Good afternoon.

It is two o'clock.

And uh welcome to the rules and open government committee meeting.

As a reminder, uh, we expect all attending to follow the code of conduct located on the agenda.

Failure to comply with this code of conduct and behavior, which will disturb, disrupt, or impede the orderly conduct of the meeting, may result in removal from the meeting.

And with that, uh, roll call, please.

Candela here.

Duane Foley.

Come here.

Cohen, absent.

We have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

Um, before we go through the agenda, I do want to mention that I have been asked to defer item Cree.

Uh, since uh Councilmember Tordillas was not able to uh come to speak on this item.

Uh so um we'll have to do that.

Yeah, we can do that, but I just wanted to announce that ahead of time.

Okay, item A is review of our final agenda for April 28th.

And uh we'll start uh 9 30 closed session, 1 30 regular session.

Uh we have uh consent starting on page four, five, six, seven, ending on page eight.

We have strategic support on page eight and nine.

We have neighborhood services starting on page nine.

I guess it's just nine, and uh no land use items.

Oh, yes, we do have a land use items on page eleven, and that's it.

Is there any public comment?

No public comment.

Okay.

Move for approval with the add sheet.

Go ahead.

Okay.

Thanks.

I actually have a request, and oh there's comment.

I'd like to make a comment about item seven.

Uh we have I've received a request.

This is a new park in my district with the naming of the park, and I have a request from the heirs to Bill Key, who is the individual we will uh tentatively be naming the park app after that we move this to immediately following the uh consent calendar.

And and if the council member would include that in his as a friendly amendment, I would appreciate that.

Friendly amendment is accepted.

Let's move forward right after the consent calendar.

Thank you.

Agreed.

Excellent.

With that modification, uh, let's vote.

Motion passes.

Thank you very much.

Uh moving on to item number two, uh draft agenda for May 5th.

We have uh closed session 930 with uh 130 regular session.

Uh we have consent uh starting on page four, five, and six.

Uh we have potential strategic support on page six, uh neighborhood services on page seven, eight, uh ending there in eight, and uh community economic development on page nine, land use starting on page nine.

Oh, we don't have any land use.

Okay.

Is there any public comment?

No public comment.

Is there a motion?

Yeah, I'll move it for hold a second.

Okay, any other comments from my colleagues?

No, let's vote.

Motion passes.

Thank you very much.

Um we're now up to the consent calendar.

Is there a any comment on consent calendar?

Ryan.

There is a letter from PGE about raising rates for um on the consent color in the public record.

I said I would do this, and so I'm gonna do it anyways.

Um Fayette McLeod, Karen King, and Kenneth Wilson were the four victims of the ZOG fire.

The CPUC and their wisdom allowed PGE to not take responsibility for that fire, even though their own regulators found that PGE was probably at fault.

Um I've said the story once before, I was not in this particular part, but I was in a fire as a kid, was burned over 45% of my body with third and fourth degree burns, and I was around Faylis age.

They wouldn't even say her name.

There's something profoundly wrong with that when they accepted this new revision on the consent calendar with no discussion.

Thank you.

Back to the committee.

Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar?

Move approval of consent.

Great.

Um let's vote.

That motion passes.

Thank you.

Okay, moving on to our uh item C rules, committee reviews, recommendations, and approvals.

Item number one is identification of assessment of priority neighborhoods.

And we have council member Campos to share with us some information.

Thank you, Chair.

Um I am here to r respectfully request that uh my colleagues um move this memo forward.

We have been um hearing from our community how important the children youth services master plan is in uh throughout the city, and what this memo seeks to do is uh align how we are identifying the next set of priority neighborhoods with the work that the youth empowerment alliance has already done in identifying um potential priority neighborhoods, and so um this work will align those two pathways to make sure that as we are looking at the next stage of um 500,000 dollars in that recommendation for expenditure that we are um not just choosing any neighborhoods but really focusing on the neighborhoods that have identified as being um those that would be best suited for these dollars.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh we have uh do we have any public comment?

No public comment.

Thank you.

We will now go to the committee.

Um council member Duan.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Compose for speaking on this particular items.

I want to um also say thank you to my colleagues um which council member Ortiz, um council member Candelas and Council Councilmember KC.

And I believe that if we don't invest in order to our news, we don't invest in our children, we fail.

We fail for the future generation and we fail the community as a whole.

And I think it's important it should always be the prioritization in our city.

And with that, I move uh to approval of this uh memorandum.

Okay, just a question.

Doesn't this need to go to a workload analysis?

Oh, I'm sorry, you had I just jumped on in.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, what why don't we um have Councilmember Candela is a good question?

Yeah, no, thank you.

Uh sorry, no, no, no, it's okay, Vice Mayor.

I I I'm glad you asked that question.

And you know, and as part of my points, I was gonna thank Councilmember Campos for her leadership on this.

And and uh, you know, obviously all of us here on the dias, I think that um, you know, youth services and programming for um our families, whether it's older adults or youth, um, are our essential city services and play uh an important role in creating a safe environment that builds on the foundation and the bedrock of our city.

Um that being said, I I my question for for the administration was um can this move forward as is uh or does it require workload analysis?

I I think because you are asking for a manager's budget addendum, which we needed to do already, it can move forward.

Perfect.

And if there are any constraints around any of this work, those would be outlined in the MBA.

But the uh Councilmember Compost's office worked closely with the manager's office to make sure this is within staff capacity.

Uh wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you for providing that clarification.

And and again, uh appreciate uh councilmember compos your leadership and in helping shepherd this, not just to this committee, but ultimately for the conversation that's at hand, given you know our our multi-million dollar deficit and how important that you know us in our Brown Act and and us as a council feel that um uh our youth services are.

So that that being said, I look forward to supporting this uh motion.

Great.

Well, thank you so much for that.

Uh and thank you, Councilmember Campos.

Uh let's vote.

Motion passes.

Great.

Moving on to item number two, attract me attracting investment in employment lands.

And um I don't know if uh do we have any public comment?

No public comment.

Okay.

Councilmember Condelis.

Uh thank you.

Uh uh Councilmember uh Kamehair.

Okay, anyway.

Uh I I just uh wanted to thank my colleagues for uh signing on support of their uh of this memorandum.

Um obviously there's um several large swaths and large plots of vacant land, um not just in district eight but throughout our city um that are industrial and commercially zoned and are primed for attracting investment um and it is in our best interest to to be uh very intentional and methodical in finding the best suitors uh to come and build here in the city of San Jose, and that's the the goal of this memorandum and ensuring that these employment lands are maintained and used um for that per purpose and uh that we maximize um their their value to our cities important um and you know ensuring that we get the revenue, we ease uh the strain uh of uh on services that that otherwise would would occur, but more importantly, I think it's making sure that we are uh ensuring a concerted effort by our city administration on uh letting folks know that we do uh have this land and we are open for business as a city and that um we we are doing everything we can to provide economic opportunity uh for for our city for our residents in the long term and and uh give us vital feedback uh from the business community in the short term on what they need to make it work.

Obviously, in my district, um I we have a few sites that are primed and ready with purple pipe and recycled water to make sure that we're moving forward in an environmentally conscious way, which we all want to see.

Um, you know, um obviously the goal is to not looking for stakeholders, uh not only looking for the stakeholders that can maximize this land, but also getting creative with how we envision uh commer commercial and industrial spaces um throughout the city.

So I look forward to hearing back from staff and how we can incorporate this into the work plan, or if we can just move forward.

Um I'll let you chime in.

Is that that's a question?

Yeah, you know, uh council member, thank you for for working with the Office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs on this.

Um this is pretty core to economic development functions uh of a city uh andor counting throughout the United States, and it is part of the two-year work program that council adopted um last year to focus that department on kind of um you know prioritizing the you know business retention, expansion, and attraction so this can move forward as is.

I don't think it needs any workload analysis because work is underway already.

Uh fantastic.

Thank you.

Um thank you for that uh Leland and uh that being said, uh I I'll move uh move the staff recommendation on this.

Okay, Councilmember Duan.

Thank you, Chair.

I I think it's extremely important that we align with the business development strategy and and make sure that we only have 13 percent of our land is is for industrial growth, and we need those advancement of manufacturing, clean technology, and high-tech industry to create what you call well-paying jobs because of this expensive environment, we need jobs so our family can survive, and hopefully that they can save and have an opportunity to invest into housing, which is uh one of the American dreams.

And I think that by retaining these space and value to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of creating jobs it would benefit for not only the residents the businesses and the taxes that come to the city of San Jose, and I will be supporting this memorandum.

Thank you.

I don't have an opinion.

Thank you very much.

Okay, uh let's vote motion passes.

Thank you very much.

And on uh C three, um, it is going to be deferred till next week.

I do know that people want to speak, and we are gonna take your public comment.

Uh we will take it under um open forum, which is subsequently after four.

So it won't be very long.

Um item number four is we need to move to defer.

Sorry about that.

Thank you so much for that.

Let's vote.

On the number three.

Oh yeah.

And now we'll move on to item number four, which is the prefab factory produced housing structures.

And uh Councilmember Ortiz will tell us more.

Thank you, Madam Vice Chair, and thank you to my colleagues, uh Vice Mayor Foley and Councilmember Candelas and Councilmember Tordillos for partnering with me on this memo.

As we continue to search for solutions to our housing crisis, I know we have all been looking for innovative approaches, supporting emerging construction methods that have proven capable of delivering housing faster and cheaper, can help us respond to the urgent situation we are in.

As outlined in our memo, we want to explore how modular factory built construction can help us deliver both single and multifamily housing more efficiently while maintaining strong labor standards.

For those unfamiliar, modular construction involves building housing units in a factory setting and then transporting them to the site for final assembly, allowing much of the construction to occur off-site while site preparation proceeds simultaneously.

This has been the potential, this has the potential to shorten timelines, reduce development costs, and ultimately help us deliver housing faster.

We want to take a thank a thoughtful look at how this model can help us in San Jose, understanding the opportunities, the challenges, and how it compares to the way we are delivering housing.

That includes being intentional about how these projects are delivered.

We've seen that modular construction can be paired with strong labor practices, including partnerships with union labor, apprenticeship pathways, and access to good paying careers.

As we explore this further, it's important that we continue to center those outcomes and ensure this approach aligns with our broader workforce and economic development priorities.

And that ties into the broader economic potential here.

San Jose has a strong history as a manufacturing hub, and we're well positioned to attract this growing industry and some of our employment land.

Supporting modular production locally could mean bringing new facilities, new jobs, and new workforce opportunities into our city, all while helping us meet our housing goals.

I'm looking forward to the discussion and appreciate committee's consideration on this memo.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Councilmember Ortiz.

Before we go to our to the committee, are there any public comment?

Yes.

Chris, please go ahead and make your way to the podium.

My name is Chris Tisdill, and I represent Alpha X and Apex Homes that's located in Cupertino, and we have a manufacturing facility in San Jose.

SB9 lot splits and townhomes and ADUs.

Up until about a year ago, our focus has been on conventional stick-built construction.

Over the past year, we have been diligently working to develop our closed wall panel system, configuring our manufacturing facility, and building a team with extensive knowledge of modular industry.

We have invested approximately two million dollars into this development and have pre-sold approximately 100 ADUs.

Modular factory built ADUs are our first step as we develop the means and methods towards modular factory-built single-family homes in townhomes as well.

Our team members at Alpha X come from other local venture-backed startups focusing on modular factory-built housing, including VIV and Aerohomes.

Benefits of modular construction will continue to have a large impact on the built environment, including reduction in material and labor costs, expedited building timelines, enhanced quality control, and the ability to build more efficiently, leading to closing the gap on the housing shortage, as well as providing local jobs in this area too.

We look forward to preparing a proposal for consideration as we continue to work closely with you in a joint effort to reduce housing shortage, provide more local jobs, and pave the way toward more modular factory built housing.

Thank you for your time.

Back to the committee.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Foley, Councilmember Ortiz, Councilmember Tordillas, and Councilmember Candeles for being willing to see the new possibility and how we address housing.

Embracing the prefabricated build is an important step towards in realizing quick deployment, affordability, and scale.

For years I have been advocating for pre-med prefabricated structure as a practical way to reduce the harm experienced by our unhoused neighbors.

This new tools matter now more than ever because our needs is so urgent for more ADU housing.

Prefabricated housing will give San Jose a way to act now quickly and efficiently, not only for our residents and businesses, but to create jobs and the needed tax to our city.

Thank you again for listening, evolving and taking the first step into researching the possibility of prefabricated housing.

I'm hopeful that this marked the beginning of faster, more effective action for our community and for our residents.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor Foley.

Lee, does this need to go for workload analysis?

The administration would request that, yes.

Then I would move approval subject to work and send it to workload analysis.

Great.

And I'd like to thank Councilmember Ortiz for bringing this to my attention and including me in the Brown Act and also my partners, Councilmember Tordias and Councilmember Candelas.

And I look forward to it coming back.

Great.

Councilmember Candelas.

No, I just wanted to take a moment to thank uh Councilmember Ortiz for again uh bringing an item to rules, which is like your 15th.

Um but but more importantly, to bring to bring this conversation to light.

Obviously, um we're seeing um exponential cost to to to build housing in our city.

We see it with the cost of um not just rent but a single family home and anything we can do as a city to pull pull levers to bring down costs, whether it's on the um the materials and construction side, the labor side, um uh and even and and with uh with our levers with reducing timelines is uh is something that we're we're excited to do.

So uh I look forward to hearing back from the administration on on the workload analysis and and moving forward with this.

Thanks.

Thank you very much.

Let's vote.

Motion passes.

Thank you very much.

And now we are on open forum.

I'll call four names at a time as I call your names.

Please go ahead and make your way to the podium.

Brian, Larry, Brenda, and David.

So just gonna talk from my heart.

I'm tired.

I'm sure you are too.

Three people resigned from the House of Representatives over the last two weeks.

We're renaming parks and schools because somebody terribly abused several decades ago.

Uh a gentleman on this council was found pleaded guilty to a horrible crime.

Are you tired?

I am.

I am we don't feel heard.

You I mean, I spend a lot of my time on the on the internet helping people get out of situations, you know, people mainly people with severe physical disabilities, a lot of veterans that don't have places to stay.

I'm good at searching for things and and what little cash I have, usually I try to help with that too.

When I was a teacher, if we were a penny short, we had to pay it.

If we were a penny off on a student income or I mean student uh money sent from home or something, and that's the way it should be.

We were held to real high standards, and I want that to happen.

I'm trying to understand why we don't do that at our at the people who control our lives.

I bring this up again.

If anybody knew about the abuse of that young man or got an email or something, say it now.

Let the light shine.

I've said this the last three weeks, and I'm saying it again.

And it's not to get even or a gotcha moment.

It's people are tired and they want to hear the truth.

Thank you.

Hi, Larry Ames, a longtime park and community advocate.

The city is making transformational changes to its envisioned 2040 general plan, and this is our one chance to impact the design for the entire city.

The plans now being made will impact how the city develops.

Henceforth, individual projects will not come before the city council for review and public comment, but instead will just be approved at the ministerial level.

We need to make sure that the general plan update adopts rules that will protect the quality of life in the city.

We need housing, but we also need the supporting infrastructure, such as transit and quality parks, as well as sewer, stormwater, electrical, and water.

We need to minimize some negative impacts in the community by, for example, preserving historic structures, school lands, and repairing quarter setbacks.

Neighborhood business districts should be lively and inviting rather than hollowed out with soulless data centers, warehouses, and storage units.

And there's more to consider sustainability, flood protection, climate impacts, equity, community building, and just a simple joy of living in an interesting and inviting city.

The current general plan was a result of detailed thoughtful discussion over many months with many stakeholders and lots of public comment.

This update needs a comparable level of input from stakeholders and the general public.

There was an outreach booth at the Viva Calle last week, and it was very nice and well visited, but it did not provide the time or background support needed for an informed and thoughtful public input.

We understand the city's desire to quickly address the housing interest, but rushing to make major changes to zoning policy could result in unintended consequences, and undoing a zoning mistake can be near impossible.

So please provide for much needed, broad, robust engagement, community stakeholders and the public.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Brenda.

Thank you for listening.

I wrote to Council Mayor and the General Plan Task Force and the City Planning Staff about the lack of outreach about the 2040 general plan and specifically about the plan exceeding SB9 and 10 requirements with allowable units on single family home lots.

This is massive upzoning, and if approved, it can never be undone.

There needs to be much, much more outreach to all neighborhoods about the proposed radical changes to the plan, especially if allowable by right without input or hearing from uh the public.

Council needs to push for more meetings in all neighborhoods with notices sent out to all residents.

Thank you.

Calling the next set of names, Doug, Sandra, Doris, and Ken.

Please go ahead and make our way to the podium.

Good afternoon, Council members.

Uh David Hyindell, I wear a lot of hats today.

It's the all district leadership group, which sent you a letter yesterday concerning the item, the general plan update.

We few today who've had the been able to come today actually represent a lot of people in San Jose.

In some sense, we feel like we're the canary in the coal mine.

If I understand SB 79 and state mandates, there are certain things that the city has to do in this general plan.

But what we're hearing from the task force is that they're going way beyond that.

One of their handouts talks about citywide development of all kinds, uh, to the level where I don't think people are aware that what the discussions appear to be going to are to allow my neighbor, your neighbor, everybody's neighbor, to tear down their house and build a 10 or as much as 15 units on the house next door to you without any city review whatsoever.

This sounds like it's above the level of what the city council would want or what is mandated by state law.

So our letter states that we would really really like you guys to implement a much broader outreach program.

The entire outreach program was four meetings.

One was at Viva Calais, the other is tomorrow night.

I think almost all of your districts do not have a meeting in them, and we urge you guys to make sure that people know about what this is planning process is about because I think when it comes to you, everybody's gonna know about it, and we may be that canary in the coal mine.

So we urge you to figure out a way to have more up uh outreach.

Thank you very much.

Okay.

Hello, I'm Doug Andre, and I'm from D1.

And a general plan in any organization, and especially this one, there are a lot of great, you know, important issues to be discussed, which the previous speakers have talked about.

It is very important that all parts of the city be represented in this process.

I have found I looked at where the four meetings were, and it is a 25 minute drive to one of them from my house, according to Google Maps.

And I just think it really for something of this magnitude, we need to have meetings in all parts of the city.

So everyone is represented.

So it's I'm arguing for more inclusion of all the people.

Thank you very much.

Hi, my name is Sandra Delvin, and I take care of my granddaughter every day.

So it is a challenge to be here.

I've seen sure you've seen her.

I'm concerned about the significant and permanent changes being proposed for single family in our neighborhoods across the city.

More significant than housing director.

And yet in the housing director search, there was outreach to every district.

Now we're having four meetings.

Interesting, those four meetings do not include the districts with the largest number of single family homes.

We need to have more outreach.

And information that says, come give information on general plan, doesn't tell the public the extent that's being requested.

The ads, the communication needs to be better.

We need council members to send out information, but you can't say come give information on the general plan.

You've got to say something that will get their attention.

Like come here, how there could be 14 to 15 houses next units next to you.

So please encourage, ask, get us more outreach so that the public understands.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

I'm Doris Livsey, president of the Murdoch Neighborhood Association.

And also in the District One leadership group.

Regarding the general plan, there needs to be more exposure on the permanent impact that this plan is going to make on neighborhoods.

People are not aware.

Nobody's aware of it.

I asked six different people to come with me today, and they said, what are you talking about?

So where's the information?

There should be public meetings to educate the public.

Maybe Zoom.

A lot of people are able to get on meetings for Zoom.

And the council members can publicize this more, not maybe just once in a hidden agenda, but somewhere that people are going to find out what is going to happen to their neighborhood.

Please don't keep residents in the dark.

We need to know more.

Thank you.

Hi, I'd like to echo the request for better information and outreach.

You know, uh, as part of the Corey neighborhood, a couple of us have been attending the 2040 envision meetings, and so we're aware of it, but had I not been attending those meetings, which most people don't, I would not be aware of this at all.

And you know, this is an important change.

Um just this past week I received a postcard a little bit earlier about a change they're making to the agrihood plan.

And so I attended that meeting.

There's no such this is an even bigger change than that agrihood change from you know, in terms of what they were planning on building to to a new building.

We should be getting all postcards saying, hey, we're making this big, big, big change coming ahead.

Don't just say, hey, there's a planning meeting, come to it.

Again, nobody's gonna pay attention to that.

Have a postcard that basically says this is what's happening, this is going to affect you.

This is where you can come to find out more information.

Thanks very much.

Back to the committee.

Thank you so much.

Um, thank you for everyone who came today and gave their input, and we are adjourned at 2.34.

Thank you very much.