because they didn't even they didn't even consider that

hello everybody welcome to the historic landmarks commission meeting

following roll call during summary hearing procedure we will review how the public may

provide comment during today's session i do want to take a moment to introduce our new commissioner

jimmy kogora welcome just was sworn in just this morning so thank you for joining us

okay so commissioner kogora thank you uh commissioner cohen present commissioner

camuso present commissioner bainawal present commissioner arnold arnold present uh commissioner

Galandari is not here tonight and and Chair Royer I am here. The procedure for this hearing is as

follows. After the staff report, applicants and appellants may make a five-minute presentation.

I'll be a stickler on time as we have several agenda items tonight. If you wish to speak on

an item, complete a card and place it in the speaker card box or bring your card up to up

here to Historic Preservation Officer Peake Edwards. When I receive your speaker card,

I'll call you forward. Each speaker will be given up to two minutes for public testimony,

and speakers using a translator will have up to four minutes. At the discretion of the chair,

the time allotted to each speaker may be changed depending on the number of items on the agenda,

number of speakers, and other factors. Speakers using a translator will have double the time

allotted. After the public testimony, the applicant may make closing remarks for up to an

additional five minutes. Historic Landmarks Commissioners may ask questions of the speakers,

response to commissioner questions will not reduce the speaker's time allowance.

The public hearing will then be closed, and the Historic Landmarks Commission will take action on

the item. The commission may request staff to respond to the public testimony, ask staff

questions, and discuss the item. If a commissioner would like a topic to be added to be addressed

under one of the good welfare items, please contact planning staff in advance of the commission

meeting. All public records relating to an open session item on this agenda, which are not exempt

from disclosure pursuant to the California Public Records Act, that are distributed to a majority of

the legislative body will be available for public by emailing planning support staff at sanjoseca.gov

at the time that the public records are distributed or made available to the legislative body.

Before we begin, I want to remind the Historic Landmarks Commission members and members of the

public to follow our code of conduct at meetings. This includes commenting on specific agenda items

only and addressing the full body. Public speakers will not engage in a conversation with the

commissioners or staff. All members of the Historic Landmarks Commission, staff, and public are

expected to refrain from abusive language. Repeated failure to comply with the code of conduct,

which will disturb, disrupt, or impede the orderly conduct of this meeting, may result in removal

from the meeting. This meeting of the Historic Landmarks Commission will now come to order.

Item one is deferrals. We have no items under deferrals. Number two is the consent calendar.

Again, no items. Number three, public hearings. Again, no items. So that takes us to item four,

planning referrals and 4a is pd25-013 historic landmarks commission referral for the valley

title project pd25-013 under san jose municipal code section 20.70.110 section c project manager

zachary johnson and we nin and staff recommendations are to provide comments to

staff on the Valley Title Project ED250-013 located at 300 South 1st Street and 345 South

2nd Street under San Jose Municipal Code Section 20.70.110C.

Thank you. Excuse me, Chair Royer.

Dana Peake, Historic Preservation Officer, I'm presenting on behalf of the Project Manager,

Zach Johnson. The item before you this evening is the Valley Title Project, file number PD

25-13 at 300 South 1st Street and 245 South 2nd Street. Comments are requested under municipal

code 220.70.110C, which require new structures exceeding 150 feet and a floor area of 6-1,

which are constructed within 100 feet of a city landmark or contributing structure in a landmark district

to be reviewed by HLC prior to consideration or approval of the development permit for new construction.

The project site is located on a 2.84 gross acre site on the northwest corner of the block

bounded by East San Carlos Street to the north,

South First Street to the west,

East San Salvador Street to the south,

and South Second Street to the east.

The project site contains a three-story office building,

which is formerly Valley title,

and service parking lots.

It's surrounded by an art gallery

and commercial uses to the south,

a theater and commercial uses to the west

across South First Street,

multifamily residences,

an office with Child Care Center, YWCA, and a post-secondary school, the Lincoln Law School,

to the east across South 2nd Street, and office uses to the north across East San Carlos Street.

The project consists of two development options.

Option A was previously approved under development application H21012

and was reviewed by the Historic Landmarks Commission on August 4, 2021.

The project included the demolition of the existing office building on the site

and the construction of two 20-story office towers

totaling approximately 1.99 million square feet

with a maximum height of 300 feet,

ground floor retail space,

and a five-level below-grade parking garage.

option b includes the demolition of the existing office building on site the construction of three

30 story 300 feet high residential towers with 1 1 167 units approximately 8 108 square feet of

residential amenities, and approximately 5,544 square feet of fitness space, and approximately

19,129 square feet of ground floor retail space, one level of below-grade parking, and

a seven-story, maximum 200 feet high data center with two below-grade levels.

the subject site is across the street from four city landmarks including the

St. Clair building the Dorman building the California theater and the West

Prussia building as seen in the yellow highlighted areas the project is subject

to the San Jose downtown design guidelines and standards in particular

the project is subject to standards related to historic adjacency including

requirements for height transition with transition and rear transition as well

as historic adjacency guidelines related to building massing facade treatment

general building elements and ground floor design

The next few slides are the applicable design standards, which are outlined in your packet,

which includes the standard as well as staff analysis of that standard.

This is width transition.

This one was height transition, career transition.

This is the applicability.

Let's see.

So per the, so the action at the HLC tonight

is according to the zoning code to gather your comments

to be included in a development permit staff report

to be presented to the relevant hearing body.

So that's the end of staff report.

We have the applicant here to make a presentation

on the project as well.

Let me know when you're ready, Hunter, and I'll do that up.

OK.

um

perfect okay hey everybody i'm hunter uh with west

bank um joined by ernie yamane from steinberg hart um quick opening remarks and introduction but uh

i'll pass it over to ernie to to really dive in the design i'm excited to bring this project to

downtown um some much needed density on a very prominent corner um and looking forward to hearing

you guys's feedback on uh on the historic adjacent commissioners and staff thank you for um having us

today. I know it's a last minute agenda item.

We can go to the next slide, actually.

It'd be fine. In the larger picture,

I think that this project also

will be one of the first

net zero projects, I think, residentially in the city.

The energy heat from the data centers will essentially be

reused. And then in a larger picture,

a future utility infrastructure will be built to support all residential development downtown.

So the layout is, as Dana described, three residential towers and the data center.

The data center is on the corner of 2nd Street and San Salvador.

We have two buildings that relate to the streets on 2nd and San Carlos.

And then you can see the floor plan of what's the circular tower you'll see is actually rectilinear at the lower levels to kind of relate to the rectilinear nature of the existing building there.

There's kind of a unique diagonal access from 2nd Street, a block of the Alquis development.

will eventually also be housing.

So this will provide access to a public space

that will kind of anchor and feature, I think,

the SOFA district and, in particular,

kind of bring you to the theater,

the California theater room.

Next.

So as Dana mentioned, this is kind of our site.

so we have existing historic buildings in that notch.

You see the valley title currently on the corner of San Carlos and 1st Street,

and across the street we have historic buildings that house original Joe's

and the California Theater and many others.

Next.

So this is just more data, I think, which Dana has generally covered,

but if you have any questions, let me know.

we have roughly 300 spaces down below, plus support for the building.

Next.

So this kind of gives you a better picture of the uses of the total block,

including the existing buildings in the lower right corner.

And the California Theater is almost across the street from these openings.

And so the idea is to kind of create a major urban space that can really be

an activated space along first street, bring people activities to this block, can be places for

art and places for customers of the existing retail to, you know, sit down and eat or,

you know, just relax, I think, in this urban environment. We also have kind of a fitness

center in that purple that you see here. So some of that activity will kind of bleed out into the

open space as well as part of the activity. The pink that you see is actually the retail space.

And so you can see we've got a lot of retail space kind of wringing those edges to really

create that activation not only of the space itself, but to interface with the activities

in that space, provide places for eating, additional seating, and so forth.

The kind of lighter purple along the street sides are activated by the lobbies

and the amenity spaces of the resident project.

So this is just kind of a typical level.

well we pull this level because the third level which has also some terracing above the retail

so you kind of get this layered effect of activities also some of it being residential

amenity space but overlooking into the courtyard and stepping back you know in that space from

the ground plan next

and this is kind of the typical floors so we have 30 floors in total but these would be the

typical intermediate floors and then next would be the amenities on the roof so we have

pools meeting spaces barbecue areas and so forth that are planned primarily for the residents

in these areas.

So this kind of gives you a perspective of the building

in relation to the context a little bit,

and then we'll get some more ground-level views

to talk about how we're relating to the First Street

in particular historic character.

Next.

So here you can kind of see a view from the south of First Street

near the intersection of San Salvador, the existing theater there.

And you can kind of see the existing retail extending to the north

and how our buildings, I think, have a break there to kind of relate.

In some cases, it's positive.

In some cases, like the Round Tower pulling back a little bit to make that statement.

Next, I think we'll give you a better elevation kind of detail of that.

So this is that lower plane that's roughly 26 feet and 28 feet between the two buildings that relates to the scale of those other buildings on the block.

Oh, I probably should point out the material on top a little bit.

Sorry.

So probably the two most relevant materials

to the existing buildings would be the stone veneer,

which is largely on the columns that you see there,

and then a wood-like material that is kind of the brownish.

We can work with staff on the rhythms and so forth,

their satisfaction as we go through the approval process.

Thanks.

So this is kind of just a diagrammatic.

So the existing scale is there, and you kind of see that dashed line,

which relates to that break that I was talking about in our building design

to create that relationship.

We kind of step, there's green balconies that you saw.

Those step back up at the corner a little bit,

probably creates a little bit more of a relationship to that taller element

on the corner of the theater at the other end of the building.

Next.

And this is kind of a view of the project

kind of from across the street where the federal building is.

But you can see how that break, again,

kind of relates to the existing buildings across the street

with original Joes and so forth.

And kind of anchors kind of a new gateway, I think,

to you know the sofa district

these are just some street views um this is actually the reconstructed bowtown i think that

we had proposed in the earlier approvals um that's not built yet but that's the plan we've um

laser scanned that to kind of replicate the original building um even though the existing

one was kind of in very bad shape at the time. And this is the corner entrance to the data center.

So you can see that there's the facade treatments with the green, but there's also the glass

has relationship again to a smaller scale, three scale. Next. Oops.

which is fine which is fine i think the rest we're rendering

do you want me to just go through you can flip through them really quick

these are just different views from across

and kind of the plaza looking down from that upper terrace also the idea of the open space is

an orchard also.

So kind of the planting of a pattern of trees.

This rendering doesn't quite do it,

but there's more trees.

But the idea of the orchard concept

kind of carried through the plaza.

You can see the theater a little bit through this.

So you kind of see the theater through that passageway, right?

So kind of featured.

And again, these were just the overall.

Thank you.

Yes.

I don't have any cards up here, but is there anybody that want to make.

We'll open up for public comment.

Oh, gee, Mike.

Thank you.

It's the city council one.

Okay.

Too many public hearings.

Yeah, we just started looking at this, of course,

And so I expect there'll be an ongoing dialogue.

We met with Andrew Jacobson and Gary back on the first project, which I think you're referring to as option A.

And at the time, we had a discussion about the historic building and the integrity of the second floor.

It was in question. There was a cladding that's on top of it.

And I just want to remind the commission that PAC and the city and West Bank got together and we basically agreed they're going to peel that back.

There's no commitment necessarily to integrate it into the project, but there was a general agreement, a general ladies agreement, that they would see if there was a way to integrate that.

and potentially not on that wall, you know, the street wall on San Carlos,

but perhaps, you know, in the walkway area so that, you know,

if the integrity was there that we think is there,

that that somehow would be saved and integrated into the project

in some sort of meaningful way.

The thing that we always, you know, comment on, you know,

as PAC is massing relative to, you know, and the design guidelines,

I think are pretty clear as to what, you know, is preferred. And, you know, it's always hard when

you get a project that has, you know, very high density requirements, you know, in terms of the

project objectives, you know, to get a setback that's enough, right? You know, we originally

said when we met on the option A agreement, get it as close to second street as possible, right?

and protect First Street as much as possible.

So I expect this will be an ongoing dialogue,

but there is a dialogue that's going on,

and so we feel that's healthy.

Thanks, Mike.

Our opportunity to respond, yeah?

Yeah.

Okay, great.

Yeah, just like Mike said,

we met with him, or Andrew and Gary did, rather,

at the first iteration of the project,

kind of outlined a procedure of demolition of the existing facade in kind of a surgical manner where

we would kind of carefully remove pieces of it to see really what's behind there and see what is

salvageable. It's hard to say that now before starting that process, but yeah, we still fully

intend to honor that process, give PACSJ notice prior to demolition and follow all those steps

to make sure that if there is really some historical integrity

that remains behind the facade that was clad on top of it,

that we salvage that and then do our best to either restore it

or incorporate it in the new project.

It really remains to be seen what's behind there

before we know what opportunities lie there.

Great. Thank you.

Is there any other public comment?

okay we'll close public comment and go to commissioner comments and questions looks

like you have some i'm going to be last okay does anybody else have any comments or questions

i do have one question is there a reason your microphone that the inroad into i guess the

facility is the pedestrian is on more on the second street side than the first street side

yeah i'm just curious why kind of are you looking at kind of people

walking more in the direction towards california theater or you're talking about like the porosity

of the site and just the way that the billions buildings are oriented i guess um yeah it's it's

really to open up the site to first street and to bring people into that open plaza and into the

Sofa District, I think is, and Ernie may be able to say that more eloquently than I can,

but that's generally the intent is to really connect Sofa to the rest of downtown.

I mean, the main opening is really to First Street, right, to activate that.

There's kind of that corner, I think, of Second and San Carlos.

I think being a corner access, you know, kind of pulls people in, you know, from that corner rather than being a mid block, because there's almost a wall of building across the street, right, that doesn't have any connection.

And there's future housing plan for the Alquist site.

San Jose State, I think, has the land to do student workforce, excuse me, workforce and graduate student housing there.

so my thought is that it preserves the option of having that connectivity between our project

that project and then connecting to sofa and interestingly if they carry the diagonal across

it will hit the paseo right at third so you can actually just a block from san zee stage

just come right directly to SOFA.

I don't know if that will ever happen.

Any other comments or questions?

Yeah, is there any kind of more on the layout

on First Street side?

Because you have California Theater

and all these places to go to.

West side, I guess, of First Street.

Are there any plans on what type of businesses

are going to be on the first street side of the buildings i guess the north and the south tower

probably too early to tell right now but we have the ability to open it both ways is the nice part

so we can orient it towards the courtyard or we can open it towards the street orient it

towards the street as as businesses would desire particularly at that location right

But yeah, I would just be happy to see a lot more people in that area, especially going to California Theater once in a while.

It just seems kind of odd because it just seems kind of in the middle of nowhere, to be frank.

Yeah, kind of create a place.

I think, too, a lot of the small food establishments that could benefit from people buying there and being able to walk a few steps and sit in a nice orchard environment.

Anything else, Commissioner Bainawatt?

That's all.

Commissioner Arnold, do you have any?

Commissioner Camuso?

You mentioned, Hunter, something about salvaging parts of the corner office building.

So when you say salvaging, you don't know what's underneath the current facade.

Do you have any idea what was there before the current refacing?

From the Hale building?

Hale, yeah.

Yeah, we're aware of what the previous building was.

We're just not aware of the condition.

You just don't know what sort of damage is there.

Yeah, exactly.

And what would you plan on doing with the original facade

if there were parts that were salvable or salvageable?

It's hard to say.

I mean, we would really have to see how much, how big those sections are,

what parts are salvageable and notable and we could do something interesting with.

I think what's nice about this large public plaza

is that it offers a lot of opportunity to do something interesting

if it is salvaging and then implementing it somewhere in the project.

I see.

Yeah, so it's kind of hard to tell before we start pulling it apart.

Okay, all right.

And then this data center, tell us a little bit more about that.

Specifically?

Well, it's a data storage building?

Correct, yeah, yeah.

And so we don't have a tenant identified for that,

But basically, we have power committed from PG&E to serve the project for a 49 megawatt data center.

And like Ernie kind of mentioned at the beginning, and I should have touched on,

yeah, we're trying to bring data centers into downtown and kind of bring San Jose into the future of this relationship that we have with technology

and kind of release some of the stigmas of what a data center is

and how negative that is to the environment in terms of pollution

and wasting energy and all of those things

and do it in a way that can, like I said, be beneficial to the downtown,

beneficial to the community by harnessing the waste heat from the data center,

from cooling the racks within the data center

and then repurposing that to serve the residential buildings

and surrounding businesses, which basically you're effectively using the same electron twice.

And yeah, it provides for a more sustainable infrastructure for downtown and kind of it's

a step forward into the reality that we're ultimately facing with our closeness to technology

and AI.

Do you have any other elevations of that building?

I think...

even though it's not the focal point of what we're talking about here it's kind of on the back side of

this whole development so that's that's that's the side facing west side and then there was a street

okay there may be some farther back ain't it behind yeah yeah there's the one from second

and the one from first so the two uh farther back i think they were i just put them in there for

in case there's a question it's kind of a nondescript building then yeah i mean it's

I think they're trying to green it, though, relative to, you see the pattern of the balcony and the greenery that we have kind of started as a president.

Yeah, we're trying to tie it into the design language of the two buildings through that greenery.

And then additionally, like we've kind of placed the programming of all of the administrative offices that are going to be along that facade on First Street.

Or Second Street, excuse me.

just to give the building some life, some activation,

so that all the people who are coming and going

and working behind the glass, like, you know,

adds to a little bit of the vibrancy

rather than just being, you know, a big glass building

that's kind of dead space, so.

Okay.

Thank you.

Through the chair, if I could also provide some context

on the data center.

So typically a data center is not an allowed use in downtown.

It's considered an industrial use.

However, the city council has an innovative project pathways program where a project significantly provides benefits in terms of energy efficiencies or revenues or other public benefits.

Then the council can consider whether that use could be processed and allowed.

So this project, because of the innovation that West Bank mentioned with harnessing the energy and repurposing that for the scale and density of the project, it is being processed.

Ultimately, it would need council approval to move forward.

but just wanted to clarify that data centers are typically not allowed in downtown because

they do not you know have any residential use or any commercial use or jobs or housing associated

with them thank you anything else commissioner camuso no that's it thank you commissioner kogori

do you have any thoughts questions comments yeah i have a couple thank you um thank you for the

presentation everything looks like super beautiful it looks like looks great um so i'm gonna jump on

your data center like question do you know how much money that's gonna cost and it's gonna raise

like all the other residents with any of this how much money it's gonna cost to build it or what

what do you mean no for like residents because generally every data center that's been built

residents money or like the pgne bills for all the residents has gone up in all these areas

so how's it going to affect the like our area so yeah the or have you even done the calculations

yeah we we know how much energy it's going to use of course um and there should be no impact on on

the grid like there's there's a new substitution that's being built out to deliver power to

downtown so that that power is directly serving the project it doesn't impact the demand of the

rest of the downtown if anything it should have a positive impact really because so our bills are

going to go down uh potentially i'm not gonna i'm not making any promises that's all that's

on public comment right there okay i'm making any promises but that's i mean uh ideally yes you're

by doing this type of project and this harnessing the waste heat you're having less demand on the

grid right so you're pulling less power you're making more efficient use of that power but the

power itself is already dedicated to the project so that incremental demand does not impact i think

there still needs to be a lot more studies done on this from like your point of view because like

you're making it sound great but i don't think it's all right and i think there you like need

to present a little bit more about how much the data centers the energy and how much money it's

going to affect like the city of san jose or like our you know our citizens second part uh original

like we're we're the historic landmarks commission but you're bringing up the california theater

that's big but that's like that's structurally but i'm also thinking about like culturally what's

here so original joe's that's been around for years do you know the the two businesses next

door to the original joe's the coffee shop do you know what coffee shop it is talk about nirvana

so thank you yeah and then do you know the other spot next to it um blanking yeah jackie's place

so both of those are in it are you know we don't have like two black owned like spots

and we want to try to promote like this community what you're presenting here it looks like all the

rent is just going to get raised like everywhere around it so how are you going to protect

like these two spots that i've seen grown over the last few years how are you going to protect them

um i'm not sure exactly how to respond to that and in terms of protecting those businesses

i'm not as familiar with jackie's place but i buy my toffee at nirvana so we actually used to

have our office we just moved out in the valley title building so right next door have a great

relationship with the owners at nirvana soul um and we we like to celebrate those businesses and

all of the local businesses in sofa and so whether it's bringing new space like bringing them into

our spaces within this courtyard or we're we're open to working with all the neighbors and trying

to whether it's through art or um using our open spaces like we're looking for opportunities to to

add to this neighborhood and not push people out um but i don't know if that really directly

answers your question i i would just add you know look at the housing that's being built right across

the street um that's been so i've been practicing here for 48 years and we keep being on the

threshold i think of good things this is certainly another one of those but one of the problems we've

had is the density of housing in the downtown right in terms of thousands of people never quite

happened um so we have a you know 1200 units which could be easily a couple thousand people

right across the street from these businesses and i think that's the biggest factor for retail

is getting the people and the traffic the activity to happen and that's what we're starving from right

now right currently okay thank you uh one last thing so like with your core heart right now

sanz is dealing a lot with like the homelessness issue it looks beautiful it looks open are you

going to potentially put up gates to keep people out or are you going to do anything about that

no i think the space will be it's going to be open to the public it's going to be

active it's going to be well lit like i don't think that it's going to be a place that's going

to attract homelessness i think the inherently the density and the activity within this this

area that's planned um kind of drives that that away right uh i mean i don't know if you're i'm

going to agree with you right because i run through it i run through this area every other day and i

run around san jose every day so i'm just trying to get some answers from you just to see like where

your guys where you two are coming from so thank you thank you commissioner all right

all right uh i have a few questions and probably come to some comments one you're going three feet

high can they do that with the airport 300 feet high so yeah it's we're we're limited by the um

airport i didn't know it was that high i mean i'm assuming you you do the plan you did your research

but that's that's going to be the tallest building isn't it downtown yeah okay um how many parking

spots are you going to have for 1100 residential units 292 yeah 297 i heard 300 somewhere yeah

was on the it was on the chart it's in the 290 right okay so you're gonna have 209 and how many

people did you say was probably going to live there hunter what is a 1 167 units planned

right and how many people do you think are going to live there because you got

got i assume it's a mix of studio one bedrooms yeah the the unit mixes on the building so i i

guess i couldn't let's say 2 000 sure so for 2 000 people you're going to have 300 parking spots

that should work out really well have you guys really just for clarification you know that we

don't have any parking requirements in the city i i realize that but you know and and uh the other

side that I'm going to jump to my last is that right now the market rate properties in downtown

well let's see the Fay building is now going to probably going to go into foreclosure that was

just finished eight months ago I mean you look at all these buildings downtown the big vacancy

rates are insane why should this project work where the others don't I mean certainly not

with no parking spots, basically no parking spots.

Because you're saying 300 parking spots,

sorry, I'm going backwards,

but what about parking for retail?

What about parking for staff?

What about parking for visitors,

aside from just the people that live there?

So basically, there isn't any.

So why should this project work with no parking

when we have projects that were built with parking

that are financially unfeasible?

i can't speak to the fae um and and the success of that project but um to dana's point we're

there is no parking requirements right we're trying to make the city more walkable more

bikeable um so with the reduction in parking we comply with all the ttm measures right that

that you need to comply with which is building out the pedestrian networks um to make the city

more like i said more green and more walkable okay so so there really is no answer but it's

your money not mine so that's fine um well there's also um part of the reason i believe that council

entertained that was to support housing development because of the economics of the garages

so the garage the parking space is underground if you add up the structural costs mechanical

ventilation and all the other things that you need vertical circulation elevators and everything else

right it's about 60 000 plus about 200 000 how much 200 000 i don't know where you got your

numbers from but either way it doesn't matter you don't have the parking that's no no no but i i you

asked the question about that right the last number i heard which is a little dated is about 60 000

that's what it costs us for the fourth street garage but but it doesn't matter it's insignificant

and so I'd like to move on.

Okay, so the podium, you showed a podium,

and you said there's five-foot setbacks,

and then the podium is 70 feet high.

Is that correct?

On one of the very first slides.

28 feet is what I said.

26.

And I was looking quick,

but I thought it said 70 feet for the podium.

What are you looking at?

One of the very first slides that you showed.

so the break i believe on the round tower 26 feet and i believe the brown break on no it was a

hour is 28. they had the podium on

no it was way before that that's their slide but it was your

and it was your presentation not their presentation oh yeah i'm sorry sure so you can find it um

so well dana's looking for that um so the data center is going to be on the corner of second

and san salvador right and that is going to be one one wall going down san salvador street

correct

you're walking down

the data center is right on the corner

so as you're a pedestrian

walking down San Salvador

Street you're going to have a

wall

correct

glass at the pedestrian

if he saw the

angle

but there's no retail it's a wall

correct there's no retail

then right next to it

is the studio, the side of the studio building,

which is also a wall.

That is plain.

Right?

That is a terrible experience for a pedestrian to walk by.

I mean, and this city usually doesn't allow it.

That's really, really bad.

You know, you keep talking about SOFA.

SOFA, what's the SOFA district?

Do you know what the boundaries are?

I can tell you the exact boundaries.

Okay, I can tell you.

Sofa is not first street.

Sofa is market, I'm sorry, first, yeah, market to fourth,

re to San Carlos.

So what you should be looking at is the flow of pedestrians

going from San Salvador into Sofa.

Now, I worked with Gary, right, when neighbor was going to do their three high rises.

And we looked at the Bowtown, right?

So I worked with, not with Gary directly, but with the architects.

With West Bank.

And we looked at the flow from San Salvador all the way into Sofa, because you've got businesses there, residents there.

and there's supposed to be about five high rises

before we get to your project,

before we even get to Second Street, right?

You're putting a solid wall going down Second Street, right?

And that is totally unacceptable, right?

Plus, across the street, you're going to have Bowtown site,

which possibly is going to be more residential

if we live that long, right?

and they're going to be looking out on San Salvador to a wall.

That's awful.

That's really, really bad design and really, really bad city planning.

Because what you're basically doing is you're saying,

to hell with the rest of SOFA.

We only care about First Street.

Because through your entire presentation,

all you talked about was First Street and the Alquist building,

which is on the other side of San Carlos.

You didn't talk about anything on the, right,

the Notre Dame High School, all the businesses there,

the residents that are already there.

No talk about that.

The other thing that I would like to see some mention of, okay,

is how many historic properties are on the other side of 2nd Street.

There's a lot.

I mean, you will be shocked.

I can't remember the exact numbers.

It's changed by different projects, but there's like 100, okay,

between landmarks.

Just on 3rd Street, there's, I think, eight landmarks,

designated landmarks, aside from structures of merit,

contributing structures, right?

So you're basically putting a wall on 2nd Street, right,

shutting all that off.

Just to clarify, just with the image, there aren't any properties listed on the inventory.

They're across the street on 2nd Street.

Not across the street, but on, right, not across the street, but San Salvador, if you go to 3rd to 4th, right, that whole surrounding area.

Because when we did the Mark building, it came up on 4th and Reed.

I was shocked at how many were there.

Okay.

All right.

So what does the frontage look like on 2nd Street?

I think we've got a rendering that we could show as part of the presentation.

Yeah.

Sorry, we're going to drive Dana crazy.

I'm just sharing one particular thing.

I should just have them both up.

Look, people that walk down the street, the only thing that's important to them is 14 feet up.

That's what they see.

They don't see, they're not looking 20 stories up unless you go to New York as a church.

Okay?

14 feet up.

What are you going to see on the second street side of this project 14 feet up?

You're going to see the administrative offices of the data center.

So that's...

So it's a wall.

it's a it's a it's a facade with a vertical planting and then you have the glass that's

peeling back along second street it's a blank wall there's no retail right there's nothing there

right and that wall backs up to the uh the graduate which is a residential high ride

right so you're basically walling off all the residential that's going to be around that

it only goes part of the way

so that

the residential actually

has retail

at the corner where the opening is

right just on the corner

retail and lobby

and then there's some service

right okay so you're

basically walling everything off

right you want to

comment

right I mean this is what I'm

seeing I don't know I can't even imagine

I don't know where it is in the planning side, but I don't know why planning isn't looking at any of this because this is basic stuff as far as I'm concerned.

If I may, too, the comments from the commission are specifically supposed to be on the design standards that were outlined in the report.

We have commented on where we think they do and don't meet the standards.

So in terms of information to transmit to the decision-making bodies,

that's really the best information to focus on.

Okay, great. Thank you.

What's the deal with the trees and the greenery on the building?

The concept of the project is an orchard,

and it's anon to the Santa Clara Valley.

The orchard is in the plaza area, right?

Also.

You're putting trees there, which is great.

That's a positive.

but on the building you show you show trees on balconies you show greenery coming down

are you putting trees on the balconies yes all the trees are going to have balconies

and then what's the green stuff that's hanging on the side of the building

just planting greenery there's different different types of planting so some

The major elements are the trees and smaller scale elements that are the same.

So you're going to have planters connected to the outside of the building?

Correct.

They have to be maintained.

And you're going to maintain those from the outside?

Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Okay.

Well, we actually went through that process on the Bowtown project.

So we figured out the maintenance devices, building systems to allow it.

And we've worked with city staff, arborists, on planting materials, along with commitment.

Okay.

I've just never seen that before.

So, okay, great.

All right.

The Opal Plaza and it's a sofa we talked about, the aquas we talked about.

What size are the retail spaces going to be?

Are you doing small square footage for mom and pops?

or are you going to have grocery store or well it's it's trying to be as flexible as we can there

are some smaller retail spaces particularly in the corner areas those are probably smaller

but there is a large area that could be divided up on many different ways although i doubt that

grocery store mall you know kind of thing would probably be it's totally up to the leasing

Right. Okay. Just as a suggestion, there are square foot guidelines as far as what works best for small retail. And that's something that the Office of Economic Development would have, because we've dealt with that with other projects where they had just ridiculously small.

that were not feasible, not usable at all.

So how are you going to,

so this was the Valley Title Company,

the Valley Title Building was originally the Hill property?

Hill's Department Store.

It was Hill's Department Store.

How are you going to recognize the fact

that Hill's Department Store was there?

So that's kind of what we were talking about earlier

with PACSJ, and that's through the demolition

of the existing valley title building seeing what's behind it and what well we know what's

behind it but what can be recovered from what's behind it and then it from there it really

identifies what opportunities there will be to incorporate those elements into the project at

the ground floor okay well well i appreciate that but that's an unknown normally if a uh if a building

of significance is taken down or whatever there's something to designate the fact that it was there

It could be like on the Donner Mansion.

There are requirements to document the building.

Well, just as a point of clarification, the building is significant because of its history,

but it's not eligible and it doesn't meet the criteria because it's been so altered

by the 1970s transformation into Valley Title that it no longer looks like Hale's Art Deco

Department Store.

so it's not there's no mitigation requirements for that because it's not considered a historical

resource i realize that but like when they with the donner mansion when they built the donner

lofts there on the side there's a historic but i think that was required because that was a

historic resource but this is not a historic resource so hells is not considered a resource

what hunter was talking about is something that was offered yeah i can't remember whether there

conditions of approval no for yeah because it's just not required because

it's not a historical resource so there's no mitigation measure that's the

standard mitigation measures that we normally have because it's not a

resource got it okay and Valley title isn't considered it I mean they were

there forever but that's not considered a resource either okay we're almost there

Okay. I'm just, your whole, the data center does not belong downtown, and it is an industrial use. There's a reason for that.

You know, but here we go with the new ordinance that was just passed yesterday, that because there's a public benefit, they can bypass anything that we say and our feelings, right?

And they can put up an industrial building in the middle of downtown in a prime location.

just throwing that out there for point of reference for my fellow commissioners um

and and and on that subject i'm almost there is to tell me that the benefit of the data center

being there is because it's going to generate heat to heat the the apartments um i don't know

man i've been in san jose for 40 years and heat really has never been a major issue

if you told me it was going to help air condition them that may be something to think about but i

think the heat thing is is sort of ridiculous um uh what else um

um just as the last comment as an aside when you talked about and i had the same

question is how are we going to power this thing is i do understand that pg&e

has something going on where they're going to be building another generation plant or something

like that and the city has been working for several years on looking at doing their own

generation and i think now there's a combination project between pg&e and the city i think the

city was looking at starting their own municipal utility and moving away from pg&e but right now i

think and you just may want to look into that i think that they're joining forces is what i've

heard but that's not reliable so um thank you that's all i have i think in general that it's

a it's ridiculous putting the data center there i think just so it's terrible for the historic

value of the sofa district

I have just a couple of comments and questions too. Did you study any more views? There weren't

any views really of the historic buildings. I saw the one where you can see original Joes

and then one where you can sort of catch a glimpse of the California theater, but it's

sort of bird's eye and it looks very dwarf. Do you have any views from the plaza looking at the

historic resources themselves or some more views that show the connection between the new buildings

and the existing historic resources there probably are in the originals so there's like two qualities

of renderings if you notice a little bit so we had kind of in-house level that we did with the

original commission and the investment commission the photorealistic version that we partially so

um yeah in the original packet most of them were most of the renderings were focused on the data

i mean we we could provide those i think that would be helpful as that is what we are supposed

to be looking at as the relationship between the historic buildings and new buildings it's all in

model yeah yeah if you could find out more views that would be great um and then just i i do notice

that you have the the d mark line sort of at the trying to pull across a cornice to differentiate

where the storefront height changes and it's in alignment generally with the historic resources

and i noticed that there is not a step back which is one of the design standards is there a reason

for that i mean you have a lot of space obviously on the site where you could have set step yeah it

wasn't showing that way but we can do that we're actually set back five feet but there's also a step

back yeah and so we can actually pull into that five feet with the colonnade and create a step if

you will if that's now the only exception would be the round tower because that's kind of uh

uh step out it's a step in i guess it will um and part of that is they create the rectilinear

guideline environment plate in your head um but we have this kind of circular element

so but along the rest of the facade we have five feet from the property line at a center

i think it'd be worth exploring just to to give it a little bit more give the historic buildings

a little bit more deference which is what the standards are supposed to do um and then in the

same vein is there any ground floor articulation it looks like it's just a flat wall at the ground

floor and i understand it's you're trying to maintain flexibility and you don't have the

probably hard to see but there are some steps ins and outs if you will we tried to create to

relate to some of the rhythms um again we could work with staff with however they would like we

can also play with the rhythm of wood like elements as well it's helpful pardon me to

remove the vegetation as well so that we can actually see the architecture rather than all

vegetation and yeah I think that was those were my only comments and

questions I don't believe we have to take a motion these are just comments

right okay so thank you and we look forward to some follow-up discussion with

staff and continued conversation with PACSJ absolutely thank you one other

question is your firm associated with the repurposing of the Bank of Italy

building yes mm-hmm and so what's happening there it seems like you're

doing a great job on that we I think we have a brown a groundbreaking project or

excuse me party coming up in a few weeks I apologize I don't work on that

project directly we just pulled our scaffolding permit those what I'm

hearing um so that should be underway within the next couple weeks great that's that's great to

hear i hope that uh hope you follow through on that yeah groundbreaking you've been working on

that project for something like eight years yeah yeah groundbreaking is in air quotes but um it

starting in earnest and construction really we got our elevators constructed and um you know

financing in place and are ready to start building so i i know this is off topic i'm sorry but what

have you been doing for eight years working yeah i think it's all that offline thank you very much

okay item number five is general business and there are no items

item number six referrals from city council boards commissions or other agencies again no items

uh no i'm just going to make a report under good and law okay yeah i just saw you getting ready

yeah i got confused about where we were item number seven is open forum members of the public

are invited to speak on any item that does not appear on today's agenda and that is within the

subject matter jurisdiction of the commission the commission cannot engage in any substantive

discussion or take any formal action in response to public comment the commission can only ask

questions or respond to statements to the extent necessary to determine whether to one refer the

matter to staff or follow up to request staff to report back on a matter at a subsequent meeting

or three direct staff to place the item on a future agenda each member of the public may

fill out a spears card and has up to two minutes to address the commission

i don't think we got any cards but mike's waving one

you guys don't have to sit there if you don't

so we have mike sada grin um i like that you're just mike on your speaker card

yeah no i just wanted to comment i i think most of you know by now that city council considered

yesterday um significant updates to the historic preservation ordinance um a lot of the work that

you guys poured into um suggestions was not taken you know uh up in terms of the formal resolution

but i just want to offer of a voice of of um encouragement right you know i think uh those

of us that work really hard to preserve um our historic assets you know we could take it

personally but i don't think we should because um i went up and i spoke to the council members

afterwards to the one they understood that what we were saying what you were saying about the

importance of preserving our historic assets i think we get into a weird spot when there's

litigation and people tend to try to over correct you know i spoke personally to the city attorney

about it and he would have preferred that we not have had to amend it the way that that the

council concluded that it needed to be amended um and i think it was said on multiple occasions

even by daniel you know that um you know do we not trust our our elected leaders to um you know

do the right thing and so it's that point i want to make right at the end of the day if you look

across the political spectrum no ordinance saves a building we saw the east wing of the white house

torn down. There was plenty of ordinance. There was a commission that was supposed to be,

you know, conferred about that. At the end of the day, the ultimate power resides with people.

And, you know, it's a belabored process to try to elect people that will represent the interests

of the people. But I do think that we have an honorable council. And I do think that we can

work with them. And I think our job is to motivate the people to speak up. There were not enough

people speaking up about you know preservation so that's my comment thanks mike any other items for

open forum okay seeing none we'll move on to item eight bid and welfare a is report from secretary

planning commission and city council number one is to accept updates on code enforcement

and historic resources i'm just going to back up to more general in terms of report from city council

i just want to piggyback on what mike said that the amendments to the historic preservation

ordinance were approved by city council yesterday which was the original language that was presented

to this commission and as mike said you know a lot of the concerns i think that were the city

council had were really about um uh protracted legal battles and just the um you know adding

words and and having something more to have to defend um in court so um so that's where that

ended up um those um amendments will go into effect in 30 days but um because that was such

huge issue um it got overshadowed with the it overshadowed the fact that um they also approved

the eichler design standards which are such a great document um that kind of got minimized

because we had this huge um project going on so those will also be in effect in 30 days and that's

a wonderful document we have a lot of work going on in that in the fair fair glenn district um i

And I think it will really be helpful for people to be able to look at specific standards

when they are designing their project.

In fact, I had somebody ask me today about Windows, so I could point directly to that

and show her where to go.

Then let's see.

The other thing I just wanted to make the Commission aware of is there has been a memo

by several council members and the mayor to the Rules Committee about historic preservation

reform, most of it having to do with kind of streamlining and that kind of thing.

Japantown was mentioned.

So we're going to be working on those things.

It will be looked at.

Some of the things that were requested, our staff, well, it is all staff resources, so

there will be kind of a prioritization project process

as part of the consideration of the budget

for the 2026, 2027 budget.

And we'll see how that goes.

A lot of what was presented,

the planning staff prepared a workload analysis

which also outlines all the work that we're already doing

as part of our work program for the year.

so a lot of that includes streamlining uh in addition but um most of the work in terms of

streamlining the inventory um requires a budget request so we'll we'll continue to report back on

any developments on that um so that's all i have for city council can i ask a quick question yes

will any of that proposed language come before us or is it administrative at this point it's just

in like the work planning phase or if it's going to create more changes to how code is interpreted

will it come before hlc for input there there wasn't a whole lot in terms of i don't think

it's going to involve ordinance changes there was some um discussion well not discussion but in in

in the memo about trying to allow more modern changes,

materials, things like windows.

We provided a response to that about how things like windows

are character defining features,

but there also is flexibility on the rear

and side elevations where that's not as a prominent feature.

So we'll see where all those things go,

But I think in terms of our work program and the inventory, that's kind of where we're focusing at the moment.

Did you have anything to add, Manira?

No, I think what Dana said is accurate.

At this point, it's still in the pre-planning phase.

What would be the ask?

What would be the resources that are dedicated to this?

I think staff wanted to focus more on the historic resources inventory and some survey work.

So I think if that moves forward, then that would come before the HLC, is my understanding,

to designate any resources.

But at this point, we did not include any analysis

of further code changes.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

Sorry, Larry.

I might have missed this.

What is streamlining the inventory?

Well, specifically what staff discussed

in the workload analysis is there are several categories

in the inventory that according to our general plan are considered structures of lesser significance

but they can potentially be seen as more unpredictable classifications and the two

classifications are identified structures and these standalone contributing structures.

So these are contributing structures that are not part of a district or a conservation area.

it's something that was done probably since the early origin of the inventory itself and they're

just they're just standalone that sort of contribute to the fabric you know of the city

but they're they're they're not structures of merit they don't meet the criteria for any other

so that would mean removing them from the inventory no it would be the survey work would

be evaluating those to see whether they meet any other classifications and potentially

removing so we you know this would all be based on a historic resource consultant determination

well you know will become so that we know those contributing structures that have been

streamline yes everything will be coming to the commission this is just a conceptual and

discussion at this point of one way that it could be done but certainly no decisions have been made

and this will all be part of the budget process and the council members and and the mayor who have

signed on to this memo will will need to discuss it further as well so sorry so you're going for

more money in the budget and we keep relying on the historic resources inventory which franklin did

way back when i think was 35 a door and it was a drive-by so it's almost like we're getting our

information from the historic resources inventory but the resources historic resources inventory

was done off the cuff.

I mean, it's not accurate.

But we're using that as the Bible,

and I don't understand how we can do that.

There are properties on that inventory

that are underrated.

There are properties on that inventory that...

I have a property that wasn't even on the inventory,

and it qualified for landmarking 10 times over.

So the inventory isn't right.

It's like we're using bad information to make good decisions.

I think that's the point.

The point is to document and evaluate them and see whether they should be a higher classification

or a different classification or no classification or potentially they've been altered in the

meantime.

We just don't know.

You say a lot of surveying was done 20 years ago.

So the money you're asking for is to fine-tune the existing resources inventory?

Yes, to reclassify where necessary.

So like you say, it could be higher.

It's not just to get rid of things, but to make things clearer for people when they're moving forward.

And then the other proposal is to reevaluate and confirm or not eligible properties for city landmarking and then to have the council to go forward and landmark those to, again, provide a clear path.

because there's a clearer path probably for landmarks where you have, you know, historic preservation permit applications,

whereas other properties it gets a little confusing because sometimes it's folded into other planning processes

like permit adjustments, site development permits, those kinds of things.

So it just will help sort of streamline, and by streamlining we don't mean get rid of any review,

but streamline the path so that it's clearer for people you know where what the path is okay thank

you okay so the code enforcement updates this is some response to Commissioner Cohen's

questions or discussion last month there were some questions about a particular property that the

windows were being removed and what do we do because it's happening in real time.

There was also some questions about vacant properties like First Christ Scientist Church.

I don't have any specifics about what's going on with certain properties, but I just wanted

to provide you some information.

I spoke with the Deputy Director for Code Enforcement and she gave me a lot of information,

some of which I didn't know.

So just in a couple, three buckets or so.

So on reporting violations, I didn't realize you could actually call.

So there's a phone number, 408-535-7770 that you can call.

Right?

408-535-7770.

So there's actually, I didn't realize there's customer service staff available.

and they can take your report or you can do it online.

If something's happening more in real time,

you can call or email me

and I can interface with the deputy director.

Now she said, try not to make this routine

because that's a big ask.

But if something is really urgent,

you know don't hesitate to contact me and we can see if there's anything that

we can do that's a little bit more immediate. So if they're pulling the

windows out of 401 South 13th Street and then they're in process and we know

that the permit says you can't do it and we know this with several this

happened with several properties then we contact you and you would contact code

enforcement. I can message her and see if there's anybody in the area or if there's anybody that

they can send out. That would be great. On a quicker basis. Rather than people calling in and

they like, well, in two weeks we'll look at it. Well, let me finish this section and that will

also maybe help. So you can also email. There's an email address. If anybody wants it, I can give

it to you. And then there's also the online, which is called a request service and status check.

So what I learned out, what I learned is that when you fill out that form, if anybody's done it online, is that the wording is really important.

So what she told me is to use words like, and there's no pull down menu to say it's urgent or anything like that.

So it's really important to use words like in progress and be specific about it's happening now or whatever,

because what they do is they triage them.

So you were talking about priorities the last time.

So they don't know, you know, necessarily how to handle it.

They may think, oh, you know, when does it have been taken out?

Well, we can, if it's already been done, we can go and get that permitted later.

and you know so that was what she told me is um the wording is super important and make sure that

you say exactly what the the need is and the priority so that they can um prioritize that

so that would be true if you call uh but the same type of thing that you need to make sure that you're

you're communicating specifically what so they can triage it right so wouldn't that it and this

is a question directly, wouldn't that be better because it goes directly to code enforcement?

I think the last thing you need is a bunch of neighborhood people contacting you.

Well, you know, this is sort of.

That's like not, doesn't seem feasible.

On a, you know, presumably this isn't going to happen every day.

But if there's something, you know, that's really important that's happening, then you

can give me a call.

Great.

Thank you.

The other thing I wanted to update you on is fines.

so in August of this year the City Council voted unanimously to increase

fines for violations for code enforcement they raised the daily

penalties from $2,500 to a maximum of $20,000 and the total fine from $100,000

to $500,000 there's still a prolonged and protracted legal process

to go with this they're not just slapping you know those fines on

immediately they have to issue a compliance order and then there's a

deadline to comply and then they have the right to cut appeal and they have

14 days to request a hearing to modify it otherwise it becomes final then

there's a city appeals hearing board and they determine whether compliance has

been achieved and if it hasn't sometimes they allow more time you know for people

to meet the requirements and if not then they can issue a fine set of fine within those parameters

so that's an update the last bucket is just we've talked about this before but it might have been

when you were not on the commission again recently is the abandoned vacant and buildings ordinance

so this is in chapter 17.38 of the municipal code and this chapter is

entitled maintenance and rehabilitation of neglected vacant or abandoned

buildings the purpose is neglected vacant or abandoned buildings and

storefronts are a major source of blight in the city of San Jose and pose serious

threats of public health and safety and welfare they attract children vagrants

gang members this is all in the code criminal activities they are also vulnerable to fire set

by transients or other others using properly property illegally the presence of neglected

vacant or abandoned buildings and storefronts can lead to neighborhood decline create an attractive

public nuisance lower property values blah blah blah so it just talks about how um it's the

responsibility of property owners, lenders, trustees, or others in possession, equity,

or legal interest, you know, to keep them up.

So the purpose of the chapter is to maintain vacant and abandoned buildings and storefronts

and to establish a monitoring program for those that are determined to be neglected

or are vacant for longer than 30 days within the downtown.

So the code specifies maintenance standards, which include structural fire security and debris removal.

There are separate provisions for downtown.

That's in part four, which is vacant or abandoned property or storefront downtown registration area.

And there, there's an obligation to register your building if it's vacant or abandoned.

there's also a special historic building section that's 13.38.260 vacant or abandoned historic

building and historic building is defined in the code it means any building or structure listed on

the national register california register or is a city landmark now we have these wonderful

codes but um we always have resourcing challenges so what i was told is there's one staff member

assigned to this code administration for downtown and there's one staff member to administer the

code for the whole rest of the city so that's the the difficulty in terms of resourcing that

I know it's been a constant battle with code enforcement to try to get more general funding for their programs.

So I believe Wayne from code enforcement is the one that handles the blighted buildings.

I don't know.

We had a couple meetings with code enforcement.

The meetings were headed by Angel Rios, right, Mike?

and

Yui

right? Rebecca Yui? Roberta Yui

from the mayor's office. Rosalind

sorry Rosalind. I'm terrible with names.

So we had a couple meetings with Code and

Angel and everybody was there and they actually there is a

list of the

the prioritized buildings that they are looking at that are blighted,

and we're going over where they are as far as fining people and whatnot.

They sent me an update about a month ago,

and I think if it's possible, it would be very beneficial

because some of those are either historic, like the Church of Christ,

or affecting historic buildings because they're downtown.

and if they could come down and give us an update give you guys the list I have it but give it give

you guys the list also and give us an update on where they are and and what's happening that would

be great because we haven't met in a year it's been Mike Mike something close like that you know

but I think this that this commission should see that and and find out exactly what's happening

right we'll see what we can do that would be awesome

are there any other questions about vote enforcement

next is 8a2 accept update on five wounds trail planning and the coyote creek trestle

um thank you chair royer um so the item is going to be on the parks and recreation

committee commission in a director's report tonight.

I believe the two commissions meet at the same, this commission and that commission

meet at the same time.

Don't they, Ben?

Didn't you run up and down one time?

Oh, so it was earlier today?

Oh, okay.

All right, this is what I was, gotcha.

This is what I was told by staff, so apologies if that's incorrect.

So the tentative plans are, let's see.

Well, here's just a background summary.

Well, so the tenant plans are to report out to the Parks and Recreation Commission on

February 4th, followed by the HLC in March.

The HLC meets the first Wednesday of every month, followed by an EIR scoping public meeting

in April.

And I don't believe the date has been set yet.

My understanding in terms of the background, to manage overall project costs, the Five

Wounds Trail Master Plan and EIR include one community meeting as part of the consultant

scope.

Because the public meeting is scheduled after the Parks Commission HLC presentations, staff

attended the save our trails meeting were you in attendance to that in september and provided an

early update that the eir project description includes removal of the bridge the intent was

to keep the community informed and avoid surprise as the project moves through the review at the

save our trails meeting we told the public that we hope to deliver presentations to the parks

commission and the hlc by the end of the year which is what you were responding to last month

but the the dates weren't defined yet so the schedule is tentatively to go to the parks

commission february 4th the landmarks commission in march and a public eir scoping meeting in april

and that's all the information that i have we're not presenting anything or i don't i don't have

any reports from the parks department but just wanted to respond to your comment last month

so it doesn't come to us it will come to the commission for comment in march next year

yeah sure

can't say no to you larry okay if you could just say your name for the record

so larry ames um creek trail park advocate and i'm here because sounds like they've already

decided to tear the trestle down i mean that's what the report says and i've never heard any

public comment or any discussion about it who has decided to tear it down and why and so that's why

I want to make sure that you guys get a chance to vote on the thing,

and I want the commission to vote on it.

I want the public to get a chance to talk about it and influence the decision.

I have looked at the engineering reports that they have on the website,

and the thing says that the wood is good and strong,

and it takes a little bit of repairs to make it so it doesn't fall down,

but it's been there for decades.

it and you don't have to tear the trestle down in order to get the trail connection so you put the

you want to get a new you want to get a trails with this area here great and trying to fix up

the trestle to be a trail would be hard because you have to put concrete on top and then it becomes

unstable and braces on it cost a lot of money with the willow glen trestle there was no other room to

the things that's why we had to go to pursue that here there's a lot of room on the side

they put the new bridge on the side of the one 50 feet away from it so it doesn't bother the thing

and then actually at that point the channel is narrower so the bridge will be cheaper you don't

have to spend time tearing down the trestle just leave the trussle alone and let us stay there the

city is afraid that it might burn down so therefore we have to tear it down i should say leave it

alone if it burns down this loss but why tear it down beforehand so anyhow that's my public comment

is it's possible to have the trail and save the trestle and have everything i want to have the

public comment there thank you then i wrote a little memo to describe this thing oh and by the

way this thing has a lot of history to it i forgot to leave that tell you about that part this is

historic landmarks commission so i can tell you about the history of this thing so this is the

last vessel in the city.

And also it was

on the western

Pacific tracks.

So San Jose

was served by Southern

Pacific for 50 years.

They had a monopoly. This was the time of the robber

barons. And they were

hard on the agricultural businesses.

They let the food settle on the sidings

and rot.

It happened so often that there was a liquor business

in town to buy the rotted fruit

make distillery out of it.

OK.

And so the agricultural people got together

and they invited a representative

to get on the Western Pacific Board

to bring the tracks around town to break the monopoly.

This track broke the monopoly that Southern Pacific had had.

Also, for many decades, the tracks for Southern Pacific

went right down the middle of San Jose on 4th Street.

100 trains a day at grade,

was really caused the traffic congestion.

And San Jose tried to figure out

how to get the trains out of downtown.

And so what they did was they granted the franchise

Western Pacific to serve the thing,

and then by that, they've leveraged

to get Southern Pacific out of town.

So this trestle is the last reminder

of all of these history there.

It was so important that we went

to the State Historical Resources Commission,

presented this thing and they voted unanimously to put it on the state register of historic

resources. This is a historic structure. It can be saved just by putting the new bridge

on the side. I'm asking you to vote to save it when the appropriate time comes for a commission.

Great. Thank you. And I don't know if you shared your memo already with Dana, if you

could.

So I hand it up, I email, but.

Yeah, if you can email it to Dana, she can share it with the rest of us. That would

We got a look.

It was just an email.

There's a lot of interest in this thing.

I've circulated a petition, got dozens of signatures on this thing.

You have a lot of meetings on these things.

A lot of support.

Great.

Thank you.

Okay, we're moving on to 8B, Report from Committees.

Number one is the Design Review Subcommittee.

there was no meeting held on november 20th 2025 next meeting is scheduled for thursday december

18th 2025 at 11 a.m not sure if there's any items coming in yet for the agenda

like we know likely no meeting in december but we will be available if there are agenda items

8c approval action minutes recommendation is to approve action minutes for the historic landmarks

commission meeting of november 5th 2025. and make the motion to approve the minutes i second

great thank you we have a motion and a second um commissioner banawal yes commissioner arnold

commissioner camuso yes commissioner gorgora yes commissioner cohen yes and chair royer yes

So that passes unanimously and with Commissioner Golondari absent.

And then 8D, status of circulating environmental documents.

None tonight.

That brings us to the end of our agenda.

So thank you all for coming.

No meeting in January, correct?

Yes, thank you.

Next meeting will be in February.

So we'll see you all next year.

I know.

You're in 2026.

That was nuts.

I feel like as soon as summer ends, it's like 2028.

Doesn't it feel like that?

You better get it.

You better get it.

No, no.

I have a niece, but it's like.

Your VHS.

No.

Calm kid.

My daughter's turning home on Friday.

Okay, yeah.

I know that.

Yeah.

He was on.

Totally.

I starred on the book.

Did you say he starred?

Friday.

Friday.

Yes.

On his birthday, he got married.

to do.

I gave her a great cake.

She wanted a gecko.

You got her a gecko.

And I gave him a

B.

That's really good.

When I was on the hook,

there was no recording.

No.

But in nursery school,

I was in nursery school.

The following day,

they aired the episode

that we watched.

That was a big deal.

Let me tell you.

Black and white.

I was going to say, black and white.

My son was on Rock and Roll.

I had the 80s.

And so I gave him the VHS tape.

And I had his wife.

and his wife

you couldn't be in kindergarten

you had to be four

this is in the early 80s