We're ready to go like what was it?

All right.

Good morning, everybody.

And uh we'll call the meeting to order at um 803 of the um Mount View Downtown Committee.

And this meeting is being conducted with a virtual component, and anyone wishing to address the committee virtually may join the meeting online or by dialing um the numbers that are in the information packet.

Uh when the chair announces an item on which you wish to speak, click the raise hand feature and zoom or dial nine on star nine on your phone.

And when the chair calls your name, you will be able to provide public input, and you will be limited to three minutes.

Uh roll call.

Great, thank you.

Uh committee member writer.

Here.

Cats is absent.

Stephanie Lynn is absent.

Molera is absent.

Uh Shake.

Yeah.

Vice Chair Baird.

And Chair Kasper's act.

Here.

Great.

Uh moving on number three, um, approval of the minutes.

And uh the minutes were submitted with the packet.

And but there are no corrections, and motion to um adopt the minutes would be in order.

I'll make a motion to adopt Jamil.

Second.

Let Dennis do it.

Are you the second, Dennis?

What are we doing?

Oh, we're approving the minutes.

Moving the minutes.

Yeah, okay.

All right.

Um by Jamil, seconded by Dennis.

Um public input?

See no one online, and we have just one person in the audience.

Uh he's not public.

Uh all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Hearing none, the motion carries unanimously.

Next item on the agenda is upcoming agenda topics.

And did you have any comments on that, Amanda?

Um, no, there's a number of items here that we will discuss uh later this year, but um, nothing specific.

And anything on that list or anything that is tickling anybody's creativity that they'd like to add to future agenda items.

Well, I would like to this is the 250th anniversary of uh the declaration of independence.

The city it's years ago did an enormous amount of events.

Um I was didn't hear then.

I had no review in 1966.

Yeah, but so in the case of an immense amount of uh activities.

Um actually the planning started in 1975 and advanced in 1975, and then it's round.

We're not discussing it with your item.

My agenda item is I would like to make sure that the city is doing something to commemorate the 250, and maybe a flashback to what happened in the 200.

Because she was her first job here just working.

Yes, on the bicentennial committee.

So a lot of committee members and also a couple of businesses mentioned that they'd like to see um more of something like active, like people come by that teach you how to play drums and things like this.

And there's somebody who mentioned one of the disks um person that they know somebody who teaches the um orgasming thing.

Yes, I'm doing communications with that same person.

Okay, great.

Yeah, okay.

And then okay, so more act more or more activation of that.

I do like the idea of line dancing, that was super fun.

Oh, I enjoy anyone.

Okay, thanks.

Okay.

Well, might as well.

Okay, um, we'll close item number four um and move on to oral communications from the public.

And this portion of the meeting is reserved for uh persons wishing to address the committee on any matter not on today's agenda.

Speakers are limited to three minutes, and state law prohibits the committee from acting on any non-agendized items that are brought up.

And anybody online?

Councilmember McAllister.

All right.

Uh, then we will close communications and move on to item number six, which is unfinished business and six point one castro street updates.

Well, I was as I chatted with some of you before the meeting began.

I'm Amanda Rotella, the economic vitality manager.

But there is a lot happening on Castro Street.

So some exciting updates to share.

And actually, I see uh our economic development strategist Kirsten Heinz is on.

Do you want to speak to the Bollard beautification project and just provide a quick update on that?

Yeah, sure.

Um so Kirsten Heinz, economic development strategist.

So I think it was in August 2024, the visual arts committee selected um several artists to paint bullards around along Castro Street.

Um the project ended up um pausing due to some um issues with the contractor state licensing board.

And after um the Senate bill passed exempting muralists from um needing to get a contractor's license, um, we were able to move the project forward.

Um so and Sophie Gaudette in this photo um finished painting two bullards at the 100 block next to Eureka and Agave just um last week.

And then um we had two artists start in the 200 block over the weekend.

Uh Zoe Karen, she's painting next to Red Rocks and um the Oddfellow space, and then um Catherine Liu, she's painting next to um is it Nick the Greek and um Easy Foods?

Uh and then we'll have two more artists painting in the 300 block in the next few weeks.

Um so there's gonna be a kind of a full month of activation, um, which happens to fall right in uh arts, culture, and creativity month.

And so this has been really exciting because artists are actually sort of you know creating while stuff is happening in the downtown.

Um we walked down a couple days ago and there were little kids chatting with the artist, and she was explaining about what she was doing.

So not only are we getting these beautiful art pieces, but it's this it's a form of activation where people are getting to watch art in real time.

So I walked from the train station and I saw the ballards and it put in a little smile on annoying one.

Have to add it to your walking tour.

That's right.

Oh yeah.

And so another art update in the downtown.

Kristen, do you want to take this away as well?

Chris, before you go ahead with that, just on the bollards, and speaking of you walking over from the train station.

So I know you can't uh make a left turn off of Evelyn onto Castro because of I think of the you know, the the median and stuff there, but the bollards are becoming sort of an entry uh feature to the pedestrian mall area.

And might it make sense to put a couple bollards really at Evelyn and Villa as well or somewhere the decorative bollard?

A decorative bollard.

Um just to carry the theme all the way through the recreational or the uh the um pedestrian mall area.

Yeah, so originally we did have six artists, and there were there was art that was gonna go down there.

Um, you know, as Kirsten mentioned, this has been a long horizon, and we did lose one of the artists.

So we could look at um, you know, doing uh another call or possibly going back to the list.

One thing to note um is the public works department is working on a number of intersection improvements that includes Evelyn.

Um, and so the lay bollard layout and how that's set up is likely to change, but it's certainly something we can look at um after the plans have been established.

But I agree the gateway.

Because that is sort of the gateway into town, especially if you're coming in on public transit in but right now it feels like the back door.

Yeah.

Um I I definitely hear what you're saying.

And to that end, we have some art that did show up at the train depot.

So on that on that side of town.

Um Kirsten, do you want to talk a little bit about this?

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah, another um year and a half in the making project.

Um so Arts Mountain View is uh a local nonprofit.

Um their goal is to put more murals in Mountain View and in downtown Mountain View.

And they came to the city after um getting a grant from Valley Transportation Authority to put art near downtown um near the transit center.

So they came to the city asking um for um to collaborate on this project.

They worked with the visual arts committee to um search for artists.

They got advice from um the Mountain View Historical Association on the each of these panels features kind of different um uh different time periods of Mountain View and and different things that happened in the city.

And it makes the space look so nice and fun and vibrant.

And it really just kind of wens up that area.

Do you want to add anything?

I know we worked with the historical system.

Yeah, it was actually fun.

And it was fun with the artist as well, because there were a couple of things that we thought were quite right, like the shape of a hat on a figure, the size of fruit in a in a in a basket that somebody was carrying.

So we were tweaking that.

And then we had provided a lot of subject.

So and then that's the best of my knowledge, there's going to be a panel with a QR code on each one of them to explain images are supposed to be.

And just to note this is just one side, there's a panels on the other side as well.

So totally eight panels, I think we'll do that.

And we are working on a ribbon cutting event, so we'll keep you all posted.

Yes, and let us know about the ribbon cutting.

I talked to Anita or emailed her last week, but my little brain can't remember.

But there is a ribbon, so make sure they let the chamber know.

So we've got all our asseters and sport products down.

So I heard that it's very nice to walk back and forth there and see that thing.

But right across around the corner, right there, the waiting room, the benches and everything.

We have terrible mess up there, you know, like a lot of and then the county uh share site called them and they were uh kind of talking to them and moving them people around, and they asked them hey, you're moving them.

Do you have any place?

What are you taking you where you want them to go, you know?

But they didn't have any answers at all.

So it's kind of just I mean, all of a sudden, when do you see it when people walk in and this is not date?

Yeah, challenging thinking that's so um I will say we are we are coordinating with service providers to um you know to visit that area and provide services and and research resource referral at that site.

Um but obviously people have to want to take us up on those resources or be ready to all right.

Um more placemaking happened in the downtown.

So as part of our downtown in motion um branding campaign that we have in the downtown, which is really centered around uh some of the construction communication.

We are wanting to bring some fun elements in.

And so actually starting this morning at 9 a.m.

Uh we're gonna start adding some fun decorative elements to some of the planner boxes in the downtown.

So currently you can see on the side there, there's that city of Mountain View logo, and so they're just standard black um planner boxes with the logo.

We're just adding some fun elements.

We are looking at ways that we can do wraps on bacon storefronts and bring other uh colorful elements to construction siding and fencing.

So this is sort of the first little uh execution of of this branding coming to downtown.

So we're we're excited about that and more come.

Yeah, there's two buildings.

There's two buildings that have plywood fronts, so there's plenty of space available.

Yeah, well, and it's really exciting to see some of the one of our vacant storefronts, the old um plastic building is gonna be transformed.

So yeah, velocity North American headquarters or showroom form.

So I've I peeked through it and inside that plastic is just gutted completely.

And then I was thinking about the TAP plastic, that was my favorite story, you know.

Well, yeah, fries are downtown.

I mean, yeah, I I still have things on design.

So yeah, that's gonna be exciting.

Very exciting.

Um, just a note that the games are back.

So with warm weather, we get to have games come back on.

So we've got the mini golf is back out, the foosball table, um, the cornhole.

So exciting to see downtown coming back and ready for the spring and summer season.

Music on Castor is also back, so it started last week.

Um that's Wednesday nights at the 200 block, and you can see uh sort of the April lineup here.

Um and that will continue throughout the summer.

Birthday festival is coming in just uh week or two here.

We'll be here at the Civic Center Plaza um right out front, and there's gonna be all sorts of activations and games.

You can as you can see, interact with big bugs and uh um, yeah, there's gonna be a lot of community partners there.

So it should be a really fun time.

Um in the run up to World Cup, we have launched our business survey.

So we're working closely with the chamber on engaging businesses around the World Cup, and similar to what we did around Super Bowl, we're gonna create a fanfest map so businesses can submit their um activations that they uh activations and deals that they might have.

We're gonna create a map that'll uh be interactive and allow you to click and see deals, and then we also have uh we're gonna create a calendar of events.

Um so we saw last time uh places like St.

Stephen's Green, we're doing trivia nights and Super Bowl karaoke nights.

And so uh we figured activities like that would make more sense on a calendar versus a map.

So we're gonna have both resources available.

Um, and we actually had over 8,000 views of the Super Bowl uh map.

So even with a pretty short run up, there was a lot of engagement there, which is kind of exciting.

Uh so I'll say um emails are in email blasts are going out this week to businesses that we have on the chamber and city uh business distribution list, and then the business ambassadors are gonna go back out and knock on doors later.

All right.

That's me.

All right.

So in early March, the city council approved changes to the facade improvement grant program.

These are some of the changes.

They raised the reimbursement rate from 50% to 75%.

Nonprofits and office spaces can now use the program.

And I know that the odd fellows had expressed interest in using this program to kind of redo their their frontage um on the corner there.

Um we removed the improvement tiers because um previously businesses could only like paint or get signage or get a new door.

And now we've blown out those tiers and um they can use the maximum amount of the uh grant.

And uh the city council also directed staff to target outreach towards downtown and some historical buildings.

Um we did some outreach, I just outreached about two weeks ago, uh, promoting the webinar, which we have coming up on Thursday.

So we'll be hosting this webinar on Zoom.

We will also record it to put on the website.

Um, we'll have translation available in Spanish and Chinese, and um we'll just be able to answer any questions the businesses might have about how to use the program and how to access the design services.

Um we've been promoting this with a business uh newsletter and some flyers and social media chamber.

We have nine businesses registered now.

So if you know any businesses that would like to take advantage of this program, uh please encourage them to come to the webinar on Thursday, or we will send out the recording after it is done.

Um and we have revamped the application process a little bit.

We have new materials and we're developing a new grant agreement, but essentially the business is gonna come, express their interest, and we're going to assess if they need design services or not, so that we can kind of triage them into sending them to work with M Designs.

The city um has engaged them as our as the designer, or we can just get them up started right away.

The business pays for the improvements, and then we reimburse them up to 75%, up to $15,000.

So I had put an example on another slide, but we can if you have questions, we can talk about different examples.

Yeah.

So is there any oversight on what the front uh facade improvement would look like?

In other words, if somebody wanted to paint something bright chartreuse reading, that'd be set.

Yeah, I see it.

Yes.

Everything has to be aligned with the planning department's design standards and the sign permitting, and yeah, they do have to get permits through um planning or building, depending on what they're proposing to do.

And I will say um, you know, specifically in the downtown, we have had projects that we've had to modify to fit with the design standards in the downtown, and the planning department's been a great resource in helping projects sort of ensure that they're in compliance with our plan.

And what how many participating businesses would you consider that to be success?

Did you have a certain goal?

We want to have 15 businesses participating or do you have just in the webinar or the program in general?

Oh yeah.

Um, I would say in for the program in general, one of the things that the way that I envision this program is we want it to be an ongoing tool.

So we want to stretch the money for as long as we have, it's really helpful to us to have this program in our tool belt when we're working with businesses and identify that they need resources.

This grant program is one of the ways that we can provide financial resources.

So I would also say from a capacity standpoint, we just we've had a steady stream of projects we've worked with.

It also, as Tony said, we're doing the triage, we're accompanying them through the permitting process.

So it's a high touch program from staff's perspective.

So having a program or two that we're working with, you know, year-round is is from a capacity standpoint a really good place to be.

Um, I believe we've given out nine or 10 grants so far.

And I know Kirsten's on, she'll she'll remind me.

Um, but uh, you know, we continue to go back to council for additional funding each year so that we can continue to have this program.

So um I'd say that the program's been highly successful.

We've been able to work with a number of businesses already, and our goal would just be to continue to be working with businesses doing targeted outreach and bringing this resource board.

Um, in terms of the webinar, having almost nine businesses is amazing.

I mean, as I'm sure many of you know businesses are really business owners are really busy, and so to get them to sign up and identify that this is a program that they want to learn more about is really excellent.

Um, as I said, we will be recording it, which will make it accessible to even more business owners, uh, which is great.

But yeah, nine is amazing.

Yeah, Kristen, do you want to add anything?

Um yeah, just that we so we've um supported 14 projects.

Um, I think it's five are still in progress.

Um, nine have been finished.

So we have we have been able to help quite a few businesses so far.

So would we could you send us the link to the um zoom call afterwards?

So if any of the committee members were just kind of curious to see what was involved.

Sure.

Yeah, and if you have the time, please feel free to join us.

I have a question.

Um there are some businesses who have taken advantage of this program and all that.

So where I'm going with this, that is there any business done in a willing you could showcase you can tell other businesses that oh, talk to your neighbor, somebody because when my business was certified, we need 35.

Then people will they want to send them to the other lawn robot was a laundromat, and they want to talk to them.

So I went up there and talked to them as they were more receptive to it.

The only question was it why are you telling us to do this?

You go with competitors, you know, but but besides that, they were more receptive.

So it would be put them in a future downtown update.

So certainly some early adopters like East West Books and Red Rock have both used this program.

So I think that there are some real examples we can point to.

And it's also very scalable, which I think we really want to communicate.

We took away the minimum of how much grant you have to access.

So you know, if you're willing to put in $500 for signs, you could get $2,000 worth of signage for your for your business.

And I think that that's a really significant investment.

So yes, definitely we need um our business ambassadors to be communicating this program.

And um, there are some real examples we can point to, definitely.

And I will say MDesign, who's our design consultant has been a great ambassador for this.

I mean, he's been marching around to his neighbors in the downtown, encouraging them to take advantage of the program, offering his services.

Um yeah, and so um uh Janet, he's been a really great ally and ambassador for the program um and offering real-time help, which has been great.

Um yeah, yeah.

Uh just to piggyback off of this, you know, like to if you want to continue to get uh business ambassadors out there, just ambassadors to talk about it.

It would be good to have like, I mean, before after pictures of it's scalable, what are the different examples that they can point to that they can share because you know, is it just a is it like is it paid?

Is it sign?

Um, and what are the different examples of the various businesses that they can compare themselves to that they align themselves with?

Yeah, that's a great idea.

Like St.

Stephen's Green or Don Chevanius.

I mean, those used to just be concrete facades, you know, and now they look old English and blah, blah, blah.

So which was way more than 70,000.

I mean it's and redwood, red rock are two businesses that I think people trust that have been here for a long time.

So if they were successful through it, they just use volumes to the program.

We do have some before and after photos of the East West specifically, which I think made a big difference.

Just redoing their awning, and we're working with another business right now that has a very bad awning that's gonna get replaced.

I think that will be a very dramatic example to point to because some of these awnings are they get sunfaded and moldy and so yeah, and also if there's businesses that you're seeing out in the downtown that you're like, hey, this company could use a little facelift, come tell me and I'll you know we can do outreach and we can work with them to get that.

Yeah, and I'd say citywide on the city city wide anything citywide, right?

This being the downtown.

Yeah, but if you all move through for people to realize for X amount of dollars, you can go from this to that.

Sure.

That most people wouldn't have any idea.

Well, what does that mean?

How about that transplant?

Thank you.

All right.

This is the last uh slide for the second.

Any other questions or comments on the uh downtown update?

Um, is there any public input or comment?

We have business.

We don't want to downtown.

Did you have a comment, Mr.

McAllister?

Uh question.

I know we can't respond.

But is the permit over the counter?

Are we going to make it that easy so they can be over the counter instead of leverage uh drawings?

Or facade projects.

Um, because each of facade project is different.

Sometimes it is an awning, sometimes they want to do a more significant, like ADA door um, you know, swapping out their door to be more ADA compliant.

So it really runs the gamut.

Um, and because we do have to be in compliance with you know, building code and our our planning process, it's not over the counter, but you have economic development staff walking with you every step of the way.

Okay.

Seeing nothing else, then thank you very much.

We will now move on to item seven new business and item 7.1, the entertainment zone pilot program.

All right, that's me again.

Which looks really interesting.

All right, thank you.

So today in this, it's a short presentation, but I want to provide an overview of entertainment zones, what they are, share a little bit of some other cities, information about other cities that have entertainment zones, and then uh I'll detail the proposed entertainment zone that will be going to city council for uh a first reading next week.

Oh excuse me.

Excuse me.

So we are utilizing relatively new legislation.

So uh this is just from uh two years ago, and then the state passed this legislation FB uh 969, allowing cities to create entertainment zones.

It was built off of former legislation that just applied to the city and county of San Francisco.

But an entertainment zone is if you can see here Devont defined as an area where open consumption of alcohol is allowed on public streets, sidewalks, right-of-ways during specified days and hours.

So essentially creating uh um an open container area within a city, and it authorizes the brick and mortar businesses within that zone uh that have a you know uh applicable ABC licenses uh to serve alcohol and for people to leave the premise with open containers into the entertainment zone.

And there are a number of cities that have entertainment zones or or and or are exploring them.

So again, given that this is relatively new legislation, there are just a handful of cities that uh we we did some research on that have explored this.

Obviously, San Francisco was an early adopter, they have over 15.

Um, you can see it in the image there, some of the different zones that they have.

Uh San Jose has eight entertainment zones, as you know, Palo Alto, uh, just one of their committees reviewed this and they're exploring um entertainment zones.

Um, but you can see a number of different uh cities here are using them for special event activation.

Um, they're doing pilot programs for you know for special events and using it with as ways to activate their downtowns.

And so Mountain View is exploring this uh as part of our tool kit for activation around the World Cup, but we want to be able to really see how this works for Mountain View, and so we're proposing an 18-month pilot.

Um, this will in our minds allow us to get through two summer seasons in the downtown.

Um, and to start off for this pilot program, it's only gonna be for city hosted events, so only the city can activate the entertainment zone for city events again.

We want to use it as a tool for World Cup activation, excuse me.

And you can see some of the goals, you know.

So, again, this is a tool for activating downtown.

We want to really increase revenue for businesses and use this as a greater economic catalyst.

One of the things that's really great about this as an economic development tool is that only the brick and mortar businesses in the zone can serve alcohol.

And so it really allows the businesses that are here that have invested in Mountain View to take advantage of this.

Um, and certainly we want to continue to amplify um Mountain View as a vibrant cultural hump where people want to come and spend time and spend money.

And so, as part of this uh state law, you have to establish the boundary uh in your ordinance.

Um, and so we are proposing the one to 500 blocks of Castro Street.

Now the how we'll actually play out in practice is that we will be uh activating portions of the entertainment zone.

So I can't imagine there would be many events where we would activate the entirety of the entertainment zone, but we want to get an approval for these five blocks so that we can use it for different events.

So for example, for World Cup activations, we may activate uh we're looking to activate the one and 200 blocks of Castro Street.

And so again, this would allow us to say, okay, for the city event, these two blocks are an entertainment zone for these hours.

Now we've talked to the community services department, and I an idea that they put out there was, oh, let's activate the entertainment zone for the cornhole league.

And so that takes place on the 300 block of Castro.

And so that would allow them to utilize that for that specific specific event or other events that take place at different parts of the downtown.

So we're getting approval for this big area, and then we can activate per event based on the needs of the event and in collaboration with the police department around what is manageable from a safety um life and safety standpoint.

The other thing we have to establish uh for the ordinance is the hours.

And so again, we are asking for the max that we would want, knowing that we will we will sort of right size how long the wind the entertainment zone is activated based on the event.

So we're getting approval for seven days a week, 8 a.m.

to 11 p.m.

But again, we will likely be activating the entertainment zone for shorter hours.

So for example, the Cornhole League is in the evening.

So we're not going to have the entertainment zone going from 8 a.m.

to 11 p.m.

It'll go from probably five to eight when the cornhole league activations are taking place.

Um the other thing is that businesses are restricted by their personal ABC license.

So if a business, if the entertainment zone is activated from 8 a.m.

to 11 p.m., but they can they're only approved to serve from noon to two, they can only serve from noon to two.

So they're restricted by their personal ABC license.

I have a question.

Yeah.

Why so early in the morning?

We want people drinking at 8 a.m.

If you can have a class, pardon the class of work.

Well, I can see we did do some research about what other cities are doing.

So you can see here, you know, San Jose and Santa Monica.

Again, uh, whether we actually do a brunch entertainment zone or not, um, we wanted to just give ourselves max flexibility during this pilot project so that we could uh we would have the opportunity to explore all the opportunities.

Do we do a brunch entertainment zone?

Maybe not.

I don't know, how how early does the um art and wine festival start?

For me or for general events.

Okay, yeah.

So I mean, in practice, we likely won't have many 8 a.m.

events, but since we saw other cities, you know, reutilizing that, we thought for this pilot, let's just give ourselves the flexibility.

So just as a quick recap.

So the law requires us to establish um three things per ordinance.

So we have to establish the boundary, the hours and the types of allowed alcohol.

Um, we are, as I shared, the boundary, the hours, and we're going to allow beer, wine, and spirits to be um to be consumed, and that's in line with how most entertainment zones are playing out, partly because it's hard to monitor what what do you have in that cup?

You know, I need a sip.

So how you know, for ease of enforcement, we're making it easy for ourselves.

The other thing that we have to do is establish an operations manual.

So this is at an administrative procedural level.

Um, we're bringing a draft to council to review, but it's something that can that staff will uh will develop and in collaboration with our fire, uh police and fire department.

But it has things like signage.

So we're gonna have signage at every entrance and exit to the entertainment zone, letting people know what the entertainment zone is and letting them know they can't take alcohol outside of the um outside of the permitted zones.

We're gonna have boundary monitors, so depending on the events, it may be police, security, or volunteers.

Um, we'll work with police about what makes the most sense.

Uh, we will collaborate with them on the safety plan.

We'll work in close collaboration with each business to ensure that they understand the rules and what their responsibilities are.

The businesses will be responsible for IDing people and providing a wristband at the point of sale.

So they will be checking to ensure that they're only serving uh people who are allowed to be served.

Um and they're also have some responsibility for their patio outdoor patients for their businesses for the area directly, you know, around their business.

So we really want to work in partnership with businesses and um want to kind of impress on them the importance of this of following the rules so that this can be a successful pilot and something that we consider permanently.

Yeah.

Um one thing I don't see on there is cleanup afterwards.

I can see people throwing their plastic brands.

I can see people throwing their plastic and cleanup part of the ordinance or the manual.

So because it's city events, there will be city staff running these events, and we will as with any city event cleanup and setup and cleanup will be uh part of the overall event plan.

I will say that the cups that they have to be served in have to be in compliance with our compostable um rules.

And so um they'll be served in compostable containers.

Uh, we'll work with our uh solid waste team to ensure that there is enough trash trash cans, um, especially in the downtown, we don't have very many trash cans, and so that will require us to have more uh trash receptacles.

Yeah.

I have a question too.

So you mentioned that this is is it event specific or is are you aiming for those seven days a week?

It's event specific.

Event specific.

So by getting approval for seven days a week, we could do something on a Thursday, we can do something on a Saturday, but the event the um entertainment zone is only activated for a specific event.

And so we would be very clear.

Okay, it's happening this weekend, two to five.

The entertainment zone is active, we've got boundaries, we've got signage, the businesses have been given wristbands.

Um, and then as soon as the entertainment zone uh hours have ended, it goes back to being a normal street, normal rules apply, and police can enforce alcohol being outside of the businesses.

I have a name for it.

Is that being should call it mini pop-up festivals?

Mini pop-up festivals.

So my question was that how about is there any extra expense, a lot of extra expense to city?

Uh does businesses have to or city had to get any special insurances and all of that because alcohol.

Yeah, so it's a great uh it's a great question.

It's something that we'll have we are looking at the added expenses.

For example, having additional police presence on site does have a does have a cost to it, and something that we're absorbing into our World Cup activation plans.

Um, that extra cost, certainly, um, extra trash receptacles, extra staff time.

Um, we'll work with the community services department to ensure proper insurance.

Um, but yeah, there is there is a cost.

And so it will one of the things that we will be looking at is the economic benefit versus the cost that we might incur from uh pursuing this tool.

But yeah, it's a great question.

Yeah.

So in other places like San Francisco, clearly or other are they are they doing event specific easy as well, or are they sort of just more generalized?

Yeah, so in other cities, so uh San Francisco, for example, um you can apply to activate the entertainment zone as part of a special events permit.

So they're also they're all of them are special event permit, sort of integrated.

Um, but they all so but in San Francisco and San Jose, for example, outside event producers can come in and get a special event.

So it's not specific to city hosted events, other places are allowing out outside event producers.

It's not like, I mean, in Los Altos, you know, they they're they're like a can continuous easy.

Right, it's not a continuous easy thing.

Yeah, just an example, the Chase Center, the arena entertainment zone, you can only drink outside when there's a game.

So if there's an event at the Chase Center, then it's active.

All other times, if you go down there during the week, you have to keep it within like the patio and within their kind of um area.

So that's just one way that they're using it in like kind of a like open-ended, but not really.

It's just very specific to when the doors of the Chase Center are open.

Yeah, example.

All right.

It just is as a comment.

Um because I know this is a pilot, and then I don't know in staff's mind how long, you know, after the 18 months, you know how long it will take to deliberate and then present.

And, you know, I I would encourage sort of is part of the new abundance philosophy is you know, be evaluating while you're going so that okay, the 18 months is up and we're gonna be back to the council in a month, you know, as opposed to now we need a year to evaluate everything that we did during the last 18 months.

Yeah, you know, that you know, sort of kills it, seems to kill the effort.

So I would really encourage or it to be, you know, how's this working while we're going?

What are we learning that we can incorporate and maybe tweak during the period?

So that it's almost, you know, I mean, actually, nothing says you have to wait to the very end of 18 months to go back to councils.

It's working great.

Let's do it.

Yeah.

No, I think that it's a it's a great point.

And it's part of why we're we're doing 18 months.

So we can really start evaluating immediately, right?

We'll have this first summer season where we're hoping to activate it in a handful of different places.

And so we'll have lots of good information by October of this year, and still another year worth of runway that the program will be running.

So it'll give us opportunities again by giving us self or giving ourselves 18 months, we'll have opportunities to start evaluating very quickly.

Um I will say the with our pilot entertainment zone was a little easier to set up.

A permanent one will require more codification and a more robust ordnance.

So it will require, it will take longer than this one has to pull together.

But to your point, be doing all that, the background.

You and I, you and I can work on it together, Mike.

Sure.

But to be honest, I mean, um, coming from the hospitality industry requests alcohol sales have implementing.

Yeah.

So stuff like this can actually be a real business attractor ultimately for then uh more people are willing, but it has to be a permanent license than I think.

It couldn't be like, hey, I can sell alcohol like on Sunday from that time to that time.

More of a ultimately get it listened.

Yeah, I think that would be a good real attractor for business.

Sorry, that's a big, I think it's really exciting.

Um, and I think that we also need to just make sure that we continuously engage the businesses and if there's opportunity to engage like outside to play.

Um because I think that in the beginning, there's might be some trial and error.

And I think we want to make sure that we have the businesses buy-in and trust into it because it's something that is brand new, but I think it I think long term it could have a lot of benefits, and as the city is looking to do like more mini pop-ups or whatever the phrase was pop-up festivals or like makers fairs, or you know, if ever down the line we have like a first Friday, a first Thursday, something to that effect.

I think this could really help boost having people out there.

So you could have the uh October fist instead of being in by all means.

That's true.

One of the things I will say it is different than a special event permit because in the case if we were to activate for the Oktoberfest, outside vendors could not come in.

Only people, only businesses within that footprint can serve alcohol.

So it's sort of the balance.

There'll be some events where a special event permit will make sense, there'll be some where the entertainment zone makes sense, but it is an important nuance.

Are you thinking in terms of special events like um like the um concert Wednesday?

Well, concerts on the plaza or the the other ones that you do sort of down at um casting.

Yeah, that would be an easy zone during the conference.

Um, or are you thinking you know, more highly restricted, you know, special events?

Yeah, so I'll say specifically for World Cup.

Um, we're working on a act oh activated weekend, uh, Saturday and Sunday.

Um World Cup is sort of a special case um because of the amount of people we're we're anticipating and the energy around World Cup.

So we're working with the police department to really come up with a plan that feels really manageable um and that then a scenario where we can really um where safety can be really um the man can be managed.

I'd say in general though, in terms of utilizing this for other events, the community services department was one of the you know um internal vetters of this, and they're really excited at the at have as to excited about having this as a tool for some of their events.

So they started thinking about, I mean, they were the ones that threw out the cornhole league.

Oh, could we do it for something like that?

And you know, the cornhole league takes place right outside of Ludwig.

So there's like a perfect marrying um there of you know, interests.

So I think they're thinking really creatively, they're interested to see ways that it can be um activated.

Again, to Jamil's point, there is going to be we're gonna have to really assess the added cost um from adding from adding this layer on to different special events, but again, that's part of why we have this pilot so we can really explore that.

Is is that level I'll use the term jet loosely of police.

Is that common with the other communities doing this?

Or is that something that we're being uh uh more focused on?

Um, I would say in the it it varies.

You know, maybe private security would be fine, maybe staff with police, you know, a police officer nearby.

We'll kind of look at what scale of police presence for World Cup, the police department.

I think similar to a lot of other cities in the region is being really conservative, and they're making plans.

Um, you know, uh with state, you know, safety is feeling like a real concern.

And so we're taking a conservative approach, and I think other which is in line with what other cities are doing, but we'll look and see realistically what's needed for other events.

I you know, in talking with the um the police department about a cornhole league, they're less concerned.

Um, and so the police cost or the safety cost would be significantly for an event like that.

But again, we're we're gonna be working in close collaboration on an event by event basis to really ensure that they're feeling comfortable because again, to have a successful entertainment zone, we really need to have um you know our police colleagues on board and feeling good about it.

Yeah, yeah, uh coming from Europe, Europe this is pretty common, right?

Where you drink on these uh entertainment while in like Germany, it's usually the other way around.

So we're the laws are super loose, but then once a World Cup game is then it becomes very restrictive.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think we're taking a similar approach.

Yeah.

Um, I was just gonna ask, I understand why as of right now would be city only events.

You guys are taking the lead on this, and uh, but if it were to be successful, is that something that you guys would look into with collaborating with like the DBA to use it for different events, be something yeah that uh definitely it's one of the things that we would explore would be having this option to um for people getting special event permits to be able to activate the entertainment zone, and then certainly we'd have to come up with um you know what what becomes the responsibility of the event producer versus the city and and all of that can be sorted, and we have lots of good examples.

Um, but that's definitely something we'll explore.

Uh because I think really to for this to be really successful, we need a lot of partners to help make it work.

And certainly the city has limited capacity in what we can do, and so by welcoming in outside event producers like the downtown business association or the chamber, uh it could be another way to really um yeah, have have the have the have the ability to really see this as a as a real strong tool for economic development and for um for mountain view.

I will say, given how fast we had to move for world cup, I had to take the easiest path forward, and so by limiting it to city events, this allowed us to move really quickly.

Um yeah, we're moving very quickly.

And and I would again just just encourage, you know, you and the rest of the departments working on this, is you know, it sounds like a great deal that that you know the tendency is to start to overcome, you know, just this is the way we do it, and now you gotta be and so if if everybody perceives this as oh my god, it's such a great idea, but that's such a pain to do, even once it like opens up.

Um, I mean, if it's only the city, it's gonna be great for businesses that are in those blocks, but nobody else is going to see the benefit if we're not moving things around the downtown court where the easy is.

And so again, you know, we need to be messaging that this is a pilot, it's probably it's more restrictive than we intend it to be, should this go forward.

But this is also meant to be something that's easily accessible for you know to activate the downtown.

And we don't want to be known for this sort of thing if we're now known in the building and permitting world is you know, a special place in hell.

So well, I will say um certainly by linking it to a special event permit, it would be an easy way to activate it.

Um, but again, you know, given how quick we had to move but I but I agree for the first uh when we when we look at the permanent um when we look at the permanent head mall.

I mean, certainly that would be a discussion we could have here at the committee is analyzing how things have gone, what makes the most sense.

I mean, right now, only not Mountain View nonprofits can get special event permits, and so there is there are some controls.

So for us, um, that could be a really easy next step to explore.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, ultimately, if the community likes it, you know, they're gonna want to see it.

And if you only see it three times a year, it's gonna go, yeah, that was a big deal.

So we'll so well, we'll see.

Well, we will have a lot of information probably in about the next six months.

Right.

I think I think notwithstanding Debbie Downer, I think it's a great idea.

And I think you know, pulling this together great.

So appreciate that.

Well, it's interesting because the World Cup forces you to put this thing in place and going and get it figured out.

So that's good to a point where we're not overanalyzing it and then Yeah, it's been to that point.

I mean, having the World Cup as our big motivator has allowed us to move a lot quicker than a lot of cities.

There are a lot of cities who aspired to have entertainment zones for the world to have, but because we felt that it was an a priority, we we had a lot of internal support and energy and prioritized capacity to make this work um and make it move so quickly.

And so to that end, this is our timeline.

Um we are going to introduce the ordinance at the April 14th City Council meeting.

Um it's tentatively scheduled to be adopted at the following meeting on April 28th, and then um it requires 30 days to go into effect.

So it'll be in effect on May 28th.

Um, kind of prior to that, sort of April 28th to when we use it, we'll be working closely with the chamber to do outreach to businesses who are eligible to apply to be to participate in the entertainment zone.

They do have they're gonna have to be you know well informed about the up with the operations manual, they're gonna have to notify ABC of their intent to participate.

So there are a couple of steps.

Um, and then again, we are tentatively looking at uh the weekend of July 18th and 19th to as our first activation in the downtown.

So uh not knowing what teams we'll be playing.

Um is there a way that um let's assume it's the German.

Can we get the German community that to do some extra things?

Or is that would that be outside people that would not be invited?

So um yeah, so I think we're you know, we're planning to do placemaking in the entirety of the downtown.

So um have you know soccer themed decorations and decor and photo moments happening throughout the downtown.

Um we don't know who will be playing on the 18th and 19th, it's the bronze and final, but it'll be the final game.

So we're hoping to have some excitement and energy around these being the big games.

Um but certainly as we get closer and we start to get a sense of it, we'd love to find opportunities to collaborate if we have, you know, we do have a large, you know, um German population.

So is there a way to engage them?

Again, we'll have to be you know careful about who we invite from outside to and who's allowed to serve, you know, because again, we can't have out outside alcohol vendors.

Um, but as we get closer, we'll have more information.

The other thing I will say is, you know, we're we're looking at uh activate, you know, activations around this weekend, in activating the entertainment zone.

We're still working with FIFA to get approval to show the game.

So it could play out in a in a variety of different ways, what that weekend actually looks like.

Meaning to do public viewings for the games, yeah.

Yeah, you have to uh I'm currently going back and forth with FIFA around what we'd like to do to get their approval.

You know, the alternative is you know, think Stephen's Green has TVs and there's ways to get you know, really promote watching in in the businesses and maybe having other activities out on the street.

So we're looking at a variety of different ways that that might play out.

Yeah.

Um should ask, is there any public input online?

I don't see anyone online.

And is there any public input?

Nope.

All right.

Any last comments or questions for staff?

Would you like a motion of support with that help or does that?

Yeah, absolutely.

Um, this is going on consent, but oftentimes when we get council questions, it's uh it's helpful to be able to share if path committees have seen it and if you're supportive, I would welcome.

So is is there a motion uh encouragement uh anybody wants to make?

Yeah, I think it's a great idea.

Yeah, so I heard that is yeah.

So I moved and we uh adopted motion to support the easy, and that we volunteer to help.

Is there a second?

I like that.

All right, Pamela, you're the designate.

Uh is there a second second by Jamil?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, say nay.

None.

The motion carries unanimously.

Great, thank you.

Thank you all.

Appreciate that is exciting.

Okay, um, anything else in new business?

A new business.

That was our big item.

Okay.

Item number eight, uh committee and staff comments, questions, committee reports, et cetera.

So I have a question.

We didn't have um construction update permit updates like we normally don't have an update.

Yeah, so in our last uh at our last meeting, we decided they would come quarterly.

Um, and so I believe they'll be here next month with updates or neck our next meeting with updates.

And is our next meeting?

I wrote I wrote it down because we're meeting in sort of odd cadence and on cadence.

I'm pretty sure we meet in May.

Uh yes, we do meet in May.

Uh, we've got this string of meetings.

We meet April, May, and June, and then we're off July and August.

Um I wanted to just ask about um actually there were two things.

One was um, do we have maybe for a follow-up report is post pandemic downtown lunches, you know, lunchtime seems really dead.

And it seemed to be, and now we're just getting at the summers of the winter, but you know, I'm just curious about um you know what the downtown lunchtime business is like now compared to like pre-pandemic, and you know, is staff aware of that?

Is staff do is the city doing anything about that?

Um, that sort of thing.

It just seems like a whole different dynamic than it was, and I think we have lost some major employers in the downtown area.

So I just thought that would be interesting.

The other thing is this is a status update.

I have brought up the idea of should the city transition the downtown committee, which used to be the oversight committee of the revitalization district originally.

Um that we have the citywide economic vitality manager, would it make more sense for the committee to be an advice citywide economic vitality advisory committee?

You know, again, still a committee, he's still working to advise staff.

I asked Christian about that.

He his comment was well, what's Amanda think?

And I said, Well, Amanda said, what is Christian think?

So it wasn't exactly my response.

That was no, that wasn't your response.

My response was that it would be a decision for council to make it.

Yes, that was your decision for council.

So um, but so you know it is it is an issue.

Uh that's that's the only status that I've raised this question.

He didn't he didn't laugh.

So he didn't laugh.

Any other um comments under section eight or item eight?

So um, as everybody knows I'm on the uh Mount Historical Association.

So um I randomly go over to the History Center and found these interesting um articles, which I will give to a man.

So here's one from February 1966.

And what was proposed was basically you can't wait to see this, basically tearing down all the buildings and making it into a shopping center.

Whoa!

Like Sunnyville.

Like Sunnyville.

So anyway, it's interesting because they don't go in the 60s.

Let's let's get rid of anything that's old, let's tear it out and start all over again.

So here's a model and two planning staff people doing their wonderful model.

So and the name of the city spelled incorrectly.

I don't know about that.

Mount to view.

Oh, Mount View.

Well, they got that wrong too.

But anyway, it's an interesting idea um of how city planning has changed.

And then to your point, um, this is from 1976.

There was a Mountain View uh City Council will hold a special two-hour study of the session to review the findings of the downtown revitalization study.

Um, and this was in uh 1976.

So 10 years later, the city was still trying to figure out what we do with downtown.

But a little interesting factoid.

Um, and then we'll be conducting a rocking tour on April Monday afternoon, April 26th, I think it is.

Okay.

Anything else?

Saying nothing else, um, we'll move on to item number nine.

We will stand adjourned until May 5th.

All right.

Thank you, everybody.

Okay.

Sorry, just to note, we are still looking for committee members.

Please encourage your friends and family in favor of business owners.

So what categories do we need?

I think we're still looking for downtown business and property.

Have you had any since um Jeanette is doing so much stuff with he had submitted applications?

He has, okay.

All right.