City Council - Regular Meeting

We got two minutes. I'll put this away. I need it. We have a couple more minutes.

We can't officially start till seven o'clock.

Okay, it is seven o'clock. Welcome everyone. So I will call this meeting of the Milpiti City Council, June 16, 2026 to order. The city council meeting is available for instant translation in over 60 languages with the app Wordly. It's accessible via mobile phone, computer and video displays. So by scanning the QR code on the upper right hand corner of this agenda, you will be able to find it. Okay, so back to today's business. City Clerk Guzetta, please take roll.

Vice Mayor Barbadio.

Council Member Chua. Here. Council Member Lam.

Here. Council Member Leigh Ann.

Here.

Mayor Montano.

Here. Okay, so now let's all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Okay, ready? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic Thank you, everyone. You may be seated. So we have one of our traditions to have an invocation, and today, Councilmember Lam will provide the invocation. Okay.

Thank you, Mayor. As we gather this evening in service to our community, let us reflect on the importance of listening before action and understanding before judgment. In times of disagreement, it is easy to allow frustration to speak louder than reason. Yet strong communities are built not through personal attacks or division, but through respectful dialogue, mutual understanding, and a commitment to solving problems together. May we, guided by the commitment to the common good, seeking solutions that strengthen our community, and improve the quality of life for all. May this meeting be productive and our action guided by fairness, compassion, and a shared purpose. Thank you.

Thank you very much for that, Councilmember Lam. So now we will move on to presentations, and I will be going to the podium and giving out the presentations. And if the Councilmember wants to join me, you may. Well, welcome everyone. Good to see you all here. So we have a couple of commendations Proclamations, we have one for today is, well, this month actually is Parks and Recreation Month. So July is National Parks and Recreation Month. It is a time to recognize the vital role of our parks, recreation, and community services, the programs that play in the Milpitas community as well. These programs promote health and wellness, support lifelong learning, and create opportunities for connection through recreation and community engagement. July 2026 celebrates the theme, the power of recognizing the transformative impact parks and recreation have on individuals, families, and communities nationwide. And one of the great things about Milpitas, we make sure that every new development has a park in there. Parks are very important and I'm sure you all use them in our city. So join me, Mayor Carmen Montano, and the Milpitas City Council in celebrating July 2026 as Parks and Recreation Month in the city of Milpitas. Come on up, Renee. We have this proclamation for you. Thanks for doing a great job to making sure that we do parks and recreation services in our city. You want to say something?

Yes. So thank you, Mayor and City Council. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of the department, it's an honor to accept this. My staff are collapsed at home. We had 1,000 new faces yesterday and today with summer programs, so they're resting. But the importance of parks and recreation goes way beyond services. And I want to bring up Jenny Berryhill, who is former Senior Advisory Commissioner and actually one of our new fitness instructors, to talk about how activities out in Parks and Recreation help us in different ways. So Jenny, go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Renee. My name is Jenny Berryhill. I was a former member of the Senior Advisory Commission in Mopedas. I have been commissioner for 12 years. was chair for two years and vice chair for three years. So now I am a member of the recreation family. I am now as fitness instructor. So July is a national minority mental health awareness month. So we are dedicated to end stigma, promote early detection and support over 7 million older Americans living with dementia. By staying active is the key to prevent dementia or Alzheimer. Here at the O. Peter Senior Center, I am a certified dementia friends champion. I will be hosting a workshop to become a dementia friends. So you can sign up at the O. Peter Senior Center um the date is july 11 on a saturday so for those who are still working you can join the fun and i will be giving you a certificate when you attend the event so that's what july 11 and then on october 10 we are going to do the end to alzheimer walk in Silicon Valley at Lake Cunningham, please join us. You can sign up, check with the senior center as well. Here, because I am now a fitness instructor, so I do want to promote the activities at the Mo Peters Sports Center. Not only do you all know that there are swimming lessons and stuff, and there's also water exercise, which I teach. and chair exercise, step exercise, and aerobics. Last but not least, Kung Fu 2, did you know? I actually recently get into Kung Fu and I went to a competition for the first time and I got two medals, first place in two divisions. Now, that's not all. That was in May. That was my first time. And then last weekend, I went to Sacramento and competed again. I got first place. So I have to admit, I am a senior. I can do it. So can you. Please join us at the Sports Center and find me. My name is Jenny Berryhill. Thank you.

Thank you, Jenny, for all your service. I recall I was on the senior liaison for the city council on the senior commission. So now we have Council Member Lin, right? You're the liaison for our senior, yeah, okay. Okay, so now we're moving on to, a commendation for a very special person, Mr. Kowant Singh. So on behalf of the Milpita City Council, I'm Mayor Carmen Montano, Commend Mr. Kulwant Singh on your induction into the 2026 Hall of Fame classes of both the National Association of the Collegiate Directors of Athletics and the National Alliance of Two-Year Leadership at a dedication and service to collegiate athletics, as well as your commitment to mentoring student athletes and advancing opportunities through sport. Your contributions have extended beyond the field through your volunteerism and community involvement, so making a lasting impact on the Milpitas City residents. So congratulations on this wonderful event. If you can come on up. It is my pleasure to recognize Mr. Colwan Singh. I'm gonna give you this. As I mentioned, a 35 year Milpitas resident and his induction into the 2026 Hall of Fame classes at both the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. And he was at De Anza College for 31 years. So Mr. Singh served as both the head soccer coach and athletic director, demonstrating exceptional leadership and dedication to student athletes. His commitment to athletics continues today. through his service as commissioner of the Central Valley Conference as a member of the California Community College Athletic Association Board of Directors. Wow, that's a big thing. Mr. Singh has also made a lasting impact here in Milpitas through his volunteer service with the Milpitas High School Boys Soccer Program and as a founding member of the Milpitas Pickleball Club. Now, that's a big thing. Actually, that's a bigger thing. So on behalf of the city of Milpitas, congratulations on this well-deserved recognition. I'll give it to him.

On this recognition.

On behalf of the city of Milpitas, congratulations on this well-deserved recognition. And thank you for your many contributions to our community. Thank you so much. And we have two commendations for you. That's it? That's the right one. Oh, I know. Oh. No, but which one is it? This one. OK. All right. But we have nothing. So Madison, which one is this one for?

Yeah, it's for him.

I think they put the wrong name on it.

I think they put the wrong name on it.

We're going to get that fixed. OK.

Thank you so much. Thank you. And I want you to say a few words.

Just a couple of comments. Thank you, Mayor Montano and the city council members for this great recognition. Much appreciated. Thank you, Madison, for reaching out to me. I'm honored and humbled for this recognition. I've been very fortunate and have had a great career coaching soccer and in athletics administration. Thank you to De Anza College and Cal State Hayward for giving me great opportunities. I don't know if John made it here. John Svensson, he was my VP at De Anza, but I wanted to acknowledge him if he's here. I don't think he's here. I'd like to thank my family, my wife of 37 years. We've known each other 47 years. She's here, Kathy. She's right there. My son, Kieran, and his girlfriend, Cassie. Right over there. My 88-year-old mom is here. And by the way, they're all Milpitas residents. When I coached, she was at almost every home game and as many away games as she could get to. My sister-in-law, Jazz, is here. And my three nephews, they're here, Har David, John Paul, and Luke Beer. Again, we all live in Milpitas. I've been here 35 years. You mentioned that I was part of the Pickleball Club. I was liaison to the city and it's a great opportunity to work with some of you and with Renee. Van is here. He's the current president. Dave and his wife are here. Appreciate you guys being here and the support. And of course, Steve. Hey, Steve, my good friend Steve. We've known each other since we worked together at Stanford Stadium, World Cup 94. It's kind of ironic that we have World Cup going on right now. He also got me started in pickleball, and his lovely wife is there. Next one. Thank you, Steve. And thank you, everyone.

yeah with your mom i don't know

And come in the back and be slated. Yeah.

Thank you so much.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, thank you everyone.

Well, that's the end of our presentations. Okay, so now let's move on to public forum. Members of the public are invited to speak on any item that is not on today's agenda. Please note that oral public comment may only be provided live at the Milpitas City Council meeting in person. Public forum will be limited to two minutes. Call for speakers, city clerk.

Yes, Mayor. We have a number of speakers, so I'm going to call them in order, and I ask that they line up and be prepared to present at either of the two microphones in the front that are both lit up. The first speaker is going to be Steven Balsbaugh, followed by Yoli Garcia, and then Stacey Brobst. Two minutes. And then you can set yourself up at the next microphone, and I'll call your name. Yes, Yoli is the next one.

And there is a timer.

You'll hear it.

Okay. Good evening, everyone. Stephen Ballsball, 55-year resident of Milpitas. And I want to talk on food pantry. Prior to retirement, I worked for Hewlett Packard, and one of my responsibilities was a process engineering manager. So I had a lot of the exposure on that and also training on it. And there was a point in time where my division had made the decision they wanted to transition to just-in-time manufacturing. And the decision was made to have that done by the production people. not by the engineering people, not by the manufacturing manager, not by a CEO who is in a remote building. And, you know, they did a fantastic job. Nobody could have done it better. Not my group, not the manufacturing manager, certainly not the CEO. And that was a case where, once again, HP, good manufacturing, good management policies, produce, you drive the decision making at the lowest and most appropriate level. And that worked out really great. So bringing that into Milpitas, I've had a chance to visit the Milpitas pantry. And I can tell you that I was very impressed by their process, the skills, and also the fact that the people that run that really care about their customers. And that's a great organization. And that's the type of people that in traditional management, they are the primary people making those decisions. Now, I told you that they care over there. That doesn't mean that the city council doesn't care either. I know you care also. But there's nobody more familiar or doesn't work with the people more than the people that run that. And I've just been really impressed with that. I know the city has some ideas about perhaps a different process. They appear to want to increase.

Thank you very much.

OK. Thank you. Thank you.

Next, we have Yoli Garcia, followed by Stacey Probst, and then Frank Bush.

Okay, welcome.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I'm Yoli Garcia and a longtime resident. The Milpitas Pantry is a vital part of our community. I would ask City Council reconsider and not move forward with charging the pantry with market rate costs.

Thank you. Thank you.

Welcome. Next we have Stacey Brobst followed by Frank Bush and then Karen Friedman.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council. I am the administrative assistant at the Milpitas Food Pantry and I am here to discuss the impact of raising the pantry's rent. The pantry provides meals to roughly 500 clients per month and over 2,000 unique clients per year. We provide approximately three days worth of food to those clients every 28 days and once per week for our unhoused clients. We receive a portion of our food from community donations, for which we are very grateful. But to ensure that we can provide sufficient food to our diverse community, we purchase approximately $1,000 worth of food per week, which is around half our total expenses. If the city increases our rent, we will have to reduce our purchases of food. A reversion to $1,600 per month, our previous rent, would represent 40% of our food budget. An increase to the market rate of over $5,000 per month would lead to the food pantry eventually closing. The question for council members as they consider how to proceed is whether they would like the most vulnerable Mopedas residents to receive more food or less. Thank you. Thank you. Please, no clapping.

Next, we have Frank Bush, followed by Karen Friedman, and then Rob Means. Welcome.

Good evening. My name is, I should say, good, pardon?

Speak into the mic, please.

Oh, is this better? Yeah. Oh, sorry. Good evening, honorable mayor and city council members. I'm Frank Bush, a longtime resident of Milpitas. On behalf of Sunny Hills Neighborhood Association, we would like to remind you of our Milpitas Juneteenth celebration and invite you all to it this Saturday at 11.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. at our Sunny Hills Augustine Park. Please join us for art, family fun, cultural food, music, entertainment, and vendors. Our celebration has become our annual fun fest. Thank you.

OK, thank you. Next, we have Karen Friedman, followed by Rob Means, and then Hilary Davidson. Welcome, Karen.

Hi. Good evening, Mayor Montano and the city council members and to Mr. Hopkins. Welcome to Milpitas. My name is Karen Friedman. I've lived in Milpitas for over 40 years. I'm here today because I do not support increasing the rent for the Milpitas food pantry. As a resident, I thank you for permitting the pantry to operate virtually rent-free at their current location. This has allowed them to use their funds to purchase additional food for those less fortunate in our community. Increasing their rent will not help them provide more food. I support making no changes to their current lease. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this topic. Thank you.

Next, we have Rob Means, followed by Hilary Davidson, and then Samy Fener. OK, welcome.

Assuming the idea of changing the pantry market rate for their space is due to the city's financial challenges, I argue that the $5,000 per month the city invests in support of the pantry provides a high return on that investment. like paying our police officers well and maintaining high standards, helps Milpitas avoid costly lawsuits by residents abused by power hungry bullies attracted to the profession. Those suits, for example, cost San Jose roughly $4 million per year. The city likely saves more than $5,000 per month in other ways that pantry personnel and clients could detail, whether it's petty theft to feed hungry family members, spousal abuse arising from stress, or even suicide. I'd say that more than $5,000 per month is saved when such crimes are avoided because the pantry lent a helping hand to desperate people.

Thank you. Next. Next, we have Hilary Davidson, followed by Sam Euthanair. Welcome.

Hi, thank you. I'm Hillary Davidson, four year resident of Milpitas. I express many of the same thoughts about the food pantry and hope that you can reconsider the market rates. I'm a volunteer for Hope for the Unhoused and have been volunteering every other week since last August and really care for the vulnerable population in Milpitas. Clearly, if you raise the rent to market rate, it'll just put the food pantry out of business completely. And I think with the upcoming and current federal changes, the situation is only going to get worse. If anything, this is the opportunity to invest more in the food pantry and other places. And especially with CalFresh requiring volunteer hours in order to get CalFresh, this could be an opportunity to just really kind of double down on what the community actually needs and make resources more available. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Welcome.

And then our final public speaker is Samyuk Vinayar.

Please don't add this on my time, but before, I would like to ask if the use of visual aids are permitted or are they not permitted? Good evening, distinguished city council members and Milpitas citizens. My name is Samyukta Nair, and I've lived in Milpitas almost my whole life. I'm here to talk about a productive yet enjoyable summer activity for Milpitas youth. Perform for a Smile started in Toronto, Canada. Canada has the mission of talented youth showing their talents for local senior centers. As the chapter leader, I am bringing this mission to our beloved city of Mopedas. Not only does this help seniors feel more better in their home, but it also helps our youth provide with leadership, responsibility, and true emotional connection to seniors. However, in order to fully execute this, I need your help. The first thing I need is full connection with senior programs to help recognition. The second is I need city promotion and PFAS, meaning that I would like to be listed as an official volunteer program. The third is I would love to have community flyers able to put in libraries and community centers. And finally, I would like inclusion in volunteer opportunities. Please review this decision and thank you. Any questions?

Thank you so much for being creative. Thank you. Anyone else?

That was the last public speaker card, Mayor.

Is there anyone from the public that would like to make any comments? OK, seeing none, I will close the public hearing and public comment and move on to conflict of interest, city attorney.

Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. At this time, I would ask the mayor and each council member whether he or she has any financial or personal conflict of interest related to any of the items on tonight's agenda.

Council Member Chua? None. Council Member Lamb?

None.

Council Member Leigh-Anne? None. Mayor Montano? None. And Vice Mayor Barbadio is absent.

I would ask that the record reflect no reported conflicts. Now, Mayor and members of the Milpitas City Council, I would also ask that you please disclose any campaign contributions of $100 or more received within the last 12 months from any of the parties entering into contracts with the city on tonight's agenda or contributions received from the development project applicant for development projects on tonight's agenda.

Councilmember Chua? None. Councilmember Lamb?

None.

Councilmember Leigh Ann? None. Mayor Montana? None.

I would again ask that the record reflect no conflicts.

Okay, thank you very much, City Attorney. So now we're moving on to the reading of the City Council Code of Conduct. And I will go ahead and read that. Be respectful and courteous. Words, tone, and body language do matter. Model civility. Avoid surprises. Praise publicly and criticize privately. Focus on the issue, not the person. Use electronic devices appropriately while on the console dais. Disclose conflicts of interest and affiliations related to agenda items. Separate governing from campaigning. Council speaks with one voice after making policy on issues. Respect the line between policy and administration. Council will hold one another accountable to comply with this code of conduct. Okay, so now moving on to the approval of the agenda. Does anyone have any changes to make? Okay, I will call for a motion in a second. So we have Council Member Chua, so moved. It was moved by Council Member Chua and seconded by Council Member Lian. So let's call for the vote.

Council Member Chua.

Aye.

Council Member Lam.

Aye.

Council Member Lian.

Aye. Mayor Montano. And I am an aye. All right, next we'll move on to the consent calendar. Staff, does you have any comments on the consent calendar? All right. City Council have any comments? Because I do have, I would like to, oh, we have Council Member Lam. Okay.

Yeah, I'd like to pull out C20.

Okay, I apologize. Council Member Lam, which one did you want to pull? C20. Okay, so C-20.

I'd like to pull C-8, Mayor.

And we have Consular Land.

C-8 and C-13.

C-8 and C-13? Yes. Okay, so we have those pulled. Anyone else? I would like to pull C-10 and C-18 from the consent calendar. And with that, I need a motion and a second.

Mayor, we need to call for public comment.

Oh. Public comment, please, on consent.

I have one speaker card. I have Yoli Garcia.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Yoli Garcia and a longtime Milpitas resident. I am asking that you consider pulling consent item C-7. I am speaking tonight on behalf of Hope for the Unhoused to urge the Council to include the following actionable data metrics to the contract to measure the real-world impact of our unhoused services before you confirm the contract. While I support our ongoing outreach partnerships with We Hope, relying solely on the annual point in time count fails to capture the true fluid reality of homelessness in Milpitas. The impact of federal policy shifts or our unique local challenges. This data gap heavily limits our ability to make informed localized decisions. To create more effective policy, our outreach data must track three critical things. One, the first is the origin tracking. Identify how many individuals are long-term Milpitas residents versus non-residents. Active case pipelines, tracking the exact number of active cases being managed for transition into permanent supportive housing. behavioral health beds or shelter programs. And third, preventive planning, estimating the number of current Milpitas renters at immediate risk of falling into homelessness. While not an exhaustive list, securing this data through our existing outreach workers will give this council a clearer, more accountable roadmap. Thank you for your consideration.

Okay, thank you. Was there a motion and a second or discussion on that? Okay, we have Council Member Chua. As requested by a resident.

I'm pulling C 7. That said, I go ahead and move to approve the consent being C 7 being pulled C 8, C 10, C 13, C 18 and C 20. So move second.

Okay, so As discussed on the consent calendar, C7, C8, C13, C20, C18, and I'm missing one, C10, are being pulled for discussion after the agenda. Okay. So it was motioned by Council Member Chua and seconded by Council Member Lien. So let's call for the vote.

Council Member Chua. Aye. Council Member Lamb.

Aye.

Council Member Lien.

Aye.

Mayor Montano.

And I'm an aye.

right thank you now we're moving on to public hearings on item 21 city manager madam mayor and council item 21 is to adopt an annual action plan and approve the community development block grant allocation for 26 27 and the staff contact is um michelle silver

Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I'm Michelle Silva with the Office of Housing. I will wait for the presentation to be up.

So we have item 21. That is correct. So who's going to start first? Who's going to start first for the presentation?

So I was going to give you a brief background and walk through the applications. I can, we can wait, or if you, I know I've reviewed, did briefings with all of you. So if you just would like to open the public hearing, then we can do that as well.

All right. So will we open the public hearing on this item? Is there anyone that would like to make any comments on the CDBG? which is to a...

Yes, Mayor, we have public speaker cards. Okay. So the first public speaker is going to be Marina Sanchez, followed by Jonathan Dar, then Angelica Holgen.

Okay, welcome.

good evening mayor montano my name is marina sanchez i'm the property manager for terrace gardens senior housing we're located right across the street on beresford court on behalf of terrace gardens board of directors and staff i'd like to thank mayor montano and city council members for your consideration for our applications Terrace Garden Senior Housing, we serve nearly 200 low income senior residents and our facility would not be the beautiful and safe home that it is for those nearly 200 residents without the help of the city throughout these years. So I just want to thank you for your consideration.

OK, thank you. Next, we have Jonathan Dar followed by Angelica Hogan, and then we have Carol Khan.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. My name is Jonathan Dar. I'm the Development and Communications Director at Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence. We are a Santa Clara County, but Milpitas loving organization. We always appreciate the ability to come before you. Michelle Silva takes very good care of all of us and making sure we understand to work with the city thank you michelle to everyone she works with as well we don't say that enough it really makes a difference emil peters does a great job for us uh next door solutions um is serving two thousand to twenty three hundred um folks that are either fleeing from violence or trying to get help and from violence interpersonal violence in their in their families and their lives We have 17 support groups. We have legal care. We have crisis intervention, and we have a shelter and 24-7 run shelter with trained advocates that are there. Last I checked, we had 285 years of experience in trauma care on our staff. I have never seen the quality of professionalism and care that I have on this team that I get to work with. I'm so thankful. People are in very good hands. If they are in need, their families, we connect them to the right services. We just did a list of, we just had a strategic plan. I think we have 190 partners that we work with around the county. So if someone comes to us and they need care that we don't offer, we find it. And some of those people are here tonight. Thank you so much for considering how People in the community need that moment where they have someone to talk to, whether that's senior care, whether that's food, whether that's crisis attention. We cannot do it without these stopgap organizations that just take a moment, look at someone in the eye and say, what do you need? How are we going to get to the next place with you? There's so many wonderful groups that do that here, and I see them on this list. If you ever need anything from us, we're here for you. We're here for your constituents. Put us on every list. We always want to take the phone call. We work late and we work often. Thank you so much.

Okay. Thank you very much. Next we have Angelica Holguin followed by Carol Kahn and then Kathy Weselby.

Welcome. Good evening. I am Angelica Holguin. I'm the Director of Programs for Silicon Valley Independent Living Center. I would like to thank the mayor, the council members, and the City of Milpitas, especially Michelle, for their continued support for our programs. The Housing Services for Persons with Disabilities and Older Adults program has assisted Milpitas City residents with disabilities and their families to acquire the knowledge and skills to be able to retain their current housing or transition from homelessness, institutions, unstable or temporary housing to permanent affordable housing. With the ongoing support of the city, SVILC was able to provide one-on-one housing counseling, education, resources, advocacy, and affordable accessible housing options to 38 Milpitas residents with disabilities, older adults with chronic health conditions and the public. We have also been able to conduct 78 housing and independent living workshops remotely and in the community of Milpitas. On behalf of the team at SVILC, I would like to thank you and we are very excited to be able to continue to make a difference in the lives of the residents of Milpitas. Have a good evening.

Thank you. Next, we have Carol Kahn, followed by Kathy Weselby, and then Deanne Everton. Okay, welcome.

Good evening, Honorable Mayor and Vice Council Members. I'm Carol Kahn. I'm the Executive Director of Project Sentinel. And I want to thank the City of Milpitas for its continuous funding support to Project Sentinel housing programs and our Decade City partnership to meet the needs of the community. Our services help to ensure that the Milpitas community benefits from the many local, state, and federal protections to counter housing instability, eviction, and homelessness. Specifically and in pursuit of our mission to preserve and protect housing, Project Sentinel investigates housing complaints and supports the resolution of resident housing provider conflicts with information and referral, extensive education and counseling, and conciliation and mediation of housing problems. Case examples include resolving issues related to habitability, rent increases, lease terminations, security deposits, neighbor to neighbor disputes, and so on. Other cases include advocating for a family being denied housing because they have children, a veteran with a disability being denied accommodation, or a domestic abuse survivor being illegally evicted because of the actions of the abuser. Our community outreach consists of presentations and workshops to educate residents and housing providers alike of the rules that govern housing rights and obligations which empowers residents with vital information and learning. We're thankful again for the recommendation of funding for another year of service and to serve a minimum of 120 residents in the city with housing advocacy, tenant landlord services and consistent with the annual action plan. Thank you so much and thank you too to Michelle.

Thank you. Next, we have Kathy Wesleby followed by Deanne Everton and then Georgia Basile. Okay, welcome.

Hi, good evening council members and Milpitas mayor. I'm Kathy Weselby. I'm the grants manager at YWCA Golden Gate, Silicon Valley. We're grateful for the city of Milpitas and its support throughout the years to fund services that help domestic violence survivors heal and reclaim their lives. We provide these services in the Milpitas community free of charge. All services are culturally responsive and trauma informed. and we've partnered with the Milpitas Police Department over the last 15 years, actively reaching out to each survivor and providing emotional support and resources such as safety planning, crisis counseling, legal services, and emergency housing. Our proposal will provide 25 survivors with essential domestic violence services, provide 24-hour crisis line support to callers from Milpitas, and we will continue to respond to Milpitas Police Department reports, reaching out to each and every survivor to provide resources and safety planning. Thank you so much for your support. Together, we can empower our community to live free from domestic violence. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we have Deanne Everton, followed by Georgia Basile.

Welcome. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor, council members, and staff. I'm Deanne Everton with Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley. a nonprofit dedicated to preserving safe, livable, and affordable housing for low-income neighbors in Milpitas. I want to express our sincere gratitude for your past support of our mission and respectfully request your continued partnership to support our work in fiscal year 26-27 with $200,000 to keep Milpitas residents safely housed. Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley has committed the last 35 years to preserving and protecting our current affordable housing stock. Our work of stabilizing homes supports generational wealth while reducing the risk of displacement, preserves what's left of our naturally occurring affordable housing stock, and strengthens neighborhoods by allowing residents to remain in their homes safely and with dignity and stability. This funding allows us to complete critical repairs that help seniors age in place safely. It allows people with disabilities to live with dignity and supports families struggling to keep their homes sustainable amid rising costs. These are not cosmetic fixes. They are vital repairs like replacing failing roofs, fixing plumbing and electrical systems that are unsafe, and installing accessibility modifications like grab bars, ramps, and walk-in showers. Your support of the work of Rebuilding Together directly addresses the Consolidated Plan's priority goal of maintaining and preserving affordable housing. We appreciate your investment in our program to ensure that Milpitas becomes a place where all residents, regardless of income or age, can live safely and with dignity. Thank you very much. Thank you.

And the final card is for Georgia Basile. Okay, welcome.

Good evening. Georgia Basile, Directing Attorney, Senior Adults Legal Assistance. We provide free legal services to Milpitas clients 62 or older, targeting clients that are low income or at risk of abuse or loss of independence. And as you probably heard me say before, we provide our services locally at Barbara Lee Senior Center and by phone for clients that can't leave their homes or with emergencies. We're a current CDBG grantee, and we sincerely thank you for that support. Your funding supports expanded availability of our services to Milpitas residents. We're recommended for funding to serve at least 20 Milpitas seniors next year, and we thank the staff for their recommendation. As you've also heard me say on previous occasions, we address income insecurity by assisting clients with legal matters related to the public benefits they rely on to meet basic needs. Social Security, SSI, Medicare, and Medi-Cal. We address housing instability by assisting clients worried about eviction or clients whose housing is otherwise in jeopardy. We address loss of autonomy by assisting clients to do very basic legal planning for the future by appointing someone they trust now to step in and manage their affairs when they can no longer do so. And regrettably, we address elder abuse and domestic violence for our clients that are victims of abuse, usually by someone living in their homes or someone they know. We can't charge fees for our services or accept fee generating cases. Our primary support is through grants like CDBG. So we sincerely appreciate your support and we hope you'll support us again. Thank you so much. Thank you very much.

Is there anyone else? I have no additional speaker cards, Mayor. Okay. We have one member from the public, Mr. Robbins.

Yes. address the point that Ms. Garcia brought up about getting some hard statistics on the flow of unhoused people through our community. I have the general feel that we have a pool of unhoused people and that we keep adding to it. And we also keep deleting from that pool. But I think we're adding more per day, per month, per year, whatever metric you want to use, we're adding more and faster than we are actually taking care of the people that are homeless. I just realized on Kaoshi recently that there is a growing feeling that we ought to be preventing Wall Street investors and others from outside the country from investing in our housing stock. And I think that that is a direction that we need to start focusing. It could take the form of simply adding a tax onto those homes and other properties where people are living that says, hey, if you're investing from outside of our community, and however you want to define our community, whether it's here in the city, here in the county, here in the state, but if you're investing from outside, there's going to be a severe tax on that property. And that money will both go towards helping people become housed because we'll be able to do more with housing them because we'll have more funding. But more importantly, we will chase out of the market Those folks that are investing from outside our community, those folks that are extracting money from our community, it's a whole extraction game to concentrate wealth in the hands of a minority. Basically, the people that are so rich they don't really need any more money. So I would implore you to look at a solution that would stem this flow of more and more homeless people into this large, much too large pool. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone else from the public that would like to make any comments? If not, I will close the public hearing on this and go move on to council discussion. Well, actually, don't you have to do the presentation? We'll move on to the council discussion.

Council member Chua. Michelle, can you please show your recommendation again? Just the three. On the screen? Yeah, on the screen. Absolutely. So please, if you could pull up the slide. The last three ones. Yes.

Slide six, please. So did you want to go through each of the proposal that we're funding? Your proposal. Side six, please. Okay, starting with public services, we have Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County. Staff proposes funding them $12,531. You have Child Advocates of Silicon Valley. Staff proposes funding them $16,214.80. Next, we have Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence. We propose funding them $14,531. Lastly, here we have Project Sentinel. We propose funding them $26,536.93. Next slide, please. Still in the public services area, we have senior adults legal assistance. Staff proposes funding them $16,531. Next, we have Silicon Valley Independent Living Center. Staff proposes funding them $17,579. Next, we have Sourcewise. Staff proposes funding them $12,531. Lastly, for public services, we have YWCA, and staff proposes funding them $19,531. Next slide, please. Okay, now we're diving into the capital. First, we have Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley. Staff proposes funding them $200,000. Additionally, staff also recommends allocating any unused funds of this current program year to Rebuilding Together for them to use next year. And that is due to delays in signing our HUD agreement. So it would be $200,000 plus whatever is unused in the current program year. Then we have Terrace Gardens, and staff requests their full amount of $100,000. Next we have our economic development activities. So we have the City of Milpitas with the meat program. Staff recommends funding them $165,910.15, and this is in addition to the amount council already allocated to them on the April 7th council meeting. And lastly, here we have upwards for the Bruce program. And staff does not recommend funding them any. That's the very specialized area. And staff spoke to local jurisdictions. And although they have merit, staff's recommendation is to not provide any funding at this moment.

Ms. Silva, can you explain why your proposed CDBG funding is higher than the requested amount?

Absolutely. Thank you, Councilmember. Can we go to slide... Give me one sec, please. Can we go to slide 15? Okay, so here is a recap of the April 7th meeting. This is what council approved a substantial amendment to reappropriate revolving loan fund monies and to the following areas. That first line item, which is the 2627 public services in the amount of $55,253.93 is part of what we are asking council to reallocate today to public services. So in addition to the entitlement amounts that we received, we are adding an additional $55,000. So with whatever those monies are, we distributed evenly across all the public services organizations. And we thought that was the fairest way to go about it.

Thank you. I just want to thank the staff, especially Michelle, for doing such a great job. And I think this is the first year, if I remember correctly, that I said no changes to the recommendation. I think this is it. And I just want to thank all of you. CDBG organizations for coming tonight. And I was, I met Ms. Everson. They're rebuilding together. I went to one of their projects here in Ropitas just, was it a couple months ago, a few weeks ago? And they have about 25 volunteers, you know, painting. There were students from San Jose, the San Jose State and high school students from Cupertino working here in Mopitas. It's such a great thing to see. And I thank you, Ms. Diane Everton for doing that. And also I would like to shout out to Michelle, Ms. Sanchez. Every time I refer somebody to your organization, they come back to me and said that you took care of them. so thank you and also and most of you have been with us forever but ever since i was in the silly i mean community advisory commission and i that was like 20 years ago and you're still here and thank you all for your services to our community and we appreciate you thank you thank you michelle thank you mayor okay thank you is there anyone else

I would like to make any comments. Any council members? We have Council Member Lin.

Yes.

So I want to see if you can help me with the food pantry, whether we can use the CDBG funds to help them. And if yes, what is the process? What kind of requirements do they need to meet? And if you would reach out to them.

Thank you, Council member for your question, I know that this has come up in the past with a food pantry and. awarding them CDP G monies I think the issue comes across reporting because part of CDP G, we have to report out to hud and I think there's a little bit of some some difficulty in getting you know tax documents and. income documents from the unhoused, which is very unfortunate, but I could look into it for next year and I'll make sure to touch base with the food pantry, make sure that they receive an application from us. And if they submit an application, then I'll work with them and work with our HUD representative to make sure that just to see what steps we need to do in order for them to get funded with CDBG monies and if that's even possible.

Thank you. Okay, anyone else? We have Councilor Lam. You have to turn on your, yeah. Okay, thank you.

I have a question just on next door solution to domestic violence and why WCA, Golden Gate, Silicon Valley, seems like they are doing very similar things. I'd like to understand the difference between these two organizations, what they are doing. It appears to me they are doing the same thing and maybe you could explain to me a little bit more.

Can we just start? Sure, I'll start. So there is a lot of overlap. We partner frequently. The Y works in some areas that we don't, human trafficking. We don't have the police contract that works directly with City of Milpitas. We're both countywide. We collaborate relatively constantly. Our directors probably talk, I'm assuming, every other day. So there is a considerable amount of overlap. If we wanted to dig into cost per person, we would probably need to sit with our finance directors and break down the reasoning of how we come to those numbers. I'm assuming that they're compatibly covering the breadth of services that people come in and get from us. But they are a little bit different. We're open different hours. I don't know if you want to weigh in on any of the differences as well.

Yeah, just you mentioned we do human trafficking. We're not competition. We're, we're more both providing the services, but there is great need out there. So that's why we're both here and providing these services.

So we do counseling and legal forms of that we have 17 support groups, they have support groups. It's a, the scales of everything are different. Um, as far, but we are doing the same work. If someone, some of it is the same, if someone is in crisis and they need help in Milpitas or throughout the county, uh, they can go through either of our doors and we're going to make sure that they have what they need. It just could. And sometimes we will refer and send them, say, actually what they're doing at the Y works a little bit better for you, or, Hey, they're open these hours go over to next door. And there's a, there's a wonderful synergistic, all the DV agencies in the county work very closely together. I don't know if that answers your question specifically, because I know you like the numbers.

No, no, no. Actually, I'm looking for the differences. If there's a case of domestic violence, Which one do they go to? They could come to either.

They could come to either. And when they start doing case management, when they start in, so we both do crisis assessment, right? Someone comes in and they're fleeing. We both work with housing organizations. We both have our own housing teams. So it could be that they have the exact same path. Or they could get to a point with us where they say, actually, this is a human trafficking situation, or this is a police-involved situation with the city of Mopita's We would immediately say you should talk to the why and we will have our advocates speak to each other and hand that person off gently everyone's welcome to stay with us everyone's welcome to stay with them. It works extremely well. We also work with Aki and Kimber, all the different. There's about seven groups that do different things. We have a shelter. If our shelter is full, we will ask people to go to their shelter. We do hotel placement. They do some hotel placement. It's really about just balancing all the services out. So there are some differences. I'm sure what's happening in the daily, I'm sure the support groups look a little different. We don't do any human trafficking work at our organization. We can take it to a point, but we would send them to you all.

We help sexual assault survivors as well. That's usually through the police department.

Yeah, and we are very focused on intimate partner violence. Okay, thank you. Yeah, thank you.

All right, thank you.

Is that it? Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to make any comments? So, Michelle, if you can give, so there's people that don't know about CDBG. Can you explain what CDBG, I know it's Community Development Block Grants and a little bit synopsis. Absolutely.

I mean, we could go to slide two. I could briefly walk you through the presentation. So, the Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD provides annual grants through the Community Development Block Grant, also known as CDBG, the city is required to adopt the annual action plan, which is a one, it's a one year report says this is what we're going to do these are the activities that we're going to undertake in this one program year, the entitlement allocation that we received. This year is $538,212. In addition, we have the $55,253.93 from the revolving loan fund for the public services, which we touched upon earlier. And in addition, we have $116,072.35 in unused funds from prior years that is also available for reallocation. So in total, we're asking council to allocate about $709,000 tonight.

Thank you very much. So that way people can have a little bit of background knowledge of this annual allocation of federal dollars to the community. Okay, so with that, I will need a motion and a second. Councilmember, did I close the public hearing already? Okay, I just want to make sure.

Okay, go ahead. Councilmember Chua. Thank you, Mayor. Move to adopt the 2026-2027 annual action plan and approve community development block grant allocations for 2026-2027 as recommended by staff. OK, and I second that.

OK, let's call for the vote.

Council Member Chua? Aye. Council Member Lam? Aye.

Council Member Lien?

Aye.

Mayor Montano?

Aye. Thank you very much, and congratulations to the recipients. You do a great job serving our community. Okay, so Item 22, City Manager.

Madam Mayor and Council, item 22 is to adopt a resolution approving a site development permit, vesting tentative map, bonus permit, and an environmental assessment for 134 townhouse condominium and one clubhouse amenity building at 600 Valley Way. And the staff contact is our planning director, Director Lee.

Okay. Welcome, Jay.

good evening council and uh the item before you today is uh to adopt the resolution approving site development permit uh the number you see there vesting tentative map with a density bonus permit and an environmental assessment for uh 600 valley way we have our senior planner christina feng here to deliver the presentation

Good evening, Mayor, council members, and members of the public. My name is Christina Fung, and I'm a senior planner here with the city's planning department. Next slide, please. The application includes a request to develop 134 townhomes with the clubhouse amenity building on a 7.22-acre site at 600 Valley Way. The project site is within the Main Street Gateway specific plan area, otherwise known as MGSP. The project was submitted under Senate Bill 330, the Housing Crisis Act of 2019, and was identified as a rezone site in the city's housing element update in 2023. Next slide, please. And here we see an aerial view of the project site outlined in yellow. The site is located at the end of the Valley Way cul-de-sac in the south of Heath Street and Interstate Highway 880 is to the west. The blue line shows the boundary limits of the MGSP area. Next slide, please. Tonight's application consists of three entitlements, all of which are considered together for final approval by the City Council tonight. The first is a site development permit, which will develop the site with 24 multifamily buildings, all three stories in height, with up to 134 units, and a clubhouse amenity building. This is the primary entitlement before you tonight. The second is a vesting tentative map, which will combine three lots into one, and will establish the future residential condominium uses and easements. And third, a density bonus permit to utilize the state density bonus law, waivers and concessions in support of the project's affordable housing component. And although not an entitlement, environmental assessment number EA24-003 was created to establish CEQA compliance with the project specific environmental checklist completed to assess the conformity with the Gateway Main Street specific plan, subsequent EIR in accordance with CEQA guidelines section 15162 and 15182. Next slide, please. And the site plan here shows the distribution of the 24 residential buildings, all of which will be three stories in height and the one-story clubhouse building around the middle. There's going to be three different unit types, which will all have a three-bed and three-bath or a four-bed and four-bath layout. The project will meet all of its development standards, such as maximum height, the number of stories, the density range, and parking requirements. The project will use the state density bonus law for waivers and concessions for relief to some standards as discussed in the agenda report and we'll discuss later in this presentation. All of these units will have their own two-car private garage and will include up to 60 guest parking stalls, which will be accessed off the Valleyway cul-de-sac. It will include new internal roadways, landscaping, infrastructure, and other site improvements. Next slide, please. And a project specific transportation analysis report was prepared and reviewed in consultation with the city's traffic engineering division and demonstrates the project's anticipated traffic generation can be accommodated by the existing street network. The city's traffic and fire department staff have also reviewed the project plans and are requiring conditions of approval to ensure adequate emergency vehicle access and have confirmed that the internal street, private streets and driveways will adequately serve the development. And to further improve upon the mobility goals and vision of the Gateway Plan, the applicant has also been conditioned to provide off-street public improvements, such as redoing and infilling sidewalks along the Valleyway frontage to meet the city's latest design and code requirements. Next slide, please. The project's design concept for the future project includes a modern Spanish architectural theme and incorporates varied roof lines, balconies and projections to add visual interest and will include a mix of window sizes, decorative trim and roof overhangs, including awnings and Juliet balconies to reinforce its architectural style. Overall, the project will use earth tone colors and materials to complement the existing surrounding neighborhood. Next slide, please. The project will include three common space areas, which are called pocket parks, and will include amenities such as a bocce ball court and picnic areas. Separately, there is going to be a dog run park in the top left corner of the site. Next slide, please. And the project also includes a vesting tentative map. This map will allow the developer to subdivide the units into condominiums where they will be made for sale. Because this subdivision has more than five units, the City Council will have to final decision on this tentative map, which received the recommendation of approval from the Planning Commission. Overall, the project's form, content, and dedications of the proposed tentative map have been reviewed by the City's Public Works Land Development Division and deemed consistent with the provisions of the City's Municipal Code for tentative maps. This department will also be responsible for reviewing details for the necessary utility improvements during the building permit review phase to ensure that the infrastructure needs will be supported. Next slide, please. The project's density bonus permit request is to ensure compliance with the state density bonus law and regulations, and we'll need to request relief to some of these standards to construct the residential project, which we'll discuss later in the next slide. The city's affordable housing ordinance or AHL requires developers to designate at least 15% of the total units as affordable, also known as below market rate or BMR units. 15% of 134 units is 20.1. The developer has proposed to develop 20 BMR units reserved for moderate level incomes and is required to pay for the 0.1 fractional in lieu affordable housing fee. This graphic here will show the distribution of the BMR units throughout the site representing the three different unit types in these three colors. Overall, the city's Office of Housing has reviewed the project with the city's affordable housing ordinance and has issued a conditional approval letter to ensure that the project will maintain compliance with the AHO, including the execution of the affordable housing agreement, proprietary certificate of occupancy, and payment of the fractional in LUFI, as we just discussed. Next slide, please. And to encourage affordable housing production, the State Density Bonus Law, or SDBL, allows developers to receive density bonuses and other incentives, such as concessions and waivers. Specifically, an applicant can request relief from the city's development standards in order to achieve the proposed density in exchange for this affordable housing. The proposed project qualifies for the use of the state law because more than 10% of the total units are reserved as affordable for moderate level incomes and can therefore request waivers in one concession under this law. Waivers can be used for any development standard that would physically preclude or make construction of the project physically infeasible. Concessions allow a developer to deviate from design standards and or development regulations when such regulations potentially make a project economically infeasible for the developer to build. The applicant has summarized these requests in attachment G and H of the agenda report, which includes five waivers from the MGSP standards, three from the citywide objective design standards, two from the zoning ordinance, and one concession from the citywide objective design standards. All reviewing departments, including building, fire, engineering, and police have reviewed the plans with the proposed project request and found no public health or safety problem with these requests. Additionally, the city's planning department has consulted with the city's attorney's office thoroughly for all of these requests prior to these public hearings and have determined that they meet the SDBL provisions. Therefore, the city must grant the applicant's state density bonus law request to allow for construction of the project and its affordable units. Next slide, please. Staff has analyzed the project's parkland requirement for the Gateway Plan area, which is detailed in the agenda report. Overall, the city has determined that the applicant must pay for a total of 0.94 acres or approximately $2,620,569.60 to satisfy the parkland requirement in combination with the on-site common open space areas that we just discussed earlier. Next slide, please. The applicant will have to pay for the following development impact fees, the park in lieu fee that we just discussed, the public art fee and the fractional 0.1 affordable housing in lieu fee. Other fees collected by these other departments such as engineering are listed and conditioned in the resolution. The six reviewing departments listed here have also provided additional conditions of approval that the applicant must comply with during the building permit review phase with construction level detail drawings.

Next level, Sally, please.

And at the project's Planning Commission hearing, they voted 4-0 with three commissioners absent, recommending that the City Council approve the project with adoption of resolution number 26.009 with the clerical revision to condition of approval number 76. Based on public comments we received during the hearing and as described in the PC meeting minutes, the Planning Commission also made a separate motion to include three recommendations forwarded to the City Council as listed here. After this PC hearing, the applicant actively engaged in efforts to work on all of these recommendation items, and it have included detailed responses as attachments K and L to the agenda report. And the applicant team will go over more of these in detail in their presentation later. In summary, regarding number one, The applicant provided a detailed site plan diagram showing the PG&E easements along the south and west property lines, which prohibit physical structures and has described other site constraints that limit any other feasible location. Secondly, the applicant has met with the adjacent neighbor to discuss alternative solutions to the four new trees proposed behind their backyard at the site. consulted with our landscape architect and are now removing three out of the four trees and will retain one in a location the neighbor indicated was okay to have a smaller tree and as such the applicant has switched this tree type from sycamore to magnolia which is a smaller tree type than the previous afterwards the applicant also worked with the public works department to review the alternative tree planting plan and has issued a tree mobile permit at an administrative level review under their department purview on June 11th and determine the revisions to be consistent with city requirements. And lastly, the applicant team and the city attorney's office through collaborative meetings reached a consensus on two revisions incorporated into the conditions of approval within exhibit one of the city council resolution and have agreed to remove the third. Next slide, please. And regarding public outreach and noticing, the applicant hosted a neighborhood meeting via Zoom on November 10th, last year. Notices were published in the Milpitas Post and the city's website. Two signs were placed at the property along Valley Way, and 99 postcards were sent around area residents and landowners. And to date, we received four different public comments from members of the public. Next slide, please.

All right, and I wanted to quickly go over the public comments that we've received, which have been distributed to the council. And just want to clarify that I'm going to summarize the comments. So there are some topics I may not cover, some details I may not go into, but we are always available to answer questions if they come up. I also want to mention that the applicant will go into a little more detail on some of the additional correspondence that has gone on with the neighbors since the Planning Commission hearing. But this is just meant to be a summary. So as you can see in the table, the first comment, several of the comments were related to the trash enclosure location because it is in the northeast corner of the site. And I want to clarify my bullet. I would have added it is the only viable location that would not result in a further loss of units. And the reason why that's important to clarify is because the state density bonus law does state for those allow cities to grant waivers if the requested waiver does allow for the development capacity that the developer is proposing. If we were to deny it or sorry, if So yes, so that has to be demonstrated in order to grant such a waiver, that the granting of this waiver is necessary for that. So we really did work with our solid waste team even prior to these concerns were raised. We have them involved in the review process very early. And of course, we did explore other options. And I can go into a little detail about what those options are. but they have other effects in terms of spacing and other operational challenges that come with that. And as Christina mentioned, there is an easement that goes along most of the edge of the property line, so that presents some challenges as well. And I do want to also say that access to the enclosure is very important. Yes, and then there are also odor-related performance requirements, so I wanted to mention that. Our code already does require all bins to remain closed at all times, to be properly sealed. We have design standards for shelters with a roof and walls, all intended to minimize some of the impacts of a trash enclosure. Another topic that was brought up were buffer trees, and as Christina already touched upon it, so I won't go into any more detail there. And I'll move on to the next topic, which is regarding a comment about the greenway that connects Valley, the proposed greenway that would connect Valley Way, the cul-de-sac, to Heath Street to the north. I do want to mention that the initial subdivision anticipated a street connection going through. And you can see that when you look at Heath Street and that kind of unfinished street that goes down south. So actually, initially, the desire was to have that become a street. But there were some concerns about that, but we did clarify that um that's that greenway is only intended for pedestrian access not vehicles so hopefully that addresses that concern as well there are some additional details related to this topic which i can get into but i'll move on for the sake of time there were also some comments received about privacy a desire to have a taller fence and also a desire to have um trees that are evergreen so that at all seasons there would be the leaves would remain so that it would continue to provide that visual and buffer so regarding the fence there was a request for a 12 foot fence but our code does not allow for that the maximum height is six feet And if the property owner agrees, it can go up to eight feet, but 12 feet is not allowed and probably not desirable either as that's quite high. And also the applicant has confirmed that the trees in that location are indeed evergreen trees. So hopefully that addresses that concern as well. Another topic that was raised is also the potential impacts on school capacity with having new development here. And we understand that concern. It's a good question. But as we do regularly, we check in with MUSD for all projects where we would be adding residential development and new residents and potentially new children. We also on an annual basis give them a heads up on all the development projects we anticipate so that they can factor this into their projections. And based off of previous conversations. There are only two elementary schools near the transit center where MUSD has been concerned with in terms of capacity because of the extensive residential development that has happened in that area. But they have told staff that everywhere else enrollment is generally declining and that they actually have sufficient capacity for additional development. So MUSD does actually forecast and consider all these things. They also collect school impact fees as development happens. including this development to offset the potential impacts. So I only share this because I do want to I do acknowledge that we do acknowledge the comments that have been received. Staff has been working hard prior to the planning commission hearing, but since the planning commission hearing to take to do more research, gather more information and to work with the residents and the commenters on the concerns. So I just want to just summarize that for the council and I'll Oh, and I do want to go to the next slide. I could have done this sooner, but if we could go to the next slide. So that shows you where the trash enclosure is. The one last point I want to make, and I can provide more details if needed, is that a lot of developments have a circulation pattern that goes around the perimeter of the development for many practical reasons. But especially for this development, For utilities, for fire access, and for the solid waste management, like the trash truck access, it's much more efficient to have a road that goes around the perimeter, turning radius. These are bigger vehicles. So it's more difficult arranging the circulation in a different way. And all the buildings need access for fire purposes and for utility purposes. So I can go into more detail if needed. But again, just wanted to show the site plan again. All right, and I'll pass it back to Christina to wrap up the presentation.

Thank you. Next slide. As detailed in the agenda report and resolution, the project meets all the findings as required by the city council to approve a site development permit, testing tentative map, and identity bonus permit. Next slide, please. And as lead agency, the city has determined the project is exempt from CEQA pursuant to CEQA guidelines section 15182, projects pursuant to a specific plan, and 15162, subsequent EIRs and negative declarations. And I prepared a project-specific environmental checklist, which has supporting technical reports attached as attachments B and C to the agenda report package.

Next slide, please.

In closing, staff remains at the City Council, open the public hearing to receive comments, move to close the public hearing, consider the exemptions in accordance with CEQA, and adopt a resolution approving site development permit number SD24-0005, testing tentative map number MT24-0002, density bonus permit number DB24-0001 and environmental assessment number EA24-0003 for the property located at 600 Valley Way. This concludes staff summary of the project. The applicant team have also prepared a presentation also and are available for questions you may have. Some consultants are also available online and also the secret consultant is here in person later to assist with any other questions. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you very much for that presentation. Now I will open up the public hearing.

And, Mary, if I might suggest starting with the applicants for our usual hearing processes.

Yeah, you can go ahead and do that. If you just make a couple comments and then I'll open up the public hearing on this.

It'll be just one moment for me to pull up the presentation.

OK, no worries. Okay, thank you. Hi, good evening, Mayor and council members. It's my pleasure to be here this evening with you all representing the Sobrato organization on behalf of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and Sobrato Family Foundation on the 600 Valley Way project. Next slide, please. We hired a best in class team who's with me in person and on the phone. to support us in the development of this project. We've really enjoyed collaborating with staff over the past couple years, starting with the housing element to today, to bring this project in front of you. I would love to emphasize collaboration. This has been a very supportive and fun process, which I don't always get to say. But we've really enjoyed our time working with staff and are excited to bring this project to you. Next slide, please. While this next slide is coming up, I just want to give a brief introduction on the Sobrato organization. So the Sobratos, it's a family-owned firm that's developing in the South Bay for over 70 years. The family lives in the South Bay and are deeply rooted in the community, both through the development and investment through Sobrato Philanthropies, the Sobrato Family Foundation, and Silicon Valley Community Foundation. who owns this site. The Sobrato family purchased this parcel in the 1970s and donated the parcel to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation in the early 2000s and started operating the office buildings as the first Sobrato center for nonprofits in our portfolio. We take great pride in our nonprofit centers and this nonprofit center has served as a standard and a model for other centers that we've opened throughout the Bay Area. During and after COVID, utilization of this center specifically dropped with the work from home policies. The center also requires significant capital reinvestment for the buildings to remain safe and habitable. And the Silicon Valley Community Foundation worked with the Sobrato development team to conduct an analysis of how much money would be required to invest in the buildings from their balance sheet. to keep the center operating versus the trade-off of using those dollars to invest directly in nonprofits elsewhere in the community, and ultimately determined that the dollars would be more effective if the land was sold, re-entitled and sold, and those dollars were used to invest directly in nonprofits versus through the Cerrado nonprofit center. Next slide, please. Given that it is a true partnership between Sobrato Philanthropies and our team, we developed the project with Sobrato Philanthropies' mission in mind by delivering 134 housing units, including 20 BMR units, really maximizing the amount of housing that we're able to deliver on this site with the surrounding neighborhood in mind, revitalizing an underutilized office complex and bringing active residential use into this site. Completing surface improvements like sidewalk improvements and connections to the existing community by installing a portion of sidewalk that's currently not there along Valley Way and providing this public accessible greenway through the site that'll connect the surrounding neighborhood to the retail off of Calaveras. And through monetary contributions through our impact fees to Public infrastructure, schools, and parks. Next slide, please. Like Christina mentioned, this is a housing element site and we began collaborating with the city as part of the housing element process. I believe a couple of my colleagues actually had a working session with you all a few years ago to come up with different concepts for the project and present our initial ideas. We then worked with the city as they developed the Milpitas Gateway specific plan. And we're the first project coming to you all as a result of that specific plan. So we're really excited to kind of kick off the deployment of that plan and start bringing these projects to life. And then as Christina mentioned, we are utilizing SB 330 state density bonus law and a variety of other state housing laws to kind of facilitate and streamline the approval process. Um, lastly, before I get into the site plan, I wanted to give a brief update on the efforts to relocate the, uh, previous nonprofit tenants. I'm sorry for Serato philanthropy's team did an amazing job on these relocations. Um, they offered grants to each tenant to help them with their relocation and provided real estate workshops and one-on-one counseling to make sure that they found the best home. Um, all tenants moved out at the end of 2025 and the buildings are now vacant. And we've submitted demolition permits that would go into effect once we make it through the building permit process and if this project is approved. Next slide, please. Christina already gave you a brief introduction on the architecture, so I just wanted to call out a couple design elements within the site plan. First is the publicly accessible greenway that runs from the end of the cul-de-sac at Valley Way to the north of the site. to the cul de sac on the eastern portion of the site. This serves as a central spine and green space for both the residents of this community and surrounding residents to bring a walkable pathway and really welcome the community into the site. Secondly, I'd like to help demonstrate that the scale of this site is really a smooth transition from the existing single family neighborhood to the more retail uses to the east. We felt like the scale was appropriate given the surrounding uses and provides a density within the allowable range while providing that transition zone and really being thoughtful about how this community fits into the neighborhood fabric. Um, and then next slide please. Uh, at Sobrato, we take community outreach very seriously. Um, we really enjoy engaging with the community and understanding community members concerns and integrating those into our design. And so we started our community outreach by mailing postcards via mailing list provided by staff to residents within 1000 foot radius in the fall of 2025. Those postcards notification notified the surrounding community of the project's website, which is still active, and of the community meeting that we held on November 10. And then we received some public comments as a result of that community meeting and outreach that staff did before planning commission. Before planning commission, we received comments from three residents, whose comments Jay so wonderfully summarized, and we continued to communicate with those residents after the planning commission to make sure that they felt supported and like that be heard and understood their concerns. After planning commission, we met with the one resident who spoke via zoom, which I'll go into a little bit more in a second. And then continue to like I said, continue to communicate over email with multiple other residents who reached out and I believe those email communications are included in your staff packet. Next slide, please. So as Christina and Jay mentioned, I would like to provide some more information on the work that we did in between Planning Commission and today to work through the recommendations of Planning Commission and making sure we both closed the loop and were thoughtful about how we addressed their recommendations. So Christina covered and Jay covered the item number one where we made, we collaborated on two modifications to the conditions of approval. Item number two, we spoke with the resident like I mentioned on June 8th and presented our suggestion of removing three trees that are along that resident's property line and leaving one tree that's on the corner of the property line but changing the species of the tree to one that is more of an evergreen tree and does not drop as much debris. Through collaboration with the residents, we learned that trees are generally, the existing trees are pine trees and drop a lot of debris, and this is a concern for all of the surrounding residents in general. So through the community engagement process, we ended up changing all of the trees on the northern property line from sycamores to elms. Elms are more evergreen trees, and they don't drop as much debris. So we looked holistically at all the trees on this property line, not just the one or the four trees that were affecting the this one resident. We then worked with planning and public works to review these changes and ensure that they are compliant with the city's tree ordinance requirements. Lastly, like Jay and Christina mentioned, we had extensively evaluated the location of the trash enclosure prior to Planning Commission, and we continued those efforts after Planning Commission based on Planning Commission's recommendations. I'm happy to go into this in more detail, but there are multiple site constraints that preclude the relocation of the trash enclosure without resulting in a loss of housing units. However, I would like to reiterate a couple operational and design features that are included in the design to align with the city's design standards and some operational features that have been deployed on other similar projects that lead to kind of a higher level of service compared to the existing trash enclosures on site. First, the trash enclosure will have a drain and a roof, so this will prevent any runoff from leaving the enclosure. There are also typically curbs around the bottom of the enclosure and the stone walls on the side that run all the way to the ground, so any runoff or waste stays enclosed in the enclosure as opposed to the existing conditions, which are just fences with no roof. The design will be much enhanced compared to the existing trash enclosures on site. The HOA will be required to hire a valet trash service, which is a third-party service that manages the collection of trash from each of the residents' homes. The service sets a designated pickup day where residents leave their trash outside their home, similar to how you would in a single-family neighborhood. The valet trash service collects the trash from the resident's doors in a much smaller vehicle than the city's collection vehicles on that designated day and brings the waste to the trash enclosure. The pickup day is coordinated with the city hauler's pickup day. So the trash only sits in the enclosure for a max of 24 hours before the hauler comes and picks it up, which is a much different condition than if all of the residents brought their own trash to the enclosure every day. The service makes sure that all of the waste stays within the bins. There's no loose trash on the ground. They clean the enclosure compared to having to task the HOA to find someone to clean the enclosure, the service does it all. So we feel like this is a really big operational benefit compared to the existing status quo of the trash enclosures and just brings a higher level of service and more assurance to the community and the city that we are taking this seriously and the community will be set up for success through the mandate of this service. And with that, I'll conclude my presentation. Like staff said, I'm here for questions and look forward to speaking with you soon.

OK, thank you very much for your presentation. So now I will open up the public hearing on this item.

I have no public speaker cards, Mayor.

We have someone from the audience. OK, welcome.

Good evening, Mayor and Council Members. I'm Harshad Patel. My wife and I live on the parcel sharing this project, North East Line, where she runs the state-licensed child care home. Toddlers play in our yard, a few feet from where the plan puts a centralized trash enclosure for 134 homes. I support this project and want it approved tonight. I am asking for one design change that costs city nothing. Move the enclosure away from our fence line. Your own zoning code already requires Milpitas code section XI-10-54.16. Trash enclosure shall be located as far away as possible from residential uses. Placing it at our line is an opposite. You are not making a new rule. You are just enforcing the one you have. And they don't even need to lose a unit. I give you three ways to relocate the full density. Shift the stormwater and landscaping into the easement and use their own valet service so that the truck's route isn't tied to the enclosure. Or use density bonus waiver for internal standards. Here is the irony. The city already requires a 25 foot setback from my line for their buildings, a buffer to protect us. And they are using an accessory structure loophole to drop the garbage into that exact buffer. White Matters, a waste hub of 134 home, is a magnet for odor, radon, and stinging insects. Again, a toddler play area, and they confirm collection can be started at 6 a.m., bringing heavy trucks to the fence. State law title 22 section 102417 requires a licensed home be free from or conditions which might endanger a child, air quality guidance treat child care as a sensitive receptor needing a buffer. A few feet of fence is not a buffer.

Thank you very much for your comments. And just to clarify, you're a homeowner in that neighborhood? Yes. Can you, can you, because I didn't hear you, so you're a homeowner in that neighborhood?

Yes, right next to where the trash enclosure is getting placed.

Okay, thank you. Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor, council member, and city staff. My name is Sumit, and I'm homeowner of 31 Heath Street, and my family and I live directly next to the proposed 600 Valley Way development. First, I want to clear that I support the responsible housing development in Milpitas, and I appreciate the effort has gone in planning in the project. My goal is ensuring that interest of existing residents are appropriately considered. Our neighborhood is established like 60 years ago, and the proposed development introduced a three-story townhome immediately next to the existing homes, which is a one-story, which creating a significant privacy and neighborhood compatibility concern. My primary concern is the privacy. while the project is 38 feet setback, 38 feet high, and that is clearly visible, that second story or third story is clearly visible to our backyards. I understand and I request that a heighted fence, which will be provided, which will at least mitigate second story level visibility to our backyards. The heighted fence I requested for 10 to 12 feet, which is 10 feet plus two feet topper, which help us to prevent our privacy. The builder and the Sobereto residential hometown plan also support PGE easement. So there is a pole located in my property while the supporting guide wire anchor into the development site. And the pole is leaning and definitely if the wire is moved or removed, it is a risk. So I request to explore the relocation or modernization of infrastructure while we are building a new community.

Thank you very much for those comments. Okay, someone else? Okay, welcome.

Good evening, my name is Valentina Tolstoguzov. I'm resident of 19 Heath Street. First, I never received postcard about this project. Are you a homeowner in that area? Yes. My neighbors, 13 Heath Street, never received postcard. Another friend, two houses away, never received postcard. So thanks to my neighbors, I receive plan. So huge trash can size next to my fan. I don't like it. I'm not happy about it. I'm very upset about this plan. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Anyone else have any more comments from the public? No speaker cards, so now I'm going to move colleagues, my colleagues, City Council, for your feedback on this project. We have Council Member Chua.

Thank you, Mayor. Director Jay, can we put up the slide again where the...

Do you know what slide you're looking for? I'm going to have to pull that up. What slide? The site map. I'm sorry. We no longer have quorum.

Where is the?

I'm sorry. We no longer have quorum. We cannot continue any discussion.

We can't. City Attorney, you want to explain what is happening, please?

Thank you. We may have a couple of members needing a brief restroom break. We need to have at least a majority of the council here for the meeting to continue. So I think it'll be just a moment.

I didn't see. I should have stopped.

I was going to make sure that...

Thank you. We now have quorum again. We may continue the discussion.

I move to close the public hearing. I think it was not closed earlier.

We don't have to take a motion. We'll just close the public hearing. Thank you. Okay, great.

I forgot what I was asking for.

I think you wanted to see the site plan.

Yes, please.

I think slide 17 would do.

No one else has any more questions for Council?

No, we're waiting for the site plan. Oh, okay. Director Jay, can you please point to, we have three residents here, can you please point to where they're located in terms of the site plan?

believe two of the residents are just to the north of the trash enclosure is there do you wanna where where are they uh council member because i am running the presentation he cannot have access to run my computer screen to point to it oh okay so so is the brown one here is that the is that the

The trash enclosure right here? You guys don't have one of those? Is that the one?

The light things?

Oh, right there. Okay, thank you.

Too bad we don't have one of those little laser things. Okay, that's what I was looking for.

Anyway, okay, so two of the residents live here, right, around that area. Is that true? Three? Okay. The concern is you have a business there as well, right? And there is an explanation on why we can't move this dress enclosure. Do you wanna go over that again, Director Jay briefly?

Yes, I'll try to summarize. But I think a good way to start is maybe with some of the suggestions that Mr. Patel recommended. So we did consider that as well. And I checked in with the right staff. I think one challenge or the first, I think, recommendation was to consider moving the bioswales into the easement areas. And that would thereby perhaps free up some space for the enclosure to go somewhere else. the challenge is that bioswales are not allowed in the easement area so i think that option would not be doable also i think it's a fair question if there is an alternative plan which would not require a trash enclosure since there already is a valet service i think the issue with that is that the city has a franchise agreement with with milpitas sanitation where a third-party hauler a third-party The concierge service is not allowed to haul the trash off of the site. So all they are allowed to do is move it within the site. So they would still have to go to a location to be staged before it gets hauled off. And therefore, a trash enclosure is indeed needed and required for all multifamily developments. I think another alternative that staff inquired as well is the possibility of having individual bins, which can happen for townhouse developments. The challenge with that is you usually need wider garages to accommodate the bin space, and that would require each unit to be bigger, and thereby you would lose units. The other challenge is that you need a certain width of the street. And the trash truck also needs to be able to access every location of the bin. Another alternative is to have locations where the bins could be moved. But even with that solution, it would require the trash truck to access each point. And that would still be difficult given the turning radius of the larger vehicle. So having a kind of a circulation pattern that goes around the perimeter is really the most efficient and best way to pick up the trash. And I would also say that that street that goes around the perimeter is also needed for fire access. And also the way the utilities have been laid out and must be laid out according to our city staff. That loop also allows for laterals to come off of that for the utilities to reach each building as well. There are many reasons for why the site has to be laid out that way. It's just challenging to put a trash enclosure further into the middle of a development because it requires access for a trash truck to get in there. It's not easy to do that with the turning radiuses and the space that's needed.

What about the privacy issue?

Yes, so in terms of just the development overall or specifically, is that the?

They're requesting for a fence of 12 feet.

I see.

And I know you touch on that. Can you please reiterate that again?

I'll get to the fence, but I do want to look at it more holistically as well. It is a fair question anytime you have a higher density development, like a townhouse development next to a single-family residential neighborhood. I do want to clarify that per the zoning, the applicant is actually allowed to go much more dense. but they've brought the density to as low as possible within the density range i also believe so we're not talking about necessarily like an apartment next to a single family residential neighborhood the applicant has also exceeded the setback requirement by a pretty good amount and there's also a street that goes around it which also kind of serves as a buffer to further separate the townhouses from the homes and the homes are set back from their property lines as well so the total distance from The closest townhouse to the home is actually probably quite larger than in a lot of other instances in the city. So I think just looking at the townhomes, which are not that much taller than what would be allowed in the residential zoning district anyway, so we don't have as many shadow or light air access concerns. But now going to the fence, a 12-foot fence would be unusual between residential developments. Our code actually does not allow for anything It says six feet for rear and sides. It allows for up to eight within agreement between the property owners, but it does not allow for up to 12. So that's kind of the challenge there. And there are also trees in front of those buildings as well, like in the townhouse development. So although I totally understand the privacy concerns, we do think that it's a bit limited compared to other situations. And we do think the design of the project has mitigated that to a pretty good extent.

So just to simplify, we can only go up to eight feet. Is that correct? Yes. Director Jay. And also one of the comments from the neighbors, can you please, you don't have to answer this now, but look into why some of them didn't get the postcards.

That's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you, Director Jay. Okay, thank you. Is there anyone else? We have Council Member Lam.

Thank you Mayor. I have a number of questions. Can we go to page 10 of the presentation?

So slide 10.

Now when I look at this, I assume the green represent the smallest model the blue is a little bit bigger and the orange is the biggest model is that correct

So the green and blue are both, you know, three-bed, three-bath. The difference between them is, you know, the green I think has tandem parking and the blue is side-by-side. And the orange are, yes, the bigger units, but there's less of them overall proposed. That's why there's less overall included as the BMR.

Okay. Now, I understand 15% of the total units unit need to be BMR. And how do you determine which size? I counted four units is the biggest model, eight units for each one of the blue and the green. Is there a requirement to decide how you allocate what size of the house to be the BMR?

So generally, you know, the AHO, the Office of Housing helps review this and they help determine the distribution, but it is, they do try to scale it, you know, by the distribution or the total amount of units, right? So I think there was an equal amount of green and blue units, which is why they both had, I think, was it like, I do have a diagram in here, but that's why there is, you know, the same amount of blue and green BMRs and why there's less orange, because those are the biggest units and there's just less of them overall included. So

Yeah, that's why I asked, is there a requirement from the state or how you allocate what size of the housing to PMR?

Our affordable housing ordinance includes principles for unit distribution, which ultimately The intent comes from fair housing laws, but essentially you want the BMR unit mix to mimic the market rate unit breakdown as closely as possible. So we want the ratios to be the same. Like if there's like three bedroom, like if half three bedroom, half four bedroom total units, we want half of the units to be three bedroom, four bedroom for the BMR units as well. So that's how we determined with the housing staff, exactly the unit mix.

Okay. My next question is related to parking and I don't see any parking within the area, I mean, guest parking. Is there a requirement for guest parking?

The project actually exceeds the guest parking requirement. It required 45 stalls, but there is going to be 60. And it's around the perimeter of the site mostly. There's some interspersed between that. But I would also note that it was really great that this applicant is providing Well, beyond they require guest parking, but I would also just highlight that under state density bonus law, theoretically, they could have included zero guest parking stalls, and we likely would have had to approve it as that.

Where are the guest parking?

So a lot of them are around the perimeter, kind of on the left. You'll see them mostly as parallel and kind of the bottom. And there's some around the clubhouse building and stuff like that.

All right. Thank you. And my next question is related to the garbage you mentioned earlier. When the residents dispose garbage, they're going to push the bin all the way out to the perimeter of the bed will stay. Would that have enough space? I see there are many units toward the center. So it will be a lot of garbage bin during the garbage day. Is that right? I'm not sure how it works.

I think the applicant could provide more information regarding this if needed. But I think in general, my understanding is that the home owners would bring out their trash and then a smaller car from the concierge service would circulate, pick them all up and then take them all to the trash enclosure. as close, like, within 24 hours of when the Milpita sanitation larger vehicle comes up and picks it up in that northeast corner. So it's the amount of time that the garbage will all be collected and located and staged in that corner will be less than 24 hours. But in terms of, like, exactly how it works, perhaps the applicant can provide a little more detail, but hopefully what I provided is sufficient.

Okay. It's not the entire parameter of the This project is only certain areas.

Yes, so the valet trash service essentially functions as a small scale version of the city's hauler where a small truck comes and collects smaller trash bins from each of the residents' doors on a designated day. So the residents don't need to bring, they only need to bring their trash outside similar to how you would in your home. And the hauler comes and picks it up from in front of their door and brings it to the trash enclosure. Does that answer your question?

Say that again? How does it work again? Normally, each of us has a bin.

Yes.

And then you put your garbage in, and then you push out to the street. And since there's no street here, and then Jay was, if I understand correctly, you have to push the bin all the way out to the parameter of the bin.

this this project if i may um i was only saying that that could be an option although that that was an option we looked into if we needed the trash the larger trash vehicle to go around and pick up the trash um you'd have to like pull all the individual trash bins in certain areas throughout the development but that's not what is being proposed here um okay what's the proposal

The proposal is that each resident would bring their bin outside of their garage door or to the designated pickup area within the footprint of the exterior of their unit. And then the third party service would come and collect the trash from those bins, similar to how it works. It's just a much smaller scale because the third party services' truck is much smaller. And then the bins that the residents use are also a bit smaller than the three waste streams that you have at your home. So it functions better in a townhome community where there's a little bit more of a space constraint.

OK, I understand. How long is the project? It's about a year to a year and a half? How long is the entire project?

The construction duration? Yeah. We don't have a full schedule yet. I think it'll probably be between I can't give a definitive answer because we don't have a full construction schedule. It'll be a couple years.

A couple years. I assume this couple years will be quite dusty in this area.

Yes.

So how do you manage that? I assume that's one of the worry about the neighborhoods.

Yes. So we have conditions of approval in the city's zoning code. implement certain construction standards for dust control, dust mitigation, noise mitigation, like working hours and emissions control. Like you can't leave a truck idling on the site for a certain amount, past a certain amount of time. We're also using tier four construction equipment, which is lower emission construction equipment to help mitigate any air quality concerns. So between the city's code, our conditions of approval, and just best practices for being a good neighbor, we would mitigate all of those concerns to the extent that we can.

OK. My next question is related to the sound wall near A80. What's the standard size of, I mean, how tall is the sound wall?

Ms. Caroline, please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe is it about six to eight feet on the highway side? Six to eight feet. The concrete by the highway side?

Yeah.

Eight feet? Eight feet?

Yeah, eight feet is pretty short. I'm not sure what's the California standard, but I know a lot of people already complain to me about the sound wall is not tall enough. It's pretty noisy on AAD.

Carolyn, would you like to summarize the noise report that was done for this project?

Yes, of course. So we conducted an environmental noise analysis. This is basically where we work with with an acoustic consultant who takes noise measurements from different parts of the site to understand the amount of noise that's generated by the surrounding uses. They then use those measurements and compare it against city design standards to determine whether the noise levels within the units are within the city's design standards. And if they're not, what measures we can put in place to bring the noise level down within the units. So our consultant conducted this study. They determined that the building wall construction, which is like the insulation and the exterior materials of the building and things like that, is sufficient. There are specific units closer to the freeway where they recommended higher sound ratings for the windows and doors. like a standard sound rating is typically 30 STC, and they recommended a range of different sound ratings higher than that for building by building based on their testing. So we would take their analysis and include it as a project requirement in our design so that we ensure we're meeting city's zoning code requirements.

I assume those are three-story buildings?

Yes, they're three-story buildings.

How tall are they?

They're 38 feet?

38 feet. Christine mentioned eight feet tall sound wall. So you don't even cover one third. You don't even cover one story.

We're verifying the height of our sound wall with some consultants that we have online who have the plans pulled up so we can just double check the height. But our acoustic consultant did take the sound location and the height of the concrete wall along the freeway into consideration when they did their testing. So the protection that that wall gives was taken into consideration in their recommendations.

Okay.

My last question is related to the tree. Since one of the residents complained about the tree, you mentioned you are removing the old pine tree and put in new trees. OK. And how far away are the trees from the current residents?

Are you asking how far away the new trees will be? Yes. They're between four and six feet off our property line. So it depends on where the resident's measuring from, but they'll be about four, the planting of the tree will be about four to six feet away from the property line, depending on the location.

Is there another wall on top, on the north, on top of the boundary line? Is that a wall there? And then you put trees?

Yes.

Near the wall?

That's the fence.

Oh, the fence? Is there a wood fence?

Yes.

Oh, okay.

And then the trees would be on the townhome development side of the wood fence.

Those little circles, those are trees?

Yes, sir.

Okay. Okay, thank you. I don't have further questions.

Okay, thank you for that. I have a follow-up question, and I was going to say Dr. Lam, but Councilmember Lam. You mentioned the fencing. Is that a wooden fence, or is that a concrete sound wall fence? I'm telling to the applicant. Author. To the applicant.

So along the northern the eastern and yeah, the northern and the eastern property lines will be a wood fence and then wood wood fence a wood fence. Yes, but isn't that where the freeway is near the freeways on the western property line and what's on the bottom where the cursor is so that'll be a concrete wall.

Okay. And it'll be how many feet high? Six or eight?

I'm waiting for my consultant to text me back and then I'll let you know.

Okay. Anyone have any more questions? Because I have a couple, a few more. Okay, I'm going to continue then. Let me close your mic. So I also have, but you can get back to me on that question. I also have a concern on the circulation. So with fire, usually there's an ingress and egress, there's an exit, but I don't see one here.

so um it's hard to see but pretty much we're this unfinished portion of valley way yes so the fire department did require two different points of access since there's only valley way before that's why they are now requiring this eva easement which would be kind of in the middle like in between those two communities but there's always a you know a potential that this Wait, wait, wait.

Can you slow down?

Sorry. So kind of along the northern property line, it's a little hard to see, but there's an unfinished segment of a valley way. And you have a cursor or something?

Well, so to the north, you'll see all the properties lined up, and you'll see like somewhere, yeah, where the cursor is right now, there's a little gap in the homes, and that's actually an unfinished, like the street that comes all the way down to the property line.

But I thought you said earlier that it's only for pedestrians, it's not for vehicles.

So it's protected by ballers, and it's only going to be used for fire emergency access. They'll move the ballers, but that's why it's only for pedestrians, and it'll connect to this kind of

okay so that's the the way out if there's a fire i mean there's a second one yeah because yeah i was wondering where is that exit um okay that that clarifies that um the other questions i have uh you mentioned a community benefit right what is the community benefit was there a community benefit i know you also said the arts we have an arts um benefit you give it you've given arts. We have an arts ordinance which requires new developments to give monies to the art fund. And then we also have a park you did a park in lieu. So where what so is where are there parks here you did it in lieu park fund? Are there any parks in here? And how big how big are they if they are any? Because that's really important for our community. You've got to have a park in there.

I think slide eight, or it might be open space areas. I might, let's see, slide eight. So these are, the project will be providing these three pocket parks, but with the housing, you know, or the public parkland in lieu fee, they are contributing, I think it's like close to 2.6 million, which will go to Department of Public Work and, you know, Public Works Department to decide how to utilize those funds.

So that's the in lieu park fees, 2.6 million that they are contributing to the park fund. And so these projects, Is there a play like these parks, a place where folks can just relax and stroll and take their kids or there is nothing there, no play structures?

Yes, so I think it's hard to see here, but that's why it's kind of like they're calling it this open space paseo and open space spine because it's like this diagonal nice walkway that's going to be paved really nicely with tree-lined walkways. So there's a variety of things in these three different pocket parks, but, you know, there's benches, picnic areas. One of them will have a bocce ball court. gameplay areas. I don't think there's a, you know, play structure per se, but yes.

And the nearest park is Starlight Park, or is it, what's the name of that park? So they can, how far is that? They can, within walking distance, right?

Yes, so they'll be able to walk there with a new pedestrian pathway connection that's also serving as an EVA to the north.

Do you have a Google map of the current site? Can you put a Google map to see the real, the real McCoy?

I don't know if we have an earlier slide that shows like an aerial, but when I'm, as I'm looking at it, it's about a block away. And like three, basically three homes, like three homes down with like a street. So like two homes, a street and another home, and then there's the park. So it's pretty close.

Okay. The other thing, you know, there's a hotel there, and nobody made any mention of that hotel. I was wondering why no one's mentioned it, because it's still active. People still go there. Visitors still go there. So what, is it separated? Can you show me something in the, a map or something? that has that? So the hotel is a separate parcel. It's not connected to this. I'm sorry. I know, but there's a street. Okay, can you show me where it's at? And show me a map because I just want I'm just concerned that people are going to be parking in there in the in that area. And then you have visitors coming into that area. And then did you reach out to the applicant? Did you reach out to the Best Western Hotel? Did they say anything? Were they okay with your project?

Yeah, we did speak to the owner of the Best Western Hotel over email. They didn't express any concerns with the project.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, I also just wanted to reiterate that they are, you know, providing 60 guest parking stalls when they required 45, and technically the state law would have almost allowed them to do zero, so. Okay.

And then another question, it's exempt. Can you explain to the public why it's exempt from CEQA?

So we also have our SQL consultant here that can elaborate more. And I know that term can sound misleading. So although this was a type of exemption done, there's actually a very detailed project-specific environmental checklist that tiered off of the recently adopted Main Street Gateway-specific plan and the subsequent EIR done for that. And it really goes through every topic area and is attached. And I think it's over 100 pages still. We still use a professional consultant from our SQL list. So it did take a lot of time and effort still.

If I may, yeah, for the SQL, it's a great question. We did SQL analysis for the Gateway plan. So a lot of that analysis was done on a larger scale. So when you have a specific plan and we do a programmatic EIR, one of the big benefits of that is that future projects don't have to do the full analysis over again. So for this one, that really helped this analysis be more efficient and limit the amount of analysis. But it's still an exemption because we're relying on that. But in this situation, compared to like some other exemptions where you wouldn't do much analysis, as Christina mentioned, through a consultant, they went through every topic. And you really confirm whether the impacts are new and have not been previously analyzed. So you'd look at that and see if that's happening. And the conclusion was that it didn't result in any new impacts because this project is in line with what was anticipated when we did the specific plan.

but i think for yeah like technical questions about specific subjects we do have a sequel consultant who can answer that yeah okay and so it's there's and there's also um there's also 15 below market rate homes uh but there's no no low income

There's 20 BMR units, but they're moderate level.

Yeah, they're not below market. And we've been, the council has been stressing more low income because low income isn't really low income. I mean, think the BMR, you have to make at least $150,000 a year. That's below market rate for the income. So it's all relative, really. So I'm just wondering why this project doesn't have low income.

So it's a for sale product. And in our affordable housing ordinance, a for sale development just needs to provide moderate income. The low income requirement is for rental units. So it's just complying with our affordable housing ordinance. Generally, like anybody can go above and beyond that, but it does have a financial cost. So you'll see that.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay, that answered my question. So it's only rentals that that are It can be low income, it's not BMR. I would think it'd be BMR, but that's the criteria.

The low income is the criteria for the apartments. The townhouses theoretically could be at lower income levels, but it's not required by our ordinance.

one more the trash bins is there any way to put a sound wall behind the trash bin because i think that was the the one of the residents concern was the um the smell and the odor from the trash bins um i think what i would say is there already is an enclosure so then i guess having it would be like a second wall behind the trash enclosure

Whereas the rest of it is a fence. I mean, perhaps the applicant could speak to why that isn't feasible or, but it just doesn't seem like it would accomplish something more or different than what's already being proposed.

Okay, go ahead.

I would just reiterate what Jay just said. The enclosure is a stone or concrete.

How tall is the enclosure?

It's 15 feet total, which is based off the haulers requirements for...

It's 15 feet high? Yes. Oh, that's pretty substantial.

Yes. Oh, okay. Yes, and it has a roof on top of it as well.

Yeah, it would be redundant to the... Okay, that's good. And can you put the slide that has the whole neighborhood in there? So... Where is Abbott at on here? Is it right where the entrance is right here?

If we could go to slide three, I think, as an area that's a little bit pulled out.

The project site does not directly front Abbott. Kind of to the right or the east, it's kind of behind some of those lots fronting Abbott, but there's no direct roadway connection or access to Abbott.

Where is Abbott? I know we have street.

Wait, there's a gas station there in the corner. So kind of to the right, that top to bottom street.

Yeah, right there where the cursor is. There's some private property in between Abbott and the yellow shaded project site.

Okay, yeah. So this street, wherever that street, the wide one that's Abbott. And then we have the gas station in the corner. And you guys reached out to the gas station as well, right?

We sent a public notice, but the only, I mean, the main business owner that I remember being contacted by was mostly the Best Western, and they just occasionally asked for general updates. And I think the goal, right, is that, you know, of course, with the MGSP, it's to really, you know, we want to, these new residents will be able to support the businesses around it.

I see where it's at now. Okay. Yeah, I'm just concerned about that wooden fence. I mean, why is it wood? Because know wood deteriorates after a while and um and i am concerned about the um the circulation is there is there a way that since abbott is nearby you're going to have a lot a lot of traffic these these folks are going to be coming out of can you put the cursor where they're going to be going in and out They're going to be going in and out right on Vanny Way.

Valley Way.

Valley Way. And shouldn't we have a signal light somewhere on Abbott?

So the project did prepare a project-specific traffic plan, which I think is included as part of the attachments. And we do have a very good traffic engineering team that did review the scope with the applicant and reviewed the various drafts before finaling it. And as a result of that report, it did help indicate the suggested offsite public improvements such as related to transportation. So the potential improvements related to that are included within the engineering department specific conditions of approval that the applicant has agreed on. They will have to resurface part of Valley Way. They will be doing new sidewalks, ADA compliance. I think there could be like potential improvements to the, One of the intersection lights for Right This Is All, they will need to do more studies post-entitlement.

OK, so it's still ongoing.

Yeah, so the project can only, you know, it's almost a nexus study, right? We can't require a developer to do more than what's, you know, we do need to study to kind of help elaborate on that, which is what the traffic team does.

Yeah. OK, I'm just concerned about the residents. I'm concerned about their concerns, so. Any more questions from my colleagues? We have Councilmember Land.

Thank you, Mayor. So, Director Jay, I read the report and this is.

Can you speak into the mic, please?

Yes.

Thank you. I read the report.

And this says, this project is partially located in flood zone. I just want to know if that portion is fully captured in conditions.

I don't know, Christina, if you could find the relevant conditions of approval. But our public works team did review it and do always condition properly depending on the flood zone. I'm not an expert in that field, but also some of these flood issues get worked out during the building stage as well. And some of it depends on valuation. And once you get more of the construction details, more extreme measures for more significant flood zones are like raising the floor, the elevations, you know, flood insurance, like some of you might be required to have flood insurance. But yeah, I would defer to that. Yeah.

So there's a condition of approval number 109 under the purview of the engineering department. So of course they definitely look at all the flood zone issues and it's not the entire site. I think just like partial of the edge. Yeah. I think Caroline, if you want to elaborate on any of this, but it is definitely thoroughly studied. So it would not, the project would not be allowed to, you know, continue with these public hearings until, you know, all these issues are addressed and appropriately conditioned.

Okay. I just wanted to confirm that. Thank you.

I thank you for that question. That whole area is a flood zone. And just now that kind of brought to my mind about shouldn't you guys do an infill on that site? Are you doing an infill? Can you come to the podium?

Our grading accounts for raising that portion of the site out of the flood zone. That's part of what we reviewed with the engineering team and Public Works is the grading for that site and the plan to raise the site out of the flood zone.

Thank you. Any more questions? No, thank you. Okay, we have Councilmember Chua. Thank you, Mayor.

I just want to thank the residents for being here this evening, for exercising your civic duty expressing your concerns. I hope it's clear that there was a partnership between the developer and the staff to address fully your concerns. And I just want to say that unfortunately some of the requests, we can't go beyond what is required by law. And I think with what is proposed tonight, they did exactly, they kind of hit the maximum of what they can do based on the regulations of our laws. And I also want to thank the developer for reaching out to the community and also giving grants to the former tenants and also being open to the concerns of our residents. And I want to thank our staff for the hard work because it's not easy to listen to the concerns and work with the laws and also work with the developers.

I want to thank all of you. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilmember Chua. So for me, I'm not satisfied with some of these. I think there's still work to be done. They need some improvements. So I'm not going to vote for this. And I want to see what the other members, if you're going to vote for this. I guess we'll call, see I need a motion in a second or. Go ahead, Councilmember Chua.

I understand your concern, but to me, based on the briefing and based on tonight's discussion, there's a limit of what we can do based on the laws that we have, the zoning laws, the housing laws, and all the different laws, development laws. And I will go ahead and move the motion to, To approve, to adopt a resolution approving a site development permit, vesting tentative map, density bonus permit, environmental assessments for 134 townhome condominiums in one clubhouse amenity building at 600 Valley Way.

So it was motioned by Council Member Chua and seconded by Council Member Lian. Let's call for the vote. Council Member Chua.

Aye. Council Member Lam. Council Member Lam.

Aye.

Council Member Lian.

Aye. Mayor Montano. And I am a no. As I mentioned, I would have liked to have had this come back until there was some changes made but again my vote is no so it's a three one and it passed okay thank you for that so now moving on to community development item 23 city manager

Madam mayor and Council item 23 is to review and approve the proposed storefront crime prevention program of the staff contact on this matter is our interim economic development director miss Madison when.

Okay, so we're going to open the public hearing on this item. Anyone from the public like to make any comments on this?

I have no public speaker cards on this item, ma'am.

Is there anyone from the floor that would like to make a public comment on this item? Okay, so we will close the public hearing, and now we will move to council discussion.

And we do have a presentation from economic development. We just need to get that pulled up.

Okay. Let's do the presentation and then we will have council discussion.

Okay. Good. All right. Well, good evening mayor, members of the city council. My name is Madison Nguyen. I'm the interim economic development director. And next to me is Cal Zubair, economic development specialist. We are here tonight to provide a report on the storefront crime prevention program. and to recommend your approval of the proposed initiative. By way of background, on December 2nd, 2025, the city council allocated Should I continue because we lost form again, Coram?

Okay.

All right. Again, by way of background, on December 2nd, 2025, the city council allocated 100,000 to support a storefront crime prevention program. Over the past six months, staff from the Office of Economic Development have conducted extensive research and outreach with the small business community to gather feedback and better understand local business needs. This evening, we would like to share the results of that outreach, present our findings and analysis, and recommend what we believe is the most cost effective and efficient approach to supporting our small business through this program. With that, I would like to turn it over to my colleague, Cal Zuber, who will provide a brief presentation. And following that presentation, we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Good evening, Mayor Montano and Council. Could I have the next slide, please? So Office of Economic Development staff worked with the police department to develop the strategy, as well as run crime statistics on shopping centers in the city and found that 996 property crimes had been reported in the areas around Milpitas shopping centers since 2023. There were 305 reports in 2025 alone. Council's action in December 2025, our recognition of a real need of our business community especially our small business community, for financial assistance to fund security improvements. As a reminder, small businesses make up approximately 92% of all enterprises here in Milpitas. And unlike large corporations, they generally will lack capital reserves that are sufficient to both absorb repeated break-ins and invest in robust security infrastructure. Next slide, please. The storefront crime prevention program is designed to provide grants of up to $4,000 per business for purchase and installation of a shatterproof window film. At this cap, the $100,000 pool would support a minimum of 25 businesses. The proposal is that the city will contract directly with a vendor so that a business will pay nothing upfront when their spend is under $4,000 for the installation of this film. Applications would be submitted to Office of Economic Development for approval and confirmation of, I'm sorry, basically to confirm their eligibility. The window film option maximizes the number of businesses that can be served by this $100,000. More robust security measures such as bollards and roll-up gates would fund far fewer projects. The window film would provide a deterrence as the film holds shards together on impact, slowing forced entry and increasing the likelihood that intruders abandon the attempt while PD arrives to the scene. The shatterproof window film also maintains the storefront's integrity after an attempted break-in, letting businesses stay open while awaiting glass replacement. This option would not require building permits or architectural review or planning permits, which make it easier on businesses and allow for a faster rollout of the program. Staff conducted extensive in person outreach to businesses across the city responses were broadly supportive with multiple businesses citing recent break ins and the high cost of glass replacement has motivating factors for their position next slide please. As I mentioned earlier, if council approves this strategy, the city will launch a competitive bidding process to identify a vendor that can both purchase and install shatterproof window film for small businesses. Staff will also conduct another round of outreach through both digital channels, social media, our website, and direct email, as well as targeted in-person outreach to high traffic areas such as Milpitas' shopping centers, Main Street, et cetera. Eligible businesses would include for-profit businesses within Milpitas City limits that have 25 or fewer employees, have a physical storefront with exterior-facing windows, a valid business license, and no outstanding code violations. And after one year of implementation of this program, after its launch, we will come back to Council with performance data, including conversion rates of the program, completed project details, and qualitative feedback from recipients of these grants. Next slide, please. So as Director Nguyen mentioned, our recommendation is that council approve the program for storefront crime prevention as presented. Thank you.

Okay, great. This is wonderful. You know, one of the reasons why we did this is because of the break-ins, the smash and grabs of the jewelry stores, and that it was late last year. And I think that having also the cameras, being proactive is really important. And I am so glad that City Council is taking a proactive approach and really supporting our small businesses. So I wanted to hear from our police department what What are their thoughts on this program? Can a representative come up here and say something? See, we put our money where our mouth is.

And we really believe in protecting our small businesses.

Good evening, Mayor Montano, Council. Tyler Jamison currently serving as your police captain. I think obviously the recommendations here tonight are great for our city. Anytime you have the opportunity, excuse me, anytime you have the opportunity to harden a target, to deter suspects, you know, it definitely helps the police department. We have a very fast response time, and this is definitely something that will help.

Thank you. I knew you were going to be all for this, but we appreciate your feedback on this. So it's a working partnership to make sure that our small businesses thrive and that we are a safe city, so. thank you so much for you know when people call you you guys come right away and i've always i've heard a lot of great things about that so thank you okay so um with that is there any we have um okay we have a a motion and a second oh don't actually console discussion any more discussion in the council from the council we have council member lamb limb lynn lamb customer lamb Lamb, lamb, lamb, lamb. Okay, Council Member Lamb. Or Lynn.

Okay, Council Member Lynn. Thank you, Mayor. Director Nguyen, would you share with the cost of outreach and admin? Is it inside this $100,000 or outside?

The outreach that we have done included, Cal and I actually did outreach to the businesses over at the seafood center, as well as the plaza, the shopping plaza right across from City Hall. So we had the opportunity to speak with many business owners who were very interested in the program. The businesses that we also spoke with are also very diverse. We spoke with Vietnamese business owners, Filipino business owners. It's just very diverse. So we thought that our outreach was pretty extensive. And it really contributed to the research that we did. And that's what we're presenting to the council tonight.

So is there a cost to it or?

Not for the outreach. The cost is actually for the material, the product, and the installation.

Okay. And you guys will bring this back to the council?

Yes.

After the contract.

Right after a year from now, once we implement the program, we will come back to the council to provide a report. And at that time, we will probably come up with another recommendations whether or not the program has been successful. And if it is, if it is, then we would probably recommend that we continue. And if it's not, then it's really up to the council discretion to decide what you would like to do next.

Thank you.

Thank you, man.

And we have a customer lamb. Did you have your mic on? No? Okay. Consumer lamb.

A few questions.

Why do you pick Can you put your mic closer to your mouth? Thank you.

Why do you guys pick business 25 or less, instead of a smaller number of employees? Yeah, so your target for a little bit bigger business than a small business.

Actually, in the report, we're saying that we're encouraging small businesses that actually have 25 employees or less. That's the businesses that we're encouraging to apply for this program.

Right. What I'm saying is 25 or less, 25 is pretty decent size already, business. Why would they need to have this benefits? Wouldn't the smaller business, I would think like 15 or 10 or less employee, they would

Right, Council Member, so it's 25 employees or less. So it could be a business with one employee to 25 employees.

No, I understand that. So that means the bigger and medium-sized small business can apply for this versus...

I think I have an understanding of where you're coming from, Council Member. The definition that the city has been using for small businesses is 25 employees or fewer. And obviously, different organizations will define small business differently. Like the SBA, for instance, will say a business that's under 500 employees is a small business. In Milpitas, that's not correct or that's not an accurate description of that type of business. And so I think over time, the 25 employee or fewer definition of a small business has been understood to be a more accurate representative of kind of the general mix of employers here in the city.

OK. Another question I have is regarding the $4,000 for each business. wouldn't you um if you lower that amount then more small business will be benefit from this program um why you set the bar so high so it's only 25 business can benefit from this pilot program yes so um

In our outreach, we found that various businesses have wildly different sizes of windows. So, for example, a corner unit in a shopping center that has windows on two sides as opposed to just one that may have two units on either side of them. Their need from this program would be quite different than, say, for example, another business. So in other words, there's a lot of variance that we tried to account for and provide flexibility in the program for. So a business may have anywhere between 90 square feet worth of glass all the way up to 400, you know, in this kind of category. So we just wanted to provide that flexibility for applicants that match the criteria to still be able to receive the grant. Now, that being said, it's not uniform. It's not a straight line whatsoever. So when a business that is perhaps larger and would take the full $4,000 that's available to them, there would be, I mean, I'm not going to cite any metrics that I'm not able to confirm at this time, but there may be other businesses that have a lesser requirement that would then make up that difference that still allows for maximum reach of the program.

Okay. Another question I have is what if the business wants something else other than the share the proof film or window film? If someone wants cameras instead, Would we provide cameras instead of this shatterproof window film?

The program as proposed is strictly for spend on shatterproof window film. That is what we decided would maximize the reach of the program and have the most benefit to prevent smash and grabs, provide an obstacle to smash and grabs. There are of course other options that could be considered, but this is the one that we propose to council tonight.

I would like to hear from the police. Is that a good way to detour or do you think cameras would be effective?

So what I can say is that cameras obviously provide an investigative value for after the fact. However, with the film protection, it prevents the individual from getting into the store and it actually allows the business to maintain all their property because the police will be able to respond in a timely fashion to stop that from occurring. So I think that's a great recommendation that they have. There's obviously other investigative tools out there that can help the police department, but this one by far serves a great purpose.

With this film on the window, how many hits does it take to break the glass?

I can't speak specifically to the amount of hits that it takes, but we'll keep that.

Let's say someone is just keeping on hitting before you arrive, so it doesn't serve the purpose of detouring.

I can speak to that just a little bit. If somebody repeatedly smashed the window, eventually the whole frame of glass will come down. The goal of this is to slow down the intruder for long enough that our excellent police department, with their amazing response times, can get there before they are actually able to steal a site. Well, actually, that's my question.

How long does it take to break the... I don't have that information available right now. It takes a few minutes for the police to arrive. Can someone just break it in 30 seconds? If you continuously hear it, then it doesn't serve the purpose.

Based on our, I'm sorry, go ahead. Based on our experience, when a smash and grab occurs, obviously there's alarms that go off as well. And if the initial glass doesn't break on that first opportunity, the suspects often flee at that time and they're not going to sit there while the alarm's going off continuously trying to break it.

So you assume the business has alarm? I'm just giving that as one example.

So what, I don't know, what if they don't have alarm? Most business may not have alarm. If they don't have an alarm, it does change the scenario a little bit. But with the alarm and the film, it's a great deterrent. Yes.

With alarm. But I'm not sure how many business has alarm.

Is that it? Oh, it's still.

yeah i would well you know go ahead other council member and then i want to make a proposal a little bit different than than what they propose thank you mayor uh when we did the i'm i'm good with you guys i'm good thank you

Well, we did the grants for small businesses. One of the things that we did was to, because we were concerned about the businesses of the daycare, we gave them priority. And I think if I follow Councilmember Lam's input, Is there a way, I know you're targeting below 25 employees per business. Is there a way we can give priority to businesses with less than 10 first? You know, less than 10 employees, get them on top of the list, and if there's not enough, then you can go down to less than 25.

If what we coined in the city of Mopedas, if what we coined 25 employees or less as a small business, then this will serve that purpose. But it's really up to the city council. If this is what you would like to do, then obviously we can consider that.

I think the recommendation, my recommendation, I think it's also, I don't know, Council Member Lam agrees is to give priorities to businesses with less than 10 employees first. But if they do, if you have less than 10 employees applicants, then go ahead and do the less than 20 or 25.

I would just like to add a little bit of context to the 25 employee figure. So just some well-known businesses that we have here in Milpitas, Banana Leaf. It's a relatively small storefront. One might say it's a smaller business. They actually have 37 employees per their business license records. Similarly, La Milpa, another small loved restaurant here in the city, has 21 employees. So just to provide scale, these are employees that are being recorded in our business license. That doesn't mean that they're all on site at the same time. These types of businesses have shift work. So it's kind of spread out. Maybe everyone's not working 40 hours a week. That adds up very quickly.

I understand. Yeah. But I think that's my recommendation to to prioritize the real small businesses, and then go to the medium size.

That's definitely doable.

Thank you for the that's just, it depends on the council. Okay.

Yeah, thank you, Councilmember Chua. Yeah, it's, but remember, it's the max is 25. So it's still under 25. It's even if you go 10, 5, 1. Well, we're just giving priorities to them. Yeah, that's good that you're giving, you know, priority to 10, right? But it's still 20, under 25. Yeah. Okay, just wanted to clarify that. And then we have Councilmember Lin.

Well, since... Council Member Lam was asking how many try on the window. I was hoping that maybe Director Nguyen can bring in a demo.

That's all. I can certainly bring in a hammer, but I don't know how many times I have to pound on that window for it to break completely. Oh, for Council Member Lam, yeah.

Yeah.

All right, thank you very much. I think that's it for the questions. And we have Council Member Lam, one more.

Yeah. I'd like to support Council Member Chua's priority. I'd like to see the small business get the top priority first. before we move into a little bit bigger size small business. Or another way we can do it is based on the revenues. Because Jared has actually teach me something before. The size of a business not depend on the employees, depend on the revenues. So some business might have one person and multimillion dollar business, and they don't need our help to put in this. If they have a seven figures income. So maybe revenue would be a good way to measure the size of the business.

I counsel. Um, I know I wasn't invited to the microphone, but, uh, Jared Hernan is serving as your police chief. The only reason I'm stepping to the microphone is, is in two different roles. I had an opportunity to have a conversation with economic development, both in the police chief role, as well as in the temporary city manager role. And what I recognized during our conversations is that Cal and Director Nguyen did a fantastic job in trying to identify a program that is easy to administer and can meet a variety of needs. One of the considerations is that the type of businesses that are being attacked, you can have a very small business, that's one or two employees, but the volume of work kind of to council member Lam's point is so minimal, the chances of them being targeted, they're just not a desirable target. And so the way that Cal and the economic development team designed this program is to allow them to prioritize businesses. They used a lot of police department data Even to the sections of town where we see these burglaries occur most, oftentimes south perimeter along San Jose over on Landis. There's a lot of small businesses in that shopping center. And we see a lot of window smashes for cash registers. Those are quick. If you watch the video surveillance from a typical burglary of a small sandwich shop, which gets hit a lot, or any of those businesses over there, it's about 30 seconds, break the window, grab the cash register and go. The film, I've seen demonstrations of it. I don't know what the specific number of hits their film takes. And I guess it would be dependent as well on the device that the person that's breaking it is using. But it definitely slows it down significantly more than 30 seconds. Our average response time in the city of Milpitas to an emergency is sub three minutes. and to non-emergency is somewhere between five and eight minutes, depending on the time of day. Your later shifts, your midnight shift, where there's less traffic out, our officers are typically on scene in five minutes or less just because of how we deploy our officers. So I think that the idea of utilizing the film is going to be highly effective. I think it's going to help minimize loss to our businesses. And I think that the criteria that economic development has set forward allows them to have latitude within the data that the police department provides them so they can make decisions. I think that if we narrow the criteria too specifically, it may not prioritize businesses that really should be. Maybe we have a business that's been struck three times, but they don't meet that less than 10 criteria. I don't know that it's wise to prioritize a different business when you have another business that's regularly targeted. So I would ask the council to allow that discretion to economic development through cooperation with the police department based on data that is gonna best support our community need. That's all I wanted to offer.

One of my comments is if some of the business with seven figures or eight figures income, they don't need this program. They have enough money to put in a better quality glass instead of just a film. Like jewelry stores, they have enough money to buy thick glasses. So the point is to help the small business. Yeah, not the business with a lot of revenues.

I would like to offer one anecdote from our outreach. In speaking to some businesses, there were a couple that expressed that they actually have glass that is shatterproof. In those instances, they would not be interested in this type of program. Exactly, yeah.

And also, I'd like to... have the option for small business too. Instead of putting this shutter, proof, window, film, perhaps the business can choose to have cameras. The camera these days is really inexpensive. So for $1,000, you could get lots of cameras. If you go to Costco, those 10, 15 cameras only cost about $500, $600. So I would give that option to the small business. If they like to have camera instead, maybe we provide cameras for them. So that would help the police too, help the police. Officer Taylor was saying that would help the investigations. So for business without cameras, that would really help them, help the investigations to catch the burglar or thief.

Yeah. Just to a point I want to make, most businesses do have cameras already. This is an extra protection for crime prevention. Right.

I mean, they have choice. If the business has camera, they don't need cameras. Then they will put in this.

Yeah, we have a Council Member Chua.

Mayor, Council Member Lam, I think this initiative is specific for the shatterproof storefront windows. And, you know, if we have some funds when we do, when we discuss the allocation of funds of the surplus, maybe you can make that suggestion at that time. Because currently we have cameras for the residents, maybe. you can bring that up when we allocate the surplus funds, maybe cameras for the businesses. The reason is like Assistant Chief Tyler, they have to go through to different type of cameras. You know, residents are different. I mean, cameras for residents are different. And I would think the cameras for commercial,

facilities are different as well so it's not you can't mix the two for this initiative I'm not sure why you cannot mix it I'm just providing option for the business if someone doesn't want this and they want to have camera instead this program in general is a if I understand correctly is a store front

crime prevention it doesn't say has to be uh using this um i think there's i think if correct me if i'm wrong there's a difference in implementation because there are some guidelines even for the residence camera i learned that from from assistant chief tyler and is it's a different type of guidelines to do the cameras or commercial different from the shatterproof implementation. You know, that's a good idea. I mean, but if you can please bring that up when we do the allocation of the surplus funds, not with this initiative. That's all I'm saying. And my question is for Director Nguyen. What, please identify or enumerate the criteria that you use for the less than 25. Businesses with employees less than 20. What were your criteria, please?

Are you saying in addition to businesses with 25 employees or less? Yeah, what other?

Do you have other criteria in selecting the businesses?

Yes, so that is the primary criteria. Beyond that, it's compliance with city regulations such as a valid business license, no code violations, and also they must have a physical storefront with exterior facing windows.

Do they have to be in business in Milpitas for more than a year or there's no requirement?

The requirement is to have a valid Milpitas business license. And so if they do indeed have one and meet the other criteria, then they would be eligible for the program as presented.

Okay, that's good. So even you businesses can have it. I like that. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. We have one more council. I just want to remind the council that we have five, six items that are pulled from consent. And we have a couple more on the agenda. So just be mindful of the time. And we have Council Member Lam. Yeah.

I also of business to benefit from this program from 25 to 50. So I would lower the upper limit 4,000 to 2,000. So 50 business will be more business will be benefit from this program.

We had already decided the amount, because this is a surplus, so we had already decided.

No, I mean, the total amount is the same. I just want to benefit more business.

I'm going to go with it. I really trust the staff, the economic development team on this, and I'm not going, well, from my, I'm not going to. I think they're, what they're proposing is satisfactory. So does anybody have any comments on that? Ms. Chua. Move to

to approve the proposed storefront crime prevention program with the with the enhancement of making giving priorities to businesses with less than or less than employees. That's my motion. Okay, second. Let's call for the vote.

Councilmember Chua.

Aye. Councilmember Lam.

Nay.

Councilmember Lien. Aye. Mayor Montano. Aye. Okay, that has moved. And I know you guys are going to do a great job because the whole purpose of this is for crime prevention. It's not about how long people have been in business here. It's crime prevention. And that's why we're being proactive in making sure that they are not victimized or how much money they make. OK, so let's move on to.

Mayor, is there a chance we might be able to take item C18 next?

Oh, yeah, yeah. There's an applicant here, right? Is that the? Item C.

That was the housing waiver one. That might be relatively short, and we do have some people on standby.

Yeah, let's just do that one so they don't have to wait here. So that's on C-18. What number was it?

C-18. C-18. This is C-18, and we have Hanson Hom on Zoom virtually.

Okay, that one, C-18 California Circle. This one. I pulled it. Oh, you did? And the reason why I had to pull this one is because I wanted to find out. Because what's really confusing about this one here, you have so many entities that are involved. You have HCD, CT, CAC. You have LIHTC. You have TEFRA. A, H, O, C, M, F, A, M. And my issue is that they're all working in silos. They're not communicating with each other. And so my main thing is the affordable housing. Because the council has been pushing for more affordable housing, low income. And so my question was, why is this not Why is it BMR, why is it not low to very low? Why doesn't it include that? If it does, let me know.

Yes, happy to answer that.

Who's the one that addresses that?

Yes, that would be me, Hanson Holm. I'm the senior project associates for the city. Are you hearing me okay? Certainly the whole area of affordable housing, as you mentioned, Mayor, has a lot of acronyms, a lot of different organizations are involved. And it has been a point of confusion among the different agencies. What has happened recently and specifically what we cited in the staff report is SB 1529 has attempted to try to standardize some of the confusion around for affordable housing projects, especially affordable housing projects that receive tax credit financing. So you have different agencies like the Housing and Community Development Department that sets the standards for very low and low income and moderate income households. But then you have the California tax allocation committee having slightly different standards, not that different, but slightly different standards for the same definition of households and rent limits. So our ordinance references the HCD or the housing and community fulfillment standards, whereas projects that receive TCAP financing rely on the HCD The standards set by the California Tax Application Committee. So what we are recommending, because this project is subject to what I'll call CTAC standards, is allowing this project to get a waiver from the city's affordable housing ordinance and be able to apply the CTAC standards. Very low and low income standards. The project will continue to serve 100% very low and low income residents. And it's just a slight definition of what the rent limits for the very low and low income households will be.

I just want, the reason why I pulled it, I just wanted to, you know, if there's a wave in the future that we can know this information ahead of time. But no, this project has already gone, it's already halfway through, so it doesn't make any sense for us not to approve it. So I'm just, that's why I just wanted to see maybe in the future staff could check with all or the developer with all those agencies. I mean, I was amazed all those agencies is so bureaucratic. It's, it's a sin because it really slows your project down because of all you have to go through this agency, that agency, it's just mind boggling. And the average person doesn't know how much, what it impedes on progress. So with that, I just wanted to just bring the point, I just wanted to bring it to light and let people know that that the state bureaucracy is so heavy that it's just mind-boggling. But I'm going to approve this project and I'm going to move it because we're already halfway there and I need a second.

Second. Second.

Okay. So it was moved by myself and seconded by who was it? Councilmember Lin. And let's call for the vote.

Councilmember Chua? Aye. Councilmember Lam?

Aye.

Councilmember Lien? Aye. Mayor Montano? Aye. Okay, congratulations.

And next, it's C7. Who pulled this one? Pulled this one. Okay, see seven. Hi, Mayor and Council.

My name is Sarah Boucher. I'm a senior administrative analyst with the Office of Housing. So this one's regarding a request for proposal that the city did for homeless outreach and assessment and mobile hygiene services, we hope was selected for both services. I wanted to thank Yoli for pulling this item and advocating for specific measures to be included in the contract. The success of our homeless programs is due not only to our contracted vendors, but to the countless volunteers who provide additional hot meals, clothes, and support for the unhoused residents. I believe the outcome specifically called out knowing how long people have been homeless if people are experiencing chronic or short-term homelessness where people transition to are reasonable asks i will speak with we hope and determine how we can meet those requests and what specific language we can include in the contract As far as estimating the current number of people at risk of homelessness in Milpitas, there is information in Appendix F of the housing element titled the Affirmatively Further Fair Housing. That information is based on the 2021 American Community Survey data. and staff will do research into how to update the numbers and disseminate that to the public. And I also just wanted to provide the contact information for housing. The best way to reach us is housing at Milpitas.gov.

Okay, thank you for that. So we have some comments here from our colleagues. We have Council Member Chiu. Oh, never mind. I need to open up the public hearing. Oh, it's just public comment.

Any comments? We have no public speaker cards.

I didn't hear that.

We have no public speaking.

No comments. Okay. So back to our colleagues. Council Member Chua.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. I like the idea that was presented by Ms. Yoli on the statistics. I think that would help a lot.

Completely agree.

Yeah. So if we, even a quarterly report, would that be okay?

We'll look into doing that. We'll talk to We Hope and then see what we can present to the council. Right.

You don't have to do it like every month, but quarterly would be good just to see the trend.

We will definitely do that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. So, Council Member Lam.

Do we get from them during the outreach?

We do get quarterly reports from We Hope during outreach, and they also attend our biweekly unhoused meetings with various city departments to talk about encampments that are currently going on.

So we do have a quarterly report?

Yes.

Okay. Okay.

Then we have Council Member Lin.

We're seeing nobody else. I'd like to move to approve that.

Oh, wait. No, I have a question. Okay. Before you make that motion. So I just wanted to mention that The we hope is the dignity of wills, the showers, that provide showers and laundry, which I think, and I just want to make this clear because people keep, they think that it's another nonprofit that provides the funding, but no, it is the city of Milpitas. We are the ones that are paying for the hope, for the dignity on wheels, the showers. But for some reason, people are thinking that it's hope for the unhoused, and it's not. It's the city of Milpitas. We are paying for that. And we've been paying for it for about five years now, I think. So I just want to make that clear. But no, I agree with the recommendation. We need to make sure that we continue providing those services for the people that are unhoused. So...

what is the what is the action for that so i believe the action on this one was to negotiate and execute i believe you could still grant that authority with the um direction staff has been given uh to work that those terms into any contract okay and how do i go about that do we need a motion or something okay all right we have most we need a motion

Oh, we have Councilmember Leigh Ann who has made the motion, and we need a second.

Second.

And it was seconded by Councilmember Chua. Let's call for the vote. Councilmember Chua?

Aye. Councilmember Lam?

Aye.

Councilmember Leigh Ann? Aye. Mayor Montano? Aye.

Thank you. Thank you. And so the next one was C10? C10, 8. Didn't we already do that one? No. Oh, no, no. Okay, C-10.

C-8.

So that one, oh, the reason why I pulled that one, because there was some.

Are we on C-10 or C-8?

C-8. Sorry. What do I do? We'll go C-8. C-8 and then we'll do C-10.

Okay.

Who pulled C-8?

Me. Okay. So I think this one is for Director Luz. No, not Jarrett.

Oh, Liz.

Yes.

You're hanging in there, girl.

All night. I think this is the latest we've been.

OK, good evening, Constance. Lovely to see you at this time of night. And I love the glasses. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Why do you have glasses at night? I'm hiding out. A good evening Council Council of mayor Montano. Council members to alien and when how my has to do with this question. It's too cool. This is it I will advise you that this is a collaborative effort. Keep police department acted as our client to where the procuring department. So if you have any specific questions about what the need is, I would direct that to the police department. I can advise on how we procured it.

I don't need to know the needs. I do know the needs. My question is, we have now six years contract. And I was wondering, over 900-some thousand, was it in the budget that was adopted on June 9th?

Absolutely.

Okay, that's all. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, Chief. So, and I move to adopt, not adopt, to approve that.

Second.

Okay, that was easy. Let's call for the vote. Oh, wait, let me see. It was motioned by Council Member Lin and seconded by Council Member Chua. Let's call for the vote.

Council member Chua. Aye. Council member Lam.

Aye.

Council member Lien. Aye. Mayor Montano.

Aye.

Okay, now we're moving on to item 10 that I had pulled. And the reason why I pulled this item is that I just wanted, is the representative here from Lyons? I just wanted to make sure that we, there was an article that stated that we, the council, uh did not provide affordable housing so and we we did we are i want to i just want to put that on the record that we did provide affordable how and you guys even went beyond that so that's why i'm i brought that i'm pulling this out just for you to validate clarify and let the public know that yes we have providing affordable housing

Yes, after a lot of work with the staff, and it was, I think, a long night with the council. And going back to an earlier comment, Madam Mayor, I think it was by providing more low-income units, and I think even a couple of very low-income units that are already built and existing. So it's going to be a great project for the city of Milpete.

Oh, yes, it is. There's definitely and but it was we were mischaracterized as not not providing affordable. And what I love about this is low income folks, because a lot of developers, you know, it doesn't pencil out to do low income. Yeah. So this is this is the beauty of it. But I just want the public to know that we we are providing above and beyond affordable housing.

Yeah. And thank you for your support. Yeah, the council.

And thank you for the for you guys putting your minds together and coming up with a good solution to do that. Really appreciate it. So with that, I'm going to make a motion to approve that. And I need a second second. So it was motion by myself and seconded by Council member Chua. And let's call for the vote.