Regular City Council Meeting July 15, 2025

0:00:13The July 15, th 2025, regular City Council meeting is called to order at 6 0. 2 Pm. Will the city Clerk please call the roll Mayor Weisinger, present mayor pro tem kincho. Here councilmember katsanis. Here councilmember motyama.

0:00:28here councilmember Saltzman.

0:00:30we have a quorum all right the 1st item on the agenda is consideration under Ab. 2449, city clerk. Do we have any requests? We do not, mayor? All right, please join me in the pledge of allegiance or a moment of silence.

0:00:43Okay, I pledge allegiance to that of the United States of America

0:00:55with liberty.

0:00:59The next item on the agenda is teleconference and public comment. Instructions from our city clerk. Thank you, Mayor. This hybrid meeting provides an option to participate in person, or via Zoom with closed captions. Available meetings of the City Council are subject to the Brown Act, and are held for the purpose of conducting city business. The Brown Act also ensures the public's right to be heard, and while city council is not able to respond to your comments directly, your comments will be heard prior to Council taking action

0:01:27for members of the public who wish to provide oral testimony. The mayor will announce the time for public comment on each applicable item. Public comments will be taken in person only, and a request to speak can be submitted to the city clerk by completing a speaker card. If you are here tonight to speak regarding the Richmond Street Complete Streets Project. Please be sure to indicate agenda. Item number 9, A on your speaker card. All comments for this project will be heard with the related policy items that are on the agenda for the active transportation and complete streets. Policy, study, session.

0:01:57the Council's adopted rules of order and procedure, specify that public speakers address the city council in an orderly and respectful manner, precede their comments with their name and city of residence, and also be respectful of time limits.

0:02:09I may not be yielded from one speaker to another, and disruptive behavior, such as shouting, applausing, booze, speaking out of turn, or approaching the dais or podium without consent, is also prohibited under the rules of order. We ask that everyone be respectful in observing these rules, so that all speakers feel comfortable providing their comments.

0:02:27Thank you, Mayor. That concludes my instructions at this time. All right. The next item on the agenda is Council Staff Communications city manager. Do we have any staff communications? Certainly. Thank you, your honor. I'm Karen Pincus. I'm the city manager. Just a few announcements.

0:02:41I announced this at the last meeting, but I just wanted to let I have a big audience here to know that the city is moving.

0:02:48and by moving I mean digitally, we are moving to a new website and email domain. We will.

0:02:54We will be now, El Cerrito, one word.gov lot easier for you to type in those email addresses. So we will be transitioning to the new website, Www. Dot el cerrito.gov. On August first, st and 2 weeks later we will be

0:03:11transitioning all of the city emails to 1st initial, last name El cerrito.gov. All this information will be on the website. I'll put it in my city manager update. We'll put it on social media. It's been on social media. But don't worry. If you still have our old email address and our old domain name for at least a year, it will still move forward and be forwarded. So. But we're very excited about this. A lot less typing for all of us. Secondly, I just want to thank

0:03:41everyone for a wonderful 4th of July fair that happened. You know, not too long ago, for 10 days ago. It was a wonderful event, and I know that the Council will.

0:03:52We'll talk about this more as well, but we it was. I just want to thank the staff. I want to thank the community. It was a wonderful event. We really came together, and I know there's a lot going on in the world. But that day we all came together here in El Cerrito and celebrated, and it was a really wonderful wonderful vibe. So thanks for everyone.

0:04:12And then, lastly, Pickleball is here in El Cerrito. Tomorrow is the grand opening. I know it's we've had a soft opening. It's been popular so far. Grand opening of our pickleball courts at Castro Park. We will be doing a ribbon cutting at 5 o'clock tomorrow evening. So if you're inclined, please come and show up. We're really excited about this new amenity in our city and your honor. That concludes my remarks. Thank you. Thank you so much. Do we have any announcements from the City Council?

0:04:40I'm sorry with councilmember, Multyama.

0:04:43Thank you. Mayor. 1st is the next meeting of the East Bay. Wildfire coalition of governments will be on the 23rd here in the Chambers from 9 to 12, if you're interested in attending.

0:04:57and also I want to let people know about the Contra Costa Civic Theater and the El Cerrito Historical Society. Celebration of the theater's 65th birthday and the 50th birthday of the El Cerrito Historical Society, and that's at the Contra Costa Civic Theater from one to 4 Pm.

0:05:16I also want to join the City manager and thanking Staff and the community for a really great 4th of July world. One event, it's a highlight of the year for most of us. So it was. It was really really fun to attend, and well attended and really well run. So thank you so much. I also want to congratulate crystal reams for her 2 year work anniversary. Thank you, Linkedin, for letting me know.

0:05:44And also I did read a really interesting article in East Bay Times, and I want to thank El Crito, resident Vanessa Vo. Who is an Emmy Award winner on her receiving the taproot fellowship for Vietnamese music and composition, and she's a resident here, and she quoted

0:06:07about. She started her article with

0:06:11El Cerrito, and she says, what we love is that we found El Cerrito in our forever home, where we can be immersed in nature the community is vibrant and diverse. People are open minded to everything, and there are a lot of small authentic businesses. So thank you, Vanessa. Vo for that shout out in the newspaper.

0:06:30Thank you so much. Council Member Casanas. Yeah, thank you. Following up on something. That

0:06:36city manager, Karen Pinkos and Council Member Motiyama mentioned. I would like to

0:06:41thank everyone who were who was involved in the 4th of July celebration. It was

0:06:46as anyone who went would know it was a great success.

0:06:49There were over 150 city employees, contractors, and volunteers there who served

0:06:5410,000, estimate 10,000 festival goers. I heard that one way of estimating the numbers was to

0:07:00measure cell phone pings did not know that could be done for crowds. But that's 1 way they measured how many people were there?

0:07:07Specifically, I want to thank and recognize recreation. Director Chris Jones.

0:07:12Recreation supervisors, Bridget Conley, Conley and F. Praiser, Taylor, Milton Ben Stein.

0:07:22in Ben Stein. Additionally, thanks to Fire Department Battalion, Chief Chase, Beckman, police Detective Sergeant Aaron Leon.

0:07:31public Works, crews and public work crews, members, Alex Martinez and Jimmy Lou.

0:07:38a big special thanks and appreciation to the one world, one world, one music stage producer, Corey Mason and Deborah Sue Kelvin.

0:07:49Thank you. All

0:07:50all right, Mayor Protein. I just want to echo what my colleague just said, and it was just a great event. The 4th of July and to see all of our community nonprofits all together. It shows what a great community we have.

0:08:08And we're doing this in a nonpartisan way, and and you know and I encourage

0:08:16our residents, young and young at heart, to participate, participate in what we do. In the city of El Cerrito, join our boards and commissions, be part of local government here, and and this is what makes community. I also encourage people to sign up for the national night out we have on the north side have had a lot of crime going on in our neighborhoods, and

0:08:43this is a way to meet our and discuss the issues that are going around in our neighborhood. So again, it's a way to meet

0:08:54each of your neighbors. It's important for you to meet all your neighbors. Okay, so it's important to, you know, create community in the community where you live and welcome the new neighbors that have moved in. Many of the new neighbors are afraid to come out of their neighborhoods from what they see on TV and read in the paper. And it is.

0:09:21no, no, you okay. So I guess closer, closer. Yeah. Okay.

0:09:27So again, please join us on national night out. And I want to say, thank you for the outpouring of emails and phone messages. I read every single one. So even though I don't answer, many of them know that I have read every single email.

0:09:46I have listened to every phone conversation, and I have spoken to many of you. So again, thank you for reaching out to me personally regarding the issues that we're dealing with here in the city. So again, thank you. My highlight for the 4th of July is to have for the 1st time a California Us. Senator, and that is Senator Adam Schiff.

0:10:08It was great to have him on board, and it was great to see the mayor take the lead and show him around our beautiful city. So again, thank you, Mayor.

0:10:17thank you so much and just quickly. And I'll remind my colleagues that we have a full house here tonight, and I've already heard how many people we have set up to speak. So let's try and be as distinct as possible just a few announcements or a few updates. I was excited to join the community of Saint John the Baptist for their centennial mass on June 21.st It was amazing to see so many folks from West County that were there

0:10:41along with my elected official colleagues, the mayors from Richmond, our supervisor, John Joya. You know, as someone who was raised Baptist. It was a great, a great experience.

0:10:51So thank you all for having me, and I was excited to also present a mayoral proclamation for their centennial mass.

0:10:58Also I was able to attend. Let's see

0:11:02the the Dalai Lama, the 90th birthday of the Dalai Lama was actually celebrated on July the 6, th

0:11:09and so we were able to share with the Tibetan Association of Northern California. It was a huge crowd, a huge showing, a lot of great cultural showings that were there, we were able to give a proclamation from the county and our Congress member, and I will be actually issuing another mayoral proclamation for the birthday of the Dalai Lama, and also to recognize the year of compassion in regards to our Tibetan community.

0:11:33as many have mentioned. Yes, I did attend the 4th of July event, and I will readily admit, before I got on the council I usually got stuck in the food section.

0:11:42I usually spend a lot of time there. So this is only like, maybe the second time I've made it all the way into the stage, and it was just so many people out camping. I see former Council, member, Paul Fidelly, who was, was out and as Mayor Protein mentioned. It was great to have our Senator Adam Schiff, and we just thank you all for welcoming, welcoming him, and it was great to introduce him to so many of you all.

0:12:04Not necessarily city related, but kind of sort of I was able to for the 3rd year in a row host, the San Francisco Pride Parade for ABC. 7. The only reason that is city related is because sometimes the greatest part of walking down Market Street is, how many El Cerrito people stop me on the way to the set? How many people are walking in the parade and yell, Hey, Mayor! Hey, council! Member! So I just want you to know, even if I try to yell back to as many as you as I could.

0:12:28But if not, I did see you, especially the little kids who were out there. So it was great to see you all there, and finally I was able to participate in an interview with one of our. I think she lives in El Cerrito. She's a student, she has a New York Times internship, and she could have written about any Council, any city in Northern California. She chose to write about her own city here in El Cerrito. So thank you. To the student who reached out to me.

0:12:52I don't know if it's going to end up in the times or not, but just the fact that we have one of our own doing internship. There

0:12:58is great.

0:12:59and those are the end of my announcements on to the next item, which is, oh, there was one, the actual official ones that Holly gave me sorry Holly.

0:13:09On July 9th Council Member Multiyama did present a mayoral proclamation on behalf of myself. Recognizing the 55th anniversary of the Grand Barbershop in El Cerrito, and celebrating the 95th birthday of the owner, Gerald Sandlin. Thank you so much to councilmember, and also to Mayor Potem, who've been taking up the slack. As I've said. I've been working in Walnut Creek. Shout out to our colleagues there in Walnut Creek. I've enjoyed your city, but I love coming home to El Cerrito every day. It's too hot there.

0:13:37The next item on the agenda is oral communications from the public. Now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments regarding matters not on the agenda can send calendar items and presentation items. Request to speak can be submitted to the city clerk by completing a speaker card. Public comments will be taken in person. Only

0:13:57please remember to identify yourself and your city of residents at the beginning of your comments. This is a reminder, as city clerk says, if you're here to speak on the Richmond Speech project, that is an actual item, so we would not speak in this section. But everyone who's talking about comments, not on the agenda and city clerk. I would like to. I know that we have a lot of people scheduled to speak today. So we're going to reduce all comments for the rest of the meeting to 1 min.

0:14:21noted Mayor City clerk. Please proceed.

0:14:27Okay, so I will be calling a couple of names that at a time, so that if anybody is in overflow seating they have an opportunity to come into the room. If your name is called, please do feel free to get up and stand in queue to the side of the council chambers over here on the left side so we'll begin at this for this item. We have 10 people signed up to speak. Our 1st speaker is going to be Ryan Lau, followed by William Wood, Richard Page, and Rebecca Milliken

0:14:58and Ryan. Just give me one second to share the clock.

0:15:16Okay, you can begin

0:15:17good evening, council. My name is Ryan Lau, external Affairs representative at A/C transit. After 2 years of reviewing and Updating our bus service network and including robust public outreach, we are about to launch our realign service changes coming August 10th

0:15:36just as a reminder this is in response to the changing commute patterns in the post pandemic.

0:15:44While working within a constrained budget.

0:15:48Each of the decision points were weighted against the set of guiding principles, including reliability, equity, and frequency, also ensuring that we have sufficient workforce to ensure reliability

0:16:03and also not jeopardizing the reliability of service to low income and transit dependent communities. So again, we have information up on the website as a central location along with on buses in a digital fashion on social media. E-news. Your time has ended. Thank you. Our next speaker is William Wood, followed by Richard Page, Rebecca Milliken, and Carrie Schulman.

0:16:33your Richmond streets. Okay. I will put you on that queue. Thank you. Our next speaker, then, is Richard Page, followed by Rebecca Milliken, Carrie Schulman, and Howdy, Gowdy.

0:16:45Thank you. I will make a note of that. Apologies. Are you, Richard Page? Perfect? And you, Rebecca.

0:16:52what was the other name to pull for Richmond streets?

0:16:57And Carrie? Thank you very much, and thank you ahead of time for everyone's patience. Okay, Richard, you can go ahead and begin your comments.

0:17:06I came here to say, thank you.

0:17:09I'm privileged to live in this town 25 years.

0:17:14and you people serve us day in and day out with such beauty, with such persistence and love.

0:17:24We're the beneficiaries.

0:17:27At the July 4th picnic I walked in there grousing about the city, and I walked out there so proud to be part of this diverse group.

0:17:37the mayor

0:17:39stood up and said, I don't know how you're going to take my comments, but the truth needs to be spoken. I recorded those comments.

0:17:47she said.

0:17:49We're a sanctuary city.

0:17:52That means she didn't say this part. There's a hundred 50 million dollars to hire a domestic military to target.

0:18:00and all the diverse people that make our community beautiful. Many of them are high risk.

0:18:08If the mayor is calling us to action, how may we create more effective communications. Thank you for your comments. Your time has ended. Our next speaker is Rebecca Milliken, followed by Howdy, Gowdy, Sue Duncan, and Michael Mcdougall, and thank you. I have your information and thank you for that recording.

0:18:30Okay, we'll go to our next speaker. Howdy, Gowdy, followed by Sue Duncan, Michael Mcdonald, and Barbara Chan.

0:18:40Good evening, Mayor and Council members. My name is Howdy Gaudy, and I live in El Credo, and I'm Gonna speak about my role as the president of Caro echo the

0:18:50amateur radio group that trains and practices communication preparedness for emergencies and disasters. On

0:19:01June 2029, we had our field day event. We had 30 plus amateur radio operators who made 665 contacts all across North America. No Internet.

0:19:16no satellites. It was just radio point to point. We covered 65 of the 70 geographical

0:19:24districts all across North America.

0:19:28So we can make contact with people. Mostly we've practiced local communications just helping our neighborhoods in a disaster. But we also look forward to working with the city more so. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Sue Duncan, followed by Michael Mcdonald, Barbara Chan, and Linda Kane.

0:19:47I'm sorry. Mcdougall apologies.

0:19:52Good evening. I'm sue Duncan resident of El Cerrito.

0:19:55I'm speaking on consent. Calendar. Item 7 CI encourage the Council to adopt the ordinance that is within that, and help which will help further reduce the Wildfire threat the city. Thank you.

0:20:11Our next speaker is Michael Mcdonald, apologies. I have a friend, Michael Mcdonald. It just comes out naturally. Michael Mcdougall, followed by Barbara Chan and Linda Kane.

0:20:20Hello Council members. Nice to see you again. I'm speaking of 2 items on the consent calendar. I'd like you to pull 70, perhaps even bring it back next week. I think it's overly broad to have 11 firms, all with the same $350,000 off cap on them. So I think you should send that back to public works, for like a little more fine detail

0:20:41also for 7 G. I'd like to thank you for the the decision you made in, I believe June to put 1.5 million dollars to the 1 15 trust. We did. Take a look at that 1 15 trust, and we think that it's at the appropriate place in terms of its risk. Reward for where that's at.

0:21:00hey? Our next speaker is Barbara Chan, followed by Linda Kane.

0:21:11Let me start by saying that I love libraries. I used to volunteer in our local library, but our city has been in serious financial trouble for far too long. While I appreciate that you have worked to correct financial mismanagement. We still have a nearly 90 million dollars, unfunded pension liability and a woefully inadequate safety building.

0:21:31Given the increasingly uncertain economic situation wrought by the trump administration. It does not make sense for our city to embark on costly nice to have but unnecessary expenditures like the Tod Plaza Library. I would vote to bring our current library up to code and raise money to build a better equipped safety building for our fire and police services before taxing ourselves

0:21:54forever for a library on land that we do not own. The Plaza Library plan does not make sound financial sense. Thank you.

0:22:03And our final final speaker on this item is Linda Kane.

0:22:08Hello, everyone! I won't spend time greeting all of you. But Hello! I just wanted to say something about your fabulous fire department in El Cerrito last week there was a fire at the house next door to me, and you can imagine that is the scariest, almost the scariest thing that can happen. There may be some worse. But I was terrified, and I watched the house going up in flames.

0:22:28The fire department got there in 4 min. Probably, they told me if it had been 1 min later my house would have burned.

0:22:35So they did an amazing job. They were efficient. They were just like a TV show. I was so impressed, and when it was all over, then I could kind of calm down. I said, What if the Richmond Street project had passed, and then there was all this construction and chicanes and roadblocking and slowing, and would this fire department be able to get to people's house as quickly as they do now in case of a fire. So that is just just my thought for you. Okay, thank you so much.

0:23:03Thank you, Mayor. That concludes our request to speak at this time. All right. Thank you so much. The next item is adoption of the consent calendar, which includes the following items, approval of minutes, board, Commission and committee work, plans and or accomplishments, adoption of ordinance regarding defensible space and home hardening inspections with the high and very high fire, hazard, severity zones, as designated by Cal. Fire and designating fire, hazard, severity zones.

0:23:31consulting services, agreement for on-call construction management services, consulting services agreement for a service delivery, study, resolution in support of the El Cerrito Plaza station transit, oriented development parcel, a South Financial Advisory Board recommendation.

0:23:47all right? Are there any questions or requests by the Council to pull items off of the consent? Calendar Council Member Salsman? I'd like to pull Item D, and then I have very brief comments on F and G,

0:24:03okay, any other items anyone would like to pull. I just wanna, I have a comment for item. G, item G, yes. Okay. Any other

0:24:13comment on item G, okay. Councilmember, can you make sure your your microphone is on? Thank you. I have a comment on item G, which may or may not be necessary, depending on councilmember Motiana's comments. Okay? And item B, as well, I just want to comment comment on. Item B, okay, all right. So let's go ahead and start with comments with, item F,

0:24:36councilmember. Salsman. Yeah, I just wanted to say, I'm really excited that we have a date, or at least a month, for the groundbreaking of this project that I've worked on for nearly a decade on the bark board, and now here, and the 1st part of the El Cerrito Plaza Tod is going to break ground in October. It's 70 affordable units.

0:24:59I'm just thrilled. I walk by that a lot almost every day. It's the one that's always empty. There's like 20 cars there, so it won't impact parking much, but it will be a real big impact for housing. So thrilled about that

0:25:12all right. Anyone else with any comments on. Item F,

0:25:16I would just actually add on to what you oh, go go ahead.

0:25:20Sorry, Councilman Motoyama. Do you want to make a statement about

0:25:23Item FI thought if it was all just on consent, then I don't. As long as you. As long as you clarify that you're recusing yourself on on that item, then you can still vote on the rest of the consent calendar. So to avoid the even the appearance of anything in conflict, I am recusing myself from voting on. Item F.

0:25:45Thank you.

0:25:46Thank you so much, and I will just add on to what you said. Councilmember, Salsman. I mean, I think, that there will be some skaters who will be sad that they are lost their makeshift. It's learning how to ride bikes. Yes, but but we are still excited about that project. So thank you. All right. Item G,

0:26:03we'll start at the end.

0:26:05I just want to say, if if this was not the meeting that it was, I would probably like want to pull this for discussion. But because I want to get to all our public comment, I just wanted to see if we could add this into the item we have coming from the Fab next month, and just have a discussion about this.

0:26:21And I've been told I don't need a motion. If people are good. With that. I'm okay. Sounds good. Council member Motiyama.

0:26:28Okay? That was what I was gonna suggest. So I don't have a comment on chief. Okay, councilmember Casanas. That is also what I was going to suggest.

0:26:36All right, we are done with. Item that was duly noted.

0:26:41All right. And item, B, okay, I just wanted to.

0:26:47thank all the commissioners and their work plans. We're not pulling it today to discuss them further. But I want everyone to know that we did read them. We are really appreciative of your accomplishments, and we look forward to having you move forward on those work plans. So just because we're not pulling them specifically to discuss today, I don't want people to think that we are not looking at them. So

0:27:12so thank you for following our procedure and providing us with the plan and accomplishments. It's really great to read all of them. Thank you.

0:27:21All right. Now, do I have a motion to approve the consent. Calendar, except Item D

0:27:28so moved. And I believe, G.

0:27:31G. Just for clarification, G is a receive and file, which and we've gotten direction from council to include this this as a discussion item with the other recommendation. Is that sufficient? I wasn't. I just wanted to clarify. So it's receiving file. If Council wanted to put off receiving it and filing it at this time, or just bring it back as part of the discussion. Okay, that's fine. Okay, do I have to

0:27:56for the interruptions? If you want to restate the motion, I just want to clarify whether I need to. We need to leave out F, so I cannot vote on it. You already stated for the record your recusal for that item, so it will be noted in the meeting minutes, and you can vote on it in one action. Thank you. But we do have a motion by councilmember salsaman to move the calendar.

0:28:16All right. So a motion by Councilmember Salzman is seconded by Council member Motiyama to move the consent, calendar minus item d all in favor, please say aye, aye, any opposed any abstentions, so the consent calendar does pass without item D without Item D, and noting the recusal for Councilmember, Motiyama for item S. Yes.

0:28:38all right. So now back to Item D council member Sauceman, yeah, I had had a lot of similar questions that one of our Fab members, Michael Mcdougall, just raised. So I thought it would be helpful. Maybe other people have these questions, too. If Karen or if our public works director.

0:28:56want to just respond about the need for 11, which is a lot more than is common, and how this is gonna work, and just how the the contracts will work and what we're really agreeing to in the process because it made sense once I had it explained to me. But

0:29:11sure, and my public works director is probably not in the room right now. I don't know where. Yeah, I just saw her, but

0:29:19at any rate I can. I can certainly start, and she can fill me in if I'm incorrect. But yes, we actually have provided some additional information to the Council based on a couple of questions from Council members, including Council, Member Saltzman on the on all of these consultants.

0:29:36We. Still, it is a larger number of consultants that we've selected in the past. They do have different skill sets and different specificities that they provide to the city council. These are not contracts that we are entering as far as payment as far as any. They are not. They are only allowed to go up to $350,000 if they are selected to do a project, and we are not guaranteeing that they are selected to do a project

0:30:00they are sort of in our in our, in our quarters, in our arrow that we can pull out if necessary, and if we do have a project that one or more of these consultants could even provide a proposal on or bid on, we would do so, and then we would issue the work order at that time not to exceed $350,000, and as we had provided to you, and is in the supplemental agenda that there's various various components, different types of of services that these provide. How'd I do?

0:30:30Good evening, council members. The city's public works. Director, I think you covered it. But I could summarize. Yes, it's 11 agreements. We? It's a bigger bench than normal, because we needed the specialties from parks to buildings to streets and storm drains. And it's a combination of large and small firms

0:30:53and it's the agreement doesn't guarantee any minimum minimum contract amount. And we really do

0:31:01a con consultants authorized to work on a task order basis.

0:31:05and the funding comes from either the Project Budget or a department operating budget.

0:31:11Thank you. And for me. Part of what was compelling was that this gives you the opportunities Karen mentioned to.

0:31:17If you have something in several firms, could do it to actually ask them for proposals and figure out who's best on each project. So I felt better after hearing from both of you, so I don't know if my colleagues feel good about this or have any other questions, but I'm I'm happy to move forward, but I wanted to get that all out in the public. Any other questions or comments from the rest of the council.

0:31:40All right. Do I have a motion to approve? Item D.

0:31:43I'll move.

0:31:44And do I have a second second? All right. So motion by council, member Motiyama, seconded by councilmember Salsman to approve. Item d. All in favor, please say aye, aye, any opposed

0:31:56any abstention? All right. So the item does pass

0:32:01all right onto our next item.

0:32:06Give items today.

0:32:12All right.

0:32:14Public hearings. The 1st public hearing, which is fire, hazard, abatement, hearing and declaration, can we please have the staff report?

0:32:29Thank you.

0:32:31Good evening, Mayor Weisinger and City Council members. My name is Chase Beckman, fire Marshal for the El Cerrito Fire department. I join you this evening to introduce a resolution declaring identified properties within El Cerrito as public nuisances for the purpose of abatement.

0:32:47The El Cerrito Fire department continues to educate our citizens about the importance of defensible space and home hardening measures.

0:32:55Whether it be our people driving the streets and noting areas of concern

0:33:00following up with community member complaints

0:33:03or scheduling home and site visits to educate large groups, small groups, single families. The fire department and community are interacting and positively engaged.

0:33:14more so than ever since my young tenure here with El Cerrito.

0:33:18the willingness and initiative of our citizens has been impressive. With that said, we still have room for improvement, and we are not out of the clear.

0:33:26All of us need to remain vigilant.

0:33:29This attention is specific to vegetation, maintenance, consistent and purposeful fuel, reduction.

0:33:35hardening opportunities, and tactful attention to detail.

0:33:40These requests are critical for all property owners, as we trek into the hottest periods of our summer season.

0:33:46with moderate work still in front of us. We all need to do our part.

0:33:50The properties that have not completed defensible space requirements are listed before you in exhibit a

0:33:56thank you for your time available to take any questions.

0:33:59All right. Are there any questions from the council.

0:34:05All right. So do I have a motion to approve the resolution, declaring I? Oh, oh, Nope! Apologies.

0:34:13apologies continue. I always get messed up on this one. Okay, see? I'm the one getting messed up. That's why I'm giving you a minute to see. Okay, do I have a motion to approve the resolution declaring identified properties.

0:34:27I'll move I'll second, all right. So I have a motion from Councilmember Multiyama, a second from Mayor pro tem quinto City clerk. Will you please call the vote all those in favor, please say aye, aye, any opposed motion carries? I wasn't sure, so I'll let you do it.

0:34:42All right.

0:34:44The public hearing is now open. Now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments regarding this item. Request to speak can be submitted to the city clerk by completing a speaker card. Public comments will be taken in person. Only please remember to identify yourself and your city of residents at the beginning of your comments. City clerk, please proceed. Thank you, Mayor. We have one request to speak for this item for Sue Duncan.

0:35:15Good evening, Council mayor. I am Sue Duncan, resident of El Cerrito. I encourage the Council to adopt the second resolution contained in this item, and I want to thank the El Cerrito Fire Department for their continued work to decrease hazardous conditions throughout the city. Thank you.

0:35:33Thank you. That concludes our request to speak. Mayor. All right do I have a motion to close the public hearing. So moved

0:35:40all right. So, moved by Mayor pro tem quinto, seconded by councilmember Salsman, all in favor, please say aye, aye, aye, any opposed any abstentions?

0:35:50All right. Do I have a motion to approve the resolution overriding objections. I'll move

0:35:57all right. So I have a motion by Council Member Multiyama, and a second by Councilmember Saltzman all in favor, please say aye, aye, any opposed

0:36:06councilmember? Saltzman, can you please make sure your microphone is on. Thank you.

0:36:12Any abstentions, all right. So the item does pass all right.

0:36:20The next item on the agenda is public nuisance, abatement, hearing for 63, 27, Conland Avenue. Can we please have the staff report?

0:37:04Good evening, Mayor Council members. My name is Steven. Mellow Neighborhood preservation program coordinator

0:37:10before you this evening is agenda. Item 8 BA resolution requesting confirmation of the costs incurred by the city in abating public nuisance conditions at 6,327. Conland Avenue.

0:37:21as authorized by El Cerrito. Municipal chapter 8.3 4. Nuisance abatement.

0:37:27I'd like to begin by briefly highlighting the purpose of the neighborhood preservation program at its core.

0:37:34The program is designed to protect public health and safety and promote civic pride throughout our community.

0:37:42Our principal goal.

0:37:46Next slide.

0:37:51Our principal goal is always to work collaboratively with property owners and businesses, to resolve violations through voluntary compliance whenever possible, through outreach and education.

0:38:03Regrettably, since August 2024,

0:38:07the Neighborhood preservation program has actively responded to ongoing complaints. At 6,327 Conland Avenue

0:38:14city inspections confirm persistent violations, including illegal dumping, unsanitary accumulation of junk and debris, overgrown vegetation and other fire hazards.

0:38:25The property was declared a public nuisance

0:38:31by this council on April 15, th 2025 by resolution 2025 to 23.

0:38:37The property owner was given notice and the opportunity to address the conditions, but failed to act.

0:38:42Consequently the city obtained an abatement warrant and coordinated with contractors to clear and secure the site.

0:38:48The work was completed on May 15, th 2025, removing 10.5 tons of junk debris, overgrown vegetation, and then securing the site by installing approximately 200 linear feet of chain link fence.

0:39:01Tonight we ask you to confirm the cost of the abatement which totals $41,583 and 81 cents, including 3rd party contractor expenses, city staff time, and legal fees. A full breakdown of these costs is included in exhibit A of your staff report

0:39:19confirmation of the proposed resolution will allow the city to afford the cost to Contra Costa County as a special assessment to recover costs.

0:39:28Staff recommends approval of the resolution as presented. This concludes my presentation, and I'm available for questions. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Any questions from the Council.

0:39:40All right. Well.

0:39:42the public hearing is now open. Now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments regarding this item. Request to speak can be submitted to the city clerk by completing a speaker card, public comments will be taken in person. Only please remember to identify yourself and your city of residents at the beginning of your comments. City clerk, please proceed. Thank you, Mayor. We have one request to speak on this item. Kelly Runyons Vale.

0:40:15Hello! My name is Kelly Runyons Valley.

0:40:19I am the daughter of the owner of the property.

0:40:24Imagine 2 friends that supported each other and cared about each other very much.

0:40:32That was the city and my family.

0:40:37My family had the 1st ambulance company in this area over 40 years, and we served.

0:40:47and they helped and supported the city in emergency medical services.

0:40:53graduating them to be greater and greater.

0:40:58And in this, because of the relationship, my

0:41:04the city allowed the fire department to clean up our property every year.

0:41:11Well, fast forward to now.

0:41:15Promise promises have been broken, and there's nothing that we can do about it now.

0:41:20Thank you for your comments. Your time has ended. City clerk. Can we just give her one more minute? Certainly, Mayor, it's at your discretion. Go ahead. Yes, ma'am.

0:41:30Well, my mother is 84, and bedridden.

0:41:35and has very little money these days. She she lives on social security. My sister helps her, and she's also disabled. She had a brain tumor and had brain surgery.

0:41:44Their ability to be able to respond

0:41:48to this with any kind of useful manner was impossible.

0:41:54Now, I've recently learned about this because they didn't want it.

0:41:59They didn't want to tell the family about what was going on.

0:42:05I know what has to be done. It has to be done. Now, which is much.

0:42:12I want people to realize.

0:42:16Bad promises are made, conditions happen that make things

0:42:24work as we support each other.

0:42:27but then sometimes things fall down.

0:42:30It happened. That's fine, but that's why

0:42:34it got as bad as it did, because my mother and my sister had no no ability to deal with.

0:42:41I have now, as I've talked with the manager of housing Aisha.

0:42:49I think there's a solution that may be near.

0:42:53But I just wanted you to know that this is family that helped the community, and he cares.

0:43:04Thank you.

0:43:05Thank you for your comments.

0:43:07Do we have any comments. I'll go 1st to the council members, any comments from the council members.

0:43:17Yes, go ahead, Council. I'm just

0:43:19curious. I thought I heard you say that you talked to the housing

0:43:23director, and there was a solution from that conversation I'm not clear what that means, and what that solution might be. So

0:43:37good evening, Mayor and Council members, Isa Sherry, the Housing and Economic Development Manager. Yes, we are able to speak with Miss Kelly and give her some options and potentially opportunities to sell the property. Because we understand there are some financial obstacles, and we want to be as supportive as we can, but also realizing, that we can enter potentially, introduce her to some opportunities to allow someone else to acquire the site and possible remedies.

0:44:06Housing director, do you believe, and I don't know

0:44:10legally if this is allowable. But given that, you've offered that opportunity, is there an opportunity for us to hold on this to see if those opportunities materialize, or what options do we have as a council?

0:44:24So I may ask sky to chime in. But the city has absorbed allocated budget for this and the mechanism to collect that would be through the special assessment. Guy, do you have anything to add in terms of how we might approach that

0:44:43So for one thing, the city council does not have to act tonight. you could delay action on this and consider it a later date.

0:44:53But additionally, if you adopt the resolution and place it as a lien and special assessment on the property. It will basically be on the tax bill. If it goes unpaid, it will it. The does. The

0:45:09every county in California essentially provides multiple opportunities for property owners to clear those kinds of assessments before they put the property into foreclosure. And ultimately, if somebody is able to acquire the property, it would have to be cleared as part of the sale. So the buyer would basically would pick up this cost.

0:45:27But ultimately, you know, the I guess the other option is, the Council could choose not to, could choose to absorb the cost. That was incurred. You don't have. You? Don't have to recover it from the property owner, if you choose not to.

0:45:41I don't. I wouldn't

0:45:42want to absorb the cost, but I mean I just wanted to find out if there's any type of time considerations. I don't know if anyone else had any thoughts about that at all.

0:45:52We I mean, we do have to. If you're going to do it, you need to do it within a reasonable period of time, after the after the costs are incurred. If you do it tonight, I believe there will be time to get it onto the roll for the 2526 tax year. If you wait, it won't, even even if you do it, it will not appear on the tax bill until the 2627 tax year.

0:46:16Okay, thank you for that. Even if it's not on the tax bill. It would still be on the

0:46:23part of settling the cost when it's sold right.

0:46:26If it's if we could. Also we would have to. We'd have to modify the action. We don't have to place it as a special lease assessment. It could just be a lien on the property which would have to be cleared at the time of sale. But the special assessment assures that there is there that the property owner is is is

0:46:49is being compelled to pay it as part of property taxes.

0:46:54But again, you you, if you don't do it tonight. It'll just we. We can bring it back another night and it'll move on to the next tax bill. But that does mean that the city will have to defer collecting that for some period of time

0:47:07I have a question. So my understanding is that if it's under the special collection or supplemental on the tax bill, then that once it goes on the tax bill, the county reimburses us.

0:47:22Is that correct?

0:47:24Generally. Yes, it'll be, it'll basically be the the county will basically pay the city everything that's owed, and then attempt to Co, it'll basically, as I said, roll over several tax years, penalties will begin to accrue, but it'll it's it's typically several years before the county forces a foreclosure over unpaid taxes. But the city will receive the money. Okay.

0:47:48all right. And I apologize. In city clerk. You did not remind me, but I need to close the hearing before comments correct. It doesn't. Okay. You can just close it now. We'll just close it. Now, do I have a motion to close the public hearing? I move. I'll second all right. So all in favor, please say aye, aye, any opposed.

0:48:06any abstentions.

0:48:08so the public hearing is closed. Do we have any other council comments or questions before we go into a vote on the item.

0:48:16No, we oh, go ahead. I have one other question. So if we delay placing this lien, do we lose any rights for recovery?

0:48:27If there were a sale before before the city had an opportunity to place the lien then, that it would not be recovered as part of the the sale. The city still has the legal authority to it it we would still bring it. If you wanted to delay, we'd still bring it back to council. Still impose it. But then it would basically it would not be closed out as part of a sale.

0:48:52Okay? And how long of a delay would, or when could it go to council and then show up on the 2627 text Bill, basically a year for any time until a year from now, we basically have to transmit it to the county before, I believe the end of July. Okay. So if we did it next month, for example.

0:49:15then it would go on to 2627.

0:49:20Yes, okay, I think, the city man. I I'm just questioning if that would be assuming that

0:49:30we would try to work with the property owner to have it paid before we make the lien. Is that

0:49:37the assumption?

0:49:41Because whether we delay it to this tax year or next tax year either way, we won't recover any of the costs from the city unless it's it's recorded this way. Okay.

0:49:54okay, this is a a tough window. Does anyone want to make any sort of motion. In regards to this item.

0:50:02no one even wants to make a motion. Go ahead.

0:50:07I go ahead. Councilmember salsaman, I mean, I think, given the large cost, and given that we have no way of knowing, we can recover it anytime soon. If we don't take action. I think we have to take action tonight for the city's finances and continue to work with the property owners to. If you if we know somebody who might want to buy it, I mean. That sounds like a good plan, and it is good to know that they're not going to be foreclosed on imminently, and the county is going to work with them.

0:50:35There's anything our staff can do to help with that process with the county. I would really hope that that would happen, but just given the situation, and there's not a lot of time to make sure we get paid anytime soon I will

0:50:48move it. The item I'll second.

0:50:54I will just say before I call the vote. This is probably one of the hardest parts of being a city council member.

0:51:01because it's a struggle between your connection to real world situations and doing what's best for the city.

0:51:08So all in favor, please say aye, aye, aye, any opposed any abstentions, though the item does pass.

0:51:20Thank you, Staff. Thank you. To the family, and we do. We commit as a city to do everything that we can to work with you. In regards to this item.

0:51:29It you're welcome.

0:51:32The next item is the active transportation and complete streets policy study session.

0:51:37Before we begin, I want to make a brief announcement regarding the process for this agenda item

0:51:43staff will be providing a presentation to the city Council, and after council members have asked any questions on the information. The City Council will take public comments after public comment. The Council will move to discussion and direct and direction to staff, if applicable, because we have a lot of speakers on this item. I have already reduced the speaker's time to 1 min per person. Please respect the time limit.

0:52:08We want everyone who wants to speak, to have the chance to do so. If you have comments that line up with previous speakers, feel free to state this and keep your comments as concise as possible, so that we are able to hear everyone who wishes to speak. If you wish to comment and have not yet submitted a speaker card to the city clerk. I ask that you do so now, so that the city clerk can be prepared to call speakers when the public comment period has

0:52:32has begun, speakers will be called in the order they are received. I will also remind the audience that every speaker has the right to be heard. Whether you agree or disagree with the comments of a speaker, please do not applaud Boo, or make comments, or give any audible disruption.

0:52:49This is so that everyone feels comfortable speaking, and so that speakers don't feel intimidated or afraid that their comments will cause a reaction. Let us all remember that we are neighbors, and that everyone deserves to be heard and respected while they are speaking.

0:53:03Can we please have the staff report?

0:53:08Good evening, Mayor and Council members?

0:53:11I am Yvette Ortiz, the city's public works director and city engineer, and with me tonight is Jared Mullen, our sustainable transportation program manager. Can you hear me

0:53:24tonight? We look forward to provide, providing you an overview of the city's active transportation plan and complete streets policy. But 1st we'll start with a backdrop of a 25 years of transportation and climate policy, and then afterwards provide an overview of the city's project development process and describe certain projects that have been completed recently and and are underway.

0:53:50So I'll turn it over to Jared.

0:53:56Good evening so we'll start with the transportation and climate policy backdrop and before we dive into it. There's obviously been a lot of talk about Richmond Street in the last year, but Richmond Street really builds off of 25 years of local policy foundation. And there's a couple of threads that run through a lot of these local policies here. But a key one is making bicycling and walking safer and easier.

0:54:21And there's another thread that runs through a lot of these policies, too, which is the climate emergency. And I use that term because our City Council City Council did declare a climate emergency back in 2,019

0:54:33and the climate policy really shapes transportation policy and plans. Because most greenhouse emissions actually come from transportation in the State. About 30% of all our climate emissions, greenhouse emissions come from passenger vehicles locally. It's about half. So you can't really have a climate policy without addressing transportation.

0:54:55And what does this mean? Or really the last couple of decades is you start with the goals? Which is, there is a need to shift mode to address climate climate issues, and then the methods or the tools like, how do we do it? Ie. Making, walking and biking more safer? And then, finally, the execution or outcomes, which is really what we're touching on tonight, which is building the infrastructure.

0:55:20So this really starts back in 1999, the blueprint for our future with our general plan which calls for this is the top transportation goal, basically, which is building a complete and balanced transportation network with choice of modes and choice of modes, modes, mean walk, bike, take transit, drive, and goods movement.

0:55:42In the in the 2 thousands.

0:55:44Climate goals really come into view. Starting with state policy in 2,006, with 82. And the California Global Warming Solutions Act

0:55:52Which calls for reducing greenhouse emissions to 1990 levels by

0:55:58by 2020, so that goal has passed. But the companion goal or a companion policy was Sb. 375, which recognized this relationship between land use transportation and greenhouse gas emissions again, because most of our greenhouse emissions come from transportation.

0:56:16And that really sets all sorts of funding policies that that that affect which projects are competitive where we can get our funding from.

0:56:25So that was really instrumental. In that

0:56:29also, we have a couple of local actions here, including in 2,007 El Cerrito, we adopted our 1st bike and pedestrian network.

0:56:37and coming into the 2,010 s. This is where the tools or the methods come into place. The last decade was establishing the goals

0:56:45and things really come into view here. So in 2013, El Cerrito adopts the 1st climate action plan

0:56:51in 2014 the the State legislature actually enables or allows what we call separated bikeways, which are bicycle lanes on street that are physically separated from motor vehicles, and that, again, is responding to this interest of like, we need to change mode, need to make site bicycling and walking safer, safer, and more comfortable. So that's providing a method or a tool by which we can achieve that goal.

0:57:17We have our complete streets policy and active transportation plan in 2016, which we'll be touching on the 2019 Climate Emergency Declaration.

0:57:26And then a key standard document that came out that we'll touch on again is the Federal Government releases its bikeway selection guide.

0:57:35And in the last 5 5 years there's just continued progress. So El Cerrito renews its commitment to addressing climate change with the 2024 climate action and adaptation plan. 2 key objectives in that plan are building out a citywide pedestrian and bikeway network, and in including increasing the area dedicated to active modes.

0:57:56We also have our strategic plan, which I'll just touch on briefly, and that includes delivering infrastructure to the public sustainable infrastructure and weaving in the climate, adapt climate, action, and adapt adaptation, plan into all that we do.

0:58:17all right. So shifting gears to the active transportation plan and complete streets policy itself.

0:58:25you just bear with me. I'm just gonna read this here. So what is active transportation and complete streets, so active transportation is any form of human powered transportation, such as walking, bicycling, using a wheelchair inline skating or skateboarding and complete streets are a comprehensive transportation network that's safe, comfortable, and convenient for all ages, abilities and modes.

0:58:48And we just talked a lot about why you do. Why, active transportation is good climate policy. But there's other benefits as well. Both for the individual and for society. And that really runs through health the economy and freedom of choice. So health is. You're incorporating movement into everyday life. You're reducing death and serious injuries from crashes.

0:59:14On the economic side. You walking and biking are lower cost modes easier to get around walking and biking infrastructure is also just lower cost to build and maintain.

0:59:26It also supports housing production, as we're all familiar with with El Reta Plaza Tod, a big variable and trade off was between providing more affordable units or just housing units in general, or building more off street parking. So providing choices, enabling other modes. It helps support our housing production goals.

0:59:45Finally, freedom and choice and choice that comes right out of our general plan. Again, top transportation goal is building a transportation network with choices.

0:59:55and in the Us. Over half of all car trips are less than 5 miles, which is a perfect walking and biking distance. So we don't want to mandate driving. If we if someone doesn't want to or can't drive.

1:00:10and I'll just touch on the active transportation plan here. Basically collection of goals and policies that guide our bicycle pedestrian programs and infrastructure investments. And like we've been talking about, it's all about making biking and walking safer comfortable, more convenient, easier. It also includes our bicycle and pedestrian maps. So there's actually maps of the facility types. For for each mode.

1:00:36And Yvette will touch on some of the progress on these projects a little later.

1:00:40Now, our complete streets policy is really a companion to the active transportation plan, and it puts complete streets into routine practice citywide, and the policy itself mentions those 2 State laws that I touched on earlier, including the Climate Action Plan in 2013, which was the most current one when this was adopted.

1:01:00And a key. A key item from here is to use the latest and best design, guidelines, practices, and standards. Which I'll come back to in a minute.

1:01:10Now, complete streets deals with all modes, but we are going to talk a little bit more about biking tonight than the other modes. And here's why. So most of our transportation network is is built out for driving and walking. That's not to say there's never work to be done. But here we have 68 centerline miles for vehicle use.

1:01:30We have a pretty comprehensive sidewalk network. Obviously, there's gaps. There's work to be done at intersections. Our transit network probably could use more meat on the bone. But we do have this spine network to Bart stations, of course, and our biking network has some some noticeable gaps

1:01:49and this is our current bikeway network from 2,016. The active transportation plan. And it's basically built into this hierarchy of facility types, as we call them, starting with a shared use path like the ohlone, Greenway, and then the other 3 types are all on street facilities. With the class 4 being the latest facility type that was allowed by State law back in 2014. Originally, we actually couldn't really build these in California before 2014.

1:02:19So so what does this actually mean to the users. And how is this bikeway design of evolved really to respond to those goals? To increase mode shift.

1:02:30And this goes back to 2,009. Which is this research called the 4 types of bicyclists. And this was really to understand if there's actually interest from the public in bicycling more. And what it found was that it found these 4 user groups. You have strong and fearless, enthused and confident, interested, but concerned and no way no how. This is what the researcher called it

1:02:54and 60% of the that user group was falling. This interested but concerned category, who are who want to bike more, but the lack of safe and safe and comfortable infrastructure was holding them back.

1:03:09So a lot of the design guidance and changes that we'll see in a minute are really kind of responding to that need to help unlock mode, shift.

1:03:19and 2 key guides that we have here. On the left are the 2,019 Fhwa bikeway Selection Guide and the Nacdo urban bikeway design guide.

1:03:29We're probably pretty familiar with the Nacdo guide. But this bikeway selection guide basically calls for increasing bike car separation on high traffic, high speed roads. And this chart is from that guide. And what it basically shows is the relationship between vehicle speed on the bottom access axis and a vehicle volume in daily traffic on the vertical axis.

1:03:57And here's what it means for some projects that we're working on. So Del Norte, Complete Streets project has actually applied this design guidance. And if you recall the complete streets. Policy calls for using the latest design, latest and best design guidance.

1:04:13So in the active transportation plan, Del Norte is really originally just supposed to be striped bike lanes. Instead, what's being built is separated bike lanes. And you can see here the green line shows the relationship between the facility type, speed and volume. So we're well into that dark blue separated Bike Lane area

1:04:30and then Richmond Street. So in our active transportation plan, it's called for north of Mosher Lane. It's called for a shared lane, bikes and vehicles sharing the same same space, but using speed and volume data. It's actually closer to a bike lane or a separated bike lane as the recommended facility.

1:04:49And we we know there's implications for other corridors in the city, which is why, later this year, when we really start draft local road safety plan, we'll actually have a list of recommended corridors where these other types of facility changes where we'd want to consider them, and that will be released to the public and be brought to council for review.

1:05:15So now I'll move on to project delivery and implementation process

1:05:22following the vision and direction that's been provided by city Council and and your adopted plans and policy city staff, then work to implement these transportation projects.

1:05:32And we conduct additional focus studies. We seek grant funding. We engage the community and other stakeholders, including police fire and transit agencies, and we with their feedback. We further refine project goals and the concept design.

1:05:51We also assess environmental impacts and then move forward with design, detailed design development and then construction. And then, as part of this process per our El Cerrito municipal code, the city engineer is responsible for approving project public project designs.

1:06:10This is to ensure the public safety. That the decisions that are being made are technically sound provides safety and functionality

1:06:20and are in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

1:06:25The city's engineer, the city engineer. Approval of the design helps ensure again the public safety, and it also protects the cities from liability claims. This is known as design, immunity in State law.

1:06:40design. Immunity requires that the design be prepared by an engineer or engineering professionals.

1:06:47and that it be documented?

1:06:50that it be documented that it is reasonable, and that at the time of approval.

1:06:55This includes incorporating evolving engineering design standards, guidelines and best practices

1:07:02for bikeways. Our risk management agency, for example, our municipal pulling authority has highlighted the use of the urban bikeway design guide. For for this reason.

1:07:16and I'll quickly just go through

1:07:19projects that we've implemented after adoption of the active transportation plan.

1:07:25and I'll start 1st with the Ohloney Greenway, which is one of the highest priority, pet and bike facilities in our transportation plan, and is an example of how we gradually invest and sustain investment and transformation of our

1:07:42pet and bike infrastructure.

1:07:45Moving on. We have been incorporating pedestrian improvements as part of every project that we're doing, including paving projects. As you see here, there's a few projects where we repaved the street, added curb ramps, repaired sidewalks, and added high visibility, crosswalk markings.

1:08:06In addition, we did spot improvements at some intersections where we had had severe injuries or fatalities, and, for example, at Carlson, in San Diego we applied for a grant, and were able to install rapid, rectangular, flashing beacons at that intersection.

1:08:25moving on to a more multimodal complete streets, projects. We've done a variety of projects from safe routes to school. To a key

1:08:37spot. Intersection improvements. One. I wanted to. A couple that wanted to highlight were at the top right here, where we installed the city's 1st segment of a separated bike way on San Pablo Avenue, near Mosier. We partnered with the Sf. Estuary project on this to incorporate a pilot bike Lane as part of a green infrastructure that was also treating Stormwater.

1:09:02More recently we're working with Caltrans and the city of Richmond to be secured funding to install an off street pet and bike facility on Central Avenue under the I-eighty freeway. And this is important because it's part of one of our priority projects. Again the Bart to Bay Trail connection.

1:09:24There are several projects that are underway right now. And they're major major construction project, the 1st being the Nordic complete streets. Which I appreciate the project, the public's patience, as we've been constructing that project and we are the scheduled completion is the end of this fall. I wanted to highlight that. Oh!

1:09:45As part of the adoption of the active transportation plan, soon after we were able to secure close to 13 million dollars of grant funding and next other funding sources to implement that project that was both design and construction. More recently, the Richmond Street Complete Streets Project is currently under design.

1:10:06and we were able to secure 9 million dollars in funding for it. And I'll go over that in a little more detail, and in the planning phase, we have the El Cerrita Plaza, Tod, East West Bikeway.

1:10:19now of focusing on Richmond Street complete streets. This is, you know, the process that I highlighted earlier.

1:10:29and what I wanted to talk just kind of go through in more detail. With this project, we are currently in the engineering design phase.

1:10:38As you know, Richmond Street is goes to the core of our city. It connects schools, a community center. The Bart stations

1:10:47and our adopted plans have prioritized it for pedestrian and bicycle improvements.

1:10:53The pavement repairs that are part of the East Bay mud, wildcat, pipeline project provided the city an opportunity to invest in comprehensive improvements for all modes of transportation. And I want to talk about a little bit about the East Bay Mud Wildcat Project because it really talks about where we are. With this the current state of the street. That project was scheduled to become start construction in 2015,

1:11:22and the city held off on repaving Richmond Street because we knew, hey, this big pipeline project was going to come up and tear up the street. So why invest in paving, if let's hold off, have that paved, and then then redo the street.

1:11:36But the project was delayed for almost a decade, and in the meantime the pavement condition on Richmond Street significantly deteriorated. Now it's some of the worst pavement in the city. It's it's designated as poor or at risk.

1:11:51So there is a need to repave that street as soon as possible before it continues to deteriorate.

1:11:57The good thing is that the city was able to leverage the 1 million approximately 1 million dollars. That East Bay Med. Has provided the city to restore their

1:12:07trench to work with the Contra Costa transportation authority and secure 8 million dollars from a nationally competitive Grant source, which is the safe street streets for all program.

1:12:20And then we were able to secure more funding from the affordable housing sustainable communities. Program, also very competitive, and that was related to the El Cerrito Plaza, Bart. Tod.

1:12:33then community engagement for the project started in July of 2024, and has included a variety of workshops, surveys local community and committee organization

1:12:46organizations and site meetings with residents.

1:12:50The preliminary design itself was presented to the community back in the fall of 2024. Our initial schedule for construction was this summer.

1:12:59and however, we took some additional time to work with the community to refine the design.

1:13:05And now we are targeting construction. In the summer of 2026. The main driver for the project in terms of schedule is the pavement condition.

1:13:15the grant itself. The safe streets for all. Grant has a longer timeline, the Contra Costa transportation authority has to complete all the projects by January of 2029.

1:13:26But the real driver is just the condition of the street, the pavement, the striping, all of that.

1:13:37So the goal of the Richmond Street Complete Streets Project is to enhance the safety, connectivity and comfort for everyone traveling along Richmond Street.

1:13:46Doing so requires repurposing the limited public street space.

1:13:51This is a big change for our community, and specifically for the residents that live along Richmond, Richmond Street, north of Mosier.

1:13:59This is because in this part of Richmond Street there will be a significant amount of on street parking that would need to be removed to accommodate the bike lanes and other traffic calming and pedestrian safety features and and greening features as well.

1:14:14We believe the current design is shown here.

1:14:17achieves a compromise that balances the community needs for safe walking and bicycling while maintaining as much on-street parking as possible.

1:14:30So I wanted to talk a minute about public parking or on street parking and we did we did collect parking data as part of the just part of the product development process and the community outreach process.

1:14:43And again, I want to emphasize that this is public parking. It does not include off street private parking. So in October 2024, we collected occupancy data along Richmond Street

1:14:57on a on a weekday, 2 time periods on a weekday and one time period in the afternoon on a Saturday

1:15:04and the peak demand was at on the weekday evening at about 46%, or just about half full along Richmond Street.

1:15:13and during the public outreach process people community members asked more about the parking data. Wanted to see what things look like on the side streets. And we we thought it'd be helpful to understand just the capacity for for street parking. So in May 2025, we expanded the study area focused on the blocks north of Mosier Lane, where the the bicycle facility is proposed, and where the greatest street parking changes would be

1:15:38and we also added these these parallel corridors, and the weekday evening occupancy was about 1 3rd full

1:15:47and I, you know I do want to emphasize. You know, street street parking parking demand. It's it's not a science. It's this is a snapshot. In time there can be events, or someone can be throwing a party and having a lot of people over, and that can cause demand to spike

1:16:00but what we're seeing is that a general benchmark for one street parking is is really full is about 85% and what we're seeing is data points that are generally well well below that.

1:16:17the the parking data that we collected did inform the design, and we looked at several options for bike lanes, as shown here

1:16:24the option on the left was separated bike lanes. I would require the removal of all on street parking within the current.

1:16:33curb to curb width of the street.

1:16:36We considered Bike Lane options where we could maintain approximately half of the on-street, parking one with on street parking just on one side, which is from in the middle, and another with on-street parking that alternates between sides. On one block

1:16:50we selected the latter to provide a distribution of parking to residents on the like, an equal distribution, or similar distribution of parking to residents on the east and west sides of Richmond Street, and this was in response to community feedback

1:17:06staff. Believe that that this is the best option. Reflecting a city council adopted plans and policies, community feedback project goals and current engineering guidance and standards.

1:17:19just if you can go back a little bit. No, that's fine. With this design. During peak times drivers will need to either use their private parking in their garages or driveways, or park, one to 2 blocks away.

1:17:32to accommodate those people with mobility disabilities. The project has identified up to 8 88 parking stall spaces along Richmond Street.

1:17:45north of Mojo.

1:17:48Yes, I

1:17:49I could please ask the audience to keep their comments to themselves. My staff is providing the presentation to council. Thank you.

1:17:58I'll get closer.

1:18:01In addition, we've asked residents to contact us if a wider driveway apron, which is the portion of the driveway in the right of way, will help them improve their access to their private driveways and garages.

1:18:14and we've also been working with residents on the installation of blue curb in front of their homes. In accordance with the city's residential blue curb program.

1:18:30As mentioned earlier, we're in the engineering design phase of the project. And this includes a step that's called. That's a parking notification and appeal process. While the city engineers approval of a project design cannot be appealed. The removal of parking can be appealed as specified in a council resolution from 2,008

1:18:54we.

1:18:55We have completed, like the step one that's shown on this slide and

1:19:02This included a comment period from June 9, th through July 9, th

1:19:09and city Staff sent a 300 foot notice for the entire corridor, providing information about the project parking removal and how to provide written comments.

1:19:20We received 82 written comments at the open house on July 25, th and approximately 100 additional comments through the end of the comment period.

1:19:32We are now in phase 2 of the project of of not the project phase 2 of this parking removal and appeal process.

1:19:40And we are currently reviewing all the comments that we've received to date and have begun responding to them individually.

1:19:48We have prioritized responding to comments from individuals expressing specific access issues, access concerns due to mobility disabilities, and have begun working with them as described below before, in terms of either widening their driveway apron or working with them to install blue curbs in front of their homes.

1:20:09After considering all the public comment and information, in about a week or so, I, as a city engineer, will be making a final determination regarding the length of each parking removal area.

1:20:20A final 300 foot notification would then be sent to these areas, moving on to phase 3.

1:20:29Oh, it got cut off.

1:20:31Again, this info the the. This information is provided on the project website, and it will also be provided as part of the final notification that's mailed to the residents along the corridor.

1:20:43The city's engineer, city engineers. Decision to remove on street parking can be appealed to the city manager within 15 days.

1:20:53and the appellant has to provide a written notice, provide details as to their concerns and their reasons for their appeal.

1:21:02The the city. Manager's decision regarding the parking removal may then be appealed to the City Council within 5 days.

1:21:10This also requires a written notice, as well as the payment of a fee set forth in the master fee schedule.

1:21:22So at this point this slide includes questions for City Council discussion.

1:21:29I will go ahead and read them directly. If you bear with me, I think there! There's a lot of detail in here that I'd like to cover

1:21:37first.st Does the City Council wish to affirm the current vision and direction that is based on the active transportation plan, the complete streets policy, the climate, action and adaptation, plan, and other applicable plans and policies?

1:21:50If not, does the city Council wish to change the vision direction and amend these plans and policies? And you can see the other related steps there

1:22:02in terms of next steps. If the council wishes to continue the current vision and direction, no action is required by the city council and staff would continue with the current project process for the Richmond Street Complete Streets project and initiate next steps for parking removal, which is the final determination.

1:22:22If the City Council wishes to amend the current vision and direction, then a city council would need to pass a motion to provide direction to city staff.

1:22:32That concludes our presentations, and Jared and I are here to answer your questions. Thank you.

1:22:37Thank you so much, Staff, for that very detailed staff report. Now was the time for any questions for a council. I do want to remind us that these are for questions. The period for comments will come after the public comment. So does anyone have any questions. I'll start with you councilmember Salsman.

1:22:54Just before my questions. I want to just make a statement for transparency, I think many people know. But in my day job I work at Bike East Bay, an advocacy organization that is supporting this project and many other projects that make it safer to bike. I have talked to the city attorney and have been advised. I don't need to recuse myself, but anytime bike. East Bay has a position on anything that comes to the Council. I will remind folks that I do work at bike East Bay

1:23:23onto my questions. I wanted to see if we could hear from our

1:23:29police chief and fire chief about public safety, and there have been concerns raised about. You know how this could impact response times, things like that. And I just would like to hear it from them, because I assume there will be public questions about that

1:23:48I know we do have Police Chief Keith here in the room. I don't know if Chief sailors is here.

1:23:54He is coming

1:24:01Union Council. I'm Paul Keith, your chief of police.

1:24:04The police department, was consulted during the design process for this portion of the roadway, and our analysis indicates that we should not have any response challenges due to changes in the roadway.

1:24:17Thank you, Chief Sailor, do you have any comments?

1:24:22I'm chief sailors. I'm your fire chief.

1:24:24We were consulted as well during the design process, and all of our concerns and recommendations were met through the design process to make sure that we don't have any delayed response. Times.

1:24:35Thank you, that's all my questions, for now.

1:24:38all right. Any other questions from Council Council mayor pro tem. Thank you, Mayor.

1:24:44Could you explain to me, in layman's terms exactly how the the blue stripe

1:24:53for disabled people how how that is going to be put on the new

1:25:03construction, and then will that help in

1:25:08better access? And if you can explain the access and the possibility of widening the driveways for our residents.

1:25:16Yes. The the blue curb. We've identified 8 locations where we'll be installing it right near the intersection. And

1:25:26What I should say about that is that we're we're following a federal guidance for providing Ada accessible spaces. Doesn't necessarily apply in this residential zone. It really only applies for areas like commercial areas where spaces are marked. But we're following that and providing parking about every block a blue curb spots.

1:25:49And we decided to put them on the side street versus the Richmond Street itself, right at the intersection to leave the general purpose parking available on Richmond Street.

1:26:00and then, in terms of the blue curb. We're also working with residents to install a blue curb in front or near their homes. If they do have a disability per our residential blue curb program and have already been reached out by a resident. We're working with them on that. And we're maintaining the, I think, one or 2 spaces that currently exist along the border.

1:26:22Okay, thank you. Thank you.

1:26:24Any other questions last minute?

1:26:27All right now.

1:26:29Oh, yeah, I think the second part of that question was the how the driveway widening worked. So when we say driveway just be super clear is that it's the it's the sloped part of the driveway that's between the sidewalk and the curb, which is the public part of the driveway.

1:26:47And what we've heard from some residents is that you know it's too narrow. I I can't move my vehicle in and out. And it really, that's why I park on the street, or and it inhibits me from you conveniently using my private parking. We've also heard about grading issues like it's too steep, you know, my car bottoms out. I don't like parking in my driveway because of that. So we we want to make this transition easier. So we we've offered it really.

1:27:13all the recent public outreach events that if that's something that could help you, please contact us, and we do have a few in the queue. So thank you

1:27:24all right, and with that now is the time for a public comment or public who wish to provide public comments regarding this item. Request to speak can be submitted to the city clerk by completing a speaker card. Public comments will be taken in person. Only please remember to identify yourself and your city of residents at the beginning of your comments. City clerk, please proceed. Thank you, Mayor, and I'm again thank you. Everyone that is here tonight for participating in this, and I do appreciate your

1:27:52patience in advance. We do have 43 requests to speak on this item. I will call 4 to 5 speakers ahead, so if you are not currently in the council chambers, you can make your way here and start a queue up on the side of the room. So we're gonna start tonight. Our 1st speaker is Ing Bruce.

1:28:08followed by William Stewart, Larry Amernick, Alice Towiy, and Matt Blackwell. So Ng, you can come up and

1:28:20good evening. My name is Inga Rust, and I live in El Cerrito. The publicity at your Richmond Street open house, and tonight was nearly identical to 2024. As if community pushback voters or publicly known facts don't exist.

1:28:37facts such as the 8 million dollars grant. It does not require bike lanes. The 2016. Active transportation plan also does not mention separate bike lanes, neither do they appear on the plan. In 2022

1:28:52bike lanes in Europe. Parking was a late 2024 addition to appease one special interest group at the cost of all others. The parking occupancy research conducted by the city is not accurate. I am a lifelong bicyclist. Our property support sufficient parking for our family, so why I am here.

1:29:15My conscience simply cannot side with something wrong even, or perhaps especially if it is presented and disguised as something right. Thank you for your comments. Your time has ended.

1:29:28Our next speaker is William Stewart, followed by Larry Amernick, Alice Towie, Matt Blackwell, and Lynn Watkins.

1:29:38Oh, I'm William Stewart El Cerrito. I've been asked to read a letter from Trina Pierce San Mateo, who is a community activist involved in the bike lane.

1:29:47business over there, and she had a scheduling conflict and couldn't be here. And she said, I just wanted to express my concern about how Bike Lane, that is hardly used has affected our neighborhood in San Mateo, especially for seniors, and disabled

1:30:00in our neighborhood. 200 parking places were removed from our street in favor of separate bike lanes.

1:30:06The original comments in favor of bike lanes were spoken by members of the bike organizations and others who are not local residents because they have money, they feel they have a right to control neighborhoods. They don't even reside in

1:30:18the residents and seniors in my community have finally spoken up because their everyday living changed. So on February 5th this year San Mateo City Council overturned the decision, and 100 parking places will be returned.

1:30:30There are other cities removing bike lanes. Now, too, please consider residents who actually live there and not put more weight on the tune, as you hear from outsiders.

1:30:38Thank you. I would also like to mention. Thank you. Your time has ended. Our next speaker is Larry Amernick, followed by Alice Towie, Matt Blackwell, Lynn Watkins, and William Wood.

1:30:51Hi! I'm Larry Yaminick. I live around the corner on Richmond Street. I want to thank you all for basically trying to destroy our lives.

1:31:00It's not going to affect you if you basically take away parking and basically take away the ability to have a social life.

1:31:09No one will be able to come and deliver any goods. No one will be able to work on the property. Whoever lives in the area will have to carry heavy bags of groceries quite a distance.

1:31:23That is a burden that's personal.

1:31:27That's not abstract. It's not climate change. It's not bike lanes. What you're doing is you're destroying the quality of life for the neighborhood congratulations. Thank you.

1:31:40Our next speaker is Alice, followed by Matt Blackwell, Lynn Watkins, William Wood, and Guy Sonatina.

1:31:48Thank you. Good evening, Mayor. Members of City Council. My name is Alice Tui. I live on Richmond Street in El Cerrito. I'm here today to express my support for the Complete Streets project for 3 reasons. Number one. It'll provide much needed traffic calming on our block between Gladys and Potrero. We've seen numerous accidents over the past several years from speeding vehicles.

1:32:07Number 2. The project does add bike lanes which I support. My husband and I live on Richmond Street. We bike on Richmond Street. We have friends with young children who come to visit us. We need to be able to bike safely on our street to get to and from our home.

1:32:20And 3, rd the proposed plan is fair. It provides an equitable balance of uses for what is a shared resource? Richmond Street. So it provides safety for pedestrians and cyclists while maintaining ample parking for the neighborhood.

1:32:34So those are my 3 reasons. I would also just quickly like to acknowledge city staff. The outreach and engagement on this project has been excellent. There's been great communication. I work for a public agency myself. So I know how challenging that is. So I just want to say Thank you for their efforts. Thank you.

1:32:49Our next speaker is Matt Blackwell, followed by Lynn Watkins, William Wood, Guy, Sonatina, and Stuart. Sonatina.

1:32:56Hi, Mayor City Council. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Matthew Blackwell. I live on Richmond Street, and I would like to express my support for the proposed plan for Richmond Street, including bike lanes. I've lived on Richmond Street for 23 years, and I drive bike and walk on the street on a regular basis daily. I think it's time to prioritize safety on our street to make it safer and more enjoyable for everyone. The street is a public space, and the public, all members of the public should feel safe and welcome using it.

1:33:22I think the plan under consideration balances the needs of various users of the street, and will also result in a more beautiful livable street, and, like Alice Toy before me. I would like to thank Staff for this. I know it's a hard, long process. I appreciate the effort. I've been to 6 meetings about this project, and I appreciate the effort. Thank you.

1:33:40Our next speaker is Lynn, followed by William Wood, Gaia, Sonatina Stuart, Sonatina, and Terry Stokes.

1:33:48Lynn Watkins, El Cerrito.

1:33:50In November and December we were shown some of the original designs for the Richmond Street project. We were consistently led to believe that we would lose about 50% of the parking between December and June. Those plans changed drastically. You never held a public meeting in that time to ask us about the changes, or tell us you never invited my neighbors or myself to come and give you feedback about the project.

1:34:19Only one month ago did you present the new plan, including the chicanes and taking away in the 60 percentile 70. And on my block 81% of the parking.

1:34:33I pulled my neighbors. 90% voted to have the chicanes removed and have parking restored as much as possible.

1:34:44I urge you to do 2 things. Thank you. Your time has ended below your vote and remove the chicken. Time has ended. Thank you. Our next speaker is William Wood, followed by Gaia, Sonatina, Stuart, Sonatina, Carrie stroke

1:34:59apologies, Terry Stokes and Ruth Amernick.

1:35:04Hi! I'm William Wood. I'm a resident of El Cerrito. I bike on Richmond Street all the time I drop my kids off at Keystone, Montessori at the Castro clubhouse, at the middle school, at the swimming center. It is the fastest, best way to get around. It is so much faster than the ohlone Greenway. I don't know if people understand that it is really a great place to bike honestly.

1:35:25It's not too fast. The traffic's not too fast. The road is wide enough. It really makes

1:35:32my life busy life. 2 kids much more doable. Like to. I'd say. I've biked almost 6,500 miles in the last 4 years, with my 2 kids

1:35:45under 5 mile trips in the city. You can do it. It's awesome. It's really awesome. Come, join us like it is a fun way to get around the city and

1:35:55reduce carbon dioxide, reduce traffic fatalities, and just see your neighbors.

1:36:03The next speaker is Gaia, followed by Stuart, Zonatina, Terry Stokes, Ruth Amernick and Tim Newman.

1:36:20Hello, I'm Gaia. I live in El Cerrito. I also have 2 kids.

1:36:26And I'm just here to express my support for better, safer biking in El Cerrito.

1:36:32The Richmond Street project will benefit the community in many ways planned and unforeseen.

1:36:38There are few things as fun as biking in a safe environment.

1:36:42waving hello to friends as you go by teaching children how to navigate their communities independently and getting fresh air and movement.

1:36:50People will only change their habits when the environment encourages a change, adding safe, direct routes for people to get around without cars is the best way to inspire habit, change. Think about the people who would love to bike or scoot, but don't feel safe doing so in the lane with 35 mile an hour traffic racing by.

1:37:08There are thousands of people who choose their cars simply because it is the only way that feels safe. We live in a city where schools, grocery stores, parks, friends, restaurants, and shopping are rarely more than 2 miles from home.

1:37:21We should have a network. Thank you for your comments. Thank you. Our next speaker is Stuart, followed by Terry Stokes, Ruth Amernick, Tim Newman, and Terrence Sims.

1:37:36All right. Hello! I am Stuart, sonatina. I'd like to do my best to represent the families with young children. I know well who support any work being done to make El Cerrito a safer place to walk bike, or scoot.

1:37:49as is typical with small town top politics. The vocal minority, older, whiter, wealthier homeowners is dominating the public conversation, while the silent majority young working families with young children.

1:38:02is too busy to get involved.

1:38:04this results in decisions being made that cater to whoever has the most free time to make a lot of noise, instead of following the advice of qualified urban planners and research institutions, please keep this in mind when considering feedback

1:38:16from the public on any project that moves our town into the 21st century.

1:38:21Thank you.

1:38:22Our next speaker is Terry, followed by Ruth Amernick, Tim Newman, Karen, Sims, and Mark respect.

1:38:34And again, if the audience could please keep noise to a minimum so everyone can have their comments be heard. Thank you. My name is Terry Stokes. I'm a president of El Cerrito. I've just been informed about this issue. My neighbor, Lynn Watkins, who used to live on the street where I live now.

1:38:52She's 1 of my very best friends. As I get older I'm having trouble more and more. Finding parking close to places where I can get to, and I'm not walking as well as I used to, and the idea that parking would be taken away, so that I would have a difficulty finding a way to Park to see her as one of my very favorite friends. It bothers me an awful lot. I understand biking. I love biking when I used to be able to do it.

1:39:19and I'm an older person now, and I can't. And I feel that one of my rights and my avenues for contact with people

1:39:25is being taken away, and it concerns me.

1:39:30Our next speaker is Ruth, followed by Tim Newman, Terrence Sims, Mark Messbecht and Ann Bau.

1:39:38Ruth Amernick. I live in El Cerrito, in El Cerrito. There's a bike lane on San Pablo Avenue, between Mosier Lane and Knott Avenue. There's a second bike Lane under the Bart. Tracks called Ohlone, Greenway, 2 blocks away.

1:39:53Richmond Street is a 25 mile per hour. Residential neighborhood. People use cars to commute shop, take kids to school.

1:40:01Few bikes are ridden on the street. The city is demanding a 3rd street, a 3rd street

1:40:07parallel to the other 2, with yet another bike lane eliminating 65% or more of Richmond Street parking.

1:40:15This project is anti-car, disrespectful of resident lifestyles seems to milk the grant of a lot more money.

1:40:23El Cerrito was recovering from a financial crisis. Getting grants like the 8 million dollars for the Richmond project seems like a good option, but the city's design is flawed counterproductive, and hurts El Cerrito

1:40:37money for the project needs to be spent on finally repaving the street. Thank you for your comments.

1:40:43Our next speaker is Tim, followed by Terrence Sims, Mark Mespecht, Anne Bow, and Elaine Fielding.

1:40:52Hi! I'm Tim Newman. I live in El Cerrito I moved here about 25 years ago. One of the

1:40:59choices I made to live here was that it was actually I could park in front of my house. I don't live on Richmond Street, but this affects other streets in the area I'm already dealing with. Neighbors on other streets that are parking in front of my house. On a regular basis, not just because of parties or things like that.

1:41:22I think this is a bigger issue. I just found out about this issue a month ago. So when we say that there's been like a lot of voice out there and letting us know what's going on. I feel like that's perhaps, if you live on Richmond Street but if you live anywhere off of that. It's not really been heard.

1:41:41So I like a democratic process. I'd love to have voices of everyone being heard. And if that's really what the majority says, then, great! But I don't think that that's where we're at.

1:41:54Our next speaker is Terrence, followed by Mark Mespecht and Bau Elaine Fielding and Rebecca Milliken.

1:42:04Terrence Sims, el Cerrito, Resident Richmond Street, resident as well. I understand the the intent behind the project with making Richmond Street safer, which I agree. Richmond Street does need to be safer. But I think the problem that we have in society today is we disregard our seniors. And I think when we, when we implement this project and eliminate the parking, we are disregarding the seniors, the actual seniors that actually built the city.

1:42:28So I really really think that you guys should reconsider the design and implement more parking to support the seniors. I'm not against the bike lanes, and I'm not against the safety of the of the project, but I I think you need to reconsider the seniors in their lifestyles as well. Thank you.

1:42:46Our next speaker is Mark, followed by Anne Bow, Elaine Fielding, Rebecca Milliken, and Andrew Lam.

1:42:56Good evening, Council. I'm mark mess pelt. I am a El Cerrito homeowner here. I want to say yes to parking on Richmond Street, and I want to say yes to bikes also

1:43:06shared roadways, and Sharon markings are important to have on a safe, newly paved

1:43:14road that we call Richmond Street.

1:43:17Let's save a couple of 1 million dollars and consider our city's finances and natural resources. The use of paint, concrete, cement, and natural materials.

1:43:28Let the city truly practice sustainability.

1:43:31Please revise the plan.

1:43:33I've walked the neighborhood. I have spoken with our neighbors that live on proposed project area.

1:43:40They're asking that the plan be revised. June 25.th Open House meeting. Here we had a Powerpoint slide that spoke about public opinion would be important. Part of the Richmond Street design.

1:43:54Well, the neighborhood showed up on June 25, th and spoken up. Thank you for your comments.

1:44:00Our next speaker is Anne, followed by Elaine Fielding, Rebecca Milliken, Andrew Lamb, and Carrie Schulman.

1:44:08My name, my name is Aunt Papa. I'm 78 years old. I've lived in El Cerrito for 44 years, and for 18 of them as caregiver for my husband, who was disabled after a stroke. He loved biking

1:44:22as far as freedom of choice. He would love to have chosen to be able to bike good.

1:44:33Instead, he had to choose to get transported to a whole lot of medical appointments that he didn't really even want to go to.

1:44:42I had to wrangle all that.

1:44:46and hearing these plans makes me feel worried about myself

1:44:51excluded, unheard, and disregarded, feeling less worthy than an able-bodied person, and

1:45:04I'm low on time, but I just parking

1:45:08disabled, parking one or 2 blocks away. Thank you for your comments.

1:45:13Next is Elaine, followed by Rebecca Milliken, Andrew Lamb, Carrie Schulman, and Paul Fidelli.

1:45:21Hi. My name is Elaine Fielding, and I live on Richmond Street.

1:45:26designated Bicycle lanes on Richmond Street may please some able-bodied cyclists, giving them another route to choose from, but by losing convenient parking, frail people will lose a lifeline to independent living.

1:45:45If you take away convenient parking, you make it more difficult for the frail and or mobility challenged to independently leave their houses.

1:45:55The resulting impact is to limit the ability to participate independently in life

1:46:02overall. The result is likely to speed up the aging process both physically and mentally due to increased

1:46:09to decreased movement, increased isolation and depression and more rapid cognitive decline. This means an earlier need for care. Like moving into residential care or nursing facilities.

1:46:25Our next speaker is Rebecca, followed by Andrew Lamb, Carrie Schulman, Paul Fidelly, and Betsy Basher.

1:46:32Good evening. My name is Rebecca Milliken, and I'm an El Cerrito resident who lives north of Mosier. Thank you, Council and Mayor, for hosting this workshop and staff for your really informative presentation. I speak to share my support for the proposed bike lanes on Richmond Street.

1:46:48The city has an opportunity to make our community safer for all, and encourage walking and biking, which is desperately needed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from personal vehicles. The largest contributor to climate change. Although I commute by bicycle my family of 4 also owns a car, we typically park it in our driveway.

1:47:06If my father, who is 90 and still drives, but has very limited mobility, comes over. I put our car in my garage so he can park in my driveway. I've read the concerns that my neighbors on Richmond Street have shared.

1:47:19I understand that change is hard and reducing street parking may be inconvenient for some of you, but no one's entitled to the space in front of their home. The streets are for everyone, cars, pedestrians and bikes. Thank you.

1:47:34Our next speaker is Andrew, followed by Carrie Schulman, Paul Fidelly, Betsy Basher, and James Ryder.

1:47:41My name is Andrew Lam, and I live in El Cerrito. I would like to make a suggestion.

1:47:46It is to set up no parking signs throughout the length of Richmond Street as illustrated in the project for 2 weeks.

1:47:55This trial period would give the residents and the city official the opportunity to experience. What would it be like

1:48:01in real lifetime if the project plan is implemented

1:48:05after the trial period, allow one final public comment in the Hope City, will you consider modifying the reduction of parking spaces on Richmond Street. Thank you.

1:48:16Our next speaker is Carrie, followed by Paul Fidelli, Betsy Basha, James writer, and Leah Lambert.

1:48:24Hello! My name's Carrie Schulman, my spouse, and I have lived in El Cerrito for 15 years, and now we're raising our 2 children, aged 12 and 10, in this community that we love. I'm here tonight to strongly urge you to approve the addition of bike lanes on Richmond Street. This project comes down to a fundamental question, what do we want to prioritize for our city's future.

1:48:46Do we want to maximize curbside parking so that everyone can park their car directly in front of their homes? Or do we want to build a safe and connected bicycle network, so that people of all ages and abilities can get around without a car if they so choose.

1:49:01Given the climate emergency that our cities and our city's commitment to sustainability. This should be an easy choice. We need to make it safe and practical for people to use carbon-free transportation.

1:49:12This is not about taking away anyone's ability to drive. It's about giving people, including families like mine, the freedom to choose to ride a bike. My kids are just starting to explore the world on their bikes. I want them and every child senior and commuter to be able to safely ride to school. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Paul, followed by Betsy Basher, James Rider, Leah Lamburn, and Carrie Lamburn.

1:49:38Madam Mayor Council members. Good evening.

1:49:40I'm Paul Fideli of El Cerrito. With limited time. I just want to say that the city of El Cerrito, and especially the residents of Richmond Street have waited and waited for repairs and improvements to their corridor.

1:49:53The 8 million dollars, Federal grant from the Contra Costa transportation authority, where I served as your councilman

1:49:59member will enhance not only property values, but improve safety and lighting planting trees, providing a needed alternative path for bikes on a flat road in this city, Richmond Street residents must continue to be a priority to be heard, and they obviously there are vocal opponents to the plan. But from what I've seen and heard. There is ample support for many in the area to move forward for a variety of reasons.

1:50:26Finally, it's my hope that you, as the Council will continue to work for what's best for the entire 108 year old community that we have.

1:50:36So please be visionary support. What you believe will be best for California, and also read out 1020, and 50 years from now. Our next. Our next speaker is Betsy, followed by James

1:50:48James rider, Leah Lambert, Carrie Lamburn, and Howdy Gowdy.

1:50:54I'm Betsy Basher, an El Cerrito resident.

1:50:58The Richmond Street plan introduced to the public at a June 25th Oaken House is materially different from the proposed chicane bike lane plan described to the public in December 2024. The biggest change is the new plan would remove 160 out of 241 parking spaces, or 66.6 7% of the street parking on Richmond. Previously Richmond's residents were told that 50% of parking would be removed. The chicane bike Lane plan in turn is materially different from what is shown in the active transportation plan.

1:51:27This plan shows Richmond as a shared lane bike facility, and it shows a parallel bicycle boulevard route along side streets to complement Richmond Street the city's application for Federal funding also describes Richmond Street as a shared Lane bike facility which would be enhanced by this project.

1:51:45This design is not the only one that could allow a bike lane with perhaps more parking. Please ask city Staff to look into alternatives that might lead to a better solution. Thank you.

1:51:57Next speaker is James Ryder, followed by Leah Lambert, Carrie Lambert, Howdy, Gowdy and Clifford Newsman.

1:52:05Good evening, Council members. I'm James Rider, my wife and I live in El Cerrito since 2016.

1:52:11I'm a biker every day pretty much on my bicycle. When I learned about this project I was really excited, and I don't ride on Richmond Street because of the shape it's in, and because of the traffic. So so this, what? What this promises, what this the intentions are, and the the long term study really excites me for the possibility of

1:52:32taking Richmond Street on my bicycle as an alternative to the ohlone Greenway, which, if you ride your bike much, ohlone, Greenway is not the best place to bike. It's you know. It is used a lot by bikers, obviously. But you know, there's it's a mixed use path and it gets kind of clogged up sometimes. Honestly, and I also just want to point out that

1:52:57you know what clearly parking there's tension around parking what's happening with parking?

1:53:03But the other benefits that are, you know, in on offer here, potentially are social benefits, and you know, environment. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Leah Lambert, followed by Carrie Lambert, Howdy, Gowdy, Clifford Newsman, and Catherine Beers.

1:53:20Leah Langbin, 4th generation, Richmond Street Resident. There's a huge sinkhole in front of my house that's been there for a couple months, and we've pleaded to get it fixed. It's been patchwork, because this plan is in process. I agree something does need to be done. It's super dark on the streets. In the last meeting. I asked Jared here if he compared the data of bike accidents, pedestrian and car accidents, and how that played a role in the.

1:53:48you know, getting the bike lane. He mentioned one fatal accident car accident, barely any vehicular accidents, and he purposely avoided the bike question because there has been 0 bike accidents on Richmond Street. In the past decade

1:54:02I see plenty of bikers on Richmond Street. They look comfortable and confident. They use the empty, non-used parking spaces to move out of the way, so I don't understand why we need to strip away the parking from all the residents when they look just fine, you know, and if you're not comfortable riding a busy street yet, maybe warm up on Liberty Street, which hardly gets any traffic. Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Carrie Langbon, followed by Howdy, Gowdy, Clifford Newsman, Catherine Bierce, and Buddy Akvich.

1:54:33Hi! I'm Carrie Langbin. I'm a 3rd generation Richmond Street owner. My family has lived on Richmond Street for 74 years. We all agree on Richmond Street. We do need to calm the traffic. We do need to have some kind of a, you know, measures to slow the traffic down. We do want to have active in our community, and we don't want to pay the price of taking away our parking. As we see our neighbors are mostly elderly. We do have needs to have our parking spaces not taken away.

1:54:59We would encourage you to come and maybe park in our driveways between 7, 30 and 8 30 in the morning, adding a bike lane with traffic trying to back out of our driveways in the morning. School traffic is awful, adding a bike. Lane is going to severely cause more chaos, more drama. It's not going to resolve any of the issues that we already have in the traffic that we already have between, you know, 5, 30, and 8 30 in the morning with people racing to and from school

1:55:24work in the on Richmond Street. So let's come to some kind of conclusion. We want to park on our streets. We want to get into the flow of traffic so that we can get to our job safely. And really, we can coexist with the bikes and with our own traffics without. Our next speaker is Howdy, followed by Clifford Newsman, Catherine Bierce, Buddy Akisich, and William White.

1:55:46Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Howdy, Gowdy! I live in El Cerrito, and I want to support the Richmond Street project. But, more importantly, I want to support your reaffirmation of the policies in all the plans that were mentioned by Staff. Because that was years of work

1:56:06I was involved as a public. Many members of the public were involved. There was a lot of input, a lot of staff time, a lot of community time. And it would really be unfortunate to do something capricious and like undo that well thought out planning to just accommodate this this one situation. And it's important to reflect that this is public right of way, and more than half of it is

1:56:31underutilized park cars, and I think it's it's just not the highest use of public space for people to be parking their private vehicles for free. That's not serving the whole community. And and we have to challenge that expectation. That that's what is for

1:56:51our next speaker is Clifford, followed by Catherine Bierce, Buddy Akisich, William White and Corey Riesbord.

1:57:03Good evening. My name is Cliff Musman. I'm almost an 80 year resident of El Cerrito. I raised my family here. I love this city.

1:57:13and I don't see where. If

1:57:16street proposal changing the thing bicycle Lane, down Richmond Street is, gonna be beneficial to to residents and other people coming into the city. I, Deloney Greenway, is just

1:57:312 and a half blocks away from my house.

1:57:33I live on Richmond Street.

1:57:36Why are we putting putting in something that's already here it goes 5 miles into Berkeley.

1:57:42Why are we doing that? We've got access.

1:57:45Why do we? We talk about parking, they say. Oh, you know, people have handicapped or disabilities. We'll put a a zone across around the around the corner.

1:57:56What's that going to do?

1:57:58How is that going to help somebody? It's handicapped to have to walk half a block, maybe even further, to get going. I think our next speaker is Catherine, followed by Betty Akisich, William White, Corey, Reesbord, and Mandy Glush.

1:58:14My name is Catherine Bearson. I'm a bicyclist. I support this plan for 6 reasons. First, st parking already exists for resident driveways available. Secondly, home values. I see this for cities study, think, tank found homes and above average bike ability areas are worth up to $34,000 more per home.

1:58:323rd is safety. A few years ago a friend of mine got hit by a motorcycle on speeding on a road and rooks over ribs, had to go to the hospital. That was really scary. Bike lane saved lives. 4. We need a network to be safe as bicyclist. The Greenway. We want limited cars in Powell Avenue only I should. Bikes be limited to one road themselves.

1:58:495 equity cars are expensive. Housing is expensive, but some people get around more cheaply and more healthily. 6 health obesity among kids has tripled since 1980. Bike lanes help with burn fat, not oil. I've read the speakers earlier who had said, majority of people with parents, with kids who want to be here in camp because they're taking care of their kids this evening. So I support seats for everyone that's for cars. Thank you.

1:59:12Our next speaker is Buddy, followed by William White, Corey, Riesbord, Mandy Glusch, and Ethan Kim.

1:59:27Good evening, El Credo, City Council and Fellow Democrats.

1:59:32It seems to me that what you've got here is a moral and ethical dilemma.

1:59:39Yeah, you could add 11 million. We could bring 11 million into the city of El Cerrito moves to the economy. It's a question of the public welfare versus personal gain?

1:59:52Is there personal issues that you need to deal with?

1:59:55The issue is fiscal commitment versus the support of your devoted constituents.

2:00:02homebuyers, taxpayers, the fan base that puts you in office studio vulnerability, bureaucratic viability.

2:00:14Where do you stand when you look at yourself in the mirror

2:00:22next is William White, followed by Corey, Riesbord, Mandy, Glusch, Ethan Kim, and Barbara Chan.

2:00:31Hello, Council members. My name is Bill White. I am a resident of El Cerrito. I live on Richmond Street. I would ask that you ask the committee to amend their plans and change their focus to looking at good bicycle path

2:00:46traffic moving east to west within the city of El Cerrito. We have great transportation, as said before, of the Ohlone Parkway that moves north to south and connects to 2 points of interest that are on Richmond Street, which is in Del Norte Station and the El Cerrito Plaza station. There are no other points of interest on

2:01:06the residential street of Richmond Street.

2:01:09All the points of interest are

2:01:11adjacent to Richmond Street, and increasing the the safe bikeability to those locations.

2:01:19From the Ohlone Parkway would be a much better use of time and money.

2:01:24Thank you.

2:01:26Our next speaker is Corey, followed by Mandy Glush, Ethan Kim, Barbara Chan and Marianne Hamina.

2:01:34Hello, and thank you for being here, and staff. Thank you for that great presentation. My name is Corey Rice Ford. I live in El Cerrito.

2:01:41I served on the climate action, adaptation plan. So I know that you know that there's not a way for El Cerrito to meet its stated goals of being climate appropriate, sustainable, and healthy for the long term. If we don't get our residents out of their cars more, and it's not fair to ask people to get out of their cars if we don't provide safe, convenient ways for them to get around our beautiful city with other modes of transport.

2:02:09I live across the street from Korematsu, so I'm very familiar with being blocked in by people dropping their kids off in the morning and picking them up in the afternoon. But since that street is not my personal possession, I feel like it's okay. If I am inconvenienced in order to get hundreds of kids to school safely every morning, and I wish we all could think about that and share that attitude as we think about what's best for our city.

2:02:36Our next speaker is Mandy, followed by Ethan Kim, Barbara Chan, Marianne Jamina, and Chris Christopher Dinkert.

2:02:46Hi. My name is Mandy Gleck, and I'm a resident of El Cerrito, and thank you for all of your hard work. I appreciate all that went into this, both staff and council. I agree that we want our streets to be safe. Sorry I'm not a good public speaker. One thing I would say, that would make our plan more economical and environmentally friendly is to actually improve ohlone, Greenway. That's an existing path that's parallel. I agree with most of what other people have said as a social worker and a person who specifically works with older adults.

2:03:15If you aren't an older adult now, hopefully, you'll have the opportunity to be one in the future and not having access for caregivers to be able to

2:03:25to deliver things. All of those issues are going to come up around parking, whether it's someone who lives in that house now or someone who will in the future. It's gonna be an issue. So

2:03:35that's my anyway. Thank you for hearing me.

2:03:39Next speaker is Ethan, followed by Barbara Chan, Marianne, Jimena, Christoph Dankert and Corey, Busset.

2:03:50Ethan Kim el Cerrito. In the last 12 years there have been 60 reported bike accidents in El Cerrito, none have been on Richmond Street. The project's own Federal grant application states in their study of Contra Costa County that only 10% of bike collisions happen on shared roads like Richmond Street, and only 5% of bike collisions are due to unsafe car speeds.

2:04:11If you look at the data for El Cerrito, it tells the same story. Only 7% of bike accidents were due to unsafe speeds in comparison, 70%

2:04:19or from people not following traffic laws properly.

2:04:22I think the Ccta knows all of this. That's why the project's original goals were to reduce vehicle collisions by slowing car traffic and reduce pedestrian and cyclist collisions by improving visibility at intersections. These goals obviously have nothing to do with bike lanes, and they can be achieved with the race intersections and corner barbauds that are currently already proposed.

2:04:43Please don't force bike lanes on a street with no space for them. Thank you.

2:04:48Next is Barbara Chan, followed by Marianne, Jimena, Christoph Dankert, Corey, Boucet, and Steve Price.

2:05:00Barbara Chan. I live in El Dorito for 30 something years I was struck

2:05:05out of a pedestrian crosswalk on Richmond and Eureka and Eureka.

2:05:09and suffered brain trauma, surgeries and lifelong pain.

2:05:13I favor traffic calming on Richmond Street. I think it needs to be safer for residents, drivers.

2:05:21cyclists, and pedestrians.

2:05:25But I also think that we need to rethink the design, and instead of

2:05:30the current plan, I would support the redesign to put all the parking on just one side of Richmond Street, and removing the chicanes which would still allow you to have the bike lanes, and still better provide access for the people who reside on there, and I think we need better signage and slow down at each of the intersections. So people like me don't get run down again.

2:05:56Thank you.

2:05:57Next is Marianne, followed by Christoph Dinkert, Corey, Bousse, Stephen Price, Steve Price, and Jacob Klein.

2:06:04Hi! I'm Mary Ann, Julie and I live on Richmond Street between Schmidt and Manila. I've been there for 17 years. I drive, ride my bike and walk on Richmond Street. It's just part of my commute. I take Bart into the city where I work in. Sf.

2:06:22I just. I'm really supportive of this plan. I'm so excited because I use Richmond Street all the time, and I just personally have not felt safe on Richmond Street. I'm saying when I say that I mean that as a driver, a cyclist, and a pedestrian. It's true people drive really, really fast. I'm on the stretch that is half a mile wide, with no stop signs, and people treat it like it's faster than San Pablo Avenue.

2:06:50I have been hit trying to reverse out of my drive out of my driveway by a car that, just, I think, was just used to driving like really fast. I've had cars overtake me while I'm driving, but 25 miles per hour on Richmond Street.

2:07:04As a cyclist I feel like I have to squeeze. Thank you for your comment. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Christoph, followed by Corey, Boucet, Steve Price, Jacob Klein, and Lucinda Young.

2:07:17Hi! Good evening. I'm Christoph Danka. I live in El Cerrito with my wife and 2 young kids. They had to leave for bedtime. Unfortunately, I support the current plan. We use our bikes as much as possible. We take the kids to daycare and preschool and pick them up every day in our bike.

2:07:32And we really appreciate the Greenway which really helps. But unfortunately, you have to get there first, st and you know it's really unfair when we have a street on every block. But you know only one or 2 bike lanes in the entire city, and your street is a public good. And I really want more bike lanes. You know, I also think that it's really important that we have safer bike lanes.

2:07:53you know, a friend of ours. They had a bike lane that they were going down with the cars parked next to it, and traffic on the left hand side. Parker opened the door. The bike swerved, and the 4 year old died in the accident.

2:08:04and I worry every time that this could be. Our kids, too, became the Moja on the bike lane just before this meeting, and I was worried about the same thing. So I really applaud the decision to put more bikes and bike lanes in place, and please make them as safe as possible. Thank you.

2:08:20Next is Corey Busset, followed by Steve Price, Jacob Klein, Lucinda Young, and Luis Chico.

2:08:27Hi, my name is Corey Bousse. I live in Berkeley. I am vice chair of the Board for Bike East Bay, although I'm here today, speaking in a purely personal capacity, support the Richmond Streets.

2:08:41Richmond Street, Complete Streets Improvement Project, which is in full alignment with current city city policies, including the active transportation plan, complete streets, policy and climate and climate action and adaptation plan.

2:08:55This project doesn't move forward or substantially changed. It sets a dangerous precedent that El Speedo values overlay abundant parking for residents who already have a driveway or a garage with our safer streets and interconnected network of bike infrastructure.

2:09:11People respond to this bill infrastructure. If it's easy to drive and hard to bike, that's what will happen on the flip side. If it's easy to bike some people. Of course not. All will make that choice, and we should give them that option.

2:09:26Thank you.

2:09:28Next speaker is Steve, followed by Jacob Klein, Lucinda, young Louise Chico, and Brandon Glus.

2:09:35And I'm this is Steve Price. I've lived in El Cerrito for 35 years or so. Heard a lot about bicycle lanes on Richmond Street will deprive people with injuries or declining health access to necessary transportation in front of their house.

2:09:48The people shouldn't be expected to walk half a block to a personal park car.

2:09:53Presumption is that everyone has access to a car

2:09:56and then access should be immediate.

2:09:59Yet few people on this earth can assume that luxury in Paris, Rome, Barcelona, Hong, Kong, Sao, Paulo, San Francisco, Nairobi, millions of people

2:10:08they are old, yet don't assume they can park a car directly in front of a house. Most don't live in houses. They live in apartment buildings. Even El Ceritans living in the hills can't assume that they can easily walk to a car parked at the curb, or even if there are curbs or sidewalks on the streets where they live, and that the walk is wheelchair level.

2:10:30According to the Federal Highway administration, about 30% of Americans don't have a driver's license. We have to think about these people and not think about purely people's needs. Next speaker is Jacob Klein, followed by Lucinda, young Luis Chico, Brendan, Glusch, and Marty Connor.

2:10:51Good evening. My name is Jacob Klein, and I've been a resident of El Crida for 20 years, and I actually live on Richmond Street. I cannot afford to be a homeowner, nor will I probably ever, and I will never prioritize the convenience of working over the sustainability of our city long term in multiple decades. Instead, I walk and I take public transportation. I also study environmental policy and political science at Uc. Davis, where the classes I have taken have provided me with the evidence I need to support the Richmond Street Complete Streets project

2:11:21cars in Richmond Street consistently drive above the speed limit, and that is not safe for us. And it's because the wide streets that we have allow them to do so. What this project does is it makes these car lanes narrower, which has been shown in international studies across the country and across the State

2:11:37to reduce vehicle speeds which increases safety for pedestrians, bikers, and cars. Everyone here is a pedestrian, a biker, or a car driver. So we can all benefit from this reduced crashes and deaths, and when streets are safer, people will actually be more likely to start biking. Thank you for your comments.

2:11:55Our next is next speaker is Lucinda, followed by Luis Chico, Brendan, Glusch, Marty Connor, and Josh Green.

2:12:02Thank you city Council. My name is Lucinda Young, and I'm going to mention I am a senior, and I use Richmond Street both as a car driver and as a bicyclist on a weekly basis. I use it as a as a car driver, more often because it's scary as a cyclist, as it's currently configured.

2:12:22It's also a little scary as a driver, but particularly scary as a cyclist, and there are lots of reasons that I see to support this plan, and I commend staff for doing a just terrific job on this.

2:12:36But 1st of all, I don't think there has been enough spoken among my neighbors about the climate, emergency.

2:12:46El Cerrito and Contra Costa County have declared climate emergencies. As has been discussed, half of our greenhouse gas pollution is due to transportation. Most of that gas cars.

2:13:00Our city should not be so short-sighted to prioritize, prioritize abundant parking. Thank you for your comment. Safety. Thank you.

2:13:08Our next speaker is Louise Chico, followed by Brendan Glush, Marty Connor, Josh Green and Rosa Esquival.

2:13:16Hmm.

2:13:17hello. I'm Luis Chico. I'm a part of telegrapher people in the Berkeley Urban Studies Students Association, and and I'm a longtime resident of El Cerrito. So as a longtime resident of El Cerrito, I feel that I'm qualified to say, Hey? And is also a longtime biker. That anyone Richmond Street.

2:13:35It's scary as a former High schooler who, you know, rode around a bit. I found out by riding around, and I got hit by a car, unfortunately, but finding out about this and finding out this proposition, reminds me that Richmond and and el Cerrito. As a whole we find we are in a climate emergency. It's a ticking time bomb, and as a city it is our duty to contribute and help.

2:13:58and by that we can do it by enforcing climate, road diets that help enforce more climate and active things. And we can reduce pedestrian in hits.

2:14:10So let's not break El Cerrito apart and bring it together by biking.

2:14:14Our next speaker is Brendan Glusch, followed by Marty Connor, Josh Green, Rosa Esquival and Robin Mitchell.

2:14:23Hello, my name is Brendan Glick. I live on the 1,400 block of Elm Street, which is adjacent to Richmond Avenue.

2:14:31I've been an everyday cyclist for many years. I support bicycle access, and I support traffic calming. I feel like this proposal puts much of the burden for the community on a very small group of people.

2:14:47I also happen to know that on my block and the adjacent block on Richmond Street in the last year we've had 4 adus added to the area. So the traffic counts that were

2:14:58thinking about are bound to change in the future. There's 5 if you move one block down, and there's at least one more that I know of that's on at least being planned. So I urge you to consider leaving things the way they are but improving the bicycle access with lanes shares that type of thing. Thanks.

2:15:21Our next speaker is Marty Connor, followed by Josh Green, Robin Mitchell, Margaret Alken, and Megan Reesford.

2:15:28Hi! I'm Marty Connor. I live in El Cerrito on Fairview. Drive I am a senior. I use my e-bike all the time. I'm up and down Richmond Street constantly. I need to stay in the middle of the street, because I'm worried about being doored. In other words, a

2:15:44parked car can fling open their door, which doesn't please the drivers, and I know from a driver's standpoint that that wouldn't please me either. The other thing I want to point out is that really the lone Greenway is not available to e-bikers because we go too fast. I'm someone who likes to drive to ride my e-bike around 20 miles an hour, and

2:16:06technically the Richmond Greenway is only supposed to be 15. So that puts me on a street, and a share is not a great way to do it. So I'm in complete support of this transportation project. Thank you.

2:16:20Our next speaker is Josh Green, followed by Robin Mitchell, Margaret Alken, and Megan Reesport.

2:16:29Good evening, Mayor. Good evening, Council. I'm Josh Green, resident of El Cerrito.

2:16:34I'm here to support the Richmond Street project. I urge you to support it as well.

2:16:39I would just say, please do not be swayed when you're making a decision by some of the false equivalencies we've heard tonight, we are not deciding between the safety of seniors and the safety of bicyclists. We can have both.

2:16:51I think that's important to note.

2:16:54So please do not be swayed also by those who put personal inconvenience above the public good.

2:17:00and please do not be swayed by those who are afraid of change.

2:17:04Thank you.

2:17:06Our next speaker is Robin Mitchell, followed by Margaret Alcong and Megan Riesbord.

2:17:15My name is Robin Mitchell. I'm a resident of El Cerrito. I see lots of people who have electric cargo bikes taking their kids to school and other destinations, and that use is only going to increase.

2:17:25I think the increase in the number of electric bicycles and scooters is going to be transformational, and we need infrastructure to support it.

2:17:33Many people point to the ohlone Greenway as the place for bicycles, but with the increased demand is going to come from the electric bicycle transformation. The ohlone Greenway cannot support that traffic.

2:17:42My property backs onto the Greenway. And even now I see how much it's used. There are serious bicyclists who want to go fast. There are more casual bicyclists with children who go slower. There are people walking, their dogs, people walking for their daily exercise. People going to barter work, people in walkers and with canes getting exercise, and probably others. I don't even know about. The Greenway needs to continue to support the non bicycle users and the bicycles that are serious about getting somewhere need more alternatives. So they don't

2:18:07impact the non-bicycle users. Therefore it's important that the city build

2:18:12bicycle infrastructure that supports having a robust network of streets to support significant bicycle use project.

2:18:19The next speaker is Margaret Alkin, followed by Megan Riesbord.

2:18:26My name is Margaret Alcon. I live on Richmond Street, and I support the project and affirming the existing policies. I think the Richmond Street project is fiscally responsible.

2:18:36and I also really appreciate the planning reaching out about Richmond Street residents improving the private parking, and I encourage my fellow property owners and the city to continue to work together so that we can maximize property parking by working about the private access so that we all can share the streets. Thank you.

2:19:00and our last speaker is Megan Reesport.

2:19:05Good evening. My name is Megan Rice Board. I live across from Korematsu and Bike to El Cerrito high every day until I graduated. I can tell you firsthand that I've nearly been flattened on Richmond, and I eventually just started walking my bike for that stretch of the commute to avoid it. But I'm not really here to talk about myself.

2:19:20I want to say that it's easy to agree that transportation and climate change are real issues, but agreeing to do something is hard. There are always people who say Yes, but not like this, and I'm not here to accuse those people of apathy or insincerity. Rather, I think we can all agree that there is no plan that we will all agree on, and in light of that I would like to point out that the net effect of endless deliberation is not neutrality, but a de facto vote. No. Meanwhile our climate goals will go unmet, the pavement will continue to degrade, and none of us will get any younger. Thank you.

2:19:50Thank you, Mayor. That concludes our request to speak for this item. Thank you so much. And so now I will open it up to council discussions. I'm going to assume that every is there anyone on the council does not have

2:20:03a comment. Okay? So then I'm gonna go ahead and jump around a bit. I'm going to start here at the end with Council member, Casanas.

2:20:10I I have a motion, I think probably we best to submit after people's comments. I have a I've sent it to the city clerk.

2:20:20and she will publish it in the

2:20:23supplemental materials, supplemental materials. I also have printouts to give to council members, so they can see because it's fairly long. So I'm going to give these to you just to have you can follow me as I talk when I get back.

2:20:36I'm just only printed out because it's easier to follow something in writing than verbally sometimes, but I'll wait until my oh, no! Go ahead and make your your comments as well now, so we need to. I don't have any comments other than my motion other than the motion. Okay, all right, councilmember, Salsman, do you have any comments? Or

2:20:52I do. But I'd actually like to take a minute to read the motion before I make my comments. This is a lot of information that we've just received. So

2:21:11so these are 4 separate motions. It's 1 motion with 4 components, with 4 parts. Should I go ahead and read it now, and just understand that we'll vote on it at the end. Yes, so I will go ahead and read it.

2:21:21I apologize for reading it, and then, after everyone else's comments, there's an opportunity to vote on it. And I would suggest you also read the comment section. So you can. I know you put it in the record before the the benefit of the public. Go ahead and read it.

2:21:33So I do start with my own comment, and then the motion follows

2:21:37in meetings, letters, and public comments to the city council and city staff

2:21:42proponents and proponents and opponents of the proposed changes to Richmond Street have raised many valid concerns and important unanswered questions.

2:21:51recognizing that none of us actually own, or are legally entitled to street parking in front of our homes.

2:21:58removing 2 thirds of the parking with the expectation that some residents will only find parking on side streets is undeniably a major potentially disruptive change.

2:22:08understandably want safer streets that better accommodate and protect walkers and bikers, as well as reduce the environmental impact of cars.

2:22:18The ports understandably want improvements that neither remove street parking in front of their homes nor create accessibility burdens, particularly for elderly residents and others with mobility restrictions

2:22:30given. How contentious and divisive this issue has become.

2:22:34I am making a 4 part motion directing city staff to evaluate and report to the city Council alternatives to be considered alongside the current proposal.

2:22:45A vote in favor of this motion is neither a rejection of the current proposal, nor a vote in support of any specific alternative, but rather simply a vote to consider options. That city staff and important transportation engineers deem viable.

2:23:01My hope is that we find an agreeable compromise, and this is my motion.

2:23:06With this in mind, enter the following four-part motion.

2:23:10one direct city staff to evaluate and report to the City Council

2:23:15potential revisions, amendments, and or alternatives for active transportation plan, and complete street policy that minimize the removal of parking along Richmond Street while adhering to legally required engineering and design standards, including any necessary review under the California Environmental Quality Act.

2:23:36Got your sequel number 2

2:23:40direct city staff to evaluate and report to the City Council potential revisions, amendments, and or alternatives to the active transportation plan and complete streets policy that maintain the original East Side Bicycle Boulevard as approved in the 2,016 active transportation plan

2:23:58in which Richmond Street is listed as part of the class, 3 sheryl hike route and per the plan. Parking is only removed from the block between Schmidt Lane and Portola drive, while adhering to legally required engineering and design standards, including a necessary review under Ceqa.

2:24:17Number 3, direct staff to evaluate and report to the City Council revisions, amendments, and or alternatives to the active transportation plan and complete street policy that will result in the removal of no more than 50% of the parking around any given block of Richmond Street, such as present in November 2024,

2:24:39while adhering to legally required engineering and design standards, including a necessary review under Ceqa.

2:24:46And before direct the city Council to conduct a public hearing that engages the community in a discussion, review, and comparison of the current proposal and potential options.

2:24:56And I guess we can take a vote on that after we've heard all the questions and comments and discussion. Well, now, the motion is on the floor, so we wouldn't. Does anyone want to second the motion.

2:25:10so the motion does die for lack of a second.

2:25:14and we move on to the rest of the discussion.

2:25:17Councilmember, Salsman, did you want to go ahead and make your comments sure? Happy to first, st I want to thank both everybody who came here tonight, but also everybody who's come to all of the meetings we've had who have emailed us. We've gotten

2:25:31a lot of emails, I think, since I got on the City Council in December, maybe 90% of the emails I've received from constituents have been about Richmond Street. I've read them all. I tried to respond to all of them. So thank you for all of your input it's clear tonight that

2:25:48people have strong opinions about this, and we've heard from both sides strong opinions. Because it is a big change, it will, and it will have a big impact. And some people see those impacts as positive and some people see them as negative.

2:26:03I want to talk to some of the issues that have been brought up tonight and have been brought up in other comments to us, you know, I think what's

2:26:13what sometimes hard to imagine is the future we want to get to. So we're talking about one project tonight. But I appreciate that you talked about some of the other projects that have been done and that are being planned because the reality is, we need a safe network for people to bike and walk and take transit because we are in a climate crisis. And I'm pretty sure everybody in this room agrees on that and we know that the primary way we can address that is, by

2:26:43reducing the people who are taking vehicle trips when they could be replaced by biking and walking in transit. Not all vehicle trips can be, but many can, and many are short, and we need to do everything we can to make it safe and easy to do that. I appreciate the slide you had about. You know, the 60% of people who are interested in biking, but concerned, that was just one Stat. But study after study shows

2:27:11there was just a survey done in one of our neighboring cities, Berkeley, and it showed similar numbers that. And that was just last year that people really want to bike, but they feel scared to I understand that because I'm 1 of those people people assume because of my job that I'm a big biker. I'm not because I'm terrified.

2:27:30And I think there's so many people like me. And since I've become a parent. I'm even more terrified. That my daughter will get hit, and that's a really scary reality for a lot of people.

2:27:43We should not wait for collisions to happen to make our streets safer.

2:27:48That is not a good way of going about it. Unfortunately, several of our neighboring cities have had fatal collisions with people biking and walking in the past few months, and now they're looking at changing those streets. I don't want that to be us. I want us to change our streets before anybody dies, or before their you know, life changing injuries which unfortunately happens very common.

2:28:12There are far too many near collisions on Richmond, and I know this because I walk and drive on Richmond all the time. It's probably the street I use most in El Cerrito, and in my 6 plus years living here I've nearly been hit at intersections on Richmond

2:28:30dozens of times, and I'm not exaggerating

2:28:34the scariest time and the time when I actually changed my walking commute because it was so terrifying. I was walking my daughter up Richmond to preschool. She was in a stroller. We couldn't have been much more visible daytime the morning, and as we entered the crosswalk somebody was turning left to drop their kids off at Korematsu. I'm sure they were being distracted by their kids. I get it. I've been that same parent.

2:28:59and the person would have hit us except for that. I saw and was able to pull the stroller back, and I don't want to think about what would have happened to my daughter if I wasn't paying attention if I was distracted, too, because we would have been hit, and it could have been catastrophic.

2:29:16There are so many near misses like that. I don't want to wait for an actual collision to make it safer. And yeah, after that I stopped walking my daughter in the stroller on Richmond, even though the sidewalk pavement is better there. I went up elm, even though the sidewalk pavement there is terrible, because again I was so terrified about getting hit

2:29:37but even as much as we avoid walking on Richmond. You can't avoid it, because if you live east of Richmond, which I do, you have to walk on Richmond at some point, or you have to bike on Richmond. If that's how you're getting around, there is no way to get to places in our city without at least crossing Richmond. It is one of the most important streets, and we need to make it per se for everybody getting around

2:29:59the ohlone. Greenway is fantastic, and I use it many, many times a week, and during the school year walk my daughter on there every day.

2:30:08But it is filled with families like mine. One of my favorite families, I see often, is a dad with 2 kids. The dad's on a bike, and the kids are on a scooter, and they're kind of holding on sometimes getting speed, but they take up a lot of with them the Greenway, and it's great. It makes me smile every time I see them.

2:30:26But for somebody on an e-bike going, you know, 15 or more miles per hour, it's challenging to navigate around all of that. So we need some other opportunities. So we have less opportunities for people crashing on the Greenway, which, of course, less scary than with a car. But so we want to prevent that. Make it easy for people to get around.

2:30:45I see Richmond Street as in some ways, though it's not the start it kind of is the start of our really robust bike network. We have a couple of streets here and there, but this is, you know, a big street, a major street. And then I want to see more. We have other streets we need to deal with, including ones that already have bike lanes like the ones on Mosier really need to be improved. We need Ashbury. We need a lot of streets, the ones that are planned around the Plaza Bart station that we've gotten funding for

2:31:14So this isn't just going to be one street. We're going to build a network. And that's what we have to do to address our climate crisis to make our city more livable for all those people moving into adus and other housing. We're building tons of housing. We want to make it easy for people to get around. So that's why I think we need to move forward with this. And I do really want to appreciate what city staff is doing and responding

2:31:37to the residents who have issues with their driving, who have access or sorry driveways issues with accessibility that we're really that you're talking to folks, one on one, and if folks haven't reached out, I think it's probably not too late, even though the official comment period is open is over. So if you continue to have issues, I would encourage you to reach out to the city staff, who, I know, are working so hard to make the impacts, you know, not as troublesome for people that there are going to be impacts for. Thank you.

2:32:06Thank you. Councilmember, councilmember motyama.

2:32:10Thank you, mayor, and thank you, Staff, for the presentation, and thank you for all the people in the public and all the people who couldn't be here but sent us emails it was, it's really great to see everybody so engaged.

2:32:25My main thing is that we, as a city

2:32:30back in 2016, decided that it was important that we have an active transportation plan.

2:32:38and we followed that up with other plans. And last year we passed the climate, action, and adaptation plan. All these plans work together to make our city better. There's comments about. This is a 2016 plan, and we should stick to it.

2:32:57We have language in the plan that really makes sure that we are

2:33:04going with the best practice as we do these projects. You know, this is a plan that was in 2016. It's taking us until now to get to Richmond Street.

2:33:17We wouldn't want to use best practice from 2,016. We want to use best practice. Now, the other part is, I'm sure there are many people that live on Richmond Street. That may be against this plan, but may have, like, agreed with the strategic plan goals about sustainability.

2:33:37Sometimes we make a plan. I think that vision for the future of El Cerrito now, and 20 years from now is pretty clear. We want a greener, sustainable.

2:33:49carbon-free city.

2:33:51and we're working ever so slowly, probably not fast enough for the people on this side of the room. But we are working towards that. That's the vision that we're going towards

2:34:02as we get there. Some people, all of us in turn will see something that we lose, but hopefully we gain a lot.

2:34:12I live close to the El Crito Plaza Bart station.

2:34:16From my bedroom window. I have a I mean, really like the sliver view of the Golden Gate Bridge. It is beautiful, and I know that when the El Crito Plaza, affordable and market rate developments go in. I am going to lose that.

2:34:32But that does not make me change the fact that I support that plan. I support a future where we have a lot more residents and affordable residents. You know, low income residents, high income residents. Hopefully, a new library, lots of amenities.

2:34:48It affects me specifically. But it does not change my support for the overall plan. And I'm sure as we go forward again, even people on this side, something's gonna happen that you're not going to like. But in totality we have as policy made these goals

2:35:06so that we can carry them out.

2:35:09So the idea in 2016 is going to be carried out in 2025.

2:35:15Ideas in 2024 may not get carried out till 2030, but we have decided to move in that direction, and I hope that we can continue to move in that direction, and I support the policy as it stands. I don't think that we should take

2:35:32policies and say, Oh, but we didn't actually mean that, because it affects somebody in town.

2:35:40and that's really bad policy in the long term to take a plan that we've all approved. That's in alignment with our strategic plan. That's in line with our climate action plan and say, Oh, we'll change it because some people don't like it. Now.

2:35:57that's terrible policy. And I think overall, you know.

2:36:04if if there was a better plan that saved more parking on the street. I am sure our public Works director would have thought of that with all the consultants that we have.

2:36:17I'm sorry. Please don't laugh. That's not very nice.

2:36:20It really isn't so, you know. I think you know

2:36:25Yvette Ortiz is one of the smartest people in this city, and if she could keep more parking, she would, and I know that this has been studied and looked at.

2:36:35and Jarrett too. But mostly, you bet. Sorry. But you know.

2:36:43I you know. I went back to the active transportation plan and kind of looked at all the goals and policies.

2:36:50and I want to repeat goal. 3

2:36:53include the needs and concerns of bicyclists and pedestrians in all transportation and development projects

2:37:00and policy. 3. 8. Coordinate planned roadway improvement projects, such as repaving and overlays with design and development of bicycle and pedestrian improvement projects.

2:37:13That's what we said we wanted to do.

2:37:16That is what we are trying to do.

2:37:19And you know.

2:37:21I think there was a feeling that, having, you know, that there could be a debate where we could all fight each other, and whoever won. That's the decision that we go with. That is not how we carry out our policy in the city. We have involvement at that bigger picture. So we have that vision and we work towards it.

2:37:42And since we all, as a city voted on that strategic plan, climate action plan, everybody had input into all those things

2:37:52recently and probably back in 2016. Many people had input into that, too, that we should move forward with these policies and not waver from that vision. So I am supportive of keeping what we have. Thank you.

2:38:08Thank you. Council member Mayor pro tem. Thank you, Mayor. I want to thank all the residents for

2:38:17being here. And

2:38:19I did read every single email. I spoke to many of you in the audience and watching on television. I was part of the City Council in 2016 that supported this active transportation plan as well as a complete streets. And I'm very proud of the work that our staff did then, and what they're doing now.

2:38:42you know you look at that. That was the council that included, I believe. Greg Lyman was Mayor. We had Mark freedman on the Council.

2:38:53Oh, of is that was that 26

2:38:58that that was 2016 and So

2:39:03that was 2017 and half a Deli.

2:39:07So yes, Paul Fidelity was on that council, and Greg Lyman Janet Abelson, bless her heart, we're we're thinking of her now. And who was fully disabled, and myself. And who else?

2:39:23Rochelle? Okay. So, looking at the past, and what we did and what we were able to accomplish fast. Forward to. Now.

2:39:32And we have the potential of changing the street, knowing that there is a brand, you know, it's not brand new anymore, but one of the busiest middle schools are located in that neighborhood. We have students crisscrossing, riding, bikes walking.

2:39:50taking the bus being driven over. You know, I want to make sure that this new generation of families that are moving here have every opportunity to have the access that our seniors had when they lived here, when they were when they had families here, and I was riding my bike all over when I attended Fairmont School.

2:40:18I I rode the bike up to Portola. I did get hit by a car when I was riding my bike on San Pablo Avenue, but I was on the sidewalk, and it was at. There's like a Brazilian store there, and a car going across. Did not was going full coming out of the parking lot, and I remember getting hit

2:40:40on that day with my brand new bike, and I was not allowed to ride on San Pablo Avenue, but I said, What the hell I'll do! It was a rebel then, and a rebel now and and so I appreciate my classmate who lives on Richmond Street, and he spoke I heard him he spoke here a couple of times on the Council and has sent emails. Thank you. Andrew Lamb, from Fairmont to

2:41:06El Cerrito High. I hear you and I hear what the kids of former mayors here said, Thank you for attending the May the meeting. I appreciate your your dad's leadership.

2:41:19And it's a tough decision to make, but I stick with what I voted for back in 2016, but I do believe in compromise, and I do believe, on possibly looking at the vision, 2 where

2:41:38you know the one side and vision 2 add

2:41:44on street parking only on one side of the street, buffer Lane on one side and Buck Lane on one side. So you know, I hope we consider compromise where

2:41:58both sides won't get their way, but we'll meet halfway. So whatever we can do to meet in the middle, that's what good government is about is about compromise. And so I recommend staff in looking at what we can do to alleviate and and having parking no more than 50%. And

2:42:21this is something that was considered. And I want to make sure that we can possibly look at that again. And this is a busy, busy street. I appreciate what Paul Fidelli has done with Ccta and Wittac to make sure that funding was available. And this Complete streets plan, I think if you look at the considered

2:42:49you know idea. I think that would be best than the selected.

2:42:55that one again on street parking on one side only.

2:42:59and hopefully that will be, we can add more parking on that, and we could look and and make sure that our seniors are looked at. Paul Podelli is a senior. I'm a senior, and you know I'm proud to be a part of the senior community, and that's part of the reason why I continue to live in El Cerrito because El Cerrito is voted one of the best cities for seniors to live when they're retired. So I'm proud of that, and we will always be

2:43:28a city where we're very diverse where we, I hope we can also look at the new families that are that have moved here that have children

2:43:37back in the day when Paul and I were growing up here every home had a family. We all rode bikes. The population was almost at 30,000 then it's much, much less now and less crowded. But I would like to have every opportunity for families. If they want to move here, they will have every opportunity to move here, and that's why I pushed my idea

2:44:01on Bart back in 2015 and 2016 to on my idea of building housing. The Flatlands were were

2:44:11starter homes, post World War 2 and and my family and many of my classmates were immigrants and moved here because this was starter homes and starter families, and many of them moved up to the hills, and many of them continued to have their families live here, and I want to look out for all residents of El Cerrito. Not just bicyclists.

2:44:34but everyone. So that is where I stand on that. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you so much, Mayor. Pro tem. I do want to commend all of you, and thank all of you who have. Yes, sent emails who have spoke at public comment. Those of you who are here tonight. I want to especially commend those of you who are here. And still here, you know a lot of people making passionate emails and a lot of people making passionate statements.

2:44:59But it's the people who stay towards the end to see that the work gets done. This is the work right here.

2:45:05I say a lot of times when we're in this, in this age where everyone is is marching, and we'll get to marching in just a moment that people think that marching is the work. Marching is not the work making the public comment is not the work seeing it seeing it through. That's something. A lot of Lgbtq, not just LGBT. A lot of Greek organizations. Say, there's a poem. You can look it up when you go home. It's called. See it through. See the work through?

2:45:27And I'll be very honest. What I'm gonna say tonight, I'm not going to talk a lot about data. I'm not gonna talk about bike lanes or bikers versus seniors versus older versus. Well, I might talk a little bit about that.

2:45:38But what I'm going to say is probably going to be just downright insidiary to some folks because they put in proper context a lot of these emails that we've been receiving for the last few months have not all of them, but a good chunk of them, have also always referred to what we were elected to the Council to do.

2:45:54I don't know how many people actually paid attention to the 2022 election. But if you came to any of those town halls, if you've been to any panels. If you listen to any interview that I've done since I got on the Council I have always stood firm that I wanted to create an El Cerrito for working class, people, for people of color, for marginalized people, for people who were not represented when I was a young person growing up here.

2:46:16And so when we talk about. And I think you said Councilmember Motiyama, about the future that we want to see. I'm always, if you know I'm a teacher. I'm always going to

2:46:25look at the at the future. That's gonna be where I'm gonna go. But

2:46:29the next insidy, everything that I'm going to say, and I understand I've always understood the tall task in front of me as a black elected official in this city. My mother loves to remind me when I anytime I complain about things going on in the Council. She says, you remember you were elected in El Cerrito. El Cerrito was never a city that was favorable for again working class people and people of color. But

2:46:49what I've seen for the last couple of months is what we in social justice communities call the appropriation of the the language of the oppressed

2:46:59and someone very much smarter than me said that people don't fear change, they fear loss.

2:47:06and that's what we're seeing is the fear of loss as we're changing and going into the future. And I'm going to. As we're going further into this, I'm going to quote one of my elected officials, who I look up to, who did, in fact, end up losing her position, but she lost it, going down supporting the people in her community. And I quote Mayor Lyndon breed when she said, I'm not going to worry about my job while I'm doing my job. I'm going to do the work that I was brought here on the Council to do.

2:47:30You know, we've received emails where people are saying that they are being erased, that this is a form of erasure. So I went and looked up.

2:47:38Erasure. What does it mean in social justice circles when people talk about erasure, and I'm going to see if I still have it up here.

2:47:46And I do not think that I do. But erasure is basically when you are erasing a whole people. You're erasing their culture, you're erasing their history. You're erasing their existence. We're not erasing anyone by taking away bike lanes. And I know that this is going to make a whole bunch of people mad, but we need to hear. Yes, I'm sorry we're by taking away parking. Thank you is going to make a whole lot of people angry and upset.

2:48:09But I feel that we need to say this because I've had a lot of people come and stand here at that lectern. Look directly at me as the black member of this Council, and use every social justice word they can think of erasure. I wrote them down erasure discrimination. Someone actually said racism

2:48:28was was being was being done by us taking our bike lanes. So I went. I went and dug a little bit further into this. This is, gonna take a while. Y'all, because I think that I've been holding this in for about a couple of months. So you're just gonna have to kind of sit and hold on. You know, we talked about

2:48:43appropriating the culture of the oppressed by the by, the privilege. When individuals with privilege and entitlement employ social justice, language without genuinely committing to its underlying principles or taking meaningful action, it's often described as performative activism of affirmative allyship. Now.

2:49:02to take that a bit further. Some people ask me why I did not attend the No kings, march.

2:49:07One of the reasons I didn't attend the No kings marches because I knew that a lot of people were going to be there who were not interested in collective community care. Our job here on this council is to look at the totality and whole of this community as Council Member Motima talked about the strategic plan that was put in place in 2016. The climate goals. We are in a situation where we know we woke up one morning 2 years ago, and the whole city was orange

2:49:33climate change.

2:49:35We can't. We can't count on what our seasons are going to be. Climate change. Our governor has put a policy in place or has made us an edict to try and reduce carbon emissions by reducing the amount of cars that are on the street. Climate change. I, as a person who lives on the North side in one of our Tods in the Del Nordy area. I can't. I can't really find enough empathy because I don't have parking.

2:50:00I can't bring my friends over. The friends that do come over are worried. If they're going to park in the parking lot and get tickets. Are they going to park on the street, and El Fredo police is going to come around and give them tickets. So I continue to go further. I remembered a quote that someone told me one time about what happens when privileged people

2:50:18appropriate the language of the oppressed, they said, when you're accustomed to privilege.

2:50:24equality or equity feels like oppression.

2:50:28Parking on the street is a privilege. As many people on this dais as many people in said, no one owns the Street. I really appreciate that. I don't know if she's here. The person who said that she suffers every day when Korematsu is in school, because people park in her driveway on the street, but she understands that she does not own the street, and there's been so many times that I want to say that for the last few months, and Karen told me I couldn't.

2:50:56You know, when whoever sold you your house, if they said you have on street parking, that means you have access. You have the privilege of having on street parking. You are not guaranteed that. That's number 1 2. I don't know what point I'm on at this point, because now I'm jumping around

2:51:11so a couple of other things that I wanted to point out

2:51:18invoking Janet Abelson's neck, I have the privilege to sit basically in Janet's seat.

2:51:24Janet supported me to be in her seat.

2:51:27Janet, as mayor pro team, has pointed out, was on that 2016 plan. If Janet was here she would be scooting through those bike lanes on that scooter. But Janet used to shame me

2:51:37for not going out because she would be out on her scooter. So I don't I? It really bothers me. When people invoke Janet's name to support what we're going to go into next, which is the cognitive dissident included in the argument. That basically means all of the calls and emails that have gone, not just to us, but to our public safety, which is why I appreciate. I believe it was Councilmember Salzman who asked our chiefs to come up.

2:52:01There was a call made to the chiefs, one of them, where they said, Well, can you confirm for us that if we take out, you know, parking and put in bike lanes that it's going to be hard for public safety to go down the street, and whoever answered the phone at the police department, I think it was told them that that was not true, and they looked up in their face

2:52:19cognitive dissonance because it did not support the narrative that is being preferred.

2:52:26We have to do better about being a community that that prioritize collective community care for me as a black mayor. That's always been my my goal here in El Cerrito. And another reason why I struggle, and I will say that I met with some community members to truly find empathy is because I've lived in communities where elders have to walk around the corner, because, as someone just said, they are living in apartments. I've always been a renter. Even when I was living

2:52:51with my mother, I've never had the privilege of being a homeowner. I've never had the privilege of living in a house and worrying about parking in front of the house.

2:52:58and now as a home, as a renter. Here in El Cerrito, I find myself in the same position. But those elders that I grew up around they always had to walk around the corner with their groceries. They had to walk through gangs, they had to walk through drug deals. They did not have a nice pristine Richmond Street to walk around.

2:53:15And another point I wanted to make in regards to that.

2:53:19I think I already made that we're already experiencing that in Del Norte, and I'm jumping around because it really gets me very upset and very angry. That part about the appropriating the language of the oppressed. I really want people to go home. And really Google, the words that they have been using in this chambers around, that the one, especially the one about erasure.

2:53:38The one about limiting diversity

2:53:41limiting divert is, let's be true. Honest, is Richmond state really super diverse? I mean, it's diverse. But let's someone already pointed that out.

2:53:51So for those reasons, and a lot of others that I have not gotten to, because I'm starting to get a bit amped up. And I'm trying to be very, very nice, as nice as I can.

2:54:00I will be supporting this plan. I'm always going to root for the future. I'm always going to root for families. I'm always going to root for working class people. The fact that there have been folks who have gotten answers to their questions that have been brought back to this this Council today, and they still say that that's not enough. I mean, we've said we've sat in meetings where people have said, well, yes, you're offering disabled parking. But what if I'm not quite disabled enough

2:54:26like these are the type of things that we are encountering here in this chamber. So the last thing that I'm going to say, and I said this to some folks who I met with

2:54:34the thing that really incensed me the most is all of the insinuations and saying, it's been like this for 50 years. It's been like this for 60 years. It's been like this for 70 years, and nobody has died.

2:54:47and I will tell you the same thing. I told those community members. If we did policy like that.

2:54:52my 90 year old grandmother would still be in Louisiana, picking cotton right now, that is not how you build policy. You do not build policy, saying, Okay, it's worked for 50 years. Things are changing, you know. I read an article back when I was a lyft driver, that the culture of driving is changing. Now that we have driving apps. More people are going down Richmond Street because they think it's an alternative to San Pablo. Say, thank you to ways. Say, thank you to Google Maps

2:55:19don't blame us, but I will never again also, side with anyone.

2:55:26Have to calm myself.

2:55:28I will not side with anyone who thinks that it's not broke. Don't fix it, is the answer.

2:55:35as a black person

2:55:37raised in Louisiana, still fighting for the rights of trans. People still fighting for the right of non-binary and queer people. I won't allow that as I while I'm sitting here, you can do whatever you want after 2026, like I said, I'm not gonna worry about my job while I'm doing my job. But while I'm here we won't do that.

2:55:55and that is what I have to say about that with anybody like to

2:56:01make a motion which we know. There was a directive that Staff said that they need to know if we're affirming our position.

2:56:10If the City Council

2:56:13does not pass a motion to direct staff to make any changes to the plan, the Council does not need to take any action, and then staff will continue with the process as we have described.

2:56:26So I know that we had one motion that has failed.

2:56:30Would anyone like to make a motion to amend the the position of the city Council going once.

2:56:40going twice.

2:56:42So it sounds like we are affirming our support for the active transportation plan.

2:56:47I believe that in the

2:56:50somewhere in the packet or in the presentation, it talked about the appeals process

2:56:55because I would like to also say, and I don't know if anyone wants to make commentary on this. But there was a lot of questions about whether we would change the amount of the advisory fee.

2:57:08I will 1st say for myself.

2:57:10since people want to use the language of the oppressed.

2:57:14ask all the thousands of black and brown men who are in jail and can't get out because of the amount of bail.

2:57:20and then you'll get my answer to that. Does anyone else have anything that they want to say about the fee for the appeal process. Like to make a motion. Okay.

2:57:29I would like to make a motion

2:57:31sort of 2. Part one is that the appeal be be maintained at the current amount, which I believe is 600 and something dollars.

2:57:40and I know that it's increasing to $1,100 in July 21.st That's correct.

2:57:46So for this, for this action to maintain the current fee.

2:57:51and also to allow residents collectively to appeal block by block if they choose to do so.

2:57:59So the motion on the floor is to keep the fee the same, and to allow residents to appeal block by block instead of collectively instead of block by block. Okay, does anyone want to second the motion? Repeat that one more time, please. Yeah. If you could please, clarify that 3 parts to keep the fees as they are now, which are 600 and something dollars, as opposed to the new fee after July 21, st which will be $1,100,

2:58:26and then to allow the appeal to be

2:58:30brought forward by a group of residents on the same block for one fee.

2:58:38and just for clarification for the record customer. When you say, maintain the current appeal fee, are you referring to retaining it for this project? Specifically, okay, thank you.

2:58:51Does anyone want to make a second? Yes, I have a question. I have a question for city manager on the appeal. If you do it collectively.

2:59:03what happens if they're just? I understand you gotta do it.

2:59:06Address by address is the decision collective? Or is it individual.

2:59:15I believe that

2:59:17my instructions would be that whatever the appeal is specifically referring to, because the instructions outline and that correct me if I'm wrong, could pull that up or the language that. The instructions discuss, that the appeal has to specifically refer to it to a spot or a series of spots, and that there is a written

2:59:44within the appeal that it is in writing what the impacts would be. Specific to that spot. So if that was by a block or a certain block, I mean, I I think that I would probably take that on that, whatever that appeal is, I would review exactly what was being described within that particular within the description that's provided as to what the spots were. How many spots were, if it was by block.

3:00:12Then we would. We would do that block by block. Okay, and I have a follow up for the attorney that tell me if I no, I I would say the just giving a legal view on a on an appeal like this. If if a collective appeal were filed. We would basically evaluate

3:00:30each claim within the appeal, and the city manager would my advice at least, would be that the city manager address each one and address the merits of each one, and so, if there was a point that

3:00:44was made in the appeal or that that where city manager felt that it was justified to make a change. just on that point, that

3:00:56the this final decision could make that change, but but retain the let the rest of the project intact.

3:01:02And so I also have a question about then staff time. Part of the reason we have a fee, and the fee went up to $1,100 is because all these appeals do take a lot of staff time, if it's collective, and you still have to do by address.

3:01:20Staff is still gonna have to do it the same as it would be if there is an individual appeal right?

3:01:29Yes, and I think this would depend. Well, this would depend on how many appeals we actually get. I think that certainly.

3:01:38you know, if if they were bundled. Obviously that would be one document to look at as opposed to 50 different documents, for example. So that would certainly

3:01:48be somewhat more efficient if I use the word correctly. And yes, the current appeal fee is $632. And so you know again, also just to make note that the appeal to the city manager portion does not invoke the fee. The fee would be invoked if the if I deny the appeal, and then the appeal is, goes to the city council, that is, when the fee would be implemented, not when the appeal comes to the city manager.

3:02:17Okay? So I would like to make a different motion. What's what's that called? I'm sorry you can either make a make a friendly amend proposal for friendly amendment or make an alternate motion. I would like to make an alternate motion. Okay? Which is, I would like, I agree with Council Member Sanas to lower the fee to the current, you know. Keep it at the current fee for this project specifically.

3:02:44but I don't think it's a good idea to make it collective, because it's you know. I think we part of the argument that I heard from the floor on the not support side is that we have a budget problem. It's not going to get better because we don't collect enough money to do our work.

3:03:03So I would. That is my motion to solely move the fee to the keep it at the current fee of 600. And what is it? 600 $632 $132 for this project

3:03:18specifically. So we will not raise it to 1,100. I think that's fair, because the the fee changes, you know, so soon.

3:03:26I'll support that council member.

3:03:30I will not be supporting this motion because it's true. It's happening like the changes basically right now. But we did vote on this months ago. We voted on it unanimously. I don't recall any opposition to the fee changes, and we had an outside study done that showed us that we have been under charging for a while. So it's not like

3:03:52it costs today $632. It does not cost that today. It didn't cost that a few months ago. So we've not been charging enough money to recover our fees. So we're gonna spend a lot of staff time, and I think it's so important that appealing just to the city manager does not cost any money. If the city manager says No, I feel like

3:04:14changing and making special exceptions. Here suggests that it's likely that the Council is gonna overrule the city manager when we've now expressed support for the project, and I think Staff has been making a really good effort to work with individual homeowners, so

3:04:31I cannot support this motion, and I think it sets bad precedent, that, you know. If somebody's not happy with the fee, they can come to us, they, you know, and we'll just change the fee. It's we we can't do that. Moving forward I get. It's hard, because it's just tricky timing. But we did vote on this months ago unanimously, with no opposition. So, and we had all the information then, and I, at least knew about the appeals process at the time. I assume others did. So that's why I can't support this.

3:05:02I have a question before you ask a question. I want to make sure. So, city attorney, we have 2 motions on the floor, so I don't believe that. So 1st you should check to see whether or not there's a second for Council Member Katsana's motion since it was made first, st

3:05:17and then, if there's not a second, if there is a second, you should call the vote on that one. If there is not a second, then you can move on to Council Member Motoyama's motion, since it does have a second. Okay, my question may. Well, my question is for legal counsel.

3:05:32Is it

3:05:33to the city Council to determine whether or not people can file collectively. Or is that something that's not in our review at all? I have been confused about that because it has not been clear to me what guidelines we're currently direct that

3:05:48the way the resolution is written. It doesn't really. It didn't really anticipate this question. I think that if there was a collective appeal filed I

3:06:00you know, the city manager, I believe, would confer with me, and we'd have to determine whether or not we want to to, whether or not there was a basis to reject it, for having included every area under appeal instead of doing it piece by piece.

3:06:14I will say that I, you know, having spoken with the city manager, I don't think we're going to reject the appeal on those kinds of procedural grounds. But but we would have to evaluate it more precisely. Is it it could the Council give us direction on that regard you you we would certainly take it. But the the resolution, the existing resolution kind of stands on its own, without without an amendment to the resolution.

3:06:37Okay, so my understanding, then, if if we were to

3:06:41pass councilmember Otiyamo's resolution, there is still a possibility that people could.

3:06:47It's it would ultimately up to to the appellants to decide how they wanted to construct it. We would evaluate it, to term, to determine whether or not we felt it was outside the bounds of what was allowed under the the purview of the resolution. But again, we're not looking. I don't think that the city manager would be looking to to to use a procedural ground to to reject an appeal. We understand that that people would like consideration of this.

3:07:14I don't want to guarantee that, because we will have to look specifically at the issue as part of the appeal. So I'm not making a promise to anyone who's in the room tonight. But I do want to say like we we

3:07:24I don't believe the city manager would be would be specifically looking to reject an appeal on that kind of a procedural basis. I agree, if there are certain, you know, certain certain properties that are all impacted by one parking spot. For example, that is being removed. I mean I I would take you know what I mean. I would. I would consider that I I think it would be unfair not to.

3:07:45and it and the and the resolution is silent on it. So one other question, one other question kind of backing up a little bit to when Council Member Quinto talked about a preference for a compromise, and he gave the the middle

3:07:58the middle model.

3:08:00My interpretation of today's meetings is that that's now off the table

3:08:04without any, without any kind of motion towards you.

3:08:08I just wanna make sure I understand that correctly, because I'm hearing, you know one hand, still a desire for some sort of compromise or reconsideration of alternatives, but also from what I've understand, did going into this meeting without a motion towards that end.

3:08:22That's not possible.

3:08:25That is correct. If there is not a motion that has been passed by the Council to direct staff to provide alternatives to the plans and the policies that would end up resulting in a change in the design. Then we will be continuing forward as the current plans are laid out.

3:08:41Okay?

3:08:43All right. Given. That. Is there a second for Council Member Casanis's motion.

3:08:52So the motion fails for lack of a second. Do we have a second for Council. Member Motiyama's motion. Mayor pro tem. Quinto already seconded it. Okay? All right. So motion by council, member Motiyama, seconded by Mayor pro tem quinto city clerk. Can we have a roll call? Vote, please.

3:09:11certainly. Mayor, councilmember Gotsamas. Aye, councilmember, mayor protem quinto, mayor, Weisinger, no

3:09:21councilmember motyama yes, Councilmember Saltzman. No motion carries

3:09:27alright. So we will go forward with that is the only action that we need to or direction we need to give to the staff correct?

3:09:35Yes, that is correct. And so what that means is if an appeal comes to the city council, it will be at the current cost of $632 for this project for this project only. Yes.

3:09:48that was the only action that was asked for by Staff. Correct. Those are the only to affirm the the plan and the fees. Correct.

3:09:58correct? All right. Thank you so much, Staff, for all of your hard work in regards to this item and thank you to all who visited for this particular item. The next item on the agenda is city council, local and regional liaison assignments. Are there any council reports?

3:10:14Mayor? Pro tem. Thank you, Mayor. Before you guys leave, I want to invite all of you to the new pickleball courts. We're going to have the opening tomorrow, and that will be in the Castro the former Castro

3:10:30area there in the former tennis court. So it starts at 5 o'clock, and I'll be substituting and filling in for the mayor tomorrow. So look forward to seeing all of you, and then also, I wanted to invite all of you to our Air Board meetings. Contra Costa's representative to the Bay Area air

3:10:53air Quality management district also known as Bay Area Air District bad. That's a new name of Bachma. So stay tuned, you can watch us online, and that is on the 1st Wednesdays.

3:11:09and you'll see why we are doing what we're doing, and you'll see a bigger picture on the importance of getting to 2045 to reduce our ghgs. You see what they're doing on the Federal level. They want to return to smoggy days when we could not see our hills

3:11:28over here, and when our hill residents could not see the Golden Gate Bridge, and that was that is what they're trying to do there. But I truly believe in States rights, and the airport is going to continue with the work that we've been doing.

3:11:45And hopefully, we can get to the bottom of this and compromise on what's going on, and make a deal with the Department of Energy and the Federal Government there. So again, that's the 1st Wednesdays we meet at

3:12:04but you can see us live online

3:12:07and look up the Bay Area air district. The second week the first, st the second Wednesdays

3:12:16have the stationary source, meaning our report that we had our 1st meeting in Martinez right next to the

3:12:26Oh.

3:12:27Board of Supervisors office where we had our partners from labor. We had elected officials, our executive Committee on the Board, and members of

3:12:38the different industries that we have on the northern shoreline, and we did speak about the importance of making sure. We continue to refine our oil here, because people still need to fly. People still need to drive and and goods still need to be transported.

3:12:57So this is going on too fast, and we did not expect to lose our main refineries in the Bay Area, so I'm hoping that the Governor will look into this, which he is. I know our Congressman, Congressman Garamendi, is closely looking at this, and

3:13:18knows the importance. This is a national security issue. And I did speak to him about that, and he agrees because the only place that we can refine our oil with our California grade and jet fuel is in North Korea and not North Korea, South Korea.

3:13:36but also India, and possibly Vietnam and I see it's a dangerous area with what's going on around the world, and we can do it cleaner here. This means a lot of jobs for our area. This would cause a major recession

3:13:54and a lot of people losing their livelihood. These are good paying jobs union jobs. We lost a lot of executive jobs. When chevron left for Texas, we need more pragmatism when we're dealing with the things that we take for granted, which is energy and I support alternative energy we still are going to continue with our solar and getting to use

3:14:23are changing over

3:14:26to electrical appliances. So we're going to talk about that. So stay tuned. I want to thank everyone for attending that, and thank our residents for your support. On the things that we're doing on the Air Board recently that supports the 9 Bay Area counties.

3:14:45Thank you. Any other. Yes, council Member Salzman. Yep, on June 27th I attended the Wic Tech Board meeting nothing super urgent to report from there and then. Right after that I moderated a panel at the Move Bay Area, East Bay Summit. This was a summit that they're doing in the various parts of the east base. So they've done it. Excuse me, in the South

3:15:09South Bay and in the North bay, and then they did in the East Bay. What was notable about the panel, and I had nothing to do with this. But out of the 3 panelists and the Moderator.

3:15:203 of out of the 4 of us lived in El Cerrito. And so it's great to be able to highlight a lot of things happening in El Cerrito. So

3:15:29yeah, that was that was fun to see happen for an East Bay event. And then last week I went to the West County Forum to see our supervisor, John Joya speak it was

3:15:42useful, and also depressing and scary to hear about the impacts to our county with the bill passed by Congress. That. And he really focused in on the impacts to health care and medicaid and the tens of thousands of people in our county that are gonna lose it. And

3:16:04we just are gonna have a lot to do in our county in our state to figure out how we're gonna support folks who are gonna lose a lot of their benefits. So we have

3:16:14a big crisis ahead of us. I don't know what the numbers are in El Cerrito, but we're gonna have to figure out a way to to help folks who have had support so far, and we'll no longer have it, and we'll depend on emergency room visits or just not get care. Which is unacceptable. So

3:16:30that's something we're gonna have to grapple with in the coming years.

3:16:34Any other Council member, hey? On June 20th I attended, on behalf of Mayor, the Abag General Assembly, where we passed some bylaw changes, and the the annual budget. On June 28th I attended the legal women voters, West Contra Costa Annual meeting, and heard a presentation from Supervisor Chanel Scales, Preston, and on July 9th

3:17:00I attended Jerry Sandlin's 95th birthday, and the Grand Barbershop's 55th anniversary to deliver the proclamation on behalf of Mayor, and I also want to make a thank you to John Stasik for putting that together. It was a really nice event, with music and singing and cake, and a lot of reminiscing, and a lot of fans of Jerry at the event. So thank you for that.

3:17:30And the only report I have is I. And I want to thank our city manager, who has made sure that even as I've spent my summer in East County that I still get to at least go to the Mayor's conference, even if I am in shorts and a baseball hat.

3:17:43But we heard a great presentation from our district attorney, Diana Becton, about the progress that they are making in the district attorney's office, and the goals that they still have to, that they're still working towards. So. Thank you, Da Becton. Thank you. To my fellow mayors, who had a once again an enjoyable

3:18:01meeting, and we are looking forward to the September Contra Costa Mayor's conference. That will be here in El Cerrito, and I'm pretty positive as long as people pay that that is a public. Anyone could come to that correct. I see a lot of people who are not mayors.

3:18:14Yeah. Oh, you don't have to pay. You don't have to pay. There is a dinner fee, but the business meeting is free. I can't say if the dinner will be good in El Cerrito, and I'm just playing. I'm joking, but everyone is invited, and with that

3:18:28the we are adjourned at 9 20 Pm. The next meeting of the El Cerrito City Council is August 19, th 2025 at 6 Pm. Everyone have a great evening.