Downtown Committee - Regular Meeting

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

A motion to approve. Motion to approve. And second? I'll second. Moved by Katz, seconded by Baird. Any public input? Okay. In which case, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed, nay. There are none. The motion carries unanimously. Item number four is future agenda topics. And if everybody knows, this is not talk about topics that are on the list. But if there are things that people would like to talk about getting them added to the list. Are there any additions? Pamela?

Yes. So this is the result. Well, I used to be on the planning commission. I used to rail from the bias about we needed to have more condos built single left for sale ownership projects and um as some of you know my husband is um has been ill with Parkinson's and could have moved to a single level house two years ago when he was diagnosed, but we didn't. And he's having some difficulties now getting upstairs at our two.

We can't really talk about it. I know. I know.

I'm laying the groundwork. I'm laying the groundwork. So this is now the new bee in my bonnet. So anyway, So I was downtown Los Altos walking around and I noticed that there are a lot of for sale or condos downtown. So there are 57 units that were built between 2013 and 2023, most of them in 23 and 24, 57 units. There is a project that is entitled for 50 units. And there's one under construction for 15 units. So I would like to have a discussion or suggest a discussion or at least information about why can't we build condos downtown. It would help with revitalization. We would have more bodies downtown. There is a project over to the police station. I mean, the police office. Those are really expensive. But in any case, that would be something I would like us to recommend or ask staff, is there a good explanation of why we can't build?

Okay. No. Downtown condos is an item on that agenda. Can I ask a quick question?

I know we don't discuss this, but Vince has been doing these presentations on mid and low income houses. Did he ever present to this group? I know he presented to BIP.

Yeah. He just, in the reviews, he doesn't really give into that.

Okay, because he did a formal presentation for VEB, so I don't know if he'd done it for this group yet or not. Okay. No discussion.

All right. Oh, yes.

I think because we got an email on the committee about, which I think was a good idea, about potentially putting in like recycling and composting bins on Fastro as opposed to just trash cans or that's sorted off site. We're having a discussion about that. learning more about what that was. I think that was one thing that had come up. And then I had another thing which someone brought up recently, which is concern around how quickly fire could get down Castro. Like if there was an emergency, like how fast can someone actually, the fire department actually get down through those gates? And like, have we tested it? What's the, you know, game plan? So understanding that.

That might be like, we're just a report. That's not really a...

Yeah. Good evening. Good morning, committee. Can you hear me? Yes. Hi, Amanda. Amanda Rotel, economic vitality manager. So I'm working from home. I'm a bit under the weather, but just an update on the fire piece. So the fire department has tested response times and I'm actually working with them to do some additional training sessions. this summer so that they can continue to be proactive in addressing any issues that come up on Castro Street. So they're being super proactive. They have run tests and they're continuing to run tests and train. We can definitely ask the fire department to come present. Yeah.

Because you notice the bollards are not in the middle. They're spread out, so all they have to do is open up the gate.

Right, right. But then can you turn? Where do you have to turn to get onto that? They go right over the curb.

So I want to caution us not to get into a discussion on this. But I do want to say they have done multiple tests of fire trucks getting onto Castro Street. Actually, there was quite an audience the last time we tested. It was quite fun to watch them. turning the big trucks onto Castro Street. So they have run multiple tests and the Ped Mall was specifically designed to accommodate a fire truck and accommodate turning radiuses.

Thank you. Okay. Seeing no other hands, we will move on to item number five, oral communication structure. And this item is reserved for people wishing to address the committee on items not on today's agenda. And the committee cannot act on anything raised during oral communications. Is there any other public wishing to address the committee? And still nobody online. All right. We will close our all communications from the public and move on to item number six, unfinished business. And item 6.1 is Castro Street update. Who's presenting?

There are slides. Bear with me for a second since we just got here. Are you connected to the room? I don't have a copy of the slides. Do you have them?

Do you want to send them on Teams? Because I'm not connected to VPN.

Can you see them? There they are. These are downtown updates. Music on Castro is happening now. I encourage you guys to get down there. I had the chance to go last week. It was so cute. There were so many kids dancing in the street with bubbles and stuff. It was very charming. And these are some of the upcoming dates and who's performing. Go to the next slide. We have concerts on the plaza coming up June to September, 6 to 7.30, and these are the upcoming performers. We've got an 80s band. Should be fun. Tell your friends.

Quick question. Are we doing Entertainment Zone on music nights or First Friday nights?

No, not at this time.

Why not?

I think because they're in, I mean, Amanda can correct me, but I think because the plaza doesn't really have anyone who would maybe participate. But downtown, I think that the event is so small that it would require just like a heavy amount of staffing and regulation and implementation in order for like such a small event would probably be a lot of cost for people.

what it's worth. I'll just note for like in downtown Los Altos on first Fridays when they have their music all over town, again, they're an open carry city, but that's part of the harm of it is people can have a drink and walk around and it draws people downtown. So

Go through the pilot. Right. Consider to expand. The first activation of the entertainment zone will be the July 19th summer of soccer festivities. So That'll be our first activation, first kind of test case.

And the big difference with Los Altos too is they have a band every block kind of thing. So that's a very different thing than a centralized band here.

Right. You could make the entertainment zone like two blocks. I mean, I suspect that it might draw more people downtown if you are doing that. So I would really encourage staff to sort of Really try and try it at some point during the summer and see if it works on a smaller scale than the big event and see if it does draw people downtown. Of course, I have to do that a couple of times because people may not see the notice. What's the entertainment zone? So anyways, it's not enough.

Good feedback. Yeah. Andy, can we go to the next slide?

General? So there's some discrepancy in this fire. It's debuted and this was playing in that time. At least for that one, when I was there, I thought, did a search on them. I said, wow, they're good. Let me go. But there's somebody else was playing there. So there was a problem. So there's something is disconnected. Yeah.

All right, we're going to be hosting downtown office hours to evangelize the entertainment zone and answer anyone's questions. We'll be in front of Red Rock Coffee, Kirsten, Amanda, and I starting today and going into next week and the following on Tuesdays from 11 to 1. And we're hoping to just create a space where people can come ask questions about the entertainment zone, but we also expect to field questions about the patio renewals grants, other things that we're working on right now. So I encourage you if people have questions about the entertainment zone to send them our way during these hours. We're happy to have questions or answer questions and be in conversation and be available out there.

So do you have a table and a little

report code that says, here I am, where you just stand there. We're just going to use the blue Mountain View, the table that's out there in front of Red Rock, the picnic table. And I imagine we will have some materials and our badges on and our name tags. And, you know, I can't leave this office without someone stopping me and saying, oh, Tony, and I've only been here for three months. So people know who we are. And yeah, but a sign is a good idea. I'll think about how we can potentially put up a sign.

It's a DTMV or something.

Yeah. Okay, so the Mountain View Makers Market, we're really excited to be launching this event and accepting applications right now. We've received over 30 applications for the market and we're expecting more than 60. We're doing an info session this Thursday. For any vendors who are interested in being part of the Makers Fair, just going to do rapid fire, answer questions, see what people's concerns are, see if they have other ideas for how to improve kind of the concept. And so we'll be hosting that on Zoom this Thursday. And then there will also be a session on Monday, June 8th, that will be presented in Spanish. And I will follow up with all of you with the flyers for all of these events if you're interested in sharing them with us.

Have you told FATMO about this? Oh, yeah. Okay.

As long as they know, they're distributing it to their people. Definitely. I've met with FATMO twice now, and they're great. Oh, yeah. They're really fabulous.

So are these going to be under canopy, or is this going to be in an empty storefront? Where will these be?

Good question. It's along the 300 block of Castro, and we anticipate that all of the vendors will be bringing 10 by 10 booths, but we aren't requiring them. So if somebody wants to just have a little table, that's acceptable, too. I would think more down-home craft fair, less like renegade craft, you know, big fancy show. We're really trying to have local makers feature their products and encourage people to shop small and support those local artisans and entrepreneurs this fall. I think the beer garden does like Saturdays or something. They have beer gardens.

Oh, I don't know.

You know, the one, the beer garden. Oh, yeah. Yeah, loveways. They have, like, I want to say it's, like, once a month or something. They have, like, on Sundays. Or, yeah, they have, like, jewelry and crochet items. They have vendors that come by.

Okay, I'll have to connect with them on that. Thank you.

Tony, can I just interject? For the Tech Showcase, which is July 30th, we also are partnering with the makers community. But these are electronic geared or technology geared makers that will be in City Center Plaza. And more importantly is that nothing is for sale. This is all for demonstration to show off their technology. This is a vendor type of thing. But it's another way for us to kind of test out our relationship with the maker community.

The repair cafe fit in this thing?

They don't charge anything. They repair things for people. A repair cafe?

A repair cafe. Which one are you talking about? Which one are you recommending? So we've actually reached out a number of times and haven't received a response. So if anyone has a special connection, please tell them to respond to me. Because we have reached out three or four times in the last month.

They're a big deal.

I mean, they have...

multiple people there working. They have huge crowds waiting to get in. So it's an event in and of itself.

It's not like a... For the makers market, I mean, makers, I'm confusing them now. For Tech Showcase, It's just a little bit different than a vendor opportunity. And we are actually really encouraging Repair Cafe to be there to bring something that people can touch and play with, pull apart, put back together, which is my understanding of what they do in their doors in the first place. So we think it would be a great opportunity for them. But they got to answer the email.

Greg Coladonato is involved in that. Yeah. Okay.

We have two art updates. So we have two fun events next week. First on Monday, June 8th, from 5.30 to 8.30, we're holding just open gallery hours to go see Xixian Zhang and her exhibit, Perseverance. So you can peek at it through the Mountain View Center windows right now. But this will just be a chance to kind of walk in and out. The artists will be there. You'll be able to meet her. You get a chance to look at her art, just be able to meet other people who are interested in art. And so we're really excited about this. This is going to be, this is a part of kind of a pilot test to hold these kind of open gallery hours once during every exhibit. So we rotate these exhibits after about six to eight weeks and So this is our first open gallery hours evening, and then we'll post more. I think our next one's gonna be in late July with . So next Monday evening at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts, you can just hop in and out as you're available. And then we're also hosting a ribbon cutting on Thursday, June 11th to celebrate the panels, the art panels that were installed at the train depot. So this is going to be at 3pm next Thursday afternoon. And so just a chance to, again, meet the artists, celebrate the art. This is a huge collaborative effort between the city, Arts Mountain View, Mountain View Historical Association helped provide a lot of great feedback. And I think it was a big tribute to the panels that represent the history of Mountain View. And then there was a grant issued by the Valley Transformation Authority. So they'll be there as well. So it's going to be a real party. So Come and enjoy. Another chance to meet the artist, John Patrick Thomas, who also did a bollard, two of the bollards. You need the big scissors? No, I think we are going to use the community center, the community service department.

Okay.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

I thought it was flashy. One pair of big scissors, I guess. Yeah. Okay.

Okay, that it? Any other questions or comments or anything from the public? No? Still nobody online? Okay. All right, then we will close item 6.1 and move on to item 7, new business. And 7.1 is a summer of soccer.

Amanda, are you taking this one?

Yeah, I can jump in. So we are, excuse me, we are deep in the planning for summer of soccer activations. We've got kind of three categories of activities taking place. Once again, we're working with the chamber, partnering with the chamber to do outreach to our business community. We're going to be hosting an online presentation. map and uh as well as a calendar uh promoting what the businesses are up to so chamber ambassadors are out there we're still encouraging businesses to submit what they're up to so that we can include them in all of those promotions people can visit the website mountainview.gov summer soccer we're also looking for to create opportunities for play so Some opportunities to celebrate soccer, bring the community together. So with that in mind, a foot golf course will be set up for open play in Cuesta Park and foot golf is essentially a frisbee golf with a soccer ball. So that'll be available the entirety of this of the tournament and there's going to be cute little cards. where people would keep their score. It's gonna be a really good time. So encourage people to check that out. We're also dropping a mini pitch into the downtown. So this is a small soccer field and we're gonna have activations happening there as well, but it'll also be open for open play, kind of the back half of the tournament. And then lastly, we're gonna be culminating everything with our weekend of music at watch parties. That's July 18th and 19th. We're gonna be screening the bronze and final matches. And we will be activating the downtown entertainment zone for the first time. And so again, we're testing out the entertainment zone as part of our outreach and office hours. We're working closely with the businesses to make sure they understand both the opportunity, but also the responsibility of participating.

Excuse me, do we know what time of day those league games are on the 18th and 19th?

Yeah, so we've gotten some mixed information, but they do happen during the day. So the game should start somewhere between noon and two. They're being shown on the East Coast. So we'll be showing them in real time here on the West Coast. But we should have final times here pretty soon. But they are midday activations. And I'll just jump and show, you know, as part of that, we're going to be showing the games and then we're going to have live music. So live bands playing before and after the watch parties. We're again going to have family friendly activities, the oversized games, some face painting, you know, photo booths. You know, Jamil was in our 360 photo booth for the Super Bowl, so he can share more about that. And then again, working with the Chamber and Downtown Business Association on some business specials.

Do we know if other cities are also doing watch parties and stuff?

There are a number of cities that are doing watch parties. None that I'm aware of that are doing... Well, I think San Jose is doing watch parties for every single game, but some of the smaller cities have selected various weekends to host watch parties. I know Redwood City has some watch parties. I believe Los Altos Hills maybe. But there are a handful that are going to be hosting events.

And then just lastly... Amanda, just before, I mean... It might be really good to really identify who around us is because then we could add this, you know, we're the closest watch party, you know, between, you know, Redwood City and Santa Clara sort of thing. So as opposed to everybody assuming that every city is doing something might help our draw.

Yeah, I will say we've been coordinating with our economic development colleagues to ensure that none of us are doing the same day so that we're not competing with each other. But certainly we could add them to our calendar where other watch parties are in the region if you think that would be helpful.

Individual businesses can hold their own watch parties too, so we won't be able to track all of them. And I know several businesses, they're

to hold watch parties for every game that's playing during their open business hours so and then lastly just want to share this other opportunity so as part of the mini pitch that'll be dropped into the uh into the downtown um we are gonna have pop-up opportunities for businesses if they'd like to do a pop-up you know a coffee cart pop-up or you know, a makerspace pop-up at the mini pitch, we're providing opportunities for businesses to come and activate. We are also in conversations with some of our regional professional sports teams, and they're interested in doing some pop-ups at the mini pitch. So we'll be building out the calendar and encouraging the community to come down for both open play and then some of our special events. And that is it. Thank you.

Just wanted to add the most of this information times is on the current downtown digest. The date and all that.

Any questions for Amanda? Any public input? All right. Thanks, Amanda. And moving on to item 7.2, the economic vitality strategy update.

Yeah, thank you. So I'll mute.

Is this your email, Amanda?

Oh, yeah, you don't want to see that. Nothing fun in there. Wait, go back.

I think I saw something.

Yeah, happy to have you come and answer my emails for me anytime. So, as you know, we just presented to City Council our annual update on the Economic Vitality Strategy. This went to Council just last week on the 26th. And so, wanting to share that update with you as part of your packet, you have the full staff report that includes some updates from some kind of highlights of things from this year, but I do want to share our kind of our updated graphics. So you can see here, particularly calling your attention to goal number two, which is around reinvigorating downtown. You can see that we have, we've really engaged on a lot of the action items that are related to downtown. So of the 32 total actions for that goal, All but seven have been sort of engaged in some way, which is pretty excellent. And some highlights from this year, obviously getting our pop-up space off the ground on Castro Street, the Don't Eat Me pop-up. That was a huge, huge undertaking. Some of the art activations that Kirsten has been spearheading has been a big, big win. Being able to get the Train Depot mural up and running and the bollards. Those have been huge. Our facade improvement grant program continuing to serve businesses throughout the city, but a lot of interest in activation here in the downtown. Tony's done a great job of relaunching that program with the larger match and really helping to relook at the user experience and make improvements on that. And then obviously our summer of soccer is huge. So being able to bring the Super Bowl event in February and now working towards the World Cup event, we were able to move really quickly to get an entertainment zone approved. Excuse me. And so lots of huge wins for downtown and lots of work to come. So we've really, as we're building out our team, we have Tony that has joined us. We're going to have a new arts position joining the team. So we're really looking strategically about how we're going to be moving into year three, which is, if you can believe it, we're only at year three. We've only completed two years of the economic vitality strategy, and you can see all of the work that we've already done. And just another way of kind of cutting up the data here is to look at how action items have been kind of broken up in our work plan. So all every 164 action items was given a time frame if they were labeled as immediate, short-term, or mid-term or long-term. And so you can see, you know, we've completed all of the immediate action items. we're highly engaged in our short-term action items with only 15% not started. And despite some of these other actions falling into different categories, we've already been able to engage on some of our midterm and long-term progress. One thing to note as we're moving through the economic vitality strategy, and it's detailed in the staff report that it's included, is we have a lot of items that are becoming ongoing items. And so This means that they don't have a discrete end date. It's not a, we've completed it, box checked, but rather this is a program, a policy, a procedure that is now just becoming part of the everyday workload of the economic development team. And so we have quite a few ongoing items. I believe we have double, the ones from last year in terms of, you know, just adding to our baseline workload. And so as we're getting a lot of great momentum right now, but as we continue to move through implementation of the program, we're going to just see more and more becoming ongoing. And so I project that we'll see a slowing of this rapid progress as we have to, you know, maintain all the work that we have established so far, in addition to continuing to engage in some of the newer items in the work plan as they come up. Um, but I'll pause there.

Uh, Peter. Yeah. So Amanda, you know, first of all, congratulations to the team. There's a lot of incredibly, there's an incredible volume and an incredible importance in the work that's being done. So kudos to the two members here in the one remote. Um, uh, that's a lot to be done. Um, one of the things that I've noticed in terms of going to the council meetings and all that is the council is very, uh, know, stuck on is the right word, but they seem to really ask a lot of questions about accountability and how are we doing according to metrics and so on. And you just mentioned something that's really important, which is a lot of the activities that were discrete activities now are really becoming ongoing tasks. And so I guess my question becomes one of how can We present to council progress on things that are just ongoing. Is there a new metric that needs to be introduced in some way so that we can make everyone feel good that, yes, things are being done, but there's things that just continue to roll? Am I making that clear?

Yeah, it's a good question, Peter. And I mean, we're trying to do that with how we're reporting out on the economic vitality strategy by showing all the categories. So showing things that are ongoing, you know, as one bucket, but, you know, in progress completed as another bucket. Certainly, you know, in the report, we're still reporting out on the ongoing work that's taking place. It was really important for me. in putting this together to really highlight, you know, we're still doing the facade improvement grant program. We're still doing, you know, tech, we're still providing technical support. We're still supporting small businesses with one-on-one engagement. So all of that is still in there because if you look at, I think it's page nine of the report and I can share it. I included this little iceberg graphic to really highlight, let me zoom in, know all the ongoing work that's taking place so you know below the water line there is this big chunk of the iceberg of all the work that the staff is doing day to day and you know we anticipate that you know we have i don't know 20 20 of our time that can be allotted to strategic initiatives so if you're thinking about 80 of our time is maintaining the bottom of the iceberg and we're still trying to move forward all of our strategic initiatives And so, you know, both graphically and narratively, I tried to really touch on that in the staff report to really show, you know, we're continuing to keep the iceberg afloat and we're really executing on our strategic initiatives and goals and the economic vitality strategy, obviously, is the focus of this report.

I'm not seeing any hands. Two quick questions. First off, the economic vitality strategy is citywide, not just downtown, correct?

That is correct, yeah.

Right. But the second question is sort of a follow-on to Peter's, is, you know, yes, so we have all these things that we've done and that we're doing, but did you create any or identify any metrics or has counsel, like... What's happening with sales taxes? You know, do we have an inventory of, you know, we've now had 10 out of 30 facade improvements and surveys show that people are really happy with that. I mean, do we have metrics of is any of this doing anything for our economic vitality or is it just a lot of work?

Yeah, thanks, Mike. So I'll share what was an attachment to the Council report, which is our measures of success. So these were adopted by Council as part of the approval of the economic vitality strategy back in 2024. And so you can see we've identified our measures of success, which are clear metrics here on the left. You can see how they've changed over Our baseline when it was approved in 2024, year one report out April 2025, and now year two report out April 2026. And then the little check boxes show which of our goals they apply to. So some of these measures of success apply to all of the goal areas and some are more targeted at specific goals. So you can see some things I'd like to highlight here. Particular to the downtown, our downtown retail vacancy has continued to decline. So we went from 8.5 and we are down into 6.1. So we've moved into our target area, recognizing that a little bit of vacancy is good because you want to have room for new businesses and new concepts to come in. So we are exactly where we want to be. And so we've seen positive progress there. If you look at our percent in year over year sales tax in the downtown, So we went from negative 8.5 and now we're in 10%. And that's a couple of things. It's related both to some new businesses opening in the downtown and from a strong year over year change in some of our business service categories. The year prior was particularly low, which shows a particularly high number here. But that being said, we're looking at the same Q4 data every year over year. And so positive trend there. Some other positive trends, we're seeing a huge amount of engagement with our economic development business resource pages. So we went from essentially zero and we've seen a 6x. increase in businesses in utilization of the resources that we're putting out there. Number of businesses in downtown also continues to go up. So we saw almost 40 new businesses over the last two years open in downtown. So these are the positive trends that we're continuing to look at. And this data was reported out to council. Council did request that we start reporting specifically on industrial zoning. And so we'll see a new metric pop up next year when we go to.

I would just say, I think some of this, obviously not the chart, but like in the business newsletter that goes out and stuff, a report on these results, other than saying we're doing a lot of stuff in economic vitality, what's it doing? It's sort of like... It's sort of what happened in the last election. Well, the economy is great, but I'm not feeling it. But here's what's happening.

Yeah, thanks, Mike. I appreciate the opportunity to share this. And I'll just also note from the downtown piece, one of the trends that we are really zeroing in on is this office vacancy rate. So we are seeing an increase in office vacancy in the downtown area. We know that we had a large company vacate downtown when they were purchased. They were acquired and moved out. So as part of our year three work plan, we are going to be really looking both at some of the current trends in office vacancy and then what strategies might be out there.

Amanda, can you put that chart back up, please? OK, the second to the bottom number of square feet supporting commercial industrial activities target 26 million. And by the metric, we're over that, but down just slightly. So can you explain what that means and why do we want to do? I'm not questioning, but can you just explain what we're what the metric is and what we're trying to achieve with that?

Yeah, so it's looking at just the number of square feet of all commercial and industrial buildings and space in the entirety of Mountain View. And so, you know, this target, we're above the target, which is great. We want to be at the target or above. But this is really showing kind of the important threshold to support our current economic development and our future economic development goals in terms of the amount of commercial activity that's taking place. And so you can see, you know, we've added some targets to some of these, but, you know, being at or above that is where we want to be.

Do we do any kind of a measurement on housing and how that relates to economic vitality, whether it be below market rate or at market rate, condos, townhouses, single family? Do we do any measurement with that?

So not for the economic vitality strategy, but certainly as we're reporting out on our arena numbers, as we're reporting out on some of our planning, our advanced planning documents, those numbers are included. So we do track on those metrics, just not as part of the economic vitality strategy.

There are a few action items that are tied back to housing. So those are things that we're reporting out on kind of in the overall ongoing and Thank you.

Just one other quick question, not on the report itself, but on economic vitality. Have there been any discussions between you and Christian about Economic Vitality Advisory Committee?

So that will really be a decision for council to make. So it's not a staff level decision. We really will have to defer to city council on the type of advisory bodies and what they have been tasked with overseeing and advising on. So I'm going to defer that to a council decision.

Just to push back a little bit, it's not as if council or staff doesn't ever advise council of what we really could use an advisory committee here. We really don't need this committee any longer, that sort of thing. So council does, of course, take its cues from well-reasoned staff recommendations. So...

Yeah, I think that's fair, Mike. I'm not prepared to speak on that today.

That's fine. I think I knew the answer anyways. Any other questions on the economic vitality update?

But I appreciate showing the grid here because I think that has a different lens on it that's important.

Yeah, that's very helpful. And I would really lead with that. I mean, that's data.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. Okay. And assuming no public comment. Okay. Then let's move to 7.3, the Downtown Committee Work Plan. Okay.

Oh, sorry, that's me pulling up the slides again. All right. So you can see in your packet, based on the feedback that we got at the last committee meeting, I've provided a final version of the work plan for your review. Just some high-level update, you know, high-level overview of what's in there. Obviously, continue to provide comments and provide feedback on programs and projects and policies. Continuing to support the economic vitality initiatives in the downtown. you know, helping us with promotion and utilization of our outreach services and activities. Obviously, the downtown parking strategy still remains out there, and so providing recommendations on implementations of that, provide counsel with recommendations on both the parking district and the business improvement areas, And our pet mall activation so continue to support activation and and implementation of those continued collaboration with the visual arts committee so as Kirsten mentioned we're having an open gallery. And we're also looking for ways that we can host more of those art art talks as we saw really a strong Community response. from that and then receiving updates from city departments on various programs and events and initiatives. As you know, we've heard from the police department in the past, from community services. Sounds like we'd like to hear from the fire department here soon. So all of that's kind of built into our work plan. Thank you.

Can we address the public comment we got about the public bathrooms? Is that something that would need to be discussed here or is that just not for this topic at all.

Yeah, so did you hear that, Amanda?

I heard about the public restrooms. Yeah, so we don't have specific projects listed here in the work plan, so that would likely fall under both receiving updates and then exploring possible programs as part of the continued implementation of the PEDMALL.

If that were something that we wanted to slot in... Where would you put that? And obviously, it's sort of like studying parking or studying this. If we were going to put that in, would that be just a new item that investigate possibilities of restrooms? You know, as we think about it, as we have the entertainment zones and we get more people coming downtown and restaurants saying customers only, you know, having a place to go is important. So it seems pretty relevant. So what would be the best way to work that into the work plan?

Yeah, I think it makes sense under G, you know, that second bullet discuss improvements, changes for cash receipt closure, you know, and we could include in terms of discuss midterm improvements, we could put in little brackets here, including public, you know, including public restrooms as part of that. And so that would be an edit we could make to this final document.

Okay. Thoughts on that?

Good idea.

Do I hear a motion to include that in the work plan? Because this is the work plan. This is the sign-off. It goes to the council from here.

I move that we add under item G that we study or recommend public restrooms. I'll second.

All right. Any other discussion? All right. And assuming no public input. Public input. All in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. Okay. And we also then need to approve the recommended work plan as modified. So is there a motion to approve the fiscal year work plan?

I move that we adopt the work plan as amended. I'll second.

All right. Moved by Baird, seconded by Shea. Any discussion? Any public input? All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries unanimously as well. All right. You've really been working hard today, Amanda. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay.

With that, we will close item 7.3 and move on to item 8, committee staff comments, questions, and committee reports. Anything? Pamela?

Question on the wayfinding signs. The note said that they would be installed in June and certainly by, we hope, by July. What's the update on the wayfinding signs?

Yeah, we've run into a little bit of some hurdles with production, so we're still hoping for summertime, but we've had some delays. As soon as I have a clear timeline for installation, I'll let the committee know.

Great. And then I'll be conducting a walking tour on June 26, whatever the last Sunday of the month is in June.

Anything else, Stephanie?

Now that we're thinking about public restrooms, are there going to be bathrooms for the watch parties? Just thinking of the traffic of people.

Yeah, there will be bathrooms. Similar to what we did for the Super Bowl event, there will be bathrooms.

Anything else from anybody? 17th, taste of Mountain View. Get your tickets now. All right.

I'll just note, we head into our recess, so we will not be meeting the next two months mirroring council's recess.

All right. Schools have a good summer. Only one comment. Yes. This is next to Monte Carlo with some kind of construction going on and it blocked the sidewalk and the detour. No signs, but I saw the staff out there looking forward and trying to get... signs on either signs now i thought just walked yesterday i saw a sign there's just one of the i was confused too so i know they were standing up there's a head there's no signs in there but we'll put them on to bring him back and then route them back and walk that so i saw it's a good fix in the atrium on the outside of it

I didn't know the M design is done. They haven't opened up the gallery yet, which will be opening at some point in the near future. And it looks like the, what is it? The old tap plastics is still underway. So that'll be interesting.

Question on the update on the old Jennings 171 Ames building. Since Vincent wasn't here to present, do we have any update on what's happening with that building? That has been forever.

You're talking about the lock museum on the 100 block?

171 Castro.

Yeah, I don't have any updates, although I'm working with the property owner to put a vinyl wrap on those windows.

That would be nice. It looks a little abandoned.

What about the sample sales group that's like leaving? Yeah.

I know what happened there. They just were like, well, maybe we weren't upscale enough to pay. $250 for a chair. Oh, it never went in there.

I was like, this is too fancy. I don't wear high heels. I'm like, no thanks.

I will say for that business, we really see that as a success. They were testing out a concept here in Mountain View and they were so successful that they went on to find a permanent location. So I think that's a success story and that we were able to incubate that business. And certainly we'll be working with our commercial real estate partners to see what we can bring to fill that space.

You got to get a part of the tail. Okay. Anything else on item eight? And if not, then we'll move to item nine, adjournment. And we will stand adjourned until September, right?

Do we have a date for September? Because we're going around Labor Day, I think.

Yeah, that's a really good point, Pamela.

The day right after Labor Day.

Oh, no. Okay, so it'll actually be, yeah, Labor Day is.

Labor Day is the 7th. We're the first.

We would be meeting on the 1st, yeah, the week before. Oh, okay. Yeah, thanks for checking. Some years it falls right on top of it, so everybody should be noting that.

Right. Okay, that's better.

All right. Well, have a good summer, everybody, and try and get some time off. to our fabulous staff. Use that break to your advantage. And we are adjourned.

Early. Early and short.

That's what happens when we don't have the development rules.