City Council - Regular Meeting

recording in progress to order today being December the 11th and ask uh uh make record that everybody here on the council is here today. Oh, I'm hearing myself. I got to admit, I sound pretty darn good [laughter] tonight. You know, I've had a sore throat recently, but I sound pretty good. Are we good, Mr. Miranda? Yes, sir.

Excellent. Folks, um, please, if you want to speak to the Mauy Village item, please submit a speaker card to the city clerk, okay? um because at some point uh during this evening, probably after the city staff makes their presentation, I'll make one more reminder and then um when the developer begins their presentation, I will be accepting no more speaker cards at that point. So, if you haven't turned in a speaker card, please do so. We're going to take a break in a few minutes um after we recognize some outstanding athletes in our community, but I want to give you that opportunity to do so. Uh, I'm going to ask uh Gina and Karina if they would come up and lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Girls, if you'd come up here and just face the flag

just anytime. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Outstanding girls. [applause] Ladies and gentlemen, um before we begin, I want to let you know that we are going to be closing tonight's council meeting in memory of Stephen Cassidy. Stephen Cassidy was reappointed to be the of our Newark Chamber of Commerce. And I received a phone call last Saturday morning from the mayor of San Leandro letting me know that Stephen had passed away. And I'll be honest with you folks, I was heartbroken when I heard that news. only I saw Stephen just nights earlier at the where Stephen had brought together many many businesses from Newark and was beginning to really begin to launch the chamber of commerce. Uh our chamber had been kind of in a hiatus for a couple years you know because of COVID and things of that nature. We we struggled for a period of time to find somebody that would kind of meet the city's needs and come in and be the president of our chamber. And when the mayor of St. Andrew actually approached me uh maybe a half month or two before we made the appointment. He said, "I understand Stephen Cassid's applied to be the chamber president for Newark. You would be mistaken not to hire Steven Cassidy." And everything the mayor told me was absolutely correct. And so when I got that phone call

Saturday morning that Stephen had passed away, I I was heartbroken. You know, we we've we've made such strong strides to get the chamber going. Business is extremely important to our community. It creates jobs. It creates revenue that allows us to provide the services that our residents expect. And uh you know, I told the mayor San Leandro, I don't know how we're going to recover from this. We were moving in such a positive direction under Steven's leadership and uh the things that he had already put into motion in such a short period of time really put us on the right path. And so we're going to be closing tonight's meeting in his memory. I want to tell you a little bit about Stephen Cassidy. As I mentioned, he's the former mayor of San Leandro and he was our Newark Chamber president and CEO. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack on s on Friday afternoon. He was only 61 years old. 61. He was appointed president and CEO of the chamber in June of this year. So in six months, he made such a significant impact on our community. During his tenure with the chamber, he worked to relaunch the chamber's programs, expand member services, and raise Newark's business community profile. And he did that in six months. Before his role with the chamber, he held a distinguished career as an attorney and a public servant. Worked as a partner and director of marketing at Leaf Cabraaser Heman and Bernstein LLP from 0 01 to 15. From 04 to08, he served on the board of the San Leandro Unified School District where he helped pass major bond and parcel tax measures that funded classroom upgrades, safety improvement, arts, and accessibility enhancements. In 2010, he was elected

the mayor of San Leandro and he served a full term through 2014. He played a pivotal role in preserving the city's only acute care hospital when it faced closure. He safeguarded essential health services and local jobs. He championed a public private initiative to bring high-speed fiber optic broadband to San Leandro's commercial um core laying groundwork to attract technology and innovation firms. The following came from his wife Amy. I talked to Amy on Saturday and expressed our condolences. Over the past two decades, Steven worked strenuously and gave freely of his time, talents, and resources. Despite working full-time, he still found time to be engaged, an engaged father of his two daughters with Amy. Steven and Amy bought their home in San Leandro so that their children would grow up close to their grandparents.

Steven was devoted to his family and was an amazing photographer. He found joy in traveling, culture, and the arts, and graced many holiday tables with his delicious chocolate pecan rum pie, which by the way, I never had an opportunity to try.

At the time of his passing, Steven was still working to encourage the city of San Leandro to cultivate an ongoing investment in the arts. He wanted a 1% fee of all new development in San Leandro to fund public art within the city. Steven was responsible for many of the public art installations and mur murals currently in the city of San Leandro. He wanted to ensure that the continued development and collaboration of public art with the city. You know once a public servant always a public servant. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, held a BS from Georgetown University and a JD from UC Hastings College of Law. Interesting fact about Steven. In his youth, I found this actually very humorous. In his youth, he worked as a screen actor, appearing in the 1970s TV series Big John, Little John on ABC after school program. He also appeared on an episode of Lou Grant. I'm going to have to find that episode. He survived by his wife Amy and two daughters. There will be a public memorial service for Steven on January 10th 1:00. You're all invited to attend. It'll be at San Leandro High School Performing Arts Center on Bankraftoft. All who wish to honor Steven are certainly welcome to attend. So, we will be closing tonight's meeting in his memory.

[clears throat] [snorts] [clears throat]

Now, let's return to really why we're here, all the fun that we're going to experience this evening. Let's start off with first of all welcoming our new city clerk, Nitu Sawan. [applause] [applause] Now, some of you may think this is Nitto's first council meeting as the city's city clerk. I [clears throat] hate to say say this, but this is actually her second meeting. She may recall that just last week we put on a council meeting for third graders at Birch Grove [laughter] Primary and our city clerk was there to monitor the clerk's position. So this is actually your second meeting having done Birch Grove. That's the kind of public servant that uh Neu is. We're so excited to have her here. Um, anytime you can bring a really qualified public servant, certainly from another agency, to come and work in your city, you're always proud because she brings just a wealth of experience. Nitu brings 12 years of experience to local government, including seven years serving as a deputy and assistant city clerk. She has held positions in the cities of Melo Park, Conquered, and Berkeley, bringing a wealth of knowledge to our team. You you forgot to add here, M, Mr. City Manager, that her last stop will be at the city of Newark. So, we're appreciative of that. She possesses strong organizational skills and extensive experience in agenda management, public records management, local elections, and conducting council meetings, all of which will be invaluable in her new role. Nu holds a bachelor of arts degree in digital graphics and multimedia from Cal State East Bay. She is a certified municipal clerk and notary public and is currently pursuing her master's in municipal clerk certificate. N too resides in Union City and celebrates 20 years of marriage just last week, right?

Yes. Just last week. [applause] Yay. [cheering] With her husband. Um she has two children. Her daughter recently uh started at Kalpali and her son is a junior at Logan High. Outside of work, she enjoys brisk walks, traveling, exploring new foods, and spending quality time with her family. Nu is excited to join our team. not as excited as we are, but we are and looks forward to contributing to the city's success and making a positive impact on our community. Please welcome Nateu to our [applause] [applause]

now get back to work. Yes, [laughter] [cough] [clears throat]

we the city council are always happy to celebrate academic success and athletic success in our community because that's the type of community we are where we reward and recognize outstanding effort. So, I'm going to invite uh if I may uh Trish to come up and join me. and ask the superintendent to come up and join me because we're going to be recognizing, ladies and gentlemen, the Newark Middle School girls soccer team. [applause] [applause] I'd also like to invite uh New York invite school board member Nancy Thomas to join us. I think she's here. Yes, she comes.

By the way, Miss Thomas, because she won't tell you because I'm not giving her access to the microphone. [laughter] Uh is going to be the Newark Unified School District president of the board beginning in January. Congratulations on that. [applause]

So, it's it's my pleasure to read the accommodation and then I'll ask Trisha if you'd be kind enough to read the names of the girls that are here and we can present them with the certificates one by one so they get their recognition. Whereas on October the 16th, 2025, the Newark Middle School girls soccer team brought home the Southern Alama County Middle Athletic League Championship Trophy in an incredible 2 to1 victory over Canyon Middle School. [cheering] WOO. [applause] Whereas the Newark Middle School girls soccer team fought hard and finished the season in an unforgettable fashion, winning their first league championship in some time. YAY. [applause]

Whereas the entire team showed determination all season long, entering the playoffs with a strong 8-2 record, their hard work, teamwork, and grit paid off in the biggest way. Now therefore, I Michael Hann on behalf of the entire New York City Council am proud to recognize these young athletes and we'll be asking um Trish to go ahead and call up the girls that are here but want to thank them for their outstanding win and bringing the trophy back to Newark where it belongs. So Trish, I'll let you go ahead. You have the names of the girls that are here. Great. The superintendent, would you join me in presenting these certificates to the girls that are here? And I'll call them up one by one.

All right. Melanie Padilla, [applause] Delilah Rosendez, [applause] Avery Rose. [applause] Congratulations Clarissa Ruiz Camarina [applause]

Giana TAHADA [applause] Karina Tahada. Good job, [applause] Regina Tina. [applause]

Kenley Trong, [applause]

Coraline Arnold, [applause] and Elena Abara. [applause] Congratulations.

And there's many more. They just weren't able to make it tonight because there are practices and teams. Just for the record. Oh, okay. If you remember who there's a lot more. That's okay. All right. Applaud each and every one of them. [laughter]

Okay. Um, Kate Obby, Juliana Bedo Vera, Leila Carter, Kiana Champion, Penelopey Co Pepper, Monica Machuka, Ava Natalie, Belle Nunees, Juliana Pereira, Lorena Posey, and Kaylee Trivia Mah. [applause] [applause] And they're co they were coached by Nicole Champion. and our athletic director plays a huge part at Newark Middle School who is Eduardo Fana. [applause] Just a quick note on behalf of Newark Unified School District, we are so proud of our of our ladies here and the accomplishments that they made in representing our community. Well done. Congratulations. Way to go. [applause] I'M going to take a moment to invite my colleague from the city council to come down and join us for a group photo. City manager, would you join us? And then girls, let's get in front here. So for a group photo on both sides

go in there. Multiple layers. [clears throat] You're bendy. All right, everybody. EVERYONE'S IN. EVERYONE SAY CHAMPIONS.

CHAMPIONS. [applause] Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to take a 3 to 5 minute break to allow the girls to go ahead and leave. That'll open up the seats in the front for those of you that are standing in the back. But as as I as the girls were coming up here, one of the girls whispered in my ear, "We're going to bring it home again next year, Mayor. You can count on it." Right, girls? [applause]

Are we ready?

Ladies and gentlemen, we go ahead and call the city council meeting back to order. Thanks for your patience. Um again, if you have not had an opportunity to fill out a speaker card for the item um as it relates to the Maui Village Project, please do so. You'll get one more reminder. Um we're now at the point of the meeting where it's public comment, but these will be on items that are not on the agenda. Is there anyone here that would like to speak to an item that is not on the agenda? Yes, please come forward, my friend. Good evening. Uh, I'm Mike Marzano and I represent the First Presbyterian Church here in Newark. Um, and that I wanted to come and have a conversation, let you know of a few different things that have been going on. Uh, I met with the city manager earlier this week so that he was aware of this ahead of time. So that uh and some things have already started happening, but I wanted to let you know that our interactions from the church with a lot of different city staff have been great. We've had good interaction with the police department um coming out for different activities. They did a security check of our facility helping us out. Um we also had the fire department come out on Halloween and and be there for activities. Uh we've been working with code enforcement and they've been taking action in getting trash removed where people are dumping trash on other properties and all and so we've had some great interaction. Um but on the other side we've also had a few problems. We've had problems with building permits and so we've had a few projects uh putting in new heating, putting in solar and the heating system. Um, actually the installation completed

in February and we're still trying to get the permit all cleaned up, straightened out and we have some communication issues. Now, since I talked with the city manager, I have been contacted. I think we're working some out, but I understand the process. They're wanting all the permits to come in online, everything, you know, using a website, but on the website, they have statements that plans are not needed for installing or redoing heating or air conditioning. We were under that impression. It doesn't say commercial, doesn't say residential, it says for permits. And I went in, let the city know that at their desk in March. Nothing changed. I talked to them at Newark days. Still nothing has changed. The church now has spent we've so far an additional $6,000 having plans made trying to meet the requirements. and they're now asking that they would like plans from an electrical engineer, a mechanical engineer as well as an architect. And so we understand [clears throat] the rules. We want to work with people and we're trying to manage that. But it would really be nice if the information that's put out is correct and being able to do that because that's what we're trying to really accomplish in a lot of those areas. So, uh, like I said, I've had a contact with the office. Now we have a meeting set up, try and get some of this corrected and straightened out on our end so we can get our permits taken care of and and finished up. So anyway, I just wanted to share some of that with all of you good end kind of the

challenge that we work with. And I also wanted to let you know that on Saturday evening, 7 o'clock at the church. [laughter] It's a concert, Charlie Brown Christmas, we have a jazz pianist that comes in. It has permission to use all of the Charlie Brown materials. And so it's open to the community for people to come out at 7 o'clock and enjoy a concert for the holidays. What's the cost for this concert, Mike? It is free. [laughter] [gasps] So, like I said, everyone's welcome.

Hey, Mike, thank you for what you and the do for the community. It's appreciated. Mr. Benoon, you heard the comments. I know you'll take the lead and and make sure that city staff continues to work with uh the church to make sure they get over those hurdles. Anybody else to speak under public comment on items not on the agenda? Okay, I'm going to go ahead and close that portion. We're going to move to the consent calendar. The consent calendar. Yes sir. I'm sorry I didn't see your hand. I apologize. [clears throat] Sorry about that.

Yeah, it's okay. Hello. Good evening to all of you and uh today we have a plan that is already submitted with the community development and it is submitted to uh I think Mr. Art know about that the Mori paint well at the 7580 Mori address. So basically we want to um we want we want the permission for a paintball park because the park is in um in the category which is acceptable but I don't know that what is a problem in a general plan and it is in a residential so what is in the resoning so there is something which does not allow us to submit our application so but the land is allowed according to the reasonzoning for the park. It's any community park and we need a permit for a paintball park and I already submitted my proposal and it's my request that you can have a look into this because if a paintball park is just like the park those are uh used in a uh eve of Christmas and the people come and enjoy and uh um and I have noticed that in a city um uh in a city park in a mall park and there uh number of parks that are allowed by the city and the people are enjoy there with the paintballs then if they are enjoying on those parkes and this area uh we want to make a park and then we can also uh use that land so the land is vacant from the last 8 years we w from the 10 years and we want to open something over there so please consider our request

thank you for bringing that to my attention I want folks to know when we have public comments on items not on the agenda we the city council can't weigh in and give direct ction or comment because they're not on the agenda and so we're [clears throat] not able to do that but Mr. Bon certainly took information and I don't know Mr. Do we have her contact information? Ma'am, if you could be so kind to contact me. Staff staff has their staff has it. Okay, good. Thank you. So, so I want you to know that uh our inability to discuss the item is of no disrespect to you. It's simply an item not on the agenda, but it sounds like city staff's aware of the situation and they're going to contact you and discuss it further. Okay.

Is there anyone else that would like to speak under public comment on items not on the agenda? Okay, I don't see any hands. Okay, so let's go to the consent calendar. The consent calendar uh consists of the following items. One, the approval of audited demands. Approval of the November 13, 2025 city council minutes. Three, adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a contractual services agreement for the comprehensive transition plan update with disabled access consultants LLC for updating the Newark transition plan and amending the 2024 2026 bianual budget and capital improvement plan. Four, motion approving the 2026 local appointments list and distribution. Five, adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a consultant services agreement with Gray Bowen Scott for grant management services in the amount not to exceed $106,000. Six, adopt a resolution amending the employee classification plan, [clears throat] excuse me, 2024 2026 banual budget and capital improvement plan and citywide salary schedule in conformance with California code of regulations title 2 section 570.5 and approve a site letter agreement with the New York Association of Miscellaneous Employees reflecting the classification change of community preservation specialists to community preservation specialists one and two. Seven, adopt a resolution accepting the development impact fee annual and five-year report for the period ending June 30, 2025 and approving findings for each fee imposed by the city of Newark in compliance with the mitigation fee act government code section 6600 through 66008. adopt a resolution author establishing the city council regular meeting schedule for calendar year 2026 with starting times at 7 p.m. and authorizing the city manager to take administrative

actions during the August recess. Nine, adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a software as a service agreement with Tyler Technology Inc. to migrate the city's on premises Tyler new world enterprise resource planning system to the Tyler software as a service cloud 10. Resolution of the city council of the city of Newark authorizing the city manager to execute the fourth amendment to the contractual services agreement with Stantech Consulting Inc. to provide professional environmental services. City manager, any item you want to pull off the consent calendar? Not this evening, your honor.

For those that are new to the uh council meetings, the consent items are typically routine items. So council members have an opportunity to pull any item off if they want clarification, ask questions. So we all have the ability to do that. City manager has the opportunity to do that well as well to clarify uh anything on the consent calendar. But I'm going to look to you in the audience. Is there anybody in the audience that would like any one of those items pulled off the consent calendar for further information or discussion? Colleagues, any item you want pulled from the consent calendar? May I get a motion and a second on the consent calendar, please? [clears throat] Move.

By council member Deltansio by Council Member Grenal. Please vote. So, sorry. Council member Council member Kacha voted yes. All right. E1 is a public hearing. [clears throat] Public hearing. E1 is a hearing to consider the Mauy Village project entitlements, including the following actions to approve. One, resolution for revision of the area 3 and four specific plan. Two, resolution for revision of the general plan used for a 0.84 acre portion of the project site from low density residential to highdensity residential. Three, ordinance to reszone the project site from park to residential low density 28.26 acres and residential high density.84 acres. Four, ordinance establishing a plan development overlay district. Five, resolution for design review. Six, resolution for vesting tenative map 8517. Seven, resolution for an alternate means of compliance. Eight, resolution for density bonus. Nine resolution certifying the final environmental impact report SCN202111 0436 for the Mauy Village Residential Subdivision project generally located at 7400 and 7550 Maui Avenue consisting of APN's 537-0850-01

001 rather through 11 and 537 0850-001 1 through 13 and 5370850-00002-0000. Mr. Bon.

Yes. Good evening, your honor and members of the council. Uh, this is a public hearing to consider an application for a 227 unit development project located on 29 acres of land immediately adjacent to Malry Avenue. Uh, this would replace a business commonly known as Pick and Pull, which is an auto dismantling yard uh, here in Newark. The project includes approval of 196 market rate units, 30 affordable units, and one manager unit. The developer is requesting that the council take action on nine items this evening, including amendments to the specific plan and general plan, an ordinance to reszone the property from park to residential, a vesting tenative map, and a certification of the envir final environmental report, which would contain a statement of overriding considerations. For this agenda item, we'll begin with a presentation from our deputy uh community development director, Mr. Art Intero, followed by a presentation from the project applicant. After the public hearing is opened and the council receives comments from the public, the council should then begin its deliberations on the item. Uh for members in the audience who are here this evening, uh speaker cards are available and if you wish to speak on this item, uh please fill out a card and submit it to our city clerk. Uh at this point, I will now turn it over to Mr. Interiano. Oh, mayor. Yeah, just one more uh one comment if I may, city manager, colleagues, um as we proceed on this public hearing. This is my intent at this point. We're going to hear from the staff. We're going to hear from the developers. Uh and then we're going to uh open it up for the public to make their comments. I'm going to ask council to withhold questions, clarifying questions andor comments until we close the public hearing just so you kind of know what the process is going to look like moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Bon. All right, with that and mayor and council and the public, we'll proceed to Art Iniano, our deputy community development director. He will be report Mr. Interiano.

Yes. Thank you, city manager, honorable mayor, and city council. Um, let's see. There it is. Good. Okay. I'll be presenting to you the Maui Village project as uh our city manager stated. First, I'll go through the agenda. will provide a background project overview overview of the environmental impacts the public comments on the draft EIR entitlement analysis and then recommendation as stated um the applicant is the Maui project owner LLC. The request is for 196 single family homes and 31 affordable housing units. The location is 7400 and 7550 Maui Avenue. Um and the entitlements include a general plan amendment, specific plan amendment, reszoning, plan amendment, uh I mean plan development, design review, vessive map, alternate means of compliance and acceptance of the final IR. Uh a little bit of information on the background of this site. Uh the project is located on Maui Avenue west of the Silon Center south of Cargill S Ponds. Uh there are two lots associated with the pick and pull business. uh in addition to 9.5 acre vacant parcel and it's a total of 29.1 acres approximately. Uh in regard to the pick and pull, it was part of an existing business that was annexed from the city of Fremont in 1979. The business is registered um the business was registered as an auto dismantling yard. The city of Newark issued a conditional use permit um to

allow this business to expand in 1985. In 2010, the renewal of that CP was approved with an agreement that allowed the business to continue until the year 2034 or when the overpass was constructed at Stevenson's Boulevard, whichever comes first. The business continues today as a non-conforming use given that the designated zoning for the property does not allow industrial uses. Um, just going back a little bit um for um additional background on the area. Um the city council back even um going back to 1992 approved the general plan where it was actually called the 2007 general plan. Um but the general plan envisioned six potential development areas for housing, industrial office and commercial uses. Um, and as part of one of those areas, there was area three and four and that 1992 general plan. And there was a specific plan for the area that was developed and approved in 2010. The specific plan outlined four areas of development opportunities for up to 1,260 residential units. Sub area A was identified as a residential use site. It was approved and developed with a 386 unit single family subdivision named Sanctuary Village. It's at the corner of Cheran Stevenson. Sub area B is identified as specific plan as a residential area. Sub area C is also identified for residential uses and/or golf course. However, both areas subB and C were part of a development agreement which ultimately led to the approval of 469 residential units. Um, as this point, no construction has began on this project. This project is referred to as sanctuary west. In sub area D, which is the subject area for the Maui Village project, was identified in the specific plan for golf course or

recreational uses. Given that both Sanctuary Village and Sanctuary West have been approved, there is a balance of 405 units available for residential use in this specific plan. It should be noted that the specific plan is an extension of the city's general plan. The general plan is the principal forward-looking document that directs development within the city. The land use map contained in the general plan identifies this area for as low density residential use as shown on the image to the left, which means that the residential projects may be allowed and developed up to 8.7 units per acre. Per the image on the right, the city zoning map designates a subject area and surrounding properties as park. Therefore, there's an inconsistency between the general plan and the designated zoning of the subject property. As per the proposed site plan layout, I I previously stated that this 196 project um it there's um these units will be single family um style homes, executive style homes. There is an affordable housing building which will have 30 units with a manager unit. The affordable housing building will be located on the northeast corner of the project. The layout of the subdivision will have private open space, private streets, and internal sidewalks. The subdivision will have two ingress and egress along Maui Avenue. The new bio retention ponds will generally remain in the current location as the existing ponds um as part of the pick and pull business but will be reconfigured and improved to meet current um development standards for the project. Here are front and right side elevations of the affordable housing building. The principal part of the structure will be three stories tall with an approximate height of uh 38 ft. Uh the resident amenity area shown to the right of the bottom image will be a two stories with

an approximate space of 2570 square ft. There will be um six bike lockers and also a utility room. In terms of landscaping and open space, the site plan will also have 4.89 acres of general generally private open space and landscaping. There is landscaping located along the main entrance roadway of the subdivision in addition to areas within lots and neighborhood parked toward the rear or south of the project. The park will have amenities such as playground equipment for children of um as the developer stated their all abilities in addition to a boardwalk along the edge of the uh nearby bio retention pond. In terms of the lot sizes, um the there are three plan types proposed. The range lots vary from approximately 3,300 to 4,000 square ft. And the home sizes have a minimum range of 2,274 to 2,92 ft. The image to the left uh highlights some of the potential configurations of the homes on those lots. The lot for the affordable housing site will be84 acres. provide an open spare plaza, 30 off- streetet parking spaces and four on street parking spaces. There's also some improvements to the um rightaway that are going to be done. Here is an image of the new infrastructure on the Maui Avenue. The new street section would consist of a single birectional road with 12-oot travel lanes, 12ft landscape median, uh six foot bike lanes with 3-ft buffer, um 4T landscape buffers, and a 7 foot wide sidewalk. [clears throat] Also, there's going to be improvements at the Maui um uh cross site. The improvements would include a crossing arm, upgraded road, roadway panels,

signage, new striping, and a pedestrian pathway. Here is an example of what the railroad crossing would look like. Um, the improvements would also qualify as part of the city's efforts to establish a quiet zone for railroad crossings in Newark. In terms of utilities, the water and sewer utilities for the project shall be provided by ACWD and Union sanitary sewer. As for ACWD, they required a loop pipe system. To meet this requirement, the applicant requested to place the water line on city property. This requires approval of an easement. The per the easement location as shown on this image and appraisal was done to identify the appropriate compensation to the city. As a result, the applicant is required to pay a fee of $440,000 to acquire the public utility easement across our property or the city's property, [clears throat] our property. As a result of the comments from the planning commission and general public comments of the draft EIR, a secondary emergency access route was identified. Staff work with the developer to identify a route that would allow public emergency services to access any property on Mauy Avenue that could be impacted in case of a train delay or full blockage. The identified emergency access route would begin on Cargill Avenue, proceed through the adjacent Cargill property, and then exit at the terminus of Maui Avenue. The city and Cargill have agreed to a draft an easement to allow this access. As part of providing emergency access through this route, the fire department and police department have requested special equipment. The applicant will pay the city 1.3 million to purchase the equipment as a condition of approval of this project. Now, I'm going to turn this over this project um the presentation over to Miss Rnovich, which is part of our uh city's

environmental consultant uh as part of the Stantech team. Um and your presentation should be there.

Yes. That one

clicker. use this as well.

Great. Thank you. Okay. Good evening. My name is Anna Radnich. I'm with Stantech. Uh we are the environmental consultant on the project working with the city on the city's behalf. So tonight I'm going to run you through the SQA process, the environmental review process, hopefully kind of inform you a little better as it's part of your decision-making process tonight. So what is an EIR? What is SQA? SQA is a California Environmental Quality Act. An environmental impact report, also called an EIR, is what we did prepare for this project. An EIR is anformational document that is [clears throat] intended to inform the public on the potential environmental impacts of a project on the environment. It's also a problem-solving document. um we identify ways to reduce and lessen impacts through mitigation or project alternatives. And it's just one of the factors that you consider for uh when you're deciding to approve or move forward with a project. The purpose of an EI is four-fold. Inform, engage, disclose, and reduce impacts. So, inform decision makers and the public about potential impacts from a project from the environmental standpoint. Engage the public and provide opportunities for the public to engage in the environmental review process. Disclose potential impacts and reduce or avoid potential impacts through mitigation measures that are deemed to be feasible. [clears throat] This slide highlights the steps in the EIR process. Uh you can see we're all the way at the bottom, the December 11th date. So the three main steps are preparation of an NOP, notice of preparation, project draft environmental impact report, and then the project

final environmental impact report. The dates in orange are opportunities for the public to provide public comment on the process throughout the process. and we are currently at the bottom step project final EIR for the certification hearing. The topics addressed in the EIR tonight um are actually consistent with all of the resources called out in appendix G of the SQA guidelines. So we did move forward with all 20 uh topics. This is a summary of the impacts that were identified under each resource topic. So, aesthetics through wildfire. And then on the right is a level of significance. You'll see there's a handful that are less than significant impact. There's a couple that are no impact. There's a handful that are less than significant with mitigation. So this I basically means that there are mitigation measures that have been identified to reduce impacts and then there's one uh for it from the bottom transportation significant and unavoidable impact. So that means that even with mitigation being applied there is a transportation impact and that is actually um to vehicle miles traveled to VMT. So it is the only SU significantly unavoidable impact identified for the project. Um in addition the project also looks at cumulative impacts. So cumulative impacts refers to two or more individual effects which considered together um could increase an impact. So with the exception of VMT for this project um there are no cumulative impacts that have been identified except for VMT.

In addition to looking at project cumulative impacts we also look at project alternatives. This is a requirement under SQA. Um it requires that you look at these alternatives to try to reduce impacts that you have identified to be significant significant and unavoidable. So VMT in this case before we can move forward with project alternatives that did move forward. We had we did identify some that were determined to be considered but rejected. These three were alternative, location alternative, restoration alternative, and small project alternative. That left us with four project alternatives that were considered in the draft DIR. So the no project alternative, which means no development would occur. Multifamily residential alternative, which is the buildout of the project site at the 14 units per acre for the medium residential density. the reduced density alternative which would be 64 single family units which would reduce the VMT to the same VMT that the project that the current pick and pull experiences and then the 100% affordable housing alternative which is similar to alternative 2 except for it's 100% affordable. The draft DIR was circulated for public review for 45 days as is required. Following the 45day public comment period, a final EIR was prepared. So a final EIR is comp comprised of both written responses to comments that have been received throughout the 45day period as well as any revisions to the draft EIR. Those combined make up your final EIR.

So during circulation of the draft DIIR, we did receive approximately 75 letters and over 700 comments. All of these are addressed in the final EIR. Here on your screen or on the screen in front of the room, you can see the five, we kind of call them buckets of topics that were a common theme across all of the comments received. So preserve and restore wetlands and bayands, general sea level rise, flood zone, prime wildlife habitat, and contribute to affordable housing. So I will note that these topics were topics that were brought up during the draft DIR process. They are also topics that have been um provided on comments since the draft DIR. So coming out of the draft EIR, we prepared the final EIR. The final EIR was circulated. It was posted and we received comments are a handful right on the final EIR. After that, we had the um the planning commission meeting on November 11th. There were a handful of comments that were received in letter format as well as from the public during that hearing. And then since that hearing, there's been a handful more of comments that have been received. So all of those comments have been reviewed and the ones relating to SQA still fall within these five categories. So I just wanted to point that out because here I am talking about the draft DIR process, but I just want to make it clear that this topics are consistent with any additional comments that were received after circulation of the draft DIR. So coming out of these public comments that are here on this slide, we did identify actually a fifth project

alternative in the final EIR document. This is the partially affordable housing alternative. It's the 196 single family units, the 30 multifamily units, and the one manager unit. That's a project being considered tonight. Here's a comparison of the project alternatives. I know if you're looking at this from the back of the room, it's a lot of small detail, less than, more than, equal to, but this is a comparison of the five different project alternatives against the proposed project um findings in the SQL document. Mary, I see you're looking closely, so I'll wait to advance. I just need my reading glasses. Yeah.

And I've seen the

Okay. Okay. Um, in an in an EIR document, you do identify an environmentally superior alternative. Um, so just please note none of the alternatives considered would completely eliminate the significant unavoidable impact to VMT. The reduced density alternative is identified as the environmentally superior alternative. However, in an effort to further fair housing and further meet the city's RENA allocation requirements, um the city is recommending that the partial affordable housing alternative be approved. That's what they're recommending for approval tonight. Findings regarding the infeasibility of the reduced density alternative are set forth in the project approval findings provided to you. And I think that's it. Art Yeah,

thank you very much.

I should probably turn the microphone on. Yeah, it's a good idea. Um [snorts] to continue the presentation, we have kind of the analysis and the conclusion of our presentation. Um beginning with the discussion of the general plan. In regards to compliance with the general plan, I previously stated that the land use for the site is lowdensity residential and that the site is part of the area three and four specific plan. Development in this area has um been supported by policies such as LU7.1 which states that the city will facilitate development in the southwest New York residential and recreational area which is what the general plan previously has called this um and allow residential development capacity of,260 units. In addition, the affordable housing site um will be amended to have a high density residential land use to support the higher density to make the project feasible. Lastly, policy 1.1 and 1.10 are supportive policies which encourage a balance of uses and recommend vacant and underutilized properties be used for the highest and best use. In terms of compliance with zoning, uh the changes, uh there'll be changes to the city's uh official zoning map shall be required to be consistent with the general plan. Lowdensity residential land use by changing the zoning to residential single family and planned overlay district for the market rate units. As for the affordable housing site, that will be reszoned to residential high density with waiverss for density standards. Here is a visual a visual of what the general plan and zoning changes would look like. Um the image to the left is the current and then the image to the right is showing kind of the outline of that Maui village project with those changes.

In terms of compliance with the design review um as um there are uh design guideline standards in the area three and four specific plan. They call for executive style homes that have characteristics such as one or two levels of varied massing, porch entryways, and efficient lot sizes. In terms of what's being proposed, the executive style homes proposed are meeting those specific plan guidelines through their varied architectural styles such as contemporary Spanish, cottage style, Mediterranean, agrarian, agrarian, farmhouse, and other styles. Uh in regard to the design for the affordable housing, um it has a modern farmhouse farmhouse architectural style with varied massing large entry porchway and vertical and horizontal lap sighting. The the project is also requesting uh waiverss. Uh this is mainly for the affordable housing site. The project is providing providing 30 units at below market rate. In order to make room for that, the applicant decreased the single family homes to 196 units from a previous 203 count. As for the building site of the affordable units, the applicant requested waiverss to accommodate the necessary uh units on the lot. Um, per density law, only 10% of the affordable units were required to qualify for waiverss. the applicant is exceeding that amount or the project is exceeding that amount. The waiverss or reduced standards are shown on the table. Per the zoning ordinance, uh the applicant can either pay the city housing impact fees or can provide affordable housing units. If affordable housing units are provided, the applicant and city must agree on an alternate means of compliance. This is

achieved by the applicant entering an affordable housing agreement which lays out the legal framework for the quantity of units provided at what affordable levels and the conditions under which these units will be provided. The project will be required to be deed restrict well the project will be required to deed restrict the property for a period of 55 years. The agreement shall have restrictions to require new work local preference for the units, which means that folks who live or work in the city will get extra points on their applications, thus giving them a better chance to qualify for these units. Okay.

Um I'll take a moment to mention that um a memo has been provided to the city council. Um it should been at at the at your seats regarding a change to the affordable housing agreement which revises the sections of the agreement to provide a stronger enforcement on getting the affordable housing uh building constructed. The affordable housing agreement for this project also requires um well it requires 30 rental units plus a manager unit. The affordable unit would be rented to two income groups. 10 units would be designated for very low, which means that the household income would be 30 to 50% area median income or less. Uh 20 units would be designated as low income, which would have a limit of 50 to 80% AMI. As shown on the table to the right, the affordable unit breakdown would be a mix of three uh one to threebedroom units, which are large family units. One of the typical questions that we get is um you know how much are these going to be rented for? Um as an example, per state agency's published limits, the range for a three-bedroom unit would be approximately 277 monthly. Um for a very low unit or uh it would be sorry for a um very low unit it would be 277 monthly. uh for a lowinccome unit it would be 3,324. This is based on current income levels and restrictions for compliance with the vesting tenative map. Um the vest incentive map can be found in compliance based on the proposed merging of lots, private roads by retention areas and the expansion of the Mauy Avenue by 6 ft.

[snorts] Uh this project went to the planning commission on November 19th. Um the planning commission voted unanimously to approve the project. Um at the meeting there were approximately 40 to 50 um people who were in attendance and about 20 people spoke in both in favor and against the project. Um with that um comes now the the recommendation. Staff recommends that the city council approved the project with the following actions. A resolution to approve the certification of the final environmental impact report. Statement of overriding consideration and the mitigation monitoring and reporting program. A resolution to approve the following entitlements. Amending the general plan land use diagram. Amendment to the area 3 and four specific plan. [clears throat] Approval of a design review. Approval of an alternate means of compliance. Approval of density bonus waiverss and the vesting tenative map A517. In addition to an ordinance amending the city's official zoning map and designating a planned development over list overlay district on this property. Um u as of today or when I at least finished this um up this presentation earlier today there was approximately 25 public comments that were received. um for the general public. There are uh copies available um if you're interested in seeing those.

That concludes my presentation. [clears throat] I'll be glad to answer any questions when appropriate.

Thank you, city manager. We're going to go ahead and hold off questions from the council at this time. Ladies and gentlemen, I want to remind you if you would like to speak on this item, please take a moment and fill out a speaker card. I think there's some staff in the audience, city manager that can cards if you haven't had to turn one. Um because as I mentioned, once the developer is done presenting their presentation, there will be no more opportunities to collect cards. I know we have a card over here. If somebody could grab that and feel free to walk to the back of the room during the presentation, grab a card, fill it out, and just walk over here on the side and hand it right to our city clerk. She's happy to um receive it. And the reason I'm going to uh cut off public hearing at that point, I need to kind of gauge how many public speakers we have, what's a reasonable time period for each person to speak. Um so that we give everybody a fair opportunity to be heard. So with that in mind, I'll turn it back over to you, Mr. Benoon.

Yes. Yes. Good evening, your honor, members of the council. I believe uh the project applicant has a presentation for the council. take care of it. Thank you, council uh and staff to for letting me present tonight. My name is Evan Knap and I'm a principal at Integral Communities and I'm really honored to be here. I wanted to just make a few touch points on some of the features of our community. Evan, do you mind if I interrupt real briefly? Can folks in the back here, Mr. Knap? Yes. Thank you. I'll try and speak up. No, I just want to make sure. I'm nervous. Thank you. Uh,

you're nervous. Sit up here.

No, thank you, Mr. Mayor. But I appreciate that. Um, Maui Village is has been a a tremendous passion project for us. It's we've been working on this site since 2018, actually. Um, you can skip to the next slide. And, um, it's it's with great honor and humility that I'm here for you. Um, Integral is a firm that specializes in finding communities and providing communities in places where uses need to be repurposed, cleaned up, and then new communities brought. It's not our vision that we build on open space. We like to repurpose real estate. We like to bring a new vibrant community to that community. And we've been doing that. Um, we partner actually with LAR and LAR is a a very prestigious large second largest home builder in the United States and they share the commitment to excellence that we have about just quality of housing, community, stable community and a home for everybody. You can skip to the next slide. So, we've actually done this in the city of Newark before. We did the Bayside community which was very much like um the pick and pull site. It was a contaminated site. It was the city's vision to bring Dunarton rail across from Facebook to Newark to Union City. And we saw I saw that in the paper and we went out and said how you know how could we serve that and the site was very dirty. It had a list of chemicals there, petroleums, metals, volatile uh semi volatile organic compounds. And today we've got 1,400 houses, 88 senior affordable houses, and another 123 affordable units scheduled to be started in 2027. I actually had the opportunity of walking through that community on a holiday. And I was really taken back at how vibrant that place was and how there was really a sense of home there for

people.

You can skip to the next slide, Ed. Thanks. So, like I said, we've been working on this since 2018. We did a state B density bonus application so that we could fit affordable housing in and that was a key over that period of time. We made a number of changes to the community. We added affordable housing. We increase the elevation of our site and the increase the elevation of Maui. We made our community all electric. That was just from direct community feedback. What could you do to combat greenhouse gas? And we said, well, we could make our community all electric. So, we went out and did that. We then partnered with Magical Bridge and I'm going to be able to talk about that a little bit more. Um, and Alink is here from Magical Bridge and she's going to share their vision too. And we created a a special option for a gentle young gentleman that I know named Max. We also added a number of safety and infrastructure improvements. And you can skip to the next slide, Ed. Thanks. I'd like to take credit for this, but this the city really came up with this vision. You general planned it. you had the vision to say that this should be housing and it was really laid out in your growth pattern and I I didn't do anything to do that. I I simply just read about your general plan and then saw a site that I felt was important to be repurposed and that was pick and pull. You also provided in your housing element. It was genius really more than anything else that you partner and find ways to bring housing and recreation to intellectually and developmentally disabled community. And we we looked to ways to do that. You can skip to the next slide, Ed. So just kind of covering like this just gives you some sample shots. These were taken just before planning commission and you can see the condition of Maui Road. But really more importantly is you can see the proximity to all the other features in your city. It's I've walked from Silman Center to the site many times. It's a short walk. Um it's already

integrated into a community. You can skip to the next slide, Ed. Thanks. So, the current condition of the site is not good. Um it's obviously the pick and pull site, the majority of it. It's contaminated. It has lead, petroleum, and arsenic and benzene, and it needs to be cleaned up. And in this cleanup process, we have an approved Alama c Alama County uh approved cleanup process. The cleanup of this property costs about $10 million just to bring it up to suitable living condition. And without our presence and this community coming forth, that cleanup probably wouldn't happen. You can skip to the next slide, Ed. Thanks. So, like Art said, we have 196 detached houses. We also have on-site affordable. It's we're all electric. Every house has a two-car garage, a twocar driveway, there's sidewalks, front yard landscaping is included, and you can skip to the next slide. This is our site plan. So, we have three different lot sizes so that we get we're always trying to be as most affordable and efficient as we possibly can. In those three different product size, there's also three different houses to choose from, homes to choose from. So, we have a total of nine different homes to choose from in a variety of lots. As you notice down on the lower left hand side, that pink building is our affordable building. And we selected that location because it's integrated inside of our community and it's close to Silman Center and the public transportation. That's why it's there. The affordable clients that we will have will enjoy all the same amenities, all the same streets, the same parks, the same sidewalks. They're a fully functioning member of our community. You can skip to the next slide. And so I was reading through your um housing code and you identified in H4-7 partner and find ways to provide housing

to intellectually and developmentally disabled families. And I read that and I a light bulb went off in my head and I found two people that really inspired me to do that. One is Olinka from the magical bridge. Their vision about providing public space and to for people of all abilities and parks is beyond none. And the second is my friend Max Prohaska who's probably here in the audience right here.

Yeah. Yeah. I think he maybe had to step up. Max came all the way from Southern California to be a part of this and his parents are here and they were really the inspiration for this. So we created a segment of our home that starts out as a sensory room. it can grow into as Max grows into a fully functioning bachelor unit and as Max get older he can age and place in his home and that way we can keep families like this in the city of New York and Max will have a permanent home catered to him so that as he ages and as becomes a young man that he would have a place to live for the rest of his life. So, and I can show you that that's it in a sample right there. You can see the in the lower right hand corner where it's highlighted that starts out as a sensory room and ultimately it could have its own entrance, its own kitchenet and function like a studio unit for Max as he gets older. And Max now just turned 18. So, he's he's a great me young man. And this is all done through the guidance of Magical Bridge too. So, we can skip to the next slide. So, they took our community park, Magical Bridge Foundation, did and said, "Well, we will program it so that Max has a special park. They took their nine best features from parks all around the uh Northern California, and they added those to this internal community park. It's got a spinning feature, a tot, a conversation and kindness zone. It's got a special gathering place. And this will be Max's place or Max's friend's place to be able to live and to be able to play. You skip to the next slide. So, just a couple fiscal benefits of the community. Um, we estimate that our total building and impact fees is about $20 million. We have an additional $6.8 million of park fees that we're paying. We would love to see that deployed on a magical bridge park somewhere in the in the city. That's up to you. We actually

volunteered to pay another $1.3 million of additional community benefit to the city of Newark and our impact school fee is about $3 million. So that's all those are all estimates, but that's just a little bit about our fee structure. I wanted to take a moment to address sea level rise and I'm going to call up Justin from CBG to go over this portion of the slide and then I'll be back. Your honor, council, good night or good evening, excuse me. Uh I'm a little nervous too. [laughter] We felt it was important to I'm so sorry.

Uh civil engineers. So I'm the principal civil engineer on the project. Yeah. Um so we felt it was important to um kind of touch base on sea level rise. Um we know it's going to be a topic of conversation. It's an important topic to address and there's a couple of key facts we wanted to put in front of everybody uh before we get too too deep into the tonight. So, it's important to realize that Mauy Village is not at risk of flooding or sea level rise. FEMA does not classify this within the 100-year flood plane. We went through a tremendous amount of work and effort with staff looking at the state level guidance, BCDC guidance, and planning accordingly to cover the various scenarios of sea level rise that can exist. The city then went and last year did their own vulnerability and assessment for sea level rise and we found the findings in that assessment to mirror what we had already been planning for and we were consistent. So we're we've done our homework, we've done our planning, and we've worked with staff and we've done a very diligent job of preparing for uh future sea level rise and making this project resilient. That's partly in due to the fact that we are bringing in up to um fill depths of 8 feet to elevate the site and to be prepared for any scenario um that is currently being looked at in the guidance. That also contributes to Mauy Avenue and the improvements that we're doing in elevating Mauy Avenue up to 3 ft to uh maintain uh resilience within Maui Avenue and the utilities within it. It also happens to coincide with USD's $500 million facility upgrades that they're currently doing and we are consistent with the elevations that they are proposing and building to with their new facility and the major infrastructure project that that is. Thank you.

And so I just going over a little bit current condition of Maui because we're going to get into the Mauy improvements here is that um you know we've been on Maui a lot but it's blighted right now. It's one lane. It's poorly lit. There's a lot of illegal dumping that goes on there and it there's speed traffic that is excessive on it. So um also the railroad crossing does not meet the CPU standards right now. We're going to change all that. So, if you can go to the next slide, Ed, please. So, this is a cross-section of um colored rendering of Mauy Avenue. And you can see from going from left to right as I look at this um our fence, we put in a nice twoft planter area, 7 foot wide pedestrian path, another planter area, bike lane, buffer lane, travel lane, and a median. And then we repeat that on the other side. And so, Maui will now have underground utilities. It'll have drainage associated with it and it'll have a beautiful median boulevard tied into it. We also upgrade and and raise the signal crossing to CPU standards and art touch base on it, but that's in much need of that right now. It's a little bit of a safety hazard. You can go to the next slide. Uh, our primary and secondary access points are down Mau Mary Avenue, but as Art said, we also have a third access point through the car Cargill property in case there's an emergency, in case there's a blockage. But, uh, we we that is remote. Our primary and secondary EVAs are down Maui Avenue. So, next slide. So, over this Thanks. over over the period of the time that we've been planning since 2018, we've met with 50 plus stakeholders, 200 community organizations, we've handed out flyers, we have a website, we really engaged in the community and during that process and working with staff, we made so many substantial changes that I feel like

this is one of the the best communities that I've ever worked on with Max's option and the features that we're delivering and cleaning up something that's blighted and cleaning up something that's an environmental hazard. I just like to say also that it's like we don't plan to go anywhere. We can't continue to plan to work with the community. We've been here a long time. I think I first came to Newark in 2007 and in that process I've never left. So then last next slide and I just end with this quote from Gavin Newsome who and I'll paraphrase for a minute is this is local housing and by providing local housing we keep people off of the freeways. We keep people in their homes. We keep people with their families and this is really repurposing something that is really reached its economic life and needs to be cleaned up and I thank you for letting me speak today. I appreciate it very much.

Thank you very much. Um ladies and gentlemen is again make sure you turn uh I'm going to take a fivem minute break before we begin the public comment section. Okay.

I was gonna start without you. Feel free. No, not tonight. Not tonight.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me go ahead and call the uh public hearing back to order. Uh first of all, before I forget, because I'm an Irishman and we forget sometimes the important comments to make, I want to thank everybody for being here this night. Um it's not often we have um controversy in our community regarding development. Um uh we we rely on our staff to bring the best proposals and the best developments to us. But we do understand there's always a differing viewpoint in terms of development and its possible impacts on our community. So I want to make sure I thank you in advance for being here tonight because we do want to listen to you and certainly take into consideration your comments. Uh that being said, I have 26 speakers that want to speak to the item. I don't know whether they're speaking for or against. Uh doesn't matter to me. Every speaker is important to me. I'm going to allow two minutes per speaker. Each speaker will be given two minutes. Okay? So, if you have drafted comments that you want to make and city clerk, I'm going to let you know right now if if it looks like they're kind of winding down and they've hit the two-minute mark and they're looking at a few more seconds beyond that, I'm okay with that. Okay. So, I'm not going to close you off or shut you down. If you have a, you know, another sentence or two or three that you want to include into the record, uh, I'm going to be, uh, courteous and make sure that you have that opportunity to do so. So, those of you that have kind of prepared comments, um, you know, maybe take a look at them. Um, because I think we're going to hear a lot of the same comments from a lot of folks. you know, for those that are for, those that are not for, I think we're going to hear a theme um as I think was mentioned by the environmental in um report. So, with that being said, we're going to go ahead and open up the public hearing. And if I mispronounce your names, I apologize in advance. Um so, let's start off with Bridget Kohler. Miss Kohler, and again, thank you for being here this evening. Your time won't start when you

identify yourself and who you represent and this and that. We're not going to count that time. Um all those pleasantries, mayor, you're doing a great job. We really appreciate you. None of that counts towards towards your comments, but they certainly are always appreciated. So, thank you and welcome.

Great. Thank you. I'm here to speak on behalf of the um Mauy Village program in support of uh my name is Bridget Kohler. I'm the vice president of forward planning from LAR Homes and we will be the builder partner on this project. We've been working in this community for 10 years consistently developing. We've developed um we're very proud of the communities we've been developing so far. Um Bridgeway, um Lighthouse and um ah anyway, the last one just slipped my mind. Sorry. Um so we look forward to that. We've had an excellent relationship with city staff. We look forward to continuing to build that relationship and um look forward to building more communities and more housing in your lovely community. So, thank you very much.

Thank you, Bridget. Appreciate your time. The next speaker is Peter Helman. Peter,

good evening, Mr. Helman. How are you this evening? Yeah, fine. Thank you. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

Uh my name is Peter Helman. and I'm one of them dreaded out oftowners. I'm from Walnut Creek, Mr. Mayor, members of the city council. I've been a home builder and land developer for nearly 50 years, which accounts for the gray hair. I'm Yes. Welcome to the club. I'm 98% retired and I spend my time uh talking to cities and encouraging them to provide new housing for our Bay Area residents. And that's why I'm here tonight. I have to tell you for the life of me I can't understand why this project is controversial. Uh it is a auto wrecking yard. I mean that's what we're faced with. Um I know there is some sentiment for a creating of a wetland habitat here. And as somebody that knows something about that because I've just completed a restoration and enhancement program up in Santa Rosa. This is not going to be a wetland ever. The choice tonight is between a new housing development and uh an auto rocking yard. Um, somebody has to buy the land. Uh, pick and pull is going to want money for the land. Somebody's going to have to pay for the remediation. Somebody's going to have to pay to get the project entitled to the resource agencies. Uh, somebody's going to have to pay the development costs of building. and somebody's going to have to pay for an endowment to provide for the perpetual management. All in total, we're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 million. And I'm not exaggerating. Um, housing uh hasn't been popular for long time, last 10 years or so. We've found the religion. Everybody has to do their part and I hope you will do yours and approve this project for 196 new residents and 30 low and very lowincome

households. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Helman. Greatly appreciate it. Nick Valencia. Nick.

Hi, Nick.

Hey. Hey, everybody. If I haven't seen everybody lately, I see you around town. Um, I'm going to just try to keep it quick here. Um, I know we got a lot of speakers going. Um, I think this is just kind of the coming to fruition of a plan that like you said, I mean, with we saw the slides earlier, this is from the late '9s. Um, unfortunately, it just does take a lot a lot of time to get things through, get projects through, and especially projects of this size and caliber. So, I think this is just kind of the next logical step. Um, I said this at the planning commission. I consider myself to be one of the lucky people who can live and work in Newark. So, I don't have much of a commute. I think selfishly that's lucky for me, but I wish that more people could enjoy that. Um, and the second point I had is um kind of just tying this into tonight. We celebrated the soccer team that that did good and got a championship. And I think that's a perfect example of those kids all live here in Newark. Their parents probably work here. As their parents get better jobs, things like that, people generally have to move away. So, I think this is a perfect example of if we can keep those people in the community, keep them here, keep them around. It just makes it a little bit better. Everybody's a little bit more engaged in the community. When people have to move out, they can't maybe get back into Newark to get to that soccer practice. We have beautiful soccer fields and I think we have we've seen it last year with the high school had a good soccer team that did well and then this one. So, it's like we're turning those out. So, let's do what we can to give all of our student athletes, younger, older, give all those people a great chance by keeping them closer in Newark. And I think a lot of housing uh really does that. So um hopefully everybody else is in support of it. Um and also I do want to say thank you to everybody that also speaks against the project because in the last week or so Facebook's been quite the place to be. Um but it's good to see a packed house here because I also like to see that it does engage people. It gets people to come into city council. I'd like to see everybody on the same page and things like that. But it's good to see. Um, and lastly, if this does work out, I think we should kidnap Evan and Vince and get them to get start working on the New

Park Mall and get them to re get that going. So, [laughter] thank you guys. Thank you, Nick. I appreciate that. Oinka Villa Royale. Hi. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening.

I didn't know I was going to get a call. Um well good evening honorable mayor, vice mayor, council member, city staff. I'm Olena Varel and I'm the founder and CEO of Magical Bridge Foundation. Newark has an important opportunity before it. One that brings muchneeded homes, major community investment, and the chance to create the innovative, inclusive public playground many, many of your families have been reaching out to us about. And I'm here to strongly encourage approval of the Maui Village project. There has been much misinformation circling about the project being harmful to the environments, but the facts have shown otherwise. Right. Mauy Village is an infill development um fully within Newark's existing urban footprint surrounded by established neighborhoods, not wetlands, not shoreline, and not areas identified as high risk for sea level rise. Um approving um this gives the city a safer, remediated landscape for the next generation. And as with all California projects, the Maui Village must meet today's strict standards, far stronger than those of the past decade. Oh. So, may the magic of the holiday season be reflected in your approval tonight as an incredible gift to this community, a gift in the overdue removal of the toxic yard, new homes, special consideration, especially with Max's option, the beautifification of Maui Street, and a worldclass magical bridge. And I'd say this would make a very magical holiday season and beyond. So, wishing you a wonderful holiday. Thank you.

Thank you very much for being here and thank you for your work with uh with the community. Andrew Ha. Andrew

have a few photos to share with the council. I pass it over to the clerk. To the clerk, please.

Good evening.

Good evening. My name is Andrew Hawa and I'm here with Greenbell Alliance. I want to focus tonight on the financial risks the project poses on future homeowners and to the city of Newark. Houses in this project are expected to start around $ 1.5 million. At that price, the vast majority would need a mortgage and have homeowners insurance. But here's the problem. Standard homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage. And flood insurance in New York is primarily only available through the National Flood Insurance Program that caps payouts at $350,000 in total. That's nowhere near enough to cover the value of a $ 1.5 million home and definitely not enough to make someone whole after flood damages, foundations, wiring, insulation, and personal belongings. Insurance companies are pulling out of California, reducing coverage and raising rates. Flood insurance alone can cover a cost of $6,000 per year on top of regular insurance and a massive monthly mortgage. And even then, when flooding happens, even just one foot of water, homeowners are left battling for a fraction of what they've invested. To developers, this is just a speck on the map, another project, another investment. But to us, it is 226 families. Families who will put everything they have into this for the opportunity to find stability, to raise their kids, and to age in place. And that's why it's especially painful to hear that developers highlight how these homes would be attractive to people with disabilities and older adults. So I ask you to imagine families already carrying the weight of navigating a world not built for them moving into a community that through no fault of their own is set up to fail when the next flood hits. This is a high-risk, high-cost underinsured option. It's building a future liability and setting families up for financial failure. So the question becomes, is it financially responsible to greenlight new development in a known floodprone contaminated site with limited insurance protection? The answer is no. By voting no on Maui Village, you

are protecting future residents and upholding your responsibility to guide Newark wisely and sustainably. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Andrew. Appreciate it, [bell] Garen. Hi, Karen. Karen, I'm sorry again. and I'm reading writing. So, I'll blame my reading glasses. [clears throat]

That's not me. Oh, this is not you. Okay, very good. [laughter] Oh, no. I I have one, but that's not It's this one. Oh, yeah. That one. Okay. Sorry. Our IT director is the best. I know. He is. He really is. here. Okay. Use this. Use that. Okay. Thank you. Is there Karen? I would take advantage of the clock not running. [laughter]

Good evening, Mayor Han members and staff. Karen High citizens committee to complete the refuge. I did um provide you guys the PDFs just in case you couldn't read the screen and I hope that that can be entered into into the record of course.

Um I'm going to bleep. Um Mauy Village is situated in an area that is surrounded by three different channels and is surrounded on some portions of the site by wetlands. It is connected to the bay by Malry Slooh. Lines B and line D are title all the way to the rail line at high tide. Um this is from 2007 for the area three and four specific area plan. You can see the areas um outlined in red that is abudding the Mauy Village project boundary and the green is the area approximate location of wetlands. The site is wet. It is wet currently. It will be even wetter in the future. This is in 2008 before people were really even talking about sea level rise and climate change. And you can see how how wet sub area D is. We're talking about sea level rise. We don't need to see the extremes of 6 ft of sea level rise. We're talking about combinations of sea level rise, groundwater rise, and um flood waters backing up or rainfall with just 12 in of sea level rise, you can get up to 48 in of total water level with groundwater rise. At 12 in of sea level rise, the red is emergent at the surface, standing water, groundwater. Um the site is wet. It's going to get even wetter. This is with just 3 f feet of sea level rise. Uh the conditional use permit has Newark was very forward thinking. There were a lot of requirements of pick and pull to clean up the site um at the close of business. Um believe that 3,000 people have said that we would not like to see uh development at this location. We want

to not put people in harm's way. There's a better path forward. There's funding for that. There's restoration happening all along the edges of the bay to provide um resilience to sea level rise for the communities and for the habit as the habitats of San Francisco Bay. Thank you. Um we wish that you we urge that you uh do not certify the EIR and that you deny approval of the project and we did submit comments.

Karen, one moment please. I appreciated the slides that you presented. So, thank you very much. I just want you to go back to one slide that I starting to read and I didn't have a chance to finish reading it. It's the one regarding the conditional use permit on the pick and pull side. Can we pull that up just so council has an opportunity? Thank you very much.

It it I have to commend the city of Newark. This was done I don't know how many years [clears throat] ago. 2010. you have a timeline for when these different actions have to occur, including removal of auto parts, auto autos, broken down autos, um hazardous materials. Um, there is a requirement for a toxic substance and hazardous materials cleanup plan that be submitted to the city of Newark and to the appropriate regulatory agencies including Alama County environmental health department who has a Koopa program of which Pick and Pool would be a part. And so there are requirements on pick and pull that they clean up the site at the when they close in either 2034 or sooner.

Thank you Karen. I appreciate it. Thank you. Kathleen. Kathleen. [clears throat] Good evening.

Good evening. Uh honorable council members. Uh I'm Kathleen Susie Claxton. Um tonight I speak to you with a heavy heart. I attended the Newark Planning Commission meeting last month where they completely missed the point and neglected their responsibility to look to the future uh but instead ignored the possibilities for the future of Newark shoreline. As Karen just mentioned, they seem to have their heads uh deep into the past, a past that looked ever expanding, paving over what seemed like unimportant wasteland. Uh but times have changed. I hope you read the November 25th Tri City Voice article on Hayward combating sea level drive rise. Um, let me quote a bit. Residents, environmental activists, engineers, architects, city leaders, recreational organizations, and more gathered to learn about the Hayward shoreline. The bodies of water at risk for sea level rise. They all had the goal of not only preventing this should be ameliating or um [clears throat and cough] mitigating this, excuse me, uh but also to um look to the forward uh preserving of marshlands and protecting wildlife habitat. Many other cities in the Bay Area have heated the warnings about the loss of wetland habitats. Uh both compare uh complex but mundane issues of climate change and resultant sea level rise but the exceptional possibilities of restoring lost wetlands for their extraordinary biodiversity and their contribution to the overall health of the bay, the sea and us. Um other these cities are Alvo, Mountain View, PaloAlto, East Palo Alto, Redwood City, Oakland, Alama, Red, Richmond, Nevada, uh Noado, and Morren County, San

Francisco. And by transforming old industrial sites and saltwater ponds back into tidal marshes for climate resilience and wildlife, Newark has already done some of this work. Uh, let's have the city leaders lean and lead into the future for restoring these wetlands instead of paving them over for 196 exclusive executive homes available only to multi-millionaires. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I appreciate you. Yo-yo. Yeah. I was mispronouncing.

Hi, good evening. Good evening, city council, city staff, city attorney. My name is Yoyo Y and I am a long-term New York resident. I was planning to talk about sea level adaption adaptation, but on Monday I received an email that really disturbed me and I feel like I need to read this to all of you. This email I received from Olena Varel, CEO of Magical Bridge. She sent it to all Magical Bridge friends in the Tri City area. [snorts]

She told everyone that if Maui Village was approved, there would be a $6.5 million park and loo fee that could be used to build a magical bridge playground. Could be, but in honesty, we're pretty sure that that probably would be used for a magical bridge playground. Correct. She then asked everyone to please attend the city council meeting or email the city council, which is fine. That's fine. It's the next paragraph that made me really disappointed and sad. She says, "Anyone who speaks or emails will receive a complimentary medium donor tile valued $500 to $2,000." The CEO of Magical Bridge, Hi, is offering $2,000 of something that's worth $2,000 to people to come to speak to city council or email you. So, I don't know. I'm sure you received a lot of emails and we have a lot of comments tonight in support of Maui Village. I don't know how many of those people were incentivized by this $2,000 incentive. I have sent this to city attorney. [clears throat] Um so I hope that if there's any legal action that is required, it will be taken. But I also want to please ask you to consider the comments that you hear in light of this email that was sent on Monday. I really we spoke after the planning commission. We were friendly, but when your side is offering a $2,000 incentive,

please direct your democracy, Miss Please direct your comments to the council. Sorry, that's all.

Okay. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I just want to make it real clear that the $6.5 million in park fees um will go to the city, which gives us the ability to um make park improvements anywhere within our city. So any decision as to the park amenities or new parks that are that are discussed will be here at the city council and certainly will be open for the public to have an opportunity to comment. So no decisions have been made relative to how those monies will be utilized in the future. Um that's certainly open for public discussion um as we do uh all of our public hearings. So, um, I want to make sure that residents know that under no circumstances are are we swayed or persuaded by by those comments, um, by the magical bridge folks. So, uh, thank you for your comments, Miss Jan Limeert. Limeert Jan,

good evening.

Good evening. Thank you, mayor and city council and staff. Um I'm I work I know many of you because you plant with us. I'm with urban forest friends that plants trees and obviously we're very concerned about the environment in many ways. Um there's no question that we all agree housing more housing is needed in the Bay Area, low-income, all different types. Um but it seems that this project is uh is very misguided in the location that this Newark has an opportunity of a treasure that I think Susie Claxton pointed to that other cities are using bayfront property to revitalize to restore uh for all the reasons for all the benefits. uh we endorse that and we don't know if you're aware that for every acre of marshland the uh carbon sequestering is equal to one acre to 10 acres of forest I mean we study this stuff because we plant trees but that's important because that land that could be approved to be developed is going to it's required that pick and pull restore that to clean it up so that cleanup is going to happen anyway. It needed by law as pointed out and um I'm encouraging the city council to take advantage of this opportunity to restore a natural resource that is so valuable. Thank you. And before you leave the podium, I want to take just one moment and thank you and Miss Yay for all of your contributions to our city as a result of the work that you do for urban forests. Uh we certainly recognize uh and appreciate your service to our community and we the council look for many more opportunities to you know take the shovel and and do some more planting.

You're good shovelers. We appreciate that. Thank you. And [laughter] um and yeah, thank you very much. So thank you for your service. We appreciate it. Cheryl Patel, please. Cheryl, [clears throat] Miss Patel, I'll come back. Oh, there you are. I was going to come back just in case. Oh, I'm short.

Um, all right. Thank you everyone. Good evening, council members and staff. My name is Cheryl Patel and um I grew up in Newark and my family still lives here. And I'm also here representing the local nonprofit Baykeeper and our 5,000 or so members. The city council needs to be aware of a 2021 report developed by Hawaii's Department of Toxicology which clearly states that when land contaminated by petroleum products come in contact with brackish groundwater or surface water flooding, the interaction of those two materials create methane and hydrogen sulfide due to the anorobic degradation of petroleum. Now this chemical process is important because the state water board said petroleum products are contaminants of concern at the New York pick and pull site and the final EIR for the site suggests that this site will be inundated with groundwater and is currently experiences surface water flooding. Thus the contaminants of concern on the site combined with current and expected flooding due to sea level rise can lead to conditions that produce methane and hydrogen sulfide gas which are both highly flammable and toxic. Both methane and hydrogen sulfide gases can migrate laterally and vertically, meaning these gases don't stay in one place. They can travel through the surface and along the ground to different areas, allowing them to seep into buildings where humans can experience unsafe indoor air quality and be exposed to flammable hazards. And um unfortunately, even the best remediation efforts can't truly clean up a contaminated site. Any future residents on or near the current site of the New York Pick and Pool where the soil may be contaminated with these petroleum products could be at risk of exposure to methane and hydrogen sulfide gas and all related hazards. Thus, we encourage this council not to approve the Mauy Village project. Unfortunately, it is a disaster waiting to happen and instead use available land for climate adaptation to protect newer communities um from oncoming environmental

challenges. Thank you for your time. No, thank you for coming. I appreciate you, Jana.

Good evening, Mayor H. Good evening, Mayor Little Council members, staff and residents. I think that's the last slide. Oh, that's not good. There's my punch line. Oh, [laughter] yeah. All right. Here we go. Great. Thank you so much. Um, push that one.

Okay. Um, what a space we have. What an opportunity we have as a community. I'm going to highlight to you tonight a little bit about the railroad. The coast subdivision splits our developed community from the sites we're looking at tonight. Um the state of California has identified the coast subdivision as one of the few rail lines at the greatest risk of sea level rise in the future. They intend to raise this site and they are thinking about building to 2100 which is a very high raise. It would extend from Santa Clara all the way to Newark. Here's a view of the land that we're talking about and the extent of water on both sides of the rail line. Newark's own adaptation study suggests that three or four of these miles of rail line could be quasi permanently submerged by midentury. It's 25 years from now. Water is everywhere on this site. There are wetlands, delineated wetlands all around the back of the site. Mauy Slooh brings tidal flow in. It flows up line D, Aloney Creek, and line B all the way to the railroad today. Even if you fill this, it's going to be surrounded by water. It's going to preclude our opportunities to restore this land and protect the city. So, I ask you this, as you move forward into climate adaptation, are you going to try and combat climate change and adapt? And as you're asked to

make financial investments in climate adaptation, are you going to protect northwest Newark along ma along Newark Slooh where the greatest risk is now or are you going to go and look at little Maui village with 226 homes where the rail line is going to be raised tidal wetlands? Folks have talked about the carbon sequestration. I also again want to point out we delivered a petition. Nearly a thousand Newark residents have said we don't like this development. In 2024, the citizens committee conducted a poll with Newark residents. Many of you may have been called. You can see the results. People oppose using our bay lands for this for housing. Local Facebook groups are popping off about this rate. But the saddest part is [snorts] that people are lamenting they didn't come tonight because they don't believe you'll listen to them on this issue. It's incredibly disappointing. More than 50 scientists around the bay have written to you over years about how important this land is. The railroad tracks you see in this image. Look at the wetlands. Look at the potential. Please listen to us. Please oppose the placement of this development in our baylands. Please work with us to preserve and remediate and restore this asset. Please support development in a more suitable, sustainable location.

Thank you. Thanks so much. You're welcome. Mr. He Charles Huy. Good evening, sir.

I am not a resident of Newark, but our company is here. Been here for a long time. Um, we're general contractors and we're off of Central and Sycamore, so it's kind of a little shady area. So, we are for any development that is going to make the city nicer to stay or or where people want to live. Um, a lot of controversy tonight, but you know, the cleanup of that land, people are saying that, you know, they've got to clean it up when they close. That's if they have the money. because if they don't have the money, it's just going to be contaminated soil and and if it does flood, it's even going to be worse. So, we are uh just pro development. We need housing, need affordable housing, and that's what we're here to say. We'd like to see the that the whole town we'd like to see get cleaned up. That's all I've got to say.

Thank you very much, Mr. Hewitt. We appreciate it, Cara Madden.

Good evening.

Hi. Good evening, everyone. Uh, my name is Cara. I've lived in the East Bay my entire life. Um, and I've lived in Newark for over 20 years now. Uh you may remember me from October's meeting where I helped deliver signatures um that included almost a thousand Newark residents in opposition of Malerie Village. I'd like to make really clear that a lot of these signatures were gathered um in person. Um I myself spent many hours. It was a slow process. We talked to each person. We answered all their questions. We made sure they read the petition and understood what they were signing. Um, and so I feel confident um that there was no um that that everything was done in good faith. A lot of the residents feel that this location doesn't make any sense. And here's a couple reasons why I feel. Um there are plans to move um the capital corridor trains to the coast subdivision track near the proposed development. That's going to be 14 daily trains um on that track in in addition to all the trains that are currently there. Everyone in New York has experienced being stuck at a train crossing um and being late for something. Um but most of us have alternate routes. The Malry Village residents will not have that. It may seem insignificant, but if you've ever been a woman in labor trying to get to the hospital or trying to get your kid with a broken arm to the to the ER, you know that minutes matter. And I know that there are emergency exits, but that's not going to be for every resident to use in the event of a major emergency or evacuation. Second, your own um Newark housing element states that affordable housing should be integrated within communities. The plans we have seen show a building with 31 affordable apartments off to the side in the corner of the development. Clearly different structure, different style, and separate from the single family homes. Why would you break your own guidelines? We don't need this um development to fulfill our housing

requirements. Now, I do support housing that makes sense. I have two boys in college um both of which don't believe they're going to be able to come back here to live. So, I I do believe in affordable housing, but not in a place that's going to put us at harm in harm's way. One last thing, um, as Jenna kind of alluded to, when I moved to Newark, I learned about the Newark way, which was that people felt like city council decisions were made before anyone walked in the room, and it sounds like people still feel that way. Um, I'm just asking you to please be brave and show us that our voices matter. Thank you, Cara. Thank you very much, [clears throat]

Lewis Morante. Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Good evening, sir.

Thank you. Uh, my name is Lewis Morante. I'm senior vice president of public policy for the Bay Area Council. We're an employer sponsored public policy nonprofit here in the Bay Area. I'm here in that capacity to express our support for this project. uh our project review subcommittee unanimously reviewed uh this unanimously supported this project and uh the review focused on many of the things that we talked about tonight. So I'm going to talk more generally about the housing um situation here in the Bay Area. You may have heard excuse me [clears throat] you may have heard about the recent a release of a a report from the National Association of Realtors showing that the new age for a median home buyer in the United States is 40 years old for the first time in history. uh the median home buyer in the United States is now 40. And that's in large part because of a huge an immense housing shortage facing this region, facing the state, and facing this country. Here in the in the state of California, the average family needs about $300,000 to afford the annual

sing. Hey uh good evening uh mayor. Good evening. Good evening Mr. Singh. How are you my friend?

I am doing good. I'm a little bit jet lag. I just flew last few days back from India. So if I blur a little bit, pardon me, but I'll be concise. You know if the land was here today speaking to us where we say pick and pull is there there is a big bay roing. When we turn around that rower is going to say don't sell my soul for 100 odd homes. And that is clearly written in Newark. We are a wetland city. We might not agree with it, but we are surrounded by wetlands, right? And wetlands make our city. If you were to ask a Dutch person how much money they spend pumping out water to live in a land, it is more than whatever these 196 homes cost. I'll give you two examples. One of two [snorts] cities that have have different results. One in Aladina in Southern California that faced wildfire. That is the same future we would have if we don't mitigate our risk. The second example is a Melano park that is restoring salt ponds to make sure there is enough restoration habitat for the future that we are going to see that can be penny on a dollar in many ways we will be able to do right so these things do matter the risk of climate is not in 100 years window that we keep hearing from our partners in the room the risk of climate is in less than 10 years the climate is changing more rapidly than we are aging think about it that right we would die. But the risks that we would sign up today would be b would be have to be carried by people children that have not born in New York. So I want you to think before you vote not about people in the room but the people that are not in the room in the city but also the people that have not been yet born and there will be delivered somewhere in New York. So thank you.

Thank you Mr. Singh and thank you for your service to our community. You're appreciated. Amir Khan,

good evening.

Good evening, Mayor uh and city council members. Uh my name is Omer and I have been a New York resident for the past 27 years since 1998. But in today's capacity, I'm here as a board member uh with the New York Chamber of Commerce. And in my place, it would be Steven Cassidy. But unfortunately, we know what happened to him last week. Um, two months ago, the board unanimously approved our support for Mari Village project. So, the question might be, why would a business chamber go ahead and support a a housing project? Well, because it's a symbiotic relationship. We we need to have a strong community environment to be able to have a strong business environment and also vice versa. And in order to do that, we need to have more housing. We need to have more housing because people are demanding it. And just because something can happen doesn't mean that we should stop progress in development because of a potential future. That being said, like many people here, I've been an environmentalist all my life and I think that we should do as much as we can to protect our future. But I will say one thing that if the sea levels do rise, and I'm not saying they won't, they probably will, that the Maui village will be the least of our problems. This is not a New York issue. This is not a Bay Area issue. This is a global issue. Even two feet with two feet swells is going to impact more of New York than just Maui Village. So that's not a reason to go ahead and say we're not going to build here just because there's one tiny area that's surrounded by wetlands that might be flooded. Lots of areas will be flooded. Also, wetlands, yes, while they can increase, they can also decrease. They can retrograde like areas around the Sanwaqin Valley, the Mississippi River Delta, and parts of the Chesapeake Bay. So yes, we can have advances, but we can also have retreats. That happens all the time. It's a natural process. We need to live within those boundaries, but at the same time, we need to continue development. So that's why as a board member for the New York Chamber, we are strongly supporting

this initiative. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Khan. Francis Mendoza. [clears throat and cough]

Good evening, Mr. Mendoza. Uh, good evening to you all. My name is Francis Mendoza and I'm a naturalist and park word ranger where I worked at nearby Coyote Hills, Hayward Shoreline, Tidewater Boating Center, and Crab Cove for more than 15 years. I'm also the vice chair of the East Bay Regional Park uh, park advisory committee. Uh, seems like the developed all the stops today in uh, making sure that that message is sent to you all. Um, as I walked out during their presentation, I heard the same presentation being said in the back over there. I'm not sure what was going on over there, but it seems like there's just a lot of marketing that's happening here in propaganda. Um, it was lovely to see Max here, but I've worked with at the planning commission last month. Um, I talked about uh the kids that I worked with, hundreds of uh social uh as a social worker, I worked with hundreds of kids with lots of different types of uh developmental delays and disabilities. And I just want you all to imagine um instead of a housing complex uh a restored wetland where Max and others like can can truly connect with nature. Not a manicured playground with fancy names like kindness and connection zone um built by a magical bridge but a true wetland filled with birds like endangered species like ridgeways rails uh leopard sharks, salt marsh harvest mice um that developer purports to not be there but they are there. Uh we want to follow the lead of environmental justice leaders like Ruth Orta who I spoke about 91year-old Aloney leader here in New York who has been here and remembers when wetlands used to be here. So, I'd like to follow their lead and instead of destroying the environment in the guise of development and progress, um, uh, do so in a way that makes Newark an example just like Bear Island and Redwood Shores, Sylvia McGlaughlin East Short State Park in Berkeley, um, Herren Head Park in uh, the Bay View Hunters Point District of San Francisco. Those are places that we want to get on the

right side of history instead of getting on the wrong side of history. Thank you. Thank you for your appearance tonight. Appreciate you. Daniel Pearson.

Good evening. Good evening, Mr. Pearson.

Um, I don't profess to have any uh expertise in any of the issues, but I am tired of people saying don't build, don't build, uh, because of various issues. We're we're starving for housing and if there's a potential for sea rise, there might be a potential, but there are people out there that don't have a place to live. And this is [clears throat] going to be an expensive place. But more houses there will lower the cost for other housing in the area. And if you don't build more houses here, then you're going to disincentivize other contractors to try to start another project. And so we're it's we're not going to only stop this one. We'll stop future ones. And Newark will just fester. And if we don't have enough people and enough money, we're going to be in big trouble.

Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Pearson. Precious.

Precious. I was not going to even try to pronounce your last name. So, welcome tonight. Don't Don't worry about it. My teachers struggle with that, too. [laughter and gasps] They just call me Precious S. I think it's perfect.

Oh, okay. Thank you. All right. Well, [clears throat] I'm going to start speaking now. Okay. As someone who has heard from both sides, I think it's best for me to speak for New York's youth and say that whatever happens with the project, all I care about is the safety of Newark's future. whether whether that is right after this project or built uh or in 10 years from now. But I just wanted to say thank you to everyone that has guided me through the details of this project. And thank you to both sides for implementing a safety basis behind the reasons. And for that I wanted to say thank you. Thank you to the lovely ladies Jana, Caroline, and Liz for being so passionate for what you stand for. I hope to be as strong willed and determined like these ladies. And thank you to those people who've made the time out of their busy schedules to give us further details on how this project is going to protect us c us citizens. Thank you Tracy Evan and Art for meeting with R and I on Zoom. And before my timer runs out, I just wanted to say how there will be always different viewpoints of every story. And if this proceeds, I know that families will be provided with their well-needed homes. But my only hope is that the promises of these but the promises of safety for the families will remain and be in these homes. And I hope that the plans were that were made will fulfill their promises and not only for these families but Newark as a whole. I'm grateful to have seen the process that come behind all of this work. Thank you.

Thank you very much for coming tonight. Dixie LRA.

Good evening. Oh, uh, my name is actually Sarah and I'm here on behalf of my friend Dixie. Um, Dixie unfortunately tested positive for COVID today, so she decided not to infect everyone. A wise decision on her part. [laughter] She did print out her comments, so I'm just going to read them.

Um, good evening, [clears throat] Mayor C and council members. My name is Dixie and I am the real estate director for Eden Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer based in Hayward. Please allow this statement to be read into the record. We regret that we cannot be with you tonight, but our absence should not be interpreted as anything other than strong, enthusiastic support for the Mauy Village Project. Since July 2024, Eden has worked closely with integral communities to help shape a thoughtful community oriented plan for integrating affordable homes at Malerie Village. While 30 units of affordable housing can be challenging to build and operate in today's financial environment, the willingness of Intergal to design a flexible program that includes donated land, a pad ready site with utilities stubbed to the property line, streets, sidewalks, and other off-site infrastructure as well as shoulder the burden of gaining project approval worth millions of dollars creates a path forward to make these homes a reality in the challenging market. To this end, we have not while we have not yet signed on as the affordable housing developer, we have assisted in framing our needs in the event that Eden is selected. We want to ensure that if we move forward, the project is positioned for success from day one. While we review the community design, we encourage the developer to place the affordable homes in the specific location that they are now located. Distance truly matters for residents. Access to city services, for leveraging financing, and for creating a welcoming community for people of all abilities, including the ID community, can live successfully and be part of neighborhood life. We provide these homes in many of our communities, including our new PaloAlto development, where we and we are doing the same in our north 40 project in Los Scouts. This is a model that works and one that we know how to deliver with care. We've also reviewed the environmental studies thoroughly and believe that the mitigation measures included in the plans contribute to the livability and reflect what industry leaders and investors will accept in affordable

housing. They give us confidence that this is a safe, healthy, and livable site. And speaking personally as a real estate developer, I want to emphasize how wells cited this community truly is. People want to live near open space and recreation, not next to freeways or deteriorated industrial corridors. This is a beautiful and desirable location. For every affordable home built there, there will be hundreds of families and individuals eager for the opportunity to live in this setting. On behalf of Eden Housing, a 57year-old nonprofit rooted in this region. We hope you approve the project. We are ready [clears throat] to bring housing solutions to this particular site and to Newark. It's a lovely site and we'd be absolutely loved to be involved in it. Thank you for your time, consideration, and service to this community. Well, please make sure you share with Eden Housing uh irrespective of this project all the fine work that they do to help those folks that are struggling to find homes, certainly affordable homes. So, please make sure you share that with Eden Housing. They have a great reputation and we appreciate them.

We'll do. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. [clears throat] Jonathan Wong, you have to leave. Okay. Thank you, Laura Walsh. Hi, Laura.

Hi. Hi. Good afternoon, mayor and city council. My name is Laura Walsh. I'm a policy manager with the nonprofit organization Save the Bay. We help cities plan for sea level rise. So, that's my day-to-day job. We're usually working in a in a planning context. As an advocate, of course, we advocate for public trust, access to the shoreline, as well as, you know, planning that is safe for people. Um, and most of my job is partnership. You know, it's it's really it's working with local governments who really want to plan for sea level rise because the bay is so vulnerable. We built a lot of our shoreline on fill that is sinking. We, you know, a bay has a lot of ground, like rising groundwater underneath it. We're surrounded by water, right? And I just came here to say there are cities all around you that are investing huge amounts of money into adaptation projects. Um, and to me that represents, and I'd say to save the bay, a pattern of trying to protect public safety and trying to invest in these multi-benefit projects that utilize nature. Um, and it feels like what we're seeing here is a decision to kind of go in a different direction. Um, so in Hayward, we're working on a third uh, well, I'll just say Hayward committed to a shoreline master plan. That's $13 million worth of climate adaptation projects for sea level rise. Alama just went to their city council meeting the other night. Coastal planner talking about $290 million worth of climate projects needed um sorry nature-based projects specifically for the purpose of managing flood resilience was at PaloAlto on a levy earlier this week. They've got a $4 million levy going. We're seeing the South Base salt pond restoration project mentioned earlier, $500 million invested in severalized resilience. Um it feels like there's this competition for what funding exists for planning. Um and everyone's kind of like competing for it and going in that direction and then

we're watching Newark like walk away and walk the other direction and extend into the flood plane instead of investing in adaptation. Um, so yeah, I just I wanted to also say we work well, we're studying uh cities that are investing in cleaning up sites also using state funding while turning those sites into adaptation projects. So I just I do reject the idea that um only a developer could come clean up the site. Thank you. Thanks, Laura. Appreciate you. I have a card that just simply says man, m an one of you folks in the room. [laughter] Hi man. Hi. Thank you for coming tonight. Yes.

And I uh my name is indeed man um spelled man. So [sighs and gasps] uh I'm am from urban forest friends like Yoyo and Jan. And I could talk about how I commute to work and home on Cherry Road every single day and how it's already very congested and this Mau Village project could worsen that inevitably. But I want to talk about the website and the myth and facts on the on the Mauy Village website. the myth accordingly says that Maui village is at risk of uh sea level rise and flooding on their website and they even quote they even quoted the ap sorry if I pronounced the name a 2025 sea level rise study and it even hyperlinks to a document that is uploaded to Newark's official website and I read through it and uh it is entirely based on mathematical modeling And on Maui Roach website, it says that um the report found it is not vulnerable under any scenario. However, if I scroll all the way down to the conclusions, it actually says that a root actually did not even finish analyzing the vulnerability and the risks. Uh it says in as a future step, it will identify assets that are exposed to flooding in various future scenarios. So in what that means is it is actually inconclusive based on the other reports that the sea level is not vulnerable uh sorry uh that M village is not vulnerable to uh the sea level rises. So that's one thing I want to bring up. And then finally uh in regards to uh uh

sorry pull and pick pick and pull um their cup will expire in 2034 and because of the pollution that they cause under no circumstances should New York residents tax payers money should be used to clean up. Since pick and pull is owned by uh Radius Recycling which is owned by Toyota a yes it is the car brand. It is a multi-billion dollar company which definitely has enough money to clean up their own faults and therefore New York residents should not be paying to clean up that. And with that I will uh say that on behalf of New York residents I will have to say um please reject and vote no to the Mario College project.

Thank you ma'am. Thank you ma'am. [clears throat] Ed Aman Ed Aman A-N I'll come back to that just in case Liz Ames

Hello Liz

good [clears throat] evening Hi, I'm Liz Angel. I'm your BART director. I represent Newark. And I wanted to just go into uh this concept that you Newark was going to pursue further the further fair housing, further the fair housing in Newark. And I struggle with fair housing because that term is really subjective. So, you're building mainly market rate housing uh roughly 90% and you're looking at over a million dollars for a house. And the folks in Newark can't afford that price. And I I struggle with affordable housing because we build like 10 15% of affordable housing, which is really a low uh wage earner. And so we're missing what we call the missing middle. This is a workforce housing, and this is 80% 120% average median income that's never getting built. It's very difficult to build and I have been working with other cities like San Francisco. They're building missing middle housing and this project really supports the upper um scale income. So, it's not fair and the location is poor as we've all heard today. We've got tonight, we've got great speakers here, experts, scientists have said the wetlands are west were our west of the tracks. Union Pacific built that line right [clears throat] next to the wetlands. Now it's not wetlands because we filled it in to build, you know, agriculture. There was, I guess, an orchard there, but that was a wetland and it will be again. So, let's design a a shoreline, have a master plan for our wetlands. I think Newark can be a leader in this effort. We can build housing in other areas. We can build fair housing for the missing middle. This is a

workforce workforce housing, not not for the elite. And I hope that this council u votes no on this project. Thank you. Thank you very much for coming this evening. And I apologize if I mispronounce this name. The first name appears to be Marett. Marett,

was I was I close? Uh, hers. Okay, thank you.

Yeah, thank you. Uh, good evening, honorable mayor and city council member. My name is Hassi Jeriala and I'm a proud uh Newark residents and I stand here to show strong support of the Maui village project. Uh, New York desperately needs housing. Uh, we have a real housing crisis here in Bay Area and uh, most part of the uh, New York. uh I personally knows like many of my friends and families uh uh [clears throat] uh move out of the New York and other part of the Bay Area to Texas and some other part of the country because they can't able to afford the the houses here in New York. Uh as you all know like this project brings uh 196 single family homes and 30 affordable uh multif family unit. It create a real opportunity for the families to stay in network can build their feature here uh for the children instead of being priced out. Uh and you know that it also includes the thoughtful floor plan options so that the residents with the uh development disabilities uh can age in place with dignity aligning perfectly with the goal of our uh housing element. And in addition to the housing uh uh this project will also bring the community a pocket park thoughtfully designed by uh magical breed foundations that welcomes the kids and adults of all the abilities and beyond housing. Uh I think this project enhance the safety with a wider uh Maui Avenue uh new sidewalks, bike lanes and safer railroad crossing creating a more connected uh neighborhood for all of us. And uh and remember like uh last but not the least, this side is not uh is not a wetland. It's a long time u autoracking yard. Cleaning it up and turning it into a vibrant inclusive community is a responsible choice of the uh network feature. So I respectfully urge uh city council members to approve this project.

Thank you very much. Appreciate you. [clears throat] Edam man, have you returned? Edaman. Last speaker is Jason Miguel. Mr. Miguel. [clears throat and cough] Good evening.

Good evening. Um, [clears throat] kind of torn. I'm as prime as you can be. Build more housing, but also on the younger age of the spectrum looking into buying newer homes. I'm selfish. I want to buy one of these homes. But the affordability aspect has to come into play. You're looking at homes that are going potentially on the conservative end 1.1 upwards to 1.5 depending on the plan you select. That's north of $200,000. If you want to avoid the PMI payment, you're going to have to pay property taxes. That's going to be north of a th000 a month. And you don't pay that monthly. You pay that twice a year. and the county, they're very fast in sending those property tax statements. You got to pay them twice, otherwise you have to pay a penalty. So, you know, who knows how many people have north of 6,000 a month in their bank account for that payment so they can avoid that penalty. And so, that's where I'm torn with this development. Maybe if the city looks into their code, the executive style homes that the uh developer brought up, that was a very interesting aspect. What if we looked into that, modified it, and you're able to build denser houses, attract more people, and maybe those payments for the cost of the home will be less and families can afford it. Because the reality is there's not a lot of jobs in Newark. Everybody goes outside of Newark and the higherp paying jobs are across the bridge if they're working for Meta um or in the South Bay. Um and so I have to commute you know 40 40 minutes from here down to San Jose. Um, and it's a decent paying job and even then if I were to move into this development if I'm fortunate enough I wouldn't be able to afford it and even if my partner who makes similar amount total we can't

afford the north of 8 maybe 9,000 a month payment just to live in uh these homes. So look into that and 2034 in 9 years it's right around the corner. Thank you. I'm going to close the public hearing. Colleagues, do we want to take a break or do we want to get into questions? Your thoughts on the break or questions? Let's go. Let's go.

Okay. What I'm going to do, colleagues, is uh I'm going to break this up into two different segments. The first segment will be simply qu clarifying questions that we have for either staff or the developer. We'll get into the comments section after we do our clarifying questions. And I'll start with who? Mayor, if I may. Yes. Uh, Council Member Jorgens,

I I would like to make an alternate motion on uh what we're looking at here. Um, and call colleagues, I'm going to kind of introduce it and we'll be talking for a little bit here, but I I would like to in short make a motion to send this back to the planning commission. Uh the short of this is the project that the developer presented today is quite different than what they presented to the planning commission in November when uh the planning commission looked at this project especially when it comes to the alternative means of compliance. Um so I'll quote from the developer at the planning commission meeting. Um in that community that are 15% or 31 very low and low apartment units. Um there's two problems with that. The way the state density bonus law defines how affordability should be calculated. You know, it stipulates that the percentage of affordable units is determined by the number of affordable units, you know, by the total amount of units in the project. You know, there's 196 market rate plus the 30 rate, 30 uh affordable units, you know, 30 over 226. It's only getting us to about 13.27%. You know, not the 15 that they described. Um there's of course also not 31 units, but just 30. um you know if they had come to us you know I'd appreciated that you presented correctly today um but if you had come and said hey this is what the project is here's what it can bring for Newark um you know that's something that I I feel like I could look at um and in the past the council has voted on uh different waiverss for affordable units um and I might do again so this evening I'm looking forward to hearing all the comments here uh but the project was fundamentally misrepresented for what it was and there's There's no way around that. And you know, your company, you had meetings, you discussed the fin the feasibility of it, you discussed the design of it, you discussed the amenities for it. And it's hard for me to believe that at no point nobody showed up and said, "This isn't 15% of

the project." Like that just stretches the imagination for me. And um this is such an important part of what is being presented here that I think we do need to go back to planning commission and have the full public process with the public having an understanding of what the project is. Um you know [clears throat] there were several other false statements that were made at the planning commission meeting. Um in addition to the 31 units you know a claim that you know we heard repeated tonight this is something that's coming into the public. You know, we had one public commenter mention the number of units. That number was 31, not 30. You know, we heard both 10% and 15% as the percent affordable. So, the public, there's been confusion that's been caused by the way this has been presented. Um, but also, you know, at the planning commission meeting, they showed a video of, you know, an emergency egress route that's not a part of the project. Um, you know, I, you know, we have the emergency egress as a part of the project. They showed something different. Um, they stated that pick and pull is not required to clean up the site. According to the cup, the land, whoever owns the site is required to clean it up. And it's hard for me. And as much as I appreciate that the project was presented accurately today, those were things that were pointed out to the developer and they're going to correct the things that were pointed out to them, but not the things not pointed out to them.

And once you're shown not to be trustworthy, it's hard to trust what you're saying.

And you know, I don't know the substantive nature of all those considerations. Um, that's why I rely on planning commission to tell me what the project is. And, you know, I'm disappointed that they're not going to have an opportunity here. Um, you know, and I'm also disappointed that even our staff report when we presented when we posted the agenda repeated the developers claim that uh the revised project meets state density bonus laws requirements by providing 15% of the project units for affordable housing deed restricted units. It's just not true and this is what we're presenting to the community. Um, so for those reasons, you know, I'm going to make a motion to send it back to planning commission so you know we can do it right. I think there's four essential things that can happen when we do that. Planning commission is going to receive a presentation from the applicant that accurately reflects the nature of the project. I don't know the number of false statements before like it needs to go back, but I feel like we've crossed that line. Um the public's going to have the ability to comment on project with full knowledge of what the project is. Um and then staff is going to have time to work with the applicant on you know finding the best way to meet that alternative means of compliance. Um because I think as was originally presented at planning commission, there were a number of incentives, some of which I think have been fixed, but I think it's been done quickly and I think with a little more time we can get it right. Um iron out the last few details to make sure that, you know, I think all of us want to see affordable housing and we need to make sure that the details in what we're passing actually incentivize the developer to build the affordable housing they're claiming they're going to build. Um, so I guess finally here, um, I'm going to make a motion to that we continue the hearing to the regular city council meeting on January 22nd at 7 p.m. and direct staff to hold a study session with the planning commission to appropriately consider the alternative needs of compliance and the affordable housing component of the project. As part of the motion, I also ask that uh, city the city council direct staff to

convey any additional comments from the planning commission as part of the continued public hearing before the city council on January 22nd. You know, the sad reality is, you know, this project as it stands now just isn't up to the New York standard and how it's been presented. That's not the New York standard. And I don't know if by doing this that the outcome of any vote will change. I don't know if the outcome of my vote will change, but how we arrive is important, but how we get there is also important. And making sure that we have a full and complete public participation process is important. So, I have a motion. Look for your support. Uh [clears throat] colleagues, I'm going to go ahead and oppose the U request for a continuence on this item back to the planning commission and I'll get into my comments uh unless there is a um unless there's a second on the motion.

See, I just want to say thank you, Matthew, for what you said. I think a lot of really good points were made, but I think at this point we're ready to move on. I I I I I appreciate absolutely 1,000% of what you have said, but I'm I'm ready to move on.

Any other comments? [clears throat] That motion dies on lack of a second. So now, ladies and gentlemen, we'll get into the portion of the discussion here. But before I do that, I want to make a couple comments. Um only because I want to make sure that I set the record straight. I heard a couple. First of all, I thought the most um thoughtful comment came from Precious. Thank you, Precious, for your comments because what you said was uh it's a controversial issue. You've heard both sides of the discussion and at the end of the day, you know, this council will make the decision that we believe is in the best interest of our community. The notion that folks are afraid to come or did not want to come to the council meeting tonight because the decision had already been made. That's not how democracy works, folks. That's not how democracy works. This council has had no discussions amongst themselves as to the merits of the case. There have been countless public hearings that have been held where you've had opportunities to speak for and against the proposal. Our decision at the end of the day is to hear the comments, weigh the comments, read the staff report, which includes the environmental impact report on what the impacts are to our community. This council has done its homework. This council has done the work necessary to make an informed decision. Now, at the end of the day, as Precious mentioned, reasonable people can disagree, and I'm okay with that. You saw my colleague Matthew Jorgens, who I have a great deal of respect for, reached out to his colleagues and said, "I'd like to, you know, postpone this hearing for for for another date and have the planning commission take another look at it." Now, if we were all up here, you know, just simply, you know, walking the same line, I would have had to hold my council back on terms of who wants to make the second. That's not the way we do business here. We do business based on what's presented to us this evening. we do take into consideration what the planning commission recommends because

that's their role. That's their responsibility. They're an advisory committee commission to this council. So, we do take into consideration their comments. So, for those that were reluctant or felt it was unnecessary to come, you know, I'm an Irishman. We say it the way it is. Shame on you. Shame on you for not coming and having your voice heard. That's how democracy works. That's how democracy is effective and uh this council will deliberate. Uh there will be disagreements I'm sure uh but at the end of the day we the council whether we are for or not for the project will come up with a um a meaningful response and uh so at this point colleagues what I'd like to do is limit our discussion not discussion questions to either the staff or the um developer. So who would like to begin? No questions.

Mr. McGall questions of course. Okay, I'll start with Mr. Gindal then. [laughter] I never want to presume Mr. Gallal. Go ahead and presume that you can presume it won't. [clears throat] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And so, um I I'll very much stick to your to your word and um make these questions. Um the um let me just see. I got I got to make sure I don't I don't be making comments. Um and take by the way this is a this is a difficult issue. Uh you'll have more than one opportunity,

right? So no, let me just start let me start with the big with the big question that's been talked about a lot. Um the um the property of that that is pick and pull. It it operates under a conditional use permit. And please, this is going to be a question for you, Chris. Um so um uh so maybe I'll look at you. Um the um they operate under a under a conditional use permit that expires in in 2034. Um and however that doesn't include the entirety of the pick and pull site. There's a 5 acre portion of that property which is not subject to that to that limitation. Um, so what would G given given that what would be the process of how how would we require enforcement of of cleaning up that property of ceasing that operations? Um, particularly if it was a if it was a property owner that didn't want to that was going to fight us, what kind of legal what kind of legal wrangling would there be in order to force pick and pull to clean up even the cup area? and and how would and how would the the lack of a conditional use permit um that with an expiration date um on the 5acre site affect that? And I'm I'm sorry if that's a blindsided question, but um if you can if you can illuminate that, that would be really helpful to me.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, council member. Um so in terms uh you are correct that the cup does not cover the entirety of the site. The site is two APNs. Um and uh Mr. Tiana can correct me if I'm wrong, but it's two APNs. Um, CUP only covers one of those APNs. Um, there is an agreement as part of that CUP that was executed by the property owner. Um, you know, the city uh it is, um, presumably an enforceable agreement. Um, that doesn't mean that someone wouldn't try to challenge the enforceability of that agreement. So, there are, you know, city resources associated with that if that becomes an issue. Um, for the remaining 5acre site, there is no such agreement. And so, um, the city can, um, go through, um, there are provisions in the code that the city could try to enforce related to potentially amortization. Um, but that just ceases the use that doesn't necessarily compel um, what I would call cleanup. It just ceases the use. So, those are some of the challenges um, with that that I I hope I've answered your question. um you you have and just to just to as a followup so it's conceivable that if the Stevenson Boulevard overcrossing was built and the and the the the project that was covered by the cup um was you know phasing out that that the the five the five acre portion of the site the additional site could continue operating as a as a wrecking yard in in that area again assuming that the property owner wasn't in the process of developing. So just is is that correct?

That's correct. Absent uh some other process.

Thank you. Um uh also could I just I'd like to I'd like to have staff I think it was included um in Mr. in Tiano's um report, but h how can I get a little more explanation of uh the the sea level rise at mitigations that we're applying that and again [clears throat] sea level rise is not a um is not an environmental issue because environmental issues are what the project does to the world, not what the world does to the project. And I I think we can all agree that the Mari village would not cause sea level rise directly or not much of it anyway. Um and um so if if if staff could staff or the environmental consultants or the engineers could explain sort of what this project does to make sure that it's safe to make sure that there that it's not built in the flood plane because we don't we don't allow construction in the in the flood plane period. Um but with with that enough with that much of a leading question, can you can you could you explain sort of what we do uh you Art or anybody else who who can who can help to explain how we would protect this area from sea level rise or any flooding?

Yeah. Um so thank you for that question. Um so I'm going to ask our um consultant or the um expert who works on the technical analysis for the SQA document to come up so they can kind of explain that for us. Good evening everybody. Uh my name is Trevor Misinski. I work for Stante Consulting. I run our planning practice in the US West. I was a principal in charge of the preparation of the squid document. Hopefully to offer the council some consideration related to the technical topic of sea level rise. I'll first uh address kind of how it was analyzed in the secret document and then I'll probably defer to the city and or the applicant related to the design features that I'll just highlight briefly that are meant to adapt to what you're referring to. So in the process of an environmental impact report, you look at basically two primary resource considerations to address sea level rise. One is related to flooding and the other is related to hazard and exposure. Uh both of those were fully documented within the the SQA document that's in before you in consideration and it use uses best uh available known science and projection. Uh that was actually um documented in a uh technical evaluation which then supported a design consideration which I'll speak to high at a high level related to the elevation in which the pad improvements would be on the site. There is a significant amount of fill uh both that's going to take place related from the contamination and cleanup. So, they're going to have to basically dig things out of the site to then elevate the site itself and then elevate the pads even higher. That flood elevation is above the anticipated sea level rise elevation. Um, and I'll stop there and defer to the applicant if they want to quote the exact elevation. Will that be helpful for you, council member? C

certainly you can answer it answer it any way you want. Okay. Yes. If if we could [laughter] have uh DJ come up.

You [clears throat] can make it a team. Good evening council. Justin Davo with CBG civil engineers uh principal design engineer on the project. Uh so as uh you pointed out uh we have a a a an analysis that we go through right and in separate squa and we look at a range of scenarios that sea level rise could achieve from you know 2050 all the way up to 2100. as you start to extend yourself out, the data becomes not as reliable. And so projections, that's why the 2100 year is kind of that that benchmark. So we look at a range of elevations that seal rise could project to and we compare that with the mean high high water that is published and known and we look at when you add those two together effectively, how does that compare with where your pad elevations are? Essentially looking at where is mean high high water going to be in the future. In addition to that, we look at storm surge scenarios. You know, whether it be uh ocean surge against an inland rain event or an inland 100-year event against, you know, a smaller kind of uh ocean uh 10-year event. So, we look at those scenarios and we look at the water surface elevations that that would, you know, would exist around the site and then we compare that with our pad elevations as well as our infrastructure. Where our utilities going to be, where would we anticipate groundwater to be? and how do we make sure we're conveying that water off and that those pads are elevated with enough freeboard to maintain uh and prevent flooding in the future. That's why we have a high level of confidence and we work with staff. We've looked at the assessment that the city's done. We've looked at the there was a second report the city did as part of their vulnerability assessment that was the actual risk assessment that laid out, you know, what was at risk. Malerie Village was not a site that was identified as a permanent inundation site. it was more that area is susceptible in larger rain events as

similar as it is today. So all of that combined, you know, we have a high level of confidence that we've made this resilient for the future and we have an elevation at the site that has very good resiliency all the way out to that 2100 year projection. We're anticipating as part of the third phase of the city's effort on the assessment at looking at the adaptrate adaptation strategy and projects the city will implement in the future in conjunction with what we've already implemented at Mauy Village.

It as a followup it's uh I'm interpreting that to mean um to at least to deal with the fact that sea level rise is is a global issue and it's it's pretty difficult for one city or one neighborhood to attack it by itself. that that the solution is going to be a re a bay areawide Californiaawwide sort of approach towards resiliency. I I kind of heard that between the lines, but I wanted to be more overt with that.

That's correct. Yeah. Be a series of of um it's a global effort, it's a city effort, it's a state effort, it's it's it's all of that combined, right? So as as adaptation strategies are are proposed and projects are implemented, you know, more and more resiliency will build on itself and and hopefully yeah, we can get to a spot where there is a more cohesive plan. But um you know there's guidance for each city to kind of adapt uh a strategy for the future and um there's guidance for projects that um have exposure to this to design to certain standards and those are the standards we design to because that's the best adaptation we can provide for a project in the near term as we project out to the future as to what those scenarios could be.

Right. And near-term is 2100. Uh yeah 2050 to 2100. Yeah.

Thank you. Um so um the the other question I had had to do with the the housing unit counts like as council member um um math council member Jorgens brought up so I'm I'm not going to ask it because he he'll probably have a similar question and I'd rather have have him ask it directly. Um, just one last question. Just my understanding and in reviewing the uh the documents, I just want to be really clear. The property um the the the pick and pick and pull site is presently zone in the general plan designated for residential. Um and the only change in the general plan is actually to accommodate the higher density housing. Is that accurate? Yes, that's correct.

Thank you. My my curiosity is getting the better of me. So you can ask the question that you were holding off [laughter] on. What's that? Maybe phrase it differently. Question that you were holding off on my curiosity. Oh, sure. Sure. Well, it's it's it's partially inspired by your question. Um can can staff pro provide an explanation as to the percentages necessary to to achieve the um you know h how 15% is required and if it's required and why that doesn't add up. Um, is there a chance is there a chance for staff to or the or the or the developer to um explain that?

Yeah, I'm going to ask um Michael Kulum, who is our housing policy program manager, to come up. He's our expert in housing. Thanks. Was my question clear enough?

Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. Yeah, Michael Kulum, housing policy and programs manager. Um, state density bonus law uh defines um um a legal standard by which a residential developer can obtain certain development standard waiverss as well as incentives and concessions. In order to be eligible for that, uh, the law lays out a, um, series of thresholds that, um, regardless of the threshold, give the applicant an unlimited number of development standards waiverss. And then with the deeper level of affordability and the deep the greater the percentage of affordable units, the developer can get additional incentives. Um, commonly that's additional market rate units that they are able to build. Um in this case um the applicant originally proposed to build 203 single family homes and to fulfill their affordable housing obligation by paying the housing impact fee. um understanding council's interest in um providing affordable units as opposed to just the fee during the squa process the developer suggested an alternative in which they reduced the number of market rate homes from 203 to 196. They took that number and um they um took 15% of that number which came to 30 affordable housing units. When they brought that proposal to us, uh we provided technical assistance to them in order to ensure that the project would not only be feasible but would meet um the standard of of state law for operating affordable housing. We said you have to include a manager's unit. And so that's how we got to 31 units. Um, so the 15% figure refers to the

number of units as a percentage of the market rate units. Mhm.

Now, to circle back to state density bonus law, and I'm sorry to be so verbose here, but I think it's important to clarify. Um um the uh lowest baseline threshold by which um um an applicant can um be eligible for state density bonus is 10% of lowincome units. Um the math there is taking the number of affordable units divided by the number of affordable units and market rate units the total project. And so in this case that formula looks like 30 over 197 and that comes out to the 13.2% figure that council member Jorgan cited in his um earlier comments. Um and so based on that 13.2% 2% figure, the developer uh the applicant is satisfying eligibility for state density bonus law

because it's a 10% it's a 10% requirement. 10% requirement for um state density bonus law. Yes. Great. Um thank you. You're welcome. Um I I have one last question. And I remembered um the um uh you know this might be in fall into a comment category so I'm I'm going to forgo it at this point. Excellent colleagues questions council member Delcontio.

Thank you. I did have a follow-up question um for staff regarding the flood risk component that my colleague had brought up. I wanted to know what steps would be done to ensure residents would have suitable groundwater um prior to building.

I'm sorry just to um clarify the question. Your question is whether residents would have uh suitable water. Yes, water, groundwater, considering that right now we have a pick and pull there and so there's been some discussion whether or not there was um contamination in the soil and so I'm want to understand a little bit more before residents assuming if the if this were to pass then what steps would the city or the builder be doing to ensure that it would be safe for the community he [clears throat] would be residing?

Yes, understood. um that that it's uh that's more of a technical question. I'm going to ask uh CBG uh Justin to come up if he could tell us. Um this is kind of similar to what we have in um our um Bayside Newark area where those were former contaminated sites and there's certain um ways of treating the sites um and there's also monitoring that's left um so the residents um one can can live there but also so the whatever contaminants that are still remaining the soils are monitored until they're um um well monitored to see whatever happens with them. Yeah. Thank you. Maybe you can give me a more technical response to that, but I

I think you did a fine job, Art. Um, yeah, we have a a technical cleanup plan, a remeal action plan that will be implemented. And so there will be um removal of soil and then they they set it aside, they profile it, and they test it. And then they also do similar with the groundwater. And so there'll be there's one location where that was identified in the uh in the veral action plan that needed to be cleaned up. And so it's a it's a pretty shallow excavation. I think the area is only a a foot or couple feet deep and then they have uh they basically do an injection at the once they do the excavation of the soil and that's open and they get to the groundwater. They'll they'll do an injection there and then close it back up. So and there'll be groundwater monitoring wells that are established to then monitor groundwater over a period of time to make sure you know things aren't migrating and the ground water's actually been cleaned up. So I'll ask

if I may. I'd like to invite Mr. Menski to come up and opine on this item. [clears throat]

Thank you. So there um maybe I can just articulate kind of the process so there's an understanding of how we can control the risk in what you're uh referring to. So um when you have a site contamination, there's basically two or three initial steps which take place. There's a phase one which characterizes the risk and there's a phase one that goes a phase two that goes out and tests the extent of how that risk is spread out. That's already been completed. After that, you put together a remedial action plan. That remedial action plan characterizes kind of the solution to the problem. Hey, we know it's this big. This is where we're going to put monitoring wells to ensure that we can pump and treat the site in it capacity which is safe. But all that is done and improved underneath the um the county department of environmental health which actually approves that plan and oversees the uh requirements for implementing where those wells go and they have to provide the testing results to them so it's verified. So it's not just a we think we're going to solve it this way type of solution. And then the long-term controls for the community should it be approved and built are actually in place. those wells stay in place for a long term to ensure that that risk [snorts] is reduced over time and actually cleaned out completely. Um, and that's the monitoring and maintenance which takes place. So, it doesn't just put a well system in and then walk away. There's actually reporting requirements that are required to be uh appro reviewed and approved by the uh county health department to ensure that they're meeting the risk level exposure that is identified in the remedial action plan. Um and then ultimately when the pro you know they've say they pumped all the ground water and they've cleaned it uh it will actually go through a clean closure process which will allow it to get like a clean bill of health. Um and so there was one other point of your question that I want to make sure that I addressed related to like water service just to be very clear. Uh the site is not proposing any ground water for service to the site itself. There's a municipal water line which will connect potable water to service the residents there if that helps. Yes, it does. Thank you.

Council member, do you mind if I ask a follow-up question on that? Yes. You mentioned the the monitoring to determine whether or not the toxins and contaminants have been uh satisfactorily removed from the site. How how frequently will they monitor that location?

So, it depends upon the concentration of the constituents, but usually they're in a like a a 5 to 10 to 15 to 20 year cycle, right? So, for example, if the initial remedial action plan characterizes the risk to being such that like, oh, it's a very uh sits at the top of the groundwater table and it can actually be cleaned up within a 5-year period, then they'll assign like a a 10-year period, right? They know they're going to fix it in five and then you continue to modify to make sure that it's actually done. But it is sight specific based on the concentration, the constituents, and those constituents are presented in the documents that you have in the hazard remediation section of the EI. And are those uh findings, Mr. Bon, are they shared with the city as well? I know that the environmental health they're actually shared with the public. They're actually That's even better.

Yeah, they're published [laughter] on a state uh website database called Envirro Store in which the community can actually check the status of the site clean closure process. Thank you. Thank you, council member. I have additional questions. Yes, that's okay. For me or anybody else? For staff. Okay. Thank you, Trevor. Thank you. Um, I did have a clarifying question regarding some discussion about possible wetlands and I wanted clarification from staff whether state or federal regulators have identified any jurisdictional wetlands on the development for this property.

Based on the technical studies that are listed as part of the EIR, there were no um jurisdictional wetlands on site. Okay. Thank you. And also as a followup to that, although I have reviewed the documents just for clarification for those in the audience, if they should need clarification, can you explain um what was there before it was the pick and pull in 1966? Do we know?

Uh yeah, that's a that's a good question. um through my research through uh general plans and um you know different documents I didn't find anything except one document that was I think going back to the 60s which said it was a crop field um I think there's even pictures of it but between that and the pickupole I don't know if there was any other business beginning in the 1920s it was used for agricultural uses uh before that um it was part of we get the name Mauy from the landowner uh from the 19th century was origin Mauy. Um he had built a landing to uh bring goods across San Francisco.

Uh so it was a part before it was used for farming was a part of that uh origin Mauy's landing. I want Matthew. And of course history history doesn't start in the 1860s and 1870s either. [laughter] So there were you know history doesn't start there. You know had uses before that too but that brings us to about 150 years. Yeah. Thank you. I had a few more questions. Um just a few though. I did want to know if staff could also explain um if there would be any difference from what Mau Mary Village would do to clean up that would be any different from what Pick and Pole would be expected to do.

Yeah, it's a good question. Um before I ask um before I ask our um environmental consultant to to discuss that, I guess one difference would be that the the proposed project would be for residential homes. So, there's a different um standard um what's the word I'm looking for? Standard for for doing that um versus the cleanup just to clean up the toxins that were left behind as part of the project. But, um for more detail, yeah, thank you.

So, the way the county identifies potential cleanup levels is based upon the assigned to land use. And so because the existing general plan assigns it as residential, the cleanup uh exposure level would be clean to a residential standard regardless of whether uh this project moves forward or not. Now the uh ability for uh cleanup to actually take place obviously would be a little bit more feasible with an applicant doing that work versus it being voluntarily done and the site kind of sitting there in perpetuity. But great. Did that answer your question?

Yes, it did. I do have three more questions for staff um for clarification. Can staff also explain regarding an easement for emergencies how that easement would meet modern safety standards? Mhm.

And the easement that we're u discussing you mean the emergency access route that was shown as part of the presentation. Um that it'll be an agreement with Cargill property and it'll be an easement that will be between the city and Cargill. um for us to access Maui for basically any site on Maui really. Um the developer will be as part of this project developing a uh driveway that will connect the um ease the access road on Cargill to connect to basically the dead end of Maui. Um um going out there with our fire department and our police department um um brings um is the reason for asking for special emergency equipment as part of the um 1.3 million that I had mentioned during my PowerPoint. Um that is to provide um like a special truck and uh PD vehicles that could go through that road. But essentially, a vehicle can go through there um for emergency purposes um to get to the Mouri um site and or any site there, but it's it's not I I think if you're if you're trying to compare it to like a a regular road um a regular road or I'm sure the engineers could explain this better, but you know, has a certain amount of tonnage that is um that it's designed for that can, you know, hold um much bigger, larger uh fire trucks and so forth.

Thank you. Um I wanted to ask about the railroad crossing and whether this project would qualify for a potential quiet zone um and how that would be. Yeah. Um so the the quick answer is yes. Um, but if you want um a little bit more information about quiet zones and how those kind of operate, I would ask somebody from the public works department who is working on the city's behalf to um have the quiet zone designation for Newark railroad crossings. Um, and I think that's a that's in progress. Um, and so one of our engineers can explain that.

Good evening, mayor, honorable council members. Uh, yes. So, the uh project applicant is conditioned to construct safety improvements at this rail crossing, similar to um some of the other eight crossings that we're looking at doing um quiet zone applications for. Mhm. [clears throat]

Okay. Thank you. And it's also my understanding if you could actually clarify um what other improvements are we planning to make regarding the railroad to make sure that it's safe for pedestrians? Uh there aren't any other uh improvements beyond the safety improvements that we're talking about. There are several improvements along Mauy Avenue uh abuing on both sides of the railroad that are conditioned on this project. Mhm.

Just to provide um some additional um clarification to that is that there is the um uh connection of the sidewalks um like say on both sides there's of course the uh the crossing arm that's going to be um installed that has flashing lights on it. Um so those are just some of the and signage also. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Council member Jorgens. Um at this time I don't have any questions that staff hasn't answered to their greatest ability.

Thank you very much. I just have a few questions and um my first question is regarding the um uh art the mitigation uh that was identified in the final EIR. There were a number of um conditions that needed to be mitigated. Uh just again this is for those folks watching and that are here. who oversees those mitigation efforts to ensure that the mitigation that has been identified are actually implemented.

There are several mitigation measures and really it comes down to which department is responsible for the action. I um for example um well maybe you can kind of explain on that but can we pull can we pull up a chair? Yes,

it's my job. I do this for a living. Um, so the way that your mitigation measures work related to your entitlements and approval is there's actually a document called a mitigation monitoring and reporting program that identifies the specific resource consideration where the mitigation was derived from the responsible entity whether it be the city in most cases related to say a uh a permit approval or whether there's an outside regulatory agency that has oversight and it we actually provide the city with a tracking table which identifies the timeline and duration of when it will be executed and a signup off box for when it will be done. So there is a a mechanism and reporting and accountability that comes with it and that also gets codified as part of the conditions of approval.

Perfect. And Mr. Manoon, at at some point in the future when those mitigation measures have been satisfied, is that something that would then subsequently be reported back to the council? If not, could we suggest that that might occur either anformational memo of some sort that uh the Maui Village project had these items that were listed as needing mitigation? Uh staff has concluded that those measures have been met. I think that would be important for the council to know. Thank you. Um, so Art, if I understood you correctly, uh, this project, uh, and correct me if I'm wrong, could be built without any affordable housing units. Rather, the developer could have requested council approval by s simply paying the housing impact fee. Is that correct?

That's correct. [clears throat] That's the way our ordinance is. I think the uh developer hit the nail on the head when um they indicated that this council has been focused on affordability in our community and we this council have made it clear that we expect to see affordable units being built. So, you know, thank you to staff for ensuring that that u was included in this discussion. Uh Mr. Kulum, I have a question um regarding the affordability um units. Can we inquire with the housing authority of Alama County as to whether or not those units would be uh able to secure housing vouchers? Thank you for the question, Mr. Mayor. Um we certainly can inquire with the county about the availability of vouchers. Um at this time, um the county is in a funding shortfall for housing vouchers. Um but it is certainly possible that by the time those units come available but vouchers will be

perfect and that's what I would ask us to do Mr. Benoon is let's make inquiry with the housing authority and I know uh Mr. Grindall you represent the city on the housing authority boards and I know you share my view on uh on the importance of vouchers for those folks that are experiencing um income situations. So I would ask staff to I can certainly attest to what was called indicated.

Sorry. I can certainly attest to what he what he indicated. Um in fact there's a there's a program that was came out of the pandemic that is that was that is turn that is sunsetting and so the people who were were getting vouchers in that program are being prioritized for any new vouchers that come along to to avoid displacing people. So, so there's quite a backlog at this point, but but we are of course hopeful there'll be there'll be um vouchers in the future.

And I again I raised that as uh Mr. Turner knows and Mr. Bon knows that we were successful in securing housing vouchers for the um for the um u cedar cedar community apartments. And so I'm really appreciative of the housing authority for their uh uh participation in that process. Evan, uh, question for you, my friend. Uh, can you hide, you mentioned that there were several improvements that were made, uh, that were incorporated in the in the the project based on community input, and you may have covered those in your presentation, but just for those that are listening and those that are here because, uh, we, the council, made it real clear to the developer that they needed to engage the community. And I appreciate you doing that. It would be helpful if you could highlight maybe two or three of the items that you heard from the community that you said that's important for us to incorporate into the project.

Yes, sir. Thank you for the question, Mr. Mayor. Um the first was the base elevation, how how high we were and we voluntarily went through that process and rose the site up further out of flood plane guidance. That was a big one and that we made that one early. That's came at a substantial cost, but we felt it was necessary for the community. We made it all electric. that was based directly on community feedback and the affordable housing not only was staff but it was a lot a lot of the community actually saw saw your vision in that and so that was another change that we made. Excellent. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Those are my questions. I will now turn it over to you have another question Mr. uh Grindall.

Yes. Seeing Mr. Knap at the podium I have a a couple questions about the project. [clears throat] that they're pretty short, but I just want to indicate that in in in the uh um exceptions that were made, there's an indication that the the height limit goes up from from 35 to 38. I just want to be clear, we're not talking about a third story in any of these units. These are all twostory units. The homes themselves are twotory. Yes. The affordable building is

Yes. Yes. I was referring I was referring to story structure. And and and secondly, I noticed on um on some of the information that there's discussion about ADUs. Is are ADUs the same thing as the the MAX? Um yeah, those could be used as ADUs, too. We actually sort of thought that that would be a way for a homeowner themselves to mitigate their own personal affordable housing program or share in the rent, make it more affordable for themselves. So, Max's unit can actually become a lockoff unit if the city so desire or the homeowner so desires. It could have its own kitchenet. It could have its own separate access. So, it could it could

and that could be um ADUs could be a way for um to make these units more affordable to to people because the the renters could be helping to pay the mortgage essentially. Absolutely. So, it's a good way to get into that and then as as their incomes rose or or whatever happens, they could they could incorporate that in their family. Yeah. And if you cross cross reference that to the rent that we're getting getting or the rent that's prescribed on the low and very low income producing units, it's it's actually a pretty good subsidy to somebody's mortgage. So what what percentage of the units have ADUs? I believe that in the nine houses there are there is one model of each series that have that feature. Yeah.

And I think at the end of the day that helps our arena numbers, doesn't it, Miss Mr. Grindall? It does. It does. Why are we always so focused on what the state is telling us to do? Um, any other questions? Again, that doesn't prohibit you from asking follow-up questions based on comments and discussion that we have up here. So, I'm going to go ahead and close off the question portion of our discussion and now turn it over to comments. And I know the vice mayor's asked to go last, so I will start with No, I'm kidding. Vice Mayor's asked to go first. Vice Mayor, go ahead. put put the two-minute timer on the vice mayor, please.

So, I just want to start off by saying um a [clears throat] huge thank you to everybody came out and I think what was said by Precious really sums up everything. It's very important. This is a very difficult decision to make. Um as many people know, I'm all about numbers and we're looking at a $48 million project. That is Mucho Diero where I am from. So, um this has been a bit I've taken in a lot of the information. I've heard what the businesses have to say. Today I've heard what the contractors have had to say and I have finally be given a chance to speak. There are two main focuses that I have which is affordability and sustainability in housing and this project does not fit any of them. [clears throat] Affordable housing when I first I spoke with the company I as had to ask them five times to let me know how much this was going to cost. And when I asked them when they did their presentation it was oh well I'll answer that question. Oh well I did. It wasn't until I said, "Excuse me, this is the fifth time I'm asking you how much these houses going to start at." And I was meekishly told $1.7 million. If the starting rate is 1.7 million, this is looking a $2 million project. There is nothing affordable about this at all. So, what's going to happen is we're going to have two to three generations that are coming together, putting all their money together to purchase one home. So basically this is the reverse of what we want for affordable housing. Exactly what somebody said tonight. We're bringing in highlevel expensive homes for 2 million and more. So we need to focus on shifting it to higher density housing such as condos and town homes. With more of these houses, we're going to have more units, which is just what you were talking about with the ADUs. We're going to have more units by having more units. We'll have more by putting some $2 million homes. This is not going to fix the problem. And by the way it's set up. These are currently more expensive.

Honestly, $2 million is ridiculous for a house that is so far away from everything. Point number two, the sustainability factor of this. The presentation that we seen was all pretty and all looked nice and everything looked great, but there wasn't anything that really showed sustainable. This project actually does the opposite. As you can see, they're saying we're going to dig it up, put some more dirt in, stuff like that. That's not going to fix the problem because this area is a big part of the San Francisco Bay flood zone. It is going to flood. And the thing is, it is important, especially during the flood season and the high tides for Newark and Fremont. If you try to direct it and move it over and do all this and put some dirt and all that jazz, all you're going to do is just piss off mother nature cuz she has made a decision that this is her flood zone and this is the way she's going to go. So, what's going to happen? and you're going to have one big flood, one crazy rainfall, or one mega tide, AND THIS WHOLE area is going to go underwater. And all these families that have invested millions of dollars for these homes are now going to be homeless and penniless. Point number three, would you please, Ed, would you please pull up the picture that someone submitted for us?

Which the pictures that we were submitted? I did ask, do you remember the pictures I asked you to pull up for me, please? Oh, that.

Yes, please. Thank you. These were some pictures that were submitted by one of our residents while they were walking in January of 2023. Keep in mind this is a long time ago. Can you please pull those up for me? It's very important sees these pictures. Thank you. These are the pictures of the pick and pull in January of 2023. As you can clearly see, there is a gentleman on top of a freight truck trying to get out. So, unless these houses are going to include jet skis or boat rides to their homes, this does not make sense. This is a flooding zone. So, it's not a matter of if it's going to flood, it's a matter of when it's going to flood. Clearly, this is not safe or a sustainable situation. in any way. And I can guarantee you if families saw this. Can is there any more pictures for me? Could you show me any more pictures that were submitted? How about them apples? As we say in Texas, y'all, this doesn't make sense. Ah, goes to my next point. Thank you, Ed. You're so kind. Thank you so much. Okay, my next point is the about the lack of insurance. That was so that was brightly up. This project is a liability bomb ready to happen. When my personal home flooded in Houston with Hurricane Rita, it was just a couple of inches. And I wasn't even in a flood plane zone, a 100red-year flood plane zone, and it got an inch of water. It cost me several thousands of dollars just to fix this. And I and of course, the insurance didn't cover anything. This building area is right next to the water. Look at this, guys. It can't a picture represents a thousand words. Please take out your phones, take a

picture to make sure I'm not crazy. Okay. So, I'm going to tell you this is going to be a negative economic impact for the location of these homes and the inability for people to get their $2 million houses insured. Listen to what I just said. They will not get insurance when tide comes in and it's going to go wrong. The next thing I want to talk to you guys about is segregation. According to the city of Newark affordable housing code section 17.18.060 I said just like you do standard for the alternatives to payment of the housing impact fee subsection B3. It states that the quote affordable unit shall be dispersed throughout the residential development area. So when I read that I thought that the affordable housing would actually be housing sprinkled in through there and they would just be at a more affordable rate. But what are we doing? We're tucking them in the corner. We're giving them a little slice of it. And what's going to happen? Those affordable units are in the size of closets for affordability for homes. And they're smooshing them all in the corner together. And what was said tonight, 0.84 of an acres. We're putting 30 units. Everyone who knows that lives there is going to be known as the people that live in those houses. Which means this is going to call this is called segregation which by definition is the action or state of settling setting someone apart by others based on a difference and in this case this is a social class. By approving this project we are allowing a violation of this housing code allowing segregation in our community and this goes against the resolution to solidify our city's dedication and building an inclusive community. We are breaking our rule. We're breaking our codes. Next, lack of accessibility. This is not intergated in our city by any means. This is in Tumbuku. I almost like we're in Sol. This is wild. This doesn't make

any sense. And all this easy walk thing. I walk this three times a week. It takes at least 15 minutes walking to get somewhere. So, there is no accessibility. This is next. Next point is the train traffic and emergency response concerns. Even though it's been presented tonight, I am still concerned about this, about shutting down the time in case of a train stoppage. There is an enormous medical emergency. Every second is going to count. Having a time elapse from a vast of a majority medical emergency could result in a threat to health or safety. I can guarantee you if my father is having a heart attack and I call for an emergency and I see them and I have to wait and they have said that it's going to increase it by 15 minutes, this little backup ROUTE AND ALL THIS JAZZ ain't going to fly, folks. It's not a good idea. So, next thing I want to talk about is the magical bridge playground. Someone spoke in this meeting that there was going to be a magical bridge playground, a new and modernized playground for kids of all abilities. But a representative of this playground even came out to the builder's presentation that they gave me and talked to me about how the players will show and make make wonderful pictures. I was excited when they did this presentation. I wanted to see it. But when they actually showed me what they were going to do, they planned, they showed me in the picture, quote, "One swing, one slide, one bench, and two flower pots. [laughter] This is not what I was told." So once again, this is not correct. And as someone who teaches hospitality, recreation, and tourism in the department of the university, I was very disappointed to see that this was presented. So, I have a question real quickly and I want to ask the staff. Is this magical project a part of the entitlement of this project? Is this guaranteed this magic playground?

No. Mr. Turner, would you like to add to that? Uh, I think I made that clear when the issue came up that uh the I think it's $6.9 million. Um, Art, if you would correct me if on that dollar amount for the park [clears throat] uh fee. That's six. You did. You did. I just want to make it very clear this part this is this magical pro this magical bridge is not a part of the program right developer I think I said that

perfect no I know you did I know you did okay so basically what this is is become a red herring we're showing this great playground is going to be so wonderful and great but there is no guaranteed playground y'all I feel like I'm TAKING CRAZY PILLS THERE IS NO guaranteed playground and so I get an email this morning that's from on top of this whole red herring stint I get an email that's brought to my attention that the CEO and the founder of the magical bridge program has quote offered who speaks or emails for support of the Maui Village Project and request that the park fees be used to build the magical bridge playground that will receive complimentary medium donor status valued at 500 to 2,000 inside your future Newark Magic Bridge playground or another one of our local playgrounds. This is very and this is very distasteful. Despite that, I'm going to judge this project objectively, I am very disappointed on how they're doing business and paying for support. This goes against my ethics and my moral standards. Last but not least, I want to discuss the public opinion of the Newark residents. I had to figure out a way to reach out to all the Newark residents without saying an email, I'm excuse me, a letter to every one of the places for 78 cents. So, I posted it on social media and I said, "Let me know your feedback. please participate in the public hearing and submit the comments. But people left comments. In fact, 169 comments in two different posts. So, of course, I'm a number cruncher. I looked at it and over 80% of the people who posted on there are opposed to it. I repeat, 80% of the people who are posting on there. And when people post online, they're either really really for something or really really against something. One thing I did know is that the people who are in favor of it are in favor of more housing. not so much this project. And tonight I also crunched the numbers as everyone was talking. Tonight we had 25 people come out. We had 26 scheduled. Two people precious and Jason

were neutral and made their points. But 13% of the people, 56.52% said they were against it. But the people who were pro it were six individuals out of the 20. And those people that were pro it that were professionals were people that had either a contract or where it's going to make money. And the residents were 4%. Three of the four% of the people said that they were disappointed because they wanted more housing, not exactly this project. So if I was elected by the Newark citizens to represent them and 80% of them are saying they don't want it, then I cannot support this project. So I'm listening to you, Newark. I'm hearing you and you don't want it. So what's the conclusion of all this? It's an okay project, but it's in the wrong location. So here's what I'm saying. I'm saying no to the project, but not and I'm I'm not saying no to the project. I'm saying no to the location. But here's what I'm suggesting. Number one, we will work with the company to move it to another location, WAREHOUSE, THE MALL. MOVE IT TO THE MALL. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I'm saying? Just make sure and even the environmental groups will happily get involved to do this. Make it higher density. THOSE HOUSES, $2 MILLION houses aren't going to cut the cheese here. Okay. Number three, move it closer to the city and out of the flood zone for the safety of the people. move it to the other side of the railroad tracks to minimize problems with secure with with emergencies or things happening and also mix those 34 affordable units in with the rest of people to avoid segregation in our own city. Now, I understand if there's a more need for housing. I understand the city really wants the extra revenue because I'm from Texas. I love money. But the point is this is not morally and ethically correct. But at the end of the night, I have to make a difficult decision. So whenever I've had to make a difficult decision, I've always turned to a key leadership rule that I've always found me helped me with my past. If the decision I make tonight gets published in tomorrow's newspaper, will I be proud or will I be

embarrassed? This statement has helped me make a lot of very important decisions in my life that I can stand behind morally, ethically, and honestly, I can sleep better at night with the decisions that I'm making. So to conclude with what I have said with the evidence and facts that I have brought forth, I would like to end tonight with a quote from a very famous philosopher and Hollywood singer Megan Trainer. My name is no. My sign is no. My number is no. You need to let it go. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um

Thank you, Vice Mayor. And before I turn it over to you, Mr. Grindall, ladies and gentlemen, you know, the nice thing about the city council of Newark is we don't take and make decisions based on polling numbers. Um because I don't I notice I didn't ask anybody that came up and spoke where do you live? You know, so I don't know of the numbers that the vice mayor was counting were New York residents or not Newark residents because, you know, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter to me because we're making decisions that are going to impact our community. And whether you're a Newark resident or an interested citizen that wants to speak on an issue, you're welcome to be here because that, as I heard somebody mention earlier, that's the Newark way. Mhm.

You know, I'm not going to base my decision and I expect my colleagues not to base their decision based on the number of folks that are from Newark versus they're not from Newark. And I speak to a specific example that I dealt with uh prior to these folks taking the DAS when we the city were going to make a significant investment in one of our neighborhoods where we were going to invest millions of dollars to repave the street, put in sidewalk gutters and curbs. It was a fabulous project in an neighborhood that needed those improvements. We had, I believe it was like seven residents that showed up and spoke in opposition of the project because there was going to be a minimal impact to them financially in terms of a property assessment. Even though we indicated that the valuation of the properties were going to go up 34%. See, I remember all these numbers, they're going to go up 34%. and it was going to improve the overall quality of homes that probably during the housing crisis were probably in the neighborhood of $300 to $400,000 valuation, but at the time that we were doing the infrastructure improvement, those homes were worth at least $800,000. Add on top of that 34%. It was a fabulous project and we the city were investing in that project as was the water I think it was the water district. Correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Ben. Was it the water district? and and they've done those infrastructure improvements similar to what we see on Thornton Avenue, but they were going to come in and it was going to be just a beautiful neighborhood with a lot of infrastructure improvement and we the council because there were seven residents that thought, you know, this is going to be of an impact to me decided that they did not want to see that project in their neighborhood. Now, there's 196 people in that neighborhood. And if I had known that this was going to be a controversy as a council member, I would have knocked on every one of those doors, had a conversation with every one of those residents to explain to them the benefits that we, the city and the water

district were going to bring to their community. I didn't do that. Uh I relied on the city to do the marketing and and all that work. And and unfortunately for me, that worked uh that didn't work well. I had seven residents that showed up and said, "I I really don't like that." We did not pass that. And [clears throat] part of that was because we had seven people that showed up. The 190 189 other folks didn't show up. And for all I know, if I had talked to those folks, they would have been overwhelmingly in support of it. But, you know, that's the way democracy works. I had seven people that showed up said, "I don't support the project." And they actually lived in that neighborhood and the council decided not to support the project. Now, my intent in the future is to bring it back because I still think it is of value to that community. So, we and I I I'm sorry I can't speak for we will not base our decisions based on the number of people that are going to stand here cuz I wasn't keeping track. 27 people when whatever the number was madame clerk well shoot 23 said no, six said yes. I I don't need to be here if I'm going to base my decisions on the folks that take the time to show up. And you heard me say early on in my comments, shame on those folks that are not here, whether they support the project or not, because they have an opportunity to speak to it and we do want to listen. The vice mayor certainly listened and I appreciate her her thoughts on the subject. But my decision will not be based on a polling system whether it be online or here in the dis. It's going to be based on what I believe to be in the best interest of my community moving forward. And as the vice mayor said, I will wake up tomorrow uh with whatever decision I make feeling good for myself because I will do what I believe was the right thing for the community. Council member Gindal,

I don't have [clears throat] to go next. It's up to you to use the Oh, I can I'm sorry. Who would like to go next on comments? Uh, Council Member Dela Tonio.

Yes, your honor. Thank you. The Mauy Village project is 196 homes and 30 deeply needed affordable units with an on-site manager. That would be real homes for real people and not a housing impact fee. The affordable housing component was born from the continued communications with the developers and our community. Without this component, I would not even consider this project at all. But people who are current Newark homeowners theoretically could also bid on these homes and therefore could also open up their previous homes for the Newark market, which would vary in price and would keep people who want to be in our community in our community. As an educator who has grown up in this area, I know of those who travel over an hour to be here, even taking trains and different bikes just to be part of our newer community. The project can provide housing for those who are already part of our community due to the idea of incorporating a Newark local preference and those who need affordable housing and long to live in Newark, especially at a time where California does have a housing shortage. Tonight, we have the opportunity to transform an autorecking yard that's been there since 1966 into a place where Newark families continue to live, grow, and thrive. Or we could keep the site as is for 10 more years of continued temp contamination of a junkyard. The decision is about whether we take a meaningful step towards housing stability and dignity

because for far too long people who have grown up here or even work here have been pushed out and this project gives some hope for some of us to have a chance to stay. I do want to admit that I too actually started in an apartment in Newark. Then I moved to a smaller home. I was renting and then eventually I was able to buy. And as my family grew and we saved more money, then we were able to accommodate the changes in our family. And sometimes that incorporated having children and other times even having my father-in-law move in and other relatives. And I really believe in family and keeping people in Newark and part of the Newark family and community. This project also cleans up contaminated soil, raises the site for safety, and provides long-awaited infrastructure upgrades, widens streets, bike lanes, sidewalks, pedestrian access, and emergency access routes that do not exist today. It also brings forward inclusive residential space if we were to decide to use general funds towards an additional park or to change one of the parks that we have. The environmental concerns are not ignored and have been studied for years. With this project, we would also have long-term oversight, which is required, and the project actually could potentially improve what Newark has and not worsen what we have today. After four years of outreach, hundreds of comments, and multiple revisions, the question really becomes, is a future we're creating better than the one that exists today? And so, before I cast a vote, I do want to acknowledge all the residents who have come to contribute to this

conversation. And I also want to thank the New York youth from Newark Memorial, young adults, workers, and environmentalists who have also taken part in the process. As council, we must rely on certified environmental studies and engineering. And we did hear tonight that the land is not designated as wetlands. Historically, it was farming, and now it's currently an auto junkyard. In the end, this project does replace, if it were to pass, a contaminated autorecking yard. And plus, it could generate money for Newark by way of shopping, spending, and adding to our general funds that could be used towards anything that we decide to vote on. Based on this data, our policies, and the long-term benefits for New York families, I'm prepared to make a decision today. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Del Conacio. Council member Jorgens.

Yes. Uh, while there are a number of virtues on the project that I might want to extol and a number of concerns that may still be lingering in the back of my head at this time, I'm not uh prepared to make any comments on a project that's been so weighed down by false statements by the developer. I'm not prepared to, you know, have any comments at this time. Thank you for that, Council Member Grindall.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. [clears throat] Mayor. Um, all right. Um, first of all, there's been a lot of misinformation on on this project. Um, the um there this this this property is not wetlands. It's uh it's it was as indicated by council member Canansio. Um it was agricultural at some point. Um there is the the uh the pictures that were shown of of semis is not even pick and pole's property. it's the neighboring property and um and it's it's flooding. And it also does not it also does not um address the fact that there and and as consultants as our consultants indicated there's m there's mitigation measures namely um building up of the soil out to be well out of the out of the flood plane um to mitigate to mitigate flood risk. Um, we don't allow construction of of of residential in a flood zone. There's there that's not something that Newark has ever done. The um it is it is and by the way, flood zones are are based on flood are based on insurance maps um for flood insurance. So, if you're in a if you're in a 100red-year flood zone, you you well, you can't build in Newark. So, this project would have to and it was detailed by by staff. This project would have to raise the level of the of the of the ground to be out of to be safely out of any flood risk [clears throat] in including with projections of se of sea level rise which which which takes us which which puts in additional freeboard. Um this project um is is an excellent project and it provides it provides needed housing and significant community benefits. There's 9.5 million in impact fees that can be

used to support the city's infrastructure. It can including if the council decides um achieving an all an allabilities playground. I and I I personally I'm just one council member, but I strongly support um putting in an all-abilities playground, but in but in a location that's more central to our community um such as Bush Grove Park or Community Park. But this project provides the funding that we would need to to develop that project. Um, and this council member would be supportive of that. Um, this project would generate $200,000 a a year in revenue, more than it costs to um provide services to the area. Um and um and of course there's the $3 million that would be generated by um to the school district to use for whatever facilities are necessary as a school as a school district um deems appropriate. In addition, this project uh in addition to the to the to the impact fees that provide funding to um off-site improvements, transportation police facilities, fire facilities. Um they it also provides significant on-site improvements. The the rail crossing safety enhancements that will facilitate a quiet zone um are are very important. Maui ar Mauy Avenue would be completed with a modern modern roadway, curb, gutter, sidewalks. Um it would clean up a a a blighted site and without without litigation. We've seen we've seen the difficulty in trying to force property owners to comply. And in this case, there's a fiveacre portion that's not even covered by a by a time frame. And

we would be we'd be having to negotiate with them about an amvertising and and this would just absorb a huge amount in my opinion staff a huge amount of staff staff time and energy and cost. Um and if we if we don't prevail in the legal costs, we we and in the legal process, the cost could fall on the city. The city has a looming fiscal issue. Um the utility user tax will will expire in a few years and we should be very careful to consider quality development that adds revenue to the city. This project, even with very conservative estimates, would by itself represent replace 6% of the of the citywide utility user tax. We have to be careful in thinking about the fiscal health of our community. We have to we have to projects like this that create a that create a positive balance sheet along with and I agree with um my my colleagues along with improvements at the mall that could that could go further or go would go a long way to replacing those revenues without having to approve more taxes. We have an obligation to give every development a fair hearing and um and we need to vote based on whether or not the project complies with our objective regulations. [clears throat] The proposed community is consistent with our regulations and it will and it will enhance our community. Therefore, it's a therefore at an appropriate time, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to move the approval of the staff and the planning commission recommendation on this project.

Thank you, Council Member Gindal. We are not building enough housing in the Bay Area. The state of California through Reena has told every city you will build a certain number of homes by 2031. If you look at the total arena numbers just for the Bay Area, that number is roughly, and I'll ask staff to correct me if I'm wrong, roughly 485,000 homes between now and 2031. Our number here in the city of Newark is roughly 1875 that we have to build. The state is telling the cities enough is enough. Build the housing. And we heard the one gentleman tonight that said, "We need to build more housing because the more housing we build, and I heard this from the chamber, the more likely people are going to stay in our community." And what makes this project even more satisfying to me is the affordability component. I will not approve any development, and I think Council Member Cano said the same thing. I will not approve any development in my community that does not have an affordability component as part of the project. We need housing. I also love that this project is going to bring in affordable housing which has three bedrooms. If you're a mom and a dad raising two or three kids, you're not going to find any affordable housing that's going to meet your needs. This affordable housing complex provides threebedroom units. Uh it's unheard of. I've not heard of any community building affordable housing units with three bedrooms. But let me speak about the state for just a moment because I love when the state passes laws uh disregarding what's in the best interest of communities. And I and I've said that

for many many years, but the city the state adopted what's called the housing accountability act. And that act says, "Oh, by the way, cities, if the development complies with your general plan, it needs to be built. This project complies with our general plan. So, we can ignore the state and say, you know what, we're not going to build it even though it's compliant with our general plan." But the state says, you know what, we'll give you an out. If there is no feasible method to mitigate or avoid impacts on your community other than disapproving the project or requiring a lower density. Now, we did the FEIR and it came up with one significant environmental impact that we can't overcome which had to do with the U miles traveled. So, we can't make an argument in all honesty that doesn't support this project. And the state goes on to say, "Cities, by the way, if you decide not to approve these projects and you can't make a cogent argument as to its impacts, then by the way, you the city are going to be fined a minimum of $10,000 per unit." Okay? and and and legal fees. And that's always that big number that nobody ever knows until the end of the day. Let's play that out for a moment. We the council decides, you know, we're not going to approve this plan. So the developer being as smart as they are said, you know what? We're going to hire an attorney because we don't think the city did its due diligence. We're complying with the general plan. They can't make a cogent argument as to why this thing shouldn't be built. And they

sue us and they win. And then the city not only just has lost millions of dollars in terms of legal fees and fines, oh by the way, now feel free to build the project because that's what'll happen. If if we can't make an argument as to its impact or it's in non-conformance with our general plan, we better be approving the project or be going to be subject to some significant penalties. The last comment I by the way agreed with the com comments from council member Canonio and council member Grenal. I appreciate those comments. Um, I want to also add, uh, if this motion passes, I would ask my colleagues to incorporate the following language because I did have some concerns regarding the actual building of the units that are affordable because, and city attorney, correct me if I'm wrong, if you read it, they have to have these units completed by a certain period of time. and if they don't, they might be subject to additional uh fees that the city would be able to collect. So, I want in any resolution that supports this project to include the following language. Subsequently, the developer shall obtain the affordable housing building permit prior to the issuance of the 65th market rate building permit. If the developer has not commenced construction of the affordable housing component by the 75th market rate building permit, the city may either stop issuing additional market rate building permits or terminate the affordable housing agreement and collect the housing impact fee which Mr. Manoon I understand is roughly about $8.5 million.

That's correct. In addition, we can collect an additional $3.5 million. And they need to pay us, the city, that $12 million before the commence before they pull the permit. Is that correct, Mr. Bon? I believe it's I believe I believe it's pulling the permit of the affordable housing unit. Correct. Okay. So, $12 million will come to the city unless they comply with that. Mr. Kun, I did have a question. I'd ask for clarification. Uh it goes on to say that the developer's general contractors pro is to provide a completion guarantee. What does completion guarantee mean, please?

Thank you for the question, mayor. Um it was of great importance to staff that we have asurances that the affordable housing be delivered. And so in addition to the securities that you um spoke to with the 75th building permit, we included a guarantee such that um the city will be assured once the developer starts construction, it will be completed. So a guarantee is effectively a binding agreement um um that if the developer is unable to complete it or otherwise fails to complete it um the city will have um financial and legal resources to get the project done. and and uh to the developer, I I don't want you to believe for one moment that I believe that you're not going to build the affordable housing units. Uh we have an excellent relationship with Integral. We've had an excellent relationship with the builder. I have no reason to believe that those won't be built, but you can't continue to champion affordability. Uh if there's any indication that that's a possibility that they won't be built, I'm I'm fully uh confident that that will occur. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to leave my comment, my last comment, and it kind of goes back to the beginning of the meeting. The president of our chamber of commerce died last week. He appeared at the last council meeting speaking in favor of this project. He spoke at the planning commission in favor of the project. I actually asked city staff, can I just simply show his comments on the screen because he was so eloquent and it would be, you know, that's really the last thing he did relative to his public service was to stand here and say what, you know, we pulled the chamber and we unanimously support this project. And if you have the chance uh later, go back and watch the November 19th, 2025

planning commission meeting and listen to Mr. Cassidy. He had he had no financial benefit from this project. He spoke as a person responsible for ensuring the success of our chamber, ensuring the success of businesses here in the community. But I went back and listened to his uh statement and I'm going to summarize just briefly what he said. He said the board adopted a resolution to support the Mauy Village project unanimously. We're getting rid, he indicated, of the pick and pull site. And it was mentioned the FMC site. I remember the debate here when we talked about the FMC site and the decades of environmental impact that that facility created on the city of Newark. And now we have a beautiful development that sits there. We're getting rid of the pick and pull site. God knows. And I know you talked about the various chemicals and toxins that have migrated into the soil. That's all going to be cleaned up and we're going to make sure it gets cleaned up. And we're not even the agency that oversees to make it sure it gets cleaned up, but it's going to be cleaned up. We're He indicated we're going to be building new beautiful housing. And he said the number one issue of businesses in the community in Newark was the lack of housing. that people that work in the city of Newark are having to travel distances just to get to work. In fact, he cited his own example. I live in San Leandro. Takes me a half hour to get to Newark, you know. So, we need to build more housing to give people the opportunity to live in their community. He mentioned how it increase the oper operational cost of businesses, how it's hard to retain employees or even attract employees who don't want to have to travel. He talked about the environmental impact of all those cars on the road traveling

from wherever they're coming from to Newark to do work here and how difficult is it it is to expand business operations with a lack of employees. He says it's a smart infill development increase market rate housing and affordable housing. It helps reach our re Reena numbers and we're cleaning up a blighted property. He indicated in his close it's a huge difference for our community. So I'm going to leave it that colleagues that was our former missed and somebody that'll be missed our former president of the chamber of commerce and those were his comments in support of the project. And to make it clear, uh, I do support the project for all the reasons that I mentioned and those mentioned by my colleagues. So, Councilman Grenal, you've made the motion to, um, approve staff's recommendation. Is there anything further we need to include? [clears throat]

I just want to understand your amendment. Mayor, to Was there an amendment or were you just drawing attention to a to No, I want that to be included. Uh, I I'll look to the city attorney, city manager. Do I need to include that or because what? It it would be a revision to the terms of the affordable housing agreement as articulated by the mayor and my only request would be that if uh the motion includes that that it be um in a form approved by the city attorney. Okay. So it would be it would be an it would be a a change to the conditions. City attorney, can you repeat that? I missed it.

Yeah. The motion would be to um modify the provisions of the affordable housing agreement as articulated by the mayor and um as approved uh in a form uh in a form approved by the city attorney. So um I can handle that. Okay. You you don't have to repeat it. You say the motion. Yeah, absolutely. Um so um I'll make a motion. Um how much detail do I need to go into? Uh city attorney. Um, can I just say all nine resolutions? Do I should I read them? Uh, no, that's okay. I think you say u move the staff recommendation with the modifications as uh requested by the mayor and a form approved by the city attorney.

So, just like that. I I'm I'm going to move approval of the of the staff recommendation includes the planning commission recommendation as well. Um, with comments as as indicated by the mayor um and as uh as adjusted or corrected by the by the city attorney. That's my motion. Thank you, Councilman. Do I have a second? Yes.

Second by Council Member Delcontio. Uh, please vote. Everybody voted. That passes with three yeses, one no, and one abstension. So, that passes. Congratulations. Uh, we look forward to the development. We look forward to the affordable housing. I want to echo the vice mayor's comments. Thank you to everybody that was here tonight. You certainly heard with passion, support, and opposition to the project. So, we we debated it. We had conversation, and at the end of the day, that's how democracy works. We're going to take a 5-minute break. Mayor, I just need to read the ordinance real quick.

Yes, I'm sorry. uh an ordinance to the city council of the city of Newark amending the official zoning map established pursuing title 17 and section 170302O Newark zoning ordinance resoning reszoning in84 parcel from park to residential high density also reszoning a 28.26 acre parked residential lowlay district for the Mauy village subdivision project at 7400 7550 Maui Avenue. All right folks uh we have one more item on our agenda. It is currently 11:14. We're going to take 5 minutes.

getting back to order. The next item of business is um F1 way full reading and introduce the uh by only an ordinance adding chapter 12.36 art in public places and private development and an ordinance adding chapter 2.14 public art committee to the Newark municipal code and adopt resolution adopting the public art guidelines to implement chapter 12.36 public art and public places and private development. Mr. Benoon.

Yes. Good evening your honor and members of the council. Uh, if the council may recall, back on October 23rd, staff presented recommendations to introduce two ordinances that together would establish a public art committee and also update requirements for public art contributions associated with private development. After receiving the presentation, the council provided direction to city staff to make certain amendments and bring those forward at a future council meeting. Tonight, staff will be presenting revised ordinances that speak to the items raised by the council back in October. And with that in mind, I'm going to pass it over to recreation supervisor, Miss Justennia Tymani, who has a presentation for your consideration this evening. Miss Tymani, you have the floor.

Welcome. Check.

Honorable mayor and council members, thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight to share the public art master plan revised ordinances. As city manager Bon mentioned, we were here on October 23rd and presented proposed ordinance to city council to support the implementation of the city's updated public art master plan adopted in June of 2024. The presentation included two new chapters to the Newark Municipal Code. Chapter 12.36, Art and Public Places and Private Development, which establishes the updated requirements for public art contributions associated with private development. And chapter 2.14, public art committee, which establishes the structure, duties, and appointment process for a new advisory body to guide implementation of the program. At that meeting, city council considered the proposed ordinances and directed staff to return with revisions. I will be presenting those changes this evening. [snorts] Revisions to chapter 12.36 introduced greater flexibility for affordable housing. Previously, exemptions applied only to 100% affordable projects. The revised ordinance now provides exemptions for any portion of residential projects consisting of dwelling units that are restricted to very low, low, or moderate income households.

[snorts]

Revisions to chapter 2.14 focused around the Newark Memorial High School student rep and committee composition. Council previously raised concerns about requiring a high school student to serve a 4-year term under the original ordinance. In response, the revised structure designates the Newark Memorial High School student as an advisory non- voting member with a one-year term. Regarding committee composition, consideration was given to expanding the committee to seven members. Staff have observed in other committees that larger bodies can create scheduling challenges due to broader availability conflicts. This has at times resulted in difficulty reaching quorum and delays in conducting business. For these reasons, staff recommend maintaining a five-member voting body with a separate non- voting advisory student member as this structure is more manageable and supports consistent meeting attendance. Meeting frequency was also revised to reflect a minimum of two meetings per year rather than a maximum of one per month. This revised language supports the committee meeting more frequently than twice per year. also acknowledges it could potentially meet more than once per month in order to meet process time frames established in the proposed guidelines. As referenced in the ordinance, staff have developed the guidelines for art and public places and private development to accompany chapter 12.36. These guidelines explain when requirements apply, outline compliance options, and guide applicants through each step of the process. They are intended to ensure consistent and efficient review, support highquality artwork, promote public access and equity, clarify rules and definitions, and outline the appeals procedure. These guidelines are included as exhibit A in the staff report.

That concludes my presentation and staff recommends city council wave the full reading and introduce by title only a revised ordinance adding chapter 2.14 public art committee to title 2 of the Newark municipal code as well as wave a full reading and introduce by title only a revised ordinance adding chapter 12.36 art and public places and private development to title 12 of the new municipal code in addition to adopt a resolution approving the guidelines for implementation of the art and public places and private development ordinance. And that concludes my presentation and available for any questions if you have them.

Well, thank you for your presentation. Is there anybody from the public that would like to pose a question or have a comment on this item? Colleagues, questions, comments? Council member Grindall. Yes. Um, [clears throat] I just just wanted to note that the the one-year term for the for the New York Murray High School student um conceivably that the the student could apply again for another year, but it wouldn't be a full four-year term, but it wouldn't be a limitation. No, there wouldn't be any limits. So, I wanted to limit the high school if they start as a freshman. I hope [laughter] it's only a four-year limit. Yeah. If not, we

as an adult so they can if not we have a bigger problem. Yeah. [clears throat] Um, second, I'm I'm not sure I agree with staff about the um the number of of of commissioners. I might be more comfortable, and it just depends on the on the council's um feeling. It might I mean we might be more comfortable with a committee that was five to seven then then the mayor can decide if if if it if if he want if if if we want to have more representation if there's someone who's a who's who who brings a different aspect without having to go back and change the ordinance I I I would be more comfortable with allowing that flexibility but but uh but it's not a helmet of dion either.

No, I actually support that. um you know if we have significant interest in the community rather than uh limit us to the number of folks um I I I like the fact that we maybe create a range so that we have that opportunity. So I I would support that. I like that too. Is that what we do on our senior citizens advisory committee? We do actually though in the senior advisory committee we've actually reduced the number because it's difficult to get folks to want to participate but I think having a range gives us that flexibility. Okay. Other questions, comments? Council member Jorgens, I'm sorry. Yes. Um,

so question about the uh non- voting student member. I guess more generally, how are we letting the community know about um this opportunity that they could apply for it? And more specifically with the non- voting member, how are you know, they I don't know how many high schoolers are following, for example, our social media pages. Um how how are we uh doing the outreach to make sure that we're getting a good pool of applicants for that specific role? and then more broadly uh the committee as a whole.

Yeah. Um we'll definitely be working with Colleen Latir, our communications um engagement manager and working closely with the high school staff. Having a presence on that campus is going to be crucial to get the word out. Um the great thing with our department is we have really great relationships with a lot of the staff there. So really having um our presence on campus to really overcommunicate and really publicize this opportunity. All right.

And and to that end, uh I was over at the high school just recently and and they're very active in the art program over there. They're painting some new murals on some of the walls over there. So I think it's a real captive audience we might be able to tap into. Council Kanchio.

Yes, Shorer. Thank you. Um, I would like to suggest that we only have um the ability of a student to re reapply if there's no other students that are waiting or also on the applicant list only because we have so many students uh at the campus. It would be great for more students to have an experience rather than the same student technically or theoretically for four years.

Yeah, thank you for that comment. Any other comments? Have we received uh interest from the community knowing that this was coming, that we were going to be looking to create a committee? Have you already received some input from folks that said, "I'd like to be on the committee if and when the time comes." Um, there has been some chatter. I mentioned previously at the senior center. There's talk about it. Um, we are connected with a lot of people in our community and there is a artist who said she would be more than excited to be able to serve on this. So, there is some excitement and I think we'll great get a great pool of candidates for sure.

Well, thank you for bringing this forward. I know that this has been a long-standing issue that the council's been u uh interested in following. What What are the next steps as far as you can predict moving forward? uh we would work closely with the city clerk to open the application process and um start getting those received and then yeah I think that's so colleagues that's where we can be instrumental is in making sure that we're talking to our community whether it be through our social media sites or whatever the case may be to let them know that this opportunity is available and get folks that love art and love to see art around the community because that's what we're talking about art around the community to get them engaged and and see if we can't get them to participate. Um, this is an act.

Just I'm sorry. Just technically there's a second reading first, right? Yes. Thank you for that correction. Okay. So, we need to make a motion and move this forward. Um, make a motion in a second. I am move this item second with excitement. Matthew Jorgens, Council Member Jorgens is moving this forward. The vice mayor seconded. Please clarify my question. That includes that includes the range of 507. Yes. I will I will accept that

just a legal clarification. So I mean because uh this is a Brown Act body you have to have a set quorum and so the range is difficult because you have a moving number. Um and so I think the options for the council are to start at five start at seven or some other number in between or you could do five members with two alternates and if you don't fill the alternates then that's okay too. Um um but the alternates are there. They can participate, but they're not necessarily voting members. And then if an vacancy occurs, the um mayor has the ability to appoint that alternate into a permanent position. Um that's certainly something other cities do. So that might be an alternative is great.

Five members, two alternates. I I I'll agree to that suggestion. So if the motion of the maker could agree that we're looking at five members and then two alternates and those alternates would move up if and when uh the need the need arises and they certainly can participate in the discussion. They simply won't be a voting member. Um, yes. I'm I'm happy to accept that amendment. Great. Thank you. Please vote. Oh, I didn't even vote. [laughter] Yeah,

I vote. Yes. So, that's 5. Perfect. Thank you. It's late. Ordinance of the city council of the city of New York adding chapter 2.14 public art committee to the New York municipal co municipal code. an ordinance of the city council of the city of New York adding chapter 12.36 public art and public places and private development to the New York Municipal Code. Great. Um, city manager, your updates?

Yes. Um, not too many updates for the council and the community this evening. Uh, but I do have a few. Uh, the first one is Oh, I'll wait for the PowerPoint. Next slide, please. Uh the first update is that on uh Saturday, December 20th from 400 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. um our Alama County Fire Department is hosting Santa at the Firehouse. Uh this is located at Fire Station 28. That's the one on Thornton Avenue. Uh the website is listed there uh there on the screen. Uh this is a free event uh open to all community members. Um we encourage uh everyone to bring their entire family and friends to attend and join in the holiday spirit. Uh Alama County Fire Department will be collecting toy donations uh for the toy program and that will support Newark based organizations uh making a difference in our community. Again, that's Saturday, December 20th. Santa Claus, I believe, is making an appearance. At this point, I am not certain if the Grinch will also appear. Do we? Huh? Not confirmed. Potential sighting of the Grinch uh as well.

He was not suggesting that you're the Grinch. [laughter]

Uh emphasizing potential uh uh attendance of the Grinch. So, uh that's the first announcement. Second announcement is that we will have uh some closures of city facilities as a result of the winter furlow. Uh city offices will be closed beginning Wednesday, December four uh 24th and will reopen on Monday, January 5th. This this includes our city hall, our senior center, child care center, and service center. Uh the Newark Police Department administrative offices will be closed December 24th and 25th, as well as December 31st and January 1st. Of course, uh police officers will be working and will be able to address any emergencies that arise during that time period. Uh the community center, excuse me, Silamon Community Activity Center will also be closed on those same dates, December 24th through 25th and January uh excuse me, December 31st to January 1st. And on behalf of all city staff, we wish our community an enjoyable and uh festive holiday season. That concludes our announcements this evening.

Thank you, Mr. Benoon. U comments. I'll start my far left. Council member Kanchio.

Yes. Thank you, your honor. Uh, I was able to attend the tree whiting for Newark and I remember in the past it only had about 20 members a long time ago and now it's well over swell well over five times that amount. This past weekend I was a bell ringer for the Newark's Salvation Army which was in front of Safeway. So remember if you are shopping um you're always able to donate if you would like. There's also a QR code out there as well. Uh, additionally, uh, Viola BLE is still collecting donations for toys, and I was able to go to the chamber, uh, mixer that was over this last week, and they were collecting toys there as well.

And I will also definitely miss um, Stephen Cassidy. um but he did a wonderful event and he put on not only wonderful event for Newark but also he's very dedicated um to our Newark community. So I know that those are going to be very large shoes to fill for the next person. Um additionally I did attend the ribbon cutting at the Chavez market and so I just would like to also say um happy holidays to everyone and to remember to shop Newark. Thank you. Council member Jorgens.

Yes. Uh thank you. Um so this is our uh last council meeting of 2025. Our next meeting will be in 2026. Uh 2026 is an important year for the city of Newark. Um the town of Newark before we were a city was founded in 1876. So we're 150 years of uh of Newark. He's g me playing trivia. So, I'll be uh you know, over the course of the next year, I'll be working to celebrate that and we'll be sharing some New York history. So, be on the lookout for that. I think Mayor Ngi was around uh at [laughter] He's not watching. [laughter] He knows over there.

He knows when you're away. Council member Grenell.

Uh, [clears throat] I want to I want to second the comments of the mayor earlier and also Council Member Canansio just now um about um about Steven Cassidy um such a such an a powerful force in our community. He just embraced it in 6 months. He really got the got the chamber restarted. It's a huge loss for Newark and of course for his family and um really wish the best um heart goes out to the to his family. Um the um and and lastly um because I have some other things of substance but I think I'll I'll wait till 2026. Um the um lastly I'll um I just want to say happy holidays to everyone and second council member Canio shop Newark. Vice Mayor Little

no comment. Thank you. Um, I want to uh advise our residents that this Saturday the Newark Symphonic Winds is going to be performing their Christmas concert at the Newark High School. It will begin at 7:00. Our esteemed former former vice uh mayor uh mayor David Smith will be reciting um the night before Christmas and uh I understand Santa and Mrs. Claus will make an appearance. Uh it's a great event. It's only about an hour and 15 20 minutes. Our uh esteemed colleague, Council Member Jorgens, will be there. I will. And playing his instrument. So well, so I certainly And that's by the way, that's a free event.

That is true.

You know, we do all these free events. No wonder we're not making any money around this city. Um I I I support my colleagues in terms of wishing everybody a safe and happy uh holiday season. The next item on the agenda is my appointment or the appointment of the vice mayor and adopt a resolution authorizing the execution of the financial documents. We rotate the vice mayor. I want to thank vice mayor little for her first year in office being the vice mayor. I think you did a fabulous job. You bring a lot of passion to the job and we certainly appreciate that. Uh you've done a lot of fine work for the youth and the seniors in our community and I want to certainly give you credit for that. I didn't have an opportunity to let you run the council meeting yet. Um,

I'm okay with that. And you're okay with that? So, ladies and gentlemen, I'm recommending that um, Council Member Matthew Jorgens be the vice mayor during the 2026 season. Any discussion? If not, can I get a motion in a second? I'll move I'll move approval of Vice Mayor of that Vice Mayor Jorgens be appointed. I'll second. Okay. Motion in a second. Please vote. not counted unanimously. I should have abstained. [laughter] No, I'm just kidding. I should have voted no.

Um, ladies and gentlemen, we also uh sent out a resolution um for the appointments. In essence, all the appointments are going to stay the same. I know the vice mayor brought an issue to my attention regarding the Tri City Elder Coalition, which no longer meets, so that takes care of that. Um, no, no, you were not. So, um, uh, the assignments will stay the same. I appreciate all your efforts on those assignments. Um, you're representing our city and your voice is important to make sure that we, the city of Newark, are getting our fair share of those dollars that are out there, uh, at the state and federal level. So, thank you for that. May I get a motion and a second to approve those uh appointments? So moved by council member Jorgens. Second

by member Canio. Please vote

and that passes unanimously. Thank you very much. And last, um, we have an opportunity, and I'll limit discussion on this to no more than five minutes per council member. We have the opportunity to appoint Mr. John Becker back to the planning commission for a 4-year term. Uh, in all honesty, John Becker has served this community really well, and we're really proud of John and his family for all of his commitments, not just on the planning commission, but what he does with Viola BLE and every other opportunity he has to assist. whether it be New York Rotary, John's been a real um civic lead in our community and no hesitation reappointing and suggesting that we appoint reappoint John Becker to the planning commission.

That's a motion by the vice mayor Little. I second by Council Grindall. I voted yes. I voted yes. I think we all voted yes. That's 5. Let the record John's going to look at this. Wait, [laughter] vote. Um, yes, but it I I attempted to.

I I'll be honest with you, I didn't. So, but [laughter] I intended to. So, that passes unanimously 5-0. There is no close session. Uh, thank God. Uh, just a reminder, we're going to adjourn the meeting in memory of Stephen Cassidy. uh keep his family and his daughters in your you know is short and uh Stephen made as mentioned a real commitment to community and uh hopefully you know we'll remember him for a long time for his contributions. So with that being said please have a happy holiday and thank you