HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC 03-09-2026 Youtube and Zoom TranscriptWEBVTT
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Community Hall: Good evening, and welcome to the Planning Commission
meeting for Monday, March 9th, 2026. Please rise for the Pledge of
Allegiance.
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Community Hall: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
America.
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Community Hall: and to the Republic of justice, one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
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Community Hall: Alright, City Clerk, may we please have the roll call?
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Community Hall: Commissioner Feng?
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Community Hall: Commissioner Linskog? Here. Commissioner Rao? Here. Vice
Chair Sharpe? Here. Chair Kasosheron? Here.
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Community Hall: And for the record, Commissioner Fung is absent with all
present.
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Community Hall: Excellent, thank you. So we'll now move on to approval of
the minutes from the February 24th, 2026 Planning Commission. Do we have
a motion?
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Community Hall: I believe there's a modified set of minutes, is that
right? Did I…
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Community Hall: Okay, so we're supposed to read something that's
different from what was provided. Can… can someone summarize what
changed?
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Community Hall: I'm not sure if staff can comment on what changed, maybe
it's a minor change.
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Community Hall: I made a request for a change, I don't know if there were
any other changes. I did not have any other changes, I'm just looking at
this now. I think if I can… So, the only change was, for my motion on,
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Community Hall: the Evelidge Court, development to clarify that the
motion that we approved included, the access to the trail.
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Community Hall: I see, and that wasn't in the original minutes? No.
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Community Hall: Okay. Thank you. Bye.
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Community Hall: I move to approve the minutes. I second.
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Community Hall: The motion carries unanimously.
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Community Hall: Great, thank you. So, we have no postponements, we'll
move on to oral communications. City Clerk, do we have any public
comments?
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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, thank you. Moving right along, we will move on to
the study session, which is an update to the health and safety element of
the Cupertino General Plan 2015-2040 Community Vision.
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Community Hall: May we please have the staff report?
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Community Hall: Yes, thank you, Chair, members of the Planning
Commission.
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Community Hall: I would like to introduce Eli Crispy with Placeworks, who
will be leading what is the, second time the health and safety element
has been brought before the Planning Commission. I can't remember the
exact date, but this, again, is a study session format, so we're looking
for any comments you may have about the,
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Community Hall: health and safety element, which is a little further
along, a little lengthier than the last time. This will be then going
through City Council.
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Community Hall: after this, I believe the end of April is the date, and
we'll then be going through a process, which will involve review by CAL
FIRE. So we want to make sure we get the Commission and the City
Council's comments prior to sending it to CAL FIRE.
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Community Hall: So, with that, I will turn the presentation itself over
to Eli, and after that, we can answer questions.
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Community Hall: Good evening, Chair, members of the Commission, Eli
Crispy with Placeworks. I will be giving a brief presentation on the
Health and Safety Element Update.
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Community Hall: So, the health and safety element serves as the city's
safety element of the general plan. It is a mandatory component of the
general plan, so all cities and counties in California must have this
document or something comparable. The role of the safety element is
really to identify
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Community Hall: The hazards of concern in the community, both natural and
human-caused hazards, and to establish policies to help protect the
community against these hazards.
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Community Hall: Cupertino's current health and safety element was adopted
in 2014, and since then, there have been a number of changes to state law
and other issues that have come up that have necessitated the update.
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Community Hall: State law also requires now that the health and safety
element be updated generally once the housing element has been updated,
or at least that it is reviewed or updated every 8 years.
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Community Hall: So, in response to that requirement, we have gone through
the health and safety element and made sure to address the new state
requirements that have come into play, which I will talk about in a
moment, as well as to incorporate any new issues of concern that have
arisen in the community or that have been raised.
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Community Hall: We have wanted to make sure that we are incorporating the
larger framework of safety-related plans that Cupertino and other
communities in Santa Clara County have been working on since the last
update.
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Community Hall: So to that end, the safety… the health and safety element
now incorporates the Santa Clara County Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard
Mitigation Plan, which a city is a participant in.
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Community Hall: the Santa Clara County Community Wildfire Protection
Plan, the City's Climate Action Plan 2.0, and a handful of other
documents.
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Community Hall: It should be noted that including the county multi-
jurisdictional housing mitigation plan.
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Community Hall: does potentially make the city eligible for increased
funding from FEMA?
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Community Hall: And it potentially also makes the city eligible for
increased disaster relief funding from the state if that ever were to
become necessary.
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Community Hall: Here are some of the changes to state law that have come
into play, either have been adopted since the last update to the housing…
to the health and safety element, or have,
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Community Hall: Come into force since that time.
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Community Hall: Most prominently, Senate Bill 379, which was adopted in
2015, requires that the health and safety element look at the impacts of
climate change, how it may affect the frequency and intensity of natural
hazards, the impacts of those natural hazards on the community.
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Community Hall: And that the health and safety element includes goals,
policies, and actions to protect against that changing hazard condition.
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Community Hall: Also, Senate Bill 99 and Assembly Bill 747, both adopted
in 2019, require that the health and safety element conduct some
evacuation-related analyses
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Community Hall: and identify certain areas where there may be evacuation
challenges. So, as part of this update, the City has prepared those
analyses and have used them to inform certain policy improvements that
you'll see in the document.
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Community Hall: This is a very high-level overview of the changes that we
have made to the policies. In particular, we have updated a lot of the
wildfire policies to make sure that they are consistent with state law
and the new state mapping, which the city adopted last year.
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Community Hall: There have also been a handful of other updates to other
sections of the plan. Certainly the wildfire section probably got the
most extensive updates. We have gone through and made updates throughout.
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Community Hall: There are some enhanced standards around floodplain
protection, in particular around any critical facilities that may be
located in areas subject to floods. There are the new evacuation data
results and some new policies resulting from that.
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Community Hall: We have expanded the policies that protect against
changing natural hazards as a result of climate change.
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Community Hall: There are some new standards around infrastructure
resilience.
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Community Hall: And then we have also gone through the policies and been…
tried to be very clear about when a policy applies to a new development
project versus when it applies to an existing one.
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Community Hall: Starting to go through a little more detail, beginning
with some of the emergency preparedness and infrastructure policies.
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Community Hall: There are some expanded policies about emergency
communications, in particular making sure that emergency communications
and notifications are made available in multiple languages.
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Community Hall: There's some increased language about
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Community Hall: having Cupertino coordinate with other neighboring
agencies and with others in the region, and to strengthen some of the
communication and coordination protocols that relate to evacuations.
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Community Hall: We have included policies about
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Community Hall: Fortifying and making more resilient certain key pieces
of municipal infrastructure. And we have also updated some of the
language in the health and safety element to be clear about the risks
associated with the public safety power shutoffs, which were not an issue
in 2014.
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Community Hall: The evacuation studies that I mentioned, this is
something that the city led and prepared a draft of that last year.
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Community Hall: per state law, the analyses have to look at the capacity,
safety, and viability of the city's potential evacuation routes. It's not
saying that these are the routes that will be taken, but should an
evacuation be necessary? These are the most likely ways that people would
get out of an affected zone. Are those
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Community Hall: Routes safe and viable, and do they have the capacity to
support that evacuation?
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Community Hall: We looked at 3 different, wildfire scenarios, including,
2 that…
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Community Hall: Would have occurred, or, excuse me, two that would have
occurred, if a wildfire happened after an earthquake, so you've done
greater, potential for constraints.
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Community Hall: We also looked at any residential areas where there may
be limited emergency access, or emergency egress.
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Community Hall: Based on the results of those analyses, which are
included as an appendix to the health and safety element, we did add a
number of policies into the element that are meant to try and mitigate
some of those impacts.
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Community Hall: So there are policies about providing multiple evacu…
access to evacuation routes for new development, to the extent that that
is feasible.
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Community Hall: We have reinforced and revised some of the ingress and
egress standards in the development review process, especially in
coordination with improvements to state law.
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Community Hall: And as I mentioned, there's greater coordination…
policies calling for greater coordination with neighboring emergency
management agencies to ensure that an evacuation and emergency response
can be conducted effectively.
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Community Hall: The city adopted the updated wildfire hazard mapping as
proposed by CAL FIRE last year, so we have made sure that that updated
mapping is now in the health and safety element.
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Community Hall: That replaces the previous framework for maps with the
new designations. And we have revised and expanded on the wildfire
reduction policies, really to make sure that we are consistent with state
law.
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Community Hall: Here are some of the major changes that have occurred to
the wildfire policies. I'm not intending to go through every single one,
but as you can see, there are some policies that apply to new
development, some that apply to existing development. Many of these are
policies that are already state mandates.
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Community Hall: These are already in the building code or in other
sections of California law, so all that we have done is made sure that
that language is now reflected in the health and safety element, and it's
just being very clear that Cupertino is doing what the state says the
city has to do.
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Community Hall: Many of these other ones that do not have a specific
citation to state law, those are CAL FIRE's standard recommendations. So
they propose these and recommend that cities include them for any
community that has these very high wildfire hazard zones.
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Community Hall: There have been some updates to the seismic and geologic
hazards section in the health and safety element, including updating the
landslide and steep slope hazard discussion and mapping, again, making
sure that it is consistent with the current data and with current
understanding.
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Community Hall: We have updated some of the language about emergency
access during seismic events, again, tying back to the results of the
evacuation study.
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Community Hall: We have clarified some of the geotechnical review
requirements for new development. Again, not to go beyond what is
required, but to make sure that we are consistent with the city's
previously adopted regulations, and that we are consistent with what the
state is requiring.
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Community Hall: We have also clarified some limitations related to
grading on steep slopes. Again, that is consistent with what is already
on the books at the City.
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Community Hall: There have been some updates to the hazardous waste and
materials section. We have updated some of the regulatory references to
make sure that they are reflecting the current oversight requirements.
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Community Hall: We have reinforced some of the environmental site
assessment requirement policies in the element.
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Community Hall: We've maintained the requirement for stringent risk
reduction measures for any new development that is proposed near known
hazardous material site.
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Community Hall: And there is a stronger commitment in the document to
coordinate with regulatory agencies, including federal and state
agencies, as appropriate, for any ongoing cleanup and monitoring
activities.
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Community Hall: On the flood side of things, we have updated the flood
mapping, consistent with the currently adopted flood maps from FEMA.
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Community Hall: We've clarified some of the areas that would be subject
to inundation should a dam fail.
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Community Hall: We have, again, going back to this theme of ensuring that
critical infrastructure remains functional and serviceable, we have
identified some policies around that to continue to provide essential
services.
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Community Hall: There are some stronger standards for new development and
for certain types of redevelopment in flood-prone areas.
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Community Hall: Again, maintaining that any existing use in flood-prone
areas continues to meet… must continue to meet the current state and
federal standards, but we are not proposing anything that goes beyond
what the federal and state governments already apply.
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Community Hall: And then again, the theme around improved coordination,
reinforcing some of the coordination with the county and regional flood
control agencies.
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Community Hall: On the climate vulnerability side, we have conducted the
vulnerability assessment as required by state law.
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Community Hall: We have identified flooding, extreme heat, and wildfire
as the climate change-related hazards that are likely to be of greatest
risk to the community. Certainly, there are other hazards that could
still cause significant impacts, but these are probably the three…
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Community Hall: That have the potential to cause the greatest impacts
among the climate change-related issues.
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Community Hall: We have identified the populations and pieces of
infrastructure in the city.
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Community Hall: who, that are likely to be most harmed or face the
greatest risk of harm as a result of these hazards. And in response, we
have added a number of climate adaptation and resilience strategies to
protect against these future changes.
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Community Hall: That includes a number of policies around…
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Community Hall: Communicating the changing hazard conditions, you know,
just because something has been the same way
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Community Hall: same types of hazards for the past 30, 50 years or more.
We do expect an increase in frequency and intensity of a number of these
hazards. We want to make sure that the city's outreach and education
campaigns around hazards and safety are reflecting that.
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Community Hall: And in particular, we want to make sure that people who
are most likely to be harmed by climate change, those frontline
communities, that they have access to the information and the resources
that they need to stay safe.
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Community Hall: We have gone through the policies and the safety element
that relate to development, and tried to be very, very clear if a
requirement is applying to new development.
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Community Hall: to redevelopment, or if it applies to both. A lot of that
is consistent with the state wildfire requirements.
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Community Hall: There are some new risk reduction standards around
existing neighborhoods, making sure that, again, state building standards
are applying primarily to new development, but there are some
requirements to
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Community Hall: Maintain and enforce standards for existing developments.
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Community Hall: We have tried to clarify when certain policies do apply,
for example, if a subdivision is above a certain size, or if there are
changes to the land use on a parcel that would trigger when state law
comes into play.
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Community Hall: We have tried to provide some increased transparency and
predictability around development review.
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Community Hall: And the whole goal here, really, again, is to ensure that
we are being consistent with the state's requirements and the state's
planning for wildfire and evacuation safety.
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Community Hall: The health and safety element also contains Cupertino's
noise element, which is another mandatory component of the general plan.
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Community Hall: The noise element was not part of the comprehensive
update, but there were some minor updates that were made to ensure
consistency with the city's current municipal requirements.
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Community Hall: And those… many of those revisions reflect input that
we've received from the Planning Commission and from the Public Safety
Commission during last year's study sessions.
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Community Hall: We have added a few implementation strategies that are
meant to guide the review of new noise-related or noise-generating uses,
and that includes public and private recreation areas, or recreation
activities, excuse me, near residential areas.
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Community Hall: And there is some added consideration about restrictions
of the quarry truck operations during the designated quiet hours.
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Community Hall: So at the moment, we are in the public review process. We
are conducting hearings with the Planning Commission and City Council,
and we hope to hear feedback from members of the public and from the
Commission and Council.
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Community Hall: Following the close of the public comment and the
incorporation of any public comments into the document, we will then, as
Luke mentioned, submit the health and safety element for review by CAL
FIRE and by other state agencies, and that is a mandatory review process.
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Community Hall: Cal FIRE is allowed to take up to 90 days to conduct that
process.
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Community Hall: Following the review by state agencies and any further
changes that they might recommend for the health and safety element, we
will then prepare the… an addendum to the Certified General Plan EIR that
will act as the environmental review document for the health and safety
element.
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Community Hall: And then lastly, we will bring the document back to the
Planning Commission and to the City Council for public hearings. At the
moment, we are expecting those to be in the fall of this year.
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Community Hall: So our staff's recommendation to the Commission is to
receive the presentation and provide input on the public draft element.
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Community Hall: And with that, thank you for your time. We'd be happy to
answer any questions.
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Community Hall: Great, thank you very much for the very comprehensive
presentation and the updates to the health and safety element. We'll
bring this back to the Commission. Do we have any questions?
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Community Hall: Yeah, sure. I can go first. Yes, Commissioner Rao? There
is a policy in the draft,
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Community Hall: the red line draft.
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Community Hall: That talks about requiring new subdivisions, or 5 or
more.
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Community Hall: units to have at least two ingress and egress routes.
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Community Hall: Can you clarify if that's two ingress-egress into the
subdivision, or is that ingress-egress as seen by the…
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Community Hall: Public streets that connect to that subdivision.
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Community Hall: I think it's the latter of that, so it essentially would
have two ways in and out.
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Community Hall: Okay. So, a full access at two different points. So this
would not, for example, be… Imposing…
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Community Hall: on developments that are in progress in the city that now
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Community Hall: we have a requirement that the FHIR code does not, in
terms of
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Community Hall: For example, the fire code may have a requirement that
says at a 100-unit threshold, you may need to have 2 ingress egress.
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Community Hall: But here, I read the policy saying at 5 units or more.
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Community Hall: We need two ingress egress. We are not trying to override
the far…
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Community Hall: code requirements, is that correct? That is correct. And
again, this is not in effect yet, as well.
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Community Hall: the safety element.
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Community Hall: Okay, and could you expand on that a little bit, in terms
of when this takes effect and how it applies to projects that are in
flight right now?
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Community Hall: projects that would be filed right now, and some could
even be SB330 projects, where they have locked-in standards going back
even a year or more.
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Community Hall: But projects are subject to what is on the books today,
not something that has not yet been adopted, so…
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Community Hall: I think, as Eli said, we're expecting this to be fall
sometime, that we would have this adopted. And keep in mind, through
comments, all of these things could be changed as of yet by either the
Commission, the City Council.
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Community Hall: Cal FIRE's review, especially on fire issues, will, carry
a lot of weight as well.
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Community Hall: Thank you.
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Community Hall: Great, any other questions?
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Community Hall: I did have one question for Eli. The evacuation study,
was great, and also, I think, very alarming. I was curious how we compare
to neighboring cities, particularly around, like, the volume-to-capacity
ratios were very high.
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Community Hall: I could let Eli try, but I don't know that… especially
since the studies just came in through AB747 and are fairly new.
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Community Hall: I think if you look at the beginning, it's pretty much
saying we're embarking on a new science, more or less, the Farron-Pierce
report. So I have not seen what other cities,
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Community Hall: what their studies are coming back like. I would suspect…
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Community Hall: Communities that have a lot of hillside properties.
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Community Hall: That's where you're gonna tend to have the volume to
capacity ratios more so than other areas of the city.
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Community Hall: Okay, thank you. Any other questions?
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Community Hall: So, would it be appropriate to put something in this
document regarding…
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Community Hall: Seismic retrofits of public buildings that are vital in
an emergency, like our EOC, which
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Community Hall: Is not retrofitted, and our city hall, which is not.
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Community Hall: Seismically safe.
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Community Hall: I don't know if you want to get into a level of detail
like that, I think…
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Community Hall: Something to remember with this is it's a general plan,
and these are policies, and to start specifying
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Community Hall: specific buildings.
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Community Hall: Or getting a higher degree of specificity.
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Community Hall: It's not necessarily wrong, but this may not be the
document to put that in.
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Community Hall: Yeah, I'm thinking… I mean, public buildings that are
vital in an emergency, not… Instead of specifying specific buildings.
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Community Hall: That may be a better way to go. There may also be some
policies in our infrastructure element as well. I'm not entirely sure
about that, but that may address public buildings as well.
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Community Hall: But I think keeping it general about public facilities,
and keeping them current in terms of seismic safety, that would certainly
be an acceptable goal or policy.
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Community Hall: Okay, let's see, Chair Rao already asked about the, dual
ingress an egress…
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Community Hall: Can you go more into the noise issue, especially
regarding…
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Community Hall: The, trucks from the quarry.
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Community Hall: Are we doing… Average noise, or peak noise at a certain
hour, or how… how are we doing this?
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Community Hall: This is a question from a resident, so that's why I'm…
Asking this.
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Community Hall: Yeah, I don't have the committed to memory, but I think
we are focusing on the nighttime hours and early morning hours in terms
of the truck noise.
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Community Hall: I know one of the quarry's ongoing issue is that it
actually predates permit requirements from the county. It's been in
operation so long that it
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Community Hall: Doesn't have use permit restrictions.
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Community Hall: So, that is another factor. It's… the quarries are in
another jurisdiction.
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Community Hall: And you have one that is essentially not subject to
permitting, so…
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Community Hall: Which is why I think we also were put in coordination
with the county.
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Community Hall: On trying to regulate this, but it seems that the…
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Community Hall: the noise issue that we've gotten have tended to be in
the early morning hours, say, between 1AM and 5 a.m, what the trucks
shouldn't be operating, typically. Right, so it's true, the quarry is not
in our jurisdiction, but the roads that the trucks travel on are.
Correct.
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Community Hall: So, I mean, they can't claim, oh, we're grandfathered in,
we can make as much noise as we want. Or can they?
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Community Hall: Well, that would be more the city controlling its
streets, but in terms of…
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Community Hall: County does not have a prohibition, at least on one
quarry.
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Community Hall: On its hours of operation.
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Community Hall: Okay, but we could put in regulations for our…
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Community Hall: Streets that we own, is that true? Or…
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Community Hall: It certainly is. Cupertino's not the county, so where the
trucks are in Cupertino, if you had
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Community Hall: Regulations, say, on hours of operation, or the size of
vehicles, something like that, if you're trying to deter them using
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Community Hall: certain routes at certain times of day or night, that
would be something you could do.
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Community Hall: Okay, thank you.
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Community Hall: I want to go back to the… I think you had a slide on
existing
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Community Hall: Projects, or existing remodels, existing single-family
versus new development.
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Community Hall: You have a policy that's 3.4.1 that says prior to the
issuance of the first permit, whether a ministerial or discretionary
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Community Hall: There's a long list of requirements. Site plan, planning
plan, planning palette, irrigation plan.
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Community Hall: defensible space, more than one point. I look at this
list, and I'm wondering.
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Community Hall: If I just want to replace my water heater, do I need to
do all of this?
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Community Hall: you know, those types of things would be regulated
through the building code. That specific example? No. That's not what
we're talking about in terms of
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Community Hall: Fire hazard zones…
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Community Hall: they're particularly focused on, one, for new
development, and I don't know the exact threshold, like, when would a
remodel
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Community Hall: essentially become a new building, what that standard is,
and that may be evolving, but…
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Community Hall: For projects in a fire hazard zone, you're looking at
non-combustible materials, and then the other element is going to be how
you maintain the property.
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Community Hall: Maintenance is likely going to be applied to everybody
within the fire hazard zone equally. How you're maintaining your trees,
how you're maintaining things that could combust.
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Community Hall: But you're not gonna have to out and, say, retrofit a
house.
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Community Hall: And if you had a wood-sided house, there's no requirement
to say you're gonna have to go out and, say, put stucco, or change your
roof out.
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Community Hall: So how… how can we be more clear on that aspect, so that
we do not leave it to the discretion of a planner that decides that a
project that is maybe replacing a sewer line now needs a planting plan,
and it needs a pure landscape review?
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Community Hall: And it needs a county review, and, you know, we could go
on and on with that. So how do we…
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Community Hall: Apply a little bit more explicit intent into the document
to guide on that front.
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Community Hall: Is that something we could do?
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Community Hall: I'm not sure how we would go about doing that. So, if I
may, if I may ask, is there a precedent
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Community Hall: In these various elements of the general plan.
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Community Hall: where we may exempt or grandfather an existing structure.
For example, if the property's an existing single-family home, doing a
remodel under
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Community Hall: a certain threshold, and I think parts of the document
talk about greater than 50% threshold, and so on.
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Community Hall: So maybe you're already covering that. Could you expand
on the greater than 50% threshold for
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Community Hall: For projects, either of you?
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Community Hall: I couldn't have done that, but I think the things we're
getting to now, they're largely related to building and fire codes.
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Community Hall: I mean, these are not going to be…
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Community Hall: If you had a policy, say, that grandfathered in a certain
structure in a fire hazard zone.
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Community Hall: And… The state fire or building codes said the contrary.
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Community Hall: Your policy would not prevent that, then.
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Community Hall: Understood, but is it fair to say that Commission could
consider a motion that
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Community Hall: proposes a new policy that says, to the extent that we
would not contradict state
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Community Hall: And county fire, and other statutes.
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Community Hall: consider exempting or grandfathering existing structures
under a certain threshold, or something to that effect. I'm trying to
understand, is that already something the general plan covers at a
broader level, and therefore does not need to be done at this particular
chapter level?
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Community Hall: I think if you're trying to get at
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Community Hall: do you want to treat, say, a new development differently
from an existing development that's doing maintenance or minor additions?
There's probably a way to word that, but again, all of this would be
subject to building and fire codes, which are likely going to keep
changing in fire zones.
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Community Hall: But I think if there's… the goal is to acknowledge
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Community Hall: New development in these zones is different.
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Community Hall: Then, existing development that's not adding additional
units or intensifying.
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Community Hall: That, I think, is something as a policy that you could
state.
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Community Hall: Would staff have a recommendation on how we might state
that?
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Community Hall: I would like to think about it a little bit, because you
start getting into some fine lines there.
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Community Hall: But I think it's fairly clear when you say.
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Community Hall: Somebody's putting in a new subdivision, adding 10, 20,
50 units.
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Community Hall: is a different thing than, say, somebody may want to add
800 square feet on a 1500 square foot house. So if that's the type of
thing you're getting at, I think we could look at that.
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Community Hall: I would also want to circle back with our building and
fire divisions as well.
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Community Hall: To see what the existing thresholds are for things like
additions now.
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Community Hall: Okay, so…
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Community Hall: I guess the other question here is for Placeworks. How
many of these have you done for other cities?
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Community Hall: And is there… Any precedent to…
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Community Hall: At least for the existing development, again, I want to
go back to… because I'm trying to separate the…
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Community Hall: sentiment of our existing Cupertino restaurants that have
real challenges around the cost of a remodel, even a basic remodel.
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Community Hall: Right? If you just want to upgrade your bathroom or
something, we shouldn't increase the cost and make this unaffordable,
such that they start then doing unplanned remodels. The side effect of
this should not turn into a, it's so expensive that I might as well just
do an unplanned, which does not benefit the city or the neighborhood or
the subdivision.
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Community Hall: So I'm trying to see, is there any way that Placeworks
might comment on how you've approached this and other, other drafts that
you may have done for other cities, or observed in other cities?
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Community Hall: I mean, as Luke mentioned, it is generally whenever a
building permit is required, that is when the building, the fire code,
and these other aspects of state law kick in.
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Community Hall: I will… I would say some cities have gone beyond the
state code, and they have imposed additional requirements. Other cities
are comfortable accepting the state law and the state building codes as…
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Community Hall: standards. It really does depend on the specifics of each
community and how they choose to go about these things.
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Community Hall: But as a general rule, once you start talking about the
building code, it really does have to defer to what the state requires.
If it does not require a building code, that is up to the city's
discretion, through whatever permitting mechanisms you have.
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Community Hall: Right, and I'm trying to get to the gist of, is there a
precedent for this policy to guide that?
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Community Hall: Yeah, I'm… I'm not aware. I think some of the examples,
too, though, like, things like… that are interior remodels.
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Community Hall: those are not going to be affected by being in a fire
zone. If you're doing something purely interior, kitchen, bathrooms,
things like that.
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Community Hall: The fire issues really are having to do with maintenance
and non-combustible types of construction.
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Community Hall: Are there aspects that planners look at to this document,
or the policy documents in general, versus code? So, how does a planner
approach project reviews in terms of
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Community Hall: I'm strictly following what the code says, versus I'm
looking at policy and applying my discretion to what the policy may say,
but code does not.
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Community Hall: You, depending on the project, you try to focus on what
is the most relevant policy out there.
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Community Hall: Codes tend to be much more specific.
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Community Hall: And the more you get into, say, building and fire codes.
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Community Hall: You're dealing with things that are almost purely
ministerial.
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Community Hall: There may be flexibility in terms of how you meet those
codes, but…
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Community Hall: They're often more like dealing with a checklist and
meeting very specific standards, where you're dealing with health and
safety.
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Community Hall: You tend not to have the flexibility, say, you might at a
planning level.
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Community Hall: Yeah, I will just observe that health and safety may or
may not have materially changed, just because the state
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Community Hall: sitting in Sacramento deems that these maps are changing
in this manner doesn't mean conditions on the ground
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Community Hall: Have drastically changed, at least in the
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Community Hall: in the actual locations of these properties themselves.
It may be that
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Community Hall: The surrounding hillsides may have changed, but that is
not necessarily controlled by this draft.
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Community Hall: In… in other than saying regional coordination.
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Community Hall: Thank you, Chair.
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Community Hall: Okay, I had one follow-up question on the note around
building codes. Is defensible space already covered in building code, and
therefore doesn't need to be covered in general plan?
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Community Hall: defensible space is covered in the fire hazard zones.
Okay, so usually if it's already within building code, we would not re-
cover it within the general plan? Is that correct? Correct. And again,
those things are getting much more specific. Again, this is sort of at a
policy level, trying to think…
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Community Hall: How you would want to deter or minimize fire risk,
whereas the codes are
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Community Hall: getting into specifics within 5 feet, within 30 feet,
within 100 feet, what you can do with your property. So it's just… it's
really just a level of detail. I mean, I try to think out of, like.
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Community Hall: This is setting the table for what you want your codes to
say.
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Community Hall: Okay. Okay, thank you. Any other questions from the
Commission?
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Community Hall: I do have more questions, yeah.
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Community Hall: So…
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Community Hall: Going back to the new development aspect of this, is a
single-family teardown and rebuild considered a new development, and
would this policy apply in its full…
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Community Hall: farm to a single-family R1 new development.
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Community Hall: or a lot split, for example, or an ADU versus… should…
should this distinguish between, say, R3 versus
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Community Hall: A single family that's a teardown and rebuild.
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Community Hall: Well, I mean, anytime you're building something new, that
would be new development. But if we're talking about fire hazard zones
still.
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Community Hall: I'm not versed enough in the building and fire code to
know exactly
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Community Hall: Where… what your requirements are going to be based on
your project.
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Community Hall: So, what is the… is there a staff assessment of how much
additional cost these policies would apply?
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Community Hall: to a single-family new development. Let's just focus on a
new development, you know, we've got…
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Community Hall: Projects that wanna do a lot split.
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Community Hall: Or just a full teardown and rebuild, you know, what is
the additional cost to a single family
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Community Hall: development because of this. I have no idea on that, but,
you know, again, if you're in a fire hazard zone and you're constructing,
you're going to be subject to the building and fire codes for that zone,
so likely, it could drive up your cost.
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Community Hall: But when we say fire hazard zone, I mean…
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Community Hall: That could mean moderate as well, is that right?
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Community Hall: the… Standards for moderate are different than for high
and very high.
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Community Hall: There's a verbiage in this policy that says where a
property straddles two fire hazard severity zones, the higher of the two
shall apply. Is that policy that Placeworks chose, or is that state-
mandated policy? That's already adopted by the city. So when the fire
maps came out in February of last year.
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Community Hall: There's almost 1,500 properties that are either high or
very high fire hazard.
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Community Hall: Many properties in Cupertino, because we're dealing with
a lot of larger sites, were in two zones. Some, I think, were actually in
three.
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Community Hall: But where you had two or more zones, the city's map.
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Community Hall: Went with just the higher… the highest of those zones for
that individual property.
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Community Hall: So if you had a 10-acre property, and…
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Community Hall: 30% of it was in very high, and 70% in high, you would be
mapped as very high.
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Community Hall: And that was discretion the city had, and we chose to
apply that? Yes, yeah. So the… we…
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Community Hall: You had the discretion to modify the fire maps only
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Community Hall: If you made them, essentially, more fire-resistant, so
you could…
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Community Hall: Take a property that's in two zones and go at the higher
of those zones.
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Community Hall: you couldn't go the other way and say something's very
high and designate it high or moderate. So this is, like, the no down
zoning
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Community Hall: Sort of state law that you cannot reduce fire hazard
severity zones, but you can increase it.
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Community Hall: you cannot, yeah, you cannot lessen that. So I think when
you look at the diagram, if you looked at Cupertino's map before and
after, what essentially changed is not really the area so much that's in
a fire hazard zone.
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Community Hall: But the amount that's in are very high. So the map became
much more red than it used to be. Yeah, and that was my next question,
because when the state published its map, Linda Vista Drive on the west
was red, and Linda Vista Drive on the right was…
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Community Hall: what is that, yellow or orange, I believe. Orange. Right.
And now it's red all the way till almost bub or something like that, or
just before bub.
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Community Hall: But that's a change that has been made, adopted, and now
there's no There's no changing that.
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Community Hall: Correct. That was adopted by the City Council late June
or early July last year.
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Community Hall: Okay.
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Community Hall: I will pause there. No questions at this time.
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Community Hall: Great. I think we'll open it up. Madam City Clerk, do we
have any public comments? Yes, we have 3 speakers in person, and…
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Community Hall: No hands raised on Zoom. Our first speaker is Jennifer
Griffin, followed by David Wye, followed by Dur Chang Kao. Welcome,
Jennifer.
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Community Hall: Can you hear me? Okay, there we go. Thank you. It's good
to see you all. I'm glad that we're having this discussion, because if
you're not aware, the Diablo fire season may be coming up in the
springtime when we have low humidity, and we start getting,
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Community Hall: Warm winds coming down from the,
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Community Hall: northern… the mountain areas. I'm glad to see the city is
working on this for their,
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Community Hall: They're,
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Community Hall: gosh, what is it called? The… I'm losing it here. The
city code, okay, not the housing element, but the city…
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Community Hall: Oh my god, I'm losing it here. Yeah, what we're working
on, which is the city code for this.
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Community Hall: I have not gotten a real warm, fuzzy feeling from the
housing element that they're really dealing with reality, but I look on
the city for the code that you all are working on, and I have sat through
many years of the city going through, their
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Community Hall: Let's see if I can come up with the right wording here. I
sound really stupid, not even…
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Community Hall: Okay, so we're talking about the, sorry.
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Community Hall: the health and safety of the general plan. Okay. To me,
the general plan of Cupertino is extremely important. It is our city's
look at
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Community Hall: How things work in our city.
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Community Hall: I know we're going to be dealing with the housing element
later, so I won't talk on that, but I… I want to make sure that anything
that happens in Cupertino is reflected
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Community Hall: in our, city code. And I was aware last summer, since I
have been following
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Community Hall: The fire issues in the state that the state fire marshals
had placed.
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00:41:44.230 --> 00:41:47.480
Community Hall: parts of Monta Vista in a hot area.
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00:41:47.630 --> 00:42:01.520
Community Hall: I just got off of Zoom from 5 to 6 today with Wake Up
California, and they were talking about fire issues across the state.
This is the reorganization of Catalysts for Local Control.
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00:42:01.830 --> 00:42:07.719
Community Hall: I… I know someone on that that lives in a high-fire zone
in the northern part of the state.
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Community Hall: It is exceedingly important that even if…
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00:42:13.750 --> 00:42:22.990
Community Hall: Housing laws are saying we need increased density in
parts of the city, etc, etc.
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00:42:23.190 --> 00:42:39.129
Community Hall: We need to look at reality and rationale to make sure our
public is safe, because we cannot depend on the authors of the housing
bills to provide safety for the residents of Cupertino.
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Community Hall: Monta Vista, I'm familiar with. My husband grew up there.
There is one way in, and one way out. CZU Fire in Santa Cruz. One way in,
one way out. We need to make our residents safe. Thank you.
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Community Hall: Thank you, Jennifer. Our next speaker is David Wai,
followed by Der Chang Kao, followed by Darcy. Welcome, David.
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Community Hall: Thank you. So, commissioners and planning staff, firstly,
good evening, and I want to start by acknowledging the evacuation study
that is being done as part of the health and safety element. I think
there's a lot of important work that's being done as part of that
evaluation.
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00:43:21.400 --> 00:43:26.369
Community Hall: And, you know, what's also important to talk about is the
timing.
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00:43:26.500 --> 00:43:32.129
Community Hall: So, right on the cover of that evacuation study, it says
that it was provided to the city.
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00:43:32.530 --> 00:43:42.510
Community Hall: on October of 2025. So, the city has had this analysis
for 6 months now, and it's showing evacuation demand exceeding
327
00:43:42.560 --> 00:43:50.480
Community Hall: the available capacity by over 200% on McClellan Road and
Bubb Road, which is the two roads where Linda Vista
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00:43:50.480 --> 00:44:03.099
Community Hall: exits. My neighbor has spoken about the evacuation
compression in the Linda Vista spine area, and so that's a structural
constraint that is very concerning for us, and now we have a formal study
329
00:44:03.240 --> 00:44:16.230
Community Hall: In addition to my neighbor's analysis that supports that.
At a prior planning commission meeting, there was… actually, it was the
last one, there was a comment from the applicants
330
00:44:16.500 --> 00:44:18.070
Community Hall: attorney… own attorney.
331
00:44:18.250 --> 00:44:21.670
Community Hall: That really stuck with me. And what she said was.
332
00:44:21.900 --> 00:44:25.399
Community Hall: If it is more likely than not that this
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Community Hall: development poses a health and safety concern, then that
is the only situate… scenario in which you may deny this project. And,
you know, I believe that threshold has been met, for that reason, as well
as many others that,
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00:44:41.290 --> 00:44:46.999
Community Hall: I won't have time to get into this evening. The factual
record includes something that
335
00:44:47.270 --> 00:45:01.290
Community Hall: That, identifies a severe capacity constraint in the… in
the corridors of Linda Vista Drive, and so our expectations as… as
residents is pretty straightforward, that these findings should guide
336
00:45:02.200 --> 00:45:07.059
Community Hall: Decisions that are still being made, not only after,
337
00:45:07.230 --> 00:45:10.079
Community Hall: you know, they're already locked in. And so…
338
00:45:10.700 --> 00:45:16.170
Community Hall: You know, when there's new information that clarifies new
risk, good governance.
339
00:45:16.720 --> 00:45:19.289
Community Hall: Means that we're willing to add just course.
340
00:45:19.850 --> 00:45:27.560
Community Hall: It's important that we don't generically institutionalize
this idea that SB330.
341
00:45:28.010 --> 00:45:41.219
Community Hall: locks in, you know, all health and safety records at the
moment that an application's filed. I'd welcome a discussion with
planning staff as well as city attorney, to go through
342
00:45:41.320 --> 00:45:48.989
Community Hall: you know, our point of view on that, and I would just
leave you with the comment that it's always acceptable
343
00:45:49.160 --> 00:45:54.340
Community Hall: to do the right thing, even if you're already down a
path. And, thank you for your time this evening.
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00:45:56.140 --> 00:46:04.649
Community Hall: Thank you, David. Our next speaker is Der Chang Kao,
followed by Darcy, followed by Peggy Griffin. Welcome, Der Chang. Can you
bring up the, my slides?
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00:46:05.630 --> 00:46:08.079
Community Hall: We didn't receive any slides.
346
00:46:09.240 --> 00:46:12.249
Community Hall: I did the send-in, at 2…
347
00:46:12.720 --> 00:46:15.520
Community Hall: 51, actually. I remember the time.
348
00:46:16.160 --> 00:46:23.479
Community Hall: Okay, do you know who you sent it to? I sent it to… CT
Planning…
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00:46:23.670 --> 00:46:26.590
Community Hall: The… exactly on the agenda, there's a…
350
00:46:27.520 --> 00:46:29.810
Community Hall: I clicked that, email address.
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00:46:34.170 --> 00:46:36.000
Community Hall: Yeah, I didn't receive it.
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00:46:39.010 --> 00:46:48.780
Community Hall: Would you be able to resend it if somebody has access?
Sure. Could we pause the clock? Yeah, maybe go with the other speakers.
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00:46:50.570 --> 00:46:54.500
Community Hall: Yes, if there's a way to go with the other online
speakers, that'd be great, yes.
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00:46:54.670 --> 00:46:59.109
Community Hall: Our next speaker is Darcy, followed by Peggy Griffin.
Welcome, Darcy.
355
00:47:05.450 --> 00:47:09.079
Darcy: I wanted to speak tonight about doing things properly.
356
00:47:09.310 --> 00:47:12.719
Darcy: The common denominators are being willing to do the work.
357
00:47:12.820 --> 00:47:15.020
Darcy: And holding on to good principles.
358
00:47:15.330 --> 00:47:21.239
Darcy: What has been inflicted upon us for the purposes of misguided
political and monetary gain.
359
00:47:21.420 --> 00:47:25.549
Darcy: Is a severe deviation from those practices on a statewide level.
360
00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:28.699
Darcy: But we don't have to try to do things this way.
361
00:47:28.920 --> 00:47:33.570
Darcy: We can have safe, effective, environmentally sound development
362
00:47:33.790 --> 00:47:40.479
Darcy: Without taking shortcuts, or doing things that are inherently
unsafe, while being bullied.
363
00:47:40.670 --> 00:47:42.270
Darcy: Yes, bullied.
364
00:47:42.590 --> 00:47:49.729
Darcy: We need to commit to rational discussions. If we don't do that,
what will happen is what we have seen.
365
00:47:50.040 --> 00:47:54.190
Darcy: You will have some people benefiting financially and politically.
366
00:47:54.310 --> 00:48:01.399
Darcy: But they will be disconnected from doing actual work, or fixing
the problems that some of them claim to champion.
367
00:48:01.520 --> 00:48:11.920
Darcy: But they are only champions, benefiting from the virtue signaling,
from their real-world results. They will be disconnected from that. Do
the math.
368
00:48:12.410 --> 00:48:16.120
Darcy: Please keep working for public safety and the environment.
369
00:48:16.540 --> 00:48:22.249
Darcy: Thinking people are listening, and once the smoke clears and the
dust settles.
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00:48:22.360 --> 00:48:24.419
Darcy: The real work you are doing.
371
00:48:24.580 --> 00:48:30.330
Darcy: Will be what will provide a blueprint to build lasting and safe
developments for the future.
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00:48:31.170 --> 00:48:34.459
Darcy: Ministerial work is very important.
373
00:48:34.790 --> 00:48:41.360
Darcy: However, The principles and values of democracy Require mutual
respect.
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00:48:41.570 --> 00:48:47.060
Darcy: Not just one-directional power plays, which lead to one-sized.
375
00:48:47.550 --> 00:48:52.699
Darcy: Paid-for results that fail to adequately consider important
factors.
376
00:48:53.100 --> 00:48:56.440
Darcy: Thanks for letting me share what I've learned over the years.
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00:48:58.060 --> 00:49:01.620
Community Hall: Thank you, Darcy. Our next speaker is Peggy Griffin.
Welcome, Peggy.
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00:49:07.240 --> 00:49:12.240
Peggy Griffin: Good evening, Planning Commissioners and staff.
379
00:49:13.050 --> 00:49:19.370
Peggy Griffin: I particularly am interested in noise. I live two houses
down from
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00:49:19.510 --> 00:49:25.079
Peggy Griffin: the wall at Interstate 280, and the noise has gotten
381
00:49:25.300 --> 00:49:29.209
Peggy Griffin: Earlier and earlier, and louder and louder.
382
00:49:29.440 --> 00:49:31.159
Peggy Griffin: You can't walk
383
00:49:31.420 --> 00:49:43.159
Peggy Griffin: near the wall without… especially… there's one spot near
Blaney, near the storage place, where the noise is just so loud you can't
even have a conversation.
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00:49:45.260 --> 00:49:53.190
Peggy Griffin: I've been looking for a noise contour map that I saw in
our previous general plan, and I don't see one here.
385
00:49:53.550 --> 00:49:56.300
Peggy Griffin: I… I don't understand why we don't have that.
386
00:49:56.520 --> 00:50:09.100
Peggy Griffin: Also, I've been looking at the strategies for the noise
mitigation, and they're… they're vague. I don't understand why we don't
have objective standards for this.
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00:50:09.510 --> 00:50:13.130
Peggy Griffin: Clear, objective standards to minimize noise.
388
00:50:14.470 --> 00:50:25.340
Peggy Griffin: Also, on I-280 on 85, there has been sections of pavement
that have been changed that significantly reduce the noise.
389
00:50:25.580 --> 00:50:38.080
Peggy Griffin: on the interstates, on Highway 85, and I'm asking the
staff if there is some way those sections of freeway go through Cupertino
and impact
390
00:50:38.460 --> 00:50:44.050
Peggy Griffin: many different residential areas. If there is a way to
391
00:50:45.080 --> 00:50:50.499
Peggy Griffin: Specify that they use a specific noise-dampening pavement.
392
00:50:51.210 --> 00:50:58.919
Peggy Griffin: And also, I would like to draw your attention to written
communications submitted by Kitty Moore.
393
00:50:59.100 --> 00:51:05.350
Peggy Griffin: With some specific objective standards to, in,
394
00:51:05.540 --> 00:51:17.129
Peggy Griffin: To place on, wildfire and evacuation, environmental health
and hazardous materials, noise and public health.
395
00:51:17.960 --> 00:51:26.110
Peggy Griffin: seismic resilience. Please look at those and incorporate
them. Thank you.
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00:51:28.140 --> 00:51:35.179
Community Hall: Thank you, Peggy. Our next speaker is Der Cheng Chao. We
did… we do have your slideshow. One moment while I bring it up.
397
00:51:40.380 --> 00:51:41.620
Community Hall: Oh, one moment.
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00:51:47.480 --> 00:51:52.530
Community Hall: So, I did prepare quite a bit of the document in writing,
so later on I will send this to the
399
00:51:52.640 --> 00:51:58.079
Community Hall: the commission, so… Okay, so this is quite detailed. I
already finished the fifth page, it would be more.
400
00:51:58.390 --> 00:52:02.459
Community Hall: So can you bring up my presentation? One moment. Okay.
401
00:52:04.580 --> 00:52:05.280
Community Hall: Yep.
402
00:52:45.820 --> 00:52:47.609
Community Hall: Can you guys see the slides?
403
00:54:13.080 --> 00:54:16.879
Community Hall: Is it possible for the City Clerk to share the slides on
Zoom?
404
00:54:17.210 --> 00:54:22.200
Community Hall: We're having some issues with the slideshow, we're trying
to figure out.
405
00:54:25.780 --> 00:54:28.349
Community Hall: And, I used to use my phone.
406
00:54:31.420 --> 00:54:34.940
Community Hall: Display settings? Oh, that's okay.
407
00:54:35.750 --> 00:54:36.950
Community Hall: Oh, there we go.
408
00:54:37.510 --> 00:54:38.600
Community Hall: Is it showing?
409
00:54:39.220 --> 00:54:39.980
Community Hall: Yeah.
410
00:54:40.370 --> 00:54:41.570
Community Hall: I don't know which one.
411
00:54:50.640 --> 00:54:52.110
Community Hall: Sorry, one moment.
412
00:55:56.700 --> 00:56:00.730
Community Hall: We're having some issues with Zoom, Chair. Is it okay if
we take a break?
413
00:56:01.500 --> 00:56:04.080
Community Hall: Yeah, that's fine. You can take 5 minutes.
414
00:56:04.410 --> 00:56:05.080
Community Hall: Okay.
415
00:56:05.520 --> 00:56:06.200
Community Hall: Sure.
416
00:56:08.130 --> 00:56:09.010
Community Hall: Right.
417
00:56:10.780 --> 00:56:11.560
Community Hall: It's not…
418
01:00:44.780 --> 01:00:46.879
Community Hall: Sorry, guys, still working on it.
419
01:00:49.760 --> 01:00:51.069
Community Hall: There we go.
420
01:00:51.470 --> 01:01:05.380
Community Hall: Okay, so, again, this is a really great report. I just,
hopefully, I can give a very, very specific feedback to improve this,
the, the guidance, okay? There's four areas that I will talk about. Can
you put the next page?
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01:01:05.460 --> 01:01:19.310
Community Hall: The first one is, you know, the data, the input. The CT
evacuation analysis is built on the pre-zoning data, and cannot support
long-range planning all the way to 2040, as what is expected. The
analysis is outdated.
422
01:01:19.540 --> 01:01:27.800
Community Hall: at the moment, it is published. So that's the first one
that we need to use in the most current data. Okay, can you go to the
next page?
423
01:01:28.050 --> 01:01:36.950
Community Hall: Second one is, the VC ratio, the so-called, the volume
versus capacity ratio, is the, is too simple.
424
01:01:36.980 --> 01:01:48.080
Community Hall: We need to go beyond a total evacuation to safety
framework needed, okay? The ratio itself will hide a lot, lots of true
danger. Cupertino need a total evacuation to safety model?
425
01:01:48.890 --> 01:01:50.969
Community Hall: And, the residents need to know.
426
01:01:51.130 --> 01:02:07.230
Community Hall: Time to safety, not the job. Where's the bottleneck? I
think everybody knows where's the bottleneck. You drive every morning,
you know the bottleneck. You're coming back from home after work, you
know where's the bottleneck. So… so people know where's the bottleneck.
We need to provide something better. Time to safety. Next page, please.
427
01:02:08.260 --> 01:02:12.939
Community Hall: So, computer must move beyond the board planning level
assessment.
428
01:02:13.100 --> 01:02:24.000
Community Hall: has to use the dynamic high-resolution evaluation model.
As a matter of fact, there's a national guidance to work on this one.
This is not a research topic. Maybe 5-10 years ago was.
429
01:02:24.220 --> 01:02:37.849
Community Hall: Now, it's active. You go down to Stanford University, the
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, or Management Science and
Engineering MSE, this is the hot course. Anybody want to pick this
course, okay?
430
01:02:37.850 --> 01:02:48.130
Community Hall: It's at the student level, they take this access, and
they take exam. So Cupertino, and then Marin County already pioneered
many, many of this kind of the, the guidance in their menu.
431
01:02:48.240 --> 01:02:55.169
Community Hall: Cupertino should not… should be a leader, not a lagger,
in the evacuation planning. Next page, please.
432
01:02:55.550 --> 01:03:04.859
Community Hall: And this is all the, the typing in the middle. I hope
that you guys had the chance to read it. I provide a little bit of level
of detail where that you can find those references.
433
01:03:05.460 --> 01:03:10.669
Community Hall: And, the fourth one is the, about the, the high-risk
zone, okay?
434
01:03:10.840 --> 01:03:23.259
Community Hall: We have a full, the evacuation zone lying in the fire
hazard severity zone at the various levels. Yeah, the city has not, this
document, not the model, their street level evacuation behavior.
435
01:03:23.320 --> 01:03:35.830
Community Hall: Okay? Coup's 016, 17, 29, 32 lie inside the zone. And the
coupes, the 29 alone has 38% of all evacuation trips, the highest one.
436
01:03:35.880 --> 01:03:45.259
Community Hall: Okay? So, seldom of the residents remain exposed until
Cupertino model evacuation, where the risk actually exists.
437
01:03:45.660 --> 01:03:49.640
Community Hall: This is very, very critical. I mean, this… this is a
really useful document.
438
01:03:50.280 --> 01:03:51.649
Community Hall: Next page, please.
439
01:03:51.860 --> 01:03:52.900
Community Hall: So…
440
01:03:53.630 --> 01:04:04.830
Community Hall: So, David really did a great job to help me to animate
the model I provided. Like I said, this is a really hot topic, so spend
some time, study the model, and provide the model.
441
01:04:04.860 --> 01:04:14.080
Community Hall: I took the, the average chord as an example. The left
graph is the, the, the before is resoned to 51 unit, R3.
442
01:04:14.080 --> 01:04:25.689
Community Hall: Left, the right graph is the one reflect the current
situation, okay? I tried to emulate when is the, that kind of red flag
alert started. This is at the time zero.
443
01:04:25.720 --> 01:04:27.960
Community Hall: Okay, can you go to the next slides?
444
01:04:28.040 --> 01:04:39.060
Community Hall: This is really a sequence of the, animation. If you want
to, I can send it to you. It's a really great job that David did. So this
is the 5 minutes after the red flag warning on the, on the left, left
plot.
445
01:04:39.060 --> 01:04:49.610
Community Hall: And you can see the cars start emerging onto the Linda
Vista, okay? And the right graph is 15 minutes. You can see on the, the
current, the 51 unit, it's already heavily
446
01:04:49.610 --> 01:04:52.920
Community Hall: populated. Can you go to the next slide?
447
01:04:53.180 --> 01:05:05.739
Community Hall: Thank you, Dhang, that is your time. Can I just get one
more minute, go to the very last slides? I would be open to giving him
one more minute. One more minute. Or 30 seconds? 30 seconds is fine. Just
the last slides. Go all the way down.
448
01:05:06.570 --> 01:05:09.269
Community Hall: So this slide… should be slides 9.
449
01:05:13.350 --> 01:05:14.310
Community Hall: Okay, go ahead.
450
01:05:15.480 --> 01:05:18.430
Community Hall: Okay, move to slice night. Just one more?
451
01:05:19.130 --> 01:05:36.720
Community Hall: One more? 10, okay. So, the current evacuation analysis
is not sufficient for a Wi-Fi-exposed, rapidly densifying Cupertino.
We'll need to grow more houses. The city must adopt a modern data-driven
method to meet 2040 safety needs.
452
01:05:36.840 --> 01:05:50.860
Community Hall: Okay? And there are many, many… the, the, the area that I
just simplified in this sixth bullet, okay? So, protect residents and
meet the intent of the health and safety element. That is your time?
Yeah, the planning level.
453
01:05:51.190 --> 01:05:56.969
Community Hall: Committee to advance the three report. That is your time.
Thank you.
454
01:05:57.940 --> 01:06:04.489
Community Hall: Thank you very much. We'll bring it back to the
Commission now for any further questions, or we can move on to comments.
455
01:06:06.710 --> 01:06:09.499
Community Hall: Yeah, I do have questions. Commissioner Rao?
456
01:06:12.730 --> 01:06:22.840
Community Hall: Yeah, so… Maybe staff can clarify, what is the… So you
have an evacuation… analysis here.
457
01:06:24.150 --> 01:06:28.709
Community Hall: How does that connect to the… draft element update.
458
01:06:29.210 --> 01:06:34.130
Community Hall: And what are we supposed to do with this? I understand
the public has input on the
459
01:06:34.630 --> 01:06:38.159
Community Hall: On the, on the supplied,
460
01:06:39.340 --> 01:06:44.120
Community Hall: The supply drought analysis, but how exactly does that
connect into the element
461
01:06:44.340 --> 01:06:50.150
Community Hall: And how does the element connect into other aspects, like
the code and projects in flight? Maybe staff can help.
462
01:06:53.270 --> 01:07:01.699
Community Hall: So the evacuation analyses, you know, as you heard,
identified certain bottlenecks and identified potential areas of
constraint.
463
01:07:01.990 --> 01:07:10.199
Community Hall: And what the health and safety element now does is put
forward some policies, again, at a general, broad level, because this is
a general plan.
464
01:07:10.320 --> 01:07:25.169
Community Hall: But trying to reduce those bottlenecks, or decrease those
constraints. So that is generally the relationship between the two. We
conduct the analyses, we see where there are potentially challenges for
the community, and then try to introduce some policies to help mitigate
those challenges.
465
01:07:27.300 --> 01:07:31.920
Community Hall: And does the current analysis translate into policies in
the element?
466
01:07:32.780 --> 01:07:38.660
Community Hall: At a broad level, yes. The… because this is a general
plan, it does not specifically say to…
467
01:07:38.770 --> 01:07:53.420
Community Hall: for example, address capacity issues on a particular road
or at a particular intersection. But the policies that are in the health
and safety element, in the draft element, are intended more generally to
address these types of challenges that are identified by the analysis.
468
01:07:53.600 --> 01:08:04.140
Community Hall: I understand it does not have to be specific to McClellan
Road or Bubb Road, but are there techniques or methods to mitigate that
are codified into the
469
01:08:04.560 --> 01:08:06.050
Community Hall: Into the policies.
470
01:08:07.210 --> 01:08:22.279
Community Hall: because of the nature of the policies, it does not
specify a particular constraint or a particular method. There are
certainly many options that are available to the city within the
framework established by the policies to address these issues, but it is
not saying
471
01:08:22.560 --> 01:08:32.019
Community Hall: to use a particular method, or to construct a particular
project, for example. Again, not trying to narrow it down to a particular
method, but if you have a…
472
01:08:32.180 --> 01:08:36.119
Community Hall: a set of methods. Is there any reason why we wouldn't
have policies that
473
01:08:36.529 --> 01:08:41.029
Community Hall: Encourage the implementation or consideration of those
methods.
474
01:08:44.890 --> 01:08:48.990
Community Hall: For example, I think you have some things around the
battery backup systems.
475
01:08:49.500 --> 01:08:58.349
Community Hall: And then you have another set of things around
contraflow, I believe. Yes. Is there any reason we wouldn't have policies
that encouraged the…
476
01:08:58.500 --> 01:09:06.989
Community Hall: City to operationalize and test for readiness the ability
to implement contraflow on evacuation routes.
477
01:09:08.420 --> 01:09:17.740
Community Hall: I'd say if the Commission wanted to make a recommendation
that the City conduct those sorts of studies, that is certainly something
that would be appropriate for the health and safety element.
478
01:09:18.550 --> 01:09:29.949
Community Hall: Okay, so what… what would you say are the techniques?
Again, summarizing the vacation analysis, what would you say are
techniques that could be extrapolated into policy-level statements?
479
01:09:33.890 --> 01:09:37.610
Community Hall: I would say I am, you know, I… I'm not an engineer, so I
would not…
480
01:09:37.840 --> 01:09:50.649
Community Hall: propose, at this time, specific recommendations that
could be interpolated into policies. I think that is something that staff
could perhaps explore and come back on. And this analysis was performed
by Placeworks?
481
01:09:51.240 --> 01:09:58.240
Community Hall: This analysis was performed by Fair and Piers, a
transportation consulting firm. And they are not present on the call? No,
they are not.
482
01:09:58.550 --> 01:10:00.729
Community Hall: Is there any reason they're not present on the call?
483
01:10:01.710 --> 01:10:13.429
Community Hall: there was really no reason for them to be here, and I
also know the budget they had was, gone at this point in time. Okay.
Because I, you know, I struggle to understand this report. I mean, they
talk about
484
01:10:13.940 --> 01:10:20.059
Community Hall: taking public transit during an evacuation. I mean, how
are you supposed to… are you supposed to wait for the VTA bus to…
485
01:10:20.220 --> 01:10:26.290
Community Hall: Get through the clogged-up streets that we were just
shown, and hope that we can take public transit to vacate.
486
01:10:26.980 --> 01:10:37.860
Community Hall: What is the rationale to recommend public transit to
evacuate out of situation that may warrant evacuations.
487
01:10:39.510 --> 01:10:44.900
Community Hall: I don't know specifically on that. I'm sure there's…
there are other things you could find in there.
488
01:10:45.230 --> 01:10:46.400
Community Hall: I'mma get this…
489
01:10:46.880 --> 01:10:56.249
Community Hall: study was done. It's not an evacuation plan. It was done
because there was an assembly bill that said you need to do it as part of
your health and safety element update.
490
01:10:56.250 --> 01:11:08.540
Community Hall: So it's really looking at existing conditions and how
they apply. Has Placeworks got expertise in this space that you could
recommend policy independent of what this report says, or what this
consultant says?
491
01:11:11.140 --> 01:11:18.579
Community Hall: I think Placeworks can consult with the engineers who are
experts on this and recommend policies, but that's not something that I
would want to…
492
01:11:19.050 --> 01:11:27.260
Community Hall: That's something that I would want to make sure we had
the appropriate consultation and discussion before I proposed anything.
Yeah, I struggle with this report in…
493
01:11:27.420 --> 01:11:31.799
Community Hall: You know, it loses credibility when it starts talking
about public transit to evacuate.
494
01:11:32.000 --> 01:11:34.519
Community Hall: Really loses credibility in my eyes, so…
495
01:11:34.670 --> 01:11:43.279
Community Hall: I'd like to have, maybe, the possibility of a three-way
hearing where PlaceWorks is present alongside with this consultant, where
we can have
496
01:11:43.380 --> 01:11:48.400
Community Hall: A realistic discussion on what it means to improve
evacuation, such as contraflow, for example.
497
01:11:50.180 --> 01:11:54.459
Community Hall: And so my… my ask for staff is, is that possible? Can we
have a…
498
01:11:55.050 --> 01:12:08.960
Community Hall: a follow-on hearing, where we hear from this consultant
alongside with Facebook, so we can actually understand what policy could
be meaningfully added, because I hear a lot of public input on this, but
I don't know how that really translates into anything meaningful.
499
01:12:09.980 --> 01:12:10.650
Community Hall: I mean…
500
01:12:11.520 --> 01:12:33.849
Community Hall: I think what we need to focus on, too, is the health and
safety element, not a study that was required to look at, essentially,
the road network as it exists today. And obviously, this is a very new
field, I think, which the study discloses, right, right off the bat. This
is a very new area, it's probably going to evolve quite a bit in 10
years. You'll look back, it'll be much more refined.
501
01:12:34.220 --> 01:12:40.120
Community Hall: But right now, we don't have the ability to get Farron
Pearce here.
502
01:12:40.760 --> 01:12:46.650
Community Hall: And then to hold hearings on their evacuation study, and
then to go and look at how that may
503
01:12:46.880 --> 01:12:49.409
Community Hall: Feed into the health and safety element update.
504
01:12:51.800 --> 01:12:58.350
Community Hall: Okay. I think that's fair. If I just focus on the supply
side and the demand side strategies.
505
01:12:58.970 --> 01:13:00.570
Community Hall: Can Placeworks?
506
01:13:01.510 --> 01:13:10.239
Community Hall: Give us a follow-on version that tries to codify
policies, Looking at potential supply-side strategies.
507
01:13:10.470 --> 01:13:13.499
Community Hall: I'm not sure the demand-side strategies are credible at
all.
508
01:13:14.170 --> 01:13:22.530
Community Hall: This makes no sense to look for transit and wait for
transit to evacuate, or sign a pledge that says one car per household. I
mean, these things don't work.
509
01:13:22.930 --> 01:13:29.170
Community Hall: So, on the supply side, are there policies that we could
get from a follow-on draft? Is there a follow-on draft that's coming to
us?
510
01:13:31.440 --> 01:13:39.249
Community Hall: Again, no, there was not. I mean, the goal was to take
your input and to move to the City Council. Is this scheduled for Council
already?
511
01:13:39.480 --> 01:13:41.260
Community Hall: I believe the end of April.
512
01:13:41.780 --> 01:13:44.989
Community Hall: Okay, so theoretically, we could do another session
between now and then.
513
01:13:46.400 --> 01:13:47.780
Community Hall: Theoretically, you could.
514
01:13:49.550 --> 01:13:53.109
Community Hall: I can… We're gonna have full agendas, I'm just saying.
515
01:13:53.390 --> 01:14:08.569
Community Hall: I did actually look into exactly what Commissioner Rao is
asking about, which is, you know, the supply-side recommendations and
whether they were incorporated into the health and safety element. And
from what I found.
516
01:14:08.570 --> 01:14:25.540
Community Hall: there were… actually, most of them were incorporated, so…
so thank you for working those in. It was a few that didn't make it in
that I thought were actually quite valid. So, wildfire early detection
systems, I thought that seemed like a good technology, pending cost,
whether maybe it's…
517
01:14:25.560 --> 01:14:39.900
Community Hall: Some of these might actually be just studying whether
they would make sense for the city. So, studying wildfire early detection
systems, studying of phased evacuation processes, which was also
mentioned by one of the residents.
518
01:14:39.900 --> 01:14:53.789
Community Hall: And then studying of contraflow or dual-purpose shoulder
lanes, which seems, especially if we are very vastly over capacity and
overburdened in all of our streets, this seems like a very
519
01:14:53.790 --> 01:15:00.100
Community Hall: easy way to temporarily increase the capacity, so I would
love to see that worked into the…
520
01:15:00.140 --> 01:15:02.630
Community Hall: maybe, like, HS2…
521
01:15:02.750 --> 01:15:13.180
Community Hall: section. Right now, HS2.11 reads, ensure that evacuation
routes into and out of the city have adequate capacity, safety, and
viability in the event of an emergency, which
522
01:15:13.190 --> 01:15:24.469
Community Hall: Feels very broad and doesn't really convey any way of
achieving that, so perhaps, you know, the dual-purpose shoulder and
contraflow could be worked into that section.
523
01:15:25.020 --> 01:15:30.089
Community Hall: Do you have any thoughts on whether these are things that
could be done?
524
01:15:31.230 --> 01:15:39.880
Community Hall: I'd like to say, I think one thing that would be helpful
is if this is something the Commission feels that more of these
strategies should be incorporated.
525
01:15:40.660 --> 01:15:45.459
Community Hall: at a general level. That's something I think we could try
to come up with additional policies.
526
01:15:45.600 --> 01:15:49.990
Community Hall: One of the issues I know when the study was getting
worked on is that we're looking at things like
527
01:15:50.230 --> 01:15:55.889
Community Hall: Road capacity, we have nothing budgeted to say to
actually go do roadway improvements, which would probably be…
528
01:15:56.240 --> 01:15:58.819
Community Hall: the easiest way to solve this, so…
529
01:15:58.930 --> 01:16:09.579
Community Hall: A lot of it, we were talking about things like educating
the public, putting in systems to get people aware of evacuation. So, I
agree, things where you're talking about public transit sounds odd.
530
01:16:09.680 --> 01:16:12.399
Community Hall: But the goal was really to, how do you minimize vehicles?
531
01:16:12.900 --> 01:16:17.279
Community Hall: If a family has 3 cars, and you're evacuating, if you
only take 1,
532
01:16:17.580 --> 01:16:25.749
Community Hall: you're keeping fewer cars off the roadway during an
evacuation. But I understand how that could sound in an area where there
isn't a lot of public transit.
533
01:16:26.050 --> 01:16:36.859
Community Hall: But I think it's fair to say if this is something that
you think this study, its findings, could be incorporated better into
policies, that's something I think we can look at doing, and certainly
534
01:16:37.130 --> 01:16:41.049
Community Hall: conveyed to the City Council, it was a concern of the
Planning Commission.
535
01:16:41.490 --> 01:16:46.400
Community Hall: Okay, thank you. So, would the correct way to assess that
be just a straw poll, since this is a…
536
01:16:46.610 --> 01:16:48.730
Community Hall: Study session.
537
01:16:49.380 --> 01:16:53.909
Community Hall: Through the chair, I believe we can use motions. City
Atteney has confirmed that to me.
538
01:16:54.640 --> 01:16:59.700
Community Hall: Okay, alright, yes, we were… we're not done with
questions, so please feel free to question
539
01:17:00.400 --> 01:17:02.989
Community Hall: We're moving on to comments? Go ahead. Vice Chair.
540
01:17:03.910 --> 01:17:07.830
Community Hall: Okay, this is on page 83.
541
01:17:07.930 --> 01:17:13.440
Community Hall: HS-2.14, secondary ingress and egress for Existing
Development.
542
01:17:13.940 --> 01:17:18.559
Community Hall: So when it says, encourage secondary means, Of ingress
and egress.
543
01:17:20.790 --> 01:17:26.019
Community Hall: it seems… Like, are we either gonna mandate it, or…
544
01:17:26.160 --> 01:17:29.870
Community Hall: Are we going to say, yeah, if you feel like it, do it?
545
01:17:30.700 --> 01:17:33.799
Community Hall: I think if you'd like it mandated, that should be a
comment.
546
01:17:34.890 --> 01:17:42.530
Community Hall: I mean, for existing development, it's, you know, it is
kind of difficult, but for new development, it should definitely be
mandated.
547
01:17:43.240 --> 01:17:48.210
Community Hall: You know, I guess it's too late now for the… The Evilich…
548
01:17:48.360 --> 01:17:51.710
Community Hall: Property, but, you know, we need to get this…
549
01:17:51.840 --> 01:17:56.279
Community Hall: Into our general plan as a mandate, you know, as soon as
we can, so we don't…
550
01:17:56.380 --> 01:17:58.549
Community Hall: End up with this kind of thing again.
551
01:18:00.900 --> 01:18:08.510
Community Hall: through the chair, if I may follow up on that point, I
think there's the law of unintended side effects, which is…
552
01:18:08.700 --> 01:18:11.119
Community Hall: If you have a cul-de-sac on a hillside.
553
01:18:12.220 --> 01:18:18.920
Community Hall: And I didn't see the policies differentiate again between
R1 versus R3, and I keep going back to that.
554
01:18:19.100 --> 01:18:28.589
Community Hall: So if you have somebody that's living on a cul-de-sac
west of Linda Vista Drive that does a teardown rebuild, and that cul-de-
sac does not have dual ingress-egress.
555
01:18:28.930 --> 01:18:39.650
Community Hall: Are we now requiring the homeowner to bear the cost of
creating those roadway improvements? I know we've had some of those cases
on Ragnarok Creek when we did the RHS searing for Ragnarok Creek, but
556
01:18:39.890 --> 01:18:43.769
Community Hall: Those are very expensive improvements on the homeowner,
and…
557
01:18:44.090 --> 01:18:50.310
Community Hall: again, this is not, you know, Regnaut Creek or Lindy Lane
or something like that. Everything west of
558
01:18:51.050 --> 01:18:53.909
Community Hall: Orange Auburn is in this red map.
559
01:18:54.230 --> 01:18:58.020
Community Hall: And so what we're saying is, if you're in a cul-de-sac
west of Orange or Bern.
560
01:18:58.720 --> 01:19:07.689
Community Hall: These are enormous costs if you're going to do a teardown
limit, so we just need to distinguish clearly, as much as we can between
what is commercial development.
561
01:19:08.470 --> 01:19:13.809
Community Hall: And what is homeowners that can't afford to live here and
can't afford to remodel, so…
562
01:19:15.140 --> 01:19:23.420
Community Hall: Does that… does that resonate with… with the… Let's stop,
I mean…
563
01:19:23.730 --> 01:19:27.169
Community Hall: What… how should we look at this for single-family new
construction?
564
01:19:29.390 --> 01:19:36.760
Community Hall: I mean, I think you have made the point about trying to
differentiate new development from existing development, and again, I
think
565
01:19:37.210 --> 01:19:41.720
Community Hall: That type of language on a general basis could be put in
this document.
566
01:19:42.400 --> 01:19:45.260
Community Hall: You know, but again, I would just go back to…
567
01:19:46.470 --> 01:19:49.849
Community Hall: If fire codes and building codes evolve.
568
01:19:49.990 --> 01:19:55.049
Community Hall: It's going to be a health and safety issue that the code
would address.
569
01:19:55.190 --> 01:19:59.949
Community Hall: Commissioner Scharf's question about should we make the
language definite or firm?
570
01:20:00.640 --> 01:20:11.610
Community Hall: that's really a call, no matter how strongly you feel
about the particular policy or the particular issue. There can be that
unintended consequence, then, that once you have a shall.
571
01:20:12.190 --> 01:20:16.789
Community Hall: you now have made it firmer, and there could possibly be
an exception in the future to that.
572
01:20:17.150 --> 01:20:19.090
Community Hall: Flexibility cuts both ways.
573
01:20:19.650 --> 01:20:24.059
Community Hall: But keep in mind, also, this is a policy document, it's
not an ordinance.
574
01:20:24.500 --> 01:20:29.300
Community Hall: And specificity can be handled through ordinances as
well.
575
01:20:30.720 --> 01:20:38.529
Community Hall: And so, to that point, Language that mandates something
in a policy document is not enforceable, is that right?
576
01:20:39.580 --> 01:20:41.070
Community Hall: Is not enforceable?
577
01:20:41.920 --> 01:20:44.870
Community Hall: Well, generally, you have to make general plan findings,
say.
578
01:20:45.060 --> 01:20:48.680
Community Hall: for projects, for consistency. So if you had something
where that
579
01:20:49.190 --> 01:20:54.460
Community Hall: Policy was relevant to the project, and it was
inconsistent with it, that would be an issue.
580
01:20:55.380 --> 01:21:00.060
Community Hall: So, language in a policy document that says shall instead
of should.
581
01:21:00.440 --> 01:21:02.850
Community Hall: Would mean you could not violate that finding.
582
01:21:04.390 --> 01:21:07.870
Community Hall: If you were to have something that was very specific,
that is…
583
01:21:08.030 --> 01:21:15.219
Community Hall: Quantifying a number of access points and saying, you
have to have this, and a project did not have it? Yes, you would have an
issue there.
584
01:21:16.370 --> 01:21:24.410
Community Hall: Yeah, and so I'd encourage our fellow commissioners to
think about the side effects. As someone that lives in this red zone.
585
01:21:24.570 --> 01:21:28.070
Community Hall: And lives in the midst of many cul-de-sacs.
586
01:21:28.780 --> 01:21:34.779
Community Hall: The only way you get dual ingress egress is if you start
building new roads in the hills where there are no new roads today.
587
01:21:35.220 --> 01:21:37.130
Community Hall: So I don't know how you can exit.
588
01:21:37.390 --> 01:21:41.850
Community Hall: A number of cul-de-sacs that we have in areas that are in
the red zone today.
589
01:21:42.610 --> 01:21:48.169
Community Hall: In more… in areas east of Foothill, you might in some
places, but…
590
01:21:48.330 --> 01:21:56.830
Community Hall: As you start to get into terrain that's west of
Blackberry Farm, I don't see how you can even achieve this without trying
to pave into the hillside.
591
01:22:01.830 --> 01:22:04.049
Community Hall: Do we have any other questions?
592
01:22:04.460 --> 01:22:07.060
Community Hall: Okay, comments?
593
01:22:07.680 --> 01:22:08.710
Community Hall: on the commission.
594
01:22:09.060 --> 01:22:09.970
Community Hall: Bye, sure.
595
01:22:12.300 --> 01:22:20.270
Community Hall: Yeah, I mean, it's a good point that, Commissioner Rao
makes, but I'm also thinking… about…
596
01:22:20.610 --> 01:22:26.460
Community Hall: I recall on San Fernando Avenue once, there was dual
egress-eggress.
597
01:22:26.680 --> 01:22:34.709
Community Hall: And then, I believe it was a church got torn down, they
built houses so you can't… can no longer get out onto,
598
01:22:35.120 --> 01:22:38.670
Community Hall: McClellan… And so, in that case.
599
01:22:38.950 --> 01:22:42.369
Community Hall: The developer was allowed to remove ingress egress.
600
01:22:42.530 --> 01:22:48.899
Community Hall: And I think that's something we really want to not… Allow
in the future to…
601
01:22:49.220 --> 01:22:54.090
Community Hall: You know, now there's a single point of ingress-egress on
that road, where before we had two.
602
01:22:54.580 --> 01:23:02.689
Community Hall: So, let's not… approve… more developments that remove
ingress egress.
603
01:23:04.550 --> 01:23:11.599
Community Hall: And at the same time, I guess we've had, through the
chair, I guess, we've had residents come to us and ask for privacy.
604
01:23:11.980 --> 01:23:17.709
Community Hall: With streets being cordoned off, such as the Tone Runners
project, where we had residents come in asking for
605
01:23:17.970 --> 01:23:20.769
Community Hall: Portions of that street to actually have
606
01:23:20.900 --> 01:23:28.800
Community Hall: blockage. I know we have other streets, such as, I
believe, Orange Auburn, or one of those side streets where you cannot
connect through to Stevens Creek from McLellan.
607
01:23:29.050 --> 01:23:33.410
Community Hall: So that's another example where, you know, your egress
out of McClellan
608
01:23:34.420 --> 01:23:41.840
Community Hall: conflicts with residents' desire for not having traffic
flowing through routinely, and so we're dealing with those conflicts as
well.
609
01:23:42.090 --> 01:23:43.929
Community Hall: So I don't know how commissioners feel about…
610
01:23:44.260 --> 01:23:47.859
Community Hall: I mean, some of this, again, bear in mind the
neighborhood hasn't changed
611
01:23:48.120 --> 01:23:51.230
Community Hall: This is the state saying we are suddenly red, where we…
612
01:23:51.410 --> 01:23:55.769
Community Hall: have existed for decades with no evacuations. How many
times have we evacuated Cupertino?
613
01:23:57.940 --> 01:24:02.300
Community Hall: I've been here 4 years, we haven't in those 4, I have no
idea. Okay.
614
01:24:03.200 --> 01:24:06.370
Community Hall: So how much of this is really… I asked my fellow
commissioners.
615
01:24:06.610 --> 01:24:18.500
Community Hall: How much of this is really increasing the cost of
remodels or construction, and therefore the cost of housing, but also the
cost on just living here? Because when you increase the cost of housing,
it increases rents.
616
01:24:19.050 --> 01:24:23.350
Community Hall: So how much of this is the state just pushing more
studies that benefit
617
01:24:23.510 --> 01:24:25.979
Community Hall: Consultants that will do studies like these.
618
01:24:26.500 --> 01:24:28.540
Community Hall: Without really having any material effect.
619
01:24:29.080 --> 01:24:44.899
Community Hall: Well, can I clarify what exactly are you proposing to
change? Because I think most of the ingress and egress is very
specifically for parcels above 5 units and above, so wouldn't really
apply to single-family homes. So what line or what policy are you trying
to change?
620
01:24:45.390 --> 01:24:51.369
Community Hall: So, my comment is a little more broad, which is… I'd like
us to…
621
01:24:52.690 --> 01:24:57.109
Community Hall: To sort of take this policy up a little bit and assess
how much of this
622
01:24:57.690 --> 01:25:11.800
Community Hall: is language that really takes away control from us, in
terms of local control. We have never evacuated Cupertino. Yes, this is
something we should do, but how much of this is just creating studies for
projects that increase the cost of housing.
623
01:25:12.200 --> 01:25:17.609
Community Hall: And just… Make it more unaffordable to live here, or
remodel here.
624
01:25:18.040 --> 01:25:21.549
Community Hall: While enriching consultants with more and more and more
studies.
625
01:25:21.970 --> 01:25:23.690
Community Hall: I just ask us to think about that.
626
01:25:24.290 --> 01:25:26.159
Community Hall: Can I make a quick comment?
627
01:25:26.260 --> 01:25:44.429
Community Hall: Yes, Commissioner Linskog. Can I just clarify how much of
these recommendations are state or regional, guidelines or mandates, and
how much of it, like, came… is over and above that? Can you give us a
sense for that?
628
01:25:49.260 --> 01:26:07.110
Community Hall: Yes, thank you. The… the policies related to the multiple
points of ingress and egress in those designated very high fire zones,
that is, as you heard, that is state language that is in the code, those
are requirements. Some of the actions that we were talking about a little
earlier, contraflow.
629
01:26:07.380 --> 01:26:16.319
Community Hall: shoulder driving and so on, those are not manda… red flag
parking restrictions. Those are not mandated by the state. That is
entirely at the city's discretion at this time.
630
01:26:17.700 --> 01:26:23.320
Community Hall: I mean, in terms of what you have in the document right
now. Some of the stuff that was mentioned is not in the document right
now.
631
01:26:28.450 --> 01:26:36.930
Community Hall: I guess my point is, if you live in the hills in an
extremely high fire risk area,
632
01:26:38.640 --> 01:26:43.880
Community Hall: I mean, it kind of comes with the territory that you have
to take precautions.
633
01:26:43.940 --> 01:26:50.650
Community Hall: For your own safety, as well as for the safety of your
neighbors and your, and the broader community.
634
01:26:50.690 --> 01:27:07.779
Community Hall: So I… I can see why that's, you know, that's not great,
because it adds cost, and it adds, you know, complexity. But that's kind
of, you know, what you agree to when you… when you live in those areas.
635
01:27:07.830 --> 01:27:15.780
Community Hall: So, you know, if it discourages density in those areas,
and it discourages people from
636
01:27:15.780 --> 01:27:33.000
Community Hall: further building more single-family and multi-family
homes, then we've achieved our objective, in a way, right? Because we
don't want increased density, and if anything, we want reduced density in
those areas that are high-fire zones. As we've seen from, you know, the
fires in Santa Cruz.
637
01:27:33.230 --> 01:27:43.720
Community Hall: So… so I guess I'm not against having these policies,
because they… they do serve a purpose. I… I don't see them as necessarily
penalizing the residents.
638
01:27:43.870 --> 01:27:51.999
Community Hall: So that's my perspective. Yeah, through the chair, I
would just remind us that the red map starts west of Orange or Bern.
639
01:27:52.400 --> 01:27:56.860
Community Hall: just a street or two west of Bubb, so this wouldn't by no
means be hillside.
640
01:27:57.240 --> 01:28:03.300
Community Hall: The… and these codes apply to orange and yellow as well,
so that puts us…
641
01:28:03.480 --> 01:28:05.490
Community Hall: maybe West was telling.
642
01:28:07.330 --> 01:28:14.799
Community Hall: I think just to answer your question, it's a little bit
difficult for me to opine on whether I would not agree or agree
643
01:28:14.900 --> 01:28:19.759
Community Hall: On whether this is restrictive to single-family homes
without knowing
644
01:28:19.840 --> 01:28:34.819
Community Hall: precisely what you're referring to. So far, for me, when
I'm looking at the health and safety element, most of these policies are
really referring to larger complexes, so I have no issue with mandating
that larger housing complexes follow the proper
645
01:28:34.820 --> 01:28:43.339
Community Hall: protocols for being safe. And again, I think if you… if
you have issues with anything relating to R1, I think it'd be helpful if
you were
646
01:28:43.430 --> 01:28:50.119
Community Hall: If you specify that. Through the Chair, the policies do
not distinguish, currently, R1 versus R3, so…
647
01:28:50.710 --> 01:28:57.269
Community Hall: Specifically, I think when we talk about dual ingress,
egress, and other roadway improvements, those would apply to
648
01:28:58.110 --> 01:29:04.849
Community Hall: To anybody improving, R1 lot with a teardown rebuild or a
lot split.
649
01:29:09.620 --> 01:29:11.489
Community Hall: Is that… is that accurate?
650
01:29:13.420 --> 01:29:22.379
Community Hall: Well, I mean, the policies are gonna apply for whether
you're in the fire zone or not. So most of those are gonna be RHS and
possibly R1.
651
01:29:22.650 --> 01:29:29.540
Community Hall: Now, we do have NR3 property in a very high fire as well,
but that's not common.
652
01:29:30.420 --> 01:29:35.149
Community Hall: Can staff qualify when you say fire hazard zone, do you
mean moderate?
653
01:29:35.370 --> 01:29:39.070
Community Hall: No. Moderate is a different standard. It's very high and
high.
654
01:29:40.230 --> 01:29:41.630
Community Hall: Would that include high?
655
01:29:42.190 --> 01:29:44.580
Community Hall: It does in this city, yes. Okay.
656
01:29:44.830 --> 01:29:46.250
Community Hall: What street?
657
01:29:46.420 --> 01:29:49.939
Community Hall: It does. I know everything west of about, I think.
658
01:29:50.690 --> 01:29:53.159
Community Hall: somewhere between Bob and Stelling, maybe, is…
659
01:29:53.400 --> 01:30:00.729
Community Hall: is yellow and then… or orange and then red. Can we put up
the map? Does the consultant have the map handy? Can you share that?
660
01:30:01.110 --> 01:30:06.890
Community Hall: Sorry, can you clarify where you're seeing that R1 lots
would be subject to ingress and egress? Because I'm not seeing that.
661
01:30:12.100 --> 01:30:21.570
Community Hall: There's HS2.13, which is require new subdivisions or
multiple units of… unit developments of 5 or more lots.
662
01:30:22.030 --> 01:30:29.159
Community Hall: So I think maybe that's what he's looking at. The rest
are really referring to evacuation constraints.
663
01:30:29.360 --> 01:30:35.620
Community Hall: Or, you know, slowly… 3.14, policy H is 3.14.
664
01:30:36.410 --> 01:30:43.089
Community Hall: Because 2.13 says new subdivisions, not single-family
homes, right? 3.14.
665
01:30:58.520 --> 01:31:05.330
Community Hall: Again, I think it's fair to say that staff have offered
us the option to pass a motion to be
666
01:31:06.090 --> 01:31:13.020
Community Hall: discretionary on what we apply to R3 new development
versus R1, remodel…
667
01:31:13.360 --> 01:31:19.879
Community Hall: Sorry, what page are you on with 3.14? 3.14 is fire-safe
roadways, is that what you're referring to?
668
01:31:20.010 --> 01:31:21.430
Community Hall: Fire Safe Roadbase.
669
01:31:21.800 --> 01:31:29.560
Community Hall: Okay, require existing public and private roadways and
fire hazard severity zones to comply with current fire safety
regulations.
670
01:31:29.740 --> 01:31:33.559
Community Hall: for new subdivisions and development. But would that
apply to…
671
01:31:35.200 --> 01:31:40.420
Community Hall: So here's the thing. New subdivisions and development are
two very different things.
672
01:31:40.720 --> 01:31:44.529
Community Hall: A lot split could be a new development. An ADU could be a
new development.
673
01:31:45.390 --> 01:31:50.250
Community Hall: Yeah, the intent of this is a subdivision that would
include new development, so…
674
01:31:50.750 --> 01:32:02.940
Community Hall: I guess if there were language saying a certain number of
units or more, I know some of these policies talk about 5 or more units,
but this is, again, going to subdivision and development. So, so what's…
675
01:32:03.190 --> 01:32:09.729
Community Hall: I want to make sure the consultant understands the
sentiment, because this came up amply in the last hearing. I don't know
if the consultant was present.
676
01:32:10.520 --> 01:32:16.989
Community Hall: we do not want to burden our single-family homes,
including our ADU development, with these costs. Is that clear?
677
01:32:19.370 --> 01:32:25.340
Community Hall: I would say you've made that very clear, yes. Okay, so if
we have language that says regulations for new subdivisions and
development.
678
01:32:27.100 --> 01:32:36.389
Community Hall: Does it seem like that could be very confusing, and a
planner could interpret that to say, if you're putting an ADU, you're
going to be responsible for cost to change the road to be fire safe?
679
01:32:37.260 --> 01:32:46.310
Community Hall: One, there would be no nexus for putting in an ADU and
then having to upgrade the roadway, but two, I think if we want to
clarify this, we could say.
680
01:32:46.460 --> 01:32:52.580
Community Hall: New subdivisions that result in new units, new
development, so a gain in units.
681
01:32:53.910 --> 01:33:05.520
Community Hall: But how many units? If you did a lot split, would that be
new development, new units? That would be a question of how much you want
to encourage develop… new development in a high-fire zone.
682
01:33:06.370 --> 01:33:15.579
Community Hall: It's really what it would come down to. The intent of
this was talking about subdivisions and new additional units. It wasn't
going towards somebody adding an ADU,
683
01:33:15.730 --> 01:33:25.909
Community Hall: or somebody doing an addition on their house, or
rebuilding an existing home. It was really intensifying development in a
fire zone. Is there any reason this couldn't just be more specific to,
say, R3?
684
01:33:26.380 --> 01:33:28.680
Community Hall: Why couldn't we just use language like R3?
685
01:33:30.220 --> 01:33:32.250
Community Hall: the R3 zoning district?
686
01:33:33.500 --> 01:33:39.109
Community Hall: It's not the same thing. Is 5 or more units synonymous
with R3?
687
01:33:40.070 --> 01:33:44.139
Community Hall: It could be, sure. But an R1 split is not an R3. Right.
688
01:33:44.520 --> 01:33:49.100
Community Hall: So, so my, my question is, would we apply the same
689
01:33:49.640 --> 01:33:54.089
Community Hall: level of policy for a lot split versus 5 or more units, I
would…
690
01:33:54.090 --> 01:34:14.960
Community Hall: I would think so, yes. In a hillside, yeah. Again, this
is not a hillside. We are talking high and very high severity fire zone,
which is literally west of Stelling. This is not a hillside. Yes, because
again, if… regardless of whether you are on a hillside or not, if you are
in a fire hazard severity zone.
691
01:34:15.550 --> 01:34:22.619
Community Hall: I don't know that we want to encourage More density
without adequate
692
01:34:22.900 --> 01:34:35.959
Community Hall: ingress and egress and, you know, evacuation
capabilities. Yeah, and if I could just say that if you were in an R1
zone or RHS, you could still add 5 or 10 units through a subdivision.
693
01:34:36.570 --> 01:34:43.289
Community Hall: I mean, R3 just means you have a multifamily development,
and you… Okay, fair enough. So it would help to be more…
694
01:34:44.440 --> 01:34:49.160
Community Hall: At least, in my opinion, more… specific about…
695
01:34:49.530 --> 01:34:51.819
Community Hall: 5 or more units, as opposed to…
696
01:34:51.990 --> 01:34:56.470
Community Hall: 1 and 2 units, I would… I would hope, but again…
697
01:34:56.660 --> 01:34:58.999
Community Hall: I think we can test that with motions.
698
01:35:00.760 --> 01:35:11.179
Community Hall: So, if I can just jump in, maybe those speed disallowed.
So, I'm going to ask staff, do you understand Commissioner Rao's
concerns? And you're going to consider them, see whether you can
implement them in this
699
01:35:11.650 --> 01:35:26.659
Community Hall: revised plan? Yes, and I believe we have other policies
that specify 5 or more units. Right, so this is a study session, and I'm
hearing really good feedback from all of the commissioners and the chair,
and I think staff is taking down notes, incorporating all of those. I'm
not hearing
700
01:35:27.100 --> 01:35:39.740
Community Hall: you know, much disagreement, like, I just dislike that
recommendation, so I'm not sure, you know, we would need a motion to
identify a majority versus a minority. I mean, I think this is a good
discussion we're having, and I think
701
01:35:39.880 --> 01:35:42.480
Community Hall: You know, we're achieving our purpose of the study
session.
702
01:35:43.820 --> 01:35:54.329
Community Hall: Thank you, City Attorney, for clarifying that. Any other
comments? I have a few comments. Okay, so going to HS…
703
01:35:54.600 --> 01:36:03.710
Community Hall: 2… In terms of strategies for communication, I thought
that was, good, but I, I…
704
01:36:04.160 --> 01:36:19.939
Community Hall: I thought one of the things that we should be including
in there is communicating through schools, and, you know, sending home
letters with, with children, because I know parents always read anything
that comes from schools, from their, you know, it's a great way to
communicate.
705
01:36:19.980 --> 01:36:38.890
Community Hall: So… and it's a great way to raise awareness, and through
the Senior Center is another way to communicate, so… and that applies to
all of the HSs, not just HS2. But just beefing up the communication
methods, to be… to be more robust, I think, would be really helpful.
706
01:36:39.010 --> 01:36:43.270
Community Hall: The other one is the, the block leaders,
707
01:36:43.810 --> 01:36:56.920
Community Hall: I… that… that program, I feel, is under… under, invested
in, and under-published, and… and there's a lack of awareness of it, and
it would be great if…
708
01:36:56.960 --> 01:37:10.900
Community Hall: the city could publish a block leader map and a list of
who the block leaders are, so that if I am, you know, if I need to know
who my block leader is, that neighbors can find and communicate with
their block leaders.
709
01:37:10.900 --> 01:37:19.820
Community Hall: In case of an emergency, or in case of, you know, yeah,
evacuations or whatever, so it would be good to have that readily
accessible.
710
01:37:19.820 --> 01:37:26.040
Community Hall: Again, in terms of communications, because that feels
like that's a… that's a major lack.
711
01:37:26.120 --> 01:37:45.070
Community Hall: The, evacuation routes in HS2.11, it says, ensure
evacuation route designations are reviewed and updated as needed. I just
wanted a clarification on that. What is the threshold for triggering a
review of the evacuation routes? What do you… what does as needed mean?
712
01:37:45.370 --> 01:37:48.179
Community Hall: And I'll stop there and provide further comment later.
713
01:37:53.290 --> 01:38:03.350
Community Hall: Generally would mean, first of all, when the safety
element is reviewed and updated as state mandated, so every 8 years,
taking a look and seeing if those designations need to be changed.
714
01:38:03.510 --> 01:38:09.990
Community Hall: And then if there are any other substantive changes that
happen in the interim, that might…
715
01:38:10.020 --> 01:38:20.370
Community Hall: require that sort of re-evaluation, or that might… where
it might make sense to do that sort of re-evaluation. It's not a firmly
quantifiable trigger, it's more of, does this seem necessary, given
716
01:38:20.370 --> 01:38:30.839
Community Hall: changes in land use or infrastructure changes. So, for
example, if we were to build a 32-unit, development, does that trigger
it, or a 51-unit development, or…
717
01:38:30.840 --> 01:38:42.600
Community Hall: Well, there is no… like, what is the threshold there that
would be like, oh, okay, we're adding so much more, number… housing, or
density, or whatever, that this triggers an evacuation, review?
718
01:38:42.750 --> 01:38:51.510
Community Hall: Well, at the moment, there is no mandated threshold, so
it would really be whatever city decision makers and city staff feel is
an appropriate
719
01:38:51.650 --> 01:38:59.969
Community Hall: level of change or intensity that might trigger that
review. It's not something that the state is going to say, you must do
this because you have crossed a certain threshold.
720
01:39:00.890 --> 01:39:17.859
Community Hall: So, can we maybe recommend something as a threshold?
Maybe as a, you know, a percentage increase in the number of homes in a
one-mile radius? I don't know. Some sort of, you know, some sort of
recommendation, I think, would be helpful, versus just saying, as needed.
721
01:39:18.980 --> 01:39:21.650
Community Hall: Yeah, absolutely, I think that is something that could be
included.
722
01:39:21.890 --> 01:39:22.970
Community Hall: Great, thanks.
723
01:39:25.530 --> 01:39:38.649
Community Hall: I wanted to just comment on, adding more objective
standards to the document where possible, and, you know, some of these
might be questions for you. One is around ingress and egress, or access
points.
724
01:39:38.710 --> 01:39:49.970
Community Hall: is the width of these roads specified within building
code, or is that something that we should specify? You know, just because
somebody puts a, you know, a path doesn't mean that it's really a viable
one.
725
01:39:50.930 --> 01:40:10.480
Community Hall: That would be both public works and county fire, where
you'd have areas looking at roadway width and access. But that roadway
widths and things like that would typically not go in your general plan.
Okay, thank you. And then, moving on to HS6, which is hazardous materials
and exposure to electromagnetic fields,
726
01:40:11.400 --> 01:40:22.859
Community Hall: Is it possible for this policy to state that a Phase 1
environmental site assessment is mandatory for any development
application on a parcel with a historical, industrial, commercial use?
727
01:40:24.640 --> 01:40:38.570
Community Hall: Our municipal code pretty much already requires that. I
don't have the exact language handy, but for Section 1704, most projects
already do a Phase 1, and if the Phase 1 turns up any,
728
01:40:38.970 --> 01:40:53.629
Community Hall: any reason for doing a Phase 2. Phase 2s are required
prior to a hearing on a project. Okay, thank you. Should the draft
explicitly reference EPA residential screening levels for PCE and PFAS?
729
01:40:54.060 --> 01:40:56.840
Community Hall: As the mandatory threshold for occupancy permits.
730
01:40:57.750 --> 01:41:07.929
Community Hall: Again, that would be covered by, it's predominantly going
to be, agencies like County Department of Environmental Health or
Department of Toxic Substances Control.
731
01:41:08.180 --> 01:41:18.870
Community Hall: Where you have environmental cleanup like that, they're
the oversight agency, the city is not. Okay. And plus, those levels may
change over time, too, so,
732
01:41:19.460 --> 01:41:26.719
Community Hall: Where you have that type of contamination, a project
posing some type of development is always going to have to address the
environmental cleanup.
733
01:41:27.420 --> 01:41:36.289
Community Hall: Okay, thank you. And then I have, one more on HS7, and
then I'll turn it back to the rest of the Commission around, flood risk.
We…
734
01:41:36.380 --> 01:41:56.000
Community Hall: We don't really mention the specific FEMA community
rating system ratings, but I did notice that we recently improved from a
7 to a 6, and I think we would want to protect that good work, so my
recommendation would be if we could update HS… maybe HS1.1 or HS7.4.3 to
735
01:41:56.020 --> 01:42:02.080
Community Hall: work to maintain or improve our FEMA CRS rating, just…
736
01:42:02.130 --> 01:42:05.779
Community Hall: Since so many things seem to fall off of that.
737
01:42:07.490 --> 01:42:09.660
Community Hall: And then, any other comments?
738
01:42:11.160 --> 01:42:18.360
Community Hall: Yeah, I'd just like to… Sort of make a comment here that…
The risk we run.
739
01:42:18.660 --> 01:42:21.410
Community Hall: In some of these mandates, as we call it.
740
01:42:22.130 --> 01:42:26.820
Community Hall: Is it's a lot of feel-good virtue signaling, that we feel
like we're gonna be safer.
741
01:42:26.950 --> 01:42:33.069
Community Hall: The reality is that these commercial projects, as we have
seen over and over again with SP330,
742
01:42:33.680 --> 01:42:38.660
Community Hall: The developer can ask for a waiver, and they waive the
requirement.
743
01:42:38.920 --> 01:42:42.350
Community Hall: And we leave the single-family homeowner stuck with the
cost of this.
744
01:42:42.810 --> 01:42:56.019
Community Hall: So, I urge my fellow commissioners to really apply common
sense. A lot of this is state law. I understand we are not able to work
around certain aspects of the state, but to the extent we can maintain
local control.
745
01:42:56.270 --> 01:43:04.530
Community Hall: By not overly mandating things that we cannot enforce on
commercial SB330,
746
01:43:04.780 --> 01:43:07.899
Community Hall: But that will end up being enforced on single-family
homes.
747
01:43:08.180 --> 01:43:15.529
Community Hall: I think we just need to use common sense and not virtue
signal through this document, because that's all this document is. All it
does
748
01:43:15.700 --> 01:43:19.280
Community Hall: Is it enriches consultants with more studies.
749
01:43:19.780 --> 01:43:27.520
Community Hall: While our seniors and our families in Cupertino are going
to pay the cost through increased permit fees, increased peer studies and
peer reviews.
750
01:43:27.630 --> 01:43:30.230
Community Hall: Increased improvement projects.
751
01:43:30.350 --> 01:43:38.830
Community Hall: that make the cost of living here simply unaffordable. So
let's recognize this for what it is. It's adding a cost burden to
Cupertino residents.
752
01:43:39.130 --> 01:43:46.769
Community Hall: And all of this is a lot of virtual signaling. Where we
want this to be applied, it will be waived, because you cannot enforce
this with SB330.
753
01:43:51.700 --> 01:43:54.149
Community Hall: So with that, I'd like to make a motion.
754
01:43:55.250 --> 01:44:03.179
Community Hall: To bring back a revised version of this document that
includes specific policies For evacuation, supply side.
755
01:44:05.280 --> 01:44:08.789
Community Hall: additional policies. Is that… is that something that we
can get?
756
01:44:09.030 --> 01:44:15.150
Community Hall: I know we start at the beginning of the meeting with
staff saying they might come back with ideas for how to craft a motion
here. Is this…
757
01:44:15.290 --> 01:44:16.850
Community Hall: I know when we had,
758
01:44:17.340 --> 01:44:20.219
Community Hall: PU, he or she would craft these motions on the fly.
759
01:44:20.470 --> 01:44:23.200
Community Hall: But can we craft a motion here for the…
760
01:44:24.460 --> 01:44:28.869
Community Hall: The addition of evacuation route supply-side policies to
the document.
761
01:44:30.560 --> 01:44:33.589
Community Hall: So, this is styled as a study session.
762
01:44:33.850 --> 01:44:39.599
Community Hall: To receive feedback for… via your recommendations to
staff on this.
763
01:44:40.030 --> 01:44:43.839
Community Hall: On this, health and safety element.
764
01:44:45.230 --> 01:45:01.760
Community Hall: Commissioner, I… I think… I'm trying to think through
procedurally how to accommodate what you're doing. It sounds like you
want to make a motion to continue the hearing to another date with
recommendations you want to make to staff. I think… I think that's
possible.
765
01:45:01.880 --> 01:45:10.830
Community Hall: I want to look at my notes, but I think you want to
debate that suggestion to continue this hearing to some date in the
future.
766
01:45:11.130 --> 01:45:23.229
Community Hall: keeping in mind the recommendations that are being made
tonight. Through the Chair, at this point, I'm not making a motion to
continue, I'm simply making a motion to add additional policies that
address the evacuation
767
01:45:23.400 --> 01:45:40.990
Community Hall: analysis, supply-side recommendations? No, that's
absolutely appropriate, and, you know, recommendations have been made
throughout the night, and I think staff is just making notes of those, to
inform them as to which… which… how they want to revise, potentially,
this element when they bring it to City Council.
768
01:45:41.070 --> 01:45:49.870
Community Hall: And so I don't think there's a disagreement. I thought I
heard you say you want to make a motion to direct staff to return to…
with specific
769
01:45:50.100 --> 01:45:54.429
Community Hall: items in the report. I think that's probably beyond the
scope at this point.
770
01:45:56.230 --> 01:46:05.219
Community Hall: Okay, let me… let me rephrase the motion. This is a
motion to recommend the addition of policies to address evacuation
analysis
771
01:46:05.380 --> 01:46:07.080
Community Hall: Supply-side improvements.
772
01:46:08.000 --> 01:46:22.909
Community Hall: Well, if I might, clarify, I actually am not sure that
any commissioners disagreed with incorporating more supply-side
strategies into health and safety. If there's any commissioner that
disagrees with that, would they be interested in commenting?
773
01:46:22.980 --> 01:46:28.769
Community Hall: Through the chair, the reason for use of motions is
because our minutes do not capture anything other than motions.
774
01:46:28.870 --> 01:46:32.370
Community Hall: And then it leaves it to staff discretion, and we have
seen that staff
775
01:46:32.530 --> 01:46:37.140
Community Hall: Notes may or may not capture things as accurately as we
may like, so…
776
01:46:37.370 --> 01:46:44.680
Community Hall: That's the only reason to use motions, just so that we
get these things captured in the minutes. Yeah, I agree with Commissioner
Rao.
777
01:46:44.830 --> 01:46:47.210
Community Hall: You know, normally we're just giving feedback.
778
01:46:47.440 --> 01:46:53.780
Community Hall: But when you make it into a resolution or a motion, then
it gets… Then it's documented.
779
01:46:54.840 --> 01:47:05.090
Community Hall: So, do we have a second for a motion to consider addition
of policies for evacuation analysis gaps to be addressed, subject to… I
don't know what that means. Can you clarify?
780
01:47:05.630 --> 01:47:08.880
Community Hall: The addition of policies that may…
781
01:47:09.610 --> 01:47:14.990
Community Hall: Encourage the use of techniques such as contraflow
operationalization.
782
01:47:15.100 --> 01:47:17.780
Community Hall: And readiness evaluation by the city.
783
01:47:18.210 --> 01:47:25.620
Community Hall: Techniques such as contraflow, And other techniques that
improve supply and demand-side improvements.
784
01:47:27.030 --> 01:47:35.900
Community Hall: So how would they decide which techniques to look at and
which not? They may have a broad recommendation that addresses techniques
more broadly in general.
785
01:47:37.790 --> 01:47:55.050
Community Hall: I'm open to staff input on this, if you have
recommendations. Can you make it more succinct in the resolution? I think
I understand what you're trying to get at. Would you be open to a motion
to consider incorporating more of the supply-side strategies from the
evacuation study into the health and safety element?
786
01:47:55.050 --> 01:47:58.069
Community Hall: Is that what you're calling? Yes, that's the motion. Do I
have a second?
787
01:48:00.730 --> 01:48:02.340
Community Hall: Sure, I'll second.
788
01:48:04.050 --> 01:48:19.229
Community Hall: I mean, as I see it, this isn't anything controversial.
We've sort of talked through this, except it doesn't show up in the
document. We're saying, add it to the document instead of another
consultant study coming back after a year, and the city paying another
$100,000 plus to the consultant to fund that addition.
789
01:48:20.510 --> 01:48:24.090
Community Hall: If there are no further comments, City Clerk, may we
please have a vote?
790
01:48:24.460 --> 01:48:25.280
Community Hall: Thank you.
791
01:48:43.600 --> 01:48:46.289
Community Hall: The motion carries unanimously.
792
01:48:47.510 --> 01:49:04.029
Community Hall: Thank you very much. I actually had additional comments
on, some of the other resident input around the noise element, and this
might actually be a question for staff. Would it be worth, or would it be
appropriate to impose an objective,
793
01:49:04.520 --> 01:49:15.039
Community Hall: Cap on decibels around, industrial trucks between 10pm
and 6 AM in residential zones, maybe, like, 65 decibels.
794
01:49:16.700 --> 01:49:22.440
Community Hall: I believe the city's noise ordinance already has decibel
levels in it,
795
01:49:23.040 --> 01:49:28.869
Community Hall: You could certainly include that, certainly hours of
operation as well.
796
01:49:29.060 --> 01:49:33.450
Community Hall: For truck traffic, that is going to and from the
quarries.
797
01:49:36.820 --> 01:49:42.160
Community Hall: Okay, thank you. Through the chair on the same item, if I
may just make a comment.
798
01:49:42.400 --> 01:49:47.209
Community Hall: Prior to these changes, there was already language that
talked about limiting
799
01:49:47.520 --> 01:49:49.690
Community Hall: Truck traffic and hours of operation.
800
01:49:50.770 --> 01:49:53.260
Community Hall: Why have we not enforced what we've already had?
801
01:49:53.810 --> 01:49:57.150
Community Hall: I mean, it feels like we're making these changes, but
we've had…
802
01:49:57.290 --> 01:50:00.589
Community Hall: Language that allowed for that to be enforced, but it
hasn't been.
803
01:50:00.820 --> 01:50:04.990
Community Hall: Is there anything… I know this isn't public works or code
enforcement here, but…
804
01:50:06.130 --> 01:50:10.619
Community Hall: How is this language any better than the prior language
that existed?
805
01:50:10.720 --> 01:50:15.269
Community Hall: And how does it further the… the, intent.
806
01:50:16.000 --> 01:50:20.639
Community Hall: Well, I think the issue remains that the source of the
noise is outside of Cupertino.
807
01:50:21.330 --> 01:50:23.560
Community Hall: And is subject to a county permit.
808
01:50:24.170 --> 01:50:27.879
Community Hall: And one of the facilities is not even subject to that.
809
01:50:28.420 --> 01:50:39.609
Community Hall: So, enforcement would essentially involve the city on its
own streets. Right. As I recall, the prior version of this document, the
health and safety element.
810
01:50:39.740 --> 01:50:45.800
Community Hall: Allows for the city to restrict hours of operation on
streets, to limit noise from Trucks.
811
01:50:46.830 --> 01:50:49.570
Community Hall: And so, you know, it's, again.
812
01:50:49.930 --> 01:50:52.670
Community Hall: Nice that we're rewriting it, but…
813
01:50:53.010 --> 01:50:55.830
Community Hall: This would be up to us to just enforce it.
814
01:50:56.050 --> 01:51:05.810
Community Hall: It did as an enforcement issue, yes. So, it would either
be code enforcement or possibly the sheriff, depending. And is this all
complaint-based enforcement?
815
01:51:06.310 --> 01:51:11.090
Community Hall: Code enforcement is largely complaint-based in the city,
yes.
816
01:51:11.860 --> 01:51:20.390
Community Hall: So we could recommend signage. I think the signage is
probably the new part, right? Signage… I see a section on signage here,
is that right? Which did not exist previously.
817
01:51:21.540 --> 01:51:27.359
Community Hall: Well, I think we can have signage, and I believe there's
still language in there, too, in terms of coordination with the county,
which is
818
01:51:27.710 --> 01:51:32.400
Community Hall: Likely the most effective method to try to work with the
agency that regulates the use.
819
01:51:34.630 --> 01:51:37.000
Community Hall: So there is a section on signage, right?
820
01:51:37.250 --> 01:51:38.280
Community Hall: Which is new.
821
01:51:42.560 --> 01:51:43.300
Community Hall: Alright.
822
01:51:45.970 --> 01:51:49.020
Community Hall: Okay, any other comments from the Commission?
823
01:51:49.170 --> 01:51:52.769
Community Hall: Which one's called? Yeah, I have comments on the…
824
01:51:53.120 --> 01:52:00.469
Community Hall: the Climate HS9. So I, I did some research on that one,
and
825
01:52:00.940 --> 01:52:11.939
Community Hall: Turns out there's a California EPA report on this,
talking about heat islands, where it says that heat islands, especially
in areas like San Jose.
826
01:52:11.980 --> 01:52:24.350
Community Hall: Have resulted in, nighttime temperatures that are often
22 degrees warmer, and creates severe health and safety and economic
risks, such as heat exhaustion, heat stroke, dehydration.
827
01:52:24.550 --> 01:52:35.359
Community Hall: Cardiovascular strain. They're also associated with
higher risks of… higher rates of hospitalization and emergency room
visits for respiratory diseases, strokes, and diabetes.
828
01:52:35.560 --> 01:52:43.079
Community Hall: And for every increase of 10 degrees in Fahrenheit,
there's a 9% increase in preterm births.
829
01:52:43.090 --> 01:52:58.889
Community Hall: So it's… it's a big problem, and this is data that's, you
know, local. And it also creates worsening air quality, and it also
creates a strain on the power grid because of higher demand for air
conditioning, leading to brownouts and blackouts.
830
01:52:58.890 --> 01:53:08.450
Community Hall: So, there is a 2026 Bay Area… Bay Area Heat Action Plan
that has, that's a long, exhaustive document, and…
831
01:53:08.450 --> 01:53:21.269
Community Hall: Addresses this in a lot of detail, in terms of remedies
that can be done in terms… in four different areas, so public
notification, strengthening community emergency services, upgrading
building infrastructure with cool roofs.
832
01:53:21.290 --> 01:53:30.899
Community Hall: and other insulation, and other solutions, and then
implementing nature-based solutions, like increasing the urban tree
canopy. So it's…
833
01:53:30.980 --> 01:53:39.409
Community Hall: it's very, very well documented, but I don't see a lot of
that in your document. It's a really,
834
01:53:40.300 --> 01:53:55.509
Community Hall: abbreviated list compared to the completeness of the
document that the state has put out, and the Bay Area Heat Action Plan
has put out. So, my suggestion would be, can you please take a look at
that document and bring a lot of those
835
01:53:55.660 --> 01:54:01.029
Community Hall: those, strategies into our document? Because that's…
836
01:54:01.320 --> 01:54:03.730
Community Hall: You know, that's the… that's the…
837
01:54:03.850 --> 01:54:20.630
Community Hall: state-of-the-art recommendation there is. So, for
example, you know, building public awareness, they have a lot of
recommendations, incentivizing community participation in planting trees
and private properties and public right-of-ways, cooled roofs, home
insulations, working with Caltrans to increase tree canopy on
transportation routes.
838
01:54:20.630 --> 01:54:25.200
Community Hall: Working with school districts to increase tree canopy and
permeable surfaces in schoolyards.
839
01:54:25.580 --> 01:54:36.580
Community Hall: and tying it back to HS6, the hazardous toxic air is an
issue for all Cupertino's residents when the temperature goes up.
840
01:54:36.600 --> 01:54:50.860
Community Hall: So, this is a health issue for all of us that's only
going to get worse. So, I'm kind of disappointed, honestly, with, with
this section. It's nowhere near as robust as I would have liked to have
seen it.
841
01:54:50.910 --> 01:55:04.550
Community Hall: So I would really like to have you go back and take a
look at that heat action plan for the Bay Area, and make this section
much more rigorous. Thank you. Commissioner Linscock, would you like to
make a motion to that effect?
842
01:55:04.700 --> 01:55:12.309
Community Hall: Sure. Okay, so my motion is, to rewrite
843
01:55:12.530 --> 01:55:23.099
Community Hall: Section HS9, to, be more rigorous and to bring in more of
the findings from the 2026 Bay Area Heat Action Plan.
844
01:55:23.950 --> 01:55:25.190
Community Hall: Such as…
845
01:55:25.600 --> 01:55:39.300
Community Hall: Such as improving public… so four key pillars, improving
public notification, strengthening community emergency services,
upgrading building infrastructure, such as cool roofs and insulation, and
implementing nature-based solutions like urban tree canopy expansion.
846
01:55:41.320 --> 01:55:43.330
Community Hall: It's a pretty extensive document.
847
01:55:44.440 --> 01:55:45.630
Community Hall: I would second that.
848
01:55:47.650 --> 01:55:51.960
Community Hall: Great. If there are no further comments, City Clerk, can
we maybe please have a vote?
849
01:55:52.200 --> 01:55:57.499
Community Hall: And I just want to make clear that this is a motion and a
second for recommendations along the lines, correct?
850
01:55:59.250 --> 01:55:59.940
Community Hall: Correct.
851
01:56:05.390 --> 01:56:07.440
Community Hall: Sorry, yeah.
852
01:56:20.530 --> 01:56:23.499
Community Hall: Somebody's not voted.
853
01:56:27.070 --> 01:56:27.800
Community Hall: Small.
854
01:56:33.240 --> 01:56:34.170
Community Hall: Oh.
855
01:56:37.530 --> 01:56:38.860
Community Hall: Bit of voting again.
856
01:56:43.630 --> 01:56:46.019
Community Hall: The motion carries unanimously.
857
01:56:48.060 --> 01:56:50.189
Community Hall: Thank you. Do we have any other comments?
858
01:56:50.360 --> 01:56:51.279
Community Hall: From the Commission.
859
01:56:52.010 --> 01:57:00.260
Community Hall: I had some minor feedback that does not require a motion.
First of all, in HS4.4, which is supposed to be covering
860
01:57:00.260 --> 01:57:15.129
Community Hall: Response times, we only refer, even though this is in the
police services section, we only talk about the fire department response
time, and we should be referencing the sheriff as well, so I would very
much appreciate if that could be added back in. And then…
861
01:57:15.150 --> 01:57:23.069
Community Hall: On page 50, which is sort of, like, the conclusion
looking forward, how would we address key health and safety challenges?
862
01:57:23.070 --> 01:57:36.819
Community Hall: We talk about four things. Noise, project building
design, community participation, and collaborating with agency partners,
but we make no mention of emergency operations, you know, EOC, evacuation
plans.
863
01:57:36.820 --> 01:57:48.539
Community Hall: which I feel like is kind of at the heart of what we are
doing, and so my ask is whether we would want to consider a fifth point
around the city's role in emergency operations as well.
864
01:57:49.520 --> 01:57:56.560
Community Hall: So, that is my feedback. Any other feedback from the
Commission? Yeah, through the Chair, I had a question on HS9.4.2.
865
01:57:57.670 --> 01:58:00.979
Community Hall: Can staff clarify, does the shared structure apply to
866
01:58:01.790 --> 01:58:06.130
Community Hall: A certain number of units and above, or what does it mean
when you say shade structure?
867
01:58:08.590 --> 01:58:11.079
Community Hall: 25% is the threshold.
868
01:58:11.600 --> 01:58:15.040
Community Hall: 25% of a site modification is not much for…
869
01:58:16.880 --> 01:58:22.139
Community Hall: sites that are single-family homes. Are we asking single-
family homes to add shared structures?
870
01:58:25.030 --> 01:58:28.730
Community Hall: I'm not sure which policy were you referring to? HHS
9.4.2.
871
01:58:32.760 --> 01:58:37.090
Community Hall: Well, it says include vegetation, shade trees, or shade
structure.
872
01:58:46.450 --> 01:58:49.120
Community Hall: Yeah, this is, I think, focusing on parking lots?
873
01:58:50.810 --> 01:58:54.090
Community Hall: And… It's not worth it.
874
01:58:55.150 --> 01:58:57.799
Community Hall: That's an aura, though. Yeah.
875
01:58:58.960 --> 01:59:07.060
Community Hall: Yeah, I think… that 25% Needs to explicitly not apply to
876
01:59:07.390 --> 01:59:12.360
Community Hall: Somebody make an addition… making an addition to their
house that adds… No.
877
01:59:13.540 --> 01:59:20.920
Community Hall: 600 square feet to a 2,000 square foot house. That's… You
know, more than 25%.
878
01:59:21.140 --> 01:59:23.619
Community Hall: You're not going to be putting in a shade structure.
879
01:59:24.870 --> 01:59:29.140
Community Hall: Well, there is no parking lot. That's… I know, but it's…
it's… or…
880
01:59:30.470 --> 01:59:45.890
Community Hall: Yeah, I mean, this really is intended to deal with
parking lots. Okay, as long as it's clear, it's only for parking lots. Is
there a definition for a parking lot? Would a long driveway be a parking
lot? I mean, it's a lot where you park. I mean, I… you know, I… Would the
driveway count?
881
01:59:47.170 --> 01:59:57.919
Community Hall: Yeah. We define quite a bit, I don't know that we have a
definition. You know, we laugh about this, but I can't tell you how many
times I've had single-family homeowners come to me complaining that the
planner
882
01:59:58.160 --> 02:00:02.960
Community Hall: has had… You know, they've had so many concerns about our
planners.
883
02:00:03.130 --> 02:00:14.069
Community Hall: Many times, they've been escalated to leadership that
thankfully did resolve the issues. But we have situations where these get
interpreted widely in a discretionary manner, and so…
884
02:00:14.200 --> 02:00:19.149
Community Hall: We just need… Again, going back to the point, to be very,
very…
885
02:00:19.550 --> 02:00:24.559
Community Hall: Clear that this is not something we want to Leave room
for interpretation around.
886
02:00:25.170 --> 02:00:32.350
Community Hall: Yeah, I mean, if we rezone a commercial Property 2…
residential.
887
02:00:32.670 --> 02:00:37.259
Community Hall: And it's obvious it's going to be more than 25% modified.
888
02:00:37.640 --> 02:00:44.770
Community Hall: And there will be a parking lot, but you may not… but
you're not going to put a shade structure in a townhouse parking lot.
889
02:00:46.370 --> 02:00:50.100
Community Hall: Or maybe you would. I… I can't imagine you would, but…
890
02:00:50.100 --> 02:01:06.579
Community Hall: If it's a townhome development, they'll have density
bonus and would waive the standard anyway. So, this is really applying to
commercial properties and commercial parking lots. So why don't we say
that? Yeah, so… I think we could put that commercial and clarify this as
well. Yeah, put commercial in there. …to residential.
891
02:01:06.630 --> 02:01:09.059
Community Hall: Is this document… is this, like…
892
02:01:09.520 --> 02:01:14.329
Community Hall: A, search and replace that's used in multiple cities, and
it's not…
893
02:01:14.960 --> 02:01:21.300
Community Hall: Specific to Cupertino, or what? I mean, it just doesn't
seem like it's very well done.
894
02:01:23.820 --> 02:01:29.209
Community Hall: Okay, we have spent quite a bit of time on this item. Do
we have any final comments?
895
02:01:29.680 --> 02:01:43.610
Community Hall: If not, I do want to test if our commissioners here would
want to see this come back to us before it goes to Council, just given
the amount of comments we've had. This is going to Council end of April.
There's no reason we shouldn't have another session on this.
896
02:01:45.320 --> 02:01:47.610
Community Hall: Is there interest in seeing this another time?
897
02:01:48.850 --> 02:01:52.879
Community Hall: City staff, would you have an… is that…
898
02:01:53.130 --> 02:01:59.430
Community Hall: feasible to bring a draft back within… before the next… I
don't know when it was planning on going to Council.
899
02:02:01.310 --> 02:02:02.790
Community Hall: I would say no.
900
02:02:02.910 --> 02:02:07.410
Community Hall: You have issues, too, of… Through the chair.
901
02:02:07.690 --> 02:02:13.090
Community Hall: I think it's up to the Commission to require it. If it is
not ready, then it does not go to Council.
902
02:02:13.390 --> 02:02:16.240
Community Hall: I think we need to, as a commission here.
903
02:02:16.490 --> 02:02:27.609
Community Hall: see a higher quality output before things go to the
Council. If something is on a council agenda prior to the Commission
having certified it or recommended it, I think we just need to see
904
02:02:27.970 --> 02:02:39.719
Community Hall: Whether we're ready to recommend it. Right, I understand.
I just wanted to let Assistant Director Connolly finish his, yeah, I just
would also like to say one thing. We are running into having more
meetings
905
02:02:40.220 --> 02:02:46.589
Community Hall: on this project, also objective design standards than we
budgeted for. I just want to say that in a public setting.
906
02:02:46.750 --> 02:02:52.789
Community Hall: Because it requires us to redo contracts, because we're
having more meetings and more consultant time spent.
907
02:02:53.750 --> 02:02:59.010
Community Hall: Is there a consultant cost to bringing this back?
908
02:03:00.050 --> 02:03:04.620
Community Hall: There would be additional work by the consultant, and if
they need to attend the meeting, yes.
909
02:03:04.880 --> 02:03:06.130
Community Hall: Okay, thank you.
910
02:03:06.310 --> 02:03:10.859
Community Hall: Through the chair, this is done once every 8 years, or 10
years, so…
911
02:03:12.300 --> 02:03:14.120
Community Hall: Just… just something to factor in.
912
02:03:15.910 --> 02:03:21.870
Community Hall: So… It's an additional cost That we have to pay the
consultant.
913
02:03:23.240 --> 02:03:25.050
Community Hall: I mean, I'm struggling here.
914
02:03:25.240 --> 02:03:30.169
Community Hall: you know, a consultant could say, well, I'm gonna, you
know, bring something to the commission, and…
915
02:03:30.330 --> 02:03:43.040
Community Hall: have all these gaps in it, so they find them, and then,
you know, they request another session, and we get more money. I mean,
this doesn't seem like a very good system here, that we've negotiated
with the consultants.
916
02:03:43.360 --> 02:03:48.360
Community Hall: Well, they provided a draft, And the draft is adequate in
staff's opinion.
917
02:03:48.830 --> 02:03:49.580
Community Hall: Yeah.
918
02:03:51.700 --> 02:04:02.710
Community Hall: Adequate should… Adequate should not be our… adequate
should not be our performance, our goal here, I don't think, but… So, I'm
gonna, on that note, make a motion to continue to bring this item back.
919
02:04:02.970 --> 02:04:06.690
Community Hall: for another revision to be reviewed at Planning
Commission, do I have a second?
920
02:04:12.670 --> 02:04:14.720
Community Hall: Do commissioners want to see this one more time?
921
02:04:16.920 --> 02:04:19.969
Community Hall: Yeah, I'm not gonna second it, because I fear…
922
02:04:20.230 --> 02:04:28.290
Community Hall: It will come back, and it will be this, you know, it will
be equally inadequate, and then we're gonna want another one and another
one, so…
923
02:04:28.390 --> 02:04:33.069
Community Hall: you know, my feeling is, let's push this off to the City
Council now, we've done all we can.
924
02:04:33.980 --> 02:04:44.560
Community Hall: Yeah, my personal opinion on this is I am going to trust
that our feedback will be incorporated, and I will take a look at
whatever draft gets sent to City Council, and I think that
925
02:04:44.560 --> 02:05:00.369
Community Hall: you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but we would have the
opportunity to opine if we feel that Planning Commission feedback has not
been properly incorporated. So that would be my preference. Through the
Chair, we had a hearing once before, none of the feedback, or much of the
feedback today has revolved around
926
02:05:00.560 --> 02:05:05.140
Community Hall: Distinguishing single-family from larger unit
construction.
927
02:05:05.300 --> 02:05:09.319
Community Hall: That feedback did not make its way into this draft, and
that reflects…
928
02:05:10.880 --> 02:05:13.920
Community Hall: You know, something that's worth considering for us.
929
02:05:14.210 --> 02:05:17.440
Community Hall: The trust must verify model might be warranted here.
930
02:05:17.550 --> 02:05:20.189
Community Hall: So, I agree with the chair.
931
02:05:23.110 --> 02:05:25.150
Community Hall: Okay, we do not have a second.
932
02:05:28.540 --> 02:05:46.940
Community Hall: Okay, so I think, we've, provided extensive feedback, and
I… we will all be looking towards the revised draft, and I think we can
provide our feedback if we feel that our… it's not been incorporated. So,
is there any interest in 5 minutes before the next agenda? Okay, we'll
take a 5-minute break. Thank you.
933
02:05:48.900 --> 02:05:51.269
Community Hall: So, to clarify, we're done with this item, right?
934
02:05:51.780 --> 02:05:52.850
Community Hall: Yes. Okay.
935
02:12:06.550 --> 02:12:16.650
Community Hall: All right, so we will move on to new business, and agenda
Item 3 is the 2025 General Plan and Housing Development Annual Progress
Report. Do we have a staff report?
936
02:12:17.430 --> 02:12:22.650
Community Hall: Very briefly, and there's no presentation, so, just
wanted to go over… these are…
937
02:12:22.810 --> 02:12:30.560
Community Hall: two annual reports that are due to the state every April
1st, so the Commission sees these, annually.
938
02:12:30.830 --> 02:12:42.290
Community Hall: One is the housing element report that goes to HCD, the
other one is the General Plan Report that goes to what used to be the
Office of Planning and Research, which now is LCI.
939
02:12:42.770 --> 02:12:46.359
Community Hall: Land use and climate innovation. It's gonna take me a
while to get used to that.
940
02:12:46.710 --> 02:12:53.110
Community Hall: But essentially, then, these are just check-ins. The
housing piece is largely…
941
02:12:53.470 --> 02:13:00.610
Community Hall: become a massive data entry function, into HCD's
spreadsheets in terms of tracking
942
02:13:00.750 --> 02:13:08.530
Community Hall: Housing information, which, over the last 7 or 8 years,
started from tracking building permits and entitlements only, to now
tracking
943
02:13:09.060 --> 02:13:18.939
Community Hall: just about every type of unit that has come in under
different bills, from the planning stage, to the building permit stage,
to the certificate of occupancy stage, so…
944
02:13:19.320 --> 02:13:25.310
Community Hall: that is, as I said, largely a… just a data entry
function. The general plan is more…
945
02:13:25.510 --> 02:13:34.349
Community Hall: Still have a document that is identifying what the city
worked on in the last calendar year only, so these are both 2025.
946
02:13:34.480 --> 02:13:42.459
Community Hall: I believe you have the flexibility with the general plan
report to make it not on the calendar year, but we keep them both on just
2025.
947
02:13:42.650 --> 02:13:50.359
Community Hall: So, again, I don't have any presentation or anything to
go into. If there are any comments or questions you have.
948
02:13:50.600 --> 02:14:01.540
Community Hall: I believe we do have, our Senior Housing Coordinator,
Nikki Vu, on Zoom, so if there are any housing-related questions or
policy questions related to housing.
949
02:14:01.780 --> 02:14:04.510
Community Hall: Nikki could answer those as well.
950
02:14:04.830 --> 02:14:07.609
Community Hall: And that concludes staff's report.
951
02:14:07.960 --> 02:14:17.039
Community Hall: Thank you very much. Commissioner Rao, you have a
question? Yeah, as I understood it, last year when we looked at this,
this was largely about housing element progress.
952
02:14:17.610 --> 02:14:23.220
Community Hall: I'm seeing comments here in this document about other
aspects, such as,
953
02:14:23.530 --> 02:14:28.569
Community Hall: sustainability element, health and safety, I mean,
there's all references to
954
02:14:28.720 --> 02:14:31.489
Community Hall: Other elements in here that we did not do last year.
955
02:14:32.020 --> 02:14:38.240
Community Hall: Well, again, there's two pieces, so the one document's
dealing with the general plan update as a whole.
956
02:14:38.600 --> 02:14:42.889
Community Hall: So that touches on… it could be sustainability, mobility.
957
02:14:43.030 --> 02:14:51.070
Community Hall: health and safety, any of the general plans elements. If
there was something that was worked on, it would be noted in the report.
958
02:14:51.200 --> 02:15:00.130
Community Hall: the… the housing element, it still takes up a big piece
of that, but this… the other document that is just going to HCD,
959
02:15:00.270 --> 02:15:11.010
Community Hall: is solely focused on housing production. So the, general
plan APR does not go to HCD, is that right? No, it goes to the LCI, the
other state agency.
960
02:15:11.680 --> 02:15:13.200
Community Hall: Okay, and…
961
02:15:13.770 --> 02:15:22.949
Community Hall: Are there obligations to report again if anything changes
here? No. These are really check-ins that are received by the two
agencies.
962
02:15:23.470 --> 02:15:42.790
Community Hall: The trouble comes if you don't submit. It's really just
meeting the deadline. I think HCD is using theirs largely for tracking
purposes to get statewide data on housing. And did we do the LCI
submission last year? Because I don't… Yes, we have done it every year.
Last year, they just weren't called LCI, it was OPR.
963
02:15:43.800 --> 02:15:44.570
Community Hall: Thank you.
964
02:15:46.520 --> 02:15:47.410
Community Hall: First year?
965
02:15:50.490 --> 02:15:57.339
Community Hall: So, when does the state get upset with us that
966
02:15:57.480 --> 02:16:00.320
Community Hall: We're actually building housing on parcels.
967
02:16:00.750 --> 02:16:06.829
Community Hall: but at less than the theoretical capacity they were zoned
for. And when do we have to…
968
02:16:06.950 --> 02:16:09.890
Community Hall: Find other parcels to make up that difference.
969
02:16:12.000 --> 02:16:23.300
Community Hall: No, the second part of that is there's 180 days from the
middle of December, so technically, I think it's June 16th, which is an
impossible date to meet. I touched on this last week at the City Council.
970
02:16:23.460 --> 02:16:29.719
Community Hall: I'm not sure any city could identify and rezone parcels
in that time frame, so…
971
02:16:30.190 --> 02:16:42.680
Community Hall: But to really answer your question is we need to be doing
that right away, and we are. We're moving on that. We got direction from
the City Council last week to get a consultant on board and to begin the
work on that.
972
02:16:45.480 --> 02:16:52.070
Community Hall: And I think we had a few extra units from the second
project on Stevens Creek, right, that wasn't in our…
973
02:16:52.340 --> 02:16:56.960
Community Hall: How… wasn't part of our… our arena and the housing
element.
974
02:16:57.270 --> 02:17:11.999
Community Hall: Correct. How many of those… does that offset our whole
shortage, or not? It will not. We have not adjusted for that, because
the… the shortage is really happening in the low and moderate income
areas, not the market rate, and…
975
02:17:12.190 --> 02:17:15.089
Community Hall: Again, with townhomes, we get 80% market rate.
976
02:17:15.230 --> 02:17:24.530
Community Hall: So it's difficult to… get the 50%… 57% figure that the
state assigned. So, for Valco.
977
02:17:25.389 --> 02:17:39.550
Community Hall: when it was an SB35 project, it was 50%. It started at
50% affordable. And what is the percentage down to now? I think it's 20.
It's 356 low-income units, which started at 1,201.
978
02:17:40.049 --> 02:17:45.079
Community Hall: Went to 890, which was the number we had when the housing
element was certified.
979
02:17:45.280 --> 02:18:00.789
Community Hall: We didn't get credit for the whole 890, but that's
getting in more detail, but now it is down to 356 total for the project.
So, is it… it's not an SB35 anymore, is it? Because… It is an SB35. The
laws have changed around what constitutes an SB35.
980
02:18:00.790 --> 02:18:06.569
Community Hall: And it's all retro… the laws are all retroactive. They
are covered by it, so yes. Wonderful, so…
981
02:18:07.070 --> 02:18:11.660
Community Hall: So, yeah, looks like we'll be at our… get our 57% pretty
soon then, right?
982
02:18:12.650 --> 02:18:15.080
Community Hall: We'll be working on it.
983
02:18:17.590 --> 02:18:20.949
Community Hall: Any other questions, comments? Yeah, through the… through
the chair.
984
02:18:21.790 --> 02:18:28.969
Community Hall: So… I know we did a number of hearings for projects that
were…
985
02:18:29.690 --> 02:18:33.819
Community Hall: All up and down Stevens Creek. Are they reflected in this
report? I don't see…
986
02:18:35.309 --> 02:18:38.489
Community Hall: I guess I'm struggling to find the correlation between
987
02:18:39.090 --> 02:18:45.649
Community Hall: For example, I think on page, what page is this? Page 3?
Of the Housing Element APR.
988
02:18:46.280 --> 02:18:51.869
Community Hall: It says number of units requesting a density minus 3077.
989
02:18:52.530 --> 02:18:55.440
Community Hall: Number of units permitted is zero.
990
02:18:56.090 --> 02:19:05.539
Community Hall: So, if an approval was completed in Planning Commission
and City Council, Should that number be non-zero?
991
02:19:05.940 --> 02:19:08.619
Community Hall: That's probably referring to building permits.
992
02:19:08.799 --> 02:19:15.229
Community Hall: which the building permits have not been approved yet.
The planning entitlements are captured.
993
02:19:15.570 --> 02:19:23.500
Community Hall: for Not the Dividend Homes project, because that was
2026, but anything approved in 2025.
994
02:19:23.990 --> 02:19:25.430
Community Hall: Would be in that report.
995
02:19:25.870 --> 02:19:31.050
Community Hall: I see. So, there's no distinction between planning versus
building.
996
02:19:31.510 --> 02:19:33.690
Community Hall: to show progress, I mean, wouldn't we…
997
02:19:33.920 --> 02:19:37.270
Community Hall: I want to sort of highlight progress that planning has
made.
998
02:19:37.770 --> 02:19:39.460
Community Hall: With this reporting?
999
02:19:39.670 --> 02:19:41.089
Community Hall: I can answer this one.
1000
02:19:41.480 --> 02:19:44.020
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: So, there's multiple tips… sorry, hi,
Nikki.
1001
02:19:44.020 --> 02:19:44.850
Community Hall: Go ahead, Nikki.
1002
02:19:44.850 --> 02:19:53.359
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: I'm online. Good evening, Madam Chair
and the Planning Commission. So, the APR, right, it contains multiple
tables to kind of track different types of progress.
1003
02:19:53.360 --> 02:19:58.759
Community Hall: Can you speak up, or do we need the video team to
increase the volume and community all?
1004
02:19:59.830 --> 02:20:00.880
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: Is this better?
1005
02:20:02.410 --> 02:20:04.389
Community Hall: Maybe the video team can help us.
1006
02:20:09.430 --> 02:20:19.979
Community Hall: While we're doing that, I think we are getting credit for
anything the Planning Commission has approved, right? We're seeing that
in the Table 1, Building Permits issued by income category during 2025.
1007
02:20:20.370 --> 02:20:24.170
Community Hall: Right? And we're seeing all of the…
1008
02:20:24.320 --> 02:20:37.100
Community Hall: projects that were entitled, even if they haven't gotten
their building permits yet, right? Correct. You get… you're tracking
entitlement, building permits, certificates of occupancy.
1009
02:20:37.370 --> 02:20:48.919
Community Hall: Even down to whether it's an SB9 project or use any of
the state laws, but yes. So if it was approved in 2025, but did not pull
building permits, the entitlements would reflect.
1010
02:20:50.600 --> 02:20:53.539
Community Hall: Okay, so… so we should be looking at entitlements.
1011
02:20:54.740 --> 02:21:02.570
Community Hall: Yes, or both, really. It's… but like I said, the state is
tracking, I think, not only what's entitled, but what actually gets
produced.
1012
02:21:02.960 --> 02:21:07.249
Community Hall: Because even when I look at entitlements, I think this
is, what, page 3?
1013
02:21:07.940 --> 02:21:10.119
Community Hall: That seems an awfully low number.
1014
02:21:10.490 --> 02:21:12.559
Community Hall: If entitlements is to reflect what…
1015
02:21:12.980 --> 02:21:15.670
Community Hall: What is approved on the planning side.
1016
02:21:18.450 --> 02:21:21.579
Community Hall: I mean, it shows 28 units entitled in total.
1017
02:21:23.180 --> 02:21:27.960
Community Hall: I'm looking at Table 2, Pipeline Entitlements.
1018
02:21:28.300 --> 02:21:44.499
Community Hall: I don't know what that is. Are you on the document that
says Housing Element APR? I'm in the 2025 General Plan APR. No, this is
the 2025 Housing Element APR. Were we able to adjust the volume? Maybe, I
think, Nikki had something… I think we were looking at different
documents.
1019
02:21:45.530 --> 02:21:56.909
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: I think we might be looking at
different documents, but, I can clarify for the Planning Commission that
within the Excel sheet, that is the Housing Element APR, we have four
different, kind of, tables that track
1020
02:21:56.930 --> 02:22:07.270
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: progress on housing development,
right? There's Table A, which is planning and entitlements submitted in
2025, and then Table A2 is kind of the kind of pipeline projects that.
1021
02:22:07.270 --> 02:22:15.800
Community Hall: Sorry, I'm having a hard time understanding what you're
saying. Either the video team needs to help us, or the speaker needs to
get closer to his microphone.
1022
02:22:16.310 --> 02:22:23.759
Community Hall: Yeah, I think the volume is okay, but the clarity of the
voice is not… Is it possible for…
1023
02:22:24.670 --> 02:22:27.280
Community Hall: Staff to get closer to the microphone or something.
1024
02:22:27.980 --> 02:22:28.930
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: How's this?
1025
02:22:30.660 --> 02:22:31.699
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: Is that better?
1026
02:22:34.970 --> 02:22:36.400
Community Hall: Okay. You can try.
1027
02:22:38.040 --> 02:22:47.389
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: Okay, there's 4 different areas that
we check pipeline progress in the actual Excel sheet that is the Housing
Element APR, and all of them kind of
1028
02:22:47.510 --> 02:23:04.129
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: count to the person reviewing the
submission, right? And that's planning entitlement, sorry, planning
application submitted, planning entitlement, building permit, and then
certificate of occupancy, the final. But for consistency, right, they…
1029
02:23:04.300 --> 02:23:15.370
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: track only one for actual units
produced per year, and that one is the building permit. And that's what
kind of shows up consistently throughout, like, different years of the
housing element.
1030
02:23:15.640 --> 02:23:21.429
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: But all of them matter. All of them
get counted in some way or form by the reviewer.
1031
02:23:22.450 --> 02:23:25.399
Community Hall: Is there any reason staff is not present here for the
hearing?
1032
02:23:26.350 --> 02:23:30.910
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: I have other commitments, I couldn't
make it in person, but…
1033
02:23:30.910 --> 02:23:37.459
Community Hall: Yeah, I think offline, we gotta figure out this audio
situation. It's really… Really hard to understand.
1034
02:23:37.840 --> 02:23:43.449
Community Hall: I don't know if there's a speaker here that's not turned
on, because maybe the rest of the hall can hear, and we can't hear out
here.
1035
02:23:44.320 --> 02:23:47.239
Community Hall: Can I just clarify one point around,
1036
02:23:47.370 --> 02:24:07.229
Community Hall: the idea of credit and what is being tracked. So, you
know, my understanding of RENA is that the state is really more just
concerned with making sure that we've zoned and created the capacity, but
then, you know, I go down in the staff report, and it says that we can
get credit for building permits issued, so how does that
1037
02:24:07.300 --> 02:24:10.700
Community Hall: work to offset unmet Rena.
1038
02:24:11.220 --> 02:24:18.870
Community Hall: you get credit for everything that is built, that's true.
So, I mean, we only have 58 properties that are priority housing sites.
1039
02:24:19.100 --> 02:24:28.589
Community Hall: you get development on 100 other properties, you get
credit for all of those. So your RENA is essentially what you're assigned
and trying to attain.
1040
02:24:29.060 --> 02:24:33.590
Community Hall: But it isn't just your housing element sites that
contribute towards reaching it.
1041
02:24:34.030 --> 02:24:37.429
Community Hall: That's… that's really how it works. So, ADUs.
1042
02:24:38.220 --> 02:24:43.309
Community Hall: an additional unit somewhere. Each unit counts towards
that.
1043
02:24:44.660 --> 02:24:53.020
Community Hall: One of the issues we have, though, again, is most of
those units are not affordable, so the difficulty in meeting URENA is by
the income category.
1044
02:24:53.680 --> 02:24:56.590
Community Hall: That's where it gets trickier. Thank you.
1045
02:24:57.410 --> 02:25:05.580
Community Hall: So… So, if there's progress the city has made on units,
but those are not housing element identified sites?
1046
02:25:05.720 --> 02:25:07.480
Community Hall: Do we not report those?
1047
02:25:07.640 --> 02:25:15.319
Community Hall: Yes, we report all… everything that is built, everything
that gets an approval or is constructed. Okay, so I'm looking at page 4.
1048
02:25:17.830 --> 02:25:22.670
Community Hall: And… I don't know if we have a full list here.
1049
02:25:23.510 --> 02:25:25.999
Community Hall: I don't see the Staples project here.
1050
02:25:27.010 --> 02:25:28.099
Community Hall: Am I missing it?
1051
02:25:29.700 --> 02:25:32.270
Community Hall: Under Summerhill One.
1052
02:25:33.790 --> 02:25:40.199
Community Hall: So there's a little row there that says Westport, The
Rise, Toll Brothers, Summerhill 1.
1053
02:25:40.540 --> 02:25:44.959
Community Hall: Summerhill One would be the Staples Fontana Pizza Hut
site.
1054
02:25:45.170 --> 02:25:50.490
Community Hall: I just want to make sure we're on the same page. This is
page 4? Page 4, yes.
1055
02:25:50.720 --> 02:26:00.309
Community Hall: These tables aren't numbered, are they numbered? No, it's
table 2. Table 2. It's table… it's earlier, it's in the summary report,
so go up. Yeah, sorry, I was asking about table A.
1056
02:26:00.800 --> 02:26:11.019
Community Hall: Now, I think you should go to the summary. It's a lot
clearer to understand than the tables A, B, C. Okay, but just in the
interest of making sure there's completeness in table A,
1057
02:26:11.780 --> 02:26:16.530
Community Hall: Is Table A required to be complete? I'm looking at table
A.
1058
02:26:16.700 --> 02:26:22.049
Community Hall: Okay, I'm not looking at Table A. Which, which document
is that in? This is the Housing Element APR.
1059
02:26:24.590 --> 02:26:27.529
Community Hall: Isn't that the document we're supposed to… Exhibit 1,
1060
02:26:29.080 --> 02:26:31.620
Community Hall: The summary report, there's a summary table.
1061
02:26:31.970 --> 02:26:37.309
Community Hall: Understood. I just want to make sure this document is
actually accurate.
1062
02:26:48.770 --> 02:26:53.040
Community Hall: What page are you on, Commissioner? Page… 4? Table A?
1063
02:26:53.150 --> 02:26:53.950
Community Hall: Thank you.
1064
02:27:13.400 --> 02:27:25.469
Community Hall: I don't… I don't see… I see Valco, I see Wolf Road, I see
Bentley Summerhill, which we haven't even heard yet, but okay. But I
don't see…
1065
02:27:25.600 --> 02:27:27.059
Community Hall: the Staples Project.
1066
02:27:27.970 --> 02:27:29.770
Community Hall: I don't see Toll Brothers.
1067
02:27:34.260 --> 02:27:37.059
Community Hall: And I see a new road,
1068
02:27:37.170 --> 02:27:39.870
Community Hall: Called Brandley Drive, where is that?
1069
02:27:40.200 --> 02:27:43.799
Community Hall: Somebody probably hit an R when they shouldn't have.
1070
02:27:44.540 --> 02:27:59.240
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: If the Planning Commission saw an item
in this year, it's most likely it was submitted in 2024, and Table A is
for applications submitted, so if it was entitled in 2025, it would
probably appear in A2, but not in A4.
1071
02:27:59.340 --> 02:28:01.190
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: Sorry, not non-A1.
1072
02:28:05.000 --> 02:28:07.230
Community Hall: Okay, thank you. Did we have any other questions?
1073
02:28:08.130 --> 02:28:15.420
Community Hall: Yeah, I have, I don't know if it's a… yeah, it's a
comment, so I'll wait until after.
1074
02:28:15.570 --> 02:28:19.559
Community Hall: oral communications and all. Not oral, I mean,
1075
02:28:21.740 --> 02:28:41.580
Community Hall: Actually, this… yeah, I have one more question, and then
we'll move to Rural Communications. So, on page 15 of Exhibit 1, it says
there's a table, and it says for up to 25% of a jurisdiction's moderate
income regional housing need, the planning agency may include
1076
02:28:42.170 --> 02:28:47.370
Community Hall: Basically, may convert to deed-restricted rental housing
for moderate-income households.
1077
02:28:47.410 --> 02:29:03.839
Community Hall: And, you know, as you noted in the housing element 3.3.7,
developers stated that the largest constraint impeding affordable housing
development continues to be the lack of available funding. So, I was
curious what the staff opinion is on conversion of existing
1078
02:29:03.840 --> 02:29:09.389
Community Hall: rental units to affordable, as something that the city
pilots, rather than just
1079
02:29:09.610 --> 02:29:20.610
Community Hall: purely going for construction of new affordable units.
City of San Jose recently had something similar with low-income housing
vouchers, and it seems like these can count towards the RENA.
1080
02:29:22.220 --> 02:29:25.959
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: Hi, sorry, is… am I showing up better
now? I just switched to a headset.
1081
02:29:26.510 --> 02:29:27.770
Community Hall: This is better, thank you.
1082
02:29:27.770 --> 02:29:30.970
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: Okay, so sorry about that. Can you ask
your question one more time?
1083
02:29:32.240 --> 02:29:39.320
Community Hall: I was curious what the staff opinion is on conversion of
1084
02:29:39.740 --> 02:29:50.139
Community Hall: units in an existing multi-family building to deed-
restricted rental housing for moderate-income households, as that is
something that seems to be able to count towards RENA.
1085
02:29:51.710 --> 02:29:59.619
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: So… for that to be feasible, right, we
would need to find market rate developers that
1086
02:29:59.770 --> 02:30:01.579
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: Want to deed restrict.
1087
02:30:01.970 --> 02:30:18.769
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: their units, and typically that would
come with, like, some sort of, like, fund or monetary contribution,
right, to rehabilitate those units, and then we can make an ad agreement
to restrict them for… to make them, you know, rent at affordable rates,
right? But the kind of…
1088
02:30:18.890 --> 02:30:28.739
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: issue that we're running into, I
think, if… when we've seen that is, typically speaking, in the market
rate, landlords are responsible for making repairs to their own units to
keep them
1089
02:30:28.970 --> 02:30:33.590
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: You know, up to code, right? And so
that demand for that is not…
1090
02:30:33.590 --> 02:30:38.179
Community Hall: I'm sorry, can you say that last part again around market
rate? It wasn't very clear.
1091
02:30:38.820 --> 02:30:54.499
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: So, landlords in general, right,
they're responsible for keeping their units up to code, right, and making
the necessary repairs to keep them, you know, like, in good condition,
right, so that they can rent them out to people. And so, when you want to
do a deed restriction to make it moderate.
1092
02:30:54.500 --> 02:31:00.849
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: Right? You're typically going to be
de-restricting market rate to that, so you're going to need to find,
essentially, a market rate developer
1093
02:31:01.260 --> 02:31:06.599
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: Doesn't have their units up to code,
and then offered to basically
1094
02:31:07.190 --> 02:31:24.139
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: fund the rehabilitation for them,
whereas right now, I think the policy has been for… to use code
enforcement, right, to ask them to rehabilitate those units themselves,
make it their responsibility. So I… that's probably why we haven't seen a
lot of interest on that so far, but if that's something
1095
02:31:24.700 --> 02:31:27.579
Nicky Vu, Sr. Housing Coordinator: that the Planning Commission is
interested in, we could study it further.
1096
02:31:29.180 --> 02:31:46.639
Community Hall: through the chair, should we continue this item till
staff can be in the room? Because we can't understand or hear anything
that's being said? I… what I made out from that was that, it would… at
the moment, it would be something that the developer or the apartment
owner would… would need to initiate, and there's no
1097
02:31:46.640 --> 02:31:58.399
Community Hall: program from the city, but if the Planning Commission was
interested, it is something that could be studied. Is that correct?
Through the Chair, that wasn't the question. The question is, should we
continue till staff
1098
02:31:58.850 --> 02:32:07.869
Community Hall: joins us in the room, because this is not a quality
hearing that we can have at this level of audio. It's unacceptable that
staff is not in the room.
1099
02:32:08.830 --> 02:32:12.500
Community Hall: I, I'm… do I have support to continue this item?
1100
02:32:16.080 --> 02:32:27.809
Community Hall: So, I understand what you're saying, Commissioner,
because I had difficulty too, but I was reading on the transcript that
actually is pretty good to follow along, and I'm only suggesting that now
because there is a deadline on April 1st.
1101
02:32:27.990 --> 02:32:30.290
Community Hall: To… to have this,
1102
02:32:30.480 --> 02:32:39.849
Community Hall: Yeah, we really need staff to be in the room. This is
unacceptable that, you know, we show up here for these meetings one day
before we're traveling, and staff are not in the room, the audio is not
1103
02:32:39.990 --> 02:32:41.500
Community Hall: That's just unacceptable.
1104
02:32:41.960 --> 02:32:47.000
Community Hall: I will, for the record, I will make a motion to continue
this item. Do I have a second?
1105
02:32:48.180 --> 02:32:56.749
Community Hall: Yeah, before we continue, I want to ask Sister Dr.
Connolly if it's scheduled for Council, because, like I said, I think
there's an April 1st deadline.
1106
02:32:57.630 --> 02:33:00.150
Community Hall: We can schedule a special meeting if required.
1107
02:33:00.290 --> 02:33:07.259
Community Hall: But again, do I have a second? If I don't have a second,
let the minutes reflect. No, I'll second it, because I think you're
absolutely right. I mean…
1108
02:33:07.740 --> 02:33:25.459
Community Hall: You know, we're all here, but the staff is not here. You
know, we get paid $50 a meeting, and we're here. So, this is just not,
not right. Okay. I don't know how this is happening. Okay, we have a
motion, and we have a second, should we vote? Can I actually just
clarify,
1109
02:33:26.470 --> 02:33:32.790
Community Hall: Assistant Director, Is there… are you able to answer the
questions that we are asking right now?
1110
02:33:33.520 --> 02:33:42.030
Community Hall: I just want to make sure that there isn't a way that we
can, you know, continue this. If I followed your question, it seemed to
be going along the lines, should the
1111
02:33:42.200 --> 02:33:53.549
Community Hall: could the city consider taking existing rental units and
converting those to some type of deed-restricted affordable housing,
rather than providing new units?
1112
02:33:53.980 --> 02:33:58.049
Community Hall: it's more of a housing policy question than… I mean.
1113
02:33:58.710 --> 02:34:03.150
Community Hall: The items before you tonight are… these are data entry
items.
1114
02:34:03.260 --> 02:34:13.460
Community Hall: This is just… this is the housing that was approved, the
housing that was built. I think that's a very good question. Based on my
knowledge of it. It could be more cost-effective.
1115
02:34:13.790 --> 02:34:20.649
Community Hall: But there are probably a lot of things you need to look
into in terms of doing that. Right now, the city doesn't have a program
to do that, but…
1116
02:34:21.390 --> 02:34:29.119
Community Hall: Could it be a way to get more affordable units? I would
say yes, because it's generally easier to take existing construction,
it's more cost-effective.
1117
02:34:29.120 --> 02:34:47.190
Community Hall: than building new construction and trying to keep it
affordable. Point of order, we have a motion on the table to continue.
The discussion should be on the motion to continue forward. Well, the
reason why I asked that was because I would be interested in knowing
whether the Commission feels that their questions can be sufficiently
answered by the staff that is present in the room.
1118
02:34:47.270 --> 02:34:49.609
Community Hall: So that we can complete this item.
1119
02:34:54.540 --> 02:34:56.360
Community Hall: If I may comment.
1120
02:34:56.600 --> 02:35:07.990
Community Hall: We're… I mean, if I understand it correctly, we're not
trying to evaluate whether we are meeting arena numbers. We're here to
receive a report.
1121
02:35:08.620 --> 02:35:21.399
Community Hall: Right, so having the staff available to answer questions
on how we can meet our housing RENA numbers is… is kind of outside the
scope, or… I don't know,
1122
02:35:22.120 --> 02:35:24.459
Community Hall: Michael, if you can comment on that. But…
1123
02:35:25.090 --> 02:35:29.160
Community Hall: That seems kind of outside the scope of what we're
supposed to be voting on here.
1124
02:35:34.280 --> 02:35:37.119
Community Hall: The item is to…
1125
02:35:37.190 --> 02:35:53.759
Community Hall: identified the progress that we're making with respect to
our housing element, and so the matter is scheduled… is set for… to
receive the report. So, I mean, I do agree with Commissioner Linscogg
that this…
1126
02:35:53.770 --> 02:36:07.499
Community Hall: this is a little bit outside of what we're asked to do
here, but it's… it seemed that this tangentially related, which is why I
allowed the question to be asked, but the answer to the question, it
really is outside of the scope of what you're being asked to do.
1127
02:36:11.940 --> 02:36:27.779
Community Hall: Vice Chair and Commissioner Rao, do you feel like it
would be satisfactory to just have whatever questions and comments that
you have today heard by the staff that is present in the room? No, I do
not agree that we are able to proceed, because I believe that
1128
02:36:28.380 --> 02:36:33.819
Community Hall: if… we are going to do a quality job on these items. We
need to be able to
1129
02:36:33.990 --> 02:36:36.370
Community Hall: Have audible answers from staff.
1130
02:36:36.800 --> 02:36:42.129
Community Hall: If the assistant director would like to answer the
questions, that's okay. However.
1131
02:36:43.310 --> 02:36:46.969
Community Hall: I… I believe the questions were under the purview of
housing and not planning.
1132
02:36:47.090 --> 02:36:48.309
Community Hall: Maybe that was…
1133
02:36:48.860 --> 02:36:53.729
Community Hall: That was the reason we had the housing staff responding.
I… I could not hear any answers.
1134
02:36:53.830 --> 02:37:00.429
Community Hall: And we do have another meeting, and the chair has the
discretion to call a special meeting. I think we just need to…
1135
02:37:00.630 --> 02:37:04.209
Community Hall: Hold ourselves to a high bar on these hearings, otherwise
we don't need the hearing.
1136
02:37:07.100 --> 02:37:09.700
Community Hall: And we do need to vote on the motion on the table.
1137
02:37:09.960 --> 02:37:16.899
Community Hall: Vice Chair, I just wanted to hear your thoughts on this
as well, before we vote. Yeah, let's vote. I don't think it's gonna pass,
but let's…
1138
02:37:18.890 --> 02:37:21.289
Community Hall: This is a motion to continue the item.
1139
02:37:34.230 --> 02:37:37.280
Community Hall: The motion carries, with Commissioner Litzkog voting no.
1140
02:37:42.580 --> 02:37:47.430
Community Hall: Okay, so, as we were unable to get,
1141
02:37:47.620 --> 02:37:57.579
Community Hall: answers from the assigned staff person on Agenda Item 3.
We have voted to postpone it to the next meeting. Do we have any staff
and commission reports?
1142
02:37:57.980 --> 02:37:59.000
Community Hall: Don't know if you mentioned that.
1143
02:38:00.340 --> 02:38:02.570
Community Hall: Any items for a future agenda setting?
1144
02:38:02.770 --> 02:38:05.749
Community Hall: Before we move on, can we ensure that
1145
02:38:05.860 --> 02:38:13.369
Community Hall: When we hear this again, that the staff is present in the
room, Is that… Staff is present.
1146
02:38:13.780 --> 02:38:15.359
Community Hall: Okay, you know what I mean.
1147
02:38:15.730 --> 02:38:17.390
Community Hall: I do, that's why I answered.
1148
02:38:21.720 --> 02:38:24.109
Community Hall: Are we on future agenda sitting? Yes.
1149
02:38:24.530 --> 02:38:26.200
Community Hall: Okay, so…
1150
02:38:26.460 --> 02:38:31.969
Community Hall: I was going to ask for a future agenda item to form a
subcommittee to look into the
1151
02:38:32.100 --> 02:38:35.080
Community Hall: Housing element sites that need to be
1152
02:38:35.260 --> 02:38:41.479
Community Hall: identified for the no net loss. I understand the staff
are taking a proposal to get funding for a consultant.
1153
02:38:41.660 --> 02:38:44.579
Community Hall: This is a request for a future agenda item.
1154
02:38:44.860 --> 02:38:50.550
Community Hall: to form a subcommittee, that commission can bring forward
its view on sites to be added.
1155
02:38:52.520 --> 02:38:59.369
Community Hall: I understand there's no discussion on future agenda
items, this is just an addition to the future agenda item list, and then
the discussion there.
1156
02:38:59.510 --> 02:39:00.660
Community Hall: to agendaise.
1157
02:39:02.650 --> 02:39:05.500
Community Hall: Yeah, it's within the discretion of the Commissioner to…
1158
02:39:06.800 --> 02:39:09.240
Community Hall: Seek a future agenda, but it would need a second.
1159
02:39:10.980 --> 02:39:12.319
Community Hall: Sure, I'll second it.
1160
02:39:17.240 --> 02:39:22.029
Community Hall: Great. Okay, excellent. Then we will adjourn the meeting.
1161
02:39:23.360 --> 02:39:26.100
Community Hall: Missing the gavel, but meeting is adjourned.
1162
02:39:27.480 --> 02:39:30.960
Community Hall: That's… it's just… I was gonna break that.