City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, everyone. Good evening. Uh, welcome to the joint meeting of the Mountain View City Council and Shoreline Regional Park Community um of March 24, 2026. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. 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. The city clerk will take attendance by roll call.

Council member Hicks here. Council member Kame. Council member Mallister here. Council member Ramirez here. Council member Shaw Walter here. Vice Mayor Clark here. Mayor Ramos here. You have a quorum with council member Kay absent. Thank you.

So in recent weeks, the city along with a few of our neighboring elected decision-making bodies have been subjected to disruptive racist verbal attacks by anonymous callers during virtual public comments. The city of Mountain View is fully committed to racial, religious, and cultural equity and justice as we strive to create a welcoming, safe, and inclusive community for all. This the council welcomes respectful, non-threatening public comments on matters within our jurisdiction. Comments deemed otherwise pursuant to the council code of conduct and the government code may be grounds for terminating a speaker's comment period. We will now move on to item three, presentations. Please note these are presentations only. The city council will not take any action. Public comment will occur after the presentation items. If you would like to speak on these items in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. Now, so 3.1, we have the American Red Cross Month Proclamation. We are happy to be joined this evening by Mike Casperac, board chair Neil Meta, volunteer Diane Cho, board member Annie Chang, and chapter staff Jordan Chang on behalf of the Silicon Valley chapter of the Red Cross to accept this proclamation. Would you all join me at the lectern?

All you get is me, mayor. Hello, Mayor.

Hello, former Mayor Caspac. You are all we need. All right. So, the proclamation reads, let's let's find the right proclamation here. Ha. Whereas this March, we celebrate American Red Cross Month by recognizing the compassionate acts of people in Mountain View and by renewing our commitment to help uh helping to lend a helping hand to our neighbors in need. Since Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross more than 140 years ago, generation after generation has stepped up to deliver relief and care across our country and around the world, bringing out the best of humanity in times of crisis. advancing this noble mission. The volunteers, blood and platelet donors, and supporters who now give back through the Silicon Valley Red Cross, unwavering in their commitment to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of today's emergencies. And whereas their voluntary and generous contributions shine a beacon of hope in people's darkest hours. Whether it's delivering shelter, food, and comfort during disasters, providing critical blood donations for hospital patients, supporting service members, veterans, and their families, saving lives with finan uh with first aid, CPR, AED, and other skills, or delivering international aid, and reconnecting loved ones by separated by global crisis. And whereas this work to uplift our community is truly made possible by those who selflessly answer the call for help whenever and wherever it's needed. We hereby recognize this month of March in honor of their remarkable service and we ask everyone to join in their commitment to care for one another. Now therefore, I, Emily Anne Ramos, mayor of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, do hereby proclaim the month of March as Red Cross month in the city of Mountain

View and encourage all residents of Mountain View to reach out and support its humanitarian mission. Yay. Thank you.

All right. Now, would you like to say a few words? Of course.

Thank you. And thank you everyone in the audience. My name is Mike Casperac and um I I don't really need a vest in here, but I thought I'd wear some of our swag. So, um I did want to thank you again for recognizing um March is Red Cross Month. This has been going on for a very long time and I think it's been 80 years since the Red Cross has been recognizing the volunteers that really make our organization what it is. And we are one of over 160 societies around the world that are associated with the um International Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. 90% of our workforce is made of our work is made possible by volunteers. um who step forward in moments of need literally at a on a call. Can you be there tonight to open a shelter? Can you get on a plane tomorrow morning to get off to a disaster and that sort of thing. Every day our volunteers bring comfort from disasters, supporting our military families, and of course we have a lot of military families here in Mountain View and associated with Moffett Field and help ensure that patients receive life-saving blood and blood products. Personally, I am a blood platelet donor and once a month at 7 a.m. in the morning, I go down to the chapter and sit there for three hours taking blood out and putting it back in. Here in Santa Clara Valley, that impact is real. We responded to more than 100 local disasters throughout the county this year. Delivered over 1700 services to military families. And what you may not know, if a military, a member of the military is overseas and needs to come home for a family emergency, that has to be rooted through the Red Cross for the on-site commander to let that um soldier

go. and we've helped collect nearly 17,000 blood donations during the course of the year. We over I have over 2100 volunteers in Santa Clara County and a hundred here in Mountain View, which is really amazing. I was really hoping to meet the people here tonight because with that many people, I haven't met them before. They all had something come up today. So, and this just let Mike do it. Um, but these people are your neighbors, your colleagues, and your friends, and they are helping to make a difference in our community. We believe that everyone has a role to play either in volunteering, donating blood, learning CPR and first aid, which is how I got to know Mr. Mallister here. I'm sorry, Council Member Mallister, and uh, preparing for emergencies. So, the Red Cross is all about people helping people. And so I just wanted to again thank you for this recognition. Um if you have any questions, which I know none of you does, I'd be happy to answer them. But again, thank you very much and thank you mayor for this proclamation. That's this is my proclamation, right?

You're getting ahead of yourself. There we go. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, former Mayor Casper Zach. All right. So the next proclamation we have is the youth arts month proclamation. We are happy to be joined this evening by Dr. Sophia Fohhos, arts coordinator with the Santa Clara County Office of Education to accept this proclamation. Dr. Phos, would you join me at the lectern? Did I pronounce that right? Yes.

Wonderful. Yay. Um, here you can join me right here. D. All right. Whereas March is nationally recognized as arts education month which an opp which is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of teaching the arts to students as well as to recognize their contributions to art educators in our community. And whereas the 2026 n national youth art month theme is the world needs art highlighting the essential role of visual arts in education and daily life. And whereas through well planned instruction and activities in the arts, children develop initiative, creative ability, self-expression, self-reflection, the thinking skills, discipline, a heightened appreciation of beauty, and cross-cultural understanding. And whereas the celebration of youth art month encourages community engagement in supporting the arts education for all students. Now therefore, I, Emily Anne Ramos, mayor of the city of Mountain View, along with my colleagues on the city council, do hereby proclaim the month of March as youth arts month in the city of Mountain View and encourage all residents to support and celebrate the arts in our school.

Would you like to say a few words?

Yes. Thank you, Mayor Ramos and members of the Mountain View City Council for recognizing March as Youth Arts Month. I'm Dr. Sophia Fohus, the arts coordinator for the Santa Clara County Office of Education and I lead artspiration, the Huelet Foundation funded arts initiative of SECCOE. Um, hard act to follow Mike Casper. He's given me a few hints about what to say. We're about We serve about 240,000 public school students in 406 schools uh across 31 school districts, 32 if you count the county office as well. Um each of us, I'm one of 58 county arts leads and all of us of the 58, 24 of us are dedicated leads around specifically around arts education in Santa Clara County. I um support districts in implementing arts education as particularly most recently around Proposition 28 um in implementing robust arts education program. provide many grants to teachers with SV creates um in the arts at connect grant conduct the young artist showcase which this year its theme is my superpower the power to imagine the the passion to create in celebration of youth arts month this month we had we hosted two soldout events the first one at raft for arts educators the arts education uh resource fair on uh March 7th from 9:00 to 1 with panel discussions, tableabling of arts organizations, and a hands-on session with Armando Castiano from the from Kintto Latino. And then this last

Friday, we had a soldout event um the two 2026 Vivo Mariachi Showcase, our fourth year in presenting Mariachi and Baloro for free um at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Theater. um on March 20th. So on behalf of the Santa Clara County Office of Education, thank you for recognizing March as Youth Arts Month. Thank you. Would any member of the council like to say a few words? Seeing none, I'll use this as an opportunity for your mayor. call to action, call to service, call to community. Um, as we celebrate American Red Cross Month, I would like to encourage members of our community to donate blood. There is always a high need to donate blood. I am a proud blood donor myself, and over the course of my lifetime, I've donated three gallons of blood. I've donated since I was 17, so I was very excited. Um, but uh, so I I understand that there's opportunities to donate with the Red Cross. There's also opportunities to uh, donate with the Stanford Blood uh, center. Um so is I I highly encourage if you can I understand that there are also limitations um due to health, weight, height, um age where you are unable to donate but if you can um take the opportunity to do so. Um I know in 2023 there was a recent uh ruling or uh regulation change to allow uh those in the LGBTQ community to donate blood finally. and um and that was that was a great victory for inclusion and the need for blood. So um if you can donate and you have the capacity to donate is something I highly encourage people to do. Uh Council Member Hicks.

Well, since you've given a shout out to Mr. Casper Zac and the American Red Cross. I think Miss Fhas may have left the room, but I was going to give a shout out to her. Um, and just say that uh for many children uh arts at school is what make allows them to get up and want to go to school in the morning, my children included. So, a shout out to her and her work as well.

That's wonderful. All right, we will now take public comment for the presentation items. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on the presidential presentation items listed on the agenda? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker will have three minutes. I am seeing none. We will now take virtual speakers and I am also seeing none. So now we will move on to item four consent calendar. These in these items will be approved by one motion unless any member of the council wishes to pull an item for individual consideration. If an item is pulled from the consent calendar, it will be considered separately following approval of the balance of the consent calendar. If you would like to speak on these items or the next item, oral communications on non-aggendas items in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. Now, Council Member Hicks, do you have an announcement to make?

I do have an announcement. I will be recusing myself from agenda item 4.3, the notice of intention to vacate public street and easement at 881 Castro Street due to the proximity of my personal residence to the project site, although I will remain on the dis while recused. No worries. All right. Would any member of the council like to pull an item? I see. Council member Mallister.

Yes. I'd like to pull 4.1 and 4.4 and make a Yes. P for those and then a comment on 4.3. All right. Council member Schoalter.

I just wanted to make some comments on 4.4 and 4.5, but if we've we've pulled 4.44, four for we can I can make my comments then I suppose but um I would just would like to um make a comment on the housing element progress report. Um we get this every year and that's good because it allows us to keep tabs on how things are going and we have a um we have a a really really um uh challenging housing element because we were given such a big number. We have done the zoning that's needed for it and we're working on the programs, but we did find out that um we haven't really um constructed as many units as as we would like yet. So, um the city doesn't do the construction, but we do do the zoning and we do provide uh um housing. And I just wanted to thank the the staff for all the work that's been done on this because I know that it's a a very complex item and um you know we'll just uh keep doing the best we can and um we do have some development items tonight.

All right. Thank you, Council Member Shoalter. Um, what we're going to do, uh, Council Member Mcallister, do you mind speaking to 4.3 since not being pulled?

Uh, sure. I will be voting no on 4.3. I've always believed that real estate is irreplaceable and that the city can use that as a continual sustainable source of income. And so when I see these things, I say let's if the somebody wants to, we'll lease it to them and maintain uh control of the property. And so I think uh that's why I'm saying no to it because being consistent. I voted on no on this last time when it came up. And we have limited land and if we keep sell, you know, occasion comes along and somebody wants to buy it just lease it. Make sure that we have a structurally balanced budget. So that's where I'm coming from on that 4.3.

All right. Thank you, Council Member Mallister. All right. What we're going to do, so so far we only have two items pulled, but we're going to go to public comment. Um would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on these items? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. Each person each speaker will have three minutes. So, I see one speaker for item 4.1, uh, Eli Robas. U, good evening, council members. Uh my name is Eli Robles Rob uh representing North Coast State Carpenters and I'm here to speak about the proposed development at 490 East Mfield Road. Uh this major project in in a rapidly growing part of Mountain View and with uh that scale comes responsibility to ensure the work is done safely, efficiently, and in a way that benefits the community. That starts with requiring accredited apprentichip programs. These programs create real pathways into middle class careers for local residents, especially young people, veterans, and those looking for stable long-term work. Um, when apprentices are trained to industry standards, the project benefits from a higher productivity, fewer delays, and safer work sites. Uh equally important is ensuring we select a responsible general contractor, one with a proven record of compliance, fair labor practices, and the capacity to manage the project of this size. Without these standards, we w we risk cost overruns, unsafe conditions, and low road contractors who cut corners at the expense of workers.

490 East Middlefield is an opportunity to set the tone for uh responsible development in this corridor. So, my ask tonight would be to adopt strong labor standards to ensure this project delivers not just buildings, but good jobs, community investment, and long-term value for Mountain View. Thank you for your time. Thank you. And that seems like the end of our speakers. Oh, we have one virtual speaker, Brian Griggs.

Hi, it's Brian Griggs. Uh, I spoke two weeks ago at the hearing. I just wanted to make sure that council knew I was available to answer any questions that may arise in this issue. All right. Thank you. Um, now that we have ended our speakers for public comment on consent calendar, um, I we'll go back to the council. Council member Mallister. Okay. So, I have some questions on 4.1. I know that you uh you discussed it on March the 10th, but I was uh advocating in Washington DC for small businesses at that time, but I just want to there was a couple of questions that I think flow through a lot of the stuff that we're going to bring. Sorry to interrupt, but do do we want to do the balance of the consent calendar?

Oh, well, I thought that's what you were asking me to start. No, no, it's up. Oh, no. Um, I was just going in order because I don't know if anyone else wants to talk about that was forward comments. So, all right. So, let's look at the balance first. I see council member Shaw Walter. Are you talking about one of the items or the balance? I would like to talk about 4.3 when we get to that. But the balance um I'll withdraw for an Oh, 4.3 is not pulled. Oh, only four. So, do you want to talk about 4.3 now because that's balance? 4 point what's this 4? You said you wanted to talk about 4.4. 4.4 is the one I want to talk about.

Okay, perfect. Council member Kame. Great. Thank you. Um, so the balance I see the motion um for the balance of the consent calendar and 43 is still on it. So, I'm just going to register my no vote, which is consistent with how I voted when it came out of close session. Thanks, mayor. No worries. Council member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve the balance of the consent calendar, including item 4.2. Adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View authorizing the city manager or designate to submit an application for an award of proousing incentive program funds in an amount not to exceed $890,000 to execute and deliver on behalf of the city any and all documents including amendments necessary to receive an award of proousing incentive program funds and certifying to the California Department of Housing and Community Development compliance with the pro Housing and Senate program requirements to be read in title only. Further reading waved. And uh item 4.3 4 4.3 adopt a resolution of intention of the city council of the city of Mountain View to vacate the existing public street known as Fairmont Avenue between Castro Street and Hope Street and a 5-ft street and utility easement at 881 Castro Street to be read and title only. Further reading waved. and set a date for a public hearing to consider the vacation for April 28th, 2026. Um registering the the no votes and the recusal. Um very quickly, um I also wanted to provide a brief uh mostly thank you to staff on um the responses to the questions I submitted on item five, the housing element annual progress report. There's a lot of really good um information in here and some very encouraging information. And I especially appreciated the update on uh the developments development projects page on the city website which I think is a very useful resource for the community to see what's going on. Um and uh and I think the the commitment here to um updating or to providing development update map um once uh we've met the federal regulations um I think will will be a great uh service for the community. Um, and I also appreciated

the updates provided on uh several of the housing element programs. Um, and in particular um for uh sorry, project uh 1.6 6 on the subdivisions. Uh that was um uh encouraging to hear uh that you're uh looking at other jurisdictions that have um uh already allowed uh subdividing ADUs um and uh program uh 1.4 4 uh related to uh the um uh affirmative affirmatively furthering fair housing obligations uh and the u affordable housing commitments south of El Camino. Um, I know that's going to be uh an issue that the future council will have to take on, but I did want to um uh flag for for the candidates who are here and for uh the community at large that um this is uh it's going to be a challenging item to uh uh to ultimately implement. And then also uh I like to read these because it's a reminder that our charter requires us to read the title of the resolution in full, but we don't have to do that. we can update our charter so we no longer have to read all of the resolutions in full. Thank you.

Thank you to the Florida soap box, Council Member Ramirez. Um that item was a consent calendar wi with um items 4.1 and 4.4 pulled by council member Mallister. We are also registering a no vote in 4.3 for council member Mallister and council member Kame and an abstension for council uh a recusal for uh council member Hicks on 4.3. Uh it has been seconded by Pat Shaalter. So uh we are ready to vote. Motion passes unanimously. Yay. Okay. And now we will take up item 4.1. Council member Mallister.

Okay. We'll do a quick recap again. Um so you guys discussed this, but there was a couple of items that as I say were reoccurring throughout since we have three development projects on tonight's calendar agenda. And so I just wanted to get clarity for myself and potentially for others and get a better better understanding of staff. Um, I apologize that I maybe had a briefing available to me, but I was not available to do it. So, I will start off with some questions, and whoever is going to answer those would be great. Um, who from staff might answer these? Oh, good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, council members. Christian Murdoch, community development director. I was holding back because there was a mix of community development focused and public works focused questions and so I was awaiting to uh listen to the

enforcement. Did you say uh public works related questions? So I was waiting to listen to the questions uh before uh coming forward.

Okay. So you're you're there. Okay. So I had about three questions that I want to bring up. Um, the SDU project is going to be putting in uh retail space and I asked the question, how much resale space has been required over the last four years and you were able to pull up some numbers and but it seems the majority of it has not been u leased but you say it's sort of under there's been a total of 16,000 square feet of new retail space in Mountain View based on two projects that are coming on board and of this 30 3500 is currently at least to tenants and somewhere is going to do it. So in this project there's a lot of new retail space coming along. What how you know and this says the last since 2022 and this is 26. That's a long time to lease these spaces out. Uh I hate seeing something built and being vacant for a very long time. I know there's a project over in Ferguson that's still somewhat vacant. What is the city doing to encourage that this retail space is being rented out and not sitting vacant? I mean,

sure. Thank you for the question. I'd say the first thing that uh the city's done is negotiate in the development agreement uh $1.2 million uh renovation contribution from the developer to minimize the costs and barriers for businesses and particularly small businesses to open in the space. And so I think that's a really unique opportunity for this project as compared to other projects to try to minimize that time from construction to occupancy for retail tenants. Uh more broadly, uh we've reinvigorated the broker breakfast uh that we have a couple times a year with the commercial broker community in Mountain View. And uh we feature opportunities such as new projects coming online or uh key key vacancies that are of interest to the broader broker community to make sure they're getting marketed, they're getting attention, and that we can try to minimize the times these spaces are vacant.

You think any of these new uh locations are going to pull any uh businesses away from downtown? Uh my sense is that this project at 490 East Middlefield is a different market and is probably more localized neighborhood serving uh retail services that are not likely to uh pull businesses away from the downtown.

Okay. My next question is um I know we've uh had some uh trouble getting our fixed fees and schedules going along. They've been sitting there for a long time before we got them updated. And so I asked about the extension of the 100,000 for the first two years and 250,000 in the second extension years. And so when you the and thank you for the whole staff in the city taking uh on my uh few questions that I asked, but they were very helpful to me. U as you probably indicated that you saw that I read a lot. I read everything. So my questions are sometimes detailed. So you're putting 100,000. So the the staff evaluated extension mounts from other developments for for reference. Now are those when you look at other development agreements, do you take in consideration inflation of the current cost of doing money or the current cost of our new fee structure when you put in these extensions instead of looking at other developments which could be three, four, five years old?

Um I mean not for this particular aspect of the the extension fee. Um that's uh a relatively small amount of money in the broader context of this development agreement and with most development agreements the city's executed. Um you know figuring in some sort of inflation factor is something we could keep in mind in the future uh to try to retain the value of money. Um over the time range that we're talking about here which is four years before the first extension would be needed. there's not likely to be a significant devaluation as compared to a development agreement with 15 or or 20 year term where that's probably more relevant.

Okay. Um also I understand that this was some discussion at the meeting but I've noticed several projects where staff is allowing the applicant to do uh street loading duckouts and you know starting at Chase we're going forward like that. Was this a public works one? Yes it is.

Okay. Let me see if I can follow up any more questions with you before we bring on the distinguished director from public works. Um, so there was a question about the and this was something that sort of saw me that there was a discussion about the city was going to do rent guarantee options was where the city subsidized the rents and I hadn't seen this in all my years on council that we're baking in that we will rent units and guarantee their rent. So what's the premise for us doing this and where's this money going to come from?

Sure. So um this is not a model that the city of Mountain View has uh pursued previously. Um to be clear, it's an option in the development agreement. It doesn't bind the city in any way to uh pursue this and there's no financial obligation associated with the option. Um should the city be interested in pursuing the option in the future, it would be entitled to rent uh or guarantee the rents for between 30 and 60 units within the project. Um the thinking is essentially the city would guarantee the rent at a given amount um perhaps 90% of the area median income and either uh put direct funds in to subsidize those rents to push the rents to lower area median income levels for deeper affordability for lower income uh households or potentially could rent some of those units at market rate which might be up to 100% or more of area median income thus generating excess revenue that could be used to subsidize lower rents for lower area median income levels. So the particular mechanics and what makes sense at a point in time given the market and other factors remains to be determined. Uh but we thought it was an innovative opportunity where there's no upfront outlay um for establishment of these units, the developers constructing them. So the significant capital cost to deliver below market rate units is is foregone. And there's an option then to tailor the block of units, the 30 to 60 units uh to meet the specific needs at that point in time. And so it's just another tool in the city's affordable housing toolbox if and when the city is interested in in exercising the option.

So what so you just decided this was this part of any of the housing element or you just saying here is some way we can uh secure low-income housing. Um so this was a concept uh brought forward by the developer in this case. Uh my understanding is they've pursued a similar model in another jurisdiction. um not exactly an applesto apples comparison uh but it's something that was interesting but very very uh nuanced and it's novel and so we didn't have the time in this process to figure out all of the details. Uh but we did want to um you know preserve the opportunity to figure this out uh in the future and take advantage of it if we find out that it's likely to be beneficial.

So where would this money be funded from? Um that's one of the many details that would need to be worked out. Um if there's an appropriate funding source and the city council was willing to make such an expenditure to achieve uh this targeted uh affordable housing uh goal, then that would be a decision for the council at that time. Alternatively, as I mentioned, there could be an internal subsidy among the units uh depending on the market conditions that could actually not require a direct subsidy from the city. Would this take some money away from CSA and don't we use that money for them to subsidize units and so forth? The ultimate funding decision and eligibility for use of different funds is something the council would have to to vote on in the future.

Okay. And let's see if I have one more question for you. Again, your answers or your staff's answers were very uh insightful. So, I do appreciate that. Uh the duck house I will do. Yes. Uh thank you. I'll ask about the duckouts and the sidewalks. So, thank you. Thank you.

Good evening, everybody. I'm Jennifer Ing, public works director, ready for your questions. Okay. So, duckouts, they brought they came up under uh chase and now we see it here and we see it in some other areas where we're not requiring the developer to do these uh spaces for loading and unloading and they're taking up public space and public streets. So, why how's this evolving that we are allowing developers to use the public streets to do what should be in my opinion they should be doing on their own property? Yeah. So, we do require developments to provide loading onsite uh where there is on-site availability. So, for example, the Chase Bank situation um that you brought up as an example, uh there is provisions on site on the first ground level parking for loading. Um the duckout that is being provided on El Camino Rial is a bus uh island situation in which we want to move the bus out of the way of the oncoming traffic on El Camino Rial. Um, bus islands are a relatively new uh relatively speaking um kind of technology with respect to how we load and offload uh bus passengers as well as how we sequence the bike lanes around the bus islands um so that it's safe for all in that vicinity.

Well, I understand the buses that makes sense. But on the chase there was some well where the the u third party delivery food that people are going to be parking and I they were taken up well we'll do something on the back side. So yeah there was a request by the um developer to look for the city to evaluate additional loading opportunities on street.

So am I misunderstanding this when they're looking for street loading of duckouts and uh not for the bus but this for their own property for people to do that. So, in this particular situation for 490 Middlefield, there is on-site loading that is available, but there are very limited opportunities for a driver. There's only two driveways on um that access this site. There's one on Middlefield and there's one on Ellis. um in today's rapidly changing uh environment of how we do a lot of quick pickups and quick drop offs uh kind of situation um and with bike lanes being on um Middlefeld Avenue um you know we really want to create a a situation where a I mean we've all seen it right like an Amazon driver pulls up they don't really they think they're going to stop for 30 seconds and they they obstruct a bike lane. It happens all over everywhere um in this area. And so by creating a duckout for those kind of quick drop off, quick pickup situations um we are uh eliminating the conflict between uh the drop off vehicles and um you know the vehicles in the travel lane um as well as the bike lane.

Will that be used potentially for parks street parking? It's not for street parking. It's intended for a quick like a five minute or less loading zone. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Is well is that going to be a current theme or direction that the city staff is thinking about is allowing these duckouts as we progress along in most projects.

It's case by case basis, right? depending on what the situation is with the actual uh vehicle or travel lane, how much rightway we have, bike lanes on the street. But um knowing how our society operates and the demand for this type of quick service, um I'd imagine you might see more moving forward as we uh move our development projects through the permitting process. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

And I have one last question. I see the uh chief of the fire department here. And so this is one for maybe the community at large since we are putting in an eightstory building now and fire uh safety and standards is going to be something new that's going to participate. So how we're going to handle an eight building as we see maybe a 15story building come along and so you can uh give us a look into the future. Uh good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, council members. Uh for this one, since it's new construction, we'll have our fire protection engineer from community development speak to it.

Good evening, council members. Anish Murthy, principal fire protection engineer. I'm sorry. Principal fire protection engineer. Okay. So, are you going to The question was we're getting a eightstory building here. We're potentially going to get a 15-story building there. What kind of impact is it going to have on our fire department and how will they have the capability to respond to evacuation of these problems, putting out the fires at these at these buildings? So, what is the fire department requesting or requiring on buildings of this sort?

Well, once you get over three stories, um there are certain requirements for aerial uh truck ladder access. And so that's pretty standard and that's we have a lot of buildings obviously that um are greater than three stories in the city. Um so we would require that um we have those in our conditions of approval. Um so that means that the access roads go from 20t wide to 26 feet wide. Um there are certain requirements for aerial access trucks that uh they need to have at least one full side of the building. uh has to be a certain distance away from the the street has to be a certain distance away so that that we can use the the aerial trucks for firefighting access. In terms of fire protection, it's pretty standard there. You know, all the new buildings of course will have full full fire sprinker systems and fire alarm systems. um once they get to a high-rise there are increased fire protection that's but that comes straight from the code from the California building code from the California fire code and also from our Mountain View city code. Um so those are all taken into account and they're all part of the conditions of approval.

Does this particular project have how many staircases does it have? Uh offhand I I don't know but it will meet the the code requirements for and just general question how how would a ladder trucks be uh affected on this one? How high can they go?

Um actually, Chief CH may be able to to tell you a little bit better about that. Um but um we you know the the ladder access requirements um there there actually multiple reasons uh we would use the ladder. So we would either try to get to the top of the buildings or use them for firefighting purposes where to actually spray water. Um, we use them for rescue operations if needed. Um, so those are all taken into account, but if if you want to know the exact uh height, I think Chief CHS might be able to tell you exactly. He's here to tell us about his new equipment. So, yeah. Thank you. Okay.

Good evening. To answer your question on the aerial apparatus, our ladder trucks are 105 ft tall and with a setback can reach stories up to 8 to nine stories. Oh, so it can get to 810. Yep. Okay. So, we're we're getting there. I mean, we're prepared for this. Yeah, we're confident in fighting a fire in a building of this size. Thank you. Um, that answers my question. 4.1. And if we wanted to uh I would make a motion to pass on that one or we could do it when 4.4 comes at the same time. I see council member Hicks has her name in the queue. Okay.

I was just going to say very briefly, Council Member Mallister, we we missed you when we discussed this item in full. Um, and some of the items you brought up are ones that uh we discussed as well. Uh, I had concerns about the duckouts in priv in public spaces. Um I think there and that was something that apparently staff had gone staff and the uh developer had had discussions about as well before council did. I think it's something that my personal opinion is that it it their strengths and weaknesses and as a and so I agree with some of your questions and as some of us term out and you stay on council I hope you keep your eye on that particular issue and make sure it doesn't carve out too much of our street trees and sidewalks. So I'm uh depending on you for that in the future. And um and then um also uh you know I welcome your questions on uh whether the ground floor retail will uh be rentable but um I think in East Wisman in particular as we densify people there deserve some they deserve to not be carbound and to have some neighborhood serving retail. And if my memory serves me right, Council Member Kame spoke eloquently about that and in more detail than I will right now or we'll be here for a very long time. But um I think that you know uh I I think you are always balancing, you know, is this too much? Is it not enough? I don't think I if we do our downtown right, I think that neighborhoods serving retail in places like San Antonio and East Wisman as we densify will not I think our downtown is different. We need to make sure it keeps its sense of place, its historic nature, its sort of entertainment district. But

I think these areas as they densify need some urban form too and need people need to be able to get out of their car and do various things. So um I welcome your questions and that's a uh snapshot of what we talked about while you were away.

Thank you. Seeing no other docket uh names in the docket, we have a motion by council member Clark and council me and a second by council member Ramirez. Council member Clark, would you like to speak to your motion? I move that we approve uh consent calendar item 4.1 to adopt an ordinance of the city council of the city of Mountain View approving a development agreement between the city of Mountain View and WTA Middlefield LLC for an eight-story mixeduse building with 460 apartments utilizing state bonus law and approximately 9,371 ft of ground flooror commercial replacing an existing office building and the removal of 29 heritage trees on a 2.86 86 acre site located at 490 East Middlefield Road, APN160-53-004 to be read and title only for the reading wave. Thank you, Vice Mayor Clark. Sorry, I misspoke earlier. Uh, it is we are now ready to vote. Motion passes unanimously. Um, we will now move to consent calendar item 4.4. Council member Mallister, would you like to speak to your poll?

Thank you. So, safe parking started, I started this program when I was mayor in 2015, and it was to be a uh transitional. It was designed to be transitional to help those who want help to get from a vehicle or an RV into a more permanent housing. And I'm looking as this project now is seems to be just growing a little bit uh more than I anticipated. And since I've been gone for four years, uh it just concerns me how it's is it how effective it is or is the best use of city's funds. And I noticed the ongoing operating costs. One of my questions was it's almost 14 $1.4 $4 million for a program that was supposed to be temporary and for people to transition out and it seems to be growing and using more funds and I'm wondering from the staff is there but I did see something in the I'm concerned about this ongoing cost and there is the core functions of the city that's like public works public safety water streets and so forth and then we have these other items that come along that seem to be moving higher and higher and the cost for per person seems to be getting higher and higher and I was wondering if there's ways that we can mitigate some of this or do it more efficiently. Now uh I appreciate the one of the questions was there any time restrictions first established in the creation of safe parking and when I was here there was and now I notice and some thank you for the staff for the detailed information background very helpful that the average stay now is 599 days and this was supposed to designed for transition people to get them into to permanent housing. So, is it the

question for staff? Is it that we have more people? Are we less effective on what we're doing with our uh this stay or we're just allowing this the safe parking lot to become a de facto uh park for those folks? And I also noticed uh on the side that the county is also putting 120day length of stay policy with extension available for participants. And it was always designed for those people who want help will give it to them and in the programming and those who don't well they'll be parking out in the streets or wherever they do. So to staff what are we pl is this ongoing of funds escalating? Is it going to be p because it just seems to be escalating. So, uh, first of all, ask how this stay of 599 599 days, does that seem acceptable to staff or is it just the way it is now? How can we move people out of that transaction quicker?

Uh, thank you. Good evening, mayor and city council members. Kimberly Thomas, deputy city manager. I thank you for your question and the nuances that you're raising regarding safe parking. Uh, safe parking has been an ongoing program since 2019. uh on the order of 700,000 during that time period has been contributed by the city. The county has come aboard and provided 1.6 million for the existing program scope. And then you're right, as we're looking at this item for 4.4, we are looking at an increase up to nearly $3 million. So there is a an increase there is an increase in scope. Uh I think one of the things that was very hopeful and I remember your time back in those uh days many years ago on safe parking is is that it would really be a short-term thing. It would be 18 to 24 months total for the project itself. And unfortunately what's happened throughout our region and not just our region but throughout the state of California in fact is that homelessness is extended. It is becoming chronic homelessness and for our area of the peninsula what that's indicative of is living in a vehicle either a passenger vehicle or an RV. I can let uh Parit Denzo our human services manager talk more about the data and what the throughput is that's coming out of the county but I can speak to it in a general way and share that we are not meeting the county benchmarks. we did postcoid so the program itself is not able to attain the county's benchmark but it's very close very close and these types of temporary emergency programs do have longer stays another example of that would be interim or temporary housing like our life moves uh program here in the city of Mountain View and these stays are indicative for Mountain

View as well as cities throughout the region placement in permanent housing is incredibly difficult and it takes years. So, let me follow. You said the city's putting 700,000 in, but isn't the city also putting in money from the shoreline community fund? Uh, yes. Oh, uh, council member, what I was referring to was our, uh, our our figure going back since 2019. And then what I advised is yes, we're asking to put in additional funding for this increase at shoreline lot. Correct. So 700,000 plus the shoreline funds plus the shoreline. Yes, correct. How much does that total to?

So the total for the current operations, if the item is approved tonight with the increase, will be just under three million. including the city and county contribution. Okay. So, with with this information about the city saying 120 days or the county, uh how are you going to help me understand are they related? Are we are we going to have to meet their standards of 100?

Uh this is actually very new and I might ask Parn to jump in on this, but I'll share what I know about it. It is actually new and the county is working through some operational guidance on it and how they will do it. It's similar to what they've done for programs like the cold weather shelter. Uh the goal is to transition folks quickly. Uh it keeps the uh the emphasis for the family unit that you're trying to stabilize on on trying to get out of that current situation once they are stabilized. But there is a provision to allow as long as they are meeting certain benchmarks and engaging in case management to continue with that program. So it's not just a oneandone. Parit, I don't know if you want to add anything to that. Okay.

Parit Denza, human services manager. Um, to add on to what deputy city manager Kimberly Thomas shared, um, the county of Santa Clara uses the state housing uh, Department of Housing and Urban Developments performance measures for its homeless response programs. And currently, HUD does not have a category for safe parking. And therefore, the county of Santa Clara uses the category for street outreach to essentially set a similar uh benchmark for safe parking. Um and so for the uh past um fiscal year um there were 30% of program participants exited into a temporary or permanent housing destination and the cal the calendar year excuse me 2025 benchmark for exits was 45%. Um so the county was uh a little bit lower than that threshold. Um and then in comparison to the prior um fiscal year, 59% went on to exit to a permanent or stable housing destination. Um and in calendar year 2024, the benchmark was 50%.

Okay. So will you be able to answer the question about the 120 days?

Yes. Um so currently uh city sorry excuse me county funded homeless response programs like safe parking and life moves mountain view um do not have length of stays. However over the limits sorry over the course of the last year the county has been working with all of their county funded providers to establish a length of stay limit um as part of their programs. And so that is something that uh the provider at our safe parking site, Move Mountain View, has been actively working on and that will entail for all providers 120 days um with potential extensions of 3 to four uh further extensions depending on whether or not that individual is actively participating in case management and actively working on a housing plan with their case manager. they pull their funding or limit their funding then

if that uh stay doesn't exist. I I would think that's unlikely, but we've not encountered that situation or raised that issue with the county. So um we don't have a definitive answer, but I would think that would be unlikely.

Okay. Well, thank you. U so thank you for the clarity. That's that was very helpful. one. Oh, one other question I asked about this one is about since we're renegotiation with Live Nation, we're giving they rent from us and we're giving up the parking and it says uh staff it says that have not been calculated as this was done as part of various staff workload. So, do we is there a way to figure out how much potential loss revenue we are giving up from renting the parking to from to from live n? Uh I think we had interpreted that question at a staff level perhaps incorrectly that you were uh focused on staff uh uh uh resources uh not uh revenue that might be incur uh going to the provider uh to Live Nation. Um that might be a question for probably our community services team and I'm not sure that we have that information available. It did not come up in the sessions that I was engaged on on those negotiations. We can certainly get you a follow-up answer though if that's helpful.

Oh, thank you. Well, now you've got the full the full team. Um Audrey Seymour, assistant city manager. Um if your question is are is the city losing revenue from Live Nation because they are not having access to those parking spaces? The answer is no. The only cost that we are incurring is the staff time required to work through these um agreements and so they're just giving they're giving us back the land and not needing to require it. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. That was helpful. Thank you. Those are my question. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Mallister. Council member Shoalter.

Well, I am very um pleased to um move this. Um, as you know, I've been working on safe parking as long as John has, and we we really have found in Mountain View that that's some that safe parking is something that works well for our community. Um it's it's a project that um uh people who are very compassionate about homeless uh support and people who are who are very upset about having um RVs um on the public street support. So there's just really broad support in our community about this and you can't say that about many programs. So um when we talk about the costs of this uh you know of course we have to worry about the costs but I think even more with this we have to wor we have to think about what's the value what's the value of this program to our community and to the people that get to um you know get to really get their lives uh in a much better place because of it. And and so um that's one of the reasons why I you know I really think that this is um this is a great thing for the city of Mountain View to be doing. Um and I want to thank the staff for the incredible amount of work you've done. Um and and for all the partners because we don't do this alone. Um we have a whole um laundry list of nonprofit organizations that support um these efforts as well and thank you to all of them. Um, I'd just like to say too that over the years we've hoped that um some public parking lot owners would step up and help us out and that just hasn't come to pass. So, we need to take advantage of the land that we control and that's what we're

doing here. And I think that's very smart and I'm glad to I'm glad to see it it happened. Now, should I go ahead and read this or somebody else want to talk? You want to talk first? You can read in and we can go to the next speakers.

Okay. All right, I have to take a breath first because it's quite lengthy. Adopt a resolution of the board of directors of the shoreline regional park community approving a midyear 2025-26 capital improvement program project to increase capacity for safe parking at shoreline lot B lot project to appropriating $490,859 from the shoreline regional park community fund to fund the midyear lot project. three appropriating 1,191 um uh7 and37 $73 from the shoreline regional park community fund to the city of Mountain View city manager fiscal year 2026 27 lot B community lot B safe parking program budget to fund 1 million um65,368 um dollars in ongoing oper operating costs and and um 126 $335,000 in one-time site preparation costs for this for the lot B safe parking program. Four, authorizing the community manager or designate to amend the Shoreline Amphitheater ground lease with Live Nation to extend the term for use of the Shoreline Amphitheater Lot B for safe parking through December 31st, 2030 and to increase the capacity for safe parking at lot B. And five, funding these actions to be exemping these actions to be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act to be read and title only, further weeding waved. Then we want to adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View authorizing the city manager or designate to amend the shoreline amphitheater ground lease. This is the exact same thing, isn't it? I have to read it. Oh. Um, ground lease with Live Nation to extend the term for use of

Shoreline Amphitheater Lot B for safe parking through December 31, 2030 and to increase the capacity for safe parking at lot B. Two, enter into a lease agreement with the county of Santa Clara for safe parking at lot B through June 30th, 2028. Three, amend the cooperative use agreement with the county of Santa Clara for safe parking at 79 East Evelyn and 87 East Evelyn Avenue to extend the term through August 31st, 2026. four, enter into a fiscal year 202627 funding agreement with the county of Santa Clara for the provision of homelessness prevention services and programs in an amount not to exceed 1,648,73 and five finding these actions to be exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act to be read and title only. Further reading waved.

Thank you, Council Member Shaw Walter. I see that has been seconded by council member Ramirez. Next we have council member Kame.

Great. Thanks mayor. Um I'll be supporting the motion. I just had a question for staff. Um so since you had mentioned that the length of stay and there's some new kind of requirements from coming from the county. Um I'd be interested if you could pass on that information as it becomes available to the council in particular. you mentioned that there are um potential extensions and then like what's the process for the extension? How long are the extensions? What's the final final extension? I think as those come forward, I'm sure all of my colleagues and I would be interested in understanding that and perhaps an off agenda memo or or an email to us would be most beneficial. Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you, Council Member Kame. Council member Hicks. So, I again wanted to thank council member McAllister for pulling this item. I think it's something that's um important to a lot of people in the city. So, a little discussion is um worth our time. Um and I agree with council member Sha Walter that this program is broadly popular. I mean people who are like she said both those who are very compassionate on and and passionate on this issue and also people who just want the RVs off the street have both asked me you know when are we going to do more spaces? So um so I think it is popular. Um, I think that the cost coming from the being paid through the shoreline community is to me really appropriate because I think it's the fact that we have because there's an industrial park there and the fact that uh we're bringing we have over the past several decades brought more tech jobs to the community. That is one of the things that's making our um our housing less affordable and helping cause homelessness. So, I think that community should, you know, should pay for that. Um, I also, um, am glad that you brought up the length of stay issue and that council member Kame did. I think that is an issue and something that, uh, council, again, I'm leaving. that means you uh will have to work on um because I think it is it I think we saw it as an opportunity to engage with people and help them move on not long-term camping. Um and I think that also ultimately this is a program that we want to go away. Ultimately we want people to be housed in housing but um I think with the situation I think people can see there's not enough money going towards it and other things. So, the housing emergency

continues and as long as that continues, I think we'll probably have some not ideal programs like this and so I will be voting for I will be supporting the motion. Thank you, Council Member Hicks, Council Member Mallister.

Okay, my comments now. Um, as I say, I I remember Dr. uh Love in here always asking us to do stuff and I said, "Why don't you step up and give us some parking spaces?" Pat remember that. and they finally they tried and they couldn't do it. So the city came along and started doing it. I believe in the pro program then I still believe in the program now. I will support the motion but we still need to look at the fiscal consequences on the city. Are we doing a good job with the taxpayer dollar to get the people efficiently into relocated properties? And so I understand I was also involved in getting the VTA lot. I remember speaking with the city manager then and helping get that. So, I'm actively working to get these programs working, but we still need to they I want to see the success come sooner and I'm sure the people that are sitting there for 59 or almost 600 days would like it too. So, I believe in the project. I'm going to support the motion, but we need to keep an eye going forward that the escalation of costs. U the shoreline community fund is to me could be used maybe for something else right now. It's not a blank check even though you know and I don't want that to happen. But I agree with you hopefully someday that this program will get people help people transition into more sustainable housing. And u that's my comments.

Thank you, Council Member Mallister. I'll just add a few of my own comments. Um I don't view safe parking as a solution to our housing crisis. I think homelessness is one of the most tragic and visible symptoms of our housing crisis. Uh safe parking is merely a management tool as we deal with it. The answer is building housing at all levels of affordability and with focusing on the those of the lowest income. Um, I I I think about friends who have been in either safe parking or in our temporary um our our forgot what they were called, but like our life moves program that they had they struggled getting out of it. Not through any fault of their own. It's just that there's not housing that they can afford to move out of. So, um, it is one day it it's it's not a ideal situation for people to be living in their vehicles, but at this point, this is the tools that we have. Um, until we get the housing that they need and that they can move into. I think about as someone who is is is low income and a renter myself, I am more likely to be someone who would be in the situation more likely to be there than a homeowner at this point. Um, and so I'm I'm in supportive of this motion because we do need the tools that we can have to help our residents get back on their feet while we find a way to solve our housing crisis. So, um, thank you, Council Member Mallister for the opening up the discussion for us. Um, and I believe we are ready for a vote. All right. And it's unanimous. We will now move on to item five, oral communications. This portion of the

meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the council on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are allowed to speak on any topic within the city council's subject matter jurisdiction for up to three minutes during the section. State law prohibits the council from acting on non-aggenda items. If you would like to speak on this item or the next item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. Now, would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click a raise hand button or in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker will have three minutes. I see one speaker in the queue. Uh Monica Faria, um I'm sorry if I pronounced your name wrong. Um please come to the dis and you have three minutes. Hi, good evening, mayor, uh, council members, and city manager. Sorry, a little nervous. My name is Monica Faria, and I'm your local, uh, government affairs representative for PG&E. I'd like to acknowledge my colleague, Sergio Himenez, who previously served as your representative. I appreciate his work and partnership with the city of Mountain View and I'm grateful for his support during this transition. Moving forward, I will be your primary point of contact for all PG related matters. If you have questions, concerns, or need information regarding PG, I'm here to help either by finding the answers directly or connecting you with the appropriate subject matters experts. I value strong partnerships with our local government leaders and I'm committed to being responsive and collaborative resource for you all. I will be reaching out to each of you individually to schedule a meeting so I can better understand your priorities, your concerns, and provide with

information of interest. I look forward to meeting you all soon and working together. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, and we look forward to complaining to you. Um all right we will now take virtual speakers. I see none. Therefore we will now go to item six uh public hearings. So we are starting with item 6.1 economic development subsidy report and amended and restated disposition and development agreement and amended and restated ground leases for Hope Street lots 4 and 8. Assistant city managers Don Cameron and Aron Andrews will present the item. If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. We're ready for you.

Thank you very much. So, good evening, mayor, vice mayor, council members. Uh I am Don Cameron, assistant city manager, and joining me tonight on the deis is assistant city manager Aron Andrews. What did I miss something? All right. Thank you. So, we're here tonight to present recommended amendments to the disposition and development agreement and ground leases for Hope Street Lots 4 and 8 located in downtown between West Evelyn Avenue and Villa Street. Any action council takes tonight will be in the council's role as the property owner, not as the land use authority. Council will consider potential entitlements in its regulatory capacity at a later date. The council selected Robert Green Company or RGC to develop a hotel in lot 4 and an office building on lot 8. In 2016, by 2021, the city was prepared to issue the building permits. However, the pandemic's impact on the hotel industry and construction loan costs made proceeding into construction infeasible and the project was paused under the financing extension clause in the dis disposition development agreement, also known as the DDA. Last June, council approved amending the DDA to extend the financing extension to March 31st, 2026, in order to provide time to negotiate further amendments to the DDA and ground leases. The recommended amendments incorporate three key modifications to address the change conditions and to position the city to receive revenue and economic benefits from the development. First, allow the hotel to proceed prior to the office building development rather than being constructed concurrently as

originally required. Second, change the parking plans to allow the hotel to be built at grade with hotel parking provided via valet parking model utilizing shared parking with nearby properties and replace lot 4 public parking in the planned lot 5 parking structure. The lot 8 office building would continue to include on-site parking for office needs and to replace its public parking spaces. Third, change the city's financial participation in the hotel to be uh transit occupancy tax or toot rebates and reduced rent with no upfront capital funding. This approach minimizes the city's financial risks and eliminates the obligation to use any city funds on the project. Exhibit A to the resolution lists the recommended business terms for the amended DDA and ground leases. Based on these terms, the size and scale of the hotel building will be the same as the one that was approved in 2018 with the exception of the new parking plans already presented. The city will participate financially through a reduced rent structure that begins at no rent for first five years of hotel operations and increases incrementally to 100% of rent annually by year 21. Extra rent will be due starting in year 31 to partially pay back the earlier rent reductions. RGC will receive a rebate of 100% of the current 10% TOOT rate for up to 15 years. A net present value limit has been set to allow the toot rebate to end sooner if hotel room revenue exceed current projections. RGC will pay bonus rent in the event the hotel's revenues exceed the perform projections and participation rent

should the hotel be sold or refinanced. As part of other financial terms, RGC will pay 6.6 million to the city for the replacement of the lot for public parking spaces unless the council has approved an alternative method to replace these spaces. RGC will also pay past due permit fees and city will defer payment of certain impact fees until the hotel is completed. The city's financial participation in the form of reduced rent and toot rebates is an economic development subsidy. According to state government code, the total economic development subsidy is estimated to be 47.5 million over the 55 initial lease year 55-year initial lease term. Based on the hotel performer for the initial 55 years, it is projected that the city will receive over 433 million in ground rent toot sales taxes and possessory interest taxes. This is a conservative estimate that does not include any bonus participation rents received, any future increases in the toot rate rate, or sales taxes generated by hotel guests visiting other Mountain View businesses. In addition to revenue for the city, a hotel will also provide significant economic benefits with more foot traffic for downtown restaurants, shops, and entertainment, as well as jobs creation. The amended DDA includes, excuse me, the amended DDA includes timeline performance requirements starting with the planning permit application for the hotel being submitted no later than the end of this July. Based on these performance requirements, the hotel could open for business as early as mid 2029, but no later than spring 2031.

Based on the recommended business terms, the size and scale of the office building on lot 8 will be the same as the one that was approved in 2018. The DDA does allow RGC to propose changes to the building size, how parking is provided, and lease rates subject to council approval when they are ready to move forward with the planning permit application. The city will not be providing an economic development subsidy for the office building. RGC will pay the greater of a minimum base rent or a rent based on a percentage of gross revenues. Similar to the hotel, RGC will also pay bonus rent and participation rent when appropriate. The amended DDA includes timeline performance requirements for the office building as well, starting with a notice of intent to submit a planning permit application no later than the end of 2028. In conclusion, staff recommends council hold a public hearing on the economic development subsidy for the lot for hotel development and adopt a resolution approving the business terms for the amended DDA and leases authorizing the city manager ex to execute the documents and make the necessary findings for these actions. Thank you.

Thank you. Uh does any member of the council have questions? waiting. All right, Council Member Mallister. Um, okay. I just have two questions. Um, one, why does there need to be a public hearing for that particular item? It is a requirement of the state government code about the economic development subsidy that the city council must hold a public hearing about the subsidy. And what would be discussed the public that might mean? So what?

So the requirements included that the city posts the economic development subsidy report which is attachment one to your council report on our website in advance of this meeting and that we post a notice in a newspaper um about the public hearing and and informing the public of where they can preview the economic development subsidy report in advance of the meeting. So, the purpose of the hearing tonight is to hear whether there's any public comment on the economic development subsidy that you are considering granting to the hotel uh before you take action on amending the DDA and list and leases that would grant this um economic development subsidy.

So, if you're asked to approve it tonight, but then we have to do the meeting before we can have a final approval of it. Tonight is your public hearing. when you open up for public comment, that's your public hearing.

Um, and the other question I have since um, Pat, council member Scho Walter and I were here when we first approved it, so it seems like uh, deja vu or we're not uh, we're doing a lot of things happened during co. Um, so I would my motto this time on council is GSD for those who want to figure it out. Get stuff done. So for us to get this done, what can staff do to expedite the permitting process for this project? I think it would be most appropriate for the community development director to help respond to that question.

Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, council. Christian Murdoch, community development director. Um, so there are a couple things that I think are likely to um help with efficient processing of the permits uh should council support moving forward with the uh proposal tonight. Um, the first is that we've offered to the developer the opportunity to submit what's called an at risk application. And what that means is they can submit for the building permit review prior to obtaining city approval of the planning or zoning permits. Um, that can save several months typically uh if not more off of the building permit review process. uh as the name suggests um there is risk in doing so because something could change in the planning permit review and approval process but nevertheless most of the the time consuming aspects of structural detail review and so forth um those aspects can be completed earlier in the process. Um the other piece here that's helpful is the overall hotel project is largely the same uh as what was reviewed previously and so we uh aren't likely to have to do extensive uh groundup review of the project in the same way we did when it was a new submitt. So that is something that should be able to help us uh more efficiently get through the the planning and zoning process. Is there u is there staff capacity to help get this project reviewed uh efficiently?

Um so we do have staff uh that remain that are familiar with the project uh in its prior iteration and that have spent some time uh working on um this item currently and so I'm not concerned about a staff capacity issue at this point. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Mallister. Seeing no other council questions, would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. Each speaker will have two minutes. I am seeing no speakers. We will now take virtual speakers. I am seeing no hands. So, we will take it back to the council. Thank you. I will bring the item back for council questions and deliberation. Please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolution attached to the report. Um I see there is a motion by council member Clark, a seconded by council member Mallister. Uh council member Clark, would you like to speak to your motion first?

Yes. So we've held the public hearing. Uh, so I move that we adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View approving business terms and authorizing the city manager or designate to executed an amended and restated disposition and development agreement and amended and restated ground leases between the city of Mountain View and RGC Mountain View 1 LLC for the development of Hope Streets lots 4 and 8, making findings for the amended and restated ground leases to exceed 55 years and finding that the approval does not constitute a project pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act to be read in title only for the reading wave. Thank you, Vice Mayor Clark. We now will go to council, council member Hicks.

So, Mayor, I don't know if you want us to declare whether we met with the developer, but I don't know if we do that during public hearings, but I did meet with him at one point. Um, and seems like maybe that's neither here nor there. Um, I will be supporting the motion and I just wanted to say a couple things that uh are important to me about uh this economic development opportunity. Um first maybe the more the minor one is that uh for people who who uh listened carefully there or read the report there's uh valet parking involved with this uh this proposal and that's something that I really like that I think that we are losing parking downtown with our lot 12 affordable housing and and various other things going on downtown but Um we we actually have a tremendous amount of parking downtown. It's just underneath the offices and is not used a lot. Um so I like the idea of of the hotel using it. I hope that can be sort of a pilot project for call it that for um possibly other um other uh business people downtown um using that unused space as well. valuable unused space as well that resource. And then the other thing I was going to say is that um you know this hotel will be really a great step forward for our I believe for our economic vitality plan. Um it should help us with you know more foot traffic. It should help us reduce vacancies downtown. Help our existing um restaurants and other businesses thrive. uh add to the diversity of the city's revenue sources um and also make our

downtown an even better entertainment zone, community gathering space, urban park, or as uh council member Mallister says, a maybe a community building opportunity. Um but in order for that to work, we have to maintain the other things that we need uh to make the downtown work. uh namely uh making sure it has a sense of place, preserve the key historic features, make sure we keep a mix of uses on the ground floor. That's what we're ground floors on Castro Street in particular. Um and do uh a good job on an SB79 alternative plan. So I think there are a number of things that we need to do. It's not just approving this tonight, but a number number of other ingredients we need to add to the mix to make sure that this is a success. And with that, I will be supporting your motion.

Thank you, Council Member Hicks, before we go to my other colleagues, uh, a city assistant city attorney. Um, I don't have a trigger here to ask for disclosures. Is this something that our colleagues need to disclose whether or not we have met with the applicant or not? Um, mayor, since you've basically asked the council if they would like to make any disclosures, I think you can do so now. Okay. Um, I guess so we have most of our colleagues uh in the docket. If not, feel free to add yourself in. Oh, okay. Has anyone met with the applicant? You can raise your hand. All right. Uh, consider yourselves disclosed, Council Member Shoalter.

Thank you. Yeah. Um, we have been working on this a long time as um, council member Mallister mentioned and the reason we've been working on it a long time is we think that having a hotel in downtown will really be a wonderful feature for our community that there'll be all sorts of economic vitality. It'll be wonderful meeting place. I mean that there's just a lot of benefits for it. But um uh the uh the economics of hotels are very difficult. They eb and flow and um we don't we're not responsible for that but we're you know obviously subject to that and currently this developer thinks that the economics are a go. So um we need to take advantage of that now while we have this opportunity. So, and then the other thing I wanted to mention is the creative way that the um the DA has been written up so that we're not out any current money with this arrangement. Um we uh the the credits that we are giving to for this hotel are are essentially credits for future taxes that we're you know we won't be collecting like the toot tax that the hotel tax and I think that's um you know that's a very good way to do it and certainly much less of a um of a problem to our our current uh budget. So, I want to thank the um whoever came up with that and uh I think it's a really good idea. So, yes, I will be supporting him.

Thank you, Council Member Sho Walter. Council member Mallister.

Yeah. Um I met with the developer in 2019 uh 2016 and uh so I'll disclose that way back when. Uh my apologies to the vice mayor. He was right there with me on all these other projects that I've been talking about that we've seen since uh we've come back. So, we're trying to get those done. But, you know, I this particular project now that we have a vehicle light rail to the Levi Stadium is a great opportunity to bring downtown. We missed the Super Bowl. We're going to miss the uh World Cup. So, um, the sooner we get this done, the city's going to see a to me a significant economic, uh, opportunity there to tie in with what's happening in Santa Clara because we have that simple, easy way to come to Mountain View, park, get on light rail, and get to that uh, the stadium without having major u congestion. and maybe we might even be able to attract a uh somebody that's doing a concert there to come down Mountain View and stay at our new hotel. But I'm excited about getting this done. Uh enthusiastic from the get-go and there's nothing but positive for this project.

Thank you, Council Member Mallister. Council member Kame.

Great. Thanks, Mayor. Um so I think colleagues have talked a lot about the benefits. So I just want to take an opportunity to thank staff. This is obviously as um some mentioned a long time in the making but I think that there was representatives from every department that we have in the city um talking about this bringing this forward um to be as creative as possible. Um most of I want to thank the applicant. You've made yourself readily available time and time again over this last decade to continue the conversation, ask for feedback. Um, and I I think that's what's led to to today and what we're seeing. And hopefully we're and we're going to see another project where we've had a decade in the making um after this. But um I think I think what I truly appreciate is like the the collaborative nature and how it's been so solutionoriented both on the applicant side but also on the the city and the staff side. And um as council member Sha Walter mentioned, you know, there's some sacrifices we need to make now, but we will be able to through the hard work of staff be able to recoup and hopefully gain some um financial benefits on the on the other end for some of the things we need to do now. And so I hope that as um as we are thinking about not only economic vitality but the future of our city, we continue to like keep keep this spirit going and then be thinking about um and appreciate as we're discussing economic vitality, a mixture of uses. And I appreciate that conversation. It's not just we're talking about retail, we're talking about maybe maker spaces or child care, something to make sure that we are filling um and and truly addressing economic vitality in all the different buckets with which that could be. Uh and I know we talked about it in this space as well. So, thank you very much.

Thank you, Council Member Kame. Does anyone else have any comments on council? Seeing none, I think we're ready for a vote. Yay. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you very much. Congratulations to our to that development. Um, now we will move on to item 6.2, residential development at 555 West Middlefield, which I think is going to be the big docket tonight. Would any council members like to make disclosures? Council member Oh, no, no, no. We We're gonna

All right. Council member Ramirez. Thank you, Mayor. I'll disclose that. Um, I met with the applicant some time ago. Thank you. Council member Hicks, I also met with the applicant some time ago. Council member Shaw Walter, I met with the applicant some time ago and just a couple days ago. Council member Kame, I met with the applicant. Thank you, Council Member Kame. And I did, too.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Clark. Um, we will now move on to our presentation. Planning Manager George Schroeder. I'm so sorry. Did that was that right? Um, and assistant community development director Amber Blazinski will present the item. If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. Go right ahead.

Okay. Uh, good evening, Mayor Ramos and council. My name is George Schroeder, planning manager. I'm joined by Amber Blazinski, assistant director of community development for this project located at 555 West Middlefield Road. Staff has prepared a brief presentation outlining the project. And I'll begin by providing some context regarding the project location. The approximately 14.5 project acre project site is located in the P or plan community zoning district. It has a general planned land use designation of high low density residential and the existing development consists of an apartment community with service parking. To the north and south are condominium communities. To the east is highway 85 and Stevens Creek. To the west is a service station and across Moffett Boulevard, a mobile home park and shopping center. There is an active approval for the for a mixeduse development on the shopping center site, but the timing for construction is unknown at this point as no building permits have been submitted yet. The applicant Avalon Bay Communities would demolish the existing parking areas and amenity spaces at the existing apartment complex and construct three new multif family buildings ranging from 3 to five stories totaling 323 units including amenity spaces and structured parking for two of the buildings along with a new surface parking lot for the other. There would be a 1.34 acre parkland dedication for a future city park. and the applicant requests a heritage tree removal permit to remove, transplant, and replace heritage trees on site. Lastly, the project requests a vesting tenative map to create three lots for the project site. Building A would consist of demolishing the existing amenity building and constructing a new 30-unit apartment building with above ground structured parking. Building B would demolish carport parking, construct a new 97 unit residential condominium or stacked flats building, including 10 rowhouse style

units with attached two-car garages along Cypress Point Drive and surface parking spaces for the stacked flats. Building C would demolish surface parking, constructing a new 196 unit apartment building with above ground structured parking. and the applicant would demolish the tennis courts to dedicate a 1.34 acre future city park. The parkland provided exceeds the requirement by 75 acres. And in recognition of the surplus, staff is recommending a deferral in the timing of the parkland acceptance as it would provide flexibility for the applicant and help better manage construction logistics. There was a previous approval at the site in 2022 where the city approved a general plan amendment to high low density residential as well as a similar project to add 323 units with the dedication of a 1.34 acre park in the same location. Dupkin is no longer pursuing that 2022 project due to changing economic conditions and the proposed project differs from the 22 2022 project through increased building heights for on two buildings and proposing above ground parking instead of below grade. Additionally, eight fewer tree removals are proposed. The new buildings are oriented towards the pedestrian realm along all three street frontages. Parking areas are minimized from public view by either being located behind or within buildings. Various on-site amenities are proposed throughout the project site, including open space areas, private residential balconies, a rooftop pool deck, bicycle parking, and fitness rooms. Additionally, a new publicly accessible pedestrian and bicycle path as shown in orange runs along the future city park and would connect Middlefield Road with Cypress Point Drive. The upkin will provide 48 deed restricted below market rate units at varying income levels which will be dispersed throughout the new buildings including both ownership and rental units. The applicant will also pay an

inlue fee for the resulting fractional unit. Overall, the project's affordable housing proposal complies with the city's affordable housing ordinance. The project is eligible for a 20% density bonus because it provides more than 10% of the units for lowincome households. However, the applicant is not proposing any density bonus units above what the general plan allows. The applicant does not request any concessions under the state density bonus law, but requests six waiverss that would otherwise preclude the construction of the development, and these will be for floor area ratio, setbacks, heights, open area, personal storage, and bicycle parking. The frontages of building A and B can be seen here. The proposed architectural design is well articulated with high quality of building elements as well as brakes and massing which complement adjoining land uses along streetscape frontages. Durable cohesive materials as well as steoped entry porches and active interior spaces create a strong connection to the pedestrian realm. Here's the proposed vesting tenative map which includes the creation of three lots. one for condominium purposes to accommodate 97 condominium units, one for the existing and proposed apartment units, and one for the future city park. Also, the publicly accessible pedestrian and bicycle path is shown in blue on the map. The project contains 442 existing trees, including 251 heritage-sized trees, and the applicant would preserve 163 of these heritage trees and remove 88 trees with 39 of those trees to be relocated on site. The heritage trees to be removed are either in poor condition or in the development footprint or in the case of the trees along the freeway require removal due to regrading. The tree removals will be replaced by 212 new trees on site and the applicant would preserve 20 of the 21 existing

trees, street trees along the project frontages. Here is the project circulation plan that shows pedestrian and vehicular access. There would remain two vehicular access points along West Milfield Road and the seven existing vehicular access points would be reduced to three along Cypress Point Drive. Multimodal transportation assessment was conducted which demonstrates compliance with the VTA's guidelines as well as no adverse traffic operational impacts on any nearby intersection. The project is not subject to any minimum parking requirements due to the site's location within a half mile of major transit stops. The project includes a transportation demand management plan with various programs aimed to achieve a 10% peak hour reduction. The project is statutoily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act or SQA under the recent AB130 as it meets all the qualifying criteria for the exemption. The EPIN also held two neighborhood meetings last year with residents of the existing apartment community and with the neighboring condominium communities. We also received numerous emails from members of the community and advocacy groups throughout the project review. The subdivision committee also reviewed the vesting tenative map on March 4th of this year and recommended its approval to the city council. Here is the full staff recommendation on each permit requested as well as the SQA findings. And this concludes staff's presentation and community development and public works staff including the project planner Sam Hughes senior planner are available to answer any questions as well as the city's environmental consultant. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now have a presentation from the applicant and I'm so sorry if I'm getting these names really wrong. Um Charlie Ko, development director from Avalon Bay Communities and Joe Kurt. Feel free to uh correct me on those names when you get up here. Uh senior vice president Northern California development of Avalon Bay Communities. You will see seven minutes on the clock.

Harley Ko. I'm a development director with Avalon Bay Communities. I'm here with Joe Kershoffer and other members of our project team to speak to you about the proposed development project at 555 West Middlefield Road. I want to start by thanking council for considering our proposal and staff for the extensive amount of time that they've put into reviewing the project plans. This project is a new proposal at a site that has a previously approved project. Council approved it in 2022. That project was originally proposed back in 2016. And that project was proposed at a time that had significantly different economic conditions to the ones that we have today. Unfortunately, after a couple of years of hoping for those conditions to approve, following that project approval, uh Joe and I went back to the drawing board and realized we needed to come up with a new design to be able to deliver new housing for Mountain View and for Avalon Bay. Uh we went back to the drawing board and thought about how we could keep a project as close to the previously approved project as possible while improving project financial feasibility. Avalon Bay is a long-term owner of the projects that it develops and we've had a presence in Mountain View in the Bay Area for a long time. I'm going to keep this presentation pretty high level, but happy to answer any detailed questions during Q&A. On this slide, we have some project highlights. I think the fact that we are replacing surface parking lots in this proposal with attractive new housing and landscaping is really the primary benefit of this project for the city. We're creating 323 new homes without displacing any of the

existing residences on site. We're also planning to provide 48 new affordable house affordable homes and donating a 1.34 acre uh acres of land to the city for the creation of a new public park which is a uh significant overcontribution relative to the city's current public park dedication requirements. In addition, we are offering a $2 million voluntary community benefit contribution. Uh next slide, please. Here's a site plan which planning staff uh expertly walked us through. I do want to highlight that the primary change to make this project financially feasible has to do with bringing the parking which in the previous proposal was to be underground into the new configuration which is in surface parking lots and above grade parking garages concealed from public view on the street. This new proposal also maintains as much of the tree preservation as was committed to in the previous proposal, including preservation of certain key stands of heritage redwood trees. Next slide, please. Here's a rendered view of building A, a fourstory building with 30 units in it. This will be the amenities hub for the new property. Uh, and all of these amenities, including extensive ones on the ground floor, as well as a rooftop pool deck, will be available to the renters of the existing buildings as well as the new ones. On the next slide, we can see building B. Uh, this corner of the property is the most prominent, and we spent a long time working with planning staff in the original approval

on this design. We think it turned out really well and in the updated project design we have maintained the same aesthetic. There are also streetscape enhancements included with building B on Moffett Boulevard. Those include a bus boarding island, a protected bike lane, as well as a widened sidewalk. And all of that aligns with the city's vision for Moffett. On the next slide, we have a view of building C. This view highlights a entry courtyard where the building steps back from the street. We think that this really helps create a uh differentiation in the building massing and helps to welcome residents and the community to the property. This particular building as well as building B include extensive stoop entries to units to help engage the street. The garage in this building has been configured to face Highway 85. On the next slide, I just want to highlight a few additional project benefits. Uh there's going to be a new public access easement cutting through the site from Moffett or from Middlefield Road to Cypress Point Drive that'll be available to pedestrians and cyclists on a otherwise very large block to to go around. We also as a part of the redesign of the parking have been able to reduce the planned overall construction duration. Uh that construction duration as well as the construction emissions in the previously approved project were uh major points of community concern. And by not needing to dig large pits for those parking garages, we think that this new project design effectively addresses that concern.

On the final slide, just to conclude, this is the kind of project that by providing new affordable units, avoiding displacement of existing renters, dedicating a large public park, and providing highquality landscaping in a transitoriented location is the exact kind of project that Mountain View wants for its new housing. and the improvements made to the project design address some of the community concerns that were um voiced in the previous approval. Uh I appreciate the time and uh myself and our project team are here to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Does any member of the council have questions either for our staff or the applicant? I see one from council member Ramirez. Thank you, mayor. Uh two questions. The first is uh what is the origin of the voluntary $2 million community benefit contribution and a related question is how do we intend to use that money?

So I can start with the origin and I think I would um ask for some assistance from community development director on if there's potential to answer the second part of the question. So, in the original approved project, the the previous one, the community benefits contribution um was 1.977. Um and so I think that the applicant, you know, has just um stuck to that commitment of a community benefits um payment to the city and um at that rate of $2 million. I Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor and council. Christian Murdoch, community development director. Um, most often, uh, those types of payments, community benefits payments, for example, um, are something that's prioritized with the public works department in terms of capital improvements. So depending on the timing and uh needs in a particular area, it can go towards improvements like uh uh park development, uh park enhancements, uh bike pad infrastructure enhancements, other sorts of transportation improvements. And so it really depends uh when the timing becomes clearer on receipt of those funds uh and going through the process with the public works department uh to try to bring forward a project that makes sense at that time.

Thank you, Council Member Ramirez. Council member Sho Walter. Yeah, I have a couple questions. Um, I think they're for the developer, but I'm not sure. Um, one is I understand that building B is being mapped for condos, which, um, is excellent. And, um, I'm just wondering what kind of experience Avalon Bay has with condos. You know, I'm I'm familiar with several of your projects in Mountain View, and I don't think they include any. So, I just wondered about that. And I also understand that you're not going to you're not the plan is not to um uh sell them as condos initially, but to rent them.

Uh yeah, that's correct. So um Joe Kirchoffer with Aval. Thank you council members for for having us tonight. Um that's correct. So we're our our core business is to own um develop, own, build, manage um apartment buildings. Um and so our holdings in Mountain View, we own over a thousand units in Mountain View. Um those are all rental um rent uh rental properties. Um we have very sparingly in other you know in in other projects done a very small number of of condo buildings ourselves. Um but for this project as as you explained the plan is to um to build all the buildings all 323 new units operate them all as rentals. Um but have the option in the future um that building B could be separated out could be sold separately um and that could be something that could be converted to ownership housing in the future. Great. Okay. Thank you. And then um yeah, I guess that's it for right now.

Thank you, Council Member Shaw Walter. Council member Hicks. So, I have some questions about sidewalks. Um for people who don't come to council meetings on a regular basis, council members have the opportunity to ask questions in written form ahead of the our questions now. And there are a couple that council members submitted on sidewalks and I'm still not clear. So, one of the questions noted that the setback has on Moffett uh is 4T less than the previous project. And another question asks, does the city have a set standard for sidewalks? And there's some the that answer says something about 5-ft detached sidewalks and 5-ft landscape strip. So, I'm left not understanding what the sidewalk along Moffett is here and also a little concerned that it might be some like a 5-ft sidewalk with a is the sidewalk minimum frankly and it's I live in a single family home and it's for people walking by single family homes basically and with so many more people on the street it must be wider. So, I just want to know what the I could not figure it out looking at the um plans.

Sure. I think we'd ask our colleagues from public works if they can speak to the sidewalk or the applicant. So, the sidewalk along Moffett is designed to be 8 ft wide. uh the reduction in the setback is from the back of the sidewalk to the face of the building and so uh that reduction in the setback did not affect the proposed sidewalk width.

Thank you very much. That's exactly what I wanted to know. And I imagine because this is more urban than the question here with the answer on the 5-ft sidewalk and the 5-ft planting strip is a probably for less urban neighborhoods. I imagine here there's no planting strip adjacent to the street.

Yeah. So along Moffett Boulevard that design is to include a protected bike lane. And so that's using up some of the width that for example along Cypress Point Drive is being used for a five- foot planting strip and then a 5ft sidewalk. So if you have a total of 10 feet to play with uh and you use 8T for the for the 8ft sidewalk, you need a little bit of space for for the for the the protected bike lane, then really the landscaping for us ends up behind the sidewalk. And the uh on on U Mafet is the are there tree wells within the eight feet? There's no additional like furniture strip is what people call it sometimes,

right? There aren't additional tree plantings uh between the sidewalk and the curb. So they're within that 8 foot uh stretch. We have tree plantings behind back of walk. Okay. Uh within the project site. Yeah. Closer to the building. Not between the sidewalk and the bike laner street. Correct. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Council Member Hicks. Council member Mallister.

Yeah. Thank you, Council Member Hicks about the sidewalks. That was a concern of mine. Uh, but I was more concerned that going down further where the regulator I mean, I just got back from a week in Arizona and their sidewalks are very long, large. Washington DC has very large side wide sidewalks and uh I think everything I see around here, you know, makes it more enjoyable to have a wide sidewalk. It's more comfortable and I think that should be the new standard as I see we're going to do that. So, u following up, I asked the question, how can the standard be changed? And the staff responded with a formal regulatory action by the city. Is that something that seems that we could do sooner than later?

I think we'll let our colleagues from public works answer that one. It would be nice to get it done before Council Member Hicks leaves the council. Good evening. Jennifer Ing, public works director. One of the things that we'll be embarking upon soon with our friends in community development is the development of the citywide objective design standards. Now, that's primarily targeted for multifamily and mixeduse development, but we'll probably capitalize upon that opportunity to look at sidewalk standards just holistically rather than just for one particular type of development.

So, when you say I can't say that word, I mean, okay, holistically. So that's sort of generic. Is there a way to be more definitive about yes, we would like to require a lot wider sidewalks? Yeah, happy to take that feedback. I I hear you guys loud and clear. I think that's also an objective that we'll be looking at as staff um as we start the citywide objective design standards. Okay. And my other Thank you. You're welcome. Since that sort of sidetracked, but where is uh Joe and Joe can take it or Joe.

Okay. So, gentlemen, I met with them uh via Zoom. So, now here's the question I presented to you before and you have an opportunity. The question I asked those two gentlemen was you're building a lot of housing. How are you building a community with all that housing?

Sure. That's I mean, thank you for asking that question. I think it's a great question. Um I'd go back to one of the things that Charlie mentioned in his remarks. Uh we're not just a just a developer. Um, our company is, you know, yes, we're on the front end of the process developing new buildings. We have our own contractor to build those buildings, but our business model is also to own these buildings over the long term, over decades. We purchased this property in 2013. You know, the other buildings we've owned in Mountain View, we've owned for decades. Um, and so our success isn't really measured in just that first process. You know, hey, people are really excited to move into this building. We want people to be excited to move in and then excited to stay and stay for a while. Um, and so we we create community, you know, as part of that process to help us be more successful. Um, we do it in a few different ways. I'd point out some things as part of the design, the way the buildings have been laid out and designed. Um, we have one, you know, sort of central amenity area. Um, in building A, um, that's the way the building is currently designed. There's a central amenity building. We've we've kept that concept with the new amenity building. U all the amenities are shared amongst all the buildings, new and old. So there's not any sort of delineation between, you know, you live in one of the older buildings versus you live in one of the newer buildings. Um, and then we've also expanded sort of that concept to the broader community where, you know, you um, you saw on the plan the bike ped connection that runs through the block. You know, that's going to be open to the public that's going to bring people from surrounding communities into and through the through the property. Um, and then obviously the the biggest thing we're doing is taking over an acre of space and you know it's currently private mostly parking lot space and opening that to the public as a future public park which will be a a great way to bring both our residents and the surrounding community uh members together. Um, and then because we are the long-term owner um we have our own Avalon based staff that are um operating these buildings maint uh you know doing maintenance in these buildings. Um, so we do, you know, we do resident events. We try to get people together. You know, it's not like an everyday thing. People are busy. They're living their lives. But we try to do, you know, every few

weeks there's, you know, something as small as, hey, there's donuts in the lobby on Fridays to sort of wine tasting things to, you know, get to know your neighbor things. Um, and so that's a sort of a regular part of our programming for the properties. Um and um and then we are also one of the things that we pride ourselves on and if you look at like things like Google reviews and you know reviews of apartment buildings, we have our own staff on site. We try to make that part of the reason that people want to stay and so you see a lot of comments about oh that maintenance person was so helpful and was so nice and was so friendly. That goes a really long way in making people feel like their home is a home that they want to stay in. And so those are the things that it's not, you know, it's not something that's in our slides or in our plan, but you know, the person that greets you as you, you know, come in and out every day. Um, that's our employee and part of their job is to make sure you feel great when, uh, when you're coming home.

Okay. Thank you. My other question is now for uh staff, the U vehicle miles traveled. Now things have changed and the reason I I I saw that on the one on middle field I saw it here and with some other project and each one of these projects that come up uh that says this is going to be a little impact and I saw a letter from the residents of the crescent cresby what yeah the streets yeah cypress

cypress yeah that was not even close cypress um where they were concerns about the traffic and this a broader question to staff. I'm concerned about the traffic and you it says assume or presume and some of these questions come up that you know this is just exempt and yet this is a large development. Prometheus is developing on the other side of the street and yet they say well we have to take these independently but I'm concerned that there's a cumulative effect and this concerns me when I was on council before is that each of these cannot be looked upon as individual projects they have to be looked at the to all of them the cumulative effect of all the other building that's going around because that is going to compound it and so staff could you help me understand how you can sit there and say is right that there is no impact of the traffic coming in. There's no impact from across the street with Prometheus. There's no impact over on Middlefield where Prometheus has their projects that they're going to be building. That none of these have a have an effect on the traffic because traffic causes, you know, parking is going to be potentially out in the street if there's if there's not enough parking. There's congestion of people going all at one time. If you have a dead-end street, they're going to have all these cars coming out. So help me understand how when they say VTM or because you're near a major transit center and and the people on this council, I probably have more experience with light rail and the lack of experience of the success of light rail. is is very expensive to run and yet we're putting um the u people's quality of life based on a light rail system that is rarely used and I thank the staff we're looking into but I pretty familiar with our locations here and they're very rarely used uh and they don't go somewhere you know it takes you

forever to get somewhere so someone from staff please under help me understand how you do not include the cumulative And the more not by the book which says it's not a fact but from reality.

Good evening. Edango, assistant public works director. Um I'm going to start uh the response on this. I'll take a a first um pass at it. Um we have Lorenzo Lopez, the city's traffic engineer. also um online. So, if I can get him promoted um so he can follow up on a response related to your question. Um so um I do think it's important to uh recognize and we had put this in the response and um that VMT this is the vehicle miles traveled is the metric that's being used for SQL analysis for traffic. Um it it's the um it doesn't account for so cumulative conditions, it's the trips from the site. Um as part of our evaluation for projects um particularly for um prosecutors of this size, we go through an additional analysis. It's called the multimodal transportation analysis that does this um evaluation of sort of the operational impacts associated with a project. Um so previously historically um you may remember SQA processes involved a um traffic analysis that was a level of service. So the level of service really did include this operational analysis. What is the degradation to intersections and roadways? Um as a result of the um project and SQA um the regulations changed now um that is no longer a metric. It's just vehicle miles traveled for a project. But recognizing that there are operational and um the city staff would want to know those operational impacts, we have um implemented a um additional analysis on kind of these larger developments that identify that evaluation. Um and we did do that for this project. Um I also want to recognize that we also did it for the neighboring project considering the cumulative effect. So this project doesn't have the cumulative effect I believe. Um, and I don't have the address in my head, but it's at the

intersection of Cypress and Moffett, and it's on the Moffett side. 400 Moffett. Thank you. So 400 Moffett. Um, so the timing sequence was that the um the 555 middlefield project um the background conditions didn't have 400 MFT included, but the 400 Moffett project did have the background as there's a 555 middlefield project that's coming. Let's take a look at that cumulative effort. So, at this point, I'd like to have um Lorenzo um provide impact uh information on what that analysis showed and um what staffs um saw from the results.

I see Mr. Lopez has been promoted to panelists. Uh go ahead.

Thank you, Ed. Uh Lorenzo Lopez, city traffic engineer. Hopefully, you can hear me well. Um, as Ed mentioned, uh, multimodal transportation analysis was was done for the project originally in for in 2022 that MTA was done and then an addendum to that MTA was done in in later in 2022 after council had um requested the trees to be evaluated and number of parking spaces were decreased due to uh saving some of the redwood. trees on site. And then recently in February of 2026, a supplemental MTA was done to compared the differences between that previously entitled uh project and and the currently proposed project. Um what what Ed was mentioning was vehicle miles traveled, but the actual level of service, which is what we still still look at in traffic, um would the level of service at the intersection of Moffett Boulevard and Cypress Point Drive, would still operate at level of service B, which is acceptable under our city standard, which is uh all the way up to level all the way down, I guess you could say, to level of service D. So that intersection will still operate at level of service B. Um, which is the same as what was prepared for the previously approved project in 2022. Um, I'm hoping that's answering some of your some of what you're asking. Um, Ed did mention the project 400 Mafet across the street across Moffett from this site and that did account for this 555 middlefield project in in the cumulative conditions. Uh, let's see if there's anything more to add.

We did look at the number of trips that would be added in the peak hours and they're very minimal. um very minimal that would be accessing Cypress Point Drive. So the difference really is the existing conditions traffic will be shifted from the the A and B areas of the site down to C and and that is not considered a a significant impact. Hopefully that captured everything you asked. So since the parking garage is at the very back, so all that traffic is going to go one has the they only have one way to get out on that street video.

That's correct.

Okay. So you know um maybe this is more of a comment so I should hold off on that. Um, what happens if you do find out that your calculations underestimate what's happening? Do you have a plan B to correct the situation? Um in this specific case um because of the configuration of Cypress Point being a culde-sac um again we did evaluate the um the additional traffic that's going to be planned on Cypress um to minimal uh increase in um service. So kind of level of service of the street is going to stay relatively consistent. And I'll need Lorenzo to kind of help me uh confirm that that's the case. Um but we would have to evaluate um some options there. Um so as far as volume um again, we don't expect that that the volume is going to be so significant that it's going to be difficult for the residents there. um the new residents at for the um current application to be able to exit and access uh Cypress as well as the residents that are on the south side of Cypress. These are the I believe the the row homes and apartments on the south side of Cypress. There's several access points there. Um and again it's um the the traffic that volume that we expect is going to the increase is going to be not a significant level that is going to create um a burden on the residents or uh impact to the traffic. So,

so I I would add that um the estimates that are used to to look at the additional trips are used from the IT the Institute of Transportation Engineers uh trip generation manual manual and those are typically conservative numbers. So there is some wiggle room if if it is a little bit off, but it's it's it's um looking at the numbers provided in the analysis, we're talking about um approximately 100 total trips in the AM. That's both in and out and the same in the PM in and out on on that for the project. If I can have Lorenzo follow up on um what sort of um what does that mean for 100 trips on a road like Cypress Point?

So that that would mean um th those additional trips are are accessing all of the driveway access points on on Cypress Point. So uh not just drive the the C building area C or block C I I guess it's called. Um, it's again it's it's minimal. We uh I'm trying to find the detailed number, but uh I don't I don't have that handy right now. So, I have a question to uh traffic to Lorenzo. Lorenzo, you quoted a book. When was that book last updated? Your reference guide?

2025. Okay. Was are you using the 2025 numbers or were you using some prior? I'm using we're use it was using the 2025 numbers. The the consultant used the 2025 version. So another question is if we have these 323 new units and most of the parking is going to be at the end of the culde-sac. How is that going to be a minimal impact for all those cars to be coming out? How do you what do you consider minimal as numbers or is it reality of people's perception?

So again, I'm going to have um Lorenzo Lopez, a traffic engineer, kind of provide a supplemental response, but um the the capacity of Cypress relative to the additional trips are going to be added is what we look at. So it's a it's actual metric um of what the the road can handle and what does that mean for the level of service once you introduce these new trips. Is there going to be street parking on that? I believe there's street parking available today and that will remain. So, so you're using numbers to to indicate minimal or minor adjustments. Okay.

When we say minor that there a minor change in um um traffic amount um when you look at the street holistically on kind of level of service is when it degrades the more traffic you add to a street. further degrades, it slows down an ability to, you know, move down the street. But again, this is a relatively low volume street because it is just residents. Um, you heard the the trips um that are going to be generated from the site, 100 a.m. trips, 100 pm trips for residential street um like Cyprus, it's it it doesn't degrade the the level of service there and traffic will flow continuously.

Oh, yes. Just to add to give you some perspective, the additional trips that this project adds um are less than 20 in the AM and the PM peak at the intersection of Cypress Point. So those those numbers to me are are very um insignificant, very small numbers.

Good evening. I want to add a little bit of additional perspective. So when a level of service at at the intersection, the signalized intersection is at level of service B like boy, um it would take quite a bit of delay to get that intersection to operate at below a level of service D like dog. Um D, A, B, C, and D are all acceptable thresholds level of service that the city uses. It's really when we fall into categories of level of service E or F um that we really worry. And again at this point as a city um we're not really using level of service as a squa metric is really how we track it um as city for operations of the traffic signal and how that intersection operates. When we're looking at the number of um cars that would be accessing Cypress Point Drive that's over a prolonged period of time. It's not like a school where there's an exact 15 or 20 minute drop off and pickup, right? These are spread throughout um you know the morning hours and the evening hours and you're all very well aware that since COVID all of those peak hour times for AM and PM are not clearly defined like they were before with the hybrid um situation with people working at home. You know the peak hour in the morning is no longer defined as 7 to 9 in the morning and the peak hour in the evening is no longer defined as 5 to 7 in the evening. It's much more spread out. And so when the concern is, you know, how are the vehicles queuing or stacking, you know, are they potentially going to drop block driveways um as they're coming down Cypress Drive and then, you know, turning the corner and trying to get into the driveways for building C. Um we don't see that as a concern because one that time period in which all the vehicles are accessing are spread out and two there are multiple driveways for this particular development for vehicles um to be able to go in and out of um further um dissipating if that's the

right word further dissipating how um how how the traffic maneuver in and out of the site. Can you help me understand the relationship of this project and your numbers with because they're a major transit system with the train set station how that affects your calculations light rail and the train station because you said it's reference to a major transportation hub?

Yeah, I'll start with um our VMT screening threshold that the our city has adopted. It's very similar to what other agencies in this area have also adopted and was worked out in conjunction with VTA, which is our congestion management agency. And so this particular project has met those screening thresholds. One of which is a residential development within a half mile of a highquality um transit um facility. In this case, that would be light rail. Um, and that has um that has brought us um I think there were a couple of others u screening metrics that this project met, but that has um brought us into into the category of why um there's not a whole lot of analysis right now.

State law. State law. Okay, that answer my question. Then I do have one other question for the developer. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you for your response too. It was very helpful. Do you guys know the demographics of how many children are in your projects usually? Do you have a sense or is it um I have a sense I don't know if you have actual numbers for um school age children. School age children it is um it is some I'd say that the majority of units do not have school age children but we do have a you know a sizable percentage you know less than say probably less than 40% and but then it that varies um depending on the type of apartments depending on the location depending on the community. So you have 500 units. So how many ballpark? Do you have any idea how many school age children are there?

So so this the the 400 units that are there today um are heavily weighted towards um studios and one bedrooms just because that's the way this property was built. Um and so I say I mean this property may have as low as 10% children. So you know 40 kids something like that. I I said 40. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Um kids. Yeah. It's that's that's probably a high estimate for that for that property. Um the new the 323 new units will do um we'll do some to balance that out. That's weighted more towards two bedrooms and three bedrooms. Um and so we would expect more kids like as a percentage more kids but you know not not hundreds. It would be so currently there's 40 and you haven't calculated potentially that in the new units.

Correct. Yeah. Thank you. That was helpful. Thank you. Sure.

Thank you council member Mallister. Council member Kame. Great. Thanks. Um, so I just had a quick question for staff and apologies for not submitting it earlier in advance. Had a discussion with the applicant when we met about um the the park. Very excited to continue with the same acreage of the park and we were talking a little bit about park delivery. So, um, in speaking with the applicant, they were talking about, uh, maybe the entire length of construction and completion would be about six years and working with staff on making sure that we expedite uh, park delivery so that when they're on their last phase of building, we would be able to do that. I don't know if park um, park if staff wanted to talk more about the the park and what they were envisioning. I know we're going to be adopting our parks and and rec strategic plan shortly. Um, but there I know this area is in desperate need of open space. So, I don't know. I apologize. I I didn't think of the question prior. So, I don't know whom from staff feels comfortable answering this, but um sounds like the timeline could be doing some initial work on um before the project is fully complete. So, looking to staff if they have anything more they want to add about how we're going to expedite open space in this area. Okay. Apologies. I can take the Okay, thanks. Thanks, Mr. Orango. Thank you for the question again. Edango, assistant public works director. Um so um if I'm understanding your question correctly um kind of looking at for uh what is the um kind of park delivery process associated with the project while it's going happening under construction.

Yes. Well in my in my discussion with the applicant they said that they may be able to work with the city so that we can start some of our planning process instead of our outreach as they are completing because they're going to be using this space for the majority of staging. So just you know for the residents in the area who have been clamoring and asking for open space when when they will be able to kind of expect that outreach process and be able to feel like we can bring that online as fast as possible. That's what I'm asking. Thanks.

Yeah, absolutely. So um uh once um we can do this in parallel. We've been talking to the applicant about you know expediting that process. How does that can work? Um they're motivated, we're motivated um to kind of move it forward as fast as possible. So there's going to be in parallel um an opportunity while they're using the site um for kind of their last phase and we're approaching that point where um they're coming to the end of their project um the city receives the actual parcel and and it's time for us to to obtain the parcel. They can still use it while we start that park development process which will include our standard very robust park delivery process. Um multiple public meetings to engage the public to get that feedback. Again, similar to um what you've heard previously on our park development process, it's a clean slate and we don't have any predetermined amenities on the site. So then at that point, we'd, you know, reach out to the public, go through a community development process, um what amenities would you like to see? We come back again with some alternatives on some layouts and then finally kind of a recommended alternative and then go through the um parks and rec commission process, city council process as well. But we'd start that as early as possible while the site is being developed and the park site um could still have some construction activity on it. Um recognizing that we can do this concept in parallel and then move it along faster.

Great. Thanks.

Thank you, Council Member Kame. Uh I'm seeing no other council questions in the docket. So now we will go to public comment. Yay. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide public comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button on Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. And because we have uh a larger amount of speakers than anticipated, each speaker will have two minutes. So, we will start with our in-person comments. Alli Saberman. Good evening, Mayor Ramos and members of the city council. My name is Ally Saberman and I'm here on behalf of the housing action coalition. We're a member supported nonprofit that advocates for building housing at all income levels. Hack is here tonight in strong support of 555 West Middlefield Road and we urge the council to approve it. This pipeline project delivers 323 new homes, including 48 deed restricted affordable units on underutilized surface parking in a transit-rich corridor without displacing a single resident. This that combination is rare and worth recognizing. The redesign before you tonight is above ground rather than underground parking. This is a pragmatic adjustment to ensure financial viability and it comes with a direct benefit. Less evacuation means fewer construction impacts for existing tenants and faster delivery of housing in this region that we urgently need. There was a lot of dialogue tonight about the housing element progress and we appreciate the city's commitment and work to meeting its housing goals. Mountain View has committed to over 11,000 new homes by 2031. And in order to meet the need, the

city should move forward its pipeline projects. The workforce that sustains this city deserves the opportunity to live here. And this project helps make sure that is possible. Tonight, you all have the opportunity to turn nearly a decade of planning into homes. We urge you to take it. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have Daniel Shane.

Well, since uh I only have two minutes to talk, I think I'll read my statement to you. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to the council members on why they should soundly reject this proposed project as designed without substantial revision. City council approval of this project and cutting down hundreds of evergreen trees that form an effective dense vegetative barrier between the freeway, Highway 85, and our homes is tanamount to creating a significant public health hazard. Human exposure to toxic tailpipe emissions are one of the leading cause causes of cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and heart disease and have been linked to dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Scientific studies in the United States and other countries have shown how effective highway vegetation barriers can be to improving air quality, reducing high levels of noise and air pollution, and protecting public health in near roadway communities. The core mandate and primary responsibility above all else for any city council is to pro is a protection of public health, welfare, and the environment. Protecting property and housing are secondary to these higher goals because without these, what good is the rest? Now, I'm not opposed to building more affordable housing. On the contrary, my daughter and her friends are in desperate need and dire need of finding housing. But we can do better and smarter housing and we can integrate the natural environment through better designs. And this is not a better design. Uh all a person needs to do is stand in front of an impressive, wondrous, and continuous barrier. As you I think it was handed out to you. You can see a a photo of the barrier. Uh it

extends high above the soundwall and uh it's rows of tall evergreen trees, dense foliage and overlapping canopies that cannot be rep.

Thank you. Um, next up we have Sio Namura and then uh it doesn't look like we have any more inerson comments and we'll go to the virtual public comment after this. Are you going to hear? Good evening. Please speak into the microphone so we can hear you.

Good evening Mayor and city council members. My name is Son Namura. I would like to raise the concern about the cura uh exemption about the public safety on this project. On March 4th, the builder stated that this project would have minimum impact. However, the construction conclusion has not been adequately verified under the current design. The product has significantly changed. The block C increased from four to five stories. Over 500 parking space are cons concentrated and the main access has been moved to the end of the long narrow dead end street. This change directly affect safety and emergency access. Despite this, the project received the SQL exemption, but the exemption assumes there are no significant impacts. If the assumption has no not being properly tested, the basis for the exemption is no longer valid. This may also qualify quality as unusual circumstances under SQA given the single access point on the constrained calesac. Finally, I was told the fire department reviewed and then approved this project, but the analysis has not been shared. Without it, we cannot verify that this project is truly safe. I respectfully ask the council to delay or deny approval until these issues are addressed. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Next up, we have Carol Mitchell followed by Alex Brown closing out uh in person comments.

Hello, my name is Carol Mitchell. Excuse me. I've been a Mountain View resid res resident for 50 years. I moved to Northern California from Southern California in 1977 to take a job with National Semiconductor. I I hold on. I brought my mother with me. We rented a townhouse on Cypress Point Drive right across from where uh the intention is is to build all of these apartments, condos, etc. Um I've said this before, you know, like Dan, uh we Well, here's here's the real point. At the end of Cypress Point Drive, there's a there's a hill, a hill, okay, on the left side. That hill is on the other side of Stevens uh Stevens Creek Trail. And as Dan said, he is an environmentalist. I can attest to that because of what he went through at Katrina in New Orleans. Okay. So you dig into that hill with all of these cars going down in and out of of Highway 85. Okay. All those gases are going to come into our development. So there's 80 and that's another point here is that uh at the end of Cypress Point, we've got two driveways. Well, let's say the first one that goes into Cypress Point Woods, there's 20 garages. You go down a few feet, there's another driveway with 20 garages. Hypothetically, what if everybody went out at I mean, you know,

you could address the council. They're they're indicating that, oh, the traffic won't be too heavy. They won't all go out at the same time, but 20 and 20 is 40 garages just within a few feet. So, as you come out of those driveways, where's this construction?

Thank you. Your time is up. Your time is up. You get Everyone gets two minutes. Thank you. All right, Alex Brown. Hi, friends. I like it. Good project. Thank you. I would think it would be really fun to see every single car in all the garages all try to leave at once. I feel like if there's enough like motivation for people to leave all at once, they'll probably figure it out. Thanks.

Thank you. We will now move on to virtual public speakers. Um starting with um Matt Rean. Good evening, Madame Mayor, council members. My name is Matt Rean. I'm here representing the Bay Area Council. We're a business sponsored, employer sponsored public policy advocacy organization representing about 400 of the largest employers in the Bay Area, including several in Mountain View. Um, I I was somewhat fascinated by the earlier conversation about homelessness and the problem that Mountain View is experiencing with uh with RVs. And so I did a little quick quick research with my new best friend, Chad GPT, and uh discovered that in the last 20 years, Mountain View has created between 50 and 60,000 new jobs. Congratulations. You're the envy of the developed world. In that same period of time, you approved 4,900 new homes. Demographers, if you ask them, will tell you in order to maintain housing affordability. For every 1.5 jobs you create, you need to approve a new home. Mountain View is a 12 to1. So, you ask why you have a an RV problem. It's basic math. You're not approving enough housing commensurate to the job creation that is happening in your community and around your community. You have the opportunity tonight to start redressing or addressing that problem and reversing that problem. You have 323 new homes, 48 below market rate. Um, it's a good project. We first looked at this in 2015. This is a poster child as to why projects are so expensive to build, so difficult to build in California and in this region. Please approve it tonight. uh this is an opportunity to start addressing the problem and and and and stemming the flow of people into homelessness. Um so we are strongly in in support of the

project. Please vote yes. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have someone I I don't know I don't see them in the the virtual queue anymore but it should be under Motorola but it doesn't look like they're there anymore. So we're going to move on to John Linquist. Hi. Um, thank you very much. And I want just wanted to add something to what Councilman McAllister was talking about and the um, congestion at the light. The light congestion isn't going to be the issue. The issue is going to be that the traffic will now be traveling almost the entire length of Cypress Point Drive because I I live on on in the complex there in the uh condo complex and um when I'm walking my dog over in that area, most people are turning into the first and second driveways. Very few go down towards the end where there really is nobody parking. So now all of a sudden you're going to be transferring most of those residents all the way down to the end of Cypress Point. Also, the end of Cypress Point has kind of a loop, so it's only one lane and it's kind of a narrow one lane. So people are going to be rounding that to be able to get into that three fivestory parking garage. I do understand the need. I just wanted to bring that up and make sure you were aware of it. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Rashmi.

Hi. Can you hear me? Sorry it took me a moment. We can hear you.

Okay, great. Um yeah, Rashmi Sahai speaking um as a member of Greenspaces Mountain View. I just wanted to kind of support the comments that um Mr. Shane brought up about this project and the important need of um protecting it from the emissions from the freeway. Um I it sounds like this is a project that's been in the works for a long time. This is not a new concern and the the residents all the residents who live there and will be living there do deserve clean air just like the rest of us. And so it is a critical part of this development to maintain um that urban forest. Also we have a biodiversity and urban forestry plan coming up and one big part of the plan is kind of protecting the very little remaining um urban forests that we do have. Um so this is a great space to do that. I think it's a great project. By the way, this is the first time I saw all the details with the bike path. I'm a biker. um and some of the the tree relocation that's going to be happening. Um but I do think if there's any way to take one last look at that um beautiful urban forest that's providing a protective barrier between the residents and the freeway emissions, I would highly highly encourage um you to do so. I would also say for any new plantings that are coming in, it sounds like you are going to be putting in a lot of trees and other um beautifification plantings throughout. Um please keep in mind again that we have this biodiversity and urban forestry plan um almost approved and um we're looking to see native plantings and as much as possible native trees going into those spots. So that's just something to um keep uh in on your radar as you're making those plans. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Next speaker is Hala Ashawani.

Uh yes, good evening, mayor, uh city council, and city staff. My name is Hal Shawani. I'm a longtime resident. Sorry, my voice is not all there tonight. Um I um I'm one of the people that have a family that lives on Cyp Cypress Point Drive. So um I've I've been there almost um uh very very frequently weekly and more the last six, seven years. Um this project could have been a great project because it really does provide much needed housing. It's near transit. It's an Enville uh project. So, it's wonderful that they're keeping all the people in there and adding to it. The really two unfortunate things that stay in there is the disappearance of the the green barrier at the end of the street where it protects all the residents, not just um you know, the ones on Avalon side, but uh on Cypress Point side, all the hundreds of people that live there to have cleaner air. I'm glad that the developer moved the garage to face the highway. That's a great idea. I think I that's a fantastic thing to do so that the new residents don't have to directly be in view of the cars and the pollution that it emits. Um I wanted to mention something about the safety though of um the residents, the bicyclists, the the pedestrians. There are 500 parking spaces. Really, the only exits and and entrances to them is at the end of this substandard deadend street. And I'm really concerned about the safety. I know the reports keep saying it's okay. It's not a problem. Just go down the end of the street and imagine 500 cars going in and

out in addition to the other hundreds cards in there. That would be my uh Thank you. Next we have Kelly Stevens or Stephins.

Hi, my name is Kelly and I was born and raised here in Mountain View and now I'm an adult owning a condo on Cypress Point Drive and um I share some similar concerns. I plant trees in the community with canopy and taking away all of those heritage trees is something you can't just get back by planting new trees. It takes a long time and I feel like it's counterproductive to all the work we've been putting in to create a bigger urban forest in our community. And also, yeah, I'm concerned about the issue of the traffic, the health, and also um just having such a high-rise building. I'm concerned about that. Um maybe some solutions to this project would be maybe a two or threetory building and um taking away less of the heritage trees. I'm a little bit concerned about all the high-rise buildings going into Mountain View. Um, like in a lot of places, I can't even see the mountains anymore, which is just I guess that's a personal feeling, but yeah, that would just be my um thoughts about this project. Thank you.

Thank you. And we have our last virtual speaker, Edie Keading. Thank you. I support this project. My personal favorite feature is wide sidewalks. However, my reason for support, my main reason is that this is infill housing, which is almost universally an environmentally favorable situation. One of the long-term outcomes of this project will be fewer cars on 85 commuting into the region. this benefits our whole community. Thank you.

Thank you. And that seems to end public comment. Um so I will now bring the item back to council questions and deliberation. Please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include the reading of the title and resolutions of attached to the report. Council member Ramirez. Thank you, Mayor. I have um several uh observations and remarks, so feel free to take a nap or walk around the block if you don't want to hear me drone on.

Yeah. Right. Um uh so first I'll I'll uh start with u a practical reality that state law has made serving on a city council both easier and harder. Easier in the sense that we have uh very little discretion. many of the decisions are made for us. And this is one of those uh examples harder because we still conduct public hearings and we have to hear um uh and and reflect on and try and uh take action on uh the concerns and ideas from the community. And it's a frustrating position to be in where there are many people who have spent a great deal of time learning about the projects, uh, reading the staff reports, talking with city staff, um, participating in community meetings, including public hearings, you know, spending hours sitting in a room like this, uh, only to be given two minutes that we hear, and then not feel heard because our ability to meaningfully modify any given housing proposal is constrained under state law. Um, so I'll I'll start by moving the staff recommendation uh including uh adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View conditionally approving a planned community permit and development review permit to construct a 323 unit addition to an existing 404 unit residential apartment complex with new above ground garages. a new amenity building leasing office and a future 1.34 acre park public park dedication to the city utilizing state density bonus law and a heritage tree removal permit to remove 88 heritage trees on a 14.5 acre site located at 555 West Middlefield Road APN58-49-00001 and finding that the project is statuto statutoily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to section 211080.66

66 urban infill exemption of the public resources code to be read in title only. Further reading waved adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View conditionally approving a vesting tenative map to create three new lots including one lot for a future 1.34 acre public park and one lot for condominium purposes with 97 condominium units on a 14.5 acre public site located at 555 West Middlefield Road. APN 15849001 to be read entitle only further reading waved. Um I know there uh that it is it is a disappointing and frustrating experience right to to participate in good faith and then find that there's there's not a lot of leeway or latitude to um make the modifications that I think many in the community have requested uh of of of the city council. Um so I'll I'll share a few uh observations about things that I do like about the project. Um it it is as many members of the community have shared fundamentally a a good project. This is uh precisely where we want the housing that we're going to construct. Walking distance from downtown from uh the Cal Train station. I know council member Mallister hates the light rail system, but for the five people who will use light rail, it is walking distance nearby. Um um they're they're for five people too, right? Those five people are people too. Um and uh a lot of things that we we wouldn't be able to require in other circumstances, right? It's it's actually remarkable to me that the applicant is voluntarily uh providing a $2 million community benefit. I think that's that's a it's an acknowledgement of uh the uh uh commitment made to the council that worked on the prior iteration of this project where there was a discretionary

legislative action. The council did have some meaningful ability to influence the project because there was a general plan amendment and a reasonzoning that doesn't exist in this application. So, I I personally greatly appreciate the fact that you've retained that commitment uh and that allows I think likely the future council to invest I hope uh in the community that is hosting the development. Um the applicant doesn't have to condo map. Um and that that's actually remarkable too right with the condo mapping is becomes a requirement to provide um you know a park or uh a an inloo payment inloo uh fee uh payment in lie of a park. Uh so the fact that there is a condom mapped building and a dedication of land uh to the city for a park is is a remarkable benefit. I don't know how many projects the next council right in potentially eight years will see that includes a dedication of you over an acre of land. I think that will be increasingly rare and I think that's a tremendous amenity for a a park deficient neighborhood. So I think that's very commendable. Um the project actually includes fewer uh tree removals than the prior iteration. And again that's you know I know it's not easy for um our community which has come out repeatedly in support of heritage tree preservation. Um, so I I know you know it it's it's not sufficient, but um I think it is also a testament to the the work both of city staff and uh the applicant to hear the community and and reduce the number of trees that that will be removed from this project. Um, this project also I I wish for every

application that we review, we can have sort of a state law 101 for the community because there are so there's the the number of state laws that are being um uh utilized for the benefit of this project is is pretty extraordinary. Um, one of the laws is uh a prohibition on cities from uh imposing minimum parking requirements. This project could provide zero parking spaces, but they're providing instead 851 voluntarily. Uh I'm curious to know how the community would feel if the applicant were to provide zero parking spaces. Um we would probably hear a different set of concerns. Um but this applicant is providing 851 new parking spaces that come at a tremendous cost. Uh and I think that's noteworthy too, right? We will see I think most projects, probably all projects, notwithstanding the reality that we can't impose a minimum parking requirement, still voluntarily provide the parking that is necessary to make the the project work. So, I think, you know, I'm I tend to be generally supportive of reduced parking, but I think many in the community do appreciate that this is a project that will be uh I think more more than adequately parked. Um and incidentally with that parking um I'm um concerned about the uh the divergence of our local regulations with state law, right? Where state law says at least SB79 um that parking is excluded in the F calculation, but Mountain View City Code says that parking is included in in F. And I think that's that's a thing that I hope we do fix at some point. And speaking of SP79, on July 1st, um the

effective date of SB79, we can see even less discretion for this project and others like it. Um much uh taller buildings, much more dense buildings without any community benefit obligation. Um and potentially with without even the dedication of land for a park. I think the project proposed um does make an effort to integrate into the existing community. I think there are members of the committee who would disagree strongly with that but um it's you know a five-story building is different from an eight-story building which would be uh available to the applicant by right if they used SB79 to redevelop these sites and because there is no demolition of existing buildings they would be able to use SB79. Um a few more things then I'll stop. Um, I also really appreciate um the proportionality uh the the the compliance with our below market rate housing ordinance, right? And actually having um a BMR unit mix that is proportional to the market rate mix. So many projects that we've seen in the past few years have used the state density bonus law uh concessions to not have proportional unit mixes. So, we'll have the market rate units be the family size units and then the affordable units be the studios, which means we're not creating housing that is affordable for families in Mountain View. So, I I appreciate and commend the applicant for uh not using the concession for that purpose. Um, the last thing I want to speak to is, um, I met very frequently with Daniel Shane over the years. Um, and I I really do appreciate the work that you've done, not only on this project, but in a more

holistic sense, um, on the work to develop objective standards to protect trees generally. but the the the specific category of of tree groves that you've educated the council on that has a a public safety or a public health nexus. And I I think the way you did that is is exactly the right way. I' I've seen you participate in uh PRC meetings and council meetings extensively on the biodiversity strate strategy uh the parks and recreation strategic plan um encourage and and also the objective standards work that the staff are working on um to develop objective standards in order to preserve this type of tree canopy. And my sadness is we haven't been able to do the work fast enough to actually make them to to create those objective standards and then to make them enforceable. And I really hope that with the biodiversity strategy adoption which I think will happen very soon. Um and also with the work on objective standards that the city will continue to work with not only Daniel Jane but also many other others in our community who have been uh providing a lot of very valuable information for us to consider as we develop those objective standards. So we don't have these types of outcomes in the future. I know that's hard work and it's work that you know as a music student I am not well suited to do. That's why we have technical experts in our community help us and that's why we have a great staff who can work on objective standards that we can enforce in the future. It's not something that is enforcable now, but I I do want to recognize that we have received extensive community input on that and I I think all of us in the council would love to see objective standards that achieve these community goals developed as quickly as possible. So, um, a lot to like. Um, I know that's not, um, it's not a perfect project for many in our

community, but I do think it is a very good project. I think it is consistent with council priorities, um, and community priorities. It's not like the 10acre project we approved that has zero parks and, you know, very little to offer. Um, I think this is the kind of project that we would would want to encourage and especially as we see state laws utilized in the future. I think many of us will miss working with an applicant who provides this type of project uh over the next sever several years. For the candidates in the audience, I'm not sure why you want this job. It is a thankless job. Good luck to you. Thank you, Council Member Ramirez. Council member Mallister.

Oh, you were up ahead on this queue and then you dropped down, but um if Oh, so did Okay. So, you prefer to just go last. Is that what it is? Okay. Uh Council Member Sho Walter.

All right. Well, um, following up on what council member Ramirez said, we really are constrained by, um, state legislation and, um, that's a big deal in this case. Um, but I I wanted to go over um, uh, a little bit about what the we heard from comments. I thought it was it's just fascinating how we have hyper local um, commenters. We have people you you live right there. you're experts on how that area works and you've you've thought about it and you've come to us and you've said what's really left that isn't making you happy is this row of trees and um we we hear you as um council member Ramirez said but at this point um it's one of the things that's that's going to go by by the by new trees will be planted but they will take a while to grow but then I think the other thing that was so interesting in the comments is we had somebody who spoke on the regional And it was just, you know, here we are. We have had, in a sense, we're the envy of the world. We've created tens of thousands of jobs and we've been building as quickly as we possibly can, or it seems to me we have. And um that's just in no way, shape, or form keeping up with that job growth. Now, of course, everybody who works in Mountain View doesn't live in Mountain View. and everybody who lives in mount I mean you know we move around so it's not just us that needs to build a lot of housing it's the whole region and um really the whole region didn't respond and um that's why this these state um uh regulations were passed because it's a critical problem for our entire state but I wanted to go over a couple of things that have changed since we started on this project. Um we approved

the first one and how this one is different and better. Um one of the things that everybody objected to or many people objected to initially was that um this that beautiful grove of trees of redwood trees outside of where building A is going to be were going to be demolished and and there was such a human cry about that that the the project was redesigned to save those trees. And that is going to be a wonderful amenity for everyone who lives there now and and in the future because they really are a beautiful ring of redwood trees. Um then another thing was um this was for of course before the squa um regulations had changed a little bit. The air pollution associated with the construction led us to needing to um adopt a statement of overriding consideration. That's basically saying, you know, um there's going to be pollution problems from this. And those pollution problems that we were talking about in that were really related to the construction. Um and that construction impact was related to digging primarily related to digging those huge holes for the garages. Well, we're not doing that. That's not being done any longer. We're not going to build huge holes for the um uh uh garages. they're going to be above ground, which is going to mean that the construction is much cleaner and it's also going to mean that it's much faster. And that also makes it cleaner because it means that the time that you're exposed to um the air pollution that comes with construction is going to be shorter, which is important. Um and then of course the third thing uh that we heard we've heard about a long time is the line of trees along Stevens Creek and the highway remains a concern. The redesign of building B has the parking

function as a protective barrier between the highway and residents. It's not as green. It's not as beautiful, but it does provide some kind of a barrier. And then of course we will be adding more trees. So I think that um on the balance this is an excellent project and but but there's always a balance and we're you know we are sad that um we can't save abs absolutely all these trees that we would love to save. But at the same time, we're happy that we're going to be able to provide um a lot more housing um in an area that um is is really um a very desirable place to live. And we know that Avalon Bay has um we have we have many several of their communities in our area. So we know that they do a good job and we can expect them to continue to general to doing a good job. So that's um so I feel that on the balance this is really an excellent project but it is always a balance and um so with that of course I will be uh voting yes. Thank you.

Thank you council member Shaw Walter. Council member Hicks.

So this project has been going on for as people have said about a decade. There was a gentleman who spoke virtually and said that's a testament to how slow we are. I want to I just want to remind everyone that we approved this project several years ago. And so this is our it did not take us 10 years to approve it. And it was also originally a gatekeeper project which we usually like to pay a lot of attention to and allow you know work on a bunch of changes because they're asking for either general plan or zoning changes from us. So that said um in many ways this is a great project. you know, housing build over surface parking near our largest one of our large uh transit depots. Um, you know, who what what could be bad about that? And many changes and improvements have been made over the years. at at the same time I have a great deal of sympathy with a lot of the things that uh nearby residents have said and um ideally I would like to make more changes um for a number of reasons which you've already heard we're not going to do that and there is a you know we are living in the midst of a housing crisis so instead of proposing changes for me this is an opportunity to name several objective standards that I wish we'd had when this project started and that I hope we can have for the future. You know, I see Mountain View with all the jobs that are created becoming a a denser, more urban place. And I want to make sure that we don't just become kind of a a suburb on steroids that um instead we're a you know that we create good urbanism, places where people want to be. So my short list is um

first I'm wishing that we could have the people living within this area within uh what we call the Mafet precise plan have said they would like uh Moffett to be generally they've told me they would like Mafet to be a little more like Castro Street, more walkable with treeline street and with some public spaces that they can partake in um I I wish that the units facing Moffett were live work spaces and I'm going to call people's attention to the next developer that we'll have up City Ventures has an excellent example of live work uh in their southern one of their Southern California developments that could have been used in this area if we had had this objective standard in the past. um and I will forward those on to the community development director. Um so that's that's one thing I would like to have uh live work standards for situations like Moffett. Um another is uh I'd like us to be a little more aware of I'm concerned about the exit onto a small pedestrianoriented street. I don't know if that in any way can be worked into uh objective standards. Um I would prefer more exits onto our larger, more car oriented streets like uh like Muffet and Middlefield. Um I also value urban forestry. I think this is on this uh the the woods here uh that uh what are we referring it to? A vegetation barrier. Um, I do think we should see whether there are ways that we can uh pay attention to those upfront, not at the last minute when we can't do anything

about it. Uh, perhaps our council our uh sustainability staff can highlight that as well. Um, I'm interested in sidewalk standards, which I won't be labor because we've talked about those already, but when we have um, you know, when we have taller buildings more than two stories, I think we need uh, as council member Mallister said, most cities then have um, much wider sidewalks. And I also, we've spoken about this in the past, I think that um, stoops in this area are not particularly appropriate. and um that the frontage facing Moffett could be better used for example uh using live work development instead of a instead of somebody's bedroom or living room facing an urban sidewalk where I don't want to walk by it and if you're living there you don't want me. So those are my objective that's my objective standard list and with that I will be supporting the motion. Thank you, Council Member Hicks. Council member Mallister.

Thanks. Well, um, I'll deja vu. I approved this project back in 2017, so things move quite quickly here as time goes. So, um, um, I had a nice chat with the developer and we talked about a few things and they were talking about, you know, this is jobs are coming and then I got a kick out of the guy says, "Well, we uh, generated a lot of new jobs." and then chat GPT is going to come to town and eliminate thousands of jobs. So, uh there's a balance to that. Um so that was interesting. Um the project does work. I know I I feel council member Ramirez's pain that 79 didn't kick in sooner so we could get those eightstory buildings, but I think this is a good transaction in the area. Uh we talked about balconies and I learned something about balconies that you know can you cost money who uses them and so forth. Again, I was in other parts of the United States and they do a lot of balconies for outdoor space for people and um you know, it cost some money, but it uh I thought it aesthetically I sent some pictures to our community development director about Scottsdale has a lot of apartments with greenery on them and I thought that was great. It gets awful hot there, but it adds some beauty to it and it gives people personal space that they wouldn't have normally. So, that was nice. Um, parking, you said it was voluntary. Uh, I talked it's good business. If you don't have parking, you're not going to have people sticking around. So, that was good that they realized that it was nice to have the parking there. Uh, yes, they may have not required any, but it it's it's helpful for them to put that in. Uh, what else that was nice about it? Well, overall, it was, you know, as they say, we have to do it, but I I approved it then. I think it's been

approved. Then the forestry at the end of the street, I do have a bit of a u sympathy for you because I live across from Highway 85. I hear the noise. I feel the smoke. I mean, I moved here when there was no 85. I was here when there was no 280. I was here when my street was a dead end street and things have evolved since then. So when we lose those trees, uh I hope that we can get the forestry coming back along the way too because that that's along with nature, it works as a sound barrier and it hopefully absorbs some of these things. Um I'm still going to be at uh discussions points with VMT or what they consider VMT and I appreciate Council Member Rome's the five people that use light rail. And um I bring that up because that was also the one on middlefield. I'm working with some people now. I've been involved with that light rail since 2017. Quite familiar with light rail and back then they were using it as a standard to say well there's light rail so we can we build this. Well, the use of light rail is in theory and all these things about how we're going to determine it is to me is theoretical because I know the reality of light rail is uh and even VTA understands the reality of light rail. It's not as used as they had intended it. So, as we go forward, I will always be asking staff to be okay, you have the theory, but let's take a look at the reality and I ask for a plan B and hopefully that will come along. So, uh, I'll support it. There's a I I do like the transition from the one side of the street, uh, on Cypress instead of having a big I think that was good because I saw some other projects that we had where it wasn't so overwhelming to the people on the on the south side

of Cypress. That was nice. What else can I say? That uh it's it's moving along nicely. I hope they get everything done sooner than possible because they say they use internal financing which is always tough and yet they say they can get this done and uh I've seen a lot of projects where people promise but they don't deliver because of whatever reasons. It sounds like these gentlemen are going to be able to well it's been 10 years so I hopefully I was going to say you get things done but it's been a while. So uh good luck with the project and we'll get the support and I'll vote for it. Thank you. Council member Mallister, Council Member Kame.

Thanks, Mayor. Well, I feel like now's the time that I need to confess I'm one of the five people who take light rail. I I live I live in Wisman, um right next to the light rail station, and it's me. I'm the I'm one of the five. Um um but uh you know, I I feel on the one hand, I feel fortunate that we get to talk about the Wisman area, my neighborhood, for the second meeting in a row. On the other hand, and I shared this with the applicant, having to see this project again is difficult for council um because we know how difficult it would be for the residents in the community and uh really appreciate the continued engagement of of the residents. As someone who lived across the street and was recused out for a long time, um I felt fortunate to be able to move to a different part of the area to continue and to try to find ways to be part of the conversation. Um, and so I'm not going to belabor the points that colleagues made about the constraints that we face um by state law and and other changes in these last four years since the um project approval. So, I'm going to look for the silver linings, which I know council member Ramirez will appreciate as our as our optimist on council um is that um the the community benefit side of things. So, as council member Shoalter mentioned, the significant environmental impacts to residents has been reduced. We are now um going to be soon approving our parks and rec strategic plan. The mafeta precise plan is moving forward. Our streetscape plan is going forward. So, there I think there are ways for us to use the other plans that are the biodiversity strategy. There'll be other tools and mechanisms hopefully um that we will be able to use as tools especially my question about the park

that we can incorporate into the park and perhaps that would be a great way to tap into Mr. Shane's great knowledge on what we can do in that space to make it um honestly a community gem ecological gem in that area for a space that really needs um access to to a park. So, um, want to thank the applicant for this journey we've been on where you've kept your commitment to the $2 million over one acre of park and have found a way to, I think, um, keep the design elements I thought were were quite nice. Um, the we went through the renderings of what the original project looked like in 22 versus now. and the articulations and and kind of the the points of interest um are are much I think more in tune to uh where we are now and how to unify the entire property um together. So I'll be supporting um the the uh project. Thanks.

Thank you, Council Member Kame. Back to Council Member Ramirez. Thank you, Mayor. Very briefly, I I just like Council Member Mallister and I don't often agree. So, when we do, I want to elevate and appreciate um uh our um our collaboration. You said parking is good business. So, I just want to let the staff know, I'm looking at all of you and the city manager, that council member McAllister and I agree that we should not have parking minimum requirements at all. They should be abolished because they're not necessary since parking will be voluntarily provided. Thank you. that you're saying

because it's good business. Um, thank you, Council Member Ramirez. Um, I'll close up with my comments before we get to a vote. Um, I I I actually on my way to downtown, I would pass by this uh general area. I am not a frequent user of ETA, so I would be like a a 0.1 user of VTA. So, I'm trying I'm really trying to get out of my car more. But what I actually use the transit center more is for Cal Train. And Calr is a very utilized um transit uh thing.

Um and like uh if I need to go to San Francisco or Redwood City, um uh that is I I literally walk past where this development is going to be and take that um get my steps in and everything. Um, so it is a good location to increase housing and it's been a long road and I I recall when it was last on council. I wasn't on council when I was last on council and I was just thinking it's like, man, I'm glad I don't have to deal with that and now it's now it's back. Um, so I hope it doesn't come back. I'm hoping that this is the final time. I'm seeing a head nod. We we're going to agree this is not coming back to us. Um so um I will be supporting this this project. Um I echo a lot of my colleagues um um push for as we do our uh objective design standards citywide that um knowing what our community is pushing for. Uh things like protecting our our our our vegetation barrier to the freeways which where where I currently live I don't have that. I'm like in between 85 and 101, so I'm probably going to die, but um uh so um I would you rub off on me, Council Member Ramirez. Um so, um I'm hoping that that uh as we move forward and and we look at our biodiversity plan, we can find ways to to include in these objective standards. So when it comes time when these developments come forth that it's it's the first thing that they're looking at not something that is over time um as they're already moving in their their development process and it hits council and then we're like what about the trees is like we should have thought of that at the start um which hopefully will

make it better for the rest of us. So uh with that let's get to a vote. Motion passes unanimously. We are going to take a five minute break. I was trying to get a break every two two hours. Um it went a little far, but we'll be back at 9:56.

Yes.

All right, we're going back in session at 9:57 p.m. Yes, I'm calling it out at 9:57 p.m. We're going to head to the new uh to the um next item 6.3 rowhouse gatekeeper project at 9:22 to 950 San Leandro Avenue. Would any council members like to make disclosures? Council member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. I met with the applicant. Thank you, Council Member Kame. Thanks, Mayor. I met with the applicant. Thank you, Council Member Hicks. I also met with the applicant. Thank you. Any other disclosures from our council members on this item? That's right. Okay. All right. So, Deputy Zoning Administrator Rebecca Shapiro and senior planner Edgar Mara Villa will present the item. If you would like to speak If you would like to speak on this item in person, please submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk now. take it away.

Fantastic. Uh, good evening, uh, Mayor Ramos and council members. Uh, as was just noted, I'm Rebecca Shapiro, deputy zoning administrator, and I'm joined on the dis by senior planner Edgar Marvia, who is the project manager on this item. The project before you is a uh, 38 unit rowhouse project, which requires legislative land use changes. The project is located on an approximately 1.69 69 acre site which is comprised of two existing parcels that are on the west side of San Leandro Avenue between San Pablo Drive and Tiraabella Avenue. The property is currently in the general industrial or MM as we refer to it zoning district and also has a general plan land use designation of general industrial. The site is surrounded by industrial uses to the north. Uh it has State Route 85 and Highway 101 to the east. uh single family homes located to the south that are fronting on San Pablo Drive and a future city park to the west. The existing general plan designation and zoning for the project site does not allow for residential uses and so as such the applicant is requesting a general plan amendment and a zoning map amendment to allow residential redevelopment of the property. The project also requires planned unit development and development review permits. It includes 10 below market rate units and it utilizes provisions of state density bonus law. In addition, the application includes a vesting tenative map to facilitate individual sale of the rowhouse units. Uh and for your reference, the state density bonus request includes one concession and four waivers, which I'll discuss in more detail later in this presentation. the requested general plan map amendment from general industrial to medium density residential and the zoning map amendment from MM to R3-1.5 which is one of our multif family or multiple family residential zoning districts are subject to city discretion

uh and are necessary for residential development to proceed if approved. The rowhouse project is consistent with the densities and uses allowed through the proposed legislative land use changes. Uh and more specifically under the proposed resoning, the R3 zoning district allows rowhouse developments at the proposed density through the PUB permit process and the project is consistent with the applicable rowhouse standards and guidelines which are referenced in the R3 standards and pursuant to their state density bonus request. The 38 units would be constructed in four three-story rowhouse buildings that are shown here on the site plan as buildings A through D. Uh with the units roughly split evenly between the buildings. Building A is oriented towards uh Stanley Andro Avenue on the right side of the site plan. Uh buildings B and C front on the project's central common open space and building D will face the future city park off the plan left. Uh pedestrian and vehicle access into the property is provided from San Leandro Avenue. And this vehicle drive provides access to 14 guest parking spaces as well as the garages for each of the units and provides for city emergency vehicle and solid waste vehicle uh access. In addition, the project proposes a 10- foot wide publicly accessible pathway along the southern property line, which is the bottom of the site plan. Uh, and that will provide access to the future city park and includes amenities such as benches, a row of California native trees, a bike fixit station, uh, and it will have a temporary fence or gate that will block access to the city property uh, until the city park is developed. The proposed buildings share a simple Craftsman bungalow style uh inspired design uh with a mix of three primary exterior materials including stucco board and batten and lap siding. The building design features uh fairly

straightforward hipp and intersecting gabled roof forms. Uh and as proposed, each rowhouse unit will will have three bedrooms, uh one private balcony, a small front yard area on all of the front yard is anchored by a porch and drought tolerant landscaping. As noted earlier, the 38 unit project will provide 10 below market rate units, which is equivalent to 25% of the total project units. Three of those BMR units will be available to lowincome households uh earning up to 80% of area median income. Five units will be uh affordable to moderate income households earning up to 120% of AMI. And two units will be affordable at above moderate income levels up to 150% AMI. All of the units in the development including the BMR units are three bedrooms. uh and eight the eight low to moderate income units qualify the project to utilize state density bonus law. The proposal meets the city's BMR requirements inclusive of the one requested concession. Pursuant to state dens density bonus law, this project would qualify for a 16% density bonus uh up to two concessions or incentives and unlimited waiverss of development standards that are necessary to construct the project. The applicant is not requesting uh any bonus density but is requesting one concession and four waiverss as shown on screen now and discussed in more detail within the council report and in the project findings. Ultimately staff's analysis found that the concession and waiverss are necessary for cost reduction and physical construction of the project. Uh pursuant to provisions of of state density bonus law. The project proposes to remove 31 on-site trees, five of which are heritage trees, and will plant 94 new trees, uh, which is approximately three times the number of trees to be removed

and is, uh, coincident to that, expected to provide roughly three times the existing tree canopy at tree maturity after 10 years. Overall, the landscape plan complies with the city's water conservation and landscaping regulations and includes a strong focus on California native species. The project proposal also exceeds the objective design requirements for private and common open spaces. The vesting tenative map would create 38 residential condominium units via a one lot subdivision allowing individual sale of the units and common ownership of the shared improvements. Staff reviewed the subdivision and found the project is consistent with the requirements of the subdivision map act, city subdivision standards, and the general plan. A draft initial study was prepared for this project which found that the project would not result in any potentially significant environmental impacts with implementation of city code requirements, standard city conditions of approval uh and mitigation measures that are disclosed in the initial study mitigated negative declaration and uh the mitigation monitoring and reporting program for the project. Uh the city did not receive any comments on the initial study during uh the documents 30-day public comment period. The applicant hosted two community outreach meetings. uh one prior to submitting their planning application and a December 2025 community meeting where the six attendees expressed appreciation for the design, including that the revised site plan created a larger buffer to the adjacent homes to the south and that the applicant had revised the project to address prior community feedback. As part of the uh city's collaborative design review process, the applicant also voluntarily attended one design review consultation meeting and worked with staff to refine the project to address design review feedback as uh also discussed in more detail within the

council report. At the EPC hearing in February, uh commissioner and public input on the project was positive with particular notes of appreciation on the project design and the outreach efforts by the applicant. One public comment expressed concern with the city's parkland and luffy methodology. The EPC unanimously recommended that the city council approved the project, including the legislative land use changes. In conclusion, city staff and the EPC recommend that the city council adopt the initial study and mitigated declaration pursuant to the sequel guidelines and approve the proposed project, including each of the project recommendations shown on screen and in the staff report. These actions include the introduction of an ordinance to amend the zoning map for the project site, which requires a second reading if the recommended actions are passed tonight. In addition, staff has identified uh a late breaking correction to the parkland identification fee calculation that's identified in both the project investing tenative map resolutions, which requires some uh minor revisions to two recitals and one condition of approval in both both of the resolutions. Uh the language of those changes is shown on screen now and in the desk item that was provided uh to council on the dis staff recommends that these condition or these changes be included with any council motion uh to approve the project per the EPC recommendation. Uh and that concludes staff's presentation. City staff uh from multiple departments are here tonight and the applicant team is also available for questions. The applicant does also have a presentation for you tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. We will now have a presentation from the applicant, Kian Malik, vice president of development, City Ventures. You will see seven minutes on the clock.

Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Keon Malik, and I'm honored to be here tonight to present to you the Arbor Square project on San Leandro Avenue. Next slide, please. Uh for those that don't know City Adventures, uh we are an infill developer. Uh so we focus on developing underutilized parcels in existing urban areas uh to meet the large demand for missing middle ownership housing. We love working in the city of Mountain View and this will be our third project here in the city. What you'll see on the next slide is not the site plan we are proposing tonight but is the site plan that we uh started with 5 years ago. uh as an infill developer, it's important for us to join the fabric of the community and not work in a vacuum. Uh so at the onset of the project, we met with the community and as you'll see on the next slide, um we gained some really valuable feedback uh that really focused uh around creating a larger separation between our proposed buildings uh and the existing single family homes to the project south. Um on a future slide, I'll go over how we incorporated those comments into the design. Next slide, please. Like I previously mentioned, this project was kicked off five years ago. Uh it's a complicated site. It's a land use assemblage with multiple property owners and a land use change. Um so at the onset of the project, we met with council members. We met with uh city staff really to understand uh the vision for this site. Uh we then had our first community meeting in October 2023. uh after multiple submitts uh to the city, I think we had about 15 to 20 site plan changes, uh we then were at a point where staff felt uh comfortable with our our plans and we were then agendaized for the uh DRC and the airport land use commission uh where we received unanimous recommendations of approval

from both bodies. Uh we then uh incorporated those comments into our uh final submitt uh which we shared with the community just this last December. Um, and then we had uh our February EPC meeting last month where we're very grateful to receive uh all positive comments uh uh from the community during the public comment period. And that brings us here tonight to respectfully request your approval uh of the Arbor Square project. Next slide, please. Most of you are already familiar with the project site, but I wanted to restate that this is a 1.69 69 acre site that today is mostly a vacant industrial building, an empty surface parking lot, and an empty dirt lot. So, as you'll see on the next slide, this is a fantastic info site, uh, and it's a great opportunity for more housing, uh, more ownership housing here in the city of Mountain View. Next slide, please. Uh so we are proposing 38 homes that'll be marketed towards first-time home buyers, small families, families looking to downsize and below market rate buyers. Um on the uh next slide, please. Uh we heard through the grape pine that uh not many projects have been able to incorporate 25% uh the 25% affordability requirement. Um and we learned that this is a very important factor, important policy for the city. So from the onset of the project, we incorporated this into the project plans and we're proud to say we uh we're planning for 10 out of the 38 homes to be deed restricted affordable uh units. Next slide, please. The goal of the design of the project uh was to create a strong street pedestrian experience uh by orienting our front doors to face the future city park to the west and the San Leandro Avenue rightway to the east. uh really to

embrace both public ways and as as opposed to turn our backs towards them with garages. Uh next slide, please. Most importantly, we incorporated the community's feedback uh into the project design uh by orienting the project driveway uh can a row of canopy trees and shared use path all along the south property line to create a significant buffer between our proposed homes and the home and the existing single family neighbors to our south. So, as you'll see on the next slide, uh in our December community meeting, uh we received all positive uh comment cards, uh getting looks great and and good job is very much appreciated. But I'd like to read the top card that says, "Unlike many other developers, City Ventures actually listened." That means a lot to City Ventures. It means a lot to staff uh who've worked on this project for over 5 years. Uh so that comment is very much appreciated. Uh, next next slide, please. The goal of the design of our shared use path along the south property line was simple. It's for everyone to feel welcome to use it. So, if you're looking to go on a walk with your family to the uh future city park or looking to walk your dog or looking to tune up your bike at the at the fix it station, there's a safe place to do that. Whether it's during the day under the shaded canopy trees uh or at night under a well-lit uh pathway. Next slide. Uh we're also very excited about the San Leandro Avenue uh rightway expansion. Uh we're proposing a 7 foot new sidewalk as well as an 8-ft landscape strip that will include a double row of trees that will not only soften the architecture along the project frontage, but also create a more enjoyable pedestrian experience along San Andrew Avenue. Next slide, please. Um, and we're also very excited to be

proposing 94 new trees on site. Uh, the majority of the planting on site, uh, is native species. Um, and at full maturity, uh, about a quarter of the site will be under a tree canopy. So, we're very excited to be proposing a very green lush site. Next slide, please. Uh, mayor and council members, thank you so much for your time and we really uh, appreciate your consideration to join the fabric of this community. Uh, we hope you put together a proposal uh, that you and the community would love to see built. Uh, and I do want to give a special thank you to staff, especially project planner Edgar Maravia, who's been an absolute pleasure to work with uh, over the last 5 years. Uh, so thank you mayor, thank you council members, and thank you staff.

Okay. Thank you. Does any member of the council have questions? I see council member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. Uh first, I really appreciated your uh presentation. Uh it's really nice seeing actual comment cards from the public referenced in the presentation to council. And um that that evolution I think is uh is very valuable for us to consider. Um I I wish uh Albert Jeans were in uh the audience because he would ask the question that I'm going to ask uh which is I didn't I thought I understood the calculation for the park and lies but now I definitely don't. Right. So um we're uh adding two new units right 20 the the park fee is based on 28 net new units. Um when it was only 26 the inloo fee was 86,000 uh 200 sorry uh yeah 86 thou86 no wait a second that's the cost oh here it is okay so oh 862784 now with 28 units the enlue fee is $864,32 it's a trivial increase right if I were to reverse engineer it and subtract two units each time it it would not go to zero, right? So, I'm I I'm uh really struggling to understand that that calculation.

Absolutely. Thank you for asking that question. I I agree that it we were also a little surprised in in planning to see the the delta, but um I I would like to invite our my colleagues from public works up to provide a more detailed answer. My overarching understanding is that the reason for the kind of nominal increase is because the parkland fee uh dedication fee calculation um is determined roughly on the basis of the proportion of the residents added to the neighborhood area um uh rather than um like number of units specifically. And so because adding two units doesn't substantially change the proportion of residents uh being introduced to the neighborhood which is a proportionality that gets carried over to the responsibility of the project towards the parkland deficit in the neighborhood. That's why there's not a substantial increase because adding two units to a project is a a fairly small change in terms of the size of the project as a proportion of the neighborhood area. um public works staff may be able to provide a better explanation uh to that question though.

I think that it would actually be beneficial if you were to graph it, right? So the number of units, right? So if it's one unit, it's probably not going to be $800,000, right? At what point in that graph would there be a spike to get us to $800,000? Would it be going from 15 to 16? Yeah, I think it it depends a little bit on the size of the neighborhood area and the size of the park deficit in that area, but it would probably have to be much larger than two units to see a significant uh change to the the calculation.

That doesn't make sense to me, but okay. I I think if I don't know if you want to help explain it, it it is um far less than intuitive. Good evening, council members. I'm going to try to explain this. So, it is a complex uh method of calculation and I actually had to build out a spreadsheet. Introducing yourself.

Oh, I'm sorry. Um I'm Quinn Byer, principal civil engineer for public works. Um so, I'm going to try to explain this. It's it's a bit of a complex formula and um basically we take a look at the um each planning area and within the planning area we look at um the number of residents and the with the project based on the number of units there's a factor for how many additional residents would be added and the project would be paying under this new methodology the project would be paying its proportional share air. So with a uh development such as this that is providing 30 just 38 gross units um subtracting out the credit when you go from um 10 to 8 to 8 it really has a minimal effect because within the planning area um there's about 9700 residents with the planning area. So the project's proportional share of that is really minimal. It's actually just 1%. So as you drop by two units um at a factor of I think it's two person per unit it just reduces it um they get credit for four less people over 97 people within that population. So the proportional share it becomes it's very minimal. So I I think what I'm struggling with is the nonlinearity of that graph, right? The way when you use a term like proportional it you intuitively it would suggest to me that there would be some some kind of linearity in in the inl fee based on the you know the number of units or the number of people that were adding like I I would love to know at what point you

go from you know $20,000 to 600,000 right it it's it's it's a mystery to me I'm not going to make you spend too much time explaining it. Maybe I'll have council member Clark explain it to me because it sounds like he understands. Um but but thank you for the effort. Okay.

Um and I hope Albert Jeans who may be listening and can provide a comment in Zoom can can help me understand that math too. I have a completely unrelated question um for um community development staff and it's informed by a very thoughtful set of questions that council member Mallister has asked over the years. Is staff concerned at all about the erosion of the industrial base? Right. We're losing a lot of blue and we're getting a lot of orange. At what point should we be concerned about that?

Um I think I I heard two questions asked there. Um you know, one speaks to staff's kind of cognizance of this potential issue. Uh and um the second being, you know, where is where is the line of concern? Um I the short answer to the first question is is absolutely. Uh it's something that has come up regularly. Um it definitely came up when city staff was working on the terabella visioning project within this this very neighborhood area. Um and so I think it is something that's front and center uh on the minds of staff. Um at the same time um we have frequently looked at our non-residential land in the city as an opportunity to create um housing sites with zero displacement. Um so there are there are in any of these scenarios sort of pros and cons to our kind of attention and the attention of the market on existing non-residential uh properties in the city. Um I think um I don't have a simple answer for you on the second part of the question. Um and um there may be people in this room who have experience with sort of planning efforts in this this neighborhood or in other locations that are similar to this that um may have um a metric for you. So, I think the the simplest answer I can give at this time is it's sort of the balance of residential and non-residential land in the city is something that planners spend time thinking about. Um, it's it's something that I spent time thinking about when I've worked on long range projects in the city in the past. Um, but I I don't have a a figure for you um that I can give as far as sort of is there a point at which it's we need to be concerned about the the erosion of industrial land in the city.

Okay. Thank you. Council member Mallister, there's

two items we agree on. Mayor, since I'm a boomer and I'm used to seeing these projects before that we talked about this uh erosion, it is a concern and because there's a big push to do a lot of housing, but you know, we knew need the small industrial base for the car repair, the plumber, the electrician, those kind of people that come through our lives. So that's a statement, not a question. So let me get to the question. Um so I asked the interest this was more of a question of policy or just not policy but interesting. I asked the question what is the average cost of an acre in Mountain View and they came up with 7.8 and I know there's a lot of variables and then I asked the the sort of following up on your inlue question in lie of the 800 and now it's probably a little more money 800,0006 862,000 it's equal to.16 land. what how does that number equal the cost of an acre? And it came out to $5.4 million. So, it's a question is if we're trying to get a deficit, we're always going to be in a deficit because the amount of money we collect never equals the cost of a land of a to actually buy land in in Mountain View. Is that a true statement? Or help me understand the correlation between what we charge is below what the cost of land is. Is there any way to get the correlation that what we charge will get us to the point of what land's worth?

And don't say state law, please.

Good evening, honorable mayor, vice mayor, and council. Christian Murdoch, community development director. Um, I'll take the first part of this, and if there are further questions about calculations, public works staff will probably need to address them. Um the fundamental premise of the the methodology we're talking about is proportionality. And so I won't say state law, I'll say federal law or US constitution instead. Um which limits uh which limits the ways in which the city can require a specific development project to address existing conditions. And so we've identified there's an existing deficit in many of the city's park planning areas. And it's not the burden of a given development to rectify that existing deficit. it's their responsibility to address their proportionate impact to that deficit. And so this calculation methodology yields a less than full cost to address the deficit. Hence, you're seeing a $5.4 million per acre equivalent valuation for a you know 7 or 8 million actual um cost of land. Uh and that's driven by this proportionality of the impact.

So it is what it is. That's not what I said. But um what I'm saying is there there's a proportionality to the contribution from this project given its particular circumstances in this park planning area. And so that will deviate depending on the circumstances in different uh park planning areas, different scales of projects that may have more or less uh proportionate impacts on that existing condition.

Okay. Thanks. Also going back, was this property owned by Prometheus at one time or was looking at because I thought they were talking about because I know it was somewhere in that property line. They were pushing properties right next higher buildings right next to the property line. That's why it looks sort of familiar. Well, that was before their time. So, I'm I can take a stab at that question. Yeah, I've been around for a little while. Um, uh, to my knowledge, Prometheus has not owned this specific property. They do have an active pro a project of a similar type uh just over on San Raphael. Um so like in the same block but a block to the west which backed up to houses

which does have adjacency to single family homes to the south. Not quite as much adjacency but thank you. Thank you council member Mallister. Any other questions? Seeing none. Would any member of the public joining us virtually or in person like to provide comment on this item? If so, please click the raise hand button in Zoom or submit a blue speaker card to the city clerk. We will take in-person speakers first. It looks like we only have one. We have Oh, great. We have two speakers. Um, each speaker will have three minutes. Um, so we'll start out with Travis Bowie.

Yeah, he just appeared.

Well, good late evening, uh, mayor, council members. I'm Travis Buouie. I own and manage the property just on the north side of this development. My business partner and I developed that in 1985. And believe it or not, that is the newest development in that area. So when City Ventures came along, we were pretty thrilled that there was something new happening in the area. Uh the idea that it's an opportunity for firsttime home homeowners is something that's really needed. The community is behind it. It's good for my business. Well, except for the construction time, you know, I'll be looking at dust and noise and uh I don't know how many construction pickups parked in my parking lot, but I'll be glad to deal with that because I think it's really a good project and I think the uh city ventures should be congratul ated on doing a really nice job of listening to the neighborhood and the city of Mountain View and their park on the west side is going to make this really, really nice and I hope you all approve that tonight. It's something we really need. So, thank you.

Thank you. All right. as if he was summoned. We have a virtual public comment from Albert Jeans. Can you hear me? We can hear you.

Great. Yeah, I wasn't planning to comment because I am in favor of this project, but I couldn't resist Councilman Ramirez's invitation to speak. It's true. I mean, yeah, in fact, the formula is nonlinear in terms of the number of residents. Um, in that extensive explanation that I emailed to you a few weeks ago that explained my interpretation of the formula, you can see that it is nonlinear in Ed. It's actually quadratic. I'm not sure you know exactly how that graphs out, but that could explain as um Shapiro Miss Shapiro said why the incremental change due to those two extra units is so minimal. probably the thing starts off steep and then kind of levels off as the number of people increases or whatever like that. So anyways, that's all I have to say. Um yeah, I'm all in favor of the project. It's they really listen to the residents and it's the least impactful threestory development that I could imagine for that unit for that lot. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Jeans. All right. Uh now we will bring it back to council. So, um, for questions and deliberation, please note that a motion to approve the recommendation should also include reading the title of the resolution and attached to the report. Council member Kame.

Great. Thanks, Mayor. So, um, I made the motion. I'll read it first and then I'll make some comments. So, adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View adopting an initial study mitigated negative declaration for 922-950 San Leandro Avenue residential project pursuant to sections 15064 F3 and 15070 of the California Environmental Quality Act to be in red entitle only. Further reading waved. Adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View, adopting a general plan amendment to modify the general plan land use map to change the land use designation for the properties at 922-950 San Leandro Avenue from the general industrial to medium density residential as recommended by the Environmental Planning Commission to be read in title only. Further reading wave Oh, I didn't know there was a whole back. Okay. Introduce an introduce an ordinance of the city council of the city of Mountain View approving a zoning map amendment of the properties located at 922-950 San Leandro Avenue from the MM General Industrial Zoning District to the R3-1.5 Multif Family Residential Zoning District to be recommended by the Environmental Planning Commission to be read and title only. Further reading waved and set a second reading for April 14th, 2026. Adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mound Viewi approving a plan unit development permit and development review permit to construct a 38 unit rowhouse development and related site improvements utilizing state density bonus law replacing a multi-tenant industrial building and two single family homes and a heritage tree removal permit to remove five heritage trees on a 1.69 acre site located at 922-950 San Leandro Avenue to be read and title only. Further reading waved. Adopt a resolution of the city council of the city of Mountain View conditionally approving a vesting tenative map for condominium purposes

with one common lot on a 1.69 acre site located at 922-950 San Leandro Avenue to be read in title only. Further reading waved. Okay, that's that's everything. Um and so I think I'll do my best to keep my comments brief which is just um Mr. Malik, I think you're the happiest developer we've ever had come and present at our council. So, we really appreciate that, especially given the the late hour, and I think you have every reason to be thrilled to present this project. I'm thrilled to make the motion for it. I know it's been a 5-year journey that we've been on our, you know, we've had whole lives. I know you're you're expecting a, you know, family. My family's grown in that time. Um but I think that lens has really led to the product type with and the approach that you bring to to what you're having forward um here in Mountain View. And so we have been talking about missing middle, how we can create o um home ownership. But what I really appreciate about your comments tonight was talking about uh opportunities for people who want to be kind of on the beginning entryway first-time home buyers or those who want to downsize. how many of our seniors would love to be able to move in something uh something else and I think the different BMR ranges allow for our seniors who may be on fixed income to be able to move in. you're meeting that 25% which is thrilling and it will be a testament that we'll be able to share with all other future developers that it is possible to get um no matter what the economic drivers are or conditions uh city ventures made it happen so we can ask them to make it happen too. Um, and then the uh it it's also just so great as a member of council be able to look at a project earlier that has a city park and this one to have a city park. I mean, how how fortunate are we um to be

having our new new homes and and new parks for our residents. really appreciate the share youth path and um I think you'll probably hear some comments about how you did that, the different materials, but I think this is um something I have spent my entire time on EPC and council talking about working on and to be able to to see this come into fruition is very exciting. Thank you. Oh, thank you, Council Member Kame. Uh assistant city attorney. Yes. Uh, Council Member Kame, I just wanted to make sure for the record we noted that your motion includes the corrections that staff has put on screen.

Do I need to read those two? Uh, no. Just um, as noted in the record of the resolution, as noted by staff, we have the recommended revisions attachment four and attachment five. Thank you. Is that acceptable to the seconder of the motion? No. Okay. All right. Thank you. Next, Council Member Hicks.

So, I will be supporting the motion and I will for many of the reasons that Council Member Kame uh mentioned and I will not be repeating them tonight. Just, you know, just understand that I agree. Um, and I there were a couple of additional things that I thought were great about this project that that you didn't mention. One is that as a person on the council sustainability committee, I really noted that it's an all electric project with solar panels, but also the design allows for the mechanical and solar to be met without public views of the equipment. That's that's actually pretty nice. Um, so and something I've I haven't seen before. Also, a wide sidewalk. I appreciate that. Um and uh so I appreciate all of that. We'll be supporting the motion. I also of course have my objective design standards which I wish we had in the beginning that that this brings up for me. Um one is that um I we're getting a lot of craftsmanbased row home architecture and I'm I'm wishing that we could move on from that in some ways. and your um your some more varied architecture and our your City Ventures website which I I spent some time on um has some great examples of some other um I particularly like the architecture in Sebastaple had some kind of simple classic timeless you're nodding your head you know that you've looked at your website anyway architecture that I think that I would like I I hear you work in Mountain View frequently. I would like you to bring that here at some point. Also, I really appreciated the live work design, which I don't think would be appropriate here, but um to see you bring that to streets

that would be appropriate or other developers bring that here. I thought that city ventures did an excellent job of executing that. Um, uh, in addition to that, I find almost all of our row homes very kind of driveway bound with, uh, you know, bedrooms and so forth that look out over a lot of concrete. Um, and I've been seeing East Coast developers uh doing um sort of shared driveways, different I guess on this development you've done, um you're doing stamped concrete, so different pavement types, um greenery integrated in, you know, people are not going to be driving on that driveway very much. So, more shared streets, wounderfs. I'm hoping we can have for our row homes some of those sort of objective design standards, but otherwise, you know, I I love everything you're doing and I will supporting the motion.

Thank you, Council Member Hicks, Council Member Ramirez.

Thank you, Mayor. I agree very strongly with um the remarks from council member Kame and council member Hicks, but I am going going to repeat some of them because they merit um I think uh elevation and and praise. Um the reason I'm supporting this project is because of the compliance with the 25% uh BMR requirement. Um it's been extremely challenging to make available ownership um opportunities for um moderate income people and you provide that. Um you're not asking for a deviation from our standards. Um, and I think that's not only, you know, commendable and important, but as Council Member Kame was saying, um, uh, something that we want to showcase so other future developers will emulate what you're doing. Uh that's extremely important and and one of the reasons why even though I have a history of being fairly um negative towards this particular um housing typology, I think this this project uh is uh is an important example of you know compliance with state sorry with our local regulations is is achievable uh and it helps us achieve um uh important community goals. Um I also want to uh speak to what is possible by virtue of the fact that this is a gatekeeper. We have actually some discretion. This is a project that you know future council member Donahghue will be able to make changes to. Um but uh as a consequence um we've been able to work in good faith with the applicant to do things that we would ordinarily not be able to require like allow for an all-electric pro project um or uh I think uh you achieve some of the other goals that you've done through design working with um with city staff. I think that's that's also important and I think why it's important for us to think about other opportunities where um uh the

gatekeeper process and the the discretion that it allows for is worthwhile right it allows us to do things that we can't do with conventional zoning especially under uh the new state laws um I I I want to speak to some of the the concerns I have about uh the opportunity cost I think um the erosion of the industrial base is concerning to me. Um and maybe that you know that graph at which we should be concerned looks kind of like the graph for the park and lofies where it's not really clear at what point um there is a substantial enough impact that we need to be um uh you know alarmed um but I'm trusting the staff that in your evaluation of this project this is not that tipping point um and the merits of the project are are so uh strong and encouraging that notwithstanding that industrial to residential conversion uh we should support the project. Um, the last thing I I would love to uh ask the applicant if you'd be amanable to a voluntary additional condition. This is something that we talked about in our meeting. Um, I'm fully expecting you to construct the project, but in the event something goes catastrophically wrong, um, would you be amunable to a condition where the city would have the first right of refusal to explore purchasing the property? And the reason I ask is we're assembling a community park immediately adjacent to your strategically located properties and if for some reason the project doesn't proceed, I think the city would love the opportunity to work with you potentially to acquire those properties for an even larger community part. Is that something that you'd be amanable to?

Uh thank you for that question. uh you know when you asked that question early on and and previously you know it was something that uh what I previously mentioned was we are a a developer and home builder when we develop these projects we know all the costs that go into them we know what makes them tick we know what conditions will and won't make them work and staff is well aware of all the conditions that we had to work with to make sure this is a constructible project uh this is a project we are 100% building. Um we have uh multiple active projects in the Bay Area right now. Uh we have a project in Loscatos that we're pulling the fe the the site cost for to plug in for this. Uh so all that is to say uh we are 100% building this project. Uh we don't believe a condition approval to to mandate the first ride of refusal is necessary because we're committed to making this happen and I think uh our our ne the uh neighbors to the south are also committed to seeing this housing happen too. So, I would respectfully decline uh your request.

That was a lot of words to say no, but I couldn't couldn't, you know, help but make the the attempt. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone uh for for your work on the project. Thank you, Council Member Ramirez. Council member Shoalter.

Yeah, I'm I'm just going to add a couple of things. Um I uh I'm I'm actually personally very fond of rowouses because I spent the first nine years of my life in a rowhouse in Baltimore. And the reason that it was such a great place to live was because there were lots of kids uh to play with and there was great places to play. And that's what I see in this um development because you know there there there will be relatively uh more families there and they can go play right next to the uh into the park. So I think that this is you know just a great you know a great site in in combination. So, I'd like to I I mean, I'm I'm looking forward to going to the groundbreaking and the ribbon cutting. Um that said, another thing I want to thank you for is the land um assemblage. Uh one of the things I've been promoting with Gatekeeper all these years is the idea that um there are places where we have two zone kinds of zoning um and you can put them together and make a good project. Um and that's what the gatekeeper is for. and and it it it the gatekeeper process allows for some innovation to do that. So, thank you for doing that and for taking advantage of that and um uh also uh along with those um those uh row houses on the east coast, they didn't have garages, but they had basements. And um I know those of us who've moved from the east coast miss our basements because where where do we put all all of our, you know, stuff? We put it in the

Yeah, we put it in the garage. Exactly. You don't even know. And then And then another thing that um I've observed from um viewing some uh elder people in my family who live in um town houses is if you can have a um built-in uh elevator as an extra um it is really uh a wonderful amenity. Um, the ones I've seen are are like, you know, they're just big enough to put a person in a suitcase. They're like, you know, three feet square. But, um, but they do allow people to live there for about 10 years longer. And, um, that's, you know, that's important. So, I'm just going to I'm going to drop that concept out there as somebody who does this kind of uh, you know, development. Maybe you can't do it here, but you can do it in another one. Um, I I've seen it really make a difference. But anyway, this is wonderful. Thank you very much for your great work and we look forward to getting it constructed.

Thank you, Council Member Shoalter. Council member Mallister, would you like to speak to your second?

Uh, sure. Why not? Well, I Yes. Uh, but I have a question first. When you guys say the middle income, what kind of income are we respect talking about? Anybody want to take a stab at that one? No, but I was curious what the chart I is. Was was there a chart in there, Mr. Thank you. Well, as he looks for that, the reason uh but I I like the project and that's when I mentioned the Prometheus project before they were building next to the property line and I appreciate to take a lot of the stress from us by moving at the property line, moving the buildings to the other side and not impeding on the neighbors and people looking down and all that stuff. That was a great u benefit to me because then we heard but you guys also realized you listen to the public the neighbors there and this project does not impact them which is nice which I also liked. This is for council member Ramirez the twocar garage. So many of these projects have a onecar garage they have three bedrooms. So you know sooner or later there's going to be more cars than there are bedrooms and there's going to be people driving around. So, this impact was it was good to see that it's going to minimize parking and even though the parking is a little bit, but it will be nice to see that you have a twocar garage. That is nice. And also, you have guest parking. Were you going to answer my question? Oh, please answer it. Uh, good evening, Mayor and Council. Wayne Shunn, housing director. Um, yes. So the um project will include um affordable um housing at three levels at the 80%, the 120% and the 150% AMI levels. Um all in compliance with the BMR requirements. So at the 80% level

it's uh about $317,000. At the 120% level, about $715,000 and 150% AMI level, about $160,000 per unit. Okay. Actually, I was looking for the income, not the cost. That's what they're going to sell the properties for. Well, what was the income level expected?

I don't have the chart in front of me, but I know for um the the three-bedroom units, they um imply a four uh person household. And a 4% household at the 120% AMI level, I believe it's about 225,000. So, um the 80% AMI level will be a little bit below that, and of course, the 150% will be a little bit above that. Thank Thank you so much. Um, thank you very much, Christian. Um, so, okay, so Santa Clara County, the uh 20% level is 234,000. At the 80% level, it's about 160,000. So, at the 150% level, which HCD doesn't calculate, we we we work with the developer to interpolate that. That should be around probably about the $270,000 level or so.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Well, the re the reason I asked is because my daughter just bought a townhouse in San Jose Campbell and so when I was looking through the incomes and it was a million dollars plus for the property, but the fact that it was a townhouse, it was affordable, it met her requirements goes to the fact that I've been always liking ownership. The town houses is that entry level other than a condo conversion. And so this is I'm glad that you have this in. I didn't ask the asking price of the higher ones though. So we'll let that go. But it was just I can appreciate what's being done in the way of town houses and getting those people in and getting her out of the house. But don't hear that. Um but so that it's Thank you for that and uh that's all I have to say about the motion. I appreciate it's great putting it in. I like I would like to see more row houses because it does allow people to get in. I know it's not to some of the people's liking on the council, but it's it's the start of ownership and that makes somebody who owns something is going to me is going to be more committed to the community and uh that's what I like to see is people committed to the community, willing to help out. Doesn't mean other people aren't, but I think they just have a start going that way. So, I support the motion. I was glad to second it with my colleague. All right, seeing no other comments, I am just going to say, "Yay, more housing." And let's vote. Motion passes unanimously. Woohoo. Um, all right. So, now we move on to council, staff, and committee reports. Does anyone have any council, staff, and committee reports? Council member Shoalter. You know, I really have a long one, but um that I wrote up, but I'm going to spare everybody. I'm passing out two graphs,

and you have been um uh forwarded by the uh the the um clerk with the presentation from Basa. And um you know, Basa is our Bay Area uh water supply and conservation ad. And we get this report every other month from um we get these this report every other month from the San Francisco PUC about what are the water conditions in um in uh in the area and I wanted to share this one with you um because uh I think it's it's it's very telling the snow the one I wanted to show with you is the upcountry snow pack. You can see the the line um for this year is the red one. Um the stars, we're not quite to the end yet. And you can see the lines for um the previous few years. 2015 was a very dry year. That was the year when we you you know when you flew over the Sierra, you saw sort of nothing but um open areas. You didn't see hardly any snow. Then um in uh the in 2023 it was a gang buster year. We just got huge amounts of snowpack and um and then uh you see this black line as very very standard um level. But but the reason I wanted to show you this is because you see how this line this red line is turning down. Um that means that um we're expecting uh it to intersect when it with the with the uh with the other lines. Um we're we're expecting to get it to get much closer to the 2015 line than it is to the blue line above it. And what that

means is um although we have plenty of water in our reservoirs for water supply for us to drink and and uh uh irrigate our lawns and flush our toilets and take showers and all the things we do with our water supply, it does mean that the fire danger is going to be worse this year. So that's why I wanted to share this snowpack with you just to say that um you know these things are all connected and um uh we um we'll just have to wait and see what happens. You never know. Um and then sadly we also always have to talk about rates. Everybody is concerned about rates. And um the other page I I took out from this uh this uh presentation is um shows how the rates have gone up and um that is uh largely because we use less water. The system costs approximately the same thing to run and um but we buy less water because we're all doing such a good job at conservation. And um so that means that the rates per unit have gone up a little bit. So I wanted to share those things with you. And um if anybody wants to talk about it more, I'd be glad to. The presentation I I sent you the presentation because it really does have a lot of really pretty graphs which I think are fun to look at and I thought some of you might think was fun, too. Um and I'll let Emily, you you can talk about uh us going to uh um NLC. Thank you, Council Member Shaw Walter. Council member Kame,

uh, I just wanted to report that I attended the city's association meeting on March 12th, uh, where we held a study session on automated license plate readers. Thanks. How exciting. All right, Council Member Mallister, I just want to say I have something for a section 8. So that's section eight. Yeah, that's me. Um, item agenda item eight. uh does anyone else have just to clarify section seven as in future new Oh, yeah. It's it's seven, right? Oh, it's seven in this one. Okay. Yeah. So, wait until the you're done with your comments.

Okay. All right. So, um does anyone else have anything because I'll just report out my things. Um thank you to Vice Mayor Clark for handling the last meeting because I was at the Yale School of Management Mayor's Caucus which was really exciting. and you're gonna really love it next year. I'm so excited to see how you're gonna I I really hope they invite you because like they invited me because how well uh council member Kame did and so I'm just like please I promise Vice Mayor Clark is really good. Um so um so I went there and we had really interesting conversations um on the national level. Uh it was very mind-blowing. Um, next, uh, after that, um, I went to the VTA pack meeting, um, where they went over the big item was talking about, um, the, um, what the lessons learned from Super Bowl and how they're going to take that lessons to FIFA. Um, then I also, FIFA, FIFA,

World Cup, um, soccer or football depending on what country you're in. Um then uh I also attended the state of the county. I threw the first pitch for the Mountain View girls softball opening day. It made it over the plate but a little bit to the left. Um I also opened the town hall for Congressman Licardo shortly after that. And then um as uh council member Clark, not council member Clark, council member Sho Walter mentioned, we had our adventure in Washington DC for the National League of Cities Congressional Summit where we also spent some time with our federal lobbyists lobbying for federal funding so that we can do really good stuff in Mountain View and continuing to evangelize our wonderful city and explain to DC that we are the best city and that's why they should give us the most money. Um, and so it was hopefully a productive trip. Uh, we met with the the Department of Transportation to ask um to see if we can get some money for our grade separations. That's that's a big one. We're opening that there. They will be opening up that grant soon. We have three appropriation requests um $2 million each uh that we are hoping to get money for. We I feel very good about how we were received. Um and hopefully that will translate to money to our city. So, yay us. Um now, Council Member Mallister, what item seven would you like to bring us forth?

Well, I'll just make a I did attend the VTA meeting. So, the main meeting, the board meeting. So, I did attend that. we discussed uh it was interesting that they were doing a u an auditor's report and how again they're going over items that we did four years ago and that's one of the concerns about VTA is the board changes all the time so no one ever remembers what they done before and they're repeating the same problems again so it was interesting they had 28 issues to resolve so they had 28 action items and this could relate to our city. They had 28 action items. 16 of the action items would only change things by 2%. So I mentioned to them you're spending all this time on two items to make minimum amount. And so um we have issues with VTA but they're still going along. So to number seven um and this goes for advocacy. I think the city which we've been leading in the past needs to take our some of our our stance and lead the charge on legislation u about the uh condos the liability act. I think we should not wait for somebody to come to us. I think we should be proactive and I would like to see our representative on the city association to say Mount View wants to lead on this be proactive and say let's get this legislation going. Let's get our legislators doing it. And I know there's some work on it. We could have frivolous lawsuits that are still affecting our small businesses. We should lead this instead of waiting for other people to come to us. U there's some concerns about the Brown Act that it's got to be more current or more applicable than what they have done. And so we need to say, you know, especially Zoom meetings where they're saying, well, you can't do it. Well, technologies changed and people are

changing. We got to be more flexible. So, um, and so I think the city manager had an item that we were talking about. Maybe I missed it, but I would like to see us be that leading force and and and drive legislation and not waiting for people to do it for us. So, that's what I was talking about. Can we get an ad hoc? Can we get some people to do it? How we go about doing it? And if council is behind doing that, we're we will be, you know, getting other people together because we have lobbyists, but I think we have a great person at city association right now that could advocate for these types of things. And so that's what I my section seven item seven um is is about.

Uh I think council member Ramirez has a response to that because I know that he was talking about a bill recently. I I don't want to put words in council member Mallister's mouth, but uh if you mentioned the condo liability law there there actually is a bill um that was introduced AB1903 that addresses that very issue. Um and um I'll I'll trust the the staff who um helped assemble our legislative platform, but I think we actually have a policy position. Um, so, uh, if it makes sense and I'm I I I think I agree with what you're suggesting and, you know, if we wanted to say, you know, take a formal position in support of AB1903, you know, I would be very comfortable supporting that.

Yeah. No, that's what I mean instead of we coming to us. Yes. The SEI said should write a letter should go to the city association and say support this. Anything to move the project to say this is important to us. Let's get it done. That's why you're being proactive about getting stuff to legislators and letting them know how we feel versus waiting for something. I'm going to let the city manager reply to that.

Thank you, mayor, council member. So, this is on our radar and our intergovernmental affairs manager, Christina Gilmore, will be working with Dne Hutchkins, our um California public policy group um our state lobbyist essentially on this item. And uh we are happy to work with council member Kame um to uh bring this forward in a way that uh would generate regional support. And so I think staff um staff is aware of this. And so we we are working on it. And I think there will be opportunities for us to advocate in a more um strategic way than than just sending a letter in, which I think is what you're getting at, Council Member Mallister. And I will say we have um initiated and led legislation over the past several years, and we've been pretty successful in those efforts, too. and we work really well with not only our own legislative delegation, but we've also had some past wins with um delegates or legislative delegates that are in our region, not necessarily our own uh assembly members. So, uh we do have a good track record. So, I will certainly take note of that and we are on top of it.

Thank you, city manager McCarthy. Council member Kame. Yeah, I'm I'm happy to answer this question. So, um, a couple different things. So, I sit on the board for the League of California Cities statewide, and today they held a briefing for 90 minutes going over every single bill and every single position. So, I can um my understanding is that everyone gets those invitations on on council that comes from Cal City. So, um, but I'm happy to kind of, uh, push that through our city clerk to kind of highlight, but, um, where they go through and they do a breakdown. Cal cities takes their own position. So, they email that out. I think when it comes to, uh, cities association, so cities association of Santa Clair County with the 15 cities. I sit on the legislative advocacy committee. I have for multiple years. We go over bills and as soon as there are bills that are proposed, I forward them to the city manager and our inter intergovernmental relations manager to ask them, have we taken a position? Um, is this on our radar? We go back and forth because my understanding is when I'm there representing the entire city. So, if we have taken a position, we share that. If there are bills that we want to bring to the legislative advocacy committee for the greater board to vote on, we can also do that. So we have that discussion. Um and so whether it's AB1903 or others um we we do do that. So um perhaps there's a way uh I know that our current um state lobbyist also does a recap that um Miss Gilmore forwards to us on the bills. And so perhaps there's a mechanism with which we can work via our city manager on if there's you know anything else we want to call out. But I I would say there's different uh processes in place with which we're trying to advocate the strongest for for the city. Um and hopefully that helps answer a little bit.

No, I that's what I want. I want us to be proactive versus wait and see. And I've seen a couple of times where we wait and see versus hey, this is important to us. Let's get it done.

Thank you, Council Member Shoalter. Yeah, I just wanted to bring up that Silicon Valley Clean Energy is also very active on the advocacy front. We don't necessarily advocate independently, although sometimes we do. Primarily, we do it through the trade association. I think it's called LEAN. I for um I I can't remember what the acronym stands for, but anyway, we um uh I'm on the legislative um action committee and uh in fact, I just got to be the chair of it. So that's good. Um and uh but but we of course concentrate at Silicon Valley Clean Energy primarily on sustainability um issues and um uh but uh I think council member um Mallister, everybody everybody agrees with you and and we you know when we had for instance when we had Josh Becker come we you know we asked him can you can you um have work on uh condo liability and he was like, "Oh, yes, I can." So they, you know, our I think our um our uh our legislators are very amenable to hearing from us. And Sam Licardo, who we met in Washington, was thanking us for uh because he had worked with our housing department for providing suggestions for um uh the disclose. Is it the disclose? What? Unlock. unlock the unlock act that was um uh rolled into another housing back that that actually has bipart one of the few things that has bipartisan um uh agreement. So yeah, I think we really to me that's one of the most important things we can do under the innovation um category that we all think is so important here. Do you think that covers what you need,

Council Member Mallister? I just like to have a discussions and get people thinking that, okay, let's, you know, it hasn't happened in a long time and I just, hey, let's I know we do these things, but we let's be again be proactive, but I'm glad to hear that there's avenues and I always like to bring certain things up just to make us aware. Yep. Uh, so and I can work to f Sorry to jump in. I can work to forward. Usually they do the recordings of the the Cal cities when they present all the legislative bills. So I can forward that to the the city clerk to forward on to folks because it's it's just interesting to to see and sometimes they do the summary with an attached PDF which I find helpful. So

we also do have the Cal City Summit coming in April where we can go and lobby. Yay. And are you signed up? Are you signed up? Oh, so April 21,223 I think. Yes, it will be fun. You should all join us. And so I guess on concluding that item, put me in coach. Let's go. Um, so with that, and I see no other speakers, the next city council meeting will be held on April 14, 2026. This meeting is adjourned at 239.