Welcome everybody to the October 16th special session of the City Council.

This evening we'll be receiving a presentation where council and the public can provide feedback on updates to the senior farm worker housing proposal at 555 Kelly Avenue for Mercy Housing, which we're made in response to project input from the public city council and direct staff on next steps.

So this meeting is a little bit different, special session.

So comments today will all be on just 5-5 Kelly.

In other words, normally we open a meeting, public forum.

People can speak on any other topic of interest that are not agendized.

But tonight's special session, there's not that kind of public forum.

So what you'll see this even what we'll have this evening is a presentation from Mercy Housing.

And then City Council members will have an opportunity to ask clarifying questions about what they've heard from the presentation.

After clarifying questions, then we have public comment, both from people who are in the room and are attending virtually.

And I'll try and go back and forth between people who are virtual and in the room.

Staff is going to one of our council members is attending remotely, and staff will explain that.

Thank you, Mayor, and Council.

Yes, that's correct.

Vice Mayor Ruddick is not able to attend tonight due to illness.

And the Vice Mayor notified us that she'll be attending remotely for just cause due to this issue.

Um I've confirmed that she may do so under the Just Cause provisions of the Brown Act.

Um that's AB 2302, provided that a quorum of the council attends in person, which you are, and that the vice mayor attends via audio and visual technology, and we have just confirmed fortunately that uh that the audio and visual is working.

Um in addition, council members uh may only use just cause provisions two times a year per per year, um, given that uh this is the first time that vice mayor has used um uh the just cause uh provisions to attend remotely.

Uh Vice Mayor Reddock may attend um remotely for this meeting.

Um I do want to just do some confirming things.

Um Vice Mayor Ruddick, can you please let us know if there's anyone 18 years of age or older in the room with you and your relationship with them?

There is not.

No one is in the room with me at all.

Oh, let's make sure she can.

I think she's trying to respond to the question and we're having an audio issue.

Yeah, I've turned off mute.

Yeah, we can hear you, B.

Are you?

You're not on mute, right?

No.

Okay.

So you can hear us, but we can't hear you yet.

I can hear the question.

Can you hear me now?

Yeah, not yet.

I have my audio all the way up.

You should be able to hear me.

Yeah.

Debbie, can you try speaking again?

Can you hear me now?

Um it's very faint, so we'll still work on that because we'll need to fix this for the other people.

Yeah.

So we in the corner are plugged into the audio through Zoom, and we can hear uh Vice Mayor's response.

And she says she there's nobody in the room with her.

So we can hear her.

She can hear you just fine.

It's just that it's not coming over the system here.

Thank you.

And is the volume you're hearing good?

Okay.

Okay, we can hear her clearly Zoom.

Debbie, can you speak one more time?

Can you hear me now?

Great.

Thanks, Debbie.

Can you hear me now?

Uh that's terrific.

Um, and Debbie, can you just confirm that you can see the council chambers and hear everything up until now?

Yes, I can see the council chambers.

I can see the council dais, and I can hear everything.

Terrific, great news.

Um, well, um that concludes this this item.

Um, I do recommend that any vote tonight be by roll call due to having one council member um remote.

Um, and with that, actually, you should go ahead and do a roll call.

Great.

Let's have a roll call, please.

Councilmember Johnson.

Here.

Councilmember Nagengast here.

Councilmember Penrose?

Here.

Vice Mayor Reddick here.

Mayor Brownstone.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Thank you.

Okay.

Um, actually, we'll have our presentation now.

And um, and then we'll have uh cloud finding questions, and then we'll talk about how we'll conduct our um comments.

If you're in the room and you're going to make a comment, please fill out a card.

And um, are we handing them in here or here?

We're handing the cards, okay.

And you can if you if you fill out a card because you want to speak, can just bring it up to the dais at the end there and put it in.

We have a nice uh wooden trade.

Great.

Okay, so um let's welcome uh Mercy Housing.

Mr.

Mayor, I'm gonna give a few a little bit of background and introductory.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um, thank you, Council.

Um, Matthew Chittister, your city manager.

Um, I just want to give a little bit of background on the project.

It's been quite a while since we've been here to talk about it.

Um, I'm guessing most people in the room and watching have the history, so I will move through that as quickly as I can, and then we'll turn the time over to Mercy Housing for their presentation.

Um 555 Kelly is the residential host to the south of us, I have lost audio.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, perfect.

All right, um, the city purchased it in 2017 on the open market because the city owns the entire strip of land on this side of this complex, and at the time it made sense for the city to uh do what's called a land bank, which is where you purchase property without a necessary purpose, but you you believe that there will be a future purpose.

When we're talking about 555 Kelly tonight, we're gonna be talking about both the home and the land that it's on, as well as the two parking lots to the south of the Ted Agcock Community Center as well.

That is the project site that will be described as 555 Kelly tonight.

Uh in 2021, November of 2021, the city council during a study session on affordable housing identified 555 Kelly as a priority housing opportunity site, actually as the priority housing opportunity site, and under that direction in February of 2022, the city issued a request for qualifications to solicit proposals for affordable housing on that site.

In May, we received one proposal uh from Mercy Housing in partnership with Alas, and uh that proposal was for a four-story 40-unit building for senior and retired farm workers.

Um, which would be owned and managed by Mercy and a farm worker resource center managed by all of us.

In summer of 2022, the council uh approved that response and approved an exclusive negotiating agreement and loan agreements with Mercy.

From fall to spring of 2022, there were lots of updates to council, additional funding agreements, and um the applicants led community outreach and feedback meetings as they refined the design from what had been submitted in the proposal.

In June of 2023.

Uh the architectural advisory committee met for the first time to review the plans and provide feedback.

And at that hearing, the plans for a five-story building on that site, still 40 units and serving the same population, was presented.

In March of 2024, a second architectural advisory committee was held looking at refined plans that were revised based on feedback from the Architectural Advisory Committee's previous meeting.

And from April to May of 2024, the planning commission held several hearings for the coastal development permit, and ultimately the project was approved with some modifications.

That approval was appealed, and in June of 2024, the city council held uh an appeal hearing and ultimately denied the appeals, meaning they upheld the project approval, and an ad hoc committee of the council was created at that meeting as well to uh negotiate the agreements so it would be necessary to move the project forward from that time until today, about 15 months, the ad hoc committee and the council have met several times in closed session, as well as the ad hoc committee and staff meeting with Mercy and ALOS to discuss a variety of items that would make up the deal points for the agreements that would be necessary to move this project forward because it's city-owned property, and that would include a lease and a disposition agreement.

And so tonight uh with the council and here publicly, um, all uh Mercy is going to share what's been discussed and what they've proposed through those ad hoc meetings, and um the council have a chance to ask questions and deliberate and discuss uh what they see tonight, and if there was a majority consensus reached by council, the next step would be to take those lease terms and draft a lease and disposition agreement, which would then be returned to the council for further discussion and consideration in the future.

And with that, I'd love to turn turn the time over to Mercy Housing to share uh these deal points that have been discussed over the last year.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, thank you, and good evening.

Um, my name is Kelly Hollywood.

I am with Mercy Housing.

Um, thank you, Mayor and Council members for inviting us here tonight, um, and for your time for this valuable discussion.

Um we appreciate your thoughtful consideration and devotion to 555 Kelly over the past year that we have been working together.

Um, since April, a form of the ad hoc committee, including city staff, Mayor Brownstone, and Councilmember Penrose, along with Mercy Housing, have been engaged in thoughtful exchange to refine key aspects of the development, which were raised through community feedback.

Tonight's presentation provides highlights of that progress.

Looking ahead, um, the next steps and consensus will be to draft the ground lease agreement, affordable housing disposition agreement, and these documents are critical as they will succeed the current ENA that's expiring early next year and allow us as developer to move forward with the project financing plans, including our application for low-income housing tax credits in mid-2026.

Thank you.

So we're gonna start with talking about um the senior farm workers that will be housed at 555 Kelly.

To be eligible to live at 555 Kelly, the head of household must be at least 55 years of age and a current retired agriculture worker.

This is aligned with what was approved as part of the coastal development permit and conditions of approval.

And further, this farm worker household eligibility meets the state criteria, which is outlined in the CERNA grant program, which we recently got $13.5 million dollars committed to the project.

Each household will must include at least one resident.

As I said, that's 55 or years or older.

Other members may be 45 years or older, or a spouse or caregiver providing primary support for the head of household.

Children under 18 are only permitted when disabled and dependent on the senior.

Across Mercy port Mercy's portfolio of around 3,400 senior units statewide, only five children currently reside on site in those senior units.

Next slide, please.

So on top of the age requirements and the preferences for farm workers, we have worked extremely diligently and have realized it's extremely important to all parties that this housing remain available for current or retired agriculture workers from this community.

Mercy and the ad hoc committee have developed this preference order and application process to maintain that.

So how this will work, and it's outlined here in the steps, but Mercy Housing will solicit an application for eligible households, they will administer a lottery, those applicants are then sorted according to these local preferences.

And the first preference would be first to senior farm workers who live or work within Half Moon Bay, second to senior farm workers who live or work along the coastside, residing between Pacifica and Pascadero, and then third to senior farm workers who live or work anywhere in San Mateo County.

So how this will work is Mercy will screen the applicants in order of preference and income restrictions.

First preference will be offered to the first units, and those are the current or retired agriculture workers who live or reside in Half Moon Bay.

Once after all the first preference applicants are exhausted, Mercy would screen additional income eligible applicants in the second preference.

If there are any remaining vacant units after that, it would move along to the third.

Okay, so this chart is outlining as part of the conditions of approval, we were asked to take a holistic look at the building's total occupancy.

We've done extensive analysis to evaluate the feasibility of the unit mix along with state and local occupancy standards.

The unit mix we're presenting tonight and up here reflects that work.

It meets the conditions of approval while maintaining financial feasibility.

So 555 Kelly will be 40 apartment homes, all permanently affordable, 39 units will be income restricted to extremely low and low-income seniors, and the 40th unit will be available for on-site property manager.

That mix is three studios, 34 one bedrooms, and three two bedrooms.

Through the planning commission hearings that were outlined previous earlier, we propose an adjustment of replacing six two-bedroom units with six one-bedroom units.

This mixture ensures services to the intended population while remaining financially feasible and competitive for state funding opportunities.

The one-bedroom units will focus on aging and place while two bedroom.

I've lost the audio.

Okay, so through the planning commission hearings, we proposed an adjustment of replacing six two-bedroom units with six one-bedroom units.

This mix ensures services to the intended population while remaining financially feasible and competitive for state funding.

Our one-bedroom units will focus primarily on those individuals aging in place, while the two bedroom units serve couples and caregivers assisting the head of households.

This configuration improves financial feasibility, stability for balancing rent revenue, and costs ongoing.

Through our analysis, we were able to adjust the occupancy numbers so that the total occupancy increased by only four residents to the original proposal.

The occupancy limits are outlined on the slide here, with two persons per studio, two persons per one bedroom, and four persons per two-bedroom.

This equates to a maximum of 86 residents within the building, which accounts for the building's design and the parking capacity.

This is compared to 82 occupants, which is originally outlined in the original RFP.

This is your uh this is a ground floor plan of the development.

Um this ground floor plan includes uh parking spaces, back of house equipment and service spaces, trash room, broiler room, electrical room, all those kind of things that you need to service a building, along with Mercy's housing on-site property management offices, which supports our daily operations, leasing and resident management team.

Mercy's offices include manager's office, conference room, copy room, and really just account for the staff that will be working on site as part of from Mercy.

Next slide, please.

As a result of our conversations with the ad hoc committee, we developed a more flexible plan for the ground floor to better support the broader community needs.

Part of that is reflected in the space previously planned as the farm worker resource center, approximately 2,600 square feet, which is shown on the screen here.

This space will now be dedicated as a community resource center to serving two main functions.

The first main function will be dedicated offices and spaces for residential social services, including health management, wellness programs, which will be provided by ALOS, working with community agencies such as Stanford and the county.

This is shown on blue and accounts for about 22% of the total square footage of the community resource center.

The additional space shown in orange or rather it looks pink on the screen, but is around 78% of the space and includes multi-purpose community space, a kitchen, and other supporting spaces that will be available to the wider public by reservation.

The multi-purpose space will be designated to be reserved by various community groups for up to 16 hours a week or two full days or four half days a week.

We're imagining we've heard concern, you know, groups interested, such as the Girl Scouts, hosting speaker events, book clubs, and faith and community groups, all will be welcome to use this community use space.

We would collaborate on an appropriate reservation system and an affordable use fee with the city.

We are extremely excited about this opportunity to bring and address this need to the community space to this part of town and open this center to the community, the broader community.

In order to bring this shared space to reality, the center is funded entirely by a federal appropriations appropriation that's secured by former Congresswoman Anna Essue for the build out of the community space provided to ALUS.

ALUS has agreed to use that federal funding to build out this center, including the social services and multi-purpose community space and will not need additional resources.

Okay, so now we are looking at our current building design, which is on the bottom right corner, and the original response to the city RFQ back in 2020.

During the Planning Commission hearings and subsequent discussions after, there was understanding about the concerns of the overall building height.

So these the next couple sides are going to walk us through that.

At the time of the RFQ, the total building height was at 49.5 feet, which you can see indicated up there.

The diagram on the right shows the proposed design reviewed with the architectural advisory committee and approved by the Planning commission, which shows the topping out height of 54.5 feet.

The building height here was offered up during the Planning commission meetings, complies with the CDP limits, which is again 54.5 feet at the fifth story and 40 45.6 feet at the fourth story, and along Kelly Avenue.

We agreed to keep it this height and level during those planning commission meetings and hearings.

So from the original RFQ response to our current design now, we are only at a five foot difference between between the height.

This includes both a step down of around nine feet for the four-story portion along Kelly Avenue and the drive aisle, and a one story portion at the corner of Kelly Avenue and the drive aisle.

In that portion along the drive aisle on Kelly Avenue at the corner, that's our community serving space that's kind of indicated in that maroon dark maroon color there.

This compact design includes all of our required uses on site, including parking and amenities for the to serve the residents.

Next slide, please.

In this slide, you can see the height and the mass of the building in relationship to the adjacent buildings.

This shows design of the surrounding buildings, which of course the step down at the corner and the step down of the height along Kelly Avenue and the drive aisle.

This plan is showing the parking strategy for this for 555 Kelly.

We had repeatedly heard public comment and from the ad hoc committee the need to address parking and ongoing parking concerns.

We worked closely with staff to come up with this parking plan that includes on-site parking of the building, which is on the kind of the right hand side here, which includes 18 automobile spaces, two accessible spaces are included in the 18, and ample bicycle parking inside the building for residents.

Given we are hearing a lot of the farm workers are carpooling and using bikes most frequently to get around town, especially locally here.

Separately, indicated on the right hand side of the screen.

Mercy will reconstruct the TED At TED Ad hoc community center parking lot, which will include 28 spaces, restrict that lot, and that is being done by the committed state IIG sources, which are a state grant that were committed to the project some time ago.

So supplementally, this conditions of approval also outlined a requirement for a shared use agreement for the TED AC TED Ad Hoc Community Center spaces.

So these 28 spaces will be available overnight, approximately 7 30 p.m.

to 8 30 a.m.

under a shared use agreement with the city.

We will continue to work out details of that agreement.

The adjacent county lot, which is just behind us here, also has a potential opportunity and a shared use agreement, which is currently under discussion.

Next slide.

Okay, so this slide is showing Mercy met with city public works staff to reduce to review street parking nearby for visitors during daytime use.

Roughly what we are right now.

Okay, to close, I want to express our deep appreciation to the ad hoc committee for their time, their thought, and the care that you really have devoted to working with us on the details for over a year on the issues that really matter most to the community.

As you can see, we've made a number of tremendous meaningful updates based on that quality engagement.

Since our last meeting, we've secured over 13 million from the Joe Cerner Farm Worker Housing Funding Program and made tremendous progress towards delivering 40 new homes to this community.

Along with that, there'll be dedicated service spaces for residents and accessible afforded community space open to the wider public.

Um this evening, myself um and my team, uh Rainey are here tonight to answer any clarifying questions and listen to your feedback.

We appreciate your time.

Thank you.

Um, kidding.

So we're gonna start with some clarifying questions.

Um start at the send.

Do you have any now, Patrick?

Um I was just one the ADA accessibility on in the parking structure.

I didn't really see that, and it's mentioned in here.

Um, I see that the hype and the density has been addressed, and I do like the new look because I don't really care for the original look.

Um, uh let's see, what else is oh what if somebody doesn't qualify for the homes uh basically because I'm looking at eight or what is it uh eight eighty or what is it 480 stone fine, the ones that we just built.

There's it's like we're not even we're s we're vacant still.

It's like I thought that would fill up real quick.

What if the scenario that people don't meet the criteria for that?

And then is that gonna be an issue or do we have a plan for that?

I mean, I'm sure it will.

I'm just wondering because it if it's so strict on the restrictions that you have to be a farm worker retired, and I mean, do we have people lined up ready to go?

Um what else?

That's pretty much all I have right now.

I'm just still listening.

Oh, traffic impacts.

I do like what I saw on the screen with the available parking that you pointed out.

Um, but I am concerned about the parking lot here because we're gonna be missing this area over here because the building's gonna be in that parking lot, and I'm still have concerns over parking.

I know we're getting some of these units, we're getting 28 units, and I heard that uh you guys are gonna remap all that, but how I'd like to know how many units do we have now currently out there versus how many versus here.

We have 28 proposed, but I'd like to know how many, because as we go to these meetings, it's tough to get parking.

I mean, I'm already parking down the street over here, but this is a pretty packed house, so I'm concerned about that.

I'm also concerned about when we do have engagements with uh farmers market and when we have events here, uh uh parking will be an issue, but you you've addressed that, where you're gonna work on that situation.

I'd like to tighten that up a little bit.

Make sure that there is parking for our community.

And then the community room, because I know that was something that was brought up before, and you you mentioned that today, that's gonna be something that our community or I should say Halfham Bay residents can use also.

I think there was a shared use because I know that got brought up if I'm not mistaken.

And what kind of shared use would that be?

What are what's your intent?

What are you thinking?

Is it bingo night?

Is it let's cook some dinners there or something?

I'd like to know more details in how the community can work together.

I think it's a great idea if we can all work together and utilize that because I know that wasn't in the mix before.

Uh I do have concerns with the 40 units on page sixteen, because when you when you say 40 p I'm looking at 40 people, and then we're we're looking at if you take each person and how many people in the room, you have a number here that's 86.

So I'm concerned, is that really gonna mean 86 cars?

And it potentially could be.

I don't know.

Are we calculating two cars per per unit?

Or how are we thinking on that one?

Because I'm looking at each each person potentially could have a car.

That's really gonna sacrifice the parking here.

Um, those are my questions right now that I have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We'll take all the clarifying questions and then because some might be overlap.

Okay, so we're just gonna give them all and then I'll be responded to later.

Is that how we're doing?

Okay.

Um just, you know, be trying to go through the report and listening.

The presentation, which the report was very similar to the presentation.

So I think my questions will cover both uh presentation that was uh presented tonight.

But I was trying to figure out in the report on page two, paragraph two, why it's important for the city council to consider the Planning commission's approval and the implications of waiving certain requirements under state density bonus law, and how does this relate to resolution 2024 97 about major transit stops?

My next question, are there two earmarks mentioned the report guaranteed funding?

I saw it your marks and typically earmark means something different to me, but uh I didn't know that meant what that meant.

So I'm asking what that means regarding the name change from farm worker resource center to community resource center.

Did a loss get approval from the funding agency to use federal funds for the new purpose?

And then as a follow-up, can these funds be used for leasing space for Mercy?

Next, if the city were to acknowledge that a loss was would use federal funds for what was not intended, would the city be held liable for any issues that might arise if the use of the funds for payment of a lease is not allowed?

Next question is the city considering entering into a ground lease agreement with Mercy before all project funding is secured, given the certain earmarks and tax credits are not expected until 2026.

Next question, why is it why has full funding not been obtained after a year and a half?

And then should the city expect all funding to be in place before signing a ground lease?

Next question, which grant funding source would prohibit people not living in Hap Moon Bay or the coastide from applying for housing.

Next question.

This project has several funding sources.

Which funding source restricts rental based on an age group?

Next question, what is the occupancy regulatory requirements under the California HCD?

And again, go back to what when we signed that lease agreement.

Shouldn't the city know the exact rules before signing a ground lease agreement?

Um the parking plan.

Was that based on a detailed engineering analysis?

And then who will enforce parking rules and has parking needs for free frequent events at the community resource center been thoroughly analyzed?

And has there been an analysis of the number of possible events?

And it was using the 16 hours per week that can be ducted can be conducted in a year, and how many accessible parking spaces will be available.

Next question, will the units be appropriately designed and equipped for senior citizens, including features like grab bars and showers?

Next question is the city secured any funding to construct safe walking and biking paths along Highway 1 or Kelly Avenue.

And the final question, if the city council approves a ground lease or affordable housing property disposition agreement, would these actions be subject to a citizen referendum?

Thank you.

And um, yeah, I hope you can provide us with a list of all those questions too so we'll have it after this meeting's over in case we have an answer.

Great.

Councilmember Penrose.

No, um, having been an active member of the ad hoc committee for the past year.

Um, I have gone over every one of these questions 82 times or more, and had satisfactory answers.

So I don't have any questions, clarifying questions.

Thank you.

Uh Vice Mayor Ruddick.

Yes, thank you.

I have quite a few.

Um is the are the prioritization scheme and the occupancy limits consistent with the funding requirements?

I know in the past there's been mentioned that well, we can agree to this now, but HUD might say it doesn't work, and then we're gonna have to increase it.

So I want to know whether the proposed prioritization scheme and uh occupancy limits are consistent with the funding requirements now.

Um do you have an operating budget for the facility in terms of what it's going to take for utilities, maintenance, upkeep, and all that sort of thing?

Is there an operating budget?

Um who will manage use of the multi-purpose facilities?

And are you expecting the city to pay anything to use those facilities?

Um, let me just get back to my notes here.

How old is the financial data?

I know it was 42 million last year in March.

The Trump administration levied 25% tariffs and imported steel and aluminum.

This is a steel building.

I expect that, you know, the tariffs will have an impact on cost.

And I know recently the state posted the most recent increases to the construction index, and that's about 5%.

So I'd like to know, you know, how old your current numbers are presented in this staff report, how old are they, and have you calculated the likely impact of various um uh new policies and you know other things going on in the economy on the cost of this project?

Um and how will the occupancy limits be enforced?

Um do you anticipate needing multiple rounds of low-income housing tax credit funding?

Um I noticed that the ALAS facility, the new one at the corner of Parissima and Kelly is not identified as a source for overnight parking for this project.

Um, why is that?

Um will the units be designed to accommodate the needs of senior and disabled senior uh farm workers?

These are farm workers, they're older farm workers, they have back issues, arthritis, all kinds of stuff.

Are we designing the facility to accommodate um their needs?

I've heard about noise.

I know you're addressing the noise issues, but I haven't seen anything about accommodating the needs for the um for the tenants.

Um where will the rental subsidies come from?

What is the the funding source?

Have they been committed to at this point?

How have recent changes in federal housing policy impact impacted um your ability to get those subsidies?

Um why are there two agreements?

Uh, Debbie Froze.

I feel that the discussion of it is very vague.

And um, W froze for a second, you froze after you said why are there two lease agreements?

Can you see me now?

Yeah, yeah, we could see you.

You just froze.

What was the last question you heard?

Why are there two lease agreements?

I think one lease agreement and one property disposition agreement.

Why are there two?

And um what does each of those cover?

Um I think I have issues with the parking regulations, but I can discuss that when it's time.

I don't see any discussion of weekend uses of that area, and I think that's a um a deficit.

Um let's see.

Uh so there's been talk I know about a loss getting some form of appropriate federal appropriation for a farm worker resource center.

You know, is that an earmark or is that an appropriation and an approved budget bill, federal budget bill?

So is it law?

Is the money ready to be encumbered?

And what does the appropriation language say about its use?

As a state grantmaker, I know that people can't willy-nilly change the uses of the grants that they get.

It has to be according to a specific language and the appropriation and a work plan.

So the idea that Alaska can decide to use this money for a purpose that it sounds like it's different from the original intended purpose has cost you know for concern.

Um let's see.

So I've made that point.

Um, so the issue of the community uses, in addition to the parking, you know, it's it's radically different from what was originally envisioned in the RFP.

The use is much more intense than was identified in those documents that was discussed at the planning commission that was evaluated in various environmental documents.

And I think you know, um, we need a plan to deal with that.

Um federal housing policy has shifted significantly in the last year.

I'd like to hear your thoughts about how you think that's going to impact both the um the tenants and their ability um to reside there, and and whether you'll be able to get, you know, subsidies for for these rents.

I think that's very important to know.

Um, that is my list of questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Um, I have no additional clarifying questions at this point.

Um, do we need more time for um mercy housing to address some of those questions?

We should take public comments at this point.

The comments, right?

Yeah.

Um how much how much time do you think you would need to start responding?

There was a lot of questions, so we in similar situations we've taken a quick break.

Yeah.

I mean, um work.

I would recommend a short break.

Yeah.

So how uh much time would you need?

Five minutes to answer all that stuff.

I'm sorry.

At least ten, yeah, I would think for all those questions, if not fifteen.

Are you comfortable with ten minutes?

All right.

Let's give that a shot.

I know you had a lot there.

What do you think?

Yes?

Yes.

Okay.

We'll take a ten minute break, everybody.

Thank you.

You're not a little bit more.

Y do we give us a h do we give us a h do we give us a hug...000...20...

yes.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, start to respond to some of the clarifying questions.

Thank you.

My name is Raimi Dare, and I'm with Mercy Housing.

I'm a little under the weather.

So if I stop and we will continue.

Um, we're gonna try to address your question.

Yeah, could you put the mic a little closer to your.

Is this better?

Yes.

Okay, thank you for the render.

Um, you're in the air with Mercy Housing.

Um, I'm a little under the weather, so if I stop talking, Kelly will finish.

Or we're trying to organize our responses kind of by topic because you all asked very, you know, kind of related questions.

We might have missed some of your questions.

So please jump in if you said, hey, like what about this?

Um, and so I'm gonna start, and this is not any particular order, but I thought I could maybe address the um financing related questions first.

Um, so the first kind of set of questions was around the proposed um multipurpose space, the um shared multi-purpose space, and if the federal funds that have been committed to the farm worker resource center can be used to build out the community resource center.

The answer is yes.

Um, the federal fund is not appropriation, it's actually already been approved.

Uh Anna SU actually sponsored it when she was in Congress.

The money is now with HUD.

We've been engaging with ALAS and um the HUD staff on the steps to get that funding dispersed.

So it's it's not held up in an appropriation or a budget approval.

It's already been, you know, kind of allocated to HUD to this project.

Um, and we did confirm that that funding can be used for the build out of the community resource center as as presented this evening.

Um so um, and I think um council member, and I guess it asked like if there was any liability for um to the city around the use of that money and and um that if it's not for its intended use.

So the commitment of that funding is to ALAS, it's not to the city, so I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think that the city would be in a position of liability if there was a change in use from what the you know grantor thought um was the intention.

And maybe that's something we could just you know follow up on just to put uh finance.

It would be great, thank you.

Um, and then I'm gonna move from that space to the kind of the overall financing of the building.

Um, I think there was a question about the um the overall financing picture and why hasn't the full financing been secured um in the year and a half or you know, period, and yes, it it uh it's a very good question.

Um the funding programs that we utilize in the affordable housing, and in this case, we have focused on county and state programs that are most suitable for this development.

Um, they typically only have like one round a year, and so we um apply for that round uh that once a year.

It takes several months for the public body to you know evaluate all the applications and and make their decisions.

So um it's kind of like step-by-step process, and we um it does take a while, unfortunately, for um for us to be able to secure that funding.

It's kind of a typical affordable housing process.

Um, but you know, as you heard, we were able to secure um over a $13 million commitment of Joe Cerna Farm Worker Funds um this past round.

Um only 30 awards were made of in this kind of state funding pot of money statewide.

So 555 Kelly was one of the 30 awards, which is pretty incredible.

So that's why we're saying that with that, we would be able to do two more things.

One is apply for the low-income housing tax credit program next year, and there's two rounds I think for that.

Um, and then the other thing that we want to do is to address um Council Member Ruddick's question is to um seek rent subsidies for the units.

Um, and we would not plan to seek subsidies from the federal government, um, but we would are talking to the county actually about um some subsidies that would be made available to the five five Kelly units specifically, um, committed to this development.

So we're still in talk in talks with the county about that, but I think we recognize the county is probably the best source for that rent subsidy um and not the federal government oh maybe well just to clarify on the low income housing tax credit so we we would be eligible to apply in middle of 2026 um I think one of the questions were would be would we need multiple allocations of tax credits it would be one application if we would were awarded we would have to start construction in 180 days from that award and then I think there's one more question we may have missed one but I think one more question around um uh budget do we have an operating budget yes we do have an operating budget um I don't remember it off the top of my head but yes we have developed one with our property management and asset management staff were there any other financing related questions that we missed how yes how old is the cost data the 42 million estimate oh yes thank you um yes that's that's recent um we have obtained um cost estimates from recently and we included those in our funding application for CERN and consulted with general contractors on the construction budget thank you on budget okay yeah and I don't sometimes budgets have requirements attached to them was that part of this section or are you gonna talk about that later um because in the report we read assuming I forget which is it there was HUD and and count H C D the two of them might have different requirements on who or how many can live what they consider the number of people to live in a one bedroom versus two bedroom and I didn't know if that's something you were comparing is the mixed units or something or if that's part of your funding sort kind of tied to funding but okay sure.

You know I mean some of them have to me the report wasn't clear whether there might be conflicts with uh versus this was this was something that we raised um a while ago that there was different um asks around occupancy limits and you know qualifications and so the work that we did with the ad hoc in the last several months was to really dig into that so much was really to dig into that and um make sure that what we um could propose was going to be consistent with our funding programs that we utilize but also with fair housing and so the presentation that Kelly provided um reflects that like we you know we have our um fair housing expert Karen Tiedeman who she's actually joined remotely and is available if you have questions but Karen sat in on almost all of our ad hoc meetings where we worked out like okay can we do this occupancy limit can we you know make sure that these age restrictions are in place can we um you know have these pre this preference order that Kelly presented um so all that we vetted with um with Karen Tiedeman and of course Catherine thank you um next topic I'm sorry you know what might be helpful is can you tell us what topics you have so that if we we might have missed a question the council members are like oh wait that's not gonna fit into one of those topics so that makes sense yeah, I think um I was gonna answer the question about like will there'll be enough complicates for the qualifications or the criteria and then a Kelly was going to tackle um not necessarily in this order but design related questions parking related questions making list right now um oh and the and the multi-purpose and then the lease agreement the agreements there's a couple questions okay perfect so asked um with the criteria that the head of household be 55 years and older as a senior and that um they be a current or retired farm worker will there be enough folks who will qualify or folks who will apply um and that's a good question you know we are required to do a market study um that gets submitted in with our tax credit application so we actually did a market study um to confirm that there would be sufficient school of applicants um and our experience is that um not so necessarily with senior farm workers but that um in with affordable housing in general that you know there's usually like a 10 to one demand for every affordable apartment that you have available you'll have you know nine or ten more applicants that apply so um there's just a tremendous need as as you probably know but um yeah we were very careful about the criteria and um that was something that our leadership flagged early on and so we we did this analysis so um okay um can we go to the slide on parking show okay so I think there was a question about the existing spaces versus proposed spaces so the existing spaces within the lot that's at 555 Kelly now is 28 spaces sorry is 18 spaces plus the additional spaces that are outside TED ad hoc community center those two parking lots well that would all be reconfigured for a total net of 28 spaces so the total net community public parking is not going to change that will still remain at 28 spaces and if I can read that correctly it looks like of those 28 three of them are ADA accessible spaces then there are 18 residential spaces within the building and two of those are 80 spaces are um so the the scope of work would include doing that parking that the parking for the residential community the drive aisle the sidewalks along the drive aisle and in front of Kelly and on Kelly Avenue and then the reconfiguration of the parking stalls um and then a trash enclosure that's actually at the back we're reconfiguring the trash enclosure for the TED ad hoc center because it kind of takes over that space so um that's what that that work includes there um the parking I think there was a question about the additional occupants there are the 86 occupants and how is that accounted for so there was a parking study done rather about a year ago I believe um when we went through the planning commission hearings and they used a calculation of 0.6 to 0.8 spaces for each occupant um so that comes out to 24 to 32 spaces um now under this you know cd we got approved with that with this amount of parking under you know at that time so that's the research question but that's that's the parking ratios um let's see I think there was a question about parking who will enforce um the parking uh commitment that's a that's a future agreement to work on with the city the use agreement that will be for the TED dog hoc space um we had talked about registering cars that would be you know available for residential cars that would be available to use the TED adcock center spaces overnight.

Any other parking questions that can be yes, thank you.

So I know you guys purchased the old post office, uh, I don't remember what street it is, but I and I also talked with you guys uh last in Kike, I think at one point, and you brought it forward to me that you guys bought that building, which I know now you do because it's it's obviously you've only um but I didn't know it at the time.

Um you were gonna you they talked about utilizing the parking at the at that post office for employee or for spillover parking or something like that.

Is that still something you guys are considering?

Uh so to clarify, uh ALAS did purchase that building that it's separate from Mercy Housing, and they are using it for their multicultural center.

Um, and so Mercy specifically doesn't have control over what that parking use can be.

There could be an opportunity to discuss future uses of that parking, um, but that's not something that we had identified at this time.

Just bringing it forward because that was one of the answers that I was told at the time, almost to appease me that okay, we've got that covered.

Uh, and then they we have we had a meeting and it was talking about reconfiguring this park parking stalls that are here currently, and that's what prompted me to ask the question of how many stalls do we currently have out here and you're reconfiguring.

So I want to know like do we have 13 now, and now we got 28.

So, what how many did we gain from the reconfiguration?

There's sorry, I also remember that there was like removing of the island or moving of some things, so there was some tweaking of this parking lot just to make it more feasible.

Yeah, I'm happy to answer it so based on this slide.

Um, there's gonna be zero net change to public parking spaces.

Is there twenty-eight now?

There will be twenty-eight based on that reconfiguration plus an additional eighteen within the new building for the residents.

So as far as users of the TED Adcock community center go, there won't be any change in the parking, just the location.

Moving from those parking lots to this area out here, which will be done by reconfiguring drive drive aisles, removing some of the landscaping and those types of things.

The impression we were gonna gain some parking stalls to be honest, we with the talk.

So I'm just gonna be honest with you, that's how I perceived it.

And then the spillover would go to the post office.

So I'm just recapping the meeting I had personally with a lot.

So I'm kind of don't I'm not making it up.

This is the meeting we had, and if Kike is here, he can comment on that too, please.

Okay, and I I would like to move on to the community um space use.

So I think that there was a question, um, about the details about how that space would be shared.

So this is the floor plan, sorry.

Thank you.

So there still would be identified private offices that ALAS needs to be able to operate their social services and programs out for the residents.

So that's what's identified in the blue.

Then ALAS would still enter into a full lease agreement with Mercy for that space, but that the space that's on this screen that's kind of in the the pinkish color, that would be available for public use.

And so that was what was identified and offered as an opportunity for 16 hours a week to be open for community public use that could be rented out for a nominal use fee.

We're trying to, you know, make sure that we're providing an affordable space that multiple different types of groups um can you talk to community members, Girl Scout organizations, state groups, um, book clubs, you know, public public speaking series, anything like that would be able to come to use the multi-purpose community space.

We also had a discussion with the city and the parks and rec coordinator about the opportunity for potentially parks and rec to help with scheduling the actual space.

That's something the details of to still be worked out, but hopefully we can come to agree about how that scheduling would take place through some citywide system.

Um I think there was a question about the unit designs um for seniors, and so all unit designs, um the 40 units uh will be uh adhere to state building code, which has a minimum requirement for fully accessible units to be built out.

Um it's a five to 10% requirement for fully accessible units, um, and then all of the units 40 units will all be adaptable, and what that means is they're easily converted to include, you know, additional measures for seniors as they age in place, but all units in a senior building will have grab bars, will have um you know all those additional um senior design elements that will be incorporated from the gap.

But if there's additional requirements that a senior moving in would need we would make a reasonable accommodation and adapt that unit to those seniors needs.

On the on this on the ADA compliance on to you're saying there'll be adaptable the rooms will be adaptable.

Are you going to the point where you're with the electrical outlets and the where the plugs are at a at a level that's going to be designed for somebody that's in a wheelchair.

So that would mean most of those contacts your light switches and stuff are a different level if I'm not mistaken.

So all of them are going to be at that level or you can only have certain ones I will look into that I don't know the answer to that question.

But I'm sh I'm certain that we will design whatever the electrical engineers are you know per the California building code that we're required to do based on the senior and population we will adhere to but specifically your question about the wheelchair use I'm not sure so I'll have to because when you're at that level that my daughter's handicapped and you try and she can't do this but I just know when you're in a chair if you can design something you design it for somebody in the chair.

But if you're gonna design this whole place to be for standard people like we are it won't work.

So you have to kind of keep that in mind.

There'll be a percentage of units that will be fully built out for wheelchair accessible space well everything will be wheelchair expressed but will be built out from the get-go and then the rest of the units will be adaptable but um I don't know your question and answer about this how it and the other thing is countertop height too things like that.

Yes countertop height yeah that's a great example other design question that I may have met okay um and we talked about parking we talked about community space design um there was questions about the the difference of the agreements and I'm gonna actually toss it maybe to Catherine to chime in about the different the purpose of the sure there's a question about why we're um uh considering two agreements the affordable housing property disposition agreement and the ground lease and um to clarify uh it's actually gonna be uh one agreement that attaches the ground lease so the affordable housing property disposition agreement includes several items the financing plan the budget there are a few things mentioned in the staff report it also includes a form of ground lease so if the council were to move forward and approve uh the affordable housing property disposition agreement um that wouldn't necessarily be the same meeting that would approve the ground lease that that could be approved at a later date once all the terms of the um affordable housing property disposition agreement are met okay thank you um oh yeah there you go sorry Timmy go ahead yeah so what is the property disposition agreement so I can um respond to that and Lucy if you want to um respond to that as well uh this is typical agreement entered into for these types of projects that are take place on um city owned property uh that set forth all the terms of the project including the financing and the schedule of performance the project budget um regulatory requirements uh a real comp you know comprehensive agreement uh mercy is entered into these commonly um and I think the most recent one that um has been shared with us was the agreement um for the middlefield junction project with the county um and I'll maybe turn this over to Mercy whether you have any other thing else to add in terms of the uh disposition agreement no that's that's all accurate.

Um, and then the terms, the form of a ground lease would be included as an exhibit to that.

We would not enter into that ground lease um which I think was a question that came previously, but we would not enter into that ground lease until we have all the committed financing, and we're actually moving forward um with starting construction projects and I'll say one more thing.

This hasn't been um drafted yet.

And so at a future meeting, give you know, depending on the direction tonight, um, staff could bring back um a form of the disposition agreement for the council's review.

Um, you know, with so that you can make sure all the all the provisions are are to your satisfaction.

Oh, one more question about that.

Would the um property disposition agreement be adopted by ordinance?

I by by ordinance.

I think the question was would it be adopted by ordinance versus by resolution?

Uh and I don't know that that has been decided yet.

Would it be a legislative act?

Okay, so yes, this would the um and I'll just say that was a question that came up.

I'm happy to address that one now.

Uh so legislative acts are referendable, so that's um related to an earlier question as well, as opposed to other types of council decisions um such as administrative acts or adjudicative acts that are not referendable.

Um I will say courts don't with when when faced with this question of whether it's referendable or not, um ordinances are always referendable, resolutions are sometimes referendable, and courts look beyond whether it's a resolution or an ordinance, um, but rather what are the terms that the the you know were approved and whether it's legislative uh versus one of the other categories.

Um my review of these types of agreements, including the middle field housing one and earlier drafts of this one, I I am inclined to believe that it is legislative and therefore would be referendable.

Um given that this would be the first time the council would have would be uh making a policy decision about use of this property.

Um as opposed to other situations and courts have looked at there's actually been a fair amount of litigation about these kinds of agreements, but um in some cases uh the council may have already made a policy decision and a and subsequent agreements were really just carrying out that that decision, and so they were deemed to be more administrative and therefore not referendable.

Uh so I'll say reasonable minds can differ on this, but my um my take from looking at the materials before me, and of course it hasn't been been finalized um or approved, but um I'd say likely it would be legislative and referendable.

Yeah, I would be concerned if, in fact, we go through with the property disposition agreement, and then the actual lease agreement, which I think is very important in the public's mind.

We're talking about the use of a publicly owned piece of property that the residents of this community have already spent a million dollars to acquire.

Um, I want to be careful that we're not looking to preclude either incrementally or precipitously the ability of residents of this community to have a say and and and be able to see transparently what all this stuff is about.

Be different if we're dealing with a private property owner or a nonprofit where you own the property, you know, but as a trustee, an elected trustee, I have to be very careful about things like the financial feasibility of the property, how much we get in return for the use of that property, how transparent is it in terms of a public transaction.

So it's easy to come at this, you know, when you're an advocate.

Um it's it's harder when you're a trustee and have to balance many competing different interests.

So thank you.

So I just want to clarify that all those terms of that ground lease we would we would we would have as a form um under the affordable housing property disposition.

Correct, and they'd all be before council and attached to a staff report, and it you know, it it it may take multiple meetings.

Uh, may or may not.

I mean, I it's a you know, there are a lot of terms in these kinds of agreements for the council and the public's review.

Yeah.

I think that may be the end of some of my questions.

There was another question that was here about highway one and pedestrian improvements that I don't have the capacity to answer, but um I want to be sure I got through everything.

Yeah, I I took my best stab at writing down the questions as well.

So let me, if if it's okay, Mr.

Mayor, can I go through and make sure we've covered all of them?

Um so there was the question about the transit stop and the reliance on super density bonus law.

I don't Catherine, do you want to just cover that now?

Uh yeah, so we we included that discussion in the staff report um to really try to be as comprehensive as we can in terms of the issues that were um that that gained significant attention uh during the permitting phase.

And so um there's a discussion of the CDP um and some of the findings that were issued that that were included in that CDP on page two, um, as well as uh a discussion of a subsequent resolution that was adopted by council um regarding uh major transit stops and some changes in the law uh that would um that would impact uh the city's determin you know determinations on this point going forward.

I'll I'm I am gonna tell you to counter and I guess make sure that answered your question.

I was trying to follow exactly.

Can you come and speak?

Say explain why it was in there again because this is what just looking at it, is that we are moving forward on a project based on a circumstance that doesn't exist.

So it was was included to provide the full background on um you know how how the permitting process went?

That's yeah, but bonus density was based upon a tran major transit stop, correct?

Correct, yes.

And we no longer have a major transit stock, correct?

Uh under the council's resolution, I'd say likely not.

Likely not, or we don't.

I mean, I I thought I asked that in December whether we had a major transit.

I mean, I'll just share that um when we had that discussion in December, uh, we had a joint meeting that the second meeting in December, and this discussion came up.

Um, it was referenced that there had been a change in the law since those findings were made during the CDP hearings, and that based on that, the city council made a determination and put in that resolution that going forward we don't have transit stop, therefore uh super density bonus law would not apply.

Correct.

Is that is that your record?

So if this project came forward today, exactly.

None of these bonus density, whether it was height, density and not talking about parking wouldn't apply.

Yeah, unless the frequency of the bus service is increased.

It's now I think twenty twenty-minute increments and intervals.

Right.

Oh okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um the next one I have.

Um this was a question from Paul.

Um, there was two similar questions, um, and I want to make sure I capture this properly.

You asked what source of funding would prohibit people from outside of the area from qualifying to reside in the building, and then same question, but around the age restrictions.

So if I'm interpreting that correctly, you're wondering.

I I almost want to flip it on its head, right?

Is there any source of funding that wouldn't allow us to apply this?

Is that is that really what you're asking?

Or if there are conflicts between um HUD, HUD, or uh California H C D.

You know, we were interpreting this mixed use showing um that there is and I get we're trying to compare if we were trying to do the original RFQ versus um trying to fix them out, the number of occupants for a certain, you know, whether it's a studio, one bedroom, or two bedroom, but are there funding requirements that may dictate no, you you have to allow more than that in there.

And then can the city is that what the intent of the city ordinances is to stop that?

Or no, but I just want to share, you know, this funding.

I know different funding mechanisms have different requirements.

Right.

I think I think Debbie asked a similar question.

Basically, I think apply all of these restrictions that we've included here about age, about occupancy, and about our preferences.

How does that interplay with the funding sources that you plan to pursue for this project?

And that we already have.

So as we have outlined, there doesn't we don't anticipate there being any conflict.

Um HCD does allow for certain amount of preferences, um, but this is why the city is looking to adopt an ordinance, and I would love to Catherine um and to maybe explain or talk about the city ordinance for the preferences that we're applying and how that um works.

Sure, yeah, so um the state law does allow us to adopt local preference ordinances, and it's our understanding that um Mercy's funders will look more favorably on the city preferences if they're if they actually stem from an ordinance that's backed by some analysis.

And so um what we concluded from um working with the ad hoc is that the best way to ensure that these preferences are enforceable uh in terms of the the um city first, then the county, um, then uh I believe it's any senior farm worker, is that did I get that?

No, it's it's um city, coast side, then county uh would actually be to adopt an ordinance, and that's something that um we actually have been I believe looking at doing anyway as part of um the city's effort to update its inclusionary housing ordinance.

So we would actually do some analysis to ensure that these local preferences don't violate any constitutional laws.

Um that's really what um folks look at in terms of the fair housing, and I you know, welcome to bring Karen on if that would be helpful.

Uh, but we wanna have um a record showing that these uh preferences are um constitutional and don't violate equal protection and other sorts of constitutional rights.

And I asked this only I hear, you know, people are gonna say what they're gonna say.

Yeah, it's gonna be some magic pipeline from somewhere else bringing you know folks here, and then just hearing I just heard Patrick say, and I I I didn't I wasn't aware of this that you uh eight eighty stone pine hasn't been uh the applications didn't meet all the requirements, so they're gonna go out for a new set of applications, you know.

I mean, Patrick mentioned that the eight eighty stone pine wasn't filled.

Do you know about that?

That's correct, but it's not because they're having to go back to the drawing board.

It's just a it's a slow process to qualify these households.

Um the Patrick and I talked earlier and and so we were able to get the most up-to-date information.

Uh currently it's uh 35% full.

I think that's 17 households of the forty six.

Uh and I'm doing this from memory now.

Um, and then they have several other families that have already been qualified, but you know, like anybody else moving, it takes time to make that transition, and then they're continuing to move through rounds or tranches of of folks because it's a very intensive process.

So uh we have not received any indication that they have any problem filling 880 stone pine, it's just it's a slower process than I think we'd hope.

But but we're gonna keep it to the three we talk about city, coast, county.

Four, five, correct, correct.

From Ray Mueller today on that question that we're talking about right now, and he quote said, I don't know how many are occupied, but all have been assigned to families.

We have a waiting list, that's what he said.

So that's all he had for me.

Um, because that's one of the questions.

Actually, Deborah Ruddick asked the question, and I already had the question in my head too, so I kind of wanted to know also.

So she gets the credit, but she pushed me to, you know, get a hold of Ray.

But that is a concern that I have is like, you know, you build it, you can we fill it.

And that was one of the things.

Um can I throw something real quick at you that we'd talk about?

It was about the traffic safety on Kelly, bicycle safety and pedestrian safety because we're gonna have more traffic coming through here.

Are we addressing that?

I I can answer that.

So that that is not addressed as part of this pro the project that Mercy is proposing.

We as a city could um spend more time looking at that and uh determine if we need to make changes.

There was a question that was still on the list here uh from I I believe Paul about uh have we pursued funding for uh pedestrian bicycle improvements in the area, especially on Highway One.

Um as we know, the uh Caltrans in in just a few weeks will begin work on what they call the shop project, where they're gonna be doing work on highway one over the entire coast side.

One of the things they're gonna be doing is adding bike lanes to the highway.

Um I'm not sure if we're gonna determine that that's sufficient and we may have to look at further solutions, but I think that's something the city would would need to look at uh both on Kelly and on Highway One.

I know when we did the boys and girls club and Chad Hooker was here, he brought it up.

That's how we got that crossway from Ted Abcock over to the boys and girls club with those pylons.

That was him coming to the podium saying we need that um because it's safety.

So we are now the density's gonna be higher, parking's gonna be more, more traffic.

So now we really have to reassess that, reassess that for safety.

I would like to um just ask a question.

Um, I remember you said there was a study regarding senior housing in terms of mercy around the point six cars per that's from the DKS parking study that the city actually commissioned last year.

I don't know, Matt, we can have dates on when that was, but that's actually the city that was.

It was early 2024, yeah.

And that was regarding senior housing, right?

That was regarding senior housing and 55 Kelly.

So we had to complete, well, it the city offered to complete that prior to us going to the planning commission last year.

Based on that study, um, each unit of on average unit of senior housing, equated to 0.6 cars.

Is that right?

I have a note that it was 0.6 to 0.8.

Jumping in because I looked this up before this meeting.

Um, so the study that was commissioned, the parking study that was commissioned by the city, relied on a point six to point eight, so 0.6 cars for every housing unit was the assumption based on the mega data they have around you know senior housing or senior residents, and then I looked at our data at Mercy Housing, not scientific, but I looked at our more suburban senior housing locations, particularly in Moran County, and they actually were in that same range as well.

Okay.

So that's a good uh, you know, if you have 40 units at the low end point six would be 24 cars, and um at the point at the eight, point eight, that would be um, yeah, 32 cars.

So I'm saying that because you know, I see some stuff out there in the universe saying, oh my god, it's 40 units, that's gonna be at least 80 cars, you know.

And we do have a study that shows differently.

Plus, we've heard continuously from folks who work with the uh farm worker community that um a lot of those folks when they're retired, and because they're located, you know, in a great location, that's close to all the services, a lot of them uh maybe using bicycles and you know, not necessarily having a lot of cars.

So, just providing that information, because when I all of a sudden see, oh my god, we're gonna have 80 cars.

Um, some of the studies we have seem to indicate otherwise.

Well, the only reason I brought that up is because we already have a parking issue in downtown.

We already have to think of a plan for parking structure, and now we're adding a load to the downtown.

No, I get that.

It's more about the number because when I people come up with it, that's been a thing.

But the number of number increase, we have to make sure that we have time.

Yeah, no, I agree.

But it's real difference between eighty units and less than, you know, more like thirty and eight or something like that.

Oh, so I think it's time for public comments.

Thank you so much for taking all those questions in and answering them so promptly, by the way.

Really appreciate that.

Um before we um so we have two sets of public comments.

One is all these people here in the room.

And we also have a lot of people online.

Now for those folks online, and since there's so many people, um, I'm gonna use uh and we've done this before.

I'm gonna use a process that's used by um both the Board of Supervisors and the Coastal Commission.

Um, I'm gonna give everyone right now who's online.

I see some people have already raised their hands.

I'm gonna give you about two minutes.

If you want to comment, please raise your hand.

You'll have two minutes to raise your hand.

We need to get a sense of how many folks here.

And then we'll have a cutoff point.

So after two minutes, you know, whatever that last name is, we'll stop at that point.

Okay, so got a couple of minutes.

Go ahead, raise your hands.

Everyone else take a nice breath, breathe, you know.

Another minute here to raise your hands, uh Mayor.

Um I just got a note, Vice Mayor Reddick is requesting a short bathroom break.

Yeah.

Well, you're in luck.

I mean, let's take a five-minute bathroom break.

Or just a break in general.

No, thank you.

And we'll come back.

Appreciate it.

All right.

Take a break, everybody.

We'll be back in five minutes, and everyone else can raise their hands if they need to have a lot of the Okay, if everyone can take their seats, I think we're ready to begin.

We're still waiting for one council member to rejoin us.

All right.

And some people will even drop off.

Okay.

Oh, Kidoki, ready to begin.

Thanks, everybody.

Um.

So looking at the number of folks online.

The last person with a hand raised is Sid Young.

So nobody after Sid Young will be accepted for online participation.

Okay.

And I'll go back and forth.

But yeah, just so everybody knows.

Sid Young will be the last remote participant.

Participant on Zoom with comments.

So a few more understandings about how this works.

This is an important topic.

So each person will get three minutes.

Even though I know we have a lot of people, sometimes we go down to two minutes, but each person will get full three minutes.

This of course does not mean you have to use the full three minutes.

Someone else may have raised the comments you've already said, so take that under consideration.

There's a timer here, and there's two tones.

The first two tone comes after two and a half minutes.

Meaning you have 30 seconds left.

And after the next 30 seconds, you're done.

And I will be pretty clear and say, sorry, you're done.

And I'll tell you you have 30 seconds left after the first tone.

So be no misunderstandings.

The other best practice in city councils, especially when you have a large meeting like this.

Um it can be a little bit um intimidating to come up to a microphone.

People are nervous.

So to make people just feel as comfortable as possible.

Especially if they feel, well, maybe I have a viewpoint that's different from whatever else they've heard going on in the room, it could be a little intimidating.

So we ask that people not applause after someone makes their comment.

Just take it in, appreciate the grace and silence.

And that way people feel comfortable because this is participatory democracy and action at its best.

So we like to make it as safe feeling as possible for people to come forward to the podium.

A lot of folks here are doing it for the first time, especially.

Each time we call on a person to speak, we will also mention the person who's next.

Okay.

So that next person can can prepare to come up and be ready.

Okay, great so I'll start inside the room our first person speaking is Nancy Fontana.

To be followed by uh Jennifer Moore come on now thanks Nancy and our timer's on and we're ready to go uh thank you council and members of the public um I have I had a number of questions and concerns but most of the council of questions covered most of what I was concerned about I'm I'm funding dumb so the funding is very confusing for me I am still concerned that the city might get into something that it sounds okay and then for some reason whatever it is is not possible it gets pulled um which you have all been discussing but I think that's really important I don't know that there's a way that there can be clause a clause in the agreements to protect something um the to have to make changes if that were to happen or approvals have gone too far and that's not possible but I think that should be considered um one thing that gave me some concern uh was the discussion about the the resolutions and the ordinances and how the courts look at the resolutions and ordinances not so much that that actual document but the what it is accomplishing and how it determines what is legislative or administrative so it gives me and makes me get I get worried when I heard that you might do something uh do some make a policy decision that appears on the surface not to be a legislative action and then later when it comes to approving a resolution or ordinance related to it it's all that policy was already set and that window of time for petition for referendum has passed by the time you get around to doing the ordinance or resolution I'm I'm not sure if that made sense I know exactly what I'm trying to say but I'm not sure um I I just have concern about that because there has been speculation that that there's there have been attempts to circumvent that process and I think the public's been really vocal about that concern um the safety yeah 30 seconds the safety issue is important and the parking and it all I I just I think that the city should look into the street safety sooner rather than later thank you.

Thank you Nancy our next speaker is Jennifer Moore to be followed by Sandy Bella.

Jennifer Moore I work just right down the street at 576 Kelly so this will definitely affect me.

Of course I want what's best for everyone not just a small population but everyone so for me too many questions are unanswered all questions should be answered without any doubts we need to know the truth of all of this too many unanswered questions.

We do need housing to be we need this housing to be for our community in San Mateo County I feel like taking state money and federal money opens it up to a too big of a broad population we have plenty of people in need not just farm workers, so I think that would be something to look at.

Um I I feel like being retired at fifty five.

Who gets to retire at fifty five?

I know I won't, and I work my butt off every day 40 hours a week, sometimes more.

I'm getting crippled from what I've done for thirty-four years now.

Um so I feel like also how many retired farm workers do we have within Sam Mateo County.

Have we gotten any answers on that?

Um I feel like we should see the research on that.

One of my biggest concerns is Kelly Avenue.

I stand at my window all day watching people run that stop sign.

I mean one out of three cars at least.

Maybe every other.

There are cars that come up and down this road so fast.

I can't believe that this black Mustang hasn't been taken off the street yet.

It's unsafe, unsafe.

And I see no cops, nothing.

No one's taking care of it.

So when you have all these cars parked up and down the street, and you have people that don't use qu crosswalks, I watch it all day long, and they come out and you got a speeding car, unsafe.

Um, oh, we took away parking spaces in downtown Happen Bay for all of the new California, you know, law that you can't be with so close to a crosswalk, I think how that goes.

Um mass transit.

That's still a huge question.

I okay.

So I feel like that needs to be addressed.

I see it more for students than anyone else.

Um I do believe farm workers need to have a better space than being crammed in a tiny apartment.

They're used to being outside.

They want to be with their family and friends.

Eight whatever the one at the end of Stone Pine, that's great.

That's what they deserve.

And I know that the resort is planning on putting in twenty four units up there if they get approved.

Um, you know, I stay very active in the community.

See the best.

Thank you, Jenna.

Good afternoon or good evening.

Uh my name's Sandy Vella.

Uh I'd urge the uh council to vote no um on the current status of where we are uh with the contracts.

There's just too many open questions.

I've been a resident of the coast side for over sixty years, and over thirty of that downtown in Hafoom Bay.

So I can see, you know, I have experience in seeing what's happening downtown.

We have a real problem on the highway with people crossing outside of the crosswalk.

I saw three people just yesterday, one with a baby carriage, believe it or not.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

Cut across the highway.

We need to address this before we increase usage with a five five five Kelly uh development.

It's crazy.

It's you know, it's a time bomb waiting to happen.

We should not approve a one dollar lease for ninety-nine years for this project and any other one in Hapoom Bay.

It's ridiculous.

It's it's onerous on the taxpayers.

Um, the city bought the house for one million dollars.

It'd take over a million years to recoup that money.

That's just insanity.

Uh parking, let's be realistic.

Um, eighty-six occupants relates to two hundred spots needed.

Everybody's got a car, usually people have two cars.

Plus you got your community workers and the commun or your workers plus a community center.

It's gonna be chaos.

It's already chaos downtown, as Jen uh indicated before.

If you just go and look at Moonridge and count cars, I know some of us did.

Um, you know, you'll get an idea of what it is.

Granted they're not all seniors, but still they all drive cars.

People drive cars into their nineties.

I know several.

I know you guys know several in the community or the nineties driving around town.

You know, it's not unusual.

My stepmother, eighty three, my father in law eighty-in-law, 83, all driving around.

They've got a couple cars.

So I think we're way underestimating the parking conditioning.

And if they're a senior that is retired at fifty five, they're not likely to be riding a bike.

Although I'd love them to and encourage them.

Now I think that's a great usage.

Um I don't think we need a vote tonight.

Mercy doesn't have all the funding yet.

So I I don't understand why uh, you know what the pressure is at this point.

But thanks for your time, then.

Thank you, Noreen.

Okay, you lost a little of the base here.

Um, so our next speaker is Bill Evelyn, followed by Joanne Rukoski.

Esteemed City Council members, my name is Bill Hevlin, and I'm a principal layleader of the Unitarian Universalist Coastside community centered here in Half Moon Bay, a member of Coastide Faith in Action.

There has been more discussion than I expected about parking.

One of our congregants who's retired, lives in Ocean View Senior Housing in Pacifica.

The address is 555 Crespi Drive.

I did get the number correct.

This is a hundred units, they have 50 parking places.

He said when he moved in, he was worried there might be parking congestion, and he has said he has never encountered parking congestion there.

The parking multiplier for that facility is 0.5.

There is it's a senior housing community.

The demographics are general, not farm workers, but I find no reason to think that farm workers would have more cars than um his community would have.

Thank you, Bill.

Next speaker is Joanne Rukoski to be followed by Hal Bagner.

Good evening.

My name is Joanne Rokoski.

I've been a coastside resident for 10 years, and I'm a member of Coastside Faith in Action and Faith in Action Bay Area.

First, thank you for all the work that you have done as City Council members, along with Halfman Bay city staff, first at visioning and then moving forward towards reality of housing at 555 Kelly for very low-income and extremely low-income farm workers age 55, many of whom are still working full-time at backbreaking labor.

I also appreciate those of you who are new to the council and the amount of work that you have put into understanding the need for this housing as well as the details of implementing the housing and what that might entail in terms of design funding, etc.

So my full support for this proposal for this project stems from a belief that all people deserve safe and dignified housing, and it stems from the knowledge of the crowded, dilapidated, and in many cases unsafe housing that so many farm workers have long endured.

Since its inception in 2022, concepts and designs have been shared with the community, including at many city council and planning committee meetings.

The current plan reflects the efforts of ALAS and Mercy Housing to comprehensively address community concerns and make changes that still allow the project to be financially viable.

For example, one concern was that multiple family members would crowd into each apartment, and then the total occupancy would far exceed the plan.

They've addressed this with strict occupancy limits.

Rather and similarly, there were complaints that these units would include lots of children crowding in with parents or grandparents.

The current plan limits the presence of children under age 18 to those who are disabled and are under the care of the caregiver.

So I know that each of you has a deep concern for all the members of this community.

I believe that moving forward to develop these agreements is a way to demonstrate that concern.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joanne.

Hal Bagner will be speaking next to the followed by Ramon.

Good evening, uh Hal Bagner.

Um first uh I'd like to thank the council members, the staff, Mercy, and so on, for uh presenting.

I'd like to thank everyone for presenting this to the public.

I think it's extremely important that the public be well informed and noting how many empty seats there are here today.

I wanted to observe that the city did not uh omitted to place this meeting on the calendar on the home page of the website and omitted to send out to all of the people who received emails uh notifying them of the city council meetings that this meeting was going to occur and is occurring.

Uh so please for future meetings, uh, you know, make sure those two most direct places where people who aren't following closely and on a special list of people who said notify me just about this project.

I appreciate and admire the uh the large number of people who have put effort into this, generously trying to help members of the community and the area.

I understand that and support the good intent of everybody involved here.

The reason I'm speaking is rather that this is a major decision for the city of Half Spoon Bay to approve the first of what would certainly not be the only five-story building to be built in town ever.

And like the keeping preservation of the main street bridge, which was voted upon by townspeople by the citizens of Half Moon Bay, and like the retaining of Calfire, which was voted on by the citizenry of the coast side.

Uh this is a matter which has a large public decision that shapes the town for the future, should be debated openly and voted upon by the citizens.

For that reason, I addressed the council a year and a half ago and asked that it be eventually placed on the ballot.

And then uh in summer of 2024, uh I was asked to help collect signatures to referend the council decisions after the planning commission approval was uh denied was appealed to the council and denied uh three separate appeals.

And at that time uh we collected over a thousand signatures from residents of Half Moon Bay, to see this on the ballot.

Uh the city at that time did not place this on the ballot, although I believe there's now a case in Livermore uh that asserts that it actually should have been on the ballot.

And I'd like to make sure that everyone understands that this is a policy decision that ultimately should go before the voters and the pros and cons be weighed by them.

Uh thank you, and I appreciate the time.

Thank you, Hal.

Next speaker is Ramon Sonic.

Followed by Lily Ray, so he's gonna go ahead and provide his comment, and then I will provide a site translation for you afterwards.

Thank you.

We will go a me.

No clapping, please.

Thanks.

Uh good afternoon.

My name is Ramon Sonocid, and I worked forty years in the fields.

My health no longer allows me to keep working, and now my wife and I share a house with our children who are already adults.

After all the years I spent producing the vegetables that probably feed the people of Half Moon Bay, now there's a moment when the town I gave so much to is giving something back to me.

Perhaps I won't be chosen for a home, but whoever is chosen has sacrificed for this town and deserves a dignified place to live in their retirement.

Our next speaker is Lily Ray.

Followed by Marquee Sanchez.

Thank you.

I'm gonna be very grateful and show my appreciation for all that you have done here.

I am the current board of the chair of the board of Alice.

It's obvious where which side I come down.

In February of 2023, right after the shooting, we had a vote in this room, and it was unanimous to put the first million dollars toward the research and get started by the development of 555 color.

Nothing has changed since then in terms of the need of the farm the senior farm workers with a for a place to live.

And appreciate two some of you have changed on the on the council, but the situation has not.

So we would still continue to build our facilities and can meet the needs of the residents.

We hope you will all keep supporting the project by moving to a draft ground based agreement because it's so the right thing to do.

And for anybody who wants information that you saw in the slides, we have a fact sheet at the door.

There's they're both in English and in Spanish, and I want to invite everyone to take one on their way out.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lenny.

Next speaker is uh Jorke Sanchez, and hang on one second on a timer.

After Jorke, I'm gonna switch over to folks who are remote, and I'm gonna take um first four people.

The first person will be Scott Frasier.

Uh so if you can be ready um remotely, um that'll be great after um Jorke is finished speaking.

Thanks.

Once again, counsel uh Jorge will provide his comment and I'll provide you with the site translation afterwards.

Thank you.

Um I've been working at ALAS for the past five years in supporting our community.

We've learned through our story of migration that uncertainty is deeply connected to injustice for our farm workers and immigrant families here in this community, uncertainty isn't abstract, it's a part of daily life.

We respect the need for due diligence, but when the same questions are asked again and again, it stops being responsibility and becomes a delay.

And delay creates uncertainty that hurts real families who are simply trying to build a stable life.

Fairness means recognizing the answers already given and having the courage to act.

That's why it's important to give staff clear direction tonight to prepare a draft lease agreement for council consideration within the next few weeks.

Our farm worker families are waiting.

Let's replace uncertainty with dignity and delay with action.

We thank you for acting with our community.

Thank you very much.

Gracias, and thank you, Jorge.

I'm now gonna go over to our remote participants.

Um the first speaker is Scott Fraser, to be followed by says Gloria's iPads.

I hope you don't know who you are there.

Okay, so we'll start with Scott.

Good evening.

I'm having a little difficulty wrapping my head around the folks with some of these ailments and medical conditions that we're hearing about using bicycles as their primary method of transportation, but that's not the crux of my comments.

In 2020, I had a property become vacant.

And at the urging of the city's staff, I turned it over to one of the principal parties that may become a party to this contract and this project.

And what resulted is nothing less than a disaster.

I was deceived about the use of my property.

Money was concealed, tenants were concealed.

Um, there's a long list of terrible things that happened that I'd like to bring to your attention.

In fact, I did try to bring it to your attention.

My property was left trashed, vandalized, and uninhabitable to the poor stewardship of one of the people, one of the organizations that may be a party to this contract.

I brought in a city staff member to come look at it and ask that at least one council person would come in and inspect the matter and possibly investigate it.

Nobody followed up.

This is what you are in store for with this project.

If you're going to go ahead with it, I at least very much urge that you more thoroughly vet some of the parties that may be a party to this contract.

In addition, I am thoroughly urging you to open up a public workshop of local attorneys, realtors, and land use specialists to help draft a sensible contract with the correct provisions to prevent this becoming a horrible, horrible, horrible disaster.

Thank you.

Thank you, Scott.

Our next person, next speaker, sorry, is Gloria.

And she will be followed by Claudine Del Rosario.

Good evening, city council members and city staff.

You can hear me, correct?

We can hear you.

Good.

My name's Gloria Stoufen.

I apologize.

I got a new iPad, and it says iPad after my first name as my last name.

Anyway, I'm a 54-year-old coastal resident and member of Coastside Faith in Action.

And Faith in Action Bay Area.

Let me start with a quote from Coretta Scott King.

The greatness of the community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.

Housing I consider as a sacred human right, and I come to you hoping that as city council members and leadership of your community, uh, you will approve and support 555 Kelly Avenue for senior farm workers.

This housing project has been worked on for several years.

The plan has been modified several times, often with approval, as well as with much community involvement.

The housing needs for our senior farm workers are very much needed, and this plan will certainly fill their needs.

Thank you, Gloria.

Our next speaker is um Claudine Del Rosario to be followed by Anne Chan.

Good evening, council members.

My name is Claudine Del Rosario, and I'm speaking tonight on behalf of Sabrato Philanthropies, a proud supporter of Alas and many other nonprofits working to strengthen economic mobility in Half Moon Bay.

We urge you to move forward with the lease of 555 Kelly Avenue to ALAS for the development of 40 40 deeply affordable senior homes.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime generation to use city-owned land for the public good, providing dignified housing for the very farm workers who have helped make Half Moon Bay the vibrant, thriving place it is today, and who are the essential workers that help keep food on our tables.

We recognize the community concerns have been raised, and we commend the city and its partners for responding to centering community voice and feedback in the process.

Now is the time to align on these on the lease recommendations and move toward a vote as soon as possible.

We believe that housing is a cornerstone of a thriving, inclusive community.

These homes will allow senior farm workers to age in place with dignity, close to family services and the community that they helped build and feed.

And that is, and that it is time to finalize the lease and move this project forward.

Thank you for your leadership.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Ken Chan.

And then we're gonna come back into the room.

Uh skipped over Noreen Cooper Havlin, so she will start when we come back into the room.

Okay, thanks.

All right.

Um good evening, Happen Bay City Council members.

My name is Ken Chan, and I'm the senior organizer with the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County.

We work with communities and their leaders to produce and preserve quality affordable homes.

I'd first like to extend our appreciation to staff for the hard work on uh tonight's items report and for bringing us all together tonight.

On behalf of HLC, I'd like to extend our support for the 555 Kelly proposal by Mercy Housing, a nonprofit organization with decades of expertise in creating affordable senior housing throughout the Bay Area and with a notable track record in Half Moon Bay through their management of the coastside senior community at 925 Main Street.

I'd also like to highlight that when leaders like you make good housing policies and decisions, the housing system operates better, and we don't leave the survival of so many people to chance or to luck.

Our systems should help us plan for and provide the critical things that our committee members actually need to live, work, and thrive here in Half Moon Bay.

The 555 Kelly proposal can be a part of those plans by bringing 40 new affordable homes near downtown to some of your city's most vulnerable senior, retired farm worker community members because of their location.

These homes will allow your residents to continue supporting the local community through their patronage of local local neighborhood shops, restaurants, and small businesses.

You'll also be giving the very people who make your city such an attractive place to live access to dignified housing by allowing them to age in place gracefully, close to family, friends, and community.

But this can only happen if you move it across the finish line.

How you choose to respond tonight matters.

Not only will you help make Happen Bay an even more livable and welcoming place, but you'll also have the chance to make a positive historic impact on your community.

We encourage you to seize this opportunity by asking staff to draft both a ground lease and an affordable housing property disposition agreement for the site.

Don't let this moment pass you by.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Ken.

So we're now um coming back into the room.

Um Naureen Havlin will speak, followed by Harvey Rarbach.

So my name is Nori Cooper Havlin, and I'm part of Unitarian Universalists Community and Coast Site Faith in Action.

And I have been with this project since the very beginning when they were asking people for their opinions on what this was gonna look like.

And I've been to most of the city council meetings, and I really don't envy any of you sitting up there right now.

It's very complex, you know, this kind of thing.

But what I truly believe is that we owe some restitution because of the shooting and the killing of what happened back in 2023, and that we got to see how horrible the farm workers, the living conditions were.

And now I'm gonna go to my script because I had three whole minutes.

So I'm here today to speak in favor of approving the next steps for the farm worker housing project at 555 Kelly.

For decades, Half Moon Bay has been built and sustained by the hands of our agricultural workers.

This project represents our community's chance to thank them for that service by offering the essential and dignified housing our senior farm workers deserve.

We celebrate the project at Stone Pine Cove, which will provide 46 uh reasonably priced homes for local farm workers in their prime working years.

But on the other hand, the 555 Kelly project will give elderly retired senior farm workers who have lived in our community for many years access to affordable housing.

The agricultural industry is the backbone of our local economy, and our senior farm workers have toiled for decades to provide the fresh produce we enjoy daily.

Many have lived in substandard, isolated and often unsafe housing because affordable housing options in our expensive area are nearly impossible to find.

Dignified housing has never been clearer, and Half Moon Bay has an opportunity to set a national example with 555 Kelly ensuring our valued agricultural workers can retire with the security they have earned and deserve.

Thank you.

Thank you, Narian.

Our next speaker is Harvey Raarback.

To be followed by Vaughn Harris.

Thank you, Council.

I'm all a new member of uh Coastide Faith in Action.

I think it's a wonderful organization doing really good stuff.

I also was on the council when we approved the uh coastal development permit for 555 Kelly.

Um Half Moon Bay, as Naureen has said, as an agricultural heritage that we really really have not been faithful and honoring.

This project is righteous, it will help many elderly farm workers hired or still working, get dignified housing.

I want to address a couple of the changes from the original uh 2022 request for proposals that I think are steps in the right direction.

I had the privilege of visiting a bunch of portable housing projects in San Mateo County.

And the fact that the new project has the majority one bedroom apartments makes a lot of sense to me.

When I visited the um portable housing units, the uh studios were just not really very dignified.

People did not seem like they were happy in it.

The one-bedroom apartments made a lot more sense.

They really looked like the kind of housing that people would want to live in, not be crammed in.

But I think that change in the mix to more one-bedroom apartments is really a step in the right direction.

The other change has to do with the community resource center, which I think is also a good step.

There was a lot of controversy about whether ALA should be the sole owner of the farm worker resource.

I think this compromise where it's both used by ALS and the community is a step that will allow the community to think that they're part of uh the environment.

Uh the parking situation, I agree is bad, but who knows what's going to happen if we three years after it's built.

I don't think we should deny this project based on the parking issue.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Hari.

Our next speaker is Vaughn Harrison to be followed by Jenny Scholar.

Hi, I'm Vaughn Harrison, a member of Coast Side Jewish Community and Hostside Faith in Action.

And um I um appreciate all the work that folks have been doing to make compromises and answer a lot of the concerns of the people in the community.

I wanted to talk about the preferences.

I think that's a really good idea to have um first people from Happen Bay, then the coastside and then the county um people in at past meetings have said, you know, how are you gonna keep uh make sure that this is for the retired farm retired and senior, still working farm workers here, and um if if you all make an ordinance um for those preferences, I think it's a great idea.

Um the last thing I'm gonna say is that I've heard people around here say, well, if you can't afford to leave live here, then leave.

And that's really hurtful, and um I'm hope that people stop thinking like that and start thinking that um our neighbors need to stay here, just like we want to stay here, and especially our neighbors who have not got generational wealth like uh some of us have.

Thanks.

Thank you, Lon.

Our next speaker is uh Jenny Scoble to be followed by um Saul Miranda.

Um my name's Jenny Scoble.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Oh, I can't remember.

Um I sit and have been sitting for some years on the housing San Mateo County Housing Community Development Committee.

So I'm quite familiar with the affordable housing landscape in San Mateo County, and all the controversies that surround it.

Um, without addressing any of the specifics, I think it's to say it's the measure of the community, how it treats its less fortunate, and I think it's shameful how the coastide has thrown up roadblock after roadblock, uh, with respect to any affordable housing development.

Um it's it's a moral issue, and I think we need to look at it that way.

It's a social justice issue and a moral issue.

So are we going to dwell on parking or are we going to dwell on the well-being of the people who work in our restaurants and take care of our children and pick the crops?

Um, thank you.

Thank you, Jane.

Our next speaker is Saul Miranda, who will be followed by Lisa Warner Carey.

Good evening, council, members of the public.

My name is Saur Miranda, and I'm a district representative for Senator Josh Becker.

And I was requested to join today's meeting to express his request uh his support for the 555 Kelly Affordable Housing Development.

The support letter states, I am pleased to support the 555 Kelly Senior Farm Worker.

Farm worker housing development.

A transformative project in a district that represents the best of local and state partnership in addressing the critical need for affordable housing along the coastside.

The state the state of California has demonstrated its deep commitment to this development through multiple and significant funding awards.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development has committed both two point seventy five million in uh in fill infrastructure grant funding and thirteen point thirty-five million in Joe Cerner Cerna Farm Worker Housing Grant funding to make 55 Kelly a reality.

In addition, my office proudly secured two million state legislative funding with the intention and intention of supporting this initial affordable housing project.

Affordable senior housing for our co-side farm working community could not be more urgent.

Many of the men and women who have spent their lives sustaining our local agricultural economy now struggles to remain in the community that they help build.

The 555 Kelly development presents an opportunity to change that, providing 40 new deeply affordable homes that will offer long-term sus stability, dignity, and community connection for Half Moon Bay's senior farm workers.

I urge the city council to reach a timely consensus on the time on the terms and conditions to be included in a ground lease for the land and an affordable housing property disposition agreement with Mercy Housing.

Acting now will maintain the project's momentum ensuring that a long-term awaiting community asset can be delivered without delay.

The state of California stands firmly behind your efforts.

Okay, but thank you.

And that letter was from Josh Becker, right?

Okay, thanks.

Lisa Warner Carey will next speak, followed by Francisco.

My name is Lisa Warner Carey.

I have lived at Patin Bay for five fifteen years.

I serve as pastor of community united Methodist Church, and I speak tonight as an individual.

Otto Van Bismarck said laws like sausages cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.

And it looks quite messy.

I know there are strong voices in favor and against this project.

I see that you are in a tough position.

Your actions as our city council shape our community.

Your votes speak.

You have the power to say Hack Moon Bay is a community that had our eyes opened and we decided to do better by our farm workers.

You have the power to say our Latino neighbors.

We see you, we hear you, we value you.

You have the power to say that we are one community and our downtown belongs to all.

Rosalind Carter said a leader takes people where they want to go.

The great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be.

You are in a tough situation, and I encourage you to be great leaders.

Thank you for doing this messy, complicated work.

Thank you, Lisa.

Our next speaker is Francisco.

Once again, she's gonna provide her comment and I'll give you a site translation afterwards.

So recruits para nosotros, ya que no están casi en contar renta.

Good afternoon.

My name is Francisca Villalos, and I have been working in agriculture for 26 years.

I hope that today today the council can reach a positive agreement regarding the housing at 555 Kelly.

My fellow farm workers and I see the need for low income housing for ourselves.

Since it's not so easy to find a place to rent, I have found myself in the position of having to rent a room where I can only sleep.

A place where I can rest and relax.

Good evening, Council members.

My name is Sue Holland.

I am a resident of Half Moon Bay.

I'm the pastor of a local church here in town, and I am a member of Faith in Action Coastide.

In the six years that I have been a pastor here in Half Moon Bay, the thing that has impressed me the most about this community is how it comes together to take care of each other and to make sure that our neighbors, especially the most vulnerable among us, have the basic necessities of life, like food and clothing and school supplies and shelter.

When 555 Kelly is completed, it will be another huge and important way that this community will step up to care for our neighbors by making available to our senior farm workers in housing that they can afford, and also the critical services that they need.

Now, like Noreen, since the beginning of this project, I have attended many meetings like this one.

And from the report that we just heard, it seems to me like the comments and the concerns that have been voiced by the community and the council and the building's future residents have been incorporated into the design so that this project will not only meet the needs of the residents but also of the town as a whole.

For example, the mix of the studio, one bedroom, and two-bedroom units, the overall height of the building, the preferences, and the use of the community resource center.

They've all been addressed, just to name a few.

It is commendable that so much progress has already been made on this project, and I appreciate all of the hard work and the due diligence that the council is putting into making this project a success.

I'm here tonight to add my voice to the many others asking the city council to take the next step of coming to consensus on the terms and conditions to be included in the ground lease and the affordable housing property disposition of the minute.

This way the project can continue to move forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Pastor Sue.

Next speaker is Mike Ferrar to be followed by Steve Steve Hyman.

Good evening, council members.

To me, sad to listen to the people pressing for approval for farm worker housing, without considering or knowledge of how we got here, why this has taken so long.

The response to the RFQ was four stories, 40 units.

That seems a little tight, but it meets the city's ordinance.

So what's to oppose, and let's get it done for farm workers.

It was later quite disappointing that there was a new proposal that emerged from planning and to the planning commission for an extra story, somewhat larger units, and a meeting room larger than this room, which we don't talk about tonight.

I haven't heard anything much about that.

Is that really why we're at this position?

Is that really why we've delayed is for this meeting room and for the enlargement of the units?

Is that what has caused our problem?

And there is a problem.

It makes no sense at all that this one area, as we've come to know it, is the only area in Half Moon Bay that has findings that it's at a major transit stop.

This is beyond adventurous rationale.

We're getting into voodoo.

You can't have just one site that is within half a mile of a major transit stop.

I think we really need to come back to reality.

We should have a while ago, give people 40 units.

Thank you.

And if you look at the numbers that are in the response tonight, it talks about the occupancy being increased by four.

Did we have to go through all this just to increase occupancy by four people?

Thank you.

Thank you, Mike.

Next speaker now is Steve Hyman, to be followed by Rocillo of the Garcia.

Thank you very much for letting me speak.

My name is Steve Hyman, and as most of you know, I'm a local real estate broker.

I've also been writing about real estate in the community for the review for 30 years now.

And just to be very clear, I am very pro-rote.

So I would probably approve almost everything that came in front of you.

If I was in your seat, and over the years, while I've covered the city real estate activities and litigation, I have to say I've really been surprised by some of the questions questionable purchases and decisions we made.

But the most outrageous acquisition is the million dollar purchase of the little house on Kelly Avenue that has been vacant for many years that is now morphed into a forty-three million dollar as you call it affordable housing, five story building.

Umrageous as the cost of this building is I have to say the one thing that is even more shocking to me is the lease agreement that you're thinking about doing of one dollar a year for ninety-nine years.

Please think about this.

You have a property with fully approved permits of many unheard of variances that no one else could ever dream of getting that is probably worth around five to ten million dollars, and you are giving this away for one dollar a year for ninety-nine years.

I have to ask who is giving you such terrible advice.

That person, if they were a realtor, could have their license removed or be sued for malpractice.

And if you're not using a realtor to advise you on real estate needs, the question is why not?

Um be honest in making a who are you representing?

Certainly not the residents of Half Moon Bank, because we're only getting out of this one dollar a year while the developer is making tens of millions of dollars in profit.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Steve.

Our next speaker is Rosio Rocio of the Garcia to be followed by Chad Hooker.

Once again, counsel, uh she's gonna provide you with a comment and I'll do a site translation afterwards.

Hello, good evening to everybody.

My name is Rocio Avila.

I'm a uh member of the committee for uh affordable housing.

It's a pleasure to see you all again because I haven't been coming to these uh meetings in the past, not because I don't want to or because I I don't care, it's because I'm uh studying English, so that way I can one of these days uh come here and not need somebody like Victor to interpret for me and really express um all my comments the way that I really feel what I'm asking is for you to consider the Latino population as citizens, we also pay taxes and with our money five five five Kelly was also purchased.

Sometimes I feel like you talk about the Latino community as we were some kind of charity case, and that we don't provide anything um to the city.

We are citizens, we pay taxes, and we want 555 Kelly um to better the conditions of the lives of people uh uh older people that have contributed to Hapmo Bay working in the fields their entire life.

Uh Mr.

Sunoki is here present, and he's um lived his whole life working, and I can assure you that if he continu he if he could continue to big to pick Brussels sprouts, he would, but he can't anymore.

Why because unfortunately sometimes um illnesses uh and disease come that impede uh somebody from doing the work, the hard work that we do as farm workers, and I don't think that any person here that earns minimum wage would do the same work that we do.

So I'm asking um for not this for this not to go any longer and please begin to take action.

Thank you very much.

Our next speaker is Chad Hooker, who will be followed by Alex Anteeros.

Good evening, Council.

This is uh a long process involved in some of it.

Um I'm in favor of this project.

I think it has been uh changed significantly since it first came in front of us, and uh I don't think the question in front of you is whether this project should be passed or not.

I think the question now is what goes on with the lease, and the ground lease as Steve pointed out.

We need some serious attention, there's a lot of value to that property.

And for them to make the claim they need to get this for a dollar a year for a century is pretty ludicrous.

Um my concern is that is the parking load from this project will severely impact this this side of town.

In that regard, I met with uh at uh I met with Kiki and uh Mercy rep whose name I do not recall now.

She told me that Mercy was and I quote investigated, they were investigating additional parking, even though the project cannot be denied because of state law for parking use.

My suggestion is that the lease that the city uh negotiates should request a resolution to this parking issue is provided by Mercy.

I know that state law doesn't allow you to tell them they can't build this because of parking, but I suggested to them in my in that meeting, and I've brought it up with some other people that there is adjacent underutilized property in this neighborhood that Mercy could afford to buy and develop parking there.

So when you get into the lease negotiations, I I think that's something you should do.

Be aware that Mercy built into their pro forma two point two million dollars as a developer's fee, that was the amount of money that the city of Happen Bay had in its low-income housing uh account, and that went to Mercy, they've got their developer fee, and then I've looked at a lot of pro forms of a lot of construction projects over the years.

42 million dollars is the latest number on this for 40 units, and there's a ton of money in this thing.

It doesn't all need to go to Mercy.

This can go to some parking for this side of town in addition to the project, and that'll that'll save the businesses, the residents, the visitors that come to this side of town.

Parking is already impacted here.

I live downtown.

I use the muffler shop on P Reason.

You go there, there's nowhere to park already.

The parking load will be difficult.

So please look carefully at both of these.

Thank you, Chad.

Our next speaker is Alex Monteveros.

Sorry if I'm mispronouncing your name, and after after Alex, we're gonna go back to our remote participants, and the next person speaking from the remote list is uh Ellen Ellen's iPad.

City Council, thank you for the opportunity to address you all with some comments.

I'm gonna read something that most of us are very familiar with, something that we all decided to, especially when we're in elementary school.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, the republic for which it stands one nation individually, but liberty for just and justice for all.

I want to focus on that last line and justice for all.

What does that mean?

What does that mean in the context of what we're discussing right now?

There was a tragedy that happened a couple of years ago.

People are talking about numbers and what it means.

Funding is being secured, I think it is time that we remember that last line in Justice Bra.

Put food on our table on a daily basis, let's remember that.

Someone earlier spoke about doing the honorable thing.

I think this does mean that we need to remember that.

What does honor look like as we move forward?

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Alex.

Our next speaker is online, Ellen, followed by Lynette.

Good evening, City Council members and city staff.

My name is Ellen Haig.

I've lived on the coast for 50 years, and I've been a leader with coastside faith in action and faith in action Bay Area for over two decades.

Over these many years, concern for the well-being of all members of our community, has inspired me to support affordable and low-income housing.

The 555 Kelly Avenue Project is a well-thought-out and well-designed development that will greatly improve and benefit the lives of our farm workers.

This is a beautiful opportunity to honor our farm workers and to recognize the contributions and sacrifices they make every day working in the fields.

The farm workers deserve our respect and the dignified housing that 550 555 Kelly will provide.

Earlier this evening, the words competing interests were mentioned.

In my faith tradition, the preferential option for the poor and vulnerable is a principle of Catholic social teaching that calls for prioritizing the needs of the poor and marginalized in personal action and public policy.

This means a reordering of priorities to ensure the dignity of all people is upheld and their needs are met.

Thank you so much to all those who have tirelessly contributed to the progress made thus far.

Please see that 555 Kelly becomes a reality and an answer to the hopes and dreams of our retired farm workers.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lynette.

We now have our last two speakers, Alice Linsmeyer first, to be followed by Sid Young.

And the one after Sid Young, which is what we agreed to earlier.

So Alice Linsmeyer next, please.

I think this is Lynette Curthois, actually.

That was not Lynette Curth.

So hi, I'm Lynette Curthois, and I am a resident of Half Moon Bay, and I have lived and worked on this beautiful coast for almost 30 years.

I've spoken at prior meetings of this council and the planning commission, written letters about this project because I'm very supportive of welcoming this wonderful project to our community, and I thank this council and all who have been working to make it a reality.

I'm very familiar with the area.

I drive by it every day on my way to work, as well as to go to doctor appointments, fitness classes, Pilates classes, play pickleball, go to the farmers market.

My kids went to Cunha.

I'm on that street all hours of every day, all week long.

And I know that sometimes there is traffic, sometimes there is parking challenges, but it's very episodic and it's very manageable, and it's well worth it to have the benefits of providing dignified housing for our farm workers.

And most importantly, I think that having compact, dense development in our core like that.

I know it's a bit tall, but I think it's it's actually not all that much taller than the gym across the street and the church and cunha.

And given the setting, I think about it every day when I drive by it as I'm waiting for some day to see construction start.

I think it will fit in very fine with those other tall buildings.

And it also allows us to have a lot of housing without taking up farmland and open space and having this kind of development in the urban center.

It reduces traffic because there's fewer vehicle trips, and it's it's a priority use on our coastal act and our local priority use as well.

So I just don't understand the resistance to it.

I think if the tallest building in our town, as um Eric DeBode once said, is farm worker housing.

Wow, that's something I would be very proud of.

And I appreciate the perseverance of Alice and Mercy Housing.

It's not easy to get things built in Half Moon Bay, but we've seen that with perseverance, it does happen.

Our beautiful library, the wonderful gym and event center across the street.

I'm so proud of all those things, and I look forward to welcoming this project to our community.

It's been going on for so long, and I think the key issues have really been addressed, the design issues, the parking issues, and it's time for the council to do the right thing and move forward with the lease agreements.

I don't have concerns about the price of the lease because I think that it's part of the city's doing to support this wonderful project.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lynnette.

Our next speaker is Alice Linsmeyer, followed by Sid Young.

Thank you so much, Mayor Brownstone and City Council members.

I just want to point out this huge gift that we have right in front of us.

We have the gift of farm workers who are giving us our daily bread and food and keep us sustained and our the gift they bring to our economy.

I think you might have seen the recent uh newspaper article, how much more revenue they have brought in.

And also more than anything for me, I and with the gift that I have with working with farm workers is just the inspiration that they give.

How they work for us under such hard and now scary conditions in our country.

And they brave that all the with the gift of giving us some food.

So the other gift is the city.

Um, you know, your response around the farm marketing housing needs and uh for this population.

City manager Chittister's worked hard, Mayor Brownstone and Council, all working for decent affordable farm worker housing.

Um, in addition, the another gift is Mercy Housing and a really trusted community organization, Alice, that works tirelessly with a community to be able to provide services and just connect all of us together.

Um, it's it's the it's all that you're doing, it's the right thing to do, and I'm really grateful for all of you for doing that.

Um, we don't want to do the justice delayed is justice denied because this is something that is needed to do now.

Um it's the time to bring uh this whole project forward to show the farm workers that we are grateful for the generous gift that they give to our community and economy.

And let Hapmoon Baby the light and example in these dark times that we show that we care for the most vulnerable and essential senior farmworker housing.

So thank you so much for working on this and look forward to you all moving it forward.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alice.

Uh, our last speaker is Sid Young.

Thank you so much.

I waited a long time.

I actually went and attended a Monterra Water and Sanitary District meeting and came back in time to raise my hand.

Um, I live in Moss Beach, so I'm not a NIMBY on this project.

I think it's a worthwhile project.

I am concerned about the height and now the increased density of 86 residents.

But my main concern is the parking.

Um, for Hafma Bay residents and business owners in the surrounding areas.

The review mentioned that there'll be giving out vouchers, but they didn't say if they would be for the existing property owners in the area or only for future renters.

And I do attend city council meetings in person sometimes, not just on Zoom at Ted Edcott.

And if I park in the handicap lot, that's gonna be gone.

So, where will the building once the building is built?

I don't know if there's gonna be any places to park if you're going to allow the farm workers to park in the new lot, the the reconfigured lot at night.

So, where will the city council attendees park if you allow the lot to be used for 555 Kelly residents?

That's a question, not criticizing, I'm just saying that's a concern of mine, and of course, Happen Bay residents attend your meetings too.

Um, because Mercy Housing will pocket the bonus density credits.

They'll they are allowed to underprovide parking for 555 Kelly.

17 spots for a potential 86 occupants.

It doesn't pencil out.

I think Chad Hooker had some good ideas.

Um, and you don't even count for guests that may come to visit the people that live there.

So do what's right for everyone, the renters and the locals.

Otherwise, I can foresee a game of musical parking spots.

Everybody's searching.

I used to live in the city on Russian Hill, and we would get home at night and we'd be circling the block looking for that evasive parking spot, and it was stressful.

Especially if we had groceries in the car.

So think about it and um try to find a good workable solution because the people that you eventually put there, maybe they'll be happy to just have a par uh place to live, but it's stressful to not have a parking place if you have a car.

So they may still be driving to Pescadero and pickup trucks.

And when they get home, they're gonna need to park those trucks.

So please think about that for them.

Okay, thanks a lot.

And uh, the long meeting, but you did a good job.

Uh, I do want to say one thing.

When you have the camera way in the back, we can't hear anybody at the podium when we're on Zoom.

So speak up or raise your volume on your microphones.

Thank you.

I don't know if Deborah might be able to say whether she could hear people, but that closes public comment.

Thank you very much, everybody.

If everyone uh could please take their seats, we're going to resume.

Thank you very much.

Okay, we're going to resume.

First thing is I seems like I accidentally missed a speaker's card here.

Um, so our next speaker for three minutes will be uh Belinda Ariaga.

Good evening, council.

Thank you so much.

Tonight I'm really gonna just talk a little bit from the heart.

Um, putting all politics aside, I really wanted you to look at our farm workers here tonight to see their eyes, to see their hands, to see the hard labor they've toiled with, and just to really see them for who they are.

They, along with so many others, are really counting on you, and they're counting on us to make this vote happen.

They have dreams and hopes, just like all of us, and time and time again, they've shared with me their hopes to live in a warm, safe home here in Happen Bay in a place that they love, in a place that has become home for them after they've you know come here many times, leaving their own families behind, they are not the other, they are us.

There will always be opinions against five five five Kelly, but I'm asking you to reach down inside and find all the reasons to say yes.

We have folks across the country so excited about the work that's being done here in Happen Bay because they're looking at us as a national model of how to treat our farm workers and how to give them dignified housing when in so many other places it's always a no.

We can be the first to say yes.

We can say yes because these are our elders that have given so much for each of us, and no, they are not retired.

I've seen eighty-year-old farm workers working out in the fields and sharing with me how they have to work because they don't have retirement for many of them, and housing is all they will have.

This home will be all they will have.

It should be a yes because they deserve to retire in a home that welcomes them with open arms into our community.

It should be a yes because downtown belongs to all of us, and they should have every opportunity to thrive and live in a space full of community and not hidden isolated and in spaces where they're not visible.

It should be a yes because they are the hardest workers I know.

It should be a yes because five five five Kelly is a right thing to do, and tonight, today, and every day, there really is no humanizing reason to say no, they're counting on you, and finally to close, we recently had the honor of meeting Pope Francis, and he left an impression on me with these words.

Migrants are not burdens, they are messengers of hope.

They are the hope in our community, and we are counting on you to hope with them.

Thank you.

Thank you, Melinda.

No applause, please, but thank you.

Okay, um, we are back to council discussion.

Um staff's gonna need a little guidance.

Next steps will, you know, figuring figure out what things we feel have been resolved.

There were questions asked by council members.

There's some responses by Mercy.

Um we may need a little more extensive responses on some of those questions.

Uh things that are resolved.

Um we could have um some of these agreements to begin the drafting on the things that are resolved, and then have um more robust responses uh again for Mercy and staff on the things that weren't yet resolved, and you know, just keeping the ball rolling here.

So our next meeting's next week, so we probably wouldn't get obviously too much done by then, but some decisions now about what we can start having drafted and then what things we need more information about would be great.

So let's have that discussion would be great.

Um I just wanna thank everybody that spoke tonight.

I took a lot of notes, what everybody has said.

A lot of the things were addressed that I felt was pretty important to me, the community room, which I want to thank our ad hoc for doing that because we had been talking about that.

Uh I wanna thank uh Chad Hooker and and the planning commission for doing the visual aesthetics of the building and how it's transformed.

Uh I wanna thank staff for you know I want them to focus on things that I think the community needs to, you know, be addressed as traffic, safety, bicycle pedestrians, cars, uh, parking.

I'm not trying to say that's a killer on this project, but when we add a load to our city that's already overburdened, we have to have an answer for it.

For us to now park down the street, and I'm not talking I don't care, I can walk, I'll walk further down, but you start getting people that can't walk and need to be closer to this building to gain access, and now they have to park further down, it creates a little change.

So I don't know what the answer is, and I ran some answers with PK just a moment ago.

We had some discussion about this alternative parking.

He came up to me and told me that that building that they bought that's the old post office.

They are gonna try to do that, employee parking or things like that, and it's exactly what we had to do at the Ritz-Carlton when we got that approved when I was on planning commission.

The Als Dairy was now for is being utilized for employee parking, and then they bust the employees from the Al Dairy into the Ritz Carlton.

So that's creative thinking outside the box.

So we need to have those kinds of things here because when we burden everybody, we're all in this together, and we all have to deal with it together.

So if if something's gonna come in and burden the community, we wanted to to have some kind of answers and burden it as as little as possible.

And then the only thing I just keep coming up with is the parking.

Um if we can get that resolved a little bit better.

We didn't get any increased amounts.

We still have the same numbers, that's why I was asking.

We just got a reconfiguration parking lot.

So I was kind of misdeed there.

I thought we were gaining a couple, but all we're gonna get is a little bit of fung shui, is what I'm thinking is what we're gonna get.

Plus we have a driveway going into the building, so I think that meant it had to be wider, it had to be more space.

So I'm not sure exactly, looked at the plans.

Other than that, I mean, there's all the concerns that everybody has brought up needs to be addressed, and that's why we're here.

It does take time, but this has been a community involvement from day one.

Now, if you take how it began and the project was first, I was not part of it.

I got into it late, but I've been watching and learning the whole time.

I've been with a loss and had many meetings with them, and they shared with me all the little tweaks and all the little things that every little thing that like Chad Hooker there's a lot of details in that building that I see Chad has and I actually sat in his house.

Chad pointed out all the things that he did.

And these are things that the community went and looked at the boards and said, Yeah, that looks really good.

That looks really good.

Almost the same thing with the Hyatt.

That project was the same thing.

There was m numerous community involvement, and that's the way things have to be done.

I think it's appropriate that way.

And I think I've seen a lot of changes and and all the inputs should be addressed somewhat in some way, in some fashion.

Thank you.

And thank you for the community for uh showing up, uh providing input.

I I did have a question because I heard it a couple of times about this whole uh order of uh city coast county that if we have an ordinance that has that, that means the Fed monies can't won't override that.

I was a little confused.

If you have Fed dollars, could somebody from a county outside of San Mateo apply?

I mean, I don't know, or does our local ordinance override all that to ensure nope?

This is the it's only gonna be half Moon Bay, Coastide and County, you know, San Mateo County.

I guess I should say San Mateo County, not just A county.

Uh so I'll have ask Mercy to see if they can elaborate.

My understanding is that the state funding sources would defer to the uh local ordinance.

Um, of course, uh, you know, any funder could create their own strings attached, so um uh if if there were funders that were being contemplated that would not defer to the local ordinance, I think we'd we would want to hear that, and maybe Mercy can confirm.

But my understanding is that um that uh the the current funding sources uh would defer to our local preferences, and that'd be he said state uh I mean Fed dollars too, right?

I believe it's only state dollars in terms of the housing.

So so the housing pro forma that's attached to the staff report when you look at it, there's no federal dollars included, and and we've had that conversation with Mercy and the only federal dollars that are currently anticipated, and my understanding is they wouldn't pursue any others is the funding for the resource center, and that obviously doesn't impact the the housing itself, so um would love um confirmations from Mercy on this, but I I think the understanding is we're gonna put restrictions on it, and and Mercy's gonna be really creative to find that funding to meet those restrictions.

Um yeah, just to confirm um there's no plan to seek or use federal funds except for the federal funding that's already been committed for the resource center.

Um we're purposely trying to avoid federal funds um for this development.

Um so we would be using state and um county funding, and um both entities uh defer if there is a city ordinance that articulates preferences for the occupancy of the development.

And that's yet to be adopted.

We don't have a ordinance.

Correct.

I think I had something on that one.

Um, it'd be on that train of thought.

Go ahead.

I just I just want to point out that that I remember being in these meetings, and that was one thing that was brought up numerous times, is we want to assure that this housing goes for half Boom Bay people.

I just I can't tell you how many times that was, and that was drilled into the head.

So you guys bringing this forward to me, I think was appropriate.

And I know you have to put this whole chain of like now we brought the coast, the coast site.

That isn't a very important thing.

So, the due diligence that you guys are doing, Alaska's doing for this and mercy's doing, is you're listening to the people.

They're speaking, and you're making an action towards it.

This is the proper way to do it.

So I really appreciate that because now I'm seeing things that I can check off.

They spoke, you made a a change in direction.

Thank you.

And you know, just want to acknowledge it was Deborah Penrose that really insisted on the preferences, and we spent several sessions working on it with our attorneys.

Our collective attorneys.

And then I agree with um, but council member Johnson had mentioned about you know the parking.

I still think parking, the parking, you know, we we should we say worry about it later.

I've always been trained.

I'm a trained registered civil engineer, I've worked in cities, parking we've always addressed at the time of a project.

This is why I bring up about you know this bonus density that was approved at a time for a major transit stop that we no longer have, but we still don't want to address parking.

Should we address make sure we've addressed the parking sufficiently?

I'm hung up on that and I to me it's a concern.

I I know it's an issue now, and I do believe it it will be.

I know there was talk of this DTS study and I I listening to I remember uh some of the planning commission meetings, there were some questions being asked about it where exactly the and I don't have the report in front of me, I don't I'm gonna go look at it now, but what the those numbers actually were derived from and making sure it's apples to apples, not apples to oranges and any other um housing supported it was farm worker housing and not just another senior housing project because I farm worker housing is me is different than uh some of the other housing projects, but and and that's why I was follow up has any staff done any um analysis at Moon Ridge or Main Street housing just to see if there's any numbers we can have because I keep hearing both sides it's there's too much parking or there's no w it won't have that much parking.

So I I don't know any any of that's been done, but that's just something maybe locally we could actually look at what was approved, which is actually maybe being used, but um again I I think the parking and where I would like to make sure we've addressed one more thought on that.

On the parking.

When we were doing the boys and girls club back in the day, and that was a whole drawn-out process and it took forever, so I mean it's just as long as what you guys have been dealing with here, not longer.

The number one problem that we were having, and I remember sitting in here on the planning commission was parking.

And so we had parking problems then.

We have parking problems now, and we're gonna have more parking problems.

So that's the reason why it keeps coming out of from me, because it never really got resolved even at the boys and girls level.

That was a big and we it packed the room here.

We packed the room.

It was all about the parking and safety.

And like I said, Chad Hooker was the one that brought up the let's do the crosswalk and have it lit up and all and that helped eliminate so we need answers like that.

Creative thinking outside the box and answers.

Thank you.

Safe a safe walkway from um five five five Kelly to wherever the beach or to the Safeway shopping center or all the other shopping centers, what for not having cars, how are folks going to get around?

Is it all w is there gonna be walking?

They're gonna ride bicycles, is that gonna be safe?

Is everything gonna be on demand?

I I don't know, but I as we know I I brought up concerns about the safety, whether um uh the intersection Kelly and Highway One and there's no place to walk on highway one, especially if you're heading towards if you're heading south, but if you're heading north, there's nowhere safe areas to walk.

I'm always will be concerned about that.

Um and if we get into any land agreement, is uh are week I strictly into a dollar per year?

Is that something that can be negotiated or not?

Just because all the funding and everything that's been going forward?

I don't know.

Just is is that a possibility.

I because I've heard uh some of the community members ask about that.

But I don't know if the grants have been based on the numbers that have already been provided.

Okay, uh Vice Mayor Rudder.

Yeah, I would have to join my fellows Johnson and Nagengast on the parking issue.

Um I'm concerned about this proposal of allowing overnight parking starting at 7 30 p.m., uh when we have two council meetings a month, you know, two planning commission meetings a month.

Not always, but sometimes.

And then there's use of the event center in the evenings.

Um, so I think I'd I would like us to revisit that plan.

Um the applications for the low-income housing tax credits aren't due until mid-next year.

So I think we have time to to look at the parking issue, and I think we should.

Uh, I'm also concerned that we're not talking about what's going to happen on the weekends.

Um I want to protect parking for um, you know, the farmers market.

Um so how are we gonna deal with weekend parking?

I'd like to see some overnight parking at the um a lost post office building.

Um so I think we need to look in more detail about the parking issue and try to satisfy that before we, you know, adopt a property agreement or a lease agreement.

I think that'll be helpful in terms of public support.

So I I want us to spend some time on that.

Um I also would like to see the operating budget for the project.

Um not looking to stop the project as others have mentioned, but I think we ought to see that the uh the thing is financially feasible and they have an operating budget, you know, that makes sense.

So I'd like to see that too.

Um but the primary thing right now is is to deal with the parking.

I think we really need a parking garage someplace.

I think we need to double down on our efforts for some sort of downtown parking facility that would solve a lot of problems.

We probably have another um affordable housing project on South Main Street coming forward in the coming year, and um there's gonna be limited parking requirements for it, and already South Main Street is taken up by parking overnight.

I don't know what the new people would do.

I think we're really getting into a crisis place on parking, so I really want to address that, and I think it would make everybody happy, but the presidents who live in 555 Kelly, the people who use the TED Adcock and the the farmers market and the school.

I'm sure the school is is concerned about it too.

So that's that's the the sticking point for me, and I I think it's solvable, um, with some creative thinking, but I think we need to do that.

I think that would make everybody happy.

So that's where I am on that.

Is that it?

Yeah, yes.

Um thank you.

Um next wanna hear from um council member Penrose.

Thank you.

Yeah, um when we decided we were gonna have a farmer's market in Shoreline Station.

Nobody said, Oh, we can't do that because too many people, too many cars are gonna come in.

Um, so we can't have a farmers market because of parking issues.

When we built the boys and girls club gym, we didn't say, oh no, we can't have a gym for the kids because there's no parking.

I'm sorry, I can't buy this argument as being something that will stop a necessary, a necessary project for so many people who deserve it.

Now, I'm I can't go there with it.

Yes, I'd love to discuss a parking garage.

I agree with you, Councilmember Ruddick.

I'd love to have a parking garage, and I think we ought to be double down and look at that.

And I do think there are things that we could creatively do to make parking less of an issue.

But number one, we did a parking study.

We did that before this project even hardly got off the ground.

We had the parking study done.

And that parking study done said that this project is not going to materially affect parking in the area.

We also know that we're dealing with retired folks and older folks and farmers who don't necessarily even have cars.

When you talk about them bringing their pickup trucks down, I don't know where that's coming from.

But we're not talking about people that are going to abuse our city.

So I don't buy that argument.

I find it very upsetting to even hear it being discussed.

Why not try to accommodate everybody?

I'm still talking, Debbie.

Moonridge is not equivalent to this project.

So talking about the parking at Moonbridge has nothing to do with this project.

Why that's brought up, I don't understand.

I don't, I don't get it.

It doesn't work in the fields.

Yeah, well, the parking study that was done early on didn't account for a major community resource center that would have a lot of different intents of uses for one.

So to just abandon the idea of parking altogether to accommodate this development, I think is wrong because I think it's solvable.

I think we can at least minimize the impacts with some creative thinking, and I think we should.

We should try to accommodate everybody rather than trading one good for another in terms of the parking issue.

So like I said, there's time to look at this, and I think we should.

Yeah, no, I have no objection to looking at the problem.

I think you know, parking is an issue for everybody.

Parking has been an issue in this town for as long as I've been around.

I sometimes have to park two or three spots away from the spot right in front of my house, for God's sake, and I'm right on Kelly at City Hall.

So because I have to move my car two spots down.

I don't find that too much of a burden.

I think that um, I don't think parking is the issue that I want to be making my decision on tonight.

You say we have plenty of time.

Everybody says there are all sorts of creative things we can do.

By all means, let's do them.

Let's look at it.

Let's see what else we can do.

But it has nothing to do with my decision tonight.

Thank you.

So based on what you've heard so far, I just want to go back to staff.

And all the uh questions that we've had and things that have been resolved to some extent versus some things that we still need more information.

Do you have enough in terms of the things that have been resolved to um you know for Mercy to start drafting some of the agreements on the pieces that are resolved versus some of the issues that haven't?

You know, we're talking about parking, we want to hear more.

Um Paul mentions uh some questions around safety and part of that is information about, you know, from the commun, you know, from the folks who might be living there, because you asked some good questions like how would they safely get to shopping at a supermarket?

How would they get to the beach?

And my sense is there might be a lot of other services that might be taking care of that, but I'd like to find that out, you know, before I assume anything from um uh, you know, folks who know that community and be we're working with that community.

Um regarding, you're right.

The the qu you know, the one dollar lease thing comes up, but in my experience with public housing and talking to folks, that's really really common.

The big thing that you need is a city donates the land.

And um, you know, Steve Hyman bought, well, but wait a minute, that land could be worth millions of dollars.

That's right, that's why it's such a big thing to get any of these projects going, is a city basically donates the land period.

So the real the one dollar is um, I don't know if that's some sort of legal legacy from million years ago that you have to have some consideration.

Consideration, that's the word I was thinking of, thank you, uh, for a contract.

So one dollar, that's where the one dollar comes in.

Um it's not something that's negotiable, non-negotiable, it's just part of how you get public housing done uh in in a city.

So um, but the safety things, yeah.

You know, I'm really interested in that and hearing more from Alice, uh, about how some of those needs get taken care of if people were saying many of them won't have cars and yeah, how will they get around?

What does that look like?

Um just to know more about that.

Um yeah, parking.

You know, I grew up in New York City, so I have kind of this weird bias, like oh my god, you have no idea what parking hassles are like, you know, but um park five miles away from the restaurants, to get anywhere.

There's a lot of public transportation, of course, too.

But um, yeah, but if, you know, I think uh we can get creative about parking.

I don't think it's a uh showstopper, but if that's what people are concerned about, then let's uh let's see if we can address those concerns, and um yeah, it'd be great to have a parking lot one day, but that's not what's being resolved, you know.

You know, for 555 Kelly.

So if we can um, so that's how I think we should proceed.

We should get what we can in writing on the things that we have and start getting more information from Mercy about some of the things that we might need a little more detail on, and um we'll come back first week of November, then probably not for our next meeting with some of that.

Does that work for Mercy to start getting some things in writing that we feel there's agreement on and bring back to council as well as new information on the things that we haven't quite resolved yet.

Well they say they have an operating budget and I'd like to see sorry sorry sorry to thanks thanks for the reminder and also uh the operating budget so you can make sure there um you know it feels like there's sustainable income coming in uh with an operating budget to handle um maintenance etc and all the other things to keep this an ongoing project okay the mayor yeah yeah wait wait oh yeah I can you and then yeah okay Patrick yeah I just want to point out the project I'm in favor um I like it it's it's it's done what it's the community is shaping and during break we're talking to Kiki they we're already talking about we got a couple stalls over at your at the post office right that could be for the the one of the managers or the nurse or something kind of the idea we talked about the British crowd that's what I was talking to you guys about we already got maybe two three four stalls I'm just saying open dialogue we've already got an answer we've got four new stalls potentially they can work out the details and we just keep plugging away and it will happen.

Thank you for that yeah I want to address one thing that has happened that I'm really very happy about and that is the idea that we now have in this project a community space and by that I mean a community that includes Latinos and non-Latinos it includes farm workers and retail workers and that it includes all of us I think the idea that we can somehow bring the different elements in our city together in one spot is a beautiful beautiful idea.

And I think that that's what we ought to be aiming toward is not isolated projects for the poor or for or middle class housing which by God we certainly need that's that should be our next big priority is try to get everybody else housed in this town but the idea is this is a space that can be used for all of us to bring all of us together and so I'm tickled about that thank you.

Thank you Tyra Matthew.

Thank you Mr.

Mayor and and everybody so I I just want to kind of synthesize what I've heard and and what I think are next steps.

I think based on the discussion tonight and the really specific and direct feedback we've gotten um I do think we can have mercy start moving forward with drafting the agreement you know there's been a lot of questions about those agreements well the way to answer that is to have something to respond to it doesn't mean we're voting on it immediately it doesn't mean that any agreements have been made but at least you start to see the language and that is going to address some of the other concerns that have come up.

So I do think that is the next step.

I think there's questions that Mercy needs to answer based on the questions we've received tonight more detail more specifics more clarity so that people don't feel like they're wishy washy that they're defined and and we can rely on them going forward and then I think there's steps staff need to take based on the direction we've heard tonight about um parking and safety and and I feel like we've got enough direction that we can start pressing forward.

Obviously we've got some challenges in that area after just losing our public works director but we've got some great staff that have stepped up and we're trying to bring bring in some resources and we can focus some of those resources on addressing some of these issues.

Um I don't think we're gonna commit to the first meeting in November yet.

I think that that might be a challenge.

Um, and there's a lot I think already coming on that agenda, but I think everybody wants to move this forward.

Um, you know, we want to keep the pace now.

We've we've made a lot of progress tonight.

Let's keep the pace forward.

And um, you know, the goal is to address council concerns, address community concerns, and reach that consensus so that at some point we have a document that we feel like is ready to be voted on.

So um I I think we're we're there, we'll we'll meet with Mercy shortly.

Um I do have a question.

Do we want to continue utilizing the ad hoc to facilitate these meetings and move things forward, or are we at a different place?

And then I'll just also share.

Um, we were reminded tonight by uh a representative from Josh Becker's office that there's funding that is meant to be for this project to help move the project forward pre-development.

And um I think that's another thing that we're gonna be working on is bringing the agreement forward so we can get that money to mercy because it was not intended for us, it was intended to go to Mercy for this project.

So a couple of things that'll be um ahead of us here shortly.

Um I'd like to keep the discussion at the whole council level moving forward.

So staff would you're you would be saying that staff would work with Mercy just to keep things moving forward, but the the discussion with council would be with the whole council in public meetings at this point.

Yes, yeah, I'm fine with that.

I'm fine with that too.

Yeah, that's great.

Yeah, I think that uh we we can we yeah, we've come far, so that's good.

I think we're at a place where we don't need to keep having the middle meetings and um and if we need to schedule another meeting in addition to the November meeting, just focus on that.

That's fine.

I would just like we have some momentum.

I'd like to see it continue here.

So that's great.

Great.

Okay.

Um we did it.

It's been a long meeting, took in a lot of information.

I strongly believe that um, you know, a lot of folks have used the word beacon.

This is a beacon project.

And I believe in that.

This project stands out as a beacon of what a small community can do to really um be there for all its citizens.

It's um not a lot of projects like this, and uh I'm proud of this community for working through their differences and see if we can make this happen for folks who are often invisible and don't get a chance for dignity in retirement and work back breaking hours in our fields, and um so I'm proud of this community for with all our differences working through it, and seeing all the things going on in this country where I don't feel democracy is working really well.

I feel that this it does stand out as democracy in action.

And um I love it.

It's only what a small town can do sometimes.

So uh it's a great thing to see.

So thank you everyone for staying up late, sticking with us, and um I wish you all peace.

Take care.