are you willing to work with us on a lot of these safety issues and work with staff?

Yes.

Yes. And if we find that there is something that doesn't work for the commuter we think might be dangerous, you'd be willing to work with staff to solve the issue so that we don't have... Safety problems.

We're willing to work with staff to make sure that this mid block crossing is designed in a safe manner That serves the public so that it's functional and safe Okay, mr. Rood.

I would direct your attention to condition of approval 38 public access and rights-of-way Well, that's the final map and then subsection a improvements within the city right-of-way this relates to maintenance funding annexation to lighting and lighting and Number 40 Hercules standard drawings and design policy for public works shall be the project specifications except as modified and approved by the vesting tentative map or final PDP City reserves the right to upgrade add to or revise said specifications subject to owners vested rights

So we're saying it's condition 38 and then condition 40. Is that what I just heard? Okay, it's on the record. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Okay, so any other comments here? Council Member Grimsley?

I want to echo the Mayor and one of our speakers, at least one of our speakers, in saying to you, I like the development itself. It looks like it has a lot of potential to be really great for, as the Mayor said, certain kind of individuals who want to live in a certain kind of development if I were younger and single I'd probably be interested but I all want to I want to say that I hear you say that you're willing to work with the city addressing the concerns we heard tonight regarding traffic safety for both pedestrians and vehicles we heard noise safety concerns we heard health safety concerns and It's our job as representatives for the city to make sure that the concerns, the real life concerns of our residents who have friends and family members who may be interested in moving into one of these new homes, to make sure that they're going to be comfortable, that they're gonna be safe, and that those of us moving around the structure, both while it's in construction and once it's developed, that we are going to be safe. Our family members are going to be safe. Our children are going to be safe. And so all of that is what you're hearing in our comments this evening. We really want to make sure that we're doing, for lack of a better phrasing, we're doing right by our community. So we're being asked tonight to approve for our city staff to continue working with you. And so I'm going to trust when you say that you're going to work with us, that that means taking into consideration all the things that we've heard here this evening. So, thank you.

Could I be recognized?

Yes. Thank you, Councilmember Grimsley. I would just like to say to all the Councilmembers, I think most of the concerns, if not all the concerns that have been brought up this evening are contained in the conditions of approval for us to work with staff to make sure those things are incorporated. Traffic safety, public safety, health concerns due to air quality, all those things that you brought up are covered in the conditions. We are more than willing to work with the city through submitting our plans and getting plan check and make sure all those things are incorporated, the mechanical ventilation, for the concerns that were brought up earlier. I think you have a package before you with conditions of approval that cover all of those things, so I'm not sure what another hearing would accomplish at this point.

Yes, Council Member Bailey.

Yeah, I just like to be clear about what the asks are. So the community has some, we're being specific. So we know, because some of us have been former planning commissioners, that staff has to go with what's there, whereas council can ask for more, and that's what we're doing here. We're asking for those enhancements. So I do see, as the community development director just showed, 38 and 40, those are minimums, but I was expressing, I was repeating what the community has said, which is sometimes they like us to go above. I'm not sure two flashing lights each side are going to slow down traffic because they don't do it on sycamore avenue for example right um so that those are the things we're bringing up so yes we understand those are minimums um we're asking that as a partner you you may do more if that's what the community is asking in these areas uh that were very clearly um spoken by councilmember grimsley so i want to just clarify we don't think they're not there we're asking for the enhancements of them and so i just want to share that piece i'm not asking you to You can if you like, but that was my, just wanted to clarify that.

Okay. And I guess when I'm standing here this evening, I'm not gonna commit to enhancements that I don't know what they are or what the scope of those are or the cost of those. So we are willing to work with staff. We're willing to work with the conditions of approval that we have that incorporate all of these safety measures. And I don't know that I would come back here to another hearing and have, like, some grand plan for enhancing the mid-block crossing. It's safe as it's designed right now with the flashers. If there's something else that we can do minimally to make it better, we will do that. But it's, you know, it kind of is what it is. Yeah.

Yes. Thank you. Yes. All right. Vice Mayor?

Thank you again. just speaking as a representative of this city i think that it would uh behoove the the groups to come back and talk to the talk to residents and actually hear their hear their issues i mean um hearing the voices in the crowd and chatter online i think that'll be great and then also this is going to be a partnership that's one thing that partners do we talk to each other thank you um

Yes, is there someone from the developer who wants to address something? Thank you. And then I want to bring it to council. We do have a resolution before us.

And so to that point, the applicant is asking for action tonight on the application because, as you were informed in your staff report, this project does comply with all objective standards. You've heard that we're willing to work with staff under the Housing Accountability Act. You do have a limited number of hearings we can have. There is not a basis to deny this project in the packet before you. We are meeting all quantifiable objective safety standards. The applicant has worked arm in arm with staff to make sure this crossing is safe and to, as Nathan said, if this was to come back, there's not going to be a new design from scratch on that crossing. What you're seeing tonight is generally what is going to work and refinements to be made But the delay for delay is not what we're looking for tonight because I think what we're going to have is the same project before you if we were to be continued. And so we're asking for action tonight because we don't see a basis to deny under the Housing Calendly Act or Crisis Act or Builder's Remedy. So I'd appreciate that consideration.

Thank you. I think that was the partnership part that we just heard, so thank you.

Okay, all right, thank you. So, council, we do have a resolution before us in the packet, so I'm asking would someone like to make a motion?

I'll make a motion.

Yes, please.

yes madam mayor i'd like to make a motion for the city the hercules city council a resolution of the city council the city of hercules approving an addendum to the hercules new town center environmental impact report design review promoting dpr number 25-04 vesting tentative mav btm 25-02 and combined initial and final plan development pdp number 25-02 for 180 unit multi-family residential development emblem berkeley's apartments located at 1601 little avenue aka the loop site on the assessor's parcel number 406 that's 70-42-6 okay motion by walker griffin is there a second then i will second that seconded by kelly any discussion

I do like the fact that I think that what I will add to is that I think the city has, over the past 20 years or so, since 2000 or so, more than 20 years, fought to have this affordable housing component in projects, and we've done that throughout the city. So the mix of this, I think, does hit that goal. I know the goals are changing, but that was a goal expressed from my parents' generation here, and we've heard that expressed here from Deus. So I... Do you like that component? I don't like the imposition of the program on itself. So I just want to just communicate that. And that's all I have. Thank you for discussion.

Okay. So we do have a motion before us and a second. Any other discussion? Can I have a roll call vote, please? Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor.

yes please before we roll call vote would uh through the mayor might i um just provide a bit of advice sure we heard um you know this evening uh that and as is you know detailed in your staff report the city has limited discretion to deny this project we also are subject to the hca's five meeting limit so counted the planning commission meeting and this meeting tonight we're at two meetings for this project And we do have three more to reconsider. As the applicant said, they do want action this evening. But I would remind you that if you do vote on this motion and the motion failed, We don't have findings on the record to support a denial of this project at this time. You would have to make specific findings that there are adverse health and safety impacts to the community that the project creates. If you are going to vote on this motion, I just want you to consider the fact that we would want to put findings on the record if you are going to subsequently actually deny the project. If the motion maker might want to reconsider bringing the project back at a future meeting, once the applicant team, I know they have requested action this evening, but if they are willing to come back with some adjustments to those conditions of approval that were mentioned on the record, it may be prudent for the council to consider that motion instead of one that might fail and that might be considered a de facto denial without those findings that I mentioned.

Thank you for that clarification. I will ask the maker of the motion if he would be open to that.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. To our city attorney, I would be open to that motion. I share the same sentiments as you. I do believe that In the situation that we're in right now, this would be the way for us to basically control things, right? And not put ourselves in a situation where the findings aren't there, they use builder's remedy, and then they go out the reins of what Hercules residents would actually wanna see with that. So I would like to use the language that you mentioned.

Sure. And if you have a more specific right now, I think staff and I'll look at our community development director. But what I've written down is that you were concerned about the lighting condition of approval 38. And then I also noted condition of approval 56 actually addresses that specific mid block pedestrian crossing. If there are specific changes to those conditions of approval that the council would like to discuss to provide direct Feedback on those conditions that might be helpful for the applicant if we were to bring the project back with some specific direction on those conditions They can go with you know, please work with staff to make it safer I think you know, that's a little bit of direction But if you had anything else specific if the council had anything else specific I think it would be helpful to know for conditions 38 and 56 what you're looking for

So the maker of the motion madam city attorney the bacon motion is now Withdrawn that and you've mentioned a few things sure and if you could go back to council discussion then and if you would like to provide some specific feedback on conditions 38 and 56 and

and then you can direct staff to work with the applicant.

Okay, so we'll bring that back. I'm just going to interject here. One thing I would like to see from the transportation expert is just a design of the roadway, something just clear to look at. And I think that that might help make clear where the ingress and egress are and so forth, and also the pedestrian crossing. And I see the attorney wants to speak.

If it is the council's direction to continue this hearing, I would ask for a date certain.

I think we could provide you with a date certain, yes. Okay. So other, more comments here?

It's for under discussion?

We are under discussion, correct.

For 56 on the crossing, again, I think the staff part, I think they know how to do it. What I would reference is the public safety and traffic subcommittee discussed ways of doing this where you kind of have to walk in and you kind of make a turn when you do it so people don't just walk across and end up being hit by the other side of traffic. If we could look at how we could apply that. I'm seeing nods, so I think we know what I'm referring to. I don't know what it's called, but we've reviewed that at that subcommittee. It'd be nice to see that. The enhanced sidewalk, I'd like to see it. I think that means the wide bars, but it would be good to know that's what we're talking about under item 50, I think we said it was 56.

Okay, thank you. Is there any other comments here by council? In terms of a date certain, Mr. City Manager, what do you think, or City Attorney, what would be suitable?

I would think the month of June, one of the meetings coming up, we have possibly the first meeting in July. We have a recess in August, so you don't want to extend into that period of time. I think if the traffic subcommittee is going to weigh in, then clearly that needs to be factored in as far as scheduling. So I would suggest maybe the second meeting in June or the first meeting in July.

I would agree. And I think that that could be done. So at, yes.

If I can ask a question. So we're just going to continue this meeting. We're not, because it's the same meeting. Correct. Yes, we're not correct. So we're still at two at that point. Okay.

And so in terms of a date certain, I think we could say the second meeting in June or the first meeting in July and no later than the first meeting in July to bring this public hearing back. And in the meantime, then we will discuss this.

Apparently there's a traffic subcommittee meeting scheduled for June 24th.

Yeah, and I would just remind everybody that, so we have three meetings left under the, so if the traffic subcommittee meets, we're going to go, that will be the third meeting. And then we would have two meetings, you know, left to approve this project when it would come back. So I just want us to all be aware of sort of the five meeting limit.

Okay, so there would be a traffic meeting, and then there would be another meeting, which would be the fourth meeting here, which would either be the second meeting in June or the first meeting in July. Is that suitable for?

It's suitable, and if, Mayor, if you feel that the traffic subcommittee doesn't need to chime in, we can just have that discussion in one of these meetings. I'm open to that. I don't want to waste air quality.

Yeah, I think we could just have that here. We don't have to necessarily have that. Okay, so if that suits, yes.

Yeah, that is suitable, Madam Mayor, but I would like to also have conversations with you, Madam Mayor, and or our city staff with regard to other concerns that we heard voiced here tonight in advance of that June 24th meeting.

Ms. City Attorney, do we have to be specific? I don't think we can just make this completely open, right? We should just continue it to a date certain. Okay, we'll continue it to a date certain. Second meeting in June? Let's say the second meeting in June. That gives us some time. Second meeting in June. Is that suitable? Do we need to vote on this? Yes, please. Okay. Do you want to make a motion, Mr. Vice Mayor?

Sure, Madam Mayor. I'd like to make a motion to extend the conversation around the Hercules Inland Apartments to the second meeting in June, the date being, I don't know what that date would be.

The 23rd, June 23rd.

The June 23rd Berkeley City Council meeting.

Okay, is there a second to that? Second. Okay.

Just so I can clarify, we're gonna provide direction to staff to work with the applicant team to revise those two conditions of approval to the council's liking. Is that the appropriate direction to staff? Yes.

Great. Could the council provide any additional direction on what type of changes are required? I don't feel like I have enough to go on to know how to change it.

So with respect to the crosswalk, I think that our public works director knows what I'm referring to, but there's a type of, we've talked about it in the city as a need, we just don't have the cost, we don't have the money to do this in other areas, but there's a way of doing an island of refuge that makes it safer in the middle, so we want to look at that. That's what I've

Okay, and might I if I might just point out the current wording of the condition The owner shall construct a mid block crossing consistent with the preliminary plan line dated January 2026 Submitted to the city that provides a safe and direct connection to the pedestrian walkway on the south side of Willow Avenue The crossing shall include high visibility striping, pedestrian warning signage, ADA compliant curb ramps, and additional pedestrian safety enhancements such as rectangular rapid flash beacons, refuge islands, lighting, or other measures deemed necessary by the public works director based on the city's traffic engineering review.

Understand and through the city manager what we're saying is we want council to be involved with that So understand that that's what it says. I think there's no one the applicant has said that some multiple times What we're saying is that council would like to see this so we'd like to be involved So the items you discussed first of all, we didn't see images of them which is often submitted with plans, right? I didn't see that. I saw a black and white picture, a very poor image, not provided by staff, but provided by the developer. We like to see what we're looking at, right? Other programs, we see the brick, the brick color, and we can touch the brick if we're putting brick on the side of a building. So we like to see what we're talking about so that we all understand what we're giving the community because we will be here when the developer has finished their project.

And Mr. Rudd, if I can just say, just a clear design, a larger design from the traffic engineer would be very, very helpful. And I think that that would help council understand what is being proposed.

Thank you. That's helpful. Were there other specific exhibits that the council wanted to see when this comes back?

there was communication about lighting so just you know again when we do just when I was a planning commission we did design review we knew exactly what we were expecting to see because there was images of those items presented to us so just so the community knows what they're expecting if they have questions they can then ask and provide feedback during the public comment section okay What I'm not clear on is, I'm not the mayor, and I respect that we have a mayor here, but we have one at a time, but Council Member Grimsley had a question about an item, and I don't know that we've included that in this packet, because it won't be, I think as I understand, it will not if we don't discuss it here in this motion. So I just want to make sure everybody got what they wanted included.

Council Member Grimsley?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Bailey. We heard some concerns tonight with regard to the the proximity to the freeway and the noise impact, particularly with respect to the freeway-facing terraces to the units. We also had concerns expressed about health and safety impact with respect to individuals who may have health concerns like asthma or the like caused by the pollution from the freeway and the surrounding area. So if those could just be clarified, highlighted, and if there can be mitigation so that we are Again, doing our best to provide for our community or the new residents who are choosing to live there the safest possible environment.

So, Mr. Rood, maybe just a more detailed kind of explanation of the noise and the fumes. Okay, I think that basically covers it. Council, right? Okay, so that being said, we have a motion here. Can we have a roll call vote, please? Council Member Grimsley.

Aye. Council Member Butter, aye. Aye. Council Member Bailey. Aye. Vice Mayor Walker-Griffin. Aye. And Mayor Kelly.

Aye. Motion passes 5-0. Okay, so we have one more public hearing tonight, and that is compliance with Assembly Bill 2561, Public Agencies Vacancies. And Christy Carter, our HR manager, will be presenting this. This should be a quick item, I think. Welcome. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor Kelly, members of the Hercules City Council. Tonight I'll be presenting the city's annual AB 2561 workforce vacancy report. This report is required under California Government Code Section 3502.3 and is intended to promote transparency regarding public agency staffing, vacancies, and workforce trends. I'll be providing a brief overview of the city's workforce composition, vacancy data, and recruitment and retention efforts during the 2025 reporting period. We'll begin by taking a look at the city's workforce. As of December 31st, 2025, the city had 64 authorized full-time positions across five employee groups. The city manager position is contract-based and not included in this FTE count. Our two recognized employee organizations are the Teamsters Local 315 and the Hercules Police Officers Association. We also have three unrepresented employee groups, those being our mid-managers, executive level, and non-represented employees. Our employees provide operational support and essential services across all city departments. As of December 31st, 2025, the city had one vacancy out of 64 authorized full-time positions, representing an overall vacancy rate of approximately 1.56%. Overall, that is a very low vacancy rate, and it reflects the city's continued focus on recruitment, retention, and workforce stability. The sole vacancy was within the HPOA bargaining unit, while all other employee groups were fully staffed at the close of the reporting period. Although public agencies continue to experience recruitment and retention challenges statewide, the City of Hercules was able to maintain strong staffing continuity throughout the year. During 2025, the city conducted recruitment efforts for several positions across multiple departments and classifications. Notably, the city experienced very minimal turnover during the reporting period. The vacancies that did occur were primarily the result of a planned retirement and the addition of a newly budgeted full-time position, which will be depicted on the next slide. Recruitment efforts included online job postings, professional association outreach, targeted advertising, and the use of government recruitment platforms to attract. qualified candidates. The city continues to maintain strong workforce retention due to its proactive strategies and culture of support. During the calendar year 2025, the city's retention rate was 94%, which is the same as it was last year. A high retention rate typically indicates strong employee satisfaction and organizational stability. The city's retention and vacancy metrics compare favorably to broader public sector workforce trends currently being experienced by many California local agencies. In addition to recruitment efforts, the city continued to prioritize employee retention and workforce stability during the 2025 calendar year. Retention efforts focused on supporting employees, maintaining organizational continuity, and investing in workforce development despite ongoing staffing limitations and the operational challenges that can come with being a smaller agency. The city continued to provide training and professional development opportunities, leadership development initiatives, employee engagement efforts, and wellness-related programs aimed at supporting employees and strengthening retention. While the city continues to operate with lean staffing levels, the organization experienced very minimal turnover during the reporting period, which helped maintain continuity of services and organizational knowledge across departments. And that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions you may all have. Thank you very much. That was great. Any questions here?

I just want to thank staff for the report. I work with labor a lot, and to see this number, this is smaller than most cities. I could tell you some stories about the city of Oakland. So thank you very much. Appreciate the report.

Pleasure. Any other questions or comments here? No. Thank you very much for the report. Really appreciate it. Pleasure. Okay, so now we move on. We have a consent calendar with two items. Does anyone care to pull an item?

Madam Mayor? Yes. I'd like to make a motion that we approve the consent calendar as is. Second.

Okay, motion by Bailey, seconded by Walker-Griffin. Any discussion? Can we have a roll call vote, please?

Councilmember Grimsley. Aye. Councilmember Butter, aye.

Aye.

Councilmember Bailey.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Walker-Griffin. Aye. And Mayor Kelly.

Okay, so now we're moving on to our first discussion and our action item. Here is something you've all been waiting for, and that is housing asset fund recommendation to Community Housing Works for Bayline. And I'd like to start with Mr. City Manager.

Madam Mayor I would just like to make clear that the five million dollars that is an issue here is not general fund monies this is housing asset funds and it's primarily derived from loan repayments related to homeowner and developer loans issued by the former redevelopment agencies so again it must be used only for housing and it is not general fund monies Should council direct staff to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement or ENA with CHW, staff will return to council at a future date with a draft ENA for approval. So this would not be the last time you'd see this item. With that, I'll turn it over to our Economic Development Director for a full presentation.

Thank you. Mr. Rood?

Good evening, Mayor and Council. This item is coming back from your last meeting where the three proposals for the city's Housing Asset Fund Award were presented along with the analysis of SAME. Tonight, we're coming back with the staff recommendation based on the analysis that was previously presented. Due to some technical hiccups last time, though, we are going to give you the whole presentation again. And after I've finished the staff presentation, our consultant, Mark Sawicki from RSG, will present their findings in detail. The city serves as the housing successor to the former redevelopment agency, and the housing successor's low- and moderate-income housing asset fund had a $6.2 million cash balance on June 30, 25. This balance is primarily from loan payments related to homeowner and developer loans issued by the former redevelopment agency. Housing asset funds are reserved for the development of new affordable housing units and they are subject to numerous restrictions including at least 30% of the funds must be spent assisting extremely low income rental households earning 30% or less of the area median. No more than 20% may be spent on low income households earning 60 to 80% of area median. Moderate and above moderate income households above 80% AMI may not be assisted with housing asset funds. And no more than 50% of rental units assisted by any city funding source are restricted for seniors. All affordable housing units developed with this funding source must be income-restricted for at least 55 years, and all deed-restricted affordable units within city limits that are created are subject to the city's affordable housing policy. The city issued a notice of funding availability, or NOFA, in October 2025, inviting developers to submit proposals to develop affordable housing, utilizing up to five million in housing asset funds. Three proposals were received, as reviewed at the last meeting, Community Housing Works, Satellite Affordable Housing Associates, and Eden Housing. Before we get into the evaluation, I want to share some context regarding these projects and the city's housing plan and commitments made when the council adopted the current housing element in January 2025. The city's regional housing needs allocation requires it to accommodate and facilitate the development of 539 units of low and very low income housing, as well as 433 units of moderate and above moderate income housing, all in the next five years. In the first three years of the current eight-year cycle during which we were engaged in lengthy negotiations with the State Department of Housing and Community Development over the certification of our housing element, we only produced four affordable units. So we have a long way to go. We only produced 22 units overall in the first three years of the eight-year cycle, and only four of those were affordable. Fulfilling the Reno goal would require the development of about 175 new units every year for the next six years. That's about the size of the waterfront KLMPO project approved last year. So the three projects that were proposed through the NOFA together would add, if all three were funded, would only add about 240 new affordable units. That would still leave a gap of about 300 more affordable units needed. So to fulfill our RHNA goals, we would need all three of these projects plus three or four additional affordable developments of similar scale to be built within the next six years. Further, staff and RSG evaluated each of these proposals based on the criteria described in the NOFA, including developer qualifications and experience, financial capacity, alignment with community and housing element goals as expressed in the adopted housing element, project readiness and economic viability, and project eligibility and affordability. uh... several of the housing element policies and programs informed the funding solicitation and the evaluation of the proposals received Policy 1.5 encourages the development of new special needs housing for seniors, single parents, families, large families, the disabled, including those with developmental disabilities, and extremely low households. Policy 1.6, use density bonuses and other incentives to facilitate the development of new housing for extremely low, very low, and low income households in conformity with state law. Policy H4.5, encourage housing construction or alteration to meet the needs of residents with special needs, such as the elderly and disabled. Program H4-1, housing for persons with special needs. By 2026, develop a program to prioritize city funding proposals should funding become available or identified to affordable housing developments that are committed to supporting special needs residents. e.g. farm workers, elderly, homeless, and people with disabilities, including developmental. The housing funding solicitation that the city issued was designed to prioritize housing for populations with special needs in pursuance of this housing element policy. And the program further calls for the city to provide opportunities and encourage the development of housing for residents with special needs by supporting affordable housing development for special needs groups with the goal of creating 35 units of special needs housing within the planning period. Finally policy H 1.3 calls for the city to establish partnerships with private developers and nonprofit housing corporations to assist Hercules in meeting its housing goals and and to provide incentives for both the public and private sectors to produce or assist in the production of affordable housing with emphasis on housing affordable to persons with disabilities, seniors, large families, female-headed households with children, and people experiencing homelessness. policy h 1.1 calls for the city to facilitate development of housing affordable to lower-income households by providing technical assistance regulatory incentives and concessions and financial resources as funding permits So all of these policies were considered and included in the development of the NOFA. It was issued in October. We held a pre-bid conference with interested parties. Proposals were received in January. And the timeline that was indicated to proposers was that the recommendation would be presented to council in March or April of 2026. I know many of the applicants were present at the last meeting and CHW's staff is here as well and will be available for questions. So Bayline's, CHW's proposal, Pardon me is for a modified version of its Bayline project on Bayfront Boulevard waterfront blocks F&G This is not this this is a reduced project from the one that was presented at the community meeting and In June 2025, after that meeting and conclusion of the required tribal consultation for SB 35, Community Housing Works revised their design to reduce the building height from five stories to four stories, the amount allowed by the WDMP standards, and thereby reduce the number of units from 107 to 83. CHW went through the full SB 35 process, applying for ministerial approval under Senate Bill 35, This bill aims to accelerate housing construction and requires ministerial non-discretionary approval for qualified multi-family developments with 10 to 50% affordable units. However, the city denied the SB35 application in March because the site does not meet one of the requirements under SB35 for streamlined ministerial approval. Less than 75% of the perimeter of the site abuts land developed or previously developed with urban uses as defined in the government code. That does not include industrial uses such as the dynamite plant. CHW may, and my staff's understanding is that they do plan to resubmit the project under the standard discretionary review process, and such a project may qualify for other streamlining provisions under state law. such as State Density Bonus, SB 330, the Housing Crisis Act, as amended by SB 8 and AB 2018, many of the state streamlining provisions that came into play on the project previously considered. And staff has provided CHW with a detailed comment letter to inform future submittals. So while all of the projects and developers are worthy of support, staff and RSG recommend funding one project, versus splitting the five million award between multiple projects. This approach better ensures that the funded project will be more competitive for other key funding sources and thus have a higher chance of successful and timely development. There is no fixed timeline for the city to disperse the housing asset funds. However, many of the housing programs that I mentioned have timelines tied to them, including the funding priority by 2026 provision. And with that, I'd like to invite, at long last, Mark Sawicki from RSG to come up and present the findings in detail.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and council members. Mark Sawicki with a firm called RSG. We do consulting work for cities across California, mostly housing work, also economic development, real estate economics. We have been engaged with the city of Hercules. We were asked to take a look at these three different proposals. If you could advance the slides. This is just a recap of some of the things that Tim said, but one of the things I did want to point out, though, the housing asset funds are unique. These are former redevelopment agency funds. Some of the rules and guidelines for these funds, at least 30% must be spent assisting extremely low income rental households, that would be households that earn 30% or less of AMI, and no more than 20% may be spent on low income households earning 60 to 80% of AMI. They can be used to assist senior units if no more than 50% of the rental units assisted by any city funding source are restricted to seniors. They will come with deed restrictions of 55 years. And yes, so if you could advance. The proposal evaluation criteria that we used was that which was in the RFP, financial capacity of the developers, alignment with housing element and community goals, as Tim mentioned, project readiness and economic viability. I'll get into a little detail of what we look at for that. Project eligibility and affordability levels. We also look at their cost assumptions. We look at their pro formas, their development pro forma. How much are they spending to construct these units? And then we look at their long-term cash flow to see what's their estimation of how this project will pencil out going forward. The rents are limited. They have to be able to cover costs, though, and they have to be able to pay their debt service. So those are the things that we look at. Compliance with California and federal funding requirements and rent limits. They're going to be going after a variety of sources of funding. They need to meet those requirements, and we take a look at that as well. If you could advance. Some additional review factors. We look at the number of affordable units they're providing and particularly the ones that are at the deepest levels of affordability. Again, that's where these funds need to be targeted. A proposal that provides a lot of units at 30% AMI or less should score higher. We look at the number of new residents based on bedroom counts. So they could be studios, they could be one, two, three bedrooms. The larger units are obviously gonna provide for a larger population. So that's something that we look at. How many people are you able to serve with your funds? We look at progress towards your RHNA allocation, as Tim mentioned, that's important, as well as your other housing element goals. We look at the income and age limit restrictions because it's this local housing fund source. Again, as I mentioned, positive cash flow projections covering expenses and debt service. And then timeline, how ready are they to move forward? Do they have site control? Do they have other funding commitments? What is their development application status? All of the projects and developers are worthy of support. All of these developers have considerable experience and reputations. All the projects provide additional housing that's needed at varying levels of affordability. All the projects are projected to be completed at a reasonable development cost. That was expected. When we look at these proposals, these are all reputable developers. We would expect nothing less. Ideally, if you had $15 million, you could give each of them $5 million. You'd have three great projects, but unfortunately you don't. You're going to need to choose one. And we do recommend that you choose one, not split the money between three. That may seem great to split it, but it's not helpful to the developers. They're going to have to raise the rest of that money somewhere. That may be something to consider. You could talk to each of the developers and ask them. But generally, it's not the best way to move forward. They will be more competitive. It will help them get other funding to show that they have this large sum from the city rather than a small amount. They'll have a better chance of success and can move forward. There is a NOFA from the state that's out right now. this gives them a chance to go after that big pools of money. We recommended the CHW Bayline Apartments proposal for the following reasons. They do provide the deepest level of affordability. Again, that's something that these funds are targeted for, so we gave that a high ranking. They serve the highest number of new residents based on bedroom count. There are larger units, One of the other proposals is more of a senior project with a lot of smaller units, so it will serve a smaller population. They will produce 82 units that count towards your arena goal. They meet the housing asset fund expenditure limits for income level and age restrictions. They meet certain housing element goals. They have a projected positive cash flow, and they are the furthest along in development application efforts having submitted something previously, and they have control of their site. Last council meeting, we did go through these in detail. I am happy to walk through them again, but.

I don't think that's necessary.

Okay, and you have that in your packet, okay. Okay.

Just in conclusion, I'd like to clarify a couple of points. None of these projects have an active development review application, and you are not being asked to opine on or review or approve the projects tonight. You may certainly opine on them if you wish, but that's not the subject of this item. Moreover, you're not committing the funds tonight. You would be directing staff to enter into negotiations with csw an exclusive negotiating agreement developed with the help of outside counsel would be brought back to you for approval and at that point the negotiations would begin and then the final award would also come back to council for approval so The city can feel confident that the projects described in the three applications are what the funding is tied to and would be anticipated to be substantially similar to those projects and not some completely different project. The council would have the option then not to approve the funding. Second, questions have arisen about, you know, could this funding go to individual homeowners to build ADUs? No, that is not an eligible use of these funds. The units produced, you know, have to meet all those requirements and to be deed restricted. And, you know, it's far more feasible to negotiate with one party than to enter into this kind of complicated legal arrangement. with multiple parties, which is also part of the reason for recommending that our relatively limited amount of funding, $5 million sounds like a lot of money, but a project like any of these is going to cost in the high tens to low hundreds of millions to build. So we might be contributing less than 5% of the overall project development cost. And then finally these projects all you know, the funding was all applied for by nonprofit affordable housing developers that are mission driven and that aim to create development to Serve the needs of California's diverse population so they are it's not a profit driven enterprise and Finally, as a publicly supported construction project, it is staff's understanding that prevailing wage would be required for the projects should they proceed forward. So this concludes the staff presentation. I believe many of the applicants are here tonight if the council has questions for them.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Ruud, and Mrs. Swick, you can sit down now. I understand that we're not under any time constraint to award these funds, is that correct?

That is correct, other than the fact that various programs in the housing element have timelines tied to them, and we are required to report annually on our progress to HCD on each of these programs. We got a clean report accepted this year. Should this drag on too long, I think we would have to explain to HCD why we issued a citation, but then we're not able to actually proceed through to an award. But yes, to answer your question, there is no fixed timeline.

And the reason I say that is because this is the first time in a very long time since redevelopment went away that Hercules might have the opportunity to award some restricted funds for affordable housing developments. And I'm beginning to think maybe it would be a good idea to have a community meeting about this. I've got some thoughts on that, and I will share that later. Before we move ahead, does the developer want to make some initial comments or are they just here to respond? Thank you. Please come up and identify yourself. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for having me. I'm Jose Flores, a senior project manager at Community Housing Works. And so I just want to speak a little about CHW and the project and happy to answer any questions. CHW has been a nonprofit developer for over 35 years. We have properties all over California and Texas with over 12,000 residents, 54 communities across. The closest one here is in Concord. Currently, we're building out our footprint. We have over 280 units in SF being built, over 200 in Oakland, and we hope if we get to be in agreement with the City of Hercules, this would be our next one. Bayline is a very exciting project. It's very close to my heart that we get to support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I'm hoping we still have our east Bay Regional partner on the line to answer any questions regarding residents and services. But we just think that overall, all our properties combine not just the housing, but services for our residents. And we think that when working with IDD population as well, we can actually provide supportive housing for them and help them succeed in their life. And so happy to answer any questions on the project.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Flores. You can sit down. We're going to take some comment now. If this is okay with council to take some public comment. And Mr. City Manager or City Attorney, do you have anything to comment on? Okay, so we have some speakers here and I'll call your name. You will have three minutes to speak. The first one is Michael Kohler.

First one on the dance floor. Good evening, neighbors and council members. Appreciate you giving us the opportunity. Just a few days ago, Providence residents became aware of tonight's discussion and action regarding CHW Bayline $5 million award recommendation from RSG. Honestly, we were, upset, outraged, and just plain old surprised that the residents who were most impacted by this were not even notified, and more importantly, involved in the discussion. I appreciate you brought that up, that it was an opportunity moving forward. We would welcome that with open arms. The reasons behind CHW's previous denial of their SB 35 application have not been corrected. They may have revised the height, although I'm sure that my fellow residents would agree, not enough. But the 75% perimeter rule by way of review has not been resolved. For those who would like to know about the 75% perimeter rule, it requires at least 75% of the perimeter of such a new build to have urban surroundings. CHW's adherence failure of this requirement jeopardizes the already vulnerable population destined to reside in the build. There is no transportation center, no development, no work, and very importantly, no easy access to their needed healthcare. Our master plan of two decades is again being ignored. Building excessively tall structures around the promenade where I live and many of my fellow friends and residents live decreases the beauty and the draw of our beloved promenade here in Hercules. And what we're looking at is becoming the promenade prison surrounded by tall walls. You are our elected officials, you are our voice, you are the stewards of our dollars, whether they're tax dollars or dollars that are earmarked for special consideration. We ask that you not be silent and or facilitate a $5 million spend on one project. It was just before walking in here tonight, I was able to look at the project, the RFP, I do not agree with, I do that for a living. I do not agree with the findings that it's all best spent on one, especially considering our development director says we need to develop more than we're currently straight lining. We should not put all of our funds into one. We need to go for multiple opportunities to achieve our threshold. And only then can we maybe have a little better competition in the realm and not looking for how far can we build up to make as much money as possible. I appreciate your time.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Aracely Velazquez.

Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for this time, my fellow community and council members. So I am a homeowner in the waterfront. And I was just really appalled about, it just seemed super excuse me for being colloquial but shady to me that the news of this discussion came out i just found out about it and all of my um immediate neighbors that i spoke to didn't know anything about it they already had plans or they would be here tonight as well to urge you to vote no on this proposal. It's just upsetting for many reasons. I'm all for affordable housing, but I don't understand why you would want to go so high next to single family households and along this beautiful waterfront where you're basically blocking the view of so many people of that waterfront. When that doesn't, like you said, doesn't coincide with our city plan, that land could be used to really benefit the community with little retail shops and cafes, things that people can enjoy when they come to visit the waterfront. And to be locked in for 55 years is incomprehensible to me. And I can't understand why we're even considering supporting this when so many members of the community are against it. I'm not an activist. This is my first city council meeting that I've ever been to. And it's really, I think there would be many more people if people were allowed to know about it in advance. And it's actually really late. I saw a lot of my neighbors actually walk out because they just couldn't stay to have this discussion. But I just urge you to... not approve this because even just approving this motion, you're signaling support for something that so many people are vehemently against. And I would urge you to look for another site. Please, look for another site. We don't want this development in our neighborhood. I'm sure there's a more suitable site for what you're trying to do. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Ron Montoya. Is Ron here?

name is armand toya i'm also a a homeowner with that was my wife speaking and then she put me up to talk but i'm glad to talk which is basically um i was shocked to find out through my wife about this proposal going forward about the five million dollars and how it's being justified for one project when the community wasn't involved at all. At least I wasn't informed and we had to find out by walking our dog. Actually my wife did and look at something that was posted organically by one of the neighbors who came across some of this information. So I do agree that You know, I would like to have an input, and so would my neighbors, because when this was talked about previously, a lot of us were discussing the project itself, and I was not participating. But I thought that I had enough neighbors to, you know, say my voice. And it looks like now, I mean, we're not here to... have our voices heard if we're not able to speak by knowing that, you know, something like this is available for us to talk about. And, you know, one of the things that, you know, using ChatGPT and stuff, you look at, like, the housing unit over here. There's a website out there, you know, already saying that, you know, congratulations about Bayline. You got a $1.7 million, you know, um investment into them and then we're talking about just taking five million dollars and taking this one place and they for some reason i heard you know bayline was already chosen when i even had you haven't even had a discussion with the public yet or the community about making that decision about who to invest with and you know it sounds like i heard bayline recommended though then they you know, step back and say, oh, no, but you have the other ones that you can actually divide the money up with if you want to or give the $5 million to one of the other contractors. So sorry for my not speaking well, but... All I want to basically be is heard, just like my other neighbors. As my wife said, we went urgently. We had a meeting. The city council's going to be talking about distribution of money. And nobody could make it, not because they didn't really care. They already had other plans. So transparency, to me, really goes far, especially if I've had public representation. I work in health care. I used to work in health care. I'm retired now. But, you know, my job in health care would not be, you know, me to be asked whether I'm doing my job correctly because that was part of my job, meaning that I took care of the specimens. I made sure the specimens got out and it was correctly diagnosed. But I mean, the transparency was there showing that I actually did the work. And I just like that. I don't know what there's come to. I just like to have the transparency from the. I really do respect what you guys are doing, and I wanna get more involved now, so thank you.

Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Rob Schofenbill.

Good evening, Mayor Kelly and council members. My name is Rob Schoffenbill. I live at 1202 Ernest Street, and I'm a former planning commissioner here for the city of Hercules. There are two aspects of Community Housing Works Bayline proposal for this project that I genuinely commend. The first is I appreciate the decision to reduce the project down to four stories. Residents were very clear about our concerns regarding the proposed height and scale of the project. And I really appreciate the opportunity in the community meeting to speak to that and that CHW heard us and has proposed that change as well. Secondly, I strongly support the inclusion of the 21 units for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities through the partnership with RCEB. Providing supportive housing opportunities for these individuals is something that the community should be proud of. And I would welcome those residents to our community. However, supporting those goals means ensuring that we properly protect both those residents and the surrounding community. CHW's proposal references a partnership with RCEB and the potential placement of individuals discharged from California's state developmental centers. We all need to recognize that today, only one developmental center, Porterville, is still in operation. The reason Porterville is still in operation is because they are the only developmental center that houses forensic individuals, individuals who have been remanded into the state's care through the criminal justice system. PDC says on their own website that these individuals have multiple maladaptive behaviors, criminal offenses, assaults, self abuse, property destruction, drug abuse, sexual crimes, and other socially undesirable and antisocial behaviors. I used to work at PDC. This is an accurate description of that population. I want to be very clear, though. This is not about opposing housing for individuals with disabilities. It's about ensuring appropriate safeguards in place so that forensic placements from Porterville are not introduced into our community. In addition, with this proposed proposal, we move closer towards compliance with the Waterfront District Master Plan. However, CHW is still seeking concessions and waivers from the Waterfront District Master Plan. For example, the current parking layout appears inconsistent with the master plan's rear alley parking limitations, which restrict parking to one or both sides of certain alleys, not both. They have not even included that waiver yet in their previous SB 35 application, so we can expect more waivers to come. These plans must be fully vetted first. Why is the city considering awarding millions of dollars in public funding before the projects have completed the normal entitlement and public review process? The council must continue to ensure the Waterfront District Master Plan remains the guiding framework for development in the area. Thank you.

Thank you. The next speaker is Jeremy Lucero. And please correct me if I can't pronounce your name.

Good evening council members.

My name is Jeremy Lucero. I'm also the homeowner at 1202 Ernest. I'm here to speak regarding the proposed affordable funding recommendation presented by staff. And until my retirement last week I was actually the lead of the city of Hayward's planning division where I was the planning manager and served there I have over 30 years of planning experience, including reviewing affordable housing and NOFA applications. In Hayward, the highest scoring proposals were typically those that not only had secured their land use entitlement and environmental clearances, but they were also demonstrated compliance with the city's zoning general plan and any specific plans, and they were shovel ready. While applicants may seek NOFA at any time during the planning process, cities generally prioritize projects which are most likely to be successful, that align with adopted planning policies, and that demonstrate community support. my concern regarding staff's recommendation for chw project is that the applicant has not submitted the requirement application following the denial of the sb 35 so in fact according to the proposal and the response by rsg they're not any further ahead they're actually at the same exact place as eden and satellite which is why i think it's unfair that rsg would even propose that recommendation i would also say that the project does not as my husband pointed out appear to meet the objective standards of the rada front district master plan but if it has we wouldn't know because we were not included and i would have thought that the city council and staff and the community would have gotten the message loud and clear that community engagement and collaboration on a project as significant as this is essential and You need to be transparent, you need to be inclusive, and not what is going on here. If there's not an accurate statement and they are meeting that requirement, please let me know because that's not what I've been led to believe. Granted, in the end, CHW's project may still ultimately prove the strongest in the end. However, the community should have sufficient time to have meaningful input about how to use these public funds. Scheduling discussion immediately and following a three-day holiday weekend when many residents are traveling or planning their college graduation for their family is gonna limit public participation, and I'm not sure if that was intentional, but it's disappointing regardless. Given the significance of the potential five million funding commitment along with public feedback that you've already received and heard from many residents in the Bayfront neighborhood, I respectfully recommend that council number one delay entering any negotiations in the community has adequate time to provide support. hold a community meeting, as Mayor Kelly had suggested, and then reject any NOFA application when the project does not comply with objective standards and adopted plans. Developers should not be rewarded with a fat check and the use of public funds if they are not willing to honor the community's vision that have worked years to come to fruition. I would finally just end, because I know my time is up here, that affordable housing obligations are important, and they can be satisfied, but there needs to be a public process, and this isn't it.

The next speaker is Jonathan Astman.

Good evening. I'm Jonathan Astman, Director of Development at Satellite Affordable Housing Associates, or SAHA. I'd like to highlight, I think, seven points about our proposed Sycamore Crossing affordable development. My first point was regarding the estimated future number of residents. In determining that CHW's proposal serves the highest number of new residents, the city's consultant used the unconventional methodology of counting studios as half a person, but if we assume that a whole person will reside in each studio, Sycamore Crossing would house 22% more people. Additionally, SAHA's proposal includes 25 three-bedroom apartments compared to CHW's nine, so our proposal would do a much better job at serving larger families. Second, I'd like to highlight our proposal's deep affordability. As required by state HCD funding sources, incomes at SAHA's proposed Sycamore Crossing development will be at the very low income level on average, which is to say the incomes of the households living there on average will not exceed 50% of the area median. CHW's proposal has a similar average level of affordability of 49.3% of the area median. Third, I'd like to highlight SAHA's in-house non-profit property management company. At the May 12th City Council hearing, Mayor Kelly, you asked whether all of the developers will be managing their projects. Mr. Zwicky responded, that's his understanding. But I'd like to clarify that CHW proposes to use a third-party property manager that, unlike SAHA, SAHA Property Management is a for-profit company. My fourth point is Saha's local East Bay presence. Unlike Saha, both CHW and their proposed property management company are based in San Diego. Not surprisingly, the completed sample projects in CHW's NOFA response are in Southern California. My fifth point is we can move really quickly. If you like everything about our proposal, we can be ready to apply for entitlements in about four months. Not a big difference in the big picture, and even less when you consider that unlike the CHW project, we can use faster non-discretionary entitlements. I spoke in the prior hearing about all the great work our Resident Services Department does, so I don't need to repeat that. I would just note, our Resident Services operating budget line item includes nearly double the amount of CHWs, and you get what you pay for. My seventh, eighth, and ninth points are location, location, location. Sycamore Crossing is a great location. You all know Hercules better than I. Residents can walk to various bus stops, walk to the supermarket, restaurants, et cetera, unlike other locations that are fairly isolated and that may not be conducive to support everyday needs, especially for people with IDD who in general don't drive. So in conclusion, Sycamore Crossing is a big deal in more ways than one. I'm excited about its projected future number of residents, depth of affordability, and stellar site location, as well as SAHA's local presence, nonprofit model, and our ability to move quickly. Thank you yet again for your consideration, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. The next speaker is Adeline Chun.

council members um i'm adeline chen i'm a homeowner on promenade as well with a lot of my neighbors um thanks for um taking the time to listen to us i think that you know the first half of this meeting we saw what it felt like to be on our back foot to feel like something's being rammed through without any consideration any discussion so i think the citizens of hercules we have a choice We have a choice in this matter to determine who gets this money, what gets funded, how it gets funded, what it looks like, and how it fits into what we had planned. We get that choice this time. please give us that opportunity to have that. We need to have a community meeting to discuss this, to work with the developers, because we're not gonna not have development in the city. I don't think anyone is questioning that. But we have a choice, and we need to be proactive and not reactive, because the first half of the meeting, you already saw, they made the decision for us on what was considered safe without ever being someone who lived here who has driven down that off ramp so we know our community we know what we need we know what fits we know what the plan is that was thought out let's please have this discussion let's please be more transparent and let's find the best solution for everyone involved thank you thank you

Is this someone who wants to speak on this item? We can have you speak now, and then we'll go to our online speakers. And please state your name.

Yes, hi, good evening. My name is Waysha Song. I'm with Eden Housing, and I'm lucky last night. I didn't think I would be last, but thank you. So Eden Housing is one of the oldest and most experienced affordable housing nonprofit organizations in California with over 58 years of operation. Eden has developed, acquired, and rehabilitated over 12,000 affordable units and currently provides homes to more than 24 low-income families. and residents. As a mission-driven nonprofit, we serve low and moderate income families, seniors, and people living with disabilities. Eden Housing submitted a proposal for Victoria Green, which is an existing affordable housing community here in Hercules. Our proposal included adding 66 new units to the existing site, which includes 132 affordable units. The site proposed is right in the center of the community, meaning there is no impact to the surrounding neighbors. It's located in clean green open space that provides the ability to add more density to an existing affordable community. I would like to add that Eden Housing supports housing in general, especially the non-profit partners that are in the room. And I would like to say that no matter who you choose to fund, I think these are, I would reiterate staff and RSG's conclusion that these are all very important. suitable projects. However, if there is the opportunity to present to the community and to council the three proposals in front of you, we would like to have the opportunity to do so. Some of the highlights of the Eden Housing proposal is the fact that this will be an intergenerational community. Victoria Green, which Eden Housing built and has operated since 2004, has been an integral part of this existing community. And Eden Housing hopes to continue that legacy and provide additional homes for seniors to age in place and they can remain in the current community that they've lived for the last 20 years. I will like to address that some of the conclusions in the report that was shared last meeting had certain conclusions that we would like to clarify today, including the AMI restrictions and reviewing the project as simply a 66-unit new construction. opportunity. We see this as a combined 196 unit proposal and we hope to have the ability to present the full scope to everyone here tonight. So thank you for your time and happy to answer any questions if there are any. Thank you.

Thank you. And now I will ask our, it looks like there's another person who wants to speak on this item. And could you please state your name?

Good evening, my name is Terrell Kingwood. I'm a homeowner and I reside at 160 Overlook Terrace, 94547. and I'm a public policy advocate by trade, and I'm here tonight because we're faced with two decisions distinct to our city's housing asset fund, and the data clearly proves that one is superior for our families and taxpayers within the city of Hercules, While city staff recommends that CHW proposal, I urge you to vote no tonight into entering an exclusive negotiating agreement with CHW for $5 million in the housing asset funds. Instead, I urge you to support SAHA's Sycamore Crossing proposal. My hope is for this city leadership is intentionally designing Hercules to be a place where families can work, play, grow, and thrive, and feel safe. And I want to focus on three main points that reaffirm SAHA's as a clear choice. Point number one, SAHA's proposal demonstrates strong financial experience and capacity, and a quicker return on the city's $5 million investment, seven years versus 11 years. Point two, SAHA proposes to deliver greater quantity of units, a net positive of 20%, thus addressing the city's immediate need to provide more units to those that are needing houses. The third point, SAHA offers a historically proven track record of Bay Area regional affordable housing success. Minimizing the risk to our city's $5 million investment is key here, and SAHA boasts over 75-plus affordable housing communities within the Bay Area, housing roughly 4,000 individuals. This deep regional expertise and knowledge establish local presence and strong local partnerships are critical as we navigate this new development both pre and post development and ensuring the continuity success of this long-term property management success. For me, to any honest businessman, and to any honest elected official, the choice is pretty clear. SAHA's proposal offers a strong combination of fiscal responsibility, more housing units to help us reach those goals, and of course, a dependable development partner. Selecting SAHA ensures that our city receives that $5 million funds back on a quicker timeline, and I trust that this city council and leadership will make an educated, data-driven decision that benefits the families, the communities, and the citizens of Hercules. Thank you for your time, and thank you for your dedicated service.

Thank you. Ms. City Clerk, do we have speakers online? And if they could just state their names, it would be helpful, too.

Yes, I'll turn to my Zoom attendees. Could I have F.J. Schloss start, please?

Hi there, this is and just to be clear, it's not. I apologize. No, no worries whatsoever. The E does look like an F. I can see where the confusion came from. I serve as land use council for community housing works. I've represented them on various projects throughout the bay. And I'm proud to say that they are partners in the community and produce really great and well conceived affordable housing projects that integrate into their communities. I'm happy to talk a little bit about the recommended action at issue tonight before the city council, the action at issue tonight would neither approve any proposed project, nor even award funding to community housing works. The recommended action, but only direct staff to enter into negotiations with community housing works for the award of funding to support affordable housing development. Again, this is not an authorization to award the funds, which would come before the city council as a separate subsequent action. Should the negotiations proceed. City staff and the city's consultant never highlighted various key factors that support their recommendation to enter into negotiations with community housing works. Again, this is detailed in the staff report and the presentation. So, I would just urge the city council to kind of consider what they've done, because they've put in the hard work and the due diligence to really understand and analyze these 3 projects. And a lot of the issues that were raised tonight have all been carefully considered already by city staff and the city's consultant. So, I don't think anything race and I would be new to that. To the extent that the project is subject to, and under the city's discretionary review project, which is review process, I should say, which came up earlier tonight, the city would still retain the authority to approve. Conditionally approve, or even deny the project based on whether the findings applicable to the city's discretionary design review entitlement could be made. Those findings would allow the city to ensure that any project proposed would be in compliance with all pertinent provisions of the zoning code and general plan. Ensure that the project is in the best interest of the public health. Safety and general welfare would allow the city to review general site considerations. General architectural considerations and landscape considerations. All of this is a really long way of saying that the action before the city tonight is very limited in nature. Heard a lot of comments about the design and the process that would apply again. Those are not before the city council tonight. City staff and the city's consultant put in the hard work to understand these projects and make a recommendation. I would urge the city council to review their considerations carefully. And we really appreciate the time of both staff. The city's consultant and the city council regarding the project. Again, thank you and we appreciate the time.

Thank you next speaker. Susan Keith, please go ahead. Susan, please go ahead.

I'm trying to unmute. Can you hear me? Yes, yes, we can hear you. Go ahead. Okay. Thank you. I'm getting over a cold. Forgive me. My voice is a little rough. I'd like to implore you to deny the request to give community housing works 5Million dollars. For development, I consider inappropriate for the location selected. Surely you have other projects that would be better served by these funds. The projected development is not an infill development. Instead, the multi-story apartment buildings are stuck at the end of quiet residential streets. While I approve of their interest in working with the Regional Center of the East Bay to provide apartments suitable for supported living apartments for adults with developmental disabilities, there exists no meaningful safe access to public transportation that is crucial for that population. It is my understanding that the project would be built on the parcel currently used by the only bus serving that community as a turnaround location. That would effectively terminate that bus service, leaving the affordable housing tenants no access to public transportation. In addition, there are no meaningful amenities in existence within walking distance that would be available to any of the residents. oversized and out of scale development is basically isolated from services and shopping necessary for the well-being of the tenants the concerns regarding traffic congestion parking noise and impact on a quiet residential neighborhood have been well addressed by citizens to date these are not inconsequential concerns i implore you please reject this request This is an inappropriate development project that will not serve either the needs of the future residents or the needs of the City of Hercules. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker. Jeffrey Nogafuji, please go ahead.

Yes, good evening, everyone. My name is Jeff Nagafuji. I'm a manager of Specialized Services and Supports at the Regional Center of the East Bay. And I'm here to speak on behalf of Bayline Apartments and Regional Center of the East Bay support of the project. The Regional Center of the East Bay, we are a state-contracted nonprofit agency that provides case management services. services to individuals with developmental disabilities or intellectual disabilities. We serve over 30,000 clients in Alameda and Contra Costa County and highly like the affordable housing aspect that this does bring the 21 units to folks with intellectual and developmental disabilities. There was some discussion, I think, about clients from Porterville being placed into these homes. And it is a small, small fraction of the clients that we do serve and that are in need of affordable housing. Again, just speaking again in support of the Bayline Apartments. Thank you.

Thank you. Next speaker. Jim, please go ahead.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Thank you very much. Resident owner on promenade and also a taxpayer and frequent voter. Also, the husband of a godmother of a disabled young adult who, if he lived in this development, would need to rely on public transportation, of which is on the most outer skirts of our city with no reliable frequent use of public transportation. I recently became a user of public transportation due to upper extremity injury and I can tell you getting around in Hercules on the bus is a challenge and more so a challenge on the waterfront. Those buses only run in morning and afternoon drive times and not all day. So I have to walk to San Pablo and Hercules Avenue or San Pablo and Sycamore. It's exasperated by someone who would live where this development is. I'm less concerned about the height of the building. I'm less concerned about it being affordable housing. I'm concerned about why we're putting our most financially and physically challenged and vulnerable population into a development of which there is no support to allow them the freedom to move around Hercules and Contra Costa County. Location does not make sense to me. I don't understand why we would be spending $5 million in taxpayer money to build a development of which they are imprisoned in their own home. I'm also interested in interim city manager Mr. Tang's opinion as a resident on Main Street on how this makes sense for those residents. You know this development in this community well. How does this make sense for people who may be impacted financially with high inflation and ridiculous gas prices at the moment and those that can't move around based on their disability? How does this location make any sense for them to get anywhere within Western Contra Costa County?

Thank you. Is there another speaker?

I'll turn to my Zoom attendees one last time. If you'd like to make a public comment on this item, please use your raised hand icon. Kevin Leichner, please go ahead.

Hey, thank you so much. This is Kevin Leichtner, Senior Vice President of Housing at Community Housing Works. We greatly appreciate the time and the effort that staff and the city have put into this proposal. You know, when we were looking to find a site to propose in Hercules, we were struck by the amazing potential of the waterfront neighborhood here. And what a wonderful place that it could be for our future residents to be embraced and to be part of such a proud and engaged community. And so we welcome the opportunity to have further community engagement about our proposal. We look for sites and locations that will serve a variety of our residents at different income levels. You know, this is a site that we feel very proud of and that could serve our residents well. You know, we've heard some comments about parking and transportation. We ensure through our resident services programs that our residents do have access to the health care and the opportunities and the career opportunities that they need. And for example, the clients of the East Bay Regional Center would have transportation support. So I appreciate the comments that we've heard tonight. We certainly want to work with the neighbors and with the city in partnership. We do take a lot of care in selecting our sites, and I want to ensure people that we will work in full partnership with the community here and appreciate your consideration.

Thank you. Any others? I will end public comment. Okay, thank you. So we'll bring it back here to council for council questions and comments. Vice Mayor? No, no. Okay. Yes, Council Member Grimsley.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I also want to thank members of the public for speaking out on this particular topic this evening. This is what community engagement looks like. Thank you for the representatives from the development agencies for coming out and speaking on behalf of your projects. All of the concerns expressed here this evening are valid. I want to make sure that folks know that they've been heard. And I understand there were comments about the original waterfront design and development project, which hasn't come to fruition in recent years. We've been working on the Hercules Hub to bring additional transit options to the waterfront area. So there are a lot of things that have been previously discussed, planned, worked on by many different members of the community, prior city councils, So I hear your frustration, I hear your concerns, I hear very valid concerns about transportation, about the population that could potentially be moving into a development site, all of these things. And I share many of these concerns, as well as a resident of Hercules for the past 14 years now. I also hear folks who are saying, you know, and it's interesting, it's funny, I was hearing a couple of the speakers and before I was on city council and I was a resident and things were happening in and around the city and I was feeling frustrated and I was feeling like the council wasn't being transparent and so I wanted to do something about it and then here I am, so be careful what you wish for. I think that what we're being asked tonight is not to choose one of these sites, but it is approving the city to move forward with having the authorization to award funds. Is that correct, Director Rude?

The request is for direction to enter into negotiations for award of the funds with one of the developers. The exclusive negotiating agreement would be developed with the help of outside counsel and would come back to counsel for approval. That begins the negotiation process itself for the award of the funds, which would also come back to counsel for approval.

Thank you for your clarification. So that's very different than what I said. Okay. So we definitely have something to consider tonight. Those are my comments. I just really wanted to... acknowledge the community members that came here tonight i understand the concerns about transparency we as a city council uh we want to be transparent we this um and you know a community meeting is always a great idea about for anything that the city is doing and moving forward having the community voice present is important As a community member, I want, whether I'm on council or not on council, I want to be heard as well. So I think we have something to consider in that. Thank you.

Thank you. Other comments? Yes, Vice Mayor.

Minor questions, but just going to fire them off. I just wanted to say thank you, Director Rude, and the presentation. Thank you to the folks who gave public comment on this, whether you were with one of the agencies or a member of the community. Every time someone comes and speaks, I love hearing the different perspectives. I learned a lot, especially just given the different perspectives that everyone has, whether it's your professional experience, resident, you name it, this is my neck of the woods in Hercules, or where this project would potentially be, the Bayline project is my neck of the woods too, so share the same sentiments. With that, I saw the post that's been going around, the residents of Hercules, people have been emailing it back and forward, so I'm just going to read off these questions, doing a little due diligence here to make sure that maybe those who are just joining us either online, on Teams, not Teams, so we use it at work, Zoom, or listening at home who maybe just tuned in can hear these questions addressed. So, Director Rood, a couple questions for you from, again, this flyer that's been circling around town, and then my own. The first question being, why is one project being prioritized for $5 million in funding?

for several reasons uh... one being that there's a lot of staff time effort and legal costs uh... both from city attorney and outside counsel associated with negotiating a complicated agreement so if you want to negotiate with two or three parties at once the effort involved multiplies by two or three the reason stated in the staff report is that choosing one project to award the funds uh... better enables that project to succeed. Each piece of funding for affordable housing is kind of like a Jenga piece of the puzzle. Each piece of funding helps prepare the project to be awarded subsequent funding. So those are the primary reasons is that it's a relatively limited amount of funding compared to the you know, $60, $70, $80 million cost of a project, all of the developers requested the full amount. None of them indicated they would accept a partial award. So staff's recommendation was to, you know, leverage this limited amount of funding with one other party. And we actually stated in the NOFA that we would not fund more than two.

Second. Second question what guarantees existing what guarantees exist regarding long-term project management and neighborhood impacts?

Like any project and again the award or the you know, the funding discussion is not a the approval of the project. Any of these projects would go through the standard discretionary approval process. None of the three is eligible for streamlined ministerial approval, including the SAHA project. They all would involve council action to approve. So their entitlement pathways are similar, actually longer in the case of the SAHA and EDEN projects, which involve prior plan development plans or specific plans that would require amendment and additional CEQA work that would not be needed on the waterfront.

Again, and just for clarification, folks, I am reading the stop and pay attention. Bayline Apartments is back for the council. That flyer that's been circling around, this is the questions residents should ask the city council. As a city council member, doing the due diligence here. Question number three. Were all alternative housing proposals evaluated equally?

back to you too easy all right number four what specific community concerns from prior meetings were actually addressed I'm not sure how to respond to that because the community concerns are being expressed after the proposals were submitted so you know the developers have been here speaking to them we haven't asked for a revised proposal in response to concerns expressed by the community

asking the questions that are circling around the community. And the fifth one, just the questions on this, and then I'll ask the ones that I've had. What protections will exist for nearby residents and families?

Again, the projects, if and when approved, would be subject to the city's standard discretionary review process, which, as you saw earlier tonight, includes hundreds of pages of analysis and dozens of detailed conditions of approval. So that same process would apply to any of these projects should they move forward.

Okay, and so I know that with a couple items ago We've thrown a lot of acronyms and terms for those who just maybe not familiar. What is Rena? How did we get this magical number and could you elaborate on that the regional housing needs?

Allocation process has been in place for over 30 years. It's a state requirement and that every city and county in the state accommodate an assigned quota of housing development, including quotas for extremely low income, very low income, and moderate income. And every eight years, the Association of Bay Area Governments gives every city in the Bay Area its quota. And recently, the legislature took away the ability to even question or appeal that quota. There is no appeal to the RHNA once it has been put down.

Okay, so we just didn't make up this number and give ourselves these random goals is what you're saying?

Correct.

All righty. And then hypothetically, right, $5 million that we have here being the successor agency. What if we just said no, we just don't want to do it? What would happen?

I think we would lose the confidence of the affordable housing development community whose time we would have wasted on a solicitation we didn't intend to follow through on. That would be the primary concern. Our housing element calls for us to do this process annually as funds are available. These proposals, this process was initiated last October, so we're here nine months later.

And my last question, just kind of actually to the same tune of the other housing conversation we just had earlier tonight. A lot of state legislation has, is honestly the reason why we have these discussions, right? To the comments that Council Member Bailey made, hands being held, basically saying you guys have to do these things. What are the penalties if we just say we just don't want to do these kind of things in the city?

Fines of up to $50,000 a month. Got it. Okay. Those are all my questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Yes, Council Member Bailey.

I said that I wasn't going to speak, but I'm going to make a couple statements and I may ask a question. I think the questions from the public are good questions. I made similar comments before at the previous meeting. So we've had two meetings. We just discussed this at our last council meeting. So I know that... Most people don't surf the city website looking for meetings, but we did just discuss this two weeks ago, or two or so weeks ago at our last council meeting. So we had had this conversation last summer. We had a room similar to this. I can't remember the exact date, but we had a required meeting. We never quite forgot a name for that meeting, but it's a required meeting that we had to have, so we called it a meeting. exactly but right this meeting was a term we kept using for that meeting it wasn't a public hearing it wasn't it was it was a meeting and we had that conversation as well and residents had opportunity to talk what i did then was try and just provide um clarity to some of the comments that were made i don't necessarily have made a decision on this on how to vote yet um but i want to just try and address those because i think it's important um sometimes we feel that we're not being heard but but sometimes those steps have been taken we just don't know them So I did hear a resident, I don't remember, I didn't write down names, mention a wall around the community at Promenade. I'm a former planning commissioner, this happened way before I got here, but that's exactly if built to finality, to the completion, is what would be there. The only view of the water would be at the creek. The rest of the buildings in that area, including this building, are four stories tall. I'm not advocating for it, I'm just saying we should have that as just data point. I don't know why the community wanted that, The Waterfront Development Master Plan was basically a community initiative, like a ballot initiative. My understanding is the city did not have the money to go to the ballot to do that, so they adopted it, and that happened in about 2008 is my understanding of that. So again, just trying to put data points out there, not trying to say you have to agree with me or disagree with me. There was mention that Bayline had no transparency. I mentioned we have had meetings. Nothing's wrong with having additional meetings. But we have tried. I believe we've tried. I don't set the agenda. The mayor does. So the mayor picks the dates. We have a Excel sheet that's attached to our reports that shows when things are coming forward. So again, I don't expect every resident here to surf the city website. But we do try and do that so folks can see what's coming. But the mayor gets to set the agenda. That's one of the many powers that the mayor has. There was discussion about, I heard some comments about the zoning basically. Zoning here is, I think, substantially compliant at this site. At Sycamore Crossings, that's across the street from Aventine, I don't believe that's zoned for housing. That developer owes us a lot of things. They owe us some retail that we don't yet see. They owe us a hotel that we probably will never see. and then they also want to build some residential there. We've made several concessions to that developer. This is the property owner. I'm not saying to the company that was here speaking today, but to Lewis Properties. That would require a change. I think that was mentioned by our community development manager. Eden Properties is located at Victoria by the Bay. I do find it very interesting that our residents chose intentionally years ago to put affordable housing right in the communities. They didn't try and do it separate as we see in some other cities. So at the time, I think the most expensive neighborhood was Victoria by the Bay. There's affordable housing at the top of the hill. that has these amazing views. They didn't try and put it in a corner next to the nuclear power plant. Residents chose to put it where they put it. So I think that speaks about our inclusion in our community is what I'm trying to say about that. The residents there, because I try to speak to any resident that will speak to me. I buy coffee to anyone who's willing to come meet me for coffee. Those residents up there have issues with parking. So that's an issue there, whether it's been mentioned here or not. I've met with those residents, especially the ones that are right off that half block as you make the right turn. They are very concerned about that issue. Just as the residents in the Promenade neighborhood and the adjacent, I live closer to this product site than some folks at the back end of Promenade do. So I understand the concern, I hear you. But these are just the challenges that we have with this project. in these projects, right, the collection of those projects. There was a mention of transit and the access to transit. We are not doing this for this project, but West Cat is currently going through an evolution process where we're trying to integrate bus service. So when this evolution is complete and we have the chair of the board of directors there, there will be transit daily there. We have to merge some lines. This is part of BART's larger issues that are affecting us, but there will be a bus service there It will either be, our hope would be cutaway bus service. There's some legal limits to that, because how you get a bus funded, but there will be bus service there, and it will be close, not just for this development, for all of our residents. We've been working on that for almost a decade now, right? But it may be coming into fruition very soon. So there will be bus service at this site. There is also bus service for reference adjacent to the Sycamore Crossing site, and then we also have, the links actually goes right by Eden, as it goes down and does the pickup over there. So we have bus service to all these different sites, just to clarify that point. I think those are the questions that I heard that were not from developers. I don't wanna address developers here, this is about the community. So we have a couple of choices, and I think we've been discussing this for a long time. At the last meeting, I asked the question, because I would prefer to give this money out to residents, right? It's sort of a recycling of the funds. Someone borrows it, they pay it back over time. As Director Rood has told us today, that's not a solution to this problem. A resident did ask, why is it 55 years? The goal is to keep those units available and no one just turns them into market rate units and then sells them, as we heard in the first conversation that the mayor asked from the first developer, because that's a possibility. So we're trying to do the best we can. Lots of challenges. I'm not trying to make it sound easy. I'm also not complaining. That's the job that we have. But we're trying to meet the needs of each of these units. I've met with some people in this room, met with many that are not in the room, who've asked me similar questions. My hope is that I'm giving the exact same answer because I'm about truthfulness and being forthright, not about talking to my audience. So those are our challenges. I think, as you heard from the first meeting, we are bound to do this. It's because the law says we're gonna do it. We're upset, I was upset at the previous discussion we had in a public hearing, and I can express my upsetness, but the law governs what we have to do. Otherwise we put the city in jeopardy. And we have a responsibility not to do that. So I think we have to look at how we get there. So I had two questions for staff. I'm gonna ask the question of the city manager and he can kind of point where he thinks he needs to go. It appeared from the staff report that the project that's at blocks F and H, that's at the promenade area, for those who don't know that, it appears that from the staff report, alternatively, they could still get the density increase. Is that correct, or am I misstating that? I'm going to ask the manager, and he can pass it to whoever he likes.

I'll punt to our planning director. Do you know?

Yeah, any project anywhere can take advantage of certain state streamlining provisions and state density bonus law allows up to seven stories for developments within a half mile of a planned rail or a ferry station and

So this, if I read the, I'm looking at the waterfront master zone plan, looks like this building's height could be four stories. You're saying they can add additional, a developer could, we're not saying they're proposing it, but a developer could add three more stories on this if they met their affordable housing requirements. If we gave that developer $5 million, and I'm gonna, somebody can stop me if this becomes an illegal question, can we restrict, by agreement in that, their ability to do that? So say you're not gonna go above four stories if we give you this,

The city attorney may want to opine on this as well. Generally, as I indicated earlier, we would be proposing to fund the project that was proposed. So the council would have every right to deny the funding to a project that was not substantially similar to what was originally proposed.

Okay. And that's for the community. If we choose to have meetings, there's just data points that you guys can take and do research on. The other question is, there was mention of... how, in this case, community housing, which is one that's being recommended, how they do their screening of residents. So can someone talk to that, because we heard a concern from a resident, and if someone can just talk to that screening process, because when we heard the person on the audio, and I'm not the mayor, but you have to come to the podium.

And please identify who you are. Well, you need to speak into the microphone so we can hear you. Please identify who you are in your organization.

I'm Stella Fuller with Community Housing Works and Director of Real Estate Development. So I know earlier we had someone on with Regional Center that was talking about tenant selection. So all of our residents go through the same criminal background screening as well as credit screening and have to meet all of the same requirements. In addition to that, they also need to be able to live independently. We're not offering supportive housing. It's 100% independent living. So that being said, we also have to follow fair housing guidelines and laws, and we do that as well. Did that answer your question, Dan?

I think we heard the concern from the resident, and I'm not actually speaking to the resident, but if you can just... understand that we have to comply with the law. So if the law says that residents can be there, then they can be there. But you do do a screening to ensure that this is family housing because we're some three-bedroom units. And so we want folks that are family.

And what we're screening for is to ensure that they're not a threat to the community as well as themselves. So when they look at the background and the criminal, that's what they're looking for.

Thank you for the answer. So again, I know the more councilors want to speak. I just wanted to try and hopefully just provide facts. I hope that what I've given you is the facts as I understand them. And then we can continue to have this conversation as a community. But I don't think sometimes, like I saw that post and some things in there just were not accurate in these community things that are happening that may not be happening in that particular, some of the questions that were sort of raised there. But I do think the communication is good. I agree with Council Member Grimley's comments, so I'm not going to repeat them, but I do support the comments that she made as well, as well as others on the dais. Those are my questions for now. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Battarai?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. Once again, I think I just don't want to repeat the same question, but it looks like categorically, thank you for the community members showing up and then sharing your concern. Categorically, I think these are the parking issue, transportation, and transparency in the process-wise, I guess, and the safety, I think, if I can narrow it down. I think these are all legitimate and a valid concern, and I echo the same as a committee member, and I also kind of felt that I think the developing partners are also willing to work with the community and then support all these concerns or validate all these concerns, I guess. My question to the staff, actually, I think if I'm not repeated, please forgive me, but is there any way we can have a contractual language that we can only, our funding is, It's conditional up to the approved permit that they submitted now. Once they change the planning or anything that changes from 5 to 4 now, from 4 to 5 or 6 or 7, whatever, in the future planning, can we claw back our money so that we cannot just... You wouldn't award your money unless you were satisfied with the proposal. Okay. But would there be any changes down the line, like after the fact, once we... granted the pond, then they will change the plan and then they may change again. Would there be any opportunity for them to work on that or would they be locked on that?

I think we would, with the help of our outside counsel, we would look to craft language that required whatever was funded to be substantially consistent with what was agreed upon.

and then our funding would be conditional, maybe in a milestone-based, like, okay, you finish this, and then we'll release X, Y, Z, or X percentage-wise? Can you do that?

Can you speak to that? I mean, generally, yes. I think it's a negotiation, so we can negotiate anything that isn't illegal or unethical.

Mm-hmm.

Not that we don't want, we trust, but we just want to verify that they are complying with, you know, the standards that we wanted, or we are open, I guess. I'm sorry, what was the question? Well, no, my question was, can that grant, conditional grant, be a milestone-based, not that, you know, upfront, you know, five million versus that?

Oh, yeah, we wouldn't award all the five all at once, absolutely. I think we would have a timeline tied to project milestones that we would negotiate through the ENA process.

Okay. And then all these four concerns that we heard tonight hopefully would be addressed during our negotiation process, I believe. Is that correct?

Well, I mean, some of the concerns that were expressed, you know, a project might not necessarily change what was proposed in response to a concern you know, like there were concerns about height, but the height is consistent with the WDMP limit. There were concerns about parking, but the parking is – we're not even allowed to require any parking at that location, and the WDMP exempted affordable projects from having to provide any parking. So I can't guarantee that – the funding negotiations are going to lead to the resolution of every concern that was raised, because again, I think the project would likely emerge in a substantially similar form to what the developer originally proposed. There might be improvements to the exterior design of the building or something like that, but I think the general height, massing, parking, and program would need to be substantially similar to what was proposed in order for the council to approve the final funding agreement.

Okay, thank you. I think that's all I had. Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Thank you. So I think we've heard a lot tonight, a lot of different opinions about affordable housing, the benefits, the concerns, and all of that. And as I said before, this is the first time since redevelopment went away back in about, what, 2020, 2011, that we have the possibility of awarding or into negotiations to finally award funding for affordable housing. And so I would like to suggest that we pull back for a moment and we take a little bit of time to arrange a community meeting. And what I'm thinking of is a meeting of maybe over the next four to eight weeks do what we did once before when Safeway was coming to town, and there was a lot of controversy about Safeway, but to take maybe the community center or the senior center, open it up, say, on a Saturday morning for a period of time, and allow all of the developers to come here with their sign boards and to present and to talk individually with the community about their different projects. And I think that that would help to engage everyone. This would not be a council meeting. It would just be like a drop-in information center. And after that, we could come back to council, say, at the end of July or the beginning of September, address this issue again because I want to work with the community here I think a lot of people feel like it's just happening all too fast and you know sometimes you got to go slow to got to go fast so I would like to propose to my council members that we have this kind of information meeting community meeting and I am willing to work with the city manager and the planning director to just arrange this so I throw that out

Yes, what I would I. I sit here, so I talked to over a lot of time. This is the thing is developers that are here, but they almost never build what they intend. So I think that's what we have staff for that. But what I would suggest in following what you just said is we pick a date for the meeting that we're going to rediscuss this. You know with the date certain and then we can go look backwards to find out when they have that community discussion If the community wants to hear from builders, there's one here who has never built what they said they would do I think picking a date certain would be be excellent.

Yeah We would not be choosing a Labor Day, I mean we generally do not meet in August though we could if we had to you the first meeting and And, no, we don't choose holidays. Thank you.

And I think just for staff, because we...

I mean, I'm just saying, just take a couple of months to do this.

Yeah, and I would want to comment, because staff, we have, I think, two people in planning, right? So we... So when we say staff, it sounds like a huge department. It's two people plus consultants. So we need to, you know, I don't think we need an agenda for that. We probably could duplicate this agenda is what I would say for the council meeting would be duplication of this agenda. So we just reprint it. And then for the community meeting, though, that sounds like what the mayor is suggesting is this is, We're just providing the space.

Exactly. This would not be a community meeting. It was very successful before when we had Safeway come with all of their consultants. They had sign boards everywhere and we could walk in and have a look and it really engaged everybody in the entire process. So I'm wondering if the council would be willing to defer action tonight and to do something like this. Mr. City Manager, do you want to say something?

I would like to get a clarification. We had talked about continuing this council meeting to some future date and mentioned between four and six weeks, possibly four to eight weeks. Is the intent that we would replicate this item or would it be open to the other potential developers to be under consideration?

From my point of view, I'd like it to open up to the other developers and just to see. And I think giving everybody an opportunity, it may be that the community decides, hey, Community Housing Works is the project that we really like. And after talking with them, yes, we would like this. But I want the community to be able to weigh in on that. Of course, they could decide maybe they want a different developer. And so I'd like to know what the rest of the council thinks about this idea. Would you be supportive?

Forgive me, I want to just ensure that I heard what you said. Yeah, sure. So we're going to have a meeting. We have a date that we'll pick certain, and then there's a community meeting, and then we come back to council with the same discussion just to kind of close it out. Because I think that we said in the NOFA, we said we're going to select no more than two. I think it's just important that we sort of keep in what we've already told people. So that's my concern there. And then I would also, and the last piece of that is that we need to notice people, I think, right? So there's three neighborhoods affected. There's Victoria-by-the-Bay, there's Bayside, and there's Promenade.

Yes, yes. So I'm suggesting coming back with this meeting, but not making a decision about who to award to. Maybe I need the clarification there.

I'm sorry, are you talking about the next council meeting where this item will be discussed?

Where it would be discussed, correct.

So that'll be set sometime in the future. In the interim, there'll be this community meeting. Correct. Which will inform that council meeting. Correct. That council meeting will be open to all three developers to present, I think is your concept. and the city council would choose one or two but out of that group we've heard that we can't split it between three right so basically under this proposal it would be wide open for any of the three current applicants to make their case and the council would decide at that council meeting

who would would they be willing to who counsel would be willing to enter into negotiations with one or two Right, I think that's what I'm, yes, that's what I'm saying.

Okay, we would, and I'm going to just clarify. Yes, please. So we'd have a choice to either, the staff still has their recommendation, I don't think they're going to change their minds, the team that's done this, but council would then have a chance to chime in based on those, our observations at the community discussions.

Right, right, yeah.

All right, and then we did have some other requirements, we're looking for whoever's doing this contract to make sure that they pay, you know, a living wage. We had the conversation last meeting. I think I still stand by that. I think if we're giving them money, we can have that as a request. So just want to make sure that that stays out there, that we still have that request in there as part of our negotiations with whomever we choose.

Yes, Mr. Rude.

If I may, it's noted in the RST memo that both CHW and SAHA assumed prevailing wage in their pro formas, and the city attorney, I believe, has opined that this funding would also trigger prevailing wage as a public construction process. So I think we can address that here tonight if that's sufficient. I think

Well, it's in the documentation there. So two of them do pay prevailing wage, correct?

Two of them stated that they assumed prevailing wage in their pro formas. Eden did not.

Okay, so then...

However, we believe, staff believes, that the award of the funding would... would require a prevailing wage.

Correct, because we would be using public funds for the project. It becomes a public project.

Right, yeah. I think the discussion is that we want to make sure that our trades are involved with that process. So as long as we have that, I think that can probably wait to the actual meeting meeting. Yeah, yeah. To the mayor not to point it to you, I'm sorry. But I think that's just important that we have that component there.

I guess if I can just elaborate. So what I'm thinking of, we have all of this data now that came from the consultants, but we haven't had just a very brief presentation, equal presentation from each developer. And so what I would envision is like maybe at most a 10 to 15 minute presentation, maybe a slide presentation, or just a verbal presentation from each developer about the merits of their project. And then we have the data here. And by that time that we have this council meeting, residents would have been able to meet with all of the developers and to voice what they think and submit their public comments. And then at that meeting, we would have those three presentations. We'd come back and see if we wanted to avoid, enter into negotiations with one or two developers as was required in the NOFA.

We're going to need a motion here. So which date did we say was the meeting date? Just so I can say it out loud. It was July. What was the date? Oh, sorry.

Vice Mayor, do you want to say something? Yes.

I was the one that talked about the prevailing wage. Still, I know that Council Member Bailey just mentioned it too. last meeting and still moving on to whatever we do talk about this again that we make sure that we have the carpenters and the labor council at this table I understand that they that they pay prevailing wages but again I want my folks to be local I want my folks to be from Merkley's Richmond wherever to be able to work on these jobs that they're going to be able to live on no disrespect to people who may live in other states or wherever they get their workers from but I want to prioritize the people who are here first with any development that we do so thank you madam mayor

Okay, so in terms of a date to come back for the community meeting, I guess I would suggest either the last meeting in July or the first meeting in September, and I don't know what those dates are.

July 28th is the last meeting in July, and the first, this is the city clerk's job, I'm sorry. It looks like I wanna do it sometimes, but.

It's quite all right.

Ms. Melendez, what are those dates?

Yes, so the last meeting in July is July 28th and the first meeting in September is the day after Labor Day on the 8th.

That's probably not a good day to choose. So if we could make this go quickly, then maybe we would come back on July 28th and have the council meeting, which means there are now two months between now and then to hold a community meeting, announce it a few weeks ahead of time so everybody can put it on their calendars. My recommendation is like, Saturday morning because that works and then people have the rest of the weekend and we could I could work with the city manager to determine a date okay so I'll make a motion then let me hear if there are any comments down here because I keep looking to my right in agreement yeah okay Yes, Council Member Bailey.

So I'd make a motion that we continue this meeting to July 28th, which would allow time for those developers that choose to be able to allow to have a Saturday chosen by staff and the mayor to have a presentation about their project to residents. And then on the 28th, we'd bring this agenda item back almost in the same format for a decision. Understanding the staff's recommendation probably will not change. My only ask or add-on to what was already said was just that we do mailers. I know that's going to cost us some money, but I think the residents in each neighborhood should know that we're discussing moving this around. So I think that's Promenade, at least the folks in the 400 feet of Promenade. It's the folks within, I think it's 400 feet, of Victoria by the Bay and Aventine, or Bayside specifically. Second. Got it.

Got it. Okay. So we have a motion by Bailey, a second by Walker-Griffin. Any discussion here? Can we have a roll call vote, please?

Council Member Grimsley. Aye. Council Member Butter, aye. Aye. Council Member Bailey. Aye. Vice Mayor Walker-Griffin. Aye. And Mayor Kelly.

Aye. Thank you. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for your patience. And we look forward to seeing all of you Soon. Okay, thank you. All right, so the next item, discussion item, is to approve participation in the Contra Costa County Regional Alternative Compliance Joint Powers Authority to perform stormwater obligation.

Madam Mayor, our Public Works Director will handle this item.

Yes, yes, Mr. Dombach. And just give us, it was very detailed last time, but you gave a very good summary. We'd like to have a great summary of this.

I'm aiming for that. Thank you again, Mayor and members of the Council. Council received a presentation on the Contra Costa County Regional Alternative Compliance Joint Powers Authority at the April 28th, 2026 City Council meeting. The Regional Alternative Compliance, JPA, offers a mechanism to member agencies for achieving compliance with municipal regional stormwater permit provisions related to treatment of stormwater before it reaches local waterways. Staff believe participation in this JPA offers an effective approach for addressing regulatory requirements associated with the municipal regional stormwater permit provisions C3D and C3J, which require low impact development or green stormwater infrastructure for private and public right of way, respectively. as well as provision C12C pollutant load reduction targets under the PCB total maximum daily load requirement. Provision C3J has a June 30th, 2027 compliance deadline wherein the city must demonstrate a design and full funding for a bioretention system treating public right of way. The deadline for compliance with provision C-12C is March of 2030. The Regional Alternative Compliance, JPA, will establish a green stormwater infrastructure credit program that the city can participate in to address the pending regulatory provisions. Green stormwater infrastructure credits will be quantified by JPA staff based on the drainage area treated pollutant removal performance, the rainfall zone and land use characteristics. Once certified by the local jurisdiction where they are located, off-site green stormwater infrastructure projects can make their compliance units available for purchase. The purchaser also pays an ongoing operations and maintenance fee designed to ensure the long-term performance of the off-site green stormwater infrastructure facility. The RAC JPA is in the process of formation through the end of June with 13 of 20 Contra Costa cities joining during the inaugural year and another three cities likely to join in the upcoming fiscal year. The RAC JPA will assist the city in achieving three key municipal regional permit provisions. However, it is important to consider that there are 21 municipal regional permit provisions that the city addresses each year. Utilizing the JPA to address these three key provisions will enable staff to focus on achieving compliance with the remaining MRP provisions. Staff considered ways to independently achieve compliance with the three key MRP provisions. Two proposals were obtained for design of bioretention facilities sufficient to handle the 1.58 acres of public right of way associated with the MRP C3J requirement. These proposals suggest that the June 30th, 2027 deadline to design and fully fund this public right-of-way bioretention system is achievable. At the same time, GSI credits already exist in the form of completed green stormwater infrastructure projects in the cities of San Pablo, Pleasant Hill, and elsewhere in Contra Costa County. Therefore, timely compliance is also achievable through the JPA at equivalent or lesser cost than an independent approach when taking into account the staff time needed to administer and oversee the consultant-led design effort. Additionally, it is not clear at this time whether compliance with provision C12C is achievable as an independent entity. Consequently, JPA membership appears to offer the most cost-effective path to timely MRP compliance. Staff's requesting that City Council participate in the Contra Costa County Regional Alternative Compliance Joint Powers Authority and authorize execution of the joint powers agreement. Additional actions are also needed to facilitate this, which include appointing a board member to the JPA, as well as an alternate, to authorize staff to collaborate with the RAC JPA administrator to support regional alternative compliance system implementation, to direct staff to revise the city's stormwater ordinance to incorporate participation in the RAC system as an approved alternative compliance for meeting applicable stormwater treatment requirements, and then finally to authorize staff to assign funds which have already been allocated in the upcoming fiscal year capital improvement plan and capital budget for a green infrastructure project to use these funds for use in regional alternative compliance JPA participation and the purchase of green stormwater infrastructure credits. Participation in the RAC JPA will incur the following costs. An annual operating cost which is estimated at approximately $93,500 initially in the initial year and ongoing on the order of $26,500 of annual cost. And additionally, the purchase of GSI credits are estimated currently to be about $236,000 per acre And then there would be an additional $11,000 in annual operating expenses based on a recent transaction for the City of San Pablo's green stormwater infrastructure system. These initial JPA membership and green stormwater infrastructure credit costs can be funded from the $400,000 of general fund capital reserves that are currently reserved for a public right-of-way bioretention project supplemented by the city's existing stormwater program operating budget that concludes my report i do want to mention that the administrator with the county rinta perkins is available i believe online to answer any questions that you may have thank you mr tombeck um and i'm just going to ask quickly now do we have any public speakers for this item i'll turn to our zoom attendees if you would like to make a public comment on this item please use your raised hand icon

and seeing none, that will end public comment.

Okay, thank you. Let's bring it back to council here. Any questions? Comments?

Yes. Madam Mayor, can I make a quick comment? Yes, please. First of all, thank you so much for the presentation, actually. So the bottom line here is, you know, your proposal sounds like, you know, we'd rather be with the JPA, and that gives the economic upscale. and then compliance, fully compliant with us, and then plus cost benefit wise, are we saving more money down in the line, the number that you presented here, I guess, is that right?

Yeah, no, you've summed it up very well. I do think that there are economies of scale in joining the JPA. We would have over a year, because the compliance deadline for this C3J is June 30th of 2027, to complete our joining the JPA, which would happen if the council chooses to do that this evening, and then also to complete the transaction for those green stormwater infrastructure credits to satisfy Hercules requirement. And I do think that that would be at a lower cost than going alone when you take into account staff's time to procure and manage the design effort.

So does that mean that we have an upfront cost versus, you know, the saving here, basically? Is there a number of savings that we can tell here?

It's not so much that there would be a substantial savings. I think the money that we've originally set aside in the capital improvement program was originally for design of a system that the city would design independently. You know, there might be some savings but again there's an annual cost for the gps so i think that that money would largely be utilized for the purchase of credits and the initial year of funding for the gpa but then ongoing there would be additional uh... annual costs as well as the o and m costs that that exactly i want well you know part of the time being we have a set aside money probably from general fund you know that's okay we can burn it out for the time being but you know the eventually down the line i don't have you know the

keep bleeding from the reserves or whatever, how we can prevent that part. I just wanted to assure that my decision now makes sense down the line for 10 years, five years, I don't know how many years, but can you help me on that?

Well, so I mean, I think the $400,000 that's currently allocated in the capital improvement program for a bioretention system is enough to purchase the credits as well as that initial year of JPA membership. And there might be a little leftover but that would quickly get consumed by the annual JPA cost as well as the O&M cost to support those credits. So I think that additional funding would need to come from the stormwater program operating budget, but at this time I think there's sufficient funds to move forward.

Okay, so down in the line, we don't need to be screaming and then again going back and I sat down this ball type of thing, right? Okay.

Well, the one thing to keep in mind is that there is the additional C12C provision, so there will be additional credits that we will need to purchase down the line, but we don't have a full understanding of what...

Okay, so I think I got it. Thank you for that clarification. I appreciate it. Sorry for the keep asking questions. So my understanding now is... I think I have enough data points to make a decision here. So is the economic scale more compliant down in the line? Probably still some funds available for ongoing cost. Okay, thank you. I think that's accurate, yes.

In essence, we're okay for now, and we've got some money to cover us for a bit. And then ongoing, we can use some of the stormwater money, and we'll figure it out because there are always these unfunded mandates. So does someone want to make a motion?

Madam Mayor? Yes. I'd like to make a motion of resolution of the City Council of the City of Hercules approving the Joint Powers Agreement between participating cities, Contra Costa County and the Contra Costa Flood Control and Water Conservation District to constitute the Contra Costa County Regional Alternative Compliance Joint Powers Authority and implement the Contra Costa County Regional Alternative. And I lost my place now. Regional alternative compliance system appointing a board member and alternate authorizing the joint powers authority to establish one or more community facilities district, accept the applications from property owners, annex properties to the CFD and levy special taxes to finance ongoing maintenance costs to the off-site GSI products constructed pursuant to the regional alternative compliance system within or outside the territory of the City of Hercules and approving a joint community facilities agreement.

Is there a second?

Second motion.

Motion by Walker-Griffin, seconded by Grimsley. Any discussion? No. Can we have a roll call vote, please?

Council Member Grimsley? Aye. Council Member Butter, aye. Aye. Council Member Bailey?

Aye.

Vice Mayor Walker-Griffin?

Aye. And Mayor Kelly? Aye. Thank you. Thank you. Passes 5-0. Now we're coming up on 11 o'clock. Is there a hard stop here unless we continue, Mr. City Manager?

I think there's some additional action that needs to be taken on this item. Is that correct? Does that happen tonight or...? as far as appointing a board member?

Oh, yes. Do we have to appoint the board member tonight? Because it's going to depend on when these meetings are and everybody would have to look at their schedule. So can we defer that?

I believe it can be deferred because the JPA still needs to be formed.

So maybe we'll defer to another meeting.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

And an update on the next item, we're not gonna hear that tonight. The police department representative who is going to give the report

was pulled away on an urgent issue and is unavailable to provide the report tonight okay all right well he's out in the field okay um so we'll kick that over to the next meeting okay great so that brings us to the end of our discussion items i don't see anybody here for public comment um As best I can tell.

Do you want to ask, just to make sure? Turn to my Zoom attendees, if you'd like to make a public comment on an item not on the agenda, please use your raised hand icon. Seeing none, that will end public comment.

Okay, so then we'll bring that back and we'll go to reports. So Mr. City Manager, do you have a report?

Just briefly, a couple items coming up in the near future. Regarding the general plan update, the first community survey to inform the Horizon 2050 Hercules general plan update is open for responses through June 19th. More information available at www.hercules2050.com. As for Parks and Rec, the cultural festival is less than two weeks away. This is a free event hosted by the City of Hercules and the Bayfront Chamber. The event will be held at Hannah Ranch Park in Hercules on Sunday, June 7th, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. There are traffic issues associated with that site, so a shuttle service will be provided going from the Hercules Community Center to the event location. And finally, the Hercules Park and Rec Department is currently accepting applications for summer programs. The summer right around the corner, camps and swim lessons are filling up quickly. Programs are scheduled to begin on Monday, June 16th. To reserve your spot, contact the Parks and Rec Department at 510-441-4386. That concludes my comments. Thank you.

Madam City Attorney, do you have any announcements? Nothing from me, thank you. Okay, so I'm going to bring it back to Council, and I'd first like to go to Vice Mayor Walker-Griffin, who might like to say a few words about his friend who passed away, Mel Banigan.

Yes, unfortunately, both him and Aunt, it's a... I don't even know where to begin to describe it. Both Anthony, Mel, and I just grew up here in Hercules. Anthony was a year older than me, Mel was a year younger than me, but all of us grew up with one another. Both were just full of life and just amazing to see everything that they were accomplishing, from Mel getting all of his great certificates in nursing to Anthony just recently being engaged, and it's crazy. I ran into Anthony not too long ago at Safeway's gas station, and I felt like it was kind of like divine destiny. I drive an electric car, so there was no reason for me to be pulling up to a gas pump, but I just decided to do it out of convenience, and he pulls up besides me. And we had a brief conversation. It was probably like 20 minutes, honestly. We were standing in line, and we probably should have. Just about... life and how things worked out. And in the years that I've known him, he was always one of those people that you never knew what to expect because they were always funny and brought in a lot of life. Both him and Mel just always brought in a lot of life. And, you know, I've been kind of reflecting on this for the past few days ever since the learning of their passings. And, you know, we sometimes ask ourselves, why are people taken away from us so early? And it's always unfortunate to hear about people who will never get to do so many things that their lives could have been. But as I've been Thinking about this and going on both Instagram and Facebook and seeing my friends I grew up with post about it. I think between the two of those, every time I've interacted with them throughout the years of growing up with both of them, it was always positive. And as I think about their legacies for what they will mean for this city and this community and the people whose lives they touched, it's... You'll always have people in your hearts that you always smiled when you thought about them, and every single time that you've interacted with them, it was always positive. So to both families on behalf of the entire city, our deepest condolences. I'm still at a loss of words, but our deepest condolences, and we are sending love to both families. So thank you, Madam Mayor, for allowing me that.

Thank you. So now I'll come back to the rest of council. I'll have to go down. Anything to report? Council Member Grimsley? No. Okay. Council Member Battarai?

Well, you know, I don't have anything to report, but, you know, I look forward to participating in our Multicultural Festival on June 6th, I believe, and I encourage, 7th, June 7th. Thank you for correction. June 7th, and I encourage residents to participate as well.

Council Member Bailey?

No, just wanted to just repeat just that West Cat is in the process of updating our bus service, and so assuming the BART bill that's on the ballot passes, we will have some modification of our routes. The good thing is that the waterfront will have service all day as opposed to the current schedule, which is mornings and afternoons. So there's pros and cons to it, but we're retaining most of our service. I think that's a positive thing considering the financial condition our system is in.

Okay. Vice Mayor?

Nothing substantial to report, but I do have three future agenda items, but I can make them very fast.

Okay, so I just want to say I was at a CCTA board workshop on May 14th and 15th all day long. We discussed the current Measure J, that's the sales tax measure, half-cent sales tax measure that we pay on. They're going to be opting for a renewal, and we also talked about governance options at the last WCTAC meeting last week. The STMP funding, we awarded $4 million to San Pablo and CCTA for the San Pablo-Dambro's Phase II project. That could be needed fundings. And if it's not used by June of 2027, that it'll come back and be reused. distributed amongst all of the different agencies. And also, in June and July, it's bus youth ride free. So if you're up to 18, you can get a pass to ride anywhere around on Westcat, Tri-Delta, or County Connection. And that's all I have to report. I will also be at the cultural festival. So I'll bring it back. Vice Mayor, you said you had, oh, yes.

I want to, I want to also.

okay uh so uh vice mayor you said you want to propose some items to discuss yes so i have three the first one being a wage theft ordinance um it's already in play in cities like mountain view and essentially what the city of mountain view is doing is it's very similar to the uh hercules equal payment standards a couple years ago is basically having an affidavit that says um to an employer Say you close down your shop, but there's no outstanding wages that are that are left to need to be paid. The reason being why I think this is so timely is given some of the efforts that we see from the federal administration to loosen up a lot of labor protections. I think it would be great for Hercules residents, whether you're a resident here or you just do, you're just operating here working or whatever you have the opportunity to fully be able to have. to have some stake in the case that your employer is doing some shady malpractice. And I've already spoken with City Manager Tang, apologies for that, and I would like to propose that. The second one is a pesticides ordinance. Now, as I understand it right now, historically, we just haven't used pesticides, say, as Monsanto and companies as such. But I do think, one, this will resonate well with our residents to show that we're thinking about the long-term help. Because even though we're not doing this right now, who's to say what's going to happen in the future, so I would like to see a policy that we can implement to ban chemicals such as that, and companies such as that. The last one, and again, this has all been in conversations with City Manager Tang, the last one is an art fee by developers. We've been talking to a lot of developers over the past few months. I've noticed a huge theme for a lot of it is we have people who are asking of stuff from Hercules but are giving very few things in return other than just giving us the housing so we can check off of arena number. and the art fee i think would be so great i believe that there was this was done in the past would help the city brand itself i mean we have very few few places that truly showcase that you're in the city of hercules and i think this could be a great way where we can use people or use the opportunities for folks who are already doing some stuff here in the city to showcase our city even more i mean if they're going to do work in our city i think they should have a helping hand in promoting the city I think the sign that we have, you know, indicating that you're by the Safeway is great, you know, but I think we can do a lot more to really showcase the city that you're in because truly there's kind of a blurred line where Rodeo ends and Pinole begins. So those are the three items.

Okay, and Council Member Bailey, you want to propose some items to discuss?

Yeah, the last one he suggested is kind of in the same line. So we had discussed in the past, I think we've used terms like gateway sign. We've used terms like the clock tower placement. The issues we have, we have some money set aside. I think we had 100. We used 10 for something to knock it down, I think. But I think we also may have some money from DR Horton that we could use, I think. So what I'd like to do is ask staff to check on the DR Horton piece to make sure that money is there, and then for the community benefit, I think is what the fund was, to see if we can get something in town, a monument of some sort. Again, Clock Tower is the example. I'm not proposing a clock tower. We had lots of talk about that in the past, but some sort of monument here in town. It's a follow-up to our previous conversation, so it's just bringing it back. I'd like to put a date on it only because I think we need to, if we're going to do it, we should do it.

We did have a, we have a, it's a signed, a discussion about a sign. Is that what you're talking about? We'll just bring it back. You want to suggest a date?

Yes, and I'd like to just, what I'd like to do is bring it back, which week, I don't care, but if we could do it before the break so we give staff some time to put something together because it's probably going to be Mr. Roke in the back back there. And then we can bring it back maybe in July, so maybe the 28th.

Okay, so you wanna propose it for maybe July 28th? Yeah, I think that's probably good, as long as the council agrees.

Can we have it tomorrow? Thank you very much for that.

All right, so let me take these items one at a time. Is the council willing to discuss a wage theft ordinance?

absolutely yes yes we should hear more about it I'm not sure okay so I think we're in agreement will we and what about a pesticides ordinance yeah yeah you like to I'm okay with discussing it I think we have it may add cost to some things I think it's a forgot we're gonna balance that but yes

Yeah. All right. I'll go along with it. We'll discuss it. I am concerned about costs, and I want to know more. discussing an art fee for developers. Did we have a community benefit program, Mr. Tang, sometime way in the past?

I have a memory of that. 2010, the city had adopted a public art benefit fee. And it was suspended. I can't tell you if it was suspended or if it was actually rescinded. But it went away and that went along with reductions in diff fees and so forth to make development more attractive. When Steve Falk was interim city manager, he wanted to bring that item back for discussion and he wasn't here long enough to see that happen. So it is a dormant fee. It's a fee we did once require of developers. We do not now.

Okay, I appreciate that clarification. So we could then just bring it back and discuss to see if we wanted to revive that or something like that. Absolutely. So is that okay for discussion? No, no, it's a community benefit fee. In other words, if there was a developer developing something, we would charge them a fee for community art or benefit.

Yeah.

Okay, so we'll do that. And then the sign ordinance, we'll bring that back on July 28th. That's already on the future agenda items. Sign plan, okay, that's fine. Is that okay with everyone?

Monuments, signs, as well as directional signage. That's fine.

Signs and directional signs, yeah, okay.

The conversation, not to discuss it, I saw that the attorney stopped me, but the conversation was around all of that, like a master sign, sort of our own master sign plan, and we would fund it as we had money available.

Okay, so it looks like we have these four items.

We'll put those and we'll schedule them to be discussed.

Okay, so with that said, I would like to close the meeting in the memory of these two young men, Anthony Ragosa and Mel Banigan. And we will see you at the next meeting, which is second meeting in June. June 9th. Thank you.