Downtown Committee - Regular Meeting

Can we have the roll call, please?

Yes. And I I can only I hope everyone Amanda, I'm online today. I could it looks like part of the conference room's cut off, so I I I think that's committee member foreman there in the corner who I can't see. Is that correct? Yeah. Okay. Hi. Alright. Thank you. Committee member Kavanaugh is absent. Committee committee member Keith? Here. Katz? Lynn? I see David Lynn and Stephanie Lynn. Okay. Is Marisol there? No. Yep. Okay. Oh, Marisol's online. Okay. I see her. Committee member Sheik?

Here.

And, vice chair Baird? Here. And then chair Kasperzak is going to be absent.

Great. Thank you. Okay. Our next point of order is to, approve the minutes. The minutes are included in our package and were, shown online. Are there any comments or corrections on the minutes?

Yeah. Item seven dot one. There's a little typo on there. It's vice chair.

Alright. Should be chair.

Should be chair or should be vice chair.

Okay.

Are there any other collectibles or additions? Are there any comments from the public?

Not seeing anyone online.

Okay. Seeing no questions, can I have a motion to approve the minutes?

So moved.

Second. I'll let you guys sort out who So, Amanda

A motion by Katz. Okay. Second by Sheikh.

Okay. And then can we see ayes to approve? Aye. Aye. Any nays? Okay. We're finished with that item. Item number four is upcoming agenda topics. This person's portion of the agenda is reserved for identification of agenda items for future readings meetings. Items on the future list include vacant storefronts, parking plan update, art murals in downtown, precise plan update, school performances in the downtown, joint meeting with visual and performing arts committees, street signs, PG and E, retail course report, next steps, bike parking, historical markers,

and

busking ordinance. And that pretty much covers everything. Are there any other suggestions that we want to include?

Small thing about downtown right now since we have these, you know, beautiful pathways. We noticed in the kids when they drive wheelies over, there's kids walking around, and they don't see the kids. So near they almost a kid got hit by a wheelie. So I'm not sure about the enforcing of the walking the bike, if that is even an option.

Okay. So there's a concern expressed by, nonwalkers.

But

then when you say wheelies, are you talking about

You know when they take the the big bikes?

Oh, and then bikes.

They pull up, so they don't really see what's in front of them. Well

And so they're They're more concerned about showing off than

Exactly. Yeah. So it's, yeah, maybe a safety sign or something, but, you know, just safety for pedestrians. Yeah. Mhmm. Okay.

Any other suggestions for future topics? Do we need any more input on that, Amanda, for you?

Nope. I've noted it down. Thank you.

One other thing, Pamela. We we talked a number of weeks ago, I think, about using Measure g funds to help out downtown. Is that something that we wanna revisit? Is that something that the city would like more input on? Is it timing right?

Remind us what the Measure G

is on g was on the ballot last November, and it was to raise money for the city to use. And five to 15% of that balance was to be used to support small business. And, the chamber actually spoke up at one of the, city council meetings mentioning things that we were suggesting that could be used, and a number of those suggestions had to do with downtown.

Okay. Amanda, is that something that we can discuss?

So I'm I actually found the resolution because Peter and I have been talking about this. So the discussion of the use of the measure measure g funds happen during the they received public input during the discussion of the annual budget. So it'll be part of the budget discussion is when sort of the the resolution notes that how funds will be used. So I'm trying to think about how we may or may not be able to provide input into that process from our committee. I'll have to ask because we have our own you know, we have a budget process and, you know, a a pretty structured budget process.

So I'll I'll have to find out if there's a way for the committee to bring recommendations to into that. As you all know, the budget will be approved this month. So we're we're kind of in the the tail ends of it.

That's why I wanted to make sure that we had comments. Yeah.

Apologize. I don't I don't know. Just given that they very specifically said it's part of the yeah. The budget process. But, you know, if the committee wanted to trying to think if we could we couldn't agendize it because it's not we can't discuss it because it's not on the agenda. It may be too late this year for this committee to take action in advance of the budget, although perhaps as part of the mid year budget adjustments, we could we could do a formal we could take formal action with a recommendation.

Great. Any other suggestions?

So the, you know, the music on Castro, which I think is a great idea. However, I think it's underwhelming. I think the the position of the performers is hidden, and I think that the whole experience is kinda lacking the whole music kinda little concert, you know, vibe. I would suggest to move just move the the tent towards actually, put it on Castro looking down onto the 300 block. And that way, it kinda people are much more because, you know, they pass by.

They hear them, but they're like because it's kinda hidden in some of that house, China delight, I think. But, like, if it's more centered, I think and maybe a little bit elevated. I think it would have been a much it would be a better experience.

Okay. Someone noted. Do we entertain comments from the public, We

do.

Any comments from the public here or online?

I'm not seeing anyone online.

What I'm saying is on fire dispatch.

I'm on I'm on fire.

Just wanted to bring up a a thing that I just found out about yesterday. San Jose is enacting an entertainment zone in downtown. Have you guys heard of that? Entertainment.

So we can we can definitely have a discussion of that. It is primarily an alcohol zone. So they're called entertainment zones, but they're they're primarily alcohol zones just for clarification. I know we can't discuss it further, but I can bring more information if that's of interest.

Thank you. Mhmm. Yeah. That would be great just to get more information. Okay. Oh, okay. One last call for ideas.

One school question.

Comments? Okay. Any comments from the public? No. Alright. Then we will close this topic and move to, number five, oral communications from the public. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the committee on any matter not on the agenda. Speakers are limited to three minutes. State law prohibits the committee from acting upon any non agenda items, which means we cannot discuss them. So do we have any comments from the public?

Not seeing any online.

Okay. Seeing none, we will move on to item number six, plant based business. Downtown development updates.

They even have a music intro. Love Good

morning, everyone. Good morning. Vincent Kwan, associate planner here at EDS. I've done done development updates. Very limited updates for this month. The only item is for item 54 on the list for Lot 12. The item was there was a project modification that was submitted. Or approved on May 19. As you can see, the modifications were just the reduction in number of on-site parking spaces and the conversion of all ground floor leases to residential amenity areas. That project is under review or for building permits right now, but it's not that nothing else is proposed to be changed for that project.

Aside from that, everything else remains the same. Yes.

Can I ask a quick question on Lot 12? Is there any chance that there will be a shovel to ground before the end of the year?

Yeah. I'm not so I'm not sure exactly where they are in the building permit review. That really depends on, you know, items remain to be addressed with their building permits. And then I think I, you know, get building permit to view the construction beginning that is really varies based on developer and the contractors. Yeah.

And and I'm just asking because that's a one of the spots that we use for the art wine festival. And so knowing early on if we can use it or if we cannot is really important.

Yeah. I can definitely touch base with the project planner to see Mhmm. Kind of what the status is, and I can provide an update to you. You. Let's yeah. That's about all the updates that we have in terms of downtown development projects. So I'd be to answer any questions you guys have.

Do we have any more updates on some of the buildings that are either for sale, like the China Delight? And then there's another building for sale on I think where Masten Architects used to be. Do we have any are there any conversations with city staff by potential purchasers or users?

I'm a defer to Amanda, but

I'll Yeah. So Nutrient Delight, my understanding is there's, quite a few parties that are interested. I have not, but that's all the information that I have. I didn't realize Masten's space was for sale. I saw that he had put for lease signs out there, but if his I might

have just looked at that. Yeah. Yeah.

So I I don't I'm not sure. I'll have to confirm whether he's actually selling it, but I know he's actively, looking to lease it out, currently.

K. That's great. Any other comments or questions?

It is just oh, comment. I noticed that quite a few project that we're working on in downtown. Well, I don't see any effect in the traffic wise and all that. So, I mean, is somebody watching it, or it just happened to be that way, you know, where timing is such that we don't see any kind of interruption walking by road closure or anything at all.

Is there, like, a specific project? Or

No. All around, you know, from you walk I mean, because I see the project going on at Dana Street, you know, that the other one, but it's still

The Jennings Lock Museum. Yeah. So

my understanding is that the Lock Museum, they have a tenant who's working through permits. That's on the 100 Block, Vincent. I'm not sure of the exact address. And then in terms of the Dana Street construction project, so they've received their building permits or, you know, are mid construction. I'm not sure about what the timing is.

We could certainly find out. We're we're working to I'm working with a consultant right now on communications around construction, and so it's our hope to be better tracking and have more updated information that we're sharing out to the public about construction happening in the downtown. So that's not something that's in place yet. That's something we're we're hoping to work towards just so that people can get more information and be aware of potential disruptions.

Yeah.

Some of them seem impermanently slow, discouraging to see things not moving along when we know there's a process.

I was gonna just also ask the update on next door to us, the Murphy's Building. Is because they said they were gonna start soon on construction, but nothing is

Yeah. So for that's Is that 236? I believe so. Yeah. It should be on item number item number 13. Addition

of this. Yeah.

So that one, I believe, they're still working through the building permits. They're having difficulties with the construction staging and getting that all approved by public works. So I don't know what the exact timing will of that will be, but that's why it's kinda getting held up right now in terms of construction.

Do you think that you're gonna be holding it throughout the summer? Or if they get it, like, doesn't matter if we're have, like, that happening during summer?

Yeah. I'm not sure. I'll I can touch base with the project planner and public works to see, you know, what their anticipate timing is, and then just provide an update. Oh,

okay. Any other questions from our group? Any other questions from those watching? Anybody online?

Not seeing anyone online.

Okay. I think we're done with you. Thank

you, Vincent. Yes.

Thank you.

So our next point of order is item number seven, which is new business. Items number 7.1, economic vitality strategy update.

Oh, I'm sorry, Pamela. We've got one more, unfinished business, the Castro Street update.

Oh, I'm sorry. I scooped scooped right by that. Okay. 6.2, Castro Street update. All I saw was Castro. Okay. Staff will provide a verbal update on current efforts and activities related with Castro.

Okay. And then

last PowerPoint.

Confirming you can see my screen.

Yes. Yeah.

Okay. So downtown updates. If you've scooped up the downtown digest that's there, you'll you'll know you'll see a couple of these updates, but it's been a busy couple of weeks since we last met. So first, as we were just talking about, the decorative street treatment has been fully installed, and we're already seeing people take advantage of some photo photo moments. This was a really fun moment that got captured by our communications team.

But, yeah, we we were pretty successful in getting that installed with minimal impacts to the businesses. I don't know if others have heard things differently, but I think our approach of closing down only half a block at a time really helped to minimize disruptions. Awesome. Oh, I'm I'm sorry. What was that?

I said it also helped to have good weather.

Yeah. Well, the good yeah. Absolutely. So things drew, dried really quickly. So this, is Mountain View's first citywide pride celebration. It's happening this upcoming weekend, here at Civic Center Plaza, and there will be, activities for kids and music. And, yeah, it should be a really fun event. I'm I'm really hopeful that the unicorn you see is actually sticker that may be floating around that I could maybe get my hands on because it's quite quite cute. But event happening in the down so a new event that's taking place in the downtown area. Reminder.

Reminder. Reminder. Reminder. Patio licenses, the current agreements expire at the end of this month, and so businesses really need to be working on getting their renewal applications and their renewal documents in as soon as possible. We have I think I see a member of the real estate team on the meeting today. But please, if you're in communications with businesses, please help get the word out that this needs to this is a top priority if they wanna continue to have patio areas into the new fiscal year. Is anyone oh, sorry.

Go ahead.

Is anyone in communication with the businesses? So do we have, like, a list of people we need to reach out to?

So we are in active communication. We've gone around in person. We've gone around. We've sent out multiple emails. Let me just see, actually. I think I saw Justina, not to put her on the spot. But Justina, I'm trying to promote you to a panelist. Do we have any businesses that, we haven't been able to get a hold of, or are we in communication with most of them? Justina, can you hear me? And did you hear the question?

Okay. Well, we'll see if she can work on getting connected. But yes. So, yes, one of the helpful things is that because most of it's mostly just renewals as we do have contact information, but we are with our businesses that we're still working through the process with. But if there are new businesses that would like to have that, that would now would be the time as well. Okay. Cornhole League. So Cornhole League starts next week. It'll be on the 300 Block. And because of the huge success of it last year, there will actually be two evenings.

So there's a Tuesday night league and a Thursday night league. I was actually walking downtown the other day and saw someone who brought their own cornhole bags and were using the space. So we've got some real pros out there in the community. So so, yeah, that'll that should be exciting. And, again, just fun bringing a whole new population of people downtown.

So I think we should maybe talk about some potential facilitating some collaborations, you know, maybe with some of the businesses. If you can show proof of registering for the Cornhole League, maybe you get, like, a discounted drink or something somewhere. But that's a future future iteration, but, but more bodies in the downtown, which is good. Kids stock is in full swing, so we had our first event last month. The next one will be on June 21. You can see, for those of you who are big fans, Martin and the Green Machine will be there. Mark your calendars. But this is just a really fun kid friendly, kid friendly day. Concerts in the plaza also kick off, this week. This is a busy week.

There's a lot going on in June. So the first event there, I've circled it in yellow for you. There are 18 concerts. I think there's actually five in August, but it didn't make for a nice square, so it got cut off. But there are lots of events that are happening, and these are a really good time. And then as I mentioned, the May Downtown Digest is out. It's sort of our summer edition, so there's a lot about events that are taking place, there's some information about the exhibit in the art exhibit currently at the Center for Performing Arts, we talked a little bit about the summer reading program happening at the library. I did include a walk your bike reminder at the very end there, so getting a little bit to what you brought up, Marina.

Mhmm.

Yeah. It's a that's a that's a challenging one, but there are signs. We're trying to get the word out. And yeah. So appreciate your help and continuing to remind people that they need to be walking. Okay. And that those are the end of my updates. Oh, also, if you want any hard copies of the Downtown Digest to bring, share with family and friends, always happy to print out extra copies. If there are extras that are from today's meeting, feel free to take those as well.

Are there any in the room or the downstairs? Yeah.

I'm here. I don't where

the agendas and the Team. Where name tags were.

Amanda, again, I'd like to, commend you and the team on the downtown digest. It's very visually exciting, well written. Kudos to you and your team.

Yes. Here it is.

Okay. Any other comments from the public or those present?

Right here. So so this weekend, I have seen, I mean, in a long time, they were just wild party going on. He was dancing the past weekend. Yeah. It was great. You know, fantastic. And if we're gonna have a lot more than especially on Friday, people dancing around and all that. Also, for the music, on the Castro, right there, they people sit down. A lot of people still riding on the bicycle. So, I think PD put it or something they put in a barrier with the a frame with the yellow tape.

So it seems to be help working. A lot of people realize it that I generally have to force myself in, so they get off the bike and then walk the bike. So both sides are all ticked off the tent, you know, to put a tiny frame.

Well, I was in Europe most of my month in May and went to a couple of cities with pedestrian malls, and this is not an uncommon challenge. Yeah. Trying to keep people off their bikes. So saw a variety of different marquees and a frame signs. So it's not a unusual challenge, you think. Any other comments from the

our group or the public? Well, just to reiterate what Jamil said, I think that the the, you know, the new decoration in town has really brought people out. Like, I every weekend and ever since the, you know, the decorate you know, decorative Ribbons. Ribbons came about, I think it really brought families out, and it's just so beautiful to see. And I congratulate you, Amanda, for the rest of that. It's it's really beautiful to see. Really, really We

should do all. Yeah. Street. Street.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, major kudos to our public works team who led who led that construction project. And, yeah, thank you for all your help with our getting the word out in communications. Make that as seamless as possible.

Great. Alright. Any other comments? Any comments from the public? No. Anyone online? Okay. Now we will move on to new business, 7.1, economic vitality strategy update with the free reports and lots of information to glean from the reports. So, Amanda?

Yes. Thank you. So, yes, I provided you with a lot of information. We did just go to council with our annual update on the economic vitality strategy, so I provided all of that in there. We all I also prepared a memo on just all things downtown, and so that was included as an attachment to the economic vitality strategy update, and I also included it for you.

It's a really good overview of all the work that's happened in the last twelve months or so, and kind of a nice reflection on all the hard work that we've been doing in the downtown. So it's it's a worthwhile read even though it's, like, 10 pages long. Okay. But as we discussed last month, as we were discussing our work plan, it was noted that it might be helpful to just be oriented to the economic vitality strategy and some of the specific goals that we have for downtown that are called out there. As you know, the economic vitality strategy is sort of our north star in terms of the work that the economic vitality team is undertaking and prioritizing.

So I, yeah, I'll jump in, and I'm doing kind of a a deep dive on our downtown goal. So the economic vitality strategy was a or is a current street strategic priority for the two year council work plan that ends at the end of this month. But it was really established as as a key project and one of the ones that we accomplished. Last year, April 2024, council adopted the economic vitality strategy. And then as I said, just last month, we brought an update to council on our year one efforts.

The little circle graphic that you see there are sort of the priorities that have been established by the City Council. And you can see in the orange box, economic vitality is one of those and will continue to be as these are the strategic priorities for the next council work two year council work plan that'll begin July 1. Just orient orienting you, I know many of you have seen this before, but this is the vision statement for the document, you know, Mountain View seeks to create a thriving community where small businesses, innovation, entrepreneurship and diversity are encouraged and flourish. We're aiming to be a global leader that balances a flourishing economy with the health and well-being of our community and the environment. So I think really demonstrating a real balanced approach to what we want to achieve.

So there are five goals in the economic vitality strategy, and you can see those laid out before you. Goal number one is really about citywide commercial centers and helping to support those commercial hubs and community gathering spaces across the city. Goal number two, as I mentioned, is all about downtown, and then we'll dive a little deeper into that today. Growth goal number three is really around tactics and strategies to support sort of our proven, more established advanced industries and employers. So we're talking some of our larger kind of our larger sales tax producers, our tech companies, those that kind of are the big players and have a lot of employees and generate a lot of business here.

And then goal number four is really around those small local entrepreneurs, some of the smaller businesses, which actually make up the grand majority of in terms of pure numbers, are the grand majority of the businesses that we have. Small businesses really are the support system, the structure for local economy. So we have a whole number of strategies and goals there. And then goal number five is really around I kind of think of it as sort of our internal work in terms of improving our development policies and and processes there and making changes and improvements there. This the document with all of the goals are avail is available online.

If you'd like a link, I'm happy to send that out as well. So to orient you a little bit to how the document works. So as you can see, at the very top, of to the right, you have that sort of a page directly out of the economic vitality strategy. So you have the goal at the top. And then there are a number of strategies that are associated with it. So goal number two is around downtown. So goal two b is about better connecting the downtown between, know, with major employment centers. And so you've got the strategy there, and then action opportunities. So below that, you'll have, you know, a number of actions that support strategy to be that is housed under goal two. So you can kind of see how things nest into one another.

And then in terms of the little icons, so every single action item, it has been has been given sort of a timeline in terms of when when it and when when it should be implemented. These are kind of established based on existing resources constraints. You know, a lot of it's around how much budget do we need. But you can see there how different action items are sort of nestled in terms of timeline or prioritized in terms of timeline. You also see that there's been some estimate around the cost to implement these.

So sort of a tool for staff to be able to to plan ahead by seeing some of the costs that are associated with implementing some of the action items. And then we do have some we also bring this equity lens in. And so you can see, for example, action2b.4 has that little equity icon there. And so some of our strategies that fall within some of our equity goals. And then in terms of actions by timelines, you can kind of get a sense of of the work plan.

There's lot of things. You can see the immediate, we kind of warm up a little bit. Short term, we take on a little more. Midterm is where we really get into it with seventy seventy or so action items there, but you can kind of get a sense of how things how things pan out in terms of how things have been divided up. And then in terms of year one progress, so looking at those sort of immediate short term and midterm, and so quickly some definitions.

So completed is obviously items that have been initiated and fully completed. Ongoing means that we have initiated the item, and it's something that is ongoing. Like, one of the examples might be the establishment of our business ambassador team. And so this is now an ongoing program that is available. So it will not have a, you know, it will not have an endpoint.

And so ongoing can can be considered completed. But it is also important to note that ongoing is now part of our regular team work plan. So it's been added to our sort of everyday care and feeding of the economic development division. In progress, our items that we've initiated are and are making are working towards working through, and then not started, obviously, is pretty clear. But in terms of our immediate less than one year, we've, you know, taken some action on 95% of, the actions that have that timeline, which I think is a huge accomplishment.

And you see, you know, 5% might not started, and that might be for a variety of reasons. It might it might be because we are down a staff member. It might be because we don't have the resources in play place, or it might be because this is a living, breathing, adaptable document, that there are just items that, you know, the environment has changed, and we as staff don't think, you know, that may not be the right time to move those forward. I have to go in and actually pull out what those specific ones are, but just some context in terms of those. And then you can see, you know, we've actually made progress across all of our all of our timelines here.

There have been, again, items that felt more important to move forward. And so you can see there are some long term items that we've actually initiated. Again, because this is a living, breathing document, we're we're looking at the full picture and sort of modifying our work plan on a yearly basis to really be most targeted with the strategies and resources that we have. And then another way of looking at it is sort of progress update by goal. So again, you have that completed ongoing in progress not started, and you can see we've really moved the needle on every single one of our goals.

There's work that's taking place with a fair amount, and we'll dive into the downtown piece, but a lot that's happening and in progress there. But just sort of another graphic to demonstrate what year one has looked like for us. The other thing that we have are, we've established some success metrics. So this was approved as part of the economic vitality strategy that we would have ways of seeing of measuring what success looks like. And so these metrics were were established at in back in April, and so we brought back some updates to council.

And you can see how each of those each of these measures of success sort of relate to each of the goals. And so, you know, those little dots that are there. As you can see, goal number two, which is the downtown goal, there's a dot in every single one of those boxes. So there's a lot that this measure of success is actually a good a good guide for the work we've done in the downtown because there are sort of connections there. But I've highlighted in blue the ones that are, you know, specifically call it to the downtown.

And so you can see office and retail vacancy rate. And while we aren't quite in those target ranges, you can see that we've had downward progress in in both of those areas. So we're moving in the right direction, which is really which is really huge. Vacancy is going down, you know, little by little. And then percent growth in year over sale, a year year over year sales tax receipts.

So we'd obviously like this to be in the positive, but we're not seeing compared to last year a much smaller sort of decline. And this is looking at I believe we pulled q four rates just because sales tax data lags. And so I'm pretty sure this was q four of last year. As you remember, we had a election, and there's been just some some economic turnover. So actually, the small decrease is, I I think, quite quite a win.

And we'll be getting more sales tax data for the rest of this year as we progress in. And the number of businesses establishment in downtown, we had a couple of new businesses. And obviously, there's always a flux of businesses that come in and come out. But that's really exciting to see that number moving moving up. And you can see that that correlates with the downward trend in some of our vacancy rates.

Question?

Oh, yes.

Can you go back to that slide? The second item from the bottom, number of square feet supporting commercial industrial activities target 26,000,000, and, both of those markers show 29,000,000. So is that saying that we have 3,000,000 square feet too much of something? How do you can you explain that a little better?

No. Just that we're above our target, and so that would be a considered a a positive success metric. If we start to see that kind of going away, that might be something we'd want to look into. But no, it's not showing. It's not showing too much of something. It's just showing that we're exceeding our target. Does that answer your question, Pamela?

I'm I'm I'm thinking. I'm thinking. So one of the things that we don't show in listing in in the economic vitality statement does talk about the vitality of residents. This doesn't have anything about housing or lack thereof. Or, is that part of the measures that we're, reviewing?

So these are the the measures you see in front of us are the only measures that we have, that were established in 2024. At the council meeting last month, there were a couple of additional measures that were requested. Council there was two, one wanting to know getting more detailed data on our business license tax and having businesses broken out by tier, and so you could get a better sense of the different the number of businesses in each of the tiers. And then the other one was actually looking at, measure g funds, so our property transfer tax, looking at the number of businesses above that threshold. The other item that was, the council brought up was wanting to see how long it takes for permits to from start to finish, like, know, the average approval, you know, permit approval rate process.

So those are ones that staff was directed to go back and investigate, but there were no other measures that have passed that council has added for us to start tracking on.

Okay. Thank you.

Yeah.

If I may add, I think more around the housing, I think the needle will move a little bit once we are more deeper into our downtown precise fund update and making some adjustment to our land use policies for downtown.

Thank you, Diana. Okay. So let's jump, oops, jump into goal number two. So this is our downtown focused goal. So you can see it's all around sort of reinvigorating downtown and what really wanting it to be this pedestrian scale place where there's great opportunity and draw for shopping and dining and social engagement.

So each of the strategies, and I know you can read them, but we'll just go through them together. So there are five strategies that are specific to downtown. And so, obviously, the first one is all is what Diana's working on. So it's our update to our downtown precise plan, and we'll talk about some of the action items that are specific in there. But but and as Diana can share, we are we are underway with strategy two a.

Two b is really around, again, improving those connections between downtown and our major Mountain View employers, especially as we've seen sort of the shift in work from home trends and some of the vacancy office vacancy in the downtown. These connections to some of our larger employers become all the more important. And so you'll see that we've got some action items related to that. Expand cultural and civic activities. So there's been a lot of work that we've done around that.

But yeah. Around the sort of the cultural social side of things. And then strategy two d is around our downtown parking strategy. So the downtown parking strategy was adopted in 2021, and it's has a number of recommendations around management supply, regulation of parking really to support to support our current downtown economy, ensuring that there is enough and well managed parking, and also trying to support some of our alternative modes of transportation through some of our poll parking policies. And then strategy two e is really around creating that sense of place and experience.

And we'll, like I said, dive into some of the action items by really wanting to create a place, like, with our with the ribbons where people have a a real clear image of what Downtown Mountain View is in their mind. And it feels like a really authentic place where they wanna be. So let's I can pause there, or we can dive in and get a little clearer of what each of these strategies actually mean. Okay. Okay.

So we're getting into a little bit of the minutiae here. But again, I think it's important, especially as we then go to approve our council work plan item or or, our committee work plan item, which is next. So strategy two a. Again, this is around the precise plan. And, Diana, feel free to interrupt me at any time, but, you can see here around there's a number of different items that are related to supporting the downtown precise plan.

So for example, you know, two a, three, and four, you're we're looking at absorption targets for residential and commercial growth. Oh, I'm sorry. Four is the Moffett precise plan, is sort of adjacent. But, you know, doing some additional research to understand the demands in terms of commercial and residential growth, looking at flexible zoning in and around the downtown, you know, looking at some of the feasibility for some of these other kind of city amenity type spaces. And then and then a number of excuse me.

And the other piece of this, so wanting to update our precise plan, but also wanting to bring maximize appeal and draw, you know, be be do business attract attraction and retention. So you can see some items related to that in terms of understanding, you know, what is the demand from the consumer side, and how can we support businesses in sort of meeting that demand. You can see where we've started most of these. The only one is sort of that two a eight, which is around exploring the feasibility of an innovation hub campus and maker space. Yeah.

That one's gonna take some partnerships and work and and and some funding to make that happen. But the rest of these have all been initiated. Diana, do have anything you wanna add in in terms of where we are with the precise plan and how it relates to the economic vitality strategy?

So yeah. Thank you. As I think I've met with most of you, we're doing the stakeholder interviews. We're tentatively planning to do a community wide workshop sometime in August. We're targeting that so that, for visioning and goal setting.

And I think we are planning to go back to our city council and, planning commission with a study session on the same topic of visioning and goal setting to kind of tell them what we heard from the stakeholders, what are some of the, you know, vision related key items that we have found, and if council and EPC kind of agree on that or what is what was going to be their direction on that. So that's plan for rest of the year for the downtown pipeline update.

Thank you. Any questions on strategy two a? Alright. Let's jump into two b. Okay. So this is that strategy around making then some of those connections between some of our employment centers. So, again, this one a couple of these all point to one another. So the first one's really around the downtown parking strategy and providing support and wayfinding for non vehicular traffic. Yeah. Some signage would help connect between employment centers and commercial nodes.

To me, this sort of speaks to a more citywide wayfinding program. And yeah, in my mind, it's not a short term project. So it's been labeled as such, but wayfinding programs need to be really thoughtful and are quite expensive to initiate. So that one may need to be rejiggered in terms of where how we prioritize that. But we are our public works team is working on with the Mountain View Community Shuttle and looking to bring in, you know, some expansion there, having conversations about about the viability of that.

And then we are strengthening signage and wayfinding in Central Expressway, so that's something that's on my work plan. As I know, we've heard a lot from the community that it's hard to get to downtown from Central Expressway, and so but that's not a city owned street, so it does require some collaboration and approval from Caltrans. And then working with major employers to create and distribute recommended transit walking, biking, or or bike transit walking or biking routes. So that would be something we'd work with our public works team on to see about creating those materials and getting them distributed. And then lastly is that passport to downtown program.

This is one of our projects that we'd collaborate with the DBA and chamber on. Peter, I think you guys had maybe not a passport to downtown program, but I know you did stuff during COVID, to really promote businesses. So I don't know if you have any thoughts on this one, but this would be a a future a midterm collaboration we'd be looking to address.

We're always open to ideas like that. You know, the taste of Mountain View is one example of a type of passport program, but that's very focused on a single event. The the gift card program that we have is another, it's not really a passport program, but it is a way of engaging more of the businesses, in a way that that is not specific event oriented. But I don't know of any specific plans that we have on the books right now for anything that that

Yeah.

Love to discuss further.

You're you're on your list. The chamber is listed in addition to timeline progress. It talks about some, you know, what city departments or community partners we need to work with, and the chamber is listed quite a bit in our economic vitality strategy, as they know. Okay, two c, this is around expanding cultural and civic activities in the downtown. So, you know, a lot around working with local arts and cultural groups, wanting to bring, you know, regional art galleries, museums, with either temporary or permanent installations or programming in the downtown, you know, looking at pop up events in or pop up uses in vacant spaces.

You know, again, it's identified a couple of potential partners there. And then obviously working with, you know, for additional holiday celebrations and festivals. As I mentioned, we've got the first ever pride parade coming downtown. So, you know, that one, as you can see, is is ongoing, and there is movement happening in that space. And then there is, you know, obviously, some of the on the professional side, some trade festivals we put on the tech showcase, but always open if there are other other trade festivals or fair opportunities that would be people would be interested in having in the downtown, we'd wanna support those.

And then, you know, as Peter mentioned, we've got Taste of Mountain View that's happening, and of course, our wine festival. But this one also calls out, you know, seeing if there's some regional or local tourism efforts or restaurant groups that would be interested in bringing, you know, a restaurant week or cocktail week in downtown. So that is strategy two c. And then strategy two d, again, this is mostly around the downtown parking strategy. I will say it was approved in 2021, and then we were doing a little post COVID recovery.

And so there we have been a little delayed in implementing the downtown parking strategy, but I can tell you we are currently working on it. And as I mentioned at last meet at our last meeting, that we will, be engaging with this as the year continues as there's, a consultant that's been brought on board. We're in the process of getting updated data. So, the data that we had was sort of in the mid, shortly post COVID era, and so we're we're we did a round of data collection last month, and so we'll have a clearer sense of what the parking reality is on the ground today, and that will help to inform the recommendations that we prioritize and try and move forward. So, I imagine, by the time we're reporting out on year two, that a lot of these not started will be moved to in progress as we start to implement the downtown parking strategy.

Third question? Nope. Okay. And then strategy two e, again, is around creating that sense of place. And so, obviously, two e one has been all of the work that we've been doing over the last two years of, you know, trying to implement the Castro Street Pedestrian Mall in terms of all the activations and activities and games and, you know, bringing that unique, feel to downtown with ping pong tables and, of course, our decorative street treatments.

So there's just been a lot. Two e is in progress, and I imagine will just be ongoing as we continue the care and feeding of our downtown. And then we've got, you know, trying to really support programming at the Civic Center Plaza and see if there's ways that we can really support more grassroots community programming. I'm currently looking at their at their, looking for ways to really support businesses on the pedestrian mall and being able to bring forward their own unique programming in, an affordable and easy way easy to do way. So also looking at that, which is sort of semi related to this to this action item.

And then, of course, you know, trying to just have more regularly occurring public events that showcase and connect to downtown businesses. So you can see the ones that are listed there, you know, the farmers market and music on Castro and Kids Stock and, you know, taste of Mountain View, all the things that are happening. In terms of and and just to note here, we say regular recurring public events, but they may not be, you know, run by the city, but events that are available to the public to participate in. And then oh, sorry. Am I hearing stuff in the in the Zoom room?

No. Okay. And then continue to enhance, you know, the gathering spaces. So I love that it calls out interactive water feature, which I think would be a lot of fun, but would be quite expensive and pretty hard to maintain. But we are looking at ways that we can continue to, you know, activate the space and and to, you know, expand the demographic there.

So make it fun for kids. You know, we've got one of the things that's really great about our downtown is there there does seem to be a variety of demographics that can really enjoy our downtown. And I'm down there in the morning. People are down there with their kids, just letting them run around and play with the games. And then, you know, you've got some more, you know, different populations that come for lunch and dinner, and then we've got our whole night scene population.

So just looking at ways that we can continue to support all of the all of the demographics that utilize our downtown. Oh, and that's it. That's the end of strategy two e. So that is sort of a a sense of of the economic vitality strategy, schools and focus areas for the downtown. Happy to take questions and or provide more information.

I believe included in your packet, I included all of the all the strategy items. Oh, nope. I didn't. But it is available in on the council, the council memo that we put together. If you wanna see every strategy in its current status, I'm happy to send that over. We have a kind of a weird thing where it doesn't let us combine PDFs, so it makes it a little difficult to package. Yeah. Peter.

So I I was actually fortunate enough to be at the city council meeting where a lot of this update was presented. And the chamber of commerce actually wanted to make a public comment there too, and I'll share some of the highlights with you. First of all is that we are 200% in favor of the UBS strategy, support of the UBS strategy. We think it's one of the best documents that's come out of the city in a long time, especially its its its depth and complexity. Because oftentimes, we sit there and say, oh, we just need to do this one thing, and that's really not what this is designed to do.

There there were a number of things that we mentioned that are that are great, and and Amanda shared a lot of those. There are two things we mentioned that we wanted to make sure the city understood, and one was what really moves the needles for our businesses. One of the things is just the cleanliness and and approachability of the street. So, you know, cleaning, And and we were just talking about the sewer a little bit of sewer problem, the rats and the drains, and things like that. So making sure that the city is staffed enough and doing this regularly enough to make it a clean and vibrant spot.

The other thing that really moves the needle is with the permitting process. And so, you know, there are permits, and then there are permits, and then there are permits you need on top of the permits and so on and so forth. And whereas it's great to have express permits MV. If you haven't tried it, please do. It's a it's a great way of checking on what permits you need and how to get it through the process more quickly and all that.

Again, though, if you have a project that requires six of them and all of them happen serially rather than in parallel, that adds to the problems and the complexity. And so we wanna make sure that while that's not necessarily a specific part that the precise plan can address, the city as a whole needs to understand that it's related and to make sure that that's linked in as well. And the other thing we said was that there are a lot of things on this list, and the last thing we wanna see happen is that they say, you know what? Let's just do the top five, and then we're done. They're interrelated, and they they have an impact on each other, and we need to continue to to look at it as a group.

So I think that was all well received by by city council, and, you know, with chamber and and I'm sure Amanda too will be, you know, updating you as we have have more on that. But understand those those points were made too. The other thing too that we mentioned to city council is that this has been dumped on economic development's plate and a bunch of other stuff. And so staffing is huge and that the city needs to understand that this needs to be properly staffed. So, again, we're trying to and I think that the downtown committee can also reinforce that too.

If the fees are important, then the city should look at what are our staffing priorities and to make this commensurate with that. One thing that wasn't mentioned, but I do think that we need to talk about at some point, is that, as you know, the Downtown Precise Plan is a plan that goes for many years, and there's going to be construction involved during that time. And we've mentioned this separately, but I think we need to do this, more programmatically, is that what happens when the shovel drops? Okay? What happens when the barriers go up and you can no longer walk on the street?

What happens during those times? How can we make sure that our businesses remain vibrant, they remain accessible, and that we keep downtown a place to come even when construction is going off? And so as we get and we're a little ways away from that, I would say. But as we get closer, I would love to make sure that this group has input on that as well.

Jim had also mentioned safety at the council meeting.

We did mention safety. All that. Yes.

So if I could just bring your attention to attachments. Oh, boy. Well, there's so many attachments, but it's the last page of this item right before you get to 7.2. There is actually a map that is included. And so you can see all of the diff this is sort of our the construction projects we are aware of and are in the pipeline.

So it's sort of in response to your question, Peter, this is something we are tracking on. And you can see there's a lot that's planned, you know, in terms of public prod you know, city infrastructure projects on private development. As I mentioned, we are working with a communications firm on a strategic communications strategy that will have toolkits. So how do we, you know, how do we talk to the public about things that are happening? How do we make sure that they're in the loop that, hey, you're not gonna be able to park in your favorite parking lot, but, hey, there's parking right down the way and, you know, make it really friendly and inviting even though there's work taking place, and also orient people to what construction gets us, which is new development, new new businesses, new buildings, reinvestment, which is really exciting.

My my sort of pet hope for this project is that we get some beautiful construction fencing. So it's something that I'm I'm really pushing for that we, you know that when there are construction fencing that go up, it's not the best look, and especially when we have fencing that public will see and will have to walk by day in and day out. So it's little things like that. So how can we make it more visually either beautiful or less intrusive, and then how are we communicating and have different strategies for that? So it's on the top of our mind too, Peter. Yeah.

Yeah. And, you know, if I could add public works, economic development, planning, and building. All these departments coordinate on creating this map. Started probably towards the end of COVID, and a great amount of focus is on pedestrian activity going around and how's that gonna work if, you know, some of our sidewalks and a long stretch of our sidewalks are gonna be closed during construction. So that is going to be a key focus, and we put a lot of emphasis on that.

And one more comment, Amanda's comment about structure fences. I agree. You know, when they're all off center and cement posts are making people trip when they go by. When Stanford was doing the, new children's hospital, they used a parking area as a staging area for equipment. And along the edges of the the fence, they put up big visuals of historic photographs of Stanford University, and it was so much fun to walk by there or drive by there and figure out, okay.

That puppy is a photo from 1920 showing the rowing team or, you know, whatever. But it it really added excitement and interest on something that would normally

of interest rather than just a big ugly

son's hand.

Or that that green stuff that gets all the screening that gets all beat up and torn and doesn't look very good. So even if we just did giant logos of the city, it just repeated those even in black and white. Just something other than just that green or black screening fencing stuff.

You know the Wells Fargo, how they have those murals of old time Right. Just random people picture day day day kind of thing. I always look at

it. Right?

And you're just like, what? These people. You know? Yeah. Right. It's like, I think it's such a beautiful, you know, just to bring old time mountain view, and I think everybody would look at it. Mhmm. Especially history buffs or, you know, anybody who's like, oh, how far we've come or how far we didn't come or, like, oh, similar. How how they use that? Exactly. Right? Like, I think that's really

I don't know what those costs, but it would be wonderful if you could put that into the budget. Beautification, and maybe they can be reused again in other projects except that, of course, keeping inventory and where they're going to be stored. That's not something else to think about. But, anyway, it would be wonderful if we could put that into this mix.

And I

think we've already seen if you paint the ribbons along the street, people will wanna take a photo on Instagram. So if you're selling this Instagram Yeah.

Even do the the ribbons on the fencing screens. That would be another way to reinforce downtown.

Which brings me what what is the current situation on the murals? I just met a muralist, by the way.

I just contracted.

That that was my question. What is it like? What do they need to have? What kind of like because he asked me what kind of license. So I'm like

So are

you talking about the one on the train station? So there's going to be eight murals on the train station, and Anita Rosen is the one that's spearheading that. She's working with city staff, and the historical association is going to be doing some consulting on. There's gonna be QR codes, and we'll be able to take a photo of the QR code, and then there'll be history behind the stylized murals.

I can add a little

bit of context there.

So, Kersten Heinz, economic development strategist. Arts Mountain View is a local nonprofit. They've been working with the visual arts committee to prepare kind of a recommendation or proposal to bring up to the city manager's office. And so it would be a donation to the city, and so we're kind of working through that process. So the visual arts committee recently made a recommendation to bring up to the city manager.

So it's not murals, but it's it's part panels. And so the panels would be installed onto the building. They'd be the purpose is to be vibrant color. It was initiated through Valley Transportation Authority grant. And so there's some simulations around kind of, like, bringing in the history and diversity of the community and making it really vibrant to see from the train.

So it hasn't been officially approved yet to put on the building, but we're working through that process. And so we'll provide updates to you guys too when we get further along. And in terms of the mural requirements, so in the last year, we've been we've there's been a memo that was released from the state that says that public projects cities need to hire licensed contractors to do murals or any public art installations. And so that's delayed some of our art projects, and that is something that there's a a bill a senate bill, four five six, that's going through committee review right now. It's anticipated to get reviewed by the governor this fall.

I I think community review has been generally positive, so we're hoping that it gets passed this the bill would exempt muralists from needing the contractor's license, which would hopefully allow us to move forward with our projects, Private projects and any private business can put a mural on their space. There is a a small permit requirement. The city just looks at the mural to make sure it's not advertising or signage. But other than that, private private businesses can put, murals on their own spaces. They're not subject to the same, requirements that the city is.

That's why the bollards have not been doing it. Yeah. Exactly. Commercial. Mhmm.

Okay. Any other comments, questions? Thank you, Amanda. Any comments from the public?

Not seeing any online.

Okay. So, Amanda, is that the end of your conversation on that?

That is the end of seven point one. Yeah.

Great. Thank you so much. There was a lot of information there, a lot of details in the. Thank you for providing that to us. Okay. We're now ready to go to 7.2, downtown committee work plan. There were two attachments with that required by city council policy a dash 23. The committee will prepare an annual work plan that will be submitted to council for review and approval in fall twenty twenty five, a draft committee work plan for the fiscal year 2526 was discussed at the May 6 downtown committee meeting and returns today for adoption. So, Amanda?

Yeah. I don't have anything to add other than I took your comments and edits from our meeting last month and made those. So really just here today seeking approval unless there are some, yeah, major changes that we wanna see, although it will make it a little tricky for us in being able to, yeah, get this get this submitted to council on time. So I'm hopeful that we're we can just proceed with an adoption today.

So is there any comments or questions on attachment number one?

The only

comment I have is that does the city require, in terms of document, I think, firm dates, or is putting TBD or ongoing sufficient?

Per my understanding is that that is sufficient, sufficient, that it's our work plan. And so as long as it meets our needs, I have not been directed to provide more specificity.

Cool.

So if I may add for advisory committee work plans, it is pretty standard. Like, there are certain items which are going to continue on an ongoing basis by the advisory body, and that's shown as ongoing. But if you look at, you know, number e, like, the the stuff relating to business improvement areas, you know, we have some, timeline in there. And fall, spring, q three, q four kind of, timeline is what we see in most of the advisory body work line items. So that is pretty standard.

Okay. Thank

you. Yeah.

We couldn't take item number for you. TBD, the developer budget that we've never done that before. So that's unknown known as far as a line item. Question, Peter?

No. I just wanna make sure that we don't, you know, overpromise, underdeliver or something. Yeah.

Great. I just wanted to, you know, mention the opening of Evolent Access Point from Central, and I'm not sure if this would part of this, but just to kinda remind people that Vitality also is active. You know? We we don't have access to downtown from a very strong, very important freeway or highway. What is that?

Is that? Expressway.

Expressway. And one zero one. Right?

I think we are, bringing our downtown a good service. I think it can be at least a temporary, improvement until the city or the state is ready to do the train thing or whatever, the crossing underneath or whatever.

So, Marie, did and I know we we can't discuss this, but can you explain are you are you hoping to have vehicle access from that point or more if yes?

Yeah. I mean, the the the reasoning behind it is just, to me, honestly, doesn't make much sense because they say that it's because of stopping. I think it's an easy fix either to put a police officer temporarily there until people learn not to stop there. I think it's a different story now than what it was during COVID when, you know, a lot of DoorDashers would stop. But I think today, I think it it may not we're not in the same situation. And I think that could be a very easy pass through, very easy access. And I'm not talking about going left on Evelyn. I'm just going right, you know, just have that one access into the parking lots.

From virtual. Turn right on Evelyn. Yeah. Get to the parking lots.

That's the idea.

Yeah. Right.

So we have this

So, again, we can't have discussion on this since it's not agendized, but I will just add some context from staff. So the reason essentially, what we've been told, and we have our traffic engineers whose job it is to look at, you know, risks and traffic patterns and how we keep everyone safe. And it was pretty much determined that the because because cars and and I can pull up the little map actually that might be helpful. I drew it out. But cars, as they're making the turn onto Evelyn, they don't realize that they don't have a lot of space to queue.

So if there are pedestrians that are crossing, peep cars that are backing out, there are situations that get created whereby trains end up on the train track, and we had three near misses in the span of one day, the first day that we closed it down. So there were three near train car collisions that took place. And so the city determined that it was a huge safety risk. And so the only way that we could proceed with opening would be to remove the 100 block of the pedestrian mall. So those are the kind of things that we have to weigh, you know, deciding, you know, that they're always, you know, you know, things that we have to weigh and balance, and and that would be the only path through.

It would be essentially taking all of the patios areas and removing the 100 block of the of of Castro Street. So, you know, we can bring in the city engineer and have a discussion, but that that is sort of the environment we're in where we it's too much of a safety hazard and that we had the train like I said, some near misses that happened there. So it's it's yeah. It's a it's a tricky one, but just so you have all the information in terms of all the things that need to get sort of weighed to ensure maximum safety there for all the different modes of transportation. And again, if you'd like to agendize this for a future meeting, we can have more discussion, but just a little bit of background there.

And actually, if I could just share my screen. I I worked really hard on this little graphic for the March Downtown Digest, and it just helps to kind of show the situation there. And so I'll just pull that up. But you can see train tracks. So the little yellow box there so really there's only one space for a car to queue before you end up on the train track.

So if there's anyone on the crosswalk that is noted in the dark blue, or there's any parking cars that are pulling out on the parking spots on Evelyn, cars have to stop. And so there's only one car that can that can that can safely queue. And so part of the challenge is the light blue, it has limited visibility. So if you're making a right hand turn, you know, you you can't necessarily see before you've made the turn and have ended up almost on the train tracks that there's backup. And then again, in the left hand turn, because it is such a wide turn, you may not necessarily be able to see that there's backups.

And so we end up in the little scary jagged red line complex zone. And again, that was where we had a number of near misses. So I know it's not ideal. And one of the things that I mentioned in that's in our EVS strategy is around looking at improved signage for Evelyn. And so at the moment, that is what the city is pursuing in terms of trying to make that an easier access point that people can there'll be some clear signs and cookie crumbs that get people to downtown through a different point.

Amanda, can we, put this on a future agenda? Because there's actually two points there, which I'm not gonna talk about because it's not agendized. But if we could put that on a future agenda and have a more robust discussion about this. Oh, can't hear you.

Oops. Sorry. I added it for our future agenda list.

Thank you. Okay. Are there any other comments from our group? Any comments from the public? So do we need to vote on this, or this just passing on to the

Nope. We need a vote that's a final a final approval.

Alright. So can I entertain a motion to approve our work plan as presented?

I move.

Jamil, and a second? Second. Second by Marina. And I see a an aye for those who approve our work plan as presented?

Aye.

Any nays? Okay. And that passes unanimously. Alright. Let's move on to item number eight, committee staff comments, questions, committee reports. Does anyone have any comments or reports that they would like to present? That's a question. Question.

You mentioned the Lot 12 when that might be breaking ground. So I think we've talked about this in the past, but the farmer's market happens there. And then I think I also heard that the VT may eventually put, like, a multistory parking garage on the parking lot over there. So I guess the question is what's gonna happen to the farmer's market? Because it is it was, like, discussed in here that it's, a big part of the economic vitality of downtown.

So I think that's well, actually, I did find out that downtown originally when they built it was set up to have a farmer's market. Like, it's wide enough. It's got electrical outlets. And then for many reasons, it got moved to the which is fine. But I'm just wondering, like, are we gonna have Farmers Market in downtown?

Like, where

is it gonna go?

So this is not on the agenda, so we would need

to Yes. That's that's a question. Yeah. Just a question. Great.

And just to note, Stephanie, we are I am actively working with the Farmers market, so we're in discussions already. Yeah. But you make a good great point.

Okay.

The historical association will be conducting a walking tour on Sunday, June 22 from two to four. We meet at the train station, and we walk and walk and talk and talk. Mhmm. So that's listed on Eventbrite, and we'll be doing some more promotions on that later in the month. So do people have to

sign Pardon? Do people have to sign up?

Yes. We have to sign up. There is a $10 charge for, Mountain View historical members and $15 for nonmembers. And the reason we charge for it is because we wanna make sure that those who sign up actually show up. Because I have stood there before with about two people, and it's, it's not worth my time for two people. So, but if they pay, it is worth my time because we got money from them even if they don't show up. So, then it becomes worth my time. So in any case, those are fun. Any other comments? Jamil, looks

like one comment. It was not in downtown, but the Memorial Day event well attended. The Eagle Park. Year, Eagle Park, and it was fiftieth anniversary of the Vietnam War. It's fantastic. And people walked towards downtown and came by these restaurants too.

You know?

It was also the eightieth anniversary of VE Day

E Day.

May 8. So that was another event too. Am I right?

Bar department, honor guards, and

all that. Fantastic. It's a great ceremony. We're about town, but it's a great city. Any other comments? Just Sean.

Sean, can squeeze the public safety issue. One thing I think is pretty important to note is where people are congregating for fillet, go out at night. You quite often see people drinking in the parking lot between Bryant And Cherry Lane. So that's generally where you see a lot of people hanging out before they get on to downtown. Also, probably a good just checkpoint for public safety and especially at the end of the night. You'll see people leaving through there.

I'm not

sure if probably still got a lot of alcohol in their system.

Between Bryant and Sherry Lane's. Yeah. Yeah.

They're right there. I mean, I large structure.

Yeah. It's just the place I've noticed it. Mhmm.

So those are all legal aid aged drinkers. Right?

I

had an ID then.

You didn't card anybody? Citizens.

Show me your ID.

First open container is not

if there are no other Oh, okay. Yep. Peter.

Are you sure? Cool. Okay. Alright. So the DBA is going to be hosting an open house. Oh, sure. Sure. We are still working on a date because the intent is really to highlight our local businesses because putting a face to a business is always important. And to be able to have the businesses kind of say, yep. This is who we are. This is what we do, and these are some of the challenges that we have downtown. We did this back towards the end of the pandemic when shop local was a huge, huge directive. And it's worth doing, re renewing it. And Marina is going to be one of the panelists. Gene's gonna be one of the panelists from Red Rock.

I think that are we having Jamil? Oh, sorry. Janade? Yeah. There are gonna be four panelists representing four different types of businesses. And we encourage the public to come and and

With voice all hands raised too.

Oh, okay. I'll probably refute everything I've said, and that's fine. But the idea the idea here is is both for the public to to to get to know our business, but also for the city to understand kind of, you know, what's going on with them and and and some of the concerns. This is definitely a a chance to spotlight our businesses and to to really promote them.

Any chance to timeline on, like, when you're planning on doing this?

So Marisol has her hand up. I'm guessing that she's going to share some

of that. Well,

I just wanted to highlight that it would yes. It'll be Marina, Jean, Juan from Ava's, and Carrie from Books Inc that'll be the current panelists. Right now, we were aiming for a couple like, a few weeks from now. I think our date was June 26, but it seems that there's gonna be a not a a city council meeting, but a meeting in which city some of the city council staff will be attending. And we really wanna make sure that we can have, you know, as many city council attending so that they can also partake in, you know, what our downtown businesses are saying on this panel and getting to know all the other downtown business leaders and managers as well.

So we're still working on a date in that sense, trying to figure out what works best on everyone's calendar. But it will we're aiming for a Thursday evening, so 05:30 to 07:30. Doors open at 05:30. You know, the panel or the presentations will be from six to seven, and then you have another additional half hour to mix and mingle amongst folks. So that's Okay.

Is there a venue?

Monte Carlo.

Okay. Okay.

So there's going to be, you know, food, refreshments. So it's gonna be all to mingle. It'll be nice. Like, last time, it was great. Mhmm. People had a really good time, and, you know, they do food and drinks. They I mean, not alcohol, but, like, whatever. It made people kinda really participate and enjoy the evening and contribute, and it was really good.

Yeah. I mean, the best reactions we get, people say, I never knew you were here or you did this. That that's the absolutely the best thing.

Especially to showcase new businesses and and and to really put a face to what you said earlier.

We can get a date and confirmation on that. I wanna make sure that community development, including economic development and planning, and Christian as well is informed about this. Diane

yeah. We're we're actively working with the chamber on dates, so we'll keep you posted, and we're hoping we're helping to coordinate with Christian's calendar as well. But agreed. We want we're hoping to have a good showing. Alright. So I guess they're just pending any other updates. I just wanna note that we are off in June and July and August. So per our approved cap meeting calendar, we will not be meeting next month nor the other month, which so we'll have a little bit of a break, and we'll be reconvening in September. Just wanted to get that out there. But, yeah, if there are other updates, please.

That'll be September to, Tuesday, and Monday, September 1 is Labor Day. So it's following the

Yes. Right after the We're all gonna be hungover

you. So

We are the wedding festival too.

So

you know? Go

away for the weekend. Come back Monday night.

And and since we aren't meeting, the next couple months, just a reminder that the taste of Mountain View is happening on June 11. Tickets are available now. And then the tech showcase is happening the July, and that will be it out here in the Plaza.

Okay. Any other comments? Questions? Alright. So if there's no more comments, we will adjourn

Sorry, chair. Vice chair. It looks like Justina Chang from our real estate team has raised her hand.

Alright.

Go ahead.

Can you hear me, everyone?

Yes.

Okay. Go ahead. Thank you. Sorry about the condition earlier. I just want to give a little bit update status for auto patio license renewal.

So there are total about 40 business businesses that need the auto patio license renewal, including three new business. So far, we have 10 business have complete their entire application review process and are ready for DocuSign. 20 of them, half of them are still in the process of submitting their missing documents, like insurance, update insurance documents, and about 10 business that we haven't heard back from. We already sent out, like, four emails, keep reminding them, reach out. We are working closely and following out with each business for their you know, just remind it while they helping them to go through the the new platform, application renewal platform, and then submitting all the document and helping answer question.

We have open office and then a weekly on Wednesday afternoon, and then we will have the, like, a Zoom meeting, try to reaching out. If anyone can help remind the business, that'll be really appreciated. Thank you.

Yeah. Justina? Yes. If you can share that list of 10 with the chamber and the DBA, we can also help in terms of outreach.

Oh, okay. That would be great. Thank you.

And since we're just adding Monte Carlo is opening its patio. And

the it's not.

To be announced. So you're one of the 10 who have properly filled out your

I have done it all. I'm about to pay my bill. Great.

That's good.

Alright. Any other comments? Seeing none, we will adjourn today's meeting at 09:26AM. Everyone have a wonderful summer, and see you downtown. Thank you.

Thank you, folks. Hi. Oh, I'm actually