Special Concurrent City Council and Redevelopment Agency Meeting October 5, 2009

0:01:03good evening everybody and welcome to many new people here at the elero city hall I'd like to call the meeting um of the elero Redevelopment agency and the elero city council to order for October 5th 2009 and I wanted to make a note that tomorrow will be the one-year

0:01:21anniversary from us meeting here in our new city council chambers so cause for celebration um could we have the roll call please council member and agency member Chang here council member and agency member Jones here Lyman here Aon here and mayor Potter here and um mayor proam ablon will now

0:01:48lead us in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay um this is a time for Council and staff Communications and Redevelopment agency chair Jones has a

0:02:19report out from our closed session yes earlier this evening the agency board uh met pursuant to government code section 54956 and uh it was concerning the property at 11 uh 450 San Pablo Avenue better known as the the target uh site uh a correction on the agenda uh Jack Nagel

0:02:46was the uh was the Redevelopment agency council tonight that was a switch out um the agency board gave direction to staff and legal counsel tonight thank you thank you any other Council Communications um yes I have a few um the first is that I noticed that there

0:03:09in the staff report uh from police chief Scott Kirkland I don't know if he's here tonight I'm not may not be anyway that um we received a letter from the commissioner of the California Highway Patrol notifying our department that we placed first in the law enforcement challenge

0:03:30for agencies our size for the second year in a row and we also won the commercial vehicle safety award for all agencies within California so I'd like to thank our Police Department for their uh fine work and um next I'd like to um I attended the meeting of the parks and W

0:03:57commission and uh OB Ain a flyer about our Halloween Carnival and this year it's going to be held on o Friday October the 30th not the 31st and it'll be from 3: to 8:00 p.m. at the community uh let's see well there'll be carnival games bounce houses haunted houses and

0:04:20uh new for the very first time ever here we will have a dog parade and costume contest and the contest starts at 3:45 p.m. at 3 Vista Park uh 950 Pomona Avenue and all proceeds uh will benefit the Bruce King memorial fund to support building a dog park in El Sero and if

0:04:42you're interested in participating and want to register you can do so at the community center um and I hope you'll enjoy it and excuse me join us um on October 17th just to remind you uh we're going to be having a an event called Greening elero day and there will be a number of sub

0:05:04events that day in the morning we're going to be planting Tre Street trees from 9: to noon and if you're interested in uh having one in front of your house then um contact G Schultz at 215 4354 uh for more information or to register um so we'll have a whole um group of events including a celebration

0:05:33on the Plaza by City Hall um and so I hope you'll have a an opportunity to to join us for that I uh attended several events in the last um period since our last meeting I um went to an event where I heard Randy iwasaki who is the new director of calr the California

0:05:55Department of Transportation speak and um he seemed um very knowledgeable about um transportation in particular highways because of course that's what calr does and um so it was very interesting to hear him speak and um uh I was very happy to have the opportunity to do so I

0:06:16also attended uh the to Marketplace as did uh council member Chang uh on Thursday September 24th u in San Jose and um there were a number of different seminars presented at that workshop on um transia development practices uh and they particularly um highlighted the Pleasant

0:06:40Hill BART station it's called the Contra Casta Center Transit Village is being developed in the um former parking lots of the Pleasant Hill BART station and it was very interesting to see the kind of work that they were doing there and uh just to see what you can in fact to do

0:07:00actually in a very short amount of time uh at a BART station um if you um have all your um things together to get it done so I was very happy to have the opportunity to go to this uh workshop and hear about all these things and um that's all I have right now okay any

0:07:19other announcements yeah um just wanted to mention that uh we had the art uh California art Day celebration um and it was a great great event I didn't get to all the stops because this year there there was a lot of stops and I could be I I could have a short memory

0:07:40but it it seems like to me there was more people attending those those events than ever before and it it was a really good one thanks to the uh art and culture committee and uh so anyway it it looks like uh the interest in the cult and in our what we're offering in the way of

0:08:01culture and art is growing every year so thank you would like to uh notice that the fire department uh our fire department continues to send down Personnel to Statewide fires and if you've been reading uh the reports on it and the type of fires they are these are

0:08:19not your neighborhood fires that that are put out easily these are um in areas that uh they're being being classified as mega fires but it also means that um the people trying to fight them are putting in uh in great danger so uh we appreciate their efforts that they have

0:08:39in trying to control these fires and um our ability to go down and help out and I think that's uh that's it thank you thank you um so I also attended the UL Tod Marketplace um down in San Jose where uh along with MIT o shinsky Our Community Development director and Glenn wood from

0:09:00our design review board and it was a very just eye openening experience to see San Jose we got to tour um 2D projects where there was Safeway on the ground floor of um a residential high-rise building um we got to hear from Bas a variety of of communities just like ours that are that have

0:09:21Transit stations that want to create more livable walkable places within you know our backyards and that basically we're trying to create you know more things for us to do without driving more um so uh the the other event that I went to that was very um very heartwarming

0:09:41very um excellent event put on by the Elso Historic Society along with um the senior center was a celebration of Elso Richmond flower Growers uh from [ __ ] of Japanese American descent and uh it's still at the senior center if you along with um Sandy Potter and former uh mayor

0:10:01Laticia Moore we were all there along along with a number of folks and um for me growing up in Els Sero and I actually learned that my third grade teacher Mrs Fukushima who passed away 10 years ago she was a descendant from these family Farmers out in Richmond from the 1900s

0:10:18and uh to understand why we have such a great cultural Hub of Japanese Americans and why we have the only other Ichiban Khan if you don't know what that that is you should find out it's a great dollar store um in our uh JB Plaza uh the root of of the many Japanese American leaders

0:10:37that have helped raise me in this community um I really enjoyed appreciating their history um so to another event that if you have a chance you should check out is by the sakurakai um organization where they're doing on Saturday from 1 to 5:30 you they're doing demonstrations of food and

0:10:57culture and you you can learn how to make Mochi to pickles um and it's a fundraiser for the senior elero Senior Center rebuilding fund thank you and just to follow on with what Miss Chang said the um celebration of the Japanese culture in Els Serita was really a lovely event and

0:11:17the uh collection of the photographs the historic photographs there at the senior center they'll be up for some time I encourage you to stop by I see Tom panis from the ELO Historical Society is here today and I want to thank him again for pulling together the show and I'll un

0:11:32patch from the elero senior center who made the event possible um so if you have a chance please check that out and then to follow out up on what Mr Jones um said about California Arts day I want to acknowledge the ELO Art Association who helped to put the show together that

0:11:49was the launching of California Arts day we will continue to celebrate the Arts in El Sero with the folk music festival being held Saturday October 10th at windbrush school and then an art celebration here at City Hall on October 17th from uh 4 to 6 o'l The Folk Festival will start at noon

0:12:10and go into the evening also the play Harvey is playing at the Contra Casa Civic Theater also in celebration of California Arts day to shift gears a little bit um we have received a numerous Communications regarding the um idea of Walmart coming into Els Sero and I understand that

0:12:31there was a flyer that was passed out I just want to clarify that there is nothing on our agenda tonight to consider um Walmart and in fact we have another agenda item that regards the old Target site which is item 7B and it's to consider an agreement with a Safeway and

0:12:50target for reuse of that site so those of you who are interested in commenting on Walmart uh that is not on the agend agenda tonight but if you're interested in sharing your ideas about what might go at the Safeway at the Target site the time to um do those comments would be

0:13:08under item 7B so I just wanted to clarify that for those who are submitting speaker slips so if and we have one staff communication I don't want to act too eager here uh this just a brief update on the the paving project um as promised the invasion of Paving equipment occurred this Monday and got

0:13:38right to work in the southern part of town um they work most most of the week um trying to stay on schedule Unfortunately they had a few technical issues and and such and they did lose about a day and a half's worth of work this past week so I just want to let you

0:13:54all know and anyone who's watching at home there was um several Street streets that did not work did not happen while even though the the the no parking signs were posted those streets will now be rolled over to the end of the chip Seal program which will start next Monday and

0:14:11they'll be R notified and the parking no parking signs will be re um Resto up so I just wanted to extend our apology for that not happening the contractor did have some significant issues out there uh they did start today on the schedule that they had promised to do today and

0:14:29they got clear through it so that's a good sign that they're back on schedule other than the ones that they had to leave behind and we'll pick up later um I also want to make a comment we're getting a lot of calls about the nature of the chip seal that you see out

0:14:42there this is not the finished surface this is just the first layer it's very rough uh definitely would not take a skateboard out on or or really even a bicycle with with delicate tires um uh there will be a f a Fint top coat of Sur seal put on on beginning next Monday

0:15:00they'll start roughly in the south end of town and follow some uh similar pattern that the chip seal people did and that'll take them about three weeks to get through they're a little bit slower process so again we we beg everyone's Indulgence and patience and we have actually been getting a lot of

0:15:17good comments too and people have been very patient I want to thank all the people who who uh have been pulling for us and and working with us uh so that's it well thank you for your efforts thank you any other announcements okay with that we'll move on to item three which is oral

0:15:39Communications from the public and the city clerk will read the rules and regulations for those of you who are new and may be speaking for the first time please make sure you filled out a blue speaker slip and we will discuss the lighting system we limit our comments to

0:15:53three minutes we have no slips for General comment speakers so I'll go ahead and read um the rules regarding the speaker the council has set 3 minutes per speaker for each item when your name is called you will come up to the mic and you'll note that there's a a

0:16:11small display up here with a with um some lights when you begin speaking your light will turn green when it turns yellow you'll know that you have 1 minute to conclude and when it turns red you'll know that your time is up and it's ready and the it's time for the

0:16:25next person to come thank you um there are no presentations tonight so we'll move on to item five consideration of the consent calendar items 5A through 5 C I just had a comment uh before we go in on uh Item B just wanted to point out that um our staff did another good job

0:16:50uh getting a matching Grant fund for training and certification of fire Personnel um Els Sero is very serious about getting the latest training for the especially for their Public Safety as well as other departments um and this was a $42,000 $300 $ 42,300 Grant of which uh we had to match

0:17:15with 10% roughly 10% of that so I just want to let you know we're maximizing the money as best we can uh paying 10% for top quality training so that our people are uh ready to go um I think should be commended on this so thank you is there a motion I move adoption of the consent calendar items 5

0:17:37a b c item 5A is the minutes uh 5B is the approval of the matching funds for the Federal grant uh that was just mentioned um for um fire Personnel training and um C is the amendment of consultant Services agreement with uh keer marsten Associates for um real estate advisory

0:18:02services for the development of 10848 and 10860 s pabel Avenue second it's been moved and seconded all in favor I I I I opposed motion carries unanimously there are no public hearings on the agenda tonight but we do have a number of policy items the first item is

0:18:26for the city council and items 7B and 7 C are with the Redevelopment agency and Mr Jones will be chairing that part of the meeting so the next item on our agenda this evening is to introduce an ordinance amending the ELO Municipal Code chapter 16.32 seism mic hazard's identification

0:18:46and mitigation program um again if you would like to speak please submit a speaker slip and comments will be limited to 3 minutes per person and we have mitcho shinsky from the Community Development Department to give a staff report along with his assistance so

0:19:02thank you thank you madam mayor members of council I'm MIT shinsky community development director and we also have Brian Fenty our building official and Dwayne dolman our economic development manager and we're here tonight to talk about the elero unreinforced masonry urm

0:19:19seismic hazards identification and mitigation program to um go into some background information on that um about 20 years ago on October 17th 1989 sorry we have a PowerPoint that should be coming up and if not I'll just continue um 20 years ago on October 17th 1989 the LMA

0:20:12Prat earthquake occurred and that earthquake killed 63 people it injured almost 4,000 people uh it left 8,000 people homeless and it damaged 2600 businesses three years after that earthquake many owners of destroyed buildings still search for financing to fix their businesses that had been

0:20:36destroyed and they wish they had retrofit uh before the earthquake and that was based on information provided in a 1992 publication from abag the Hayward fault runs right through the city of elero um the Hayward fault has the highest earthquake risk in the Bay Area

0:21:02at 31% or nearly 1 and3 of having a magnitude 6.7 earthquake or greater the Hayward fault is located just over a mile from San Pablo Avenue which contains most of our unreinforced masonry buildings as far as the history of unreinforced masonry in elero uh the state unreinforced masonry

0:21:36law was adopted in 1986 the city adopted an unreinforced masonry ordinance by 1988 a survey was done by the city in the early 1990s and that identified 28 buildings suspected of being unrein Force masonry hazardous buildings in the early 1990s the city notified owners of the state requirement

0:22:08to post warning signs at their buildings and uh there was a Kenny shoe store urm that was uh demolished at that time before the Staple Center was developed in 2005 the staff began to update the data we had for unreinforced masonry buildings between 2005 and 2006

0:22:32we updated our survey and we identified 53 buildings that were suspect for seismic hazards in 2006 we uh presented to the council the findings based on our updated data and a number of different options and Council directed staff to proceed with an engineering analysis and

0:22:52to uh post warning signs on the urm buildings by early 2007 the city notified all the property owners and began providing warning signs to them and we offered to install the signs for the owners by March of 2007 the Redevelopment agency authorized the hiring of CCO engineering to prepare

0:23:16engineering analysis on all 53 of the identified buildings that was paid for by the Redevelopment agency in July of 2007 the first property owner meeting was held and the owners were uh presented with information about the Redevelopment agency funding the analysis by the

0:23:34engineering firm and that was fully discussed and understood uh the benefits of that with the property owners in November of 2007 Cisco began the analysis and the property owners were contacted beginning then to schedule the inspections of their buildings in March

0:23:532009 an update presentation was given to the city council the the staff was directed to have more Outreach with the property owners uh to go to the Planning Commission and the economic development board and have presentations and get input from them and um also uh we were

0:24:12directed to give some more additional time to comply with the requirements of the ordinance in March to September of 2009 two additional meetings were held with the property owners um we also met with the Planning Commission the economic development board and the Chamber of Commerce board as

0:24:30well the ordinance requirements were discussed and in our PowerPoint presentations at all of those meetings in August of 2009 the reports were completed by the engineers and sent to all of the property owners as for our code our existing code adopted in 1988 it provides that property owners

0:24:54are required to complete a structural analysis of the their urms and the Redevelopment agency has now provided those and the code does not require that any mitigation be done be on the submitt of a letter of intent by the property owners and now I'll turn it over to

0:25:10Brian Fenty to go over the engineering reports evening Council The Cisco engineering reports that were completed um identified the issues in the buildings of the 52 buildings that were analyzed 17 were classified as true urm buildings another 17 uh as non-urm buildings but with some

0:25:36supplemental hazards like facades or Trims and then 18 buildings were classified to have reinforcement and therefore uh removed from our list it was determined by the engineering analysis that the urms do pose a life safety risk to the Elso community in the evaluation reports you

0:25:59will find a description of the buildings recommendations for retrofitting uh basic cost estimates and a building structural score the structural score s score as we call it uh the the way that it works is the lower the sccore means an increased risk of damage or

0:26:22collapse as you can see in this Slide the probability of damage for an ES score of 04 is approximately 50 to 60% and then the higher the S score uh the lower the probability of the 17 buildings that we had on our list two were classified as a high risk the majority of the buildings

0:26:4613 classified as a medium risk and only two buildings as a low risk regarding Outreach and feedback that was previously discussed Redevelopment agency has paid for the seismic evaluations um three meetings were held with the property owners individual conversations with owners and the

0:27:11posting of signs and additional Outreach meetings with the chamber city council Planning Commission and EDB all of these meetings were met with positive reception contact was made with some local banks regarding possibilities of some financing for retrofit um Outreach to other cities

0:27:34regarding their retrofit ordinance and incentives and contact with the state s seismic safety commission regarding other mitigation efforts what does a retrofit boil down to in reality the cost of retrofit I think is comparatively low low uh as compared to not doing anything at all if you look at

0:28:02the cost of retrofitting a building today 20 to $60 a square foot versus the cost of repairing a building after it's been damaged $75 to $150 a square foot or the cost of replacement anywhere from $200 to $300 a square foot uh you can see that the retrofit is really the only

0:28:23economical thing to do retrofit work could be phased so that businesses can remain open um businesses will be given plenty of time that they can plan their retrofit work uh and plan their their their business strategy or should they choose plan for the demolition of their

0:28:48building no retrofit work really equates to a potential building collapse and the possibility of loss of life or a loss of property investment as far as retrofit timing the majority of our buildings being the medium risk they've been given two years uh in our ordinance they've

0:29:10been given two years to submit their plans and another year after that to complete their retrofit work so that would be three years total the high-risk building uh has a a little faster timeline one year for plans and one year for retrofit and then the low risk three

0:29:27years for plans and one year for retrofit good evening um I also want to point out that uh in these timelines when we first came to council it was suggested that you know based on the economic conditions that we're in now and in the foreseeable future uh that we

0:29:48build an additional year into it so the timelines that you're seen have an additional year already built into that um as well we have a provision the ordinance that that could allow for an additional year of extension in case you know this economic time goes goes

0:30:03further than we think or in the case that a building is found to be historically significant uh we wanted to point out and I think we explained it before uh you know when people ask the question of what type of retrofit or what what code does this fall under and it's important

0:30:18to note that that under the 2007 California building code that's really the 1997 uniform code for building conservation that we dealing with as far as seismic retrofits and the important thing to see for that is that you know the provisions of that code are really

0:30:34designed as minimum standards for for the seismic red distance and it's all designed to reduce the the possibility of loss of life or loss of injury um and when we talk to the property owners this was something that that that they suggested this is the code that they

0:30:48wanted to be falling under uh we also looked into Financial incentives and and how we could assist in in this process um we pointed out that that the Redevelopment agency um hired the structural engineer to do the evaluations those are about $2,500 um per report per building um and and

0:31:11though our current year uh financial budget doesn't allow us to offer direct financial assistance now one of the things we'll be looking at is is you know further down the road as these retrofits uh timing uh come into play that we could look at our financial situation then to see if we could offer

0:31:28financial assistance um and possibly L link that sort of assistance to other programs such as faade improvements or things like that um and we also wanted to point out again that that that by using the 1997 retrofit standard that it really is a a lower standard that's

0:31:45that's far less costly to somebody than than using the current uh building code for doing retrofit or for for rebuilding uh in in doing our work one of the things that we that we want to do is kind of compare how how the cities how this proposed ordinance compares to

0:32:03other cities in California um and and some of our neighboring communities so some of the things that we came up with based on 2006 statistics are that cities and counties that are in our same high-risk seismic zone for 71% of those already have uh uh retrofit mitigation

0:32:21programs in place and I think the main point from that is that just to stress that that we aren't the forerunners in this uh that there are the vast majority of communities and counties in our stame seismic Zone have already gone through this and of those 52% have mandatory

0:32:38retrofit requirements um and the next point I think is important also and that shows that you know of those cities and counties that have those mandatory requirements the results that they're seeing are that 87% of the urms then have been retrofitted or demolished

0:32:57um I'll go through we all we wanted to look at some of our you know make comparisons between our proposed ordinance and some of our neighboring communities some other cities I won't go through each City individually but I want to point out um some key points in

0:33:11in that um going back as early as 1991 for instance C cityia Berkeley you know other cities around us have adopted these ordinance uh and and have been in effect for a number of years um some of them and most of them have retrofit timing requirements that are very

0:33:27similar to what we're proposing some are a little bit less some are a little bit more time um some require the retrofit for example of veneers or parapets some don't um but I think the important thing to look at is is the results that that you're seeing from these other

0:33:43communities so you see from from the city of Albany uh progress to date because of their mandatory requirements they've they've completed 7 11 uh retrofit retrofit buildings uh the city of Alama of their 74 buildings that they identified 63 63 of them have been retrofitted and then

0:34:03lastly uh the city of Berkeley with a very large number of urms um and and having been at this since 1991 they've completed 550 of their 587 buildings uh so again just to stress the point that that you know other cities and and many other communities in California um have

0:34:21been doing this for a number of years in in and in requiring mandatory requirements and you can see how then uh we've talked about how our code uh compares to other cities in in the requirements of our code uh so that concludes our presentation our basically we're

0:34:40introducing this ordinance to amend the city of Elso Municipal Code 16.32 um and we'd be open now for any comments or questions that you may have so thank you so much for the staff report um I know there's a number of speakers who are interested in commenting on this item so if there are

0:34:55any just clarifying questions of Staff before we could hear from the public Mr Jones yes in your uh agenda bill you indicated that two businesses the state law let me back up state law requires that businesses that have unreinforced masonry put up signs notifying the

0:35:13public of that um and their storefronts correct in your agenda bill you had indicated that two businesses actually took those down have they been put up yet uh do we know uh they haven't and and and we're kind of unsure whether they just fell off or came off or whether they were taken off

0:35:34uh and part of our process is to go back and and make sure that the ones that were up originally are put back again okay do we have is there any provision right now for um the remedies uh action for remedy if they refuse to put them up uh I believe the provision already

0:35:54exist in in this California state code um that talks about the sign requirements we can follow you recall what those are off the top of your head do you remember no okay that's $250 fine $250 fine okay local agency or the state agency levies at do you know believe

0:36:17it's the local agency well it failure to have the sign up would be violation of the current provisions of the municipal code and so could be cited as administrative citation and so that could be issued by the city it is Administrative violation the first um offense is $250 and then within

0:36:3830 days if it continues it's $1,000 under state code it bothers me that um we have two businesses that don't have that notification that's a state requirement and um I appreciate you being able to see that and you're in the process of taking care of that um I was going to ask the does the state

0:37:01law the state law requires this type of action but is it correct that it's actually stopped short of providing uh state required remedies they leave that up to the local agencies is that correct okay um okay I think that's it thank you very much okay any other questions

0:37:31staff um I have one I'm not actually sure if you could answer it if this is an important thing to do in in the building Cod I'll call it why hasn't the state done this that's a very good question I think the state has I think the state has left this as a voluntary program to see how it goes uh

0:37:55I also think that as we can see for the past 15 to 17 years that not much has been done I believe that the state is presently working on code amendments that will require mandatory retrofitting in the near future if that did happen then that would override this or how would that

0:38:17all work if this were adopted it would depend on how the legislature actually set up the the new Provisions they they could leave in effect any local programs that were accomplishing similar goals or they could completely occupy the entire field of Regulation and that would

0:38:32override any local plan program the other um question I had had to do with um possible financing if this program were adopted um have you looked into any um I understand we don't have the funds right now ourselves and um given the dire state of the economy right now um I

0:38:54would assume many businesses would find it difficult to do that also and I'm just wondering if you've been able to identify any uh financial institutions that would be willing to um bankroll this uh we we talked to Banks about kind of how this type of financing would

0:39:13occur both local banks and some of the larger Regional Banks um typically they said that this would fall under um either a refinance situation or or a new loan so similar to a home equity type of loan situation um where someone would be would be taking money out of the you

0:39:32know existing value of their building to do work like this um so that type of those type of loans are available today um some of the parameters or some of the things that they look at would be uh owner occupied uh versus non-owner occupied um there are also loans

0:39:49available through the SBA small business administration for this sort of thing so um they are available today I mean I'm they are operating under the the um I think more conservative underwriting standards that are out there today so um our thought was that you know in a

0:40:06couple years as this comes uh uh comes further due that um that some of those restrictions might be a little bit easier for people to obtain um would there be a possibility of developing I just thought of this right now actually um a program where um I think it's still require some

0:40:26financing but the um it could be done um much like Berkeley is looking at doing solar which is I think A variation of putting it on your um tax bill I'm not sure yeah yeah this the the Berkeley solar program is basically a voluntary tax it's B um and there are other similar programs that

0:40:53local jurisdictions have used where um property owner and the local agency will enter into a contract in which the property owner agrees to voluntarily either be taxed or assessed annually um on the property tax Ro um the agency still has to find funding to advance the

0:41:09funds for the work which is usually the tricky part um but then it's paid back over time by the property owner um it certainly seems to me conceptually like something that could be done here but nevertheless it would be up to the Redevelopment agency or the city to then

0:41:22go out and locate the pot of funds to to advance to the property owners to pay for um the work which there may or may not be an available source of funds for the agency to to borrow thank you Mr Lyman okay then um let's open the public hearing and again those interested in

0:41:42speaking should submit a slip we have 15 speakers this evening okay the first is David Schwarz thank you for the opportunity to say a few words my name is David Schwarz I'm an earthquake geologist with the US Geological Survey I am currently the co- Northern California coordinator

0:42:10for the national earthquake hazard Reduction Program and I served as the co-chair of the 2003 earthquake probability study for the Bay Area it's hard to believe that on October 17th it'll be 20 years since LMA pra and and just imagine taking that earthquake and

0:42:29putting it underneath Els Serita and that's what we're looking at uh for the future in the past 20 years we've learned a lot about how the fall system in the Bay Area works and we've been able to do I think a really good job of estimating what the probability of

0:42:46future earthquakes is and one of the things we've been able to show is in the next 30 years you've all heard these numbers there's a 63% chance of of a magnitude 67 or larger close in on one of the major Bay Area faults and the Hayward fault along with the Rogers Creek uh to the north is

0:43:06sort of the seismic star of the region and we've estimated a 31% chance that somewhere along the Hayward Rogers Creek will have this 67 or larger and it's right here so these numbers are very real the hazard is high and uh in real earthquakes it it's urms and to a large degree soft story

0:43:29buildings that really wind up uh having a major impact on who lives and who doesn't and it doesn't require a 67 or a 69 to bring down a urm in Laila Italy in April of this year there was a magnitude 6.3 killed 300 people it displaced 120,000 people and it really stopped the

0:43:54Commerce in the city of lck and its surrounding Villages 6 months after the earthquake Laila is still abandoned and the surrounding Villages are still abandoned and it was the urms that uh produced this effect so the hazard is real and even though you have a small number of urms in elero I really

0:44:18think you have the right approach this should be done throughout the Bay Area um what we really want to see is resilience built into the region so that recovery can be speeded up and efficient when the next large earthquake occurs and it can be 10 years from now or it

0:44:41can be tomorrow so I just like to commend you on moving ahead with this urm ordinance thank you thank you Jean Perkins hi I'm Jeanie Perkins I'm speaking here today as a consultant to the earthquake and Hazards program of the association of Bay Area governments abag I would

0:45:05like to commend elero for initiating the proposed mandatory urm ordinance and as part of aag's efforts to build a disaster resistant region aag's Regional Planning Commission as well as as its executive board have endorse mitigation strategies of cities and counties such

0:45:22as yours that encourage retrofitting of these buildings particularly those that include mandatory retrofitting retrofitting has also been endorsed as part of aag's Disaster Recovery inititive why first there will be earthquake shaking as David Schwarz has said hard enough to cause extensive

0:45:42damage to these buildings number two these buildings can kill their occupants and more importantly pedestrians passing on city sidewalks near these buildings number three retrofit can preserve the arc architectural and historic Heritage of your city it's not just an owner

0:46:00issue it's a city Issue Number Four rubble from one urm can close a block of retail um as cleanup occurs and further delay recovery not only of that particular business but of the city street in your case San Pao Avenue number five fixing the buildings to prevent collapse is really a Green

0:46:23Solution uh you're not having to do Demolition and re building which uses new materials costs a lot more energy and so on and finally uh it preserves your city tax base and all of these reasons really are more than just an owner issue they're an issue for the entire city I would like to take a

0:46:39couple seconds to uh review a couple questions that I heard you mention earlier uh first of all I think it's politically unlikely that the state will adopt uh a mandatory retrofit ordinance for and reinforced masonry buildings what happens these days as you will are

0:46:56aware is that this becomes an unfunded uh State Mandate of local governments the state has no money and therefore the likelihood that there will be some State mandate in the next couple years is really small uh second of all in terms of ways to get financing abag has worked

0:47:13typically with larger projects uh through the abag Finance Authority to actually uh work on the retrofit of uh and provide financing for these unre enforcements and Reb buildings thank you thank you camar and Sam hi my name is Cameron Sam um my parents are a small business owner in

0:47:36town Allstar donors and the ordinance really does not have anything to do with our business but as a small business owner um ourselves and during this economic time we're just here to represent them it's I think it's great data and you know that the retrofitting is good for these

0:47:53buildings but it's tough the mayor brought out financing which is great we would love more than anything to you know follow the ordinance and retrofit the building but financially do we have $ 155,000 $200,000 sit in the bank just to do this job no plus we got to move

0:48:15maybe so all I'm asking you guys to do is just understand that we're more than happy to do the ordinance like the video cilian camera last year you guys helped out that was great we did it a lot of people did it but in this case $155,000 $200,000 you know it does come down to

0:48:34money with small business owner we don't have enough we go day by day month by month and that's all I'm asking you guys just understand and hopefully we can postpone until we work something out financially thank you thank you letia more good evening um so I'm here to support

0:49:02the ordinance addressing the unreinforced masonry buildings and what I'm asking you to do is make safety a priority and insist that the urm property owners also make safety a priority over the last I would say 10 to 13 years certainly my time on the Planning Commission my time on the city

0:49:19council we've talked during the general Plan update we've talked during different meetings about IDE identifying the buildings that are affected um labeling the buildings we've talked about Pro providing information to Property Owners we've provided that information we've discussed as a council

0:49:36you've discussed incentives for voluntary action discussed evaluating the risks of the buildings and again providing that information to the property owners we talked about ID identifying options for how to deal with those risks we've discussed providing and continue to discuss providing public

0:49:53funds to property to private property owners to make their buildings more safe and yet we still have buildings that haven't been upgraded the economic Times are going to change when the times were good this work wasn't done the times are bad it's another excuse for not getting

0:50:07the work done I think if our leaders aren't prepared to say safety is a priority and insist that property owners make it a priority it is not going to happen we can continue and you should continue to talk about using Redevelopment agency funds or accessing state or um incen monies and different

0:50:26ways and grants to make it happen but if you don't say it's a priority and it has to happen it will not happen just as it hasn't happened in the last 15 years thank you thank you Vincent wheeler so I like to address the ccel I actually have a pretty unique position

0:50:51on this I'm not a business in elero I am a business that does business n toito so this ordinance will actually impact my clients potentially putting them out of business costing my clients to spend up to $120,000 to uh retrofit their buildings in an economic time where they're barely

0:51:07struggling as it or barely holding on as it is it's unreasonable now I understand um one of the engineers basically made a comment that there was potential assistance in the future this potential assistance was basically for two of the uh 17 buildings excuse me I'm a little bit nervous

0:51:28here so one of the things I like to bring up is is as a local business owner I depend upon these businesses to survive one of my clients is granters Tony Tony wise is one of my clients if it wasn't for him stepping up and helping me in this Economic Times as an

0:51:44Advertiser I wouldn't have survived in these times so I need these clients in order for me to survive and to force them to pay $120,000 in an economic time when they cannot get a loan so I heard somebody else say well why can't get why can't they get financing try to get financing

0:51:58for just an average day you know for your invoices and stuff like that you can't do it so to force a business to get $120,000 Finance for something that doesn't directly impact their bottom line is ridiculous it's going to force them out of business and that directly

0:52:13will impact me I I thank you for your time thank you Ray OD day I you turn my time everybody has three minutes to speak so let we go with that there's two other speakers that would like to defer their time to me so if I could get a total of nine minutes I'd appreciate it it's and they've

0:52:41signed up to speak that'd be Ray o day and Chris Fuller and myself and also Lewis Lopez if needed I I will if I have less time I will defer back but there are several speakers that would like to defer their three minutes to me okay let me ask the council um about their

0:52:59feeling about this we have rules for three minutes each yeah the rules three minutes each if the people want to speak they can speak on their own any other comments okay it's a will of the council that each person speak they can speak in your support um and I know that you've had some written

0:53:17correspondences so I invite those to come up and speak and express their feelings about it well my name is Raymond OD day I um I work at granter um I know it's been a hardship just listening to uh the worry that's been going on um from what I understand um these economic Hard Times

0:53:42without financing um it's going to shut us down and I assume that of all the small businesses uh and what it sounded like is 87% just to decide to demolish from what I under what from what I heard and that's because nobody could get a loan to just fix what's might be going wrong

0:54:05um so I would uh that would put out I don't know how many employees each business has but in these times 10% unemployment um not a good time so thank you for your time and Mr dman could you clarify that statistic on the numbers of demolition uh they the the cities didn't break out

0:54:29um how many of those were demolished but the the percentage really is more of buildings that are retrofitted and our conversations were that was a fairly small number from the cities that actually had Demolition and just if I might provide some additional information from the state seismic

0:54:44commission from their 2006 statistics uh the retrofit rate looked to be 70% 70% and then the demolition rate was 17% okay that makes up the 87% thank you for the clarification um we ready for the next speaker Chris Fuller my name is Chris Fuller not a business owner I work for one of the

0:55:15businesses um I understand probabilities and maybe it's going to have an earthquake one day I was born and raised in this area and uh that's all heard about all my life is that the big one's coming the big one's coming he says 30% I say 100% sure I become unemployed

0:55:35me and my son are both U suffering hardships because of what might happen um doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me but I know a lot of politics don't make sense um and also I'd like to point out that when my car gets in an accident uh uh I get three estimates not one so if

0:55:59all this is being done uh off of one person's judgment and it affects a lot more than just one one person I would say that it's uh being rushed for some reason and um we should slow down and use common sense it'll definitely 100% affect multiple amounts of people in a bad way

0:56:24um and I understand about being safe and everything I live in Albany I don't feel any safer in Albany than when I work in elero um uh like I said that's I'm nervous for speaking and everything but um you know there's always supposed to be an earthquake and the building I work in

0:56:47survived the big earthquake in 1989 and it survived all the ones that I've been through in the in the 60s and 70s also so um maybe there's going to be some super big magic earthquake that comes and knocks all the the buildings down I don't know but I would just like to say

0:57:06that uh if you could please take your time and think instead of just rushing into something like this thank you thank you Tony wise thank you Council I will have to some of the pleasantries and and go through this really quick um I've been a resident of el rle for 40 years my

0:57:31father and grandfather both served as police officers for over 30 years um had the pleasure of running for city council and may have to run again I've also served on the economic development board so I have have a lot of invested uh interest in this city this evening I ask you to please

0:57:54vote no on the agenda item 7A the urm ordinance this issue is very important to me because I own one of the buildings that the ordinance includes granter juryan loan s Pao Avenue I recently uh participated in the facade enhancement program that was sponsored by the city

0:58:10at of a cost of about $80,000 then recently uh the city adopted a video surveillance program that also costed an excess of $10,000 but the wonderful thing about those projects were even though one of them was not mandated the city had put put together a way a plan

0:58:26to help us with the hardship that it that it uh caused financially and so it felt like a partnership so we worked together and we both were able to have the new facade that all of you enjoy while you drive down San Pablo Avenue and we also have the security of the

0:58:42video surveillance this program here does not supply for any of that you've stated the state has no money the city has no money what makes you think we have no money either as business owners you say you could borrow money maybe the cart is before the horse I have we want

0:59:01a secure building we want to do all this work that you guys that say that should be done but until you have a program in line before you and us both have been able to find financing we're going to put something on the books that is ultimately if we can't find that going

0:59:18to fail if I go to the lender and state I have a building that's on a urm will they loan me money you know that's probably going to be a cause for them not to refinance not to lend you any more money so the financing is the most important thing that it's got to be

0:59:33taken care of before you adopt any type of ordinance or it's just bad policy okay um it's flawed why rush if it's a flawed policy and there's flaws in the policy let's slow down and and there's public support I was out at the plaza talking with people and in this Economic

0:59:53Times I had over 100 people say well what's the rush why cannot can't we slow this down and work a way that we can work together go back to the drawing board with more public input like business in the code of conduct for elected officials District staff came up

1:00:08with an ordinance that is fair to the citizens it's well in this in some way is not fair it's fair on One Direction you're going one way with it and you haven't looked at the other it's not in an equitable manner the public Outreach so far has been one way they've been

1:00:25point of power presentations pointed at us they haven't really taken our consideration when we talk about not having money they haven't come up with a way where the money is uh when we talk about Alternatives they get shushed away like a point of sale reference they say

1:00:40buildings don't sell quick enough well they said okay then what about if they become vacant what about when you refinance what about if all of these things happen is when it gets done if you do a minor retrofitting while the building is occupied and then when the

1:00:54building becomes vacant refinances or uh sells is then like the Sewer Lateral system that's when you do the major upgrad so you don't put anybody out of business in doing this I haven't heard the council once have any concern or staff have any concern if any one of

1:01:11these businesses go out of business I heard you guys say some statistics about uh 80% of the Cities retrofitted their building well they never talked about what happened to the businesses we don't know if they sold and other people retrofitted them or if the businesses

1:01:24ended going out nobody has ever shown any concern for the business owners their families or their employees they just keep talking about the safety of these buildings we have the same safety concerns as as you do for them but if if it's that versus being out of business

1:01:41and unemployed and not being able to feed your children and send them to school and take care of all of their needs there's got to be an equitable balance and it says right in the code of conduct that I'm going to give to all of you guys which you guys have this is the

1:01:54city of Elso code of conduct says right here council members should Endeavor to treat all members of the public and issues for them in a fair and Equitable Manner and and I the the ordinance is a just ordinance to look into the way that it has been drafted is is not Equitable

1:02:14and there's another way to draw this up so that we can work together we should be United this is a this is something that we want to work with you I've talked to all 16 members of that on this list and and we're not against you but every time we try to unite and work with

1:02:32the councel or with the staff it's it's a one-way PowerPoint presentation we'd like this to be redrawn so that we can so that we can get together start over fresh and work together as United as a United group I have a letter from Owen O'Neal's associate structural engineer

1:02:48that we're going to put on file also that states and he he States there's that even if you do the this retrofitting if the earthquake comes they could be damaged anyhow so you're not taking into the cost when you're talking about $150,000 to retrofit the building that doesn't ask you to wrap up

1:03:04and I'm going to wrap up right now that also that is just the bottom line that doesn't then cost they tear into the building to retrofit you then have to pay the money to have your whole building fixed again so the 85,000 I spent on the facade would have to be paid again the $10,000 for uh video

1:03:21surveillance that I paid will have to be paid for the installation of it again so there's more cost involved and then if the earthquake does hit it's still going to damage that building so that you you didn't add those cost in there that that there's still more on top of that so

1:03:35I'll go ahead and hand these out to you guys you don't talk about the close down and layoffs if we do have to close Mr wise if you could pass those documents to the clerk and if you would please um remain in the council chambers because the city council intends to discuss the

1:03:51issues that you've raised and the others have raised as we deliberate on the ordinance so thank you thank you Louie Lopez hi I'd like to ask the city council to postpone the adoption of this resolution economic conditions in the countries are bad and I believe that

1:04:18forcing these people to retrofit right now is doesn't make any sense so please I ask you for your new vote on this resolution for now thank you thank you Phil Martine good evening members of the council my name is Phil Martin I live at uh [address removed] in El Sero I've been a

1:04:47resident of Elo for 18 years and I I want to congratulate uh the city council on their past recent history for making safety a priority um both in the city hall and making this a now a a regional Hub in the case of a of an earthquake Quake or other natural disaster um and

1:05:08also for coordinating work with the schools uh and and making um elero high is now much safer uh than it was in the old building and and for working with portala to um to also upgrade seismically that and and see this ordinance as a continuation of this work uh for safety for the residents of elero

1:05:30um we we very much support uh being safe in the buildings uh that we live in and that we uh work in and that we do business in in the city um the fact that there remains 17 unreinforced masonry buildings in elero after uh 18 years of a voluntary compliance program to me

1:05:52strongly suggests that we need aand atory program and i' urge you to support such a program tonight thank you thank you Joan M good evening mayor and Council my name is Joan mccor and I'm the building official in Berkeley and um Berkeley has been through this process and um I've

1:06:18seen both sides of it as well from the um code side of it and Alo from uh how difficult this is for small business owners uh one of the things uh that I'm aware of is that small business owners in Berkeley uh were primarily not put out of business by retrofitting their buildings

1:06:42uh in fact the opposite seems to be true from the experience that Santa Cruz had after LMA Prieta it was the unreinforced buildings that collapsed and killed people and put businesses uh out of business so really uh it is um it's a very difficult thing I can understand that for small businesses at

1:07:06this time in particular but uh it's something that does need to be done for for the safety of the employees and peser Robel uh showed that there were two buildings side by side the retrofited one the people got out the non- retrofitted one I believe two people died from the collapse of that

1:07:23bill building um many cities have had ordinances since the early 1990s um recently it looks like elero has done a lot of work to try and uh move ahead with this um so I'd like to commend both Council and staff for taking on a really difficult issue um but it's from my point of view uh

1:07:48what I have seen before I I've been in Berkeley for 10 years as the building official and before that I was in San Francisco as the uh Chief building inspector and was there during LMA Prieta and um what we saw was it was the buildings that were damaged in the LMA Prieta earthquake

1:08:10that were then demolished many many buildings uh that were not damaged in that earthquake were retrofitted either before or after so um certainly from my point of view of course I am biased um that a retrofit program is the right thing to do for Community safety for all

1:08:31of the community I think you could explore something like financing uh in a non-contiguous uh seismic District uh and perhaps putting it on the on the tax bill that that would be a way to um pay for it the trick is indeed finding a lender who will support those

1:08:49bonds or or a financing program whatever that might be I think you have the right standard the 97 ucbc is um adequate to prevent building collapse um it won't uh save everybody but uh using the present code is way too onerous um for existing buildings also historic buildings if

1:09:09they are qualified as historic buildings can uh be subject to a uh standard that isn't as strict as the 97 ucbc which is what what uh you are proposing so um I think uh you have a very difficult decision to make here and I would urge you to uh pass the ordinance thank you very much

1:09:36thank you Roger par good evening um my name is Roger par I'm a resident of Alero I'm also a structural engineer I've been practicing for about 15 years so this is what I do for a living I study buildings um for earthquake loading and I've been to uh earthquakes and seen earthquake

1:10:03damage and how these These are the buildings that um are still being built in lots of parts of the many parts of the world they've been banned here in the United States for many years because they're they're such a serious Hazard um we can't build these kinds of buildings anymore because

1:10:21they kill people okay and to me it's it's irresponsible to not do something about this these are people go into these businesses and you know people have a an expectation of safety when they walk around the streets of Alero and visit the businesses of Alero um and the fact

1:10:45that everybody knows there's a sign posted in front of the building stating that this building is a hazard to walk into um that's pretty serious thing there's there's not many other things that we do in our lives where we you know Post in front of buildings or in

1:11:02cars or in other things that that tells the person that is about to use this you know vehicle or whatever that it's a serious Hazard enter at your own risk um it's I guess I I can't understand why this not this has not been done as as a mandatory thing throughout the state um

1:11:24um there the risk of of life being lost in these buildings is is uh very great um most of our homes perform very well and and that's why I think um in California we you know most of the lives that will be lost will be in these buildings if they're not taken care of

1:11:45so I urge you guys to um really consider this seriously and and I also I guess I hear the businesses and it makes it makes it very difficult for them to to think of Performing something man mandatory but um I think we owe it to the citizens of the city of Alero to to

1:12:05protect um their lives when they enter these buildings thanks thank you Janet Powers hi my name is Janet sers I guess I didn't write it quite correctly um I'm here in support of the ordinance I have been an Elso resident for 16 years I'm also a geologist and I work for um a Bay

1:12:36Area firm that a geology firm and we do a lot of work on earthquake hazards so I'm very familiar with the hazards in the elero area the hazard is real I have retrofitted my house um I toured the damage in Santa Cruz and Watson after the LMA pra earthquake and I do not want to see the same thing

1:12:56happen to Elso thank you very much thank you Charles Tai um thank you for cils and my name Charles Tai owner of the Old Maxwell building and sty education Supply as you have noticed I closed several weeks more than more than month uh this year because there was no enough

1:13:28business the tra food traffic is very slow and uh El rido you cannot compare El rido to Aly and Berkeley they are totally different environment for business and uh another thing is I just heard somebody said a low cost of rual fit and I I read this assessment will cost me 6

1:13:57$160,000 to do that and uh $160,000 I don't think that's a low cost and uh only if I have enough money to uh uh survive my business and I open a business because I were asked by many teachers of course I'm in unique situation I'm the only one in this area so so because teachers they have no

1:14:25place to buy things that's why I reopen and uh I don't know how long with I uh I can survive and uh I don't mind if you give me money to uh do this whole thing you know if you provide money and uh we all know that no money your wife will leave you you and uh I ask your city councils to uh

1:14:55consider these I don't mind to do do this project and a ritual fit at the building but uh timing is not right and uh my suggestion to you is that for now focus on the training the business owner if anything happens help them to uh how to do the EM emergency training those kind things you know I

1:15:24think that's number where Noah has mentioned thank you thank you excuse me uh just to follow up on that we do offer uh training yes uh through our Police Department so if there is any business interested in that training I believe the fire department uh would be

1:15:42able to talk with you about that and see about setting up some training thank you Keith nson hi thank you very much my name is Keith nson I'm a geologist who practices in earthquake hazards uh I'm an Albany resident I helped the city of Albany Implement their ordinance uh they they

1:16:07relied on much more volunteer contribution we did surveys and that sort of thing and uh as far as I know few businesses have gone out of business and we're almost there having 100% compliance with the ordinance um following the next earthquake when it happens not if it happens following the

1:16:25next earthquake our economic Vitality will be able to be maintained and will persist um that was one of the main reasons I think our Council supported a similar ordinance um I'd like to congratulate you on on considering this ordinance and uh reducing the risk to

1:16:45your to your city's residents and to your economic Vitality these buildings are dangerous they kill people um I would like you to if you do implement this ordinance consider going the next step and looking at other potentially vulnerable buildings excuse me um other communities

1:17:07in the San Francisco Bay area where the hazard is similar are looking at other types of buildings like soft stories tilt ups that also present hazards um I'd like to offer the assistance of e a professional Society a nonprofit volunteer Society of earth earthquake professionals we have uh

1:17:28professionals from the architecture field engineering Earth Sciences social sciences building officials we've helped other cities go through this process Implement these kinds of changes are aware of what's happening in other cities and can help you develop the most

1:17:43effective policies and uh the last thing I'd like to say is there were questions about why hasn't the state adopted these kinds of policies the state always leaves these kinds of issues to local governments the state proposes model building codes those model building

1:17:59codes are adopted by local jurisdictions they're enforced by local jurisdictions local Juris jurisdictions are the the entities that have the powers to find people for example um so the state provides the models and it's up to the the local jurisdictions to implement

1:18:15them thank you very much good luck with your decision thank you Richard Danio good evening my name is richon iio I'm a resident of Elo I'm a practicing structural engineer I've been uh practicing Structural Engineering since 1993 um and I have plenty of experience

1:18:41in retrofitting buildings like the ones that we're talking about um my colleague Roger is absolutely correct these buildings are very hazardous uh Roger has been in these buildings during earthquake Quakes and um fortunately he's still here so this is a very real and present risk

1:19:02and we shouldn't just ignore that um I think one of the things that some of the misconceptions that the public has is that their building went through the 1989 earthquake um which was centered in Santa Cruz so that's a very far distance to elero and the ground shaking here from that earthquake is

1:19:24basically negligible so don't assume that because your building has been through an earthquake in Sacramento or Santa Cruz that you're building is safe um so I'd like to commend the city for actually putting this ordinance together I would like to offer some um thoughts to help our small businesses

1:19:44because this is a in the uh current economic environment this is a real challenge for them I think um some of the time limits to me seem like they are somewhat abrupt and I realize that this may not feel the case for the building department because this has been an

1:20:00ongoing issue for them um so I'd like to have the council consider maybe extending the time limits uh but I do think if we don't start on this ordinance when will we start um at some point we have to actually set the clock and start things rolling and maybe we can extend the time limits in the

1:20:21ordinance or come up with some financing and one uh option I would like to offer for the building owners and this is something that I've seen in the city San Francisco is that I think this the owner should have the option of leaving their building vacant uh instead

1:20:37of demolishing it um that's I think a fair way to reduce the risk to the city just to leave the building vacant because it uh that doesn't add cost to the owner and uh I think as a first step though it'd be great to post all the signs um that would at least notify the

1:20:56public when they are confronted with entering a building that may or may not be unsafe thank you very much thank you no other speaker slips mayor Potter okay well thank you all for coming out for your testimony and I'd like to bring it back to the council for some discussion we've heard a lot um

1:21:16today and not sure who'd like to go first I'll go first okay well thank you um first of all I I I think the program is needed oh by the way before I start uh Mr wise we I just want everybody to know we did Mr wise did put in a lengthy communication it was in our packet and uh we all read it

1:21:43so um we did get all your comments on paper plus uh we had talked a couple weeks ago but but at any rate um I think the program is needed I don't think I it is needed um and so it isn't a question of whether we should have this program or not in my my mind it's uh how we

1:22:06implement it uh we aren't the first ones uh in fact we're one of the last I guess we're with 71% of the jurisdictions and probably a lot of the ones that haven't done it feel like they're either not at risk or they're not in areas that are at risk and therefore uh don't see a need to do

1:22:28one so I think a high percentage of communities that need it already are implementing uh especially those in the Bay Area that our neighbors next to us um however I I I think we can't ignore the economic uh burden on the 17 buildings and especially now I I think

1:22:50it's one thing and it's too bad we uh let me back up this issue uh for those that think we're rushing into something it's really not this issue was uh I think it was at my first or second meeting over five years ago that I heard about this so it's been five years in

1:23:06the making that I know about as far as a policy goes I'm sure it's been studied more than that uh but here's the problem I think with the economics and and why uh we should think this through um is that even if a business wants to go get a loan right now for a business purpose it's it's nearly

1:23:28impossible unless they already have the cash in the bank and if they had the cash in the bank um more than likely they wouldn't need a loan so um it would be one thing I think if the financing is readily available like it was two to three years ago it's another thing to go

1:23:47to the bank and try to figure out and and they tell you that they're not loaning or that they're loaning under situations that uh very few people can qualify for um we've all heard uh not all banks but certainly the major ones they're actually hoarding the money because

1:24:04they're afraid to lend it out uh for fear that they'll get back into the situation they're at or at least that's the uh company line but at any rate the money isn't available um I like uh the fact that we're using the 1997 uh uniform code everybody seems to think that uh will be a a good

1:24:28standard and yet not as strict as as the current one so I think that's a Break um I would like to see when we do implement this that uh we think about waving permit fees uh we did this with solar panels we're talking about 17 uh we're talking about 17 buildings I

1:24:49know we've put in over $130,000 already on the surveys but I think it would be well worth considering that we uh wave the fees as as part of an incentive on on for this particular work um there's a lot of people right now it is critical small businesses are getting

1:25:16hit on the economic situation harder than anybody else and I've heard a lot of good Sol ID businesses that have been around a long time when we've talked to them they're using the term more and more I'm trying to keep the head above water I'm trying to get to the end of

1:25:30the year because 2010 should be better um and I think as a council when we discussed this earlier in the year we were hoping that by now there was an upturn in in the economics and I know we we talked a little bit about that and we haven't seen that yet um the other thing I would like like to

1:25:53to see is if we do Implement that we either delay it a little bit till after the first of the year voluntary uh or uh wait till first meeting in March and I was going to propose that on the first meeting in March we take a look at the economic situation to see if we should extend it

1:26:12a year in in the proposed ordinance there's a clause that says that uh we could ex we could we would be able to expend extend it a year if we thought that the economic situ uh conditions were such uh that the business owners would need more time so I think we should would take a look at this but I

1:26:33do not under any circumstances feel that we should not do this and if we are going to delay a little bit uh we should set a timeline tonight for that to happen I I don't want to go another year and or another two or another five uh saying that we're going to do this but

1:26:51we're not I I think one of the speakers said said it right we were considering this in good situ in in good times and we didn't do it now we're considering it in probably the worst possible time ever uh I shouldn't say ever but in a long time uh and uh I would really like to to look at

1:27:12that and and maybe comment on it simply because the money uh isn't available thank you so um I think Mr Jones brings up some good points and I know the ordinance as it's drafted now has different time frames for the high- risk the medium risk and the lowrisk buildings and also Provisions for

1:27:30showing hardship and an extension I noticed that you had a slide on that maybe it might be helpful to pull that up so we can have that in mind as we continue our discussions Mr Lyman yeah I do have a a couple of thoughts um and many of these build on the testimony that I heard tonight um so

1:27:49I'm I'm just going to read from my pad if you'll if you'll allow me um basically that URS are ticking bombs that they're going to take life when they come down um and that it doesn't take a full earthquake to bring them down uh it could be a smaller uh incident that brings them

1:28:09down that there will be a number of earthquakes that will potentially uh bring them down that isn't necessarily the big one um that that uh this is a hardship I think Mr said it it's safety versus financing um that that it would be you would implement it if you had the

1:28:30money Mr Weiss um that you know you you ask for fairness and and I don't know if you have children but it I'm assuming that it would be fair for your children for you to come home after an earthquake and that you would want that and that you would want to have your building

1:28:44safe and I heard you say something to that effect so in my mind this isn't a question of should it be done or not it's a matter of when will it get done so I am hearing that that uh the financial hardship is the main threshold for keeping us from implementing this as

1:29:01a community as a as a as a uh community of small business owners um I I I thought it was wonderful that Mr Cameron Sim came out tonight uh that his business his parents business is not directly affected but he's here as a support U for the other businesses Mr Weiss has talked about a Unity ifying uh

1:29:23these 17 businesses in some fashion maybe it should be larger than the 17 businesses and that there is a way for the group of small businesses or businesses in along s paabo Avenue to unify to help repay any loan so the burden isn't carried by one business or 17 businesses because this is a

1:29:42community problem this isn't just the small business owners that are there it is the people walking on the street the citizens and residents that are in those businesses at the time of an earthquake um you know my family was here was here in 1989 and had uh my one-year-old and

1:30:00my wife were along a grocery store aisle having ketchup and mustard fly off the shelves at them uh God forbid a brick or some other uh substance come down from the roof and kill my daughter I I wouldn't want to be sitting on this council with some grief stricken mother

1:30:16up there saying you but for your action my child would be alive okay so that I mean I I don't see this as a question of if it should happen it should be how when and how we Finance it um we had during discussion earlier the opportunity of potentially having taxes

1:30:36help repay a loan my quick math of 17 buildings at a at a 150,000 a building is $2.5 million okay this is not an insurmountable amount of money to to try and get these structures to safe and when I say safe the current ordinance is November of 2013 it's four years from now for the

1:31:01most of them okay and that's what we're looking at the slide we're looking at right here um is that it's three years for the medium risk that's before the hardship economic extension of so we're really talking about something that is potentially four years away for if if I

1:31:18remember correctly uh 14 of our 17 or 13 of our 17 cuz two are in the high risk 13 are the medium risk and two are in the low risk so $25 million and I I do feel that the city could potentially explore ways to come up with that money and maybe that is as council member or is this

1:31:40agency no council member Jones has suggested that maybe we take that hardship uh um the hardship clause and we enact it now and the City uh works with the small business owners works with the business Community to find the financing this isn't a question about should we do it this is about a question

1:32:00about how we pay for it um so the ordinance as a matter of fact from what I'm hearing is the ordinance in itself is something you all support it's the timeline that we're looking at at that slide that is the problem and it's the funding to meet that timeline and so I

1:32:16think we we need to try and reach out and find ways um and I I do uh like the idea of trying to get a a um your community your the entire business Community to to accept the responsibility I think one of the testimonies was that if your neighbors building comes down your business may

1:32:37not be open the next day so it's in your for those of you that are out there that are reflect businesses and buildings that are not affected by this ordinance your business may be one that shuts down too as a result of your neighbor going down so you all have a vested interest

1:32:55in making sure that that our economic climate is is sustained after an earthquake and I think that was what um both the city of Berkeley and the City of almany testified tonight um with that I I would love to find out ways that we can potentially create the horse in front of the cart as

1:33:14Mr we said so we have the financial in engine there that's pulling this this ordinance along um but I but as far as the ordinance goes I don't see any uh strong reason to change the language of the ordinance but I do um share council member Jones's concerns about the timing

1:33:31of the ordinance thank you um I I agree um a lot with what's been said I'm um I I do understand the safety element um at the same time I am having very difficult time getting away from the financial aspect of it um I I you know people's lives are greatly affected by um lack of money you know I

1:34:01mean you have to put food on your table to feed your family just as a very basic thing and um if you have no money and I understand the difficulties of um of what that can be for people right now in this age and um you know go to a lot of economic seminars because I'm trying to

1:34:26find out well you know are things going to change what should we do and I'm not hearing good news so I I don't have any um belief at this point that by the end of the year things are going to be Rosy I don't even know that I think that next year what I think is we don't know

1:34:45that's really what I think and as such um asking um PE I find it very difficult to ask people to um give up their living basically for the possibility of what is I something that I considered to be a true disaster an earthquake um so it's a it's a big dilemma so I've heard some things um

1:35:16among the council members that have spoken um that I just want to mention um waving the permit fees I think is a no-brainer I think it's a very good idea and it shows that we have a commitment um so I think that that should be I I just think that that simply should be

1:35:34there in this case um I think that the idea of delaying it and looking at it again in March is a good one um one that hasn't been mentioned but something um that I would like to see is that no new business open in a building that has unreinforced masonry um until after such time as it

1:35:59is reinforced so in other words you we don't just sort of keep Reinventing the problem over and over again um and one thing I haven't heard addressed and this is a really a question is are we talking about owner occupied rentals what are we talking about and you know in terms of

1:36:20statistics here um of our buildings I I would probably say about um onethird our owner occupied maybe two-thirds are non-owner occupied so if um there were to be a program this program recommended in this proposal for example um the question that I have is okay so

1:36:51so if and when it's you know it's it's implemented um who is it that's doing this in terms of the um I'll call it responsible party is it the owner is it the um tenant what what are we talking about the the property owner's responsibility property owner and um what happens to the tenant

1:37:15I think I know think I know the answer but I think the answer is it just depends it depends on what the owner wants to do and how much work there is to do and in fact the uh the renter May in fact be gone and if they're gone they may not be back because maybe what they'll do is

1:37:35move on to another property or um not be able to survive financially and have to go out of business does that sound right well I would say certainly that the retrofit could go on while the building is occupied I mean that's a just a matter of Statistics you know

1:37:57between the uh contractor and the owner whether or not the tenant chooses to move out is really again between the owner and the Tenant um some tenants may choose to move out they may want to move out uh in order to keep their business open and viable um other tenants May

1:38:17really like their their location and want to stick with it okay um and um so I I guess and I won't repeat anything I think that's been said but it I think I what I would really like to see I do think that is it is a significant very significant safety issue um in during the Lomo PR

1:38:40earthquake I was in Downtown Oakland which was many many miles away from the center the epicenter of the earthquake and I saw the building across the street street from me um all the windows shattered every single one of them I think that I could see I didn't have to

1:39:00think gee is this a big earthquake I could see it was a big earthquake when I came out of the building I was in which actually amazingly didn't have too much damage and it was built at the Turner of the century I saw all of this um the paraphernalia from the Fallen um overhangs and so forth that

1:39:21was in Downtown Oakland that was many many miles away I don't know what the number of miles is but a long ways away from the epicenter so things can go pretty far uh the dam in terms of the damage um I've seen it and a lot of Downtown Oakland has never recovered is

1:39:42still not occupied or the buildings were torn down and so I know that those things you know can happen do happen and in the Bay Area have happened um so I think it is a serious situation so if we were to delay part of what I would like to see happen during that delay is that

1:40:04we would look at financing and ways different way ways creative ways of paying for this or at least if it if a financing uh loans to pay for this um and um I think we would have to be very creative because these are really bad financial times for getting a loan

1:40:26and um it could be that we could you know I I don't exactly know the answer but I do know that we have a lot of good people in our town and I think we could put our heads together and uh develop some scenarios where we work together to try to figure out a some sort of a

1:40:45financing Arrangement um that would help pay for this and um get us where we want to be which is I think that we all want to have safe buildings and we don't want to put a bunch of people out of business I think those are those are both important things to this community to

1:41:02all of us here um so um I think that that's what I would like to see happen out of that is um to work on those financing mechanisms and um to um you know wave the per wave the fees um I wouldn't let any new occupancy occur in in buildings because that's just sort

1:41:27of keeping it going um while until they're fixed um but then we need to really work on the creative ways that we could possibly Finance this and I I think that if we work together we could actually we could do so M ch um I want to thank everybody from the public who's come to share your

1:41:49expertise and for the local businesses um this is definitely a difficult you know issue to bring forth but hearing the history and knowing coming upon the 20-y year anniversary of the this major earthquake that where where the epicenter was not even here where it was

1:42:07down in Santa Cruz um is I think it's a wakeup call and um and in just looking at the Timeline it does feel you know where the majority of the buildings um are within the medium risk where we have you know a threeyear time Horizon to figure out something I think um I we don't have a crystal ball

1:42:31about the economy but I think within three years you know something will turn around and in the meantime we have this um one-ear extension available and um I really think that we I'm I'm ready to support this ordinance I think it's you know in looking at the preventative

1:42:49nature of it you know we all will have so much it's it's all we're all going to face a tough short-term you know period of dealing with these costs and I I as a city council member really you know I'm I'm there to support staff in making sure that we look under every financing

1:43:12option available um but that this is you know it's it's a short you know painful upfront cost but in the long term it's going to save a lot of you know in from lives to you know repair costs it's I think it's the responsible thing to do and um and I guess my interest is to see

1:43:38that we consider adopting the ordinance tonight and really um direct staff to um you know take the the financing research to the next level if that's feasible great um first I I wanted to say I appreciate all the comments that have been made and I also wanted to

1:44:01disclose that on September 26 I've had a meeting with Tony wise at his building his place of business and the week before that I met in an informal meeting with Marty over at Marty's Motors who is a rental of that property also listed as a urm and I think that the staff report

1:44:19really summarized the work that has led up to tonight and that for over 19 years the city of elero has complied with state law by compiling a list of unreinforced masonry buildings and that the owners of those buildings have received those notices over the years

1:44:36and that the people who are renting in the urms also under state law have been required in their lease agreements to know that those are the conditions so uh many of the folks who are facing these um potential hardships have had quite a bit of time to be aware and to plan for a mitigation of these

1:44:57very very serious hazards um I had consulted this seismic safety commission who provides a discussion of the different kinds of programs the state of California has created a law and it does allow flexibility we have a lot of variation in our local communities in California

1:45:16some of them are in high seismic Zone number four others face lower seismic hazards in the inland area we all have unique communities with different economic challenges and the seismic safety commission identifies four types of programs they have the mandatory strengthening the voluntary

1:45:34strengthening the notification only and the other program and actually Els Sero for 18 years has been practicing the volunteering straightening the notification only and the other and we have found that we have not effectively mitigated these serious hazards in our

1:45:48community and research throughout the state shows that 87% of urms are mitigated through mandatory programs so I agree with what others have said tonight that it's time that we take this step to implement the mandatory program and we're not asking for compliance today we're asking building

1:46:08owners in the next two to four years to comply with provisions of the ordinance and we are also allowing time for financial assistance programs and to evaluate options and to get that second estimate and look for incremental or phase ways to do these retrofits um the city council repeatedly

1:46:28over at least the F last five years has set this as one of their priorities um have been uh making it a priority for Public Safety and abating seismic hazards throughout the community not just in our unreinforced masonary buildings Miss abon is consistently supported addressing the soft story

1:46:46buildings which we will need to do in the future and all of our policies have been at the goal to making our community more resilient following an earthquake and I did want to point out that in 1999 the city of elero updated their General plan and that General plan includes a policy

1:47:05that states that that we would review and amend city codes to incorporate the most current knowledge and highest standards for seismic safety and last year we revised our zoning ordinance to be consistent with our general plan as state law requires and tonight we have

1:47:23the opportunity to amend our Municipal Code also to bring it into consistency with our general plan as required by state law um I think that there's a couple of things that can happen tonight um I would like for us to move forward considering the ordinance and at the

1:47:44same time give direction to staff to spend some time perhaps six months to explore and look at what kind of um financial assistance might be available either through loan programs stimulus package money or um through bringing back to the council or the Redevelopment

1:48:01agency some ideas for a financial partnership um and then tonight I would like to look again at the ordinance we have actually three amendments that um include minor revisions to the ordinance um a change on page three paragraph 1 the third line changing 20 years to 30

1:48:23years and on page seven section 16.

1:48:2932030 pointa the first a uh changed to strike out the A and strike out the word applicability these were some technical changes that we just got tonight in addition to these as being part of our um consideration I wanted to ask the council if we want to consider any

1:48:49changes to the time frames for compliance on high medium and low risk I would favor the allowance of one more additional extension under the provisions for hardship if the hardship is documented so instead of extending one year you could come back after that to account for the uncertain times and

1:49:07demonstrate again the hardship and perhaps get another year that would extend it um I think we should consider in our motion waving of the permit fees unless our City attorney um was going to provide us with any information about what how that might not be feasible do

1:49:25you have any comment on that as long as the building the the other fee amounts aren't basically increased to pay for that it's fine it's just going to mean that it's coming out of the general fund or some other source of fund but not from other applicants for building permits would that be

1:49:41something that has to be done by ordinance or by Could It Be by Direction in the resolution it would need to be made an amendment to the master fee schedule which includes the building permit fee amount so it have to be done by resolution yeah it's similar to what

1:49:54was done for the solar waivers okay so um council members if you could just comment on your support for that then we could take action on it at the time of the master fee schedule and just one more thing that Miss abon brought up was the idea of no change of tency so

1:50:10buildings would remain vacant um if there if that situation developed so th I've tried to summarize what we've heard tonight and if um we could try to craft a motion that'd be great yeah on on uh mayor proam abon's uh suggestion about uh no new business opening until it is retrofitted I think

1:50:35that would be if I would suggest that that comes in after we set a start time for the for the program um businesses that open after the start time if we're going to start it tonight or tomorrow or whenever then right but if we delay the start of this ordinance that any new business that

1:50:59opens after the start of the ordinance would would not be allowed to open until the retrofitting is done what what's your logic there my logic is the program the program isn't starting and therefore we're going to be asking businesses to wait uh and and uh property to be

1:51:26dark until it's taken care of yet it hasn't started yet well I guess what I was partly part of what I was thinking about was um that when a a business isn't occupied is a good time to do work right okay and and um it would seem to me the cost would potentially be less of doing the

1:51:47work then but if the if the um if it's uh not owner occup this would only occur when it's not owner occupied right if it's owner occupied you don't even have a change of tency anyway but um the if it's owner if it's a rental and the the uh landlord just wants to

1:52:09move it from one to the other to the other and then and then all of a sudden um some future tenant you know does a bunch of improvements and then is told they have to do this uh it would be easier to do it before is what I was thinking yeah all I'm yeah all I'm saying is I guess

1:52:28when is the proper time to start this is it before it goes into effect before the ordinance goes into effect or uh before our start time for the improvements start so um just to clarify my understanding is the ordinance must be read a first time read a second time and

1:52:47will take effect 30 days after that that and my suggestion is to allow for the opportunity to think through some of the finance that we address those extensions through a demonstrated hardship not a blanket and I just want to comment on the vacancy that could actually be more

1:53:05punitive than the ordinance itself because some of these buildings are currently vacant and if they're allowed to go under the ordinance they could tenant and have the two to three to four years to do the retrofit while they're still making economic benefit of that

1:53:18property in compliance with the ordinance along with all the other folks who are in a similar situation so I just thought I would put that out there you know what I'll just drop that one however there is a if you're done U council member Jones I think it's a good one that oh

1:53:39once the ordinance is in effect that if there is a change of business that the changes be done at that time because um I Would S I would think that any new business coming in has to do some uh tenant improvements anyway right so that was my original thing it would be a good

1:53:56time in fact n to be honest with you now is the best time to do the retrofit work you won't get a better construction price than right today or tomorrow but uh I don't see a lot of people doing that right now so anyway there there is a concept that was brought forward in

1:54:14several of the correspondents that we received by electronic mail as well as um I believe Mr Weiss had to race through his presentation but the point of sale concept if a property was to change hands in the next 2 or 3 years um that would be an appropriate time for

1:54:29this ordinance to be enforced and and right now our our ordinance is silent on point of sale so it isn't it's the same concept as changing the tenant uh but it's not just the tenant it's the property ownership um so that the transaction U similar to how our our

1:54:49sewer lals are being handled the transaction is is an additional point of time for for compliance um because if we do extend this from three years to four years or four and a half years some of these buildings will exchange ownership and that would be a time for for

1:55:06compliance and that's consistent with what some of the commenters made in in writing and in oral testimony today and that concept is not in it's it's similar to the concept that uh mayor Pro Aon stated but it's not in the current ordinance um so that that that is one

1:55:24that I would like to see and then last testifier did talk about allowing the buildings to remain vacant um as opposed to going through Demolition and I would love to have um staff comment on that as to whether that is something that is uh worthy of of building a contingency or

1:55:41some form of alternative uh in place for that as well and then last while staff is talking if they could um we currently have two in high uh 13 in medium and two in low at some point I thought that the current occupy rates or current use contributed to that category is it

1:56:04possible for someone to change their risk category by changing the use no it's structural evaluation of the building yeah that is kind of an involved question but uh I don't I don't think that any of the buildings that we have on our survey would actually change

1:56:25their classification by changing their occupancy and so that my previous question was about vacancy and a percentage of no just leaving the building vacant as opposed to requiring demolition within 12 months the last testifier the last testimony we received was potentially

1:56:42allowing the building to remain vacant as opposed to requiring demolition can I just add something that that mitigates the risk to building occupants but not to people on the sidewalk so I don't find it to be satisfactory and I also think that when the commenters came and spoke about the

1:57:00point of sale they were not talking about earlier sale before this compliance they were talking about you know sometime further down the road and I think that the small number of buildings and the fact that these buildings have not historically changed hands and have been identified as having

1:57:17this um this aspect to them it is likely they would be retrofit if a bank loan were secured for a sale because that's the nature of a real estate transaction I when I originally suggested I wasn't I'm not sure what I actually said but I was thinking even if the tenant changed that would be true so

1:57:39when when it becomes vacant and it it regardless of who occupied it I'm just saying that that would take away the economic livelihood for that landlord if they had to um not could not rent their their building if they had a vacancy before their compliance date so it would

1:58:01be a more stringent um and and that is not what I was hearing from the business Community they've come here today asking us and I think that we have an ordinance that's um ready for consideration with these amendments and with consideration of whether we would extend any of the time

1:58:18frames or provide for hardship Provisions so so the the current hardship provision for economics which is paragraph I think um 16 32.6 correct um is a blanket hardship extension I think mayor you were talking about potentially adding a paragraph that would be unique to an applicant is

1:58:43that correct no my uh suggestion was that they have to apply for the hardship extension and demonstrate the hardship so modifying this paragraph to being a demonstration similar to the historic 070 well I think that as written it it satisfies me it says that um at the discretion of the city council

1:59:08that an a hardship if a hardship exists to the economic downturn then a one-year extension can be granted I read that the first sentence to be amendment to this chapter so that it would be a blanket Amendment okay so that that as that's how I read this as well is that that it clarifies that the

1:59:28council May um extend for all Property Owners by one year the timelines not on a per property basis oh so so I I believe that this paragraph could remain and that there could be an additional one year added through individual demonstration and I believe that's what

1:59:49at least that's what I thought you were angling for earlier with your comment I would consider that yes I don't know if we could get assistance in crafting the it would it would probably mimic the historic building extension uh with substitutions for demonstration of economic

2:00:15hardship I think that for the purposes of tonight just in terms of drafting that I if you gave us without coming up with specific wording if you if you introduced it with um an amendment to include an individual an additional one-year extension on a per applicant

2:00:29basis mimicking the wording for the or the structure for the historic structures that we could when it comes back to you have the have the wording but it's sufficient for you to have introduced it with with that direction for the change okay thank you I would support a blank the um an

2:00:46additional extension in addition to the blank blanket extension um for individuals to apply for hardship on a caseby Case basis as well as um adding language to um exempt the the permit fees and um and finally I think yeah I I would have to agree the the issue of

2:01:08requiring the owners to not lease out while trying to comply with um the ordinance would be punitive and as long as there's demonstration that things are moving forward that um that's more important than I think take putting another hardship on the business owners or the B

2:01:29property owners and businesses do you have a motion um I I can make a motion I would like to refer uh council members to the lavender sheet that provides a summary of some of the changes that were made administratively to item number seven purple apparently it's white in in the

2:01:49package that we have it's white it's the second page it's number three it's the third number okay um I have read them into the record and I will pass them to an if she's ready to make a motion can read those as well as the suggestions and I would note that the um waving of

2:02:06the permit fee will be handled in the master permit fee schedule in the spring okay so I would make a I make a motion to um adopt this ordinance um with the minor revisions of should I reread all these again um on page three first paragraph third line change 20 years to 30 years

2:02:30page seven section 16.32 um uh dot 03 0. a the first a changed to stricken uh next word is also stricken applicability um Madame mayor if I might the applicability is already stricken that doesn't need to be changed it's just the letter A thank you for the clarification

2:02:56thank you and additionally to um adopt or to add to this ordinance the provision of an additional extension of economic hardship that would mirror the historic um exemption um on a case-by Case basis for each business to apply for and to add to the master fee schedule an exemption to

2:03:18the permit fees required to um approve of these changes and that would be it is there delay or the the delay is is is inherent to the ordinance which has a one-year blanket exemption um if if there's economic difficulties after we've adopted the Ordnance and addition to that there's a

2:03:43case by case um exemption for business owners if they felt like they weren weren't able to meet the um the conditions so that would the deadlines that are mentioned in the document we already have that would delay them by a year is that what you're saying no it

2:04:02would it would be that we can make an economic uh the council can make an economic hardship determination or economic condition determination to extend everybody for a year at every level um of either high medium or low risk and in addition to that once that's once we've worked through that

2:04:25extension if there's once that extension has been reset then we would have another opportunity in place per U business owner to to apply for an exemption so I guess what I don't understand is how that would how I understand work because on the uh other end after all the efforts have been

2:04:44taken and we know how the econom is going that if it's still a hardship that these can be granted but we are saying now we have put the 18 years up front and this is the time to start and we'll start implementing I'm asking kind of a technical question so right now there's

2:05:01a chart that says that by uh in a certain amount of time say a year they have to come up with the planning documents or whatever depending on the risk category yeah and then oh it's going to they're going to bring it up there we go okay so that they if example in the high- risk it's one year to

2:05:25submit plans uh one year additional to do the retrofit so what I'm the question I'm asking is um how does that integrate with what was just said about um the uh evaluating the economic situation if so they've got a year so what well they've already so in order to

2:05:53do it in a year somebody would have to start doing it at some point in time right um and so how would how would we evaluate the economic situation as in when to determine which way we're going if we wanted to do a blanket reconsideration I think um I would ask step what what

2:06:14would be the trigger we would yeah council member Chang if you would accept a friendly um Amendment I'll I'll try and see if I can't broker one here if we go to um 16325 which is time limits and responsibilities of the urm building owners and I'm looking at Arabic the

2:06:34paragraphs that are Arabic uh numbers 1 2 and three which is where this chart is actually um enumerated in text Page no page numbers six page numbers you reading from the ordinance or from the actual ordinance the ordinance the actual ordinance beginning of 16 16.

2:06:5932.50 right time limits and responsibilities um if you would in addition to what you're proposing which is an economic hardship blanket of one year and an individual hardship of one year uh be willing to accept the changes in the dates here I mean it currently what it

2:07:19says is that um for High um category they have one year of adoption of the state or by November of 2010 and completion by November 18 2011 um similarly in in the medium risk it's two years or Plans by November 18 2011 and uh completion by November 18 2012 so these are hard dates uh council

2:07:46member aelson that I'm trying to point out U and then in the third one which is low risk it's 3 years or November 18 2012 with completion by uh November 18 2013 we know we're in the economic hardship today um would you be willing to add six months to all of these dates today in

2:08:07addition to allowing a future decision for a one-year blanket change and a one-year uh individual yes I would okay so what are the dates now so all of these are plus six months so it' be um December January February March April May uh May 18 so the first one would be

2:08:33May 18 2011 have a calendar is May 18th on the weekend is it a weekend just hit a weekend and then argue over whether we go Friday or Monday except we're except we're on November 18 on all of these dates anyway so they're already um potentially having that problem but I

2:08:51will look for you thank you um May 18th is a Tuesday which is uh similar to the November 18th date as well okay what about oh you want to go all those they're all the same May 18th right okay um oh but different years but different years correct so you would add a

2:09:13calendar year to each one of these dates as well in the week they should all they probably all end in the week unless there's a leap year of course um so we've allowed for the leap year I have no idea um do do would you like me to correct all those dates for you council member

2:09:32Jones to I can walk through them no I was just going to say I can just add in a sentence that says that if any of the dates falls on a weekend that it'll actual compliance will have to be by the following Monday thank you okay just for a appoint a procedure we have have a

2:09:48motion and a friendly amendment is that with the second I will second that the item has been moved and seconded with the Amendments read into the record all in favor I I I opposed motion carries unanimously I thank you again all for your attendance and I'm going to recommend a five minute break

2:10:08before we go on to the Redevelopment agency items what i' like to bring the uh meeting back into session from Recess um we're here to take care of item 7B which is a uh Redevelopment agency item um could I have the city clerk introduce the issue please I I'm sorry item 7B or 7B 7B is

2:22:09conveyance of land from Safeway and termination of repurchase option on the target property the council the Redevelopment agency is being asked to consider a resolution authorizing the executive director on behalf of the Redevelopment agency to execute a trip party agreement with Safeway and Target

2:22:26Corporation regarding property located at 11450 San Pablo Avenue the trip party agreement will number one convey a parcel of land with certain conditions to the Redevelopment agency from Safeway two terminate the current disposition and development agreement between the

2:22:42Redevelopment agency and Target including the agency's repurchase option and its loan obligation to Target thank you um this item this item we're taking up as laid out in the agenda um we're taking up two items conveyance of a uh parcel of land and the termination of

2:23:05the current dis uh disposition and development agreement um that's what we'll be uh discussing today that's what's on the agenda or tonight uh so do we have a staff report good evening chairman Jones and board members I'm Lori Travino Redevelopment manager for your

2:23:28consideration this evening you've received the proposed trip party agreement with Safeway and Target Corporation for the property located at 11450 San Pablo Avenue the site of the now vacant former Target store if approved the agreement will result in Safeway conveying land to the agency and

2:23:46Target cancel in the agency's loan obligation um to Target those would both happen on sale of the property from Target to Safeway before getting into the details of the proposed agreement I'd like to give you some history and background on the target property and

2:24:01how we got to this point so we're going back to 1990 the Redevelopment agency and Dayton Hudson Corporation entered into a disposition and development agreement which is also referred to as a DDA for development of the Target store in 1990 um as part of that the agency

2:24:18assembled the land on behalf of Dayton Hudson at at the at a cost of $8 million Dayton Hudson paid the agency $3.5 million for the land and also provided a loan to the agency for $750,000 for our acquisition costs the DDA provides the agency the right to repurchase the land um that it

2:24:39originally acquired under certain conditions and through a very complicated process should that store um close and not operate for 180 days the purpose of that provision was to enable the agency to recapture its investment if there was a loss in tax revenue from

2:24:55a closed store so the to the store opened for business and operated successfully until last year uh in July of 2018 when Target opened its new store on McDonald Avenue in Richmond Target closed the elero store despite the agency's repeated requests not to do so

2:25:12from that point uh to the end of 2008 staff worked with Target on Redevelopment plans for the site with a mixed juice project um however despite the plans being well underway with a um desirable project in November Target scaled back all development plans nationally incl and included including

2:25:33cancelling the store in Els Sero Redevelopment of that site shortly thereafter agency staff began working with Target on um it's plan to sell the site and also exploring the um conditions under which which the agency might exercise the repurchase option at that time all the indications

2:25:52that we had were that the agency would need to find a buyer for the site who was willing to pay um probably around $15 million in the very near term which was going to be very challenging uh in the current uh Financial environment since both sides Target and the agency

2:26:07wanted some more time to look at the various Alternatives in January the repurchase option was postponed by a mutual agreement and currently that option EXP expers on October 27th um later this month at that point target proceeded to market the property and indicated there

2:26:25was interest from at least two retailers in the site um staff was aware of interest from two retailers as well as one mixed use developer and staff encouraged Target to prioritize the mixed use option in their marketing effort because we um due to the potential for both a Transit

2:26:42oriented project and um sales tax generation staff was also very clear that the agency would be unwilling to terminate the repurchase option so that Target could sell or lease the property for an undesirable use earlier this year Target um proposed selling the property

2:26:59to Safeway for development of a shopping center with the majority of the existing building being reused as a Safeway um plus additional retail retail stores and a fuel center and Safeway um submitted those plans for preliminary review to the city agency staff at that time expressed

2:27:17concern that the project would um preclude a Transit oriented development that's been that's been contemplated in the city's General plan and at a key site near the BART station and there was also concern that the Safeway store at moer Lane would close um shortly thereafter in response

2:27:34Target proposed an agreement under which the agency would re would the agency would terminate its repurchase rights in exchange for a right of first refusal on the property Target would forgive the balance of the loan that the agency owes to Target plus interest which is at that

2:27:50time was about $600,000 and Target and Safeway would make cash payments to the agency totaling $2.3 million which would happen upon sale of the land from Target to Safeway at the direction of the board agency staff asked Safeway to consider a mixed juice U project at the site but at

2:28:09that time Safeway was not willing to change its proposal so it became clear that Safeway um should Safeway occupy the target site as proposed the city wouldn't gain a new significant retailer uh we'd lose a grocery store at mure and the opportunity for um a mixed juice Transit

2:28:27oriented um development appropriate to that site would be lost for the foreseeable future around that same time a second offer for the site came from Walmart corporation to buy the property from the agency for $20 million um with the ex with the agency exercising its option on

2:28:44Walmart's behalf the the offer from Target and Safeway as well as the arget offer from Walmart were both provided to the board um at its May 18th meeting at that time neither offer was rejected but instead the board again instructed staff to explore options for a mixed juice

2:29:02project and staff approached that question with both Safeway and Walmart and both were willing to consider a mixed juice development but not in the near future staff was still in conversations with numerous developers about the target site and we heard um repeatedly that without sufficient

2:29:19Assurance of entitlements a developer would not be willing to front the funds necessary to exercise the agency's option within the time frame that was allowed and particularly not in the current Financial environment where there would be few developers who would

2:29:32have sufficient Capital to actually fund such a development around the same time as part of the agency's effort to redevelop the area around the BART station the agency had completed acquisition of the Mayer block which is immediately north of the BART parking lot some developers were

2:29:50expressing interest in negotiating with a the agency to purchase the target property by way of its repurchase option if they had some assurance that a project could later include um the Mayfair block and the BART parking lot so as of July agency staff recommended to the

2:30:09agency not to act on the offers from either uh Target and Safeway or Walmart until exhausting other options for a mixed use project and the agency entered into a listing agreement with Jones Lang Lal to market the agency's option um along with a potential project on the

2:30:25BART parking lots in Mayfair block which would um comprise a 13 acre project um between San Pablo Avenue and the BART TRS upon completion of Jones Lang's process the agency was to select a developer negotiate agreements and exercise its option by the end of October and then run through a series of

2:30:45appraisals and decision points that could potentially result in the agency acquiring the site in 2010 Jones Lang sought developers with the necessary qualifications and resources that were willing to and fin were willing and financially able to guarantee funding the agency's purchase

2:31:02of the property without entitlements and would be willing to enter into a negotiating rights agreement on the Mayfair block for future development Jones Lang identified 25 developers um required uh developers to sign an agreement that would allow them to to participate in this process and then

2:31:18they developed an indem indemnification and negotiating rights agreement that they would be required to sign in order to be considered by the agency nine developers participated in that process and three finalists were interested in some form in of an agreement with the

2:31:33agency and they were interviewed by agency staff those three included low Enterprises a partnership of Blake hunt Ventures and Center Street housing and Snell and Company which was the developer of the nutree shopping center Center while the proposal from low Enterprises held some promise for a

2:31:51complete Redevelopment of the site neither Jones Lang or the agency staff have been able to locate a developer who is willing to immediately scrape the um the Box the building from the site for um use other than um for a different use on the target site Safeway then contacted agency staff

2:32:11in early September to explore the agency reconsidering the earlier offer from Safeway and Target the agency had considered the um offer twice both in April uh prior to deciding to market the repurchase option and then again in August at neither time did the agency accept or reject the offer but

2:32:28staff had counter proposed a Safeway mixed juice Alternatives um for which Safeway could be a part so at this time understanding the agency's goal was Redevelopment of the site and the agency's concern about um certain aspects of their project like the fuel center precluding Redevelopment

2:32:46um of the site in the future Safeway proposed converting the earlier cash offer into an offer of land that the um agency could then um pursue uh Transit oriented mixed juice project for in the future this approach would also allow Safeways retail development to move

2:33:03forward without the retail and Fuel Center that would have been located on the Hill Street um end of the property two weeks ago the agency considered Safeway and Target's offer and the three offers that were brought forward by Jones Lang Lael in close session and at

2:33:16that time the board directed staff to negotiate agreement with s with an agreement with Safeway and target for consideration for tonight low Enterprises also had qualifications and resources to complete um the contemplated um a project and had a strong proposal but they um

2:33:37their low proposed a similar project to what is being contemplated in Safeways concept and their offer posed some risk to the agency that is not posed by the Safeway and Target proposal the board did direct that if unable to negotiate agreement with Safeway and Target that the staff should

2:33:55finalize an agreement with low for the agency's consideration as soon as possible thereafter but over the last two weeks the staff has negotiated an agreement with Safeway and Target and a nearly final draft of that was provided to the board and made public late last

2:34:09week this evening the final draft which is acceptable to both Safeway and target has been provided for your consideration and copies are available for public review with the city clerk um the this agreement would implement the proposal first made by Target in Spring of 2009 and renewed in

2:34:27the last month um so just to go through some of the terms of the agreement um upon execution of the agreement the agency would re wave its repurchase option upon close of escrow between Target and Safeway or upon determination of the entitlements for Safeways development

2:34:48application the DDA with Target would terminate in its entirety including the agency's loan obligation which is valued at about $670,000 and the agency would receive at no cost uh nearly 38,000 squ ft of land along Hill Street for future development the land conveyed to the

2:35:08agency would be configured to keep the existing Hill Street driveway which would be owned and maintained by Safeway um parking and pedestrian access between the BART station aloney Greenway and Safeway store would be determined through the city's entitlement process Safeway and agency

2:35:24Parcels would have cross access easements and no shared parking except by Future agreement Safeway would have the right to approve the site plan on the agency parcel for the location of parking and the agency would take measures to discourage um visitors to the agency's parcel from parking on

2:35:43Safeways parking field the agency would provide at no cost to Safeway the right to park on the agency parcel until developed with Safeway maintaining the parcel during that time the agency um would agree to mutually acceptable signage with the development of the a agency's parcel the

2:36:02agency would agree to exclude any retailer that would compete with Safeway um for the sale of food uh drugs and alcohol and Safeway would allow a restaurant use as long as it could self- park on the agency parcel Safeway would pay for improvements to the alone Greenway in keeping with the alone

2:36:18Greenway master plan and they would be reimbursed for 25% of that cost by the future developer of the agency parcel the agency would agree to keep construct construction staging for development of that parcel uh to be contain within the parcel and not affect Safeways

2:36:35parcel um and nothing in the agreement would affect or limit the city's ability to approve or condition Safeways application for entitlements on the Safeway portion of the site site and likewise the development of the Hill Street parcel would be determined by the agency and a future developer and

2:36:53would require a separate entitlement and SQL process once the use and development of the per parcel is being has been determined so um to conclude um comprehensive Redevelopment of the delord area has been contemplated for decades and conveyance of the land along

2:37:10Hill Street to the agency will enable A Renewed planning effort for master development in the near future the staff believes that the proposal from Safeway to convey land to the agency rather than the previous cash offer meets the agency's goals and objectives in this

2:37:25way agency ownership of the land across from the dely BART station will contribute to cohesive planning and Redevelopment of the area as in any Redevelopment a effort the agency and the developer take on certain risks and in this case the agency does have some risk that if

2:37:42Safeway should be unable to receive its entitlements there will be no transaction and no land would be conveyed to the agency the agreement does provide that regardless of the entitlements the agency's loan obligation to Target will be terminated along with the DDA in its

2:37:59entirety there is also some risk inherent for both Safeway and the agency in the timing of the entitlement approvals related to the possible changes to the general plan and Zoning code through the specific plan the parking requirements for the Hill Street parcel development and the

2:38:15amount of parking Safeway will obtain through its entitlement process are both as yet unknown for that reason the agreement also provides for future negotiation of shared parking um while respecting that any grocery store requires a certain level of parking for its customers on that

2:38:33Safeway lot so um Jack Nagel our agency council is here to answer any legal questions that you may have Todd Paradise from Safeway is also here to speak and before turning it over for questions or um over to Safeway I wanted to show you a brief um video that they

2:38:49developed and while it's only meant to be illustrative it does show the kind of project that could be built on the Hill Street Corner this is conceptual correct thank you I'm just going to play it again so basically this comes through the Hill Street s Pabo intersection and just um

2:39:43goes south and you can see that the concept for a mixed use project on the corner and then it goes on to um show you what the current Safeway proposal is for the existing Target building as it goes south on s paabo Avenue and there's the um additional retail that they're

2:40:00proposing in their current application on the San Pablo Frontage so if you have any questions um from me or or from um agency counsil we happy to answer those before turning it over to Todd before we go to that I I just want to uh mentioned to people that if you're really

2:40:17interested in in the uh the project and what went on behind a lot of this went behind uh in closed session and now it's coming to light so if you want to know what's goes on in closed sessions this is an excellent um this is an excellent description of what the agency has gone

2:40:37through to this point and uh it's there for your reading and and uh uh for your consideration so with that any questions or I I've got some hopefully simple questions that for you but although I um I'm not certain of it I know that uh the target site when Target was occupying it

2:40:58was generating quite a bit of Revenue tax revenue for the city um I believe in one of our working sessions it was something on the order of $250,000 to $300,000 a year um and the in in that same working session I think somebody Safeway presented a uh estimate of what

2:41:19their tax revenue would be once they are occupying this space um minus the gas station which is what this current proposal current agreement would support um do you have a recollection of what that number would be is it 50,000 to 100,000 a year Tod do you do you

2:41:38remember what it was exactly 200 I I remember what it was with the gas station but I don't remember what it was with without 200 different I I recall 200,000 annual maximum for just the for all the the components of the grocery store with minus the gas station but and that's

2:41:57also including the retail pad on the corner right including the retail pad on the corner that's right oh there you go so the store was projected to to um produce 140,000 um in sales tax and the the shop space was 60 great thank you so um well the the Target store was between 2 and

2:42:22300,000 correct okay thank you thank you may Pro Tim um I don't have any questions this time yeah thank you very much we will now take uh public comment please first Speaker Moren Ray oh I do oh we have the did you want to hear from from I'm sorry I'm sorry Hi good evening uh members of the

2:42:53council again my name is Todd with Safeway and on behalf of Safeway we're really excited to be able to have come up with this this this much different plan than than where we started it um you know I had the um the pleasure of also sitting in with a few specific plan

2:43:12meetings and um and understanding trying to get an understanding of the vision the city had for the Avenue up and down and um and so when when this concept came to light I I thought we thought it made perfect sense for for for Safeway still getting what we think is going to

2:43:33be a beautiful store in this trade area with all the bells and whistles and all the Departments and it'll just be spectacular the city will be able to um at some point along in in the future do something maybe like this or exactly this or something close to this um which

2:43:51will face Bart and then the aloney way which we're happy about also gets funded uh through this mechanism mechanism as well and for us that's a great enhancement because the way we're going to situate our building along the um Bart track there's going to be a lot of

2:44:08Windows that face in that direction in an outdoor seating area so we think it really is going to bring things to life um on that side whereas today there's no real connection and um and then another thing that I would I was just mentioning briefly um a few minutes ago with Lori

2:44:26that we ju it just occurred to us this morning is on our original elevations we were kind of keeping more or less the round shape of the existing building and we decided to go in slightly different direction and remove all traces of the fact that this used to be a Target

2:44:45building and doing something different out there with a with some type of um architectural Tower element and appears to us to be a great place for some some type of public art um on almost on a stage even and so we're exploring that right now and uh to see how we can you

2:45:03know really make this project something that uh everybody here can can Embrace and we'll we feel fits in very well with what's going on in this Corridor so I again I wanted to thanks staff for for um working with Safeway and with Target to get to the point where we are today

2:45:22at times it seemed like it was we were you know having to jump through a lot of Hoops on both sides to to to get this into the form that it's in tonight but we feel pretty good about it and I hope that uh everybody that the council feels good about it as well and I'm here to

2:45:37answer questions if there there are any so thank you again thank you just before you sit down uh is there any questions of yes I okay thank you very much oh I'm sorry yeah um so I'm I'm curious just from a marketing and business plan perspective how Safeway has modified your strategies

2:46:00given that there's 7,000 people a day coming to BART to that BART station for this particular store the the program has not been finalized yet but when when it got approved the first time which which it didn't have with the original concept our our CEO said that um the Marketing Group needs

2:46:23to come up with with a plan of which I've not seen yet but that they need a plan to to take advantage of of that Bart location and they've tossed around ideas about you know not just the connectivity and the path but ways to to maybe cross do some type of ads at the uh Bart

2:46:45location if they would be willing to do so but um we haven't really taken it to the next level yet honestly and did that good question and I guess did that how much does does that factor into your um interest in being in that location a lot a lot and and as Bart stated during one of

2:47:06the I think it was the last specific plan meeting that they that they you know this is one location for them that they realize is heavily Auto oriented and um when it comes to buying groceries um people tend to get there by buy vehicle uh quite often because they're

2:47:25buying you know four to five six bags of groceries so that extra 7 or 8,000 uh cars a day is is a big factor in how well we think this store is going to do absolutely thanks thank you great appreciate it now we can go to the public comment thank you waren Ray hi thanks for listening um I wanted

2:47:57to say that I'm really proud to be living in elero right now I went to elero high and I got to move back here this summer and I'm just so proud to be here um I'm really proud to live in a city with such a great focus on the Arts and with so many unique small businesses

2:48:10like Jenny k um 33 revolutions well- grounded eclectics it really makes elero different and I really think that's something unique and special for us so in that vein I'd like to continue focusing on businesses that really evoke that unique quirky characteristic art

2:48:27artsy characteristic that we have here so I'm pleased to hear that the Safeway developers are thinking about art installations I'm pleased to hear that we're looking at mixed use opportunities to make use of this space so please let's continue focusing on our unique

2:48:40characteristics and our Arts Focus here in Elso because that's really what we're becoming known for so thank you thank you David McCord I'm David mcord [address removed] here in elao apartment 1 and I'm uh speaking on behalf of the Sierra Club and uh the the community has uh expressed

2:49:14its desire many times in public input meetings and hours of Staff time and and Adoption of documents by the city council it wants the area around the BART Dori to develop as Transit oriented mix to use this is documented in the housing element of the the general plan

2:49:44the zoning ordinance delte design guidelines and the S Pabo Avenue specific plan however U the overall plan that Safeway has proposed is a a big box store no mixed use on itself possibly a little bit on the pittance that uh the Redevelopment agency would get and U so that doesn't

2:50:24really address the community's desire and also when if Safeway closes the two existing neighborhood stores and people in the neighborhoods are going to have to go farther there some including myself uh shop on foot because I'm within walking distance of the mour Avenue

2:50:57location a lot of people will just go to other grocery stores that they it's easier for them to get to and so I I hope that um that you can work work to find a way to have an outcome that really fulfills the community's vision and I'm sure you don't want to let a

2:51:25chain dictate what it does to the city thank you next speak Lamar Turner I live at uh [address removed] a 17-year resident uh my name is Lamar Turner uh this morning at about 11:30 I stood on the BART platform waiting for a bus to a a train to San Francisco and I

2:51:59was standing on the rail looking over to my right at the Mayfair parking lot and the BART parking lot and the um Target parking lot and the boarded building Beyond and I spent uh uh about five minutes daydreaming about what I could see there 10 years from now and I saw uh rooftop gardens with

2:52:25children playing and seniors uh in Corners playing checkers and people scurrying to Bart and back from Bart to their homes I saw a restaurant at the top of the the fifth or sixth floor that had a clear unobstructed view of of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco

2:52:53skyline I did not see what was pictured here tonight uh not too many weeks ago I spent well over an hour in this room looking at the uh San Pablo Avenue specific plan writing comments on poits so what I like to say now is to give you a Post-It except I'd do it orally instead of in

2:53:23writing the greenhouse gas emissions that would happen or be saved uh in a smart growth development like what was contemplated in the San Pablo Avenue specific plan would be enormously different than what is going to happen with what is osed I spent a good part of

2:53:48today on the phone uh talking to an environmental attorney trying to understand what options there might be with the Air Resource Board and utilizing um cap and trade type credits as exchange for attempting to buy this site because of the the the uh environmental impacts that can happen as

2:54:15a result of a decision that could be made here tonight and what I learned by the time the day was over was that that process is not yet ripe enough to be able to play a role in this decision tonight but that it could very well be a year from now and there could be enough money to

2:54:35put together a way to purchase this property and develop something that would be more along the lines of what's in the San Pablo Avenue specific plan I don't know what your options are but I believe it would be unconscionable to approve the plan that is proposed thank

2:54:56you vuong noan good evening uh my name is vangin I'm from Urban habitat uh a few comments um although the proposed project does follow uh the spirit of the spa specific plan I think the uh the full potential of the site goes beyond uh what's capable uh what's being shown here and

2:55:24um I also wanted to to note that um we're actually losing two Safeways as a result one in Richmond uh which you know we're in Els Sero but I think all of us should care uh that we're losing two tax bases and uh only getting one in return and uh the resulting uh project um even

2:55:42though we're getting a uh a part parcel out of this uh there are a lot of issues with um with that parcel including access and some of the powers that Safeway has over that parcel including um the um uh the the conflicts in uses such as uh the safe waste power over

2:56:00what's actually going to go in the parcel so a lot of the compatible uses that would be proposed uh wouldn't work because of shared parking so if you were to put in some sort of retail or another grocery or uh any sort of residential use uh would be very problematic to get

2:56:14any shared parking just because a lot of the hours would overlap so what you'd end up probably having is an office use uh where the hours would be compatible so you know I realize this is due to the market this is all that uh can really occur but I would like uh the council to

2:56:30consider um opening up some of the flexibility of the uh of the agreement so that there is more potential of uh of a project that can actually be built uh that would allow some significant residential use uses thank you thanks thank you Tony wise thank you Council I'm glad that I

2:56:56stayed late to calm down um in seeing this uh project I think this is a great opportunity and it just came to my head um the past uh uh issue that we were talking about the urm issue um in with the new and we don't want to go out with the old if we just let the old buildings

2:57:17fall or be vacant or whatever they're gone we end up with all these buildings that look the same and elero wasn't built like that we need a combination of both we need tax revenue we need the big large corporation stores but like the speaker before the young lady stated the

2:57:32quirkiness the little businesses that's what elero was built on that that was the back bone that got us to the great City we were there was only a thousand people in the city or a hundred of people in the city when they had had these little small stores that we

2:57:46originally were talking about that are in distress right now and need help these new stores are coming in because the backbone of those little stores have built this great City to a 25,000 plus resident City it's a partnership these new stores have as much responsibility

2:58:02as the old stores do so I'm asking the city council to take this opportunity to look into opper look into ways that new construction uh new development of large corporation stores uh could help pay for the seismic upgrades of not only the not only the urms but you said you're going

2:58:24to start talking about soft stories so there's going to be more and more bills on top and if we could help it be a partnering ship eventually these will be old and outdated and need to be retrofitted in some sight ways and hopefully if we set a precedence the new

2:58:38buildings coming in then will help pay for those buildings also so I'd like for the I'd like like for the staff or the council to ask staff to find out if there's a way that uh the new buildings new cor new developments new corporations new big large developments

2:58:54uh that come in could somehow pay a tax or um uh uh special assessment fees or permit fees could be set aside to help pay for urms that are in need and we can partner as because we're all businesses doing well they're going to benefit from the customers that the small stores

2:59:13bring in and we're going to benefit from theirs because we all utilize all the businesses in elero and it would be a win-win uh for the community it'll also show Pro business on the staff's point that you're looking out for all of the businesses together and that we're all

2:59:29in this together and that it's not one person's financial responsibility it's the entire Business community's Financial U responsibility and it'll shut a precedence for when these buildings need to be retrofitted 50 years from now cuz my building wasn't n always 50 years old it was

2:59:46state-ofthe-art when it was built and it was passed by building codes just as this building is state-ofthe-art will be every up to every building code there is 50 years from now it will not be and it'll need help thank you very much for that consideration thank you next

3:00:07noric hi I'm Linda novic I live on tasahara Avenue and um and I walk in this neighborhood and although I'm glad to see that there's a parcel that the city can be that is can be developed in the future on the Hill Street side I'm very disappointed that while we're

3:00:22working on the San Pablo Avenue specific plan simultaneously to this this plan doesn't look anything like the plan that we've been putting Post in ela and that we've been commenting on the vision that we really want to see in this neighborhood and I'm also I won't repeat

3:00:37everything that everybody said but the way the parking is constructed in this in this area sort of ends us up with the same kind of sea of parking and the same kind of development that we have there now and I think not saying that we don't want a Safeway or anything like that but

3:00:54what I think what we wanted to see is some kind of better vision and mixed use vision and um for that site um I'm also am not hearing in relation to the site and it could be because I didn't read the whole plan that that came out but if there's going to be any transportation improvements at

3:01:10that intersection related to this development because because I don't know if you've ever just tried to walk across that street but to get anywhere in that intersection takes about 20 minutes so it would be great if you are going to go forward with this to be looking at the

3:01:24whole area and not just that parcel thank you very much thank you Phil Tucker Madame mayor my name is Phil Tucker I'm Project Director of California Healthy Communities Network where project of Tide Center in San Francisco uh I've been tracking this project for quite some time I'm a member

3:01:55of the labor enviral committee uh of of Contra uh County and have been served on that committee for 10 years um the mixed use uh development in this area in this specific area plan we've had a high degree of interest in uh we also have been had a degree of interest in the fact

3:02:18that Walmart uh made a a large bid uh to come in and to which we felt would completely destroy the the whole uh emphasis of the plan in other words dragging in far more traffic than the grocery store or anything else proposed although number of our uh Affiliates

3:02:43have are not really excited about uh some of the uh uh original proposal especially the fuel center uh this is a definite Improvement and a and a compromise uh by by Safeway a large corporation also a local Corporation um uh to help to work with the community I'm hope I'm hopeful that

3:03:09there can be some additional uh compromises and when get down to fine-tuning and detail on this to make it even more compatible with the uh Transit friendly nature of the it's neighbor to Bard uh because this would definitely be an enhancement for the entire community and and keep it more uh

3:03:31uh in line with what the proposal was as far as specific area plan thank you very much thank you no other speakers okay thank you very much for uh everybody body sticking around oh can we uh have a motion to extend or not extend the meeting I move to extend the meeting

3:03:50till um 10:45 second all those in favor I I okay like uh thank everybody for uh staying around uh we have received a lot of information and a lot of opinions just want to let you know we we all we read them uh we take them into consideration and uh appreciate every body's effort

3:04:14tonight uh so I'd like to uh start with any well first of all um do we have a motion to discuss so moved so there was been a motion and a second of the to the to discuss or of the agreement to discuss no what I need I think the request was he would like I need is

3:04:41ation a motion that we would that we would we would discuss about so I move approval of the um action to convey land from Safeway and terminate the repurchase option on the target property the resolution would authorize the executive director on behalf of the Redevelopment agency to

3:05:01execute a trip party agreement with Safeway Incorporated and Target Corporation regarding the property located at 11450 s Pablo Avenue the trip party agreement will one convey a parcel land which with certain conditions to the Redevelopment agency from Safeway Incorporated and two terminate the

3:05:22current disposition and development agreement between the Redevelopment agency and Target Corporation including the agency's repurchase option and its loan obligations to Target second been moved and second and uh on the on the resolution is there discussion I would like to um discuss

3:05:42the motion put out I I do want to say that um I think it was 1995 when I was first appointed to the Redevelopment advisory committee and we have been talking and working very hard to redevelop areas in the Del Norte um neighborhood for long time the Mayfair property collaborations

3:06:02with Bart we've had the Target store the Target store is now vacant and we of course would like to enact a vision that is consistent with the specific plan but we have heard clearly that this uh vacant building which is a big box retail store is not going to be uh torn

3:06:23down and rebuilt for the more um Community Based Transit Orient development that we're looking for this Council and the agency has worked very hard to get the best project that we can that's going to allow for um reoccupation of that building for retail use at a key place on San Pablo Avenue I

3:06:43share the concerns of the community about the Safeway um that's at moer Lane as well as the one on McDonald and Richmond we are welcoming the opportunity to work with Safeway to do the best for those sites and I also would like to Echo the comments about Safeway being a local business a green

3:07:02business and to having Union employees and I appreciate that about this proposal um this project provides the opportunity for the Redevelopment agency to construct future housing and to create mixed use it enhances the neighborhood serving commercial with the smaller

3:07:19shops on the front um along the s paao Avenue area it provides for funding of the greenway and possibly I hear tonight of a public art component and I think that the remaining issues are the appropriate amounts of parking and ensuring a good pedestrian connection

3:07:37from the BART station to this uh development in order to really capit Li on that connection between the patrons both on foot and bicycle and in the car who are coming to shop at this area so those are my comments I support obviously support this uh resolution thank you Anna Gregor J okay

3:08:00um I want to Echo the comments that um mayor Potter has made um I share them and I want to um I want to just uh expand a little bit though on um the importance of the connection to the delori BART station and the enormous numbers I do believe of patrons who will

3:08:22come to this store from there by transit um there are uh I think maybe one grocery store in uh Richmond it's last last thing I heard and I can only think of one and so people have to go somewhere to to get their groceries and the thing about this site is that it's right across the

3:08:44street from the BART station and I know there have been studies where very large numbers of people have been um uh clocked going across the street not by car but on foot so I I I do um see this as a destination for Transit users I'm a Transit user myself I don't uh I

3:09:07actually do have five bags or even six bags sometimes of groceries but I don't have a car I have a wheelchair and I can carry those on my wheelchair on the bus or on BART so there are lots of different ways to get to this site and um so I think it's very important as uh

3:09:24mayor Potter said that there be good pedestrian access to this site and I do understand that the exact details of that will be worked out um in the entitlement but I also understand that Safeway is committed to making sure that happens and that that um you you know

3:09:43The Pedestrian access from the uh BART station with all of its customers um will be adequately maintained um onite the um I'm very happy that we were able to get this uh Hill Street parcel put in which does provide opportunities to do mixed use including uh a number of

3:10:06housing units and I am looking to the Future when we will in fact have um when somebody will have funding to do that development um and I hope it's sooner rather than later but it it's at least at this time it's a placeholder and certainly we have tried to do what we

3:10:26can to get the kind of project we want here but we really um it's not our land and um the uh the um so it's if we don't do anything we this is much better than what would happen if we don't do anything um and we're running out of time so I I really want to thank

3:10:48everybody who's worked on this project I especially want to thank our staff who's worked very hard and I know Safeway has also worked very hard especially uh recently as I understand it to um kind of burn burn the Midnight Oil to try to get everything to be um something we

3:11:09could both really all three sides could agree to and it's not the perfect world it's certainly not my perfect world but I think it's going to be one that um our residents will have a lot of residents who will shop here um they will have you know be able to get a lot of essential

3:11:26things here and a lot of people will be able to live here one day um if we can get you know when things get better a project that will can be built here and that's the kind of thing that I'm looking forward to um I do think that it's uh important to make sure all of

3:11:44the um transport you know that the the act as one of the speakers said earlier uh this is a terrible corner it's one of the worst Corners in Els Sero currently I think it's so bad that um the um the state will not certify it for uh audible signals for people who are blind because

3:12:04they don't want them going here uh and I'm talking about the one you see right here in this picture um and um so I hope that some of the things that are done via this project will help to make that a better situation and make it in fact more Transit oriented rather than less

3:12:24um and um it'll you know I look forward to that happening thank you okay um thank you and I I I too I I believe staff and Safeway have come along long way from where we had a fuel center proposed um and a one a single story retail pad and um now that we have on the table a parcel to work with to

3:12:54plug into our vision um set forth in this specific plan where over you know 200 community members over the last two years have given input and feedback and affirmation of um I would just um just let folks know that as the draft specific plan moves forward that the parking requirements in that

3:13:19plan are entirely revamping how we look at parking I think prior generations of council members you know we had a sea of parking we allowed a sea of parking a long time ago but the thinking has changed we have a climate crisis um Studies have shown that folks living

3:13:35within a half mile of 10-minute walk of a transit station Drive 50% less and so we need to start start looking at how we can and we are through the specific plan to do a rational amount of parking given that there's you know 500 bart trains a day and hundreds of buses and that

3:13:54there's alternatives to driving um everywhere for everything so um so just to let folks know that as the draft plan moves forward it's be it's going to be parking is going to become a maximum parking um requirement instead of a minimum and what that means is to go

3:14:12above and beyond that you have to um request a variance and that's recognizing the fact that there's all this Transit here that we we really don't want to waste this precious land that is within walking distance of Bart um so I would like to Echo that we appreciate Safeway in putting in aund or

3:14:33half a million um to the aloney greenway and to really open up the the store and the windows I think this will be one of the first examples of Greenway oriented development which I'm very excited about and um and so um so rest assured I I understand we do want to enforce that Vision but we do

3:14:56have now um an additional 87 acres to add on to the mayair site and and working with Bart moving forward so I think we do have a chance at that Vision it's it's a little compromised but we're I I felt like we've done the best that we could in the situ situation i' like

3:15:13to make a quick motion to extend the meeting by 15 minutes second all those in favor I extend another 15 minutes okay well good well I got just I'll I'll try and be as brief as possible I I I get the enviable position of going behind all of you and get to reiterate

3:15:33your thanks reiterate your thanks to staff reiterate your thanks to Safe Way reiterate your thanks to the public um and I too am am supportive of the this project going forward and really do want to reiterate what uh agency chair Jones said earlier um I think the staff report

3:15:50on this uh really summarizes well the the long tedious process that we went through trying to get a more Transit oriented development here at this site um however due to the economic Times that we're in our hands were relatively um tied and the value of the building

3:16:08doesn't allow for a blank slate proposal to be brought forward on that property at this time so I'm looking forward to the specific plan which I've heard so much about potentially influencing the future development of this site when 20 years from now or 30 years from now the

3:16:24utility of this building has exhausted its service life and and indeed the the 5 acre portion is up for redevelopment and the opportunity that we'll have by setting the standard for that 5 acre development with our 1 acre parcel so we we have the opportunity of being first

3:16:42on on the 6 acre uh unit to set the standard for architecture densities use and and all of those good positive things that we've heard everyone talk about um so that the 5 acre development um can follow suit and really pick up on all of the good principles that uh our

3:17:00uh good council members have talked about and that I've heard about in the specific plan that's coming forward uh the point I wanted to make earlier with regards to my questions about the tax revenue from this site is that the tax revenue does go predominantly back to

3:17:15elero because this parcel was a Redevelopment agency parcel um the taxes that we do get from this parcel zero almost or very little right now um we get property taxes but no sales tax uh do come back to to elero in a in a very real way and so we are looking forward

3:17:33to trying to get that Revenue back into our coffers so that we can consider some of the projects like um Mr Weiss talked about that we can potentially um use some of that Revenue to substantiate some of the process ordinances we put forward so I I'm looking forward to a

3:17:49beautiful project out there and um our opportunity to set the standard going forward good deal well thank you well we heard a lot of comments but try to summarize I I think what we're saying here is that uh we did the best we could staff did the best they could um our

3:18:07legal team certainly helped out uh going forward and that we would like uh a better uh development if we could but the the reality is it um we we have the limitations that we have on this and uh we've been able through cooperation with Safeway uh to get a a in my opinion a

3:18:31much better development than what was first proposed um we do have a deadline we don't own the property we don't have time to raise the money that would take and to exercise our option which in my opinion would have been probably have to go back to the voters and ask them for

3:18:50property tax to to indeed um buy this um and unfortunately uh as was stated before in a previous issue the economic Times uh couldn't have been worse for something like this we've tried to approach and have approached many developers and some were in ared on their own terms and it

3:19:14didn't really match up with ours and a lot of them aren't in a position to to take advantage of this um we were trying to Market not only target but to try to go with the Mayfair site which we now uh the agency now owns in whole and work with Bart and what I see in this project

3:19:38is that we have this one settled after four years of wondering what's going to go on we have a chance to settle it tonight if if we do go forward and approve and it could be the Catalyst for now concentrating on the other parts and finally getting our finishing uh

3:19:54development of that area that that we've been working almost uh 20 to 25 years on and and if just Bart themselves have been telling us the last 25 years they would like to develop so um I look at it as you're right we didn't get probably everything we wanted the best of all

3:20:13worlds it might have been a little better who knows but um I think it's going to be a great Catalyst uh to go forward uh with the other parts um we did I think everybody agrees that we would like to take a look at the trans uh transportation system that's there

3:20:30and and uh look at it all the studies I know the specific plan if it's in its final version if it stays with where it's going it will also comment on that in in great detail uh I was just looking at this though it's it's it's a nice concept and man I wish San Pablo Avenue looked that

3:20:49way I uh I think you have to go to like 3 in the morning to kind of see that type of uh action on San Pablo I will say this um uh Target uh the local people and I said it before and I I want to say it one more time before we cut uh Target uh completely off from Sero but um the

3:21:14local people that are there interacted very well with the community they they donated a lot of things with a lot of of our uh special events and I know some of the private schools also were helped out by by Target so the local people the local managers and the people that you

3:21:31saw when you went into that store um they had a good feeling about the community unfortunately I can't say that uh as Target as a corporate resident of elero and it's one of the major reasons why we're in this position now they knew what they were going to be doing three

3:21:52to four years ago over two years ago they could have started and a and try to come up with something and work with us and and work out a development they didn't they waited till their store was closed they waited um to the last possible moment to to start working with us we lost revenue

3:22:15and um I I I I just have to say that I'm sorry I'm very disappointed even though we tried to work with them a as a good corporate uh resident and it didn't work out at the corporate level um so anyway a lot of the the things that I was going to say has already been said

3:22:40uh again I would like i' like to thank staff and the legal team for uh staying on top of things and making sure that every move we make was in uh conformance to the California Redevelopment laws and requirements and procedures that we have to operate under uh so with that I'd like to take a

3:23:00motion or uh vote on the motion you do it y all in favor in favor all those in favor excuse me opposed motion carries thank you very much next item please 7c study session for redevelopment of tradeway property 10860 and 10848 San Pablo Avenue I'm sorry yeah uh before we have staff uh

3:23:37report on this uh there was one public speaker and we'd like to uh have them come forward and comment on this right now on 7c on 7c yes okay Tom panis we I got to make we got to vote on that Tom we didn't want to run out of time without having public comment so uh

3:24:12that's very kind thank you you're not going to go forward after this are you with the study session we well we'll discuss that after you uh I guess I would rather have my comments be fresh in the agency's mind oh okay we were we didn't want to waste your time very kind

3:24:28of you but okay that's fine uh well why don't we why don't we do this stick around for a second why don't we do this um there was a thought that maybe because of the seriousness and and and the length of time it would take to study this and the time of the night

3:24:48that we have um there was a thought that we would uh continue this to next meeting is that there's room for that right so uh before we get involved in this uh like ENT that idea did you want a motion to put to continue this item only if you want to give one I would

3:25:08like to make the motion to continue this item to so that we get the um best freshest minds of our Council as well as potentially greater uh public input I second it we moved in second to uh table this item to the next uh meeting which is what is it October 19th is that right yes yeah 14 + 5 is 19

3:25:34okay October 19th all those in favor I oppose motion carries thank you very much thanks again Tom for sticking around we are now going to move on to item 7D which is the Kensington Fire Protection District agreement and we have a short staff report and a presentation from Chief Maples good

3:26:01evening Madame mayor members of the council I thank you for your time tonight and I thank you for your precious thoughts um tonight I bring to you item 70 requesting adoption of resolution approving the Second Amendment to the agreement for service between Kensington and the elero fire

3:26:18department there are three material changes to this second Amendment the first change is a sharing of the fire secretary position with their secretary that will result in an approximately $50,000 a year savings the second is an extension of the agreement for 5 years with a new expiration date

3:26:39of 2020 and the third is an increase in the Kensington fire protection District's Reserve fund from 6 months of contract fee to 12 months of a contract fee all three of these Amendments have been reviewed by the city's uh legal and I feel as your fire chief they are sound

3:26:58amendments to the contract that will strengthen our relationship with the Kensington Fire Protection District this agreement has been in uh effect for nearly 14 years and has been mutually beneficial to both Kensington and elero the Second Amendment will preserve the

3:27:13relationship for an additional total of 10 years this will also provide the aforementioned cost savings to both the Kensington Fire Protection District and the City of Els Sero tonight I would request you adopt this second Amendment and I would be happy to answer any

3:27:28questions at this time there any questions can you take a 30 seconds to explain what why we went from six months Reserve to 12 months reserve and why not 18 months Reserve cuz I think it was an 18-month cancellation cause so I'm just curious correct what what what why stop

3:27:48at 12 when 18 months is the termination Clause very good very good question it was through negotiations with the fire district we had discussed this probably for over about two a period of two years uh every time we went back to them for our financial uh review every 12 months

3:28:05um it's one of those times where you know econ economic times are tough everywhere and uh I think it was remarkable to get it to where we could have 12 months um it's something that I'm sure we'll always have on the table um but I'm much more comfortable with a

3:28:1912-month Reserve than a six-month reserve of the contract fee thank you great yes okay yeah I had one question that just occurred to me now actually and that is um how much um what the cost of providing this or or our income from for providing this service will be in those

3:28:41New Years how is that determined it's determined through the formula that's the original formula that we put together when we did the first contract for service it's approximately onethird of the fire department's budget but no but how's it how's the amount of money

3:28:55determined through a formula off our annual budget line by line there's percentage rates that they pay of each line and the the total is approximately oneir of the budget so it's based on our actual budget figures correct we we set the fee based on our Ed budget for the

3:29:11fire department so it has in essence has an escalator built in it follows our budget to a if ours goes down their fee goes down if fars goes up their fee goes up okay thank you are there any public comments too late thank you I move uh to adopt a resolution approving the Second

3:29:34Amendment to an agreement for services between the Kensington Fire Protection District and the City of elero second it's been moved in second it all in favor I I opposed motion carries unanimously thank you very much as always thank you before we we leave I just I neglected to to thank Hildy and

3:29:56Lori our housing project manager and Redevelopment manager for sticking around and I know they've left if you could uh convey that I'm sorry that we didn't do it while they were here thank you okay we're now on uh well we need a motion to extend we have only one small

3:30:13item to cover which is the council assignment leaon reports which we could continue or we could take five minute extension I I will move for a five minute extension second okay all in favor I I why don't we start with Mr linman as tradition nothing to report I'm sorry I have something to

3:30:36report um I attended the meeting of the parks and rec commission and and um one of the things that came up there was the question about the Gilman field um parking problem and the parking problem was described as there isn't enough parking for the soccer players and yet

3:30:57right there's this fence and on the other side of the fence there's property belonging to East Bay Regional Park and all they have to do is have the gate open and there would be plenty of parking um and so there was a lot of concern expressed at The Parks and Rec

3:31:11commission about this and they uh want to re um an update on that situation uh at their next meeting and I've gotten many emails since then I don't I don't know if I just got on the list or what happened as a result of that but um there's a lot of concern about that and um I just wanted to make

3:31:31sure everyone knew about it that didn't already Dr I can fill you in that would be great only take a couple minutes so if you want that now that would be at our last meeting um this has been brought up the a The Joint Powers Authority is actively working to try to

3:31:50get that it is East Bay Regional that is uh limiting us on not using that not not the project uh not the desire to do that and you're right everybody knows that there's this space behind the gate that can be used is this can I just clarify is this in is this a section of land

3:32:11that's adjacent to Gilman Street itself like parallel to Gilman Street or is it way back like behind it's actually perpendicular to Gilman Street it's um along the Waterfront it's the paved section between the fields and the and the Waterfront and it's technically

3:32:28owned by the state U but East Bay Regal Park District is the manager and and decision maker about its use and we provided some of the funding for it not the jpa not for the the portion of pavement that is under discussion at the moment the soccer fields I'm just

3:32:46talking about soccer yes cor that's correct so that's being as that's being worked on and I think you you should be able to tell people that that it's it's actively being worked on and we should hear in the next two months I think is what U mayor Bates from Berkeley had outline

3:33:05that we may hear some progress on that I think that from my understanding of the situation two months is a very long time well it won't go any sooner so you have to tell we'll have to tell people I'm sorry but uh this is pro the the process is being followed and actively being

3:33:23followed so okay then uh to continue my report uh we also uh discussed feasible sites for the Bruce King Memorial Park uh on the greenway it's where where we're thinking it would go and uh we had some uh drawings and so forth that um of dog parks that I have are those consistent

3:33:48with the um aloney Greenway plan that we approved in June or July yeah I think that is what somewhat what that is yes um any so we discussed that and then um um let's see I'll leave it at that I think what is if I may what is the process for bringing the Bruce King

3:34:16Memorial Park forward it at this point I know it's a a fund but I'm just curious what the process is for it being formally adopted and and and moving forward in into construction well first of all there's a a big uh delay caused by the BART construction so you know

3:34:36that has to occur first so it's not imminent but what we also have to do is to raise funds for it okay um and in fact outside this very room there there is that um um location where you can actually find out how to make a donation but um the the biggest um I don't know if I'd call it a

3:34:58roadblock but the first thing that has to happen is that Bard has to do the seismic retrofit um along the green way that will so disrupt The Greenway itself and then after that we'll be able to to to talk about the detailed timing of these projects like this thank

3:35:18you any other oh I'll just report that I um stepped in for mayor Potter at the Arts commission arts and culture commission to listen in on the process for selecting um or or coming up with Question Interview questions for uh I believe four finalists um for for artist

3:35:41rfps to do public artart along s paabo Avenue and it was very enlightening discussion and I applaud the commission and um assistant manager Pinkus for the steadfast work that they've done to to establish the ordinance to now get to the point of fruition of a project and

3:36:00so it's very exciting for our city and uh thanks for letting me in on that but otherwise the rest of my commissions we haven't had a chance to meet yet so design review board is looking at the the design guidelines of the specific plan Wednesday night so thank you an for attending the

3:36:17meeting in my absence and the only thing I have to report is on the mayor's conference which was held in Oakley and James mayor from California forward spoke to us about efforts to reform California government he talked about um issues of identifying funding sources

3:36:35for new programs before we create them about looking at doing a 2-year state budget process about using onetime monies for one-time expenditures and um touched on trying to get some reform on the 2third on the budget vote and some other issues so it was very interesting a call to action eventually

3:36:59they'll get to talking about term limits and Constitutional Amendments the next mayor's conference will be held in Moraga and all are welcome to attend so with that we conclude the city council meeting and we are adjourned