City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. We're gonna go ahead and get started. Happy New Year's to you all, and thank you for joining our regular city council meeting of 01/12/2026. If you've joined our reception before the meeting to welcome our new city manager, Patrick Eisinger, we thank you for being here and look forward to his oath of office as he steps into this new role in just a few minutes. We're holding meetings in a hybrid format with both in person and virtual participation.

The city welcomes public comment on topics within the city's subject matter jurisdiction, and members of the public may provide comments as follows. In person speakers will be called first. Speaker cards are located at the back table in the council chambers and must be turned into the city clerk here at the dais. Please be sure to indicate the agenda item number which you wish to speak on. Attendees who have joined us by Zoom will be called to speak after the in person comments have been given, and detailed instructions for public comment will be provided on the screen when the time for public comment begins.

If there is a high volume of public comment this evening, we may decrease the time allotted for each comment or limit the total time for public comment. In the event this occurs, please feel free to send your full comments to the City Council at councilroadwaycity dot org. Written comments are not read aloud, but will be made part of the final meeting record. And one quick announcement, that's Item 9a on tonight's agenda. This is a holdover from last meeting. I will now turn it over to the City Clerk to call the roll.

Good evening and Happy New Year everyone. Council Member Chu here. Council member g.

Present.

Council member Howard is absent this evening. Council member Padilla. Present. Council member Sterkin. Here. Vice mayor Aiken. Here. Mayor Martinez Caballos. Here. Thank you.

Thank you. And we'll now move to the pledge of allegiance. Vice mayor Aiken, could you lead us?

Would you all please join me in honoring our flag? 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, vice mayor. Item four is a not a applicable item for tonight, and so we will move on to the next agenda item number five, which is our presentations and acknowledgments. Our presentation item tonight is ceremonially to ceremonially, excuse me, administer the oath of office to our new city manager, Patrick Eisinger. I'd And like to welcome his wife, Jill, to do the honors of administering the oath. Congratulations, Patrick.

Would you like to say a couple of words?

Thank you, Mayor. I just want to echo what I had stated back in November when we had our the contract approval process. Three folks I just want or three groups I want to thank. I want to thank the council for the confidence. I really appreciate it. To the staff, I appreciate all of you. Thanks for being here. We've already been rocking and rolling for about two weeks, and I really appreciate it. And to the community, we're here to serve. So please please do reach out. Several folks have already hit me up today. I I I really appreciate that. So now, I'm very serious about that. We wanna have open lines of communication and transparency. So that and then I'll always wanna thank Jill, my family.

The kids couldn't come tonight, but they're here in spirit. But love you, Jill. And then my really good friend Anne came. Love you, Anne, for coming. Thank you. That's it. Appreciate it.

Congratulations, Patrick, to you, your family. Thank you all for being here. And with that, we will get on with our business for the evening, beginning with Item number six. Turning now to public comments section of the agenda. We'll now take public comment on the consent calendar, matters of counsel interest as well as items that are not listed on tonight's agenda. We welcome speakers providing public comment, but please be advised that this is a a limited public forum. And as such, speakers must address matters within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city. If speakers do not, they will be warned. And if they continue to disregard city rules, their opportunity to speak will be limited. If you're attending in person, please fill out a speaker card and submit it to the city clerk here at the dais.

If you're attending virtually, please feel to free excuse me. Please feel free to raise your hand on Zoom at this time or press 9 if you've joined by phone. Once we've gathered all these speaker cards and raised hands and have begun public comment, no additional speakers will be allowed to queue up to speak. And I'll now turn it over to our city clerk to facilitate public comment.

Thank you, mayor. We have four speaker cards this evening. As the mayor said, once we begin public comment, we won't be adding any more folks to the list. So if you've joined us in person, feel free to turn in a card at this time. Or if you're on Zoom, go ahead and raise your hand so we can identify you for public comment. I will call two names at a time. The timer will begin when you start speaking, and the timer, if you're new to public comment, is a series of lights on the top of the podium. The yellow blinking light is your thirty second warning, and the red light with the beep means your time is up. We will start with Bharat Patel, who will be followed by Pamela Estes. Welcome.

Good evening, mayor and council members. I wanted to begin by thanking the city council and especially the council members who reached out to me directly. I also want to thank the Finance Director, Beth, for taking the time and speak with me today. Our conversation was helpful and productive, and it provided an important clarification on the amendment related to TOT. During our discussion, we agreed it would be beneficial for the city to meet with the local hotels to address questions and clean up concerns on both sides.

Based on the productive conversation we had today, I just faithfully ask the city council to postpone any decision on this ordinance until February. This will allow time for the city and hotel operators to meet and gain clarity and move forward with mutual collaboration. Thank you again for the time and understanding.

Thank you. I now welcome Pamela Estes,

who will be followed by Rona Gundrum. Happy New Year to everybody, and congratulations to our new city manager. I'm Pamela Estes. I'm here on behalf of the Redwood City Parks and Arts Foundation, and I'd like to share about a fun community building event that we're hosting that brings together residents, small businesses, and also connects the community leading up to the big game because I can't say the other word. It's trademarked.

This month, the foundation is hosting the first ever chili cook off inviting amateur and home cooks who reside in San Mateo County to participate. If you have a chili recipe that your friends are always asking you to make, then this event is for you. Here's how it works. We have contestants who need to register online by next Monday, January 19. And interested persons or teams can find the registration link on our website, which is www.rwcpaf.org.

Contestants can be individuals or teams up to four. Teenagers can participate if they have at least one adult on their team. We're looking for 24 contestants to bring the heat with their chili recipes. We will have two categories, a meat category and a vegetarian chili recipe category. On January 27, selected contestants will bring their chili to be judged by five local restauranteurs plus our mayor.

Thank you for agreeing to eat chili. LV Mar, Masra, Vesta, Ghostwood Kitchen, and Redwood Grill. From the entries, five winning recipes will be selected, and then the recipes will be cooked by these five restaurants to be featured at a People's Choice Chili Cook Off and Football Fan Celebration on February 6. Attendees would be able to taste the chili, vote for their favorites, and enjoy a lot of family friendly community activities. We will be cohosting with the NFL Alumni Association, which is located here in Redwood City, and the Dominy Hoskins Black History Museum.

We wanted to make it approachable so there is no fee to apply, and we're also offering a stipend to those who participate for the cost of the ingredients. There are prizes and serious bragging rights for the winners, so we hope you'll help us spread the word. Thank you.

Thank you, Pamela. Our next speaker is Rona Gundrum.

Good evening all. Happy New Year. Patrick, congratulations. Welcome. I just wanted to bring to counsel and staff's attention an article that was in this Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle regarding sea level rise.

Given that the sea level rise restoration project is underway in Redwood Shores, I just wanted to share this article that talks about that some of the information is outdated, and some of the concerns that they mentioned are exacerbated during king tides and also in areas where there's sinking around the San Francisco Bay and development along the shoreline that's built on fill and and what have you. So my concern is that we use the best data possible. I mean, this is a big project, very expensive. It's it's got a last a long time. So I I think it would be helpful for everybody working on that, that's working on that project to, know, really look at the data and make adjustments accordingly.

So thank you. Jessica, I'll leave this with you. You could share it with staff. Thank you,

Rona. And the fourth speaker is actually for a different item. So that concludes public comment for this item here.

Great. Thank you, city clerk. We will now move on to item seven, the consent calendar. Items on consent calendar are routine in nature and are approved by one motion. Are there any items on consent from which council members are recused?

Not seeing any. Are there any items on consent calendar from which council members would like to pull for discussion?

Mayor, if I may, I'd like to make a comment on seven b. I don't want to pull it. I just want to make a comment. Okay.

Please go ahead.

Okay. Mister Patel, thank you for coming and speaking and reaching out to many of us. I just want to ask Patrick to make sure that we meet with our revenue generators on a regular basis. I know we meet with our auto dealers on a regular basis with the hotel. And it's not just one, it's the group, and we have a new one coming on board sometime later this year that we have once at least twice a year meetings with them. And so we can exchange issues, concerns and be more communicative than we have been maybe in the past several years. So just would like to ask you and your team to make sure that happens. And perhaps the sooner the first one can be sooner

and the next one will be

in the fall. We should do one on a regular basis with our larger revenue generators.

Yeah. Yeah. We can do that. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, mayor.

Thank you, councilor. Councilor Serkan.

Thank you, mayor. Similarly, I would just like to make a comment. When this item came before council, was it last year? When was last year? Okay. Yeah. Right. I had suggested that we host a informational meeting for hotel owners on this subject. And and while that didn't happen, that that's okay. I'm I am appreciative that staff made themselves available to speak with mister Patel and to

provide more information and clarify the impact

mister and and and clear up any concerns that were raised. So thank you, and and thank you for being here tonight. And I would agree with the council member g's suggestion to convene the group of the hotel owners on a regular basis as well. So thank you.

Thank you. Council member, vice mayor, your lights.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Okay. Just double checking. Great. If there's nothing else, add my comments of support. Mister Patel, we spoke earlier today. Thank you for your time. Glad we're able to connect with staff. Would also appreciate there being a a regular meeting with our hotel operators and our I know short term rental folks were also lumped into this this audience too. So just having more freedom communication would be really welcome on this. But if there's nothing else, I will entertain a motion.

To Move

to approve all items on the consent calendar.

Is there a second?

I'll second.

Great. That was a motion to approve the consent calendar from council member Chu, a second from council member Sturkin. And could we get a electronic vote, please?

The motion passes with six votes. Council Member Howard is absent.

Excuse me. With that, we'll now move on to item eight a, Parks, Recreation, and Community Services Assistant Director, Lucas Wilder, will introduce the item, and PRCS Commission Vice Chair, Elise Debussy, will give the presentation. Thank you both for being here.

Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, new city manager. Congratulations. My name is Lucas Wilder, assistant director for the Parks Recreation Community Services Department. I have the honor of working with the Parks Recreation Community Services Commission through our department, and I want to recognize Elise DeVisor for joining me today. I think that's it so far. We have a short presentation for you this evening. Overview is on the screen there. We'll have questions, talk about the Commission itself. Commissioner DeVisor will speak about the work plan, highlights, priorities for the next year, and then circle back on the questions again. Questions for the City Council.

Does the City Council have questions regarding the proposed Parks, Recreation and Community Service Work Plan for fiscal year 'twenty five through 'twenty seven? And does the council support the priorities included in the work plan as shown today? Our commission is made up of the following members on your screen. Unfortunately, not a lot of them were able to be here on short notice tonight. And at this point, I will turn things over to Vice Chair, Elise De Beiser.

Good

evening, and thank you for the opportunity to present tonight on behalf of the Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission. I'd also like to recognize the department staff for their continued commitment and collaboration. The role of the Parks Recreation and Community Services Commission is to serve in an advisory capacity to city council in policy matters regarding the acquisition and development of parks and the formation of a recreation program that meets the diverse needs of Redwood City residents. The commission's responsibilities include periodically reviewing and making recommendations on the recreation and parks elements of the general plan. In addition, commissioners actively promote recreation and park activities within the city.

We also make recommendations on annual proposed budget for recreation and parks from a policy standpoint. The commission's mission reflects this role. Through community outreach and engagement, the Parks Recreation and Community Services Commission advocates, advises, and recommends policies and programs to the city council that enrich the lives of those that live, work, and play in Redwood City. In 2023, council approved the commission's fiscal year twenty three through twenty five work plan, which has included our four primary goals. Each goal included defined action steps and measurable outcomes.

Tonight, I'll briefly share highlights from the work over the past two years. To increase community engagement activities, commissioners expanded public facing engagement by maintaining neighborhood association liaisons, including active collaboration with association chairs both during regular meetings and off-site activities. In addition, the commission sought to increase engagement by holding regular monthly meetings at neighborhood locations and increasing commissioner presence at Redwood City's many community events. These efforts helped gather feedback, strengthen relationships, and share department updates directly with residents. With the goal of improving equitable distribution of park amenities, the commission was tasked with developing and piloting an audit approach to assess how park amenities and features are distributed across Redwood City's neighborhoods.

With the goal of using data informed comparisons, we hope to identify gaps and future priorities. Through this process, a subcommittee piloted amenity audits at selected parks, refined audit definitions and criteria such as the number of restrooms, water fountains, and field space, and advanced the framework needed to establish service level indicators and inform future recommendations. This progress will continue with an updated goal in the new work plan. To address long term environmental sustainability and resilience of Redwood City's park system, the Commission aims to evaluate park conditions as well as outlining internal practices that can guide future park design and maintenance decisions. Under the previous work plan, six sustainability criteria were developed and a subcommittee tested a practical scoring model during pilot park visits.

The subcommittee also drafted early policy concepts related to park planning and maintenance. Again, this progress will continue with an updated goal in the new work plan. In efforts to increase programming for youth, teens and seniors, commissioners coordinated attendance with partner advisory bodies to strengthen alignment and collaboration with the Youth Advisory Board, Teen Advisory Board, and Senior Affairs Commission. Commissioners also explored data driven methods to better understand program participation and barriers to access. Analysis of participation data was advanced through Parks, Recreation and Community Services as well as GIS staff, though full completion was limited by available data and system constraints identified during the implementation.

Findings from this process are being used to improve the department's data collection methods and to promote future analysis. You will see here the Commission's proposed work plan priority projects for fiscal year 2025 through 2027. First, enhance park amenity equity and sustainability practices. The Commission will build on the previous work plans pilot audits by combining amenity and sustainability review into one unified approach. Using these service level indicators and a practical audit tool, the commission will help identify priority gaps and develop internal sustainability practice guidelines.

The resulting work would result in a clear set of recommendations to inform future park improvements and long term planning. Second, increasing community engagement activities. The commission will continue building relationships and bringing its work into the community through off-site meetings, sustained neighborhood association connections, and commissioner presence at key events. The commission will gather feedback, share project updates, and support community building efforts, including a target to help facilitate at least one neighborhood level park event by the end of year two. And third, improve field allocation for youth and community equity.

The commission will focus on equitable access to athletic fields by assessing current allocation practices, gathering input from field user groups, and identifying opportunities to improve transparency and fairness. This work will result in practical, equity focused recommendations intended to support youth participation and balanced community use. In closing, the Commission believes this work plan is focused, practical and aligned with Council priorities. We look forward to partnering with Council and staff in the next phase of this work. Thank you, and we are happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, vice chair, for the great presentation. Thank you, Lucas. Before we bring it back to council, we'll open it up for public comments, and I'll pass things over to the city clerk.

Thank you, mayor. I don't have any public comment cards at this time, so last call of the audience for any speakers on item eight eight this evening or on Zoom. Seeing none, I'll turn it back to you, mayor.

Okay. Great. Thank you, everyone. We will start with council discussion. Who would like to get us started?

I'm happy to get us started.

Thank you, council member.

Thank you, Elise. Thank you, Lucas, for coming in. I think the world of parks, I don't think that's a secret, and I just wanna thank you guys for your continued work in our community. I've I haven't met anyone who's

has let's see. How do

I say this? I think parks have such a special place in our city because they touch our entire community. And I'm so grateful because I think that is incorporated in your entire work plan. I really appreciate you guys going to different locations. I think that just, you know, not you know, as much as I loved setting up the chairs at the cab, it is nice to move around in the message that that sends to community and the different issues that you get.

I appreciate that. Seeing you guys, you guys are active. I know I don't see her right now, but Yoshabel was literally a shining star in the holiday parade. I mean, she was a star. So that our commissioners are passionate and engaged, I just want you to know how grateful I am for all of you and all your hard work and the new leadership and everything that you guys do from Lucas, from your innovation and getting games and arcades and bringing all the amenities that families and children that we don't have currently. I I love it all. The programming, the engaging with the neighborhood associations. I I think you guys are just doing a phenomenal job. Thank you.

Thank you, council member. Would you like to go next? Council member Chu.

So I'd like to echo council member Padilla's appreciation and admiration for your work. And one of the coolest things about being on council is I've gotten to well, I've gone to a lot of the parks that I'd never gone before. And, you know, just our parks department and the commission does an incredible job. I just had a quick question. What was the measure the unit of measure used for looking at geography? Was it census tract, ZIP codes, neighborhood? Like, what was the

What do you specifically mean by geography?

For equity. So if you're looking at the distribution of parks and access to green space, what unit of geography were you using

for that?

Quarter mile walkability or ten minute walkability is kind of the trust for public lands measurement that's kind of echoes back to our park needs assessment. Great. So we utilize that.

Great. That's that's very close. Terrific. So that was the first question. And then just a suggestion.

I know that, you know, a lot of times when I think about the the kids from my neighborhood, one of the biggest barriers to access is often being able to get from our neighborhood to the park without a parent driving them. And so insofar as you're able, working with transportation and Sam Trans to ensure that there's, you know, practical routes for for kids outside of a car without a parent having to drive. I love the focus on fields. I was especially encouraged about that. My district you know, there's a lot of people who really wanna who love soccer.

There's a huge demand for soccer fields. And right now, there's no soccer fields kind of in the southern neighborhoods or I guess technically east, but, know, sort of the South of the Woodside neighborhoods. And so that focus is is deeply appreciated. And, you know, I I know it takes time and it takes resources, but but I appreciate it. It's it's definitely on your radar.

I also appreciated the focus restrooms and water. Those are such essential infrastructure. And, you know, just a comment, I've been really impressed with the throne restrooms at the at the train station. They seem to have cracked the the nut of making public restroom, you know, free public restrooms that remain clean and in good working conditions. So just a thought for that. Just trying to think any other comments. Overall, terrific work plan. No other real comments. Definitely appreciate the focus on equity and ensuring that all of our residents have access to wonderful parks. Great work.

Thank you, council member Chu. Who's next? Council member Chu.

Thank you. Thank you, mayor. I wanted to say thank you to the commission and to the staff. I mean, everybody enjoys everything that you showed on the slides and more. And it's a lot of hard work and there's a lot of passion as council member Vadea shared.

I mean, the commission is passionate about what you do, and that shows. One of the things, though, I would like to just offer for food for thought, I'm projecting to a later item in the agenda, is that one of the major initiatives for the city and the city councils, and we're gonna say this right, GDAP, the Greater Downtown Area Plan. Is that right to say it that way, GDAP? And the framework we're gonna hear tonight from staff is a framework that includes public spaces and a number of things like that. I'd like to see everything that the Parks Commission does also lean in on the GDAP process because this can make a major difference in our greater downtown area.

And I believe that's true for all of our boards and commissions. Every one of our commissioners is an ambassador for the council. And to engage in that process, to communicate to the people you engage with, our residents, the families, and things like that will make a difference because that feedback will come right back into the GDEP process. And so here's a great opportunity. And I think every work plan that we've seen so far and every work plan that we see coming up should include participating and engaging and leading in, whether it be the Transportation Advisory Commission, all of them, because this is gonna make a huge difference in our downtown area.

So I'd like like to ask that you consider adding that fourth bullet to the previous slide about leaning in on the GDAP process.

I'll just flag that we already had a study session with the planning staff and consultants for the GDAP.

That's a great start, but that can't be the end of it. It's got to be more than that because the having been here a long time and Council Member Howard would say the same thing. We went through, oh gosh, probably a twelve year effort on the Downtown Precise Plan and a three or four year effort on the general plan update. And we still wound up with people saying, no one talked to me. I never heard about this. Where did it come from? And we're always gonna hear that. But the more every one of our commissions, every one of our commissioners shares that information, maybe we can reduce the number of no one ever told me or I never heard it.

Thank you, Councilmember G. Any other thoughts? Council member Serkan.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you so much for your service and for your hard work on this. I'm very pleased with the goals. I think they are, you know, a mission match, of course, for the city and and the council's priorities. And I appreciate the focus on equity as well as transparency. And, you know, just bringing the community along with just taking a fine tooth comb through the the field allotment kind of strategy. You know? And with any strategy or or or process we have, it it's always good to do, you know, an update sometime. Right? So I appreciate that.

One thing I I know we haven't gotten there yet, but in the feedback that I saw was an interest in more, you know, activities at Mezes Park, for example. Right? And and you've already responded to that, and I wanna thank you for that in making more activities one of your top goals. So thank you in advance for hosting events in, like, the mobile rec, for example, as a way to bridge the gap where there are gaps and make sure that everyone, you know, has the chance to enjoy our fantastic recreation program. So thank you.

Thank you, council member. We'll go to the vice mayor next.

Thank you. I I in spirit, share Marcello's enthusiasm. She expresses it better than I can. But and also equity, absolutely. And we're going to be coming to the GDAP where, hopefully, to council members G's point, we're going to be adding a lot of parks and merging to Isabel Chu's reference, merging parks or having pathways from park to park or regions to regions.

And this is more to come, and absolutely we should be talking, and it sounds like you are. And all the more emphasis on why because Mr. G didn't say it or all of us haven't said this, but this all takes money. And so all the more reason that thank you for your 2019 PARCCS study, which was 54 pages long and which was the basis for our having the PARCC impact fee, so that when we're looking at this ten, twenty year vision, there's a little bit of extra change in the couch cushions to bring some of this vision to reality. So just building on amazing work.

A 100 I asked you earlier today, and you answered, we typically host one hundred and fifty days of programming per year. That's just amazing, You know? So thank you. Could you it's something like a a games built with four twenty foot sided it's a box that's 20 foot.

Yeah. That'll be our

Can you just explain what it is?

It'll be our our mobile arcade center. So there are 20 foot shipping containers that are side opening. So the 20 foot side of it opens up. And we're able at the 20 foot length, we're able to use transport companies like tow trucks in the area to transport them around. And so we had them inside of the tent at Courthouse Square during the winter last year, and that'll be coming back this winter. And then when we transported them back to Red Morton was the next location, we put them kind of behind the armory, and so we activated a space kind of behind into the side of the armory for a few minutes in the summer. And it allowed us to kind of take advantage of the economies of scale of the number of staffing that are covering other buildings and can help cover like the Arcade Center operations there.

Just fantastic. I do I like the planning. When I read your report, that you're studying current uses so that you can base future planning. That's that's really good. And I just wanna highlight again because I asked and you answered that there are 500 solar panels on the roof of the new Veterans Building. Is that right?

It's right around 500. They were counting them up the other day as we were doing a punch list walk and got to a very very high number.

And is that is that Veterans Center? It's not open yet. I know it's hotly awaited. But is it net zero? Is it

Not net zero facility. I mean, it's a lead platinum facility. It has battery backup. It can operate off grid for a limited duration of time with the battery backup that's there. But again, kind of weather, solar generation, all of those pieces kind of come into play there.

I know there are strict standards for that, but I just encourage you with the planning to add as much solar as possible. And and one last one. Yeah. I already did it. That's it. Thank you so much.

Thank you, vice mayor. Not seeing anyone else's lights on. I'll add my thanks. Elise, thank you. Lucas, thank you so much for the great presentation and and all of the hard work that goes into this into this work plan.

I have to add to what my colleagues mentioned. It's incredible to see you all balance the data, right, around where the needs are, where you all are making great strides, and also what you're hearing from the neighborhood associations, the teen and youth advisory councils, the senior council. It's it's amazing to see that much outreach and thought go into our city facilities. And something else I just, you know, would love to continue to see, and I know it's baked in here, is just the innovation that park staff does. I'm thinking of the mini golf, you know, at Courthouse Square event that happened last year, the the roller rink at the Armory, of course, the the mobile rec facility, the box as the vice mayor called it, but that is just such an amazing way to not only be creative around the spaces we do have, but also to get programming to communities that may not have those spaces.

And, you know, thinking ahead as we start thinking about the the GDAP and all of the the future changes we'd love, You know, something else that I want us to to just consider, I know it's gonna be rare for us to find, like, a parcel that's big enough for new sports facilities, right, a new soccer field. We'd love for us to think of creative uses for whatever parcels we do find. I'm thinking of, you know, Jardin De Ninos. We have that second piece of the park that's being created right now that's gonna provide lots of public space for people to spend their time, eat lunch, do all the the community building that folks are are hungry for, and it's showing up in the input sessions we're having. So just love to see that continue forward, and appreciate all the great work in this.

So thank you. Vice mayor.

I'm sorry. I I just wanted to add, again, welcome, Tiara, and thank you, Derek. You you're you're gonna do amazing things, Tiara. And, Derek, you you did great things. And anyway.

We've got a great team. Thank you. That's fair. With that, let's see here. Are there any questions or other discussion points? I don't see any.

One last thing. I just want us all to acknowledge, even though just like with water that we are out of the drought, we should still conserve water. I want us to acknowledge that their all their good data did show us that we are park deficient. So we have done a lot of good work, but there's still lots of good work to be done. So I just want us to focus again on making sure we can expand our parks as much as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, council member. Is there a motion? Council member Chu.

Oh, sorry. Just a quick plug for Taft School as a location of a new soccer field. I that has come up multiple times.

Great. Thank you, council member. Who likes councilor G?

Thank you. I'll make the motion to approve the proposed Park and Recreation Commission work plan for fiscal years twenty five-twenty six and twenty six-twenty seven with encouragement to lean in on the GDAP.

Great. Is there a second?

Second.

Perfect. That was a motion from council member g, a second from vice mayor Aiken. Could we get an electronic vote, please?

The motion passes with six votes. Council member Howard is absent.

Great. So thank you everybody, and thank you again to our team, Parks team. With that, we will move on to item nine. We don't have any public hearings set for this evening, and neither do we have any staff reports for item 10. So we'll move to item 11 a Mhmm.

Which is the adoption of the twenty twenty six City Of Redwood City legislative platform as recommended by the city council's governance subcommittee. And as chair of the governance subcommittee, I'll give a a very brief presentation on this item. And so I serve on this subcommittee along with vice mayor Aiken and council member Jeff Gee. And if we go to the next slide. And the city's legislative platform guides how the city engages in state advocacy on legislation that affects our key priorities, programs, and operations.

The platform works alongside the city's legislative advocacy policy, which provides the framework for advocacy actions. The platform is updated annually to ensure alignment with the city council priorities at the start of each legislative session, and updating the platform at the beginning of the session allows staff to act quickly and effectively as new bills are being introduced in Sacramento. And while it provides clear direction for staff and our legislative consultants, it's attended to be a guide and does not restrict the city from engaging on legislative issues that may arise throughout the session. And in addition, consistent with the legislative advocacy policy, individual council members may express personal positions on legislation provided they clearly distinguish those views or positions of the council and or the city. And as part of this year's review process, the city council discussed the legislative platform during our special city council meeting slash off-site in August, and council members had through October to submit suggested edits.

On behalf of the governance subcommittee, I wanna thank my council colleagues for their review and taking the time to suggest updates which were considered. And in addition, throughout the year, the governance subcommittee and staff will continuously review the platform as new legislative issues emerge, allowing the city to remain responsive to evolving priorities and conditions. Oops. Sorry. I'm going a little fast.

And this slide just demonstrates that process. And this year's updates primarily includes non subs non substantial, refinements to improve clarity and organization. In addition, the governance subcommittee is recommending a few updates to better align the platform with our current priorities and operations. These proposed changes are shown in track changes in attachment a of the staff report and are summarized over the next two slides. And for transportation, the subcommittee is recommending one modification and three additional statements that are shown in underlying here.

And these changes strengthen the city support for regional transit access, gap closure projects like bicycle and pedestrian connections, and expanded eligibility to advance Vision Zero goals while reinforcing the city's role in regional transportation advocacy. And next slide. Turning to children and youth, the governance subcommittee is recommending two modifications and two additions also indicated by underline. The proposed modifications clarify the city's support for full funding of key library programs and reinforces support for legislation that preserves or enhances library patron privacy. The recommended additions affirm the city support for legislation that protects the freedoms to read and promotes access to library materials representing various perspectives as well as legislation that supports fair pricing for libraries to purchase digital content.

Perfect. And finally, the governance subcommittee is continuing to discuss the carbon footprint and climate neutrality. As this work progresses, the subcommittee would return to council with any specific recommendations as appropriate. And with that overview, the recommended action for the city council is to adopt by motion the Redwood City 2026 legislative platform as recommended by the governance subcommittee. And the subcommittee members along with staff, the city's legislative consultants are available this evening for any questions before we take public comment.

Thanks, everybody. It's a great great presentation. Not done by me. I just read the slides. But are there any questions before we open it for public comment? And not seeing any, I'll pass things over to our city clerk.

Thank you, mayor. Don't have any public comment at this time. So last call for any public comments on the governance subcommittee's legislative policy for 2026. Anybody on Zoom? Feel free to raise your hand.

Seeing none. I'll turn it back to you, mayor.

Thank you, city clerk. And with that, who would like to get us started? Would any of my fellow colleagues on the governance subcommittee like to add anything? Are there any comments?

Perfect. Councilmember G. Thank you, Mayor, for the great presentation. One of the things I just want to point out is there's a couple of things going on with our legislative platform. It's kinda built for speed or timeliness because the legislative calendar really doesn't take in consideration of the city council calendar.

Know, when the legislative calendar moves and the committee hearings are set, I can probably say no one in Sacramento looks at the River City Council calendar. They they they march on their own. And so having this sort of in front of our consultants helps them be timely in looking for legislation that may impact or affect the city. The other note I'd like to make is that when we take a position, we sort of adopt the Cal City's position document. Support, support if amended, and Jennifer gonna have to help me a little bit, opposed if not amended or opposed or something like that.

But those are sort of the categories. And when there's the gray part, you know, if amended, that's where the governance subcommittee comes into play to say, what should those amendments be? So there is there is the tension of being timely, but also seeking feedback from at least the governance committee, if not the full council. And so they have to work together based on the legislative calendar. And that's why this legislative platform is so important because the legislative session, again, just starts and goes without considering our calendar here in Redwood City.

So I think it's worked very well since this has been put in place. Sometimes we miss something or we have to play catch up, but it it it might be helpful if they limit Jennifer, is it 2,000 bills this year? Is that the limit? Because in the past, it was like 5,000 bills, and that's a lot of reading to do on an annual basis. So trying to sort what's gonna affect the city, what's gonna align with our strategic priorities. This platform is very, very helpful for everyone involved in legislation and advocacy.

Thank you, council member for providing that extra context. Council member Chu. Oh. Great. We'll go to the vice mayor first.

What? I don't Oh.

My lights went off.

Okay. Sorry. So, overall, I I really liked the the priorities. Just a couple comments and and especially like the amendments to the transportation priorities. I did notice there were a lot of, you know, and I have a list of the specific ones, emphasis on maintaining local control.

And my understanding is the intention of that was that because Redwood City does build a lot of housing, because, you know, we're kind of a a good actor early and often, that we wanna be rewarded for that and be able to retain, local control. My concern is not all cities have demonstrated that eagerness to provide housing without, you know, encouragement from the state. And so I wanted to suggest perhaps reframing that a little bit to be encouraged the state to, you know, reward or, you know, reward cities that, you know, are compliant with, you know, RENA allocation. It's something to that effect where the emphasis is less on local control, and more on rewarding cities that are are good actors. But other than that, I I thought it was terrific.

Thank you, council member. And just to to be clear, that's one of the the statements that's already been included in the the policy platform? Okay. Perfect. Okay.

And are there any other comments from the colleagues? We'll go to council member Stoecken next.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you so much to the governance subcommittee for updating this document. I'm very pleased with it as well, and I appreciate the emphasis on Vision Zero and regional transportation measures as well as legislation for the concerning the library to protect privacy, personal freedoms, and maintain accessibility of the library to the community. So thank you so much. And I also appreciate the continued support for a con constitutional amendments repeal article 34, the California constitution to enable cities to build more affordable housing.

And I just, you know, wanna ask city manager if you can just kinda keep us updated. Should the county consider any future measures, you know, no need to wait till, like, a council meeting. We'd love just to Yeah. Update as quickly as possible. Yes.

A lot going on in this in this, and and, yeah, we'll report back. Thank you.

Thank you so much, and thank you to the Governance Committee.

Great. Thank you, council member Serkan. Any other comments, thoughts?

I had a question. Maybe it was more for clarification. Under the transportation section, I just wanted to know why crosswalks were removed. And I just it was on page two fifteen. There was verbiage where I just saw that pedestrians and bicycles were added and crosswalks were removed. So if I could just have clarification. I would would I I I would like to advocate for funding for all of those things. So I just want to know why crosswalks was stricken. Maybe Jennifer can clarify.

Councilor Fabienne, and just to make sure that we're all on the same, are you talking about item item number five in transportation?

We we can pull up the slide. We can. Thank

you. Jennifer Yamaguma, deputy city manager. And exactly to your point, council member, the exact word crosswalk was stricken just so that the word projects. So to city attorney's point, we're on transportation statement number five. Is how is am I correct with that?

Can we pull it up? I mean, I just want everyone to see it. Not just me. I just want it to be on the screen.

Because it was expanding the definition, we didn't have it explicitly listed here because we qualify that as more or less substantial. So I will read it. So in addition to increased road transportation funding, the city supports increased state funding for citywide bicycle and pedestrian stricken crosswalks, the new word underlined projects, and legislation that encourages the creation of walking and bicycle friendly communities. So we removed crosswalks so that it's not just for crosswalks, but intended to have a word that would be more encompassing beyond, much to your point. So the word now is projects.

It also includes crosswalks, but beyond crosswalks as well.

Thank you for the clarification. Just want to make sure it was encompassing more and not taking away. That's exactly right.

You, Jennifer, for the assist.

Thank you.

And with that, there are no other comments, we'll entertain a motion.

I have one more comment. And this can also come up at another time if we're taking things, but I have noticed that it seems that more often than not, we are encountering increasing incidents of domestic violence. And I would like to see us incorporate that in our legislative platform because I think that that is something that touches so much of this already. It touches homelessness. It touches youth.

So I would like for us to find, and maybe it isn't at this exact meeting, but I it it it's happening all the time. We have to address it. It's affecting our entire community. If there's a way for us to advocate for stable and increased funding for domestic violence services, both locally and at higher government levels, I think that's something we should all rally together. Thank you.

Thank you, council member, and absolutely something that we should be talking about in governance very soon. So thank you for that suggestion. And with that, who'd like to make a motion? Councilmember Second. Thank you. That's a motion from Councilmember Chu, a second from Vice mayor Aiken. Can we get an electronic vote, please?

And that motion passes with six votes. Council member Howard is absent.

Well, thank you everybody for the great discussion. And we will now move on to item 12A, our study session on the Greater Downtown Area Plan. We have a first presentation from our principal planner, John Francis, followed by a presentation from our consultants from WRT, Phunam Nakar and Jim Stickley. And study sessions are for receiving feedback from the public and members of the council, and no formal action will be taken on this item tonight. And with that, we'll pass things over to John.

Good evening, council members. My name is John Francis. I'm principal planner with the plan division as well as the project manager for the Greater Downtown Air Plan process, also known as GDAP. I'm excited to be here tonight to share our progress so far on this work and to engage in a conversation around the emerging vision for GDAP. I'm joined by members of the project consultant team, including Poonam Narcar and Jim Stickley from WRT Brooke Brooke Dubose from EREP, who is online, and Jason Moody from EPS, who is also online.

So

we have a lot of content to cover tonight, so I'm gonna try and just spend a couple minutes setting the stage and reviewing what we accomplished in 2025 in terms of community engagement before handing the mic over to the consultant team to dive into the heart of why we're here tonight, which is to provide an overview of the GDAP draft vision framework for your consideration and feedback. So to provide a little context, the GDAP process will revisit and refresh the vision that was adopted as part of the downtown Precise Plan effort back in 2011. That's the acronym is DTPP for that, for folks watching at home. The goal is to build and expand upon what's working in the plan area and to address new opportunities and challenges that have emerged since 2011. And those include some things like a change post pandemic economic landscape, a growing need to mitigate the impacts of climate change, the continued need to strengthen downtown's identity and to improve mobility options for getting into and around downtown.

The g the GDAP planning effort or excuse me. The air planning area has been expanded beyond the DTPP boundaries in order to allow us to develop a more holistic strategy that addresses local opportunities and challenges. So it includes all of the downtown and Stamba Heller neighborhoods as well as the southern portion of the Centennial neighborhood. The planning process for GDAP is broken down into multiple phases. Over the last twelve months or actually about fourteen months now, our focus has been on evaluating existing conditions, meeting with the community and stakeholders to understand their concerns and aspirations, and developing a vision and framework that will eventually form the foundation of our recommendations.

The framework purposefully addresses concepts and themes at a relatively high level at this point so that the project team can understand which ideas resonate most clearly before flushing them out in more detail later on. The framework is intended so as a starting point for discussion among the council and the community. We'll be taking input we receive and use it to refine the ideas and begin drafting the plan. And we will revisit the RBCCs and city council and the community as strategic points along the way for their input and guidance. We anticipate having a draft plan framework for public review and city council consideration in the fall of twenty twenty six, which will be the basis of the plan's environmental review.

And then we plan on or we aim on having the plan adoption towards the end of twenty twenty seven. So throughout 2025, the project team has been out in the community quite a lot sharing information about the GDOT process and asking for people's input ideas. And as noted on some of these slides, we our engagement has been in various formats. It has included project specific events that we've hosted as like focus groups, open houses, and a speaker series. And then we've gone out to meet people where they're at.

And this has included door to door canvassing and in pop ups at existing events. And most of our engagement has provided translation or interpretation for Spanish language speakers as well. And we're happy to go into more detail on the community engagement process if there are questions in the Q and A. So before handing things over to the consultant team, I just wanted to read the council questions. So is the vision framework in alignment with the city council's overall strategic vision for the future of the greater downtown area?

Do the district and neighborhood framework and preliminary concepts for land uses and development scale support the key priorities of maintaining land use diversity and identifying new growth opportunities? Does the vision framework support an overarching public space network that contributes to the greater downtown's role as a center of civic and economic life? Does the vision framework sufficiently identify opportunities to improve multimodal mobility into and within the plan area? Does the vision framework adequately explore a range of resilient strategies that could be incorporated into the plan? Does the vision framework sufficiently center equity as a core principle?

Does it raise any new equity concerns? And lastly, are there additional methods of outreach the project team should consider or stakeholders we should engage? Thank you. And if we could bring up the second presentation. And I'll introduce Putnam Narkar from our consultant team.

Good evening, council members. I'm Poonam Narkar, Principal Planner with WRT. So as John mentioned,

there was a lot

of community engagement that was conducted as up to date and we received a lot of very valuable input from the community. And what we heard quite strongly from the community members was, one, Redwood City has truly something to offer for everyone. And number two was build on our existing strengths. So this sentiment really informed the development of the vision framework that we are going to be sharing tonight with all of you. The Greater Downtown Area Plan includes these five key components that you see in the diagram in a circle that really need to work together as a cohesive system.

And therefore, we are looking at these the development of the GDAP, taking a holistic systems approach. The GDAP will prioritize on six things primarily focusing new development near transit, particularly leveraging the Caltrain station as a regional transit connector, integrating climate focused thinking in all future developments, diversifying mobility choices that are offered available to the community within the Greater Downtown Area Plan to minimize dependence a car dependence and increase equitable access to opportunities. Equitable access to housing by offering diverse housing choices across various income levels building on the city's success existing success as an employment center and really expanding job opportunities of different types and then lastly, strengthening downtown's identity by celebrating the historic core. So how the next few slides, we are going to walk through the organizing elements or the vision framework. So this first diagram, it's this framework really illustrates how the plan how we are envisioning the plan area to be organized and neighborhoods.

And it's envisioned that each of these districts will be will function as compact, walkable, complete districts, which are supported with essential amenities, public spaces that are accessible within walking distance and multimodal transportation choices. So while each of the districts and neighborhoods will have a unique feel, they will be connected seamlessly through a cohesive public realm network. The next diagram is a distillation of the first one, and it really highlights the concentration of commercial and employment focused uses. So as you see, the areas along Highway 101 and the transit center as sort of really offering the opportunity for a concentrated employment and commercial focus use. But then Broadway, as the East West commercial access really plays an important role, offering commercial and retail uses ranging from that would serve regional as well as local needs.

Main Street is another access that a similar access in the North South direction. And therefore, Broadway and Maine really start to become the key elements, key organizing elements and identity defining elements in the plan area. We also heard a lot from the community about the need for natural green spaces and more places for the community to gather, relax, play with family and family friendly kid friendly spaces within the plan area. We recognize the current lack of or inadequate supply of public spaces. And we also recognize that there are limited opportunities for big interventions in terms of public spaces.

So the GDAP really prioritizes on creating a network of connected network of public spaces that leverage your existing street right of ways, really enhancing the streets, public lands that are available and then privately owned public spaces. So the key components that the GDAP would focus on would be streetscape improvements, neighborhood greenways and really leveraging Redwood Creek as an asset. This framework is really focused on the climate resilience aspect of GWEP. As we plan for the future, climate resilience and climate focused thinking is going to be important and central to every decision making. So the plan will focus on strategies and infrastructure that not only protect the community from inundation, but also deliver multiple benefits in the form of improved public space, recreational access, ecological enhancements and so on.

And we will be diving a little deeper into this framework later in the presentation. And lastly, the last layer or the organizing element is the mobility and connectivity. This envisions a high performing multimodal transportation network that builds on the Walk, Bike, Thrive plan that the city already has in place. So how do all these elements come together and really work together? So we are going to walk through the districts, we will zoom in to each of the districts and neighborhoods and see how these elements together will create the unique experiences that we are envisioning.

We'll start with the downtown core. It is a historic heart of Redwood City, a vibrant walkable district, easily accessible by foot, bike and transit. So a multimodal district. This district is really unique in the way it blends together the historic character, the historic buildings and thoughtful infill development. And that infill development may take form of mid rise offices, residential development, shopping, dining, entertainment, destination, all of them together creating a rich mix of experiences.

Broadway will serve as the district's primary shopping spine, sort of the destination with active store friends, lively street life. Courthouse Square continues to anchor the community life in the city and is complemented by the historic architecture around it. And the public realm is characterized by beautiful sidewalks with large shade giving trees, public plazas, parks and paseos that support outdoor dining, gathering and celebration and a lot of social interaction, making it really a memorable place. The next one is the transit or the station area district, which is really focused around the Caltrain Station. With the relocation of the Caltrain Station, this area has the potential to become the new gateway to downtown.

And this area is really the one that offers the maximum opportunity for focusing density development, both commercial and residential within the plan area. So this will make it distinctly different from the downtown core with its historic fabric. The building heights and massing will be carefully shaped to be sensitive to the adjacent neighborhoods and adjacent districts. And the district will feature also high quality public spaces with walk, bike and transit options. So these are again some examples of the public spaces, the street experience and the type of development that can occur

here.

The next one, what we are calling as a North Of Downtown District is really it's characterized by two distinct types of development. The first one is a commercial only use along Highway 101 that maintains and continues to promote commercial uses that are and expanding on the existing commercial use within this area. And then the other part of this district is a mixed use district that blends the commercial and residential along with neighborhood serving uses. This district is distinctly different from the previous two that we saw because of the presence of the Redwood Creek as a natural resource, natural asset, but also as the district that has that is very green forward, it's really characterized by open spaces, the green ways, a green infrastructure that will mitigate any inundation risks. And then there will be activity nodes that offer neighborhood services, conveniences and other supporting uses.

Some more examples of what this district the development in public spaces could look like. And then the next one is the Innovation And Incubation District, which is also partly part of North of Veterans Boulevard on the other side of the Redwood Creek and it straddles Veterans Boulevard and Broadway. And this district really expands on the existing light industrial and commercial uses. And It creates a vibrant economic zone that can house startups, advanced manufacturing, fabrication, R and D types of uses. And again, a very job centric employment focused commercial district.

The East End Of Broadway will serve as a district walk to social center, while the proximity to Highway 101 really helps provide more visibility to this district. And then it is also envisioned that linear greenways will be integrated within this industrial and commercial district as well. And then lastly, we are going to be looking at the two neighborhoods, Centennial Neighborhood and Stambaugh Heller Neighborhood. Both of these residential neighborhoods will continue to have a balanced mix of housing types and really offering a range of housing choices from single family residential to low rise multifamily residential and the missing middle supporting a range of affordability and household types. These neighborhoods are envisioned to have pedestrian friendly streets that will offer safe routes to schools, better connectivity to parks, services and to the downtown amenities.

And then

lastly, streetscape enhancements and improvements with more trees, green infrastructure and a comfortable neighborhood environment. So with that, I'm going to hand it off to Jim Stickleaf for a deeper dive on the other two frameworks.

Thank you, Punam. Mr. Mayor, Madam Vice Mayor, members of the council, it's a pleasure to be here. Jim Stickley, Principal Urban Designer with WRT. And I'm going to walk us through a little bit our approach to resilience and mobility as two separate layers of the plan framework.

So for the resilience piece, I'd like to start here. This is a historic map of Redwood City that some of you may be familiar with. But what's really interesting about this is that the lower edge of the tidal marsh is approximately where the current of Veterans Boulevard is. And north of that is where we're now starting to experience some of our most pronounced inundation risks. So, keep that image in mind.

And you can see some of the landmarks there. Broadway and Main Street where City Hall is. But the curve of that lower marsh almost exactly coincides with the curve of Veterans Boulevard. So keep that in mind. Two slides forward you're going to sort of see those shapes again.

What we're trying to address in the resilience plan are a number of hazards. So it's a multihazard analysis and a multi hazard response to resilience including earthquake, liquefaction, extreme heat, which is becoming increasingly important. And then the last three, coastal flooding, inland flooding, and groundwater. And all three of those are sort of working together, creating flood risk in different zones around the downtown. We're going to sort of focus a little bit more this evening on those last three because those are where some of the most significant challenges are in some of the future planning of the GDAP.

The photos you see there were taken just last Friday, January 2, on King Tides Day. And I don't know if any of you were out there, a lot of our team was out looking at king tides all around the bay, really geeking out on what was happening with those significantly high tides. And I think the thing to sort of register here is as high as those waters are, those are approximately a foot higher than what our normal high tides are. In 2050, that level of what you're seeing here will be normal high tides. On top of that, if you add a king tide in 2050, it'll be approximately a foot higher than that.

So a foot higher than what you're seeing in these photographs. And then forward fasting to 2100, it will be three to six feet above that. So every ten years or so, it's sort of adding another foot to those extreme high tides and king tides. So you can see that very soon we're gonna be overtopping the banks. And I think what our team remarked when they were here on Friday was the bank was still just barely containing these high tides.

Things were in pretty good shape in the vicinity of Redwood Creek. But that is gonna start changing, quite rapidly as we move forward into the next decade. So, just keeping that in mind, these maps on the left and center are mapping the conditions that I just spoke about. So, the one hundred year flood map currently on the left. The one hundred year flood map in 2100.

So you can see quite an increase in floodable zone. And in that middle diagram, you can start to see that curvature of the old tidal marsh that roughly follows Veterans Boulevard. And then on the right is our resilience framework that Poonam touched on just a few minutes ago. And what the framework starts to do is it shows where the higher inundation risks are, which are the darker colors. And then the medium colors are a little bit less risk and the lighter blues are a little bit less risk than that.

But each of those zones wants to have a response appropriate to the level of risk. So, in the very dark purple, we need to get that much more serious about green infrastructure so that we have a place for that water to go when those flood events happen. And then the next level, the medium blue, we still need some of those green infrastructure, but they're not quite as extensive. We can handle a lot of those when bioswales and, you know, detention areas and things like that, some of it on private property. And speaking of that, these are the tools that we have to use in addressing these risks.

So on the left, the tools are policies, they're operational measures, and they're actually physical improvements. And in the center circle in the purple, you can see what some of those policies and physical improvements can include. They can be improvements to public space, improvements to street corridors like storm water infrastructure, improvements to building sites. So having regulations where private developers are also building a small piece of green infrastructure along with their project to add to the overall network of green infrastructure. And then for the utilities systems themselves, doing the proper hardening that we need to, to substations, to pump locations and things like that, so that they're ready for these increased incidents of flooding.

So these are just some illustrations of some of the measures that we can start to use. Green infrastructure built into streets. Thinking of parks as floodable, flexible spaces. So certain you can see in the top right a space that is a little bit sunken. It's playable during most times, but when a big storm event comes through, there's a place where water can go and then be released slowly after the storm or after the high tide event.

There are things we can do along the creek in terms of creating flooding shelves and things like that. And these green infrastructure improvements can also be quite nice public space destinations. So, Redwood Creek is a real opportunity to create sort of a central park for downtown Redwood City and then have connectors coming into that for the community to access it easily. So that's a little bit about resilience. And I'm going to end here with a very sort of quick approach to mobility.

And we have Brooke on the line to correct me if I say anything wrong. But as Poonam said, our goal in the mobility framework is to better balance the modes of mobility. So rather than cars sort of dominating the circulation network, we want to balance out so that it's equally accommodating pedestrians and bikes in a safe and comfortable and shady manner. And it's also accommodating transit so that that can be efficient and easy to use. So to do that, our team has really pulled each of those modes apart and looked at them individually.

So this is a pedestrian priority zone that's really focused in the downtown core. And this is an area where we really want pedestrians to be comfortable. We want to really encourage people to be a pedestrian, get out of your car, access the downtown on foot, have comfortable sidewalks, shady wide sidewalks, particularly in this area. So you can get from the transit stations and between all of these different downtown destinations, employment centers, etcetera. So much better sidewalk infrastructure.

The bike network. The bike the Walk, Bike, Thrive plan is pretty good. It's an impressive document. But in looking at it, we think that there may be some gaps. So we want to fill those gaps.

And these sort of the wider green sort of caterpillar looking lines on here are where we think some of those gaps may be. So it's building on the Walk, Bike, Thrive plan and making sure that we have just really seamless accessibility throughout the downtown, but also out to the neighborhoods. We want people to come to downtown on their bikes, and we want them to feel really comfortable doing that. And then the transit, are there ways that we can have we can consolidate the transit routes a little bit? So you see the fuzzy gray caterpillars are streets that we're thinking maybe we remove transit from those streets and consolidate it to certain transit priority streets, make that more efficient.

And the the trick with accommodating all of these different modes is you need space. You need space to accommodate pedestrians. You need space to accommodate the bikes, and you need space to accommodate transit as well as the cars. And so the the width, the right of way becomes really valuable. And how do we allocate that properly so we're making space for all those modes?

So if we can focus transit on certain key corridors, as this is showing, that leaves space on some of the other streets that we can really expand the bike facilities, expand the pedestrian sidewalks, etcetera. So it really becomes a competition for space on these different streets. And here you can see this is just an illustration of where you take a width off to one side of the street and all of a sudden there's all of these different ways that we can use that width. We could use them for bus stops and bus lanes. We could use them for a protected bike lane.

We could use them for pickup drop off areas. We could use them for accessibility and loading. All of those things are competing for that space. So how do we allocate it when you go from one corridor to the other to the other? So that's sort of the little puzzle that we're trying to solve.

And I think we're, you know, we're just sort of getting into the complexity of that now and I think there's starting to be some clarity on how to do that. And then lastly, the four big corridors that surround the GDAP, Veterans Boulevard, Whipple, El Camino Real, Woodside, we'd like these to be not barriers. And in many ways, they feel like barriers now, But to be conveyors, safe conveyors of all the different modes, be comfortable for pedestrians and bikes as well as for cars and transit, be crossable in a comfortable way so you're not taking your life in your hands when you wanna cross one of these corridors. So looking at each of the and each one is a little bit different in terms of their characteristics. Woodside is really tough in terms of thinking how we can do safe crossing of that.

El Camino Real is already starting to have some clarity in terms of the improvements there, etcetera. So we want to treat each of those in a way that they become joiners and also safe conveyors of all the modes. And I'm going to turn it back to John.

Can we go back to that last slide? Sorry. Thanks. So just we're we're just about wrapping up the main part of our presentation, but I just wanted to highlight some of the the key feedback we heard in this vision framework portion phase of our work from the community and from all of our boards, committees, and commissions. We we visited, I think, six BCCs over the course of October and November.

Did a little roadshow, got to talk to a lot of people, and I hear a lot of great feedback from lots of members of the community. But just a few things I'll just highlight is, you know, the support for our mixed use district concept, you know, really being strategic about where we're putting our ground floor retail, make you know, a lot of support around growth opportunities near transit and as well as interest in growth, north of the Veterans Boulevard area where there's, you know, right now some underutilized properties, compared to, you know, what what we think could be possible there. You know, we heard a lot of focus on improving connectivity and and safety for both walking and biking, you know, especially as Jim mentioned across some of those really big corridors that really act more as barriers to our downtown from the rest of the neighborhoods in Redwood City than as connectors. A lot of support for, you know, thinking about how we can find more space for for open space and parks. Climate resilience, as Jim mentioned, is a is a really important topic that, you know, I think it's really great and really important that Redwood City and our community is is recognizing as the challenge that it's gonna be, but I think it also presents some really interesting opportunities.

And, you know, as always in Redwood City, affordable housing is is key, and, you know, our community really recognizes that. So that's just a brief summary of some of the really big themes we heard. And then lastly, I did I just wanted to touch upon, you know, what our next very next steps are. We're going to be refining the vision framework based on your feedback and all the feedback that we heard from the community and other BCCs and really refining and developing further developing some of those ideas. And then in the spring and summer, we're gonna be returning back to the community and the BCCs for another round of input and feedback, and then bringing a preferred plan framework to you all for an endorsement in the fall.

And then we will be, you know, the end of this year and into 2027, we're going to be drafting our plan policies implementation strategies and conducting the EIR that will be necessary to adopt a plan. And we're looking at a final plan for your consideration at the end of twenty twenty seven, early twenty twenty eight. And that concludes our presentation. Thanks for being patient and bearing with us.

John, thank you for the great presentation, and Poonam and Jim for the great add ons. It's an incredible wealth of information to just get this all in one slide deck before the weekend. So thank you for for hustling to allow us to get some studying done. But with that, we will now take public comment on this item, and I'll turn it over to our city clerk to help facilitate.

Thank you, mayor. We have a few speakers on this item. I'll do one last call to the audience, and I'll prompt our folks online to start raising their hands. Once we start public comment, we won't take any more speakers.

I see a hand raised. There are speaker cards in the back of the dais or I'm sorry, in the back of the chambers if you fill it out real quick. Oh, there it is.

Thank you. Anyone else on the greater downtown area plan? Alright. I'll give my quick elevator speech. The timer will begin when you start speaking. The timer is on the top of the podium. Yellow blinking light is your thirty second warning, and the red light with the beep means your time is up. So we have three in person speakers. It looks like we have three folks online totaling six. I'll start with our in person speakers. Dani Gasparini, former mayor and council member, welcome, who will be followed by Michael Arusa.

Oh my gosh, can you even see me? I forgot to wear my high heel shoes today. I feel like I need one of those stepping stools from back in the day. All right. Thanks for allowing me to come. I'm actually pinch hitting for Susie Payton tonight. She is at a board meeting for a center for creativity. Patrick, it is so awesome to see you across the dais. I'm so excited. Yay. Anyway, I digress. Does that mean I've lost thirty seconds of my time already? No? I'm good. Okay.

So thank you, Mayors Martinez Valles and Vice Mayor Aiken and members of the Council, and Diane, who's not with us. I'm here just to remind the Council members that were in attendance at a meeting in February 2022, and for those council members that weren't seated at that time, a decision was made by the current current council to include an arts center as a community benefit as part of the Central Redwood City plan. Now, I just learned tonight, the GDAP. I think we need a rap song to go with the GDAP. And the reason why I'm here to ask you to include that language is we know that the city doesn't have the funding to necessarily build a comprehensive art center, nor does our steering committee for center creativity have the ability to raise the millions required for a comprehensive art center.

And we also don't know we also know that it shouldn't be on the backs of a developer to bring that to the city. But as partners between the city and folks like myself and the Center for Creativity and a developer who might be wanting to do a visioning project in the downtown or the greater downtown area, this might be perfect to bring. We talked before about strengthening and bringing visibility to our downtown. We all know we've been in cities where there have been comprehensive art centers, performing arts. It's over already.

Well, anyway, we have data to show that it's economic benefit And also, arts know no boundaries, ethnicity, religion, political views, age, gender. It's a place to really gather. I think it'd be perfect in our downtown greater area. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Danny. Our next speaker is Michael who will be followed by Yukari Schneider.

All right. Good evening, members of City Council. My name is Michael Arruza, resident and volunteer for the YES in Redwood City Chapter of Yimby Action. I wanna thank staff for the thoughtful plan that they've put forth, and I appreciate the city's commitment to taking the housing crisis seriously and ensuring that our plan allows for us to build enough homes for everyone who needs them. I love the progress so far, and I also love the vision that's taking shape of a walkable and vibrant downtown.

I'm especially delighted to see missing middle housing explicitly called out as part of the vision for the apologies if I don't pronounce this right, the Stambaugh Heller neighborhood. However, I also hope that the city doesn't limit its commitment to increasing this kind of missing middle housing to only the downtown plan. I'd love to see duplexes legalized across most of the city in contrast to today, where due to single family zoning, they're effectively not allowed in 62% of the city's residential land. I also hope that given the Centennial neighborhood's proximity to the new Caltrain station, the final plan takes into account the need for enough homes and services that are within walking distance to the station. The Centennial will be a great location for multifamily housing given its proximity to transit, I hope the final plan takes that into account.

But otherwise, the plan is looking really awesome, and I'm excited to see it take shape moving forward. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Michael. Our next speaker is Yukari Schneider. Welcome.

Hello. My name is Yukari Schneider, and I just want to say I love Redwood City. I lived yay. Right? Yay. I lived in four different countries and five different states before I finally landed here in Redwood City. And I just thought, like, truly, I finally found my people, and I finally found my place. So I just wanna thank you all for being a part of all of that. It is a lovely, lovely city. And it is my honor to be able to raise my kids in it, to and to gift Redwood City to them.

So thank you all so much for that. I am also the president of the Friendly Acres Neighborhood Association, and I'm here both as that representative and as a mother in that neighborhood. One of the things I I have two points to make. One is to really ask when we talk about Broadway to consider, actually, you are correct. I actually read it. Broadway is gonna be the key organizing and identity identifying element of our greater, downtown plan. And I just ask that you consider what happens when people turn left. Right? From 101. We're saying from 1 01, we're gonna get a lot of people coming, and so absolutely go right.

There's fantastic things on the right side. But when you go left, that is our beloved neighborhood. And so please consider the continuity of that opportunity to go through the rest a little bit more of Broadway. And I actually have one critical point for that. One is that on our side of the neighborhood, Stanford is building out their medical centers. There's a lot of innovation happening there, and it is so exciting. It's really great to see the the beautiful development. It is so fun to ride bikes on those paths, and that's actually gonna take me to my second point. And we have so much fun there. But one of the things with these big organizations is that we start losing some of those personal touches that make it our hometown.

Things like we lost our tamale lady. You know? And at one point, we actually almost lost our only food truck because of parking, parking, meters. So one of the things I ask, and I know my time is ending, is that on the, on Broadway, if you can consider micro businesses and opportunities because we those are the people and the food that really make our home our hometown. And please create a space like shared kitchens and those opportunities down Broadway be a just a great really great addition to what's happening on the other side of Broadway. I feel like there's a fancy side and then there's, like, home side, and that would be a fantastic way to look at it. So please consider adding that. Last one. I'm gonna just play. It was already mentioned.

I just wanna reiterate the safety at the Broadway Woodside intersection problem. That

that's your time. So if you could send a link to us, we'll make sure to do that.

Alright. It's my fourth for fourth grader talking about how unsafe he feels out at the intersection on his bike because he loves to bike there. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Yukari. We will turn now to our Zoom speakers. We have three. Our first speaker is Carvin Dasanayake. Welcome, Carvin.

Good evening, city council members. My name is Carmen Desilanica. I'm a resident of Redwood City. I bike, walk, and drive around Redwood City, and I'm also the founder of Redwood City's newest transportation advocacy group, the Bike Walk Bus Alliance, shortened to Buwaba. As a resident of Redwood City and someone who lives in the greater Downtown Plan area, I'm so excited to see the city's efforts to improve the area with intention.

I want to strongly encourage this council incorporate projects, initiatives, and goals that are focused on really addressing some of the long term needs of the city and the many people that are connected to it. As walkable as the downtown is, I I wanna ask city council to consider how are people gonna get here, How connected is the city to regional destinations? A focus on public transportation and low stress bike facilities that are comfortable for any child to bike on are a great way to build a strong downtown core. And I also ask that future projects really scope in, quote, unquote, everyday travel. For instance, how can a biker get to the grocery store, the gym, or even Redwood And Park?

I do wanna lastly take this chance to ask that the city council, potentially as part of this work, look into an effective bike share system for the city. It's a great way to re great way to reduce emissions, connect upcoming destinations like the Port Of Robert City and the Stanford campus build out. As great as our bill as our Bird e scooter adventure was, I do think adopt bike share system that the city is really invested in can be a great way to bridge the gap for active transportation without having to rely on regional partners or long term transportation projects like the Broadway streetcar. A lot of street a lot of cities in the region have good downtowns with retail and residential areas, but I think if Redwood City truly invests in making a downtown an attractive place to visit, work, live in based on its local and regional active transportation connectivity, I know it can be a great downtown. Thank you.

Thank you, Carvin. Our next speaker is council member Diane Howard, who has joined us as a member of public this evening. Welcome, Diane. Diane, if you can hear us, you can go ahead.

No, actually, it's Steve. Steve is on Diane's computer.

Welcome, Steve.

Thank you very much, and thank you for giving Typhoid Mary the day off. And thank Danny Gasparini for her fabulous suit. Appreciate that. I was wondering if these are the right consultants, given that Scott Wiener has passed a bill that puts the entire Centennial neighborhood at risk of developing five story buildings whereas single family homes used to be. And whether these are the right people to give the council an assessment of the level of risk and how much they should be pressuring state officials on pushing back.

As was mentioned at an earlier part of the meeting by one of the council people, Redwood City has been a good guy as far as building housing, and they shouldn't be penalized in other cities have been. So I think we're early in the game. And again, I'm not sure if these are the right consultants, but if they are, while they're doing this, because should that development occur in that neighborhood, it would drastically change what the intention and the ideas of what you're doing in that area. So anyway, thank you very much. All have a good evening.

Thank you, Steve. Our third speaker lowered their hand. So that concludes public comment, mayor. Thank you.

Great.

Thank you, city clerk, and thank you to everybody who made public comments, who are here in person or joined us online. With that, we will bring it back to the city council. And who would like to get us started? Council member Chu. Thank you.

K. So this was terrific and super excited about so the headline is love it. I did have many comments, though. So the the first thing I wanted to express is gratitude. And so I remember I moved to the Bay Area in or moved to Redwood City in in about 2000. And I was on it was a Friday night. It was 08:00, and we were trying to find a place to have coffee, and there was nothing open. And I remember and that was during the first.com boom. And I remember thinking this is crazy. Like, this city could be amazing if it with just a little bit of effort.

And, you know, fast forward a few years, and now we have one of the most wonderful, vibrant downtowns, you know, anywhere. And that is due to the vision and the courage of the people on council at that time. I'm so bummed Diane wasn't here because she was one of the people who was instrumental in or Diane Howard was not here because she one of the people who was instrumental in that. I believe council member g was as well. So so just to see this even become extended is is really exciting.

So the second thing is that cities are among the most effective ways to deliver access to opportunity, prosperity, connection to other people, and years of life at scale. So people who ous places like Redwood City live significantly longer than people who don't have access to prosperous places like Redwood City. And so when we build cities, it's not just, this downtown is fun. It actually gives people access to the economy and and adds years to life. So really, really excited about this.

I did have a number of of comments. Let's see here. I just wanna make sure. So one of the things I really appreciate is I feel like you got the hierarchy of transportation right. You know, everybody talks about Amsterdam, but really one of my favorite cities is Copenhagen.

So you can bike anywhere in Copenhagen and you feel completely safe and comfortable. And you can also drive anywhere in Copenhagen or take the train, but the the priority is the person on foot because everybody is a pedestrian. And what I noticed was that if somebody had a physical disability, that they had a myriad of options to be able to get around the city. And I feel like you've really expressed that that high you know, that priority of the person on foot transit and and also accommodating bicycles and cars as well. So I really I just wanted to call that out as awesome.

I appreciate the emphasis on parks and sort of thinking about parks a little differently linearly. I'd love to see us even think about rooftop space as public space, you know, just sort of really creatively thinking about parks and green space and public space. I I do have some requests. So as I think has been mentioned, roads like El Camino, Veterans 101, and Woodside act as walls. And in, you know, in particular, I live I always think of it as south, but I guess technically it's East Of Woodside.

It can feel like there's a flaming sword at Woodside and, you know, nothing ever comes, you know, East Of Woodside. And I was disappointed to see that barrier there. And even if you notice on the El Camino side, it kind of goes across El Camino and and sort of, you know, that El Camino is not that hard barrier. And there's a simple solution. Broadway is already in the works.

You know, Stanford is going to be, you know, already has their project anchored at 5th. They're going to be doing another part of that project. So Stanford has most of the land along Broadway. There's a short piece, and then you get to the new the the GDAP. I would like us to consider adding a spine, a spoke, maybe hub and spoke is a better way to think about it.

A spoke down Broadway to 5th. And what that does and and making Broadway a person centered street. What that does is it gives everybody from the Southern neighborhoods a way to get downtown safely, pleasantly outside of a car. You know, there's still many car routes. It's not like, you know, it it doesn't take anything away.

But that's the most intuitive and logical route. Because Stanford's doing things there anyway. You know, we're already 80% of the way there. And instead of having a bridge that goes 80% over the river, we could have a bridge that goes all the way over a river. Lot of times people say, oh, why doesn't anyone use, you know, the bike lane or the sidewalk or whatever?

In the same way, if a bridge only goes 80% over the river, nobody's gonna use it. And so I think by making a spine down Broadway, we could see much more utilization of the excellent infrastructure that Stanford's going to put in. And and, you know, both sides of that are are Redwood City. So I I wanted to pitch that. A second thing I would like us to consider is applying NACDO standards instead of MUTCD and Green Guide standards in the GDAP.

And the reason for that is because I think it's a contained amount of space. It's not like trying to redo the whole city. But if we could consider NACTO instead of MUTCD and I I don't know what the technical term for the typical standards are. The the only city in The United States that's actually achieved vision zero is Hoboken and they have adopted NACTO standards for I'm not sure exactly how long, but it was part of their actually getting there was was adopting NACTO standards. So I'd like to ask us to consider that.

Let's see. I like the idea of the micro mobility share system. I think, you know, sometimes it's a little far to walk if you're sore, tired, injured, having a little stand scooter that you can just pick up is great. Just a comment too about, you know, sort of complete streets and and you you've probably already looked at this, but I'd say Broadway from the train tracks to about Maple is what I consider the platonic ideal of a person centered street. And it doesn't have a bike lane, and it doesn't need one because it's I'm not sure how wide those lanes are.

But because the lanes are narrow and the sidewalk is big, a person on a bicycle can just ride at the speed of traffic. I you know, I'm pretty risk averse, and I feel completely it's fun. It's comfortable. It's easy. And having a similar design as far down as we can possibly have it would be amazing.

Let's see here. Sorry. I'm just trying to make sure I get all this. Speaking of getting getting to downtown outside of a car there, you know, how can I say this? If we want our downtown downtown to be person centered and, know, comfortable to walk, comfortable to bike, comfortable for transit, I think we need connectivity from every neighborhood in the city.

And so it doesn't mean that the down, you know, obviously, I want the GDAP to extend down Broadway, but really integrating Jeffers you know, the existing plan to make Jefferson a low stress route. Consider making maybe Brewster a low stress route, Maple a low stress route that people have to get get to downtown outside of a car if they're gonna walk or bike. And, you know, they can't teleport there. So really integrating thinking about how are people gonna get from every neighborhood in our city to downtown as part of this outside of a car or on transit. Let's see.

I hope that improvements to veterans are part of this. I wouldn't I I do not enjoy crossing veterans on foot. I'll leave it there. I'm trying to think if there's anything else. I I wanted to echo the miss Schneider's comment about provisions for micro businesses.

You know, if you think about the capital requirements to go from like, you know, a little cart to a food truck to a storefront. There's a huge leap. And a lot of that I mean, I've been places where there's tons of tiny little storefronts like, you know, the size of this or four restaurants, you know, these really granular dynamic flourishing cities. And and a big part of that is because you can do that. You don't need four parking spaces and, you know, sprinklers and, you know, I mean, I I'm all for sprinklers.

A safety thing. But, you know, that that they have removed unnecessary barriers for micro businesses. And so I would also like to see us try to accommodate those kinds of footprints as much as we can, particularly if if you're so willing down kind of at the Eastern Side Of Broadway because that's a big part of the culture of our neighborhood I think is to have these little businesses. And just finally comments on on what kinds of industries I'd love to see us court. You know, obviously biotech, you can't work from home or you certainly shouldn't.

Electrical engineering is similar. It's very sort of bench and lab based and and just really courting car light households. I think, you know, a lot of people want to have a car but don't want to have to rely on it for everything. And so, you know, even thinking about how could we make life excellent for these kinds of households. And then finally, for the historic districts of Stambaugh, Mezi, and Centennial, thinking about what I call like historic forms that aren't necessarily the houses that are there now.

So for example, Stand By Heller has a lot of historic beautiful buildings. If we could have a Redwood City vernacular architecture like have things in that style, but maybe a bigger footprint or a smaller setback or courtyard blocks or things like this where they're they're honoring the history of that district, you know, from an architectural perspective, but maybe can accommodate more families. So I think that's it. I realized that's really a lot, but terrific presentation. I'm very, very excited about it.

Thank you, council member Chu for getting us started here. Colleagues, who would like to go next? Thank you, Councilmember Chen.

My arm hurts Mayor, but thank you. To the entire presentation team, thank you. This is a lot of work and I'm just going to preface my comments. I'm not interested in expanding your scope of work. I want to make sure you hit the budget and the schedule, but I think there are appropriate steps for subsequent phases, particularly with a lot of different pieces moving around at the city by different either projects or agencies and things like that.

And they need to be all stitched together. And trying to do it all at once will never get done. And I can guarantee you will not get done on your schedule that you presented. We keep adding scope. And that's one of my main concerns because I just want us to get stuff done and not just keep planning forever. We can plan forever and never get anything done. And we need to do both. So I'm just going to start with some of the outreach. I said earlier in one of the presentations, I believe that all of our boards and commissions need to be engaged in this initiative. I know you've met and reached out to six or seven of them.

All of them need to be reached out and touched. They all need to be engaged. They all need to know what's going on. They need to be ambassadors to the community. Some are very easy to see where they fit, but others need to also be engaged and know what's going on. I may have missed it, but I don't see anything about the neighborhood associations. They need to be engaged. They need to know what's going on, not just the ones downtown or right next door, but all the neighborhood associations. And I believe mayor, you and the vice mayor meet with them at least once a year, and then they meet quarterly, I believe. That's the easy place to be able to present to the neighborhood associations all at once.

We heard earlier this evening that the hotel owners, if we meet with the auto dealers, we should meet with the hotel operators and owners to get them engaged because part of, I would say, if you put a map on this, a large concentration of our hotel operators and owners are in the GDAP boundary. So they should be aware. And then I may have missed it. I didn't see any mention about Chambers San Mateo County. And I don't know if that was if I missed it or they're not, but they need to be engaged in in the process too.

One of the things that is important is the because of the the boundaries of the GDAP area, this needs to be tightly coordinated with the Cal train quarter wide crossing strategy. You know, one of the reasons, if not the number one reason, that the Caltrain station is contemplated to moving north is the great separation projects here in Redwood City. And Caltrain is working very hard on a quarter wide crossing strategy and examining multiple different ways of funding that because that number quarter wide is very big. And no one's going to write a check and no city can afford to write their own check as we see what's going on in Burlingame. So there's a lot of things going on with that, and you need to be very, very engaged with that, including economic analysis and value capture and all those things that are going on as we looked for different ways of funding Caltrain quarter wide grade separation project.

I'm gonna pause here and let you, John, or someone from your team talk. There's a brief mention about SB79 and the flexibility in the out of the eight pages of staffing, but I think there's only one paragraph. So can you talk about the adaptability, flexibility to the GDAP plan and current and future housing legislation? Anybody want to take that one on? Sue?

Sue Axline, Assistant Community Development Director. I'll see what I can tackle, probably leave out future housing legislation, see if I can get the rest. So SB79, I think folks know, was recently approved, and we are still in the middle of analyzing it and kind of figuring out how it will apply to us and what we want to do, if anything, sort of in response to it. So I don't think I want to go into too much depth on that right now. It does cover some of the area that SB 79 will go is part of the Greater Downtown area planning.

Part of the geography covers it and part of it doesn't. So we are thinking, when we go into our next phase of this work, how much density is in that area. And then you can think about I think John actually had a good metaphor to think of it as sort of a box that can be squished and moved potentially if we want it to be. The density has to be we have to have that amount of density, but we can potentially squish it and move it. So that's as far as we've gotten to date in terms of what we know about it.

We have time. We have a little bit of time to kind of figure out how that will work, and we do want to actively sort of think about that in our Greater Dundas process. But I think timing wise, in a pretty good place to do that.

So thank That's probably the best answer you can give at this moment in time. But our city attorney?

You know, I just wanted to, for the rest of the council that may be may not be as attuned to SB79 and maybe the community, I just wanted to mention that SB79 was adopted really intending to allow for greater heights and densities in resident for residential developments that were near transit stops. And so that's what SB79 was meant to do. So I just wanted to get that overview.

And there's a kind of loose definition of what major transit stop is, but in our downtown area plan, the Caltrain station and the SamTrans Transit Center are pretty clear that they qualify that in that definition. A bus stop is maybe a little iffy, but the Caltrain station and the Samtrans Transit Center are clear compliance as in that definition.

Yeah. That's correct.

And and thank you, Sue, for that item. It's constantly changing. So that squishy box, that pull and take is gonna have to be there for however long the GDAM stays in place. Mhmm. Yeah. I think this next year, I think the state legislature is still going to be pushing on housing production at the local level.

Yeah. And there I think there are some more amendments that are in the works right now to that legislation. So we're kind of keeping our eyes on it.

Very good. Sort of the follow-up question is with the framework, how does the framework fit with the existing precise plans? I mean, the GDAP area does cover the North Main Street precise plan. So does this incorporate it, supersede it, change it? How does that work?

So the two precise plans that are in the GDEP area are the North Vein, as you mentioned, the DTPP, And then actually, there's a the Kaiser precise plan is also within the the area. So our intention is that the GDAP will supersede the DTPP and the North Main precise plan, but would not supersede the Kaiser plan. We've we've been in the you know, we've we met with staff from Kaiser, and they had the same question. So we wanted to make clear to them that, you know, we're not planning to make any sort of like land use changes or anything like that in their precise plan area.

Thank you for clarifying that. What I then would encourage very strongly is another stakeholder engagement, particularly with the property owners of the North Main Street Precise Plan. They were the they really pushed and championed that in front of the council many years ago. The DTPP, I mean, I think you I think RCIA and others, but you really need to engage stakeholders if the framework is going to supersede those two precise plans.

For sure. Thank you.

And then two other topics. One is I I see mention of the Grand Boulevard initiative in the framework, which is great. I think I mentioned the Caltrain quarter wide crossing strategy. But I wasn't clear about the Dunle Barton reimagine initiative by Sam Trans. How does that fit in here?

Yes. A great question. So we've met with our SAM trans colleagues a couple times, you know, partially because they're they're they're a big part of the the transit station area, the future transit station area, and, you know, they're gonna be fully integrated into that. So, you know, we've we've touched on that. And then in terms of the Dumbarton bus route, you know, they're pretty early in their, I'll say, environmental phase.

I can't remember now exactly which phase they're in, but I'm pretty sure they're in environmental phase of kind of looking at the route and making sure it can be environmentally cleared. And, you know, we're we're they're a key stakeholder, we will be kind of touching base with them throughout the process and sharing information, and they'll be sharing information with us. We have a, you know, very good line of communication with them. And with Caltrain, we are I wanted to mention, because you mentioned the the crossing strategy. So Malahat Orang, our transportation planner, meets monthly with Caltrain to just coordinate.

And I've been sitting in on those meetings on a regular basis as well. So we're making sure that we're in regular conversation about the strategy around the station and the crossings as it relates to the GDAP as well.

Very good. And I believe the Sam Trans Dumbarton corridor reimagine project is in the community engagement process right now. It's not even that far. So this is a great time to make sure whatever is being put on the table as alternatives, you know, are connected. I mean, that's the worst thing to do is to have every single piece stand on their own. And I'll make sure on the other side where, you know, I'm a director on both boards that communication is occurring.

For sure.

And then my last item is just on the environmental risk. I want to make sure we're not repeating anything that we are looking at lessons learned from the Bayfront Canal and how what that we learned there, what we could do different and make it better and faster and less expensive or Belmont Creek. I did go around during the King Tide and saw what flooded and Belmont Creek definitely rose above its banks. I believe the Bayfront Canal did a decent job. But there are lessons learned about those two projects of what can be done differently or maybe better so that we don't repeat ourselves and are effective in the consultant resources we use and the money we spend on this initiative.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilmember G. Anybody else have comments or questions? Council member.

Thank you, mayor. Thank you, first and foremost, staff. This is a huge body of work and to the consultant as well. Thank you so much for the community outreach you have spearheaded. I went to one of the open houses at the River City Women's Club and was impressed with the attendance and met somebody there from, Nuestra Casa as well.

So appreciate the engagement of some local nonprofits, to reach the community in multiple languages, especially, knocking on a 175 doors and standby Heller. Very impressed with that. So thank you. I definitely wanna second, council member Gee's comments on engagement of all neighbor associations. I do appreciate that you already held a joint session with and with.

That's great. Though I did hear from neighbors and residents that they are looking for maybe some more direct engagement. So a stand alone meeting if if at all possible. And second, reaching out to all the BCCs, the chamber, and having, you know, this be maybe the first topic of that kind of hotel roundtable. Right?

And, you know, something that was also mentioned when we discussed this, I can't believe it, over a year ago now. Council member G had mentioned reaching out to employers outside of downtown. And so I just wanted to kind of follow-up on that. Did we reach out to employers, like in Shores or or elsewhere to make sure that they're aware of this plan and and were consulted as well?

We've generally been focusing within the plan area. There's a there's a lot of stakeholders to engage with, you know, and, you know, we're we're trying to reach as many folks as possible. And so, you know, we're I would if you have specific employers, I would we'd be very grateful for suggestions that, you know, for and and contacts for those folks,

we would be happy to engage. Yes. I will definitely follow-up with you.

Feel free to email us.

Alright. Thank you. But, otherwise, you know, you're doing a great job with the outreach. I do have a couple organizations I wanted to add. You know, I I know we don't have a lot of time, but I do appreciate that one of the stakeholder groups was specifically for people with disabilities and seniors.

But maybe reaching out to the Center for Independence of Individuals with Disabilities specifically might be a good organization to add to the list. And then also the San Mateo County Pride Center, and they have a community advisory board. And then or if not the Pride Center, there's outlet, which is a program of adolescent counseling services, which is located on Woodside Road. So they, you know, serve, you know, queer youth and trans youth in the city and in the county. So both, good organizations to reach out to, if at all possible.

And then getting into the plan itself, it's so comprehensive, fantastic. I was really glad to see that we're baking into the plan traffic calming. And, yeah, I think it was in the feedback document on page two that there's recurring feedback for speed reduction measures on Broadway, Jefferson, and Stambaugh. So, you know, focusing on those corridors as well as expanding that list to correlate with the streets that we currently restrict traffic calming measures on in downtown. That's including Middlefield and Maine as well as Broadway Jefferson that are already listed.

Right? So if we could just kinda correlate with that policy and and take a second look at it, reevaluate what traffic calming measures are possible, that would be fantastic. And let's see. Yeah. And another topic of mobility, it is a little surprising to see that, you know, areas West Of El Camino that are within that one mile radius around the Caltrain station or even the future Caltrain station are included in the plan area, especially since there's such a focus on mobility.

And so I I do like and I I second council member Chu's suggestion of, you know, identifying a strategic nodes or I think it was spokes. Right? That could extend the downtown into neighborhoods to foster even more walking and biking and ensure that neighborhoods outside of the downtown of the GDOP area get to take advantage of these amenities. And then kind of zeroing in on Centennial, I really appreciate the idea of a greenway on Hopkins. I I will say that in in my experience in living in in that neighborhood, a lot of the kind of traffic in terms of bicycling pedestrians goes north south.

So, like, when we had the slow streets on Allerton, for example, those were well utilized. And so maybe that Greenway could run north south. Just putting it out there. And then on the corner, that site that's identified as an active node, there was a comment in the feedback about making that a community garden. And I would argue, you know, even a park in order to help increase the the number of parks in in downtown and Centennial.

You know, granted, it's private property. Right? There's there's a whole lot of things that go with that that make it very challenging, but just wanna throw that out there as maybe a different way to envision that particular lot or that active node. And let's see then. Kinda zooming back out again.

I really appreciate the the green ways on veterans and kind of in incorporating to those Refuge Islands. I saw that on page six of the feedback document making veterans, you know, safer to cross, giving people more time, a place to to to rest should they need more time to cross that street, you know, especially giving given the housing projects that are already completed on that side of on the other side of the East Side of Veterans and then the ones that are, you know, currently proposed, right, or in the mix. And then also the the collision history, you know, the the with bicyclists that that has occurred on veterans. Sorry. I'm almost there.

So and then I thought this term was kinda funny, but the the spongy landscapes, I do think that's a great, you know, dual purpose, multipurpose concept there. You know, one a lot of these green infrastructural improvements are dependent upon redevelopment, right, as I think you had mentioned. But with said, there are, you know, select small parcels that are city owned, like the one we just purchased from a redevelopment agency at Lathrop And Maple. Yeah. That's while it gives us access and is primarily procured for us to get have access to our utilities, it could also have the the dual purpose of being that sponge, right, helping to absorb some of that that rain in during major storm events.

And let's see. Yeah. I will leave it there. Thank you very much.

Council members, before we leave your questioning, I just wanted to clarify. You had mentioned an activity node at a parcel in Centennial, and I don't think we caught exactly which location it was at. Right.

That is the the corner of Brewster And Arguello. It's it's an empty lot next to the liquor store there.

Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. I know what

you're talking about.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, council member Sturgeon. We'll go to council member Padilla next.

Thank you.

Wonderful presentation. I'll just echo some of my colleagues' comments. When it when it comes to neighborhood associations, speaking from my years on parks and rec, most of them actually meet as needed. So I would go ahead and say, take the initiative and tell them you wanna meet with them and make them meet so you can be the presentation. I think that this is a fantastic presentation and I think they would all welcome it.

So, I I think there are a few that meet regularly, but a majority of them meet as needed. So, I would go ahead and say, just take that initiative. I think it's important we're building community. So I also agree with council member Sterkin to reach out to businesses out or outside of the downtown area. And I would even say to maybe give some attention to people on Woodside Road, El Camino, that maybe through some different processes have felt a little left out of the process, not not through the city, but through other, agencies.

I think that there are some opportunities there, and they would welcome the dialogue. When I joined the Parks and Rec Commission, I was years ago, all I ever asked for, felt like I asked Chris Beth all the time, can we have pocket parks? Can we have pocket parks? And I was always told we didn't have enough workers and there wasn't any money. So once again, I would I'm all for pocket parks or any way we can activate a space, whether that's through promoting exercise with even just signage to encourage stretching in an area, passive parks, but just making them beautiful or community gardens.

So I I I love all the different ways you guys are engaging the community. And I would also just like to say that I know Bella mentioned, I love all the coffee we can. I I also envision a time when I can do a lot of shopping. I would love to do some retail shopping in downtown. I would love for people to come down here and not just eat and drink, but wanna spend their money on retail.

So, I think that would be a wonderful thing for us and I look forward to that in the future. I want us all to be connected, but I also want to make sure we are connecting with our seniors and our population with disabilities who are going to have parking concerns and may not be able to use scooters or things like that. So I just want to make sure that there are several groups and that we make sure that we take the needed attention to address any of their concerns. Thank you for the good work.

Thank you. Council Member Padilla, we'll go to Vice Mayor Eakin.

Thank you. I'm gonna focus, a little bit on, sea level rise and some I mainly have questions. But, before I get to that, I just want to well, first of all, amazing plan as I wrote in my notes to staff. So excited on so many different levels. I feel that my colleagues have really addressed a lot about transportation and asked good questions and made good comments, and I I support the that.

And I just before I get to the sea level rise on the transportation, the the plan says that those corridors are difficult, and miss Chu said they're a wall. And Woodside wrote and and one of the consultants said, you know, Woodside Road is particularly difficult. And, you know, you guys are not magicians, neither are we. But I just echo, like, please, please, please, let's try to be creative on the wall of Woodside Road. And am open to, council member Sterkin mentioned as well the creativity on moving.

I don't know. Ms. Chu talked about 80% of a bridge. Mr. G talked about let's focus on what we're already doing or the plan will never get done.

I don't know who's right, but I do really want us to focus on making Woodside Road, all the corridors, but, I live off Woodside Road. My my district is Woodside Road. I I see every day people taking their life into their own hands. I I see all sorts of bad behavior, but but the built environment makes that bad behavior even more dangerous. And so I don't know the answer, but I really support Ms.

Chu's visioning of making that transition friendlier. And maybe it is that you just need one portal, and then maybe people go four blocks from Broadway on Woodside Road one way, and four blocks from Broadway another way, and maybe if you make that Broadway crossing of Woodside Road just the most beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, inviting, people friendly intersection, you solve a mile of Woodside Roads problem. I don't know. But please, please keep visioning on it. So let me go to Mr.

Stickley. I have well, before I do that, a foundational question. Is there a difference between a specific plan and a precise plan, and if so, which one is this, or do we know? And if there's no difference, that's okay.

There are some statutory, definitions, and the city attorney might be able to chime in a little bit more than I can. But, I was gonna say this plan we are is is will be called a specific plan. We haven't used the terminology because it doesn't really mean very much to most members of the public. It's kind of a very technical term. So we've kind of avoided using that. But when it comes down to it, our plan is for this to be a specific plan.

Okay. I don't want to get into the minutiae of law. But my understanding, and I ask because I worked on the Downtown Precise Plan that was approved in 2011. And so I and I recall at that time, people were just saying it was just such a big deal that it was a precise plan. And so I don't want to go into the weeds of that, but basically, I just want to say my understanding, and then you can tell me, yes, my understanding is correct.

So basically, we do this plan, and then if a developer or a landowner or a business comes and goes, hey, you know what? I own that land or I own this, and I'm gonna do exactly what your specific plan says I can do. And then because the planning is already in place, they don't have to spend thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on doing an EIR, and doing zoning, and complaining about this horrible bureaucracy. They just get to get to start building right away. Right?

That I would say that's that's there's aspects of that that are accurate. I would say that you're right in that in the in the sense that this plan will have an environmental review document, an EIR, that will basically kind of pre clear development up to whatever the EIR has studied. So if we've if we say this week per we say that this plan is has a capacity of, you know, I'm just gonna throw a number out there, 10,000 housing units. You know, and we've we've studied that. I'll study the environmental effects of that, and, you know, it's it's cleared and we passed that.

Great. Then then if someone came and said, I want to build a 100 unit housing development, their their they would only have to do very minimal, environmental clearance. And, basically, most likely, they would point to the the environmental document for this plan and say, you guys have already studied this. We are well within the geography and boundary of what the the environmental plan said, and so therefore, we don't need to do any extra environmental review. So that's that is true.

And city attorney, you can correct me if I've said anything wrong there. Okay. But that's the basic gist of it. Now now there may be other aspects of a of a proposal that require some additional study. It's hard to without a specific project in mind, it's hard to imagine exactly what that would be.

But that's the intent of this. That's the intent of this Yeah. Thousands of dollars that we are spending

Correct.

Is to incentivize the kind of development that the community says they want. And so, that's why I ask it because I remember after we I mean, I remember sitting there in one of those chairs the night that we that the council approved the downtown precise Plan, and it took off like wildfire. It was envisioned to be a visioning process for twenty years. The the office and business was built out within I mean, the the whatever you call it that is the word isn't coming to me. The permits or stuff that that

The dev development caps?

Yeah. Yeah. We're reached in and I mean, developers were, like, racing, like like it was it was and and building was immediate. And and everyone and the the developers are saying, why can't why didn't you do this all along? We love this. This is wonderful. And I think they will again.

Mhmm.

And so, I just and and I Yeah.

I was just gonna say, I think you're you're generally you're generally accurate in that the a plan like this sets a vision that the development community and and others can say that we we have some predictability in what the city wants, and we we can fulfill that. And, you know, and part of that was also for the DTP peer, for example, we created a set of development

that made the the the design of certain developments more predictable for folks who wanted to build and develop. So that was also, I think, a really important aspect of the

DTPP DTP that helps kind of spur that very quick growth that you're talking about. And this plan will also include development standards. You know, some of them might be carried forward from the DTPP, but we're also going to take a second look to make sure they're still meeting all the the needs that that we think are are present today.

So in in I would just say too, and that know that this planning document cannot exist on the moon. It exists in the real world, and we're we're vulnerable to environment economic cycles just like everybody is. And but I I just wanna state that that downtown precise plan, I just I have to say it, still has not built all of the housing that was envisioned in 2011, but exceeded the business cap within like, I'm exaggerating, but within like six months, maybe a year and a half. And then housing, fifteen years later, still hasn't been met. And and I wanna say to my colleagues here on the dais that that we need to hold that line.

Whatever this visioning ends up being, whatever we end up approving a year from now or two years from now, let's hold to it and and not let not just say, oh, economies are economies. We have to do whatever because because that cycle is gonna change again. So I just wanted to say that. So let me get now to the sea level rise. So maybe we start with I I have a fundamental question about slide 16, and I'm just curious and not too technical because I took science for non majors in college.

So just be very fundamental to me, Mr. Stickley. How is it with slide six? It's the one with the purple and the blue. Oh, okay.

So how is it that how is it that this one on the right, the purple and the blue on the right, how is it that something closer to the bay, a region closer to the bay you had it right before. Oh,

okay.

That one. Okay. How is it that a region closer to the bay, like just, along Bayshore Freeway is less vulnerable to sea level rise than than a lot of our downtown. I if you could just is it those

question, I think it has to do with topography.

You need to put your speaker on.

Is that on? Yeah. I think it has to do with topography and some of the drainage infrastructure that's in place there. But yeah, that little pocket there is actually better protected than the dark purple that's surrounding it.

But is it better protected because of the way it was one 150 ago and

it's I just think it's been Maybe the fill is a little higher there, is part of It actually sits higher. Of that is Bay fill. But that portion is maybe set a little bit higher than some of the other areas around it, are lower.

Okay. Thank you. I'm glad to hear I mean, that makes sense. I understand that answer.

Yep.

Let's see. So now going to slide 32. This is referring to when you went out on last week and filmed. I just, I want to understand where all those or some of those pictures are. Because I

Yeah. Most of them are in the in the around the edges of the creek.

Okay. So the one on the far right, lower far right, is that building in Redwood Shores? What is that building?

What's No. That that building is on the What would it be? The the the north side of the creek, sort of in the corner where the creek meets Highway 101, there's an office building right there. Across the creek from Sports Basement. Right? So that bridge that goes

Across the

street from Sports Basement.

Across the creek.

Creek from Sports Basement.

There's an office building.

And on the mountain side of 101 or on the Bay side

of Mountains. Mountains. Mountains Mountains

side of 101. Okay. So, like, convention is that Monterra Bank? Oh, that's Monterra Bank. So Oh, wow.

But the So, I'm flood is sorry. That's not Monterra It is probably Kitty Corner from Monterra Bank.

Okay.

The image is a little deceiving. The water's not going right up to the building. There's an embankment there. Then there's a parking lot between the creek and the building. And the water in this picture had not quite overtopped the bank. So the parking was actually still dry.

Okay.

But just barely.

Okay. And then the one to the left is Redwood Creek.

Correct. Looking back inland towards downtown, towards some of the new housing there after the bend in Redwood Creek.

And, one of the sentences that you said when you were thank you.

Yep.

Thank you. When you were talking to us, you you said the sentence or the you said bioswales on private property. What is a bioswale, and why would you put it on private property?

So the toolbox of stormwater management, of flood management includes some facilities that would be on public property, like in streets, you know, bioretention bioswales that run linearly along streets.

What is a bioswale?

Bioswale is a swale. Right?

What's a swale?

A swale is a little channel that conveys water.

Okay.

And a bioswale is one that's set up to absorb that water for stormwater purposes, basically. So it's a it's a detention facility for stormwater, and it's linear.

Okay.

And sometimes that can be a a requirement of private development. And that is one of the tools that we need to consider to get enough storage capacity in the dark purple area. So it's going to be a combination of private property is going to have a lot coverage requirement, and they're going to have to provide a certain amount of stormwater retention on their site. And then in public corridors and in parks, you can add to that by building bioswales into roadway corridors, building some of the detention, you know, depressions in into parks and things like that. And then the the combination of all of those things in a network will start to handle the volume that that we need to handle.

Thank you, mister Stickley. That is so helpful to me because it I just, you know, I I like history and, you know, there's this principle that goes back hundreds and hundreds of years that's entrenched in British law, which comes to America and is now our law, it it's that a man's house is his castle. But it's this idea that our brains are hardwired by hundreds and hundreds of years that I own this. And so we need to make sure that all over Veterans Boulevard, Boulevard, all over a huge swath of this, that we are talking to the property owners and saying, look, this is a new world. You may not know this, but bioswale, private property bioswale.

I mean, I don't I mean, we're gonna start making sure these property owners understand that that there are gonna be some trade offs It's not like, well, no one told me this four years from now when they say, well, why should I have to do this? So Yeah, Thank you. And to that point also, I understand I just this is a controversial thing to say, but we're in a study mode right tonight, and we're not voting anything. We don't need to convince anybody of anything. We're studying.

And so it's really important to talk about when you're studying, like study, you know? And so I'm gonna use up a I'm gonna bring up a controversial controversial word, not because I am in favor of this word or against this word or I'm trying to anger people, but because it needs to be a part of the conversation, and that word is retreat. You know, Redwood City is the oldest city in San Mateo County by decades. And so a lot of this infrastructure was built before anyone knew anything about sea level rise. And retreat is where you just say, you know what?

Sea level is rising, ground level is rising, it's gonna cost $7,000,000,000,000 to fix this inch of curb, and so we're just going to retreat from this inch of curb or this building because no one's coming up with $7,000,000,000,000 and it's not self safe to be in this building. And no one wants to talk about retreat because it's yucky. And I'm not saying I'm in favor of or I'm against it, but I think it's really important when we're planning to understand for the public and the business owners and the property owners that say, own this land. It's really important for everyone and we as policymakers, the seven of us, it's really important for us to say that that elephant is in the room, whether we like it or not, and we need to plan really carefully. We need to plan really carefully so that we don't have policy matter, want to add, my perspective, and I'm not a science y person, but it seems to me like the twentieth century was the century of engineering.

We can engineer anything. Everything is solvable. We created cars. We engineered cars. We engineered freeways. You know, in 1900, there weren't freeways. There weren't cars. And then by 2000, there was nothing but cars and freeways. And so, you know, this idea of the twentieth century is we can engineer anything. And I will predict, we're only twenty years into the twenty first century, but I will predict that the twenty first century, we're going to be retreating from the idea that we can engineer anything, and we're going to be start to be going back to the land and saying, you know what?

We have to look at what nature is that we can't out engineer where nature and do it now in 2026, 2027, 2028 instead of doing it in 2050 or 2100 after we've spent billions of dollars engineering something that really couldn't be engineered. I don't know if that's the case or where that's the case, but I don't want staff to be afraid to suggest it, thinking, oh, no one wants to hear it, so we'd better not say it. Let's say it now. Or that it's not true. So that's I've talked a long time.

What did you mean when you said there are portions I'm back to transit. Where you said there are opportunities to remove transit. Do you mean close roads? Is that what you meant?

No. Just to aggregate lines onto one road instead of having transit on two or three adjacent streets. Right? So we might have a transit priority corridor in downtown where we try to consolidate transit lines onto that street rather than three parallel streets all having transit on them. And so, you know, there's nothing that is is sort of figured out yet.

We're in the midst of studying if those kinds of efficiencies could actually make the transit operate more efficiently, but also to create space on those other streets where we're, you know, where we're consolidating from. So that's the idea there.

Thank you so much. That's really helpful. I'm trying to I'm trying to sort of so I could not agree more with Ms. Padilla that I love the idea of retail, more retail. So yes.

I also when she was talking, when you were talking, Ms. Padilla, I also thought on retail too, I love the idea of retail like coffee shops or cafes in our parks. Like or or maybe a cute boutique in our park. I don't know why we could you know, or a really boutique y ice cream store. Well, we have that a little bit.

Anyway, I'll stop envisioning there because I'm taking a long time. Oh, so on these parklets or the pathways, the trails, I love all the I don't love all the pictures, but I love the idea of all the park the walkways between corridors, the corridor walkways. And one of the things I like more permeable surfaces, but as I understand it, they're more expensive than concrete or asphalt. And I just wanted to point out that the Atherton City Hall and Atherton Library, which all kind of together, they used a quote unquote new, as of two years ago, kind of permeable surface for their parking lot, or for a lot of it, their park, and it was really expensive. And so it's not really scalable.

It's not as I understand it, it's not really replicable. But that was three years ago, and maybe technology has advanced. And so I would just like staff to maybe touch base with Atherton and take a look at it. It's really, really pretty. It's gorgeous.

It's expensive. But why not in Redwood City? Oh, in the Innovation And Incubation District, I just wanted to highlight that I the planning commission said, according to the report something I read, that they were a little bit worried about building out that area of the district because it's far from transit, from the from the railroad tracks. And so I'd like you to, you know, take that comment seriously because we don't want more cars on the road. I like that I I don't I don't to mister g's point of, you know, we could plan forever and never get anything done never actually build anything.

I'm not in love with talking to businesses outside of Redwood City. I mean, that's me. I just I don't I think we need to get going. I'm almost done. I made that point.

I really like that you're not I won't waste time saying it. It's a great plan. I would I really do encourage you more just in general to talk with the county about because they have some walkways. They have a really cool walkway, you know, more or less from 400 County Center to veterans. It's paved.

It could be a lot. And it looks like they really have a lot of cool visioning about, you know, open spaces, but a lot of it is paved. And maybe we can help them reimagine that and have it be more parky. I just wanna make sure that we're coordinating with the county as as much as possible, particularly since their budget is 200 times ours on a on a annual basis. I'm exaggerating, but they have a much larger budget than we do.

And let's see. Did that one? Just all my colleagues already covered Woodside Road and transit. I love the vision. There was so much in this that I just really loved.

And just also make sure that you reach out to the businesses so they know they if they wanna speak now or forever hold your peace. If if they they can't come to us in four years and say, no one ever told me. I mean, maybe the big landowners. And and I know you deal with, what do you call it, realtors or development realtors. I forget the name of them.

But talk to the property owners too, the the big property owners, not just the not just the realtors, not just the consultants. Because the the business owners and the property owners may have a different opinion than the than the real estate consultants if if they are third, fourth, fifth generation Redwood City people when the consultants aren't. So I'll I'll leave it

there. Alright.

Thank you. Thank you, vice mayor. Thank you, my colleagues, for the great discussion so far. And, of course, for our city staff for the great presentation, and mister Stickley, thank you for adding on. I you know, as a a former planning commissioner, I always get really excited when we get to talk land use, so I can't help but smile when I was going through these maps.

You know, to what my colleagues mentioned around outreach, you know, absolutely. I I know the neighborhood associations. Some meet more regularly than others. You know, I'd love for us to be able to the vice mayor and I can mention this at the next meeting quarterly meeting with them, but also individually, right, especially in the areas where folks might be impacted by these changes. I think it makes sense to have a individual discussion for those neighborhood associations where where it's possible because I know it's it's tough and folks are busy.

But, you know, I heard also, you know, businesses outside of the downtown. I think that makes a lot of sense. Everybody benefits from a thriving downtown, so it'd be good to know how this is gonna impact, you know, all of our our city partners, not just the folks who are in this particular section. And then also our chamber. Right?

I if our chamber of commerce members haven't heard yet, it'd be great to get this in front of them and try to catch many people in one place. Right? In terms of the framework, I I really like the framework. I feel like this is a crystal ball, and we're looking into the future, and I I like what we see. You know, I like the approach around having specific districts that are really distinct from one another.

I think a couple of thoughts around that. I know we've talked about this when we've discussed Broadway before, but making sure that our corridor is just active. Right? I know the downtown core is is really active and busy, and we've heard from businesses on both ends of Broadway who say that gets a little sleepier on those sides of of the street, and they'd love to see activity. So I'm thinking of, you know, ways where we can encourage neighborhood commercial as one of those ways of just having more foot traffic in places that are open after these places where people are you know, offices and r and d labs closed down for the day, it'd be great to have a reason for folks to still be walking on foot, biking, driving to go get food or or groceries, whatever it is, but really just finding ways to build the amenities that will help encourage, you know, those after hour activities and also just community building on you know, I'm thinking of the Incubator District where, you know, there's not a lot of community activity there just because it's so commercial and industrial already.

Just preparing that, right, doing the table setting for it. You know, on climate resiliency and just around the creek in general, I think, you know, what my colleagues have mentioned, you know, makes a lot of sense around just wanting to work with nature instead of fighting it. Right? We can't engineer ourselves out of all our of our problems, but, you know, our water pump stations are are effective. And before before we consider all options, you know, I think it makes sense to look into that.

And I liked a lot of the the the imagery and some of the ideas around what open space around the creek could look like. If I had a magic wand, it would be great that as we look at, you know, that sports basements, that whole infill development that's currently there, finding ways to flip it and have our frontages face the creek. And, you know, we can have parks right side by side with with restaurants and other retail uses, but I think that'd be really great way to take advantage of our natural resource there. On on safety and just safe mobility in general, I think, what's that road? It's a a constant, you know, a con something we just constantly wanna work on improving on.

Council member Chu described it as, like, the the firewall. Right? And for a lot of people, it feels that way. And I used to live, you know, off of Chestnut and Hilton, and so getting across Woodside Road was was always very interesting. And I'm, you know, very hopeful that Woodside the Woodside 101 interchange is going to help improve things.

But, you know, I think looking at this plan and thinking about, you know, Caltrans, having to work with them and their priorities for making sure that Woodside Road is a thoroughfare, You know, I think we need to prioritize where those safe crossings are. So I'm thinking Broadway would be an excellent an excellent extension point. Like council member Chu mentioned, we have some development opportunities there that could help help connect those those dots there. And then, you know, specifically on the Stambaugh Pedestrian Bridge, I have crossed that bridge many times. We've heard from, you know, our our young folks who come to this meeting who mentioned how often they use it, but always feel unsafe crossing it, especially at night.

So, you know, I think there's an opportunity with the San Juan Bridge to either greatly improve upon it or find a new accommodation, but that is just something that we absolutely need to tackle because looking at Hoover Park and just driving today, there are very few ways to get across Woodside Road. Right? And I've seen folks do very risky things to just save some time. So just wanna make sure that we don't see people putting themselves in harm's way. And just on the mobility issue, I'm I'm also thinking of Vera Avenue and the ways the spokes to our downtown and the different ways that our bike lanes and our current infrastructure connect to the downtown.

And it was written in one of the constituent comments that, you know, Vera is amazing except when he wanna cross El Camino. Right? And we are so close to having a safe connection between the bike lane and Main Streets, and I think the Elko Yards development is really helping that. Speaking of the Refuge Islands, there's one on Lincoln now that's been super helpful. I already tested it out.

And, you know, I could see that being really helpful along veterans, but just other parts where where folks need an extra second. And let me see here. And then, you know, just generally, I'm on page seven of 15 looking at the the public spaces map. And report. Of the staff report, figure four.

Thank you. And, you know, there is I feel like I've been talking lots about public space in the last couple of months, but, you know, this is a really exciting map to me. I I think my very excited about sort of the greenway creation. I think that would look really beautiful, especially in our sort of historic neighborhoods in Stambaugh. The passeos and the parks are really interesting, and I think my my only comment around that is just I would love to see more South Of Main Street.

And, you know, I know this is a an expansion of our downtown, and I wanna make sure that the benefits of that expansion aren't just regulated to the core of the downtown. Downtown. I I wanna wanna make sure that we we spread those benefits to other parts of our community because looking at, you know, around South Of Maine, Elko Yards and the open space that was created through that project seem to be the only the only public spaces that are are currently there. I know we have some privately owned public space, but it seems like there is more opportunity for us to be looking into giving them parks or parklets or, you know, these other creative ideas of just creating community building spaces. And then just generally, it felt like we are knocking on so many of our different priorities.

It's housing. It's transportation, economic development, and something I just thought we could use more intentionality on was a priority around children and youth. You know, I know lots of these public spaces will be will be usable for folks of all ages and abilities, and I just wanna make sure that we give some intentionality towards spaces for children and youth. And we had some folks from the the Center for Creativity who have done some great programming, and I am very interested in making sure that we we don't lose sight of that and we make sure that we continue to to provide those spaces for for our kids and youth. I was just walking through Elko Yards yesterday and passed by the the Redwood Roller Rink skate sign and just thought to myself, you know, it's everyone always talks about how how much they miss it, but there are some opportunities here to bring back spaces like that here.

So aside from this, I did just want to add that I would also be supportive of maybe taking the pencil and drawing around a few of our blocks around El Camino. I don't wanna expand the work that you all are doing, but I know that there are lots of commercial businesses and sort of small hubs of office spaces along El Camino as you get to Whipple and down towards Woodside Road. I'm thinking of the Five Points commercial center there too. So just wondering how how we prepare for those areas to maybe come into play. So aside from that, I guess my only question really is just sort of next steps.

I know there is going to be some work that has to be done with the San Carlos Carlos Airport. And I was just wondering, you know, what that process looks like and if there's opportunity for us to advocate. Just wondering if someone could speak to that.

So the San Carlos Airport has a a land use committee that has some authority over the jurisdictions in the immediate vicinity of the San Carlos Airport related to basically, you know, they have a they have a land use compatibility plan that the local jurisdictions need to make sure that we're in compliance with some of the requirements and regulations in that plan. And so whenever we take whenever we have zoning amendments that we have that that that we're taking forward to you, before we before we bring them to to the the council, we have to go to the ALUC, the the count the committee, and kind of preclear them with them to make sure that we're in compliance with all their requirements. So we will have to do that with this entire process as well. I think that will be some time off into the future. We're not we haven't we don't have enough detail to be able to take anything to them yet.

But, you know, if we do end up changing dense some densities in certain locations or heights in certain locations, that will be something we'll have to study closely with them to make sure that, you know, we're we're in compliance with any height restrictions that might go along with the airport ALUCP. So that's that's kind of to that specific thing, but I I don't know if you did you want me to get any more details about next steps? Or

No. Was just Okay. Specifically thinking about the airport and how we engage with them, let them know about the process. So that's helpful enough.

Yeah. And we we have a contact with the CCAG staff, and we've sort of let them know that this process is happening. So it's on their radar at this point. If

I may, mayor. So staff definitely works really closely with the airport land use commission and with that process. The pilots at the air at the San Carlos Airport have also separately advocated on certain projects that hit kind of close to where the airport is. And so we may see advocacy specifically from the San Carlos Airport, and it's usually the pilots. And that is separate from the county airport land use commission. And so that that is maybe where you were going with that. But definitely, the San Carlos Airport is a different entity from the Airport Land Use Commission. And so if you would like different outreach,

this is

the time to let staff know.

Absolutely. No. I thank you for for that clarification, both of you, and I think it makes absolute sense to reach out to both bodies and yeah, absolutely start letting people know. I think, you know, the tough part of a multiyear project is just the outreach is going to need to be sustained and consistent. Right?

So as it continues to evolve and it comes back to council, I just imagine once we endorse a framework that there's another outreach round, right, where folks are being educated on on the changes. But, yeah, I am very excited about this plan, John and Thank you for your hard work on this. I think, you know, this is going to be something that all of us look back on with great pride as something that we did together. And so, yeah, with that, I'll I will entertain a motion. Oh, it's a study session. We're not taking action on this. Vice mayor.

Really quick. Quick. I and I'm sorry that miss Wagner just left. She's the representative for Kaiser, and I just learned tonight that there's a Kaiser downtown precise plan or down plan. And so I'm sorry that she left. I I would encourage that do you talk with Kaiser? Because they're in the in the

Yeah. We we've had we've had initial call with Kaiser just to kind of kind of set the context for them, let them know that this is happening, and ask for their input. And so they gave us some, you know, a few few points of of interest that they have and that we're sort of considering as part of the planning effort. But, you know, yeah, we're we're definitely you know, I think their biggest concern was, are you planning to repeal our our precise plan? And the answer is no. So I think that was kinda, like, the biggest thing that they wanted to understand as part of the the context of the project.

But just they they own a lot of land True. In in this area. Mhmm. And there might be some opportunities to create some of these privately owned parks, which I don't like the name of that.

Yeah. And they've they've already you know, they already have a new a new kind of I guess you call it a park that's open to the public. It's kind of exactly what you're talking about, that opened not that long ago. One thing I will just wanted to note about parks, I I I know it's come up a lot tonight, is that I wanted to just highlight the fact that the the the land available for new parks within the planning area is extraordinarily limited, and especially when it comes to to land that the city owns. So we're trying to be creative in where we can think about places to to have spaces that they might not look necessarily like traditional parks like you mentioned.

I think pocket parks, linear parks, you know, ways to use the right of way or or street rights rights of way in ways that they might not like I said, there might not be a park in the sense of, like, there's a ball field and a water fountain and and all the sort of typical trappings, but we're trying to think of ways that we can use the limited resources we have to still create green and places where people can come together, they can go for a walk, they can enjoy their neighborhood, and safely travel among the different kind of subdistricts of this plan area. So just wanted to briefly highlight that because I know it's such an important topic for, the community.

Thank you. And I'll I'll hand it back to you, mayor, but I I agree with you that it's a good idea to reach out to the pilots at the San Carlos Airport and the airport in addition to that other agency. And back to you, mayor.

Thank you, vice mayor. Thank you, John. Go to council member Sterkin and council member Padilla very quickly.

Mine is very quick. I just wanted to also express support for spreading a little love a little further down Broadway. I think it would have a huge impact. I think it would and I and also, I think about what council member Chu said and council member g, but I think about planning, but then I also think there's just sometimes you have to seize opportunities. And I think that we could have potentially a phenomenal partner, and I think we could build great goodwill with the community and build just community with Stanford and that entire area. And I think it could be a really good opportunity. Maybe it wasn't planned, but sometimes opportunities arise, and I think they're worth looking into. Thank you.

Thank you, council member. Council member Serkin.

Thank you, mayor. I agree. Plus one. And I also hope that there is support for extension of a note or spoke on at the other end of Broadway. You kinda started alluding to this, mayor.

Since the GDAP and current DGPP area already does cross El Camino and encloses around a a few commercial properties surrounded by Broadway and Brewster. Maybe hard to envision without a map, but thank you. And and so and I and I wanted to kinda respond to the vice mayor. I I'm curious if if there were more nodes like that, the West End Of Broadway as an example, could that help address some of the concerns you raised about creating opportunities for redevelopment or or or the these amenities West Of El Camino away from flooding zones as well as within that one mile radius of the Caltrain Station to kinda address the planning commissioner concern you raised.

So just I'm I'm directionally challenged. So when you say West, you you said west of where?

Next to Sequoia.

Sequoia High School? Mhmm. Oh, okay. So you're talking about Sequoia High School.

Mhmm.

So I just I got lost because I I'm not good with directions. So you're saying that you want a node there with that?

Yes. Yes. Similar to what we have discussed about extending

So so Yes. Sequoia High School is no. You go. Tell tell me.

Oh, similar to GDAP along Broadway into to cross Woodside Road into Friendly Acres, doing kind of the same thing into across El Camino going past

Sequoia High School. So I I I mean, that's really, really residential. I mean, it's that's the demarcation. El Camino there, right at Woods right at Sequoia High School, which is Broadway. Okay. Now I'm I see what you're saying, Broadway. Yeah. I guess on the other side, there are a couple of, like, nineties, twenties art deco, really adorable art deco buildings that are because that's a really old part of town, and and so some of those are businesses. So you're talking about those cute little art deco buildings. Is that what you're talking about?

No. Not necessarily. But but you're absolutely right. There are some businesses along Broadway and Brewster there and and and there's a few blocks.

But but a couple of blocks there. But other than that, it's it's just super residential. So you're you're you're saying let's bring business into the residential area. Is that what you're saying?

Well, all we can do with the GDAP, right, is there's zone for any type of possibility. Right? Those properties are still owned privately and can only be redeveloped should the property owner decide to redevelop. Right? So so that that

is What what's your what's your mission? Your mission is that you wanna bring more businesses into the to the residential neighborhood? I'm I'm not I'm what do you mean by node? I I'm Yeah.

So I think the mayor had mentioned earlier neighborhood commercial. So, you know, getting having some of those coffee shops or that retail along that corridor to serve

So you're talking about Broadway Yes. But West Of

Of El Camino.

For how long? Like, how many blocks?

I would leave that up to staff to determine

Well, I I don't know. I I I'm not sure because those really cool Art Deco buildings, I would hate for them to be torn down to build a 75 story glass high rise. So I don't know. I I'm I'm exaggerating. I

No worries. And so that leads me to my final question, I think, for staff was is and maybe this will help appease any concerns about that is with historic districts in the city. Right? What how does that how do those interact with this plan? So, you know, we can I'll let you take it.

So

we're we're not yet at the point of the zoning proposals and the specific height proposals. But something that we mentioned to vice mayor Akin when she asked some questions too, the the existing historic districts do offer a lot of, you know, quality homes that we want to retain, and there isn't a thought to say we want to change these neighborhoods. That's not the the purpose of this planning process. I think that there is very unlikely to be any changes to to those historic districts. Some of the zoning does allow it already.

Some so it in in parts that are and I don't I I'm just trying to find trying to track exactly what you guys were talking about on the block. So I would have to look at that more closely. But we can we can definitely get back to you and kind of think about I I think I'm if I'm understanding your sort of spoke concept, it is how do you how do you get to the downtown? So you've got this kind of what looks like a hard boundary on our planning process, and you all wanna sort of think about what do what do I do to kind of get out of that boundary and get to these other places and understand that connectivity. So if we captured that, let me know and then because I think that that we can do without necessarily changing the boundaries, but trying to understand what's the connectivity to to sort of once you leave this this sort of plan boundary.

So so when you council member Serkin, when you talked about spoke, you're you're talking about the connectivity. You're not really talking about the built environment. You're talking about the roads and the bikes and the paths. Is that right?

I'm open to both. But I think there's consensus amongst the majority of the council about the connectivity piece. I And think that's what you were proposing, council member Chu, originally, right?

Give or take.

I will clarify. Okay.

Council member Chu?

I wanted to so I know we're we're almost out of here. And then so I did wanna clarify a couple of things. So first of all, council member Padilla, I think, raised something a really excellent point that I had failed to sort of articulate well. That when I say we're we have a bridge that's 80% over the river, I mean that literally. Stanford is putting in projects.

Stanford excels at complete streets. Stanford's already done it from fifth to charter. They're doing the second phase of their project. And so by just adding this little tiny chunk, we can get the bridge all the way across the water. The people from what I consider the Southern North Shore, technically, the Eastern neighborhoods could actually get to downtown and that we could revitalize a very industrial, non I mean, it's not enough just to have a bike lane.

It actually has to be pleasant to I mean, I walk that all the time. It's really creepy and deserted and industrial. And it's not enough to just slap some green paint on the road. You have to fix the whole thing. And so I think for a very adding a very little bit of space to the you know, drawing that pencil down to, I would say, wherever the boundary of the Stanford project is. I I wanna say Douglas or Charter. I don't know exactly where it is. Just adding that little chunk, we can actually get over the over the river for very little. It's an opportune time. I think, you know, Stanford's not gonna do another project.

We have to strike while the iron's hot, or it's gonna be another ten, twenty years of us sorry. Taking this personally. Of those neighborhoods being cut off from rest of the city because Broadway or I'm sorry. Oh, Woodside's a wall, and this is a chance to get through it and over the river. So that's the first thing.

The second thing is to that point, I think in all of the other cases, I I acknowledge that those are very residential areas and that extending that boundary would be quite controversial. I don't think safe passage or a pleasant route into downtown is at all controversial. And so that's what I meant by those folks. But in the very specific case of Broadway, I did mean actually extending the the GDAP down that quarter. But again, 80% of it's already baked. It's the Stanford project. So it's just getting over the bridge. Okay. Getting over the river, completing the bridge. Thank you. Thank

you, council member Chu. Thank you everybody for the the final comments as we wrapped up there. This is again a study session, so appreciate everyone's inputs, and we will not be taking action tonight. And with that, we will move on to item 13, matters of council interests, beginning with 13 a, city council member report of meetings and conferences attended. And we'll start with the vice mayor.

I can't find my piece of paper. Let me but if does if if anyone else has I do have one thing.

Did anyone else

I'll go

quickly. I had the honor and privilege to attend the swearing in for supervisor Corzo to be our new president to the board of supervisors. It was a very special experience. Lovely building, but I I just wanna point out she is our first Latina president, and I thought it was a wonderful moment. There was a beautiful land acknowledgment that was done and a lovely ceremony, and I just was very happy to be in attendance and see our connection with the county, and I feel we're in really good hands with our board. So thank you.

Thank you, council member Padilla. And we'll go over to the vice mayor.

I found my piece of paper. I wanted the public to know there is a free two hour teen driver safety class offered in Redwood City on Thursday, February 12. The class is called Start Smart Teen Driver Safety class, and it's offered by the California Highway Patrol. This free class will also be offered every second Thursday of the month. Call (650) 779-2741 for more information. An RSVP is required for your teen to get this free training.

Thank you, vice mayor. Not seeing anything else. We'll move on to item 13 b, city council committee reports, and I think council member Chu has an update.

K. So this is an update on the Red wood City Bell, City Belmont, Belmont Redwood Shore School District two by two by two meeting. The two by two by two committee is comprised of school board members, the superintendent from the Belmont Redwood Shore School District, the cities of Belmont, and Redwood City, and the meeting was Wednesday, January 7. The council members present were council member, g and, mayor Martinez, and myself. Provided or and the city manager, Patrick Heisinger, we provided updates on the city's micro mobility and sea level rise and levy efforts.

The city of Belmont provided updates on the project the district was seeking city of Belmont's approval for, and BRSSD provided updates on their middle school alignment efforts to combat declining enrollment. Realignment may include the transition from two k, t k eight programs to one in the twenty twenty six, twenty twenty seven school year, and the school board will be further discussing the item at their next meeting scheduled for January 15 at 06:15PM. The next meeting for this two by two by two is scheduled for 05/06/2026.

Thank you, council member Chu. And with that, we'll go to city manager for update.