City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening and welcome to your Pleasanton City Council meeting. Today is Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025 at 7 o'clock p.m. We'll call this meeting to order. And if I can have our vice mayor lead us in the pledge. Please rise if you are able. Begin. I pledge algiance 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. Thank you very much. Can we go ahead and have roll call, please? Council members, present. Gatos, present. Nurt here. Ta here.

Mayor Balch present.

Thank you. We definitely have a little bit of a hot mic, so uh we'll work through that. Uh I have a few announcements I'd like to go over at the beginning of the meeting if I may. So the first is uh for our community and public to know that the council is continuing to transition to electronic agendas and voting. So we have how we vote in front of us here. We're going to be trying to do this. We have to convert by the end of the year. So uh we're on our way. Secondly, I wanted to mention to our community the water rate postcard that went out to many of our community members. Uh let's just say I've heard some feedback on how we might have been able to communicate slightly better. But that being said, I'd like to direct our community to the website. The main city website has a link to the water rates and water information and all of the reports that we use to set that process. It's very detailed. So, uh, and very informative and you can put in your specific information to look at the water rate calculator. So, just trying to direct our community to that. On, uh, going to the positive notes of Pleasanton, our Pleasanton Hawks 8U football team, uh, this season, boys, made history in their league, finishing as undefeated champions. Dedication to sportsmanship, hard work was demonstrated, and the parents and the community are incredibly proud. Next few of these I'm sorry tonight. Cleanest city uh as people may have heard or community may have heard in 2025 national survey by Lawnstarter ranked Pleasanton as the cleanest city in California. The survey uh evaluated cities on pollution living conditions waste infrastructure overall resident satisfaction. President's strong performance across these measures reflects the city's continued commitment to a clean, safe, healthy community. The commitment of our city staff doing this work and our residents and the pride and they have in our community. To that end, uh I'd like to highlight two more

things. The downtown beautifification is underway. Big thanks to the Pleasanton Art League as well as the Pleasanton Downtown Association for their painting of the vacant storefronts along Main Street for the holiday spirit right in time for Small Business Saturday. And then I'll round out to say hometown holidays is this Saturday. It's our parade uh December 6 starting at 5:00 pm and it will be followed by the tree lighting at approximately 6:45 p.m. Uh definitely one of Pleasanton's main events and it will occur rain or shine and we do hope to see you there. With that, we're going to agenda amendments. Does staff have any agenda amendments? Thank you, mayor. No changes this evening.

Okay. Do any of my fellow council members have any agenda amendments at this time? No. Okay. Seeing none, the the agenda will go as posted. So, we'll be moving on. We're going to move to now consent calendar. Items listed on the consent calendar are considered routine in nature and may be enacted by one motion. If discussion is required, that particular item may be pulled and considered separately. Consent uh consists of items one through five. Do we have any clarifying questions by my fellow council members on consent?

No. Okay. I have no public comment on consent. If anyone would like to speak on the consent calendar, any item one through five at this time, please turn in a blue speaker card and approach the podium. Seeing none, we'll bring it back to the council for action. I'll move to approve the consent calendar. I'll second. We have a motion made and seconded. We're going to plug it into this electronic system. You think?

Did everyone vote? The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you very much. And to our Winding Oaks community, that is uh completes that item for you. So, thank you very much. Okay, moving right along. We're going to go to meeting open to the public. This is public comment on RMS that are not listed in the agenda. I'd like to read a little bit related to this if I may. Uh this is an opportunity for members of the public to address the city council on any matters that are within the council's subject matter jurisdiction but are not listed on the agenda. If you wish to speak on a matter that is on the agenda, please reserve your comments for when we get to that item. If you wish to speak at this time, please fill out a blue speaker card and turn them into the city clerk and then it can come forward before us. Uh if we've missed one, he can speak at at this time. Okay. Uh so I ask that our community members be respectful and help maintain decorum. Speakers may have different opinions and we want to hear all perspectives and viewpoints. To that end, please no clapping, booing, or other disturbances. If you'd like to show support or agreement with what the speaker is saying, please simply write raise your hand and we want to understand that support. Also, please know that this is your time to be heard. If you do ask questions, those won't necessarily be answered unless taken up by a council member after the conclusion of your allotted time or after all public comment is heard. And I believe this is your card coming to me now. So, welcome and we'll start you off. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, esteemed city council and residents. My name is Rashad Pravine, and today I would like to talk about an issue that I've seen in our city that I don't think a lot of people talk about, homelessness. Over the past four months, I've spent an extensive time in Pleasanton's downtown. I've walked around town. I've walked from my house, which is in near Mirwood Park, all the way over to Pete's Coffee and is a regular walk. I've walked around downtown for five, six hours almost every day when I in the summer studying, working on other things. And I've seen the always when in my seven eight years being living here in Pleasanton a place where everyone prospers. However, one evening me and my friend we finish up a mocktra session at Pete's coffee. We walk out. We go outside of the pet the Pete's coffee area. And while we're sitting there, we see two ladies sitting next to us. They're enjoying they're having a nice time. It's about 7:00 p.m. in the evening. They're eating pizza. And a man, he looks tired. He looks famished. He straggles over to them and he asks them for a piece of pizza. And to me, I'd always seen Pleasanton to be somewhere, you know, we we're a rich town. We're pretty prosperous. And that really opened my eyes. And as I've walked around the town more and more, I've seen this happen more. Recently, on the day before my SAT in October, I I was walking from my house all to the Pete's Coffee and I was walking past the 7-Eleven across from the Lies. There I I see a homeless man looking through the trash at the 7-Eleven, and I see it, and I'm just I'm just shocked. And I continue to walk down that exact same road. I I'm walking down Hopyard and there's a bus station on the side. And as I see the bus station, there's a lady in inside the bus station. She has a shopping cart with a tarp over it. And she looks hungry. She looks famished. It doesn't seem like she has shelter. And the more and more I've walked around Pleasanton, the more and more I've seen these in incidents. In 2024, a point in time did a survey, a census across Pleasanton showing how how many homeless people or unsheltered people we had. They accounted 70 people. But over the

past four months, I can tell you I've seen this countless times. At least over 50. If I've seen this over 50 myself, I wonder to myself, how many of those are not on the census? And I know Mr. Aker, you've worked with the city outre homeless outreach program. This is clearly an issue. I've talked to my friends who volunteered at local food banks such as, you know, Tri Open Hearts Kitchen and uh Tri Tri Valley Haven, and they've seen that the people that come per hour aren't matching the people that are out in our streets. And I think our city with this much prosper and this much wealth has to make sure that every single person is is not left hungry and has a food has food and a place to sleep at night. And I think that instead of having these banks go out there, our city should bring the people to the banks instead of the bank. Sorry, our people should have the banks come to the people instead of the people coming to the banks. I I'd like to bring more awareness to this issue. So, I have a whole plan and proposal, but I just like to put that out there now. And I think that our city doesn't see how much of an issue this is. I've noticed this walking around. And thank you so much for your time today.

Thank you very much. I'd like to ask our staff to um just give an overview of our ARU and our outreach team because I think it's important to say that um this is not something that goes un um unressed and there's a lot of compassion that goes with it.

Yeah, thank you for the comments and thank you for the opportunity. I'll be really brief. Uh we do uh have uh a really good sense of who is in our community, who needs help, and we often offer uh you know, we're out there with an alternative response unit offering help directly. And if you'd like to uh have some time, uh I'd be happy to meet with you and talk. uh our police chief and our police department also does a lot of work uh around human services and that sort of um not just not just offering services but we also have clinicians that are part of the city's program to be able to help uh with mental health and other issues that might be uh impacting folks who are who are unhoused in the community. Uh I'll wrap it up there. Uh this is a this is an issue that the city has invested in both with our nonprofit partners and directly.

Thank you, Mr. I'd like to add that there is a new program for um unhoused resources that will be starting soon and we're looking for volunteers. So, I'd love to get your contact information and we'll get you busy. Of course. Is there any way I can maybe give a post to her? Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Okay. Thank you. All right. Our next speaker is uh David uh Jago followed by Romesh Amadi followed by Ellie. So, David, welcome. Oh, you wrote Dave on this. Sorry about that.

Good evening, council members and staff. My name is Dave Jgo, and I'm a 24-year resident of Pleasanton and currently serving roles as Amadore Valley athletic booster president and Pleasanton planning commissioner, voicing my personal views on a recent planning application outcome. In my planning commission role, I heard the application for allowing lighting at a resident's tennis court that had a modified PUD approval with a lot of history behind it. I was able to study the full history of the application along with hearing an expertly presented argument with extensive lighting studies and design landscape features to aid in diminishing the glare and also agreeing to a curfew. The only opposition came from the adjacent neighbor who currently has a threec car three garage carriage lights facing the applicant's rear yard that are on most of the night. The largest key bit of data was the applicant could build light poles at 8 foot high without any restrictions or approvals needed. But anyone who has played tennis realizes this doesn't work because of the lights face more horizontal and blind the players. But in this case, more importantly, project directly into the neighbor's yard. The applicant was asking for 15oot poles with lights that are baffled and projected down directly to the court to minimize any light spillage off the court surface which would be considerably more favorable to all parties. With all the research data, the planning department's full endorsement and a unanous unanimous planning commission vote. I was proud to finally complete the long process. Or so I thought. When I read in the Pleasanton Weekly that this council overturned our vote with a 3-2 vote, I was blown away. Not only for the applicant who has endured a struggle to finally get approvals, but more process. How certain members of this council could disregard the approval of the planning department and council brings into question why do we even have a planning commission at this point? The commission already has little to no

impact in the overall shaping of policy of the city, but we are supposed to be the authority on actual planning applications. If we can do our job and then be easily overruled by this council without regard, it is my time being wasted as a council member. In the future, I hope that those council members who feel the need to disregard the planning commission think about what their role is and maybe leave some authority to those whose job it is supposed to be. I was told the applicant's only remaining option is to sue the city and I would champion their efforts if needed to rectify this decision. Thank you for your consideration. Okay, thank you very much. Uh Romesh Amadi followed by Ellie.

Good evening.

Good evening uh Mayor Jack Bal and council members and city manager and the staff. My name is Romesh I Shimari and I manage the youth cricket program uh in the community and uh this year we were celebrating the 8th annual Thanksgiving tournament and uh I want to say big thanks to the staff for keeping the fields open and this year we had the largest ever tournament with 28 teams with 500 youth players coming across the US and having the fun for last four days and we had the largest viewership in terms of the online streaming. We had 20,000 people watching the games last four days and we had 500 people attending the closing ceremony on Sunday at 45° temperature. So that shows how much of community support we have and I want to say thank you to each of you for supporting the program for last eight years. And I want to say thank you to the city staff for keeping the grounds open. And I also want to thank the co-sponsored user groups. They shared the field for practice sessions for the kids to practice in preparation for the games. And uh I want to say thank you and hope the continued support from the staff and the councils. Thank you. Thank you very much and thank you what for what you're doing there. Uh Ellie the O senior elf is what the handwriting says here. Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm here again in Pleasanton this year with Santa and the misses who will be appearing uh ahead of the parade. uh you will see them of course on on one of your your floats uh at the parade. But in advance of that, the Pleasanton Downtown Association has created a magical holiday evening to kick things off in the city of Pleasanton and to encourage people to use our beautiful little downtown. Uh we're going to have free photos again with Santa and the misses and I'll probably be around as well. Uh this year they've added a Christmas market with more than 30 vendors. There are arts and crafts tables and there'll be ornament decorating. There's a hot cocoa bar. There's going to be a live holiday band and a snow machines if we can't get the real stuff, a toy drive and a scavenger hunt. We'd like to encourage all of our community to come down on the Friday before 4 o'clock in the afternoon. will be set up for photos uh behind the uh museum on Maine and would like to thank the city for all of its support in allowing the PDA to work with the merchants and with the the people of the city to create this wonderful event and get our holiday season kicked off in fine style. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Outstanding. Okay, that's my last speaker card for item number six. Matters not on the agenda. If anyone else would like to speak on any item not on the agenda, please approach the podium at this time. Seeing none, we'll close public comment and we're going to proceed on with the agenda. So now we're going to move to public hearings and other matters. Item number seven is the first one. Introduction of a proposed M uh memor uh excuse memorandum of understanding between the city of Pleasanton and the Pleasanton City Employees Association AFS CME local 955 with term ending March 31st, 2028. Uh maybe just before I hand this off, I just want to mention that the city of Pleasanton does a two-step process related to its labor contracts. This is step one, daylighting the contract for our community. So with that, city manager, if I can hand it off to you.

Thank you, mayor. I'm going to hand it very quickly off to our human relation human resources and labor relations director, Xavier Scoggins, as well as Tim Davis. Um, and we'll get the presentation going. Thank you.

Welcome.

Good evening, Mayor Bos, and council. I'm here to introduce uh the proposed memorandum of understanding between the city of Pleasanton and the Pleasanton City employees association ask me local 955. I have with me this evening Tim Timothy Davis from Burke Williams and Sorenson's law group. We will be presenting um the terms of the agreement. Uh good evening, council. Um as Miss Kagan said, we are very pleased uh to present to you um the first step uh in a two-step process of a new uh three-year uh agreement uh with the city's largest uh labor organization. Uh so uh PCA represents uh 204 uh people across 63 uh classifications. Again, this is a three-year uh that expires um uh that expired May 31, 2025. Uh it will uh the bargaining process itself um uh took time as normal. uh it was uh 11 meetings uh over a several month uh period. Uh finally in November uh we reached a total tenative agreement for a successor and on November 20th uh it was ratified overwhelmingly uh by the union membership. So the uh principal terms uh of the agreement uh first year was a 0% general salary increase uh followed by in year two uh a 3% salary increase in year three also a 3% salary increase um a new

benefit uh was provided to theou for longevity pay uh that le long longevity pay uh starts at 10 years of service. uh in the second year it's uh $1,000 uh per year and then in uh the second year that goes up to 1,100. Uh in addition uh to address some recruitment and retention issues uh for police dispatch uh there was an additional uh 2 and a.5% uh certification pay uh for intermediate and one also uh for uh advanced uh as well uh also at 2 and a.5%. Uh the rest of the terms uh included uh an increase in bilingual pay uh from $50 to 100. Uh it also and uh reflected an increase in boot allowance uh which had not been increased in many years. Uh and so that amount went from 170 to 275. uh standby pay uh addressing some of the important uh classifications in our utilities area was also increased from 20 uh to 25 hours. Uh also helping utilities but also uh other classifications was an increase in callback pay uh when emergencies happen throughout the city. uh these folks are on call and available and come forward and answer the call and recognizing that many of them do this for an extended period of time uh that amount was increased from two hours uh to four hours in terms of a minimum call back pay. Um the next steps u as the mayor mentioned step one is to uh daylight these terms uh and introduce them uh to the public and then with step two uh on

December 16th meeting uh we hope to have uh your final approval um and for this next three-year contract and certainly if there's any questions uh we're happy to answer them. Okay, thank you very much. Uh so with that we'll go for questions. Uh the order is council member Tessa starting us off. Any clarifying questions of staff? No. No questions. Okay. Council member Iker.

Uh I think the contract's pretty straightforward, but I uh I do want to uh ask a question about how how does this uh contract affect our current budget? So um with under the advisement of the finance director, we will be um amending the the budget term this next goround in 2026. So um we do have an assumption of the 3% increase and the other ancillary um benefits that are received. We will make adjustments and come forward to council. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Council member Gatos. Uh no clarifying questions. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Also, no clarifying questions. Okay. Thank you very much. I have none myself. We'll go to public comment. Again, the purpose of the two-step process is to daylight it and to receive any public comments related to the contract. So, I have no speaker cards. If anyone in the audience would like to speak on item number seven, please go ahead and step forward and approach the podium at this time. Seeing none, we'll close public comment and bring it back to the council. This is for just reminding my fellow council members, obtain public input and receive comments on it, but it is not uh to be voted on today. That will be at the next meeting. So, uh same order. Council member Tessa, any comments before we move on?

Just that um I'm really glad that we've got a contract that everyone is pleased with and that we know is fair to our hardworking employees. So, thank you. Okay, Council Member Aker. I also wanted to acknowledge the hard work the PCA representatives and human resources put into this negotiation process and effort to come up with an agreement that uh allows us to address our budget concerns while keeping compensation aligned with the current market rate. So, thank you both very much. Okay, Council Member Gatos, I'll just echo the sentiments of my other council, um, Miss Scoggins and Tim. Sorry, I didn't use your last name, but

it's okay. Tim's a good name. Uh, just excellent job leading us through the way and to the city manager and everybody else. I think this was a a great resolution. So, thank you, Vice Mayor. I also would simply like to offer my thanks to both the union membership and leaders uh for negotiating and our staff representatives, Director Scoggins and Mr. Davis. Appreciate all your effort on this.

Okay. And again, I'll just maybe uh echo everything you said before for my fellow council members. Uh I appreciate the fact that we've reached a fair contract. 11 times meeting is not a small amount. I'm sure that was difficult and arduous at times. Um and how you maintain morale through that is not easy as well. So, uh I look forward to having us vote on this at the next meeting. Um, but I truly appreciate the high level of dedication that these employees provide to our city. As I touted at the very beginning of the meeting, we have just been uh recognized as the cleanest city in California. And that is a significant uh attribute to this group as well as the public safety support and the public works support that they provide our community and our residents. Uh, many times unseen uh and and known um known by us. So truly appreciate it. All right, with that, that concludes item number seven. Thank you very much for coming down to present that. And we'll be moving

Thank you, Mayor Council.

Yep. Uh thank you. We'll be moving on to number eight. Item number eight. Uh I'll read it out here a little bit. I might abbreviate introduce an ordinance amending chapter 18 uh zoning and the Pleasanton Municipal Code PMC and the finding that such amendments are exempt from uh SQA under guideline section 15061B3 common sense exemptions and amending chapters and there's quite a few number here but all within 18 of the PMC to implement uh modifications to design view, noticing, appeals, and other process streamlining and rescend city council resolution 91123 as filed under case number P25 0352. Welcome and great to see you, Miss Campbell.

Great.

If I could just before we we turn it over, um I just uh there's not really a great opportunity for me to do things like this in our regular council meeting. Um, but we have our new uh assistant director of community development and planning manager, Derek Farmer, here this evening. Uh, and I just wanted to briefly introduce Derek at the start of this item. We've got a couple of community development items and he's going to be uh in for the duration. Uh, and just want to say welcome to Derek. He brings almost 30 years of experience in a range of uh different land use development, community engagement on private and public sector side of things. So, with that, I'm going to uh turn it over to our team. Uh thank you very much Derek for joining us and welcome to the team. I'm going to turn it over to the folks here tonight who are going to walk you through the presentation. I'll start with uh Megan Campbell. Thank you.

Sorry Megan, you were right where my glasses trying to focus so I was able to see you but not many others.

Hello city council. It's great to see you tonight. As noted, I'm Megan Campbell and this is Emily Carol and we're here to talk with you tonight about item eight. I won't repeat the whole long title but process streamlining. Uh in our presentation tonight, we plan to go over some background data, proposed amendments to the Pleasanton Municipal Code, and next steps. And this project was identified as a category one must do priority in the project prioritization framework. So, a little bit of background. In recent years, growing concerns have been raised that the city's application review process is burdensome and not userfriendly. Accordingly, staff is implementing city council priority number four to streamline the permit process. Staff conducted an analysis and identified some key problems for the permit process as follows. The codes are dated and haven't really been updated since the early 90s. Design review applicability is extensive and farreaching. The city's public notice radi is in excess of government code requirements as well as neighboring pure jurisdictions. And the city has a lengthy appeal period also in excess of our neighbors. As such, staff is bringing forward a series of amendments tonight that are all consistent with various city plans, including the city's strategic plan.

All right. So, as Megan mentioned, staff is proposing amendments in three key areas. Um, first is project noticing, which is Pleasanton Municipal Code Chapter 1812. Um staff proposes modifying the public notice radius to align with government code, amending the mailed project notification requirements, codifying the on-site project notifications, and clarifying the notice the noticing procedures. Additionally, staff recommends repealing city council resolution number 91132. Secondly, we propose modifications to the design review chapter. um primarily modifying which projects are subject to design review, adding findings and clarifying the procedures. And lastly, um staff is has proposed modifications to the appeals chapter um modifying the appeal period and clarifying the procedures. Um and as the council noted, there are other changes throughout title 18 that are intended to align with these comprehensive overhauls. Right? So we wanted to give a little highle background about the permitting process. So at a high level, all um projects that um produce some kind of physical change require either a planning or a building permit. Um building permits are not discretionary. They're limited to evaluation with codes. Whereas planning permits have a layer of subjectivity. Both types of permits um for both types of permits, all city divisions have the opportunity to provide feedback and review for compliance with requirements. However, for planning permits, due to the discretionary nature of the permit, aesthetic and design aspects are considered, and there's also an opportunity for neighborhood notification and input depending on the type of project. At present, design review is broadly required for all new new commercial and industrial developments, all signs without a master sign program, all exterior modifications to existing multifamily, commercial and industrial site or building

modifications, new single and multif family units, and a variety of single family projects. So, this slide shows a typical timeline for a commercial project that requires both planning and building permits. In this example, a new business is coming to town. The business license and zoning certificate are approved same day at the counter. However, a design review permit is required with planning for the proposed facade improvements. I won't get into all the details shown here, but at a high level, from the time the business owner starts the design review process with us to the time we approve the application is around 10 weeks. This assumes no neighbor notification, a responsive applicant, and a fairly complete application. From there, the appeal period may add an additional two to five weeks. In our example here, we used three weeks. So, this business faced a 13-week planning permit process before they could move on to the building permit process, which then may take an additional four plus weeks. This timeline is fairly representative of most commercial projects requiring both types of permits. While design review adds time, it is an important process as it protects neighborhood character, scale, privacy. And for projects that may have impacts on the community or on neighbors, the time to navigate through the design review process may be warranted. But small projects that objectively have no impact on the community, the benefit achieved is disproportionate to the exhaustive process requirements and resources required.

All right. So, you may be wondering, how many of these projects are we processing? So, we dug a little bit into the data and found that over the past 10 years, staff processes an average of 110 single family projects annually. Um, this accounts for between 20 to 40% of a community and economic development full-time employee and longer if hearings are required. Um, in the bottom left you can see a chart that details the project types. um you'll see that about 50% of those projects are single story additions and over the past six years um staff processes an average of 42 multif family and commercial projects annually and these projects are a bit harder to quantify the FTE given the variability of the project type um and significantly here you'll see that 60% of them are commercial and multif family exterior remodels and additions so that could be scopes as small as repainting a building changing a window to a door or scopes as significant as adding a story to a building or doing an significant expansion of a commercial site. So staff is recommending a comprehensive overhaul to the design review chapter. The recommendations include adding design review findings for both residential and commercial, clarifying the design review procedures because again these codes haven't been updated in 30 years, and reducing the amount of applications that require design review. really focusing on projects that are more substantial or sensitive and have the potential to m materially impact a neighborhood, a commercial district, or a neighboring property. It's important to note that our intent is not to ignore regulations like building height and setbacks, nor city policies like those reflected in the downtown specific plan. All of these will still be enforced even if exempt from design review. projects will still require review by the planning division to ensure that the municipal code, the general plan, specific plans and other policies are being upheld. However, we are recommending that for a certain subset of projects, this can be done through the building permit process rather than

the planning and building permit process. So on this screen that shows a pro list of projects that staff recommends be exempt from design review and go straight to building for building permits for single family that include single story additions that are less than 15 ft tall. Accessory structures like a shed or a shade structure in a backyard, fences and other minor projects. And then for commercial and multif family, it includes minor exterior building modifications, site modifications, and additions. Examples might include a color or material change on a building, changing a window to a door, a new arbor, a new trash enclosure, or a small addition. Additionally, refacing and replacing signs without major alterations. The items with asterisks are largely at the discretion of the zoning administrator. So there is an opportunity to require projects to go through that design review process if when we initially review the project it's deemed more substantial or sensitive. All right. So which projects would still be subject to the designer review process? Um some examples that would still require design review for single family are two-story additions, newer enlarged balconies, or new lofts with second story windows. So projects that may have a greater privacy impact um for multif family and commercial um projects that add a new unit, remove site amenities or balcony enlargement would require design review and additions to buildings downtown or adding a story to an existing building is another example. This is a non-exhaustive list, but some examples that we may typically see. Um we will note that the reduction of permit processing for single family projects alone would reduce um the FTE requirement from about 20 to 40% to about 5% of one FTE and we anticipate that the um commercial and multif family processing would be reduced by about 50%

um which would free up staff time to focus on more um pressing sensitive projects or other city council priorities. So projects that require a planning permit like design review or conditional use permit for example are subject to an appeal period before the approval of the permit is effective. So in addition to the amendments to the design review chapter, staff proposes amendments to the appeals chapter of the code that will further streamline the process. Very few discretionary planning projects are appealed annually. Typically, there are around two to five requests for a ZA hearing each year. And that's for projects that don't normally require hearings, but where neighbors have interest. And then of those, most are resolved at the ZA level without appeal. In 2025, for example, one project was appealed. The current appeal period is a minimum of 15 days, but it may last over 30 days due to the city council review the callup provision, which delays the effective date of the approval until ZA and PC actions can be agendaized at a city council meeting. Staff proposes to reduce the appeal period down to 10 days. And then rather than a city council agendaized item with PC and ZA approvals, staff is recommending that a weekly approval memo be a posted to the city's website that contains all appealable discretionary planning approvals and then members from the community can subscribe to that memo and we'll make sure that it is distributed directly to city council members. All appeals and city council call-ups would need to occur within that 10-day appeal period. The revision will be in alignment with our neighboring peer jurisdictions and will increase efficiencies and reduce delays within the process. So the last area that we'd like to discuss are the proposed changes changes to the noticing chapter. Um so significantly staff proposes um

modifying the required radius to meet the government code standard which is 300 feet as opposed to the 1,00 ft that is currently required. government code requires the 300 foot notice radius and either newspaper publication or posting in three public places within the city. Um I'll note that there are a number of ways that the proposed modifications still exceed government code. Um first um government code requires notice only to property owners. Um but the proposed um chapter would require notice to property owners and tenants which is our current practice. Additionally, um staff proposes codifying the on-site project notification policy. Um the on-site notification is required for any projects that um have a planning commission or city council hearing or add new units. And this alerts all passerbys um including those that do not live within the notice radius to the potential project at the site, provides a little information about the project and a staff contact. So, we've provided an example radius at the bottom of the slide. So we're using the example of 200 old Bernal where we are today. So you can see that the 300 foot radius produces 123 recipients. So both tenants and property owners whereas the 1000 ft radius produces 173 recipients. So postage alone for the 300t radius um costs about $75 whereas postage for the 10,000 ft radius costs about $650. So that's for one project and one hearing. So, the cost difference between those two example radiuses is about $575. and our colleagues um in the admin department looked at um a kind of broader back of the envelope um calculation just for the planning commission items this year and found that based on an estimate for postage paper and a very conservative estimate of staff time the difference between a

three a 300 foot radius would be a little have a cost of a little less than $2,000 whereas a 1000 foot radius has a cost of a little more than $10,000. Um the 300 foot radius is in line with most of our neighboring peer jurisdictions with the exception of Danville which requires a 750 foot radius. So the last way that way in which our proposed um changes exceed government code is that we propose to continue the practice of um project notification. So this is for projects that don't require a public hearing. So things like single family design review or minor conditional use permits do not automatically require a public hearing. Um and it's been our practice to send a notice card to neighbors to alert them of the project, allow them to ask questions or potentially request a hearing. And staff proposes to maintain that practice. On October 16th, staff presented these recommendations to the economic vitality committee. The committee was supportive of the proposed amendments and appreciated the goal to streamline the process. There was a recommendation from the EVC to make sure that we take the amendments once approved uh if approved on a road show with the business community to advertise the changes. And on October 22nd, staff presented the proposed amendments to the planning commission and the commission was supportive and unanimously recommended approval of the amendments to the city council. In conclusion, staff believes that the proposed amendments meet the following key objectives. First, the amendments would align our lo our local policies with state government code, which help maintain which helps maintain legal compliance, ensures that our procedures are defensible, and keeps Pleasanton in step with broader regulatory standards. Next, the goal of the amendments is to make our processes more efficient and easier to navigate. By simplifying pro um by simplifying and clarifying the steps involved, we can reduce confusion for applicants, dedicate staff time

towards more pressing or complex projects, and create a smoother experience for everyone involved. Third, we recognize that some of our current codes are outdated, and updating these codes will ensure that our regulations reflect current community needs. This will also reduce inconsistencies that can slow down approval processes. Additionally, the amendments seek to promote economic vitality by removing unnecessary bureaucratic processes that can slow down businesses and homeowners. And finally, we want to make sure that as we review projects, we use our discretionary processes to uphold what makes Pleasanton unique. This means encouraging designs and developments that fit the established character of our community while still allowing for streamlining of less impactful projects. So tonight, staff recommends that the city council find the proposed project exempt from SQA and introduced a draft ordinance approving the amendments. All right. So if approved, the amendments would become effective in early 2026 and staff would have a whole slew of implementation items that we would begin work on. Um first would be internal process streamlining. And we'll note that um these processes touch a lot on specifically planning processes, but they're part of an ongoing effort to promote efficiency and improve the development review process from start to finish. Um which may also be part of a broader organizational assessment. Um additionally, we will create the discretionary approval memo that Megan mentioned in the appeals section. And most importantly, we'll begin to do outreach to the community. So, the business community um with the chamber and the Pleasanton Downtown Association will also reach out to homeowners and the architects and designers that frequently collaborate with our homeowners on their projects. And we hope to create um a number of charts and graphics that illustrate the new process and make it very easy and user friendly. So, thank you very much and we're available for any questions.

Thank you. Thank you very much. Um before I go to questions by my fellow council members, uh there was some supplemental material on this that I just wanted to maybe point out. So can you just mention what other cities the um I think it's the 10day appeal period would comply with that staff's recommendation recommending. You said adjoining cities or adjacent cities, but it's do you mind reading those off for the record? Yeah. So we looked at Liverour, Fremont, Dublin, San Ramon, Danville, and Walnut Creek. Okay. And so Liverour, San Ramon, Dublin, and Fremont all have the 10day appeal period, right? And Walnut Creek.

Oh, and Walter Creek. Oh, apologize. Maybe I missed it on the list. Uh, no, it is not on the list. So, I'm glad I asked. Okay. Just wanted to clarify that for my fellow council members and also point out the supplemental material. Oh, you've got a slide. I see. Sorry if I look at I'm on the agenda. This is the problem with the electronic system. All right. All right. So, Council Member Iiker, giving you a uh same order, different starting position. Clarifying questions, please.

So, from a I'm sorry, it's me. From a planning perspective, uh do you foresee any uh notable concern with these changes from a from a process perspective on your side? No, it it would free up a lot of staff time to be able to focus on larger projects and hopefully make those projects have an easier time through the process as well as focus on other city council priorities. We don't see any concerns with it.

And uh what about for uh issues in the community? Do you do you foresee any problems that might come out of this if if we're letting folks do some of this stuff without going through the plan check process?

No, we still intend to review every single project that comes in and requires a building permit. We would still review it for all of the same things that we're reviewing it for today. It's just through a different mechanism. and we were very intentional about which projects we are recommending still go through the design review process. Um focusing on the ones that historically have had the most concern in the community and the biggest impacts on neighbors privacy and and those types of things. So we're not really stripping the process. We're we're finding a way to make it more efficient for everybody both for the end user and for staff.

Correct. Um you had mentioned that uh how many projects got got appealed last year? One. One. And uh if if a project with under the new process, council still has the ability to call up those processes. It just shortens the time frame in which to do that. Correct. It would just need to be done within the 10 days versus at the next city council meeting.

Okay. Um, so I I can anticipate that some folks might consider the uh change in notification problematic. Um, do we have any statistical data that represents what our community uh I guess this is the feedback that would be coming in. So, when you're putting out a notice, let's say we have a project, you put out a notice, what's the average response back to the city from that notification? I mean, are are is the community responding to these notices or is there better ways of of doing that type of noticing?

It really depends on the project. For the single family projects, it's infrequent that we hear from the public. Um, for other projects like a large housing development, we frequently hear from the public. Um, but again for those projects, we also have the on-site project notification. So, it's not just the homeowners or the property owners and tenants. It's anyone who passes by the project site that is alerted to the project. So, you can you can pretty much predict what that's going to look like based upon the nature of the project as you're moving forward.

Yes. Yes. And I did just want to add that from a single family standpoint, the projects we tend to hear most about from the neighbors are second story additions, um, balconies, projects where there's really going to be a privacy impact potentially to a neighbor, which is why staff is suggesting that those projects do still go through the design review process.

Okay. Um, and I guess the last question I have is how are we going to ensure that our stakeholders are aware of our efforts to streamline these processes? because I think it's real important that we get the word out to our community to understand that we're doing this both for their benefit and our benefit to make our our organization more efficient and effective in what we do. Well, we plan to do extensive outreach to the downtown association and the chamber and we have a lot of um architects and designers that as staff we interface with regularly who are very excited for these potential changes. Um so we'll be sure to reach out to kind of our frequent flyers and then also um again have some visuals and graphics so anyone coming into the permit center visiting our website will be aware of these changes.

Okay. Thank you. Okay, Council Member uh Gatos, uh those were my clarifying questions as well. So, none. Thank you very much. Okay, Vice Mayor, thank you. Uh I have questions about a couple of things. First, if you could clarify um a couple definitions um for people who might not be aware, what's the government code? The government code is the state of California's set of laws and regulations that the city must require must follow.

Okay. So they they're not simply guidelines but requirements of the states. Okay. Um back to my Okay. And then uh under uh planning permits it says that design review is required for all signs without a master sign program. Master sign program is in capital letters. What's a master sign program?

So certain properties throughout the city have what's called a master sign program. It's where the property owner has essentially come to the city and gotten approved a subset of requirements like this. the sign is no greater than 10 square feet and no longer than 100 inches and things like that, certain colors, that type of thing. And then any subsequent sign that comes in for that property, as long as it meets the master sign program that was approved for the whole site, then they get to skip the sign design review process and go straight to building for permits.

Okay, I see. Thank you. Um the um definition of design review that's given in the staff report um says design review means review of the aesthetic elements of a project including site, building and landscape design. Um I know there a lot of um technical engineering folks that live in Pleasanton and uh for those of us who are engineers uh design review has quite a different meeting uh and you know includes the checking of calculations uh verifying assumptions all that kind of thing. This is not that kind of design review right?

Yes this that's correct. This focuses on the discretionary aesthetic planning process. Okay, great. And then um 50% demolition uh demolish demolishing a structure half of it half of a structure. Uh what's is that a term of art or is that meant to have a specific meaning?

Our intent is is related to the square footage specifically. So if if more than 50% of the unit is being demolished and proposed to be rebuilt, the intent is that it would still um be subject to design review. Okay. So that prevents someone from demolishing almost all of a structure but leaving something standing and still saying that leaving the foundation in a wall and saying it's not new. Right. Right.

Okay. And then there are a couple of exemptions mentioned here and they're significant exemptions and of course I believe they're absolutely justified but can you just explain uh the housing act accountability act projects and the uh housing elements?

Yeah, thank you. Okay. So, the housing accountability act projects um or projects that apply under uh what's known as SB330 or other streamlining provisions and the housing element sites are subject to something a process called housing site compliance review. Um and those projects are subject to the city's adopted objective design standards. Um so it is um not a discretionary project. We're evaluating projects against objective standards um that the city has adopted.

Okay. Great. Yes, I remember adopting those. Quite an ordeal. Um, okay. Let me just have another glance here. Um, okay. Yeah. No other questions. Thank you. Okay. Council member Tessa. Okay. Um,

All right. the the design review I uh I I'm looking for where it said so design review process is valuable because it protects neighborhood character, scale, and privacy and that there is also a um reference to um uphold that it would we would still be upholding the strate the specific plans and the general plan in this new process. Um, and then there's also some um reference to um current and somewhat vague criteria for approval clarifying. So, do we currently have um um the ability to uphold our general plan and specific plans when we're we have heard that um some of the language is too vague. Uh so the answer is yes, but it may not be your your definition or your interpretation of a general plan policy may not be the planner's interpretation of a general plan policy. And quite frankly, there are often competing and conflicting policies in a city's general plan. uh which is why you get into the the zoning and the the in this case the design review criteria and the findings that are associated with that. So between the policy direction set at the general plan if there's a specific plan there should be more refinement to those policies and then you're into the zoning and the design review findings uh which take you to uh an outcome that ideally meets the expectations of the community and the council uh over time. Um I'm I'm

not going to say that uh we we do it perfectly, but I think um over the years there have been very few appeals and very few projects that sort of stand out. I they happen you you know because you've been on the council and you've had to address those those topics. Um but we're trying to um we're trying to move the process in a way that allows for a lot more clarity and efficiency. uh and and if there's an issue or we're missing things or we're not getting it right, then there would be ample opportunity to to bring that back and make revisions. So, I know that's a a long-winded answer, but I wanted to cover a lot of ground with it because uh we're not going to the interpretate interpreting general plan policies is is not going to be black and white.

Okay. Um on slide 11 there was the um the appeal um period. I'm genuinely just unsure what if it we reduce to 10 days but there is not a count council meeting. How how does that work?

Yeah, thanks for thanks for asking that. So, the the intent is that right now you receive an agendaized item that has all of the approvals at an at a council meeting and then you have the opportunity to to call it up or or ask for it to come to council. So, the intent is that there would still be a memo with all of those approvals, but that memo would be posted to the city's website instead of at a council meeting and then we would distribute it to you um via email as soon as it's posted. So, it would be it would happen weekly. So on on let's say every Monday it would get posted with all discretionary approvals. So it would happen within that 10day period and there would be an opportunity for the council to to say I'd like to call up this item.

So we would still get an email specific with that information. Correct. similar to what you see today. Um just a slightly different format and maybe even better than you see today because quite often just as as is the case again today uh you get you usually get a late delivery with a couple of more items either the day the day of or the day before the council meeting. This puts it into a once a week uh synopsis for you rather than getting what you get with the packet which is published uh a week before the the council meeting and then a trickle in which is usually a day like I said a day before or the day of the council meeting uh to review these items.

Okay. Um, so on the noticing, um, I'd say one of the I mean, long before I was on council, I've been in this room so often when there have been community concerns about projects. And um certainly since I've been on council, what I hear most often is I I did why didn't I get noticed even with a thousand feet? Why didn't I get noticed? And that's why I I know that the thousand feet evolved. I remember a project in um Parkside that was very concerning and some people didn't get noticed. So um how I mean 123 recipients versus 1,073 that's a lot of residents that would have expected to be noticed and expect to know what's happening. And it's hard enough right now because the state has has tied our hands on so many ministerial projects. questions.

It is a question. Please don't interrupt me. I would like just to remind you we're in the Excuse me, Council Member Tessa. We're just in the clarifying questions portion. We have speakers on this. So, I just wanted to ask if it's a question, please.

I've already asked several and yes, it is a question, but now you have um so um how how do we think that our community will be reacting? Earlier I heard the mayor say that one of the something that a uh commu the community was noticed on uh water rates but um he's been hearing that we could have noticed it better. So we're already hearing that. Do staff do we really believe this is something our community will be comfortable with?

Uh it's ultimately up to the council. This is a policy question for you. the the request was to to bring back a series of changes to the code that would bring us in line with our neighboring cities and streamline the process. And this is both a cost and and frankly um you know there are there will still be notice for the kinds of projects that are immediately impacting neighbors like second story additions as we've mentioned. So the goal here is to to find that sweet spot or thread the needle around uh efficiency and notification. And when we did our our homework, uh we are the only city other than Danville and and you know we we have uh as a city become more dense uh Danville still has a lot of single family residential large lot projects and so that 750 ft is still not a thousand uh but maybe recognizes that every other jurisdiction cities that I would say we compare better to are at 300 feet which is why that's the recommendation this evening. But it's ultimately up to the council about how much notice you want to provide for these kinds of applications knowing the the cost and the time that goes into this this particular part of the work.

And I'll also note that our on-site project notification policy is relatively new. And I think it's been very successful for projects where I've been the staff planner. I get calls from people saying, "I passed by this site. What's happening there?" Even if they haven't been able to stop and read the sign, they're just driving by. Um, I think that is a way to get the attention of the public. Um, even for someone who might be one house outside of the notice radius. Is that a new policy? It is. I believe it was adopted in 2022 as an administrative policy. So, this proposes to codify it.

Okay. Um, because I I definitely know I've seen on the for quite a while the pictures of the proposed projects. Okay. Um uh that's all the questions I have. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I just have a few quick ones myself. I noticed it was in the supplemental, but I was asking about um when it's talking about if someone did want to appeal within the 10day period that says email or excuse me, it says um written notice to the clerk. So for council, if we're traveling or something, email would suffice. Is that correct? Correct. Okay. and and for our general public, they would actually have to file, correct, with the clerk. Correct.

Okay. Just want to make sure they're aware of that. Um, I also had a question about the thousand foot notice requirement uh having been on the plan commission when we did implement the sight specific uh noticing uh and trying to get that going for a long time. So, do you know I guess I'll just ask I asked staff to look at what's the history of a thousand versus 1,200 750. It seems extremely subjective. Is was there any investigation you had to that or anything further you could add?

We did look into it. It was it was adopted in in 1990, so 1991. So, um there isn't a whole lot of history that we could dig up, but we did find the minutes from the meeting. We looked those over. Um, at that time they had noted that GIS, which is the way we do our mapping, was a very new technology. It was just coming online. They weren't even sure about the reliability of it at that time. Um, and then they also um there was a comment in there about a council member asking for it to go from 500, proposed 500 to a,000. So on the fly it was changed up to the thousand at that meeting. But we the as to why um or that the true like why was it a thousand was chosen that that was harder for us to discern from the minutes.

Okay, that was uh thank you. That's question one. Question two on the same element. I think staff uh is trying to articulate the price difference between 300 and a,000. If I can just confirm my understanding, I think I heard you say that we estimate it's $2,000 approximately in a year for the 300 foot radius and Oh, do you have a slide?

Perfect. Well, hold on. Let me let me me change in Yeah, change in front of me so I can actually read it. Give me a second. So this is an estimate that was um very helpfully pulled together by our admin staff um recently. So um they're estimating for the cards, the postage um paper and a very conservative estimate of staff time and this represents all of the um projects that were noticed for the 2025 um planning commission. Um so all of the meetings that occurred this year. Okay. Okay. So then would council have similar ones or only those that would be appealed up? Correct.

It would be similar projects or for example any um project that requires both planning commission and city council approval. Um and a second notice is performed for the city council hearing. Yeah. And ZAS are not or they're more specific to what you were saying earlier. ZA would require a 300 foot notice radius. Um but again staff proposes to reduce the number of projects um that are subject to single family design review and therefore our notice um by a significant amount but the example here is just for the planning commission for the year.

Do we think the uh sorry follow-up question do we think that the planning commission uh projects for 2025 are average or was it a heavy year or low year for them? We actually think it was kind of a low year because there were a few uh meetings that were cancelled which is not as typical. So this might actually be a little under um represented maybe conservative estimate.

Okay, we may come back to this slide. Thank you very much. I think that concludes my questions. Does any other council member have any follow-up questions before we go to public comment on this? Okay, seeing none, my first public speaker on this. If you'd like to speak on this item, please fill out a blue speaker card. They're located outside on the credenza and you can turn them into the clerk. I only have two speakers. Arie Olsen, you're up. Welcome, sir. And then Invu, you are second. Welcome.

Welcome. Um, so I'm speaking to you tonight as the uh current board chair at the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce. Earlier today, we crafted a letter and sent it to each of you uh voicing our strong support support for these changes. And as we point out in the letter, these changes are closely aligned with the chambers's priorities, specifically streamline processes for business, homeowners, and developers, reducing permitting delays. Uh second, support economic development by making Pleasanton a more competitive and businessfriendly community. Also maintain essential safeguards for major projects, ensuring that aesthetic and community standards are maintained. So earlier, council member Aiker raised a question and that is how do we communicate these changes given that they're approved out to the community? And my thought is a majority vote tonight, a unanimous vote tonight would do just that. It would communicate very directly that we are a community open for business.

Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, VU. I think I'm saying it right. A D E R AI TU. Krishna Kumar. Welcome. And then you'll be followed by Arjun Gupta. Welcome. three minutes.

Uh, good evening, mayor, city council members. Uh, I'm Advite. I I might have uh my handwriting might have been a little off on that card. I apologize for that. But yeah, I've been a four-year Pleasanton resident and I've been coming to city council meetings um every once in a while for the past year or so. And I just want to introduce myself. Um, I'm also a junior at Fidel High School. And I just think that what's gone on here, like this presentation, it's one thing which I never really thought about, but the more I think about it, the more necessary it is because as a member of my community, I've known countless of my friends, my neighbors, even my own family. We've all been thinking of like doing something for our home, seeing other projects going on, but at the end, we've all been discouraged because the one thing we hear about building those kinds of things is how long the permit and approval process takes. And I think if we change this, if we make it easier for people to understand what's going on, if we make it easier for these changes to actually happen, we're we can prove that we are a more welcoming community, we're a community that encourages innovation, growth, and just overall a community where it's easier to do the things you want to do. And I think at the end of the day, that's what everyone wants in their hometown. They want a place which can allow them to do things they want and know what's going on around them. So, I just want to thank staff for making this whole presentation, for making these recommendations because I think they'll really helpful in just updating our city to the current times and making our city overall better. Thank you.

Thank you, Ed. Appreciate it. And Arjun, welcome. Great job filling out the card. Welcome. You have three minutes.

Uh, thank you. Good evening, mayor and council members. Um, so I want to say that I am a 10year uh Pleasanton uh member. I moved here when I was four years old and I've been here all all my life essentially. I went to um I went to Fairlands, went to Heart Middle School and now I'm a freshman at um Am Valley. So I do want to say um during the co uh during CO my family home actually was flooded with water like it's a two-story home. So, our first floor, our bathroom upstairs, it flooded with water and it caused our ceiling to collapse in. Yeah. So, um and what happened was we had to rent out like an like an Airbnb like really like kind of closed there. So, it took us about a year and a half to get approved for um sorry, not not to get approved, but a year and a half to actually move back in. My parents were complaining that it was taking a lot of time to get approved. So, I do think that this is would be a good idea for to to implement these to to implement these suggestions. Um, I do want to say though, I think it is definitely better to keep the 1,00 ft um notice requirement. Uh, my parents, uh, they only complained about this one time, but there was a change happening in at Fairlands Park. I don't remember what year, but there was a change happening in Fairland's Park. and my some of my family friends, they were complaining that they didn't know they live far away from Fairlands Park, but they still visit regularly and they weren't um and I think they would I think they were like appreciative of the 1,000 ft uh radius like notice. So, I just wanted to say that. Uh thank you.

Thank you very much. Appreciate you both uh all of you commenting on this. That is my last speaker card. If you would like to comment on item number eight, uh, please approach the podium at this time. Hearing none, seeing none, we'll close public comment and bring it back to the council. I got a sorry, something on my screen. Uh, same order, same starting position. Council member Iker comments or this is an action item. Well, the first thing I'd like to say is it's a pleasure to see uh young folks getting involved in uh providing their input into this process. Uh so, thank you. Um I strongly support uh these changes. I I think even reducing the 1,000 ft down to 300 is reasonable. Um, it gets us in line with our our neighboring communities and I think it this whole package that staff put together uh communicates that we're open for business and we need to be uh taking a very uh businessfriendly uh approach to how we uh conduct ourselves. I think some of the uh barriers that have been in here uh have negatively impacted our community and I think the only way to to rectify those things are to be creative and find new ways to do things. Um this isn't the end all. I think there's probably more we can do over time. Um, but I also think that this isn't necessarily a a permanent thing either. That, you know, if we shift this from 1,000 ft down to

300 ft, we do have room to in the future to revisit this and adjust it if necessary. So, uh, it's not like we're we're stripping, uh, all of our, uh, historical processes out of what we're doing. and we're still taking appropriate action. Um, and I do have a a couple questions for staff and and I don't even know what the feasibility of these things are, but have we thought about, you know, instead of uh email notices, maybe we do email blasts to get that thousand feet or, you know, just change the way we do our notification process as opposed to, you know, we can mail to the 300 and Maybe we hit that thousand with an with a email blast. So that way those folks within that vicinity have the ability to get some notice.

Our notice lists come from assessor records. Um so we don't currently have the email addresses of all residents and property owners. But I will add there is a way to subscribe to agendas. So for example, I'm subscribed to the planning commission and council agendas. So, I get in my email a blast that says, "Here's a list of all the projects going forward." So, there is an opportunity for anybody in the community or beyond to subscribe to the agendas and get the notices. Okay.

Council member, if I can interrupt you real fast, I apologize. Um, also, if I may for your comments, there's three main elements. Design review, the thousand foot notice radius, and the appeals period. Those are kind of the three main groups. So, I don't know if you wanted to comment specifically between each three or not. as you're going. I I just wanted to take that moment.

I support every one of them. So, I I don't have uh any concerns with with the recommendations that staff uh is presenting here. Um the other question I had would be and this is really on the notice piece of it is is the robocall you know using a system where we actually call people and let them know that this is happening to you know take it for what it is and whether it's feasible or not. I'll let you decide. Um, but anyways, I I want to telegraph my support for this and uh I would make a motion to approve each of the each of the recommendations the staff uh has presented.

Okay. Uh, Council Member Gatos.

Um, I can echo that. I I think these are a great start and a trend in the right direction. I'm pleased that it's going to help save staff time and um streamline some of the processes. Um I I I want to say too, I know both all of these uh recommendations went through the EP economic uh not economic but the vitality committee and the planning commission um and were both of those committees were supportive after a thorough and informed discussion about the issues here and you know we can always change things if something's not working out but uh specifically with regard to notice requirements I mean we do this a lot and I think people do a good job in the community of spreading the word if there's something that that affects um residents. We've certainly seen it here and we've seen I've seen it on the planning commission. Um but the the frankly the the very minimal number of projects that are appealed speaks volumes about um you know what how how we should inform this process. So I'll I'll signal my support for the recommended changes to the municipal code and second second the motion made by council member Iker.

Okay. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you. Uh I'm pleased to see that uh a category one item is um presumably about to be accomplished. Uh the mustd do items that the uh council several months ago gave um uh their stamp of approval to. Um I do have a bit of a concern about the um the notice radius um in terms of uh reducing the number of uh residents that receive such notices. Although having having that radius at 300 ft uh would I didn't know it was a requirement of the government code and that all of our nearly all of our neighboring cities um subscribe to that 300 ft and uh that's all they require. Um so that's something to consider. Um I appreciate that this would result in greater efficiency and better use of staff time. um which is something I think that we all need to be concerned about considering the the workload um that our planning staff faces. Um so the design review I'm support I support those changes. The uh appeal period support that change. The uh thousand foot changing the thousand foot radius to 300 feet. Um, yeah, I'll I'll still think about that a little bit, but in general, I support that.

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Tessa. Um, I do have one more question on the appeal period. Um, what kind of savings is there between 10 days and 15 days?

Well, between 10 and 15 is only 5 days, right? So, it's not that that dramatic of a difference. But I will say that because of the council callup revision, sometimes that's actually stretched to 30 plus days depending on where it falls and when the next council meeting is. So I'll give an example. I had a single family residential project not that long ago that had an appeal period upwards of six weeks just because of the way the date it was approved when the next council meeting was. And so unfortunately that's a pretty long wait before that they can get into the building permit process. So um 10 to 15 days not that that big of a difference but you know 10 to 30 plus days can be a big difference.

Okay. Um All right. Well, um I have I was recently within the last two weeks I was in a Cal City's meeting of mayors and city councils a zoom meeting and there was a discussion about projects and there was actually there were there was somebody who was saying yeah they only do the 300 feet and I was surprised that that that seemed lower than I I would have expected and and a couple of us said oh no we have a thousand foot. Um, and the council member was very envious that we had the thousand ft because she felt that her residents um were often dissatisfied and felt left out of the process because they weren't notified. I'm I'm absolutely not supportive of that change. I think that yes, we should be moving toward what we can do that will um balance the needs of our um business community with the needs of our residents. And I think that my many years of of attending and being aware of projects and um I've just heard so often people unhappy because they had not been aware, had not been notified of something. And again, I've already got concerns about what the state has done to limit what um we can do for our residents. So um I I think that's um I absolutely could not

support the noticing and do not support the um uh rescending of 91123. Um, so I would ask that that be bifurcated so that I could vote in support of the other um aspects of this, but I won't won't support that. If I if I can clarify, council member Tessa, so the noticing radius uh is your challenge, correct? But the other two elements you are comfortable with. If I hear you correctly,

I'm okay with um I think there are aspects of the I I I don't like I think it's important for council to have um I think it's important for our residents to have the opportunity to appeal to council and I feel that again that is um it's going to be a lot harder for our residents to um benefit benefit from that more limited time period and it'll be quite frankly harder for us as council to stay on top of all of those notices. But um yes, I could I could be okay with the design review and the appeal period. I will not support the reduction in neighborhood notification.

Okay. Thank you for your comments. Uh I think I think the easier way rather than bifurcating would be a substitute motion just because it's an ordinance. It's all wrapped together.

Let me go and thank you. Uh let me go ahead and go a little further because we might be there as well. Uh okay. So um I'm going to jump around. Obviously this is a significant and in my opinion a much needed modernization. We we has have it as a number one priority. The staff report shows how much uh staff time is being spent spent on smallcale design review, administrative design review applications. Um it's adding cost to our residents and small businesses who are making small uncontested low impact improvements. Um and then they're pulled into a monthslong process. So, um, for the appeals call up, uh, element, inconsistent approval timelines is exactly what I hear is a problem with equity in our system of Pleasanton right now. It's not equitable because this council is taking an August recess in 26. So, if you're technically approved in July, you could wait until this council has to reconvene in September to get your next step in our approval process. How does that make us look businessfriendly or even equitable to anyone uh compared to other municipalities? So, um streamlining to me is both equity improvement um and a smarter use of staff resources um on high impact projects uh that matter more to our community. Um but I agree actually with the thousand foot um notice. I you know we we we I say we uh I'll put myself in the group but the plan commission are uh articulated for years the desire for onsite noticing of projects because a lot of uh people did assert they did not receive the card and we grappled with how do we handle that assertion. We didn't believe it true but it is potentially possible and I've seen the mail take an exceptional long time recently. So, um, that's where the

on-site came out of. Uh, to me, and I'll just say this, and that's why I took so much time. I appreciated Emily with the slide. It feels like a small cost to maintain the thousand ft uh to maintain notice and and keeping our community informed um for the number of projects. We're going through significant change in our community in a lot of areas. So I guess I'll just ask staff if we were just to maintain the thousand feet element for the noticing but did everything else we're just talking about that impact you've outlined on that one slide correct so we don't get the savings there so much we already are doing a th00and ft but we still would get the benefits in the uh design review and the appeals call up processes correct

that's correct

okay so if you know I I heard uh the chamber ask for unanimous, but I just I'll ask the maker and second of the motion if you uh could be persuaded to think about retaining the thousand feet for now. When we talk about what we could claw back or continue to do, this could be on our docket as a future improvement, but maybe we allow the other things to settle first and then we look and revisit uh that as a potential option in the future instead of doing it all now. Um that way we could possibly get there. It sounds like council member Tessa and I are there. I don't know where Coun vice mayor is, but would uh would the maker of the motion be willing to do that and we'll do a substitute motion as the I fundamentally I don't think it changes a lot. Um, you know, but for the uh sake of uh transparency in our community, I I think it's a lowcost expense for us to uh keep it.

Okay. Um, and I don't think it's really a a detrimental aspect to the process by keeping it. So, I would be okay with that. And the second, sure. I I I'll say this. I I think the difference over year over year was like under $10,000 as far as what we spend in noticing a,000 ft based on what we'd say for noticing 300 feet. Is that I believe if I remember that slide correctly, it was like eight $8,000 difference. That's the estimate for planning commission notices and then you also have the zoning administrator and council notices which add to that, right? But so how I mean is it 30 $30,000 a year

would you say or I mean I I'm asking you to ballpark it as a rough estimate,

right? I mean I I understand I mean that's not an insignificant amount of money. Um however I I could be persuaded to keep the thousand feet for for a couple of reasons. Um, you know, I think that all but very few people in this community are very well informed. Um, and oftentimes the the criticism we get from people who were properly noticed or did know about it or didn't get noticed in the way they would have preferred. Um, it's really easy to come cast dispersions at the city and the council and the way the city does things that are often completely unjustified. Um we we hear that a lot up here. So um I don't think it's necessary. However, um if that amount offsets that potential criticism for the future, um I could for the for the sake of unanimity go along with it. I will say I think the other two amendments are much more important here. Um, but you know, if it's a difference of, you know, $25,000 of mailing and printing costs for the whole city to make sure we are extra careful in informing people to save oursel criticism, which I don't think it will, uh, I'll go along with it.

Okay. So, uh, uh, yeah, Vice Mayor, you want to say something there? Just wanted to ask if staff had any more reaction or information. Ju just thank you for the opportunity. Just one quick clarifier. Uh we had we had been proposing to move the administrative design review for minor improvements to uh from just neighboring properties to 300. Uh if possible, we'd like to leave that that particular type of application at 300 because right now we're just notifying the immediately abudding adjacent neighbors. Uh I think we go across the street too. So it's not just a budding, but it's also um approximate. So yeah, going to a thousand feet on a on a on an administrative would be overkill. Okay. Okay. So

if we could keep that in the mo in in the discussion, that'd be helpful. Thank you. Maybe I'll allow council member Aker to make So we have a motion in a second, but we also it sounds like we've reached cons. Okay. So then I'll make a friendly amendment that we um that the motion alter to say a,000 ft for the specific one. What's the Can we Can we just keep it as 300 feet for administrative design review and yeah 300 So we only that would be the only change then. So that the only change for the notices is 300 feet for the administrative design review and then that would leave the thousand feet in place which is currently already drafted for everything else. Is that correct staff? Okay. Yes.

That's my friendly amendment. Do you agree council member? Yes. Seconder. Seconded. Okay. So, we have agreement on uh for the friendly amendment. Any further comment before we proceed to a vote? I'll just read this real fast. Do you have to Oh, do you have to say as amended the motion? That's how it will be. Clerk. Okay. Does anyone have any further questions? And may I ask Council Member Tessa, since you and I agree on the thousand foot notice, does this uh meet your desire as well? Did we capture it? Um, yes. I greatly prefer this.

Okay. All right. I think we have a motion made and seconded as amended with the friendly amendment for the thousand feet radius 300 feet on the uh administrative ones and the motions before us for voting, please.

The vote on the amended motion passes unanimously. Excellent. Thank you very much. Uh, thank you very much to the planning commission, the economic vitality committee and staff for this number one priority of the council and I do think our residents and small businesses will greatly appreciate it. So, thank you. Okay, that completes item eight. It is 8:30. Uh, is are my fellow council members uh wanting to continue with our item nine at this time or do we need a break? Okay, keep going.

Okay, thank you. So with that, we'll proceed to item number nine. Receive an update on economic development activity to advance the one Pleasanton strategic priority building a community where everyone belongs E.4 regarding implementation of the updated 2024 2028 economic development strategic plan. Welcome Miss Dennis in your new role and uh great to see the new long title. I can't read from this distance. New badge and everything. We're going to go right into it this evening. Mayor, you want to jump in, Ellen?

Uh, good evening, mayor and city council. Um, pleased to be here this evening to introduce this item, which is anformational update to the city council on our efforts over the past year to advance uh and implement uh one of the key council strategic priorities to advance our economic development program. Um and that was one of seven uh strategic priorities that the council identified earlier this year. So before I turn it over to Melinda for uh the bulk of the presentation, wanted to provide a little bit of a a stage setting in this slide. Um which is really to emphasize that our efforts are rooted in our citywide five-year strategic plan and city council priority. Um that priority is to implement the plan that we adopted back in 2023, our five-year economic development strategic plan. So you know we plan uh in order that we have a a really clear path forward and so many of the things that we've done have uh directly come out of that strategic plan uh which has set the roadmap for many of our efforts. Um the city council earlier this year also identified two uh key initiatives that were part of that plan. One of them you heard about this evening uh around streamlining of our permit process. And I will say that that what you saw tonight was not the first um or sorry not the last of of those efforts. Um we are continuing uh to uh look at ways that we can improve and streamline processes to uh to improve efficiency um and support new investment here in the city of Pleasanton. And then the second strategy is around retail attraction um using efforts to bring new retail businesses into Pleasanton to strengthen our local economy. Um the the another point I wanted to make before um turning over to Melinda was you know sometimes you have to put a little momentum behind your effort in order to get the resources aligned to do the work. Uh we've done a lot since the council passed the budget around uh organization and re an allocation of resources to our

economic development efforts. Um that includes uh the creation of our newly retitled community and economic development department. Um to really recognize and put at the forefront in the title of our department. Um that that focus um to also do a a better job of bringing together process and economic development programs uh to create a really effective set of strategies. Um so that work has has been taken place over the last four and five year or four and five months. Uh Melinda will be telling you a lot about all of the things we've been working on and we'll continue to work on. So I'll turn it over to Melinda for the next uh step of the presentation.

Yes. Thank you, Ellen, and thank you, council. I am very excited to be here and presenting to you in my new role and looking forward to continued years of service. Um the our five-year economic development strategic plan was adopted by the city council in oops, excuse me in August 2023 and is the foundation for the economic vitality committee and economic development division staff's work. The strategic plan includes five implementation plan priorities which I will summarize in the following slides. The first plan priority is organization capacity building and Ellen already summar summarized our reorganization efforts. A key initiative in the organization capacity building plan priority focuses on partnerships, relationships, and collaboration with local and regional business organizations. To achieve this, staff serves as the lays on to the economic vitality committee, distributes a monthly business e newswsletter and participates and represents the city at various regional and local meetings with innovation tri valley visit tri valley i gate innovation hub east bay economic development alliance pleasant downtown association pleasant chamber of commercea stoneidge mall and the alama Alama County Fair Association just to name a few. Oops, sorry about that. The next plan priority is business retention and ex att traction and expansion with several implementation tasks completed or underway. Last year, we developed digital and print industry specific brochures for office and industrial

and retail attraction. And we will continue to develop other industry specific brochures and process flowcharts in collaboration as you heard before you this evening with the planning division staff. We are in the process of developing an economic development micro site to market Pleasanton and assist businesses and customers who want to develop in Pleasanton with a launch in early 2026. And key marketing event support and sponsorships include the iGate startup Tri Valley's 2025 Tri Valley Life Sciences Summit held in October each year preceded by the CEO executive roundt and an upcoming sponsorship in 2026 is the Igate Startup Tri Valley Women's Health Series. We are also in the process of developing a business outreach strategy to formalize meetings with large employers, industry specific representatives, and shopping center brokers and managers. The goal is to gather feedback, align on leasing and growth goals, and create regular touch points with our businesses. Aligned with the business outreach strategy, we have been increasing our social media presence through business profiles or spotlights, collaborations with influencers, local organizations, and businesses, and new and coming soon business highlights. During October and November, the city's social media channels generated over 200,000 views, which helps to shine a light on Pleasanton businesses and local activities. Also, starting last month, our now open and coming soon business highlights were shared in the business e newswsletter, the community e newswsletter, and on social media. And this is something that we are going to

continue doing monthly moving forward. Another service we offer is coordinated pre- lease meetings with city staff from building planning, fire, and economic development to help businesses navigate the permit process before before they sign a lease and start paying rent. Plan priority three is local revenue growth and focuses on attracting and expanding the city's retail base as retail and lodging uses contribute a significant amount of tax to the general fund. Key efforts over the past year for our retail and tenant support program included completion of an inventory and assessment of vacant retail sites in all major shopping centers. completed a void analysis and a retail market outlook. Over the next six months, we will focus on a retail attraction strategy that includes outreach to brokers, property owners, and target tenants. Interview retail tenants to identify process improvements. Periodic scans of the regional market conditions. ongoing engagement with shopping center owners, managers, and brokers to track opportunities and maintain a priority list of target tenants based on our research over the past year. Other key areas to promote local revenue growth include the recent update to the downtown Pleasanton business improvement district assessment adopted by the city council last month and or support local programs including the business anniversary recognition, Pleasanton gift guide, the Pleasanton the gift Pleasanton e gift card program,

small business Saturday which happened this past Saturday and various business workshops and web webinars held throughout the year. And finally, focusing on our tourism and hospitality program, staff will continue to leverage Visit Tri Valley's marketing to boost tourism and local spending. We will collaborate with our local partnerships to highlight and position Pleasanton as a destination associated with major sporting events, including the Super Bowl and World Cup held at Levi Stadium next year. And along with other city staff, we recently began outreach to hotel years and representatives of the lodging industry to discuss a potential transient occupancy tax in 2026. For plan priority four, we are strengthening our regional partnerships with Eastbay Economic Development Alliance, Innovation Tri Valley, iGate Innovation Hub, Startup Tri Valley, and the Eastbay Small Business Development Center. This year, or excuse me, this past year, we partnered with the Eastbay Small Business Development Center and the Chamber of Commerce for in-person advising, workshops, and webinars. and we will continue additional opportunities in 2026. And finally, um the fifth plan priority is the major projects accelerator program and also encompasses two city council work plan priority items focused on streamlining processes and reducing obstacles to business investment. This past year, the city took significant steps to advance streamline zoning and permitting to support business attractions and expansions. In September, the council adopted the

innovationbased business municipal code amendments to to define IBBS as a distinct use category with tailored zoning. And just this evening, the council supported municipal code amendments for design review and appeals to streamline permitting, reduce delays, and support business and retail attraction. Other areas to continue these efforts include implement additional retail and commercial permit streamlining opportunities such as expedited tenant improvement permits for cosmetic modifications or updates to the zoning use definitions or use table. And finally, um, this has been on my work plan since 2016, full disclosure, to create a Pleasanton playbook development guide to outline the development review process, regulations, permits, and licenses. A lot of progress has been made across several several of the strategic plan priority areas since the plan adoption in 2023. Key work plan areas for economic development in 2026 include hiring of a new economic development manager, fingers crossed, in January 2026, implement the next phase of the retail attraction strategy as discussed earlier in the presentation. continue permit streamlining efforts for commercial uses, including the Pleasanton playbook development guide and expedited tenant improvement processes. Advance partnerships around tourism and hospitality to leverage upcoming major national and international sporting events. And finally, enhance communications with support from the city's public information officer and

communications team, specifically with the launch of a communication strategy focused on improving overall community awareness about the role and function of economic development within Pleasanton and continued focus on improved use of social media tools, strategies, and marketing that highlight Pleasanton's positive positive business environment, local success stories and partnership efforts. Thank you for the opportunity to present and present this update and highlight the economic development strategic plan implementation programs and tasks. Significant progress has been made in implementing the strategic plan since the adoption in 2023. All aimed at strengthening Pleasanton's economic development framework. This work is a continuation of efforts made by my pre predecessor Lisa Damos. Additionally, the the departmental reorganization and staffing changes made as part of the two-year budget and work plan adopted in June this year brings more visibility and resources to economic development, which helps which helps advance the city council's economic development programs and initiatives. In closing, please accept this report on the economic development update and implementation of the economic development strategic plan. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Don't worry, it's it's it's our uh prime time now for us. Okay. So, uh this is anformational report. If it uh is okay with my colleagues, I think what I'll do is open it up for public comment just to confirm that, get that completed, and then we'll kind of be a bit more workshop where we can do questions and comments at the same time and work through. So, with that, uh, if you would like to speak on item number nine, I do not have any speaker cards. Uh, but if you'd like to, please approach the podium at this time. Hearing none, seeing none. And, uh, clerk, you have no cards either. Okay. Public comment is hereby closed. We're going to go. So, we'll just do uh comments and questions and try to have it as a workshop kind of element and same order, different starting position. So, council member Gatos, you're first out of the shoot, please.

Thank you so much. Um just one question, actually, two different questions, different areas. Um about, you know, retail and commercial permit streamlining. Can you just like on it? I'm not going to hold you to a specific answer, but can you describe sort of what your goals are there and and what types of issues you anticipate trying to streamline and how that would change the current process as much as you can now?

Sure. So, one idea is a collaborative effort with our building division staff. For example, standard plan review turnaround time is three weeks with for the first initial submittal for a building permit. Um, wi with the the design review changes supported by council this evening that that for for cosmetic or facade enhancements, you're now cutting out or streamlining the planning review portion. Um but then then we need to look internally at our plan review process. You know, hypothetically, could we take that 3 weeks down to one week? Th those are some areas that we'd like to look at from specifically on the building permit plan review. Additionally on it focused on the zoning land use definitions or the zoning use table. Are there other areas kind of similar to what we looked at with the IBB where we we took some uses from a cup conditional use permit, excuse me, to a minor conditional use permit? Are there other commercial categories that we could look at that we could take it from a cup to an MCUP or an MCU down to a per to a permitted use? Those are just a couple examples.

The other if I could just add just a little bit. Um the or assessment has a little bit of capacity in it for us to look at our overall development review process. So, uh, Melinda did a great job of talking about the community economic development department and all of the moving parts in that department, but there's also an opportunity to look at, uh, some of our other key players. Our fire marshall reviews all a lot of these applications, uh, and looks at it from a fire code perspective. And then, um, our public works team is also usually fairly involved in new development, significant expansions. Uh and so um yeah, just having that outside perspective. Look at our process, technology, the right number of people doing these things. What is an appropriate time frame for us to be setting? Are we too generous, too conservative?

Right. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. The the other comment I had, and I brought this up in the past, is that I' I've been talking to some of the downtown land owners, and I I know there's some vacancies on Main Street, and you know, being a historical city comes with, you know, a lot that goes along with it. being a a landlord and business building owner of historical buildings and old buildings comes along with a lot of things. Um I've talked to at least two or three of the bigger um landlords in downtown Pleasanton and all all of them single sign signaled you know potential support for a Mills Act program maybe in a you know defined to a very small area of town where it's historical you know these old buildings are harder to retrofit they're more expensive to heat um and therefore less attractive to businesses um and I'm wondering if in your process is it of working on this you would think it wise to um have that conversation while you have the stakeholders together to see if there's um you know support for that. I don't know if there would be support on the council, but I think anything we can do to um allow our our land owners to to pass along savings to their renters uh would go a long way to curing some of the vacancies. And I'm I'm hoping that you can incorporate that into your um into your work that you're doing regarding the revitalization of downtown.

Sure. Definitely we can have those discussions with the property owners as and or specifically I you know can ask that question to start gathering some input right if the owners are interested and as I believe the on the council prioritization a look at our historic preservation ordinance is under task four I think and this could be a component of that. So yeah I'm happy to to ask that question as I continue to do outreach with the downtown business owners.

Sure. And I'll say I've had some communication with the person from the county who is in charge of Mills Act and you know said what's the least impactful way we could do this and she was very receptive to having the conversation. And so I'll pass along that information to you so you have it and you can

and I'd also like to just offer offer to the council as as you talk with owners and just to let you know um outside of the mills act it falls under maybe the pre-lease coordinated meetings we we do have meetings excuse me with property owners and tenants downtown. I'll take for example the former Christensen's buildings under new ownerships before the owner submitted for the facade renovations. We did we did engage with a conversation with the ar with her architect met with building staff and planning staff specifically with building staff. You know there are some exceptions considerations under the building code when you're dealing with older buildings. Um, and those are really again sightsp specific conversations that we can have that we can look at some areas for flexibility as people move forward with improvements outside of the Mills Act.

Great. Thank you very much. Congratulations on your new role.

And I'll just add for the the Mills Act, um, it is something that the city has contemplated in the past. There's a there's a binder of analysis that was done. Um, and at the end of the day, uh, the property owners in downtown at the time did not feel like it was an appropriate tool and were concerned about the level of restrictions that get placed on properties that are part of a millac program. And interestingly enough, communities around us, I think Berkeley was a recent example of uh running into some budget challenges and actually pausing their Mills Act program because it had an implic it has implications for the city's property tax uh and the the the revenues that flow into the city off of that source. So, I think it's it's it's a it's a great topic, but it's a it's a tough one. So, I think Melinda's answer tonight was great. we can we can uh take the pulse of the the property owners in the downtown. I think that's a great first piece of information, but then the council, I think, would also need or maybe want uh some better understanding of the financial implications as well for the city's overall budget.

Yeah, I I understand. I mean, compared to Berkeley, we have a much smaller number of what I would consider what I think what anyone would consider to be historically significant properties and probably what people consider to be historically significant in Berkeley very very different from what they do in Pleasanton. So, um I you know I get we have a small old really old aging downtown and and maybe we have a different perspective from our from our landlords now. So, thank you. Yeah. Anything further? No. Thank you. Okay, Vice Mayor. Thank you.

Just want to follow up on that previous discussion on uh retail. Um you mentioned uh on 3.0 local revenue growth that about the retail attraction strategy. phase one was complete uh and now phase two is in progress uh being implemented. Could you just speak a little bit more about how that implementation is proceeding and you know what types of things uh we're talking about because it is very important uh item and uh we're all concerned about it and wanted to succeed.

Sure. I will in full disclosure since I am still very new to my role. I haven't fully implemented the phase two. Um nothing confidential. That's the best answer by the way. I'm still new here. Yeah.

Um definitely need to get fully staffed. So on once I once I have my economic development manager um on board, then I will be able to go full boore on the retail attraction strategy. But I will say in the meantime, uh, for example, I'm already having monthly monthly communications with, um, the Stone Ridge Mall property management. Um, having bimonthly meetings with some of our other more with with some of our other commercial brokers and also focusing on some of our shopping centers, brokers that have some vacancies. um and just continuing to touch base with them to to see how they're doing in ter and we are having I am having along with our consultant Alex Greenwood we I am having targeted retail meetings with some some key key users that we're trying to attract. Uh so so we I have been doing that in terms of implementing all the items that that I went over in terms of you know periodic scans of the regional market conditions the ongoing so ongoing engagement with shopping centers I've started that I want to be able to hit all of our six major shopping centers and our 18 neighborhood shopping centers. Right now I've probably only focusing on three shopping centers. Um, and I want to be able to look at specifically the the the target tenants as well and comparing that to the the retail market scan we that we did Lisa Donald did last year. I full disclosure, I have not done that yet. So, I'm just really scratching the surface here in month two and hoping in the new year to to really take off with that and then can work with the city manager's office to possibly bring an update to the council sometime next year.

Okay, great. Yeah, I really appreciate that uh full encouragement as you go forward. I do recognize that you're new in your position, of course, so um lots of good wishes there. Um just one kind of Oh yeah, of course. technical question. I heard you mention the term expedited tenant improvement permits and I don't know what those are. I can imagine. But how are they different from the what we just talked about with design review process?

Sure. So um tenant improvement really is you're you're talking about the building plan review process, right? somebody is submitting their construction plans to our building division that's reviewed typically by building fire and the public works/engineering department. So or tenant improvements or TI plans as the industry says. So right now first round of review typically for TI plans our standard of review is three weeks. We want to look at how we can trim that up. And as Jerry um excuse me, city manager Bowden said, um that goes along with our organizational assessment. But then specifically for community and economic development we want to look at. That's just one aspect of our development review process that we we want to look at. So I hope that answers your question.

Yes, it does. Thank you. Um, not too many more questions. I just wanted to say that uh, you know, economic development is, uh, front of the mind, you know, top of the agenda for, I believe, all of us on the city council. Um, you know, of course, in the end, the market will decide what happens, uh, as it always does. You know, for example, the market for office space is terrible right now. So, um, but what you're doing, I think, is giving us the best chance of success. Um, doing everything that we as a city can, um, to make sure we have, uh, the best outcomes, um, letting decision makers who may be outside Pleasanton know all the advantages that Pleasanton offers. And, uh, I really like the idea of a Pleasanton playbook. So, it's been on your your um I guess your list for a little while. Maybe maybe we'll see it come to fruition.

Yes, we definitely will. Okay. Um great. I have no other questions or comments. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Council Member Tessa.

Well, this is um a great report. It's got some good stuff. Um some of the questions I was curious about have been answered. The retail attraction strategy. looking forward to more info on that. Um so, um I guess my only question really is local revenue growth. Um no pressure, but we're kind of um counting on that revenue growth. So, um, but clearly this is a very long-term, um, and optimistic and so, um, we're all rooting for you. Thank you. Thank you,

Council Member Aker.

Uh, this is, uh, quite the plan. There's a lot going on here as we're moving forward. Um, I really only have a couple questions. Um, I'm excited to see us get embark on this and start moving in this direction to to really help uh economic vitality in our community because it not only does it support our businesses which will help them do better, but their success is our success at the same time. Um so it's fundamental that we we are a partner and work in service of our community to ensure that uh we can take care of ourselves while taking care of the businesses in our community. Um in your in your project you talked about uh standing up an economic development micro site. What is what is the function? What does that look like and how does that service?

Sure. So, as part of the I don't remember the exact name of the study, but as part of the work that Lisa Damos did last year looking at the retail assessment and then speaking with a lot of brokers and and property owners that even though that couple years ago we updated our city website, many people specifically when it comes to applying for a permit or getting information about zoning or fees. They find it very difficult to navigate our city website. So that was the idea and thought process by developing an economic development micro site. It's a targeted website page which it has all the all one site and all the information. it will most likely have links to the city's website, but it's it's very very targeted. Um, so instead of having to look under building for one aspect and planning under another aspect and engineering for an encroachment permit, you can see all the links and all the information on on one site. And so we're currently right now working again with our consultants. Um it's going to be it's going to evolve over time as well as we develop process flowcharts, other handout materials. Um everything can can be linked. And so again, it's just a targeted location for for developers, architects, tenants to be able to get this information.

So it's like a checklist form, basically an electronic checklist. So they have a quick and easy way to jump in there and see what they need to do. A targeted website location. It'll have um still trying to look look at you know what's the domain you know is it Pleasanton now like we're playing around seeing what's available also something catchy so then people can remember and we can direct them to that website.

Okay thank you. Um, so and this is in regards to the retail uh expanding retail in in our community. Do we do any research or do we contract with anybody that does research on uh new successful business ventures or expanding businesses, folks that are trying to franchise their business in in new areas that might be appropriate to be coming here. So we can we can say hey here we are. This is where you want to be as opposed to I don't know yes

Anderson Nevada you know you know but but to kind of lure them here as opposed to maybe other municipalities.

Yes. So we are currently working with the consultants the same consultants that helped us in developing the innovationbased business ordinance as well as the retail assessment the void void analysis and that's the Alex Greenwood and consultants. So we are continuing to work with with him on the second phase of the retail attraction. Um what you might be thinking of is are we specifically working with you know a retail um marketing to specifically answer that? No, we we have not engaged um with with specifically a consultant who's focusing on retail marketing. That is something that I've been thinking about, but I wanted to again kind of get get our feet wet a little bit, start the conversations with some of the broker meetings that we are having using the services with Alex Greenwood. Um, and then if if we do need to look at hiring a marketing, specifically a retail marketing consultant, then we'll have some conversations with the city manager and city council if necessary.

Okay. And to me, this was this piece of it seems a little bit more active, like we're actively researching and and trying to target businesses that would fit our community um to enhance our community um as opposed to having stock and saying here it is, you know, pick and choose whoever whoever wants to do that. So I'm not sure how that works and you know so that's why I'm asking the question. Okay.

We can provide you a little bit more information as well. The the void analysis that was done is is exactly that. It's what what is not in this area but could be in this area that could be additive. Uh and we can share that with the council. Okay. Thank you. And thank you very much for your work on this.

Okay. Uh thank you. Uh I'm I'm going to jump around. And I apologize since we're kind of doing a hodge podge. So, um I'm going to say the dynamics of the economy are definitely changing, right? Uh my family has been in the Pleasanton landlord business for 42 years. Uh our buildings have been here. So, adapting to the changes uh is required for survival. So, our initial tenants were uh car repair and painting booths and now I've got music studios and gymnastics and kind of softer kind of uses. And so, um we see the businesses changing. We see retail changing. And as I said, adapting to that change, I think, is essential and required. Um so, I really appreciate what we are doing and what you've presented. Um, I I've said it before, reducing time, talent, and money barriers have always been consistent, right? So, the time to get a permit, get your business open, get uh going the talent with our amazing schools and the the workforce that we have available here and capital for the TI costs, right? And you know, if you need air conditioning or um a water heater replaced or some of these things, they are requiring permits as well now. So, how do we help them? Right? And as I think about even things such as uh the water efficient landscapes and how we're going to have to get rid of non-functional turf if we're able to be over-the-counter permits for some of our businesses that have property so that those barriers are reduced for very um well frankly prescribed from the state elements that we will have to comply with. Those types of things help our businesses so that they can continue to focus on what they're doing. So, um, I'm going to say I I really appreciate the Pleasanton playbook. I'm calling it the permit 101. I think I've mentioned it in

the past. You know, many times, um, a lot of our small businesses have told me they did not understand how the permitting process works, not because it's terribly ownorous, but it's unfamiliar to them. So, I think that barrier we need to try to reduce. And so with the action we just did on item eight, I think we are walking towards that quickly. Um I think you're calling it uh the two pages that you had which are the glossy flyers, but I'll call it a white paper of why locate here, right? And I do think I mean I've read white papers on um frankly Scottdale and some of these other places to understand why businesses are being lured there. And it is a simple white paper. It really is. that talks about the schools, safety, um, all of the things that we also have going for us. So, I I think we just have to make sure we're keep making sure people are aware of the benefits and beauty of of what we offer. And then I um I did not know we're doing the pre-lease coordination meetings. I talked about uh concierge service. I think we need to amplify that because I think that a business who's looking at the Tri Valley in general could come in and say, "Hey, I'm thinking of locating here. what would it take? And then we offered our before you sign your lease, before you get locked in, we're going to help you show you how you can get open in business as uh expeditiously as possible. I think that all ties in well. So, I'm trying to amplify everything you're doing and and going with that for the TI development review process or expediting. I do think if we can expedite plan review comments from the three weeks to a little less if the applicant wants to pay for expedited service because again balancing out time and money um that may be something that if we outsource it I know we do in many cases if that is an option that might be a real strategic advantage to us. I don't know if that's possible, but I'm going to highlight that one of the

comments I've heard is that our permitting system is is something's a little off there. Maybe we can put some attention to it. They're saying that we're missing uh you know, when comments are posted, sometimes our applicants are not receiving them. I don't know for sure, but I'll just mention um James Paxton at Hosianda mentioned some um challenges that that some of his uh res um residents some of his uh businesses in in there have they've experienced and that might be a resource to kind of track down and bird dog what that issue is so that we can make sure it's not an issue, right? Um that if the technology we have that it's working. I'm very happy to hear that you're talking to Stoneidge Mall. uh clearly a critical element. And then the downtown um I said it at the last meeting, but cafe lights. I love what the PDA and the Art League did for the storefronts. Lines wayside band stands ready to go. As my uh son's class said, we need Instagrammable spaces. That's what apparently we need to lure the youth to talk up Pleasanton. So, uh I don't know what that is, by the way. I don't uh but you know we it's it's not one lever right it's not one lever it is a variety of things and um maybe I I just want to really take a moment to appreciate between innovationbased business between what we've already just done on item eight and kind of these focus items that we're doing in partnership both with the PDA hosianda and trying to do it I think we're showing Pleasanton's strength is is starting back up and uh really a lot of opportunities ahead of us. So uh again, we've got to adapt to change. We've got to adapt to it and I don't think retail is going to be the full answer. I think it's going to be a variety of things because I think retail in itself is changing. But again,

reducing the risk for businesses to locate here versus any particular other location they may be thinking about. So maybe we need to be uh you know uh dropping leaflets in Mountain View or something to have them locate to the East Bay. I just say that in just but uh you know we see we see other states targeting our businesses. Maybe we target theirs. So all right appreciate the time. Any further comments by any other council member before we close out this item? No.

Thank you very much. Congratulations on the role. Really uh thank you very much staff for everything you're doing on this topic. So vitally important to our city. Okay, that concludes item number nine. All right, and uh we're going to move on to matters initiated by council. Are there any matters initiated by my fellow council members at this time?

Seeing no matter. Okay, we're going to go on to council reports. So, uh vice mayor, uh just a couple of things since our last meeting. um considering the Thanksgiving holiday intervened. Uh on the 19th of November, I chaired the Lavma Liverour Amodore Valley Water Management Agency meeting and the following morning attended the uh dream makers and risktakers uh breakfast at in Dublin and got to uh see a lot of amazing activities and uh just really really high level work that youth are accomplishing in our area. That's it.

Okay. Council member Tessa.

Um I also attended the Lavmon meeting that council member um Nybert chaired. Um I attended in fact I think I was the only person from Pleasanton that attended the city serve prayer breakfast um which was held here in Pleasanton. Um I uh o over the weekend uh a Christmas market or a yeah Christmas market at the museum on Main Street was a lot of fun. Um pictures with Santa with my new grandbaby. Um and also yesterday a very lengthy laughter meeting. That's it.

Okay. Council member Riker. Yes. I just have two. On the 24th, I attended Lafa's uh projects and services committee meeting and Lapa's board of directors meeting last night. Okay. Council member Gatos. Nothing obligated to report. Thank you.

Okay. And I'll just mention I attended dream makers and risktakers as well. Uh the tri cities meeting of the five cities was yesterday. uh the five mayors will be going to DC at the end of January uh lobbying and the platform for the legislative platform there and at the state is being discussed and staff between the five cities are coordinating that and then I'll just mention that we have a farm bureau if you didn't know the Alama County Farm Bureau had the agriculturalist of the year award uh to Miss Railen View who is a family friend of mine for 50 years. So uh she won it. or was awarded. And that concludes mine. Uh, Vice Mayor, take us out.

The Pleasanton City Council adjourns this meeting with a tribute to our nation's men and women serving in the military and with gratitude for every United States veteran who has bravely answered the call to serve. Further, we wish to honor the memories of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in conflicts both past and present in defense of our country. Thank you very much. This meeting is adjourned.