I'm Kevin Wilk, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek.

And welcome to the regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.

The City Council is conducting this meeting from the City Council Chamber.

This meeting is being video streamed and can be viewed live or later on the city's website.

As some attendees may be participating in their first Walnut Creek City Council meeting, I wanted to welcome everyone and talk briefly about the public comment process.

For each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for public comment on the item.

Thus, if you desire to speak to an item on the agenda this evening, please hold your comments until the city council considers that item.

Additionally, we have a section on the agenda titled Public Communications, which is for public comments for items not on the agenda.

Any comments during public communication should not relate to an item that is on the agenda this evening.

Consistent with section 9.5 of the City Council Handbook, 30 minutes will be initially allocated 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 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 lectern, 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.

Good evening.

I'm Kevin Wilk, Mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, and welcome to the Tuesday, April 21st, 2026 regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council.

The first item is the Pledge of Allegiance.

And I understand there are some Buena Vista Elementary School students here, and I would like you to help lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Everybody, please stand up.

And through the Republic for which it stands.

Councilmember Darling.

Here.

Councilmember Devine.

Here.

Councilmember Silva.

Here.

Mayor Pro Tem Francois.

Here.

Mayor Wilk.

Hi.

I here.

I'm already getting ahead of myself.

Our next item on the agenda is an oath of office, and I would like to invite up Robert Kersley, who's going to be taking the oath of office for the Iron Horse Corridor Management Committee.

And uh Robert, you are you are uh familiar with this, having been a prose commissioner for many years.

Would you like to say a few words?

Sure.

I just want to say it's a pleasure and an honor uh representing the city uh in in uh for this particular committee uh with the county, and I hope to fulfill the best of my abilities uh the responsibilities of the position.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, and we're certainly glad to have you back as one of our appointed representatives.

Okay.

I don't care.

You want to face the cameras, you want to face this way.

Okay.

Um please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I state your name.

Hi, Robert Kearsley.

Do solemnly swear.

You solemnly swear that I will support and defend.

That I will support and defend.

The Constitution of the United States.

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.

I guess all enemies.

Foreign and domestic.

That I will bear true faith and allegiance.

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.

And 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.

Discharge duties upon which I'm about to enter.

Upon which I'm about to enter.

Congratulations.

Welcome aboard again.

All right, we we now have a proclamation for Fair Housing Month.

And April 2026 marks the fifth 58th anniversary of the passage of the Fair Housing Act, which enunciates a national policy of fair housing for all who live in the United States.

The Fair Housing Act prohibits prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, gender, identity, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, and national origin.

And whereas California additionally prohibits discrimination based on usage of Section 8 vouchers or other public assistance and our subsidies, fair housing creates a clear benefit to our community.

Economic progress, community health, and human relations in all communities are improved by diversity and integration.

And whereas acts of housing discrimination and barriers to equal housing opportunity are inconsistent with our values of decency and fairness, and the city of Walnut Creek is committed to the mission and intent of Congress to provide fair and equal housing opportunities.

And therefore, I, Kevin Wilk, mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, on behalf of the Walnut Creek City Council, do hereby proclaim the month of April 26th as fair housing month.

And I've signed this proclamation.

And Raquel, if you would like to say a few words.

I mean, one of our board members, one hand, terrific.

Come on down.

So thank you for having us here today.

On behalf of Echo Housing, we would like to say happy Fair Housing Month.

Fair Housing Day was recognized on April 14, 2026, and we'd like to take a moment to reflect on the history of Fair Housing, both in California and across the nation.

In 1963, California passed the Rumford Fair Housing Act, the first major state law to prohibit housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, and ancestry.

However, in 1964, California voters approved Proposition 14, which overturned the Rumford Act and allowed discrimination in housing once again.

In response to this rollback, a group of dedicated volunteers from Hayward and Castro Valley came together to form Echo Housing.

The organization was officially incorporated as a nonprofit in 1965.

In 1966, Proposition 14 was ultimately ruled unconstitutional, restoring fair housing protections in California.

At the national level, the Fair Housing Act was passed on April 11th, 1968, just one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

And was signed into law by President Lyndon B.

Johnson.

This landmark legislation expanded protections against housing discrimination across the country.

Today, Echo Housing continues to carry forward the mission, partnering with Walnut Creek since 1977.

With 49 years of partnering with Walnut Creek, we remain committed to advancing fair housing and supporting our communities.

We would like to thank you again for having us here today.

Well, thank you for being here.

Why don't we do a picture?

Thank you.

Next we have a proclamation for National Library Week.

And I'll first read it and then we will be inviting Alexandria Binbach and Addie Spanbach from Conchcross Library forward.

Whereas libraries spark creativity, fuel imagination, inspire lifelong learning, offering a space where individuals of all ages can find joy throughout exploration to discover and discovery.

Libraries serve as vibrant community hubs, connecting people with knowledge, technology, and resources while fostering civic engagement, critical thinking, and cultural enrichment.

And whereas libraries empower job seekers, entrepreneurs, and lifelong learners by providing access to resources, training, and opportunities that support career growth and economic success.

And libraries nurture young minds through story times, STEAM programs, and literacy initiatives, fostering curiosity and a love of learning that lasts a lifetime.

Whereas dedicated librarians and library workers provide welcoming spaces that inspire discovery, collaboration, and creativity for all.

And libraries, librarians, and library workers across the country are joining together to celebrate National Library Week under the theme Find Your Joy.

And I, Kevin Wilk, mayor of the City of Walnut Creek, on behalf of the Walnut Creek City Council do hereby declare the week of April 19th to 25th to the 25th, 2026 as National Library Week.

And I now invite Alexandria Birnbach and Addie Spanbach from the Contrast Library Forward to accept the proclamation and please provide a brief presentation.

Okay.

Thank you, Council members.

Thank you so much to the council for having us here.

My name is Allie Bernbeck, and I'm the manager of the Ignacio Valley Library in Walnut Creek on Oak Grove Road.

And I'm Addie Spanbach.

I'm the manager of the Walnut Creek Library just across the street here in downtown.

So as we said, we're here to celebrate National Library Week, April 19th to the 25th.

It's an annual celebration highlighting the valuable role libraries, librarians, and library workers play in transforming lives and strengthening our communities.

And we also want to acknowledge that today is National Library Workers' Day.

And Allie and I are so thankful to work with such incredible staff and incredible team at both of our libraries, Ignatio Valley and Walnut Creek.

So we really want to thank them.

You see them as our frontline workers, library aides shelving, librarians and library assistants providing program and outreach throughout the community.

So if you see them, please thank them for all they do.

They really are dedicated to their work and all they do for the community here in Walnut Creek.

So this is just a slide that talks about total circulation.

Circulation of library materials continues to increase and is up 9%, demonstrating the continued usage of library of public library physical materials.

We circulated over seven million items as a library system in the past year.

So it really shows the impact libraries still have on the county.

Circulation, oops.

Circulation of digital collections continues to rise as well.

It is up 39% over the 23-24 year.

And this is due in large part to a bulking up of the collection.

The Walnut Creek Library Foundation and the friends of the Walnut Creek Library continue to make uh contributions to this collection, so we greatly appreciate their support.

The three covers shown are the most popular e-books for 2025.

So the Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins had almost 6,500 checkouts in one year.

And this slide just talks about our physical visits to the library.

They continue to rise.

Um they're up 10% from the prior year.

And so the most popular books for 2025, we broke them down by age range, but as you can see, should I share my ice cream?

Debatable.

Dogman, Good Girl's Guide to Murder, and The Women by Kristen Hanna, were all the top books from 2025.

We'll see what 2026 holds.

So we are really proud of it.

We're always expanding our digital offerings, and all of these resources are always free and available with your library card.

The newest one is Pebble Go Science, which is designed for students in kindergarten through second grade.

And it offers easy-to-read articles, games, and educational videos to teach them about math, engineering, technology, and life, earth, and space sciences as they learn to read.

We also offer expanded all access subscriptions to New York Times, which now includes cooking, games, sports coverage from the athletic, and expert product reviews from Wire Cutter.

And then finally, we updated our messaging system.

So all of our notices now have graphics and book covers when possible.

You get a due date reminder notice, and then you also get an overdue notice if your item is passed due.

So summer 2025 was a good one for us.

Lunch at the library.

This is our program that's aimed at preventing a summer nutrition gap while providing fun educational activities for participants.

It's offered at nine locations throughout the county, and this past year we served over 13,000 meals.

Our summer reading numbers also continue to rise.

Participation was up 14% from the previous year.

Sorry, our notes got jumbled together.

Okay.

And then these are just some new other new initiatives for 2025.

We updated our community languages collection.

Our collection development works with new vendors to make sure that we're keeping the collection relevant.

We carry materials in eight additional languages: Chinese, Farsi, Filipino, Hindi, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.

And Walnut Creek Library is the only library in the county to house a Russian collection, which was recently updated and enhanced.

Read Contra Costa is an annual event where we encourage community members throughout the county to participate in reading the same book.

This year, that title was James by Percival Everett.

We had an in-person conversation with the author and had over 800 community members attend that event.

And then I wanted to mention our tech exchange program.

This is funding from the Measure X Innovation Fund, and the library partners with Tech Tech Exchange to provide drop-in tech support.

They do that twice weekly at the Pittsburgh Library, San Pablo Library, and also across the street in Walnut Creek.

Please spread the word if you know anyone who needs tech support.

They are an amazing group.

You can, yes.

It's from 10:30 to 4:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

It's a nonprofit organization, and they're dedicated to building digital proficiency throughout the Bay Area.

Okay, and then just a little bit about each branch.

So the Ignacio Valley Library, as I mentioned, is the one on Oak Grove Road.

There were 215,236 visits to our library in 2025.

Our 110 story times included two regular weekly story times, monthly bilingual Farsi and bilingual Mandarin story times, and special story times with partners from Ruth Bancroft Gardens, Contra Costa County Ballet, and a local dental dentist's office for dental health story time.

We're continuing to connect with our schools and local community through concentrated community outreach.

We held 10 preschool and elementary school visits, class visits.

Schools included Eagle Peak Elementary, Walnut Acres, and KLA School of Walnut Creek.

We brought in-person digital resource tutorials to a local senior living community, and we tabled at Carondelay High School.

A few of our most memorable programs from the past year include, of course, our 50th anniversary celebration, which was last September, and drew in 411 people in attendance.

Stories of Hawaii and Tahiti, Lunar New Year, and African Village Experience were all highlights from the past year.

And our college readiness workshop series for high schoolers and their parents drew a strong turnout.

We had a number of other incredible events, and we're bringing that same programming passion to the library for 2026.

All right, and just some updates about the Walnut Creek Library.

We had almost 300,000 visitors in 2025.

And Storytime always continues to attract a really large crowd.

It's the bread and butter of libraries.

We offer three story times every week, and we saw a 14% increase in attendance in 2025.

And we average around 300 combined attendees every week for story time.

We also have continued our outreach efforts, working with local organizations and attending annual city events such as Trunk Retreat, Family Art Day, National Night Out, and many more.

This time of year is also when we see an increase in class visits from local elementary schools.

Second graders from Indian Valley stopped by this past month to receive a tour and obtain library cards, and we'll be visited by second graders from Buena Vista in May.

We started a new program geared towards the aging population by offering free tax preparation through AARP throughout tax season this year, making us the only public site in Walnut Creek to offer this service.

And they've told me they'll be back again next year.

Our monthly program called Insiders, which reaches adults with developmental disabilities has gained such traction that we've added an additional monthly program offering chair yoga.

And we receive we see about 30 to 50 attendees every month, depending on the day.

And finally, a statistic that we're very proud of.

The Walnut Creek Library users checked out more than 350,000 ebooks and e-audio books in 2025, which was the highest number of users throughout the county by 60,000.

So we'll see if we can top that number next year.

And then we just wanted to put on your radar summer reading this year.

It'll begin in June.

We really want to see more community involvement in this event.

So please make sure that you're signing up, sharing it with your friends and family, and stopping by one of our locations to get pick up your log, turn it in.

You can also participate online as well.

So thank you so much for your attention, and we hope to see you at your library at the library soon.

Um let us know if you have any questions.

Thank you very much.

And I will say, living right around the corner from the Ignacio Valley Library, while the downtown library gets all the publicity, the Walnut Creek, the Ignacio Valley branch is incredibly busy and utilized.

It's it's amazing.

Every time I go in there, there's there's kids or there's people that there are middle school students that are doing homework after class, whatever it is.

So uh what a resource.

Thank you both for being here.

Uh any questions or comments?

Yeah, just um a comment.

I it was very encouraging.

It gives me hope to see that you not only is your in-person um usage, checking out books online, summer reading programs, they're all up.

And my perception prior to this presentation was that with AI and people spending time on their phones, especially kids, that maybe readership had gone down.

So it's really great to hear that.

It's I guess it's not the case.

Very, very encouraging.

Yeah, I would I would echo that.

Thank you.

Thank you for all you do and all the staff does at both libraries.

I was there today, and I go to the downtown library more frequently, but I've I've noticed it seems the new cafe there seems to be drawing in a lot of people that are not, you know, they get their boba tea.

They put something special in those coffee drinks, and then they're going to the library and and kind of staying around and mingling and going to Storytime, so it's nice to see that level of activity.

I I wanted to put in a plug because the Library Foundation has their annual fundraiser this Saturday.

There's still tickets available for that.

And maybe if you could just speak to what those funds meet, how they you would put them to use, what kind of services you could use those dollars for.

Sure.

So yeah, the the foundation does so much for both both of our libraries.

Um they fund things like furniture replacement, um, but most importantly, they they really fund almost all of our programs besides our friends groups.

Um, they're they're the other large group that funds all of the events that we hold in downtown and I think NACEO Valley.

Um but they also contribute, like I said, to our our collections.

Um, they contribute to the e-collection, and frankly, we're able to do all that we can with our services in large part due to the funding support that they offer.

And the other question was I know that there's some improvements planned for the YV branch.

What kind of operational challenges is that going to pose for you and our residents?

Yeah, it's a great question.

Um so there is a plan for deferred maintenance.

Um it will finally be addressed, and we are thrilled for that.

So we don't have an exact date yet, but we've been told around fall of 2026.

Um, the Ignacio Valley Library will be closing for about eight to ten months.

Um that's because it has significant um upgrades that are gonna be done.

So that includes um a new HVAC, a new roof, and a new electrical upgrades.

Um it won't be a refresh.

It's not gonna be like a refurbishment, but it is gonna be um, you know, capital improvement projects that we're really looking forward to.

During that time, staff will be reassigned to other branches based on where the need is.

Um but we're all looking forward to coming back and returning to see our community.

And um, we're really gonna miss you all, you know, while well, we're closed for that period of time, but we will be back and um better than ever, and we'll have even better AC and you know, cool lighting system, maybe.

Um so but these are really important upgrades that we're we're looking forward to getting completed.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Eight to ten months.

That's the first I heard that.

Um you can come visit us instead.

I I I do that, yes.

Thank you guys, and thank you for sharing let them because that sounds like an interesting book.

I just added it to my list.

So thanks for all you do.

Thank you very much.

I I can't I remember when we opened the downtown library in 2010.

And it's hard to believe that it's almost 20 uh 16 years.

And um thank you for the work you do in keeping these libraries vital part of the community.

They truly are, so thank you.

Thank you.

Let's stick around for a picture here.

Yeah.

Just leave it.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for coming.

Did you want a break word?

All right.

Moving right along.

Next on the agenda is the consent calendar.

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

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 the 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 separately be read into the record.

This is for the consent calendar only.

And it looks like we have a speaker for the consent calendar, Jan.

Yes.

Great.

C E consent item.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

Uh Jan Warren uh 40-year resident of the woodlands, and I am gonna miss the library as well.

Um my comments tonight are uh regarding the uh Leisher Fire Alarm Replacement Project, which I wasn't aware of it, of course.

But when I went and looked at some of the information, I was concerned because I I don't have the details.

And uh it there was this planning 22 23, and it seems like it either started late or we spent four years uh working on design and permitting, and now we don't have much enough money left to actually pay for it.

And one of my thoughts had to do with what I thought think is my memory on uh leisure and and the city property here being part of the um loan that we we capital loan we got from for the um Heather Farms project.

And so I'm not trying to be alarmist.

I assume we're still safe and we're not going to have the uh problems that way, but um just concerned about the delay and the the time how much time uh what uh when it was originally put in, what how much life was expected and where are we now and those types of things.

Thank you.

Thank you, Jan.

Right.

So I'll ask that question after we're uh afterwards of staff, but so let me pull that item in response to a public comment.

And do we have a motion on the other consent calendar items?

Move to approve consent calendar items to A through was that E.

D.

Yeah, that was E.

Um D and F and G.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

Susie could go the role, please.

Councilmember Silva.

Hi.

Council Member Divini.

Hi.

Council Member Darling.

Hi.

All right, for item two E.

Let me ask uh staff if there's any comment that could be provided on uh on the Lesser Fire Alarm Replacement Project.

I see we have folks here from public works and arts and recreation.

Looks like uh Alex Wong is coming to the podium.

Alex Wong, Senior Engineer of the Capital Improvement Program.

Yes, a Leisure Fire Alarm System.

There's an existing fire alarm system there that works.

But it's a proprietary system, and we were moving toward using a system that wasn't proprietary that gives the city better service, better response time.

And that's a that's a reason why we were doing this.

There's an upgrade on the system back in 2017.

That did a lot of uh work on that system already.

So it's that's it is working system out there.

And so was it just that we was we were anticipating and expecting a lower bid for what eventually it came to.

Are we going to put out more bids for this?

Um we're we're gonna wait and look at our future capital improvements and see where it fits in.

Um the system is is working.

Um due to the height of the the building, it's it takes a lot more um a lot more work than anticipated to uh replace how to sensors and and yeah components in there.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

No.

Uh I'll I'll move to approve item two E.

Second.

Motion is second.

Susie, could you call the roll, please?

Mayor Welk.

Hi.

Councilmember Darling.

Hi.

Councilmember Divine.

Hi.

Councilmember Silva.

Mayor Pertin Francois.

Hi.

Okay.

Next on the agenda is public communications.

The portion of the meeting is reserved for comments 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 this time I will note that the time is 6 33, and we'll take public comments on items not on the agenda until approximately 7.03.

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

And so this is the time.

If you have any comments to make or if you filled out a speaker card, please line up against the wall here.

You'll have two minutes.

Please don't make me cut you off.

And we'll start with our first comment.

Hello, my name is Kathy Dunn.

I live in Walnut Creek.

And the subject is about the continued harassment at Planned Parenthood.

Last year I attended a city council meeting regarding the protesters at Planned Parenthood on Oakland Boulevard using amplified sound to harass the staff and the women who are using the services provided by Planned Parenthood.

At that time, a decision was made to limit the use of amplified sound as it was considered disruptive to the medical clinic as well as the neighborhood.

Well, they are back at it with six-foot-tall speakers right at the Planned Parenthood Parenthood Driveway entrance.

This past Friday, I stopped to video the situation and I have it on my phone if you wish to see and hear it.

At that time, I was three buildings away and could clearly hear an amplified voice saying they are killing babies in the air and pray to stop abortion.

This behavior is harassment of women seeking their legal right to access safe abortion care.

This behavior is also contrary to Walner Creek's own noise ordinance and nuisance codes.

Walnut Creek's noise code, nuisance code prohibits excessive noise, including amplified sound that can be heard clearly more than 50 feet away without a permit.

The Walnut Creek's noise ordinance states yelling and shouting, etc.

on a public street at any time or place with the intent to annoy or disturb the quiet comfort or repose of a person or persons in any dwelling, office, building or structure, or of any person or persons in the vicinity is prohibited.

I request that action be taken to stop this breach of our own noise regulation because rules and laws are useless if they are not enforced.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And what I'm going are you going to be speaking on the same topic?

Okay.

Then um and then after that, I'll actually direct you to somebody in the police department as well.

Perfect.

First of all, I want to say love the Walnut Creek Library and that and all that.

So I just want to get that in there.

My name is Michael Beckyo.

I live in Walnut Creek.

Here to talk about the continuing issue at the Planned Parenthood there on Oakland Boulevard.

I've drive down that street almost daylight, get to Ace Hardware CVS, you know, safe way, that type of thing.

And I think everybody appreciates the concept of First Amendment rights.

That's why you've let as of a year ago the people to be out there to say what they want to say.

But when they put up their four foot by six foot, um very specific, almost pornographic pictures of fetuses being dismembered, things like that.

And now they're doing the the on a six foot top tripod speakers.

I measured it.

Um I'm an engineer, so I like to measure things.

Five, six hundred feet away, you can hear it even with the windows closed in your car.

The police were called, they went there.

I guess there wasn't too much they could do about it because they were outside the hundred foot um uh away.

But the Walnut Creek Noise Ordinance seems to be pretty clear about that that tactic that they're using shouldn't really be allowed.

Um I know it may not be that simple, but I'm hoping that somebody and maybe are already starting to be addressed somewhat um already.

But with their speakers, it's it's just another assault on not only Planned Parenthood, visitors, employees, people who live and work in the area.

Uh like I said, you can hear it three, four hundred feet away, and it's um really unnecessary to do that, but we still can maintain their civil liberties for the First Amendment.

So I'm hoping we can get somebody to talk to keep abreast of the situation for the months coming ahead.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

And of course, this is written into our ordinance as voted on by the city council a few times over the last few years.

What I'm going to ask you to do is um I see our chief of police uh Chief Hibs, if if you or Captain Slater actually could meet in the back here.

This becomes an enforcement issue at this point, and so they'll be able to work with you on this.

And uh perhaps at a future meeting we can hear back from the police department on what the situation is and and our city attorney as well.

Thank you.

Mayor, uh I'd like to bring up another point.

The obviously the the noise associated with the planned parenthood protests is infinitely more disturbing than the the other issue I'm going to bring up.

But we've also I I've been getting increasing reports and uh like downtown, just again, noise ordinance related people, you know, playing music or cars that are so loud they stop the block from functioning for the time they're driving through.

I wonder if there's an opportunity to sort of look at our noise ordinance again and just see if we uh have an opportunity to enforce or improve on how we're handling noise issues.

Yep, let's we can take that up with staff.

Thank you very much, Councilmember DeVinny.

Next public comment.

Well, good evening, Mayor Wilk, City Council and staff.

I'm Ellen Osmanson.

I'm a 35-year Warner Creek resident.

I'm also the founder of Mount Diablo Village.

We just launched in February this year.

We are now accepting members and volunteers.

And Mayor Wilk was there to support us at our pre-launch reception as well as our launch party.

And we are very grateful for your support.

And uh Mount Dablo Village is a nonprofit organization that with uh our mission is to help seniors age in place for as long as possible.

We provide programs to uh to enhance or support seniors social, physical, and mental well-being.

Hold on one second and the light is down.

Oh, there we go.

Okay.

Uh, because we are a nonprofit organization and we provide programs and such, we need funding.

And for that, we are gonna have our fundraising concert coming up on May 20th at Leisure Center.

And uh the music is gonna be performed by the Ross Moore big band.

Uh the directors are here, they will speak a little bit more about it.

And uh tickets are available uh with the QR code, and you have a postcard that I just passed over to you.

Uh so with the funding that we hope to be able to uh provide more programs to be able to pay some stipends and also to reduce the membership fees.

So I hope you will support us.

And again, as on Wednesday, May 20th at 7.30 at Leisure Center.

And I hope to see you there.

Thank you, Al.

And do you have a website?

Yes.

Oh, yes.

We have our website and we have a full calendar up.

This is our website, Mount Diablo Village.org, and uh full events calendar is now up.

Check us out.

Thank you very much, and thank you for doing what you do.

Thank you.

Good evening, council.

Uh, my name is Mo Levich, and I'm the volunteer, original director of the Rossmore band for 30 years.

My co- my my best friend and the co-director for the last 10 years is Greg Brown, and those who know uh student music in Walnut Creek know that he is famous at Northgate High School for winning Monterey Jazz Festival Generation Next, five years in a row.

So there's a monster next to me.

We're addressing all of you in support of what Ellen is bringing to the table, which is the village.

What if now, as a as a volunteer for 30 years up at Rossmore, I see the beauty and the magic of that, but we're gonna do our own magic.

We're gonna take students who are 13 years old all the way to 86, and as the Rossmore band has done for 30 years, uh, intergenerationally mix the music for this special event.

We're asking your support for this and also recognition that what Ellen is doing here in your community is just magic alone.

So we want to lend our support.

Um, and one little note.

Uh we're not very that famous, but we helped tear down the Walnut Creek Library.

They gave us a call because the old wall library was uh uh the opening was uh with account Basie.

If you look at there was there was music in the library, um a lobby, and they called us and they said it's time to tear it down, and we need a big band.

We came down there, it was 2007, and we sure enough played the last music, and the next day the bro the the the uh wrecking ball came along.

So we have a lot of history with libraries here.

Why don't you know?

I turn it over to co-director Greg Brown.

All right.

Thank you, Mo.

So I'd like I just like I've uh have been a resident of Walnut Creek.

I'm currently living in Concord, but I was a music educator at Northgate High School for 24 years to the end of my regular career in 2021.

Um I want to tell you a little bit about the band itself.

Um our mission is to bring the generations together through music and especially jazz, and to um support other nonprofits.

We are nonprofit, and our performances outside of Rossmore are almost always um in support of other nonprofits.

So that's what we do.

It's our mission.

Um, one of the things that I do as a part of the mission is to go out to schools, middle schools and high schools.

I've been to about 20 middle schools and high schools in the last five years to uh give clinics.

I wear my polo shirt, I recruit young people to be in the band, and then I clinic the jazz bands or other bands in the programs uh throughout the central county.

We are thrilled to be playing at the Leisure Center for the very first time, and we hope that hope to see as many of you there as we can.

We'd love supporting other profits, especially Mount Diablo Village.

Terrific, thank you.

Next hello there.

Our names are El Kieran and Rocco, and we are from Point we are fifth graders from Buena Vista Elementary in Walnut Creek.

We are competing in Odyssey of the Mind, a program where teams from all around the world find creative ways to solve problems.

Our team has been together since first grade.

We wanted to come today to share some exciting news with the city council and all of Walnut Creek.

Our team has qualified to compete in the world championships.

The world championships will be held at Iowa State University University on May 27th.

Getting there took a lot of work.

We competed in the classics problem area this year where we had to write our own tall tale.

We came up with our own story, wrote our own script, made our own costumes and props, and pr practiced our play hundreds of times until we got it just right.

Each year that we have competed, we have improved and placed higher and higher.

This year we got first place in regionals and second place at the state championships.

We are so excited to represent Walnut Creek in the Odyssey of the Mine World Finals.

But getting there is expensive.

The total for our trip will be about $20,000 for our seven team members and our two coaches to go.

We have gotten a little more than half of that from our school and district.

We are trying to raise about $6,000, and any amount from the community would be really helpful.

We have a donation page on Give Butter where people can donate to make to help us make it to Worlds.

If any community members or businesses want to help support our cause, we would be so grateful.

At the world competition, we will be paired with a buddy team from another country.

We are looking for Walnut Creek local merchandise to share with our international friends that could help us represent our city and people.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for your time.

We are proud to represent Walnut Creek.

Get the Odyssey of the Mine World Finals.

Terrific.

Are you are you gonna wrap it up or is it?

That was okay.

So we'll hold come up to the diet, hold that up so people can see the QR code at home.

And then if you can give the website again, you said give butter.com.

Yeah, so if anyone from the community would like to donate, um this is the QR code, a little bit small.

Um and it's called Give Butter, and our team is Buena Vista Odyssey of the Mind team.

Terrific.

Well, good good luck, and I'm sure people at home will see this.

And if you're looking for a few things from Walnut Creek that have Walnut Creek's name on it, uh our city clerk has your information.

I think we can probably get a little bit of swag in there for you to be able to pass out some some things, pencils or something like that with Walnut Creek's name on it.

Thank you so much for coming.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Good luck.

Wow, that's a hard act to follow.

What a great presentation.

Uh hi, my name is Sharice Cound, and I also want to say thank you to the big band of Rossmore.

That's gonna be an awesome performance.

My daughter's performing in it.

Um, but it has been a wonderful opportunity for such a uh multi-generational band to exist here in our city, is just really wonderful.

So thank you, directors, for doing that, especially for Mount Diablo Village.

Um, but I am here as a as a field rep for uh Assembly member Rebecca Bauer Cahan.

And tonight, um during this busy legislative session, I just wanted to share one thing, which is an event that we have coming up tomorrow night.

Um, and this is going to be at uh Creekside Commons from five uh from six to seven thirty p.m.

Um doors open at 5 30, serving some dinner bites.

Um it's called From Aware to Empowered, Navigating the Online World as Women and Girls.

And so the assembly member will be there uh speaking about three of her bills related to this.

And she will also have three guest speakers.

So we'll have Sneha Revenor, who is a Stanford student and founder of Encode AI, which is a nonprofit organization she founded at age 15 that's still going strong with a vision of a human-centered AI future.

And then we have Nikki Ayer, who is a UC Berkeley student and co-chair of Design It for Us, which is a uh nonprofit advocacy organization looking to make sure that online spaces and our social media are really human-centered and uh healthy spaces for us to be and not just sort of motivated by profit and addiction models.

And then Carrie Gallagher with Connect Safely has a uh really great um website called Connect Safely that provides all kinds of information about how to stay safe online and provides really up-to-date information, things like what are the most recent financial scams that are targeting our teens, and you know what's happening with uh gambling addiction for our young boys.

So we'll pass this out and uh hope to see you there.

Thanks, Sharice.

And thank you to our assembly member Rebecca Bauer Cat.

Thank you.

Any more public comment?

It doesn't look like it.

So I'll close the public comment at this time.

And next we have council member and staff in Allah's reports on activities or requests.

And so do we have any closed session announcements?

Um Mayor, I would defer to you for the closed session announcements given the two evaluations.

Yes, so uh just to alert uh everyone, the council has completed both the city manager and the city attorney evaluations.

I do not have an update this evening, Mayor.

Okay, and so next we have City Councilmember reports on AB 1234 activities, council member assignments, and various activities and you look like you're ready, Councilmember Darling.

Mine's relatively short tonight.

Um MCE was proud this week.

We did recognize Habitat for Humanity as one of our McGlashin Award winners for their Esperanza Place project here in Walnut Creek.

It is a net zero energy project, and it's the first one that they did, and that is an important part of MCE's mission is equity and helping people electrify and become more conservative.

So that was really I was proud to um see them win that.

Um the chamber met last Thursday.

Um couple things coming up.

Art and wine is coming up on June 6th and 7th, and that's going to be another fun event.

They're looking at different ways to make it even more exciting.

Um the chamber is going through a leadership transition, and so they are currently recruiting for a new CEO, and we are hoping that that search goes well, and we have a new leader coming into the chamber in the near future.

But that's really my report.

Lots of other fun things going on, but that's the highlights.

Thank you.

Councilmember Silva.

Thank you very much.

Building on my colleague to my right, the other Cindy.

Um she and I serve on the council subcommittee on housing and community development, and the committee met last week, and we will be bringing forward or we've recommended to move forward two items to the May 5th City Council calendar.

The first last week is we reviewed reviewed two proposals from 100% affordable housing developers for some grant funding that we have for affordable housing.

We have about $2.9 million available to be awarded.

We reviewed the proposals and staff's recommendation, and we're moving that recommendation forward to the council.

And the second item we reviewed was our annual action plan for the community grant and community development block grant programs.

It's about a million dollars per year in community grants that we do, um, some of which is funding from the federal government, about 400,000.

So we are moving that forward on May 5th to the council for review and approval, but also a recommendation on how to address a gap in housing for the homeless services, particularly the core services, and we have a number of it interesting options that we have in front of us.

I I will say that council member or mayor pro tem Matt Francois and I had an opportunity to meet with the youth commission last week.

It was hair raising.

They ask such thoughtful questions, and it was like being in a candidate forum for city council.

They ask about homelessness, they ask about e-bike policies, they asked about recycling, and they did not ask about cereal.

We were disappointed.

So I'll let the mayor pro tem elaborate a bit more.

Um next, I want to say thank you to the community.

Last Saturday was our 16th annual community service day, and with the help of organizations across the community, including a couple of organizations within the city infrastructure.

We had 33 projects and over 900 volunteers of all ages that came out on Saturday for two to three hours of volunteer effort.

We um those volunteers planted 45 trees at Heather Farm Park.

They put together under the auspices of the um CERT group and the police department, 500 backpack emergency preparedness kits that they're going to be distributing.

So thank you to those volunteers.

There were 12 school projects involving 400 or more volunteers across the city.

There were four pianos that were painted along the downtown streets for the summer and months that are coming up.

And the uh there were 30 yards of bark that were spread at Larkey Park and Pool with the help of there were 50 people out doing that, and 20 of them were Walnut Creek Aquanaut Artistic Swimmers and their coaches and families because the aqua nuts use the Larkey pool regularly.

So thanks to everyone who came out, and thanks to the three parks projects, three Creeks projects, one public works project on the downtown streets, arts and rec projects, etc.

And 12 school projects, thanks to everyone who helped make it a great day.

I am the liaison from the council to the Diablo Regional Arts Association, which is the nonprofit almost 30 years old, that is a major fundraiser and producer for the um Leisher Center for the Arts.

Their regular board meeting was last Monday, and I had the opportunity to present updates about the city, but they also had a lot of updates to talk about.

Their programs, the Dance Theater Harlem is this week, Thursday and Friday evenings.

That will be performing at the Leisher Center.

The College Notes was sold out.

Sarah McKenzie was sold out.

San Francisco Jazz at the Leisure Center is under a new contract, so things are moving forward there.

And October 3rd, Saturday evening is the annual on Broadway Gala, which will raise funds to help support those programs at the Leisure Center.

The Bedford Gallery has a new show.

It's called Aztec Stories in Modern Mexico.

It is a retrospective on the works of Incencio Jimenez Chino.

It's very vibrant and it runs through June 28th.

And this last Saturday evening, the California Symphony had its annual fundraising gala, and they honored our former mayor Lloyd Lahaskew and her husband Ralph, who have been very um strong supporters of the California Symphony for more than 20 years.

And with that, I will say thank you very much for everyone what you do.

Thank you, Councilmember Silva.

Next, uh, why don't we go to Councilmember Devin?

All right, good evening.

Um three activities to report on.

Um the first, I think uh most of us are were at the employee recognition uh awards last week.

Uh we recognized employees from the city that have been here for 10, 15, 20, and 25 years.

So I want to give a shout out to Captain Jeff Slater for 25 years of service.

Uh thank you.

And uh we just missed uh our senior engineer Alex Wong, who was also on for 25 years, and so a number of others as well, but we appreciate your service to the city.

Um in addition, uh Ben Schuster from the community development department, one employee of the year.

So congratulations to Ben Schuster for that.

Um in addition, I was uh fortunate or honored to give the opening remarks for a sustainable event that Sustainable Walnut Creek put on last week.

That was uh uh called the story of plastics.

And um, I think it's just a reminder that we all need to be aware of our own public, our own use and to try to cut down on our personal use, and then also sort, uh, try the best we can to sort the plastics that we have.

I know right now we are working on cutting down on single-use plastics.

So we're um working with uh businesses in the community to transition them from single-use plastics to uh reusable materials, and we'll be more to report as we have more businesses that join the program.

And finally, uh staff the farmers market this past Sunday.

Um what I wanted to say about that is always enjoy engaging with the community, and what I appreciate even more is how um how helpful staff is here at the city that we can take.

All of us, I think um have had similar experiences.

We take these comments and send them off to our department heads.

Uh and they are so excellent about following up with folks.

And um the city the residents really um respond favorably and and send um you know nice comments back about how well their issues were taken care of.

So thank you to the Walnut Creek staff for that.

Yeah, following up on that.

I also attended the employee recognition event.

Uh very meaningful to see the longevity of service.

Uh 25 years obviously, but we had several people at the five, 10, 15 year, 20 year mark.

And I think it really speaks to this organization and the city being a place that people come and they stay for a long time because there's a culture that is here that they want to be part of, and now they're part of that culture, and so I I too am appreciative of their service to our city.

I'm it was a nice event to recognize them.

I thought the city manager did a nice job.

Seeing it, and all the department directors did a very nice job recognizing employees in their departments that had been there uh for several years, and including recognizing each of those individuals that had made the quarter century club.

So and congratulations also to Team Apex, who was the team of the year, the internal team for the executive leadership that is building a better mousetrap, shall we say, in terms of trying to streamline our processes, be more forward-facing and customer customer service oriented.

And also want to echo congratulations to Ben Schuster and the community development department for being named uh the Rosie Cone employee of the year.

So that was that was a really fun event.

It was either that evening or the next evening that I attended uh the big band of Rossmore's uh annual concert out in Rossmore, and a really fun event.

They have not only does a big band play, but they have Stanley Middle School, they have the East Bay uh band playing.

I was happy to hear uh Cool in the Gang song played.

It wasn't just jazz and and some of these young um musicians are extremely talented.

There was a saxophone player from Stanley Middle School, and it was just pretty amazing that you were listening to like an eighth grader play the saxophone.

So great to see that mix of generations, and there was also very cute uh some folks were up dancing during the numbers and uh really enjoying themselves.

So nice to see that mix of ages and everyone having a good time at the big band.

So I'm gonna try to make it to their concert at the Lesher on May 20th in support of Mount Diablo Village.

Let's see.

Uh great community service day.

I was out at uh Heather Farm Park, way back out there, past the equestrian center, uh planting some of those 45 trees.

And uh what struck me was the our great public work staff, number one, uh being there to greet everyone, and there was a lot of activity going on in the park that day, but they were very warm, welcoming, helping people get all their paperwork filled out, and kind of most importantly, too, they had dug the holes for the trees to be planted.

The tree was right next to the hole.

They had already installed the irrigation system, and um so it was light tree planting, I'd say, and I think that was just fine for myself and the rest of the volunteers.

And it was kind of it was cool to see.

I met uh someone from Concord who and his young son who just said he looks for opportunities to volunteer and tries to come to our community service day.

I met a woman from uh the Heather Farm uh community association who lives nearby, and just you know, neighbors meeting neighbors over kind of and building community over an event like that was great.

I also ran into our planning commissioner Molly Klopp was out there helping uh uh put in trees too.

So thank you to everyone who volunteered and uh it was a fun event.

Well, you know, they have to be sure that you get the tree in the right place.

Yes, and we learned nothing to chance that well, it has to, yes, it has the root ball has to be kind of at grade, and then the the stake I'm told has to be face facing north uh for maximum tree growth potential.

So we had a little bit of debate about which direction was north and true north, but I think we got it close to the mean they didn't white paint it on the ground for you?

No.

That would have maybe next year, Rich.

Um I too enjoyed meeting with the youth leadership commission.

It's fun now because the commission's been going on for at least the entire time I've been on council since 2018, and now we're seeing the second generation of the younger siblings who of some of our initial youth commissioners and hearing how their older siblings are doing, but just yeah, it was it was the questions they asked were were hard, but of a like a deep policy level uh interest, and they were not softball questions, they were thoughtful questions, they were kind of sophisticated questions, and so I I was impressed.

Uh talked about leaf blowers, we talked about the Heather Farm Park, uh affordable housing.

They asked us how we were going to reduce the cost of housing.

Yeah.

I'd let her take that one.

Uh parking challenges downtown, and uh the fun question was what's your favorite restaurant in Walnut Creek?

And so we we got the opportunity to turn that around with them and ask them what their favorite restaurant is.

And I'm not gonna name mine because I don't want to make anyone unhappy, so that'll just stay in the room.

But I like all the restaurants downtown.

I think they're all great.

And uh try to get to as many of them as I can.

Um let's see.

I also attended the California Symphony uh gallo with uh council member Silva, and it was nice uh extremely talented uh musicians.

Uh they they were playing during the event, and they also played a piece that was composed by a composer in residence, and it was extremely interesting, and it's it's neat to hear the music live in a small setting like that, and to hear a piece that you've never heard before and hear it.

The composer was like sitting at the table next to you.

And so it was a good event, and it was obviously nice to recognize and honor for former mayor uh Loela Haskew and her husband Ralph, who had been the president of the California Symphony for many years.

Their new season, I believe, kicks off this summer or s or fall, and they'll be playing at the Leisher Center.

So you'll have the opportunity to see them live and in person.

I think that about does it for me.

All right, thank you.

Lots of arts things, so I'll throw in an arts uh thing in a minute as well.

Uh we have lots of openings for businesses and services, and we and we love them coming to the city.

It's probably the favorite thing that mayors get to do across the country.

But I want to highlight one that Cindy Darling, uh, Councilmember Darling and I went to last week that truly makes me feel proud about Walnut Creek, and that is the SUMA Academy opening.

It's in Shade Lands, where the Conch Costa School for Performing Arts was.

And this is a school that specializes in special need students with autism for ages five to twenty two.

And it's designed to help them to get into the local workforce and lead full and productive lives.

And this is their third campus.

Uh I mean, talk about something that is worthwhile.

And I'm so happy to see that our team and the uh our planning department helped to work with them to be able to open this up.

So that was truly a special opening.

Uh and then an opening today that has to also do with music.

It was the opening of the Diablo Ballet Studio in Shade Lands.

Congrats to the Diablo Ballet artistic director, Lauren Jonas, who worked with our staff and actually was really complimentary to Mike Neiman and to the team to really helping get this going.

And so she talked about the again the planning department and big shout out to Erica, who she mentioned by name as well.

And so uh just congratulations to them.

They're going to be having their performance at the Leisure Center on May 15th and 16th.

And uh great to see them in truly a home after 32 years of uh operating without one.

Uh as the representative liaison to County Connection, I did want to mention that the youth ride youth's ride free returns on June 1st through June July 31st, offering free fare rides on County Connection buses for youth ages six to eighteen.

It was first launched as a pilot in uh summer of last year and will return for a second year with funding secured through TransPAC and SWAT, which is the Southwest Area Transportation Committee that's responsible for developing transportation programs in the southern region of Contra Costa.

So the soft launch of the community outreach plan begins next week, and a broader announcement will be planned in May.

And uh so beyond increasing ridership, why is this being done?

It's a program that helps young people build confidence and public transit familiarity, learning how to navigate routes and read schedules and travel independently while connecting them to jobs, recreation, community events, and different opportunities.

And of course, once somebody's familiar running public transit as a youth, the hope and the idea is that they write it then as an adult.

And uh and and so there's not gonna be any application or ID that's required for this.

It's a barrier-free approach combined with strong community support, continues to drive the program success.

So that's June and July.

And uh while that's the summer ride program, the PASTA class program, which is also free for students, is then slated for August and September.

So essentially, use the writing free on County Connection from June through September.

So good news from County Connection.

Um and more information if any parents want that is on CountyConnection.com.

I do want to give some other quick transit information on Sunday, April 26th.

That's this Sunday, right?

Yeah, I think it is.

Uh Bart will be replacing lights in the Trans Bay tube, which will require single tracking and slower service than usual.

So the yellow line train that's our line on Walnut Creek, will run between SFO and Millbrae all day.

Uh but passengers traveling beyond SFO must transfer.

The work takes place also on June 7th and July 19th, so just prepare for longer transit times if you're taking Bart.

And then lastly, I'm saddened to announce the passing of two former longtime city employees.

Danny Boyle, who worked for the city from July of 87 through 1999.

He started with the city as a municipal service aid and quickly moved into the role of ticket clerk before becoming a community arts coordinator, and Gary Schab, who is a cultural services and arts director from 1974 to 2001.

I actually got my start in the arts commission under Gary Schaub.

And both have lived in Rossmore and passed away two days ago.

So our condolences to them and their families.

And that ends our reports.

Okay.

Anybody need a break?

Are you everybody okay?

All right.

Onward we go.

Uh next is the consideration item for the direction to initiate the elections code 9212 report on the Walnut Creek Senior Housing Transit Village Initiative related to a 2.4 acre site located at the northeast corner of North California Boulevard and Ignacio Valley Road and enter into a cost payment reimbursement agreement with Friends of Walnut Creek Senior Housing.

And I'd like to invite Assistant City Manager Charles Ching, who's here forward to provide the presentation.

Thank you, Mayor, and good evening, Mayor, member City Council, Charles Ching, Assistant City Manager.

The item in front of you tonight is the initiation of the election code 9212 report related to the Walnut Creek Senior Housing Transit Village Initiative.

Oops, wrong button.

So on March 16th of this year, the city received a notice of intent to circulate a petition for the Walnut Creek Senior Housing Transit Village Initiative.

The initiative proponents are Stephen Kostka, Marlene Farrell, and Haley Murphy, all residents of the City of Walnut Creek.

And the relevant properties related to the initiative is owned by Hall Equities Group.

So the initiative essentially does two things.

First is it amends uh the city's general plan, North Downtown Specific Plan, Zoning Ordnance, and Zoning Map by creating a new zoning district that allows for senior multifamily development with commercial uses.

And senior is defined as 55 and over.

And the commercial uses are required to be compatible with the senior housing development.

Another difference to this new uh land use designation is it allows for 0.6 uh floor area ratio for commercial uses compared to uh the 0.3 for just mixed-use commercial.

Second is it uh it changes the land use for a two-point acres at 2.4 acre site at the corner of North California and Ignacio Valley Road.

So this is an area of uh of where the site is.

To the west of the site is North California and the BART station.

To the south is uh Ignacio Valley Road, where the target uh target center is the target shopping uh center is to the east is North Main Street, and to the north is Pringle.

This is uh a uh street view of the property just to show city council and the public what is currently out there uh at the moment.

And this is a map that was uh part of the um the ballot initiative submitted by the proponents of the ballot measure.

So again, it replaces approved uh office uses that are currently in place for that property to allow for uh senior housing and commercial uses, and increases the floor area ratio for commercial commercial uses from 0.3 to 0.6.

So, as part of the California Elections Code 9212, uh the city council is allowed to initiate or prepare an informal report that includes the following uh the initiatives fiscal impact to the city, its effect on the its consistency with the city's different plans, general plans, specific plan, housing element, its effect on land use and availability of uh of land and location for housing, its impact on funding for infrastructure of all types, its impact on the community's ability to attract and retain business and employment, its impact on uses of vacant parcels of land, and its impact on agricultural lands, open space, traffic congestion, business districts and developed areas designated for revitalization.

Another thing we that is um allowed on the plan is anything city council desires that that um that is not part of the existing list.

Um to that and the Friends of Walnut Creek Senior Housing Group has agreed to reimburse the city for the cost of the plan.

So what we're asking City Council for tonight is to direct the city manager to prepare the elections code 921 to report on the Walnut Creek Senior Housing Transit Village Initiative, and to enter into a cost uh paymentslash reimbursement agreement with the friends of the Walnut Creek Senior Housing for the cost of preparing the plan.

And that concludes my presentation and available to answer any questions.

Thank you, Charles.

Um questions.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Yeah.

Is the applicant going to present as well or just staff?

Or they're available for questions, I guess.

It's just staff, but I understand the applicant uh is going to make a public comment.

Okay.

I I was and I understand we don't get a lot of land use initiatives here in Walnut Creek.

Um so there was a we did get a public comment.

Uh and it's probably more appropriately directed to the applicant.

So I'll just give you a preview of the question of uh sort of why not go through the normal process of kind of the city, the city's normal process through planning and city council to do a planning amendment and uh rezoning.

So I get I guess for staff, because we do have a copy of the actual initiative measure and we're being asked to direct the city manager to prepare this report.

Can you does it what would the amendments allow for in terms of density, height, setbacks, things things like that compared to what the zoning allows for now?

I I can take that if you'd like.

Um the the new district, it's creating a new zoning district is what it's doing.

And so for in terms of height, it would have readopting the currently applicable height limits of 89 feet for most of the initiative area and a portion of it 35 feet, so it would have the same height limits.

Um those could be subject to exceedances if there's density bonus associated with it.

Um the density is set at 425 square feet uh of per 47 425 square feet um based on net lot area, so per unit.

Um that turns out to be a residential density of around 163 units, uh, 163 persons per net acre or 200 units is what they're they're estimating over 200 units of senior housing.

So I don't want to it sounds to me like then the the height and the density is comparable to our one of our current mixed-use residential zones.

Uh it's it's consistent with the um similar to what's there in the MUC.

Okay.

And then a question, and I know it's just the planning and zoning, it's not an actual project.

Um but is there anything in the initiative measure that speaks to affordable?

Um I can answer that as well too, Charles.

So the the initiative itself doesn't limit the applicability of the city's inclusionary housing ordinance to the project.

Um in fact, it specifically recognizes that the inclusionary housing ordinance is part of the application part of the regulations that would apply to the property.

And so the project would be subject to the inclusionary requirements, which are 10% for low income if it's rental, 6% for very low income if it's rental, and then again, by virtue of meeting the inclusionary requirements, they could uh also qualify for density bonus.

Is there is there we don't know enough yet about this in terms of whether they're planning on providing the units or paying the fee?

We do not have a specific project application.

This is the initiative is uh taking it through the zoning level of its establishing this new zoning district.

And then last question from me is there anything in the initiative that speaks to I know it's increasing the FAR to allow for additional commercial uses, but is there anything that speaks to providing the commercial uses in uh in conjunction with the residential or could it be an all-residential project with no commercial?

That we would that that's something we can look at as part of the report.

Uh because they don't have an application in the what we understand is that they intend to have both, but we have not looked specifically yet as to whether they could do one or the other.

And and I would also advise the council that we have the initiative and we've done a ballot title in summary, but one of the things that we would have to do if the measure qualifies, if they collect the required number of signatures, is as the city attorney's office, we have to prepare an impartial analysis, and we can address those types of issues in the impartial analysis too, so that the public is aware of what the requirements and the implications are.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, Councilmember Darwin.

Yeah, thank you for this.

This is an interesting concept.

Um I know some kinds of senior housing, by virtue of the way they operate, are don't count towards our RENA numbers.

Would is there anything in this initiative that would allow a unit type that doesn't count towards READA?

Or is it the assumption being that anything that's developed here would count?

Yes.

The assumption is all of the units uh created for this project will count towards our arena numbers.

Okay.

Thank you.

Council Marcella.

Thank you very much.

And uh first of all, I I have some questions that are similar to what extent does this initiative allow for or does it preclude our normal environmental review processes?

So is um so it does not preclude the normal environmental processes, but an initiative measure placed on the ballot by a uh signature gathering campaign and the residents, if you will, the citizens, is actually not subject to CEQA.

So the rezoning action that would be accomplished under the measure would not be subject to CEQA.

Are we allowed to can include basic environmental discussions in the report?

Uh the council can the council can ask for well, the statute says any other items requested by the city council.

So the council has broad authority to ask for further analysis if you would want to, but it would not be of the same level of like an environmental impact report or something like that.

So yes, but say that again.

So yes, but um yes, you you may at the time that at the time that a project were to come in, and the council may want to ask the applicant's representatives what their intention is, but but at the time that the project came in for approvals, then we would make a CEQA determination.

I would also remind the council, note for the council that there are under the you know numerous changes in state law over the last few years there are exemptions that talk about urban areas and uh developments of certain sizes.

So if the council, if the council would desire some further review of environmental issues short of an environmental impact report or a negative declaration, you could ask for that as part of the report.

So let's say the project is submitted, the voters agree the project is submitted.

Is there any design review process allowed in this process?

I believe the answer to that is yes, but I'd want to confirm that.

Thank you.

The um your question about the affordable housing requirements, thank you.

The North Down this area is in the North Downtown Specific Plan, and as I recall, the North Downtown Specific Plan basically indicates that if you want additional density floor area ratio or height, et cetera, you use community benefits process.

Does this pre will this preclude the community benefits process?

It wouldn't preclude the community benefits process if they wanted to exceed the density that's allowed for in the initiative, but the density that's allowed for the initiative in the initiative is calculating it based on uh 425 fee per unit, which is already low, the community benefits allow you to drop the density, allow you to drop to down the or reduce the per square foot.

That's what you get in exchange for providing community benefits.

So again, we could look at that as part of this.

The the report, so the the report that the council would be commissioning tonight, if you wish to do that, does include as one of its requirements its consistency with the zoning plans and this uh specific plan in particular, North Downtown Specific Plan.

And so that would be an analysis that would be done as part of the report.

So when the council receives the report, when the report is made, you know, made public, that those kinds of questions would be addressed specifically in the report.

And I noticed in the summary that was provided the brief summary, it says age was age restricted 55 and older.

Is that would they is that in the text of the initiative as well?

It is, and and as part of the district.

Okay.

Because it's distinguishing this particular district from the MUC normally.

And I'll have a couple of questions for the representatives of the applicant.

Thank you very much.

Uh thank you.

And I just have uh one question.

I just want to uh make sure so that everybody knows.

Our should we decide to prepare the report that does not obligate that we are supporting the petition.

That is correct.

Okay.

And I think that's the only question I have at this time.

So with that, uh that's one more question.

Oh yes.

Um I think this is perhaps somewhat redundant, but I'm trying to process it.

If if they're saying that they're increasing the flora ratio for the commercial use, it's just an option.

They don't have to use that.

It could all be residential based on the way this is written.

Well, that's what that's what um in response to the mayor Portem's question will answer that as part of the report.

Okay.

Um I don't know the answer to that right now, but the increase in the FAR is for the commercial commercial.

So and and it gives them a max of 0.6 FAR, so they're not obligated to utilize all 0.6 of that FAR.

They could have less commercial, they just can't exceed that.

Nothing specific.

Okay.

And then um you're saying that the uh zoning would not be subject to environmental review because that would have been approved through the the voters via initiative.

But would the um like the the building itself be subject to environmental review?

Like uh like the since there's so many non-specifics about what the project will actually be, whether it will have two stories of commercial or one story of commercial or no commercial, um, it seems like there could be different impacts based on whatever the final project is that's that's uh put forward.

Yeah, the the next stage of any approvals could potentially be subject to environmental review, but depending on the the proposal that's brought before you, there may be exemptions that apply to that because of the size of the project.

So the report, the report that if the council directs one to be written, we could speak to those issues in the report as well, too.

There are the legisl the state legislature has adopted a number of laws that in particular as it relates to infill developments that satisfy objective design standards and whatnot, that there are exemptions under CEQA for processing some of those.

Okay.

Again, the applicant may speak to what if if they can, what their intention might be right now, but that um that's the way we would look at it.

The only thing that would be exempt from SQL right now is this measure, which amends the general plan specific plan and zoning to create this district.

Does anything in this specify whether these units are for sale or for rent?

Where that's that's an option, either way.

No, it um because you mentioned rental in the um uh low income uh requirements of six and ten percent.

You you mentioned that I would have to do that.

I'm not recalling that it specifies either of those, but this the city has inclusionary requirements for four-cell units as well, too.

Okay.

Um I'll now open the item up for public comment.

Please step forward to the podium uh along the wall.

Uh please compete it's complete a speaker card.

And once at the podium, please introduce yourself and the city of residence for the record.

Uh 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.

And uh please go ahead.

Good evening, Mayor Wilk and City Council members.

My name is Cecily Barclay.

I did submit um a speaker card.

I am land use counsel for Friends of Walnut Creek, and I had intended to really just um come up this evening and appreciate uh the council uh responding to the request of Friends of Walnut Creek that this report be prepared.

Um I agree with uh Mr.

Mattis's comments that many of the questions that have been asked this evening could could and should be addressed in that report.

Um the only just a couple of very minor things I just wanted to say is the um city has a objective design standard process that you are all very familiar with uh that you adopted in 2024 for uh residential and mixed use residential projects that this project has been zoned for, and throughout the initiative, it's clear that whatever project is eventually brought forward needs to be consistent and follow the city's rules and municipal code.

So the any design would follow the city's set processes, and there's nothing in this initiative, although you should really I really do want to direct you that the city needs to answer the report, not me, so I don't want to get too ahead of ourselves, but I thought that was um important.

And um I also just again wanted to emphasize that the city has throughout the downtown an office mixed use residential, uh it's purple on your zoning map and slightly different color in your general plan, and this zoning district largely follows that with the exception of three things.

It limits the age of the occupants to over 55.

It in your MUR you have 0.3 uh commercial.

Uh the uh initiative envisions the potential for more than just 0.3.

So at this size, maybe instead of being 30,000 square feet, it could be up to 30.

We don't think it's mandatory, but I see my client, uh, the committee and those that who own the property see the advantages of trying to activate uh the ground floor.

It's a little Deadsville out there right now on some of the ground floor locations if you walk in those office buildings.

Um the third thing that um it does is it's not quite as generous on the commercial uses.

So your MUR as it defines uh potential commercial, we've limited them a little bit more to what's compatible with senior housing, but I don't think they're big changes, just slightly uh smaller.

Um and um we just don't have a project right now.

Like I could not, I I know that we don't know if this is for sale or rental.

I can tell you that the Hall Equities affiliates only purchased the property last summer, see a huge opportunity here for to do something with the site and are really uh excited about that opportunity, and part of seeing if the city and its residents and people who are signing the petition, if they're excited, then that will foster what actually gets decided to be built there.

So if you have any other questions, I'm available.

Okay, thank you very much.

Um questions now or go through all of public comment and ask questions.

I don't know if is there anybody else here?

Is there anybody we have one person?

Shall we prepare to come back come back?

Yeah, yeah, I won't go anywhere.

So yeah, hang hang tight, we'll finish public comment, we'll come back.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Resident here.

Never seen anything like this.

When I looked at it today, I'm like, what?

It looks like a backdoor approach to me.

And uh I live in the woodlands and uh the developer, you know, I've been here 40 years, so we all know the uh the whole equity group and and the work they do around the city.

Uh quite some time ago, land was purchased in Shadlands for a senior uh project.

And I remember it being difficult to get something that would work for someone and and uh appears to me to be mostly they buy property and they uh then later you know sell to somebody else to build or or develop.

Um so I'm still waiting for development.

Uh uh.

And this is um almost an entryway into our city, and I see a lot of disruption from that.

We seem to have a lot of affordable housing.

I think we ought to up the 55, you know, as the rest of us are getting older, um, because it seems like a lot of people qualify.

But the what I read says it was almost like well, we don't have any other housing for uh people around here.

And so I don't know, the the whole project uh troubles me uh in terms of the process.

And uh I'm certainly supporting a supportable affordable housing.

Uh familiar with them.

There's just too much in the way of um make sure we get lots of uh leeway for the for um the city because I don't want to start a process.

Everybody wants to do it this way now.

Just come down here and set up your own uh uh new uh classification when we spend years setting them up with uh comments from uh residents.

So um obviously there's demand and obviously we still need uh jobs downtown.

So um thank you.

Thank you, Jan.

All right, we will um uh any other public comments?

I don't see it.

I know uh so I so I see that.

So uh let's bring back the former public commenter, thank you.

And I know council member Silva has some questions.

I do have a question.

Thank you for being here.

It's nice to see you again.

I think I need to ask Charles to bring up the map of the project site.

Okay.

This one works.

So it is only two point, this is the two point four acres, it's outlined in black, correct.

Doesn't um Hall Equities own the remainder of that block?

Yes.

So they're choosing to only apply this initiative and this change in zoning to the corner, which was intentionally left vacant of a very big debate over 20 years ago when the building was built, but um the one at the corner of Cal uh Main and Ignatio.

It seems that this is right it seems that this is that there's a building that's connected to another building that is being divided in this.

So there are essentially five office buildings if the two-story office building that's across from the BART.

That's like it's connected to correct correct.

So whoops, sorry.

Oh, this is not a pointer.

It's okay.

So there are um the the remainder of that site has four office buildings on it, and those four office buildings would remain uh where the most northern line is closest to Pringle on the black, if you come right there.

There is a two-story annex that is actually not a attached, it's not filtery, is there's like a bridge, a connection.

That annex is vacant, um, is often largely vacant.

It's fairly low in the ground compared to the other office buildings and behind it um further south is an area that is currently open space.

The entire North Down specific plan allows for future office development of that site.

The specific plan does not in any way preclude development of it.

The proposal would be to no longer have the office regulatory development apply that it's currently in the North Downtown Specific Plan, and instead have this mixed-use residential commercial with senior only in it.

So we're just taking out one set of zoning for the other in the same area.

Um the yellow is uh slightly lower.

This this map happens to show height restrictions, and uh we're the addition of doesn't do anything to alter the height restrictions.

So that yellow corner is the same office zoning, but it has a lower height today.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome.

Mayor Purden.

Yeah.

Thank thank you for the comments.

Thank you for the proposal to do the report.

Uh if you could speak a couple questions on on the commercial uses, you said they would be a little more restricted than the MUR, and then I wrote down a comment that they'd be commercial uses compatible with seniors.

So can you elaborate on that a little bit?

So there are in the um hang on one second, because I actually happened to bring it with me.

So no, I don't have it in front of me.

What there are uh it would be things like if there was um a communications tower, a radio communications tower was permitted.

Uh we took that out.

That sort of thing.

Like it wasn't, but there's still all sorts of grocery stores.

Grocery stores, fitness centers, uh, uh even you know, auto dealer uses in case somebody wanted to like uh have a area there to um sell an electric vehicle or uh so so we it wasn't like super restrictive, but there were just some things that really just didn't make any sense at this location, and so we just they're not in there now, but it was probably five percent of the allowable uses.

Yeah.

Yeah, and then in terms of this 2.4 acre parcel.

I have a good idea of what you're talking about and the two-story annex.

How would the rest of the center continue to operate from like an op open space parking standpoint?

That's still that would still work.

There is a large parking structure that um there's several parking structures there that in different ways serve the project.

So either the parking structure will remain but have to be altered to allow the future senior residents to use it, or portions of it would have to be reconstructed, and that will be part of what's evaluated.

Okay.

And the parking for the new uses would be per our current code, not per the new new code per the initiative.

We don't change any of the parking requirements in there's nothing in this initiative that changes the city's parking requirements.

And no changes to affordability either, so would would either build or pay a fee or the combination of both, and as Mr.

Mattis pointed out, those apply both to for sale or rental, uh which this could be either or a combination of both.

Okay.

Uh and then the final question I'd asked it previewed it earlier, just in terms of the process.

We're not we don't usually get land use initiative measures, so why not just go through the standard kind of process of rezoning?

Um there's probably a longer answer, but I think the shortest and moi most to the point answer is that we looked and I did was part of that process, looked at the North Downtown specific plan, saw all the adjacent mixed-use residential that was nearby, and all the other goals of the plan that talk about housing and activation and grocery stores, one of the community benefits, and looking at where there's you know, opportunity to put housing, this seemed like a good site to do it, and that we could do it quickly and decide what to do with the rest of the center because these other three office buildings, if there's going to be a construction project, the landowners got to kind of figure out like what's the future of Ignacio Center, and since the city already had so many plans and regulations, all this initiative does is basically adopt how the city currently regulates mixed-use residential downtown, but limited it to seniors.

And and I think I do want to not get too far ahead of the program in terms of letting Mr.

Mattis and staff maybe answer that question.

Um we're early in the process here, but um that's what our uh our thoughts are.

Okay.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

You're welcome.

Any question?

I mean, I so I'm I think I'm understanding what you're saying about the Ignacio Center building, the one that's in the very heart of that, and that is half in and half out of the new district, right?

The annexes in and the taller 12, 13 story structure it that's 1910 California, that's out of the district.

1910 California, that that's the building that faces the BART station will remain intact.

But the one I'm just looking at the area photo.

Yes, the shorter one next to it would is would be the one over at on California is part of it.

Yes.

And then the um the one that has the parking on the roof is half in, half out.

Or it's all parking.

It's all parking.

It's all parking.

Okay, and that's the parking that you can you could either leave in place or re or redevelop.

Okay, good.

And that's a big decision.

I mean, that's and then um when we came up with the North Downtown plan, there was the idea of the community benefits.

And if somebody wanted to change, um would this be subject to community benefits?

It would be subject to it.

They weren't that provision was not eliminated, but the community benefits, I think we're looking at getting additional commercial FAR in order to get to provide a community benefits to get additional FAR.

The FAR for that commercial use here would ISOR be a lot lower.

You know, before it was a big commercial project.

Now it's only gonna be 0.6, so the commercial part would be lower.

So I don't think the community benefits would kick in in an in order to build the 200 plus housing units and the commercial.

Okay.

Um that said, you know, it may turn out there's a grocery store in there.

We just don't know.

I mean, that would be fabulous to be honest with you, but it's thinking that can happen, I don't know.

Yeah.

I I recognize you could hear it a very early.

Yes, yeah, yes.

Yes.

There's lots here.

Thank you.

All right.

Thank uh unless there are any other questions.

I just wanted to clarify one comment.

I know there is the question from council or mayor pro tem Francois about you know why not go through the standard city process, and there was some back and forth and possibly the suggestion that that would be answered in by city staff.

I just want to clarify that there is no confusion.

That is not an answer staff would be answering either now or any time through this process or as part of this report about why the applicant is pursuing this process as opposed to the standard process.

We will be this report, if authorized by council will be analyzing the potential consideration impacts associated with this process and the proposal, but not answering that question as to why.

So it it there's really two paths.

There is going through the normal process through planning and planning commission, city council, or there is a citizen's initiative.

And this is the path that you've chosen.

Correct.

And I should clarify, I was starting to say things like the intent was to just take the city's regulations as they apply to the mixed use residential, but add senior as opposed and take out the office.

And I started in answering the question why we were doing this, sort of answering what the initiative does.

So I was more trying to not get ahead of on all that.

But that's right.

This this I I agree with your characterization of the two paths in this path.

And should the citizens initiative pass?

The council is not able to overturn that.

That's that's the way that's it.

Okay, that that's correct.

If if the if the measure qualifies for the ballot and then passes by the voters, then it effectuates the change to the general plan, specific plan and the zoning for the property.

Okay.

Can I can I ask the flip question?

If the initiative doesn't pass, the council still retains full jurisdiction over changes to the general plan.

Well, it retains yes, it retains all the discretion it has right now.

And so that question used to be um a more straightforward answer, but the laws related to housing now have given greater protections to the ability of housing to be facilitated if it's already been established through zoning and whatnot.

If I could just add to that, and I don't normally add to what our city attorney states, but I will on this.

If there were to be any proposed changes to what this initiative does, generally speaking, that would require going back to the voters to amend that.

With with one minor exception, the initiative includes a language in it that allows changes that are agreed to with the consent of the property owner.

So the it's it's it's I mean, it's it's unique because the initiative is writing legislation.

Oftentimes initiatives will be written to say this is the new law and it can't be changed without voter approval.

This one says this is the new law and it can't be changed without voter approval unless the property owner agrees to the change.

So it's a bit of an exception that's written into this initiative.

Do you do you mind if I add one other little comment to that?

Since I still see it.

Well, let me first ask we have more questions of um the commenter, or are we now going to bring it just to I have a question of the attorneys?

Right.

So no, we can continue this.

I have a question of the commenter.

That is relevant to the report.

I and it's I'm not asking for a statistical analysis, but why senior essentially?

What what's what's the demand that you're seeing?

You know, why not just general non-age restricted housing?

So um since I'm standing here, I just wanted to say because it's important that the initiative does allow the applicant to come back and request changes to the council, but it would follow then the usual path.

We we would have to go through if there were any environmental impacts of the change.

Let's say you changed it from this is a segue question from 55 plus to less than 55 plus, that could be done with the council's consent and the property owner, but it would have to go through a public process to do that.

Um but yes, the demand, uh the the perceived demand for uh for senior housing is um one that we does seem that it will the market will bear uh a demand for this, but also um seniors don't create traffic and they don't create school impact.

So first we have to get the signatures, then we have to get the votes.

We think residential is great down here, but some of the environmental impacts from bringing a senior housing project across from BART downtown to a busy area.

demand for uh for senior housing is um one that we does seem that it will the market will bear uh a demand for this but also um seniors don't create traffic and they don't create school impact so first we have to get the signatures then we have to get the votes we think residential is great down here but some of the environmental impacts from bringing a senior housing project across from BART downtown to a busy area we think it couples the request to do it by initiative along with the um future market demand and we obviously recognize that's a restriction but one we I think the ownership feels very confident about okay yes well I I was just wondering in light of the city manager's comments that that the staff report won't be elaborating on the decision to pursue this route if you wanted to elaborate further on that well I I think really what I just to remind everybody what I said is that this does uh provide a way to if the citizens you we get enough signatures and we get the vote uh which we think would should be a very you know we anticipate a uh support for the project but maybe not but if we do um then we can just come in with a project and if it things are looking good then we can come up with that project is and what makes sense and start moving um as opposed to going through what could be a much longer uh process than what I just described and so it's to expedite the project yes this year okay yeah I mean that should like I said there's probably a little more to it but that's I would think the it's expedite but also get the input of the voters because we want to make sure like if you bring a project forward and we were to have gone the other way we could have gone through two year process and at the end there could be a lawsuit over it.

So this is also a way to make sure we have um support from the community.

So it's it's speed it up but also make sure that we're on the right track okay thank you all right I think dumb on the public comment portion portion so I will close the public comment at this point and bring it back to council for discussion.

Could I ask my question yes please um Steve four minutes ago you said that the if the voters approve this that this is written in a way that the the land owner the property owner with agreement from council couldn't effectively change what the voters approved.

Did I interpret what you said correctly um you did and that that will be spelled out in the impartial analysis as well too but it is um the the applicant the I wanna I don't want to take away the word applicant really the property owner the per party in control of the property would have to be in agreement with the changes if it were to happen um through some process other than the voters approving it.

So the council has a role but there has to be consensus typically outside of an initiative restriction the council or the city is the ultimate um decision maker right and in this instance there would be an ability for an applicant to say we don't a property owner to say we don't agree with that change.

Now if they wanted to go to a different kind of zoning so that then they could either come back with another initiative or they could go through a normal process.

They're not precluded from filing a a general plan amendment through the normal process or a specific plan amendment through the normal process.

So let me see if I understand if the if this was approved by the voters the property owner has the right the property owner also has the right to come back and say well I'm rethinking this I'd like the council to weigh in on doing something different and we could do that without going to the voters that is correct.

Is that is that consistent with state law about the it's it's it's so many initiatives are written to reserve to the voters a power to change an initiative but an initiative doesn't have to be written that way.

Okay.

Thank you.

So it's it's it's an exercise of the way that you structure the zoning here and the zoning is allowing for this exception and you know there may be you know you can think of instances where they are the proponents are pushing an initiative right now that they think will work in some concept that they have in their mind but two years from now they realize they need to tweak it a bit like it it needs to be modified a little bit and so they may come back in and ask for some kind of modification the market for senior housing could in theory completely disappear if you will and so they might want to come back in with some other kind of change and then they would really be back at the kind of the normal starting point where they come in and they say we want a general plan amendment and a specific plan amendment and and that could happen.

The market for senior housing could, in theory, completely disappear, if you will.

And so they might want to come back in with some other kind of change, and then they would really be back at the kind of the normal starting point where they come in and they say we want a general plan amendment and a specific plan amendment.

And that could happen.

Okay, thank you.

So I have a question for the city manager then.

Um so for this report, when would of course they're asking us to provide this report now, they would reimburse us for us.

When would this report normally be done without this particular discussion?

Well, I oftentimes these are done after the number of it uh signatures have been gathered and verified.

But it depends it the larger question is it depends because it depends on the timing of when the election is relative to signature gathering relative to the verification.

Uh this is a little more of a compressed time frame than maybe some other initiatives in terms of signature gathering to when the um election occurs, and there's also obviously the incremental step that if the signatures are gathered and verified, it comes before your council, and that is a required step that we're targeting for the June time frame.

And so the goal for this report is to be done by early June.

So there's some time to review and prep for the second council meeting in June.

So normally or the other option would be us to prepare the report at our cost.

Correct.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

And if I if I could just add to that a little bit, the the latest the council could request the report would be when you have found out that the measure has qualified, and then there's a set period of time within which the report needs to be done.

And so one aspect of the request coming earlier, is it allows a little bit more time for the report to be completed than might otherwise be the case if you waited to the end, and as I think Dan and the staff report have indicated before, these reports are optional, they're not mandatory, and the the basis or a rationale for these reports is that cities were receiving initiative measures that the voters would vote on, and there wasn't an opportunity for this type of kind of objective report of the impacts of it, and and presumably the purpose behind elections code section 9212 is to provide additional information for voters to be aware of when they make a determination about something like this.

So they're not just hearing the version from the initiative proponents and whatever in the ballot arguments uh pro and con.

So it's um prepare the report now or later if it's now it's reimbursed.

Um I personally don't see any harm in having this report done.

Uh there's more discussion that will obviously happen at some point, but uh I'm prepared to make a motion on this, and we can go from there, and that would be to move direct the city manager to prepare the elections code 9212 report on the Walnut Creek Senior Housing Transit Village Initiative and to enter into a cost payment reimbursement agreement with friends of Walnut Creek Senior Housing.

Um I had one more question before we go to motions.

Um the question of how community benefits might apply or not apply to this.

Is that something that could be included in the report?

Yes, that's that's both really under the one of the identified categories of consistency with the specific plan in this case, because that's where it's are that's where it's laid out.

But the council can also ask for that as well too, and so we would address that issue in this report.

So it's subsumed.

And then when it comes back to us in June, what action is the council being asked to take?

So ultimately the council has so assuming it gets a sufficient number of signatures, in that instance the council has two choices.

You can either adopt it as it's proposed without changes at all, or you place it before the voters.

Those are the only two choices you have.

And this report can help both inform the public but also inform the council as to which of those two choices you want to make.

You do not have the ability to modify it in any way.

So we could adopt the measure the measure that's going to the voters.

Yeah, the state law allows a city council to adopt the measure itself.

Um I want to I want to be clear about one aspect of this.

Um this measure as I understand it so far does not violate or modify measure A in any way, but that's one of the things that the council might want to think about when you're deciding whether you adopt it or not, because the council, because of measure A is prohibited from doing certain things that involve height changes.

Um but is the council is also aware state law uh through density bonus can override measure a.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

And thank you for letting me yes.

I this is this is a little through the looking glass.

It's a little it's a little different.

I'd like to expand on that question.

So when it if it were to come back to us with the signatures and we have that binary choice of either approving it or sending it to the voters, um is that a time where we could say we'll approve it if no, you do not have the authority to modify it at that point.

No modify.

It's either it's either approve it, assuming a whole bunch of additional information you'll get before that decision is made, or place it before the voters.

Those are your two choices.

I guess before we get to motions too, I wanted to talk about the any other matters the legislative body might require in the report.

So that we're assured that that's in the motion.

Yeah, I mean it it seemed to me that the comment that council member darling asked about the impact on our arena would be covered under number two, the effect on consistency with the general plan, including the housing element.

I would just want to make sure that includes you know not that just the numeric number of units, but the affordability, and you know, it seems to me there's a possibility this could be an all-market rate project, and so what that would look like if it were all market rate and what it would look like if it complied with the inclusionary housing ordinance by providing the units instead of paying the fees.

So is that cut that's covered?

Um I had a few other ones, and I think they're reflecting the comments that were heard on the dias here, which uh the process if it were to pass.

What what if the initiative measure passes?

What's the additional seek uh city entitlement process that would likely um that we would likely undergo for uh for an actual project?

Does that mean include design review processes?

Just the discretionary approvals, well I I don't know that they're discretionary, yeah.

But I think the the approval process, whether they're likely to be discretionary, and if so, then subject to CEQA.

Um or if not, and not subject to CEQA.

I think those are the process we'd want to understand.

If it were to pass, um you mentioned uh the potential impacts on the measure A height limit, which I think we'd all want to know that information.

Uh councilmember Silva had asked about not a CEQA document, but environmental consultant.

A memo from an environmental consultant that on traffic and view corridors and not the cultural, not the biological, the I mean it's already you know we don't need a memo to tell us it's already developed.

I I'd like to I'd like to know that information from a general environmental impact standpoint, and then my own ones are uh and I don't know, you know, I could see several different consultants preparing this report.

Maybe it's all one that specializes in these, but from an economic standpoint, you know, is there that demand for an all-senior project, and what is the demand for commercial uses at that site?

Is there a demand, and if so, what type of commercial demand is there likely to be any others Mayor?

I would just note maybe covered this Mayor Pro Tem, but I had notes of the applicability of community benefits should be considered, and also there was a question about could the project be all residential and no commercial to look at that as part of this report.

All right, that sounds good.

Um there's a motion is there second.

Motion is second.

Clarifying with the revisions and additions of the to be included in the report.

Yes.

Susie, could you recall the role, please?

Mayor Welk.

Hi.

Mayor Partin Francois.

Hi.

Council Member Darling.

Hi.

Council Member DeVini.

Hi.

And Council Member Sutler.

Hi.

Motion carries.

All right.

And now we do need to.

No, okay.

Let's take a 10-minute break to late 15.

And we're back.

So next on the agenda is public hearing for the waiver of the reading and introduction of an ordinance amending Title 7 of the Walnut Creek Municipal Code, adding Chapter 7-4 entertainment zones to establish an entertainment zone in the public right of way.

Thank you.

And good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the City Council, members of the public.

I'm Mike Neiman, your economic development manager.

And this item in front of you today is the amendment to the municipal code adding entertainment zones.

So first off, uh, what is an entertainment zone?

An entertainment zone applies to the public right of way and it allows consumption of alcohol on all kinds of publicly owned spaces.

They're used to activate these spaces, and they're used by customers and visitors who can come in and purchase uh containers, beverages from local businesses in supporting these businesses.

I included a couple of pictures from San Francisco where you could see that there's been a lot of success in activation of the streets and bringing communities together, as I will talk a little bit later in the presentation.

One important thing to note is these are event-based.

So uh they are for very specific events, the timing of which is regulated.

So via background, there was a state uh Senate Bill 969 adopted in 2024, which went into effect in uh January January 1st, 2025, and it was primarily adopted for San Francisco, which was the first city in the state to adopt this, and many other cities have followed suit.

Uh this bill allows for adoption of these entertainment districts as a tool for re revitalization and bringing people back together to areas with a lot of where there's a there's an economic development uh purpose for activation uh as one of the ways to offset some of the decline and some of the areas have seen during COVID, especially some of the more office-heavy districts have seen declines, and the businesses there suffered.

Uh a lot of these entertainment zones, well, they're regulated to be consistent with ABC licensing, so that is um similar.

And um, it's also consistent with the general plan for Walnut Creek.

We have a policy that uh calls out for promotion of the city as a regional destination, and that will be consistent as far as bringing visitors to the area.

And there's also a number of successful case studies.

I mentioned San Francisco, which now has over 20 entertainment zones, many other cities, uh Sacramento, San Diego, uh, Santa Monica, Long Beach, many others.

Uh right now there's a lot of cities in South Bay that are looking at them and may have even adopted some last week in preparation for the World Cup, uh, as they're getting ready to host.

So Santa Clara was looking at two in particular.

And I included another picture, the rendering from San Francisco here.

So as far as the process that's uh outlined in this policy, is there is three steps, and the steps are consistent with the state bill.

The first step would be for a nonprofit that would be a project sponsor to submit a management plan, which is an application to the city.

Uh, this management plan would be subject to council approval, which is really important because it gives council discretion over formation of each entertainment zone that would come in the city, and then the city would issue an event-specific special event permit.

So within entertainment zone, there's further discretion for staff to make sure that we control uh when these events happen, the duration and frequency of events and whatnot.

And uh it's important to note also that this particular ordinance amendment is being brought uh forward at the request of WCD.

And um we have attached a draft of the management plan to the staff report, although you will have the opportunity to adopt a management plan should you take action tonight at a separate meeting.

And you could see here that for the management plan, the uh the ordinance requires these components be adopted as part of the formation of the zone, and all of these sections are included in the draft management plan that's included, and uh WCD has envisioned that this would be the map that we're showing here.

Um for it for their early events, they're thinking that they would start with locust street, so it would be a subset of this area.

But going forward, they um they envision having this full area so they have further flexibility down the road to uh choose specific areas within the broader uh entertainment zone area where such events would be allowed.

And with that um staff recommendation would be to move forward with the ordinance amending Wilney Creek Municipal Code Title VII, adding chapter four entertainment zones to establish an entertainment zone in the public right of way, subject to further action of adopting the management plan separately, and I should also mention that we have representatives from WCD here as well, should you have any operational questions?

And this completes my presentation and happy to take any questions.

Thank you, Mike.

Do we have any questions?

I guess yes.

Is um WCD going to make a presentation or just here for to answer questions if needed?

Oh, just questions, okay.

The what was the thinking around this particular zone?

You know, perhaps expanding it to other areas would you expand on that part?

Yeah, absolutely.

So the thinking is that this would be the first entertainment zone because this is being brought forward by Walnut Creek Downtown.

Um, but we wanted to create a mechanism where should there be interest from other parts of town, should there be a sponsoring nonprofit who is interested at replicating uh such an event elsewhere, there is additional flexibility, and they would also be able to do that subject to uh their own creation of a management plan approved separately by council.

Okay, so like pilot.

Correct.

Okay.

So thanks, Mike, for the report.

Um I understand it correctly that the boundaries of the entertainment zone would be set by the management plan.

And we're not approving the management plan right now.

We have a draft before us.

We're just approving the ordinance that says the entertainment zone will be set by the management plan.

And that'll come for us later.

We have what's likely going to be presented in the management plan in terms of mostly downtown.

And uh and I understand that, and that makes sense.

My question was, and I'm familiar with the zones mostly in the city on Front Street where Front Street is closed down for part of the street, and there are four or five bars around that area, and you can circulate in that area, buy a beer in that front street entertainment zone, and take it outside of the establishment and walk around the street in it.

Is that something similar planned here, even though the entertainment zone boundary could be as large as all of downtown?

Uh that's correct.

Thank you for your question.

So, first uh you're correct, Vice Mayor, in how you describe the framework.

And in terms of the entertainment zone, the management plan uh that we included a draft of is is up to.

So it includes a zone that that could accommodate these events.

Now there would be specific events for which uh WCD will identify what is the area and work closely with staff to get the special event permit.

So the thinking is similar to Front Street and San Francisco, where there would be a smaller contained area because it would be easier to contain, it would be easier to uh come up with it with a traffic management plan signage.

Um the zone that you're seeing in front of you, which we showed in the slide, would be the zone that could accommodate future events through subsections, but not necessarily the whole uh downtown closure given the impact uh it would have.

So and I assume it would be WCD, that would be the applicant for the the special event permit.

They essentially could apply for a special event permit anywhere within this area, if it's this is the area in the management plan.

But the special event permit would say it's gonna be the block of locust between bonanza and Cyprus, for instance.

So could for that permit, then it can all outdoor alcohol could only be sold on that block.

Yes, that's correct.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just one quick question.

So it sounds like reading through the ordinance.

A project sponsor must be a nonprofit.

So you can't end up if we have if we set up the entertainment zone process.

An individual restaurateur can't decide that they want to set up an entertainment zone.

It has to be done by a nonprofit.

Yes, that is correct, and that is based on the state law.

Okay, good.

Thank you.

Councilmember Silver.

It's going to sound redundant, I know that, but so this is a potential entertainment zone as defined at this point.

So WCD becomes the holder, potentially becomes the holder of the management plan, therefore the permission to have an entertainment zone, and they could spec locust street from Bonanza to Cyprus on the first and third Tuesdays of the month.

So we could go there rather than coming to our meetings, no.

Um what does frequency of activations mean?

Can we limit the number of times per month that these can be triggered?

We could, and that is something that we could be see what we would be seeking your direction on as well.

Right now, this is a framework, and the way that we have initially conceived this framework is it would be outlined in the management plan with subject to further special events where staff can um control that.

Um and this would be very timely to provide your feedback to WCD because then that would be um incorporated in the management plan that will come forth in front of you at a later time.

And then my other question is technical.

Currently, the alcohol alcoholic beverage commission controls the bar, the alcohol licensing, and there are different grades grades.

There's you know, you have full full service, beer, wine, and cocktails, or you could only have beer and wine.

You must be selling food at so how do we monitor how will WCD monitor the adherence to the individual license of each of the um retail establishments that are participating?

Does everybody get a different colored cup?

Hi.

Good morning or good morning, good evening, Kathy Hemingway.

Almost back down association.

Um the monitoring would take place um by yes, that we would have custom cups um that would need to be distributed to the participating businesses.

So the businesses express an interest as long as they're in good standing with ABC, they can um register online to participate in the entertainment zone, and then we would supply them with the cups and wristbands that they would need just for this um particular event.

And then we would have also the um training for their staff, um, and then also a manual that would be available to all of the participating businesses to have that on site with one um designated person within the business that's educated to know what the the um procedures are for the entertainment zone, and then um also volunteers and staff um to be able to monitor the um people who are going in and out of the businesses.

They can't also take a cup into a new business, so they have to be outside on the street.

Um right now the um proposal would be to serve beer, wine, and um and uh mixed drinks.

So that's also up for discussion too.

So how does how do we, I'm not sure who this is.

Is it police, the ABC or WCD ensure that a retailer that is only allowed to serve beer and wine is not deciding to serve a mixed cocktail punch during the entertainment zone period.

It wouldn't, yeah, it would be it would that's a level that we'd have to address.

Yeah, I think it it's of ABC, they're putting themselves into you know jeopardy by um by um potentially breaking you know their own um license.

So that's that's information that we would need to share and and then if we find out through staff um or volunteers or even um police we can pull them in.

Yeah.

Okay, thank you.

If I may add also uh what this ordinance does is it regulates the public right of way, right?

So the idea and the thinking behind that that businesses operate as usual, there's really nothing that's changing about their type of operation in terms of hours of operation, what they're allowed to serve at as long as they continue to comply with ABC and other city uh regulations, it it it just regulates the fact that now visitors are able to bring the beverage outside and and and consume it on the public right-of-way.

So that's really the focus of it.

And and there hasn't really we haven't heard of any violations in other entertainment zones during events where businesses would kind of would would deviate from that, nor have we heard anything from other prior WCD events, right?

That bring kind of a large number of people to town in terms of uh businesses, you know, um violating some of their ABC licensing.

Okay.

Um Kelsey found also that within um the guidelines um there is a line that states only those alcoholic beverages allowable by the license type and the ordinance establishing the entertainment zone may be provided to patrons for purposes of participating in the entertainment zones privilege.

So within those guidelines, there is clear statement that they need to adhere to their own um license.

So the rules are clear.

Yeah, and adherence to the world rules are always a question.

Yeah, yeah.

But that's you know, them the businesses running a responsible um plan.

Thank you.

So what I'm curious, what's the difference between how a street fair currently previously first month, Wednesdays and whatever it is going to be this summer?

Uh because people have wine and beer, they're in the street, so what's the difference?

Right.

So we've been operating the first Wednesdays and Locust Street Festivals now for 12 years, and those have all of the bar services have been operated through um Walnut Creek Downtown Association.

So we bring in the beverage partners and or purchase the out uh first pull the license and then um set up the bar and manage that, the sales and tickets and such.

And so this now would move that away from our team and put this uh into the hands of the professionals and allow for the businesses to um serve their their um their beverages, either inside or outside um of their business and um and also increase that foot traffic, um which they've been asking about.

We've had many conversations with the businesses who are um have either bus um vendors or um other um tents that are in front of um their establishments and they're frustrated with that, so you can only allow for so many gaps, this would allow for them to really um showcase their business and increase that foot traffic.

So it's not going to be like I keep in envisioning bourbon street in New Orleans, it's not going to be like that.

We've been doing we've been doing this as I say for for 12 years.

If anything, this will bring additional coverage.

It will give extra eyes and ears, you know, from the um the bar and restaurant staff, um, extra insurance protection, um, and then we will also have volunteers monitoring at the entrance and exits to make sure that the signage is being adhered to, um, that they don't go beyond the certain certain footprint.

So the best, and this is sort of leveraging what council member Silva has said, the best laid-out plans always sound great when everybody is hearing to them.

But considering that we have our Walnut Creek Police Department's finest leadership here in the room.

What is to prevent somebody from getting drinks legally and then pouring it into another container for somebody underage now they're on the street.

When they're in restaurants, the servers, the management, they're able to monitor that.

It's much more difficult to see that on the street.

How is that planning on being enforced?

Well, wristbands, uh, everyone carrying a cup would have to have um a wristband, and the wristbands would have more um multiple places where they can be um where the IDs are checked, either at the entrance or the exits, um, and then also within the individual businesses and then our staff, and that's just something that we absolutely can walk up to someone we we do that anyways, request the ID and and make sure that it's legit.

If it's questionable, then we we um pull in PD.

Okay.

And so curious what um what are uh one or two of the unintended consequences that you could potentially see from allowing this?

Probably just the number of um of uh folks.

I mean, right now we probably average about four to five thousand people on a Wednesday evening for our past um events on uh on a strong day.

So maybe just you know crowd control.

So anticipating you know that um in advance.

Beyond that, we think we see it as a really you know positive kind of modern way to help um our small businesses and and be able to um exceed you know their daily revenue um and being able to um continue to to put Walnut Creek out in front as as a as a regional destination.

I think those are my questions.

How many events, Kathy, do you envision having?

You know, assuming that this gets approved and get a how many special event permits would you likely be applying for the right.

So for 2026 this year, it just um applies to Locust Street Festival, which is July 8th, so two, July 8th and August 5th.

And it would be I know it's called a special event permit or a street closure permit, is it envisioned there would be a street closure involved with it as well?

Yes.

All of them would include um street closures.

And then what happens to the locust street festival when I've been there volunteering to serve beers and I love doing that job.

But um so it sounds like you're would be putting me out of business.

Um what is the what other you'll still have the music and other kind of family-friendly events and things going on as part of the festivals?

Right.

It'll it'll still be the same activation, just make more entertainment, but then also a little bit different of a footprint as far as the the vendors and the layout so that we have clear um vision of the participating businesses and allowing them to um to advertise and market themselves.

And and just just to not to beat a dead horse, but just to clarify, so even though the whole entertainment zone is downtown with this locust street special permit, I couldn't buy a beer at Stadium Pub, walk outside and go down to the Locust Street Festival, because that's not what covered by this permit.

Correct.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I was wondering, I'm thinking back to like COVID days, uh, like when Lincoln was closed and there was that area there that um was sort of being utilized in between the the buildings and I think Stadium Pub across the street, maybe.

Um what is there flexibility or do you envision flexibility in this plan where you might set up uh entertainment district that like you know Fridays and Saturday evenings this area is closed and is uh like a recurring sort of destination in downtown?

Is that like is that that there is that kind of flexibility?

Right.

If we find an area that's you know really working.

There's definitely the framework that would allow the pathway towards that.

There's nothing that precludes that if we see this uh kind of as mentioned earlier, it it was starting it as a little bit of a pilot, but if it works, it works really well.

Uh it's something that could be expanded.

I'm one of the police, whenever if you want to do public comment.

Yeah.

Um why don't we stop the questions right now here?

If there is a if there is public comment, um please come forward now.

Um doesn't look like there is public comment, so we'll close the public comment portion.

And uh let me ask if we have any questions for our police department.

I do.

Great.

I think it's probably Captain Slow.

Oh, I guess we're gonna get the chief.

I go right to the top.

Wow.

Hello, good evening, Ryan Hibis Walnut Creek Police Chief.

Good evening, Chief.

Uh I'm wondering if you can speak to any big picture concerns you have with the program, this the scope of the entertainment zone, outdoor alcohol.

No.

Broadly, no, we don't have any major concerns here.

They our position on this is that Walnut Creek Downtown has thought this out pretty thoroughly.

Um we have met with them and we're pleased with the controls they've put in place.

Um with respect to the events themselves, we kind of view this as another first Wednesday or Locust Street Festival.

And if needed need be, we'll staff it, but we're also happy to report back on the results if uh there are issues, but we'll also raise any concerns with Walnut Creek downtown.

And I'm very confident we won't.

Um if we were to raise issues that they would be addressed promptly.

Have there been any issues or concerns with the first Wednesday events?

No.

Okay.

And uh I think that's it for me for now.

Other questions.

I know that you mentioned the the businesses that are allowed to sell are based on whether they have the ABC license, right?

We've had occasionally businesses that while they haven't lost their license have there's been like misconduct or or issues.

Is there a mechanism in place shy of losing your liquor license that would preclude you from participating in the plan the way it'll be structured?

That's more question for you guys.

I think it would it would be working with PD and um Lieutenant Olsen, who's um I think J was uh with Lieutenant Moorehouse, who's the current ABC um liaison um to create that list.

I usually have um you know a list in communication with PD for those that are struggling with um adhering to their guidelines, but um that would definitely be when once we finalize the list of the participants and we run that through um and that would um through the event permit um and not the special event um application and so that runs through all the channels of the city, including PD.

So for each event you'll go through and vet who's behaving and who's not, and they'll only get there for the events if they're on the nice list.

Right, and then the the applicants themselves or the by the business themselves, they have to apply um online through the ABC um uh portal.

And so I would imagine that they would flag it.

That's something that I can definitely confirm, but I would imagine they would flag that.

Okay.

Bounce, bounce, bounce.

Um so if we have a special event and it has hours, so let's say it's on a Thursday night and it's from five to ten.

Any establishment that has later ABC hours, they can serve till 11 or midnight.

They would have to take it indoors after the special event hours are over.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

All right, I think we're done with questions.

So we'll bring it back to council for any further comments.

And I actually have one comment I just wanted to make.

My recommendation on this is I mean, let's give this a shot, and um and I like a pilot program where rather than it being automatically renewed, um, and then we have to then have a whole hearing again.

I would suggest something that we have a year pilot program and it expires and unless we renew it.

And so that we at least have a report back to us and then we can evaluate it at the 11 month time frame or whatever it is, and then we can renew it rather than just saying, okay, this is the way it's going to be, and then having to pull it back at some point.

That's just my recommendation, but uh that would be an add-on to what what Walnut Creek Downtown is asking for.

Yep.

I I've been looking at this and trying to figure out what approach I thought would make sense because it it's obvious that the team has put a lot of thought into this.

They've worked really closely with city staff and they're building on top of 12 years of um operating events with some really excellent bartenders, um, but really doing a good job of it.

So rather than having it sunset, I would prefer just including a requirement that we get a report back to council so that we have eyes on how it's working.

So rather than saying it's sunsets at the end of 26 or the end of 27, just ask for a report back.

Wouldn't we be getting that anyway?

Doesn't Walnut Creek Downtown provide us with reports and we can ask for a report anytime.

Well, we could ask for it at any time.

I'm just thinking an affirmative um requirement to have the visibility on it rather than make it stop and then have an opportunity to restart.

Well, and yes, they they do have to come to us with you know Walnut Creek Downtown call comes in with their budget and all those things, but this is just something specific to the entertainment.

I wouldn't I wouldn't even suggest that they would then automatically stop and now we have to restart it.

It would be that it would sunset unless uh unless we're able to then um we renew it prior to that, so that it wouldn't have to stop and then restart.

We could look at this and then renew it at the 11th month or whatever it is.

Just the idea being that uh let's make sure that we're proactive on this rather than um you know at some point having to then actively stop it, which I think is more challenging.

What do other folks think?

Well, uh what concerns me about a sunset is there are many there are many state laws that have sunsets in them, and they get rammed through to renew them at the sunset, but I also would be concerned at the timing of it.

A year may if we started it now, a year would be at just before the beginning of the next summer season, which is the likely time.

So I would say two years because they can run through two summers at that point.

I I like the idea of a pilot too.

I think it's it's new.

I think it's gonna work out really well, but I'd like to, you know, truth test that assumption, and I think two years would you know it sounds like there will only be two events this year, so we can get it up and running, see how it works, and then maybe expand it next year.

But um, and I believe there's a way to do that, right?

We can put that into the the ordinance for a sunset, and then similar to state legislation, it would have to come back to the city council for a renewal or or an elimination of the sunset.

Yeah.

I can live with two years.

I mean, I I think it's going to work out well as well.

I'm just we don't know how many of us are going to be here in a few years, so I just want to make sure that we've got some kind of guardrails on there.

So uh can we ask the city attorney how we would phrase it.

Yeah, you can um if the council is trying to get two summer sessions involved in it, what you could do is you could amend the effective date section, which is section five of the ordinance.

The last sentence of that says this ordinance shall become effective on the 31st day after adoption.

So think today's meeting, next meeting it gets adopted, then 30 days thereafter it takes effect.

So I would say you could amend that last sentence to say this ordinance shall become effective on the 31st day after its adoption and shall terminate on September 30th, 2028, unless extended by the city council.

So moved.

Second.

Susan, can you call call the role, please?

Councilmember Silva.

Hi, Mayor Well, hi.

Council Member Darling.

Hi, Councilmember Davinny.

Hi, Mayor Pro Tem France Law.

All right.

Right.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

We're excited that I'm I'm really excited about this.

Um that's really disappointed that he's not gonna get to pour beer.

Um I'm sure you're all gonna figure out a way to do that.

Uh all right.

Next on the agenda is a closed session with items related to the following conference with labor negotiators, unrepresented employee employee city manager, unrepresented employee city attorney.

Under California law, yeah, that's where we've got a little bit more.

Under California law, public comments and special meetings are limited to subjects on the agenda only.

Therefore, public comments will be received at this time for the item previously mentioned after an opportunity for public comment.

The city council will reconvene for the closed session discussion.

I do not see anybody here to make public comments, so we will now reconvene to a closed session.

On the second floor, on the second floor.