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Good evening, everybody.

It is just past six o'clock, so we're going to go ahead and get started.

if everybody could have their seats please thank you for joining our regular city council meeting

of november 24th 2025 we're holding meetings in a hybrid format with both in-person and virtual

participation the city welcomes public comment on topics within the city's subject matter

jurisdiction and members of the public may provide comments as follows in-person speakers will be

called first. Speaker cards are located in the back table of council chambers and must be turned

in to the city clerk here at the dais. Please be sure to indicate the agenda item number which

you wish to speak on. Attendees who have joined us by Zoom will be called to speak after the in-person

comments have been given. Detailed instructions for public comment will be provided on the screen

when the time for public comment begins. And if there's a high volume of public comment this

evening. We may decrease the time allotted

for each comment or limit the total

time for public comment. In the event

this occurs, please feel free to send your full

comments to the City Council at

council at roadcity.org.

Written comments are not read aloud, but

will be made part of the final meeting record.

And I'll now turn it over to our City

Clerk to call the roll.

Good evening.

Council Member Chu. Here.

Council Member Gee. Present.

Council Member Howard. Here.

Council Member Padilla. Present.

Council Member Sturkin. Here. Vice Mayor Aiken. Present. Mayor Martinez Ceballos. Here. Thank you.

Thank you, everybody. We'll go to the Pledge of Allegiance. Council Member Padilla, can you do the honors?

Thank you, Council Member.

With that, we'll move on to Item 4.

Item 4 is a procedural item for the purpose of identifying and confirming any Council members who wish to participate in the meeting remotely

and have not already provided a remote location listed on the agenda.

This item doesn't pertain to public comment from the public.

And we don't have anyone exercising this, so we'll move on to our next item.

which is item five, our presentations and acknowledgments beginning with 5A.

Our first recognition item this evening is to honor the memory of Dr. Jason Wong,

who faithfully served the residents of Redwood City and the greater San Mateo County community

as the longtime medical director of Samaritan House Free Clinic for over 17 years.

We are deeply saddened to hear of his passing,

but want to acknowledge the legacy that Dr. Wong leaves here in Redwood City.

And I'll read a few excerpts from his proclamation.

Whereas Dr. Wong advanced a holistic vision of community health,

recognizing that medical well-being is deeply connected to the social and economic factors,

and he tirelessly worked to create programs that address these broader needs.

Whereas Dr. Wong was the driving force behind the acclaimed Food Pharmacy Initiative,

which provided nutritious food prescriptions and education to patients,

managing chronic conditions such as diabetes,

resulting in measurable improvements in health outcomes

and receiving regional and national recognition.

And whereas the City of Redwood City wishes to formally acknowledge

and commemorate Dr. Wong's lifelong service,

ensuring that his contributions remain an inspiration for generations to come.

now therefore be resolved that I Elmer Martinez of Ayos

Mayor of Redwood City on behalf of the City Council and the people of Redwood

City do hereby honor the legacy

of Dr. Wong for his extraordinary dedication to improving community

health advancing compassionate and equitable care and strengthening

the well-being of residents throughout Redwood City and the surrounding region

be it further resolved that the City of Redwood City expresses

its deepest gratitude to Dr. Wong, his family, colleagues, and the Samaritan House community

for the profound and lasting impact of his service.

And now I'd like to welcome Dr. Wong's family and former colleagues of Samaritan House to

share some remarks.

My name is Dr. Baldeep Singh.

I'm the current medical director at Samaritan House.

I just wanted to say on behalf of the family and the staff and the family at Samaritan House,

what a huge loss this was for us.

Dr. Wong served for 17 years in this position.

The clinics grew to take care of the poorest of the poor in our communities,

and he started the dental clinic, the behavioral health clinic,

and the first food pharmacy in the state of California,

in addition to growing the medical clinics.

And really, I think for me, trying to live up to that legacy

is some very big shoes that we have to fill.

but we're all incredibly grateful for his service over the number of years that he served with us

and just he was just such a lovely person and we were just glad to know him and

and be inspired by him thank you

thank you sir and before you leave is it possible for us to we have a proclamation we want to honor

Dr. Wong's legacy with, and we'd love to take a group photo if that's possible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mayor, may I just say a few words about this?

Please, Councilman Rowan.

I just wanted to say, my husband and I knew Dr. Wong, and we worked with him for many years.

And I remember being in that pantry with him when he came up with this vision of how to help people and feed people.

And I can't tell you how much I admired that man for his service, both to the Redwood City community, but to many communities.

He served on the Sequoia Board, the Community Advisory Board,

and he gave a great deal of himself to that.

I served with him, and what a wonderful man,

and he will be very, very missed.

Thank you, Council Member Howard.

Again, thank you all for helping us celebrate Dr. Wong

and his great work here.

Thank you.

And we will now go to Item 5B.

Our next recognition is in celebration of Palestine Cultural Day.

which took place on October 18th, 2025, and commemorates the 46th annual Palestine Cultural Day celebration at Courthouse Square.

On behalf of the City Council, it's my pleasure to present the following proclamation.

Whereas Palestine Cultural Day is a special occasion dedicated to celebrating the contributions and culture of Palestinian Americans throughout our community,

fostering a sense of joy, belonging, and empowerment for Palestinian people everywhere.

And whereas the city of Redwood City celebrates and values the rich cultural diversity that

strengthens our community and acknowledges the many contributions of residents of Palestinian

heritage who help shape the social, cultural, and economic fabric of our city.

And whereas on October 18th, the Palestinian American Coalition hosted its 46th annual

Palestine Day in Redwood City, where thousands came together to celebrate Palestinian culture,

heritage, and unity. And whereas the Palestinian American Coalition, a remarkable organization that

serves the San Francisco Bay Area, has shown an unwavering commitment to the education,

support, and development of children and families, providing a nurturing environment that encourages

is creativity, collaboration, and cultural pride.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that I, Elmer Martinez-Aballos, Mayor of Redwood City, on

behalf of the Council and the people of Redwood City, do hereby recognize October 18, 2025

as Palestine Cultural Day, a day of celebration, appreciation, and recognition of the invaluable

contributions Palestinians bring to the city of Redwood City.

On this special day, we call upon all members of our community to come together to celebrate Palestinian culture and to continue investing in the future of our people.

I'd like to welcome now Mona Sadeh-Tota and members of the Palestinian American Coalition to the podium to give remarks and share highlights from this year's Palestine Cultural Day.

Thank you all.

Good evening, everyone. I just wanted to thank the mayor for this opportunity. To be here

is an honor, and we appreciate the recognition of the Palestinian-American Coalition of San

Francisco. Just to introduce who we are, we are a coalition of seven Palestinian non-profit,

non-political, charitable organizations, and our mission is to continue educating our

our children, exposing our culture and heritage, which we are proud of.

We've been doing this.

This cultural day has started in 1979 in Ramallah Club.

And the very first person who came up with the idea is Dr. Samir Tota,

which we give him all the credit for his efforts.

Secondly, I thank you and I look forward to having more of those cultural day in the beautiful city of Redwood City and distinguished Redwood City.

It's a beautiful place and we are grateful to the opportunity.

We have estimated over 20,000 people attended this festival day and that is great for the city.

economically. We brought you

it was

really a very successful

event for us and for the city and we

appreciate that and we're forever

grateful to this opportunity.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mona. It felt like

you had all 20,000 people dancing

at Courthouse Square this past month

and we also want to make sure that we

recognize your good work with a

proclamation and a photo. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A'B'A''B'A'B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'A''B'

Am I on? Yeah. Thank you for the proclamation. We do appreciate it. And the one thing I and we'd like to add is this has been the most welcoming city we've ever had events. And we started this event in 1979 in San Francisco.

grew it out to Foster City, came to Redwood City

and we're baffled

of how happy people are

to come to Redwood City for this event

and I'm not going to forget

about the police department, the fire

department, the health department, Park and Rec

Brandon and his team

everybody was just on their feet

welcoming, what can I do

for you? It was such a

wonderful feeling that we loved it, felt like

home and

that's why I delivered a greater event every

year and we just really appreciate what you guys have done for us thank you

thank you mr chair

thank you everybody before we move on to with tonight's agenda i want to announce that

we'll be adjourning tonight's meeting in memory of rose felicity a beloved family member of

of council members Stricken.

On behalf of the council,

I'd like to express our deepest condolences for your loss

and wish you and your family peace

during this difficult time.

And council member Stricken,

just wanna invite you to make any comments.

Thank you, mayor and colleagues as well.

Yeah, my aunt Rose Bilicetti passed on Monday, November 10th

surrounded by family, including my cousin Matt Savage, who's in the audience in the back there.

Thank you for being here, Matt, and our cousins, his siblings, Tori and Andy and her wife Margaret,

and my uncle Neil, Rose's husband, and my parents' mother, who was Rose's sister.

And I want to tell you a little bit about why Rose was important,

not only to me, but to the community.

As a former elected member of the Santa Cruz County Board of Education,

as well as the Mountain View-Wisman School District Board of Trustees,

Rose has a legacy of public service and giving back to the community.

She was the founder of Digital Nest, a nonprofit that helped to bring together nonprofits and to work more collaboratively to meet the needs of the community across both Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.

But to me, Rose was someone I looked up to.

She understood the life I live as an elected official,

the politics I have to play,

and the perseverance needed to make change.

My cousin said to me on the day of her passing

that you carry on her legacy of public service.

Rose made me feel like I belong.

with a lesbian daughter and a gay nephew of her own.

Rose accepted me when I came out as a queer person without question.

And when I felt out of place, she made me feel at home.

I miss her terribly, as we all do.

But I'm grateful to have known her and want you to join me in celebrating her memory

and her amazing contributions to the community.

There will be a celebration of life on Sunday, December 1st at 1 p.m. in Santa Cruz.

And for anyone who may be interested in joining me and my cousin there, I would be happy to share the Eventbrite information.

Just feel free to reach out.

My number and my email is on the city website.

but firstly just or lastly thank you so much for giving me space and time to honor my aunt's memory

and um and with her memory in mind let's have a good meeting thank you and um thank you

from the mayor we have a bouquet of flowers for my cousin i'm going to come give you so thank you

Thank you.

And tonight's meeting again will be adjourned in memory of your Aunt Rose Felicetti.

And we will now go to item six, which is public comments.

We'll now take public comment on the consent calendar, matters of council interest, as well as items that are not on the agenda tonight.

We welcome speakers providing public comment, but please be advised this is a limited public forum.

As such, speakers must address matters within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city.

And if speakers do not, they will be warned.

And if they continue to disregard city rules, their opportunity to speak will be limited.

If you are attending in person, please fill out a speaker card and submit it to the city clerk here at the dais.

And if you're attending virtually, please feel free to raise your hand on Zoom at this time or press star 9 if you've joined by phone.

Once we've gathered all the speaker cards and raised hands and have begun public comment,

no additional speakers will be allowed to queue up to speak.

I'll now turn it over to our city clerk to facilitate public comment.

Thank you, Mayor.

At this time, we have two speaker cards for in-person comments.

I'll do a last call to the audience for anyone else who wishes to submit a speaker card.

And we do have one hand on Zoom.

And as the mayor said, once we begin public comment, the speakers list will be closed.

So we'll take any more raised hands or speaker cards at this time.

So we'll begin with our in-person speakers.

Our first speaker will be Mary Martinez, who will be followed by Tony Gapastone.

And there is a timer on the top of the podium.

Orange blinking light is the 32nd warning.

and the red light with the beep means your time is up

and the timer will begin when you begin speaking.

Thank you.

Okay.

Good evening, City Council members.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Mary Martinez,

and I'm the Human Services Coordinator at the Fairwix Community Center.

I'm currently a contractor,

and I represent the other contractors

who are becoming SEIU union members.

Thank you for listening to our request to become union workers

and extending us the job stability we need to support the community we all love.

In 1993, my stepfather was taken from us unexpectedly.

Overnight, my mother became a single mother of five children.

We were suddenly in crisis without housing security, without stable income,

and unsure what was going to happen next.

It was the Fair Oaks Community Center that stepped in for us.

They helped my family find shelter when we had nowhere else to go.

They connected us with Second Harvest Food Bank, ensuring we had enough to eat during some of the most difficult months of our lives.

They offered us guidance, dignity, and stability at a time when we desperately needed all three.

The support my family received changed the trajectory of our lives,

and today the work I do in human services is my way of giving back to the community that once lifted us up.

We at the Fair Oaks Community Center are the first point of contact for families in crisis.

These residents need consistent, dependable staff to build trust and follow through.

For many years, we have dedicated ourselves to serving our community despite the precarious nature of our contract status.

By recognizing us as union workers and providing us with the job security we need, you are investing in the community as well as us, and we thank you for that.

furthermore Redwood City prides itself on equity inclusion and care for all residents

stabilizing these roles that directly support families in crisis demonstrates the city's

commitment to these values and practice not just in principle in closing thank you for hearing our

request for union representation and increased job stability you are strengthening the safety

net that has supported generations of Redwood City residents including me and my family

Recognizing us as union members and providing us with job stability

shows that the city values the people who provide essential support

to our community and most vulnerable members.

Thank you for your time, your consideration,

and your ongoing commitment to the well-being of all who call Redwood City home.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mary.

Our next speaker is Tony Gapastone.

I love being a part of this community.

I love Redwood City so much, and just hearing these stories inspires me to continue to do the work that I do.

I'm the founder and executive director of Brave Maker, which is a charitable organization here in Redwood City

that's committed to educate, entertain, and create community with film for justice, diversity, and inclusion.

How many of you are planning to go to a movie this week or in the next month?

I hope you will, because we want to see the Redwood City Cinemark Theater stay here.

I go there at least once a week.

I think movies are powerful. They change our lives. I also love knowing all the people who

work there by name. Thomas, who scans tickets. Nicholas and Yvonne, who work up there as the

managers. I love this city. I'm going to continue to bring the arts to Redwood City through film

in our eighth year, which is coming up in 2026. If you were a part of the seventh year, you might

have seen this logo around Redwood City in lawn signs or in banners. We are bringing really

important and meaningful human stories that can change lives, that can open hearts and minds.

And as a nonprofit, like many of you who are doing the work here, we implore you to participate

and to engage and to volunteer and to donate. Brave Maker is still a month-to-month nonprofit

charitable organization. We get small grants from the city and from the county and other places,

but we need individuals to continue to step up. We have 73 people who support us every month to

do this work, like bringing Marlee Matlin.

If you have not watched her documentary

on PBS, we had her in Redwood

City. It's free now, called Not Alone

Anymore. Please support the

arts and look at BraveMaker.com

for more of the work that we're doing. And I invite

you to come December 6th

to our annual gala

at the end of the year here to celebrate the work that we're

doing. It's going to be at Salt and Timber.

And you have to email me for

the time, okay? Tony at BraveMaker.com

if you want to come. I'm paying for all the food and drinks.

All right. Thank you so much. Please continue to be good citizens of this community that we love so much. Thanks for having me.

Thank you, Tony. We do have two additional speakers, but for the next item, 8A.

So we'll move now to our Zoom speakers. We have two.

Our first speaker will be Bernadette, who will be followed by KH.

Bernadette, you can go ahead and unmute yourself and begin your comments.

Thank you very much. That's going to be a hard talk to follow.

Hi. Good evening, City Council members. My name is Bernadette Hadnagy, and I live in Redwood City. I think I'm in District 7. I'm up by Kenyatta College.

I don't know if you've heard, but on November 10th at around 530, there was a hit-and-run accident that occurred at a four-way intersection at Farm Hill Boulevard and Eden Bower Lane.

The resident sustained minor injuries and his family dog was hit and killed.

According to witnesses, the accident very likely could have resulted in serious injury or death to the dog owner and to others if this had been a head-on collision.

It was pretty close and it was very scary for those who witnessed it.

Our community, if you haven't been up here, we are a community of older active residents.

We are families with children.

We are single active people with pet owners.

We have a college.

Many college students walk up and down Farm Hill and use the streets.

And we have wildlife.

So it's important for us to have safe speeds and a safe place to exercise, to be active, and to get from point A to point B safely.

This is the only crosswalk at this intersection without a stop sign, without a street light, or a pedestrian signal.

There are no visible signs.

There are signs posted, but trees are blocking them.

So if you're going uphill, you cannot see the signs unless the trees are trimmed.

And if you're going downhill, there are signs, some of them blocked by trees, and there's also a blind curb.

So the signs aren't very effective there.

And of all the crosswalks, this is the one most in need of repainting.

There's not a police presence to reduce unsafe driving on this road.

but we have as a result of this incident and several other close calls we've collected

almost a thousand signatures just in november in support of a solution and our solution that

we're asking for is a four-way stop sign it makes the most sense to us because it's the most cost

effective and an alternative would be Bernadette you've gone over time if you could just give us

your last one or two thoughts. I apologize. Yep. I just want to thank you for your time and let you

know that in the meantime, the community will be taking our efforts to implement something ourselves

and hope that the city council will be supportive of a solution for us. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, Bernadette. And it seems that our second speaker has lowered their hand. So I'll

turn it back to you, Mayor. That concludes public comment.

Thank you, City Clerk. Thank you to

everybody who made public comment this evening.

It is always greatly appreciated.

With that, we will now move

on to Item 7,

which is

our consent calendar.

Councilman Sirk?

Thank you, Mayor.

Can we have

staff follow up with the

member of the public

who inquired about

that four-way stop yes assuming that they provided contact information we'll be able to follow up

thank you thank you great thank you both we will go on to item seven our consent calendar items on

the consent calendar are routine in nature and are approved by one motion are there any items

on consent from which council members are recused not seeing any we will move on um is there a motion

to approve all items on consent.

So moved.

Second.

That was a motion from Council Member Howard,

a second from Council Member Gee.

Could we get an electronic vote, please?

We need one more.

There we go.

The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

We will now move on to item eight, our public hearings.

And we'll begin with a presentation from our engineering and transportation director, Tanisha Werner, who will introduce the item.

And we have our senior civil engineer, Patty Schrodenbor, who will give us the presentation.

All right, thank you so much.

Good evening, Mayor Martinez Ceballos, City Council members and members of the community.

My name is Tanisha Werner.

I serve as the Engineering and Transportation Director.

And this evening, it's my pleasure to introduce our first study session of the night.

Staff is requesting that City Council waive the first reading and introduce an ordinance updating four chapters of the City's Municipal Code.

These updates align our regulations with current laws.

It strengthens our creek protections by requiring engineering review for development within creek setbacks and allows lot design exceptions for urban lot splits on wide lots.

tonight's presentation will be delivered in person by patty scrotenburgh and she is our senior civil

engineer on the land development team so thank you for your attention and i'll pass it to patty

excuse me good evening mayor vice mayor council members members of the public

i'm patty scrotenbor senior civil engineer tonight i'm going to be presenting some updates that are

are proposed to Municipal Code Chapters 18, 27A, 30, and 41.

Tonight, we'll briefly cover the purpose and goals

of the proposed code updates,

walk through the updates that are proposed to each chapter,

describe the next steps in the process,

and provide the recommended council action.

Next slide.

Thank you.

As we walk through the proposed changes,

staff is asking council to consider if there are any questions regarding the proposed changes

to each chapter. Next slide.

What are the purpose and goals for the proposed changes? As you may expect, with changes to four

different chapters, there are different reasons for the changes in the various sections. Some of

these sections have had recent updates, most notably a full replacement of chapter 30 in October of

2024, while others, like Chapter 41, have not been updated in several years.

Some changes are to update the city's code to conform to current state laws or federal

recommendations.

Some, like those in Chapter 27A, are to clarify maintenance responsibilities and set development

requirements along creeks and channels, and some are to allow for design flexibility for

urban lot splits under certain conditions.

Next slide.

Chapter 18 of the code covers local improvements in planning, including the installation of utilities.

The changes to Chapter 18 involve underground service lines to buildings for electrical communications and cable TV or dry utilities.

No changes are proposed about when these utilities are required to be placed underground initially.

The proposed language is simply to clarify that once a building is served by an underground service,

It must continue to be served underground and no future service lines can be placed overhead.

Next slide.

Chapter 27A of the Municipal Code covers the stormwater system in the city and includes the creeks and channels defined within the code as watercourses.

Proposed revisions do not change any existing maintenance responsibility by the city or private property owners,

but adds language to clarify those existing responsibilities.

These existing responsibilities align with the responsibilities identified in the Clean Water Act in place since the 1970s.

Prohibited actions are currently in both Chapter 32 of the Zoning Code and Chapter 27A of the Municipal Code.

The proposed revisions do not add prohibited actions, but align the prohibited actions in both zoning and Municipal Code.

The most new language in Chapter 27A is regarding development near watercourses.

The code already defined the watercourse setback as 20 feet from the top of bank or 30 feet from the center line, whichever is larger.

The proposed language does not prohibit development within this setback, but sets requirements for professional studies that must be completed.

These requirements vary based on whether the watercourse is a concrete-lined channel or natural creek, which I will explain in more detail on the next slides.

Next slide.

In the case of concrete-lined channels, the studies must demonstrate that the proposed improvements do not impose any additional loading on the existing walls.

The report must be prepared by a licensed civil, structural, environmental, or geotechnical engineer.

the revised code language also proposes a 10 foot unobstructed space along the creek

which is intended to allow space for repair or reconstruction of the channel walls

one item to note is that article 33 of the zoning ordinance allows for all existing structures and

impervious surfaces that were lawfully constructed to remain aligning with article 33 these code

code update requirements will only apply to new development proposed within the water course setback.

Next slide. In the case of natural creeks, the studies must demonstrate that the proposed

improvements will maintain the structural stability of the creek banks. One method of

stabilizing slopes is to include vegetation, so the removal of vegetation is not allowed.

Next slide.

Moving on to changes to Chapter 30, the code for subdivisions.

You may recall that last fall, Chapter 30 was completely revised to streamline our review process for subdivision maps.

Within those changes, the city engineer was authorized to accept easement dedications.

The changes proposed here would similarly authorize the city engineer to accept the summary vacation of public service easements.

All other summary vacations would still require council approval consistent with the streets

and highways code.

An urban lot split is a special type of lot split for single family residential zones

and is subject to ministerial approval by staff under Senate Bill 9 commonly called

SB 9.

These lot splits were added to Chapter 30 as part of the revisions last fall.

The proposed changes to code would allow for exceptionally wide lots to utilize an SB9

lot split even if the lot depth exceeds 2.5 times its width.

Other changes to the code are proposed to align with updated state law surrounding urban

lot split requirements including timing for review.

Next slide.

The final chapter with proposed revisions is Chapter 41, Floodplain Management.

As noted in the recent discussion surrounding the stormwater roadmap, one of the considerations

for building in a floodplain is raising the finished floor above expected floodwaters.

FEMA requires finished floors to be raised above the base flood elevation and further

recommends raising finished floor heights to a foot above base flood elevation.

The California State Building Code goes a step further and requires finished floors

to be a foot above base flood elevation.

The most restrictive requirement applies, so buildings in California should set their

finished floors at one foot above base flood elevation.

The proposed revision to Chapter 41 aligns the Municipal Code requirements with these

current federal recommendations and state requirements.

Next slide.

For the proposed code changes to become effective, the next steps would include Council approval

of the changes and a second reading of the proposed changes at a future council meeting.

The changes would become effective 30 days after the second reading.

Next slide.

Finally the recommended council action tonight is to waive the first reading and introduce

an ordinance amending municipal code chapters 18, local improvements and planning, 27A stormwater

management and discharge control program 30 subdivisions and 41 floodplain management

next slide to remind you of the questions staff has for council we're wondering if the council

has any questions regarding the proposed changes for any of the chapters that were discussed tonight

great thank you so much for the wonderful presentation patty we will now open open

and excuse me, the public hearing,

and I'll turn it over to the city clerk

to help facilitate public comment.

Thank you, Mayor.

I do have two in-person speakers on this item.

Last call to the audience for any more.

And we have one speaker on Zoom as well.

So again, once we start public comment,

we'll close the speakers list.

We'll start with AJ Lair,

who will be followed by Alex Lair.

You'll have two minutes to speak and the timer will begin when you start speaking.

Welcome.

Hello, Council.

So I was

I'm here to talk about just the requesting

approval of this to be passed. It's for section 30

of the urban lot splits. My wife and I had purchased a lot

here in Redwood City with the plans to build our future home, hopefully forever home.

And then we had met with the planning department prior to doing so.

The lot's just a few square feet short of doing a quote-unquote normal lot split, I guess.

So we were recommended by the planning staff to do an urban lot split.

We submitted for the plans.

We purchased this about 15 months ago.

and then I think we submitted in November of last year.

By October, just a month before,

the Chapter 30 had been overhauled,

and there was a new part of the code there

that the new lot could not be two and a half times

as deep as they are wide,

which it posed a problem for our lot

because it was exceptionally deep.

so essentially

we weren't able to split the lot side by side

however we were allowed to do

this lot split but it would just have to be

a lot in the front and a lot behind

so basically a flag lot or a pin handle lot

I think is what they call it

if we were to go through with that

which we could have already

it would have kind of ruined the character of the

neighborhood

we would have

the back lot would have six neighbors around it

OPPOSED TO, IF THEY WERE TWO SIDE-BY-SIDE,

YOU'D JUST BE A NORMAL LOT WITH THREE NEIGHBORS.

SO WE DECIDED NOT TO GO FORWARD WITH THAT.

AND THEN WE WORKED WITH PATRICK,

THE CITY ASSISTANT MANAGER,

HOPEFULLY SOON TO BE CITY MANAGER,

AND HE'S BEEN GREAT.

AND THEN ALSO COUNCIL MEMBER HOWARD.

WE REALLY APPRECIATE THE HELP

WITH GETTING THIS TO BE PART OF THE AGENDA HERE TONIGHT.

AND WE HOPE THAT ALL OF YOU VOTE IN FAVOR OF PASSING IT.

THANK YOU.

Thank you, AJ.

Our next speaker is Alex Lair.

Welcome.

I'm the old guy.

He's the J. So I'm AO Alex Hold.

So regardless, regarding line item 30,

or the item pertaining to the lot splits.

As you know, SB9 was there to help create more housing.

And the beautiful part with Redwood City is you guys have been very proactive in adopting it.

And unfortunately, this little piece got caught as bycatch

in trying to do the greater good of making it that extra, not to exceed two and a half times.

So all we're asking this evening is that you adopt the changes as proposed,

and that would help tremendously for this lot specifically

and all those in the future that are not trying to do something outside the norm of the neighborhood

or do something destructive or destructive to the neighborhood,

but allow the city planning and everyone to make the decision

versus just having an arbitrary hard no to it.

So that's it.

Just we wanted to say we appreciate your taking the matter into consideration.

and how it can be passed.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Excuse me.

Thank you.

We'll now move to our Zoom comments.

We do have one speaker.

K.H., you may unmute yourself

and begin your comments.

Good evening.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Great.

Thank you.

My name is Kim Hurst.

First, I want to say

that I love living in Redwood City.

To sum it up,

Redwood City offers the best in everything. I'm calling in as my property backs up to the property

that is being considered and how to split that property to build two houses. I just wanted to

express my thought to say that I always remembered when we were looking for our dream home, the first

thing we looked at was curb appeal. Curb appeal means everything when buying a house. Many times

we wouldn't even consider a house if it lacked curb appeal. And we wouldn't even look at a flag

lot. It just wasn't us. A house at the back, a flag lot does not have curb appeal. And having

a flag lot means that the back house will be built closer to the fence line instead of in the middle

of the property, affording both houses a front yard and a backyard, like in a usual setting.

Having a flag lot also means it can affect me having to have a house, and I'm assuming they're going to build a two-story house built much closer to the property line.

I just want to say I hope that you'll consider allowing them to build a traditional, customary, side-by-side houses.

Thank you.

Thank you, Kim.

that concludes public comment mayor i'll turn it back to you

thank you everybody for providing your input this evening we'll bring it back to the council

for discussion and any questions who would like to get us started

council member howard thank you

I do remember speaking, AJ, I do remember speaking with you, but it was a long time ago.

And I remember when you talked to me, what you said made so much sense.

And so I do have to commend our city staff because I can't take any credit for this.

Our city staff saw a problem that could be resolved, but it took some time and had to change of language.

And something that could be built in a safe way.

And they found it.

They found the way.

And I just am always so pleased when people come back and say thank you.

So I really appreciate that you came this evening.

And I'm so pleased and proud of our city staff that you took this initiative and you made it happen.

And I really appreciate it.

Nothing will be damaged.

You just made it make sense.

for these lovely people who just want to have a home like everyone else.

So thank you very much to our staff.

Thank you, Council Member Howard.

Council Member Chiu.

So thank you so much for this presentation.

Just a clarifying question about the stormwater management and discharge control.

That's the creeks, right?

Do we own any of the land on either side of the creeks and canals, or is it just purely the canals themselves?

So it varies by location.

With the concrete line channels, we sometimes will have a couple of feet of easement on each side, but generally it's pretty limited.

Okay.

All right.

Great.

Thank you.

Just reiterating, often I look down those canals with longing and just wish they were something we could walk along because they're natural, intuitive.

pedestrian pathways, but terrific on that.

And then regarding the SB9 lot split, so

obviously the more flexibility we can give people

on being able to build housing on their own land,

the more granular, delightful, small, locally owned

craft housing we're going to get. I would be interested in

seeing us take it even further. I live in a district where the lots

are typical. They're only 50 feet wide and 100 feet long. And if you think about the

most iconic neighborhoods in the United States, there are a lot of row houses. So sort of

lots of narrow houses next to each other is sort of an iconic American urban form. And

so what is that? Can you remind me how wide does the lot have to be to do a middle? I

don't know. What did you call it again? Something split. Urban lot split. Yeah. How wide?

So with the proposed changes, the resulting lots both need to be 50 feet wide.

Okay, great.

And there aren't very many lots narrower than that in Redwood City, are there?

There are some, but it's not.

But it's a pretty average.

Okay.

So an average lot can be split down the middle.

Terrific.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member.

Any other comments or questions?

Councilmember Sergan thank you thank you mayor and thank you so much um yeah so I

I echo what my colleagues have already stated that you know this um change would

only allow for lots to be split um in such a way that they end up being the average

with most R1 or other kind of lots in the city.

There's not a big change.

And I think just to ask a quick question,

based on what I heard,

this code change would allow,

I kind of quote,

a customary side-by-side house.

Okay, side-by-side houses, plural, excuse me.

Thank you for confirming.

And this is a great infill opportunity

to help us meet our arena goals

granularly of course um and uh to open up neighborhoods that maybe historically were

closed uh to residents of different incomes and give them access to uh those higher amenities

in those neighborhoods so i'm very supportive of the lot splits and then moving forward to the

27a dot 13 i think it was section um i just wanted to you know mention that while i know it is the

responsibility property owners to maintain a natural creek free from

debris and we do have for those who have the properties along the creek

self-service sandbag station that's open 27 hours a day seven days a week during

the wet weather season for residents at the Public Works Department Corp Yard at

14 under Broadway and while I do mention that I do just want to express my

continuing concern that 27A.15 does not address the needs of residents whose

properties align natural creeks not just Corte Lairs Creek other creeks

throughout the city despite repeated requests for assistance with creek

maintenance that is beyond the scope of residents and their budget of the

average homeowner or resident so I continue to be concerned about that but

I know we're working on a long game, so I appreciate the continued efforts to provide residents with assistance in the future.

But otherwise, I'm supportive of all of the proposed code changes, and thank you.

Thank you, Council Member.

We'll go back to Council Member Chu.

Sorry, I just wanted to make absolution.

So if you have a 50 by 100 foot lot, which is standard in much of the city, you could have two 25 by 100 foot lots.

No, both the resulting lots need to be 50 feet wide.

So this would apply to ones that are 100 feet or more currently.

So that is something I would love to see us revisit in that most lots in the city are 50 by 100 feet.

And I would like to see our residents who live in typical lots be able to split their lot in ways that result in beautiful traditional neighborhoods.

Sure.

Thanks, Council Member.

Any other thoughts?

Vice Mayor Aiken.

Just very briefly, so the setbacks in all of Redwood City are 20 feet from the top of bank or 30 feet from the creek center line.

Is that right?

Yes, correct.

And there are some houses or buildings that may have been built closer to that in the before time.

Yes.

Not really quite sure when.

And so for those houses or buildings that are closer than either of those, they can stay.

Yes.

But if an owner of a lot ever wanted to tear one of those buildings down and rebuild it, they would need to abide by the 20-foot and 30-foot setbacks.

Is that right?

They would need to follow what's already in our zoning ordinance, Article 33.

So it varies by what they're planning to do.

there are

code sections that speak to like structural adjustments

versus additions versus complete teardowns

but if it is building a brand new structure

then it would apply

thank you and I know that

your writing of this

updated ordinance

imagines many different scenarios

and is excellent and I

appreciate it. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Any other

council member remarks, questions?

Not seeing any. I will go ahead and

quickly jump into my questions. Patty, thank you again for the

presentation. I was thinking of

when I read the flood plane

management updates.

I was thinking of some of the historic homes

that we have in Istanbul,

Heller, in Centennial, sort of scattered in our

downtown.

What happens to

any homes that have basements

already built out?

Do they have to make any changes

to abide by, I think it's the

BFE, the base

flood?

The code applies to new buildings, so

anything that is existing would have

been set to the standard that was

in place at the time. Perfect. So folks will need to make any changes or shut off their their

basement or anything like that. Okay great and then the other question I had was how are we going to

educate neighbors about these changes? Is it sort of waiting for folks as they have projects to come

into City Hall to let them know or what is that thinking about that? There will be some of that

but also we have some proactive communications that we're planning with our annual letters to

the neighborhood associations. Okay. Great. And if we can also sort of let the neighborhood

associations, especially for those who have creeks running their neighborhoods, I think that might be

another great channel to just let people know ahead of time so they're not surprised.

Well, that is, those are my questions and I don't think we have anything else. So I'll entertain a

motion. I'd like to make the motion to waive the first reading, introduce the ordinance

amending Municipal Code Chapters 18, 27A, 30, and 41, Floodplain Management.

Great. Thank you, Council Member. Is there a second? Second. Great. That was a motion from

Council Member Howard, a second from Council Member Chu. Could we get an electronic vote, please?

One more.

There you go.

The motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Thanks, everybody.

We will now move on to item 8B,

which is our request for modifications

to the Elko Yards Affordable Housing Plan.

We have our community development director, Jeff Schwab,

who will introduce the item

and Principal Planner Lindy Chan will give the staff presentation.

Thank you both.

Good evening, Mayor Martinez-Cabias and members of the Council.

I'd like to preface tonight's presentation with an overview of the work

underway to bring this project and many others to completion.

As you're aware, the circumstances around development feasibility have changed,

due in part to numerous factors in today's economy

that were not present when many of our projects were initially approved.

Today's economics have been and continue to be affected by high cost of project financing,

as well as project materials and the unpredictability of tariffs.

What was possible pre-pandemic may or may not be feasible in the future,

but what is most certainly true is it will cost more to build in the future.

When project financing becomes more affordable, projects will likely move forward.

But material and labor costs will also increase given demand and limited supply.

It may take many more years for the economy to stabilize, so now is the time to consider

how the city can stimulate development that advances the city's priorities.

As part of the City Council's role in overseeing land use in support of smart development,

staff brought forward the Economic Development Work Program and the Organizational Assessment

recommendations to address and improve development processes.

Staff have continually met with applicants to understand their challenges and to bring

forward to the City Council items that can help alleviate some of these challenges.

As you're aware, the Council took action to approve a housing incentive program, paused

the green infrastructure requirements for interior tenant improvements to facilitate

retenanting a vacant commercial space, implemented state law by adopting a local conforming ordinance

to facilitate impact fee deferrals, updated our impact fees to be reflective of development's

burden on infrastructure but also implemented ordinance or policy-based fee reductions

to facilitate development.

Some of those reductions included the reductions for development within a half mile of the

Caltrain station, while others exempted developments such as ADUs from impact fees.

None of these items by themselves, however,

will necessarily solve the problem.

But in various combinations,

they can result in successful outcomes.

Staff continue to work with the development community

to seek reasonable solutions to these challenging times

to help realize the strategic goals

the City Council has set forth.

And we sincerely hope that tonight's consideration

of project-based amendments in combination

with subsequent action under the city's housing incentive program will result in a successful

outcome for smart developments such as Elko Yards.

Next slide.

So the outline for tonight's presentation, we'll start with a council question so council

members and the public can think about it as we discuss the project.

We'll then move to the background of the project as a whole and the current status of the project.

We'll then focus on the current request for modifications, including modifications to the state density bonus provisions and the affordable housing plan.

And then we will conclude with staff's recommendation.

Excellent.

And here's the question the council should consider.

Do the requested project modifications align with the council's strategic guiding principles for housing, including housing production, affordability, and equity?

And then finally tonight, before I turn over the presentation, I wanted to give you a quick snapshot or overview of our progress in meeting the regional housing needs allocation arena.

This was a slide that we presented to you before.

It shows data as of March 25th, or March 10th of 2025.

That was our last progress report on the housing element.

And as you can see, we're falling a little shy of the amount of units that would be targeted

within this time period.

The data shows that, and now the line is, the bar has moved up a little too, and by

next year it will be about 37.5% we'll have to hit.

But we have seen some projects move forward.

The Affordable Development at 112 Vera provided 177 affordable units and one market rate unit.

And 550-70 Space Shore has permits to build one of the two apartment buildings for 222 units.

We have 400 units that are actually under construction that were permitted in the last year.

Parcels A and D of Elko Yards would add another 501 units if they pull permits.

while these are steps in the right direction i'd like to acknowledge the production doesn't

always happen in a steady line so we may see some spikes in the in the eight years over the arena

cycle and then finally um we'll present you with a further update to the housing element and our

regional housing needs in march of this coming year and with that i will turn it over to lindy

chan principal planner and then a lynn lancaster our housing leadership manager to carry you through

the rest of the presentation. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you, Jeff. Good evening,

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the public. My name is Lindy Chan, Principal Planner, and I am the

project lead for the Elko Yards Project, and I will start by providing some project background.

The Elko Yards Project advances several of the City Council's strategic priorities.

For housing, the project provides 540 housing units within walking distance of downtown and

the transit center. Of these, 39 affordable units have already been built, and the applicant hopes

to deliver the remaining 501 units as originally entitled. The applicant would also pay $5.8

million in housing impact fees towards the production of affordable housing in the community.

For bike and pedestrian safety, the project has transformed the previously auto-centric blocks

with new walkways around and through the sites, new sidewalks with street trees, lighting, and

public art, protected bike lanes in El Camino Real along the project frontage, and a new

crosswalk across El Camino Real with a pedestrian-activated HAWC signal.

The project also provides a number of traffic calming measures along Lathrop and Redwood

Avenue, including bulb outs and speed humps.

For children and youth, the project includes a new child care facility serving up to 70

children, which is complete and accepting applications for enrollment in January 2026.

The applicant built out the tenant improvements and is providing the space at zero rent with no rent escalation for 10 to 15 years.

In addition, the project has designed a family-friendly entertainment space within the same building fronting El Camino Real.

For open space, the project provides over 50,000 square feet of public open spaces, including new plazas and enlarging the Main Street Dog Agility Park, which is now open.

And for infrastructure, the project brought recycled water from the Kaiser campus to the downtown adjacent project, build approximately 1,000 feet of gravity sewer main from Main and Broadway, and will be installing a new traffic signal at Pine and Main, which is at the off-ramp or on-ramp to Highway 84.

Next slide.

So this slide provides a visual overview and use breakdown of the approved Elko Yards project, which covers six blocks and 8.3 acres.

The buildings on the top of the screen,

parcels A, D, and F, are the residential buildings

with a mix of market rate and affordable units

on parcels A and D

and an all-affordable building on parcel F.

On the bottom of the screen

are the commercial buildings on parcels B, C, and E.

Retail uses front El Camino Real

with a couple of smaller retail spaces along Main Street,

and the public open spaces are generally

along Main Street within parcel E.

The childcare borders Lathrop and Cedar Streets

within parcel B.

The green check marks on this screen reflect the development which has been completed, which includes the all affordable housing development on parcel F with 39 units and the commercial developments on parcels B, C, and E.

The focus of the proposed modifications is on parcels A and D, which would provide the remaining 501 residential units shown above within the red dashed lines.

The requested changes maintain the overall design quality and do not result in fewer residential units, nor the reduction or elimination of any community benefits.

Next slide.

So this is just a quick timeline, and I want to note that the project was actually submitted in 2018 before it was ultimately approved by the City Council in November of 2020.

Over time, you can see that the applicant has made some progress, significant progress over this time.

Permits were issued and construction began in 2022 for four out of the six parcels,

including the commercial buildings on parcels B, C, and E, and the affordable housing on parcel F.

In 2023, the affordable housing was the first to reach completion,

received certificate of occupancy, and is now occupied.

In 2025, the commercial buildings on parcels B, C, and E have reached completion.

Partial C has received their certificate,

sorry, their temporary certificate of occupancy

and anticipates their final certificate of occupancy

in early 2026.

Completion of these parcels includes

a number of these public benefits,

which includes the childcare facility,

a family-friendly entertainment and retail space,

restaurant within the shed building,

public open spaces,

public art, and the Main Street Dog Agility Park expansion,

as well as the protected bike lanes in El Camino Real.

At this time, the applicant is requesting modifications to allow the 501 residential units on parcels A and D to proceed with construction.

These developments are in plan check review and need these modifications for the development to proceed.

I will now turn it over to Lynn Lancaster, our housing leadership manager, who will discuss the requested housing modifications.

Thank you, Lindy, and good evening, Mayor, City Council members.

So, as Lindy mentioned, I'll go over the specific affordable housing requests.

So, our affordable housing ordinance requires commercial developments to pay a housing impact fee.

However, developers can provide affordable units as an alternative to paying that fee.

When this project was originally approved, it proposed providing affordable units instead of paying a fee to meet the project's commercial obligations.

The commercial units were spread across parcels A, D, and F.

As Jeff has already discussed, in the last five years since this project was approved,

the market conditions have changed and development projects, particularly multifamily residential, have stalled.

Due to this, the applicant is requesting to satisfy the affordable housing requirements

for the commercial component of the project through a hybrid approach.

One providing 16 affordable units that are already built on parcel F

and paying a $5.8 million impact fee

for their remaining commercial obligation.

This fee would be paid when the last commercial building

receives their final certificate of occupancy in early 2026.

I'll note that the city did recently issue

a Notice of Funding Availability, or NOFA,

for new affordable housing construction,

and if the changes are approved tonight,

staff expects to be able to commit and leverage

this $5.8 million to other affordable housing projects as soon as these fees are paid.

As Lindy mentioned, I think this proposal does meet our affordable housing ordinance

requirements and I will actually go into them in much more detail on the next slide.

So I know this slide has a lot of information so I'll try and kind of walk through everything

on here.

The first table in blue at the top, this is the original proposed project and then the

table below in green is the current proposal. I know it's a little hard to see, but the

numbers that are in blue throughout the tables are numbers that are not changing. So that

are not changing from the original project to the current proposal. And then in the far

right in the totals column highlighted in pink, as you'll see, that the total units

across the project are not changing. So there are still 540 units. There will be 252 units

on parcel A, 249 units on parcel D, and 39 units on parcel F, which has already been

built.

And it's moving around, but I think that's better, yes.

So in the original project, there was a total of 147 affordable units that were going to

be provided, but no impact fee.

As mentioned under the current proposal, the number of affordable units would be changed

to 119, but there would be a $5.8 million impact fee payment.

In addition to just reducing the number of affordable units, some of the affordability

levels would change.

So the extremely low income units would stay the same.

The number of very low income units would increase from 24 to 47.

Low income units would decrease from 67 to 8.

moderate income units would increase slightly from 41 to 49.

While the number of low income units would reduce,

we see the most demand for affordable units

at the extremely low and very low income levels.

So we do see that the increase of 23 very low income units

is a benefit to the community.

Lastly, I'll note that the applicant has indicated

that they will be pursuing our affordable housing incentive program

that the council approved earlier this fall.

As a reminder, this is a temporary program that provides a 25% reduction in the affordable housing ordinance requirements for projects that can pull building permits by June 2027.

The Elko Yards project was contemplated as a potential project for this program when it was brought to City Council.

And they have indicated that they are aiming to pull building permits for both parcels A and D in 2026.

If the project qualifies for the incentive program, the 25% reduction would just be on

the residential component of the project.

The commercial obligations would remain the same.

Next slide.

Thank you.

So in addition to the affordability and affordable housing ordinance requests, the project did

receive density bonuses, concessions for parcels A and D when it was approved originally and

they're now seeking some revisions to that.

So on this slide I'll go over the proposed changes for parcel A and then the next slide

will go over parcel D. Under state density bonus law, applicants are allowed to request

density bonuses, concessions and waivers of development standards. A concession is a modification

to a development standard that results in an identifiable cost reduction, whereas a

waiver is a modification to a development standard that would physically preclude construction

of the project. While concessions and waivers have a different evaluation standard, many

any development standard modifications can qualify as either a concession or a waiver.

And just as a reminder, local jurisdictions cannot consider these concessions and waivers

to be inconsistent with the general plan or local zoning standards if they meet the state

density bonus requirements.

So for Parcel A, the applicant is proposing to change the previously approved two concessions

of increased stories and concentration of uses to waivers and is asking now for a new

concession and this would be around the size of the affordable units. So under our current

ordinance, affordable units have to be comparable in both bedroom count and square footage to

the market rate units. And while the project is proposing to still provide affordable units

comparable by bedroom count, they are asking of concession to make those affordable units

smaller by square footage than the market rate units as this does result in a cost per

for square foot reduction for the affordable units.

Next slide, please.

And then for lot D, they are proposing

to change the previously approved concession

of concentration of uses from a concession to a waiver

and then asking for two new concessions.

So similar to parcel A, they're requesting

that the affordable units be comparable

by bedroom count but smaller by square footage

the market rate units and then they're also requesting a concession to reduce the open

space requirement by removing interior balconies which would reduce construction costs.

Next slide.

So with these proposed changes the project's affordable housing plan would need to be updated

and approved to reflect kind of all the changes I just went over on the last slides.

And in addition, there's two additional other changes.

So the first is that we have a concurrent construction requirement, so no more than 50%

of market rate units can be built before the affordable units are built.

But we do allow for alternative means of compliance, and so they are requesting that.

As they're proposing to build Parcel A first, which has more than 50% of the market rate

units.

And so in order to do that, they would have to,

in order to get the certificate of occupancy for parcel,

they would have to pull permits for building D

and provide the city with a deposit.

And then as the affordable units meet certain construction milestones,

we would release that deposit.

And then they are also going to add our local preference.

So when the project was first approved,

we did not have our local preference in place.

And so they are going to be adding this.

and this would give Redwood City residents

who currently live here or formerly lived here

as well as Redwood City, people who work in Redwood City,

a preference for those affordable units.

And then I am gonna actually hand it back to Lindy

to conclude the presentation.

Thank you, Lynn.

Now there's the proposed revisions to design details.

In working to make the project financially feasible, the applicant proposes minor value

engineering modifications for the buildings on parcels A and D.

The proposed changes maintain the design integrity and more typical for residential development.

For example, as shown above, the cement paneling would be used instead of metal paneling and

picket railing would be used instead of glass railing for balconies.

The applicant is working with the same architect from the project entitlement and has met with

with staff a number of times to discuss the proposed modifications with the goal of maintaining

the look, feel, and quality of the original entitlement.

Next slide.

Staff is supportive of the requested modifications and recommends the following motion.

So I will go ahead and try to read it.

Adopt a resolution approving the modifications to the South Main Mixed Use Project, which

which has been renamed to Elko Yards,

generally located at 1601 El Camino Real,

including revised conditions of approval,

state density bonus law bonuses, concessions and waivers,

and a revised affordable housing plan

previously approved by resolution number 15908.

And secondly, by motion,

authorize the city manager to amend

the original regulatory agreement

and declaration of restricted covenants

with Coff and Coff LLC

C and IQ HQ ELCO LP for the affordable units in parcel A and the original regulatory agreement

and declaration of restrictive covenants with IQ HQ TRS ELCO YARDS Incorporated for the

affordable units in parcel D and take all actions necessary to carry out the regulatory

agreements and declarations of restrictive covenants to be amended.

It's a bit of a mouthful.

Next slide.

This concludes our presentation,

and we'll end with the question for Council consideration.

Staff is available for any clarifying questions,

and the applicant will also be providing a presentation.

Thank you, Lindy, Lynn, Jeff, for the great presentation today.

We'll now hear from our applicants,

Margot Salmont from High Street Residential slash Trammell Crow Company

and Carrie Algays from IQHQ, who have joined us both virtually.

You will have about 10 minutes for your presentation.

Oh, in person, too.

Yes, yeah.

Thank you.

Great.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council Members.

My name is Margo Solmont.

I am with High Street Residential.

It's a residential subsidiary of Trammell Crow Company.

I'm joined here with two of my colleagues in person,

and via Zoom, our partners IQHQ and WRNS, the project architect.

Thank you. I have to see the slides.

Next slide, yes. Thank you.

So just for introduction, Trammel Crow Company is a leading commercial and residential development firm.

You might recognize our name.

We recently completed a life science building in Redwood Shores at 200 Twin Dolphin.

We have a very strong local team based here,

and we also focus on residential development,

specifically in urban mixed-use environments.

We actually have a 278-unit project under construction in downtown Millbrae

and are also entitling other projects in the Bay Area.

High Street is currently under contract with IQHQ to purchase Parcel A and D

and to develop the 501 residential units.

um before uh we go into the details i'll let carrie here from iqhq introduce her team

and provide an update on the construction the commercial construction and leasing

thank you marco hi everyone my name is carrie algazi i'm a director of development at iqhq

um iqhq just for your background is a provider premier um life science real estate space and

we have been busy working in Redwood City on the Elko Yards project, developing a 109,000

square foot office building, 420,000 square feet of research and development, 28,000 square

feet of retail, 8,000 square feet of a child care facility, along with a variety of improvements

for the community.

So bike and pedestrian improvements, utility upgrades, public art upgrades, and also upgrades

to the Main Street Dog Park, which is now open and operational.

Next slide, please.

So as you can see, these are the four buildings that IQ HQ has been busy working on.

They include Nest, which is formerly known as Parcel B, Shop, which is Parcel C, Loft, which is E North, and Mill, which is E South.

And we're pleased to say that construction on Nest, Loft, and Mill is complete, and we have temporary certificate of occupancy on the Shop Building C, which we expect to wrap up early next year.

From a leasing perspective, we're also pleased to share that despite a changing market, the tenant interest in Redwood City still remains very strong, which is a real testament to the vision and the vibrancy of Redwood City.

And we're proud to say that we have approximately 37% of our space that's pre-leased, with one of our most notable tenants being the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, CZI, and they are taking the shop building, which is Building C.

We also have leases underway for the child care facility, as well as a coffee shop in Loft.

We also have several LOIs in progress with tenants between 100,000 and 200,000 square feet in both Loft and Mill.

So we're really proud of the progress that we've made to date, and we're looking forward to delivering the full vision for this project.

And so with that, I'll hand it back to Margo to discuss the path forward for parcels A&D.

Thanks, Carrie. Next slide. Thank you. So now to focus on the remaining undeveloped parcels of the Elko Yards project. So parcels A and D, which will consist of 252 and 249 units respectively. And you can see that they're truly at the heart of the Elko Yards vision.

these buildings are really critical to completing this transformative project

so despite the recent successes of the commercial development and delivery of the affordable

building on parcel f the market rate residential sector has faced significant headwinds

ever since the pandemic we've experienced an uncertain economic environment with rising

interest rates inflation and tariff uncertainty specifically elevated interest rates have

dramatically pushed the return expectations for new development and continue to be higher than

pre-COVID levels. This new economic reality makes it challenging for projects conceived before 2020

like Elko Yards to move forward without modifications. This challenge is acutely

experienced here in the Bay Area where existing residential buildings are currently being acquired

below the cost to build new ones. This market dynamic makes it difficult to justify

significant investment required to build new high quality projects and has driven construction to

construction of new apartments to record lows. Next slide please. That said we are committed to

starting construction in 2026 and have been working closely with city staff, the design team

and IQ HQ to identify a path forward. So highlighting a few things that we've been working on

as staff has mentioned.

We've identified minor facade revisions

that still maintain original design intent.

We've identified different construction methodologies,

again, to improve the construction budget.

We've also worked closely with city staff,

with public works,

to ensure a smooth handoff between IQ HQ and High Street

on all of the off-site public improvements,

which is quite significant in scope,

and also process building permits

through seven rounds of billing plan check comments

to be in a position to pull permits

in the first half of 2026.

Today, we ask for your approval

on the proposed project modifications,

which have been refined

through a year of close coordination with city staff.

These carefully considered adjustments

to the affordable housing plan,

the state density bonus requests

are critical for us to move forward

and allow us to improve project economics

and optimize construction phasing.

On the topic of phasing, we intend to start with parcel A first and parcel D soon after with about a three-month lag.

This gap allows us to more efficiently move construction crews between two sites.

And with your approval today, we anticipate that the residential buildings, both of them, will be completed and ready for occupancy in the first half of 2029.

Next slide, please.

despite the changes that we are proposing today

want to emphasize our commitment to the original entitlements

as Taf mentioned we are continuing to deliver

501 units the project will continue

to fully comply with the city's affordable housing ordinance

and state density bonus laws and some improvements have been made in terms of

providing more very low income units and including the local preference

PROGRAM. WE WILL MAINTAIN THE ORIGINAL DESIGN INTENT INCLUDING BUILDING SIZE, HEIGHT,

LAYOUT, ARCHITECTURAL MASSING, ENSURING THE AESTHETIC INTEGRITY OF ELCO YARDS.

IQ HQ AND HIGH STREET WILL DELIVER ALL COMMUNITY BENEFITS AND OFFSIGHT IMPROVEMENTS THAT WERE

ORIGINALLY INTENDED FOR THE RESIDENTIAL PORTION THAT INCLUDES THE CREEK WALK, THE PUBLIC

PLAZA, THE PUBLIC ART, AND ADDITIONAL TRAFFIC IMPROVEMENTS.

AND FINALLY, WE ARE NOT PROPOSING TO REDUCE ANY OF THE IMPACT FEES THAT WERE ORIGINALLY

INTENDED.

IN TOTALITY, THAT'S AROUND 19 MILLION THAT IQHQ HIGH STREET WOULD PAY BY THE COMPLETION

OF THE PROJECT.

NEXT SLIDE, PLEASE.

COUNCIL MEMBERS, THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME AND CONSIDERATION TONIGHT.

AS WE'VE HIGHLIGHTED, YOUR APPROVAL TONIGHT IS CRITICAL FOR US TO MOVE FORWARD AND TO

to start construction next year.

Before moving to questions,

also wanted to thank city staff.

We've worked closely with them in the last year.

Really appreciate their partnership and collaboration

to get us to this approval point

and their shared commitment

to really getting this transformative project completed.

Thank you.

Margo, thank you so much for the presentation.

Carrie, thank you for joining us online.

We will now open the public hearing

and I'll turn it over to our city clerk

for any public comment.

Thank you, Mayor.

We don't have any comment cards at this time,

so I'll give one last call out to the audience.

Any interest in giving public comment

on item 8B this evening or folks on Zoom?

Seeing none, Mayor, I'll turn it back to you.

Great.

Thank you, City Clerk.

We will now bring it back to the Council

and open the floor for any Council questions and discussion.

Councillor Impedio. Thank you, Mayor.

I want to say that I'm actually very excited.

I hear, because I believe that we need more housing of all kinds,

because once we have housing, that frees up other housing for other groups of people.

So I am seeing this as a positive.

And I'm very excited that there will be a child care center.

I do have, and the fact that A&D will be pulling permits is also very exciting.

I think we just need to build and everything that everyone's sharing,

it just needs to get done as fast as possible.

But I do have a few questions.

Let's see where we are.

Okay.

The picket railing, I just want to make sure, though,

because I drive by, it's a very big space.

So if we could go back to the slide.

I felt like we didn't stay on it very long about the facade of the building,

the changes.

Could we go to that slide, please?

Does this not work?

Yeah.

Thank you.

So I see that before it talks about the metal,

and I had a question I wrote down,

picket railing, can we please see an image of what,

so I know what glass looks like on a balcony,

but I would like to see what picket railing looks like,

just because this is such a large portion of El Camino,

I would like to know what that looks like.

Thank you.

this slide is a little bit easier to see

I think when we say picket railing it's basically the metal

clean railing that you would typically see for residential housing

developments the glass is on the top left

and this railing maybe picket railing is not the right word but

it's open railing that is metal and is very

transparent and so the intent is to maintain something that is very consistent

with what we see in residential projects,

but also maintain a very open look and feel.

I think the glass railing is probably more typical

for commercial projects,

and so this is bringing it,

still maintaining that openness,

but with a different material style.

Thank you.

I would just like, I mean,

they look like bars to me,

so I would just like us,

I understand that there are opportunities to cut costs

and we can bring square footage down,

but I would like to know that

the entire community has to look at this

and see this. So I do think the way

that it looks, and if you add

up how much picket railing will be

around, I would just like it to be considered that

the aesthetics of the building are still

very important. As you said, it will be a

big anchor in our city. So I would just like

there to be some consideration made for that.

Thank you.

One more second, sorry. But besides that,

very excited for the child care.

Love the local preference.

All wonderful things.

Thanks to staff and all of you for being

creative. I just want to make sure it continues to stay beautiful as well. Thank you. Thank you,

Council Member Padilla, for getting us started. Who would like to go next?

Council Member Howard. Thank you. I'm really glad that it's been brought up about the uncertainty

that we have right now for developers and cities alike. The high cost of construction,

materials, everything's going up. We have the threat of tariffs and all kinds of things that

are throwing obstacles in the way of trying to do the right thing, which is build more housing.

And so I have to commend the companies involved, IQHQ and High Street. That's the name, High

Street. Thank you. Because you're coming to us with, you want to solve the problem and you want

to move forward. So I really appreciate that. We have a very ambitious housing element.

We know that. However, we're not going to build anything if we don't make concessions

along the way with the changing times because we do want them to be built in our lifetime

for people to live in in Redwood City. So I'm glad that you worked with our staff and

you were able to figure this out. I really appreciate that. I did have a question for

Margo. The question

is, your company,

High Street, we're going to have

540 units

and many of them will be

of some affordability.

So is there going to be a

management group, one management group,

or a management group in each building?

Because I think it's important

that you have someone,

whether it's a company that visits

or someone on site, to make sure

that things are taken care of.

Yeah, no, great question. We intend

to have one property management group

manage both buildings.

And the groups we typically talk to are,

you know, they live on site.

We have a leasing office,

property management on site,

and have a lot of experience

with affordable housing, compliance, et cetera.

And will you maintain the ownership

of those buildings?

Is that what you do?

High Street does not do that,

But we work with third-party property managements that typically stay on throughout.

Okay.

That's good to hear.

Thank you.

And maybe I could ask staff this question.

What is the highest building?

Is it seven stories now?

We're talking that the highest building on the campus is going from six to seven stories.

Thank you, Margo.

Thank you.

Yes, it's going from six to seven stories, but not changing the maximum height of 85 feet.

So in 2020, there is a limit on the number of stories and height.

They needed to get an additional story within the allowed height.

Since then, in 2024, we've modified the zoning regulations.

We no longer regulate stories.

So under today's regulations, you wouldn't even need this concession.

Needless to say, we're evaluating it based on 2020 standards.

Thank you.

I also wanted to ask about I'm very pleased we're using our local preference ordinance.

Unfortunately, we needed to pass that because surrounding cities were making it known that they were going to do commercial and not housing.

And when they were asked, how are you going to take care of people who are your employees, it was quoted in the newspaper,

our surrounding cities will be able to absorb everyone.

And when we heard that, we had to pass this ordinance

because the last thing in the world we really need

is to provide housing for other cities

and not have housing for our own residents

or people who'd like to move back into Redwood City.

So I'm really glad we did that,

and I'm glad that you welcomed that and it's being used.

So thank you for that.

I'm glad we're doing Recycle Water Pipeline.

fabulous and the restaurant um when is the restaurant going to open

maybe carrie can help with that question

yes certainly are you referring to the restaurant that's the shed building or

the coffee shop that i mentioned the shed we don't have a tenant in tow yet there um we have a couple

of options that we're looking at closely so as soon as we have somebody um signed up there we'll

have a better sense of timing, but we're certainly

excited about that space as well. It's

an incredible location and it's adjacent

to some really wonderful

open space, so I think it'll be a really great place to

be.

Thank you, and thank you for the amenities.

I know that was

a collaboration with the city, and

we really appreciate what you

are willing to do to make Redwood City look

even better than it does today.

Thank you very much.

Thank you,

Council Member. We'll go to

Council Member Chee

next. Thank you, Mayor.

Jeff, I just want to say thank you and the

entire team, Lindy and everybody

else, because you start your

presentation with all these uncertain

times and changes,

and there's no question

there's been changes since

this project started and was approved.

And so finding a way

is a huge

effort because it's so easy to say,

No, we can't afford it.

The math doesn't work anymore.

So there was a lot of different things that went into play to find a way.

And did I understand correctly the project A&D are in permitting right now?

That's correct.

That's even more commendable because the easy thing is to wait to see what council does and then start.

But they've started the permitting already, which means if I do my math correctly, the way Jeff speaks,

keys in the door, end of 28, early 29 maybe.

Early 29.

So, I mean, that 500 units by early 29 is going to make a big difference in our community.

And I love, as Council Member Howard just stated, the local preference that was added,

because this will make a big difference for our residents that live here, maybe had to leave here,

maybe they'll come back, and that will work here.

So hats off to the entire team for, number one, making it work.

number two betting on making this happen by already submitting permitting and then hopefully

maybe we can sneak this in in q4 of 28 instead of q1 of 29 so hats off to everybody thank you mayor

thank you council member chi we'll go to council member chi

um so i'd like to echo you know sort of everything my colleagues have said um but i think

All of this reminds me that time is money and that the more efficient and effective we can be in permitting projects, the more likely we are to get the original vision.

That said, despite uncertainty, tariffs, and many things outside of your control, you really worked hard to deliver benefits to our city.

But the biggest benefit of this project is the housing itself.

I think what we've really seen is when you fill your city with people, it becomes vibrant and dynamic.

The businesses do well.

And so I view that as a tremendous benefit.

I also really, as my colleagues have said, really appreciate the child care that's desperately needed.

So important.

And just the way you've kept your word.

And then just one other comment on the size.

I've been thinking a lot about family housing.

as my friends have had children, so many of them, especially the second kid, have had to leave the

area because little kids don't work and they cost a lot to take care of. And so one of, you know,

I've been trying to understand like what kind of housing is good for families. And so a lot of

times, very, I mean, very small bedrooms are fine for little kids. You know, they work. And so

I think that the shrinking of the size, as long as the number of bedrooms stay the same,

will be ideal for young families. So overall, thank you for your effort to sort of keep your

word and keep as close to the original vision as possible, despite a lot going on.

Thanks, Council Member. Any other thoughts, questions? Council Member Serkin.

Thank you, Mayor.

And thank you to everyone who contributed to this presentation,

this project tonight for us.

I just want to echo my colleagues and express my agreement with Council Member Padilla

that we do need housing at all income levels and need to build as quickly as possible.

And to the point about child care, if I think I saw correctly,

that that space would be provided at $0 rent.

for some time. And that's, I think I heard that correctly,

that overhead, in addition to the labor costs in general, is

a driver of child care costs. So I'm really happy to see that

and appreciative.

Initially I was a little hesitant to support the amendment regarding

paying the housing impact fee for the commercial impact

obligation because it eliminates low income

units while recognizing that the total number of units stays the same and that, you know,

but I am grateful that you are still continuing to offer the same number of units, especially when

you could have decided to pay more of an impact fee or change how you provide housing entirely.

So thank you so much for sticking with us and your commitment to providing essential

housing at all income levels and I appreciate the local preference as well. One thing I

didn't see I just wanted to ask is with a new partner or new to me anyway in the room

are you considering, and staff if you can please clarify for me, prevailing wage

doesn't apply in this case right because it's not an affordable, 100%

affordable project. Yeah that is correct. Right. Thank you. So just curious you

know typically in the projects that you have built, do you use prevailing wage?

Thank you.

So for this project, we're considering open shop,

which is similar to what we're doing in Millbrae currently,

and that's typically the case for podium construction in the peninsula,

for market-rate housing.

Thank you.

And just for folks who may not know what that is,

could you define open shop, please?

Non-prevailing wage, non-union, yeah.

Okay.

would very much like to see prevailing wage. I know that drives the cost per unit.

Although I actually don't really have that information in front of me. I would love to

understand that more clearly. But just in general, I appreciate the consideration.

And then since it was brought up earlier about property management,

which company do you have in mind for property management?

We haven't selected yet. We're talking to the major players like Graystar,

Sirius Regis, Pizzuto

so they're all active in the area

so but that's a decision we'll make

when we're under construction. Thank you

I just ask that you

please then take into

consideration your recent news of the

lawsuit that

Grace had to settle with regards to using

RealPage to drive their

rents higher

and just take that into consideration

to ensure that

residents aren't being

gouged. Future residents, rather.

But otherwise, I am very supportive of this project and appreciate your commitment to

Rubber City sticking with us all this time, Carrie,

and looking forward to getting these

units open by the end of 2028, as

Council Member G put it. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member. We'll go to the Vice Mayor.

So, amazing work.

I won't repeat what my council members said other than to say that I match their enthusiasm

and really commend staff and the applicants for working together to make a win-win.

Particularly the local, thank you, Council Member Howard, for talking about that history

that really that other cities went on record saying,

well, we can build office buildings

because other jurisdictions will take care of the housing.

I didn't know that history.

But anyway, and let me preface my remarks by saying

I'm planning on voting in favor of this modification.

But I'm going to say some stuff.

questions and then I have some comments.

My first question

and this is to

Lindy.

I heard you say there's going to be

a stoplight at 84.

Did I hear that right?

Can you say where that is?

I'm really glad that Patty's here.

There will be a new stoplight

at Main and Pine Streets

that's at the

84 on-ramp-off-ramp intersection.

this was identified through the EIR

well actually the local improvement plan

that identified that there is a need for that to be monitored

it hasn't been built yet

but it will be built as part of the off-site improvements

tied to the Elko Yards project

so that is correct

okay so I'm just a little bit directionally challenged

so if I'm driving and City Hall is to my back

and I'm on Main Street

so I'm driving away from City Hall

toward Woodside Road, and then I'm turning left to go on the on-ramp to Woodside Road,

that is where the stoplight is going to be?

Not at Woodside Road.

It would be at Pine Street.

Right, on Main Street.

On Main Street.

So where currently when you exit where Harry's Hofbrow is, is a small street, Pine Street,

and I think currently it's one way, looking at our civil engineer.

This would be modifying it to a signalized intersection so that traffic could go on and off that 84 ramp with this signal today that there is no signal and it's creating some challenges.

It's on Main Street.

Correct.

And it's, you have, there'll be a stoplight if you're turning, if you're on Main Street, City Hall is to your back.

Correct.

You're going toward Woodside, and then you're turning left to go onto the on-wrap that will take you onto Woodside Road at that place where it's kind of a mess right now.

That's correct.

There will be a stoplight.

That's correct.

Okay.

Cool.

Thanks for that.

So another question, I guess, for maybe the applicant.

Were the commercial buildings that are built now, were they using prevailing wage or union labor?

You don't know because you're the housing people.

Oh.

Yes, this is Carrie from IKHQ.

Yeah, we used union labor, union labor contractor for those structures.

Thank you.

So I just, I want to talk a little bit, and again, I'm going to vote in favor of this,

but I want to talk a little bit about particularly, let me find,

the moderate rate housing,

the

40 units

of moderate, is that right?

There'll be 49, 49 units

of moderate rate housing.

I'm concerned

that they won't be condos,

that they're going to be

rental instead because the studies show we've seen a white paper that the moderate rate housing,

if it's rental, because it's brand new and because it's so expensive to build,

I'm not criticizing it.

I understand the reality.

We live in the real world.

but typically all throughout the bay area you can find existing um you know existing housing

apartments that maybe aren't as new and maybe aren't as nice that are in fact cheaper that are

just market rate um that are cheaper than the moderate rate which means tax subsidized um it's

it's often not the cheapest. However, if it's condo, if it's where moderate income folks can

build equity and this can be their starter condo, that then it does build wealth and it is

of value. So my question is, is there any way, I mean, I understand not now,

but how difficult would it be to convert these 49 moderate rate units into condos?

I understand it might take 10 years because of construction liability law

that no one ever builds condos anymore because of construction liability law.

But if we really want to help people get their first starter home,

how do we do it with these 49 units that as rentals will be pretty expensive

so one one nuance about the parcels the first one parcel a is a ground lease so

new condos would not be an option um versus why what does grand lease mean and why does that mean

that condos can't be an option, if you don't mind.

It's just that you can't sell.

It's already, the land is owned by another entity,

so you can't sell the land or a right to the condo in that parcel.

So it's just the...

Couldn't you talk to the owner of the land and say, hey?

That's a whole other hurdle.

I mean, it's just the way the structure of the transaction is,

and the Grand Lesser is here to stay.

So just again, just to explain.

Who is the Grand Lesser?

It's in all the agreements, Kopf and Kopf.

They're actually the Grand Lesser

on the rest of the commercial parcels.

So again, just the nuance on that specific parcel.

And then on parcel D,

again, we don't do condos, High Street,

but to your point, in the future,

there could be a potential ability

to convert those to condos

if the future ownerships decided to do that.

mapping exercise um what does a mapping exercise mean so i can you don't have to get technical but

yeah yeah so it's just the final map allowing um for condo for condos to exist and it's an

approval that you have to go through city um so currently there's no condo reservations on the

map um but that would be a process that would need to happen and it could happen in the future

It could happen in the future, if I'm not mistaken.

Staff, is that true?

That's our understanding.

Granted, we haven't done a deep dive of it, but we do have a condo ordinance,

and it allows for conversion of units to be converted into condos.

There are certain requirements that need to be met.

It would need to go through a mapping process.

All of the units would need to be brought up to a current building code at the time.

All the what?

All the what?

all of the units would need to be brought to current building code at the time of it being

moved to a condo. So it's possible. I don't know that we've had anything of this large of a scale,

but from my understanding is it is possible. And it used to be that, and I only know this because

I lived in a condo that previously had been an apartment. So I know that apartment standards

for building at least used to be a little less rigorous than condo standards for building,

like not as much soundproofing and other things.

So condos are more expensive to build than apartments.

Is that still the case?

Jeff Schwab, Community Development Director.

In general, with new construction, most buildings will be able to meet the condominium standard.

We don't know what the standards of the building code will be in 10, 20 years.

But generally speaking, new construction is much closer than, as you said, older construction,

which didn't have noise attenuation and all of those things.

But newer developments typically do.

So it's not as big a deal nowadays as that 1970?

For conversion in general, no.

I think the one thing that we haven't touched on is that the affordability restrictions are in place for rental units.

And so those will need to be adjusted as well to potentially some ownership units being affordable.

And so that is a very more complex process.

I actually did tackle one of these in my career.

And so it takes a long time because you have people that are in the units.

And then you may record the condo map, but you're still going to have rental units.

Either someone needs to own all of the affordable units or they have to migrate them into ownership units over a longer period.

So it's more of like an attorney slash accountant slash paper problem than it is an actual construction problem.

Yeah, I would characterize it as less a construction problem, yes.

Well, that's kind of good news.

Okay.

Okay. So then, so thank you. And so then on the, I just want to touch on this general idea just briefly.

this general idea

and I believe it is

correct idea

that I've heard my colleagues mention

tonight and I

believe it is correct this

idea that and this is what state

laws are saying state laws are saying build more

build more housing build more housing build more housing

and I believe that's correct

so that we can get the

affordability more in reach

but I do want to touch on

the

fact that the city of Belmont, as reported by Elise DiNapoli in the Weekend Daily Journal,

did do a deep dive study on state housing policy and also touched on corporate ownership,

large corporate ownership of large blocks of apartment buildings.

And what struck me is something that Dane Hutchings, who's a legislative advocate in Sacramento, said during this hearing in Belmont.

And he said that he identified these huge corporations owning huge blocks of housing stock as a problem.

And he said that Sacramento puts its, well, he didn't say this, but what he meant was that Sacramento kind of really puts the pedal to the metal to local government and says, Sacramento keeps passing law after law after law saying, hey, local government, this is on you.

This is on you.

This is on you.

And he says, he points out in contrast that the California state legislature does very little with these huge corporate ownerships, huge real estate investment trusts, corporate titans of vast swaths of housing stock that's really been happening since the crash in 2008.

And I would like us, you know, we're considered one of the leaders in the entire state.

We were one of only 2% that met our arena on time in the entire state.

The only city in the county of San Mateo County back in 2023 that met that burden.

And we're leaders.

And I think that we're leaving something behind if we're not,

And to Council Member Sturkin's point, bringing out Real Page and the lawsuit, thank you, Mr. Sturkin,

I think we're leaving something behind if we're not.

We host several of these gigantic titans that have a lot of housing stock at their fingertips.

And I think that we would be remiss if we didn't take Mr. Hutchings' lead.

What he said exactly according to the article, I don't want to put words in his mouth,

he said that the California legislature says local government just needs to plan more, plan for more,

and that they don't, on the opposite side, do much legislation at all for these huge corporate rental owners.

So I think in future studies, future discussions, future awareness,

perhaps we can invite Mr. Hutchings here to tell us he's certainly an expert about what goes on in California legislature

Perhaps we can open up some dialogue with some of our state representatives.

I don't know what that looks like.

Maybe we can have a convening.

But, you know, the Attorney General of the United States back in 2024, 2023,

and the Attorney General of the State of California

criminally indicted corporate units of apartments

for basically antitrust violations,

sharing information about rental rates

with other large apartment owners

that renters didn't have that same information.

And what they're trying to perfect is the number of vacant units that you can have before it becomes unprofitable.

So you maximize the high rate of rent, how much you can charge for the units that you can rent,

by knowing that some people won't afford it,

and so you'll have more vacancies,

but you find that sweet spot of how high you can charge rent

with the number of vacancies.

And you can only do that by colluding with other large,

huge business owners of many, many units,

And then this also squeezes out small mom and pops that maybe own 10 units or 3 units or 20 units.

These are the titans.

These are the big boys that are national or statewide.

And some of them are in our town.

And if the California legislature is ignoring them, that doesn't mean we have to.

and so

thank you for bringing that up

but I do plan to support this

and am very excited

wish we could get those condos in the middle

in the moderate

to be condos instead of apartments

Thank you Vice Mayor

Any other thoughts, questions?

Councilmember Chiu. Just a reassurance. So it's really interesting. There was just a study in Zillow published recently. So San Francisco actually banned Real Page in about a year ago, actually almost exactly a year ago. And rents skyrocketed, you know, this last year, both in San Francisco and in the Bay Area.

And so while colluding to fix rents, you know, absolutely should be illegal, cracked down on and, you know, dealt with legally.

I don't think it had the effect on rents that we, I mean, it's a natural experiment.

You know, San Francisco banned it.

Rent skyrocketed even after the ban.

And so I think we can be reassured that even if they're using this, that the material impact on rents.

I'm sorry to interrupt.

I see our city attorney has her light on.

Thought she might have something to add.

Thank you.

I'm hearing council member interest in this topic,

but I do want to remind you that we do need to stay on scope with what the

purpose of this public hearing is today.

And that's whether you approve modifications to this project.

The city does not get involved with rent setting of, you know,

your, your standard.

The only rental that we do get involved in is the affordable housing.

rental that is done per our declarations and that's what you know you're looking at for today

okay um so i'll leave my comments

thank you council member thank you city attorney anything else before i jump into my comments

okay well thank you to our applicants lindy allin i appreciate the the great presentation

it is

it's a mixed bag of emotions I think

to see this project come back

for context this was one of my first I think my very first

planning commissioner meeting back in the day in 2020

and I might be misremembering but I think it might have been one of your first meetings too

as a part of the team

but you know it's amazing to see what's been

developed already. I just drove past. This is, of course, in my district. And as I was driving home

the other day, got to see the shed without any sort of warning tape or anything like that around.

And it's just a beautiful addition to that part of our neighborhood. And like my colleagues have

mentioned, I won't belabor this, but there are so many incredible facets to this project.

Obviously, the child care site is going to be a huge win. Like I mentioned, the public space for

community members that feels like such a big need in my district where people don't have parks or

recreational areas to go to so they're often in their carports or hanging out in their garages

with friends and things like that so it's amazing to to provide that space for people um you know

again the local preference i think is is going to be a game changer for our community too um

especially with the fact that you all are proposing to maintain the number of units

at 540 even with deep levels of affordability at that so i really appreciated that um and

you know the the significant investment of 5.8 million dollars um on top of the housing that's

being provided on top of the the 19 million that was first um you know first given to us as a part

of the city fees is incredible.

And so that's where my mind went to was that $5.8 million,

and that's such a large opportunity.

I was curious, and I have a couple of questions on the NOFA.

I know, is it 15% of the units that would be funded

are supposed to be prioritized for ELI?

We have a requirement for any project seeking money

through our NOFA that at least 15% of the units

do have to be set aside for extremely low-income households.

And then if you go above and beyond that 15%,

we do give competitive points, extra points for those.

Okay.

And, Lynn, is there a – does a local preference also apply

to any units built under the NOFA?

Yes.

Okay, amazing.

And I know we put out the NOFA again this year and have done –

Is it the last few years I think we've opened that process?

We've been doing them about every other year.

We kind of wait until we have a decent amount of money to give out.

So the last one we did was in 2023, and we hope to do more.

Thank you, Lynn.

And do you, off the top of your head, know how many units we funded through the last NOFA?

We awarded money to the 1304 Middlefield Project, which is still working on its financing.

But that is, oh gosh, it's either 92 or 94 units off the top of my head.

So we would be supporting that money with the last NOFA we just did, or we did two years ago.

And those 92 units, that's one application that you received to be able to fund that?

Yes.

Okay.

And is that sort of consistent with what you've seen in other NOFA processes, that it's one or two applications, funding many units?

Yeah.

We also look at things like project readiness.

So is the project entitled or close to entitlements and give priorities to that?

So we're usually looking at projects that are entitled and applying for other financing sources,

hopefully to be able to pull permits not too long after we make our commitments.

Okay.

great and it is 94 units 94 units thank you okay great um i appreciate that background i

you know we're here today because the economy didn't allow for the applicant to be able to

bring this project as originally proposed right um and so the thought occurred to me that

if we're seeing affordable housing developers who are also in their own economic challenges right

now that if no one is jumping on this new NOFA, maybe it's an opportunity for us to direct funds

to other projects that are in that same spirit. So the city's preservation fund came to mind

as a way of maintaining already existing affordable units that we wouldn't have to construct anymore.

And then alternatively, over the weekend, big news was that HUD is proposing on cutting lots

funding for the continuum of care sites so shelters and permanent supportive housing sites

and things of that nature and so I imagine in the next couple of months we're going to start hearing

from our you know affordable housing providers shelter providers who are going to say

you know their long-standing projects may not be around for much longer right so

if there isn't an immediate appetite from the developer community to run with this 5.8 million

dollars and build units maybe those are two alternative paths that we can consider and

and study so we can at least bring those units maintain units keep neighbors here so

aside from that I think this is an incredible project I will you know always compliment the

design of it I really appreciate the fact that each of these buildings has a different design

that's unique to them.

So although they all look like a community together,

they are very different when you're on the street level

or just driving by.

So again, this is an incredible project

stretching downtown closer to El Camino,

closer to Woodside,

and happy to support the proposal today.

And with that, I will move staff's recommendation.

Is there a second?

I'll second or...

No, go ahead.

Okay.

Council member Howard we'll go to you

no no

did council member

Sturkin second it

you did yes

I didn't know who won that arm wrestle

perfect so it's a motion

from myself a second

from council member Sturkin

could we get an electronic vote please

Motion passes unanimously. Thank you.

Thank you, everybody.

Amazing. So that was item 8B.

We will now move on to item 9, which is our staff reports,

beginning with item 9A. Very exciting.

We have our Human Resources Director, Michelle Kasayoshi,

who will give us a brief overview of this item.

Good afternoon.

I'm sorry, good evening.

Good evening, Mayor Martinez Ceballos and Vice Mayor Aiken and members of the Council

and members of the community, Michelle Katsuyoshi, Human Resources Director.

To begin, I would like to share that after 10 years of service as a city manager, Melissa

Stevenson-Diaz is set to retire at the end of this year and after 30 years of public

sector experience.

And the recommendation before you today is to appoint Patrick Heisinger to position of

City Manager of the City of Redwood City commencing on December 31st, 2025 and approve

and authorize the mayor to execute Mr. Heisinger's employment agreement.

The presentation overview will include policy questions for the City Council, an overview

of the recruitment process and the selection, key factors of the employment agreement, and

lastly I will end the presentation with the recommendation.

here are two policy questions. Does the council have any questions regarding the appointment

of Patrick Heisinger to the position of city manager? And or does the council have any

questions regarding the proposed salary and benefits?

I like to spend a little bit of time on the recruitment process and selection. An ad hoc

committee was formed to work with the consultant. We used an external outside executive recruitment

for an extensive search process.

The City worked with the consultant to develop the recruitment and selection strategy,

which also included input from the full City Council,

the community, and the City teammates on the City's ideal candidate.

The recruitment was posted in August 2025 and closed in September.

Council then conducted interviews in October of 2025

and selected Patrick Heisinger as the finalist.

I'd like to highlight Mr. Heisinger's experience

as well as his education.

He does have over 20 years of experience

in local government in the Bay Area.

He joined the city of Redwood City in March of 2023

as the city's interim housing manager, leadership manager,

and in August 2023, he was appointed

as the interim assistant city manager.

March of 2024, he was selected to serve as the City's Assistant City Manager.

He also holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration and Education and Counseling.

Key features of the Employment Agreement include a start date of December 31, 2025,

annual salary, $390,000 annually, a severance pay, which includes nine months of employee

monthly base pay plus the equivalent of nine months of benefits. Management leave 160 hours

per calendar year and he will also receive the same health retirement and other benefits

as our executive team unless otherwise noted in his employment agreement. Listed here again

is the recommendation.

And listed are the policy questions.

That concludes the presentation.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Great.

Before we bring it back to Council,

we'll open public hearing

and take public comments,

and I'll turn things over

to our City Clerk.

Thank you, Mayor.

I don't have any speaker cards

at this time,

but invite anyone from the audience

to comment on Item 9A this evening.

or on Zoom.

Go in once, go in twice.

Back to you, Mayor.

No public comment.

Great.

Before I bring it back to my colleagues,

I just want to take this moment to first thank

Melissa Stevenson-Diaz for her commitment

and just her service to Rapid City.

And also, Patrick, congratulations.

It is incredible to see your journey here in Rapid City,

and you absolutely have the skills, the knowledge.

And, you know, I'll add this as one of the top three,

just the relationships that you've built here over your time has been incredible to watch.

And we even got to hear from some presidents today who kind of speak to your work style,

and that's just amazing.

So I just want to congratulate you, and I'll open it up to my colleagues.

Vice Mayor.

Well, first of all, I see your family has joined us,

And I want to thank you, all of you, for your past patience with us that have kept him here and not at home.

And ask for your future forbearance.

And we look forward to working with you, Patrick.

You have a positive can-do attitude that has been on full display for the last three years.

You have a welcoming, collaborative way about you.

Your energy is infectious.

And I'm guessing that I and all seven of us are going to learn a lot more sports metaphors over the coming years.

So very supportive of this staff recommendation.

Council Member Howard.

Well, first of all, nothing like hiring a coach for this job as a former coach.

I think that your expertise will come in quite handy, and I know people enjoy working with you, Patrick.

We see it, and I'm very happy for you and for your family.

What a lovely family.

Thank you for being here this evening.

But I didn't want people not to know that we are going to be having a very special evening for Melissa,

I know some people at home

may be thinking is this it

and I missed it

I know there will be a lot of people

who want to come and thank you Melissa

for the fine work that you have done

in Redwood City I can't believe it's been 10 years

it's been a joy

to work with you

and I really really appreciate

everything

you've left Redwood City

in a fine place

your legacy is wonderful

so many things to celebrate

so I want to thank you.

That's it because I have to save my other

for when we actually do the honoring.

But Patrick, we're happy that you're here.

Thank you for putting up with our long process.

It had to happen.

We wanted to be so sure

and I know that we all agree

that we made the right decision.

Thank you, Council Member.

We'll go to Council Member Chu next.

Oh, Chu.

Yeah.

She wanted to make sure.

So I wanted to just echo my colleagues' appreciation of both Melissa and Patrick.

But, Melissa, you've left the city in such a good place.

And, you know, as the organizers of the Palestinian Festival were talking about how every single city staff they interacted with brought excellence, you know, care, commitment, and availability to their job.

And I really credit you for cultivating a spirit of excellence and service in our city staff.

And I am 100% confident that that spirit will continue with Patrick.

And just a couple of things I really appreciate about Patrick is his bias to action,

that you really get things done and you move things forward.

And I'm really looking forward to the future under your leadership.

So I'm very excited about this and look forward to working with you.

any other comments we'll go to councilman sterkin thank you mayor um yeah i just firstly i want to

thank um melissa just for kind of cultivating talent from within um and just setting us up for

success um to have a fantastic candidate who we ultimately selected in patrick and patrick for

bringing all your wealth of expertise and knowledge to Redwood City in multiple capacities

now.

So thank you.

And just to kind of echo what Council Member Howard mentioned, we will be honoring Melissa

on the 8th, I believe.

So for anybody listening in or in the room who wants to help us honor Melissa, that will

be on December 8th.

But ultimately, I'm just so excited to work with you, Patrick, and really looking forward

to the future.

Thank you for your continuing and upcoming service.

Councilman Perdue.

Patrick, I'm just very confused because we haven't voted yet,

but this seems very backwards to me, so it's confusing me,

and my mind is very process-oriented.

So it seems like, but I've really enjoyed working with you.

I think we have lots of work ahead.

I love the passion, the energy, and the drive that you bring,

and I'm looking forward to the future.

Thanks.

Councilman Perdue.

Melissa I want to say thank you also but I'll save my other words for the public meeting and the other celebrations we have for you.

Patrick and Jill and Patrick I hope you introduce the rest of your family later but I want to just say to your family first thank you for the gift of Patrick to Redwood City.

because this is not a Monday through Friday 8 to 5 job.

It's seven days a week,

and we'll get emails and text messages from you as things happen in our city.

So to your family, thank you for the gift of Patrick or a gift of your father

and Jill for giving Patrick to us.

Second, as Council Member Chu mentioned, I wrote down the bias for action.

I mean, that is just really important to get things done,

in the item we heard tonight, getting things done in context of things that are hard.

And it's just going to get harder.

And getting things done is going to be even more important.

And then the last thing I just want to say, I was talking to one of your references.

I didn't break any reference things, but I was talking to somebody on some other business.

And the person volunteered his experience with you.

and his words was, we regret the one that got away.

He was more than effusive about the work you did for that city and that jurisdiction,

and they were just extremely complimentary about what you were doing,

and they were very regretful that they let you get away

and that you are now here in Redwood City.

So congratulations.

Look forward to getting things done and moving Redwood City forward.

Thank you.

Before we invite Patrick up, we should probably vote.

So I'll go ahead and make the motion.

Is there a second?

Second.

Great.

That's a motion from myself, a second from Council Member Howard.

Could we get an electronic vote, please?

And that motion passes unanimously.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council, I just want to express my gratitude for you

for having the confidence in me to lead this great administration.

I will not let you down.

I promise I'll work tirelessly to advance your initiatives.

Veronica, I look forward to working with you collaboratively.

You always have my back.

You keep me out of trouble, and I appreciate that.

Melissa, I so appreciate you to see, for three years now I've worked very closely with you.

You always think you know how to lead, and then you actually see somebody who puts that

into practice every day.

It's been incredible.

I do think it was the missing piece I needed to achieve ultimately what we've all achieved

here tonight.

So thank you, Council.

To the staff, thank you for everything that you do.

I've worked closely with many of you in this organization,

but I look forward to working with everybody.

I think there's a lot that we accomplished every day

that folks don't see,

and I really appreciate the humbleness.

I just appreciate the high level standards

that you all have brought to this organization,

and it's just a really special place.

I tell my family that all the time.

To the community, thank you for welcoming me here

three years ago.

We've done a lot of outreach meetings,

a lot of one-on-one meetings, a lot of other types of meetings,

and it's always respectful.

Not easy, but it's always respectful, and it's always, you know,

folks come in, shake your hand.

They always want to learn more about you, and I really appreciate that.

I always heard so much about Redwood City before coming here,

and everything is checked out.

It's been beautiful.

So please keep showing up, and we'll keep showing up,

and we'll keep advancing things together.

To my family, thank you.

So Jill, and then my daughter Aubrey, and then Beckett,

who's 23, who graduates college in a month.

Thank you.

Which is great.

From Santa Clara, appreciate it.

As the council members noted,

you guys know it's a full-time job.

Jill, you're in the biz as well, so you get it.

But thank you for allowing me to do my thing

and to working on the weekends sometimes

and, you know, all those things that we have to give up.

So I appreciate it.

In closing, I'm very grateful.

I'm energized and I'm ready to get to work.

Thank you.

Congratulations again, Patrick, and to your whole family.

Thank you all for being here and more celebrating to do soon.

And with that, we will move on to item 10, matters of council interest.

Beginning with 10A, city council member report of meetings and conferences attended.

And I see Council Member Howard has her light on.

False alarm. It's okay.

Any report outs? Not seeing any?

We will go on to City Council Committee reports.

And I've got a quick report out on governance.

The governance subcommittee comprised of Council Member G, Vice Mayor Aiken, and myself met Thursday, November 13th.

The subcommittee received a legislative update from the City's consultant, California Public Policy Group.

and reviewed and considered modifications to the city's legislative platform.

The subcommittee unanimously voted to recommend to the full city council the revised ledge platform

with additional edits to housing and homelessness and transportation platform statements.

The subcommittee plans to bring the revised legislative platform to the council in early 2026 to consider adoption.

And another quick report out on transportation and mobility.

the transportation and mobility subcommittee comprised of council members

Chu, G and myself met on Thursday, November 13th

and received an update on the following items. The downtown

Marshall and Jefferson garages structure analysis and repair plan

for immediate repairs and long-term maintenance and repair

and the Broadway pedestrian mall status update project art

and bollard installation and trash enclosure project.

lots of good work and we'll pass things over to the vice mayor who has a quick report out

thank you mayor the equity and social justice subcommittee comprised of council members

padilla and sturkin as well as myself met last friday november 21st the committee members

discussed the city's relationship to native communities the subcommittee voted to recommend

a land acknowledgement statement to the full council which is planned to come to count to

the consent calendar at a future meeting. The subcommittee also identified several actions the

city can take to deepen its relationship with local Indigenous communities, including

updating interpretive signs, sharing an alohany curriculum with youth, and more fully exploring

local history. The subcommittee also discussed potential topics for 2026.

thank you vice mayor and we'll go on to 10c an update from our city manager

thank you very much um first i just can't help but say i have very few sports metaphors

in my own background but what i do know is about passing the baton and i am looking forward to

that time and i am so happy for the council and the community and this organization and for patrick

on the future for Redwood City.

So excited for that.

A few quick updates.

So one, just many of us know, of course,

that Thanksgiving is coming this week,

and so many city departments and services will be closed Thursday and Friday,

although essential services will certainly continue.

So if there are any life-threatening issues,

then folks should call 911.

And if there's any urgent non-emergency issues,

call the police department's dispatch line at 780-7100.

also fun holiday things are starting to emerge on the calendar so there's a new event new family

event called winter wonderland at red morton the first saturday in december the 6th from 5 to 8

p.m so time with santa cookie decorating as well as a kids marketplace for things that they are

selling so intriguing cool new event and then hometown holidays which has long been a tradition

in Redwood City, but is this year being put on by our own parks and rec staff, is from

10 to 630 in downtown Redwood City on December 13th.

Last, I'll mention that in December and in January, we'll be having a series of community

meetings to provide more information about the recently approved tenant protection ordinance.

So there are sessions in person and online.

There are sessions in English and in Spanish.

So our full schedule is available on the city website.

Thank you.

Thank you, Melissa.

And with that, we will move into closed session.

We'll now convene to closed session regarding labor negotiations, existing litigation, and anticipated litigation as identified on the agenda.

Before we convene the closed session, I'd like to ask the City Clerk if there are any public comments on the closed session items.

Thank you, Mayor.

We don't have any speaker cards.

I don't know that there's any public members in the audience anymore and no raised hands on Zoom.

So no public comment.

Okay.

Thank you.

We'll now adjourn to closed session.

As this is the last item on tonight's agenda and there will be no reportable action,

the meeting will be adjourned immediately following the conclusion of closed session

and the council will not be returning back to the dais.

Again, our meeting this evening is being adjourned in the memory of Rose Felicetti.

with that we thank you for joining us tonight our next city council meeting is

monday december 8th at six o'clock but you're going to want to get here early to join the

celebration at five o'clock for our outgoing city manager melissa stevenson diaz on her

upcoming retirement so i wish everyone a great evening and a wonderful thanksgiving holiday

be safe take care

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.