City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. I'd like to call to order the Pala City Council meeting of December 1, 2025. Will the clerk please call the role? Of course. Mayor Lowing present. Council member Rectal here. Council member Lithcott HS here. Council member Bert here. Vice Mayor Vinker here. Council member Stone here. Council member Lou for the record. Six present. Thank you very much. Go to the city manager for any agenda changes or additions.

Yes. Thank you, mayor. We actually do have one change on your agenda this evening. Item number 14, which is uh proposed ordinance regulating massage establishments. The staff work on that is continuing. So staff would like to pull uh that and it will be reagendized uh in January. Okay. Thank you. And we will move to council member No, we won't. We'll move to we'll move to public comment on items that are not on the agenda. We have six or five requests to speak.

Okay. The normal three minutes. Our first speaker is Mark W.

Good evening, council. Um, Vice Mner is going to know me. Um, I've been giving public comment at the Bay Are Quality Management District for uh over a year now and uh we decided to come out and talk to the jurisdictions from where the board members come from. So, thank you. You guys have an awesome chamber. It's really nice here. I previously served on AC Transboard of directors across the bay for 12 years. Environmental justice is really important to me. My organization is environmental justice league. And one of the reasons we're coming out is one the board makes decisions of course like any jurisdiction and when boards are making these decisions we want the boards to take into account that when you make a decision the economic impact a decision might make. So for example I saw you guys have the util utility rates. um you know some of the things that the the air district is talking about potentially and it's not not necessarily a bad thing banning gas appliance gas appliances and replacing them with electric but if you do that that's you know really going to impact you know someone's budget I mean I'm a little bit selfish in that I have gas appliances in my home in Oakland I can only imagine with you know everything that's going on economy what that would cost so just when you're making decisions like that that you take into account the economic impact um we we definitely welcome changes like that but if you do, maybe there's a rebate program, maybe there's money to help a lower income household deal with something like that. So, just taking into account also one of the issues that we've run into with the air district all and I have to say the staff over there's been including the vice mayor been very responsive to when we're have comments when when there's public meetings. I go to the air district meetings there at 10:00 a.m. Most people can't make those meetings. the people who I bring with me, maybe some other people show up to the meetings and I don't know that you necessarily get the best impact on how it's going to happen with the community. So, one of the things we're calling for is can you, you know, figure out opportunities to work with organizations like Environmental Justice League, other organizations, maybe come out on the weekends, um, you know, partner with other community organizations, come into the community and really hear what's going on. I don't have to explain to you guys, you're you guys are municipality,

you know, people are dealing with inflation, you know, cars are going up, insurance rates. So any different thing that you're doing is going to have an economic impact. So, you know, being mindful, responsive. I know, you know, I'm from Oakland. This is not, you know, I'm in a different city, but I'm sure you're going to be I know Vice Mayor is going to be reappointed. She's wonderful. I'm not saying she's great. You should reappoint her, but it's someone new. You'll be seeing my face and my organization, you know, looks forward to working with you. So, thank you for your time. Love Palo, very nice city. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Yvon E. Hello, my name is Ivon Ishman and I am a member of the Environmental Justice League. I am interested in having clear air through the Bay Area and how it impacts my community which is low income and I am a senior that now um I'm developed uh cataracts and so there's burning sensation in my eyes sometimes and it's poor air quality and then several of my friends have developed cancer as a direct result of poor air quality. So I would like for you and others that are in control to think about the social economic impact that it has on poor and poor communities and seniors. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Tina F. Thank you for serving the community. My name is Tina Flores. I'm with the Environmental Justice League and um I'm an instructor with INHome Support Care Service in Alama County. I uh teach um caregivers how to be caregivers for their recipients. One of the things that has quadrupled is the chemical sensitivity to recipients. And what's happening with the recipients is that um providers do not know how to approach the recipient because it has to be a two-day um preparation to go into someone with a chemical sensitivity. chemical sensitivity. People are very um prone to have triggers with perfume, with um pesticides, with some of the chemicals in their laundry detergent. And it's just really horrific what happens to these people. They cannot breathe. And so that's really my um my interest is that anything that has to do with the environment and the air is really having an impact on the on the community. And a lot of the community that wants to help those in need of care do not have any pamphlet or information to go forward to try to help these recipients. There's a lot of cancer uh people that need help, but there's there's not really um information on what to avoid for people that are trying to help. And the ones that I'm talking about are caregivers.

So if we could just come up with more uh pamphlets, more education in the community where community can come out and participate in some of these meetings that you have is so important because these are people in our community and I am in I'm in Oakland and these are communities throughout the nation. Thank you for your time and thank you for serving your community. Uh happy holidays. Our next speaker is Jennifer Al. Thank you, council, city manager, city attorney. Good evening. Um, tonight you received an email with comments from Sky Posi Palo Alto about the recent certification of a deeply flawed environmental declaration from San Francisco about SFO arrivals um arrival flight path impacts on the city. I will read some of the comments in the email, but it is mostly to convey the urgency for your attention to this because the deadline to appeal this document is December 20th. Uh, and there are only two meetings between now and then where you could convene and also for you to please inform the broader community about this document. Um, everything is listed in the email about the concerns. So, I will read some of the comments directly from the email with the time I have left. One is that um we are grateful for the city's November 19th letter. There was one submitted on June 2nd that made the public record. However, the city's November 19th, which is the most substantive, will not appear on the FIR record because per SF San Francisco's public notice, comments after June 2nd or at the final EIR certification

hearing are not responded to, not even anything said or written on the day of the certification. So, for example, November 19th letter was acknowledged in the in the in the uh meet at the meeting by the commissioners, but it really doesn't exist in a public record. As a peer agency, the city is best equipped to hold San Francisco accountable for the deficiencies in the state level review. were specifically concerned, especially concerned how the FBI is now set to influence future FAA environmental declarations such as CADEX um and so forth. Um more details in our email. Uh so it's really important as we mentioned that besides having your attention to this that the broader community should please know when council is going to vote on this clear opportunity to protect PaloAlto and um and to not miss the statute of limitations. The city needs to please also be forthcoming about the risks that this FEIR certification brings to Powo Alto neighborhoods. The potential negative health impacts from noise and nighttime operations. Some of the city's more recent opportunities to challenge false environmental declarations are are listed, but there are several from prior years with lasting harm as well. So we listed all the times that um Powalto has passed on legal challenges and what that has meant for Powo Alto. So thank you again. I hope you will take a close look at this because it's important to many people who are impacted and who stand to be impacted in the future. Thank you.

Our next speaker is John M.

Hello. I'm John Melnichuk. Um thank you Mr. mayor and council for voting unanimously to support installation of quiet zones via quad gates. We are thrilled about it and it's so rare that there's any any group where an issue is supported unanimously. When I've spoken to our supervisor Abby Koga, her office, when I've spoken to Assembly Member Burman's office, when I've spoken to um Senator Burman's office, everybody's enthusiastic and cong sending congratulations. not officially yet, but I'm hoping that that letter that will come for all of you. Um, congratulating you on on that important vote to support quiet zones via Quadgates. And I know budgets an issue for us uh and everywhere in the state, at the city, in our neighborhoods. But I have every confidence that Paula will will pull it together. And I'm asking please that we be pragmatic as much as possible. Costs will go up as we wait. The issue just that the other speaker just mentioned before us is a much more difficult long-term problem to solve. This issue in Palo Alto around quiet zones is totally within Palo Alto's authority to solve and I'm hoping and uh that I could ask you please to expedite the process to find the budget. Thank you so much.

And that concludes public comment on items not on the agenda.

Okay. Thank you very much. And we will now shift to council member questions, comments, and announcements. [clears throat] I'm I'm happy to kick that off with u a discussion again of Second Harvest. Uh a few weeks ago, I took a tour and I gave a recap after that. Uh just wanted to remind everyone that one in six residents depend on Second Harvest for food support. More than 500,000 people a month. Uh they're a huge supplier of food to agencies here in PaloAlto. U downtown food closet for example where they help supply that and that does about 100 people a day. [clears throat and snorts] And other organizations are Ronald McDonald House, Momentum for Mental Health, Linton Apartments, Life Moves Opportunity Center, LaMa, uh Jewish Children Family Services, and Alta Housing. So, in that regard, um I would like to allocate uh $1,000 from the uh contingency fund uh as a donation to support their efforts in uh trying to help out uh in this in this difficult time uh for food insecurity. Uh the vice mayor is required to help approve that.

Well, I fully support uh your initiative here. I want to thank you for bringing this forward. This is a critical thing especially at this time of of uh budget cuts uh federally and so I would uh second or support or whatever I need to do to uh make that allocation happen. Thank you mayor. Okay. And that needs approval of council. If anyone wants to discuss the amount up or down that's okay but uh I have a thousand on the table. Is that all right with everyone? Okay. Good to go. Thanks. Any other council member comments? Uh, Vice Mayor Vicker.

Yeah, just briefly one thing. I just wanted to uh mention that the uh uh turf study uh ad hoc did meet uh before the holiday and we will be meeting again next Tuesday and we'll return to council uh with a recommendation likely at our first business meeting in January on January 12th. Um and we have confirmed with staff that the timing works with respect to um the El Camino decision for council to consider uh the ad hoc recommendation at that time. Council Guts.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um on the uh oversized vehicles ad hoc on which I sit with the mayor and council member Rectal. I'm laughing because last week I mentioned the wrong council member. So, I want to be sure to get that right. Uh, we continue to be very interested in potential partners coming forward to help us uh locate and land new safe parking sites. So, whether it be uh faith communities or people who are commercial property owners, uh we are looking for more places where people can park their oversized vehicle uh in a manner that will serve their needs and also reduce the impacts that those vehicles have um in the communities where they're currently parked. So, please reach out. Uh you can reach out to the city manager, you can reach out to me at julieforpalto.com. Uh we invite people's creativity uh in solving a a pretty um difficult to solve situation. Thank you. Okay. Seeing seeing no more, we will close that item and uh move on to our first um agenda item of the evening, which is a study session, an update on feedback on city council's priority implementation of neighborhood town halls. Just hit the buttons.

Good evening everyone. Megan Han Taylor, the city's chief communications officer, and I'm here tonight to provide an update on our implementation of an series of eight neighborhood town hall meetings. Um, next slide. So, first we just wanted to share a short video. Heat [music] [music]

up here. [music]

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We may have to follow that with a quiz for who attended the most of those meetings. But, uh, I hope that brought back some memories, nice memories of our town halls. Go ahead, Megan. Thank you.

So, I was hoping that that would be a a colorful visual of some of the engagement that took place over the last two and a half years. um and wanted to tonight uh talk with you a little bit and gain your feedback and engage you around interest in continuing a next iteration of neighborhood neighborhood town hall meetings and talk a little bit about the foundational elements um that we uh implemented um to date with the existing uh neighborhood town hall meetings and also talk about some of the challenges or gaps that we saw and also So, um really the opportunity of continuing to learn from each of the town hall meetings that we hosted and evolve each of the next meetings after that taking pieces of all the um engagement that we received uh to date prior to that point. So, next slide. So, first I wanted to take a moment and thank both the council and also our neighborhood leaders for their overall collaboration implementing this priority. It truly was a partnership. We gained guidance from neighborhood leaders um from the PaloAlto neighborhood uh leadership in even creating um a template and um neighborhood groupings to start with. Um, we also learned through planning, through having discussions about the neighborhood issues that our uh community members were having and uh talked about their own priorities and worked through that to establish agendas that truly were tailored to each of the neighborhood conversations that were taking place. Um, through this series of eight meetings, we reached over 2,000 residents. um both in a hybrid fashion.

At first, when we first started, we were coming out of the pandemic. So, many of our residents were more online and more comfortable in that fashion, though some did show up at our first meeting and were really engaged and excited to be together again in person. Um we continued that hybrid approach through all of these meetings. Um, even though I think towards the end there were over 200 people in the room together and socializing and networking and everyone loved that, but we did have an aspect of our community that just loved that flexibility to be online if they have other priorities that evening. So, we did reach over um all of these residents in the series of meetings and it really helped with three these three key areas. improved communications on neighborhood issues, increased resident and city staff awareness, and built familiarity and relationships to address neighborhood issues. And on that last note, um, one area that I felt was really helpful for me was having direct email and phone numbers of neighborhood leaders. So, when there was a um electrical outage, as an example, I was able to call our neighborhood leaders and talk to them about the impacts and how long some of the issues um might take with reopening their street. Um and that direct relationship building really truly in that's a good example where um it didn't stop just at the meeting. It kept going. Next slide. So, I did want to highlight a few of the fundamental elements um that I mentioned at the start of our conversation today. And um these items really were established throughout. So, the meeting

locations were in neighborhoods. Um that was on purpose and provided a informal atmosphere to have conversations, had side conversations, um provide folk an opportunity for folks to interact with the city manager, myself, a whole set of department heads who were there to not only talk about whatever the issues were that were on the agenda, but also raise other items that they might have questions about or share with us that maybe were new or even long-standing. ing issues that they wanted to raise. This social and networking um time ahead of the meeting I think was really valuable and fun for our neighbors and they all were interacting. There was food, there was um time to just meet each other outside of um a council meeting or a committee meeting um and just say hello. And I do feel the importance of council co-hosting um in the collaboration and also planning the meetings was super valuable um both to ensure that residents understood the priority that you placed on these series of meetings but also the opportunity for the council to share areas that you felt or that you've heard of may be issues that that were raised at the meetings and that provided staff an opportunity to get ahead of some of those questions and be responsive in the meeting itself. Um, a few other items wanted to note is the agenda topics um were developed with neighborhood leaders and that was super valuable and they were also engaged throughout all aspects of the meeting. So there were members who um welcomed everyone and and shared what the purpose of the meeting was. There were other volunteers that helped

with uh roaming the mic around to answer questions um and also helped folks keep on task and move on to the next agenda topic. So that was super valuable. Other times there were uh neighborhood leaders who took notes and then shared those notes out afterwards with staff so that we could follow up with the action items that were discussed that night. The last couple items I wanted to note are around publicity and additional communication and constituent response. Um so through the series of these meetings, we um built on the last around email follow-up of action items after each meeting. Um we also built on how to publicize the meetings. So for example, when we first started, we we did not mail postcards. We just uh worked with the neighborhood leaders at the time. They put out their own um signage boards um in the community and um we had printed off flyers for them. Um go all all the way through to the 8th meeting. We were mailing postcards in advance um to all residents within the neighborhood groupings. Um, we also provided email templates for neighborhood leaders to send email messages to their neighbors. Um, and also provided signage for them uh within their neighborhoods. And all of those those three things I think really imp provided the most reach for residents to participate and attend at the meetings. Next slide. Um last here is areas for further development um and exploration. Um one of those is possibly refining the neighborhood groupings. Those initially were created with um the mayor and vice mayor at that time. Um as well as PaloAlto neighborhood leadership um and

since that time and going through this series of meetings, there may be other opportunities to change those groupings around slightly. Um, in addition, this map that you see on the screen, um, was established several years ago, um, it's a really great tool, though it doesn't have boundaries by streets. So, it's a very high-level view of the neighborhood associations. And there's opportunities to create a map that uses physical streets um and other natural boundaries and also provide an opportunity for a resident to look up their address and then know which neighborhood they're in. Um, additionally, um, meeting publicity could also be explored further, uh, in including some, um, potential lawn signs that would be easier for both residents and also staff to put in place. Um, and the last two items here, um, possibly refining council co-host, that process that was developed by the council. um and also evolving how we address commu constituent concerns and followup. Next slide. This is just a reminder of the meeting dates themselves and also the neighborhood groupings that were established originally in 2022. Um, as you can see, uh, we did try to group them by area, um, that potentially would have similar neighborhood issues to each other. Um, helpful in our agenda planning, um, and making sure that residents who come to the meetings, um, we're there to talk about similar issues that may be faced they may be faced with. Next slide. And so in conclusion, wanted to um pose this these couple questions uh for

council consideration. Um really wanting to gain from you um feedback on if you're interested in um ensuring implementation of another series of meetings and also feedback on what you felt worked well and areas to explore for future meetings. And with that, we can take any questions that you might have.

Might be helpful on this item to go to public comment first and see if there's anything to be added to the input and then we can interrogate the witness. We have one request to speak. Jennifer L.

Okay. Three minutes. Sorry, I was on my way out and I saw neighborhood town halls near and dear to me because I've sent public comment on this several times. Um, I am in the Crescent Park neighborhood. We have various issues such as flood um and traffic safety, all sorts of things. And we were very happy that there was a neighborhood town hall this past year and that they're reinstituted every couple of years. But there are issues that can take up a lot that that are much more information intensive that impact the whole city. So, for example, or particular parts of neighborhoods. And I was just going to suggest that in addition to neighborhood town halls that there should be meetings on spec specific topics. And by the way, I appreciate the mayor's um press conferences this year because that in effect did that. But it could change next year. And that's actually the bottom line with all of these things is that one year one mayor does one thing, another year it's different. And as citizens, I'll give you my point of view. We're like, "Oh, what happened? Wasn't it supposed to be, you know, how was it supposed to work?" And so I think the communication about how the city is taking input or relaying information on complex topics like aircraft noise. I was just talking to John about quiet zones, for example. There are heavy duty uh topics that I think the broader community and more neighbors would like to know about and not everybody knows how to show up for a meeting here. I'm still trying to catch up and I used to do that a lot before. So, thank you for

working on this and for continued efforts to improve the process. Thanks. Thank you. Let's come back to the dis and we can do both uh questions and comments getting to uh direction to staff of do we want the same different none everything's on the table.

Yeah, thank you. This is I think a really good program and I think it's grown. When it first started out we could tell we were kind of on training wheels and the last few I thought ran a lot smoother. Uh the big thing was in the last one early ones people would ask questions we'd say oh I don't know we don't we don't have the answer for that and now the last few the department heads were there and when people ask even really uh detailed questions they got a direct answer right then and that was much better you know this delayed gratification of waiting a couple months is very frustrating but it also it just makes it seem like why did I come I could have written a letter and asked that question and so being having that discussion with the department heads I thought was a really important thing and I think we have to prioritize that because I thought that was very useful. Um, before I was on council, I went door to door and handed out flyers. And I think mailing postcards saves a lot of labor, but there was some value for people going door to door because I know some of my neighbors would not have come if they had seen a postcard. But they were they had so many questions like what is this for and what is this? What's the purpose for it? And when I explained what was going on, they were very interested. They ended up coming. And so I would I think we should do both. do the postcards, but also try to reach out to Pan and have the people go doortodoor and covering a whole neighborhood is hard, but if you can break it up or even just do your immediate neighbors, I think that is a lot more effective. We get so much mail that we just kind of throw away. So, even though postcards, I think, are good, I think we really do want to encourage the neighbors to go doortodoor, talk to the neighbors in person. Um yeah, the the grouping of neighborhoods, especially at the very beginning, we had like 10 neighborhoods at the Green Meadow one, and that was uh I think we could have trimmed it down, and so regrouping that uh might be a better thing. Um what about time of day? Uh the couple of them I haven't been able to go to because they were early

evenings and I wasn't able to get off work in time. But yet if we move it to the weekends that's trip problematic too. And so have we done any outreach asking people what's the best time of day? What's the best day to to have these? Do you have any feedback for about that? Thank you for the question. Yes, we did. Um as part of the planning process, we asked the neighborhood leaders actually um time of day, weekend, week night. Um, and so it was mixed depending on the different neighborhoods interests. Um, and to your point, it's difficult either way to get everybody in the room. Yeah.

Yeah. I think what's what you're doing now seems to be working okay, but it's it's not perfect. Um, Zoom option I think also very good, especially people who have kids. Uh, they can stay at home with the kids and still watch it. So, I think I would want to keep that up. I thought that was a good um Okay, that's all. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Oh, sorry, Council Member Stone.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and thanks to to staff for for doing this. I I I agree with Council Member Rectal's comments. I mean, over overall, I was really impressed with how it grew and the sophistication of of how staff continue to work with neighborhood leaders. I I think that can continue to be refined, especially as we look at neighborhood borders, really working with various neighborhood associations to to better understand how those how those borders make sense. I know not every neighborhood has a neighborhood association, but they tend to still know kind of who are the neighborhood leaders. So, continuing to have uh have that. Uh overall I got a lot of incredible feedback from most members of the community during this. I I really appreciated joining. The only well really the consistent criticism I received back was that's already been mentioned the frustration feeling like items were not being followed up. And so kind I'm curious how I mean I know the staff report talked about some kind of some things that came up in those in those town halls were followed up on but how do we actually actively track and make sure that we are able to follow up with all of those items cuz it's it's always very easy to kind of respond to the ones that we want to respond to and let others just kind of go. So what what's the process for that and are there plans to improve that?

Thank you for the question. Yeah, so we you're correct. We did evolve it over time. Um the first couple of town hall meetings we really learned that the um that closing the loop was really important. And part of that has to do with not just the act of following up and getting um what the issue is and making sure that that staff provides an answer, but also ensuring that those that attended were filled out their email so that we could actually reach them. So that was also part of the frustration in the beginning that we didn't have um that foundational um connections um to work from. So we continue to evolve that part over time as well. Um and so there's kind of multiple aspects there related to that. Um to the to your point around followup, um we we did actively through each meeting take action items uh reconfirm with neighborhood leaders even afterwards what those items were. Um and then worked to address those with department heads and then shared that back out to the neighborhood um representatives who forwarded them on, but also those that gave us their email. we share the same information.

If I could add also just um a couple of thoughts in terms of how things have gone and then where where we go from here. One is as council member rectal pointed out by the end of our session our our sequence of eight. We had almost every department head there as well as several of the key staff urban forestry as an example that we knew were going to have topics that um residents were interested in. So we're able to address the issues at the meeting and I do think that that helped address uh many of the issues on the spot. At the same time uh there has been some need for really kind of synthesizing the input that was received. I I know that you received some suggestion we've heard it directly that what we should do is just keep a a almost a transcript of the comments and have those responded to individually. you know, what I think we wouldn't want the town halls to become is kind of a substitute for 311 where we're basically taking those requests and and it becomes more of a clerical uh exercise. So again, that interpretation is really important. And as Megan put pointed out, you know, our ability then to follow up with the neighborhood leaders to ensure that we got the questions right and that we're addressing the issues that were of uh note that required followup and and understanding that uh again there can be some difference in opinion on what um requires a follow-up and doesn't. Having the ability to to close the loop with the neighborhood leaders as a a point of contact to ensure that quality control so to speak in the followup I think is a an improvement that we can incorporate going forward. Appreciate that and I and want to take a moment to really just appreciate both kind of your leadership but also the leadership of various departments. I thought that was a real strong testament to how much our staff really cares about that public engagement piece of the work

that you do. I was so impressed at everyone that I showed up, especially the later ones at how many department level uh leaders were were there to be able to respond and our police chief and fire chief and uh so many others and and so I think that really is uh is a strong testament to our the strength of our staff and this community overall. also hope that can that can continue. I do think we can get a little better internally as a as a as a council for figuring out how do we delegate responsibility amongst ourselves to show up and provide a little more parody there as far as council member participation and I don't know maybe that's maybe that's the responsibility of future mayor to to make those appointments. Um, I know of course with the scheduling as Councilman Rectal mentioned is is a challenge, but I'm sure we can kind of figure that out. I I I found kind of this the process we were using to be a bit strange on the process side of it. Um, so that that's something I think we can continue to work on, but otherwise I I hope we can continue these because I think they've been they're very valuable. Thank you. I did want to just follow up on one item that you mentioned around the value of the planning meetings with the neighborhood leaders that really helped us understand some of the issues that may be raised at the meeting and so that helped make sure that we could have staff available to answer the question on the spot and then follow up as needed with other items.

Vice Mayor.

Yeah, thank you. I agree with much of what's been said. So, I'll just summarize uh well well first of all I echo the thanks uh to staff and the three I went to were actually on weekends. So here we had all these department heads there on their weekends which I thought was impressive. Um but I also want to thank I think then Mayor Bert and uh Vice Mayor Coup for kind of kicking this off and getting it going because I do find them valuable um sort of in three ways. one what's been mentioned for staff to actually work with the residents of the specific neighborhood so we can address and lift up the issues of that particular neighborhood. Um also it was valuable to me to hear the feedback directly um from a variety of residents when it's not as formal as here at at council. Um, and I think it was also valuable for the neighbors to hear from other neighbors because sometimes they would disagree on things and then they could kind of get the vibe of what we hear when we're getting emails, you know, from all corners. So, I think that whole experience um has a lot of value in it. Um, I also think we can do many of the things that uh I know Pan mentioned in the email to council earlier today and and Miss Han Taylor mentioned as well, such as adjusting the neighborhoods. Um, having social time before and after I think was great. Um, and I'd also think it's helpful to maintain the hybrid approach because of the same reasons uh, Director Han Taylor mentioned. Um, I also agree with Miss Landisman that we could try, if there were interest, um, doing ones on different topics. That would be kind of interesting. Um, and you know, my view on should we do it again was if the residents want it, yes. If they don't want us out there, no. But it seems that they do. They just want it

um, uh, continue uh, to be improved along the lines we've been discussing. Um, and I also agree with uh, Council Member Stone that we should probably fine-tune the process for council members showing up knowing that if it's a four-year cycle, we're going to have different groups of council members uh, in uh, the two different years, two groups of two years. Um, but I do have one question, which is, do we know, do other cities do this where they go out in neighborhoods? Because I'm not aware of other cities doing this kind of thing. You know, the only example I'm aware of is Mountain View where they do something similar. And I can't say this for sure, but I would like to say when we first got it started, they weren't doing it. And so it may be um who knows what chicken and egg which came first.

Got it. Okay. But it's not like a classic typical p. We're kind of inventing things a little bit here. I do think we're inventing it a little bit are unique to Palo Alto in Redwood City. when I um was there, they did something similar where the mayor and vice mayor would um and they would rotate into different neighborhoods and host meetings in the neighborhoods to do similar engagement um from that standpoint. Yeah. Okay. Well, that that's good to know. I think it is good though to involve all seven council members. So, all right. Thank you.

Yeah. I had a few things. U thanks particularly to the vice mayor for pointing out that sometimes the neighbors disagreed. Uh that was an observation that I made and but I didn't put in my notes. So that that's a good ad uh because it does show that there's you know multiple sides to every issue and seven of us have to sort out by some sort of vote which way to go on some of these things. [clears throat] I substantially agree with most everything that's been said. Um, I think the the [clears throat] a couple questions for folks is do are you feeling like the um the staff assignments matchups are the the right amount? Um, one of the things I want to underscore to the to the people is that this is a huge investment, huge investment on the part of staff resources, which I think we're happy to do if it's if it's the right mix and so on. On the other hand, it's kind of like when you're at a event and there's 15 squad cars, you say, "Is anybody else any cop anywhere else? I mean, I feel safe here." But, uh, you know, uh, so it's it's just a huge investment. Are you feeling like that's about right? Uh, or you can scale it down a little bit or just how are you feeling about that?

From a staff perspective, I think that we've got a good equilibrium. As you pointed out, it is a significant investment of time both on the preparation as well as the event itself. But to your your point, all of your points that if it's beneficial and and positively received by residents, we're happy to do it.

Okay. Um I I thought also just underscore one of the points that has been said because I think it was really helpful is when we're on those Zooms doing the planning of these and you had council members and staff members and community members trying to figure out how to be efficient in this amount of time and emphasize. I think that got three different sets of of brains uh working on that and also showed probably more to the residents than than the other two groups I mentioned um you know how this thing really has to work uh to get something like this off the [clears throat] ground and be successful. So I thought that was maybe a a window into the process that was hopefully helpful for the for the residents. Um and and I hope in general staff did find it helpful. Um I [clears throat] know that there were a couple of other just odd things. One person in my own neighborhood said when I reminded about this is what's this meeting about? What's wrong? What happened? You know, and I said nothing. That's the point. We want to just communicate to you about stuff. Oh, that's that's cool. You know, so you get you get a message like this from city hall and you go, "Oh my gosh, now what's happened?" So, in terms of our like you said, you know, door door door talking to your neighbors that that would have gotten over that hump. So, I I probably should have done some of that. Um but the feedback that I got also was even even just the I'll call it just the humanity factor you know one guy said I didn't know a police chief could be that young you know so just the humanity factor of talking to the people who are running the departments and wow that guy is running all the planning stuff and he's still giving me some time so that I thought that was a a real plus uh counc

thank you Mr. Mayor, I have a a leftrain comment and a rightrain comment. Um, first of all, thank you for all the work that goes into this. Clearly, it's um an important facet of how this uh city government um wants to be in relationship with the people who live and work here. And I think it's really excellent. On the leftand side, I'm curious as to how you were gathering the emails at the outset. I can't recall. I attended two of them, but I don't remember kind of the check-in desk. Do they write their names down or is it a QR code? All of the above. [laughter] We um had sheets for people who would prefer to sign in and sign their name and their email. We also had a QR code where they could go to a form and fill it out. Um and if they didn't want to do either, we would take their email and write it down for them.

It strikes me as a tremendous amount of work to then take those handwritten emails and try to make sense of them and get them entered into whatever system is going to then put them on the list that kicks out the response. and hopefully adds them to Uplift local and whatnot. So, whatever we can do to really encourage people to take, you know, door number two or whichever one was the QR code where um we're able to access uh their data more efficiently. Um I'm sure you're

you know that that's the way to go. I just want to encourage you in that direction. On the more rightrain side, um it makes me think about why are we doing this? What is the goal? What do we hope to achieve? What are we hoping to signal by doing this? What are we hoping to receive by doing this? I know we want to show that we are available as a city government, that we are listening to feedback and deeply interested in feedback, that we are transparent, that we are um responsive and uh I wonder if they're not also really wonderful opportunities to build community. Here we are in our neighborhood structure which is a uniquely PaloAlto thing to start with which is great but what can we do in those meetings to foster a sense of community in those meetings two examples come to mind for me one would be as [snorts] we just kick off the evening before we get into your concerns about this that and the other and anything else let's do a show of hands how many of you have lived in Palo Alto for 20 years or more people are so proud to share that the old-timers really want to raise their hands first so I would start there and then how many of you Right? How many of you are 15 to 20 years? Let those people raise and so on. You go all the way down until you say who's been here less than 5 years. All those newish people raise. And then who's been here less than one year. So then you have your most new after you've warmed the room with people who've been here for ages. And then you can say, let's give a round of applause to our new members of the community. Maybe even have them stand up and so on. What a way to show somebody, we see you. You matter to us. Um, and we know there are differences in duration in terms of how long people have been a part of this community. Um, so that's an example of something I'd love to see us do. Another thing is to maybe then um, open with a brief gratitude practice, which is to say again, we know you're here with questions and concerns. Um, but let's start the the evening by just, you know, let's call in three separate people. Name one thing you're grateful for when you think about, you know, living in PaloAlto. When I did that, when I was running for council, um people mentioned the trees over and over again and it was

really odd to me because I live in a part of the city that doesn't have as many doesn't have the treeline streets that so many people um are so in love with. And it was such um an eye-opening experience for me to hear with, you know, a level of specificity, you know, I'm really grateful for for the tree canopy or I'm really grateful I can you my kids are safe biking to school or I'm really grateful for the farmers market or I'm really grateful for the responsiveness of, you know, the utilities team that came out when such and such happened on our block. I just think it's a nice way to um signal that um we're doing hard work here and we know that there are problems to be solved but we can also reflect on things that are going well and it act I think research shows that you open with that kind of tone setting it helps ensure that things do stay more civil u more harmonious even as you wait into more difficult topics and I think the things that I'm suggesting as touchily as they are they don't take a lot of time and I think you can accomplish both of those um in a matter of less than 10 minutes together. So just a thought. Thank you,

Counc.

Thanks. Um so I echo the uh comments by my colleagues. Um I just had um on the the the number of staff members at some of the meetings almost equal the number of of uh ne community member participants. And on the one hand, uh, I think that there there may we may have gone so far that we went too far. Um, but on the other hand, I'd be interested in to what degree the city staff learned and gained uh, understanding of the community as a result of participating. And I think that may be a secondary value to them being there. Um, as we look for kind of where we go from here, we have compiled a good email list of those who have participated in the meetings. Have we done a survey that we blast? We have. Okay, great.

Yes, we um after each meeting we do a a survey as part of the follow-up. Um, so it's within the um all the action items with our responses and ways to get reached back out to us and a um a survey that provides questions about what they liked about the meeting um improvements they'd like they'd like to see and so on. And lastly, um the suggestion that we enlist, uh neighborhood leaders and the tiers of active neighborhood participants to do door-to-door flying uh uh plus perhaps uh posting of flyers on whether we allow it on uh lamp posts or other key locations in their neighborhoods or their greater neighborhoods. I would just say that my civic involvement started with a flyer left on my front door for a neighborhood meeting and um so I even in this technology era um you know it doesn't hit the uh spam folder or the delete folder and and has something special when it's left on your on your uh front porch. Thanks. Yeah, just to follow up on that, we um we created flyers and um most of the time printed a couple thousand for the neighborhood um leaders and they would recruit other neighbors to um go doortodoor. So that was definitely an aspect of the publicity and outreach

and community building because they were finding friends to go knock on doors with. Okay. Is that good direction for for you in terms of We'll take that as a green light to proceed and uh we'll work with you on uh the restart of our new cycle. Great. Thanks very much for the report and to all the staff for all that work. It's been over three years it started. So,

okay, our next item is the uh affectionately known as the BPTP, the [clears throat] bike and pedestrian transportation plan. This is a study session uh draft plan of a city presentation. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and members of the city council. My name is Azie Arce, a senior transportation planner. Tonight, we're excited to present the draft 2026 bicycle and pedestrian transportation plan update, the culmination of a multi-year effort to define the next 10 years of biking and walking in Paulo Alto. Next slide, please. I'm joined this evening by uh transportation planning man manager Sylvia Starlac as well as Rio Lo, the chief transportation official for this city. Next slide, please. The purpose of tonight's study session is to present the draft plan, a comprehensive 10-year strategy, and our proposed near-term projects list. We are here to receive your feedback on the draft plan as we move towards final adoption in early 2026. No formal action is required tonight. Next slide, please. This plan updates our 2012 document to reflect current community needs. The vision developed through extensive community engagement is simple. to create a connected network that supports people of all ages and abilities with a renewed focus on safety and comfort. Building on our leadership in safe routes to school. Next slide, please. This has been a robust multi- uh phase process that began in 2023. In phase

one, introduction and visioning, our community was clear safety is the number one priority, especially for students. We heard a strong demand for safer crossings and a seamless connected network. In phase two, existing conditions, needs, and concerns. This feedback became more specific. The community asked us to strengthen the network by addressing critical gaps and prioritizing key corridors, including San Antonio Road, portions of Middlefield, and focus on bike boulevards. In phase three, we presented the project's recommendations, including the proposed bicycle network, programs and policies, and pedestrian districts. The feedback was mixed. While big street projects offer direct connections, the community questioned their cost and return on investment. We are currently in phase four draft plan. We presented the draft plan to the public and payback in October and November a couple months ago and most recently in at their November 12th meeting. The planning and transportation commission unanimously recommended adoption of the draft plan of the plan I should say by the city council. The commission expressed enthusiastic and unanimous support for the overall quality presentation collaborative process behind the draft plan. Consensus was strong, supporting the plan's focus on low stress residential streets, our bike boulevards. adopting a 20 mph speed limit on bike boulevards and prioritizing El Camino Way safe routes to school project with special consideration for parking impacts to adjacent businesses and the potential to use James Road to offset impacts. More on what we heard of the draft plan in a future slide. Uh but here where we are now is bringing this draft plan to council for review before final adoption by the city council in early 2026. Next slide. Uh this brings us to the draft 2026 BPTP update uh u which was released to the public on October 3rd

with an open comment period through November 14th. Next slide please. The plan is a comprehensive document but its core recommendations are found in the recommendations chapter which details the 2026 bicycle network, the pedestrian districts and the near-term projects that will guide our work for the next 10 years. Next slide please. Uh we didn't just write the plan, we built it with a community over the past couple of years. This slide highlights exactly how the feedback shaped the draft. You'll see we shifted focus away from big streets and towards high comfort, low stress facilities, prioritizing Kalper and deprioritizing Middlefield and integrated specific requests for California Avenue and San Antonio Road. Specifically for the city council on June 2nd, they directed staff to again focus on these low stress residential streets, lowcost, high impact improvements, prioritizing bike boulevards in the recommended bicycle network. Council directed staff to avoid these major corridorwide investments along arterials except where there is no parallel alternative such as San Antonio Road and to consider options for both the Carfree Street portion of California Avenue and adjacent Cambridge Avenue. Next slide, please. To build on the strengths of the existing bicycle network, the draft plan includes the recommended bike weight network structured around these two tiers. the complete vision which includes our entire vision for the city. This is uh not a guarantee. It's just a wish list. And then the low stress bicycle network. Next slide, please. The low stress network is a foundation for our citywide connectivity and our focus for the ne for the near-term implementation. It's built from the complete vision, but prioritizes the projects that create a safe and comfortable network, primarily using our bike boulevards to rapidly

expand access with minimal disruption and promote broad community support. This approach prioritizes calm residential routes that are already preferred by many community members rather than rely on separated bikeways on busy arterials. Through public engagement, bicycle boulevards were identified as the most comfortable and familiar type of bikeway. They're our flagship for our city. Many of you you all know uh the local favorite ones bike boulevard, park boulevard. Note the low stress network does include some separated bikeway projects along small portions of large arterials, but it's done to connect uh between two high comfort low stress facilities on either side. Next slide, please. The near-term projects list is our 10-year action plan. Like I mentioned, it's a subset of the low stress network refined by our prioritization framework and public feedback. This list contains 44 high impact projects that includes the 16 bicycle projects, 23 crossing projects, and other key studies. Attachment B and C is a map and table of the near-term projects in your packet. Next slide, please. for walking. The draft plan includes pedestrian districts, zones like downtown, Midtown, and as a result of community feedback, the newly added San Antonio road area. Uh in these pedestrian districts, we will focus investments on crossings, lighting, and amenities amenities to further create walkable, vibrant community centers. Uh now, next slide, please. I know there's a lot of text on here. I won't read through it, but since releasing the draft plan, we received significant feedback during the public comment period, the community expressed strong support for the low stress focus and a 20 mph speed limit on bike boulevards. Uh we heard the same at the planning and transportation commission. Like I mentioned earlier, we're hearing strong support for prioritizing San Antonio Road before the newly anticipated

housing arrives as a result of the housing element and the area plan. and we've heard a clear desire to add the Park MLAN Wilkkey Miller to Mountain View section as part of the Park Boulevard project. This feedback aligns perfectly with the plan's focus on low stress facilities and we believe this input can be incorporated as we move towards final plan implementation. Next slide, please. Based on that recent feedback and the planning and transportation uh uh commission's unanimous recommendation for approval, staff is proposing these four specific changes to the draft plan shown on this screen. And we are requesting council's feedback tonight on these items as well. Next slide. Uh to conclude, our next step is to incorporate your feedback tonight into the final plan and return for adoption in early 2026. Uh we have additional slides regarding the prioritization framework. the near-term projects table and detailed feedback summaries if you have questions on those topics and happy to elaborate on any of the slides shown tonight. That concludes my presentation and we look forward to hearing your feedback on the draft plan. Thank you.

Thanks very much. [clears throat] Do we have any initial questions from the dis or should we go to public comment? Okay, let's go to public comment.

Our first speaker is Helen G. Okay, wait a second. Let's get the timing here. Is there one for five? Thank you. Yes, apologies. We have one group of five and three uh four individuals. Okay. So, let's do uh eight and three. Eight minute for the group and three for the others. Is that sufficient for you? Okay, great.

Just wait for the slides to come up. Great. Thank you so much. Um, so my name is Helen Gman. I've met with you before and I'm a mom in Palo Alto with three kids who bike to school. And I'd like to talk about Vision Zero. Uh, so first of all, I fully support the intent of Vision Zero and prioritizing bike safety and pedestrian safety over the convenience of motorists. Um, but I do have some concerns based on my past experience working with the transportation department of things we should consider before we approve and move forward with big new infrastructure plans, such as making sure that we're following MUTCD standards, making sure that we have transparent, clear, accountable project plans, and also being responsive and accountable to residents as we move forward. Um, so let's go to the next slide. So, I'll be talking through some of the issues that I've brought to you in the past, and so I'm sure they're all familiar. Uh, the first one here is the Ross Road roundabout, which was a past big infrastructure project that the city did. Um, while I fully again fully support the intent, the implementation did not work out because this did not meet MUTCD design standards as it was originally designed. And a city traffic engineer even said this at a payback meeting. And so the question is why aren't we designing to MUTCD standards from the start and making sure future plans adhere with MUTCD and when residents point this out that it doesn't meet those standards why is it so difficult to fix it? So we did fix this eventually but it took several years took lots of meetings with all of you. It took a petition of over 400 residents and it really shouldn't be that difficult. Uh next slide. Um, so the sidewalk at Aloney Elementary is another example. So across Palo Alto, we have these rolling curbs which are, you know, the historical way that we've built sidewalks and unfortunately a lot of cars park on the rolling curb and block the sidewalk. Um, so obviously we can't go back and change every curb. But

the question is, when we build a brand new sidewalk for children going to school, why do we make a very flat rolling curb such that cars can't even tell the difference between street and sidewalk and they end up driving on the sidewalk all the time right next to the kids biking, walking, scootering to school so that we don't have any clear separation between kids and cars. And I don't understand why this was done. And when I've asked the city, they've provided no justification for this design other than that's the way we've always done it. So again, I think going forward with these big new infrastructure projects, we need to make sure we have a better basis, better safety basis for these decisions than this is the way we've always done it. Um, so next slide. Uh, so here's an example, Grant Thomas, which I've talked to you about a lot of one that really perplexes me of why we just can't fix this. So, I've mentioned before that this is an intersection on Greer, which is the major road with 10 times the traffic of the cross street. Um, where for some inexplicable reason, we've decided to give priority to vehicles coming out of a culde-sac over either cars or bikes that are that are trans going on the safe route to school. So, there's so many reasons anyone on its own that we should fix this. Um, it violates MUTCD because minor streets are supposed to stop for major streets unless there is an engineering study that indicates the other way is safer for some reason. And that study does not exist here, at least according to my public records request. The sight lines are non-compliant. It's a safe route to school, so we should be prioritizing safety of kids going to school. We just heard earlier that safety is the biggest priority, especially for students, but we're not prioritizing the student cyclists here. Um, we've had a member of our community who is already traumatically injured here and wound up in the ICU because of this poor design and sight lines, but we're still not

fixing it. Um, it increases liability for the city by having a non-compliant intersection. We give up our design immunity. And again, the city has given me no justification for why this unusual design is safer. Um, so we need to do better here and at least give some sort of engineering justification if we're going to go against the standard MUTCD principles. Um, so again, it really confuses me why we're prioritizing motorists coming out of a culde-sac over the safety of kids biking to school. Um, next slide. And how much time do I have left here? Three minutes. Okay. Um, so one more slide on Greer and Thomas. So, I drove through this intersection the other day and had my kids take some pictures to show what the sight lines are like. And the challenge here is due to the curvature of the road and the tall hedges, you can't even see what's coming. And you can't yield to traffic that's not stopping if you can't actually see that traffic. So, you can see the picture of my car where I stopped at the point where I actually could see the traffic coming. And in both cases, I needed to go a full two car lengths past the stop sign before I could actually see the cross traffic. Two car lengths. So, I'm basically sitting in the middle of this intersection at the point when I can see the traffic that's coming. Um, so you can see why that's incredibly unsafe that you can't yield to traffic that you can't even see. Um, so next slide. Uh so the next example here again we've talked about it is daylighting and council's given direction on a number of previous occasions that we should move forward with daylighting in PaloAlto. Um but we're not. So according to my last public records request and I just submitted another and I'm waiting on the results. As of the last one, we have painted zero curbs red. Um we didn't have any project plans or timelines to share. We've had zero warnings and zero tickets. Now, hopefully that's changed since my last public records request,

but we'll see. Um, so one example that I was in touch with council about is I filed just one 311 ticket, and the picture's here, to paint a small stretch of curb red at the crosswalk leading to my child's school. And you can see how the car is parked there, blocking visibility. It was a simple request, but it took 3 months, seven escalations just to get an answer. The city manager responded to me and said I would get a response. And then three more weeks and three more escalations later, I finally got an answer back. And the answer is no action will be taken. We will not prioritize curbs on the basis of citizen feedback. So I wrote back and said, "Okay, well, what is the timeline for painting the curbs red near schools?" No answer. Wrote again, no answer. Filed a public records request and the answer was there is no timeline. Um, so next slide. Um, so other cities are leading the way. So, San Francisco has daylighted more than 900 intersections with plans to daylight every single intersection in the city by end of 2026. Calr has made huge improvements on El Camino. Mountain View is using quick build tools and we're just stalling in PaloAlto. We can do better than this. Uh so, next slide. Um so, here's all the requests on 311 that I filed in the last 3 years or so. And you can see here that not only has the city not taken action on a single one of my requests except the one where I had petitions and escalations, but for most of these requests, I didn't even get a response until 3 plus months and many escalations later. So I have to escalate and wait for months just to get a no answer coming back to me. Um, again, Mountain View is doing better. When I filed one request in Mountain View, I got an answer within a week and the issue was fixed in a month with zero escalations needed. So it's possible. So next slide. So I really appreciate the intent here and I am extremely

supportive of vision zero, but we need better systems to make this work. So things that are missing. Number one, we need to make sure we're complying with MUTCD state standards. Number two, we need accountability, project plans, and timelines that the public can see when things are going to happen. And three, we need responsiveness. We shouldn't have to get council involved with everyone ticket. Um, so I hope the council can think about those things before we move forward with these new projects. Thank you. Our next speaker is Penny E.

Um, good evening. I'm Penny Ellison speaking as a member of Payback, but speaking as an individual. Um, in additions to comments that I emailed to council this weekend, I'd like to highlight two additional areas of work I think the draft should prioritize. First, we need policies and programs to address rising safety problems related to misuse of ecycles, especially by youth. Note that I'm saying ecycles, not ebikes. These vehicles are not all created equal. risk reduction through community education and on bike practice has been a key driver of PaloAlto safe routes to school success. [gasps] However, new faster ecycles, many of and heavier bikes of many of which are not street legal are being adopted by youth riders who are not developmentally able to handle these vehicles on public streets. Please direct staff to work with safe routes to school staff, PAPD sustainability staff who have been promoting ecycles, local hospital trauma workers, payback and PTAs to create new local policies and programs to ensure that city efforts across all departments regarding ecycles is aligned and guided by appropriate public safety goals. The current draft does not address this escalating problem. Such policy might also integrate direction to work with state government on new vehicle code related to safeu safe use of ecycles on public streets. Second, I'm glad to hear that staff will continue to work to develop the bike boulevard vision of the 2012 BPTP on big streets and areas that have been upzzoned for transit oriented housing density. Please expedite efforts to develop bike pedestrian facilities ahead

of occupancy of new buildings to help um to get people from new housing to transit into and through town on foot and on bikes. Toward this end, please implement a policy change that was unanimously recommended by Payback at its May 7th, 2024 meeting. Payback recommended adding the following sentence to comp plan T4.1. Street closures may be considered when such closure will enhance safety or will increase use of active transportation modes. And I ask you this because one of the reasons we got the the design that we got on Ross Road is because staff interpreted a policy language change to mean that they could not use filters like we used on Bryant Street where we we filter out non-local car traffic to keep the street calmer for bicycles. I think this is going to be a very important thing and I it feels to me like it kind of got lost. So, thank you for your time. Your time is up. I'll let you do take care.

Our next speaker is Ken J.

Hi. Uh, thank you for accepting comments. Thank you to staff and the consultants who worked on this plan. I want to say I'm generally happy with it. I encourage you to support it. Um, I recognize that not much may change in that plan, but I would like you to consider a few things. How well does this plan address safe routes to work? And by that I mean people commuting within, into, and out of Palo Alto. Uh how would the near-term projects list look if latent demand for the Stanford hospitals, the research park, and the campus itself were depicted? Um does this uh draft plan address at all how students in nonpausd homes will get to school? for example, 4017 Transit Transport Street, which I found on uh figure 310 of the housing element. Um I'm very pleased to see the repeated mention of 20 mph speed limits on bicycle boulevards. I think that would be an excellent addition. Um, I also want to add, um, it would be great if in new high density uh, residential blocks, we did not have vertical curbs next to the sidewalk or rolled curbs as a prior commenter uh, mentioned, but instead you used road verges to separate the sidewalk and the curb. Thank you very much for your service.

Our next speaker is Laura A. Okay. Good evening, council members. My name is Laura Anthony. I'm a resident and parent of two children in Palo Alto schools. I'm also the PTA council chair for safe routes to school, but this evening I'm speaking as an individual. Thank you so much for advancing a vision of increased bicycle and pedestrian safety and accessibility for our city. I've carefully reviewed the plan and while I'm thrilled that the city is prioritizing these important improvements in general, the plan as proposed has three glaring omissions. First, the recent changes at Alma Churchill are helpful, but unfortunately that intersection and surrounding blocks remain dangerous for students and grade separation is still a really long way off. There is more we can and must do to improve safety on this critical school route for our pali students in the interim. The plan does not currently contemplate any further safety enhancements there and it needs to. Second, please make the Middlefield business district from San Antonio to Green Middle School a bicycle friendly zone like the city's other business districts. The Middlefield corridor is home to five public schools and several private schools, two grocery stores, twoarmacies, many eeries and coffee shops, Al Cove, Mitchell Park destinations, Cberly Community Center, Winter Lodge Ice Rank, Middlefield Ballpark, and numerous other small businesses and activity providers. We live only a few minutes away and would love to bike, for example, to ice skating class and then over to one of the cafes or restaurants, but it's not safe or comfortable to bike to destinations on Middlefield. Bicycling on the road, especially with my children, is out of the question. Speeds typically exceed 35 to 40 miles an hour despite the posted limit of 25. And where bike lanes exist, they disappear without warning. The sidewalks are too narrow to comfortably share with the many pedestrians. Also, there's no bike parking anywhere. It's the opposite of

bicycle friendly. Please add the middlefield corridor as a bicycle friendly zone and prioritize real bicycle enhancements so that South Palo Alto and Midtown residents can safely and comfortably bike and walk to their neighborhood groceries,armacies, eeries, and small businesses and community destinations like residents in North Palto. Third, I wholeheartedly agree with the prior comments by Penny E that the plan and city should also direct resources towards safety for youth around ecycles. It's they're getting very dangerous and need to be prioritized with urgency. Finally, the South Palatoto Bikeway project, which brings bike safety enhancements to East Meadow, which is a very important school route for Fair Meadow, JLS, and gun students, is in the plan. This project was originally scheduled to begin construction around now, but was delayed last year due to budget constraints. Understanding that we are still budget constrained, I urge you to please ensure that this crit critical project isn't delayed any further. Thank you so much for your service and for making our city a great and safe place to live.

Our next speaker is Mark S.

Thank you. I strongly support focusing bike infrastructure on South Palo Alto and I also want to uh support uh comments about uh daylighting the curbs. I think this is a law now. Uh I've observed even on Bryant that's a big problem and Penny's uh uh warnings about the absolute growth of these ecycles. There's an excellent article in this past Sunday's uh New York Times magazine, which features what's happened in Marin, including deaths, uh, kids not hitting people necessarily, but themselves dying because of these high-speed uh, emotives, as they call them. Um, I do have some comments on the plan. I personally love Bryant and Kalper, but past East Meadow, this path enters a twilight zone. There just aren't quiet through streets to Mountain Dew in this area. So riders end up getting lost in green meadows or fair meadows or they end up exactly where street planners intended which is channeled onto arterial streets like Middlefield which is also where Google Maps normally tells them to go. This isn't what riders want. It's how the streets are laid out. Big streets is an easy pejorative to oppose any bike safety improvements of Middlefield. But if you look at street maps, avoiding the last several blocks of Middlefield before San Antonio is hard. Many of these riders are people just trying to get work on time or as members themselves have relayed students. I just don't think the city has enough quiet street real estate or tools to draw riders off this part of middlefield. And I think even more riders will end up as the last section of middle as on this last section of middlefield as improvements on San Antonio take place. I also question speed bumps on Bryant with the federal which the federal highway administration views as a risk to cyclists unless they are included unless they include separated bike a separated bike bike bike path bike bypass speed bumps bring cars and riders

into close physical proximity and cause unsafe hurry up passing behavior and I don't think shunting bike traffic from California to colleges also is al a good idea college now has a lot of vehicle traffic with California being closed in so many parking lots it's is a narrow street where it's super easy to get car door. In addition to the fact that streets near any restaurant district are high alcohol areas. In theory, it moves bikes away from pedestrians and diners in California, but at what risk for serious accidents? I think well delineated delineated bike lanes in California with reasonable speed limits. 15 is normal, eight is unstable, and walking bikes during events are a much better solution and much cheaper. And if you read PaloAlto online, many commentators applaud the revised plan as a city finally pushing back against bike riders. I sincerely hope this is not true and the city's bike safety plan remains data driven and addresses the worst safety bottlenecks wherever they are. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Arthur L. Good evening, council members. My name is Arthur Liberman. My first I have just three points. My first point is directed primarily at council member Pat Bert who is often mused about how cyclists from South Palo Alto might access the research park. He probably knows of the bike path that is part of the construction of the former Fry property. It will run from Park Boulevard to Portage. It should be open at the end of the year according to planner Claire Raywald of the planning department. So if a bike ped tunnel under the tracks at El Dorado is built, which you will talk about later this evening, cyclists from South Palatoto can get to the research park by riding on this path along the former Fry property to Portage and then crossing El Camino on the signalized intersection onto Hansen Way. Thus, there is no need for the Chamales spur that he has talked about to the ballpark path. My second point is that bicycle boulevards fortunately are the core of the low stress bicycle network. They are along calm residential routes. My point is that they should have top class pavement in order to make riding on them pleasant and safe. See the note on packet page 23 PDF I think on page 24 under feedback received on the draft plan. Finally, I am a member of Payback speaking tonight only for myself. As noted in the draft report, Payback has requested establishing a formal direct communication channel to the PTC and to the city council. The plan also suggests some changes for Payback's membership. I

look forward to hearing your comments on this topic. I want to thank Azie Artsy from the transportation staff. He has shephered this transportation plan update for a couple of years. He has provided payback with opportunities opportunities to discuss and review the BPTP update during its preparation and he has listened to the feedback. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is Alan W. Uh

my name is Alan Wtel. I'm a a longtime member of Payback, but again I'm speaking as an individual. Uh I'm also a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and I was a member of the California Bicycle Advisory Committee which advises CALR headquarters for 26 years and for half that time I was chair of that committee. I've submitted comments in writing but I am going to summarize them here uh for emphasis. I have two principal points. Uh this is generally an excellent plan but uh there is definite room for improvement. In particular the uh proposals for bicycle infrastructure are limited almost exclusively to designated bikeways but under even the com uh most optimistic scenario the complete vision network only about half the city's roads would be bikeways. Cyclists will always have a significant need to travel on the remaining streets because their origins and destinations often don't lie on those bikeways. And in fact, comprehensive plan policy T-3.5 states when constructing or modifying roadways, plan for use of the roadway by all users. So I would like to see this draft discuss in great give much more guidance about how to implement that policy. What are the design features that need to be incorporated in roadways and how would they be carried out? Um more detail is in my written comments. My other issue is that this draft uh uncritically recommends a number of class 4 separated bikeways which are often referred to as protected bike lanes, although I would dispute that

description. And in fact, these so-called separated bikeways actually create much greater conflicts at turning and crossing points, that is driveways and intersections, than conventional bikeways because they require through bikes to pass right turning traffic on the right, which if you were driving, you would call being cut off. Now, I have discussed this at great length uh in papers that were presented to payback and also attached to my written comment to the council. I don't expect the council to decide these technical issues themselves, but I would like you to ask for a thorough written and impartial response from staff to be delivered at a future date, but in a timely fashion that would enable appropriate changes in the draft plan. Thank you very much. And that concludes public comment on study session item two.

Great. Thank you very much. [clears throat] We've gotten a lot of public comment on this um in addition to what staff got and um happy to have sort of these comments again tonight as we look at this draft. Um we're going to bring this back to to council and see what kind of comments they would like to make at this point, including questions of staff. [clears throat] Council member Bert. Thank you. Um well, I may have a couple rounds, so I'll get started here. Um yeah, let's do state of the five minutes per round. Thank you for mentioning that.

Thank you. Um so, uh I wanted to uh raise some of the issues that members of the public have brought up. uh both Safe Roots to School members, general members of the public and a number of payback members. Um and I thought they were very insightful. Um one had to do with the relationship of our plan to surrounding communities. uh Stanford I've I've a long time been concerned that uh our plans weren't uh as integrated with Stanford's biking uh as would be desirable. We also have part of our school district that comes from Los Altos Hills as well as Stanford. So to what extent uh have we integrated uh those surrounding communities plus all the work commutes that we have? Um to what extent is that prioritized in the plan? We've we continue to have conversations with neighboring jurisdictions planners on their activities. I know Mountain View recently adopted an active transportation plan. So integ integrating some of the recommendations and trying to link the facilities on the neighboring jurisdiction side to the recommendations that we're proposing. Uh for example, I mentioned earlier the uh Park Boulevard project and the uh recommendation to include the section that cuts to MLAN uh ultimately to Wilkkey and Miller and connects to Mountain View um as a way to uh strengthen the network between the two cities. In addition, although um we steered away from an entire middlefield corridor improvement, we are as one of the items that we're asking council's

feedback on tonight as an additional recommended change to the draft plan is to um uh install a facility on the north portion of Middlefield connecting uh Middlefield downtown area to Menllo Park. there is the adjacent Bryant Bike Boulevard, but we believe a redund a redundancy in the bike network in that more dense area is appropriate. So, that's just another way that we're looking at connecting um bike facilities between jurisdictions.

So, um so I in that description I didn't hear kind of the Stamford integration which is probably our our greatest biking connection. So, I'll just emphasize in the interest of time that I think that is a high priority. Um, you mentioned the um the extension of of Park down to Wilkkey, which I had seen that payback had had that as one of their recommendations, but I don't find it in the near-term bike projects. And yet we have things um uh like the Seal Avenue tunnel in the uh intersections in priority intersections, but that project has been um uh it's not on a a near-term basis that we're we're looking at that. So I do think that um we need to look at those connections and elevate them more and maybe deescalate some others. Um the issue um about the there had been in the prior comp plan um kind of two different things. One was actually it was cited that we did have for 20 years a policy to look at converting when we changed curb sides and had rolled curves to looking at having vertical curbs. and that's not in the current comp plan for reasons I'm not sure why that was omitted. Uh but I don't see that as a recommendation to restore that. Um and then um the same thing on um the addition to policy T41, the prior comp plan, it had language about um kind of street filters, not necessarily full closures, but things like we have on uh

Bryant Black Boulevard and uh the need to have that comp plan policy change. So those are two specific comp plan changes that I think are important. Um I also want to bring up the issue of um the electric cycles um and the different classifications that we have of them. We had a discussion I think a little over a year ago and had some discussion on what legal latitude we have and don't have. Uh, one area that I read recently is that some school districts are prohibiting class 2 and three ecycles from being parked on campus. And that was a way to restrict their use in school commutes. These are the ones that are not pedal assisted class one, but as you know, um, fully motorized, uh, or, uh, largely so. Um, so I'll leave that. Um, I have a number of other comments and thank you.

Others, council rectal. Yeah. First of all, thank thank you very much. Uh, this is a really good plan. I think I agree with most of it. There's some fine points I agree that need to be polished, but I think we've done a really good job. Um, what is our policy for daylighting? Painting curbs. I I know it's that's a huge undertaking for the whole city, but we certainly can go through and prioritize in around school areas, areas where we know kids are commuting. I think we could there'd be a lot of low low hanging fruit there. I need to turn this on.

Hello. Uh Ria Hutar low, the chief transportation official. So, uh we are working through both an analysis and implementation process for the daylighting process. We're underst staffed at the moment in our parking group. They're covering the street sweeping, signage, uh, plus the curb management, the contracts for parking and the PaloAlto links and it's one person at the moment. So, um, so it's taken some time to, uh, to implement that. That being said, what we what we have done analysis to highlight the locations where we will start. And so we're going to start with locations that are on school routes and that are on the high injury network. And also when we're doing the signage for the street sweeping, we will take a look at um daylighting in those locations as well.

So can you give me some background what has to be done every time you paint a curb? Can you just send someone out there with a paint can or is there an else behind every time you paint? Um, so in some cases we can send someone out there with a paint can and that I think that in the locations where we do the street sweeping that's likely to be the case. In other cases there's a need for a little bit more uh infrastructure in conjunction with that in order to ensure that people turn like it doesn't increase the speed of turning cuz that has been an issue in some locations where they implement AB413 that it's resulted in faster turning speed. So, we don't want to inadvertently create that effect as we're creating more visibility.

Okay. But if that there's a stop sign there, then it's just an enforcement issue. So, you're talking about painting a red curb on an uncontrolled intersection. Is that uh Yes. Any intersection. Okay. And actually, it it could be enforced without the red as well. Okay. And is there there was a downtown there was a curb that was painted red. It was longer than the state law. Uh because there's some issues with vision. Uh will you be doing a vision check on all these curbs or are you just going to go out and paint the state law and then revisit that later? Our plan is to just go out and paint the the 20 or 15 ft. Um yeah. Okay. And do we have an estimate how long it's going to take us to start?

No, not yet. And this is just a manpower issue. Yes. Okay. [sighs and gasps] Um, another issue was the rolled curbs. I live in an area where there's rolled curbs and when I had kids in the stroller, we had a wide stroller and people, you know, they're not being, it's not malice. They're just trying to be nice. They're trying to clear the road and they go up on the rolled curbs and so I'm coming down the street and I'd have to go around so many cars. And luckily my street where I did most of the walking is fairly low traffic but there were some areas where I went by it was a little dicey to go into traffic. Uh what can we do to I assume that's just an enforcement issue

enforcement of of getting cars to not park on them. Yeah. Because it's illegal to park up on the sidewalk. Right. Right. [clears throat]

And so what do we do? Do does the city have any action? For example, we could you send parking enforcement out there and put leaflets under uh windshield wipers and that'd be really fast. Sure. If that's what we want to do with our limited parking um limited police uh staff, we do have online available to anybody um on I on our transportation website a flyer that instructs people on how to park on rolled curbs. I know there are some residents who have printed out that flyer and put them on cars in their neighborhood.

Okay. But I I understand again if you did the whole city it'd be very timeconuming. But we know there's areas where there's a lot of children walking and biking and can we prioritize that? Is that something that transportation would be supportive of? Sure. I mean we yeah we we can um we assuming we have the staff resources to do that but yeah okay of course okay uh my time is up I'll do a second round thank you others [clears throat] council member

thank you Mr. Mayor, it was interesting as public commenters were speaking, I got a New York Times alert. The shocking crash that led one county to reckon with the dangers of ebikes came into my phone right as we were talking. It's like they [clears throat] are listening to everything we say. No, this was an actual alert from the New York Times. Um, when it comes to the rolled curb issue, I learned when I went to the uh Midtown ice cream social that I had parked incorrectly because one of our residents who's really good about informing you about such things. Yeah. Let me know that um I had parked incorrectly. And I felt silly, but in truth, I don't think I ever learned how you're supposed to park at a roll. I thought you're supposed to roll up onto it. I thought that's why it was rolled. Get off the street. get a little bit, you know, and so I'm just saying this because maybe other people have made that mistake or made that assumption. And I think this is the perfect opportunity to um be efficient with the message by doing a really clever short video that uh teaches people what a roll curve is and how you're supposed to, you know, what you're supposed to do and not supposed to do. And I think uh a clever video would catch people's attention. you know, people are um would see it on the city's social media, maybe on the website, maybe it goes out in a link in the in uplift local. Um I think it's a great way to do uh a lot of community uh educating uh with a fairly low lift if as long as you've got people, you know, who who are adept at such things. Uh, I think demonstrating it would be would be uh helpful and I think it would also um be a little captivating for people to see like, hey, the city's really trying to get us to understand the right thing to do. There may be other subjects that we could treat in that way. But I just throw it out as an example of maybe a different approach that might really pay off. That's it for me. Thank you,

Council Member Stone.

Thank you, Mr. mayor and thanks to to staff and all the community members that have been involved in in this up update. I agree with general comments that have that have been made. Um but also kind of want to follow up on a lot of the concerns that Miss Gman raised in in her presentation that I have found to be frustrating over the years at how long some of this has taken. I know it all comes down to resources and prioritization and it that's all just going to become harder over the next few years as well as we continue to face additional deficits and um and and other strains on our on on those resources. And so I, you know, I I am kind of curious what are some of the more low-line fruits that we can that we can do that can that we can use those resources to the best way possible. And I I think the I think the daylighting law and and improvements will make a significant significant change. I I think focusing a lot of this on particular areas especially safe routes to school especially um in areas of more that we have a more concentrated amount of amount of schools makes a lot of makes a lot of sense. So is there a way to kind of repprioritize this even more so that we can that we can address some things that might not be as as labor intensive or resource focused. I don't know. Um, that's just my general comments on on that on the proliferation of of ebikes and in so many ways more really motorcycles. Um, I've I've been incredibly frustrated by this as as well. I've brought this up on policy and services several times now, especially when we have had our state lobbyists. For those who who don't know, we're

we're essentially and staff can correct me if I'm wrong in any way on this, but we're preempted under under state law to really be able to address the or really regulate those type of ebikes on our public streets. I I believe Marin County got approval to be able to do some sort of pilot program to be able to regulate. I'm seeing nods from the city attorney. Always a good sign. So I I I think there's a lot of frustration around the state and and here locally for really good reason. These are I mean again these are really more like motorcycles than traditional bicycles and I think the state has just been far too slow to be able to respond to really what's a significant public health issue. So whatever we can do within the limitations of the of the law, I I think that should be prioritized. See how more how creative we can creative we can get. I know at our I believe our last policy and services committee, we included in our legislative guidelines uh basically direction to our lobbyists to support uh efforts at the state level to provide additional regulations on those ebikes or at least to provide greater local control to be able to to regulate th those. I know those will be coming back to the council to be able to support soon. So, uh, interested in what we can do. It's just frustrating that the state has really limited limited our our powers there. So, um, but again, thanks for this a lot of lot of great work and generally very supportive.

Vice Mayor Vinker,

thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, I too really appreciate this plan update. Um, it supports, you know, so many things that we care about. our climate and sustainability goals, our physical and mental health goals, and supports both our schools and our business community to uh to help those and support those who commute by bike. Um, and I kind of think I'm your target audience in a way because I'm someone who biked a lot when I was younger everywhere and now just for certain errands and appointments. But I do aspire to to bike more and get to the point that that's more of a a default transportation mode. And so when I look at these things in this plan, I think what would make me more comfortable and more likely to jump on my bike instead of in my car. Um and so I'm seeing a lot to like here on that front. Um and uh I wanted to mention I'm glad that we're including um cyclist education, including like seniors, not just school kids. Um, but we might also, appropo of some of this discussion, want to include some driver education about sharing the road if we could figure out a way to do that. Um, when I mentioned the disagreement at town halls, the one that leapt to mind was when we were at Green Middle School and one person stood up and talked about those darn cyclists who, you know, are in the middle of the road when they're driving their car. And then right after that, a cyclist stood up and talked about those darn drivers who turn right without seeing if there's a cyclist, you know, sharing the road. So, um I think just generally, um getting people to be more cognizant of things we should do uh to respect each other on the road. And with respect to parking on rolled curbs, it's kind of interesting because um my neighbors actually started circulating the flyer from the city, but they did it digitally, I'm pretty sure, on our

little Google groups for our our street. And you know, thinking back to our earlier item, I wonder if this is something this is something we could ask Pan to do in sort of a a two-way street here. Um, you know, this is something we care about. If you want to help us circulate uh this information, it's something that we could could offer at Town Halls. Um, yes, I echo what my colleagues have said about ebikes and ecycles. In fact, I had got that same New York Times alert, and I will confess that I leaned over to my colleague to my left and said, "Look what just came in." And to my uh colleague, Council Member Stone, it in fact was about the Marin uh incident that precipitated that exception. And um and yes, you're absolutely right about uh we did add that to the draft uh uh legislative guidelines are coming back to council. And you know, I don't know. Um, I'm I'm I'm intrigued by the creative parking um efforts at schools and you know I I I don't know if there's enough that PTC could do with it if they wanted to first look at creative things but if so I would I would encourage that because I think you know if there's anything that we can do to get around the preeemption and and to address this it is something that's on everybody's minds. Um I uh if you can do it in my last minute 40 here um I am curious to hear a little more about the North Palo Alto Menlo Park connection. Um that's the middlefield separated bikeway um where I guess the the boundaries are being extended um from Channing to Everett or vice versa. Anyway, could you tell me a little bit more about that?

Yes. Yes. And I realized I left my mic on. Um, uh, yes, happy to share, uh, a little bit more of that. Last time we were here in June, you shared a an actual story about you getting to an appointment and we heard similar stories of folks uh, using portions of Middlefield to get to their final destination. So, as a response to that, and I was uh alluding to it earlier, in certain areas of the city, it's appropriate to have a a redundancy in the bicycle network, especially in more dense urban areas. And we believe that portion of Middlefield is a good candidate for that uh to provide uh multiple uh facilities for people to use um to get through uh uh our city. And so, um, rather than a a corridorwide improvement, uh, on on the entire stretch of middle field, uh, the community was not in favor of that. Um, so we, uh, laser focused on those portions that we have heard, um, as a response to doing some work on middle field.

Yeah. No, I appreciate that. And I think I think that's a good start. It's just there's kind of a weird area of PaloAlto where the streets all of a sudden aren't in those night in that nice grid area just to the east of Middlefield south of where you're talking about and you have to kind of spllay out to get over to that. I mean, you can then go parallel to Middlefield up there. But I think that's a good start. Let's see what the uses and where we go for there. So, thank you for uh hearing and responding to that and I'll save the rest for later. Thank you. Uh I just want to make a couple of uh comments [clears throat] not repeating my colleagues. Um I I think that clearly I mean this is a great document. Clearly there's been a lot of progress. There's been a lot of listening on the part of uh the city here and a lot of uh appropriate input from the community. Uh we have substant of substantial additions and changes here on packet page 23 I think it was that you're asking 24 that you're asking for us to look at which is core evidence that that we're listening uh and experts are listening to experts and this is getting better. So um I'm really pleased with the document at this stage. Um I hear from public comment uh both in writing and tonight that you know there's still room for improvement. Um but at the end of the day there's also room for disagreement um because we're all focused on safety primarily and what we can do in this project over you know this many projects over this many years. So we're not trying to get to unanimous opinion before we're all happy with this is my hope. [clears throat] Um I also of course have high regard for our staff but I also know that PTC dug into this very deeply and listened to all all all points of view as well. So, uh, the document carries high credibility with that, uh, with that endorsement. Um, the references to more short-term,

uh, from a public commenter, a more short-term help on Charleston and Alma, it seems like that's somewhat separate from the uh, item number three, which is Churchill and Alma and Bryant, or is that inclusive of any short-term issues there? And and I know that's sort of the wrong question because this is a long-term plan, but it's also a safety issue. Did we just briefly adjust? Is there anything we can do in the short term around the church that we're not already planning or that the public doesn't know that we're planning for some reason? You're yeah you're so you're referring to one of the recommended changes I believe on slide 14 we discussed adding a new project this class 4 separated bike facility on Churchill Avenue from Alma to Brian Street um with a traffic circle and you're and and you're asking if there are

does that in your judgment does that address the comment that came out from the public? I um I would say it addresses a a significant an area of significant concern. Whether it addresses the you know whether that stretches addresses all of their concern, I I can't speak to that. But it does focus on a on a on a priority area. Okay. Okay. Thanks, Council Member Bert.

Thank you. So I'll first support uh the need to uh somehow improve the safety of that massive number of student riders coming [clears throat] going to and coming out of Pali where in the afternoons they're coming from both directions in high volume. It has to be the most dangerous bike situation the city without easy solutions to it. But I think we need to put it out there as a problem that yet needs to be solved even if we can't readily identify the solutions. One simple partial solution is um westbound there's only a very small bike box um and um there's a parking space right almost to the corner that if we actually did the uh daylighting and turned a bike box into that um we we'd have the ability for a lot more students to queue up there at least. Uh, and as council member Rectto was talking about, let's prioritize the daylighting zones. There are some that are really clearly easier, more important, and ones that we should simply do. Um, so I'd put that as an important thing. Um, I saw that there were a number of recommendations from payback and I I recognized that the planning and transportation commission spent a good deal of time, but it's payback who live and die by the bike plan and they they really have developed a lot of expertise, intimate knowledge of the community and and the context. And I I didn't see I saw that the staff report on page nine listed some set of recommendations. We had others from payback members tonight, but I saw nothing about what which of

them were incorporated in the plan. And from what I can tell, a lot of the um uh near-term projects uh the ones that payback reference would be near-term projects, I couldn't find in the near-term projects. And so it it I don't see any any staff response to how payback's recommendations were incorporated or not incorporated and why. And I think that's very important. there are principal bike advisory committee um advisory to staff directly indirectly uh to the council and I just don't see how their their recommendations have been responded to and I think many of them are very good and important. Um, so I'd emphasize that. Um, the I I do want to endorse uh one of the things that was brought up about bike parking. Um, uh, in this context, it was at Midtown, but throughout the city, um, bike parking really facilitates uh, bike use. If a bicyclist can park virtually at their location, it saves a whole bunch of time compared to driving a car and finding a parking space in a parking garage or whatever. We've had programs uh to offer on public space uh bike racks and and those, but we don't have a program to uh um subsidize bike racks on private space. And I think that's a program that I would like to see, whether it's a 50% subsidy or whatever, a deliberate program. Midtown, for instance, it's a bunch of private parcels in a shopping center and and um how do you get through to get the the amount of uh bike parking that we need? And there's a lot of places similarly in

the city. Um the um I saw a payback had mentioned the um basically on Embaradero from essentially Emerson to the underpass another high hazard zone of about less than 100 yards. I thought that had we had been told that once some utility work was done earlier this year, we were going to get this year the improvements, but I don't see anything happening. I'm running out of time. Yeah, sorry. Yes, that that is moving forward.

Okay. So, it's not on the near-term project list because it'll be done before then. Okay. Thank you. Um, one thing I want to note on the the Kalper bike boulevard, which I think is a real good idea. Um, but when you get to Embaradero, there's no signal. We had a fatality, a pedestrian fatality a few years ago at that location. And I know it's a hazardous place because I'll take Kalper because when I want to get down to Mitchell or uh Cberly, that's the best route to get there rather than going several more blocks out to Bryant and then coming back again. But it's dangerous to cross Embaradero. We have two signals side by side at Bryant and Waverly. And um I didn't see any mention of the consideration of moving the Waverly signal to Kalper. Moving a signal is always a big deal, but if you're going to make a bike boulevard there, that's a dangerous missing link in that bike boulevard. So I' I'd recommend that. Um I have more comments, but I'll wait until another round hopefully.

Vice Mayor Vinker.

Yeah, and I'll I'll be quick. I just wanted to add a couple of quick things. Um, one is just generally, um, I think somewhat like one of the speakers said, um, and and this mayor to be there, but I endorse the idea of making bikeways more like Bryant with the sort of permeable barriers than like Ross Road. And I think, you know, we all have seen the pros and cons of those, but um, that really is more comfortable and safe for, you know, riders like me um, than things that feel kind of overengineered almost. Um, the other thing is, and I know this is more controversial, but I I am very um I I I really do wish we could find a way to figure out the middlefield corridor between Green Middle School and Winter Lodge. And I know it's a tough stretch of road, but you know, I go back and down, you know, uh, Lewis and over and around the other ways and try to aim it so I end up on middlefield at the right spot, but then I'm like, okay, now I have to get across the street and down a stretch. and it's really is tricky and it is a retail area we're trying to support. Um, and a lot of the kids are going to go there anyway after school. So, that's one where I don't know if there's any additional thinking you want to share, but it's an area I'd be very interested in continued uh focus. [snorts]

We can certainly look at that area again as part of that middle field strategy of targeting those priority locations. Yeah, that that's great because I think, you know, the more successful we are with the retail sort of redevelopment there, the bigger of a problem we're going to create. Um, so thank you, Council Rectal.

Yeah, thank you about the the larger streets. I I really think that it's much more comfortable and safer. We really want more bikes on the small streets, but there are some cases, for example, Middlefield is a really good example where the commercial is a destination. And what we're trying to do is really connect all the places of the destinations. And we've done a decent job with safe route to school, but we also have like the research park. There's a lot of employers up there. And when I worked at the research park, no one biked. I I would be one of the few bikers that would go up there. Uh but you also have commercial zones and commercial zones whether it be Calav or uh Middlefield is a big [clears throat] uh commercial is a big bike draw. So if we could for example trim out a lane in Middlefield and have better bike lanes in that commercial area, I think that's good. Even though I'm not a supporter of having bike lanes on major streets, I think that's in those commercial districts. We we need to have bike safety. If I'm down at Safeway and I want to go down to Walgreens, it's there's no great route and if you have to cross over, it's you I end up riding on sidewalks a lot and it's just it's it's not it's not well planned out right now. And so I think that's a high priority for me is having better connections at Middlefield. Um we on Alma between Meadow and the train station at uh down in Mountain View. Uh we have this really wide boulevard and that seems just to be begging for a protected bike lane and there's been some talk about that. Is that a future plan? I don't see it on the map. [sighs] Um, I believe as part of the San Antonio Road area plan, that piece in the southern part on southern part of Alma

is being looked at.

Okay. Because the the circles are really hard to bike through. People get lost. And if you could route people, especially the ones that are going to the train station along Alma and then have them connect up to Meadow, I think that would be a good thing. And there aren't a lot of curb cuts, so I think that'd be a good thing. Uh, another thing is the Metadero undercrossing. Uh, I see that there is a dot on the map. Uh, I'm not sure what kind of time frame we're looking at. Are we actively talking to Valley Water at all about that? We've had preliminary discussions with Valley Water. So, yes. Um, their response uh to our idea to move forward with a bikeway project is sure. Uh but it's all on the city to facilitate the bike way. Um essentially saying yes, go for it, but Valley Water is not going to get involved beyond just the permitting piece of it as um we understand it does flood half of the year.

Um so there might the seasonal will be great. If you go down there right now, there are bike tracks. People are using it right now, right? And so it'd be really nice to actually acknowledge that and and have a safe and comfortable bike. Uh to me, one of the ways you could access that would be going through there's a utility driveway. Have we had any discussions about utilities department? Would they be receptive to us making that a um a bike lane? Are you referring to the area closer to 101?

Yeah. Uh we have not had preliminary discussions with utilities about using the driveway near the area, the Colorado substation there. Right. I think we've had discussions with them um I think as part of the uh Midtown connection connection study that looked at um the other area of Matadero Creek closer to Lom Verde. Yeah. and um and that was more contentious, but I think this there's no one down at this neck of the woods by the Colorado substation. I think it would be relatively inexpensive and I think it would be a big bang for the buck. If you're going to Google for Midtown, that would be a great connection.

Yeah. My last comment on the Midtown con or the uh Madera Creek for the 2012 plan, it included a larger section. What we included in our complete vision, not our our near-term plan, but our complete vision is to carry over to carry forward the part of Madero Creek closer to 101 that is feasible um for future consideration and future plans. So, we didn't want to remove it because there is community support for it and there is a feasibility to it. Um but it's not on our near-term list for 2026.

Okay. Another area I think that needs work is the Bryant bike boulevard between Embarano and downtown is a really a car boulevard. It in the morning if I bike that there's cars buzzing by me really fast. And could we put some filters on that? I think that would be a really useful thing to really make that a bike boulevard again.

So that project uh is on our near-term list. The Bryant Bike Boulevard improvements from Embaradero to downtown. Um we've received significant community feedback supporting that project. It is our flagship bike boulevard. Um it's just a matter of what is uh the appropriate treatment types. Um you heard earlier that some of the comp plan policies at least the interpretation we have today might limit the type of interventions that we can uh install. Uh however we can look at all options.

Okay. Thank you. We got a lot of community feedback on that at one of the community outreach groups that we talked about as our first item. So, uh, there was there was transportation staff there and and documented and it's it's underway. Council member Burton,

thank you. Um I wanted to um raise u an issue that Penny had put in her uh written comments which is that the uh and I haven't been able to go through and verify this but um she said that the replica data which is the data tool that uh uses cell phones to pick up um origin and destination and and trip routes um doesn't include any um uh uh so-called trips to Palun Green or Fletcher. If that's the case, that sounds like a gap. uh and that the K through 12 uh that the um report only shows biking activity to and from school and no other biking activity by kids uh in the afternoon and evening and all that. Um and uh it doesn't include any walking trips to school. So I'll just uh put those out there as uh concerns to look at whether it has the right data set there. Um then I I did want to raise an issue on uh that I saw in some of the comments on and how this bike plan compares to the 2012 plan and I haven't seen any kind of even at a high level a sidebyside comparison. Did we just start over or do we really have here's what we had before? here's what is different both in terms of form and content as well as specifics so that we really understand what we're changing and rather not have some sense we reinvent the wheel every x number of years um and then um I wanted

to raise the issue on um the bike plan or it somewhere in the staff report it referred to a a particular focus on the relationship of the bike plan to the South PaloAlto um connectivity project. Uh later tonight, we're looking at what the rail committee recommended we focus on uh a crossing in the vicinity of Matador Creek. And yet on the near-term projects, I didn't see anything about the prospect of a um a class one bike path uh between uh the research park and the back fences of um Chamalus. It's a 40 foot wide uh rightway that is leased by Valley Water, Stanford Land. A number of years ago, we had had a whole walk through there. There was a lot of interest um uh by Stanford and the city and um and a willingness by Valley Water to consider collaboration there. Um right now we have if if students are going to gun, we're directing them on to Matador Road, a winding narrow road that we painted Cheryls on that is really unsafe to ride for the most part. And we have the possibility of a an off-road class one path that would also serve all of Stanford Research Park from all of Midtown. And uh uh with class one bicycle uh ebikes that will assisted, you would have people who would be able to get to their job in the research park faster than driving. uh be if we have our our underpass in the vicinity of Matadero into this and it connects with the ballpark path to Gunh high and all

the research park to me it's a really extremely attractive priority for um addressing what has long been a weakness in our plan which is we call the east west route basically uh it's not true east west but we know what what we mean um and so connecting that uh with all of the also all the development that we're looking at that area of new housing on El Camino uh one or two thousand new units and in the NVCAP area and a new park in the NVCAP area uh and students that are in the Ventura side and which elementary will they go to. All that connectedness is really important and it's not in the near-term priority. Um, so I want to really push that. Um, so those are my comments and my last of them. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you again to the public input in writing and and in person and all the input you've been putting into this and staff. Good good progress. Hope we've given you additional direction here. Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Our next item is the consent calendar and I'm sure we have public comment on that.

Yes, mayor we do. We have

If there are any requests to speak for consent calendar items, please submit your public comment card. Right. We have 11 requests to speak on consent calendar items.

Okay, we're going to do two minutes each. Our first speaker is Herb B.

Reminding everyone that item 14 has been pulled for now. My comments are on item nine, the additional cleaning in downtown and you uh California business districts. Uh the additional need for cleaning is caused by having uh businesses having dining on on the sidewalks and in the propping spaces in the streets and they should be paying for that additional cleaning. Uh I think the simplest thing is an assessment strict uh for each uh the two business areas for it's composed of the uh businesses that have dining on the sidewalks and the second assessment district for each for those that have uh establishments in the form of parking spaces in the streets. uh at the neighborhood uh community meeting about this staff mentioned that there was money uh from the parking assessment district, but that money is used for cleaning uh the the parking lots. It's not money that is applied to clean sidewalks or uh places where they used to be parking spaces. So I would think it's appropriate uh for uh the businesses that are creating uh the problem to pay for it. If only one or two businesses do clean their sidewalks, the rest of the sidewalk is going to continue to be need cleaning. So there's no incentive for that. And if the city ever enforces uh the law on sweeping debris into the street and residential areas uh where you see from time to time individual properties do that or just don't clean the sidewalk at all, they're going to wonder why you're doing it in residential areas but

not in in the business areas. So I would suggest you uh remove this from the consent calendar and uh create uh the fact that the people who are creating the problem should be paying for it. Your time is up and charge you from the forward. Thank you. Our next speaker is Hamilton H.

Hi. My comments are on consent item number five. The 2026 gas coast and substantial rate changes for the current year. I want to start by thanking the UAC gas KOSA subcommittee including UTSA Gupta and the staff for your their hard work and collaboration. The 2025 gas KOSA proposed discretionary changes that significantly lowered the cost for small business, raised residential costs by a third, and financially discouraged electrification. The new 2026 KOSA improves upon this by better explaining these changes, distributing the costs more fairly between rate classes, and supporting a residential tiered rate structure that encourages electrification as was done in previous years. The overall revenue increase for gas utility payers remains 5% for fiscal year 202526. Residential medium monthly bills will now increase 13% for this fiscal year, down from the originally proposed 22%. Small G2 customers will see their monthly fixed fees drop 83% from $170 to $29 per month based on updated data and new accounting methodology choices. Unfortunately, this strongly disincentivizes electrification. I believe the city's legal team exaggerated legal risks which prevented the inclusion of an input guiding principle to consider the climate action plan while remaining subordinate to Prop 26. This should be added for future gases. While not an ideal result, this new 2026 gas KOSA addresses the majority of top concerns that impact the residents and is a substantial step in the right direction. Thank you. Our next speaker is Marie Joe F.

Good evening. Item 12, an AWS 24/7 automated weather system will increase flight operations, including nighttime flights and instrument operations because upgrading the weather system will make the airport a more attractive destination. staff claims that operations will not increase while admitting at the same time that the planes bound for San Carlos will now be able to land at PAO. AWAS doesn't change instrument approaches or certification requirements. However, it makes instrument training and operations much more convenient. Flight schools generally prefer airport with AOS systems and AOS helps attract pilot. The April project should be removed from the consent calendar for any of the following reasons. One, staff staff confirmed that the contracts can be extended beyond December 31st. Two, one council member is missing. Three, community engagement has been minimal. Residents got a 1-hour Zoom call on November 13 that was dominated by pilots who have been consulted for months. Four, transparency is lacking. Where's the costbenefit analysis? What about the maintenance cost that includes three annual inspections not cheap and not paid by the FAA? Why a 3P not a was three? Or how about fixing the current system? Five, environmental documents that factually incorrect statements. That's what caught us on pirate if people remember. Six, the FA grant restrictions prohibit using funds for gender ideology programs, elective abortions, or shielding undocumented immigrants from deportation. This contradicts the recent council resolution to join the lawsuit against the current administration's grand conditions. As a resident, I get more scrutiny about removing a debt tree from my property than this airport project.

That has long-term negative consequences for many residents, including East Palo Alto, and it will increase your carbon emissions. Please remove it from consent calendar. Thank you. Our next speaker is Darlene Y, followed by Shaunie K. We value the working relationship with the city and airport staff. It pains me to comment today. Item 12 information is partially legitimate but incomplete and deserves council's attention. Council has not been given the clarity for informed oversight. The packet does not state that AWAS is not required by the FAA, yet invokes FA standards in ways that imply obligation. Awas adds a new 24-hour coverage, new infrastructure, and a raised tower. While framed as a replacement, positions as an improvement and replacement conflated with the FA required papy and REIL, it's difficult to understand the proposal increasing the tower height. FAA guidance requires a 30foot wind sensor, not a 30-foot tower. This standard could be met with a separate mass, so it's unclear why the existing tower must be raised if it's a replacement. The NEPA document was marked no for operations exceeding 90,000 annually. PAO averages more than 150,000. Staff later said the consultant could have marked yes, but they should have marked yes because accuracy matters even when no additional analysis is required. The dark sky ordinance also partially legitimate but incomplete. Staff describes dimming features but not address the question, what FAA allowed flexibility exists to support the proposed dark sky ordinance. The packet omits the grant conditions that are at odds with the council's own positions. Should we rely in hope that the rules will change rather than make decisions consistent with our principles today? Given these gaps and confirm by staff

that contracts can be extended, it's reasonable to ask why approvals being rushed on any of these issues would warrant pausing until council has complete and accurate information, especially because we have no safety problem that's been identified. Thank you. Our next speaker is Shaunie K, followed by Andrew P. Good evening, mayor and council. I'm Shani Klein House for the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, resident of Palo Alto, and do not speak for the parks and recre commission. I am also asking you to pull item 12 from consent. It bundles seven actions for the airport automated weather observation system and it includes quite a number of amendments to contract amendments and con and construction funding. Given the airport's location right next to the bay lands, this item should be discussed by you with a lot more information. Even small upgrades can have ripple effects. The AOS system can produ introduce new new or elevated lighting systems which so close to the baylands can disorient migratory birds, attract them to the airport and potentially even increase wildlife conflicts at the airport which could potentially increase the risk to the flights but there is no studies on that for this airport. So we don't really know. So there is no squa and nippa is marked as no impact. So you don't have full analysis of the potential of lighting and regarding how many flights if it's going to increase or decrease the number of flights and operations. Um I heard a lot of opinions at that meeting that we had. Uh but there was no actual data to support it. Just one person thinks this way and the other one thinks something else. So I think that having some studies,

analysis, public disclosure and mitigation of potential impacts is needed and I think you don't the council doesn't have enough information as is to make an informed decision. So I'm not necessarily asking you for full SQL review, but I think the item could be pulled so you can have further more questions especially about wildlife conflicts and potential conflicts with the bay lands and um residents would understand better what what's happening. Thank you. Our next speaker is Andrew P followed by Tom M.

Good evening. My name is Andrew Pollock and a CEO of a Palto business and user of the airport. I am speaking in support of item 12 pertaining to FAA funded airport repairs. I appreciate the excellent work of the city and airport staff as reflected in the comprehensive report submitted with this item to council. As staff correctly notes, the proposed works seeks to simply repair, replace, and bring up to current standards, aging, and broken airport runway lighting and weather reporting equipment consistent with current FAA standards and common sense. It it is not and should not be controversial. Is simply maintenance and repair. That's all. As staff notes, none of this work is intended to, nor will it result in any increase in airport operations or capabilities. It will not enhance, expand, or otherwise upgrade the airport. This work will enable continued safe operations at no cost to city taxpayers. No cost for the installation nor for the maintenance of this equipment. Contrary to a comment heard a moment ago, airport opponents claims to the contrary lack any supporting data and are simply a red herring intended to delay and through delay prevent necessary repairs and maintenance. The installation of FAA standard weather reporting equipment, as has been done at thousands of airports around the country, will replace outdated old equipment and reduce controller workload. It simply will provide accurate, uptothem minutee airport weather data to pilots, nothing more. It will allow better, safer operational decisions by pilots and improve efficiency by enabling pilots to avoid flying into the airport when weather conditions would make doing so challenging. As a pilot myself, I can say with confidence it will not enable an increase in the number of operations during the day nor at night. The city strives to maintain and repair city infrastructure on city roadways and in other city facilities and to ensure they are consistent with current best safety practices. I submit that the airport

deserves to be supported in the same manner and I ask for your support of this common sense project. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Tom M followed by Bob L. Hi again everyone. Tom Meyers, 40-year resident of PaloAlto, 40-year user of the PaloAlto airport. Happily, thankfully, sincere support has made this possible all these years. Also the chairman of the board of the West Valley Flying Club at West at uh Palo Alto Airport. And through that, I've learned a lot about aviation. And one thing I'd like to pass on to you is some wisdom I believe I've come to over all these years. What's the difference between a good pilot and a bad pilot? And I can answer that in one word, judgment. Judgment. Judgment. Judgment. And key to judgment is situational awareness. Knowing the current conditions, knowing what you as a pilot are capable of, and making sure you're always on the positive side of that balance sheet. If you're trying to go into a situation where your capabilities are not up to the current conditions, you don't want to do that. That's what we're asking for with this AWAS is simply to give us the situational awareness to make good judgment decisions as to whether or not it's safe to come in or not to safe to come in. And if it's safe to come in, well, you're going to go flying anyway. You're just confirming that the situation is within your capabilities. And if it isn't, you're not going to fly. You're not going to land there. you're not going to take off because you know it's beyond your capabilities. So if anything, this is going to reduce the

number of potential flights that would otherwise be [sighs] not ill advised. Thank you very much for your time and attention. Our next speaker is Bob L followed by Ken J.

Mr. Mayor, council members, good evening. Um, as you know, item 12 is all about safety related systems. Nothing is being done to the airport to warrant the review being afforded here. Let me stress that this is a contrived controversy. The opponents have said many things which are inaccurate or misleading. A small sample. Why are you buying that type of AWAS? Well, it just happens to be the industry standard. It's at hundreds and hundreds of airports throughout the the country. You know, you check the wrong box on a form except that our planning department and our outside FAA legal council agreed that that was the way to go. Uh this evening, you've heard that the contract could be extended beyond December 31st. That's the contract for the consultant, not the bid that's in that the uh contractor has already extended for us. So, I want to make sure that's on the record. Um, you know, why is the animometer 5T higher than the old one? Well, standards have changed in 60 years and the National Weather Service wants their animometer wind reading at it's just a mass. It's not a tower. It's a mast 30 ft. That's the current standard. But the canard of course is this more traffic business. My fellow pilots and I are based at Palo Alto. Of course, we're going to come and go out of PAO. If visitors are going to the wine country, they're going to land at Napa or Sonoma County. If they're going to the aquarium, they're going to go to Monteray. Uh the idea that better weather information is going to drive traffic here is facious and simply a scare tactic

with no basis. In reality, real time accurate weather is just better for everyone, pilots, our passengers. Your time is up, and the community. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Mark S. Thank you. I do not think the weather observation system project should be on the consent calendar. The updated staff report acknowledges that the project also includes replacing the precision approach path I glide slope and runway threshold lighting systems. The bottom line is as the airport admits the FA requires FAA funded replacement systems to meet upgraded standards and capabilities. intended or not, the FAA mandated upgrades to these systems will significant increase PAO's night operations capabilities. The airport asserts the system will reduce overflights because planes will no longer have to guess whether they can land if they fly to Palo Alto at night when the tower is closed or might have to land at San Carlos. Removing this uncertainty about flying to Palo Alto will increase night landings. Our other objection is the grand assurances. The historical problem with these grand asurances that PaloAlto's ability as the airport owner to mitigate airport's impact is mostly tied to the terms of these grand assurances not to federal preeemption which why Santa Clara County stopped taking them. As the pilots lobby the AOPA states and advisory the FAA has no authority to enforce asurances or other obligations at airports that have not received federal funds. The new FA grant terms are also require airport sponsors which the FA asserts includes owners to discontinue existing non-discrimination equity support for underserved communities and climate programs and to implement new executive orders related to banning DEI promoting fossil fuels and defending women from gender ideology extremism and biological truth. The airport's asserts that it's proactively addressing these issues and has joined the King versus Turner lawsuit which is arguing that local governments should not be forced into discrimination or lose grants for essential services, housing, food, public transit. I was surprised to see that PaloAlto admits in its King V

Turner declaration that it has already crossed this line and accepted these new terms not for an essential service but for the airport project. to repeat my request from last council meeting. We need more transparency in due these programs and a request approval to sign the new FA grant insurance be removed from the consent. Your time is up. Our next speaker is Rebecca E.

Hi. Can you hear me? So, city council, thank you so much for enabling me to speak on this matter. And what I'm about to say, I'm saying in my personal um capacity and not as an elected director of the water district. Um so, with that said, um in my opinion, this I'm talking also about number 12. In my opinion, um this is a completely inappropriate use of the consent calendar. I don't recall an earlier discussion on this matter by the council, nor do I remember a motion to wave the two meeting rule. Everything about the private Palo Alto airport is a matter of public concern because it has impact. The airport has direct impacts on the public that the public deserves to be fully informed about and which we expect our elected officials to liber deliberate about in the context of a public meeting and that has not happened. Rather, all that happened was a invite only meeting a few weeks ago, last month, that was attended primarily by private plane enthusiasts, very few, if any, of whom live in PaloAlto and PaloAlto and on the other side a smaller number of PaloAlto residents, the people who are directly impacted by the choices made and the money spent on this extraordinarily problematic airport. Um we hear that upgrades are going to be done but the upgrade that is urgently needed and without it really the airport has no right to continue is an update to remove the use of un of of leaded fuel. If you look at impact map, you will see that this airport pollutes and causes lead pollution in the neighboring neighborhoods which are primarily lowincome minority

neighborhoods of East PaloAlto. We are irreparably harming these children who attend school and the families that live in East Palo Alto. Your time is up. So, okay. So, I hope the council will take this seriously. Thank you. Our next speaker is Karen P.

Thank you. I also urge council to remove uh item 12 from the consent calendar and refer the new weather system for further review, including whether appropriate limitations on use at night should be adopted. This is important to avoid adding to the emissions and noise burden that current airport users already are causing, especially uh lead emissions primarily over East PaloAlto and protected marshlands. Some people are trying to fasttrack AWAS under the guise of quote advancing operational efficiency. They claim the new AWA somehow will not result in any increases in landings or departures, but this is conclusory and not supported by any evidence or analysis. Any reasonable person can see it is very likely to increase flight operations. Regardless, at a minimum, the project warrants more careful attention and scrutiny than has been done to date. The existing weather system has performed adequately for years and the safety argument is theoretical. Council should therefore put the brakes on the attempt to push through this project on an expedited basis and provide the expert and public analysis it requires. Thank you. That concludes public comment on consent calendar items 3 through 13, 15- 17 as item 14 was removed off the agenda. Okay, we come back to council on the consent calendar. Do [clears throat] we have any uh nos or polls? Council member Stone. Uh, a a request to pull item 12.

Any others? Okay. Then we need a motion to accept the consent calendar. Second Bert Rectal. Council member, so just to clarify, um, request to pull, not a no vote, correct?

I'll I'll abstain from item 12 since the request to pull failed. Got it. Mayor Lowing. Yes. Council member Rectal. Yes. Vice Mayor Vinker. Yes. Council member Bert. Yes. Council member Lithcott Hmes. Yes. Council member Stone. Yes. Motion carries.

Okay. Thank you for the public comment on that. And we now move on to city manager comments. Thank you, mayor. I ask the city clerk for assistance when you're when you're available. Uh okay, next slide, please. All right, just a few primarily uh noting items coming up in the next uh weeks. Uh or in this case, actually as of today, uh there is ongoing construction work related to the implementation of the quiet zone at Palo Alto Avenue, Alma Street. uh that does involve the installation of a median on what we refer to as Alma uh in that location and uh as such there are detours that will be in place uh for the next roughly week. Uh this again began today and so motorists in the area will see detour signs and uh flaggers. I think uh staff will be monitoring conditions and making adjustments to that traffic control as needed. Uh, next slide, please. Also looking forward really to holiday events. And so we've got a number of holiday events coming up beginning this Friday with the Linton Plaza treelighting uh followed immediately on Saturday afternoon with the California Avenue Holiday uh treelighting holiday spectacular number of uh variety of activities happening on California Avenue on Saturday. Then uh again a number of uh events happening through the holidays including a toy drive and I'm not even going to try to pronounce okay I will meow holiday H holiday H holiday H holiday H holiday H holiday H holiday H holiday H holiday H holiday H holidays hosted by our animal control uh office uh so there are a number of city locations around town city facilities that will be receiving donations both toys as well as

pet related uh donations and information on that is on our city website pelto.gov/decemberfestivities. Next slide, please. We also have coming up next Saturday a climate action workshop hosted by our climate action and sustainability committee. uh but also noting uh that uh we expect significant community engagement on this topic of uh looking at actions uh related to building electrification and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. So this is next Saturday the 13th of September or December uh at Mitchell Park Community Center from 9:00 a.m. to 100 p.m. Next slide please. Then looking a little farther out, but noting the holidays. Did want to get this on people's uh calendar that the groundbreaking for fire station number four at uh Middlefield and Meadow is set for January 8th at 10:00 a.m. Uh in addition, uh there's actually pre-construction activities already uh beginning uh at the site. So again, number of events to look forward to, including up through after the first of the year. Next slide, please. And then with that, just noting a few items upcoming on your agendas through the end of the calendar year. First, next week, we will have the uh action item on dark skies ordinance. Following Wednesday, and worth uh uh walking through this uh briefly here that December 8th, next Monday, dark skies. Then next Wednesday, we'll have a special city council meeting on the rail grade separation alternatives. This is a special meeting of and will be a first part of an action item that will then

carry forward to the following Monday, December 15th. So on December 10th, we expect there'll be a staff presentation, an opportunity for public input and some initial council discussion. That item will then be carried over uh or continued to December 15th, Monday, where the city council will deliberate and potentially take action on rail grade separations, but no public comments on that item will be taken on December 15th. Also on December 15th, we'll have a study session on the updated uh Coverly Community Center master plan work as well as an action item related to historic uh designation at 1680 Brian Street. That will conclude the council agenda for this current calendar year. Then the council will take your break through the holidays, returning on January 5th, Monday, January 5th with your annual reorganization meeting. And with that, that completes my comments. Uh, Mr. Mayor, back to you.

Okay. Any questions for the city manager? All right, then. We're going to take a about a 15minute recess, which means we'll get back here about uh 25 till the hour and pick up with our action items. Thank you.

I think I have to do right after you know I can't even I think that's right.

Okay. Welcome back. We're back from break. We're moving on to the action item uh 18 recommendations from rail committee for council on south paloalto bike ped connectivity and this is conceptual design alternatives still conceptual uh and elimination of some alternatives for for further consideration. [clears throat] Uh before we go to staff we have a recusal. Yeah, my home is within 500 ft of one of the sites and so therefore the city attorney has asked me to recuse myself. So I will be exiting. So

thank you. And so as soon as he disappears, you can start the slideshow. Yeah. Okay. Good evening, council members, members of the public. My name is Charlie Cole, senior transportation planner with the office of transportation. here to speak with you all about the South Palto bike ped connectivity project where we're um looking to identify locations and develop 15% conceptual designs for additional grade separated bicycle and pedestrian rail crossings in the southern portion of the city. I'm joined by Ria Hutteratlo, our chief transportation official. We also have Sylvia Starleck, our transportation planning manager. Um and we have um associates uh KDson and Associates um on the line, Amanda Ley, as well as uh Jagi Bandal from BKF Engineers who are um who were hired by the city uh to support us in this in this effort. Next slide, please. So, here's the overview for our item this evening. rail committee and staff recommend the city council review eight conceptual uh potential conceptual design alternatives and the analysis of those alternatives. We've provided two deliberation op options for your consideration this evening. Option one is to review and provide feedback on all eight alternatives. Staff will do another round of engagement with standing committees and then return to council in early 2026 with a request to select up to two preferred alternatives. Or there is option two um which is to select and take action and select one or more alternatives to eliminate from further consideration. Rail committee and staff have recommended council

select alternative A as the preferred alternative and advance to variance. what we're calling alternative A1 would provide a connection between Elorado Avenue and Park B Boulevard boulevard via a tunnel underneath the railroad tracks and a new signalized crossing across Alma Street. This is currently also referred to as alternative A in your staff report. The variant is alternative A2 would provide a similar connection between alter um El Dorado Avenue and Park Boulevard except the design would explore a full grade separated crossing under the railroad tracks and Alma Street near El Dorado Avenue. The support for alternative A uh and that location at Elorado Avenue is due to limited property impacts, higher anticipated pedestrian and bicycle demand volumes. the location near Madero Creek and opportunities for direct bicycle and pedestrian connections through the adjoining neighborhoods. The elimination of alternatives would allow the project team and the community to focus attention on remaining alternatives and provide some clarity and relief to potentially affected property owners. Next slide, please. As shown on your screen, this is the project study area which focuses on the southern portion of the city and we defined that as uh south of Oregon expressway. Next slide please. Several council supported plans and studies have identified a critical need for additional grade separated bicycle and pedestrian crossings particularly in the southern portion of the city. The relevant plans are shown on your screen and more information is included in your agenda packet this evening. I won't go into all the details, but I would be happy to discuss this further if you have any questions on the specifics. Next slide, please. Shown on your screen is the project timeline. We are now in phase two of

community engagement where we're gathering feedback on the eight preliminary conceptual designs alternatives that were developed for the project. The goal of phase 2 is for council to select two alternatives for further analysis and development. Next slide, please. I wanted to spend a few moments just to acknowledge that transportation projects of this size uh and magnitude are very complex. We are at the very early stages of a high-profile project that involves multiple stakeholders and agencies such as Cal Train, the city of Mountain View, County of Santa Clara, and Valley Water. and they all have their own design standards and priorities. Each of the eight alternatives that were developed in were developed in accordance with the applicable design standards. However, there are still many complex engineering challenges associated with each alternative. While the designs are technically feasible, all alternatives are still very fluid and subject to refinement. Further, all alternatives have right-of-way implications that we need to work out once um the list is narrowed down. We have known from the very beginning that this would be a challenge for the project just due to the physical nature of land use on either side of the railroad tracks in the southern portion of the city. And to address this challenge as a public agency, we want this to be a public process and we want to be transparent about the trade-offs and challenges associated with each alternative. We understand that there are trade-offs between the alternatives alternatives. Um, and I just want to emphasize that there is much more community engagement and technical design work that will be needed once the locations and basic design concepts have been selected to move forward. Next slide, please. [sighs] Shown on your screen are the locations of each crossing alternative along uh with the city suggested walking and cycling routes. That's the light green line and the public school locations uh for context. Next slide, please.

Shown on your screen are the eight preliminary concept designs. As you review the concept designs, I would recommend focusing your feedback on basic design concepts associated with each alternative, which is the location and what do we do at Alma Street? Do we tunnel under Alma Street or do we add some kind of atgrade crossing and a new sing signal or some other type of treatment um to cross Alma Street? There are many uh many variations associated with each alternative that will need to be worked out with the community during future phases of work and the goal again of this project is to get community consensus on which location and basic design concept to advance further. Hopefully that helps to focus your attention this evening um as we're looking to gather this type of feedback from uh city council. And of course happy to discuss either of these alternatives a bit further if you would like. just feel free to ask during the question discussion portion. Next slide, please. [sighs and gasps] This slide summarizes the results of the alternatives analysis, which evaluates each of the alternatives using the evaluation criteria that was created for this project. Higher scores are shown in black represent stronger alignment with community values, whereas lower scores are shown in light gray indicating weaker alignment. results are just one of several considerations in the process of selecting alternatives, but we believe that this was a good starting point to provide the community and decision-m uh decision makers with um uh the information that they would need to start to make these types of decisions. Um additional information on the evaluation criteria and the analysis methods is included in attachment B of the alternatives analysis and that's starting on packet page 715. Regarding the demand evaluation criteria, I wanted to clarify that the

walking and biking trip estimates prepared for each alternative account for three main things. One, the future land use and population increase uh accounting for the year 2031. This accounts for housing element um the approved housing element uh growth in this portion of the city. Two, route shifting. So you can think of this as existing walking and biking trips that are crossing the railroad tracks now using a new crossing. And three, mode shift. So actually um changing modes. So existing driving trips changing to walking and biking trips as a result of this crossing. The details of those calculations again are included in your agenda packet. Regarding the parcel impacts evaluation criteria shown on your screen, I wanted to clarify that this included uh really a qualitative assessment that simply overlaid the conceptual designs on maps to determine the level of impact associated with each alternative impacts ranged from partial parcel impacts which is uh we've defined as no impact on existing buildings to a full parcel impact on two or more parcels. So just to summarize the information that's shown here and again including in the details of the alternatives analysis, alternatives A, G, and H had partial parcel impacts affecting mostly existing parking lots and driveways. Alternatives D, E, and F had full parcel impacts on one parcel and alternatives B and C had full parcel impacts on two parcels. Uh please keep in mind that uh we've uh we've used the metric parcel for this assessment uh which does not include details on the number of dwelling units associated with each parcel and doesn't account for whether those parcels included private homes and ADUs and things of that sort. Also, please keep in mind that the analysis relied on conceptual designs

that are still very high level and will be refined as the project moves forward. So these impacts are subject to change as more information becomes available. Happy to talk through this in more detail if you like. Next slide please. Shown on your screen is an overview of the tools and activities that we have used to engage with the community during phase 2. Um again I won't go into all of this now because it's summarized in your staff report. Um but happy to uh expand on any of this if you if you'd like. Next slide please. This slide is intended to clarify that if more than two alternatives are advanced this evening, we will go back to payback PTC rail committee in early 2026 with a request to make a recommendation to council on up to two alternatives to advance further. And then uh we've tenatively have the March 2nd meeting planned to come back to council with a request for council to select up to two alternatives. If two or less alternatives are advanced this evening, then we'll determine phase two of the project to be complete and the project team will proceed with the next phases of the project. Next slide, please. This slide summarizes the community feedback that we've received to date during phase 2. Uh again, I won't go into all the details here uh since it is included in your agenda packet and it's included here on the screen for for you to read. Um, but happy to talk through this if that's helpful. In short, uh, most we've seen the most support for alternatives A, B, and H with interest in alternative J. We've also been gathering specific feedback for each of these alternatives, and that's all described on this slide here, as well as your agenda packet. Um, next slide, please. [snorts] We're also finding uh the least amount of support for alternatives D, E, and F. Um, and then finally, we're

gathering a lot of great feedback on specific design elements that we plan to carry forward once alternatives are selected for further refinement. Next slide. I believe this is my last slide. This is really just a repeat from earlier. Summarizes the recommendation presented to you this evening. This completes staff presentation. Looking forward to discussion. Happy to take any questions. Thank you. Okay. Thanks very much. Um, I'd like to get a report out from the rail committee with uh Council Bird as the chair.

Thank you. Um, so when uh the staff and consultants came forward with the eight different alternatives, as Charlie had stated, uh staff was hoping we'd narrow it down. And as we went through them one by one, um, we we found advantages to that were very strong for one and problems with pretty much all the others. starting was um which locations would require acquisition of uh residential properties and um option uh A uh does not require any. And we looked, as Charlie said, we also have this whole series of um city council uh uh policy directions going back almost 20 years that have identified u the need for a crossing in the vicinity of Matadero Creek. Um exactly where uh was to be determined. uh back in 2016 I think it was there was a significant 2015 or 16 a significant staff analysis on looking at Lomma Verde to be a a significant bicycle corridor and there were two reasons why it was pushed back even aside from being able to cross um the tracks there. One is that it would necessitate actually three reasons. Necessitate removal of um uh on street parking on one side of LMA verity to put in the bike lanes as I recall. Second, lots of curb cuts homes there. So you have a bike lane that would be up against driveways cutting

across it. And third, putting the bikes on the same street as a lot of cars. What the rail committee found really attractive about this one is that from the west side it would be a portion of a commercial property uh parking lot that would need to be acquired on the east side uh the preference roughly anticipate as Charlie said this is still conceptual but uh to go on a low uh traffic volume residential street it's been referred to as Elorado but that's kind of the tentative uh location they had identified at the conceptual level. Uh we discussed that it it really has other possibilities. It might be El Carmelo. It might be some combination of um El Carmelo and um even the uh Valley Water um rightway next to the creek. Uh back in I think 2014, the city did a whole popup looking at whether there could be a bike path from Elma all the way down to Kalper in that um in that waterway corridor. And there were problems doing it the length of there, but there were segments that there weren't problems. And so utilizing a segment might be a possibility. All that is yet to be determined. As we've seen on um and we'll see more in another week, but on the grade separations, we had conceptual drawings and we had a bunch of issues on impacts. And as we've moved forward to the 5 to 10% design, uh the engineers have been able to greatly reduce the impacts and they're continuing to work on that. I would anticipate that that would be part of this process too. Uh is trying to figure out which street on the east side or which route would be the

the most favorable one. Um uh and that so in my mind that part isn't determined. We have a tentative location that was identified as El Dorado, but that's not cast in stone at this point in time. Um, the other thing that was very favorable about this approximate location is it connects with the uh the the bike route through the NVCAP area and then out to El Camino. So we have all the new housing in the NVCAP area, a new park in NVCAP area, all the new housing in NVCAP and housing on El Camino here in addition to being able to connect this uh potentially all the way out to the Bullpark path as we discussed in our last item serving the Stanford Research Park from all Midtown and Gun High School and other schools. As we have all these uh new families and new children in the NVCAP area and on El Camino, the school district will be looking at boundaries uh for where those kids will go to school as you add a couple thousand housing units. Uh they're going to have to figure out what will be the the right locations. But one of the big problems for people who live in the Ventura area is their kids have always needed to either cross the railroad tracks to get to school or cross El Camino to get to school and this potentially would eliminate that. Um the other consideration is in the in the staff proposal they had um used as a scenario where option A would have a signal at Elma and then go under the tracks. B and C would if I recall

correctly would go under Elma and the tracks. And in our discussion of the rail committee, it was clarified that we can mix and match those. And basically we could go under Alma with all of any of these or for that matter we could choose to not go under Alma uh with any of them. My personal preference would be to go under Alma um at the option A location. So, I think that covers what our discussion was and and how we kind of ended up zeroing in on a focus for um this option A and to really prioritize getting it done, getting one done. It's the longest stretch in the city without uh any um uh ability to cross the tracks. The Calav underpass uh is the closest to the north and it is a narrow steep 12% grade that would never be built today. So, it's not an ideal underpass, but um this really opens up uh all that section of the city to having uh uh mobility, bikes and peds on uh really connecting PaloAlto as our original rail plan was called. Um and then the last consideration is that by focusing on getting one of these underpasses done, we would hope to have it complete before construction would start on whatever we do at Charleston Meadow. So that even though the um uh designers uh when we had with AECOM on Charleston Meadow they had said well the intention is to continue to have bike and ped crossing

during construction. This is a massive construction project that would happen and if we can provide a really excellent uh safe route uh instead of having students and others go through that big construction site um that would be really favorable. So that's kind of the tentative thinking that we have is really accelerate getting this one accomplishment even ahead of beginning the uh construction of the vehicular crossing. Thanks council leth you want to add?

Yeah, I just wanted to add to what council member Bert said. Um um you know when you look at these eight options uh north to south roughly speaking toward the southern end you know San Antonio is an entirely different beast. There's so much going to be happening there. Uh with the area plan, this doesn't seem like the moment to be thinking about adding a tunnel in down there. Um also not clear that anybody living on San Antonio is going to need a tunnel to get across right there. [snorts] Um then you go a little bit farther north and you've got the me the cross the options near Meadow and Charleston. And with the grade separation um likely coming, uh it doesn't seem to make sense to put it there. So that left us with A, B, and C. And the trouble with B and C is that it looks like it was two full uh partial, sorry, two full takings. Um whereas A required none. And so I think that was really important for us. Uh, Council Member Bert also made uh an important point about the grade um uh the slope of the tunnled path and you know what's proposed versus what's possible. Um there was a more conservative grade articulated in the staff report. Um so we just talked about what was proposed, what ADA requires. um you know and and we could maybe even impact less property if uh uh if property impacts turn out to be an issue if we went to a uh a little bit of a steeper slope. So there are tons of variables here, but it just it's kind of funny that you know we somehow went from eight options to one on rail. It just seemed to coalesce around option A with with its two variables. Um, and you know, I I we've got two colleagues on the DES who aren't on the rail

committee. Um, and uh, we're obviously very interested in your thoughts. Um, and but I do think we have slogged through it and we've we've we've come to a nice narrow recommendation and you know, hope you find it as appealing as we did.

Both of both of those recaps were superb. Uh I'm glad I'm glad you added the grade item there. Uh which is is an important consideration and the variables are immense. [clears throat] But the only thing I would add to what um council lith said is we coalesed relatively quickly in in that meeting in spite of having all this and part of that is just the great work of staff and just getting it like this. I mean that black and white and gray box thing was beautiful just as a as a as a driver for helping us evaluate pretty promptly. So it it was it was impressive how fast we sort of narrowed it down to AB and then we said, "Well, why do we need B and look at all these advantages of A?" And and I will say that we definitely waited um property takings very heavily as our our constituents want us to do, but not exclusively. We understand this is a project for 100 years and we have to take into account that that issue. Um that said, with this recommendation, we're down to, you know, a little bit I'll paraphrase sort of probably some um pieces of commercial parking lots compared to other scenarios. So again, we're not all the way through this, so it's not a complete proh promise, but I think that um some residents will be much more comfortable going forward with their lives if we get settled on this approach for this for this tunnel. So, should we take some public comment for Okay, let's let's make efforts to do two minutes, but I understand if you need to go over. Yeah, if it goes over a little

bit that's fine. But our first speaker is Penny E.

Good evening again. Penny Ellson here. I want to start by thanking U Mr. Kohl's for his excellent work on this project. I think he's been very careful and thoughtful in his work and I I appreciate it very much. Um so um I was pretty happy to see A2 pop up. Um, I like the Park Boulevard landing of the El Dorado concept initially. Um, I was concerned that the first concept did not provide a grade separated crossing of Alma. Uh, because the speeds at that location are much higher than we see at Alma at excuse me at the Homer tunnel location. I agree that this will provide connectivity for a growing Ventura, El Camino area and Charleston Meadow and growing neighborhoods in the southwest quadrant um west of El Camino Rail to get to Midtown and the southeast quadrant services and bike routes. That said, um let's see. Uh, so I I guess I'm just going to say that that one kind of rises to the top for me and I would like to add that I think it's going to be a very long detour for kids from South Palo Alto where I live to get so let's make sure those other grade crossings we've got we've got a a plan to get kids to school the normal way that this isn't the only plan. [gasps] Um, all right. And then so that's my first choice would be the Elorado Tunnel A2. Um and then my second project that I liked was Fern Avenue. Um I sort of view this one. As I was looking at it, I started thinking about school routes. And I'm not exactly sure where these kids, the kids who live in the Serup area are going to go to school, but this provides

a very nice back route into the San Antonio shopping center from uh from San Antonio Avenue. Your time is up. Oh, okay then. If you've got a lot more to say, you I said you can have a liberal two minutes if you want a bit more.

Okay. All right. Well, thank you for that. Um, so I I think that it provides a nice back route from the Sarah area into um Delio and the streets that connect to it that go to Los Alto schools. We have some existing school routes uh for Peloto students who currently attend Los Alto schools. I and it might connect to some Mountain View schools and I don't know the answer because we don't know where those kids are going yet. So that's important. And I also wanted to comment on one particular project I really don't like at all, which is um the one that goes on the San Antonio overpass. I think it's H. Um and I I'm going to simply say that this is a overpass that was designed for motor vehicles, not for bicycles. It's a place that I mean most of you know I bike a lot and [snorts] I am a reasonably skilled bicyclist and this is not this is not a place I'd be comfortable riding with as a mom. When I went to San Antonio Shopping Center, I took my kids and I was grocery shopping. I was carrying loads. Um and and the people who live in the San Antonio area, if if we want to take advantage of that demand that Mr. Kohl's was talking about earlier. I [snorts] think it's going to be super important that we give people a route that moms and dads with small children who are carrying loads of groceries can do and they and they can't be the super skilled bicyclists. They have to be kind of the everyday people who are riding for the first time. Thanks. Our next speaker is Ken J.

Uh like to echo Penny's comments about the staff report. I think they did a great job. I can also say I completely understand why the rail committee endorsed alternative A. The one question that comes to my mind though is whether Charleston and Meadow during grade separation are going to be closed simultaneously. And if that is the case, I think you have to really think about how far people are going to have to go to get over to Elorado. I understand its attractions, but it's a long DTR. Thank you. Our next speaker is Laura A. Good evening once again. My name is Laura Anthony and I'm a resident and parent of two children in Palo Alto schools. I'm also the PTA council chair for safe routes to school, but I'm speaking as an individual this evening. I strongly support the PTC PTC and staff's recommendation that the city proceed with plans for an underpass at or around Elorado Avenue, alternative A2. This would greatly enhance safe school route options for our students commuting to Pali and Gun and several other neighborhood schools. The tunnel needs to take bicyclists and pedestrians under Alma as well as the tracks. Alma operates like an expressway in this part of PaloAlto where vehicle speeds typically exceed 40 m an hour and the signalized multi-lane intersection configuration proposed in alternative A1 presents sight lane problems. If the signal changes while someone is in the intersection, sight lines of shorter people on bikes and on foot will be obstructed by stopped or passing vehicles in the multiple lanes. When staff presented this project to the city school transportation committee, adding a signal and crossing at El Dorado was compared to crossing Alma at the Homer tunnel intersection. But a signal near El Dorado would be very different from the Homer Alma intersection, which is in an urban

district. At Homer, there are numerous consecutive traffic lights and a 25 mph speed limit. Allowing traffic to move more quickly on Alma south of the downtown district is good for drivers and cyclists because it allows drivers to get to their destinations more quickly while keeping them off residential streets. Please proceed with plans for the underpass at El Dorado, alternative A2 for the safety of our students and community for students and families to be safe and comfortable using the planned underpass. The design needs to grade separate Alma. A signalized intersection would be insufficient at this intersection for nearly all users. Thank you for your service and for making our community a better safe safer place for children, students, families, and our whole community. Our next speaker is Paul A.

Thank you, council. Um, I'm Paul Appan. We live at the 2800 block of Emerson at El Dorado. Um, one thing that I think that possibly the team has not taken into consideration is actually the quality and quantity of traffic going through our neighborhood. El Dorado is the narrowest of the streets in our neighborhood. It is used as in essence an arterial street whereas it is designated by the city of Palo Alto as a local street. As a result, what happens is cars park well up onto the sidewalk. So far up onto the sidewalk you cannot pass. If you had a walker or if you had even a stroller, you cannot pass on the sides. In addition to that, we have a lot of of traffic in terms of uh delivery vehicles. Okay. We have all sorts of other vehicles which are coming through. I don't think that in terms of the the diagram that the council loves which is in essence a heat map takes into consideration other factors which you should be considering that is that people on Elma are using El Dorado El and El Dorado and Emerson as their parking because they cannot get across Elma to make a turn from their house on on Elma. So if they if they live on Elma, they park down El Dorado, they park on Emerson. Okay? So now you have even more cars on El Dorado. That narrows that street. There's very few cars that can actually pass side by side on that street if cars are parked legally on both sides. If you want to disenfranchise the people who live in those first two blocks of El Dorado by not having parking in front of their

house, you can do so. If you were to change it to get rid of the sidewalks, you could do that as well. Try to get the width, but it's a bad idea. Our next speaker, Jeang C.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you uh committee for giving me the opportunity to uh share my comments. uh I think uh as we all understand uh you know if we want to uh discuss a solution the first thing we we need to ask actually is there actually a problem for us to uh solve. So in this case actually I look at the the article online it was cited there is a high demand for building such a on a path but actually as a parent of kids actually have kids going to party going to jails I talked to them actually they told me actually none of them them actually would use any the the proposed on the past the current one actually you know going through uh uh Brian then through church then or or south actually through uh Maddos or or Charleston serve the kids very well. So actually to me it seemed like the the needs actually have not been clearly identified. So that's the first question I think I would like the committee to to really consider. Then actually uh as the stakeholder of the the Alorado neighborhood I was wondering actually why I'm among the the last few to to get informed about this ongoing project. So if actually there is a big project going on actually the discussion phase going on then the the residents actually should get informed probably much earlier then we we have enough time to look at the pros and cons of each potential alternatives but unfortunately at least in this case this this has not happened to me or my friends when asked around. Then thirdly actually I would like to echo the comments made by the previous uh uh commenters. You know, if you look at the situation of El Dorado, it's a very narrow street. You know, some of uh my uh friends actually they experienced, you know, the the incidents where the part of their car on the street actually

the side view mirror that were knocked off by passing traffic. So, so to me actually I think you know if we want to really consider any alternative we need to consider the pros and the cons and as such then all the stakeholders including residents of affected neighborhood actually they should be given enough time to look into this before the committee can arrive at uh inform. Yeah. Thank you.

Your time is up. Our next speaker is David H. Respected city council members, mayor and Palatoto community, um I actually prepared three minutes. Hope that's okay. I am I am against the Alorado proposal and in view of council member Boot's comments the road Al Dorado itself because it is not safe. I am a Midtown resident. I use the Elorado and Elma intersection regularly. Currently with cars parked on both sides of Elorado. It is a tight squeeze for two-way traffic to enter and exit Elma. There is no room for bike lanes. This is a high stress intersection which opposes a stated priority of the project which is to provide low stress access. The supporting facts for my claim are that number one, El Dorado is a 27 ft wide uh street and it is the narrowest road in all of the eight proposals. By comparison, Lomba is 42 feet. Al El Camello is 36 feet. Number two, fatalities. The existing conditions report for this project already stated that one death out of a total of two in the 2018 to 2022 period was due to collision on Elorado Avenue. Number three, the phase one community engagement report for this project already stated that the city school transportation safety committee expressed concern about narrow streets. In contrast, Lama Verde that is proposal

B is a far superior alternative for safety. To quantify and compare these concerns, I asked an expert chat GPD. I asked the following question. How much safer is a 40 foot wide two-way street with bike lanes versus a 27 foot wide two-way street with bike lanes when intersecting a 35 mph expressway with two-way traffic? Chat GPT summary answer was yes. A 40-foot street with bike lanes is meaningfully safer than a 27 foot street when crossing or meeting a 35 mph two-way expressway. Expect roughly 20 to 40% lower conflicts and close passes and a strong potential to reduce crash frequency further if the extra width is used for buffers, turn lanes, and refuge islands. Google AI gave a similar answer.

Please these answers. May I continue? You're up to almost four minutes now. Oh, did you say three? Okay, I'm sorry. Google AI also gave a similar answer. These answers from AI should be traced down and verified. If they are believable, then given all these facts and considerations, why not invest in a superior proposal that is lame verde proposal B that would provide safety gains for our children and the Palo Alto community as a whole. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ward.

Hi everybody. Ward Thomas Fentura, neighborhood resident. Uh I was here a few months back to talk at the city city council meeting about uh not taking our neighbors houses with any of these alternatives. So it's nice to see that A is being considered as the primary. Um I recom I was advocating for A G and H when I was here last time. Um my concern is that alternative A is so close to Calav tunnel already. So if you're a biker, it's going to take you two to three minutes on one side and then two or three minutes on the other side to get to the same place where this tunnel is proposed to go under. So not a big delta when it comes to biking. It was brought up earlier about all the kids having to go all the way from one side of the South Palo Alto to go to this to get across which is a concern. Um, [sighs] I do appreciate alternative A connects to the old fry site, which is awesome. And also, I appreciate that we're not considering taking people's houses like alternative B would that was just discussed earlier, as well as be super expensive when it comes to uh buying those people's houses. One of the goals discussed tonight was to make sure that this was in place ready to rock and roll before we shut down Meadow andor Charleston for that road work that needs to be done for the for the train. I believe there are alternatives that have not been that have been looked at but not in deeper detail that are not on these list of eight here. Examples are how do we use our storm water rideways to avoid taking people's homes and put them close to the tracks and then find a way to get underneath the tracks. And there are alternatives that pop up on the other side of the track and then use signals to get across Alma. This is going from Park over to Alma. There's also apartment complexes on park that have really big driveways that you could take one of those driveways and still leave two other driveways for people to get in and out of their apartment complex. And there's a there's a couple different

places along Park Boulevard that you could actually do that that were looked at but not in detail with with the uh proposal. And they did not make the top eight. I know my time is coming up here. So, um, in closing, this is going to cost a lot of money, right, to do this project. So, why do it for a gain of a few minutes bike ride or a little bit longer walk if you're walking that way? Let's find a real good use of money to put this tunnel where it needs to be versus just half a mile away from the current Calv tunnel. Um, yeah, that's it. Thank you.

Our next speaker is Rebecca E. Thank you. Um, thank you again for allowing me to speak and I do so in my personal capacity. Um, I I first want to point out that it's wonderful and I very much appreciate that the city council is is spending so much time um working on efforts that will increase the safety of Palo Alto children. I encourage you to think the same way of children outside of the two like in East Palo Alto when it comes to this. So, first of all, I I think that a lot of the assumptions I recognize that there's only eight eight different options, but I wonder why this wasn't explored um alongside the grade separation project. A lot of these challenges could be um unified, you know, addressed is a uniform a unified approach. It seems like there's a lot of deja vu, a lot of reinventing the wheel. For example, for a while the viadeuct option for the train was being considered strongly. I think maybe the let it go. I don't maybe not. that actually would by itself connect both the eastern and western sides of the city making it just a huge improvement in safety for the students while also eliminating so much traffic um blockages that happen because of the our city being divided in half by these train tracks. Additionally, our city is also being divided in half by this freeway called Alma. And I, you know, I feel like I've been waiting since the 80s, you know, when I was here for Stanford to actually have a Palo Alto that would prioritize human beings over cars. Why do we just need to protect

Alma in its current form so much when there are freeways, two freeways on either side? I think we need toly put stop lightss, more stop lights than Alma. I I have more to say, so if you give me just 30 more seconds, I'll be quick. You know most of all we know what the harm is here. We know what causes the danger here. What harms children? what kills children and that is the use of single use single you know operated automobiles and we are taking very little steps to replace the use of cars except I guess with bikes you know but for people who are not capable of biking which is like anyone with small children anyone with pets anyone going grocery shopping you know biking is really not the the answer for most people also used to have electric shuttles. Shuttles take cars off the road. Mountain View has shuttles paid for by Google. We could have shuttles paid for by Tesla. We need to do everything we can to reduce cars on the road. And that is, you know, I I encourage the city council and the planners to think more globally about this. Unify the planning with the grade separation. Consider the overpass. Thank you very much. I mean that that vioduct. Thank you. Okay, we return to council for other questions of staff or comments. Vice Mayor Vinker.

Okay. So, since I'm one of two on the deis that hasn't sat through rail and I'm trying to play catchup here, um I'll give it a shot and uh hopefully you'll all bear with me and help me out. Um so, I mean generally, well, first of all, thank you all for digging through all this in the detail. made it a lot easier tonight both staff and my colleagues on rail. So do really really appreciate the development of um these alternatives and I'm just going to sort of start with the group and work my way in. So I do agree with the recommendations eliminating DE and F um from from staff and I also agree with the rail committee that for now we should eliminate G&H. um C seems to be a problem because it takes partials and it's not grade separated, right? So you have two problems there. So that leaves A and B and now A2 also. Um so I was leaning to A for the same reasons that it sounds like the committee was that uh we really don't want to take parcels if at all avoidable. Um, but I really didn't like the at grade crossing. So, thank you for figuring out the A2. Um, which, you know, initially I'm I'm I'm excited to see added to this list. But I do have a couple questions. Um, since I'm taking a fresh look at this, um, I want to hear just a little bit more about B because I do really like that connection under Alma. Um, but also, um, there are a few other things I like that I guess my question is going to be, do you know yet if they would also be true of A2? So, the things I liked I also liked about B was it said it was the most direct connection to bike paths. It was also high ranking for personal

security because it was they said the shortest and most direct tunnels and it would be a short construction time. So those three things, do we yet have any sense of how that would compare with a tunnel up at a connection to bike paths, personal security, and construction time? Yeah, thank you for that. Um, I I can start and then I'll I can tee up um our consultants on the line just to help kind of discuss the personal security aspects and the um the short construction time as well because I believe some of that information is included in in the report probably is I tried my best.

It's [laughter] it it will take me a minute to to kind of dig through but I'll just go from memory here. Um in in terms of the question on uh connecting to kind of providing the most direct routes, I think they are similar and just also recognizing that part of this project will be to come up with the package of neighboring bicycle and pedestrian improvements that would go along with the crossing. So once we have a location set and we've sort of started getting a bit more consensus on the basic design concepts of you know what do we do at Alma then we're going to be looking towards the 15% designs and as part of that will be um additional improvements to to get to and from that future crossing. Um in terms of personal security um I I would need to kind of dig into that. Maybe Ria knows more about uh how we've how we've kind of defined that a bit more. Um, but it's really a lot about visibility and how how open does that tunnel feel and how easy is it for someone to to kind of take a look in there and and see if there's anything um that we would activities that we wouldn't want to be happening. And so the the similar um we see similar types of designs between alternative A and alternative B.

That's what I was hoping. Yeah. The staff report says shortest and most direct tunnels without those 90 degree turns. So to your point, you can see and and it's a real thing because um you know we we know there was an attack at the Cow tunnel not too long ago and and is it roughly the same length that we anticipate at A&B as the Calav tunnels? So um the the lengths will will be different. So the rights of way uh the Cal Train right of way um does does vary along the corridor.

Uh and so that's a big piece of um that will actually define the the length of the tunnel. Um the offset of Alma Street and the amount of space between the Cal Train tracks and Alma Street. There's a planted buffer there that will also um you know increase or decrease the length of the tunnel. But I would say in in general they're they're you know fairly similar. Okay. All right. Yeah. And and and widthwise, how does it compare to Calav?

Oh, um so Calav uh it's so I I believe that Calav does not meet kind of our current ADA standards. So if when you use Calav today, um its width is I don't know somewhere less than 10 10 feet or so. I would I would say

that's correct. Uh Aria Hutar, low chief transportation official. Um the ADA standards relate to the grade as well. So Cal a is steeper than what is currently the ADA standards which means it's also a little shorter. Um which is why we have you know more of a kind of winding route for a lot of these ideas here. So So does that mean then um the others are likely longer than Calv? Yes. So, you know, Calv comes straight up and is able to meet to conform to the um street level pretty quickly, right? Because it's so steep.

Yeah. And the reason I ask is that the longer they are, the more I care about visibility and turns and that kind of thing for personal security. I have other questions, Mr. Mayor, but it's I'm over my time. And go ahead. Okay. Um, so and then I just want to be clear though B though has uh affects two properties on the west side. Is that correct? And are they residential or commercial?

Those are residential properties and we've identified two, but it could be more. And again, this this was something that was discussed during the rail committee meeting was one thing we haven't really looked at is just the constructibility of this. So, we're really kind of showing a footprint, but later down the line, we're going to look at the space that would be needed to actually get equipment in there to construct these things. And a lot of that has to do with many other factors and just information that we don't have access to at this point. So, it could even be worse. Um, do we have any information yet on A2 with respect to do we feel confident that just like with A1, we could avoid takings on the west side if we build a tunnel?

At this point, we don't. Um, you know, it's it's been discussed today that the the right of way of Elorado is narrower than Lom Verde. So, I would expect as we look to um extend the tunnel under Alma Street and connect into Elorado, we'll need to look at a couple different variations to see where we reduce or where we're where the limited number of impacts to property in that area. So, that would include impacts to driveways in include impacts to um parcels as well.

So, there could be at least partial impacts on the east side. I was actually thinking about the west side. Because if there's a tunnel now at a so it all of the options have some sort of property impact. Yeah. Um and that's not necessarily a taking. It could be a friend of purchase.

Yes. Okay. I sorry. Yes. I I shouldn't say that. I meant I meant it in the colloquial taking property not or requiring prop property not as in a a legal sense. Um but thank you for that. Um, what I'm trying to figure out is, um, if we dispense with B, are we really making up the ground? We hope with A in terms of avoiding implicating property. Um, and [laughter] with with the um with the tunnel, but I guess it's it's the same. It's the same on the west side. Is that right? It would be the same with A2. Is it just the tunnel just is under um Alma, right? So, it's the

Right. Yeah. So that that's sort of the assumptions at this point that you know the tunnel again it could stay relatively in that same location and we just look to see what other configurations we can do on the east side if we're tunneling under Alma. But again just recognizing that these designs can be moved around. So we may as we kind of go down this path of exploring A2, we may look at other connections to El Marlo and you know how do we make that all work with moving that tunnel around.

Okay. Then my last question if I can ask one more. Okay. Is is just that um you know there was some mention that perhaps it could be El Carmelo instead of El Dorado. One of the things that um you know is so unusual about El Dorado besides it's well actually let me just ask you do we know if El Carmemelllo and El Dorado are both narrow or is only El Dorado narrow [sighs]

I could answer that [laughter]

no thank you if you want to look that up. I have another question uh while while you're looking that up. Um so the um but the culde-sacs on El Dorado are unusual. Um and you know I guess it's good because you don't have through streets but it's bad because the folks can't get out at the other end and they would have to go where the bikes were coming along El Dorado to use the whether we did an underpass or or a crossing with a light. Um and it looks like that's true on El Carmelo too. So is is that right? And would that be a wash either way so that we don't get away from the culde-sac problem if we go to El Carmelo or the culde-sac I shouldn't call it a problem but can you I'm sorry can you repeat the your comment about culde-sacs I wasn't quite following

sure so we've got several culde-sacs off of El Dorado there's been it's been raised that that could be a bad thing because people can't get out at the other end and they're necessarily going to be coming onto uh El Dorado where the bikeway is. But, you know, there's an argument it's a good thing because you're not going to have a lot of through traffic, right? Because it's a culde-sac. But to the extent that's a concern, I'm just trying to confirm that we would have a similar concern or not about El Carmelo because I think it's the other side of the things. It also has culex is my point.

No, I think so. But yeah, I mean similar concerns, but it looks like the if I'm understanding correctly, the you know those culde-sacs are much shorter for El Carlo, so you have less less number of houses.

Okay. So it's it's shorter. Thank you. Um Okay. I'm just trying to understand. Um, okay. So, you know, I I I like I like the A1 and A2 as the principles, but just knowing that there are some unusual streets and there could be some property impacts there, too. I would be interested in looking at um perhaps B as well, seeing if we can minimize um implicated property there. But I I do agree with the committee that avoiding that as a number one priority is important. Um so those are my questions. I'll stop now.

That was a long one. Council member Stone,

that was helpful. That that there that that clarified some things for for me as well. I guess just as far as process goes, I agree with with the committee. Appreciate all the work done and nice to winnow down eight to to one. that makes our job so much easier. So, I appreciate it. It makes it makes a lot of sense, I guess, as far as just moving forward if we were to advance option A1 and and NA2 cuz there's no act there's no recommendation from the committee between those two. I understand it. Um what is I guess what does that look like? How much more challenging, time consuming, expensive? Um because I I agree with Council Member Bert's point about the the speed of this to be able to get this done before grade separation would be would would be wonderful. So can you help out on that?

Yeah, I can start and Rio or Sylvia feel free to kind of chime in here. I think by narrowing um the number of alternatives or at least focusing on one location really helps us to um not only staff but decision makers in the community to focus on um variations of specific designs and focusing on that one location and how do we make that location work. So I think that really helps to to narrow the focus and prioritize our efforts at that one location. Um since we don't have a conceptual design developed for what a alternative A2 would look like, we would need to kind of go back to the team and uh work through a process of um you know coming up with an alternative that uh would be similar um kind of following council's direction and then presenting that to the community to kind of get some some feedback and review and again recognizing that there are trade-offs with uh those two alternatives along with all the trade-offs associated with all eight alternatives presented. to this evening um and just kind of go through that process of uh thinking through what those trade-offs are and understanding the pros and cons and uh also thinking through what are ways to mitigate um and refine designs to minimize those um those trade-offs.

Great. Thank you. Yeah, I'm at at this point interested in in advancing both A1, A2 to better understand those trade-offs, especially trying to understand what would the cost trade-off be of the undergrounding at at Alma and and so yeah, that's where I'm at. So, thanks for all the work on this, Councilman Scott Hames.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, just to follow on um the vice mayor's important concerns about safety. Um, I'm wondering if we could pull up some visuals. Um, I understand from the the um the gray grid that option B is said to provide the highest degree of personal security. And I believe that box, it's the black box, whereas option [clears throat] A is a sort of dark gray. But when I look at the ren or the drawing or whatever you call your beautiful multicolored sketch of what it might look like, the option B tunnel is much longer than A, which is A1. So I'm having trouble understanding why B comes out as providing higher personal security when it's got a longer tunnel. So, if we could pull up the um the pages of the report that show the detail on option A.

Could you just comment on that or you want to see the visuals? I think it's helpful to see the visuals.

I'd like to understand why in the analysis the the the grayscale analysis B got the prize for greatest personal security. certainly over I don't need to compare it to any of the others, but it won out overall. I'd really like to understand why A was considered less um of a secure option than B given that B has a longer tunnel. Yeah, I'll um I'll tee up Amanda Ley from KDson and Associates who helped kind of prepare the the U backend calculations that went into the um the graphic that you see. We can also pull up um slide nine from our presentation that shows the evaluation criteria table. Um and I think that's what you were looking for. Are you also looking for the v the actual

I'd rather I don't think we need the evaluation criteria table because that made clear that B is the one with the greatest uh personal safety. So what I'd like to see is this the one that has the squiggly drawings of you know where the tunnel's going to go and then the path right of all eight or do you just A and B just A and B. Perfect. Can you um clerk would you mind pulling up slide 16? The first two slides. Okay.

And 17 please. So part of um part of the discussion on personal security uh in there talks about um uh 90° angles as part of the the tunnel design. So, when you look at uh currently we're looking at alternative A, uh what this shows is a connection from Park Boulevard and the ramp going down connecting to the underground tunnel underneath the Cal Train tracks and then meeting the ramps um on the west side of Alma Street. and there needing to be some kind of a 90 degree 90 degree turn or so um for cyclists uh looking to to exit and then connect to the signalized intersection. Whereas when you look at alternative B, you can go to the next slide please. This is a bit more bit more direct. Um, I'll I'll pause there and see if Amanda Ley on the line is able to pull up our our discussion there and and talk um more to more detail to that.

Um, sure. Thanks, Charlie. Hi, everyone. Amanda Ley with KDson here. Um, I think the one thing I'd add is that while this tunnel on alternative B actually looks quite long, the tunnel segment is the part underneath the street and railroad tracks that has the diagonal marking and the ramp which would be open above is the solid yellow on both sides. So the tunnel's length is actually about the same length as alternative A as well. So, that's not a great differentiator for these. Primarily, this alternative B scored higher because of the clear uh sight lines.

Actually, the tunnel is twice as long as alternative A. We're looking at alternative A1 because there's no tunnel under Alma on alternative A. But what you're saying is that can we switch back to the prior slide to just look at the two? But it sounds like what you're saying, right? So, right here, the tunnel doesn't go under Alma. So, it's half the length of B. But what you're saying is because there are these right angles that lead to the open air ramps, that's the safety issue, right? Correct. Okay. Shorter tunnel but right angle ramps and that's what makes the difference. Can

can just since you're trying to help me clarify, can I jump into So, but those the the tunnel itself is straight. The the right angle connection is outside of the tunnel. Is that correct?

Okay. And that then sounds like not so much the Calav fish tunnel as my kids used to t call it, but the the the tunnel that's actually under like in the Cal Train station if you're if you're changing sides of the tracks and you go under. It's a lot like that, right? I mean, have you done that where you Right. It it would be kind of the same length and you come out and it has those right angles. Yeah. Okay, that actually is quite helpful. Thank you. Just as a point of order, I'll also add that if you're looking for more information kind of on the personal security scoring criteria, I would point you to um packet page 725. It talks through the process that we went through of trying to rank each of the alternatives. Um and so it discusses uh looking at the designs and understanding whether or not there are 90° turns within the tunnels. um and focusing on uh um our uh what we what we call crime prevention through environmental design principles. And so um looking at the designs and just understanding uh visibility and opportunities for natural surveillance as being one of the key criteria when we're thinking through personal security.

And what do you mean natural surveillance? By the others or by the person walking through? Uh both. So just um opportunities for natural surveillance. So is it easy to be able um uh to see all the way down the tunnel and understand like oh I I can as I enter the tunnel I clearly see where my exit is and there's there's no secret turns or any places where someone might be hiding or or things of that sort. Eyes on the street.

Okay. Excuse [clears throat] me. I want to ask a clarification question. I can't ask anything right now. Just a minute. Excuse me. A clarification question. Uh, relative to some of the public comments, we are still at conceptual drawings. 15% roughly, we're getting to 15%.

Yeah, but I mean we're heading to 15%. Right. So that's how that's how at the beginning of this process that we are. So relative to input from the community, we're just starting on this and we really need to keep that in mind. But we wanted to on rail committee see what we could do to cut back on the um takings of partial residential properties or whole residential properties and so far I think we've done pretty well on that one. I [snorts] think you could also say that [clears throat] if you do A1, A2, and you look at what's going to happen there, you go, "Nope, we didn't anticipate this, we didn't anticipate that, and now we don't think we can do that without these other implications." You're going to come back to us and say, "Didn't work because we we don't think we should be going to 15 and 30 like the engineering things do." So there's not a a a decision set tonight to evaluate, let's say, the 2A's does not close off future alternatives because that's what you're doing is to continue to invest your time and effort and uh tech um technical expertise in that. Right. Okay. So I just wanted to clarify that. And secondly, I think it was already more or less clarified, but the California Avenue tunnel is something that's almost not under consideration right now. So having a new tunnel close to the California Avenue tunnel is not a very significant uh consideration given the how obsolete that California tunnel is. Is that a fair statement?

It's usable. Yeah. So, one of the scoring things was to do with proximity. So, you know, so that was kind of part of that um trade-off there as well. Okay. But I mean, what I'll say a different way. Thank you for correcting me. We can't live with just that California Avenue tunnel as substantially for the amount of traffic we're going to have. um from growth and and so on. So, okay, shift over to uh council B.

Yeah. Um so first just on the what I'd anticipate on the California Avenue tunnel with this if we went with 1B um people who are in um uh old PaloAlto uh would if if they'd still in all likelihood take the Calav tunnel unless it's just too steep for them or something. Uh, so I' I'd expect it would still be used and particularly a lot of pedestrians use it and otherwise. I want to offer just a a couple other clarifications. The committee did have some issues with some of the other scoring, but we opted to not dig into those weeds uh really because it just seemed everything seemed to be pointing toward actually the 1B going under Alma. Um, and then, um, I wanted to, um, also just clarify because some members of the public were

council member B, you meant it seemed to be pointing toward A2, not 1B, A2. I'm sorry. Yeah,

A2. Yes, sorry, said it wrong. Sorry. Um, thank you. Um uh the um some members of the public were talking about bike lanes on Elorado. Um the assumption is that uh whether if it's Elorado or El Carmelo uh it would be more of a bike boulevard with some sort of restrictions or filters like we have on Bryant and to be determined what would be the right ones to allow good access by for people to get to their homes but not to have that be uh a functional arterial. Um and um and then lastly, there was a question by one of the members of the public on whether Charleston and Meadow um would be constructed together and whether u there would be bicycle and pedestrian access during that period. what we had. We're we're going to have discussions in a week on this, but the anticipation is that they would be constructed separately. And the claim is that there would be some bike and ped access even during construction at those locations. Although um I'm I don't consider it to be ideal by any means and we'll see what they'd come up with. So it's just a few clarifications.

I can make a motion if you want. You have vice mayor had another comment.

I do. I I can be quick but um so I got to make sure I get the names and numbers right. Uh so so B would take two residential properties as we as best we can tell at this point knowing we haven't done our engineering right. So you know I I don't see how we can um do that when we have a couple options we can explore that um we hope don't take any. Um, so I I have to put that top, but I would really ask that we do our best to when we look at A2, try to make that tunnel as safe as B. Um, that's a that's a that's a serious thing, I believe, um, and consideration, um, especially for having school children as well going through there. Um, I also would like uh this is true whether it's A1 or A2, but um I'm just curious if staff has any reaction to the fact that we have these culde-sacs. Is there any impact? What what do you think any impact would be of that? [snorts]

Because it's an unusual situation, you know? Um, yeah, I'll just say that it's it's the first time working on this project that I've actually heard that been brought up, so we haven't thought too much about it. But, um, I think we we recognize that, um, with the culdeacs, you have, uh, potentially less vehicle traffic traveling in this area. And so I think you're creating opportunities for um bicycle boulevard type treatments at least on the uh what would be the east side connection to a tunnel at that location.

Okay. Well, I think perhaps just look into that this on this next one because it is unusual. Um but with that um I mean would you like to make the motion as chair of here? I can I can I'm just going to try it for expedition. Um, so there's nobody else talking. So, um, I'll go ahead and, uh, actually, no, you should do it. I'm gonna, um, so I will move that, uh, we direct staff to, um, focus um, their next steps of evaluation on option A2. And I think it's as simple as that. Is there anything else that would need to be contained in the motion?

Sorry. So, um, so are you narrowing it down from A1 and A2 to A2? Is that what I'm hearing? Um, well, I'd be fine with the motion being to uh continue the focus on option A. Okay. With a preference for A2. Okay. Thanks. Uh if we have a second. Yeah. Yeah. Um I I can second.

Okay. Um and I'll just add one other thought on the culde-sacs. Um, so I Charlie hadn't thought about what that the point of view that you offered, which is that by virtue of those baying deadend streets, you don't have the north south traffic that continues on all the other cross streets. And so we'll look at that on as you look at traffic volumes and those real studies and we'll get data to actually help us inform whether El Dorado or El Carmelo is the better option. Is there a design that could do El Carmelo? Uh various iterations. So that's those are all the next steps. We're not deciding exactly what route there would be on the east side and we'll have pros and cons coming back to us after they do additional analysis.

Yeah. And just speaking to my second that was exactly what I meant when I said there are pros and cons that the there's not through traffic north south. I didn't say north south but that's what I meant. There's no through traffic but you're trapped and you have to come out at that end. can't go out the other end. So, it'd be interesting if you thought about that as you come back. And I I guess I would definitely like to see um you know, both analyzed because of the possibility of some property implications on the east side of the of A2. Definitely like to see A1 still in play. [sighs]

Council names. Yeah. I u intend to support the motion and I just want to add that I think it'll be useful for us to see the comparison between A1 and A2 because I imagine the costs are going to be significantly different and it'll be important for us you know even if we do go with the more expensive one for us to understand um what that trade-off was. So I look forward to seeing uh the development of both. Okay, see no other lights, we can vote on the motion.

Council member Liths, yes. Council member Stone, yes. Vice Mayor Vinker, yes. Mayor Lowing, yes. Council member Burton, yes. Motion carries. 511. Council member Rectal recuse and council member Lou absent.

Okay. Thank you again to the public. Uh your input is not over. We have many many many months to work this through. So okay, we'll move on to the uh last action item. It's uh approval of amendments to the appointment agreements between the city of Palo Alto and council appointed officers of city manager, city attorney, and city clerk. Before we take public comment, I just want to outline what happened. This is uh um it's to improve the uh merit increases of for these three council appointed officers. And this was all done in u evaluations and suggested increases were done in close session by the u um by the council. Um there's no automatic um cola as we call it cost living increases for uh [clears throat] off officers. So, we have to take action outside of that if we choose to. And we and we did. Um, council is recommending a 3% merit increases for the city attorney and the city manager. And the city manager gets this 3% salary increase. The city attorney has requested her increase as a contribution to her deferred 401A compensation plan. This results in no increase to uh her Kalper's report of her salary or pension. uh and in fact it's actually less costly to the city overall. Uh and the city clerk is receiving a salary adjustment bringing her compensation to the median of the market and we're well aware uh of the

market rates and ranges for all these positions and we do comparables to uh regional positions of similar size and stature. Um so see if there any public comments. Yes, mayor. We have one request to speak. Two requests to speak. Our first speaker is Helen G. Okay. Good evening, this late evening. Um, so I'm speaking regarding the proposal to raise city manager SA base salary to 435,000 retroactive to July 1st. By publicly available data, this puts our city manager in the top 5 to 10 out of nearly 500 city managers across California, the top 1 to 2% statewide. I could accept that level of compensation if we were consistently getting top 1% performance and responsiveness for residents. We are not. Out in the community when I bring up city issues, people say to me, "Just give up. Don't even try. The city will never respond. This is a serious trust problem." First, the Ross and East Meadow roundabout. We fixed it, and I do appreciate that, but it took 2 years, countless meetings, a petition of more than 400 residents. Why did it have to be so painful? This type of process is the reason most citizens give up. It's unclear why the city was so resistant to fixing an intersection that did not meet MUTCD standards and that residents universally agreed was broken. Even more importantly, if we made sure new designs met MUTCD standards from the start, residents would not have to spend years begging to fix things. This was a design issue, not

a resourcing issue. on daylighting. It has been nearly two years since the state law took effect, and we still have zero curbs painted, zero tickets issued, zero warnings issued, and no clear project plans or any timelines. I want to be clear on this. We cannot blame resourcing. The city has had 2 years to get going since the law took effect. 2 years. And yet, we have nothing, not even a timeline. This is not what top 1% leadership looks like. On responsiveness, I have 311 tickets that have taken months and required seven or more escalations plus involvement from multiple members of the council just to get an answer. And the answer after all of that was no. This wastes your time. It wastes my time. And it highlights the lack of accountability on strategy and efficiency. We spend millions every year on consultants who produce long and hard to follow reports such as the recent turf report. Prior to that consulting contract, I stood here and offered to help staff get the information they needed faster, cheaper, and more accurately using AI. Council members were interested and followed up with me, but not a single staff member took me up on my offer. The default remains hire more consultants rather than improve efficiency and innovate. And here we are in Silicon Valley, the hub of innovation. Given all of this, I do not see how a retroactive raise to a top 1% salary is justified right now. It feels like rewarding a non-responsive status quo and is a slap in the face to residents who are trying in good faith to work with the city and keep hitting dead ends. Please, on behalf of residents, let's not reward persistent delays and lack of responsiveness with a retroactive

up. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ward.

Hey everybody. Um, really quickly, we've talked about resources tonight. There's been a lack of resources all over the place. I don't have a dog to fight on cola increases or anything like that, but PaloAlto spends millions a year, millions of dollars a year on contracts with vendors, right? And I'm don't know how much we've recovered through liquidated damages through contracts that that did not get fulfilled properly. I was here to talk about the Bullware Park contract before it was finished and the contractor got paid 100% out and we had to pay more money to finish the job he didn't do. I don't know why we didn't go out and collect $200,000 worth of liquidated damages from this contractor when we should have. $1,000 a day. The the park is finally going to finish. December 21st is the end of fall. So hopefully I'll have grass. Our our neighbors will have grass. So there is delinquency in project management. And you want more resources. go after the money that is rightfully ours by just following up with contracts. And I believe that city managers and other department heads are responsible for that. So, Cola, I'm all for it. Not against it, but I want to make sure that you as council members are following up with city managers and department heads when you're aware of these issues on why are we paying extra money to contractors to not do their work. It's just I'm I'm only one guy with one little tiny contract I looked at. I bet you there is millions of dollars left on the table that would pay for his salary and everybody else's salaries in here as all the other resources that SEIU wanted as well, but we're leaving on the table. So, that's what I got to say. Thank you so much.

That concludes public comment on action item 19. Okay. [clears throat] Any council member comments? If not, then we need a motion to uh approve. Council member Baker. Yeah, I I'll [clears throat] move that the approval of these contracts. Okay. And a second.

Second. And I'd just like to speak to my motion to say that this is a complex city to manage and I think we're fortunate to have this team and I support these merit increases. I note that without colas there's other implications that we'll have to manage going forward, potential salary compression, etc. But in terms of the merit, I think it's uh I I I wholeheartedly support it. Seconder. Any other comments? Yes. I'll just Oh, okay. Wow, it just came on then. Go ahead.

I just want to echo what the vice mayor said about support for our um council appointed officers in this manner. and to underscore the complexity uh that this city brings and um the importance of having top-notch people in all of these roles and I think we're fortunate to have the folks we have and delighted to see them getting uh the raises they are. Okay, city clerk, we will go to a vote. Mayor Ling, yes. Council member Bert. Council member Rectal. Yes. Council member Stone. Yes. Vice Mayor Vinker. Yes. Council member Liths.

Yes. Motion carries. 61. Council member Lou absent. Okay. Thank you very much. I don't see any other items. So we stand adjourned.