San Jose City Council Meeting - May 6, 2025: Multiple Unanimous Approvals on Infrastructure, Housing, and Policy Items
San Jose City Council Meeting - May 6, 2025
The City Council met on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at 1:30 PM in Council Chambers. The meeting began with ceremonial proclamations and an invocation, followed by a consent calendar, a joint meeting with the San Jose Financing Authority, and action on several policy and land-use items. All substantive votes were unanimous.
Ceremonial Items
- Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month: Councilmembers Kamei and Doan presented a proclamation recognizing May 2025 as AAPI Heritage Month. Vanessa Hatakayama, Executive Director of the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, accepted the honor.
- Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley: Councilmember Candelas presented a commendation to the organization for transforming over 5,000 homes and community facilities. Development Director Elena accepted, noting the importance of safe housing.
- Cinco de Mayo: Councilmember Ortiz presented a proclamation declaring May 5, 2025 as Cinco de Mayo. David Polanco and Armando Barboja of the United Lowrider Council accepted, highlighting the revival of the parade and festival with over 300 lowriders and 20,000 attendees.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes, Ordinances, Committee Minutes, Excused Absences, Travel Reports, and Liaison Reports: All routine items were approved unanimously without discussion.
- Item 2.7 – Youth Service Corps Program: Adopted a resolution accepting a $5,645,628 grant from California Volunteers and authorizing agreements with multiple organizations to implement the Resilience Corps program.
- Item 2.8 – Free Use of City Hall Rotunda: Authorized free use for a homelessness forum on June 7, 2025.
- Item 2.9 – Milligan Parking Lot Project: Approved a contingency increase from 15% to 25% ($400,000) for a total of $1,011,646.
- Item 2.10 – Pride and Transgender Flag Raisings: Approved the Progressive Pride and Transgender Flag Raising on June 3, 2025, and lighting programming June 1-7, 2025, accepting donations.
Joint City Council & Financing Authority Meeting (Items 1 & 2)
- Item 1 – Commercial Paper Program (Letter of Credit): Adopted a resolution authorizing a new letter of credit with TD Bank, N.A., replacing the expiring U.S. Bank letter. Expected annual savings of $112,000.
- Item 2 – AMI Project Commercial Paper Issuance: Conducted a public hearing and adopted a resolution authorizing the issuance of up to $23,000,000 in lease revenue commercial paper notes to finance the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system, upgrading approximately 27,000 water meters to a cellular-based system.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Shopping Cart Ordinance (Item 7.3): Kat Angelou (San Jose Chamber of Commerce) supported the balanced approach to reducing blight. Tim James (grocery representative) opposed mandatory city retrieval and cost-recovery legislation, urging focus on implementing the new ordinance. Blair Beekman urged the council to avoid penalizing unhoused individuals.
- Guadalupe Gardens (Item 10.2): Jordan Muldau (District 3) argued the land was originally purchased for airport approach zones and should remain open space, citing FAA regulations and the city's General Plan.
- Affordable Housing (Item 10.3): Alex Shore (Catalyze SV), Esmeralda Virelas (Destination Home), and Mona Salazar (SV@Home) testified in strong support of the 94-unit 100% affordable project, noting its proximity to transit and alignment with housing goals.
- Open Forum: Multiple speakers (Pranith Calredi, Rithick, Anisha, Sidatagali, Vijaya, David) addressed the eminent domain eviction of Silicon Valley Granite by VTA, requesting fair relocation support and time. Blair Beekman also spoke on homelessness policy and tech accountability.
Discussion Items & Actions
- Item 3.3 – Advanced Metering Infrastructure Solution: Adopted a resolution authorizing a three-year agreement with Badger Meter, Inc. (maximum $21,322,261 plus $2,132,226 contingency) and four five-year renewal options, with $1,500,000 appropriation from the Water Utility Capital Fund. Unanimous.
- Item 7.1 – Report on City Charter Regarding Parks: Accepted the report and memorialized the policy on Section 1700. The inventory listed 207 charter parks out of 222 total parks. Staff clarified that trails, golf courses, and standalone community centers are evaluated under the three-prong test. Councilmember Candelas raised concerns about closed parks like Smythe Field and Columbus Park, and discussed creative lease options. Unanimous.
- Item 7.3 – Abandoned Shopping Cart Prevention Plans: Approved an ordinance amendment requiring large retailers (76+ carts) to adopt at least one of three loss-prevention strategies (theft prevention devices, security deposits, or a cart retrieval contract). Staff reported on SB 753 (Cortese) to simplify cart retrieval and increase fines. A pilot retrieval program in two high-impact areas will launch in May 2025, with a full report back in September 2025. Unanimous.
- Item 10.1a – General Plan Text Amendment (Policy IP-5.15): Approved a city-initiated amendment to address stable internal funding for urban village planning. Unanimous.
- Items 10.2 & 5.1 – Coleman/Hedding Commercial Development & Guadalupe Gardens Master Plan Amendment: Approved the General Plan Amendment (from Open Space and Light Industrial to Combined Industrial Commercial) and rezoning to OS(PD) Planned Development for four sites totaling approx. 11.27 acres. Also approved removing the sites from the Guadalupe Gardens Master Plan. The airport plans to release an RFP in early 2026. Unanimous.
- Item 10.3 – Burbank 45 Annexation & Affordable Housing: Approved annexation, prezoning, General Plan Amendment, and a mitigated negative declaration for a 94-unit 100% affordable housing project (Villas on the Row) at 1921-1927 West San Carlos Street. The project includes permanent supportive housing and commercial space. Councilmember Salas raised parking and management concerns based on past PATH projects. Next steps include a second hearing on May 20, 2025 for the annexation order. Unanimous.
Key Outcomes
- All votes on agenda items were unanimous (no recorded dissents).
- The city will pursue SB 753 to simplify abandoned cart retrieval and increase fines.
- A pilot shopping cart retrieval program will operate in two areas (Capitol Expressway/Tully Road and Blossom Hill/Almaden Expressway) beginning May 2025.
- The AMI project will move forward with Badger Meter and $23 million in commercial paper financing.
- The charter park inventory and policy are memorialized; staff committed to evaluating future parks for charter status.
- The Coleman/Hedding sites are cleared for commercial development, with an airport RFP planned for early 2026.
- The Burbank 45 affordable housing project will proceed to annexation and LAFCO certification, contingent on applicant conditions.
- Mayor Mahan acknowledged the VTA eminent domain case from Open Forum and noted his engagement as a VTA board member; the council does not have direct jurisdiction.
Meeting Transcript
Sixth Tony, would you please call the role? Present. Cohen. Ortiz. Present. Mulcahi. Juan. Here. Candelas. Fully here. Casey. Mayhand. Sure. Great. Thank you, Tony. Now, if you're able, please stand and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. Today's invocation will be provided by Victor Vasquez, the co-executive director of Somos Mayfair. And Councilmember Ortiz will tell us more. Thank you, Mayor. Hello, everyone. Today's invocation will be delivered by Victor Vasquez, co-executive director of Somos Mayfair, a community-based organization focused on addressing historical inequality by empowering neighbors to become leaders and agents of change in their own right. Having come to the United States when he was eight years old, Victor has a storied career as a community organizer. Victor has helped lead Somos Mayfair to organize and empower working families with an eye towards addressing the needs of youth, developing strong alternatives to address violence and empower the community to make the changes necessary to meet the needs of San Jose's poorest communities. Now I'd like for Victor to come and please start us off. Thank you. Thank you so much to everybody here and for this opportunity. Um the language of the Aztecs in Solchi Siwa translates to flower and sound. This is a dual expression of central to Nawa poetry, philosophy, symbolizing the pursuit of beauty, truth, and the divine through artistic expression. To honor this legacy of Floricanto, I will share the concluding portion of I Am Joaquin by renowned Chicano civil rights leader Rodolfo Corki Gonzalez. It offers and I will offer a closing prayer written dedicated to the most vulnerable people in our community. Although we have a Hispanic Heritage Month, I think that it's appropriate that May is the Chicano Heritage Month. And I would like to honor that through a few words. I am Hidalgo, Zapata, Murieta, Espinosa. They are but a few. They dare to face the force of tyranny of men who rule by deception and hypocrisy. The Indian has endured and still emerged the winner, victorious, that mestizo must yet overcome, and the Wachapino will only just ignore. Now I bleed in some smelly cell or by the club or from the gun or the tyranny. I bleed as the vicious gloves of hunger cut my face and eyes, as I fight my way from stinking barriers to the glamour of the ring, the lights of fame, or the mutilated sorrow. My blood runs pure on the ice cake hills of the Alaskan Isles, on the coarse strong beach of Normandy, the foreign lands of Korea, and now Vietnam, Iraq, the Middle East, and Palestine. Here I stand before the court of justice, guilty from all the glory of my raza, to be sentenced to despair. Here I stand poor in money, arrogant with pride, bold and rich with courage, and wealthy in spirit and faith. My knees are caked with mud, my hands collars from all the work I have made the Anglo rich, yet equality is but a word. And the treaty of Guadalupe has been broken and is but another treasure is promise. My last is lost and stolen, my culture has been rampaged, and I left in the line, I'm left in the line of welfare doors and fill the jails with crime, and those then are the rewards that this society has for the sons and daughters of chiefs and kings and queens and bloody revolutionaries, who gave them foreign people all their skills and ingenuity to pave the way with brains and blood for those hung gold hungry strangers who changed our language and pleasurize our deeds, has feats of valor and claimed it of their own. They frowned upon our way of life and took what they could use, or art or literature or music they ignore, so they left the real things of value and grab at their own destruction by their greed. They overlook the cleansing fountains of nature and of our brotherhood and sisterhood, which is who is Joaquin, the art of our great senores Diego Rivera Cisqueros Orozco, and did I say Frida Lora di Cervantes, Cherry Moraga, Gloria and Saldua, they are but another act of revolution for the salvation of humankind, or Mariachi music, the heart and soul of the people of the earth, the life of the child, the happiness of love, the corridors of our people that tell us the tales of life and death of tradition, legends of the old and the new, of joy, of passion and sorrow, of the people, and that's who I am. I am in the eyes of brown of a brown woman, sheltered beneath her shawl of black, deep and sorrow, sorrow, agony, that bear the pains of sons and daughters long buried or dying, dead on the battlefield, or on the barbed wire of social strife. Her rosary she prays, her fingers endlessly like the family working down a row of beats to turn around and continue to work and work and work. There is no end.
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