Here.

Mayor Reddick.

Here.

We have a quorum.

So we have a couple items on our agenda this evening.

The first one is a study session related to legal property documents that the city has to consider in order to effectuate this project.

So because there are so many people and probably more online I can't see.

So this is a study session.

We're going to be talking about two different documents.

So we're going to start.

Sorry.

Is it a long presentation?

Yeah, the other side.

I think we start with the public.

Yeah.

And uh actually uh Councilmember Nagengast is gonna make a statement first.

Go ahead, Paul.

Thank you.

For the record, before we begin on both of the items relating to 555 Kelly, I'd like to disclose that prior to my time on the City Council, I filed an appeal regarding this project as a private resident.

I have considered this matter and confirmed that I have no personal or financial interest in this matter.

And I want I want to state that I will consider the lease agreement and the affordable housing property disposition agreement as well as the potential extension of the ENA based on the documents before the council, the staff report, and public comments.

I've heard some really negative things about me, some of them have been borderline threats.

But having work in city government in sp and I've worked in this town of Half Moon Bay.

I know passions run strong.

Those that know me know that I don't judge who you are.

So that's I just wanted to make those statements because I've heard a lot of things out there, and I just felt it's important to start what I did.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Nagengast.

I'll just make a just in case it comes up.

Uh Councilmember Johnson is under the weather this evening and will not be attending.

Um he sends his regrets.

So I'm going to begin with Patty Ramirez.

Patty, are you here?

She will be followed by Lucy Miller.

Okay.

Okay.

It is a glad I will.

She's going to read it and then I'm going to do a site translation.

You can lower it for her too.

Okay.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, members of the council.

I want to appreciate the opportunity to express myself.

La vivienda no es únicamente una structura física.

Las familias viven en la constante preocupación de no saber si podrán permanecer in un lugar donde trabajan.

Esta presión constante de theory mental debilita la cohesión social y limita la capacidad de las personas para prosperar.

Pero hoy quiero enfocarme, hoy quiero enfocar su atención in un grupo que sostiene silenciosamente nuestra economía, la comunidad campesina y los trabajadores esenciales.

Son las manos que cultivan nuestros alimentos, quienes mantienen funcionando nuestros servicios básicos, quienes cuidaron de nuestras ciudades durante los momentos más difíciles.

Sin embargo, muchos de ellos no pueden permitirse vivir in las mismas comunidades que ayudan a sustenerse.

Esta contradicción no solo es moralmente problemática, sino estructuralmente.

Kelly, I was the last one person there.

And I remember when Pen the Council mayor and that time it was Pen Rose.

I'm asking the same.

Nicholas, do you want to read her statement quickly?

Yes, yes.

I'm here not only to present an argument, but also to remind you reality that sometimes is hidden behind statistics and reports.

not knowing if they can stay in a place where they in the place where they work where they educate their children and they contribute to the to the social uh well being this pressure uh this pression this constant pressure uh deteriorates the mental health develop um weakens the social cohesion and limits the capacity of the people to prosper but oi i today i want to focus in on the attention of a group that is supporting uh silently our economy the the the agricultural community and the essential workers they are the hands that that cultivate our food who might uh who support uh the functioning of our basic services who care uh for our city during the the moments the the worst moments besides that many uh many of them they cannot afford living in the same community that they are helping to support this contradiction not only is uh morally problematic but struct but uh structurally in so sustainable from the persp juridic uh from the political policy perspective the access to uh accessible housing it shouldn't be considered unique uh only as a social initiative but as an strategic inversion in the economic stability and lab and labor of the region when the session essential workers have to uh displace uh and move for long distances to find an accessible dwelling uh that uh increases the cost of transportation diminishes produtivity and the i and weakens the resiliency of the local economy uh thank you could you stay there for a minute I want to check in what is our policy when we have Spanish speakers in terms of time allotted right so it depends on how the translation is completed um what what happened here is the speaker did all of their comments in Spanish so they're given two minutes and then the translation takes as long as it needs to take if it's a back and forth translation we give them four minutes and you know however long it takes for them to speak and the translation happens there it's limited to that four minutes.

Well I think Nicholas ought to explain that for this meeting so that people you know abide by those standards so if you could do you need it to be repeated again for you Nicholas what the policy is here I want to you want me to say it in Spanish to the all the presidents in espanoly necessitan interpretation de esta manera dos minutos solo dos minutos para expressarse leer lo que tienen y luego yo voy a estar interpretando si lo van a hacer de manera consecutive expresarse in frases cortas y yo voy a interpretar a lingles immediatamente solamente dos minutos el tempo que tienen para hablar no sé si me comprende si okay thank you um our next speaker is Lucy Miller followed by Jennifer Moore my name is Lizzie Miller I am nine years old and in my short life I had no idea that there was other types of house could somebody help her with that mic my name is Lizzie Miller and I am nine years old and my name is Lizzie Miller and I am nine years old and in my short life I had no idea that there were no idea that there was other type of housing and I had the opportunity to meet my friends and grandparents who are farmers and I realized that they are very kind and full of love I they be can't love me like if I was their own grandchild and today I have to come to ask you of the construction of the building on Kelly Street because I do not want them to leave just because they can't afford a place to live thank you thank you very much next speaker is Jennifer Moore followed by Suzanne Moore just a little bit taller.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Very much.

Next speaker is Jennifer Moore, followed by Suzanne Moore.

Just a little bit taller.

Hi, my name is Jennifer Moore.

I've spoken many times.

I just want to make some very clear points.

Do we really think this is the best we can do for our hardworking farm workers?

A mass density building.

No, I do not think this is the best we can do.

My son's father is Mexican, so that means my son's half Mexican.

His family prides themselves on growing vegetables in their yards, having barbecues, family gatherings.

I don't see how this building is going to suit that.

So my passion is more about what's best for everybody, including our hardworking farm workers.

I'm still not clear.

I still don't have a clear answer on who will be living at 555 Kelly.

It should be our local farm workers.

You have not resolved mass transit issues here on the coast.

We clearly do not have mass transit.

Are the tenants going to be safe, being it's for senior farm workers, not ADA compliant.

And I want to know how it's monitored.

Are we going to check in every year?

Are we going to make sure everything's kept to a standard that all the rest of us have to live by?

I don't want to see another moon ridge in the middle of Half Moon Bay.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Suzanne Moore, followed by Joanne Rokoshki.

Good evening.

As far as I know, Jennifer and I are not related.

Okay.

Umorable council members, city staff, and coastal neighbors, Suzanne Moore, Coastal Resident.

55 Kelly is special.

Created with community input and designed to gather community, Kelly stands as a testament and acknowledgement of the value of our agricultural laborers, their essential work, and their special place in our community.

In the future, when we celebrate the centennial of farm worker housing, we will recall a time when our community and our county stepped forward after a terrible tragedy to preserve and support an invaluable coastal asset, our farm workers.

Data alone cannot qualify quantify the contributions of our farm workers and what they bring financially, culturally, historically, and collaboratively to the coast.

Their contribution is irreplaceable, and they deserve both community respect and gratitude.

Thank you, City of Half Moon Bay, and all who have been involved, and council members, please see 555 Kelly, the Project Safely Home.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Joanne Rukoski, followed by Harvey Warbach.

Hi, I am a member of Faith in Action Bay Area and Coastside Faith in Action, two groups comprised of people from many different faith traditions who are united by the value that every family deserves a safe, secure home.

I'm also a member of the Unitarian Universalist Coastide community, which states as one of its principles the worth and dignity of every person.

Yet farm worker families struggle to find and afford housing that is safe and secure.

This is despite working long hours to farm the land and grow the crops that so many of us who go to the farmers market love to enjoy.

Not long ago, I learned of one man who is 66 years old but still working seven days a week.

His day begins at 5.30 in the morning.

It ends at 5.30 at night.

Despite these long hours of working every single day, he can't retire.

And when he told his daughter that when he does, he will not be able to stay here because he can't afford it.

This is the kind of person 555 Kelly will serve with units affordable to those 55 and older.

This housing will show our farm worker community that we value them.

In the words of one of our members, we want to see in quotes this building as a symbol of this community caring, a monument to our caring, deeply caring for this usually invisible population.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joanne.

The next speaker is Harvey Rabbach, followed by David Rakoski.

I want to address the council about an issue that a lot of people have made objections to this project, and that's parking.

When the community center across Kelly was first being permitted, I thought that parking was going to be a terrible issue.

But the very first year that that center was in operation, we had 1,300 people come to listen to Jackie Spear, and everybody was able to find a place to park.

The other objection has to do with the farmers market.

But Erin Tormay has said that she's okay with having 555 Kelly.

The project makes no net change in the public parking spaces at Shoreline Station.

Then in the future, because it's going to be a while before this project is completed.

There are many possibilities for having uh more parking.

One is right across the street.

There's plenty of parking at the Catholic Church.

If we can convince them that that would be a good place, that's fine.

ALAS has parking in its new space across Kelly.

Then there's the talk, and I hope it comes to fruition, of a parking garage that would be built, probably close to downtown center, and that could alleviate some of the parking.

And then from a longer range point of view, uh my belief is by the time this project comes to completion, there'll be a lot fewer cars on the road.

Um, coming.

Uh there'll be less traffic, less need for parking.

So I hope that this one uh objection goes away because it's a wonderful project otherwise.

Thank you.

Thank you, Harvey.

The next speaker is David Rokoski, followed by Jordan Grimes.

Yes, I'm Dave Rakoski, and I moved here to the coastside long years ago with your spouse Joanne.

And I noticed the same thing happens here, and I'm actually speaking to the council here.

Your experiencing the same thing that we experienced for removed from.

When projects for affordable housing come up, you always get those folks who come up here very earnestly with concerns about the first say they they really want good housing and affordable housing, but just not this group, not this place, not with this parking, not at this height, etc.

That's not a criticism of them.

It's just a fact that you have to deal with.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Just a reminder that the project itself is not the subject of tonight's meeting.

Every decision you make about the process affects the outcome.

Right, but we're not going to be talking about parking or any of that stuff.

All right.

So the next speaker is Jordan Grimes, followed by Sandy Bella.

Good evening, Council, Honorable Mayor.

My name is Jordan Grimes.

I'm a volunteer uh member with Housing Advocacy Group Peninsula for Everyone.

I'm not going to be particularly eloquent tonight because frankly, I think, like a lot of people in the audience, I'm pretty pissed that this is still going on.

Uh it feels a lot like Groundhog Day.

This is, I don't know, my fifth, sixth meeting on this topic.

So I want to talk tonight about imperatives and obligations, both legal and moral.

The farm working community is the heart of Half Moon Bay, full stop.

The food you put on your tables, they pick with their bare hands.

The municipal dollars that flow into your budget come from the industry which is built around them.

They provide for you in every way that matters culturally, financially, spiritually, and it is time that you do the same for them.

Um, but maybe equally as important is your obligation to the state of California.

You have made commitments to the state via your housing element, which is three years overdue, by the way, to advance this project.

Your delay and other actions have already invited significant scrutiny from both the governor and attorney general, and I would urge you not to test them further.

555 Kelly is built and designed by the very people who need it most.

The project is, I believe, the essence of the very best of Half Moon Bay, and I urge you to sign the lease agreement tonight and advance the project.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jordan.

The next speaker is Sandy Vella, followed by Steve Hyman.

Good afternoon.

I just had a few points.

As it relates to the lease agreement, we shouldn't add an annual walkthrough of apartments to ensure maintenance and upkeep and inherit uh adherence to all aspects of the tenant lease.

Restrict also restrict sub-leasing of tenants to other tenants, which happens a lot.

So I want to have that in writing as well.

As far as parking, parking is gonna be a problem.

We all know that.

Uh there's, you know, we have to figure it out, but it's a problem.

One of the things we could do that I didn't see in the lease agreement is provide residents parking permits.

Also, we should restrict car repairs from not being done in this parking lot while we're all trying to go to the basketball game.

That's that would be an obstacle for us all.

Um in addition, I would just like to say again, I've said this on Saturday.

We'd I'd love to see senior farm workers move over to the available space where the county is built by the post office.

That's a great single-level implementation of housing that everybody could be proud of and everybody likes.

No complaints whatsoever.

So that's a superior housing you know, situation.

The thing with 555, it's just it's squeezed into the wrong place.

It's not that the count the farm workers don't deserve it, they do.

But just put the people in the right spot.

Um excess time here, the only other thing I'd say is again, you know, put uh the leasing agreement to one dollar per year for 99 years, put it on the ballot.

That's onerous, our kids are gonna own that, we're all gonna be gone, and things will change.

Everything will be autonomous, like Harvey indicated.

We don't know what the hell is gonna happen then.

So getting it into an agreement like a one dollar for 99 years is insane.

Thank you.

Uh the next speaker is Steve Hyman, followed by Bill Hevlin.

Good evening.

Thank you for letting me speak.

As um I'm a real estate broker, I've been a local business owner.

But and I have to say that as far as Kelly Avenue goes, I have been against this.

Oh, I should first say that I am probably the most pro-growth, pro-property rights person in this room.

So there's rarely a project that comes up that I don't see a lot of merit to.

But I have to tell you, with this project, it's just jaw-dropping in terms of its cost.

I find 1.1 million dollars per studio apartment just insane.

You can buy a house, you can buy um 70 places at Sandy Cove for what this is going to cost.

But to me, what is really tops the case in terms of absurdity is the one dollar lease, you know, one dollar a year lease for this property.

You have a five or ten million dollar piece of real estate with the permits and the variances you've issued, and it's not worth one dollar a year.

You probably didn't get an appraisal on it.

And I mean, you've just taken something that was really very questionable, and adding one dollar a year for at least just makes it really kind of absurd.

So I'm sorry to say, I just cannot support this in any way, and I know I've stated that many times.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Bill Hevlin, followed by Noreen Cooper Hevlin.

Esteemed City Council members.

My name is Bill Hevlin, and I am a principal layleader of the Unitarian Universalist Coastside Community centered here in Half Moon Bay.

These city council meetings at the TED Got TED Atcott Center, bring this community together.

Bring the Hispanic and Anglo communities together.

Just a few other forums bring these communities together.

On Thursday mornings, I cook for the community breakfast at Coastside Lutheran.

It also brings these communities together.

Another example springing to mind is Table of Plenty, a forum that also brings the Hispanic and Anglo communities together.

Proposals for the lease agreement with Mercy Housing include provisions for hosting community events.

In effect, 555 Kelly would become another forum for bringing the Anglo and Hispanic communities together.

Some might interject that 555 Kelly somehow feels different.

I would agree.

In all other such forums, the Anglo community acts as the host at 555 Kelly, the hosts for this community space would become the Hispanic community.

Providing a new space for us to come together.

This I submit is what feel healing feels like, looks like.

Therefore, I ask for you to embrace this opportunity.

And I hope to see you tomorrow for breakfast.

Thank you, Bill.

The next next speaker is Noreen Cooper Heaven, followed by Christy Samuels.

Good evening, honorable Mayor Ruddock and esteemed council members.

My name is Noreen Cooper Havilland.

I'm a member of both Co-Side Faith in Action and our local Unitarian Universalist Church.

I'm here to urge you to approve Mercy Housing's lease at 555 Kelly Avenue.

Our Latino neighbors account for nearly 29% of the city of Half Moon Bay residents.

But there has been a nearly 7% decrease since the 2020 census.

Living on the coast has become unaffordable for many, and farm workers earning less than 30,000 a year are being forced to leave a community in which they have worked and lived for decades.

You've seen this room packed with senior farm workers looking for affordable housing, and you've seen this room packed with people who are opposed to building 40 affordable units at 555 Kelly.

There have been studies, compromises, delays, and threats.

Stone Pine Center is excellent, but it's not an available housing option for our senior farm workers who have worked here on the coast for decades for substandard wages to keep our groceries affordable.

Half Moon Bay was built on the backs of Hispanic agricultural workers.

And after the 2023 mass shooting, we have seen the horrors of farm worker living conditions.

By approving this lease, you are creating more than just housing.

You are building a center of gravity for equity and care in downtown Half Moon Bay.

You are ensuring that those who have labored in our fields for decades can age with dignity, health support, and community connection they deserve.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Noreen.

The next speaker is Chris Christy Samuels, followed by Rocía Avala Garcia.

Good evening.

Thank you for allowing me to speak.

I'm just here as a community member.

I heard about this project a while back.

I've been watching it develop.

I'm a physical therapist.

I live and work locally, mostly with seniors.

I have had the privilege of visiting a lot of seniors in their homes, people who cannot make it out to clinics for care, including farm working community seniors.

And I will say that the housing conditions that I found were it was difficult for me to understand that that was happening co-side.

I don't think a lot of people really understand the circumstances that a lot of our farmworking community are living in in their homes.

One of the things that makes me proud about being a co-sider and having raised my children here, having volunteered in the schools is the way we care about one another and we care for one another and the way we come together to help each other.

I don't think there's going to be an ideal, absolutely perfect housing situation.

And when we talk about whether or not this is all that our farm working community deserves, I don't think any housing project can hope to aspire to meet that need.

But I will say that this project has been developed with a lot of input from that community.

They know best what they need and what the services that they need, and they have had a lot of input into making sure that those are available to them here.

So I think we can trust them to know what they need, and they can trust we can trust them in their support of this project, and I'm just here to say that I support them and my community in having a project like this.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Christy.

The next speaker is Roccio Avala Garcia, followed by Francisco Villalobos.

She has already translated into English.

I'm going to read the page.

Hope that one day they could have a dignified home.

Hope to grow old without fear.

Hope to remain in the place to which they have dedicated their lives.

Four years have passed since this project was presented to you.

And here we are still, with the same faith, with the same hope as the day one.

They are not asking for luxury.

They are not asking for privilege.

They are asking for something basic, a dignified home.

The people who have given so much to have Mumbai deserve to spend their latter days with stability, with respect, and with peace.

Approving 555 Kelly project is more than a decision.

Please do not let more time to pass.

Thank you for listening.

The next speaker is Francisco Villa Lobos.

Followed by Candido Rosaldi.

My name is Francisca Villalobos, and I'm coming here to the council members to support 555 Kelly.

People that have never had the situation to try to find a place to live, that have not rented or lived with other families.

Don't know how difficult is some how difficult it turns to be.

I am asking a favor that by favor say yes to this housing for farm workers.

And in that way, they can have a dignified place where they can rest.

I am a farm worker for more than 26 years, and I continue cultivating flowers.

It's something that I like, but also I have to do it in order to pay my rent.

Now I have a dignified place where I can live quietly, and I want other people to have the same opportunity that I had and to call a house my home.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Candido Rosales, followed by Adeline Londa.

Rocío is going to read it on behalf of him because he's going to present himself and then I'm going to translate it.

Not because we want to be, but because we have no other choice.

Hi, my name is Adelina Bernard, and I'm the granddaughter of two farmers.

It was my grandparents who welcomed us to this land of opportunities.

This day I've come here to represent my grandparents to and to talk about the incredible job that they do for Half Moon Bay.

They woke up at 5 a.m.

every single day to be able to get to work at 7 a.m.

My grandma specializes in planting and packing plants.

She loves her job and her plants because to her they are hers, even though she's just another employee.

But she does her work with love and responsibility and lots of dedication because she's worked so much time in those huge houses full of heat and wetness for more than 15 years.

She has lost her sight and that's why she has to use classes.

Something I have to say about my grandfather is that he's the best grandfather in the world that I've ever known.

He loves me unconditionally and he's like a father to me.

He works all day in those green houses which serve to help the plants bloom so they can be sold quickly and exportated through the uh through the country.

So goes his day-to-day life, and doesn't matter if it's a holiday.

They will soon reach retirement age, but I fear that they will no longer be able to work and be unable to afford their current housing, especially since as immigrants farm workers they are not entitled to a pension, and I would not want them to end up living on the street because they can afford where they live.

Please help me ensure that they can have a fair and dignity of place to live.

Oh, his name is Shy Myers.

He had a field, but he couldn't work on that field more because he didn't have the farm workers to do that.

Because of the immigration situation.

Six thousand people went to the field to have the crop.

What did they say?

It's a very hard work.

There's too much too much dust and soil.

That is what the farm workers are experiencing.

Now I am telling you.

From my experience, finding an affordable place to live on my own has been very difficult.

I have had to share housing with other families in order to remain here.

David Herrera, followed by Pedro Romero.

It's David Herrera here.

This is David.

Soy David Herrerayud con vivienda.

I'm David Herrera, and I'm here asking for your support because we need housing.

And we want to know if you can help us.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Pedro Romero, followed by Petino Vasconcellus.

Good afternoon, my name, my name is Porfirio Vasconcelos.

I have been uh agricultural worker in the Bay Area for many years.

Working long hours in order to cultivate the flowers that are that are from this that come to our these houses.

I have always been proud of my work during toda my vida, and of the effort that I have put in my work all my all my life in lacriculture.

However, after so many years of dedication to the farm.

That's why I am here today para pedirle a ustedes to ask you los commissionados que tienen in sus manos la opportunidad de cambiar el futuro de muchos campesinos como yo.

The councils that have the opportunity in their in your hands to change the future of many farm workers as me.

I ask you to think in all the work agricultural workers that have given their best effort to this region.

And that they only expect to have a safe place where they can spend their nights.

Gracias.

Okay, gracias.

And I apologize for pronouncing your name wrong.

It's Porfirio, not Portino.

I apologize.

We haven't heard from Pedro Romero.

He was supposed to be after David is Pedro Romero here.

I'm gonna set it aside for now and call um Miss Harrow, H A R O and I I can't make out your first name.

I apologize.

She's Miss She is Miss Arrow.

I'm going to speak on behalf of my sister.

I know it's not easy, but it's some it's something needed to do the housing.

And it's hard, but it's the will of God to do that.

It's very hard to see people living in different places.

Families.

Yes, it's she's referring to families because they cannot be together even they if they want.

And sometimes they ask us, Maria, can you stay half an hour more in order to finish the petition or the most cansados venemos a trabajar para sacar nostras familias adelante?

Even though we are tired, we come here to work in order to raise and support our families.

Gracias.

Thank you.

Gracias.

Guadalupe Figaroa, followed by Ramon Sanegui.

Sanacquit.

Soy un campesino de la tercera edad, que a Travado toda su vida in Lagricultura in la cosecha y me pongo frente a ustedes con el corazón en la mano para pedirles que nos vean como lo que somos.

No es un secreto la gran crisis de Vivienda que nos affecta in Hammond Bay.

My name is Guadalupe Pedro Figueroa.

I am agricultural workers from the third in the third stage of life that has worked all my life all the life in the agriculture in the in the in the coast.

Today I come before you with my heart in my hand to ask you that you can you should that to see us as what we are human beings that have given their life to work to effort and the well being of this community.

We the can the work the farm workers we also dream with a place a dignified place where we can rest and a home where we can feel secure under that roof where we can live our old last years with peace, dignity, and hope.

It's not a secret that there is a housing crisis that is affecting us in Habmun Bay.

After decades of working long journeys, sowing and harvesting, uh planting and harm harvesting of taking food to every home.

Much many of us we don't have a place where we can spend a night in quietness, where we can close our eyes without fear.

Uh a dream dream home for the grandparents that we have given everything to our fields so that we finally can rest as we deserve surrounded with security and love.

Today I am asking you to think in us and our hands that are full of work, our backs that are tired, and our lives dedicated to this land.

Give the the workers have the farm workers the opportunity to have a place where they can close their eyes with tranquility and live the rest of their their years with peace, the peace that we deserve.

Thank you.

Ramon Senekui, followed by Cornelio Valadoro.

Having a hard time reading the print.

I am a farm worker here in Had Moon Bay.

I'm here to hear and to speak about the project that started in 2022.

Kelly for my part yourself que todo los ancianos que tengan viviendas digna para ellos.

I'm thinking about this project 555 Kelly and for all the people that have uh dignified housing for them para que ellos no sufren como los demás yo haveunos ancianos sufren yo digo por el amor de Dios ustedes como consejo este personas los ancianos que no sufren es lo que yo pido ustedes people that grown up people elder people that are not suffering because they have a dwelling place but there are many others that don't have and I am asking you to consider those that don't have a dwelling place for their suffering to help them trabajar mucho 20 or 30 años que trabajar en el campo tiene un vivienda digna para su familia sus nietos que van vivir feliz a ellos because they have been working for twenty thirty years and they need a place where they can live with their grandchildren and have a peaceful place to live.

We are asking because we know that the will of God the grace of God through you is going to be watching for the needs of these people and we appreciate that.

Um still looking for Ramon Senequi I would like you to put them right under here okay thank you the next speaker is Vicente Sayana followed by Christian Vanderverde is this good evening good evening mayor and Madame Mayor and members of the council my name is Vicente Sien Alvarado de 55 años de name is Vicente Alvarado I'm 55 years old so uncampesino I am a agricultural worker bueno yo soy uno de los afectados del tiroteo que pasó hace tres años I am one of the people that was affected with the shooting three years ago yo le doy gracias a ustedes miembro del concejo y tanto como Alas y Cotsay Hop que gracias a Dios no nos abandonaron y pues lo mismo pues yo I give thanks uh to you and uh and Alas because you have not abandoned us y por eso que pasó pues gracias a Dios calificate para la vivienda que está

I give thanks to you and Alas because you have not abandoned us.

And thank you also for the to the county because they have acquired and given me an electric bike in order to go to work.

And for me, this project 555 Kelly is a very important project.

The next speaker is Christian Landeverde, followed by the answer.

So Christiano Landaverde followed by Ruano.

I'm Christian.

Oh, okay.

Good evening, everyone.

My pleasure here.

Thanks for your time.

Thanks for opening that space.

Make a story in town.

Maybe I'll be the next mayor.

You never know.

Right.

The dreams is life.

These people dream for how long time waiting for horrible houses.

It's our only project like political or whatever.

This is this is house.

The houses make it hard.

The houses make a filling for everyone.

You want to live together, everyone.

Because I work for my community.

Just making your stories is in your hands.

Don't waste the time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Do we have a Ruano here?

Could you pronounce your first name for me?

Thank you.

Maybe the emotions of these words cannot be translated the same way with the same as a in the same meaning.

Elder people with hands that have given everything.

They deserve a place where they can rest.

This loneliness and fear, they take a hold of their souls while they are fighting for a home that would bring quietness to their lives.

Thank you.

And this community, when you get to know them, if you haven't already, is incredibly wise and incredibly talented, deeply creative, and brilliant.

555 Kelly supports mental health by alleviating financial stress, reducing isolation, and providing a stable housing environment.

Indeed, this housing project was designed with the extensive input of senior farm workers themselves.

So can we listen to them?

As a mental health professional and provider on the coastside, I urge you to support our community, improve our mental health and community and collective healing, allowing them to age with dignity and joy and move forward with the lease agreement for 555 Kelly.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Melissa Guerrara, followed by Carmen Varcia.

Or Verrera.

Sorry.

Hello.

My name is Melissa Guevara.

First, I want to thank everyone for being here to talk about the farm worker housing at 555 Kelly.

I'm truly excited to be a part of this work as a promotora and case manager with ALAS.

Although I am new to this organization, I've been following the work of 555 Kelly as a local individual who has been born and raised here.

And this work is also personal to me.

From my own family's experience, having access to stable housing, um, like the one at Stone Pine Housing has made a huge difference for my family.

It has helped relieve some of the stress my parents have carried in the last few years, especially while supporting a family member with a disability.

Having the right resources didn't just meet a need for them, but it gave my family a peace of mind.

Knowing we weren't alone and that there was support available to us during those difficult times.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Carmen, followed by Sandra Sension.

Hello and thank you.

I'm Carmen Vesha.

I grew up in San Carlos, and I've been working at Alas on the farmworker team since October.

And these past six months have already made a profound impact on me.

Every day I have the privilege of meeting the farm workers of this community.

My own grandparents have passed away, but speaking with elders reminds me of them.

I see my grandparents' faces and their faces.

I see my grandparents' hands and their hands.

My grandparents had the privilege of growing old in their own home in the place where they raised their children and the community that they loved and were a part of, close to their friends.

They were able to grow old in comfort and in dignity, and it pains me to know that so many others' parents and grandparents don't have that same opportunity.

They face the possibility of needing to leave the place they've called home for decades.

Aging where you've lived and worked shouldn't have to be a privilege.

Don't we all want our parents and grandparents to grow old in safety and security and comfort and dignity?

And don't we all want that for ourselves as we age?

555 Kelly could change lives, and you have the opportunity to make that dream a reality.

I hope you will take it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sandra, followed by Ashley Foster.

Good evening, City Council.

I'll just hold it.

My name is Sandra Sanscion.

I'm the farm worker program director at ANAS.

And I'm deeply moved.

I understand and acknowledge that leadership is difficult.

And every day that we show up, I show up to office with the great responsibility to lead our team.

You just heard from a few of our amazing and incredible warriors that are championing the voice of our farm workers.

They have their own voice.

But as we empower them and empower each other, you also have the power and ability to make a change and continue this mission that we've all been a part of.

I started at ALAS in 2022 in December, two weeks after the flooding happened, two weeks after the mass shooting happened, and it changes all.

I've worked very closely with several of you and our community partners to be able to ensure that tragedy like that never hits our community again.

And that looks like partnership.

It looks like unity, and I am so proud to see everybody here united because 555 Kelly is an answer to equity inclusion and speaks to the community that we are.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ashley, followed by Alejandra Navarro.

Good evening.

My name is Ashley Foster, and I am a counselor that serves the coast side.

Every day, the people who grow our food tirelessly.

Yet many of them struggle just to have a safe place to sleep.

I'm here today to speak for the people that I serve, and not just that, but my family members.

His picture is below.

I've witnessed a lot of beautiful things on the coast, but one of them is our farm workers.

They work so hard.

They get up so early and they go to sleep so late, and they do everything for us.

And they're the one of the most underpaid people here on the coast that don't have a 401k, like so many of us are so blessed to have, that don't have a high credit score.

They cannot purchase a house like us.

So what's gonna happen to them when they retire?

Are we just gonna leave them on the streets?

Because these are things that I think about for my family, for my people, and these are things that we're actually going through, you know.

So for me not to be here tonight would be me abandoning my people, me abandoning the people that I help every day with the position that I have here in the community.

And I just wanted to ask you guys to please consider.

Just consider helping those who help us that work so hard.

It's really not too much to ask.

I haven't seen anything being done with the property in I don't know how many years, you know.

So why not?

Please think about that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alejandra, followed by Olivia Teter.

Good evening, Mayor Rudok, members of City Council.

My name is Alejandra Navarro, and I'm here representing Second Harvest of Silicon Valley.

Um, we are a food bank.

I'm here today, though, to support the farm workers and the housing at 555 Kelly.

While our mission at Second Harvest of Silicon Valley Food Bank is to end hunger in the community, we know that we're not going to be able to solve that by just distributing food alone.

We need as we as the need for safety net services continue to grow.

We have this opportunity and we have this responsibility to collectively address other causes of of hunger and other causes of instabilities.

That is why we strongly support safe, clean, and affordable housing for our neighbors, especially for our farm workers who work tirelessly to grow and harvest the food that nourishes us all.

We've had the privilege to have this beautiful partnership with ALAS and most are here today.

We've got to meet some lovely farm workers.

We've worked directly on the farm, bringing health programs to where these farm workers live and where they work.

I've got to see firsthand the less than ideal living conditions.

At one farm in particular, we met 12 wonderful farm workers who all lived in a small little home.

With they've shared limited access to transportation and limited access to resources, making it incredibly difficult to prioritize their own health and their well-being.

This is why housing matters.

Without stable and safe housing, food insecurity, other insecurities and health are much harder to achieve.

We stand with our campesinals.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you.

Olivia Teter, followed by Belinda Hernandez Ariaga.

Thank you.

My name is Olivia Teeter.

I worked at Second Harvest of Silicon Valley for nine years with Alex.

And during my time there, the most heartbreaking part of my work was to see that the people who grew our food, processed our food, who did backbreaking work on behalf of my family and all of your families to bring us food did not themselves have food, did not have sufficient food.

And the problem of access is one of food as well as housing.

Try to reciprocate the generosity of the people who've done all this work for us.

At Second Harvest, I observed the problems of access being about transportation, about housing and about access to food.

At times we had to throw food over or pass it through fences to get food to people.

It is an opportunity for Half Moon Bay to be a beacon, to be a model of what it looks like to show some gratitude and compassion for the people who are doing so much for us in the community and let them be integrated into the community and be part of all of the goodness that they've given to us.

Let's try to show some back to them.

And I think this is a really beautiful opportunity for Half Moon Bay to demonstrate and be a model to this country of what it looks like to have compassion and gratitude for the people who do so much service for us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Belinda, followed by Lawana Sahadias.

Today you are called.

Today you are called.

You are called to truly see our farm workers.

Those have been here today, have shared their hearts with you.

You've been called to hear our community to dream of what could be.

Imagine farm worker housing for our beautiful seniors at 555 Kelly.

Your legacy of what you decide will determine their future, will determine their well-being, will determine how they end their lives.

I've met one by one with you and shared the hard work of our farm workers.

You've seen their tears, their hard work.

Right now, we are seeing the criminalization of our Latinx community across the country.

We are seeing the systemic violence that's painfully ripping families apart.

And here in Half Moon Bay, we find ourselves in what we all have built as a cocoon of love.

A cocoon of community, a cocoon of unidos.

And since today this RFP began, you've been here with us to listen, to share in the four years, meeting after meeting, and tonight I'm asking you to make the difference because today you're a call to do the right thing.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Followed by Phoebe Verkat.

I want to share the experience that we as immigrants have had in this city.

Every family that is coming here or everyone that is coming here as immigrants, we are coming to find a better way of life.

And waiting for a transplant, he died in 2023.

I arrived here in 2010.

And it is very hard when you come here and you start you have to live sharing your house.

And he's not able to be here because of medical concerns.

But he's been here at every meeting, so I just wanted to present him here to you all.

I'm gonna take one more and then we're going to switch for online speakers for a bit, and then come back to the pile I have here.

So Phoebe Venkat.

Good evening, honorable mayor, city council, city staff, thank you for allowing us the opportunity to speak to you tonight, and thank you for all the community members that came out.

Um I work at Alas, very proud to work there.

I also serve on City Council in Foster City, but I'm here representing myself tonight in my voice.

I am the proud daughter, American-born daughter of immigrants who came from China and Taiwan.

So I see every day and understand the struggles, but also the joys that our Campesino community have.

After this meeting, I get to go home.

I'm privileged.

My mother's visiting in town.

She's going to be hanging out with us, so she gets to spend time with us and her grandson, my son.

A community's true strength and success is reflected in how it treats its most vulnerable community members.

Our value as human humans isn't or shouldn't be rooted in how much we produce for others, how much we suffer.

People should not have to keep proving their trauma and their worth to be seen and heard.

Housing, as we all know, is a root cause issue that exacerbates other systemic issues, food insecurity, mental health, homelessness, etc.

Everyone deserves to live in with dignity in safe and accessible housing, period.

I ask you to continue to operate with a growth mindset, not from a reductive or extractive view and not from fear.

You have a wonderful opportunity here to change lives, generations of lives.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Moving to a few online speakers.

Katie Baruzi.

I don't know if I pronounced that correctly.

Hi, this is Katie Baruzzi.

I'm calling from Minlo Park, where I serve on the planning commission, and my comments tonight are obviously not reflective of my official capacity as a planning commissioner.

But I will say that as a planning commissioner, I do spend a lot of time looking at housing developments and hearing from affordable housing developers about what makes projects possible.

And I want to say that delays that charging more than a year, a dollar for a ground lease, um, having to purchase land, um, reducing height, um, require more parking, all of these things just cause pri projects to become more expensive and ultimately infeasible, especially in a competitive funding environment.

So I really um hope you will stay the course on that front.

Why am I calling into Half Moon Bay when I don't live in Half Moon Bay?

Uh, first of all, because I think our housing crisis is regional.

I too enjoy the Brussels sprouts that are grown in Halfman Bay, and I come to buy my pumpkin there.

Um, but I also have a pretty personal connection to senior housing in Half Moon Bay.

Um, my husband's Aunt Mabu Bay, um, an immigrant from Iran who didn't speak much English, lived in the senior community on Main Street.

Um, and it was a wonderful place for her because she quickly found community with her neighbors.

Um, they played ping pong together.

Um, she loved being able to walk to town.

She loved the independence.

She couldn't drive.

Um she loved being able to go walk on the beach when her son would come to visit.

And it just I am so struck by the farm workers and uh talking about just this simple desire to live in dignity.

Aging is such an undignified process that we will all, God willing, have to go through, get to go through.

And um it's just great when people are not trapped.

It's great when we can provide opportunities for people to live in community together and get out into the sunshine.

Um I've been struck by so many of the comments tonight, and it reminded me of a passage from the Hebrew Bible that was quoted in the city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Katie.

Um we have to move on.

Thank you.

Um the next is Ken Chancellor.

Uh good evening, City Council members.

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

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

On behalf of HLC, I like to express our support for the 555 Kelly Avenue proposal by Mercedes Housing, a nonprofit of decades of experience building affordable senior homes in the Bay Area, including here in Half Moon Bay.

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 need the survival of so many people to chance or to luck.

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

The 555 Kelly proposal can't be a part of those plans.

Bringing 40 new affordable homes here downtown.

See some of your city's most vulnerable uh retired farm worker community members.

It's location through dislocation.

These homes allow your residents to continue supporting the local community through their patronage, uh, 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, allowing them to age in place gracefully, close to family, friends, and community.

But this can only happen if you choose to invest in your people and help move it across the finish line.

How you choose to respond matters.

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

We encourage you to seize this opportunity by approving the ground lease and an affordable housing property disposition agreement for the site.

Don't let this moment pass you by.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ken.

The next speaker is uh Mike Ferrara.

Uh Mike, are you there?

Thank you, uh Mayor Reddick and Council members.

Uh would you please clarify for me?

I I stepped away for maybe a minute less.

Are we actually talking about an agenda item or is this public comment generally?

Can you tell me?

Madam Mayor, if I may, I'll respond.

This is an agenda item for the study session for 555 Kelly.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And and the study session relates to the lease agreement and the affordable housing property disposition agreement.

All right, thank you.

So uh, you know, it's uh heart wrenching to listen to people talk about uh a need for housing.

And I think uh the city, the residents of this town have been supportive of affordable housing for a long time.

And the original project that came forward met the city's ordinances, it met the RFQ, it was four stories, 40 units, and the requisite parking.

But somewhere in time, it added a story and added square footage and reduced parking, et cetera.

And all of that is with the artifice that it's a major transit stop, which is artifice is a kind word to use.

It's not being straight with people.

And it sits there kind of like a rotting peach.

All right.

Or you could call it the feet of clay.

The project, if it was still meeting city ordinances at four stories, 40 units, and the requisite parking.

I think it would be much easier to move this along.

Maybe that won't happen.

Maybe that the real problem is that there's 40,000 unfinanced affordable housing units in the state of California.

And no one knows how to do that.

You need to wrap it up, Mike.

Well, all right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Dan Haggerty.

Uh yes, can you hear me?

Hello.

Yes.

You can hear me.

It's kind of quiet.

I'm not sure.

We said yes, we can hear you.

Uh okay.

Um, yeah.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Um, Ms.

Mayor and um council members.

Uh I want to say, you know, um, I listened to all of the emotional uh testimony.

Um and for the record, I do support um farm workers.

Um and I believe that you know a lot of the um situations that were described uh are true and uh uh you know equal.

There's there's other uh um sections of the community that also has similar problems.

Um it it is a it is a problem.

I I will say that um this project at hand um mainly because of the uh enormous cost.

Um the money that could be used could be uh far um more um effective and uh widespread reaching uh a greater amount of uh community in need uh with help.

Um this this project is uh right on Kelly Avenue, and uh you know I hear people say that parking is not a problem, but uh just like many other developments in the past, eventually just over the years it becomes uh housing and um people will sublet, and there will be um more and more cars to be able to do that.

Your time is up, Dan.

Sorry.

Sorry, your time.

Thank you.

The next speaker is April Varkas.

April, are you there?

Okay, um I'll start.

Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council members.

I am April Vargas, I live in Montara.

I want to start by thanking all the farm workers and your families for your courage and fortitude in coming forward tonight in person to this meeting to give us all an honest and candid understanding of your lives, your challenges, your hopes, and your strong connections to this community.

As many have said over the past four years, the 555 Kelly Project has been extensively studied, reviewed, debated, and revised, as it should be.

It's time now to approve the final agreements so that the planning and construction phases of this project can begin.

As a couple of the previous speakers tonight have said, you have the ability to change the future for our farm working community and the entire community.

It isn't easy, but it isn't impossible.

And with your leadership and guidance, it will be done.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Sophia Lane, followed by Willa Chapman.

Good evening, everybody.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak here tonight.

I'm Sophia Lane, a former local school board member and a coastside resident for nearly 25 years.

I live pretty close and I uh to this location and as well as 555 Kelly.

I'm often riding my bike or walking around so that I can reduce my carbon footprint as well as traffic in the area.

Um I simply like to say that it is time that we practice what we preach and that we help our neighbors in need.

Not somewhere else, not tomorrow, but here and now.

We are all well aware this housing is desperately needed so that people who have toiled hard for a lifetime growing our food can age in place near friends, family, and community.

It would provide 40 small units in a convenient city-owned location, far short of the roughly 1,000 that we truly need.

Is it a Goldilocks project?

Of course not.

There is no such thing.

So no, it's not too tall.

Yes, there will be plenty of parking, and yes, our farm workers and their families deserve it.

Just imagine for a minute that this was not housing for elderly farm workers.

Let's say it was luxury condominiums or a satellite office for local Google employees with the same objections about parking and building height be getting raised.

I think we know the answer to that.

This is a project our farm workers want.

They've been coming here respectfully for four years pleading with you.

Respectfully enough is enough.

We can and we must move this project forward now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Willet Chapman, followed by Spreck Rosecrans.

Greetings.

Thank you for this hearing.

There's not a whole lot left to say if I am in full support of this project, and I encourage you to approve the draft agreements with Mercy Housing and get this show on the road.

If it's approved today, it will be years before the housing is established and people can move in.

I don't know about you, but the older I get, the more vulnerable I feel.

And I have a home and a family that I live with.

I can't imagine the toll it takes on any individual to have to come before this council year after year after year, and just ask for what all of us deserve.

Please move on this.

Thank you.

Next speaker is Spreck Rosakrans, followed by Hale Bagner.

Good evening, Mayor and honorable council members.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

I'm Spreck Rosecrans.

I moved down here three years ago.

I love Half Moon Bay, I love the coast, I love the downtown.

This is a project that is sorely needed.

It's much deserved, and it's the least we can do.

Let's move forward with it.

It's a great, great location for it.

Please move forward as quickly as possible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hale Bagner, followed by Edwina Mullenberg.

Good evening, uh Council members, staff, members of the community.

First, it's just so heartwarming to see so many members of the community and to hear from so many.

And I I would hope that those who don't speak English can hear translations as well of what some of us are saying.

I'm a huge community uh supporter and believer as a lifelong renter that we should keep the town affordable and make it possible for those of us who do not own here to live.

I believe we need solutions at many levels, but I've also believe that it's very important that decisions that affect the community in very large ways.

And I believe establishing a five-story building in a city with a three-story height limit will not be the first, the only five-story building if it's approved and built.

There will then be very little reason to not have more five-story buildings approved.

And I believe, like the Main Street Bridge and so on, uh, that this is something which needs to go to the voters.

Uh when this came before council previously, uh, I then led an effort which collected a thousand signatures in three weeks from citizens of Half Moon Bay to have this placed on the ballot.

We look forward to whatever work is done here feeding the community discussion and leading eventually to an election in November in which the entire community can weigh in, and um appreciate that on behalf of uh Let Half Moon Bay Voters decide.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Edwina Mullenberg, followed by Antonio Lopez.

Buenas noches at all.

Uh it's ungusto para me startup.

Well, quisiera empassar saludando atrás.

Um good evening, Mayor.

I will do it part of myself.

Oh, yeah, don't worry.

Good evening, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Edwina Malmberg.

I am an MPH candidate, uh Master of Public Health.

I specialize in population health inequities, and I'm also a researcher with the labor occupational health program at Jucy Berkeley.

This is a leading national organization on issues of workers in our country.

I currently serve as a lead researcher for the California heat study, and some of my professional responsibilities, which are relevant for this conversation, including analyzing some of the work for issues.

We know that farm workers are a vulnerable population.

And so my role is evaluating the effectiveness of state policy.

With that information, I just want to tell you that we all know this is a wonderful opportunity for this community, and this project really constitutes a critical public health intervention, but also an opportunity to really contribute to economic development.

So as a social epidemiologist, I also want to share with you that we know the history of the US.

They there has been very complicated issues when it comes to migration.

But something I want to highlight is that the US government has provided wonderful resources for housing stability for many immigrants, many Europeans and Uish in the past, and today you have the opportunity to redeem ourselves from that history.

Let's support the Latin American indigenous workers present here today, the people alive.

So that with the billions of dollars of federal housing available in the past, we can underwrite that history.

Just to remind yourselves from 1932 to 1954, I know maybe people don't know these specific facts, but less than two percent were allocated to non-white individuals.

So let's do it.

Let's put that money there where it matters.

Thank you so much.

Antonio Lopez, followed by Marisol Daez.

Diaz.

There you go.

It's Antonio Lopez here.

Antonio Lopez.

Oh, he might be outside.

Oh, we can do Marisol Daez.

Marisol Diaz.

Marisol Diaz.

Oh, she already left.

Okay.

And she passed before.

Okay.

Necessita interpretación.

Okay.

Sorry about that.

I was teaching in outside.

Um good evening, members of the council.

Um, you know, I just want to underscore how important do we have the timer or is it 10 minutes or yes, you have two minutes.

Okay.

All right.

I just want to underscore how important it is this project.

And you know, I had the great pleasure of serving on the city council, my hometown, East Palo Alto.

And we know that the issues of housing are a regional call.

I had the great pleasure of a few years ago when one of the farm workers was unfortunately you know killed uh going to the funeral and going to Oaxaca and greeting the family members, and just when you think about what's at stake in this project.

And I know that there is disputes between the size and the height, and you know, these are things being in government that they can be they can be teased out.

They can be they can be calibrated and measured and requantified.

But I think at the heart of this project is about what message are we trying to send to the farm workers?

What message are we sending to our community?

Who are the val who are what are the values we uphold?

Who are the heroes in this climate and in this uh time where we have folks feeling unsafe, feeling uh uh afraid to go to their homes, their churches, their schools.

This is an opportunity to tell the community we stand with you, we see you, we're here to protect you, and we're here to make sure that the people who've literally bent over the fields to give the food that we provide can have a roof over their head.

So I implore you to please say yes to this project to modify it if need be.

But at the heart of it is about standing with our pharmacal community, and I hope that your better angels will appeal to you and move this project forward.

Thank you.

Those are all the public comments that we have this evening.

So we're now gonna take a approximately 10 minute break.

I I don't have that those slips.

Sorry.

I don't know.

Yeah.

Maybe so Chad, come up, where are you?

Thank you, Madam Mayor, Madam Mayor.

I um I support this project, but I encourage the council not to be pressured by the momentum of this project.

Nobody questions the need or that the farm workers deserve good housing.

But this is a study session about the lease.

So to review, the city has state imposed housing requirements, and there are quite a framework of laws that surround those.

And Mercy can help meet these.

Also, demand some kind of a detailed cost breakdown to see why 40 small units cost 43.5 million dollars in financing when they've already got most of the money secured.

So also sixty-five years, not ninety-nine years.

Don't give away all that land for a century.

This council's trying hard, but nobody can see down the road a hundred years.

Thank you for your attention.

Thank you.

Was there another person who also Madam Mayor, we did locate Chad's card?

Okay.

What was your name?

Leslie Robertson.

I think I saw that as well.

Somehow I missed those.

Sorry.

Sorry.

It's okay.

I'll be brief.

Um I'm Leslie Robertson.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak.

Um I wanted to thank everyone in the room for being here and showing passion, regardless of which side you're on.

I want to talk about my own experience here in Half Moon Bay.

I've lived here for 34 years.

I've raised two children.

I am as proud of our town as I can possibly be.

I look at our new library and I'm bursting with pride.

I look at the new John L.

Carter Park and I burst with pride.

I look at the murals on Main Street and I burst with pride.

So I'm asking you guys to do the right thing.

I've been here for a bunch of the hearings, uh, and it's time for us to move this along.

Is it perfect?

No.

Is it good?

Yes.

Is it needed?

Absolutely.

And I beg you, move it forward, no more delays.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

We will now take a 10-minute break.

So item two A.

We're going to have a brief uh staff presentation.

And then we're going to proceed with questions.

We're going to seek information.

So city manager.

All right.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

Yes, we will we will try to move through this quickly, and we will be skipping some of the information in the slides in the interest of time.

Probably provide a very quick overview of the project and negotiations.

The only additional policy consideration will be a funding allocation that we've received, and then we'll be seeking some direction on next steps.

So again, all this information we already have, so I'll just really quickly share it.

This is for retired and senior farm workers who are here on the coast, prioritize those that are here on the coast.

And with that, I'll turn it over to our city attorney.

Thank you.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of Council, Denise Bazano, interim city attorney.

I'm joined on the Zoom call by my colleague Lisa Maxwell, who's a member of Burke's Real Estate and Business Law Practice and Public Law Practice Group.

Lisa and I worked on reviewing the uh agreements, both the affordable housing and property disposition agreement and the lease agreement.

And so I'm going to give you just a very brief overview of both documents and then touch upon the amendments that Lisa and I provided to Mercy, the back and forth with Mercy that ultimately resulted in the final draft documents that are before you this evening.

So the affordable housing and property disposition agreement is a contract between the city and the property owner Mercy as the developer, which governs the development, financing, and long-term operation of affordable housing at five five five Kelly.

So this agreement basically provides key terms that the city will retain the ownership of the land that Mercy will receive site control via a long-term ground lease, which is an attachment to the affordable housing and property disposition agreement.

It establishes terms and conditions on which the city will lease the property, and it obligates the developer to provide the city with a financing plan for the project and establishes the elements of that plan.

So this just summarizes Mercy's obligations and the affordable affordability requirements.

It also includes the AHPDA includes the affordability preferences, so uh senior or current senior and current or retired farm workers first, and then co-side senior and current or retired farm workers second preference, and then the third preference is broader San Mateo County senior and current or retired farm workers.

The ground lease overview, it's a lease that enables uh the Mercy to utilize the land, make the improvements on the land.

It is a long-term lease.

It is the term that we've identified in the lease is for 99 years.

This was at the request of Mercy.

The rent is for $1 per year, and that is fairly standard for this type of affordability agreement.

It reinforces the affordability restrictions and preferences, conditions the acceptance of the property as is, so they are taking the property as is with no warranties.

It allows the tenant, Mercy in this case, to construct the improvements at the Mercy's costs and in compliance with the plans and specifications and all applicable laws.

The affordability covenants also apply.

So again, Mercy's responsibility term of 99 years, the rent one dollar per year, and the $1 is really a consideration.

It's consideration for the city to receive that rent and binds the parties to uh the term of the agreement.

Restrictions again, 100% affordable.

It requires Mercy to maintain and repair the improvements throughout the term of the agreement.

And again, they must comply with all uh environmental laws and not use hazardous materials.

So these we prepared a few slides that summarize all of the changes, the the more substantial changes that we made from the first draft agreement that we received from Mercy to the to the draft that you have before you today.

A number of revisions were made by our office.

And what we were looking at, and Lisa can explain more if you have questions, but we were primarily looking at the form of the of the documents to make sure they were satisfactory to us and consistent with standard practice.

We were also looking at the entitlements to make sure that the these documents were consistent with the entitlements to the project.

And of course, we were trying to make the documents as uh favorable to the city as possible.

So we made lots of revisions.

I won't go through all of them, but I'll call out a couple.

We revised the indemnity agreement to make it stronger for the city.

We revised uh section 5.5 to provide that the developer bears all costs for remediation of hazardous materials.

Section 7.2, we uh created a requirement that there be a separate regulatory agreement that uh referenced the affordability requirements and was recorded against the property.

More revision summary for the age PDA.

Again, lots of changes.

We updated the insurance requirements.

Um this was the insurance requirements were reviewed by the city's insurance carrier.

Uh we also updated the closing costs to ensure that the ground lease and the and the regulatory agreement and all of the other documents were recorded and held by an escrow account and and that all of those documents when the escrow account closed were handled appropriately.

Um revisions to the sum the lease, um, they can be summarized as follows.

Again, long list, and I won't go through all of them, but um just a few that I will call out.

Uh we revised the term as I mentioned at the request of Mercy from 65 to 99 years.

Uh we clarified uh section 5.3 that uh requirements for surrender of the property upon termination uh at the expiration of the lease.

So how was how would the property be surrendered when the lease terminates?

We added provisions to explain how that would happen.

And we revised section 7.1 to specify that the tenant must construct the improvements in accordance with all of the other approved documents, such as the plans and specifications that were already approved for as part of the project.

Maintenance and repairs.

We uh revised Article 10 to add various specific requirements regarding maintenance and repair obligations during the term of the lease.

We wanted to make sure that they kept and maintained the property in good repair during the term.

We revised Article 13 to clarify the tenants' obligations to restore the property if there were damage or destruction to the property during the term of the lease.

We also revised section 22.6 regarding non-liability of the landlord to clarify that none of the landlord's personnel have personal liability to the tenant.

And that is the end of the summary of those revisions.

Again, there were a considerable amount of revision, so I didn't want to go through all of them individually, but we are happy to answer questions if you have any about specific changes that we we made during the review of the the agreement and the the lease agreement and the affordable housing and property disposition agreement.

Thank you, Denise.

Um we're gonna skip the the slides uh about uh traffic and bike pedestrian safety and parking.

Um happy to answer questions about that, but in the interest of time and being able to focus on the agreements themselves.

Um I think those could be saved for a different meeting.

Um but but again, happy to answer questions about that.

Um and then the last thing I just want to share.

Um we talked about this the last meeting just briefly, but um we are seeking some direction here.

Uh in the fiscal year 2023-24 state budget, um the city received a two million dollar earmark um that was procured by our Senator Becker, specifically for farm worker housing and the 555 Kelly project.

Um that funding is in our affordable housing fund and it is set aside for 555 Kelly.

Um never requested these funds previously because they had funding through the county through ARPA funds to fund pre-development activities.

Those funds have now expired, and so now they are seeking um these funds so that they can continue the work.

Um our recommendation would be a grant agreement very similar to what we did with the county ARPA funds.

Uh it would be a reimbursement basis so that we would retain the funds in our affordable housing fund and we'd spell out specific activities which would be reimbursed, and then there's a process whereby the Mercy would do the work, provide receipts, provide um documentation, and then we'd re we would reimburse them.

So we were looking for confirmation that that is an approach we could move forward and bring back to you for approval in the future and timing for that.

And with that, that's the end of the presentation.

Uh obviously Mercy is here.

They are happy to answer any questions about any topics related to these agreements.

Um we're happy to answer questions.

There's additional slides that we can share to help illustrate some of the responses depending on the questions that you have tonight.

And really the time is yours to deliberate and ask questions.

Thank you.

I would like to just your presentation slide about the changes.

You said that the basically the tenant has the right to inspect the property.

I think you meant the landlord.

Yes.

Uh I think you were talking about Article 22.

No.

I can't remember where it was now, but it was about inspection of the property, and it it said you know, yes, tenant.

I don't know where that is on the slide, but there is an article, Article uh 22.7, I think, that uh provides that the landlord, which would be the city, can inspect uh the property and including sub tenants units.

Yeah.

You just want to make that correction, I think.

Yes.

It's not, it's not the tenant, yeah.

It's the city that gets to inspect.

Okay.

Um council members with questions for staff on the presentation.

Yeah.

I'm not sure I understand the question.

I'm not sure I understand the two million dollar thing.

Could you go over that again?

Sure.

Um back in fiscal year 23-24, or is it 22-23?

I guess it's 23-24 because it was after the shootings.

Um Senator Becker, our State Senator reached out to us and asked if we needed financial support for projects come going forward as we often do, and we requested funding for affordable housing projects, citing 555 Kelly as a potential project.

He was able to secure $2 million within the state budget for support of 555 Kelly.

We received that funding through that budget, and that funding sits in our affordable housing fund.

Um again, it hadn't been requested previously by Mercy because they had other funding they could use for pre-development activities through the county.

Uh it came through us, but it was county ARPA funding.

The ARPA funds uh have those contracts have ended as of uh the end of 2025.

And so Mercy is requesting access to the funds from Senator Becker to continue work on the project as it goes forward.

And we will get paid back.

Mercy keeps the two million.

Well, we would retain the two million and they would just be receive reimbursement as they spend it.

So the two million would be set aside for the whole project if for some reason they didn't spend all that money, they wouldn't receive it.

But it would be a grant.

It was a it was a grant from the state towards the project.

So it would be a contribution to the project from the state through us.

Thanks.

Any other questions?

Okay.

Well, I would start with um the members of the ad hoc committee, if you want to comment on the documents first.

Well, great job going through a very long and complex document and finding all those um areas really appreciate that.

Um I think it reflects a number of the questions that came up from back in October.

Um not everything, but certainly on the lease agreements.

So I think it really helps us uh move forward and um keep the momentum going at this point.

I think it was a very very complete review.

Looks like an incredibly complete review.

Um and I appreciate it and appreciative of the work that you have done.

So thanks.

Um it would be great also if council can get those slides where you summarized all that.

Um ideally before we have a meeting like this, so it will also help to have those slides.

Because there was a lot to look at there.

Let's shut.

So Councilmember Negengast, would you like to start asking questions?

Yeah, and I I racked my brain in the last two days going through this agreement trying to find I wish I would have had what you showed us.

That would have been a tremendous help.

You know, we had three meetings in five days.

Okay.

I'm gonna go through and I'm that's just me letting maybe let loose of the past two meeting frustrations.

You know, it it's taken a lot out of us, and I know staff too, but I I that was great slides.

And I think that was one of my questions is what what kind of changes did we make based on what?

You know, how did this whole process start?

Whose agreement was it?

What did shoot do?

How did eventually you take over, and then how did the back and forth go and what who said what that should change an agreement?

Right.

So it was those are exactly information I wanted to see.

Obviously, I haven't had a chance to digest it all, and maybe some of my questions might cover that, but I I did the best I could to come up with questions because we're not approving an agreement.

We're going through what these two agreements, a hundred-something pages looks like.

So with that with that said.

Um, the first thing I want to start off with, I remember during the planning commission uh process, there these something came up about the number of meetings you could have regarding something.

Does this count as a meeting for something?

I think that relates to the underlying project.

Now we're in a phase where we're approving the lease agreement and an affordable housing disposition, property disposition agreement.

There's no limitation on the number of meetings that can be held.

Okay.

Um then I I really would have liked to seen an explanation for for the community, how the ENA, the H AHPD and the GL, how all their how they work, how they're intertwined, why they're all necessary.

Because we just throw a bunch of alphabets out to folks.

And I was trying to understand, because I didn't know some of the language I thought in the AHPD went longer or longer than a certificate of occupancy, right?

So the AHPD governs the ground lease until you have your C of O, right?

Certificate of occupancy.

Yes, no.

Well, the HPDA doesn't govern the ground lease.

It's it includes the ground lease, it incorporates the ground lease as a document and it's referenced in the HPDA, but it doesn't they're they're addressing different issues.

The ground lease Okay, yeah, sorry, go ahead.

The ground lease governs the way in which the property will be leased to the tenant.

The AHPDA governs the affordability requirements that govern essentially the project or the the development.

But it essentially though the AHPD is no longer necessary once you have a certificate of occupancy.

Right.

So it terminates once a certificate of occupancy is issued.

That's uh that's a term in the AHPDA.

But there will be other regulatory, so there's also a regulatory agreement that records the affordability covenants that will still run with the land and and govern the development itself, and to ensure that the affordability requirements are kept.

In the AHPD.

I'm sorry?

In the AHPD itself document or in the ground lease.

Well both reference this regulatory agreement.

Right.

Okay.

So I'm trying to understand that because um so part of the reason we have the AHPDA is in order for Mercy to move forward with construction and getting to construction, they need to have a document that that tells them how to move forward.

And we don't want to enter into the lease or record covenants against the project until the project is actually moving forward.

So that's why we have this document that kind of guides us forward.

And then as milestones are hit, we execute the lease, we record the document, they get their certificate of occupancy, and now we just need the lease and the recorded covenants to move forward, you know, with operation.

Right.

Is that am I oversimplifying that?

Um, I not that not that you're oversimplifying, but I I want to make sure that we're characterizing everything correctly.

So I would ask uh my colleague is on the phone, Lisa Maxwell.

Madam Mayor, maybe it might be helpful to hear from her.

Yeah, and I just want to add that there's gonna be a lot of these are really complex documents.

People are gonna ask questions.

We're gonna get some answers, some aren't gonna be answered.

I think we should be taking notes because we want this in writing, you know, next time, right?

So we want to be recording right this stuff.

So that's all I would say right now.

Okay.

Lisa, yes.

Hi, Denise.

Madam Mayor, say council members, thank you for letting me address this evening.

Um the HPDA and the ground lease are really work in a sequence.

The AHPDA establishes conditions that Mercy as a developer must meet in order to have the opportunity to long-term lease the ground, the ground from the city.

Um we did not want to enter into a long-term ground lease with Mercy or any developer for that matter, unless we know that they're ready to go with the project.

And by that that means they've got all the money, they've got all the entitlements, they're shovel ready.

And it's did I seem like I cut out, so I don't know if that was the case.

But anyway, so the AHPDA creates the conditions that say that's tell us when Mercy is actually ready to put a shuffle in the ground and begin construction.

And once that's the case, then we had to enter into the ground lease and give them the opportunity to proceed long-term with the project.

The regulatory agreement is a third and separate document is strictly for purpose of documenting the affordability requirements that the city has placed on the project and making sure those get recorded against title of property so that anybody in the world who pulls a title report on this property can see that it's governed by that regulatory agreement and those affordability restrictions.

I hope that helps.

But okay.

And and sorry to interrupt, but what I'm hearing from the mayor is some of these things are the things that we need to include in a future staff report when we bring this back so that it's really written down and clear for everybody.

Yeah, I think that's really important.

Um I remember um oh God, I don't know when it was, but a while back, that there was reference sometimes to government code 37380, that's about leases.

Um there were because we keep talking about different numbers, 55 years, 65 years, and 99 years.

Because I was I looked, you know, when I looked up 37380, it talks about it says if city may lease property owned or held by it or any of its departments for not to exceed 55 years.

And then it also says though then, notwithstanding the 55-year limitation in subdivision A, there's an A and B, so I'm now into B.

A city may lease property owned or held or controlled by it or any of its departments or boards for a period exceeding 55 years but not exceeding 99 years if all the following conditions met.

And there'll be like there's there's four.

I do you know what code section I'm talking about?

Yeah.

So I don't was something ever prepared for counsel on that, what how we're meeting that?

Do we have to meet that or no?

I'm not aware that anything was prepared for counsel on this particular statute, but certainly we can provide some insights or advice to the council on this particular section.

Yeah, because I I read in that there's an ordinance that needs to be adopted.

So I mean it's it was more than I imagine.

Uh-huh.

So I I don't know.

I think it's important to understand this, because don't we have to follow these steps if we're going beyond 55 years?

And then we already say we're doing 65 years.

There was an initial, I think I believe that ENA referenced 65 years or there was an initial discussion about 65 years.

The the ENA referenced 65 years, but extendable to 99 years.

Um Madam Mayor, uh our partners at Mercy have some information they can share about this.

Correct?

Is that what you were waving at me for?

Okay.

Is it okay for them to share?

The uh issue of government code section 37380 is something that came up previously.

And um and we looked into that and and basically 37380, as you referenced, allows uh city to lease land for certain number of years under certain conditions if certain requirements are met.

And that's a general grant of authority uh from the state to cities in order to be able to lease land.

Um that is uh not the the statute um that authorizes a city to lease land to an affordable housing developer for affordable housing development, however, that's under a separate government code, section 37364, um, which says that whenever the legislative body of a city determines that real property um owned or to be purchased by the city can be used to provide affordable housing.

Um if the city determines that it's in the city's best interest to do so, it may sell lease or um exchange the property for affordable housing development on whatever terms it finds um acceptable.

So it's um you know, basically the code section that you referenced is intended to keep to prevent cities from entering into the classic sweetheart deal where you know the city council gets together and leases property to one of its buddies for 99 years to operate some for-profit business, and so it's kind of an anti-corruption um statute.

But there is a separate statute that authorizes affordable housing development.

Well, thank you.

Could I have our city attorney provide that same information?

Some kind of documentation on that.

Yes, we can certainly appreciate that.

Thank you.

No offense, but I just something that came up with the previous city attorney, and we addressed it here before, and I'm happy to um work with the city attorney to provide that information for it.

And what you just did, you know, the why helps a lot.

Oh, this was meant to be like an anti-corruption piece because crap like that used to happen.

That's that's really valuable to know so we can explain that to other folks simply that it's a good thing to be able to do that.

So thank you.

Okay.

So it's just I've worked with agreements in basically public works, but also you know, mostly city groups, never this type of agreement.

And then I tend to go to what I know best first.

I look at estimates, I look at costs, I look at who's responsible for what.

I look at insurance things.

So that's kind of you know may seem a little scattered, but does just how I decided to review the document.

Um I guess on attachment five and attachment three in the GL.

So five is the uh an APHD.

It's the uh preliminary budget.

You know, and some things are secured.

I I see 23 million unsecured.

But I I don't know if we'll know when that gets secured or uh is that you know, I assume I saw in there some of it's related to the tax credits, right?

And maybe there's a timing issue on that.

But just kind of trying to get a status.

I said it was applied, and maybe that comes later, you know.

But I just curious in the um the preliminary budget, and then will we ever get a detailed financing plan?

Because I've I've done this before on projects with developers, knowing uh how are they gonna pay for, you know, okay.

I got all this.

How are you gonna maintain it every year?

You know, what what's your costs versus in revenue?

It's kind of kind of like a detailed operating budget, maybe, or uh detailed financing, just to know how, you know, and how you estimated your costs.

You know, that's why I made detail have it broken down because costs have not, you know, even in a couple of years, and I don't know how old this estimate is, but even in a couple of years we've seen prices go crazy post-COVID and now, you know, whatever is happening around the world.

So I just would like to, you know, get more of a breakdown and see uh and you know, even if we're we gonna require reserves.

I didn't know on that.

So are you in interested in answers to those questions right now?

Well, I don't need them right now.

These are my questions, but I would like to see a broken down budget, not just you know, answering it.

You're talking about like a operating pro forma.

Yeah.

To show that it it's actually financially feasible.

Yeah.

I don't know if someone from our and going to your questions about the financing, they have very specific plans about how they're gonna obtain those remaining funds.

I don't know if if you want to answer that now or if you'd rather us include it as an attachment to the next staff report.

Okay, yeah.

Please.

But I'm still gonna want to Oh, are there more I still want an attachment, but uh yeah, yeah, yeah.

But on the budget, that that was you know, to get the detailed breakdowns.

Yeah.

You know how all this is gonna work.

Because it was very and it was very tiny too.

So I had to but uh how yeah just curious.

Sure.

Yeah, go ahead.

Thank you, Remy.

Okay.

Um so the budget that you saw where that we noted what has been secured or committed versus what is still for us to apply for.

Um there are two main sources, I guess, if you will, that we're we would like to apply for uh this year and next year.

And uh one is the county money.

It's I think it's seven million dollars, 7.7 million dollars.

Um there's a county NOFA that's um gonna be issued this spring or summer.

And um we were planning to apply for that.

And um and then once we get the county commitment, then we will be able to go for the low-income housing tax credits.

Um and there are several rounds um that the state you know has for that kind of funding application.

T NOFA that's um gonna be issued this spring or summer and um we so we would planning to apply for that and um and then um once we get the county commitment then we will be able to go for the low-income housing tax credits um and there are several rounds um that the state you know has for that kind of funding application um and so we probably would go in like early 2027 for the tax credits um so those are the two main pieces we are also talking to the county about an operating what's called an operating subsidy so to your point um about like how is this gonna operate you know we do have an operating budget and and it's time to update it because uh it's been you know several months since we've we've worked on it but you know we have a property management and asset management team that is very um well versed in putting these budgets together and we've been talking to the county about um an operating subsidy that would allow us to lower the cost of the housing so basically lower the rent the actual rents that the senior households would pay um but still allow us to have sufficient subsidy to be able to property manage the building and pay the insurance and the utilities and you know maintenance um the full cost of the operating so we've had some very positive discussions with the housing um staff there and um are planning to apply for that as well and the I will just say like I totally understand your confusion about the ENA and then the ADA HPDA and then the ground lease and you know it's a very typical structure for us to um work with a city like half moon bay or San Francisco where we're in you know we have an ENA we um are using that time in that ENA period to assemble the financing go after financing you know design the building and then we negotiate an AHPDA or sometimes it's called a DDA in other cities where we basically like you know you tell us what our obligations are kind of what our um promises are for you to be able to say okay I feel comfortable now that you have met these conditions you've secured your financing you've um proven that this development is viable and now I'm gonna say yes you can we can sign the ground lease and the ground lease is only signed when we are ready to start construction so we have all of our money in place and we are ready we have the permits in place and we're ready to start construction and that's when we sign the ground lease with the city so it's kind of like a stepped process is usually how um the ENA and then the age PDA and the ground lease work in in the cities that we work with we're not even we're not gonna sign the ground lease we we right not until you're not gonna sign it until we're we have put all the money together and you look at the you look at the financing plan right and you say okay mercy you you got all this um you got your tax credits you got your county money you got your operating subsidy you got your building permit you are ready to start construction now it's time to sign the ground lease okay but we don't understand I mean it's okay I was just gonna say we want to uh come to terms on the ground lease now um it's possible that there will need to be some renegotiation when we get to that point but we need to have the base established now so that everybody knows what we're heading towards when we sign the does the ground lease and AHPDA have to match I mean do they have to say the same things in there there shouldn't be conflicts in there right I there's there's no conflicts they they conform to one another maybe did but is there going to be like a standard thing that if there's a incons maybe inconsistencies ground lease go is it ground lease eventually will govern but we don't know that we it won't govern till we sign it and we won't sign it until the they're ready to start or there's right certificate of occupancy.

R right I I think I understand what you're saying but yes so the ground lease won't govern until it's executed which will happen once they're completed their building right once all the conditions for the HPDA have been which is complete the certificate of occupancies in the in there right the HPDA there is a requirement in the age pd a yes it terminates when there is a certificate of occupancy.

So that's when I think he's asking when in the process does the lease get signed is it before construction after construction oh I see I see um Lisa can you answer that question execute yeah it's when the conditions are satisfied that the representative from Mercy was just describing also and that I had mentioned and you're satisfied that they have done everything that allow them to take the project from beginning of construction to the end successfully so it would be at the beginning of construction.

So it would be at the beginning of construction.

And then the two documents would work in tandem for the period they were still in effect until the CO COO was obtained.

Okay.

And if there's inconsistent inconsistencies, which ones which one would govern?

Is there a hierarchy in these?

The well they don't re they don't really cover the same topics.

Okay.

So I don't believe that's an issue.

We've really tried to focus on their consistency and the fact that they will work together successfully.

Okay.

All right.

I'm getting understanding a little better, but you're saying sometimes in agreements there will there will be a statement that says, you know, if there's any conflict between the amongst the exhibits and the terms of the agreement, the terms of the agreement actually prevail.

That type of statement, as Lisa mentioned, is we don't think is necessary here because there's they are supposed to work together.

We don't see any potential for inconsistency.

But maybe we could Lisa, maybe we could think about whether or not some sort of provision could be added.

AHPD starts the process.

Well the ENA actually started it.

AHPD starts this.

They they decide they're they're starting to meet the conditions of AHPD.

That means they had the funding, we're satisfied they have an operating budget, right?

And then they start construction, and then we sign the ground lease before construction, and then the two operate together.

And then once the the final condition, hopefully of the HPD is C of O, right?

Certificate of occupancy.

And then that's then the ground lease then totally remains whatever the term in the agreement is.

The lease agreement, yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Excuse me.

I would wait, but I have sort of a follow-up question to this discussion.

So how does government code section 37380 fit in here?

Because that says the city may enter into a lease exceeding 55 years, but not exceeding 99 years of all of the following conditions are met.

It talks about reviewing market conditions.

Um, but it says that any lease entered into pursuant to this section shall be authorized by an ordinance adopted by the legislative body, not just simply a signed agreement.

And it says the ordinance shall be subject to reperendum and the manner prescribed by law for ordinances of cities.

So you have to hold a public hearing and you have to periodically review the agreement.

So I don't see anything about that in either of the documents.

And I'm just wondering, so you know, you you get through the um AD affordable housing um disposition agreement, and then do the ground lease, but then the ground lease is an ordinance that shall be subject to referendum.

So how does that work?

I mean, I'm sorry, Lisa, did you want to say something?

Yeah, did I think that so I think what I've been operating under and what you heard from Mercy was that a different government code section relating to affordability housing affordability projects governs.

And so I have seen nothing that says that anywhere in government code.

Yeah.

So I think we need to you need to document that and um provide a rationale for that because they're separate code sections.

There that there's nothing that says here in this current government code that it is trumped by some other government code.

Right.

And and it we can definitely provide that analysis, yes.

But that's that I think that's what everybody was operating under, was just that there was a different government code section that applied to affordability agreements, affordability housing, and that section governed.

Well, you need to provide that code because I I know what code you're thinking about.

I have that, I don't know if I have it here, but there's nothing in there about this.

These are two separate government code things, and it doesn't say in this that it does not apply to affordable housing projects or a project subject to the ADHPA or whatever you call it.

I'll call it the AH.

So I'm gonna need documentation about that.

Yes, and I've I've indicated that I will definitely provide that to the council.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was what I was hinting at earlier.

I thought um so definitions.

I can't tell you how many times if if you don't, and even I've watched even I've experienced something defined in an actual agreement, how we can argue about that, what that really meant, what who what they really meant when they wrote that.

But I'm just thinking some uh just have an idea because I've seen different language, different words used in the both agreements, and I didn't see definitions for them.

And I don't know if that may make a and I'll get to them here, because you know, we we keep talking about San Mateo County, you know, half moon bay first San Mateo County, you know, to keep it local, but I didn't see definitions for uh I have a list of them here, senior agricultural worker, living in.

I never seen the term living in in agreement.

Normally it's I it's reside.

I always thought reside was a term we used, but I I didn't see definitions.

Uh spouse, head of household or retired.

And I can go over them again if you want.

But it's just I I see those terms used, and I if we don't define them, I just I'm trying to minimize I know things can always happen, but I'm trying to minimize the potential of that's not what we meant.

Well, I if it's spelled out as clear as we can make it, then it's clear that's exactly what we meant.

Of course, 80 years from now, I don't know, but if we can have them in there.

Um I know this goes back to we've always talked about to try to keep as local as possible, but there was language in there that the uh the tenant may be the type of tenant may be subject to federal state uh grants requirements.

Now I I don't see any federal dollars associated with this project yet, but I just know you know maybe we don't know yet, but we just have to make sure if we know the type of requirements for the type of funding that's required.

Whether it's um just so because to me, depending on your funding may change who the type of tenant you can have, you know, or or I should say type, location, because we've been trying to keep it as local as possible.

Well, we'd like it all local, you know, forget possible, just keep it local.

But it I know the type of funding can dictate what you you know requirements.

I get that.

So that read, but I didn't know if if there is other funding, but if other funding does happen, we need to make sure we've covered ourselves.

Right.

Um I was trying to understand then allowing the uh there was a section in the HPD allowing rent increases after 55 years, and it says to satisfy residual analysis by mercy or investors.

You know, and I was trying to totally understand what that means.

I did I don't know that.

I'm not familiar with that.

What section are you reading?

Section 11 in the HPD.

HPDA.

And then I didn't know if it needed and be in the ground lease.

It's in the regulatory agreement as well.

Oh, it is okay.

So then what does it mean?

Denise, would you like me to address that?

Yes, please.

Um certainly.

So that it um is a concept that it needs to be included for purposes of project financing.

We've had long complicated conversations with Mercy about it.

We understand your concerns because we all want to make sure that this affordable housing project is just what we plan for it to be all 99 years.

But there's some limitations on ability to get financing unless the developer can ensure its potential funding sources like banks that it is the ability to pay off the debt at 55 years.

And if it does it oftentimes these projects are fairly lean, and without that language and that possible change at 55 years, the bank will not credibly believe that they can pay the loans off.

So we include this language.

But that can't, it can't become a market rate project.

So we're we're trying to create uh protections for the city while also allowing the developer an opportunity to get the funding it needs to get this project done.

And these are very common this this type of language in these agreements.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilmember Nagengas, I do want to add for the council and members of the public, the regulatory agreement is not included in the package.

It is still we're still working out the final terms for that agreement.

So it's not part of the package this evening.

So there's another agreement.

Yes.

Sorry.

Okay.

That comes when very soon.

I think we just are working out the last of the provisions.

Are there any more?

I mean, I okay.

Can I request that we get all lists of all agreements that are going to be associated with this project?

Because that that's another one, right?

Yes, so that's another agreement.

There will be other agreements that yes, come not related to the lease or the affordable housing disposition property disposition agreement, but other agreements that may be neat necessary, like encroachment agreements or the encroachment permit.

But regulatory, is that related to the ground lease?

Yeah.

The last one is the regulatory agreement.

Yeah.

All right.

And then I went back, did you know, you know, the insurance requirements.

Just if I can it's going back to that detailed uh breakdown of how much was uh uh estimated the insurance will cost, you know, especially now two years ago we didn't have high fire area, now we do.

Um I don't know what that does, and I don't know if these type of projects have uh earthquake insurance or not.

I don't know, because right at one point we talked about uh the type of fill.

Yeah, but that's part, yeah.

Sure.

I don't know if that yes, no, I need a breakdown.

I mean I have a cost breakdown, but I don't know if what's required.

Maybe that's the question.

What's required for insurance purposes?

And if I understand what you're asking, is you know, there are insurance requirements in these documents.

They were modified by the city based on the review of our insurance pool plan GPA and included in these documents.

Is that accounted for in their cost estimates for ongoing operations?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

The answer is yes.

Yes, so well.

And when we get a detailed breakdown, you can see that.

Yeah.

Because I just like, oh my God, we talk about high fire severity now.

How does that come into play now?

But thanks.

Yeah, I'd like to see.

Um the other thing, it just in general, I I uh I I think I would be uncomfortable making decisions.

The community development director making decisions on this project.

I think as a council member, I would like the community development director to recommend things that may come to the city council to approve.

But I don't know if the community development director should be, and that's how it was defined in here, make all decisions related to this project in the future.

And I just you know, we don't know who our community development directors are going to be, and 99 years and two years.

Yeah.

Well, don't say not in two years, please.

We really like Leslie.

And we can talk about those specific details, but there's language in here which most of our contracts include some language where you are delegating some authority to staff to make some decisions going forward, just out of the need for you know expediency and getting things done.

And so I think the bigger question is what are those decisions that are being delegated and make sure you're comfortable with them.

Yes.

And I maybe, you know, can we paint our rooms brown?

Yeah, I don't I don't care.

I don't want to know that.

But maybe so maybe there's a threshold or something we could identify when it should come back to council.

I I think there's a discussion to be had about that.

Yeah.

Okay.

I want to pile on there.

That doesn't work for me.

Community development director.

Um first of all, she may have you know expertise on permitting and enforcing conditions of approval and that kind of a thing.

Uh I don't see that she has any experience, you know, approving major financial instruments or changes in mortgages or any of that stuff.

So I don't want that language at all.

And I don't want it insulated from the city council, from who are accountable to the people.

Right.

So you're gonna have to come up with another approach because I want to approve it with that.

So if I may, Madam Mayor, just to clarify, I mean, that that as the city manager indicated, it is pretty standard to have a city staff member identified in the lease or or any type of instrument so that decisions relating to that document don't have to come back to council for everything, like, you know, for example, a determination on prevailing wages or insurance require con confirmation of insurance requirements.

Um are you saying that you don't want any staff member identified as that per relevant context?

So like if we if we change to the city manager, would that be more satisfactory?

I I think so.

You want it to be somebody an at-will employee.

Somebody who's accountable to the council who's accountable to the public.

And there needs to be a pathway for certain kinds of decisions to come directly to the city council.

You know, our uh community development director has a lot on their plate now, and various department heads are you know very busy, so I don't want to take away from her job managing planning and building.

And I think it should be an executive level decision.

Maybe you want to um have Burke or the city attorney have some role in it to review documents.

Um maybe you want to hire specialized legal counsel or specialized financial consultants, but it it needs to be somebody who is accountable.

I won't accept the community development director.

Yeah, I would be interested in what other cities do.

I mean, you know, you need a you need a point of contact because we're the land, we are the landlord.

But of course you want to say, is there a name behind this landlord?

How do I contact the landlord?

Um just a little more explanation of how that works in other cities so we get an idea.

Um because obviously that person would be conferring with other with legal and other staff.

Um just what that picture looks like, so I get a better idea to answer the mayor's question on that or concerns.

And I don't think there's there's no concern with changing the title of the city manager.

I I would say that um the language is in there because it is typical of other cities, but other cities have different approaches, and I there's no reason why it can't say city manager, and obviously I as a city manager and I would assume other city managers would confer with the community development director and the public works director and the city engineer and with the attorney in making those decisions, but I I understand the accountability piece, and I don't think there's any issue with that.

So to me, thresholds are important, right?

When when is it over your head?

Well, and that's I'm I don't think we're gonna be able to come up with like a metric because the decisions are all very different, and so part of it may just be as you look at this, are there decisions where you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm uncomfortable with that decision being at the staff level.

And then we can talk about the logistics of it not being at the staff level and what that might mean in actual application.

Yeah, I mean, some elected officials want deniable, plausible deniability.

But I think if you're a good elected official, you want accountability.

So yeah.

And again, I mean you delegate a lot to to myself and the staff to make decisions across all areas of government.

And so that's what's being done here, but there are certain things you don't delegate, and I think that's what we've got to determine.

Um obviously modifying the agreement is not you know delegated to me.

So there's other things.

Yeah.

Just listen to this, though.

So right now it would give her authority on construction issues.

Let's just say give me authority at this point, because we'll change that.

But it's I just want to support my feeling here.

So it says the director will have final approval and decision-making authority over extensive matters.

For example, construction issues, financing terms, project budgets, management agreements, mortgage loan issues, building alterations, insurance requirements, and agreement modifications.

You see my point.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um next is uh community serving space.

And I thought I heard there might be a sublease agreement or now, and I heard subleases again being brought up.

Are subleases okay for rental units or just for the community serving space?

No.

No, the the it's very specific about a sublease for the community serving space because Mercy hires uh a third-party nonprofit to provide services.

When we're talking about the individual units, no subleasing what is no subleasing for individual units.

Well, it it does so sorry, just to correct um clarify that that does reference subtenancies for the rented units.

But do we want that?

But it it this they would be mercy would be subleasing the units.

So technically they are subtenancies.

The tenants that come in and live in here are gonna be subtenants of mercy.

I'm gonna make sure it's clear we're talking about mercy versus or whoever owns mercy to a tenant.

Right.

It's but technically if Mercy owns it, they are why aren't they just leasing it?

It's not a good thing.

Because we are lease, they are leasing the property from us.

But I tell you the using that term sublease is gonna cause angst.

I would definitely clarify what it means.

Yeah.

Right.

The concern that Chad brought up earlier was a tenant can't start subletting, right?

That was the concern.

So but if people start seeing terms sublease, et cetera, let's just be clear what it means, and you're also allowed to say what it doesn't mean.

You know, this does not mean a tenant can sublease.

Why not be crystal clear on that point, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It maybe it goes in the definition.

I don't see a definition for a sublease.

Maybe that's where it belongs.

But um and then I didn't know if there was a um document for um right now it's all Oz in there that's gonna be using the community serving space.

That's what it's called by community.

So one document I read, the HPD says at least 16 week day hours per week.

The GL says up to 16 hours per week.

Those are two different periods of time.

And then also we need to define what a week is.

I I came here from my job today.

We consider weekend Friday, Saturday, Sundays now.

So I don't know, is we should define what a week is.

So we know is it Monday through Thursday or Monday through Friday?

But again, to me, there were those are two different periods of time up to or at least.

And it was like, yeah.

Because in and in whatever we have for that use, did the this I'm bringing this up because this did not go through the typical planning commission process where we authorize uses based on what it is they're doing.

So we know time of day, hours, number of people.

We have none of this.

It to me it's a big unknown.

What exactly is gonna occur there.

To me, now maybe there's Mercy has something, the movement working together, and there's a document.

I thought I heard, in fact, tonight there might be a document that prepared.

I don't know.

Maybe that was a different.

I thought there might be something.

Relating to the community surveying space.

I'm not aware of anything.

Maybe Mercy has something.

No.

But could we have something sooner than later to see what that would be?

Something about how what the use of the thing is.

Yeah, how and what they're using it for.

What's the intended?

I mean, I've read what's in the agreement, but is there more specific?

And then I that's where then I start seeing the hours.

Okay, which one govern here?

Councilmember Nagengest.

As part of the ad hoc committee, we worked out an agreement with uh Mercy that the committee that the city would have ownership for 16 hours a week.

And the city could then decide how to use that space.

It's not up to Mercy to decide how to use that space.

It's up to the city.

So this is this is different than what a loss use of it.

So this is totally separate.

Well, I guess it wasn't clear to me.

Can we clear that up what that's meant by that?

I was confused.

What what's meant by I'm sorry, what who apparently I'm hearing now that the 16 hours, whether it's up to or at least city of Half Moon Bay's use that controls the use of that.

I see.

I well, we can certainly clarify that.

That's not my understanding, but we can certainly clarify that.

Okay.

I mean it would help because uh uh I couldn't understand in the agreements then.

That was our understanding as an ad hoc committee that the city would have jurisdiction over what happened during those 16 hours that it was not up to Mercy, and it was not up to anybody else.

It was not up to Alice, it was up to us.

Yeah.

And it was 16 hours, not up to 16 hours.

And and I don't think so I'm looking at provision.

17.2.

And Alice is the initial operator of the community serving space, and it doesn't specify, I see the 16 hours, but it doesn't specify that the city controls that space for 16 hours.

It should.

Okay.

Right.

The idea is that the city would have an option for other community activities, et cetera.

Might not exercise that option, but at least reserve that, that we would have that potential control.

It's much like the community room at the library, which is managed by the library during operating hours, and then the city manages it in the evenings and other times.

So we can we can definitely work on spelling that out better in this agreement.

Um can I just add?

So in the uh ENA that was approved in January of 2025.

Um required to um negotiate with the city the terms of any sublease of space within the development to ALES for the purpose of providing specific resident and community services and activities.

So I I think we want to see that sublease.

You know, we may have negotiated the time, but it seems to me we need something a little more robust in terms of what the the sublease looks like.

And you you'd like to see that as part of these documents?

Yeah, I think it should be, yeah.

And it was it was required as part of the E and A extension.

So I you know we should we should get this and see this.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm done.

And can I get the PowerPoint presentation?

Yeah, yeah, we'll send it to you.

Thank you.

So just to clarify for people, what we're discussing is a 99-year draft contract on city-owned property.

So there's a there's a segment in the ground lease agreement that says when you're approving this, that you have to certify that you read everything and understand everything in this document.

So that's one of the reasons you know we're doing homework here and asking a lot of questions, because we need to understand what this all means before we agree to anything.

So it's not to say we don't like farm workers, we don't want low-income housing, but this is an agreement that binds the city for 99 years.

It's going to affect future city councils, future residents of the community.

So we have to be careful here.

So both the I'm gonna call it AH and then GL for the ground lease, um have numerous provisions addressing a construction loan and then a possible takeout loan with extensive mortgaging a mortgage-y protections and rights.

Um I understand you have a construction loan first and then a takeout loan for the rest of the term.

Um but given the extensive discussion of loans and multiple mortgages and all that stuff.

Um I just have a question like is this project likely to always have a secured long-term loan and debt service?

Um we don't see that in the sort of financing plan.

So that that's a question that would be good to know.

Um I think we want to be have more information about whether there's going to be long-term institutional secure debt on our property, is basically what I'm saying.

Um is that a question you want answered?

Yeah, yeah.

So I I don't know.

I don't have the answer for that.

I would defer to Mercy.

Yeah.

They can provide it in writing too, but you know, but I don't need them to answer on the fly tonight.

And and if I can just clarify mercy, we will probably want to talk this offline, but in the financing document, I've always assumed where it talks about financing costs, construction interest and insurance, lender fees, and that's where that's captured.

The debt services captured there.

Or is that something we would see in the pro forma, the operating pro forma?

Okay.

All right.

Yeah.

Um, and and you know, I mean, they you may say we expect to fund this 100% with equity, but it would be interesting to know like you know, is this property going to be you know encumbered with long-term institutional debt and debt that might be collateralized and sold or bundled among multiple loan providers or mortgagees.

I mean, I want to know how that affects our property and um you know, long term.

So I have a project budget question.

So we we haven't seen an operating budget with these documents.

Um we got something a while back.

Let me see if I can find it.

Uh that excuse me a second.

It had expenditures, but it didn't have the column for like cash cash in.

Like what are the cash rows and columns?

So you have what you expect to spend on things, but you don't show where that cash is coming from to pay those bills.

Like there's nothing there about you know the rent.

So we we need to see both sides of the uh the operating budget, the the balanced budget, if you will.

And um I think we need to see that, even if it's draft, I think we need to see that, you know, as we deliberate on these these documents.

And I noticed that uh the January 25 ENA said you would be updating financials, and you you mentioned tonight that you're gonna be doing that, so that's good.

But um it's gonna be important in the operating budget to see both sides of the um equation here.

Um we want to know if it pencils out on an annual basis.

Um I don't I don't see anything in the finances about debt service, and that you probably don't know that yet, but you might have some explanation of what that might be.

And that you probably don't know that yet, but you might have some explanation of what that might be.

Um we'd like to know what sort of debt you're gonna be you know carrying long term.

Um I agree with Paul on the c the need to clarify some definitions, like um it mentions a recurrent current or retired agricultural worker.

So these documents talk about agricultural workers and not farm workers.

So I think it would be good to say an agricultural worker is it somebody who works in field agriculture, it includes people who work um in nurseries, you know, working with plants, you know.

What is an agricultural worker and what does it mean to be retired?

Could somebody retire from being an agricultural worker but now they're an accountant someplace or in a different line of business, or is it somebody who is retired and they don't have another job?

So it would be interesting to know what is retired mean.

Um Madam Mayor.

If I might speak to those that that issue of the definitions and those particular terms, at least for my understanding, I was I believed that we would define these types of terms when the preferences were adopted by resolution or ordinance when those are brought to the council and that is established.

So in my mind, that's where the definitions were going to be, but we can certainly work on adding them to these documents.

I think so.

I think we want to that's fine.

We want we want these are like cleanup things that make it clear and transparent, you know, what we mean.

Like tonight we talked about farm workers.

This talks about agricultural workers.

And you know, for us who sort of understand the lay of the land, it might not make a difference, but people who are thinking of applying or the public, you know, do I qualify?

I retired from a nursery, but now you know I work as a nurse or whatever it is.

Yes.

I understand.

Is it for working people or is it for fully retired people?

You know, that kind of a thing.

Yes.

Um then I agree with Paula, you know, living versus residing residing might be a better use because it's more in keeping with a lot of other like legal documents and things like that.

Um so my other question was uh we may have discussed this early on.

So the preferences, so we might be trumped by certain funding sources.

Um what's the likelihood that the local preferences might be um trumped in some fashion, and we might have somebody maybe who works in Fresno, but they're now living here.

Um so I'm just trying to clarify that.

We already talked about the community serving space, um, the director role.

So um so I I think you've done this, but you know the the insurance mortgage e protection terms, the post-foreclosure provisions, and all the other loan-related terms.

They're cr pretty complex.

Did your real estate attorneys look very closely at this to make sure that well I'll I'll have our answer.

Lisa, can you answer that question?

Yeah, I didn't get the beginning of the question in particular terms that we look very closely at.

Can you clarify for me which terms?

Uh the insurance, for instance, the insurance policies discuss like no acceptable deductible amounts or specific inclusions.

There's no discussion of riders or uh endorsements, increased coverages that might happen over time over 99 years.

Um nothing about earthquake insurance uh so you know there are issues I think we need to consider about um cities' lack of control overclosure transferees.

I doubt that will happen because Mercy has a lot of properties, they're a big professional developer, but um excess insurance coverage to address consurance insurance construction um mortgages required after periodic lease reviews.

That whole section is very complex.

I'm not sure what it means.

But I need to know you guys have looked closely at this.

Yes, our initial review of these documents and the way I typically approach it is you know, obviously I read every word line in detail and try to think about whether if I just looked at that, whether as a you know, person who knows less about these documents than I currently do, would that make sense to me?

So I try to be very thoughtful about the language and try to make it as understandable as possible.

Regarding insurance, we ask the city's insurance expert broker to um provide comments on that because we don't consider ourselves as expert on that area as the broker or the insurance agent would be.

So we then get those incorporate it, incorporate those.

Um the other section I think the other language that you're talking about regarding like debt and mortgagey protection, if I understand correctly, yeah.

That those are sections we look at very closely.

Um it's we have to strike a balance between having them adequately protect for protective of the city, but we also have to give include language that allows Mercy to obtain financing because lenders who loan on a project of this size will not do so unless they have rights preserved in the events of default and foreclosure.

And so that's what we're trying to make sure.

We don't want to create documents that turn out to be not financeable.

So we include the protections that we think are appropriate for the city, and we have tried very hard to do that.

Um, also recognizing that mercy has to go out and do business and obtain and finish raising the funds.

Yeah, there's a lot of you know sort of alarming phrases in there, like multiple secured loans, excess debt, non-institutional lenders.

I guess that means private credit.

Um, and will the city have any review of these sorts of things?

That's that's one of my concerns.

Um then it mentions covenant documents and the ground lease, section 16.9b that can be recorded against the city's fee interest and be binding on the city for 99 years.

Like what are those so the kind of to your original question of how much input will the city have?

The city is going to be getting the financing plan and will get it updated over time as the financing plan becomes more solidified because right now it's it's preliminary.

And so, yes, you'll have input, you have to continue to review and approve that financing plan.

And I'm looking at section 16 point, which 16.1 six uh which the mayor asked about 16.9.

Yeah.

Ah, thank you.

I just want to get that in front of me.

Okay, quickly.

Um so uh to to on the 16.19, it's liens and encumbrances could be potentially placed by the tenant, but only on its leasehold estate, not on the city's ground lease dirt fee interest.

So say Mercy wanted to go out and secure a lien with its leasehold, that's potentially permittable, although the city would have to consent.

But it the city does the mercy does not have the right to encompass the city's dirt, the the property that the project will be constructed on.

Okay, I was talking about 16.9, not 19.

So I just you know, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, but I think that's the that's my answer there.

Yeah, and there's there is language I'm concerned about here, where it says the city's obligation to take all actions and fully cooperate with Mercy's right to grant mortgages, assuming no cost to city.

And that, you know, I'm concerned about that, but it I saw other language in there that said the city will not withhold you know, consent.

Um as long as it's what they're asking for is reasonable.

I I don't like that language.

I think it binds the city too much.

Yeah, we I think we want full rights of review and not feel like we have to approve everything.

And if we don't, then somehow we're being obstructive.

Um that's mentioned in several different places and in both documents.

The city will not withhold consent.

Um I have trouble with that.

I understand your concern.

I think we I think Mercy's counter to that will be in where I'm not negotiating on behalf of Mercy.

I'm simply telling you the kind of dialogues that we've had, or that we have to feel confident we can go out and be and obtain financing and that the city will be reasonable in approving it because otherwise we can't carry out this project and meet our obligations.

Well, it it didn't just apply there, it applied in other places in the ground lease for for a lot of different things.

So I think we want to look very carefully at that language and not and make sure that we're not being bound too much to um yeah, I I get it.

It's it's lawyerly language, but I'm just raising that concern.

Um section 10.9 B of the AH addresses the requirement for paying prevailing wages on the project if state law requires it.

Um irrespective of the law, um, would Mercy agree to pay prevailing wages, maybe enter into a project labor agreement.

Um is that something you thought about, irrespective of what state law says or we do have two different um state funding programs that were committed.

So the in-fill infrastructure grant and the Joe Cerna Farm Worker Grant, those require us to pay prevailing wage.

Okay.

Good.

Thank you.

Um both the um affordable housing agreement and the ground lease have terms and conditions that overlap or address virtually the same issues, but have slightly different and sometimes inconsistent language.

I think that was already brought up tonight.

Um, if if the affordable housing agreement basically terminates it occupancy, why does it contain extensive post-occupancy terms and conditions relating to insurance affordability standards, loss payee status, mortgage issues, that sort of thing.

You can look at uh the affordable housing agreement section 10.5 C and ground lease 9.3.

It mentions the city is the lost payee under the builders' risk insurance laws, but under the mortgage section 13.4 it says the lender is the lost payee.

So I'm just wondering like what controls there.

You know, who's the lost pay when I think I know there's language in there that says, you know, if there's any inconsistencies, the ground lease will um prevail.

But I think if we're gonna do good lawyering here, I think the documents need to be consistent.

That's what I'd recommend looking at them and making sure you know there's not a lot of conflict there.

Um I do think you have potential legal vulnerability on government code section 37380 issues.

I mean, lawyers have have raised that with me.

So again, I think we need to look at that really carefully about what that means and provide the law because I think I think we may be vulnerable there from what I'm hearing.

So I think that's all the questions I have.

Yeah, I think we do.

So um if there's no other questions here, are there members of the public who would like to address this item?

Oh no, we've already taken public comment on this item.

We don't have to take it down.

Okay.

All right.

So is that sufficient for this particular item?

We're going back and getting responses to a lot of different things and come back at a few years.

Yeah, I do wonder, just given everything that Mercy's heard, if there's anything you think should be clarified with council now versus working with staff and attorneys offline.

Okay.

I I can supply my list of questions if that would be helpful in writing.

Yeah.

All right.

Thank you.

Let me go back to the agenda here.

So it sounds like we're wrapping up this particular item.

Um so I think going forward, what we'll do is I've taken extensive notes.

I think Denise is taking extensive notes.

Mercy's taking extensive notes.

We'll get any written comments based on this from you all.

Um we'll sit down and we'll go through the agreements and figure out where and how to update those agreements.

We can provide red line copies the next time we come back before council with this item.

Is that and the staff report will provide some of the more comprehensive responses that you've requested.

Oh I think I think we have to deal with uh items.

Because again, that have seeing that your response is, you know, that part of your slideshow.

If you know, once I get a chance to really review that, if I have some questions, is there a way I can provide it prior to so it's included later, you know, as part of the package that comes back to us.

If I can yes, of course, you can send them to the end.

And then that can be included.

You know, but I want the rest of the council to know your questions.

I don't want to let the same thing.

Yes.

Okay.

That can be done.

So we still have the issue of um the the Becker funding.

Um I think my issue goes back to 37380.

I mean, do we need to discuss that first before transferring the money?

Or I'm not sure whether there's any constraint on us from the well, and and also share uh my recommendation is not to just transfer the money.

Instead, we would bring back to you a grant agreement, probably similar in form to the agreement we executed using the ARPA funds that we received from the county.

It's very similar.

We're just passing through funds, but we hold those funds and we only distribute based on approved expenditures, which would be spelled out in the grant agreement.

So we could bring that back the next time we we bring this item back.

Yeah.

Okay.

And that would also have what the the grant says you could do how to spend it.

And it wasn't just construction only, it's the project.

I don't know what to do.

Yeah, the earmark didn't specify what component of the project, but certainly we would spell that out that you know it could be used for pre-development.

You know, we could lay that out and work with Mercy to kind of estimate where they think it's gonna go.

And then it and then it's just it's a reimbursement.

It's not a good thing.

Correct.

Correct.

We would we would hold the funds and that way if they didn't need all the funds, something else happened.

We're not clawing money back.

It's it's just they they take they they take reimbursements as they've spent the money down under specific conditions, which is how we manage the ARPA grant with number four.

And maybe I don't know if the attorneys should opine on something that it if we start tapping into that, is that kind of saying we have a project?

I mean, I I I worry if you know you start tapping into too much money, you're going down a rabbit hole, and I've heard some folks talking about things on a ballot.

So I don't want us to get locked into something, and if that could be part of the presentation to us, what what do you think?

Well, one of the things I can of the things I can do, we had an item last night on the agenda based on a different state earmark for a different affordable housing project, and I was able to do a consultation with HCD staff and talk through some scenarios with them, and then they you know kind of gave the thumbs up.

No, you're you're fine under this type of an earmark.

We can do the same thing for this before we come back with that agreement, so it's clear what we're allowed to do with this and how we're allowed to to expend it and under what circumstances for sure council member now you can guess we can also look at that from your perspective, the legal concern that you raised, and maybe there's some language that we could include in that type of agreement that just specifies that you know it doesn't approve any other instruments like the lease agreement.

You know, it doesn't approve any other instruments like the lease agreement.

Okay.

All right.

Yes, thank you.

All right.

So I guess we can move to 3A.

I'm going to do it till June.

I don't like the I don't like the idea of six months.

Great.

Thank you, Maggie.

That's what I was going to have a single question.

Okay.

I think Paul does too.

So let's let's let him talk about it.

Okay.

So this item is the 555 Kelly Avenue Affordable Housing Development Amendment to extend the exclusive negotiations agreement between the city and Mercy Housing.

Thank you, Madam Mayor.

I can make a just a quick presentation overview and turn it over to discussion unless you had something up front.

No, go ahead.

Okay, great.

Just for those in the room, the ENA, as we've talked about, is one of several documents that is helpful in moving forward a project like this.

The ENA stands for exclusive negotiations agreement.

It's an agreement that starts on the front end and you see, you know, this uh the RFP and the approval only happened in the summer of 2022.

In October of 2022, one of the first agreements that was entered into related to this project was the first exclusive negotiations agreement between the city and mercy.

And it's a document that just generally spells out information about you know the project and starts a relationship between the city and the proposed developer to start moving into developing plans, design outreach, all of those things that go into creating a project like this.

And it just solidifies that relationship.

And most importantly, for Mercy, it's a tool that they often need to show funders that there is something here that we are working towards something, that they have some level of exclusive control of the site while we're in these discussions, and we wouldn't enter into say another exclusive negotiations agreement with someone else at the same time.

So the original ENA expired in October of 2024.

Um it was allowed to expire at that time because at that point um the entitlements were in place, the coastal development permit had been approved and been through the appeals process, and we'd begun the process of actively negotiating on the terms that would eventually go into the HPDA in the lease.

Um in January of 2025, Mercy or you know, leading up to January of 2025, Mercy approached the city and said, look, because we haven't gotten to a point where we have these documents ready, we really need to enter into a second ENA so that we can show lenders um funding that they had already been approved for and funding they wanted to apply for that they had this relationship ongoing, and we were continuing to negotiate in good faith.

So that was approved in January of 2025.

It was amended in April of 2025 to provide some really specific terms, and that's where the dollar per year, you know, amount was established, and the the 65-year to 99 year lease term was established.

Again, doesn't bind the city to those terms, doesn't bind anybody to those terms, but it shows that that is what has been discussed is where we're negotiating towards, which would be requirements of some of these funding sources.

Um that agreement, that second DNA expires on April 1st of this year, and so we have been asked to extend that further so that one they can hold on to their existing funding for the project, and as was shared tonight, there are a couple of upcoming uh funding opportunities, both a county NOFA, which is a notice of funding availability, it's how they distribute their affordable housing funds, as well as the tax credits they want to begin to apply for, um, needing to have this in place.

What we've talked about tonight and the recommendation is extending it for six months through the end of this fiscal year, which you know the hope is that would give us time to negotiate the agreements that we talked about tonight and any other any of the additional agreements and uh ultimately vote on those and and potentially enter into those agreements, and then allowing us an additional six-month extension were there to be some sort of challenge, whether it be the you know, a referendum or something to take it to the end of the year to get past uh the November ballot.

So that's the recommendation before you tonight.

Um as has been pointed out, there are certain requirements within the current ENA that are being negotiated right now, and we would need to continue to meet those requirements and continue to negotiate on those in order to satisfy the terms of the ENA.

Um with that, happy to take any questions or provide any clarifications.

I mean So would legal counsel agree that this doesn't bind us to anything.

I mean, I'm still concerned about 99 years as opposed to 65 years.

I don't know how we got from 65 to 99.

Um that wasn't really explained the staff report or anything.

So I think we need to hear that.

Um members of the public raise that issue tonight, and it is a long time.

So well, to answer your question, Madam Mayor, the the exclusive negotiations agreement does specify that it doesn't bind the city.

So it's it's explicitly in the agreement that it doesn't bind the city to any further instruments like the lease or approval of the lease or the affordable housing disposition agreement.

In terms of how we got from 65 to 99, my understanding is that it was a request for mercy, because that's what was necessary to obtain that the funding for the project.

But I'm sure they'd be happy to explain.

Yeah, well, I would include that discussion in the staff report for our next meeting for sure.

Um and I just want to point out so the um I don't know if this carries over into this amended agreement you're talking about, but the one signed in January of 2025 required certain good faith things be done, financing and costs of development within 45 days, developer will provide the city with the most up-to-date financial analysis.

Did we see that?

I don't know.

Um says it would could still be refined by parties during the negotiated period.

Property management and supportive services.

During this period, the parties will negotiate the terms of property management and any supportive service provisions, if any, which may be provided separately from the general resident services provided on site.

I don't remember seeing anything like that.

Then the uh uh the alas sub-lease, we haven't seen that yet.

So we committed to doing things things in the ENA of January of 25.

I think we need to get them done now under this extension.

Correct.

And and you know, it in the upper part of that it talks about negotiating the AHPDA and the lease agreement, and then these other things go with it.

We're obviously still working on those first two documents, and so we haven't dug into those other ones.

But yes, those would need to go along with this as we move through this process.

Absolutely.

I did say 45 days in here.

So yeah, we need to get moving on these things.

And the operating budget.

Uh other discussion from council members questions?

Councilmember Nagengas?

Thank you.

Um they're gonna need through December, aren't they?

Didn't I hear their tax credits are going to be applied early 2027?

Or they're gonna find out early 2027.

Well, and and again, I'm I'm happy to turn it over to Mercy.

The idea for this is the ENA, you kind of like you know, when you get a certain point, the lease prevails and you don't need the AHPDA.

It's the same deal.

If we enter into the AHPDA, you don't need the ENA anymore.

It it serves that purpose of providing that confirmation that there's a project and that we're working in good faith to move that project forward.

So the idea with the schedule that's been proposed in this extension is six months gives us, you know, or the end of this fiscal year gives us several more months to keep working on these documents.

And if we were able to enter into those documents before the end of the fiscal year, but then there was some sort of challenge that we were not able to actually enter into that AHPDA, it still gives time for that process to play out and and they can continue to pursue funding.

It still gives time for that process to play out.

And they can continue to pursue funding.

Because I I'm under the, you know.

If I give you eight months, you're going to take eight months.

If I give you four months, you'll take four months.

To me, when I'm looking at things and then, oh, I'm going to give you a six-month extension.

Well, then I'm not I I have the time to do it.

I tend to think, all right, what do you got by June?

And then we'll bring it back again.

All right.

What do you have by October?

I don't know.

But if if we're convinced this isn't binding to anything, but I'm afraid I I heard early 2027, so that means we wouldn't be in in APHD until then.

No, no, no.

The the again, the hope would be that we can work through these documents now.

And that's actually your thinking is exactly why we didn't just say let's extend it through the end of the calendar year.

Let's extend it through June, you know, the end of June, and that gives us a timeline to try to finish these documents and get the council to a point where you can vote on it.

And then if you approved it, you would need the extension only if there was some sort of challenger or the roughly.

But don't we need the funding in order to approve the APHD?

Don't we have to show the funding secured?

No.

No.

All right.

Well, I'm going to have to refresh my memory then on some of that.

Okay.

Well, if we don't think it's, you know, I I just we're being accused of delaying this project.

And that's what I'm, you know, I alluded to earlier, some of the things that are being said.

And I I don't believe I'm delaying this project.

You know, maybe that's but I'm looking, you know, trying to process and go through this.

So I mean, if it's not binding and it's, you know, comfortable.

Well, I have a question though.

So what happens if you don't get your tax credit funding?

What do you do then?

It's a very competitive process.

What do you do if you don't get that money?

Which is about $23 million?

I think it's about $15.

Um we would try again.

We would apply again.

It would be July of 2027, something like that.

Yeah, it depends.

You know, they don't um have the same uh rounds every year, so we kind of make an estimate um as to when they'll have their rounds.

So usually like February, you know, May, you know, September.

And and I guess they have two different kinds of rounds too, right?

They have the nine percent money and they have the four percent money.

And so in the in this case, we would be going after the nine percent tax credit.

Okay.

And that's only offered, I think, once once a year, because I think one's nine and one's four.

Uh at least twice a year.

Twice.

Yeah.

All right.

But does granting the ENA till the end of June versus December change the chance of getting that funding quicker approved?

No, I think um I I think we are in agreement with how um City Manager described, like we would love to get these documents done.

And so I think we were thinking let's let's have a June for the for this you know, new A or an amendment.

Let's have a June target, right, a June deadline, and um and see if we can really finalize these documents and get them approved, and so then we can move on to you know other things like other documents that we have to work on with you, um, and and then have that other six months in case there's a challenge.

Great.

So you wouldn't jump from the equity financing into uh a loan or anything like that?

It would continue to seek tax credit financing.

Private equity financing instead of a loan or something like that?

Yeah, no, I mean I think because the rents are gonna be very affordable, it will be difficult to support a loan, the loans that you would see in our financing plan, which you know we'll spell out more thoroughly than what um what is in the exhibit.

Um they're really like they're government loans, and so their terms are pay us through you know any excess cash flow, uh that's how you pay us back.

Um so the that's the kind of loans that we're gonna have on 555 Kelly, and then we combine that with the 9 percent tax credit equity, and that's how we complete our financing.

June, yeah.

Yeah, sure.

terms are pay us through you know any excess cash flow uh that's how you pay us back um so that that's the kind of loans that we're gonna have on 555 Kelly and then we combine that with the 9% tax credit equity and that's how we complete our financing June yeah yeah sure do it go ahead go for it great um so I'd like to move that we adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an agreement to the second exclusive negotiations agreement ENA between the City of Half Moon Bay and Mercy Housing California dated January 20 30th 2025 by extending the ENA the ENA to June 30th 2026 period second is that what we're talking about we would we would still like to be able to extend it again in the case that if it happens right yeah and maybe that's a question is the ability for say that again why don't you bring it back go to the end of June and then bring it back.

Oh okay rather than well so one question would be could we add a clarification that the city manager could further extend the ENA for six months if the DDLA has been approved but there's a challenge if if it's just that we haven't gotten there then we need to come back and talk to you.

Yeah I mean uh I think we want to make sure we're getting the documents we need to push the push that so are you comfortable if we were to modify the language to to basically the authority to extend it on my you know for me to extend it is contingent on the DDLA being finalized and there being an external challenge that requires an extension versus we just haven't negotiated well enough or would you rather us just bring it back is that overcomplicated so it's not no I didn't get it can you give us a couple of minutes comments mayor uh yeah uh uh while council is thinking in their heads about what the next move is gonna be I don't believe we have any cards but we should check to make sure there's nobody that wants to on this item yeah I thought I'd just let him take his little pause here and then we'll yeah yes I checked my email this evening so madam mayor the deliberations have to be on the mic um we can't have uh sidebar conversations no I think we let's take public comment first or check for public comment then um is there anyone in the room who would like to address the uh extension of the exclusive and note negotiating agreement you can come to the podium now or raise your hand online seeing none we'll bring it back to the council so um council member Nagegast we've had discussion here does that clarify where you are on this right whether it's um whether we stop it into June and we give the right to extend I worry putting language into the reason why we would extend that's kind of weird to me to say that why don't we if we're if we just approve the time extension?

Or just prove it to June and then bring it back.

I mean if there's something if if we've approved the uh the green AHPD and then um there's something going on I don't like putting that in the I agree suggested you perhaps put some in there if if this happens I don't like putting that in there per se you know I'd rather if that's our concern I'd rather just come back.

Well um council member Brownstone was talking about maybe just doing it through the end of the year and authorizing that now probably not but I mean but didn't it just be as recommended just to get the authorized to extend it six months just we extend it till the end of the year.

And the there's an advantage to that as opposed to letting the city manager do that?

Well it covers the possibility of you know the the likelihood of a um you know a vote a vote in November on a referendum so it's covering it kind of through that you know what I mean so you're is a well I guess it's just officially saying that even though we would be saying that right so we just say yeah go ahead let it go through um December 31st with with direction that we work on these things like the operating budget of the Allah sublase and the things that we required on the January 1 25 yeah but could we would those come sooner than later Yeah the they'll come back as we make progress on the DDL or the HPDA and the lease agreement absolutely that because if we didn't get the one back from 2025 required I I think we want to see those things as part of consideration for the affordable housing agreement not after the affordable housing agreement we want to see we don't have to that might be a reason to extend you know that's right so I I would go with Robert on this just extended so let me redo the motion just to add it again I move that we adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an amendment to the second exclusive negotiations agreement between the city of half moon bay and mercy housing housing California data January 30 2025 by extending the ENA to June 30th 2026 and authorizing the city manager to further extend the EA an additional six months I I think what I heard was an amendment to that to eliminate the last after the last comma and changing the June 30th 2026 to December 32nd put it up on the screen again oh I see I got you what you're saying yeah I could do I could do that right now yeah I got it I I think that's what I heard I think that's yeah let me try it again one more time I move that we adopt a resolution authorizing the city manager to execute an amendment to the second exclusive negotiations agreement between the City of Half Moon Bay and Mercy House in California dated January 30th 2025 by extending the ENA to December 31st 2026 I think we should take a roll call why not please council member brownstone yes councilmember Nagengast yes Vice Mayor Penrose Yes Mayor Radick Yes motion carries this meeting is adjourned thank you