Downtown Committee - Regular Meeting

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Alright. Good morning, everybody, and we'll call the meeting to order at 08:03 of the Mountain View Downtown Committee. And this meeting is being conducted with a virtual component, and anyone wishing to address the committee virtually may join the meeting online or by dialing the numbers that are in the information packet. When the chair announces an item on which you wish to speak, click the raise hand feature in Zoom or dial 9 9 on your phone. And when the chair calls your name, you will be able to provide public input, and you will be limited to three minutes. Roll call.

Great. Thank you. Committee member Ryder.

Here.

Katz is absent. Stephanie Lynn is absent. Malera is absent. Sheik?

Here.

Vice chair Baird? Present. And chair Kasparzak?

Here. Great. Moving on number three, approval of the minutes. And the minutes were submitted with the packet. And if there are no corrections, a motion to adopt the minutes would be in order.

I'll make a motion to adopt.

Jamil? Second?

No. Let Dennis do it.

Are you the second, Dennis?

What are we doing?

Oh, we're approving the minutes.

Approving the minutes. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. Alright.

Moved by Jamil, seconded by Dennis.

Any public input? See no one online, and

we have just one person in the audience.

He's not public. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion carries unanimously. Next item on the agenda is upcoming agenda topics. And if you have any comments on that, Amanda?

No. There's a number of items here that we will discuss later this year, but nope. Nothing Okay.

And anything on that list or anything that is tickling anybody's creativity that they'd like to add to future agenda items?

Well, I would like to see this is the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of of declaration of independence. The city fifty years ago did an enormous amount of events. I was didn't hear then. Think, do you know what you said? '66? Yeah. Oh, but so any case, there were immense amount of, activities. The period actually, the planning started in 1975 and then throughout

We're not discussing it. What's your agenda item?

My agenda item is I would like to make sure that the city is doing something to commemorate the two hundred and fiftieth and maybe a flashback to what happened in the two hundred. Let

me bring back council member Nell because she was her first job here is working Yes. On the on the bicentennial community. The city. Yeah. Janette.

I have a lot of committee members and also couple of businesses mentioned that they'd like to see more of something, like, active. Like, people come by. They teach you how to play drums and things like this. And there is somebody who mentioned one of the business person that they they know somebody who teaches the they call it sport dancing thing.

The line dancing.

The line dancing.

Yes. Yes. I do some communications with that same person.

Okay. Great. Let's yeah. Okay. And then

Okay. So better. More act more more activation. I do like the idea of line dancing, though. It's super fun.

Oh, I enjoy the one. Thanks.

Okay.

Might as well. Okay. We'll close item number four, and move on to oral communications from the public. And this portion of the meeting is reserved for a person's wishing to address the committee on any matter not on today's agenda. Speakers are limited to three minutes, and state law prohibits the committee from acting on any nonagendized items that are brought up. And anybody online? Council member McAllister? Alright. Then we will close communications and move on to item number six, which is unfinished business and 6.1, Castro Street updates.

Go ahead. Well, I was as I chatted with some of you before the meeting began. Of course, Amanda I'm Amanda Rutella. I'm the economic vitality manager. But there is a lot happening on Castro Street, so some exciting updates to share. And, actually, I see our economic development strategist, Kirsten Hines, is on. Do you wanna speak to the Ballard Beautification project and just provide a quick update on that?

Yeah. Sure. So Kirsten Hines, economic development strategist. So I think it was in August 2024, the Visual Arts Committee selected, several artists to paint bollards around along Castro Street. The project ended up, pausing due to some issues with the Contractor State Licensing Board.

And after the a senate bill passed exempting muralists from needing to get a contractor's license, we were able to move the project forward. So Anne Sophie Gaudet in this photo, finished painting two bollards at the Hundred Block next to Eureka and Agave just last week. And then we had two artists start in the 200 Block over the weekend. Zoe Karen, she's painting next to Red Rocks and, The Odd Fellows space. And then, Catherine Lu, she's painting next to Nick the Greek and Easy Foods.

And then, we'll have two more artists painting in the 300 Block in the next few weeks. So there's gonna be kind of a full month of activation, which happens to fall right in art, culture, and creativity month.

And so this has been really exciting because artists are actually, you know, creating wild stuff that's happening in the downtown. We walked down a couple days ago, and there were little kids chatting with the artist. And she was explaining about what she was doing. So not only are we getting these beautiful art pieces, but it's the it's a form of activation where people are getting to watch art in real time. So so

I walked from the train station, and I saw the bollards, and it put a little smile on me. Have no more.

Have to add it to your walking tour.

That's right. Oh, yeah.

And so another art update in the downtown. Kristen, do wanna take this

as well? Oh, Chris, before you go ahead with that, just on the bollards and speaking of you walking over from train station. So I know you can't make a left turn off of Evelyn onto Castro because of, I think, of the, you know, the the median and stuff there. But the bollards are becoming sort of an entry feature to the pedestrian mall area. And might it make sense to put a couple bollards really at Evelyn And Villa as well or somewhere

Decorative bollard?

A decorative bollard just to to carry the theme all the way through the recreational or the the pedestrian mall area.

Yeah. So, originally, we did have six artists, and there were there was art that was gonna go down there. You You know, as Kirsten mentioned, this has been a a long horizon, and we did lose one of the artists. So we could look at, you know, doing another call or possibly going back to the list. One thing to note is the public works department is working on a number of intersection improvements that includes Evelyn. And so the lay Ballard layout and how that's set up is likely to change, but it's certainly something we could look at after the the plans have been established. It just But I agree. The gateway.

Because that is sort of the gateway into town, especially if you're coming in on public transit. But right now, it feels like the back door.

Yeah. I I definitely hear what you're saying. And to that end, we have some art that did show up at the train depot. So on that on that side of town, Kristen, do you wanna talk a little bit about this?

Yes. Definitely. Yeah. Another year and a half in the making project. So Arts Mountain View is a a local nonprofit.

Their goal is to put more murals in Mountain View and in Downtown Mountain View, and they came to the city after getting a grant from Valley Transportation Authority to put art near downtown near the transit center. So they came to the city asking for to collaborate on this project. They worked with the visual arts committee to search for artists. They got advice from the Mountain View Historical Association on the each of these panels features kind of different time periods of Mountain View and different things that happened in the city. And so, the art was ultimately designed by John Patrick Thomas and then printed onto these panels that were just installed onto the building last week, and it makes the space look so nice and fun and vibrant, it really just kind of livens up that area.

Do you wanna add anything? Know we worked with the historical.

Yeah. It was actually fun, and it was fun with the artist as well because, you know, there were a couple of things that we thought weren't quite right, like the the shape of a hat on a figure, the size of fruit in a in a in a basket that somebody was carrying. So we were tweaking that. And then we had provided a lot of input. So and then that to the best of my knowledge, there's gonna be a panel with a QR code on each one of them to explain images they're supposed to reference.

And just to to note, this is just one side. There is panels on the other side as well.

So total eight panels, I think, would be that.

And we are working on a ribbon cutting event, so we'll keep you all posted.

Yes. Let us know about the ribbon cutting. I talked to Anita or emailed her last week, but my little brain can't remember. But there is a ribbon, so make sure

that You let the chamber know so we get all our catheters and

portaits down.

It's very well.

As well. So

I heard that it's very nice to walk back and forth there and see that thing. But right across around the corner right there, the waiting room, the benches and everything, we have it's it's terrible. It's mess up there, you know, like, a lot of and then county sheriff's, I saw them, and they were kind of talking to them and moving them people around. And they asked them, hey. You're moving them. Do you have any place? Where are you taking it? Where do you want them to go? You know? But they didn't have any answer. You know? And also it's kind of just I mean, all of a sudden, when you see it, when people walk in, then this is not the True. Thing. Yeah. Challenging thinking. So

I will say we are we are coordinating with service providers to, you know, to visit that area and provide services and and research resource referral at that site. But, obviously, people have to wanna take us up on those resources or be ready to.

Yeah. Alright.

More place making happening in downtown. So as part of our downtown in motion branding campaign that we have in the downtown, which is really centered around some of the construction communication, we are wanting to bring some fun elements in. And so actually starting this morning at 9AM, we're gonna start adding some fun decorative elements to some of the planner boxes in the downtown. So currently, you can see on the side there, there's that city of Mountain View logo, and so they're just standard black planner boxes with the logo. We're just adding some fun elements.

We are looking at ways that we can do wraps on vacant storefronts and bring other colorful elements to construction, siding, and fencing. So this is sort of the first little execution of of this branding coming to downtown. So we're we're excited about that and more to come.

Yeah. There's

two buildings. Two buildings. Yeah.

Two of them.

There's two buildings that have plywood fronts, so there's plenty of space available. Yeah.

Well and it's really exciting to see some of the one of our vacant storefronts, the old plastic building. It's gonna be transformed. MELIQs. Yeah. MELIQs are they're North American headquarter or showroom form.

So I I peeked through it, and inside of the plastic, it's just gutted Oh, yeah. Completely. Yeah. And and I was thinking about the tap plastic. That was my favorite story. You know?

I didn't

design the only project with that. More than fries? Oh, yeah. Fries is like I

work downtown.

I mean, yeah, I I still have thing on designing that.

Yeah. That's gonna be exciting. Yeah.

Very exciting. Just a note that the games are back. So with warm weather, we get to have games come back on. So we've got the mini golf is back out, the foosball table, the cornhole. So exciting to see downtown coming back and ready for the spring and summer season. Music on Castro is also back, so it started last week. That's Wednesday nights at the 200 Block, and you can see sort of the April lineup here, and that will continue throughout the summer. Birthday festival is coming in just a week or two here. We'll be here at the Civic Center Plaza right out front, and there's gonna be all sorts of activations and games. You can, as you can see, interact with big bugs.

And, yeah, there's gonna be a lot of community partners there, so it should be a really fun time. In the run up to World Cup, we have launched our business survey. So we're working closely with the chamber on engaging businesses around the World Cup. And similar to what we did around Super Bowl, we're gonna create a FanFest map so businesses can submit their activations that they activations and deals that they might have. We're gonna create a map that'll be interactive and allow you to click and see deals.

And then we also have we're gonna create an a calendar of events. So we saw last time places like Saint Stephen's Green were doing trivia nights and Super Bowl karaoke nights. And so we figured activities like that would make more sense on a calendar versus a map, so we're gonna have both resources available. And we actually had over 8,000 views of the Super Bowl map. So even with a pretty short run up, there was a lot of engagement there, which is kind of exciting.

So I'll say emails are an email blasts are going out this week to businesses that we have on the chamber and city business distribution list, and then the business ambassadors are gonna go back out and knock on doors like this one. Alright.

That's me. Alright. So in early March, the city council approved changes to the facade improvement grant program. These are some of the changes. They raised the reimbursement rate from 50% to 75%.

Nonprofits and office spaces can now use the program, and I know that the Ogg Fellows had expressed interest in using this program to kind of redo their their frontage on on the corner there. We removed the improvement tiers because previously, businesses could only, like, paint or get signage or get a new door. And now we've blown out those tiers, and, they can use the maximum amount of the, grant. And the city council also directed staff to target outreach towards downtown and some historical buildings, we did some outreach. I just outreached about two weeks ago, promoting the webinar, which we have coming up on Thursday.

So we'll be hosting this webinar on Zoom. We will also record it to put on the website. We'll have translation available in Spanish and Chinese, and, we'll just be able to answer any questions the businesses might have about how to use the program and how to access the design services. And we've been promoting this through the business, newsletter and some flyers and

Social media.

Social media.

Chamber.

We have nine businesses registered now. So, if you know any businesses that would like to take advantage of this program, please encourage them to come to the webinar on Thursday, or we will send out the recording after it is done. And we have revamped the application process a little bit. We have new materials, and we're developing a new grant agreement. But, essentially, the business is gonna come, express their interest, and we're going to assess if they need design services or not so that we can kind of triage them into sending them to work with mDesigns.

The city, has engaged them as our as the designer, or we can just get them up started right away. The business pays for the improvements, and then we reimburse them up to 75%, up to 15,000. So, I had put an example on another slide, but we can if you have questions, we can talk about different examples.

Yeah. So is there any oversight on what the front facade improvement would look like? In other words, if somebody wanted to paint something bright chartreuse green, would that be about? Is that Yeah.

Has to be aligned with the planning department's design standards and the sign sign permitting. And, yeah, they do have to get permits through planning or building depending on what they're proposing to do.

And I will say, you know, specifically in the downtown, we have had projects that we've had to modify to fit with the design standards in the downtown, and the planning department's been a great resource in helping projects sort of ensure that they're in compliance

with our plan.

And what how many participating businesses would you consider that to be a success? Did you have a certain goal where we wanna have 15 businesses participating or do you have

In the webinar or the program in general?

Both. Yeah.

I would say in for the program in general, one of the things that the way that I envision this program is we want it to be an ongoing tool. So we wanna stretch the money for as long as we have. It's really helpful to us to have this program in our tool belt when we're working with businesses and identify that they need resources. This grant program is one of the ways that we can provide financial resources. So I would also say from a capacity standpoint, we just we've had a steady steam stream of projects we've worked with.

And, also, as Tony said, we're doing the triage. We're accompanying them through the permitting process. So it's a high touch program from staff's perspective. So having a program or two that we're working with, you know, year round is is is, from a capacity standpoint, a really good place to be. I believe we've given out nine or 10 grants so far, and I know Kristen's on, so she'll remind me.

But, you know, we continue to go back to council for additional funding each year so that we can continue to have this program. So I'd say that the program's been highly successful. We've been able to work with a number of businesses already, and our goal would just be to continue to be working with businesses doing targeted outreach and breaking this resource forward. In terms of the webinar, having almost nine businesses is amazing. I mean, as I'm sure many of you know, businesses are really business owners are really busy. And so to get them to sign up and identify that this is a program that they wanna learn more about is really excellent. As I said, we will be recording it, which will make it accessible to even more business owners, which is great. But, yeah, nine is amazing. Yeah. Kristen, do you wanna add anything?

Yeah. Just that we so we've supported 14 projects. I think it's five are still in progress. Nine have been finished. So we we have been able to help quite a few businesses so far.

So would we could you send us the link to that Zoom call afterwards so if any Oh, yeah. Meeting members were just kinda curious to see what what was involved. Sure.

Yeah. And if you have the time, please feel free to join us.

I have a question. So there are some businesses who have taken advantage of this program and all that. So where I'm going with this at that is there any business done and willing you could showcase? You can tell other businesses that, oh, talk to your neighbor or somebody. Because when my business was certified, he's certified, then people will they went up there, send them to the other laundromat, was it laundromat? And they wouldn't talk to them. So I went up there and talked to them as they were more receptive to it. The only question was, why are you telling us do this? Because we're competitors. You know? But but besides that, they were more receptive. We should put them in a future downtown

update. Some early adopters like East West Books and Red Rock have both used this program, so I think that there are some real examples we can point to. And it's also very scalable, which I think we really wanna communicate. We took away the minimum of how much grant you have to access. So, you know, if you're willing to put in $500 for signs, you could get $2,000 worth of signage for your for your business, and I think that that's a really significant investment. So, yes, definitely, we need our business ambassadors to be communicating this program, and there are some real examples we can point to, definitely.

And I will say mDesign, who's our design consultant, had has been a great ambassador for this. I mean, he's been marching around to his neighbors in the downtown, encouraging them to take advantage of the program, offering his services. Yeah. Yeah. And so, Janit, he's been a really great ally and ambassador for the program, and offering real time help, which has been great. Yeah. Yeah.

Just to piggyback off of this, you know, like, to if you wanna continue to get, business ambassadors out there, just ambassadors to talk about it, it would be good to have, like I mean, before or after pictures, if it's scalable, what are the different examples that

they

can point to Mhmm. That they can share? Because, you know, is it just a is it, like, is it paint? Is it sign? And what are the different examples of various businesses that they can compare themselves to that they align themselves with? Yeah.

That's a great idea.

Like St. Stephen's Green or Don Giovanni's. I mean, those used to just be concrete facades. Mhmm. You know? And now they look old English and blah blah blah.

So And the East

West way more than 17,000.

I mean, East West and Redwood Redwood. Red Rock are two businesses that I think people trust that have been here for a long time. So if they were successful through it, it just leads volumes to the program.

I do have some before and after photos of the East West specifically, which I think made a big difference just redoing their awning. And then we're working with another business right now that has a very bad awning that's gonna get replaced. And I think that will be a very dramatic example to point to because some of these awnings are they get sun faded and moldy. And so here. Yeah. And, also, if there's businesses that you're seeing out in the downtown that you're like, hey. This company could use a little facelift. Come tell me, and I'll I'll you know, we can do outreach, and we can work with them to get that. Yeah.

And I'd say citywide. Just citywide. Yeah. Anything citywide. Great. Yeah.

Just being the downtown. Yeah. Yeah.

But as you all move here,

for people to realize for x amount of dollars, you can go from this to that. Sure. That most people wouldn't have any idea of what does that mean, how would that

transform your storage. Thank you.

Alright. This is the last slide for the update.

Any other questions or comments on the, downtown update? And is there any public input or comment?

We have business, Harrison.

Don't want Not downtown?

Think he

has a comment.

Did you have a comment, Mr. McAllister?

Questions.

I know

he can't respond. But is the permit over the counter? Are we gonna make

it that easy so they can be over the counter instead of elaborate drawings?

For facade projects. Because each of facade project is different, sometimes it is an awning. Sometimes they wanna do a more significant, like, ADA door, you know, swapping out their door to be more ADA compliant. So it really runs the gamut. And because we do have to be in compliance with, you know, building code and our our planning process, it's not over the counter, but you have economic development staff walking with you every step of the way.

Okay. Seeing nothing else, then thank you very much. We will now move on to item seven, new business, and item 7.1, the entertainment zone pilot program.

Alright. That's me again.

Which looks

really interesting. Alright. Thank

you. So today, it's a short presentation, but I wanna provide an overview of entertainment zones, what they are, share a little bit of some other city information about other cities that have entertainment zones, and then I'll detail the proposed entertainment zone that will be going to city council for a first reading

next week.

Oh, excuse me. Excuse me. So we are utilizing relatively new legislation. So this is just from two years ago, and then the state passed this legislation, f b nine six nine, allowing cities to create entertainment zones. It was built off of former legislation that just applied to the city and county of San Francisco.

But an entertainment zone is you can see here, defined as an area where open consumption of alcohol is allowed on public streets, sidewalks, right of ways during specified days and hours. So essentially creating a open container area within a city. And it authorizes the brick and mortar businesses within that zone that have, you know, applicable ABC licenses to serve alcohol and for people to leave the premise with open containers into the entertainment zone. And there are a number of cities that have entertainment zones or or and or are exploring them. So, again, given that this is relatively new legislation, there are just a handful of cities that, we we did some research on that have explored this.

Obviously, San Francisco was an early adopter. They have over 15. You can see it in the image there, some of the different zones that they have. San Jose has eight entertainment zones. As you know, Palo Alto, just one of their committees reviewed this, and they're exploring, entertainment zones.

But you can see a number of different cities here are using them for special event activation. They're doing pilot programs for, you know, for special events and using it as ways to activate their downtowns. And so Mountain View is exploring this as part of our tool kit for activation around the World Cup, but we wanna be able to really see how this works for Mountain View, and so we're proposing an eighteen month pilot. This will, in our minds, allow us to get through two summer seasons in the downtown. And to start off for this pilot program, it's only gonna be for city hosted events.

So only the city can activate the entertainment zone for city events. Again, we wanna use it as a tool for World Cup activation. Excuse me. And you can see some of the goals. You know? So, again, this is a tool for activating down downtown. We wanna really increase revenue for businesses and use this as a greater economic catalyst. One of the things that's really great about this as an economic development tool is that only the brick and mortar businesses in the zone can serve alcohol. And so it really allows the businesses that are here that have invested in Mountain View to take advantage of this. And, certainly, we want to continue to amplify Mountain View as a vibrant cultural hump where people wanna come and spend time and spend money.

And so as part of this state law, you have to establish the boundary in your ordinance. And so we are proposing the one to 500 blocks of Castro Street. Now the how it will actually play out in practice is that we will be activating portions of the entertainment zone. So I can't imagine there would be many events where we would activate the entirety of the entertainment zone, but we wanna get an approval for these five blocks so that we can use it for different events. So for example, for World Cup activations, we may activate, we're looking to activate the one and two hundred blocks of Castro Street.

And so, again, this would allow us to say, okay. For the city event, these two blocks are an entertainment zone for for these hours. Now we've talked to the community services department, and an idea that they put out there was, oh, let's activate the entertainment zone for the Cornhole League. And so that takes place on the 300 Block Of Castro, and so that would allow them to utilize that for that specific specific event or other events that take place on different parts of the downtown. So we're getting approval for this big area, and then we can activate per event based on the needs of the event and and in collaboration with the police department around what what is manageable from a safety life and safety standpoint.

The other thing we have to establish, for the ordinance is the hours. And so, again, we are asking for the max that we would want knowing that we will we will sort of rightsize how long the entertainment zone is activated based on the event. So we're getting approval for seven days a week, 8AM to 11PM. But, again, we will likely be activating the entertainment zone for shorter hours. So for example, the Cornhole League is in the evening.

So we're not gonna have the entertainment zone going from 8AM to 11PM. It'll go from probably five to eight when the Cornhole League activations are taking place. The other thing is that businesses are restricted by their personal ABC license. So if a business if the entertainment zone is activated from 8AM to 11PM, but they they're only approved to serve from noon to two, they can only serve from noon to two. So they're restricted by their personal ABC license.

I have a question. Yeah. Why so early in the morning? We want people drinking at 8AM. And you can have

a box somewhere. Pardon. It's my box

somewhere. Yeah. I'm glad you worked up.

Well, I can see we did do some research about what other cities are doing. So you can see here, you know, San Jose and Santa Monica. Again, whether we actually do a brunch entertainment zone or not, we wanted to just give ourselves max flexibility during this pilot project so that we could, we would have the opportunity to explore all the opportunities. Do we do a brunch entertainment zone? Maybe not.

I don't know.

How how early does the, art and wine festival start?

For me or for

Ten or eleven.

It's ten or eleven.

Okay. Yeah.

So, I mean, in practice, we likely won't have many 8AM events. But since we saw other cities, you know, we're utilizing that, we thought for this pilot, let's just give ourselves the flexibility. So just as a a quick recap. So the law requires us to establish three things per ordinance. So we have to establish the boundary, the hours, and the types of allowed alcohol.

We are as I shared the boundary, the hours, and we're going to allow beer, wine, and spirits to be to be consumed in that in line with how most entertainment zones are are are playing out, partly because it's hard to monitor. What what do you have in that cup? You know? I need a sip. You know, for ease of enforcement, we're making it easy for ourselves.

The other thing that we have to do is is establish an operations manual. So this is an administrative procedural level. We're bringing a draft to council to review, but it's something that that staff will will develop and in collaboration with our fire police and fire department. But it has things like signage. So we're gonna signage at every entrance and exit to the entertainment zone, letting people know what the entertainment zone is, letting them know they can't take alcohol outside of the outside of the permitted zones.

We're gonna have boundary monitors. So depending on the events, it may be police, security, or volunteers. We'll work with police about what makes the most sense. We we'll collaborate with them on the safety plan. We'll work in close collaboration with each business to ensure that they understand the rules and what their responsibilities are.

The businesses will be responsible for IDing people and providing a wristband at the point of sale. So they are will be checking to ensure that, you know, they're only serving people who are allowed to be served. And they also have some responsibility for their patio outdoor patio orders, for their businesses, for the area directly, you know, around their business. So we really wanna work in partnership with businesses and want to kind of impress on them the importance of this of of following the rules so that this can be a successful pilot and something that we consider permanently.

Yeah.

One thing I don't see on there is cleanup afterwards. I can see people throwing their plastic wrap up, up part of the ordinance or the manual.

So because it's city events, there will be city staff running these events, and we'll we'll as with any city event, cleanup and setup and cleanup will be a part of the overall event plan. I will say that the cups that they have to be served in have to be in compliance with our compostable, rules, and so they'll be serving compostable containers. We'll work with our, solid waste team to ensure that there is enough trash trash cans. Especially in the downtown, we don't have very many trash cans, and so that would require us to have more trash receptacles. Yeah.

I have a question too. So you mentioned that this is is it event specific, or are you aiming for those seven days a week?

It's event specific. Event specific. Yeah. So by getting approval for seven days a week, we could do something on a Thursday. We can do something on a Saturday, but the event the entertainment zone is only activated for a specific event.

Got it.

And so we would be very clear. Okay. It's happening this weekend, two to five. The entertainment zone is active. We've got boundaries. We've got signage. The business is a big event, wristbands. And then as soon as the entertainment zone the hours have ended, it goes back to being a normal street. Normal rules apply, and police can enforce alcohol being outside of the businesses.

Got you, Mel.

So I have a name for it. It's I think we should call it mini pop up festivals.

Mini pop up festivals.

So my my question was that how about is is there any extra expense, lot of extra expense to city? Does businesses have to or city has to get any special insurances and all that because of alcohol?

Yeah. So it's a great, it's a great question. It's something that we'll have we are looking at the added expenses. For example, having additional police presence on-site does have a does have a cost to it. It's something that we're absorbing into our World Cup activation plans. That extra cost, certainly, extra trash receptacles, extra staff time. We'll work with the community services department to ensure proper insurance. But, yeah, there is there is a cost. And so one of the things that we will be looking at is the economic benefit versus the cost that we might incur from, pursuing this tool. But, yeah, it's a great question. Yeah. So

in other places like San Francisco, clearly, or other, are they are they doing event specific EZs as well, or are they sort of just more generalized

Yeah. So in other cities, so San Francisco, for example, you can apply to activate the entertainment zone as part of a special events permit. So they're all they're all of them are special event permit sort of integrated, but they so but in San Francisco and San Jose, for example, outside event producers can come in and get a special event. So it's not specific to city hosted events. Other places are allowing out outside event producers.

It's not like I mean, in Los Altos, you know, they they're they're like a con continuous easy. Right.

It's not a continuous easy. Okay.

Yeah. Just an example, the Chase Center, the arena entertainment zone, you can only drink outside when there's a game. So if there's an event at the Chase Center, then it's active. All other times, if you go down there during the week, you have to keep it within, like, the patio and within their kind of area. So that's just one way that they're using it in, like, kind of a, like, open ended, but not really. It's just very specific to when the doors of the Chaise Center are open.

That's a good example.

Alright.

Just as a comment, because I know this is a pilot, and then I don't know in staff's mind how long you know, after the eighteen months, you know, how long it will take to deliberate and then present. And, you know, I I I would encourage sort of as as part of the new abundance philosophy is, you know, be evaluating while you're going so that, okay, the eighteen months is up, and we're gonna be back in the council in a month.

Mhmm.

You know, as opposed to now we need a year to evaluate everything that we did during the last eighteen months.

Yeah.

You know, that, you know, sort of kills it seems to kill the effort. So I would really encourage sort of it to be, you know, how's this working while we're going, and what are we learning that we can incorporate and maybe tweak during the period so that it's almost I mean, actually, nothing says you have to wait till the very end of eighteen months to go back to counsel. It's working great. Let's do it.

Yeah. No. It's a great point, and it's part of why we're we're doing eighteen months so we can really start evaluating immediately. Right? We'll have this first summer season where we're hoping to activate it in a handful of different places. And so we'll have lots of good information by October and still another year worth of runway that the program will be running. So it'll give us opportunities. Again, by giving us self or giving ourselves eighteen months, we'll have opportunities to start evaluating very quickly. And I will say the way our pilot entertainment zone was a little easier to set up. A permanent one will require more codification and a more robust ordinance, so it will require it will take longer than this one has to pull together. But to your point doing all that?

You and I you

you and I can work on it together, Mike. You wanna be our intern? Sure.

But to be honest, I mean, coming from the hospitality industry because alcohol sales have been plummeting.

Yeah.

So stuff like this can actually be a real business attractor ultimately where then more people are willing, but it has to be a permanent license then, I think. It couldn't be like, hey. I can sell alcohol, like, on Sundays from that time to that time.

More of

a ultimately get it listed, yeah, I think that would be a good real attractor for business.

Okay. I think sorry. It was That's a big I think it's really exciting. Mhmm. And I think that we also need to just make sure that we continuously engage the businesses and if there's opportunity to engage, like, outside the business to play. Because I think that in the beginning, there's might be some trial and error. And I think we wanna make sure that we have the businesses buy in and trust into it. If it's something that is brand new, but I think it I think long term, it could have a lot of benefits. And as the city is looking to do, like, more mini pop ups or put

Mhmm.

The phrase list.

Mini pop up festivals.

Mini pop up festivals or, like, makers fairs or, you know, if ever down the line, we have, like, a first Friday or first Thursday or something to that effect, I think this could really help boost having people out there. So

Like, you could have that, Oktoberfest instead of being in. By

all means. That's true.

One of the things I will say, it is different than a special event permit because in the case if we were to activate for the Oktoberfest, outside vendors could not come in. Only people only businesses within that footprint can serve alcohol. So it's sort of the balance. There'll be some events where a special event permit will make sense. There'll be some where the entertainment zone makes sense, but it is an important nuance.

Are you thinking in terms of special events like like the concert

Wednesdays? On concert. Oh. Well, concerts

on the Plaza or the the other ones that you do sort of do not doubt.

Mhmm. Music on Castro. Yeah.

That that would be an easy zone during the conference. Or are you thinking, you know, more highly restricted, you know, special events?

Yeah. So I'll say, specifically, before World Cup, we're working on a activated weekend, a Saturday and Sunday. World Cup is sort of a special case because of the amount of people we're we're anticipating and the energy around World Cup. So we're working with the police department to really come up with a plan that feels really manageable and then a scenario where we can really where where safety can be really the man can be managed. I'd say in general, though, in terms of utilizing this for other events, the community services department was one of the, you know, internal bidders of this, and they're really excited at the at have as excited about having this as a tool for some of their events.

So they started thinking about I mean, they were the ones that threw out the Cornhole League. Oh, could we do it for something like that? And, you know, the Cornhole League takes place right outside of Ludwig. So there's, like, a perfect marrying there of, you know, interest. So so I think they're thinking really creatively. They're interested to see ways that it can be activated. Again, to Jamil's point, there is gonna be we're gonna have to really assess the added cost from adding from adding this layer onto different special events. But, again, that's part of why we have this pilot so we can really explore that.

Is is that level I'll use the term jet loosely of policing. Is that common with the other communities doing this, or is that something that we're being more focused on?

I would say in it varies. And so in conversations with our police department, for example, we'll assess how much is really needed per event. Like a Cornhole League, you know, maybe private security would be fine, maybe staff with police, you know, a police officer nearby. We'll kind of look at what scale of police presence for World Cup. The police department, I think, similar to a lot of other cities in the region, is being really conservative.

And they're making plans, you know, with you know, safety is feeling like a real concern. And so we're taking a conservative approach, and I think other, which is in line with what other cities are doing. But we'll look and see realistically what's needed for other events. Like, you know, in talking with the the police department about a formal league, they're less concerned. And so the police cost or the safety cost would be significantly for an event like that. But, again, we're we're gonna be working in close collaboration on an event by event basis to really ensure that they're feeling comfortable. Because, again, to have a successful entertainment zone, we really need to have, you know, our police colleagues on board and feeling good about it. Yeah.

Yeah. Coming from Europe. In Europe, this is pretty common, right, where you drink on these entertainment miles. Like Germany, it's usually the other way around. So where the laws are super loose, but then once a World Cup game is then it becomes very restrictive. Yeah.

Yeah. So I think we're taking a similar approach.

Yeah. I was just gonna ask. I understand why, as of right now, it would be city only events. You guys are taking the lead on this. And, but if if it were to be successful, is that something that you guys would look into with collaborating with, like, the DBA to use it for different events be something

Yeah.

Definitely, it's one of the things that we would explore would be having this option to for people getting special event permits to be able to activate the entertainment zone. And then certainly, we have to come up with, you know, what what becomes the responsibility of the event producer versus the city, and and all of that can be sorted, and we have lots of good examples. But that's definitely something we'll explore. Uh-huh. Because I think, really, in to for this to be really successful, we need a lot of partners to help make it work, and certainly, the city has limited capacity in what we can do.

And so by welcoming in outside event producers like the Downtown Business Association or the chamber, it could be another way to really, yeah, have have the have the ability to really see this as a as a real strong tool for economic development and for for Mountain View. I will say, given how fast we had to move for World Cup, I had to take the easiest path forward. And so by limiting it to city events, this allowed us to move really quickly. Yeah. We're moving very quickly. And and

and I would, again, just just encourage, you know, you and the rest of the departments working on this is, you know, it sounds like a great deal that that, you know, the tendency is to start to over control, you know, just this is the way we do it. Yeah. Now you gotta do And so if if everybody perceives this as, oh my god. It's such a great idea, but that's such a pain to do even once it, like, opens up. I mean, if it's only the city, it's gonna be great for businesses that are in those blocks, but nobody else is gonna see the benefit if we're not moving things around the downtown core where the e z is.

And so, again, you know, we need to be messaging that this this is a pilot. It's probably it's more restrictive than we intended to be should this go forward. But this is also meant to be something that's easily accessible for you know, to activate the downtown. And we don't wanna be known for this sort of thing as we're now known in the building and permitting world as, you know, a special place in hell. So

Well, I will say, certainly, by by linking it to a special event permit, it would be an easy way to activate it. But, again, you know, given how quick we had to move

Well, yeah. I But

I but I agree. For the first when we when we look at the permanent, when we look at the permanent Head Mall, mean, certainly, would be a discussion we could have here at the committee is analyzing how things have gone, what makes the most sense. I mean, right now, only Mountain View nonprofits can get special event permits. And so there is there are some controls. So for us, that could be a really easy next step to explore.

Yeah. Yeah. And, ultimately, if the community likes it, you know, they're gonna wanna see it. And if you only see it three times a year, it's gonna go, yeah, that was a big bet.

So we'll

so we'll we'll see. We'll we will have a lot of information probably in about the next six months.

Right. I think and I think, notwithstanding Debbie Downer, I think it's a great idea, and I think, you know, pulling this together is great. So I

appreciate that.

Well, it's interesting because the little cup forces you to put this thing in place and Yeah. Going and get it figured out. So that's good to a point where we're not overanalyzing it. And then

Yeah. It's been to that point. I mean, having the World Cup as our big motivator has allowed us to move a lot quicker than a lot of cities. There are a lot of cities who aspire to have entertainment zones for the World Cup, but because we felt that it was an a priority, we we had a lot of internal support and energy and prioritized capacity to make this work and make it move so quickly. And so to that end, this is our timeline.

We are going to introduce the ordinance at the April 14 city council meeting. It's tentatively scheduled to be adopted at the following meeting on April 28, And then it requires thirty days to go into effect, so it'll be in effect on May 28. Kind of prior to that, sort of April 28 to when we use it, we'll be working closely with the chamber to do outreach to businesses who are eligible to apply to be to participate in the entertainment zone. They do have they're gonna have to be, you know, well informed about the op with the operations manual. They're gonna have to notify ABC of their intent to participate.

So there are a couple of steps. And then, again, we are tentatively looking at, the weekend of July to as our first activation in the downtown.

So, not knowing what teams will be playing, is there a way that but let's assume it's the German. Can we get the German community to do some extra things? Or is that would that be outside people that would not be invited? So

Yeah. So I I think we're, you know, we're planning to do place making in the entirety of the downtown. So have, you know, soccer themed decorations and decor and photo moments happening throughout the downtown. We don't know who will be playing on the eighteenth and nineteenth. It's the bronze and final, but it'll be the final game. So we're hoping to have some excitement and energy around these being the big games. But certainly, as we get closer and we start to get a sense of it, we'd love to find opportunities to collaborate if we have, you know, we do have a a large, you know, German population. So is there a way to engage them? Again, we'll have to be, you know, careful about who we invite from outside and who's allowed to serve, you know, because, again, we can't have outside alcohol vendors. But as we get closer, we'll have more information.

The other thing I will say is, you know, we're we're looking at activate you know, activations around this weekend, in activating the entertainment zone. We're still working with FIFA to get approval to show the game, so it could play out in a in a variety of different ways what that weekend actually looks like.

Meaning to do public viewings for the games. Yeah.

Yeah. You have to I'm currently going back and forth with FIFA around what we'd like to do to get their approval. You know, the alternative is, you know, think Steven's Green has TVs, then there's ways to get you know, really promote watching in in the businesses and maybe having other activities out on the street. So we're looking at a variety of different ways that that might play

out. Yeah.

Should I ask, is there any public input online?

I don't see anyone online.

And is there any public input? Nope. Alright. Any last comments or questions for Steph? Would you like a motion of support? Would that help, or does

Yeah. Absolutely. This is going on consent, but oftentimes, when we get counsel questions, it's it's helpful to be able to share if path committees have seen it. And if you're supportive, I

would welcome. Is is there a motion of encouragement anybody wants to make?

Yep. I think it's a great idea.

Yeah. So I heard that is. Yes. I moved that we adopt a motion to support the easy zone. And

that we volunteer to go.

Is there a second?

I like that. Frank put that in the official notes.

All right, Pamela. You're the designee. Is there a sec Second. A second by Jamil. All in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed, nay. Hearing none, the motion carries unanimously.

Great. Thank you. Thank you all. Appreciate that.

That is exciting. Okay. Anything else in new business?

Anything else in new business?

That was

our big item.

Okay. Item number eight, committee and staff comments, questions, committee reports, etcetera.

So I have a question. We didn't have construction update, permit updates like we normally do.

An update.

Yeah. So in our last at our last meeting, we decided they would come quarterly. And so I believe they'll be here next month with updates or neck our next meeting with updates.

And when is our next meeting?

What's up?

I wrote I wrote it down because we're meeting in sort of odd cadence and non cadence. I'm pretty sure we meet in May. Yes. We do meet in May. We've got this string of meetings. We meet April, May, and June, and then we're off July and August. One

thing I wanted to just ask about actually two things. One was, do we have a and maybe for a a follow-up report is post pandemic downtown lunches, you know, lunchtime seems really dead. And it seemed to be and now we're just getting into summer, so the winter. But, you know, I'm just curious about, you know, what the downtown lunchtime business is like now compared to, like, pre pandemic. And, you know, is staff aware of that?

Is staff is the city doing anything about that? That sort of thing. It just it seems like a whole different dynamic than it was, and I think we have lost some major employers in the downtown area. So I just thought that would be interesting. The other thing is just the status update.

I have brought up the idea of should the city transition the downtown committee, which used to be the oversight committee of the revitalization district originally. Now that we have a citywide economic vitality manager, would it make more sense for the committee to be an a citywide economic vitality advisory committee. You know, again, still a committee. He's still working to advise staff. I asked Christian about that. He his comment was, well, what's Amanda think? And I said, well, Amanda said, what does Christian think? So So

it wasn't exactly my response.

That was no. That wasn't your response.

My response was that it would be a decision for counsel to make.

Yes. That was your decision for counsel.

So Right.

But so, you know, it it is it is an issue. That's that's the only status that I've I've raised since Christian. He didn't he didn't laugh. So he didn't laugh. Any other comments under section eight or item eight? Pamela?

So as everybody knows, I'm on the Matthew Historical Association. So I randomly go over to the history center, and found these interesting, articles, which I will give to Amanda. So here's one from February 1966. And what was proposed was basically I can't really see this. Basically, down all the buildings and making it into a shopping center. Woah.

Like Sunnyvale.

Like Sunnyvale. So, anyway, it's interesting because, you know, in the sixties, let's get rid of anything that's old. Let's tear it out and start all over again. So here's a model on two two planning staff people doing their wonderful model. So

And and the name of the city spelled incorrectly.

I don't know

about that. Mount View.

Oh, Mount View.

M A A

Probably got that wrong too. But, anyway, it's an interesting idea of how how city planning has changed. And then to your point, this is from 1976. There was a Mountain View. City council will hold a special two hour study of the session to review the findings of downtown revitalization study, and this was in 1976. So ten years later, the city was still trying to figure out what we'd do with downtown. So that's

a little

interesting factoid. And then we'll be conducting a walking tour on April Sunday afternoon, April 26, I think it is.

Okay. Anything else? Seeing nothing else, we'll move on to item number nine, and we will stand adjourned until May 5.

Alright. Thank you, everybody.

Oh, wait.

Sorry. Just a note. We are still looking for committee members. Please encourage your friends and family and favorite business owners

to apply.

So what categories do we need?

I think we're still looking for downtown business and property.

Have have you had any since Jeanette is doing so much stuff with

You have submitted an application.

You have. So okay.

Alright. Now

that we've figured out who that the out of towners don't have to be qualified voters enough to be