HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC 02-10-2026 Youtube and Zoom TranscriptWEBVTT
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Community Hall: Welcome to the Cupertino Planning Commission meeting of
Tuesday, February 10th, 2026.
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Community Hall: I hope you will join us for the Pledge of Allegiance.
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Community Hall: Thank you. Madam City Clerk, may we have a roll call,
please?
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Community Hall: Commissioner Feng? Present.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Linskog?
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: present.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Linskog?
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: present.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Linsko, you might be on mute.
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: No, I'm not.
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Community Hall: Oh, we can hear you. We can hear you now.
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Oh.
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Present.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Scharf?
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Community Hall: Present? Vice Chair Casolcheron? Present. Chair Rao?
Present.
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Community Hall: Thank you, Madam City Clerk. The first item on the agenda
will be the election of
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Community Hall: the chair and vice chair and the appointments. We will do
this one…
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Community Hall: One election at a time, starting with the election of the
chair first.
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Community Hall: Are there any comments that staff would like to make on
this item?
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Community Hall: No? No.
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Community Hall: No comments from staff.com. Okay, very good.
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Community Hall: Are there any clarifying questions from commissioners on
this item? And we're specifically talking about the election of the
chair.
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Community Hall: Okay, seeing none, I will…
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Community Hall: open it up for public comments on item number one. Public
comments will be for all elections listed in the agenda item. That
includes the election of the chair, the vice chair, the election of the
Housing Commission representative.
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Community Hall: and the, election of the Economic Development Committee
representatives. So any members of the public that wish to comment on
this, now would be the time to do that.
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Community Hall: We have no speakers in person, and no hands raised on
Zoom. Thank you, Madam City Clerk. We have no public comments on Item 1.
I'm going to close the…
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Community Hall: close the, public comment on item 1, and I will…
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Community Hall: Open it up for, the first item, which is the…
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Community Hall: election of the chair for the Planning Commission for the
upcoming year, and I will kick it off with a motion to
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Community Hall: elect Vice Chair Tracy Kosolsharon to the Chair of the
Planning Commission.
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Community Hall: Do I have a second? I'll second that.
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Community Hall: Thank you, Madam City Clerk. We have a…
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Community Hall: Motion and a second. I'll open it up for public comment,
I mean, for discussions, if commissioners would like to…
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Community Hall: Add anything?
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Community Hall: No discussions?
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Community Hall: Okay, seeing none, we will run a vote by voice, Madam
City Clerk. Thank you.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Fung?
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Community Hall: Aye. Commissioner Linskog?
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Aye.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Scharf? Aye. Vice Chair Casolshron?
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Community Hall: Aye. Chair Rowe? Aye. The motion carries unanimously.
Wonderful. Congratulations, let me be the first to congratulate our Vice
Chair, Tracy Kosol-Sharon, for becoming the new Planning Commission Chair
for the
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Community Hall: For the upcoming year, the current chair will complete
this item, and then we will transition the role and responsibility of the
chair. So the next item on the same agenda is the election of the Vice
Chair. Do I have a motion for Vice Chair?
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Community Hall: Yes, I'd like to make a motion, and before that, I'd like
to briefly comment. Thank you very much to this Commission for nominating
me as chair. It is an honor to serve you in this capacity, and, Chair
Rao, or former Chair Rao, it's, you've done a great service for our group
in always trying to help find consensus and, you know, always making sure
that everyone has had time to ask their questions.
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Community Hall: So, I appreciate that, and I hope to continue that.
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Community Hall: So for, Vice Chair, I would like to nominate Commissioner
Scharf.
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Community Hall: I can second that.
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Community Hall: Any discussion?
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Community Hall: Commissioner Shaw, do you accept?
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Community Hall: Yes, I accept, thank you. Hey, so do we have any
discussion?
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Community Hall: Seeing no discussion, we will take a vote by voice, Madam
City Clerk. Commissioner Feng? Aye. Commissioner Linskog?
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Aye.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Scharf? Aye. Vice Chair Casolstrong? Aye.
Chair Rowe? Aye. The motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Madam City
Clerk. I want to congratulate our former chair, and now Vice Chair, and
former Commissioner, or
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Community Hall: I guess, current commissioner and current voice chair,
sure, for, once again, taking a role that you're all too familiar with,
so thank you for that. So with that, we now move on to the next part of
this agenda item, which is the election of the
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Community Hall: Housing Committee non-voting representative. This is a
member of the commission that gets to attend the Housing Commission. They
do not get to vote, but they do get to attend and participate, so do we
have a nomination for
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Community Hall: our Housing Commission not voting representative.
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Community Hall: Do we have a volunteer?
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Community Hall: I'd be happy to continue in that role if the other
commissioners agree. Okay, is… anybody… Has a…
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Community Hall: Are we… are we gonna take a second on that, or is anyone
else wanting to offer up, or we…
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Community Hall: Okay, so then I will second Commissioner Scharf, or now
Vice Chair Scharf, for continuing to do the honors of attending the
Housing Commission.
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Community Hall: We have a motion… we have a motion and a second. Do we
have any discussion or a substitute?
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Community Hall: Okay, seeing none.
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Community Hall: If we can do a vote by voice, Madam City Clerk.
Commissioner Fung?
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Community Hall: Aye.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Linskog?
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Aye.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Rao? Aye. Vice Chair Scharf? Aye. Chair
Casolshron? Aye. The motion carries unanimously. Wonderful, thank you.
Congratulations, Vice Chair Scharf, for, electing to spend your evenings
with the Housing Commission. I hope you enjoy their company as much as
you enjoy ours.
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Community Hall: Those are good meetings, they're very important, and I
think they don't happen that often, so it's, it's fine. Wonderful. I
didn't miss one. Wonderful, thank you. So the next item on this agenda is
the, election of the Economic Development Committee Representative for
the upcoming year.
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Community Hall: Seeing that the term for the previous one was barely one
meeting, I believe?
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Community Hall: Was it one meeting? Yeah, I can briefly comment. So we've
had two meetings so far, and I believe there's three remaining for the
year. That said, I am happy to yield that position if anyone else here is
interested.
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Community Hall: And to add to that, I believe the meeting is in the
daytime hours, so it will be working hours for anybody that's working.
Yes, usually around 2 o'clock. 2 o'clock in the afternoon, very good. Do
we have…
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Community Hall: I'm willing to nominate that we continue our Chair Casol
Seron as a rep, given she's only attended one meeting so far, and it's
been barely a month. Right, I'll second that. Okay. Do we have any…
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Community Hall: discussion or substitutes, okay? We look forward to
hopefully seeing more meetings that, Chair Casol Sharon can attend, so
we'll go to a vote by voice for the election of the EDC rep.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Fung? Aye. Commissioner Linskogg?
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Aye.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Sharp? Aye. Oh, sorry, Vice Chair Sharp?
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Community Hall: Also, aye. Still one vote. Commissioner Rao? Aye. Chair
Casolshron? Aye. The motion carries unanimously. Thank you, Madam City
Clerk. So, with that, we have completed the election of all four
positions in Agenda Item 1.
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Community Hall: And I believe we have concluded agenda Item 1. What we
will now do is take a 5-minute break, where the video team can hopefully
turn off the feed. We will allow for a swap in position of the chair and
vice chair, and any sort of acclimatization for the new chair, and then
we'll pick up
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Community Hall: Agenda item 2 with the new chair. Thank you. If we may
take a 5-minute break, please.
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Community Hall: Okay, thank you everyone for patiently waiting. We are
ready to move on to agenda item number 2, which is approval of the
December 9th, 2025 Planning Commission minutes. Do we have a motion to
approve the minutes?
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Community Hall: So I'll make a… I'll make a motion to approve the
minutes.
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Community Hall: A second?
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Community Hall: City Clark, we have a voice vote on this? Okay.
Commissioner Fung? Aye. Commissioner Linskog?
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Aye.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Rao? Aye. Vice Chair Scharf? Aye. Chair
Casolshron? Aye. The motion carries unanimously.
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Community Hall: Moving on, do we have any postponements? No
postponements. Then moving to oral communications, do we have any oral
communications?
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Community Hall: We have no speakers in person, and no hands raised on
Zoom, Chair.
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Community Hall: Okay, moving along. We will go to agenda item number 3,
which is the 2026 Planning Commission meeting schedule. Do we have a
staff report for this?
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Community Hall: Yesterday.
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Community Hall: There we go. Briefly, this is what we do annually, then,
to set the calendar dates for the Planning Commission, which meets the
second and fourth Tuesdays. I think most of the focus is on where there
could be some issues with holidays.
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Community Hall: I don't believe there are that many, perhaps Labor Day,
but it's really just setting out the schedule for the year. In recent
years, the Planning Commission has paralleled the City Council and not
met in August.
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Community Hall: And I think similarly, the second meetings in November
and December had also been canceled for the holidays, but you're free to
select whichever meeting dates you'd like.
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Community Hall: Oh, when is the Planning Commissioner Academy?
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Community Hall: March 11th through 13, so it's about a month off. Right,
so March 10th might be an issue, then.
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Community Hall: We might be traveling that day. That is a very good
point, yes.
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Community Hall: Is it possible to move faster?
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Community Hall: Is it possible to move the meeting for the March?
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Community Hall: Could, if the 10th is a Tuesday, and that could be a
travel day…
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Community Hall: We could check, depending on what the options are,
because obviously you have one on the 24th.
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Community Hall: It could be moved up, or we would have to see, too,
because one of the issues that's hard to answer offhand is the
availability of this room.
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Community Hall: And I don't believe that needs to be decided now. The
chair could make the decision with staff at a later time.
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Community Hall: Yeah, I think if… If there is a desire to move that, we
can check on availability,
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Community Hall: If the meeting's not going to be canceled, we should
probably find an alternate date for anybody who's arriving in Southern
California for the 11th.
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Community Hall: That might be tough traveling.
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Community Hall: Okay, so the course of action for this would be to just
keep the current March meeting date, and as we approach, we would move
it? Correct. Okay.
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Community Hall: Does anyone else on this commission have a comment or
question around the schedule?
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Community Hall: I think there were a few errors in the staff report.
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Community Hall: I don't know if,
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Community Hall: staff have found those errors and would like to clarify,
but I think you had
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Community Hall: the December 23rd called out, but I think the Tuesday is
the 22nd.
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Community Hall: And you're saying the Christmas Eve is 2 days after 23rd,
which wouldn't be correct?
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Community Hall: Okay.
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Community Hall: I did not catch the date errors. If we open the staff
report for this item…
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Community Hall: Which, for some reason, I'm having trouble doing right
now. I've got the schedule open, but I'm not able to open the staff
report for some reason.
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Community Hall: And so, just to clarify, I think what…
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Community Hall: what the staff report is saying here is the 22nd, I
believe. That would be the Tuesday, is that right?
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Community Hall: Just want to confirm that.
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Community Hall: There was some confusion around the dates listed here,
so… December 22nd is the Tuesday?
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Community Hall: Let me see if I can… yep.
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Community Hall: And so I assume, if we were to… So, okay, so…
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Community Hall: So, does staff have a recommendation here? What are we
doing? We're talking about for December here?
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Community Hall: Typically, that meeting has not occurred for several
years at all, the second meeting in December.
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Community Hall: That is probably the final workday before the closure as
well.
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Community Hall: Would be the 22nd.
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Community Hall: So, we could keep that.
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Community Hall: Or we could move it up, but typically we have not had
that meeting at all. But you are referring to the 22nd, right? Yes, the
22nd of December, correct, the Tuesday.
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Community Hall: It's correct in the calendar.
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Community Hall: Do we have any other clarifying questions?
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Community Hall: Yes, I will nitpick.
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Community Hall: Here.
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Community Hall: Could you spell… please spell canceled correctly?
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Community Hall: It's spelled correctly at the beginning, but then it
changes to British English at the end. So you'd prefer it with one L?
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Community Hall: Yeah, that's American English as well. I do, too. I
didn't realize that. And it is with one L at the beginning, and then it
switches to two L's further down.
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Community Hall: I would be happy to use American English throughout.
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Community Hall: Okay, if there are no other questions, then we'll open up
for public comment.
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Community Hall: Any comments on this?
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Community Hall: We have no speakers in person, and no hands raised on
Zoom, Chair.
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Community Hall: Thank you. Okay, so bringing it back to this commission,
does anyone have comments on desired schedule?
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Community Hall: I'd probably make a motion that we cancel the November
24th and the December 22nd, which is the week of Thanksgiving and
Christmas.
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Community Hall: Do I have a second?
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Community Hall: I'll second that.
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Community Hall: Before we proceed, Chair, just wanted to note that
there's August meetings that are proposed to be canceled as well, to
align the recess with the Council.
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Community Hall: Are you motion? No, my motion is…
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Community Hall: to cancel the meeting the week of Thanksgiving and the
week of Christmas.
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Community Hall: I don't believe, yeah, that's it. That's the motion, and
the second.
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Community Hall: Would you be interested in amending that to go ahead and
adopt the entire calendar?
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Community Hall: I doubt there'll be any conflict on those two days.
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Community Hall: You mean the Memorial Day and Labor Day?
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Community Hall: What was the… It's the proposed calendar… the proposed
calendar that they had here.
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Community Hall: I mean, we can… we can do it piecewise. Yeah, I was… I
was gonna leave it as it is, because we haven't canceled in May and
September previously.
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Community Hall: I don't believe we canceled me in September in the past.
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Community Hall: And, you know, the chair can always make the call as the
date approaches working with staff, so…
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Community Hall: I guess we get enough cancellations that we'll give the
predicator to the chair at the… as the meeting approaches. But this
calendar doesn't say anything about cancellations since September, it's
in August. Yeah.
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Community Hall: No, there is a September 8th.
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Community Hall: Day after Labor Day. Are you on page 2 of the staff
report? I am. Is… is that proposed to be canceled? September 8th? I don't
see that it's… He's on the calendar, and you're on the staff report. Oh,
I'm on the staff report. I'm sorry, okay. So in the calendar, it does not
show anything canceled in September. Yeah. It does…
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Community Hall: propose considering… or, well, it notes that August is
Council Recess, and that we have historically canceled both of those
meetings. I'm open to keeping them, and we can just evaluate. If we don't
have anything, we can cancel them right beforehand.
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Community Hall: That's fine with me. Yeah, so the motion on the floor is
that we cancel the week of Thanksgiving and the week of Christmas. That's
the only two cancellations as of now. The chair can always make other
changes in future.
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Community Hall: Again, just, just, just to point out, since those are
the…
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Community Hall: to the summer recess, I mean, some…
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Community Hall: Yeah, I keep pressing this button.
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Community Hall: And it's, is this working now? Yeah, just, just to point
out, just a few information for,
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Community Hall: this commission that we previously canceled that aligned
with the council recess, because generally those are the summer months,
and, you know, people only make vacation plans, and so it's just… it's
just something in order to plan your calendar, so…
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Community Hall: I see.
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Community Hall: Yeah, I would just comment… I would comment in support of
removing those.
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Community Hall: removing the August dates. Of course, we can change
those. We could add one if there was some reason.
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Community Hall: And that we would keep the September 8th date, even
though that is close to Labor Day.
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Community Hall: You know, by virtue of the fact that we had not met in
August.
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Community Hall: It looks like Commissioner Linscogg has her hand raised?
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Yeah, I just wanted to make a comment. I
think, to, Attorney Wu's.
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Community Hall: Is there a way to speak up? Are we able to hear? Maybe
the video team can increase the volume in the room?
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Can you hear me now?
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Community Hall: And here, Commissioner Lindskog a little bit louder.
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Community Hall: Maybe a room?
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Can you hear me now?
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Community Hall: I can hear you, it's just faint.
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Oh. Weird. Hmm.
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Community Hall: be a pro… it might be an issue in the room. Yeah, I don't
think it's on your end, Commissioner Linscock.
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Community Hall: Can the video team increase the volume in the room?
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Community Hall: Or increase Commissioner Lynch Cox volume.
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Hello, hello, hello, hello.
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Community Hall: I think that's better. That's better.
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Okay, good. So, I guess my point was, we
have to be respectful of staff's need to be able to plan their schedule
and to be able to have
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: vacations with their children and their
families, so I think, you know, aligning with the council agenda, I mean,
of taking a break in August would
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: You know, give the staff a chance to, you
know, plan their vacation schedules for the year, and that seems like…
that seems appropriate for us to do.
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Community Hall: That sounds fair and reasonable. I'm… I'm hoping to,
reverting to the… Proposed plan of, just canceling…
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Community Hall: Actually, so… would this be a friendly amendment? So I'm
not accepting the friendly amendment, I just want to clarify. So, I think
we have had two months of cancellations in December and Jan.
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Community Hall: And so I'd just like to try and let the chair decide as
the meetings approach, because what happens is, based on my experience,
we cancel far more than what the calendar suggests, so…
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Community Hall: giving the chair and staff the prerogative to cancel as
you approach is probably… and you might always reconvene again in June
and make that decision, but that's just my…
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Community Hall: My take was the proposer of the motion. Anyone is free to
make a substantive motion.
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Yep, I'd like to make a substitute motion.
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Community Hall: Before… excuse me, I'm sorry, Commissioner Linskong. So…
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Community Hall: Commissioner Rao, you made a motion previously, I think
it was seconded by… by Chair Khososharin, and so at this point, there is
a motion and a second on the floor. Are you withdrawing your second?
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Community Hall: Oh, I was asking if the motioner would be willing to
amend, and it sounds like they were not, so…
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Community Hall: does that answer your question?
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Community Hall: So then you're withdrawing your second. No, that's not
what I heard. I'll second if… I'll keep my second. Okay. Then there's a
motion and a second to cancel only the two meetings and…
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Community Hall: December and November. And so, unless we have a
substitute motion, then the Madame City Clerk could take a roll call
vote.
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Can I make a substitute motion?
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Community Hall: There was a certain… Yes. Commissioner, you can make a
substitute motion.
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Okay, so I'd like to make a substrate
motion that we follow the Council, agenda, and we canceled the meetings
in August, and the last meeting in November and December. So we align
with the Council.
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Schedule.
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Community Hall: No, I will second that.
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Community Hall: You can take the roll call vote on the substitute motion.
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Community Hall: I actually have a question for staff. I… I do take the
point that Commissioner Linskogg made to heart, and I'm curious if…
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Community Hall: you know, how much advance notice you typically prefer
on… on meetings, and, you know, if we kept the August meeting.
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Community Hall: Would we be able to evaluate
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Community Hall: One to two months in advance.
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Community Hall: Whether it was still necessary, and would that be enough
time for staff to make whatever arrangements they need?
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Community Hall: It's a difficult question, and it probably affects me
less than some other people who I think
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Community Hall: typically plan their longer vacations in August.
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Community Hall: Obviously people take summer vacations anyway, but I… my
experience here, because of the Council's August recess, is more people
tend to take longer vacations during that period.
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Community Hall: So, if you were trying to plan a trip to Europe, it might
affect you if you only had one month notice.
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Community Hall: And I will just add, Chair, that the…
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Community Hall: Vacation schedule of any one person, either staff or
commissioners, wouldn't affect the meeting in itself unless we did have
courtroom.
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Community Hall: So, just wanted to add there.
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Community Hall: True.
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Community Hall: Yes, thank you.
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Community Hall: Yeah, your mic is off, but I can still hear you. Okay,
thank you very much, Chair. Chair, I just want to kind of follow up on
this discussion here, is…
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Community Hall: Part of the early cancellation also is the transparency
to the public as well, so the members of the public can kind of plan
ahead and knowing what may be coming down the pipeline, and plan their
schedule as well. So I just want to throw that in there for your
consideration. Thank you.
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Community Hall: Thank you. Are we ready for a voice vote on the
substitute motion? Any other comments? Can the City Clerk clarify the
substitute motion, please?
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Community Hall: The substitute motion is for… to follow the Council
agenda to Council the meetings in August, the last meeting in November
and December.
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Community Hall: Sorry, so it's to keep the meetings in August and cancel
in November and December? No. No, to cancel the meetings in August.
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Community Hall: That's the substitute motion? Yes. Okay, great.
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Community Hall: Should we have a vote?
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Community Hall: Commissioner Feng? Aye. Commissioner Linskog?
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Aye.
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Community Hall: Commissioner Rao? No.
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Community Hall: Vice Chair Scharf? No. Chair Kasulcheron?
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Community Hall: Yes.
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Community Hall: The motion carries, with Commissioner Rao and Vice Chair
Schaar voting no.
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Community Hall: Okay, thank you very much. Then we will move on to Agenda
Item 4, which is review of the proposed Mary Avenue public right-of-way
vacation and determination of the location, purpose, and extent of
property disposition for consistency with the general plan. Do we have a
staff report?
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Community Hall: Yes, you do. Oh.
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Community Hall: Chair, before,
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Community Hall: We have the staff report. I just want to point out to the
public that the issue before this planning commission is extremely
narrow.
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Community Hall: So the… what they're… what they're going to be evaluating
is not the project.
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Community Hall: They're evaluating whether The vacation of the right-of-
way…
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Community Hall: on Mary Avenue is consistent and in conformance with the
general plan. That's a very narrow and discrete issue, and that's what
has been agendized.
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Community Hall: for discussion here, so I respectfully request that, you
know, to the extent you're making public comments, it conforms to that.
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Community Hall: And to the extent that
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Community Hall: That, commissioners here, are not responding to any
questions you may have is because… is because they understand that
discussion about the project itself, about parking, about traffic, about
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Community Hall: any other issues other than general plan conformance, is
not appropriate for them, and so I just wanted to just let the public
know that.
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Community Hall: Okay, thank you. That sort of took a good part of my
verbal report out of the way, because given the nature of the project,
there is no visual presentation for this tonight. I think, as Michael had
just clarified, this is a…
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Community Hall: Fairly rare type of project where the focus is extremely
narrow, although there had been a lot of wider interest in the project,
so…
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Community Hall: Tonight, we really are looking at the consistency with
the general plan in terms of vacating the right-of-way and disposing of
that property.
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Community Hall: So I think the staff report laid out pretty clearly what
the issues are. By far, the majority of the general plan issues are tied
to the housing element, because this is housing element site number 10.
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Community Hall: It's the only city-owned Housing Element property.
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Community Hall: And it was the only housing element property of the 58
that was focused 100% on low-income housing.
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Community Hall: The description in the supplemental table to the housing
element laid out even described this project, almost exactly in the form
it is today, a 40-unit project that's all very low-income.
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Community Hall: And about 50% dealing with the special needs population,
so…
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Community Hall: The policies and strategies cited in the staff report,
come from the housing element. You also have land use elements supporting
this in that the land use designations were changed in 2024.
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Community Hall: when the housing element was adopted, so this now has a
high, very high land use designation in the general plan. It has been
rezoned, and even as of last week, the development permit and an
agreement were approved by the City Council, so…
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Community Hall: That's the focus of the staff report, and with that,
we're happy to answer any questions that you may have.
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Community Hall: Great, thank you. Any questions?
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Community Hall: So the last time I remember that we vacated city land was
for the Apple Park project.
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Community Hall: When we gave up part of Pruner Ridge Avenue. Have there
been any other
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Community Hall: The vacatings of, public lands since then?
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Community Hall: just based on internal discussions, I believe that's it.
I haven't researched it, but I believe that was the last one was tied to
the Apple project.
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Community Hall: Okay, thank you.
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Community Hall: Any other questions?
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Community Hall: I do have some questions.
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Community Hall: Can the City Attorney please help us clarify what is the…
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Community Hall: commission looking for when it comes to the Action 1
versus Action 2, there are two different resolutions. One talks about the
vacation, the other talks about the
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Community Hall: disposition. Can you help us understand what
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Community Hall: Sort of rules in the game are we looking at for one
versus the other, and what would be the difference?
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Community Hall: And I'd open up to either the CD at NEO stuff.
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Community Hall: Okay, so yeah, the question then is really that you…
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Community Hall: The way this is framed is there's two recommended
actions, the first being the vacation, and the next being the
disposition.
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Community Hall: Well, they're really related. I mean, the first is that
you would be vacating the city's interest in the right-of-way. That
parcel was created almost 3 years ago.
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Community Hall: And once that would be done, you would then be able to
dispose of or transfer an interest in the property to another party. As I
said last week at City Council, Council took two actions. They approved
the development permits for this.
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Community Hall: And entered into a disposition and development agreement,
which is really related to that second piece, the second resolution.
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Community Hall: And if I read the letter part of the staff report, it
says.
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Community Hall: The Commission shall make a determination regarding the
location, purpose, and extent of the disposition of the property. Is
that…
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Community Hall: sort of what we are supposed to be looking at. I believe
that is taken right from, state law, the Section 65402 that's mentioned
in the staff report. That language is found in that portion of the
government code.
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Community Hall: And when it talks about purpose, does that assume the
purpose has been decided ahead of this
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Community Hall: Hearing to look at confirmance to the general plan.
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Community Hall: Well, I think in this case, the purpose has been pretty
clearly laid out, that it would be a housing development, and that
housing development has… now has an approved permit on it for 40 units.
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Community Hall: Let me rephrase my question, maybe it's for the City
Attorney, since this talks about Section 65402C.
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Community Hall: 65402C talks about The Commission shall make a
determination regarding location, purpose, and extent.
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Community Hall: What is the meaning of purpose here?
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Community Hall: So, the way I would look at it, Commissioner Rao, is that
one is vacating the right-of-way, and two is, why are we vacating the
right-of-way? So here, it's vacating the right-of-way in order for
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Community Hall: this priority housing site that's in our housing element.
And so the question… so those are sort of two sister, you know, related?
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Community Hall: actions. Sorry, one is…
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Community Hall: what are you doing? You're making the right way, and what
are you doing what's for this particular development in the housing
element? And so the follow-up question then is, are those two things in
conformance with the general plan?
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Community Hall: And that, that isn't set forth in the report.
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Community Hall: Thank you.
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Community Hall: City Attorney, I will yield my time if there's other
questions.
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Community Hall: Does Commissioner Linskog or Commissioner Bung have any
questions?
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Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Nope. Nope.
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Community Hall: I do have some questions. We have received a lot of
letters about this. One of them was asking about whether we can lawfully
make post hoc consistency determinations after City Council approval. I
was curious whether there was any
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Community Hall: Issue with the fact that we are, you know.
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Community Hall: rolling on vacation, or a consistency with general plan
after this has been approved by Council.
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Community Hall: No issues whatsoever.
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Community Hall: Perfectly consistent with the law.
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Community Hall: Okay, thank you.
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Community Hall: And so, you know, we had discussed this a little bit
directly today, City Attorney.
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Community Hall: But, you know, right now, we're voting on whether a site
vacation is consistent with the general plan while the site has
technically already been approved to be part of the general plan. Would
you…
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Community Hall: Consider that, you know, when the previous Commission
approved this site, that they had already, in an implied way.
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Community Hall: approve that this site vacation is consistent with the
general plan? Is there some sort of implicit
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Community Hall: Approval in the… in the first housing element
determination.
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Community Hall: when…
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Community Hall: The city, through its Planning Commission and the
Council, met numerous times over a couple of years in deciding or
determining
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Community Hall: which sites should be priority housing sites for our
housing element.
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Community Hall: That was first step number one, is to identify an
available site.
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Community Hall: And so, after that occurs, there still needs to be a lot
of steps to perfect that. So, for instance, you might have a site where
there is a commercial property that may be underutilized.
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Community Hall: And so, you know, then there was discussion of adding
that as a priority site, and that was discussed, and then that site gets
on. At that point, there's an expectation, an assumption that
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Community Hall: that, that, appropriate development would occur. So
likewise here, you know, there was,
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Community Hall: discussions, in, I think, as early as 2019, 2020 about
this particular site, being a potential development, and then those
discussions ended up in, in this particular site.
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Community Hall: being a priority housing site, with the expectation, of
course, that a whole bunch of things still needed to occur, as it does
for all of our priority housing sites, because things had to be rezoned,
there's just a bunch of things that still had to happen, so it's sort of…
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Community Hall: You know, you could not have pre-done all of the… all of
the legal and practical requirements when you were putting together the
initial priority housing site.
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Community Hall: Yeah, if I could add, I think that's just… the best way
to look at it is designating this and putting in the housing element and
amending the general plan is really your initial step.
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Community Hall: You're making a statement that
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Community Hall: the commissions and the council have identified this site
for housing at a certain density.
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Community Hall: I think the difference in the housing element with this
site is it's described in even more accurate detail.
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Community Hall: I think because the city knew what it wanted on the site,
and…
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Community Hall: did an RFP, and went out and essentially got what it
wanted. But…
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Community Hall: really amending the general plan and your housing
element, that's always the first step. Then you have
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Community Hall: A range of things, or permits, possibly subdivision.
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Community Hall: Could be environmental issues related to a site that
involve cleanup, so…
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Community Hall: There are multiple steps, and I, you know, there will
even be future steps on this project as well.
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Community Hall: Okay, thank you, that's really helpful. So, it is sort of
like a pre-approval, but with the understanding that there could be other
things discovered along the process that might, you know, get in the way
of the actual construction. That's helpful. And my final question before
I open it up for public comments.
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Community Hall: Or if anyone else has questions. But my final question
for now is really, around, you know, how we think about consistency with
the general plan. So, on the first page of the general plan.
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Community Hall: it does state pretty clearly that no element of the
general plan will have precedence over another. They are all equal
weight. And so,
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Community Hall: You know, with this staff report and staff recommendation
tonight, it does, you know, take certain elements of the general plan,
but would you say that there's some degree of discretion in terms of
which elements of the general plan are… are taken for consideration?
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Community Hall: And how they are, you know, considered against one
another.
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Community Hall: I mean, the general plan is really a unified document,
and I think, historically, the land use element was always
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Community Hall: had primacy over the others. Certainly over time, the
housing element has grown. It's the one that's updated by far the most
frequently, every 8 years. The rest of the housing element can go 20
years or more without substantive updates.
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Community Hall: I think the emphasis for this project, though, when
you're looking for housing element conformance, is
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Community Hall: which pieces of the housing element are most directly
applied to that project. There's always possible to find things that are
inconsistent in a general plan. You could have
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Community Hall: A proposed office project that's going to bring a lot of
high-paying jobs in, but it may not be located ideally for
transportation, so you're adding vehicle trips, or it may not incorporate
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Community Hall: Say, green building techniques that another part of your
general plan could support. So…
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Community Hall: There, you're sort of picking and choosing. What does it
matter? For this site, I think the unique aspect is, is we have portions
of the housing element and general plan that are specifically on point to
this parcel.
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Community Hall: So, there can be very general language that would be
applied citywide.
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Community Hall: But in this instance, we have references to this very
property and how we want to see it developed in our housing element and
general plan.
332
00:44:24.120 --> 00:44:29.109
Community Hall: So that, in this case, would be very difficult to ignore.
333
00:44:29.410 --> 00:44:33.639
Community Hall: Were there any country or contradictory language
elsewhere in the general plan?
334
00:44:35.590 --> 00:44:43.179
Community Hall: Okay, thank you very much. That answers my question.
Through the Chair, I still have some questions, but I'd like to yield to
other commissioners if they have any questions first.
335
00:44:47.970 --> 00:44:51.279
Community Hall: Okay, seeing no other questions, I do have a few other
questions.
336
00:44:51.450 --> 00:44:58.469
Community Hall: Just packing up, I see the staff report was authored by
Public Works, but they're not here. Will they be joining us?
337
00:44:59.200 --> 00:45:09.099
Community Hall: They may, but I believe we could answer whatever
questions would arise. Okay. So, I'm looking at the first resolution.
338
00:45:09.330 --> 00:45:11.629
Community Hall: Which is the resolution to vacate.
339
00:45:12.610 --> 00:45:16.700
Community Hall: And section… Too.
340
00:45:17.920 --> 00:45:25.289
Community Hall: talks about… Section 2, specifically Section 2… B, I
believe.
341
00:45:26.580 --> 00:45:29.309
Community Hall: Just looking at this, yes, talks about the…
342
00:45:29.940 --> 00:45:32.959
Community Hall: Section 2D talks about this project
343
00:45:33.770 --> 00:45:39.779
Community Hall: Approval of the project would not result in any
significant effects related to traffic, noise, air quality, or water
quality.
344
00:45:40.700 --> 00:45:43.210
Community Hall: I did not see any attachments from staff.
345
00:45:43.800 --> 00:45:52.569
Community Hall: That would allow commissioners to make that
determination. On what basis would the planning commissioners make the
determination in the absence of any evidence?
346
00:45:53.210 --> 00:46:02.529
Community Hall: That language comes straight out of Section 15332 of the
CEQA guidelines. It's a Class 32 exemption language.
347
00:46:02.970 --> 00:46:12.539
Community Hall: The City Council last week already found the project
exempt under that, under those, those terms, and that exemption's already
been filed with the county and the state.
348
00:46:12.720 --> 00:46:20.979
Community Hall: So, that's where that language comes from. It's one of
the elements of that exemption. Your projects need to be consistent with
the general plan.
349
00:46:21.200 --> 00:46:25.879
Community Hall: Need to be consistent with zoning. Need to be 5 acres or
less in area.
350
00:46:26.100 --> 00:46:29.009
Community Hall: Need to have all utilities available to the site.
351
00:46:29.160 --> 00:46:36.950
Community Hall: And also, you have the language about, rare, threatened,
and endangered species, that this is not, habitat for them.
352
00:46:37.390 --> 00:46:54.119
Community Hall: And as you had just mentioned, that you would not have
impacts to traffic, noise, air quality, or water quality. This project
very clearly met all of those standards, and the exemption was prepared,
really, for the whole of the action. It covered the permit, the
disposition development agreement.
353
00:46:54.590 --> 00:47:01.249
Community Hall: So all of this is cited here. I can say this action alone
tonight, just finding conformance.
354
00:47:01.720 --> 00:47:06.700
Community Hall: Could not possibly result in a physical impact to the
environment, even though it's a discretionary act.
355
00:47:07.150 --> 00:47:12.920
Community Hall: And for CEQA, what CEQA's intent is, is all discretionary
projects are subject to it.
356
00:47:13.630 --> 00:47:19.569
Community Hall: But the project would have to be able to result in a
potentially significant impact to the environment.
357
00:47:19.850 --> 00:47:23.739
Community Hall: Finding consistency with the general plan is not
something that could do that.
358
00:47:25.340 --> 00:47:31.270
Community Hall: Okay, I'm trying to understand staff's response. I think
the gist of it was that the
359
00:47:31.440 --> 00:47:35.249
Community Hall: City Council heard the item last week, and it…
360
00:47:35.510 --> 00:47:42.599
Community Hall: see the evidence for item 2D in the resolution? Is that
the gist of it?
361
00:47:43.180 --> 00:47:53.019
Community Hall: Yes, this is actually the CEQA finding that has already
been made for the project. Okay, and so is Planning Commission advisory
to the Council, and therefore.
362
00:47:53.370 --> 00:47:55.779
Community Hall: The relevance of this hearing.
363
00:47:55.910 --> 00:47:59.110
Community Hall: Given that the Council has already heard the…
364
00:47:59.360 --> 00:48:05.349
Community Hall: the, aspect that you just described, what is the role of
the Planning Commission at this stage, given that hearing has already
occurred?
365
00:48:05.970 --> 00:48:11.980
Community Hall: That hearing was not about the conformance of the right-
of-way vacation or the disposition.
366
00:48:12.630 --> 00:48:21.789
Community Hall: So this is a different, much more narrow subject matter
that is a part of the project, but is not the same issue that the City
Council considered last week.
367
00:48:22.000 --> 00:48:33.100
Community Hall: Then, likewise tonight, the actual vacation is not before
the Planning Commission, just its consistency, so the City Council will
need to make that determination in the future.
368
00:48:33.400 --> 00:48:35.940
Community Hall: In order to actually vacate the right-of-way.
369
00:48:36.810 --> 00:48:45.739
Community Hall: Yeah, I think that that is understood, that we are not
considering the vacation itself. I'm just trying to understand, this is a
resolution in front of commissioners.
370
00:48:46.030 --> 00:48:50.569
Community Hall: And Section 1 states that we find the above, or the
below, to be true.
371
00:48:50.790 --> 00:48:56.789
Community Hall: Would staff be willing to strike Section 2 out of this
resolution, since we are not looking at evidence for 2D?
372
00:49:00.370 --> 00:49:04.900
Community Hall: I'm not sure why you would strike it out from the
resolution.
373
00:49:05.460 --> 00:49:10.479
Community Hall: Because Section 1 states that the Commission has duly
considered
374
00:49:11.750 --> 00:49:21.229
Community Hall: staff, exhibits, facts, public testimony, and other
evidence and material submitted, and I don't see any material other than
a public comment on traffic, so…
375
00:49:21.820 --> 00:49:24.450
Community Hall: I'm wondering how we can find 2D
376
00:49:24.780 --> 00:49:27.319
Community Hall: To be true in the absence of evidence from staff.
377
00:49:29.010 --> 00:49:35.050
Community Hall: Well, I think the evidence would be that this project
clearly qualifies for that categorical exemption.
378
00:49:36.070 --> 00:49:43.290
Community Hall: there's nothing associated with this project that would
indicate otherwise. Okay, let me move on. I will…
379
00:49:43.780 --> 00:49:50.649
Community Hall: I will hope the minutes capture the gist of the
Commissioner's comments, but I will move on to Section 2E.
380
00:49:51.040 --> 00:50:01.550
Community Hall: 2E talks about the site can be adequately served by all
required utilities and public services. Once again, this is something
that the Commission is being asked to consider in the presence of
evidence.
381
00:50:01.970 --> 00:50:06.620
Community Hall: I don't see any evidence from public utilities. How do we
make this determination?
382
00:50:12.670 --> 00:50:14.110
Community Hall: Is that a question, though?
383
00:50:15.570 --> 00:50:17.159
Community Hall: staff or CAO.
384
00:50:18.360 --> 00:50:21.520
Community Hall: I was just trying to find the exact language in the
resolution.
385
00:50:21.890 --> 00:50:27.210
Community Hall: I'm on 2E, and the… resolution duplicate.
386
00:50:28.340 --> 00:50:31.700
Community Hall: I'd be happy to yield to other commissioners if they have
questions at this time.
387
00:50:32.500 --> 00:50:41.119
Community Hall: So you're referring to the site can be adequately served
by all required utilities and public services? So you don't think it can
be?
388
00:50:41.570 --> 00:50:51.800
Community Hall: I'm asking if we have evidence that commissioners can
consider in the form of any materials submitted by the utilities if that
outreach has occurred and they have responded.
389
00:50:52.620 --> 00:50:58.799
Community Hall: We don't have that before us tonight. Again, I think the
issue is…
390
00:50:59.210 --> 00:51:05.490
Community Hall: Is the vacation of this site and its disposition
consistent with the general plan?
391
00:51:05.780 --> 00:51:07.190
Community Hall: That's the sole issue.
392
00:51:08.320 --> 00:51:13.769
Community Hall: Understood. I think the resolution… I'm just going
through the resolution you're asking us to vote on.
393
00:51:14.250 --> 00:51:22.679
Community Hall: And to approve, And… how do we make a determination on
2E? I think we talked about 2D.
394
00:51:23.000 --> 00:51:25.150
Community Hall: How do we make a determination on 2E?
395
00:51:30.080 --> 00:51:33.350
Community Hall: So… Section 2.
396
00:51:33.990 --> 00:51:44.300
Community Hall: relates to a category exemption, one that Assistant
Director Connolly has already explained, the City Council has already
made that determination, and this is
397
00:51:45.030 --> 00:51:51.250
Community Hall: Border plate language taken from Section 15332.
398
00:51:51.590 --> 00:52:02.720
Community Hall: So, Commissioner Rao, that's… so this is the language
that was placed into this resolution. If at some point during the evening
you wish to make a motion and
399
00:52:02.770 --> 00:52:15.720
Community Hall: strike that, and, you know, take that position regarding
with respect to what the City Council determined last week. That's within
your discretion, and we'll get there when we get there at the appropriate
time.
400
00:52:16.950 --> 00:52:19.420
Community Hall: Thank you, City Attorney, that is helpful.
401
00:52:19.690 --> 00:52:24.520
Community Hall: I want to move on to my next question, which is… the…
402
00:52:24.950 --> 00:52:29.530
Community Hall: Project staff report and the resolution, particularly the
resolution.
403
00:52:29.680 --> 00:52:34.999
Community Hall: makes no reference to the 20 units that are ELI units. Is
there a reason that the resolution
404
00:52:35.630 --> 00:52:38.419
Community Hall: Excluded the 20 ELR units from it.
405
00:52:41.200 --> 00:52:50.810
Community Hall: I'm not certain why there are actually 19, well, there's
20 VLI
406
00:52:51.550 --> 00:52:55.130
Community Hall: and 19IDD, all of which will be VLI.
407
00:52:56.300 --> 00:53:02.509
Community Hall: Right, I'm just wondering why the report makes no mention
of the remaining 20 units. Is the…
408
00:53:02.900 --> 00:53:08.099
Community Hall: Is the consideration in front of Commission that we
approve a project of only 19 units?
409
00:53:08.730 --> 00:53:24.469
Community Hall: No, this commission is not asked to approve any project,
or any development, or any parking, any traffic, or any sort of
conclusions. This item before this Commission is whether the vacation of
the right-of-way is consistent and in conformance with the general plan.
410
00:53:24.890 --> 00:53:27.950
Community Hall: Let me rephrase, is the consideration to
411
00:53:28.090 --> 00:53:34.320
Community Hall: Be made that the vacation be sufficient to accommodate 19
units, because the other 20 units are not referenced.
412
00:53:35.480 --> 00:53:45.540
Community Hall: The sole issue before this commission is whether the
vacation and the right-of-way for this particular project that's
identified as a priority housing site and the housing element is
consistent
413
00:53:45.700 --> 00:53:49.260
Community Hall: With the general plan that's described in the staff
report.
414
00:53:51.910 --> 00:53:52.860
Community Hall: Okay.
415
00:53:53.090 --> 00:53:58.320
Community Hall: I will yield my time. If there are other questions, happy
to come back later. I do have more questions.
416
00:53:59.670 --> 00:54:02.990
Community Hall: I think this might be a good point to open it up for
public comments.
417
00:54:04.130 --> 00:54:15.699
Community Hall: We have 5 speakers in person, and no hands raised on
Zoom. Our first speaker is Janet Van Zorn, followed by Connie Cunningham,
followed by Paul Krupka. Welcome, Janet.
418
00:54:27.240 --> 00:54:28.380
Community Hall: Good evening.
419
00:54:30.200 --> 00:54:36.519
Community Hall: It's taken many, many years to get this project to the
point at which it is right now.
420
00:54:37.330 --> 00:54:41.249
Community Hall: It's taken a lot of interaction between
421
00:54:42.490 --> 00:54:46.940
Community Hall: Community members, city staff, council members.
422
00:54:47.730 --> 00:54:55.430
Community Hall: and members of various commissions. It's taken a lot of
work, and everyone has worked together to make this
423
00:54:55.710 --> 00:54:58.050
Community Hall: Come to the point where it is tonight.
424
00:54:58.510 --> 00:55:01.480
Community Hall: The ducks are almost all in line.
425
00:55:02.080 --> 00:55:15.850
Community Hall: I really strongly urge you to move forward and pass both
of these resolutions. Get those last two ducks in line, and let's move on
with this project and get it built. Thank you.
426
00:55:17.290 --> 00:55:24.439
Community Hall: Thank you, Janet. Our next speaker is Connie Cunningham,
followed by Paul Krupka, followed by Graf Pham. Welcome, Connie.
427
00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:31.460
Community Hall: Good evening, Chair.
428
00:55:32.960 --> 00:55:34.340
Community Hall: Commissioners.
429
00:55:34.470 --> 00:55:45.620
Community Hall: City Attorney. My name is Connie Cunningham. I'm a 38-
year resident, and I'm currently chair of the Housing Commission.
Speaking for myself only.
430
00:55:45.780 --> 00:55:55.260
Community Hall: May I say congratulations to the Chair for her,
appointment this evening, election this evening, and to Vice Chair as
well.
431
00:55:57.280 --> 00:56:01.639
Community Hall: I support the Mary Avenue Phillis Project.
432
00:56:02.210 --> 00:56:06.270
Community Hall: I have spoken many times about this project at City
Council.
433
00:56:06.460 --> 00:56:13.740
Community Hall: This project has been on City Council priority list for
many years. When I was first appointed to the Housing Commission.
434
00:56:14.500 --> 00:56:22.479
Community Hall: Then Mayor Scharf, put ELI housing for IDD on the
priority list. Thank you.
435
00:56:22.770 --> 00:56:31.530
Community Hall: to Mr. Scharf, and to other City Councils who have moved
this project forward in the intervening years.
436
00:56:32.030 --> 00:56:50.870
Community Hall: I am impressed with how the applicant has designed a
project that balances the needs of the City of Cupertino. You want me to
go to the part? Okay, moving along. I support the part, the project. I
urge you this evening to approve the recommended actions for finding the
project to be consistent with the general plan.
437
00:56:51.510 --> 00:56:58.930
Community Hall: Adopt a resolution finding that the Mary Avenue Public
Right-of-way vacation is consistent with the general plan.
438
00:56:59.590 --> 00:57:10.879
Community Hall: Adopt a resolution finding that the location, purpose,
and extent of the disposition of the Mary Avenue project site is
consistent with the general plan.
439
00:57:11.110 --> 00:57:13.959
Community Hall: Thank you so much for your work for the city.
440
00:57:15.120 --> 00:57:32.120
Community Hall: Thank you, Connie. Our next speaker is Paul Krupka,
followed by Graf Phum, followed by Jennifer Griffin. Welcome, Paul. Good
evening, Planning Commissioners. Based on the clear advice from the
attorney and Mr. Connolly, I withdraw my request to speak. Thanks. Take
care.
441
00:57:35.040 --> 00:57:40.819
Community Hall: Our next speaker is Gra Phum, followed by Jennifer
Griffin, followed by Oren Mahoney. Welcome, Gra.
442
00:57:43.220 --> 00:57:59.170
Community Hall: It's Gia Pham. Good evening, Commissioners. My name is
Gia Pham, and I am the Communications Coordinator at Housing Choices, who
will be the on-site service provider for those with intellectual and
developmental disabilities residing in the 19 set-aside units out of the
40
443
00:57:59.170 --> 00:58:09.849
Community Hall: total units of the project. So I apologize, I don't want
to interrupt, but again, just a reminder that this item is the vacation
of the right-of-way in conforms to the general plan, not about the
project itself.
444
00:58:09.900 --> 00:58:10.870
Community Hall: Thank you.
445
00:58:13.420 --> 00:58:21.860
Community Hall: Earlier today, I spoke with a parent leader with Parents
Helping Parents who wished she could be here tonight. She told me
446
00:58:21.860 --> 00:58:38.899
Community Hall: Let's be real, this would be wonderful for my son to live
in independently right now. Pardon me, I'm sorry to interrupt, because I
appreciate what you have to say, but, the… do you happen to have any
comments related to the conformity of this project with the general plan
and vacation of right-of-way?
447
00:58:39.270 --> 00:58:49.769
Community Hall: Yeah, I believe that it's consistent with the housing
element and the general plan, because of the end result of getting deeply
affordable housing that's needed for the community.
448
00:58:53.240 --> 00:58:55.129
Community Hall: Thank you. Thank you.
449
00:58:55.780 --> 00:59:00.889
Community Hall: Our next speaker is Jennifer Griffin, followed by Oren
Mahoney. Welcome, Jennifer.
450
00:59:09.780 --> 00:59:19.810
Community Hall: Good evening, City Council. I'm glad that this project is
moving forward. I'll just make a couple of comments about the cons…
excuse me, the…
451
00:59:19.910 --> 00:59:30.239
Community Hall: The consistent… I'm sorry, I've got this… the word mixed
up. In terms of the vacation's consistency with the general plan.
452
00:59:30.530 --> 00:59:38.619
Community Hall: I will state, as you all stated before, the previous
vacations in the city
453
00:59:38.930 --> 00:59:43.180
Community Hall: Was the property… the street involved with the Apple
property?
454
00:59:43.320 --> 00:59:48.009
Community Hall: and a potential in the past of the vacation of Seish.
455
00:59:48.270 --> 00:59:50.440
Community Hall: Next to Target.
456
00:59:51.090 --> 00:59:55.349
Community Hall: I will say that In terms of the general plan.
457
00:59:55.720 --> 01:00:00.379
Community Hall: Vacation of roadway is highly unusual.
458
01:00:00.530 --> 01:00:16.040
Community Hall: I have been coming here 25 years, and there have only
been 3 incidents. There was a vacation of a roadway near Saratoga Avenue
and Stevens Creek Boulevard that was done for a project in San Jose.
459
01:00:16.150 --> 01:00:24.059
Community Hall: Normally, we want to have projects that are on regular
pieces of property and not on roadways.
460
01:00:24.460 --> 01:00:29.680
Community Hall: So… I would say that this is highly unusual in that
461
01:00:29.930 --> 01:00:37.340
Community Hall: Normally, when we have, general plan, you're dealing with
property that is not roadway.
462
01:00:37.500 --> 01:00:46.119
Community Hall: In that regard, it obviously has gone through City
Council, which unfortunately I wasn't able to attend due to medical
issues last week.
463
01:00:46.480 --> 01:00:54.430
Community Hall: But… we will go through as the City Council desires. In
terms of the site.
464
01:00:54.630 --> 01:01:02.670
Community Hall: I wish it would be better, but this is where we are. I do
think that it is an unusual circumstance
465
01:01:02.790 --> 01:01:06.259
Community Hall: And it's conformity to the general plan.
466
01:01:07.820 --> 01:01:11.070
Community Hall: Comes under sort of a nebulous area.
467
01:01:11.420 --> 01:01:18.919
Community Hall: I wish it was in a better location, but this is what we
are. My oldest niece has a special needs
468
01:01:19.630 --> 01:01:20.840
Community Hall: stepdaughter.
469
01:01:20.960 --> 01:01:28.639
Community Hall: And I really believe that we need to have those types of
housing. But as for this being an unusual project.
470
01:01:28.890 --> 01:01:31.880
Community Hall: The vacation situation is a bit…
471
01:01:32.020 --> 01:01:39.760
Community Hall: unusual. I also wanted to make sure that if nothing is
done with this property, it reverts back to the city. Thank you.
472
01:01:40.790 --> 01:01:44.939
Community Hall: Thank you, Jennifer. Our next speaker is Oren Mahoney.
Welcome, Oren.
473
01:01:45.740 --> 01:01:54.930
Community Hall: Good evening. Given that the traffic consultant, declined
to present anything here, I have no need to repute him, and I'm done.
Thank you.
474
01:01:55.600 --> 01:02:00.979
Community Hall: Thank you, Oren. We have no speakers in person, and no
hands raised on Zoom, Chair.
475
01:02:03.000 --> 01:02:08.629
Community Hall: Okay, thank you very much. So, I will bring it back to
the Commission for any comments.
476
01:02:10.850 --> 01:02:16.419
Community Hall: through the chair, we can still do questions, right? You
haven't closed questions here. Absolutely. Okay.
477
01:02:16.740 --> 01:02:20.820
Community Hall: I will yield to my fellow commissioners, who are
unusually silent tonight.
478
01:02:25.530 --> 01:02:43.030
Community Hall: Although I suppose I should close the public hearing
component of this and bring it back. I believe the public hearing closes
after questions, and we are not yet. And we are not yet done with
questions. Just a small correction, it's not a… it's not a public
hearing, so it's just… Okay. It's really just for the action calendar.
Okay, thank you.
479
01:02:46.740 --> 01:02:48.500
Community Hall: Nobody else has questions?
480
01:02:50.970 --> 01:02:54.330
Community Hall: We have had only 3 vacations of roadway.
481
01:02:55.010 --> 01:02:58.399
Community Hall: In the history of someone that has attended 25 years.
482
01:02:58.950 --> 01:03:01.339
Community Hall: And we have zero questions, that's interesting.
483
01:03:03.640 --> 01:03:07.280
Community Hall: If there are no other questions, I'd like to go back to
my questions.
484
01:03:08.010 --> 01:03:13.780
Community Hall: I'm… I'm still trying to understand, are we here to
review
485
01:03:14.320 --> 01:03:19.569
Community Hall: Findings in the resolutions, so we may approve the staff
resolutions in front of us.
486
01:03:23.110 --> 01:03:29.950
Community Hall: Because I hear the City Attorney saying we're here to
find conformance with general plan, which is fine. I believe the
resolutions
487
01:03:30.140 --> 01:03:32.169
Community Hall: Would be the basis of doing that.
488
01:03:32.350 --> 01:03:40.920
Community Hall: And in looking at the resolutions, my questions are
focused on the findings from staff in the resolutions. So, is it fair to
ask questions on the resolution?
489
01:03:43.470 --> 01:03:48.179
Community Hall: I think some of the language in the resolution is just
statements of what has occurred.
490
01:03:48.980 --> 01:03:58.670
Community Hall: like you often have in staff reports, the Section 2 that
you had referred to, it's saying the city has performed an environmental
assessment. I think it's just documenting what has occurred.
491
01:03:59.180 --> 01:04:02.589
Community Hall: At the risk of being overly repetitive.
492
01:04:03.150 --> 01:04:07.609
Community Hall: The reason we're all here tonight is to find general plan
consistency only.
493
01:04:07.790 --> 01:04:08.779
Community Hall: That's it.
494
01:04:10.130 --> 01:04:13.970
Community Hall: And if I were to look at the gist of this resolution.
495
01:04:14.510 --> 01:04:19.970
Community Hall: The findings in the resolution from staff all revolve
around the named project.
496
01:04:20.580 --> 01:04:24.710
Community Hall: For the, you know, whether it's 40 units or 19 units, we
will not
497
01:04:24.910 --> 01:04:31.539
Community Hall: nitpick on that, but the project here is named My
question to staff is…
498
01:04:34.120 --> 01:04:36.670
Community Hall: Is the assumption here that the…
499
01:04:37.830 --> 01:04:41.150
Community Hall: project has… and again, I based it on the housing
element.
500
01:04:41.410 --> 01:04:48.059
Community Hall: The housing element portion of the general plan talks
about staff having maintained an inventory of sites that are
501
01:04:48.250 --> 01:04:53.149
Community Hall: City surplus land that can be concerned for the purpose
of housing.
502
01:04:53.650 --> 01:05:01.369
Community Hall: And so, in the evidence before us, is there an inventory
of sites relative to which we must consider this vacation?
503
01:05:03.290 --> 01:05:12.489
Community Hall: If I follow your question, you're asking if there's an
inventory of sites listed tonight? Yes, and I believe the staff
resolution also refers to that.
504
01:05:12.880 --> 01:05:21.549
Community Hall: There is an inventory of sites listed in the housing
element, and it gets Appendix B4. There are 58 sites. This is Site 10.
505
01:05:22.970 --> 01:05:35.060
Community Hall: And is there any evidence from staff as to why we would
need to pick this particular vacation over any other surplus sites? And
point of clarification, we are not referring to housing element sites,
but we are referring to
506
01:05:35.310 --> 01:05:40.159
Community Hall: As defined in the housing element part of the general
plan, a list of surplus sites.
507
01:05:40.350 --> 01:05:43.289
Community Hall: Of surplus land as identified by the city.
508
01:05:45.780 --> 01:05:48.909
Community Hall: I'm really not following other than
509
01:05:49.710 --> 01:05:52.620
Community Hall: This site is identified in the housing element.
510
01:05:52.900 --> 01:06:00.220
Community Hall: It is the only city-owned site, so it is the only site
for which a vacation of land could occur.
511
01:06:00.470 --> 01:06:03.040
Community Hall: Because it was part of the Mary Avenue right-of-way.
512
01:06:03.590 --> 01:06:09.060
Community Hall: Right now, it is its own independent parcel that is zoned
R4,
513
01:06:09.530 --> 01:06:15.859
Community Hall: It has a high, very high land use designation, which no
other piece of right-of-way in the city of Cupertino has.
514
01:06:16.290 --> 01:06:19.090
Community Hall: Because they're not up for private development.
515
01:06:22.130 --> 01:06:28.580
Community Hall: So I'm just not sure why we'd be considering any other
site when this is the only site that this applies to.
516
01:06:29.060 --> 01:06:34.369
Community Hall: Okay, let me be very specific with the comment. I'm
looking at the resolution on vacation.
517
01:06:34.940 --> 01:06:45.490
Community Hall: And on page… 4, I think this is page 4, Strategy HE236
talks about Surplus properties for housing.
518
01:06:46.560 --> 01:07:05.369
Community Hall: compile and maintain an inventory of vacant properties
owned by the city or other public facilities. Inventory will include land
donated and accepted by the city for donation, and land otherwise
acquired by the city. City will undertake steps leading to the release of
RFP to solicit developer interest, which may include declaration of land
surplus. I'm referring to the text in the resolution.
519
01:07:06.260 --> 01:07:14.649
Community Hall: Yeah, and that strategy is right out of the housing
element, to just show support that this strategy does exist.
520
01:07:15.660 --> 01:07:18.990
Community Hall: That's solely… that is a fact, that…
521
01:07:19.190 --> 01:07:24.790
Community Hall: There's nothing changing about that, but that strategy is
a current housing element strategy.
522
01:07:25.990 --> 01:07:31.169
Community Hall: And the corollary to that is… this particular site.
523
01:07:31.800 --> 01:07:33.309
Community Hall: conforms to that.
524
01:07:35.830 --> 01:07:46.080
Community Hall: policy. And so, if I read the rest of the verbiage here,
it talks about finding that the vacation is consistent with the overall
strategy regarding this position.
525
01:07:46.310 --> 01:07:50.700
Community Hall: Because it reflects a successful solicitation of
developer interest.
526
01:07:50.870 --> 01:07:53.520
Community Hall: Have we done that solicitation of developer interest?
527
01:07:53.960 --> 01:07:57.310
Community Hall: An RFP was done in 2022.
528
01:07:57.860 --> 01:08:00.289
Community Hall: Charity's housing was the only respondent.
529
01:08:01.530 --> 01:08:09.470
Community Hall: So, has the… RFP been included as evidence, including any
responses or lack of responses?
530
01:08:11.400 --> 01:08:17.790
Community Hall: Evidence for what this evening? It's a fact that that has
occurred, and so this item is
531
01:08:17.890 --> 01:08:35.459
Community Hall: evaluation from, of whether, the action that's being
proposed here, which is vacation in the right-of-way, is consistent with
the general plan, and staff has identified numerous strategies
identifying the housing element that this particular vacation of the
right-of-way
532
01:08:35.720 --> 01:08:40.770
Community Hall: conforms to. Okay, so I… I want to… make sure…
533
01:08:41.580 --> 01:08:51.350
Community Hall: That I understand this. The majority of the findings in
this resolution revolve around the already identified project and the
applicant.
534
01:08:52.080 --> 01:09:00.110
Community Hall: And that is on the basis that the project already went
through a bid process, and there was only one response to that.
535
01:09:00.990 --> 01:09:05.010
Community Hall: And… Separately, there is also
536
01:09:05.130 --> 01:09:12.439
Community Hall: Mention of surplus land, and we don't know if the city
has other surplus land that could have been used in place of vacating the
street, which is highly unusual.
537
01:09:12.740 --> 01:09:19.029
Community Hall: And so how should commissioners make a determination that
this is the only option in front of the city, as opposed to…
538
01:09:19.479 --> 01:09:20.740
Community Hall: vacating.
539
01:09:20.950 --> 01:09:22.130
Community Hall: Or, or…
540
01:09:22.350 --> 01:09:29.090
Community Hall: or taking advantage of other surplus land that is
available with the city. I think the issue is…
541
01:09:29.340 --> 01:09:37.849
Community Hall: This site is identified as Site 10. The vacation of this
site is necessary for it to become a private development.
542
01:09:38.170 --> 01:09:45.150
Community Hall: Should there be other surplus sites in the future, they
could come back before the Commission, but that's not what's on the
agenda tonight.
543
01:09:50.260 --> 01:09:58.510
Community Hall: On the agenda tonight is confirmance to the general plan,
and staff have a finding in here. Specifically, this is finding B2,
544
01:09:58.870 --> 01:10:03.950
Community Hall: That says that the resolution would confirm with this
finding B2?
545
01:10:04.070 --> 01:10:20.499
Community Hall: And I'm trying to ascertain if finding B2 can, in fact,
be confirmed by the Commission in the absence of that surplus land list.
Do we have surplus land, or is there no other surplus land list? So,
whether there is or is not surplus properties anywhere else in the city.
546
01:10:20.820 --> 01:10:28.620
Community Hall: is not before this planning commission. What's before you
today is whether the surplus property on Mary Avenue
547
01:10:28.860 --> 01:10:40.959
Community Hall: for which we are seeking a vacationer right away,
conforms to… to the general plan. And upon evaluation of the general
plan, it was identified that that
548
01:10:41.430 --> 01:10:46.369
Community Hall: vacation of… The right of the way conforms to policy.
549
01:10:47.340 --> 01:10:59.119
Community Hall: HE2.3.6 related to surplus properties, so that's a
determination. Might there be other surplus properties? I don't know, but
that's not before us today.
550
01:11:00.070 --> 01:11:08.249
Community Hall: Understood, and again, I focus only on the language in
the resolution, which is before us, because we are being asked to approve
this resolution.
551
01:11:08.670 --> 01:11:12.920
Community Hall: And I'm just completely focused on the language that we
are being asked to approve.
552
01:11:13.030 --> 01:11:16.269
Community Hall: Further down in this paragraph, it talks about
553
01:11:16.710 --> 01:11:21.509
Community Hall: The opportunity to build a 100% affordable project on the
surface land.
554
01:11:21.630 --> 01:11:29.610
Community Hall: Is this… Vacation… Supposed to precede that surplus land,
or does this assume the land is already surplus?
555
01:11:32.360 --> 01:11:35.790
Community Hall: Well, that's not the issue tonight.
556
01:11:36.210 --> 01:11:40.549
Community Hall: This is what I think classified as surplus right-of-way.
557
01:11:41.190 --> 01:11:48.779
Community Hall: Physical characteristics of the site were diagonal
parking and undeveloped portions going towards a sound wall.
558
01:11:49.290 --> 01:11:52.709
Community Hall: So it was surplus within a right-of-way.
559
01:11:53.760 --> 01:11:56.159
Community Hall: This language, again, in the strategy.
560
01:11:56.410 --> 01:12:00.630
Community Hall: This is just cited as a supporting strategy within the
housing element. That's all.
561
01:12:00.750 --> 01:12:04.330
Community Hall: I mean, that language is taken verbatim from the housing
element.
562
01:12:04.500 --> 01:12:09.089
Community Hall: Has a strategy that indicates that the city has policies
and strategies
563
01:12:09.250 --> 01:12:17.839
Community Hall: to develop affordable housing. In this case, it's 100%
affordable. There are other policies identifying special needs
populations. This project includes both.
564
01:12:18.700 --> 01:12:21.810
Community Hall: Understood. If I were to up-level my comment.
565
01:12:21.930 --> 01:12:27.830
Community Hall: Much of the findings in this resolution revolve around
the named project.
566
01:12:28.340 --> 01:12:33.689
Community Hall: And the named project is assumed to have been assigned on
the basis of
567
01:12:34.180 --> 01:12:39.030
Community Hall: Properties that the city may identify as available for
housing and faith-based housing.
568
01:12:39.390 --> 01:12:46.540
Community Hall: And so my question centers around, How should
commissioners Make the finding
569
01:12:46.990 --> 01:12:55.060
Community Hall: That this was the only surplus property the city had
available, and the only option was to vacate this land, as opposed to
other options the city may have had.
570
01:12:56.100 --> 01:12:59.309
Community Hall: This commission is not asked to make that finding.
571
01:12:59.890 --> 01:13:04.080
Community Hall: You're not asked to make any finding that this is the
only
572
01:13:04.350 --> 01:13:24.049
Community Hall: surplus property. You're simply asked whether this
particular property on Mary Avenue, the vacation right away, whether that
is consistent with the general plan. Okay, so to restate differently,
then, one could make the finding that in the absence of evidence that
this vacation was truly necessary by the city, one may actually
573
01:13:24.520 --> 01:13:27.010
Community Hall: Find that the vacation is not…
574
01:13:27.040 --> 01:13:43.110
Community Hall: seen as being necessary. There's… whether it was
necessary or not, whether it's this particular site or not, is not before
this commission. What's before this commission is whether the vacation or
the right-of-way on Mary Avenue
575
01:13:43.110 --> 01:13:53.579
Community Hall: is consistent with the general plan. And as explained in
the staff report, there are a number of strategies that demonstrates that
this particular
576
01:13:53.730 --> 01:13:58.489
Community Hall: vacation on Mary Avenue is indeed in conformance with the
general plan.
577
01:13:58.720 --> 01:14:12.350
Community Hall: So, I will… I will… I will recognize that I have taken an
undue amount of time on questions. I will quickly recap my concern here,
and… and there's still a question. Section 1 of this resolution states
that the Commission
578
01:14:13.100 --> 01:14:24.970
Community Hall: has duly considered facts, exhibits, testimony, evidence,
and materials provided to the Commission, and is voting…
579
01:14:25.300 --> 01:14:27.950
Community Hall: To ascertain that the recital set forth
580
01:14:28.130 --> 01:14:30.000
Community Hall: Are found to be true and correct.
581
01:14:30.160 --> 01:14:35.890
Community Hall: All the recitals that follow, That we have discussed. We
talked about Section 2.
582
01:14:36.010 --> 01:14:44.199
Community Hall: And I questioned whether commissioners had the evidence
to ascertain that the recital in Section 2 could be found to be true.
583
01:14:44.450 --> 01:14:48.600
Community Hall: the Section 3 that we just talked through.
584
01:14:49.060 --> 01:14:52.550
Community Hall: Makes the basis on the presence of this project.
585
01:14:52.830 --> 01:14:57.729
Community Hall: And that further makes the presence that the city has to
support housing on surplus properties.
586
01:14:58.060 --> 01:15:02.490
Community Hall: And I'm questioning if commissioners can make that
assertion
587
01:15:02.960 --> 01:15:09.099
Community Hall: in the absence of evidence whether this was the only
option available, and therefore, I will stop at this point.
588
01:15:10.860 --> 01:15:15.349
Community Hall: Sorry, we have a question from Commissioner Linscogg,
who's been patiently waiting.
589
01:15:16.450 --> 01:15:21.550
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Hi, no, I don't have a question. I was
hoping to make a motion so we can move this along.
590
01:15:23.480 --> 01:15:25.680
Community Hall: Through the chair, we are not done with questions yet.
591
01:15:26.590 --> 01:15:44.010
Community Hall: Okay, why don't we… I understand there's some appetite
for motions. Do you have a few more, maybe limit to a few questions?
Through the Chair, there have been only 3 vacations of public roadway in
25 years of recollection of a citizen that has attended these meetings.
592
01:15:44.230 --> 01:15:45.959
Community Hall: I think we can give ourselves the…
593
01:15:45.960 --> 01:15:46.870
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: I feel…
594
01:15:46.870 --> 01:16:00.400
Community Hall: So the commissioner is not recognized through the chair,
if I may finish my… if I may finish my comment, we've had only 3
vacations, I think we should be allowed the opportunity to ask all the
questions that, commissioners may have.
595
01:16:01.790 --> 01:16:03.250
Community Hall: Okay.
596
01:16:03.800 --> 01:16:14.200
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: I feel like this commissioner is taking up
all of the oxygen in the room and not allowing any of the other
commissioners to speak, so maybe we should balance things out and move
things along.
597
01:16:14.200 --> 01:16:26.679
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Because clearly the commissioner's
questions are outside the scope of what we are being asked to vote for,
and he's been reminded of that over and over and over again by the staff
and the city attorney. So, I… I would…
598
01:16:26.690 --> 01:16:32.930
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: ask the Chair respectfully to allow the
other commissioners to speak, and also to move this along. Thank you.
599
01:16:33.320 --> 01:16:38.040
Community Hall: Through the Chair, all questions are only on the
resolution that we are voting today on.
600
01:16:38.330 --> 01:16:46.390
Community Hall: Yes, thank you very much. I… I hear you, Commissioner
Linskogg. Commissioner Scharf, did you have something to say, or were you
trying to make a motion?
601
01:16:46.610 --> 01:16:52.380
Community Hall: I believe that it's appropriate to make a motion and then
discuss it, if there's any more discussion.
602
01:16:52.910 --> 01:16:58.479
Community Hall: So I would make a motion to adopt the resolution finding
at the Mary Avenue Public Right-of-way.
603
01:16:58.900 --> 01:17:03.870
Community Hall: Vacation APN 32627053 is consistent with the general
plan.
604
01:17:04.070 --> 01:17:05.320
Community Hall: And I second.
605
01:17:05.320 --> 01:17:05.750
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: shouldn't.
606
01:17:05.750 --> 01:17:07.819
Community Hall: I'm sorry, I had not…
607
01:17:08.110 --> 01:17:18.609
Community Hall: ended the question portion of this. I do want to respect
Commissioner Rao's desire to ask more questions. That said, I also
understand
608
01:17:18.710 --> 01:17:27.609
Community Hall: That we should be maintaining harmony within this group,
and I'm also not sure that too many further questions will change the end
result.
609
01:17:27.650 --> 01:17:43.350
Community Hall: So, if you have a few more, Commissioner Rao, I think,
again, I'm not sure that the result will change, so that's why I say a
few more and listen. Can I ask the city attorney what the outcome is, but
if I could comment, I think…
610
01:17:43.430 --> 01:17:53.229
Community Hall: Perhaps we should have an opportunity to comment. We
would normally have an opportunity to comment before voting. Right.
Perhaps we should do that, and then, you know, if… if…
611
01:17:53.860 --> 01:18:01.970
Community Hall: if things become long, then we can call the question. I'm
open to a combination of question and comment. City Attorney, would you
like to comment?
612
01:18:02.650 --> 01:18:09.439
Community Hall: Yeah, I believe all commissioners are entitled to ask
questions, from the staff presentation, but
613
01:18:09.550 --> 01:18:22.509
Community Hall: you know, as you pointed out, you know, there's… at some
point, those questions just cease if they continue to be repeated. Once
that's done, then I think it's appropriate to take a motion and a second
to frame the discussion.
614
01:18:25.390 --> 01:18:32.280
Community Hall: So, in absence of further questions, and I know your
motion is still sitting.
615
01:18:32.480 --> 01:18:36.830
Community Hall: Commissioner Rao, would you like to proceed with a few of
your remaining questions?
616
01:18:37.280 --> 01:18:42.310
Community Hall: If we're gonna do that, then I'll call the question, and
we'll just vote and not comment.
617
01:18:43.200 --> 01:18:47.910
Community Hall: Through the chair, a two-third vote is required, and the
question is called.
618
01:18:49.850 --> 01:18:57.780
Community Hall: That is correct. If there's a motion to call the
question, then there's no debate, we just simply take a vote.
619
01:18:58.830 --> 01:19:05.479
Community Hall: I'm sorry, so you were removing the staff recommendation,
right? That's what is on the table? Can I make a friendly amendment?
620
01:19:07.480 --> 01:19:11.610
Community Hall: through the chair, once the question is called, no
further discussion is allowed.
621
01:19:12.690 --> 01:19:15.259
Community Hall: That, that is… that is correct, you just…
622
01:19:16.100 --> 01:19:21.950
Community Hall: It's going to be called the question, means that it's a
request to end debate.
623
01:19:22.150 --> 01:19:23.770
Community Hall: And a vote on the motion.
624
01:19:24.180 --> 01:19:30.890
Community Hall: And so I just want to say we should vote. If a two-third
vote succeeds, we are done with this item.
625
01:19:32.220 --> 01:19:36.430
Community Hall: We're done with the discussion, but I think you still
need to learn on the actual,
626
01:19:36.560 --> 01:19:40.810
Community Hall: motion to move staff recommendation. Alright, let's have
a voice vote.
627
01:19:41.290 --> 01:19:42.650
Community Hall: Commissioner Feng?
628
01:19:44.190 --> 01:19:46.390
Community Hall: Let me clarify, we are, we are voting on…
629
01:19:46.390 --> 01:19:49.930
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Somebody seconded the motion, because if
not, I'll second the motion.
630
01:19:51.280 --> 01:19:54.580
Community Hall: Yes, we have a second. Commissioner Feng?
631
01:19:55.250 --> 01:19:59.700
Community Hall: Aye. Commissioner Linskoff? Sorry, could we clarify what
are we voting on?
632
01:19:59.910 --> 01:20:00.980
Community Hall: to end debate.
633
01:20:01.950 --> 01:20:03.130
Community Hall: to end debate.
634
01:20:03.260 --> 01:20:04.670
Community Hall: Bad discussion.
635
01:20:04.770 --> 01:20:12.520
Community Hall: We're not voting on the motion on the table? No, we're
going to end discussion so that you can proceed to voting on the motion.
Okay.
636
01:20:14.620 --> 01:20:15.880
Community Hall: Commissioner Feng?
637
01:20:16.360 --> 01:20:18.619
Community Hall: Aye. Commissioner Linskog?
638
01:20:19.140 --> 01:20:19.910
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Aye.
639
01:20:20.000 --> 01:20:22.000
Community Hall: Commissioner Rao? No.
640
01:20:22.190 --> 01:20:26.510
Community Hall: Vice Chair Sharp? Aye. Chair Casolchron? No.
641
01:20:27.280 --> 01:20:36.240
Community Hall: The motion carries with Commissioner Rao and Chair
Casilcheron voting no. Oh, I… actually, this requires two-thirds of
votes, so the motion fails.
642
01:20:36.480 --> 01:20:38.339
Community Hall: So, debate continues.
643
01:20:39.570 --> 01:20:41.160
Community Hall: Thank you, City Attorney.
644
01:20:41.560 --> 01:20:45.559
Community Hall: A two-third vote requires four members of the Commission
645
01:20:46.000 --> 01:20:48.270
Community Hall: To vote in favor of calling the vote.
646
01:20:49.460 --> 01:20:52.250
Community Hall: Just want to clarify the Robert's Rules of Order here.
647
01:20:53.360 --> 01:20:57.249
Community Hall: Commissioner Linskogg, you had a question? Your hand is
no longer raised, it is raised.
648
01:20:58.230 --> 01:21:05.900
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Sorry, I'm just wondering who's running
this meeting, because, it seems like… Commissioner,
649
01:21:06.110 --> 01:21:13.060
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Rao is taking up an inordinate amount of
comments and directing how the meeting should be run.
650
01:21:14.170 --> 01:21:26.020
Community Hall: Okay, am I… This is, you know, there's a lot of
enthusiasm for this project. I think it's appropriate for Commissioner
Roth. He has more questions that are new or different to allowing the
courtesy of asking those.
651
01:21:30.460 --> 01:21:38.410
Community Hall: So, City Attorney, can I clarify, at this point, are we
still able to ask questions and make comments?
652
01:21:38.950 --> 01:21:56.579
Community Hall: I recommend we limit it to questions, and then once all
the questions are answered, and there's still questions about the staff
report, about why… what the evacuation is doing here, that's appropriate
to ask those questions. So once all of those are answered, then it's
appropriate to
653
01:21:56.690 --> 01:22:02.410
Community Hall: You know, there's already a motion and a second on the
floor to then discuss that motion a second.
654
01:22:03.230 --> 01:22:12.619
Community Hall: Okay, thank you very much for clarifying. Commissioner
Rao, you did have a few more questions. I'm happy to yield to other
commissioners if they would like to ask questions or have a discussion.
655
01:22:12.770 --> 01:22:15.739
Community Hall: I have mainly comments, so no questions.
656
01:22:18.400 --> 01:22:23.139
Community Hall: through the chair, can we intersperse questions and
discussions so that other commissioners may
657
01:22:23.400 --> 01:22:28.310
Community Hall: may say their piece. Okay, Commissioner Fung, I think you
said you had a comment? Sure.
658
01:22:29.280 --> 01:22:37.639
Community Hall: So, this is an interesting issue before. As has been
spoken, it's a narrow one. I think that,
659
01:22:38.390 --> 01:22:41.269
Community Hall: If you were to ask… if you were to ask in general.
660
01:22:41.580 --> 01:22:48.300
Community Hall: To me, if you were to ask, Is it within the, within the
scope of…
661
01:22:48.810 --> 01:22:53.339
Community Hall: the scope of the Planning Commission to find that a
vacation
662
01:22:53.640 --> 01:22:56.440
Community Hall: A vacation, not this… even this specific one.
663
01:22:56.560 --> 01:23:02.810
Community Hall: It's something that should be considered and is
consistent in furthering the ability to execute the housing element.
664
01:23:02.960 --> 01:23:07.200
Community Hall: then I think that that is within the right of the City
Council to consider
665
01:23:07.350 --> 01:23:12.759
Community Hall: You know, and that we should approve that, and that this
city council should then make a decision about what to do, and that…
666
01:23:12.960 --> 01:23:21.310
Community Hall: That is, you know, maybe a vacation of land. It could be,
you know, if there is an objective to create a certain number of houses.
And to do that.
667
01:23:21.630 --> 01:23:23.979
Community Hall: Required allowing greater height.
668
01:23:24.250 --> 01:23:36.559
Community Hall: height of a construction than had been called out in the
housing element, that that's within the City Council's right to do that.
So, in the broad… in the broad sense, I think that there is…
669
01:23:36.690 --> 01:23:46.590
Community Hall: justification to, approve this, to approve this vacation.
And, of course, Inconsistency with the…
670
01:23:46.920 --> 01:23:53.860
Community Hall: This specific item, you know, we are talking about this
particular location because
671
01:23:53.990 --> 01:23:59.559
Community Hall: It was discussed in conjunction with this particular
site. The objectives in the housing elaborate were very clear.
672
01:23:59.830 --> 01:24:05.170
Community Hall: about what… what they were trying… what the city was
trying to accomplish. Of course, they can change their mind as well.
673
01:24:05.390 --> 01:24:12.209
Community Hall: They could… they could have said, you know, another way
that this could have come, because the vacation is not part of the text
in the housing element.
674
01:24:12.360 --> 01:24:22.520
Community Hall: they could have… you could say, well, I'd be willing to
have fewer… fewer units and not have the vacation, but that's not what…
that's… that doesn't appear to be what… what they were thinking about at
the time.
675
01:24:23.350 --> 01:24:31.450
Community Hall: what I think they thought doesn't matter if the council
believes that they can achieve the goals that they had put forth.
676
01:24:31.560 --> 01:24:34.330
Community Hall: By, you know, if this vacation could help that.
677
01:24:34.440 --> 01:24:40.130
Community Hall: I think that… I would find, then, that this isn't
consistent with the general plan's intent.
678
01:24:40.440 --> 01:24:48.510
Community Hall: So, you know, I'm supportive of the motion on the floor
that we adopt this as submitted by the staff.
679
01:24:48.810 --> 01:24:49.930
Community Hall: Thank you.
680
01:24:50.050 --> 01:24:51.910
Community Hall: Oh, I guess I should also say.
681
01:24:52.010 --> 01:24:58.100
Community Hall: Former Mayor Mahoney has probably been coming to talk
about this project since he was about 20. So,
682
01:24:59.090 --> 01:25:03.220
Community Hall: You know, you know, hopefully we can, get this built
someday.
683
01:25:04.020 --> 01:25:04.830
Community Hall: Thank you.
684
01:25:07.770 --> 01:25:11.329
Community Hall: Oh. So, Commissioner Feng, you mentioned, whether
685
01:25:12.020 --> 01:25:19.970
Community Hall: we should vote on the vacation of the property. I don't
think we're voting on that. We're voting on whether it's consistent with
the general plan.
686
01:25:20.440 --> 01:25:23.029
Community Hall: So I would hope that the…
687
01:25:23.160 --> 01:25:30.379
Community Hall: Remaining questions and comments specifically address
whether it's consistent with the general plan, and not
688
01:25:30.800 --> 01:25:38.269
Community Hall: Whether some way we could find some other land for free
somewhere to build this kind of housing on.
689
01:25:40.120 --> 01:25:56.359
Community Hall: May I come back? Yeah, so I misspoke when I, when I said
that. I think that, yeah, it really is the question of, do I believe that
this is… that… that were the vacation to be granted, that that's not
consistent with the journal plan, though, I don't believe that.
690
01:25:56.510 --> 01:25:58.270
Community Hall: So, yeah, thank you for the correction.
691
01:26:01.420 --> 01:26:16.150
Community Hall: All right, I'll make a comment. First of all, thank you
very much to the members of the public for continuing to come through
many meetings. I've heard many of you speak many, many times, and so I
appreciate the work that you do.
692
01:26:16.470 --> 01:26:17.460
Community Hall: So…
693
01:26:18.010 --> 01:26:35.350
Community Hall: You know, I've thought a lot about this topic, and the
objective of the housing element component of the general plan is to
represent the City of Cupertino's intent to plan for housing needs while
meeting the state housing goals. So that is one component of the general
plan.
694
01:26:35.350 --> 01:26:47.330
Community Hall: In my opinion, we should, in evaluating consistency with
the general plan, also look at the plan in its entirety, and not just one
chapter of the plan. And so, one section that I…
695
01:26:47.460 --> 01:27:00.949
Community Hall: really fixed… fixated on was the land use component of
the general plan, and there's many, you know, having heard the other
residents, the neighbors of Mary Ave, speaking about this project, and
their objections.
696
01:27:00.950 --> 01:27:13.789
Community Hall: You read the land use plan, it says, the objective of
this plan is to help define the desired balance among social,
environmental, and economic considerations while enhancing quality of
life in the community for future growth.
697
01:27:13.830 --> 01:27:19.539
Community Hall: It aspires to preserve and enhance the distinct character
of each planning area to create a vibrant community.
698
01:27:19.670 --> 01:27:21.640
Community Hall: And…
699
01:27:21.670 --> 01:27:44.510
Community Hall: you know, I could read the whole thing, I won't. I think
that there are elements of this that very much support this vacation as
consistent, and then there are other elements. I proceed down here, it
says, the city will welcome citizens as partners in making sure that
their neighborhoods are the kind in which they want to live in the
future. I think this is all from the first section. Then you go to LU8,
700
01:27:44.510 --> 01:27:52.879
Community Hall: The City will also protect and enhance neighborhoods
throughout Cupertino to ensure these largely residential areas continue
to support the community's great quality of life.
701
01:27:53.110 --> 01:28:03.550
Community Hall: I-5… I don't even know if this is from land use, this may
be from somewhere else. Ensure a responsive government. Continue to be a
regional leader in accessible and transparent municipal government.
702
01:28:04.300 --> 01:28:12.990
Community Hall: LU4, the city will welcome citizens as partners in making
sure that their neighborhoods are the kind in which they want to live in
the future.
703
01:28:13.500 --> 01:28:16.589
Community Hall: And other interesting, sort of,
704
01:28:16.900 --> 01:28:33.640
Community Hall: contrast that I found in the general plan was around the
infrastructure plan. There's only one area of the entire general plan
that discusses right-of-way, and the one thing that it does say about
right-of-way is ensure that the city rights-of-way are protected from
incompatible uses.
705
01:28:33.830 --> 01:28:42.590
Community Hall: and enhanced with sustainable features when possible. So,
you know, again, I think the general plan was a very thoughtful document
put together.
706
01:28:42.590 --> 01:28:54.730
Community Hall: years ago, meant to be considered in its entirety. And
so, you know, I think just to look at the housing element alone, we are…
we are missing the full picture, and to… to base
707
01:28:54.770 --> 01:29:08.639
Community Hall: our decision upon a previous determination is also not
fully considering the whole picture. And so, for that reason, I would
like to make a friendly amendment to
708
01:29:09.190 --> 01:29:12.709
Community Hall: Say that we find this…
709
01:29:13.080 --> 01:29:30.639
Community Hall: in con… the vacation of right-of-way in conformance with
the housing element, but recognizing that we are making a recommendation
to City Council for consideration. We find this consistent with the
housing element, but we think that there are opportunities to…
710
01:29:31.390 --> 01:29:39.790
Community Hall: further bring this vacation of right-of-way in line with
the land use element, and that would be my friendly amendment.
711
01:29:39.990 --> 01:29:41.459
Community Hall: through the chair.
712
01:29:42.230 --> 01:29:43.760
Community Hall: Would you…
713
01:29:44.570 --> 01:29:50.840
Community Hall: Or let me clarify, if you were to offer a friendly
amendment, would you be open to a substitute motion?
714
01:29:51.060 --> 01:29:52.819
Community Hall: What are you? Yes.
715
01:29:53.440 --> 01:29:57.950
Community Hall: I would like to make a substitute motion that we Fine.
716
01:29:58.570 --> 01:30:02.329
Community Hall: the lack of evidence to support confirmments to the
general plan.
717
01:30:02.560 --> 01:30:09.450
Community Hall: And I have a more detailed motion that I'm willing to
walk through after questions, but I am, at this point.
718
01:30:09.810 --> 01:30:13.750
Community Hall: Offering a substitute motion if the chair would be
willing to consider it.
719
01:30:15.450 --> 01:30:21.350
Community Hall: Can I… are we able to hear the other more detailed
components of this?
720
01:30:22.130 --> 01:30:29.539
Community Hall: In order to do that, we would need to go through more
questions and discussion before we get to that stage. That's fine, let's
hear the other questions.
721
01:30:29.980 --> 01:30:32.370
Community Hall: I just wanted to confirm that you're…
722
01:30:32.720 --> 01:30:35.690
Community Hall: Offering a friendly amendment would not bind you to
723
01:30:35.830 --> 01:30:38.600
Community Hall: A vote on the motion on the table.
724
01:30:38.790 --> 01:30:39.510
Community Hall: Thank you.
725
01:30:45.250 --> 01:30:52.640
Community Hall: So, just procedurally, there is a motion and a second on
the floor, and I understand the chair, to make a friendly amendment.
726
01:30:52.670 --> 01:31:10.480
Community Hall: And prior to… and then typically, when you make a
friendly amendment, it requires the agreement of the original motioner
and the seconder, and so we have not done that yet. And in the interim,
I'm hearing Commissioner Rao here present a substitute motion.
727
01:31:10.690 --> 01:31:13.979
Community Hall: Right, so normally, a substitute motion requires a
second.
728
01:31:14.880 --> 01:31:19.260
Community Hall: Before we proceed. So, I just want directly to be clear
what we're doing here.
729
01:31:19.970 --> 01:31:23.109
Community Hall: I would withdraw my substitute motion. Okay, thank you.
730
01:31:25.340 --> 01:31:30.200
Community Hall: So now we have the motion, and I think it was originally
made by Commissioner Scharf.
731
01:31:30.370 --> 01:31:39.289
Community Hall: And second… and I don't recall, I think it's Commissioner
Linskoff who seconded, and so do you accept the chair's friendly
amendment? I do not.
732
01:31:40.750 --> 01:31:41.770
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: I don't either.
733
01:31:44.520 --> 01:31:50.599
Community Hall: Okay, then are we allowed to return back to questions?
Okay, then proceed, Commissioner Rao.
734
01:31:52.340 --> 01:31:59.230
Community Hall: I would like to yield to other commissioners in the
interest of being respectful of all Commissioners' time. I can go last,
thank you.
735
01:32:01.730 --> 01:32:04.250
Community Hall: Do we have any other questions or comments?
736
01:32:04.990 --> 01:32:06.830
Community Hall: Oh, sorry, Commissioner Linskong.
737
01:32:10.270 --> 01:32:15.260
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Sorry, I have comments, but I will wait
until all the questions are done. Thank you.
738
01:32:19.990 --> 01:32:22.190
Community Hall: So, I think, Commissioner Rao, we're back to you.
739
01:32:27.950 --> 01:32:30.180
Community Hall: There's no other comments from other commissioners.
740
01:32:30.600 --> 01:32:35.829
Community Hall: Because I heard that I was taking up a new amount of
time. I'm willing to yield to other commissioners if you have comments.
741
01:32:38.480 --> 01:32:42.380
Community Hall: I think there are… there are comments, but not additional
questions.
742
01:32:48.820 --> 01:32:49.800
Community Hall: Okay.
743
01:32:50.070 --> 01:32:55.149
Community Hall: Seeing no other questions, I would like to go back to the
questions around the general plan.
744
01:32:55.670 --> 01:33:00.949
Community Hall: I believe there are some comments that have come in from
members of the public.
745
01:33:01.320 --> 01:33:04.099
Community Hall: I would like to see if we can hear…
746
01:33:04.390 --> 01:33:15.190
Community Hall: staff response to that. Would you like me to ask each
question one at a time, or how do we want to proceed through the
questions that were received? I'm happy to call out specific
747
01:33:15.570 --> 01:33:18.230
Community Hall: Aspects of each question, if that's how we want to
proceed.
748
01:33:19.140 --> 01:33:36.579
Community Hall: I just want to clarify that, indeed, the City has
received multiple comments and questions from the public, and
Commissioner Rao, if there's any questions that relate specifically to
the matter that has been agendized and is before this body, please feel
free to ask those.
749
01:33:37.400 --> 01:33:42.959
Community Hall: Thank you, City Attorney. So, I believe the first
question is confirm as to the mobility element M1.2.
750
01:33:43.210 --> 01:33:49.270
Community Hall: The question was… The policy requires maintaining a safe
and efficient circulation and transportation network.
751
01:33:49.640 --> 01:33:58.160
Community Hall: And the question is… What is the evidence that this
vacation would maintain that?
752
01:34:02.150 --> 01:34:07.110
Community Hall: I'm not sure why that specific question would have to be
found. Again, the issue is…
753
01:34:07.280 --> 01:34:18.089
Community Hall: Does the vacation and disposition conform to the general
plan? It doesn't say you need to make a finding to conform to every
component of the general plan.
754
01:34:18.790 --> 01:34:24.559
Community Hall: So, I'm not really sure how to answer that. A general
plan is called general for a reason. It's general.
755
01:34:29.270 --> 01:34:31.369
Community Hall: So, in staff's judgment.
756
01:34:33.390 --> 01:34:46.120
Community Hall: the burden of proof that the vacation poses no safety or
other transportation effects is on the bur… on… is the burden is on whom?
Is it on the…
757
01:34:46.480 --> 01:34:49.090
Community Hall: Staff to show evidence that there is no
758
01:34:49.510 --> 01:34:55.390
Community Hall: Impacts to policies in the mobility element, or is it to
the commissioners?
759
01:34:55.680 --> 01:35:02.170
Community Hall: To identify findings that show evidence that the mobility
element may be impaired by this vacation.
760
01:35:02.870 --> 01:35:11.990
Community Hall: So the concept of burden of proof is not before us here,
and that there's not a need to rise to a burden of proof.
761
01:35:12.570 --> 01:35:30.899
Community Hall: Again, you know, as Assistant Director Connolly has
indicated, there's not a need to identify and analyze every single policy
in the entire General Plan for conformance. The issue here is whether, as
762
01:35:31.130 --> 01:35:36.099
Community Hall: Explained in the staff report whether the vacation of the
right-of-way on Mary Avenue
763
01:35:37.280 --> 01:35:53.729
Community Hall: is in conformance with the general plan. And as explained
in the staff report, the contention, the belief in it is yes. Now, to the
extent that you disagree with that, and there's areas of the general plan
where you believe this particular vacation is inconsistent.
764
01:35:54.060 --> 01:35:56.899
Community Hall: That, that, that should be part of the record tonight.
765
01:35:57.710 --> 01:36:00.280
Community Hall: Thank you, Siti Anthony. That was the question.
766
01:36:00.460 --> 01:36:04.220
Community Hall: The assertion that… The question makes is whether…
767
01:36:05.080 --> 01:36:11.019
Community Hall: the proposed vacation would be inconsistent with Mobility
Element Policy M1.2,
768
01:36:11.500 --> 01:36:17.139
Community Hall: That requires that we maintain a safe and efficient
circulation and transportation network for all users.
769
01:36:18.100 --> 01:36:26.369
Community Hall: the question to staff. Well, actually, it sounds like
that would be a substitute motion you would make, that… that you… that
you move, that
770
01:36:26.380 --> 01:36:45.470
Community Hall: the vacation of the right-of-way in this particular
instance is not in conformance with the general plan for the following
reasons, and, you know, then you can have a motion, you can have debate,
and a vote, and see whether that carries today. Thank you, City Atomi. I
think that answers my question. My next question is…
771
01:36:45.690 --> 01:36:51.530
Community Hall: the infrastructure element policy, INF2, talks about
ensuring that
772
01:36:51.860 --> 01:36:55.270
Community Hall: the community needs are anticipated in Vision 2040.
773
01:36:55.520 --> 01:36:57.509
Community Hall: Does the vacation…
774
01:36:57.620 --> 01:37:14.059
Community Hall: anticipate the parking and transportation impact due to
the Westport project that brings in, I believe, 136 senior assisted
living and 36 memory care units, for which we recently approved the
waiver on underground parking.
775
01:37:14.170 --> 01:37:17.919
Community Hall: Does the parking… Assumptions made by staff.
776
01:37:18.210 --> 01:37:21.019
Community Hall: assume that… Presence of that project.
777
01:37:21.780 --> 01:37:30.040
Community Hall: So, again, Commissioner Rao, parking, traffic, impact,
density, that is not agendized, that's not before this body.
778
01:37:30.880 --> 01:37:35.800
Community Hall: Conference to the general plan is, and the infrastructure
element is a part of the general plan, is it not?
779
01:37:38.200 --> 01:37:51.660
Community Hall: Yes, conforms with the general plan is, and the staff has
laid out for this body, in their opinion, the various policies for which
this vacation would conform.
780
01:37:52.630 --> 01:38:00.839
Community Hall: If I can add, the strategies and policies cited in the
staff report and resolution are the most on point relative to this site.
781
01:38:01.120 --> 01:38:05.300
Community Hall: These are policies that specifically bear on this site.
782
01:38:05.750 --> 01:38:15.530
Community Hall: And there's nothing in government code section 65402 that
says you need to find every component of the general plan consistent with
the action.
783
01:38:16.930 --> 01:38:24.760
Community Hall: And if I may comment on that, I think the entire basis of
staff's findings is the identified project.
784
01:38:24.980 --> 01:38:28.839
Community Hall: And the assertion that an RFP was previously performed.
785
01:38:29.240 --> 01:38:36.419
Community Hall: And in the assessment of confirmments to the general
plan, it would seem to me that
786
01:38:36.820 --> 01:38:43.450
Community Hall: As it stands right now, this is public property, and an
RFP could not have been issued for public property.
787
01:38:43.670 --> 01:38:46.130
Community Hall: The vacation needs to proceed.
788
01:38:46.280 --> 01:38:52.820
Community Hall: any… Recognition of this as surplus land on which an RFP
could be issued, on what basis?
789
01:38:52.930 --> 01:38:57.889
Community Hall: Would an RFP have identified a sole project respondent
when this is public land?
790
01:39:00.100 --> 01:39:04.830
Community Hall: Yeah, questions regarding the RFP is not, agendized for
discussion today.
791
01:39:04.940 --> 01:39:11.330
Community Hall: And so the comment here being that the staff findings
cannot be ascertained by the planning commissioners.
792
01:39:11.430 --> 01:39:21.119
Community Hall: Because the entire findings are on the basis of the
identified project, and the project is proposed on land that is currently
held in trust by the city on behalf of the public.
793
01:39:25.300 --> 01:39:30.500
Community Hall: If there are no other questions, I can continue on. I'm
happy to yield if there are questions or discussions.
794
01:39:31.140 --> 01:39:32.650
Community Hall: Commissioner Lenscobb?
795
01:39:32.840 --> 01:39:44.119
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Yeah, I was just wondering, can we set a
time limit on this, so that we have an end anticipation? Otherwise, I can
see this going on for, you know, hours, and…
796
01:39:44.450 --> 01:39:49.689
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: That's not really respectful of staff, or
commissioner, or the public's time.
797
01:39:52.430 --> 01:39:57.209
Community Hall: I'm not sure. Commissioner Rao, how many more questions
do you think you have?
798
01:39:58.110 --> 01:40:17.560
Community Hall: Through the Chair, you have the discretion, I believe, to
end discussion when you would choose to. I would remind us that this is
only the third time we have ever vacated a roadway. We have had a
tremendous amount of public input on this. This is the first and the last
time this comes to Planning Commission, and I think we owe it to
residents to be able to do full justice to this.
799
01:40:17.650 --> 01:40:23.369
Community Hall: And if commissioners have other pressing interests, they
may choose to not participate further.
800
01:40:23.630 --> 01:40:25.010
Community Hall: And exit the meeting.
801
01:40:25.300 --> 01:40:27.300
Community Hall: If I could just make one comment…
802
01:40:27.690 --> 01:40:34.679
Community Hall: I don't want to contradict, but we have not had a
tremendous amount of public input on the item before the Commission
tonight.
803
01:40:35.180 --> 01:40:41.000
Community Hall: which is general plan consistency. There's actually been
very little and zero opposition.
804
01:40:41.710 --> 01:40:43.160
Community Hall: Just to point that out.
805
01:40:45.520 --> 01:40:52.839
Community Hall: And to the chair, it is appropriate for you to set
limits. The most common limit the City Council uses is 5 minutes.
806
01:40:55.140 --> 01:41:03.689
Community Hall: I am reluctant to limit time this way. Do you…
Commissioner Rao, you're not…
807
01:41:03.710 --> 01:41:16.140
Community Hall: able to share how many questions you have left. I just
want to understand, you know, what we're looking at. I have a number of
questions. I do not have an itemized count on that, but I am nowhere near
the end of my questions at this time.
808
01:41:16.780 --> 01:41:17.730
Community Hall: I'm sorry?
809
01:41:18.080 --> 01:41:20.919
Community Hall: I'm nowhere near the end of my questions at this time.
810
01:41:21.220 --> 01:41:28.570
Community Hall: I would say… I think, you know, I do want to make sure
that we… we give…
811
01:41:29.210 --> 01:41:39.379
Community Hall: time to the… the agenda Item 5 on Active Transportation
Plan, which I also think is very important. So…
812
01:41:40.920 --> 01:41:51.720
Community Hall: I think 5 minutes is short, through the Chair, I do not
see public works or transportation staff here at this time for that item,
and Chair has the discretion to propose postponing the item.
813
01:41:52.880 --> 01:41:58.959
Community Hall: I would prefer not to postpone the item, but, can we…
814
01:42:00.490 --> 01:42:10.610
Community Hall: I, I, I, I suppose I… sorry, City Attorney? You should
proceed with the assumption that, staff will be present to present the
ATP item. Okay, thank you.
815
01:42:11.680 --> 01:42:13.340
Community Hall: Present in the lobby.
816
01:42:13.550 --> 01:42:23.600
Community Hall: Okay, thank you. Commissioner Rao, I think I would ask if
you can please prioritize your most, pressing questions, and…
817
01:42:23.760 --> 01:42:31.189
Community Hall: we give this maybe another 10 to 15 minutes. I'm
reluctant to put a hard time on it.
818
01:42:32.700 --> 01:42:43.000
Community Hall: Again, through the chair, I'm happy to yield to other
commissioners if anyone else has comments or questions. To my
understanding, there are no further comments or questions.
819
01:42:43.400 --> 01:42:45.490
Community Hall: Er… go ahead.
820
01:42:45.620 --> 01:42:48.069
Community Hall: Would you want to consider tabling this item?
821
01:42:48.270 --> 01:42:50.399
Community Hall: Taking the other item, and then coming back.
822
01:42:51.380 --> 01:42:54.680
Community Hall: I would be in support of that motion if you were to make
it.
823
01:42:54.790 --> 01:43:07.060
Community Hall: Commissioner Fung? I'm sorry, what is the… Commissioner
Fung proposed a motion to table. I don't think that would be respectful
to the people that have come here this evening, look, hoping to hear a
decision on this.
824
01:43:07.540 --> 01:43:10.159
Community Hall: So, no, I would prefer not to do that.
825
01:43:12.990 --> 01:43:15.070
Community Hall: Commissioner Feng, would you like to make that motion?
826
01:43:15.380 --> 01:43:35.880
Community Hall: I just want clarity, Commissioner Fung, because there is…
you're proposing to table this item to a future date? No, no, table…
after we cover the… Oh, no, not tabled items. There's a significance to
that language. Tabling an item, it means you're going to postpone it to a
future date. That's not what you're doing. I think Commissioner Fung…
827
01:43:35.880 --> 01:43:39.040
Community Hall: Is saying, to… to move to the…
828
01:43:39.140 --> 01:43:46.389
Community Hall: take a break on this item, and they go to the ATP, and
then come back to it? Is that what you… Yes. Yeah, I think the chair has
indicated that
829
01:43:46.460 --> 01:43:55.009
Community Hall: I encourage you to the public, let's just proceed with
this, with this. Well, if Commissioner Fung is making that motion, I'm
happy to entertain that with a second.
830
01:43:55.010 --> 01:44:06.759
Community Hall: He just… he just clarified, Commissioner Arau, that he's
not making that motion, that he… he… he meant just to… just to take a
break from this item tonight and reconvene after the ATP item.
831
01:44:06.760 --> 01:44:15.820
Community Hall: Okay, thank you, everyone, for opining. I think that the
amount of time we're spending discussing this discussion is probably too
much, so I would like to just give
832
01:44:15.860 --> 01:44:21.280
Community Hall: Commissioner Rao, another 10 to 15 minutes, and then we
will entertain a motion.
833
01:44:23.510 --> 01:44:25.770
Community Hall: We already have a motion, actually.
834
01:44:25.920 --> 01:44:28.199
Community Hall: Yes, then we will vote on the motion.
835
01:44:30.740 --> 01:44:38.490
Community Hall: I would like to ask staff the question, is there any
basis at all on which you would find this non-confirmant to the GP?
836
01:44:41.250 --> 01:44:43.319
Community Hall: There were, but I've been in the staff report.
837
01:44:43.980 --> 01:44:53.809
Community Hall: No, we… there's no basis. Again, general plan
conformance, you're supposed to focus what are the most salient elements
of the general plan that bear on this project.
838
01:44:53.920 --> 01:45:01.889
Community Hall: It's very clear this is a housing element priority
housing site. If people haven't heard me say that yet, I can say it one
more time.
839
01:45:02.030 --> 01:45:08.660
Community Hall: That is the most important aspect of this project in its
relation to the City's General Plan.
840
01:45:10.250 --> 01:45:11.480
Community Hall: That's all I can say.
841
01:45:13.270 --> 01:45:19.780
Community Hall: And so, in staff's judgment, there would be no
circumstances under which a project that chooses to vacate public
842
01:45:20.130 --> 01:45:24.050
Community Hall: Right away, because it was deemed a housing element.
843
01:45:24.870 --> 01:45:26.339
Community Hall: a potential site.
844
01:45:26.560 --> 01:45:34.219
Community Hall: would ever be non-conformant to the general plan. So we
would… we would ignore all elements of the general plan once we decide
that a roadway
845
01:45:34.350 --> 01:45:37.860
Community Hall: Our right-of-way could be on the housing element.
846
01:45:38.350 --> 01:45:43.970
Community Hall: That is not at all what I said. I'm talking about this
site, just this site.
847
01:45:44.280 --> 01:45:56.579
Community Hall: And just the vacation and disposition of the right-of-
way, not any future hypothetical site. And so, to help us apply judgment
on what might be potential basis for non-conformance, could you take
848
01:45:56.730 --> 01:46:01.809
Community Hall: An example of any other hypothetical right-of-way where
non-conformance could be established.
849
01:46:01.970 --> 01:46:11.620
Community Hall: I don't really wish to speculate on something that
hypothetical. Would the city attorney be able to guide commissioners on
what, if anything, would be a basis for non-conformance?
850
01:46:23.290 --> 01:46:24.920
Community Hall: That could be one, sure.
851
01:46:26.420 --> 01:46:32.610
Community Hall: I imagine you want to vacate the right-of-way to build a…
Casino.
852
01:46:33.700 --> 01:46:36.089
Community Hall: That may be contrary to the general plan.
853
01:46:39.220 --> 01:46:40.620
Community Hall: Unless you're in Nevada.
854
01:46:43.690 --> 01:46:49.879
Community Hall: Could the city envision a mixed-use project that puts a
casino on the ground floor and housing on the upper floors?
855
01:46:50.910 --> 01:46:59.689
Community Hall: Yeah, it's… I shouldn't have said it. You know, this is
running far afield, these hypotheticals from the matter before you, which
is…
856
01:47:00.310 --> 01:47:05.190
Community Hall: This particular priority housing site in our housing
element.
857
01:47:05.510 --> 01:47:19.329
Community Hall: Is the vacation of the right-of-way conformance to the
general plan? It really is a yes or no. I respectfully beg to differ. I
think this Commission has basically asked to look at general plan
conformance.
858
01:47:19.370 --> 01:47:28.390
Community Hall: It is unclear what the basis would be for non-
conferments. When we pick on individual elements and individual policies,
we are told that is not to be considered.
859
01:47:28.510 --> 01:47:37.569
Community Hall: When we are asked to provide… when we ask to provide
evidence in support of staff's findings, we are told that is not
necessary.
860
01:47:37.970 --> 01:47:44.010
Community Hall: Further, we are told the SQ item has already been heard
by the city, so to me, this…
861
01:47:44.410 --> 01:47:47.599
Community Hall: is making a mockery of the Planning Commission, and it's
wrong.
862
01:47:48.360 --> 01:47:57.549
Community Hall: I do not understand what the Planning Commission's role
is if we have no basis for non-conferments, and we have no basis to ask
for evidence in support of staff's findings.
863
01:48:00.020 --> 01:48:11.959
Community Hall: Having said that, I will make a substitute motion to find
that the project is not in conformance with the general plan on the basis
of a lack of evidence in support of staff's findings, and on the basis of
864
01:48:12.350 --> 01:48:18.479
Community Hall: specific objections that I can either choose to itemize,
or we can leave the policy as is.
865
01:48:18.780 --> 01:48:22.859
Community Hall: I will leave it to the chair whether you want me to
itemize on a line-by-line basis, which…
866
01:48:22.980 --> 01:48:27.080
Community Hall: element policies… Would be non-confirmant.
867
01:48:27.180 --> 01:48:28.220
Community Hall: Do we need that?
868
01:48:28.440 --> 01:48:36.780
Community Hall: Yes, how long is the… go ahead, go ahead, read it. I make
a motion, I make a substitute motion to find that the…
869
01:48:38.480 --> 01:48:50.639
Community Hall: recommendations from staff are not in confirmance. The
vacation of public right-of-way and the disposition of public right-of-
way is not in confirmance with the general plan on the basis of
870
01:48:50.860 --> 01:49:01.739
Community Hall: Lack of evidence in support of staff's findings, and on
the basis of non-conference with the mobility element, the infrastructure
element, the land use element.
871
01:49:03.350 --> 01:49:04.630
Community Hall: Do I have a second?
872
01:49:06.270 --> 01:49:07.250
Community Hall: I'll second that.
873
01:49:11.280 --> 01:49:14.380
Community Hall: We have a motion and a second. Are there any discussions?
874
01:49:16.070 --> 01:49:20.080
Community Hall: Can we have a voice vote, please? Commissioner Fung?
875
01:49:20.350 --> 01:49:21.080
Community Hall: No.
876
01:49:21.540 --> 01:49:23.000
Community Hall: Commissioner Linskog?
877
01:49:23.320 --> 01:49:24.040
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: No.
878
01:49:25.200 --> 01:49:26.870
Community Hall: Commissioner Rao?
879
01:49:27.280 --> 01:49:28.120
Community Hall: Yes.
880
01:49:29.430 --> 01:49:31.799
Community Hall: Vice Chair Sharf? No.
881
01:49:32.830 --> 01:49:34.899
Community Hall: Chair Casolshron? Yes.
882
01:49:38.550 --> 01:49:42.819
Community Hall: The motion fails, with Commissioner Rao and Chair
Casolshron voting yes.
883
01:49:43.890 --> 01:49:49.810
Community Hall: So that brings us back to the original motion. Are we
ready to vote on the original motion? Any…
884
01:49:50.130 --> 01:49:53.270
Community Hall: Yes, we are, okay. Maybe we have a voice vote?
885
01:49:55.050 --> 01:49:56.980
Community Hall: Commissioner Fung? Yes.
886
01:49:58.390 --> 01:49:59.810
Community Hall: Commissioner Lynn Scott?
887
01:50:00.220 --> 01:50:00.850
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Yes.
888
01:50:02.280 --> 01:50:04.229
Community Hall: Commissioner Rao? No.
889
01:50:05.090 --> 01:50:07.250
Community Hall: Vice Chair Sharf? Yes.
890
01:50:07.620 --> 01:50:09.780
Community Hall: Cherokee Solshiron? No.
891
01:50:10.500 --> 01:50:14.899
Community Hall: The motion carries with Commissioner Rao and Chair
Casolcheron voting no.
892
01:50:17.730 --> 01:50:29.579
Community Hall: All right, thank you very much, to the members of the
public, and we will move on. No, no, no, I'm sorry, I apologize. I
believe there's a second resolution, unless that was part of your first
motion, Commissioner Sharp.
893
01:50:30.110 --> 01:50:32.880
Community Hall: You're right. Okay. Commissioner Scharf, go ahead.
894
01:50:35.060 --> 01:50:40.179
Community Hall: Oh, so I would like, make a motion to adopt a resolution
finding the location, purpose.
895
01:50:40.290 --> 01:50:48.890
Community Hall: An extent of the disposition of the Mary Avenue project
site APN32627053 is consistent with the general plan.
896
01:50:49.200 --> 01:50:50.410
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: I'll second that.
897
01:50:53.730 --> 01:51:05.340
Community Hall: All right, may we have a vote, please? Discussion? Oh,
okay, sorry, any discussion on this? Yes, I would like to comment briefly
that disposition at this stage
898
01:51:06.500 --> 01:51:11.099
Community Hall: Cannot yet be contemplated, because all we are finding is
confirmants.
899
01:51:11.580 --> 01:51:15.649
Community Hall: to disposition, and I would reiterate the point that was
made, which is…
900
01:51:16.730 --> 01:51:20.360
Community Hall: There is a lack of evidence in the staff's findings.
901
01:51:20.580 --> 01:51:26.519
Community Hall: Because the staff's findings are based solely and wholly
on the identified project.
902
01:51:26.830 --> 01:51:36.099
Community Hall: The identified project is based on an RFP that is not in
front of us that we cannot examine to see if it is whole and complete,
and the only option available to us.
903
01:51:36.350 --> 01:51:39.440
Community Hall: The RFP is not available for us to, in fact.
904
01:51:39.610 --> 01:51:49.509
Community Hall: ascertain if there were alternatives that would have
brought in more bids. For example, did the RFP talk about a ground lease
or a sale? So we do not know
905
01:51:49.890 --> 01:51:52.890
Community Hall: On the basis of this set of findings from staff.
906
01:51:53.250 --> 01:51:56.139
Community Hall: That this is the only option in front of us, and given
that
907
01:51:56.450 --> 01:52:03.160
Community Hall: In the 25-year history we have only vacated roadway
thrice, there could have been other options that we have not fully
considered.
908
01:52:03.260 --> 01:52:09.350
Community Hall: I remind our Commissioners to look at the verbiage in
Section 1, and I rest my comments. Thank you.
909
01:52:10.420 --> 01:52:12.769
Community Hall: Thank you, Commissioner Rao. Commissioner Winscab?
910
01:52:13.960 --> 01:52:20.669
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Yeah, hi, I didn't get a chance to make my
comments earlier, so I'd like to make them now. So, I mean…
911
01:52:20.670 --> 01:52:43.169
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: This is a project that's been in the works
for 10 years. Our current council, I think every single one of them voted
for it when they were in the Planning Commission or as council members.
Many of the current commissioners have voted on it. It's been reviewed
and approved over and over and over again. It's a very good project. Is
it perfect? No.
912
01:52:43.260 --> 01:52:57.930
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: you know, is anyone, you know, is it
perfect in any way? No, but it's a good project, and it deserves to move
forward, because we need to be more welcoming of our IDD population, and
this solves a real problem.
913
01:52:57.930 --> 01:53:12.609
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: It is, you know, as the city attorney and
the city staff keep reminding us, the scope is very clear. Is it… whether
it's consistent with the general plan, not whether we got RFPs, not
whether there are other sites available or not.
914
01:53:12.610 --> 01:53:16.869
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Not any of the other issues that have been
raised by,
915
01:53:16.910 --> 01:53:27.199
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Commissioner Rao, it's a very simple,
straightforward, is it consistent with the general plan? And I, for one,
am happy to vote, in favor of this project. Thank you.
916
01:53:30.390 --> 01:53:33.590
Community Hall: Thank you very much, and with the clarification that we
are not
917
01:53:33.700 --> 01:53:41.629
Community Hall: technically voting for this project, but just opining on
the consistency with general plan. Any other comments?
918
01:53:41.880 --> 01:53:43.530
Community Hall: Through… through the chair.
919
01:53:43.850 --> 01:53:49.360
Community Hall: Can the city attorney verify if
920
01:53:49.560 --> 01:53:59.969
Community Hall: Commissioner Lindskogg is holding office in the Rotary,
and therefore needs to recuse herself on this vote, as the Rotary is the
applicant for the project, or co-applicant.
921
01:54:02.280 --> 01:54:04.370
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: I don't hold office in the Rotary.
922
01:54:08.990 --> 01:54:10.119
Community Hall: Does that answer your question?
923
01:54:13.600 --> 01:54:17.380
Community Hall: Commissioner Linskog, as a Rotary member, is not required
to recuse.
924
01:54:18.430 --> 01:54:25.079
Community Hall: Is she just a member, or is she an officer that I'm
asking the city manager? Yeah, she's just a member, and she just doesn't
need to recuse herself.
925
01:54:26.360 --> 01:54:30.679
Community Hall: But that's… that's up to her to make that decision,
whether she believes she has a conflict.
926
01:54:32.450 --> 01:54:41.789
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Let me speak to that, if I may. I am a
member of the Rotary, I am not involved with the housing development
group that's
927
01:54:41.990 --> 01:55:00.240
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: a member of the Rotary, that's like saying
I'm a resident of Cupertino, therefore I'm responsible for everything the
Cupertino city does. I'm not involved in it, I'm not an officer of the
Rotary, I have not been involved ever with the housing group in the
Rotary, so I don't see a reason to recuse myself.
928
01:55:01.750 --> 01:55:08.430
Community Hall: Would the City Attorney like to confirm if a committee
membership would qualify for accusal, and whether there is a committee
membership involved here?
929
01:55:09.710 --> 01:55:23.589
Community Hall: I probably would need to take some time to understand the
background facts, but the most important thing is, it really is up to the
individual commissioners, the members of the body, to decide whether they
have
930
01:55:23.810 --> 01:55:27.339
Community Hall: It's such a conflict that they believe they need to
recuse themselves.
931
01:55:28.380 --> 01:55:29.590
Community Hall: Thank you, Sitiator.
932
01:55:33.140 --> 01:55:36.880
Community Hall: Thank you. Any other further comments? Okay.
933
01:55:37.120 --> 01:55:39.490
Community Hall: I believe we are ready for a vote.
934
01:55:39.930 --> 01:55:41.270
Community Hall: Commissioner Fung?
935
01:55:42.930 --> 01:55:45.849
Community Hall: Yes, I voted I.
936
01:55:46.060 --> 01:55:47.440
Community Hall: Commissioner Linskop?
937
01:55:47.940 --> 01:55:48.680
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Hi.
938
01:55:49.830 --> 01:55:51.830
Community Hall: Commissioner Rao? Nope.
939
01:55:52.670 --> 01:55:54.900
Community Hall: Vice Chair Sharf? Aye.
940
01:55:55.830 --> 01:55:57.859
Community Hall: Chair Kasulcheron? Nope.
941
01:55:58.530 --> 01:56:02.569
Community Hall: The motion carries, with Commissioner Rao and Chair
Solchron voting no.
942
01:56:05.430 --> 01:56:14.970
Community Hall: Thank you very much. Does the Commission have any need
for 5 minutes of a break? Any interest? Yes, thank you. Okay, we will
adjourn for 5 minutes. Thank you.
943
02:04:50.850 --> 02:04:54.980
Community Hall: All right, thank you very much, and we're… before we move
on to the study session…
944
02:04:55.480 --> 02:05:03.170
Community Hall: Arau had a motion he wanted to make regarding the order
of the items. Yeah, through the chair, if I may make a motion to move
the…
945
02:05:03.520 --> 02:05:05.660
Community Hall: the…
946
02:05:06.150 --> 02:05:12.140
Community Hall: Staff and Commission reports and future agenda setting
items up front, so that planning staff may leave after that.
947
02:05:12.880 --> 02:05:14.319
Community Hall: I'll second that motion.
948
02:05:15.880 --> 02:05:17.909
Community Hall: Can we have a vote, please? Thank you.
949
02:05:18.210 --> 02:05:20.030
Community Hall: Commissioner Fung? Aye.
950
02:05:20.950 --> 02:05:22.919
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Sorry, can I make a comment before we vote?
951
02:05:22.920 --> 02:05:24.030
Community Hall: Yes.
952
02:05:24.740 --> 02:05:41.749
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: So, I sent an email to the staff about
this, but they're about to cut the electricity on me in, like, about 10
to 15 minutes, so I would actually prefer if we do the ATP first, I'm
able to provide comment on that agenda item before, they…
953
02:05:41.810 --> 02:05:45.950
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: the neighborhood loses all electricity, and
I'm kicked off the meeting?
954
02:05:47.410 --> 02:05:58.099
Community Hall: Okay, then I will withdraw my second and… Through the
chair, this should take us less time than the discussion we're having, if
we can let staff finish up and leave, otherwise they will have to stay
the whole night.
955
02:05:58.860 --> 02:06:09.890
Community Hall: I want to respect the lack of electricity. I'm not sure
what that situation is, so let's quickly move on. Is there, City
Attorney, anything procedurally
956
02:06:10.070 --> 02:06:19.149
Community Hall: we need to do to withdraw the motion. Okay, thank you.
Okay, so we will, try to quickly move on to study session. Mr. Chair, do
I have an alternate second to…
957
02:06:19.740 --> 02:06:22.629
Community Hall: Give 3 minutes so that staff can leave after that.
958
02:06:23.250 --> 02:06:24.809
Community Hall: Is there an alternate second?
959
02:06:26.870 --> 02:06:28.590
Community Hall: Sounds like we don't. Alright.
960
02:06:30.370 --> 02:06:42.019
Community Hall: All right, so we will move on to the study session and,
you know, we'll try to be expedient due to electricity issues. Do we have
a staff report on the update of Active Transportation Plan?
961
02:06:42.680 --> 02:06:45.790
Community Hall: Yes, Chair, there is a staff report and presentation.
962
02:06:48.540 --> 02:07:02.059
Community Hall: So, good evening, Commission. My name is Matt Schrader,
Senior Transportation Planner. I'll be providing an update on the Active
Transportation Plan and the work that has been completed since this item
was presented before you in September of last year.
963
02:07:02.930 --> 02:07:07.360
Community Hall: So, tonight we'll go over the project again, just to
remind you about its purpose.
964
02:07:07.520 --> 02:07:25.689
Community Hall: The outreach that was performed during Phase 2 and what
we heard, the changes that we made based on the comments from the
commissions, the public, and Council, and then some new guidelines that
we intend to incorporate in the final plan, which will aid with project
delivery, as well as assessing project success.
965
02:07:27.690 --> 02:07:45.479
Community Hall: So the project is a CWP project. It's also a recommended
measure in the CAP, and a recommended action in the City's Vision Zero
Action Plan. Council approved funding in June of 2024, and then approved
the contract in December of 2024, and the
966
02:07:45.480 --> 02:07:49.429
Community Hall: Plan, or the project itself started in early 2025.
967
02:07:50.990 --> 02:08:01.559
Community Hall: So, the purpose of the Active Transportation Plan, just
as a quick reminder, is to make it easier to walk and bike in the city.
It identifies gaps in the walking and biking network.
968
02:08:01.680 --> 02:08:07.780
Community Hall: And then uses data analysis and public input to come up
with recommendations for addressing those gaps.
969
02:08:10.170 --> 02:08:14.580
Community Hall: So, we just concluded Phase 2, which was the project
recommendations phase.
970
02:08:14.780 --> 02:08:26.500
Community Hall: And during this phase, we reached out to the public to
see which of the proposed network recommendations they preferred. We're
going to present their preferences here tonight, following Phase 2.
971
02:08:26.640 --> 02:08:42.360
Community Hall: We then transition into the preparation of the draft
plan, where essentially we're just combining all the elements that have
been developed over Phase 1 and Phase 2 into a document, and then
bringing that in June for adoption consideration.
972
02:08:44.950 --> 02:09:01.000
Community Hall: So, the plan was presented following Phase 1 to the BPC
Planning and City Council, and we received several comments from the
Commissions and Council, both related to the project scoring criteria, as
well as to the plan itself.
973
02:09:04.130 --> 02:09:06.540
Community Hall: So, first, what we heard from the public.
974
02:09:07.660 --> 02:09:20.590
Community Hall: The public was reviewing the network recommendations, and
these were recommendations that were developed following Phase 1, which
was the needs assessment and existing conditions phase, and the network
recommendations are based off of,
975
02:09:20.590 --> 02:09:28.130
Community Hall: State and federal guidance, past plans from the city,
public input, and data analysis, like the active trip potential work.
976
02:09:29.600 --> 02:09:43.189
Community Hall: The network recommendations are categorized into both
bike and ped. Here we see the bike projects, so shared use, Class 4
separated, Class 2B buffer, Class 2 bike lanes, and neighborhood routes.
977
02:09:45.510 --> 02:09:51.229
Community Hall: And then for the… pedestrian projects, these projects
were grouped into typologies, and
978
02:09:51.540 --> 02:10:07.260
Community Hall: when it comes around to delivering the projects, this
will help with, being able to be flexible in the delivery process. So
they're grouped into typologies. Type A is signage and striping. Type B,
you can think of as physical improvements.
979
02:10:07.320 --> 02:10:17.969
Community Hall: And Type C relate to traffic signal, changes,
modifications, traffic control… Excuse me, can I interrupt you for one
minute? Yeah. Can we get the screen to just show the slide?
980
02:10:18.180 --> 02:10:22.369
Community Hall: Oh, I'm sorry about that. Okay, thank you. Okay, thank
you.
981
02:10:24.440 --> 02:10:33.649
Community Hall: So, Phase 2 consisted of 8 pop-up events, 2 community
workshops, 1 in person and 1 virtual, and then 3 public hearings that I
mentioned previously.
982
02:10:33.960 --> 02:10:39.389
Community Hall: In the photos here, we have the Creekside Farmers Market,
the Senior Center, and Diwali Festival.
983
02:10:41.460 --> 02:10:42.470
Community Hall: So…
984
02:10:44.070 --> 02:10:49.659
Community Hall: The public comment on both the bike and ped projects.
Here we see the pedestrian projects and kind of the…
985
02:10:49.830 --> 02:11:01.740
Community Hall: information that we gathered from the community during
this phase. So there was strong support for the shared use projects,
obviously, as well as strong support for improving intersections along
key roadways.
986
02:11:01.860 --> 02:11:06.769
Community Hall: Those being Stelling, De Anza, Stevens Creek, Blaney, and
Bollinger.
987
02:11:08.770 --> 02:11:28.010
Community Hall: For the bike network, again, there was strong support for
shared use paths, as well as upgrading facilities on the city's major
roadways, and then also wanting there to be extra focus on how to improve
access to schools for students that bike, specifically figuring out how
to prove neighborhood connectivity through traffic calming measures.
988
02:11:30.910 --> 02:11:45.349
Community Hall: And here we see the community's preferred network
recommendations. So on the left, it's the pedestrian projects. You can
see that the trail projects appear at the top, as well as some major
intersections, like Blaney and Stevens Creek.
989
02:11:45.480 --> 02:11:51.719
Community Hall: And then for the bike projects, the shared use paths were
removed, so we're just looking at the roadway facility projects here.
990
02:11:52.130 --> 02:12:00.449
Community Hall: So, major roadways, again, Stevens Creek, Blaney,
Homestead, Bollinger, and Stelling were the community's preferred bikeway
projects.
991
02:12:04.100 --> 02:12:13.699
Community Hall: So in September, we presented the draft project scoring
criteria and made some changes to that criteria based on the comments we
received from the commissions and Council.
992
02:12:16.430 --> 02:12:21.740
Community Hall: And during our presentations, there was clear consensus
across, these three bodies.
993
02:12:22.300 --> 02:12:25.690
Community Hall: Mainly that safety for students should be prioritized.
994
02:12:25.810 --> 02:12:34.659
Community Hall: The scoring metrics themselves should be very objective
and data-based, and then technology solutions need greater consideration.
995
02:12:34.660 --> 02:12:49.520
Community Hall: So, rather than having those improvement projects
included as programmatic elements, we've elevated those so that there are
now network recommendations that stand alone equally with traditional
network recommendations, like the bike and PET projects.
996
02:12:52.020 --> 02:13:08.840
Community Hall: So what this means… so, for the bike network, changes,
the revisions we made, when looking at the high injury network, we made
some modifications to scoring so that a project would receive 20 points
if it's on the high injury network, and 10 if it's within 1,000 feet.
997
02:13:09.270 --> 02:13:27.500
Community Hall: And then, rather than using a distance-based proximity
scoring for schools, for school access, we looked at the safe routes to
school, suggested routes to school. So if a project, aligns with a
suggested route to school, it would receive max points. That's more
precise.
998
02:13:27.500 --> 02:13:32.670
Community Hall: And better applies to what we know existing
transportation behavior to be.
999
02:13:33.070 --> 02:13:43.540
Community Hall: Council provided direction to also, make extra
consideration to potential impacts to arterials, so that scoring has been
added to the balance criterion.
1000
02:13:43.740 --> 02:13:50.760
Community Hall: Fairness has now been removed, and then Council requested
that cost-effectiveness be included in the project scoring.
1001
02:13:52.710 --> 02:14:09.239
Community Hall: So the same changes were applied to the pedestrian
criteria. The balance doesn't really apply here, but the other, scoring
changes, like, oh, and I forgot to mention, for the bike network, that
destinations for seniors was also included.
1002
02:14:10.170 --> 02:14:13.129
Community Hall: And then for the sidewalk projects, similar scoring.
1003
02:14:14.970 --> 02:14:28.239
Community Hall: And then, now we get to the new project category, which
was developed in order to address the comments we received from Council,
which was that technology should be prioritized. So we've created these
transportation technology corridors
1004
02:14:28.240 --> 02:14:38.659
Community Hall: And we did this by first looking at the Typology C
intersections that were the recommendations. And as a reminder, these are
the traffic signal and control improvement projects.
1005
02:14:39.040 --> 02:14:39.930
Community Hall: And then…
1006
02:14:40.160 --> 02:14:50.029
Community Hall: looked at those locations and evaluated their overlap
with the Vision Zero High Injury Network. Then we also considered which
of those intersections the city actually
1007
02:14:50.130 --> 02:15:05.960
Community Hall: maintains and has control over. And then, following that,
we looked at where along those corridors there's higher rates of
collisions where the primary collision factor is either red light running
or, traffic signal violations.
1008
02:15:07.550 --> 02:15:14.960
Community Hall: And then based off of that, we've developed 5, technology
corridors that will then be scored equally with the bike and pet
projects.
1009
02:15:17.520 --> 02:15:21.680
Community Hall: And now, using that draft criteria, we rank the projects.
1010
02:15:21.730 --> 02:15:39.309
Community Hall: And the key takeaway here is that the top projects using
this criteria are ones that are school-related, Vision Zero-related, and
relatively low cost. And this is especially true when you look at
potential projects that are on a suggested throughout the school, and
also on a high injury network.
1011
02:15:39.330 --> 02:15:43.570
Community Hall: So, when looking at the number one project here, De Anza
and Lazano.
1012
02:15:43.880 --> 02:15:50.580
Community Hall: It's a high-injury network roadway, it's a suggested
route to school, and its signage and striping, so relatively low cost.
1013
02:15:50.770 --> 02:16:04.609
Community Hall: Additionally, the scoring also prioritizes projects where
there are fewer potential trade-offs, which is why a lot of the
neighborhood route projects score better than some of the buffered or
separated bike lane projects.
1014
02:16:08.210 --> 02:16:17.289
Community Hall: And then, in addition to the revisions to the scoring
criteria, we also developed new, policy guidelines to include in the
Active Transportation Plan.
1015
02:16:18.480 --> 02:16:24.119
Community Hall: The first of which is a project impact assessment, and
this is based on comments that
1016
02:16:24.120 --> 02:16:39.059
Community Hall: we've received from the community, as well as from the
commissions and Council, about how to adequately consider potential
project impacts prior to construction. So what this is saying is that
once a project has been initiated by the City Council.
1017
02:16:39.059 --> 02:16:58.130
Community Hall: and a 30% design is complete. That design, if there are
known impacts that are discovered, will then be presented to the City
Council. The City Council will look at those, evaluate the trade-offs,
and determine whether or not that project should undergo more detailed
traffic analysis to better understand its full effects.
1018
02:16:59.170 --> 02:17:11.720
Community Hall: That analysis work will then be, developed, brought back
to the City Council for their review, for their consideration, and for
them to make a decision on how they would like to proceed based on those
results.
1019
02:17:13.770 --> 02:17:15.079
Community Hall: And then the next…
1020
02:17:15.240 --> 02:17:26.729
Community Hall: policy memo is the project effectiveness guidelines, and
this is really about how to measure success for projects. So, again,
following project initiation, and once design is complete.
1021
02:17:26.790 --> 02:17:41.609
Community Hall: And prior to construction, staff will conduct pre-project
counts along the project limits for certain bikeway projects, these being
separated bikeway projects, and buffered bikeway projects, and standard
Class 2 projects.
1022
02:17:42.080 --> 02:18:01.280
Community Hall: And we're doing this so that we can get a baseline
understanding of what ridership is, as well as an understanding of what
the collision rates along the project limits are, so that once the
project is built, and a suitable amount of time has really passed to
account for potential changes in cycling ridership, then we'll
1023
02:18:01.840 --> 02:18:04.690
Community Hall: Do the same counts, same locations.
1024
02:18:04.780 --> 02:18:25.129
Community Hall: Look at the collision data and make a judgment on whether
or not cycling… cycling rates are increasing, collision rates are
decreasing or staying the same. So, this will allow staff to better
understand how certain designs may impact cycling ridership, and it also
aligns with Vision Zero and Climate Action Plan goals.
1025
02:18:28.209 --> 02:18:41.610
Community Hall: So the next steps for the ATP are to go to the BPC and
Council for review, and then based on potential comments received at
those meetings, staff will address any of those that come from Council.
1026
02:18:41.650 --> 02:18:53.589
Community Hall: And, begin the preparation of the draft plan. That draft
plan will then be developed and released to the public in the form of a
editable PDF, so it can be reviewed and commented on for a month.
1027
02:18:54.059 --> 02:19:06.390
Community Hall: Following that public review period, we will then address
any comments that come up, and then bring the plan to Council in June for
potential adoption consideration.
1028
02:19:09.660 --> 02:19:10.450
Community Hall: Thank you.
1029
02:19:12.930 --> 02:19:24.439
Community Hall: Thank you very much, and we will bring it back to the
Commission for questions. I did want to first, ask if Commissioner
Linskogg has any, since I am aware that she may be running out of
electricity.
1030
02:19:25.420 --> 02:19:37.820
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Yeah, thank you, Chair Commissioner. So,
yeah, I… hopefully I still have power, but I'll try to switch to my phone
if I… if I, if they turn off the power.
1031
02:19:38.250 --> 02:19:48.630
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: So, I spent some time looking at the
prioritization, and I actually reached out to the city staff to see if I
could get the details of the scoring, because
1032
02:19:48.630 --> 02:19:59.610
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: some of it looked really not intuitive to
me, and apparently the detail scoring is not available yet, so I would
encourage us to…
1033
02:19:59.650 --> 02:20:11.290
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: schedule a follow-up on this, item when the
detail scoring is available, because there's some real questions here. So
as I look at it, it seems to me like…
1034
02:20:11.290 --> 02:20:23.070
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: The scoring system is putting too heavy a
weight on safety on school routes, to the detriment of pretty much all of
the criteria, including safety on the Vision Zero High Injury Network.
1035
02:20:23.070 --> 02:20:27.000
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Which is not consistent with the goals of
1036
02:20:27.070 --> 02:20:46.900
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: all the other reports that have been done
in the past in the Bike Ped Commission, like the Vision Zero Plan, the
Climate Action Plan, the Local Road Safety Plan, the 2018 VTA County
Bicycle Plan, etc. So, for example, a child died, and another was
seriously injured on Foothill Boulevard.
1037
02:20:46.900 --> 02:21:07.109
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: And the ATP does include sidewalks that are
proposed on parts of Foothill, but they're ranked 121 to 160-something to
184 in the plans, which is far, far below what it should be, considering
that this was one of the most serious injuries that happened in our city
in a decade.
1038
02:21:07.110 --> 02:21:17.520
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: The ATP prioritization, does not consider
the high injury network data, as much as it should. So, for example.
1039
02:21:17.520 --> 02:21:23.919
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: The number one most dangerous intersection
in Cupertino, according to the Vision Zero High Injury Network,
1040
02:21:23.970 --> 02:21:29.790
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: was De Anza and Homestead, but in the ATP,
it's ranked 65th.
1041
02:21:29.810 --> 02:21:42.350
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: In our priorities. 9 of the top 20 most
dangerous intersections in the city, per the Vision Zero report, didn't
even make it into the ATP. They're not even there, they're absent.
1042
02:21:42.350 --> 02:22:00.920
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: That's a full 45%, almost half. And then
the ones that are in the ATP scoring, that they're ranked, well below,
like, I think the average rating for all of them is around 44, and these
are the top 20 most dangerous intersections in the city.
1043
02:22:00.920 --> 02:22:07.539
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: For example, the intersection at September
Drive and McClellan is ranked 24,
1044
02:22:07.860 --> 02:22:18.940
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: And Rodriguez and Terry Way is ranked 49th.
They're both ranked higher than some of the most dangerous intersections
in the city, so De Anza and Stevens Creek Boulevard is ranked 56th.
1045
02:22:18.940 --> 02:22:30.900
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: De Anza in Homestead is ranked 65. De Annza
and Prospect ranked 183. De Anza and Rainbow ranked 201. And again, these
are some of the most dangerous intersections in the city.
1046
02:22:31.100 --> 02:22:33.689
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: So, there's something really…
1047
02:22:33.830 --> 02:22:49.230
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: that's not working with the scoring, and I
don't know… I don't understand why, and that's why I asked for the detail
scoring, and I don't know that we can make a determination until we see
this, but I would really encourage the staff to go back and think about
this some more, because
1048
02:22:49.230 --> 02:23:02.389
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: this… this doesn't seem right at all. The
other issues, I know you mentioned cost-effectiveness. I'm wondering
whether cost-effectiveness… the weight of the cost-effectiveness is too
high, because a lot of the projects we're seeing are just
1049
02:23:02.400 --> 02:23:26.500
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: striping on the sidewalk, I mean, on the
road. We know that the vast majority of the cost of these… of, pedestrian
and cycling projects are covered by grants. Bike ped projects are some of
the most efficient projects cost-wise for the city, because of their
potential for getting grants. So, while I understand and
1050
02:23:26.500 --> 02:23:34.000
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: you know, accept that cost-effectiveness is
an issue. The weight for that seems to be too high, given the fact that
1051
02:23:34.260 --> 02:23:48.729
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: grants will cover a lot of that cost, and
it's limiting us in terms of adopting more important projects, like some
of those top 20, high-injury network intersections. So, my recommendation
would be
1052
02:23:48.730 --> 02:23:58.029
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: staff needs to go back and rethink the
current criteria, and at the very least come back and show us the
detailed scores once they have them available. Thank you.
1053
02:23:59.670 --> 02:24:02.180
Community Hall: Thank you, Commissioner Rao, it looked like you had
something.
1054
02:24:02.470 --> 02:24:07.150
Community Hall: Yes, can the chair clarify if you're doing clarifying
questions at this time?
1055
02:24:07.530 --> 02:24:13.179
Community Hall: I had originally said clarifying questions, it seems like
we went into comments. We can
1056
02:24:13.380 --> 02:24:20.740
Community Hall: usually would start with questions, yes. Thank you. If I
may ask a question of staff… the…
1057
02:24:21.050 --> 02:24:27.349
Community Hall: staff report indicates that Council Gave very specific
feedback.
1058
02:24:28.140 --> 02:24:31.840
Community Hall: To staff, to drop the public input from ranking criteria.
1059
02:24:32.650 --> 02:24:36.609
Community Hall: And yet, much of the staff presentation was based on
community input.
1060
02:24:37.200 --> 02:24:42.079
Community Hall: So I'm curious why we are still talking about community
input and feedback when
1061
02:24:42.310 --> 02:24:46.010
Community Hall: Council's clear direction was to draw public input from
the ranking criteria.
1062
02:24:47.250 --> 02:24:51.079
Community Hall: Yeah, so public input was dropped from the ranking
criteria.
1063
02:24:51.190 --> 02:25:03.210
Community Hall: The information about what the public's preference is as
it relates to those projects was included, just to provide a summary of
the work that staff completed over the fall, which included a lot of
those engagement events.
1064
02:25:03.360 --> 02:25:08.390
Community Hall: But none of that public input went into the actual
project scoring itself.
1065
02:25:09.370 --> 02:25:16.810
Community Hall: Yeah, it seems like we continue to sort of work around
Council's direction when Council is very clear that public input
1066
02:25:17.110 --> 02:25:31.419
Community Hall: is to be dropped, I would have liked to see the staff
report and presentation just drop it. I'm not sure what, because much of
the presentation covered what the community wants, and the council has
clearly said they do not want to see that, because it is not objective
and unreliable as captured in your doc.
1067
02:25:31.490 --> 02:25:47.940
Community Hall: If I may just add that the, that aspect was dropped from
the prioritization criteria, but the public has informed the project list
itself through the outreach that we performed. So the foundation of the
plan, being the projects, was informed by the public.
1068
02:25:48.110 --> 02:25:53.839
Community Hall: But the council direction was to discount it in the
prioritization criteria, which is what we had done.
1069
02:25:56.540 --> 02:26:03.850
Community Hall: Yeah, I would take issue with the reference to this as
public input. Much of our 60,000 people do not give you input.
1070
02:26:03.970 --> 02:26:10.899
Community Hall: The people that do give you input are motivated people to
see certain types of projects. I was also present during some of your
1071
02:26:11.090 --> 02:26:13.599
Community Hall: field input sessions, I would recommend.
1072
02:26:13.700 --> 02:26:24.940
Community Hall: mesh order for excellent work and all of the work on
weekdays and weekends that went into collecting input. We appreciate that
and saw that firsthand. However, I will point out that public was not
informed
1073
02:26:25.350 --> 02:26:27.490
Community Hall: Where they would be losing
1074
02:26:27.680 --> 02:26:36.450
Community Hall: street parking in front of their homes explicitly. I had
to point that out to the public in the few times I was actually present,
so if you might clarify if the…
1075
02:26:37.330 --> 02:26:47.159
Community Hall: Community input gathering explicitly disclosed to those
that you were gathering input from that street parking in front of their
homes would be lost if there were bike lane projects proposed on their
lane.
1076
02:26:48.800 --> 02:26:53.639
Community Hall: This is an agri-transportation plan, so we were just
talking about project concepts.
1077
02:26:54.660 --> 02:26:57.450
Community Hall: And we've kind of addressed a little bit
1078
02:26:57.500 --> 02:27:16.210
Community Hall: of those concerns in the project scoring, so those
projects that we do know to have potential impacts, we don't know the
full extent of them until a 30% design is complete, which is why we've
prepared these policy guidelines to accompany the ATP. But the purpose of
the ATP is to lay out kind of like a…
1079
02:27:17.080 --> 02:27:35.340
Community Hall: aspirational what-if vision for the city, and then,
through project delivery, identify those impacts, and if they're
unacceptable, the community, through outreach, either abandon the project
or redesign it so it fits the community's needs. Thank you. I would… I
would further assert
1080
02:27:35.720 --> 02:27:49.290
Community Hall: that much of the seniors, for example, showed little
interest in giving input on bike lanes. However, if the starting of that
conversation was around loss of state parking in front of their homes, or
by the senior center or wherever.
1081
02:27:49.740 --> 02:28:00.330
Community Hall: they may be more engaged in giving input, and so just
something for staff to consider. You know, seniors, we are a… we are an
aging community. We hear that from Gene Bellard all the time. We are an
aging community, and so…
1082
02:28:00.530 --> 02:28:11.079
Community Hall: I never see people biking to the senior center. I'm there
pretty often, and the newest cohort of Cupertino seniors, I do not see
people biking. My other question, really quickly.
1083
02:28:11.420 --> 02:28:17.670
Community Hall: you had input from Council to include… input from…
1084
02:28:17.950 --> 02:28:23.249
Community Hall: From, as you call it, impact to vehicular traffic due to
these projects.
1085
02:28:24.470 --> 02:28:27.280
Community Hall: I don't see that captured. Did I miss it?
1086
02:28:28.270 --> 02:28:38.210
Community Hall: Yeah, so the council direction was specifically for
accounting for potential impacts to the city's arterials, which was
captured in the project scoring in the balance criterion.
1087
02:28:39.350 --> 02:28:43.020
Community Hall: Okay, but specifically it says impact to vehicular
traffic, is that…
1088
02:28:43.550 --> 02:28:44.730
Community Hall: Map to what he just said.
1089
02:28:44.890 --> 02:28:54.939
Community Hall: Yes, so we already had impact of vehicular traffic in
terms of how it's going to be considered in the project scoring, and the
council direction was to
1090
02:28:55.140 --> 02:29:00.799
Community Hall: further look at, specifically, arterial roadways. So,
both just
1091
02:29:01.310 --> 02:29:08.880
Community Hall: local streets, collectors, those had already been
identified, and we wanted to address potential impacts there. And then
the council direction was.
1092
02:29:09.120 --> 02:29:28.339
Community Hall: also specifically call out the arterials. And then there
was an item on need input from drivers on dangerous points. Was that
done? I didn't see that in the staff presentation. No, that's something
that could have been done during Phase 1, because that was the existing
conditions. I mean, we kind of did that with the public outreach. People
were talking about dangerous points, and…
1093
02:29:28.840 --> 02:29:35.989
Community Hall: We were able to gather that information, but at this
phase in the project, it's just not feasible.
1094
02:29:36.170 --> 02:29:36.920
Community Hall: Thank you.
1095
02:29:38.670 --> 02:29:43.159
Community Hall: Thank you. Do we have any other questions? Commissioner
Sharp? Commissioner Vong?
1096
02:29:44.270 --> 02:29:45.839
Community Hall: My next turn.
1097
02:29:46.100 --> 02:29:47.540
Community Hall: Got it. You want me?
1098
02:29:48.400 --> 02:29:53.139
Community Hall: Okay, thank you. First… Let me ask the city attorney.
1099
02:29:53.280 --> 02:29:57.430
Community Hall: Do I need to disclose that I'm a senior, and for how
long?
1100
02:29:58.270 --> 02:30:02.790
Community Hall: Because I believe I've been a senior a lot longer than
Commissioner Rao.
1101
02:30:03.020 --> 02:30:06.869
Community Hall: You're a senior? I thought you were 45. Almost.
1102
02:30:07.910 --> 02:30:15.979
Community Hall: Anyway… I am often at the top two intersections in that
priority list, and…
1103
02:30:18.350 --> 02:30:25.779
Community Hall: They're scary often, and one reason they're scary is
there is almost no enforcement by our
1104
02:30:25.960 --> 02:30:29.070
Community Hall: Sheriff on people running red lights.
1105
02:30:29.540 --> 02:30:38.019
Community Hall: You mentioned speed enforcement as something in the plan,
but nowhere do I see anything about red light enforcement.
1106
02:30:38.180 --> 02:30:43.759
Community Hall: Or… Enforcement of vehicles driving in the bike lanes.
1107
02:30:44.060 --> 02:30:50.280
Community Hall: So, years ago, when I was mayor, and I got a letter from
a student at Kennedy.
1108
02:30:50.420 --> 02:31:00.239
Community Hall: saying they couldn't bike to school because the cars on
Hyannisport were creating a second traffic lane in the bike lane, so…
1109
02:31:00.750 --> 02:31:08.030
Community Hall: The city manager at the time contacted the sheriff. The
sheriff came out one morning, gave out 35 tickets in one morning.
1110
02:31:08.370 --> 02:31:13.050
Community Hall: But… As soon as they stop enforcement, the problem
returns.
1111
02:31:13.190 --> 02:31:20.590
Community Hall: So there really needs to be something in this plan That
makes it impossible for…
1112
02:31:20.960 --> 02:31:36.699
Community Hall: these vehicles to drive in the bike lane, whether it's… I
mean, you really need protected bike lanes in a lot of these places,
because you cannot count on enforcement. We just don't have the resources
to constantly being, doing that kind of enforcement.
1113
02:31:36.820 --> 02:31:51.829
Community Hall: Our red light cameras… Through the chair, are we taking
questions or comments? Ideally, we are taking questions right now. Okay,
I will. I allowed Commissioner Linscogg to ask. I will make it in the
form of a question. Okay, alright. Is there any plan to do any…
1114
02:31:52.160 --> 02:31:59.659
Community Hall: Red light enforcement, or enforcement of vehicles that
are driving in bike lanes when they shouldn't be.
1115
02:32:01.200 --> 02:32:02.790
Community Hall: Yes, so…
1116
02:32:02.930 --> 02:32:16.750
Community Hall: two answers there. So, the transportation technology
corridors include red light, cameras for enforcement, so that is a
network recommendation that's being proposed, and then in the program and
policy.
1117
02:32:16.750 --> 02:32:24.140
Community Hall: recommendations. There is a specific recommendation to
work more closely with the sheriff on campaigns.
1118
02:32:24.170 --> 02:32:33.189
Community Hall: It could be something like no parking in the bike lane,
or work with the sheriff to identify areas where we need heightened
enforcement for certain periods of times.
1119
02:32:33.330 --> 02:32:35.659
Community Hall: Okay, so my next question is.
1120
02:32:35.840 --> 02:32:43.080
Community Hall: How are you working with Sunnyvale and Santa Clara in
places like Homestead? I was on Homestead recently.
1121
02:32:43.400 --> 02:32:48.389
Community Hall: when you cross eastbound from Cupertino into…
1122
02:32:48.510 --> 02:32:56.589
Community Hall: Sunnyvale, suddenly parking is allowed in the bike lane
on weekends, whereas in Cupertino, it is never allowed.
1123
02:32:56.950 --> 02:32:57.880
Community Hall: And…
1124
02:32:58.730 --> 02:33:07.140
Community Hall: I guess on Bollinger, you also have to deal with, San
Jose, so how are you working with the other jurisdictions on this kind of
thing?
1125
02:33:08.730 --> 02:33:14.210
Community Hall: Good evening, Commissioner. So, the individual
jurisdictions are, are…
1126
02:33:14.520 --> 02:33:24.549
Community Hall: pretty much up to their own discretion on how they
address parking and bike lanes within their city. That said, I know
Sunnyvale is moving towards
1127
02:33:25.740 --> 02:33:48.499
Community Hall: eliminating part-time parking in their bike lanes on
Homestead. We do have projects with other cities, for example, a
Homestead Safe Routes to School project that we partner with Sunnyvale,
Los Gatos, the county VTA, that looks at making quarter-wide safety
improvements for bicycles and pedestrians, which could involve a more
holistic or comprehensive review of
1128
02:33:48.640 --> 02:34:07.370
Community Hall: things like on-street parking. But, you know, generally,
like, San Jose is… they can do what they want on Bollinger, and we can as
well. We do try to look for opportunities for joint projects. We had, you
know, the Bollinger Corridor study that we had anticipated working on.
That would have been a joint
1129
02:34:07.450 --> 02:34:17.549
Community Hall: project with the City of San Jose to enhance safety on
Bollinger Road, and then we would have partnered on that to look at,
impacts like those. So, we look for those opportunities where we can.
1130
02:34:17.930 --> 02:34:20.740
Community Hall: Okay, my last question is…
1131
02:34:21.560 --> 02:34:28.649
Community Hall: I've asked this before for many years. What is the
progress on doing something about sweeping the protected bike lanes?
1132
02:34:30.770 --> 02:34:42.989
Community Hall: Yeah, so we know that's a challenging issue, and it is a
stated goal in the plan to improve maintenance on the separated bike
lanes, and all bike lanes, really, and there's also a specific
1133
02:34:43.190 --> 02:34:54.219
Community Hall: Program and policy recommendation to address, maintenance
and figure out, in addition to maintaining the facilities, how do we
build,
1134
02:34:54.410 --> 02:34:57.749
Community Hall: New bike lanes when we have,
1135
02:34:58.140 --> 02:35:00.360
Community Hall: Pavement projects and things like that.
1136
02:35:01.710 --> 02:35:05.700
Community Hall: Okay, I think that is all my questions, thank you.
1137
02:35:05.980 --> 02:35:18.820
Community Hall: Thank you, Commissioner Fung? Yeah, actually, I didn't
have it, too. I wanted to follow up on that, because one of the things
that I noted in here was a comment about, street maintenance, and I think
that that probably was referring to being able to sweep or maintain that.
1138
02:35:18.940 --> 02:35:25.000
Community Hall: So, yeah, I just wanted to confirm that that was the
case.
1139
02:35:25.110 --> 02:35:36.410
Community Hall: And I do think that that one's actually a pretty
important one. I think there were a lot of questions, you know, I happen
to live in the Mongo Vista kind of area, and
1140
02:35:37.130 --> 02:35:54.799
Community Hall: you know, when the divided… divided pathways were added
there, it's interesting. Most of the time, I think they are pretty well
maintained. There are times when, you know, I think it's just probably a
normal part of there being more street debris, that they're… they're
pretty, pretty crazy.
1141
02:35:55.430 --> 02:35:58.080
Community Hall: So, that would be great, too.
1142
02:35:58.190 --> 02:35:59.870
Community Hall: To get more info on that.
1143
02:36:00.150 --> 02:36:02.780
Community Hall: The other item I was gonna ask about was.
1144
02:36:02.880 --> 02:36:17.439
Community Hall: About the distribution, the presentation you had was
really great, here today. It actually, I think, was quite a bit easier to
digest than the staff report. So is that… I know in the past you
maintained a website, but this… would the,
1145
02:36:17.450 --> 02:36:28.089
Community Hall: the slides you had today will not be on the website?
Dave, that's great. I would encourage you to distribute them there, maybe
have them as an addendum into the, the pack of materials we have for this
evening.
1146
02:36:28.560 --> 02:36:30.120
Community Hall: That's it for me. Thank you.
1147
02:36:30.590 --> 02:36:46.600
Community Hall: Great, thank you. So, I did have a few questions. First,
I did want to very much echo Commissioner Linskogg's question around
having potentially excessive waiting on the schools. I did notice in the
prioritization results
1148
02:36:46.600 --> 02:36:52.579
Community Hall: that the Stevens Creek Boulevard and De Anza intersection
got very low,
1149
02:36:52.690 --> 02:37:08.869
Community Hall: points relative to other projects, but that area has had
two pedestrian fatalities and one pedestrian collision. All at night. I
would think that, you know, some simple lighting changes could solve it.
But it, you know, again, only gets 62 points because it's not near a
school. I think that's the reason why it doesn't get as many points.
1150
02:37:08.870 --> 02:37:21.689
Community Hall: So my question would be, and you know, I also did notice
there was another intersection, I think Lynn Scott mentioned this as
well, Homestead and De Anza has had 3 pedestrian collisions, also didn't
make it into this project list at all.
1151
02:37:21.690 --> 02:37:38.250
Community Hall: So, do you have any ideas on how we can reconcile the
matrix so that, you know, safety improvements that aren't necessarily
near a school, can still make it up to the top? And I, you know, I
respect that it takes a lot of time to redo the matrix, so I don't know
what your ideas might be on this.
1152
02:37:39.230 --> 02:37:47.819
Community Hall: Yeah, that's something we can certainly consider, we
could… Add in the…
1153
02:37:47.950 --> 02:37:55.250
Community Hall: Proximity scoring that we had originally, the distance-
based proximity scoring, so that projects that are on the suggested route
to school.
1154
02:37:55.510 --> 02:38:02.460
Community Hall: Our priorities, but also give consideration to projects
that may be nearby that
1155
02:38:02.460 --> 02:38:15.969
Community Hall: aren't receiving full marks. So that could be a way to
close the gap, and we can look at alternative ways, too. Well, I guess my
question, and I think Commissioner Linscogg's as well, was how do we
factor in collision history and, like, Vision Zero?
1156
02:38:16.040 --> 02:38:25.730
Community Hall: data. So, the Vision Zero data that we used is we took
the high injury network itself, so the locations, not the…
1157
02:38:28.450 --> 02:38:36.930
Community Hall: types of collisions. Potentially, we could look at
collision severity as a factor, and that could be a way to address those,
1158
02:38:37.420 --> 02:38:43.100
Community Hall: priority intersections that are at the top of the Vision
Zero Action Plan. So…
1159
02:38:44.010 --> 02:38:54.550
Community Hall: there are potential solutions that we can look at for
addressing that. So would you recommend revising the matrix, or creating
some sort of parameter that lives outside the matrix?
1160
02:38:56.140 --> 02:39:10.660
Community Hall: we'll have to discuss. It's kind of a costly endeavor,
because it's all GIS-based, so if we make modifications to the project
scoring, we're going to have to do it with the consultant and work with
them. It's not a standard spreadsheet.
1161
02:39:11.010 --> 02:39:20.710
Community Hall: Okay, and I might add, also, we're going to be going to
the Bicycle Pedestion Commission for input, as well as the City Council
for input, so once we've spoken to all of the commissions and the
Council, we'll
1162
02:39:20.840 --> 02:39:38.429
Community Hall: sort of consolidate the comments and determine the best
way to proceed in terms of reviewing the prioritization criteria. Okay,
and I understand that this is just a draft list, but how can we suggest
items for this? Like, when is it open for Commission suggestions?
1163
02:39:40.450 --> 02:39:57.750
Community Hall: So the time to suggest projects would have really been
during the existing conditions phase, in phase one, or the needs
assessment phase, where people were commenting, hey, this is a barrier, I
need access to this destination, and then based off of that information,
this is how the network recommendations were developed.
1164
02:39:58.470 --> 02:40:04.309
Community Hall: I see. So even if we see, for example, Homestead and De
Anza as a
1165
02:40:04.410 --> 02:40:14.639
Community Hall: as an important intersection, it's too late to get it
into this list. No, you can provide that, and we can figure out a way to
incorporate it. Okay. Alright, thank you.
1166
02:40:16.280 --> 02:40:26.360
Community Hall: Commissioner Rao, you had more questions? Yeah, thank
you. I'm struggling on how to understand where you have gone with Phase
2, because I attended the Council meeting
1167
02:40:26.650 --> 02:40:28.609
Community Hall: And Council was pretty clear.
1168
02:40:28.860 --> 02:40:31.200
Community Hall: That they thought public input
1169
02:40:31.530 --> 02:40:40.740
Community Hall: Was restarting the process, and they wanted to actually
see a roadmap of projects so that they could rather give input on the
roadmap rather than these ranking criterias.
1170
02:40:40.970 --> 02:40:51.090
Community Hall: I think another part of the input was also about whether
the ranking criteria was stress tested. I believe our current mayor and
then former vice mayor asked whether you did stress testing.
1171
02:40:51.250 --> 02:40:54.419
Community Hall: on proposed criteria. I did not see that in the
1172
02:40:54.640 --> 02:41:01.570
Community Hall: staff report, the two specific comments from Council,
which was provide a roadmap of projects, so we can provide input on that.
1173
02:41:01.740 --> 02:41:05.709
Community Hall: And then secondly, the… Stress testing of these criteria.
1174
02:41:05.830 --> 02:41:07.690
Community Hall: Is it staff's recollection?
1175
02:41:07.810 --> 02:41:14.199
Community Hall: That those two items were… Comments from Council,
otherwise we might have to look at minutes.
1176
02:41:15.360 --> 02:41:21.509
Community Hall: I don't recall those comments, I don't believe they were
captured in the Council action.
1177
02:41:21.770 --> 02:41:29.629
Community Hall: We did meet with the now mayor to talk about her comments
specifically, and her questions around
1178
02:41:29.860 --> 02:41:35.390
Community Hall: I think, stress testing, and if you could please
elaborate a little more on the stress testing.
1179
02:41:35.500 --> 02:41:42.960
Community Hall: I, I, I believe the… The then Vice Mayor was saying, if
you applied the criteria.
1180
02:41:43.110 --> 02:41:45.429
Community Hall: Do a set of projects, how would they fare?
1181
02:41:45.730 --> 02:41:50.800
Community Hall: And I think she came up with an example of a project that
needed attention but wasn't faring well.
1182
02:41:50.930 --> 02:41:59.689
Community Hall: On the… on the ranking list. So, staff may want to go
back and look at the video. I understand our minute-taking is now
restricted to motions, and…
1183
02:41:59.920 --> 02:42:07.340
Community Hall: actual comments don't get transcribed in the minutes? Is
that also true of Council? If that is the case, the minutes may not have
reflected the…
1184
02:42:07.650 --> 02:42:13.799
Community Hall: the direction that Council gave, but you may want to
consider looking at that recording to
1185
02:42:14.030 --> 02:42:20.400
Community Hall: reassess what direction you got from Council, because
they were very clear that they… They don't want to have…
1186
02:42:21.120 --> 02:42:26.840
Community Hall: this comeback without a roadmap that they can actually
Give tangible input on.
1187
02:42:27.140 --> 02:42:35.190
Community Hall: We will go back and check the recording. To our
recollection, we've captured the Council's comments, and as Matt
indicated, we did meet with
1188
02:42:35.480 --> 02:42:47.089
Community Hall: Mayor Moore to discuss the outcome of the Council meeting
and our direction in preparing this next phase, and what we heard was
support.
1189
02:42:48.840 --> 02:42:55.309
Community Hall: And I look at the staff report, and I'm trying to assess
what input would you like from us, because as I read this report.
1190
02:42:55.950 --> 02:43:02.339
Community Hall: I continue to see, you know, community important. Then,
are the goals and priorities here
1191
02:43:03.070 --> 02:43:08.080
Community Hall: Based on that community input, then? Or should we ignore
the goals, or how should we look at
1192
02:43:08.180 --> 02:43:10.810
Community Hall: Given the Council input to drop
1193
02:43:11.260 --> 02:43:14.679
Community Hall: The use of community input as a criteria.
1194
02:43:14.840 --> 02:43:19.800
Community Hall: And the fact that much of this report refers to community
input, including the presentation.
1195
02:43:20.060 --> 02:43:22.050
Community Hall: How would you like us to approach this today?
1196
02:43:22.360 --> 02:43:30.270
Community Hall: The recommended action was to provide feedback on the
attachments, so the policy documents, the criteria, and the project list.
1197
02:43:32.840 --> 02:43:42.590
Community Hall: The staff report was intended to provide context and
background on the work that was performed during Phase 2, which was the
community input.
1198
02:43:43.150 --> 02:43:47.490
Community Hall: Right, so can you repeat that one more time? What is it
that you would like to get input on?
1199
02:43:47.540 --> 02:44:03.589
Community Hall: the policy documents, so the impact assessment and
project effectiveness guidelines, as well as the criteria, the project
list, and potentially the program and policy recommendations. Right, and
the basis for forming this criteria was public input?
1200
02:44:06.080 --> 02:44:18.520
Community Hall: Well, to some respect, yeah, so it's based off of the
plan goals, and those plan goals were developed by consolidating all the
existing plan goals, and then refining those following Phase 1.
1201
02:44:19.110 --> 02:44:30.209
Community Hall: And many of the attachments also include, or incorporate
comments and concerns we've heard from the Planning Commission, and from
the Bike Commission, and from the City Council. So it incorporates
1202
02:44:30.410 --> 02:44:44.490
Community Hall: the total of what we heard from the community and the
commissions and council. Is it staff's intention to do a sort of a
mathematical union of all the input you get from the bike bed and
planning and city council, and sort of amalgamate all three into some…
1203
02:44:44.490 --> 02:44:51.839
Community Hall: superset, or is it that Council has final input, and once
it is heard at Council, it's only the Council input that matters?
1204
02:44:53.800 --> 02:45:02.730
Community Hall: the Commission's Advice Council and advise staff. So, we
do our best to incorporate the Commission's advice, we take that to the
City Council.
1205
02:45:02.970 --> 02:45:17.439
Community Hall: And ultimately, the City Council will adopt the plan. So,
our primary goal is to make sure that the City Council is happy and
incorporate, supportive of the commissions and what they've told staff.
So is it fair, then, to say all the material here is based on
1206
02:45:18.290 --> 02:45:23.130
Community Hall: Your superset of the three bodies of input that you got
previously.
1207
02:45:24.970 --> 02:45:42.409
Community Hall: I would say so, for the most part. Okay. I might suggest
you might want to test that with Council, because the way that this works
is we recommend to Council, but Council has the final say. They override
us very often, and at that point, our input is not to be taken any
further, so… We are next week.
1208
02:45:42.980 --> 02:45:47.889
Community Hall: Wonderful. Yeah, I struggle with giving input, given what
you just said.
1209
02:45:48.080 --> 02:45:55.330
Community Hall: And my understanding being, this should only be, at this
point, following Council guidance, which you have captured, so thank you
for capturing that.
1210
02:45:55.550 --> 02:46:00.560
Community Hall: But the council guidance is very clear, which is focus on
certain things, which I don't see.
1211
02:46:00.720 --> 02:46:08.290
Community Hall: being the basis for the… for the goals and policies that
then lead to the prioritization criteria. So, at this point.
1212
02:46:08.470 --> 02:46:12.320
Community Hall: I might even… Ask, is this ready for Council?
1213
02:46:14.980 --> 02:46:17.019
Community Hall: We feel it is.
1214
02:46:17.580 --> 02:46:21.949
Community Hall: No more questions. Any other questions before we move to
public comments?
1215
02:46:22.870 --> 02:46:30.500
Community Hall: No. Alright, City Clerk, do we have any public comments?
We have no speakers in person, and no hands raised on Zoom, Chair.
1216
02:46:30.760 --> 02:46:38.199
Community Hall: Okay, easy. So, we can now move on to comments. I know
some people have started to provide that.
1217
02:46:38.690 --> 02:46:45.549
Community Hall: Would anyone like to start? And we can also make straw
polls if anyone feels strongly about an issue.
1218
02:46:46.280 --> 02:46:48.150
Community Hall: If you want it recorded.
1219
02:46:51.810 --> 02:46:54.520
Community Hall: I had a few comments,
1220
02:46:54.720 --> 02:46:59.969
Community Hall: I wanted to, so first of all, thank you for the, thank
you for the update.
1221
02:47:00.240 --> 02:47:15.759
Community Hall: I would also, there were comments regarding the weighing
mechanism. You know, I think that that's an effective way… an effective
way to generate metrics. It does seem, I would, concur here with,
1222
02:47:17.560 --> 02:47:20.260
Community Hall: Commissioner Lynn Skog, and…
1223
02:47:20.590 --> 02:47:30.289
Community Hall: and the chair here, it seems like, in some cases, the
weighing may have shifted the balance heavily. I also noticed the
1224
02:47:30.520 --> 02:47:33.020
Community Hall: Very strong emphasis on school paths.
1225
02:47:33.180 --> 02:47:42.349
Community Hall: I think that one of the things that I also noticed was it
seemed like there was, in earlier versions, there was an emphasis on,
improving
1226
02:47:42.530 --> 02:47:46.039
Community Hall: Transit routes among the parks.
1227
02:47:46.220 --> 02:47:48.970
Community Hall: And that that actually captures,
1228
02:47:49.240 --> 02:47:59.590
Community Hall: that actually captures maybe an older component of, of
folks in the city. I think that that… it looks to me like maybe that got
combined into the, you know, the park.
1229
02:47:59.890 --> 02:48:02.860
Community Hall: Park proximity got combined into the school.
1230
02:48:02.890 --> 02:48:22.369
Community Hall: I think in some respects, maybe that helps because the
school weighting was high, but I think that those are actually two
distinctive groups, and I think that it may benefit to re-look at that,
whether you want to combine those together quite as tightly. I think that
both those categories would rate very high on the scales.
1231
02:48:22.530 --> 02:48:25.970
Community Hall: They had, and,
1232
02:48:27.600 --> 02:48:34.289
Community Hall: And I think, I think that was it for my, for my comments.
Again, I, you know, I appreciate the thoughtfulness of the,
1233
02:48:35.790 --> 02:48:39.549
Community Hall: The thoughtfulness of the… of what you're trying to
accomplish here.
1234
02:48:39.690 --> 02:48:48.519
Community Hall: And then I would just say, you know, I would just step
back from that just a hair. One part was, you know, my comment with
regard to the parks, and then I think also that
1235
02:48:48.540 --> 02:49:05.849
Community Hall: some of the, heavy traffic areas. Also, I think, again,
it may be because of the very high weighting that the schools had that
those became de-emphasized. So, I don't know that, you know, what the
right answers for
1236
02:49:06.590 --> 02:49:25.550
Community Hall: Stevens Creek Boulevard. But… but I feel like it just
seemed to me, at a glance, that it seemed a little de-emphasized from
where… where it probably should be. You… you have no choice in many… you
know, for many of the arterials, you have no choice but to go on those
roads, so hopefully we can have, you know, people to feel comfortable
that
1237
02:49:25.710 --> 02:49:27.470
Community Hall: That this is addressing that.
1238
02:49:28.150 --> 02:49:29.379
Community Hall: That's it, thank you.
1239
02:49:30.580 --> 02:49:32.720
Community Hall: Thank you. Anyone else have comments?
1240
02:49:33.900 --> 02:49:35.480
Community Hall: Through the chair.
1241
02:49:38.900 --> 02:49:43.779
Community Hall: how are we to approach this? Are we not allowed to take
votes? Maybe it's a question for the city attorney.
1242
02:49:45.960 --> 02:49:56.599
Community Hall: Were we… were we… were we to be able to take votes on the
recommendations? Because one thing I want to go back to is the…
1243
02:49:57.000 --> 02:49:58.220
Community Hall: comment there.
1244
02:49:58.560 --> 02:50:06.780
Community Hall: you know, I want to be very cognizant that staff are
getting input from three bodies, and within those bodies, five very
diverse individuals.
1245
02:50:06.960 --> 02:50:10.499
Community Hall: And this may just be leading to a superset of feedback.
1246
02:50:11.480 --> 02:50:12.410
Community Hall: And…
1247
02:50:12.700 --> 02:50:21.729
Community Hall: I think Council has already given feedback at this stage,
which is very prescriptive. And I think part of your matrix, which
everybody's commenting on.
1248
02:50:22.140 --> 02:50:26.330
Community Hall: is reflecting Council's input, if I'm not mistaken. Is
that… is that fair to say that?
1249
02:50:26.640 --> 02:50:33.489
Community Hall: And so the change that we are seeing is very deliberate,
and a result of Council input on the process of how we will prioritize.
1250
02:50:34.280 --> 02:50:35.040
Community Hall: Is that…
1251
02:50:36.890 --> 02:50:42.810
Community Hall: And so, my question back to the city, Atom, is should we
continue this? You know, everybody gives input, and it…
1252
02:50:42.960 --> 02:50:49.299
Community Hall: Because we went through that in Phase 1, and that is
behind us. So in phase two, what is it that we are trying to do with this
item, really?
1253
02:50:49.510 --> 02:50:51.300
Community Hall: Because Council has already spoken.
1254
02:50:51.880 --> 02:51:10.360
Community Hall: Well, this is a follow-up study session, and so staff
here is open to hearing your feedback and comments on what they presented
to you. To the extent there are differences of opinion among this body
with respect to that feedback, then it's appropriate to take a straw
poll.
1255
02:51:10.360 --> 02:51:13.410
Community Hall: Because at some point, it will go back to the council.
1256
02:51:13.410 --> 02:51:23.429
Community Hall: And it would be helpful for them to understand and see
the discussion and, you know, and how much support a certain position
would have.
1257
02:51:24.190 --> 02:51:28.030
Community Hall: So far, I haven't yet heard,
1258
02:51:28.240 --> 02:51:32.170
Community Hall: Any disagreement regarding any of the points that were
raised?
1259
02:51:32.280 --> 02:51:44.499
Community Hall: But that's how I think we would proceed. Yeah, if I may
synthesize the disagreement that I'm seeing here, I think staff's report
rightly reflects the change prioritization criteria based on Council
input.
1260
02:51:45.070 --> 02:51:52.059
Community Hall: And members of the Commission are reacting to that
changed prioritization criteria, showing a different set of projects.
1261
02:51:52.340 --> 02:51:54.300
Community Hall: That is a result of council input.
1262
02:51:56.510 --> 02:52:01.249
Community Hall: And so… Are we, at this point, revisiting council import
and saying.
1263
02:52:01.470 --> 02:52:05.540
Community Hall: We should… we didn't like what Council said, therefore we
will get a different input again.
1264
02:52:06.400 --> 02:52:15.230
Community Hall: I guess what we're seeking feedback on is, how does the
Planning Commission feel we've addressed Council's comments?
1265
02:52:15.330 --> 02:52:17.509
Community Hall: So, you can comment on…
1266
02:52:18.470 --> 02:52:23.119
Community Hall: Do you think we adequately captured the comments that
were provided to us from Council?
1267
02:52:24.070 --> 02:52:28.460
Community Hall: Okay, fair enough. So my feedback, for what it's worth,
would be…
1268
02:52:28.920 --> 02:52:35.379
Community Hall: to maintain 100% fidelity with the guidance you got at
Council, and not to have to revisit that.
1269
02:52:35.770 --> 02:52:39.250
Community Hall: I think there was very pragmatic feedback from Council.
1270
02:52:39.480 --> 02:52:45.720
Community Hall: to focus on… An actual roadmap that they can give you
input on, as opposed to the
1271
02:52:46.480 --> 02:52:52.730
Community Hall: Criterias that turn into unpredictable matrices that
nobody feels that they got what they wanted out of it.
1272
02:52:53.490 --> 02:52:54.760
Community Hall: And so…
1273
02:52:55.010 --> 02:53:02.700
Community Hall: I would encourage you to go back and look at the
recording of Council's meeting if the minutes did not accurately
transcribe their intent.
1274
02:53:03.180 --> 02:53:06.450
Community Hall: And to look to be… 100%.
1275
02:53:06.910 --> 02:53:17.690
Community Hall: aligned with what Council asked, and, you know, at this
point, I do not want to reopen the process of giving input, and then
revisit what you heard previously from Council. If your matrix
1276
02:53:19.070 --> 02:53:24.119
Community Hall: is based on council criteria, and I did not hear it was
completely based on that.
1277
02:53:24.670 --> 02:53:27.779
Community Hall: Because certain things, like input from drivers, was not
taken.
1278
02:53:28.810 --> 02:53:32.949
Community Hall: So I would say… My meta-input to you is try to be
1279
02:53:33.230 --> 02:53:35.620
Community Hall: clear on what Council said, and…
1280
02:53:35.780 --> 02:53:42.239
Community Hall: When you go back, try to meet that. That's… that's all I
have to say, because I feel Council was very pragmatic in their input.
Thank you.
1281
02:53:44.130 --> 02:54:03.930
Community Hall: Thank you, Chair Rao, or sorry, Commissioner Rao. I did
have additional feedback, and actually, thank you to staff. I actually do
feel like the Planning Commission feedback, to some extent, was taken. I
do remember asking for greater accountability around bike count data, and
it was great to see the paper around, you know.
1282
02:54:03.930 --> 02:54:10.499
Community Hall: Counting pre- and post-project, and… I appreciate that.
So I… I have one…
1283
02:54:10.500 --> 02:54:30.780
Community Hall: item that I would particularly like to discuss this
evening that is different from what was previously discussed, and I wish
I had brought it up earlier, but I hadn't considered it. And I'd like to
ask that we consider public safety response times in the Active Transit
Plan. This kind of came as I was looking at the draft prioritization
results, and I saw a lot
1284
02:54:30.780 --> 02:54:33.679
Community Hall: I think about 8 separated bike lane proposals.
1285
02:54:33.680 --> 02:54:48.579
Community Hall: And I wondered what the impact is on emergency vehicles
and their ability to get through town, and so I actually had a very
interesting chat with the sheriff today. And the sheriff department
opinion, is
1286
02:54:48.650 --> 02:55:04.740
Community Hall: actually, generally, I spoke with one, but this person
said that this is the opinion of many people that he works with, is that
they fully understand why the concrete barrier bike lanes are desirable,
but they actually do slow down emergency response times, because
1287
02:55:04.740 --> 02:55:09.800
Community Hall: Vehicles cannot pull over to let the police, the fire
engine get through.
1288
02:55:09.800 --> 02:55:22.290
Community Hall: And, actually during peak hours, the emergency vehicles
entirely avoid the roads with separated bike lanes, and they are forced
to go into the neighborhoods and take alternate routes instead. So now
you've got, you know, sirens going through your neighborhoods.
1289
02:55:22.290 --> 02:55:46.789
Community Hall: And so we absolutely want to make things safer for the
bikes, but, you know, the general opinion of… I haven't talked to the
fire department yet, I have reached out to them, but the general opinion
of the sheriff, at least, is that, you know, we do need to be very
thoughtful about where the concrete separated barriers go. They cannot go
everywhere. Now, the buffered bike lanes, where you just have a painted
buffer, or anything where there's just paint and cars can continue to
pull over.
1290
02:55:46.920 --> 02:56:02.369
Community Hall: completely fine. But there is, objectively speaking, a
trade-off with longer emergency response times that happen when we add
concrete barriers to the city. And so, you know, with the 8 that were
proposed in this plan here, I would… I would ask that we be
1291
02:56:02.380 --> 02:56:13.829
Community Hall: very strategic in how we think about where we are
blocking off roads, and… and I think it becomes a much bigger problem
with the small roads, where it's two lanes, and
1292
02:56:14.030 --> 02:56:28.500
Community Hall: And one thing that the sheriff mentioned, actually, was a
lot of times on the smaller roads with buffer… with a concrete bike lane,
they don't even want to turn the siren on, because they are going to
massively confuse everybody in that road, because nobody has anywhere to
go. And so.
1293
02:56:28.560 --> 02:56:37.409
Community Hall: again, I think with the two-lane roads, that is where we
want to be particularly, thoughtful about concrete bike lanes. So…
1294
02:56:37.690 --> 02:56:43.669
Community Hall: That would be my ask. I also did want to comment on
1295
02:56:43.830 --> 02:56:48.070
Community Hall: The… the definition of project success.
1296
02:56:48.300 --> 02:56:53.810
Community Hall: So, we say… A successful project will be one in which
more people use the facility.
1297
02:56:54.050 --> 02:57:09.519
Community Hall: while the collision rate per rider remains the same or
decreases, would we want to revise that definition of success to just
aiming for a collision rate per rider to decrease? Because, you know, if
you're increasing
1298
02:57:10.300 --> 02:57:17.559
Community Hall: bike riders or pedestrians on the road, and your
collision rate remains constant, that means we're actually seeing more
accidents. And is that…
1299
02:57:17.660 --> 02:57:20.549
Community Hall: Is that something that we consider to be success?
1300
02:57:21.820 --> 02:57:36.710
Community Hall: So, the aim with that metric was to align the CAP goal.
So, the CAP… the CAP has a stated goal to get, I forget what the mode
share split is for active transportation, but it has certain…
1301
02:57:37.510 --> 02:57:40.509
Community Hall: benchmarks it's trying to hit. It's like 15, and then…
1302
02:57:40.700 --> 02:57:53.470
Community Hall: 20 over certain periods of time, so that safety plus mode
shift, right, tries to capture our Vision Zero goals, so no fatalities by
2040, with those GHG goals that are in the cap.
1303
02:57:54.150 --> 02:57:54.810
Community Hall: Okay.
1304
02:57:56.890 --> 02:57:57.849
Community Hall: Got it, thank you.
1305
02:57:58.050 --> 02:58:07.139
Community Hall: So, I think, are there any questions or more comments
from the Commission? Yeah, I was just gonna add the comment around safety
as a goal.
1306
02:58:07.570 --> 02:58:16.260
Community Hall: Could that be expanded to include what the chair
referenced? Because a dimension of safety is also the indirect impact of
safety.
1307
02:58:16.500 --> 02:58:23.410
Community Hall: Due to these concrete medians, or concrete buffers, That
may prevent… expedient.
1308
02:58:24.140 --> 02:58:29.879
Community Hall: access of emergency responders. Particularly, I'm
concerned about all of the new projects around the city.
1309
02:58:30.160 --> 02:58:40.659
Community Hall: the Westport Senior Assisted Living, the memory care
units, and in case staff may be tracking this, De Anza is proposing a
25,000 square foot medical clinic.
1310
02:58:40.890 --> 02:58:42.550
Community Hall: on the parking lot B.
1311
02:58:43.140 --> 02:58:46.190
Community Hall: And so there's a number of projects around the city that
are
1312
02:58:46.570 --> 02:58:56.240
Community Hall: Either medical or quasi-medical. I happen to live near
the Cupertino Health and Wellness, and I know how much emergency response
vehicles get there. Almost every day you hear silence.
1313
02:58:56.490 --> 02:59:06.299
Community Hall: And so it's something to consider. What is the impact of
safety if we have these concrete barriers that prevent vehicles from
pulling over. Just something to keep in mind.
1314
02:59:06.670 --> 02:59:08.359
Community Hall: If you might expand your definition.
1315
02:59:08.700 --> 02:59:26.360
Community Hall: I would like to propose, if the Commission is willing, a
straw poll on adding, I think that was an excellent suggestion, adding,
expanding the definition of safety to include public safety response
time. City Attorney, how do we initiate the straw poll? Is it through
City Clerk, or…
1316
02:59:28.340 --> 02:59:31.250
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Sorry, can I make a quick comment before we
do the poll?
1317
02:59:31.470 --> 02:59:32.730
Community Hall: Yes, absolutely.
1318
02:59:33.370 --> 02:59:45.909
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Thank you. So… it's an interesting thing.
So, I would be interested to see if the Sheriff's Office would make that
statement in an official capacity, because that's the first I've heard of
it, and if you look at
1319
02:59:46.090 --> 03:00:02.139
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: all the research and all the studies out
there, the data is actually in the opposite direction, that properly
designed protected bike lanes don't meaningfully slow down rapid response
or police response.
1320
03:00:02.240 --> 03:00:08.599
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: There's actually a slight improvement in
response times, and again, these… this is… there's a…
1321
03:00:08.650 --> 03:00:32.710
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: there's a lot of data to balance that out.
So I would be very surprised if the Sheriff's Office would make that
statement officially, that this is a problem. So before we vote to add
that in as a, you know, as a recommendation of the Planning Commission, I
would recommend we examine the data, and we make it a fact-based
1322
03:00:32.830 --> 03:00:40.649
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Recommendation, because, I, I don't think
the facts would bear that out. Thank you.
1323
03:00:41.280 --> 03:00:58.289
Community Hall: Yeah, absolutely. I understand where you're coming from.
Objectively speaking, I am not sure how response times could get faster
when cars cannot pull to the side. That said, the sheriff that I spoke
with was in charge of traffic management for West Valley Sheriff.
1324
03:00:58.340 --> 03:01:01.110
Community Hall: I actually asked
1325
03:01:01.120 --> 03:01:07.060
Community Hall: him prior to this meeting whether I could state what I
said, and he was fine with it.
1326
03:01:07.060 --> 03:01:25.060
Community Hall: But they also did say that they really like it when
cities come and consult with them, and they wish it happened more, so I
think it's a great idea for them to be present and to work with our city.
Through the chair, I'm happy to second your straw poll, if you would like
to move your straw poll forward.
1327
03:01:25.180 --> 03:01:31.999
Community Hall: Great. His second is unnecessary. So, there's a request
to take a straw poll, maybe the Madam Clerk.
1328
03:01:32.110 --> 03:01:36.080
Community Hall: Can… can ask for a yes or no.
1329
03:01:38.120 --> 03:01:39.370
Community Hall: Commissioner Feng?
1330
03:01:40.140 --> 03:01:43.630
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Sorry, what exactly did we… yeah, can I…
1331
03:01:43.630 --> 03:01:44.450
Community Hall: about the.
1332
03:01:44.450 --> 03:01:45.219
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: pull this?
1333
03:01:45.780 --> 03:01:48.979
Community Hall: Yes. Before we do that, I just wonder, in light of the…
1334
03:01:49.180 --> 03:01:54.820
Community Hall: you know, I think there's some agreement here that maybe
we need to capture this better, that we just make a recommendation that
1335
03:01:55.030 --> 03:02:04.020
Community Hall: That we, have the, have the staff take a look, a further
look into trying to categorize that, and, you know, make that available.
1336
03:02:04.080 --> 03:02:15.169
Community Hall: that information available, whether, you know, maybe it's
just to the Council or to the, you know, other commissions. It sounds to
me like there's a second straw poll suggestion. Should we finish the
first and then do the second?
1337
03:02:15.710 --> 03:02:16.830
Community Hall: One at a time.
1338
03:02:17.370 --> 03:02:25.499
Community Hall: To clarify, Commissioner Fung, is your ask also a straw
poll? No. It's actually not to do a straw poll, because I think that
1339
03:02:25.600 --> 03:02:36.830
Community Hall: you know, if the straw poll… if the goal of the straw
poll is, should we add this as a metric? You know, only recommending that
we make it as a metric? I think we are saying we should collect some more
information before we do.
1340
03:02:38.460 --> 03:02:46.399
Community Hall: So I think it's saying maybe we don't want to take a
straw pull on this, if we can agree that, you know, that we're just
making a recommendation to staff.
1341
03:02:47.170 --> 03:02:54.150
Community Hall: Would this commission be willing to entertain a straw
poll around having council and staff
1342
03:02:55.110 --> 03:03:04.219
Community Hall: Consider the ways in which public safety response time
can be incorporated into the project prioritization. Second.
1343
03:03:05.960 --> 03:03:06.630
Community Hall: Nope.
1344
03:03:06.700 --> 03:03:10.770
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: I think we track that as a yes from
Commissioner Rao.
1345
03:03:10.770 --> 03:03:17.149
Community Hall: that was to clarify a different scruple than the first. I
understand, although I…
1346
03:03:17.370 --> 03:03:22.130
Community Hall: I don't think anybody cares what straw poll we take about
what we bring to the council.
1347
03:03:22.810 --> 03:03:35.480
Community Hall: Right. It's really to… to ensure that it gets logged in
the minutes, otherwise the minutes are… are… So I would say that… that we
should just… we're making a recommendation. We want to formalize, we're
making a recommendation that… that…
1348
03:03:35.730 --> 03:03:43.620
Community Hall: that staff take this as a point from us. There may be
some other point. Through the chair, if I may just add a perspective to
this.
1349
03:03:43.990 --> 03:03:55.169
Community Hall: I have watched several projects go through the process of
community input. We did this for Memorial Park, we did this for the
BlackBerry Farm Golf Course, we did this for Lauren Smitty, we're doing
this for ATP.
1350
03:03:56.360 --> 03:03:57.570
Community Hall: we get…
1351
03:03:58.150 --> 03:04:07.580
Community Hall: more input than can be reconciled in a way that leads to
tangible projects. Every time you come to a body, you're getting
different input.
1352
03:04:07.810 --> 03:04:11.900
Community Hall: You go back to console, you get a different input. You
come back here, you get a different input.
1353
03:04:12.500 --> 03:04:22.699
Community Hall: it's… it's not a shortage of input, it's too much input,
given the dollars and resources that staff have. And straw polls are a
way to
1354
03:04:22.800 --> 03:04:35.039
Community Hall: reflect the will of the body, and that may be one way to
give your input, if we need to give that. My input here is I don't
believe we have to give you input. Council gave you direction, you need
to go back and meet the direction.
1355
03:04:35.240 --> 03:04:36.990
Community Hall: I don't know why we are coming here again.
1356
03:04:37.900 --> 03:04:39.170
Community Hall: Commissioner Lenscott?
1357
03:04:40.280 --> 03:04:47.259
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Thank you. So, I'm a little confused as to
why this is even necessary, because whenever you do any kind of
1358
03:04:47.370 --> 03:04:50.979
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: project, like, including protected bike
lanes,
1359
03:04:50.980 --> 03:05:13.999
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: the response times are always considered,
the design is discussed with the sheriffs and the fire departments before
it's implemented. That's already part of the process, so I'm not really
sure what this will add, since… and staff, you know, Matt and David, feel
free to chime in if I'm wrong, but I think that's already part of the
process.
1360
03:05:15.510 --> 03:05:27.789
Community Hall: If I may chime in. So, I… I don't see a way immediately
that we could incorporate response times into the prioritization
criteria, because it's… it's really impossible to know.
1361
03:05:27.900 --> 03:05:40.579
Community Hall: And as Commissioner Linskog mentioned, there's, you know,
the data would need to be reviewed, and I'm not sure that data really
exists for most streets. I know that police would have a different
experience than fire.
1362
03:05:40.580 --> 03:05:53.879
Community Hall: because fire have preemption devices for traffic signals,
and the sheriff do not. It's very, very complex. The way I would… the way
I would recommend going about this, I think it's a fair point to consider
response times, and I think the way to do it would be
1363
03:05:54.110 --> 03:06:11.850
Community Hall: To capture that within, one of the programmatic
recommendations or policy recommendations, was that for projects that
could potentially impact parking or vehicle lanes, that those be taken…
taken to the City Council, 30% designed to better flesh out and
1364
03:06:12.000 --> 03:06:24.099
Community Hall: discuss and evaluate the impacts. Effect or the effect to
emergency vehicle response times, could very well be one of those
potential impacts that we look at.
1365
03:06:24.270 --> 03:06:37.419
Community Hall: for those types of projects and that information. We'd
have that ability at that point, because we'd have more information about
the project, we'd be able to talk to fire and police about the specifics
relating to the project, and then take that information forward to the
city council.
1366
03:06:37.420 --> 03:06:46.150
Community Hall: as part of the other impacts that they may be evaluating
for that project, I think that would be the place to do it. That would
make the most sense. Through the chair, if I may, really quickly.
1367
03:06:46.150 --> 03:06:53.099
Community Hall: We cannot apply different standards for different parts
of the input, where a project prefers, or where a
1368
03:06:53.350 --> 03:06:56.670
Community Hall: End result prefers a certain mode of transport.
1369
03:06:56.940 --> 03:07:03.089
Community Hall: We cannot raise the bar on how we will account for it,
and what are the difficulties in accounting for it.
1370
03:07:03.190 --> 03:07:06.359
Community Hall: Whereas when I look at this prioritization criteria.
1371
03:07:06.600 --> 03:07:14.219
Community Hall: The way this doc reads is there were goals that came from
public input. The goals turned into scores and score modifiers.
1372
03:07:14.540 --> 03:07:16.210
Community Hall: And that turned into a matrix.
1373
03:07:17.260 --> 03:07:22.730
Community Hall: And none of that is based on a similar type of
rationalization around whether it's realistic to measure
1374
03:07:22.840 --> 03:07:28.829
Community Hall: Whether it's realistic to get input, whether the input is
actually validated, whether a public statement was made.
1375
03:07:28.940 --> 03:07:41.760
Community Hall: by X, Y, or Z. So we cannot hold different modes of
transport to different levels of criteria. What I'm hearing today is when
a criteria is raised that favors the automotive mode of transport.
1376
03:07:42.350 --> 03:07:43.510
Community Hall: We raise the bar.
1377
03:07:44.250 --> 03:07:48.920
Community Hall: When Council gives input saying, take input from drivers,
We ignore that info.
1378
03:07:49.680 --> 03:07:55.209
Community Hall: And Council Gillison for saying, The scoring needs to
reflect the impact to drivers.
1379
03:07:56.240 --> 03:07:59.190
Community Hall: It's not clear where it's reflecting in the score
multiplier.
1380
03:07:59.750 --> 03:08:03.420
Community Hall: So I just want to have the minutes reflected, maybe we
can stop both of this.
1381
03:08:04.350 --> 03:08:05.870
Community Hall: We need to be…
1382
03:08:06.750 --> 03:08:12.539
Community Hall: Truly faithful to the sentiment he got at our council,
which was, do not ignore our drivers. There's 60,000 of them.
1383
03:08:12.910 --> 03:08:24.359
Community Hall: And what I'm hearing even today is we're still revisiting
this. We hear one set of input, we hear another set of input, we raise
the bar when the input involves something that benefits 60,000.
1384
03:08:24.480 --> 03:08:28.630
Community Hall: This is… A number that we have yet to count.
1385
03:08:29.870 --> 03:08:30.670
Community Hall: Thank you.
1386
03:08:31.090 --> 03:08:40.950
Community Hall: So, where are there 60,000 dr… what is the population of
Cupertino? How are there 60,000 drivers? 57,000. And they're all drivers?
They're not drivers, they're…
1387
03:08:41.170 --> 03:08:45.550
Community Hall: individuals that may be transported in automotives. Okay.
1388
03:08:45.930 --> 03:08:49.779
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Yeah. I would ask the same question, how
many bicyclists do we have a count?
1389
03:08:50.750 --> 03:08:52.860
Community Hall: I don't know, maybe,
1390
03:08:53.800 --> 03:09:08.520
Community Hall: Maybe SEMA has an idea. I think there must be 80,000. I
rest my case. We… we asked for specific numbers for automotives, but we
don't have a count for how many people are on De Anza Boulevard after we
got rid of bike lane… after we got rid of a road lane.
1391
03:09:08.520 --> 03:09:21.410
Community Hall: I remember the numbers from over a decade ago, and on
Stevens Creek in De Anza, it's over 30,000 per day, so, if I remember
that correctly. But the numbers are a decade old.
1392
03:09:21.820 --> 03:09:24.919
Community Hall: Sorry, Commissioner Linskog, did you want to say
something?
1393
03:09:25.140 --> 03:09:35.199
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Yeah, I just want to say, I mean, it's kind
of pointless to get into the how many thousands of drivers there are, and
how many thousands of bicyclists and pedestrians there are. I mean.
1394
03:09:35.200 --> 03:10:00.070
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: a huge percentage of our students bike or
walk to school every day, so whatever the numbers are, and a lot of
people walk and drive, so they're not just pedestrians, they're just
drivers. So rather than getting hung up on the exact numbers, let's
recognize that a lot of our residents, whatever the number may be, are
pedestrians, are potentially also drivers, a lot of our students are
1395
03:10:00.070 --> 03:10:03.040
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Walkers and cyclists, and we need to serve
1396
03:10:03.040 --> 03:10:22.830
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: all of the residents in our city. So, you
know, I don't know that we need to get hung up on the actual numbers.
It's like, do we ignore them if there are only 8,000 of them? No, they're
still… that's a… that's a substantial number of residents. We can't
ignore them. We have to… we have to serve their needs.
1397
03:10:23.270 --> 03:10:41.109
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: So, yeah, so, I mean, to me, the main thing
that I go back to is this scoring criteria puts too heavy a weight on the
safety on school routes, and I'm sympathetic to the staff. This is a
tough job that they have in terms of, you know, balancing out all the
criteria and balancing out
1398
03:10:41.110 --> 03:10:45.800
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: all of the input they've gotten from the
BPC and the PC and the City Council.
1399
03:10:46.020 --> 03:11:03.369
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: But the way it is right now, I think it's
over-corrected much too heavily on safety on school routes and on cost
effectiveness, to the detriment of all other criteria, especially the
safety in the Vision Zero High Injury Network, as I mentioned before.
1400
03:11:03.370 --> 03:11:17.179
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: So… so to me, this scoring system is deeply
flawed, and I would like, I would like to have the staff revisit it,
before it goes to the Bike Ped Commission, and before it goes to the City
Council.
1401
03:11:17.180 --> 03:11:37.049
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Though I recognize you want to get feedback
from them also before you revisit it, and, you know, that's fine, you
have a process that you need to follow. And I'll send all my detailed
comments in an email as well, so it's in the public record, but my strong
recommendation here is to revisit the scoring criteria.
1402
03:11:37.900 --> 03:11:41.020
Community Hall: So, Chair, if I may, Make a suggestion.
1403
03:11:41.660 --> 03:11:48.350
Community Hall: To go down the dais and ask for the recommendations from
each commissioners.
1404
03:11:48.600 --> 03:11:55.570
Community Hall: So, Commissioner Linskog, I think I'm hearing her say she
recommends removing the scoring criteria?
1405
03:11:55.700 --> 03:11:57.119
Community Hall: So we can just stop.
1406
03:11:59.290 --> 03:12:06.070
Community Hall: So, let me, let me, let me withdraw that, and allow you
to make your recommendation.
1407
03:12:06.830 --> 03:12:07.310
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Okay.
1408
03:12:07.310 --> 03:12:13.000
Community Hall: And then the chair, perhaps, if you can understand that
recommendation, can seek
1409
03:12:13.260 --> 03:12:22.930
Community Hall: the views of your fellow commissioners to see who would
support that recommendation. So in the record, we will have
1410
03:12:23.290 --> 03:12:34.340
Community Hall: you know, unanimous support from all the commissioners
for Commissioner Linskogg's recommendation, or she's the only one who
would support it. And then we move on to the next commissioner.
1411
03:12:36.560 --> 03:12:47.069
Community Hall: Okay, that's, fine with me. So, Commissioner Linskogg, it
sounded like… Why don't you please go ahead and state your… your
recommendations?
1412
03:12:47.390 --> 03:13:03.119
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Sure, okay, thank you. So my recommendation
would be to revisit the scoring system, and to put less weight on the
safety, on the score routes, and on, and less weight on the cost
effectiveness.
1413
03:13:03.120 --> 03:13:14.459
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Criteria to balance things out a little bit
and put more weight back again on the intersections that are in the high
injury network, especially the top 20.
1414
03:13:14.460 --> 03:13:33.009
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: as I said, 45% of them didn't even make it
into the ATP, which is kind of shocking to me, honestly, because it is a
stated city goal that we want to achieve Vision Zero, and this just
throws that out entirely. Well, at least half of them. And,
1415
03:13:33.220 --> 03:13:39.539
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: And I would also, say, to, add back,
1416
03:13:39.760 --> 03:13:57.770
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: things like the Foothill Boulevard, I don't
know what criteria needs to change to put that up higher than 121st to
184 ranking, but given that that was one of the most serious injuries in
our city's history.
1417
03:13:57.770 --> 03:14:11.290
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: and involved, you know, two children dying
or getting seriously injured, it needs to be ranked much higher than
120th or 184, so I don't know what criteria needs to change for that to
happen. So that would be… that would be my recommendation.
1418
03:14:12.650 --> 03:14:23.710
Community Hall: Okay, thank you. And then, City Attorney, we are going
down the row, and… I would solicit the feedback from the Commissioners as
to who would support the recommendation we just heard, and who would
oppose it.
1419
03:14:23.920 --> 03:14:27.990
Community Hall: Okay, alright, so bring it back to the Commission. Who
would support and who would oppose that?
1420
03:14:28.580 --> 03:14:29.870
Community Hall: Commissioner Sharpe?
1421
03:14:30.880 --> 03:14:38.959
Community Hall: I would support it, but I would also say that it seems
like the City Council is not interested in that kind of scoring.
1422
03:14:39.830 --> 03:14:41.530
Community Hall: But I would support it.
1423
03:14:41.970 --> 03:14:53.110
Community Hall: Okay, on my end, I would support this. Commissioner Feng?
I'm supportive of the, rebalancing, for sure. And, and I do think that,
1424
03:14:53.350 --> 03:14:56.880
Community Hall: I'm supportive of having, kind of a statement that there
is
1425
03:14:57.070 --> 03:15:07.249
Community Hall: Maybe one way to paraphrase that is the alignment of
Vision Zero goals, which are really, I think, really do focus more on,
injuries.
1426
03:15:07.410 --> 03:15:15.679
Community Hall: You know, just to clarify the association with the
objectives that we're setting here.
1427
03:15:16.160 --> 03:15:20.009
Community Hall: I think that that's the same thing you said, Seema, but
it… Yes, yes.
1428
03:15:20.160 --> 03:15:20.700
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Yes.
1429
03:15:21.140 --> 03:15:22.290
Community Hall: Commissioner Rao?
1430
03:15:24.130 --> 03:15:26.269
Community Hall: Yes, thank you, Chair. I would…
1431
03:15:26.730 --> 03:15:32.530
Community Hall: I would support, but I would actually go further and say
we need to discard the matrix and start over.
1432
03:15:32.770 --> 03:15:34.060
Community Hall: Because…
1433
03:15:34.390 --> 03:15:47.050
Community Hall: The matrix does not reflect the input from the Council.
The way the matrix is written is you start with goals in order of
importance. Those goals came from community input. Then you apply a
multiplier.
1434
03:15:47.550 --> 03:16:01.290
Community Hall: And so the whole basis for this matrix is flawed, given
Council directed you to ignore public input. That's the number one
feedback you've captured. And so I would go further to say all of us on
all sides of this issue are unhappy
1435
03:16:01.570 --> 03:16:04.929
Community Hall: With the matrix and its prioritization criteria.
1436
03:16:05.590 --> 03:16:07.760
Community Hall: And I believe we should just…
1437
03:16:08.140 --> 03:16:09.860
Community Hall: I asked them to start over.
1438
03:16:10.000 --> 03:16:11.230
Community Hall: and focus.
1439
03:16:11.640 --> 03:16:17.929
Community Hall: on developing a ranking criteria that is not tied to
public input. That's the number one feedback from Council.
1440
03:16:18.310 --> 03:16:19.040
Community Hall: Thank you.
1441
03:16:19.540 --> 03:16:24.809
Community Hall: Thank you. Commissioner Scharf. Did you have any,
recommendations you wanted us to opine on?
1442
03:16:25.290 --> 03:16:33.919
Community Hall: No, I'm done. Okay. From… I'm just going left to right
here. From my end, it was really, after the discussion, the staff
1443
03:16:34.140 --> 03:16:40.340
Community Hall: Idea of incorporating emergency response times into the
programmatic recommendations.
1444
03:16:41.040 --> 03:16:43.059
Community Hall: Commissioner Sharp, would you support this?
1445
03:16:46.090 --> 03:16:52.580
Community Hall: you know, after this was brought up, I quickly looked
into it, and it seems like…
1446
03:16:53.070 --> 03:16:57.470
Community Hall: All the studies on this show that Response times.
1447
03:16:57.960 --> 03:17:04.789
Community Hall: Often improve, but never, never get worse due to
protected bike lanes.
1448
03:17:04.980 --> 03:17:07.180
Community Hall: So I probably would not support that.
1449
03:17:09.540 --> 03:17:10.500
Community Hall: Commissioner Hong?
1450
03:17:10.860 --> 03:17:28.289
Community Hall: So, as in… we had had another discussion before, I think
that this is a point where there is value in making sure that it's
visible. The… how does the relationship of emergency response to the plan
goals, but I think we actually need to research that rather than
1451
03:17:28.680 --> 03:17:31.910
Community Hall: Rather than direct, you know, a change.
1452
03:17:32.680 --> 03:17:38.989
Community Hall: All right, Commissioner Rao? Chair, I would support you
on that, and I would go further to say every life matters.
1453
03:17:39.240 --> 03:17:43.739
Community Hall: And a senior… That cannot get emergency care.
1454
03:17:44.760 --> 03:17:51.280
Community Hall: their life matters as much as the life of that bicyclist.
And to say that the bicyclist
1455
03:17:51.780 --> 03:18:09.070
Community Hall: was prioritized higher for some reason because of some
arbitrary consideration that a concrete median or a buffer would allow
for their safety when, in fact, a vehicle might surmount it and climb
over that concrete median is an unproven fact. So we're being asked to
prove
1456
03:18:09.490 --> 03:18:11.030
Community Hall: that the…
1457
03:18:11.480 --> 03:18:20.929
Community Hall: Emergency response is impacted, but nobody is being asked
to prove that a vehicle at 40 miles an hour could not go over a 3-inch
amount of concrete.
1458
03:18:22.350 --> 03:18:23.150
Community Hall: Thank you.
1459
03:18:23.290 --> 03:18:24.480
Community Hall: Commissioner Linskog?
1460
03:18:25.470 --> 03:18:28.589
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Thank you. Excuse me, excuse me, Chair.
1461
03:18:30.450 --> 03:18:40.480
Community Hall: I think it may be appropriate just to go down the line to
get all the recommendations, then go back to Commissioner Lenscos, and
she started with the recommendations. So, let's finish off with
Commissioner Fung and Commissioner Rao.
1462
03:18:40.480 --> 03:18:44.620
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: No, I'm responding to her recommendation.
She asked for feedback.
1463
03:18:44.620 --> 03:18:47.289
Community Hall: Sorry, I'm sorry, I apologize.
1464
03:18:48.240 --> 03:18:56.239
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: So, I 100% understand where you're coming
from, and I support it. I think, you know, making sure that,
1465
03:18:56.240 --> 03:19:20.819
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: emergency response times are, you know, are
not impacted is an important consideration. But as I said before, I don't
know that we need to make that recommendation here for a couple of
reasons. One is, as I mentioned before, all the data, all the facts are
actually that it is not impacted or improved, so at the very least, I
would say let's make sure we have the data before
1466
03:19:20.820 --> 03:19:24.240
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: before we make that recommendation. And…
1467
03:19:24.240 --> 03:19:47.140
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: and make sure that it's… we're not trying
to solve an issue that doesn't exist. And then the second thing is, it's
already captured in how projects are evaluated and designed, that they
look at emergency response times and, and change the design if needed, if
it does impact, emergency response times. So…
1468
03:19:47.830 --> 03:19:54.010
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: It seems unnecessary, it seems redundant to
make that recommendation, so,
1469
03:19:54.140 --> 03:20:00.990
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: yeah, I mean, I support the thought, but I
question the need for it.
1470
03:20:03.440 --> 03:20:19.930
Community Hall: Commissioner Rao, did you have a comment? Through the
Chair, would it be more efficient to just make a motion, amend a motion,
use the Roberts Rule, so that we make progress at a faster pace? Yeah,
Rosenberg's rule doesn't identify making motions in the study session,
and so the processes will take
1471
03:20:19.960 --> 03:20:28.349
Community Hall: an informal, straw poll to provide guidance to the
Council as to how this body viewed various recommendations.
1472
03:20:30.310 --> 03:20:35.139
Community Hall: Commissioner Fung, did you have any recommendations?
Yeah, the only recommendation I had was…
1473
03:20:35.260 --> 03:20:51.830
Community Hall: We already had one with regard to reexamining the, the
weighting factors. I would just, again, bring up the one about, maybe
separating parks, that that particular mode was one that I think was, and
otherwise, that, that's a human one.
1474
03:20:52.510 --> 03:20:56.509
Community Hall: Is that a strappel you would like us to opine, or are you
just commenting?
1475
03:20:58.940 --> 03:21:09.859
Community Hall: I… we could… we could do it as a straw poll, I… you know…
Okay, let's… for the sake of, equality, we will, but can you clarify
exactly what was the… it was, oh, it was just,
1476
03:21:10.220 --> 03:21:25.729
Community Hall: in prior versions, the, the weighting factor for the
parks, park circuit was… was more visible than it is today. And I believe
that it actually just got combined in with the schools, but, so it's, you
know.
1477
03:21:26.900 --> 03:21:28.709
Community Hall: All right, Commissioner Sharp.
1478
03:21:28.970 --> 03:21:30.839
Community Hall: Support or oppose?
1479
03:21:31.000 --> 03:21:32.880
Community Hall: Support.
1480
03:21:33.430 --> 03:21:34.990
Community Hall: I would support that as well.
1481
03:21:35.800 --> 03:21:36.810
Community Hall: Oops, support.
1482
03:21:37.520 --> 03:21:39.100
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: I'm sorry, what's the… what are we doing?
1483
03:21:39.370 --> 03:21:50.919
Community Hall: It was a recommendation to reinstate parks as a factor in
addition… proximity to parks in addition to proximity to schools.
1484
03:21:51.830 --> 03:21:52.940
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Yeah, I support that.
1485
03:21:54.930 --> 03:22:10.600
Community Hall: Commissioner Rao? Yeah, I would not support that, because
I think it's a very complex factor. There have been accidents in Memorial
Park of pedestrians that were hit by bicycles. One senior, in fact, had
to go to the emergency room, so this is not a simple
1486
03:22:10.750 --> 03:22:19.539
Community Hall: matter that can be weighted on criteria. There's a lot of
factors here. We have seniors walking on paths that are not wide enough
to allow for
1487
03:22:19.810 --> 03:22:27.280
Community Hall: usage of bicycles on those paths. So when you encourage
proximity to paths and shared-use trains, then
1488
03:22:27.370 --> 03:22:39.910
Community Hall: interconnect parks. We should do that on real trails that
we're building from the ground up. I would support it for Timmy Neno and
Lauren Smitty, but it's hard to interconnect city parks where the width
does not support safety.
1489
03:22:40.070 --> 03:22:43.040
Community Hall: So, it's, it's a, it's a complex issue. Thank you.
1490
03:22:43.380 --> 03:22:48.299
Community Hall: Okay, and, back to you, Commissioner Rao. Did you have
any, recommendations?
1491
03:22:48.820 --> 03:22:54.879
Community Hall: That you wanted to put forth. Yes, I was going to propose
a straw poll from this body to see whether
1492
03:22:55.200 --> 03:23:00.779
Community Hall: Council's input is final and binding, or we think
commissions need to revisit Council's input?
1493
03:23:00.910 --> 03:23:02.110
Community Hall: and reopen.
1494
03:23:02.320 --> 03:23:09.950
Community Hall: input given by the Council. I propose that Council's
input is final and binding, and if that is the case, then the straw poll
needs to be discard… the…
1495
03:23:10.100 --> 03:23:13.369
Community Hall: The goals and the prioritization criteria needs to be
discarded.
1496
03:23:19.220 --> 03:23:20.230
Community Hall: Commissioner Sharp?
1497
03:23:22.790 --> 03:23:37.000
Community Hall: Can you repeat what I'm voting on here? You know, I think
it's appropriate if commissioners want to abstain as well, and just let
this be Commissioner Rowles. Yeah, in relation to parks, it is true that
there's
1498
03:23:37.440 --> 03:23:45.700
Community Hall: VIN issues in parks, poorly placed bike racks that should
not be there that encourage people to
1499
03:23:45.960 --> 03:23:49.849
Community Hall: Speed through the parks, including on e-bikes, Class 3 e-
bikes.
1500
03:23:50.190 --> 03:23:55.160
Community Hall: But that's not really what we're talking about here.
We're talking about proximity.
1501
03:23:55.850 --> 03:24:00.209
Community Hall: To just get to the park, and yes, there should be some…
1502
03:24:00.490 --> 03:24:04.080
Community Hall: Enforcement, or some physical barriers to prevent.
1503
03:24:04.210 --> 03:24:08.559
Community Hall: that kind of misbehavior by cyclists in parks, but I
don't…
1504
03:24:09.030 --> 03:24:13.350
Community Hall: think that's what we were talking about here. We're just
talking about including
1505
03:24:15.190 --> 03:24:19.160
Community Hall: Access to parks as part of the criteria,
1506
03:24:19.820 --> 03:24:24.179
Community Hall: in ranking the sites. So, no, I would not support…
1507
03:24:24.310 --> 03:24:38.769
Community Hall: Commissioner Rao's proposal. Sorry, we are… we're
crossing wires here, because you were commenting on the previous
proposal. I'm sorry, so what is the current proposal? The current
proposal is very simple. Council asked staff to ignore public input.
1508
03:24:39.110 --> 03:24:40.400
Community Hall: In their feedback.
1509
03:24:40.830 --> 03:24:54.090
Community Hall: The current staff report is still based on public input,
because it ranks goals based on public input, and then it constructs a
prioritization criteria based on multipliers to that public input. Well,
then it's the council that needs to tell staff
1510
03:24:54.530 --> 03:25:01.090
Community Hall: hey, go back and… and consider public input, if that's
what the council you know.
1511
03:25:01.780 --> 03:25:11.480
Community Hall: So, we didn't want to do, but it's not up to us to decide
that. Okay, my… my straw poll is that we discard the criteria proposed.
1512
03:25:13.470 --> 03:25:18.170
Community Hall: And start over based on… goals that the Council has
defined.
1513
03:25:18.940 --> 03:25:21.389
Community Hall: You're welcome to vote on it.
1514
03:25:22.800 --> 03:25:24.690
Community Hall: Yeah, I'll abstain on that.
1515
03:25:25.830 --> 03:25:27.890
Community Hall: Yeah, I will abstain as well.
1516
03:25:28.070 --> 03:25:29.440
Community Hall: Commissioner Fung?
1517
03:25:31.650 --> 03:25:49.090
Community Hall: So, I think the intent of the Council… when the Council
had the statement about no public input, I think that was that the
numeric criteria were not driven by purely public factors, so I think
there may be a misunderstanding there, although I do understand your
point, because I think that the Council actually did
1518
03:25:49.330 --> 03:25:55.069
Community Hall: kind of say, you know, that they wanted more direct input
on it. That said.
1519
03:25:55.580 --> 03:26:01.450
Community Hall: That said, I, you know, I actually vote no on this, if…
if the council
1520
03:26:01.780 --> 03:26:11.020
Community Hall: you know, as Commissioner Sharp said, if the Council
wants their opinion to be binding, then they don't… it doesn't matter
what we vote on.
1521
03:26:11.170 --> 03:26:15.600
Community Hall: They… they should just… they need to have that discussion
with the… with the staff.
1522
03:26:16.670 --> 03:26:18.810
Community Hall: Thank you. Commissioner Winskog?
1523
03:26:19.500 --> 03:26:33.710
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: Yes, thank you. So, my perspective on this
is that, Commissioner Rao doesn't understand the function of the Planning
Commission. Our role is not to be a proxy for the City Council. Our role
is to provide advice and guidance, as far as we are able to.
1524
03:26:33.710 --> 03:26:53.780
Seema Lindskog, Commissioner: So the Council is very much able to speak
for themselves. If they want this criteria, to be thrown out, they're
very… they're free to do so, but that is not our role. Our role is to
provide our perspective and our expertise and our advice and guidance,
and so I vote no on this straw poll.
1525
03:26:54.300 --> 03:26:56.620
Community Hall: Through the chair, this wasn't a…
1526
03:26:57.020 --> 03:27:03.300
Community Hall: repetition of what the Council said, but it is my
position that the public input is highly biased, because we get
1527
03:27:03.430 --> 03:27:10.099
Community Hall: motivated, Individuals that contribute, the 60,000 do not
show up to give that input, so…
1528
03:27:10.420 --> 03:27:15.050
Community Hall: I just want to be clear, and for the record, the last
item
1529
03:27:15.450 --> 03:27:18.440
Community Hall: We had zero participation from much of…
1530
03:27:18.680 --> 03:27:21.049
Community Hall: Our commission here, so let's not go into…
1531
03:27:21.270 --> 03:27:23.530
Community Hall: Who's endorsing council and who's not?
1532
03:27:25.310 --> 03:27:31.719
Community Hall: Okay, thank you very much, everyone. Do we have any final
comments? No, I just want to say…
1533
03:27:33.700 --> 03:27:36.620
Community Hall: You often see people claiming, well.
1534
03:27:37.010 --> 03:27:40.460
Community Hall: Everyone that didn't vote on something supports the
opposite.
1535
03:27:41.620 --> 03:27:45.560
Community Hall: That is really, you know, not… not the case. Yes.
1536
03:27:46.440 --> 03:27:50.270
Community Hall: Maybe there's 60,000 drivers that don't want
1537
03:27:50.390 --> 03:27:53.300
Community Hall: Any of these, protected bike lanes.
1538
03:27:53.520 --> 03:27:59.060
Community Hall: But… It's ridiculous to say that, just because they
didn't show up to oppose them.
1539
03:28:02.430 --> 03:28:05.670
Community Hall: Any other final comments before we move to the next item?
1540
03:28:08.330 --> 03:28:13.960
Community Hall: Okay, thank you very much to staff. I think this was a
good discussion.
1541
03:28:14.090 --> 03:28:19.780
Community Hall: And we will move on to… Any staff and commission reports?
1542
03:28:33.460 --> 03:28:34.570
Community Hall: Oh my god.
1543
03:28:35.030 --> 03:28:46.560
Community Hall: The Planning Commission Academy came up already, so I
just wanted to remind everybody that that is one month away, so I believe
all four commissioners present wanted to attend.
1544
03:28:46.880 --> 03:29:00.560
Community Hall: So let's just make sure, if you haven't already, to
coordinate with our staff in terms of travel arrangements, hotel,
anything like that. I think you feel free to do it on your own, but if
you want to do it through us, I just want to make sure we get that done.
1545
03:29:00.830 --> 03:29:10.340
Community Hall: Next couple weeks. Who on the staff do we contact? You
could contact me, and I'll make sure, if you want Eva Momoki, M-O-M…
1546
03:29:11.980 --> 03:29:26.650
Community Hall: would be the staff to… who is setting this up. So,
otherwise, email me, call me, whatever you want. So the travel and the
hotel will be done by the city, or we do it ourselves and get reimbursed,
or how does that work? Either way. Whatever your preference is.
1547
03:29:27.210 --> 03:29:32.710
Community Hall: Great. Yep. I just want to make sure that we get this
wrapped up. Right, okay.
1548
03:29:34.570 --> 03:29:45.660
Community Hall: And about the only other thing I had is for the next
meeting, we will have a project I think people have been talking about
for some time, another housing element site, the Linda Vista and Avilage
Court.
1549
03:29:46.130 --> 03:29:52.280
Community Hall: So, that, will probably take up some of the agenda, but I
believe
1550
03:29:53.020 --> 03:30:06.020
Community Hall: It was pointed out earlier, too, we had a San Fernando
Court hillside exception item as well that, also really needs to go to
hearing, so hopefully there is capacity to have both of those projects in
the next agenda.
1551
03:30:07.060 --> 03:30:08.909
Community Hall: That's really all the update I had.
1552
03:30:10.820 --> 03:30:23.399
Community Hall: Great, thank you very much. Does anyone have any
questions? Through the Chair, I believe other commissions are working on
a city work program. Perhaps this is the next agenda item around future
agenda, but
1553
03:30:23.470 --> 03:30:30.970
Community Hall: I just wanted to point out that other commissions are
working on a city work program that I believe commissions were asked to
do, at least the other commissions were.
1554
03:30:31.420 --> 03:30:36.840
Community Hall: So I just wanted to bring that up, and as far as
commissioned reports, the only thing I will report is
1555
03:30:37.210 --> 03:30:42.329
Community Hall: we failed on a motion to let staff go home two and a half
hours earlier than they could have. Thank you.
1556
03:30:43.780 --> 03:30:45.479
Community Hall: We're there now.
1557
03:30:48.670 --> 03:30:55.949
Community Hall: Alright, thank you very much. Moving on, does anyone have
any items for future agenda setting? So,
1558
03:30:58.050 --> 03:31:02.520
Community Hall: the chair and I have been working on the issue of public
noticing, so…
1559
03:31:02.660 --> 03:31:05.380
Community Hall: We should put that on a future agenda.
1560
03:31:05.490 --> 03:31:10.969
Community Hall: I don't know if it should be the next one, because Linda
Vista will probably take a lot of time.
1561
03:31:11.340 --> 03:31:17.309
Community Hall: May… and I don't know if Linda Vista and San Fernando are
going on the same agenda.
1562
03:31:17.910 --> 03:31:22.130
Community Hall: Hopefully, maybe we can split those up, because, no?
1563
03:31:22.370 --> 03:31:23.400
Community Hall: Know what?
1564
03:31:24.740 --> 03:31:29.409
Community Hall: they're both intended to be on the same agenda. Okay, and
the next meeting.
1565
03:31:29.690 --> 03:31:33.020
Community Hall: Correct. Okay, so maybe we move the,
1566
03:31:34.080 --> 03:31:37.660
Community Hall: Discussion on public noticing to a future meeting, then.
1567
03:31:38.570 --> 03:31:43.420
Community Hall: Because that'll be a very long meeting for Linda Vista
and San Fernando.
1568
03:31:44.290 --> 03:31:51.519
Community Hall: Yep, I think that's a great point, and I do agree, I
think that will be probably more like a March item. I think February is
pretty full.
1569
03:31:52.490 --> 03:31:57.720
Community Hall: Great, so if there are no further comments, then I will
adjourn the meeting.