Special and Regular City Council Meetings February 5, 2019

0:03:42and this

0:03:48we'll begin the meeting

0:03:50may we have roll call please

0:03:53council member fidelity here mayor

0:03:55pro-tem lyman president

0:03:57mayor pardue okimoto

0:03:59present council member abelson here

0:04:01councilman bokinto president

0:04:04all right and now we'll have the pledge

0:04:06of allegiance led by council members

0:04:12to the flag

0:04:13of the united states of america

0:04:15and to the republic for which it stands

0:04:18one nation under god

0:04:21indivisible with liberty and justice for

0:04:24all

0:04:29next we will have staff and council

0:04:31communications

0:04:33we have staff reports

0:04:35yes thank you your honor i would first

0:04:37like to introduce uh at her first

0:04:39meeting tonight our first our assistant

0:04:41city manager alexandra orlogas she comes

0:04:43to us from immediately from the city of

0:04:46oakland prior to that she was in the

0:04:47city of san jose she started 10 days ago

0:04:50and you've already seen her actually at

0:04:52quite a few city events her very first

0:04:54day was the martin luther king day

0:04:55parade which is an excellent first day

0:04:57on any job

0:04:58so we're happy to have her and i just

0:05:00wanted to say welcome and introduce her

0:05:02to

0:05:03everyone here at um and on tv

0:05:06and next i would like to also introduce

0:05:08our fire chief michael pegone and our

0:05:09police chief paul keith and they have an

0:05:11update for you

0:05:12thank you

0:05:15good evening mayor

0:05:17and council and staff i wanted to

0:05:21take a few minutes tonight as we know

0:05:23even though the weather has been quite

0:05:26wet lately

0:05:27we just came out of the last two years

0:05:29of some very severe fire weather

0:05:32and we know that

0:05:33there's been quite concerns with within

0:05:36the city

0:05:37of the

0:05:38fire danger that we

0:05:40potentially have here in el cerrito and

0:05:43so we've been working very hard working

0:05:45to

0:05:46mitigate these

0:05:48issues and so i wanted to give you guys

0:05:50an update during the month of january

0:05:53the fire department continued with our

0:05:55numerous control burns that we started

0:05:57back in

0:05:58in december we initially had about 80

0:06:01piles up in the hillside natural area

0:06:03we're down to about 10 or 12 right now

0:06:07we're going we unfortunately lost a

0:06:09little bit of time the last couple of

0:06:10weeks during the rainstorm due to it

0:06:12being no burn days um seems which is

0:06:15kind of common when storms pull in the

0:06:17conditions are not ripe for

0:06:20for the smoke to rise with it

0:06:22so we're going to be starting weather

0:06:24permitting again we're we're going to be

0:06:26starting later this week

0:06:28burning again and getting the rest of

0:06:30the piles cleaned up these piles are

0:06:34from the efforts last year

0:06:36of cutting down trees and the and the

0:06:38vegetation reduction

0:06:40that we made

0:06:42that we made all of these piles there

0:06:44for it

0:06:45um in january um i believe your last

0:06:48account or your last city manager update

0:06:50we talked about the fact we had the cal

0:06:52fire hand crews the delta camp uh hand

0:06:55crews from solano county were in here

0:06:57for four days they did a tremendous

0:07:00amount of work

0:07:01just off of king court just north of

0:07:04where you enter into the hillside

0:07:06natural area

0:07:08cutting out a lot of brush working on

0:07:10the buffer zone and a lot of fuel

0:07:13reduction

0:07:14with it

0:07:15fortunately next week we have been

0:07:17proved for another week

0:07:19we will be bringing the delta crews back

0:07:22in again and we're going to start going

0:07:24the other direction from king court

0:07:26working down towards the pg e easement

0:07:29towards mosher going down through the

0:07:33hillside there behind the houses

0:07:35in an effort to build about a hundred

0:07:37foot buffer zone through there that's

0:07:40going to be in coordination with pg e

0:07:43who has also agreed to

0:07:45come in from their easement and kind of

0:07:48meet us coming up the hill taking out

0:07:50some trees and kind of sharing some of

0:07:53the

0:07:54the load of the work being done there

0:07:56and also improving

0:07:57their clearance that they have to the

0:07:59high tension lines up there

0:08:01with it so

0:08:03also next week

0:08:05next wednesday

0:08:06the fire department is going to be

0:08:07meeting with east bay park

0:08:10representatives as you have heard they

0:08:13have been

0:08:14diligently working on getting a plan

0:08:16together to

0:08:17make a buffer zone do a fuel break fuel

0:08:20reduction between

0:08:22wildcat canyon and el cerrito and tilden

0:08:25park and kensington they're going to be

0:08:27this break will go all the way from

0:08:29actually the richmond heights area all

0:08:32behind el cerrito all the way into

0:08:34tilden park behind kensington with it

0:08:38they will be starting they um because of

0:08:41the equipment they're bringing in and

0:08:43crews they have to wait till things dry

0:08:45out a little bit but this will be a

0:08:46summer long project going in various

0:08:49places and so they're going to meet with

0:08:50us and kind of explain where they're

0:08:52starting and i'll have more to report to

0:08:55you next month on that

0:08:58as we move into

0:09:00well back in just a little bit as i said

0:09:02before we're doing a lot of work up in

0:09:04the hillside area we've been doing a lot

0:09:06of work as we go into the springtime

0:09:09there there's more that we want to get

0:09:11done and so the fire department will be

0:09:13seeking some funds to continue with some

0:09:16advanced vegetation management

0:09:18this will include you know bringing in

0:09:21the delta crews when we can but also

0:09:23bringing in

0:09:24our normal

0:09:26vegetation management

0:09:29companies that we've used in the past to

0:09:31to keep this work up and keep it going

0:09:33and improve on you know what we've been

0:09:35doing on the last few years with it

0:09:38it's also

0:09:39it's also encouraging to note that

0:09:41there's a whole lot of work

0:09:43or research i should say being done

0:09:45with moraga rinda fire department and uc

0:09:48berkeley on some early

0:09:50detection sensors

0:09:52that they have been testing the last

0:09:53couple of months these are working these

0:09:56are tying into a program that they call

0:09:59an evacuation

0:10:02decision support system that's a that's

0:10:04a long one to say

0:10:06basically this is a computer program

0:10:08that takes the weather readings and

0:10:10takes the

0:10:12inputs that come from these sensors that

0:10:13can pick up

0:10:15heat pick up drops in

0:10:17humidity and also see

0:10:19changes in light that could potentially

0:10:21be a fire and not only give an early

0:10:24warning that a fire is starting in um in

0:10:27an area where people may not be

0:10:29you know like in a in an isolated area

0:10:32and notify a fire department of a fire

0:10:34at an earlier date the decision-making

0:10:37program that they have takes the weather

0:10:39and can predict which way the fire is

0:10:41going and help with determining

0:10:44where resources should go and also

0:10:47evacuation areas that probably should be

0:10:50evacuated so we're going to stay on top

0:10:52of that monitoring it and seeing how and

0:10:55staying in touch with them with the

0:10:57progress they're making on this new new

0:11:00technology

0:11:01the last thing

0:11:03that the fire department is working on

0:11:05is we're we're working on putting a

0:11:07program together or developing a program

0:11:10that deals in it's a new term that

0:11:12they're using

0:11:14that's basically hardening your homes

0:11:16it's making your houses resistive to

0:11:18embers it's it's steps that homeowners

0:11:21can take um this is beyond veg this is

0:11:24beyond the vegetation it's beyond you

0:11:26know keeping your gutters clean it goes

0:11:28into a lot of steps to take on your

0:11:30homes that make your home basically the

0:11:33first line of defense against a

0:11:36fast-moving wildfire or any wildfire for

0:11:38that matter and more so the embers which

0:11:41they have noted in in the last you know

0:11:44the the paradise fires the redding fires

0:11:46the north bay fires it's usually the

0:11:48embers that are carrying way ahead of

0:11:50the fires that is starting more homes on

0:11:53that are burning with it

0:11:55this was discussed with uh

0:11:58with a joint effort with the police

0:11:59department yesterday in the fire

0:12:01department with the make el cerrito

0:12:04safe group

0:12:06and we had a very good meeting that

0:12:09chief keith will be going into

0:12:11and telling you a little bit more about

0:12:13that so thank you

0:12:15thank you

0:12:18good evening council and mayor i'm paul

0:12:20keith your police chief

0:12:22so i want to talk a little bit about the

0:12:24steps we've taken uh after hearing a lot

0:12:26of community input over the last few

0:12:27months about fire safety and el cerrito

0:12:29some actions that we're gonna be taking

0:12:31in the near term and some actions that

0:12:32we're gonna be taking farther down the

0:12:34line

0:12:34uh so recently the fire chief has talked

0:12:37about continued efforts to manage

0:12:38vegetation in the hillside area

0:12:41also el cerrito fire and police staff

0:12:43attended evacuation drills in both

0:12:45moraga and orinda i personally went to

0:12:47the arinda evacuation and

0:12:49saw the amount of organization that goes

0:12:51into planning a community evacuation

0:12:54drill even if it's only a small part of

0:12:56your community

0:12:57some of the actions we also met with the

0:12:59keep el cerrito fire safe group

0:13:02and it was a great opportunity for

0:13:04fire chief pagone and i to hear

0:13:07ideas that are from residents in our

0:13:09neighborhoods and it was nice to hear

0:13:11expansions on ideas sometimes it's hard

0:13:14to get the full concept from idea when

0:13:16people only have three minutes to talk

0:13:18so it was great to have a longer

0:13:19conversation we met for about two hours

0:13:22talked about some specific concerns in

0:13:24the hillside nature area and talked

0:13:26about their ideas for future fire safety

0:13:30efforts in el cerrito and we were able

0:13:32to talk about some of the things that we

0:13:33had planned as well

0:13:35so in the near term the el estrido fire

0:13:37department the el cerrito police

0:13:38department and the kensington police

0:13:39department are going to be meeting to

0:13:40develop and publish evacuation routes

0:13:42for both the community of kensington and

0:13:45the city of el cerrito

0:13:46we're also going to be coordinating with

0:13:48the county warning system on some el

0:13:49cerrito-specific evacuation zones to

0:13:52help us with progressive community

0:13:54evacuations in the event of a major

0:13:56disaster

0:13:57we are in the planning stages of an el

0:13:59strudel evacuation drill i don't have

0:14:01dates yet we're still working on how

0:14:04many staff members are going to be

0:14:05involved and when the right timing is

0:14:07going to be for that event

0:14:09and we're in the process of considering

0:14:11feedback that we got from the fire safe

0:14:13group yesterday in our meeting they had

0:14:15a wide range of ideas some things that

0:14:17might be potential

0:14:19proposals for city ordinances other

0:14:21things that can be policy level

0:14:23decisions amongst the police and fire

0:14:25department so we got a lot of feedback

0:14:27from them and we're still in discussions

0:14:29about exactly what our next steps are

0:14:31going to be from that meeting

0:14:32in the longer term we're planning on

0:14:34publishing an evacuation route map that

0:14:36will hopefully go out in our city

0:14:37newsletter and will also be available

0:14:39digitally online

0:14:41the fire department is also working to

0:14:43identify funding for advanced vegetation

0:14:45management and we also plan to schedule

0:14:48a larger public meeting in the future so

0:14:49that we can talk about things like plans

0:14:51for a evacuation drill

0:14:54the evacuation rat map things that

0:14:57people can do to prepare for evacuations

0:14:59in the event of a major wildfire

0:15:01emergency

0:15:02and other opportunities for the public

0:15:04to talk about ideas they may have for

0:15:06future fire related programs

0:15:08so that's kind of a quick snapshot of

0:15:11some of the things we've been working on

0:15:13to

0:15:13try to address some significant concerns

0:15:15from our community

0:15:18thank you very much thank you

0:15:20mayor if i may have a quick question

0:15:24chief keith you just used a term called

0:15:26progressive evacuation i was wondering

0:15:27if you could explain what that is

0:15:29so the way the community warning system

0:15:32works is uh they have a map of the whole

0:15:34city of el cerrito

0:15:36so in the event of an evacuation we

0:15:38could tell them we want everybody

0:15:40evacuated from arlington to the east

0:15:43and to do that they would take a mouse

0:15:45and basically draw a big circle on the

0:15:48map and the system could activate every

0:15:50phone number

0:15:52in that region and tell them evacuate

0:15:53now

0:15:55what we saw in arinda and moraga is that

0:15:57they have

0:15:58contacted community warning system in

0:16:00advance and set up pre-programmed

0:16:02neighborhoods

0:16:04so in orenda for example in one of their

0:16:07hilly areas they could say we want an

0:16:09immediate evacuation of a rinda

0:16:11neighborhood seven nine and ten

0:16:13and the community warning system could

0:16:14do an immediate evacuation just hit the

0:16:16numbers coded in for a rinda and then

0:16:18they could say in one hour we want

0:16:21official evacuation notices to go out to

0:16:24these other neighborhoods and we want a

0:16:26two-hour evacuation notification for

0:16:28this other set of three neighborhoods so

0:16:30on the fly without having to spend time

0:16:33drawing in the specific neighborhoods

0:16:34the community warning system can just

0:16:36give out different evacuation orders for

0:16:38different neighborhoods to allow for the

0:16:40people who are closest to the threat to

0:16:43evacuate first and people that are

0:16:45farthest from the threat to either have

0:16:47a heads up that evacuations may be

0:16:49occurring to start preparing or to say

0:16:51an evacuation will begin at this

0:16:53particular time great thank you very

0:16:54much sure

0:16:56thank you

0:16:58can i oh paul fidelli yeah can i ask

0:17:01staff if this will be put on our website

0:17:03the list of what will be done

0:17:05is this something that will be listed

0:17:07for our community to see um we have some

0:17:10of this in

0:17:11that is in a prior city manager update

0:17:13and we can continue to put more of this

0:17:15within the city manager updates if it

0:17:17could be always posted absolutely

0:17:19you know what our city is doing in

0:17:21response because it's a great list i'm

0:17:23great i'm glad to see this happening

0:17:24from both sure we can talk offices and

0:17:27the only question i had is this is all

0:17:28being done with the existing resources

0:17:31that we have correct

0:17:32excellent thank you

0:17:35okay

0:17:36all right and with that i'll start with

0:17:38you do you have any communications

0:17:40council member um yes several of us

0:17:44attended staff

0:17:45events uh over the last couple of weeks

0:17:47uh staff appreciation we all realize

0:17:50where the power is in el cerrito and

0:17:52it's with the staff so thank you staff

0:17:55uh and the crab feed for um the rec and

0:17:57parks department

0:18:00also i attended the east bay

0:18:03league of cities division

0:18:05where we talked about the casa proposal

0:18:08for a regional tenant and housing

0:18:11development plan in the bay area

0:18:13and finally the ac transit outreach on

0:18:16rate change issues in the bay area thank

0:18:18you

0:18:19councilmember lyman

0:18:21um

0:18:22yeah i do i um i think since we last met

0:18:25we had the martin luther king day parade

0:18:27and i want to thank staff and

0:18:30for all of the work that they put into

0:18:32making that parade very successful

0:18:35the full council was present and

0:18:37the human relations commission the

0:18:41entertainment we had uh the event was

0:18:43was fantastic

0:18:45um

0:18:46going through my calendar real quick

0:18:48sorry

0:18:49i do have

0:18:50um

0:18:52just making sure i'm not missing

0:18:53anything i do have a report out from the

0:18:57solid waste the recycle more

0:18:59meeting

0:19:00they have a couple of household houses

0:19:02waste events coming up in other

0:19:04communities that potentially are of

0:19:06interest to our community anybody within

0:19:09the service area can attend these uh on

0:19:11april 13th there will be a household

0:19:14hazardous waste event

0:19:16in uh

0:19:18so it's they're hoping to have it in

0:19:19panel but it may end up in hercules at

0:19:21the hercules corporation yard

0:19:24also if for those that potentially are

0:19:26regular attendees you will remember back

0:19:29in i think it was

0:19:31november

0:19:32a

0:19:33doctor from contra costa county came and

0:19:35spoke to us and said that the number one

0:19:38thing that we can do to

0:19:40start ending the opioid

0:19:42addictions and opioid problem is to

0:19:45allow for controlled substances to be

0:19:47collected at um

0:19:49at

0:19:50pharmacies where these uh are dispensed

0:19:53and i learned uh in january that cvs on

0:19:56san paulo avenue and cbs at the plaza

0:19:59now will take back

0:20:01uh controlled substances so

0:20:03this is uh

0:20:05barbiturates and

0:20:06pharmaceuticals that

0:20:09technically cannot be dropped off at the

0:20:10recycling center because they are

0:20:12controlled so they need to be dropped

0:20:13off at a controlled

0:20:15substance disposal site we now have two

0:20:18in el cerrito at the two cbs stores

0:20:21um so that

0:20:23uh

0:20:25that continued that i will continue the

0:20:27rest of my report out later

0:20:29all right councilmember

0:20:31thank you

0:20:32thank you mayor um i just wanted to

0:20:34report that i did attend the

0:20:36environmental quality

0:20:38meeting up in sacramento with the league

0:20:40of california cities and

0:20:43i met with

0:20:45several of our senators including

0:20:48senator henry stern

0:20:50from the malibu area and he told me that

0:20:53he lost his home

0:20:55and

0:20:56he is on

0:20:58and he wants to work

0:21:00with mayors and council members up and

0:21:03down the state to make sure that cities

0:21:06are prepared

0:21:08for

0:21:10a disaster whatever it may be so

0:21:13so they're in malibu they're dealing

0:21:15with fema issues and

0:21:18so many other things and

0:21:20so know that

0:21:23he'll be working with our local senator

0:21:25senator nancy skinner and buffy wicks

0:21:28to

0:21:29make sure that these things are more

0:21:32streamlined and we're looking at how

0:21:34long it took uh up in napa county uh

0:21:37during the last earthquake there and

0:21:41and people are still dealing with that

0:21:42now

0:21:43so these are the the painful effects of

0:21:45dealing with uh disaster um is uh

0:21:50the slow pace of

0:21:52of rebuilding so

0:21:54whatever we can do to prevent that in

0:21:56the future so i appreciate our fire

0:21:59chief and our police chief

0:22:01with

0:22:02everything that they're doing and what

0:22:04they will be doing this year to make

0:22:06sure that our residents are safe

0:22:08and that was on the top of our list in

0:22:10the environmental committee

0:22:13and we did ask

0:22:15the mayors and and uh council members

0:22:17that are part of that

0:22:19committee did ask for more funding

0:22:22so

0:22:23you know white did speak to

0:22:25senator

0:22:26henry stern about that and also

0:22:30with

0:22:32a couple of the senators that are with

0:22:34the environmental committee and the

0:22:37senate side

0:22:38buffy wicks already knows about that as

0:22:41she met with

0:22:43residents from kensington and i did

0:22:46discuss with her with the league of

0:22:48cities

0:22:50the

0:22:52need for more local funding to take down

0:22:55many of our trees and

0:22:57and to look into making sure that we get

0:23:00rid of our eucalyptus trees that are

0:23:02here on the hillside

0:23:04and then also

0:23:06i want to report that i did have uh uh

0:23:10attend the historic el cerino historical

0:23:13society and dave that was a an amazing

0:23:16uh

0:23:18sunday afternoon to hear uh joel selvin

0:23:22who i've read for many many years on the

0:23:24chronicle who was in charge of he he did

0:23:27the band reviews back then and

0:23:30so to hear

0:23:31uh the local

0:23:34neighbors speak about the fogerties and

0:23:36uh family members were part of that as

0:23:39well at uh

0:23:40uh crazy back when i was a musician in

0:23:42the 80s so uh maybe we'll we'll talk

0:23:45about the 80s uh uh era sometime soon

0:23:49and then

0:23:50also i wanted to say that i did

0:23:55attend with my colleagues

0:23:57the league of cities east bay division

0:24:00and our

0:24:02assembly member buffy wick spoke on

0:24:04um

0:24:06casa and we did have people from

0:24:08uh abag the association of bay area

0:24:11government and also mtc

0:24:14uh so i'm hoping our audience will

0:24:18google

0:24:20casa and and look through the mtc abag

0:24:23website

0:24:25to know what cities in the region

0:24:28are supporting so

0:24:30that's my report thank you thank you

0:24:32councilmember ableton thank you

0:24:35i also attended the league policy

0:24:37committees

0:24:38i

0:24:40this year i have

0:24:41presidential appointments

0:24:43again to the community services policy

0:24:47committee

0:24:48and as a new assignment i'm

0:24:50on the housing committee of the league

0:24:53california cities

0:24:54so i'm looking forward

0:24:57to that being a very interesting and

0:25:02experience this year and

0:25:05i will be reporting back on that

0:25:10i also

0:25:11was in the martin luther king parade

0:25:15along with my fellow council members

0:25:18and

0:25:20i'm just looking through here so i can

0:25:28i went to the east bay division meeting

0:25:30um and also heard about casa there

0:25:34and i also

0:25:36[Music]

0:25:38was at wic tech

0:25:40the

0:25:41crab free put on by the wreck department

0:25:43i think they did a fantastic

0:25:46job this year as well as raising much

0:25:48needed funds

0:25:50to support

0:25:53people who are either

0:25:55seniors and

0:25:57partake of our senior activities but

0:25:59don't have the funding this helps to

0:26:02fund that

0:26:03and the same goes for our youth

0:26:06activities

0:26:07so

0:26:08this is in memory of

0:26:11david hunter

0:26:12who worked at the

0:26:15pool

0:26:16a number of years ago and

0:26:19lost his life

0:26:20when he went up to the

0:26:23tahoe area

0:26:24on a weekend

0:26:27ski trip and

0:26:29so

0:26:31it's a great way to remember him and

0:26:33provide

0:26:34help to people who otherwise couldn't

0:26:36afford it

0:26:38i also attended the arts and culture

0:26:40commission for the first time

0:26:42and enjoyed that i've been hearing about

0:26:44it for a very long time so to actually

0:26:47go was great i know about all of the

0:26:50good work that they have done certainly

0:26:52over the years

0:26:54and they've come up with some really

0:26:56good policies

0:26:57that were presented at the council and

0:26:59then adopted and um

0:27:02are now part of what we do one of which

0:27:04i believe was

0:27:07the set-aside of funding for

0:27:13community

0:27:15art in a variety of formats

0:27:19when there's construction

0:27:21and

0:27:23the

0:27:24i also as a as a member of ccta

0:27:28the board i uh

0:27:30uh participated in a strategic planning

0:27:34meeting that lasted all day in january

0:27:38and

0:27:39it was really useful and interesting

0:27:41it's the first time ever in my

0:27:44experience that we've ever had that kind

0:27:46of a a planning thing

0:27:49the central issue is that

0:27:53we have measure j which provides

0:27:57a lot of funding i believe over 2

0:27:59billion dollars over a period of 25

0:28:02years

0:28:03for

0:28:04transportation in our county

0:28:08and

0:28:10ccta did a really good job of

0:28:13doing all the building really early in

0:28:15the measure

0:28:17so we've still got a lot of years left

0:28:19in the measure

0:28:21and yet we don't have any more projects

0:28:24to do so sort of the

0:28:26the thing that we primarily do

0:28:29there isn't much of left to do

0:28:31so the question becomes what do we do

0:28:33with ourselves there are still of course

0:28:36all of the programs left to fund because

0:28:39those are funded

0:28:41through

0:28:42on a yearly basis throughout the major

0:28:45not just

0:28:46it's not a project it means for example

0:28:49we're paying for bus service and that

0:28:51those are operation dollars

0:28:54so um

0:28:55anyway it was a very thoughtful

0:28:58conversation and

0:29:00we you know didn't make any final

0:29:02decisions of course but

0:29:04um it it really was a good way to bring

0:29:07people together and

0:29:10and discuss the issue

0:29:12i also went to the employee appreciation

0:29:16event

0:29:18and i um

0:29:20let's see here

0:29:23um

0:29:27oops

0:29:28i'm just

0:29:31um

0:29:32those are some of the

0:29:33main events that i went to um

0:29:36in january

0:29:38it seemed like everybody after the

0:29:40holidays was very refreshed and ready to

0:29:43go and ready to work

0:29:45and

0:29:46so

0:29:48everybody scheduled meetings and

0:29:51produced papers on different documents

0:29:54so it was a very busy time

0:29:57for i think all of us probably

0:30:00that's my report thank you

0:30:03so i

0:30:05also attended the martin luther king jr

0:30:07annual event and it was a great event as

0:30:11usual

0:30:12the event started

0:30:14because

0:30:15el cerrito

0:30:16did not recognize martin luther king and

0:30:20the the day

0:30:21and

0:30:23so there were a group of citizens uh

0:30:26residents that

0:30:27came and marched on city hall and now we

0:30:30have the annual march from

0:30:32city hall to the high school and so it

0:30:35was an absolute honor for me to be

0:30:38standing there this year to honor martin

0:30:40luther king jr he is one of my heroes

0:30:44and

0:30:45to be

0:30:46the second african-american mayor in

0:30:50el ceverido was just a great honor for

0:30:52me

0:30:53and um

0:30:54which i wanted to also mention and

0:30:57instead of

0:30:58pulling it on our

0:31:00consent calendar we we do have a

0:31:04resolution that we'll be voting on later

0:31:05on

0:31:06recognizing black history month so we're

0:31:09in the

0:31:10midst of

0:31:11black history month now and i just

0:31:12wanted to do

0:31:14or to say to

0:31:16all of the trailblazers here in el

0:31:18cerrito

0:31:20that have

0:31:21that marched on city hall all those

0:31:23years ago

0:31:24i don't believe i would be sitting here

0:31:26today if it wasn't for the hard work

0:31:28that people before me have done so

0:31:31i thank the naacp

0:31:33and the leaders at the cmu church

0:31:36i believe that the work that you

0:31:38did all those years ago is now paying

0:31:40off and i thank you

0:31:44and then to go on i also attended the

0:31:47new mayor's academy in

0:31:49sacramento and a lot of it was refresher

0:31:52for me from the new council members

0:31:53academy but i did have an opportunity to

0:31:56speak with some other

0:31:58council members and mayors from

0:32:00around the state and once again the

0:32:03topic of fire safety came up hearing

0:32:06stories of

0:32:07our

0:32:08our mayor friends that really had to to

0:32:11act in times of crisis and what they

0:32:13learn from it and how we can

0:32:15take those lessons here and we've

0:32:17brought them back and we're discussing

0:32:19them now so i appreciate the opportunity

0:32:21to go

0:32:22to that conference

0:32:25this month was my

0:32:28my first time of being able to lead the

0:32:31west county mayor's conference that we

0:32:33are now having here in el cerrito on the

0:32:36fourth thursday of the month

0:32:39for our first meeting we had a

0:32:40presentation by mr andy katz

0:32:44who serves on the alta bates save alt

0:32:47debates task force with me

0:32:50and he presented the health impact

0:32:52assessment which we helped to fund and

0:32:56uc berkeley was the one that produced

0:32:59this health impact assessment and

0:33:02it's you can you can look at the health

0:33:05impact assessment from our minutes from

0:33:07that meeting

0:33:09and

0:33:11basically it's what we have all feared

0:33:13is that

0:33:17women

0:33:18people of color and the elderly will be

0:33:21disproportionately affected by the

0:33:22closure of all debates

0:33:24and so

0:33:26we as the mayors of west county are

0:33:28committed to keeping ultimates open

0:33:32in addition to that it really sparked

0:33:33the conversation of what we've already

0:33:35lost here in terms of hospitals

0:33:39doctors hospital closing in 2015 and

0:33:42what's our plan now

0:33:44and so we're really starting to discuss

0:33:47okay well we need to keep all debates

0:33:49open but furthermore we need another

0:33:51hospital in west county

0:33:53what we have in kaiser

0:33:55is insufficient

0:33:58i even have a personal story my my

0:34:01mother-in-law was there

0:34:02just recently and

0:34:04in the emergency room at kaiser and it's

0:34:07so overburdened by everyone using the

0:34:10same emergency room

0:34:12um you know the wait times are just you

0:34:15know out of control most of the time

0:34:18and uh it's we need to have a movement

0:34:22amongst ourselves um

0:34:24to really demand that we have

0:34:26care in this area

0:34:28so we're going to at our next mayor's

0:34:31conference meeting which will be on

0:34:33february 28th at 8 30 in the morning

0:34:35right here we're going to have john

0:34:37joyah come and speak and he is going to

0:34:39give us basically a run down as to

0:34:42the how's when's and why is dr

0:34:45doctors hospital closed so that we can

0:34:47continue our discussion on

0:34:50where to go next

0:34:53and then

0:34:54just to wrap up quickly with reports

0:34:58i also attended

0:35:00the staff appreciation dinner which was

0:35:02fantastic the sweetheart dance where i

0:35:05brought my three sweethearts to it and

0:35:07we danced and um also i got my husband

0:35:11to go to three events in like two weeks

0:35:14which was amazing

0:35:16because he doesn't like going to events

0:35:18or dinners

0:35:19and we did the crab feed here as well

0:35:22and i challenged everyone to eat more

0:35:25crab than me and i don't think anyone

0:35:27met that challenge

0:35:30i can contest to that

0:35:33crap

0:35:34all right

0:35:36and so from there we'll move on to oral

0:35:38communications from the public

0:35:40at this time anyone wishing to speak

0:35:43should complete a speaker card and give

0:35:45it to the city clerk remarks are

0:35:47typically limited to three minutes per

0:35:49person

0:35:50however depending on the number of

0:35:51speakers i may reduce that

0:35:54as i see fit

0:35:56please state your name and city of

0:35:58residence for the record

0:36:00comments on non-agenda consent calendar

0:36:03items will be heard first

0:36:05comments related to policy items will be

0:36:07heard at the time the city council

0:36:09deliberates on each of these items and

0:36:12as a quick reminder

0:36:14there is a light in the front and

0:36:16hopefully you'll be able to see it

0:36:18tonight

0:36:20it is green when you have plenty of time

0:36:23left yellow when your time is starting

0:36:24to run out and red means you need to

0:36:26stop speaking

0:36:29will the cities clerk please call the

0:36:31speakers at this time we have five

0:36:33speakers the first three speakers are

0:36:35dave weinstein

0:36:37susan duncan

0:36:39and nick

0:36:42zamarano

0:36:43all right thank you please proceed

0:36:45mayor excuse me still getting over a

0:36:47call for about a month and a half mayor

0:36:49and members of the council i'm here

0:36:50talking i'm dave weinstein president of

0:36:53the el cerrito

0:36:54historical society and every year i'd

0:36:56like to give you a report about what

0:36:58we've done in the prior year and what

0:37:00we're up to this year i want to start

0:37:02out by saying that i believe we're

0:37:04probably the only organization that has

0:37:06an office in this building other than

0:37:08the city of el cerrito and we really

0:37:11appreciate that and take it very

0:37:12seriously and we see ourselves as

0:37:14working closely

0:37:15maybe not as closely as we want to be

0:37:17with the city not just on looking at the

0:37:20past but on what we can do for the

0:37:21present and the future and i want to

0:37:23commend uh maya williams the new

0:37:25assistant to the city manager who i

0:37:27believe will be working with very

0:37:28closely on some of our programs and

0:37:31projects we were very busy last year we

0:37:34did a lot of different events

0:37:36i only recently realized that most of

0:37:38them were happen um out of doors we did

0:37:41a very well attended tour of the uh

0:37:43cemetery we did another one around

0:37:45gambling tours and many other

0:37:47tours

0:37:49as um

0:37:50councilmember aquinto mentioned we had a

0:37:53recent program

0:37:54about the history of credence clearwater

0:37:57and we attracted more than 200 people to

0:37:59that including the famous guitar player

0:38:02player peter alvin with big brother in

0:38:04the holding company

0:38:05we are looking to make

0:38:08credence clear water of focus this year

0:38:11it's 50 years since they became the

0:38:13biggest band in the world

0:38:15i think that when people come to this

0:38:18city

0:38:19to learn about credence and they do i

0:38:21got an email from a guy named alberto he

0:38:24was eating at fat apples he's from

0:38:26argentina and he was really sorry

0:38:28because he had a return to buenos aires

0:38:30a few days before our credence program

0:38:33we're putting it online so he can watch

0:38:35it but people do come to the city

0:38:38to see credence places and there's

0:38:40nothing in the city

0:38:43that tells them hey this is queen's

0:38:44hometown so we would like to work with

0:38:46the city and the chamber to change that

0:38:49somehow this year

0:38:50including we're going to we're hoping to

0:38:52have an exhibit upstairs we will have

0:38:54another credence program i think that

0:38:56they could be seen

0:38:58as a tool of economic development and

0:39:01cultural heritage

0:39:03we're working to

0:39:04uh digitize the el cerrito journal going

0:39:08back to 1917 we were recently recipients

0:39:11of i'm not sure we got the whole run i

0:39:13don't think so but a lot of it right now

0:39:16if you want to study the history of el

0:39:17cerrito it's plenty hard once that thing

0:39:20is digitized and online it'll be a heck

0:39:22of a lot easier we're looking forward to

0:39:24working as a city moves towards creating

0:39:28a historic preservation ordinance

0:39:31especially as more growth and

0:39:32development happens in the city

0:39:34preserving some of the historic

0:39:36buildings there are portions of san

0:39:38pablo avenue which still if you look at

0:39:41them closely there are a number of

0:39:43buildings there that are not quite

0:39:45intact but close enough we could

0:39:47recreate what the italian section of san

0:39:50pablo avenue used to look like with some

0:39:52of those storefronts as developers came

0:39:54in they could be asked to recreate some

0:39:57of the trans and windows it could be

0:39:59great

0:40:00please finish your comments excuse me

0:40:03am i done

0:40:05yeah all right

0:40:06no are you

0:40:08are you doing public comment are you

0:40:10doing a a presentation for the

0:40:11historical society comment okay so your

0:40:15time is up okay well thank you very much

0:40:17thank you

0:40:19the next speaker is susan duncan

0:40:27good evening i'm susan duncan i live in

0:40:29el cerrito and i am from the group make

0:40:31el cerrito make el cerrito fire safe

0:40:36this will be a brief summary of what we

0:40:38have done so far uh first i wanted to

0:40:42thank on behalf of our group the el

0:40:44cerrito fire department for getting the

0:40:45foul the cal fire delta crew in they

0:40:48really did a great job of

0:40:50getting rid of a lot of heavy

0:40:52brush and i hope now that or the city

0:40:55should now keep this area

0:40:57cleared as it is now and to prevent the

0:40:59heavy growth from coming back

0:41:04seven members of our group make el

0:41:06cerrito fire safe have met with city

0:41:08council members individually

0:41:10and as the chiefs previously noted five

0:41:13of us met with them and with the

0:41:15assistant city manager thank you to all

0:41:18of you for meeting with us we know how

0:41:19valuable your time is

0:41:22we are looking forward to meeting with

0:41:23the city manager

0:41:26we look forward our group looks forward

0:41:28to working with the city to mitigate the

0:41:30fire hazards that exist within the city

0:41:34and surrounding it especially the east

0:41:36bay regional park district lands we are

0:41:38in the process of scheduling meetings

0:41:40with them

0:41:42we have sent a letter to governor newsom

0:41:44with copies to the state attorney

0:41:46general state insurance commissioner

0:41:48our elected state and federal

0:41:50legislatures

0:41:51supervisor joya and the el cerrito city

0:41:54council and officials

0:41:55we are in the process of trying to

0:41:57arrange meetings with all of these

0:41:59people or their staff members

0:42:01about our concerns about fire safety

0:42:03and funding and also trying to

0:42:06perhaps

0:42:08speed the

0:42:09process of permits from the federal and

0:42:11state levels

0:42:14our letter was signed by 60 households

0:42:1692 neighbors

0:42:18we realized that this will be a very

0:42:20long process but we must move as quickly

0:42:22as possible and try to have as much

0:42:24vegetation

0:42:27cleared by the spring when we have a few

0:42:29warm days and then certainly even more

0:42:32by the time the hot dry days of

0:42:34september october arrive with the diablo

0:42:37winds let's continue to work together

0:42:39thank you

0:42:41thank you

0:42:46good evening madam mayor city council

0:42:48members

0:42:49city staff

0:42:51i was very my name is nick samarano el

0:42:53suido

0:42:54very encouraging to hear from the fire

0:42:56chief and the police chief this evening

0:42:59it seems like we're all working together

0:43:01and we're

0:43:02on the right track

0:43:04we still have a lot of work to do though

0:43:07i want to talk about

0:43:09wildland urban interface fire risk in

0:43:11regards to preventing a catastrophic

0:43:14fire here in el cerrito

0:43:16and i know that all of us are aware of

0:43:18the fire dangers

0:43:19that we live in but we have to keep

0:43:21reminding ourselves of this issue so we

0:43:24don't look focused

0:43:25and we keep our eyes

0:43:27forward and moving in the right

0:43:29direction altogether

0:43:32wildland urban interface or wui as

0:43:36as it's called is defined as an area

0:43:38which wildlands communities are

0:43:40sufficiently close to each other to

0:43:41present a credible risk of the fire

0:43:43spreading from one to the other

0:43:46the housing density and geography of el

0:43:48cerrito and kensington are such that

0:43:51most of the developed areas not only

0:43:53border wi areas

0:43:55but also include conditions within the

0:43:57urbanized areas that can fuel wildfires

0:44:01both el cerrito and kensington and the

0:44:03adjacent east bay regional district

0:44:05parklands have been identified as

0:44:08at significant risk from wildfire

0:44:12due to the number and density of homes

0:44:14built

0:44:15in the very high fire hazard severity

0:44:17zones

0:44:18elsewhere and kensington have areas of

0:44:20highly flammable structures amongst an

0:44:23over accumulation of flammable

0:44:25vegetation

0:44:26this massive fuel load of homes and

0:44:28vegetation in the areas steep topography

0:44:31makes fires very difficult to contain

0:44:34in addition non-native and invasive

0:44:37weedy vegetation has replaced the more

0:44:39fire resistive and ecologically stable

0:44:42native species in many places adding to

0:44:45the potential threat

0:44:47in the el cerrito-kensington wildfire

0:44:49action plan of 2017

0:44:52specific prevention strategies were

0:44:54prioritized to reduce the fuel load

0:44:56hazards

0:44:57thus preventing a catastrophic fire from

0:44:59occurring these strategies included the

0:45:02city of el cerrito public works to

0:45:04continue to implement vegetation

0:45:06management

0:45:07in the city owned hillside natural area

0:45:10in parks and in rights away

0:45:13also the el carito fire department

0:45:15kensington fire protection district were

0:45:18to continue to implement vegetation

0:45:20programs

0:45:21visually inspect every property public

0:45:24and private within australia and

0:45:26kensington notify property owners when

0:45:29vegetation manage management standards

0:45:31are not being met and achieved

0:45:32compliance with 100 compliance

0:45:35in addition efcd and kfpd were to hire

0:45:39private contractors and or cdc crews to

0:45:41maintain and enforce defensible space

0:45:44areas on public land

0:45:46the questions are do we have

0:45:48sufficient funding to continue to

0:45:50implement these strategies

0:45:52if not how can we obtain these and and

0:45:56where can we get this money from we are

0:45:58committed as a committee please finish

0:46:00your comments make healthy fire safe to

0:46:02work with the city council city

0:46:04departments and city staff

0:46:06to implement the strategies

0:46:08so let's get working thank you thank you

0:46:10the next speaker is paul duncan followed

0:46:12by a buddy accolic and

0:46:15al miller

0:46:22thank you good evening i'm paul duncan

0:46:24representing make el cerrito fire safe

0:46:27i'm excited to hear tonight from the

0:46:30about the plans for the near future

0:46:32action by the fire and police department

0:46:34that was really really good news and i

0:46:36think i speak for just about everybody

0:46:38saying that that's good to hear uh that

0:46:41you know the message is getting through

0:46:43and they're spending their uh energies

0:46:45wisely

0:46:46i want to thank nick for

0:46:48starting to talk specifically about this

0:46:50plan the el cerrito kensington wildfire

0:46:54action plan uh this document is rather

0:46:56long but it's available online and we've

0:46:59been referencing it uh some but i wanted

0:47:01to make it clear that that's the report

0:47:03that he's talking about

0:47:07it's got a lot of really good

0:47:08suggestions and

0:47:10concrete

0:47:12action plans and this is something that

0:47:15the

0:47:16city council has signed off on

0:47:19in as recently as 2017

0:47:21so it's a it's an active document

0:47:25i want to uh you know quote one section

0:47:27in my brief time here that i think is

0:47:30particularly important section 2.2

0:47:336.2.2

0:47:36comprehensive emergency management plays

0:47:39a key role in reducing the community's

0:47:41risk from wildfire and other hazards

0:47:43integrating federal requirements for

0:47:45multihazard mitigation within the fire

0:47:48action plan efforts can help access

0:47:50federal funds through fema

0:47:52and department of homeland security

0:47:56the monitoring of hazardous fuel

0:47:58reduction projects on private land and

0:48:00public lands will assist stakeholders

0:48:03all of us included in understanding the

0:48:06extent to which reduction goals are

0:48:08being accomplished

0:48:09it's a really big job we need measurable

0:48:12goals that can be set so that everyone

0:48:14affected can see progress

0:48:16measurable

0:48:18goals money and other resources are

0:48:21scarce and so a sensible and well

0:48:23prioritized action plan is vital

0:48:27i know it's been raining and even

0:48:28hailing

0:48:29a lot in the past few weeks but the

0:48:32diablo winds will again be blowing in

0:48:34october

0:48:35it will take time to implement even the

0:48:37most modest of plans so now is the time

0:48:40to start working

0:48:42now is the time to start working thank

0:48:44you thank you

0:48:49next speaker is betty accolic

0:48:59good evening it's um

0:49:02i cherish the opportunity to

0:49:05stand before you

0:49:07as an advocate for

0:49:09the senior community

0:49:14i turned

0:49:1580 last year

0:49:18and i've been living in el cerrito for

0:49:21seven years and

0:49:23i'm

0:49:24dedicated to attempting to contribute

0:49:27to the community in a way that makes el

0:49:30cerrito even a more interesting and

0:49:32vibrant place to live

0:49:35the question is

0:49:37what about this

0:49:38permanent location for the senior center

0:49:40we were buying the library and we told

0:49:42you i had to get out of there

0:49:45and then we're over here with modular

0:49:47units

0:49:49and we're struggling to

0:49:51negotiate

0:49:52parking space

0:49:54and

0:49:56so in relation to

0:49:57seniors and their

0:49:59issues and the ultimate goal of a

0:50:01permanent

0:50:02setting i'm here to initiate that

0:50:05dialogue

0:50:12can you tell me where where it stands

0:50:14what's the status of the thinking with

0:50:17the planning

0:50:18the

0:50:19ultimate goal of a permanent setting for

0:50:21the seniors in el cerrito

0:50:24where is that

0:50:27we we do want to have a permanent place

0:50:30for the senior center but this is not on

0:50:32the agenda so we cannot speak on it this

0:50:35is only public comment

0:50:37okay is there something that i can do to

0:50:39facilitate a situation that leads to

0:50:41you're

0:50:43being open to

0:50:45encountering that goal

0:50:47uh yes you can you can write to us um

0:50:50and we'll and we can talk to you more

0:50:52about it when we're not in the in the

0:50:53meeting

0:50:55very good that's a place to start

0:50:58thank you very much thank you

0:51:01next speaker is al miller

0:51:06good evening council madam mayor and

0:51:09staff

0:51:10i just wanted to make a quick addition

0:51:12to david's talk about cretans

0:51:15living across the street from elsa rita

0:51:17high school on occasion has real

0:51:19benefits

0:51:20several years ago a

0:51:23small tour bus uh drove up to the high

0:51:26school and stopped and a crowd of

0:51:30i don't know maybe 15 or so people got

0:51:32out of it

0:51:33and they all had the same scarf on

0:51:36making a long story short

0:51:38they were the john fogerty fan club from

0:51:41some place in germany

0:51:43they had made their

0:51:45summer trip

0:51:47to

0:51:48visit the places that john grew up in

0:51:51went to school and performed in

0:51:54they were very disappointed when the

0:51:56school that he attended

0:51:58disappeared and the new school took its

0:52:01place

0:52:02but they were pleased that inside the

0:52:05new school there is a museum hallway

0:52:08and going through there and seeing some

0:52:10of the things that happened during

0:52:12john's time etc the president of the

0:52:15club took his scarf off and donated it

0:52:18to

0:52:19the museum and if you go through that

0:52:22hallway museum

0:52:24that's right next to the entrance into

0:52:26the theater

0:52:27on the way out if you look up you'll see

0:52:30it mounted on it

0:52:33they had gone to see the house that they

0:52:36lived in etc but they were disappointed

0:52:38that his old school was no longer there

0:52:41thank you

0:52:42thank you

0:52:44that is that's the last speaker we have

0:52:45at this time

0:52:46all right great

0:52:48next we'll move on to the adoption of

0:52:50the consent calendar

0:52:53mayor if i could remove items 4c 4d and

0:52:574e

0:52:59those people that will be

0:53:01recognizing on those uh matters are here

0:53:04and i'd love to have an opportunity

0:53:06after we pass those to

0:53:08take photographs with them

0:53:12um yes okay so we have pulled

0:53:16the c d and e

0:53:18[Applause]

0:53:20and

0:53:21we will

0:53:22i will then read the other items

0:53:25so a a proclamation of black history

0:53:28month

0:53:29b

0:53:30proclamation of

0:53:32the lunar new year

0:53:34and f

0:53:36appointment of members to the economic

0:53:38development committee

0:53:47um

0:53:48g annual payment for el cerrito's share

0:53:51of the west contra costa integrated

0:53:53waste management authority operating

0:53:55expenses for the calendar year of 2018

0:53:58h amendments to the city

0:54:00classification plan and i professional

0:54:04services agreement with urban planning

0:54:06partners incorporated roof adoption of

0:54:08those items second

0:54:11so

0:54:12moved by council member abelson seconded

0:54:15by mayor pro-tem lyman all in favor aye

0:54:19opposed

0:54:20motion carries okay so now we will go

0:54:22back

0:54:23to

0:54:24the items that were moved

0:54:26or pulled

0:54:28yeah i i see

0:54:30police chief keith appear in the front

0:54:32row for some reason so maybe there's a

0:54:35staff presentation

0:54:36i don't know if you want to handle these

0:54:37as one or separate three we're going to

0:54:40handle these as three items so let's

0:54:42hear a presentation on item

0:54:444c

0:54:46thank you councilmember lymon mayor and

0:54:48council members once again i'm paul

0:54:50keith your chief of police and without

0:54:52me asking them to they've already walked

0:54:54up here

0:54:55so uh thank you for giving me a couple

0:54:57minutes to talk about some amazing

0:54:59employees that the l strudel police

0:55:00department is blessed with

0:55:02first i'll talk about michael olivieri

0:55:04he's standing here in the middle

0:55:07mr oliveira is a student at cal majoring

0:55:10in sociology he plans to graduate at the

0:55:13end of this spring so we're really

0:55:14counting on him graduating because he

0:55:16plans to transition into a role as a

0:55:19police recruit

0:55:20starting in the early summer hopefully

0:55:22with us if everything goes according to

0:55:23plan

0:55:25he's a talented report writer he started

0:55:27with us as a cadet moved into the record

0:55:29specialist position and currently he

0:55:31serves as a community service officer

0:55:33where he goes around town takes police

0:55:36reports enforces parking ordinances

0:55:38helps us at public events helps us with

0:55:41traffic control a number of different

0:55:43duties that help take some of the

0:55:45pressure off our police officers and

0:55:46free up our police officers time to

0:55:48respond to major crimes and progress

0:55:51mr oliveira has a great attitude and

0:55:53he's done a lot to help our agency when

0:55:55the need arose especially in the fact

0:55:56that he's cross-trained both as a record

0:55:58specialist and a cso

0:56:01so we're looking forward to seeing

0:56:04uh cso olivieri continue in his career

0:56:06and expand his knowledge and hopefully

0:56:08take the next step with el cerrito in

0:56:10the future

0:56:11mr oliveira is our professional staff

0:56:13member of the year for 28 his efforts in

0:56:162018.

0:56:18i'm not done yet though

0:56:19so next on the end next to mr olivieri's

0:56:22left we have jerry duda jerry duda is a

0:56:25volunteer with the el cerrito police

0:56:26department and he is our volunteer of

0:56:27the year

0:56:28he's a fantastic example of an engaged

0:56:30community member last year he logged

0:56:33more than a thousand hours of volunteer

0:56:35time with the el cerrito police

0:56:36department so that's like half of a

0:56:38full-time employee

0:56:40he's responsible for carrying out many

0:56:41of our popular programs such as putting

0:56:43out our radar trailers putting out our

0:56:44jamar device he helps with department

0:56:47training special events and all sorts of

0:56:49logistics i really have trouble

0:56:51in my head remembering how we took care

0:56:53of keeping our cars running without

0:56:55jerry around

0:56:56i mean he diagnoses problems he fixes

0:56:59the little things he gets the big things

0:57:00taken care of you wouldn't believe if

0:57:02you have a turbo system in a police

0:57:03department car how many times those

0:57:06things break

0:57:07but jerry stays up on top of it all and

0:57:09keeps our fleet running and he's an

0:57:11amazing person on top of all that caring

0:57:13for his family caring for the police

0:57:14department vehicles caring for other

0:57:16volunteers and department members he's a

0:57:18fantastic person he really is an

0:57:19institution around the station now and

0:57:21this is the second time he's been

0:57:23honored with volunteer of the year so

0:57:24he's an overachiever

0:57:26and lastly we have eddie perales he's

0:57:28here on my left eddie parallels is a

0:57:29police officer with the el cerrito

0:57:31police department he has a big heart and

0:57:33a positive presence both in and out of

0:57:35the police department

0:57:37last year he worked to ensure that our

0:57:38students had safe spaces to learn and

0:57:41also safe spaces to enjoy their sports

0:57:43teams he worked during the day at the

0:57:44school and in the evenings you could see

0:57:46him at football games at basketball

0:57:48games making sure that students had safe

0:57:50places to enjoy hanging out with their

0:57:52fellow students on top of that he's also

0:57:55an explorer advisor and developed much

0:57:56of the curriculum for explorers during

0:57:58the year he's also a citizen police

0:58:01academy instructor he does a lot of

0:58:03other things around the police

0:58:04department other than being one of our

0:58:06lead people in youth outreach

0:58:09he's a creative investigator and he

0:58:11really

0:58:12parlays his connections with the

0:58:15students at the junior high

0:58:17to help solve some significant crimes in

0:58:19our community of note he solved a

0:58:21significant robbery that was part of a

0:58:22series and also a residential burglary

0:58:25through his connections with students at

0:58:26the school

0:58:28lastly officer perales earned his

0:58:30bachelor's degree in sociology with a

0:58:31minor injustice studies all the while

0:58:34working as a full-time officer and from

0:58:36seeing him at work you would have never

0:58:37even known that he was also attending a

0:58:39full load of classes on the tail end of

0:58:42his day so he really is a tremendous

0:58:44worker a tremendous person and adds so

0:58:46much value to our agency

0:58:48on behalf of the police department i'm

0:58:49very proud to present you with your

0:58:52officer of the year your professional

0:58:53staff member of the year and your

0:58:55volunteer of the year from the police

0:58:56department so thank you for your time

0:59:08officer perales is also a world traveler

0:59:11he he went all the way around the world

0:59:12this last summer

0:59:14um so i i told them that they might be

0:59:16asked to give comments but

0:59:19so i'd love to move a proclamation uh

0:59:22pass a motion to approve proclamation

0:59:23commending and congratulating officer

0:59:26eddie perales as the 2018 officer of the

0:59:28year i'll second that

0:59:31all in favor

0:59:32aye aye opposed motion carries you want

0:59:35to offer him some words no no i'll frame

0:59:37some chances

0:59:39go ahead and

0:59:40say something yeah

0:59:43no pressure

0:59:46good evening madam mayor uh council and

0:59:48staff uh first i'd like to say

0:59:50it's an honor to receive the el cerrito

0:59:52uh police department officer of the year

0:59:54award

0:59:55i wouldn't be the officer or person that

0:59:57i am today without my family

0:59:59friends

1:00:00co-workers and the support from the

1:00:03community so i've been with the

1:00:04department since high school as a police

1:00:06explorer and i i can say now that

1:00:08there's no other state i'd rather work

1:00:09for than the city of el cerrito so thank

1:00:11you

1:00:12thank you

1:00:19and and what wasn't said is you helped

1:00:21save someone's life didn't you

1:00:24i did can you say two words about that

1:00:26to us

1:00:28it's a big deal

1:00:30oh yeah last year

1:00:31or the end of the year before uh was

1:00:33dispatched to a man down call

1:00:36he was going into a cardiac arrest from

1:00:38a drug overdose

1:00:40myself another another officer

1:00:42uh began cpr um on him for uh several

1:00:45minutes until the uh the fire department

1:00:47paramedics arrived on scene um and they

1:00:50were able to um

1:00:52save his life so thank you for that

1:00:53thank you

1:00:55[Applause]

1:00:59may if i if i may i'd like to make the

1:01:01other two motions and then we can go

1:01:02down for photos yes excellent

1:01:05i would love to pass a motion to approve

1:01:06proclamation commending and

1:01:08congratulating community service

1:01:10officer michael oliveira as the 2018

1:01:13professional staff member of the year

1:01:16i'll second that

1:01:18motion by mayor pro tim lyman second by

1:01:21council member quinto all in favor aye

1:01:24opposed motion passes

1:01:27thank you

1:01:28would you like to come and say a few

1:01:30words

1:01:33so thank you mayor city council and

1:01:35staff for taking the time out of your

1:01:38busy agenda tonight to give myself and

1:01:40my fellow

1:01:41members of the department some

1:01:43recognition

1:01:44i speak for myself and definitely

1:01:46everyone up here and the members of the

1:01:48department that

1:01:49we hold our profession at the utmost

1:01:53importance and seriousness here to

1:01:55uphold the safety here of the city

1:01:58me being a part-time member and

1:02:01full-time student it's hard to balance

1:02:03and find an equal balance between the

1:02:05two but i'd have to say there's

1:02:08seconding my um

1:02:10my fellow officer eddie perales and

1:02:12saying that there's no city i'd rather

1:02:14work for and no experience i'd rather

1:02:16have than right here with my fellow

1:02:17members of the department

1:02:18so thank you very much i appreciate it

1:02:21thank you

1:02:22[Applause]

1:02:28i'd like to move

1:02:30to approve a proclamation commending and

1:02:32congratulating uh jerry duda as the 2018

1:02:36volunteer of the year

1:02:39i'll second that

1:02:41motion by lyman seconded by quinto all

1:02:43in favor aye aye those opposed motion

1:02:46carries

1:02:48would you like to say a few words

1:02:53well i'm mayoring the city council i'm a

1:02:56person of a few words but i want to

1:02:58thank everybody

1:03:00here

1:03:00in the city i also want to thank all the

1:03:03fellow officers and who have given me

1:03:05the opportunity to do what i'm doing now

1:03:07um

1:03:08i retired i didn't have a big plan i've

1:03:10worked for 45 years worked 12 or 14

1:03:12hours a day and

1:03:14and this has been great for me so um

1:03:16the fact that i only have a thousand

1:03:18hours last year uh i'm going to do

1:03:20better this year

1:03:22yeah that's only working a third

1:03:25i've got two grandkids too that uh

1:03:27helped me out with the rest of my day so

1:03:29i split that up really well but

1:03:31the department has allowed me to do

1:03:33things that

1:03:35i didn't think they'd allow me to do and

1:03:37i appreciate that they trust me thank

1:03:38you

1:03:40thank you

1:03:57okay

1:04:13um

1:04:31oh

1:04:43okay

1:05:00perfect

1:05:11look

1:05:30before we move on to our next

1:05:32presentation i just wanted to report out

1:05:35very quickly from

1:05:37the

1:05:38meeting we had right ahead of this

1:05:40we had interviews

1:05:42for

1:05:43some of our commissions

1:05:45and we have

1:05:47two reappointments to announce we have

1:05:51been chocoy for parks and recreation

1:05:55and mina wilson for the human relations

1:05:58commission

1:05:59and that is the end of my report

1:06:04so next we will have

1:06:07the

1:06:08a presentation from

1:06:10bay area rapid transit bart

1:06:13and transit oriented development request

1:06:16for proposal update

1:06:39good evening city council i am not from

1:06:42bart i am

1:06:44melanie minnesota's community

1:06:45development director and i'm just going

1:06:46to kick this item off

1:06:48um

1:06:49bart is here tonight and they're going

1:06:50to be talking to you about

1:06:54future development plans transit

1:06:55oriented development at the el cerrito

1:06:56plaza bart station and steps that

1:06:58they're undertaking to understand kind

1:07:00of access needs and parking needs and

1:07:02but what i wanted to also report before

1:07:05they speak is that to let council know

1:07:07that

1:07:08per

1:07:08your

1:07:102018 mou with bart to undertake a

1:07:13feasibility study for what it would take

1:07:15to incorporate a library

1:07:17into a future tod project i wanted to

1:07:19let you know that we're also underway

1:07:21with g4 the city's consultant who's been

1:07:24working on site feasibility so in

1:07:26approximately april or may we'll be done

1:07:28with that and that's really a technical

1:07:29study just looking at what would how

1:07:31would the two go together um

1:07:33from that time that site feasibility

1:07:35study will be kind of folded into the

1:07:37city's library process and as a public

1:07:39outreach and different engagement

1:07:40happens around exploring different sites

1:07:43this

1:07:44report that we're doing right now will

1:07:45be integrated into that as one of the

1:07:48possible sites and looking at the

1:07:49various kind of

1:07:51machinations kind of trade-offs of a

1:07:53library being at a integrated at a bart

1:07:55station

1:07:56so with that i am going to introduce

1:07:58sean brooks the real estate and uh

1:08:00property manager at bart he'll be joined

1:08:03by

1:08:04charlie reams a senior planner and

1:08:06rachel factor senior planner principal

1:08:08planner with bart to talk also about

1:08:10their planning efforts there

1:08:12and we can take collective questions on

1:08:14all those uh topics

1:08:22oh great

1:08:27good good evening madam mayor uh mayor

1:08:29members of the city council we are happy

1:08:32to be here tonight to present um our

1:08:34bart tod program so along with me is

1:08:36charlie rheem one of our principal

1:08:38planners as well as rachel

1:08:41factor as well a director saltzman who

1:08:44is the bart director on this district

1:08:45does apologize in advance for not being

1:08:47able to attend this evening she was

1:08:49double booked for another bart

1:08:50engagement but she want to let you all

1:08:52know that she

1:08:54is very excited about potential

1:08:55opportunities of tld development um in

1:08:58the city of el cerrito and really moving

1:09:00forward on our tod efforts collectively

1:09:02together

1:09:03so just thought we would just do a quick

1:09:04recap in terms of our tod policy and

1:09:07also our goals just to kind of set the

1:09:09stage in terms of what our overall kind

1:09:11of global mission is is here so in 2006

1:09:15we call it tod 2.0 we adopted a new tod

1:09:19policy which really highlighted six

1:09:21overarching goals or principles uh the

1:09:23first one being complete communities we

1:09:25wanted to really be a regional leader in

1:09:27advancing plan bay area and so we looked

1:09:30at our portfolio of assets our existing

1:09:32surface parking lots and really we did a

1:09:34back of the envelope calculation by

1:09:36setting minimum standards of 75 dus per

1:09:39acre dwelling units per acre and we

1:09:41realized that we could build

1:09:43well over

1:09:4420 000 units on our property and 4.5

1:09:47million square feet of commercial office

1:09:49space by 2040. so we have a very

1:09:52ambitious ambitious and aggressive plan

1:09:54to move forward with that in terms of

1:09:56sustainable community strategy

1:09:58it's been identified in terms of pda

1:10:00areas 23 of the housing growth in the

1:10:03bay area should be focused on our sites

1:10:06as well as seven to seven point two

1:10:07percent of the job growth growth on part

1:10:09land which feeds well into point number

1:10:11three in terms of ridership so as you're

1:10:14aware of there's a huge crush going into

1:10:16the transbay tube san francisco in the

1:10:18morning and so those same trains that

1:10:20enter

1:10:21san francisco full return at 40 to 50 of

1:10:24capacity

1:10:26and so

1:10:26we're being real thoughtful in terms of

1:10:28designing office or

1:10:30really zoning for working with our

1:10:32communities to have office in the east

1:10:34bay so really promoting east bay job

1:10:36centers and through transit development

1:10:39management programs to really effectuate

1:10:41opportunities for people to make that

1:10:42reverse job commute are either stopping

1:10:44in oakland el cerrito pleasant hill

1:10:47dublin other places to really work here

1:10:49instead of trekking all the way to the

1:10:50city

1:10:51testing several value capture tools to

1:10:53reinvest money within our tod program

1:10:56and then transportation choices so we

1:10:58found that people of course who live

1:11:00closer to bart it's a self-selection

1:11:02need or have less cars and so part of

1:11:04our tods really uh promote less

1:11:06dependency on the automobile and more

1:11:09access which charlie will will kind of

1:11:11address or more access to other means

1:11:13which charlie will address later on and

1:11:15then lastly affordability this new tld

1:11:18policy really uh stemmed out of

1:11:20basically the the regional housing

1:11:22crisis that we were facing back in 2016

1:11:24which has gotten even worse over time

1:11:26and so we've adopted a policy that any

1:11:29housing has developed on b on a bart

1:11:31site has to be designated as 35 percent

1:11:34of those units as being affordable at

1:11:36various different income levels

1:11:38next slide in terms of why do we do tod

1:11:41really to assist with balancing the

1:11:43local economy um it's critical that we

1:11:45do a better job at allowing at um

1:11:48really

1:11:48looking at balancing where jobs and

1:11:50housing are

1:11:52together although contra costa county

1:11:54alameda county have done a pretty good

1:11:56job in this respect and done better than

1:11:57their other counterparts in san mateo

1:11:59and san francisco county we still as a

1:12:01region between 2010 and 2015 we've added

1:12:0511 jobs for every one new housing unit

1:12:07so therefore we see the shortage that's

1:12:09illustrated right here this has led to

1:12:12one of the largest housing packages

1:12:14by legislators in california last year

1:12:16to help in advancing some of those

1:12:17housing needs as well as accelerating

1:12:20transit but we're still a long way off

1:12:23from making that become a reality so

1:12:25real all boils down to there's not there

1:12:28has not been enough housing production

1:12:29to really keep up with the demand in the

1:12:31region so as we look at this chart right

1:12:34here we see that the regional needs

1:12:36housing assessment numbers the reach

1:12:37arena numbers

1:12:39have been

1:12:40well outpaced in terms of what the

1:12:42production has been and there's really

1:12:43only one category where we've kept up

1:12:45with what the blue line identifies what

1:12:47the arena numbers were really only in

1:12:49the high income level that we've come

1:12:51even close and that's really due to um

1:12:54having a market rate product that can

1:12:55afford the high construction costs the

1:12:57affordable housing whether it's at the

1:12:59low or moderate income level the missing

1:13:01middle has been difficult to attain and

1:13:02that's due to high construction costs

1:13:04lack of available land or lack of public

1:13:06public subsidy in order to produce those

1:13:08affordable units and so this issue will

1:13:11continue to go on

1:13:12unless we continue to work with our

1:13:14partners such as the city of el cerrito

1:13:16to kind of advance some of this housing

1:13:18production

1:13:19another reason why we do tods is um that

1:13:21we found of course if you you live

1:13:23closer to our bart stations you're more

1:13:26likely to walk bike or take transit to

1:13:28work and so bart looks at all forms of

1:13:31access and so the advancement of tod

1:13:33provides for a greater population of

1:13:35people to really

1:13:37ride bart in the immediate station area

1:13:39the bottom chart really shows

1:13:41the fundamental realization once again

1:13:44previously mentioned that people who

1:13:45live closer to bart are more likely to

1:13:47take part and they're more likely to not

1:13:50own a car or own one or fewer cars so el

1:13:53cerrito plaza is highlighted here in

1:13:54both of these charts as being above

1:13:57other parts of contra costa county in

1:13:59all areas which illustrates how well the

1:14:01city has done to really work towards

1:14:03reducing auto dependency as well as

1:14:06offering different transportation

1:14:07choices

1:14:09just want to give a couple quick

1:14:10examples in terms of several tods that

1:14:13we've developed and worked on in our

1:14:15previous history or our history so what

1:14:17do tods actually look like so if you had

1:14:19opportunity to look at our pleasant hill

1:14:21country across the center station it's a

1:14:22brief example of really showing the high

1:14:24quality public space as well as the

1:14:26walkability this is one of the first

1:14:28instances as well we have a street that

1:14:31serves as an intermodal but it's a nice

1:14:33bridge between our station and the

1:14:34community and all this is funded for

1:14:38funded and developed by our developer

1:14:40and they take care of the ongoing

1:14:41maintenance costs as well but what also

1:14:43is really interesting to note is that

1:14:45there's a parking garage that's wrapped

1:14:47in the bottom left-hand corner

1:14:49by townhome units so that creates a

1:14:50buffer um as well kind of shields the

1:14:53parking garage and then you'll also

1:14:55notice that there's a connection to the

1:14:56iron horse trail so really it provides

1:14:58an amenity for property owners adjacent

1:15:01users and really something for everyone

1:15:03within this community which has helped

1:15:05increase the value

1:15:07for ones who attend or use the station

1:15:09as well as ones that live close by

1:15:12another example to highlight they say a

1:15:14picture's worth a thousand words and so

1:15:16this really highlights the fruitville

1:15:17station which really shows a picture of

1:15:19the east side of the station which was

1:15:21designed and created in the 70s and so

1:15:24as you look at this station previously

1:15:26it really

1:15:27was centered around the car a single

1:15:30occupancy vehicle that shows up in the

1:15:32morning parks and then gets on bart

1:15:34really not

1:15:36interacting well with the neighborhood

1:15:37at all but

1:15:39let's look at it now

1:15:40if we fast forward we see that there's

1:15:42really been a community um outreach

1:15:44effort to really create more of a

1:15:47development that's walkable that's

1:15:48livable and looking at pedestrians in a

1:15:50different light you see a mix of uses

1:15:52here a variety of retail uses

1:15:54restaurants a library a bike station so

1:15:57it's an interwoven community that feels

1:16:00more like a place as opposed to

1:16:03an isolated

1:16:05place our destination

1:16:07and then lastly before i turn it over to

1:16:09charlie i want to really talk about our

1:16:10development process what what steps do

1:16:12we go through at bart in order to

1:16:15kind of spearhead development so there's

1:16:17four steps pre-solicitation which is

1:16:19where we would engage in a variety of

1:16:21stakeholder meetings uh concur with the

1:16:23city as well as our board in terms of

1:16:25goals and objectives of a particular

1:16:27site we've already taken a first step in

1:16:29doing some of that with our ongoing mou

1:16:31with the city of el cerrito and your

1:16:33staff have been fantastic to work with

1:16:34in terms of kind of advancing some of

1:16:36that so we look forward to moving

1:16:37forward with that feasibility study

1:16:40and then we bring back or we concur on

1:16:42primary objectives and goals that we

1:16:44bring back to our respective boards to

1:16:46agree on before we would issue a

1:16:48solicitation so we would do a two-step

1:16:50process we would issue a request for

1:16:53qualifications and so from that we would

1:16:56shortlist uh those proposals down to

1:16:59an opportunity for rfp a request for

1:17:01proposals once those are received and we

1:17:03go through the evaluation process then

1:17:05we would select a developer at that

1:17:07point in time and then over the course

1:17:09of the next few years we would enter

1:17:11into an exclusive negotiating agreement

1:17:13while the applicant or developer would

1:17:15work through the city through the

1:17:16entitlement process we would closely

1:17:19more succinctly define the project and

1:17:22then get to a point where we would be

1:17:23able to enter into an option lease

1:17:25agreement with that developer to move

1:17:27forward for future development and get

1:17:29to the permitting and construction stage

1:17:31which is where we all enjoy the ribbon

1:17:33cuttings and actually seeing actual

1:17:34construction take place

1:17:36so i just want to emphasize that el

1:17:37cerrito plaza is high on our list in

1:17:39terms of future today opportunities and

1:17:42so we'll continue to move forward and

1:17:44work forward with the city in terms of

1:17:46advancing this opportunity here at el

1:17:47cerrito plaza so now i'll turn it over

1:17:49to charlie and then i'll remain for

1:17:51question councilmember lyman has a yeah

1:17:52mr burke before you leave this this

1:17:54process is this would you care

1:17:56characterizes this design build or

1:17:59it's not does you're not designing the

1:18:01housing

1:18:02the developer is would be characterized

1:18:05designing the housing exactly we set the

1:18:07principles and goals and objectives and

1:18:09the developer would work with the city

1:18:11through the design review process to

1:18:12advance um what we would in turn see

1:18:16at the conclusion of the project

1:18:18so in essence the the contractor that's

1:18:20doing housing is a design build

1:18:22contractor to bart

1:18:24or are you selling the property to them

1:18:25and they become the full developer that

1:18:28we would it would the property be

1:18:30offered in terms of a ground lease and

1:18:32so they would design and build a project

1:18:34and we would retain the uh ownership of

1:18:37the parcel great thank

1:18:38you okay okay i have a question

1:18:41well

1:18:42we're gonna do them later we're gonna do

1:18:44questions after their entire

1:18:45presentation so no more just the one

1:18:47yeah

1:18:49i'd prefer not to to hold our questions

1:18:51okay

1:18:55good evening

1:18:57city council members mayor my name is

1:18:59charlie rheem i work uh for bart as a

1:19:02station planner in the station planning

1:19:04group

1:19:04and i'm really concerned

1:19:06you know with how trans-oriented

1:19:07development

1:19:08interacts um with how people get to the

1:19:10station how people use the station and

1:19:12um how transit oriented development can

1:19:15impact

1:19:16um you know the way people

1:19:18really get around el cerrito get around

1:19:19the bay area and how you know bart is a

1:19:21good he's a good neighbor

1:19:23now one of the central pieces that we

1:19:25look at with any kind of change to our

1:19:27station especially with a large transit

1:19:29oriented development is access

1:19:31how do people you know from the el

1:19:33cerrito community from the wider

1:19:34community get to el cerrito plaza

1:19:36station

1:19:37every few years we conduct a detailed uh

1:19:40survey of ridership at all of our

1:19:41stations and here's a el cerrito plaza

1:19:43on the left and system-wide averages on

1:19:45the right

1:19:46el cirillo really is in the middle you

1:19:48look at 38 people walking to el cerrido

1:19:51plaza

1:19:52a little more 34 than the system-wide

1:19:54average of driving and parking about the

1:19:56same are getting dropped off in the

1:19:58yellow

1:19:59uh taking transit and biking

1:20:01so as we look um at establishing more

1:20:04density more mixed use

1:20:07around el cerrito plaza how can we nudge

1:20:09a few of these people who are driving

1:20:11and parking today to more active modes a

1:20:14central goal of bart and the varsitation

1:20:16planning group is to

1:20:17increase the active

1:20:19mode share to stations so that's walking

1:20:21biking

1:20:23to our stations over time and i think

1:20:25transit oriented development provides a

1:20:26really great opportunity to do that and

1:20:28also

1:20:29a great opportunity to leverage

1:20:31investment to make infrastructure

1:20:32changes to make policy changes to you

1:20:35know enable some of these people who are

1:20:36driving and parking a single occupancy

1:20:38vehicle to choose another mode

1:20:42so i'll talk briefly about just some

1:20:44work that we're kicking off this is a

1:20:46first of its kind effort to study access

1:20:49to our tod sites to study

1:20:52and work with the community to really

1:20:54come up with the optimal mix of parking

1:20:56of infrastructure changes and policy

1:20:58changes

1:20:59to support a really sustainable transit

1:21:01oriented development that meets the

1:21:02access goals of bart that meets the

1:21:04needs of el cerrito

1:21:06that really meets the needs of the bay

1:21:07area

1:21:10one of the first steps that we kicked

1:21:12off this month of this study is

1:21:14intercepting people as they enter plaza

1:21:16station

1:21:17handing them a postcard and playing them

1:21:18to

1:21:19you know take a survey online as they're

1:21:21sitting on the train in the morning this

1:21:23was translated into mandarin in spanish

1:21:26and we have over 500 responses to date

1:21:28so it was very successful

1:21:31these are just kind of to tease out some

1:21:33data points that aren't in our wider

1:21:36station access survey that we do every

1:21:37four or five years so things about you

1:21:40know breaking down that 38

1:21:42park

1:21:43um into some people you know 27

1:21:45parking a lot versus 11 or parking in

1:21:48the neighborhood um as you can see the

1:21:4942 walk is a few points higher than a

1:21:52few years ago and uh the 10 bike has

1:21:54actually you know doubled since 2015 you

1:21:56know obviously there's some statistical

1:21:58variation but you know it's a positive

1:22:00move

1:22:02and also things like this you know

1:22:04what's the primary reason that people

1:22:05drive to el cerrito plaza you know say

1:22:07you live in the neighborhood a few

1:22:08blocks away the realities of child care

1:22:11in the bay area means that you need to

1:22:12drive to drop your kid off you know 10

1:22:1415 minutes away and then drive back to

1:22:16the station area you know these are

1:22:18elements you know these questions can

1:22:19lead to choices that we make about

1:22:21future development is there a need to

1:22:23investigate some more robust child care

1:22:25options at the station itself make it

1:22:27you know more serving the families in

1:22:29the neighborhood

1:22:32um questions like this

1:22:34really show the need for us to do our

1:22:36due diligence now to discover some some

1:22:38ways to get people to the station other

1:22:41than driving and parking their personal

1:22:42vehicle you know 32 percent of people

1:22:44said if there's no parking available at

1:22:46el cerrito plaza i would have to drive

1:22:48all the way to my destination you know

1:22:50drive to your job in the city drive to

1:22:52your destination um in the southeast bay

1:22:55so we really have to you know our work

1:22:56is cut out for us here we have to figure

1:22:58out ways you know there's a certain

1:23:00percentage of that 32 that is always

1:23:02going to drive that they need to drive

1:23:04um you know that's just you know how

1:23:06they need to get around but there's some

1:23:07people in there through policy changes

1:23:10infrastructure upgrades

1:23:11working with the city working with our

1:23:12partners we can shift those to more

1:23:14active modes

1:23:17um this is an interesting question how

1:23:19would you get to bart if there was no

1:23:20parking available to you you know 53 of

1:23:23people asked this question said they

1:23:24would drive there still as they do today

1:23:26and yet park in the neighborhood so i

1:23:28think a central question in this effort

1:23:30is working with the neighborhood around

1:23:31plaza working with our city partners how

1:23:33to protect and preserve the neighborhood

1:23:35quality around the station while really

1:23:37maximizing and optimizing the use of

1:23:39available parking to best serve the

1:23:41community to best serve people who still

1:23:43need to drive to the station you know

1:23:45while preserving the neighborhood

1:23:46character that exists there today

1:23:50and this survey question really

1:23:51highlights you know the local nature of

1:23:53plaza station you know 62 percent of

1:23:55people who come to el cerrito plaza

1:23:57choose that station simply because it's

1:23:59closest to their home

1:24:00i think there's a really good

1:24:01opportunity here to build on this really

1:24:03robust close-knit walkable community

1:24:06around plaza station you know really

1:24:08building on the infrastructure that is

1:24:10there the you know the people that do

1:24:12walk there today and just you know kind

1:24:13of making some key policy changes

1:24:15working with the city to understand

1:24:17their needs and then what this

1:24:18development what bart can do to

1:24:20you know make this a positive impact on

1:24:22the community

1:24:23so i'll turn it over to sean for a few

1:24:25closing words

1:24:27so once again we're excited about a

1:24:29future opportunity here at el cerrito

1:24:30plaza i also wanted to introduce yvette

1:24:32mccoy who's been working on the station

1:24:34for quite some time as well she's our

1:24:36project manager on a project also

1:24:37available for questions and so i would

1:24:40just encourage you in terms of things at

1:24:42the city of el cerrito that you can

1:24:43continue to do is really support

1:24:46high density land use regulations in

1:24:48order to

1:24:49move

1:24:50this project forward in terms of minimum

1:24:52densities as well as parking

1:24:55maximums and not minimums and just

1:24:57really continuing the process and you

1:24:59have a wonderful staff here who is

1:25:01really engaged in helping to spearhead

1:25:03that

1:25:07that concludes our presentation

1:25:08available for questions great

1:25:11um

1:25:12council member fidelity

1:25:15thank you

1:25:16um

1:25:17welcome bart

1:25:19um

1:25:22we have a lot of place making talk today

1:25:24in our council meeting whether it's

1:25:26parking or san pablo avenue or bart

1:25:28and that's really important to el

1:25:30cerrito because we're really

1:25:32identifying our place and making it

1:25:34better

1:25:37a couple questions here

1:25:39there are three legs of the stool that

1:25:43help development at transit stations

1:25:46art wants to develop el cerrito wants to

1:25:49develop can you talk a little bit about

1:25:51how you feel developers are for the

1:25:54plaza station in general and

1:25:57how is that 35 percent target for

1:25:59affordable housing impacting that

1:26:03from my understanding is that the market

1:26:05is very warm in el cerrito now in terms

1:26:07of development and in terms of speaking

1:26:09with your internal experts here melanie

1:26:11i know there's been quite a bit of

1:26:12housing demand here with the city of el

1:26:14cerrito i think you've reached

1:26:16at least some level of cap on the

1:26:18initial eir for one of the corridor

1:26:20plans as well and so when we um hear of

1:26:24sites of development this this this

1:26:26particular station is on the minds of a

1:26:27lot in terms of where the the future

1:26:30opportunities are

1:26:32in terms of your question regarding

1:26:34affordable housing be able to meet that

1:26:36i think

1:26:37it really comes to working with

1:26:39experienced affordable housing

1:26:40developers so there's a variety litany

1:26:42of funds available and so when you think

1:26:44of some of those larger players that do

1:26:46this day in and day out they know where

1:26:48the sources are they know where the

1:26:49funds are the biggest

1:26:52kind of setback to producing affordable

1:26:53housing is really having a site once

1:26:55someone has a site then they typically

1:26:57can go out and find the money and so

1:26:59having a patient partner like bart being

1:27:01a public agency we can be patient allow

1:27:04a potential affordable housing developer

1:27:06enough time to cobble together enough

1:27:08funds to underwrite that particular deal

1:27:10the 35 percent doesn't scare developers

1:27:13away

1:27:14we issued

1:27:16one

1:27:17rfp and one i'd say heavy rfq last year

1:27:21and so the requirement for the rfp the

1:27:23lake merit one that we issued last year

1:27:25there was no short shortage of interest

1:27:28and at the end of the day the affordable

1:27:30component is probably going to be a

1:27:31little bit over 40

1:27:32and so they've actually exceeded the 35

1:27:35threshold good to hear

1:27:37um all of us here and i think a lot of

1:27:39the cities in the bay area that are

1:27:41served by bart got a very nice letter

1:27:42from the general manager

1:27:44saying they would continue to keep a

1:27:46relation a good relationship with the

1:27:48cities they worked with

1:27:50and i think that came as a result of

1:27:52ab2923

1:27:53passing which gives a lot of

1:27:56new responsibilities to bart

1:27:58to

1:27:59invest in research and develop at all of

1:28:02the stations for all your excess land

1:28:04around

1:28:05transit um

1:28:08where does that put the plaza in terms

1:28:10of the capacity you guys have to do all

1:28:13of that new work are we still the plaza

1:28:15still up there

1:28:17i mean you do have a new workload is

1:28:20that correct

1:28:21that is correct and we're going through

1:28:22right now through our budget process

1:28:25a means to identify resources to tackle

1:28:27some of those new a b 29 23 requirements

1:28:30even before ab9 ab 29-23 el cerrito

1:28:34plaza was high on our list and i will

1:28:36say um

1:28:38you know bearing any other you know i'd

1:28:41say emergencies or projects that would

1:28:42push forward based on other

1:28:44circumstances this is probably our top

1:28:46development site to move forward with in

1:28:48terms of our next rfp but it also is

1:28:50dependent on us being resourced

1:28:52appropriately okay and that's good to

1:28:53hear too because we have had a good

1:28:55working relationship with bart

1:28:57and we don't want bart telling us

1:28:59necessarily what's going to happen here

1:29:01without us working together

1:29:03correct

1:29:04correct yeah

1:29:05basically we take the mantra that we we

1:29:07only want to go where we're wanted and

1:29:09so at the end of the day

1:29:12we have you so we want you even more

1:29:14um so we're not trying to go to any

1:29:16community it's steamroller or push our

1:29:18objectives over what the community wants

1:29:20okay

1:29:22and then lastly i'm very excited about

1:29:24this potential for the library

1:29:26um we and el cerrito are beginning the

1:29:28process again of trying to find a venue

1:29:30for our library a potential venue

1:29:33one being very

1:29:34exciting and innovative is

1:29:37elsewhere plaza you don't have anything

1:29:39like it in the system is that correct

1:29:42there is a library at fruitville

1:29:44probably of a smaller scale

1:29:47but nothing that is essentially built

1:29:49around a library in terms of the concept

1:29:51that has been proposed at least

1:29:52initially

1:29:54when we met with staff well over 15

1:29:56months ago okay we're encouraged that

1:29:58this study will happen and i think there

1:30:00will be a lot of we'll be talking later

1:30:02about parking issues but there are a lot

1:30:03of parking issues and is there a

1:30:06separate

1:30:07arm of bart that works with el cerrito

1:30:09on general parking issues besides your

1:30:12real estate office

1:30:13um i'll have a few introductory comments

1:30:15and i'll turn it over to charlie or

1:30:16rachel essentially um we have our

1:30:19typologies what we identify as a station

1:30:21and so this is a station that's

1:30:23currently a balanced intermodal station

1:30:25and it's been um classified

1:30:28when it as an aspirational station from

1:30:30an aspiration of being

1:30:31urban

1:30:32with parking station and so it's really

1:30:34a combination of real estate as well as

1:30:36our station planning and forward

1:30:38planning group that would work with the

1:30:40community and work with el cerrito to

1:30:41really figure out what that right

1:30:43parking mix and demand is as

1:30:46not some types of well

1:30:48yeah i think that pretty much covers it

1:30:49i mean i think the library is obviously

1:30:51a

1:30:52unique component of this site this

1:30:54potential site and uh you know that's

1:30:56really why like i mentioned before this

1:30:58is really the first time we've ever

1:30:59kicked off one of these tod developments

1:31:01with kind of this initial

1:31:03you know stakeholder outreach of the

1:31:04community crunching some numbers working

1:31:06through some scenarios and

1:31:08developing what

1:31:10you know

1:31:11should be the optimal mix of strategies

1:31:13to make sure

1:31:15any developer comes to this with a you

1:31:17know a history of working with the

1:31:18community and and trying to come up with

1:31:20the right mix of parking and access

1:31:22improvements thank you for starting that

1:31:24my final question is

1:31:26um since you may not have information

1:31:28but we're very excited about what we see

1:31:30now at del norte real construction

1:31:32happening it's a big deal to us i know

1:31:35it's the top three

1:31:36stations for renovation in the system do

1:31:39you have any status report as to where

1:31:40we're at or

1:31:42any news about what may be happening as

1:31:45far as tod around del norte

1:31:48um our central focus right now in terms

1:31:50of el cerrito has really been on plaza

1:31:52efforts but obviously

1:31:54um donald it's the station modernization

1:31:56efforts that are going on right now we

1:31:57find that there's uh a heavy bus

1:31:59intermodal um

1:32:01station exactly a whole different

1:32:03station and so i think at some point in

1:32:05the future we'll look at that but we

1:32:06haven't really advanced discussions in

1:32:08terms of what a potential tod would look

1:32:10like at el cerro don't already at this

1:32:12we've got some development about to

1:32:13happen there so excited thank you very

1:32:15much

1:32:16all right council member abelson thank

1:32:18you um first of all i was wondering if

1:32:20we could get a copy of your report

1:32:23almost definitely uh online preferably

1:32:26that that information will be posted

1:32:27tomorrow supplemental material i already

1:32:29have it and i will make sure it's super

1:32:31thank you very much

1:32:32i'm really interested i actually um

1:32:35was surveyed

1:32:37um at the plaza but i'm a little one

1:32:40thing i'm a little bit concerned about

1:32:41is that a number of the surveyors were

1:32:45working inside the parking lot

1:32:48so i would expect that the answers would

1:32:51correspond to drivers

1:32:55if you could address that our goal was

1:32:57really to capture

1:32:59everyone coming into the el cerrito

1:33:01plaza station at the morning peak so we

1:33:04had the station people at the the fare

1:33:07gates also people

1:33:08catching people coming off buses off the

1:33:10illinois greenway and out of the parking

1:33:11lot so i think that was the goal was to

1:33:14make sure that everyone who came in you

1:33:16know over a series of mornings in the

1:33:18um in a given week was given the

1:33:20postcard so wouldn't it

1:33:25be more statistically relevant to just

1:33:27get people at the fare gates not in the

1:33:30parking lot

1:33:32yeah

1:33:33because that kind of

1:33:34i think we did focus around the

1:33:36faregates and this is a method bart has

1:33:38employed in the past just you know

1:33:39trying to capture the the greatest share

1:33:41of people that we can um entering the

1:33:43station on any given day it's a

1:33:45cost-effective way to do it and you know

1:33:47i think that the method we used we were

1:33:49not trying to you know prioritize

1:33:51drivers or any one single mode user

1:33:54with our survey

1:33:56um

1:33:58because it kind of seemed like it was

1:34:02keeping it the way it what rather than

1:34:04looking at what people

1:34:06might be

1:34:07more willing to do it just sort of

1:34:09looked at

1:34:12the existing modes

1:34:14um and i just because i couldn't tell

1:34:16very well on from

1:34:18looking at it so

1:34:21how do most people get to the um plaza

1:34:24station now

1:34:26yeah it's actually uh

1:34:28i couldn't quite

1:34:3042

1:34:31you know by far the largest single mode

1:34:33is people walking okay

1:34:36and what's the next number i can't read

1:34:38it either next combined 38 of people

1:34:41drive and park of that 38 38 i don't see

1:34:45three it's the second two

1:34:47[Music]

1:34:48they're not in order is that 27 of

1:34:51people

1:34:52park in the el cerrito lot that's 30

1:34:55that says 38 it does doesn't look like

1:34:57it

1:34:5827 plus the second 11 percent of people

1:35:01you're adding two things

1:35:03together okay

1:35:04okay

1:35:05um okay

1:35:07um

1:35:08and um then the next item

1:35:12well i guess let's see here this is the

1:35:14big question i suppose how long would it

1:35:17take before

1:35:18people are moving in

1:35:21with a development opportunity so um

1:35:24you know conceivably the

1:35:25pre-solicitation process is probably

1:35:26about let's say six to nine months and

1:35:29then once we go through a solicitation

1:35:31it's usually about nine to twelve months

1:35:33to select a developer and then from

1:35:35there we typically enter into an ena

1:35:37exclusive negotiating agreement with the

1:35:38developer for about 24 months but most

1:35:41of those are a little longer to get

1:35:42through whether entitlement process

1:35:44project design and so forth and so

1:35:46that's probably not finalized for you

1:35:48know say two to three years and then you

1:35:50would have

1:35:52a development agreement or an

1:35:54opportunity for optional lease agreement

1:35:55and someone to break ground which is

1:35:57probably another two to three years of

1:35:58construction

1:35:59just a total

1:36:00so a total now even if we started today

1:36:03it's probably at minimum you know a five

1:36:05year period somewhere between five to

1:36:07eight years before you would have

1:36:08someone moving it

1:36:09eight i would say five to eight years

1:36:11even with the quickest time of moving

1:36:13forward with actual residents living

1:36:14there

1:36:16okay is there are there ways to speed it

1:36:18up

1:36:20of course if we one way versus another

1:36:23well i mean right now we have the

1:36:24benefit of being in a a nice

1:36:27let's just call it a hot real estate

1:36:29market so the market really dictates how

1:36:31quick developers can move

1:36:32forward and obviously working with the

1:36:34city such as yours that is has transit

1:36:37supportive regulations can help aid that

1:36:39as well but just getting through the

1:36:41process of construction construction

1:36:43alone is probably you know 24 to 36

1:36:45months so

1:36:46those are things that if there's

1:36:47anything we can actively

1:36:50do to make it happen faster

1:36:54yeah i think we're taking all the right

1:36:55steps you're taking all our steps right

1:36:57now with working with bart and having a

1:36:58good relationship um with us and and the

1:37:01city is is looking at ways to clear i

1:37:03think further units to their enr eir and

1:37:06sequa

1:37:07as well and so being able to have a

1:37:09greater envelope for us to build

1:37:12or develop helps us with

1:37:14moving forward with the development

1:37:16sooner

1:37:17but the average time frame just to be

1:37:19honest with you of development deals

1:37:20from start to finish at bart has been 15

1:37:23to 20 years so

1:37:24then having a development move forward

1:37:26in five years and that's some of the

1:37:27legislation that has been out there to

1:37:29really how do we advance development is

1:37:31going to aid in that so be able to move

1:37:32forward in five to eight years would be

1:37:34uh record speed but what we have seen

1:37:36recently just as a side note even with

1:37:39lake meard we went through our

1:37:40solicitation process from start to

1:37:42finish in about nine months and so that

1:37:44was record time for us this last year

1:37:46and so i think we have a pathway to move

1:37:48forward quicker

1:37:50all depending on us being resourced

1:37:51appropriately

1:37:53okay thank you and um

1:37:56the um i find i also find the library

1:37:59project to be an exciting

1:38:02exciting idea

1:38:04i don't know if that

1:38:05[Music]

1:38:07makes it harder to do easier to do or

1:38:10just sort of neutral that way do you

1:38:12have a comment on that

1:38:15i think we're waiting to see the results

1:38:16for the feasibility study to really

1:38:17determine um if that will be an

1:38:19accelerator if it's neutral or if it's

1:38:22going to be a laggard in some shape or

1:38:24form

1:38:25i will say that it's something new

1:38:27obviously it came to us

1:38:29from the city of el cerrito as a request

1:38:31to look at that as a potential library

1:38:33site and so we look at a variety of

1:38:35things obviously we look at

1:38:37ridership being a key component we look

1:38:39at a financial return of art we look at

1:38:41access issues and so we're excited to

1:38:44study the possibilities but we're just

1:38:45not sure

1:38:47how compatible that use will be with

1:38:49with bart at this point in time but

1:38:51we're happy to explore to move forward

1:38:52with it

1:38:53okay thank you and um

1:38:55i think those are

1:38:57uh

1:38:58my my real questions the um

1:39:02interest i have is in making you know

1:39:04making it happen

1:39:06and um

1:39:08the um

1:39:10and then having an it that you know

1:39:13that's an attractive

1:39:15project for both bard and for el cerrito

1:39:20and um

1:39:23one of the

1:39:25issues that seems to be

1:39:28i think from my perspective at least

1:39:31a thing that has

1:39:32kind of slowed things down

1:39:35is the it seems like we approve projects

1:39:37really fast here i mean some things have

1:39:40gotten through the planning commission

1:39:43as i like the the big project at

1:39:46del norte

1:39:47that part of it in one meeting

1:39:50which is

1:39:52pretty unheard of historically

1:39:55so

1:39:56that tells me that our specific plan is

1:39:59working

1:40:01so i don't think we have any

1:40:04issues there but if you look around town

1:40:06you see that we've got lots of approved

1:40:09projects

1:40:10but the number of built projects is much

1:40:13lower

1:40:14which makes me think it's the funding

1:40:18at least from what i've heard and i'm

1:40:20wondering if you could give us any more

1:40:23specifics on the way

1:40:25you think that uh we might impact that

1:40:29number so that it isn't

1:40:30doesn't take so much time

1:40:33yeah so it's all and so a lot of it's

1:40:35market driven obviously financing and

1:40:37right now the bay area with it

1:40:40the the climate that we live in

1:40:42construction costs are at an all-time

1:40:43high so a lot of developments are not

1:40:46moving forward because it's really a

1:40:47scarcity of labor and being able to

1:40:51pencil in the ability to afford the high

1:40:53construction costs and so your revenue

1:40:55numbers can only grow by so much

1:40:57before you kind of break the back of

1:40:59projects and so i think really

1:41:01we're in a precarious market in terms of

1:41:03just the high cost of construction that

1:41:04we're living in uh the climate that

1:41:06we're living in and so that's the number

1:41:08one reason i hear from developers as to

1:41:10why they're not advancing and moving

1:41:11forward with projects it's really being

1:41:14able to control those costs which we're

1:41:16still trying to come to grips with right

1:41:17now this market so do you think that the

1:41:20project at el cerrito plaza

1:41:23is

1:41:24attractive enough to developers

1:41:27that they um

1:41:31consider it affordable to developers

1:41:34i think it could be obviously someone

1:41:36has to go through the exercise to

1:41:37underwrite that asset um accordingly but

1:41:41i think it's

1:41:42this is a market here in el cerrito that

1:41:44has strong demand and so i think it

1:41:46would be something that would be

1:41:47received well in the market

1:41:49okay thank you i think those are my

1:41:51questions right now and i'm very excited

1:41:53to have you here presenting tonight

1:41:55thank you for coming

1:41:56thank you councilmember quinto thank you

1:41:58mayor um i'm

1:42:00so happy that you guys are here because

1:42:02i've i've been asking melanie and our

1:42:05city manager we're going to drop by and

1:42:08and speak about this so uh getting this

1:42:10on thursday and finding out that you're

1:42:12going to be here on tuesday that thank

1:42:14you for being here around uh so more

1:42:16than two years ago

1:42:18i spoke to melanie and and our former

1:42:21city manager about this project

1:42:23and it and scott hannon i want to thank

1:42:26him for listening to me and saying yes

1:42:29this is a great idea and melanie looked

1:42:31at it and i specifically went to uh

1:42:35bart directors that i personally knew

1:42:37including nick josefowitz and it was

1:42:39dick josephitz that that reached out to

1:42:42the other bart directors and uh they all

1:42:45supported this idea so but know that

1:42:49that's how it started out and i want to

1:42:51thank scott hannon again for for this

1:42:54uh and and having this actually go

1:42:57through the process

1:42:59and uh for melanie thank you uh and for

1:43:02our staff for looking at this and it's

1:43:04so important uh speaking to different uh

1:43:08architects who have worked at tod and

1:43:12and have designed libraries

1:43:14uh i spoke to the head

1:43:17the the gentleman that was in charge of

1:43:19uh

1:43:20modernizing san francisco city hall

1:43:23who also worked on tod projects in

1:43:26hayward and he was one that said yes

1:43:29this is a great idea and you should push

1:43:31this so

1:43:32so know that

1:43:34i support this

1:43:36and i look forward in working with all

1:43:38of you on this and

1:43:40we want to do this and and

1:43:43and speaking to other developers who

1:43:45have done this in the past

1:43:46uh they say yes this is a great idea so

1:43:49uh

1:43:50so know that uh

1:43:53architects and other developers

1:43:55uh uh they support this idea so i thank

1:43:58you for uh looking at this and i look

1:44:01forward in

1:44:02having the uh

1:44:04the the process begin and to end and i

1:44:06look forward to having you back here

1:44:08with uh uh and let's get this moving so

1:44:11thank you molly

1:44:14mayor pro tem do you have additional

1:44:15questions

1:44:18not really i mean

1:44:19it's a concept at this point um you've

1:44:21laid out of

1:44:23the rough timeline um

1:44:25which is not unreasonable um you've

1:44:28talked about the fact that uh you're

1:44:30gonna look at replacing keeping some

1:44:32parking and potentially reducing the

1:44:34parking

1:44:35which of course is going to be of

1:44:37concern to um as picked up in your

1:44:40surveys that's going to be a concern to

1:44:42the elsewhere to residents that do have

1:44:44multimodal type transits um so i'm not

1:44:48sure i have any additional questions for

1:44:50you at this time

1:44:51other than

1:44:52um let's get you back in here in about

1:44:5512 months and see where you are

1:44:58thanks

1:44:59uh mr woodruff i have a question i think

1:45:02that this project if it does become a

1:45:05project may be

1:45:07in an area where i might have to recuse

1:45:09myself

1:45:10and i was wondering if you could review

1:45:15what that area is and um

1:45:18does it preclude me from engaging in

1:45:21this discussion not in this discussion

1:45:23but um at a later stage um when there's

1:45:26an actual proposal we can review whether

1:45:28or not you're within a radius that would

1:45:30preclude you from participating in any

1:45:31decision making okay thank you

1:45:34um so since i'm not uh

1:45:38hindered at this point i just had a

1:45:40couple of questions

1:45:41i'm very much interested in transit

1:45:44oriented development

1:45:45across the bay area to help with

1:45:48our housing crisis

1:45:50but i have to say that one when i get on

1:45:53bart at certain times i just wonder how

1:45:55we're going to

1:45:57absorb all the ridership that will be

1:45:59created and

1:46:00um could you talk a little bit about

1:46:03you know are there more trains coming

1:46:06like how is that going to be

1:46:07accommodated

1:46:09yeah i think we have a variety of um

1:46:12solutions or really things that we're

1:46:15working on one is a computer-based

1:46:18transportation control

1:46:19communication center so this will allow

1:46:22us to have

1:46:24now we currently have 23 trains

1:46:26that can go through the two per hour

1:46:28this will allow up to 30 trades per hour

1:46:30so that will increase capacity by 30

1:46:32percent uh we're well underway in terms

1:46:34of putting that new system or offering

1:46:37out to the street to bring on a

1:46:38contractor it's still in terms of

1:46:40project delivery it's still probably a

1:46:42couple years away but that will increase

1:46:43capacity on that one end we have new

1:46:46cars

1:46:47if you haven't had the opportunity yet

1:46:49to ride in one of our new cars i think

1:46:50we have 40 to 50 in the system currently

1:46:52right now and so that allows for greater

1:46:54capacity

1:46:56as well each car comes equipped with

1:46:57three doors so from operational

1:46:59standpoint that's one or two things

1:47:01right there as well we're promoting east

1:47:03bay

1:47:04job centers and so rather than having

1:47:06people make that trek all the way to san

1:47:07francisco

1:47:09we see the downtown oakland office

1:47:10market is starting to take some shape

1:47:13with the inking of square and so

1:47:15hopefully people can start congregating

1:47:17to those areas and working

1:47:20or having more jobs down in oakland we

1:47:21recently are work the completion of a

1:47:24400 000 square foot office building on

1:47:26our property at the west dublin

1:47:27pleasanton station workday they'll have

1:47:29their headquarters and that should open

1:47:31in may of this year with full occupancy

1:47:34by august which will provide for another

1:47:362 500 jobs as well we also have an

1:47:39office opportunity on block c and

1:47:41pleasant hill and so those are some of

1:47:42the things that we're doing in terms of

1:47:44trying to

1:47:45increase capacity and kind of relieve

1:47:47some of that crunch we also have found

1:47:49that ones who live on tods are closer to

1:47:52bart they can stagger their work

1:47:54schedules and so rather than you um

1:47:57facing a huge crush because you're

1:47:59trying to get to our bart station and

1:48:00time to get a parking space and so you

1:48:01want to arrive between 6 30 a.m and 7 30

1:48:04a.m if you're able to walk or bike or

1:48:07have alternative means then maybe you

1:48:08start your work day later on at 10 a.m

1:48:11because you you don't have to rush to

1:48:13get to the station time enough to get a

1:48:14parking space and so we we feel that

1:48:16there's a more of a balance we have more

1:48:18people living closer to our station so

1:48:20those are just

1:48:21a couple of things that help to

1:48:23us to kind of relieve some of the

1:48:24capacity concerns as well

1:48:27and then in addition

1:48:29i don't know if this project is very

1:48:31much outlined but

1:48:33i do live very close to the station and

1:48:35one thing i was wondering is if you're

1:48:38putting in some apartments are you also

1:48:40going to be building a parking structure

1:48:42is that usually part of the plan or is

1:48:44it just kind of just those

1:48:47what's already there

1:48:49is there

1:48:50at the single story level

1:48:52so this station has been identified as a

1:48:55urban um with parking so the level of

1:48:58replacement parking or any parking at

1:48:59all is still going to be up for

1:49:00discussion with our studies i think the

1:49:02parking that would be there is parking

1:49:04that would deserve serve the development

1:49:06i think we've um this site is probably

1:49:08going to max out a point five spaces per

1:49:11unit and so there could be potentially

1:49:13some dedicated parking for the actual

1:49:15development for those housing units or

1:49:17the commercial space there and maybe you

1:49:20know in terms of replacement parking for

1:49:21bart riders that's something that we'll

1:49:23have to continue to work through our

1:49:24access studies to figure out what the

1:49:26appropriate amount we've also are

1:49:27looking at several options in terms of

1:49:29unbundled parking and shared parking and

1:49:32so we find that there's adjacent usages

1:49:34that work well with park in terms of

1:49:37you know people need to park and park

1:49:39during the day but obviously those

1:49:40spaces free up at night and so are there

1:49:42compatible uses around the station or in

1:49:45the neighborhood that we could have more

1:49:47shared parking arrangements as well so

1:49:49there's a mix of tools available and

1:49:51that just hasn't been decided yet but i

1:49:53think an investment in a high-rise

1:49:55parking structure

1:49:56those are things that are

1:49:58cost prohibitive at this point in time

1:50:00within our market that we live in

1:50:03and i guess that would probably tie into

1:50:05the to the library because i know that

1:50:08folks that go to the library probably

1:50:09also would want some parking and so is

1:50:11that also being taken into consideration

1:50:14that's part of the feasibility study and

1:50:15part of some of our intercept studies as

1:50:17well okay

1:50:19thank you

1:50:22one more question on the parking

1:50:24are you in discussions

1:50:27with the

1:50:28elsewhere plaza regency

1:50:30owners

1:50:32i think in any way that impacts as far

1:50:35as sharing and those of

1:50:37i haven't been personally but i think

1:50:39some of our staff has and so i think

1:50:41that's a wonderful opportunity part of

1:50:42that

1:50:43going forward that discussion because

1:50:45they're a big component of our biggest

1:50:47economic

1:50:48development center there most definitely

1:50:50we'll reach out to them if we have not

1:50:52done so already i know there were some

1:50:53prior discussions a year passed and so

1:50:56um we will we'll be happy to re-engage

1:50:59that process again

1:51:02thank you

1:51:04do we have any public comments on this

1:51:06we do have one card on this item

1:51:09from george gager

1:51:26good evening

1:51:28i have what i hope might be

1:51:30some interesting news

1:51:33is part of my work and research

1:51:36i've identified

1:51:39within the u.s department of housing and

1:51:41urban development

1:51:42they've just identified

1:51:45a little over 70 million dollars in

1:51:47grant funds

1:51:49under what they refer to as their

1:51:51community compass program

1:51:54and

1:51:55that money

1:51:56goes to

1:52:00municipalities

1:52:02and governmental agencies

1:52:05to do research on things like

1:52:08transit-oriented development

1:52:10and i'll go back to

1:52:13some of the previous presentations

1:52:16disaster planning

1:52:18and a lot of other programs

1:52:21i would encourage

1:52:23el cerrito

1:52:25is in in my personal view

1:52:28at the forefront of creative

1:52:31responsible

1:52:33planning in the bay area

1:52:35but el cerrito isn't a big enough

1:52:37city to get hud's attention

1:52:41however i believe that contra costa

1:52:44county maybe along with a couple of the

1:52:46other counties even reaching over as far

1:52:48as the peninsula

1:52:50could really attract

1:52:52hud's attention and get substantial

1:52:55funding

1:52:57to contribute

1:52:59to the research and planning of

1:53:02transit-oriented development in the bay

1:53:04area i mean bart is already working with

1:53:06vta and they're working

1:53:09to obtain federal funding for

1:53:12uh their their

1:53:14track extensions and whatnot

1:53:17um

1:53:18we we in the bay area have a significant

1:53:21presence

1:53:22in in washington dc

1:53:25um i've

1:53:27seen

1:53:28projects where for instance

1:53:30um under this program hud went into

1:53:33prince george's county in maryland and

1:53:35rewrote all of their planning and zoning

1:53:36regulations and

1:53:38and everything for free

1:53:41so um i would encourage

1:53:45the

1:53:46city of el cerrito to get together with

1:53:48their local partners

1:53:50and chase the money

1:53:53thank you right bye

1:53:57all right does the council have any

1:54:00further questions

1:54:08all right well

1:54:09just thank you

1:54:10yeah thank you thank you very much we

1:54:12appreciate your presentation

1:54:20okay so public hearings we have none

1:54:23they're moving on to policy matters

1:54:26on-street parking studies which

1:54:28coincides with this i think very well

1:54:31and priority development area

1:54:33implementation

1:54:39staff report please

1:54:42good evening council and uh yeah as you

1:54:45can see i'm melanie mintz the city's

1:54:46community development director and as

1:54:48you can see these items the bart item

1:54:50this item and then our next item

1:54:52do all um overlap interact and inform

1:54:55each other

1:54:57so i'm not going to say much now except

1:54:59for to talk a bit to frame up and then i

1:55:01will be passing on the real bulk of the

1:55:04conversation

1:55:05to alex sweet from nelson nygard

1:55:08and she'll introduce others that might

1:55:10be with her

1:55:11so in adopting the specific plan in 2014

1:55:15there were a couple

1:55:17well there was a promise that staff made

1:55:19as you know that we

1:55:21reduced off-street parking requirements

1:55:23quite a bit and this was something that

1:55:24was recommended through several economic

1:55:26development studies and tod best

1:55:28practices in terms of the things you

1:55:29just heard about

1:55:31which was to really encourage

1:55:33alternative modes of travel

1:55:36but in doing that of course there's some

1:55:38relationship to on-street parking and um

1:55:40el cerrito's in an interesting position

1:55:42and alex might get into this somewhat um

1:55:45but we overall have an abundance of

1:55:48on-street parking compared to other

1:55:49places that are doing active development

1:55:51right now and that's just part of our

1:55:53history of development

1:55:56you'll hear later

1:55:57our residential parking permit program

1:55:59was started decades ago to address the

1:56:02issue of commuter parking coming to the

1:56:04two bart stations and other than that we

1:56:06have just we don't have a lot of parking

1:56:09policy outside of those areas governing

1:56:11how long or how many

1:56:14kind of monitoring programs you'll hear

1:56:16about paid for parking in different

1:56:18areas and parking benefits districts but

1:56:20really we have a lot of parking but once

1:56:22we start to do development then what

1:56:24happens

1:56:25so one of the things that we know we're

1:56:27going to need to do over time is to

1:56:29become more sophisticated with our

1:56:31on-street parking management it's a

1:56:32resource

1:56:34and so we were fortunate and we applied

1:56:37for both grants from mtc and pda

1:56:40mtc pda implementation grant and a ccta

1:56:42pda implementation grant so priority

1:56:45development area implementation grants

1:56:46knowing that while we adopted this great

1:56:48code we still have a lot of work to do

1:56:50to make it successful

1:56:52um

1:56:53later on when i'm doing this what's the

1:56:55other efforts that these grants have

1:56:56funded for example have been uh the

1:56:58siege sanitary capacity fee did that

1:57:01work did the affordable housing strategy

1:57:03the inclusionary zoning

1:57:04um

1:57:06and the recent transportation impact fee

1:57:08so this parking study is our final

1:57:10deliverable actually in our first round

1:57:11of pda implementation grant so we're

1:57:13excited to get to this phase as you can

1:57:15see tonight we're not asking you to

1:57:16actually

1:57:19adopt anything pass a resolution

1:57:22or

1:57:23make any action happen we're looking for

1:57:24directions staff found this very useful

1:57:26we found that parking brings up a lot of

1:57:28emotions a lot of feelings um a lot of

1:57:31thoughts and perceptions and so we

1:57:33thought that having a really good um

1:57:36an updated data set would be helpful and

1:57:38an updated study of what programs would

1:57:40be

1:57:40useful to us in the short term

1:57:42medium term and long term as we might

1:57:45start to experience more parking demand

1:57:47as alex will tell you one other thing

1:57:48that's happening with transit oriented

1:57:50development is people's habits are

1:57:52changing so those that walk to bart do

1:57:55they have cars if they live right at a

1:57:56bart station these are the kind of

1:57:58things that i think we're all learning

1:57:59in the bay area so with that i'm going

1:58:01to turn it over to alex and she will

1:58:03provide your presentation you do have

1:58:05the study in front of you some of you

1:58:07had noted that the page numbers were

1:58:08missing from the ones that you received

1:58:10so we passed out a new one with you

1:58:11somehow that had gotten omitted in the

1:58:14kind of transfer so hopefully you have

1:58:15page numbers to refer to

1:58:17and if you have any questions both about

1:58:19the city's program i should also point

1:58:20out that yvette ortiz worked on this as

1:58:23well our public works department who is

1:58:25more involved in implementing these and

1:58:27we're kind of more of the advanced

1:58:28planning aspect and i'd like to thank

1:58:30aisa shuri who really helped keep us

1:58:32moving on this final product so with

1:58:34that

1:58:35alex

1:58:37great

1:58:45thank you

1:58:57hi good evening

1:58:59my name is alex sweet i am a

1:59:01transportation planner with the firm

1:59:03nelson nygard

1:59:05hired by the city to help with this

1:59:07on-street parking study

1:59:12i like to start with this comic

1:59:15i'll read it

1:59:17america is all about parking the

1:59:19pilgrims came here in search of parking

1:59:22then the settlers moved west in search

1:59:24of more parking

1:59:26as melanie said

1:59:28parking is very much a part um can bring

1:59:30up a lot of emotions and is very much a

1:59:32part of our culture um and so i i

1:59:36empathize with that um and so i like to

1:59:38start with this joke to remind everyone

1:59:41that we're all

1:59:42just trying to make some some

1:59:44manageable improvements to our current

1:59:46system

1:59:47so here's the purpose of the study um

1:59:51for the on-street parking study uh we

1:59:53wanted to do three things first we

1:59:55wanted to figure out how to manage

1:59:56on-street parking in the san pablo

1:59:59avenue specific plan area to support the

2:00:01plan's goals

2:00:03we want to decide whether and how to

2:00:05expand and reform the current permit

2:00:07parking program

2:00:08and third we want to establish policies

2:00:10and programs to manage parking supply to

2:00:12maintain neighborhood and business

2:00:14access

2:00:16this is the overall project process

2:00:19we began with

2:00:21existing conditions and put together

2:00:22best practices for on-street parking

2:00:25we conducted public outreach to

2:00:26understand

2:00:28existing

2:00:29behaviors and

2:00:31conditions and also to

2:00:34understand how people experience parking

2:00:36on street in the commercial areas and in

2:00:38residential zones we developed some

2:00:40initial parking strategy recommendations

2:00:42conducted some additional public

2:00:43outreach to get some feedback on those

2:00:46we also forecasted parking demand in the

2:00:48future as best we could we put together

2:00:50a draft plan and gone through a couple

2:00:52iterations and now we're here to present

2:00:54it to you

2:00:55we've gone through some extensive

2:00:57outreach

2:00:58uh five meetings we met with city staff

2:01:01and the police department we had some

2:01:04stakeholder meetings including the

2:01:05downtown business stakeholder meeting an

2:01:07uptown business stakeholder meeting

2:01:10residential stakeholder meeting and then

2:01:12finally a public meeting where we

2:01:14presented all of our recommendations

2:01:16you can see uh

2:01:18all of those minutes

2:01:19at the website that's linked at the

2:01:21bottom

2:01:26quick parking 101

2:01:28parking affects how the transportation

2:01:30network functions it affects travel

2:01:32behavior and the individual choices

2:01:34people make about where to live and how

2:01:37to travel

2:01:39parking

2:01:40is an economic

2:01:43issue

2:01:45it's connected to the vibrancy of

2:01:46commercial districts and small

2:01:47businesses and it is a key factor in the

2:01:49success of new office commercial and

2:01:51housing developments

2:01:56on-street spaces along the curb are

2:01:57public and in the public right-of-way

2:02:00they are not intended for one single

2:02:02user

2:02:05parking that is 80 to 85 percent

2:02:08utilized throughout the day is

2:02:09considered available enough to provide

2:02:12access without losing other access

2:02:14opportunities

2:02:17what do i mean by that so this is a

2:02:19graphic that demonstrates what it looks

2:02:21like to have 80 occupancy on a block

2:02:24and 20 availability so if you look at

2:02:27the top of the block where it's red it's

2:02:29completely 100 occupied you see other

2:02:31cars that are either double parked or

2:02:32circling the block looking for a parking

2:02:34spot nobody wins on the block to the

2:02:37right where it's yellow

2:02:39there's an abundance of parking anyone

2:02:40can park and maybe those businesses

2:02:42aren't doing as well

2:02:44the block on the left that's green

2:02:46always has at least one space that's

2:02:48available because the idea behind

2:02:50parking is it's for access

2:02:52so when somebody needs to park to pick

2:02:54up their dry cleaning someone needs to

2:02:55stop to drop something off someone needs

2:02:58to pick up their kids someone's going to

2:02:59a movie or to dinner they can find a

2:03:01parking spot so when we talk about a

2:03:03target we're looking at 80 to 85 percent

2:03:08now there's increasing demand for curb

2:03:10use

2:03:11and we need to understand how we can

2:03:12provide enough parking for access

2:03:15and still support residential car

2:03:16storage bikeways pedestrian space

2:03:19loading zones and transit stops

2:03:24so i'm going to walk through some of our

2:03:25key findings in current conditions i'm

2:03:28going to start with the commercial on

2:03:29street districts and then we're going to

2:03:30talk about the residential

2:03:32existing conditions and strategies

2:03:34in the second half

2:03:38here are our current conditions overall

2:03:40a large parking surplus exists in

2:03:42commercial on-street zones with a few

2:03:45hot spots of high demand

2:03:49what that means

2:03:50is it looks like the yellow blocks here

2:03:54with an occasional block during certain

2:03:56hours that are read

2:04:01the study area's on-street parking

2:04:02supply is under-utilized

2:04:06there is a high non-compliance rate

2:04:08among parked vehicles in time-limited

2:04:11spaces

2:04:14there's a wide variety of time limits

2:04:16for the on-street spaces

2:04:19and there is a lack of clear parking

2:04:22signage along block faces

2:04:24i'm going to dig into this a little bit

2:04:26more so here's our methodology this is

2:04:28the priority development area

2:04:30the blocks that are in red you're not

2:04:32intended to read all this in detail but

2:04:33to show you where we did our counts

2:04:36we wanted to look at parking trends

2:04:38around the two bart stations in the

2:04:39downtown

2:04:41and the uptown areas around the two bart

2:04:42stations the red lines are the block

2:04:44faces along which the parking counts

2:04:46were conducted

2:04:47we conducted parking counts by measuring

2:04:50we counted the number of spaces in some

2:04:51cases by measuring the length of the

2:04:53curve of each block excluding all curb

2:04:55cuts

2:04:56we counted the presence or absence of

2:04:58parked cars every two hours from 10 a.m

2:05:01to 6 p.m on a typical weekday and a

2:05:03saturday

2:05:05and then we took note of license plates

2:05:06to track compliance over this period of

2:05:08time so we can understand how long a

2:05:10park cars has been parked

2:05:14so first let's talk take a look at

2:05:16downtown weekday on street occupancy

2:05:20so you'll see the graph in green

2:05:24never the highest occupancy for downtown

2:05:26or on the plaza bart area for on-street

2:05:28parking never goes above 54 and that

2:05:31peaks at 4

2:05:32pm the block faces with the highest

2:05:35occupancy around san pablo avenue you

2:05:37can see there are a couple of blocks

2:05:38that are in red

2:05:40so there are a couple of places where

2:05:42during a peak hour such as 4 pm they're

2:05:44going to be booked 90

2:05:46or more but overall on-street

2:05:49occupancies remained under 50 percent on

2:05:51most block faces throughout the study

2:05:52area

2:05:55on a weekend it was similar the highest

2:05:56occupancy on a weekend was 49 at

2:06:00noon but in general

2:06:04the area remained

2:06:06fairly open

2:06:09now if we look at uptown near the del

2:06:11norte bart station the highest uptown

2:06:12weekday occupancy was at 60 percent that

2:06:16was at noon on a typical weekday

2:06:20and there are a couple of blocks

2:06:21primarily near the bart station that

2:06:23exceeded 85 percent occupancy

2:06:28and these included some of the

2:06:29residential blocks

2:06:35on a weekend

2:06:36they're all green

2:06:38except for a couple that are yellow but

2:06:39all of them are below

2:06:4185 percent

2:06:45when should we ask questions

2:06:48parking duration the average duration

2:06:50for parking uptown near del norte was

2:06:53about 3.9 hours during the weekday and

2:06:553.3 hours on a saturday this is

2:06:57important so we understand how long we

2:06:59should think about having time limits on

2:07:01our on-street parking spaces

2:07:03if the average parking is approximately

2:07:05four hours

2:07:07then we should consider that type of

2:07:08time limit

2:07:10parking violations there were about 27

2:07:13of the

2:07:14counted cars were

2:07:16violating their

2:07:18some sort of

2:07:19parking um law on the weekday and 7

2:07:22percent on a saturday

2:07:26at downtown

2:07:28the average duration was just about two

2:07:30hours on a weekday and a little under

2:07:32two hours on a saturday

2:07:34twelve percent of the cars had

2:07:36violations

2:07:37and then fourteen percent had violations

2:07:39on a saturday

2:07:40so you can really see that there's a

2:07:42difference in the length of time people

2:07:43spend to the two areas

2:07:47so in response to this we've developed a

2:07:49handful of commercial parking strategies

2:07:51that i'm going to walk through their

2:07:52near-term strategies which

2:07:55uh i'll talk a little bit more about

2:07:56implementation at the end but near-term

2:07:57strategies are really looking at when

2:07:59the city can fund and implement these

2:08:01and then long-term tend to be ones that

2:08:03aren't necessary neces right now or when

2:08:09there's greater need in the future

2:08:12so

2:08:14to keep things moving i'm going to just

2:08:15read the strategy and then the

2:08:17sub-bullets below

2:08:18so the near-term strategy number one is

2:08:20to adopt a holistic parking strategy and

2:08:23program parameters with on-street

2:08:25availability target that means

2:08:27establishing a parking data collection

2:08:29program and also establishing parking

2:08:31management thresholds for example the

2:08:33city could adopt an 80 occupancy target

2:08:35for on-street parking

2:08:39our second recommendation is to enforce

2:08:41enforce establish enforcement protocols

2:08:43that target the problem areas so the

2:08:45blocks that typically exceed 80

2:08:48occupancy can be targeted first

2:08:51and implementing performance-based fines

2:08:53enforcing commercial and residential

2:08:55permit blocks with 80 occupancy

2:09:00strategy number three

2:09:02is to establish a default four-hour

2:09:04parking time limit across this specific

2:09:07plan area

2:09:09right now time limits are too short and

2:09:10inconsistent and can be confusing

2:09:13this four-hour timeline there would be

2:09:15time limit

2:09:16variances that the city consider

2:09:19if some blocks needed a different

2:09:21parking time limit and

2:09:23we could also consider establishing

2:09:24employee parking permits where occupancy

2:09:27is low so that employees could park for

2:09:30longer than four hours if needed

2:09:33number four

2:09:34when all of these changes happen we

2:09:36recommend creating a parking

2:09:37communications plan

2:09:39to develop clear and consistent parking

2:09:41signs and then conduct a public outreach

2:09:43program for any changes that are

2:09:44happening to on-street parking

2:09:50for the near turn number five we

2:09:52recommend creating a curbside management

2:09:54plan

2:09:56to assess how curb zones can balance

2:09:58different needs for limited space

2:10:00commercial loading passenger loading ada

2:10:03parking etc

2:10:04and to also match complete streets

2:10:06priorities so to also consider parklets

2:10:09visibility

2:10:10curb bulb outs transit lanes bike lanes

2:10:12etc

2:10:18it's hard to know what parking is going

2:10:20to be like in the future

2:10:21or when the demand for on-street parking

2:10:23spaces will exceed the supply we

2:10:25currently

2:10:27what will happen with autonomous

2:10:29vehicles other modes such as scooters

2:10:31less driving we heard from bart that we

2:10:32understand that people who live in tods

2:10:34already have

2:10:36owned fewer cars and are taking transit

2:10:39more so than driving so

2:10:41trends are happening

2:10:42but we try and do our best to

2:10:45estimate

2:10:47using a shared parking demand model

2:10:49future parking supply and demand taking

2:10:51into account planned development and

2:10:53anticipated changes to the land use

2:10:55types and intensities

2:10:57our analysis indicated that the overall

2:10:59on-street and off-street parking supply

2:11:02as currently planned will accommodate

2:11:04future demand

2:11:05in other words we're not too worried

2:11:08about

2:11:09the demand

2:11:10um exceeding the supply

2:11:13and i think this also validates the

2:11:14flexible approach to off-street parking

2:11:16requirements in the san pablo specific

2:11:18plan area

2:11:20in a typical parking model one will

2:11:22calculate how much parking each land use

2:11:24needs on the left

2:11:26at the peak of their busiest time

2:11:28and then aggregate those

2:11:30our model takes into account how much

2:11:32parking an area needs if they can share

2:11:34parking so that different land uses can

2:11:36share parking to meet their busiest

2:11:38needs and it doesn't go unused during

2:11:39slower hours

2:11:45so we're going to get into some

2:11:46long-term strategies here

2:11:49the first here is to establish a parking

2:11:51district

2:11:54the problem here is that there's no

2:11:55dedicated financing or communication

2:11:57channel for parking management and this

2:11:58is particularly important if the city is

2:12:00going to consider paid parking for

2:12:02on-street parking

2:12:04so with a

2:12:06parking district there could be

2:12:08it would finance parking program

2:12:09management and operations and then any

2:12:12revenues from the paid parking program

2:12:14can be returned to improve the district

2:12:16and this a lot of cities use this to

2:12:17then

2:12:18invest the money back into landscaping

2:12:20and street furniture etc

2:12:22it would also

2:12:24create a public advisory board that

2:12:26would act as his communication channel

2:12:28and oversee those funds

2:12:33next is long-term number seven which is

2:12:36to design and implement a

2:12:37performance-based paid parking

2:12:39management program

2:12:42this would include installing parking

2:12:44meters when on street occupancy exceeds

2:12:46its set threshold such as 80 percent

2:12:49and then the price of those parking

2:12:51meters would be adjusted to meet the

2:12:53adopted target

2:12:55the program works then in coordination

2:12:56with the parking benefit district so any

2:12:58revenue that was generated from the paid

2:13:01parking within could then part of it be

2:13:02reinvested into the district

2:13:07the the um price of parking is adjusted

2:13:10to meet occupancy targets so you would

2:13:12lower the price of parking on blocks

2:13:14with low occupancy and then raise the

2:13:17price on blocks with high occupancy so

2:13:19really based on demand

2:13:20implementation involves establishing

2:13:22boundaries and rates and regulations

2:13:24that are simple and easy to understand

2:13:26it would also include removing curb

2:13:28parking time limits to make parking

2:13:30easier

2:13:31while adding pricing to encourage

2:13:33commercial parking turnover in other

2:13:35words if someone really wants to park

2:13:37all day and pay for it they can

2:13:39but it'll be expensive for example

2:13:42but if you just need to get in and out

2:13:45then you just pay for the time that you

2:13:46need

2:13:50i'm going to move now on to residential

2:13:53parking

2:13:54and the permit parking program and talk

2:13:56a little bit about existing conditions

2:13:57and then get into recommendations

2:13:59the current residential parking permit

2:14:01program that is a little bit of a

2:14:03mouthful i might call it the rpp

2:14:06right now it allows

2:14:07unregulated parking for neighbors with

2:14:09permits and four hour parking for

2:14:11everyone else

2:14:14there are

2:14:15from our last

2:14:17review there were 1223 permits for 741

2:14:21addresses

2:14:23about 100 blocks are currently permitted

2:14:25those are shown in the blue lines on the

2:14:27left is uptown near del norte on the

2:14:31right is downtown near the plaza station

2:14:38annual parking permits can be acquired

2:14:39through an application process with

2:14:41current vehicle registration and proof

2:14:43of residency permits cost seven dollars

2:14:45per year per vehicle

2:14:48and there's a limit of four permits per

2:14:50household

2:14:53there are also visitor permits available

2:14:55that are valid for 14 consecutive days

2:14:58and those can be purchased at city hall

2:15:07neighborhood residents can establish

2:15:08residential parking zones on their block

2:15:11if they are located within half a mile

2:15:14of an el cerrito bart station

2:15:16and if they can demonstrate support from

2:15:1860 of their neighbors on both sides of

2:15:21the street

2:15:22so what you're seeing in these maps here

2:15:24is that's the half mile radius as the

2:15:26crow flies from each of the bart

2:15:28stations so only residential

2:15:31permit zones can be created within those

2:15:34highlighted circles

2:15:42i'm going to dive in now to some of the

2:15:44strategies

2:15:46and i'll address some of the issues

2:15:48too uh strategies eight and nine for

2:15:51residential on-street parking so one of

2:15:53the problems that some of the permit

2:15:54zones that we just saw are too big and

2:15:56there's the potential for

2:15:57cross-commuting what that means is

2:15:59someone

2:16:00who lives at one end um and has a permit

2:16:03can then drive and park next to bart

2:16:05because that residential permit allows

2:16:07them to do that

2:16:09um

2:16:10and so we recommend creating smaller

2:16:12more context-sensitive residential

2:16:14permit zones

2:16:16um and also modifying multi-family

2:16:18housing on-street permit parking

2:16:20policies

2:16:22strategy number nine would also allow

2:16:24residential permit program

2:16:27beyond the half-mile from the bart

2:16:28station

2:16:30in other words you can establish a

2:16:31parking permit

2:16:33zone on your block

2:16:35further out

2:16:36from the half mile

2:16:38that doesn't mean that it's needed right

2:16:40now it just allows for it in case it's

2:16:43needed in the future

2:16:50strategy number 10 is to add a parking

2:16:52occupancy requirement to the parking

2:16:54permit petition process there's a lot of

2:16:55peas here so right now as it stands you

2:16:58have to be in the half mile radius from

2:17:00the bart station and you have to have 60

2:17:01percent of local support

2:17:03we also recommend adding another

2:17:06criterion to that and that is um

2:17:09is that adding

2:17:11you would need to do a

2:17:12data collection to see that your

2:17:15the parking occupancy on your block is

2:17:17at least for example 80 full so you

2:17:20couldn't just establish a parking permit

2:17:22zone on your block

2:17:23and even when you have an abundant of

2:17:25parking

2:17:27abundance

2:17:32right now the current permit fee at

2:17:34seven dollars per year doesn't cover the

2:17:37program's cost

2:17:38we recommend setting the permit prices

2:17:40to fully recover the program's cost

2:17:43the price cannot per state law the price

2:17:46cannot exceed the program costs so this

2:17:48is not necessarily about revenue

2:17:51but we understand that with these

2:17:52changes there will be some increase in

2:17:54for enforcement and administrative

2:17:56changes that will increase the cost of

2:17:57the program

2:17:59just for

2:18:00understanding

2:18:02some other cities for the cost of an

2:18:04individual parking permit

2:18:06berkeley is 66.

2:18:09richmond is 20.

2:18:10hayward is 25 orinda is 40.

2:18:14lafayette is 51 and walnut creek is 20.

2:18:21strategy number 12

2:18:23there's a concern that there are more

2:18:24permits given than there is curb space

2:18:26available

2:18:27there's an opportunity to consider

2:18:29updating the residential permit cap so

2:18:31right now it's four per household

2:18:33and there are a couple of options one is

2:18:35to do

2:18:36graduated cost for multiple permits for

2:18:38example the first one's a dollar the

2:18:40second one's two dollars the third one's

2:18:42three dollars

2:18:43we can also consider reducing the permit

2:18:45cap

2:18:46um

2:18:48and then allowing that cap to be

2:18:49appealed during certain conditions

2:18:52and finally the city can create a policy

2:18:54to address parking permits for adus

2:18:57perhaps to include those within the

2:18:58parking permit cap

2:19:02strategy number 13

2:19:05this is about

2:19:06visitor permits right now a 14 day guest

2:19:08permit doesn't quite meet needs and is a

2:19:10little bit cumbersome so we recommend

2:19:12updating the guest parking permit

2:19:14program to first offer low-cost single

2:19:16day passes for example just a dollar i

2:19:18think that berkeley does something

2:19:19similar

2:19:21and then also consider offering

2:19:23caregiver permits so if someone for

2:19:24example is taking care of a sick family

2:19:27member or even child care and needs to

2:19:29come multiple days per week they sort of

2:19:32need to find a place to fit in

2:19:35especially if there's not a place to

2:19:36park in the driveway

2:19:40finally the city provides essentially

2:19:42free parking to bart commuters as you

2:19:44just heard in the previous presentation

2:19:46i think maybe it was 11 to park in

2:19:48residential zones

2:19:50to take bart to work

2:19:53and we recommend that there's an

2:19:54opportunity to charge bart commuters for

2:19:56on-street parking

2:19:58so there are three options and these are

2:20:00and or options one is you can create a

2:20:02bart commuter permit similar to a

2:20:04residential permit that you would charge

2:20:05them per year

2:20:07the second is you can install parking

2:20:09meters on some of the blocks that are

2:20:11near the bart station

2:20:13and the third is you could use a pay by

2:20:15phone to charge for parking

2:20:23the implementation schedule

2:20:25we recommend

2:20:27short-term programs can be integrated

2:20:29into existing programs and implemented

2:20:31with existing staff

2:20:33in the first year we recommend these

2:20:35sets of strategies

2:20:36adopting a parking policy and program

2:20:38parameters

2:20:40establishing parking enforcement

2:20:41protocols establishing new time and user

2:20:44parking regulations

2:20:46excuse me creating a parking

2:20:47communications package adding occupancy

2:20:50requirements to the parking permit

2:20:52setting permitting prices to recover the

2:20:54program costs

2:20:55revising the residential permit cap and

2:20:57updating visitor permits

2:21:02the general approach here is for

2:21:03strategies and programs to be

2:21:04implemented sequentially over time as

2:21:06conditions warrant

2:21:08this allows one staff to lead parking

2:21:10rollout in a coordinated fashion and

2:21:11additional stuff to be added as needed

2:21:13as the program grows and res revenues

2:21:15are developed

2:21:17additional short-term programs can be

2:21:19implemented with this

2:21:20existing staff in year two

2:21:22create a curbside management policy

2:21:24revised residential permit zones

2:21:26and allow

2:21:27permit zones beyond the half mile from

2:21:29bart

2:21:32an additional staff will be needed as

2:21:33the program goes for

2:21:35some of the

2:21:36longer term strategies

2:21:38including establishing a parking

2:21:40benefits district implementing a

2:21:41performance-based paid parking

2:21:43management program and establishing bart

2:21:45commuter park permit fees

2:21:49the final thing that i want to end on is

2:21:51the reason why we were doing this which

2:21:52is

2:21:53to help meet the san pablo avenue

2:21:56specific plan goals

2:21:57we want to

2:21:59believe it or not parking has a big role

2:22:01in all of these we want to strengthen a

2:22:03sense of place there it is again tonight

2:22:05we want to ensure return on investment

2:22:07we want to encourage practical and

2:22:09market-friendly development

2:22:11we want to enhance and humanize the

2:22:13public realm

2:22:15catalyze mode shift

2:22:17and support new businesses new housing

2:22:19and multimodal transportation

2:22:22on commercial streets we want to make