HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-07-08 Planning & transportation commission Summary MinutesPage 1
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Planning & Transportation Commission 1
Action Agenda: July 8, 2020 2
Virtual Meeting 3
6:00 PM 4
5
6
Call to Order / Roll Call 7
Approximately 6:02 pm 8
Chair Templeton: Great, thank you. So, I’m going to read the required texted before we kick off 9
the meeting. 10
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Pursuant to the California Governor’s Executive Order N-29-20, this meeting will be held by 12
virtual teleconference only, with no physical location. Spoken comments via a computer will be 13
accepted through the Zoom teleconferencing meeting. To address the Board, go to 14
Zoom.us/join and our Meeting ID is 955 0337 0484. When you wish to speak on an agenda item 15
click on raised hand. The moderator will activate and unmute speakers in turn. When called 16
please limit your remarks to the time allotted. 17
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Spoken public comments using a smartphone will also be accepted through the Zoom mobile 19
application. To offer comments using a regular phone, call area code 1-669-900-6833, and enter 20
Meeting ID 955 0337 0484. When you wish to speak on an agenda item hit *9 on the phone so 21
that we know you wish to speak. 22
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Alright, thank you. So, we should call this meeting to order and take attendance. 1
2
Mr. Vinhloc Nguyen, Admin Associate III: Ok, Chair Templeton? 3
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Chair Templeton: Present. 5
6
Mr. Nguyen: Vice-Chair Roohparvar? 7
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Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Present. 9
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Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Alcheck? 11
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Commissioner Alcheck: Present. 13
14
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Hechtman will be late today. [unintelligible] Lauing? Commissioner 15
Lauing? 16
17
Commissioner Lauing: Yeah, I’m present. 18
19
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Riggs? 20
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_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Commissioner Riggs: Present. 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Vice-Chair Roohparvar. 4
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Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Yeah, you called me. I’m present. 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: Oh, sorry. 8
9
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: I think we’re missing Commissioner Summa. 10
11
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Summa? 12
13
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: That’s the last person you meant to call. 14
15
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Summa? 16
17
Commissioner Summa: Present. 18
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Mr. Nguyen: Ok, thank you. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Chair Templeton: Alright, thank you very much. Let’s go onto Agenda Item One, City Official 2
Reports. 3
4
[The Committee moved to City Official Reports] 5
Oral Communications 6
The public may speak to any item not on the agenda. Three (3) minutes per speaker.1,2 7
Mr. Vinhloc Nguyen, Admin Associate III: Alright let’s get the speaker timer up. Ok, so our first 8
speaker will be Arthur Keller and I see another person just raised their hand, Rangu. So, I will be 9
calling you after Arthur speaks. Arthur, if you can please unmute yourself, you may speak. 10
11
Mr. Arthur Keller: Can you hear me now? 12
13
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. 14
15
Mr. Keller: Thank you. I would like to speak to the Planning and Transportation Commission and 16
I’m wondering of the RHNA Allocation grouping, in other words, the Bay Area Allocation of this, 17
whether there is an opportunity for the Council to speak to the RHNA Allocation overall and 18
whether it is an opportunity for the Planning and Transportation Commission to give advice to 19
the Council? As of now, the Council is not scheduled to vote on this to give public comment 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
before on the deadline for public comment which is going to be on July 10th. And there 1
(interrupted) 2
3
Chair Templeton: Mr. Keller, I’m sorry to interrupt you. Can we have this comment attached to 4
the agenda item that’s related or do you want to speak on something that’s not agendize right 5
now? 6
7
Mr. Keller: I’m speaking on the ability of the Council to speak on the agenda. So, in other words 8
when the Council to speak on their opportunity to speak before the deadline of June [note – 9
July?] 10th. 10
11
Chair Templeton: I see. Alright, well, please continue, thank you. 12
13
Mr. Keller: So, in order for the Council to give a… to speak on that they’d have to come into – 14
they’d have to schedule a special session, which isn’t going to happen, and they’d have to get 15
feedback from the Planning Commission in order to make feedback on the Regional Allocation 16
which will be coming tonight, but this is not about that. This is about giving public comment on 17
the total number and I don’t know how the City Council is going to be giving response without 18
input from the Planning Commission. 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Commissioner Riggs: What did you want? 1
2
Mr. Keller: That the City Council should give a response with input from the Planning 3
Commission and which means a formal recommendation from the Planning Commission and a 4
recommendation from the City Council to give a response on the Plan Bay Area overall 5
numbers. And they have to do that before July 10th, otherwise, our ability to modify that is lost. 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Arthur for your comments. Ok, I see we have a raised hand from a user 8
with the name Rangu. I will unmute you, but before you begin can you please identify whether 9
you want to speak on Oral Communications on items not on the agenda or whether you want 10
to speak on one of the agenda items. 11
12
Mr. Rangu: Hello. I’m not sure if it’s on the agenda or not, my apologies, but what I want to talk 13
about is the audit in the process that’s going to impact our town. And so, my comment 14
(interrupted) 15
16
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: Yes sir, that item is agendize for tonight. It’s Item 17
Number Three. 18
19
Mr. Rangu: Ok so do you want to me wait for that or? 20
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_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, so I will put you down as a speaker for the item. You will be our third speaker 2
for that item. 3
4
Mr. Rangu: Ok, thank you very much. 5
6
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for joining us tonight. 7
8
Chair Templeton: Alright, are there any other speakers from the public who want to address 9
items, not on the agenda? 10
11
Mr. Nguyen: Looks like we just have another raised hand. Oh, Rose, it looks like she just 12
lowered her hand. If there’s anyone else to speak, please raise your hand now. Ok, it looks like 13
that concludes Oral Communications for tonight. 14
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Chair Templeton: Alright, thank you so much, Vinh. 16
17
Agenda Changes, Additions, and Deletions 18
The Chair or Commission majority may modify the agenda order to improve meeting management. 19
Chair Templeton: Now Agenda Changes, Additions, Deletions. Anything changed Ms. Tanner? 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: Nothing’s changed on tonight’s agenda. I think you 1
noted the time that is a new addition I guess overall to our format, but there’re no changes to 2
tonight’s agenda. 3
4
Chair Templeton: Excellent. Thank you for adding that. 5
6
City Official Reports 7
1. Directors Report, Meeting Schedule and Assignments 8
Chair Templeton: I should mention before start to the other Commissioners that we have little 9
time notes on here today, so we’ll be looking forward to your feedback if that is helpful. 10
11
Mr. Vinhloc Nguyen, Admin Associate III: Chair Templeton, I just want to point out that we have 12
one Oral Communication today. Did you want to do that first? 13
14
Chair Templeton: Yes, sorry about that. Thank you very much. 15
16
[The Committee moved back up to Oral Communications] 17
18
Chair Templeton: Alright, would you like to give your report? 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: Sure, and I’ve got 5-minutes to it before I go over time 1
so I’ll be brief. It’s another week in the pandemic in our nation and in our county. You may have 2
heard there was a little bit of not meeting of the minds let’s say between the county and the 3
state over the weekend, but I’m really happy to report that has been resolved. So, as of I 4
believe Monday night, the county had received a Variance allowing it to open and so the order 5
that was the Health Order that was issued on the 2nd was validated and the state said ok, you 6
guys can go ahead with that. And so that’s now in place and it will become effective 12:01 am 7
on Monday, July 13th and what it does – if you haven’t read the order, it’s not very long, it’s 8
actually a pretty easy read. I think actually much more legible than some of the previous orders 9
that have been issued and it really outlines the terms under which certain activities can take 10
place such as people occupying an indoor building let’s say for work. How many people can be 11
in that space based on the square footage there and some activities are still not allowed like a 12
children’s bounce house or other things that are still pretty high risk. So, it’s good news I think, 13
even as we see lots of headlines about the country and some uptick in our county, but Dr. Cody 14
and the rest of the country felt comfortable moving forward with this. So, that exciting, good 15
news for our local businesses, and for hopefully setting what seems to be the new normal of 16
how we might be able to go about some of our business safely; but a reminder to all that the 17
order does say those who can work from home, those who can stay home, that’s still the best 18
way to prevent the transmission of the virus. And so encouraging people to still take all those 19
precautions in do – into mind as they are working from home hopefully or even as you’re 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
traveling about, of course, to wear your mask which the governor has mandated and to wash 1
your hands frequently or use hand sanitizer if you don’t have access to hand washing. 2
3
We also are really happy that we again had two new Code Enforcement or not Code 4
Enforcement, two Building Inspectors put into the budget for our Planning and Development 5
Services Department. And so, we’ll hopefully be recruiting for those as we do have lots of 6
permits and things that are actually happening. So, we’re still seeing a good amount of activity 7
in the construction field and we don’t know if that will be tapering off in the future, but we 8
certainly will keep our eyes on that work. 9
10
And then I believe I may have mentioned last week that Claire Campbell is taking the role as our 11
Long-Range Planning Manager. She will start that role on August 3rd and so we’re hopeful to 12
bring her forward to a meeting of the PTC just to introduce her again or reintroduce her in that 13
role as we begin to really shore that program up. And you’ll hear from Rebecca Atkinson tonight 14
who’s a member of that long-range planning team and really, we have a tremendous amount of 15
work on that team and so we’re really glad to be adding more Staff there. 16
17
I also want to see Vinh, if you can promote Amy French. She’s was working with another Staff 18
member in our long-range planning team on a Notice of Preparation that there’s going to be a 19
development in East Palo Alto at University Circle. So, Amy if you can just say a few things about 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
what the development is and kind of where that CEQA process is in case any of our 1
Commissioners or listens want to give any feedback to that process. 2
3
Ms. Amy French, Chief Planning Official: Hello. I hadn’t planned on talking to this tonight. I’m 4
sorry, but we did send a letter out to East Palo Alto today which was in time for the deadline 5
regarding the Notice of Preparation. They’re doing an Environmental Impact Report for the 6
project at the board of Palo Alto where the hotel is there. I’m so sorry I have some background 7
noise here. 8
9
Ms. Tanner: It’s alright, it happens. 10
11
Ms. French: That’s about it. We can send the letter on for folks to see. All the Planning 12
Commission has been… have that letter in [unintelligible] inbox. 13
14
Ms. Tanner: Great. Thank you, Amy. 15
16
Ms. French: Thank you. 17
18
Ms. Tanner: Great so that’s the most I think the updates we have, but of course if any 19
Commissioners have questions, happy to answer them or if there’s something that I’ve 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
forgotten. Things do kind of run together so I’m happy to answer any questions or if there’s 1
anything your curious about, but that’s my report. 2
3
Chair Templeton: Thank you. I want to note the schedule that we have attached in Item One. I 4
remember that we’d talked about what to do with next week. Do we want to talk about that 5
now or at the end of the meeting? 6
7
Ms. Tanner: We can talk about that now. That’s a good thing to point out and some of its 8
people can also think about it and we can bring it back up at the end of the meeting if people 9
don’t have all their scheduling quite set. 10
11
So, one of the things is that we’re planning right now to postpone the Castilleja meeting for a 12
month to the August meeting which is August 26th. And we want to make sure that when we 13
release the Final EIR, which will happen at the end of this month, there is sufficient time, more 14
than the 10-days, that are required for the public to review that Final EIR. And so just to make 15
sure that we have an abundance of time we’re moving that to August 26th which will give the 16
Staff enough time to publish it in a timely manner and be very thorough; as well as enough time 17
for the public and the Commission to read that without feeling that they have only 10-days to 18
get through that EIR so that will be moving to that date. 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
We did also get a potential query from the ARB actually after even our pre-meeting yesterday 1
Chair Templeton that they may need to have us to move – post-pone the joint Study Session. 2
They felt that perhaps they might not be ready for the joint Study Session on Objective 3
Standards. And so, we’re going to ask them what the next best time would be and let you know 4
as soon as we have that. It could be as soon as perhaps the September 3rd, but I want to make 5
sure that we can verify what that date is. So, again because the 29th, we don’t have any items 6
for that we would look to cancel that PTC on the 29th which Commissioner Hechtman already 7
was going to be absent for. And hopefully, you can use it as a little bit of a summer break for 8
your Wednesdays if you are able to take one, but I just wanted to essentially say that some of 9
the schedule is moving in influx, but we’ll keep updating you. Not just at these meetings, but in 10
between as we know that agenda items might be changing or certainly if any dates are going to 11
be changing. 12
13
Chair Templeton: Thank you. It’s really helpful to have the preview of the things that are in the 14
pipeline and with the awareness that sometimes the dates can fluctuate. So, I see that 15
Commissioner Riggs has a comment or question. Commissioner Riggs. 16
17
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah, let go of my hand. So, you said next week, I’m assuming that was all 18
about July 22nd? Is that correct, Chair Templeton? 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, July 29th is our next meeting. Yes, sorry, not (interrupted) 1
2
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah, July. 3
4
Ms. Tanner: [unintelligible] July 29th (crosstalk) 5
6
Commissioner Riggs: So, we (interrupted) 7
8
Ms. Tanner: July 29th is our next meeting and that would be canceled is what I proposed. 9
10
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah, ok, alright I… I look forward to that. 11
12
Ms. Tanner: Good catch. 13
14
Commissioner Riggs: We… yeah… just… so, alright, I was like oh no, it didn’t get on my calendar 15
for next week. My wife’s going to kill me. It’s a juggling routine. I actually just had a question, I 16
don’t want to get us in trouble in terms of what’s not been agendize, but the reason… is it 17
adjacent parcel at University Circle? I just… I’m sorry, I haven’t been following that. That… I 18
know where the general location, is it parcel adjacent to the City… to being in the City or is it… 19
what the geographic affiliation or [unintelligible](interrupted) 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Ms. Tanner: Like how close to the border it would be? 2
3
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah. 4
5
Ms. Tanner: I have to take a look at the address. Its… I believe it’s 7 University Circle if you’re 6
interested that’s the proposed address so. 7
8
Commissioner Riggs: But the property lines are really strange there the way they run. I mean is 9
it… does it abut Menlo Park too? 10
11
Ms. Tanner: Possibly could. 12
13
Commissioner Riggs: I think the site may abut Menlo Park as well so I just would be interested 14
(interrupted) 15
16
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, well we can certainly send the letter. 17
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Commissioner Riggs: Just in terms of… yeah, in terms of thinking about the functional 1
adjacencies of the potential impacts. I would just be curious, so I guess that’s my comment and 2
also question because I wasn’t (interrupted) 3
4
Ms. Tanner: No, I think that’s great. We can definitely send you the information about the 5
project and also the letter that the Staff sent in response and then also, just going back to the 6
scheduling. One of the things that Chair Templeton noted with the eye for thinking about 7
Commissioners is that August 12th is the first day of school in Palo Alto. So, if that poses a 8
challenge for any Commissioners for the meeting that evening just please let us know if that 9
would need… we may need to be maybe at home in the evening or more available in the 10
evening possibly. So just let us know that so we can plan if we have quorum and what we might 11
need to adjust, if anything, on the 12th, would be too much of a burden for your family. So, I 12
think that’s it for the scheduling for the items scheduled. There’s a lot of scheduled items today, 13
more than normal so I apologize for that. 14
15
Chair Templeton: More than usual. That’s alright. Commissioner Lauing has a question and then 16
Vice-Chair Roohparvar. 17
18
Commissioner Lauing: Yes, thanks. Rachael, is the Castilleja item only the EIR because the future 19
agenda also lists the Tentative Map? 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, so it will be on the… let me just look at the dates instead of trying to 2
remember them. On the 26th of August, it would be the Final EIR and then I believe the next 3
date I want to say is probably a month and a half later we have the ARB scheduled as well in 4
September. And so, we’ll be bringing… they’ll have their meetings and then we’ll bring back to 5
the PTC. There’s not a lot of overlap but obviously the product over, some items are PTC items 6
and some items are ARB and so I believe it will come back to the PTC I want to say in October 7
with the other items. But Amy, I don’t know if you can correct me on that? We can certainly 8
keep you abreast of the schedule for that as that moves forward. 9
10
Commissioner Lauing: Ok. The other question was I know that In-Lieu Fees are now supposed 11
to come back to us again. So, if that’s sitting there I’m wondering if we should try to slot that 12
into 8/12. 13
14
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, we can take a look at that. 15
16
Commissioner Lauing: Or sorry 7/29 because 8/12 you’ve got wireless; either one. 17
18
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, I can take a look at that with Staff and this is the Parking In-Lieu Fees? 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Commissioner Lauing: I believe it’s narrowed to commercial downtown, but PTC said… sorry, 1
Council sent that back to us again. It was supposed to come to us before but it didn’t it so they 2
sent it back. 3
4
Ms. Tanner: Got it. 5
6
Commissioner Lauing: Thank you. 7
8
Chair Templeton: Thank you, Commissioner Lauing. Vice-Chair Roohparvar. 9
10
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Just Ms. Tanner, real quick, so confirm that 7/29 and August 20th are 11
off, or are you still… is it… can I just go ahead and remove that or are we going to get further 12
(interrupted) 13
14
Ms. Tanner: 29th I would say even if we could do In-Lieu Fees it probably would be in August 15
just because 2-weeks might be a tight time to turn around that Staff Report. So, at this point, I 16
would propose to cancel the 29th and then the 20th (interrupted) 17
18
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Ok, August 20th? 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Ms. Tanner: August 20th I would… it’s likely canceled. I just wanted to give you guys a heads up 1
that that’s what was relayed to me yesterday. And so, I’m pretty sure the 20th is going to get 2
canceled, but I can send out written confirmation of all of this to your email just so you’ll have 3
that written down but that’s what (interrupted) 4
5
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: They are likely both canceled. 6
7
Ms. Tanner: Yeah. 8
9
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Ok, sounds good. 10
11
Ms. Tanner: And I should say that the… the Study Session we would want to just postpone it. 12
We want to pick a different date. They’re just not ready for the joint meeting yet. They wanted 13
to have a meeting of the ARB Members because they’ve had their subcommittee has met I 14
think once or twice and then they want to meet with the ARB and then bring us all together. 15
16
Chair Templeton: Alright, thank you. Any other Commissioners? Ok, so we will move onto the 17
next Agenda Item which is a Study Session on Senate Bill 743. 18
19
Study Session 20
Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 21
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
2. Study Session on Update to the City’s Transportation Analysis Methodology Under 1
CEQA to Comply with California Senate Bill 743 2
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: And I’m going to turn this over to Sylvia Star Lack from 3
our Office of Transportation. 4
5
Ms. Sylvia Star Lack, Transportation Manager: Thanks, Rachael. Thanks, Bob for the 6
presentation. Good evening Commissioners and members of the public. Transportation and 7
planning Staff are here with our consultant team from Fehr and Peers to inform you tonight 8
about changes in state law regarding the California Environmental Quality Act. Actually, I think 9
Bob, can you go to the next slide? Thanks. We’re here to orient you to the Council adopt Project 10
Screening Criteria and Thresholds of Significance and answer your questions about the new 11
impact methodology. Essentially, the new metric requires new development to reduce the 12
amount of driving it causes. This change to state law regarding the new VMT methodology 13
requires a most holistic approach to land use transportation interactions. While we still retain 14
Level of Service for local transportation analysis, we can no longer use Level of Service to 15
determine a CEQA impact. We will return to you with a review of our Level of Service Policy at a 16
future date and want to focus tonight’s discussion on VMT or Vehicle Miles of Travel as you will 17
soon review VMT analyses as part of your work. Our consultants are here for an hour or so and 18
we’d like to maximize your time with your experts to respond to your technical inquiries. I’d like 19
to introduce Bob Grandy of Fehr and Peers who will detail the changes to CEQA and our newly 20
adopted thresholds. 21
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Mr. Bob Grandy: Thank you, Sylvia and I’ll be joined on the call tonight by Jarrett Mullen, one of 2
my colleagues, so he’ll be available for… to help with answering questions. I have about a dozen 3
slides. This first slide shows some of the key milestones. Senate Bill 734 was signed into law in 4
2013. There were subsequent milestones that were important in December of 2018. The first 5
was that the state adopted new CEQA guidelines. So, it put into statute the direction that had 6
been developed over the subsequent years by the Governor’s Office and Planning and 7
Research. So, in statute, we have the via the essentially the new CEQA guidelines documented. 8
The other thing that happened is the OPR issue, the Technical Advisory, and those are 9
recommendations to agencies on how to implement the new CEQA guidelines that call for VMT 10
as the new measure of impact for CEQA. 11
12
So, this slide on the right shows the motivation, the framework motivation of the state in 13
creating Senate Bill 743 which was to shift the emphasis on CEQA transportation analysis to one 14
that emphasizes three areas. One is greenhouse gas reduction, the second is in support internal 15
development, and the third is support for active transportation. Those are the three state goals 16
that motivated the legislation and it was identified in legislation as the intent or the purpose of 17
SB 743 and it’s actually been placed in statute. So, clearly, those were the state goals or reasons 18
for establishing the change in CEQA transportation analysis. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
So, I mentioned the OPR Technical Advisory, it is a fairly lengthy document compared to the 1
two pages of text in the CEQA Guidelines, and it talks about the methodology for evaluating 2
VMT. It talks about the screening and recommended metrics for Impact of Significances and it 3
also talks about VMT mitigations and appropriate mitigation measures where impacts are 4
identified. 5
6
So, the first thing I’m going to talk about is screening criteria. So, the purpose in screening 7
criteria is to very early in the process identify whether a project is essentially a low VMT 8
generator and would be presumed to have a less than significant effect impact on the 9
environment without having to do a quantitative analysis. So, OPR identified a series of half a 10
dozen categories for screening and you see these on the table from… and I’ll briefly walk 11
through each of them. The adopted criteria for those match OPR’s recommendation all but one 12
category and that’s Local-Serving Retail. Where the amounts of square footage were reduced 13
from what OPR recommended; but essentially these categories where… are ones in which OPR 14
identified substantial evidence that a project falls in these categories and there are some 15
additional details. This is kind of a summary, but in some cases, there’re [unintelligible] some 16
additional details of criteria that they would have to meet. Then a project could be presumed to 17
be less than significant, have a less than significant impact, and not require mitigation 18
measures. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
So, Small Developments, this is pivots off of CEQA’s overall exclusion which is geared towards 1
projects generally of 10,000-square feet or less. So, OPR identified this daily trip threshold of 2
110 daily trips. Just as an example that would be roughly up to about 18 to 20 multi-family units 3
or 10,000-square feet of non-residential projects or smaller would fall under this Small 4
Development Category. The second is Projects in Low-VMT Areas, these are mapped out by VTA 5
based on the country-wide Travel Demand Model. We can talk more about that later if you 6
have questions about that. The third category is Projects in Proximity to Major Transit Stops. 7
Generally, this… these are the Caltrain stations and projects that would be located within a half-8
mile of generally of the El Camino corridor where there’s high-quality transit service. The fourth 9
category is Affordable Housing, the fifth is Local-Serving Retail, and again I mentioned the OPR 10
had identified anything under 50,000-square feet was… could be screened the criteria that’s 11
been adopted is 10,000-square feet or less. So, a smaller project and lastly, transportation 12
projects. So, generally, transit, bike, or pedestrian projects would be screened and roadway 13
projects that don’t lead to a measurable increase in vehicle travel would be screened. So, what 14
would happen is Staff would review projects, see if they met one of these screening criteria, do 15
a brief qualitative write up that they did to document why a project has characteristics that just 16
apply it being screened from a quantitative VMT Analysis. 17
18
So, if the project isn’t screened out and it’s deemed to be a low VMT generator based on its 19
initial screening. Then it would have to go through a qualitative analysis and it would require a 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
threshold. So, we can identify whether or not that project exceeded a threshold and therefore 1
generated an impact. And there are… this would apply to all of the projects that might come 2
before the Commission and the Council doesn’t require CEQA for approval. So, that includes 3
land-use projects, land use plans, so could that be a Comprehensive Plan or a specific plan or 4
transportation projects. So, all of those would require a numeric VMT threshold to be identified 5
and the project would be measured against that. 6
7
So, I’m going to talk briefly about the three most common land use types being residential, 8
office, and retail and the thresholds for each of those. And then we’re going to walk through a 9
couple of case studies where you might dig a little deeper [unintelligible – audio interference] 10
case studies. That will be our response [unintelligible] just after that if you have questions. So, 11
there are the three land-use types I’ll speak too. 12
13
The first is residential projects and the metric here is VMT per capita or Vehicle Miles per 14
Capita or think of it as VMT per resident. So, what we would do in this case if we had a 15
residential project and it required a quantitative analysis is we would forecast the total of VMT 16
generated by the project. If it’s a multi-family project, let’s say 50-units, you would identify the 17
VMT from all of those 50 units and then divide that by the number of residents that would 18
occupy those units and that would give you the metric. You would then compare that number 19
to the existing county-wide average which is essentially the VMTs from all residential 20
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_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
residence… residential units in the county divided by all residents in the county. So, that’s a 1
metric that is identified by VTA via their model and if the project’s VMT per capita is not 15 2
percent less than the county VMT per resident then you would have impact. I would say in 3
looking at VMT data of residential projects in Palo Alto, the Palo Alto residential projects 4
generate less VMT than the county-wide average. So, the starting point for most residential 5
projects is that in Palo Alto is generally that they are lower VMT generators. 6
7
So, the next is office projects. Here we’d be looking at instead of the VMT per resident, the VMT 8
per employee. So, we’d look at the total trips generated by a project and then look at the 9
length of those trips which give us VMT and divide that by the employee. And similarly, the 10
threshold here would be taking that value and comparing it in this case to the regional average 11
VMT per employee. 12
13
For retail projects, we look at those a little bit differently. The total metric here is total VMT for 14
the project, not a [unintelligible] metric. So, we’re not dividing by the residential, the 15
employees, we’re just looking at total VMT generated and the threshold has been identified for 16
retail projects that would need a quantitative analysis is no net increase. Maybe an example of 17
how we might think about that is… well, first I would say many retail projects are likely to fall 18
in… smaller ones fall in that Local-Serving Retail Category. And an example of a retail project 19
that might be added which wouldn’t result in a significant impact is where you might be adding 20
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_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
say a grocery store to a neighborhood that didn’t have access to groceries. Say it was a food 1
desert if you will. That would be a case where you’d actually be shortening the trips that those 2
residents would be taking to get access to groceries and having a positive impact on VMT versus 3
say a larger project that goes into an area with a lot of retail uses in that area that might have 4
longer distance trips if you will. That might… that could be a project that would have significant 5
VMT impact. 6
7
So, this table summarizes the adopted VMT Threshold of Significance. I talked about residential, 8
office, and retail; the first three. For mixed-use projects, this gets a little bit complicated and 9
you have a choice… City Staff would have a choice and, in this case, either looking at the land 10
uses individually. If you had some… two fairly significant land use components of a project you 11
might look at them individually or you could look at mixed-use from a collective standpoint and 12
look at that collectively. So, you will find that there will be other land-use types that don’t fit 13
into the residential, office, or retail category and in those cases, the City may have to develop 14
an Ad Hoc threshold that is specific to the project and the project characteristics. Lastly, for 15
redevelopment projects, what we would do in that case is look at the pre-existing use or the 16
current use of the site and whether or not the proposed use is likely to result in an increase in 17
VMT. If that happens then you would look at that, the land use type whether it be residential, 18
office, or retail, and use those thresholds above. 19
20
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_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
So, we developed a couple of case studies and I was asked maybe to spend a minute before I 1
dive into these talking about how LOS and VMT might be similar or might differ. So, I’ll take a 2
crack at doing that and then we’ll dive into these two case studies just to show how… what 3
might happen as a project… a couple ways where project examples might come about. But for 4
LOS and VMT the first few steps in the process of evaluating those are actually pretty similar. 5
We would look at the total vehicle trips generated by a project and then we would look at how 6
those vehicle trips are assigned to the roadway network. How it gets assigned to the streets and 7
intersections throughout the City. That’s where the two… at that point though after those first 8
two steps is where the two different methods diverge if you will. So, for Level of Service, the 9
next step in the process is to look at individual intersections and look at the impact to drivers if 10
you will. So, for Level of Service, we’re looking at these impacts of delay or congestion to 11
drivers. So, we’re looking at how many seconds of delay at an intersection might be added and 12
therefore a driver might experience. For VMT we’re looking at how vehicle miles are traveled 13
on the entire network as a result of that project and this looks at the entirety of trips beyond 14
the City of Palo Alto. So, there we’re looking at the impact of driving from the environment 15
more generally. In other words, how many miles of travel are people making as a result of 16
adding that project to the network? And the reason why that has been identified by the state is 17
that has a direct linkage to greenhouse gas emissions and therefore the state’s goal of reducing 18
greenhouse gas. 19
20
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_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
So, with that intro, the slide that you see has two scenarios and it is intended to apply to a 1
project… redevelopment project where you’re replacing a strip commercial with a multi-family 2
residential project. And the reason we have two scenarios is it sort of depends upon where the 3
project I located and what path you would take in this particular case. If you… for instance you… 4
under Scenario A, that multi-family project was 100 percent affordable housing or if it was a 5
project within a low-VMT generating area. That project would meet the screening criteria and it 6
would be presented to have a less than significant impact and no mitigation review required. If 7
on the other hand and this is covered under Scenario B column, the project is outside a low 8
VMT area and generally the projects more towards the core if you will of Palo Alto. And I think 9
that as El Camino and Page Mill if you want a geographical location. The closer it is to the core 10
the lower the VMT. The more it is to the edge of town you’re going to generally have higher 11
VMT characteristics. That’s a general statement, but if you’re outside the low VMT area you 12
would need to conduct a quantitative analysis. If it’s a multi-family project that still may not 13
trigger an impact. You may still… may go through the quantitative analysis, determine that that 14
project is below that 15 percent below the county average, and therefore has no impact. In the 15
few cases where you might find an impact, if it’s probably going to be very close to the 16
threshold based on the data that we’ve seen, and so you probably would have relatively 17
modest VMT mitigation. So, that would be case… you know those are a couple of examples of 18
how a multi-family residential project might fair through the VMT process. 19
20
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_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
So, the second one is an example of an intensification of office uses and we have the same two 1
scenarios, A and B, and this is a redevelopment project as well. So, in Scenario A if that office 2
project is within a half-mile of high capacity transit corridor, El Camino, or it’s within a half-mile 3
of a Caltrain station. Then we would check through a couple other checks; is it have high 4
density FAR greater than .75? Does it have reduced parking coincidently being next to transit? Is 5
it consistent with a Comprehensive Plan and Plan Bay Area and is cumulative VMT City-wide 6
trending downward? Those kinds of situations are in place than that office project would be 7
screened to presume to have a less than significant impact and would require no mitigation. If 8
its… that office project is not in the transit priority area if would be required to conduct a 9
quantitative analysis. From the data that we’ve seen from the model, it’s likely that the 10
significant VMT impact would occur and that mitigation would be required of that project. And 11
VMT mitigations focus on ways to reduced vehicle trips, so it would be trip reduction measures 12
like an increase work from home, carpooling, vanpooling, transit subsidies, a whole range of 13
different measures designed to reduce vehicle trips to that particular site. 14
15
And next steps, Sylvia did you want to cover this one, or did you want me too? This is our last 16
slide. 17
18
Ms. Star Lack: Thanks Bob, I got it. To recap the Council has adopted the VMT Resolution on 19
June 15th and Staff are currently using VMT to analyze transportation impacts of development 20
Page 30
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
projects. This fall Staff will develop and bring to PTC and Council a TDM Ordinance update that 1
will help bring in line our TDM Ordinance with this… with these changes to CEQA. 2
3
Council asked when they adopted the VMT Resolution and the Local Transportation Analysis 4
Policy that retained LOS, they asked that Staff come back to them in 6 to 9-months to review 5
the Level of Service Policy. And we would bring this to PTC before taking it to Council, so that 6
will come to you. At the direction of Council following the Sustainability Climate Action Plan, 7
that is scheduled to be adopted in 2021. Staff could return to PTC and Council to adjust these 8
CEQA thresholds that we’re talking about tonight to align with S/CAP Policies. So, for example, 9
if the S/CAP recommended that we use different CEQA thresholds if Council wanted us to 10
change to those we could do those… we could do that. So, just because we’ve set these 11
thresholds doesn’t mean we need to keep them, but we will have to provide some kind of 12
justification for why we would do that. 13
14
This concludes our presentation. We are available to answer any questions about the VMT 15
methodology and thresholds and thank you for your attention. 16
17
Chair Templeton: Thank you both so much for this presentation. If anyone has any comments 18
from the public comment on this, please raise your hand. Ms. Star Lack, can you tell us what… I 19
Page 31
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
remember you mentioned we have some time downs on this discussion. Can you tell us what 1
the remaining time is? 2
3
Ms. Star Lack: So, I think we have Bob for an hour or so, so. 4
5
Chair Templeton: So, maybe another half an hour? Ok. 6
7
Ms. Star Lack: Ok. 8
9
Chair Templeton: Alright and I don’t see any hands raised from the public. 10
11
Mr. Vinhloc Nguyen, Admin Associate III: Well, we do have one hand raised from earlier which 12
is Mr. Arthur Keller. Earlier he did indicate that he did want to speak on this item so if it ok if we 13
do the public comment now or did you want to do that later? 14
15
Chair Templeton: We should do it now, but Mr. Keller, is this the item you wanted to speak 16
too? 17
18
Mr. Arthur Keller: Can you hear me? 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Chair Templeton: Yes (interrupted) 1
2
Mr. Nguyen: Yes. 3
4
Chair Templeton: We can hear you. 5
6
Mr. Keller: Yes, can you please put up the slides? 7
8
Mr. Nguyen: Well, we have to put up the speaker timer. 9
10
Mr. Keller: Ok. 11
12
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, sorry Mr. Keller we’re not able to display the slides and timer at the same 13
time. 14
15
Mr. Keller: Alright, the CEQA thresholds for… what… the CEQA thresholds for LOS are different 16
from the CEQA thresholds for VMT. For example, VMT doesn’t impact… it doesn’t affect it for 17
residential doesn’t affect at all around El Camino which means you could build a 100-story 18
building on the corner of Page Mill Road and El Camino and it wouldn’t count. A 100-story 19
building at Page Mill Road and El Camino and it wouldn’t count. On the other hand, a 100-story 20
Page 33
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
building would count for LOS thresholds along El Camino because it would add a tremendous 1
amount of traffic on El Camino and as well as Page Mill Road. That’s probably our busiest 2
intersection in the entire City and yet, we could not count the thresholds of that kind of 3
construction. So, I think that we have to implement LOS thresholds because of this. 4
5
In addition, I don’t quite understand the analysis on VMT threshold with respect to El Camino 6
and the other criteria there because it says for office projects it has to be below a threshold. It 7
does indicate that there’s a baseline which indicates home-based work and I’m not 8
understanding whether hold-based work is applied to this threshold because it is not being 9
applied through other frameworks such as the housing needs. So, I’d like to understand the 10
consistency of this metric with respect to the consistency of regular… of housing thresholds and 11
other thresholds as well. Thank you. 12
13
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Arthur for joining us tonight. It looks like we have another speaker. We 14
have Suzanne Keehn. Suzanne, if you can please unmute yourself, you may speak. 15
16
Ms. Suzanne Keehn: [unintelligible] 17
18
Mr. Nguyen: I’m sorry Suzanne, there appears to be something wrong with your microphone 19
perhaps. It’s very high-pitched. Hi Suzanne, can you try again? 20
Page 34
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Ms. Keehn: [unintelligible] 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Alright, let me disable and then re-enable your microphone again one more time 4
to see if that will help. Ok Suzanne, if you’re there can you please try to speak? 5
6
Ms. Keehn: [unintelligible] 7
8
Mr. Nguyen: It looks like Suzanne may be experiencing some technical difficulties right now. 9
10
Chair Templeton: Alright. 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: Rachael, you’re muted. 13
14
Ms. Tanner: Maybe if you could display the phone number, if she could call in and perhaps if 15
she’s able to call in we can return to public comment if she’s able to do that. 16
17
Mr. Nguyen: Sure, yes. Let me get that backup. 18
19
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_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Ms. Tanner: So, Suzanne if you can see the screen we’re going to show the Zoom call-in number 1
and that may have… just with your regular phone, you can call in and that may have better luck 2
than it sounds like we’re having over the internet. 3
4
Ms. Keehn: [unintelligible] 5
6
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, I’m sorry Ms., I think it’s Keehn, we’re still not able to understand you. 7
8
Ms. Keehn: [unintelligible] 9
10
Mr. Nguyen: Suzanne, if you can please call in the number you see on the screen here which is 11
(interrupted) 12
13
Ms. Tanner: 1-669-900-6833 and the Meeting Id Number is 955-0337-0484 and we’ll leave that 14
up just for a little bit. I know Commissioners may want us to have the slides up there, but 15
maybe just a minute for her to write that down. And then while the discussion continues and 16
we’ll the attendee list for you Suzanne. 17
18
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Chair Templeton: Thank you, Ms. Tanner. So, let’s move on to Commissioners, so 1
Commissioners please raise your hand if you have questions for our presenters about VMT. 2
Don’t be shy. Alright, Commissioner Summa followed by Vice-Chair Roohparvar. 3
4
Commissioner Summa: Ok don’t mean to always go first, but no one was raising their hand. So, I 5
have a bunch of questions about… well, let me first say obviously we have to comply with state 6
law but this is one of those things that a lot of people are very concerned about. I’ve read a lot 7
about it and there is… there seems to be a lot of confusion around it and that different Cities 8
will interpret it differently. So, with… and when we talk about screening I mean I think that 9
what that means is those projects will be… will not have to be evaluated for under VMT. So, I 10
am wondering just basically how the baseline VMTs are calculated? It doesn’t… it’s really kind 11
of strange to me so I was wondering if you could go into how the baselines are… baseline VMTs 12
are determined? 13
14
And I did want to say that I do have concerns along the lines of those from the caller Mr. Keller 15
about assumptions about certain areas. I was wondering if VMT… low-VMT areas, how those 16
are calculated? So, I don’t know if I’m addressing this to Staff or Mr. Brandy [note – Grandy] 17
from Fehr and Peers or if its Ms. Star Lack. Who should I address the questions too? 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Ms. Star Lack: I’m going to ask Bob because what you’re essentially asking about is the model, 1
the VTA Travel Demand Model. So, I’m going to ask Bob to answer that question in terms of the 2
baseline VMT calculations. 3
4
Mr. Grandy: Yeah, before I get to that let me maybe back up and answer… talk about the 5
screening process. The first thing that I would want to mention is that one of the questions that 6
the City Staff would take a look at is they’re looking… they’re determining whether a project 7
should be screened is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan. So, if there were for instance 8
100-story building that was proposed where it simply was not consistent with the 9
Comprehensive Plan. Then that could be a trigger for the City to… the Staff to determine that 10
we’re not going to screen that project. It needs to have some quantitative VMT analysis done in 11
order to make a determination of whether it has an impact. So, just because a project is located 12
in a low-VMT zone or close to transit, doesn’t mean it’s automatically screened. We have to 13
look at characteristics of the project, consistency with the Comprehensive Plan, consistency 14
with even the regional plan. Those are the kind of things that you would consider and then 15
make a determination because the screening is really intended for projects that are obviously 16
low-VMT generators and also are consistent with plans. If you’re not meeting those criteria 17
then you would need to do a quantitative analysis. 18
19
Commissioner Summa: Ok and (interrupted) 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Mr. Grandy: I think you had a question about Level of Service and CEQA Level of Service 2
thresholds, but Level of Service can no longer be used in CEQA. So, there are no longer will be 3
Level of Service analysis in CEQA and so those thresholds won’t apply; but the Council did direct 4
Staff to do Level of Service analysis as part of the entitlement process and bring that kind of 5
information to the Council for credit disclosure purposes. 6
7
Commissioner Summa: Ok and how are the low-VMT areas determined? Does the state do that 8
or does the City do that? 9
10
Mr. Grandy: No, so the low-VMT areas are determined by the same tool that we would use to 11
have to do the VMT analysis. In this case, it’s the Santa Clara VTA County-wide Travel Demand 12
Model and I would say that the… and the baseline is essentially for now it’s the 2016 baseline 13
model version that VTA has created. And so, there are maps that are being developed and they 14
will be available so that people can go online and say if I have a project at this location. What is 15
the VMT characteristics of that location and is it a low-VMT area? And so that information will 16
be made publicly available on… and that screening tools that is being developed by VTA. 17
18
And I would add to that, that the baseline is a stipulation at the time a project starts the CEQA 19
process. So, we don’t… so whatever the numeric threshold is today, 5-years from now it will be 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
different because it’s that… it’s the baseline that is in place at the time a project starts their 1
CEQA process. So, at that point in time, we use the current version of the VTA model to 2
determine the county-wide or region-wide VTE threshold value, and then the project is 3
evaluated against that. 4
5
Commissioner Summa: Ok and I’ve said this before with regards to other issues, but the 6
considering bus transit for any planning decisions is very troubling to me as the bus is not a 7
given. It’s very… the… VTA is constantly reducing bus lines, especially in the north county so 8
when we have… we may have a bus today that we don’t have a year from now. So, basing it on 9
bus as a rich transit and making that a lower area is kind of troubling to me. 10
11
There was something on Page 17 of the OPR that acknowledges that redevelopment will likely 12
cause VMT to go up. Can you talk about that at all because that seems sort of at odds? I don’t 13
know if you know, but it is on Page 17 about (interrupted) 14
15
Mr. Grandy: I don’t have the advisory in front of me, so I don’t know the specific reference that 16
you’re referring too. 17
18
Commissioner Summa: Well, it’s on Page 17, so I mean we’re looking at a lot of redevelopment. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Grandy: I would say that there is no one singular statement I could make about the effects 1
of VMT because it’s all context-specific to individual projects. I… there are certainly cases where 2
redevelopment projects could generate higher VMT than the use they’re replacing and 3
potentially cases where it would generate lower VMT. So, I could… I think… the two examples 4
we gave in the case studies where both situations were in the first case you built multi-family 5
residential on a… upon an existing commercial use. That’s a type of redevelopment project that 6
is likely to either be screened out or be a low-VMT generator and have low-VMT impacts. So, 7
residential reuse of a commercial property is most likely going to be a low-VMT generator. 8
Intensification of office use, particularly outside of areas adjacent to transit, is likely to be a high 9
VMT generator and have an impact. So, if you want a general statement that could sort of be 10
what I would say in terms of the likely outcomes of looking at different types of redevelopment 11
projects. 12
13
Commissioner Summa: Ok, thank you. Those are my questions for now. 14
15
Ms. Star Lack: I… this is Sylvia, I just wanted to add one more thing. Doria [note -Commissioner 16
Summa], I appreciate your reluctance to base planning on bus service and VTA has reduced 17
service and it has not been great for our community. I do want to mention though that VTA has 18
let us know that communities that create transit-supportive corridors will receive VTA service. 19
So, I just want us to be mindful of that, particularly as we start thinking about the next item on 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
the agenda. How we develop or how we accommodate growth in the future will, in my mind, 1
actually be a transportation issue. It’s not just a housing or growth issue. It will be a transit issue 2
and if we can develop in ways that support more and better and frequent transit then I think 3
we’ll be in a better place regarding greenhouse gas emissions and VMT. 4
5
Commissioner Summa: Thank you. 6
7
Chair Templeton: Thank you, Ms. Star Lack. Just a heads up to the Commissioners who are 8
going up next. I believe I have Vice-Chair Roohparvar and Commissioner Riggs and anyone else 9
who wants to raise their hand. We only have Mr. Grandy for a limited amount of time so please 10
try to keep your remarks around 5-minutes plus or minus so that other people can have a 11
chance to speak. Thank you. Vice-Chair Roohparvar. 12
13
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Thank you, Mr. Grandy. I had two quick questions. The first one was so 14
the screening criteria, the VMT screening criteria is that… at first, when I read it I thought that 15
as long as you meet those or below those thresholds then you’re automatically in. And you're 16
exempted and you don’t need to do a quantitative analysis, but now it sounds like there’s still a 17
subjective case by case project analysis that’s going to be done. Is that… are you automatically 18
exempted if you are under these or no? 19
20
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_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Grandy: Well, let me say that I wouldn’t characterize this as an exemption like you would 1
have in other cases in CEQA because there still would need to be a qualitative documentation 2
of why the screening was… the determination was made. But what I would say is this is that 3
context matters and where a project is and how a project is designed makes a difference. If you 4
take a residential project and you put it in a location that’s not near transit, it’s not in a 5
walkable area, it’s not near services where… that’s a project that probably is going to have 6
characteristics that don’t… it wouldn’t make me think it’s a low-VMT generator. And so 7
therefore that type of project we would likely not screen and you say we need to do some 8
evaluation to determine whether or not it is a low-VMT generator or whether it requires some 9
mitigations. So, I think there’s a… we’ve developed with Staff a list of questions that… of 10
considerations, but it really is context-sensitive to the project and how it’s designed. 11
12
The other thing I would say is the amount of parking is a significant factor as well because if a 13
project is solely parked at zoning requirements or even exceeds that. Then that’s maybe a 14
signal that it may not be a low-VMT generator. Especially if its [unintelligible] being the area is 15
not walkable or near transit or near services. So, those are the kind of things we would want or 16
that we would want to evaluate as part of the screening and then document and say this is why 17
we either did or didn’t screen. 18
19
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_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Ok and I think this dovetails into my second question and answers it. 1
And that’s why with respect to retail it’s going to be case by case kind of basis when you say no 2
net increase. It’s not tied to anything like the office and residential is like employee or 3
whatever. It’s going to be a little bit more what is it, where is it, do we feel it’s going to increase 4
or not, right? So, there’s going to be a little bit more of that qualitative. Got it, ok. 5
6
Mr. Grandy: Well there will… I mean if a retail project is more than 10,000-square feet and it’s 7
not local… well, I would say yes, that is the case; but if we go to a quantitative analysis what we 8
would do for retail projects is do a scenario base comparison. We would look at an area of the 9
City without the retail and then we’d drop it in, that retail into a modal, and say how does that 10
change the travel of that part of the City? We might look at the whole City if it’s a bigger retail 11
project or we might look at a few neighborhoods if it’s a smaller project and say what’s… what 12
does that do to vehicle travel in that area when you have that retail compared to a no project? 13
So, that’s how retail would be evaluated a little bit differently than the other uses (interrupted) 14
15
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Got it. 16
17
Mr. Grandy: Because what’s it travels with those uses around it? 18
19
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: That’s really helpful. Thank you. 20
Page 44
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Chair Templeton: Alright, thank you, Vice-Chair Roohparvar. Commissioner Riggs. 2
3
Commissioner Riggs: Thank you so much, Chair Templeton and I just got to apologize because 4
I’m managing my children’s dinner at the same time because I’m single-parenting tonight. And 5
we ordered local tonight so they’re going to get a delivery so I… in the middle of this. I’m just 6
going to put everything out there right now. I have one comment and a question. 7
8
I think this… first the comment; I just… we… it’s really hard to consider VMT without 9
considering job housing mismatch. So, I think that’s really one thing that we really have to think 10
about. We are a housing job lite, so I think some of our locations will be… we are a little more 11
job-rich, housing lite, and to a certain degree, I think that’s what we’re fighting here. But we 12
have to think about… in the new COVID reality, I do think we have to think about enriching jobs 13
in some of these locations where we’re thinking about housing at the same time. So, I don’t 14
think it’s a zero-sum formula. I just… that context piece is really important, so I’m glad you 15
mentioned that, Mr. Grandy. 16
17
And I think the only thing… it’s kind of a question slash comment, Mr. Grandy because I think… I 18
want to understand and maybe this hasn’t been mapped out yet. Sorry [unintelligible], maybe 19
this hasn’t been mapped out yet, but the… do we know how we’re going to do the analysis? 20
Page 45
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
One thing that I actually really think that needs to be a part of the analysis for the next year is 1
thinking about trip generation in the same way we think about VMT. I think one of the fears I 2
have is that we may be a… we may see a decrease in VMT, but an increase in trip generation 3
and something that actually doesn’t match what we’d see in the traditional IT Handbook. And 4
so, to a certain degree I just think it’s important to map that out because if we are revisiting 5
also our TDM formula, we actually may need to revisit our TDM playbook at the end of that 1-6
year period as well. So, maybe I don’t need a response to that right now, but I guess to put out 7
kind of my hypothesis there is that I wouldn’t want to overly penalize higher density 8
development. For particularly for projects that benefit our emerging bike and ped network. And 9
I think that’s where I’m a little concerned about higher density projects that where we might 10
see…we make… specifically South Palo Alto. Gentlemen… we may see South Palo Alto a little 11
penalized in terms of not really fitting in that traditional high capacity rail corridor. All that’s 12
being very highly connected to San Antonio as well as downtown via bike-ped. So, that’s it, I 13
guess I thought it was a question and it came out more as a comment, so I’ll yield to… I don’t 14
need to comment again. 15
16
Ms. Star Lack: Thank you. 17
18
Mr. Nguyen: Alright Chair Templeton, I just wanted to give you a quick time check. We’re at 45-19
minutes into this item. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Chair Templeton: Ok great and did we find out if our caller was able to check back in by phone? 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Oh, we do have a phone caller. They haven’t raised their hand, but it could be 4
Suzanne here. We could give it a try to see if it and also have two additional raised hands as 5
well. 6
7
Chair Templeton: Alright, I don’t see any other Commissioners with their hand up at the 8
moment, so I’m ok to reopen public comment. And if all of the folks with their hands raised in 9
the public are speaking on this item keep your hand raised. If you’re raising it in preparation for 10
the next item I ask you to take it down and once we close public comment this second time you 11
can raise and be prepared for the next item. Ok, so Vinh, please take it away. 12
13
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, Medina, can we get the speaker timer, please? Thank you. So, let’s try 14
Suzanne first, so there’s a phone caller last four digits 1373. Can you please confirm whether 15
you are the speaker from earlier? 16
17
Ms. Keehn: Yes, yes, I called in before. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Nguyen: Hi, I’m sorry, there’s some echoing because I think it’s because you’re watching 1
the meeting from two sources. It looks like you’re probably on your phone and also on your 2
computer. If you can please mute the sound on your computer, otherwise it’s causing too much 3
of a feedback loop. 4
5
Ms. Keehn: Hello? 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: There’s still a little bit of feedback. 8
9
Ms. Keehn: I don’t know what to do. 10
11
Ms. Tanner: You could log off of the (interrupted) 12
13
Chair Templeton: I think maybe you should just proceed. 14
15
Ms. Tanner: And log back in if you want or you can yeah, you can continue. 16
17
Ms. Keehn: I think I’m in the wrong section. I want to speak to the RHNA numbers. 18
19
Chair Templeton: That’s great, so we will be on that agenda item next. 20
Page 48
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Ms. Keehn: Ok. 2
3
Chair Templeton: So, we’ll go back to you then. Thank you. 4
5
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, so then our next speaker will be Beth Rosenthal. If you can please unmute 6
yourself, you may speak. 7
8
Ms. Beth Rosenthal: I wanted to also speak on the RHNA numbers, so I’ll join you when that’s… 9
what it’s time for that. 10
11
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, sure. 12
13
Ms. Rosenthal: Thanks. 14
15
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, then our next speaker will be Greg Schmid. If you can please unmute yourself, 16
you may speak. 17
18
Mr. Greg Schmid: I also am trying to speak on the RHNA numbers. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, sure. 1
2
Chair Templeton: Alright, so we’ll close public comment again and see if any other 3
Commissioners have questions for Ms. Star Lack or Mr. Grandy. Commissioner Hechtman, 4
welcome. You are muted, sir. 5
6
Commissioner Hechtman: Thank you, Chair Templeton. I wanted to first let the… have the 7
minutes reflect that I was… I apologize for being late joining this meeting. I did join about 6:45 8
at the end of the first round of public comment on this item. 9
10
And the comments and questions I have, I don’t think any of them are directed to Mr. Grandy. 11
So, I think they’re directed to Staff, so if there are other Commissioners who do have questions 12
that are best fielded by Mr. Grandy I would yield to them while I understand he has a limited 13
availability. 14
15
Chair Templeton: I don’t see any hands raised so you may continue. 16
17
Commissioner Hechtman: Alright, so the first question I had and again I think these are all 18
directed to Staff. I see in the… I saw in the Staff Report that the Thresholds of Significance came 19
to the Council on May 18th for a Study Session. It went back to them last month in June I think, 20
Page 50
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
at which time they adopted new Thresholds of Significance. I didn’t… and so I was curious as to 1
why that didn’t pass through the Planning Commission before adoption by the Council and I 2
think I may have the answer. It’s not in the Staff Report, but I think I learned from a different 3
source that under the state evolution of CEQA moving from LOS to the VMT that became 4
effective as of July 1st and so we really needed to have our VMT Thresholds of Significance in 5
place by July 1st which of course was last week. And so, I’m wondering if Staff can tell me is that 6
the reason that there wasn’t really time to bring this through the Planning Commission before 7
Council adopted the new Threshold of Significance. 8
9
Ms. Star Lack: Yes. Oh Phillip, do you want to answer? 10
11
Mr. Phillip Kamhi, Chief Transportation Official: Yeah, hi, Phillip Kamhi, Chief Transportation 12
Official, I figured I’d spare Sylvia at least one response here. So, yeah, that’s essentially the 13
reason. It was… in order to meet the state deadline of July 1, we needed to have it adopted. 14
Actually, the process of moving it forward started even earlier with Council and was actually 15
delayed. Otherwise, we would have like to have taken it to PTC, but due to the deadlines and 16
the… and what happened with COVID and meetings getting canceled and trying to figure out. 17
We needed to keep it moving forward and it actually should have been scheduled in an earlier 18
Council meeting, but it got delayed. So, it actually would have been even earlier when PTC was 19
still trying to figure out how to start back up its meetings. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Commissioner Hechtman: Ok, thank you for that. So, I get it, it makes sense, it was necessary. 2
Oh, Sylvia? 3
4
Ms. Star Lack: One thing though, we can come back to PTC after… we’ve said… we’ve told 5
Council we can come back to them after the S/CAP is been adopted to re-evaluate these 6
thresholds. So, we would take it to you before we went back to them. 7
8
Commissioner Hechtman: Ok, alright, that’s appreciated. 9
10
Mr. Grandy: And most… this is Bob, just a quick note. Most Cities are taking that approach that 11
these are their initial thresholds. And then they’re going to go through either a 1, 2 or 3-year 12
period of experiencing them and then look at making adjustments. And most agencies are 13
doing something similar to what Palo Alto has done which is adopting something close to OPR 14
recommendations with a few tweaks here and there. 15
16
Mr. Kamhi: I feel like we’re all going to have to keep adding on, but just to add on that a bit 17
further I think what as Commissioner Riggs pointed out a bit earlier. This is something where 18
we might have a changing environment and we might really need to re-analyze these things on 19
an ongoing basis. So, we’re definitely going to be open to that. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Commissioner Hechtman: Alright and from my initial read-through of the Thresholds of 2
Significance I don’t really have any issues with those that City Council adopted that were 3
consistent with OPR and the retail. I wish they had a different… they adopted a different 4
threshold, but the process is what interests me and really for the PTC to be able to provide its 5
experience particularly, on this issue when the PTC is fortunate that one of its Commissioners is 6
an expert in this field and I think that Commissioner Riggs can really drive a lot of these issues 7
for the PTC and add value. And so, I’m anxious for us to be able to provide feedback which 8
really ties into kind of the second thing I noticed in the Staff Report is that this fall the TDM, the 9
new TDM, is coming back… will be coming. And it’s not clear from the Staff Report whether 10
that’s going to come to the PTC before it goes to Council and so I’d like to make a pitch that it 11
come to PTC first (interrupted) 12
13
Ms. Star Lack: It will. 14
15
Commissioner Hechtman: Ok. 16
17
Mr. Kamhi: Yeah, confirming it will. 18
19
Ms. Star Lack: Yes. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Commissioner Hechtman: Alright and then the only other… the other question I had, again 2
drawing from the Staff Report, I see that the Council retained the analysis of LOS, and Mr. 3
Grandy mentioned this a couple minutes ago. And so my understanding is a new project that 4
would come in next week would do both; the LOS and the VTM [note – VMT]. Is that right? 5
Potentially? 6
7
Ms. Star Lack: Yeah. Sorry, I don’t know why I couldn’t unmute. Yes, if it was a project that was 8
subject to CEQA then yes, it would do both. 9
10
Commissioner Hechtman: Ok because the VTM [note – VMT] will be the CEQA requirement and 11
the LOS is a separate City requirement. 12
13
Ms. Star Lack: Yeah. 14
15
Mr. Grandy: But both have screening… both have screening measures, so if a project is below a 16
certain trip level it wouldn’t have to do the LOS analysis or it could be screened out of VMT. So, 17
there are screening steps for both. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Commissioner Hechtman: Alright, so the concern I have as I read the Staff Report which I 1
thought was really comprehensive and informative, it seems like one of the reasons that… and I 2
actually watched the three-video links which were very informative too. But it seems like one of 3
the benefits of the new VTM [note -VMT] approach in addition to being focused on emissions is 4
that it’s a simpler, less expensive analysis and in that sense, it reduces the barriers to 5
development and particularly to infill development. And so, my question is… and I think there’s 6
a statistic in there that it may be as a fifth of the cost that… and I realize these are generalities 7
but the VTM [note – VMT] analysis is maybe a fifth of the cost of the LOS. So, my concern is 8
instead of getting this 80 percent reduction in cost which encourages infill development, 9
instead by adding the LOS to the VTM [note -VMT], now we have a 20 percent increase and 10
more obstacles to infill. So, my question of Staff who were there when the Council decided to 11
retain LOS is what was their thinking to hold onto LOS when it’s no longer a legitimate 12
threshold for CEQA purposes? 13
14
Ms. Star Lack: So, I see Rafael is here. I was not really around when that decision was made. So, 15
I don’t have the background on that, but is there other Staff or other Commissioners who were 16
watching when the… in the Comp Plan process when that decision was made because I don’t, 17
unfortunately, have that history? I just know that we needed to retain LOS when we adopted 18
the VMT threshold. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Kamhi: Yeah, not that I was here, but I will say that that was part of the Comp Plan. And I 1
think that that was somewhat of an assumption going into the process and something that 2
some of the Council Members had requested. And actually, some, in fact, stated a preference 3
to have LOS instead of VMT. Should we have the choice, but understanding that this is a state 4
requirement that we have VMT for certain decisions. 5
6
Commissioner Hechtman: Alright, then I think my follow up question is what would the process 7
be to eliminate that requirement from the City process for development applications? I know 8
that part of the answer I think would be the elimination of Comp Plan Policy T-2.3. So, how do 9
we go about that and having a dialog about whether to remove LOS? 10
11
Mr. Kamhi: So, I think that is a broader question. I think that really is a question of how do we 12
revise the Comp Plan and get in there and make those changes; which is not that it’s not related 13
to this discussion, but it is a deeper discussion. 14
15
Ms. Tanner: I would just add, sorry Sylvia (interrupted) 16
17
Ms. Star Lack: Go ahead. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Ms. Tanner: That there obviously is… are the… is the process to amend the Comprehensive 1
Plan. So, if there was a decision to have an amendment Staff would prepare that, bring that 2
forward to PTC, and through the various channels to amend the Comprehensive Plan. And then 3
specifically to speaking to the adoption of the VMT, I think that was a pretty robust discussion 4
at Council in terms of Vice May DuBois’s suggestion to maintain some type of local Level of 5
Service analysis in this process. And at the risk of trying to remember back that far, all of a few 6
weeks ago, I believe that part of it was linked to the idea that LOS is something that is 7
meaningful to Palo Altans and is a way to understand the impact of development. So, by 8
maintaining both the new VMT and the Level of Service, perhaps there’s a little bit of a 9
crosswalk of what does this development mean in ways that both satisfy the CEQA, but also can 10
satisfy curiosity in wanting to understand from the perspective of citizens. 11
12
Commissioner Riggs: Well and maybe I can weigh in too from an academic standpoint is that 13
particularly now with a lot of the trip generation manuals not being responsive to particular 14
right sourcing services. There’s a lot of unknowns in terms of how much VMT programs will 15
actually reduce the number of trips, particularly on local roads. So, I do think that it’s something 16
just to pay attention to over the coming year as we evaluate the success of the program and 17
that’s really what’s imbedded in my comments as well. 18
19
Commissioner Hechtman: Ok. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Chair Templeton: I would add, I don’t know if you’re able to put that… the pocket slide up about 2
the little comparison between LOS and VMT. One measures the impact to drivers and the other 3
measures the impact to the environment, but the idea is it sounds like it’s the language that 4
people in the community are ready to understand and getting used to the new language of 5
VMT is part of the reason that they’re keeping it for now. But I think it’s up to the community 6
and Staff and potentially the PTC to help make the case of what’s the best way to measure the 7
impact. 8
9
Commissioner Summa: I was going to add since I was on the Comp Plan group if we have… if I 10
may? 11
12
Chair Templeton: Yes, please, Commissioner Summa. 13
14
Commissioner Summa: So, there’s… so we know from the Citizen Survey that traffic is one of 15
the things citizens care about a lot. So, understanding that we have no idea what traffic is going 16
to look like because of the pandemic in the future. There was a real concern about creating 17
intersections where… that where there was just total gridlock and that was based on concerns 18
about pollution from idling cars and also emergency vehicles. Already, you can see emergency 19
vehicles, pre-COVID and normal times, on El Camino that actually are stuck, that have to use 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
the… that have to drive… say they’re trying to go southbound. There’s such gridlock 1
southbound that they have to go in the northbound lanes. So, there was a concern about losing 2
that metric as for planning purposes and safety and pollution too and idling. And also, concerns 3
about, especially El Camino and wanting to put more housing along the El Camino, and the 4
impacts of people living in those housing with gridlock. 5
6
Chair Templeton: Alright, Commissioner Hechtman was that… did you have any more 7
comments? 8
9
Commissioner Hechtman: Well, no, and that was really helpful background and I can 10
understand at least how we… it’s desirable to retain LOS during this what I’ll call the transition; 11
but given, as Phillip said and Mr. Grandy, that it’s anticipated really that we’re going to live with 12
VTM [note – VMT] for a while and then fine-tune it. So, I expect that we’re going to see it again 13
at the PTC. It may be a year, it may be 2-years from now, but what I would hope is when we do 14
see it whenever that is, that this question of do we still need to retain LOS is back on the table 15
to be part of that dialog. That’s all I have, thank you. 16
17
Chair Templeton: Alright, thank you. Commissioner Summa, you had your hand raised. Did you 18
have additional comments? Commissioner Summa? Ok, she may have made her comments. 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Alright, I don’t see any other hands raised. I know we’re close to the end of our time. Last call 1
for Commissioner Summa or any other questions? 2
3
Commissioner Summa: Yes. 4
5
Chair Templeton: Oh, there you are. Hi. 6
7
Commissioner Summa: Sorry. 8
9
Chair Templeton: Do you have any additional comments? 10
11
Commissioner Summa: Yeah, it was my question earlier about this displacement issue and at 12
the top… it starts on Page 17 of the OPR which is the manual basically. And it acknowledges 13
that residential development… redevelopment will likely displace people because the new 14
buildings will be… which I think is interesting for our next discussion also. The new… this is 15
residential, the new residences will be more expensive so there will be displacement and that 16
you have to figure in the new VMT for the displaced residences. So, I was just acknowledging… 17
wanting to make sure that I understood that correctly and how would anybody know how far 18
away displaced people had to move? It just it sorts of was confusing, to be honest and I can 19
read it, but I don’t know if Mr. Grandy is still with and maybe Ms. Star Lack knows. It’s the top 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
of Page 18 if a residential or office project leads to a net increase in VMT… no, no, no, that’s the 1
wrong place. As described above, a project or plan near transit would… replaces affordable, 2
naturally affordable also, residential units with a small number of moderate- or high-income 3
residential units may increase overall VMT because displaced residents VMT may increase. 4
5
Mr. Grandy: Right, so I think the point that OPR is trying to make there is if you essentially are 6
redeveloping a site which has affordable housing with a site that has high-income residential 7
units. That those high-income residential units could be generating more trips per unit and 8
therefore have a net impact on VMT. So, the… I think that’s what the point OPR is trying to 9
make in that particular comment. 10
11
Commissioner Summa: Yeah and they also specify even naturally occurring more affordable 12
units which is of course what older existing units are, but how would the displaced persons 13
VMT impact be analyzed and added to the impact of the new project? It just… because that’s 14
what it says. 15
16
Mr. Grandy: So, in that case, you would not screen out a project and you would want to do a 17
quantitative analysis and you’d be doing a comparative analysis of the prior project that was, in 18
this case, affordable housing compared to the new project which is high income… say high-19
income residential units. And you’d look at the number of units the trips generated, the VMT 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
characteristics of that type of land use, and you’d do a VMT comparison and see if it increases 1
the VMT. If it’s conceivable I suppose you could replace a 40-unit project with a 20-unit project 2
and the net increase might be less VMTs even though you generated more trips per unit. So, I 3
think you’d have to look… if you’re replacing likes for likes, 40-units for 40-units, you’re going to 4
have likely a higher VMT. So, I think you’d have to look at what exactly is the case you’re… 5
before and after. 6
7
Chair Templeton: Also, to interject here, can you clarify when you say affordable what it has… 8
what are you referring to specifically? 9
10
Mr. Grandy: It’s a really good question because OPR doesn’t specify exactly what level of 11
affordability should apply. They just refer to it as affordable housing, so I think that’s one of 12
those areas that OPR had left it up to each agency to make their own definition. 13
14
Chair Templeton: Thank you. 15
16
Commissioner Summa: Well, they do specify in the area I sighted with a footnote that that 17
includes naturally affordable which we normally take to mean older housing stock that’s 18
already here. It’s more naturally affordable than new. Ok, well that seems… I don’t know, that 19
just stuck out in my head. It seems to also relate to our next topic also on the agenda, but it 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
does acknowledge… the way I read it, it acknowledges that displacement is going to cause extra 1
Vehicle Miles Traveled. That was the point (interrupted) 2
3
Mr. Grandy: Yes, yes, there are definitely cases where that would happen. 4
5
Commissioner Summa: Ok, thank you. 6
7
Chair Templeton: Alright, well thank you all for this presentation and a good discussion and 8
Study Session. So, I think we’re ready to move on to the next agenda item. So, as we head into 9
this next agenda item I’m going to ask all those in the public who wish to speak if you can raise 10
your hand through the course of the presentation, and by the end of the presentation, it would 11
be helpful for us that are planning this meeting to know how many speakers we have. So, that 12
we can run that portion of the program appropriately. So, alright, thank you, Ms. Star Lack and 13
Mr. Grandy. 14
15
3. Study Session on Plan Bay Area 2050 and the State 6th Cycle Regional Housing Needs 16
Allocation (RHNA) Process 17
18
Chair Templeton: Any… and on Number Three who will be leading that presentation? That 19
study session? 20
21
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: Good evening Chair and Vice-Chair and Commissioners. 1
We’re going to have Rebecca Atkinson leading that presentation and I wonder if Mr. Nguyen 2
before we begin would want to remind the users how to find their raised hand button in case 3
they’re not familiar with its location. How can folks raise their Mr. Nguyen? 4
5
Mr. Vinhloc Nguyen, Admin Associate III: Yes, the raise hand button should be at the bottom of 6
your screen. There should be an icon with a hand and it should say raise hand on it and by 7
clicking it the icon will become blue and that indicates that your hand has been raised. If you’re 8
calling in from a phone you can raise your hand by pressing *9. 9
10
Ms. Tanner: Great, thank you, and so I’m going to turn it over to Rebecca Atkinson. She’s been 11
with you before. She brought us the wireless items, so working on… she does a lot of big picture 12
thinking, thinking about how to create strategies, policies, and tonight we’ll be talking about 13
Plan Bay Area and the Regional Housing Needs Allocation. So, Rebecca, take it away. 14
15
Ms. Rebecca Atkinson, Planner: Thank you, and thank you Vinh for moving the slides for me. 16
Thank you in advance. So, good evening Chair, Vice‐Chair, and Commissioners. Thank you for 17
this opportunity to host this study session with the Planning and Transportation Commission 18
tonight on Plan Bay Area 2050 and the Regional Housing Needs Allocation, which is commonly 19
referred to as RHNA. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Tonight, I’ll give an overview of Plan Bay Area 2050 and RHNA, next steps in these long-range, 2
regional planning processes; and upcoming public engagement opportunities. The study session 3
allows the PTC and members of the public to ask questions and provide feedback regarding 4
these processes. Staff hopes through discussion, to gain an understanding of PTC and 5
community perspectives on the information available on these processes to date. Staff will 6
bring these topics before City Council in August. We anticipate further release of information 7
on Plan Bay Area 2050 and RHNA in the meantime. Next slide, please. 8
9
Currently underway, Plan Bay Area 2050 is a key regional planning process. State law requires 10
that regions throughout the state have regional transportation plans and sustainable 11
communities’ strategy. In our region, these are combined into Plan Bay Area. ABAG and MTC 12
are the agencies charged with creating, updating, and adopting these plans. The Plan has a lens 13
focused on a regional growth pattern involving four key issues: the economy, the environment, 14
housing, and transportation; but it does not change local land use authority. Next slide, please. 15
16
The Draft Blueprint is the first draft of Plan Bay Area 2050. It weaves together 25 17
transportation, housing, economic, and environmental strategies alongside an expanded set of 18
growth geographies to advance critical climate and equity goals. Here are the published 19
components of Draft Blueprint. Today we had some difficulty accessing these… some of these 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
documents and MTC Staff work to get the links weblinks working again. So, please find them 1
online. These documents were released on July 6, so just this week and MTC and ABAG seek 2
feedback through August 10 regarding the components and how to advance and improve upon 3
the strategies for inclusion in the Final Blueprint. Next slide. 4
5
Chair Templeton: Just to clarify, you said August 10th? 6
7
Ms. Atkinson: August 10th for the draft and then they’ll move into the final and there’ll be 8
another comment period. 9
10
Chair Templeton: Thank you. 11
12
Ms. Atkinson: Growth geographies are the areas within the region upon which MTC and ABAG’s 13
Staff will overlay the strategies in the Plan. There are three primary geographies that include 14
Palo Alto. Priority development areas are mapped in red. These locally nominated Palo Alto… 15
these are locally nominated by Palo Alto and are urban areas within 1⁄2 mile of high‐quality 16
transit that are planned or will be planned for housing and/or job growth. Transit rich areas are 17
mapped in green. These are the areas within 1⁄2 mile of a rail station or other… and other 18
transit lines with peak headways of 15 minutes or less. High resource areas cover a lot of areas 19
within Palo Alto, but those that are mapped here in purple are those areas within proximity to 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
bus lines with 16‐30-minute headways. Staff will correspond with MTC and ABAG regarding 1
challenges, discrepancies, and the underlying data for the growth geographies. Next slide. 2
3
This slide shows the next steps for Plan Bay Area 2050. Next month will include significant 4
public outreach on the Draft Blueprint, including a regional equity and access workshop on 5
Thursday, July 30th, and a virtual town hall for Santa Clara County on Wednesday, August 5. 6
Staff will review both the Draft Blueprint and the Final Blueprint and provide analysis. It’s 7
important to reemphasize that Plan Bay Area 2050 does not impact a jurisdiction’s local land 8
use authority. Palo Alto still retains authority to adopt local land use regulations, including 9
zoning. Next slide, please. 10
11
So, we’re turning to RHNA. RHNA is the process by which the state allocates housing unit 12
production across the state, region by region. RHNA focuses on housing production at a variety 13
of income levels and attempts to allocate the forecasted housing needs across the region using 14
a methodology created by regional representatives. Next slide, please. 15
16
The RHNA process starts with the state. The Housing and Community Development Department 17
gives ABAG the Regional Housing Needs Determination. This was received by ABAG on June 9, 18
so just recently, and contained a determination of 441,176 new housing units for the region 19
total. It is based upon the State Department of Finance forecast for the region, as well as 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
adjustments for vacancy rates, overcrowding, and overpayment on housing costs factors. The 1
ABAG Executive Board has declined to appeal the determination to date and the appeal 2
deadline is July 10th. Next slide. 3
4
The determination for this 6th Cycle is about 2.3 times higher than the last 5th Cycle; which was 5
187,994 units for the region. For context, Palo Alto received 1,988 housing units during the last, 6
5th Cycle RHNA process and Palo Alto planned for 2,187 units. No rezoning was necessary to 7
accommodate that number. At the end of 2019, mid‐way through the cycle to 2023, Palo Alto 8
had issued building permits for 554 housing units across affordability levels with most progress 9
at the above‐moderate income level. However, Palo Alto is not on pace to meet its RHNA for 10
the 5th Cycle, nor are many other jurisdictions in the region as shown in this table. Next slide, 11
please. 12
13
Moving on to the RHNA methodology. ABAG is responsible for allocating the HCD 14
determination amongst the San Francisco Bay Area’s 101 cities and counties in terms of total 15
allocation, as well as by affordability levels. This allocation process is important, as state 16
housing law requires that jurisdictions update their Housing Elements to show how each 17
jurisdiction will comply. State housing law takes into account equitable housing distributions, 18
affordability, access to opportunities, and additional considerations. Next slide. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Toward the goal of developing this 6th cycle’s RHNA methodology, ABAG convened the current 1
Housing Methodology Committee in October 2019. The members of the committee are elected 2
officials, staff from cities, and stakeholder groups. While no decisions have been made to date, 3
the draft methodology is likely to be released in the fall, likely around September 2020. The 4
Housing Methodology Committee continues to meet, including tomorrow July 9. Next slide. 5
6
There are a few overall options for allocating housing units that are under consideration by the 7
Housing Methodology Committee. Under the factor-based income shift approach, total units 8
are allocated to a jurisdiction, and then an Income shift factor is used to distribute that total 9
among four income categories. This was the approach used in the last RHNA cycle by the Bay 10
Area. Under the bottom‐up approach, factors and weights are used to identify the number of 11
units distributed amongst income categories. The sum of these is then equals a jurisdiction’s 12
total allocation. This is the new approach being considered. In the coming slide, I’ll discuss the 13
income shift approach first; followed by bottom-up. However, as mentioned before the work of 14
the Housing Methodology Committee is ongoing and they meet tomorrow and the public is 15
welcome to attend. This will discuss… they will discuss options for incorporating Plan Bay Area 16
2050 forecasts into the RHNA methodology. Next slide, please. 17
18
The first option looks at 10 exploratory factors and distributes the total RHNA based on these 19
factors. You can see three of the top initial methodologies explored to date. The housing units 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
allocated to jurisdictions across the region could be based on these mix of factors or others. For 1
example, under the Housing/Jobs Crescent option, jurisdictions would get units 50% based on 2
an equity factor; in this case, the factor is access to high opportunity areas. Another portion is 3
based on job factors, such as job proximity to transit, jobs‐housing balance, jobs‐housing fit, 4
and future jobs. This last portion uses the transit connectivity factor. Each of these top 3 initial 5
methodologies uses a different mix of factors. Next slide. 6
7
City staff used the ABAG visualization tool to identify the range of hypothetical RHNA 8
Allocations for Palo Alto under each of the top three initial methodologies. These are compared 9
to Palo Alto’s hypothetical baseline allocation. This hypothetical baseline allocation reflects the 10
number of existing housing units in 2019 and applying a standard hypothetical growth rate of 11
16 percent for the region to Palo Alto, as well as other jurisdictions. The result at this 16 12
percent growth rate is a hypothetical allocation of 4,475 new units. For reference, Palo Alto’s 13
previous RHNA Allocation was 1,988 [unintelligible – audio cut out] all allocate more housing 14
units to Palo Alto than if the allocation is based on a standard regional growth rate of 16 15
percent. Next slide. 16
17
As the Housing Methodology Committee moved deeper into discussions, they discussed how 18
affordability levels could be allocated. Here is a chart showing the income shift approach. It 19
takes a jurisdiction’s total housing unit allocation and shows how that total number could be 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
distributed between the affordability levels in the different… using different income shift 1
percentages. On the right-hand side of the screen and at a 0 percent income shift, a high 2
opportunity area and a higher average income jurisdiction, such as Palo Alto, could receive an 3
income allocation that reflects the current income distribution. The RHNA assigned to that 4
jurisdiction would then require most units be above moderate income. As shown in the center 5
of the screen, a 100 percent income shift means the jurisdiction’s income allocation reflects the 6
existing income distribution across the entire region. In discussions, Housing Methodology 7
Committee members have expressed support for between 100 percent and a 150 percent 8
income shift, which would close the gap between a jurisdiction’s existing income distribution 9
and the region’s distribution as a whole in a shorter period of time. The income shift approach 10
again would use total allocation as a basis. Next slide. 11
12
A significant number of Housing Methodology Committee members were interested in 13
exploring a bottom‐up approach to build the levels of affordability and total allocation to each 14
jurisdiction. ABAG updated their modeling to explore the bottom-up approach further. The 15
bottom-up approach separates the region’s allocation of the affordable housing units and the 16
market‐rate housing units. It then uses the exploratory factors to allocate these units. This slide 17
shows an example of a two‐factor bottom‐up approach. While other factors could be used, in 18
this example, the bottom‐up approach uses high opportunity areas and jobs‐housing fit factors 19
for the affordable units. The market‐rate units use the jobs‐proximity auto and the jobs‐housing 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
balance factors. The total allocation for a jurisdiction would be built from these component 1
parts and next slide. 2
3
Here is an example of a three‐factor bottom‐up approach. When you see the three‐factor 4
approach relative to the two factors, you can see how the methodology could become more 5
tailored toward addressing key housing affordability topics in the region. As with the two-factor 6
approach, everything is totaled up from the component parts and for more information on 7
these various methodology approaches, please refer to Attachment E in the Staff Report. Next 8
slide, please. 9
10
This slide shows the upcoming schedule for the RHNA process. Ultimately, once finalized, the 11
RHNA for Palo Alto will form the basis for the update of the City’s Housing Element. The 12
Housing Element, which must be adopted by January 2023 and certified by HCD, must include 13
zoning that accommodates the RHNA housing units within the City of Palo Alto. Staff intends to 14
correspond with the Housing Methodology Committee, sharing feedback on the methodology, 15
including questions and suggestions for improving it and Staff welcomes the PTC’s feedback and 16
questions, so this can be included in the correspondence. Next slide. 17
18
Moving toward the discussion portion of this study session, Staff poses these key questions to 19
kick off. For Plan Bay Area 2050, what are your hopes for Plan Bay Area 2050 to achieve for Palo 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Alto, and when considering a regional growth pattern, what are key topics that Palo Alto might 1
find challenging? For RHNA, which of the factors do Commissioners feel most align with the 2
values of the Palo Alto community, and is the bottom‐up approach of interest? Or does a total 3
allocation with income shift approach seem to make more sense? Next slide, please. 4
5
If you have questions after this study session, Staff can be reached using the following contact 6
information and now can we move back to the key question slide? Thank you, this concludes 7
our presentation. 8
9
Chair Templeton: Thank you so much, Ms. Atkinson. That’s wonderful. So, again to the folks 10
that are dialed in and would like to make public comment, please raise your hand. And alright, 11
so we are going to… we’re going to proceed with 3-minutes based on the number of folks with 12
their hand raised. So, Mr. Nguyen, please take it away. 13
14
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, thank you. I will be calling speakers based on when they raised their hand first. 15
So, our first speaker will be Russell followed by Arthur, then Rangu, Beth, Greg, the phone caller 16
last four digits 1373, Joseph, Terry, and then Tom, and then I see Kelsey has just raised the hand 17
as well. If there’s anyone who wishes to speak and who’s name I did not mention, please raise 18
your hand now. So, our first speaker will be Russell Star-Lack. If you can please unmute 19
yourself, you may speak. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Mr. Russell Star-Lack: Hello. Can you hear me? 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Yes. 4
5
Mr. Star-Lack: Alright, Commissioners thank you so much for letting me speak. My name is 6
Russell Star-Lack and I’ve been a resident of Palo Alto for the past 22-years. Ms. Atkinson’s 7
presentation makes clear that we’ll be expected to build at least 4,000 new units of housing for 8
the next RHNA cycle, if not more. It will be the responsibility of this body to account for these 9
additional housing units by advising the Council on revisions to the City’s Zoning Policies. 10
11
I’m speaking for you to comment on the importance of this task. Despite our self-procession of 12
liberal and diverse community, Palo Alto has repeatedly failed to zone for the amount of 13
housing necessary to keep our housing market accessible to those in almost every income 14
category looked at in the study, except for the highest. This is demonstrated by our past 15
performance of RHNA and our current median home value of $3.1 million. Of course, this is not 16
a new phenomenon, nor is it restricted to Palo Alto. 17
18
For over half a century low-density zoning has allowed for mostly white suburban communities 19
to own homes which appreciate, while at the same time confining communities of color to 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
inner City neighborhoods where they experience having sought determination, loss of access to 1
educational and economic opportunities and police brutality. It is the cause of the inequality 2
that we see today and over the past month, many of us in this community have began to look, 3
to really look at the systems we put in place that perpetuate racism and segregation. Our local 4
housing market is one of them. As a City, we cannot honestly say that Black Lives Matter, that 5
we support racial and economic justice while at the same time allowing our zoning policies to 6
continue to segregate minority and low-income home buyers to neighborhoods in other Cities 7
like Oakland or East Palo Alto. 8
9
Having grown up in this community I know how special a place this is. Zoning for denser 10
affordable housing will not take that away. To truly realize the tolerate progressive ideals we 11
champion as a City we have to stop thinking about zoning solely in terms of development 12
infancy and begin to understand these policies in terms of equity and economic reality. 13
14
As you go through this process, please ensure that the homes you zone for will get actually get 15
built. This can mean eliminating strict lottery density requirements, minimum lot size 16
requirements, height limits, and losing parking requirements. This is what commitment to real 17
systemic change will look like. Printing a Black Lives Matter mural on the street is powerful, but 18
not as powerful are actively working to populate that same street with a racially and 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
economically diverse community of residents. That’s the City I want to live in. Thank you. I yield 1
the rest of my time. 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Russell for your comments. Our next speaker will be Arthur Keller. 4
Arthur, if you can please unmute yourself, you make speak. 5
6
Mr. Arthur Keller: Thank you. Well, the first questions I have are with respect to the comments 7
about first a map of exceeds. The map has comments that Staff has with respect to the issues 8
and I’m wondering whether the Staff will be producing its report to the letter by Friday with 9
respect to comments that are listed here. The second issue on Page… Packet Page 24 and 25. 10
11
The second issue is that the issue is on Table Four and that is if you look at Table Four, there is a 12
percentage, and let’s propose that the percentage is the 16 percent chosen for Palo Alto. That 13
16 percent of the housing unit, housing unit, and that means that the number of residents will 14
be double that if there are two houses… two housing members per housing unit. So, that 15
means that the… we’re going to be increasing our number of residences by at least 20 percent. 16
At least a significant increase in the current number of residences and I don’t understand how 17
we’re going to be accommodating this building. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
In addition, if we accommodate the building of 20… we accommodate the total building of a 1
large number of units, we’re talking about building affordable housing, and where’s the funding 2
going to come from this affordable housing because we don’t… we can’t produce the affordable 3
housing ourselves? We don’t produce affordable housing, we don’t produce any housing, we 4
enable housing by zoning for it, and simply zoning for affordable housing doesn’t mean people 5
will build it. So, one of the problems that I have with this is that it assumed that people will 6
build the affordable housing, but it doesn’t show how that will be done. 7
8
And lastly, my concern is that people will basically say oh, well don’t park on the street. You 9
don’t need parking. Well, in order to have no parking, that means that the available streetscape 10
will be parked by… will be not available for parking because more and more cars will be there. 11
Well, if you look at the Ventura Neighborhood, there already are completely full of parked cars 12
parking everywhere and therefore the… you build taller buildings there, where are they going 13
to park? So, I have concerns about where the building will go, where the building… and where 14
we allocated towards this RHNA Allocation? Thank you. 15
16
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Arthur for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Rangu, but 17
Rangu, I see you have lowered your hand. Can you please confirm whether you wanted to 18
speak? 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Rangu: Yeah, I wanted to speak, make a quick comment. 1
2
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, go ahead. 3
4
Mr. Rangu: Basically, I’m… after listening to the presentation just now, I’m a little confused, but 5
I’m still worried about this July 10th deadline. What does it mean? They say in terms extending 6
the discussion to allow the appeal of Final Regional Housing determination that expires on the 7
10th and so is that somehow close the door on our ability to… that is basically Palo Alto’s ability 8
to make any changes? Is one question slash concern. 9
10
And also, if I really tried the process that is being followed has not basically conformed to this 11
California Code that mandates open discussion on [unintelligible] ways to deal with local job 12
and housing imbalances. And ABAG and MTC have not done this and they’re unattainable 13
regional housing numbers and they’re methodology for distribution that are reverted from the 14
truncated process are not legally valid. This is something that I’m concerned about. Are they 15
valid? If not, who is going to talk… challenge it? Is the City Council looking into the matter? So, 16
it’s like I have a whole bunch of questions about it and just comments. 17
18
And lastly, the ability for the public and community, especially in an alias that was sort of shown 19
in high-impact areas in the red I think in the previous presentation. I live in South Palo Alto in 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
the Ventura… South Ventura closer to Meadow. So, I’m not right next to Page Mill Road, but in 1
terms of the impact, all but the housing low-cost, medium-cost, and moderate-cost. All those 2
things, if all of those housing numbers are going to be put in this neighborhood. Then the 3
impact is huge. It’s really not uniformly distributed throughout the town and so that is 4
definitely a concern for residences here and how is that taken into account? Or do you say that 5
hey, you guys are already in a colored red area, we’re just going to crowd you more? If you are 6
not letting in the Professorville area, tough luck. Is that the answer? So, these are some of my 7
concerns and questions and hopefully somebody on the City Council, the Planning Department 8
will address some of these issues in a rational way. Thank you. 9
10
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Beth Rosenthal. If you 11
can please unmute yourself. 12
13
Ms. Beth Rosenthal: Good evening Commissioners. I have written to the Council to ask that the 14
City Attorney request an extension of the deadline of the appeal of the Final Regional Housing 15
Needs Determination which expires on July 10th. The Council has been woefully inactive in 16
bringing this issue to the public’s attention. While Mayor Fine has stated that he has attended 17
many meetings on this subject, the Council has not been proactive in putting this item on the 18
Council agenda to give the community any sense of what lies in store for it if the allocation is 19
enacted. I am disturbed that these important pending developments have been kept from the 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
public view. Perhaps because these policies… these are policies which are supported by the 1
Council majority. I hope the Council will make this request so that the jobs growth model, which 2
may no longer be accurate in light of the current pandemic, does not force upon us a reality in 3
terms of excessive development that few have anticipated. Thank you. 4
5
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Beth for your comments. Our next speaker will be Greg Schmid. Greg, if 6
you can please unmute yourself, you may speak. 7
8
Mr. Greg Schmid: The material before you tonight has some startling implications for our 9
upcoming Housing Element. The assumptions underlining these RHNA mandates call for a 10
doubling of housing units required in the Bay Area but at a tripling of housing units in Palo Alto. 11
These numbers are based on a job-driven forecast in already jobs-rich areas will cost billions of 12
dollars in subsidies in Palo Alto alone, along with likely laws of control of neighborhood zoning. 13
The critical point, the assumptions behind these jobs’ numbers have not been examined and 14
discussed in any public forum. Yet the very California Government Code sited by HCD 15
explosively calls for exploring alternative means of assessing local jobs-housing imbalances such 16
as job dispersion. The local job imbalances are huge. Between 2010 and 2108 the ratio of new 17
jobs to newly employed workers in Silicon Valley was 3.3 to 1. It is 6 to 1 in Palo Alto and our 18
neighboring Cities. While it was only 0.3 in San Jose, Oakland, and the other Cities of Alameda 19
and Contra Costa Counties. The legal right to have any public discussion on the jobs 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
assumptions that lie behind these dreadful imbalances expires in 2-days. Ask the City Council 1
tonight to extend the deadline for public discussion so that our Council and our citizens can be 2
involved in these critical job decisions as demanded by the Government Code. 3
4
Note, that earlier this evening the Cupertino City Council voted to send a letter to HCD to 5
extend the deadline. Urge the Council at least to follow the Cupertino example. Thank you. 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Greg for your comments. Our next speaker will be Suzanne. Suzanne, if 8
you’re there, can you please unmute yourself. 9
10
Ms. Suzanne Keehn: [unintelligible] 11
12
Mr. Nguyen: I’m really sorry Suzanne. It looks like you’re still experiencing the same issue from 13
earlier where your microphone just sounds really distorted. We can’t make out the words that 14
you’re saying. 15
16
Ms. Keehn: [unintelligible] 17
18
Mr. Nguyen: Suzanne, if you don’t mind can you please call back in on your phone because 19
earlier at least we were still able to hear you, but now we can’t really hear you at all. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Ms. Keehn: [unintelligible] 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Ok Suzanne, I do apologize but I will have to skip you for now because we cannot 4
hear you at all. If you don’t mind please call back in on your phone and we’ll sure to come back 5
to you at the end. 6
7
Ms. Tanner: Vinh, can you display the phone number for a moment again? I know that conflicts 8
with the timer, but just in case she doesn’t have the number handy. 9
10
Mr. Nguyen: Sure, one second. 11
12
Ms. Tanner: So, Ms. Keehn the number is 1-669-900-6833 and the Meeting Id is 955 0337 0484. 13
Thank you, Vinh. You can continue. 14
15
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, thank you. Medina can we get the speaker timer back up. Thank you so much. 16
Our next speaker will be Joseph. Joseph, I see you have lowered your hand. Can you please 17
confirm whether you still want to speak? 18
19
Mr. Joseph Hirsch: Yes, I… how do I… can you hear me? 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. Please proceed with your comment. 2
3
Mr. Hirsch: Do I hold the space key down? Is that what I do? I’ve never done this before. 4
5
Mr. Nguyen: You should be able to let go now or actually no, it looks like you do have to hold it 6
down in your case. 7
8
Mr. Hirsch: Ok good. Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity to give you my comments. I 9
support Beth Rosenthal and Greg Schmid’s prior comments and the need for public discussion 10
and extended comment period before RHNA numbers are finalized. I think it’s clear to all of us 11
that the past methodology has not worked well in virtually any respect. We don’t exactly know 12
what the new methodology will be. Rebecca and her presentation, which went by very rapidly 13
for me, said that quote “it’s unlikely that the previous methodology will be used for the 14
upcoming cycle”; which means to me that the methodology is unknown at this time, at least 15
not known to the City, or not known to the public. 16
17
Looking into the future, we definitely need a different methodology. The new normal that will 18
be in place when COVID-19 is successfully concorded and we all know that we want to have 19
that happen sooner than later will be significantly different than what we’ve had in the past. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
We don’t know the extent of remote working as opposed to in-person in office working. We 1
know that will be a significant impact that likely will affect the jobs and office space that will be 2
held in the Bay Area; particularly Silicon Valley. We need a process that has public input before 3
the methodology is established and the methodology should be established and used and the 4
results of that methodology come back to the public for further input before there’s any 5
finalization of the RHNA numbers. 6
7
Frankly, I think there’s no need to rush given COVID-19. Everything is changing. One would 8
suspect that office development will slow down, one would expect or suspect that jobs and 9
where they’re performed will be changing as I mentioned before. So, I think there is a request 10
before you to ask City Council and the City Attorney to appeal the current determination by this 11
Friday and I support prior comments that that be done. Thank you very much. 12
13
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Joseph for your comments tonight. Our next speaker will be Terry 14
Holzemer. Terry, if you can… actually, Terry, it looks like you are using an older version of Zoom 15
so I actually can’t unmute you, but what I can do is temporarily promote to panelist so you can 16
turn on your microphone. So, go ahead and do that now. 17
18
Mr. Terry Holzemer: Hello. Can you hear me now? 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you. Please give us your comments. 1
2
Mr. Holzemer: I’d like to comment on the Plan Bay Area 2050 and of course, it’s implications for 3
the future and the RHNA numbers. I think it’s really important that a real public discussion and 4
involvement process takes place. Many of you may not be aware of this, but I have because I’ve 5
been watching it. There has not been a public involvement process and there has not been 6
public involvement… a public discussion of these issues. I wish that you would ask two key 7
questions tonight in your Study Session. 8
9
The first one is how could tonight be your first public discussion on a major plan that affects all 10
of Palo Altans; Plan Bay Area 2050 and of course the RHNA impacts. Part of that is why did Staff 11
wait so long before bringing this to the attention of not only the Commissioners but to the Palo 12
Alto City Council? A major decision will be made this coming Friday and it’s time that we have a 13
way of an opportunity to speak as a public and have public involvement. And I encourage you 14
to launch an appeal on the RHNA Regional Numbers before this Friday. 15
16
My second question to you also is related. Why is the City Council not had a single public 17
discussion on Plan Bay Area 2050 or its impacts on neighborhoods? This is a major plan that not 18
only affects one area of the City but all areas of the City. I think we need to ask more deeper 19
questions as why this stuff is going under the radar. Staff has not informed the public nor have 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
our Elected Officials really on these important impacts, or even how we could appeal these 1
impacts. I find it regrettable, even shameful, that these topics have not come up before you 2
before now. I think its time that we extend the deadline immediately of July the 10th so that the 3
public really does have more opportunities to speak and to tell these people who are a non-4
elected body. Again, ABAG/MTC they are not elected by the people. They are appointed so that 5
we need to have an opportunity to speak to them and voice our concern. Thank you. 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Terry for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Tom. Tom, if you 8
can please unmute yourself. Alright Tom, if you still wish to speak please unmute yourself. I see 9
you have lowered your hand so I’ll give you a couple more seconds. Ok, seeing as how Tom has 10
lowered his hand and not unmuting we can move to the next speaker. Our next speaker will be 11
Kelsey Banes. Kelsey, can you please unmute yourself and you may speak. 12
13
Ms. Kelsey Banes: Thank you. Hi everyone, my name is Kelsey Banes. I am the Executive 14
Director of Peninsula for Everyone. We are a pro-housing advocacy organization of neighbors 15
for more neighbors and we were actually also very disappointed when we heard the Regional 16
Housing Need Determination number as we had expected it to be somewhere between 17
600,000 and a million. We expected it to be much higher. HCD used a Department of Finance 18
population projection instead of Plan Bay Area population or expected population which was 19
unexpected. So, it was just a much lower number than we had hoped and we really think a 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
number this low is really planning to fail and planning to continue on in a housing crisis. We 1
know that we need to build more inclusive housing in our region if we’re going to address our 2
climate emergency and if we’re going to dismantle structures of segregation. And we organized, 3
along with our regional partners, to attend the public hearing of the ABAG Executive Board and 4
also the ABAG General Assembly. Probably 40 to 50 of us spoke asking ABAG to appeal for a 5
higher number. We were acknowledged at the second hearing by President Arreguin who 6
acknowledged our comments, but it really does not seem like they want to appeal, but I do 7
think the request for delay at this point isn’t helpful. I heard the comment of there’s no need to 8
rush. I think for the people right now who are suffering as a result of our housing crisis, for the 9
people who are currently living in their cars, for the people… service employees who are 10
commuting here, for people who are rent-burdened. There is a rush for more housing. So, we 11
really do need to address our housing crisis, but I do think the silver lining even though this 12
overall number for the Bay Area is quite low. I do think there are going to be a lot of 13
opportunities for our next Housing Element to A: make sure we are actually building the 14
housing we say we’re going to build in Palo Alto, but also doing it in a more equitable way. 15
16
So, just to respond to the gentleman from Ventura, one of the things that’s going to be new in 17
this Housing Element is that Palo Alto is going to have to send a map of where our housing sites 18
are located. What parts of town they’re in so we can’t just put all the housing along San 19
Antonio and North Ventura. We have to affirmatively further fair housing so we do need to 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
open up other parts of town. More sites within walking distance to downtown so hopefully that 1
will improve, but thank you for working on this. It was a helpful Staff Report and looking 2
forward to additional public engagement around the RHNA Allocation, the local allocations. 3
Thanks. 4
5
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Kelsey for your comments. Our next speaker will be and I apologize if I 6
mispronounce your name. Salim, can you please unmute yourself and you may speak. 7
8
Mr. Salim: Yeah, yeah, perfectly ok. So, I’m glad that [unintelligible – audio interference] is 9
increasing the number of the RHNA Allocations in Palo Alto. I also share the opinion that I think 10
it would be better if it was higher, but given it is what it is, we shouldn’t delay it anymore. You 11
know two in five Californians in my age bucket still live at home with their parents. I currently 12
live at home, so I’m one of those two in five and I want to rent in Palo Alto. I love this City, I love 13
the life, the character, a lot of memories in Palo Alto, but I cannot afford the rent to live there. 14
There’s just not enough housing. I… our children can’t afford to live here and I think if that’s… if 15
there’s any indicator that Palo Alto is unaffordable it’s the fact that so many people who are in 16
my age bucket, even people who have gone to grade schools, and done everything they’re told 17
to do and have full-time jobs cannot afford the rent. So, I think delaying is irresponsible, the 18
housing crisis is still a crisis, the rental markets, the real estate market as a whole has been 19
roughly stable even despite the pandemic. People are fleeing from urban centers or anything 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
like that and also, it’s not as though everyone can just work from home. That’s… it’s quite lucky 1
to be able to do that. So, we have a housing crisis, we need to do something about it, and we 2
need to build more homes so that way there are more people who can afford to live in Palo 3
Alto. So, I hope you don’t delay this any further and I hope that we, if anything, ask for a larger 4
RHNA Allocation from ABAG. Thank you. 5
6
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Rebecca Sanders. Can 7
you please unmute yourself? 8
9
Ms. Rebecca Sanders: Unmute. Hi there. Thank you, everyone, thank you for discussing this 10
important topic. I’m Becky Sanders, I live in Palo Alto and in Ventura. I’m… I have my adult 11
daughter and her husband and their baby girl living with us. And I know a lot of parents would 12
like their children to be able to live close to them and frankly, nobody really can afford it as the 13
previous gentlemen said. I just want to point out that we didn’t really bring this on ourselves. I 14
don’t know quite know how we got so out of whack with our jobs-housing imbalance. I mean 15
the whole Bay Area is… it’s bigger than Palo Alto and it needs a real systemic big approach. So, I 16
get that and I understand what ABAGs trying to do. 17
18
I just want to align myself with those who would like a little more time. Yes, because the 19
Council did not speak to this. We were all kind of blindsided doing our COVID sheltering in place 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
and not really paying attention. So, bad on us, but it would be really good to get a little more 1
public input into these numbers. 2
3
A lot of people think I’m kind of a jerk, that I’m a nimby, but actually, I’m all about housing for 4
the people that need it the most. I’ve got on board with Wilton and I’m on board with really 5
looking for creative ways to house the service of the unhoused and people that really can least 6
afford it. I would love to house them first. So, I’m just… I guess I want to change the narrative a 7
little bit about people thinking that there’s a lot of curmudgeons. We just want to make sure 8
that things are done transparently and that we have an adequate opportunity to review and 9
have the input into these numbers. 10
11
I mean I sent you all a letter this morning because I actually had to get out my math tricks and 12
do division and all that. And it seems like we are being asked to go up by 20 percent… add 20 13
percent more housing units to our City and say if there’re 2.35 percent people in a housing unit. 14
Then we’re going to be adding like 13,000 more people to Palo Alto’s population. So, this… the 15
whole thing about people won’t be driving or going to be making adjustments to accommodate 16
these people. Yes, let’s figure it out, but I don’t think the way ABAG has structured this 17
Blueprint is really serving the best interest of anyone except developers. I mean… so anyway, I 18
just really hope that you guys will give us a chance to look further at this. Thank you. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Rebecca for joining us tonight. Our next speaker will be Stephanie 1
McDonald. Stephanie, can you please unmute yourself? 2
3
Ms. Stephanie McDonald: Yes, hi, my name’s Stephanie. I’m a resident here in Palo Alto and I 4
wanted to just say a few things in support of some of the comments a few people have made; 5
including Kelsey and Salim. So, first I think using the pandemic as an excuse to build less 6
housing is pretty unfair and a little out of touch. If anything, I think the pandemic has shown 7
how important affordable and reliable housing is. So, I don’t really think it’s fair to use the 8
pandemic to promote less housing. 9
10
And I think concerns about public input come across to be as a bit of a red herring with the 11
intention of distracting from the real need. And I think the public should be well aware of the 12
housing crisis in the Bay Area and it’s clear what the solution to that is which is to build more 13
housing and that includes here in Palo Alto. Not just other neighborhoods that we don’t live in. 14
15
So, I agree that if anything the numbers are to low, but I just want to reiterate that Palo Alto 16
needs to do their part to address the enormous housing crisis that the Bay Area faces. And it is 17
a larger issue as people have pointed out, but that doesn’t mean it’s not also a local issue here 18
and that’s it for me. Thank you. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Stephanie for your comments. Our next speaker will be Matt Stevens. 1
Matt, can you please unmute yourself? 2
3
Mr. Matt Stevens: Hi, thank you for organizing this and allowing for public comment. I just 4
wanted to echo the previous comments in support of more housing. I to was a little 5
disappointed in ABAG’s number. I hoped that it would be higher, but it is what it is and we have 6
to make the most of it. And I think what Palo Alto can now do going forward is just do 7
everything possible to make sure that the homes actually get built. As we’ve seen in previous 8
Housing Elements, often the design is such that the homes never actually get built and if Palo 9
Alto wants to take this seriously, you can make sure that it revises its zoning in such a way that 10
the homes do get built. 11
12
In terms of timing, I don’t think there’s any time for delay. The housing crisis gets worse and 13
worse every year. Our homeless population grows every year and it’s really disheartening to me 14
to see so many homeless people and then to hear people talk about how we need more time to 15
analyze and to study and to delay and meanwhile people are sleeping in tents on the sidewalk. 16
That’s something that we can address, that’s something that we can fix, and I think now is the 17
time to do that. Thank you. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Matt for your comments. Our next speaker will be Sonja. Sonja, can you 1
please unmute yourself? 2
3
Ms. Sonja Trauss: Hi, yes, my name is Sonja Trauss. I was also disappointed by the Regional 4
Housing Number coming in so low. I also expected it to be 600,000 to a million. You know I 5
thought that we were going to have more reasonable goals. I guess I just want everyone to 6
know that the current… the goal for the 440,000 units all over, that will only result in 33 percent 7
of low-income housing… households not being cost burden. So, our goal is that 2/3s of poor 8
people are going to be paying way too much rent. That’s a crazy goal. That’s a terrible goal. We 9
should not be proud of that, right, and that’s the 440,000 units. We have to build way more if 10
people are going to be able to afford safe and healthy housing. 11
12
And like a previous speaker said, COVID shows that it’s so much more urgent. That we need to 13
get crowding down. We have a lot of households all sharing one house… one space like 14
communal apartments almost, right? That’s not good. We need a lot more apartments so 15
people can spread out. 16
17
I think Palo Alto is a place that was in the news that your… don’t your police officers have to 18
sleep in their car? This is something that I read, that the people that work for your City can’t 19
even live in your City. So, I think it’s extremely urgent and I’m very excited for you that you have 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
an opportunity. You’re going to be here to build a City together and it’s going to be really 1
beautiful. 2
3
Also, I think that everybody should maybe get on the yimbyaction.org mailing list because we 4
will notify you. If you feel like you didn’t know that this was coming, we’ve been organizing for 5
weeks to get this number higher and we’re organizing people all over the Bay because it’s 6
definitely not true that building housing only benefits developers. It benefits the people that 7
are living in it. So, I am… I invite you to come to some of our events. Thank you. 8
9
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for your comments and our last speaker will be Suzanne so let’s give 10
this another try. Hopefully, it will work this time. Suzanne, can you please unmute yourself. 11
12
Ms. Keehn: Can you hear me? 13
14
Mr. Nguyen: Yes, we can hear you very well. 15
16
Ms. Keehn: Oh goodness sakes. Well, from what I know the… everybody that’s talking about all 17
the housing we need. From what I know unless it was public housing with public money, the 18
developers will build market-rate housing and just a few, maybe, below-market rate. And I 19
think we need… if we’re going to build things we need the lower income. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
So, I, along with many others on this call, do request that you urge the City Council to order the 2
City Attorney to make a formal request to extend this discussion deadline of the appeal of the 3
Final Regional Numbers. They have not followed the California Code that mandates open 4
discussion on other methodologies to determine the local jobs-housing imbalacing… balances. 5
Some unattainable high housing numbers has and will increase traffic, put more jobs in job-rich 6
areas instead of places that want jobs such as San Jose, the East Bay which already have the 7
housing. Consider the increase in population. Look at the clear skies we have been experiencing 8
and the increased… and increasing loss of livability. People don’t think that COVID should be 9
taken into account, but from what I understand this could go on for quite a while. It has already 10
changed our society in so many ways. Telecommuting has become normal and the big 11
companies like it also. 12
13
So, we need, as I said, low-income housing, not market-rate and that’s what the developers 14
may only want to build. So, we need local… we want local control in the Cities and the City's 15
individuality and we don’t want… and we want to be able to… the City to decides it’s zoning 16
laws. So, that’s what I think, and thank you that I finally was able to get on. Thank you for 17
listening. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you Suzanne for your comments and it looks like we have one more raised 1
hand and I apologize if I mispronounce your name. Niket Desai, can you please unmute 2
yourself? 3
4
Mr. Niket Desai: Yes, thank you, Vinh, and appreciate it. That was perfect on the name. I just 5
want to thank everyone for speaking, I learned a lot tonight. My name’s Niket and I grew up in 6
Cupertino, California before when 85 even existed to connect to 101 to go to Palo Alto when I 7
was checking out schools. I had the pleasure to also grow in Singapore where they have a 8
tremendous amount of building and they figured out the same challenges which is how do you 9
build a beautiful City that functions well and retains its beauty and skies as we just heard. And I 10
think that the people in Palo Alto and frankly, our general Bay Area, we are some of the most 11
talented people on the plant. And we should be able to figure out how to add a tremendous 12
amount of housing while preserving the things that we love about this area and my home and 13
where I grew up. 14
15
And I think it’s imperative that we increase housing and we do everything we can to be 16
aggressive because usually when the challenge becomes bigger. This group of people in the Bay 17
Area seems to rise to it every time. Thank you very much for everybody’s input and I yield my 18
time. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for joining us tonight and that concludes public comments for this item 1
and Chair Templeton, I just want to give you a quick time check. We are 54-minutes into this 2
item. Thank you. 3
4
Chair Templeton: Thank you. I think it was important to hear. We had a lot of folks show up on 5
this and express that they wish they had a chance to speak about it in another forum. So, I’m 6
glad that we had this opportunity to hear from everyone. Let’s move on to the Commissioners. 7
Please raise your hand if you would like to speak and ask Ms. Atkinson or Ms. Tanner any 8
questions about this presentation, this Study Session. And while the Commissioners are finding 9
the raise hand button I just want to thank all the speakers who came and stuck with it tonight 10
to be able to share your thoughts. So, alright, we’ll start with Vice-Chair Roohparvar. Thank you 11
12
Commissioner Riggs: Who… Chair Templeton, can I have a Point of Order real quick? 13
14
Chair Templeton: Yes, of course. 15
16
Commissioner Riggs: So, last… I’m sorry, it was really confusing last time when I was just doing 17
questions and comments all at once or we’re going to do procedural questions and then 18
comments? And I just need some direction on that from you would be helpful for our process 19
going forward. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Chair Templeton: Yeah, since it was a Study Session it was kind of free from Commissioner 2
Riggs. In this case, if you want to do a round of questions and then do a round of commentary 3
that could be useful. I expect we will have a lot of things to say on this item so let’s do that. 4
5
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah, yeah, what… I just think clarity is better than (interrupted) 6
7
Chair Templeton: You’re absolutely right. I appreciate the suggestion and let’s start with 8
Commissioner Roohparvar [note – Vice-Chair Roohparvar] 9
10
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Sure, I’m going to start with just my questions. Actually, this question is 11
probably going to City Council. They might have some input on it, but it’s a procedural process 12
question. And I heard a lot of… well, I read a lot of the public comments regarding extending 13
the deadline and I heard a lot of comments today about extending the deadline. My 14
understanding of the process from the slide presentation tonight and Staff’s report is that the 15
state’s Department of Housing Community Development, HCD, issues a specific number; 16
441,000. That’s the number that they allocate to ABAG and then ABAG thereafter turns around 17
and uses per some methodology that they’re now still in discussions about and has not been 18
decided on, to decide how that 441,000 number is going to be allocated to the different… the 19
10 different Bay Area Cities. So, currently the July 20th [note – July 10th?] deadline, my 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
understanding is the deadline for ABAG, not the City of Palo Alto, ABAG to appeal the 441,000 1
number the state has given to the Bay Area. So, first I want to check with Mr. Yang to make sure 2
that I got that correct and therefore my understanding is this addresses the public’s concern. 3
We are still going to have the ability to provide input to ABAG on the methodology and the 4
number that Palo Alto actually gets. So, we haven’t been bypassed, there’s still that 5
opportunity, but the appeal period is only for ABAG to appeal the HCD number. 6
7
And then the second issue that I think exists and Mr. Yang, tell me if I’m correct or not, but if 8
they’re going to appeal there has to be grounds for appeal. Correct and do those exist or not 9
and that’s an issue that I think needs to be brought up before ABAG. It’s not a City of Palo Alto, 10
we can’t dictate or we can’t even appeal. It’s not in our hands. So, Mr. Yang, could you or 11
whoever at the City finds it appropriate to comment on that so we can have a little bit more 12
clarity for members of the public? 13
14
Mr. Albert Yang, Assistant City Attorney: Yes, thank you Vice-Chair Roohparvar. You are 15
absolutely correct that there are two stages of determination or allocation of housing need. 16
And we’re looking at the first one here which is the determination by the State Department of 17
Housing and Community Development about how many housing units need to be created or 18
need to be allocated in the Bay Area. And so, that number goes to ABAG and as statute state 19
laws sets forth a 30-day period for ABAG to appeal that determination by HCD. And it’s certainly 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
possible for local governments to… or members of the public to write to ABAG or to ABAG… 1
their Housing Methodology Committee has a meeting tomorrow. It’s possible for members of 2
the public to comment before ABAG to try to convince ABAG to make that appeal, but it’s not 3
something that the City or the City Council has really any control over what that appeal period 4
is or whether or not to make that. 5
6
And you’re also correct that state law sets forth specific grounds that can be the basis of an 7
appeal. And it’s basically ABAG’s determination whether or not they think those grounds exist 8
and whether or not they will make that appeal. 9
10
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Thank you, Mr. Yang. I just had one more question and I saw in the Staff 11
Report that there was a reference to LEAP Grants as part of the RHNA process. There are LEAP 12
Grants that are available that will help meet our affordable housing goals. Can you speak a little 13
bit as to what those grants are and how much money we’d get and how we’d be able to use 14
that to build more affordable housing if that’s how it works or Mr. Yang; whoever? 15
16
Ms. Tanner: I can address that Vice-Chair Roohparvar. So, Rebecca Atkinson actually worked on 17
our LEAP Grant. Essentially, LEAP is money that is provided by the stat to jurisdictions on a 18
formula basis and so essentially Cities of a certain size are allocated a certain amount of money 19
if they apply for it. And as long as you’re applying for projects that meet the terms of the grant 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
requirements, you’re going to be allocated the money. So, it’s a non-competitive grant that’s 1
available to every jurisdiction. Council did consider and passed a Resolution for Palo Alto’s grant 2
for that. A couple projects we proposed are related to our Housing Element so we have some 3
funding to support our Housing Element work, to support the NVCAP process and we threw in a 4
couple extra projects that are part of the Housing Workplan. Essentially, projects needed to 5
accelerate housing development. It doesn’t actually pay for brick and mortar, but more for 6
planning activities such as rezoning, Housing Element, other things like that. That through 7
typically legislative processes, but also processes that might make it easier for the public to 8
understand so that they can submit plans for a project. Things that would facilitate more 9
housing to be developed in your jurisdiction and I believe we have 2 or 3-years to complete 10
that. We’ll hopefully get that grant agreement in October and be able to spend that money so 11
we’re looking forward to that. 12
13
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Thank you. 14
15
Chair Templeton: Alright, do you have any more questions? 16
17
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: I do not, thank you. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Chair Templeton: Sure. Any other Commissioner have questions at this time? Commissioner 1
Alcheck. 2
3
Commissioner Alcheck: Hi, thank you. We drew the big crowd tonight. Two questions, I’m going 4
to save my comments for the next go around. What was the last allocation specific to Palo Alto? 5
6
Ms. Tanner: Our previous cycle which is the 5th cycle of RHNA I believe was 1, 988 units. 7
8
Commissioner Alcheck: And am I to understand from your presentation that you guys think 9
that the… sorry, 1,000… can you say that one more time? 10
11
Ms. Tanner: 1,988; 1,988. 12
13
Commissioner Alcheck: 1,980. Am I to understand from your presentation that you think where 14
the next allocation is going to be somewhere between 4,500 and 6,500? 15
16
Ms. Tanner: That is our estimate using the visualization tool provided by ABAG. 17
18
Commissioner Alcheck: And what was the date of the 1,980 allocation? 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Ms. Tanner: That… the date… the time period that that covers is 2015 to 2023… 2015 to 2022. 1
2
Commissioner Alcheck: Do you by any chance know what the allocation for the 2007 to 2015? 3
4
Ms. Tanner: Can we bring up the slide Rebecca that has that information and it is (interrupted) 5
6
Commissioner Alcheck: Did I miss that? 7
8
Ms. Atkinson: That would be… I don’t know if it has the old allocation from the 4th cycle in that 9
slide but we can certainly pull up our prior [unintelligible](interrupted) 10
11
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, it has the regional allocation. We’d have to go back and look at the prior to 12
know the 4th cycle allocation. 13
14
Commissioner Alcheck: Ok. Alright, so 2015 to 2022, 1980, and how many units did we create 15
since 2015? 16
17
Ms. Tanner: In this cycle, we’ve created or issued permits for 554 units of housing. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Commissioner Alcheck: Let me ask you a question. In your judgment do you think that we 1
would have… there would have been more units… do you think that the number of units built 2
between 2015 and today, which is 554, would have been any different had our allocation in 3
2015 instead of 1980 had been 3,960? 4
5
Ms. Tanner: Well, I think what you’re getting at is if we had a higher allocation, and not to put 6
words in your mouth, had we constructed more units towards reaching that goal. Would we 7
have a lower allocation this time or are you… is that what you’re suggesting? 8
9
Commissioner Alcheck: No, no, no. I’m suggesting do you think that the allocation had an 10
impact on the number of units that were developed? Do you think we would have had 564 11
units had the RHNA Allocation been more than 1,980 in 2015? 12
13
Ms. Tanner: That’s a (interrupted) 14
15
Commissioner Alcheck: I’m asking if you believe there’s a correlation between this number and 16
the actual number of units that get developed? 17
18
Ms. Tanner: I would have to say that the way that units get developed is very locally specific 19
and depends on local zoning and all of that. And so, I… do I think that Palo Alto would have 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
changed its zoning? I don’t venture a guess in that. I wasn’t working here and really didn’t know 1
anything about the community at that time but [unintelligible](interrupted) 2
3
Commissioner Alcheck: I think what I’m… the reason why I’m asking this question is because I’m 4
basically trying to say that had the allocation been 6,000 in 2015. Is there any reason to believe 5
that we would have built more than 554 units and one reason why I’m asking that question is 6
because am I suppose to look at the 2015 number and say we built 25 percent of their target; 7
or would a more accurate statement be we built 545 units of the 545 units we were going to 8
build because (interrupted) 9
10
Ms. Tanner: [unintelligible – crosstalk] question Commissioner, I just think that it matter of 11
opinion and I think that because the way that housing is developed is all of this stuff still 12
maintains local control. 13
14
Commissioner Alcheck: Right. 15
16
Ms. Tanner: What is changing now and will continue to change in the future is that state is 17
flexing its muscles and state is passing laws that infringe on local control. And so, it is possible 18
that this next cycle if some of the bills that have passed continue to be on the books and if the 19
bills proposed continue to go forward and are passed. That the more housing could in fact 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
result, but would looking back if we had a different RHNA, what might have been? I don’t know 1
that venturing a guess in that direction does me any good and certainly is something that we 2
can reflect on, but I can’t give you a straight yes or no answer to your question and I’m sorry 3
about that. 4
5
Commissioner Alcheck: You know I actually think that that answer is so enlightening because if 6
we can’t draw a line from the number that they give us and the number that actually gets built. 7
Then it puts in to question whether the effort to… it makes one wonder whether the numbers 8
should be concerning if it was doubled. I guess one of my thoughts here is if the number in 9
2015 had been 3,800 instead of 1,950. Would we have had more units? I would venture a guess 10
the answer would be no. I can’t imagine that considering all the projects that we reviewed. I 11
don’t’ see how it would have changed those and I really… I appreciate this idea that there’re 12
some flexing muscles. I have to think about that a little bit, but I would appreciate it if there was 13
a way to get clarity on whether what you’re suggesting is there will be some consequence to 14
building such a small proportion of the number allocated. At this time, I don’t know that there’s 15
a consequence for the City if they’ve continued to fail to meet this target that’s set for them. 16
So, is that something that you’re… you imagine may develop over time? That there might… that 17
teeth may be added to this number? Is that one of the possibilities? 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Ms. Tanner: Yes, that’s certainly a possibility and currently. I think we’ve talked a little bit about 1
some of the bills that are already law in terms of streamlining and the way streamlining would 2
apply to more and more projects in Palo Alto if, for example, if we don’t meet our above 3
moderate housing rates or housing targets. Then even those projects could be subject to 4
streamlining which limits the amount of hearings that we would have and the amount of time 5
we would have to review projects. 6
7
Commissioner Alcheck: Its… but to some extent, it’s hypothetical though? 8
9
Ms. Tanner: Yeah. 10
11
Commissioner Alcheck: Yeah. 12
13
Ms. Tanner: It was a law but yet it’s hypothetical and we’ll see what happens in the next few 14
years. There are a number of laws that again, I’m not taking any bets on the legislative cycle this 15
year. That’s for sure. There are a number of laws that are in their second house of review, 16
either the Senate or the Assembly, kind of passed into those Committees and will be looked at 17
as the session winds to a close this year. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Commissioner Alcheck: Ok, so the line of thinking there is that presumably this number, let’s 1
just say it’s 5,000 for the purpose of discussion, would require us to identify… let’s see here if 2
we had 554 and we had 1,980. We’re looking at 1,300 to 1,400 that we’ve already identified, so 3
we’d have to allocate 3,500 new opportunities that aren’t currently in our zoning. And then in 4
theory someone could come in and identify a parcel that now… I hate to use the word up 5
zoned… been up zoned and utilize a state provision to finally take advantage of that the 6
development of that site. 7
8
Ms. Tanner: They could do that or simply by the up zoning itself they could still comply with all 9
of our local standards and the up zoning may be sufficient for that project to move forward. 10
11
Commissioner Alcheck: Ok and then where there are teeth, is that process if we fail to identify 12
where these additional units will be permitted to be developed in theory. Then the 13
consequence is that our Housing Element isn’t certified? 14
15
Ms. Tanner: Yes. 16
17
Commissioner Alcheck: And that could involve loss of funding, sources of funding. Ok, that’s 18
the… those are my questions. Thank you. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Ms. Tanner: Thank you. 1
2
Chair Templeton: Thank you very much Commissioner Alcheck. Commissioner Hechtman is next 3
followed by Commissioner Summa. 4
5
Commissioner Hechtman: Thank you, Chair Templeton. I want to piggyback on the appeal issue 6
for a moment that Commissioner… Vice-Chair Roohparvar raised. It seems from Counsel Yang’s 7
explanation that the most that the City of Palo Alto could do would be to write a letter to ABAG 8
encouraging them to file an appeal by the July 10th deadline. Is that right? 9
10
Ms. Tanner: Certainly, we could do that. I don’t know Albert if you… I think part of what Albert 11
suggested was that these the City or constituents or others could write letters both to ABAG, 12
but also to HCD. We could [unintelligible] to Governor, we could write correspondence to as 13
much as was deemed desirable, but correspondence is essentially the most that we could do. 14
15
Commissioner Hechtman: Alright because we don’t have the power to appeal this particular 16
step. 17
18
Ms. Tanner: That’s correct. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Commissioner Hechtman: Alright and so if the City was going to send a letter to ABAG 1
encourage ABAG to file the appeal, wouldn’t that necessarily be something that City Council 2
would have needed to of taken up at a meeting before July 10th and instructed the City 3
Attorney to do that? 4
5
Ms. Tanner: That is correct. 6
7
Commissioner Hechtman: Ok and that didn’t happen? 8
9
Ms. Tanner: It did not happen. 10
11
Commissioner Hechtman: Ok, alright. The next question I want to ask, and this kind of 12
piggybacks on Commissioner Alcheck’s question, and that is I’d like to get a better 13
understanding of the stick or bundle of sticks that the City… that the state may have to smack a 14
City that does not reach its RHNA numbers. We heard a couple of our speakers from the public 15
mention a loss of… what… we risk the loss of control in our zoning and so right now, we are 6-16
years through the 5th RHNA cycle. We’ve got 30 percent… somewhere between 25 and 30 17
percent of the RHNA target. We’re not going to make the other 70 to 75 percent in the next… 18
between now and 2022 and my understanding is virtually every northern California City, while 19
the figures may differ, they’re in a similar position. Nobody is coming close. Are we… first of all, 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
does the state currently have the ability to use this… do they have the stick where they could 1
take away local control because we were not… because we’re only a third of a way to our 2
number? 3
4
Ms. Tanner: No, there’s really limited right now kind of control that the state could exercise 5
such as saying thou shalt build this housing here, right? I think the concern is more of a reading 6
of the trends at the state legislature and so not an existential threat in terms of not real or not 7
worth considering; but if we look at for example the… as I mentioned the package of bills that 8
are being discussed at the legislature now. Some of them do have more teeth I guess you will 9
and to say this type of housing might be by-right for example and a City might be able to refuse 10
it so that type of thing. Again, to still be considered, passed, and then signed by the Governor, 11
but I think that trend of that type of legislation. If we think of SB 50 as perhaps the apex of that 12
type of legislation to say here’s what you can do and here’s what the state is going to impose in 13
terms of zoning. And then there’s a bunch of things that have been much less severe than SB 14
50, but similar in I think posture to say here’s what we’re going to set up as a state in terms of 15
some very high-level planning placing housing and such near transit. So, that I think, is wise to 16
be considered as a trend that will likely continue. 17
18
Commissioner Hechtman: Alright, alright and I guess my feeling on that is I’m not overly fearful 19
that we will have rampant development shoved down our throats by an overactive state 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
bureaucracy. One, I don’t think that they’re staffed to take over local zoning throughout 1
California. Two, it required develop… the state isn’t going to build these projects. It requires 2
developers to step forward and want to build something and frankly, one of our big problems 3
here in Palo Alto is we don’t have that. We had 554 instances of that when we were shooting 4
for 2,000. What we’ve seen locally since these new state laws, streamlining laws, has happened 5
in the places where Cities have fought and lost is where a developer actually came forward with 6
a project and wanted to build something. So, from my perspective, that would be a good 7
problem for us to have - developers coming forward and wanting to build things in our City and 8
to have to wrestle with those. And if the RHNA Numbers spur that activity in our market then I 9
think it’s a good thing, but my impression is the City of Palo Alto really doesn’t have a say in the 10
overall HCD number of 441,000. We may get a dialog on part of that, whether its 1.5 percent or 11
some other part, land on our plate, and I think we should be active on that. 12
13
So, the other question I had and I’m sorry that kind of rolled from a question to a comment. 14
This one I think is more of a question. If we go to… and this one is on the… oops, sorry, I just lost 15
my place here. If we go to page… Packet Page 25, this is on the Plan Bay Area 2050, and there 16
was just a concept here that I didn’t understand. It’s… let’s see in the middle of the page… so, it 17
looks like there was on Plan Bay Area 2050 the communication between ABAG and City Staff 18
was not ideal. And apparently one of the things that they did not… that ABAG did not 19
communicate to us was that communities that designate up to 50 percent of their eligible 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
growth geography area as priority development areas may have the rest of the eligible growth 1
geography removed from consideration in Plan Bay Area 2050. So, I get that that wasn’t 2
communicated to us. My question is, is the way that that sentence is written it seems like it 3
would a desirable thing to be able to eliminate the rest of the eligible growth geography, but I 4
couldn’t really understand why and I’m wondering if somebody can help me understand that? 5
6
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, you are reading that correctly. Part of it was simply to put on record and we 7
want to put on record with the organization just dissatisfaction with some of the 8
communication. And in that particular issue, we had several conversations by phone and email 9
and so we want to just let them know that it doesn’t help us to be part of the regional planning 10
when we can’t get clear answers. Even about what is the result and so part of what happened I 11
think one might say to some degree it may have little consequence if you want to be positive 12
about it to say well, the growth geographies taken into account the underlying zoning of those 13
geographies. So, if it’s a single-family home area, if it’s a historic district, for example, the model 14
would say it’s unlikely that we’re going to see a lot of housing development because assembling 15
a bunch of single-family homes would take a lot of time. It’s unlikely versus larger parcels. So, 16
one might say the implication is limited; however, because the growth geographies are what 17
the MTC and ABAG will be overlaying the strategies with and saying if we want to achieve these 18
big 25 strategies in the next 30-years. Where should growth be planned for and so if we 19
perhaps wanted to tighten up perhaps smaller parts of our community where we focused our 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
growth and development. Maybe it’s something that we might have reconsidered in terms of 1
understanding why we would or wouldn’t nominate a PDA. And we could have had the same 2
decision be made where we said aw, we just really want to add downtown and that’s sufficient, 3
but without information, we really didn’t have that as part of our discussion. 4
5
Commissioner Hechtman: Understood. Alright, thank you for that. No further questions. 6
7
Chair Templeton: Alright, thank you, Commissioner Hechtman. Commissioner Summa followed 8
by Commissioner Lauing. 9
10
Commissioner Summa: Well, thank you, and thank you to everyone who came out to speak 11
tonight. I think it would be helpful… some of the speakers do this just naturally, but I think it 12
would be helpful to know where speakers are from too. So, to have their names and… full 13
names and where they live I think would be helpful and I think that’s what we’re supposed to 14
do in our procedures or by-laws. 15
16
But I did want to ask Staff a question, just general question about the timing of this meeting 17
seems a little, to say the least, ackward and it seems like a meeting… and I understand the 18
problems with COVID and delays in our recent schedule, but this seems like something that 19
should have come up last year. So, we could have had a meaningful recommendation to make 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
to Council and so Council had time to consider our recommendation and make their own. They 1
could have been submitted to the regional agencies and they could of then had a meaningful 2
response. ABAG could have to HCD and I… so that… I was just wondering if Staff could comment 3
on the timing of this meeting and how much the public and the Planning Commission can even 4
recommend in any effectual way anything tonight? 5
6
Ms. Tanner: Well, there’s a great deal still forthcoming. The decision about the housing 7
methodology which is again where we can advocate and talk with the Housing Methodology 8
Committee. There are two representatives from Santa Clara County, one is a Staff person in 9
Mountain View and one in San Jose, where we can really work with them to both understand if 10
we need to have more understating; but also to opine what our preference is whether as a 11
collective such as the whole PTC or to our City Council or individually and as members of the 12
community and organization to say why they might prefer certain methodologies to be used to 13
allocate the RHNA so that’s still occurring. 14
15
The Draft Blueprint just was released on Monday and so that’s that month-long public 16
comment period that ends on August 10th. And also, Santa Clara Town Hall as Rebecca 17
mentioned, and other opportunities including ongoing meetings of the Housing Methodology 18
Committee as well as the Draft Blueprint bodies. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
And a lot of last year and even earlier… well, I say earlier this year and I remember COVID 1
started in March this year so it must have been last year, last fall and winter we were in 2
discussions. The Cities Association, there was a push by those Cities to form a subgroup, a 3
subcommittee, that would come up with its own housing methodology. And we spent energy 4
and time meeting trying to understand what that would be, would we want to go forward with 5
that once the… it was understood fully what the impact of that regional subgroup would be and 6
the amount of money that would be required to create our own methodology. It was decided 7
to abandon that effort and to continue to be part of the larger regional process. And so, we 8
were working with other Cities and again, the Cities Association where we have Council 9
Members who are representatives there, we were working with Staff to think about that. Of 10
course, if that has been this planning collaborative which is again mostly Staff but also different 11
folks from different Cities in Santa Clara County working together to try to pool our resources. 12
So, when we’re doing these large-scale planning efforts we can hopefully collaborate and save 13
some money by instead each of us paying a consultant. We could pool our resources and have a 14
consultant work across like Cities. So, it isn’t that we haven’t been involved, but we did put a bit 15
of energy into an effort that unfortunately… I think fortunately we made a good decision but 16
didn’t go where we thought it was going to. 17
18
Commissioner Summa: So, what do you see the… with regards to the RHNA Allocations that’s 19
the end of that… the end of the comment period that is in 2-days. So, what do you see the… I 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
understand the methodology may be discussed for longer for ABAG for our own regional 1
organizations and I have comments about that; but what do you see our role, the Planning 2
Commissions role, tonight? We can’t advise anybody to make any recommendations that would 3
have any impact at all. I mean (interrupted) 4
5
Ms. Tanner: I mean I will say and I know it may seem like a day late and a dollar short, so I 6
recognize that. I don’t want to be too Pollyanna about it, but I don’t think it is ever a bad idea. If 7
you have a concern about something that is happening from a governed… part of the 8
government to write a letter, to make a phone call, to reach out to those persons whether it’s 9
Staff or electives who are part of that to raise the concern and the issues. And as somebody 10
who receives those calls from the public, it makes a difference in terms of how we do our work. 11
Will it stop the process? I don’t know. Will it change the needs determination? It seems unlikely 12
at this point given ABAG who is our body who has the authority to appeal has declines to 13
appeal, but it could perhaps influence or help to make more collaborative the rest of the 14
process going forward. 15
16
Chair Templeton: But it also… can I jump in for just a second? Would it also be helpful to put up 17
the questions that Staff clarified of what they were looking for from us today? 18
19
Mr. Nguyen: I can put that up. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Chair Templeton: I don’t know if that answers your question partially at least Doria… 2
Commissioner Summa, but there is something they’re looking for from us. It’s just not exactly 3
that. 4
5
Commissioner Summa: Yeah, I mean, that would be fine. I think that’s… but I’m… uh oh. 6
7
Ms. Tanner: Albert, I think your not on mute. If you want to mute. 8
9
Commissioner Summa: So, my concerns are if you look at Table Five in our Staff Report it clearly 10
illustrates… well, it doesn’t go… it only shows the last three cycles and of course, this cycle 11
we’re not all the way through; but it shows the failure of the basic premises of the jobs-based 12
methodology. Every single cycle we have achieved less housing and we have achieved less and 13
less of housing for the people that need it the most which is people that are unhoused. So, I am 14
somewhat appalled that we continue down this path of… at the same time giving ourselves 15
really high goals or getting assigned really high numbers that we know are not achievable. And 16
there seems to be a disconnect between Cities… there seems a misunderstanding that Cities 17
build housing. We don’t build housing. We have always met our Housing Element needs, but 18
the housing isn’t getting built and the housing that is getting built in the Bay Area in general, in 19
Palo Alto in particular, is not being… is not the housing we need the most. The people that need 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
the housing the most are people that are living under viaducts and in cars. And I understand 1
that some of those people there are health issues that keep them from being… keep us from 2
being able to help them very much, but there are plenty of people we could be helping. 3
4
So, I see… if you could put… it’s Packet Page 31 and its Table Five. If you could put that up there 5
it shows a steady decline in our goals and ABAG and RHNA have a lot of language about equity 6
and diversity being their… one of their goals. And given that it is minority persons often who fall 7
into the… minority groups who fall into the lowest… lower-income groups, we are actually… 8
what we have been steadily doing in the three cycles you show here in Table Five is 9
eliminating… reducing diversity. And I just… it’s Packet Page 31, but maybe that’s not… oh, I 10
think you have the Staff Report up anyway. But so, I think we need to rethink this whole thing 11
and I think the Council should be urged to address this in an emergency manner. 12
13
We… and as to the legislation, a lot of the legislation that’s being put through at the state level 14
right now kind of also under a little dome of silence because of the pandemic. A lot of it also 15
really promotes market-rate housing and doesn’t do anything for truly affordable housing. So, 16
I’m very concerned that this whole exercise and the 3-years… three cycles that you show here 17
show illustrate a clear failure and we’re going down that path again with the false hope of 18
addressing some of these problems. I realize that everybody thinks… not everybody, I realize 19
that there are a lot of people in the Bay Area that think they pay way too much for housing and 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
I would agree, but that is not a situation that the City created. It is not a situation that I created 1
or that I find welcome. I think one of the speakers spoke to this, but it is not something that is 2
going to be fixed by associating the number of jobs we have with numbers of housing that we 3
should be assigned. It’s not being dealt with at all. I mean and that was my point in the earlier 4
item about displacement causing extra VMT, which means extra greenhouse gas emissions. This 5
is… to me this I just the wrong path to go down and it’s almost sadly late to give any 6
recommendation on these things of any meeting when the deadline is in 2-days. 7
8
So, I would say that the region needs to get serious about building truly affordable housing and 9
not giving lip service to truly affordable housing and allowing developers and others in the real 10
estate industries who profit from building market-rate extremely expensive housing. Even if it’s 11
smaller it’s extremely expensive still and extremely expensive per square foot. We got to get 12
serious about this. This is just all together disappointing to me in a way that I feel it’s tragic. So, 13
I will leave it at that and I’m sorry that was more than just one question. 14
15
Chair Templeton: Thank you, Commissioner Summa. I see Commissioner Lauing followed by 16
Commissioner Riggs. Just to keep in mind the late hour. If you can keep your comments around 17
5-minutes or so that would be super appreciated by all. Thank you. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Commissioner Lauing: Yes, I’m going to try to stay with the game plan here and just do 1
questions, but I’m very eager to make comments as well so. I just want to take a quick 2
traditional walkthrough of this document and… but first I want to actually circle back to Albert 3
and ask him a question about a letter that went to Council from… this was from Palo Alto for 4
Sensible Zoning in response to the question about can we appeal and so on. He quotes the City 5
Attorney from February 13th saying the specific allocations to each City are not likely to be 6
appealed in court. Hence, their claim is there’s an urgency to appeal it now. So, if you don’t 7
want to comment on that Albert, you don’t have to, but I’d give you the opportunity there. 8
9
Mr. Yang: You know I really can’t speak to that. I don’t… I haven’t seen that document. I think 10
we actually tried to find it over the weekend and weren’t able too. So, it's also possible that 11
that was a privileged communication from our office to the City Council, so it’s not really 12
something I can comment on. 13
14
Commissioner Lauing: Ok, I just wanted to give you the opportunity. Staying with the lawyerly 15
approach, on Packet Page 18 where it starts talking about promoting equity for residence. 16
Unlike contracts, there’s no definition for these words and I think generally we get what that is; 17
but do you want to comment on… I mean equity can be a lot of things in terms of the balance 18
of housing and I presume its distribution of the demographics in an equitable way by segment? 19
Is that basically what it references? 20
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1
Ms. Tanner: And just to be clear Commissioner Lauing, you’re referring to Packet Page 18 and 2
just overall how the Plan Bay Area is trying to look at things with an equity lens? 3
4
Commissioner Lauing: Yes, thank you. 5
6
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, Rebecca do you want to address that? 7
8
Ms. Atkinson: Sure, actually there is an equity and access deep-dive workshop on July 30th. So, 9
just so you know they will go into this in great detail and equity factors include access to jobs 10
and education, entertainment, parks, high resources, and things like that. So, those are the 11
kinds of things that they’re thinking about and there are other equity metrics that are used. 12
Access to high opportunity areas comment frequently in conversations in both Plan Bay Area 13
(interrupted) 14
15
Commissioner Lauing: Ok, that’s fine. That’s fine. I think just the word access to I think helps 16
clarify it a little a lot. Thanks, and on the next page it talks about the equity lens and I’ll have 17
some comments on this, but I get what they’re doing there and there’re some noble ones there 18
that are a little bit longer term than shorter-term, but I appreciate that in there as well. 19
20
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I see on the bottom of 19 that they talk about there’s some impact from COVID. We don’t know 1
what they are and I don’t think that they’re trying to necessarily build that in too much. Is that 2
correct? 3
4
Ms. Tanner: What they have done and Rebecca can add if I leave anything out. They had 5
completed prior to this what was called the Horizon Initiative that did look at resiliency and 6
how would things perform during a downturn. And so, it clearly did not forecast that we would 7
have a pandemic in which suddenly the economy is turned off in one day, but it did look at 8
some of those ideas. And so essentially, I think they are trying to say yes, there will be short 9
terms impacts from COVID which obviously we need to work together to recover from; but in 10
the long terms, the 30-years of this plan, they think that we will eventually see a pattern of 11
growth on the other side of this downturn. 12
13
Commissioner Lauing: Ok. 14
15
Ms. Atkinson: I think it’s a situation where they were given the horizon of the Plan Bay Area, 16
they looked at COVID impacts for the first portion of the horizon period, and projected more a 17
positive economic situations in the second part of the plan… the horizon. 18
19
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Commissioner Lauing: I appreciate on Packet Page 24 and 25 that Staff detailed questions that 1
they’ve already proposed. And I thought that were all excellent questions to proposed and 2
appreciate you giving the recap there. 3
4
Moving just slightly above that, it always… I’ve got this one in three colors, it’s so important, but 5
this transit-rich areas is always difficult. So, you did a good job of pointing out that some trains 6
are not as accessible as they look because they’ve calculated as the crow flies as opposed to 7
how the heck are you supposed to get there? And the obvious problem with the transit-rich 8
areas is that what’s the meaning of transit-rich? And right now, buses that don’t run and trains 9
that at one point a year ago were jammed and you couldn’t get a ride and now they’re running 10
at 3 percent capacity. There’s going to be variance there over the next 8-years. How you 11
calculated that I don’t know, but some sort of a warning that that has to be factored in because 12
once houses go up, they go up. 13
14
Let’s see, ok, then… in… there’s somewhere in here where it says that in areas essentially with 15
too much BMR, RHNA will force more market rate. And I just wanted to confirm that that 16
means that they are planning on what they call justification which means that some BMR or 17
affordable housing is going to go away? 18
19
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Ms. Tanner: I think that they’re trying to do and by they, I’ll be specific and say the Housing 1
Methodology Committee specifically, and you kind of saw that a little bit in the presentation we 2
made where we talked about the income shift. 3
4
Commissioner Lauing: Yes. 5
6
Ms. Tanner: So, the example we showed with the goal bar at the zero percent and it going 7
across. Part of what the Committee is debating and discussing is well, what that… that’s what 8
that graph looks like for a wealthier community and what does it look like for a community 9
with… that’s lower-income? And so that’s one of the issues that they’re trying to tease out is 10
how do you propose something that provides greater equity and access and at the same time 11
doesn’t promote denitrification displacement? I don’t think it’s an issue that they have 12
completely resolved and I don’t think unfortunately that we can prevent 100 percent of the 13
displacement or denitrification of communities throughout the Bay Area through any plan, Plan 14
Bay Area or the RHNA cycle; but it is something that the Methodology Committee is really 15
trying to figure out how to minimize that type of impact. 16
17
Commissioner Lauing: It’s just a tragedy to solve for percentages if we’re giving up affordable 18
housing. 19
20
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Ms. Tanner: Yeah and I don’t… and to be clear it wouldn’t be affordable housing in the sense of 1
deed-restricted affordable housing development is down, but just areas that are (interrupted) 2
3
Commissioner Lauing: I know. 4
5
Ms. Tanner: More natural affordable just cost less than other areas. 6
7
Commissioner Lauing: Right, yeah, but it houses somebody with lower-income, that’s what 8
we’re talking about. We’re trying to maximize that. A couple questions about BMR in regions, 9
so well, I’ll just try to put it into one. So, a high opportunity area could be our whole region. I 10
think it’s articulated that way and that would run from Atherton up to Hillsboro and take into 11
account Redwood City and Palo Alto and Menlo Park. So, in those areas aren’t all of those 12
essentially high opportunity areas that would be allocated if they used that significantly? It 13
would be allocated more housing because there’s going to be more jobs there? 14
15
Ms. Tanner: Right so part of what they also combined with that is the transportation and some 16
of the other assets and so if you remember the map with all the colors in blobs and circles laid 17
over it. They look at is that a high resource area that’s also near transit for example. So, just 18
because it’s a high resource if it’s not easily accessible or has some other factors that may not 19
be identified as what’s called a growth geography. 20
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1
Commissioner Lauing: Right so and then how do areas allocate their BMR if they’re Atherton or 2
Hillsboro? 3
4
Ms. Tanner: I can’t comment on those Cities. I think what will happen though is that the Cities 5
itself wouldn’t allocate the BMR. Those… the affordability would be part of the RHNA process 6
and so ABAG, ultimately working together through the Housing Methodology Committee would 7
say ok Palo Alto, here is your total number, just like we had the 1,988, and here is the number 8
in each of those income groups that you need to build. So, it would be part of that. 9
10
Commissioner Lauing: But I’m saying wouldn’t they also do that for Atherton and Hillsboro? 11
12
Ms. Tanner: Places that are less transit-accessible is your point? Is that kind of what you’re 13
(interrupted) 14
15
Commissioner Lauing: I’m wondering… one of the things I’m wondering is where would you put 16
BMR in Atherton? I mean it still comes back to this sort of unique characteristic of a town and 17
not only the zoning but. 18
19
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Ms. Tanner: Well, I would say fortunately for me that’s Atherton’s issue to figure out of where 1
would they… I mean how would they have their below-market-rate housing, but they would 2
have to try to… if they want to have a Certified Housing Element, identify places where the 3
number of units could go. And again, when you’re zoning, which is really the tools Cities 4
primarily have in this instance, you aren’t usually zoning for below-market-rate. Other than to 5
the extent that you have inclusionary housing included. And so, a town that has a lot of wealth 6
and limited area would have to say well, we want to have Certified Housing Element, where are 7
we going to put those units? Do we have an inclusionary policy and thus there are some 8
affordable units that would be built there? 9
10
Commissioner Lauing: Ok and then do you have Rachael, the number of existing housing units? 11
12
Ms. Tanner: Yes, so in Palo Alto we have… and I just was doing some quick stats today. We have 13
about 27,000, its 27,577 housing units and that’s… we have a stats booklet that we use for each 14
year. So, that’s our latest (interrupted) 15
16
Commissioner Lauing: As of ’19? 17
18
Ms. Tanner: Yeah. 19
20
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Commissioner Lauing: And in the last cycle we’ve done well in market rate and surprisingly well 1
in our allocations for affordable I think, but in the middle, we were quite short. Is that right? 2
3
Ms. Tanner: Yeah, above moderate we have built… so we have… and I can just share this slide 4
actually we took from a previous presentation. You may remember when we came to do our 5
annual report for HCD I believe, so this may look somewhat familiar. 6
7
Commissioner Lauing: It does. 8
9
Ms. Tanner: So, you can see that we have… and I don’t know if you can see my cursory or not, 10
but you see a bottom line is above moderate and so if you go all the way to the right side. 11
We’ve built 420 above moderate units and there’s 167 remaining of our allocation for this cycle. 12
So, in terms of on pace per the number and where we are in time. We’re on pace in our above 13
moderate, we’re not on pace in our other allocation as you can see. Very-low we… 43 we’ve 14
built so 648 remaining, on low-income 65 and etc. 15
16
Commissioner Lauing: Ok so only in the above moderate, ok. That’s all the questions, thanks. 17
18
Ms. Tanner: Thank you. 19
20
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Chair Templeton: Alright. 1
2
Commissioner Riggs: I’m available. 3
4
Chair Templeton: Thank you. Commissioner Riggs. 5
6
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah, sorry, yeah, I was dealing with a kid issue momentarily. I was still 7
listening on my headset, but I want to clarify. I’m ready for comments. I apologize, Chair 8
Templeton, I don’t have any questions here and I don’t know if we’re ready to pit it 9
(interrupted) 10
11
Chair Templeton: I think we are, go ahead. 12
13
Commissioner Riggs: All I have is a couple comments. 14
15
Chair Templeton: Go ahead and I might suggest before we do that. Ms. Atkinson, if you or Ms. 16
Tanner wanted to put up the slide to guide the discussion, please feel free to do so. 17
18
Ms. Tanner: Actually, Vinh has our… is manning our PowerPoint, so Mr. Nguyen, if you can put 19
up the slide. I think its like 18. 20
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1
Mr. Nguyen: Yeah, is this the slide for the key questions? 2
3
Ms. Tanner: Yes. 4
5
Mr. Nguyen: Ok. 6
7
Chair Templeton: Alright, over to you Commissioner Riggs. Sorry about that. 8
9
Commissioner Riggs: No [unintelligible], these are great. So, I guess what… in terms of the 10
broader strategy, I probably… and maybe I’ll take these in a little in reverse I guess. I’m 11
generally probably not a fan of a bottom-up strategy. I’m a big fan of housing across the 12
spectrum and I think that kind of relates back to what we saw in Rachael’s slide. We’re really 13
not producing for moderate-income and I want to empathize all the terms we use; low, 14
moderate, whatever. It’s all relative and so I want to come back to that. 15
16
The… in terms of some of the other questions in terms of feedback for ABAG and regional 17
growth strategy. I think… I have three concerns. First, I’ll just put out there that LMI is not 18
measured at a local level and I think that’s a concern of mine. Alright and I think we need to 19
make a… LMI needs to be measured below the county level and I think we need to make that 20
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clear with ABAG that looking at low and… looking at income level needs to be done at the City if 1
not the census tract level. So, we need to figure out a way to actually get more granular data 2
and to measure in need below the county level; because clearly Santa Clara County has 3
different [unintelligible], different geographies, and at that level for Palo Alto to be compared 4
with Gilroy or Palo Alto to be compared with certain parts of San Jose. It just doesn’t work. 5
6
And I think paralleling that, I think a big part of what we see in our community is an inflexibility 7
of ABAG to consider context-sensitivity and I think we actually do need to encourage ABAG to 8
be doing… to encourage context-sensitive design solutions to the density that they’re talking 9
about. And the reason is, is because if they’re going to talk about density in Cities like… Cities 10
around the peninsula, the scale of that density has cost implications that prohibit that density in 11
places like… and this is where we’ve seen attention in we’ve gone out and talked to developers. 12
We’ve gone and talked to people and they’re like there are bottlenecks and all this other stuff 13
and I do think that there’re a little bit of mixed messages in terms of what we’re seeing from 14
the region, in terms of our local context. 15
16
And then finally, related to that local context, the elephant in the room here is that we are a 17
college town and we are not talking about the context of Stanford. And I do think it’s a 18
contradiction for our City that we work in housing on Stanford Campus and that we… then we… 19
but also, we actually don’t take some of the burden by encouraging Stanford to densify its own 20
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housing. So, I do think there’s this opportunity for facilitating this amazing housing partner in 1
Stanford University and I think this is not… we’re not an anomaly here. Berkeley faces the same 2
problem, Santa Clara faces the same problem, but I actually think that ABAG is not… do not 3
understand. And the reason I’m bringing this up is actually campus housing units don’t usually 4
count towards Regional Housing Allocation. So, Stanford’s built… of course, it’s a little different 5
because they’re not in the City of Palo Alto, but so actually, I don’t know where they’d go in the 6
Regional Housing Allocation. And that’s a question maybe for Staff is if Stanford builds units, 7
does Santa Clara County get an allocation and does that mean Santa Clara County is over its 8
allocation? Because if Stanford builds anything does it actually… where does it get allocated? 9
But I think this is actually something the region has not formally grappled with and I would 10
encourage the region to really take is on because student housing is a big issue and it needs to 11
be a part of considerations. Particularly, for Cities that have universities in them. Gosh, that’s it. 12
13
Chair Templeton: Alright, thank you, Commissioner Riggs. Staff, did you have any comments in 14
response? 15
16
Ms. Tanner: Thank you. I do want to respond to Commissioner Rigg’s question about the 17
Stanford housing and so part of what… if you want to get into the details. On Packet Page 37 it 18
does give a chart of what goes into HCD’s allocation and they do subtract out what they call 19
group quarter population which is folks in dormitories, group homes, institutional, military, etc. 20
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who do not need residential housing. And so that may be part of where some of those student 1
housing units would go. 2
3
Commissioner Riggs: But so, Rachael, this is a term of art and housing… student housing is not 4
designed like group quarters any longer and so this is a census designation from the 1950s that 5
doesn’t apply any longer. Student housing is actually developed… it’s not designed in the same 6
way as it was before per se. And then B, it… the definition of housing units does not have to be 7
what it was 50-years ago. I mean what to say that a dormitory is not housing or and that’s 8
defining dormitory as it was when I went to school when everybody did live on the same floor 9
and shared this huge bathroom which is not the case. And I think this is… it’s an antiquated 10
definition of housing needs in a college community and it needs to be addressed. 11
12
Ms. Tanner: Ok, we can include that feedback. 13
14
Chair Templeton: Alright, the commentary floor is open Commissioners, please raise your hand. 15
Alright, while you’re looking for the button I will try to answer some of these questions as well. 16
So, one of your questions was do we prefer the income shift of the bottom-up model. I will say 17
that in general, I think the income shift depiction is easier for people to understand and it 18
shows that our goal is to be more even in terms of our development. So, if that is helpful to 19
visualize it that way. 20
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1
As far as the science of the model, I will leave that to you as the experts on what model appeals 2
most on the behind the scenes, nitty-gritty, scientific details, but I do appreciate the ease of 3
reading the chart that the income shift model provides. Not just for ourselves for anyone in the 4
public who may want to access this information and engage with it. 5
6
What are our hopes for the Bay Area… Plan Bay Area 2050 to achieve in Palo Alto? At the most 7
basic level having a discussion and engaging our community and how we’re going to address 8
these housing questions. It sounds like that to that extent we are on our way, so I think that’s 9
good. 10
11
Which RHNA factors do the Commissioners most feel value… align with values of the Palo Alto 12
community? I feel like you had a list of these RHNA factors, is that on Slide 12? I think 13
(interrupted) 14
15
Ms. Tanner: We can go to that slide. 16
17
Chair Templeton: I think reducing the Vehicle Miles Traveled is certainly something I’ve heard a 18
lot of people talk about. Not just in this conversation, but the earlier one tonight. Job-housing 19
balance, those are things that the community members are speaking to the most. So, those are 20
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really important in terms of reflecting the community. I think also transit connectivity is 1
important as well so I would add that in. 2
3
Alright, so it looks like Commissioner Lauing is ready to provide his comments. Commissioner 4
Lauing. 5
6
Commissioner Lauing: Ok, I would like too, yeah. I think what we’re hearing is that the timeline 7
relative to the ABAG timeline as it aligned with PTC and Council was not optimal for anybody. 8
Starting with the citizens because this is literally the first time that they’ve had a chance to 9
speak about and this is literally the first time we’ve had a chance to think about it as the PTC 2-10
days before this deadline. And it just sets the wrong example of not listening to the public and 11
not listening to their input, so that has to be changed. 12
13
The allocation… this whole thing is extraordinarily complicated for everybody even though you 14
guys… you professionals over there and there’re so many methodologies that are still sitting 15
there as options, but there’s already been a regional allocation. So, I think that’s part of what’s 16
causing some of the angst here as well because there’re still so many things that can happen to 17
that. They could shove it up, in some cases according to your estimate, by 65 percent in terms 18
of the guesstimate of the number of units that we might end up with; but then the overlays can 19
make it 65 percent and I think that those two numbers are quite different. I think whatever the 20
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allocation is does matter. It’s not just [unintelligible] random or arbitrary and it’s ok if we miss 1
it. 2
3
The other thing I want to comment on is that I think this… I just want to second Commissioner 4
Rigg’s motion that context-sensitivity on these things is just extraordinarily important which is 5
just so hard to do when you’re sitting in an office somewhere in those meetings. And that’s 6
where Staff can really and have already provided some specific context such as the actual 7
proximity of high-quality transit. 8
9
I don’t agree with Commissioner Hechtman that the state is not going to come in heavy. That 10
has been completely forecast, predicted, and worked upon in Senate Committees. And my 11
understanding is that as Rachael said, there’re already ways that effectively by-right can 12
happen. Not necessarily entirely consistent with current zoning and those laws will be… new 13
laws will be added so that these allocations will be enforced and there’s no question that puts 14
local control in question. These two are complete in sync so that there is teeth. You know the 15
carrot is local control, let’s get going under your own zoning and the teeth is if you don’t, we’re 16
going to get it in. And there is a state crisis, there’s no question about that, and I and everybody 17
else sitting here thinks that we need more housing, but how we get it is part of what’s being 18
debated here. 19
20
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So, where I come out in looking at all this including very effective informed public comment, I 1
mean there’s no question… I don’t think anyone of us would disagree that there’s a job-housing 2
imbalance and there’s no reason to spend time debating why because right now it’s here and 3
we have to address it. But of course, there are two numbers in any fraction and we can each… 4
we can deal with each of those numbers in the way that we choose to do in the City. The 5
second… you know that’s one fact. 6
7
The second fact is that I think it’s very difficult to be predicting future growth in our area. I think 8
it’s very problematic. I think Commissioner Alcheck and I about two meetings ago agreed that in 9
spite of COVID we have to build housing. And I completely agree with that and I think we have 10
to move forward with it; but understanding some sort of probability, where the job growth are 11
going to be, and therefore where the housing is going to be. That’s just really hard to do right 12
now. So, if there’s anything that somewhat arbitrary, that might be a little bit of dirt throwing 13
that we might want to hold on right now. 14
15
So, having that as the driving variable just doesn’t seem to work. I mean it’s not kind of where 16
jobs were last time. It’s where should they be this time, including things on the Packet Page 19. 17
Three of the nine I thought were extremely important. The first being transit which is Item 18
Three; enhancing regional and local transit. That’s not… I mean that’s a noble goal, but it 19
doesn’t have to be just a noble goal if the ABAG and MTC can solve that problem on a regional 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
basis. That addresses all of these problems on a regional basis for decades and decades to 1
come, but it’s a massive problem that takes massive amounts of money. And I don’t know if 2
that’s just sort of aspirational or something that they’re going to dig in on. 3
4
And the second one is shifting the… to the locations of jobs; Item Nine. That’s just 5
extraordinarily important. Go to where jobs are needed, where they’re helping the local 6
economy, and take advantage of news ways that offices are going to be built or not built; 7
including satellite offices and so on. So, why would… we always like to choose Facebook, so why 8
would Facebook be bringing anybody else across the Dumbarton Bridge ever again to expand 9
their set of people sitting in Menlo Park when they can open satellite offices over there and 10
help that economy? So, I think that one’s extraordinarily important and that should be 11
emphasized by ABAG in terms of its decisions. 12
13
And then the affordable housing thing is just absolutely crucial. I’ve been working off and on in 14
the past 25-years on the homeless problems and affordable housing. It’s very, very difficult and 15
the main reason is because, as developers will tell you, every door of an affordable housing 16
complex costs as much to build pretty as much as every door of a mid-market or market rate. 17
Notwithstanding some of the amenities of marble and gold and all that. So, the allocation 18
regionally comes out with, as I look at it, 140… 184,000 units that are supposed to be built in 19
this 8-year period; 184,000-units. Well, I rarely say this about affordable housing but show me 20
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the money. I mean that’s a huge number that we have to be figuring out where to build 1
somewhere in our region and you can’t just do it with tax credits and I don’t hear that the state 2
has any money. So, this seems to me tragically out of scale for what we can really pull off in the 3
next 8-years unless there’re some changes in funding or we find a way to get really creative. 4
5
So, then the… I just want to state one more thing because again, it’s trying to be aspirational 6
and I am a huge proponent of all kinds of housing. Particularly affordable and not so much 7
market because that happens anyway; but at some point, you have to look at the execution on 8
this thing and put real numbers to this. And if you’re trying to build for 4,500-units which is 50… 9
559 a year compared to 554 in the last 6-years. Now let’s say you take eight projects to do that 10
or at the high side you need 7,260 units which is 933 or that’s 10 or 12 projects. You add this up 11
and for the 40 percent of low-income to get to this number, you need something like 186 12
projects in the next 8-years to build all the units that we want. And I just don’t know if there’s 13
some… that’s a tough ask to try to get there. So, nobody should interpret this as I don’t want 14
housing and I don’t know if the regional numbers is right. I’m just saying that there’s a 15
practicality of getting this stuff built. You have to find developers that are interested, land, time 16
to build it, finance construction, affordable housing construction, and then get it all built in this 17
amount of time. So, at some point you just have to as the developer say, see if it pencils. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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So, I’m very happy to get the public comment on this and the Staff Report was very, very 1
helpful. I think that the timing is regrettable. I hear folks say that the deadline is the deadline. 2
However, I still think that if Council made some move in the next couple of days to tell ABAG 3
that they have some concerns. That’s going to have more impact than seven Council Members 4
comments that are somehow going to be heroically put together by Rachael and passed along 5
to them. So, I would still favor having them basically tell ABAG, like what we just heard tonight 6
that Cupertino did, that they take a longer look. And the timeline that was questioned by some 7
of the public speakers is not very substantial because this isn’t going to finish until winter of 8
2021. So, everything else is going to be going at the same pace anyway. So, that’s where I’ll 9
leave my comments at this point. I think the stakes are high and I honestly do believe that local 10
control is in jeopardy if we don’t move on the allocations. So, that… at the end of the day that is 11
going to be our assignment whatever those allocations are, but taking time to push it back on 12
ABAG and say here’re some considerations to some of these things to make it better for the 13
whole region, not just Palo Alto, is the thing to do. Thanks. 14
15
Chair Templeton: Thank you so much Commissioner Lauing. Alright, Commissioner Roohparvar 16
[note -Vice-Chair Roohparvar] I saw your hand up earlier. Do you still have comments? 17
18
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Sure, I’ll make them brief because they’re going to echo a lot of what 19
Commissioner Lauing said. I don’t think RHNA has worked and I do think… and the reason is 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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because I’ve done a lot of reading on RHNA, is does not have no teeth until recently. You 1
could… you can allocate 10,000, 20,000 units, but when there are no repercussions, no one’s 2
going to feel obligated to build or not, so that number is kind of meaningless. As a result, I do… 3
Commissioner Hechtman I’m going to have to disagree with you even I almost always… I agree 4
with you on everything. I do think we’re going to see and I think we’ve seen it, a lot more 5
streamlining; SB 35, ADU streamlining from state. I think we’re going to continue to see it in 6
order to put pressure on Cities to take these numbers seriously and you can say you want 7
housing all you want, but you got to put your money where your mouth is and make it happen. 8
9
I did also want to call out… not call out but it’s not the Cities that are building these housing… 10
we all agree that we want housing. It’s very important, but what are we doing to get to it? We 11
can’t just sit here and say we want more affordable housing, we want this. We need to use the 12
tools that are at our disposal to make it happen and for me, I see those tools as being our 13
zoning, or if we want affordable housing then we need to figure out a way to loosen our 14
requirements or create incentives to get the private sector to come in and build the housing we 15
want. We can’t say we want it, yet keep our rules so, so tight that it doesn’t pencil… they’re not 16
going to come in and build it for free. They’re not going to go bankrupt building it. It makes no 17
business sense. So, I think what we really need to do is drill down and get into the nuts and 18
bolts and make the changes that are needed in order to attract the type of housing and the 19
type of diversity and community that we want to see in this City. Thank you. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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1
Chair Templeton: Thank you for those comments, Vice-Chair Roohparvar. Commissioner 2
Summa. 3
4
Commissioner Summa: Ok so I made a lot of comments in my question period, but I did want to 5
say I appreciate the comments of Commissioner Lauing and I think what we really need to do is 6
realize that we are hogging too many of the jobs in Palo Alto that people in other regions and 7
other parts of California really, really need. So, if we need to have a City Council that committed 8
to not creating more of that kind of office then people will build housing. Housing is worth 9
about between $1,000 and $2,000 a square foot. Housing has a lot of value in it, but office still 10
has more. So, if we want to be… if we want to encourage housing to be built and if we want a 11
portion of it to be inclusionary, but I think we need to think out of the box about funding 12
methodologies for deed-restricted truly affordable housing. 13
14
But I think in as much as the H… the Regional Housing Needs Determination has been sort of a 15
suggestion and aspirational, which I think is fair because as Commissioner Roohparvar [note – 16
Vice-Chair Roohparvar] points out, we can’t force developers to build. But I think if you look at 17
Table One, very low and low together in the last cycle got 25.9 percent and above moderate, 18
which is people making more than average the county income, got twice as much almost. The 19
optics of that are wrong and the realities of it are wrong. So, I think we need to change that and 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
we need to abandon a housing allocation that depends on jobs and understand that that’s 1
probably the wrong methodology and has resulted in the opposite of what we want which is a 2
less inclusive Palo Alto. And I’m sure other Cities have experienced this also because inclusivity 3
and diversity is inconsistent with the ever-rising housing crisis. It’s important to remember that 4
in the last decade San Francisco has lost over 50 percent of its African American population and 5
it’s not because they don’t want to live in the places they grew up or they… where their 6
community and neighbors are. It’s because they can no longer afford it and in many cases, 7
there’s a displacement problem which will always happen. And I agree with Assistant Director 8
Tanner that you can’t completely eliminate displacement because things get redeveloped, but 9
we should be working on a regional system that emphasizes the goals that we have. And for 10
me, those goals would be if they’re diversity in equity and inclusivity then we’re not doing that 11
and the Tables One and Tables Five in our Staff Report shows that. 12
13
So, and as to the transit problem. We do not have rich transit in the Bay Area. San Francisco has 14
the best transit in the Bay Area, maybe San Jose has pretty good transit too, but some of their 15
transit modalities never get used like the lite rail was a bust. Nobody ever uses it. Sorry, my hair 16
is falling down. And then… but transit… public transit use has gone down steadily in the Bay 17
Area every year and there may be a lot of reasons for that. And most of the experts now do not 18
believe… believe that the cost of building new public transit now is so astronomical that it’s not 19
going to happen. So, we need to think of more creative ways to move people around the Bay 20
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Area in the future. Probably with smaller electric vans and whatnot. I’m sure Commissioner 1
Riggs can tell us more about that than I can, but it also is important to remember that 2
MTC/ABAG was planning a huge tax increase. It was going to be on the 2020 ballot. I think it 3
was tens of billions of dollars to fund new transit ideas which they abandoned because they 4
didn’t think it would fly in this climate as a new tax. And so, they’ve kept basically the idea of 5
adding all these housing and jobs to same, but they abandoned the transit that was going to go 6
along with it. 7
8
So, for me, this process is broken and we need too… I think we should start over. I don’t see the 9
value in it as it is. So, I’m very… I’m disappointed that there aren’t many options now and I 10
appreciate that Assistant Director Tanner that we can still be involved in the methodology so to 11
speak; but I have tried very hard to be involved in the MTC/ABAG and the RHNA process. And 12
it’s really difficult and they don’t do a lot of outreach and I think that you… that the Staff Report 13
acknowledges that. So, I’m looking for a new approach here that maybe if we should be 14
allocating something in the region it’s jobs, not housing. So, I’ll leave it at that. Thanks. 15
16
Chair Templeton: Thank you, Commissioner Summa. Commissioner Alcheck. 17
18
Commissioner Alcheck: So, I… Ms. or yeah, you sent it to me, great. Ok, I’m just looking at this 19
one slide to pull up the number of market-rate units that we developed in our (interrupted) 20
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Ms. Tanner: I’ll [unintelligible] if you’d like. 2
3
Commissioner Alcheck: What was that? 4
5
Ms. Tanner: We can display that slide if you (interrupted) 6
7
Commissioner Alcheck: Yeah, that would be nice actually. 8
9
Ms. Tanner: If you can give me control Vinh. 10
11
Commissioner Alcheck: So, is… just so we’re clear, is above-moderate market-rate? 12
13
Ms. Tanner: Yes, and ever moderate (interrupted) 14
15
Commissioner Alcheck: And so (interrupted) 16
17
Ms. Tanner: Could be considered some market-rate housing. It varies a little bit, but yeah, 18
above-moderate is definitely market-rate. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Commissioner Alcheck: So, I… look, I want… I’m highlighting this point that I hear a lot and I’m 1
a… I’m consistently pushing for below-market-rate housing, but I think there’s a… I think the 2
question we should ask ourselves is 420 market-rate units the right number for Palo Alto? Does 3
that seem like the market-rate seems to be taking – Commissioner Lauing says well the market-4
rate takes care of itself. I’m not so sure. I think that’s actually wrong. I don’t think market-rate 5
housing is getting built. I think we have a supply problem and particularly in Palo Alto. Look, we 6
did the commercial cap. I think now we have to focused on our supply problem and if we have 7
27,000 housing units in Palo Alto, is 420 in 5-years at market-rate, does that suggest really that 8
the market is taking care of itself? I think I would make the case that the market is not taking 9
care of itself. I think the market is highly dysfunctional. I think if you make the case that the 10
market takes the care of itself in the State of California or Northern California or the Bay Area 11
then you are not appreciating that the market is exceptionally dysfunctional. And this effort 12
that we’re making seems at its heart to address some of the needs that even wealthy 13
individuals can work their way through a dysfunctional market, but this… there’s a whole 14
category of individuals who can’t and so the effort is really trying to identify a path for us to 15
create opportunities for that development. 16
17
I think exercise… one thing Commissioner Lauing said earlier is we agree on we have to build 18
the housing. I don’t think this exercise is building any housing and anybody that suggests that 19
our hypothetical 4,500 units or… I mean yeah. You don’t… go to 2015, our 1,980, anybody that 20
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
suggests that that number is too high, just tell me what the number is then. What is the 1
number? Is it 600? What is the… of units that you think is appropriate for development in Palo 2
Alto? I think we ought to put the cards on the table because we hear a lot about how the 3
number is too high, the number is too high, the number is too high, and I want to know what 4
number that other people think is reasonable. 5
6
I think Commissioner Roohparvar [note – Vice-Chair Roohparvar] made a good point that RHNA 7
hasn’t succeeded in achieving… you know the funny thing is I don’t think RHNA’s goal was to 8
ever to succeed in the actual development. I mean one of the things that Plan Bay Area and the 9
vision and RHNA, all of them articulate that this doesn’t necessarily mean that the housing gets 10
created. Local municipalities have oversight in this process. I think for some people out there 11
and maybe for some who even progressive when it comes to national politics. I think this 12
number is shaming them. I think it’s uncomfortable when… it’s uncomfortable to imagine that 13
we built less than 150 unit that could be described as somewhat affordable or very, very 14
affordable in the last 5-years in a City that has all these resources. 15
16
And the resource… if I… to answer one of the questions I think… let me pull it up. If we could 17
pull that PowerPoint back up. I think to answer one of the questions about which methodology 18
I like the most. I think the balanced equity, jobs, transportation methodology. I may be 19
understanding it wrong but I think a methodology that’s more sensitive to environmental 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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impacts is probably a better methodology. And so, if I understood the methodology it seemed 1
like that one placed a higher emphasis on proximity, but I could be wrong because I think it was 2
a little complicated in understanding the relative impact of the different factors. 3
4
Ms. Atkinson: We do have a slide about how much influence each factor offers. 5
6
Commissioner Alcheck: Which slide number is that? Just so I’m… which slide number is that? 7
8
Ms. Atkinson: It’s in the Staff Report as well as it’s a pocket slide if we keep going. 9
10
Commissioner Alcheck: I’m just… I don’t know, do you know the number because I have it open 11
on a separate page in... I’m sort of referring it. 12
13
Ms. Atkinson: No, Vinh has, Vinh has… oh, let me check the Packet Page number. 14
15
Commissioner Alcheck: I don’t mean to stop there. I would just suggest that the… I think that 16
should be a factor and the reason why and this dovetails on to something that Commissioner 17
Summa mentioned is because our transportation infrastructure is so weak. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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Ms. Tanner: Packet Page 9 if you want to look at it, Commissioner Alcheck. It does break down 1
each of the factors. 2
3
Commissioner Alcheck: Packet Page 9, is that what you said? 4
5
Ms. Tanner: 29. 6
7
Commissioner Alcheck: 29, ok. 8
9
Ms. Tanner: The Table Four. 10
11
Commissioner Alcheck: Yeah, I mean I would suggest that for Council to… if there’s… if one of 12
the goals here is to identify what methodology represents our values the most. I think that to 13
the extent that we are… this dovetails into our conversation last meeting about reducing our 14
greenhouse impacts right? So, to some extent, I think we have to sort of align what are our top 15
priorities in Palo Alto, and then how does that… which methodology supports those priorities. 16
So, it would be interesting to have that conversation. 17
18
Again, I asked this question in the beginning which was can we actually make a connection 19
between the number we’re going to get assigned and the number of units that we’re going to 20
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we’re going to build. And I continue to think that that connection is very weak and I am not 1
advocating that the state take this out of our hands. I am suggesting that we’re… we can’t build 2
this housing simply talking about it or accepting the number doesn’t get it built. The hard work 3
is not… although I will tell you that it is challenging, time-consuming, it is an expensive 4
undertaking to developing our Housing Element and work on all the zoning and figuring out 5
where all the numbers go and this body did that not that long ago; or participated in that not 6
that long ago. And it seems like a lot of effort for what we got out of it, but the real work is in 7
creating an environment where we can imagine development like the ill-fated Maybell or 8
developments that are similar to the makeup of the Presidential… President Hotel popping up 9
in other places in our community. And I don’t… there doesn’t seem to be an appetite for that 10
and so until we… it’s… we have to reconcile how… where… I almost think it’s like moot to lose 11
sleep over this number because all the evidence of the past let’s just say five cycle… three 12
cycles suggest that it didn’t impact the actual growth in our community significantly. And I think 13
that it’s… someone used the word red herring… the phrase red herring tonight. I think it’s sort 14
of a red herring to get the community worked up about the allocation and the fear because it 15
just hasn’t played out. You can go on Google and type in RHNA allocation Palo Alto and you will 16
find in 2007 the discussion online that you will find happening today. And almost… I mean it’s 17
like you can’t tell which decade you’re in. It’s the same, the numbers too high, the number is 18
insensitive to the situation. I don’t know that we’ve ever been comfortable with feeling and 19
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
that’s all it is. I don’t know that we’ve ever been comfortable with feeling more responsible 1
because it doesn’t make us responsible. 2
3
Chair Templeton: Commissioner Alcheck, I’m going to interject here just to acknowledge that 4
it’s 10 o’clock and (interrupted) 5
6
Commissioner Alcheck: Ok, I appreciate that. 7
8
Chair Templeton: I know some of our members aren’t able to stay to much longer so. 9
10
Commissioner Alcheck: I get it. I’ll try to wrap this up in a minute. 11
12
Chair Templeton: Thank you. 13
14
Commissioner Alcheck: My point would be that I don’t know that it’s worth the effort to write a 15
letter. I think there’s a disconnect between what people think the appeal relates to and what it 16
actually relates to with respect to Palo Alto. I think there will be a number… there will be a time 17
when there is a number that people will feel like they would like to appeal and I think at that 18
point we probably will find that there’s a lot of community pressure to do so, but I don’t think 19
we’re there yet. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
And I… one of the… I’ll end on this note. The great challenge I have found on this Commission 2
when it comes to housing is that… and this is a procedural issue as well as a bigger picture issue, 3
which is that we’ll take on one component. We’ll agendize this one facet of the Rubik’s Cube 4
that is the housing problem and it’s almost impossible to lay out the discussion in the steps that 5
we need to solve this Rubik’s Cube. The how do we approach the zoning, how do we 6
approach… how do we… what do we think the methodology should be for allocations, how do 7
we approach incentivizing housing development, how do we deal with funding and sources of 8
funding for housing development, and how do we create partnerships with providers of 9
housing so that we actually see those results? And I think it’s interesting that we keep having 10
these separate conversations and it always leads to this moment where we realize that we’re 11
missing that next discussion. And so, it… presumably sometime between now and 2023, we’ll 12
have a Housing Element that has new zoning opportunities for the additional units, whatever 13
they are, that are going to get allocated. And it seems to me like the right thing to do would be 14
to agendize a conversation now that says assuming, whatever number you want, 2,000, 6,000. 15
What are we comfortable with, with respect to the Development Standards that would allow 16
the areas that are most suitable for development to develop in a way that could reach 25 17
percent of whatever you think that number will be; because that’s the best we got last time. 18
And so, if you are comfortable with 500 and you think the number is going to go up by to 4,000, 19
then let’s do this. Let’s go through an exercise where we say let’s just say we want to build 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1,000 units. How… what would we have to do to get comfortable with that because what 1
project would we be comfortable with? And I think that discussion should happen sooner than 2
later and I’m not… I don’t know how to jump-start it, but to me, that’s the real discussion that 3
needs to take place. 4
5
And I think some… last comment… I think there… I think it would be nice if we invited members 6
of ABAG to a conversation like this that could… I think we have local constituents who might be 7
apart of the organization because I think sometimes we get to this place where we’re like they; 8
and who are they and how could they and this is the effort. The Plan Bay Area effort is really 9
wonderful at heart. If you read the vision, I encourage… I would encourage anybody that’s 10
watching to go check out the website and get a sense for the storyline here and what we’re 11
trying to accomplish because I think there’s a lot more for possible… for connection here. 12
Anyways, alright. 13
14
Chair Templeton: Thank you, Commissioner Alcheck. I don’t see any more hands up so I am 15
going to give you one last moment and then we’re going to close this item. Alright, thank you, 16
that was a great discussion. Lots of activity and engagement from Staff, from the community, 17
and from the Commissioners. I appreciate you all and I hope that Staff, you’ve got what you’re 18
looking for. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Action Items 1
Public Comment is Permitted. Applicants/Appellant Teams: Fifteen (15) minutes, plus three (3) minutes rebuttal. 2
All others: Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 3
Approval of Minutes 4
Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 5
4. June 10, 2020 Draft PTC Meeting Minutes 6
Chair Templeton: Alright so let’s move on, Vinh. I believe we have approval of the minutes. 7
Would anyone like to make a motion? 8
9
MOTION 10
11
Commissioner Summa: I’ll make a motion to approve. 12
13
Chair Templeton: Thank you, Commissioner Summa. Any seconds? Commissioner Hechtman, 14
would you like to second that? No. 15
16
SECOND 17
18
FRIENDLY AMENDMENT 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Commissioner Hechtman: Well actually with a friendly amendment. I… the minutes that we’re 1
talking about the June 10th and I did submit revisions to that to those minutes. So, I’d like that 2
version approved. 3
4
Chair Templeton: Maker would you like to incorporate that amendment? 5
6
Commissioner Summa: Yes. 7
8
Chair Templeton: Thank you. Alright, it’s moved and seconded. Let’s please take a vote. Oh, I 9
see Commissioner Hechtman’s hand up. Did you want to say something? Oh, other than that 10
comment? 11
12
Commissioner Hechtman: That was it. Thank you. 13
14
VOTE 15
16
Chair Templeton: Excellent. Sorry, I had it on the other side of my screen, so it’s out of my 17
visions. Thank you. Alright so let’s do a voice vote, Mr. Nguyen. 18
19
Mr. Vinhloc Nguyen, Admin Associate III: Commissioner Alcheck? 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Commissioner Alcheck: Aye, yeah, aye. 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Hechtman? 4
5
Commissioner Hechtman: Aye. 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Lauing? Commissioner Lauing? 8
9
Commissioner Lauing: Yes. 10
11
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Riggs? 12
13
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah. 14
15
Mr. Nguyen: Vice-Chair Roohparvar? 16
17
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Aye. 18
19
Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Summa? 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
1
Commissioner Summa: Yes. 2
3
Mr. Nguyen: Chair Templeton? 4
5
Chair Templeton: Yes. 6
7
Mr. Nguyen: Ok, the motion carries 7-0. Thank you. 8
9
MOTION PASSED 7 (Alcheck, Hechtman, Lauing, Riggs, Roohparvar, Summa, Templeton)-0 10
11
Chair Templeton: Excellent, thank you so much. 12
13
Commissioner Riggs: Yeah, you could… too bad we don’t have any of those objects from the 14
oracle still. 15
16
Chair Templeton: Alright so (interrupted) 17
18
Commissioner Riggs: Put the big horn in the (interrupted) 19
Commission Action: Summa moved, Hechtman seconded. Passes 7-0 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Committee Items 1
Commissioner Questions, Comments or Announcements 2
Chair Templeton: Questions, comments, announcements, and future agenda items. I’ll remind 3
everyone that we did cover a lot of this earlier today. If you do have comments please keep 4
them brief, but you may raise your hands. Alright. 5
6
Commissioner Summa: I have a question. 7
8
Chair Templeton: Yes. 9
10
Commissioner Summa: The new timing on our agendas is that… I honestly felt like the first… the 11
VMT is a little rushed so. 12
13
Chair Templeton: That one was, for sure. I agree with your comments there. We actually only 14
had one hour with that consultant, so we were trying to make sure everyone could fit it in. That 15
was the per the budget that was provided. So, it wasn’t our (interrupted) 16
17
Commissioner Summa: No, I appreciate that, but I thin our Staff can answer most of our 18
questions too. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Chair Templeton: That’s true too. Alright, so any other feedback about having timing on the 1
schedule? Was that helpful or not helpful? 2
3
Commissioner Summa: I think it’s fine. As a suggestion, I think it’s helpful for the public as long 4
as we’re… it doesn’t limit our conversation. 5
6
Chair Templeton: Alright. 7
8
Vice-Chair Roohparvar: I liked it. I thought it was helpful. 9
10
Chair Templeton: Yeah, I thought so too. I think it’s also nice to help us make sure we’re not 11
overloaded on a particular evening, although we did go overtime here. So, we’ll try and wrap it 12
up. Great. Commissioner Lauing. 13
14
Commissioner Lauing: Any report on the NVCAP timing? 15
16
Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: Yes, we had two subcommittee meetings last month 17
and we have two more at the end of this month which be well the end. One on the 21st of June 18
[note – July] at 5:30 to 8:30 and one on the 28th of June [note – July] from 5:30 to 8:30. And 19
then we will hopefully be reconvening as a large group in August and it is our hope that we 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
would come back to the PTC. I think if we can, as a working group, get to our two draft 1
alternatives that we want to bring back. I’m hoping we can work with the consultants to make 2
them look very pretty and come back to PTC by October. That’d be my hope. 3
4
Commissioner Lauing: You did all that from memory. You didn’t even look at your calendar. 5
6
Ms. Tanner: That one I know by heart. 7
8
Commissioner Summa: I wanted to add one little thing about the NVCAP and that is for those of 9
you who are interested in alternative methods maybe then… for funding affordable housing. 10
There was one alternative, I think it was Alternative M, that was submitted that had a very new 11
and different idea about affordable housing which I think didn’t get the consideration. It’s 12
probably the beginning of an idea, not the end of an idea, and the beginning of a plan, not the 13
end of plan for Alternative M; but I think it was so different than the other alternatives that I 14
don’t think it got the discussion it deserved. Particularly, if the idea for funding for affordable 15
housing which is totally different, I won’t go into the details now. I will just say if you’re 16
interested go read the alternative and pay attention to Alternative M’s idea about funding 17
affordable housing. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to fifteen (15) minutes at the discretion of the Chair,
provided that the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Oh, and you know the other thing that I’ve always thought was unfair is that when we saved 1
Bona Vista as natural affordable housing. We are not able to add that to our RHNA numbers 2
because it was already existing which kind of… I think we should always remind ourselves when 3
we’re feeling bad about that. That we did a tremendous job-saving Bona Vista. 4
5
Chair Templeton: Alright, thank you, Commissioner Summa. Any last comments? Alright, this 6
meeting is adjourned. Thank you all. 7
Adjournment 8
10:10 pm 9