Thank you.

It's break a light.

That's okay.

Good evening.

Welcome to the City of Belmont City Council regular meeting.

It is August 26, 2025.

We are back from a summer recess.

We didn't have a council meetings last two.

Just for our summer recess, but we are back now, so hope everyone had a good summer.

Schools back in session, and our council has continued to work.

We just haven't had our usual um city council meetings.

So we are here in our council chambers, and there's a published agenda that can tell you how to make a public comment, which I will go over at seven o'clock right now.

Let's just go ahead and have call to order roll call, please.

Councilmember Jordan.

Councilmember McCune.

Vice Mayor Pengmans.

Present.

We have a closed session, public employee performance evaluation.

And let's ask for any public comment from our city clerk.

Do we have any written or uh public comments on Zoom or in the chambers regarding this item?

So at this time I have no slips nor raised hands.

Okay, great.

Then we will go ahead and uh recess until seven o'clock, and we'll be back with our regular agenda.

So I guess 15%.

Wait, hang on, I need a second.

Okay, sorry, hang on.

Okay.

We are back.

Uh this is the City of Belmont City Council regular meeting.

It's seven o'clock.

We've oh no, I'm sorry, it's seven o six.

We've just gotten back from our closed session.

Uh we've already done our roll call, and so uh let me just quickly let folks know how you can participate in the meeting.

Uh you can look at our published agenda, which is posted uh outside City Hall as well as um on our website.

You can watch this meeting on Comcast Cable Channel 27, stream it live via the city's website at www.bellmont.gov.

Uh there is a Zoom feature as well that you can join, and there are uh instructions for how to participate with public comment.

Um public comments are going to be three-minute time limit unless otherwise um decided.

And uh just a reminder to everyone to please uh look at the published agenda that has our protocols for public comment.

We'll start with continue with item three, Pledge of Allegiance.

Please stand if you're able.

Yeah, for some reason I'm not able to share it.

So, did you hear about the police officer who walks into a bagel shop?

I don't know that.

No, but I'm sure I will.

Give me just a second.

I need to move to another device.

Otherwise, it's not.

I will say it was a very well-attended event this year.

We had a lot of fun with it.

Let's see what's worse.

Well, let's just riff.

So you uh tell us a little bit about the history of a national night out.

Isn't it it wasn't originally so that folks could meet their neighbors and get to know their uh police and other leaders in a friendly manner.

Absolutely.

It started out as that and it continued to grow to where it became an overall civic event.

You know, maybe law enforcement public safety took kind of a uh a main role in it, but uh as you can see, you know, our whole city participates, whether it's the civic leaders or the neighborhood leaders, and it it continues to grow every year where where everyone's chipping in a little bit more and making it a little bit bigger of an event.

And this year I think we each year we also have fire.

They join and then they join.

Um yeah, it's fun going out there with those guys and and meeting everybody.

Um it's a chance for us to to do some outreach, be human with the folks in the community.

Kind of our uh our main go-to in terms of outreach each year.

Well, we're gonna have to improvise because it appears that our PowerPoint is corrupt.

I tell you what, I'll do my thing and we'll make sure that the PowerPoint gets online so that folks can see.

Okay, great, thank you.

Um, so yes, I'd like to start out by thanking you folks for attending the event.

Um that's one of the the main feedback that we get is that folks get to meet you, us, fire department, and all the folks that work for the uh city, the city departments.

Um we had eight locations this year, including the uh the main location up at the library, all of which were very well attended.

Uh most of us got around to each of those.

Um we'd like to acknowledge some of the folks who made this such a successful event.

Um, starting with our site sponsors.

They did a wonderful job.

Our partners at the Belmont Library, the band Native Elements, they kept the place rocking for most of the evening.

Our volunteers and our city staff.

Um, Mara Perez is in here, but she was she did a bang-up job with everything, but especially up at the library.

It was awesome.

Um each location presented a great opportunity for the neighbors to gather and share the spirit of National Night Out.

Um the police department truly appreciates the opportunity to get out there and meet people, interact with them, share a few laughs, have some positive interactions.

Um we're looking forward to seeing everyone next year at the National Night Out event.

It's on August 4th, and it's gonna be an important one.

It's during the centennial, so we're really driving home to get the to get some of our fancy stuff out there that the centennial committee's been working on, and it should be a real good time.

So again, I'd like to thank all you and for us uh to have the opportunity to go out there and interact with everyone.

Great.

Thank you so much, and we look forward to the images and the maybe the presentation.

Um we could throw it up on the website uh once once it all gets taken care of.

Um just real quick.

I thought they were all great.

I made it to a bunch of them.

Um I thought as it goes for the library.

Our main one, uh, the biggest things I heard were it's it's huge hit.

Um the old timey car.

Everybody loved that, and I I'm glad to see it got around to all the different parties.

And then uh the final one is having it actually in the park as opposed to in the parking lot.

I thought that was really nice because some folks had just walked or driven by and saw it, and that's what kind of got them out as opposed to having it in the parking lot where it's a little more hidden.

So, for sure.

And those of us with young kids, it makes it really nice having the the play structure right there.

So, yeah, it was awesome.

Exactly.

Yeah, anyone else?

All right, thank you very much.

Thanks for bearing with us on the technological side of things.

Thank you, folks.

Have a good evening.

All right.

Uh moving on to special presentations 5B.

San Mateo Taily Journal is the 25th anniversary recognition.

So if you're like me, you uh wake up, get your coffee, and read the San Mateo Daily Journal, find out what's going on in our neck of the woods.

And so uh it's turning 25, and we've got a proclamation.

I'll um read some of the highlights.

It's honoring the San Mateo Daily Journal on its 25th anniversary.

Whereas the San Mateo Daily Journal has been a trusted and independent source of local news and information since its founding in 2000, serving as a vital voice for the residents of San Mateo County.

And whereas over the past 25 years, the San Mateo Daily Journal has provided consistent coverage of local government, education, business, arts, culture, and community events, ensuring residents remain informed and engaged in civic life.

And whereas the San Mateo Daily Journal demonstrates a steadfast commitment to journalism, offering balanced and reliable reporting that strengthens transparency and fosters trust between the public and its institutions.

And whereas editor John Mays and owner Jerry Lee have demonstrated steadfast dedication and visionary leadership.

Ensuring the San Mateo Daily Journal remains a trusted source of local news.

And whereas the San Mateo Daily Journal's dedication to public service through accurate, timely, and community focused journalism exemplifies the vital role of a free press in preserving democracy and civic engagement.

And whereas the 25th anniversary of the San Mateo Daily Journal is a milestone that not only reflects its endurance and resilience in a changing media landscape, but also its invaluable contributions to the San Mateo community.

Now, therefore, be it let it be proclaimed that I, Julia Mates, mayor of Belmont, on behalf of the Belmont City Council, hereby recognize and commend the San Mateo Daily Journal for 25 years of outstanding service to the community and extend best wishes for continued success in the years to come.

So we should clap.

Congratulations.

If you'd like to say a few words, welcome.

Thank you very much.

I have a PowerPoint presentation.

Darn.

And at the time that we covered it in the initial years, it was known for its argumentative counsel, its dysfunction, frustration amongst its residents over an inability to get the most simplest things done well.

And over time, that reputation has been shed by this city, and now has a council which works on contentious issues and simple issues in a collaborative, thoughtful way, that is responsive to the community.

And we appreciate being your partner in explaining those decisions that you make to the public and uh and uh allow for some discussion amongst the public itself and its residents uh so that you know what the people are thinking rather than um relying on your own opinion or that of staff.

Also uh I did want to thank staff uh also uh the staff of uh the city of Belmont is uh very responsive and responsible, and we appreciate all the work that they have done over the years to keep us informed so we can keep readers informed.

So thank you.

Great, thank you so much.

We appreciate the partnership.

Would love to um give you the proclamation and maybe take a quick picture.

That's that's okay.

Jack it long.

Oh, you see, okay, very much more than a exactly.

Sure.

Thank you very much.

All right.

We are already on item number six.

Public comments and items not on the agenda.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the body on Eddie City Matter, not on the agenda.

The period at this point is limited to 15 minutes with a maximum of three minutes per speaker.

And again, please remember our speaker protocols and public comment protocols that are in the published agenda.

Madam Clerk, do we have any uh comments for item C public comments not on the agenda?

Uh yes, I have a couple of slips, no hands at this time.

Um, and we can begin with William Blight.

Good evening, City Council members.

My name is William Blight.

I'm a long-term resident of Belmont and Bay Area.

Uh, first of good.

Good job getting some affordable housing.

That you guys said it couldn't be done, it's done.

And even people complaining about where it's at.

It's never you can't make everybody happy, but I'm just glad to see some because we're having a hard time, even people at my uh job.

Uh here I am one year later, informing the city of Belmont about how I've been harassed by the employee of the public works department.

Um this employee, Prov Nish Jit, is on some kind of a power trip.

Even last week when I personally served him with a cease and desist order, he continued to yell at me down the hallway as I was leaving.

Something like you got your deadline.

This is what I've been dealing with for the last over the last four years or so.

I've had a plumber come out and tell me that there's nothing wrong with my uh sewer lateral pipe.

This is this guy just seems to be pulled my name out of the file.

First time he didn't get a hold of me for after two and a half years after they public works came out to my house in 2021, which I don't even think that's right.

I think it was even longer back than farther back than that.

Peter Brown was right when he told me I had when I had a meeting with him, he said your biggest mistake was just not calling Rotoruder.

You we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Stop letting someone like him probably scare your Belmont residents with their letters and video demands, which I told you guys last year the video demands are ridiculous.

I'm not Spielberg, I'm not Lucas.

I cannot believe that you have nine points there where that that it's just it's sad that something like that goes out to a Belmont resident.

I can't believe that this is still going on.

I don't want, I'm not sad.

I don't want your pity, I want change.

Do something about this guy and and his little power chip that he's on.

It's gone on long enough with me.

I am done with them.

I'm not gonna provide a video for them, and they cannot take a video of my house.

They're not allowed.

I've actually already signed a letter.

I do not I decline any help from the public works department at my house for now on.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Giuliano Carlini.

Hey y'all, I'll uh do the bicycle stuff later on, but right now I'm up here as uh region as a uh commissioner for AYSO.

We're getting ready to start our season, and I want to thank the uh city.

I want to thank Parks and Rec, Bridget, uh in particular, but also everyone uh there.

Um are fantastically supportive, and you're in it uh, like us for the kids, and just want to thank everyone to uh for doing everything you do to to make this possible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That is our final speaker for this item.

Okay, thank you.

Item seven is council member announcements.

Uh any council members with announcements for us this evening.

Nice, mayor.

No, okay, thank you.

Councilmember Ladimerolo.

Yeah.

First, first I'd like to say that we've all seen each other a lot.

There's been a lot of events happening over the past couple of weeks, and they've actually been very well attended, which is great.

And the age diversity in the last couple has been extraordinary from toddlers to seniors, just every generation of folks in different times in their lives.

So I think something in the way that we're communicating our events is really working now, whether that's working in tandem with like the library or other organizations, or whether the weekly is working, it's great.

So knock on wood.

And then happy women's equality day.

Uh there's been a lot of great work done.

Uh there's lots more work done, to lots more work to do.

Of course, um, I did watch the county meeting this morning, um, so I could see the update on the county's progress towards its goals on its action plan for women and children, and it looks like they've made a lot of intentional progress over the last couple of years.

So we are putting the feds to shame.

Councilmember, okay.

Uh, just a couple of quick ones.

Um, as Councilmember Latamarlow um uh indicated, we've had quite a number of events.

Oh, you heard about our um national light out.

There was also uh the library reopening, which happened uh last Saturday.

Great reopening, 20 years, got a little bit of a facelift.

Uh, folks want to stop by they can.

Um there was lots, I mean so many people, uh, multi-generations came out for that was great.

Um, and then also on August 9th, a little earlier this month, the Belmont Community Foundation had their event over at uh Barrett Community Center.

Again, it was a summer picnic, um, it's a summer party, it was a great event, really well attended, and again, another multi-generational fun to see um the community all come out and be together.

Uh and there's more to come.

There's the San Mateo Consolidated Fire Chili Cook Off, and the Firefighters Association is hosting the annual Chili Cook-Off on September 6th from 11 a.m.

to 4 p.m.

at Central Park in San Mateo.

Bring the whole family for chili drinks, music, and more.

Let's hope San Mateo Consolidated wins the chili cook-off.

Um, movies in the park, movies in the park will uh start on September twelfth at Alexander Park for the showing of Mulan, one of my favorites.

Uh the movie begins at sundown, bring blankets, camping chairs, and your favorite movie snack.

Pre-movie games will be provided by Belmont's mobile recreation and raffle for prizes from local businesses will take place right before we show the movie.

The climate action and adaptation plan update will establish key strategies for increasing resilience to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to align with state targets.

The city invites the community to get involved by taking the survey and signing up for the upcoming workshop on Thursday, September 11th from 7 to 8:30 via Zoom.

Uh visit www.belmont.gov Climate Action for more information.

And then we've got the California Coastal Cleanup, which is going to be on Saturday, September 20th from 9 to noon.

Check-in starts at 8:30 in front of Belmont City Hall, and you can contact the public works department for information.

Uh, all of this also can be found on our website, and don't forget to continue to watch the Belmont weekly updates.

Uh, and I think that's it for the council member announcements.

Um, item eight, consent business.

These items are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion without separate discussion, unless a member or staff requests specific items to be removed for separate action, and the city attorney will read the title of ordinances to be adopted.

Uh so looking at my colleagues here on the dais, does anyone have questions or comments uh or want to remove any items from the consent uh calendar to for separate discussion?

You have a question on which one?

D.

D.

Okay.

Uh anyone else?

Questions or comments?

Comment on F.

Comment on F and D?

Okay.

Uh let's start with D.

Question for either public works or for City Manager.

So one of the complaints that I hear from community members is southbound traffic on El Camino, just north of Brawlston.

Was this adaptive signal control supposed to fix that slowdown and the impossibility of making a left-hand turn onto Ralston from El Camino?

This one is actually construction of cabinets or a couple of cabinets that are um kind of problematic.

So this is really dealing with the physical cap traffic signal.

What you're referring to is unfortunately it's a timing issue that we have with Caltrans, competing demands on El Camino and Rawls and that's a major intersection.

We are continuing to work with Caltrans, trying to fine-tune the timing of the signals, and that's a work that's ongoing.

So that's more of a trying to balance the load that's bought on El Camino as well as what's on on uh Ralston.

So that's that's an ongoing issue that we're trying to tackle here, uh, trying to kind of see how we can best balance it.

But as travel and trips are kind of coming back, uh kind of post-COVID.

Um we typically, especially if it's during school year, also we kind of that first month or two, people kind of put more demand on on the travel lanes on both directions, and that creates a bit of a jam while people get used to those travel patterns.

I'll just look forward to myself when that gets fixed and the timing is not so frustrating when you're trying to go south on El Camino.

Thank you.

And then I think we had Fm.

Okay.

Um, so just a comment that I'm excited to see movement on the O'Neill and railroad underground crossing.

Um, I think it's gonna be really cool um integrated Belmont Village feel when that is done.

Hopefully it's feasible, so that's really um really awesome that we're getting starting to get moved moving on it.

Um, looks like in about 10 months we'll be able to see how feasible it is to create a bike and pedestrian path under the railroad tracks.

Um, and if it's appropriate, I would be super open to joining them on site just to kind of hear and see what they're thinking about.

All right, any uh there are questions on any of the items on our consent calendar.

Okay, and any ordinances that you'd like to read, Mr.

City Attorney.

We have no ordinances tonight.

Okay, then uh we can entertain a move approval.

We have public comment.

Oh, thank you.

Public comment, please.

Um, Juliana Carlini.

Mostly, me on uh bike stuff, so uh council member Later Maryland Sarley.

I'm gonna disagree with you about the O'Neill undercrossing.

Um for a couple of reasons.

First, I'm surprised that I've never even heard of this before.

Outreach has been terrible.

We should have had a chance to weigh in on this before we had these four design alternatives uh nailed down pretty clearly.

Let's pass that.

Um, this is gonna be nearly useless for people like me who are transit cyclists.

Folks who are, you know, noodling around or the racer sets or whoever, but folks who are using their bikes daily to get places, we don't need O'Neal.

And if you're serious about reducing vehicle miles traveled, if you're serious about reducing greenhouse gases, we need to shift people's modes from cars to making the trips they're making now to using other modes, including their bikes.

Walking's great, you can get about a half mile.

So you need to really focus on cycling.

Um, and this ain't it.

It's gonna cost 375,000.

We've got another 350,000 for the Belmont Village uh work that's being done.

We're talking on the order of 700,000.

At the expenditure rate that will happen for the Belmont for the Ralston bike lanes, that's like six miles of protected bike lane.

That's up and down Ralston.

That is what makes people change behavior.

Emmett, starts nowhere, goes nowhere.

Not gonna change behavior.

You're edging, you're your new your messing around with the edges, the projects that should be done at the third step, the fourth step, the fifth step.

Not the things that change behavior now.

You need to get Ralston protected, you need Alameda from San Carlos line to Ralston protected.

The city currently suggests that folks go down through Twin Pines Park, through the parking lot, down Emmett, across blah, blah, blah.

We've had this for 20 years.

We are still at 1% mode share.

If this kind of thinking worked, we'd be at much more than 1% mode share.

Please stop these point projects that are wasteful.

I don't know who's thinking of them, but this is 40-year-old design principles.

We know what works around the world.

Please adopt things that are effective, and that is protected separated cycling infrastructure so people feel safe on their bikes.

Because otherwise you're not going to get mode shift, you're not going to get greenhouse gas reduction.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That'll be our pardon me, that'll be our final speaker.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Moving on to uh item nine.

Public hearing will need to take a point.

Oh, yes.

Sorry, sorry.

Move approval of the consent.

I'm I'm sorry, who did the who was the second?

Me.

Oh.

Thank you.

Uh roll call, please.

Councilmember Jordan?

Yes.

Councilmember Lauderlow.

Aye.

Councilmember McCune.

Aye.

Vice Mayor Pangmanaris.

Aye.

Mayor Mates.

Aye.

The motion passes five zero.

Thank you.

Well, mayor, just a quick note.

There's about over 900,000 worth of grants in these actions that just took.

I just want to kind of take a minute and appreciate the staff's work in securing those grants and one is kind of application that we hope to get.

So it's a lot of work that's been put in there to secure those grants.

So I just want to kind of give them a shout out for work well done.

Yeah.

Yes, absolutely.

Thank you.

All right.

Moving on to we have no public hearings in item nine.

Item 10, general business.

These items are considered separately, typically in the order listed.

And the chair will call for public comment on each item when the body considers the item.

10 A is your voice or Belmont and community polling results.

You're receiving a presentation tonight.

Yeah, we have Brian Gottby that I think he's online, so hopefully our technology is working and is going to be kind of showing the information that he's gathered, maybe.

Yeah, today's wrap.

We're shaking the cop of the summer break, I think.

So kind of working through the technology here.

Uh this one is an important one.

I think we're gonna need to see the slide, so we can always recess if we need a few minutes.

Yeah.

Madam Clark, do you um do you think we should take a recess?

Yeah, maybe it's like a recess.

Yeah, let's let's go ahead and recess uh for let's say yeah.

Let's say let's give it until uh 7 40.

So give us a like seven minutes.

We'll take a quick recess and be back.

And we're we are still on because uh our technical person is is here, so we're just kind of recessing, but we're still live, so to speak.

Yeah.

That's one of the reasons why I either one, whoever is kind of able to get us on.

That's all there.

Presentation is on.

Once that is on, it should show up.

So hold on.

We're taking our resistance out there.

Okay.

This is I was on the share before because it just wasn't showing up.

What is it?

Right on here.

Oh, here's the water here.

Oh, okay.

Is this a little bit showing your voices?

It's still on.

I don't want to see I don't know.

I might see it on the Zoom computer.

It's not on the projectors.

And then you'll get a good idea.

But there's no voice either.

There's no sound.

There's no sound from Zoom.

Yeah, or you're gonna think about it on the uh, we are coming back.

Um, do you call it one?

No.

No.

So it's another or not reminded.

No, it hasn't.

Okay.

Not muted.

Um, it's not new.

We should find all these.

Uh do a quick audio test like you do.

Okay.

Okay.

Maybe we're not hearing it.

I don't know if you're better.

Oh now I'm not hearing it.

I do still aren't even for both comments.

Okay.

This is crest strong.

Okay.

Uh would you mind just doing that?

I can see the little black box.

Okay.

Speakers uh focus site.

We have a speaker, what would the difference is in the middle?

I think you'd like to pre-size it.

Go ahead and still fill it out for a minute.

Oh, it's on screen.

Okay.

Okay.

There's an agenda at all.

I don't care.

Yeah, it was working when we tested.

Okay, I'm going back to presenter.

Illuminating all of them.

So let's take that before we do um.

Okay, clerk.

You want clerk?

Okay.

Yeah, I did.

Okay.

Um let me go back, maybe sure I didn't scream.

Yeah, still good.

Microphones.

Oh, thank you.

Seeing the city council as the city clerkship that got that little block.

Um person is not working today, so my take a little more time to resolve.

Uh sure, no problem.

Uh, I'm hanging on.

Thank you.

Okay, Brian, did you want to start again?

Brian, are you hearing me?

Is that the thing is sound?

Or is it just on the image?

There's nothing here that I can mute.

Josie, you sound more faint.

Can you hear us?

Yes.

But Brian, are you hearing me?

So we're not hearing at the moment.

We're still not hearing him.

No, we can hear him.

We can hear him.

He's not hearing us.

Yeah.

Okay, the presenter's like, yeah, the her mic is turned on.

Can you hear it here?

Um, that's nice.

I don't know.

You go in and check um, uh, Karen, are you hearing?

Yes, hello?

Can you hear us?

I can hear you.

I can hear you, Karen.

Are we back?

Um, very odd.

So now I have some microphone on some side.

She says I can hear each other, okay?

Um, I'm sorry.

She's hearing very faintly.

The person on the outside is here.

The microphone is on.

Yeah.

They're barely hearing you.

Yeah.

Well, they're hearing you, right?

So.

Barely.

Yeah, there's a adjustment for that.

I can have the audio here.

So they'll get more out there, but you're hearing both ways now.

But faintly.

Brian, Karen, are you hearing us?

I can barely hear you.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

Oh, Doug's suggesting that he has his laptop audio up.

Uh Karen?

Brian.

The suggestion is to put your laptop audio up.

I don't want to bring our audio up.

Josie, we can barely hear you.

It sounded clearer earlier as far as the audio.

Yeah.

Can you hear me, Karen?

Barely.

Okay.

We can hear you, so maybe we can go ahead and start the presentation, and we just might have a challenge asking questions.

Okay, can you can you hear Brian when he speaks now?

We can hear you loud and clear.

You hear the hear him loud and clear?

Yes.

Not him.

Perfect.

But you can't see the presentation.

No, we can't see.

Is that his presentation?

Yeah, we can see the presentation.

It's on it's on the screen.

Okay.

I think we're good to go.

It's just that if we have any questions, we'll try to scream.

Perfect.

Okay.

Great.

Thank you very much.

Uh Madam Mayor, members of the council, uh, happy to be here again to present data to the city council.

Uh so moving on.

Um, I'm so sorry.

Uh Brian, can you hear me?

Yeah.

I'm really sorry.

We had an error, and uh one of the public comments uh has come in on a separate item.

Um uh the consent item eight F.

And so we're going to hear that comment and then we'll we'll have you start again.

Sorry about that.

Okay.

Uh Madam Clerk, do we have a comment card?

Uh I think there was an error in some of the agenda uh reading uh on the part of a commenter and was hoping to have a chance to speak on item eight f is this um for Dennis?

Council members.

Is your microphone on?

Sorry, I know we're it is all right.

Let's start again.

Go ahead.

Good evening.

I was here to speak about the O'Neill crossing.

One tenth of a mile, you have Ralston's crossing.

Have you ever seen two crossings that close together?

And then in the staff report, O'Neill is envisioned as main street corridor.

O'Neill's not gonna be a main street corridor.

It's ridiculous.

You have on the east side, all residential, six streets.

On the right side, you have industrial, mini storage, mobile home park, water department, and the storage.

To pay nearly 400,000 for something that is totally unneeded.

And if you read the the report from the engineer, you've got issues with water, utilities, caltrains.

Why would you go any further before you get Caltrains?

PIC they called it in the report.

You have a flow chart on page 17.

No, not 17, I'm sorry.

But can you imagine someone saying, Oh, honey, let's go down and look at the storage lockers across the El Camino?

There's no destination for the east side.

And there's no destination when you get to the west side because it's primarily residential.

And I'll try to find that so I can at least give you the information that was in the report about it.

Just so you know you have uh 49 seconds left.

Okay.

Take your time, but I don't want you to run out of it.

Try to find it.

But you're talking about millions of dollars for something that does not is not needed and that won't be used.

There were six cars in the parking lot south of Ralston this morning at 9:30.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right.

Thank you for uh bearing with us with that change and a quick uh quick uh correction of the public comment.

We'll now go back to item uh 10A, and Brian, if you're still with us and are able to pick up uh where you left off.

I'll um I'll uh yeah uh I'm still here.

Uh again, uh thank you, uh Madam Mayor, members of the council.

I'm pleased to be here to present this data this evening.

Uh and so I will dump jump right in.

Uh as you know, this was a uh online and phone survey, so landline, cell phone, text invitations to an online uh version of the survey.

The universe uh for the sample was likely November 2026 voters uh in the city of Belmont.

Uh we were in the field from July 7th, shortly after the holiday, uh, through July 15th.

The average phone survey, which is still our metric for measuring survey length, was 25 minutes.

Uh the sample size was 361 completed interviews, which gives us a margin of error plus or minus 5.09%.

Jumping into the key findings, the first question was one that was new in Belmont this year.

We'd asked it in many other cities over many years, uh, and it's uh very straightforward.

Are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the quality of life uh in the city of Belmont?

Uh, when you add the very and somewhat together, you see that it's 90%.

Uh, that is nothing short of great.

Uh, very, very few cities get into the 90% range, uh, based on our experience over uh decades of asking this question.

So, congratulations.

Uh, the next question was one we'd asked multiple times, and that was resident satisfaction with city services.

Uh, and this the data goes back as you can see to uh survey conducted in June of 2015, but in the current survey, when you add the very and somewhat favorables together, you see uh the satisfaction uh with the uh city services is at basically 80% in round numbers, and that is the highest it's been uh ever.

Uh, going back to that 2015 survey.

So again, congratulations.

Uh, like you, many cities suffered uh slips during the pandemic uh, and uh that certainly has recovered.

Uh the next question was favorability rating with the city's management of public funds.

And again, when you add the very and somewhat favorable together, you see 62% in round numbers have a favorable view of how you're managing public dollars.

That too is the highest it's been going back to the survey of 2015.

So that's a great indication for the work that everybody is doing in Belmont.

Switching gears, the next question was our hypothetical community center measure.

You can see the wording that we tested on the right hand side of the slide.

It meets the statewide requirements and was vetted by your city attorney.

And when we asked them that question, and we said there you vote definitely yes, probably yes, probably no, definitely no.

And when you add the definitely and probably together, you see we're at 58% in round numbers, which is an improvement over previous surveys, and gets better actually throughout the course of the survey.

So that's a good place to start.

This measure, if it were placed on the ballot by the council, would need two thirds.

If it were an independent citizens initiative, it would need only a simple majority.

This is a list of things you might spend that money on from that measure.

And again, they were in a random order to prevent what we call position bias, but the order you see them in here is based on an intensity scale ranking, and that's the number right next to the red bars.

And what that is is assigning numeric values to each of the response categories.

So much more likely is a two, a somewhat more likely is a one, a somewhat less likely is a minus one, a much less likely is a minus two.

Now we do that because if you just add the much more likely and somewhat more likely together, you could have a situation where you've got 40% much more likely, and 20% somewhat more likely, that's 60%, but you could have the reverse, it could be 20% much more likely, and 40% somewhat more likely.

It's still 60%, but clearly those two examples are nowhere near the same.

So to eliminate that error, we use this intensity scale and rank them like you see here.

Now, arguably the intensity scale is somewhat uh abstract, so we do actually add the much more likely and somewhat more likely together to put it in the context of a more real world in terms of percentages, but it is not ranked by those percentages, it is ranked by the intensity scale.

And you'll see often sometimes the numbers in the percentages look a little weird because of the intensity issues that I highlighted.

So at the top of this list in our first tier, and each tier is statistically tied within the tier.

Uh you see create and maintain multi-generational sports, arts, crafts, fitness, and health and wellness programs for youth teens, uh adults, and seniors, uh, and that's at 76%, more likely to support the measure if that is the outcome.

Obviously, that's not a building, that's programs that are accommodated by the building.

Provide sports courts and fields for youth teens and adult sports and a safe uh children's play area is second.

Provide parks and multi-generational center for youth teens and seniors and adults.

Words do matter in this context, and while these are all statistically tied, there are some numeric differences, and that's important as well.

Provide disaster relief and emergency center meeting earthquake and fire safety standards, maintain child care and supervised after school programs for children and teens, again, more programmatic.

Maintain senior services, including health fitness, nutrition, wellness, and transportation programs, and then maintain facilities so they don't deteriorate and fall into disrepair and uh and uh deteriorate again.

The next slide uh shows the remainder of that top tier.

Uh while the first slide was in the mid to low 70s.

Here we start slipping into the 60s, which is still substantial.

And so those four items are updating the community center to meet current earthquake and fire safety standards, slightly different wording.

Provide an evacuation center during emergencies, such as earthquakes, wildfires, and floods, provide adult lab swimming, recreational and leisure swimming, and youth water play facilities, and provide youth mental health and wellness service programs.

All of those on this, the top part of this slide and the previous are in tier one.

They go down to 69%, which is again not bad.

But the items on the first page are clearly the top priorities of the voters.

In our second tier, you see we start at 68%, and then we're quickly down to 62%.

So these items, which I won't read, are just not as important as those on the first slide, and there is a statistical difference between the tier two group and the tier one group.

The next set of questions is slightly different.

This is more informational statements, and again, why people might support the measure.

The methodology is largely the same, although the scale is slightly truncated.

So it still works the same way, but the scores you can't compare this intensity scale score with the previous slide.

However, you can compare the percentages because that's the same.

It's adding much more likely and somewhat more likely together, and represented by the blue arrow, but it's ranked again by the intensity scale.

So in tier one at the top of this list, we have the measure could be used to get matching funds from the state or county, so Belmont taxpayers don't shoulder the entire burden.

That's 79% at least, somewhat more likely to support the measure.

The funds raised by this measure cannot be taken by Sacramento or the federal government's department of government efficiency.

More than 75-year-old recreation center is bursting at the seams and cannot meet the current demand for programs.

This measure would provide an updated space that can meet current demand for senior adult teen and youth programs.

None of the money would be raised, raised by the measure would be used for city administrator salary, so an accountability provision is important.

The existing community center faces leaks and structural deterioration to ensure it can safely serve our community for generations to come.

We must bring it up to modern earthquake and fire safety standards.

And this question again is very long set of items and continues in the top tier on the next slide.

With more than 1700 local Belmont youths attend programs at the community center every week, and hundreds participate in outdoor sports every day.

They need a safe place to do that.

That's at 77% at least, somewhat more likely.

The current community center again is more than 75 years old at virtually the same level on this slide.

Measure will give Belmont local control over local funds for local needs.

It's sort of the local control argument.

And all three of these first ones are really tied.

Large employers will pay their fair share to enhance Belmont's local recreation programs at very close behind, and then finally developer fees paid on new construction will help pay for the community centers so taxpayers don't shoulder all of the burden again.

Then we go to the next slide, and we're still in tier tier one.

So again, all these on this first three slides are statistically tied.

Again, the numeric differences do matter despite the statistics.

So the items on the first slide of this group are better.

Measure includes independent citizens' oversight, another accountability provision.

The measure will ensure that critical safety and programs updates will be addressed without taking critical funds from services like 911, etc.

None of the money can be taken by the U.S.

government or the state.

Variation on the wording.

The measure will continue Belmont's high standards for fiscal accountability and transparency, and the measure would provide residents with an evacuation center in case of wildfires like the LA fires earlier this year.

And that's at 72% at least, somewhat more likely to support the measure.

The next slide again is still tier one, but the numbers are getting lower.

You can see we get into the 60s now, and while there is not a statistically significant difference based on the intensity score, we are starting to see you know slipping below that two-thirds threshold that I mentioned earlier.

And then there's another slide where we're all in the 60s, and the final slide is in the 60s too.

Again, because of the way we rank these by intensity, sometimes you'll see a 64 here and a 65 here.

The next slide shows you that we did test some of the negatives.

We looked at the measures sunset, the average uh amount the home a homeowner might pay, uh promises with respect to earlier revenue measures in the city, uh, economic uncertainty associated with tariffs and inflation and interest rates.

Uh we talked about uh the cost of the community center improvements and the city's use of available funds.

All of those are sort of negatives, which then lead us into the follow-up.

So what's gone on here is we've talked about what we'd spend the money on, we've talked about the positives, we've talked about the negatives, and we come back to our same ballot question a second time, uh simulating what might happen after people debate this if it's on the ballot.

Uh and you see we started at 57.6 and we're now up to 63.3.

That's the highest it's been for this potential measure since we started testing it several years back.

Uh, and certainly is a good place to be.

Uh, again, for a two-thirds measure, it's uh a little bit short, but for a citizen's initiative, should that uh take place uh that would exceed the threshold necessary for a citizen's initiative.

The next slide shows uh when we tested different tax rates, so the ballot question that we've been looking at was 33 cents for residential per square building square foot and 54 for commercial, uh this is a fallback to 26 and 43 respectively, and you see we do get a little bit of a bump from that 63.3 on the previous slide to this at 64.1.

Not statistically significant, uh, but it's sort of what you'd expect, and you'd also expect the definitely yes to get a little stronger, which it does.

Uh the next question then dealt with the term.

Uh, and so instead of until ended by voters, as in our basic ballot question, we said, what if it was 30 years?

And here's where it's always uh seems odd, but it's pretty typical for us.

Uh, when you talk about 30 years, that sort of sets it in stone in their mind, whereas until ended by voters provide some flexibility, and so this is 30 years is not as popular uh as the previous version of the question.

Uh, and at that point we switched uh to our final question uh for the survey, which was asking people where they thought the economy would be uh next fall.

Uh, and we asked, do you think it will be better, about the same or worse?

Uh, back in right after the pandemic started, uh, the worst was the largest number at 43% in round numbers.

It dropped down to 32 in 2023, and to 21 in 24, uh but now it's back up to 54.

Or I'm sorry, 45%, uh, which is the highest number for the worst category since we've been asking this for Belmont.

Uh so uh well this is bad news in terms of people's pessimism.

Uh it's also somewhat positive in that the ballot question numbers are built into this world where voters are pessimistic already.

So it's not like it's going to be a surprise to them if the economy goes south, they still seem to be supporting the measure at the numbers we suggested.

And that is the presentation that we have for this evening.

I'm certainly happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Thank you very much.

A lot of information here, but appreciate the update.

Council members, do we have any?

Let's just keep it to questions at this point for uh staff or for uh Godby.

Uh councilmember Jordan.

Yes, hi Brian.

Uh quick question on when you did the survey and you're asking the questions just for uh the sake of the public, they they did not have to rank them, correct?

You would ask a question and they would say someone likely likely.

Yeah, that's correct.

Um, in so for example, this one where we're talking about the features, uh, we read the question, which was does um creating and maintaining a multi-generational sports and arts and crafts and fitness, etc.

Uh, place for programs make you much more likely, somewhat more likely, somewhat less likely, or much less likely to support the measure.

Uh so they answer in terms of those categories you see across the bottom.

We then go back and add the rankings after the fact and we create the intensity scale and then look at the percentages.

They don't have to do any of that, they just have to say I'm more or less likely to support it based on any one of these things.

Great, thank you.

Any other questions?

Uh I have a question for you, Brian.

I know this comes up every time we do our polling, and so I wanted you to address it with the um sample size.

I think you said was uh 361.

So can you tell us for a city like Belmont?

Is that is that a goodly number for sample sizes?

Just address kind of how that is.

Yeah, that's great.

Um Belmont is a little bit of a smaller city.

Uh if this we were doing this survey in the city of San Mateo, we'd probably have gotten 400 and the but the margin of error would be 4.85 or 4.9.

So both of them round to the same number of 5.0.

But to put that all in perspective, uh, if we did a statewide survey, we would typically do 800.

Uh, and that would give us a margin of error around 4%, a little bit lower because of the larger sample size.

But for a city the size of Belmont, 361 is great.

Um, we're very happy with that.

And that's partially because of the way the statistics for the margin of error uh on sampling work out, but also because this is a stratified sample.

So what we do is we choose the universe, in this case, likely November 2026 voters, and then we go in and look at 12 different variables, gender, age, partisanship, geography, uh, etc.

And we stratify the sample based on those 12 variables uh on the front end.

Uh and as we go through the process, we make sure that if somebody doesn't participate in the survey, we replace that person with somebody who fits into those same strata uh that we that I just mentioned.

And then on the back end, when we're done with the data collection, we look at those 12 strata again to make sure that the sample is representative of the total population uh of the city of Belmont, uh, and that's what really gives us a lot of confidence in that margin of error.

Great.

Thank you so much.

That's it.

That's very helpful.

Um okay, no other.

Oh, yes, Vice Mayor.

I'm just trying to put my brain around all of this.

So the what the survey results are really saying is that the community of the people who were surveyed, they are supportive of a community center, and um that they are supportive of some kind of ballot measure that will assess them based upon their square footage of their homes or their businesses.

Now, did I hear you correctly that if we so there's two ways to put this in front of the voters, either a citizens initiative or a citywide initiative?

If we if it's a citizens initiative, it would need a lower percentage of uh votes to be passed.

Is that right?

Uh that's correct, yeah.

And I would also defer to the city attorney to comment more on that because it's uh not just a survey question but a legal question.

But that is essentially correct.

That's correct.

Okay, and then the pros and cons of it being a city initiative versus a citizens initiative would be.

Uh well, there's uh, you know, it's just the process.

Uh for the citizens' initiative, that process includes uh a citizens group coming together to support the idea, they have to hire legal counsel and um uh and draft a petition that meets the statewide legal requirements, and again the city attorney could comment more on those details.

Uh, then they would bring it to the city to be uh get title and summary.

Uh and once that's approved, then it goes back to this citizens committee and they go out and collect signatures that takes some time.

Uh, it then has to come back once they've collected their signatures um to uh the city and the county ultimately to be uh have the signatures validated, then it goes back to the council to place it on the ballot if they're the right number of signatures.

Uh, it's a little uh easier if the um city council places it on the ballot, they just have to do it eighty-eight days before the election.

Uh, but there is the different hurdle in terms of it being two-thirds as opposed to simple majority.

Okay, okay, great.

All right.

If there are no other questions, let's go to um public comment.

Do we have any public comment on this item?

10A?

Uh yes, I have a slip here in front of me.

Excuse me, for Jim Howard.

Next one.

No slips, no hands.

No slips, no hands.

Okay.

So um back to our council.

Um, this is a no action required.

We're just receiving this uh presentation, so uh, but we can go ahead and make comments if we want to say anything further.

If you thought of any other questions that came up, any comments?

Um, I guess just in terms of process, would be like, is that a discussion that the city council then would have around like do we want to hold it for ourselves?

Like, do we want to be the persons to put it on the ballot ballot, or do we want to hand it over to a citizens initiative?

It's nothing that we would do.

We would have a conversation on whether the city council would want to push forward in putting a city measure on board or not.

Okay.

We're not asked tonight.

Right.

What would say it again?

We're not asking for input on that tonight.

We're just presenting information.

I see.

Okay.

All right.

Uh other quick.

Yes, please.

Um, in terms of process, what would be the timeline given that we're almost in September of 2025?

As far as making the decision what if a the city's gonna pursue the initiative, or if B, we're going to see if a community group steps up, or if C, we do nothing.

The city would basically would work on if the city it's a city initiative.

We would kind of start conducting uh community outreach around this and and bring a decision to council probably sometime around June of next year.

Oh the ballot proposition have to be prepared and put on and approved by council and and submitted to the county at the first part of August of next year for November of 26 elections.

If a citizens initiative is somebody has an interest in moving the project forward uh independent of the city actions, they have a runway that they have to uh as kind of Brian mentioned the process of uh submitting that interest, uh kind of working with the city attorney on the title and and the description of the measure and then collection of a petition and signatures to qualify it.

And that period is about 60 six months to do that.

So by June of next year, they would have to basically have that in front of the if it's a citizen's process, and that that process should be in front of you in June for a decision.

A qualified measure.

Okay.

Great.

Okay.

Um, so I think outside of the uh revenue measure, I know that um we asked a lot of other questions that we had asked in the past, and just I think doing this polling is very helpful.

I think um, as a mayor and and council member, I think it's really important for us to sort of have our finger on the pulse of uh the interest of our community, how happy they are with services and and all the things that we try to do each day.

So I do think that this is great.

I want to thank uh Godby for for all their help in the polling and the survey and um and for the information and and the easy to digest presentation, which um is part of the agenda package, so folks can and can go back and use that for reference.

Um, and if anyone has any other comments to include, uh thank you very much.

All right.

That moves us on to item 10 B.

Uh just to double check is the comment the comment is on 10B.

Oh, okay.

Great.

Uh then we have no public comment, nobody else has raised their hand, nothing virtual.

Okay.

Then we will safely move to 10 B, which is our long-range planning update.

Okay, thank you.

Good evening, mayor, members of the council, and members of the public.

I'm Laura Russell, the deputy community development director, and we have for you this evening um a comprehensive report on our long-range planning program.

So here are the items that we're going to go over.

Um again, we wanted to take a comprehensive look.

You often look at these items one at a time.

We thought it was nice for you to see them all together and also to anticipate some of the items that are coming before you um this fall.

So, as we often do, we're gonna just talk briefly about the ever-evolving state laws and that context that we are working in.

Talk about the harbor industrial area, regional commercial zoning, corridor mixed use zoning, general plan safety element, climate action adaptation plan, housing element implementation, and MTC's transit oriented communities.

So, first related to the legal context.

Um, as the council is aware, the state laws have been changing almost constantly for the last five or six years.

Um, so much so.

Can I keep going?

Okay.

Um so much so that ABAG is almost constantly putting out this guidance.

Um, and graphic artists have started making these cute drawings.

It's like a specialty where they summarize all of the California state laws.

So that just gives you an idea of this environment that we're always working in.

It's very challenging for cities to implement all of these laws, um, whether you're a big or small city, but certainly the challenges are even bigger for us um smaller cities because we have less staff to be responsive to all of those things.

The laws are really deeply interconnected and complex, so they refer back and forth to each other.

So sometimes a small change in one law results in a change in another law that we didn't even see coming.

So we're always trying to have to monitor that and see how these things go together.

Um, as you know, a lot of these laws do limit the city's ability to implement our own local planning policies, and this is something that the community has been talking about a lot lately, related to density bonus, related to parking requirements and other similar processes.

Some of the most recent changes um are related to two bills that just passed um in the middle of the year, and that's AB 130 and SB 131.

And these include a lot of different changes, but um notably there's significant changes to CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act, and also application processing timelines.

There's a lot that we're trying to manage here and get our arms around, and we're analyzing that right now and working with our colleagues in council.

So we'll be back to the city council with more information on that in the future.

But just wanted to let you know that that's upcoming.

So, first talking about the herbal and harbor industrial area, and I just included some maps as we go through these in case anyone is new to the conversation in the public.

Of course, the harbor industrial area is the unincorporated area between Belmont and San Carlos.

So, in case this is new for anyone, this is a long-term plan for the 62-acre area.

It's currently unincorporated, and this specific plan is the first step to move towards a complete annexation of the HIA into the city.

And a reminder to everybody, this is really intended to be an employment center with a couple of key housing resources, and that is the mobile home park remaining at its current location and also anticipating multifamily housing around Old County Road and Elmer and that kind of upper corner of the area.

Plan adoption is anticipated at this point in early 2026, and this is a very long term plan, as especially we're thinking about where the economy is right now.

We anticipate that that redevelopment of the area would occur over the 20 to even 30 year time frame.

So there's been some recent updates that we wanted to highlight for the council.

We had a community meeting on May 12th, and then we had a meeting with the mobile home park residents on August 2nd.

So at those meetings, we did receive feedback on certain key aspects of the plan, particularly related to the proposed development standards, including the height that was proposed and presented to them, as well as the transition areas to the residential neighborhoods.

So the staff and consultant team has been working on those comments and thinking about potential ways to address them.

And so we are preparing alternatives in response to that feedback.

So we'll be coming back to the City Council for your feedback and direction.

The tentative date for that meeting is September 23rd to discuss those alternatives.

Turning now to the regional commercial zoning district, reminder this is strictly east of 101, and so it's the area circled up on the far side of the freeway.

So you'll recall that this work was initiated in 2023 with the council direction to pursue what we're calling tiered development standards.

So there'd be a base and a higher tier.

The higher tier would require community benefits from the applicant.

And then you'll remember, of course, as the market started to shift, and we no longer had project applications, we were reviewing, we slowed down a little bit to think about what was the best course forward.

And so in April of this year, we received council direction.

We brought before you some preliminary development standards, including some potential heights, and we also brought forward a revised approach to the environmental review, including doing a city-initiated environmental impact report with the idea of streamlining future development.

And so these are some of the key elements that we talked about with those zoning amendments, talking about reorganizing and modernizing, which is a theme that runs through kind of this whole presentation.

There's a lot of things that we want to modernize and simplify.

We talked about increased heights and floor areas with community benefits and keeping land uses substantially the same, but just creating some clarifications, particularly around RD facilities.

So in terms of next steps, this is an item that I'm happy to say our new principal planner is taking over the environmental review of this.

So you'll recall our principal planner retired in the springtime, and we hired a new one, and so she's going to be issuing this request for proposals to our CEQA bench over the next couple of weeks.

And then we would return to council for approval of the contract this fall, so we can get going on that EIR.

Now looking at the corridor mixed-use zoning district, you'll remember that this is El Camino Real Corridor on either side, north and south of the BVSP area.

These code amendments also include parking code amendments that we've talked about.

And so this initiative is to adjust the height in the floor area on the El Camino Real Corridor.

Again, modernize and simplify parking requirements citywide.

You'll probably remember right now our parking requirements are in three different places in our code.

We're going to bring those all together.

Other key changes, including increase the development potential for hotel uses, increase the base height by five feet to encourage active ground floor, ground floor commercial, and bring all those parking requirements into one chapter.

So we received council feedback in July of 2024, and our consultant and staff team has been working on that, and those amendments are pretty much now ready to go forward, putting final touches on those.

So the planning commission public hearing is anticipated in September, and then the city council review is anticipated in October.

So those items are coming up very quickly.

Then turning to the general plan safety element, this is one we haven't talked about quite as much, so I'll just give you a little bit more detail here.

Reminder that a safety element is a required element of the general plan under state law.

Its function is to identify hazards and establish policies to protect people and property.

And obviously, climate change hazards have become an increasingly important part of safety elements.

So we are updating our safety element to meet the new state requirements and also to address climate resilience.

And safety elements have to be updated basically now in the same schedule as the housing element, so every eight years, and so it's triggered by the housing element update.

So very common under these laws that we're under now for the safety element to kind of just follow after the housing element update.

So you might recall that back in April of 2023, the council adopted a resolution to join a multi-jurisdictional safety element project.

So there's a total of nine cities in San Mateo County that are working together on this.

So the work plan includes a bunch of things that the cities have done together under one consultant team, and we're now at the point where we sort of veer off from the group and kind of take it from here as we move forward towards adoption.

So just some reminders of some things that have happened so far in the process.

There was a kickoff, a presentation to the council in September of 2023 to begin this work.

There's been a series of virtual community meetings, March, April, and May of 2024 leading up to, I'm sorry, May of this year, 2025.

There was also what we'd called a service provider meeting, so it's kind of all the different agencies, service providers, governmental parties, jurisdictions that participate and in kind of the safety elements that go into implementing the safety element policies.

So that also happened last year.

And in terms of where we are today, we've completed the background report and vulnerability assessment.

We've done the community engagement that we were just talking about, created draft policies.

Those have been under review by our internal technical team, of course, including police and fire all along.

So that step is finished.

Right now, staff in our internal team is currently reviewing the draft safety element.

So we have a full draft at this point, and we're providing feedback on that.

And then we're going to be moving forward into planning commission and city council study sessions are anticipated.

We think probably a community open house would be a good format to get additional public input and then moving forward into adoption hearings.

There's also a it's relatively minor, but we still have to do a sequel review on this as well, and all of that is included in our contract with the consultant.

So all of that is underway.

So we're still finalizing the timeline, but some of these steps could happen this fall, most likely moving into the early winter and early 2026.

Then turning to housing element implementation, as we all know and still celebrate, the housing element was certified by the state in October of 2024.

And we are well underway in implementation of the housing element, particularly all of the programs that you'll probably recall.

So some of the ones we've been working on most recently, we're working on an update to our inclusionary housing requirements.

So just as a quick reminder, that's the percentage of affordable units that are required within each housing project.

That's the inclusionary housing, and we are working on a new Nexus study and feasibility study to update the documents that back up our requirements and back up our affordable housing fees.

And so we're doing that again through a countywide program in collaboration with other cities within the county.

This is the same way we did it back in, I believe it was 2015 and was very effective and good use of everyone's time.

So it does take time to do the paperwork though, as you can imagine, to get all the cities and the county together to be able to proceed with that.

So we're working on that part right now, and we anticipate having the contracts and agreements for all of that coming up this fall.

It's also worth pointing out that we've received a grant through the transit oriented communities program, which is another topic that I'm gonna talk about.

The grant is covering the majority or all of this work.

We're still finalizing the budget and kind of thinking through how that's gonna go.

So that is a really positive outcome in terms of not having to fund that work directly from our general fund maintenance.

So that's a positive.

Our housing staff worked on that in order to get that grant in place for us.

Next, we've got some zoning code updates that are a program in the housing element.

These are all relatively small.

Um, there are things like definitions and small amendments that are specifically required from HCD for all housing elements.

If you don't have it, they make you put in that program to update those things.

And so we've got those also about 90% complete at this point.

So we're gonna bring those forward at the same time as we bring forward the CMU and the parking amendments.

So that's also scheduled for review by the planning commission and the council on that September-October timeline.

So we'll be able to kind of put the big checkbox next to that housing element implementation item when we get that finished.

There's also some programs that may be considered minor, but they're important related to outreach and communication with our housing partners.

So we've been working on that, sending out outreach letters, making connections, making sure people are aware of the resources that are available, web updates, so a lot of those kinds of things have been ongoing.

And then also wanted to make sure that the council is aware we are a partner in our countywide ADU resource center.

So this is through our partners at 21 elements, and I was one of the members that helped to kind of get that ADU resource center off the ground, and we're really happy with how that's been going so far, provides assistance to staff and implementing the state law, and most importantly, provides a direct assistance to homeowners now for people that are interested in building an ADU or maybe having trouble building an ADU and don't know where to go for help.

So this has been a really we believe cost-effective way to bring extra services to our residents.

We're just starting to get data in on that, so we'll kind of share it as it comes in.

Are Belmont residents participating?

Is it working?

How do we think it's going?

So more to come on that.

But it is we think working out well so far.

In terms of upcoming work for housing element implementation, we also need to do a set of ordinance amendments related to ADUs and SB9 projects.

That's primarily for compliance with state law, but also there's a couple of fine points in our housing element that we will implement through those ordinance amendments.

So we haven't started that work yet, but we're just getting started, like thinking about programming it.

Now that we have we're working and almost completed a bunch of things that you're gonna see over the next couple of months.

I also wanted to point out when we're thinking about housing element implementation, this is something that we expect HCD to monitor more closely than they have in past years.

So this might be more of a discussion and something that we talked to the council more about.

We were thinking about some of these ordinance amendments.

They might even ask to see under state law.

They normally review ADU ordinances, but there is a chance they'll start to see more of our work product and provide comments on it as we move forward.

There was an example that we already did some code amendments back in early 2024 to meet a state law deadline that actually created the buy-right processing that the community has been talking a lot about, and that ordinance, for example, was reviewed by HCD.

And so we are kind of changing this dynamic where they didn't used to review the work product so closely, and we anticipate that's probably going to increase in this housing element cycle.

So I wanted you to be aware of that kind of change in dynamic as well.

Next, this is just a quick preview since this is a comprehensive look at what we're working on, the climate action and adaptation plan.

There was already announcement about it this evening, but you'll recall that in 2017 the City of Belmont adopted its first climate action plan with the general plan and BVSP.

So we are updating it now with new data, best practices, and also including a climate resiliency component.

So climate action and adaptation plans have evolved in the recent years.

This is a uh all in an effort to reach the state's 2030 target, and that's you'll remember we're kind of going back in time to 40% below the 1990 greenhouse gas emissions levels, and so we're trying to go back to get a reduction below that benchmark.

So, as you know, community engagement is already underway for this.

The online survey is available, Belmont.gov slash climate action.

These presentations are coming up very quickly.

The planning commission presentation is going to be on September 2nd, and the City Council presentation will be on September 9th.

And the first community workshop will be virtual on September 11th.

So right now, the final plan adoption is anticipated in fall of 2026.

And then the transit-oriented communities policy.

This is another preview because this is a conversation that will be ongoing and we'll be back in front of you with more information, but so that you start to get familiar with it.

MTC is the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, as you know, they're the ones that control the transportation funding, the dollars flow through them, and they have a program that they describe as designed to support the region's transit investments by ensuring communities around transit stations and make sure that there's investments to support transit ridership and that there's policies in place to support transit ridership.

So one Bay Area funding, OBAG, we call it, there's a funding cycle, right, where the money is distributed, and we expect that they'll be looking at TOC compliance when they prioritize funding in the future.

So starting with the next funding cycle of OBAG funds, we think that those will be linked to our level of TOC compliance.

So it's pretty important.

And a lot of people in the region are talking about it, and there's been concerns expressed about it, concerns about the methodology.

So there's really some complexity to it.

But we are like thickly in the stage of analyzing where we are, and we've provided comments in on some of the concerns that we have.

So the TOC policy includes a couple of key policy areas that you have to.

There's basically right now, they're thinking there might be a point system in these different areas.

The first one is about residential density and intensity.

So that's the density of the housing that's proposed and like the floor area of the commercial development right around transit stations, and of course, our Caltrain station qualifies as a transit station under this policy.

I do want to emphasize though that Belmont is already compliant with some aspects of this.

So we don't want people to sort of worry yet.

Let us do our analysis and get a conversation going with the community about where we are in terms of compliance.

There's also requirements to adopt programs to support affordable housing across what people refer to kind of a term of art, the three Ps production, preservation, and protection.

So we're looking at different policies across those areas.

There's parking and transportation policies for vehicle parking, bike parking, kind of numeric standards, as well as kind of policy approaches to those things.

And then there's also requirements related to station access and circulation.

So how do people reach the station and move around and about in the station areas?

So the stage that we're at right now is they had a grant program to help people to come into compliance.

So as I mentioned, we received the grant with the other cities in San Mateo County related to inclusionary housing.

Unfortunately, we didn't receive the other grant that we were hoping for.

But MTC has established a technical assistance program and hired folks to work on that.

And so right now we're at the stage of having basically preliminary meetings set up with all of their technical assistance folks across these different topic areas so that we can talk to the subject matter experts about the expectations and start to think about where we are in reaching compliance.

So more information to come on this, but wanted you to have that baseline information as we get going on this conversation.

And also in case you hear your colleagues talking about it, or there's other conversations, you'll know what we're referring to.

So that concludes the presentation on everything that we are working on in the advanced planning area.

Um, happy to take any questions.

Um, and we are really looking forward to bringing a lot of these things to completion in the coming months, the things that we've got right in front of us, and then some of the bigger initiatives that roll over into next year.

So thank you very much.

Great.

Thank you so much for the presentation.

There's a lot there, quite an update.

Um, Council members, any questions right now for staff?

Looking to my left first questions, and then maybe my just as well.

Yeah, okay.

Um, everything's like due in the next two years.

Is what it feels like.

Okay, yeah, cool.

Um it does, it does feel that way.

Yeah, and it'll be nice when it's all done, and you know, everything's interacting really well with everything else.

That's gonna be beautiful.

Um, so basically the process is you guys have come to us at city council for direction and kind of policy ideas, and then now you're codifying it, and then you're bringing it back to planning commission and MS.

Yes, that's gonna be the typical process.

Um, there might be some things where we need to get your feedback early in the process, so we would come to you first, maybe in a couple stages, study session format, get your feedback, go back and work on it.

You know, depending on the complexity, we might be back and forth, like HIA.

You know what I mean?

We've been in front of the council more times.

Some of these things that are more simple, we might just need um one check-in before we can draft it.

Thanks.

Any other questions over here?

One thing if I may add, I appreciate the Laura, Kathy, Carlos, and the rest of the staff working on a number of these types of initiatives.

This has been a kind of feels like a hamster on a wheel.

This keeps going.

And a lot of it kind of translates from what's happening in the housing laws and what's happening at the state over the last five years.

They really kind of been pumping, and I think during the last few years, we've provided update on the constant change that's happening uh in Sacramento, and that that kind of forces a lot of things that we have to implement while we're doing the rest of the business of land use planning and all that.

And so a lot of those things are being taken away from local control.

And part of the challenge is that we're trying to be mindful of how do we develop the city's land uses.

Well, I think we're very much pro-housing and trying to do the right things, and still managing to balance the needs of the city on how we support the infrastructure, the services that we're providing, and a lot of these long-range planning efforts that's been underway, and we've been kind of working on towards your strategic planning goals and objectives or things that take a lot of time and resources.

I think we're kind of hitting above the belt for our weight, and what the staff is able to accomplish and move those pieces forward through your vision and direction and support.

It's been kind of a constant kind of rhythm that we've been, and canal though, you might not see a lot of things that's coming to you on a on a regular basis.

There's a lot of work that needs to happen behind the scenes before we can even get to the point of policy discussion and guidance and and all that.

And so I think it was timely for us to have that in front of you so you kind of see what's been going on over the last really three to four or five years since the state has changed certain things and we've been kind of trying to adapt to both the state law changes as well as all the different elements of just the land use planning that is trying to align things with BVSB with the general plan, the work that we've already undertaken over the last few years in setting the direction of where the city's headed and and kind of being the the you know as as the survey says to try to still maintain the quality of life and what makes Belmont special while we do all these other things.

So a lot of work goes and and credit goes to you and setting direction and staff who are trying to really deliver these things on a consistent basis to kind of hit the mark.

And like even though it's a little intense to hear everything all at once, I like it because then you can understand how things interlate with each other.

Yeah.

Thank you for your work.

Thanks a lot.

Any other questions?

Um my question's pretty simple.

I think uh the presentation actually is is great if folks are able to watch it.

I know it's not likely that people will, you know, they may not have a chance to do that.

If we could get the presentation as part of you know the agenda, if if we can add that uh so that we can at least, you know, reference it, and then also where you have the five bullets.

If you can um do links to the to the plans at least or something like that, so so people can um easily find it, you know, the billets where you list it out in the staff report what what the plans are that you're updating.

Yeah, okay.

So just go back to the presentation, add live links to anything we have available so the public can find it that way.

Is that and then put the presentation online?

We have your staff report, but we don't have a presentation, which I and I know I I sometimes do go back to it.

We'll actually push this out through the weekly and other means to to broadcast it, but definitely the links and the information will be uploaded, and Jose is already kind of doing that as part of the process.

Great, thank you so much.

And I I actually have a comment, but I want to follow my own rules, so um we'll get back to that.

But first, if we don't have any more questions, um, do we have public comment on this item 10B, either on Zoom or email or in person?

Yes, I have a slip.

Um, Jim Howard.

So this is really on 10A and 10B combined.

Um, uh, I want to thank the council, uh, Ms.

Mayor, uh, Mr.

Godby, and Ms.

Russell for those presentations and discussion.

Um, I was just talking to a colleague the other day, and they were telling me how they were ready to move out of the city and they were looking to move into the peninsula.

And I said, Oh, where?

And they said, Oh, we found this nice little place that we really like.

Uh, it's not far away.

And I thought, oh, do you mean Burlingame?

And they said, Oh, no, no, it's nice, but it's not quite for us.

And I said, Well, you mean San Carlos, the place with all the restaurants.

And they said, No, no, no, no.

That's it's okay, but it's not for us.

And I said, Well, it's a nice little place, San Mateo and Redwood City that they don't seem so small.

I said, Do you mean Belmont?

And she said, Oh, yeah, we love Belmont.

We think it's beautiful.

And I thought to myself, yeah, I agree, it's pretty awesome.

Um, so um, I'm telling you that story because I'm a proud citizen of this community, and um I what I witnessed here tonight is something that I think illustrates the best of local government.

Uh, all the discussions and presentations were with an eye to improve the lives of the citizens, a vision of how we might achieve that, input and debate from the community, a flexible plan that addresses needs and requirements, and recognition of the degree of unified voice needed to obtain assent to move forward with a public project.

I'm particularly uh pleased uh that as we approach the next 100 years of our city, uh, and I'm very thankful as well that a strong majority of our voters are aligning around uh building a community center that reflects both our now and our collective future.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Any uh further comments in that vein?

No, I'm kidding.

Just any public comments at all.

I'm sorry, but that'll be your last commenter.

Thanks.

If anyone wants to comment on item 10B, now's the chance to time to raise your virtual hand.

Uh, if not, we'll bring it back to no other comments.

Okay, bring it back to council for any uh council thoughts on the presentation.

Councilmember McKune, Vice Mayor.

It's outstanding as always.

Thank you for it's an incredible amount of work that your very small staff is taking on over the next two years, and it overwhelms me and it thrills me both at the same time.

So thank you for putting this together so incredibly well.

Councilmember Jordan, I just want to echo what the vice mayor just said, uh, but I think it's worth stating.

Thank you so much.

Our staff at the city is you all know is very small, and it is amazing how much work you get done day in and day out.

I I don't know if you were paying attention.

I was furiously typing, trying to keep up with everything that the staff is working on.

So I just want to uh echo the vice mayor saying thank you so much for all of the efforts that you put in every day.

Great.

Councilmember, okay.

Uh I just I have a question or a comment related to, you know, um having served on the planning commission in 2017, which now is looking like we're we're looking at some of these um plans again and updating them.

Hard to believe because it seemed like such a long range planning then and it time goes by fast.

Um things in our state move very quickly, and and it's um uh as has been stated, it's very challenging for staff to keep up.

And we are lean and mean machines, so I do appreciate that.

The I think um what we've seen, even with some of the public comments in this meeting, is I think what's the challenge is that we have these plans that we work hard on, the planning commission uh the commissioners work very hard and gets to the council and we you know deliberate on these, and then um sometimes because of funding or just the nature of government, but often it's funding.

These plans don't come, we don't actually see anything move forward until sometimes you know the better part of a decade.

And so as we're updating these, and I know we're having community meetings and we're bringing it to the to the planning commission and trying to do as much outreach as possible, but I'm I'm just um kind of wondering and and looking to staff for any thoughts you might have on um I think how to help the public understand sometimes the original goals of some of these plans and how they interact.

I know that's a big feat, but like I said, I think even with some of the public comment we receive, um, and I know it's it's even in the staff report, but that it doesn't, it's maybe not clear what this plan was trying to achieve, and so I think some of the public, especially maybe they weren't even living in town around that time.

They uh don't totally understand why we're implementing what we're implementing or how this plan actually like what the goals are, and so that they see something on our item on our agenda, and they're um unhappy with what they see because they feel like it's not addressing a problem that they see, but not realizing that well, this goes into a plan that comes it was part of a larger goal that we were trying to achieve.

Does that make sense?

So I think we we all are trying to do that, kind of help the public along, but that seems to be as of late, and it's it's not just with the plans you mentioned, it's many many other ones I'm thinking of where people will say, Why are we doing this?

Where did this come from?

And um, that's one of the reasons I asked for the links, too, so that we can kind of point people back to that original, even though I know 2017 sounds like a long time ago.

Unfortunately, in government, that's kind of how it works.

You have a plan, and then you don't actually see it happen until um what looks to be a lot later.

So, I think you know, to your point, and thanks for bringing that up.

I think it's a it's a point of otherly communication and our engagement with with the public is uh also understanding that these plans and typically we put them on, it's a general plan 2035.

It's general plan uh 2040.

All these things have a lifeline, and a lot of that is driven by the dynamics of not necessarily all funding, but really the cycles of development and cities are not built overnight.

And so typically these plans are setting the vision.

They're not saying this is gonna be there tomorrow, it's saying this is the vision.

Some of it is mandated, comes done from state to us, and what we have to accommodate.

I think in 2017, we made a good faith effort that housing was an issue, and we're gonna address it.

2020 on, the rules change, and a lot of that local control was taken away, and things are happening because of what we keep saying, the loss of local control.

So these plans, as you said, it's it's something that unfortunately as people come into it at the point that it gets their interest, whether they've been here or they didn't pay attention and plans or have a very robust community engagement components to it.

A lot of our corridor plans, a lot of our general plan and things is as you recall because we were here, involve hundreds of people in rooms and having a lot of robust conversations about the really the vision that was being set.

So to your point, I think it's all of our jobs to keep reminding public that these things don't happen overnight.

Their vision, they're set to really uh have a roadmap as to what the city's future is headed, and those components will happen over time.

And so even if you see a plan of why we're punching or studying to punch a uh uh opening under the tracks, there's a vision that connects the development that's gonna happen on the east side of the tracks, the conversations we had with the community about the nature of people wanting to walk and be able to get to the areas of what the future of the city is gonna uh be uh over the next 10, 15, 20 years.

And so those are the pieces that we have to put the pieces of puzzle together for the community that it's not about just this one element, but how does the whole fit into the picture that you all are developing as a vision for the for the community?

Right, right.

So that's basically reinforcing exactly what I said, and using the example that I was thinking of too, because I know I have several gray hairs from going over the BBSP, and really that was such a thoughtful um project that we did with that plan.

And so even if it seems, and I know again there was mention of it in that in the staff report, but maybe we even need to spend a little more time talking about this BVSP and this plan and this vision and how we heard from the community that they wanted to safely be able to have the east side of the you know neighborhoods connect with the uh all of that maybe it's it's we need to sort of uh remind everyone and uh kind of in in those ways get out the message as much as possible.

Uh so enough said about that, but yeah, appreciate the example.

I think that's very helpful too.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Um I did you get anything else that you needed from us in terms of okay, thank you.

All right.

Then we are now at item 11 brief verbal reports from council members and staff.

Uh council members, any updates on intergovernmental subcommittees that you sit on?

Looking to my left first.

I just want to give a quick shout-out.

It's not an IGR, but to the park and rec department and the senior programs that they offer.

Um, my parents and mother-in-law are taking advantage of the senior lunch options.

And Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, it's a packed room of people, it's really really happy people, and I and what I love is that nobody has their phones out, they're all just having conversations at lunch.

So I just want to shout out to Bridget and her team for the fabulous work they do.

Thank you.

All right, great.

IGRs updates?

They've all been on summer vacation.

Oh, lucky you.

Vice Mayor, nothing.

Nope.

Okay.

Uh, just a couple, um, and I will make these brief.

Where did I write this down?

Um, okay.

So we have some fires throughout the state.

We had our San Mateo Consolidated Fire Department had um two engines sent to the Hulbo Humboldt Siskiyou County fires, two type six engines with eight uh staff members to the Canyon Fire in Ventura.

Our battalion chief was sent to the picket fire in Napa, and we had one firefighter uh at the Gifford fire.

Some have already returned safely, thankfully, and we still have um I think a few out there.

So just uh letting folks know, um, um, chair of the San Mateo County uh San Mateo Consolidated Fire, that that's um that's those deployments are happening, and that we're sending our our people to help with some of the statewide fire wildfires.

Uh that both I am uh vice chair of the TA and also on CCAG, and both uh earlier this month or maybe late last month, approved.

Um, well, I should say uh they moved forward with approval SB 63, which is the regional transit measure uh with amendments uh and sending sent that on to Sam Trans, which ultimately uh made the decision whether or not um San Mateo County would uh opt in and send our legislator uh amendments to work out with other legislators in the state.

Uh it was actually a pretty busy summer.

Uh item 11B, verbal report from our city manager.

You've covered a number of those areas I was going to touch on, but there's a couple of things for the committee if they're interested.

The California coastal cleanup is scheduled for uh September 20th.

That's usually a popular event.

So put a placeholder on your Saturday.

If you have nothing better to do, you can join us and some of your neighbors from noon to uh 9 a.m.

to noon here in City Hall, and and you can uh register uh and participate on that date if you visit the uh city's uh public uh works page as well as uh uh kind of the point of what we talked about, active transportation, pet bike issues, the Samateau County Transportation Authority is developing the active 101 and the crossing improvements related to creating safe crossing and people walking, rolling, biking, and all those other good stuff along the US 101 corridor, and they're taking feedback on the initial design concepts.

And so if you go to the TA's website and it's also available on our weekly uh update, uh they're taking feedback until September 5th.

So if you want to participate in that survey, uh there's information available there as well.

So with that, I'll turn it back over to you.

All right.

Uh great.

Sounds like we have a busy September, as do our commissions.

So we're all back in business.

Uh item 12 is matters of interest and clarification, and we do not have anything on this.

I think I have something.

Oh.

Uh it's not agendized.

So I think what I think would be normally, yeah.

So normally for the items, the matters of interest of clarification, they're for discussion and direction to staff, and then the council and board can take a final action.

But there would be, you know, an item.

Gotcha.

I there was something that I wanted the staff to be thinking about for the future and do some research on.

Where would where should I have done that?

So the way that we can do that, so the we can't talk about what's not on the agenda because there might be someone in the public who, if they had known what that was, would would want to tune in.

So uh you can bring an item to the council, but first you would have to go ahead and the city manager could help uh talk to you about it, but you would just basically uh put it on the agenda and it ask the city manager to you know help you put it on the agenda, then it'll be in the agenda 72 hours before, and we'll have it here for discussion.

And there's actually like even a little form you can fill out that talks about what it is, and then we we talk about it.

The council protocols are if something that's up to two hours, we can spend some time in providing you information.

Uh and if you want to put something then for council consideration, we can then agenda it, and that's the that's the staff report that the mayor was referring to.

There's a way to do that, so we can walk you through that process.

Thank you.

All right, so we don't have anything on item 12 this evening, but sounds like maybe we will in the future.

Uh so we then are adjourned until our next regular meeting.

Thank you.

Thank you.