City Council - Regular Meeting

[music] [music] [music] Public communication [music] should not relate to an item that is on the agenda this evening. Consistent with section [music] 9.5 of the city council handbook, 30 minutes will be initially allocated [music] for public communications for items not on the agenda. Additional time for public communications [music] for items not on the agenda will be provided at the end of the open session portion of [music] the meeting if necessary. If you desire to provide a public comment, please complete a speaker identification card [music] and line up behind the lectern at the appropriate time. Wait your turn [music] and then when you approach the lectern, please state your name and city of residence for the record. You will have two minutes to address the city council. Please keep in mind that this is a city business meeting. The city council has adopted rules of decorum to ensure that meetings are conducted efficiently and effectively and that all members of the public have a full, fair, [music] and equal opportunity to be heard. The city council handbook outlines decorum expected in the council chamber and can be found on our website. All remarks should [music] be addressed to the city council. Please do not use threatening, profane, or abusive language [music] which disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly [music] conduct of the council meeting. Again, each speaker will have two minutes to make your remarks. Written comments submitted and received up to

two hours [music] before the meeting have been posted to the city's website for public review and are included in the meeting record, but will not be separately read into the record. All right. Good evening. I'm Kevin Wilk, mayor of the city of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, March 17, 2026 regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council. And please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. [clears throat]

All right, city clerk Susie Martinez, would you please call the role? Council member D here. Council member Deini here. Mayor Pro Francois here. Mayor Wilk here. And council member Silva is absent due to a planned vacation. All right. So, first we have a proclamation that is for International Transgender Day of Visibility. And I would like to invite Alex Bakaro with Rossmore LGBTQ plus Alliance forward to accept the proclamation. And I'm first going to read it and then I'll come there, present it. Give a few words, too. And then

we'll take a picture. All right. Uh well, so International Transgender Day of Visibility was founded in 2009 by US-based transgender activist Rachel Kandle, a licensed psychotherapist and the executive director of Transgender Michigan, created to acknowledge and honor the successes achieved by transgender people. Whereas organizations across the world celebrate International Transgender Day of Visibility as an annual day to celebrate the accomplishment and victories of transgender and gender non-conforming people while raising awareness of the work that is still needed to address the discrimination they face and save transgender lives. International Transgender Day of Visibility is intended to recognize and celebrate the work that is being done by transgender advocacy groups as they fight for dignity and equal rights for members of the transgender community to build inclusive and healing spaces and to protect and defend those who are most vulnerable. And the city of Bulnik Creek recognizes the significant contributions made by transgender people and is committed to creating a community where all are welcome, safe, feel fully accepted and embraced, respected, and can live openly in authentic and accurate representation of who they are free of violence, harassment, and discrimination. And I therefore, Kevin Wilk, mayor of the city of Walnut Creek, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim March 31st, 2026 as International Transgender Day of Visibility. And Alex, if you'd like to say a few words.

Sure. Hi, [clears throat] thank you so much. Um, this is really an honor and I'm here representing a lot of people. Um, we have a wonderful LGBTQ uh plus uh community at Rossmore and I want you to all know that your support and it it's not just this year, but it's been over several years has really been appreciated. um especially in the time that we're in right now where there's so much negativity and um we have someone on our board who actually is an ally and she just retired as a librarian at a middle school in Palo Alto. Three transgender students over the last year have committed suicide. So to to have such a pos to make such a positive statement and to let people of all ages, young people up to my age of 70 that we're valued is I can't tell you how important that is and we so so appreciate it. And we have um some pins that we share with our allies and I wanted to give them to you and it's it just says you are safe with me and the top of it the rainbow is in the the the LGBT rainbow colors and the bottom is for the transgender colors. And um it's amazing the difference that when somebody, you know, walks into your office or I know walking into Kaiser and seeing a doctor with a pin like that, I know that I can talk to them freely and be safe. It's really makes a statement, too. So, thank you from the bottom of all of our hearts for continuing to um give us support.

Absolutely. Well, thank you for being here. Yeah, we're going to go.

[applause]

All right. Well, before we get too comfortable, we have another proclamation or uh prescription drug abuse awareness month and I invite uh Thea Halen Helen sorry uh with the CCC Meds Coalition forward to accept the proclamation. Um so the proclamation is uh when used as prescribed medication play an essential role in supporting the health and well-being of individuals across the United States. Uh whereas misused improperly stored or unused prescription medication can result in accidental poisoning overdose and misuse creating a significant public health concern both nationally and within California. The US Drug Enforcement Agency or the DEA and the state of California encouraged safe storage, responsible use, and proper disposal of prescription medication to prevent misuse, diversion, and accidental harm. And according to the Center for Disease Control, 105,07 drug overdose deaths occurred nationally in 2023. 80,000 were from opioids, which is 70%. and 183 of those opioid related overdose deaths occurred in Contraosta County. So it is at home. The Walnut Creek County Meds Coalition encourages residents of WA Creek to use prescription medications only as directed by their healthcare providers and to never share medication

with others. And proper disposal of unused or expired medications at pharmacies or takeback days helps protect public safety and the environment. The DEA's National Prescription Drug Takeback Day on Saturday, April 25th, 2026 provides a special opportunity for residents to safely dispose of unused medications and participate in efforts to prevent prescription drug misuse in our community and promoting awareness, education, and responsible behaviors regarding prescription medications strengthen the health, safety, and well-being of all Walnut Creek residents. And I therefore, Kevin Wilk, mayor of the city of Walnut Creek, on behalf of the city council, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as pro prescription drug awareness month. And if you'd like to say a few words about this.

Awesome. Good evening, everyone. Uh, thank you, Mayor Wilk, and city council for declaring March as March 2026 as prescription drug abuse awareness month. I want to sincerely thank the city of Walnut Creek for taking this important step to protect the health and safety of our community. As you know, prescription drug misuse continues to be a serious issue here in central Costa Contra Costa County. In our region, thousands of residents are prescribed opioids each year and opioid related overdoses and emergency department visits remain a significant public health concern. In recent years, central Contraosta County has experienced rising overdose rates with youth and young adults increasingly impacted by counterfeit pills containing fentanyl. Many pill many teens do not realize that pills bought online or from friends can be deadly, even if they look like legitimate prescriptions. This issue impacts older adults and our queer community, too. People from all ages and backgrounds are impacted by prescription drug abuse and misuse. Walnut Creek is a strong familyoriented community with a prominent business center. And proclamations like this that y'all made today matter. They send a clear message that the city is committed to prevention, education, and reducing stigma around substance use and mental health. This declaration and proclamation also supports efforts to promote safe medication storage, proper disposal, and conversation conversations between parents, youth, schools, and healthcare providers. By recognizing March 2026 as prescription drug abuse awareness month, Walnut Creek is helping to increase awareness, encourage responsible responsible prescribing and disposal practices, and protect our youth and elders from preventable harm. It also demonstrates leadership in

addressing a crisis affecting families across our community. I would also like to remind everyone that DEA takeback day will be on April 25th from 10 to 10 a.m. to 10 2 p.m. Uh the local police station participating will be conquered. You can also dispose of medications year round at your local pharmacy or police station, but we definitely recommend to call ahead to ensure they have capacity. Uh but thank you again for your commitment to public health and for standing with residents, educators, and prevention partners to keep Walnut Creek safe and healthy. Thank you so much. Reduce crime and strengthen trust in our city's commitment to public safety. Thank you.

Thank you. And so you you said you have reported this to the police. Yes. Okay. Um we hear about this throughout the state and it just is so upsetting because obviously there's nothing we can do in the middle of the night. Um, what I'd like you to do is talk to is Captain Slater, you want to handle this? Captain Slater in the back just for any other additional information. And what I would like to see is something in the future of something that we may be able to get behind and support as a city that uh we can help to discourage the resale of these. I'll put it that way. Absolutely. Thank you for coming. Thank you.

Yeah. And mayor, if if I could add to that, this has been discussed over the last couple of years on a statewide level in terms of legislation. We can uh if you're interested as well, provide an update on legislation that's been passed or that is still pending that might need it a nudge to move forward if you're interested and we can do more outreach with our state legislators on this issue. It is a statewide concern and an ongoing problem. Yeah, actually I I would like to see something about that. I think that this is something that uh we don't hear about something for two or three months, then it flares up again and and when we hear about overnight burglaries, it's almost always something like this. Thank you. Yes, I would be very interested in that. Thanks.

Do we have any other public comment? It looks like not. Okay. So, we'll close the public comment and we will move to council member and staff announcements, reports on activities or requests. Do we have any closed session announcements? Uh, there are no reportable actions that are being reported this evening. City manager reports. Do have one update this evening. Some good news to share. Our deputy city clerk, Lena Branson, received her certified municipal clerk designation from the International Institute of M municipal clerks, which is put more succinctly a big deal. Wow. All right.

Required a lot of effort. And I want to thank Elena for her commitment to this and your commitment to the profession. So, congratulations. [applause]

Congratulations. Wonderful. Council member Deini. Sure. Uh, good evening. Um, just a few things to report this week. Um, I had my, um, meeting with, uh, our new chief, Chief Hibs, where we got a chance to discuss kind of his vision, uh, for, uh, the department, crime fighting in Walnut Creek, and an opportunity to share some thoughts as well. and I've always appreciated the open lines of communication and uh really looking forward to to working with Chief Hibbs to move us forward in a positive direction. So, you know, thanks for that time. Um had uh my orientation meeting for MCE as Council Member Darling's um backup alternate as I'll be serving uh later this month. And uh it was a quite a lengthy orientation, a four hour Zoom call, but it was full of a lot of good information and um looking forward to serving in that role as needed. Uh and then we had our transpac, the regional transportation uh board meeting uh that I'm the uh representative to from Walnut Creek. It was not there weren't a lot of controversial or uh items of note, but one thing I thought was really interesting was getting a a presentation from a a senior mobility uh service called Mobility Matters. And just for those of you who don't know what that is, a reminder, there's a a transportation service for seniors that are aging in place. So maybe they've lost their license. Um, and they don't have family or friends to come and pick them up, drive them around, take them to appointments, and they're not able to use like taxis or or Uber. They need someone to actually come into the house, help them in their house, get into the car, their ambulatory, and then help them maybe into their appointment, into the grocery store. Uh so this so

mobility matters is a volunteer organization that um pairs you up with somebody for each service appointment. Uh it's all volunteer run and they will come out uh do an assessment match you with the right services and um it's it's all free for any member of the Contraosta. So, if you have a senior that's uh you know aging in place and has lost their ability to drive and um needs uh transportation services um I encourage you to reach out to mobility matters and see if that's a good fit. That's all I have. All right. Thank you so much, Mayor Prom Francois.

Thank you, Mayor. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone. Uh my update is relatively brief. I uh as I'm chair of the personnel committee for recycle smart. Recycle smart is a joint powers authority that collects garbage, recyclables, and organics. And uh as chair of the personnel committee, I have the enviable position of uh meeting with my colleagues and talking about cola adjustments for our our great staff and a performance evaluation of our executive director who is equally great. And our recommendations will move forward on the cola to the finance committee. And in terms of the performance evaluation to the full board, one thing that we instituted a few years ago was in addition with how things are working in in the recycle smart organization generally and it seems to have been wellreceived. So that will be going forward in the next few months. I was at the uh I happened upon the coffee with a cop uh event at Starbucks last week where we had the full contingent of our PD there including the chief and the captains meeting with many members of staff and it was a it was a fun event. There were a lot of uh you know freebies and people stopping by and interacting with the police and asking questions and so glad to see that we've resumed that and that it was so wellreceived. And then finally, I uh next to last, I was at the farmers market booth uh this last Sunday. Good turnout, great weather. Uh always like talking to my friend Pete Sutherland from Cali Craft and maybe coming home with a six-pack from him, but paid for, of course. [laughter] But some of the uh of the pe people that stopped by, one uh resident kind of mentioned, you know, along the lines of

our all abilities playground uh the and she's a speech therapist. The idea of kind of a communications board for children that are nonverbal that might be able to easier for them to interact with other kids when they're at a playground or an event like that. got a question too about our office vacancy rates and I you know talked about some of the developments that are in the works around the Ignatio Center and then also kind of this dichotomy we have between close to downtown the the vacancy rates are actually quite low and a little bit further out closer to BART they're higher and so trying to build more of a center and amenities that people office tenants will want to be closer to the the the uh the spaces near art was an item that I mentioned as well. And I just I wanted to give a shout out to a staff planner uh and his name is Herardo Victoria. And I I have not had the the opportunity to meet Herardo yet, but uh the city manager shared an email that uh an applicant shared with him, and I I just want to give him an attab boy and say thank you for his good work in making the city look so good. The the letter says, "Herardo was professional, responsive, and extremely helpful. He [clears throat] handled this matter with patience, clarity, and speed, and his diligence and commitment to quick service made what could have been a difficult and timeconsuming process much smoother. So, thank you very much, Rodardo. Your your hard work and the work of all our staff is very much appreciated."

That's my update. Thank you, Mayor Prom. Council member Darling.

All right. I don't have a whole lot to report. Um just the one um going back to MCE, I um sat in on about the first 20 minutes of that [laughter] briefing for the new board members and the new alternates [snorts] and I appreciate them sticking around for four hours. It was everything electricity in the state of California and it it I was like, whoa, they're drinking from the fire hose here. But I really appreciate council member Definy will be representing me later this week because the mayor, myself, and council member Silva are off to Keta City, our sister city in Japan. Um, which I'm really looking forward to, but I do miss the MCE meeting. Um, a couple really important things are coming up at that. Um, as I've mentioned previously, we are dropping the rates for MCE customers um, in this coming year that starts April 1st. So that will get u final approval on Thursday night if all goes well. The other um thing that is happening, there's two other things happening with MCE. We have grown over 15 years from just a few cities in Marin County to four separate counties and a total of 34 board members. And so we are undertaking a governance review this year to look at how that big of a board can operate better, more efficiently, how communication can um get improved. And um we're really looking forward to um engaging the services of consultant. The request for proposals is on the agenda for next Thursday night and we're hoping to get that uh consultant on board here soon to begin that process um to help us do a better job as a board and do a better job as an agency. Um the other thing that we met in close session on Monday and talked about how to do a better job as a board of providing the oversight over um contracting for power in the short term. There's a lot of one

to fiveyear contracts that come through the agency that have had oversight, but it hasn't been as regular regularized. And so we now have an ad hoc um contract oversight committee that will be operating until the governance review is done and that'll be on the agenda Thursday night. There's um myself and four other board members representing kind of the diversity of the geographic area will be on that looking at the individual contracts as they come forward. There's been a lot the energy world is changing um and we're still trying to figure out what the current events back in Iran are going to do to that. It's a it's a really complex field right now and we want to make sure that we are providing the robust oversight in helping make sure that we're getting the best customer the best deal from our customers and our rate payers. So we're doing that and um I will be in Japan and and I will leave um council member defenny to take care of all that. Um we are looking forward to the city for a couple days and um it's going to be a lot of fun.

U thank you council member Darling. Well I'll just extrapolate on that a little bit. So, just to let people know, we have a uh delegation that we are going to a partner city. It's a little bit uh little bit different than a sister city, but there's a lot of similarities as well. And so, that's Kea City, Japan. It's on the outskirts of Tokyo. I was there with two former mayors uh about eight years ago, and the mayor invited uh the mayor and council to come this year. So, we're going to be going there for spending a couple days with the mayor at their city hall. and council members. They have about 40 council members by the way. So if you think you get tired listening to the five of us up here, imagine 40 of us up here. Uh I do want to mention this is important. Yes,

we are paying our own way there. These are not city dollars. These are not taxpayer dollars. We are funding our own trips. It's very important to make sure that that's mentioned. And uh and we're looking forward to this. This is a great opportunity for exchanging cultural ties. And we have exchange students that come over twice a year from Ke City and stay with host families here. And we have our students that come from both Seven Hills as well as Losis and go to Kea City. So there truly is a large exchange program that happens with this and we're looking forward to being able to formalize those uh even more solidly. So I'm looking forward to going with uh Council Member Cindy Darling and Cindy Silva and we'll report back at our next council meeting because we're not missing a meeting. Uh, next I also was at the coffee with a cop which was the safest corner in Contracasta County that morning. There was probably uh 10 or 12 police officers there. Some spouses were there. It was great to meet them as well. And it sounds like a future coffee with the cop may be an afternoon coffee where students from Los Lomus or Northgate or maybe would be able to join in and ask questions that are really pertinent for them. So look forward to that in the future. Uh I I think many of my fellow colleagues here did the read across America just prior to our last meeting. I did the one afterwards where all the second graders that I read to of course they wanted to know did I live in a mansion, how much am I paid, how old I am, all the important questions that are asked of mayors and city council members, but it's always great to be able to read. They're they're so excited when we when we come there as well. Uh, I did want to give a quick reminder that April 1st also brings two things that people need to think about. One is that gas powered leaf blower ban goes into effect. Check the city website on that. There's a lot of good information and uh and and again, this is about really education and making sure that people can make that transition into electric

blowers or or by hand. Uh so that's that's April 1. Also, the grant program for $10,000 to build outdoor dining at restaurants uh also expires March 31st. Uh Kathy at Walnut Creek Downtown, if you could do, uh maybe let the restaurants know that this is it. It's coming. It's coming up and I know there's a couple of restaurants that are still interested in doing this and I think they're still trying to get some things together. So

staff conducted preliminary outreach to gather input from the community, stakeholders, city departments, and council on key topics for the upcoming general plan update. This outreach included engagement at community events such as the Locust Street Festival, Trunk or Treat, and Made in the Shade, and initial conversations with local business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, Walnut Creek Downtown, and Walnut Creek downtown. At the community events, residents shared what they value most about Walnut Creek, and that's walkability, shopping, dining, arts and culture, parks, and most importantly, safety and the sense of the comm and sense of a community. Local business groups emphasize updating the zoning code to support economic growth and expand business opportunities. This work will occur after the general plan update is completed. City departments highlighted the update should focus on modernizing infrastructure, leveraging technology to improve services, maintaining a safe and livable community, and ensuring financial sustainability. At the October 7, 2025 council meeting, council recommended that the RFP include framework RFP framework include top a topic based approach to community engagement to allow for more focused discussions and meaningful input. All this feedback helped inform the RFP and the development of the RFP. Following that direction, the city initiated the consultant selection process. So in November 2025, the RFP was issued and distributed to over 24 firms and advertised to the American Planning Association and the city websites. In December, staff hosted a virtual question and answer session which was attended by 10 firms and the result of

the question and answer session was posted on the city website. By January 2026, the city received three proposals, all meeting the RFP requirements. So, these three proposals were invited to participate in interviews in February. The interviews were conducted by a multidisciplinary team representing several city departments, ensuring a thorough and balanced evaluation of each team's qualifications and approach. Following the interviews, staff completed the evaluations and then identified the preferred consultant team. So, we are here tonight bringing that recommendation forward to council for consideration. Consultants will evaluated on several criteria as you see here. proposal quality, experience with similar projects in California, qualifications of key personnel, the proposed community engagement approach, understanding the city's objectives, the reasonleness of fees, and the project management capability. Based on this criteria, Rayan Associates, now part of Alta Planning and Design, was determined to be the most qualified and offer the best value for the city. So before introducing the consultant, I'd like to note a recent organizational transition. In February 2026, Ramyan Associates joined Ulta Planning and Design, which is a nationally recognized firm focused on sustainable community planning. While the firm name has changed, the consultant team selected through the RFP process remains the same. The project team, the scope of services, and the leaderships are unchanged. What this transition brings is additional resources and a capacity to help support the general plan update. With that, I'll turn it over to Eric Erkovic, principal and deputy director

of community planning at Ulta and Design, who will serve as a primary contact and the project manager for the firm. Uh, good evening, mayor, council members. Um, my name is Eric Ericovich. I'm a principal at Alta Planning and Design. I'm still getting used to saying that, as you can imagine. Um, it's really just a great opportunity to get a chance to meet you all, introduce myself and our team to you this evening, and just talk a little bit about the process that we laid out in our response to the proposal. Um, Alta Planning and Design is really a company that was built on a vision for more active, healthy, and sustainable communities where they work. You may know them. They've been around for 30 years, and they've been pioneers in active transportation and sustainable communities work. As uh Crystal mentioned uh earlier this year, Alta acquired Remy Associates, where I've been a principal for 14 years. Uh Remy was a 20-year planning and urban design firm really missiondriven and focused on creating healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities where we work. We have all come over and become Alta's new community planning group. All of our team and all of our staff are here to support you and the community through this process. Um we have extensive experience working throughout the state of California and across the country really working on comprehensive planning and general plan work um all over the place. Um we've been fortunate enough to get an opportunity to collaborate with the the state office of land use and climate innovation on the update to the state's general plan guidelines as well as their specific planning guidelines. Um, our desire to do something

exceptional with you all and the community here in Walnut Creek is why we brought together this likeminded group of collaborators who we've worked with across numerous projects. Harris and Associates is a firm that you probably know well. They've been working on your safety and housing element updates. They're going to be working on some of the technical elements of the general plan as well as the environmental impact report. Faren Piers is a leader in multimodal transportation has been working here in the city across the East Bay and Contraosta County uh as well as the state. Play into place is really uh a leader in facilitating engagement processes that meet people where they are and really motivate participation in the process. Bay Area um BAE or uh urban economics is a expert in real estate economics, finance and residential feasibility and really help us to convert our visionary policies and practices into things that are implementable on the ground. And the cultural planning group is really a leader in arts and cultural elements uh community m community arts master plans and public art processes. And then all of our team at Alta, the community planning group, will be led by myself, Tiffany Ang, who will be the deputy deputy project manager, and a great group of staff who will be collaborating with you and the city on this process. Now, we're really here today to help you create a general plan that helps to really center priority populations and places to really uh engage the community in a meaningful and inclusive engagement process to make sure that arts, culture, open space, and mobility are part of contextsensitive design and placemaking that create special places and moments here in Walnut Creek. that we create diverse opportunities for new homes, new businesses, and community amenities to both meet our current needs as well as

the future needs um within the city. And that we focus on safe and comfortable travel in a vibrant arts and cultural community that not only um supports those those uh resources, but also supports placemaking in the wonderful places here in Walnut Creek. And then ultimately we want to really make sure that you have a attractive and practical general plan that you are able to use staff and the community are all able to use. Now to kind of meet those objectives or outcomes for the project, we've kind of laid out a kind of a fivephase process really to build a strong foundation and then to deeply engage with the community here. We'll kick off the process with sort of a discovery and learning phase where we'll be reviewing existing conditions, developing communication engagement plans and strategies for the the process and then creating a draft vision and set of project outcomes which will guide our work and the vision of the general plan. We'll then move into phases where we look at different land use and mobility alternatives. will create and revise goals, policies, and implementation activities for the general plan. Ultimately updating the chapters or elements of the general plan to to review with the community and then ultimately for you all to consider for adoption. Now, underpinning every phase of that process is a deep and broad engagement program. Uh in the first phase, we're really going to be doing things that lay the foundation for the rest of the work. We're going to be developing a communications and engagement plan, a communication strategy, an interactive website, and then project branding that we'll use from now through the completion of the general plan. We have included specific activities like community partner meeting meetings and focus groups to really ensure that we

hear about the lived experiences of a diverse set of members of the community. And then we have more of those traditional community engagement activities like workshops, pop-up meetings, and online surveys so that we can meet people where they are in the in their lives. And then we're also going to host a series of informational forums that really bring people together in an informal way to talk about housing, mobility, open space issues here within the community. And as part of this process, we're also really excited to launch an interactive online openhouse that we'll be uh using throughout the workshop process. So, this is an online tool that will allow people to go and listen to video presentations that will go and look atformational boards and be able to comment and post ideas and their thought. community members are able to post their ideas and thoughts about the specific topics uh that we're focused on in that that meeting. It's like going to an open house in person, but you can do it online. So, our goal really is to create a lot of diverse opportunities for people to engage in the process. Uh and then finally, I just wanted to highlight that we're going to be meeting with you all as council members as well as all a number of commissions throughout the process. So, we're going to kick that off in the not too distant future with a joint meeting with six different commissions. So, that's arts, transportation, park, wreck, and open space. Um, youth leadership, design, review, and planning commission. And then we'll come to you all and in those early meetings, we're going to be talking about the process. We're going to be talking about project outcomes in the engagement strategy we're going to be using in this process to get your feedback and thoughts early on. And then we're going to be meeting with the commissions and you all at various points during the process as we cluster engagement around around existing conditions, visions, issues, strategies to meet our project uh outcomes and

goals. Uh so thanks again for the opportunity to be here this evening. I'm going to pass it back over to Crystal, but happy to answer any questions that you have tonight.

Thank you, Eric. So, I'll briefly review the key terms of the proposed agreement and the recommended action before council tonight. So, the proposed agreement includes a total budget of 3,160,75 million. The contract term is four years with the option to extend for 12 months in the case that we needed that extra time to complete the general plan. So based on the evaluation process, staff recommends that the city council approve the resolution and authorize the city manager to execute the consultant services agreement with Alta Planning and Design for the general plan 2050. This concludes the presentation. Staff and our consultants are available here for any questions that you may have. Thank you.

Thank you, Crystal. Uh we'll start over here. Um why don't we start with Matt? Okay.

Thank you, Crystal, and thank you, Eric. This is really exciting. I uh glad to see the progress that's made. It sounds like you have a really great team and then a big bench back at the home office that can help bring this home. I I'm particularly interested in um kind of maybe just the the proposal process, kind of uh what you learned through that and kind of the different approaches people had to kind of community engagement. uh particularly but all maybe also kind of best practices uh for a for a major undertaking like this.

Okay. So what we learned from the three firms that we interviewed is that they really leverage on technology for that. They're very aware that people want things pretty quickly and convenient. So therefore, you know, a lot of it was based on websites and getting out there to the public as well because sometimes people don't come to the meetings or workshops that we have. So we understand that we have to go to them. So we learned that and also the fact that we want to make it things for convenient for people 247. We want input from them and that could be through our websites or through apps. So those are the things that we'll be working on with our consultant.

That makes sense. And and in terms of adaptability, I know that, you know, in my time on council and planning commission before that, we've we've adopted several kind of specific plans and other plans that it seemed like they they would get dated uh pretty quickly or um you know, we had a big push for ground floor retail for instance, and that space seems hard to to fill in with with things other than services. I'm just kind of wondering with a largecale planning effort like that, you know, how how flexible can we be and how malleable what are some of the strategies that we're thinking about employing to make it a living breathing document.

Eric, do you want to take that one? Okay. I love talking about general plans, so happy to answer any questions you have.

Yeah. Um, so it'll really depend on what you want to have flexibility on, right? And so our job will be to kind of listen and learn from you all during the first phases of the process all the way through the writing and drafting of the process. So where do you want to be very directive in your planning approach? Right? We need this. This is the steps we're going to take to do that. And it's a very clear and linear pathway. and the other things are going to be more open and for need to be more open and flexible as to how you address them in the future. So we often talk about this in climate planning and policy. That's a very easy one, right? Because that's an area where we are going to be adapting over time. Sometimes that's going to happen quickly. Sometimes that's going to happen more slowly. And so we need to think about how those policies and implementations are implemented over time and then how we can take corrective actions partway through to make sure that we're still meeting the objectives we're trying to do, but we might be using different tactics or activities to get there. We'll often as part of this approach, we've um implemented a digital general plan. through those digital general plans, we often include things like tracking metrics, uh, implementation activity metrics so that you can kind of go side by side and see how the staff is doing across different activities that you're doing, maybe what needs to change in the future. It can be part of the reporting that you use to take corrective and adaptive actions if you're not meeting your housing needs or you're not meeting your business growth needs that you need in the community to name a few. So I think we can design it uh in the ways that you find the flexibility is important but then also the ways that you want to make sure that you're achieving very specific outcomes through your policy goals.

That makes sense. And you know in terms of what do you maybe for staff or both of you what do you envision in terms of the outline or the framework of the plan in terms of the elements? I know we have unique ones that I think are important to Walnut Creek in terms of quality of life element. uh we don't have an economic element economic development element. So how will that will that happen kind of earlier on in the process and we'll talk about what the out broad outline or framework of the plan will be.

Yes, I I believe that in the beginning we'll be collecting a lot of data and also with part of the visioning finding out what people want like the stakeholders we we talked to the local business groups to figure out where we want the general plan directed. Um I don't know if Erica you have anything else to add to that. The most important thing is that we will listen to all of you, the commissions, the community um at large and there are things like the um you know economic development um and uh DEIB etc where those are thematics that really cross across the different elements and that they live and breathe in that way rather than necessarily having a static element um in of themselves. So they have the ability to evolve much more rapidly than even our um land uses and our transportation system. So that is woven into the proposal that um Alta has given us.

That's great. Thank you very much.

Yes, Council Member Darling. Thank you. And kind of playing off of um C vice um whatever he is um vice mayor promis um there's [snorts] going to need to be some flexibility in the planning effort because of some of the major unknowns right now such as adoption of um alternative modes of transportation like self-driving cars and Whimos that can dramatically change what people are expecting. in the built environment like do we really need parking lots if we have self-driving cars that that really shifts where the plan and is going to go if that becomes reality same for um how AI is going to change how people work and and what office space looks like. um how are we looking at those kind of flexibility opportunities that may or may not you know that are happening but we just don't know how fast they're going to happen.

You want to take that one too. I'll try to give you a really concrete example um because sometimes these things can feel a little bit um abstract

um with self-driving cars and maybe even if we step back to the advent of companies like Uber and Lyft what we have done in the planning world in the design world is focus on curbside. So, how do we adapt our curbside to accommodate fewer parked vehicles, but more vehicles that are coming, dropping off people, picking up people, dropping off deliveries, food service. And so, what we have done in a lot of cases is thought about how we actually adapt the curb space, right? So, maybe there's fewer parking spots along the curb, maybe there's requirements for more pickup and drop off in front of new developments when you build them. So what we try to do is think of how those particular technologies are going to change the physical and built environment and anticipate that and then drive the changes in our regulations that affect the built form of the community. So in that case we've gone in and we've changed how the curb is used in a lot of places right to allow that integration to come in. Um, I'll be honest. I don't know how AI is fully gonna change how we work over time, right?

We can ask it, but you know.

Yeah, exactly. We can I can ask Claude, right, after we finish this. Um, Cloud will give me a nice answer. Uh, but you know, this is in a lot of communities that means data centers, but that doesn't mean data centers here, right? But how does it how does it change our work? Are we going into offices? What are those office spaces like? What are the kind of what are the composition of jobs within the community? you have a big health care uh sector here. AI is going to really affect health care and life sciences moving forward in the future. So, how is it going to affect the staff and personnel and those those are things we can explore through this process especially if they're important issues for the community. And then the other um opportunity for flexibility is that we have a housing element. We have a sustainability action plan. Um we have a fair number of planning documents. Some of which speak well to each other and some of which are you know disconnected. How do you go about respecting the current level the current planning that's gone on and finding the holes rather than just redoing everything?

Oh, that's a great question. So, we really do try and build on the foundation of work that you as a council and the staff and the community have done. It's really our job to honor that work. And if we're just scrapping it and throwing it away, we're not honoring all the hard work that community members in particular have put in after hours in the evening. Staff does as part of their their daily assignments. Um, some of those plans are framework plans like a general plan. They're highlevel visionary and overarching plans. Some of those are implementation plans. A housing element, for example, is really an implementation plan. Now, it's very unlike every other element of a general plan. So, we have to think about how they relate to to one another. So, how do the land use policies in your land use and community design element really allow you to effectively implement and adapt your housing element programs that you're going to be doing in, you know, six years from?

We're done already. Yeah. Well, four more years. When do we do the next one? Right. So, you have to just think about how they align with one another. Your sustainability action plan, climate action plan, those are really implementation programs for these items that are in the general plan. And our job is to capture the themes, the programs, the ideas at a higher level and provide sort of an umbrella or a nest for all of those activities to happen underneath. Okay. Thank you. I look forward to this. It's going to be entertaining.

Yes. Thank you for the presentation. Um uh yeah I was when I was reading it I thought well what a nice merge from you know merging with Alta uh because Alta I guess born out of uh active transportation as we've been talking about for communities that struggle to break free from the autoentric paradigm and I thought that we have some some areas of the city that are definitely struggling with that. So I'll be very um you know uh interested to see how we approach that. I think it'll be a challenging and and u area to explore. I I had a question just sort of about the process. Um [clears throat] so can we go back to the slide that had the the different years that were

Okay. So this is over three years and and one of the the concerns that I I have about just sort of generally processes like these is that we do a lot of upfront sort of exploration of ideas and then folks who are professional at whatever that thing is sort of feel very comfortable with the process and the process moves along at a pace that those who are not familiar with the process have trouble keeping up with. then providing input to um so that's I worry about this process sort of getting away from us a little bit and I was looking at um in section uh 2.12 it it talks about the ongoing meetings and it says um that the scope and budget anticipate up to four additional meetings uh not defined elsewhere in scope of work one presentation for each round uh will be developed along with the first draft of the staff report. That's for additional council and commission meetings. And I took that to mean that maybe there's like four meetings over this these three years. And that didn't seem like a lot. And so I was I was wondering how how in how much feedback we'll get from you to to the council to the commissions about the process, how many updates like what will that process look like for us? What what can we anticipate? Great clarified question. So those are in addition to these meetings that are up here on this. I think I counted and I want to say it's 30 something meetings with city council and planning commission that our team is scoped to participate in um as a consultant team. Those additional four are ones that are not on here. But you need an update right now, we can come and do the update, you know, in the future to to

give you in between these different phases or if we need to do another meeting on alternatives, you need us for a second meeting. Those are the kinds of flex that's the kind of flexibility we built into our scope of work. So that if you need us to come back for a particular reason, we can do that. Our staff needs us to come back for a particular reason. So those four are in addition to I think this 30 something odd meetings with commission and council here. Okay. Thanks for clarifying that. Yeah.

Okay. We'll uh open it up to the public now. Uh if anybody from the public would like to make any comments, please come to the podium. You'll have two minutes. Don't all rush. All right. We'll close the public comment, bring it back to council if there's any further comments and or a motion. You know, I I just had one follow-up question and and to Eric, um kind of interested it based on your experience on kind of lessons learned or best practices, especially at this kickoff beginning processes, you know, how things that you know, things that went extremely well in some other cities or things that you wish you would have done better. If you could just kind of elaborate a little on Yeah. what what we're uh what we might be facing in the next six to 12 months.

Um we do everything perfectly, so I can't tell you what we do better, right? Uh no, just kidding. Um we're constantly evolving the methods and practice that we use in our planning work. Um one of the things that I have learned actually in the last uh couple of general plans that I've done is to actually do the thing that says kickoff and project outcomes right up front. And so really it's a way to establish and set expectations both for the process and the outcomes of the general plan. So we're going to work with all the commissions as well as you all and community members who are participating in that practice to say hey these are the things that in our process we want to make sure we achieve. Those could be around community engagement and how we engage different groups in the community. They can be on the outcomes that we want our general plan to achieve. So we want to make sure that we can accommodate three additional uh regional housing needs allocations in our general plan land use map. They can be quantitative in that way and directive. So establishing those outcomes so that when we come back after we do the vision and everyone tells us what their issues are and we say well here are some land use options that help you meet these project outcomes people are like oh okay I helped create these outcomes and these alternatives do different in different ways help us meet those outcomes or objectives and so we can kind of line those up because I think one thing that does happen is that people kind of lose the connective tissue over two two or three different years in a planning process. And so establishing those early and then continuously like connecting back the alternatives, the policy, we're really here to meet those project outcomes and objectives. That's one way I would just say that in recent times I've been refraraming the work that we're doing because otherwise I think you can kind of lose that thread. And then the other is just we want to do engagement in many many different ways because some people like

to be hightouch low tech some people like to be high-tech low touch and everything in between. So we want to give people and you can see that in our proposal a lot of different opportunities to to meet us in different ways.

That's helpful. I appreciate that. Uh so I I'm really pleased that we're at this process. I think it's really exciting. I think we have definitely have the right consultant team. Thank you to staff for doing the hard work of soliciting the proposals and interviewing all the candidates. And so, mayor, I'm happy to make the motion to adopt the resolution authorizing our city manager to execute a consultant services agreement with Alta Planning and Design in an amount not to exceed $3.1 million for a 4-year term with an option to extend for 12 more months to prepare the 2050 general plan and programmatic EIR. And I will second that.

We have a motion in a second. City clerk, could you read read the role, please? Mayor Proan Francois. Hi. Council member Darling. Hi. Council member Divinity. Hi. Mayor Wilk. Hi. Motion carries.

All right. Moving right along here. Everybody okay? Okay. Next consideration item. Thank you and thank you very much for the presentation. Adoption of resolutions approving the downtown Walnut Creek Business Improvement District and Downtown Walnut Creek South Business Improvement District assessment reports for fiscal year 2026. intent to levy assessments for the fiscal year 2027 and setting public hearings for April 7th, 2026. And economic development manager Mike Neman. Pleased to have you here. Thank you. And good evening, mayor, members of the city council, members of the public. I'm Mike Neman, your economic development manager. And the item in front of you today is the annual assessment for the business improvement district and downtown as well as the south business improvement district. These are annual assessments that come in front of you. And you could see here a little bit of the history. The um business improvement district was originally formed in 2005. Uh later the south portion of the improvement district was formed in 2010. Um this is the most robust area in the city and ground zero for economic development. There's about 680 businesses located in downtown. A lot of them are retail. there's a lot of other financial services and um other types of services as well. Um these um the district is funded through the assessments and these assessments are proposed to increase by 3% this year as they have been in the past. The process is a two-step process. The first step happens tonight and this is the meeting and presentation of the annual report that we have representatives from the Wulner Creek downtown um prepared to share with you. And then the second

meeting is scheduled for April 7th and that will be the public hearing um where we uh tally uh and and and ensure that there's no chapter from successfully managing the first year of a new 501c3 entity to developing a comprehensive 5-year vision plan for both the downtown and the organization um to launching a new wellness focused event um just a couple weeks ago. This has been a year uh defined by momentum and progress. We expanded our services in meaningful ways, including strengthening our partnership with the Walnut Creek Police Department to introduce a crime watch um program u most recently and enhanced safety throughout the district. And at the same time, we brought increased vis uh vibrancy and energy to downtown through um a consistent lineup of um street festivals and markets that continue to draw both uh visitors and residents to the downtown district. Um behind the scenes we made strategic investments in data um platforms that are making our organization more fiscally efficient while also equipping our business community with real-time insights on visitors, competitors, and marketing strategies. um particularly through the partnership with the economic development department um size up Walnut Creek program um one-on-one enga engagement with business owners um and operators um offering more detailed uh and tailored support through datadriven insights and social media assessments. So overall, it's been a really positive and productive year, and we're just getting started. Um, with ambitious plans ahead, guided by the vision plan we've developed, um, we are well positioned to continue um, building a thriving, dynamic, and um, resilient [clears throat] downtown Walnut Creek.

So this evening, I'm proud to share um, our annual report for fiscal year 2526. Wrong way. There you go. This is a map of um just as a reminder of the district which includes 29 blocks um of both the bid and the south bid um within the downtown district. Our committees um vary uh with through the arts and beautifification wide range of committees and alliances um including um two boards of directors and business members to help advance the organization's initiatives. Our team currently consists of three full-time um staff members and one part-time st actually four um full-time and one part-time staff member. the advocacy role um that we helped this year um with the outdoor dining program. Um WCD championed a city-f funded grant initiative aimed at encouraging businesses to establish permanent outdoor dining structures and with the strong partnership between WCD and the city. Um to date six structures have been um completed within the program and Stereo 41 um was recently approved. So we're looking forward to um their addition. The considerable positive impact this program will have on the overall vibr vibrancy of downtown is truly immeasurable, serving as an exemplary model of public private partnerships. This past weekend, many of the outdoor dining spaces were full with diners enjoying the outdoor weather or the warm weather and um it's just an example of more to come. Um community partnerships include um the business watch program that I mentioned, um the business um data support and then also participating in a variety of um city efforts um including the downtown

curbside management um management plan. Um WCD invested in a new data platform that helps turn raw private uh privacy compliant data into insights that strengthen the economic vitality of the entire district. in collaboration with the city and the chamber um the size up on the creek and um our um internal program placer AI um helps businesses analyze their performance, map competitors and discover new customers and suppliers. Additionally, um WCD engages in um increased number of one-on-one consultations um to assist our downtown businesses. The last year has included a deep dive um into a creating a five-year vision plan. Um it will establish a shared framework for WCD informed by community and member input, data analysis, reflection on um and reflection on prior accomplishments. priority efforts will align with WCD's current pillars led by individual committees um that are that include advocacy, beautifification, events, marketing and engagement, and community partnerships. So, we look forward to sharing the plan with council and members in the community in the very near future. The second year of summer arts Walnut Creek showcased 13 programs across performing, visual, and culinary arts last summer. And an update with this program is that in light of programming and logistical challenges faced by several of the partners, the arts alliance um has opted to shift its focus from summer activities to year round. um strategic group um discussions are currently underway to identify um ways to maintain the program's strengths um

while addressing its challenges all while um fostering positive and unified efforts. So it's um the 13 groups working together have continued to strengthen over the last year. Holiday decorations were used for or um were uh installed within the downtown um via the measure O funds. the um over a thousand strands of lights along with 60 lampost adorned garlands um bows and banners transformed the area for the holiday season. And the seventh season of painted pianos um was a huge success featuring six beautifully transformed pianos on display April through October. We had 80 volunteers come out to paint the um pianos to prep and beautify them. And a special thanks to Waters Moving in Storage as a presenting sponsor that um through their generous support um it helped continue this program um and for the next three years. Downtown Stages brings the energy of a curated live music arts fairs and partner activations to a dynamic open air setting transforming the downtown into a vibrant yearround hub. During the 2025 season, WCD partnered with the California Symphony, BA, uh Diablo Ballet, and the Arts Alliance to promote their programs across the stage. More busker style performances and additional pop-up events are scheduled for the coming year to continue to expand access to the arts. And in collaboration with the city of Walnut Creek, WCD and the community partnership for Walnut Creek Downtown Association also advocates for public art by encouraging downtown property owners to participate in the Big Belly program and the mural matching program, helping to bring vibrant murals and creative placemaking to the heart of

the downtown. Our marketing efforts uh continue to be a very um to be very strong and far-reaching. These are a few stats um for the year. Um and the website has seen over 182,000 annual visitors with higher engagement from our business members um who can now easily add their own events to the website calendar. And we have a combined um following um of 400 or excuse me 45,000 um individuals that um over the various social media platforms and individual posts have reached up to 87,000 for one single post um that and this continues to be a highly effective free marketing tool for our u business members. In 2025, we continued with the Head West um marketplace program for a 4-day season on North Main Street, hosting markets in response to business requests for increased activity on this and foot traffic. 287 total vendors and exhibitor booths ranging from 65 to about 90 per event. Um joint marketing efforts generated more than 500,000 views on Walnut Creek specific social media content, expanding our own um and the downtown's digital reach. Um the season reinforced Head West Marketplace as a high impact activation that drives visitation, visibility, and meaningful community engagement to the downtown. We hosted our annual unccorked event on June 26 bringing 790 visitors to the downtown and um we also included 35 participating um businesses and paired six with 16 pouring and tasting partners. And many of the attendees this year said it was the best

yet mainly because of the increased um uh restaurant and food offerings. They really stepped it up this year. WCD launched Locust Street Festival, previously known as First Wednesdays, as a four-date summer street series held monthly May through o uh August. The expanded uh festival footprint activated Locust Street and surrounding black uh blocks on Wednesday evenings with live music, entertainment, kids activities, artisan vendors, and downtown business participation. We hosted um beverage service as a fundraiser at three of Broadway Plaza's concerts um drawing approximately 1,00 to 2500 visitors per event um with strong dwell times um throughout each event which was very encouraging. We also um started off the holidays with the um annual holiday tree lighting ceremony um bringing the community together for a festive evening marking the start of the holiday season in Civic Park. And the familyfriendly event included hot cocoa and Frosty and um Mayor Wilk and Mayor and council members um who were able to um light the tree and attendance continues to grow as long as the weather cooperates. So we saw about probably about 300 people that came out for that evening. Walnut Creek Downtown Signature Fall Festival October Fest returned to Civic Park September 26th through the 27th with expanded programming across Friday evening and a full day on Saturday. The event welcomed more than 15,000 attendees and featured live entertainment, um, artisans, local food offerings, and chill a chill zone speak easy. New and expanded elements in 2025 enhanced the overall guest experience,

including a larger community stage stage in uh, showcasing 17 performances by local schools and community groups. Oktoberfest continued its strong growth trajectory uh achieving a 20% increase in total attendance year-over-year including a 41% increase on Friday night and 11% on Saturday evening. Did I skip? Yep. Broadway Plaza hosted its annual parade of lights and tree lighting ceremony. We participated by operating operating a concessions booth selling hot cocoa as a fundraiser and also um uh facilitated the use of the Zamboni and the ranks mascot Frosty as parade entries. And then Walnut Creek on Ice, we celebrated the 20th season. Um, and this milestone year introduced a refreshed event layout that created a larger, more open visual footprint and improves improved guest flow while making Frosty's Summit Ice Slide more prominent and visible within the park. New rental skates were added to enhance comfort and performance and pro uh improving the overall skating experience for guests of all ages. In addition to on-site enhancements, we also launched a newly upgraded uh website, elevating that digital appearance and ease for guests um who are planning their visits. And we look forward to the year 21 in November of this year. A new event this year that we included on March 1st was uh a wellness focused event that designed um to was in excuse me was designed to engage an active audience within the community while spotlighting the wide range of health, wellness, and fitness offerings

throughout the downtown. Guests participated in a self-guided walking tour, experiencing popup activations, local wellness vendors, and participating businesses offering movement, recovery, and nourishment experiences. The event encouraged attendees to discover new downtown businesses and services while exploring approachable ways to get active and healthy and connected. By blending wellness, movement, and community, the afternoon introduced new visitors to downtown while reinforcing Walnut Creek as a destination for healthy living. This tiny slide, which you have a larger view, sorry. Um, shows the fiscal year 2526 budget as of January 31st 1st with our fiscal year closing at the end of this month. So, the projected reserve for 2627 is $18,489. The projected bid um assessments for the upcoming year is $213 uh,000 with a projected reserve of approximately $18,000. the revenue slide here or income. Um the current accounts re um receivable is approximately 73,000 that we plan to collect by the end of this fiscal year in two weeks. Um fiscal year 2526 is the first year when most of these events uh most of our the of WCD events were produced through the 501c3 entity. and expense notes. Um, the continued success of our largescale events have required an increase in event supplies, professional services, and rental equipment, and in general, higher event production expenses.

And this table shows the program's year-over-year net totals and then the assessment fees which remain on track with the annual 3% um increase for both bids. And while we continue to serve and support our existing downtown um businesses, we are really excited to welcome um all of these businesses to the downtown in the upcoming year with North Italia being this weekend. Um our event calendar um was recently published. You'll note that Locust Street Festival this year um will maintain a similar format while we're refining the schedule and its focus. The series has been reduced from four events to two core summer uh dates. The event will continue to prioritize strong foot traffic, business engagement, and a high energy festival experience. October Fest um the overall structure and scale of the event will remain consistent this year with minor layout refinements, um refreshed entertainers, and operational enhancements um to help improve guest flow and comfort. The chill zone experience will be reimagined with updated design elements and programming uh aimed at elevating the overall atmosphere and building on insights gathered through stakeholder engagements and strategic assessments with the WCD staff board of directors. The WCD's vision for the next five years is centered is centered on downtown 365. creating a downtown that is vibrant, walkable, and active every day, all day of the um every day, all day of the year. This vision reflects both the downtown's current strengths and the clear direction expressed by the

community for its future. At its core, downtown 365 focuses on walkability, outdoor dining, and consistent activation, creating a downtown experience that feels safe and welcoming from morning through evening. The goal is to position downtown Walnut Creek as a place people choose daily for routines, connection, cultural experiences, shopping, dining, and special events. And this vision plan reflects both the downtown's current strengths and the clear direction expressed by the community for its future. Our strategies listed here are intended to support or it's intended to support strategic decision-making, strengthen partnership, and ensure long-term s sustainability. And ultimately, this vision plan turns vision into action, aligning priorities to create a cohesive downtown experience. Through a unified approach, WCD is positioned to remain resilient, re relevant, and vibrant for residents, businesses, and visitors alike. Both boards are voting on this vision plan this week and we look forward to sharing the complete document document in the very near future. Another um effort that we are working on um just as a FYI is an entertainment zone. And I think I may have sp spoken to that um to you on most of this um on this topic, but the entertainment zone is a designated area where people can buy open container drinks um to go drinks from local bars and restaurants, wineries, and breweries and enjoy them outside in the common spaces. We're looking at that driven around WCD events and we'll be meeting with um local stakeholders and share that proposal with you in the months to come. So, that concludes my presentation and I'm available for questions.

Thank you, Kathy. Any Thanks. Yes, Council Member Darling. Thank you. It's a whole lot of fun there. Um, couple quick questions. Um, looking forward to next year. Um, I know you and I talked briefly about the farmers market and the potential [clears throat] for a partnership there um either with Walnut Creek downtown in the in the traditional downtown or out of Broadway Plaza. Have you heard anything more from them or um is that still underway? Um we have a meeting with um Stacy, the director, tomorrow. Okay, good.

Yeah, she reached out. We're excited about the opportunity. It's something that we've been um toying around with and and um discussing with um their team and it just wasn't something they wanted to pursue and um it sounds like they are. So, we're gonna yeah, see what that means and then bring it to the city and and to you um with more more um information. We look forward to hearing more about that one. Um I noticed that, you know, we've had a strong partnership through our Measure O funds with outdoor deorations and some of the other expenses. I didn't see a Measure O line for next year. Yeah.

Um what are you guys thinking? So, what we we've been able to um adjust the requests over kind of as a fluid um fluidly over the last couple of years since the measure began. So, what we'd like to do this year is align that with our fiscal year beginning April 1. Um and so that is forthcoming within hopefully within the next three to four weeks. So you guys will look at what your plans are and see if there's an opportunity for synergy with measure O and look to come up with the partnership with the city at that point. Correct. Okay. So for because your your year starts now start till July. So then whatever comes in would have to go into our budget for next year. Yes. Yeah.

All right. Thanks. We've got some time and we have some ideas. I I you always do as long as Gary scrolls in the background. What about this? What about this? Anyway, thank you and thank you for the help. Um, just just to get a little more clarification on that. So, what is the conversation that's going on between Farmers Market and Walnut Creek downtown? just to let the rest of us do. Stacy just Do you want to I Stacy just approached me when I was at the farmers market booth and she was really excited because she had just come from some conference and sometimes you get really excited at a conference but she wanted to um explore the potential of doing some downtown expansion on a for an evening market. M

um it wouldn't be as produce forward as the current Sunday one and it would not replace the current Sunday one, but it she said that she had found um interest from some of her farmers in coming to one even though they weren't going to be as well featured. She said they could either sell it there or put it in the compost. They'd rather try sell anyway. I'm not Yeah, I'm I Yeah, we'll find out. You'll find out tomorrow, right? I'll be sure to share. Yeah.

Right. Um, well, as long as I'm talking, let me just ask a question as well. Um, a couple of merchants have mentioned to me that they feel they see Locust Street and they look like Locust Street is just hopping. It's a big old party and merchants that uh that especially are on like south on on Main Street, but south of Cypress between Cypress and Mount Diablo feel there's it's almost a dead zone is what they've said. Is there any thoughts of Wal of Walnut Creek downtown doing some things to enliven that area a little bit?

Yeah, that's that's definitely been a topic that's come up in almost all of our meetings over the last year and we had dedicated meetings with those business owners and operators. some are no longer um on the street and so we're trying to um start the conversation again, but that um relationship with Head West specifically came out of their request for more activation there. And this year, it's the third year with that program to actually work with the businesses, keep some space open in front of the businesses that make that request. Um and then additionally we are looking at you know could we move a locust street festival type festival onto um North Main Street. The traffic um component is is a big deal but there there are things that are within our vision plan that do um target North Main Street.

Great. Thank you. Other questions? Uh just a few thanks Kathy for the update. Uh can you expand a little bit on the summer arts program or I guess a yearround arts program? what what kind of changes are being made to that?

Yeah, there the it's mostly marketing and trying to create a little bit more cohesiveness with the cross promotion that is available through all of the organizations. Um, and so it's getting them to learn um more on how to communicate. um syncing up also their marketing um um um leads um and then also um being able to just kind of highlight the programs that are already happening and how could maybe a a partner be able to um participate in a festival culture, you know, is is maybe Diab Diablo Ballet have something that would they'd be able to kind of cross-promote or um collaborate with. So it's looking at collaborations instead of creating something new.

So does that's helpful. And then it did the downtown stages still is that still part of the program or Yeah. Yes. Could it be combined with other event? Right. And it's it's a space that is available. Donna from our team um manages those and so she's known to be able to be that contact person to create you know any type of activation usually at Water Light Plaza and the other ones. um um and that arts alliance are really the the um groups that have taken most advantage of that. That's great. And October Fest, one of my favorite events and uh got to serve beer with Tracy's dad who's the champ.

Um, you know, there there's changes kind of happening around the the fall seems to be a real happening time. People want to be outside and be be part of these big events. Walnut Festival obviously was a big event here. The future of that I think is a little unknown now. What kind of opportunities do you see for October Fest to kind of build and grow and maybe incorporate some cherished traditions in Walnut Creek into into that event?

I think it's it's the last couple years have proven to be to be welloiled machine for the most part. It's creating more um opportunity for our community groups to be involved. I think um we had that with the stages. So um with a lot of the and and also engaging the schools a little bit more um so it's focus on community. Um we're happy with the footprint that exists right now. Um we don't see that moving um to the other side of the the bridge to the park just yet. Um, but really trying to maximize the space that we have right now and fine-tuning um, and making it also be a little bit more authentic, bringing in more of the German influence um, so that um, we do have um, that feel throughout the the weekend.

Terrific. Thank you. Hi, thanks for the presentation. Um, I was curious uh, the assessments, what's what's your lens on those? Do you you feel they're sort of right sized? I know there's a 3% increase. Um is there a a sentiment within the community that more or less would be better?

We Yeah, there are conversations in our within our finance committee and staff to to look at that to see what what would be a palatable increase beyond the 3%. Um I think right now that's you know it's comfortable for a lot of our businesses and so especially our smaller businesses. So keeping that in mind you know is there an opportunity to increase the current um assessment fees? Is there an opportunity to expand the bid? You know there's all different ways to slice and dice it. Um but I think looking at the current fees right now they're they're okay. I think that they could still go higher and still be palatable for our BI our membership.

I'm confident with our Sorry to interrupt. I was just say I I'm confident with our um services that we've really been able to to share and and be able to engage more one-on-one over the last couple of years that that membership, you know, is is okay with that because they see the return. And for those that don't, those are the ones that we want to be able to engage with even more. Right. Okay. That that was all I was going to say is it seems to me that the feedback is that it really is a value ad had. Yeah. And that is that generally the sentiment that you're you're getting from the downtown. That's great.

Um I also had that the measure O question. I was curious last year. Did you um you applied for specific amounts? I see some of it like 57,000 went to the C3, 44,000 went to the C6. Um, you had budgeted 120 but received 101. What did you apply? I'm not sure. Sorry for for asking a a vague question, but um was that was that did that process, you know, sort of go well? And um did you I guess you'll be telling us coming up but that that that amount kind of worked for what you were you were looking for last year or you had budgeted more than you received. Right.

What was your thought there?

So two things. one is that the C the difference between the C3 and the C6 is C3 is the um um all of our events are under the C3 and that's for public facing um as opposed to the C6 with the business interface um and so some of those programs fell under the beautifification or the the um the business end of it and then the others were for like 32,000 was included for the um Locust Street Festival. So event specific. So while it's they come out of two different buckets, they're still, you know, under the WCD umbrella. It was the first year that we've we've done that. And we we've got some fine tuning to do um on that um for the year ahead. Um and that's work that we'll do with um with Charles and and um city manager Buckshai.

Okay. Oh, and I wanted to say for the Unccorked event, um, that really the food was really a significant improvement. So, we'll put in a plug for that. There's no way you could stop at all of the places and eat all the good food that was available. So, it was great. It was a great that was a great event. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Thank you. Great. Well, uh, thank you, Kathy. And let's first open it up for public comment. Oh, Mike, you have something followup. Okay.

Thank you. So just to wrap up, uh given the presentation, the staff recommendation would be to move forward with the resolutions approving both the downtown as well as the south um downtown bid uh assessment rates for 2027 as well as uh accept this annual report. Thank you.

All right. Thanks, Mike. Well, let's open it up to public comment. If anybody would like to speak on this, please come forward and you'll have a couple of minutes. All right. Seeing nobody for public comment, we will close it. Bring it back to council for either further comments or a motion. How about a move to adopt the resolution approving the Downtown Walnut Creek Business Improvement District annual assessment report for FY26, levying the annual assessments for Downtown Walnut Creek Business Improvement District for FY27, and setting a public hearing for April 7th, 2026, and doing the same things, adopting the resolution approving the Downtown Walnut Creek South Business Improvement District annual assessment report for FY26, levying the annual assessments for downtown Walnut South Business Improvement District for FY27 and setting a public hearing for a surprise the same day, April 7th, 2026.

How about that? All right, a second. We have We have a second. And could you please call the role, Susie? Council member Darling. I council member Deini. Hi. Mayor Pro Franis. Hi. Mayor Welk. Hi. Motion carries. All right. And thank you for all your hard work this year.

Thank you. Yeah. Um why don't we take a fiveminut break just to stretch our legs. All right. Back here. What time is it? We'll be back here at uh 10 or 5 to 8. Hey. Hey. Hey. Okay.

Oh, hey. I'm Oh. I want to hold home. Oh.

Hey. Hey. Oh, I'm cold. Oh, hold.

All right, we're back and we will resume the meeting with our next consideration item and our last consideration item, the 2025 housing element annual progress report. And I invite housing manager Stephanie Bryen forward to provide the presentation. Good evening, Mayor Welk and members of city council. I'm Stephanie Bryan, the housing manager, and uh the item before you this evening is our 2025 housing element annual progress report. Um tonight's presentation will cover the background on the APR annual progress report um and why it's prepared. We'll discuss the progress in our housing element programs and the regional housing needs allocation or RENA goals and we'll highlight key achievements we've made since the housing element was adopted in 2023. The housing element contains goals, policies, and programs that guide how we work towards our arena obligation. The process starts at the state level where the California Department of Housing and Community Development or HCD determines the required number of housing units across all income levels for each region of the state. Those numbers are then provided to regional agencies. In our case, the Association of Bay Area Governments, also known as ABAG, which distributes specific housing units targets across local jurisdictions like Walnut Creek. Cities are then required by the state to submit an annual progress report. Each year, documenting how they're progressing towards these goals. The report before you tonight is Walnut Creek's 2025 annual progress report.

The APR is submitted to HCD each year by April 1st. It includes a snapshot of the city's housing production data from the previous calendar year, which is the number of units issued, building permits, and development activities such as projected applications submitted and the projects completed. The report also tracks implementation of the housing element programs, which are the specific actions the city is taking to facilitate housing development. The primary way the state measures progress towards Reena is through the number of building permits issued. The city's total REA goal is 5,85. Since the beginning of the housing element cycle, the city has issued 244 bu building permits, placing us at approximately 4% of our arena goal. The state's methodology for tracking progress, however, doesn't describe the full picture. Units currently in the pipeline represent approximately Oh, wait. I think I got ahead right, sorry about that. According to the pipeline report found on the city's website, there are approximately 1,300 units at some stage of our development process. The pipeline stages go from a project submittal application to project construction. And the numbers in the circles indicate the number of units at each stage in the process as of December of 2025. The timeline for each project type varies depending on state and local laws that define development processes. Units currently in the pipeline represent approximately 23% of the city's total reena goal. Significantly, nearly half of the pipeline units are identified as affordable. And while Reena progress is measured by building

permits issued, this slide gives us a broader picture of development activity moving through the city's pipeline. And because cities don't build housing directly, the pipeline is one of our best indicators for how development interest may translate into future permitted and completed housing. The other key component of our annual progress report is our housing program activity. As stated previously, the housing element includes goals, policies, and actions that guide how the city facilitates housing production. [snorts] Notably, of 145 total actions in our housing element, 138 actions have been implemented since the housing element was certified, and only one activity remains scheduled for implementation this reporting year, meaning 2026. These programs include activities such as updated zoning supports for residents and developers, collaborations with our community partners, and encouraging ADU development, among others. To highlight the city's key achievements in 2025, this is a summary of action items implemented. They include housing production and affordability like the increased number of permits by 147% over last year, additional affordable below market rate homes, rental units, and ADUs created, and a pro-ousing incentive program award of $1 million. We also implemented zoning and regulatory streamlining such as improvements in our permitting processes, removal of invalidated residential growth limitation and planned development permit requirements, and we updated our residential care facility regulations. We continued supporting our unhoused residents through ongoing funding of Trinity Cent's evening and job training programs. We participated in the

Contraosta County's homeless consortium and maintained the police department's homeless outreach program, the HOP team. And we sustained our community collaboration activities, including the developer forum and our partnerships through the city's community grant program recipients. Oops. And finally, ADUs were a prominent strategy that were that in that were enacted since certification. In that time, the city has expanded our housing options for ADUs through the creation of pre-approved ADU or PRAU plans, through zoning amendments that allow expanded ADUs on faith-based properties, and last but not least, creation of an ADU accelerator program, which offers financial incentives for ADU construction. Notably, all of the rebates in this program were fully allocated within nine months, which were well ahead of our expectations. In conclusion, staff asks that the city council approve the 2025 APR and direct city staff to submit it to the required agencies and staff is happy to answer any questions you might have.

Thanks, Stephanie. I'm sure we have a few questions. I saw housing committee. Okay. Um, any further request? Just maybe thank you for the report, Stephanie. Really great information. Um when you said in the pipeline that about half of the units are affordable, is that based on kind of the density assumptions that they meet the they would meet the density requirements to be characterized as an affordable unit? It's based on information that I got from the uh planners for each of the projects in the pipeline where they gave me the actual number of affordable units that had been identified for each of the projects.

That's impressive. Then that's that's a high number. Um I think that's all I had. Others were comments.

Um I do have one question just general question. I think we'd asked it before but I just want to bring it forward again. You'd mentioned on one of the slides that uh we don't build but we make the zoning available to be built on. So what happens if the Rena targets aren't met and what are the consequences if any of how cities would be held accountable on this? Um I you know I my understanding is that cities in general are making every good faith effort they can to meet their arena goal. And um and in a lot of ways that is that is exactly what we can do is about providing as many program opportunities as we can to encourage the production of housing and those are the only tools we really have available to us. Um and we can hope that the state would understand that we have literally done everything we can.

Well, you know, we we would hope

um if I might add to it. So, what we are held accountable for is the implementation of our housing element. And so if we're not able to meet the goal currently, um we are not penalized for that as long as we've made our commit, you know, fulfilled all of our commitments in the housing element to do everything to make the land available. Now, that's under current state housing law. Um who knows what the future may bring. Okay. So, we're doing what we need to now, but obviously between interest rates, between challenges with construction, when I talk to developers, the timing isn't right and it doesn't pencil out and uh those kind of things, we at this point we're not being held accountable for, but of course, the goalpost can move

that that that's the the law could change. And then in most cities housing elements, including Mona Creeks, they call for a midcycle review uh to see how you're doing against your um housing element commitments. And if a city is um below the midpoint, if you will, which many cities will be, um but if a city's below the midpoint, then there may be uh direction from HCD to look for additional sites that could potentially provide for additional housing as part of a midcycle review. So, think 2027 time frame.

Interesting. Okay. Thank you. All right, Stephanie. Thank you. We'll uh we'll now open it up to public com Oh, is there another Do you know?

We'll open it up to public comment. Um if there anybody that's running in from the hallway to do public comment. Now is the time. Come up to the podium. All right. Seeing none, we'll close public comment and bring it back to council for any comments or a motion. I just want to say thank you to staff from the housing committee. I think you guys did a good job. We asked a lot of questions and you guys are doing what we need to do to get there on the housing element. I appreciate it. Yeah, I I I concur and I you know you I think there is a tendency to focus on the percent and it seems like a relatively small number but I I also like the fact that we've I mean and I commend staff for the focus on achieving 137 of the 145 programs because those are the things we really can control and that could have the difference in terms terms of in increasing the number of units. And I think by focusing on those efforts early on in the cycle, it's more likely that we'll see the numbers grow. And I I think the pipeline numbers are significant. And certainly the number of affordable units is significant. And I also want to thank you for applying for the state funding and and funneling that money towards the affordable housing program. So, uh yeah, great work. I I I would let's let's just I think we should stay focused on it. I think uh who knows what the state will do in terms of a mid-cycle review or otherwise. I mean, these units aren't going away and they're only likely going to increase in the next cycle. So, you know, trying to do what we can to to achieve accommodate this current cycle and so that we're ready for the next one. That's all I had.

Okay. Thank Yes. Yeah. No, thank you for the report and um I think as a city you know staff has done a great job keeping us current and that's hence our pro housing uh designation and I think that's what you were referring to um was there's an item on I think our consent calendar this time around applying for what a million dollars uh from the state. So that's amazing. That's great. Um, and so I uh move to approve the 2025 annual progress report and direct city staff to submitted to the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation. And I will second that. We have a motion and a second. Susie, could you read the role, please? Council member Deiny,

I. Council member Darling, I Mayor Prom Franis, hi. Mayor Wilk. Motion carries. All right. I believe that is the end of our meeting. So we are adjourned until the re next regular meeting of the city council which is April 7th. Sayanara

[music] [music]