All right, everyone.

It is six o'clock.

We're gonna go ahead and get started.

Good evening, and thank you for joining our special city council meeting of May 4th.

It's already been a full day with the opening of the Veterans Memorial and Senior Center building.

But we are back for more.

And we hold meetings in a hybrid format with both in-person and virtual participation.

The city welcomes public comment on topics within these sub 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 at the back table in the 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.

If there's a high volume of public comment this evening, we may decrease the time allotted for each public comment or limit the time the total time for public comment.org.

Written comments are not read aloud, but are made part of the public record.

And I'll now turn it over to our city clerk to call the roll.

Here.

If you're attending in person, please fill out a speaker card and submit it to the city clerk here at the day's.

And if you're attending virtually, please feel free to raise your hand on Zoom at this time.

Or press star nine if you've joined by phone.

Once we've gathered all of the speaker cards and raised hands and have begun public comment, no additional speakers will be allowed to queue up to speak.

And I will now turn it over to our city clerk to facilitate public comment.

Thank you, Mayor.

I don't have any in-person speakers.

So if you have joined us by Zoom and would like to speak under general public comment this evening, feel free to raise your hand on Zoom to be recognized.

Seeing no raised hands, Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jessica.

With that, we're going to go a little bit out of order in our agenda.

We will come back to our public hearing item, but start with our staff report item.

And so we'll begin with 7A.

Deputy City Manager Jennifer Yamaguma will give us a presentation.

An economic development manager Amanda Anthony is available for questions.

Good evening.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

We'll get started, but I really want to take a moment and just thank all of the staff that helped with this presentation from city attorney's office, police, fire, public works, parks and rec, everybody did fantastic work on this, and I just really want to appreciate all of the effort that went into this item tonight.

So tonight we are bringing you forward a proposal to establish an entertainment zone in the downtown.

The recommendation before you comes from the ad hoc on special events, which met on April 28th.

And we have two of our uh council members and um ad hoc members, yourself, Mayor, and Councilmember Padilla, as there are as we go through the presentation.

If there's anything you'd like to add or questions, then please definitely feel free.

And Councilmember Chu.

Thank you.

Okay, so our presentation outline.

So we're gonna walk through the state authority that allows for entertainment zones, how other cities are using this tool, and our proposed framework.

I will say that we have a phased implementation as part of this approach, and so we'll walk through that a little bit more and cover our key policy elements and next steps.

Questions for council.

We're really looking for direction in four different key areas.

First, whether to establish an entertainment zone at the pedestrian mall.

Second, whether to use a city managed activation approach.

Third, whether the operating parameters feel appropriate, and whether there's any additional direction that you would like us to consider as part of this initial first phased implementation.

But start with what an entertainment zone is.

So at its core, this really allows uh alcohol to be purchased from local businesses to be consumed in a defined public space.

It's only allowed during designated times and under very specific conditions, and it operates within a structured set of operational and safety rules.

SB 969 was adopted in 2024, and as I just mentioned, it allows cities to create entertainment zones by ordinance.

It lets patrons buy alcohol from participating businesses and consume it within a defined public space.

This expands a model that was previously limited to San Francisco.

It still requires compliance with ABC regulations and local rules on boundaries, hours, and operations.

So this is really a local tool, but it has very clear guidelines and guardrails in place.

In practice, cities are using this during events and high activity periods.

So the goal is really to increase foot traffic, support businesses, and enhance overall experience for those that are in the entertainment zone.

This is not something that is active all of the time.

It's typically tied to specific moments.

As an initial approach, the key concept is that the entertainment zone is only active when the city turns it on.

So tied to city sponsored events or gatherings.

The city would control when and how often it's activated, set the hours, and provide advanced notice.

Operations would be coordinated across departments with staffing and monitoring in place during activations, including controlled entry and exit points.

This approach allows us to start in a very measured way and adjust over time based on experience.

So the proposals to establish the entertainment zone at the pedestrian mall.

You can see the boundary that we're proposing in the dashed line there.

This is really about continuing to build on the activation that we already have on the 2000 block of Broadway, supporting our local businesses, increasing foot traffic, and again enhancing the overall experience in our downtown.

From an operational standpoint, this location works well.

The streets already closed to vehicles.

There's a strong concentration of restaurants and bars that would be eligible to participate, and it has defined entry and exit points, making it easier to manage.

Note that the boundary doesn't go all the way to the Marshall Garage entry.

That is intentional to be able to limit the entry and exit points.

Once you go all the way to the garage, it invites other opportunities for people to come in and out.

And so because we're trying to do a measured approach on this initial rollout, you'll see that it kind of goes just a little bit into that alleyway.

Again, it's really just to be able to effectively manage the boundary area of where alcohol will be allowed to have in an open container.

And importantly, this builds on the city's existing investment in our downtown.

So let's start with the uh overall framework.

So these are the broad parameters for how the program would operate.

At a high level, it establishes the one zone at the at the pedestrian mall.

It'll that sets the allowable hours from 10 a.m.

to 10 p.m.

But that's just the outer boundary, not when it's actually going to be.

Actual activation when the zone is turned on, for lack of better way of saying it, would be determined by the city within that window.

So that's the broad boundary of when it could be activated.

And for businesses, participation is voluntary, but they must hold a valid ABC license and comply with all requirements.

Alcohol must be purchased from participating businesses.

There's no outside alcohol allowed, and it must be in a non-glass, non-metal container per the law.

And the ad hocs recommendation also included using non-plastic containers.

Consumption is limited to within that defined zone.

And again, for this initial launch, the proposal is to only allow beer and wine, which are generally associated with lower levels of intoxication than hard liquor, which helps reduce any complexities with our safety and operational needs.

On the administrative side, the city manager or his designee would have authority to activate the zone.

There are public noticing requirements, and staff would be developing detailed guidelines to support implementation.

I jumped ahead.

Each activation would include a public safety plan coordinated with police and fire.

The zone would have clearly defined boundaries and the managed access points up where with alcohol controls in place.

The staffing and oversight could be scaled based on the event or the gathering when the zone would be activated.

And participating businesses would be required to comply and cooperate with the needs of our public safety folks.

And importantly, emergency access would be maintained at all times.

Again, key takeaway is that it's a controlled, flexible tool.

The city retains authority over activation conditions and operations, and we can refine it over time based on our experience.

And importantly, we control the scale and the frequency so can we can control the costs.

And this allows us to align the program with our available resources.

So now we've covered the framework, which is the top box.

So let's talk about what an activation would actually look like.

So while the allowable hours are from 10 a.m.

to 10 p.m., the zone would not be active during that entire time unless the city chose to do that.

Our proposal is to limit this is somewhat of a pilot program with two to three activations each two to three hours over the next three to four months.

And again, these would be city managed and we would aim to avoid overlap with other city events just given resource constraints and considerations.

But again, we could adjust to that.

So just to sort of level set where we're thinking the initial activation model could be two to three hours, two to three times over the next three to four months.

The goal is to test, learn, and refine as we go along.

So we'll be actively monitoring economic activity, public safety, and operations will report back to you with updates and recommendations.

And the program can easily be refined based on our experience.

State law does require an evaluation at least every two years.

We'll be coming back to you much sooner than that, just based off of our initial learnings from the implementation.

So as you might be picking up, this is a little bit of a focused program at first.

Um looking ahead, there are a lot of different options to expand this program over time, should it be the council's desire.

So this could include allowing third party activations where an event is organized by someone other than the city within the entertainment zone, it would still require city approval.

Um that would require some additional standards and some oversight.

We could also evaluate other locations based off of performance.

As we learn, we'll continue refining these operations and explore cost recovery along with other opportunities like vendors, uh mobile and sidewalk vendors and the sale of merchandise and potentially expanding expanding to also allow liquor.

Um some neighboring cities also allow that based off of what we learned.

So we just want to say we've been thinking about a lot of these things as we've been developing this proposal for you tonight.

Again, the initial launch of it is somewhat narrow in so much as we'd like to see how it works for Redwood City.

Next steps.

So we're here tonight for the introduction of the ordinance.

Um if we can bring it back on May 11th for adoption.

If council were to adopt it, then it would be effective in June.

We still need to do a little bit of outreach with our business community and for the community at large, um, putting together guidelines and different procedures to help support implementation.

I have one administrative cleanup item.

So in the ordinance for you tonight, section 33B3.

Um, we should strike for consistency, commercial districts, which um is is not a substantial policy change, it's just a clarification.

There was one mention of commercial districts that we need to strike.

Which brings me to staff recommendation, which is from the ad hoc on special events and alliance with state law.

So I have the full motion from or the full recommendation from the staff report, adding the last section with a minor revision to section 33B3 as proposed by staff.

I'll put it back to council questions.

So, Mayor, following public comment, I'm joined here by Amanda and half attorney here to answer any of your questions.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Jennifer, for the great presentation and Amanda, just all the great work with the ad hoc.

It's really appreciated.

And before we bring it back to council discussion, we'll take public comment on this item.

So I'll pass it over to our city clerk to facilitate.

Thank you, Mayor.

I don't have any speaker cards at this time, so last call.

Also, any folks on Zoom who would like to give public comment on this item, feel free to raise your hand.

No public comment, Mayor.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So your clerk and again our staff for the great presentation.

Bring it back to our council for discussion, any clarifying questions you might have.

Maybe we should actually start with the ad hoc.

Maybe we can contribute any other thoughts that we didn't capture before we get into questions.

Colleagues.

Councilmember Chu.

Uh, so thank you so much for the terrific presentation, as always.

And um, we you know, Redwood City is an innovator, and we're an early adopter, and I love that about our city.

Um, sort of the you know, as was noted the idea behind this was an experiment and a chance to refine and improve and and hopefully if it's successful to deploy.

But that's how things get better.

You have to experiment, you have to try new things.

And so I'm very excited about uh first of all the innovative spirit, second of all the opportunity to help our local businesses uh do even better.

Um, and to you know, to provide joy to our community.

I think we all really enjoyed the event today, and it just reminds us uh how wonderful it is to be in Redwood City and how much the staff does to bring the community together.

Uh finally a note um, you know, I was reminded today how good our staff is at branding.

There was these it was just the funnest thing ever.

There was a May the Fourth be with you.

Uh Redwood City logo with ewaks on the top and space on the bottom.

I took four stickers.

And just the opportunity to add a little joy and whimsy uh into into events uh in downtown uh and throughout our city uh is really appealing.

So that was sort of the thinking uh behind this initiative.

Thank you, Councilmember Councilmember Padilla.

Um I will piggyback on that.

I think whatever we can do to support our local businesses is a wonderful thing.

And you know, we we do we claim that we have the best climate, and it's true, and when these warm months come, people want to be outside.

They don't want to rush to finish their drink, and if we can uh encourage people, I know I I'm a foodie too.

You want to have one snack at one restaurant and move over to the next.

So I think we can encourage people to try new things, talk, hang out, get a little vitamin D in the sun, enjoy some live music.

Um I'm happy to give it a try.

Thanks.

Thank you, Councilmember Padilla.

And um really grateful to both Councilmember Padilla and Councilmember Chu for your continued service on the ad hoc.

We've had some really great conversations, and you know, I think the work that we've done on the ad hoc, um making people feel safe in the community, right?

And building on that work with this, an opportunity for everybody to be able to partake in the World Cup celebrations, to be able to be downtown, activate that space for the community is really incredible.

Um it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg to be able to watch the the most popular tournament in the world.

And so I'm really grateful that to compliment the the watch parties that our staff are working on in Courthouse Square that we'll be able to offer an entertainment zone in our downtown.

So that is the intent behind this great program.

And like my colleagues and staff have mentioned, this is really a managed program that we're going to define and eventually um think about ways that we can stretch and grow it, but at first it's gonna remain in this core downtown area um under a really city-managed activation approach, so I think is gonna be great.

So with that, I'll I'll end my comments, but I'll open it up for just general comments from the council or any questions that you might have.

We'll go to Councilmember Sturgeon.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you so much to the ad hoc for your recommendation and to staff for preparing this.

Um I fully support us adopting this tonight and establishing the entertainment zone.

Um this is gonna be good for downtown and good for the community, 100%.

Um it's actually pretty common too.

You know, not only have we heard from cities in the Bay Area like San Jose and San Francisco and Mountain View most recently who have done it, but yeah, other cities around the country, and and it's been wildly successful.

Um I guess all I want to do is just speak to maybe what my future hopes uh for the next iteration, um, just to kind of get those out there.

Um, but you know, reading that Mountain View and the Yerba Buena district um it end at 11 p.m.

would be interested in extending um this entertainment zone's hours to 11 p.m.

maybe in the future uh to align with some of the uh establishments in the zone that are open later.

Um just to maximize you know profit for local businesses, to maximize sales tax for city services, and to align with you know potential city-owned or city uh hosted events or privately held events in the future potentially.

And um also would you know express support for allowing cocktails maybe in the future um just given that many of the bars in the zone are cocktail bars, right?

So we want to give them the most flexibility possible to participate in and uh earn uh income from you know such activations and the city again, you know, revenue.

And I'm definitely supportive of in the future allowing uh private or third party activations.

Um, you some of us up here may have heard about uh you know Chase Love's kind of um markets or things that they've been hosting, uh, which they are actually planning one, I think it's later this month or next month in the Broadway pedestrian mall.

So this is gonna be perfect for you know if they want to um participate in the future uh to do this.

So and um and finally, I am also supportive of in the future considering extending uh an entertainment zone to the 2600 block of Broadway.

Uh I know there are fewer um you know ABC holding license holding businesses over there, but it still could use a little love, right?

Just uh like you know, the Broadway pedestrian mall.

So um, and we just should definitely make use of all tools in our toolbox to support a local businesses.

Sorry, this is the last finally, okay.

Um in terms of staffing, the one comment I had is or suggestion rather is to maybe leverage if possible and if it is appropriate, um, the volunteers and policing program or VIPs uh to help with the event management since they already do that in the case of other city events or community run events.

And uh with that, again, very supportive of uh passing this tonight.

So thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Sterk.

Uh we'll go to Councilmember G.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you to the ad hoc committee members and the entire team that put this together.

Um, I like what's coming for, I just need to ask some clarifying questions.

You know, as a pilot, what what are we looking at from a investment standpoint to get this started?

I mean, it doesn't, I mean, someone at the very minimum's got to put a sign up saying this is an entertainment zone today from whatever hour to whatever hour.

So what what do we what's the estimate?

The back of the napkin estimate per activation for that two-hour time block is around $5,000.

That is probably the on the high end because that considered public um safety at an officer level.

So going to Councilmember Sterkin's point um in uh Chief Bella's on Zoom if there's questions and she wants to jump in here.

But there's been lots of conversation about trying to leverage our community service officers and volunteers to the highest extent possible.

Um so that is on the higher end, but because these are city sponsored or these are city managed events, there are some material costs, signage barriers, the cups themselves, wristbands, and things of that nature.

So we're still working out the details, but but the um an estimate would be maybe around that four to five thousand dollars per activation.

So with the pilot program, would it be fair to say 15 to 20,000 for this what was presented this evening?

Correct.

Okay.

That's helpful.

And then do we have any idea yet uh what the third-party fee schedule would be?

Would it be straight-up cost recovery or would it be cost recovery plus some additional fees for the city?

What's the thinking behind that?

There we're still working through that, but our initial thought is definitely cost recovery.

Um there's opportunity to make sure that whatever needs the based off of how the pilot program goes, we might want to refine it.

Okay, very good.

No, I I just need some help here.

I think I saw no glass, no metal, no plastic.

So those just leaves paper, I think.

What's left a good glass of wine doesn't taste very good in a paper cup.

So can you help clarify a little bit if I read that or heard that correctly?

That is correct.

The law does say no metal, no glass.

The ad hoc's recommendation was also no plastic.

I learned something new from council member too that there's actually sugar cane cups that could be used.

Um we're definitely interested in wanting to have something that is environmentally friendly, and that is the thought process behind that.

I would even argue a cocktail doesn't sound taste very good and a paper cup, so we'll have to help figure out what some choices are, and maybe the sustainability committee can help figure that out, like we did with the compostable utensils.

I was just gonna say, add a minimum compostable cups.

Okay, very good.

The other thing you mentioned in the presentation public safety and and true car, this happened before you were here, but I know we did have a fire downtown at MASRA kitchen fire right after they opened, and it was a little clunky.

Um and so my admonition is for the pilot project, we do have them an emergency plan for both police and fire to get in there in case of an emergency.

Absolutely.

Rehearsed one when that fire broke out in Mazda, so it was a little clunky when that happened.

But I think anybody who whether be uh uh a city sponsored activation, uh one of our our businesses or a third party, there needs to be a clear emergency activation plan, and that is that is practiced also, so there aren't any surprises because it you know, with with the number of people that could be here, learning on the fly isn't probably the right answer.

Did I did I say that right?

Okay.

Because I I think you're we all remember the fire.

It was like when the first week after they open.

It was just a little unrehearsed.

And and we can build that into the guidelines, and that is something that staff's working on developing.

Again, it's to support the implementation for this phase, but as we learn things, we may need to update it.

But security operational requirements are part of that.

And then lastly, what is the comms plan to go with this?

We we need to develop one.

Yeah, and we'll uh have that also be coordinated through the guidelines at at a minimum.

Um we need to do some outreach with our businesses, but there will be some education that we need to provide the community and people who would like to participate because you really do need to make sure that we're staying within the boundary of the entertainment zone.

And so it will be a little bit of a learning curve in so much as as soon as you want to walk outside of that perimeter, you need to be disposing of the alcohol before you can go past.

If it if it all goes exactly as planned, then yes.

Very good.

All right.

Thank you.

Thanks everybody for the hard work.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Councillor G.

We'll go to Council Member Sturge.

Thank you.

I just wanted to add one thing.

Um that uh Amanda had answered for me was you know the purpose and you too, Jennifer, the purpose behind uh not extending the uh zone area all the way to the garage was um to allow a kid-friendly zone potentially and also um you know space for games like you know that are life size that people can play during activations.

And also um because well folks sometimes use the alleyway to for the restroom.

So if we could um that's exactly what I was gonna suggest.

Uh long term, I know it's quite expensive, but maybe maybe if we partner with RCIA.

I'm not trying to put them on the hook for anything, but um maybe we could get a throne or equivalent restroom placed there as well.

And yeah, that we have those ideas as well.

And so the perimeter of the boundary to allow the alcohol will end there, but there will probably be some activation of that space.

You just won't be able to bring your alcohol past the point of the barrier.

But yeah, things like port-a-potties and games and things like that.

We're we're envisioning that as part of that space.

Perfect.

And just to follow up on uh Councilmember G's uh question about comms, uh, since you know RCIA was generally supportive of this move as well.

Maybe we could partner with them in terms of marketing, uh, since they have a marketing consultant, all Lib Communications, I think it is putting it out there.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, colleagues, for the discussion.

With that, is there a motion to approve the ad hoc recommendation?

Councilmember Surgeon.

Do you want to?

I will move to approve.

Please keep second.

That was a motion from Councilmember Sirkin, a second from Councilmember Chu.

Could we get a electronic vote, please?

And mayor, if I may, just for the record, that recommendation was for the ad hoc recommendation with that minor revision that staff proposed.

Correct.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Motion passes with five votes.

Councilmember Howard and Vice Mayor Aiken are absent.

Great.

Thank you, Jennifer.

Thank you, Amanda.

Thank you, colleagues.

And we will now work our way.

We'll actually go to the city manager.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I think at this time it might be best if we take a five to ten minute recess.

There's still some work going on with with staff.

Um up to you, but just a suggestion, because we're not quite ready to roll on the final item of the night.

Thank you.

Yeah, we will go ahead and take a five-minute recess and reconvene at 6 40.

Right.

Thank you, everyone.

Let's make that 645 just to be safe.

Thank you, everybody.

Thank you, everyone, for your patience.

We are back.

We'll begin with item six A, our public hearings.

We'll now hear an appeal of a February twenty fifth, twenty twenty-six administrative citation for unpermitted construction of a garage edition at twenty-four fifty-five Carson Street.

We'll begin with a presentation from staff, followed by a presentation from the appellant.

After the presentations, the city and the appellant will have the opportunity to respond, and finally, the city council will discuss and vote on the item.

Staff and Mr.

Burns acknowledge that uh there's a complex chronology underlying this dispute.

But Mr.

Burns is willing to remove the unpermitted garage edition and legalize the ADU conversion subject to certain conditions.

Staff will rescind the February 25th, 2026 administrative citation as to the unpermitted garage improvements.

Um violations arising under Redwood City Code 9.40 and the California Building Code without prejudice.

Staff will also refund the 100 deposit pertaining to the unpermitted garage improvements to Mr.

Burns.

The garage improvement portion of ADU 220064, which includ uh which scope includes the legalization of the ADU and removal of the storage edition will be separated from the issues pertaining to the construction within the creek setback and the vision triangle so that the unpermitted garage improvements can be addressed on its own as well as the improvements to the primary dwelling.

Staff will issue a permit for legalization and demolition of the garage edition with the following additional conditions and notes.

Mr.

Burns will submit updated plans that delete the AC unit slash compressor within seven calendar days of this meeting.

And staff will review the updated plans and if approved, staff will make the permit ready for pickup by June 25th, 2026.

Mr.

Burns shall also provide detailed step-by-step directions on how the garage roof will be dismantled.

Next, staff will waive plan check fees for the amended permit application for the garage improvements, and staff will extend permit C 220027 for six months from today.

And this proposed resolution regarding the unpermitted garage improvements will have no effect on or prejudice to the forthcoming hearing on the other two violations, which will be heard before an administrative hearing officer at the end of May.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate that update.

Since a settlement has been reached, we do not need to go through the process or take a vote.

So with that, are there any council questions?

Not seeing any.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

Oh.

Good evening, Mr.

Mayor and Honorable Council.

Normally, on behalf of Stephen Burns, an attorney from San Jose, California.

Thank you first of all for giving us another 15 minutes to resolve this.

And I want to indicate that it is acceptable as read into the record.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you, sir.

And with that, we will now move on to the next item.

Thank you, everyone, for your work on this.

And with that, we'll move on to item eight since we have already reviewed item 7a.

And item eight is our adjournment.

Thank you, everyone, for joining tonight's council meeting.

The next city council meeting is scheduled for May 11th.

Wish you all a very happy uh May 4th, and we'll see you all in the next week ahead.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.