Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome to City of Milpitas Planning Commission meeting, August 27, 2025. I'd like to now read the public comment instructions. Oral public comments may only be provided live during the Planning Commission meeting in person. All comments provided should be limited to three minutes or less, as determined by the Chair. All public members will be limited to one comment per agenda item and one comment for non-agenda items. Members of the public may submit written comments by email to Planning Department at milpitas.gov. Okay, so time for the Pledge of Allegiance. May I request Vice Chair Calkins to lead us for the Pledge of Allegiance?

Vice Chair Calkins Yes, sir. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you, Vice Chair Calkins, to lead us for the Pledge of Allegiance. May I request Now for the conflict of interest declaration, may I request Attorney Creech to ask.

I think we need roll call first.

Sorry, may I ask our recording secretary, Ms. Medina, to kindly take the roll call, please.

Thank you, Chair, and good evening, Commissioners. I'll begin taking roll call with Commissioner Kong. Present. Commissioner Awasthi.

Present.

Commissioner Sonia Medina-Ashby is absent this evening, as well as Commissioner Albana. Commissioner Galang. And vice chair caulkins president and chair Gupta rather thank you.

Thank you chair as the chair and every other member of the commission whether he or she has any financial or personal conflict of interest related to any of the items on tonight's agenda.

Commissioner commissioner kong none. Commissioner Wasti?

None.

Commissioner Galang?

None.

Vice Chair Calkins?

None.

And Chair Gupta?

None.

Thank you.

Thank you. And I further ask the chair and every other member of the commission to 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 any development project applicant for development projects on tonight's agenda.

Commissioner Kong? None. Commissioner Wasti?

None.

Commissioner Galang?

None.

Vice Chair Calkins?

None.

And Chair Gupta?

None.

Thank you.

Let the record reflect. No reported conflicts. Thank you very much, Chair.

I'll make a motion to approve agenda for tonight, August 27 to 25.

I'll second. I'll second.

Thank you. Motion by Commissioner Galang, second by Kong. Commissioner Kong? Aye. Commissioner Awasthi? Aye. Commissioner Galang? Aye. Vice Chair Cokins?

Aye.

And Chair Gupta?

Aye.

Thank you.

I make a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting for June 11, 2025. I'll second that. I'll second it.

Oh, yes. Commissioner Kong? Abstain. Thank you. Commissioner Wasti?

Aye.

Commissioner Galang?

Abstain.

Thank you. Vice Chair Calkins?

Aye.

And Chair Gupta?

aye thank you um very quickly uh we don't have we don't have a majority um for or sorry we we do have a majority sorry that was three votes i apologize right uh announcements uh are there any announcements from the commissioners

Planning Director, Mr. Lee.

Thank you, Chair Gupta. I do have a couple of announcements. And it's good to see everybody again. It's been a while. So hopefully everybody is enjoying their summer or enjoyed their summer. First update, I just wanted to report back to the Planning Commission and the members of the public that the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance Update Phase 2 was adopted by the City Council on August 12th. and if you recall the planning commission provided a recommendation for approval on june 11th so just want to follow up and let everybody know that it has been adopted the second reading is tentatively scheduled for september 2nd you need a second reading for an ordinance and then it goes into effect 30 days from there so october 1st or 2nd is basically when we expect the new zoning ordinance to be in effect Just want to update everybody on that I also want to briefly mentioned that the gateway main street specific plan, the public comment period for both the plan and the environmental impact report. ended while we were on recess, but right now staff is responding to the comments received, making revisions to the Gateway Plan, and we plan to come back to the Planning Commission on September 24th for a recommendation for adoption of the plan, which is another big project, a recommendation to the City Council tentatively scheduled for October 21st. And then lastly, just wanted to remind everybody that our next planning commission meeting is tentatively scheduled for September 10th. At the moment, it is looking like we'll be able to hold that meeting as we tentatively have a project scheduled for that meeting. So we'll confirm that obviously as the time gets closer, but just wanted to give an update on that as well. And that's it.

Thank you, Mr. Lee, for the update. Chair, if I may.

Yes. In the news recently the former city attorney Michael tall posse it was announced that he passed away in in July I He left behind his wife and his young son he was someone who worked tirelessly for Milpitas and was a driving force behind the legal advice for many items that came before this body from the comprehensive zoning ordinance to the gateway specific plan and to many other plans that came through he was part of. He was one of the lead negotiators for the Rivian agreement that brought the Rivian distribution center to Milpitas. So I wanted to ask if the commission would be willing to take a moment of silence for his passing.

Yes, definitely. That's very sad news to hear. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Attorney Creech. Anybody else wants to make any comments about this sad news?

Yes. It's very sad to hear. I have worked with him for a long time and uh mr michael was very he used to do due diligence in everything he did he used to he was a good listener he used to listen to everybody and very knowledgeable and he was also one person who had open doors and anyone can could contact him at any time A very good attorney, very good human being. He will always be missed. If there is any way that our condolences and prayers and thoughts can be passed on to his family on behalf of the Commission, I would request that to happen. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Weston.

Okay, I'll go to the forum. members of the public are invited to speak on any item that doesn't appear on today's agenda. Comments will be limited to three minutes or less at the Chair's discretion. When called to speak, you are encouraged to state your name for the record. As an item not listed on the agenda, no action can be taken. However, the Planning Commission may instruct the staff to place the item on a future meeting agenda. Now I'd like to invite members of the public to address the Commission Ms. Medina, are there any members of the public who wish to speak?

Chair, not this evening. We have not received any speaker cards. Thank you.

Thank you. Public hearing, we have no items. Now we come to new business, which is item number 10-1, study session for Gateway Main Street sense of place plan. I request Project Planner Lillian Van Hoo, Principal Planner, to make a presentation.

Chair Gupta, if I can just give a brief introduction to the project. I think Principal Planner Van Hwa will provide more details, but as I alluded to or referenced the Gateway Main Street specific plan, this effort is somewhat of a follow-up to that specific plan effort in that it will provide more details regarding the public improvements for primarily Main Street. So, and also just want to remind everyone that this is a study session. So what we're really here for is to receive preliminary early feedback from the Planning Commission as the Planning Commission has purview over planning related items and planning is often a broad field which includes things like transportation and open space and other topics. So we do think this is very appropriate and we would really love to hear your feedback, especially because it's early on and this is where you can have the most impact and help shape the future work that is to come. I will now pass it off to Lillian, who is our, again, principal planner, project manager for this project. And I believe the consultant is also here as well. They are both, they will be both joining virtually and delivering the presentation.

Thank you, Director Lee. So as Jay mentioned, This is the Main Street sense of place plan, which has now been rebranded as Rediscover Main Street. And we have our consultant Anju Palta from Tool Design Group here tonight to give a presentation and tell you what we have done thus far this year.

Hi, everyone. Can you hear me okay? Yes.

Yes, we can hear you just fine.

Okay, wonderful. Got new headphones, so just making sure. Nice to see everybody tonight. As Lillian said, I'm Anju. I'm with Tool Design. We're a multidisciplinary firm specializing in transportation planning and engineering with a particular focus on active transportation, so biking, walking, pedestrian-oriented streets and corridors. So, yeah, I'm here today to talk about the Main Street Sense of Place plan or Rediscover Main Street. Next slide, please. I'll be giving an overview of what this project is, the goals, process, and outcomes. I'll be sharing some high-level findings from our existing conditions analysis and initial outreach efforts. And then we're going to walk through some preliminary design ideas, which we would love to get your feedback on tonight. Next slide. So the project area runs from Weller Lane to Great Mall Parkway with a key focus on the extents between Calaveras Boulevard and Curtis Avenue. So really sort of coming out of the specific plan, this is the area with the most planned development, the kind of highest intensity of use, and really the focus of our effort as well. Next slide. At a high level, the goals of this project are to, first of all, elevate Main Street as the heart of Milpitas and create a real sort of there there or heart for the city. And really do this by developing a clear sense of identity and sense of place on Main Street. As mentioned, we're really building on past efforts here. So with the Gateway Main Street specific plan almost being adopted, we really have a kind of clear framework to grow on, looking at what's been identified for future growth and development, really sort of using that as the basis for our recommendations as well. Lastly, we aim to enhance local business and boost economic activity. So both drawing in new businesses and development, but also really taking care to foster and strengthen local businesses that operate on Main Street today. Next slide. At the end of the day, we'll be delivering a detailed design concept for Main Street, really ready to move forward to construction documentation phases. So really providing the city with the documentation and design framework needed to really make this happen. With the design concept, we'll be developing planning level cost opinions and phasing plan. a streetscape palette, which would include specifications and recommendations for furnishing and landscape, landscape and plantings, alongside a multimodal treatment sort of toolkit where we would be providing recommendations for things like slow streets, traffic calming devices, ways that bike facilities are interfacing with this new corridor. And those treatments could be applied to Main Street, but would really be developed with the idea that they could be adapted to the entire specific plan area and the corridors that are within that area. Also wayfinding and signage program for Main Street and a basic infrastructure plan. Next slide, please. So with that basic infrastructure plan, that will really set the foundation for the development of an impact fee, which will also be a part of our scope for this project. BAE are our partners on this. They've also been involved in the specific plan work. They, this process really kind of starts with an assumed development scenario, which will be coming out of our recommendations and the specific plan. From there, a total infrastructure cost is projected and a nexus is then established or a sort of connection between development projects and the public costs or impacts of them. Costs are then allocated by development type, and then our partners will be developing an implementation plan or set of action for how to establish compliance tracking and financing metrics alongside the impact fee. Next slide. So we kicked things off in December of 2024 with an existing conditions analysis. We're now in the alternatives and preliminary design phase. aiming for final designs cost and an impact fee package by next spring with adoption aiming for summer 2020. Next slide. A few key finding from our existing conditions work that I'm gonna walk through now. Next slide. First and maybe most importantly, there's a real opportunity with a clear path and framework from that specific plan to really develop the main street as the heart of Milpitas. Another really key finding was traffic volumes. When we looked at the data, we saw that Main Street really has relatively low average daily traffic, especially compared to that of Able Street. So in the future, we see that Able can really continue to serve as the main vehicular corridor, which gives us an opportunity to refocus Main Street as a priority pedestrian street. So shifting the design from sort of a car-oriented corridor to people-oriented. And really, the framework is there. The volumes show us that this is really what's happening today and is possible to build on in the future. Another finding is that the existing right-of-way of the street is quite generous. There's sufficient room here to reallocate space from vehicular travel lanes, from other areas to create things like wider sidewalks, landscaping, and other amenities that really can help us develop that people-oriented streetscape. Finally, we have important institutional and natural assets to build on. the library, views to the Diablo mountain range, religious institution, all of which can help create a foundation for identity and character along the street into the future. Next slide, please. So with all this, Main Street really has the potential to become the central organizing element that can tie together the city's civic, cultural, and commercial life and tie together all of the planned future development that's going to happen in this area too. So really sort of an organizing linear element that can become the spine for which development can happen along. Next slide. As part of the existing conditions analysis, we conducted an online survey. Next slide, please. The survey was open for about a month from June to July, receiving 77 responses. To promote participation, we used lawn signs, sidewalk decals along Main Street itself. Maybe some of you saw these up this summer. We also flyered and used some of the city's outreach avenues as well to get participants and respondents. Next slide. So I'm gonna talk a little bit about some of the themes we found from the responses to the survey. So first, there was a strong appreciation for local and small businesses along Main Street, especially restaurants that reflect Milpitas' rich cultural diversity, with many respondents specifically noting Indian and East Asian representation in that sort of important cuisine. The library also emerged as a valued community asset with notes sort of with an appreciation for the smaller scale of this area and how walkable it is. When we asked about the current state of Main Street, about 60% of participants described it as outdated and uninviting, while 33% felt it was functional but in need of improvements, such as upgrades to sidewalks, street furniture, and landscaping. So that really tells us that there is a desire for change and revitalization, which is great. That's why we're here. Looking ahead, most respondents would like the character and look and feel of Main Street to be relaxed or nature focused or playful and family friendly. So we had given lots of options for the answer to this question. So the sort of relaxed, nature focused, playful and family friendly were voted over options like traditional and historic and artsy and eclectic. So those really came to the top. Lastly, the highest priorities for future amenities were greenery and trees, wider sidewalks, and improved lighting, while bike facilities and street parking ranked as lower facilities or lower priorities for amenities. Next slide. So preliminary design, we've started designing options for both street scape configuration and furnishing and landscape pallets that we'll be bringing to the public for feedback in early December through a pop-up and a second online survey. I'm gonna walk through our initial thinking and design inspiration now. And really, I think as was mentioned by the director previously, this is really where we're looking for your feedback and ideas. Next slide, please. So we're looking at two potential configurations for the streetscape. The first we're calling expanded edge. That's on the left side. This is about creating a wide walk and amenity zone on both sides of the street. This is more of a traditional main street feel. It prioritizes pedestrian space for things like retail fill out, really kind of prioritizing the interface of the sidewalk and the ground floor. This would also include edge parking for easy building access as well. Center flex is the option two that you see on the right side of the screen. This option introduces a multifunctional center zone for things like trees, planting. This is where your street parking would be. You could think about some of these spaces being reserved for gathering space, space for hosting events like pop-ups or food trucks. Also opportunities within this option to calm traffic by narrowing sight lines. This option also provides an additional shade and greater flexibility more generally over option one. Next slide. So I just wanted to show a couple of examples of those two different options in real life or sort of as built. On the left, you can see Bell Street and Seattle, Washington. So this is actually a curbless street in areas, but really the point here is that those sides of the street are really activated and are engaging with the building ground floors. Option two on the right, this is Lancaster Boulevard. They have that center aisle of parking and you can see they've really done the most with it. You can see on a typical day, it's down on the bottom left, they use this for primarily the space primarily for street parking, but have the opportunity to really activate that center zone with things like pop-ups, tents, festivals. They've actually branded Lancaster Boulevard as the Boulevard, and it's become a big destination. So just kind of two visuals for those options. Next slide, please. So alongside the street layout concepts, we're also developing two distinct furnishing and landscape palettes. both grounded by the survey findings where respondents expressed interest in identities that are relaxed and nature-focused or playful and family-friendly. So the first palette is relaxed and nature-focused with the inspiration really driven by the Diablo range, which is so visually striking on Main Street. This palette would likely use raw untreated materials, incorporate organic shapes, would likely have a color palette that utilizes muted greens and warmer neutrals. The second palette is playful and family-friendly, really inspired by Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, and Filipino cultural motifs that celebrate the cultural diversity of Main Street and the community. This palette would draw from South and East Asian geometric art, maybe utilizing the mandala as inspiration, incorporating symbolic, bold, and vibrant colors and patterns. So again, these palettes, the inspiration you see here, really for selecting a palette of streetscape furniture like benches, light posts, things like that, as well as landscape elements in a planting palette. So identifying potential plant species from these palettes as well. Last slide. So we're also going to be exploring options for many of the intermediate spaces along Main Street. So as Main Street and the specific planned area get built out over time, it's really important that some of these underutilized spaces have a plan and that there's ways that these spaces can be activated in the near and the long term. So that's things like surface parking lots, blank building facades and frontages, alleys and paseos, and also looking specifically at the overpass at Calaveras and looking at sort of ways these spaces can be better utilized, activated, and maybe even be branded in a certain way or a theme, perhaps as part of the palette exploration as well. Next slide. So next steps are really refining those preliminary design ideas, the streetscape options, the pallets, the space activation ideas, and then bringing them to the public in December with another online survey and a pop up at the tree lighting ceremony. So that's where we are today. We do have a set of discussion questions we would like to pose tonight to the commission, but I'm happy to take a pause there and let Lillian or the director, Jay, step in now before we get to that if needed. So I will pass it to Lillian.

Thank you, Anju. Did the commission have any questions before we sort of go into our guided discussion question?

Does anybody have any questions? Yeah.

Commissioner Galang? Yeah, Chair. Thank you, Chair. Nice design. What happened to the old business Are they going to stay there or the existing businesses, are they going to replace?

So this is a streetscape plan. It's not a proposed development plan. Um, so a private developer would have to, or a property owner would have to choose to redevelop, um, along any of the parcels along main street, um, in order for, um, a lot of this effort to happen. Um, so, um, at the moment there's no like business displacement.

Okay. And can you show me the streetscape design on the screen? Option one, there is a flex zone parking on the right, and then there's a flex zone parking on the left, and there's a car on that parking. Why only one direction for the car? Can you please explain?

Let me just rephrase the question. With the question, what is happening in the flex zone, and if that is

Yes. And the other side is there's a two person sitting on the chair with the umbrella.

Oh, I see. Okay. Yeah. Great question. So the flex zone is just that. So the idea is the eight feet on either side for the expanded edge or the 24 feet in the center for center flex, the primary use of that zone would be for street parking. However, there is flexibility built in where oftentimes a business will take over a street parking space for a parklet or maybe bike racks or maybe for a festival or event, you know, spaces utilized for food trucks. So the idea is that the primary use is street parking, but there is opportunities for other programming in that space as well.

Thank you, Chair. Anybody else has any questions, comments? Yes, Commissioner Chen.

So can you bring back that same slide that you just flashed earlier? I just wanted to understand this concept. I can see that in total from left all the way to right, it needs about 66 feet wide to implement. Based on the way that our main street is currently designed, Is it even practical? Are our current streets wide enough to accommodate either one of these designs?

So both of these, option one and two, are working within a 66-foot right-of-way. And this actually is the typical right-of-way along Main Street, particularly in that area of focus that we're looking at. It's not only the typical, but it's actually the most constrained right-of-way along Main Street. So generally, you'll see 66 feet as the right-of-way or larger or wider, I should say. So this configuration is feasible within the existing right-of-way.

Okay, great. Thank you. And when you do the survey for public, do you think it's going to be possible when you do the visioning of how either option will look like by using, maybe take advantage of some of the AI tools to create this visual based on Milpitas Main Street landscape. Because I know that the example you showed, one was from Washington and another one is another city. I'm just curious if there can be a use of AI to generate this type of visuals, but in Milpitas.

Yeah, that's a great question. I'm happy to answer that and let my city staff weigh in as well, but are company right now, Tool Design, doesn't use AI for visualization yet. But we will be providing additional visuals for the survey and the in-person pop-up. So we'll have an additional plan view. We're also talking about showing a perspective view of the street as well, just to help people understand what the streetscape might look like in different ways. But it's a really great point, and I think one that's worth reminding us, the consultant team, that it's important to provide sort of a realistic view of what this would look like in context. Great. Thank you.

Anybody else? Any other Commissioner? Any questions? I can bring up a couple of things. So, My question was actually related to what Commissioner Kong has asked in terms of what is practical for Main Street, because it doesn't seem to be that wide, whether you can have different ideas that you presented. I mean, there were very good ideas in terms of expanding the edge and the center flex and all those things. So if there are done in such a way that's practical for Main Street without making any major changes in terms of infrastructure, I think that will be nice to know what can be done and what cannot be done. So maybe you already answered that question, but is there anything new, thought on that? Please go ahead.

Yeah, I will say... to get the streetscape configurations we're showing in both options it would require a reduction in both travel lanes um they are typically 12 to 13 feet today and we would we're suggesting to reduce the width of those travel lanes to 11 feet this would also require removal of the existing bike lanes on main street also so the idea would be that this would be a slow shared street so bikes would be actually taking the lane and not using that bike lane anymore so there would be um changes in that in that way if i if i may also add uh chair gupta

And add to Anjali's point. So, yeah, I would say from like a space perspective, yeah, that is correct. The lanes are quite wide. And, you know, we do have, usually you see narrower lanes for more pedestrian heavy areas. Also, for whatever reason, if necessary, there's always the option to have a publicly accessible easement where you can take some of the, not actually take the land, but have an easement. And usually buildings could be built right up to the property line, but sometimes what cities do is they have a small setback in the front to add additional right of way, the public area that's accessible. But yeah, I think overall from an actual physical space perspective, there is space there. I would say from a financial perspective, which I think you were also kind of hinting at, my understanding is that the costlier changes are when you're dealing with the curb and changing where the curb is. But also, that's kind of the purpose of the impact fee. So the impact fee will identify all the needed improvements and put a cost to it, at least to our best estimate. and then anticipate all the development that we expect and then share that cost amongst all the development. So the idea is that as development happens, we collect these fees and then we can use, and we do this already, so we can use these fees to make these improvements um this also lays out some ideas for what we can do through our capital improvement program so for what any reason in the future perhaps through grants we can also get funding to make these improvements through the city's initiative so kind of twofold the city can initiate it or we can rely on developers whether it's collecting impact fees or actually having them make these improvements themselves along their frontage at least because there's a nexus there so there's a variety of ways that we can try to implement this So, and yeah, I'm assuming the part of the work is identify the costs and kind of prioritize depending on which ones are more feasible.

Okay, thank you. One other thing, did you notice this mural paintings on the fence next to the library? Those paintings were done by an organization called Beautify Milpitas, which is a nonprofit started by the mayor. And actually, Commissioner Avasti and myself are on the board. But I was wondering if you have noticed that mural painting. I know you showed that, but that seemed to be a different painting than what I've seen. Did you change it?

This is actually, I believe, more on South Main Street by the daycare. There's a daycare facility.

Yeah, I'm talking about the one right next to the library. from the library, you go on Main Street South within one block, there's a fence and that has this mural painting that was done by the nonprofit.

Yeah, I noticed that today driving down on Main Street.

What do you think of that? Does that meet your standard?

I thought it looked really nice. I wasn't aware of that initiative for that area.

Yeah. Okay, one other point I want to mention. With respect to furnishing and landscape pallets, you are short two options, option one and option two. My personal preference is option two, by the way, and I don't know what other commissioners think, but... I think having sort of bright colors, playful, family-friendly will be my choice. But it's kind of subjective anyway. Yeah, between these two choices, I would go with option two. Because the rest of the town, probably with the hills and everything, option one is there all over the place. Option two will be a change. Okay, that's all I have for now. Thank you. Any other comments or questions from the commissioners?

I do like the ideas that were presented. Yeah, and I kind of agree with you on your choices there too. I have a question for Jay kind of just to make sure I understand, based on some of the past conversations we had we collect the impact fees, you know and it's just because right now we've got a lot of small owners along main street right. So if you know, a third of the people sell or start developing. Their property but we've got other two thirds that don't do we not do anything with the sidewalks and that kind of the plan until we've got enough of it in place to actually like does a whole road get done at the end after we've collected the fees to do it and prices have gone up a whole lot more in five years or what.

that's a great question Vice chair. So I think it depends on the type of improvement. If it's a major improvement where if you were to just improve one frontage, it would create an awkward situation that we wouldn't want to see. So those are probably things that we wouldn't want to do piecemeal, developer by developer. But there are other types of improvements where you could... And we do do this currently, where you kind of redo the sidewalk or redo the street, like repainting, those kinds of things. Those are improvements that could happen on a piecemeal basis. So I think it would depend on what the improvement is. But something like a a bike lane i mean this for a small project frontage it wouldn't make sense well in this situation not about you know not here a bike lane but let's say like an extended curb you wouldn't do that for one property that's a great question it's something that we'll have to think through and figure out you know which things would you want to implement through which method and uh following up uh on uh director jay's

statement there are a lot of the main street as such is built up it has got temples it has got apartments coming up there are small strip malls so how to get all of the people together there is the gas there is this car wash coming up then there is that Indian store and all those things How to get a lot of people together and how to make them spend some money and or if they want to do it, how the city is going to help them? How do we have kind of an association with everyone so that it can be done in a better way?

i think i can answer that question um so i think if you're speaking about like multiple property owners cooperating to maybe engage in a larger development or maybe participating to hold events i'm not sure which one but i guess i can speak to the development um it's mainstream right this is more of a gate the specific plan question So it's related, but it's a little bit of a different topic. I'll try to be brief. For redevelopment, it's difficult when it's a bunch of small parcels. So theoretically, property owners could join forces and combine their properties and do a larger development project, or an outside developer may come in and try to acquire the parcels. So that's something that would need to happen if we want to see a larger, more cohesive development. Otherwise, you're going to probably see smaller developments along Main Street. And I think from like another programmatic perspective, that's something that the city can assist in in holding events, which we do host some events. We can try to be the connection point for various property owners to get them talking to each other. and collaborating like a public and a private partnership to bring events to Main Street, which we've done already in order to use some private property for some events. And our economic development team is working on a lot of initiatives to help make small improvements, storefront improvements, things like that. So yeah, I'm not sure if I answered your question in full, but the city can facilitate that. Private development becomes a little bit harder.

I got it. Thank you. At this point, unless, oh, yeah, Commissioner Chiang, Kong, sorry.

Yeah, I actually have a question that, you know, kind of goes back to the width of the street. In either one of the configuration, you mentioned that the width is going to be reduced, right? Will that still accommodate public transportation like buses? I know you did mention that the bicycles will have to share with the cars and the vehicles, but what about buses?

Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah, the intention is that Main Street would still accommodate bus transit and that there would still be transit stops likely and we'll be planning for relatively same locations as they are today and yes in either option um 11 foot travel lanes with either the eight foot flex zone on this either side um or option two with the 24 foot center flex um that would actually be flush a flush condition with the vehicular vehicular lane would accommodate um the width of a bus and travel of a bus.

But will that complicate the pickup point? Just because for buses, a lot of times we're at the bus stop, it does need extra space for it to move to the side for them to do pickup and drop off. Similarly, with a lot of people are doing ride-sharing, they don't park, so they do need places to do the drop off and pick up. Will this be in consideration of those types of options or transportation mode?

Yeah, another great question and comment. So a few things. One is as part of our thinking, we will be integrating ideas for curbside management. where there might be areas for pickup and drop off zones, also loading and delivery, those kinds of services. I will say as part of the specific plan, there have been recommendations for those kinds of services and also primary parking to happen off of Main Street behind buildings. So there will be, there has been some thinking about if Main Street becomes more of a slow street and more pedestrian focused street, how can some of those services be circulating along kind of the peripheries of that corridor? So that's one thought I have there. The other is for buses today, most of the buses actually They are stopping in the vehicular lane of travel for loading and unloading passengers. So that is how most of the bus stops operate on Main Street today. The other... The other thing I want to say there is bus pull-out lanes, which I think you were kind of alluding to, where a bus pulls out to the side and allows traffic to go parallel to them, is generally not recommended, as it makes it really hard for buses to come back into the lane if there's traffic that's continuous. Generally, the recommendation is for buses to stop in the vehicular lane of travel rather than have a bus pull out. Does that help answer your question?

Yeah, it does. But I think it just gives me the concern that it will become very congested, right? In the sense that if there are going to be a lot of ride sharing or public transportation that do... halt in the middle of the single vehicle lane, then it might create congestion in Main Street. So we'll need to make sure that when this plan comes to fruition, there's a lot of thought going into the traffic circulation.

Yeah, that's a great point and I'll take it.

And then just to follow up, I think it is a good point, and that's the reason for this session. So we hear the point, and that's something we can definitely look at. I would say generally VTA, I think as Anjali was alluding to, prefers when buses don't have to pull out. So we will also coordinate with VTA to see what they would prefer also for the bus line that goes through there right now. Yeah, and I think another point is that we acknowledge the pros and cons of the bulb out is that On one hand, you can improve transportation or bus efficiency by not having them come out. But then it does lead to more traffic, as you were mentioning. So the kind of strategy, though, overall, I'd say that's part of not just this plan, but also the Gateway plan, is that we are trying to divert most of vehicular traffic on Able. So we're hoping that Able will really serve as the the street where people can move a little more freely. Whereas Main Street, I mean, there will be some pain points in that putting in street parking, putting in, you know, like Well bus is not pulling out like all of these things will slow down traffic, but part of that is to is somewhat intentional, because we want this place to be a place where there's pedestrian activity things slow down. When you kind of see other types of main streets, but that's kind of something that people learn to deal with. But it's a good point, so we will look at it and see if there's a way to be you know kind of get the most of both best of both worlds.

I'm interesting about that. How many trees do we have right now, the existing trees? Are you going to place new trees in that area?

So there would likely be a phase plan for the trees. I will say likely with a full streetscape redesign, that generally does require removal of most street trees with the replacement of the selected species will be developing as part of the landscape palette. So, you know, today the street trees on Main Street are in various levels of quality. So there are some pretty healthy looking trees. There's some not so healthy looking trees. there is a kind of diverse mix of species types as well. So really as part of our larger corridor design, we would be recommending for uniformity and some kind of cohesion among tree species and really looking to improve kind of the overall health and aesthetic look of the landscape.

I think that putting in trees that create more congestion or traffic they're going south or north? How much do we need space for that reason?

For spacing trees along like a sidewalk or?

Yes, yes, sidewalk.

Yeah, it varies depending on the tree species and what sort of canopy they have. So trees that grow with wider canopies that generally need to be placed farther apart. But typically, street trees are placed about 30 feet apart on center. But we'll be looking closer closer at that and what those mentions are when we get more into detailed design. But generally, I would say spacing ranges from about 20 to 35 feet, depending on the species and the look and feel that you're sort of going for.

Thank you, Chair. Okay, this time I'd like to open it for public hearing. We have a gentleman here. Do you have something?

Maybe this is a good time to pull up the questions that we had.

While we do that, just so we have a clear record, do we have any speaker cards for public comment?

We do not have any speaker cards for public comment on this item.

Thank you, Chair.

Okay, so should we... I think...

we close this item then is there anything else that needs to be done uh so this is not a public hearing so you do not need to close the hearing um it's simply a the the public comment period for any item that we have for business before the count before the commission so we simply ask if there's public comment if there are none then we can move on with the discussion okay miss medina is there a public comment

There are no public comments.

I think we're trying to get to the slide for the yeah we had I think the Commission provided or had great questions provided good comments already, but we had a specific set of questions, so if you wanted to go through those.

yeah I think um. There was some discussion already about preferences, particularly around the palette options. It sounds like there was support from two commissioners in the room for the more colorful palette option. But for others, if there is preference either between the two streetscape design options or the palettes or improvements you could see to either option, we'd love to hear your thoughts on those. And I think... You know, we've already heard some of that sort of questions about street trees, questions about ideal width, congestion, certainly things to be explored more. But I'm just going to pose those questions again to the group.

So can you show that slide on streetscape designs again on the screen, please? So these are the two options you want us our feedback on option one or option two. Is that right?

Yeah, I think if. Yeah, that would be great. And if there is a preference between one or the other, or if you see significant drawbacks or opportunities for either option, that would be helpful as well.

I would think that either those two options may be workable depending on the location along the main street. Some location option, one may be more practical to do, least expensive to do, and some part of this main street might be option two. That's my comment. I don't know about others.

I actually agree with Chair Gupta. I think if we have a mix would be nice because like in some areas where there are a lot of restaurants, maybe option one might be preferred just because it gives them the option of doing outdoor dining, giving them the space outside of their restaurant. And in some areas where the street are the widest, then option two, having that centre flex would be more appropriate because then it can be used for, like you said, There can be events and so on beyond just parking spaces. There can be a lot of ideas that can be held there, but I do think that option two will be more suitable where the street is the widest.

Any other comments? When the plan was being prepared with option one and option two, so What was in your mind, whether it has to be either of the two across the board all through Main Street, or you had some flexible plans, or was there any other plan in consideration?

I think the initial idea is that this would be a configuration that would extend throughout Main Street. But this idea that maybe there could be a mix of option one and two along Main Street where it makes the most sense is an interesting one. And I don't think it is sort of off the table for us to explore.

Yes, as you said, one plan across all of Main Street will, of course, look better. But looking into the circumstances, the way things are now, a mixture of both the plans will be a good idea, depending on where we are. On the restaurant side, somewhere there is a temple, there is a restaurant, so people don't need to sit outside. with the canopy and everything with them under the umbrella in front of the temples or some other places so so your mixture will be better depending on where we are because of the unusual uh circumstances the way main street is as of now thanks okay should we move on to the next next topic next question

Yeah, this is really, let's just revisit the palettes again. And any feedback here on preferences between the options or even other ideas that you might have in terms of what you think is important to be represented in the physical identity of Main Street, how you sort of see the existing character and the future character being successful?

So I already gave my preference earlier about option two, but anybody else has any choices, different choice?

I think also option two looks good.

Option two is more cultural and diverse.

Yes.

I concur. Yeah, I know. I think we're all on the same page for that.

option two. Will you have a lot of lighting also, additional lighting? I mean, bright lighting, more lighting, I think, along Main Street, which is sort of part of option two. Is that part of the plan?

Yeah, I think for either option, sufficient lighting would be included. So that would be both pedestrian scale and street scale lighting. Also looking at those areas that are a little bit more dark today and might not feel as safe. So like the underpass at Calaveras, thinking about those spaces and how they can be better lit. So either option, we would be addressing lighting.

Also, there are lots of trees, small trees, larger trees along Main Street. I assume you're going to preserve those trees as much as possible, and then will you be able to put a lot of lighting, maybe solar lighting, all around the tree? I think lighting all those trees up will look nice.

Yeah, that's a great idea and certainly has been successful on a lot of other main streets, but for stream lighting or wrapping of trees has a very nice effect. Good idea.

Question for, I believe Jay might know the answer. I'm just wondering, are there any restrictions in this area for like rooftop patios?

No restrictions. Usually there aren't structures, so those don't count towards the building height. Although if you have a patio cover or something, there could probably be a separate like standard for that. And then it would count towards meeting the open space requirements. So hopefully that's a way to encourage and incentivize that. We also have in our specific plan, incentives, incentive based zoning. So if you provide certain amenities beyond the minimum requirement, I could see rooftop decks being one of them, then you can get some extra development potential. So I think we would encourage that.

Okay, let's go to the next one.

The last question is more general, so kind of open. From your perspective, are there things that you think the consultant team should understand about Main Street, its role in the community, the history of Main Street or Milpitas more generally, or unique qualities that you think we should know to help guide the project towards success? or even integrate into the physical environment of Main Street and the corridor design.

What I understand the Main Street is where it all started. I mean, in Milpitas, even the city hall, was one of the small little building uh... on main street i don't know if you've seen it or not uh... and i think there was a plan to have some kind of uh... historical museum uh... that didn't pan out so far but uh... yet the idea i think you want to preserve the history along main street it's uh... something of extreme importance to uh... to the city council, to the mayor, and hopefully we can actually get started and start really doing some changes as soon as possible. I mean, I don't know what your starting date goal is. I mean, is that something early in some time in 2026, or when is the start date?

By start date, do you mean construction?

Yeah, actually seeing some action on the ground there, yeah.

Yeah, I'm happy to try and answer that, and I might pass it to Lillian and Jay also. But as part of this project, we'll be creating a phasing plan alongside the cost estimates With that, there will be the impact fee, and there'll also need to be some strategies around other funding mechanisms and ways to get things built. So I think there will be more answers to that question later on in the project. I think funding is a key driver. I also think that there are ways that we can think about activation in the near term and sort of low-hanging fruit. So I one of the slides alluded to this, the underutilized spaces like the surface parking, the building facades, those are very easy, relatively quick actions that the city and business owners can take to start the kind of initial activation of what's to come. So it certainly won't be an overnight transformation, but there are certainly things that can happen in the near, mid, and long term to help things move along and to help momentum.

And just to reiterate, so we put up the schedule back on the screen. So we hope throughout this, this plan, so the Anju along with her team and BAE, they'll be coming up with the final design and the cost estimates and impact fee associated for the area. And we hope to get this adopted in summer or fall of 2026. So throughout the next year, we'll be really refining the actual schedule for a lot of these improvements and prioritizing which ones can be done, you know, and potentially in the next year's CIP or the following years as we're doing the forecasting in the future.

Anybody else have any comments about the question number three, the local insights?

Well, I think Milpitas is one of the few cities in the state that actually had their own monster. You know, back in the day, the Milpitas monster. So that could be incorporated. That would be fun. And then I might be ahead of myself too, but I'm thinking that center flex zone. And we could start the whole thing off with a big pickleball tournament. Get three courts set up in there. Bleachers on the sidewalks. I love it.

So Commissioner Calkins or Vice Chair Calkins is volunteering to be in the opening ceremony and do some comedy.

That's great. I have heard about the Milpitas monster and I have heard that there's a movie. So maybe that's what it is. It's a movie about monster. But anyways, I need to educate myself about this Milpitas monster some more.

If you need some help, just reach out. Robert Burrell is still around and he's the producer, director, and the guy behind all of it.

Great.

So I also want to make a comment regarding this question here. Since the museum concept didn't pan out, maybe we can consider more like an outdoor open museum because in a lot of cities, they do incorporate a lot of street art. And some of these street art can be, you know, kind of paintings, different scenes or different characters that is unique to Milpitas. So that's something that we can, I don't know if you can consider as, since you're talking about sense of place, creating nice, interesting street arts that also kind of act like, you know, including how Milpitas Main Street looks like in the beginning, like 1950s and things like this that you can incorporate into murals and things like that along the street, whether on the building or as signage in the centre's flag space. So things like this might be able to liven the place up while still incorporating certain unique historical characters that might be lost once everything is redeveloped. Maybe this is a way to maintain some of that.

Also, to throw another idea, there could be, you could put benches, maybe concrete type or benches all throughout Main Street, both sides, and put that street art that Mishra Kong is talking about. I've seen like some European cities like Zurich, I think they and other cities, they have a lot of art on the benches themselves and they look very nice.

Yeah, public art is such a key component of the active vibrant corridor. So thank you for bringing that up. Great point.

Are there more questions or that's it in terms of questions from you?

Those were all the questions that we wanted to get through.

Okay, should we then move on?

If there are no further comments or discussion, then the item can be closed and we can move on with the agenda.

Are there any further questions? No. So I think we are done with this item. Thank you very much, Anjuli and Lillian. Thank you for your nice presentation and really appreciate your effort. So now we are... Almost ready for adjournment since there is no other item on the agenda. I'm supposed to read this before calling for adjournment. Any person agreed by any final decision of any board, commission, or department head to the City of Milpitas may appeal the decision to the City Council by filing written notice of the appeal with the City Clerk within 12 calendar days of the date of said decision and paying the required fee. This time limit shall be strictly enforced. So now it's time for adjournment. May I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Is there a motion, please? Second? Is there a second? I'll second it. Roll call, Ms. Medina.

Commissioner Kong? Aye. Commissioner Wasti?

Aye.

Commissioner Galang?

Aye.

Vice Chair Calkins?

Aye.

And Chair Gupta? Aye. Thank you.