Welcome to the City of Belmont City Council regular meeting.

Today is Tuesday, September 9th, 2025.

And we are here in our council chambers here at City Hall.

To join our meeting, you can uh broad there it's broadcast live on Comcast Cable Channel 27, also streams live via the city's website at www.belmont.gov, and there are uh Zoom instructions if folks want to join us by Zoom, that's also in our published agenda.

Uh public comment in the council chamber.

If you have public comments on any of the items on the agenda, go ahead and fill out a comment card, please, and provide it to our city clerk in her basket over there, and um she will we will call you when the agenda comes up.

And there's also in our uh published agenda ways to submit written public comment.

Uh see clerk at Belmont.gov.

Just a reminder, the mayor has the authority to rule any speaker out of order, including speakers during the public comment period, if the subject is not raised is not within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city council during a public hearing or a general business item if the speaker is not presenting testimony or evidence relevant to the matter, or if the speaker becomes disruptive to the proceedings and the conduct of the meeting.

Okay, uh we did not have any items before 7 p.m.

And so we will start with uh roll call, please.

Good evening, Councilmember uh Jordan here, Councilmember Merlo?

Here, Councilmember McHume.

Present.

Vice Mayor Pang Mageneris.

President and Mayor Meates.

Here.

We have a quorum of five.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Item three, Pledge of Allegiance, please rise if you're able.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Okay, thank you.

Item four is report from closed session.

We did not have closed session this evening, so we will move to item five special presentations.

5A is a proclamation observing Hispanic Heritage Month, which is uh this month, September 15th through October 18th, and we have a proclamation that um I will read a little bit to you here today, uh observing National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15th to October 15th.

Whereas Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month celebrates the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans whose ancestry can be traced to over 20 countries in Latin America, including Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean, and whereas the observation began in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon B.

Johnson, and in 1988 it was expanded by President Ronald Reagan to cover a 30-day period and enacted into federal law calling upon all the people of the United States to observe this time with ceremonies, activities, and programs.

And whereas the nationwide observance theme for Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month 2025 is pioneers of change, shaping the future together.

And whereas Central Chileo La Tora, one of the oldest Latin non Latino nonprofits in California, celebrates the Chilean culture and helps shape the future by granting scholarships to Chilean students, and whereas the City of Belmont is strengthened by the variety of ethnic, cultural, racial, gender, and sexual identities of its residents, all of which contribute to the vibrant character of our city.

Now, therefore be it resolved that I, Julia Mates, the mayor of the City of Belmont on behalf of the Belmont City Council, do hereby designate September 15th through October 15th, 2025 as National Hispanic Heritage Month and urge our community to join together to welcome new voices to the table and celebrate their contributions to our country.

All right.

And we have a proclamation designating September 2025 is suicide prevention month.

Whereas the City of Belmont will join the county, state, and country in honoring Suicide Prevention Month, September, National Suicide Prevention Week, September 7th through 13th, and World Suicide Prevention Day, September 10th, to spread the message that suicide can be prevented.

And whereas each September, communities across the nation observe Suicide Prevention Month to raise awareness, spread hope, and inspire meaningful action around one of the most urgent mental health challenges of our time.

And whereas suicidal thoughts, though common, are never normal and often signal deep emotional pain or underlying mental health concerns that deserve compassion, understanding, and support.

And whereas too often suicide is met with silence or stigma, when in reality, open conversations, early recognition of warning signs, and action and access to care can make the difference between life and death.

Whereas national resources such as the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and local advocacy through the National Alliance on Mental Illness, provide judgment free 24-7 support to anyone experiencing a mental health or suicide crisis, reinforcing the message that help is available and healing is possible.

And whereas the City of Belmont joins with NAMI and communities across the county in encouraging all residents to start a conversation, be the difference, knowing that one compassionate conversation can save a life.

And now, therefore, it be it resolved that I, Julia Mates, Mayor of the City of Belmont, on behalf of the Belmont City Council, do hereby designate September 2025 as Suicide Prevention Month in Belmont, and urge all residents to raise awareness, fight stigma, and extend hope and support to those affected by suicide.

And I believe we for this proclamation do have some recipients of their proclamation who are joining us this evening.

If that's the case, maybe not.

Okay.

Then we will go ahead and make sure that the community engagement supervisors or folks from the San Mateo Suicide Prevention Services gets this proclamation.

All right, then we will move on to 5C of presentations, which is a recap of the Belmont Community Foundation Imagine Together Foundation.

And I think we have with us some special community member guests.

Good evening, Mayor Council.

I just wanted to introduce our president Ulla Fr from the Belmont Community Foundation.

She's going to tell us about this incredible event that the community foundation put together after months of planning, and with an amazing team of logistical experts and gurus, and a whole lot of support from the greater community to show the people, the programs, and the potential that exists at our Barrett Community Center.

So without further ado, here is thank you, Bridget.

Good evening, Council members.

Good evening, Mayor Mates.

Thank you for having me tonight.

I think Bridget is pulling up a presentation.

Perfect.

Wonderful.

So I am here to give a recap, as she said, of the Imagine Together Festival on August 9th at Barrett, just a few weeks ago now.

And first, I'd like to start off by acknowledging all the partners that worked together to put this program together.

First and foremost, the City of Belmont and particularly the Parks and Rec department working with Bridget and her staff was phenomenal.

They did a tremendous job.

I know I was constantly asking Bridget for things and hoping that she might delegate to someone.

And I know she did so much of it on her own, but everyone in the Parks and Rec department was truly phenomenal leading up to the event and on the day of the event.

And also Mayor Mates as our liaison for the foundation was terrific with input, great ideas, and just a huge support.

So thank you for that.

Other partners, Footsteps Childcare, Karen Haas Folletta was wonderful in getting the word out to families, really helping to put together a lot of the community side of the event.

I'll tell you a little bit more about some of the things that took place, and I'll let you know what she did.

Another partner was made out of dough.

They recently had their debut in Belmont, which was very exciting.

I wish them great success.

They were tremendous partners for us.

They actually organized all of the food vendors as well as the craft vendors for the event.

So they were responsible and brought those.

That was Michelle and her partner Courtney, phenomenal work there, and really changed the scope and the I think energy level of the festival.

And then finally, um, Karen brought the Rotary Club along with her because she wears many hats, and um, so they were a terrific partner as well.

Okay, next slide.

Why do I do not see it?

Okay.

Um so the goals for this event.

Um, the primary goal was to bring raise awareness about this project and what we're trying to do, and more specifically to bring people to the site to see the current state of our community center, as well as to see the vision for the future.

Um, in addition, it was just a fun, a fun day for the community.

I think the community always appreciates a festival, something local to do.

Um, community building is um, I think a really important role for for us.

Um, and then as a community foundation, fundraising is always a goal.

However, in this case, it really did take a back seat because I feel like right now we are working on raising awareness, letting people know what's going on and educating them about the need for this project.

Okay, next slide, please.

So in order to make this event a success, marketing was really critical, especially in the early stages.

So we got the word out in every way we possibly could.

And I want to thank the BCF team in particular for that, especially Karen Schornstein and Clarissa Nasker.

We had some fantastic graphics, which you'll see in our next slide, and that is thanks entirely to Mandy Gibbs, who did all of our graphic design.

She's phenomenal, all volunteer.

We had a fantastic team of interns, Alex, Lindsay, Veronica, Abby, Jolie, and I want to especially thank Han Fon, who is the person who recruited them and managed the interns for us.

He runs a similar program for the Water Dog Run, and he does a terrific job.

I think the kids have great experiences, and they learn a ton, and we get some really fantastic work from them.

They did most of our social media stuff and the t-shirt design.

And finally, another little marketing angle was that we we placed the food and the craft vendors very close to Ralston in order to draw people in who might not have already heard about the event and get them curious and to kind of woo them into the site.

So that was that was great.

Moving on, I think to Fest.

Oh, this is an example of one of our pieces of collateral.

Um fantastic graphics from Mandy.

And it's a great opportunity for me to call out the sponsors of the event, um, Peninsula Clean Energy, Jacqueline Kirth Orthodonics, Prometheus, as well as MGM Builders, Austin Lee Admissions, and Hometown Realty all were terrific sponsors for the event.

So thank you again to them.

So really quickly, the the festival had a lot going on.

We um we had something for everyone.

As I mentioned already, we had craft and food vendors, we had a vast play area that included a big inflatable slide, all of Parks and Rec's mobile rec opportunity, you know, um games, um, water tables, bad mitten.

We had pickleball court that the um the Parks and Rec staff painted on the basketball court.

That was a lot of fun.

We had pickleball motivators there, getting people to come in and play.

Um, had lots of interest in pickleball, wanted to showcase that this could be a future site for pickleball in a more permanent way.

Um so we had a lot of lot of play.

We had a whole community and wellness area that involved a lot of different um community organizations from Belmont and a few from outside of Belmont.

Um the wellness area was largely organized by Karen Haas Folletta, where she brought in some optometrists who were giving vision tests and apparently gave out close to a hundred pairs of glasses that day.

So I don't really understand exactly how that worked, but it was pretty pretty magnificent.

Um we had um you know representation from all of the the main players.

I know uh the libraries here, they were at our event.

Um, you know, we had um all sorts, you'll see a list later on.

Um we also had the emergency preparedness area, thank you very much to Belmont Fire and Police and our CERT, our certified emergency response team.

I'd have to think about that one every time.

Um it was an opportunity to showcase the possibility of the community center doubling as a resiliency center or an emergency resource center.

So it gave us a good opportunity to talk about that in that area.

We did that through signage and I think the police and fire teams also helped to get that message out.

Um we had a video on loop in the multi-use room when it wasn't being used for our presentation.

It was just a little introduction to this project.

Um huge thank you to Steve Sunwu who put that together for us.

He did all of the videoing, all of the editing, um, phenomenal work.

This this whole this whole event was run by volunteers, and it was a huge team effort.

At the event, we also had tours of our existing site to showcase the state of our current community center.

Those were all led by our very own Bridget Shearer.

She did a phenomenal job, and she had quite a nice following at those and a lot of interest and a lot of questions.

Um we had a DJ, DJ Leo Lung, thank you for for being there, Leo.

He really changed the energy and the vibe of the whole event.

Um we had a whole set of ambassadors constantly throughout so that they were their work, their job was to engage with the crowd, let them know what was happening, when the next tour was, when the presentation is, educate them about this project.

Um, and they were really critical to our mission.

We had Carlmont's drumline come and do a little performance, and then they acted as a little Pied Piper to lead people into the multi-use room for the centerpiece of the whole event, which was the architect's presentation, um, where it gave people an opportunity to see the conceptual design, hear about it directly from group four, and they did a great job with that.

Next slide, please.

At that presentation, there were nearly 200 people in the room, which was a fantastic turnout.

It was very warm day.

It was very warm in that room.

And you know what?

That was okay because that also showcased the fact that we need a new site, maybe with some air conditioning.

We were able to drive traffic to that presentation through our ambassadors, the drumline, social media, as well as we had incentives built into this festival.

So anytime anybody did something that we really wanted them to do, which included watching the video, joining a tour, joining uh attending the talk or making a donation, they received a prize ticket for a prize drawing, and all of those were donated by our vendors.

So all the prizes were donated by vendors.

We gave out over 20 prizes throughout the day, and we had multiple prize drawings.

So that was a lot of fun, and it really seemed to work.

People were very curious about how they could get tickets.

So that was a lot of fun, and we were happy to see that that was an effective strategy for us.

Next slide, please.

And then here are just some photos.

This is these are all photos of the presentation.

There were beautiful boards that group four had put together that allowed people to mingle and talk and ask questions before and after the presentation.

You can see a little bit of the turnout there.

Next slide, please.

These are just some shots from our community and wellness area and Bridget giving one of her tours.

Next slide, please.

Here's some our play area.

We had all kinds of things going on at the play area.

Next slide.

And then just some shots of the vendors and the prize table.

We had a community art project that our community art intern put together for us, which was a lot of fun, and people winning prizes.

Next slide.

Here's a list.

I'm not going to go through it all, but you can see for yourself we had a great turnout from our community booth participants, as well as some who were unable to join us, but we had hoped that they would be able to join us.

Next slide, please.

And the takeaways from the event.

Really, we had a great turnout.

Very difficult to determine exactly how many people were there because there are so many points of entry, which is something we've talked about, why it doesn't make the greatest community center because it is very hard to keep an eye on what's going on.

But because there's so many points of entry, it was hard for us to keep tabs on who was coming and going.

But we had various estimates that were you know upwards of 500 and maybe just under a thousand throughout the day.

So we were very pleased with that.

We learned there's a lot of excitement in the community for this project, and the interest and need for the community center is strong.

I I asked the ambassadors for their reactions after their experiences from interacting with people all day and a couple quotes.

People were excited about the size of the turnout and felt like there was genuine momentum with the community to make this happen.

And another one was very positive energy and great assortment of activities to involve all different ages.

Also loved the food and artist stalls, felt like a very welcoming and energized community festival.

So we were happy to get that feedback.

Next slide.

Wanted to acknowledge the BCF team that worked on this.

I mentioned all the partners.

Now I'd like to just give some credit to Clarissa Nasker, who was really involved in every detail.

I just was absolutely imperative to the whole effort, kept us all on our toes.

Um Karen Schornstein, who did the marketing and worked with our interns, Nancy Zhang, who coordinated our community and wellness area, Sue Jin Wong, who really was helpful on the day of, and and then myself.

Next slide, please.

What's next?

So our our goal is to continue the dialogue with the community.

And we are currently talking as a group and talking with the city on how we are going to do that, what our next steps will be.

And we do have one fun thing that I wanted to let you know, and there will be you'll be able to buy tickets probably in the next week, but we're planning a night out with the Warriors on January 9th.

Um, so come join us for that.

It's just a fun way.

You'll it'll support the um foundation with a small donation tacked on top of your ticket.

So thank you so much for your support, and uh I think that's it.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um, as you alluded to, I was able to be kind of get front row seats to this whole process because I'm the liaison and um uh your presentation was great, but it didn't really even begin to capture how much work uh went into this through uh specifically you've done the lion's share of it through being um president uh from the start, but also the entire BCF team and all the folks you mentioned.

And I was really just so thrilled with how it turned out.

So it was great.

We had the longtime residents who've lived here for a while who told stories about how they went to Barrett as a youngster when it was a grammar school.

And then folks who just gotten here, little tiny family, kids with little tiny families and everything in between.

So it was great.

One one last thing I will say, we did have uh some folks come from a city up north who had recently revitalized their community center and heard about our event and brought their family to see what we were doing.

And they had said they'd wish they'd done that.

That they had done a lot of listening sessions and engaging with the community, but they never brought the community to site in sort of the site in a joyful way and Corness sort of celebrated the community, but also kind of have folks take a peek at it and how much things maybe haven't changed uh since since 75 years ago when it was first constructed.

So uh very, very great event.

Thank you so much.

And um please extend our our thanks to the entire BCF team and all the volunteers and uh and everyone else.

Um other thoughts?

Anyone else want to share any?

Um maybe just that it was super fun.

You know, and everybody just seemed like they were having a great time and engaging.

And I think people in the end remember how things feel, and that's what causes people to act.

Um so and uh congrats on some of these amazing effective like crowd engagement um strategies like pickleball enthusiasts getting people out and ambassadors.

Uh it just seems like this was so well thought out, but also you know, clearly comes from a place of love.

Thank you.

Oh, yes, please.

I just wanted to echo um what a fun day it was, and that you know, there really was something for everyone at the festival, and something that resonated with me.

I ended up on a tour one of the tours, and uh one of the um uh community members who had been here a long time said, you know, we used to do line dancing in this multi-use room many, many years ago.

And so I think Bridget and I use that opportunity, and I think what what you guys have accomplished is now we have ambassadors within the community who said, you know, I I grew up here and now they can go out and tell their friends.

So congratulations on everything that that day turned out to be.

It was such a fun, amazing day, and I know there was a lot of work and volunteers are exactly that, but I they probably all have day jobs too, so it's amazing how much the community continues to pull together.

So thank you, Ulla, for leading it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh so we do have um some recognition for for you and also of course Clara, Sujin, Nancy, and Karen, um, which we will make sure they get.

Uh it doesn't really happen unless we put it on social media.

So if we're okay uh taking a quick picture and giving you your proclamation, that would be great if you're willing to join us on the for a photo.

No, I don't want to do that.

Thank you.

Oh, I sleep.

I think the chairs are good.

No, I'll just proclamation signing here.

So just can you just make sure that that's different.

Yeah, it's like yeah, the presidential pen.

You want the pen?

No, we'll keep that.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Moving on to 5D presentation of Stanford's contribution to Belmont.

And I think we have some Stanford dignitaries with us today as well.

Do we have Stanford people want to start?

Lucy, you want to come up?

Because I think Steve kind of delegated that to you, right?

This is life.

Familiar face.

Good evening.

It is really wonderful to see you all.

Oh my gosh.

Printed his own check that I was going to have in a moment.

Steve can hold this.

There you go.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

My name is Lucy Wicks, and on behalf of you of Stanford University, we're really pleased to be able to provide you with a contribution to the city.

And you know, while this may not be the outcome that we all worked so hard together for, we are really remaining committed to Belmont.

And so this is part of that contribution.

We've also supported your school districts here.

And one thing I just like to say is that you know during the last few years of working in your community and hearing about what your community members were interested in.

Establishing a new revitalized point of pride in the physical space came up often and all the time.

And so while Stanford is not going to be that point of pride for you all, we really do hope that this contribution can support your efforts for the Barrett Community Community Center.

And I think it has a lot of alignment from what I've heard in the community as well.

And I would also like to say thank you to the staff.

Really wonderful under the leadership of Ashvin.

Thank you so much.

You've got a wonderful staff, your city attorney and your leadership is doing all the right things.

And it was a real pleasure to work here with you all.

And I thank you all for the leadership that you all displayed through this and really being open to working with us as we explore this opportunity.

So with that, I would like to say again thank you and congratulations for we were able to deliver this tonight.

And please keep in touch.

And we have many ways that we hope to continue to engage with both you all here as a council and as a city, and also just the offerings that we have that higher education can offer to community members.

So thank you so much.

Great.

Thank you.

So big check is a it's a big deal.

We don't get to do that too often.

So when we when we do, um it's important to make sure we have an actual big check.

So uh thank you very much to our city manager from that.

Um and I I just want to extend our deepest deepest gratitude to Stanford University for your partnership and generosity toward our community uh with this donation to revitalize our community center.

Um through the years long process we went through together, Stanford was a thoughtful and engaged partner.

And while the Stanford at Belmont plan did not move forward, what has endured, and what I most want to celebrate tonight is the spirit of collaboration and relationship building that came out of those years of planning.

And the willingness of the Stanford team to listen, to understand the needs of our residents, and to envision what a long-term partnership could look like was remarkable.

Um I can say personally how much I enjoyed working with the Stanford team, including you, Lucy and Steve Elliott, along with many others during that process.

Your professionalism, creativity, and genuine issues, interest in the future of Belmont left a strong impression on all of us.

It's a reminder that even when plans change, the relationships we build and the trust we establish carry forward.

So I hope that as you said, we will continue to strengthen this partnership in the years come to come.

And thank you so much for your generosity and your vision and your hard work with us.

Big checks also warrant photographs, so we'll take a quick photo.

Okay, yeah, I think we will take us to the bay.

All right.

Then with the special presentations completed, we will move on to item six, which is public announcement, I mean public comments on items not on the agenda.

This portion of the agenda is reserved for for people wishing to make to address the body on any city matter not on the agenda.

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

You can either raise your virtual hand if you're joining us via Zoom or if you are in the chambers and you'd like to um make a public comment on items not on the agenda, please go ahead and fill out a comment card and give it to our uh city clerk.

Madam Clerk, do we have any items?

Uh any public comment on items not on the agenda.

Uh at the moment I have one slip, uh, and that will be Chris Liu.

Hi, good evening.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council members.

It's a pleasure to be back tonight.

And I'm here on behalf of the Belmont Library to share some exciting upcoming events we have planned for September.

Perfect for anyone who hasn't yet heard about the fun and enriching programs we're offering, who hasn't yet had an opportunity to come visit the Refresh Library.

On Sunday, September the 14th, from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., we welcome Sandy Bartos for a professional presentation or personal presentation titled My Experience During the Pacific Palisades Wildfire.

Sandra brings 14 years of experience as a member of a medical response team, and she'll share her story along with practical tips on preparedness for emergencies.

Tuesday, September the 16th at 7 p.m., we will host a virtual poetry night, and this is in partnership with the Belmont Poet Laureate, Monica Corday, and featuring the poet Lisa Rosenberg.

The program's titled Sound Mapping, The Science of Poetry, and it explores rhythm, cadence, and silence within poetry.

And it includes an open mic portion for community members to share their own work.

Since it's virtual, you can attend from the comfort of your own home.

On Monday, September the 22nd at 7 o'clock p.m., we're thrilled to host Melody of China in celebration of the mid-autumn festival.

They perform traditional Chinese music and bring cultural heritage to life through beautiful instrumentation.

On Wednesday, September the 24th, we'll be offering autumn stitches with Tiffany in our newly refreshed makerspace.

This hands-on workshop introduces participants to using an embroidery hoop and basic stitching techniques.

Spaces Lemonist is limited and registration opens tomorrow.

We encourage those interested to sign up early.

And Friday, September the 26th, from 3 p.m.

to 4 30 p.m., we're hosting a drop-in screen printing activity for youth within the makerspace.

Participants can create their own custom tote bags using screen printing techniques.

It's first come, first serve, and while supplies last.

It will make a great after-school option.

Thank you all for your time and continued support of your local library.

It's wonderful to be back tonight, and we look so forward to welcoming the community to these events.

That appears to be our final speaker.

Okay.

Then we will move on to council member announcements.

If council members have any announcements for this evening.

Councilmember Jordan.

I'll just be quick.

I had uh constituent asking me about new new openings, new restaurant openings, and really appreciated that the city uses social media and that we all use social media.

And I really do want to shout out, I know we've said it a few times, but made out of dough and the local spot.

I know that's in your district, but it's still great.

Um they just opened and they're uh at 196 Old County Road, and they're open Wednesdays through Sunday, closed Monday, Tuesday, but I really encourage everybody to go taste some of their yummy pastries and all the other local small business vendors that are part of the local spot.

It's really amazing, and I love that it's the epitome of what community means.

Great.

Thank you so much.

And the cinnamon coffee uh cinnamon ridiculous.

So good.

Um I do have one other.

Yes, please.

Um, just that the city is um, you know, we're getting to be a hundred, and we're planning several art projects to celebrate our birthday.

Um we're now accepting applications for an updated happy hydrants program um and utility art box um programs.

So the happy hydrants um were I think done in the 70s, right?

And it's like little people, they're they're all they're all like painted like people, and when my daughter was like two and three, we would walk the neighborhood and say hi to each one.

So it really does actually add community, which is great.

So if you want to be a designer, um you can visit the centennial celebration page on our website and applications for the art projects close September 29th.

Any other council member announcements?

Uh just a reminder that the climate action adoption plan.

Um this is it's an update that will establish key strategies for increasing resilience to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to align with state targets, and the city invites the community to get involved by taking the survey and signing up for the upcoming workshop on Thursday, September 11th, 7 to 8 30 p.m.

via Zoom.

And if you go to our website, our government website, uh Climate Action for more information.

I know that is something that I do get questions about.

Um again, that's this Thursday, 7 to 8:30 via Zoom.

And uh there's a coastal cleanup uh day on Saturday, September 20th from 9 a.m.

to noon.

Check-in starts at 8:30 in front of Belmont City Hall, and you can register beforehand uh also on our city website.

And then the annual Belmont Water Dog Run returns Saturday, September 27th.

There's a 5K, a 10K, a one-mile kids, and a one-mile phido run.

All events start at Twin Pines Park, and again, uh you can register for that.

Um not finally, but uh another fun community event is a festival of lights, Diwali celebration on October 19th from 2 to 5 at Twin Pines Senior Community Center and the Belmont Library and the City of Belmont are curating a colorful event filled with music, dance, poetry, and more.

Free and open to all ages.

Um and then tomorrow is a badge pinning ceremony for San Mateo Consolidated Fire, which is our uh fire department.

It's at 10 a.m.

at fire station 28, and we will be uh pinning several firefighters, a fire inspector, fire captains, and battalion chief.

It's a great event if you can stop by item eight, consent business.

These items are considered to be routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion without separate discussion on these items, unless a member or staff requests specific items for be removed for separate action.

And our city attorney is not in today.

Uh he's ill, but our city clerk will read the title of ordinances to be adopted.

Um does anyone have anything on the uh consent agenda that you would like to remove for separate discussion or that you may have questions or comments on?

I have a comment.

On which one?

Uh B.

B.

Okay.

I also have a comment on B and Councilmember Laudamurlo as well.

Any other uh comments?

I just had some uh updates to the minutes, but I share them with the city clerk already, and I think she's gonna make the amendments.

Okay, great.

Uh then what uh council member uh Vice Mayor Pang McGnirs, your what were your comments?

Just an encouragement to the community to take a look at these ordinances that are going to be changed because they really are funny.

Like once upon a time in Belmont, you couldn't hold dances or have fortune tellers or escort service businesses or rock crushing without permits.

So read through them because they're really fun to see what was important in the past and no longer is today.

All right.

And that's a good uh part of our history too.

If people are interested in seeing um how we're updating these.

Uh councilmember Lenimerlo?

Uh, just to call out that I really, really love this change from parks and res commission to park rec and culture commission.

I think that really uh reflects the extra efforts of those folks there and really reflects the how important our culture and our arts are to us here in Belmont and in our into how important it is to our leadership too.

So I think it's a great great shift.

I had a question for our city manager uh regarding um the updating um the construction contracting award thresholds.

Um can you just clarify?

Are we are we getting rid of the dollar amount?

Or yeah, what's happening is those dollar amounts are usually adjusted by the state on every couple of year basis based on CPI and all that.

So instead of every time bringing and trying to keep up with uh change in the ordinance, it's a lot easier to just kind of keep that up with what when it happens through the state.

By by defect, we're using the state uh contracting attorney.

Okay, so these align with what the state is saying.

Yep.

I see.

Okay.

Uh great, thank you.

Uh any other questions uh from council on or anything else on the okay.

Uh, do we have any public comment on this item?

I do not know.

Or any of the council, I'm sorry, the consent calendar in general.

Uh no, so I have no slips nor hands raised.

Okay.

Uh then we can entertain a motion.

So I will read the title of that item B, which is the ordinance of Belmont City Code Cleanup updates and enforcement amendments.

And as Councilmember Jordan uh stated, there are some edits to the minutes which will be made and put into the record.

And then if I may have a motion.

Move approval.

Second.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Jordan?

Yes.

Councilmember Loud Merlin?

Yes.

Councilmember McHume?

Vice Mayor Penny Mayonaris.

Hi.

And Mayor Mates.

Aye.

Motion passes five zero.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

Moving on to item nine public hearings.

We don't have any public hearings this evening.

10 is general business.

10A, we're reviewing solid waste rate application and revise minimum rates for collection services for 2026.

Hey, good evening.

Hi.

Good evening, City Council, Mayor Maids, staff in the public, I'm Nisha Patel, Public Works Director.

And as Mayor Mates described, this item is to give a presentation on the maximum rate increase for trash recycled waste and green waste collection services.

And we bring this presentation to you annually at this time.

And the rate increase proposed for regular services is 1.45% from the current year rates.

And the rate increase proposed for additional services shown in schedule Q is 1.27% over a 2025 rates.

And HDR is our consultant who helps us review the rate application from Recology.

And Josiah Close from HDR is here to help present on this item.

And Monica DeVincense, uh community outreach manager from uh Recology is also here to help answer questions.

And I'm just gonna hand it over to Josiah to start presenting.

Thank you.

Right.

Thank you, Nisha.

Uh good evening, Josiah Close with HDR.

Is your mic on?

Just double checked.

Check, check.

Oh, okay.

Maybe I'm too far away.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

Thanks.

So we'll look in this presentation over what we do uh each year, um, reviewing the agreement as well as making sure that the calculations are done in accordance with that and the rate setting process that we go through.

We'll look at the results of the calculations for the 2026 proposed rates.

And we also have the schedules uh in the back if anyone would like to look at those.

Um and please feel free as we go through to stop me if there's any questions.

So each year uh we look at this um calculation.

This is the sixth year of the amended agreement.

Um in July, Recology calculates the maximum rates for the scheduled and additional services in Schedule L and Q.

And that data is independently audited and then shipped over to the city in HDR for our review of the calculations for the maximum rates for the next year.

Um then the city moves forward uh with those solid waste rates if we are recommending um at that maximum level.

This is a snapshot of the calculation for the 2026 rates.

So there's two components that make up the calculation.

There's the base contractors increase, which is their cost for labor and supplies benefits, those kind of things.

And there's a number of uh CPI inflators that we use per the agreement to inflate those costs each year.

And that component resulted in 0.92% increase in costs.

The second piece is the pass-through increase related to the disposal cost for solid waste.

And so that's just um directly uh based on the tip fee and those costs, and so that component was 2.03 percent.

So in total, that's how we get to the 1.45%.

It's essentially a weighted average of those two.

So some history on the rates.

This shows the components in the light blue shaded area as we go across.

That's related to the pass-through costs.

The base is the lighter gray.

And we can see, for example, like in 2024, where we have tip fee increases, that's where you can see those pass-through cross costs have a significant impact.

For 2026, the uh escalators we might um we might see those increase a little bit from what we saw this year just because the uh calculation is based on 24 April through 25 April.

So there was a number of policies, especially with uh tariffs and things like that, where we could anticipate there may be some increased inflation in the next year between uh May of 25 and uh April of 26.

So that's just something to look uh at because the obviously the 1.45 percent is um pretty low in what we've seen uh for a lot of utilities that we work with.

This table just shows um the residential uh charges that were uh gonna be calculated here based on the maximum increase of 1.45 percent.

We apply that across the board.

The majority of customers are a 32 gallon, um, the vast majority is a 20 and a 32 gallon.

You're approaching 7,000 customers, and uh a little over 6,000 of those are those first two.

So with those uh rates, we're seeing uh 0.

uh 59 and 0.71 uh increase, so less than a dollar a month for the average resident.

So schedule Q, as Nisha uh mentioned, that's the additional services.

So things like extra pickups or uh community drop-off events, things of that nature.

Um the calculation is similar to the schedule L but different.

Um consumer price index is utilized.

And so that um the CPIU was 1.27, and so all of those scheduled rates are increased per the agreement at that 1.27 percent.

So the city and HDR have reviewed the calculation uh per the agreement, and it looks like it is consistent.

Uh schedule L again is looking like a 1.45 percent increase to all these scheduled rates, and then schedule Q, those additional services at 1.27, and HDR would recommend that the city uh moves forward with the 218 process, sending out the notifications, and then setting the public hearing for November 25th to count up those protests.

So that is all I had again.

I have the detail of all the schedule L, schedule Q rates in the back here, or we can flip forward, but I'll open it up for any questions or discussion there.

Okay, thank you for the presentation, Josiah.

Uh do any council members have questions on the presentation?

Also, I think Councilmember McCune, you're our recology guy, so do you if you have any don't don't feel like you have to, but if you have any color to add?

No, the the rethink waste board has had several presentations on it, and um you know one and a half percent is a very livable kind of a number.

And given you know some new laws that are kicking in relative to the environmental effects of solid waste, that's a that's a very good number in today's world.

So I have no problem at all with that number.

Okay, great, thank you.

Uh any other questions?

Council?

No.

Okay.

Oh no, I'm just saying uh any public comment on this item received.

I do not have any slips nor raised hands.

Okay.

Do you know did we get I didn't see any emails on this either?

No.

Okay.

Uh but great, bring it back to the council.

I do you think it's a uh a livable uh number?

No one likes to see rate increases of any kind, but uh fortunately this one isn't too um extreme.

Um questions, uh comments?

Okay.

Um I can move approval.

Yeah, yeah.

Great.

I'll I'll suck it.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Jordan.

Yes.

Vladimir Low?

Yep.

McHume?

All right.

Vice Mayor Peng Megan is Mayor Mates?

Yes.

Motion passes 5-0.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right.

Uh moving on to 10B, Grand Boulevard Initiative update presentation.

I think we have our community development director, Carlos DeMello.

Yes.

SAMTRANS is leading the Grand Boulevard Initiative or GBI, which is a corridor-wide effort to modernize El Comino Real.

The GBI will coordinate local transportation planning efforts and bring together cities, countywide agencies, Caltrans, advocates, and business groups.

The GBI Action Plan will be a long-range planning document that evaluates corridor-wide needs, establishes a cohesive vision, and builds momentum toward implementation.

It also serves as a precursor to beginning a countywide Caltrans project development process.

The action plan is organized around a corridor-wide vision statement and key goals that will lay the foundation for a grand boulevard connecting communities in San Mateo County.

Tonight, the council will hear a presentation that serves as a progress report on the project.

No action is required by the council, although initial feedback is requested.

With that, let me turn it over to Cassie Halls from Sam Trans, who will lead the presentation.

Thank you very much.

Hi, good evening, Council members.

My name is Cassie Halls.

I'm a major corridors manager at SAMTrans.

I'm also joined by my colleagues at Caltrans, Jake Buffenbarger here, Jessica Manzi from the SMCTA, as well as additional staff from SAMTrans, Michaela Wright Petrick and Nicholas Yee.

So I I'm presenting on I'm representing the GBI initiative and joined by our partners in this effort.

I'll be providing an overview of the Grand Boulevard Initiative, which is a multi-agency partnership to implement transportation improvements on El Camino.

And I'll be speaking a little bit about our planning study, which will be called the Grand Boulevard Initiative Action Plan that we are asking for your input on today.

And have a short discussion at the end.

I do want to mention we have some fact sheets we printed that are on the back table if anyone wants to take that home.

Okay, so the Grand Boulevard Initiative, GBI, is a partnership between SAMTrans jurisdictions along El Camino Real, as well as transportation focused public agencies, including the TA and Caltrans, and advocates and business groups in San Mateo County.

SAMTRANS is working with these partners right now to lead workshops to build momentum around transforming El Camino Real in San Mateo County.

The main group that we have is called the Grand Boulevard Initiative Task Force, and this group seeks to advance a unified vision focused on mobility and safety on this critical North South corridor that we know provides both a main street of local communities such as Belmont as well as an important regional connector.

SAMTRANS is leading this effort because our riders use Route ECR very heavily, about a 30% of our ridership is on that route in particular.

And so we care a lot about speed and reliability.

We also care about you know safe access to bus stops and first lost mile connections.

So that's kind of our role, but we're also you know resolved to try to think big and work with our partners in the county to transform the corridor.

Um so how are we planning to do this?

We're starting with this Grand Boulevard Initiative Action Plan, which will set the vision that is the product of a lot of consensus building with city staff, including uh city staff from the city of Belmont.

And this will inform the first step of what is required for implementation, which is called the Caltrans project development process, since this is a state route, state route 82.

Um, and then this what we're trying to do where SAMTRANs is value add is if Belmont wanted to do this alone, you know, it costs a lot of money, take a lot of time, and so we're we're sponsoring this uh the first phase of this process, and we're doing a coordinated approach for all the 15 jurisdictions along El Camino in the hope that this can streamline improvements and make these uh all of these improvements come faster.

Um so I I can briefly mention um a few um before we get to this slide.

I just wanted to introduce the different agency partners and roles that are involved in GBI.

Um sound trans is the lead of this effort, but we also have the the TA, which is working with us as our um lead on funding, as well as CCAG, which is the city and county association at governments, Caltrans, which is the state um highway operator, and Metropolitan Transportation Commissioner MTC, which we received a grant from MTC as well as the TA to fund this effort.

And GBI is coordinating across nine different projects and studies underway on the corridor.

There's a lot of activity happening, a lot of cooks in the kitchen.

And so we're working across all of these partners that are involved in various transportation studies to essentially try to be a clearing house of all of the improvements that are underway and to have this GBI action plan serve as a blueprint for all of the work.

One thing to note is we are currently in partnership with Carlos and other city staff working on the El Camino Real Central El Camino Plan.

Sorry, the Central El Camino Real multimodal plan, which will define the specific design options that Belmont has that will fit into this broader process.

We're really trying to move these local and regional efforts hand in hand.

The GBI Action Plan is intended to be adopted by countywide agencies, specifically SAMTrans and the TA.

We're not seeking adoption from cities, but we are asking for feedback and input on the process.

And the bedrock of this plan has been the output of all of the workshops we've done with the task force and working group and all the extensive input we've received from city staff.

And the intent of this plan is to create a unified framework for the countywide regional and state agencies that are involved in El Camino Real's future and to ultimately select preferred designs later, but to establish a vision that can guide those preferred designs.

And then also one other requirement is that Caltrance required us to do this as a part of a feasibility study to refine our design concepts prior to the implementation process.

So this visual just provides an overview of the ways that we've sought input from stakeholders and cities.

The action plan represents a year of work that the task force and working group members have contributed to.

So we have a lot of you know challenging and time-intensive requirements in order to make changes on El Camino.

If I'm sure many of you are familiar with this, so we're working to create a new framework for change that aligns vision, process, and funding.

And to make sure that we have both a context-specific design for Belmont and other jurisdictions, as well as a seamless experience for all users of the corridor.

And I spoke to this previously, but GBI integrates a lot of city plans that Belmont has adopted over the past you know 10 years.

And the alternatives that we are developing in the central El Camino Multimodal Plan, which we presented to you all a few months earlier, will be advanced to this Caltrans process that I talked about.

And right now we're not deciding on a preferred alternative or you know the option that the community wants.

However, that will be part of this process in the coming years.

So this is our second to last slide where I just wanted to talk about where we are in this process and to just kind of give context for the process that is involved in this.

So unfortunately, this whole process is going to take eight to ten years to realize those improvements just because it is a state route.

There are various requirements by Caltrans.

And it's going to be a you know pretty expensive to implement all these improvements.

So it's going to take time to make sure we're able to deliver, you know, up to 750 million of improvements or possibly more.

I also on this slide will have uh my colleagues Jessica and Jake speak to how our partner agencies are working with us on this effort.

Um but ultimately, given that this is a 25-mile streetscape project, we're going to be leaning heavily on SMCTA to help us deliver that funding, as well as talking to Caltrans, working closely with Caltrans on what they're calling the comprehensive multimodal corridor plan.

Um just this slide is very, you know, wordy and lots of complex things, but basically we're in the farthest left box, which is conceptual planning.

We'll move into design and then we'll have construction in you know eight to ten years from now.

Um maybe I'll pass it to Jess now to speak a little bit to the TA and also to Jake to talk about Caltrans's role.

Great, thanks, Cassie.

Um I'm Jess Manzi, I'm the director of project delivery with the Transportation Authority.

And so as many of you probably know, we are major funding partner for local jurisdictions in San Mateo County around the transportation arena.

And so it's been a great pleasure for us to partner with SAMTrans and Caltrans on this project process to really help facilitate change to such a key corridor in the county.

And we understand, you know, I came from Redwood City myself before I was with the TA, so from that local perspective, you know, appreciate the challenges of making improvements on a state highway and see this as a real opportunity to advance work both in improving mobility and safety for everybody that uses El Camino Real.

And particularly what the TA can bring is just our best years of experience in leveraging funding for improvements like this.

It's going to be a very expensive process and it would be challenging for any individual city to tackle that on their own.

But by working as part of this process, we have the ability to both bring our skills and resources and developing funding plans for independent projects as they get implemented.

But then also being really strategic about how we approach the implementation.

You know, even with all of the funding that we collect from our transportation sales tax, we're not going to have enough to implement all of this all at once.

And we also don't want our local jurisdictions going after grant opportunities at the same time and competing against each other.

So we want to help you know bring a countywide vision to how can we be strategic about implementing pieces in a coordinated way so that we get to the end goal of having a completely redesigned El Camino Real that works for everybody that uses it.

So with that, maybe hand it over to Jake for a few words.

Hello, council.

My name is Jake Belfember.

I'm a senior planner at Caltrans District 4.

I'm the system planning branch chief for San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

Just wanted to give a kind of brief overview of Caltrans' role here or Caltrans planning role.

Caltrans is required to engage in long-range corridor planning for the facilities we own and operate.

Now how we have how we've done that in the past isn't exactly how we do that in the future.

Now our most robust long-range planning document is called the comprehensive multimodal corridor plan, or CMCP for short, because that's a mouthful.

And essentially, this document looks at the existing and future conditions of a route and suggests projects and strategies to improve the route.

We look at a various different uh issues and examine all modes of travel.

Um, District 4 has completed many CMCPs for traditional freeways routes.

Uh this is our first CMCP for conventional highway.

Um, and because of the critical nature and unique features of El Camino Real, we are adjusting our standard operating procedure for CMCPs.

Um we understand that uh on a corridor like El Camino Real, uh it takes extensive partnerships with regional and local stakeholders.

We are extremely pleased to partner with Sam Trans, the TA, CCAG, and all the cities along the peninsula on this CMCP and the ongoing GBI efforts.

Uh we plan to directly incorporate both the vision from the GBI and the projects determined in the action plan into the comprehensive multimodal corridor plan.

And we also plan to use the GBI uh framework for their stakeholder engagement to be the backbone of our engagement strategy for the CMCP as well.

And of course, thanks, Cassie and everyone for having.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

So we'll end with a short discussion.

Um we just wanted to get a sense from you all on you don't have to answer these questions in particular, we can also just open it more broadly, but in terms of the problem statements and goals that I went through.

Um, are these aligned with the goals that you have for the corridor and Belmont House for the corridor?

And then also in terms of process, how can we best work together to advance the GBI vision?

And I can go back to the prom statements slide if that's helpful.

That'd be great.

Okay, thank you so much for the presentation and um to to the presenters.

Um council, do we have questions at this time?

And let's just look, we'll just limit it to questions.

Vice Mayor?

I um so I I love the goals, but you know, safety first, complete streets, framework for change.

I'm wondering about the design process and how we might envision El Camino to be a greener place that is more inviting so that it won't feel like a fast moving highway, but instead a place that truly can be a complete street, a walkable street, a safe feeling street, and landscaping will go a long way to helping to create that.

Yeah, that's it.

That's a great comment.

Um the design process, so we're defining this regional framework, but ultimately it's up to the local cities to define the specific set of things that they want.

So, for example, the Belmont segment of El Camino is already much greener than other segments.

You know, you guys have that planted median.

Um however, there's a lot of more opportunities for urban greening and other um you know, tree planting on the sidewalks, et cetera, once we widen, you know, if we widen sidewalks, for example.

Um, and in this uh you know, parallel effort called the Central El Camino Plan, which defines just the specific design for Belmont, San Carlos, and San Mateo, as well as a portion Redwood City, um that process will be used to define the preferred alternative that will feed into the broader Caltrans process.

So they're kind of both moving at the same time because we have to make sure they move in lockstep.

But that's something that really can be owned by the city and make sure that it reflects the city's vision.

So there's this broader set of menu of options that we are including in the action plan and in the Caltrans process, but then cities can kind of pick and choose within that uh toolbox of what they want.

I hope that makes sense.

It's a kind of complex.

You know, I changed my mind.

Instead of doing, since this is just mostly information comment gathering, why don't we go ahead instead of just questions?

We can also have comments if you have any at this time.

So if you're oh okay, Councilmember McHugh.

Yeah, the thing that always kind of struck me about El Camino as it passes through Belmont anyway, is its proximity to Caltrain.

They're parallel, they're kind of right together, but in some places, that piece of land between the two is kind of this weird no man's land.

And I think in many cases it's actually owned by Caltrain.

And they have big parking lots that are really underutilized.

So I think if there's there's got to be some kind of an opportunity there to look at El Camino in conjunction with Caltrain.

I know there are different agencies, there's you know, there's a bunch of different things going on there, but just physically the proximity and the odd relationship between the two creates some problems, but it ought to also create some opportunities.

That's all I got.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Councilmember Mulata Merlow.

Um first I just want to say I I love that idea.

Um I really support that idea of using those those parcels in a much better way.

Um and then I follow a question for um what um council member Pang Maganaris had.

Um we have seen a lot about our streetscape guidelines and things already here.

So that would be sort of integrated, our plans would be kind of integrated into the greater plan.

Yes, yes.

Yes, yes the one specific for El Camino.

Yes.

Perfect.

Um and I really appreciate you guys taking the lead on this.

It's so big and so necessary, and I think it makes sense for Caltrans and all the cities to be pulling in the same direction.

Um so I that gives me great hope that this this will happen now.

Um I'm wondering if and I have a couple other things after this, but I'm wondering how we're coordinating with Santa Clara County because they're El Camino.

Yeah, that's a great comment.

So uh Santa Clara County originally the Grand Boulevard Initiative included Santa Clara County back when it was started in 2006, and it had a much broader focus of housing and land use.

We've kind of revitalized or relaunched uh GBI to focus specifically on San Mateo and um on transportation issues that are unresolved.

Um but Santa Clara County is a close partner in this.

I actually meet with the monthly and we talk about you know lessons learned, um, you know, share notes on like how things are going in terms of implementation of various um elements of of improvements.

So, for example, they they are also involved in the Caltrans CMCP that Jake mentioned.

Um, and uh they are also have a variety of working groups with their cities and are working to implement various improvements.

A lot of them are led by Caltrans repaving efforts that are currently underway.

Okay.

Um they're putting in some bike facilities on El Camino.

So um we're definitely working closely with them, and um even though we left them out of this just to make it a little bit more feasible, um they're not you know totally left off.

We we're partnering with them so wonderful.

Um and then last question, and then I have I I did come up with my goals.

Um I did my homework.

Um the are I see that the cities are sending staff?

Are are any electeds kind of coming at this point as well to the meetings?

That's a great question.

So we used to the GBI that originally existed in 2006 used to have elected.

So there may have been like a Belmont um council member that represented on GBI.

Uh so you probably know more about GBI than I even do.

Um, we decided just given the um kind of nature of what we wanted to talk about, which was very technical, you know, transportation focused.

Um we wanted to just have staff and to have presentations to councils like this to keep the electeds uh involved.

However, we we're very focused on implementation and the Caltrans process, which are things that are kind of more in the weeds that maybe electeds want to be involved in.

So you're using these to go you know, garner our opinions and then kind of integrate it into the more technical stuff.

Exactly.

Okay.

Um cool.

Thank you for answering those questions.

Um I would say my goals are also to have a cohesive experience up and down the corridor, and if we could get as far, you know, touch San Francisco and get through Santa Clara that like with coordination, that would be great.

Um I think the emission reduction, it looked like it was amazing from 2005 to 2021, and then that plateau to see how we can you know get going even better on that.

Um, nope, I jumped, just kidding.

I jumped my notes.

Let me try again.

I love the cohesive experience.

Um I love the idea of being multimodal so it's safe for bikes.

Um I would love a place for buses to stop that do not interrupt the flow of traffic and do not put people in um you know, kind of dangerous like swervy situations.

Um and yes to trees.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Jordan.

Sure.

Um, I think you took most of my questions.

Uh so I I while I understand it's probably not the most expeditious thing to have go to all the city councils to get approval.

I'm I'm making the assumption that our city staffs are going to be involved in the planning and design process.

Exactly.

And our I always forget the name of it, Central El Camino Real Multimodal Plan will still be part of the Belmont portion of it, so that we still have a say, even though we don't have a say.

Does that make sense?

Um and then the second comment I want to make is I I am all for greenery.

Um, but I think we should decide.

And like if you ever drive on Alameda and San Mateo, there's a lot of roots that have grown over the years, so maybe like doing some forward thinking for many years down the road to that we don't plant things that are gonna start causing uh the streets to be uneven because of the roots that are growing.

But yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Emma, can I ask one more?

Of course.

Some years ago, this is a while ago.

Okay, there was a senior person with the Grand Boulevard Initiative, maybe a previous incarnation of the Grand Boulevard Initiative.

It was widely quoted as saying in public that what the Grand Boulevard Initiative means is El Camino should be a man-made canyon all the way from San Francisco to San Jose.

But those pronouncements weren't really seeming to address complete streets so much as they were housing and development and stuff like that.

Is this a change in emphasis?

Was that person going off on their own and not speaking for the group, or has there been a change in emphasis, or are we still talking about man-made canyons?

I hope not.

I I I don't know that context, so it's probably someone who was involved, you know, 20 years ago.

Maybe this initiative's been around for a while.

Okay.

I've never heard the man-made canyon.

I haven't heard that term, but we do want El Camino to be a place where people can, you know, who whoever it is and whatever they're whatever mode they're using, they can travel on El Camino, people can live and work and play on El Camino.

So a lot of the similar themes.

Okay.

Thanks.

If if I may, I mean good comment, kind of somebody that's kind of been doing this a while now.

Uh first of all, I want to kind of appreciate Jess and the group here, and I think the partnership that we have in in working with them through uh I think for for a long time now, something that's more focused and tangible, and I think we can kind of hopefully get to a point where it's actually actionable.

I think in the past it's all been very visionary and trying to kind of get all the different cities uh to kind of play nice together and kind of have the same vision.

It's been the challenge of what GBI was was really uh kind of the the demise of GBI in the in the sense of what it was before and GBI 2.0 hopefully is is leading kind of in a in a different direction.

The issue of of the man-made canyon is one that I think you can uh go back to the state and its laws, and especially over the last five years, that's outside of, and that's that's part of the problem because we were kind of mixing land use with transportation and some of the other elements of how we can make the corridor operate better for all the users, and given the kind of the heavy reliance on transit and and other forms of mobility.

So I think to the point that we don't really have control over the land use anymore, that's a different vision.

Now what we have to do is kind of overlay that vision that uh densification and all the other aspects of land use that's coming and make sure that the corridor operates in the best way possible to to meet all those things.

I think to your point about our involvement, we kind of have the Belmont Village specific plan.

We have the placemaking and and the design elements that's related to the field, the look, and and those type of things, and those documents we overlay to what the GBI group is doing.

That's what our involvement and coordination and make sure those things kind of weave together as we look at the corridor-wide implications, and so definitely the touch points with you will be throughout this process as we get kind of more actionable items to make sure that those plans kind of uh work well together as as we kind of get into kind of more the actionable plans that that's kind of coming in the timeline of of this this project.

Thank you.

Uh I was going to say is my comments actually they were uh in line with what our city manager star was was saying in terms of I think whether or not um you know uh it's true we have less control over our land use now, um, but we should all be in in agreement that given the fact that the state is mandating so much of the housing to be along transit corridors and uh Alameda, I mean uh El Camino Real is one of those, and for us, um we have a lot of new housing that's coming in those areas, and so um I would say safety is a priority given that so many folks are deciding to live there, you know, uh because they can uh either hop on El Camino or freeway or um you know public transit.

And so we want to be able to, I mean, some of these units that are being built are definitely multi-bedroom, they're for families, and so we want to make sure that um you know people feel safe right now.

I we've heard anecdotally from um bikers in our community that they do not they go out of their way to avoid El Camino and they try to go on Alameda and other places that also involve hills and things, which then are challenging.

All of this to say that I think we have to make sure that there is uh some understanding between transportation and housing, and that's gonna overlap a little bit, and so I trust that staff is also gonna be mindful of that.

Um to our Cal Trans uh Cal Transfer Center, we're glad to have you.

But I do think that one of the things that we can look at, and I'd I hope we do is some of the really amazing, and we even have that technology here in Belmont, technology that's happening with regard to keeping traffic moving.

And so I know we've done some really cool things along Ralston with our traffic signals, but looking at that, especially if we're looking out this far, um, there's going to be a lot of technology that I don't even, you know, that the experts will know about how to keep traffic flowing, how the with the left-turn lanes spill on into those the lanes that go straight.

You write, and we're we have those already at different points of the day.

All of that, I think, just looking at that holistically and trying to make sure we're incorporating some good technology.

The other thing I'd say is um given just I can think of a few cities right now in California that have city uh that have uh streets similar to El Camino, right, where they run through various cities.

Um, and so I would just like to look at best practices.

I mean, I understand this is Caltrans's or at least District 4's first um.

I forget the anecdote you used.

I mean, the uh I could have used CMCP.

CMTB, but there's got to be other cities uh, you know, and areas larger than ours, even that have done some of this, and so I would like to look at those and best practices and see um just so we don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Maybe they're not in California, maybe there are other places too.

But um, you know, I always kind of like to look and see what's out there and and uh see what we can glean from that.

Uh but I do think this is an ongoing discussion, so these are just sort of our initial thoughts and goals.

Um, you know, uh I'm a representative on the TA, we've got other folks who are also involved in other, so I'm regionally, so we can definitely you know keep our eyes peeled, but um, and and keep keep thinking about this.

But if you you know maybe come to us every six months, however you want to do it to just kind of um check in, that would be great.

That sounds great.

Yeah, we are looking at a couple case studies in the Bay Area, such as San Pedro Avenue, which is also undergoing a similar project.

However, El Camino is very unique too.

So that's one that's one challenge.

We are looking at other you know, examples from other states, but the Caltrans process process is very unique, and El Camino is very unique.

But we'll definitely um interesting.

How is it unique?

Just out of curiosity, like it's unique because there's there's 15 jurisdictions within the county that run on El Camino.

So you have just the fact that we're coordinating across all these 15 jurisdictions is is complicated.

So San Pedro Avenue, for example, in the East Bay only has Pablo, sorry, San Pablo.

Umly has like a handful, I think maybe.

What about international?

East 14th.

International is also an example.

They they did their whole BRT project.

Um it's not as many, not a Cal Trans.

Oh, yeah.

So this is a good thing.

No, we don't have Caltrans.

I was gonna say there's a bunch in the Los Angeles area, but um, yeah.

Okay, well, I leave it to you folks to look at maybe you know, even if you can't find something identical, there may be some best practices out there.

Yes, for sure.

And we'll definitely um keep you all informed and report back.

Thank you.

Great, thank you.

Thanks so much.

And I remember uh community development director De Mello when I was just a baby council member, I was assigned to the Grand Boulevard Initiative, and I think uh you went to a lot of those meetings too, and very very different, very visionary, as um as the uh city manager said.

So it is nice to see kind of some action and some things kind of tangible things rolling out.

Uh yes, and I just wanted to wrap by thanking the council for your time on this item tonight.

I actually, this is the team's first road show and update presentation to a city council, and we appreciate the perspectives that you shared on the project.

So more to come.

Thank you, Ian.

All right, great, thank you.

All right, and thanks for the presentation.

Uh moving on then to item uh 10 C: climate action and adaptation plan update.

All right.

Uh good evening, Mayor and City Council members.

Okay, I see the presentation up now.

Um I'm going to get this presentation kicked off and then we'll hand it over to our consultants.

So we're with you here tonight to uh introduce the city's climate action and adaptation plan update.

Next slide.

So we'll kick off with some introductions and a project overview.

We'll then go into the baseline greenhouse gas emissions here in Belmont and emissions trends forecasts and targets for the future, and those are in alignment with the state.

We'll also touch on adaptation planning, and that will tie into this plan as well as build upon the safety element update.

We'll talk about progress to date on this project, including the background research, and then go into key climate strategies, the things that Belmont can do to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, and that'll include opportunities and challenges.

Then we'll wrap up with the community engagement that has gone on so far and our next steps for this project.

To introduce our project team, we have Kathy Kleinbaum, our assistant city manager, and I'm Karen Clark, a management analyst for the city and project manager.

We also have assistant planner Jeremy Ruiz, and we brought in Rincon consultants for this project, and they're represented by Ryan Gardner, their director, and Olivia Mendoza, their project manager.

And I'll hand off the presentation to Ms.

Mendoza.

Thanks, Karen.

Good evening, Council members, mayormates.

I'm Olivia Mendoza, the project manager with RinCon Consultants, and I'm excited to be here tonight.

So, starting off, what is a climate action and adaptation plan?

It's really our strategy to help tackle and address climate change.

And there's two major ways we do this.

So the first way is through mitigation, reducing greenhouse gas emissions overall, which are exacerbating climate change.

And then there's adaptation.

So we know the climate is changing, we're seeing these impacts, we know the impacts are getting worse over time.

So, how do we start preparing and safeguarding our community and infrastructure?

And we're really going to try to find opportunities and synergies between mitigation and adaptation to really optimize our approach on this.

We're also going to organize and work on what the city has already done to address climate change, as well as align with state targets and help position Belmont for more competitive state funding like Prop 4.

So on the mitigation side, the foundation for this is really data driven.

So we're going to base our approach, our strategies and actions on our greenhouse gas inventory.

And our greenhouse gas inventory was already done as a part of the RICAPS program, which is a county-led climate initiative to do greenhouse gas inventories throughout the county of San Mateo.

Once we have the base for the inventory, we moved on to forecasts.

So that's the future and you know how emissions will change over time based on things like demographics, population growth, jobs, as well as key state legislation that will help us reduce some of these emissions.

On the adaptation side, Karen already mentioned the parallel effort with the safety element update.

But we're really going to pull from that update, which has a vulnerability analysis, which takes global climate model projections, scales it down to the state of California, and then even further to this region, and will show us the major impacts Belmont is expected to see.

We plan to take the high policies from that and turn them into more specific short-term targetable actions in this plan.

And then both of these measures and actions, of course, will be driven through community engagement and engagement with key stakeholders.

So this plan will really build on the 2017 climate action plan that was adopted by the city.

And it will build on it with new data, current best practices, as well as adding in those adaptation measures.

So the first plan was focused just on the mitigation side.

This plan focuses on both sides.

And then we'll update targets to align with current California state legislation.

And there's two main pieces to that.

There's the short-term goal, which is SB 32, which is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

Then there's our longer term goal, which is AB 1279, and that's to reach carbon neutrality by 2045.

So what are the benefits that that brings Belmont?

So aligning with this state targets helps make Belmont more competitive for state funding, such as Prop 4, like I mentioned, that climate bond, which is billions of dollars slated for climate planning in California.

So here's some project milestones, our overall schedule.

We kicked the project off in March of 2025.

Then in July, we pulled together our updates on the inventory, and we also created our targets and forecasts, which I'll get into in a second.

Through August, we kicked off our community engagement.

We updated our website.

We did some initial pop-ups with community members, and we opened our online survey.

That brings us to September.

We were at Planning Commission last week introducing the project.

We're here with you all tonight.

And then this Thursday, we have a community workshop at 7 p.m., which I heard got a shout-out.

So please sign up for that or help us get the word out.

That'd be great.

Then through now in January, we'll be developing our draft potential actions based on what we've heard through community engagement.

We will review all of those with you guys.

And then in February, we'll do another round of community engagement, another survey, another workshop, and then we can start to really draft the plan and get it ready for adoption next fall.

So it's a it's a long and iterative process, but there's a lot of checkpoints with community engagement and you guys along the way.

So on the greenhouse gas side, that mitigation side, this is a pie chart of emissions of Belmont's 2023 greenhouse gas emissions and where those emissions are coming from within the city.

So this is all converted to carbon dioxide equivalent, so taking things like greenhouse gases like methane and nitric oxide and converting that to a single unit of CO2, so we can really see where emissions are coming from.

As you can see here, our two biggest emissions are on-road transportation, things like uh passenger and commercial vehicles on the road, and then building natural gas.

And the one difference that we see here, because that's pretty typical for cities across California, is there's only 1% in that building electricity, and a lot of that is driven through the switch to clean energy from fossil fuel energy with peninsula clean energy.

So usually we'll see more of a split between natural gas and electricity, but in Belmont it's great, you're able to get your electricity down, and that presents some opportunities in the future for converting things like natural gas, gasoline, diesel to electricity.

Since your uh Peninsula Clean Energy is so clean, you're able to really drive those emissions down through that.

Um, then we have things like off-road equipment, um, emissions from things like construction and lawnmowers.

Um, we have solid waste, which is primarily coming from waste in our uh landfill, and then water, which you can see is quite small here as well, since that's also driven by electricity, and your electricity is so clean.

Oops.

So that was the baseline, that was the 2023 emissions, and this really shows how those emissions have changed over time since 2005.

So, as you can see, there were some major reductions from 2005 to 2021.

And then it sort of leveled off between 2021 and 2023.

A lot of that is the major um improvement with the switch to peninsula clean energy.

There was a 95% reduction, which is great.

Um, and some other you know, sectors that were able to reduce were solid waste, most of this coming from taking organics out of the waste stream and then just having overall less waste.

There was some reductions in on-road transportation, a lot of that is driven by um the adoption of EV cars, and then you're also able to drive your build down your building natural gas.

So the only sector we saw a little bit of an increase was um your off-road uh equipment, and that's because the way we calculate that sector is a bit different.

We use countywide averages, then scale it to Belmont with population, so it's not as accurate as the other sectors, but it still gives us a good idea of where we're at.

Um, but overall, uh, you can see that we were, you know, made that big jump.

We saw a lot of places in California made that big jump between 2005 and 2021, and now we're really leveling off here in these uh last couple years.

So now that we've looked at our historic trends, we've looked at where we are currently, um, these are how we're building our forecasts.

So there's three major forecasts we look at.

There's the business as usual forecast, which is that blue line up there, and you can see that takes the average citizen apply and their emissions, and it applies things like population growth through our general plan numbers and RENA numbers.

Um, and you can see that just sort of trends up as people move into the city.

Then we have that red line, and that includes um state legislation, things that are gonna help us drive those emissions down, and you can see it sort of just offsets population growth, but then it kind of uh trends back up towards 2045.

So, what we're really interested in is that green line.

That's our target pathway.

And as you can see, that's how you hit all those state targets we were talking about and get to zero by 2045.

So between that green and red line, um, that gap there is what we are planning to close or hope to help close through this plan.

So that was all on the mitigation side, the reduction of greenhouse gases.

On the adaptation side, I already mentioned we're doing that parallel safety element update.

Um we're really gonna you know use those findings and build on those more short-term actionable actions for the CAP.

Um, and there's opportunities again for synergy with our mitigation and adaptation because as we reduce uh emissions, it helps strengthen our strengthen our resilience.

So some of the largest climate impacts Belmont's expecting to see is extreme heat, wildfire, and impacts of wildfire, like wildfire smoke.

I'm sure we've all experienced this.

You don't actually have to uh have a fire in Belmont to feel the effects of fire.

Then there's also flooding and drought, and those sort of go hand in hand.

A lot of climate projection models are showing us that over time we're gonna have average on an average less precipitation overall, but when we get it, it's gonna downfall.

And when we and then we'll also go through periods where we won't have it, and it'll cause drought.

Um and lastly, um, some areas of the Bay, Belmont included, are prone to sea level rise.

And um with this comes flooding and saltwater intrusion and ground level rise.

Okay.

So to kick off our work, we started with some background research and we looked at what the city had already accomplished in a lot of available plans.

Things like the general plan and the previous 2017 CAP.

Um, and we pulled out all of the climate-related actions into the tool.

So Rincon has this tool called the Measure Analysis and Success Tracking Tool, or MAST, and it helps us to pull all of the climate-related actions into one plan, and then we can work with we worked with city staff to help us understand which of those climate-related actions were implemented, which didn't get implemented, and maybe why they didn't get implemented.

And what we found was when climate-related policies were successful, they had really clear objectives, really clear target language, and they were well funded.

And overall, when things were more vague or underfunded, they tended to kind of stall.

And we, you know, this is typical.

Um, some other implementation challenges we saw were with grant funding, um, staff capacity, some legal barriers, and then capacity and framework to overall all of uh monitor these ongoing programs.

But a lot of that climate work did get done.

So the 2020 target for Belmont was 15% below 2005 emissions, and Belmont was able to achieve 28%, which is awesome.

Um again, a lot of that was driven through the switch to peninsula clean energy.

Um there were others, also some implementation work done by your city, such as implementing municipal energy efficiency improvements like LED street lights, building retrofits, um, the city completed bike lane improvement projects, um the city adopted REACH codes for electrification, which are currently on pause due to some of those legal challenges we talked about.

And then there was the Caltrain electric Caltrain electrification and overall rise in EV ownership.

So something interesting we saw is Belmont actually is some of the highest EV adoption rates in the country, which is really cool.

In the country?

Yeah.

Look at us.

Yeah.

Um, but however, uh Belmont, along with a lot of jurisdictions, even the state are not tracking currently to meet the state's target of 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.

A lot of that being driven by we saw that stall from 2021 to 2023.

So there's a lot of opportunities and also challenges as we look towards that 2030 target.

So on the bright side, we're going to be adopting the 2025 building code, which heavily favors all electric construction.

But on the flip side, there's AB 130, which is great.

It helps streamline CEQA for new development, but it also limits REACH code amendments until 2031.

And so that's a potential challenge as we look for ways to reduce our natural gas.

There's also general uncertainty about the federal funding and the state of things like the Inflation Reduction Act, which is provides tens of thousands of dollars to home and building owners for retrofits and EV incentives.

We're not sure if any of that will be gone or here.

But on the flip side, there's still significant commitment from the state and billions of dollars of funding coming from Prop 4 and other programs helping to fill that gap.

So these are just some of the things we'll be working around and within as we generate this plan to align with state targets.

Okay, so we talked about a lot of pieces of climate change, but what it really boils down to is about six things we can do to reduce some of the emissions from that pie chart we saw, and also safeguard our infrastructure and community.

So one of our key strategies is going to be healthy and resilient buildings.

So we already have that super clean peninsula clean energy.

Now we really need to figure out a way to leverage it and switch from gas to electric appliances.

And the city can support and help do this by expanding renewable energy and battery storage, adopting new ordinances to encourage electrification, reducing some permitting hurdles to electrification, expanding access to incentive, providing benefits on not burning fossil fuels in homes, so things like cleaner air, less impacts to health, savings on bills, and then also improving the overall electric infrastructure resilience.

And the other half of that pie chart is transportation we saw.

So the two major ways to reduce transportation emissions come from either reducing single occupancy cars, getting people out of cars, which is the best way to do it, and then also making our cars more clean.

And so how the city can support this, we need to obviously get people walking, biking, carpooling, you know, make incentives for transit, really get drive people out of their cars.

Also, some ways to do this are increase the diversity of land uses to bring jobs and other key activities closer to people, and through all of this, improving the safety of our streets, like we talked about in the previous presentation.

And on the flip side, when we can't reduce our vehicle miles traveled, we need to electrify our vehicles.

And so every time we switch from an internal combustion engine vehicle to an electric vehicle, we pretty much drive those emissions in transportation down to zero.

And the city can support on this by expanding access to EV charging, making sure people know they have a place to charge their car, electrifying the city fleet, which is already a state requirement, so we'll be adding that to the plan, removing hurdles and to infrastructure for installation, and then providing education on the overall benefits of EVs, such as long-term cost savings.

So we need to reduce organic waste sent to landfill and increase carbon sequestration.

So turn that methane into turning the waste into compost and then using the compost for our natural lands, helping plant more car uh trees, and then sequestering our carbon through that.

So we already started doing some engagement on these topics.

Um these are some poster boards from the initial pop-ups where staff went out to the community and gave people stickers to vote on some of their top priorities and climate strategies that they align with, and then also write in their own ideas.

We're also still getting feedback on our survey that's currently live, so an opportunity for anyone listening to help push that out through any channels you may have.

And again, all of this information to follow along is on the website.

Okay, our last slide.

So we have our workshop this Thursday again.

The goal of this will really be there's three parts, and the first is to do some visioning to understand what the community wants as its end goal for this plan.

Understand the hurdles that make it hard to implement some of the things we just talked about, and then work with the community to come up with some solutions.

So, you know, what would it take for a resident to ride their bike to work?

Um so working through those challenges together.

Then we will start drafting our measures and see where that gets us with our emission targets, and then we'll use actions to help drive some of the gaps of those emissions as well.

We will work with city staff to make those measures and actions the most feasible and implementable for the city of Belmont, and lastly, start running the uh through that list of actions with the community.

So that is all from me.

Thank you.

Open here.

Hey, thank you so much.

That was great presentation.

Uh really appreciate all of the visuals and the charts.

I'm just looking at the city website right now.

Can you tell me is the presentation you just gave us also?

I know it's not part of the agenda packet.

Is that up?

No, it's not.

Okay.

It might be worth putting as part of the agenda packet, I think.

Um it'll be part of the um supplemental information that's also on that agenda page.

Okay, that would be great because there's some really good information there.

We'll be sharing the doing the weekly update as we'll usually recap all this stuff in the weekly update.

Okay, okay.

But I think also having it as part of the supplemental information is good in case that's you know where people go to get the they look at the agenda.

Uh so thank you so much for that.

Yes.

I always want to add that.

Oh, I think is your mic on?

No.

Now it is.

Okay.

So um a lot of the data that was presented will be part of the community presentation, and that community presentation will then be posted to the website.

So a lot of those charts and graphs will then be available on our website.

And that will be a video or the presentation will be to the visuals.

Um just the I think the presentation itself.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Questions at this time from council?

Yes, Councilmember Lotamerlo?

Anyone else?

Go ahead.

Go ahead.

No, you go ahead.

I'm just looking to see if anyone's okay.

Um I just a thought.

I'm just wondering if are we taking some time to talk to and coordinate with commute.org at all?

Because I mean, I'm biased because I'm chair of the board, but like our YFY password is don't be an SOV.

No, so that's our whole thing.

I'm biased too because I my background's in TDM planning.

And so I definitely think it's something we should be coordinating with them on to help push out their information.

They have great resources on carpooling and um yeah, so then even as a city, there are incentives that you know that getting our own like um folks who were our own staff, you know, using some of their programs.

Right, totally.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

No.

Anyone else?

Questions?

Yeah, go ahead.

Comments for comments are fine too.

I mean, when I think about this, that we need to get down to 1990 levels by 2045.

And that we've petered out.

Yeah, in in the past two years, it really speaks to it really seems to me that we need to be doing a whole lot more of community education of the need and why it's important and the things that we want to do.

The action plans that you're proposing, you know, implement healthy and resilient buildings and improve mobility, all those things are great ideas, but ultimately, if we don't get the community to come alongside us, we won't hit those levels.

Yeah.

That's a great point.

I I mean, just to speak to that, one of the things, if you go back to that chart, um and truthfully, having sat, you know, um, on the PCE board for quite some time.

I mean, San Mateo County, and and you mentioned in the presentation specifically, Belmont.

Um, but I know the county was early adopters for a lot of things, including uh EV, you know, purchase of EV vehicles and things like that.

And and part of that also speaks to I think some of the commitment um and maybe the demographics of the area, things like that.

Those cars uh can be expensive.

I know there's more options now than there was at one time.

But if you look at the chart, the pie chart, and if you can't get back to it, um that's okay.

But if you look at that, you know, pie chart you showed us.

I mean, I sort of feel like the community has um come a long way.

So to the vice mayor's point, I think that that's great, and that we've educated them and that they're they believe in this.

On the other hand, so it's the it's the uh transportation.

What does that say?

On road transportation, on road transportation.

And then the building natural gas is 39%.

So I mean, I think some of this can just be we should really try to focus, like also do carrots instead of sticks, right?

Sort of that like good job communities trying, and we do have smaller portions of the pie for what individual families and people that are trying.

But some of these other things are um maybe where we should just try to focus uh our efforts.

Right.

So focusing more on the bigger sectors you're saying and less on the small emissions.

I mean, I think Belmont is in a really unique position with the clean energy that we have.

And if we're really able to shift some of the gas, some of the natural gas, some of the diesel to electricity or clean energy.

I mean, you drive those emissions pretty much to zero.

So I think that's really an approach we're gonna focus on is really trying to make that shift and make regulations and incentives that align with shifting natural gas, gas, diesel to electricity, making it easier for people as well.

Um but that's I think the biggest thing that the city can do to make those jumps.

So please.

The the thing that seems a little bit odd to me about this is that for some of these issues, the state is doing stuff, the county's doing stuff, the utilities are doing stuff.

It's like there are maybe there's a segment of this that as a city, we are best positioned to do some of this, but not others, other portions of this.

It's like, okay, let's say we made some real progress on one of these issues.

Well, how much does the city claim responsibility for that versus the county versus the state versus just everybody's kind of it's kind of a dog pile, everybody's piling on to this, and I we need to do our part, but you know, maybe there are things we can do better, and we should focus on the things that we can do better as a city and let other entities focus on the things that they can do better.

I don't I don't know, it just seems like we're overlapping with a bunch of other Yeah, I mean I get what you're saying, definitely.

Um just one clarification point is these emissions are only emissions that are coming within the bounds of of uh Belmont.

So I I get it.

Yeah, I understand, but but the incentives for people to do stuff it was like EVs, okay.

Well, there's a there was a federal tax incentive for people to buy to buy EVs.

So how much responsibility or do we claim for doing EVs when the feds were giving people thousands of dollars of tax credit for you know so I'm I'm not saying any of this is wrong.

I'm just saying there are a bunch of overlapping simultaneous efforts by a bunch of different people, and um that's okay, but if we're measuring our progress, how do we it seems like we should measure what we have done if we're measuring our progress?

So it's just I don't know, it's just a it's kind of a mishmash.

Yeah, I get what you're saying.

I think it's a yeah, and good evening.

I'm Ryan with Ranganar, director of climate action.

Um it's a really great point.

And I think part of what we do in these plans is when Olivia showed the three different um kind of forecast numbers.

We take into account a lot of the state regulation that's already kind of driving emissions down.

So we do take into account some of that.

And then the other piece of this is a lot of this plan is gonna be pulling all those different incentives and you know, PC peninsula clean energy and federal what's left and state and tech and all these different rebates and incentives and helping to align them into one kind of programmatic approach so people can go out and say, okay, I need to do my water heater.

Here's like all the programs that are gonna help me swap from gas to electric.

We don't nitpick so much around like, okay, the federal incentive caused like 20% of the reduction, and our program cost 30 and divvy it up that way.

We really just focus on the emissions from folks within the city boundary and how do we get all these programs to align and work together rather than competing against each other.

But yeah, it's a it's a really good point.

Okay, thanks.

Yeah, I actually had one comment.

Sure.

And just uh sorry, just to follow up on add on that, I think the other key role of the city is making sure our residents are aware of what's available.

So we you know, we can put a lot of information together in one place, so that when the residents are looking to change out their water heater, um, that information is available through the city of all the different incentive programs, or when they come to the building permit counter to get a permit, that that information is available for them.

We have a really key role in educating our residents about what options are available to them so they make sure that they are more likely to take advantage.

Well, and through the chair I that was silly.

I know, I don't know what it's saying.

I think in PCE also is really aligning ourselves with because they had some information regarding that even that example of you know, you know, when your water heater breaks, it's like you need an ASAP.

You don't want to sit there and do research, right?

And so getting, you know, we don't have to come up with this ourselves either, but just getting some of that information available at the time, I think is a great idea, and using those resources that we already have available to not just reinventing the wheel of you know, when folks come to the you said, like you said that come to the city or when they have these things, it's right there at their um at their fingertips.

Councilmember Jordan.

That that is pretty much exactly what I was going to say is that when you know we can help our residents, and you know, just having gone through you know a permitting process.

If you we have these things available to that to our residents, like all of I pulled up the PCE website, and they have all these different incentives, and also for people who have who there's like zero percent financing offered from them too, which you don't know unless you're actively looking.

So if it's something when we have homeowners doing projects and we can provide them kind of what you were mentioning, our assistant city manager, like here's you know, here's some information on Peninsula Clean Energy and all the different avenues that are afforded to you that you know when you're doing projects, you always run out of money.

So if you can get 0% financing on something, then that's kind of a win-win.

But yeah, you you said what I was gonna say, so thank you.

Great.

All right, any other comments at this time or any other uh do we have any public comment on this item?

I do have a raised hand from uh Dojain.

You've been unmuted.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yep.

Okay, great.

Yes, I do have a I have a comment on this item.

Um my name is uh so good evening, members of the council.

Um I'm um the program and operations manager for an organization called Build Up San Mateo County.

Um our organization mission is to preserve, expand, and improve the supply of high quality child care facilities in San Mateo County.

And I also wanted to mention that I'm a I am a resident of Belmont and have lived here since 2011.

My son went to TK at Nesbit when uh vice mayor.

I I knew he was principal of Magadares back then, but uh just wanted to give you a shout out.

Thank you.

Um I wanted I'm also I'm here to comment on this item.

I was here last week where I met Karen and Ryan, and I saw their great presentation.

Um I want I wanted to come tonight to talk about the um a report that my organization released called the Semateo County Early Childhood Climate Action Plan.

Earlier today, I emailed the council um a link to the report.

It's quite large, so it's a link that's on our website that you can take a look at later tonight or later this week.

Um it's a climate, it's a call to action for those who care about children and families and climate resilience in San Mateo County.

Um, too often a lot of climate action plans overlook some of the most vulnerable populations, and specific for for this report specifically calls out uh our youngest children, birth to five, and also child care providers.

Um I know the at the end we talked a lot about you know, people are doing a lot of things and overlapping around climate resilience and sustainability and climate action and adaptation.

Um I think that this report or our the Sabateo County Early Childhood Climate Action Plan, the the point of it is not to replace the climate action plan, it's actually meant to support and strengthen any city's um climate uh resilience strategies, whether it's a plan or or any any other type of program.

So I think that this is actually an opportunity for the the great city of Belmont to do something different, unique and innovative by you know, possibly adapting some of the strategies that's put that are put forward in our early childhood climate action plan.

Um I think the interests are aligned.

I also point out that um you know the the curb effect uh with the with the curb effect, you know, things that strategies that benefit one specific population can have benefits for everyone.

And so, you know, children, they they are really young and vulnerable and still developing.

A lot of strategies that could that address those vulnerabilities can also address those who have who have uh compromised immune systems and also our elderly.

Thank you so much.

Your time is up.

Thank you so much for your comment.

Thank you for your time.

Any other comments on this item?

Just the last comment.

All right.

Uh well, this is an informational item.

Thank you so much.

Um please keep us updated and uh hopefully uh we'll have a good turnout for Thursday.

Yeah, thanks very much.

All right.

Uh moving on, uh item 11 brief verbal reports from council members and staff.

Uh first is our verbal report from council members on intergovernmental and subcommittee assignments.

Does anyone have any at this time?

Looking to my left.

Any IGRs?

Any to my right?

Nothing?

Okay.

Uh then we're verbal report from our city manager, 11B.

Madam Mayor, you guys were very comprehensive covering all the different things, and we've kind of beat the workshop to death here, but uh there'll be plenty of things to do this week and the coming uh couple of weeks.

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

Okay, great.

Hopefully get we'll get a lot of interest in that.

Uh item 12, matters of interest or clarification.

We have nothing on that um in under that item.

And so we are adjourned until our next regular meeting.

Thank you.