Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Hey, good morning, good afternoon, evening, something. Can you hear us?

Yeah, I can hear you.

Perfect, okay. May I? Ms. Jennings? All right, I'm going to call a meeting to order. Welcome to the July 14th Planning Commission. I know it's been a while. Hope everybody had a wonderful Fourth. Can we do a roll call, Jennings?

Thank you, Chair Wilson. Chair Wilson?

Here.

Vice Chair Habib?

Here.

Commissioners Lake?

Here.

Muller?

Here.

Lovato?

Here.

Downey? Here. And Adama?

Here. Thank you. Can you declare the posting?

Tonight's meeting agenda is duly noticed and posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2. Thank you. We don't have a flag.

Let us in that direction. You lead us, please. Let us turn in the direction of the flag.

That's true.

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

Thank you. Public comment. Members of the public are entitled to address the Planning Commission concerning any item within the Morgan Hill Planning Commission's subject matter jurisdiction. Public comments are limited to no more than three minutes. Except in certain specific exceptions, the Commission is prohibited from discussing or taking action on any item not appearing on the posted agenda. I see we added a... some more additional information that's available at the back of the agenda.

If we can just, I'd like to also remind the audience how they can submit comments.

Please do.

Thank you. If you're joining us today and want to provide public comment and you're using Zoom, you can use the raise hand feature. If you're calling in using your phone, you can dial star nine and then star six to speak. You can also provide us public comment by email at pcpubliccomment at morganhill.ca.gov.

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Do we have anybody in person or online that has any comments to any non-agenda items?

I don't see any raised hands.

OK. No public hearings. Item 1, minute approval.

I'll make a motion to approve in May 26th.

I'm going to do a roll call. Who was the motioner? Joe. I heard Joe.

Mike left the second chair.

Okay. I'm going to do a roll call. Roll call.

Chair Wilson?

Yes.

Vice Chair Habib?

Aye.

Commissioner Blake?

Yes.

Muller?

Yes.

Lovato?

Yes.

Downey?

Yes.

And McDonald? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Item number two, the workshop for the greater downtown specific plan. I'm assuming Adam or Jennifer is giving the presentation.

Adam Paskowski, plan manager for the city. I'll give a presentation. We don't have a formal presentation. presentation to share online or on the screen. Okay. But just to have a verbal presentation about the project. And so over a year ago, the City Council adopted a resolution accepting $1.15 million in grants funded from the TOC Plan and Implementation Grant. And this was through MTC, TOC's Grant, and this was to fund four different areas. One is our Morgan Hill zone of densities and floor area ratio, housing, parking management, and then also a station access and circulation plan for Morgan Hill. And so through this grant, the NCC's TOC policy is what this grant is hoping to achieve. Through that policy, it requires us to address four areas. It's a housing supply and affordability. How do we increase the overall housing supply in part by increasing densities or prioritizing affordable housing near transit areas? So for us, it will be the Caltrain Station. Another aspect is commercial development. So areas near regional transit hubs, how do we increase the density and success of businesses or commercial developments near the transit center or transit hub? The third is the access and mobility. So it's really taking that multimodal look at transit. So it's walking, so pedestrian bus could be the train. It's more that active transportation. How do people travel outside from an automobile? So walking, the pedestrian aspect of the bike, and then also using any public transit as well. And so with that part, it's taking a look at a half mile from our transit station. to see theoretically how far can someone walk or bike to get to either the transit station or even our downtown. And then the fourth one is partnerships. So support and build partnerships to create equitable transit-oriented communities. And so with that, it's doing our public outreach, really getting support and direction from the public and from our community members on the directions that we want to achieve as we go through this project. And so for the grant, what this is doing is going to be funding an update to our downtown specific plan. And so as part of this whole process, we're referring to it as the greater downtown specific plan. And that's going to be a comprehensive update to our 2009 downtown specific plan. And the idea is to expand our boundaries for downtown. the areas to the north and south of downtown, as well as to the west along Main Street, going over to Galvin Park, and then aligning any land uses, zoning, parking, any infrastructure, mobility, access, and the public realm. And so it's looking to incorporate all these policies or these TOC policies from MTC and incorporate it into a project that's viable for Morgan Hill. So taking a look at all these different aspects and seeing how do we want to grow within Morgan Hill, within our downtown, what changes do we want to make for all these different aspects, for these four different aspects. But one thing I want to point out is that on the housing part, we're addressing that separately from the downtown specific plan update. And we're taking that through a different approach and looking to update different ordinances, possibly adopt new ordinances that would be housing related in order to address those requirements. And the reason why we're doing this and why we applied for the grant is not only to help us update the downtown specific plan, but also looking at the future as part of OBAC funding, that's One Bay Area Grant Program, where we get several million dollars through funding for road improvements or pedestrian and crosswalk improvements, bike lanes. It's gonna be a requirement that we meet a certain threshold or amount of points and criteria to be awarded feature funding for road improvements for that grant fund. So this is taking a multi approach combining these four different grants or for the downtown specific plan, these three separate grants. their separate housing and really combine it into one project something that not just meeting what NCC wants but coming up with a really great project for us to really explore have the public input on and come up with a project or a downtown specific plan that we are happy with that we want to address more things than what the grant opportunities allow us to do and take a look at more of the specific details that are covered in a specific plan. So it's looking also at those infrastructure, the details, looking at, it could be looking at the mediums, the street furniture, all the details that are currently included in our downtown specific plan, really expanding and taking another look at that plan as we decide to grow on this boundary as well. And so, through this process of going through the Greater Downtown Specific Plan, we do have consultants on board through the grant. The primary consultant is Forward City Labs. They have actually started outreach, public outreach on this approach on updating our Downtown Specific Plan. We had We started public outreach a few weeks ago, June 18th, at the Thursday Twilight Market in downtown on 3rd Street. We also, this past weekend, had two outreach events as well, two pop-ups. One during the Sidewalk Saturdays this past Saturday. At the end of 3rd Street, we were in front of Jaunty's and Railroad Park. providing information and getting public input and then as well as at Galvin Park during the Parks and Rec night, the summer fun night that they had at Galvin Park. And so we're really just in the beginning stages of kick-starting this, getting some general ideas, public input, these overall arching ideas from the public, how did they What do they see that they love about Morgan Hills downtown? What do they want to see more of? What improvements can we make? Where are their areas, not just on buildings, on zoning, but also other aspects that would be covered in the specific plan, such as crosswalks. Where should those crosswalks be? What kind of lighting do we need? How that pedestrian scale, how do we have that access, that pedestrian and bicycle access, so that people don't have to drive through all of downtown to get to certain areas? looking at that really greater area and seeing how can people not just drive into downtown and park on a spot and walk around, but areas east of the train station past the VTA lot, those residential areas, how do they access downtown? Do we have to look at different ways or what restrictions are there from them walking from their homes on that east side coming to Monterey to visit restaurants or anything like that. And so taking this multi-prong approach, tackling all these different issues. And so really just want to bring this to the Planning Commission. There's nothing to approve tonight. I just want to really daylight this to you as we're doing this public outreach. And the Planning Commission is gonna be serving as a technical advisory. community outreach meetings during the Planning Commission where we ask for feedback or the consultants will come in with draft and with the information as we go throughout this process. And so there'll be several meetings with the Planning Commission to get that feedback, get the direction on how do we proceed, what's important, what are key aspects and key items that need to be addressed or get feedback from the Planning Commission as well as from the public. And so we are still developing a comprehensive outreach plan, but there's going to be multiple ways on how we're going to conduct that outreach. Like I mentioned, we've done a few pop ups already. So we're going to continue doing pop ups. We're going to have some targeted outreach to key neighborhoods or key apartment buildings as well to get feedback from all various community members. We'll be going out to the Chamber of Commerce, going out to pbid to get their input as well and really get input from both the public side the business side and the property owners as well inform them of this proposed project and to get their their input on the development as we get through this entire project and there of course will be a few community-wide meetings as we see fit there'll be a walk audit there'll be a access a gap analysis through that he's doing a business walk through the community so there's multiple aspects on this as i mentioned so looking at the densities the florida ratios for office space retail space looking at the zoning land use for all these properties we'll be looking at of course the The access to and around downtown and we'll also be doing a economic viability study to see When we think about resident or sorry about commercial uses what's the economic benefits there. What is realistic to how much square footage is realistic within downtown or the greater area. Really do the deeper analysis that we would normally see in like a general plan type update. So the specific plan is really digging into those details. And as we finalize the scope with the consultant and finalize the public outreach scope, I would also come back and share that with the planning commission. And so in here, in the staff report, there is a map of the Greater Downtown Study Area. It's both included in the staff report as well as a attachment. So you can really zoom in and get more detail on the boundaries. And so that map shows the existing boundary of the downtown specific plan and the wider areas are going to expand and also the half a third or sorry, the half mile distance from the Caltrain station and downtown. And so going through this, there are several tables within the staff report. It is a little bit hard to read just based on how our formatting goes through Civic Clerk, through the program that we use to generate our staff reports. So I also included the NTC TOC policy guidance document. That's also an attachment to the staff report that really spills out the different densities that are being sought after by MTC. So it's looking at full minimum and maximum zoning densities. And one of the aspects of this whole thing is that when this first started, MTC ranked us with our train station at a higher tier, meaning that they want to originally see higher densities lower parking requirements. And we had the communications with MTC as they were developing this policy and where they really put, what tier they put us at. And so we successfully, with the service that we are, we currently have for our transit and the level of service with the, just the number of stops that we have within Morgan Hill with having a four routes going, north in the morning and only four routes south in the afternoon. With that limited service, we were able to get it down to the lowest tier possible, which is tier four. And so through this, we were able to, or what NCC would like to see is 25 units to the acre for the minimum density with a maximum of 35 units per acre. Other things that they would like to see is the floor area ratio, that we have a floor area ratio of one or higher for our commercial or office space projects. And then with a maximum floor area ratio of 3.0. And then for our parking policy, what it really is is establishing maximum parking standards, which we currently do not have within the city. what they want to see is a parking maximum. And so be taking a look at that. And then on the, as I mentioned, on the transit side, before I go into the transit, so for the parking, it's looking at automobile as well as bicycle parking as well. So we have conversations on both of those in the future. And then of course, on the station access and circulation, What we need to do is identify a mobility help plan and document. And so that'd be something that consultants will be doing. 15 minute bike sheds, 15 minute walk sheds from the downtown. And so with this, we have the project being funded or grant funded. Going through this process and It's gonna be, I mentioned earlier, a two-year process. So we're expecting to get to the planning commission and city council and probably in two years, so like about June and July of 2028 is when we expect the project to be completed. There are some deadlines by NTC for future funding. Although As I mentioned at the beginning that the City Council adopted a resolution last year in 2025. We didn't get the grant funded from NCC until the beginning of this year. So almost a year after we accepted the grant, we didn't get the funding. And even with that, they have certain deadlines by next year, by July 1st, 2027, where they want to see some achievements. So it's the fourth cycle, the OVAG funded for the roads. They would like to see, or we have to see where we can land within that frame to see how much funding we can potentially get an OVAG for.

So applications for that fourth round is due by July 1st.

And we're going to be based on the point system that they have on those future funding. And then it's going to be more strict later years. So there's going to be a set aside of funding by July 1st, 2027.

If for any jurisdictions that are compliant, there's going to be a set funded for that, for those jurisdictions.

And then after that, the following year or two, it's going to be that everyone would have to be compliant with their policies, meet a certain threshold on the points in order to get the funding in future years. So there's the carrot and stick type of thing going on. But luckily, not all jurisdictions were not awarded grants. We were one of the few and one of the very few, I think one out of three or four jurisdictions that got funded in all four categories. So luckily, we were able to achieve this and execute this grant and get the funding for it. I'm happy to answer any questions or if there's any additional details that's needed at this time, but of course we'll be back in the near future as well.

I'm sure the commission has a few questions. I have one before Paul, before you start. So the grants you got, I think is a little bit over a million, right? Total? And will that take us through with the consultants through the development of the approved plan?

So we, in long range planning, we do have funding to support any additional work. We're still finalizing the contract because this work will require EIR funding. Oh, well, okay. Yes. And so we will be conducting an EIR on this project. The level of the EIR is still to be determined, but it's expected to be an addendum EIR. And so there is funding within the long range plan division to fund for that EIR.

Okay. I just have one more question and I'll turn it over to the rest of mission and this could be a dumb question but so we have a specific downtown plan we have a general plan then we have a housing element plan so to speak how does this dovetail into that yeah so the general plan is really high level it's kind of when people talk about they talk about like a

levels. And so the general plan is really like looking down from the sky, like a 30,000 square or 30,000 foot level, looking down at property and painting a picture of residential, commercial, industrial, mixed use type uses. And so the general plan is really looking at those type of issues as well as density. So looking at residential densities as well as floor air ratios. The specific plan is unique. It's looking at densities, so it's really flushing out those densities. It includes zoning, and it also includes all those very many details. So it looks at the streetscape, it looks at traffic, it looks at just access, what type of street furniture, looks at infrastructure. So it's all encompassing within that boundary. And so with that, you have the general plan. And then trying to think how to raise it.

An easy way for me to understand it is a specific plan is a very detailed general plan for a specific area. So it's compliant with the general plan, but it's very specific for that area and sort of supplants the general plan and what goes on in that area.

Oh, that part I understand. I guess I didn't explain my question accurately. So you have an existing downtown specific plan right now. So how is this new plan going to, dovetail with that. It's going to replace it. Oh, it's going to replace it. It's going to completely replace it. There you go. So we're going to rewrite the entire specific. Perfect. Right. Thank you.

And we've already done a portion of it by adopting the form-based plan. Oh, okay. So that's part of what would go into that plan. Got it. So when you're looking at the hierarchy, it goes general plan, specific plan zoning. Housing element is part of the general plan, but on a different update schedule than the normal general plan.

and with the state oversight that isn't true of most, all of the other plans, other parts of the general plan. Thank you, Adam.

They can grant certification or take it away as we can signal over.

Commissioner Link. Yeah, thank you, sir. So I was going to ask about the general plan. Is there like a, it seems like when you do a general plan, you may or may not have a budget allocation to that.

does this now attach like a budget to that specific plan is that what it is or did you have a prior budget for the high level plan yeah um so this grant will cover everything all encompassing so it will cover anything that we need to update within our general plan on densities um and then it will cover pretty much all the written document for the specific plan um outs So for the general plan, it's looking at that very specific issue and only that for the general plan. We have other budgets to update other sections of the general plan, but then those are separate projects.

Excellent. And then the other question I had is about does the MOGO experiment we had a while ago will play any part of this new plan?

So Simple answer is no. That will be MOGO. We looked at different ways on how we can bring MOGO back by how can we fund it. At this time, we do not have a plan on how to bring it back, but it's always something that we are looking into and having further discussions on.

But that type of transportation is going to be something that's talked about. in this because that's how you get people to the transportation hub or as one point in the staff reporter and then TOC guidelines talked about, how do you get people from the transportation hub to like the job centers? How do we get people that come in on the bus to Trump to Archer, right? So that those workers can do it. Right? That's part of this discussion, is how do we get people to be able to use public transportation and get to our job centers? When you have a big job center like that, that makes that a pretty significant conversation to have.

Great. Great comment, Joe. And are we looking at, because our current downtown area has a certain footprint, where it goes like from Maine to East Dunn, Are we planning to like expand the footprint of the downtown?

Yes. So on the south side from, so you're correct that the current downtown specific plan is from Maine to Dunn and then from Del Monte on the west to Butterfield Boulevard on the east. And so we're not looking to change the boundary on the east. On the south side, we're looking to go further south towards San Pedro Avenue, almost to the basically to the post office. And then on the north side, expanded it much further, almost to the Ramroad overpass over near the fire station. Oh, right. Okay. And then along Main, we're looking to expand to the west all the way to Galvin Park.

Okay.

By the way, compliments on speaking without a teleprompter for a good half hour. Thank you.

Well, it also includes all the area of the shopping center on the southwest corner of Monterey.

Yes. Yes, so include that, Ross, the shopping center and then other parcels that are on that west side of Monterey, just south of that shopping center. Thank you, sir.

Thank you, Joseph. Okay. Adam, what you said verbally and what I read in the staff report on housing didn't quite agree, I don't think. So in the staff report, you talked about housing policy, how you retain it, how much affordability and things like that. But what you seem to say is that housing is going to go completely away and we're not going to talk about it. The subway and it seems to me the housing part of it, the physical housing part of where we put housing and where the density is is a very important part of this plan that public is extremely concerned about.

Yes, so. I apologize for that, so there are two. The way how's that about so housing for density is going to be included for this zoning for housing will be included as part of this plan that's just a plan update. The housing part is the, that I was saying that will be separated from this, is our affordable housing policies.

And how you protect it and some other things that I really, okay.

Right, and just to touch on that since just to build clarity. So things that we are looking to do for housing policies is taking a look at our affordable housing fund. So our inclusionary housing ordinance. So that'll be a separate item that we'll bring to Planning Commission in the near future. We are going to be looking at public plan for affordable housing. So we'll be identifying properties, evaluating those. We'll draft a market feasibility study, and we'll be bringing that to Planning Commission in the near future as well. through that we are we identified three sites it's not just in downtown but sites throughout the city or so there's six total policies that we're looking at another one is the condominium conversion ordinance so we're looking to draft an ordinance for that as well and next is a mobile home preservation ordinance that we are drafting currently as well and then also a foreclosure assistance ordinance and so all of those and we're looking to and there's one more uh the mobile home rent stabilization ordinance so those four ordinances what we're looking to do is probably bundle those together and do some public outreach um go out to the public, get some feedback, go back, go out and get feedback from the mobile home parks, get feedback from other property owners as well, get feedback from housing agencies on these different ordinances. And because the whole point of these is to help preserve affordable housing. It's not just affordable housing that are included in our BMRs or Inclusionary Housing Ordinance. It's looking at other things that would help people who are in the threat of being foreclosed on. It's looking at mobile home parks, which are not necessarily identified as affordable housing, but it serves as an affordable option.

Okay. Now, you talked about FARs and density units. Those are area-wide averages, not project-specific. So how do you determine the area average and how do we deal with it? Because that's a big part. And when are we going to know our existing state?

Yes. So we are currently looking to identify that. So it's, it is our averages. So it's not saying that all properties within this half mile or has to have these density ranges. It's taking a look at different types of zoning districts that we could, or amending our densities within these areas where some areas will maybe a lot, it could be higher, other areas, a lot lower. and the way how the formula works is looking at properties that are either vacant or likely to be redeveloped. It's not taking, looking at that half mile on the east side of the city, we have a lot of single family residential neighborhoods. So the way how the policy works and the guidance from NCC is we can limit or remove parcels that are fully developed and unlikely to be redeveloped. So as we're going through this process right now, we would be eliminating those properties on the east side of Butterfield and we do not have to include those within our calculations.

Well, but there's more than on the east side.

Yes.

I mean, when you look at just the east side of Deboe, That's all new housing. That's not going to redevelop for decades. But yet they require us to meet for the area a 25 minimum to be compliant, if I read it right.

Right.

So do you exempt all that and just get down to some sort of much smaller number? That's going to be really key for the public to understand. Right. And quickly.

Originally, that number was 65. Yeah. And we fought really, really hard to get us out of that mix. Right. So luckily, 25 is one unit above what our current maximum is, which makes it a little bit easier to.

Right. But it's still, if you have to make the 25 average all the way across that whole area, there's lots of it that have been redeveloped. or been developed in the last decade or two, that it's not going to redevelop for many years. And if we had to forge redevelopment, it's going to be a lot harder to do than do it. So how does that all get worked out, and how do we explain it to the public? And the same goes on the commercial floor area ratio, right? I don't even think we have a floor area ratio in our form-based code right now. I think we took it out, didn't we?

We took it out.

yeah now they're coming back saying you got to have it in because you can't go over three so for all these we're I'm still having discussions with MTC staff and they have their so we're still we're still in conversation with them on how this calculation works and how what areas we can what properties we have to focus on. So we are still working that out and we're not ready to have those conversations yet, but it will be something that we'll come back with a map that shows what that boundary is on what properties we would have to include within that calculations.

Good. Commissioner Habib.

Thank you, Chair. I just had a few clarifying questions, Adam. So the first one earlier on, you mentioned that there was the timeline or at least the deadline for compliance to be sometime in, I believe you were saying July of 2027. And I was looking at the staff report too, and it also mentions that we're hoping to have at least the specific plan completed by roughly the summer of 2028. So how does that come? Is the compliance going to be able to be achieved before we have the completed specific plan?

Yeah, so through this entire process, talking about the July 1st, 2027 date, there are different buckets in funding for OBAG 4. And so there's There's one bucket where if people or if jurisdictions are in compliance by July 1st, 2027, there's a certain dollar amount that we could apply for. If we're not in compliance, there's still going to be funding available, but not as much. And so the way how this all works is it's on a point system. So for each of these different categories, and even subcategories for each of these, you get assigned points. So one thing is we're taking the housing policies separate. So those ordinances, housing ordinances, the preservation ordinances, those are things that we could get completed before January 1st, 2027, and try to get the most maximum number of points on those items. There's other things that we can do on the other side For example, for bicycle parking, there's a possibility where we get that completed before July 1st, 2027. We update our bicycle parking ordinance for the city and give points for that. So it's looking at where we can get points by that deadline and to see if we achieve the minimum number of points to get that additional funding. So there's other areas such as the densities where we might not achieve But you get points on if you achieve the maximum density for residential density, you get a separate points for if you achieve the minimum density. Same thing with the floor area ratios. If you meet the maximum floor area ratio or if you meet the minimum floor area ratio. And so today, if we didn't do anything on those densities of those floor area ratios and we didn't, get an update downtown specific plan, we will still get points. We just won't get the maximum number of points.

Okay. And the points are there to determine the amount of grant funding or eventual funding that you're eligible for?

So the points, the way how NCC finalized it is that you have to achieve, I believe it was 75 points in order to be eligible for that additional funding. And so it's not like if you achieve 50 points, then you can get 50% of that funded. They just established the 75-point threshold. If you meet that 75 or if you get 100, you still have the same chances of getting that additional funding. And if you fall below that 75 points, then you can't get any of that additional funding.

Got it. And that's really based off of what you're producing to MTC. So it could, for example, be more aspirational than practical and so on. It's just based off of their analysis of what you end up along those four priority areas that you develop and hand over to them. Okay. And then let's see. So I think one of the commissioners, I think it was actually the chair that already talked about the interactions between different items like the general plan, specific plan, and so on. I think this was more specific for the Monterey corridor form-based code. I think it's been two or three some years since we completed that. And so since that, I guess, kind of technically falls under zoning, is that one of the other items that would need to be updated?

Possibly. It depends on what that boundary looks like with these discussions with MTC on the areas that we would need to include, or if we decide to develop a new zoning district or something, a new form-based code zoning district to achieve those densities. But the idea for this whole project is, So we have the form-based code along the Monterey corridor, but we don't have a form-based code within the downtown specific plan. We don't have a form-based code on some of the areas along, or most of the areas along Main Street to the west towards Galvin Park. Even some of the areas that are north that we're looking to expand, there's some parcels that are have a form-based zoning district. And so we'll be looking at all these, see if we want to expand the form-based zoning code. If we want to create new zones, especially within the existing boundary of the downtown specific plan, do we want to create a new or several new form-based code zoning districts that only pertain to the downtown? The ideas are endless right now. And so we're trying to as we go through this process we're going to myself, as well as the consultant are going to develop some ideas and bring those ideas to the planning Commission in the future to see. How can we achieve these densities or how can we get close to where we get enough points for the future.

Got it. And along those same lines, so talking about the possibilities of how we can really use what we have to achieve the goals was on page one of the staff report, this is where we have the map, the location map slash project information. And I think it was actually a really nice visual to help understand where the original or the current downtown specific plan was. And then where it's expanding along the red dotted lines. And then really, at least how I understood it, the TOC area that they're primarily focused on. And so for me, it was a little bit hard to understand. And I think this Commissioner Lake might have also brought this up a little bit too, was how we fit the rest of what TOC is focusing on versus what we're expanding when it comes to the downtown specific plan. And the reason I say that is because as you're looking at the orange dotted circle, A lot of the area that the TOC covers, you know, I don't know exactly, maybe 35, 40% is outside of where we're currently looking at, including the expanded downtown specific plan. And so is that along the TOC priorities, if we were really just able to focus on expanding the downtown specific plan for now, would that really achieve the what TOC is looking for, or will we eventually maybe need to do something that might look more like a TOC-specific plan? Again, not to say that's exactly what it is, but when you kind of look at those possibilities of expanding because of how much of the area is covered to the east and to the west, where TOC wants to see some of those priorities fall. So again, Just kind of me thinking out loud, too, and making a comment around, like, how can we actually achieve what they want us to achieve, given the limited scope that we have when it comes to, you know, using the downtown-specific plan to at least cover what the TOC wants?

Yeah. So as part of the grant and my conversation with the MTC, we had these discussions with them. We want to... not only try to achieve what mtc wants but we want to come with a product that we would be happy with and so we went beyond this half mile that toc is requesting us to look at um and to go outside this but this half mile circle uh with the the bread uh dash line border on this map We were looking at areas that made sense to extend the downtown specific plan or the greater downtown specific plan. And so we didn't want just to end it where there was no roads or anything. We want to really extend it to areas that made sense to us, really terminate at specific roads. And although this is outside of the MTC area, policy and what they want to achieve, they agreed that this made better sense to include as part of the project and that they would help fund the specific plan out to these other properties. So when we do look at those densities, the residential densities, the floor area ratios, it's only looking within that half mile circle. But then, like I mentioned before, we are able to exclude certain properties, and so we're still in those discussions with MTC on the specific properties that we can exclude from the calculations in order to figure out if we meet minimum or maximum densities.

Yeah, for sure. And I think it also makes sense, too, is, again, given the practicality of it, right, there are some locations that are even closer than if you go way up north on Monterey Road that are just east on East Main or along East Main and that kind of go into some of the development on the east side of the railroad. And so, again, just kind of looking at how we can possibly bring that And even though it might not be as practical, obviously, just looking at the downtown specific plan. But I think that would be something my interest is seeing how we can really connect those other areas that are not necessarily within the downtown specific plan and actually enable people to be able to access transit in a much more easier efficient way. The other question I had too was in regards to the grant coverage and again I think one of the commissioners also talked about this a little bit and so my question was can the grants be used for things that the city already needs to do so maybe like infrastructure capacity analysis. We kind of talked about like baseline. I think that was Commissioner Mueller who talked about some type of understanding of baseline, like what we currently have for eventually what you need for like an average density and so on. So is it possible where we are able to use some of the grant funding for things that helps the city planning beyond? the TOC area and beyond what we have grant funding for. So that way we can have maybe better planning for other areas down the line.

Yes. So some areas we, so we are doing that on certain aspects. So for example, like bicycle parking, we're not looking only within the half mile. We're looking at, does it make sense to have these bicycle standards throughout the entire city. For other things, it's looking at the housing policy. So the affordable housing, our inclusionary housing ordinance, we want to take another look at that anyway. This provides us an opportunity on how can we update that for affordable housing and how can we generate more funding towards affordable housing. It's taking a look at other things that's going to help us with our transportation element update that we're looking to work on in the next year. And so taking all these different aspects, although it's going to be geared towards this downtown specific plan, we're able to use a lot of this either citywide or for other projects that we're going to be working on pretty soon. And so it's... I guess we were lucky to get awarded this grant in order to help really help out us throughout the city on other aspects and then on potential future grant funding as well.

Great. Thank you, Adam. And I just wanted to do a final comment too. I wanted to appreciate a couple of the things that you had shared with us. I think it's really phenomenal to be able to go out and beyond and get the grant funding. It's something that not many other cities were able to accomplish. And so I just wanted to give a kudos to the team to be able to do that. And on top of that, being able to get more flexibility I think it was from the tier two to the tier four where you couldn't do parking requirements and so on. And so I think it was really great to be able to, you know, advocate for the city and get a little bit more flexibility, get that grant, the grant funding for something that's really needed. And also with the EIR, I think it's great that you're looking at the addendum versus possibly the full EIR, full blown EIR, which again can obviously get like really costly and and quite inundated. So I just wanted to give you a kudos for that. Thanks, Adam. Thanks. Sure.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, a few questions.

Actually, I'll start. I want to second what mom just said. Congratulations and compliments for getting this far. And I think it's a testament to staff, as always, as regards your, I have to assume you're very organized, you're very tenacious. but also I think it sounds like you're very good at building relationships as well. People tend to help you when they like you. And I think that's, people don't realize that a lot of times, but I can tell just by the conversations you've had, you know, and, uh, Morgan Hill always seems to stand out. And I think it's just a testament to the way staff approaches this stuff, right? You know, you can be a bit of an ASS about it sometimes and people will listen to you, but they're always thinking do something. But so congratulations with that. Um, I still don't understand, just following up with Mohamed's question too, so if you get this grant and there are some deadlines, is there a specific grant issue expectation, let's say at the end of July, are you supposed to, is there an expectation of a deliverable, you've implemented something or you have a plan to implement something? What happens like, let's say, and then, you know what I mean? So for example, here's my plan for better mobility, for example, as opposed to I physically have done something. What is the expectation there?

And you're talking about the July 2027? As an example, right, yeah. So there's still those discussions with MTC to see where, if it, to see how can we achieve those points or how are those points awarded, if there's a path forward or if it has to be implemented by that date.

And so it's still unknown right now.

And it may still be unknown in six months, but we're going to try to do the best on what we can do on getting what makes sense for Morgan Hill to get the most points as possible to meet that date. If it appears that we aren't going to get enough points and then we have to have it and everything implemented by that date, we will rethink it. We will figure out a way to really just adjust and make sure that we're getting the best overall project and not rush through certain aspects of it. But as I mentioned before, even if we don't do anything, we are still getting points because we do meet certain thresholds already. We have a complete streets policy, so we get points for that already. Just the only caveat is if we don't do anything now, we obviously don't have an additional funding. But we think we have a path forward where we might be close to the points. It just depended on from NCC what their direction is or how they decide to implement it or how to award points if it has to be just a path forward or it has to be a fully adopted specific plan or in order to get those

Yeah. MTC is also listening to all the cities. Originally, the points, it was going to be a competition. And based on the number of points, that's how much OVEG funding you would get. And there was tremendous pushback on that because San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose would take all the money. So now it's, okay, well, there'll be a base level as long as you're compliant. And then the competition from there. But that could even change because everything's in flux right now. Well, San Francisco goes.

So, and the reason my question was, I understand sometimes you've got to get to step one, you know, like this. And then to get to step two, you have to do something in step one and then for step three. So it's kind of a progression thing. But I'd hate for us to be so focused on getting points and proposing stuff that may not be very practical or not necessarily necessary, but needed or wanted by the community, right? So I'd love to see us balance out. You obviously have to follow the process to get what you need, but also whatever we plan to do that is practical. I'll give an example. I was talking to someone recently who lives in the city, not here in the US, as an example, where the European Union is giving massive grants for bike lanes, dedicated bike lanes, which they put in, in a city that's always raining and windy and has seven hills around. Nobody uses them. because they're completely impractical and they've taken away one layer of track, right? In every example, just as an example, right? So we were talking about, I am a proponent, I'd love to see better methods by which people can commute, travel short term, long term, come to work, go home from work. But the reality is, let's take Archer, I hate to use Archer's name, but we just talked about it a few minutes ago. We just heard about it like 24 hours ago, and it's fantastic news. Like we have a train service that goes north in the morning, not south. We have a bus service that comes south in the evening, not north, right? So the practicality of someone coming to a large employer like that, or like a specializer or other large employers in the city, that can get to where they want to get you at a reasonable amount of time without using a vehicle is very impractical. Unless they do what Apple does and Google and they have a dedicated bus, right? That picks them up and drops them specifically to a location. So what I'm saying is what's good for downtown sometimes is not necessarily good for the rest of the community. For example, you do high density housing, which I also support, right? I think we need it. I'd love to see a proposal that is more focused on possibly redevelopment rather than development because I think downtown and that new map area is not a whole lot of undeveloped land. So, but not a whole lot. But there's definitely a lot of opportunities that could potentially be redeveloped. But if that means high-density housing with no parking, the greater community is going, how do I get downtown? Where do I park? And I would think for our Chamber of Commerce and for downtown businesses, you've got to do it. I was down the last Friday night. It was a Friday night music series. I could not find a park to save my life. I drove around for 20 minutes. I finally did get one about six blocks away. But I'm saying it's a problem. So what I'm saying is I know we have to play the game. I know you have to follow the process. You do what you need to do. But let's do things that are practical as well, and maybe not just good for downtown, but for the general community.

We also have an opportunity to build on existing state law. So we may get credit for changing our codes to comply with existing state law. We may not like it. For example, AB 2097. that eliminated parking standards for every use within a half mile of a train station. Well, our codes don't say no parking, but the law does. So if we change the code, we might get credit even though, you know, and nobody will like that change, but the law is already there. So it's those types of wins that we're also looking for. This is, Adam has done a tremendous job with the grant writing where we're getting a two-for-one deal. to comply with the TOC, get our OVAC, but also update an older specific plan at the same time and make it more relevant to the city. It's just how to mesh all of that together within the timeline that we need to be.

Yeah, my last comment is when you do these outreaches, I know you mentioned a lot of, you know, you do the physical events seem to be close to downtown. Remember the majority of the community lives outside of the downtown and I think you need to get their input too, right? They have invested interests as well, although you might directly impact people more in the half-mile zone. But I think the greater community, I think, should have an input as well. So let's try and consider that too.

Thank you. And take notes.

Yeah. And good job, everyone.

Thank you, Chair. Thank you very much. I think I've told this story a couple of times to city employees, but one of the main factors for moving here and Morgan Hill was downtown. There was a housing community approved by this commission that luckily me and my family moved into. And I can't tell you how many walking dates I've been on with my wife, how many family dinners I've had because of the walking distance. So any project that helps to improve or expand downtown, fully support. So I'm really excited for something like this where this commission actually gets to be really involved in that growth. But I do have some clarifying questions. Something that was brought up a lot for residents is, especially if we're going to be expanding downtown, the character. Are we going to really focus on making sure that the existing character of downtown expands to this? The median trees that are lit up, that are brand new, that we just lit up and now all these different colors based on the event, is that going all the way to San Pedro? Is it going to go north? I mean, that's the staple of knowing you're in downtown. It's just to follow the treats. I'm looking forward to the parades being longer now. We have a lot more options to sit for the parade group. Our closed streets, you know, are we going to be using these as closed street events? You know, we closed that little portion all the way from Dunn to, I forgot where exactly it starts. But are we going to look at expanding that closed street?

No, we're not because I do logistics for that.

That is one of the things I'm thinking about. Are we going to be expanding those closed street events now? Obviously, the walking traffic helps the local businesses. That's going to be great. But my question is, are we going to be focusing on the character? Making sure that the existing or some of those keystone buildings, not touched. Refurbished, yes, but we've got some buildings I mean, the cigar shop now is what the market, that's a prime example of don't tear down, don't remodel, just put somebody new in there. Is that kind of the focus of downtown as we expand that character? That was my question.

Yeah. Yeah, so the physical fan kind of does get into those particulars. So it's looking at the character, what do we want to see, how do we want it to look like? There's options. Do we want to expand these certain characteristics north and south and to the west? Do we want to consider something slightly different? Do we want to have a little bit different feel in these other areas? So that's all discussions that we will have in the future. And so it's right now, I don't know, but it could be the same all throughout or slightly different in different areas.

And I'm not saying like cookie cutter, every building needs to be the same. I get that. All these new developments are slightly different already, but there are certain staples that are downtown Morgan Hill that shouldn't be expanded. The trees. We're looking a lot more at the outdoor eating. I mean, that was pushed during COVID, but we're enjoying it. So we're kind of having that new feel of those options. Even some of the roads closed and expanded on those little outlets that are now like the the dust trail, get that whole new build out of the outdoor eating. You can see that as far as some of these smaller outlet streets. So those are just my comments. The last question I have is just outreach. Commissioner Reed had brought it up, but specifically two categories, outreach you can use, who we want to stay in the community. Obviously they're gonna bike, walk, or e-bike into our downtown. We want them to use the establishment and our seniors, how are we gonna reach out to them and our Spanish speaking community? What's your plan to outreach to them? So I know pop-ups are great, but where? Youth, who are we talking to? I know we have youth outreach council, but is that the only voice for youth? Like what's your plan to outreach to those?

So we are still developing the outreach plan, but those are all different populations that we are looking at and how can we reach those? And so, It's, yeah, that's definitely something that will be covered. And with youth, it's also looking at how can we get the schools involved, both the high schools, middle schools, looking at all different approaches. But once we do have that outreach plan, I will share it with the commission.

If I can just encourage not only Youth Action Council, but some of these schools have school site councils, PTAs. are a good one. So if I can just encourage some insight on the outreach, I'd love to help you. All right, thank you.

You want to talk about your high school?

Yeah, so separately, I also, as I think all of you have seen, I've also received separate grants where I have high school interns So it's a possibility where they could help on certain aspects of this. They can also help with outreach as well. So that's a possibility is too. They have particular projects that they're working on. So this past semester, five of them was presented to the planning commission on the safety element on the climate vulnerability assessment. So I have five interns this coming school year that will also help and also looking the scope and how much they can assist with certain projects and this downtown a greater downtown specific plan could be an approach.

We're going to ask one more thing is for the part of the outreach is there going to be an online survey is that a community can and then if you're saying interns BTA we use interns all the time they are so social media savvy they know the biggest trends so if you're going to do some type of social media involvement using your interns to help promote that on social media stuff that part of Instagram, all that fun stuff, I would encourage you to use them for that. They know how to make those memes that go viral. It's a great way to get online interaction for any kind of surveying you're doing.

I can see you on TikTok.

At least the Ice Bucket Challenge is back. That would be good for the summer.

It's really hot outside. Well, this talk about surveys. So we do have a live survey right now on our website. So we do have a greater downtown specific plant website that's up and running. There's a notify me list on there for anyone that's interested to sign up and be notified of future outreach events. The survey is live now. People can go on to the, if they've seen the, if they see me out at community events, there's, QR code that they can scan to get to our website. Anyone that's watching or listening to this meeting, if they go to our website, type in Greater Downtown Specific Plan, it'll bring you right to our website. There's a link on there for a survey, and for people who complete the survey within that next month, they can also input their email address, and if they do that, then they are entering to a $450 Amazon gift card. So there's we're looking at different ways on providing this outreach, doing the surveys, get that input as well as doing the pop-ups.

David, would you agree though, a little bit of criticism here, but that sounds like a lot of work for somebody to go find a survey. And it's kind of what I call a pull method. In other words, they have to go and pull it as opposed to pushing it to them, right? And that's where social media comes in. You have to push it out to them, right? We have thousands of people on our social media platforms around the city it up and see if we could have the interns do that to have people not react more immediate. Just click a button, take a two-minute survey, answer a few questions. I just find sometimes when it's embedded in a website or, you know, who's watching here? Nobody, right? It's hard for them to go click seven times to find something as opposed to just pushing through.

I think the younger generation has its own ways of working through TikTok or Instagram or whatever it is, right? How are they approaching? I would listen to the interns in terms of how they communicate and how they get the most response and let them sort of guide us how to get that. Because I just think it's different than we think. I don't even touch some of that stuff.

I'll just speak a little bit more on the survey part. During these past three pop-ups, we had the QR code. We have staff there telling people about the survey to scan this code. You can go on here, take the survey. The answer is for the drawing. We are also sending postcards out to Everyone within this boundary with the QR code, let them know that there's a survey available, get them familiar with the project as well. And so.

Why are only people in this home?

So, because the, so we're sent to every single address, every single, I forget how the post office word, but it's, it's, going out to everyone within this boundary and let them know about what's happening with their property, why they're included. And so it's both informational as well as a survey, but we are continuing doing, and we will be continuing to do an additional outreach this coming months and get more people to complete the survey. It's not just people who live in this area, but anyone who that we interact with

talking about this project that okay so you said something in there that caught my eye you say within the circle okay there's a lot of this area that's outside the circle so if you talk about a boundary what boundary are we concentrating on because the area outside the circle makes a big difference if within a half mile of 85 doesn't mean anything then that's a different area than what we're talking about

I apologize if I said circle, but it's looking at the entire boundary of the greater downtown. Okay. The dash. Okay. Area.

Yeah. Okay. So if we're talking about that whole area, then, yeah, we just, the whole community wants to be involved, right? It's not just there. We need to talk to people because they're directly impacted.

Right. All things directly impacted. Different. There's the legal, and then there's the come and participate in what you want downtown to be. It's a very different message.

Right, and so we need to make sure they're included and they get all the notifications and that, but we need to get everybody else involved because when you touch downtown, you touch everybody in the city, right? You know, the taste of Morgan Hill disappeared during the pandemic, and I think everybody would want it back, right, if we knew how to do it. And so we just need to reach to everybody so that they get included in some of it. You need to meet all the legal requirements and all that too.

Right. Okay. So I think we've covered survey thoroughly. Anything else?

I will just remind the key demographics hardest to hit for a social media campaign is seniors. and our Spanish-speaking community. So even though I'm in communication, so I'm not speaking out of my you-know-what. So just it's important to know that you've got to work on connecting with those communities where you're at. Our Spanish-speaking biologist, he does not do social media. Fairly got him off the flip phone. So we've got to make sure that we're focusing our Spanish community through our Spanish-speaking community or other. Going where they're at is key for outreach, not just pop-ups at a certain grocery store or anything like that. So love to know what the outreach plan is for.

So I'm going to speak a little bit on the Spanish-only speaking outreach. So through this process, through the community engagement process, the grant is going to pay for a Spanish facilitator. So we're looking to not the city, but through our consultant, looking to hire a promotora to help go out to the community, get that additional feedback, have assistance at any community meetings to help translate, to speak directly with residents or community members. When we think about community members, it's not just residents, but also employees. So it could be our workforce within Morgan Hill. It's looking at our community, our Spanish speaking community south of Dunn when we went out and did the Healthy Neighborhoods for All outreach. That was a key area that we focus on. So that's where we had a large of our Spanish only speakers located, as well as on the west side of Monterey. And so we are gonna be doing, we'll have a Spanish facilitator assisting with the outreach as well.

Thank you. The work done on the Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative has established a significant network of folks connected to Adam. The outreach that was done on that project was just amazing. And so I think that our outreach to the Spanish-speaking community is because of that word. We already have this network in place that we're able to take advantage of in the future.

I felt that engagement was very strong at it.

OK. Yeah. Let's bring it on home with one question. So if you don't mind, I know I'm .. Oh, it's all right. Don't have to judge me. Adam, what is our goal? When are we going to have the final outreach plan ready? Just spitball. Yeah. Hopefully within the next month.

Perfect.

All right.

Mr. Bell. Thank you. Well, thanks to my brilliant and highly experienced colleagues. I have very few questions. I mean, to me and the Newcomb block, I do have a couple. So I think the plan, and you said earlier that our role was to provide technical assistance to creating this plan. Can you help just very briefly? What does that look like? Is it going to be like 10 meetings over the course of the next year where we focus on various elements that are coming forward? Is it a workshop format where we can just have interactive dialogue and So what does that look like, briefly?

So it will be coming back to the bank mission during key milestones. If you give me a minute, I can look at the draft schedule.

I assume that we'll be looking at productions of draft documents and kind of a luminous documents that we'll probably hardly be able to dive into.

So it'll be broken down into key bite-sized pieces. So it's not going to be providing a whole bunch of information all at once. We'll be tackling particular processes and everything. Hold on. if I'm going to apologize. But if you just give me a second. I was looking at several different meeting dates in the future to meet with the planning commission. So there'll be a minimum of four, at least four planning commission study sessions. And there'll be, so that'll be at least four with a consultant. And plus we will do extra from city staff without the consultant support on other aspects of this. So that could be, I would imagine anywhere between eight and 12.

Okay.

So study session kind of format where, again, based on the type that you're looking at has to be technical advisors. Yeah. presenting to us and listening to our feedback based on what you've provided.

And I believe, too, correct me if I'm wrong, Adam, that we'll take advantage of regular meeting dates unless there is too much on the agenda and we need to do special meetings.

And I think I heard that, of course, I'm sure they're all going to be open to the public, but will there be specific public input meetings in front of the Planning Commission or the input meetings are really held elsewhere?

So anything that we have with the Planning Commission would also be open to the public, just like tonight, where members of the public will also provide feedback and comments. I also want to add that there's going to be other outreach events that won't be there in Planning Commission, but the Planning Commissioners will be invited to, so like a walk audit or something like that, as we do other other different ways of doing community outreach and getting public feedback.

And then in the end, I couldn't, you already said, do we, are we an approving body as well? Although I assume the council is the final approval, or are we just kind of an accept of reports and accepting that?

Yeah. So you'll be going through this process on, on everything. It'll be a recommendation to the city council.

Okay. And with regards to, our funding source? Because is on the grants 100% funding or are there some portions that we're having to cough up some money to complete either the study work and the draft work or any projects that come of it?

So the grant is paying for everything. We would just need to fund a portion of the EIR that's going to be formed. And then there's also going to be, there's optional tasks depending on what happens in the future, if there's anything that we want to add on to it. And with those optional tasks, since the grant funding will be expended, depending on where we are, if there's anything that we want, like a change order or something like that, that's going to exceed the grant budget, then the city would have to pay for it.

Okay. And generally speaking, does any of the work that we're doing right now in creating this updated plan in the next two years, or any projects that are prompted by it, do any of those hit the general fund at all? Or is this pretty much always gonna hit a capital fund?

So this will, so any of these additional fundings, such as paying for the EIR, is funded through the Long Range Planning Fund. So we have a fund that's, there's a percentage that, We take in from permits, from plan permits, engineering permits, building permits that pays for these long-range plans. And so through that budget, through our adopted two-year budget, we have allocated funds within the next two years to help pay for this additional work that's not covered by the grant, as well as other projects. So it's not just, we don't have a two-year budget just to work on this. We have a number of different projects that we are working on that we have funded for. Thank you. That's all I have.

Thank you. It's important to remember this is an enabling document. When we get things done and we get it, this really enables us to qualify for things several years in the future, right? And if we don't do it, we won't be able to do it.

It helps us provide or They'll give us the tools to apply for other grants as well, not just for OBEG funding, but other future funding if they want to do something else, a city-type project within the downtown or the greater downtown.

Okay. Thank you. So our audience, both of them, have been very patient. So I'd like to know if they have any public comment. No, thank you.

Okay.

Do we have anybody online?

Let me check. I don't see anyone online.

What a comment from our business development.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good evening. I appreciated the conversation today. I wanted to chime in on a couple of things that I heard tonight and just kind of offer some thoughts for you this evening. First and foremost, I think that conversation and the dialogue is spot on from is the look of the downtown going to be expanded? What is the right balance between, you know, advancing policies that might get us funding, but at the same time might create development that we might not be excited about? What is the right outreach? How much are we outreaching outside of the targeted areas? Even to our newest commissioner, I thought all the questions were absolutely spot on. As I see Adam dancing on his chair trying to get all the right answers, I become very aware of the tremendous work that is behind the scenes on even getting to this space. As Adam has gone out to secure funding so we can do this work, had he not gone out to secure those grants, There is no possible way we as a city could be moving forward this project. And there is tremendous appetite to capitalize on the success of our downtown and find a way to expand it. And I think that recognizing Adam's hard work in trying to really stretch as much as we can with a little bit of funds that we have either within our long range planning or the grants that he got. So I want to recognize his really, really tremendous effort to get us here. And again, recognizing that it's still fluid as he's trying to figure out how to get to the finish line. So thank you, Adam. Also recognizing Jennifer for, in the background, this stuff gets lost because the community doesn't see it. But at the regional level, there are policies and regulations that trickle down to cities. And there is a lot of engagement that happens with our executive team that try to advocate on behalf of our city to make sure that the regulations are not overly burdensome for our community. And I think that some of the targets that we have to meet as part of the MTC are somewhat reasonable, and that is because of work that nobody will ever know, but it's really work that Jennifer has done behind the scenes at regional conversations, making the regional bodies aware of our limitations with transit. So as you go forward, so first of all, I want to recognize the team that they've done tremendous work to get us here. I want to recognize the Planning Commission for your very, very good dialogue. And then the last thing that I want to say is as we go forward with this conversation, I think that you're completely on the right track. But as we go forward with who do we want to be when we grow up as far as the greater downtown specific plan, recognizing that as much as we may want MOGO to come back, as much as we may want regional transit agencies to give us transit, that may not be in the cards for us for the next decades. So then therefore, what is the best planning we can do recognizing that we may not have those transportation solutions? So if nobody's coming to our rescue, what does that look like on the street if we can only plan on what we have? When you think about bike lanes, when you think about connectivity and walkability, that is what I invite you to think about as you go forward with this effort with Adam, is think about creating solutions that are not necessarily reliant and dependent on say, BTA or Caltrain or somebody else. The second thing that I'll invite you to think about is the state has for, Gosh, over a decade now, been clearly staggering. So many housing laws that they're actually going around in circles to one end. They were like, bring in all the density and now new housing laws are saying, actually, we want to give developers the ability to reduce density. Bottom line is that housing seems to me is going to get built. Housing densities are going to happen. housing without parking is going to happen. And all those things are already a fact of our reality today. And if that is our reality today, the question to us or to me or the thing that I think about is what is the best thing we as a city can do so that Monterey Corridor can be walkable and livable with those densities and without parking? Again, if nobody else is coming to our rescue, How are we designing our sidewalks, our median, our lighting? How are we showing up to make sure that those new communities that are coming on Monterey Road, whether it's Magnolias or AMG, that those communities have a safe place to move around and walk? And if they're going to spill out onto the neighborhoods, how can they get to their home safely? And what does that look like? I'm taking with me this evening some of the good dialogue that you had tonight. Things like, huh, if it's really going to be an expanded downtown, what does that mean as it relates to tree lighting? What does it mean as it relates to events? That was not even in my point necessarily in the forefront of my thinking. So I appreciated kind of like that conversation as well. So with that, again, my invitation to us is to make the most out of this big effort that Adam is trying to bring forward and to help us as a community to really be solution oriented with a real good dose of reality. And that concludes my comments that I wanted to share with you this evening. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

I was just thinking it might need to relocate that arch that's not built yet. We're doing it with wing nets, so let's take a look. It would be nice.

I think they're going to call it a now. OK, yeah.

It'll have a heliport on top for the air tax.

Well, as I tell everyone, if you know anybody who's into building parking garages and paid parking garages and that, there are likely many, many opportunities all over the bay area along with housing because there the cars are going to exist and we have to have a place to put them um as much as folks want to build tons and tons of units without cars or without parking yeah we got two big sites that there's only at least i don't know a lot of conversation but when is bta going to think about doing something with all that parking

right another one is uh the ross shopping center we tried one time almost to force it and it didn't work right we we set the platter up and we set it up to try to do it and they wouldn't do it because it's so fractured i think in in ownership but this would be a good time to try to reach out to them and see what they're thinking is you know more than in the next year or two or four years, where do you want to be in 10 years, right? And how to do that because if we could somehow intensify that shopping center, right, with a housing component and still retain some retail, although that's low entry cost retail, I'm sure it's coming up with the success of downtown, but that's another site that's big enough that we could really do something

Okay. I need to formally close public comment. So what do we need to do to accept this? Do we need to make a motion or we accept it? Beautiful. All right. Other business selection of planning commission chairperson and vice chair. Mr.

Chair, I have a question. So see I was surprised to read the policy, and so the item says selection or we're not really selecting the policy makes this election. So it's more like we're seeing sorry, are we on the next item that we don't know we are okay. So it's more like we're just. Noting if we have an exception, otherwise we're seeing.

There's been some folks who have deferred as well.

Yeah, sorry.

Sorry, what? Historically, there have been, while it's not an outright selection, there have been folks who have deferred.

Yeah, that's what I mean, yes.

Right, so that's why we got to get Mr. Habib into the conversation. or whatever, they get it defer or whatever.

You're muted. So if you, I'll give a little introduction first before jumping into the conversation. So as the commission noted, there are city council policies that establishes how the chair and vice chair for the planning commission is selected. And so one of the policies is if a where there's a possibility to extend the current chair or vice chair by a one-year extension. However, with the policies, the next up for the Planning Commission to be chair is Commissioner Habib, and then with the vice chair being Commissioner Lake. And so leave it up to the Commission to discuss about the terms and who will be served as the chair, vice chair for this upcoming year.

Should we start with Mr. Nominations?

Yes, so first I guess we'll turn it over to Commissioner Habib and see if you would like to serve as chairperson or if you would like to defer.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Adam. And thank you, Chair. So I'd be happy to serve as chair. I think just the one caveat to make clear is, as you know, there are times where I am frequently traveling, but we'll be making an effort to join via teleconference. And so with that said, I'm assuming when it comes to teleconference as a chair, it's probably best to have whoever decides to accept the vice chair that's likely yourself, Commissioner Lake. to run the meetings in those situations, but I might be happy to, in the instances where I'm able to, I'm not traveling, to be able to conduct the meetings as chair.

Yes, that's correct. So if the chair is attending virtually, it would be the vice chair who will help run the meeting just due to that. And he said any technical issues that may arise or anything like that so.

So. So. If you don't answer is fine, but what's your prediction for the next 12 months, I mean do you think you're going to be traveling a lot, I mean are you just don't know I mean i'm just curious as to the practicality of.

At this time, it's roughly what's been the previous year. I would say there's probably around four meetings out of the year or so. The last 12 months, maybe four or five. that I was not able to of what's supposed to be, I think, scheduled as 24 meetings, roughly. So maybe 20% or so, roughly. And I'll also reevaluate too. And if I'm not able to, depending on the days I am traveling, that's maybe a point where I can look at reconsidering if it's needed. But otherwise, I'd be happy to serve as chair.

Perfect.

And Commissioner Habib, I would be happy to be served as your vice chair and to support you in any undisclosed or disclosed locations that you may or may not be at any point in time.

So I'll make a motion to have Commissioner Habib be the next chair and Commissioner Lake to be the next vice chair for the year. Second.

Now we need a roll call. Roll call, please, Jenna.

Chair Wilson?

Aye.

Vice Chair Habib?

Aye.

Commissioners Lake?

Aye.

Muller?

Aye.

Lovato?

Aye.

Downey? Aye. And Adama? Aye. Motion passes unanimously.

Congrats.

I just had one comment. I just wanted to thank Chair Wilson. You've done a phenomenal job over the past year. I know sometimes the discussions can be really long and inundated, and I think you've done an excellent job of really balancing the meeting timelines, making sure we're productive online, and just running the meetings in a very well-formatted fashion. So thank you so much for all the work you've done as chair.

Thank you. To be by the meaning of healthy.

Okay.

Directors for. So for directors report. We don't have much to report today. We did discuss or there's questions right before the planning commission meeting about the The news articles about Archer Aviation, Archer Aviation coming to Morgan Hill. So they have leased out, or they, I understood that they signed the lease agreement with Trammell Pro for the Cochrane Technology Park. And so, yeah, so that's the news that we, that was shared with us. And so, Our next planning commission meeting is in two weeks. We have no public hearing items that are scheduled for that day, but as of right now, we're not looking to cancel a meeting. We may have an item that comes up. Excuse me, Adam.

One of the things that I would appreciate, and I'm sure the commissioner will agree with me, is to understand what the federal housing bill that was recently passed what ramifications that has for us in Morgan Hill. Especially I'm interested to see some of the stuff they did around the mobile homes, something about permanency and taking out the, whatever they use to transport the mobile home, which reduces the cost by like 10,000 bucks. So, you know, just diving into that housing bill and how it like transports over to us, to suggest a topic. If you're not ready to do it, that's okay. But I think that's something we can all be interested in learning about, because that was a huge bill.

I'm not ready to discuss that today. I know. But yes, that's something that we can bring forward at a future meeting. Yes.

One other question. I got asked a question about, there was an article, I think it was a social media post, if I'm correct, about the potential redevelopment of the brewery downtown into some sort of a five-story, I don't know, six-story building. Is there some truth to that? Is that something you can talk about?

So funny that you mentioned that. So it's not just you hearing that, but there's, while I was doing the public outreach this past weekend on the Greater downtown Pacific plan, I had a number of residents and community members that asked me the same thing. I'm not familiar with anything. Nothing has been brought to my attention.

And no, the planning team has not sat down with anyone at this time about that site. Interestingly, there was a next door conversation that was talking about a number of different things. And somebody said, no more six-story buildings talking about AMG. And then mentioned El Toro. And then suddenly it became there's a six-story building at El Toro. So I don't know if that is what has now expanded out, or here's a different movement. Yeah.

And last question. Any new timeline on the famous hotel? I got asked that question. It's kind of under construction, but it's not. Does it have a timeline?

They're making a documentary out of it on Netflix. I would say late 2027.

What about tractor supply? That's important. Well, we got, I think we can address the question first.

I'm going to walk it back. I'm going to walk it back on the Archer Aviation. There is no comment from the city. There is no confirmation of release yet, other than what's in the media. That is our story. We're sticking to it. Check next week. I was just like, Adam, wait. So from, as a matter of fact, the vapor was calling, trying to get a quote from this staff and from our side, we are, we have conveyed that we're not ready to provide common or report on a larger aviation project that has been now all over the media. So, I will say that while we are not able to quite make a statement confirming the fruition of that lease, the economic development team, as you can imagine, your staff has been working and continues to work really hard alongside the planning team to advance the city's economic development blueprint. And And there's a lot of work that always happens behind the scenes. And whether it is this or that other company, other future announcements that will come out, be assured that staff is working really hard on behalf of the city. That's Archer. Nothing to report on El Toro. There has been a lot of conversations and the developer has been trying to figure out a project that is that can pencil out has gone through a number of ideations of what that could look like. And believe it or not, even just straight up housing is very expensive and difficult to advance, even if it's a six-story housing project. So there's nothing to report on El Toro either. And the last one. So don't. On the hotel, we meet with the developer project team, their architects, their contractors, the ownership on a monthly basis. And based on our last project check-in, there has been a shift on the project, official formal shift to 2027 with the necessary changes to the hotel. Second Street. There's work that needs to be done on that end. So we'll track the project our next meeting in August. But yes, I think that there is good progress that is taking place. But what we can assume is what we already knew, the project is going to be phased into a temporary certificate of occupancy as soon as the rooms and the lobby is ready with a staggered opening of the food venues.

Tractor supply.

Tractor supply is continuing to figure out the costs of building. And they're looking at value engineering. Their original estimates for construction came in much higher than they expected. We have heard nothing about them wanting to not build. It's just a matter of finding a way to do it efficiently. Great.

Anything else? Oh, Sprouts. What's going on with that?

Sprouts, that shopping center has been approved. I don't believe they've filed for their building permit yet. We're continuing to work with them They will have a sign program that will be coming to the commission at a future date. A freeway sign will be part of that project. But yeah, they're continuing to move forward.

Jennifer, where will this be located?

It's at the corner of Coffman and DePaul, right off the freeway.

Any other comments? What about the Berliner Setzel? I'm kidding, I'm kidding. When I got on the planning commission, my brother's like, you gotta get us .

How about the application? I know there's an EIR draft out or something.

Yes. So the EIR for the annexations and urban service area amendment for Rose Orchard Court, The Butterfield Park expansion and the Condit Sports Facilities expansion has been released on June 5th, 2026. The comment period ends on July 20th, 2026. So the EIR, all the documents are available on our website. Just type in annexations, it will come up that way for anyone that's interested. When it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it when it close that period, we'll have a better sense of the number of comments that we've received and how long it may take to respond to those, as well as prepare the final EIR and map out our road forward on when that may come to the planning commission.

And depending on the comments received, we may need to research later. So it will be, yeah, we'll have to see what we actually get.

How about, is it world oil? Are World Gas, the stations had to fence up for a long time and not a lot happening?

They had a very long go through the Department of Toxics and everybody that needs to be involved in there. Extracting the tanks? Yeah, the tank replacement, excuse me. They're still moving forward through their required reviews.

There was a recent update that they were going to... Yeah, I know there was a slight update.

I think like their fences fell or something. That was issued to clean up the site.

So compliance has been out to the site to take a look and verify. But besides that, I don't know any other updates.

And it's a similar situation for the old Valera that's turned into a Chevron right at Monterey. They had to move very fast on getting the tanks out of the ground because of the change in the type of tank they would be required to have if they waited past January 1st. So they moved really quick, but then everything kind of stalled.

Did you mention Butterfield Park? Which park is that?

That's the one on Butterfield.

I mean, the one you just built. Butterfield and Monterey. That's currently uncontrolled. under construction. So we're looking to expand that part to the south. Oh, for the expansion of the park.

Yes. I was going to say, it's already built. It's been created.

It's within the city. And then there's a space between that area and the mobile home park that's in the county.

Yeah.

And that's the part that they'd like to bring in. Sure.