City Council - Special Meeting

RECORDING IN PROGRESS.

GOOD EVENING EVERYONE AND GOOD EVENING EVERYONE AND WELCOME TO THE CITY COUNCIL WELCOME TO THE CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING THIS MONDAY SPECIAL MEETING THIS MONDAY EVENING JUNE 1ST. EVENING JUNE 1ST. CITY CLERK PLEASE CALL THE CITY CLERK PLEASE CALL THE ROLL.

ROLL. CERTAINLY MAYOR LORRAINE.

CERTAINLY MAYOR LORRAINE.

CONSULT MEMBER NEWSOM. CONSULT MEMBER NEWSOM. HERE.

HERE.

DEPUTY MAYOR FERNANDEZ AND DEPUTY MAYOR FERNANDEZ AND MAYOR LORRAINE.

Thank you and welcome. We're excited to be here in person with options for those who choose not to be in person but still participate virtually. Thank you for your cooperation and for helping make an efficient and accessible meeting environment for us all. There are several ways to participate. For those attending in person, you can complete a yellow request to speak slip and hand it to the city court. If you're participating remotely, you may use the Raise Your Hand feature in Zoom, and you'll be called on at the appropriate time. If you're calling in via phone, press star 9 to raise your hand. And when you're called, you can press star 6 to unmute. These options for public comment will remain available until I close public comment periods for each specific item. And just a note, if you're watching us on YouTube, we don't currently have an option for live public comment on YouTube. So you'll want to join us through the Zoom webinar instead. Access information is listed on our agenda, which is on our website, cityofsanmateo.org. We are gonna begin tonight's special meeting with two closed session items, conference with labor negotiators, two items of this. But before we begin, we can take public comment on what is presented in the agenda. City Clerk, are there any members of the public who would like to comment on this item before we convene into closed session?

Mayor Lorraine, we have not received any request to speak on either closed session item.

OK, thank you. Then I will close public comment on the closed session, and we will convene to conference room B, and then return for item three afterward. Thank you.

Thank you.

We have returned. Thank you very much for your patience. We can now move on to item three on our special meeting agenda, which is climate action plan annual progress report. We have a presentation from sustainability analyst Andrea Chow. Welcome, Andrea.

Good evening. Thank you. My name is Andrea Chow, and I'm the sustainability analyst for the city of San Mateo. Tonight I will provide a progress report of the implementation of the city's climate action plan. The city's climate action plan was updated in 2020 and then readopted in 2024 to align with the city's general plan update. The climate action plan includes strategies and measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions community wide. Implementation measures fall into the following categories, building electrification, renewable energy, energy efficiency, municipal energy efficiency, clean transportation fuels, sustainable transportation, solid waste water and wastewater, and off-road equipment. Staff provide a progress report to the Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission and to city council every year to highlight accomplishments in various data points. And while I lead the city's climate action plan, I am not the only staff person who works on these efforts that reduce our city's carbon footprint. Many of these efforts are cross-departmental and require coordination with our community development department, parks department, and public work staff. These next slides will showcase a few different accomplishments from 2025. In 2025, staff concluded the multi-year effort to develop and adopt the Electrify San Mateo Sustainable Building Strategy. This was adopted by city council July 28th in 2025, and this document is a strategy to upgrade existing buildings from methane gas to carbon-free electricity. Upgrading buildings where our community members live, work, and play is critical to reaching our city's climate goals, also helping us comply with future regional air quality regulations and improving air quality for all San Mateans. The sustainable building strategy directs the city to continue outreach and engagement to connect property owners with rebates and resources. It also directs staff to develop an electric first policy for municipal facilities and then conduct additional outreach and data analysis for reach codes in existing buildings and also data analysis for building performance standards for commercial buildings. These next slides are going to showcase accomplishments related to reach codes. In January of 2025, the city council adopted an energy performance reach code focused on new construction that required energy performance margins for new buildings. This reach code was in place during that 2022 code cycle for April through December of 2025, and it concluded with the end of that code cycle and impacted an estimated 11 new construction projects. This was really a stopgap measure to have something in place when reach codes were paused for enforcement. Also in 2025, staff began working on outreach and additional data analysis for reach codes for this current code cycle that we're in, which is called the 2025 code cycle. So in summer and fall 2025, staff did a number of outreach and engagement meetings to get community feedback and additional data analysis. and this was presented to the city council in november 2025 and at that meeting the city council provided some direction which was brought back as an ordinance in march 16th of 2020 2026 which was adopted and those reach codes impact various types of renovations they're summarized here on the slide they impact cooling upgrades or air conditioner installations or replacements in single-family homes townhomes duplexes and non-residential buildings THE REACH CODE ALSO REQUIRES SOMETHING THAT'S CALLED FLEX PATH, WHICH IMPACTS LARGE RENOVATIONS IN SINGLE FAMILY TOWN HOMES AND DUPLEXES. THE THRESHOLD THAT WAS ESTABLISHED WAS 1,000 SQUARE FEET. SO WE'RE TALKING ABOUT A VERY LARGE HOME RENOVATION THAT WOULD HAVE TO MEET AND SELECT ENERGY EFFICIENCY OR BUILDING ELECTRIFICATION MEASURES FROM A LIST AND REACH A TARGET SCORE OF 12. And then the final component of the reach code is some electric readiness requirements that are really focused on future proofing homes for future electric equipment. So not necessarily requiring that electric equipment, but requiring the infrastructure to help you go electric if you choose to in the future. I SHOULD MENTION THE REACH CODE ORDINANCE WAS ADOPTED IN MARCH BUT STILL REQUIRE STATE APPROVALS SO THE CITY IS STILL WAITING FOR THE CALIFORNIA BUILDING COMMISSION APPROVAL BEFORE THE CALIFORNIA ENERGY COMMISSION APPROVAL AND SO WHILE THESE REACH CODES WERE FILED WITH THESE STATE AGENCIES RIGHT AWAY THERE IS QUITE A MONTH QUITE A DELAY IN THEIR APPROVAL AND WE ARE STILL WAITING TO HEAR BACK AND ARE HOPEFUL TO HEAR SOMETHING BY THE END OF THIS MONTH The solar carports installed at the parking lot adjacent to the community garden at the Beresford Park were installed in partnership with Peninsula Clean Energy and by their contractor, McMillan. The city was able to do this through a power purchase agreement, also known as a PPA with PCE. And through the structure, the city did not pay anything for the installation of the solar carports. The system is a 79.2 KW system and anticipated to produce 120,000 KWH in the first year. It was sized to offset 100% of the rec center's historical annual energy usage and is expected to earn the city savings beginning in year one. And these savings occur because the PPA rate is less than the current cost of grid energy and is also a fixed rate, locking the city into a cost saving electricity rate. ALSO RELATED TO FACILITIES, THROUGH THE ADOPTION OF THE SUSTAINABLE BUILDING STRATEGY, STAFF WILL DEVELOP AN ELECTRIC FIRST POLICY FOR MUNICIPAL FACILITIES WITH CERTAIN EXCEPTIONS FOR PUBLIC SAFETY AND LIFECYCLE COSTS. STAFF PLAN TO UPDATE AN EXISTING POLICY AND INCORPORATE THIS DIRECTION. And also look towards to build off the 2025 citywide facilities condition assessment that included a comprehensive evaluation of building systems, energy performance, deferred maintenance needs, and identified opportunities for electrification. This analysis will help staff plan and identify funding sources for electric equipment upgrade and facilities. Through the PG&E EV fleet program, the city is participating in a program that supports municipal facilities in installing fleet charging, and we are doing so for the Corporation Yard site. Through this program, PG&E installs to the meter infrastructure at a very nominal cost, and the PG&E also provides the city with incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles for our fleet. The city is responsible for the behind the 8 meter infrastructure which includes design installation and permitting and staff have made a lot of advancements on this project with construction expected for the summer. The project will result in 12 level 2 charging ports to support the city's green fleet transition. On the slide, you'll see a few electric vehicles that were procured for the city's fleet. Not pictured is the city procured one electric Ford Lightning in 2025. But on the slide, you see the recently delivered electric irrigation truck. That's the one in the back of the picture there. And then we've got an electric bull and electric lawnmower being showcased. And then also in 2025, the city procured one electric motorcycle. ANOTHER ELECTRIC UNIT EXPECTED FOR DELIVERY THIS YEAR IS THE CITY'S ELECTRIC STREET SWEEPER. AND THIS IS MY FINAL SLIDE ABOUT GAS LEAF FLOWERS AND THE UPCOMING BAN BEGINNING JANUARY 1, 2027. I'LL NOTE IN 2025 THE CITY TRANSITIONED ALL OF OUR OPERATIONS TO USE ELECTRIC LEAF FLOWERS. THESE ELECTRIC LEAF FLOWERS WERE funded by the Peninsula Clean Energy member agency grant. In October 2025, the city council directed staff to develop an ordinance to prohibit gas leaf blowers. And on March 16th of this year, the city council adopted that ordinance. And so for this year and the rest of the year, the city is focused on educating the community and landscaping businesses about this upcoming regulation that again will begin January 1 of 2027. And we have been receiving a lot of leaf borer rebates recently. So I'll note that as well. And that concludes my presentation this evening. Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation. At this time we can open up the item for public comment. City Clerk, do we have any speakers for this item?

Yes, Mayor Lorraine, we received one request to speak in chambers. If you're participating in our virtual environment and wish to speak on this item, please raise your hand now. I will give you just a moment to do so. Mayor Lorraine, that's the individual speaker. I have two requests to speak. So we will begin with our in-person request to speak first, and we'll invite Mike Squire up, and we'll set the timer at three minutes.

Great. Thank you, Mayor Lorraine and members of council. I appreciate everyone and staff's work on climate action plan. This is important stuff. One thing, and I missed the presentation. I'm sorry if this was in there, but did we actually see a... are we generating less ghgs i mean that is the goal and i didn't see it in the packet and i apologize if i missed it or if i was late for the presentation so that's one thing because obviously if we're not tracking something it doesn't matter how many good programs we have uh it's not happening then and and second of all i just wanted and we'll talk about this a little bit more today but i saw really no mention of uh vmt vehicle miles traveled in the presentation so um one of the reasons i like to see the data on how we're doing is because what i've seen is that county-wide at least 50 to 60 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions in the county are from transportation transportation is largely cars the more you drive the more greenhouse gases we will have so i don't really see how a climate action plan can attack um uh ghgs if we are not uh one quantifying how many miles people are traveling two item we do have programs that address it but i think we need to be more explicit as to how we're doing that and whether or not we're being successful because in the presentation later today i think there were some mode share dad had actually said that fewer people are walking and biking i don't know if that's because of safety or what but um if that's happening um and if people are still solo driving which they largely do we're not going to come close we can do all this building stuff that's great uh but again that's a fraction of our ghgs it's 50 from transportation so and and uh One other thing is, I know some people would say, well, we don't control how far people drive to work, et cetera. We kind of do. The county decided to widen Highway 101 in the city of San Mateo within the last five years. I didn't hear one member of the city, and I know you guys weren't all here at that time, but speak up against that. And I think that should have happened. I appreciate that we're having the discussion on 101-92 direct connector. although most of that discussion seems focused on eminent domain and i've heard rumblings that that plan is all of a sudden more acceptable even though it is a highway widening that will add more cars to the road more traffic violence more ghg so realistically i don't see how we can be serious about reducing ghgs unless we quantify vmt acknowledge it and really develop a great action plan and think about the larger picture you know what's happening at the county what's happening at ccag what's happening at the ta which i think you guys can weigh in on thank you so much

Thank you, moving to our virtual environment where our final speaker will be Dow Jane. Dow Jane, please unmute your mic.

Hello.

Hi there, we can hear you.

Can you hear me? Okay, sorry, thank you. Good evening, the city council. My name is Dow Jane Pei and I'm the program and operations manager for an organization called Build Up San Mateo County. And I know that there's some familiar faces on the city council. So it's I can see you in the little little my little screen. I just wanted to comment on the progress report. That was a really great presentation. Sounds like the city of San Mateo is making a lot of progress in implementing your Climate Action Plan, I wanted to call attention to our own San Mateo County Early Childhood Climate Action Plan. It was released by our organization last summer, around July 2025. Our plan is a call to action for all of those who care about children and families and climate resilience in the county. Too often our youngest children birth to five years old and childcare providers who are essential to our community are often overlooked in climate resilience. And so our local childcare providers who are the backbone of our economy know these risks are all too well. Most operate on razor thin margins and don't have the resources to install things like modern air filtration systems or create the cool shaded outdoor spaces that children need when they are in their learning environments. And it's not just a child care issue. It's an economic issue for working parents. It's an equity issue. And these challenges almost always disproportionately impact our lower income neighborhoods. And I know I am preaching to the choir because many of you care a lot about childcare. The city of San Mateo does a lot around early learning, early care and education, and making sure that they're increasing the supply of childcare. This report is really about multi-sector engagement with making sure that our children are learning in healthy and safe environments. And so some of you have read the plan, hopefully. If not, I'm happy to share the link to our early childhood climate action plan with the city council and city staff and have discussion about potentially partnering on any strategies that overlap with the already approved and in progress in terms of implementing the current climate action plan. And so just wanted to share that with you all tonight. I wanted to say great work. And you'll be hearing from me through email. I will send it to the city council email. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Lorraine. That concludes public comment for this item. Thank you for those comments.

I will close public comment at this time and bring the item back to the dais for council member questions and input. I saw Deputy Mayor Fernandez's motion.

Andrea, thank you so much for a really compelling report. I really appreciate the project that you're making, especially as you are basically a one-woman operation center for the city. So very grateful for your work. I was wondering if you could tell me a little bit more about the solar carport project. I know that the city is fiscally facing some challenges right now, and I think there are limitations in grant funding available. But is there any plan to expand the solar carport project to any other rec centers or city facilities at this time?

So I mentioned that the solar car parts were installed in partnership with Peninsula Clean Energy. I do know they have intentions to roll out another similar program. And so I think we could evaluate at that time once they have the program details to understand what other facilities might be a good site for future solar. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

THANK YOU TO THE MAYOR AND THANK YOU ANDREA AND THANKS TO PCE FOR BEING SUCH A GREAT PARTNER WE COULD NOT BE HERE WITHOUT THEM I AM INTERESTED IN THE KIND OF PUBLIC FEEDBACK THAT YOU'VE HEARD I KNOW YOU SAID THERE WAS A LOT OF ELECTRIC REBATE INQUIRIES ON THE GETTING RID OF GAS LEAF BLOWERS But across all the projects, you know, we've been doing a lot more talking about water heaters, talking about how to get ready for going electric. And what kind of feedback have you gotten from the community?

Sure. I can start with leaf blowers and mention that there has been a lot of interest in the electric leaf blower rebate. There has been some questions about the timing of the gas leaf blower ban. So we've been communicating the schedule expected for enforcement and the plans to continue the electric leaf blower rebate program into the next fiscal year to support the transition i think broadly i i hear some or i have had the opportunity to connect with community members who have not been aware about the air district's upcoming rules for the for zero knox equipment for water heaters in 2027 but through MOST PROACTIVE ENGAGEMENT WITH THE COMMUNITY IT'S USUALLY FOCUSED ON BENEFITS AND REBATE OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE THROUGH PENINSULA CLEAN ENERGY I THINK THAT HAS BEEN MORE OF THE FOCUS OF THE CONVERSATION ESPECIALLY BECAUSE PENINSULA CLEAN ENERGY RECENTLY HAD A EVEN LARGER REBATE FOR THEIR WATER HEATER FOR THIS PAST MAY

THANK YOU. I WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU TO KEEP I WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU TO KEEP PUSHING THAT COMMUNICATION. PUSHING THAT COMMUNICATION. BECAUSE I'M GETTING A LITTLE BIT BECAUSE I'M GETTING A LITTLE BIT LESS CONFUSION IN THE QUESTIONS LESS CONFUSION IN THE QUESTIONS THAT ARE COMING IN. THAT ARE COMING IN. SO IT'S VERY GRANDMOTHER SO IT'S VERY GRANDMOTHER RESEARCH, LITERALLY. RESEARCH, LITERALLY. BUT I THINK THAT'S A GOOD MARK BUT I THINK THAT'S A GOOD MARK AND WE SHOULD KEEP GOING IN THAT AND WE SHOULD KEEP GOING IN THAT REGARD.

REGARD. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

Thank you for the presentation. Just a couple questions. The gas leaf blower, I am having a lot of residents in my district reach out saying that they're not really aware. And I'm just wondering what outreach we're doing and what does that look like beyond social media?

we definitely need to focus on more engagement beyond social media and so it is my intention to provide more like flyers printed flyers around the community as well as direct mailing to our landscaping businesses i think where i've seen the most increases in the rebate are after our print newsletter just recently ran out that that generated a lot of INTERESTS IN THE REBATE PROGRAM BECAUSE THE CITY SENDS AS YOU ARE AWARE PRINT NEWSLETTER TWICE A YEAR AND SO WE'RE ABLE TO TARGET OUR COMMUNITY MEMBERS THROUGH THAT DIRECT MAIL AND I THINK ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY THAT WE HAVE NOT YET LEVERAGED FOR for spreading awareness about this upcoming regulation is our ecology bill inserts and so there are other ways that the city can communicate beyond those social media channels what about asking some of these businesses to do promotion so like the hardware stores around the city Yeah, that's also on my list.

OK, great. And then in terms of sustainability, so you mentioned water. And I was wondering, is there an update on the sea level adaptation plan?

Sure, so yeah, our climate adaptation plan for sea level rise kicked off in August of last year. You'll remember that a contract came to city council at some point last year with our selected technical consultant to help with the development of the plan. This work is funded through Caltrans, Sustainable Planning Grant Program. And we have progressed on the existing conditions analysis and look forward to more broad community engagement that's really facing our community and bringing some analysis to our community for feedback this fall.

Yeah. I would just echo that statement. It's so great that we are doing all these things across the city, but if we don't have a sea level rise adaptation plan as the chief priority in the long term, it's gonna be detrimental to the residents and the community at large. Moving on, I did wanna just go back to public comment. There was a question about greenhouse gas and if we are seeing improvements. CAN YOU SPEAK TO THAT?

THIS IS A QUESTION THAT COMES THIS IS A QUESTION THAT COMES UP ANNUALLY WHEN I PROVIDE THIS UP ANNUALLY WHEN I PROVIDE THIS PLAN PROGRESS REPORT WHEN IT IS NOT PLAN PROGRESS REPORT WHEN IT IS NOT ACCOMPANIED BY A GREENHOUSE GAS ACCOMPANIED BY A GREENHOUSE GAS INVENTORY. INVENTORY. I'LL ACKNOWLEDGE IT WAS NOT I'LL ACKNOWLEDGE IT WAS NOT INCLUDED IN THIS REPORT. INCLUDED IN THIS REPORT. THIS IS FOCUSED ON QUALITATIVE uh analysis as well as some specific data points the reason that a greenhouse gas emissions inventory is not done annually is because it is such a time intensive and resource intensive activity but we are the city is overdue for a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and it is staff's intention to provide one for 2025 this this past year but there's often a delay in getting all the data points for 2025 which is why it's not yet available and so all that to say is that very necessary greenhouse gas emissions inventory will be available at the next annual report and it is important to continue to measure the measure quantitatively the work but this report does

Is it better to measure over, like, three-year cycles, would you say?

So the cadence has typically been five years, but you'll see in our last climate action plan update, we had selected years based on available data, and also it was taking into account a COVID year as well. So that's why the data is not...

Yeah.

At a typical cadence.

And then you can get back to me, but I am just curious like what we do measure, you know, in terms of statistics and data on greenhouse gas. And it is a good point about the vehicle miles traveled. It would be good to capture that across the city if possible.

Yeah, there's a, we have a lot that goes into the development of a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and vehicle miles traveled as part of that calculation. But yeah, I can follow up with you.

WELL, I THINK, YEAH, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A TRANSPORTATION UPDATE HERE, BUT AT THE SAME TIME, I BELIEVE, YOU KNOW, WE HAVE OUR CERTAIN CORRIDORS AND TRAFFIC VOLUME, AND IF I RECALL, YOU KNOW, I'M GOING A YEAR TO THE DATE OF IT, I KNOW THAT OUR TRAFFIC VOLUME WAS WAY DOWN FROM, YOU KNOW, YEARS AGO OVERALL. I'D HAVE TO GET YOU THE STATISTICS. I GOT TO ACTUALLY LOOK AT THE POWERPOINT PRESENTATION IF IT'S IN THERE. I DON'T KNOW IF MR. SWIRE HAS SEEN IT IN THE PAST, BUT I KNOW THAT JUST OVERALL THE VOLUME OF THE AMOUNT OF CARS THAT WE'VE HAD PREVIOUSLY Aren't as high as what they were previously here in the city.

Yeah, and that's probably with return to work actually it's going up Anyways great report I did just want to make one comment that I have seen a trend And this came up with the SNI interviews Sustainability is something that residents keep talking about and I think people have different opinions and perspectives on what sustainability is in terms of the city. And so would love to see us like do more outreach and really try to talk about that more at like SNI meetings, not just the infrastructure piece, but really like what are the sustainability pieces within the infrastructure that we're BUILDING. ANYWAYS, I WASN'T PLANNING TO ANYWAYS, I WASN'T PLANNING TO GIVE ANY POINTS TODAY BUT I GIVE ANY POINTS TODAY BUT I GUESS I HAD A FEW. GUESS I HAD A FEW. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. THANK YOU FOR A GREAT THANK YOU FOR A GREAT THANK YOU FOR A GREAT PRESENTATION AND THE JOY OF GOING PRESENTATION AND THE JOY OF GOING LAST. LAST. I DON'T HAVE MANY QUESTIONS LEFT. I DON'T HAVE MANY QUESTIONS LEFT. SECOND TO LAST, SORRY. SECOND TO LAST, SORRY. SORRY, MR. MAYOR. Have we put solar panels on? I know we did the Beresford Park carport. I know Kiku Crossing and the Kiku Crossing Garage both have solar on top. Have we done that on any other city buildings yet?

Our solar has been installed on our, I'd say, newer buildings. The main library has solar, which is not so new. But then the wastewater treatment plant admin building also had solar installed.

Okay. And do we have a rollout or a plan? Is it because the buildings are too old that we're not putting solar on them?

That certainly has been a barrier. We need to evaluate investment in our various facilities and then also roof longevity is a question that comes up when it comes to evaluating solar on various sites.

So going back to the carports for a minute, I mean, if we're worried about putting it on a building, then maybe carports might be something we could look at more. And I know downtown San Mateo has the Main Street Garage, the Transit Center, and the second and El Camino Garage, which all could theoretically have, you know, solar panels on top. Have we looked at that, or is that something considered?

FOR THE PCE PARTNERSHIP SPECIFICALLY THEY WERE FOCUSED ON SOLAR THAT OFFSETTED LARGER FACILITY USE. BUT THAT WOULD BE PART OF FUTURE ANALYSIS. THE OPPORTUNITIES AT GARAGE SITES AS WELL.

SO THE REASON WHY WE DIDN'T LOOK AT THOSE SITES IS BECAUSE THERE'S NOWHERE FOR THAT ENERGY TO GO. RIGHT. EFFECTIVELY WE WOULD BE EFFECTIVELY WE WOULD BE COLLECTING IT. COLLECTING IT.

THAT WAS ONE LIMITATION OF THAT THAT WAS ONE LIMITATION OF THAT SPECIFIC PROGRAM. SPECIFIC PROGRAM.

BUT I ALSO THINK JUST LOOKING BUT I ALSO THINK JUST LOOKING AT YOU KNOW THE COUNCIL'S GIVING AT YOU KNOW THE COUNCIL'S GIVING DIRECTION ACTUALLY THIS EVENING DIRECTION ACTUALLY THIS EVENING POTENTIALLY TO ACTUALLY LOOK AT THE POTENTIALLY TO ACTUALLY LOOK AT THE FUTURE OF OUR PARKING GARAGES FUTURE OF OUR PARKING GARAGES DOWNTOWN. DOWNTOWN. NOW DEPENDING ON WHAT HAPPENS NOW DEPENDING ON WHAT HAPPENS WITH THE FUTURE. WITH THE FUTURE. SO WHEN YOU GET IN agreements overall they're about 30 year agreements yeah then you're locked in you can't make any alterations or changes because if not then the city has to pay back all the money for that entire investment with a penalty in addition to that and so we have to be really sensitive to know exactly you know the the future of the facility and i couldn't in good conscience at the time you know when we're looking about two years ago to be able to position ourselves with any other facility at the time to say hey let's let's go forward in this direction the one that came up was the beresford uh CARPORT WAS THE ONE THAT CAME TO THE TOP WHERE WE KNOW, FOR FACT, IT'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE. BUT KNOWING THAT WE JUST DID OUR FACILITY ASSESSMENT OVERALL AND THINKING ABOUT JUST THE FUTURE PLANS, THESE BUILDINGS ARE FROM THE 60s AND 70s AS YOU'VE SEEN IN OUR CIPs. AND SO WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO LOOK AT SOME SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENTS ON THE HORIZON.

Just to add to that, there are some carport solar facilities now that are mobile, meaning that they will install them for a short two to five year term. And then it kind of gives you an out. I mean, there's a little probably a little more cost there, but that is something we might want to evaluate.

No, something for evaluation. One other area that we were looking at is just the golf course, right? Because the golf course has a nice big parking lot over there. So that could be another opportunity out there.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR. THANK YOU.

OKAY. SO, ANGELA, DID I HEAR THAT there will be an opportunity for a more comprehensive greenhouse gas inventory for the year 2025 in our next annual report? That's correct. Hooray! And will that be kind of the sort of climate action plan update opportunity that we've had in the past? Or will it be maybe something different?

I think this upcoming update could focus on a GHG inventory analysis. And we always have the opportunity to look at strategies that are outside of our climate action plan. But we do have a very comprehensive climate action plan that was recently adopted to realign with our general plan. And so I think starting with the greenhouse gas emissions inventory is the most efficient and financially thoughtful approach.

OK. I did see in your report that we appeared to give significantly more permits for residential batteries than before. And I was just curious if you felt like there was evidence there of it being like a temporary spike, perhaps due to folks trying to take advantage of certain rebates that may be expired, or if you feel that there may be a new floor being set as more people may consider batteries in the future.

Yeah, there was a tripling or quadrupling of batteries that were installed in 2025 compared to 2024. I would anticipate the NEM 2.0 change. had played a role in that with the economics changing for those who have solar and their ability to sell that back to the grid. This data set isn't perfect in that it's not, it doesn't, or it might include battery projects that did not include solar, so I actually don't have that, that distinction provided. So the data set is able to show that there were 485 solar permits and there were 407 battery storage permits and some of those could be overlapping.

Right. That's fine.

That makes sense.

Okay. I appreciate that. And I appreciate the conversation we've had so far. Thank you for the update. To me, I appreciated seeing what I feel are many reminders that building toward a sustainable future doesn't just come from ambitious new initiatives, but also from incremental changes behind the scenes documented here. And I think we'll talk about some more of them later on tonight. But bike lanes added in the pavement program, you know, is one way in which we're able to WE HAVE MULTIPLE POSITIVES COME OUT OF OUR WORK AND LOW OUT OF OUR WORK AND LOW VOLTAGE ENERGY EFFICIENT VOLTAGE ENERGY EFFICIENT FACILITIES INSTALLED WITH REVAMPS FACILITIES INSTALLED WITH REVAMPS TO OUR CITY INFRASTRUCTURE AND TO OUR CITY INFRASTRUCTURE AND GETTING GRANTS WHERE WE CAN TO GETTING GRANTS WHERE WE CAN TO ADD EV CHARGING STATIONS, ADD EV CHARGING STATIONS, REPLACING WATER HEATERS WITH REPLACING WATER HEATERS WITH HEAT PUMPS AND MORE. HEAT PUMPS AND MORE. LEVERAGING OUR FACILITY LEVERAGING OUR FACILITY ASSESSMENT IS SOMETHING I LOOK ASSESSMENT IS SOMETHING And with that, I would like to move on to our next item, which also has Andrea Chow. This one is about equitable access to electric vehicle charging infrastructure. It's a study session. And Andrea has a presentation for us on this item as well.

All right. Good evening. My name is Andrea Chow. I'm the sustainability analyst with the city of San Mateo. And I'm here to talk about electric vehicle charging infrastructure. On road transportation is the city's largest sector of greenhouse gas emissions. And so this transition from gas vehicles to electric vehicles is a key transportation-related strategy to reducing these emissions. And this presentation tonight will talk about how important equitable access is to EV charging infrastructure. And staff's recommendation tonight is receive an informational report on strategies, partnerships, and programs to ensure that residents have access to electric vehicle charging infrastructure. THIS REPORT AND PRESENTATION IS FOLLOWING THE CITY COUNCIL'S PRIORITY THAT IS SUMMARIZED ON THE SLIDE HERE ABOUT DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO ENCOURAGE EV CHARGING INFRASTRUCTURE THROUGHOUT THIS COMMUNITY. AND I'LL ALSO TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO MENTION THAT I AM ACCOMPANIED BY MELANIE JASPER OF PENINSULA CLEAN ENERGY WHO IS AN EXPERT ON THE EV READY PROGRAM THAT I'LL TALK LATER ON. uh in the presentation and she's uh present over zoom for for questions later I WANTED TO START WITH A LITTLE BIT OF BACKGROUND IN EV CHARGING, JUST SHOWING THE THREE BASIC LEVELS OF EV CHARGING. LEVEL ONE IS THE SLOWEST, IT ADDS ABOUT TWO MILES OF RANGE IN 30 MINUTES AND IS IDEAL FOR OVERNIGHT CHARGING. LEVEL TWO ADDS 10 MILES OF RANGE IN 30 MINUTES AND THIS IS MOST COMMON IN HOMES, WORKPLACES AND PUBLIC GARAGES AND THEN LEVEL THREE WHICH I think is more commonly known as fast charging, adds 90 miles of range in 30 minutes. So thus these types of chargers have really fast turnover. So staff explored a variety of strategies, and I'll start with curbside charging. So most EV chargers you'll see are installed in off-street parking areas, but some cities have implemented curbside charging in effort to increase charging access. Curbside charging could entail infrastructure installed on a light pole or utility pole, as seen in these pictures here on the slide, or it could also be installed as a standalone unit right on the curb. In 2021, PCE engaged a technical consultant to evaluate this approach, and their study found a few key challenges about this approach, which included electricity submetering, PG&E coordination, and power supply capacity that was available. Installing submetering specifically for EV charger use would be required to install these chargers and was found to be pretty cost prohibitive as part of the solution. PG&E coordination would be key in investigating electrical capacity at these individual power supplies such as light poles, power poles, and also evaluating those existing transformers. So they'd really need to be a willing partner to identify these opportunities and locations and then also approve that curbside charging project. Another challenge kind of outside of that was THINKING THROUGH HOW RESTRICTING ON STREET PARKING THINKING THROUGH HOW RESTRICTING ON STREET PARKING SPACES TO EV CHARGING WOULD SPACES TO EV CHARGING WOULD IMPACT PARKING AVAILABILITY AND IMPACT PARKING AVAILABILITY AND ALSO NECESSITY A NEW ENFORCEMENT ALSO NECESSITY A NEW ENFORCEMENT OF THESE SPACES. OF THESE SPACES. SO PC HAS BEEN MOSTLY FOCUSED ON SO PC HAS BEEN MOSTLY FOCUSED ON OFF STREET PARKING, I'M SORRY, OFF OFF STREET PARKING, I'M SORRY, OFF STREET CHARGING THROUGH THE EV READY STREET CHARGING THROUGH THE EV READY PROGRAM THAT WILL BE DISCUSSED PRO AND WE HAVEN'T SEEN IT YET IN SAN MATEO COUNTY BUT NOTABLY LOS ANGELES AND THE CITY OF ALAMEDA BOTH HAVE IMPLEMENTED CURBSIDE CHARGING AND BOTH OF THESE CITIES ALSO OPERATE WITH THEIR OWN MUNICIPAL UTILITY AND SO I THINK THAT HAS CONTRIBUTED TO THE THE PROCESS FOR INSTALLATION IN THEIR COMMUNITIES through the rycaps working group which is a collaborative collaborative group from the county of san mateo and all the cities working on climate initiatives city staff has been leading and also participating in specific subgroups that are focused both on building decarbonization and electric vehicle infrastructure SO IN 2025 GROUPS OF STAFF FROM THESE DIFFERENT CITIES DECIDED TO HOST AN IN-PERSON EVENT THAT'S FOCUSED ON MULTIFAMILY PROPERTY OWNERS WITH THE GOAL OF CONNECTING PROPERTY OWNERS TO RESOURCES TO MAKE ELECTRIC EQUIPMENT UPGRADES AS WELL AS AS WELL AS INSTALLING ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING IN OUR BUILDINGS THIS EVENT WAS CALLED FUTURE PROOF YOUR MULTIFAMILY PROPERTY AND WAS HOSTED ON MAY 19TH It was a four-hour event at the Chan Zuckerberg Community Space in Redwood City. We had a lot of speakers. The event included speakers from the Bay Area Air District, from Bay Run, Peninsula Clean Energy, Menlo Spark, and Go Green Financing. And then there were also exhibitors who were tabling at the event really with the goal of connecting those who attended directly to resources to make that next step. TO ADVERTISE THIS EVENT, THE TEAM SENT DIRECT MAILERS TO NEARLY 2400 PROPERTY OWNERS ACROSS THE COUNTY AND THEN ALSO TARGETED OUTREACH WITH SPECIFIC ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDING THE APARTMENT OWNERS ASSOCIATION, CALIFORNIA APARTMENT ASSOCIATION AND SAMCAR, THE SAN MATEO COUNTY ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS. OVERALL THE EVENT WAS A SUCCESS WITH 98 PEOPLE ATTENDING. THE WORKING GROUPS WILL CONTINUE TO MEET TO DECIDE ON NEXT STEPS, BUT POSSIBLE OPTIONS THAT WERE DISCUSSED INCLUDING HOSTING ANOTHER IN-PERSON EVENTS TARGETING MULTI-FAMILY PROPERTY OWNERS, HOSTING VIRTUAL EVENTS AS WELL AS WORKING WITH THESE PARTNER OR SPECIFIC ORGANIZATIONS TO PRESENT THEIR MEMBERS DIRECTLY. SO COMMUNITY WIDE THE CITY HAS SEEN GROWTH YEAR TO YEAR IN THE AVAILABILITY OF PUBLIC CHARGING AT VARIOUS PUBLIC PARKING LOTS. THE CITY OF SAN MATEO OPERATES 70 EV CHARGING PORTS AT CITY OWNED FACILITIES. THESE ARE MOSTLY LEVEL TWO CHARGING PORTS BUT WE ALSO HAVE TWO EV GO CHARGING PORTS AVAILABLE AT THE TRANSIT CENTER GARAGE. Crowdsource data through PlugShare.com, which is shown on the screen, all of those pins are level two in fast charging charging ports. They show that in addition to the 70 ports that are at city-owned facility, there are 329 charging ports that are available throughout the community. THESE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE CHARGING PORTS INCLUDE 159 FAST CHARGING PORTS AND 172 LEVEL 2 CHARGING PORTS. AND I THINK WHAT'S ACTUALLY REALLY REMARKABLE IS THE GROWTH IN PUBLICLY AVAILABLE CHARGING PORTS. IN 2023 THERE WERE 174. AND SO 174 TO 329 FOUND IN 2025. SO WE ARE SEEING GROWTH IN WHAT IS MADE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE. It's incredibly important for especially level two chargers that they are sited close to destination locations. Because as I mentioned at the top of the presentation, you need to be at this location for several, well, depending on how much charge you need in your car, you're getting about 10 miles per 30 minutes. And so having a grocery store, restaurant or gym and shopping center is an attractive way to have someone charge their vehicle while also WHILE ALSO CHARGING THEIR CAR. SO IN CONSIDERING HOW WE INCENTIVIZE PRIVATE EMPLOYERS TO EXPAND EMPLOYEE CHARGING TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC, IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT TO FIRST REALLY CONSIDER LOCATION. AND SO WE ACTUALLY ARE SEEING THAT WORK REALLY WELL AT OUR OWN CITY SITES WHERE SAN MATEO CITY HALL AND ALSO OUR CORPORATION YARD ARE LOCATED ADJACENT TO SOME MULTIFAMILY PROPERTIES. And outside of the city's business hours, so nights and on weekends, these chargers are available to the public. And the city has received positive responses for this charging access. Unfortunately, staff wasn't able to do further research on identifying specific employers or office parks that might improve this equitable access throughout the community. But I think the growth in charging access shown on this map and through that data I provided shows how both customer demand as well as the economic drivers for providing public charging has been increasing over the years. And then... I WANT TO HIGHLIGHT PENINSULA CLEAN ENERGY'S EV READY PROGRAM THIS PROGRAM HAS BEEN IN PLACE SINCE 2020 PROVIDING BOTH TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO PROPERTY OWNERS AND INCENTIVES THE PROGRAM HAS EVALUATED OVER 350 SITES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTY AND INSTALLED 2500 PORTS AND SO THROUGH THIS PROGRAM PROPERTY OWNERS RECEIVE CONTRACTOR BIDDING SUPPORT negotiated charger pricing as well as guidance on selecting vendors and setting prices and navigating incentives in many cases the program has actually supported the installation of level one and load managed level two charging which helps keep costs low and avoid service upgrades there's been advancements in technology that make it a bit more seamless for both the electric vehicle driver and the property owner to set those rates for electric vehicle charging and also collect revenues. With a recent revamp and new consultant on board for the EV Ready program, Peninsula Clean Energy is really focused on multifamily property engagement this year, and they want to share the program broadly. And so they've started to host webinars every other month to highlight this program and educate property owners of what's available to them. They hosted a webinar just last week on March 28th, THE WEBINAR REALLY REVIEWS THE KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR PLANNING AND INSTALLING EV CHARGING AT THEIR PROPERTY AS WELL AS GOING OVER THE INCENTIVES THAT ARE AVAILABLE TO THEM AND SO STAFF WILL MAKE SURE TO PROMOTE THESE WEBINARS TO THE CITY CHANNELS AND WE'RE AGAIN WE'RE WORKING WITH RETHINK WAYS TO HAVE THE EV READY PROGRAM AND A RECOLOGY BILL INSERT THAT SPECIFIC FOR MULTI-FAMILY PROPERTY OWNERS COMING UP And as I mentioned, I'm grateful to have Melanie Jasper here, who's the Associate Program Manager of Transportation at PCE, in case there are any specific questions on the EV Ready program. And this is my closing side. Through this research and exploration, staff found that there are many other cities and partner agencies interested in supporting equitable access to EV charging throughout the community, throughout the county. Curbside charging appears to be the most challenging of the approaches that were evaluated. but staff plan to continue engagement efforts through the county working groups to identify a coordinated approach to engaging multifamily property owners, especially as many property owners own properties in different cities. Additionally, staff will partner with Peninsula Clean Energy to promote their EV Ready program to support multifamily property owners with, and then some additional research and work to be done to identify specific employers or office areas where there might be an opportunity to improve equitable access and EV charging throughout the community. Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation. At this time, I will open up the item to public comment. On Zoom, you may raise your hand.

Thank you, Mayor Loren. We have no request to speak in our virtual environment, and we have two requests to speak in chambers. We'll set the timer at three minutes per speaker, and we'll invite up Kevin Simpson as our first speaker, followed by Mike Swire. Just one moment. Hey, pardon?

Ready? Okay. Here we go. I am calm.

I am ready.

So I'm like the test bed for this whole thing, because I got my first electric car in August of last year. It's a Honda Prologue. I love the darn thing. Honda decided to bail out on electricity. Boo them. But in navigating this whole thing, I'm in a rental property. I'm a renter. It's a duplex. It's in North Central. It was built in 2008. It's got to be one of the newest homes in North Central. There's not a 250, 40 volt, whatever it is, 240 amp in the place. It would cost my landlady $5,000 to run a line to the place where cars could charge on our duplex. That would get me down to $0.31 to charge if I plug it in right at midnight and unplug it right at 7 AM. That's not competitive. I can go up to the top of the hill, buy Piazzas, and charge at the Tesla chargers at more convenient times for $0.31. So I'm still paying through the nose. It's still way cheaper than gasoline now, courtesy of a certain someone. But that's the first thing is there's still a lot of problems with the delivery of affordable energy and making it get there. And so when I look at, when I try to navigate all of the programs that are said to be out there to help landlords and renters and homeowners get infrastructure into their buildings to do it most efficiently. The incentive isn't there from PG&E, and it's extremely opaque how to navigate this. I frankly can't find all these city chargers. The ones there in the central garage, when I plug them in, I can go away and come back later and have like three more miles. And I'm taking up, they're just out of date. The two public EVgo, fast chargers that are downtown. I tried to go have lunch at our new diner downtown and thought well I'll park my car and charge it while I'm gone. Could not get the EVgo chargers to work at all. I'm not a dumb person. I can navigate websites, read information, collect it all. We have a real problem with TRANSPARENCY, CLARITY, AND TRULY WELL THOUGHT OUT AVAILABILITY ON THIS. SO I HOPE WE KEEP PLUGGING AWAY AT IT. I HOPE THE CITY REALLY PUSHES OUR PARTNERS IN THIS TO DO SOMETHING THAT'S REALLY EFFECTIVE BECAUSE IT'S WHAT WE NEED TO BE DOING. WE NEED TO GET PEOPLE ON ELECTRIC CARS AND MAKING IT MUCH, MUCH EASIER. lots and lots of electric chargers in our car palace over there by Kiku Crossing, which stands empty most of the time. And that would be a good way to get people in there. Thank you very much. Great report.

Thank you. And our final speaker is Mike Swire.

YEAH THANKS SO MUCH UM UH REGARDING UM APARTMENT DRIVERS I RENT TWO IN MY BUILDING I THINK THERE'S A COUPLE CHARGERS AND I THINK THEY CHARGE UPWARD AT 350 A MONTH TO PARK IN THOSE IT'S HIGHER THAN THE MARKET RATE AND IT'S HIGHER THAN NON-EV AND THE THING IS YOU'RE BUYING ALL YOU CAN EAT SO I HAVE A SMALL CAR I DON'T DRIVE THAT MUCH I WOULD LOVE TO BE ABLE TO PARK IT FOR AN HOUR OR TWO TIMES 10 MINUTES OR 20 MINUTES AN HOUR AN HOUR OR 20 MINUTES AN HOUR SO I DON'T KNOW THE DEGREE TO WHICH SO I DON'T KNOW THE DEGREE TO WHICH WE CAN ENCOURAGE WE CAN ENCOURAGE APARTMENTS TO OFFER PAY AS YOU GO APARTMENTS TO OFFER PAY AS YOU GO AS OPPOSED TO ALL YOU CAN EAT AS OPPOSED TO ALL YOU CAN EAT WHICH IS PROBABLY SIMPLER FOR WHICH IS PROBABLY SIMPLER FOR THEM BUT CHARGE POINT AND ALL THOSE THEM BUT CHARGE POINT AND ALL THOSE COMPANIES ARE SET UP FOR THAT SO COMPANIES ARE SET UP FOR THAT SO THAT'S NOT BAD ANOTHER LOW-HANGING THAT'S NOT BAD ANOTHER LOW-HANGING FRUIT IS SCHOOL DISTRICT SO I WAS FRUIT And I was like, oh, I could use a charge. And I went up and their pricing is set that during business hours, it's basically $0.35 kilowatt hour, which is basically fair price. After hours, i.e. when the employees leave, it doubles to $0.70. So they're basically saying, F you. We don't want anyone charging here. at night and i'm pretty sure that's at truett smfc sd um also so i don't know if you guys could talk to them you know it seems like they should i think you're also talking about sharing um playing fields we should be sharing chargers especially at night when there's nobody parked at those places Regarding charging on the street, I don't see why this can't work. I know that any time a parking spot disappears, people have a hernia. But I just got back from Montreal, and they have it everywhere. Not every spot, but tons of spots. It's 10 times as dense as here. It can be done. And then finally, I want to make sure, especially when we consider equity, we focus on the real opportunity. E-bikes outsell EVs in the state of California. And I'll bet you within this demographic, i.e. people that can't afford the $50,000 price of a new car, e-bike penetration is going through the roof. So I think you've got to talk about both of these in concert. When I signed my lease, I didn't realize it, but they actually say that I have to get permission to charge an e-bike in my apartment. I just read that's actually illegal under California law. So I think what would be great is to be on an education program, making sure people know that, hey, your apartment, your landlord cannot do this. AND THEN ALSO I SAID WELL WHAT ABOUT EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYERS CAN ACTUALLY PREVENT YOU FROM CAN ACTUALLY PREVENT YOU FROM BRINGING AN EBIKE ON THE PROPERTY BRINGING AN EBIKE ON THE PROPERTY THAT'S NOT COOL ESPECIALLY IF THAT'S NOT COOL ESPECIALLY IF THEY'RE OFFERING FREE PARKING FOR THEY'RE OFFERING FREE PARKING FOR MASSIVE SUVS AND SUCH SO YOU KNOW MASSIVE SUVS AND SUCH SO YOU KNOW LET'S NOT FORGET THAT EBIKES ARE LET'S NOT FORGET THAT EBIKES ARE MUCH MORE ADOPTIVE ESPECIALLY MUCH MORE ADOPTIVE ESPECIALLY AMONGST A NEATER DEMOGRAPHIC AND AMONGST A NEATER DEMOGRAPHIC AND THEY ALSO USE FAR LESS ENERGY THEY ALSO USE FAR L

THANK YOU FOR THOSE COMMENTS AND I'LL CLOSE PUBLIC COMMENT FOR THIS ITEM. BRING IT BACK TO THE DESK TO SEE IF COUNCIL MEMBERS HAVE QUESTIONS. COUNCIL MEMBERS.

THANK YOU FOR THE PRESENTATION. COULD YOU PULL UP THE SLIDE WHERE IT SHOWCASES ALL THE EV STATIONS ACROSS THE CITY, PLEASE?

YES. THE SLIDE IS UP. THERE WE GO.

EAST SAN MATEO HAS NOTHING.

So you'll see the chargers are concentrated where we have specific commercial areas. But yes, I think there are areas of opportunity where there is a lack of charging with concentrations around these destinations that I was mentioning, grocery stores and shopping centers.

Why not put some charging stations in the golf course parking lot?

So I think there's opportunity, whether it's a golf course, Seal Point Park, you know, just strategically located throughout the city where we have city property. We'd have to look and kind of study exactly just the cost overall. I'd want to try to make it as cost neutral as possible and easy so that we don't have to have a whole bunch of excavation and, you know, rising costs. But we could probably look at it and see what opportunities there are, right? Low-hanging fruit where you could actually add chargers.

Yeah, it's interesting because I actually feel like we have a lot of charging stations. But then there's these pockets where there's like none, right? Yeah. So anyways, that's my only comment. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Council Member Newsom. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Great presentation. Thank you very much. I... I'm very lucky in that I'm an early adopter of having an EV. I've had one now for five and a half years. Luckily, I worked for Ford Motor Company when they, so otherwise I couldn't afford to buy one if I were to buy one today. I've also never moved from beyond a class one charger at home. So I have to tend to be ABCing, always be charging when my car is home. I am curious if we're concerned about the state. So the state of EVs was, if you look over the last three years, and boy, I wonder what happened in the last few years. We had 32% adoption in the state in 2023. 2024, it dropped to 25%. Last year, they're saying it dropped to 23%. i am not saying that we should agree with this trend i think we should continue to buck the trend and make sure we continue to expand but it is concerning uh it's also concerning and i meant to bring this up when we talked about our fleet earlier is that you know we we've only got about 15 of our fleet uh electric for the city so far which you know we have a goal for ourselves to have that done in the next now four years and we are We're dragging, so we need to work on that. Sorry, back to the questions.

NO. WE CHANGED IT TO 2035 AS PART WE CHANGED IT TO 2035 AS PART OF YOUR BLUE SKY. OF YOUR BLUE SKY. THAT'S RIGHT. THAT'S RIGHT. PER YOUR RECOMMENDATION. PER YOUR RECOMMENDATION. THAT'S RIGHT.

THAT'S RIGHT. I FORGOT. I FORGOT. WE'RE NOW IN LINE WITH THE WE'RE NOW IN LINE WITH THE STATE BUT WE'RE STILL WOEFULLY STATE BUT WE'RE STILL WOEFULLY MOVING SLOWLY. MOVING SLOWLY. ANYTHING WE CAN DO TO HELP GET ANYTHING WE CAN DO TO HELP GET THAT GOING IS GREAT. THAT GOING IS GREAT. SUPPORTIVE OF THE CURB SIDE SUPPORTIVE OF THE CURB SIDE CHARGING. CHARGING. I KNOW WE HAVE TWO OF THESE IN I KNOW WE HAVE TWO OF THESE IN STATION PARK ONE THING I KNOW, WHEN I'VE HAD TO STAY AT MY MOM'S HOUSE AND ONE THING I KNOW, WHEN I'VE HAD TO STAY AT MY MOM'S HOUSE AND TAKE CARE OF HER, SHE LIVES TAKE CARE OF HER, SHE LIVES RIGHT HERE BEHIND CITY HALL. RIGHT HERE BEHIND CITY HALL. AND SO I'VE USED THE CHARGE POINTS AND SO I'VE USED THE CHARGE POINTS THAT ARE HERE ON SITE. THAT ARE HERE ON SITE. AND A COUPLE OBSERVATIONS. AND A COUPLE OBSERVATIONS. ONE, I'M NOT ACTUALLY SURE THAT ONE, I'M NOT ACTUALLY SURE THAT THE RATE IS RIGHT. THE RATE IS RIGHT. IT'S PRETTY LOW BUT THEY'RE ALSO IT'S PRETTY LOW BUT THEY'RE ALSO EXTREMELY SLOW. EXTREMELY SL FASTER CHARGER BECAUSE TURNING THEM OVER AND TURNING PEOPLE FASTER CHARGER BECAUSE TURNING THEM OVER AND TURNING PEOPLE OVER ON THEM IS WHAT'S OVER ON THEM IS WHAT'S IMPORTANT. IMPORTANT. THE OTHER THING I'VE OBSERVED THE OTHER THING I'VE OBSERVED WITH THE CITY CHARGERS IS THAT WITH THE CITY CHARGERS IS THAT THERE IS NO, LIKE MOST CHARGING THERE IS NO, LIKE MOST CHARGING STATIONS HAVE A 30-MINUTE RACE STATIONS HAVE A 30-MINUTE RACE PERIOD. If you charge and you're topped off to 100%, you have 30 minutes to get off the charger. Otherwise, they start charging you. We don't have that on our EV chargers on city lots. And so what I've observed here with the city hall charger is people will, on the weekend, plug in and leave for two days. it just that there's no turnover so i would like to see if it's possible to suggest a charge point that we adopt that same model of you know maybe it's 30 minutes or an hour grace period but after that you know you start getting billed if you leave it on the charger just to get people to turn over and then what was my other thought with the charge point i am going to be addressing uh THIS QUESTION TO THE SCHOOL, BUT THANK YOU. I ACTUALLY HAVE TALKED ABOUT IT TO THEM A LOT ON OUR ONE-ON-ONES. THE HIGH SCHOOL CHARGERS ARE AVAILABLE TO PEOPLE AFTER HOURS, BUT ALL OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS ARE NOT. SO WE'LL BE BRINGING THAT UP WITH DIEGO TODAY. HE ACTUALLY ASKED ME TO MAKE SURE WE BROUGHT IT UP TODAY. THE SAME SORT OF A CHALLENGE IS THE SAME SORT OF A CHALLENGE IS THAT THOSE CHARGERS DON'T EVEN THAT THOSE CHARGERS DON'T EVEN SHOW UP ON YOUR MAP SO BECAUSE SHOW UP ON YOUR MAP SO BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. THEY'RE NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. SO THERE IS A LOT OF OPPORTUNITY SO THERE IS A LOT OF OPPORTUNITY THERE TO EXPAND OUR NETWORK THERE TO EXPAND OUR NETWORK AND TO COUNCIL MEMBERS POINT AND TO COUNCIL MEMBERS POINT THAT WILL ACTUALLY HAVE CHARGERS IN THAT WILL ACTUALLY HAVE CHARGERS IN OUR NEIGHBORHOODS BECAUSE RIGHT NOW OUR NEIGHBORHOODS BECAUSE RIGHT NOW THEY'RE REALLY CENTRALIZED TO THEY'RE REALLY CENTRALIZED TO RETAIL LOC I think that's all my questions. Actually, there was a lot more comments than questions. I apologize. Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Council Member Diaz-Nash.

Thank you very much to the Mayor and thank you Andrea for another great presentation. I'm interested in the detail of your discussions with some of the larger groups like CAA, SAMCAR, what their feedback has been and what they're thinking about doing because I would think that could be quite a good business proposition for them to say we've got all these chargers.

Yeah, the initial engagement with these groups was focused on promoting the event. So that was just the initial discussion. I think there's more conversations to be had about the availability of programs and how to engage those members.

Yeah, I would certainly encourage that because they've got much better reach than we do. And I'm wondering, it's probably something you have to, I don't know how you do it, but to council member newsom's point about the fact that and i think mr swire as well that it's much cheaper now to have an ev than to have a gas car how do we how do we incorporate that in our our literature and our materials because it's not going to change anytime soon and i would think that would be something that could be very appealing so that was all i had thank you

OKAY. THANK YOU. THANK YOU. COUNCILMEMBER NEWSOM. COUNCILMEMBER NEWSOM.

SORRY, MR. MAYOR, I SORRY, MR. MAYOR, I REALIZED THE ONE I WAS REALIZED THE ONE I WAS MISSING. MISSING. ANDREA, MY OTHER QUESTION WAS ANDREA, MY OTHER QUESTION WAS WE'RE BUILDING A LOT RIGHT NOW. WE'RE BUILDING A LOT RIGHT NOW. AND AS WE'RE DOING NEW BUILDS, AND AS WE'RE DOING NEW BUILDS, ARE WE REQUIRING THE BUILDS TO ARE WE REQUIRING THE BUILDS TO BE IN LINE WITH THE STATE BE IN LINE WITH THE STATE AVERAGE OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES? AVERAGE OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES? FOR EXAMPLE, IF A BUILDING IS FOR EXAMPLE, IF

SO I ACTUALLY DON'T KNOW OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD WHAT'S REQUIRED FOR NEW CONSTRUCTION. WHAT PREVIOUSLY CAME BEFORE THE COUNCIL ARE REACH CODES THAT REQUIRE MORE THAN THE STATE CODE. MELANIE, RAISE YOUR HAND. CAN YOU SPEAK TO NEW CONSTRUCTION REQUIREMENTS FOR EV CHARGING? I KNOW WE DID NOT LOOK AT REACH CODES FOR EV CHARGING BECAUSE THE STATE CODE BECAME MORE AMBITIOUS.

Yeah, that's exactly the answer I was going to say, at least for multifamily. The state has now adopted that 100% of new build spaces are some form of like, have some form of charging. Available, so I think your city did previously have reached codes for EV charging now. the state matches that level. So those aren't necessary. I would have to double check what the new build for like offices are, whether there's still an opportunity to go beyond. But that, yeah, I think multifamily has been our focus in the past and the state is now caught up.

And just to expand upon that feedback, is multifamily meaning that WELL, IT WOULD BE ANY BUILDING THAT WELL, IT WOULD BE ANY BUILDING THAT HAS MULTIUNITS. HAS MULTIUNITS. ANY NEW. ANY NEW. OKAY. OKAY. SO HOW ARE WE ADDRESSING LIKE SO HOW ARE WE ADDRESSING LIKE MAKING SURE THAT THAT'S ACTUALLY MAKING SURE THAT THAT'S ACTUALLY WHAT'S HAPPENING? WHAT'S HAPPENING? MEANING IF A BUILDING IS GETTING MEANING IF A BUILDING IS GETTING BUILT WITH 100 PARKING SPACES, HOW BUILT WITH 100 PARKING SPACES, HOW ARE WE MAKING SURE THAT AT LEAST ARE WE MAKING SURE THAT AT LEAST 25, 50% OF THEM HAVE CHARGING? 25, 50% OF THEM HAVE CHARGING?

YEAH. YEAH. AS PART OF OUR PLAN CHECK AS PART OF OUR PLAN CH

Thank you. So Andrea, would you be able to speak a little to comments we heard about folks trying to access our chargers and use them. It sounds like we have a company called ChargePoint that maintains them. How often do they maintain them and update information related to their use? And if someone had a concern with a unit not functioning properly, how could they alert the city?

SURE. THE CITY HAS A FEW DIFFERENT MANUFACTURERS THAT HAVE EV CHARGING. SO WE HAVE A LOT OF CHARGE POINT CHARGERS. WE HAVE POWER FLEX CHARGERS AND WE ALSO HAVE EV GO THAT'S SITED ON CITY PROPERTY. THE BEST WAY TO REPORT AN ISSUE IS TO REPORT IT TO THE MANUFACTURER, THE PHONE NUMBER THAT'S ON THE CHARGING STATION. I WILL SAY, YOU KNOW, SOME OF publicly available charger face a lot of repair needs. And so we do have contracts with our manufacturers to address repairs as needed. I WILL GO AHEAD AND SHARE WHERE OUR EV CHARGERS ARE LOCATED. THEY'RE LOCATED IN EVERY SINGLE ONE OF OUR PUBLIC GARAGES DOWNTOWN. SO IN CENTRAL, WE HAVE TWO PORTS, BUT OUR LARGER AREAS OF CHARGING INCLUDE THE MAIN STREET GARAGE IN THE BASEMENT LEVEL. IN THE SECOND AND EL CAMINO GARAGE ON THE FIRST FLOOR, EACH OF THOSE HAS OVER TEN ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING PORTS. AND THEN OUR GARAGE HAS OVER 20 CHARGERS AVAILABLE ON EACH OF, I THINK, THE ONE, TWO, AND THREE FLOORS. AND THOSE ARE CHARGE POINT CHARGERS. SO THOSE ARE THE ONES THAT ARE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE CITY. AND, YEAH, SO TO REPORT AN ISSUE, CALLING THE PHONE NUMBER THAT'S AVAILABLE IS THE BEST WAY TO DO SO. AND WE DO HAVE CONTRACTS TO FIX THEM.

THANK YOU. I DID, I APPRECIATE THE DISCUSSION WE'VE BEEN HEARING TODAY THROUGH PUBLIC COMMENT, QUESTIONS FROM COUNCILMEMBERS, AND THE PRESENTATION TO CONSIDER HOW WE CAN BROADEN OUR NETWORK AND GIVE OPPORTUNITIES FOR PROPERTY OWNERS TO hopefully add cost-effective, useful EV charging to their facilities. I'm curious about, we talked to, a little bit about this, I think. Certainly in previous contexts, the city has had productive conversations with developers on increasing public access to after-hours parking in commercial and mixed-use developments. Do we have EV-related targets to that, or could we consider that going forward?

Yeah, I think that could be a consideration. I think the, I guess the map's not on the screen right now, but we're seeing a concentration of, thank you, publicly available EV charging in most of our retail areas. And so there seems to be already an economic driver that's that's driving private property owners to install EV charging. And so that is encouraging. But as I mentioned, I think there is an opportunity to especially focus where there appears to be a lack of charging and some strategizing to consider where additional EV charging access could be focused on.

Yeah, I appreciate you sharing that. I mean, part of the idea behind this council priority was to seek partnership opportunities with Peninsula Clean Energy and specifically with Sustainable San Mateo County, which seemed to be advertising at the time, a program that could allow for multiple entities to tackle this. And I'm sorry to learn that the plans didn't maybe not proceed as intended on that. But I do think the challenge is still there. And I am heartened to see an increased number of overall chargers in the city. I guess to sort of bring it a little bit in line with our previous item, though, I'm curious about where we feel we are in terms of like overall number of chargers. You know, compared to what good looks like at some point, I think we've heard those of us who've been watching the governor's debates that they have heard a lot about how many charges have been installed versus how many we feel we need as a state. And I guess I'm curious if if we have, you know, a sense of of where we are as a city on that front.

I'LL START BY SAYING THAT I MENTIONED THE STATISTICS OF THE GROWTH FROM 2023 TO 2025 AND PUBLICLY AVAILABLE CHARGING ACCESS. I THINK THAT A PERCEIVED BARRIER TO TRANSITIONING TO AN ELECTRIC VEHICLE IS REALLY AT HOME CHARGING OFTEN OR EVEN WORKPLACE CHARGING. AND SO THAT'S WHY PCE EV READY PROGRAM IS SO IMPORTANT IN SUPPORTING OUR PROPERTY OWNERS AND PROVIDING THAT EV CHARGING ACCESS. Melanie, if you don't mind, I want to put you on the spot to kind of share the some of the program statistics about the opportunity with like level one charging, because I think there could really be more access throughout our community without huge service upgrades.

Yeah, definitely. And I think you started to touch on it just behaviorally to like program wise and program strategy wise. We really are focused on installing lower power charging at the locations where people are already parked for the longest time. You know, most people are not driving more than an hour or two a day. The rest of the time, their vehicles park somewhere. And that place is typically either at home or at their workplace. And so that's why a lot of our program strategy focuses first on multifamily. About two-thirds of our project to date have been at multifamily properties. And a lot of those are like the level one charging, which is typically a level one outlet solution. And those are a lot, a lot less expensive, like two or three times less expensive compared to level two projects. So that's why we're really trying to get a lot more access at fewer overall project sites. When we go in and can install 40 outlets at one large apartment complex, that's 40 people that feel comfortable purchasing an EV because they know they have a place to charge at home. So not to say that public charging is not also important, but a lot of where we're spending our time really pushing like moving the needle on EV charging is at those like multifamily and workplace sites.

Yep, I appreciate that. I am hearing that one way to fill out some more of this map, perhaps, is to consider opportunities for at-home charging. And the EV Ready program can help with this. So I appreciate that and understand that we're getting to the timing for our regular meeting. So I want to thank Andrea for the presentation. I want to thank Melanie for being here with her and for those who gave public comment and for the discussion tonight on this item. With that, I will adjourn this meeting, this special meeting, and we'll return in about five minutes to resume the regular meeting. Thank you.