Downtown Committee - Regular Meeting

Everybody in favor? Alright. Thanks. I need to abstain because I was not there. Oh, one abstain. Actually, maybe two abstain. They should be abstain. Right. Alright. Thank you.

Upcome upcoming item four, upcoming agenda topics. This portion of the agenda is reserved for identification of agenda items for the future media. Any and items currently on feature agenda list, they can for fronts, parking plan updates, arts mural in downtown, size plan update, school performances in downtown, joint meeting with visual and performing arts advisory committees. Any any comments?

I just I just was curious. What's an advisory board?

Would be a typo. Thank you, Mike.

But you want Send me a code with that. Send me a committee.

Now but last night, a PD officer cordially told my dad that smoking allowed in public, so he stopped smoking apparently from the I was like, oh, I wanna see that. So, anyhow, this is I

was just teasing you about nuts

I know. Right?

Front of our store. That's all. Alright.

That should be illegal because you're right in front of the door.

Yeah. Well

Nobody is more happy than I am. It takes. But yeah. But my question is there is a question in my view. As business owners, do we tell our customers? Like, what do we what do we say? Like, they walk out and wanna be a personal.

Yeah. I'm happy to answer the question, but I just wanna note that it's not on the agenda, so we can't have further discussion. So we're we did receive some questions about smoking the downtown, and I'm happy to share just sort of the sort of the where in the code it's listed. And I can I can pass that out to the business community? Questioning that. Is there going

to be signage, let's say?

We are discussing signage. We're kind of at the early stages since we've it's been brought to our attention that it's become an issue. So more to come on that.

I'll be able to look at the sign.

Okay. We'll put one really right in front

of Monte Carlo. Yeah. There we go. That's a tree.

Moving on to item five. Oh, no input. No. Any any any public input on that one? Anybody on Zoom, but Zoom?

I am not seeing anyone on Zoom. Great.

Moving on to item five for communications from the public. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the committee on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are limited to three minutes. State law prohibits the committee from acting on non agenda items. Any number of public who should speak? Zoom? No? Thank you. So what we plan to do is we will move to item seven dot one or remove it earlier. So we'll bring it now.

Item number seven dot one, police department transparency dashboard. Police department staff would provide an overview of the new transparency dashboard.

Good morning, everyone. Can everyone hear me?

Yes.

Awesome. Good to see everyone again. Just do a quick little introduction. My name is lieutenant Crow with the police department. I think I've spoken with you guys. Recognize most of the faces in the room, regarding things downtown. So wanna give a cringe quick introduction to our crime analyst, Carly. She's gonna give you a overview of our transparency dashboard, which is now, on the website and available for everyone to look at. But in talking with Amanda, we thought it'd be a good idea to kinda walk through it. Carly is the one that created it. She did everything with it. It's fantastic. And so she's gonna run you through it and kinda show you the ins and outs. And, hopefully, it has a lot of good information for you guys as downtown business owners and people who deal with downtown on a daily basis to really help you understand what's going on. So with that, I'll turn it over to Carly.

Thank you. Alright. Appreciate that. I'm gonna share my screen, if I may. This, hopefully, everyone can see.

Yes. Mhmm.

Alright. This is on the, Mountain View Police Department website under transparency, and after you agree of the website, you'll see the following tab. For the committee, I'd like to say how honored I am to speak to you today. Anything that we can do to help you visualize data to help your group find ways to keep yourselves informed and safe is our job, and we're happy to help with that. So specifically for your group, property crimes would be somewhere where I would assume that you would want to go.

This website gives you an or this tab gives you an introduction about what you're going to see within the this specific tab of the dashboard. Every single tab has an introduction, so it'll just say, these are the kind of things that you're gonna see in here. This is when it's refreshed. The property crimes is refreshed weekly, so it's, very real time, as real as we can get after we verify the information, so that's what's in here. Anything that says interactive in the sub tab means you can play with it.

It is something where I want wanted you to, look at the data and then find something that is of interest to you to maybe open up a further discussion. So you can, also, any one of these tabs can be adjusted based on your laptop size or your computer size. So you can size any of these to fit your screen. So one of the things in here is a map, and if you want to look at what beats you are specifically the beats are basically our areas of operation for, police response. They're generally even though some of them look bigger, it's demographic.

Some have a bigger demographic, but they're trying to find the same population sizes within each beat. So our beat, for, downtown is beat one. So most of the things that you'll be, looking at is things in beat one. You can drop down by year, so everything will change based on, what you click. So if you unclick it, everything will reset and go back to where it was.

So this is just basically a ticker, indicator of what we have going on, at this moment, and this goes all the way back to January 2022. So this is our interactive metric. If you're looking at burglary, everything will ebb and flow based on what you request. We know, like, if burglary is a concern and we know downtown is beat one, we're gonna change those things, and we can start to see the metrics change based on year. So we have time of the day, day of the week, and month of the year.

Then there's an interactive comparison, beat one again for downtown, burglary, you could do shoplifting, and you can see year over year annual comparison. So you can look at trends here, theft from building, vandalism, There and the is also a survey section at the end of this. If there's something since this is the first iteration of the executive staff's dream that I was very honored to be a part of, we know that this will ebb and flow based on information from the public, and we provided a survey page so that you can help us get better. This is only as good as the input that we receive, and I am not the end user of this. The the fine citizens of Mountain View and the business owners of Mountain View are the end users, and I wanna find something that's robust enough to give you an idea of strategic trends as well as some tactical stuff that we can use to, do stuff in the short term that can help, secure your businesses from crime.

So anything that you have as a collective, because you're the of your collective that you wish to share with us, we can put on our road map for future iterations. So that's the dashboard.

So any any well, Looks

great. I haven't seen it before, but it looks great. And thank you for your work on that.

I'm very honored to be a part of it. It's fabulous.

Sure. Yeah. And I don't

know if this is for you or for Evan, but seeing all the data reminds me is that, oh, jeez. At least a decade, maybe a decade and a half ago, the police department was looking into predictive policing. You know, there's a lot of data there. Is the city still involved in that?

Yeah. This is just this is kind of a version of it, but, this and Carly has created other stuff for us internally as well that will help us understand what's going on throughout the whole city. So not just downtown. So if we have something happening that's reoccurring, we can, like you just mentioned, try to predict it and try to be in the areas to better allocate our resources. So, a form of it, yes, we're always doing some of that. I think I remember the software that you were, referencing. Yeah. I forget the actual acronym. But, yeah, it it's essentially a form of that for downtown, but for, obviously, you guys to see. So if things you wanna do that where you see something's happening at a certain time, then you can, you know, adjust staffing or adjust security measures around your business or whatever.

If there's something else that lets us know, and we see it internally as well that lets us know, okay. These are times we need to try to allocate resources, saturate downtown, sat this area, as well as everything else in the city. So, yeah, it's it's definitely a form of that, but it's a form for you to see as well. And then we have our internal, data that we look at to make sure that if something's happening, we can try to get in front of it.

And these spikes look pretty severe, but they're it's 16. Like, it's not we live in a very, this is not Oakland or, I mean, I hate to say cities, but we're we don't have high high, knock on wood, things that are happening. So a spike like this might look quite egregious visually, but if you, click on them or mouse over them, they're not as severe as, like, oh my god. There's a 100. But it's so we're we're I think our trends are very close together, which, makes me happy.

Carly, I'm just curious, or or, Evan, you can answer this too. Were there any, surprises or any key learnings from this that that popped up?

I'll jump in, and then Carly can as well. I don't think it was really anything too surprising. Think everybody, especially downtown, knows what we're dealing with on a consistent basis, whether that's, car break ins or thefts from businesses or, unhoused downtown. So those are always kind of the things that we're used to seeing. It just gives us a better picture. It gives you guys a better picture of what's happening and kinda when it's happening. But I don't think and, Carly, you can speak more. I don't think we saw any necessarily surprises and things we weren't already aware of and trying to combat ourselves already. Correct.

I don't know.

One more question. How many other communities of our size have, this kind of data available online?

That's a great question. I haven't seen many. San Jose has a transparency dashboard, but they're bigger than us. I think Los Altos is in the process of obtaining a crime analyst, and I told them I was willing to assist so that maybe I can help facilitate something similar to this, for them. I know Sunnyvale does not have one.

Part of this that was important to me was data can be overwhelming. And, if I get overwhelmed, I get frustrated, and then I just stop looking. And I didn't want people to do that, and I wanted I wanted you to feel like you had power to ask questions of the data and see a dynamic visualization of that the moment that you request it. I also think what's important with this is it's updated weekly, so it's not old info that you're working with. So I I I wanted if I was a consumer of this or I was a business owner, what would I wanna see in order to keep myself informed, and do the best I can to assist the police department in making myself safe so that they can serve me as well.

So, but like I said before, this is not the end all be all, and this only gets better with, a symbiotic relationship between the police department and business owners and citizens. So if you guys have great ideas, please, please, please let me know and we can put it on our road map for further iterations.

Can I ask, what was the purpose of this project of initiating it? What made you decide to do this?

Well, it was the vision of the chief, and captain McGee and captain Nelson. They wanted, a public transparency dashboard where we could share data in a way that's visually appealing and understandable and, able to be consumed by anyone. So I have experience in ArcGIS, so this is where this was built. It has been a labor of love. Feel like my kid just finally grew up and now I'm I'm off to college, so but, yeah, I'm very proud of it and I'm I'm proud to be serving this community and I I'm just this was a an amazing feat, and I'm just proud to be a part of it.

So it was the vision of our executive staff.

I think one more one more vision behind it was just another way to try to keep, you know, everybody safe in the community. If you know what's going on, if you can see things happening, you can just take ways to better protect yourselves, your businesses, your homes, your cars, everything. So you can see it and not just wait for it and have to it's a proactive way to tell the community what's going on as opposed to being reactive and answering questions about this is happening on my street. Well, now, hopefully, you can see a lot of that happening and understand it so you can better protect yourself as well.

K. Actually and if I

can offer one, one thing, when you were mentioning the fluctuations and how, like because we have a low base, fluctuation can make the data look, like, it's a lot more extreme than it is. I mean, I don't did you consider putting a benchmark of cities of similar size or sim or cities of, I don't know, similar, you know, I don't know, income levels or something like that that that might help with the smoothing

or

help Sure.

I'm proceed with.

I'm actually taking notes right now, on a road map for discussions for executive staff, and I think that that is a very, valid, inquiry. So I I think we'll we can work on some kind of reflective analytics for, comparison cities in the area.

What about resolving cases? Like, is there something you can that we can look into that? Let's say, you know, someone, let's say, had a crime committed, but, you know, you can go look at it, but, like, does it really tell you has the crime has the perpetrator been caught or not so to actually ease our fears from, you know, from future incidences?

Do you wanna take that?

Yeah. Sorry. One more time. What was the direct question about just resolve weights and kind

of Yeah. Like, just resolution of, let's say, crime

Yeah. I believe that that is part of our I don't know if portion on here, but I can definitely look at that. I know that is information that is usually sent out. I don't remember off the top of my head which form it sent out at, but let me double check on that, and I can get back to you on that. But, yes, that is part of the information we have about solvable solvable rate, about these crimes and which which ones are getting solved and which ones unfortunately are.

Yeah. Thank you. So I I worked with it, played with it last year a few times when email first came in. And I I have to say that, I started looking at it, and the best part is, historically, you can go back for the whole year. And it is addictive. It pulls you in. I stayed there too. It's so well done. And and and and one other thing I found that I walked a lot in the downtown in I mean, afternoon, at night, you know, I get my walks done. And once you look at these states and compare with the graphs and the crime rates or other things, but your perspective changes, how you look at the downtown completely. I found it very interesting. Job well done. Thank you.

Thank you. Aw. Best morning ever.

Any more questions?

Just one last one, and that is that Mike and I were just talking about adding this to the chamber website. Is it ready for prime time? Can we go ahead and put up links and all?

Oh, yeah. It's it's on the so right now, it's the link is a huge transparency button on the Mountain View Police Department website. I I'll have to coordinate with executive staff, but I think I think I think we could share that link.

Could If nothing else, I think you could just put a link to the police department on the city web page, and then just say, like, click on the transparency one. Yeah. It is. It's live, ready to and the more people that can view it, the better. Yeah.

Any any comments public?

I'm not seeing any.

Right. Thank you very much. That was great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Have a great day.

Have a

great day. Bye.

Zeroed down to your street. It showed how many. Great. Beautiful. We'll go back to item Thanks. Yep. Point one. And that would be downtown development updates. Downtown planning's the staff will provide an update to downtown development projects. Right. Good morning, Good morning, everyone. Good morning. We hope

you all have a wonderful New Year since we haven't seen each other since Right. December. My name is Vincent Kwan, associate planner. I'm here to give a few updates about downtown developments. There aren't too many for this month.

So if you could direct your attention to item number 14 in the memo, which includes two Street. That's a provisional use permit for a medical service in down for a new medical service in downtown, which includes massage and acupuncture. Currently, it's occupied as a furniture store, so that planning permit is under review at at the. And then the next item is item number 15312 Castro Street. That's a development review permit and a planned community permit for new prop addition and modification. Currently, that space is vacant. It was the former Tap Plastics.

Wow. Something with Tap Plastics on.

Yes. Right. So that is gonna be a new development review and plant plant community permit. So there's gonna be a new front addition for that existing enclave area and then, a facade modification to that, the existing space. And then lastly, the last item is item number 17, which is on the page for three eight four Castro Street.

Uh-huh. Sorry. Can we

go back to 312 Castro? Sure. So I'm not always familiar with all of the permits and things like that. A planned community permit, does that mean it's going to be some kind of housing? Or

No. So, planned community permit is a type of permit specific within a, precise plan area. Okay. So in downtown, we are in the downtown precise plan Right. Area. And so anytime there's a facade modification or addition to existing buildings

It has to fit into that.

Yes. So there's a planned community permit associated with that. So that's the name for that type of permit.

Do we know

what the business That was gonna be my next question.

Yeah. Yes. So the proposed business is a retail. I think they primarily do, like, like, sunroom kind of, like, windows. So it's a retail use, and it's a permitted use in downtown. Great.

And what's sky Skylights? Skylights. Yeah.

And that one is 262 Castro, is that replacing the therapy store?

No. That's so it's an existing furniture store. I think it's near where, like, the Pontron is.

Yeah. It's okay.

It has a lot of vases in it. Yeah. West Valley

is that West Valley Music? That's right. Yeah.

Got it.

Okay. Thank you. Yes. One question.

I think it's 231235 Hope Street. It's the building that's right next to the post office. Building. Anyway, that has been in for a long time. Construction fence has been around, and it seems like that should be completed by now. So what are what's the challenge with that project?

Good morning, everybody. Diana Pancholi, principal planner.

Hi. So my

project went out as an assistant planner.

I know.

I think

I reviewed it when I was on the planning commission. Yeah.

There were a lot of challenges with that project initially with ownership changes and financing, then COVID. Right now, the project is almost complete. We have very minor things internally to provide them occupancy, but they're stuck with PG and E. PG and E is not giving them heat so that they cannot test their smoke alarms without which we can give them occupancy. I see.

So I did touch base with the property owner and the architect as well, Bill Mastiff. We're very familiar with him, and he's like, yeah. We're stuck with PG and E. And now they've been given a date of six months out. It was, last August, then, November, then February, and now it's June. They just keep getting

I this is not the first time that I've heard that there's been concerns. I worked on a project a couple years ago that that they had problems getting from from PG and E. What is the source of

PG and E just is short on contractors. The third party, which we don't have control over. We try to reach out to our contacts. In this case, also, we did. We don't, get enough success with that.

I would think the owner and the developer would be really upset. Time is money. They are.

Wow. Yeah.

Took me a year to get my gas.

Yeah. That is sobering.

My Since we're talking about

this particular project, is there something is there some other, like, legal recourse that the city had that the city has against PG and E, and has that been explored by the city attorney's office? Mike, I mean, this this is a repetitive problem in in not just in Mountain View, but, you know, if anybody just says, well, we can't do anything about it. If if if all the cities started suing PG and E for messing up all of their general plans and everything, maybe PG and E would get its act together.

Yeah. What I can say is that, I put forward from the community development department for city manager's office consideration as part of the council's legislative platform to consider, pushing the legislators to pressure PG and E to commit to timelier and more consistent service, particularly for affordable housing projects. So Mhmm. That would be, you know, something maybe it's incremental start into pushing PG and E. It wouldn't necessarily help businesses or market rate housing projects, but it's a known issue. And I think trying to put the energy on affordable housing, which is a significant state policy goal, it's maybe a a place to start with that.

I

know we can't make any recommendations per se because it's not on the agenda, but I would encourage the city staff to do whatever can be done on that. That's it's it's sad to see that building sit there and sit there and sit there with nothing happening.

Certainly a recurrent issue across the region,

you know, in PG and

E service area. It's frustrating local governments across the Bay Area Mhmm. Most definitely.

Do cities have a

person whose job is to have relationship with PG and E? Like, is there any sort of I don't know. Like, in a in PG and E, it has a government relations person. Does the city have a corresponding person whose job it is to deal with the public utilities?

Do you wanna touch on every single one? Audrey Ramberg, assistant city manager. We do have an intergovernmental programs manager Mhmm. Whose primary focus is working on advocacy with our regional state and federal legislative representatives. Also can be a point of contact for other entities that have intergovernmental affairs like the hospital district or PG and E, but it's not their focus to to pursue strategies around utility access.

That tends to probably happen more at the department level, whether it be for our public works department or our community development department.

Yeah. I mean, PG and E is a massive organization as we know. Various, elements of the city organization have interactions with PG and E, sort of in the field services side through public works or building inspection side, and community development. But sort of at that strategic engagement level, I think as assistant city manager mentioned, it hasn't been a focus area, previously. And I realized I didn't introduce myself. Many of you know me, but not all of you do. Christian Murdoch.

I'm the community development director. Good morning. It didn't make matters worse. They keep charging us more.

Well, with the fires in Southern California, they're going to

be really stressed trying to figure out. Yeah. So last item

was item number 17. Is 434 Castro. That's also a development review permit and a plan community permit for minor facade modification in existing commercial tenant space. So that's I believe that's the new architecture office on 304 Castro Street.

Right next to Oman. Great.

So that's all the updates for this month. Are there

any other questions? Any questions? Questions from member of publics?

I'm not seeing any online. I'm not seeing any person at one.

Oh, well, a question. On the downtown precise plan, if you go to the city's website, I I might be misspeaking. There there's one one portion of the website of either this project or maybe it's the next that we're gonna discuss. Time frame is off. It says it's gonna be down October 26, and I think one of these reports have and I apologize for not marking it. So I might wanna check with those sites and update the due date. We'll

we'll double check that. We are also gonna launch a subsidiary page, Collaborate for down on the size plan update as well, which will bring more information on that. Thank Great.

Great. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Thank you very much. Okay.

Moving on to item number six dot two, Capitol Street update. Capitol provide a global update on current efforts and activities related to Capitol Street. Yes, ma'am.

Thank

you. Amanda Raffella. I'm the acting economic vitality manager. And just a couple of brief updates. Most of them are quite fun, actually. We've launched the umbrella share program. As we got rain in the forecast, we moved very quickly to get umbrellas out the door. I actually brought one with me. I won't open it all the way in case you're superstitious, but we've got these bright blue umbrellas. You can see the locations that they're available.

And it's an umbrella share program. So you grab one, you take it home, bring it back, drop off at one of the buckets, but really just trying to bring some fun during the rain. And we got really great response and have businesses across the downtown all the way from the six hundred block at one ounce coffee all the way down to Orange Hummus at the 100 Block. And we have some at City Hall. So if you're leaving today and need an umbrella, feel free to grab one.

They're in Mulholly. As many of you may have seen, we've added a new game to the 300 Block. It's best described as a Simon Says. You spin it's people powered, so you spin this knob, and then the buttons light light up and you try and tag them. Jamil has the current record of 42. 42.

I'm lame. I'm putting

that officially out there, challenging the rest of you. But it's been really fun. You know, I I walk downtown most days, and I see people just sort of are very curious about it. And I've I've had the opportunity to sort of explain to people how to use it, and and they're really excited about the interactive and sort of fun aspect of it. So this is one of the weatherproof games. So we have it out now and more games, and mini golf will be returning once things warm up.

I found one thing about if I'm playing with it, I see somebody who's watching it and say, oh, you go ahead and try it. Finally, they the way then they tried. Once they start trying, they get hooked on, let's go. Let's go.

It seems we're into addictive behavior.

I was just

joking. That's nice of you to share it with other people. Alright.

Well, there's a two person aspect, so you can challenge someone.

Challenge someone. Yeah.

Anyway, keep an eye out for that. That's on the 300 block. We have oh, I thought I supposed to say January 2025. My apologies. I was updating this this morning. January 2025, we just leased the downtown digest. I provided copies for you here. And couple of things in there, you can see we've got a little overview of the various assessments that are in the downtown and some good information on some new businesses. Nick the Greek has joined downtown, which is really exciting, and we have some great exhibits currently at the CPA and one that'll be coming in soon. So more information in there, but just alerting you that the town digest is out.

We have hard copies in the lobby, and I'll be bringing a stack to Red Rock later today, and that's also available online. Oh.

And a and a stack

to us.

I'm sorry. And a stack to the chamber. My apologies. You're on my list, Peter.

Another of the articles I'd like to highlight is about the trusted response team, which is a mobile mental health crisis response. They have a presence throughout Mountain View and other North Santa Clara County cities and can be called directly. They now have a direct line. You don't have to go through 988 if you in one of your businesses or just being out and about downtown, experience somebody whose behavior is indicative of a mental health crisis or substance crisis, you can get

some help without needing to involve the police department.

So in reading this, and I'm glad you brought it up. So was this an independent nonprofit, or is this part of Santa Clara County?

Santa Clara County pilot program where they contracted with Momentum for Health, which is a very well established mental health service provider in the region, and they have two other teams run by other contractors in other parts of the county, but it's funded through the the county. And there's some federal funding that our city in collaboration with Palo Alto and Los Altos received from congresswoman Eschew to kind of enhance it here in Mountain View in Palo Alto and then our team, but it is primarily funded.

And then this would you just mentioned Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Mountain View. So those three cities are served by this same

More than those three.

Uh-huh. Okay.

So, yes, it's kind of I don't remember all the cities, but it's North County. Great. Great. Yeah. And it's 247. It operates all

the time. Great. Thank you. You're welcome.

Is this one of those programs that is gonna be impacted by the freeze from federal funding?

I I can't say. I know that the primary funding source was the state sales tax that supports what is it? A sales tax? It's a state tax that supports mental health programs that channels through to the county, and then the county channels it out for different types of services. But I don't know how the entire behavioral health system in Santa Clara County might be impacted by federal changes.

So I completed that course last year

Oh, great.

In our first date. It's very well done. It's great more of those. Yeah. I would recommend that. You know? I mean, it was and then you got I would like to take a refresher too also because afterwards, when you kinda look at it, and then more questions questions come in. You know? I picked up from down there just to

yeah. Wonderful.

And a lobby. Yeah. So I recommend that one. Great. Any any questions?

No questions? I'd just like to commend Amanda or whoever puts this together. The graphics are great and

the information great. You continue

to find subject matters. It's always hard to do a newsletter thinking, okay. Now I'm waiting.

There's a lot going on in the downtown. So we usually find enough. But it's a real collaborative effort between community development, city manager's office, and the communications team. And lots of various city staff. You saw some public works updates that we coordinated with them as well.

That's really great. Thank you.

Just a couple more updates from me. As I mentioned, Nick the Creek is open. And as you heard from Vincent, we have some new tenants moving into other vacant properties. We also are seeing some movement at the former Beyond Threadspace. They were publicizing that a a fashion retail store is going in there. So very exciting to see some new energy coming in. So same with Nick Nick the Greek. We saw a line out the door at their grand opening. So there was really clearly a lot of support and excitement

around that.

The block.

And who did they did they make it around the block? Okay.

Made it around.

Yeah. When I when I was there, was it was inching its way down, but very exciting. And then everywhere

if it was free.

Oh, yeah. Free food is very motivating. But and as I mentioned, we have some exhibits happening at the Center for Performing Arts just across the way here from us. We have this current exhibit here and another exhibit that'll come in excuse me, come in place on February 25. And not to put Kirsten, our economic development strategist, on there, but our is this visual arts committee is currently reviewing additional exhibits?

Yeah. Yep. We have we're the visual arts committee is going to select the upcoming year's exhibits at next week's meeting.

More to come on that. Yeah.

Has visual arts ever looked at sculptural stuff to put out on the plaza so it's, you know, actually really accessible?

Think in the nineteen nineties. So I think there was an event like that, but I'll actually talk a little bit more about the visual arts committee work plan and things in a little bit so

we can touch on that.

Yes. So we have presentations from most of the visual arts and performing arts committee at the end of our agenda. So more to come on that. Thank you. And that is the extent of my update on downtown.

Any comments? Any comments from member member of publics?

Not seeing any hands raised online.

Great. Thank you very much. That was great. Moving on to item number seven. We talked about 7.1 already. So we go to 7.two, retail quality report. And there was a test when you look at it, city consultant. The retail court will present their report of findings and recommendations around vacancy in downtown.

Great. Thank you. And I'll start off this item. So just a little bit of background on the scope. So as part of, you know, the council's priorities and what we're hearing from the community, a lot of interest in in addressing vacancy in the downtown.

And so we contracted with the retail coach who is a nationwide retail consultant and expert to on a couple of pieces. One, retail market analysis, so really getting a sense of our market demographics, specifically for the downtown. And you'll see Charles who's will be presenting a little bit more information. We're able to pull cell phone data and and pull together some demographic trends, so present that. And then the second part was around both serving as a resource for owners of vacant properties.

So wanted to provide an opportunity for some one on one consultation with retail property owners to provide feedback about their spaces, about their marketing strategies, and be able to really work with an expert to provide them with that feedback. And then also on the city side, getting some candid feedback about some of the challenges and obstacles that they're facing. And with the retail coaches sort of broad national lens, asked them to provide some recommendations on what he's seeing in other cities that have been addressing vacancy. And so you have the report in your packet, which includes all those pieces, the market analysis, the the feedback and interactions that were done with the property owners, the feedback we received, and then some recommendations in there. Kind of accompanying that is also a staff memo, which provides a sort of a additional perspective and information about some of the city's efforts.

The report was really focused on on kind of reflecting back the feedback that we heard from participating property owners, and the accompanying report is sort of a compliment to that and talking about what the city has been doing to address vacancy in the downtown and some of the other things that are in the works. So you can have sort of a a balanced perspective there of of the whole picture of what's happening in the downtown. And with that, I'll pass it over to Charles Parker who is our consultant from the retail coach. Thank you, Charles. We can see your screen.

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you, Amanda. Thanks for having me this morning. Sorry I couldn't be there in person. So thanks for letting me, video in. Kinda just to add that before I hop in, anytime we do a report that is very heavy on any stakeholder, but especially property owners in a downtown component to it, there is obviously, a certain lens put on some of that feedback, for that. So I imagine there'd be a a a level of discussion when I kinda run through this, but I did wanna just hit some of the high points of the report and then kinda have, you know, hopefully, some questions and answers and kinda talk through some of those pieces that that we did cover up. Overall, as Amanda mentioned, my name is Charles Parker with The Retail Coach. We are a consulting firm that works with communities across the country to assist with retail recruitment and development.

You know, our bread and butter is act actual recruitment, but alongside of that, we do a lot of evaluation of downtowns and citywide projects of how do you work and best position yourself as a community to best attract new retail, restaurants, hospitality, entertainment. Over the last twenty five years, we've worked in over 850 communities across 42 states, to focus on that for strictly retail purposes. And I'd say in the last probably five, six years, downtowns have become more and more of a pertinent piece that that we look at because they are the heartbeat in such a unique portion of the overall retail community, and how they ultimately play in both, you know, the local heartbeat of the community and and the wider retail recruitment aspect and retail development. So we kinda get into to some of these. I did have a few highlights, looking at, you know, some of the things that drive vacancy.

You know, they can be market related. They can be property owner related. They can be local environment and policy related. Usually, it's a combination of all three. But we started looking at the overall kind of macro market of the area.

So what we did these are two heat maps of mobile location data. So we geo fenced, two sections of Castro. First, the pedestrian mall area, which is that top map, and looked at where visitors have come over the last twelve months that have been essentially, you know, on pedestrian mall or those associated businesses that that open up to, you know, one three hundred blocks of Castro. And it really was showing how strong and how far reaching the overall stretch of people who have been in, Downtown Mountain View is really the entire region. Have you know, that's probably connectivity.

That's probably driven by workforce and job locations, home locations, and also activities as well on on weekend activities. So that's just around the clock over the last twelve months. It kinda shows our overall reach, which shows what a what a destination downtown is. The lower map is the second is the four or 500 blocks of Castro Street. A little bit more targeted in some of the areas where it's from.

It doesn't have the pedestrian mall. Probably doesn't have the same level of programming as well, but still has a very strong draw, which is the the bottom line here is, you know, this is a regional destination, for the entire area. So how does that kinda translate in terms of of demographic numbers? When we're talking about, you know, retailer recruitment and development, a lot of it bends down on, hey. Does a certain site or a certain market meet our criteria that we need for population, income levels, age, and all the the demographics that come with it?

So we kinda drew a custom trade area based on, you know, those cell phone maps and based on the visitation data. Say, our our primary trade area is really this chunk of of, you know, the Bay Area, Silicon Valley, to check out. So, I mean, we've got access to a million people. You know, our median age is 40, which in the retail world, that's the the big pieces. You wanna be 40. And the average incomes, you know, for the area are obviously really strong in in what retailers look for. So that's the the regional aspect of it, but we also wanted to to hone it down a little bit more to really just, hey. What does Mountain View look like? What's three miles that, hey. This is their backyard.

This is probably, you know, the, if not top one or two. It's it's top three or four areas that they're going to for entertainment, food options. Most of us can can walk to it, bike to it, public transportation to to downtown. And, overall, you know, we've got over a 150,000 people, I'll say, still under the 40, average age threshold that retailers like to see. And, again, really strong incomes.

I really point out that we've got a very strong market that a lot of downtowns would like to be able to boast these numbers. But we also take a little bit closer look at it and look at psychographics or Esri Tapestry data. So you can kinda see how I overlay where Castro Street is and kind of see the the census blocks of what the types of neighborhoods they are. So Esri, breaks down every census block and breaks us down into one of 67 categories and and gives us all little fun little names of of what they do. But it it allows people to generalize and look at, hey. What types of people live in these neighborhoods? How do they spend their money? How do they get their news? How do they get to work? Kind of a full profile of their behaviors.

And a lot of retailers look at this. So for us, we had see right there a lot of three a and three c, which is you they describe us as trendsetters and lattes and laptops. So there's a whole profile for for all of those, but it's essentially, young professional class, some empty nesters, some have young families look at it. But the big thing that stands out and why it's important to retail in downtown specific is how they're spending their money. And the and the big takeaways there are, you know, trendsetter spend 25 to 30% more on food, apparel, and services, and entertainment.

Things that if we're promoting vacancies in downtown, you know, these are to say, hey. This is the neighborhood that you live in. We spend a lot of money on the types of retail goods and services and entertainments that need to happen. Lattes and laptops, the other group that's the the third largest in the area spends nearly double the the national average on that. So all that to say was we have a very strong market and a very desirable market in the terms of what tenants, retailers, and developers look for when they're trying to say, hey.

Do we have enough people in the area to have a successful retail entertainment restaurant type of use? Then on top of that, obviously, the the Caltrain station, you know, ranked third as the origin station out of 29 in in fiscal year twenty twenty four. So on top of the ones that are in the immediate neighborhood, we also have the high high connectivity and high access, which is why I think we saw such a ballooning and and such a regional coverage in our mobile location data map that that we covered a second ago. So we also I'll say that was kind of the first section and and all the reports that come from I think there's probably 10 or 12 reports that kind of accommodate all of that. Amanda, I'm sure you can make that, available, the the full reports if you want some some live reading one night of where all that comes from.

But that was the the market analysis to say, hey. You know, what is the potential for this area just as a whole at very high level? Beyond there, we reached out to and tried to meet with as many property owners as we can. Our team along with city staff, I think it was over a dozen property owners and vacancies that we had reached out to to touch base with. Ultimately, we had a very low participation rate, which, again, limits some of our feedback that we have. But these are the main ones that we ultimately ended up focusing on. You'll see kind of the full breakdown of each of these properties in in the full report. I'm not gonna go through that, today. But, with the exception of a 360 Cashgrove Street, that's obviously a Keystone property in the downtown. Was not involved in terms of the feedback.

Was not something that we had any direct contact with, upon I think the city and and our team both reached out to that one. So the other, 236, 275, 279, and 444, in addition to a handful of brokers that do landlord rep and tenant rep, in the Greater Bay Area were the basis for a lot of the feedback that we had gotten, in terms of their experience in the market, and with the city as well as we kinda go through this. So wanna highlight a few of these findings.

Oh, Charles, can I interrupt you just for a quick question there? Does the lack of participation of other property owners tell you anything?

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Mean, it shows that they're not activated or, the refusal of not wanting to participate shows that maybe they had a either not local, they're not interested. It's a historical property. It's a loss leader. I mean, there's a number of reasons, but the fact that they're not engaged enough to participate in in something like this, lets you know kind of where their headspace is at or their motivation to improve their space. I mean, it's it's it's definitely a negative connotation not to at least respond to something like this after repeated attempts.

Mhmm. Okay. Thank you.

I will also just say we do have a lot of property owners that don't live in Mountain View who may live in other parts of the region or other parts of the country. And so that the world. Or the world. Yes. And so that can provide some some level of barriers as well. They're just not local.

Yeah. Absolutely. So let's say, there was a low property owner participation. Like I said, that does limit what our feedback is and probably slants it to a side of the ones that, you know, people who raise their hand and participate in surveys and interviews are usually, the most happy or the most negative or in the mix of the two, which is probably what we see reflected in some of the comments that we have. But, overall, I think, well, maybe I mean, it's not necessarily surprised me, but was was neat to see was the overall sense of where downtown is headed in the sense of optimism, despite maybe some of the more concrete comments that were made.

There is a very strong consensus of this is an area that is doing well and is on the right trajectory that they can be successful both as a property owner and developer or as as a tenant, but they have a strong area around them in terms of what their trade area looks like in their consumer base. And that there are generally, you know, beyond just Mountain View, there are other examples of successful downtowns that we've seen that is kind of a proof of concept for the region of, hey. You have Downtown Mountain View can be a really strong destination even more than it already is. So I think the sense of optimism there was really strong, and that's why there's probably so many impassioned responses on some of the ones that we had gotten is that there is a sense of belief that it can be a a top destination for for the region. The biggest comment based on some of the headwinds that property owners were facing was their perceived lack of a vision for downtown property owners not being locked in step with what the city and the strategic plans have, which is interesting because there are strategic plans.

There are specific plans. There's a lot of of planning pieces out there, but there's there's an obvious gap between, those strategic reports and and the road map and, you know, what some of the property owners and developers that participated in this seated. They don't understand, you know, what's the desired balance between restaurants and retail. What's the desired breakdown between local and brand name change? So we don't wanna be more, like Sunnyvale that has a little bit more food based and has independent brands and more like Los Gatos that has some of the traditional larger name formula retail aspect of it.

And and this is kind of the the weird limbo state that we see a lot of cities fall in because what is the role of the city in this instance? The city has laid out very clear plans. They spent a lot of resources defining these aspects, and it kinda comes down to what is allowed and what is desired. And that's, like I said, the limbo space of how and what is the right way to to navigate some of those things with collaboration of all stakeholders holders, not just the the public ones. So it's a little bit like rolling out the ingredients of a cake in a kitchen, and expecting to get a cake.

But, you know, with those same ingredients, you can still make cookies between what's allowed and what's desired. And I think that's the the gap there and maybe the the perception of the lack of direction of not understanding or the confidence of of putting a plan forward is not gonna be fully desired even though it could be allowed to a t, seems to be holding back a few property owners from maybe moving and improving some of their properties, at least as as reported as as one of the things holding them back. One of the things that I was reported was a poor opinion of working with the city. I will say this is not necessarily shocking. I don't ever expect, most property owners in in downtowns across the country to give a glowing review of ever working with the city because, you know, you're you're the gatekeeper and the rule keeper, the rule makers of keeping things in order.

But at the same time, there were indications that of property owners that have properties in other areas or work in multiple facilities that Mountain View was the most difficult to work with due to frequent changes in points of contact, delays in the permitting process. You know, I think there were a few reports of contradicting comments on some of the reports as well. This was seemed as a pain point of it was a difficult, process to to work through. You know, that in itself is, you know, good and bad in a sense. And if that's your biggest problem, that's probably a lot easier to fix than we don't have a very strong market.

It's something that is very perception based. There are there are quick fixes, relatively speaking, to, perception changes for that. I do wanna point out some of the other things that maybe we expected to find but didn't find. You know, anytime you see a pedestrian mall or a road closure, as an outsider coming into it, you expect that to be a big point of topic for, basically a built in excuse for property owners like, hey. I can't fill my space up.

They took my my vehicle traffic away from me. There no wonder it's gonna doesn't wanna go in there. That really largely wasn't the case. I think all the property owners that we talked to seemed to understand and and believe in what had what has been done from a community development stance that, hey. This was a strategic decision to create a pedestrian mall, to create a walkable area. Same thing with parking availability. That's one that is probably number one or two on every downtown review that we do, and it really wasn't the case this time around. You know, it was brought up of, hey. Yeah. Sometimes it's hard to find a parking spot, but usually that's grab your torch and pitchforks.

We're gonna gargy about parking. When, know, you when I when I pressed a lot of the property owners, like, hey. You know, is parking really holding you back? Is that something that is an issue that you know, it really wasn't something that they said, hey. That's not really a pain point for us to have.

So I think to see those two not really be mentioned and not really be something that the property owners were concerned with is a testament to the community development efforts. I mean, from the public play aspects, to beautification, everything with the the flower pots, the streetscaping. That is, I think, the biggest testament to the city coming through here is because they have done such a a strong way of programming and setting up the pedestrian mall to overcome the things that that challenges that come with shutting down the street. Because it's very, very hard to pull off, and and Downtown Mountain View has has pulled it off for all intents and purposes to to figure that out. So I think that was a strong piece to to highlight one of the things that the city has has done really strong on the community development efforts.

One of the things that kinda looking at the overall mix of the area, the mix of Castro is restaurant heavy. There's not a ton of boutique retail entertainment concepts. I know there had been the change in some of the used concepts. Was it mid, late last year, when the time timeline was on some of those up opening up some of the uses there? That was something that seemed to be surprising news to some of the property owners, which gives you a little bit more context to maybe how plugged in they are to local ordinances and and some of the changes coming behind it.

But when you look at the the use mix there, you see the diversification. And, you know, having very retail heavy, can open up a few challenges in the sense of time of day aspects that usually have a very strong lunch crowd. You know, the early midafternoon can kind of die down as there's not a whole lot of of reason to keep people in between between meals. And then, obviously, the peak at at dinner. And, you know, the few days that I was through there and kind of paying attention to the time of day and the foot traffic, there seems to be a little bit of that going on just because there's not a whole lot of options, outside of restaurants.

Although it sounds like from reports today and a few other things that that's you know, could be a tide shifting there. I know we talked about, some of the storefronts, art galleries, and children's stores, you know, say, nonfood based to to level out those time of day options as a focus and, again, things that the city seems to be in front of looking to have. However, when you go in and change up some of these uses or trying to attract a lot of these uses, they have a little bit different real estate requirements in terms of looking for smaller footprints to cater to some of these uses. I know we looked at a I think the the smallest space that we looked at in some of our vacancies that were participating was, I think, 2600 was the smallest one. And that's a relatively large space for boutique retail and, you know, non restaurant uses uses to take down when the, you know, the average is, you know, eight to 10 or eight to 800 to a thousand feet, 1,200 square feet, is kind of the sweet spot for boutique retail.

So some of these vacancies that we have, it's tougher for these brands that we wanna see or concepts that we wanna see come in when it doesn't necessarily match up with what's available, currently from a vacancy standpoint. I know, well, one of the property owners had had done some subleasing or demise a smaller portion of the space. I think it was roughly a third of the space we use for for a retailer, retail use, but the back end was essentially dark. You know, that's tough necessarily to pull off. There's not a whole lot of motivation to get property owners to do that.

Doesn't really make a lot of financial sense for them to go out and do that. You know, they you know, you'd like them to either improve the space, add bathrooms, add amenities to make it easier to do other change of use. But, again, when you have a large space and you're looking for retail, you know, those things are a little bit at odd and out of sync that it it it's tough to make those types of projects pencil. So if you're looking for strict retail and you have a 3,000 square foot space, you're a little bit at odds with what you can can do for some of those aspects. I'd overall, we kinda say that the main piece for some of these vacancies, was a disconnect between, you know, the spaces themselves, what's available, and then the the demand for those spaces and the uses that are approved for those spaces.

You know, it kinda leaves in the property's owners, you know, the ball in their court to improve or change their space, which is something that is tough to make them do, and tough to do a carrot or a stick aspect for that. I think it is worth noting that of of most of those vacancies that we highlighted, there's probably a narrative that goes with each each one of them. I don't think there's any what we consider, class a turnkey open retail spaces in downtown, which says that, hey. All the spaces that, you know, should be filled in a sense are filled and that all of our vacant spaces that we really looked at and the ones that kind of around didn't participate, we still reviewed. There seemed to be a narrative behind it and kind of some additional reasons, whether that be a disgruntled property owner or, you know, maybe the property owner is looking to do a larger scale redevelopment project, and either they're not ready or waiting for for certain stars to align.

And if their overall plan is to do a larger redevelopment of multiple properties, it's hard to motivate them to invest to improve a a subsection of that when they'd rather scrape and and do a total rebuild of, you know, half a block. So that's the the the larger pieces to to look at. Like I say, because there's not turnkey, ready to go class A vacancy, it doesn't seem like it's a very much a market issue. Seems much more on the the property owner side of things and and properly motivating or incentivizing and and making it easier for them to fill up their space on that aspect. You know, some of the recommendations that we looked at, like I say, a lot of it is perception or, you know, communications between what they perceive the planning and process to go through, anything to really improve those communication ops ops opportunities between the city and the property owners, whether it be host hosting additional events that we've seen, cities be very successful at, and engaging that aspect.

I know one of the direct feedback that that we had was the changing of points of contacts that they had at the city. We've since we've seen cities designate a point of contact. That doesn't necessarily need to be in a certain department, but just someone that says, hey. Call me, and I'll I'll help you figure it out and walk through it. You know?

If nothing else, to give them warm and fuzzies at times, which, you know, seems silly, but can go a long way with managing the relationships that we have. Obviously, attending additional events to work with these brokers that you know are working with tenants that are exploring downtown, and also representing some of the spaces that we have. But, also, like I said, doing more to maybe help translate some of those city documents that, may not be in as layman terms as they could be or not understanding what is actually there. And it's like bridging that gap between what is allowed or desired. And when I say, I don't think this is necessarily a a Mountain View prod problem as it is.

A lot of downtown in general problem across the country of, yes, we have a plan for downtown, but those that are in charge of investment and redevelopment don't necessarily know what is actually desired by the public, by, the city, by all the stakeholders together. It didn't seem that they had a good grasp of the types of retail mixed uses that maybe could come in and be in play that wouldn't be allowed, but would it be supported? And I think bridging that gap can go a long way with hopefully, you know, taking away some of the excuses that the property owners have had to to maybe today of why they hadn't moved or improved their their properties. You know, streamlining where appropriate and and possible. And, obviously, you know, the single point of contact and communication are are ways that can go a long way because, let's say, a lot of the feedback that we had was in the the relationship and the relay back between feedback and and the planning and development process.

So I'll say there's try to sum up the 24, 25 pages onto a few slides, to check that out. But I know I wanna leave a few minutes for questions and answers. So I'll maybe stop there and see if there's anything that I wanna maybe hit on as we get going.

Great.

Thank you so much, Charles. I appreciate that. Thank you. Definitely wanna allow time for questions and also wanna you know, we we one of the things that was really important in this report, and I'll just insert this before we jump to questions, was really getting candid feedback and then and then accurately reflecting that back to those that participated so that we could ensure that the stakeholders that we worked with felt heard. And so wanting to really talk to all of you who are out in the community, talking to, you know, key stakeholders in the downtown. You know? Does this reflect what you've heard? Are there or is there other information that you heard? Are there others that we should talk to? Do you have relationships with some of those property owners who maybe once were in downtown and have since moved to Spain?

You know, we'd love that some help sort of continuing to build some of those relationships. So I'll just put that there as you're making your comments and asking.

Context on that too, I will say as part of the interviews that we had, every conversation we had, they seem, I would say, surprised, but it was a, oh, the city is the city is doing this. They wanna hear what we have to say. It was very positive in the fact of, oh, this is a a really good first step. So, you know, there were kudos thrown back to the city and all the conversations that we had of this is really neat that they're giving us a bit of a platform, to share our pieces. And as Amanda said, this is, you know, mostly unfiltered pieces for that by design. I'd say it's these are not always the the fun reports to write when there are pieces that have, suggestions for change, but I think it is an important aspect for it. And I'd say let's let's open it up for for questions and discussion.

Great. Pamela?

Yes. Hi. Thank you for the report. I have a couple of questions. One is, did you compare Mountain View? Did you look at anything about Los Altos? Los Altos is three and a half miles, four miles from us. They have a really robust mix of retail and restaurants. And, I perceive that we have a competition or a challenge with Los Altos. They've got, good restaurants.

They also have good retail. They have, small name brand chains like Chico's and Paper Whirl, and then they all they have two children's books stores. They have two children clothing stores. They have three resale clothing stores. I hate to say it. If I go want to go to dinner, I come to Mountain View. If I wanna shop, I go to Los Altos. From my house, it's distance I live on the North Side Of Mountain View. So how do you how do you how does the city encourage other smaller smaller retail chain like, stores or somebody that has multiple locations. I think multiple locations is not necessarily a bad thing.

It it reflects that the company is, properly capitalized, has a wherewithal, the knowledge to be able operate multiple locations. So how do you how does the city reach out to and we don't even have a running store. Los Altos doesn't have a running store. Mountain View doesn't have a running store. The closest Mineral Park and Sunnyvale. So I I really see that we have some needs that that need to be met with the retail trade for Mountain View, and that's more of a statement than a question. So I'm sorry to go on so long.

Yeah. And I think it goes back towards, you know, how our current use mix is in downtown. Like you said, it's it's very heavy on the restaurant side. And is that by design, or is that naturally how it's just kind of it's worked its way out? And if there are things like the running store and there are certain retailers that you'd like to attract, hey. Do we have a spot for them? Where you know, if we went in there and went shopping, hey. You should reopen up a store in Mountain View. You know, what what spot would you put them in? Where would you suggest that they take a look at?

How would you connect them back? And I think that gets back to some of our inventory pieces with some of our property owners that would they take down, you know, the vacant 3,000 square foot, or is that running store over there more on the fifteen, eighteen hundred square foot? Can they afford to take down 3,000 square feet? Like I say, there's a 100 ways to to figure that out. I mean, there's everything from the PUPs and, you know, conditional use.

Do we open it up? Do we somehow figure out a way for that property owner to create a lease that's matches up those tenants? But I think that gets back to where we're at with some of our vacant space is not in line with some of the retail uses of what they're looking for. They like I say, across the board, whether you're, you know, Macy's, Sportsman Warehouse, you know, restaurants, everything's downsizing. And, you know, a lot of we see in downtowns across the country is the traditional 5,500 block square space.

And that's just not really what a lot of these retail tenants are looking to take down right now. So it is kinda gets back to the retail component to it, of what do we have to show them in terms of our use mix. And who's gonna be the the first two or three strong retail uses to kinda turn that tide and say, hey. We're not just a restaurant destination. We can also do shopping as well. And it kinda has to get to that critical mass to where you kinda have a, hey. There's enough shopping here. We're not just going for one thing. We're going to shop. I think we have that on on the food side. We're not going to eat somewhere. We're going to dinner, and we'll figure it out. But we don't have that complementary mentality on on the retail side yet.

Sue?

I mean, I wanted to add. I think it's good context to have. Los Altos, a lot of the properties are owned by one person, which can be good and bad. But in the case of Los Altos, it's good. They they've kind of consistently taken care of their properties and and managed them well and and have built that relationship. Mountain View has kind of a lot of property owners throughout Castro Street too. So I think that's kind of the.

There is certainly more, obviously, more diversity in ownership here, which I think probably puts a a stronger influence on how do we make sure we're managing those and trying to do what we can to make sure that we can motivate or incentivize those property owners not to just sit on their properties.

I'll I'll make one more comment. I, conduct walking tours, with historical association, once a month. And walking down Castro, I always get questions from participants. Why aren't the spaces leased?

And what you say?

It's available for lease if you'd like to.

Well, I try not to touch. Anyway so people really noticed that Yeah. There are spaces that are empty, and they wanna know why are some of these spaces open for a decade. You know? What's the problem?

I said, I know they're it it does get worse when they're they seem to be grouped a little bit more on on parts of Castro. You know, especially the 300 Block has two or three property owners that are kind of has some properties grouped, which, you know, when it's broken up and you have a 94% occupancy rate, not that bad. But when that 6% is in one area, it now becomes a whole. So it it's

Right.

And if if I could just add as well, Pamela, one of the things you could say is actually some of them are vacant. Some of them have tenants that are working through permitting processes. Yeah. But, you know, actually, I just wanted to note, you know, two of the property owners that we spoke to, either one has a tenant that is, you know, secured in the and a second one actually has is in deep negotiation. So, we may start to see some change and less of those property on properties being asked on your tour. I'm sorry.

Yeah. Amanda, think when we started with, like, our top 12 vacancies, I think four or five of them now are going through planning process in some version of it. So, I mean, that like, that just speaks to the strength of the market that people wanna be here, and it's it's it's let's say, in any city, it's always a process to get through it. But to have that many turnover this quickly is just another proof of how strong the market is.

So a couple questions. First off, has the retail coach have they been also retained for recruitment and coaching or just analysis?

So at this stage, we've just retained retained them for analysis. We are actually working with another consultant team to assist economic development with, you know, now moving into sort of implementation programming to address some of the the vacancies. So we're kind of we're already moving into the the next stage and working with another team on that.

Then the second question is is is sort of like it's a it's an easy sort of thing is for businesses where something is happening, but it's not apparent. I mean, if we ever thought of you know, you get the old ABC sign. We're looking for a liquor license. Have we thought of having coming soon that we do? You know, just it's part of the communities.

Well, I appreciate you teeing that up for me. We are actually actively working internally on a pilot program for vinyl wraps of windows. We need to we're pricing that out currently. But, yes, we agree. I mean, one of the things that we've talked about is how effective malls are at that because they put up the mall walls and you have, you know, really beautiful graphics and you know what's coming and it helps to build excitement. So it's one of the strategies that we're looking at because, yeah, having, you know, plastic wrap on the inside of a window for a construction site, it's great for keeping the dust in, but it doesn't tell the story on the outside. So 100%, we we are looking at that. And

So and so as a just to push back a little bit, because one of things we do an awful lot of looking at in Mountain View. Quickly do you think something like that would will be functional?

I think it's a really great question. So I will say we are operating on a reduced capacity. Our team is down from three to two, so we are we're doing our best to prioritize. We're bring yeah. The Christian and the community development department are bringing the economic development division some extra resources. But I will say, Kristen has assisted in starting to price things out. We need to collaborate with our plant and colleagues because there are some rules around allowable the amount of windows percentage of a window that you're allowed to fully cover. So there's some rules that we have to be thoughtful with and and make sure that we're we're working within, you know, the confines of of feedback we've heard from the community about what they want. So there's some navigating that has to happen. It's not as easy as we're just gonna go and do.

So we wanna be thoughtful about it and make sure that it's rolled out in a way that is sustainable and in line with our existing roles. So, yes, we'd love to be able to just go and do, but it is part of some of the challenges that we face and and is implementing is, as you know, Mike, very well, there are a lot of rules and there are a lot of, you know, community guidance that we've received over the years. And so we're trying to really thread that needle.

And I'll just put this this this last one out there is is so if the city has this much difficulty navigating its own system We're still the think of the poor, you know, private private sector having to do the same. And maybe that is something that staff can take back to the council is you ask how why it takes so long for us to do stuff. It's because we have so many, you know, t's to cross and i's to dot. And it's if it's hard for us, it's hard for our businesses too.

And just real quick, how is the because I talked to one of the property owners, you know, in her senior, stage of her life, and she's very comfortable where she's at, but any investment into her property would mean higher property taxes reassessments. So does the city do anything, let's say, to encourage, you know, facade improvements without necessarily triggering a tax reassessment on the property?

Yeah. It's a great question, and we have heard that same feedback from property owners. Unfortunately, you know, it's the county that does the assessment for properties, and there is that financial calculation that property owners have to do. You know? Okay.

If I invest x amount of dollars and I am assessed, you know, and there's the the result of that assessment, can I make that back with increased net and I can now charge more increased rents? And and we certainly wanna get to a place where they are incentivized to because there is, as Charles said, a strong market that can pay the rents that they would need in order to make those invest investments. So it's it's a little chicken and the egg as you kinda you kinda have to make that investment with the hope that, you know, you'll be able to make it up on the back end. And, Charles, actually, I'd be really curious to hear what you're seeing in other cities as people are

I'll say I'll say that was a a big part of the conversation that we had with with a couple of the property owners is, you know, we have to improve it, but we don't know if we wanna have make this more restaurant or if we want this make this more retail. And to do a pro form a, they can go and do a feasibility study and figure out, hey. What exactly can we charge our lease rates and figure out what tenants fit that? But I think what may be a missing piece is the confidence they have with going in and putting in all this money on a pro form a on the front end if it's not gonna be something that is gonna be supported in general. Like I say, not allowed, but supported because there's there's a a difference between those two.

So I don't know if it's it's just more conversation in general of, hey. This is the type of price that we'd like to see, and this would be supported publicly. This would be supported by the city. I think that's the missing gap that is really the first step to take back to that property owner and say, hey. You said you wanted to improve your property. These are the three or four things that we think the public would get behind. We know the city would get behind. These are the approved pieces to give them the confidence to go run that feasibility analysis and say, hey. We really can squeeze out, you know, 8,000 square feet of retail here. We know what that's gonna do for our overall pro form a to kinda start the ball rolling.

Because I know right now we have direct feedback saying, hey. We're scared to go spend money on a feasibility report because we don't know what we need to check on the feasibility of. Like, what what are we shooting for? And I think that just like I say, it's not necessarily the role of the city, to do that, but I think it can be part of a collaboration of stakeholders, of, let's say, what's desired for the area that we'd like to see some of these buildings improved on.

Peter? Well, so first of all, I just wanna say thank you to the city for commissioning this study, and thank you for you guys for executing it. I was super impressed by this. There's a lot of incredibly good data in here. There's a lot of incredibly good actionable data in here, which is really what you want. It's one thing to get a report. Nothing. It's, hey. Are there things that can be done? And so first of all, just just kudos for for for really this this entire operation. I also was struck by how many things Mountain View has the potential to do really well. You know? I mean, it was exciting in some days to read. You know? Oftentimes when you read something, it's like, where this is.

It's like, wow. There's plenty of areas here where we can you know, we have the building blocks there. And if we can put the pieces together correctly or if we can have action behind it that that's constructive, we can really do some amazing things. And it's funny because I remember when we first discussed the Ped Mall, one of the first words we said was, let's not just close the streets and say we're done. That's not a Ped Mall.

You know, we have the opportunity here to have a vision, to have, you know, to have something that's really draws people in, is exciting, and all of that. And I think we are marching in those directions. I think what you've heard is that, yeah, we're marching. But, you know, there's there's things that have to happen in order to to move barriers and to move faster and things like that. I also just want, as a point of procedure here, I have some questions that are specific for the retail coach, but I also have questions in terms of how the city is reacting. And I don't know if that's now

that

part of the discussion happens now or later. And so I just want to ask that point of clarification real quick.

Yeah. And and and maybe before we we questions for Charles, we can address that. So I'll say, you know, this was part of the city's efforts to kind of get more information, get a really accurate market analysis so that we can use it in economic developments, recruitment efforts, that we can use it as in in kind of to overly over the economic vitality strategies that we have that what came out of the economic vitality or the strategies that came out of the economic vitality strategy. I will say, as I mentioned to council member. Member. Committee member, councilor Zach.

Come on.

It's kinda dirty.

Might as well go with

my hair. Yeah. That we do have a contract with with another consultant team who is helping us specifically on what are the kind of programmatic next steps, what are the things that we can immediately begin in terms of implementation. I'll let Christian speak to some of the some of the other pieces that is are that is already underway, like the update to the downtown precise plan. But this sort of comes in line with a number of in progress initiatives and and projects. But

Yeah. Thanks, Amanda. So I think with the, attachment that we shared as well yesterday, I think we wanted to highlight that we are already taking, action on a lot of these points. I think, you know, not all of the news was, news to us in terms of what was in the retail coaches report. And so already putting things in place like the one stop, making amendments to the downtown precise plan, incremental amendments to make, certain uses easier to open without needing a use permit.

Those and other actions, right, that are already underway will soon come to fruition and I think begin to have impact. I think the key thing that I took away from the Retail Coach report was the communication piece that despite the efforts of what we're doing and what's soon to come, it's not permeating to the to all of the target audience. Right? So those that are highly engaged like those in this room and and others that participate with the city, they're getting word, but many aren't. And so I think that's maybe the number one takeaway to action on my end with the team is to figure out, you know, the channels that we have seemingly aren't working through Downtown Digest and other other outlets. So how do we redouble our efforts in terms of reaching property owners, relaunching the broker breakfast to get the word out to the people that can help make those leasing and investment decisions?

And if I could just make you a part of the chamber. Well, absolutely. Well and if I could just speak to the broker breakfast, we had regular, you know, broker breakfasts, which a lot of communities do. You bring in property owners, you bring in brokers, you bring in, you know, various leasing agents, and you do those a couple of times a year. And it's an opportunity both for the city to provide updates directly to those in the room, but also a opportunity for some collaboration. I know Santa Cruz does a quarterly broker breakfast, and they put on all the participants. What what properties are you working on? What are some what are some of your challenges? Who are some potential tenants? Okay.

They don't fit there, and, you know, this broker over here said, oh, I have a space that I you know? So there's this not only share it in between the city, but building stronger connections within the leasing community that I think there's a lot of opportunity. Opportunity. So Mountain Views Burger Breakfast, you know, kind of went away with COVID, you know, by nature of us dealing with dealing with sort of the changes in in connecting with people, but we're we're really working to bring those back. We've participated in some regional ones in collaboration with other cities, but really wanna do a Mountain View focused broker breakfast. So more to come on that, and we certainly will be reaching out to the chamber, to members of the committee to make sure that we've got the right people on our distribution list.

And and to that point, you know, the chamber actually about we've done it about every six months since we get together with the developer community because one of the other barriers that they face is sometimes they don't like speaking candidly to the city because they feel that that's gonna knock them down to the bottom of the list or something new is gonna come up or whatever. There's a lot of fear in in that type of thing. So, again, I think a partnership where we can both get information and then act on it is going to be helpful. I did wanna ask one question to the retail coach that before we get into the conversations regarding this what the city is doing. And that is in your in your research, I know that your your focus was on property owners.

But did you also interview tenants? And the reason I ask is because in any kind of vacancy study, you have to preserve what you have as well as looking for new new input in. And, of course, we deal very closely with the existing businesses, and we have a number of businesses that are hanging by their fingernails. And if we lose them, you know, we could lose we have already, you know, with the cycle shops being gone and and and others. We've lost number of key players downtown.

So unless we look at a vacancy study that looks not just at our current vacancies but our potential vacancies, I think we're missing a very, very strong statement and, strong courses of action.

Yeah. We we didn't get a whole lot into the tenant side. We did have conversations with, you know, some of the tenant reps and some of the folks that have worked with a number of both chain and independent brands that have done some of those pieces. But for our scope, it was it was more based on the existing property owners. It was just a little bit more of our focus and the design of the methodology of this particular one.

K. Now I will say that some of the things that are in your recommendation actually apply to existing tenants as well as to hand owners. So there is there is overlap and all that. But I just wanna stress to the city that we absolutely, whenever we're looking at vacancy, have to look at that balance of how do we preserve as well as how do we invite new. If we're going to switch in terms of just some conversation with the city, I mean, one of the thing we were talking about is this notion about vision.

And I think that somebody said that said allowed versus desired is is an amazingly powerful phrase. Because, again, I think it speaks to the fact that, yeah, we all know that there's a precise plan. Some of us have actually read it. And and and, you know, there's a lot of things there, but but there's so many nuances in there to really understand how that translates into what what's your desired state versus what's allowed, and are we allowing that desired state to happen? Are we really opening the doors wide enough to make sure that those things happen in a timely fashion are important questions to ask.

I also am struck by and totally unsurprised, by the way, of the data on the absent landlords and the ones that would not respond to your requests. Gosh. Surprise. Surprise. They don't respond to hours either.

And and yet, you know, there are some who trying to it, that that, you know, are really in actually prime location visible in the middle of the street, have everything around it, like, if only this was a a jewel rather than a cavity, could just elevate in so many ways. And we've had discussions in the past, and I'd like to to reinvite them to open again about narrowly defining some penalties versus carrots. We have tried carrots. We have tried the the appeal approach, and that hasn't worked. So what are the motivators that would get them to move?

And I would love to have, whether it's the retail coach or someone else, weigh in in terms of when you've had that kind of situation where they won't return your calls, they won't talk, or they won't even don't we're not gonna sell for twenty, thirty years because it's

just even talk to their own broker.

I understand. I I understand. And, you know, what what tactics have you have have been used in those cases? Eminent domain. Well, and, again, I certainly appreciate that the city that the city has restraints on it, both economically, both technically and perceptionally, however you wanna say that, in terms of, like, you know, you can't just do a vacancy tax. That has too many negatives associated to it. Can there be something, though, that's narrowly focused so that that particular site

can Fall into that category of Thank you.

What are

what are solutions?

What are solutions? So I would look to you know, I know that the city has tried. I know that we have tried. You know, I'd love to hear what outside advisers would advise in terms of how could we

there, Chad. How could we how

could we shape that up? I also feel that sometimes some of what the report says, and it says quite clearly, is that there are certainly permitting issues. And by issues, I mean things take too long or or things are confusing and all that. But there's also barriers that the city has, and then there are barriers that are from another agency as in PG and E and so on. And so how can we and when I say we, I mean everyone in this room and all the all the the different aspects that we represent.

How can we fix help fix that problem? What are the things that we can do to you know, is there is there is there groups that we can talk to at PG and E from a different tactic, from a different standpoint, or whatever to make them understand and be sensitive to the same issues that we're sensitive to. How can how can we make that happen? And so I think I just think that when we talk about permitting and all that, we need to look beyond the limits of the city and look at all the factors that that come into play here. And and finally, I I just feel very, very strongly in, you know, what can our businesses do to act on some of these activities?

This isn't all in the city. You know? I mean, so, for example, if we could do some campaigns where, you know, whether it's, you know, coming soon or something as simple as a coming soon sign. But, you know, for example, a lot of the data in here, I would think, is extremely helpful to some of our businesses. Oh, you mean our our customers are not what we thought they were?

They're actually this? Maybe if we sold x y z instead of a b c, we could be more successful. Maybe we're open different hours because that's when the laptops and latte folk are are looking for things and so on. We've had lots of conversations just about hours and so on. So, again, I would I would like to look with, certainly, with economic development and and also integrating, you know, the the EV strategy and the precise plan and so on. How do all those pieces fit together so that we can give good solid advice to our businesses? Not and, again, I'm talking tenants as well as property owners in terms of changing that that dynamic. Okay.

Awesome. Thanks. So I I Questions?

I I

I actually I did have a question. Were you planning to move on to another No. No.

I I thought I just asked a question too. Go ahead, please.

Also had a lot of questions that I don't know. Do you you want people to respond to?

But Yeah. I mean, there's a lot there, Peter, and you make many many good points. I think I'll focus on one of your early points, which is the vision. And so, I mean, having a precise plan that's supposed to set the vision that's nearly 40 years old, I think, speaks for itself in a sense. Right?

I think we're it's reflecting that sort of sense in the community that there isn't a clear vision of what we really want, although it's clear sort of what we allow and disallow in the plan. And that's not the right, I think, framing and orientation for a lot of these these points to be communicated in a way that's understandable to the, you know, ordinary property owner or ordinary business owner. And so I think I'm very excited to work through this process and be clear about what division is, the kinds of uses we want, the vibrancy we're trying to achieve. So, you know, having your participation and everyone we can get that's a stakeholder in this to participate will be critical. The other part, I think, is just, I'm certainly working hard with my team and the Citi organization to try to shift the mindset, somewhat in terms of what this permitting process is intended to do.

Are we regulating, or are we trying to facilitate and achieve good outcomes? And so we're very early in in some of that thinking in that work, but that is a critical issue that's on my to try to improve that situation so that we're not just saying yes or no, but we're trying to help those things that are yeses get through the process in a in a more constructive way.

And if I could just speak to the talking about some of the property owners we've had more difficulty engaging and getting spaces filled. We are not alone. Every community has that property or those properties in their downtown. We have the benefit of being part of this regional group of economic development teams. And I can tell you we're all talking about this. Looking at each other. How are you addressing this? What tools what carrots and sticks are you bringing to the table? There are a couple communities that are exploring some different ideas, and we're taking note and kind of gonna see how those play out. But, yes, the council was very clear that they wanted to, you know, put a vacancy tax in sort of the long term priority list.

So we're looking what other tools do we have that can that can kind of try and get at some of those issues. Yeah.

Speaking of pay raises with access, the other day, I was walking down 100 block, and I talked to a couple of the restaurant managers, and they we talked about the whole plan that went from five years now to ten years as far as, like, finishing up the, you know, the pet mall. And the first question was, why don't they open up Evelyn access then, right, since it's gonna take another five years to even come close to being finished. In the meantime, have access to downtown directly into the parking area. You know, coming into Evelyn from central, they go directly to the parking spaces. So I thought that was a really good point just to transfer here.

And they're like, we'll tell them. I'm like, okay. I'll tell them. You know?

Open open up the s curve.

Yeah. You know, just like to have, accessibility and and taking down some of these temporary barriers. And then once the project is continues, yeah, continue. But just, like, have in the meantime,

maybe some Maybe that'd be yeah. We one of things I'm hearing you say, Marina, is is let's look at the priorities too. As we look at the the ten year plan, what are the priorities?

What is now that

we can do? Right. And and right now, access so that you can do the other things is is is a prioritization. Yeah.

And I think it would help those businesses that are on cash flow. Access is huge. Right? You know? And so the other day, we had a guy just driving with a bike just all the way to 200 block. We're like, what are you doing? And he's like, oh, I thought it was we were like, okay. You're gonna

go out.

You know? Tells you, you know, like, didn't wanna take shoreline. Thanks. Anne?

Yeah. I had look looking at this report, I noticed that two of the, you know, four that you that you identify are blocks like, with an unmotivated property owner. And so you said that this is a problem in other cities in the region, and I'm also interested. So a couple of like, I had a question and a comment. So I had a question for the retail coach of, like, how have other cities handled this where you have maybe, you know, folks whose you know, their buildings are paid off.

They're not really financially motivated, but they don't wanna sell them, and they don't really wanna put any money into them, and it's a hassle and so on. I mean, sure, you can streamline permits, but still, it's a lot more hassle than doing nothing. And then I was wondering, have we ever looked at things like the city funding feasibility studies? If that's the big obstacle, I mean, would is it is it something that that cities do where they say, okay. Well, you can apply, and we'll fund your feasibility study, and then it you know, maybe it greases the wheels a little bit to get people moving. I mean, one of these landlords is clear is not motivated. It you know, like, nothing will motivate them, but there are probably others in a similar situation of we would do something if if we didn't they would figure out what to do. So

Yeah. And I I will say for something like that, like, these ones that we're really highlighting, they there there's a narrative to all of these. I I think I think that in itself is telling is that these aren't just standard vacancies that, you know, are are open and willing to be waiting to be filled. Those are already been filled. I mean, that that let's say, that can show strength in the market. So what we've seen in situations like this where you have longtime historical property owners, I mean, it it gets back to collaboration, and just flooding with with back and forth information. These things that we're doing, these are things that we've looked at. What what what really is holding you up? Like, is it you you say you you don't you don't understand the vision. Well, let's sit down and talk about it.

What what do you need to hear about the vision? And it's just really increased collaboration from from that aspect. And it's I mean, it's a lot of work in the sense that it's it's it's man hours, and it's it's, you know, sitting around table and talking. But, again, I think my overall takeaway for Downtown Mountain View is that look at the pet mall. Look at the numb number of ongoing projects going through redevelopment right now. I mean, these are all things that are moving very quickly. Pet malls are extremely difficult to pull off. It's it's been pulled off. Right. And and it and it looks great.

And, you know, Amanda talked about even the umbrella type stuff. All those things sprinkled on top of it, the programming of it point towards it. So, you know, despite having some of these pieces and vacancies that are, you know, large pieces or eyesores in some sense, there's a narrative to it. And I think because of that, it's not just a blanket change of code or change of policy. It's, hey. We've gotta figure out, you know, form a one on one basis of what's it gonna take and and open up conversations that way more so that, hey. This is a departmental chain. I mean, this it's it's a nuanced situation more so in these cases, which, again, points back to the strength of the market.

Right. I mean, that was another point I wanted to make is, like, you it seems like you guys have done a lot of communication, and I think it you know, just my personal opinion, it might not be more communication, but, like, one on one communication. Because, like, a newsletter, these folks are not opening their email. And so it's you know? And I'm sure I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but, like, it's gotta be, like, one on one with the sort of the the harder cases. Wait.

You have

to You're in the city manager.

You have to crack the tough nuts to crack, like, on a one on one basis because I don't think it seems like they don't respond to sort of, you know, broker breakfast. They're probably not gonna turn up to a broker breakfast. They're not gonna open the newsletter. So it's gotta be, like, a lot of one thing.

And I and I will I point, like, there is an appetite for redevelopment there. What does that mean to everyone? A little bit different. But there is an appetite to do something if this the stars have to align, and what does that mean? That's that's the back end that that's figuring it out. Right.

Great. I'll I'll just make I ask quickly because we have some other items to here. One is I was wondering about what I mean, Marina was saying about the developing the facade and all that and tax issues. Can cities altogether tell the county that this kind of issue we're having, maybe they can solve the county level. They'll trickle down here.

It makes a difference for us for the and the other one is, you know, the breakfast you're talking about, I think we should be talking to the, I mean, owners preemptively even though they are they print it and see that we can avoid it from happening and then they can afford it. So it's good. It's great. Good input. Now is there any input on the member of public?

No? Not the only one with hands reached online.

Oh, thank you very much. That was great report. It's a lot to digest in there. You know? Oh, one one last thing I I thought about when reading it, how I can get how we can kinda get some talking point or or or the way when we go to the nearby cities, how we look at it and compare our I mean, I mean, could we look use the report to get some ideas that when we're looking at some other places that, oh, okay. Yeah. Compared to us, they were doing something different. So

Yeah. And I can probably get with the man. We can probably get a kind of one pager of talking points or things to keep in mind. If you'll say for that mentality, if I'm going through another downtown Yeah. How do I relate what I see back to to Mountain View for, like, idea generation? I I I can probably get with like, so we can probably get some ideas put out and some bullet points to expand on that if that's something that's of interest.

That'd great. Just just one other procedural question, and this is for the city, and that is that, you know, this this is great information. How public do you want it? You know? But I I'd love to share this with broader groups, but I wanna do that in a proper fashion.

I think let's get back to you on that. I think figuring out that sort of digestible product that could come out of this report, it's a little bit much to kinda chew through, but maybe distilling it down to the key pieces is something we can work with Charles on. And then maybe share

some Proper framing and all

of that.

I I totally get that. So that that's why I'm asking out of respect is, you know, how how can we share this data appropriately?

Yeah. Thanks. I appreciate that, Peter. We want it to be a useful product that sort of strikes the right balance in terms of what's being communicated and explaining what's the right action.

Yeah. That's really I think, you know, it we we like I said, there I don't think there were any surprises in here. So it's it's good to have validation.

Right.

But what needs to come is once okay. We have the facts. So Yeah. That's that's what I would really like to work with the city on is how do we how do we promote

that. Mhmm. Great. Thank you very much, Charles.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Item seven dot four seven dot three. Sorry. Collaboration with the performing arts committee, PAC, and visual arts committee. Presentations from PAC and regional committee staff liaisons on downtown related committee work plan items and possible areas of for collaboration and coordination.

Okay. Let me just share the right presentation. Hold on. Oh, and here you go. I've got a clicker for you.

I'm quite aware. We're behind all of our schedules. So

Or are we at 08:30 or ten? Sorry.

That was 09:30.

I mean, 09:30 or ten.

I'm not gonna I can stay, but I

I think it was eight to ten. The others.

This particular meeting was scheduled from eight to ten. 08:10. It's eight to eight to 09:30.

Okay. Alright. I take back my comment. Okay. Thank you.

You promise to be brief.

Yeah. No. No. It's fine. I I just don't wanna Stop talking. No

questions. Okay. I know most of you have been cursed in minds. I work with Amanda on the economic development team, and my focus is more broadly kind of citywide and moving on the facade grant and other small business grant programs. And then I'm the staff liaison to the visual arts committee.

So we're kind of just talking about, like, generally what the visual arts committee, and then Theresa will talk about the performing arts committee, our focus is right now. And, the goal is kind of working you know, doing more collaboration across our communities. So just like you guys, the BAC does an annual work plan, and this is kind of the summary of focus points for BAC. So we have percent for art policy. This is a council policy that designates 2% of specific capital improvement projects to public art.

We have the Center for Performing Arts exhibits. So every year, the VAC, we put out a call for artists and select up to eight artists to exhibit at the Center for Performing Arts. And so we talked about the two people who want the person who's exhibiting now, I think Laura Hewitt and then Alina Makena is going in at this month. And then we're we'll be selecting this next year's set of artists next week. And then we have temporary art programs depending on funding.

So I think in 2018, there was a a program called Sidewalk Studio where some of the city utility boxes were painted. And then we have the Bullard Beautification Project coming up. So we've been working through some kind of contracting issues, but we're we'll be having a few of the bollards on Castro Street. So those brown cement balls will be painted by artists that were selected by the BAC. And then just partnerships in general.

After this, Theresa and I are going to a luncheon with SV Creates. They do municipal roundtables where we get to talk with our colleagues in other cities working on our projects, learning about what their focus is and policies and programs that they're doing so we can get ideas and collaborate. So the percent for art policy, so this is the council policy. So it applies to, like, parks, buildings, the underpass project that's gonna happen on Castro and Ringsthorf. It'll apply to those things.

And since 1987, we've had over 40 pieces commissioned. I think it was at 1.1. It was originally adopted at 1%, and now it's 2%. Here are some examples of a center for center for performing arts exhibits. And so we've I think it's, and we've been doing this for over thirty years.

So some of the pictures on the left are from the, exhibits that happened in the nineties, and then these are more recent images. So it's, like, all types of art. Mostly thing or basically everything has to be hung up, but, a variety of, like, painting, photos, textiles, iles, different things. This is just some examples of art around the city. I think so the earlier years of the visual arts and public art, there's more like sculptures.

So the things at city hall, those are put in in the nineties. And then, like, the Ringserve Community Center, that's more recent. There's more, like, painting and kind of different variety of types of art in the city. And then we do get, like, this Berlin Wall was something that was donated to the city. So, occasionally, I think there's only been a few pieces, but there's things that the city will accept as a donation too.

I think, yeah, this, forward whoop. A horse was donated.

Where's that horse?

That's at Shoreline Park entrance.

Oh, okay.

Is it that?

Very well. Very well.

I'm seeing

something different. Oh, are you? Mhmm. Okay. Well, so here's the utility box. Okay. Oh, I don't know what's happening, but the Yeah.

That was

Okay. I'll move it. Hold on.

We'll see.

Oh, the horse was donated by someone, I think or by a company that had it. That's at Crittenden Lane. Yeah. It's actually really quite big. And you can see it. There's, like, a little trail over there that you can go on, and you can see it from the sidewalk and then when you're on the trail. And then there's these big pieces, like, at Google. There's a lot of but those are some pieces that are privately sponsored, so the city didn't install those. They're they were either put in just in the nature of, like, creating pub you know, nice public spaces, or there might have been, like, community benefit agreements with the city, so kind of land using land use policies to help encourage art.

That whole area of Google used to be Adobe.

Oh, really? Yeah.

That was a big thing.

Yeah. Adobe or Silicon Graphics. Yeah.

But, like, Google plaques a lot of artwork too.

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of new pieces. There's we I think you went to the presentation at the for the Mountain View Historical Association. Yeah. Did. And they're the artists that I'm taught they created this, like, bear out of pennies. Like, welded all the pennies together to create this bear, and that's outside of Louisville. And they've done that in a few different places. Like, Burnie Man, there's one in Reno. Yeah. But, yeah, here's some art and parks. So the chickens, I think Wyandotte Park was a chicken farm at one point, and so it's an ode to the history of the area. And then there's, like, some functional art pieces and parks. I think, generally, the goal is to have them be functional.

Kids can, like, play on them or you can sit on them, whatever. Yeah. And these that's village at San Antonio. This is an ode to Shockley Yeah. The semiconductors. Yeah. Someone will know.

It was Shockley Lab.

Yeah. Shockley Lab. So the, yeah, the lab that was at the village of San Antonio. Gosh. There's a a lot of pieces that represent kind of things that have been in in Mountain View and things that are currently existing. Then here are some examples, of things that you'll see soon. So at the Ringstroff Aquatic Center, on the left, there's these restored mosaic fish were actually on the old building. I think there were there were a few more, but they some of them, they couldn't actually restore. But they were able to restore a few of them, and they're inside the building. There's these bubbles that I think they're kind of iridescent.

It's like you walk by them. It looks like water moving, and then there's some functional bench pieces that you'll be able to see soon. Then we have some murals going into Ringserve Park at maintenance buildings that are being installed. And then at Evelyn Park, there's going to be a very tall butterfly sculpture. It has, like, see through panels. You can see the light coming through it. And then for a little bit during the day, there will be LED lights that are kind of dim dimly lit to to make the butterflies glow.

Cool. Yeah.

And then, upcoming, we have, so the visual arts committee, we've been working through this idea of a public art strategy for some time. So since 2019, the city hired a consultant then, but COVID caused some changes and disruptions, and the economic development team had to move focus over to small business recovery. So the visual arts committee kind of brought back discussions a few years ago, and then we spoke to the city council at a study session last fall. We'll be hiring a consultant to help us do community outreach and then finalize a public art strategy that really helps kind of focus actions and to expanding art for the for the city and for the community. So we'll be coming back to you guys with kind of a more clear role and, kind of getting input on what the public art strategy could look like and especially for downtown.

Okay. Just a summary slide. So, yeah, we've done a lot of different things over the last thirty years. You asked about the sculptures in the plaza. I think there was some event in the nineties that the visual arts committee held, like, a sculpture contest in the plaza. There was, a sand sculpting contest at some point. And oh, it's okay. But so we're things shift over over time depending on kind of budget and and capacity. But this public art strategy, the goal is really to bring this in and come up with more very actionable, items to bring more art to the community.

Great. That's So so only just a quick question on the chocolate lab where the transistors are outside of the building. There is a flowchart drawn up nicely, and it was history that what came out of the chocolate lab or what other companies came out. Is that a artwork also? I think it's Yeah.

I think it's actually part of the same, like, on those art yeah. The same

It is outside on the Right. The inside is outside.

I think that's all part of the installation. Yeah.

Yeah.

Did.

So I just wanna make a note. I imagine we will need to extend maybe about, like, just five minutes because I do wanna give the performing arts committee an opportunity to make a quick presentation. And I will say this has come out of the interest from our committee and having greater ties with arts and performing arts. And, really, the three of us who are staff liaisons to these various committees are looking at ways that we can collaborate. So there may be some subcommittee opportunities, and also just we'll be bringing some ideas about ways that the three groups of of interested parties can work together. So I'll just quickly tee up the next presentation. We'll kind of sit through that. And then we do need to elect a chair and vice chair, especially because chair Shink will not be here next month, so one of you will have to

run the meeting. Meeting. Okay. Mine's very brief. Part of it is also just oh, I should introduce myself.

Yvonne. I'm the performing arts manager for the Center for the Performing Arts. I've been here about two and a half years now, like, even post pandemic.

And

You were here once in

the committee. I was here once. I know, but you guys are so early.

When you say

the meeting is at eight, I go AM.

Maybe there's two of them?

AM. You want me there at AM. So let me go through that. I'm gonna go through a really brief history just because I find it's it's one of those things that people ask me lots of questions. We opened in 1991. Theater Works Silicon Valley was performed in 1991. They're one of our home companies as that's how we refer to them here. Community School of the Arts, Theater Works Silicon Valley, and Scola Cantorum were all three, home companies in '93. Then we city council had a mandate that the season be balanced, with touring artists, which was, provided by the Friends of the Mountain View Center, which they no longer exist, unfortunately. 50% local professionals, home companies, and 25% amateur groups.

And then, of course, Peninsula Youth Theatre, which is now one of our home companies, performed in 1995. And then they became a home company, and it was our new home companies in '97 were Peninsula Youth Theater Works and Western Ballet. And then, of course, Theater Works did some stories on stage, which they continue to do. Those are children's performances for children, school groups. And then CPA began working with the visual arts committee in 1999 to hangy.

We got a little hang artwork in the lobby, and we continue to do that, and we're hoping to also expand from just the downstairs lobby to the upstairs balcony lobby. I need to get some lights and some hanging equipment to make that happen. And then CPA, we show where we don't care about that, that's how we sell our tickets. We had a twenty fifth anniversary in August 2016. I put that in because next year is 2026. It's our thirty fifth anniversary. So that's coming up. It'll be important. Erin Brockovich was scheduled to appear on our stage, but, of course, we had the dreaded pandemic and COVID, and that didn't happen. And the kind of the rest is history.

And then I came on board following that. But then all of this relates back to the structure of the CPA. One of the things that I find important to tell folks is that we do not program. We are strictly what we would call in the industry a four wall. We're a rental building, so you pay to play. So you come, you rent the building, and we puzzle as many artists and as many groups in our three stages as we possibly can. So basically, we have three different groups.

We have oh, you go ahead.

What is the capacity seating capacity of the

The main stage is 600. The second stage, which is known as a Black Box Theater, is a 150 to 200. And then we have Park stage in the back, which is a very small amphitheater space. Realistically, I know we say 300, but realistically, probably a 150 folks because it's very steeply sloped. The kids don't mind sitting on that slope, but the rest of us are, like, don't prefer not to.

So we really have three different kind of folks that use our facility, our venue, home companies, which, of course, get first choice, nonprofit organizations, and commercial organizations. Right now, in the past, I think we've had a lot more commercial organizations, using the facility, but we are so full capacity, especially main stage. We are over full. I turned away and this is post pandemic, which shocked me. First year I was here, we turned away four organizations, for the main stage. This last year, I turned away 12. I don't have the dates available

for the room.

Important to point out that the when I say dates, I say I should say primary dates because most folks do not wanna use the venue performing arts venue during latter June, mid June. It's kind of that's not primary. July and August, we're kinda quiet. But the rest of the time, it's dog eat dog. Everybody wants in.

So performing arts committee, our work plan for fiscal year twenty four, twenty five, ongoing work items, of course, is the role of us, the CPA, in the economic vitality of downtown and the support of the revitalization because I love the downtown, and discussion of possible collaborations with the downtown and visual arts committee. National Arts and Humanities Month, we always do a proclamation and annual home company presentations. The home companies are a program of the performing arts committee. So ongoing review, review of second stage, we're gonna, be doing that this coming up here. I've lost a committee member to counsel, so now I gotta replace.

So if anybody knows anybody wants to be a committee member for the performing arts committee. I appreciate letting your friends know. We'll be reviewing second stage for a reduced fee, kind of a grant program that we've had in the past, but we were not very transparent about it. So people didn't really know about it. So we're gonna be very transparent about it, get that out. So the second stage is slightly underutilized and could be used more, and I think of it as an incubator space because of its size. It's just a perfect space for someone who isn't looking to fill 600 seats. You know? It looks lovely when there's a 100 people in there.

It's also really nice for small presentations, things like that. Yeah. Yeah. It's great space.

It's a very nice it's a very multi purpose space. Review of the Art and Wine Festival, and that's in regards to how can the Performing Arts Center you know, how can the committee and how can we kinda collaborate and be supportive.

Thank you.

And that's pretty much it. Basically, in closing, my group was really looking forward to hopefully having an ad hoc committee. I think one of the things that my committee has mentioned is perhaps maybe having just a suggestion that was thrown out of having a reception for the artists that are in the gallery and that we could cohost and and do something that is all three committees working together in supporting what's going on with all three committees. So I will leave it at that.

Any member public?

We are not seeing very many people left online and none in the audience. Great.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Chris.

Thank you. You. On that for sure. Thank you.

So moving on to that's Two more minutes. Not seven. Not seven. Item seven four, election of the chair and vice chair. The The committee shall nominate and elect a new chair and vice chair for the 2025. Just right here, if I can say that I really appreciate all the committee input and from the committee and the public and all the hard work and staff doing that my I'm employed here with Sherry. They make it very easy. You know? Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A lot. So committee should nominate.

Go ahead. I'll make

I thought we were supposed to offer nominations.

Yeah. Oh, oh, okay. You wanna nominate. Okay. Yeah. I was gonna nominate, but it's okay. Go ahead. Yeah.

I nominate mister Kasperzak to move from vice chair to chair.

Before he second wants to. Before he second it, I just wanna say that, I mean, Mike has a fantastic vice chair. I mean, at the the agenda setup, you know, he had so many fantastic input, you know, yeah, knowledge and then based on great. Thank you very much, Mike. Fusion now. It was great. I'll I'll I'll second, Nick,

a second. That you wanna do it.

Yes. I am happy to serve again. And to continue to serve.

Any discussion? Anything? And no?

Well, if we're on public comment, I just wanna thank you for all that you have done. All the team. Great chair and have been been very instrumental in everything that this this committee has done. So thank you, and thank you also for all that you do in the community and all the walks that you do and and for throwing down the gauntlet on terms of the competition on Castro.

Yeah. Thank you, Peter. Thank you. So and let's take a vote on that one. And all in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any state? No. Great. Okay. So and then and then Very good. Election for the vice chair. Nominate nominations open for the vice chair.

So she served a lot I'm I'm not gonna do a whole city council nominating thing. I would like to nominate Pamela for vice chair. Okay.

And I if if if elected, I will I will I will serve. Okay.

I need a second. I second. I was gonna

say. Okay. Seconded it. Let's vote. All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? No? Aye. You. Congratulations. Congratulations. Mike? Great. So

what are we doing on membership? Oh, we've got a pretty solid crew here. But

Yeah. We we have had some new applications come through, but we do still need property owner and business owner representation. We had

And what's the status of the establishing resolutions and all of that stuff? That is very helpful. Has been very interested in participating.

That has been resolved. And so if you are a state downtown stakeholder but do not live in Mountain View, you can Okay.

Yeah. Applying. Yeah. It's good. Moving

on to

Just one quick second. Since we have trouble getting people to participate, do we wanna expand some of the categories like community at large or some other category. I know it's not on the agenda,

but that would be something for us to discuss. Okay. I'll add it to I'll look

into what might be possible in terms of massaging.

Yeah. Council. But I

know it's a council.

Yeah. Okay.

So moving on to item eight, comments committee staff comments, questions, committee reports.

That's where those comments fall off in eight.

My election will be taken on Mister mister

mister parliamentary.

On any questions raised by the committee at this time. Lee, Thomas?

I've conducted a walking tour, January 23. We had 11 people on it. I will not be doing a walking tour in February, but the next one will be in March.

Oh, great. I have only one comment is that that the streetlight on Castro And Church blew up last night, I think. I was walking by the intermittent who needs a new bowl.

It's your energy.

Number is I know. Number is 41044. Mhmm. Well, like Okay.

Great. Thank you. That one.

And any other comments? Any comments? Nope? Great. Thank you very much. This meeting is adjourned at 10:08, seven? Eight.