Welcome to the Belmont Parks and Recreation Commission meeting for Wednesday, April 1st, 2026.

The meeting will be broadcast live to Belmont residents on Comcast Cable Channel 27, streamed live via the city's website at www.belmont.gov and streamed live on Zoom.

The public may also attend the meeting in the city council chambers and address the commission from the chambers.

Members of the public may provide comments by joining the meeting via Zoom.

Visit BelmontGov.zoom.us, select join and enter meeting ID 9248 3193757.

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All public comments are subject to a three-minute time limit unless otherwise determined by the commission chair.

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Any public comment regarding agenda items that are received from the publication of the agenda through the meeting date will be made part of the meeting record, but will not be read during the commission meeting.

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All persons are expected to conduct themselves with civility and courtesy at all times.

All persons giving comments shall speak directly to the commission and address issues, not individuals.

Personal attacks, cursing, and outbursts from the audience in support or opposition to a speaker are not tolerated in order to foster an environment where everyone feels welcome to speak.

First agenda item, roll call.

Commissioner Lee.

Here.

Commissioner Emkin.

Here.

Commissioner Hill.

Here.

Commissioner Lightford.

Here.

Commissioner Busavida.

Here.

Commissioner Kugel.

Here.

Chair Whitmore.

Here.

Youth Commissioner Hallan.

Here.

Youth Commissioner Satya Narayanan.

Here.

I do.

Thank you.

Um Commissioners, as was announced recently in the Daily Journal.

Uh I am retiring, and so I'm very excited to uh and introduce my replacement, Kevin Kobayashi, who is joining us from the city of Samateo.

Kevin, why don't you step up and say a few words?

Thank you.

Good evening, Commissioners, members of the public.

Uh my name is Kevin Kobayashi.

I sorry I didn't fill out a speak form.

But uh I'm very excited to be here, excited to meet you all and work with you.

Um I grew up in the Bay Area, grew up in Fremont, and have most recently been working in San Mateo for the last eight years.

Uh 25 years in both um public golf operations and parks and rec experience.

And so I'm really excited to kind of continue some of the things that that Bridget's uh led over here in uh in the city of Belmont, and then of course to lean on all of you for guidance and uh move uh move forward.

And I told the staff earlier today that uh we're gonna have a lot of fun doing it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, Kevin.

Uh community forum, public comments.

We skipped over pledge of allegiance.

Okay, Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of the flag of the United States of America and through the Republican for which it stands.

One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Do we have any public comments?

Not for this section, no.

Commissioner announcements.

I'd like to start by saying happy passover to those observing, and I hope you are enjoying this holiday.

Does anyone else on the commission have an announcement?

Okay, moving on to the consent calendar.

Consent calendar items are considered routine in nature and will be enacted by one motion.

There will be no separate discussion on these items unless a commissioner or staff request specific items to be removed for separate action.

Do we have a motion to approve the minutes as presented?

I move to approve.

Commissioner Lee?

Yes.

Commissioner Emkin.

Yes.

Commissioner Hill.

Yes.

Commissioner Lieford.

Yes.

Commissioner Vasavada.

Yes.

Commissioner Acunya?

Yes.

Chair Whitmore?

Yes.

Motion passes.

Seven and no.

Okay, items of business.

First item, the Belmont Community Learning Center rebranding introduction.

Good evening.

My name is Ingrid Oriana.

I'm the rec supervisor for preschool programs.

So I wanted to discuss with you guys the possible rebranding of the name of our preschool.

So this is our current logo.

This way?

There we go.

So what we're looking to do is change our name to include the word preschool.

Right now we're facing some enrollment issues because TK is so prevalent in the elementary schools, which is a free program for four-year-olds.

So we're wanting to do Belmont community preschool and have a new fresh modern logo for to attract more families and know that we exist.

I've been doing a lot of community events lately, and a lot of people don't know we're back at Barrett, back on the residential side.

And so I'm hoping to reintroduce ourselves to the Belmont community by changing your name and refreshing our logo.

Any questions.

And anything that you guys can do that uh that makes sense for the community to try to you know sort of uh uh you know augment your uh visibility and image in the community uh is uh you know supported so yeah I'll just no questions just comment that um I agree it would be good to maybe rename it because initially when I first heard the name I didn't know the age ranges if it was something that was after school program or what it was so definitely rebranding as a preschool, especially if you're trying to get kids in that age group now that the pre-K1s are going to TK instead.

Um it sounds like a very reasonable rebranding.

I have no comments or questions.

I think this is really a smart move because TK really has taken off, and there is a definite such a great need for for preschool, so I think it's a great move.

No comments.

No comments.

Youth Commissioners?

Oh, no comments.

I mean, I'm not that far out of preschool myself.

It looks really nice.

Um no comments.

So um Ingrid, if you could maybe share what's the next step.

Um so we are going to work as a team to workshop.

I mean, we've been I've discussed with the rec team yesterday about taking Learning Center off and replacing that with preschool and everyone agree that it was a great idea.

And what I'll do is present some options to the rec team of different fonts, different colors, and go from there, and then in May I will return to have an option for you guys to look at.

Perfect.

We just wanted to bring it to your attention.

Um kind of ease into it a little bit so that just didn't come as a shock because we do know that Belmont Community Learning Center, BCLC is an institution here in Belmont.

Um pretty cool.

It's been around since 1982, but uh we feel it's time to refresh it a little bit.

So we wanted to ease that concept um out.

Do you have initial ideas about what you want the new logo to have or color schemes or definitely simplify it?

I do want to use the rainbow colors, but not as bright.

Maybe mute them down a little bit, maybe just more kid friendly.

And not because as you can see, it looks blurry.

So I'm thinking just words at first with maybe a little mascot or something.

Just simple it, make it a lot more simple and straightforward without all this words.

Sounds like that's another swag opportunity for us.

And I'm I'm sure you don't need to be reminded of this, but I this is mostly for myself, but don't forget to ask your friend artificial intelligence to help you with those kinds of things.

AI is a wonderful tool for logos and branding and reimagining things.

So it's pretty helpful.

Definitely.

Thank you.

Do we have any public comments?

We do not.

Okay.

Next item of business, the Oak Knoll project community event recap.

Sure.

Okay.

So good evening, everyone.

I'm just gonna give a recap of the Oak Knoll Improvement Project that had some community engagement uh last week, and I know we've got some quite a few folks in the audience to share some comments with us.

So just to kind of bring everybody up to speech, so we're all on the same page about why we're even having this conversation.

Um from next from 2020 to 2024, the city went through a parks recreation and open space master planning process called a PROS Plan.

A lot of the work was done by uh between 2020 and 2022, then it paused a little bit and came back for approval with council in 2024.

Um that plan looked at um the city as a whole and identified some opportunity sites where the city as a whole was lacking a um some kind of a destination, if you will.

Um, and that was not necessarily to attract you know from the larger public, it was just to give folks in a certain neighborhood a place to walk to.

Um of those locations was uh the end of Oaknole Drive.

And if you're not familiar with it, it's a um beautiful setting on top of a hill in Belmont, and there's a cul-de-sac, and usually an entire cul-de-sac is paved, but in this case, the center uh of the cul-de-sac has a circle that is grass with some trees in it.

And um, and so that seemed like an opportunity to explore whether there might be um some room for improv some kind of an improvement there to make it um a place that people could who live nearby could walk to because of its location and um and just the challenges of being in a cul-de-sac, um, certainly wouldn't be anything that was intended, would be intended to or would expect somebody to travel to by car.

Um, but we do know that some people a lot of people walk in that area on foot.

It's great exercise.

Um there aren't a lot of sidewalks, so walking is challenging, the roads are narrow.

Um, but it looked to it was an opportunity to explore.

So uh in the PROS plan, if you recall, um, a couple of sites throughout town were identified uh as that, some larger.

This one's on the the smallest side, and um all these different kinds of opportunities for improvement were um kind of scored on a couple of different dimensions.

Um, and I'll just kind of read those here.

Um is there available funding?

Improving a small tight is something that um that the city could feasibly financially do.

Does it advance um equity throughout the city?

Meaning um, is there a spot for people in that neighborhood to be able to walk to, like they can if they live in other neighborhoods?

Um is it something we could we could get done in a reasonable amount of time, and would it be you know uh maybe a quick win, if you call it, uh if you will.

Um so because of those things, this opportunity has was scored highly, and so it's one that we are um that we are exploring further.

Um so to do that, we engaged uh calendar landscape architects to help us with that design.

Um I'm not a playground designer or any landscape designer by any means, and so we wanted to bring in some experts that that uh might be able to think more creatively than uh than we could to help us with community engagement, coming up with some kind of a design, and then seeing whether that's something that moves forward.

So to do that, we had our um we had our first meeting with the community last Thursday to discuss what we're calling a vision of some kind of a gathering destination, a gathering spot, a nature-based on-foot destination.

Um so we sent letters to the residents that uh that live nearby.

We had about 30 attendees, which is awesome.

Um as a summary, um, it seemed like it was about split.

If you took the total 30 people, it was about split, people being for this idea and some people being uh against the idea.

The residents that live most immediately adjacent to the circle were much more heavily against the idea of making any kind of improvement there.

And the concerns, just as a high level summary, uh we're concerned about parking.

Would this be something that would attract more people and then parking would become challenging?

Um would um uh because the cul-de-sac is kind of tight and there are several driveways, um non-driveway parking opportunities in that area are also limited, and so sometimes people actually do park on the grass circle itself.

Um there was concern about noise that might be generated from uh a gathering spot.

Um there's concern about traffic if you've ever driven up uh Oaknel, it is a tight um uh it is a tight drive, and um there are some blind corners, and so there was concern um would would it any improvements to this spot um make the whole area less safe for anybody?

Um and then just general safety because there are no sidewalks in that area again, concerns about people walking there and being able to walk safely.

People do walk in that area now, people do walk up and kind of walk the loop and walk back down, but the concern was if there were more something maybe more enticing up there, would more people be walking and therefore the area would become less safe.

Um and I um I'm sure that some of our uh folks in the audience might uh add to that as well.

So those were the concerns.

On the other side, people in favor felt uh that they do walk that area, and it would be nice to maybe at sort of the the termination of the walk or the turnaround spot point of their walk to maybe able to sit and rest for a minute, um, gather your thoughts, just take a breather, and then walk back home.

Um I know that the PRO's plan um document did show um a play amenity that was a swing.

Um what we learned from our landscape architects, and this is why we engaged landscape architects.

Uh they indicated that because of the fall zones, uh safety fall zones that are required for any kind of play equipment, um, and given the small space and the existence of trees, it's very unlikely that any kind of a play structure, if you will, would ever fit in that spot.

So um, so I do acknowledge that some of the um visuals that were just suggestions or or sort of thought ideas in the PROS plan uh uh might have caused greater concern than um than what we're ultimately looking at at the site.

So um so again, some folks that that walk in that area or are interested in some kind of improvement, um, others are not.

So uh that's um that's what happened on Tuesday night.

Um the next steps are gonna be um we want to take a little bit of more time to digest the comments from last Thursday night and from whatever we hear tonight from um the public and from the commission.

And uh we do have some outstanding questions that we need to answer about the status of that public right-of-way.

The city has done some work on that space at some times, but not others, and so we just want to make sure that um that we can in fact proceed before we uh proceed with anything, if we proceed with anything.

Um then we would develop uh likely some high-level concept plans just to bring back out again to the neighborhood to see whether there is any space for any um uh consensus or compromise.

Um we did sometimes hear some of that on Thursday night, so it's worth exploring a little further, and then we'll determine what's next.

Um this is not something that um we're in any rush to implement or uh or do without uh community input.

This is not a plan that that um the city is going to impose on uh on the community until and unless we have consensus to do so.

Um that said, I do want to thank the community for their input and their voices for and against this uh this project.

Um as I said the other night, um this is democracy in action, and this is how the sausage gets made, and it is um uh it's good to hear everybody's voices, and we want to make sure that everyone does and does feel that their comments and their concerns for or against are heard and will all be considered.

So with that, um to you.

Thank you.

Uh, we're gonna start with public comments.

Okay, um, we have four in person and one on Zoom.

We'll go Zoom first.

She's gonna call your name.

So the first person is on Zoom, so we'll hear the the phone, the person who's calling in first.

Okay, um, the name is call in user.

You will have three minutes.

Hey guys, sorry, this is Juliano.

I was hoping to make unagendized comments.

Unfortunately, the instructions on the uh agenda and the web uh the city's web page are incorrect.

I can't get in on Zoom.

So uh I'll gonna jump off of uh this item.

Hopefully at the end, y'all can let me make my unagendized comments.

Thank you.

I'm sorry, I didn't fully hear that.

He was not commenting on this item.

He wanted a non-agenda comment and wasn't able to do that.

This is the zoom.

Oh, I see.

Okay.

So let's do that at the end.

We'll when we have commissioner questions and comments, we'll um we'll allow folks the opportunity to come back then.

Okay, um, in person the first one, uh Demetrios.

There's another look.

Thank you.

Um Demetrius, 1917 Oaknoll.

Purchase a house in 1986, spend about five minutes looking at the house, and half an hour looking at the arriving from the stop sign to the top of the hill.

At the time we had two little kids, and there were total seven children in the neighborhood.

They all have grown up, some of them still live in the area, and I can go on, but if there is one delivery vehicle on Oaknoll, you cannot proceed unless you go around that vehicle.

There's not enough room.

And if there's a car parked, you really cannot move on.

So there's a serious safety issue with emergency vehicles.

I know that because I've experienced it twice with my mom and my father-in-law fire engines trying to come up and not knowing where to go because of the the streets.

The numbers are a little bit goofy in certain sections.

So there's a serious access of going around the circle, and we are very, very careful of all the people that walk with their dogs, with their kids, with our strollers.

We know all our neighbors.

That I think will create a serious safety issue for all the kids and the traffic that will people will drive up to look at the new park.

I don't think that everybody's gonna walk in, come walking from Belmont to that to that area.

So I suggest that you consider it as a no, we really not.

I don't think it would really serve much for the rest of the uh citizens of Belmont.

And in addition, I would like to know.

I have an email here from one of our neighbors, Gary Mercury, that was sent to the city of Belmont to Parks and Rick, and I do not know if a response has anybody has responded to his email with all the information that is providing about right of way.

I really do not understand everything, or I do not have the knowledge.

So I'd like to know if there was a response from the uh parks and rec to him.

So we during the public comment period, we don't engage in dialogue.

That's fine.

All right.

Well, thank you.

I see that I'm done.

I appreciate it, and I thank you very much.

Next, we have Gail.

Um so I'll try to be brief.

I said your three criteria was is there funding?

Does it improve the neighborhood and add equity to the to the uh town?

And is it a quick win?

So I think we're here to represent number two.

Does it add equity and value to our neighborhood?

So I think most of us, as you said, live right on the cold sack.

So we're quite familiar with it.

And in addition to Demetrius concerns about safety for children and people, we're also very concerned about parking.

There's just no place to park there.

As you probably know, there's so much construction going on in Belmont, and there's lots of contractors, and people have parties from time to time.

And if you look at that cul-de-sac and even the rest of Oak Knoll, there is just no place to park.

People would have to, I don't know, they'd have to park down at the safeway and Uber up.

So that's that's kind of a big concern for us.

Um so I would say in general, I mean, if there's three scenarios, leave it as it is.

Leave it as it is, but clean it up a little bit.

You know, it's kind of downtrodden.

Or three, make it a visitor destination where people can sit, you know, and relax.

And I think we're all between one, just leave it as it is.

So that those are my comments.

Thank you for giving us an opportunity.

All right, next we have Michelle.

Good evening.

My name is Michelle Likani.

Uh I have been a Belmont resident for 56 years.

I have lived on Oak Knoll for 22 of them, and I have lived two blocks away for 34.

So I'm very familiar.

Uh I got married in Belmont.

I went to school in Belmont from uh the Belmont Community Center when it was a Barrett.

I've raised six children.

They've attended eight schools in Belmont.

I have worked at seven different locations in Belmont.

I'm currently a substitute teacher who works at every school district in Belmont.

So I know from the top of Belmont at Skyline to the bottom at O'Donnell Park.

And I just wanted to say this is not the location for any kind of park.

And I also want to say, but this is not a NIMBY, because I have been before you multiple times and the city council, because I was on the Davy Glenn Park Commission.

I was in charge of the emails, I went door to door, I sent out flyers.

So I know I was pro-park because, like Patricia Wharton and our park down here, it's completely different than the isolated cul-de-sac up on Oaknoll Drive.

When I argued for our Davy Glenn, there was parking.

It was visual from the street.

Patricia Wharton, same thing.

There is parking and it's visual from the street.

You're not going to have a lot of crime at Patricia Wharton Park, because I tell you I go by there every night around midnight or 11.

I have six kids, we are all there.

There are so many people in the neighborhoods from the Clarks from the Malfadis.

We are all busy down by Tratricia Wharton and Davy Glenn enough to um justify having a park.

Up on the isolated cul-de-sac of Oaknoll on a very narrow street with absolutely no parking, with when as they were just saying, if there is a delivery truck, if there is an emergency vehicle, if there's construction, if someone's having a party, it is absolute chaos trying to get up there.

We have been up on the cul-de-sac and not been able to get our cars out at times.

So to put somewhere that while you say would not be a driving destination, if it was something that was attractive, people would try and come.

And this is not the place to have a gathering spot.

Again, I am very pro-park.

I was on a park commission, and I know Belmont.

Again, this is not the site.

I invite any of you to go up there and look.

Um, all of the things Ms.

Shear said, I said if I just say your name wrong, I apologize, about the lack of parking, about um danger.

If someone were to park up there now, you're gonna have a car on an area where there's people who should be resting.

So I would agree with our neighbor here.

I think the best thing to do is just to leave it and maybe clean it up at the most, put a bench.

But this is not a place where you would want to have it be a gathering spot.

And as far as being a resting spot, you've walked all the way up the hill.

When you get to the top and you walk around the circle a couple times, that's your rest.

And then you walk on down, making sure that you're not getting hit by a car or delivery truck or something else.

So again, 57 years I've been here, gray city, I've worked all my life here, almost got married here, eight kids, six build buildings.

This is not the place for this.

Thank you.

All right, next we have well.

I don't have the same history as a lot do here, but um I was born in Sequoia, grew up in Sacramento.

I've been back on the hill since '91, built a house up on the hill down the street from a lot of the folks here, and I know they have more of a vested interest.

Um in light of some things that I've seen tonight, and I was a little bit behind the eight ball because I couldn't make the meeting last week.

I was out of state.

You know, maybe this whole thing's a mute point if the city doesn't even have access to developing the property or or suggesting some sort of improvement.

So I had some other comments, but I think I'd like to just leave it at that until we see how this continues.

So thank you.

All right, and then we have Paul.

At this stage.

My first question is the big one.

Does the city own the property?

And if they don't, we shouldn't even be here.

Uh I agree with what has been said.

I worked in the fire department in San Francisco for 30 years was a battalion chief.

And it's a nightmare up there for any any any emergency vehicles.

Uh there's 36 houses from Valley View to the top of the hill.

Anyone who orders FedEx, Prime, whatever, you get those double-wheeled big trucks up there, and they're gonna go around.

They can't back down.

They have to, if they're at the second house, they're coming all the way up to get back out.

So you have a terrific uh traffic safety problem, and without even having emergency vehicles up there.

And there's a lot of people who order all day long up there, and these trucks come up and they go back down.

And uh I just think it's a number one, I think is a safe a safety thing, especially for the children.

When children get in parks, what do they do?

They run, they run around and they chase each other.

Well, that circle is probably right here.

You could take this, and this is the circle.

But out of here, the street.

So you have kids chasing each other, they take two steps, they're in a street.

They're in a street.

It's not there's not enough space up there to support what some people want to put up there.

And I uh the first thing I think about is first of all is the safety of the neighborhood.

Thank you.

All right, that is all for public comment.

Um thank you.

Thank you all for being here.

Thank you for your comments.

Uh, we're gonna start with some commissioner questions with Commissioner Cunha.

Yeah, no, I I also just want to thank everybody for coming out.

We don't get many visitors, so I really appreciate the community being engaged in some of the topics that we have going on.

Um, and it's clear that you all have concerns about safety and access that would also concern us and safety, I think is the city of Belmont's like number one priority.

Um I also, you know, I would also like to get some clarity around the legal ramifications that you guys are mentioning about, you know, what is the status of you know, understanding the legal um of the land, the right of way.

Um, but I also acknowledge the the PROS plan and what we're trying to do here, right?

You know, um equitable access, fostering a sense of community and encouraging social interaction, which are things that open spaces and parks also do.

Um so I can see kind of both sides of the coin, but I I think I just it was great to hear people um tonight, and I look forward to you guys being engaged um further along in the process.

Let me also just jump in really quickly with um one thing before we do any more questions.

Um just to be clear, there's no action that's being taken tonight.

So just want everybody to just want to set expectations there.

There's no motion before you or nobody's ratifying any design or anything like that.

We're just having a conversation.

Thank you.

Let's go down the line with just questions for now, and then we can do comments afterwards.

We'll try to separate the two of them if that works.

Um for me, I appreciate everyone coming here and you know, telling us their um uh concerns.

I think they're extremely valid.

Um, you know, beyond just the delivery trucks, I'd like to know if the garbage trucks have an issue in that area, if um, which I assume there probably is.

Um, and same echoing, you know, the who owns the land and kind of the right of way and the legality of it all.

Um again, echoing again, it's a place of community, it's a place to just kind of meet up and you know, I think those kind of type of places are necessary in a community to foster uh a sense of community and neighborhoodship and neighborliness.

But safety is priority.

Do you have any questions?

Anyone?

Yeah, um, as I recall with a prose plan, we were looking to see um how far the nearest parks were, and there were certain areas where there were distinct gaps.

So what is the nearest park?

Other parks nearby there are College View Park.

Um that one is a similar sort of in a cul-de-sac, a much larger cul-de-sac uh area.

Right?

Not trying to equate the two in that respect, but um and that park was developed before my time.

It has a bigger footprint than what we're discussing here, so it definitely has some other amenities that are would not be feasible in this space.

Um but it did at the time, as I understand it, uh, face um a lot of similar concerns about about parking and usage and and that sort of thing.

And I recall this area, there's no good other like open space or other places.

Oh, that's right, thank you.

There's Patricia Wharton Park that's kind of at a um at an intersection of a couple of roads.

It does not have any kind of play amenity, it just has a bench and some uh landscaping.

And then for this location, I think we're talking mostly is bench is the thinking not so much a place for our very likely big and and again as particularly because of uh of you know some of the the fall zone things.

Anything that would the only things that would work there would be probably less than 18 inches high.

And the whole point of this is a neighborhood, not a destination.

I mean that's explicitly.

That was that was the intent that it would be a neighborhood, and and that's why it's it's hard when you call it a destination because that implies that people are going to be coming from other places to get there.

Um so it is a gathering, it would this effort is intended for it to be a I don't even want to say a gathering spot, a resting spot for um for the people who are already there.

And you know, we did hear from uh from folks um in some of the written comments and at the meeting that there are a lot of people who walk that area and do walk it and walk around the loop and and that sort of thing.

Some of them might like to just take a moment to um catch their breath or take a little rest or have a juice box or something.

Um and so that's that's how this how this got started was to try to address that.

And hypothetically it could just be benches and native plants.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Uh yeah, a couple questions.

One, uh, is there any plan to put a fence around it, something like Samaria, for instance, where there's a just kind of a low fence to protect it because my understanding is that people are parking on it now, right?

Um is there anything that would would be done to stop people from parking on it and you know, damaging whatever is put there?

So uh we did have a lot of discussions about parking and and there are concerns about you know lack of parking in spots other than on the circle, but the need sometimes for there to be parking on that circle for celebrations or um you know contractors or whatever that are coming to those homes.

Um but generally no, we were not intending to put any kind of fence anywhere near the um the design of the Samaria park.

So I'm just thinking about the kids running around and that sort of thing in the fall zone kind of concept, you know, if there was a fence around it, then that would stop cars from going on to it and protect the landscaping, but also keep kids inside from the so we talked about some other ways to maybe do that to um discourage parking in certain spots um and uh that could be done with boulders.

Um and and again, because it is such a small space, um we really wouldn't envision running activities happening there.

And if you had a fence, that might encourage running activities.

If there's no fence, it's probably much more sedate, you know.

Maybe the children are just in the strollers, you know, and if you have older children that would want to do some running, there are other parks in Belmont where you might want to do that.

Got it.

And there's no change to the existing footprint proposed, it's gonna use the the existing size, it's not gonna shrub.

And maybe not even all of maybe not even all of the existing foot, certainly not making it bigger.

We can't because there are you know, we did talk with uh fire and um public works about some of those restrictions, and there are definitely some pitch points where there is where there are a few limited parking spots on the street um and there are driveways, and if somebody parks in any of those places, then um fire and delivery trucks and garbage trucks, whoever mentioned that, that's a really good point.

Gotta check and make sure they need a they need 20 feet of uh width to be able to get around, and we need to make sure that we could maintain that all the way around.

So the actual footprint of any of any improvement that might happen would be smaller than the existing circle to make sure that all of that gets maintained.

So the parking concern is twofold.

It's one it's used as overflow parking whenever there are community events in the neighborhood, and also if anybody did find this attractive enough to travel to it that they would have to park somewhere along the room.

That's right.

That's right.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, apart from first, we need to establish that we can even develop this area.

But assuming that we can, um would the next phase be designing something that people could actually see?

So if it's gonna be benches and where the trees are gonna be, and if there's gonna be a place structure or something being very small to to the next round actually gather feedback on a plan, because I think it's so vague right now, you could be envisioning things that are not even possible for the next round.

Are there plans to assuming we can develop this to show what it would look like if it went forward for feedback next?

The um the next step would be again just to bring all these comments together, see what the spectrum of possibilities might even look like, and then and then show the community some high-level conceptual plans.

Okay, because it could look like Patricia Wharton, it could be benches and trees.

Exactly, exactly.

Um and then uh let me let me say one other thing there.

Um so Patricia Wharton um is a beautiful space.

It feels very um uh landscaped and uh and sort of meticulous.

This space uh that we're looking at right now does not have any irrigation, so uh, and it has trees that we have you know kind of committed would stay there.

So um the type of improvements that might be made there would be would look much different than then the very manicured Patricia Wharton Park.

Thank you for that.

I was actually wondering about the trees and what was actually possible there.

Yeah, um and then if you do have another outreach, are you gonna are the outreaches also gonna be at different times?

Thursday night is a bit uh difficult, I think, for parents and people to get to sometimes.

Will you have outreach events at some other times?

Maybe you do it on a weekend.

Yeah, you could do several, but I mean you might get different populations with different um outreach times.

So Bridget, when we were actually on that board, you are out of order, unfortunately.

Can I get in order somehow?

No.

Sorry.

Sorry.

No.

Sorry.

What I suggest that you do is um is send an email to PR com that's P R C O M M.

I just we're just gonna we're gonna stay we're gonna stay on the agenda right now.

We're gonna stay.

I'm sorry, we're gonna stay on the agenda right now.

Commissioner Lee, if you do have any questions.

Yeah, we're not gonna be able to do that.

We're gonna say please, please, please, please.

Um Bridget, can you remind me when we were working through the pros plan and identifying those uh areas in Belmont that were underserved in this in this sort of way and how this uh spot was identified in terms of equity, it was an equity of access, right?

And was that based in uh like walkability to destinations, not necessarily places that didn't have a uh you know uh more attractive community-wide space.

It was more for like these places that didn't have a park within a certain uh uh circumference or whatever.

I believe it was a five-minute walk that our goal would be in a part of the general plan as a goal so that everybody could be able to walk to something within about five minutes.

And this was one of the bigger areas where we identified like an area where it was clear that this group of people in this part of the community didn't have a place they could walk.

That's right.

Right?

That's how we that's this place was identified, is that correct?

That's correct, yes.

Okay.

That's all I was there.

Youth commissioners, do you have any questions?

Um I kind of had a thought about it.

And like when the residents came up, like my initial thought was you guys raised kids here, so like kind of where did your kids play?

And then how if you guys figured it out, if you guys if your kids played in that area versus if you're gonna hear you.

There you go.

Can you hear me now?

Yes.

These are hypothetical questions, we're not addressing any one individual, yes.

But I was just thinking, like, where did your guys' kids play?

And then if you guys figured it out, and if there wasn't enough of that like gap where there's not parks near you guys, they're all too far away.

If there isn't that equity gap, then if it can be figured out as it is.

Like I I think, of course, like improving it, cleaning it up, maybe adding a bench sounds great.

And then if it seems like maybe we are doing a little bit too much on it.

I don't want to make like no, I can't ask you questions.

But yeah.

And that was just my initial thought.

Yeah.

Um I wanted to say it was great how you guys shared your ideas.

And I actually haven't been to this cold sack, but now I want to go because I want to see what you guys are talking about.

And um, yeah, that's what I want to say.

Do we have any data on the smaller park on Samaria on Patricia Wharton on College View, how many people walk there versus how many people drive there?

Not have any of that data.

Is it do we have a way to collect it?

Is there sense?

We have anecdotal um data, but nothing.

I I won't say anything that's statistically significant.

I'm not comfortable.

Um thank you.

Uh let's do comments now.

Would you all like to start down there?

Commissioner Cunha.

I think I made I think I made some some decent comments.

Um but yeah, I I think we have some things to look into.

You know, I I'll just you know, uh repeat myself.

I'm interested in the city following up with us on the legality and learning about the right of way so that we know even how to proceed with this, but I'm sure our um little committee will do that.

And yeah, I just encourage the community to get involved, and I'm glad you guys are here, and I'm glad we're having these events.

Um we're just trying to make Belmont look better.

I think that's the goal all in all.

So yeah, I am interested in seeing if we can come up with a design that can maybe address some of their worries, like possibly adding a circumference of cement or a pea gravel that cars can go onto and then have a smaller inner space where it's a bench in the middle of the trees with maybe some native plants um that can survive the shade of the trees.

Um but I I again that all depends on the legality and you know, I look forward to like working with the community and hearing out and maybe finding something in the middle that works to beautify Belmont and make them happy too.

Yeah, I'd say my my key key point is that the the whole idea behind putting this into Pros Plan was to try to improve things for parts of the community that didn't have a destination.

So um I'm interested in in in working with the community, and and if in the end the answer is nothing, then the answer is nothing.

Um but um did you know it was clear that this area didn't have any kind of destination and didn't have a spot and you know I live in an area that's very hilly and there's spots I would like to have a bench to sit down on.

So again, this is for is for that community, it's not intended to be a destination for other people.

So we want to work with the the people there to find that what makes the most sense for for the the broader group, both the group here and the people that aren't here that live there.

So look forward to it.

Yeah, I mean I live on one of the uh maybe it's just it doesn't sound like it's quite as narrow as as this street, but I live on a narrow street with no sidewalks and lots of walkers, lots of dogs, um, lots of kids running around.

Um and Samaria is probably the closest park to us, and it's significantly bigger, has a lot more than what is being proposed here.

It has a big, a pretty decent sized play structure, has a couple of tables, it also has uh enough grass that you could actually run around, but it is fenced in.

But even that, you know, it's i it's one of the parks that I visit frequently, and I think maybe once or twice I've seen s a family from that was local come out and have like a birthday party sitting on those tables and having kids in the play structure, but again, none of that stuff is here, and I don't think I've ever seen cars coming to that, and it's more accessible than it sounds like this is.

So um, yeah, I mean I it I think if there's some way to make an improvement without attracting people, attracting more cars, um it it seems like it's something worth uh exploring.

But obviously we have to see we have to see some proposals in order like like you said, we have to we have to actually see something in front of us to have an opinion on it, I think.

Okay.

So I just wanted to thank everyone for coming because it's it's always we read all the emails, so if you have additional comments, I would definitely say email us, we read them.

Um but it's nice to hear people in person and to we can read all the emails, but it's also nice to to hear what you think.

And I will say that I I walk to Oaknoll um with my dog frequently and we get up there and it's beautiful and we were huffing and puffing, and it would be lovely to have a place to pause up there where we don't feel like we're in someone's in front of someone's house or in front of their driveway where we could actually kind of relax and just catch our breath before we head back down.

I don't imagine that this park, I mean there's no way to know, but I don't imagine that it would draw people who aren't already really walking up there, and so it'd just be a place for people to pause and rest and go back down.

I don't I don't think this would be a destination, although I could be wrong.

Um so I think it would be nice to explore this further, assuming that we even can do something and just get a visual on what it might look like, and just so we can talk more about like this design, what do we think, what is the feedback?

Um, because I think it'll be easier to then pinpoint what it is that is really uh the issue and whether or not it's even possible or something that we want.

Yeah, I think there are um well, this is one of the things that I enjoy most about the work that we're doing when we get a chance to hear from all the members of the community that are potentially impacted by changes and proposals that the city puts forward.

Um so I think that's important.

Uh and I think one of the things that we when we're making the decisions, one of the things to think about is like, okay, what's the the uh the appropriate level of improvement in that space that could be made that would actually be potentially better for the people that live right around that space.

And one of the reasons what I what I draw on, and this is uh is the changes that I saw in our neighborhood when you know in the dark days of 2020 when people were forced to go outside and had places to go and uh and interact together.

Uh and without that experience, I wouldn't know the neighbors uh our immediate neighbors in the same way that we do now, and they're a range from 84 years old to three.

Uh so if there's a way that you can uh build a place that feels like it's for those neighbors who live there, uh I would imagine that uh there would be a lot more gathering together outside in a place where you can uh when the weather is uh appropriate and you can spend that time with each other.

Um and that's again sort of impacted our community uh such that we have a neighborhood ski trip where ten families go together to on this trip that we wouldn't have had if we hadn't been required to use that outdoor space together.

Um and especially as I think about like how our neighborhood's going to change as our kids grow up and move on to college and move out of the area.

I still want to have a reason to go interact with my neighbors and not be sitting inside our houses.

So if there's a way that we can do that that feels like it's part of that community space.

And another thing to consider is if parking is so bad, it's gonna be challenging for people to want to go there and try to park and go use that space.

There it seems like that might be one of the results is that no one wants to drive up there and park anyway.

I imagine it's hard for you guys to have even neighbors and friends over who don't live in the community.

So that's not necessarily gonna encourage people to come from out of the area.

So I think there's a way to get to a place where it feels like it's the right spot for the people that are gonna use it most, which was the intention of this whole discussion in the first place.

Um I was at the community event last week, and I really did appreciate hearing everyone's opinions.

Um and I loved hearing everyone voice their opinion tonight as well.

Um it seemed like last week at the community event, I tallied 30 to 40 people, and it did seem like about a 50-50 split.

Um it did seem like a lot more people with young families were in favor of the park uh or of any idea of what it could be.

It seemed like people, residents who lived within the Cul-de-sac, those nine houses, were vehemently against it.

Um I don't want this to seem like this is some kind of big government pushing their ideas upon the citizens here.

We are here.

We are listening to you.

Our emails are on the city website.

If you would like to contact us, we we are here to listen to you.

Um I I I thank you very much for everyone who came here and voiced their opinion.

Um and I will say that if there are dissenting opinions that I would love to hear those at some point.

If there are people who are for this park in the community, I would love to hear that because tonight we held we heard from community members, and it was fabulous, who were mostly against this idea.

And so if there are people who are for the idea, let's hear it.

Okay, moving on.

City of Belmont Centennial Celebration.

Am I doing it?

I can click.

Okay, so we've been uh meeting in our committee, and we have some new updates and more fun stuff to share with you guys.

Um so we have a good chunk of our happy hydrants that have been painted.

Um so these are just some updated pictures of them.

Uh we have announced it before, but the applications are now gonna be rolling ongoing, so anyone can apply at any time.

Um, it is on the website.

We also um have copies in our office if you need it that way.

Um, but there's no deadlines for that anymore.

Same with the uh utility box.

We still have not found our artists for that yet.

So um again, that's on our website if you're interested in applying for that.

We have our Centennial Stories podcast.

We actually just uploaded a couple new episodes yesterday.

Um it is currently on Spotify.

We're trying to find a correct format to put it on um YouTube where it will be entertaining, and you're not just staring at a black screen and listening to words.

So we're trying to figure that out, but right now it is on Spotify and it's linked on our website, so you can find it there.

Then we have a couple different swag options.

So we've talked about it before.

There is the swag shop.

Um, and this is through a third party where they just kind of put our logo on a bunch of different stuff.

Um, and you can go through that.

There's cups, bags, hats, everything like that.

Um, but now we are officially selling these t-shirts and hats.

Um we have them in our parks and recreation office, so you can stop by um and buy it there.

We only accept card or apple pay, um, no cash, and we will also be selling them at all of our big community events.

So the first one will be on Saturday at Egg Hunt.

Um the shirts are $25 and the hats are 15.

And then this QR code links straight to the online swag shop.

So if anyone was interested in browsing that, it's also again on the webpage if you wanted to look there.

And then you probably saw it when you walked in tonight.

There is the model down in City Hall of the Belmont School for Boys, and there's a little blurb there that goes over everything.

And then officially our big centennial fest will be on Saturday, October 24th.

Um, all the details aren't nailed down yet, but we have a general idea um parade and then leading to a big event here, and then potentially a drone show afterwards.

We'll see how that goes.

Um, but there will be a big celebration here in the afternoon of that day.

We'll have food trucks, we'll have local vendors, music, stuff like that.

So it'll just be a big birthday party for Belmont.

And I kept mentioning it.

This is the web page Belmont.gov slash 100 years.

Everything is linked there.

Um there's more stuff on the page down below for different ways that you can get involved with our hundred gatherings if you want to sponsor anything like that.

You can also, there's also an email to Centennial at Belmont.gov if you have questions or want to reach out to us as well.

And then our upcoming stuff, like I mentioned, we'll be doing outreach at a bunch of our different um big city events where we'll also be selling the swag.

Um we have the hundred celebrations.

So this is just a way like if you are planning a party with your friends, a blog party, something like that.

Um, it doesn't have to be centennial specific, but if you are hosting some sort of celebration, you can let us know.

And we have some little swag that you can have at your party.

There's um napkins and cups and little stickers.

So, and then we want to see that.

So if you send us pictures, we'll add that to our celebrations for the year.

Um, and like I say, it doesn't have to be centennial related, but we would love to give you some swag that you can share at the party.

Um, we will be having a history talk at the senior center with the gentleman that did the model that's down in this uh the lobby there.

It's on May 7th at 10:30.

Um it'll be very interesting.

Um, and then there is going to be a history display at the San Mateo County Museum.

I don't, that's not up at the moment.

Not yet.

No.

Um, and then we will also be doing a history walking tour at later in the year.

That's all I have with that.

Any uh speaker slips?

No.

All right.

We still have one public comment waiting at the end.

Yeah, got it.

Uh thanks.

Uh Commissioner Lee, let's do questions and comments together.

Uh I love the swag.

I'm excited that you are selling optional designs in the park and rec's office.

I know I've been a broken record on this.

Any idea any chance we can get patches that we might be able to take and put on, say a hat that we wanted to buy on our own or something else, or just collect in general.

I think we were kind of waiting to see how this first kind of batch sells if people were really interested, then we'll open up to more stuff, but we didn't want to buy a lot if no one no one wanted it.

So the swag shop, so the online swag shop though does have you can choose from all kinds of items and get the logo.

I just love the logo.

It's awesome.

That's cool.

Like on a girl, yeah.

Um no questions or comments, although I feel like you missed an opportunity because it's April Fool's.

You could have been like, and Belmont found a million dollars for us to do our celebration.

No, did you did you see social media today?

Uh-uh.

Well, we had it for the video.

We joked that we were selling uh centennial wood chips.

Yeah.

Actually, those five.

So no questions.

I got patches, but also stickers, things like that, you know, that you can customize other things like water bottles and stuff like that would be nice.

I I did go place in order, I think I mentioned you.

I finally did find the link and uh and ordered something, so I'm looking forward to that.

Um I love the podcast.

I listened to the first episode with Carl Middlestaad, um, which I thought was fantastic.

I'm looking forward to um to hearing more of them.

But I will say that it's not technically a podcast.

And so like I listen to podcasts when I walk my dog, and you know, the you you always hear wherever you get your podcasts, you can't get this any of those places.

It's only in the only in the sort of the closed platform like uh Spotify, which I don't use because I'm an old man, apparently.

But uh uh yes, if we could make it an actual podcast so that other podcast catchers could listen to it, it would automatically download and then I would have it on my walk.

But uh I had to jump through hoops to to actually get this one.

But I loved it.

It was a great episode, and I'm looking forward to hearing the others.

Um yeah, that's it.

Um I'm really excited about all this.

Um I think it's great.

And I I'd love to if we could do um because we find out about people doing celebrations, if we could share like some of the ones that are that are planned if they're open.

Or if they aren't open that they were done, just so we can kind of get a count like how we're getting towards our 100 and where there are gaps where we might want to encourage a neighborhood to do something because something isn't organized.

Um this is and then I really um and if we could get some stickers, that would be good.

That's great to do.

We do actually have stickers in our office.

We're just not selling them, but if you guys want some, I can bring them next time.

Good.

The problem solved.

Thank you.

Um I have two, I guess, things.

It's October.

I think it's also I don't know if we have ghost stories in Belmont, but historical ghost tour would be pretty cool.

Um I think that would be pretty fun, especially with the time of the season.

Um the other thing is for the hundred celebrations.

Is there a Belmont community cookbook or has there ever been one?

And if so, it might be nice to maybe create a little packet on like how to host a celebration, maybe a couple like vintage recipes from the cookbook um to include in there uh just to kind of get people thinking about what they can do, or some maybe concepts and ideas.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

We're meeting in a couple weeks, so I'll bring it to them.

Yeah, no questions.

I think that's a that's a great idea.

Um I guess I do have a question.

Drone show?

I recall like being like, oh, our neighbor's city of San Carlos, they were so fancy, they had a drone show.

We're Belmont, we're not gonna have a drone show.

Talk to Aption.

Um so we're looking for um some more significant sponsors to help us make that a reality.

But uh but yeah, there's a dream.

Okay.

There's a dream to have it.

For the drones.

Dreams for the drones.

Okay.

I like it.

No, thanks.

Thanks, Dan Marie.

Um, really no comments.

It looks like it's gonna be a lot of fun, and I'm excited to see what happens.

Um I had a couple of questions.

So, how's the happy hydrant program?

Like, how's it how are people getting to know about it?

Because I didn't know until Commissioner Emkin like um came as like the first the scientist thing at my school, like told us about it.

That's like the only reason I knew.

Yeah, I mean, we bring it up here at the meetings, also on um our parks and rec social media, City Social Media, it's on the website, all of our newsletters.

We also have um flyers at all of our bulletin boards around the city.

Um but if it's not reaching the right channels, we can always look at some other ways to spread the word as well.

Yeah.

Um I also have another question.

So I heard the celebrate the music festival is like gonna be at a school like is it gonna be a Ralston?

Um why did you change to Ralston?

That was uh oh, school for go for it.

No, yeah, I thought you were gonna answer.

Um yeah, it's just a decision by I don't want to speak for school force, but um it was a decision by school force to do it on school campus because it saves money.

So all more money.

Yeah, it's not having to charge entry for it.

So yeah.

Thank you.

Um I'm gonna ask a question on behalf of my good friend Terry Cook.

Uh parade.

Yes.

What are we thinking?

October 24th.

The parade's gonna happen on that day.

The greatest parade is happening.

It's coming to there will be no large animals in the parade.

You've um set expectations with the uh, I guess there was an elephant in 1976.

You should tell us that story because yeah, it was fascinating.

There was an elephant.

There was an elephant as I understand it.

So there will not be an elephant.

Well, Marine World was still around this.

So no current plans for large mammals.

No current plans for large mammals.

Only small dogs, that's all.

And uh with the drone show, is it one of those ones that would light up at night?

Is it a night time?

Yes, yeah.

That's the vision.

So we are talking with a potential vendor uh to see whether we can write size expectations and funding together.

Do we know the proposed route of the potential parade?

Are we not ready to reveal that?

We're not ready to reveal that, but police PD is working on it.

Okay.

Oh, the general idea for the event is parade leading to Twin Pines event happen and then drone show immediately after.

So it's kind of like an afternoon into evening thing, all it so we keep everyone here and keep it.

But the drones you could see from several miles away, too.

So you might be able to see it from your rooftop.

Um, and then would the idea be that Saturday is the celebration, then the following Wednesday, the boobash?

Yeah.

They're gonna remain separate.

And Parks and Rec is ready for that.

Yeah.

October's gonna be a big one.

Wow, that is ask me later.

All right.

So the the celebration uh on October 24th is a city event that is, you know, there's a whole committee, cross-departmental uh committee that's working on that.

And same thing with Boobash, frankly.

That's um, it's a city event.

Parks and rec has the trunk or treat piece, but all the other stuff, the haunted house and all that is city.

Okay, anything else?

All right, department updates.

Okay.

Uh couple weekends ago, we had the child care fair at the senior center.

Um, so a bunch of local like preschools and other child care related um businesses came by and had their booths.

It was a great turnout.

I think this was the second or third year.

Um, yeah, so it was really fun, and they're already looking forward to next year and how to improve uh improve everything and go from there.

We had our trail maintenance uh event up in the open space.

We had a great turnout.

Uh it was a very warm day.

Um, but this group here was happy, they did a lot of great work.

You might be able to speak more on what they did, but yeah.

Yeah, I'll just jump in really quickly.

So this was a um an idea that we were trying to work on in 2020 before COVID hit um was to collaborate with a group called Trail Trail Center.org.

Um they're out of Palo Alto, and it's a volunteer organization that does um trail construction, maintenance, rehabilitation at all kinds of parks and open spaces throughout the peninsula.

So they have um you know, their volunteers are all trained, they've got all the tools and the know-how, and we have been trying to get them into Water Dog um to help us out since 2020.

Um we know we have a lot of areas that need some attention, and um, so we were very excited when they uh were able to put us on their schedule to work um up at Water Dog, and so we fixed a section, a really good section of uh the Rambler Trail off of Cherburn on the west side of Water Dog Lake, and um and so they brought in all their equipment and worked for a full day and made a huge difference.

And we did have two of our parked maintenance workers uh out there as well.

They have an interest in in uh um open space trail maintenance and management, so it's a good opportunity for these everybody to learn from each other, and we are hoping to have more of these kinds of events.

Um whenever we do these events, we will um encourage other folks from the Belmont community to participate as well.

So we're not just relying on Trail Center to do the work here in Belmont.

We're hoping that community members will collaborate with Trail Center.

Um last Friday, BCLC had their spring fling as like a little spring carnival.

Um the bubble guy was the main attraction, very popular there.

Um but we also had coloring, uh face painting, they did some little planting as well and played different games, but bubble guy was it.

If anyone's looking for partying things, that very popular.

Uh and then the following day we had our teen wellness retreat at the uh senior community center over in San Carlos.

Um it was a great turnout.

There was over a hundred youth that attended, um, and another, I want to say 30 um adults that attended the adult workshop.

Um so it was a great day.

Uh they got to go through different um workshops, some were hands-on, some were them talking, some just reflecting.

There was also a big resource fair in the middle of a day where children got to go up to the different tables and learn about different resources that are available to them in the community.

And they got to take home a cool bag of swag.

This was the third year.

And then next year it will be back in Belmont.

Summer registration opens on Friday.

Our new activity guide is out.

We have copies in the office.

But if you live in Belmont, you should have gotten one in the mail.

It is also on our website.

Registration for most things open at midnight.

And that's both in person and online.

And then some upcoming stuff.

The adaptive egg venture hunt is this Friday.

It is officially sold out.

We even have a little wait list for that.

The hunt begins right at 4 30, but we suggest people come at four.

The Easter bunny will be there and we'll have some games and stuff like that.

And then on Saturday is the traditional egg hunt, begins at 10 a.m.

sharp.

So again, arrive early.

We will have uh vendors there as well as the bunny, and there will be a photo booth.

And then on April 12th is our wedding fair in the park.

So all the different facilities will be set up and we'll have vendors in the senior center, so you can um meet with different vendors, tour the park, get ideas for the big day.

And then Barrett Open House is the following Saturday on April 18th.

So this will be uh the preschool, and then all of our partners there kind of showing off their facilities and what they have to offer to the community.

And then our second annual youth spelling bee will be on April 25th at Barrett.

Uh registration is required for this, and it is broken up into different age groups based on grades.

Um not full yet, so there's still time to sign up for that.

And it's a blast.

They need spelling B.

It's a it's a guess.

And Patrick said that he's making the words harder this year.

So get ready.

Uh any public comments or questions.

Uh we do have one hand rate.

Oh, that's right.

Oh, is this about the department updates?

Or is this the person from earlier?

Then let's let's do questions and comments from us first, and then we'll move on to that afterwards.

Commissioner Cunha.

No questions.

Um really excited about all the upcoming events.

Uh, specifically the egg adventure hunt.

That's always um a great event in Belmont.

I attended San Bruno's last weekend and found out that they hide a thousand eggs per age group.

Oh, and that really has nothing on Belmont.

Um, I think we get up to like over 20K, right?

Yes, we'll have 20,000 on Saturday and 2,000 on Friday.

And the lesson learned watching them last weekend was parents need to let kids do it themselves.

Um, because even with the reminder for parents to stay behind the line, they did not.

So this is if anyone's listening in Belmont, let your kids get the eggs.

Um questions, but for the trail maintenance, I think the local Cub Scouts would actually be really interested in joining on in on that.

Um I don't think maybe the pack leaders knew about it, but for future ones, it might be so uh we might have to do something special that's that's you know age-friendly.

This one was uh 18 18 and up because they were using some pretty big tools and heavy tools and stuff like that.

But yeah, okay.

Yeah.

Well, there are a whole bunch of water dog trails that that needed there's some that is slipped down.

Do those all get fixed, or do we still have some that need one section at a time?

Um I'm I'm impatient.

Yeah, I know.

Um one section at a time.

Um, and honestly, access is uh is a real challenge to be able to, you know, we want to be able to have people work efficiently rather than having to travel long distance with equipment.

So this was a really good first effort.

Um Trail Center was very pleased with the work, and um, and so I fully expect that this will be something that'll be coming up on a more regular basis.

And in um happy hydrants, hopefully we can get the one fixed up in front of Carlmont.

It is vertical again.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, so um, so we had one that was almost finished and then it got knocked over, but it's it's upright again and um still looks still looks good.

And then you know, Ladera's actually doing an egg hunt for some silly reason.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, but theirs starts at 10:30.

Oh, double dipping.

I got it.

There starts at 10:30, and just to be very clear, in addition to parents let your children find the eggs.

Do not be late for the Belmont um egg adventure hunt.

So um it will be over by 10.03.

Um, but then we have a great resource fair in the in the parking lot.

But if you feel the need to get more eggs, you know.

Head on up to Carmont.

Yeah, I'll just emphasize that uh the point that Commissioner Cunha made.

Uh when my daughter was young, not here in Belmont, but uh yeah, a parent cut us off.

I was trying to straddle her to get it pointer towards an egg so she could actually grab it, and another parent came in and bumped her out of the way to get the egg, and it and she never wanted to do those things again because she was scared of the big parents coming in.

So yeah, let's let the kids do it.

It's it's more fun that way.

Is that parent up here right now?

No, no, it wasn't it was not in Belmont.

Not me.

Um I just have one question.

I uh you may have said this and I wasn't paying attention for the trail maintenance.

How many people attended?

Uh I think they were 21, something like that.

21, 22, something like that.

How many of those were then the trail the trail people and how most of those were trail people?

Okay, so yeah, how many Belmont residents?

I don't know because we didn't actually capture that information.

Um we wanted to do the easiest possible sign up.

Um and so people just put in an email address and and showed up.

So okay.

So the we don't necessarily know the volunteers if they were from Belmont or what part of the community they represented.

No.

Okay.

I think uh from the from the feedback that I got from the Charles Center, most of them were Trail Center uh volunteers that go with Trail Center to all sorts of different locations.

But that's fine.

That's great.

No, it's great, it's awesome.

I just had another question that's not relevant anymore.

Okay.

So thank you to the Trail Center people for thank you, Trails for us.

And hopefully next time we have more of our people come and show up.

Youth Commissioners.

Kind of on the same note.

Um, how do you guys hide 20,000 eggs?

Uh they're not very hidden.

Yeah, our uh voices and yak, they just kind of throw them out.

They're not really hitting it.

If you see pictures and stuff, it's just on the grass there.

So trying to make it as easy as possible for people to just grab what they can.

And sometimes they put out more, and so some people follow the Yeah, yeah.

Sometimes we like keep leftovers and people will figure out our secrets.

People know, people know.

Well, yeah, sounds really fun.

I'm looking forward to attending.

Great.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to be there, but um I know it would be great because I remember when I was young, I used to go all the time, and it was really fun.

Yeah, great.

Thank you.

Um Mr.

Mercury, is he still on there?

Yes.

Thank you so much for waiting.

Juliano, you'll have three minutes.

Hey guys, apologies for that.

The uh instructions on the agenda and the city website are still broken for how to get on via Zoom.

So my apologies for taking a while to show up.

Um y'all are also the uh bike and bed committee commission.

And uh you're used to me whining at y'all about uh things that are not so good.

Uh I'm calling tonight to tell y'all that uh we're doing something fantastic, or we're working on something fantastic.

Public works at the last city council meeting.

Described what the current proposal for the Ralston segment for phase four work is.

That's Alameda up to Christian.

Um there are others, but two of the alternatives are amazing.

Uh one of them is what's called a class four bike lane on each side of Ralston.

Basically, uh it's got the flex posts and you know the protected uh cycling from uh separated from the traffic.

Another one was is what's called a uh a shared youth class one uh path.

That's kind of like uh the parts of uh stuff leading up to the Belmont uh pedestrian bike bridge to the sports complex.

Both are great.

I really like the uh both sides of the street uh shared youth path share no both sides of the street protected uh paths because not only is it good for cyclists, there's a group in Belmont that has really concerned about the kids going to school and has been pushing on move on and other places to get protection for the sidewalk so the kids can get to school safely.

Guess what?

If you got a protected cycle lane, it protects the kids on the sidewalk too.

So this is amazing.

Kudos to everybody at Public Works.

Uh thank you to the city.

Thank you.

Uh questions, comments?

Commissioner.

Nothing more for me.

I'll just say, since we mentioned it, celebrate the music is Sunday, April 26th.

It's at Ralston this year, and it is free.

So come and watch all the kids sing and perform.

It's lots of fun.

Just say I want to appreciate Giuliano, who sends all of us email pretty regularly about these topics.

And uh, you know, we always ask for more community involvement, and I appreciate his dedication to uh to that cause.

I was gonna add one thing.

Also, thanks to Giuliano, because we don't often hear the positive uh news or feedback.

Uh so I would sincerely appreciate him taking the time to sit around and wait, and then to also just tell us something that we're doing well as a city.

So that's really appreciated.

100%, yeah.

And I'll I'll say thanks to Giuliano as well, and also add that uh he is correct as a walker.

He knows that I don't bike.

Um I the bike lanes make me feel much safer if I'm walking next to a bike lane.

I feel much more separated from the cars and protected, so bike lanes also protect walkers, and we appreciate them.

I would say maybe an agenda item for a future uh meeting would be I I've ridden my bike a couple of times to work this week, and uh they the the protected bike lanes accumulate a bunch of stuff uh in them, you know, leaves and acorns and little things that are bad for tires, and because I guess maybe the sweep can't get in there, it all gets pushed into the bike lane and it makes it you know it's protected, but then then there's all the stuff, you know, and so uh it would be great if we could come up with a plan to make sure that it uh it's taken care of in like today.

There were all the garbage and recycling bins, we're all in the bike lane blocking the entire thing, forcing bicyclists out into the street with traffic, which you know during during the morning and afternoon hours is is is tough.

So uh it's great that we're making progress there, but hopefully we can also make some more.

That's it.

Um I want to thank Giuliano for staying and giving positive feedback.

It is delightful to get positive feedback.

And I also want to thank all of the people that came earlier to give feedback around Oak Knoll in the end.

We're trying to do something for that neighborhood, and it's great to hear what uh ideas about uh what they're looking for.

Um again, thank Giuliano.

I personally have seen bikes get hit by cars on Ralston, and it's also one of the reasons why I don't let my daughter walk home from school is because Ralston scares me.

So having a little protection there is something that I'm looking forward to.

I'm just gonna jump in really quickly.

Um that was not an item that was on the agenda, so we probably should not be discussing and even making comments.

Okay, so nothing from me.

No comment.

Oh, no comments, questions.

Uh well, I I'd be remiss if I didn't say Director Sheer, it's been really wonderful uh serving on this commission under you.

And um thank you so much for your work for the city over the years, and we hope that you are not a stranger in the future, and we hope to see you at many city events.

Uh maybe you'll be the Easter bunny, maybe you'll be Santa, who knows?

Uh my husband, God bless him, has been Santa and Easter Bunny.

One of my kids has been the Easter bunny, but I have avoided that hot costume so far.

So far.

So far.

So far.

Uh thank you.

Heartfelt thank you.

Your presence will be missed.

Thank you.

It has been an honor.

Um and such a pleasure to work for the city of Belmont and the community as such an engaged community and a passionate community as we saw tonight.

Um that's what makes this work fun.

And um the highlights are those three minutes when the kids are getting the eggs and um talking with the seniors and interviewing podcasts.

I mean, this job is such a wonderful gift.

Um, and it has been just a joy to work with the whole Belmont community.

So thank you all.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

All right, with that, join the meeting.

All right.