Communications for items not on the agenda.

Additional time for public communications for items not on the agenda will be provided at the end of the open session portion of the meeting if necessary.

If you desire to provide a public comment, please complete a speaker identification card and line up behind the lectern at the appropriate time.

Wait your turn, and then when you approach the lector, please state your name and city of residence for the record.

You will have two minutes to address the city council.

Please keep in mind that this is a city business meeting.

The City Council has adopted rules of decorum to ensure that meetings are conducted efficiently and effectively, and that all members of the public have a full, fair and equal opportunity to be heard.

The City Council handbook outlines decorum expected in the council chamber and can be found on our website.

All remarks should be addressed to the City Council.

Please do not use threatening, profane, or abusive language, which disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of the council meeting.

Again, each speaker will have two minutes to make your remarks.

Written comments submitted and received up to two hours before the meeting have been posted to the city's website for public review and are included in the meeting record, but will not be separately read into the record.

Hi, good evening.

I'm Kevin Wilk, mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, February.

Well, not excuse me, the Tuesday, March 3rd, uh regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.

And if uh everybody could please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Pledge of allegiance of the flag of the United States of America.

And the Republic for which it stands.

One nation under liberty and justice for all.

And City Clerk Susie Martinez, could you please call the roll?

Councilmember Darling.

I am here.

Councilmember DeVinny.

Here.

Councilmember Silva.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Francois.

Here.

Mayor Welk.

Here.

Good evening, everyone.

Before we move on to tonight's agenda, I'd like to address the police related death that occurred last week and ask police chief Hibbs to give an update on the incident.

Last Thursday, our city experienced a profound tragedy when a life was lost during an officer involved shooting in one of our residential neighborhoods.

Just after midnight on Thursday, police responded to a report of a person looking into homes and parked vehicles.

Officers encountered an individual holding what they reasonable reasonably believed to be a handgun and issued multiple commands to drop the weapon.

Those commands were not followed.

The weapon was later determined to be a pellet gun.

Our officers acting under their the duties entrusted to them to protect our community, shot the suspect, resulting in his death.

This was a tragedy for the family of the man, Tony Pereira, who died and for the entire community.

Our thoughts are with everyone affected, including the family and our first responders.

We'll continue to support the independent investigations by the Walnut Creek Police Department and the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office.

We ask for continued respect for the investigative process and for compassion towards one another as we mourn and reflect on their loss.

Now, Chief Hibbs.

Good evening, Mayor Wilk, members of the City Council.

Ryan Hibbs, Chief of Police.

And first, I'd like to start by extending our deepest consolent condolences to the Pereira family and their loved ones.

Events like this now affect not only those closest to the individual but also neighbors, first responders in our entire community.

This incident is now under independent and thorough review.

In accordance with department policy, the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave.

The Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office is conducting a parallel investigation under the law enforcement involved fatal incident protocol.

And our department is also completing a separate administrative investigation.

Both officers were wearing body worn cameras and both were activated during this incident.

We will release the video 911 calls as required by California law and investigative timelines.

Our policy and state law allow for up to 45 days, but I want to assure you and the community that we will release these items as soon as possible.

We remain committed to transparency to due process and to maintain community trust.

Any loss of life impacts public confidence, and we take that responsibility seriously.

Independent review ensures accountability and clarity, and we will continue to share information as legally permitted.

Officer wellness and community well being are also tight priorities as we move forward.

We also encourage respectful dialogue and constructive engagement as additional information becomes available.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief Ebbs.

We are going to have an opportunity for public comment after the beginning of our meeting, which will be including the oath of office for our new commissioners as well as uh a certificate for American Red Cross, and then there'll be an opportunity for anybody who wishes to peek on speak during public communications for items not on the agenda, including if you wish to regarding the shooting.

So with that, uh I will start begin the agenda, which uh the first item is the proclamation for American Red Cross Month.

And I invite Red Cross volunteer Stan Massey forward to accept the proclamation.

Hello.

I'm Stan Stan and I'm Matt Smith.

Good evening, everybody.

Good good evening.

So I first want to mention I'll actually come up there with you.

Okay.

Well, good evening.

Good evening.

Yes.

Hi.

So we've got a proclamation for the American Red Cross.

And uh March is American Red Cross Month.

And I'm not going to read every everything on here.

However, I we do want to recognize the compassion of people in Contrast County and renew our commitment to lend a helping hand to our neighbors in need.

American Red Cross of Volunteers have stepped up to deliver relief and care across our country and around the world, bringing out the best of humanity in times of crisis, as Claire Barton, founder of the American Red Cross did over 40 years ago.

And uh just to give people an idea of the uh of what we've seen here, Contra Costa County residents donated 18,299 units of life-saving blood and hosted 530 blood drives and trained 12,164 citizens in first aid, CPR, AED, and aquatics, and provided 463 case services to military members and their families and provided humanitarian aid internationally.

And therefore, I, Kevin Wilk, mayor of the city of Walnut Creek, on behalf of the Walnut Creek City Council, do hereby proclaim March 2026 as American Red Cross Month.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Much appreciated.

Let's see if you yeah, I'd love to.

And uh at a photo op, too, if that's not asking too much.

Uh my boss told me, don't leave there without a picture or you're in big trouble.

They'll they'll cut my pay.

So uh good evening, everybody.

Again, my name is Matt Smith, and um I just want to start off um by kind of reflecting on the fact that we really we live in troubled times.

And um, every morning we wake up to a tsunami of human suffering.

And even here in our lovely Walnut Creek, and I've been in Walnut Creek resident my entire life, um, we are not immune from that.

But it's great to know that you as an organization are willing to stand up for an organization that has just one mission, which is to alleviate human suffering.

Full stop.

That's what the Red Cross does.

And we do not discriminate against race, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, height, anything.

We have a philosophy that all means all.

And whether we're responding as we did here in Wanna Creek to a house fire where people were sitting on the curb despondent, and you know, they were marginalized family, but we are able to give them support.

Um, we were able to give them medicine, so replace their hearing aids, and also very importantly, give them some money, not a lot.

Uh, I think that particular family received $650, so they didn't have to sleep in their car that night.

And that is enough to get them.

Then we also follow up with health care um with follow-up mental health and other services.

Um, and we don't care who it is, we just want people to know that there is an organization out there that just wants to help.

And we don't have any kind of political uh affiliation whatsoever.

We appreciate your support.

Um, by uh, you know, by necessity, you do have to take political stands on a variety of issues.

We do not.

In fact, we've gone so far in our shelters recently in our disaster shelters when clients come in to receive services, including potentially spending uh a week, a month, or in some cases months with us.

We don't even write their name down on paper anymore because we're afraid somebody might come in and demand that paper and then use that to try to figure out somebody's status, whatever that status is that they don't like it.

So what we do now is we just put it into a database and uh and God help them trying to get out of the database.

It's so complicated, I can't even figure it out.

But we take this mission very seriously, and we appreciate organizations such as yourselves that will stand up for us and say, yes, we honored the fact that your mission is to alleviate human suffering, and we support that.

So on behalf of American Red Cross, I want to thank you for your support and say we'll be there for you if you ever need it.

And by the way, on that note, um, I'm gonna leave my car with Mary uh Mayor Wilk.

We just had a uh a shelter drill for the whole county right here in Walnut Creek over at um Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church on Lakassie.

So we pretended there was a drill.

We have to get our shelters open within two hours, and then they have to be completely functional and running, everything's set up and going in eight hours so people can eat, sleep, get information, that sort of thing.

So we appreciate our Walnut Creek connection.

Um we are looking for another shelter in Walnut Creek, and we kind of eyeballing uh uh that Tice Valley recreation center.

That would be very nice.

I actually ran a shelter down in Georgia after Helene that looked a lot like that.

And um, if there were a big disaster, we would need that resource.

So I'm gonna leave my card with you.

If anybody thinks of a good location, we we don't like schools because we don't want our clients mixing with students, but um, we'll take churches, rec centers, other kind of buildings.

We just um certified Danville uh community center.

So how's that a little bit of motivation for you?

Um as a as a shelter.

And if you can think of anything in Walnut Creek we could use, we'd love to talk to you.

Okay, thank you.

Now can we do that picture?

All right, yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

All right.

All right, how are we gonna do this?

Oh, yeah, the whole game.

Oh yeah, but we do use these for promotional purposes, so we will help you promote.

Yes, thank you.

I would like that actually, okay.

Okay, number things.

All right, very good.

Thank you so much, everybody.

Much appreciated, really.

Well, thank you.

All right.

Next, we have the oath of office to newly appointed commissioners.

And I'm gonna ask one at a time as you hear your name, where you'd like them to be right in front here.

Great.

So coming up, we'll be right in in front of us.

Uh, we have Sherry Curlin from the Arts Commission, Kathy Coleman from the Board of Appeals, Jeffrey Prose, the Design Review Commission, Matthew Brockhouse Park Recreation and Open Space Commission, and Ryan McMahon Transportation Commission.

And I invite City Clerk Susie Martinez to administer the oath of office to our newest commissioners.

I'm gonna have you rotate a little bit this way.

Great.

Okay.

You can please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I state your name.

Do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of the State of California.

And the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance.

To the Constitution of the United States.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

And the Constitution of the State of California.

That I take this obligation freely.

I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation.

Without any mental reservation.

For purpose of evasion.

And that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties.

Upon which I'm about to enter.

Congratulations.

Now, before you all head back to your seats, if you would each like to just say a few words about yourself, introduce yourself to the community.

You can probably just line up maybe along the uh along the curtain there.

And uh Ryan's off.

All right.

Hi, I'm Ryan.

Um, I'm on the transportation committee, and uh I live in downtown Walnut Creek with my wife over here, Kristen.

This year.

Um, and yeah, I just love Walnut Creek.

I feel very fortunate to live here.

Um, just wanted to join this to get back to the community a little bit.

Um and I'm passionate about transportation when I walk around a lot, and uh I see a lot of great things Walnut Creek does, but I also see a lot of things that we can kind of help with and make better.

So I'm just here to serve uh the citizens of Walnut Creek, and I'm just excited to get started to get to work and contribute where I can.

So thank you.

Hi, I'm Kathy Coleman.

I've lived in Walnut Creek since 1990.

I love this city.

I love city council members.

I love the organization of the organization of the city, and I wanted to take this opportunity to give back.

I've got lots of years of construction and construction defect litigation experience, and I wanted to be able to share that with the community, and I wanted to be able to make the appeals process an open and collaborative process with anybody that might take issues with things that we need to review.

So thank you for accepting me.

Good evening.

I'm Sherry Curland, and I'm uh just been uh elected to the arts commission, and I thank you very much for that.

And I look forward to serving.

I've been in Walnut Creek since 1989, 1998.

I own a home around the corner.

And uh love the city, love the community, love the people.

I'm really very happy to serve and be part of this.

Thanks.

Good evening.

I'm Jeff Prose.

Um, and I'm recently appointed to the Design Review Commission uh while a uh lifelong California resident.

I am a new resident of Walnut Creek and um am excited to be able to contribute to my community in ways to help shape the beautiful town we have and the community we all love.

Thank you.

Good evening, I'm Matt Brackhouse.

Um I've lived in Walnut Creek for five years, almost six, and I love the parks and I love the open space.

And I have two little kids, and they love the park as well.

And I want to kind of help put my stamp on the city and make it a better place for them to continue to grow up in.

So thank you.

All right, and and thank all of you again.

We look forward to many years of your tenure and look forward to hearing more about what has happened on your commissions.

You'll uh there will be a lot to go over, and you'll all find out that you are going to be experts, not just in your commission, but to all of your friends and family that live near or in Walnut Creek, as far as they're concerned, you're the expert in everything in Walnut Creek.

So have fun.

All right.

Next uh on the agenda is the consent calendar.

Does any council member wish to pull any item for discussion?

All right.

Does any member of the staff wish I had a question about item C.

Then do you want to pull it?

Yes, I would like to pull item C, please.

All right.

Does any member of staff wish to pull an item for discussion?

Okay, does any member of the public wish to comment on an item on the consent calendar?

As a reminder, each speaker will have two minutes to make their remarks.

Written comments submitted have been posted to the city's website for public review and are included in the meeting record, but will not be separately read into the record.

So regarding any of the items.

Okay.

Seeing none, we'll close public comment on this.

And uh I'll move approval of items to A, B, D, E, and F.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Susie, could you go the role, please?

Councilmember Darling.

Hi.

Councilmember Devine.

Hi.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi.

Mayor Protem Francois.

Mayor Welk.

Hi.

Motion carries.

All right.

Uh regarding item two C, Councilmember Silva, the floor is yours.

Thank you very much, Mayor.

And if there's a member of the public works or engineering group here, I just have a simple question.

It may require a more complex answer.

Sure.

This is we're awarding a contract for the Shadlands and Wiggett Green Infrastructure Improvement Project.

Can you explain what a green infrastructure improvement project is and where exactly Shadlands and Wiggit is at Ignatio Valley Road?

Oh no, Shade Lands and Wiggard is where the Master Gardener.

Yeah, that's correct.

Okay.

Um Good evening, uh Council members.

My name is Andrew McDade.

I'm an engineer with uh the CIP division of public works.

Um basically uh green infrastructure is we're um implementing uh drainage facilities like this to prevent sedimentation and other pollutants from getting into the storm drain.

So essentially in this case, and what we've done all over the city, what we require developers to do to mitigate essentially increased flow from hardscapes, etc.

is these bioretention basins, which have uh drain rock under drain with a pipe that flows into our existing system, and on top of that, there's a special mixture of bioretention soil, and then we play uh plant generally uh native and definitely drought resistant plants um in this facility, and generally uh and it's sized to treat um a certain uh drainage area, um, and that's kind of all determined by the water board and a lot of higher-up stuff, but that's basically what the facility is.

So, what's the drainage area for this project?

If you can do it off the top of your head, this will treat it's I think it's like 0.48 acres, just under half an acre, is what it will be treating.

And the facility itself, uh, the square footage will be about 900 square feet, I think, and it'll be right at the corner of Shadlands and Wiggit, which is the UC Master Gardener Center in the middle of the uh the um the Shade Lands business park.

So these are really important projects so that we reduce the amount of yes, absolutely of bad stuff that gets comes from hardscaped areas and yeah, it it treats a lot of road runoff, um a lot of it traps sedimentation, um, and these are also habitat species of plants, so it kind of um increases biodiversity and stuff like that too.

All right, thank you very much for the explanation.

Thank you, Mayor.

And I move the item.

We have a motion.

I'll second.

And a second.

Susie can call the roll, please.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi, Councilmember Darling.

Hi, Councilmember David, Mayor Pro Tem Francois.

Hi.

Mayor Welk.

All right.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Next on the agenda is public communications.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for comment on items not on the agenda.

Under the Brown Act, the council cannot act on items raised during public communications, but may respond briefly to statements made or questions posed.

Request clarification or refer the item to staff.

Consistent with section 9.5 of the city council handbook, 30 minutes will be allocated at this time for public communications for items not on the agenda.

Additional time for public communications for items not on the agenda will be provided at the end of the meeting if necessary.

Written comments submitted have been posted to the city's website for public review and are included in the meeting record, but will not be separately read into the record.

And at this time, I'll note the time is 6.25, and we'll take public comments on items not on the agenda until approximately 6.55.

And then the remainder of any such comments at the end of the open session portion of the meeting.

And so if you would like to speak during public communications, this is the time to come forward.

Uh the first speaker can speak right at the podium, and any other speakers can line up on the side of the wall going up.

And just please state your name and city.

Um I'm I should I say this?

I'm from Pleasant Hill.

Uh oh.

That is But I love Walnut Creek.

And we love Pleasant Hill.

Oh, thank you.

And we play soccer in Walnut Creek.

So I I think that allows us.

My name is Barbara Scott Crispy, and someone forgot their glasses.

You know those are my glasses.

I'm sorry, it's the educator in me.

Um, and I'm here today on a very sad note.

The tragedy that happened.

I knew the family.

And I'm here today to speak about preventing another tragedy.

I'm here for my friend Linda and her son, who I've known for years, and now he's very ill.

He's in her condo, and he's decompensating.

He has both autism and serious mental illness.

This is a picture of him as a young man when he was well.

And when he was well, he worked for the city of Walnut Creek.

And now he's non-functioning, but no one will take him to the hospital.

She's called the police, she's called A3.

And unlike if someone has a heart attack and they have symptoms, they don't ask them, are you having a heart attack?

They take them to the hospital.

Someone with mental illness has accent um is not aware of their illness.

And my friend can't get into her condo.

She can't get help.

This has been going on for four months.

The police came once and they said to him, Do you want to go to jail or the hospital?

And he said, jail.

And then he said, I changed my mind.

I want to go to the hospital, but unfortunately, they said we've already begun the process.

And now he has uh oh, he has suicidal thoughts, and there's no one to help.

And I contacted Ken Carlson's office, and he said that you folks could help.

Is this in Walnut Creek or Pleasant Hill?

It's in Walnut Creek.

Okay.

And are you gonna be speaking on the same as well?

This is his mom.

Okay.

Uh first of all, very sorry to hear this, and my heart goes out to you.

My brother experienced mental illness, and I uh I I I feel for your everything.

Um would you like to speak as well?

Yes.

Yep.

And then and then after after you speak, um, I encourage you to go to the back of the room.

We have a member, we are of all of our top police department leadership here, and you can speak with one of our police department uh leaders, and they can help to give some direction.

Please go ahead.

My name is Linda Ruiz, and I'm also a teacher.

Can you speak into the microphone?

Oh, you can just bend it down.

Yeah, my name is Linda Ruiz.

And I'm also uh an educator in the school and an educational therapist.

Uh my son grew up in Walnut Creek, and um he happened to have been a receptionist at the Leisure Center Art Gallery.

Uh and then COVID came and that sort of ended everything.

Um but um he has a severe mental illness, and he is also on the autism spectrum.

He's hardly articulate, and he knows how to cover.

So if anybody aside from the family sees him, he can pretend and act like nothing's happening, nothing's different.

You know, it's really amazing.

But it doesn't last for long, that um he did exceptionally well in the AOT program that I remember used to come to meetings about that.

Uh, but then he was there for I think about six years, and they had him uh exit exit because he did so well.

Um in 2021, uh his father died.

And he had he all the life, he'd leave lived with either me or his dad.

And he had just got on his own, and then in a with a roommate and three roommate situation, and then they got COVID and my son didn't, and so he left right away, went to his dad's.

But then his dad died three months later.

It was really a shock to him because they were very close, and that's what triggered this now.

Uh and it's gone on for so long now, and I keep trying to get help, but it feels like there's no help.

The only help that I've been able to get is um you get a restraining order, he gets out of my condo, wanders off, you know.

One time he got arrested for being in my condo, and he really decomposited then over in where was it, Richmond and then Martinez.

Um and he's just decompensating more and more every day.

Um that I don't know, this has gone on for so long.

I don't know what else to do.

I have talked with everybody, I've done everything that I could imagine, and I'm just keep being told that he doesn't fit the criteria.

Well, with my job, I work with people with autism and mental illness, and so he really does fit the criteria.

But he's so articulate.

People think, oh, he's okay.

No way, is he?

You know, so I would like some help.

Yeah, well, get him to the hospital.

Well, Ms.

Ruza, I'm um thank you for coming here this evening.

I I can't imagine the frustration and and the feeling of helplessness that you must have, and I would encourage anybody that may be listening to please do call or walnut creek the police police department non-emergency line if it's not an emergency to at least get the conversation going.

There's also 988 for mental mental health issues, which I know that you're familiar with as well, as well, as well as the Miles Hall uh Miles Hall Crisis Call Center.

Um those work for many, but obviously there are certain exceptional situations.

And uh by coming here tonight, I'm gonna make sure that at least you have a conversation with our police department and to help to give some direction.

So again, thank you both very much for coming.

Um I think all of us here at the dais feel uh fe feel the um the angst that that you're and the anxiety you're feeling through this.

So um we will have Captain Connors in the back is going to meet both of you and uh along with Captain Slater perhaps, and they will uh have your comp have a conversation with you right now.

All right, thanks so much.

Thank you.

Is there anybody else that would like to speak during public communications or items not on the agenda?

Okay.

Seeing none, I'm going to close public uh the public communications and bring it back to council.

Uh if any council members would like to uh have any questions, but I'm going to start this off by uh asking our city manager Dan Buckshai, especially in light of the uh two public comments that we just heard to again perhaps give just an overview of the A3 program, uh our involvement with uh mental illness and what we can what we recommend residents to do if they're they or a loved one is experiencing an outbreak.

Yeah, Dan Buckshire City Manager and it reiterates some of what was said earlier.

You know, certainly if um somebody's in a mental health crisis, uh the A3 program, the 988 number that you referenced earlier would be the number to call.

Uh it is a crisis response program.

A3 stands for treating anyone anywhere at any time.

It's a 24-7 mobile response program or 34 response team, and the goal is to have somebody on site as as warranted within 20 minutes.

And there are different levels of response from a very low level, which is effectively a peer support worker, maybe an EMT or paramedic at is to as high of a level is joining mental health clinicians with law enforcement if the situation is deemed to be more dangerous, or the other option is just a mental health clinician if it appears to be solely a mental health issue.

Um it sounds like um these folks have contacted that program.

But in addition to our PD, we're we'll follow up with behavioral health to find out what other options may be out there.

I would also add as was discussed, if a situation is deemed to be dangerous, then I would certainly recommend calling 911 and the police.

Dispatchers are trained to help triage a situation to determine the appropriate type of response, whether it is a law enforcement response or whether it should be a mental health response or obviously a combined response.

There are many other programs available, but you know, one of the challenges that's actually been in the news the last couple days is how to require individuals to take medication who refuse to do so.

There's a lot of discussion about the statewide care court in which fo the court gets involved to help try to persuade individuals to take medication if they're not doing so, especially if they're in a dangerous state.

So there are other programs as well, but locally in Contra Costa County and certainly in Walnut Creek, the A3 program should be a point of entry.

Thank you.

If we don't have any questions from the DIS, let's start with uh council member and staff announcements, reports and activities or requests.

Do we have any closed session announcements?

Thank you, Mayor.

There are no closed session announcements this evening.

City manager report.

I do not have an update this evening, Mayor All right.

City Council Member reports on AB 1234 activities and assignments.

Uh let's start with Councilmember DeVinnie.

All right, thank you, Mayor.

Good evening.

Um the last uh few weeks, uh some of the highlights um have been we have the state of the city.

Uh I won't uh steal your thunder because uh uh Mayor Wilk did a fantastic job emceeing that and and uh being interviewed on stage and uh bringing uh the city up to date and those intending up to date on what's been going on in the city.

Um so I'll let them talk more about it.

Um just recently I was uh sworn in for the the board of MCE as an alternate uh for uh uh council member darling, uh learned more about that community choice uh aggregate and some of the politics around the state surrounding how uh energy is procured and charges that um uh PG and E levies against uh these types of organizations.

So uh it will be an interesting year, I understand, as far as uh balancing the some of the the budget issues being created by those those politics, so more to come, I'm sure.

Um this I think was just uh yesterday or the day before, and losing track of my days here.

I was at Buena Vista Elementary School for uh Read Across America.

I had a chance to read to the second and third graders.

Uh I was gonna bring as maybe too much detail.

I was gonna bring Rumpel Stiltskin because that was one of my favorite books, but the uh librarian handed me this book called The Watering Can by Julian Bear.

So if you have uh third and fourth graders, uh that was a really entertaining book for them.

And uh was followed up with some very interesting questions that I think sort of only kids are so pure so pure as to ask um as uh what it's like to be a council member and what it's like to be an ER doctor, and so and to share some fun stories with them.

Uh I wanted to make an announcement uh that is on the uh city uh website and I think was in uh the recent newsletter, but just um uh somewhat pertinent to what we've been talking about on Saturday, March 7th, um from 10 a.m.

to uh 1 p.m.

at the community arts center.

Uh the city is partnering with uh the care parent network uh to provide the um intellectual and developmental disabilities resource fair uh in celebration of developmental disabilities awareness month.

So that's uh this Saturday at the community arts uh center uh from at 10 a.m.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Francois.

Okay, thank you, Mayor.

And let's see, starting off along with council member Silva, I serve as your frog in your throat.

Liaison to the recycle smart board, and we had a um our last meeting.

We had an agenda item to consider a new contract for the reuse and cleanup program.

We currently contract with MDRR for that program.

If you're in a single family home, you get the notice of those pickups twice a year.

Starting next year, the big changes to the program starting next year will be that that program will be expanded to multifamily uh residents as well.

It will be done on an all on call basis, except for in Rossmore because we're special, where it will be done as a neighborhood type pickup, like we do for the single family.

So exciting to see that that successful program for reuse and cleanup will be expanded to multifamily starting next year, excuse me, and also for everybody, it will be expanded to include bulky items like furniture and TVs and refrigerators.

So it's exciting changes to that very successful program that'll start taking effect next year.

Uh I also serve as your liaison to Rossmore Walnut Creek.

I was at their meeting and gave them uh an update on all our happenings.

I like attending those meetings because they're so appreciative of what we all do, including our staff and and all of us as council members, and uh they had a packed room there because they were making changes to the gateway center and the location of the library, and that generated a lot of interest.

So I gave my update and wish them well.

Uh-huh.

I did attend the future of Walnut Creek, and I concur with Councilmember Davinny that the mayor did an excellent job representing all of us and giving uh everyone a positive update on the future of our city, which looks very bright.

Along with Councilmember DeVinny, I serve on the finance committee.

That item is on our agenda tonight, so I won't belabor that one.

Uh I had the opportunity to attend uh the funeral service for Gwen Regalia, who was a 20-year uh well, longer than that.

She served 21 years on the city council, and then I think another eight or twelve years on the Walnut Creek School District Board, and was very active along with her uh late husband Ed in founding the Kennedy and King uh the Kennedy King scholarship program for underprivileged uh young people, and just uh what a wonderful legacy.

Um she left all of us in Walnut Creek and very grateful for her time on earth and for her service to the city.

And was happy to welcome all the new commissioners this evening and see them sworn in and uh thank you for being willing to serve and stepping up to doing do so.

Thank you.

Let's go to council member Darling.

Thank you.

Um I went to State of City, you did good, and I was just really relieved that I wasn't mayor this year, so I could just sit there and relax and eat my lunch, which was really cool.

Um I serve on the housing committee with um Cindy Silva, and we do have a couple items to be coming to us, but um you'll hear more about that when those get here.

Um I too went to Gwen's service and her family did an excellent job putting together the presentation, and the part that really spoke to me, um, Congressman DeSalnier came and spoke, and this was a day after the um state of the union, and he was saying how great it was to be back in our community where we take the oath that you guys just took so seriously that we are here for these United States, and we are here for the Constitution.

And um that was really wonderful to hear.

Um on the MCE front, we did get Craig sworn in so he can sit in for me when I go to Sister Cities next month.

And I was trying to explain to him we have four counties and 36 cities that are on the MCE board, so you could just imagine it's as the electric meter turns some days.

We are working through the budget process.

We did approve a rate cut this year for people for both businesses and residential service.

We are looking to adopt our budget in March when he goes to represent me.

We had a big discussion about whether or not we are going to scale back some of our energy conservation measures.

We have a program to help low-income people purchase electric vehicles.

It's a small stipend that they can use to help them buy the vehicles.

We looked at those programs.

We thought, you know, those are some of the most important things that are making the world more affordable for the people at the lowest end.

It helps them with insulation, it helps them with their heat pumps, it helps them with EV chargers and multifamily.

And so we felt it was important.

We are recommending to the board when they adopt the full budget in November that we not cut those programs that we keep it as part of the value proposition we give to our community as MCE.

We have greener energy than PG ⁇ E.

We're locally controlled, and we have programs so that people in our communities can benefit from that.

And that is my and I'll let Craig do that next month, and it'll be fun.

You'll get to it's an interesting anthropological situation.

Thank you, Councilmember Silva.

Did you say anthropological?

Yes, because humans interact in interest.

No, I understand that.

I don't know.

My husband is an anthropologist and a Polynesian archaeologist, so I don't hear that word very often other than at home.

Um thank you very much, Mayor.

And I will mention on the recycle smart front that not only did we approve the bones of an agreement with Mount Diablo Resource and Recovery on the cleanup and reuse days, but we also the rates are going up as of March 1st.

Every year rates go up with recycle smart, and they've just gone up for the coming year, and they went up about six percent to cover the costs of fuel and labor costs, etc., as well as some additional services.

So but our rates in Walnut Creek are basically the lowest of 19 cities around us.

So we're very fortunate that we have the joint powers authority, this joint agency and multiple participants in it to help assuage the costs.

The um I'm the lazy liaison to our Walnut Creek Sister Cities program in March is the very excited because at the end of March that the youth from SheFo Cungri and Nochetto, Italy will be visiting Walnut Creek for a week.

There will be more than 25 with their chaperones, and they're very excited about it.

They're also excited because next year's class of participants have begun the application process with our local agency.

The 68 families attended the introductory orientation meeting.

48 applications from individual students were received, and they will be looking to pick about 22 participants for next year's program.

So that's very exciting.

And they will be here in the visitors this month will be here from March 26th to a week later, about April 6th and 7th.

The um the recent state meeting of the board of the League of California Cities, of which I'm a member, had a meeting two weeks ago, and there were a couple items that I think are important for us to take note of.

Brandon Castillo is the head of that.

And it looks like the ballot in November is going to be very full with various um pieces of proposed legislation that require the votes of the people, including a number of those that we're going to have to keep an eye on.

All of the it everything isn't settled yet, but it's going to be a full one.

They think it could be as large as 15 or 16 measures that are going to hit the ballot.

Yes, exactly.

Um, in addition, we at the board level spent about three and a half hours discussing this revenue and sales tax allocation process in the state.

And after much debate, we reached a decision to um bifurcate the issue, such that we recommending that we work with the California Department of Tax and Fees.

CDTFA.

It's easier to remember the nomenclature that way.

On making sure that the allocation of out-of-state goods, those that we buy from Nevada and are shipped here direct to our door, that the allocation of sales tax revenue doesn't go into a county pool, which is the current way they do it, but would go directly to the city for the destination of the receipt of the goods.

The issue of whether how to allocate the sales tax revenues for those that are fulfilled in state.

So let's say I ordered something yesterday from Amazon, and I had it at five o'clock.

That did not come from out of state.

That came somewhere, it was sitting in Tracy, I think.

And that sales tax goes to the city of Tracy.

And it is a very significant issue.

We agreed that the proposal as it had come forward was not yet ready for us to be able to get a two-thirds support on it.

But we need to continue to work on the issue at the state level because it's going to continue to fester as people buy more online.

Can you answer the report?

Can you elaborate on that novel uh the Nevada portion of that?

You were saying that if you order something online.

Okay, I want to buy a sweater.

If I go into Macy's to buy that sweater, the sales tax comes is allocated directly here, and it's just the the one percent, so the one cent on every dollar.

If I can't find the right color that I want, and I need to order it online, if it's shipped from out of state, then the sales tax comes to us, but it comes through a county allocation process.

However, if this if the sweater that same sweater is sitting in a warehouse in one of about 50 cities across the state, Richmond, Tracy, San Bernardino, the um sales tax that one cent is not given to the city of my city, it's allocated to the city where the warehouse is located.

And so when the the sales tax that you order the sweater from Nevada, and that goes to the county pool, you were saying you made the county pool uh reallocates it.

And so and your recommendations were to not do that or to do that?

The the state has the ability to directly allocate it.

To the city.

To the city, which is the preference of the right, and there'll be some winners and there'll be some losers in that, but it seems to be fairer for the majority.

So it's complicated, it's political, and the change in the sales tax allocation for things that are occurring in state would require a constitutional amendment where we'd have to debate it with the voters as well.

So more to follow, but it may take a continuing process.

So can I toss you a softball that'll allow you to hit it out of the park for our audience?

Okay.

When people ask us how they can what they can do to help Walnut Creek revenues and that how they can help to make Walnut Creek as as good as it possibly can be.

How should they shop to help us?

Shop and in person.

And in person.

In person.

In this is this is the secret nobody talks about.

But if you shop online, we don't get all the tax revenue as Councilmember Silva just said.

Shop in person, we get all the tax revenue.

So peruse online at midnight and then go into the store the next day and buy it or pick it up.

So thank you.

The um final thing I'll mention is I am liaison from the city council to the Diablo Regional Arts Association, and there are a number of things that are happening at the Leisher Center in the next few weeks.

And if you love dramas or comedies, Center Rep will be producing Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers from March 29th to April 19th, and tickets are on sale.

Also next weekend, the 13th and the 14th, will be the reprise of college notes, which is college a cappella choruses that come in and perform.

It is a fabulous presentation.

You may not think you like to listen to it, but they are so talented.

And they just produced by the same gentleman that produced the movie Pitch Perfect.

So tickets are may still be available for that.

And I will mention that at the end of March, the 31st on Tuesday, Rick Steeves will be speaking at the Leisure Center.

So if you want to travel and you want to hear about his adventures, get a ticket and join us.

And to get tickets, go to LeisureArts Center.org.

And thank you very much.

Thank you, Councilmember Silva.

All right.

For my well, first of all, I am shocked that none of my fellow councilmember colleagues mentioned the groundbreaking at Heather Farm.

But it was I had to check my notes to make sure it happened since the last meeting, which it did.

It was just the next day.

So for those, of course, that live near Heather Farm or to go and visit it.

It is uh the swim and community center.

The groundbreaking happened in front of about a hundred people, commissioners and public alike.

Uh so it's fenced off now.

It'll uh I believe we are looking at it being done by the end of next year.

And this uh this is the largest project Walnut Creek's ever undertaken.

77 million dollars from Measure O funds, and thank you to the residents that passed Measure O a couple of years ago.

And this is uh what we're doing with a lot of it.

There's a lot of other pieces to Measure O, and it's going to police and other activities throughout the city, including other park areas.

But this is the lion's share.

So uh it was a great groundbreaking.

Thank you to my colleagues who were there as well.

Uh now, as as we heard from some of uh my colleagues, the state of the city, which I gave last week.

Uh, it should be online within the next day.

You can check at the city website, the city YouTube page.

I'm I'm sure the Chamber of Commerce will probably have that link as well.

You can see the vision of Walnut Creek, a lot of questions uh that were asked of me of what's happened and what the state of Walnut Creek currently is.

Spoiler alert, it's good.

Uh but there's also a lot of great restaurants and businesses that are coming.

And so you will hear not just from me, but also from Tracy Deatlin, who is the chair of Walnut Creek Downtown, to some of the new businesses that are coming down.

And she has a fun presentation in there.

So I encourage everybody to watch that.

Uh as liaison to county connection, uh, there I do want to mention that there is going to be a regional transit ballot measure.

It's uh and there have been several workshops that have happened within BART.

I'm not sure if any of my fellow colleagues have been to those, but I've heard they've been uh very robust and very long sessions at BART.

Uh it was mentioned this week in the meet uh in the media that there is an alternative service plan if the BART measure doesn't pass.

And it's not good.

Uh the service reductions by two-thirds of our yellow line through Walnut Creek that goes all the way to Antioch, shortening service times that currently end at midnight to 9 p.m.

Station closures could impact us, like the North Concord station, uh the Arinda station, um, and to bring more people into Pleasant Hill and Walnut Creek stations.

Uh if that doesn't work, then further reductions could include the entire system closure of BART.

Now we're probably going to be talking about that a lot over the next several months because this would be qualifying for the November ballot.

And I have no doubt that we will see BART or the Metropolitan Transportation Commission come in and present their case, and we can discuss if this is something that we want to uh endorse or not.

But uh without taking one side or the other on that right now, if it doesn't pass, there are going to be some serious changes within BART.

And I encourage everybody to follow up on that, especially our Transportation Commission and new transportation commissioners, to understand what that all means and to help amplify that to the city because this is this is big stuff.

Can I ask you?

Can I throw you a softball question?

Oh, I love softballs.

Well, it's back at you.

How's that?

So if there is not as uh as robust a service between here and Oakland and San Francisco, what happens to our transportation network?

Do people stay home?

Yeah, so this uh this will be our part B of I'm sure what we're going to hear about, and thank you for the question.

What it means, of course, is that there will be more cars on the road.

Every time you are on the freeway and you see a bar train go by filled with people, imagine all those people are now on the freeway.

Your 10-minute commutes become 20-minute commutes.

Your 45-minute commutes become an hour and a half.

So even if you don't take BART, even if you don't take county connection, even if you don't take any public transportation, it's gonna affect you.

It's gonna affect all of us.

So these are things we have to think about.

On that happy note, uh I I do want to give a quick electric bus update.

All chargers are powered up.

That's the good news.

New power boards came in.

Of course, we have the only two all electric bus bus routes within the county connection bus system.

But communication between the chargers and the boards is still being worked out.

So these are still some of the challenges.

We hope to have that resolved soon.

And it's frustrating for County Connection, and we know it's frustrating for our residents.

Of course, the Route 4 and Route 5 buses are still active now.

They're just not the all-electric buses.

So we I hope to have a new update for you in a month outside two months.

Uh a lot of these parts have come from China.

There are tariff implications with that.

So these are some we're dealing with some of the challenges that I think we're seeing across the country right now and truthfully around the world.

One of Cindy Councilmember Darling's favorite things to do.

I did this last week, which was meet with our youth leadership commission.

And they had the chance to ask the mayor all the questions that they wanted to, and got a chance to meet these our future leaders as well.

I did attend the Bancroft Elementary Talk with Superintendent Clark and about 50 families that are concerned about the Bancroft dual immersion program.

And we've heard them the last couple of meetings at during public comments.

So I wanted to hear what was being said there.

And uh and there was it was a listening session, so I was glad to see that communication moving forward, yet to be determined exactly what's going to happen, but uh, but I did was there to see it for myself.

I also was at the Walnut Creek Business Watch that was sponsored by Walnut Creek Police Department and Walnut Creek Downtown over at the uh right here actually, and just to see these businesses that are downtown making sure that they have the police department has their back, they're safe and different uh sharing of best practices of how businesses can protect themselves and and with security as well.

Uh you mentioned about Gwen Regalia's service of the Walnut Creek Little League opening day ceremonies were on Saturday.

That was 1100 kids playing Walnut Creek Little League that were at Castle Rock Park.

That was fun.

You did that last year.

That was fun.

The uh it and it was just great to see the enthusiasm.

And oh my god, these kids are so little, they like start at three years old, and and there they are.

And I remember coaching one of those teams, and they were probably about four or five uh up to the triple A and the majors that are playing there.

So great to see, great to see those kind of sports and recreation in Walnut Creek.

Uh Walnut Creek downtown had uh their momentum event this last weekend, health and wellness.

About 500 different people signed up for that, and so that was just great to see that that energy, no pun intended, but the energy of the people that were all there.

And uh I and I also want to give a shout out.

I got a call.

I got a call or uh, I guess it was a text yesterday asking or telling me that a school, a second grade class from Livermore was going to be visiting the uh the Lindsay Wildlife Experience today.

And would the mayor have time to come and greet the kids?

Well, it just so happened I'd had a cancellation, so I did have a little bit of time in there.

I went over there, and the comments that I was getting, these the kids were so excited, they said they were gonna meet a celebrity that they were so thrilled to come.

They came running from the playground when they met with when they met me, they all asked questions.

They wanted to shake my hand, asked if that was okay.

So I just want to say that St.

Michael School, second grade class from Livermore visited, and the Lindsay Wildlife Experience is such an asset to Walnut Creek that schools across the Bay Area come to Walnut Creek to learn.

And the last thing, of course, we had our commissioner reception just before our city council meeting to install our new commissioners to also say goodbye to our outgoing commissioners and congratulate our reappointed commissioners and just celebrate our commissioners who truly help the city council through all these different discussions and recommendations.

And we would be sitting here for 18 hours in a city council meeting, listening to everything if we did not have commission.

So thank you that are our new commissioners, and for those that are watching online, thank you for being commissioners.

And with that, we'll close this part of it and then move on to our public hearing.

So all right.

Next on the agenda is in fact our public hearing for Porsche Walnut Creek dealership project to consider waiver of reading and introduction of an ordinance to implement a service center plan development rezone and adopt resolutions approving design review review, tree removal and drip line encroachment permits, tree drip line and sign ordinance exception for the project at 2717 North Main Street, 1532nd Avenue and 1510 2nd Avenue.

So I'm inviting senior planner Simmer Gill, who's already here, to provide the presentation.

Uh thank you.

Um Mayor Wilk and um good evening um members of the uh the council.

Um my name is Simmer Gill, senior planner with the city.

Uh we are here tonight to uh consider the Porsche dealership and service center that will be located at the corner of 2nd Avenue and North Main Street, and I apologize in advance.

I also have a frog in my throat.

I'm gonna try the best to speak well into the mic.

Um, but please let me know if you need me to repeat anything.

And um the request before you tonight is a plan development rezone and a design review.

The applicant Steven Scanlan and his team are here tonight, as am I to answer any questions you may have after this presentation.

And just to quickly orient you with the site, it is zoned auto sales, which does permit auto dealerships.

Sorry, service commercial is a zoning and it permits auto dealerships.

And the site is at the corner of 2nd Avenue and North Main, along the North Main corridor, and it does consist of three parcels that will be merged.

And the existing area consists of a mix of commercial uses, and there are residential uses directly behind the project site on Varton Court and further up 2nd Avenue.

See, okay, and here just a closer look at the site conditions.

Here is the Mass Ays uh restaurant and bar that I believe is still currently operating.

There are other buildings on site which are underutilized and vacant, and all of these buildings will be demolished as for project construction.

So tonight the applicant is requesting construction of a new three-level auto dealership that will offer vehicle sales and service.

And the project also includes frontage improvements, uh, right of way dedication along both 2nd Avenue and North Main Street, and new sidewalk along 2nd Avenue and a replacement of the existing sidewalk on North Main.

Project also requests tree removals, the installation of 21 new uh trees as part of the landscaping plan, uh on site lighting as well as new signage.

So before I go into the project details, um I just wanted to quickly touch on that this project did go before the design review commission as well as the planning commission.

And both commissions did support the overall project and the design.

However, they did have some operational and design comments.

And the on February 12th, the planning commission did make a recommendation to move the project forward to City Council with a condition clearly prohibiting all vehicles from making a right turn on second AV when exiting the project site, and also to incorporate clear directional signage along that exit.

And I also wanted to touch on public comments as there were several that were received, and the common theme was that the there should be no right turn exiting this project site, and that is something the commissioners did take into consideration.

And uh comments were also received regarding signage and illumination and rooftop lighting levels, as well as uh regarding the roll-up service doors and requesting that they remain closed during operations of this business to avoid any noise, and to also consider a higher sound wall along that west elevation, and to consider a raised curb to deter right turns on 2nd Avenue, as well as details on fire suppression and all of these um comments have been addressed in the business operating plan as well as the revised plans with the exception of the raised curb uh near sec on the exit near second Ave.

I'll let the applicants team go over that because they also have a presentation tonight.

Uh so tonight uh the city council uh based on planning commission's recommendation will be considering the class 32 in Phil Sequa exemption, the planned development uh rezone, and because uh council is the highest approving body for the planned development rezone, it will also consider the design review as well as all other entitlements associated with this project.

And just to quickly go over the existing site conditions, um, as you can see, access provided into the site currently is off of 2nd Avenue and uh several drive aisles on sec on North Main.

And here is the proposed layout.

There will be access from North Main and 2nd Avenue leading into the site, and there will be surface parking spaces uh directly in front of the showroom entrance.

I also wanted to point out that in the service commercial zone, there are no setback building setback requirements.

However, uh the applicant did design this building, keeping in mind the sensitivity of just being close to a residential neighborhood.

The building will be set back set for 30 feet from that property line.

And uh just to really uh go over the two main functions of this building is the main entry into the showroom and the uh service commercial arrival area for uh repair of uh auto vehicles.

Um here what I have highlighted in orange are really just areas that are accessed for employee or staff only.

Public will not have access to these areas.

The first one being, I can use this, I think, yeah.

So first one will be the ramp that goes up the roof invent for the roof inventory parking area again for employee use only.

There's a service shop access where the roll-up doors are located again, just to be used by employees, and then the parts delivery area up north.

And if you're coming from North Main Street, there is a lower level garage entry that goes into the again for inventory or staff parking only, no access for the public.

So tonight the request before you is a planned development and a PD, which essentially is a tool that the code does allow to set tailored development standards when in unique conditions do occur on site.

And in this case, there are we are addressing the grading or the site topography as well as the functional design elements of the project.

But the PD does allow flexibility, but it does also require that the overall project meets the intent of the service in this case a service commercial zone.

So all of the other development standards are being carried over as part of this PD, and auto sales and service is a permitted use in this zone.

So now moving into the first request, which is uh redefining the floor area for this project.

Uh 0.3 FAR is what is allowed in the service commercial zone.

And our current city code uh really the definition has very limited things.

It doesn't explicitly exclude out a lot of these or capture the specialized operational areas or other non-occupiable spaces.

And I pulled this directly out of our city code, which is the definition of floor area.

As you can see, it it does list things that are being excluded out, but it it's not it's um broadly written where it doesn't have everything that you in this case uh the PD is gonna provide that flexibility, exclude those additional accessory areas.

And what you see listed here is what this project is requesting.

And here I've just dropped all of the floor plans to really show you that the areas that are being excluded as part of this PD is the pink areas, and all of those are the inventory parking, the mechanical rooms or storage like areas.

And here, just a closer look at that.

Again, the um I would I don't know, is that yellow or light, the light peach color is the area that is um being calculated to stay within that 0.3 FAR allowance, and everything in the pink is being excluded.

So why are we here tonight?

Basically, what is the purpose of this uh PD?

Um modern dealership layout, it has evolved over time.

Um, it's become multi-level, and um uh all of the it integrates all of the operations into one single building.

So a large portion of that um building is now storage area or non-occupiable, non-customer occupied space.

And the city's code is a bit dated as it was built for single story traditional one-dimensional dealerships.

It doesn't really align with today's modern integrated building layout that we're seeing coming forward to the city.

And what I've uh provided below is really just a photograph of the existing dealership on North Main Street.

As you can see, the showroom, the inventory vehicle storage as well as the service repair area is all in separate buildings or spread out across the site.

Um that typically, when you're calculating based on the current uh floor area, you're counting the showroom only because everything else is accessory.

But in this case, everything is being integrated into the building.

So this PD is essentially giving us that flexibility to exclude those areas and really to distinguish between uh function versus customer space area.

So with that, the approach still does meet the point three FAR intent.

It also acknowledges that modern dealership designs have become more integrated.

And just can take a sip of water.

Now moving into the second request under the PD rezone.

The uh the site allows a 30-foot height limit, and the exhibit that you see here, it's um roughly showing a 10 to 11 foot grade change across the site, um, with the lowest elevation being near.

Whoa, that was strange, sorry.

With the lowest elevation being here at 124.

And as you go up the site to the from the north to the south, it starts going up and 138 where I have identified with the star is the highest point on the site.

And I've also incorporated this photo for reference to show this is where the Massay's restaurant and bar is located.

And as again here, this is the topography map pulled straight out of the plans, really to show you how the grades vary and change as you go up to the southern end of the site.

So in the solid black line that you see here really represents that grade.

The current code basically measures height from the existing or finished grade, whichever is lower to the highest point of the building.

So the PD tonight will essentially define the base elevation so height can be measured from the highest existing grade, should ensure a consistent measurement across the slope site.

And the red dashed line here is that marks really that new base elevation that we're establishing with this PD 138, which is the highest point.

And then as you go up it at 168, is it's within that 30 feet.

So that shows the maximum allowable height building height, which is a 30 feet.

And this approach does really address how height is measured across the site.

And given the slope and the dealership's new operational design, it doesn't really increase the project's intensity.

But I also wanted to point out that the city's code currently currently does allow the community development director to make certain height adjustments when there are unusual deviations that occur in the existing grade.

So this isn't something that we're doing specific for this project or the first time that we're seeing this.

So the the sit these type of situations do occur, and that's why the code already contemplates this.

And the other request before you tonight is uh the tree removals.

There are a total of 19 trees on site that are being removed.

15 of these were approved by the city's consulting arborist due to the size size, health, and species of those trees.

And the four remaining trees that I have bubbled here in yellow are the trees that the city council is considering tonight as part of this project for the removal to allow this project to move forward.

And the valuation of those trees is 17,470, and that is included as a condition of approval that the applicant will be required to pay.

And there's also a condition to protect all off-site neighboring trees, which are about 13 trees along the north end of the site and several along the west end, which are being protected in place.

So moving into the landscaping, uh the applicant is proposing a total of 21 new trees.

At 12, 12 of these will be installed along the project frontage on both North Main as well as oops.

My it's just flying all over North Main and Second Avenue.

And the remaining nine trees will be planted on site wherever there's feasible space to install trees.

And I wanted to also point out the proposed metal or steel fencing that will be installed along the north end, shown here with that dashed line.

And from that point, um, there will be a eight-foot-tall split-face CMU sound wall that will be installed along that west elevation.

And the other request before you tonight is the sign ordinance exception.

The applicant is proposing two identical wall signs, both totaling 91 square feet.

Um here I just wanted to point out that the wall sign that is along the north main street facade.

This will be a little bigger only because our sign ordinance does require the backer panel to be incorporated in the total sign area.

So that's going to be 145 square feet.

But the the letters and the size of the overall sign is 91 square feet.

And I believe we have a sample board here that really shows you that it's a met um that that facade is like a um ribbed metal system.

So the real purpose of that backer panel is just to have a mounting method, a flat surface to install signage.

And uh the total sign area with the two monument signs included will be 275 square feet.

Uh so the sign exception is required because the city's code does uh limit a um a ground floor single tenant um commercial building to uh two 200 square feet of maximum sign area, even given that this project has two frontages.

Um this uh city I'd be sorry, the staff and the commission did support this request because it's really in scale with the building.

The proposed signage isn't acting as advertisement or uh excessive signage, it really meets the intent of uh the signage as well as um it it's in scale of the building.

And here's uh the proposed 24 square foot uh freestanding sign that located along that north main uh street frontage.

Here is the proposed uh service freestanding sign.

Uh this sign is 14 square feet and it's located right there by the um when vehicles are pulling up into that service center.

I'm not good with this clicker, but it's basically pulling up uh so the really the intent behind that is more way finding or directional.

Uh so uh vehicles as they approach that area can find the uh location.

And um here is a layout of the existing part uh the proposed parking.

This project is exempt from parking under AB 2097 as uh a portion of the site uh does fall within that half mile of the Pleasant Hill Barge Station.

However, the applicant is providing sufficient parking on site.

Uh 48 surface parking stalls.

Uh what you see blue shaded blue are the uh customer parking stalls, and then the orange is just for display vehicles, and there's several parking spaces uh further to the north side of this project uh site for employee parking or customer parking if needed.

And then there are um 123 spaces internally in the building uh for vehicle uh storage in the um in the basement as well as the uh rooftop.

So this um project uh does um meet the um or qualify for the class 32 CEQA infill exemption as it does meet that criteria that is uh listed um on this slide.

And I'm happy to go over any of this if needed, but it really meets the intent of the code as well as the size threshold, and there were technical studies provided really to confirm uh confirming to the city that uh there would be uh no less than significant impacts from this project.

And with that um staff does recommend that the city council adopt the class 32 uh CEQA exemption as well as introduce the planned uh development ordinance and approve the project entitlements um that are included in attachment two of your packet tonight, uh and those consist of design review, sign ordinance exception, tree removal permit, and a tree drip line encroachment permit.

And uh that is all I have for my presentation, but I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Samara.

And you mentioned that the applicant also has a presentation that they'd like to and they do have a presentation, correct?

Okay, so uh if you right now, if there's any questions just for staff, or would you prefer to hear the presentation from the applicant and then ask questions?

Yeah, okay.

So let's do that.

Okay and uh then we'll determine who gets what question side should I say it?

Okay, sorry.

Hi, good evening.

Um glad to be here finally.

Um I wanted to start out by first telling council, and we've had a really great time with staff.

They've been fantastic.

Um Erica, Simmer, Brian, Matt have all been really supportive and helped us do a fairly complicated site plan and planning process.

So I wanted to put the first shout out to them because they they were really great.

And for the audience at home and for us up here, would you mind introducing yourselves, Steve?

Oh, sorry.

See, I've been here so often.

I think you feel like in front of us though.

Yeah.

Steven Scanlon, I'm I'm with the applicant.

I'm the developer.

Great.

Um I wanted to start out with a quick overview of why we're here.

Um first and foremost is retention of the dealership.

Fletcher Jones wants to stay in Walnut Creek.

Um second is uh they really need to modernize.

And that means a consolidation of all of the facilities and operational footprint.

And I think Simmer touched on it.

It's a it's a completely different dealership today than it was 25 years ago.

Um the third thing is we're moving from lease property to own property.

It was an opportunity to buy the site, and that allows for the retention of the dealership and security going forward.

Um and then the last was uh Porsche obsolescence.

If you can't meet their next uh generation, and James will go into this in much more detail, but if you can't meet their next generation, you sort of get kicked out of the family.

And so a part of a part of the other driving force was being able to come up to operational um 2025.

Got it?

Okay.

Good evening, council members.

My name is James Spence.

I am the project architect with Gensler.

I am presenting um with Stephen Scanlin on behalf of Fletcher Jones.

So uh as Steven mentioned, our generation five Porsche dealership, that's what you see here.

Um that's what's going to be driving that um really dynamic uh frontage that you see there on the corner with the rounded metal panel, um the accent white metal panel, and then kind of the ribbed uh black metal panel that surrounds the shop.

I'll get uh to those uh finishes later in the presentation, but just wanted to touch on kind of the newest version, the state-of-the-art design that Porsche is driving with this new model.

Um that's what we're presenting to you tonight.

Um it is really uh they're looking to elevate um their dealership, their luxury dealership even further.

Um so that's what the generation five is for.

Um this program's attention to detail does ensure a seamless design, both for the aesthetics and for the operations around the site, um, as well as the customer journey too.

Um it's meant to evoke the precision of a Porsche automobile, um, which is why they're very proud of this design.

And um with this approach, especially with the significant grade across the site that Simmer touched on earlier.

Um we are striving to build uh this elevated aesthetic um while matching the site's requirements and uh really hoping to match that aesthetic that defines uh the city of Walnut Creek.

And because we're doing this uh generation five dealership, uh there's some economic growth that occurs.

Uh there'll be in addition to the job retention.

Um the Porsche family allocates another 25 to 30 percent new vehicles as a part of meeting the generation five upgrade.

That represents a significant increase in revenue 95 to up to 118 million dollars in sales annually.

The uh increase in service tax revenue, they recognize about a 30 to 40 percent increase in service tax, and that's another 1.2 million dollars in revenue.

And then there's the increase in property tax.

The current dealership land is worth about 14 million.

That's what it's on the tax roll.

And projected tax would be the projected base construction is around 40 million.

So it's a significant increase.

And then uh Simmer touched on it, but I just wanted to throw some numbers at you.

There were four study areas in the sequel infill exemption.

The uh traffic, the traffic reduction was around 320 trips.

Um in the air quality categories, construction didn't exceed the thresholds, operations does not exceed thresholds, and health risk assessment is um below a lot the allowed limits.

Umise, construction was less than significant, val ground vibration does not exceed the annoyance level.

And operationally, everything we have that creates noise is shielded and closed and attenuated.

And then final is water, and we meet all the stormwater runoff for the project, and we meet the requirements of both state and peds and the city.

Thanks, Stephen.

So um we wanted to spend a few slides talking about neighborhood mitigations.

Um from our time here at the DRC meeting, the PCH meeting.

Um we were listening to the neighbors uh on Varton Court as well as uh you know west of west of that um voice their concerns with the dealership, and we wanted to make sure that we are being respectful neighbors because we are um you know right up against their back property line.

So spinning a just a couple of slides touching on the design elements that we are using to address that relationship.

So the first is the eight-foot split face CMU sound wall that Simmer touched on earlier.

We have two elevations here, one showing the one showing the elevation itself, and then the one below showing what that elevation is going to look like with the sound wall in front of it.

You will also notice that our west elevation face has no finestration.

There's no windows into the second floor into the first floor.

There are no opportunities for sight lines visibility over to the west property line.

Another concern that was brought up was our overhead door.

We do have one overhead door leading to our shop space that's going to be there in the center area.

So that's going to be a high speed roll-up door that will remain closed for a majority of the business day.

That will only be open for a few seconds when service cars come in and out.

So it'll be closed most of the time.

This building is going to be or the shop at least is going to be 12-inch thick pre-cast concrete walls.

It's a pretty high STC rating.

There will be little to no sound coming out of that shop, but that sound wall that we're providing will eliminate any additional sound that may escape that shop.

It's going to help uh with sight lines as well.

I'll get to that in the next slide.

But we provided a rendering.

You can see the sound wall there on the left side.

And then the other thing I wanted to mention is the existing trees west of our property line.

We wanted to try and maintain and tree retention for any and all existing valley oaks there.

There's a 20-inch and a 12 to 18 inch valley oak that we have jogged our sound wall around in order to avoid the root ball to try and retain those trees.

Still touching on that sound wall.

These are a couple of exhibits just showing sight lines from an individual standing on Varton Court looking over to our property, also showing that 30-foot uh setback, building setback that Simmer touched on earlier.

Next up is our lighting.

So one of the concerns is of course light spill.

We want to make sure that we are eliminating any light spill, not only to the west but to the north property lines.

This is our photometric plan showing the foot candles.

We have a zero foot candle at our west property line and our north.

We will also be shading all of our site fixtures so that there is no direct light that will bleed into any neighboring property.

And the other thing to mention is that our lights are also going to be on a timer so that at sunset that will reduce the lighting levels so that the Fletcher Jones team can still keep lighting on for security purposes of their inventory, but it is going to bring the lighting level down in respect for the neighbors that we have next door.

So another thing we wanted to address is the noise.

We have absorbed a lot of our program elements within the footprint of our building, most of its interior.

But we will have a few operations that do take place outside of the building.

So that's going to be uh things like vehicle delivery, parts delivery, uh trash and oil pickup.

So all of that is going to be uh occurring in that planned northeast corner that you see highlighted there.

We're trying to take it away from that west property line.

We will keep it all on site.

None of this will be happening on North Main.

None of it will be happening on 2nd Avenue.

It will be happening on site and in that northeast corner.

And just to mention that these were this area was particularly studied in the noise study, and it had no significant impact.

Um I think the biggest concern from the neighbors is that of traffic and the right turn onto second avenue.

So what we are going to provide is additional wayfinding signage.

Um this we have uh kind of a mock-up sample shown here, but it is going to encourage no right turns onto 2nd Avenue.

Um the Fletcher Jones team is also going to make sure that their um their employees, when they do take test drives out, they will head to North Main Street.

They will not turn right onto second, um, they will not be directed in that direction.

Um we do have to note that there was um a call for maybe modifying the curb at that entrance off of 2nd Avenue because of the fire lane that we need the fire lane width that we need to keep there.

Um, there's no ability to to compress that that curb cut on second avenue.

And speaking of fire, so we do have our 26 foot wide fire apparatus lane um there that wraps the south and east side of the buildings.

Um in addition to that, we are we will be following all city and fire department code regulations as far as fire suppression is concerned, especially taking into consideration that we will have EV vehicles being serviced in the shop.

We will have a battery storage that's going to be attached to our dumpster storage there in the northeast corner.

Um we'll be meeting all city and fire department regulations.

Um we will also be um storing EV fire blankets in our Porsche tool room that is the larger one that's circled within the main um sorry, the main building there.

So uh those will be on hand if there are any incidents within the actual shop as they're being worked on.

And then just to run through the floor plan real quick, our basement level.

This is going to be mostly inventory or staging.

That'll also be the cars that the customers have dropped off for maintenance.

Um and then we have four car wash bays down in the north uh sorry, the southwest corner.

We're going to bring that inside again, the field building footprint so it's not exposed to the exterior.

Level one, we have our showroom, um, our main showroom there at the corner.

Um we have an internal service drive, and then uh to the plan north, we have our shop.

So the shop in um relation to the site is actually going to be stepping down two additional feet.

So there's going to be a ramp between our service drive and that shop to take those cars down the additional two feet.

That's just in reaction to the grading we have heading plan north.

And then our our top level level two, um, we do have additional showroom on the second level, an additional certified pre-owned um display, and then the rest of the parking on that roof will be um sorry, employee access only.

Uh, it's going to be inventory.

So that's what they'll take customers out if they want to look in additional cars.

And then uh lastly, we uh this is uh the our exterior elevations, you kind of get a feeling of of how that grade is going to slope from the south side of the site to the north and how we're reacting to it, um, but also touching on the generation five finishes that we have applied to this design.

So we have our Porsche silver gray metal panel that's wrapping the showroom.

Um we have the accent white metal panel that's going to be signifying the customer entry point there at the corner.

And then wrapping the rest of the building is going to be the black ribbed um metal panel uh that uh yeah will wrap the shop and the uh shop amenities to the plan north.

Um we're also going to have um screens for all of our mechanical units uh as well as the um the dumpster enclosure, the uh battery uh enclosure, and then the uh generator that we'll have on site.

So all of those will be screamed in the same fashion with the uh with that metal pan, that ripped metal panel.

Uh a couple of additional um elevations will have a painted stucco there on the north face.

Oh, and then I thought I had one more okay.

You can just keep it there.

So uh, and then just a few more uh money shots for the dealership.

So um, you know, this is truly um you know a great opportunity for the Fletcher Jones team.

We're very excited for this project.

Um, we appreciate the city's consideration.

Um our commitment is simple to build a project that the city can be proud of, that the residents feel comfortable living beside, and that contributes positively to the city of Walnut Creek for decades to come.

So we respectfully request your consideration and look forward to working together.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

So we're gonna bring it back to council now for questions, but I want to be respectful if we have anybody here for public comments because sometimes we can get into a little deeper into this than uh than usually at the council level we would see.

So let's let's start out by a couple of questions that uh are burning questions from the council side, and then we'll uh we'll go to public comment, and if there's further questions afterwards, we'll bring it back to council at that point.

So let's start with uh council member DeVinny.

Are these my burning questions or just my regular questions?

Your burning questions now before we go to public comment.

I'm I'm good.

You're good.

Okay.

Mayor Protam.

Burning question.

Um thank you for the presentation.

Thank you for the level of effort that's gone into these plans.

Thank you for listening to the neighbors and making changes.

I'm particularly interested in hearing about the perspective from Varton Court.

And you you touched on it a bit in terms of the neighbor mitigations, but maybe if you can just elaborate if there's some sort of visual that shows the landscape screening plus the sound wall.

And there's a pretty hefty setback, I think, as well from the property line.

Maybe if you can just reiterate kind of what what design changes went into that thought process.

Sure.

Are we allowed to pull the okay?

So I'm gonna bring it down to this.

So the exhibits right here.

Uh one thing to mention is that the um the site grades change from the north side of the site to the south.

So as you go from north to south, that grade change between our neighbor to the west and our site is going to increase.

So that's what's shown here.

Section B is taken further to the north, where there's less of a difference, section A to the south.

Your point about Sorry, the high the highest point is that knoll on the site, basically toward the west, right?

That's correct, yes.

Okay.

Um to your point about the kind of the foliage, the trees in between, we don't have a section showing that, but there are existing trees that we are wanting to preserve, the ones I mentioned earlier that were jogging the wall in order to preserve those.

Um there's not a a precise way to show the exact amount of screening and coverage that those existing trees are going to provide.

Um, but we were hoping that in order to kind of give that visual, that's kind of what these sight line exhibits are are providing and the trees and the landscaping are focused more on the southern portion.

Those are existing, right?

That's correct.

Um there's uh I think uh a smattering of s of trees on the west uh uh outside of our property line that will remain that stretch from the north to the south of the site.

Um but uh you know they will be they will be uh you know they'll exist and we uh we're not planning on planting anything on our site because we just don't have the space between our sound wall, our proposed sound wall, and the property line.

Um there's just not going to be the uh the ability to include anything there.

We would have had to push the sound wall back towards the property, the the adjacent on the sorry sorry, the microphone, so the people we would have had to push so it I was in the middle of the whole tree thing and what uh I went out walking it, walked in the backyards, met the neighbors, and we came up with we came to the conclusion that we would jog the sound wall, help preserve the trees in the existing foliage, and but that narrows what we have to work with on our side of the wall.

So we can't really put a lot of trees on our side of the wall.

So it was a question of keep the existing and stay away from the neighbors and provide a buffer or put more trees on our side, but potentially lose some of that buffer.

Okay, and the the other one, uh question, burning question.

If you know, uh what is what are the plans for the current dealership site?

There's still about five years left on the lease.

So the the immediate is to use it during construction and then retain it during the lifespan of the lease.

And I my understanding is that they might not release it, but no no definite plan yet.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Darling?

Hi, I just wanted to double check on a couple things.

Um I saw in some of the letters from the neighbors concern about construction impacts and um whether or not pest control is gonna happen prior to demolition and I actually made that call today.

So pest control is going out there, it's imminent.

Okay.

And then during construction, um, the typical measures to um control dust and can keep impacts.

Yeah, we all have to be 88.

So it's a couple things.

Now in California, everything is tier four.

So the the um health risk assessment came back well below.

And then uh we have noise attenuation requirements also, no idling of equipment, any of that.

And then the idea is to get the sound wall up as soon as possible.

Okay.

So phasing-wise sound wall will go in before as early as we can.

Okay, right.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Silva, burning questions.

Burning question is can you help elaborate on what we're actually looking at in this diagram?

Because I see a little person.

Yes, I can help with that.

You know, I'm just James.

You've got it's it's a bigger person.

No.

Um there's a lot of lines on here.

What are we looking at and what is that person?

Where is that person standing?

And are they standing in the backyard of Varton Court?

Because it looks like they're standing on a wall.

So yeah, they would be staying in the backyard, uh, their backyard.

And the so I'll point out a few things.

So this, that is the property line right here.

Um is showing our 30-foot building setback.

And then this isn't this is a site plan, not an elevation.

Yes, I could read the words, but I'm looking at the drawing trying to translate.

This is a site plan.

So yeah, yeah, so this is yeah, this is a section here.

Okay.

This is a section here.

So this is showing kind of a section through our building, the elevation of the building in relation to the six-foot individual that's standing in the backyard on Varn Court.

Okay, and where is the wall?

The wall is this piece right here.

This is the eight-foot wall.

Okay, so what looks like this is ground that the wall is on.

That is correct.

Okay.

So you can tell that the grade difference in section B on the top section is less than the grade difference in section A, because that grows as you head plan south, if that makes sense.

And is this person standing at the back wall of their house?

Close to approximately.

It's approximately.

Okay, thank you.

I mean, you can't tell the I know you.

Happy to clarify.

So when we look at what is the distance between the person and the sound wall and the person and the back wall of the west wall of the dealership so the distance between the property line and the face of our building is 30 feet.

So we're looking at it's roughly 25 to 30 feet that the off of the west property line that the individual is standing at.

And then this is this section, section A right here, is taken where the wall jogs.

So it's roughly seven and a half feet from the property line.

So that's the 25 plus seven and a half feet that the person is away from that wall.

And then up here in section B, you've got about two and a half feet from the wall to the property line.

So it's about five feet closer to that individual.

Thank you.

My other question, and this will require a little bit of math off to the side.

If this, if all of the operations it that are being proposed for this modernization of the Porsche dealership, the Gen 5 were to be done in a flat single story exterior parking lot, etc.

for inventory, how many acres would it take?

This is 2.38 acres.

What would it take to and you don't have you can answer and round two?

I mean, we'd I mean you can correct my my rough math here, but we'd be looking at almost double the size of a site in order to you said 2.3 uh acres.

2.38, yeah.

So five acres.

Almost five.

So twice the size.

In order to in order to uh have the inventory space um for the vehicles that are being stored.

You take you would you would take all sorry, you take all the inventory space on the roof and bring that to the ground and then the basement space that were the services that would also be translated to the ground.

So it'd be significant.

That's what I thought.

Thank you.

All right.

That uh that wraps up round one of the the burning questions, anyway.

So what we're gonna do right now is turn this uh open this item for public comment.

So if there are members of the public that would like to speak on this item, please step forward to the podium, uh line up against the wall.

There's a speaker card, you can get speaker cards at the back.

You don't you can fill that out afterwards if you do speak.

You don't have to do fill it up right now, just do it right after you speak.

Um and uh once the podium, please introduce yourself and the city of residence consistent with city policies related to public comments.

Each speaker will have two minutes to make your remarks, written comments submitted.

If any have been posted to the city's website for public review and are included in the meeting record, but will not be separately read into the record.

So now please come up and speak and introduce yourself.

Thank you.

Uh my name's Keith O'Hara.

I have a I bought a building across the street on 2nd Avenue a few years ago commercial, and I operate my business out of there.

I'm a HVAC and insulation contractor.

And um it uh the property across the street's awful.

Like it's just been lots of transients, things like that, and all kinds of stuff I've been burglarized over half a dozen times, like it's awesome.

I'm welcome, Portia as a neighbor, and maybe one day as a customer.

Uh if I could ever want four porches be awesome.

Um but uh the one only concern I have like I I don't try to step on toes on building and everything I've been building since I was like 18 years old.

But the only thing I concern with is second avenue is unloading cars, uh like the big trucks unloading everything, like it will make that street a mess.

Like I get deliveries, my neighbor commercial property gets deliveries, and the residents on second avenue, like it's it gets kind of congested there.

I didn't never saw that in the plan.

I think today they spoke to a little bit, they're gonna maybe unload somewhere else, or maybe on site.

But if we try to bring those big trucks on second half, I just foresee a problem, and I don't know if you could do anything about it, but it's uh really the only issue I have.

Like I I welcome to have an awesome building there, and uh like I said, um uh eco performance builders across the street.

Yeah.

And if my building was a condemned building too, and then we got permits and fixed it, so it's nicer.

Not as nice as this, but uh it's all right.

Appreciate your comment.

No problem.

We'll uh we'll be sure to ask.

Hello.

Hello.

I'm I'm Robert Service.

Um I'm the property owner across North Main Street on Auto Center Drive.

And uh I'm gonna try to uh make this as concise and possible by by reading some notes here.

Um we're a 30,000 square foot commercial complex.

Actually, we've got about 50,000 square feet of parking and 30,000 square feet of buildings.

There are nine businesses on auto center drive.

We enter and exit from North Main Street directly across from this proposed site.

So I'm here to emphasize the critical need to maintain vehicle access for those turning into and out of auto center drive.

Um previously, when we were debating the uh Amy's drive-through, the city had come forward and the traffic department had discussed putting a medium up on North Main Street in the center divider, and the concern for us on Auto Center Drive was that we would not be able to make left-hand turns out of auto center drive, and we would have a difficult time getting our delivery vehicles, tow trucks, uh, various business traffic in and out of the complex.

So that's my first thing I'd like to ask the council about or to uh bring to your attention is that if this particular development requires a center divider, that would be a non-starter for us and would be uh would make a strong impact on the businesses down on Auto Center Drive.

Uh the second thing I'd like to bring up is the traffic congestion on North Main Street.

Um traffic during peak hours on North Main Street, backs up all the way from Treat Boulevard through the second avenue intersection every day.

And there are problems with the tree boulevard intersection.

That should be addressed if we're going to develop this property.

So traffic backup mitigation.

Got it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Uh any other public comments on this public hearing.

All right.

Well, seeing none, we're going to close the public comment, bring it back to council.

Uh I have a feeling there's going to be a couple of question follow-ups right now.

So uh let me I'll ask you start.

Uh Simmer, if you can come up, that would be great.

So we we heard from some of the business owners.

And uh I think uh if we can address a couple of questions of are we looking at there being some kind of a center divider?

Is that been discussed?

Um is there concern about unloading cars on second avenue?

Did that come up during the planning commission?

So there's been no talk of the center divide.

Um wouldn't be anything to do with the a part of this project.

And the next question was regarding Unloading cars on second avenue.

All of the loading and unloading is happening on site.

Um see if I could show you this.

So all the loading and unloading will happen right along the north main um access, right?

All on site.

There'll be nothing uh uh happening in the public right-of-way or on the street.

Uh I did want to ask because the the no right turn on second uh obviously has been brought up by a number of residents.

I appreciate the fact that that has been addressed uh by the comments that we've heard.

Using this diagram, it looks like there is an access point onto 2nd Avenue in the lower left.

Is that would that then therefore be left turn only?

Yes, so it would be a left turn.

Uh no, it'd be a left turn.

Yeah, it'll be a left turn to go on to North Main Street.

Yes.

To exit the site.

But they're now this is just in general.

Anybody coming down from North Main Street from North to South, they can turn on 2nd Avenue residents, whoever.

Okay.

Although I imagine people that are test driving a Porsche are probably not even on Second Avenue.

That's not the right street, regardless whether the I think even initially that was the applicant's intent not to have test drive vehicles go up second AV.

One, like you said, I don't think anybody would want to go slow in a Porsche.

Right, right.

But because of uh the public comments, we've prohibited all vehicles and not just test drive vehicles from turning right.

Right.

Police department taking notes of who's uh speeding on any street.

Um then there was one more qu well the traffic congestion in treat in North Main, I mean that does tend to be a problem just during commute times in general.

I know that part of that is being discussed within the county.

There was a one of the transportation questions that came up on the tree corridor that there looked like there was going to be some kind of trap um traffic light changes and upgrades to address some of that congestion.

Would this be uh would that be accomplished then the the concern with the tree corridor improvements?

It's a great question.

We have the city's traffic engineer here, and maybe they could speak more on that.

I I don't have an answer on that one.

We have to give Matt a reason to be here for uh two hours.

Hi, uh Matt Redmond, uh City Traffic Engineer.

So this project would be totally separate at the tree corridor.

You know, the tree corridor project uh would add bike facilities along treat, and that's led by the county.

Um and this would be a proposed development that would really not impact that develop that project.

Okay.

So just in general, there's backups, but this obvious the but the but the project itself wouldn't impact one way or the other.

Right.

And that's a that's detailed in the uh the sequel analysis.

Can I ask them a follow-up question?

Um thank you for being here, Matt.

So really for the um neighbor across auto center, that little road that has a change in topography that makes this look flat in comparison.

But the existing condition on North Main Street and the addition of or the improvement to this project project and the Porsche dealership as proposed, how will that impact the North Main Street traffic and does it impact it in there?

Do we need to require the dealership to mitigate its additional traffic for any reason?

Yeah, so you know, as as the report said, um the site already allows by right uh this type of use, and this particular dealership is not anticipated to change go over that allowed use by right.

And it's not going to increase the existing condition of the MASEs.

I mean, they already have traffic, they're just moving in and out.

No.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any further questions?

One for Matt before he sits down.

Then just to just to ship the final nail in it, then from a traffic engineering standpoint, without the median or any other kind of off-site improvements, you don't foresee any conflicts between the Porsche dealership and auto center drive or businesses across 2nd Street from a traffic operational standpoint.

You believe that this would function appropriate.

Well, I think I think initially, you know, the the right turn out.

I think removing that um is a good mitigation for second avenue.

Um I don't think that's necessary.

And so with the residents' comments, I think the developer did change that.

And so I think that's a great mitigation.

Um for North Main, you know, as long as they're doing the um car vehicle loading unloading on site, um, I don't see any issues there as well.

So there's no median like was said, so there's no no there should be no issues um on the across the street.

Thank you.

Can I ask him another question?

One more question.

You may not be able to answer this, but the car carriers are what how big are they?

They're about 72 feet in length.

You said 72 feet in length.

They're longer than my couch.

Okay.

We we can't dispose of them as bulky.

So where exactly are are they gonna pull in from coming south on North Main?

I always love going south on North Main and north on South Main.

They will put yes, they will pull in the curb cut on North Main.

Um they will turn right coming, they'll come south on the They'll come south on North Main, they'll turn right into that curb cut, they'll turn right to go north on the site.

And they'll unload the car somewhere near the pink spots.

Yes.

And how do they get the car carrier off the property?

The truck would follow the one uh way that we have allotted for that lane.

It's actually it runs counterclockwise on the site.

Can you point out the case?

Yes.

So the car carriers pointed nose in toward VARTAN.

So car carriers pointed west, correct?

Right.

So they will follow the counterclockwise uh motion of the vehicles on site.

They will then they will not exit on a second avenue.

They will follow the curve around the site.

Again, we have our uh clear 26 foot width here for the fire lane, so they'll have plenty of turning radius and then they'll exit back onto North Main.

And then we're gonna do that.

In which they will turn right.

They'll turn south on North Main.

Figure out where to go from there.

Correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, seeing do you have a question?

Okay.

So the the sound wall is uh eight feet, right?

Is that a uniform across the area there?

Yes.

And then I'm assuming, but I'm just checking that was that height was determined based on the sound studies.

Or was it just sort of a this is the height of our sound walls?

That was partial.

Um that was partially why it was at eight feet was because of the sound studies.

Um it's it's also kind of one of the standard heights that we use.

You know, sometimes there's six, some other times you'll go eight.

Um when you're dealing with split-face CMU, it's kind of one of the kind of regular heights that you'd be going at and eight um kind of was the best optimal uh height for us in this condition.

Yeah, and just the the best optimal height based on sound mitigation.

Based on sound mitigation, yes.

Or based on like cost, or I'm just trying to determine was this driven by the city based on the city's code does require an eight foot tall um uh wall to uh be placed in that location because uh the commercial use abuts a residential neighborhood.

That's a requirement perfectly.

Uh but um I did want to um highlight or point out that the noise study did not require the wall.

It was the applicant when they submitted their formal application, they incorporated the wall right from the beginning.

So it wasn't something that was asked of of them because of the noise.

That's great.

Okay.

And then um the right turn.

So the no right turn on second avenue.

Um I know the neighbors wanted to perhaps even take that a step further by putting in a curb.

Um I know that sometimes in intersections where you're not supposed to take a turn where you might naturally want to do so, uh, there might be more than one sign.

I was wondering in that location, would having a sign directly across the street, so as you're pulling out, uh saying no right turn help in addition to the the one that might get missed on your way out that's kind of off-site off-site signage or on-site.

Yeah, like like um right.

So if you're heading out onto 2nd Street, you're pulling out.

Yeah, you would look straight across the street to the opposite side of the street and see a no right turn sign as opposed to just having one right where you pull out kind of tucked in there to the left.

Again, just sort of mirroring what happens in the like at other city streets where you're not supposed to turn where it's normally very intuitive to take a turn.

Yeah, we could consider additional directions.

Um you said all the lights are shaded.

Um I'm assuming that means that if during the course of operation some of the lights were problematic for the neighbors, there's like additional shading opportunities that could be put on those so they could be adjusted to help with the the light bleeding into the There are, but we are we're proactively like they are physical shades that drop down from where the aperture is and it blocks any direct light that may but yes, they are adjustable so that if there are any concerns from Varton, um they can be adjusted.

Okay.

And then and then this one is um a little off topic, but the the blankets it concerned me a little bit when I found out you have like fire retardant blankets.

Is the idea that if an electrical vehicle catches on fire that you would have staff apply a blanket only because the toxic metals and respiratory irritants that come out of electrical car battery fires, I wouldn't want layman like laying blankets on those cars, they should call hazmat.

Uh it's true.

Uh that so the EV blankets are a um it's it's an immediate use and it doesn't take uh uh the mechanics are trained.

I don't know if they're if trains the right word, um, but they are aware of them, especially those that do work on EVs, not all techs will work on EV vehicles.

Um so this was a concern.

Um it's not a Porsche requirement.

This was a concern from uh uh uh a neighbor on Varton um that we wanted to make sure that they felt comfortable.

This is supposed to suppress or at least attempt to suppress that fire in a more immediate nature than waiting for hazmat and fire suppression to show.

And that was vetted with the fire marshal or we had fire department buy-in on that concept.

What we are uh it's a part of our review, which is ongoing.

So um we want to make sure that we're meeting their regulations, but also the the neighborhoods as well.

But yes, we're proposing it to the fire department.

Okay.

All right.

Seeing no further questions.

Um you have another question?

Or is there another question?

Okay.

Thank you.

Um could you go back to the site plans that show the service bays?

It's in it's in my presentation.

You have a good view of that.

So this one um you get a good view of the I wonder if I can get the.

So helping understand I'm bringing my vehicle in to be serviced.

Can you kind of like trace the line of where I most likely let's say I turn left on second avenue and right into the driveway?

Where do I bring my vehicle and where does my vehicle go?

Of course.

Why did why do you get the red dot and I only get the mouse, the cursor?

How did you make that work?

Yeah.

So if you follow my mouse cursor.

Um so yes, if they turn uh onto second avenue and then right into the curb cut, the customer will take their car.

Um the service drive signage that we have right here at the beginning of our service drive.

Right.

Um so they would come into our service drive, they would park their car here in the interior service drive where a porter or valet would come out and take their car.

They the service advisor.

And then where does my car go from there?

So your car will either go immediately down this ramp and into the shop to be serviced if there is an open stall.

Okay.

If not, they will come out the uh shop door here and head down to the um sorry, uh I'm going a little quick there.

Um, but they will follow our uh our um road there around to the basement entry, the level zero entry here, in which we have a holding bay.

A holding bay.

So they call it staging, so the staging slash inventory spaces that we have on level zero.

So that roll-up door that is sitting on the west side?

On the west side, that is could open for the car to go.

And uh that's not a one-way driveway.

So it reduces to a one-way driveway at the at the jog.

Um we are maintaining a two-way just so that they can turn right and make their way down to the uh the basement level.

And then when it's time they've got room to take my car, it has to reverse the correct.

It would it would reverse path to get to the shop.

So that roll-up door goes up and down maybe four times an hour.

My um it varies.

It uh it's gonna be busier on say Saturdays, you know, when more people are bringing their cars in.

But um I really couldn't give you a uh a number of that many times, but um their Ritech is the brand, the manufacturer that we use.

That door is up in uh under two seconds and down in under five, I believe.

So it won't rattle like my garage door?

No, not even close.

We will invite you out to watch it to to watch it roll up.

It's uh it's a lot of fun to press the button yourself.

Wow.

So the drive aisle that is along the west edge is for the car carriers to get off pro are around to the come in and come around.

That is correct.

And then to basically move vehicles from the service base into the holding zone and back.

Correct.

We wanted to use kind of the back, the rear end of our site where the inventory or the staging and kind of the operations, the day-to-day operations would be hidden more so from 2nd Avenue and from North Main.

And when you're done with my car, where does it go so that I can pick it up?

All right.

Well, if I we can we can we can all dream.

I have a friend that has two of them.

So where does the car go when it's ready for me to pick up?

I don't go down and get it out of the service space myself.

They will not allow customers down in into that area.

So uh you'll be enjoying a latte or a cappuccino or your uh drink of choice in the lounge in the showroom space.

Uh they will call you out when your car is ready.

They will have pulled it into the service drive.

There's going to be so it's hard to see here, but there are three overhead doors, three lanes in the service drive.

The third will be used as an outgoing lane.

So the car doesn't go out that roll-up door on the west side and come around.

It will not.

It will go out.

It's going in this door here.

All right.

So that use of that roll-up door on the west side is only when there's not enough room in the service space on the employee and employee use only, yes.

Okay.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Are there any other looking at my notes?

Any other questions?

All right.

Uh then we'll bring about council now for any further comments.

Uh and uh or consideration of a motion.

Uh any further comments?

Yeah, I'll lead it off.

I I just want to uh thank the ownership group, the applicant, um, city staff for working with the neighbors for carefully considering this project.

I think it's a really exciting project.

I think it's exactly it uh accomplishes several of our priorities in terms of economic development, environmental sustainability.

I know you have a pretty comprehensive um EV fleet, and so I'm excited about that.

And you know, the the significant increase in uh potential sales tax revenue that will come from the dealership.

So I'm I'm very pleased to see and thank you for your reinvestment in our city for doubling down and making this uh new dealership of the dealership for the 21st century uh cementing your presence in Walnut Creek.

And so I'd be happy to make a motion to appropriate to adopt a resolution determining that the Porsche dealership projects exempt from CEQA pursuant to the class 32 infill exemption, waive the reading and introduce an ordinance rezoning the two-acre parcel at 2717 North Main Street, 1532nd Avenue, and 1510 2nd Avenue, thereby creating the Porsche dealership plan development district.

But wait, there's more and adopt the resolution approving the design review, tree removal and drip line encroachment permits and tree drip line and sign ordinance exception for the Porsche dealership project effective upon the effective date of the enabling ordinance, creating the Porsche dealership plan development district.

And I would echo um the mayor pro tem statement, and I also really appreciate the amount of time and energy staff and the applicant have put into meeting with the neighbors and working things out with them.

Um I think this will be a great addition, and so I'd be happy to second what he said.

We have a motion of second um before we take a roll call with any other comments that anybody would like to make.

You go you can also make them during your vote.

Did oh I agree.

And it's an exciting project.

Looking forward to it.

And I like the fact that people can actually purchase directly at the store and not have to do it online.

That always helps our tax revenue too, as we talked about earlier.

Uh great uh city clerk, could you please call the roll?

Mayor Pro Tem Francois.

Hi.

Councilmember Darling.

Hi.

Councilmember Davinny.

Hi.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi, Mayor Welk.

Hi.

Motion carries.

All right.

So yes, we'll let why don't we take uh we've got one item left.

Why don't we take a five?

Is five minutes if you want to have five minutes?

And we're back.

Uh next on the item is uh on the agenda is the consideration of the fiscal year 2027 budget balancing recommendations.

And I invite administrative services director Kirsten LeCast forward to provide the presentation.

Thank you.

Good evening, Mayor Wilk, Mayor Pro Tem Francois, and members of council, Kirsten Lacasse administrative services director.

Tonight I'm going to be walking you through the fiscal year 27 budget balancing recommendations.

So tonight we're first going to touch on the fiscal year 26 and 27 general fund adopted budget, and then what has changed since this council adopted the budget?

Some proposed balancing options, and then finally staff's recommendation for rebalancing fiscal year 2027.

What we're asking of you this evening is to provide input and feedback on the proposed recommendation for rebalancing the fiscal year 27 adopted budget.

The fiscal year 2020 26 and 27 adopted budget included 6.33 million of reductions in order to balance.

These reductions included measures that were ongoing, short-term and one-time.

The ongoing reductions included eliminating one and a quarter FTE, reducing hourly staff, and reducing overtime on the personnel side.

ONM reductions included a reduction in planned maintenance and repairs, which led to a more reactionary response.

Contracted services were brought in-house, impacting staff capacity, and we reduced marketing and advertising for leisure center events.

These reductions totaled $3.31 million.

Short-term and one-time reductions totaling just over $3 million included using the pension trust and reserve to offset rising pension costs, increasing the budgeted vacancy rate, and reducing the amount of the general fund contributed to capital projects by about $300,000 each year.

In order to meet the reserve requirements, both fiscal year 26 and 27 required reserve contributions were funded from fiscal year 25 year end savings.

So in general, just to I know we've talked about this a little bit, council members have talked about sales tax this evening.

And so beginning in fiscal year 25, the city experienced a reduction in sales tax revenue for what was thought to be a reporting error in the city's largest industry group, which is the autos and transportation.

In fiscal year 25, the group saw a decline of 11% as a result.

After the budget adoption in June, the city's sales tax consultant identified the reduction as a reporting change in that group, implemented by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration or CDTFA.

So the city's updated projection for fiscal year 27 has resulted in a 2.3 million deficit in the general fund.

So this reporting change is currently under audit.

However, it is impacting revenue in fiscal year 26, which will very likely continue in fiscal year 27.

Fiscal year 26 will largely stay balanced as a result of our savings from our projected 10 to 11 percent vacancy rate, but we will need to rebalance fiscal year 27.

So staff has identified three strategies for consideration to close the estimated fiscal year 27 deficit in the general fund.

The first is to maintain the existing 10%, 10 to 11 percent vacancy rate we currently have in the city, or identify ongoing reductions of about 2% of the general fund expenditures, and lastly the use of reserves.

And so I'm going to walk through each of these in more detail on the following slides.

Excuse me.

When you're sitting there, you have to really hone in on the microphone.

Your voice is not carrying all the way over here for me.

Okay, thank you.

I will do that.

Thank you.

And so the budget was adopted with a vacancy rate of 6%, whereas the actual rate of vacant positions is about 11% currently.

Which, if we've continued this vacancy rate in fiscal year 27, it would result in a budget reduction sufficient to cover the sales tax revenue shortfall.

While this is a short-term solution, there are some unknowns that once resolved would help the city determine what the real impact will be and allow the flexibility to adapt prior to reducing service levels to the community.

So these include the final outcome of CDTFA's decision on the sales tax reporting.

Staff is working with a consultant on a citywide fee study that may impact fiscal year 27, and the results of that study and recommendations for consideration will be are they are in track to be brought forward to finance committee and city council late spring.

And the update of the city's 10-year financial forecast for the general fund in the fall of 2026 in anticipation of the fiscal year 28 and 29 budget development process.

Using this approach to rebalance would mean that service levels to the community would largely stay unchanged.

However, internal staff would need to sustain these levels with fewer resources.

Another option is to identify 2% of general fund expenditures for ongoing reductions to achieve the savings needed to close the deficit.

This is a long-term approach.

However, it would have immediate service impacts.

As we mentioned earlier, the fiscal year 26 and 27 adopted budget already incorporated over 3 million in ongoing reductions.

So additional ongoing reductions in fiscal year 27 would further impact the community and staff.

This approach is consistent with council policy, keeping in mind there are still some uncertainties regarding the ongoing nature and amount of the deficit as discussed previously.

And lastly, reserves could be used to offset the deficit on a one-time basis.

The city maintains several reserves.

However, the magnitude of the revenue loss does not trigger the use requirements for the emergency reserves, but the general fund contingency reserve could be used, which has a current balance of $2.6 million.

So, based on all of the analysis, staff is recommending to maintain the existing 10 to 11% vacancy rate in fiscal year 27 to close the deficit on a short term basis.

Again, it preserves service levels to the community, allows time for key financial uncertainties to be resolved.

It provides flexibility and minimizes disruptions.

There is an impact to internal operations as it would require sustaining current service levels with fewer staff.

On February 18th, these options and staff recommendation were presented to the finance committee for feedback.

Committee members supported staff's recommendation.

The option that staff is recommending would mitigate the projected sales tax revenue loss.

However, it would not address projected impacts to other revenue sources or unforeseen increases to expenditures.

Department revenue projections for fiscal year 26 based on the second quarter results in the second quarter revenue and expenditure update earlier this evening are trending lower than anticipated.

Once we have more data from the third quarter, we'll be able to refine those projections and we'll have more information on any impacts to fiscal year 27.

If department revenue trends continue into fiscal year 27, staff will bring recommendations forward for consideration in late spring to address revenue impacts and any resulting deficit, which may include ongoing expenditure reductions.

So what again, what we are asking of you this evening is to provide input and feedback on the proposed recommendation for rebalancing the fiscal year 27 adopted budget.

And with that, staff is available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Kirsten.

And uh let me first uh ask the finance committee if you have any further questions based on what you asked earlier during your committee.

Just a comment.

Yeah.

Forgive me if you mentioned it.

Did you mention the the fee impact the the fee study that's coming up?

You did.

Yes.

Yeah, and that's one of the things that would essentially correct the department revenues.

Yeah, okay.

Questions here?

Um thank you, Kirsten.

I appreciate the thought you guys have put into this.

Do we have any kind of a prognosis on whether or not that we're going to be able to see a reversal of the tax decision that was impacting the auto sales, or do we have any idea?

At this time we don't.

We haven't heard a lot of information from CDTFA.

However, they are haven't made a final determination.

And so once we have that additional information, we will know more, and then we would have an opportunity to appeal that decision.

Okay, so we can appeal it, and then I know this distribution of sales tax revenue is an ongoing struggle on so many levels.

I I did actually send, I think we sent a letter just today that we sent it to Senator Tim Grayson as well as Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer Cahan about exactly this and the uh the auto sales tax specifically.

They've been looking for it.

And uh Senator Grayson was uh sounded very uh how should I put this?

He he was happy to receive it to give him some ability to be able to keep this conversation going.

So it's been uh received very well right now by our state representatives.

Okay, thank that was gonna be my next question.

Somebody gone and told on mom and dad, mom and dad about the other kids.

Anyway, thank you very much.

I if I could for a moment, I want to add to that.

The other thing that we're trying to work through with CDTFA in conjunction with our state representatives potentially is it something caused this to change?

Uh we were receiving this as were a couple dozen other cities who have similar arrangements as Walnut Creek with certain types of auto dealerships, and something causes to change.

And what we're really wanting to understand is what was the driver for that, what was the thinking and the rationale for doing so, and then you know, to vent for a moment's extremely frustrating that CD TFA makes this change without any communication whatsoever.

It took us months and months to decipher the reports to understand if this was an error or what was occurring, and that's why we're nearly a year later reporting this issue.

I we start reporting a few months ago, but it really took that long to unwind what was going on to try to get answers.

So it's been extremely frustrating working with the state bureaucracy with this, and I'm really hopeful that our legislators can help untangle that bureaucracy for us.

Have you had a conversation as to whether this might require an actual legislative fix of the regulatory authority?

Because clearly the CDT FA thinks they have the regulatory authority to do it any old way they want to.

Yeah, that's part of the discussion to see if there could be a legislative fix, but as it stands now, our understanding is it is within the regulatory purview of CDTFA, but it doesn't mean that it needs to remain that way in the future.

So I had a couple questions.

Could you remind me again of what the shortfall is that you're projecting?

That was when I couldn't hear you.

Oh, sorry, uh that's 2.3 million.

2.3 million, and that's for what period of time?

For fiscal year 27.

Fiscal year 27.

So that would start July 1 of this year and end in June 30th of the 27th.

Correct.

All right.

Thank you.

And the um the vacancy rate, while it's a short-term solution, it's not a one-time solution because as long as we keep the vacancy rate at that level, we continue to reap the benefit of the under expenses.

Correct.

Okay.

Thank you.

And um I think that uh thank you for explaining the way you did and the looking between the two different options.

I think uh it really elucidated that for me and uh appreciate that and thank you for the work that you've done to get us to this point on this.

So uh I'll open it up for public comment.

I do not see any public right now, so I will close public comment, bring it back to the council, and uh for a motion.

Okay.

Do you guys want to do it?

Uh councilmember DeVinny.

Do you would you like to make the motion on this one?

That did that elegant one earlier.

So find it.

Microphone.

The finance committee was so sure that this is all going to go that you're not recommended.

Um, I move to um adopt the the recommendations of staff.

Um I don't see where where what am I reading here?

Oh, just the rebalancing, the rebalancing of the fiscal year 27 adopted budget.

Second.

Oh.

All right, we'll motion a second.

All right.

Mayor Pro Tem Francois gets the second by acclamation.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Councilmember Devine.

I Mayor Pro Tem Francois.

Hi.

Councilmember Darling.

Aye.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi, very well.

I'm motion curious.

All right.

So uh we are adjourned of the regular city council meeting.

We will be back on March 17th.

And we're all here except for the