Good evening.

This is the City of Belmont City Council regular meeting agenda.

It is March tenth, twenty twenty six.

We are currently in City Council chambers, and our published agenda has the various ways that the public can join, either in person, via Zoom, or um via streaming.

And today we will begin our agenda with agenda items starting at seven pm, item four, which is uh the Pledge of Allegiance.

But before we do that, actually, let's go ahead and have roll call, please.

Councilmember McHume.

Present.

Councilmember Pang Maganaris.

Present, Councilmember Lod Merlow.

Here.

For present, Jordan absent.

Great, thank you.

Please rise if you're able for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the United States in America.

And to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God with liberty and justice for all.

And whereas as Belmont approaches its centennial celebration this year, the city recognizes and honors the generations of women whose leadership, service, and vision have shaped Belmont's history and continue to guide its future.

And whereas the City of Belmont values diversity, equity, inclusion, and civic engagement, and recognizes that women's leadership strengthens our community and advances a more sustainable and just future for all.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Julia Mates, mayor, and on behalf of the City Council of the City of Belmont, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as Women's History Month in the City of Belmont and encourage all residents to recognize, celebrate, and support the leadership of women who are shaping a sustainable future for our community.

So I hope everyone will enjoy Women's History Month.

As the proclamation indicates, it's a chance to honor the women who came before us and also recognize the women shaping our community community today.

And I'm proud to serve in a city where women are leading across our city organization as well, and as well as on this dais, where we actually have a majority of people who identify as women, and across our city organization where women help guide the future of our city every day.

So happy uh women's history month, everyone.

All right, moving on to our next presentation.

We just had our fourth annual Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Poetry and Essay Contest.

And I think we have our poet laureate, our city poet laureate here with us for the next item.

Good evening.

Um Madam Mayor, um, esteemed city council members and members of the public.

Uh I'm Gregory McCullough, your current Belmont Poet Laureate, and I am here on behalf of the Belmont Parks and Rec Department as well as the city generally to present the winners of our 2026 Martin Luther King Junior Poetry and Essay Contest.

So each year, students uh across the Belmont Redwood Schools uh Redwood Schools, uh Redwood Shores School District are asked to uh write a poem or essay that um uh responds to a chosen theme taken from the words of Dr.

King.

Um this year, um, as indicated by our mayor was the fourth uh iteration of the contest.

Um this contest was begun under my predecessors, and it will hopefully continue long after I've left the position.

Um the purpose of this contest is not only to honor the legacy of Dr.

Martin Luther King, but also to uh encourage student engagement and excellence in poetry and rhetoric.

I would like to thank the City of Belmont and the City Council in particular for its support of the contest in years past and its continued support for the contest now.

Um I would also like to thank our sponsors who made the contest and our awards night possible.

Um that was the San Mateo County Office of Arts and Culture, the Belmont Redwood Shores School District, uh the Chamber of San Mateo County, and our Belmont Park boosters.

I'd also like to personally thank my fellow judges and um my uh everyone at the Parks and Rec department who made the contest possible, um, particularly Karina Cortez and Bridget Shear over there.

Um then I would also like to say that by supporting our students, um, you support our future.

And what better way could there be to honor an American hero who fought for a better future for us all?

So um without further ado, the theme for this contest in 2026 were these words from Dr.

King, uh for taken from the I Have a Dream speech.

Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.

Um, if it pleases the members of the council, I would like to invite our winners to come read their work for us.

Wonderful, thank you.

Um, please come on, step up.

Dreams, dreams flow through my head, what a wonderful world we have ahead.

Until these people come, all our work has been done.

For what we've worked for today and tomorrow, what we have done becomes sorrow.

Coming to us, we won't have a fuss.

Instead, we plan ahead.

What does the world have ahead?

Complete mess or neatness.

Can we have our great world back?

It's up to us, we won't fuss.

But deep down inside, there's one thing set aside collaboration, kindness, and patience.

Where is it?

Can we find it or have we lost it?

Deep down inside.

Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.

Thank you.

Can I can I just have the just the first name of that poet that we just heard?

Um that was Kaya.

Kaya, thank you.

That was great.

Um congratulations again, Kaya Chan, our winner in the third through fifth grade um uh segment of our um contest this year in poetry.

Now for the essay in third through fifth grade.

Um please would you step up?

Um, Kishi Kawana.

How MOK speech affects today's how MOK's speech affected my basketball.

My basketball team has a variety of backgrounds and races.

I like that I have many friends at school with black, white, and Asian kids.

My friends on my basketball team also both black, white, and aging teammates.

When I play tournaments, I play with different teams with different skills or styles.

Many of the teams have different cultures, and those coaches' way of playing basketball is different from my coach's way.

Each team has many strengths and weaknesses, which makes it a diverse league.

It is fun to play in a diverse league.

Back in the day, the black and white kids had to play separately and affected MLK a lot.

The white people got clean courts with clean new balls, but the black people got muddy court with dirty balls.

When he was little, MOK had a right friend.

They played together, but because of segregation, the friend had to move away.

These were the difficulties he had to overcome in his life.

MOK was sad that he was getting just because of his skin color.

He thought that white people and black people should have equal rights and he wanted to play with his friend.

M OK's dream since he was a child was so that everyone could be friends with whomever they wanted.

MLK didn't just fight for rights of black people.

He fought for all minorities.

If MLK hadn't made a change, the world wouldn't have been the same for minorities.

In the East Bay, who will play basketball tournament, there are many black and Hispanic people.

If MOK didn't make a change, many of my team members would have to leave the team, and many of my friends would be gone.

Other teams would also lose players, and it would be very and it would be boring because there'd be no variation.

There'd be no black person playing in the MBA, so there'll be fewer exciting plays.

When our school potlooks, there'll be no phone from any minority family, and it would be very boring.

MLK's speech affects today's life because all black people couldn't vote.

Now there are more minorities in Congress and even a black president.

There's no more segregation.

At my school, there are diverse kids, and all of them are my friends.

One of my friends is Indian, and another is Korean.

There are also different minorities in theaters, which makes it interesting.

Many NBA players I follow are black, and if they weren't there, I will lose entertainment.

Even after all the challenges you face, MOK on civil rights for all people, and that is why I can play basketball happily.

Thank you.

Congratulations uh again, Keishi.

Um our winner in the um essay category for the third through fifth um category of our contest.

I'd like to welcome now um Natara Varakat.

Hello, my name is Natara Barakat, and today I will recite my poem to be finally equal.

A long time ago, the world was extremely unfair.

In this world, kindness was rare.

Color, religion, and gender were uncrossable walls.

Either you were royalty or you had met your downfall.

Inequality ruled each and every day.

Together the children wouldn't couldn't play.

But one man was courageous enough to step up and say, an idea new to everyone in that day.

What if we broke these walls of hate and let love in through this big gate?

And so some began to make this dream that shined for them like a sunbeam.

For years and years they shouted loud, we deserve rights, hear our sound.

We have made this dream come true, for we are equal.

Me and you.

We walk the same walkways, eat at the same restaurants, even swim at the same pools.

But still, our dream is not fully true.

Women, men, we aren't the same.

Still we are not where we aimed.

The chair of president still stands still, waiting for this position by a girl to be filled.

Pay and power aren't the same too.

Is this a quality we speak of?

Really true.

A long time ago, a classmate, I know, said to me to my dream job.

I could not go.

It's only for boys, they had told, in their voice so very cold.

I have a dream I hope to see.

Where girls and boys live happily.

They will be free in harmony.

No matter what, I know this dream will always stay alive in me.

For my dream is made of history.

Thank you.

Congratulations again.

Our winner in poetry for the sixth through eighth category of our contest.

Now please welcome Anderson Bunner.

Hope.

Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.

To some, the story of this quote might seem unrealistic.

That such a dream will be too far fetched to them.

To me, this world-changing quote signs away of hope.

When Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr.

said this late on the world he lived in, he showed the potential of how dreams like his might actually come true.

All it takes is a little bit of accent and a whole lot of hope.

When I first came into mother school, I noticed a problem.

My school was braidnought, and I was not.

Every single day, the same phrases with hot my mind over and over again, trying to turn me into their next victim.

Every single day I was fighting.

I fought for a friend that was freed from those chains.

A life where my resistance wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb.

But such a life never came.

However, as I looked deep down into the hearts of the people around me, I saw hope.

I saw the same hope that MLK saw 63 years ago.

I had a dream.

This hope came from the fact that something was different.

I didn't know what it was at the time, but I knew I just knew that the time had come.

Before I realized it, the same phrases began to surround me from all directions.

As the storm of students began haunting my mind.

So I did.

I grabbed the notepad sitting in the lonest corner of my desk and began to write.

I was writing an outline for the essay that would soon chase my life.

Why brain not is bad for you?

The next day, my dream came true.

I spoke with such confidence, it felt as if all of my life was building up to that one moment.

And soon enough, that moment was over.

Those phrases I'd almost grown used to have practically disappeared from my life.

I was free.

When I learned about the hero that MLK was, he gave me a light of hope.

And now I give it to you.

Thank you.

Congratulations again, Anderson Bunner, our winner for the essay in the sixth through eighth uh category of our contest.

Um now the winners for the high school category um are not currently here.

Um I don't believe they could make it tonight.

Um the winners were uh Maria and Raya Scaff.

Um we uh if it pleases the council, we will um uh either um I think we'll just uh we'll move on.

Yeah, um uh anyway.

Um thank you again so much for your uh continued support of this contest, and um we hope to uh see you again next year with our next round of winners.

Thank you so much.

And just to let you know, thank you so much to our port laureate and and our staff, and especially um our winners for the poetry and essay contest.

Thank you for being with us tonight and um for reading your amazing work and just um keep writing and keep um being po do it doing poetry, and um it's really special that you shared that with us, and I know the high school students tend to be busy on weeknights, but we will definitely reach out to them and um thank them as well.

So we're gonna hope to have a photo with with you all if you want to come up and bring your um you know, either bring your essays and do we have any?

We just got certificates.

Yeah, if you have if you have your certificate, that's great too to uh bring it up, and if we can take a quick photo with you, that would be great.

Yeah.

That'll work.

Yeah.

Oh Laura, give them a screen close.

Oh, this looks good.

Ready?

Right.

Thank you very much for that.

So moving on to item seven, which is public comments on items not on the agenda.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the body on any city matter that's not currently on the agenda.

The period for each individual speaker is uh three minutes.

And I will so if you are um with us on Zoom or in the chambers, if you can um either raise your virtual hand or fill out a comment card and provide it to our city clerk.

Madam Clerk, do we have any comments for item number seven?

At this moment I do not have any requests to speak.

Okay, then we will move on to item eight, which is council member announcements.

Uh council members, any announcements for uh to this evening?

Uh councilmember McCoon.

Councilmember Latamerlow.

Um there is trail maintenance um at Water Dog open space on March 21st from 8:30 to 3 to help repair 0.5 miles of Rambler trails so we could use volunteers.

You don't need any experience, but arrive on time.

Um volunteers must be 18 or older, bring some water and sunscreen and lunch.

Um and the trail center is gonna be coordinating that for us, and they'll provide tools and training and gloves and stuff to keep wipe off poison oak in case that happens for you.

Um so please read all of the instructions on our sign-up page to ensure that you're well prepared and show up.

Councilmember Peng Magnairs, any announcements?

Um I just have a couple.

Belmont residents are invited to help shape the city's climate action and adaptation plan by taking our community survey.

Tell us which climate actions you'd like the city to prioritize and what actions you're ready to take.

You can learn more at participate at Belmont uh and participate at Belmont.gov slash climate action.

And then we also have some great community events coming up.

Our adaptive egg venture hunt will take place Friday, April 3rd at 4:30 at Twin Pines Park.

This is a sensory friendly egg hunt designed for individuals who'd benefit from more supportive environment.

And then the following day, Saturday, April 4th at 10 a.m., youth ages three to ten can join us for the traditional egg adventure hunt featuring thousands of hidden eggs.

Photos with the bunny and family activities.

Uh a little later in the month in April, on April 18th, we have two events happening.

Belmont's Earth Day celebration will take place from 10 a.m.

to 1 p.m.

at Twin Pines Park.

This features activities, environmental resources, and a free compost giveaway, courtesy of Recology.

And then that same day, the Barrett Community Center open house will be held from 11 a.m.

to 1 p.m.

at 1835 Bellburn Drive, where families can learn about preschool programs before and after school care, dance classes, and the Mandarin immersion program.

So for all of this information and more, please visit Belmont.gov.

And that takes us to item nine, which is our consent business.

These items are considered routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion with no separate discussion on these items unless a member or staff requests specific items to be removed for separate auction, and our city attorney will read the title of the ordinances to be adopted.

We do have three items on uh under a consent calendar.

Uh do any council members or uh staff want to remove any items for separate discussion or have any questions or or comments on any of the three items?

Yes.

I need to recuse myself from voting on item C because my house is just a few feet uh within the boundary of uh distance to that property.

So I don't know that we need to pull it for a separate vote, but just note that I recuse myself on that one.

Okay, thank you.

Uh any other questions or anything okay.

Um we have any public comment on the uh consent items.

There are no requests to speak on this item either.

Okay.

Move approval.

Say we have an ordinance though.

No.

That's my cue.

An ordinance of the city of Belmont rezoning property 1301 shoreway to plan unit development, adopting the conceptual development plan and approving a development agreement for the 1301 Shoreway Commercial Development Project.

And I believe the motion came from Pang Maganaris, seconded by Lad Merlow.

Roll call, please.

Council Memory Kuhn.

Aye.

Pang Maganares.

Aye.

Lad Merlo.

Aye.

Mayor Maids.

Aye.

This motion passes 4-1, Jordan absent.

Great, thank you so much.

And did we um please note my recusals?

Yeah.

Noted.

All right.

Item 10.

Public hearings.

There are none today.

Uh item 11 is general business, and these items are considered separately in the order listed.

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

10A is uh Redwood Shores C level rise protection project.

Oh, I'm sorry, yeah.

It looks like, yes, please.

Just kind of quick note 11B.

We ask that that be returned to staff and will it continue that item due to staff on availability for tonight.

Alrighty, thank you.

So uh we're now on 11A.

Sorry, we're opening up the presentation.

I apologize.

I'm getting uh a little bit sicker and sicker as the night goes on, so cough drops.

Uh maybe after.

Thanks.

Let's see.

Okay.

Okay.

Uh good evening, Madam Mayor and fellow council members.

Um, my name is Elizabeth Wada, senior civil engineer in the public works department.

Nice to see you again.

Um the purpose of tonight's presentation is to provide an overview of task one of the project as a follow-up to the January 27th presentation on the Redwood Shores sea level rise protection project, as well as request a motion to be authorized to authorize city manager to negotiate and execute the um architectural and engineering services agreement for a not-to-exceed amount of 208,000 dollars 787.

Also here today we have Caitlin Tharp, who is from Schaff and Wheeler who will help assist with any technical questions that may come up on the proposal.

So uh just a quick refresher, uh slide one here provides a little bit of regional context regarding and the delineation of private versus public lands.

In blue here, you see the levy proposed alignment, and all the pink is private lands and uh yellow and green and red are all public.

So we are protecting the island park neighborhood.

Uh, this second, it's a map overview, so you can see um what types of buildings are there.

It's from Google Maps.

Um, our sports complex is in the corner down there.

Um it gives a better delineation of where the levy ends and begins on a map view.

So at completion, this project's going to accomplish um putting the island park neighborhood from uh FEMA zone AE back to zone X, which means uh it will no longer be in a high-risk flood zone.

So that's the main goal of the project.

All that being said, the contract we're asking for approval for is exclusively for preliminary planning, community outreach, and alternatives evaluation.

And it's just to give both the city and the island park community um the technical information that we need to determine how to move forward.

Um it would only bring us to 10% um uh project design, and it would be primarily outreach for the community.

Um so it'd be stakeholder outreach, HOA, um communication, civic edge, the subconsultant for Schaffen Wheeler will be leading this public outreach and engagement plan to ensure inclusive, transparent communication, ensuring that we're interviewing all the right stakeholders and providing abilities for community meetings to inform all the residents about the projects in addition to public notices.

And then we'll also explain how it integrates with the overarching Redwood Shores project, which is um primarily led by Redwood City.

Um lastly, the scope will provide alternatives analysis and 10% concept design.

Um Schaff and Wheeler will continue to provide and develop multiple concepts, analyzing tactical feasibility, um permitting constraints, and planning level cost estimates.

And so the clear decision criteria will be developed with everyone's input, stakeholders, city, um community, and um culminate in identification of an alternative that has a basis of design and support from everybody in Island Park.

Um this task one um doesn't commit us to any construction, it just provides the foundation needed to decide if we want to move forward with the design up to 60 percent.

So the proposal does mention 60 percent, um, but for now we're just asking for task one to be approved.

And this is just the FEMA map of the flood zones if you're curious.

So this is AE, and this would be brought down to zone X.

Okay, thank you.

Any questions?

Great, thank you so much.

Um Council, any questions for staff at this time?

No.

Uh okay, Councilman Abby Ladamarlo.

Um I just had a quick question.

So I know we're just considering the island park piece of this.

Um, and I know that the larger projects being led by Redwood City.

Is San Carlos also, am I remembering that correctly?

Is that St.

Carlos is also a part of that?

Are there additional cities that are part of it?

It's primarily Redwood City.

Um I don't know if you want to speak on anything specific.

Yeah.

Um Wheeler, I'm the engineer of record for the Redwood Shores project currently.

Um that project uh currently involves the city of Belmont.

Um it would uh involve a portion of Belmont along Belmont Creek, um, which Redwood City needs to protect Redwood Shores as well.

So there will be um some coordination with the City of Belmont on that project as well.

And it does include the city of San Carlos in two ways.

One, they do own a parcel that is part of the Redwood Shores levy alignment, and then the Redwood Shores levy will protect the city of San Carlos, so they are also involved.

Did they also take um motion to kind of approve their inclusion in this?

So at this point, all of the work done to protect San Carlos is actually part of the Redwood Shores project already because it is needed to protect Redwood Shores.

Uh the action that hasn't, they've been part of the technical advisory committee to date.

Um the action that has not been taken by San Carlos that will at some point is that um Redwood City is starting to figure out how they're gonna fund future um phases of the design and then construction of the project past the current, which is funded by FEMA hazard mitigation grant.

So they will have to make an action in in the future when that whole funding decision is is brought to bear.

Okay, thank you.

Any other questions at this time?

I had a quick question.

Um I think our I don't see our finance director, but I think our um city manager can answer it.

Um it looks like it'll be funded through a couple of different uh sources.

Can you just expand on that?

Talk a little bit about that for the public.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Sorry.

So there's some project savings in our measure I capital funds.

So we were able to appropriate it during the mid-year review to bring the 250,000 to this project.

And we don't need it in the private in the measure I funding.

Uh it was a savings from another project.

Uh okay.

It's uh this is one of those situations where we're looking at priorities and and opportunity to leverage the work that is happening with Redwood Shores, otherwise we probably wouldn't bump it up because of all the other needs that that's in the program.

But given the savings in the project and the conversation we had at the last meeting about leveraging this for future conversation as to what we're gonna do with the island parkway and the opportunity to leverage the work that's going on with Redwood uh City and Redwood Shores study that it behooves us to at least do the preliminary evaluation and figure out what the needs are and ultimately decide on a financing mechanism that can kind of then have a more robust conversation with the community and the different levels that might be available for us to engage with.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Uh any public comment on this item.

I do not have any slips, nor raised hands at this moment.

Okay.

We should uh indicate we did receive uh, I think at least one written uh comment.

Uh I was not copied, so okay, okay, council did, but maybe um city clerk did not.

All right, thank you.

Uh so bringing it back to the council.

Um we do have a uh resolution, I believe.

Uh or do we just uh given direction?

Let me just look at the I think we do have a resolution attached to this.

Uh this was just an information.

Uh just informational request to motion.

I'm sorry.

Are you making a uh motion?

Oh, I was reading out loud.

I was trying to figure it out.

Okay, okay.

We're mo uh make a motion authorizing the city manager to negotiate and execute and architectural and engineering services agreement.

Second.

Roll call, please.

Councilmember Pang Mayonaris.

Aye.

Laudemarlo.

Aye.

McHugh.

Aye.

Mayor Maids.

Hi.

And this motion passes 4-1.

Jordan absent.

Thank you very much.

Hope you feel better.

Thank you.

All right.

Uh looks like Elizabeth 11B has been um has been uh moved to the March uh 24th meeting.

So that brings us to item twelve, which is brief verbal reports from members and staff.

And first we'll ask council members if you have any updates on your intergovernmental and subcommittee assignments to share with us.

Nothing.

Yes, please.

Um yeah, I attended the um rethink waste board, South Bayside Waste Management Authority.

And that's one of those very unglamorous functions of local government, which is dealing with recycling and solid waste.

But it's really important.

And uh the site on Shoreway Road has been there for a while, and the question is is that site getting maxed out?

Or will it be maxed out sometime in the foreseeable future?

So the board um approved a master plan study to look at a long range plan for that site.

And um it's just getting started.

There's nothing to report yet.

But the the basic question is if we're going to be located at that site for another three or four decades.

What should we be doing now to make sure that we've got the capacity to handle the uh types of materials that we'll have in the future and uh process them maybe in different ways.

So stay tuned.

There's no uh action on that yet.

It'll it'll take a while, but there could um be some significant improvements to that site.

That's it.

Okay, thank you for that.

Um then if there's nothing else, we'll move on to 12 verbal report from our city manager.

Just gonna quick uh kind of uh following your your lead on some of the events and activities that's planned out for March, actually on March fifteenth in honor of women's uh international uh recognition uh dates.

Uh we do have uh in in combination with partnering with Samatura County Office of Arts and Culture and Art Commission uh on the status of women to celebrate the art exhibit that's gonna be in Twin Pines Center and Manor House.

That's uh on March fifteenth.

Encourage folks to, if they're interested, kind of look that up on the calendar and and uh find out about the details.

It's a great exhibit, and it's gonna be there uh from one to three p.m.

There's also a child care and preschool fair uh for folks that are counseling looking for help in that area.

Or our staff have put a great fair together on March 14th from 10 to 12.

Uh and there's a couple other uh kind of memory care and and uh cafe for folks that are struggling with Alzheimer and and dementia issues.

Again, there's a great uh program that's being put together on March 18th from two to four.

And this is something that's uh making a return again in uh partnership with City of San Carlos, our teen wellness retreat, and that is a well uh attended event and usually kind of gets uh filled up fairly quickly.

That's scheduled for March twenty-eighth, so folks that are interested should kind of go on our website and kind of follow through the registration link and all that for all these different events that are coming up.

So with that, turn back over to you.

All right, thank you very much.

Uh it's a very light agenda this evening.

We have item thirteen is matters of interest and clarification.

There's uh nothing on that under that item.

Uh so the next item is adjournment, and we are adjourned until March 24th.