Special City Council Meeting July 7, 2026

0:00:17Ollie, are we good to go?

0:00:20Your coronary artery will need to begin when you are Alright.

0:00:25Good evening, everybody. The July 7th Special City Council meeting is called to order.

0:00:316.

0:00:3416.

0:00:35PM. Madam Surdy Clark, please call roll. Mayor Quinto? Yep. Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman?

0:00:41Councilmember Kitsanis? Here. Councilmember Motoyama? Here. Councilmember Weisinger? Here. We have a quor

0:00:48Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance for a moment of silence.

0:00:545 plus 8.

0:00:576.

0:01:02Thank you.

0:01:04Oh, let me look at everything.

0:01:13Madam City Clerk, please proceed. Thank you, Mayor. This hybrid meeting provides an option to participate in person or via Zoom, with closed captions available.

0:01:21Meetings of the City Council are subject to the Brown Act, and are held for the purpose of conducting city business. The Brown Act ensures the public's right to be heard, and while City Council may not respond to your comments directly, your comments will be heard prior to Council taking action.

0:01:34for members of the public who wish to provide oral testimony. The mayor will announce the time for public comment on each applicable item. A request to speak can be submitted to the city clerk by completing a speaker card by selecting the raise hand feature on zoom, or by dialing Star 9. If calling in by phone in person, speakers will be called first.

0:01:53Just a reminder for the public in online and in the room, this is a special meeting tonight, so there will only be public comments heard on the items on the agenda this evening.

0:02:03The Council's adopted rules of order and procedure specify that public speakers address the City Council in an orderly and respectful manner, proceed their comments with their name and city of residence, and be respectful of time limits. Thank you, Mayor. That concludes my announcements.

0:02:27Now we will have a public hearing, and this is the fifth public hearing on transition to district-based elections.

0:02:35an introduction of an ordinance to establish district-based selections. We will adopt the final map to establish district boundaries and establish sequence of district elections. And we have, our city attorney.

0:02:50Here, Skye, go ahead.

0:02:53Thank you, Mayor.

0:02:55As I have now for too many meetings, I will be covering some of the basics about why we're here and what we're doing. I know that for council in particular and for many members of the public, this will be a repeat.

0:03:15But, I think that since what we've found over the course of these hearings is that new people arrive to each one, where we've been attempting to cover the same information so that, all of the public has this information available to them when hearing, the discussion about this item.

0:03:32And… Along those same lines, the…

0:03:38information that's being provided has attempted to be updated to incorporate some of the questions that have come up along the way. So there is a little bit of new information in here relative to the past presentation.

0:03:51So I'm not going to read this whole slide, but this is an attempt to cover, again, the basics of why we're here and what we're doing.

0:04:03And as I have in other meetings, I will say, before launching into the slides.

0:04:10That this is not a process that is being initiated, by council direction, or by staff.

0:04:19It is something that, we are undertaking because, as will be discussed as I move along through the presentation, the city received a threat of litigation and demand for the city council to move from at-large elections to district elections.

0:04:35Alleging that the city's past elections violated the California Voting Rights Act.

0:04:42The city undertook its own analysis and concluded that while there's, there is some statistical evidence to support that, that is, that it is something that,

0:04:55is not…

0:04:57A, an instance in which there is evidence of intentional discrimination by the part on the part of the city or the city council.

0:05:05Instead, this is a statistical analysis that, as we will discuss, puts the city at significant financial risk unless it moves towards district elections and the anonymous resident of the city who has declined to identify themselves.

0:05:24has, in effect initiated this process, and the City Council has undertaken it to reduce the risk to the City of significant financial exposure through litigation.

0:05:38With that said, we're gonna talk a little bit about, why the city is changing it a little more than what I just did, why it's happening so quickly.

0:05:49What other options the city council considered, what's been done so far, and a little bit about how the district-based elections would work.

0:05:57I… when I'm… when I complete my comments, I will hand it over to Paul Mitchell from Redistricting Partners, who's the city's demographer, who

0:06:07We'll provide some more information about the California Voting Rights Act and the map drawing process that the City Council has undertaken so far.

0:06:17So this is really the first… the first question that has come up is… is really, why… why are we doing this? Why is the City Council considering changing a system of elections that it has had in place for decades?

0:06:29Right now, the City Council is elected, through a system that's called At Large, with all, eligible voters voting for, all the members of Council who are up for election in a given election.

0:06:41The California Voting Rights Act prohibits an at-large election system that impairs the ability of a protected class to elect candidates of its choice or to influence the outcome of an election.

0:06:53A violation is established if racially polarized voting and dilution occurs in elections or other matters submitted to the voters. And importantly, as we'll be talking about throughout this, it provides for an award of attorney's fees to a plaintiff who successfully challenges the city's at-large election system.

0:07:12As I mentioned, on March 17th, the city received a demand letter, making these allegations of racially polarized voting and violations of the CVRA.

0:07:21and demanding that the city transition to district-based elections.

0:07:25The city retained Paul Mitchell and redistricting partners to perform an analysis which concluded a statistical possibility of racially polarized voting in past elections, but there's no allegation or evidence of intentional racial discrimination or other discrimination in past voting.

0:07:43And the plaintiff has provided no evidence to support such an allegation.

0:07:50The CVRA also has a provision that's referred to as the safe harbor provision, which states that if the city… if a city that has received a demand such as this transitions along a specific timeline, which we will also talk about.

0:08:08and and then completes the process of adopting a district-based election system. It can significantly limit its potential attorney's fees exposure to an amount that is currently between $38,000 and $40,000.

0:08:22That schedule requires the City Council to adopt a resolution of intention to transition to districts within 45 days of receiving the letter, and then to actually complete the process of adopting an ordinance establishing a district-based election system within 90 days of the resolution of intention.

0:08:40And so here we are in the middle of this process.

0:08:43But it begs the question, well, why is the Council doing this so quickly? Wouldn't it be better to spend a little more time thinking about this?

0:08:52And… The answer is yes, however…

0:08:56although the CVRA, allows a plaintiff and a city to agree to extensions of time, to undertake this process.

0:09:08The potential plaintiff in this case has declined to agree to such extensions. My office met with the attorney representing the plaintiff.

0:09:18We spoke at length about the possibility of extending the timelines, and the attorney communicated that his client was simply not agreeable to granting any of those extensions.

0:09:31And so…

0:09:33as a risk mitigation measure. The City Council opted in past meetings to adhere to the safe harbor timelines, which means, and you'll see this in the schedule that that's coming up later, completing the process of adopting the resolution to transition to district elections by July 21.st

0:09:54which does not, has not left a lot of time for this process, and which has also led to the question that many members of the public have asked, which is, well, why not litigate this? Why not fight it in court?

0:10:04And the answer is that multiple cities have decided to test this in the courts, and thus far none of them have been successful.

0:10:14Those that have have also paid the plaintiffs significant legal bills.

0:10:20So the city council in past meetings considered this risk and ultimately opted to move forward with the transition in accordance with the safe harbor timelines in order to avoid the significant expense that the city might incur from a legal challenge.

0:10:38In past meeting, members of the public also asked whether or not, the recent Supreme Court decision related to the Federal Voting Rights Act changed the legal considerations at all.

0:10:48And Mr. Mitchell and I both gave answers to this question at the last meeting, but the short answer is no.

0:10:55Ultimately, from from my perspective, if it hasn't really changed the the dynamics of this of this issue at all, because

0:11:06If it turns out that in the future, a court decides that this recent decision.

0:11:13meant anything for the California Voting Rights Act, someone, some city, will actually have to litigate that issue, which means that the city would be the… that El Cerrito would be the one having to litigate it, which would put it in exactly the same situation it is right now, of facing a significant award of attorney's fees.

0:11:32If it chose to pursue such a challenge and failed.

0:11:38One of the other questions that's come a number of times is whether or not the City Council considered other alternative voting systems, and the answer is yes. In early meetings, we talked about the possibility of ranked choice voting.

0:11:50A system called single citywide single vote or limited voting and cumulative voting. These are all voting systems that have some degree of application in other jurisdictions.

0:12:02The city of Albany next door, has, is in the process of testing whether or not ranked choice voting will actually result in ameliorating the alleged racially polarized voting that, the plaintiff in its case under the CVRA alleged was occurring there.

0:12:20And another city in California is in the process of moving to testing out the single vote system.

0:12:28But there, there are a few important dynamics about the that.

0:12:32In those cases, the plaintiffs in those two cities agreed that the cities could try out these other systems other than district voting to see whether or not it would address the issues that had been identified.

0:12:47And alleged.

0:12:48Neither of the none of these other alternative systems provide the safe harbor that transitioning to districts do.

0:12:57does. So…

0:12:59What that means is that while the plaintiffs in those cities have agreed, ultimately, if those plaintiffs don't believe that these alternative systems have succeeded, those cities may still be at risk of having to transition to district elections.

0:13:16Additionally, no other jurisdiction in Contra Costa County has transitioned to ranked choice voting or any other voting system. We did talk with the elections division in Contra Costa County.

0:13:30And they explained that if El Cerrito wanted to pursue the option of ranked choice voting, it would have to bear significant costs of

0:13:38Acquiring software, maintaining software, training staff.

0:13:42it would be a substantial amount that the city of El Cerrito alone would have to bear to implement, the ranked choice voting system and the annual maintenance costs.

0:13:52So Council ultimately decided not to pursue any of those alternatives.

0:13:58As you can see, there's been a great deal of community outreach, in addition to the four other public hearings that have occurred so far. City staff, and, redistricting partners have done a lot to reach out to the community to provide information for them about this process.

0:14:18One of the other questions that's come up a few times is, is…

0:14:24how would these district-based elections work? And with some variations on that question.

0:14:29So one issue was a choice between four districts and a directly elected mayor, and five districts. Ultimately, on May 19th, Council directed to move forward with five districts, which means the mayor will continue to be a rotating office selected among the five members of Council.

0:14:46Council also directed that the district elections would begin in 2028 and complete in 2030, which means that November 2026, this year's council election, will be the last at-large council election.

0:15:00There have also been questions about what the transition would mean for city members of council.

0:15:06Which relates to how the district boundaries are drawn, whether or not, you know, what would happen if a council member decided to run for a district seat rather than remain in their at-large seat.

0:15:20There will likely be more discussion about this during the discussion that will be coming up about the sequencing of districts.

0:15:27After the city council selects a map. And so, I'd recommend deferring further discussion of that topic until until after, that discussion, because then it'll be a little bit easier to talk about some of these scenarios once, once it's apparent which map the council has selected. And we can talk more freely about which council members reside where.

0:15:49But…

0:15:50I did thought it would be… I did think it would be helpful to include one hypothetical, just because this is the one that, that would be…

0:16:00that has come up the most frequently, and that is to say, let's say a hypothetical council member, council member 1, is elected to an at-large seat in 2026.

0:16:11And lives in a district with a district-based election in 2028.

0:16:16Council member one runs for and wins the district seat in 2028, and will serve a 4 year term until 2032.

0:16:25When that occurs in 2028, there will still be 2 years remaining on the at-large

0:16:32term for Councilmember… Councilmember 1 seat, and that… but that seat will be vacant, so there will be a vacancy, and with 2 years left.

0:16:42So the city council will have the ability, to fill that vacancy, by appointment or a special election.

0:16:51And

0:16:54That would result in there still being five members, but the composition of the council would be something like what's shown here, which is council member one would move from an at-large seat to a district seat and would have a four-year term running from 2028 to 2032.

0:17:13And then there would be 2 other council members who would be elected at district seats with terms ending in 2032 as well. There would be one council member still serving in the at-large seat.

0:17:24to which they were elected in 2026, and then there would be a fifth council member who was appointed or elected at a special election to fill the remaining two years in the at-large seat. It's complicated.

0:17:35I understand that, but I thought rather than wait for somebody to ask the question, I'd just get it out here and put a… make a slide for it that we could come back to if we get questions about it.

0:17:45And as I said, once Council has completed the discussion and a selection of a map, it may be easier to actually talk about this in real terms rather than just hypotheticals.

0:17:57So tonight, we are at the fifth hearing, and the request is for Council to, by motion, select one of the maps that we'll be going over.

0:18:08And then, by motion, assign a number to each district and select the sequence of district elections in 2028 and 2030.

0:18:15Once those have been done by motion, it will be possible for council to introduce the proposed ordinance, and staff will be able to then fill in some of the blanks that we put into the ordinance, because we did not yet know which map would be selected, or what the sequence of elections would be.

0:18:32If that's completed tonight, then at July 20, the July 21st meeting Council will be able to adopt the ordinance to change to district based elections. The 1st such elections would occur in November 2028, and the process of transitioning to district elections would be completed in 2030.

0:18:48With that, I'm happy to take any questions, or we can move straight to Paul's presentation.

0:18:54That's I have a question about the

0:18:59the sequencing slide you had up there where there were 4 of them.

0:19:04till 2032, then it kind of converges. They're all 2032. Does that mean going forward from that point on there? All 5 people are up for election the same year every 4 years. No, no, it would be at that point. They would all be staggered.

0:19:17So so. But the terms are all ending 3032, though.

0:19:20No, some of them are ending in 2030.

0:19:24Sorry, sorry, that is a typo for count. That should, the last one should be 2030. Apologize for the typo, that should be 2030 as well. Thank you. Yes.

0:19:34Any other questions?

0:19:36Yes, Councilmember Motiana.

0:19:39Thank you, Mayor. I have a question that a resident brought up about the date. Do we have? Does the July 21st date

0:19:50keep us within the safe harbor? Or do we have? Is it preferable that we have another meeting that's earlier to maintain that 90 day.

0:19:59The 21st will remain within the Safe Harbor timeline, so if Council introduces the ordinance tonight and adopts it on the 21st, you'll be completely within the Safe Harbor timeline.

0:20:11We did build this schedule so that if Council needs an additional meeting to finalize, for example, the selection of a map.

0:20:21That could be pushed to the meeting on the 21st. The ordinance would be introduced on the 21st and adopted by August 17th.

0:20:29That would…

0:20:31put a portion of the completion of the process of adopting the ordinance outside of the Safe Harbor timeline, but Council would have actually introduced the ordinance within the Safe Harbor timeline, and we think that would be sufficient for the courts.

0:20:46Okay, thank you.

0:20:48Any other questions.

0:20:50Okay, all right. Thank you.

0:21:05Just waiting for my presentation to come up. Paul Mitchell with Redistricting Partners. Glad to be here again. You got a very thorough presentation, so I'm going to give kind of a shorter presentation on the substance of redistricting and get into the actual maps.

0:21:20As was discussed, the California Voting Rights Act is what we're engaging in, and it deals with at-large election systems and the conversion to districted election systems as a way to kind of get out of the line of sight of the California Voting Rights Act.

0:21:36There are criteria that we've been using, and if people watch the first hearing, I gave an extensive discussion of these criteria, and if they listen to each of the subsequent hearings, you'll hear council members, the public, and myself talking about these maps within these criteria. Things like

0:21:54Creating districts that are equally sized, compact, contiguous, communities of interest.

0:22:00There are things that we can and cannot do, and one thing that we cannot do is consider where the incumbents live in order to draw maps, or where candidates live. We also cannot consider partisanship, so these maps are drawn within those constraints.

0:22:15The maps that you see before you as the 2 draft maps at the last hearing, you decide to move to this hearing.

0:22:22Were derived from publicly drawn maps.

0:22:28So the process was that the public used this online mapping tool, and we did a workshop on it, we did a virtual training on it, and we had dozens of maps drawn. And then, from those original maps, we created the draft maps.

0:22:46Those draft maps, the public came in and made further changes to, and they made recommendations. And we put more data in, like the data to show where the renter community was as an example. And all of that has been online on the public mapping tool. And it helped us create a number of public submissions that helped us create the draft maps.

0:23:06The communities of interest that were identified in a lot of the public testimony and in the map creation are kind of listed here as the primary ones, but as we all know, there are a lot of different, even smaller communities of interest that have been discussed.

0:23:22At the last hearing, the council

0:23:25Advance 2 draft maps that were a second and a 3rd revision of our original draft maps. Draft map a 2.

0:23:36was a revision of Draft Map A to do a better kind of drawing of the renter district, because the renter community of interest was drawn into three different districts, and so it was a way to try to resolve that.

0:23:49And draft map C3 took C2 and attempted to make districts that were more easily understood by voters and more compact, and that was live line drawn at the last hearing. So if anybody was ever to say.

0:24:04well, why did you decide to move this line to here on C3? There's literally a videotape of that that somebody could watch to see how those lines were adjusted and the things that were considered.

0:24:16Draft map A2 has a 2% population deviation. It was originally based on school district attendance areas. But then from there, we adjusted it around that renter community of interest.

0:24:29We also focused on compact shapes and maintaining that hillside area in one community of interest, in one district.

0:24:38And this is what that map looks like.

0:24:43the data on this shows that 2% total plan deviation. The district that is the most underpopulated is district number 4 at 1.1% underpopulated, and the district that is most overpopulated is only 0.9, so this is a very small

0:25:00deviation. The 2% total plan deviation is well under the 10% threshold.

0:25:09Draft map C3 is a 3.3% deviation. It also preserves that hillside community of interest. It maintains two seats along the San Pablo corridor.

0:25:21It follows major streets, it was a map that was adjusted for that renter community of interest, and it also was adjusted live in the last hearing to make district shapes that seemed to make more sense and follow major streets.

0:25:35That's what the map looks like now.

0:25:39I will note there are these little aberrations on the left side here where you can see this green line going up and the brown line going down. When the county receives these maps, they will be converting these to precincts.

0:25:53And so these lines, these little aberrations will kind of get wiped away. They are literally like the sidewalk and the median. They are not populated areas.

0:26:04when we do complete this process, we work with the county registrars as they convert these maps into precincts, and to make sure that any slight adjustments like

0:26:15let's say up here in the hillsides, there might be a precinct shape that looks a little bit different. As long as it doesn't adjust where any one individual lives, as long as it's an uninhabited area, we work with the county to make sure that those precincts are done in a smart way.

0:26:30Again, the deviations on this map are relatively small. One district at negative 1.9, another district is plus 1.4, giving us the 3.3% total plan deviation.

0:26:43Now, the way that we've constructed these maps and given a potential numbering system has been to say that in all of our plans.

0:26:52That the odd-numbered districts go up in 2028, and the even-numbered seats go up in 2030.

0:26:58Now we're gonna bifurcate the process of adopting a plan.

0:27:04And then assigning the numbers of these districts, because assigning the numbers of these districts will determine which ones are the odd ones, which ones are the even ones.

0:27:12And we actually have created, as an example, an A2 that has no district numbers on it, and a C3 with no district numbers on it. And so the way this generally works is the council will adopt a plan, and then after they adopt that plan.

0:27:28We can say, okay, we want the red one and the purple one and the brown one to be odd, and we want the other two to be even, or something like that, in order to get the staff the direction they need to assign the numbers and to put that into the ordinance.

0:27:45This is the listing of the 5 hearings. We're in the 5th hearing. This is the hearing to take a vote on the maps. In addition to these, like I said, we had 2 workshops, so we went above and beyond the required public hearings.

0:27:58And with that I'm happy to answer any questions.

0:28:02Okay, I'll start to my left. Any questions.

0:28:07to my right.

0:28:08Any questions.

0:28:11No questions. So, shall we start the, oh.

0:28:16public hearing now.

0:28:20The public hearing is now open. Now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments on this item.

0:28:27Requests to speak can be submitted to the city clerk by completing a speaker card using the brace hand on the zoom or dialing Star 9. If joining by phone.

0:28:38In-person requests will be taken first. Please remember to identify yourself and your city of residence at the beginning of your comments. City clerk, please proceed.

0:28:50Thank you, Mayor. We have 3 requests to speak on this item. We'll start with Maureen Dixon, followed by Richard Brooks

0:28:58Okay.

0:29:02Good evening. Good evening. Thank you for, taking my comment. My name is Maureen Dixon. I've lived in El Cerrito for 22 years. I volunteered in the schools here, and our children went to school in El Cerrito. I love living in El Cerrito, and I hope to age in place in my home here.

0:29:21On the map of my preference, which is C3, I would live in the purple district.

0:29:27And I strongly have a preference for that map of C3, the reason being that it pulls together most of the mid-elevation level residents.

0:29:39And the reason I believe that that would be significant is that the people in the hills have more concern about fire danger than those of us living further down the hill.

0:29:50And those of us living in what would be the purple district in that map.

0:29:54will be directly affected by further development on San Pablo Avenue and the BART building, and may experience people parking in front of our houses as parking moves into the neighborhoods.

0:30:07So for that reason, I am an advocate of MAP-C3. Thank you. Thank you.

0:30:13Our next speaker is Richard Brooks, followed by Michael Mcd

0:30:21Good evening.

0:30:23Good evening. Howdy!

0:30:25My name is Richard Brooks, and I'm a resident of El Cerrito.

0:30:29I support moving to district elections. I want this map one to be proud of for years coming, but I have some concerns, and I'm asking to get your answers on the record tonight.

0:30:40First aim to keep the northwest whole. A strong minority opportunity district was identified northwest along San Pablo.

0:30:47The Asian, Latino, and Black neighborhoods the plaintiff's expert identified

0:30:51The faithful version of this remedy keeps these communities together in one district. A map that splits the northwest seemingly weakens that desired seat. And because the two seats on this November's ballot are held by members who, per the complaint's own map, live in that northwest area.

0:31:05I'm asking those members to explain on the record why the map you chose draws the northwest the way it does. Protecting both incumbent interests and preserving the opportunity district may be mutually exclusive under this geography and voting calendar. Second, sequence that district to 2028.

0:31:21State law says that when you decide which districts vote in 2028 versus 2030, you must give special consideration of the purposes of the Voting Rights Act. 2028 is a presidential year with far higher turnout than the 2030 midterm, so the opportunity district belongs in 2028, not parked in a low turnout 2030 cycle.

0:31:38Now, here is why this matters, and I want to be upfront that I am not a lawyer. This just looks like a logical path. If you crack the Northwest and push it into the 2030 midterm, it looks to me like you'd have the same claim in a second lawsuit, this time against our own map. We've already somewhat conceded polarized voting exists. Experts say

0:31:55Splitting it, then burying it in the lowest turnout year looks like the intent and the escalated injury a plaintiff would look for. And the safe harbor may not protect us from a map that actually dilutes minority interests. If that's right, the fee cap we're paying for this process disappears exactly when we think we

0:32:09Choosing a map that keeps the community whole and votes in 2028 may simply be evaluated as safer.

0:32:14If the community isn't kept whole, seemingly one of those districts should come up in 2028 for the intent and spirit of this process. So finally, protect the process. Only adopt a map that's been published seven days. Be leery of voting on anything too new. Anything new between now and the 21st needs to be exceedingly transparent to the public.

0:32:30And please have the city attorney confirm to the record that a July 21st adoption still fits within the 90-day safe harbor. The 21st appears to be the 91st day. It does not feel like we're being given benefit of a leeway on a technicality here, so I just want to be absolutely sure of that. So just to reiterate, try to keep the northwest whole.

0:32:49Sequence the Opportunity District into 2028. Adopt only a published map, which I think you guys are going to do. And do please weigh

0:32:58the legal exposure between cracking the Northwest and our possible incumbents, and a final vote timing being the 91st day. Thank you. Potentially, if there is any help I could provide, potentially maps 50, 60, 83, 89, 105, and 111 look like they might help satisfy this.

0:33:16Last to say, I wish my government had been proactive regarding the CBRA instead of reactive. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Michael McDougal, followed by Grant Ricketts.

0:33:27Hello! I'm Mike Mcdougall. I'm a resident of El C okay

0:33:32I want to thank the City Council and staff and all of the people in the community who've gone through this process. It's… I think this is my…

0:33:40I think if you count going to the redistricting booth on the 4th of July, my 6th meeting on maps, so we've all been, like, seeping ourselves in this.

0:33:52Personally, I prefer the latest published map, the C3, so I did want to speak briefly in favor of C3.

0:33:59I think it does a better job than some of the other maps in terms of being compact, and I also

0:34:06I'm a little bit concerned about the way, if you look closely at A2, as it goes up Mosier, there's a sort of a little hook

0:34:15And just in general, I don't think it does as good a job of consolidating the fire risk community of interest. I'll speak personally and say that if we adopt A2, it will

0:34:28separate me in a high-fire danger from neighbors who are quite close to me, who will then actually be in another district. I mean, I know that you made an attempt to make a hillside there, but I think it's somewhat flawed.

0:34:43No, I will say that I've been wrong about things that I've said in these meetings before. So I thought that we should have a mayor. And on reflection, I think that that would be a terrible idea. So take what I say with a grain of salt.

0:34:57If we, if the council concludes that A2 is better, I really don't think that we should.

0:35:01like, the city attorney left open a small opportunity for us to fiddle with maps, and I think that that would be just the wrong move to go at this point. If we magically had more time.

0:35:13that would be great. I think we could make these maps, like, these flawed maps even more perfect, but I really think that we need to put that behind us and move forward with the maps that we have.

0:35:23I'll make a procedural note.

0:35:26My understanding is that, you know, primarily two maps remain under consideration, even though we've had many maps published for more than 10 days.

0:35:34And,

0:35:35I don't know how to say this. I just think I would encourage an early motion to see if there's, like, already broad consensus around one map, because I think there's a lot of nuts and bolts to get through, still, and, so I just wanted to suggest that. I mean, Mayor Quinto, you know how to do your job, so…

0:35:53I'll just say that. We've done a lot of hard work. I'd like to encourage the City Council to carry the ball across the finish line tonight and score for us. Thanks.

0:36:03And our next speaker is Grant Ricketts

0:36:11Hi! My name's Grant Ricketts. I've been a resident in El Cerrito since the 19 eighties. It's been a while since I've been to some of these meetings. There's probably one topic I, for some reason, got more involved in than others. I'm here to actually encourage you to adopt map a 2.

0:36:25As I look at that and I saw the formation, the evolution of that series, to me, it just seemed to have a natural reflection of the true character of El Cerrito, capturing the neighborhoods and the areas. I would say that the vast majority of people in El Cerrito live here for fundamentally two reasons, given the diverse array of interests that exist.

0:36:44One is they like this space as a nice gem, I used to call it, in the inner bay area, accessible to a lot of cultural things, a lot of things around us.

0:36:54Two, they love the neighborhood character of El Cerrito. It's one of the reasons I stayed here through all these years. So I think those things are really pressing, and that's the vast majority of people in El Cerrito see, I believe, see that, and I've lived here for long enough to see that.

0:37:08I think option C, it's.

0:37:11It seemed to be forced, and when we were playing with it in the last meeting, special meeting a couple weeks ago.

0:37:17It just felt like it was putting a square peg into a round hole, trying to make it fit. It doesn't really seem to keep the same character. It seems to be driven from maybe another set of interests.

0:37:29So I'll set that aside for now. That's why I encourage the adoption of A2. I think it works well. I live somewhere up the hill, and I don't know how high, but I would say it's a misnomer to characterize Hill people as being all concerned about fire.

0:37:42issues and whatnot. There's a lot of issues that we care about, and a lot of it's the character of our neighborhoods and good governance to start with. I attend a church sometimes up in the corner of Berkeley, and we've hosted a number of Firewise meetings. I've been through all that, and I think

0:37:56Berkeley's plan is overkill, to be quite frank. And I have friends who live up there. I grew up in an area outside of LA that had a fire danger. And I knew parents who lived in the outer skirts that were afraid of that. But there's a lot of things that bind us together in terms of what we care about our overall character of our entire city.

0:38:13I think, every… it's been suggested that the so-called anonymous person that presented this later… letter, you know, there might be some legal recriminations of what happened. If someone's… anyone's disgruntled about this.

0:38:26they're welcome to challenge this issue in court. I don't think there's any substance behind those threats. I think this whole matter's been brought up, in my own personal opinion, somewhat contrived, but it exists for what it exists, and we're doing what we need to do to take care of it.

0:38:39But I think I've heard several council members here on this dais say we have a lot of diversity. It's well represented right here in front of us, and I think we can take that home with us. So again, I will close my comments by just encouraging you to adopt map A2. It best reflects the character of El Cerrito.

0:38:58Thank you. Thank you.

0:38:59Thank you. We'll go to our remote request to speak next.

0:39:05Okay, we will start with Rebecca K. Rebecca, you should be able to unmute and begin your time now.

0:39:12Rebecah K: Hi, Rebecca, hang on. Hi, Rebecca Kenny, El Cerrito. I'm in support of map, C3. I think that it does the best job of having the renters have their space

0:39:28And also of having sort of a… so a space that's sort of the apartment rentals, and a space that's sort of the…

0:39:35spaced out, upper hills for people who are closer to Wildcat, closer to the open spaces, places that where, like.

0:39:45fire abatement is an actual concern. That's less of a concern in the lower hills areas and down where I live in the apartment areas and the apartment dense areas near San Pablo.

0:40:00Fire abatement is just simply not something that I think about for myself, personally, and for worrying about for my own space. Certainly, it's something that I want the city to prioritize, and I want to be prioritized in the areas where it matters.

0:40:15But it's not something that, like, where I have to think about, you know.

0:40:19What the rules are around it specifically, and how that specifically affects my living space.

0:40:25I also think that doing things based on school district lines is a bit of a red herring.

0:40:35and the school district lines were drawn based around all of the West County unified school district rather than just simply being based on El Cerrito. So we have the weirdness of

0:40:47people who live in El Cerrito but go to school in Kensington, people who live here but go to school in Richmond, people who live in Richmond but go to school here, and so the lines are sort of wiggling every which way across the cities, rather than being drawn

0:41:00Based on, like.

0:41:02our own specifics of our own city. And so trying to go based on the school district lines will end up with a bunch of really strange things that, like.

0:41:12don't feel quite as intuitive to me. Thank you.

0:41:19Thank you, Mayor. That concludes our request to speak.

0:41:22Okay.

0:41:23Thank you very much.

0:41:25Do I have a motion to close the public hearing?

0:41:29Second. Okay, a motion by Mbotyama, second by Weisinger.

0:41:34I'm say, clerk, all those in favor. Please say.

0:41:37Any opposed any abstentions. Motion carries.

0:41:41Okay, I'm any council comments.

0:41:46I'll start to my right here.

0:41:50Thank you, Mayor. I I think that the hard part is that there's no perfect map.

0:41:57We all have to have different trade-offs. And, you know, I did speak with a number of people on 4th of July, and they're going.

0:42:05What do I care about these districts? You know they're they're looking at. They're a resident of El Cerrito, not necessarily of a district. And so I don't know.

0:42:17How?

0:42:18Sorry apologies.

0:42:21So, you know…

0:42:23I I hope we don't spend too much time deliberating, but thinking about from from the last time about how I moved through my own neighborhood. I realized that

0:42:36you know, my neighborhood isn't reflected the way I move through it in the maps. So

0:42:45I'm a little unhappy about that now that I'm thinking of that, but

0:42:49I hope we can do what's what's best.

0:42:52Thank you.

0:42:55Mayor Pro Tem.

0:42:59Just want to thank first everybody who's been participating and drawing maps and coming, whether you came today or emailed us or came to one of the prior hearings. I know it's been a

0:43:10necessarily rushed process. I know I talked to a lot of people at the 4th of July Festival who knew we were districting.

0:43:18And we're shocked that we were voting now. We put it out a lot, but it's just been so quick.

0:43:24And so it's unfortunate that most people haven't fully tuned in. I was hoping to get more public comment tonight and more input from the public.

0:43:33And I think also just a lot of people are seeing these maps, and they're like, I don't know, because this is so new, and you can't compare to what was before, because what was before was the whole city. I mean, I'm thinking about how I moved

0:43:45Through the city today, I transverse by foot almost the entire.

0:43:51southern half of the city, running a whole bunch of errands and going to a city event. So that's, like, my whole neighborhood, and then on the weekend, I transverse most of the northern part of the city. So it's such a small city, it's like, it's all our neighborhoods.

0:44:08So it's true, any way you cut the maps, you're cutting out part of your own neighborhood, and it's challenging.

0:44:15As I said at the last meeting, I am more in support of Plan C. 3. I think it

0:44:23Does a better job, though they're all these maps are imperfect of keeping communities together.

0:44:30It does seem like even though we didn't get a lot of public comment tonight or by email, it seems like the vast majority of people have called for C3, but again, we didn't get a lot of public comments, so I don't know that that represents what the majority of El Cerrito thinks, and that's always true on any topic.

0:44:48But I would like to hear what the rest of the Council thinks.

0:44:53Yeah, I'm going to my left here. We'll start with yes, thank you, and thank you to the demographer team. I know that

0:45:02I think it was 2 meetings ago. We didn't even have the concerns of the renter community included in here. So thank you all so much for including that I'm in very, very strong support of a 2, and I'm gonna say, why.

0:45:15And.

0:45:17I have, in 4 years, talked to a lot of people in a lot of different parts of our city, specifically about housing that's going up in El Cerrito. And not all of it has been as positive as people like to say that it is.

0:45:32I think that people acknowledge that a lot of low income people of color, disabled people, young people, students, queer people are moving into the housing, but sometimes I don't think that they really understand what that means.

0:45:48I think that A2 gives a better opportunity. I'm the first renter to ever be on this council, and I'll be very honest, I don't… looking at…

0:45:57Has zoomed all the way into about 400.

0:46:01on the map to see what's actually in those districts, and I don't…

0:46:06I wouldn't be confident in saying that the next person that came behind me.

0:46:10would be a renter that's representing those districts. I wanted to be someone who really… we've had a lot of people come into these chambers and say that they want to make sure that they are representing

0:46:24or making sure that we are sticking to the call of action to this for people of color.

0:46:31or saying that they want to make sure that we are focusing on renters, but it hasn't been them.

0:46:37It hasn't actually been the people that live there.

0:46:41And it hasn't been the people who've been fighting for the way that these buildings are showing up.

0:46:48And there's been people who said things that have been, you know, when we talk about things like parking.

0:46:54I mean, these are the same people who've been online talking about how ugly, and I live in what was formerly called the ugliest building in El Cerrito. Well, a lot of our low income and queer people live here. How dare you?

0:47:05live in your own home that you've lived in here in El Cerrito for 30 years, and people are just looking for a safe place to live, an affordable place to live, a place to start their families, and you're telling them that their building is ugly.

0:47:19I want to make sure whoever comes behind me, whether it's this year or in 4 years, is someone that lives there.

0:47:28maybe has lived there. I've lived there since the day I got sworn in on December 20, second of 2022. So that is why I strongly support a 2, because I want to make sure I for me, for what I know is there, and what I know is coming.

0:47:44The renter community is everything from Aloni Greenway on down.

0:47:50Like, point blank in the period. Because you gotta get those apartments that are there, you gotta get the apartments that are coming, you gotta make sure you're getting the housing, the single-family homes that are on the other side of 80. And I wanna make sure that those people are always represented.

0:48:06So I strongly support A2 for those who are asking about possible incumbents. Who knows what the future will bring, but I'm always future forward for what's coming behind me, and that's why I support A2. But thank you all for your comments.

0:48:22Thank you for everyone who actually did engage. I'm like Mayor Pro Tem. I wish that we had more time so that more people would have been able to engage.

0:48:31But thank you for those who did.

0:48:33Yep, thank you. Councilmember Kassan. Thank you.

0:48:37I share Council Member Weissinger's concerns.

0:48:42But may I ask you a question? Could could you explain?

0:48:45I mean, I heard everything you're saying. I'm trying to zero in and understand the difference for you between A and C. And I… when I look at the renter community, I think of the two… the two slivers on one side. It's solely sentiments that I've heard from folks as far as their concerns regarding housing in those three.

0:49:02Okay. And housing that's that's either here or housing to come. I want to make sure that people that are saying that they

0:49:10Are supportive and want to represent folks who live there actually have those folks in mind. And not their own personal interest of what they, what they want. That means it's like me living over there where Midas is.

0:49:26but telling people who live right over here behind City Hall. You know what I mean. I want to make sure that personal, my own personal interest. I was just looking at the the boundaries and trying to, you know, for myself.

0:49:40decide what my favorite is, and I I lean towards C. 3.

0:49:44in part, because it It almost has 2 parallel.

0:49:49I don't even want to call them one to renters strip, and the others sort of a mixed

0:49:53And then I look at the hills as more of a home ownership strip.

0:49:58which is why I lean towards C. 3. But I am very curious. Why.

0:50:03was a… YA2,

0:50:06may somehow better represent the interests of renters, and I don't see it just looking at the boundaries.

0:50:15Okay, I still don't see it. That's

0:50:18All right. Can I just add in, I also, I'd also love to hear more, because, like, for example, maybe I could see the argument on the

0:50:26brown… it's hard, because I don't think they're the same numbers. The… the brown and red 3 and 5, the… the northwest district, maybe on A2, it's slightly more renter-concentrated, but if you look at that southern.

0:50:41West District, it's more concentrated on C3 renters, so…

0:50:46Either way, there's a trade-off, and again, I wish… now that you're pointing this out, I wish we had more time so we could fix this. We can't. So one of them is going to be a more concentrated renter district, and the other is going to be less, no matter which map we pick, right? You're thinking about where you are, but the other district…

0:51:04that's a renter district, too, so I don't know. It's there's no easy

0:51:09I guess you know where where I end up is I I'm Comfortable with both.

0:51:13Board & I am. Board & I do prefer a C.

0:51:16because I think it does.

0:51:18It consolidates sort of the middle ground a little bit more than the windows.

0:51:22But you know it's not not a strong preference.

0:51:25I I'm actually more concerned about the the dates. We can get to that later. But

0:51:29I will leave it at that.

0:51:31Is anyone ready to make a motion?

0:51:35D E A.

0:51:37I'll make a motion for C. 3.

0:51:40to have a second.

0:51:41I will second it.

0:51:43Okay, Madam City Clerk.

0:51:45Although, excuse me, all those in favor, please say aye.

0:51:49Aye. Aye. Any opposed?

0:51:51Opposed?

0:51:53Opposed the motion fails.

0:51:57Someone like tonight make another motion.

0:52:02I'll make a motion for a 2.

0:52:04I'll second.

0:52:06Okay, madam, city court.

0:52:08All those in favor. Please say, aye Aye, aye, any opposed. No.

0:52:13No motion carries.

0:52:16Okay.

0:52:18Next, we will go to a motion, to assign districts a number and select the three districts that will be up for election in 2028. And I wanted to, just check with the demographer and the city attorney, do you want to add something?

0:52:36on on this and what we are voting for.

0:52:39With using the map A2.

0:52:45So the way that the districts will be numbered, there will be 3 districts that are the 2028 seats.

0:52:52That will be the odd 1, 3, and 5, and then 2 districts, which will be the 2030 seats, which will be 2 and 4.

0:53:01And so, essentially.

0:53:03What you can, when you're considering these maps, you now, now that you've adopted a map, the law says that you can't consider incumbency when you're adopting a map.

0:53:11that process is done.

0:53:13So at this point, if you want to talk about or consider what makes most sense, so that if somebody is already going to be facing re-election in 2028,

0:53:23Then maybe that's the number… they get a district that is aligned to that, so it becomes one of the, even-numbered dis… or one of the odd-numbered districts, because it's gonna be up in 2028.

0:53:34I don't know when any of you come up, although, Councilwoman, you were saying that you're up for re

0:53:40So you'll be up in 2030. So if you know which district you're going to be in, you would want that to be an even numbered district so that it aligns with your seat. I don't know where the other council members are up. So that's the process you're in is just to look at the colors and determine which ones you want to have be even and odd and then staff can assign the numbers.

0:54:02And sorry, remind us again which one goes up in which year, even or odd? Odds come up in 2028, there's 3 seats in 2028, and even seats come up in 2030.

0:54:23which determines when they're up, which determines whether incumbents can run again or not, and other things.

0:54:31Oh, yeah.

0:54:32Could could you explain? Could you explain more about

0:54:36Board & What happens, for example, if

0:54:39Board & Council members, Quinto and Wessinger are elected re-elected this.

0:54:44this term.

0:54:46And then their district has an election in two years. What does that mean? They wouldn't have — oh, so let's say as an example that either of them or both of them are in a district that you happen to assign to be.

0:55:02Odd numbered district, meaning it comes up in 2028.

0:55:06Well, if they're sitting in a district that's up in 2028, they have an option

0:55:11They have a seat through 2030.

0:55:13If they don't run for that seat, they're gonna stay in office till 2030, no matter what.

0:55:19They could throw their hat in the ring for the 2028 election.

0:55:23And if they win it.

0:55:25There would now be them sitting as the elected representative in that new district, and their at large seat, which they vacated, would be filled probably by an appointment for the remaining two years of their term.

0:55:36Because they're vacating their at-large seat to take this districted seat. If they lose, they just stay on the council for the remaining two years of their term.

0:55:47And is there any way to choose?

0:55:50districts in such a way that there's not

0:55:52a partial one that gets filled by the Council. That's actually Before your term was elected.

0:55:58If you're… if you have… I don't know where the council members live, but if you all align to where…

0:56:04Everybody's in a different seat, and you align the district numbering to be that, then…

0:56:09you'll be fine. If there's one place where you have somebody misaligned, then

0:56:14Or two people, one district, you're gonna have to choose which election cycle that comes up in.

0:56:19Can. Would you like us to share which areas the council members reside in? So you know.

0:56:25kind of what you're looking at, because that is part of the discussion and debate at this point, right? Yeah.

0:56:31So on the map that is selected, this A2 map up here, the orange

0:56:36district does not have a current council member. The green district is where Councilmember Motoyama would fall into. Red is where Councilmember Weisinger would fall. Purple is where Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman would fall, and brown is where both Mayor Quinto and Councilmember Kitsanis would fall.

0:56:56So, I guess to… now that that's…

0:56:58clarified. I think one. The additional information, I think, helps also answer the the question that you're asking Councilmember Katsana. So if you make orange, green, and purple the 2028 elections.

0:57:17and… I'm sorry, if you make

0:57:19I'm gonna get me. I'm gonna get this right if you if you make

0:57:23Brown, purple, and green, the 2028 elections.

0:57:29Then Councilmember Weisinger's district does not come up for election until 2030.

0:57:35But in 2028, there would be a district election, and, both Mayor Quinto and Councilmember Kitsanis, would have the opportunity to run for the district seat in the Brown District.

0:57:51At that point, if, for example, Maraquinto decided not to run.

0:57:56And Councilmember Kitsanis was the only candidate, and he were the only member of the Council currently to run, but he won the election. Councilmember Quito would continue to serve his at-large

0:58:10term until 2030, and Councilmember Kitsanis would be elected to a new four-year term from the Brown District.

0:58:18On the other hand, if both Mayor Quinto and Councilmember Kitsanis chose to run for election in the Brown District in 2028,

0:58:26there'd be, a couple of scenarios that might occur. If Councilmember Kitsanis won that election.

0:58:33Councilmember Quinto would not give up.

0:58:35the remaining term for his at-large seat. He would remain in that seat for the remaining two years, but Councilmember Kitsanis would be elected to a four-year term in the Brown District.

0:58:47On the other hand, if you both ran in 2028, and Maraquinto were elected.

0:58:54His at-large seat would become vacant, two years would remain on that, and the council would have the opportunity to either appoint someone or call a special election to fill the vacancy.

0:59:05So I think it now that it's easier. It's much easier to have this conversation now with that information. And and if I can just ask the city clerk just for the

0:59:13the the benefit of those who were asking and wonder if we had chosen C. 3. It's my understanding, by looking at the map.

0:59:22councilmember. I'm sorry, Mayor Kento and I would still live in different districts, and that was a question that a lot of people asked. I just want that on the record that there was no way in any of these maps we lived in the same district for you to know there was no overlap with the 2 of you. I just wanted that to be on record. So people knew it.

0:59:38Yes, and for both, for both C. 3 and a 2. You are in different districts. Okay, councilmember. Thank you. Mayor.

0:59:49Last time we met there was an option to have all 5 seats come up at the same time with staggered terms. So

1:00:00Is that not the preferable way to do it? Can you go into elaborate more about that?

1:00:08Yeah. So there was a question at the la at a recent hearing where somebody asked about

1:00:13Do any agencies do a staggered term so that people only serving, like, a two-year term?

1:00:20Or only being elected in a two-year term to absolve this kind of, like, staggering issue.

1:00:25I will say that at the time I mentioned, like, the City of New York does this weird thing every redistricting, but it's already something that is in their charter, so it's something that's already established law.

1:00:37Also, and legal counsel might be aware of this, there's a decision in Huntington Beach just this week, or a couple weeks ago, where they are forcing the council members to run for two-year terms, and then the entire council's gonna be re-elected in four years, or in two years.

1:00:53So they're gonna force the council… any council members that are running for re-election in Huntington Beach are only running for 2 years, and in 2028, the entire council's gonna be re-elected. And they're gonna have…

1:01:04Four-year terms.

1:01:06And every coun- the full council getting re-elected every 4 years. No staggering.

1:01:11So those kind of prescriptions have been done in places, but it's not a

1:01:16a way that the law is right now for running the elections. It would require, probably, a court decision or some kind of charter amendment to change the staggering of this… of the terms, unless the legal counsel has another

1:01:28viewpoint. No, I think that's correct, and one of the other things that I want to say about this on a practical level is, one of the things you can't do is, through this process, is shorten terms, and so…

1:01:38just playing this out, the 2026 election's going to go ahead normally. So… so that will be a four-year term.

1:01:45Unless you were able to shorten the terms for those elected in 2028, they would serve until 2032.

1:01:54So, you'd have to then…

1:01:56figure out how to make the 2030 election a two-year term only, and so it wouldn't be until 2032 that you'd actually be able to get all of the elections onto the same ballot. So…

1:02:09even if it were feasible without a significant alternative change like amending the charter, it wouldn't happen for another 6 years.

1:02:18And if I can, you actually have a very simple decision at this point. It's binary.

1:02:22Because when you lay out the obvious choices, you have… you can… you can set aside districts 1, 2, and 3.

1:02:30The red one will be a 2.

1:02:32Because that's gonna be up in 2030, because the only incumbent there is…

1:02:36That seat, they're running for re-election this year, so presumably they'll be running for election. Whoever wins in that election will be running in 2030.

1:02:44So… You can set that to the 2, and 1 in green, you can make 1 in 3.

1:02:52Those are odd, so they align with the council members that live in those districts.

1:02:57Elections. So if you take 1, 2, and 3 are off the table, now you have 4 and 5.

1:03:04The district number… 4.

1:03:07We'll be up in 2030, and the district number 5 will be up in 2028.

1:03:12So the question is, do you want to make the Brown District Up in 2028.

1:03:19so that the 2 council members who live there would have the option to run against each other.

1:03:24Or… make it up in 2030, so that the Council member whose term expires in 2028.

1:03:31won't have anything to run for for 2 years. Even if they want to run for re-election, there won't be an election until 2030 for that seat.

1:03:40So if you make district number… if you make the brown district 4, It'll be 2030.

1:03:47So the council member whose term is expiring in 2028.

1:03:51We'll have to sit around for 2 years and wait for that seat in their area to come back up for reelection.

1:03:57And if you make it District 5,

1:04:00Then that election will be in 2028.

1:04:03So that council member whose term is expiring will be paired with a council member whose term is not expiring, but who could throw their hat in the ring to run for that seat. So you could have a pairing of two council members in an election against each other.

1:04:16So that's the… that's really the

1:04:19That's the decision right now. It's kind of binary between those two choices.

1:04:24Okay, council member. Yeah, I just wanted to share a reason.

1:04:31To do it a little bit differently, when, you know, I look at the renter, Districts, the…

1:04:38I guess it's 1 and 3. I can the same map. Yeah, 1 and 3.

1:04:42I think about differences in voter turnout between a presidential election and a non-presidential election.

1:04:49and my suspicion. I don't know if this is true, but you maybe know this more, but because it's

1:04:54a slightly lower income area. I'm inclined to believe that their turnout

1:04:58is significantly higher during a presidential election year than an off election.

1:05:03So for that, you know, trying to encourage those people to be heard and empowered.

1:05:09I think it makes sense to have those 2 districts be in 2028 and 2032, and you know, on the line every 4 years, matching with presidential elections.

1:05:17That's that.

1:05:18That's definitely logical. And it was actually something the community member did tonight's hearing for the first time. A community member came up and discussed this ordering of elections and that concern. And we often do find, as folks know, I wear another hat where I do a lot of election data analysis.

1:05:35And generally those communities that are renter.

1:05:39lower income. Some of these communities that… that without looking at… deeply at the data, it's very likely that they're lower turnout in a gubernatorial election cycle and higher turnout in a presidential election cycle.

1:05:52That being said, You know, we might see that this election cycle, they're really high turnout

1:05:59Because of whatever dynamics are happening this election cycle.

1:06:02So there have been jurisdictions who have chosen that direction.

1:06:09And that have said, OK, no matter what, the districts that are going to be either the most traditionally disenfranchised districts, we're going to make those districts come up in a presidential election year. So you would set the red and the orange to 2028.

1:06:24under that. Cons in the under that.

1:06:26kind of thinking. And then that would mean that the brown, purple, and green would all be in, oh no, 2020 would be orange and

1:06:37red, and you would pick one more district to be 2028.

1:06:42And then the remaining 2 would be 2030.

1:06:45So just my personal preference would be that 5, 3, and one or 2028. You mean you mean brown, red, and orange.

1:06:53Brown, red, and orange in 2028. Those would be the districts, and then

1:06:59Yep. Purple and green would be between 30. That's just my personal… You can do it now.

1:07:09bear protest.

1:07:13Yeah, I'm…

1:07:14I'm torn, because I think the cleanest way is to have the districts where there are incumbents up in 2028, just have those be in 2028. The one that concerns me is the Orange District, because they'd go some time without having anybody.

1:07:30the red, potentially, although I don't have a crystal ball, but if Councilmember Weisinger got re-elected, even though it'd be a large, she would still be living in the red district, so they'd still

1:07:41have somebody, but Orange would potentially have nobody. I think if we end up with any district kind of having nobody at any point in this interim period, we need a plan, and

1:07:51when I was on the BART board and we did redistricting.

1:07:54Because there'd been really massive population movements, the district… the districts changed a lot. We also tried to make them a lot less gerrymandered, but it meant that some districts for a couple years had no representative, so we did some adopting of areas.

1:08:11Although that was messy and some people didn't want to adopt an area and so.

1:08:16I think if we leave one that doesn't have somebody for a couple of years, we need something, even if it's not official, of like who those people are supposed to call. I know they have the at-large people, but I think we need something clear about what we're doing, even if it's not a legal thing, but who they're.

1:08:36who they can reach out to, and I don't… I don't want any part of our city to feel unrepresented, even if it's just for a couple of years, so…

1:08:43That is what I'm grappling with.

1:08:49Can I add real quick? I'm sorry, Councilman Osman. I didn't know.

1:08:53realize that that was your district that I left.

1:08:56left you out two years, I'm sorry. It wasn't part of my consideration at all, I'm not thinking about… I mean, it's hard. I mean, if you… if you get either… I mean, if you put the orange or the red in 2028, somebody or two of us are gonna have no seat to run for. It just is what it is, so these are the decisions to make.

1:09:14I also realized you all left me with like I was. Gonna say, some of these districts

1:09:19they're so small that you can increase the turnout on your own by running for council and running a good campaign, except for me, that has all these hills to walk, so thanks, I'm going to be in really good shape in election years. I will walk for you. It's fine, I walked most of the city last time, so this is smaller.

1:09:38Councilmember Mutiana, where do I I think it's just really hard. If we

1:09:49Have nobody for Orange District, we still have 5 council members, correct? Yeah, I, I, I do, I, I understand what council, Mayor Pro Tem Saltzman is saying and working, working in a with another city that that has made this transition.

1:10:04It's a… it's a fine balance to strike between maintaining a focus on it being one city with one city council that represents the entire city, but is elected by districts, and so does have to pay attention to… to, you know, the people living within the district. But I think that

1:10:23If you wanted, there'd certainly be nothing wrong with creating an informal system to say.

1:10:28for the folks who live in the Orange District, you know, council… you know, the two council members who abut it, like, you should go to them first. They're there, you know, they share… they are representing people who share some of your interests, and you could go to them first, but by the same token.

1:10:44As many of you have pointed out, El Cerrito's not that big a city. People know people from all over town. I suspect that if, and particularly with the council being

1:10:55engaged the way it is in representing the entire city, that anybody who lived in the Orange District would feel comfortable reaching out to any council member about an issue that they had, and I think it may actually be a valuable

1:11:07point for the whole council to adopt the district and say, we're all here for you to help maintain that focus on it being one council representing the entire city.

1:11:18Thank you.

1:11:21So long as there are 5 council members, I'm okay leaving the Orange District

1:11:29To 2030, so long as we, again, have focus on the residents' needs.

1:11:40But… I don't know. It's I think it's all 6 of one half dozen the other, frankly.

1:11:47because I think the districting part was a more kind of difficult part. But you know.

1:11:54You can go with incumbency. We can go with

1:11:57you know who's up, you know who's up for 28. I think the Umm.

1:12:03really difficult call is the the brown district. So

1:12:11Did you have anything? Like.

1:12:14Go ahead. If you want to talk, go ahead. I'm happy to make a motion whenever you're ready.

1:12:19Sure.

1:12:20I will move that the brown, purple, and green districts come up in 2028, and that the red and orange district come up in 2030.

1:12:36I'll second that.

1:12:40All those in favor. Please say, aye.

1:12:42Aye, aye, any opposed.

1:12:45Opposed. Okay, motion fails.

1:12:48or sorry motion carries my apologies.

1:12:52Okay.

1:12:53So we are good with the.

1:12:56Councilmember Personas and I will.

1:12:59Duke it out in 2028.

1:13:02That's your chart.

1:13:09No, I'm, I'm good with all of that. And, okay, so next we will go to.

1:13:16We have one more action item on this. Do I have a move before you move? Just do you? Do you want the Council to specify numbers?

1:13:29I think if the staff just wants to verbalize what the numbers are, so that you have it in the in what you're passing. If council is open to this, we could do brown as one red as 2 purple, 3, 4, orange, 5 green.

1:13:43I think it would be brown, one purple, 2 green, 3, and then

1:13:484, and I'm sorry you're correct. Then the top 3 would be 1, 3, 5, and then the bottom 2 would be 2, 4. Yes, correct. Thank you. Okay, Molly had it right.

1:14:00Yes.

1:14:01Okay, so I will do this. Now, then, do I have a motion to approve the proposed ordinance implementing district elections with the selected map and sequence of elections indicated in the prior motions.

1:14:19I'll move.

1:14:20Second, I have a motion by Motayama, second by the Mayor Pro Tem. All those in favor. Please say, aye.

1:14:27Aye, any opposed motion carries.

1:14:31Thank you very much, and I want to thank our demographer for that. And you know, bye.

1:14:37both you and I have worked in Cal cities together for the last 10 years, and know how much the local electeds appreciate you and your views, and thank you for all this. I know you're going up and down the State doing this. So again, thank you for being here for El Cerrito.

1:14:55Next, we have the presentation for the San Pablo Avenue Plan Implementation Update, Economic Development, and Affordable Housing. We have a report.

1:15:26Just give us one moment. Sorry we're waiting for Melanie.

1:17:34Good evening, City Council.

1:17:37I am Melanie Mintz, your Community Development Director, who might break out in tears, as I say. As you know, it's my last week being your Community

1:17:46I am joined tonight by Isa Shuri, our program manager in housing and economic development. Sean Moss is in the audience, our planning manager.

1:17:55Dina Belzer, from the owner and principal of strategic economics, who did the analysis for us, and I'm also happy to introduce tonight Claudia Garcia.

1:18:06And.

1:18:07who is will be your next community development director.

1:18:12Claudia is here tonight just to observe. She begins July 20.th

1:18:16But of course she'll be leading the department going forward. So hearing both your questions and answers tonight, and just kind of your orientation will be helpful.

1:18:35So.

1:18:36Oh.

1:18:39I'm sorry.

1:18:41So, as you know, let's see.

1:18:45The analysis that we're doing tonight was funded by an Mtc. Pda planning grant, and in part it was funded because the specific plan which had evaluated 1,706 housing units

1:18:59was actually reached its capacity quite quickly.

1:19:03And we actually, I think, had about 120 units, and we were calling them the golden ticket, because there were actually even several developers competing for those last, tickets. And with housing, being so important at that time near transit, we were able to get this grant to be able to expand our capacity,

1:19:23However, as we know, many of those entitled projects weren't able to go forward. The pandemic hit and and items changed. So when we 1st adopted this specific plan.

1:19:33in 2,014, and you'll see in some later slides. We had had 8 years of very, very little housing development and commercial development.

1:19:41and part of that was the great recession, and then part of it was that our zoning didn't match the market. So we really set out when we did this, the specific plan to make it regulatory. So it was certain council really took the action of making it by right development with a real design emphasis and looking at how do we improve the corridor as a place for living, working

1:20:01Moving around, shopping.

1:20:06as we took a market-based approach, because we knew we can have an idea, and we can have a vision. But if it doesn't match the market, we're not going to

1:20:16some of the main goals were to deepen a sense of place and community identity, attract private investment, strengthen partnerships, enhance the public realm, add housing and commercial space. And as you see, as we go forward, we did do some of that, and

1:20:28when we first adopted it, we didn't know how successful it was gonna be. It was very successful in entitling projects, and…

1:20:35So we love to celebrate the successes and keep the momentum going tonight. Our purpose tonight is really to just be able to provide you information to consider, to kind of help give you some context for what we're all seeing out there, both in El Cerrito and in the region, and to kind of give us some ideas to think about how do we move forward in somewhat uncertain

1:20:54Times.

1:20:58I I think, yeah.

1:21:00You'll see, the report that you received has quite a bit of documents and a lot of data. It really is in two parts. So, the first part I will present, and then Aissa will present the second part.

1:21:13So the 1st part is really looking at an overall implementation strategy for the avenue. It gives an overview of conditions that are impacting implementation.

1:21:20It looks at some of the opportunities and challenges. As I said, we'll look at a little bit at the successes in the plan area, talk about shifts in broader economic and development conditions, and while we will provide some suggested goals and strategies tonight.

1:21:34We, as you know, we are not asking for any action. It really is information. And tonight's presentation is also supported by a report that you received, and a data appendix which actually has a lot of interesting and useful data. Similarly, the affordable housing strategy

1:21:50was actually a requirement of the grant, both to look at kind of displacement, at the time, you know, displacement and displacement, strategies to, to minimize displacement.

1:22:01Looking at our existing supply of affordable housing, the regional housing needs allocation, and again, looking at city actions we've taken to date, and really looking at possible policies that could be considered, but again, are not looking for any recommendations tonight.

1:22:17So I think.

1:22:17this is something that I find really interesting when we talk about San Pablo Avenue. So, of course, as we all know, it runs from Oakland to Hercules, connecting lots of places. But

1:22:28we're pretty unique on the corridor, I would say entirely unique. Maybe San Pablo with different land use patterns. But for us it is our primary commercial street. When I 1st started here, and we were looking at some of the early streetscape improvements.

1:22:41I remember Council talking then about, it's our front door. The whole thing is not one part or another. Whereas that's not true in Berkeley, right? So in Berkeley, you're gonna have

1:22:50University, Gilman. Even Oakland, San Pablo is not a major commercial corridor. Of course, as we all know that many other neighborhoods, and even Pinole, it is also not. It's got that east side of the freeway where most of its commercial activity is. For us.

1:23:04a main goal was to really create a place on San Pablo Avenue, not just to pass through as quickly as you could when you got off the freeway, or to get to one place or another, but actually stop and be, while still recognizing its route of significance and its importance for the whole corridor. So that's both with transit

1:23:21and automobile traffic. And then we really, when we started the work on San Pablo Avenue, wanted to add the pedestrian environment. So we wanted it really to be a true multimodal corridor.

1:23:31I think it's really important. You can see it's 90% of our retail area. It's most of our opportunities for housing growth.

1:23:38As such, it obviously generates a very significant share of our sales and property taxes. And interestingly.

1:23:47increasingly, housing… one of the things that housing does is helps you really support locally serving businesses, right? More people that live within a… within a 5-10 minute walk, are gonna support the local businesses, but we also have some important regional destinations, obviously, something like

1:24:01Honda or, Marshalls Ross, our cannabis stores, wouldn't be able to survive on our population alone. So we have an interesting combination, but we aren't, obviously, at a crossroads, like

1:24:11Emeryville, or Walnut Creek. So, the whole plan area, just as a reminder, is only about 170 acres.

1:24:17That's about the same size as some of the parks in some of our outlying communities. And we never did have an industrial area. So it's also interesting. We have small places. We don't have some of those places in San Leandro or Richmond that might be able to be fully repurposed. So it's got some interesting characteristics.

1:24:36Yeah.

1:24:38Again, we'll stay pretty high level since you have information, and then you can kind of direct us to the questions.

1:24:43So in terms of success, we did complete 400 housing units.

1:24:48Which for a city our size, that added, that was a 20% increase in our multifamily rental inventory. So we're really proud of that. As we know, we have a significant pipeline at the BART station.

1:24:59And importantly, and Asa can talk a little bit about this as well. But when we were

1:25:05working on our inclusionary ordinance. And just in general, as we were looking, how do we change the fact that we had not done any modern

1:25:12multifamily development, so there were no comparables. Nobody even knew whether, especially on the north end, whether that was possible. So, this, these statistics, you'll see they don't, they don't, necessarily point to being, projects being feasible to build today, but they do point to projects being successful.

1:25:29I know we often hear that they might not be even actually full, but they actually are all maintaining above 90% occupancy, well above 90%. And their absorption, how quickly they got to that was relatively quick, and they maintain it. And when we check in pretty regularly with the Mayfair folks, and they have

1:25:46not only a very diverse residence base, but people are happy and staying. And for many people, actually, while we all want to increase the walkability, we hear about the when we were just there recently touring Alora, people talked about, you know, they can shop, they can go to parks, they can access Bart and bus and the bay trail, and a lot of resident satisfaction.

1:26:05Importantly, Cerrito Vista also just sold recently, which was a really good market indicator as well.

1:26:12Another big success is that these projects have brought improved street frontages through their own development, public art, and then they've also either contributed directly or indirectly to projects such as Del Norte Complete Streets.

1:26:26And while this might not be directly related to the specific plan, I did want to point out that we're kind of unique amongst cities in that we have had a full recovery of our inflation-adjusted sales tax revenue since 2020 lows.

1:26:42something while we're looking at this I think is fun to look at, and when we talk about just kind of property tax, Mayfair, you can see, was empty not too long ago. And I think in August, Elora is having its, ribbon cutting.

1:26:55It already has, residents living there, and are beginning to… and you now have public open space shortening the blocks.

1:27:03A market rate development, which generates… it's appraised at about… assessed at about $45 million, and so we, about $300,000 a year, property tax.

1:27:13And then, of course, it's going to be welcoming businesses, and all of those residents up there supporting local businesses. So it's fun to look at.

1:27:21If you look at this chart, it's pretty stunning, and it kind of really does tell you exactly what we saw as well. So you can see in about, 2012,

1:27:32Rents were growing faster than construction costs, so the blue bar that you're looking at, started to exceed construction costs, and that's when we started. Luckily, we got the plan adopted, and we were able to catch some small window there.

1:27:45But you can also see when our project stopped. You can see what started to happen. The construction costs started to

1:27:511st a little bit start to exceed rents, and that's when we were still hearing people trying to put it together, trying to make changes, and then you can see it gets pretty significant. This gap between the increase in construction costs and rents, and Dean is here to if you have any questions about that. But that's again region wide.

1:28:08We included the hotel here just because it was an exciting moment. We know we're not a hotel center, but council members. We were. We were excited. So we did have a we do have

1:28:18a Hampton Inn, fully designed, and actually an almost ready-to-issue building permit, so they… that's… that's a significant expense to get to that side. So it's a Hampton Inn, beautifully designed across from Mayfair, but we actually had a second hotel that was able to also get a flag, committed to it on East Shore, and that was Hilton True, and

1:28:36And.

1:28:38disappointing, something… hopefully, maybe something someday will change, but just to share that information. And then, as we know, and we've talked about a lot, one of the big changes that happened for El Cerrito in particular is, in addition to these regional… this is still regional, but for us, one of our… our great

1:28:56advantages was our proximity to BART to be able to get to the job centers. And so those

1:29:01The advantage of being at those places changed somewhat, so it exacerbates the situation with work from home policies.

1:29:09next.

1:29:11So here's just a quick overview. Really, I think that as we go through these, we didn't know when we started this with strategic economics. Was it time to make some big changes? And it just feels too uncertain to make any big changes to the plans. What we have done is we're having to get more flexible. We do know that

1:29:28I think when we did a chamber presentation, we talked about, we know a property that was entitled as a beautiful multifamily mixed-use ground floor commercial. They tried to sell it as they tried to build it hard. They kept trying to put it together lots of different ways. Then they tried to sell it as an entitled project, which is

1:29:43common. And now they're marketing it for different purposes. And so that's happening on some of the you're going to start to see that.

1:29:50That's still consistent with the specific plan, and Sean can talk more about this, but we try to make sure that we can still make findings, that it's still moving it in the right direction, but being market-oriented, knowing that we don't know, we want to keep maintaining some momentum.

1:30:04Another important part about our multifamily units is part of when we couldn't get comps, people also did talk about it's important to keep activity. People want to live in a multifamily environment that has activity around it. So we'll quickly go through these strategies and goals.

1:30:21One of them is to support existing and potential small businesses in the plan area, and for those of us, those that have lived in town for a while, I've also lived here a while, I hear often

1:30:32I know for myself, it's hard for me to leave town to eat, because I think I have a lot… most of my favorite restaurants are here.

1:30:38But I've heard that from many people that when they moved here 20 years ago, the options were different and less. And so that's exciting to see. And you can see it's a really diverse customer base. And you saw in the report in particular, both our Asian and Hispanic and Latino populations have grown at higher rates than even adjacent communities. And we're seeing that obviously in the small businesses, grocery stores and services.

1:30:58home-based entrepreneurs. We have about 320 home occupation permits, and about 15% of those are actually doing food goods and services that could be provided in brick and mortar and part of our motivation with Maker Faire.

1:31:11And in general is to just hope that those businesses which might be testing their market might actually decide to either join with each other and create something or expand to the local market.

1:31:22One of our big challenges, and we've known this for years, one of our previous staff members was working to do environmental upgrades in our old retail spaces, and it was hard because they're old. I think a majority in the 60s were built.

1:31:36They're… so, they require significant tenant improvements. We don't have, for example, just vacant restaurants waiting to be utilized. And we've had some invest significantly, like Noodles Fresh, to actually build one in that space.

1:31:49And.

1:31:51I think we talked about here, either here or later, we also talked about the rents have not, and I think it's in your report, the rents are… the achievable rents in general are not so high that it would necessarily warrant. You can see, for example, San Pablo, Solano Avenue, where there might be more foot traffic and historic, you see

1:32:08Sometimes landlords keep things vacant for a long time, but sometimes invest a lot of money in those buildings.

1:32:14And you also see places where maybe a landlord just really, really has a vision. I think we see that in places on the corridor. An important part of our corridor is that some of our, most of our small businesses do rely on curbside access. And some of them have told us, like, I think when we asked Tashi Delek, like, the mixture there was pandemic, pre-pandemic.

1:32:33customer base is about 50% to go. So the deliveries become really important for curbside access. And then just customers in general. And I put left and U turns there just because we were talking to a broker recently. And that really also affects sometimes the business right? If you can't get there for a few blocks, you might not go back to it.

1:32:50Next slide.

1:32:52So we want to continue supporting. IESA reaches out as soon as we know there's a business license or somebody's inquiring, we reach out, we find out what the situation is, what they need. We try to definitely walk them and help them through any building permits, but also to put them in connection with the Small Business Development Center and anything we can do.

1:33:09We… the Economic Development Committee and ISIB, promoting the corridor as a destination. So, Flavor Fest, is one of the ways that we've done that, and they're gonna keep building

1:33:19And we've…

1:33:21when we adopted the specific plan. A major thing we did is we stopped requiring use permits for restaurants like it used to be. We're just. We know we want you. You don't need to use permits. We did a lot of simplification when we adopted the specific plan. Since then, of course, we've also simplified outdoor dining and so just continuing to look for ways to support what these, what these businesses need.

1:33:40Again, we've talked about the tenant improvements needed, you know, are there ways that we can reduce the costs there? And again, curbside access, is something that we hear.

1:33:51I'm activating and repositioning vacant and underutilized smaller retail spaces. So

1:33:57The word vacancy is interesting because there's vacant properties, but there's not actually a business there to rent. Those are highly visible, of course, like the block between Lincoln and Eureka. And then there's actual vacancies, which are actually retail businesses that could be rented and they want to. So our number looks higher than it actually is if you count.

1:34:16I think Denver's is like 40, 50%, right? It's very, very high. Our number is 10%, and that is mostly because of the Marshalls and the Joann's, which are both very, very large from a square footage standpoint.

1:34:28We do reach out, we try to figure out what can happen there, and I think that the recommendation from Strategic Economics, and you can see that, they did this at the plaza by signing a lease with Crunch. So some of these are not going to be, retail, they're going to be experiential, and sometimes there's limitations in terms of what the other tenants in the center want.

1:34:46And.

1:34:48you know, we hear often from a lot of folks who want, like, a… we've heard pickleball and ice skating and roller skating, and we would love… or trampoline parks. A lot of those you'll see in very big, empty buildings that have very low rents. One of the challenges we're at is that our land values are very high.

1:35:05And our rents, while are not high for some of the small spaces, they're also higher than you would need for some of those businesses, so somewhat of a challenge, but maybe that'll change.

1:35:15Again, we've talked about… I think some of you have asked about foot traffic. You know, we're a dispersed corridor that was built on an auto corridor, so we weren't one of the pedestrian streets that was built before the car, like College Avenue, Piedmont Avenue, Solano. So, the specific plan does encourage nodes

1:35:32The existing buildings aren't really set up that way, so that's going to take reinvestment, and we hope to keep seeing that.

1:35:38And that's it.

1:35:42So again, we, one of the recommendations, while we maintain relationships, we've also thought, and with both realtors, and we have some new realtors who are very active in town, commercial realtors, we think there could be some benefit to parking with, like, a specialist to really, really dig in to what the motivations of a property owner are, and to see what we can make happen.

1:36:00And.

1:36:02Prioritizing activation and reinvestment in key nodes. This one's mixed, because we both have the nodes, but from our… I feel like I'm thinking of our finance department right now when I say some of our larger properties are also very high tax generating, obviously Honda and others. So, it's a mixture of strategies, I think, and I think it's a unique part about our corridors that we can be both.

1:36:20I'm maintaining active code enforcement and property standards.

1:36:23and facilitating reinvestment in beautification through partnerships.

1:36:28Again, supporting ongoing occupancy of large-scale retail space. So we regularly in contact with the Regency, they're very cooperative in, talking to us, letting us know if they see something that's needed to be changed. So just continuing to focus on those, and again.

1:36:43change. I think that if anybody were to come up with ideas, multi-tenant spaces, etc, our parking standards. When we adopted the specific plan, we reduced parking standards significantly. So they more govern that themselves.

1:36:55And again, we're gonna see, you know, probably more, entertainment, fitness, experiential. We got lucky with, you know, Big Five is another example. It had a beautifully designed housing project with a connection to the Greenway. We were all very excited about that. Not excited about losing Big Five. They tried to stay, but, they're…

1:37:12they were outbid. And Harbor Freight did come in, which obviously does bring in sales tax and brings in, regional, so there's gonna be…

1:37:19some that move to… I think we have a lot of gyms, new yoga studios opening up, but obviously some going to those,

1:37:26to maintain sales taxes positive, too.

1:37:30so the continuing to monitor and evaluate the health, finance department.

1:37:36Meets quarterly, with our sales tax,

1:37:40consultants who tell us what's happening in the market, and then we just… it's interesting to both observe what's doing well, what our top 10-20 are. I think there's a combination of things when we think about economic development. One's really quality of life and what we want, and that might be a small coffee shop, and some are these larger producers.

1:37:58I think also when we see support, activation, I think the farmer's market, as you all know, has been, has turned over to new owners, and I think it's bringing a lot of foot traffic, and when I've talked to the businesses at the plaza, they're seeing that.

1:38:11And so, you know, maybe there's continued things that we can do there. I think with our new resi- our population, there's people who are really supporting local things like that, so are there things that we can do to also just activate those districts?

1:38:25I think that I have shared this. So support, incentivize, and encourage development. So, as we know, you did Project Kickstart with projects that were already in the pipeline already with their building permits, trying to reduce their costs of inclusionary and other impact fees.

1:38:41And we're just, I think, gonna keep on exploring what things that we can do. I mentioned this earlier, but you can see Cerrito Vista, prior to development, was taxed at about $18,000, and now it's about $137,000, and that's including, or that's without looking at

1:38:57all those residents that are shopping locally and supporting the local businesses, and I think we see those local businesses doing well, so…

1:39:03Just a good example.

1:39:07This one's kind of interesting, but…

1:39:10You may remember earlier that we did a trans… a trans… trans…

1:39:15transit-oriented communities presentation. MTC has a policy that was looking to really incentivize even higher density in cities to both support transit and all the things we've talked about, provide housing, support transit.

1:39:29regional and state policies take a long time to develop. They take a long time to change, and so it did start prior to the pandemic. It's been very slow in rolling out, because some of the standards that it was looking for within a half mile of art stations, the market's not supporting, so there's a lot of conversation around this.

1:39:46Similarly, we are learning that the way that the funds are being allocated potentially at CCTA, the incentive was a carrot.

1:39:55We're not sure the carrot is a lot. So we're just looking at and encouraging that we look at other models. So the report states, and that

1:40:05townhomes are beginning to be built, and as you all may recall, Fairmont was multifamily. A six-story, it is, about to go to the Planning Commission for the townhome project, which is… Sean might be able to answer how many dwelling units an acre… I think it's 16 units, is that right, Sean, on that property?

1:40:21So 16 units, and we did actually get them to do a couple of small commercial spaces on the ground floor.

1:40:26Of the… of the Fairmont-facing properties. So we'll see. So they have 2 years from when they submitted for their re-entitlement, and that would be a townhome, but it's not consistent

1:40:36Poc policy might not support that overall. So we're just really, we have some funds through the grant to do some economic feasibility. But we are also encouraged through the study and onward to look at the trade offs. And if we want to be more market friendly or hold on to that kind of policy.

1:40:55I think that we… so this will come up again, but it's looking… you… I think you saw in the report, we do have a pretty high per unit cost that we're seeing in our affordable housing. Asa might be able to add, so…

1:41:06investigating that a little bit, looking at whether continuing to modify inclusionary housing. This, again, would not be consistent, maybe, with TOC, but it might be consistent with what we need to do.

1:41:16Is not using the market to build the affordable, but finding other ways to build the affordable.

1:41:22and for affordable continuing to identify new funding sources which Isa will get further into.

1:41:29And again, so there's the report, there's a detailed appendix.

1:41:33And I'm gonna pass it on to Aissa for affordable housing.

1:41:37Thank you, Melanie. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Aisa Ashuri. As Melanie mentioned, this effort I categorize is actually timely. It's a refresh to our housing goals and achievements while analyzing current conditions and potential opportunities as we strive

1:41:53towards meeting our housing target targets that ultimately, as was mentioned earlier. They actually do serve a diversity of mixed incomes and households.

1:42:03And I know that's why a lot of people love the Bay area.

1:42:06Within this effort considerations were taken from the city's 1st affordable housing strategy that was adopted in 2017

1:42:14Which was aimed at the production, preservation, and protection, that trailed the initial specific plan adoption. And so we looked at the market back in 2017 at that time, and also in consideration with the dissolution of redevelopment agencies in 2012. So the council really put their foot forward by, funding a position, to specifically carry out the strategy and

1:42:38And that includes partnerships, grants, et cetera. But on this slide, I wanna just kind of highlight not just locally what we've done, but the other regional policy tools that are in effect.

1:42:50As Melanie mentioned, the TOC policy, one thing that we're very proud of is being one of the first 10 cities designated as pro-housing. That was something I know Councilmember Moriyama was definitely, all in on board for, as well, with supporting that.

1:43:07And so now there are 74 jurisdictions certified as pro housing statewide. And so really, it was looking at jurisdictions that go above and beyond to accelerate housing production. And so we demonstrated that

1:43:20And then that same year, we adopted our housing element, which includes the six-cycle regional housing needs allocation. I'll dig into that a little more in a moment. But a lot of these policies run parallel to one another, and so I just wanted to kind of put them all in one space, so we can just kind of remind ourselves, even

1:43:38where we're at now with all the market conditions. It's it's still. We still have challenges, but we have also a lot of successes.

1:43:46This slide particularly covers our regional

1:43:49needs allocation targets. So, within our housing element, these numbers are assigned to each jurisdiction. So, last cycle, El Cerrito was, assigned 398 housing units. This current cycle, we are tasked, our goal, I should say, is, about 1400 units with about 500 of those being affordable. And then, of course.

1:44:14a portion of those being delivered by the market, both at moderate and above moderate. So that was really kind of what our inclusionary was aiming to also address was that moderate income level, which is like the missing middle income folks.

1:44:29And so this

1:44:30Slide also shows the area median income levels of what these actual projects that could deliver serve. So on the left is the median income just for the county. So it says, you know, if you're a family of four and you make 126,000, you're 62,000, you're right in the middle, half of the population makes more, half of the population makes less.

1:44:52So most of our new affordable housing units are gonna be, providing housing for people somewhere, as low as to the 30% of area median income, up to about 60%, and then there are other opportunities and other affordable housing types that

1:45:09kind of address the people in between those where you're not

1:45:13well enough off to go rent at market rate. But there might be a market within like low market rate inclusionary housing.

1:45:23This slide is pretty. Oh, and before I just jump to this. So a lot of the Bart Plaza Tod master plan will go a long way achieving our arena. But obviously

1:45:34everything's contingent on financing. And so that is why we're having this conversation to highlight all of the financing that we have received today, and some of the resources that may be needed in the future.

1:45:45But we do want to highlight just kind of how we got here over time. Much of our 11,000 housing units were built between 1940 and 80, as you'll see. It does amplify the lack of housing production in subsequent decades.

1:46:00But we shifted that through the specific plan, which provided the form pays code and the streamlining process with the design that was mentioned earlier. And so, after the specific plan was adopted, there was also a series of state

1:46:13and regional housing loss passed to further support. So while the zoning reform was is…

1:46:21pretty much mandatory across the State State. El Cerrito was ahead of that. But there are also just more opportunities for accessory dwelling units, lot splits. So it's not just multi-family housing. There are actually more housing opportunities as well for single families, and we know that multi-generational living is a real thing that's coming back these days, whether it's family family. However, you classify yourself. So

1:46:46It really does take a community to make these changes. And of course we're just grateful that we have the opportunity to get to where we're at now to kind of make up all of that. So you'll see, as Melanie mentioned, just kind of post

1:47:00post-grace recession after this specific plan, the uptick in housing production, and, more notably of, well, the affordable housing opportunities, so that we do have

1:47:11the workers who work at the businesses and provide things and are next to transit and work with our climate action plans. So it's a holistic approach. It's not just housing, but it's all the other amenities and

1:47:23that we have in El Cerrito. So this is just a quick snapshot of our existing rental housing. As you can see, we're now about 11,000 housing units, 57% owners, 43% renters.

1:47:37much of our housing is in the corridor on the corridor. So that is a great opportunity as well. And then we have some of our

1:47:45naturally acquiring affordable housing. So those are actually market rate rental units that by nature of their age, or generally have rents that are lower, have lower rents.

1:47:58And so, you know.

1:47:59these are not properties that necessarily have affordable housing, funding or deed restrictions. So they are provided by the market. And since we

1:48:07have a small multi-family housing stock meaning like 2 to 19 unit buildings and smaller we have that in place but in addition to our naturally occurring affordable housing we also have the residential rental inspection program that's been in effect since 1997 and at some point in the future we'll come back and talk to you all a little more about that as well because that is an important program that

1:48:29Just maintains the health and safety for our residents.

1:48:33This slide is pretty straightforward. So, as you'll see, much of the housing units, were created in the plan area, and they serve a variety of populations, seniors, families, formerly unhoused. A lot of these were completed in the last 10 years.

1:48:49with the exception of Elm Street. That was outside of the plan area, and that is constructed by private

1:48:57developers, so there's no funding, in those projects, as well as, for example, Metro 510 and,

1:49:05And I will just say that when we adopted our inclusionary Metro 510 was actually just coming online. So there wasn't quite the comps there yet to demonstrate that there were some assumptions made, but

1:49:18I'll kind of talk about that a little more now, as we look into the actions that have been actually taken since the specific plan adoption, which included the inclusionary zoning ordinance.

1:49:29And that was really driven by the 2017 affordable housing strategy. How do we leverage market rate housing projects to produce either affordable housing units onsite or through in lieu fees?

1:49:42So we adopted that because, as Melanie mentioned, we had a lot of entitled projects.

1:49:48not much comps, but we undertook the financial feasibility study which we did do with also our Mtc. Grant. So that was funded through that. And this is being funded by Mtc. A separate grant. And so we were able to do that. And we took the analysis and worked with Kaiser Marston, and we

1:50:06Took a modest approach.

1:50:08by adopting the 10% for the rental and 12% for the ownership. Because there were just kind of some assumptions that hadn't fully come to fruition yet. And so then the pandemic came. And so when the inclusionary ordinance was adopted, it did acknowledge that

1:50:27projects that are already entitled were exempt because they had purchased the land values, and those things weren't

1:50:33as part of the financial considerations when they were going through that process. And so the exemption sunset clause was coming up. And so, as a result of Covid, the Council, both in 2020 and 2021 extended that time because of

1:50:48the just the changing world. Right? We are all living in this economy together. So I don't need to explain it on a larger scale for development. It's significant construction cost interest rates. So that was extended through 2022, and then subsequently through project kickstart. We came back in 2025, because there were 4 projects in for building permits. So the fact that they had gone through the entitlement submitted for construction drawings.

1:51:12and came in for building permit hang.

1:51:15Building permit fees.

1:51:17We were really trying to aim to get them across the finish line, and so there are… there is some time for those projects, so as Melanie just mentioned, one is going to be re-entitled. And so, even with these actions,

1:51:29we're hopeful that one or two of those projects can get built, but of course, we don't have a Chris Mall, and we're not the market, but we can, put the tools in place that we can to support that. And so.

1:51:40There are realistically development feasibility challenges.

1:51:47This slide I just want to highlight. Did I skip a slide? No. Okay.

1:51:52So this slide is the city's contributions to affordable housing development. So

1:51:59Pre-redevelopment dissolution, the redevelopment agency, the Low to Moderate Income Housing Asset Fund provided $4.2 million in loans to affordable housing. So that includes like the Ohlone Gardens project, the Hannah Gardens, and then came post-dissolution where

1:52:17You know, we're a small city, so we don't have a ton of vacant sites or city-owned properties, but the Mayfair site had been purchased by Redevelopment to assemble for development. It had been vacant for a number of decades, but as part of the dissolution,

1:52:32Melanie and the team worked to put out an Rfp. And so what the result of that is that market rate developer did a public private partnership, and they partnered with a nonprofit. They bought the land for fair market value, and then they donated the adjacent parcel where Laura is now to bridge housing. And so

1:52:51What we were able to do after that with post dissolution is with the remaining money in the low to moderate income housing fund. We were able to give $350,000 pre-development loans, and that local match really goes a long way, because, as you can see, those dollars were able to leverage

1:53:11even bigger grants, right? And so those grants don't just fund affordable housing, but they fund transportation and infrastructure improvements. And obviously things with our climate action goals. So on. This slide is really just showing how our pre-development dollars for these projects has leveraged. You know, regional funds.

1:53:32funds from the state through the Affordable Housing Sustainable Communities, and even through our ProHousing Senate program, we were awarded $620,000. It's a much more competitive process, because there's more jurisdictions competing both

1:53:45We are still applying.

1:53:47In terms of current challenges, I think we've kind of shared that a lot with you all. We know what they are. But our biggest one that, just to highlight, is, we do have about $95,000 left in our low-to-moderate income housing asset fund.

1:54:03Unfortunately, we don't have any projects coming in with inclusionary. If one or 2 of our project kickstart projects break ground, then we will see some inclusionary funding potentially around 800,000, which

1:54:18could be like another 2 to pre-development loans in the future. But here is just kind of wanted to highlight the Elm Street project on the left, and the ribbon cutting that we had for Hannah Gartens in 2018.

1:54:33in terms of

1:54:34what's next? What do we do? These are just some potential policy options that we're sharing. So again, we're not reinventing the wheel or sharing anything new. But we are taking a fresh perspective of

1:54:48possible tools which are all obviously require some funding. 3 of these 4 potentially at least. So I'm just going to kind of talk through some of those.

1:54:59Not quite. Sorry about that.

1:55:02So potential policy tools would be local bond measures, which, as you know, require substantial community support because it does require two-third approval. Those are generally done in larger jurisdictions, Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley. We've also explored the EIFD, Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District, which enables cities to issue bonds supported by future incremental

1:55:27So a lot of, for example, our future incremental growth will be around the BART stations, for example. And EIFD bond revenues can be used to fund affordable housing or other infrastructure improvements as well, traditionally. Then there's obviously general fund with the redevelopment agency dissolution, we lost our funding, but we know that the general fund.

1:55:52For cities in general are

1:55:54are primarily for ongoing operations and maintenance. And so while our current operating and reserve budgets are in good shape, we are still constantly monitoring our targets and needs citywide. So this could be explored once kind of all of our other funding goals and requirements are met. But it is one tool that other cities do use. But again.

1:56:17It's scale, right, and budgets. Lastly is the TOPA, the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. So this was, a tool that we considered as a preservation piece in consideration with the TOC policy.

1:56:33while it does not set a funding minimum, it actually does require some form of resources, and so when we were talking with MCC about this, they have kind of a model ordinance and a TA team, and the thought that there would be some regionalism around to support this, but that was one of the,

1:56:50potential policies, tools that we explored and kind of why we did do that. So

1:56:57Our takeaways are, I think, are pretty straightforward. Our affordable housing funds are dwindling down. We have been very competitive in grants, so we will continue, especially working with CPPG and in-house staff to continue exploring that.

1:57:16new funding ways that we can get that, and also just realizing how other ways that we can advance the market rate, because when the market rate moves forward, it does supply other incentives and potential tools. And then you guys can all look at just other modifications. You are all very connected to the community. You know what's happening in the city. You know what's happening in the world.

1:57:36I do want to just say a lot of work has been done. And so, while

1:57:40these are different economic times. I think it's really demonstrated how the Council and our partners at related and bridge housing and others have really worked with us to bring these projects together. They see

1:57:55We have two BART stations, we, you know, have great schools, we have a great community, we have great parks, and, you know, when we were at Elora last week and we saw the new, a couple of new residents moving in, it's really those moments

1:58:09that make our work feel really rewarding, and it just takes so much time to see a project completed that sometimes we lose sight. So I just want to, even though we're in the market that we're in today, I just want to remember we've done a lot, and there's still more work to do. So we're just here tonight to kind of share

1:58:27where we're at. And I'm going to stop right there.

1:58:32So this slide, some of you might remember, Sean reminded me that this is what we often started with when we were starting the specific plan. And many of you worked with Lonnie Hancock. She actually had her office in the El Cerrito Plaza upstairs.

1:58:48So this really builds off of what Aissa just shared, which was to imagine San Pablo Avenue. This was a Lonnie Hancock quote as a part of a destination. San Pablo Avenue effort that actually Greenbelt Alliance, I think, was leading at the time with affordable housing providers.

1:59:02But imagine San Pablo Avenue as a grand boulevard stretching from Oakland to Hercules, with jewels of pedestrian-friendly and family-friendly mixed-use urban

1:59:12The San Pablo Avenue of the Future will include a diverse range of housing, businesses, service, recreational, educational, transportation, and civic opportunities, with distinct nodes of activity in each city, connected by an attractive, multimodal, world-class boulevard.

1:59:27And I think, going back to what Aissa said, that was 2004. That's also when I started working for the city, and you know Caltrans became a partner. Really, you know, Caltrans had Main Street policies.

1:59:37What I like about this is obviously some, some investments to make the whole corridor work are regional, and then some parts are really us locally, right? Like I was saying, like, we have a, we have a, we have a unique

1:59:48portion of the corridor, Yvette could talk about widths, and Yvette and Jared could talk about different pieces of it. We obviously have the two BART stations, we have the Greenway, we have, the freeway access, which drives some of our values as

2:00:00And it's a small acreage

2:00:02But I think what's important about this with what Aissa was saying, like we've we

2:00:06you know. Is it fast? Is it slow? I don't know like it took but I do know that it, you know, as you can see many times, it's it's taken a lot of pivoting and creativity and timing. I do think, as Aissa said, we've been really lucky with bridge related

2:00:21Eden…

2:00:22RCD, and they've all really seen Council as really… so, you've seen studies, we've presented them when we've talked about Parcel D, the report talks about them. We haven't

2:00:32put in as much money as some of the other cities are. So, for example, Berkeley at North Berkeley BART put in quite a bit of money to get to the percentages, and that's going to be something that we're going to have to talk about at Del Norte. I think our housing element asks for more, but we don't have funds. And so I think that

2:00:48We've done that, I think, through really

2:00:51The developers knowing at this time, once council marshaled around the specific plan, part of what we were trying to create was certainty, cooperation, and alignment of vision. They knew that, they've worked hard with us. And so I think that's a part of it. We've shared kind of some challenges, some ideas. So I look forward to having the conversation, but I just wanted to remind these things take a long time to build places.

2:01:12And with so many, factors. And it's interesting, I think we've strived really hard to create a balanced approach, and I still feel that that's

2:01:20to create place, how do, you know, how do we do that? And I think, making sure that decisions going… going forward, we're probably gonna have to make some changes. What are those? And so…

2:01:31That's yeah. So Dean is here as well. And we're happy to hear questions, thoughts, comments, and we're also happy to get this wrapped up. So thank you to again. This grant did also fund the specific.

2:01:44And then this effort was also grant funded, and it's, I think, full of full of good information and ideas to provide some context.

2:01:52Yep. Thank you very much. What a great presentation. I am reminded, as someone who grew up here, I was in high school when they tore down the old Mayfair Market. I just turned 65.

2:02:05So things don't happen here at a fast pace like what we see at Berkeley. We're not Berkeley, we're El Serena. So things are a little slower. And that has been my frustration through the years.

2:02:19to see all these empty lots, and to see developers who don't want to develop, and and all the work that our staff has done with these developers to get these things

2:02:31in line, so shop already, and your staff did that, so I congratulate you. It's too bad the majority of our developers are the same developers in Berkeley, and you look at all the great projects they're doing in Berkeley.

2:02:46Their properties are for sale. So in the future, I want to look at what we can do.

2:02:51to, incentivize them to sell their properties. This is not acceptable, to have, your staff work so hard, day and night, for how many years now, and… and to see them

2:03:07despite all the work that your staff has done to see all these empty lots, and I know that's been the frustration with my neighbors and residents and folks who grew up here as well. So you know, looking forward to

2:03:23the future, and… and I'm reminded that, my colleagues here and I, along with the city manager, we worked with Congressman Garamonde, where he did present a… a check.

2:03:38that will support parking and things like that for the plaza development. So these are some of the highlights that

2:03:49That, your staff should be proud of, and, and I certainly am. And I talk about that all the time when I'm in Sacramento.

2:03:58Los Angeles, and whatever, because we are one of the few cities who have actually built housing for everyone. I wish our cities next to us would do that. But you know they have to now, or they're going to get sued like Huntington Beach.

2:04:12So the traditional NIMBY cities who refuse have to build.

2:04:17affordable housing and housing for all now. I'm reminded of so many of my friends who I grew up here who would love to move back, and they would love luxury housing, and we still have a need for that as well, for housing for all levels.

2:04:33And this will truly, you know, enable some of our residents to move up to luxury housing and to have their homes available for the next generation. I'm also reminded that the

2:04:48The first-time homebuyer here in El Cerrito is 50 years old, and that is not acceptable. So, the importance of making sure we build affordable housing to purchase, and that's what I've seen Richmond doing, they're building

2:05:04You know, it's, it's not that affordable. It's still close to, you know, 800,000. But, you know, they are building, and they plan to build, you know, more affordable.

2:05:16townhomes and condos. I would like to see more of that in El Cerrito. You know we there are folks that would love to plant their roots here, but we do have a lack of housing, and and unfortunately, the folks that were that are moving in. They're the lucky ones. They already have housing, and they were able to purchase

2:05:36but they also have the burden of paying the highest taxes. And I'm looking, and I'm speaking to,

2:05:42many of the original landlords who are here who not put any money in their properties. I thank the people the landlords have that have truly invested in our community.

2:05:55And I'm hoping that, the mall owners, we don't have the stores that we used to have. Our stores at the El Cerrito Plaza were a little more upscale than what we have now. And, so I'm hoping that, you know, malls

2:06:11Wouldn't be nice to have a new owner, you know, that truly believes in our community.

2:06:16And we'll bring the stores that we used to have here, the stores that are in Walnut Creek or 4th Street now. These are the stores that we used to have at the El Cerrito Plaza and on San Pablo Avenue with Trevalini's.

2:06:29So, a lot of frustration in my 12 years as an elected official here for the City of El Serena, but I do see a brand new generation of homeowners here, and true, I do see generational housing again.

2:06:47You know, I'm looking for a larger home because my 1,000 square feet home cannot… I can't move my mom in that.

2:06:54And so we're going to see more of that because of what's happening on the Federal level. You know, there, many folks will not be able to afford geriatric care and memory care because of the loss

2:07:09of benefits that we're seeing the cuts that the Federal level they are doing in when it comes to

2:07:18Geriatric health and we have this is a city of seniors. I want to make sure that our seniors get to live here.

2:07:26until the end. And and we truly are seeing that. So this is how you create community. And I just want to personally thank you for all the work that you have done. And

2:07:38I met you, your first project was at Baxter Creek, and I'll never forget that, when, we had, some of our activists who are no longer with us,

2:07:50you know, giving us a few words, and and I appreciate that. So yeah, thank you again for your service. Look to my right who would like to speak.

2:08:03Thank you, Mayor. Thank you for the presentation. It was very thorough, I think.

2:08:08at you know, I… I have a couple of technical questions, but I think

2:08:14the thing that just really impresses me the most about what El Cerrito can do is we can take a very, very small amount of money and leverage millions, tens of millions of dollars, and I think that is really a tribute to staff, and how we can really work with people to make things happen.

2:08:35I think the you know. I have a couple of concerns about some of the approaches. Noa. the naturally occurring affordable housing. I don't understand why that counts, because it's basically a renovation away from becoming a higher income.

2:08:53or high rent building. And so I think that that they're so precarious that for us to rely on that to continue would be not so good. And then the tenant opportunity to purchase

2:09:08The TOPA program.

2:09:10you know, I would like to know what you know. How does San Francisco pay for the expensive part? I think the buying the building as a tenant is the easy part is getting tenants

2:09:22particularly for slightly larger buildings to be organized, to come to consensus, go into no agreement, you know. Figure out how they're gonna work together and do this. That seems like the the more expensive work. So kind of

2:09:39If you can talk about that as well.

2:09:42Yeah. So beyond the policy comes the actual transaction and process. So there is actually funding work that is

2:09:51Needed to actually see that through process through because.

2:09:55Oftentimes there needs to be a nonprofit that's actually steering the process because the average person buying house by themselves is one thing, but acquiring a multifamily property that also may be in need of renovation is another factor. And so we were really trying to explore tools

2:10:14because the Toc policies do have some funding requirements with them. So we're trying to explore tools.

2:10:20That made sense, but didn't have as…

2:10:23high of a funding match. That is, that is a consideration that is important, because, as you know, it does require resources to see it through successfully.

2:10:37And then my technical question is, in the report, it mentions that the TOC program is looking for 15% inclusionary.

2:10:47Ours is not there. So can you talk about? Why.

2:10:51Yeah. So in 2018, when we did the feasibility analysis, we were able to demonstrate why, based on the comparables in there and the product types that we were not able to achieve anything higher than the 10 to 12. So what we would be able to submit to MTC is our feasibility analysis to justify why we don't have the minimum 15% requirement. So that would be an exception.

2:11:15caption.

2:11:16So we can still apply even with less than 15%? Until we submit completely, but they did indicate, and the policy did say 15%, unless you can demonstrate that that's not feasible, and they said they would accept our previous analysis, and this probably supports it even further in terms of…

2:11:36So. And then a small question, Melanie, on our

2:11:40Director Mintz, you talked about the retail recovery from 2020 levels, and I was wondering if that also included online sales, because I know El Cerrito buys ton of stuff online. Raise your hand if you are not one of those people.

2:11:58That's that's correct. So it would. And the allocations have gotten fairer. I do think, though, if if you look, and Crystal or Claire could speak to this more. But whenever we do meet

2:12:08Well, actually, there's an interesting nuance there

2:12:11whenever we do meet with HDL, they've pointed out… they regularly talk about having to need to re-forecast for other places and being able to maintain our forecast, so they're always… they say they enjoy meeting here, and we often try to look at why that is, and there's a combination of things. It's a good variety.

2:12:26The new Honda owners are very successful. Our cannabis process has been a good one. Ross and Marshalls are actually doing a very steady, very, very steady business.

2:12:35ACE, so everybody, but a really important part is part of the county-wide allocation of the

2:12:42Maybe, Alex and Karen might be able to speak to this, too. So there's both, however it is allocated now, the direct sales that… that people buy, online, but also our point-of-sale purchases. If we are doing well at our brick and mortar, that…

2:12:56actually ends up applying to the county-wide allocation. So we've ended up doing well. So when we shop locally, we also do better with the other online or more generalized allocations.

2:13:07Thank you very much, yeah. Yeah, by the way, El Cerrito and Kensington, they… they buy things online more than most cities, so we are always on… on the top five of cities in Contra Costa County, so, grateful to our residents, because…

2:13:23we don't have the stories that we used to have, and many of them are seniors now. So you know, we we need that, and and the importance of keeping that tax. And so thank you for that.

2:13:35Just to add to that, it's not a big tax generator, but the thing that they do point out is that our restaurants are all doing quite well, so that's both fast casual, and so I think just for quality of life for folks, I think that we really… so they have pointed that out as well. So again, there's tax generators.

2:13:49Foot traffic, eating locally, buying locally to help our allocation.

2:13:55Anyone else?

2:13:59Do you want to go first Okay.

2:14:01Thank you both for your very, very informative and thorough presentation. I appreciate it. I also appreciate your many years of work, and I was just thinking back of when I 1st met you and got to know who you were. and I realized I knew who you were before I knew who Karen was, or anyone in the city council.

2:14:18And it was about a dozen years ago, 10 years ago or so, I started just exploring El Cerrito and who's there, and somehow I zeroed in on you.

2:14:25yeah, didn't know much about you. But I remember from that point, and I think the 1st time we actually met in person was at Cafe 9, which sadly, it's not there anymore. But

2:14:34I appreciate. I'd appreciate that you were there shopping, buying your coffee there. We love that a technical question. I went to a

2:14:41a school district meeting the other night. That was their 7, 11 commission dealing with the excess or surplus properties, and I had a particular interest in the portalist site. So that's why I've been following that and involved with that. And they, you know, going through some of the same questions about funding mechanisms to build workforce housing and housing for staff in the school district.

2:15:00and one of the tools that came up that I don't know a great deal about, but I had heard about it or cops certificates of participation, and my understanding is that

2:15:08you know. Obviously, the the bonds where you

2:15:11get the voters to approve the bonds and issue them and find investors to buy the bonds

2:15:15arduous process, and it's not, you know.

2:15:18Whether you can get the approval you need from the voters is is uncertain.

2:15:22My understanding of cops are that you don't need to go to voters for approval. and that what investors are doing is they're buying into the stream of instead of buying the bonds that are backed by the stream of rents. They're actually buying ownership of the stream of rents.

2:15:36So I'm just curious if that's something that El Cerrito has ever explored.

2:15:40I don't know the feasibility for projects the size that we're talking about.

2:15:45So I feel like we haven't. We don't have any direct experience. So I think that's something that Steph can look at certificates of participation. Have you?

2:15:54Yeah. So I go ahead. Well, I was gonna say, the City Hall was paid for by. I remember I was like, I know there's something but it's based on revenue. Right? So

2:16:06General fund. It's it's essentially that's what's put up against it. Right. So if there's a revenue stream that right call to that, that will be also for the reason we essentially finance off.

2:16:17a revenue stream. The recycling center was similar, I believe, because it was a it was a known stream. Yeah. But it seems to be a way to get around the the difficulty of getting voter approval for bonds is that you can go straight to the revenue stream without.

2:16:32We could do that for any one of our public buildings as well, it's just a matter of finding… it's essentially just like, you know, any one of us… like, we took out a mortgage on City Hall, right? So we're continuously paying that through

2:16:43I think the next several years. But that's exactly what we did. So it's just a matter of financing that doesn't need voter approval to enact a new revenue stream. But I mean, I think it's interesting to add to the affordable. So one thing I think Ayesha did not mention. It was Eifd.

2:16:58was also another mechanism that we use for affordable housing. Again, it would be diverting

2:17:02that one would be actually diverting some general fund new revenues to be able to go into the infrastructure and ideally get some, maybe the county or somebody else to participate. But we can add the certificates of participation, I think, because I think

2:17:16We didn't mention, but some of you have probably heard, but Affordable ASIC is going through some changes as well, so I think that there is

2:17:24gonna be a lot of need. I mean, I think the federal government did just reauthorize, and Dina, you could probably talk to this, a very large affordable housing, LIHTC-related equity investors, so there is still some…

2:17:35Figuring out which ways.

2:17:38Investors can make it work for themselves. And if affordable housing is what they can do it with, which is a predictable revenue stream, then that might be the way. So, we can add it to the toolbox again, because this was just identifying tools. So, look, we can look into that. And I'm by no means an expert. There's a term I've heard over and over again without knowing a whole lot about it. And now I can't work more about it. Out of the box is going to have to be. And I mean, I think that's a bit of what we've done with a lot of the things that we've done.

2:18:03And obviously we're not, we don't like to be on the bleeding edge, but I think thinking and looking and exploring those kind of things can lead.

2:18:11to new ideas and new partnerships. Thank you.

2:18:18First, just, Melanie, want to thank you for everything you've done on this, and to all the staff, but, you know, El Cerrito certainly was a leader.

2:18:28with, the San Pablo Avenue-specific plan, you know, way ahead of other cities, and I think that's why, for a while, housing got built here, because El Cerrito was way ahead of other cities.

2:18:40But we're not anymore, because the other cities have been either forced to catch up, or they've just had changes in their city government, and so they have. And so we're… we're just dealing with this different situation where there's more…

2:18:53competition, and it means we have to do more to make El Cerrito more competitive, or we're not going to see the same development that we were seeing for a while there. So it's challenging, because we want it. These projects are

2:19:08And, you know, approved, we want to see them happen, but we can't make them happen. And we don't, you know, we don't have the control to make them happen until, and they're not going to happen until they pencil. I mean, we can say whatever we want to say about developers, but no developer is going to move forward with a project that they're going to lose money on. Like, why would they do that? Nobody would make that business decision.

2:19:30So we have to figure out a way to make it so that the project pencils in some way, and they think they can make some money off of it. They're just… they're not gonna move forward if they're losing money.

2:19:41So, I think we need to revisit what we're doing. I think what we did with Project Kickstart was really…

2:19:48a smart move, and it looks like at least one of the projects is gonna move forward. But I do think it was a band-aid solution. It was the right solution, we could do it quickly, we didn't have to have a whole ton of hearings and go through a big process, so…

2:20:02I think that was the right way to move forward for those projects that were ready, but now we need to think about what we're doing moving forward with our fees, because especially with the inclusionary fees.

2:20:13It's produced 0 affordable housing units. So

2:20:17It sounded like a good idea, and maybe it wouldn't have been if lots of things hadn't happened, but the things did happen. And so we need to figure out a policy that's actually going to get us affordable housing and not just sound good on paper.

2:20:34So we see in this presentation, it'd be really interesting if we could see the other developments, the tax revenue changes, but you can see it's really stark.

2:20:43And that's just the direct tax revenue changes. That doesn't even consider when you get more people living, especially on San Pablo, are they patronizing the retail stores there? Are they going to the restaurants? Like what other revenue are we getting from these folks? You'd probably need a whole other study to figure that out. But we know that there's some additional revenue besides that tax revenue. So we want to bring multifamily development to San Pablo.

2:21:08Avenue, which I know the city agrees on. We've been trying to do that.

2:21:12But I think we should consider, you know, doing away with our inclusionary policy and figuring out something to replace it with that actually would

2:21:21produce affordable units. So, one thought I had in reading this report, and I'd like for us to come back with a study session to discuss this and or other ideas, but one thought I had was

2:21:34Instead of having the inclusionary fee, could we set up a policy whereby some of the direct tax revenue that we can measure when the

2:21:45The tax rates go up based on the development of housing. Could we take some portion of that for the first however many years? These are things we need to discuss and put that towards affordable. So market rate development goes up.

2:22:00we get more tax revenue, we take some portion of that to fund affordable, while the rest of it is just going to our general fund. So, I'd like us to just think outside of the box and figure out some ways, that we can, again, still fund the affordable.

2:22:15huge supporter of affordable housing, and BART did a lot on policy to do that, but that was a different situation because we had all that land, and so we could discount it and do a lot of other things that the city can't do. Luckily, we have the two BART properties where BART can continue to do that, but

2:22:32Yeah, I just, I think we need to get more creative,

2:22:36We're now many years away from passing this policy. It's not working, and we need to figure out what else we can do. So I'd really like for us to come back.

2:22:46Honestly, for multiple study sessions, but one study session on affordable housing and what we're doing there. The second study session I think we should have is just

2:22:56Generally on housing and how we're going to meet arena goals, not only under this next cycle, but on the cycle after that and moving forward.

2:23:05we're not going to be able to meet it forever with San Pablo. I mean, that would have been true even if all these entitled projects were getting built at some point. You're not going to always be able to meet them just with San Pablo. So something, you know, if you look at our almost neighbor in Berkeley.

2:23:20Actually, most of their big projects aren't getting built now, just like us, so they're facing the same thing we are. Most, you know, inner-east space cities are facing that.

2:23:29That's not unique to us. But what is getting built there are these, like, duplexes, quadplexes, things like that, because they passed this new Missy Middle ordinance a couple years back that made it a lot easier to move forward with these.

2:23:43projects in previously single-family zoned, neighborhoods. So again, it's not putting up giant apartment buildings next to a single-family home, but you're seeing all these… and they're…

2:23:54projects being built today. They're right now being built because these pencil. It's a lot easier, just like the townhouses. So I think we need to.

2:24:03have a better plan for the rest of the city. Eventually State law will probably change and make us do it anyway. But let's get ahead of it, just like we did with San Pablo, and figure out other ways. We can bring more housing in besides San Pablo, because I don't want us to sacrifice the San Pablo vision and say.

2:24:22it's just to prove townhouses all along San Pablo. I think that would be long term a bad thing to do, because I think in the long term we can get denser multifamily development there, and it is most appropriate there. So we need to think about the rest of the city, and where we could get more modest

2:24:41density,

2:24:44without changing these neighborhoods very much, but by allowing more people to live there, just like what's already happening with ADUs. So I'd really like us to come back and look at housing overall.

2:24:55not just looking at San Pablo, where we've been so focused.

2:24:59The third thing I just wanted to comment about with San Pablo is

2:25:03And I was just… the other night, my wife and I had childcare, and we just decided we were gonna just take a walk and go out to eat somewhere. And we didn't even have a destination in mind. We're like, we're just gonna walk down the greenway and think about it and decide where we wanted to go. We ended up at Larbta. It was great. But on the way back, we walked on San Pablo.

2:25:20It's very unpleasant to walk on San Pablo. And this is nothing based on what the city is doing today. It's what you talked about. It was built for people driving through. It was built for people to get through our city to the next city.

2:25:33And so those other streets you brought up, places like Piedmont, College Avenue, Solano, closer to us.

2:25:40they're more pleasant, one, because they're narrower, but two, because they're, safer to walk on, there's more people walking around. So, even on the blocks on Solano and Piedmont, where there maybe are almost no businesses, which there are blocks like that.

2:25:57you walk through them, and they still feel pleasant, so you'll still walk through that block to get to the next block, where there's another thing. So even if you're driving to one of those streets, you park, and you end up at four businesses, because it's a pleasant experience to walk around, and you're spending more money there, and it kind of connects these places.

2:26:15So yes, there are some issues about just.

2:26:19things being spread out physically, but it also feels more spread out because of how the street is built, and there's more we can do on that, some of what we're doing. We're working with Caltrans to make the crossing safer.

2:26:32But… and we're also talking about getting Caltrans to lower the speed limit, but I think we need to be thinking about these things together.

2:26:41for the housing, for the retail, the transportation piece is really important. I have constituents all the time saying, why can't we have a street like Solano? And it's like, well, our best opportunity is San Pablo, but it's gonna need a really, really big change, and we need people to be ready

2:26:57For what that change looks like, it means a lot more buses running, it means people walking and biking, like, that is how we get a street that is more like Solano and Piedmont and College and all these places people love to shop and spend time. So…

2:27:13I just think we need to bring this together. And I know internally you all are talking and they're thinking about it. But I think we need to externally think about these things together as well.

2:27:25Okay, very good. We're gonna do public comment next. Now is the time for members of the public who wish to provide public comments on this item. Requests to speak can be submitted to the city clerk by completing a speaker card, using the raise hand feature on Zoom, or dialing star 9 if joining by phone.

2:27:41In-person requests will be taken first. Please remember to identify yourself and your city of residence at the beginning of your comments. Madam City Clerk, please proceed. Thank you, Mayor. We do not have any requests to speak on this item. Okay.

2:27:55Well, again, thank you again for this thorough, great presentation, your very last presentation. Grateful to your leadership.

2:28:04Now we will, next is a resolution honoring Community Development Director Melanie Mintz in retirement.

2:28:14Don't move.

2:28:17Hahaha So.

2:28:20Go ahead, Kevin

2:28:21No, yeah, she yeah, I can't fire her now. No. So anyway, thank you, your honor. I'm city manager, Karen Pincus, and I'm delighted to introduce this agenda item for I'm probably gonna cry, too.

2:28:36Melanie and I… Melanie started in 2004, I started in 2001. So we've, like, literally grown up together here, like, literally grown up together here. And we just, we were,

2:28:50Talking earlier, we had a little cake for Melanie with some pictures of when we both started, and how many hairstyles ago, and much, much skinnier before, pre-Zoe.

2:29:01And so just kind of, thinking back to Melanie's tenure here, and you can see in the resolution, you know, what she's done, what she started,

2:29:12But I think this last presentation is probably just a wonderful encapsulation and a perfect way for you for your last raw here.

2:29:20Melanie's passion Melanie's enthusiasm, Melanie's vision for this city has been realized in so many ways.

2:29:30From Baxter Creek, to building the recycling center, to the San Pablo… there… our part of San Pablo Avenue is a jewel, and that was all… that was one of the big projects that you worked on.

2:29:43redoing the avenue.

2:29:45Then you came in and rescued and dealt with the specific plan.

2:29:49I mean, just so many things you've said at yourself that you've done from start to finish. The tangible, real things that have left El Cerrito better than when you found it.

2:30:00is the legacy that you leave here in El Cerrito for everyone who's lived here and will live here in the future. And I couldn't be more proud of you. I'm so grateful to have worked with you. Now that I don't have to be your boss, I'm looking forward to being your friend.

2:30:17And.

2:30:19And I just want to thank you for everything you've done for the city, that you've done for me, that you've done for our team. You are going to be very greatly missed, but I know you won't go far.

2:30:30So we love you. And I will turn it over to the council for your own accolades. Okay. We'll start over here with Councilmember Mojihawa. Thank you, Mayor.

2:30:41And thank you so much, Melanie.

2:30:44I got to work with you as a planning commissioner as well, and I have never met someone who's so on top of everything that's happening, you know, development wise, economic development wise, planning, building, and you know I could ask you any question, and you always have the answer, and

2:31:03you are leaving with some tremendously big shoes to fill, but I'm sure our new Community Development Director can really step in and hopefully meet the level of enthusiasm and mission-driven purpose that you have.

2:31:21And… you know.

2:31:24going back to the previous conversation, I know you gave me a funny look. You know, I am one of those people that says, how come we don't have Solano Avenue in El Cerrito? And Melanie said, oh, why do you care? Because

2:31:38El Cerrito Plaza makes more money. And I thought, wow, you know, that's, that's, you know, I think that's really something that we should understand and value more. So.

2:31:50whatever you… whatever you decide to do, like, pottery or whatever next, I hope that you enjoy it as much as I can tell you enjoyed this job, and, I hope you,

2:32:05Have a great, great, great retirement.

2:32:11their hotel.

2:32:12Melanie, thank you so much for everything you've done for the city. It was funny when, Councilmember Kassanis was talking, I realized I definitely met you before I met Carrie, too, because, you know, at BART, we worked very closely on development there, and I just have to say, and this goes to you and your whole team.

2:32:30At BART, we worked with a lot of cities, and

2:32:34I just remember hearing from our staff all the time what a joy it was to work with El Cerrito, and a lot of that was you, that you were willing to come to the table on things, that you really wanted to see the housing move forward, that you were a real partner in the whole process, the partnership with El Cerrito Plaza TOD.

2:32:54And then since I've come here and been on the council, just seeing that you're…

2:33:00always trying to figure out how to do things even better. It's like, we could have just coasted on the San Pablo plan, but you saw it wasn't working, you came to us with Project Kickstart, and so I think that is something that we need to make sure continues to go forward in your absence.

2:33:16That we lay out these grand visions, but also, if they're not working, we figure out what to do next. And I think that's… that's why El Cerrito's got into where it has today. So thank you for everything you've done for the city.

2:33:30You know, you're, you're here in the city, so I hope we continue to do good for you as well, and congratulations on your retirement.

2:33:38Councilmember to Sauce. Okay.

2:33:41I don't have much to add. I just want to thank you for your years of service, and wish you great happiness and joy in retirement.

2:33:49And if you do take up pottery, I will look for your pots at the Community Center.

2:33:55Okay, thank you very much.

2:33:57as as the old timer here. I wanted to let you know about things that I was able to share with you when I started. You know I actually met you first before I met Karen. So

2:34:13That was the Baxter Creek early on what that was your 1st project, and then to see the portala.

2:34:21project go through, and, and that became a reality, and then to see, the other projects, Haunted Gardens, and, and, to see Mayfair. I waited practically my whole adult life to make that happen, and then you made that happen, and it's good to see

2:34:39You know, market rate housing at one of the busiest.

2:34:44points of the city, and and to see that as a destination.

2:34:48I have talked to folks that live here that that care very much of the future of our city, and and many of these cities will love. Many of the folks that I've talked to

2:35:01Want to work with, the other developers and the other owners of the hotels to make sure that they're,

2:35:09you know, dream becomes a reality. So that is so I'm I'm I'm hoping that the folks on TV and and who are watching this know that I'll be asking them again and speaking to them again, and a lot of small businesses that would love to move in here and

2:35:29and you made that happen. The the thing that I am most grateful is that you made my

2:35:34idea of building housing at the Bart parking lots become a reality, and you brought that, and you helped the former city manager, and and with Bart, the former Bart director, and I spoke to Nick Josephowitz and Scott Weiner, and Rebecca had a

2:35:54a long, long, many years of dealing with this, and to see

2:35:58our congressman there, speaking about what a beautiful project this is, and and that will be the center of town in the future, so I'm really excited about my old neighborhood there, as I grew up on Lexington, and to see

2:36:14a new generation of homeowners and people living here in El Serena. I'm grateful to your leadership. So do I have a motion to approve this resolution so moved. Second, okay, I have a motion and a second.

2:36:27Madam City Clerk? All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries with Councilmember Weisinger absent

2:36:34So so we do this presentation and city manager. You want to do that, and then we'll Sure.

2:36:45Your mic's not on now.

2:36:47Mel, turn your mic on

2:36:49You'd think I'd learn that after 22 years. But City Hall's changed. So I hadn't thought of, I didn't prepare, but I just want to say, obviously, it's been an incredible

2:37:02privilege to work for the city of El Cerrito. I had studied both natural resource planning and community and regional planning, and when I first applied for a job here, I was, like.

2:37:12that's okay, I'll do the environmental analyst job or the economic. I'm like, it's all… it's all very mixed to me in terms of what makes a place be some… a place that supports people to thrive, and I see that in both the environment and… so urban greening was fun, the Ohlone Greenway, the housing, open space.

2:37:30But when I came here, one of the things that

2:37:33when I was deliberating here or elsewhere, somebody did say to me, well, will city government be good for you? You kind of have an entrepreneurial side, and I did bring that up and have used it, and I think it's been amazing to be able to blend the both like in the good of public service, to be creative and entrepreneurial, and the city is

2:37:52really supported that, and to deliver things that, like Aissa said, are just things that really affect people's lives, so to be able to

2:38:00do both, and have had incredibly, also, visionary, supportive councils who've been willing to be like, yeah, like you said, if it's not working, what… I'm really outcome-oriented. I think processes are really important, but I also think our goals are really important. Sometimes you have to change those processes.

2:38:17So I just want to thank everybody. It's been a privilege when I describe my career here to people. Like Karen just said, like, you can see things before and after, which is amazing, and I think, have learned so much about

2:38:30Listening to people about people, you know, coming from different perspectives. The specific plan was a really big, bold move when we did it. This room was filled with 50 people, half for and half against, and there are many times that people did say when we were at our meetings and they were like, I don't like it, I don't like it's next to me, but thank you for listening and I get it.

2:38:50So, it's been amazing to be able to do that. So, I just want to thank you all for your support over the years, and yes, I'm an El Cerrito resident.

2:38:58And proud to be, and yeah, I'm looking forward to the same things happening. And as for Solano, yeah, we could talk more about that forever. I think it's just interesting, but it's like to be the best San Pablo Avenue we can be, right? We get, there's, it's a different place, and I think that's really exciting. Like, it's a lot to put together, something that wasn't built.

2:39:20with all those doors in the thirties. So thank you all very much, and

2:39:26You said my team many times. I've been privileged to work with, amazing teams, two city managers, which is…

2:39:34amazing. Sky's been incredible support, obviously, Sean and Aissa, and Jen, and I could just keep saying, but it's been, our hiring, our administration, everything. I said to Karen, it made her feel old, but it's been two generations, it feels like, and both generations, I feel like we really build upon what we've learned.

2:39:53And keep moving to make it better, and I think that's, just a really, strong commitment, of staff here. And so I just think it's the way things are supposed to be everywhere, but I hear it's not always. But the dedication of the staff here from the minute I walked in the door was like, here's what we do.

2:40:11has been really, yeah, good training ground. So thank you all. Thank you.

2:40:23Let's move to a group photo.

2:40:46I was thinking about you.

2:41:48Mmhm.

2:41:50Okay.

2:41:52The time is now 8.

2:41:5558, and we are adjourned. The next regularly scheduled City Council meeting is on Tuesday, July 21, st at 6 pm. Have a good evening.