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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-09-08 Planning & transportation commission Summary MinutesPage 1 _______________________ 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: September 8, 2021 2 Virtual Meeting 3 6:00 PM 4 5 Call to Order / Roll Call 6 Approximately 6:01 pm 7 Chair Hechtman called the meeting to order. He requested that Staff play the recording on how 8 the public can register their comments by using Zoom and call the roll. 9 10 [An automated voice recording begins to play disclosing Zoom procedures.] 11 12 Vinh Nguyen, Admin Associate III, announced that all Commissioners are present. 13 Oral Communications 14 The public may speak to any item not on the agenda. Three (3) minutes per speaker.1,2 15 Chair Hechtman invited the public to provide comments on any item that is not on the agenda. 16 17 Vinh Nguyen, Admin Associate III announced that there are no members of the public who wish 18 to speak. 19 20 Chair Hechtman moved to agenda changes, additions, and deletions. 21 22 Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions 23 The Chair or Commission majority may modify the agenda order to improve meeting management. 24 Chair Hechtman disclosed that a neighbor has requested that Agenda Item Three be removed 25 from the agenda and continued to a future date. The neighbor informed the Commission that 26 they thought the item would be heard at a future meeting and did not have sufficient time to 27 prepare their oppositional case. Staff has indicated that there will be no impact on the 28 applicant if the item is moved to a future meeting. 29 30 Commissioner Summa supported moving the item to a future meeting. 31 32 Commissioner Alcheck inquired if the notice to the public was not properly given. 33 34 Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director, explained that there was no concern that the notice was 35 improper, or that there was not sufficient time in terms of what the Municipal Code requires. 36 The neighbor has requested a continuation and all parties amendable to that request. 37 Page 2 _______________________ 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 asked when the notice was published. 2 3 Ms. Tanner predicted it was a 10- or 14- day notice. Staff did send an email to the neighbor but 4 had shared that the item would be heard at the September 29, 2021 Planning and 5 Transportation Commission (PTC) meeting. 6 7 Commissioner Alcheck announced that he is comfortable moving the item to the September 29, 8 2021 meeting. 9 10 Commissioner Lauing concurred with Commissioner Alcheck. 11 12 Vice-Chair Roohparvar agreed. 13 14 Commissioner Chang supported moving the item to the September 29, 2021 meeting. 15 16 Commissioner Templeton asked when did Staff become aware of the shift in the date. 17 18 Ms. Tanner did not have the information available. 19 20 Commissioner Templeton supported moving the item to the September 29, 2021 meeting. 21 22 Ms. Tanner confirmed that nothing wrong happened and that it is just a request for more time. 23 24 Commissioner Templeton clarified that she did not understand why the item was moved up. 25 26 Chair Hechtman announced that he will not always be in favor of a continuance requested by a 27 project opponent. He appreciated that Staff was able to bring the item forward soon, but under 28 the circumstances, he supported moving the project to the September 29, 2021, PTC meeting. 29 30 MOTION 31 32 Commissioner Summa moved that Item Number Three, a public hearing/quasi-judicial 985 33 Channing Avenue, be continued to a date certain of September 29, 2021. 34 35 SECOND 36 37 Commissioner Chang seconded. 38 39 VOTE 40 Page 3 _______________________ 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 Hechtman requested that Staff conduct a roll call vote. 2 3 Vinh Nguyen, Admin Associate III, conducted a roll call vote and announced that the motion 4 passed 7-0. 5 6 MOTION PASSED 7(Alcheck, Chang, Hechtman, Lauing, Roohparvar Summa, Templeton) – 0 7 8 Chair Hechtman asked City Attorney Yang if the action is sufficient. 9 10 Albert Yang, Assistant City Attorney, confirmed that it is sufficient. 11 12 Chair Hechtman asked if there were any other changes the Commissioners want to make to the 13 agenda; seeing none he moved to the next item. 14 15 Commission Action: Motion by Summa, seconded by Chang. Pass 7-0 16 City Official Reports 17 1. Directors Report, Meeting Schedule and Assignments 18 19 Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director, shared that City Council will be reviewing the North Ventura 20 Coordinated Area Plan (NVCAP) at their September 20, 2021 meeting. On September 27, 2021, 21 City Council will be having a study session on the Objective Standards and will take action on 22 them in October of 2021. The City continues to work remotely, except for the Development 23 Center which is open by appointment only. Staff is unaware when in-person Commission 24 meetings will begin but Staff will be meeting to discuss it. 25 26 Chair Hechtman inquired if any Commissioners have questions for Ms. Tanner. Seeing none he 27 moved to Agenda Item Two. 28 Study Session 29 2. Review and Discuss Potential Amendments to Municipal Code Title 10 (Parking) to 30 Allow Virtual Parking Permits, Paid Parking, and Other Code Cleanup. 31 Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director, reminded the Commission that Staff presented the Parking 32 Work Plan and Action Plan to the Planning and Transportation Commission (PTC) in March of 33 2021. The purpose of the item is to review the Municipal Code updates that will enable the City 34 to implant the automated license place reader technology (ALPR), virtual permits, and 35 commercial parking pilots. This effort will help advance the City’s goals in the Transportation 36 Element, the Parking Work Plan, the Parking Action Plan, and the Fiscal Year 20-21 Budget 37 adoption. 38 Page 4 _______________________ 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 Nathan Baird, Transportation Manager added that there are transportation components in the 2 Sustainability Climate Action Plan (S/CAP) as well. He reported that the City currently has eight 3 different parking programs and the programs have become unwieldy for Staff to manage. The 4 idea is not to standardize all the programs to be the same but enable standardization that will 5 help make it easier to manage the programs and monitor data. The proposed Municipal Code 6 changes will allow Staff to develop a virtual permit program for residential parking permit 7 holders, allow pilots programs to happen for the new commercial parking regulations, 8 consolidation and centralize all the Residential Parking Programs (RPP) in the Municipal Code 9 chapters, establish a process for districts and zones to be updated or removed in the Municipal 10 Code as needed, and future proof the code. In terms of RPP operations, Staff is working to 11 transition to a virtual permitting process. This process would replace the hang tags, allow one 12 license plate number per permitted vehicle, and this process will use a phased-in approach for 13 implementation. In terms of the timeline for the year 2022, Staff proposed to transition to one 14 license plate number per permit, make the physical permits non-transferable, and allow two 15 guest hang tags to be available per household. For the year 2023, the City will transition to 16 virtual permits and virtual guest permits which can be obtained through an online portal. For 17 commercial parking permits, Staff will be exploring a framework that would allow the City to 18 add new paid parking zones, permit types, hours, and rates, as well as target parking availability 19 standards. The framework will also determine how revenues will be used and they could be 20 used for the cost of operations and/or equipment or allocations of any surplus revenues 21 beyond operations and equipment expenses. Also, included in the framework will be code 22 language regarding parking violations and responses. He concluded by requesting that the 23 Commission provide feedback on the virtual permitting transition, the ALPR enforcement and 24 parking occupancy monitoring, and the commercial pilot framework. 25 26 Chair Hechtman invited Commissioners to ask questions of Staff. 27 28 Vice-Chair Roohparvar predicted that the technology has already been installed because the 29 system will begin working with employee parking permits on January 1, 2022. 30 31 Mr. Baird clarified that the LRP enforcement will be rolled out to the RPPs first and virtual 32 permits for employees will be built into the RPPs. He noted that the technology will be installed 33 before 2021 ends. 34 35 Vice-Chair Roohparvar loved the idea but inquired if the portal on the City’s website is already 36 built. 37 38 Mr. Baird confirmed that Old Palo Alto, South Gate, College Terrace and Crescent Park already 39 have an online renewal and purchase portal. Evergreen Park/Mayfield and downtown will not 40 Page 5 _______________________ 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. have an online renewal portal until March 2022. He mentioned that residential permits that 1 were going to expire in March of 2021 were extended to March 2022. The first phase includes 2 the online renewal and purchase portal, the next phase will include individual permits linked to 3 individual license plates, and then the final phase will be an all-in-one online portal. 4 5 Vice-Chair Roohparvar asked if the two transferable guest hang tags are a hard cap or can folks 6 purchase more than one. 7 8 Mr. Baird explained that Staff will be transitioning all the RPPs to the downtown allowance of 9 four parking permits and two guest permits. Folks will be allowed to have up to two guest 10 parking permits but will be able to access the online portal to update the license plate numbers 11 that are aligned with the guest permit. 12 13 Vice-Chair Roohparvar inquired what the operational costs are and what operational 14 efficiencies will the City gain once the system is up and running. 15 16 Mr. Baird disclosed that the contract with Duncan Systems was amended to include the license 17 recognition that cost roughly $850,000. Staff expects there will be savings on the enforcement 18 and administrative sides. He acknowledged that some of the parking programs have received a 19 subsidy from the General Fund and the proposed actions will help minimize the funding gap. He 20 emphasized that it is important that the RPPs be seen as a parking availability service and the 21 goal is to preserve open spaces for resident use. 22 23 Chair Hechtman called on Commissioner Chang for questions of Staff. 24 25 Commissioner Chang inquired if the ALPR implementation is going to be phased and will be 26 expanded to all parking districts. 27 28 Mr. Baird explained that College Terrace, Crescent Park, as well as the two commercial parking 29 districts, are currently enforced by the City’s police department. The ALPR device will be used 30 by the City’s contractor enforcement division and will conduct enforcement in the remaining 31 RPP districts. Old Palo Alto, South Gate, downtown, and Evergreen Park/Mayfield will receive 32 ALPR enforcement first, with the intention to use ALPR to do monitoring and occupancy counts 33 throughout all of the parking districts. 34 35 Commissioner Chang wanted further explanation behind the logic of the phased approach for 36 the different neighborhoods. She expressed that having different phases will create a 37 communication challenge and it may be beneficial to phase in adjacent neighborhoods 38 together. 39 40 Page 6 _______________________ 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. Baird agreed and stated that the phased approach can be adjusted. As proposed, Staff is 1 following the current sale cycles so that the impact on residents is a low as possible. Staff will 2 be working through the MRG recommendations in the Parking Work Plan and what 3 adjustments in terms of standardizing can help minimize Staff work time. 4 5 Commissioner Chang inquired what a transportation company is. 6 7 Mr. Baird clarified that is a generic government term for taxi services. 8 9 Commissioner Chang pointed out that one of the proposals is to codified paid parking violations 10 including the use of slugs and tampering with devices. That language implies that devices will 11 be installed. She wanted to understand if those devices have already been approved or if 12 inserting that language into the code allows more flexibility for future devices. 13 14 Mr. Baird confirmed that the language is to allow for flexibility. 15 16 Commissioner Chang noticed that there is a difference in terms of the maximum number of 17 permits allowed per household among the RPPs and that some RPPs will see a reduction in 18 allowable permits. She requested that Staff explain that further. 19 20 Mr. Baird mentioned that when each RPP was set up, the permitted amount was set on what 21 made sense for that specific parking district. He stated that he is not committed to the 22 proposed permit maxes and that Staff will be monitoring the process to see if more or fewer 23 permits are needed in each district. 24 25 Commissioner Chang imagined that there may be equality concerns raised by the public in 26 terms of why one neighborhood received more permits than another. 27 28 Mr. Baird agreed that Staff is prepared for that feedback. 29 30 Commissioner Chang asked if 60 percent of all households must have permits before posting 31 the signs of a new district is a new requirement. 32 33 Mr. Baird shared that posting the signs is the biggest capital expense involved when adding a 34 new district. The proposed requirement allows the program to be financially sustainable as the 35 new districts are developed. 36 37 Chair Hechtman call on Commissioner Alcheck to ask questions of Staff. 38 39 Page 7 _______________________ 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 requested that Staff explain the difference between the new process for 1 guest permits and the old guest pass process. 2 3 Mr. Baird explained that a person must show proof of residency in order to request a guest 4 hang tag and there is a max of how many guest hang tags can be purchased for each district. 5 6 Commissioner Alcheck predicted that there is a fee for guest hang tags. 7 8 Mr. Baird answered yes, $50 per year. 9 10 Commissioner Alcheck asked in which RPPs are folks allowed two guest hang tags. 11 12 Mr. Baird reported that in the districts where employees are allowed to park. Those districts are 13 allowed one free permit. 14 15 Commissioner Alcheck inquired if there are any RPPs that do not allow guest hang tags. He 16 clarified that his impression is that a parking permit can be used by the owner, a guest, or for 17 any vehicle visiting their home. If more permits are needed, then a person could purchase a 18 limited number of scratchers. 19 20 Mr. Baird agreed that the current process is arcane because there are eight programs and each 21 one is set up differently. There are decals, transferrable hang tags and there are scratch-offs. 22 The proposal is to eliminate those three and have residents use an online permit portal. 23 24 Commissioner Alcheck asked what is the virtual version of the current program. 25 26 Mr. Baird restated that the virtual version is the permit portal. 27 28 Commissioner Alcheck predicted that the permit portal can be used every night of the year and 29 it would not be a permit night cost. 30 31 Mr. Baird answered yes. 32 33 Commissioner Alcheck inquired if the online portal will allow folks to rotate permits among 34 various cars. 35 36 Mr. Baird answered that a person will have to enter the permit portal every time they are 37 assigning the permit to a different car. 38 39 Page 8 _______________________ 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 noted that he is asking these questions because he wants to understand 1 the limits of the system. He suggested that Staff explore if the system can run without 2 management by the residents. He requested that Staff explain the rationale behind 3 consolidating the Municipal Code chapters for the RPPs except for Crescent Park’s overnight 4 parking program. 5 6 Mr. Baird stated that the Crescent Park overnight parking program is a qualitatively different 7 program in how it is run. So, it made sense to separate out that program in the code. 8 9 Commissioner Alcheck inquired if Staff considered the Crescent Park program as a profit 10 opportunity. 11 12 Mr. Baird emphasized that none of the RPPs are profit opportunities but a resident service. 13 Staff will be presenting to the Finance Committee a discussion regarding the financial viability 14 of the RPPs in the near future. 15 16 Chair Hechtman called on Commissioner Summa to ask her questions of Staff. 17 18 Commissioner Summa summarized that anybody in a district can purchase a guest hang tag. 19 20 Mr. Baird restated that folks are required to show proof of residency in the district. 21 22 Commissioner Summa suggested that Staff discuss that further offline with her regarding 23 College Terrace. 24 25 Commissioner Summa understood that all parking permits will be transferrable in the future. 26 27 Mr. Baird clarified that for the resident permits, Staff requests that folks present proof of 28 residency for the district, license plate, and vehicle registration. 29 30 Commissioner Summa predicted that guest hang tags will be used until the virtual permitting 31 system is online. 32 33 Mr. Baird answered yes, College Terrace will continue to use guest hang tags. 34 35 Commissioner Summa inquired if a resident can use scratchers to park more vehicles beyond 36 the allowable permit amount and two guest tags. 37 38 Mr. Baird answered yes. 39 40 Page 9 _______________________ 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 Hechtman called for other Commission questions of Staff. Seeing none he requested that 1 Staff begin the public comment period. 2 3 Vinh Nguyen, Admin Associate III called on Neilson Buchanan to share his comments regarding 4 the item. 5 6 Neilson Buchanan asked when the Staff report was released to the public. 7 8 Chair Hechtman noted that the Commission cannot answer questions from the public at this 9 time. 10 11 Mr. Buchanan stated that many of the activists were unaware that the item was coming before 12 the Commission. He disclosed that there is no parking enforcement at night in the commercial 13 cores and neighbors accept for in Crescent Park. 14 15 He shared that he is impressed by what the Office of Transportation is trying to do, but the 16 public has yet to see a project schedule or budget for the concepts. He predicted that the 17 resident leaders will not support the ideas until there is concrete engineering and project 18 management. He concluded that the public has yet to see any evidence that the Staff has a 19 grasp of where practicality and theory meet. 20 21 Mr. Nguyen thanked Mr. Buchanan for his comments. He called the next speaker. 22 23 Ms. Carol Scott agreed with Mr. Buchanan’s comments regarding implementation and practice. 24 She acknowledged that there has been a great delay in getting the new system up and running. 25 She supported Mr. Buchanan’s comments regarding the lack of public visibility. The City held 26 several in-person sessions with City Staff when the Evergreen Park/Mayfield RPP was first 27 proposed to make sure that the residents were well informed. With the proposed changes, no 28 public outreach has happened and so she encouraged communication to take place with 29 residents happen before any of the proposed changes are implemented. She commented that 30 the proposals include a further restriction for residents and increased flexibility for commercial 31 parking. Residents need a lot of flexibility and having to log into a portal every night to move 32 around permits can be burdensome to a resident. She concluded that under the current 33 proposal, Staff is suggesting that some RPPs should be funded by allowing commercial parkers 34 to park in neighborhoods. She did not understand the logic behind making some RPPs pay for 35 their program through the sale of commercial permits while other RPPs receive subsidies from 36 the City. 37 38 Mr. Nguyen announced that public comment has concluded. 39 40 Page 10 _______________________ 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 Hechtman asked when the Staff report became publicly available and was the release 1 consistent with the City’s normal timeframe. 2 3 Ms. Tanner answered that the report was released a week before the meeting. 4 5 Chair Hechtman summarized that Staff is seeking feedback to help them build an ordinance. He 6 inquired what the next steps are after the Commission discusses the item. 7 8 Mr. Baird explained that next, Staff will be bringing forward a redlined version of an ordinance 9 to Council so that Staff can roll out virtual permits to employees by January 1, 2022. 10 11 Chair Hechtman restated that the PTC will not see a draft revised ordinance. 12 13 Mr. Baird confirmed that is the current plan. 14 15 Commissioner Lauing acknowledged that the PTC has been hearing about the ALPR for at least 16 2-years and he was excited that the project moving forward. He expressed confusion that Staff 17 would not be bringing back to the PTC a revised draft ordinance before it goes to Council. The 18 public speakers mentioned that they would appreciate more time to digest what Staff has 19 proposed. He suggested that the ordinance come back to the PTC for review after the Finance 20 Committee reviews it. He announced that the employee RPPs should not be driving the project 21 and that the program is a residential parking permit program. He wanted to understand if there 22 is a way to accelerate the program once financing is set. He expressed that there will be a user 23 interface objection to everything a person has to enter in a different license plate number for 24 their guest passes. 25 26 Mr. Baird explained that Staff is attempting to replicate how the current system is set up. He 27 agreed that if having to enter information into the online portal becomes burdensome for folks. 28 That process can be modified to make it more user-friendly. He noted that a license plate has to 29 be in the system in order for the enforcement vehicles to enforce using the devices. The 30 proposed Municipal Code updates are to allow the City to use virtual permits. It is not changing 31 how the current guest program works. He acknowledged Commissioner Lauing’s comments 32 regarding the code clean-up process and shared that he will discuss with leadership Staff what 33 the next steps are for the ordinance. In terms of employee permits, he emphasized that that 34 group is not driving the process. The employee permit group is an easily identifiable user group 35 for Staff to work with because their permits are updated every 6-months. Staff will not provide 36 virtual permits to the residents until all the kinks have been worked out. 37 38 Page 11 _______________________ 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 clarified that if it is easier for users to use guest hang tags, then the City 1 should continue with that process. In terms of the process, he suggested Staff provide the 2 ordinance to Council in a study session. Then bring the ordinance back to PTC for refinements. 3 4 Chair Hechtman called on Commissioner Summa for her comments. 5 6 Commissioner Summa appreciated Commissioner Lauing’s comments regarding the timing and 7 a more robust process for the public’s and PTC’s review. She shared the thought that ALPRs are 8 a really good idea but there are consequences. She acknowledged that there are parking 9 activists who have done a tremendous amount of work in terms of counting cars and working 10 with the City to improve the RPPs. She asked if Staff is not changing any of the details in the 11 RPPs, is an ordinance needed to implement the programs in an automated fashion, or is that 12 kind of improvement available to Staff as long as Council financially approves it. 13 14 Mr. Baird restated that the current Municipal Code has specific language regarding the hard 15 permits and the proposed adjustments are to ensure that virtual permits can move forward. If 16 the City continues with the current process, enforcement will continue to be inefficient. 17 18 Commissioner Summa mentioned that in College Terrace, folks cannot purchase a guest hang 19 tag unless they have a residential permit. She emphasized that it is hard for folks who don’t 20 own a car to have guests at their house. In terms of ease of use for guest hang tags, she agreed 21 that using hang tags is much easier than having to enter a license plate every evening into the 22 online portal. She acknowledged that there has been a steep learning curve in College Terrace 23 when the switch was made to an online portal, but purchasing permits online has made it 24 easier for residents. In terms of requiring 60 percent of all households to purchase a permit 25 before signs are installed, she found that requirement to be a bit restrictive. That requirement 26 may hurt a neighborhood that has a large majority of residents who don’t own cars. She 27 mentioned that many of her neighborhood leaders were not aware of the changes that Staff 28 was making and that there has been a lack of outreach to the residents City-wide. She 29 expressed confusion as to why some neighborhoods are allowed more permits than others. She 30 argued that the size of households is increasing due to the installation of accessory dwelling 31 units (ADU). She encouraged Staff to not be so prescriptive with some of their restrictions. 32 33 Commissioner Templeton appreciated the presentation made by Staff. She supported the idea 34 of starting the process with employees first but suggested that a focus group of residents go 35 through the beta test as well. She expressed excitement that the ALPR program is finally coming 36 to fruition and appreciated Staff moving the project forward. She acknowledged that residents 37 deserve and will demand a user-friendly process. For this reason, she suggested that Staff 38 conduct another round of community input before the program is implemented. Also, she 39 recommended that Staff include in the implementation plan how to handle tickets. 40 Page 12 _______________________ 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 Hechtman called on Commissioner Chang to provide her comments. 2 3 Commissioner Chang sensed that some of the proposed Municipal Code changes are non-4 controversial and will bring the code up to current times. She recommended that the more 5 non-controversial changes should be sent to Council and the more controversial ones should 6 have another round of community involvement. 7 8 Chair Hechtman called on Commissioner Alcheck to provide his comments. 9 10 Commissioner Alcheck stated that moving in the proposed direction makes sense. He 11 acknowledged that the RPPs cannot be considered together because they are all different. He 12 agreed that the solution will be expensive and a blunt methodology. While the project will 13 make the process more technologically advanced, some questions and concerns have not been 14 addressed. He stated that it feels like there will not be a lot of opportunities for the public to 15 voice their questions and concerns. He commented that it is absurd that there could be a 16 homeowner with six parking permits, but also did not love the idea that the City can tell a 17 homeowner how many permits they are allowed to have. He felt that there is not a lot of 18 transparency and rationale across the RPPs in terms of understanding why certain 19 neighborhoods are allowed more or fewer permits than others. He recommended that as the 20 process moves forward, Staff should review the objectives of the RPPs to allow for more 21 community input. He agreed with Commissioner Summa’s comment that there are individuals 22 who do not have a car and cannot receive guest hang tags. If a resident can show proof of 23 residency, they should be allowed a guest parking permit. He suggested that the City should 24 demonstrate that there is a problem with folks obtaining permits illegally and then the City can 25 raise the requirements. He concluded that the PTC should do an annual review of the parking 26 strategies and host an opportunity for the community to share input. 27 28 Chair Hechtman shared that the more dialog there can be when it comes to drafting a new 29 ordinance or section of the code, there will be a better product in the outcome. He found it 30 disappointing that the PTC will not have an opportunity to participate in the process for the 31 ordinance. He expressed that it is a better process if the PTC sees the draft ordinance first and 32 then has Council review it. In terms of RPPs, he appreciated their utility but confessed that he is 33 not a huge supporter of them. He believed that they are an extra service provided by the City, 34 not an essential service. With virtual permits, he understood that it will reduce Staff time which 35 will reduce the cost to the program and that it is a reasonable ask to have folks register cars 36 online in order to have the City make the accommodation for the neighborhoods. He 37 acknowledged that there will be human error when virtual permitting comes online and 38 suggested that there be a grace period, in the beginning, to allow folks to become familiar with 39 the process. 40 Page 13 _______________________ 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 agreed with Commissioner Chang that the proposed Municipal Code 2 changes should be separated into two groups. She supported Commissioner Alcheck’s 3 comment that the PTC should do an annual review of the parking strategies. 4 5 Mr. Baird appreciated the comments that the Commissioners have provided. He mentioned 6 that he will discuss with leadership Staff what the process should be moving forward. 7 8 Chair Hechtman closed the item and moved to Agenda Item Number Three. 9 Action Items 10 Public Comment is Permitted. Applicants/Appellant Teams: Fifteen (15) minutes, plus three (3) minutes rebuttal. 11 All others: Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 12 13 3. PUBLIC HEARING / QUASI-JUDICIAL. 985 Channing Avenue [21PLN-00167]: Request 14 for Public Hearing of a Preliminary Parcel Map to remove a recorded height 15 restriction on the underlying Parcel Map. Environmental Assessment: Exempt from 16 the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in accordance with 17 Guideline Section 15315 (Minor Land Divisions). Zoning District: R-1 (Single Family 18 Residential). 19 Chair Hechtman announced that the item has been continued to a date certain of September 20 29th, 2021. 21 Approval of Minutes 22 Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 23 4. June 30, 2021 Draft PTC Meeting Minutes 24 25 Vice-Chair Roohparvar requested that the minutes be split into two motions because 26 Commissioner Alcheck and herself were not in attendance at the June 30, 2021 meeting. 27 28 MOTION 29 30 Commissioner Summa moved to approve the June 30, 2021 minutes as revised. 31 32 SECOND 33 34 Commissioner Lauing seconded. 35 36 VOTE 37 38 Page 14 _______________________ 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. Vinh Nguyen, Admin Associate III conducted a roll call vote. He announced that the motion 1 passed 6-0 with Vice-Chair Roohparvar abstaining. 2 3 MOTION PASSED 6(Alcheck, Chang, Hechtman, Lauing, Summa, Templeton) -0 -1 (Roohparvar 4 abstain) 5 6 Commissioner Alcheck shared that he watched the meeting video. 7 8 Commission Action: Motion by Summa, seconded by Lauing. Pass 6-0 (Roohparvar abstained) 9 10 5. July 14, 2021 Draft PTC Meeting minutes 11 MOTION 12 13 Commissioner Summa moved the July 14, 2021 minutes as revised. 14 15 SECOND 16 17 Vice-Chair Roohparvar seconded. 18 19 VOTE 20 21 Mr. Nguyen conducted a roll call vote. He announced that the motion carried 7-0. 22 23 MOTION PASSED 7(Alcheck, Chang, Lauing, Hechtman, Summa, Roohparvar, Templeton) -0 24 25 Chair Hechtman moved to the next agenda item. 26 27 Commission Action: Motion by Summa, seconded by Roohparvar. Pass 7-0 28 Committee Items 29 Commissioner Lauing reported that the Housing Element Working Group continues its work and 30 the group has been very productive. 31 32 Chair Hechtman moved to the next agenda item. 33 Commissioner Questions, Comments or Announcements 34 Commissioner Summa mentioned that the NVCAP will be at Council on September 20, 2021. 35 36 Page 15 _______________________ 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 Hechtman added that he is the PTC liaison for that meeting with Commissioner Chang as 1 the backup. He inquired what items will be on the agenda for the September 29, 2021, PTC 2 meeting. 3 4 Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director confirmed that the only item is the item that was continued. 5 6 Chair Hechtman commented that after hearing the discussion, there was not a strong desire to 7 have a PTC retreat. He encouraged the Commissioners to bring topics forward that they are 8 interested in discussing and possibly scheduling them for the September 29, 2021 meeting or at 9 a future meeting. 10 11 Ms. Tanner shared that Commissioners can invite speakers to speak to the Commission about 12 specific topics as well. 13 14 Commissioner Summa inquired if resident experts can come to speak to the Commission about 15 various topics. 16 17 Ms. Tanner believed that there is nothing from a procedural standpoint that would prevent that 18 type of interaction. Staff would need information on the speakers and that there is no conflict. 19 20 Albert Yang, Assistant City Attorney, agreed with Ms. Tanner. 21 22 Chair Hechtman understood that the Commission would have a dialog with resident experts on 23 a topic. 24 25 Ms. Tanner explained that for the Commission there is normally no dialog between the 26 Commissioners and the public. Staff would have to investigate how that type of dialog would be 27 shaped and how folks would be notified of the meeting. 28 29 Mr. Yang confirmed that Staff can discuss it. 30 31 Commissioner Chang wanted to discuss high accident areas and congested roadways. 32 33 Commissioner Lauing inquired if there are any projects that Staff can accelerate so that the 34 Commission has a more robust agenda for the September 29, 2021 meeting. 35 36 Ms. Tanner answered at this time there are no projects that can be accelerated. She 37 remembered and shared that the Planning Department hired a new principal planner in the 38 Long-Range Planning team. 39 40 Page 16 _______________________ 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 highlighted that there are few instances where a Commission expresses 1 interest in further public engagement and hosting further dialog. He appreciated that the 2 Commissioners are pushing for that. 3 4 Chair Hechtman declared that the meeting is adjourned. 5 Adjournment 6 8:20 pm 7 Page 1 _______________________ 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: September 8, 2021 2 Virtual Meeting 3 6:00 PM 4 5 Call to Order / Roll Call 6 Approximately 6:01 pm 7 Chair Hechtman: Thank you and good evening. Welcome to the members of the Commission 8 and Staff. I don’t see any members of the public yet, but I welcome them when they sign on. 9 Welcome to this meeting of the Planning and Transportation Commission. It’s our regular 10 meeting of September 8th. It’s good to be back after nearly 2-months off. Mr. Nguyen, will you 11 roll the tape? 12 13 [An automated voice recording begins to play disclosing Zoom procedures.] 14 15 Chair Hechtman: Mr. Nguyen, please conduct the roll call. 16 17 Mr. Vinh Nguyen, Admin Associate III: Chair Hechtman? 18 19 Chair Hechtman: Present. 20 21 Mr. Nguyen: Vice-Chair Roohparvar? 22 23 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Present. 24 25 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Alcheck? 26 27 Commissioner Alcheck: Present. 28 29 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Chang? 30 31 Commissioner Chang: Present. 32 33 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Lauing? 34 35 Commissioner Lauing: Present. 36 37 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Summa? 38 39 Page 2 _______________________ 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 Summa: Present. 1 2 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Templeton? 3 4 Commissioner Templeton: Here. 5 6 Mr. Nguyen: We have a quorum, thank you. 7 8 Chair Hechtman: We are now moving on to oral communications. 9 Oral Communications 10 The public may speak to any item not on the agenda. Three (3) minutes per speaker.1,2 11 Chair Hechtman: This section is for the public to speak on items not on tonight’s agenda. Please 12 raise your hand if you wish to speak. On the Zoom app, there is a raise hand button on the 13 bottom of your screen. If you’re dialing in from a phone, press *9. Mr. Nguyen, are there any 14 public speakers for oral communications? 15 16 Mr. Vinh Nguyen, Admin Associate III: Chair Hechtman, we do not have any speakers for oral 17 communications. 18 19 Chair Hechtman: We will then move to agenda changes, additions and deletions. 20 21 Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions 22 The Chair or Commission majority may modify the agenda order to improve meeting management. 23 Chair Hechtman: Commissioners, I have one item here. In our public comments packet that we 24 received yesterday from Staff. There was a letter regarding Agenda Item Number Three. It was 25 written by one of the neighbors of 985 Channing. One of the neighbors who had submitted 26 during the process a Letter of Opposition to the applications being made by that applicant. And 27 the letter requested a continuance of Item Number Three tonight. The basis given was that 28 the… this neighbor was under the impression from discussions with Staff that the item was 29 being targeted for September… our September 29th, our next Planning Commission meeting. 30 That they got this notice that it would be on tonight’s agenda very recently. I’m not clear… I’m 31 not looking at the letter so I can’t remember if it was just before or during the Labor Day 32 weekend and that they had insufficient time to prepare. It’s an important issue for them. Some 33 or all of them have legal counsel and so their request was that the item be continued. 34 35 I have conferred with Staff to verify that in terms of the impact on the applicant, there is no 36 particular timeline or municipal deadline that they’re up against, that a continuance might 37 harm them in that way. So, I’d like to hear what the Commissioner’s think about continuing 38 Item Three to a date certain, our September 29th agenda and if it’s the will of the group and I 39 look forward to a motion to that effect. So, if I can… Commissioner Summa. 40 Page 3 _______________________ 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: Thank you very much. I would appreciate differing it to the 29th. I think 2 it seems better for everyone involved to have it, including us, to have a little more time and 3 hear the perspectives of the neighbors once they’re had time to consider it. I can make a 4 motion but I prefer to hear from my colleagues first. 5 6 Chair Hechtman: Thank you. Commissioner Alcheck. 7 8 Commissioner Alcheck: So, can you repeat the logic? Was there… is there a situation where 9 notice wasn’t properly given? Is there… does Staff have a sense that maybe the individuals who 10 were supposed to be notified weren’t given the proper amount of time? 11 12 Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: I can respond Chair Hechtman if you would like? 13 14 Chair Hechtman: Please. 15 16 Ms. Tanner: There’s no concern that the notice was improper or that there was not sufficient 17 time in terms of what the code requires for notice to be given. But that there is a request for 18 continence and it seems amendable to the parties and to the Staff if the Commission is wanting 19 to continue it to the 29th. 20 21 Commissioner Alcheck: OK so is that both the applicant and the… 22 23 Ms. Tanner: That’s my understanding from Staff. We’ve reached out to the applicant and that 24 they’re OK with that with moving it to the 29th. And again, I think the perspective of the 25 commenter or the neighbor is that they didn’t feel that they had sufficient time to attend to 26 what they wanted to prepare for the hearing. 27 28 Commissioner Alcheck: And just so I know, what is the amount of time they were given? 29 30 Ms. Tanner: I think… I would have to see if it was a 10- or 14-day notice. We did notify them via 31 email that the hearing was set. But again, in previous communication, they had been expecting 32 the 29th because that’s what our calendar was set for and so it was a change from their… the 33 previous date that we had discussed. 34 35 Commissioner Alcheck: OK, then I’m OK with it. 36 37 Chair Hechtman: Commissioner Lauing. 38 39 Page 4 _______________________ 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’m fine with it. There’s no timeline for anybody here and having more 1 times for neighbors to comment on projects that are going up next door to them I think is a real 2 positive. And we should do that for residents so I’d be in support. 3 4 Chair Hechtman: Vice-Chair Roohparvar. 5 6 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: I agree, I’d be supportive. I think allowing for more time for the 7 neighbors and also just gathering more information. We asked for a few more things in the pre-8 PTC meeting would be helpful too. 9 10 Chair Hechtman: Commissioner Chang. 11 12 Commissioner Chang: I am also supportive particularly because the neighbors were expecting a 13 different date. The 29th and so the change is… you know if they were counting on that for their 14 legal counsel and research. It’s important that we give it to them. Thank you. 15 16 Chair Hechtman: We’ve heard from all the Commissioners. Would… oh, Commissioner 17 Templeton, sorry. Now we will have heard. 18 19 Commissioner Templeton: Thank you, Chair When did the Staff change the meeting date? 20 21 Chair Hechtman: Your microphone’s a little warbly Commissioner Templeton, but I think your 22 question was when did Staff… was it when did Staff become aware of the shift in the date 23 forward? 24 25 Commissioner Templeton: Yes. 26 27 Ms. Tanner: I would need to ask Staff. I’m not sure when they changed the date. I don’t have 28 that information available. 29 30 Commissioner Templeton: Alright, well that being the case, it's hard to tell who’s in the right, 31 and let’s air on the side of caution. And I’d be supportive to move this to next time. 32 33 Ms. Tanner: I don’t think anything wrong happened. I think it’s just a request for more time. 34 35 Commissioner Templeton: Yeah, I guess I just don’t understand why and if we had more insight. 36 But it sounds like we don’t and that’s OK. 37 38 Chair Hechtman: And from my perspective, I would not always be in favor of a continuance 39 requested by a project opponent. But under the circumstances here where I can certainly 40 Page 5 _______________________ 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. understand that not fault on Staff and in fact, I applaud Staff. We encourage Staff to bring 1 things… to move things efficiently through their process and bring them to us and I think that’s 2 what happened here. And maybe they even surprised themselves by being ready to go with this 3 on September 8th rather than September 29th. So, I applaud that but under the circumstances, I 4 can understand the neighbor’s perspective thinking that they had the luxury of more time and 5 suddenly they do not. And so, I would… if somebody wants to make a motion, I would be 6 supportive of a continuance to a date certain of September 29th. Commissioners… 7 8 Commissioner Summa: I can… 9 10 Chair Hechtman: Commissioner Summa. 11 12 MOTION 13 14 Commissioner Summa: Motion, OK. I move that we move this item to a date… Item Number 15 Three, public hearing/quasi-judicial 985 Channing Avenue, to a date certain, September 29th. 16 17 SECOND 18 19 Commissioner Chang: I’ll second that motion. 20 21 VOTE 22 23 Chair Hechtman: Thank you Commissioner… oh sorry, was that Commissioner Chang? Yes, 24 thank you, Commissioner Chang. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing no hands Mr. Nguyen, 25 will you conduct a roll call vote, please? 26 27 Mr. Vinh Nguyen, Admin Associate III: Commissioner Alcheck? Commissioner Alcheck? 28 29 Commissioner Alcheck: Yah. 30 31 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Chang? 32 33 Commissioner Chang: Yes. 34 35 Mr. Nguyen: Chair Hechtman? 36 37 Chair Hechtman: Yes. 38 39 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Lauing? 40 Page 6 _______________________ 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 Lauing: Yes. 2 3 Mr. Nguyen: Vice-Chair Roohparvar? 4 5 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Yes. 6 7 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Summa? 8 9 Commissioner Summa: Yes. 10 11 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Templeton? 12 13 Commissioner Templeton: Yes. 14 15 Mr. Nguyen: Thank you. The motion carries 7-0. 16 17 MOTION PASSED 7(Alcheck, Chang, Hechtman, Lauing, Roohparvar Summa, Templeton) – 0 18 19 Chair Hechtman: Thank you. Mr. Yang, is that action sufficient to… do we have any detail that 20 we need to address to complete that? 21 22 Mr. Albert Yang, Assistant City Attorney: No, that should take care of it, thank you. So, I’m 23 currently seeing only two attendees and I’m not recognizing either name as the author of that 24 request letter. So, later on in our meeting, after Item Two, when we get to what would be Item 25 Three. I’ll reannounce the continuance in case they were planning to join later. With that we 26 can move onto… well actually, I should ask, are there any other agenda changes, additions, or 27 deletions that any of the Commissioners want to bring up? Seeing none, let’s move on to City 28 official reports. 29 Commission Action: Motion by Summa, seconded by Chang. Pass 7-0 30 City Official Reports 31 1. Directors Report, Meeting Schedule and Assignments 32 Chair Hechtman: Ms. Tanner? 33 34 Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: Thank you, Chair Hechtman. Good evening 35 Commissioners, good to be with you all again today. Just a few updates for you, just when it 36 comes to what’s coming up at City Council this remainder of September. We have the NVCAP 37 will be back to City Council on September 20th and then we also have our Objective Standards, 38 which the Commission reviewed, which will be to Council on September 27th which is the 39 Page 7 _______________________ 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. following Monday. And that Objective Standards is intended to be kind of two-part trip to 1 Council. So, we’ll go to Council first for general feedback, any questions, more of a study 2 session, and then take it up as action I believe it’s in either October or early November. Which 3 feels kind of odd to say, November is just two months away. 4 5 And speaking of things that are continuing and time moving fast. We are still unfortunately in 6 kind of a little spike in the pandemic and that has caused us to shift some of our reopening 7 plans that we has as a City. And so, we still have our Development Center which is across the 8 street from City Hall and that is open for appointments. And so, folks can go online to the City’s 9 website and they can go to the Planning and Development Services page and make an 10 appointment. They can also call to make an appointment and that would be for Building 11 Permits, Public Works, Fire, if they’re needing to meet with a Planner, and right now we’re 12 doing as one appointment at a time. We may increase that if and when we feel that it’s safe to 13 do so. But so far, it’s been working very well and I think provides an atmosphere where both 14 our Staff and of course our customers can feel comfortable knowing who’s going to be there 15 and some expectations around capacity. 16 17 We do look forward hopefully to getting this Commission together in person at sometime soon. 18 I will say I’m not sure of the date. We do have a meeting scheduled this week for Chairs… sorry 19 for liaison, Staff liaison, to learn more about how in-person Commission and Council meetings 20 will be run. And so hopefully will have an update after that of when we might expect to be 21 together again in City Hall and what the circumstances of that would be. 22 23 So, those are the few updates that we have and I’m trying to think if there was one other thing 24 but it is escaping me. So, those are the updates that I have for you all right now but of course, 25 happy to answer any questions that you might have at least to the best of my ability. 26 27 Chair Hechtman: Thank you, Ms. Tanner. Questions of Staff? Very well then, let us move into 28 our agenda with our study session tonight. 29 Study Session 30 2. Review and Discuss Potential Amendments to Municipal Code Title 10 (Parking) to 31 Allow Virtual Parking Permits, Paid Parking, and Other Code Cleanup. 32 Chair Hechtman: It’s Agenda Item Number Two, review and discuss potential amendment to 33 Municipal Code Title 10, which is the parking title, to allow virtual parking permits, paid parking, 34 and other code cleanup. Mr. Baird, will you be presenting the Staff report? 35 36 Mr. Nathan Baird, Transportation Manager: Yes, I will. I’ll bring that up right now if that’s 37 appropriate? 38 39 Page 8 _______________________ 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: Yeah, that’s great and as Mr. Baird’s getting that ready 1 I’ll just remind folks. I think he was with us early this March, this year in March, presenting the 2 Parking Work Plan and Action Plan. And so, this is following up on some of the items that were 3 discussed then. Yes, if you can go to the next slide, I’ll just kind of tee us up a little bit. 4 5 And so, the purpose for today’s meeting is really to review Municipal Code updates that enable 6 the City to implement automated license plate reader technology, virtual permits, and 7 commercial parking pilots which we talked a little bit about when we were together earlier this 8 year. To share the predicted timeline for implementing the ALPR, to get feedback from the PTC, 9 and also to get feedback and public comment. 10 11 And just as a reminder, I think if you can go to the next slide, Mr. Baird? The City has a lot of 12 energy and a lot of work in planning on how to manage our parking and how to best manage 13 that for the City and for the residents and all the users of the City. You’ll find parts of this back 14 in our Comprehensive Plan which of course was adopted in March 2017, the Parking Work Plan, 15 and the Parking Action Plan as well as through last year’s budget adoption and this year’s 16 budget adoption. Council also made decisions that began us on this path that is continuing to 17 better manage our parking and modernize how we are managing our parking. And so that’s 18 really the context that Mr. Baird is coming to us for feedback and also to get comments from 19 the public. So, I’m going to turn it over to him now and take it away Nate. 20 21 Mr. Baird: And I’ll just add that there’s quite a bit in the Transportation Element. And also, I’ve 22 been working closely with the rest of the OO Team and also planning and many of the other 23 folks in the City on the sustainability… the S/CAP plans as well because there are some parking 24 items in there too. And the virtual permit [unintelligible – audio cut out] that we’re talking 25 about and these Muni Code updates that we are presenting as in progress right and will be 26 bringing to Council soon. Really do help advance many of the programs that help us move the 27 needle on those transportation programs related to parking that help us meet a variety of City 28 goals in transportation. 29 30 I’ll just give a quick update to begin on why these codes are really necessary right now. It’s 31 important to understand that we have eight different parking programs. We got the 32 commercial program… commercial core programs and then also all the RPP programs in various 33 neighbors. And these have really been adopted over time and have kind of become a little 34 unwieldy for Staff to manage and even for our vendors to manage just because there’re so 35 many different programs and different options for each of the programs. And that really came 36 out of the fact that we did pretty extensive planning exercises for each of these programs to 37 develop programs that were already specific to the conditions that were… our residents and 38 stakeholders were experiencing from the impact to nearby businesses and services. But also, 39 that were documented in with real data and counts that were done out in the field. But we’re 40 Page 9 _______________________ 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. really needing to do now is transition to a system where we can continue to do that data 1 monitoring and continue to think through and propose adjustments that can help meet the 2 goals of each of these programs. So, the idea isn’t necessarily to standardize all the programs to 3 the same but really enable us to standard some things that will help make it easier to manage. 4 But also, to get regular data monitoring so that we can make sure we’re meeting program goals 5 as well. 6 7 On the next slide, we’re just reviewing here what these changes will allow us to do. So, really, 8 it’s about adopting virtual permit options for our residential permit holders to start. This 9 enhances the speed for customers and it also simplifies administrative procedures for Staff on 10 the back end. We’re also… you know as we talked about last time I was here, introduce it and 11 adopting new commercial parking regulations. And so, what we’re doing is we’re going to be 12 establishing in the Muni Code a process by which we can adopt pilots or do a pilot on a 13 particular block or zone or in an area where it could be really useful for our commercial folks. 14 And we know that as the economy eventually does come back up to speed. That the parking 15 demand that we’ve seen in downtown and Cal Ave area and other the surrounding areas will 16 owe… it tends to pick back up with the economy coming back. 17 18 We’re also interested in just kind of consolidating to the extent that we can the Muni Code 19 chapters on all the RPPs. That… except for the no [unintelligible] parking program in Crescent 20 Park which is qualitatively different that the others. And what we will do is we will establish the 21 process for these… we’ll establish a process for districts and zones to be added or updated or 22 move in the PAMC and then adjust some of those things in the administrative guidelines. 23 Instead of having some of these things spelled out quite as explicatively as they are in the code. 24 25 So, right now the code does specific… very specifically in some cases using a particular type of 26 hard permit or physical decal. That sort of thing and what we’re wanting to do is just allow 27 ourselves to be able to use virtual permits. 28 29 Some of the other changes are really about just kind of future-proofing the code to bringing it 30 up to a modern standard. Moving some of the key elements to the administrative guidelines 31 which makes it a little bit easier for Staff to be responsive to conditions on the ground. And to 32 update some of our language to the best practices which helps… make it easier for us to 33 enforce once specific behaviors that we may see in the future. That includes using the word 34 active for loading and unloading, removing specific times in the rate… in the curb side 35 regulations, and referring instead to as designated by posted signage. That allows us to be a 36 little bit more flexible as people requests green zones in the commercial zones or other types of 37 curb sign regulations. So, that we can manage that curb really well and another small clean-up 38 item is just defining and adding some language to address Transportation Network Company 39 (TNC) violations for parking or standing for longer than they’re supposed to. So, all of that 40 Page 10 _______________________ 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. helps… all of these adjustments will help us just kind of manage our curb more efficiently and 1 effectively. 2 3 More importantly, though, it really does help us enhance our parking operations and this is the 4 key reason why Council directed us in this direction. To help us make sure all of our programs 5 were financially viable and sustained over time. 6 7 So, again the overall enhancement that we’re doing is transitioning to virtual permits, replacing 8 the hang tags in particular. A big first change that will have to happen is that we’ll have to tie 9 one license plate number to each permit. This reduces Staff time needed to verify valid permits 10 and also makes it easier for many folks to just update their information online and have their 11 permit request to fill immediately. Versus having to go through a transaction and then have it 12 wait for 10-days to 14-days for it to arrive in the mail which is the case currently. And the goal 13 really is to implement this in a phased approach to ease the transition for our customers as best 14 we can. So, we’re basing it on our permit sale cycles, thinking about when we’ll be adding the 15 technology to the vehicles. So, the vehicles, we’ve got just two enforcement vehicles and two 16 devices that will be installed before the year is out. And the idea is to have those vehicles in 17 action testing by the end of… before the end of this year for deployment in January. 18 19 So, again the… here’s a more visual way of thinking about the timeline for the commercial 20 permits and to show how we’re easing into it. So, the first adjustment we need to make again is 21 to tie each permit just to one license plate and then the physical permits will not be… will no 22 longer be transferrable. Though we will keep the possibility for two guest hang tags… 23 transferrable guest hang tags available for each household through this next year. But the 24 following year we think that will be enough time for us to develop a virtual guest permit portal 25 that works for everybody. 26 27 And then this next section is just the framework that we’ll be setting up in the Muni Code for 28 commercial parking and commercial pilots that we’re interested in looking at. And of course, 29 those will need to come back but the idea is setting up a framework where the City will have a 30 process to add a new paid parking zone. You know, we’ll set out that type of permits they’d be 31 interested in… potentially interested in, and then operating hours and rates for those permits 32 as well as target parking availability standards. This really helps ground our program and 33 anything we develop into an available standard. 34 35 The code will also determine how the revenues we use or will be used. They could be used for 36 the cost of operations and equipment and then this is an interesting topic in terms of if there is 37 any surplus revenues in the future. You know what… where might those be allocated? 38 39 Page 11 _______________________ 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. Beyond that, the idea is to codify the paid parking violations and responses. Including what why 1 of payment is involved, use of slugs, what sorts of penalties are there for tampering with the 2 devices, and those sorts of changes. 3 4 So, that’s kind of the quick overview. I really do invite your feedback and input on how we’re 5 thinking about transiting to virtual permitting. Also, feedback on ALPR enforcement and parking 6 occupancy monitoring that we’ll be doing and if anyone has thoughts on the commercial pilot 7 framework. I’m interested in hearing what you all have to say about that as well. And again, 8 your feedback will be incorporated into what we bring to Council with final recommendations 9 and redline edits. 10 11 Chair Hechtman: Alright, thank you, Mr. Baird. Commissioners, questions of Staff before public 12 comment? Vice-Chair Roohparvar. 13 14 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: I just had a few clarifying questions. I assume the engineering, like the 15 tech, is already built. Is that accurate because we’re going to start rolling it out with employees 16 on Jan. 1? 17 18 Mr. Baird: So, we are… 19 20 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: The website and the engineering is already done. 21 22 Mr. Baird: So, the LPR enforcement will be rolled out to the RPPs first and we will be working to 23 build virtual permitting for employees in the RPPs first. It’s a smaller subset of folks who will 24 help us transition the technology on. The technology has not been installed yet, so there will be 25 a transition in terms of how the enforcement is done. But that won’t necessarily be obvious to 26 anybody in the public in terms of whether the enforcement vehicles are already using the ALPR 27 or not. So, when enforcement returns on October 1, the devices will not have been installed yet 28 but they will be installed before the years out. And we’ll have some time to test it and make 29 sure everything works and the kinks out before it goes live enforcement in January. 30 31 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: I got it and then is there going to be a, I assume… I’m just trying to 32 visualize… first of all, I think this is a great idea. Love it but is there going to be… I assume 33 there’s going to be some sort of website like you see with other Cities or HOAs where people 34 can go on and renew their permits and pay these sort of citations. Like that’s what we’re 35 envisioning and I was wondering (interrupted) 36 37 Mr. Baird: Yeah. 38 39 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: If that’s all been built out and incorporated in the City’s website? 40 Page 12 _______________________ 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. Baird: So, we are in the process of building out those websites and portals. So, some of our 2 programs… a subset of our programs you are able now to go to an online portal and do your 3 renewal that way. The only ones that are not there yet are the larger… the downtown and the 4 Evergreen Park/Mayfield. Resident permits are going to still be valid that were originally 5 expiring last year… that were going to be expiring this past March were extended to March ’22. 6 So, March ’22 is when Evergreen Park/Mayfield and downtown will get the online renewal 7 portal and then beyond that, on the way to the following summer. We’ll bring the same service 8 to the garages and lots. But we’ve already rolled it out Old Palo Alto, South Gate, College 9 Terrace and Crescent Park. So, those four already have their online portals but they don’t have 10 virtual permits yet. So, it’s you’ll get the online portal for your renewal and purchase first. And 11 then you’ll have, in the subsequent cycle, we will be transitioning to permits that are tied to 12 individual license plates but you still have some hard permits. And then the final phase of this 13 rollout is the virtual permit itself where folks will be able to just type it… you’ll do it all at once 14 in terms of the transaction, entering your license plate. And then also getting confirmation that 15 you’re not in the system and your permit is automatically valid at that point. 16 17 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: And I had another question, I notice that the two transferrable guests 18 hash tags. Is that a hard cap or are people going to have the option of purchasing from their 19 neighbor? Is there any sort of flexibility that we’re building in? Like what if some neighbors 20 don’t want it but one neighbor has four children. How does… how have we thought about 21 (interrupted) 22 23 Mr. Baird: So, what we’ve been thinking about really is transitioning folks to the downtown 24 allowances which means that you are allowed four and then two guest permits. We’re still 25 thinking a little bit about how the guest permits might work and we’ll probably take in a little 26 bit more input. But the guest permits, as we were currently thinking about them, is that you’ll 27 have an allowance for two guests. And then you’ll be able to update which license plates are 28 aligned with those permits. So, you’ll actually be able to potentially get those two guest permits 29 and swap in a new license plate if someone new needs to use it and swap it back if later if 30 needed in that sort of scenario. We haven’t thought through more if someone needs beyond 31 four and two for their use but in that scenario, potentially we could look into that. It just kind of 32 depends on how the programs working and how many people actually need that and what the 33 parking availability rates are there. 34 35 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: OK and then one final quick question and it’s fine if you don’t know. But 36 I was just curious about if you has a sense of what were the operational cost for this project and 37 what were… what do we expect in terms of the upside both in financially revenue-wise, but also 38 like operational efficiencies? Like what we’re going gain in terms of saving time on the Staff, 39 etc. If you don’t know, that’s fine. I was just kind of curious if you had a ballpark. 40 Page 13 _______________________ 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. Baird: I mean the ball… I don’t have exact specifics. I know that we exercised in February 2 when we amended the contract with Duncan Systems to add the license plate recognition. That 3 was a $150,000 capital cost that we expended but we do expect to get savings on the 4 enforcement side. It’s much… we get a lot of savings on the enforcement side and then also on 5 the administrative processing side as well. And then also our own Staff time will be relieved a 6 little bit too. So, we do see this as being an important way of making all our programs 7 continued to serve how they’re supposed to… how they’ve been designed to serve. But do it 8 more cost-effectively and save the City some money. 9 10 In the past, some of our RPPs have required some subsidy from the General Fund and this… 11 these actions do help us address that gap that we’ve had in the past. 12 13 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Great, thank you. That’s very helpful. 14 15 Mr. Baird: And or and let me say help address some of the gap. It is really important to see our 16 RPPs as a parking availability service. You know the goal of the parking… of the RPPs are to 17 preserve some open spaces for resident use and that’s the goal but the pricing does play a role 18 in that. 19 20 Chair Hechtman: Commissioner Chang followed by Commissioner Alcheck. 21 22 Commissioner Chang: Thanks so much for all of your work on this Mr. Baird. I think I might have 23 missed it at the beginning of Commissioner Roohparvar’s [note – Vice-Chair Roohparvar] 24 questions. But is the ALPR implementation also going to be phased or is it going to be 25 everywhere? I think I heard you say there was going to be in the RPPs first but is it… how is that 26 working? 27 28 Mr. Baird: So, it’s [unintelligible] kind of a step back and think through how our programs were 29 set up. So, originally, we had College Terrace, which is enforced by the police department and 30 then Crescent Park is also enforced by the PD. And then our two commercial zones are 31 enforced by the police department. The ALPR device that we purchased are for our contract 32 enforcement in the remaining RPP Programs. That’s South Gate, Old Palo Alto, downtown, 33 Evergreen Park/Mayfield. So, those districts are where we’ll have the ALPR enforcement rolled 34 out first. It will take some additional work to figure how to work with PD on potentially bringing 35 it… sorry, I just… something… I lost my screen for a second. So, it will take us a minute to 36 coordinate how to continue that rollout. So, they’ll be rolled out first in those four districts that 37 I told you, but we will be able to… we figured out that we will be able to use those devices to do 38 monitoring throughout all of our districts. So, it allows parking vehicles now, we’ll be able to 39 send them in the commercial cores and into the other districts that don’t have the 40 Page 14 _______________________ 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. enforcement. But they will be able to go into those districts to do occupancy counts for us so 1 that we can understand whether the program’s working effectively in certain areas or not. 2 3 Commissioner Chang: OK, that helps a lot. Can you explain a little bit more about the logic of 4 the phasing of the different neighborhoods because having so many phases I imagine creates a 5 communication challenge. And so, I would think that you’d want to phase adjacent 6 neighborhoods at the same time, but that’s not necessarily what’s shown in the… in your 7 [unintelligible] chart. So, I was hoping that maybe you could talk about that logic a little bit. 8 9 Mr. Baird: In the phasing, you know we may make some adjustments to it over time but right 10 now we’re being differential to the current sale cycles. So, that the impact on residences is as 11 little as possible. We know it’s a big change for many of our residents, so we want to take it in 12 pieces. It also gives us Staff, you know in OOT we’re a small team and so we’re managing a 13 number of vendors at the same time as we move through this. So, it sort of made sense to keep 14 our current sale cycles in play and move in sizeable chunks along this process. So, that we could 15 kind of learn as we’re going and fix things as we go as well. 16 17 Though I do think we’re trying… we will be working through the MRG recommendations in the 18 Parking Work Plan and trying to think through how… what adjustments, in terms of 19 standardizing, really could help us minimize our efforts over time. And I do think that 20 eventually, we might try to consolidate the schedule. But the big heavy lift right now is just 21 getting this Muni Code updated and allowing us to do the work first. And then just 22 acknowledging the fact that as we go through this work and this process. We have a lot of 23 customers, stakeholders, constituents and we’ll be wanting to figure out how their adjusting to 24 the program and making sure that we’re able to continue the service that we provide 25 effectively. 26 27 Commissioner Chang: A really quick question about just the definition of what a Transportation 28 Network Company is with respect to that piece of code modification that you had referred to in 29 your slides. 30 31 Mr. Baird: So, amongst transportation planners like myself, that’s our generic kind of 32 government term for companies like Uber, Lyft, and those folks. So, you (interrupted) 33 34 Chair Hechtman: Taxis as well? 35 36 Mr. Baird: Certainly… taxis as well. 37 38 Commissioner Chang: That helps. That’s what I thought it was but wasn’t 100 percent sure. 39 40 Page 15 _______________________ 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. Baird: Yeah, I think it’s… for me I think it’s a way of lumping together in mind taxi… a sort of 1 taxi-like service. 2 3 Commissioner Chang: OK and then a follow-up question regarding some of the code 4 modifications. You had… I think one of the commercial parking bullets talks about codifying 5 paid parking violations. Including use of slugs, tampering with devices. So, those items seems to 6 imply that we would be installing devices or something that could accept slugs. And is that a 7 decisions that has already been made or it’s just that we want to introduce flexibility into our 8 code? 9 10 Mr. Baird: What we’re really hoping is to introduce some flexibility. We haven’t landed on any 11 particular device or approach yet. What this does is really set up a way for us to move forward 12 and certainly, you can always go forward with a pilot. But it helps to have this good framework 13 in mind as we move forward with a pilot. Have a standardized process but not necessarily a 14 standardized program or specific type of pilot. What we’re aiming to do is do a little bit more 15 outreach to make sure that we have some permit product types that our commercial 16 businesses will appreciate and think will serve their customers well. And then go through an RFI 17 process to see what’s out there in terms of vendors, and what sorts of vendors could come to 18 the table, and provide a low or no cost to the City some infrastructure what would help us do 19 these things. And that may include some sort of device or it may include some private company 20 installing some device somewhere but we’re not set on anything one specific right now. 21 22 Commissioner Chang: OK and then finally I have two questions relating to the RPPs. One is as I 23 was looking at the gant chart that you provided. I notice that there was a difference in number 24 in terms of the maximum number of permits allowed per household and further, a reduction to 25 either three or four depending on the RPP. So, I’m wondering… I’m not very familiar with all the 26 individual RPPs. I’m wondering what is… a) what is it being reduced from and then b) why to 27 that specific number and why is it different across the RPPs? 28 29 Mr. Baird: So, it’s been different for historical reasons I believe. So, when each program was set 30 up, they kind of I think did some figuring on what made most sense in terms of allowing each 31 resident and the number of vehicles they counted in each of the different districts. I think what 32 we’ll need to do is monitor how it goes before we get… I’m not super committed to any of 33 these numbers in particular I guess is what I want to say. That all of the current programs have 34 their very specific number. Downtown has the most currently. I think it’s four resident permits 35 and two guest permits. But those are… some of the… but you can actually purchase a… there’s 36 a decal versus a hangtag right now. So, the decal is really specific. It gets stuck to the back of a 37 bumper and it’s tied to a specific vehicle. But the hang tags have always been sort of trafficable 38 and so the way folks have been using them is to kind of float it around sometimes. Or if you 39 have parking in your driveway or in your garage. You may put it in a different vehicle different 40 Page 16 _______________________ 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. day. So, there’s a lot of different ways that people have been using it and then each of the 1 different neighborhoods may have different impacts or even different blocks might have 2 different impacts. So, what we’re trying to do is get ourselves a step closer to having some of 3 those numbers standardized just for the ease of communicating to the public what their 4 options are. And I think right now we’re leaning towards just an adopting the downtown 5 standard as one that’s the most flexible but we might need to play with those numbers over 6 time. 7 8 Commissioner Chang: OK, yeah because I looked at it and I imagined that there might have 9 been an equity question or something about a change in terms of why does one neighborhood 10 get more than the other. 11 12 Mr. Baird: We will certainly get some of that feedback sometimes. 13 14 Commissioner Chang: OK and then finally, sorry I’ve had so many questions. There’s a bullet in 15 your changes to the Municipal Code regarding the RPPs that says ‘requiring at least 60 percent 16 of all households to purchase permits prior to posting any permit signs when a new district is 17 established or a block is annexed’. And I was wondering is that a change to what the current 18 RPP policies are or is that already in some of the RPPs? 19 20 Mr. Baird: You know, I am not immediately familiar with the exact percentage that we require 21 for people to vote in. So, that’s how it was previously done but this would just adjust it to 22 getting folks to purchase them before we purchase the new signs. Posting the signs is a biggest 23 capital expense involved in adding a new district and so this just allows us to be financially 24 sustainable as we move forward with new districts. 25 26 Commissioner Chang: Thank you. 27 28 Mr. Baird: I believe that the current process is just [unintelligible] from residents, instead of the 29 purchase. 30 31 Commissioner Chang: So, this is about financial sustainability rather than anything else. That’s 32 the motivation. 33 34 Mr. Baird: This one in particular. We want to make sure that we’re not over-committing 35 ourselves with the next districts. 36 37 Commissioner Chang: OK, thank you. 38 39 Page 17 _______________________ 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 Hechtman: Alright, we are asking questions of Staff before public comment. 1 Commissioner Alcheck followed by Commissioner Summa. 2 3 Commissioner Alcheck: Good evening. I want to ask a question about the guest permits. The 4 current… can you just… can you be a little bit more specific about how the current process for 5 guest permits differs from the one that’s suggested on Packet Page 11? 6 7 Mr. Baird: So, the current guest permit system, you just… you go through the portal and you 8 request a hang tag instead of a decal. And we give you… we make that available to you if you’re 9 able to prove they’re a Palo Alto resident. So, that’s the only process. It… that can… so many 10 of… and some of our districts have a free first permit. And so, in some cases, we’ve allowed that 11 to be that guest hang tag which sort of goes against the original intent of the guest permit hang 12 tag as it’s written up in our Muni Code. But that’s how you can request one now and then 13 there’s a limit to how many you can purchase of those in each of the districts. 14 15 Commissioner Alcheck: So, if I understood you correctly, there’s a hang tag expense for let’s say 16 the residential parking permit areas and that’s could what, $50 or more? The permit. 17 18 Mr. Baird: Currently $50 for a year. 19 20 Commissioner Alcheck: And get in some areas two, in some areas four, and in which areas are 21 we currently allowing two additional guest hang tags? One which is potentially free. 22 23 Mr. Baird: So, in the districts that have employees allowed to park, we have a free… you have… 24 you can have… you can get one free permit. And that can either a guest or it can be either a 25 hang tag or a decal. And maybe it’s more important to say it’s a transferrable hang tag so that 26 you could use or a guest can use it. It’s the same price as the decal but the decals are tied to a 27 specific car and the transferrable hang tag is transferrable. In downtown, for example, you can 28 buy up to four decals and up to two transferrable hang tags. And then in Evergreen 29 Park/Mayfield for example, I think it’s three and two. You can buy three resident and then two 30 hang tags. 31 32 Commissioner Alcheck: OK so in the new system we will continue issuing hang tags for guests 33 and (interrupted) 34 35 Mr. Baird: For a year. 36 37 Commissioner Alcheck: Are there any residential parking permit areas where there aren’t guest 38 hang tags? I was always under the impression that the guest hang tag… that the additional… I 39 was always under the impression that you could use the permits that you were issued for 40 Page 18 _______________________ 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. yourself, for your guest, for vehicles that were visiting you or not. And that the only other 1 option where these sort of scratcher tags that were limited in essence in scope. So, this is a 2 little new to me the idea that you could have six, four. I didn’t… that’s new information for me 3 so I’m trying to wrap my head around that process. 4 5 Mr. Baird: The current process is a little… its hard… is a little arcane because we have the eight 6 different programs and each one is set up a little bit different. But yes, we do have the decals, 7 we have the transferrable hang tags, we have the scratch-offs. In some cases, you can buy… and 8 so in downtown, for example, you can buy 50… up to 50 scratch-offs for $5 each and those are 9 one-time use that you can give to someone. They scratch off the month and day that they’re 10 using it and then it’s used. What we’re going to be replacing those with is with an online portal 11 that allows you to update your own resident license plate that you use or the guest license 12 plate you want to use. 13 14 And what you’ll be purchasing instead of a physical permit is a virtual permit allowance for 15 yourself or guest. And then each of those permits, if it’s an annual permit, we’ll have that tied 16 to a single license plate at a time. If it's guest permits that you need and we’ll look into whether 17 folks need more than two at a time and ways to facilitate that. 18 19 Commissioner Alcheck: So, the… there’s a conceptual process involved where you could 20 allocate a virtual permit with some sort of funds on it on a nightly… it would deduct in essence. 21 It sounds like what you’re sort of suggesting you’d have some sort of… this would be for… to 22 replace the scratchers. 23 24 Mr. Baird: I think, you know (interrupted) 25 26 Commissioner Alcheck: Isn’t it different… is that a different replacement than… so I see what 27 that tool does. Is there a different tool for replacing the more flexible guest parking passes? 28 29 Mr. Baird: So, you’re asking if there will be a comparable virtual version of the scratch-offs? 30 31 Commissioner Alcheck: It sounds like there is a comparable virtual… no, no, I think what I 32 understood was what I thought you said was that there would be some sort of funds that you 33 could deposit. And then you would have something equivalent to the virtual scratch-off. You 34 would assign it when you needed it and in theory, it would deduct from those funds. The $5 a 35 night or whatever it is. My question is we also currently have a system… so we have that in 36 place now. We also have a system where you have let's say two permits and you have two 37 guest permits. One which may be free. What would be the virtual version of that? 38 39 Mr. Baird: So again, that would be the virtual permit portal. So, the idea is that (interrupted) 40 Page 19 _______________________ 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: And that wouldn’t be… you wouldn’t be… you could use that every 2 night of the year and it wouldn’t necessarily by a per night cost? 3 4 Mr. Baird: Exactly. 5 6 Commissioner Alcheck: OK and then for the let’s say the online portal that allows you to assign. 7 Let’s say you register your car, your spouse’s car, and your kid’s car. Whatever that is and you 8 kind of rotate. The online portal will allow you to essentially do that with your fixed permits or 9 with your resident permits? 10 11 Mr. Baird: Yes. 12 13 Commissioner Alcheck: And you could theoretically schedule that? 14 15 Mr. Baird: Yes. 16 17 Commissioner Alcheck: Or would you have to do that… OK and then my one additional question 18 would be. 19 20 Mr. Baird: Well, I don’t know, what do you mean schedule? I don’t… you still have to actively go 21 into it. 22 23 Commissioner Alcheck: Is that something that you’d have to do every evening? 24 25 Mr. Baird: If you’re switching who’s using it, every evening I suppose. So, if you had just two 26 permits but you had three vehicles and you were parking one of those vehicles off-street 27 differently every day. Then yeah, you would only need the two resident permits but you could 28 update. Those permits belong to you so you could update which license plate is going to be 29 active as often as you needed to. 30 31 Commissioner Alcheck: I get it. Look, I’m only asking questions because since we’re moving to 32 this what sounds like advanced technology and it sound great. I want to understand its limits 33 and then… and so that’s why I’m posing some of these questions. So, for example, let's say you 34 did have two permits associated with three cars. It sounds like you’re having a vehicle that’s 35 running through the neighborhood. Maybe this isn’t something that’s going to be rolled out in 36 version 1.0. But in theory, there would be an automated approach which would say we only 37 saw the one car associated with… on the street and since this car’s associated with a three 38 permit household. Where it doesn’t require necessarily management by the residents. That 39 would be an interesting feature that could be incorporated into the software or whatever it is. 40 Page 20 _______________________ 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. That’s just food for thoughts and so the next question I have specifically about the 1 presentation. In… on Packet Page 12 it says consolidate and centralize RPP Municipal Code 2 Chapters with the exception of Crescent Park No Overnight Parking Program. What is the 3 rationale of consolidating our Municipal Code chapters with respect to the residential parking 4 permit program but not the overnight parking program? 5 6 Mr. Baird: It’s just a qualitatively different program and how it works. So, the… all the other 7 RPPs allow 2-hours free parking for anybody. So, there’s a time monitoring component to the 8 ALPR enforcement that you have to do. Whereas the Crescent Park No Overnight Parking 9 Program is its clear cut whether you’re allowed to be parking overnight or not within a certain 10 timeframe. So, it’s just described very differently in the descriptions and how they’re set up is 11 just entirely different. So, it merits just having a separate no overnight parking section under 12 the current code. 13 14 Now, we’re we to expand that overnight parking program or expand to another district. We 15 would be making potential adjustments just in this particular section, but right now it is just 16 Crescent Park that has this type of program. 17 18 Commissioner Alcheck: Do you consider the Crescent Park program as a profit opportunity? 19 20 Mr. Baird: None of these are profit opportunities. The RPPs are a parking availability service and 21 right now the current fees are nominal and haven’t in the past necessarily covered their cost. 22 But moving forward with the Muni Code updates that we’re talking about is how we get closer 23 to better financial viability. 24 25 We’ll also be talking at a separate… we’ll be bringing forward a separate item for the Finance 26 Committee to think through the financial viability of the RPPs. In particular in terms of 27 potentially you being able to more routinely just use any parking revenues for any of the 28 parking programs. But in the past what has happened is when the RPPs have costed more than 29 they’ve brought in. We’ve provided a General Fund subsidy and we’re trying now, in that 30 separate item, to get away from that. We’re not really here to talk about that tonight but we 31 are thinking through that right now. But really these are parking availability services. They’re 32 basically a residence service, the RPPs, and we’re interested in making sure that they’re viable 33 over time and for the long haul. 34 35 Commissioner Alcheck: OK, that’s… those are my questions about the presentation. I have 36 other comments that I’ll hold for later. Thank you though. 37 38 Mr. Baird: Thank you. 39 40 Page 21 _______________________ 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 Hechtman: Commissioner Summa, questions of Staff? 1 2 Commissioner Summa: Yes, thank you. Good evening, Mr. Baird. I just wanted to… a lot of my 3 questions were asked so I’ll save my comments for the appropriate time but I did want to ask a 4 question. I think I heard you say that anybody can… anybody in a district can purchase a guest 5 tag? And you know, the reason I ask is because College Terrace where I live and I was on the 6 Parking Permit Committee many years ago. Well just was I correct in… so that’s the program I 7 know the most about more intimately but did I hear you say that just now? 8 9 Mr. Baird: Did I say what? 10 11 Commissioner Summa: Did you say that anybody in a district could buy… in a district with an 12 RPP could buy a guest (interrupted) 13 14 Mr. Baird: I mean we do require folks to show their proof of residency in the district. 15 16 Commissioner Summa: OK, that’s something maybe we can talk about offline, in particular a 17 problem in College Terrace. 18 19 Mr. Baird: OK. 20 21 Commissioner Summa: And then I want to understand, this is also about guest tags. So, say for 22 instance you have three vehicles, and their licenses are associated with your three permits and 23 you have two guest tags. Those are all transferrable? Eventually, you want them to be all 24 transferrable. I know they won’t be now. Is that correct? 25 26 Mr. Baird: So, it… there is that flexibility and I think the idea really is if the resident ones are for 27 residents and what we ask you to show when you buy the resident one. So, it’s proof that you 28 live there so usually it’s a lease or utility bill in your name. We need at least one person for 29 those. We don’t require that as much for the transferrable or I’m sorry. Those are also usually… 30 we’re also asking… we also ask for your license plate and vehicle registration for the resident 31 ones. 32 33 Commissioner Summa: Right and so currently we’re still going to be able to… until we transition 34 to virtual in our various districts and neighborhoods. We’re still going to use the physical guest 35 tags, correct? 36 37 Mr. Baird: Yes, so College Terrace will still be using those. 38 39 Page 22 _______________________ 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 Summa: OK and then eventually we’ll transition to all virtual. So, am I… on any 1 given day, could you use scratchers to park more vehicles than just your permits associated 2 with vehicles and your two guest tags? 3 4 Mr. Baird: Yes. You’re allowed to buy up to some X amount of those per year (interrupted) 5 6 Commissioner Summa: Yes. 7 8 Mr. Baird: On an annual basis. I think in downtown it’s 50. I don’t know… I don’t remember off 9 the top of my head what it is in College Terrace how many (interrupted) 10 11 Commissioner Summa: I think it’s 20 every quarter or something. 12 13 Mr. Baird: I think that makes sense. That sounds about right. 14 15 Commissioner Summa: OK, OK, I think all my other questions we’ll ask or were asked so I’ll wait 16 till the comment period. Thank you. 17 18 Mr. Baird: OK, thank you. 19 20 Chair Hechtman: Alright, thank you. Any other Commission comments? Mr. Alcheck… 21 Commissioner Alcheck, your hand is still up but I think that is from before. So, I will now open 22 the floor for public comments on this Agenda Item Number Two. Please raise your hand if you 23 wish to speak. On the Zoom App, there is a raise hand button on the bottom of your screen. If 24 you’re dialing in from a phone, please press *9. Mr. Nguyen, we have public speakers for this 25 item? 26 27 Mr. Vinh Nguyen, Admin Associate III: Yes, we do. Currently, we have one raised hand from 28 Neilson. 29 30 Mr. Neilson Buchanan: I have a question for Staff and for the Commission. When was this Staff 31 report posted to the public on the City website? 32 33 Chair Hechtman: Mr. Neilson… Mr. Buchanan, continue with your comments. 34 35 Mr. Buchanan: Well, the point is that I don’t think any of us can make a coherent comment 36 specifically because I usually watch this like a hawk, and during the holiday period I missed this 37 meeting altogether. And so, did a handful of the activists or experts on this issue for the last 10-38 years. So, you’re having a meeting that we could be commenting on and helping everyone have 39 better understanding. So, this is a complete void I think but I am one of the more active people, 40 Page 23 _______________________ 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. even among the resident leaders, and I’m imploringly in the dark about this Staff report. This 1 has happened before, particularly around the holiday weekends. We like to get five working 2 days in advance. I think it’s happened. 3 4 Just a couple quick comments. There is no enforcement at night so I think that whole discussion 5 was wasted. The only place that has night enforcement anywhere in the commercial cores and 6 neighborhoods is a very narrow set of no overnight parking in Evergreen… in Crescent Park 7 generally. So, that’s a whole other thing but enforcement in the commercial cores and 8 neighbors more or less stops at 5:00 pm Monday through Friday. So, I don’t think we’re even 9 getting close to worrying about night enforcement. 10 11 Second of all, I had a chance to have some ongoing dialog through the COVID scrum about what 12 the Office of Transportation wants to do. And I am impressed that there’s a lot of ambition of 13 concepts and theory and some hard programs to implement over the next few years. But in our 14 dialog with Nathan and Philip, we have yet to see a meaningful, pert chart, gat chart, project 15 schedule, or budget. I don’t think you’re going to get a vote of confidence from the resident 16 leaders until we see some real engineering and project management. 17 18 And I would be one would argue none of this should get seriously funded until the engineers 19 and we have really good engineers. Maybe not enough of them in the Office of Transportation 20 to weave all this scrum together. I think you’re already sensing that there’s a lot of moving 21 parts. There’s a lot of proven technology but I have yet to see and this has been very much 22 handicapped by COVID. That the Staff has a grasp of where practicality and theory meet the 23 road. Thank you very much. 24 25 Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Carol. 26 27 Ms. Carol Scott: Yes, good evening. I’d like to make just several comments. First, I’d like to 28 underscore Mr. Buchanan’s point about implementation and practice. As we know, we’ve seen 29 a great delay in getting the new permitting system going that was contracted with I believe it's 30 Duncan Systems years ago. It still doesn’t work very well so I’d hate for us to go into this very 31 complicated set of procedures without some careful vetting. 32 33 I’d also like to underscore Mr. Buchanan’s comment about lack of public visibility into these 34 plans. When the Evergreen Park RPP was first proposed, the City held several in-person, 35 interactive sessions with City Staff to make sure that the residents were informed. Here we’re 36 proposing a number of very significant changes that will impact the life of residents and yet no 37 one seems to be planning any kind of public outreach. If you happen to be one of the activists, 38 as I am, then I’m privileged to sometimes have conversations on zoom meeting with Mr. Baird. 39 If you’re just a run-of-the-mill, average person, you have no clue, and all of sudden you’re going 40 Page 24 _______________________ 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. to find yourself with a lot of changes that you have had no visibility about. So, I would 1 encourage open communication with residents before any of this happens. 2 3 Second, I note that or third maybe, I note that what’s being proposed here are additional 4 restrictions for residents. Yet increased flexibility for commercial parking and I don’t quite 5 understand why that is. Residents need a lot of flexibility. You’re going to have construction 6 crews, you might have parties, you might have out-of-town guests, and here we are trying to 7 restrict residents such that even if you move one car in your driveway versus another on a given 8 night. You have to log into a portal every single night and heaven forbid you forget. This is really 9 adds a lot of complications to a resident’s life. 10 11 Finally, I’d like to comment on the notion of whether this should be… how this program should 12 be financed. Currently, the only RPPs that have significant amounts of commercial parking 13 permits sold are downtown and Evergreen Park. So, our program, essentially it appears, will be 14 funded by an incursion into the neighborhood at the instance of the City by selling commercial 15 permits. This does not seem really quite fair to us versus all the other RPPs in the City and I 16 don’t see any bases for taxing one set of residents and not taxing the others. That just is kind of 17 raw nerve for me that we have to pay for ours and the others do not. They get a general 18 subsidy but we’re required to sell commercial permits to pay for ours. When it’s the City’s 19 policies of that commercial parking that have created the demand. Thank you. 20 21 Mr. Nguyen: Thank you for joining us tonight. Chair Hechtman, that concludes public comments 22 for this item. 23 24 Chair Hechtman: Alright, thank you to our members of the public who spoke tonight. I’m 25 bringing it back to the Commission now for our dialog and feedback which is on this study 26 session item what is being requested of us. And before we start with Commissioners, let me 27 just ask a couple of questions really keying off the public comments we just heard. 28 29 First of all, the Staff report… if Staff can tell us when that was publicly available and whether 30 that is consistent with our normal timeframe for releasing Staff reports before a Planning and 31 Transportation Commission meeting. 32 33 Ms. Tanner: Thank you, Chair Hechtman. We released this report last Wednesday which is a 34 week before the Commission hearing which is the typical timeframe that we aim to publish our 35 Staff reports. And they are also posted on our website under the Planning and Transportation 36 Commission. 37 38 Chair Hechtman: The next question really is to help us and the public understand sort of the 39 roll-out of this process tonight. We don’t have an ordinance in front of us. We’re really talking 40 Page 25 _______________________ 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 a conceptual level with Staff as I understand it looking for feedback to help them build an 1 ordinance. Can Staff help us understand the next steps? Is this going to come back to the PTC in 2 the form of a draft ordinance that the public will have a chance to look at the nuts and bolts at 3 that point, or does this go straight to Council? How does this train move forward? 4 5 Mr. Baird: So, the idea really was to go to Council next with the ordinance a bit more baked in 6 terms of providing it… the ordinances itself and the edits… the specific edits in redline to 7 Council. But there are some key points that we really did want some feedback and input on. 8 You know the guest permits are of particular interest to our residents in making sure that those 9 are dialed in correctly and that we describe how we want those to work correctly is what we 10 want. You know the Muni Code itself, we’re really wanting a little bit more flexibility of the 11 Muni Code so that we can make it more serviceable to our residents and so I’m familiar with 12 some of the comments. I think much of the finance and the commercial parking stuff is going to 13 come separately to Finance for review. And I’ll make sure that Neilson and Carol and our other 14 advocates and Chris also get advanced notice of what those dates are. You know I had thought 15 that they were very familiar with this coming up today but really today’s item really is about the 16 Muni Code. So, that we can have a more flexible system and just achieve some of that 17 sustainability that we need out of our programs. 18 19 Chair Hechtman: So, if I’m understanding your answer (interrupted) 20 21 Mr. Baird: But right now, the idea really is to go to Council so that we could have… start rolling 22 out the virtual permits to employees by January. So, any delays right now would push that back. 23 You know, we’ll work with however we need to work but my preference would be to bring it to 24 Council next. So, that we can advance many of the types of things that Neilson suggest that we 25 need in terms of better data and better monitoring of the what’s going on out there. 26 27 Chair Hechtman: So, the PTC… it is not anticipated that the PTC will see a draft revised 28 ordinance? It will go straight to Council and there will be no PTC review. Is that the current 29 plan? 30 31 Mr. Baird: That is my current plan and if we need to push it back. I’ll… we can potentially discuss 32 that, but my plan right now is to bring this to Council on September 27th is the date that we 33 have right now. 34 35 Chair Hechtman: And when you do, you will have taken whatever feedback we give you, and 36 built a revised ordinance for them to review. 37 38 Mr. Baird: Yes. 39 40 Page 26 _______________________ 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 Hechtman: Alright, thank you for that clarification. Alright Commissioners, so we have an 1 opportunity to impact an ordinance that it doesn’t sound like we will see. So, we need to be I 2 think as clear as we can in our direction to hopefully have that impact reflected in the 3 ordinance that goes to Council. Commissioner Lauing, please lead us off. 4 5 Commissioner Lauing: Thank you. The first thing that I was going to say is that this license plate 6 reader technology, I think we’ve been hearing about that on PTC for at least 2-years, and it's 7 really valuable technology, and its, not being critical here, its just sort of overdue. So, I’m glad 8 we’re getting this far. Notwithstanding how it’s going to be implemented and the cost and so 9 on which are absolutely correct. 10 11 But the next thing I was going to say is exactly what Chair Hechtman just said. So, I won’t repeat 12 every word you said Chair Hechtman but this is very unusual because we usually review… I 13 mean this is what we use to call code cleanup in various issues over the last few years. And this 14 is code cleanup in a different area but we usually do it down to the exact wording of the 15 ordinance in terms of how that impacts. So, I don’t understand why we’re doing that? 16 Particularly if we’ve just heard that the public would like more comment. So, one option would 17 be to take it to the Finance Committee first and then bring it back to us. Something along those 18 lines to be considered. 19 20 The second thing… I guess the third thing I was going to say is that the employee RPPs should 21 not be driving the bus here. You know, this has… this is a residential parking permit program so 22 starting there seems a bit odd to me. And you know, this is a critical issue for the neighbors in 23 terms of quality and pricing and basically having commercial parkers on their streets. So, that 24 doesn’t seem entirely completely thought out. 25 26 If you could do it, one of the questions I had was is it possible to find room to accelerate this 27 program once it gets financed and so on because it would be helpful. So, don’t need an answer 28 to that but it would be nice to know that there were ways to look at the schedule to get it 29 moving a little bit quicker. 30 31 And then I want to go back again to this because you also asked for more feedback on this. The 32 on Packet Page 11, this whole guest pass thing that you have to re-enter to get virtual. If I 33 understand that, it… and maybe it don’t but if I’m… if my two vehicles have got passes and I go 34 away and my guests come and fill up my driveway and I can’t get to my driveway. I guess I’m 35 still authorized to park on the street in front of my house? So, that’s scenario A but scenario B is 36 that if I’ve given out two passes to two of my friends that were here Saturday. I’d have to get 37 the license plate number of the two that are coming over on Sunday and have those changes. 38 So, I have to do the process of getting the numbers? Maybe I’ve got that wrong but it just 39 Page 27 _______________________ 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. seems like that’s going to be a user interface objection every time it happens. So, you could 1 address the specifics there. 2 3 Mr. Baird: The guest permit program, what we’re attempting to do is replicate how the current 4 system is set up. Though I currently… though I agree that if… you know we need to modify that. 5 We can certainly entertain how to modify it to make it more user-friendly. The important part is 6 that we do need to have the license plate entered into a system for the enforcement vehicles to 7 be able to enforce using the devices and so that’s the really key part of it. The Muni Code 8 update right now is just about allowing us to use the virtual permits. It’s not necessarily making 9 any changes to how our current guest program works. I’m certainly going to be asking 10 additional questions and getting some more information on changes to our guest permit 11 program that our community are interested in. And I’m certainly open to entertaining those 12 changes. The Muni Code update right now is about getting us to being able to use the virtual 13 permits at all and it will be a phased-in approach. 14 15 You know part of the difficulty with these kinds of changes I think is that it is really hard to 16 predict how they’ll be used and what way they’ll be used. What sort of difficulties we’ll run 17 into? We know that the guest permits were designed in a certain way that they’re not being 18 used at all right now. The practical use of them is entirely different than how they were 19 originally designed. What we’re trying to accomplish with the Muni Code update is just to allow 20 us to move forward with virtual permits and we can certainly continue to have a planning 21 process to update how we… how those actual guest permits work be they virtual or not. 22 23 Regarding your other questions, you know if it is the standard practice for code clean up and I’ll 24 certainly take that back to my leadership. I do think we’ll have it attached when it goes to the 25 Finance Committee and I need to come back here one more time. Then I’ll talk to leadership 26 about that and potentially we could do that. 27 28 And then in terms of having the employees park… the employee parkers aren’t necessarily 29 driving the program but they’re a user group that’s a little bit easily identifiable user group for 30 us to work with. And their permits are updated every 6-months or so and so we’re delaying 31 bringing it to the residents because we do want to get the details right. And the Muni Code 32 updates that we’re presenting right now aren’t necessarily about getting the actual program 33 details right. It’s about just allowing… it’s really about allowing… giving us some flexibility to get 34 those details right in the future. You know, so right now we have a very static program. It’s set 35 up in a particular way that is very narrowly defined and it’s an unwieldy program. I have to go 36 look at a cheat sheet when I’m talking to someone about their different permit options and 37 make sure that I’m getting it right. Because we have eight different programs with all different 38 kinds of details and what we really do… we really do need to start moving to a system that’s a 39 Page 28 _______________________ 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. bit more flexible. And what the Muni Code changes that we’re putting together right now are 1 about giving us that flexibility to make adjustments in each of the programs. 2 3 Commissioner Lauing: Yeah but try not to take up to much time on the same questions but my 4 original comment was license plate readers are a good thing, let’s go. But you don’t necessarily 5 go 100 percent of the way there and if it’s better for users to say hey, now that you’ve pulled 6 up and you parked outside. Here’s your pass, put it on the window, you won’t get ticketed and I 7 won’t either. That’s probably going to be easier than changing license plate numbers virtually. 8 9 The other comment I would make on going to Council. One option is to go to them with a study 10 session with the same kind of input based on our input. And then once you get that and other 11 stuff you need to know. Come back to use for the actual Municipal Code. OK, I’ll stop there. 12 Thank you. 13 14 Chair Hechtman: Commissioner Summa followed by Commissioner Templeton. 15 16 Commissioner Summa: Thank you so much. I like Commissioner Lauing’s suggestion about a 17 timing and more robust process for public review and PTC’s review here. And I agree with the 18 idea that automatic license readers are a really great idea. There are consequences. One of the 19 consequences is that people like Neilson and Carol, who’s members of the public who spoke, 20 will no longer be able to count cars the way they were used to. And they have done a 21 tremendous amount of work to assist the City over the last 10-years or so. That said, there’s a 22 tremendous benefit in gather information which could be of use to the [unintelligible] people 23 and the public in general as long as the City is willing to share it which I’m sure the City is. 24 25 And a specific question for Mr. Baird was if you didn’t change… I understand you want to 26 change some of the language for instance about loading zones and whatnot to make it more 27 clear. But if you didn’t… if you’re not changing any of the details of the RPPP, do you really need 28 an ordinance to implement the program in a more automated fashion? Or is that kind of 29 implementation improvement available to Staff as long as Council signs off on it financially? 30 31 Mr. Baird: So, the Muni Code right now is very specific about the types of the hard permits, the 32 scratch-offs, the decals and so we really need to make the adjustment as soon as we can to 33 make virtual permits possible. Virtual permits will be possible as soon as January 1st. If we… we 34 don’t necessarily need to do that. You know, the enforcement can continue to be as inefficient 35 as it has been moving forward. But the idea really is to start making some progress on the roll-36 out of virtual permitting as soon as we can which will be January 1st. And with the smaller user 37 group in our larger districts is just kind of… of all our user groups, we’ve got residents, we’ve 38 got visitors, we’ve got employees. In the commercial districts, we’ve got residents and guests 39 and the RPPs. I’m not particularly committed to any particular rollout. You know it just made 40 Page 29 _______________________ 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. sense to start somewhere and so I’m open to input about where we should start instead of 1 where we’re starting. And that can be discussed with our team but it really is a lot of moving 2 parts in terms of our enforcement, the eight different districts, thinking through how eventually 3 work with PD and their enforcement crews as well. 4 5 Commissioner Summa: I can appreciate that and for instance in College Terrace, you cannot 6 buy a guest tag if you have not purchased a regular permit for a vehicle which was one of the 7 recommendations. And I didn’t know you could in other programs and that makes it very hard 8 for people who choose or cannot use a car themselves to have, such as disabled people or bike 9 users, to have the option of having a guest tag. And for many people, elderly or disabled 10 people, that guest tag could become really important because it would be used by a caregiver. 11 So, that is an illustration of how the program differs in its… couple be improved and differs from 12 neighborhood to neighborhood. 13 14 Commissioner Lauing touched on the ease of usership. Currently, the ease of usership, 15 particularly with regards to getting… to using the hang… the guest tags, sounds much easier 16 than having to collect every potential license plate of any… everyone that’s going to visit you 17 and put it into the system. What hasn’t been easy lately is frankly since we, in College Terrace, 18 since we started using the online system. A lot of bumps, real difficulty, especially for people 19 that maybe are less custom to using computers to do things like that online or. But I will say 20 that we are all so use… we do banking online, we do all kinds of things online, and the online 21 purchase for College Terrace residents has made it much less easy. So, that’s something to keep 22 in mind maybe as we go forward. 23 24 And there’s also some really big policy changes as I see them here. Requiring 60 percent of all 25 households to purchase permits prior to posting any signs when a new district is established 26 creates kind of a chicken and an egg kind of befuddlement for me because what if the 60 27 percent isn’t achieved? Currently, it’s a simple… for districts and for block by block entry into 28 the district system, a simple majority was required in the past. And having worked very hard as 29 I say on the College Terrace program, one of the really important things that we needed to use 30 to tell… to let… to really inform people about the value of the program for everybody in a 31 neighborhood. Regardless of your particular need for off-street… for on-street parking was that 32 a lot of people… a lot of you neighbors may not have off-street parking and you’re helping 33 them. And similarly, there’s no need to purchase a permit if you do not need one ever but you 34 are helping your neighborhood, you’re helping keep traffic down, helping even the few times 35 you may need extra on-street parking. So, I see that as a big change. 36 37 And I also wanted… I know how complicated this has been and I understand the need to 38 improve it. But my observation is that the guest tags are working better now than they would in 39 the future having to provide all those license plates. 40 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. 1 And also, I don’t think, and a couple… two members of the public that spoke touched on the 2 lack of outreach, and I… on Packet Page 15 regarding stakeholder engagement. I don’t believe 3 anybody in my neighborhood, our neighborhood association, or any of the past leaders on the 4 RPPP issues, were contacted with regards to this. So, I think we want to make sure we move 5 forward with a better, more sufficient technology, but maintain the services for the residents in 6 a lot of these areas. 7 8 So, and I also… Commissioner Chang touched on this but I don’t understand why certain 9 neighborhoods would have more total permits allowed than others. That doesn’t make sense to 10 me. I think it’s… I think the size of our households as we experience more ADUs and JADUs 11 being built. Size of our household, regardless of whether it’s for extended family, multi-12 generation family, or non-related people renting an ADU or JADU. I believe the size of our 13 households are going to increase and no onsite parking is associated with that so there may be 14 a greater need. So, if the idea is to get more flexibility into the systems across the City, then 15 maybe it isn’t good to be so prescriptive with some of these numbers. I’ll stop at that for right 16 now. 17 18 Chair Hechtman: Thank you, Commissioner Summa. So, I have Commissioners Templeton, 19 Chang, and Alcheck. And before Commissioner Templeton starts, let me just say that I didn’t 20 impose any kind of time limit but everyone will have as much time as they want to speak. And 21 so, feel free to break off your comments in chunks if that works better. Commissioner 22 Templeton. 23 24 Commissioner Templeton: Thank you, Chair. Is this microphone working better now? Great. 25 Thank you, Mr. Baird, for presenting. It’s always a pleasure to hear from the transportation 26 team and to have an opportunity to weigh in on these things that affect people City-wide. 27 Residents, employees, and whatnot so really appreciate you bringing this to us. 28 29 Regarding the pilot with City employees, having developed software myself and rolled it out, I 30 understand why you would want a trusted group of people who you can rely on to give you 31 feedback. So, I appreciate that. I would suggest potentially maybe having a pool of people that 32 would… that are residents that aren’t employees who could volunteer and maybe choosing 33 through a lottery some subset of those folks. Who could also agree to your beta testing and 34 give you some honest feedback. That might be a way to address the concerns that were 35 brought up earlier. 36 37 I like that we’re starting to get real with this program that we’ve been hearing about for 38 probably since you’ve started Mr. Baird. And it’s exciting to see that we’re getting to a point 39 where you’re outlining the details of how to roll it and I understand that is… it’s a challenge. 40 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. Especially in government, local government, to bring out something new. There’s a lot of input 1 that you’re going to be needing so kudos to you for taking on such a challenging project. 2 Residents here are pretty sophisticated and they will… they deserve and will demand a user-3 friendly process. So, it’s really good that you’ve started to hear some of that from the 4 Commissioners and the public. But I think that’s going to be your goal and to that end, I also 5 think it would be useful to have another of community input before you rolled anything out. 6 But furthermore, I think you should consider what kind of ticketing and I mean trouble tickets, 7 not parking tickets. What kind of ticketing system that you’re going to use to collect feedback 8 because you’re going to have a lot of it early on and going to need to be able to manage and 9 track that. So, I don’t know if you want to use existing systems or something separate but 10 please include that in your roll-out plan. I don’t think a simple email address for the parking 11 department will be sufficient. 12 13 And then I think in the end people will appreciate the efforts you’re making towards 14 automation and Staff will appreciate the increased efficiencies. So, this is a really good program 15 to pursue and we’re giving you a lot of feedback tonight but don’t be discouraged. This is 16 because we want it to be successful whenever you do roll it out. So, thank you very much. 17 18 Chair Hechtman: Commissioner Chang. 19 20 Commissioner Chang: So, my comments are around understanding Mr. Baird’s concerns that 21 we can’t do anything until we update the code to take it out of the dark ages. But also, I’m very 22 sensitive to the concern that there… that we could be intentionally or unintentionally 23 introducing actual changes to the way the RPP system is actually implemented that go beyond 24 efficiency. That go… that are material changes. And so, as I look at these bullets that you have 25 on Packet Page 11, extending into 12, that are the buckets of code changes that you proposed. 26 My sense is, and I could be wrong, that some of them are fairly uncontroversial and that really 27 are just kind of bringing our code up out of the dark ages. So, for example, adding language for 28 the ride-sharing companies, specifying that loading and unloading needs to be active; 29 loading/unloading. Removing specific times to on… that are embedded that are hardcoded into 30 our code to allow for flexibility. Those all make sense and I think are probably relatively 31 uncontroversial and not what our public commenters are reacting to and also not necessarily 32 what the Commission is reacting to. So, I’m wondering if there’s a way for you to split the code 33 changes into two groups. One that could really go to City Council and help you expedite things. 34 So, that you can actually do and implement what it is that we’ve all been wanting to see and 35 are excited to see. And then a different bucket that might be something that requires another 36 round of community involvement. So that we can make sure that the needs are addressed and 37 that we’re not inadvertently introducing changes. So, as I look at these bullets, that bucket 38 under permits is a lot more controversial. Some of them that would be pretty substantial and 39 maybe perhaps aren’t even necessary in order to implement say an ALPR system. For example, 40 Page 32 _______________________ 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. that third bullet about requiring at least 60 percent of all households to purchase permits prior 1 to posting any permit signs. That’s not something that is needed in order to affect current RPP 2 program management. It’s all about the future, but then something that’s maybe less 3 controversial is just broadening… you know that fourth bullet point that you have there about 4 amending the language for how permits are displayed to allow for any permit type, including 5 virtual permits. It’s not saying that we’re going to defiantly have them. It’s just allowing more 6 flexibility. Something like that might be less controversial. 7 8 So, I just wanted to encourage you to think about what’s a must-do if we want to adhere to any 9 sort of timeline versus something that could be more controversial and really requires more 10 community by-in. 11 12 And then kind of looking at the commercial parking framework section. Again, those are 13 relatively it seems like… well, you know I would say that those are kind of… my feedback to you 14 would be those are in the middle in terms of how controversial they might be. Things like how 15 we’re going to allocate any surplus revenue. That could be… that’s a pretty big community 16 discussion but things like codifying what happens if you violate. I mean if there’s a parking 17 violation, that might be a little bit less controversial. 18 19 So, I would think about it perhaps that way in order so as not to introduce significant delays. 20 Thank you. 21 22 Chair Hechtman: Commissioner Alcheck. 23 24 Commissioner Alcheck: Yeah, OK, so I think moving in this direction makes sense. I think sort of 25 globally I… when I think about the permit programs in the City of Palo Alto. You can’t actually 26 consider it… all of them together because they’re different. And so, you have to look at each 27 one and say OK, what is the cost and what is the value? If there would have been a way to 28 reduce costs for the last 18-months because we haven’t had people coming into our City 29 occupying the office space and reduced enforcement expenses. I think we would have and so, 30 this is an expensive solution. 31 32 I think in some places it is a blunt tool if you will and I think that there… those are… it’s… I think 33 there’s… one of the issues that maybe Planning Commissioners have and maybe residents have 34 is we’re moving forward, making this more technologically advanced which makes absolute 35 sense to me, and making it more efficient. But there are other questions and concerns that 36 people have about the process and how it is implemented. And it doesn’t feel like that there’s a 37 lot of opportunities for the community to help improve upon that which is sort of a different 38 topic. And I’m mentioning it tonight because it doesn’t sound like we’re going to see you soon. 39 40 Page 33 _______________________ 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 I’ve been here a while, coming up on 10-years, and I was there. I was in the room when for 1 example Crescent Park’s Overnight Parking Permit Program came to fruition. And when I say in 2 the room, I mean literally in City Hall Chambers, it was 5:00 pm, there were 44 residents in the 3 room, something like that, former Mayor Greg Scharff and former City Manager were sort of 4 polling residents on how to put this together. And now we’re, I don’t know, 6-years later? 7-5 years later. 6 7 And you know, you had suggested that… you know there was this one moment where you said 8 something about expansion of the area. And my first thought was you’ve got how many 9 residents in Crescent Park paying for something that isn’t… the whole rollout of that particular 10 program met the needs of two blocks. And was… and when those two blocks obtained their 11 permitting and signage. It created bleed over into other blocks which then felt infringed upon. 12 They had to go through a process and in the end, there’s this… in the back of my mind I’m like 13 I’ve never seen someone park on this street between 2:00 and 5:00 am that didn’t own a home 14 on this street, or didn’t… wasn’t a guest of a homeowner on this street and yet, they’re paying 15 $100 a month for a parking passes. 16 17 I want to share a few more comments. I always thought it was absurd that there theoretically 18 could be a homeowner with six parking passes and I also intrinsically don’t love the idea that 19 the City could tell the homeowner this is how many cars you can own. So, it’s like two… I think if 20 we’re a City that’s trying to be a leader in encouraging reduction in greenhouse gas emissions 21 and we talk about requiring all of our employers to do X, Y, and Z to reduce the impacts on the 22 roads. It’s ironic to me that you could have some wealthy individual with potentially four 23 legitimate parking passes and then two free guest or one free guest and third. You know and 24 it’s like whoa, that’s obscene and why is this individual entitled to use the public right of way for 25 the storage of all six vehicles that they may have or four vehicles and their two guest? That 26 always seem problematic to me and at the same time, I’m like what right does a City have to 27 tell us how many cars we can own? So, I think that just the fact that some of our residential 28 parking permit areas differ in terms of the implementation of how many parking passes they 29 can get. There isn’t a lot of transparency and rationale across the programs and I think as we 30 begin to codify and move forward and invest in reducing costs by implementing new 31 technology. We should consider the opportunity to review what is our objective? What’s the 32 mission statement of all these programs? I’m not suggesting that the interest that are being 33 met by the programs aren’t significant. I’m just suggesting that there hasn’t really been a lot of 34 opportunities for the Commission and maybe for the community to dig in and better 35 understand the programs. And I don’t blame Staff for that. Staff had to triage areas and it was 36 complicated and people where… worked very time-sensitive and so but this seems like an 37 opportunity. This discussion seems like an opportunity for Staff to consider that. 38 39 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. I would also suggest to you that we hear a lot in the news about voting right restrictions that 1 are happening in places. And I would suggest to you that I thought it particularly odd for 2 example that when I wanted to get my driver's license with the new federal restrictions. You 3 know limitations, that my passport wasn’t enough. If my passport wasn’t enough to fly, then 4 why do I need anything else to get that limitation off. The point I’m making here is I think 5 Commissioner Summa’s remark about an individual who doesn’t have a registered car not being 6 able to get a permit is too complicated. If you’re a resident, you’ve got a lease, you’ve got a 7 driveway, you’ve got a rental. Maybe it doesn’t even have a driveway. I just think there 8 shouldn’t… it shouldn’t be a significant hurdle to obtain the permit. And I would suggest to you 9 like I think most progressives suggest to many of these voting right legislation activities. 10 Demonstrate that there’s a problem with people obtaining permits “illegally” and then we can 11 raise the bar for how those permits… the permit requirements are. So, for example, if you said 12 listen in College Terrace, we’ve got a problem. We’ve got all these randos getting permits and 13 they don’t live here. OK, maybe we need to set the bar a little higher, but I’m acutely sensitive 14 to this notion. Oh OK, here’s… it’s not just a senior who doesn’t own… have a registered vehicle. 15 It could be someone who decides not to own a vehicle and they have a car share or they have 16 a… I mean the caretaker is such a superb example because our City is so overwhelmingly in the 17 sort of later years in life in terms of our census. So, it’s a great example, it probably hits home. 18 19 So, I always thought that the process for obtaining permits was a little arduous. I hope that 20 putting it online will reduce those barriers. 21 22 And then my last comment would be that I think that there should be some… I mean you know 23 we haven’t grappled yet with parking and… we have big parking questions about downtown. I 24 really imagine that… and this is really directed at Director Tanner. I really… or Assistant Director 25 Tanner, I really envision a world where the Planning and Transportation Commission do an 26 annual review of these strategies and host an opportunity for the community to share input. 27 The individual who spoke earlier, Neilson Buchanan, I mean and I was there… I feel like I was 28 there on one of the first nights he organized a group in his home. And I always thought that it 29 was unfortunate that we didn’t invite those individuals who clearly are dedicated to this more 30 so than anybody else. To just share some of their thoughts with us. 31 32 So, if I left any… like I said there’s only five meetings left this year. I think one of my suggestions 33 for this Planning Commission and for the Planning Department would be we… there should be a 34 standing Planning Commission… Planning and Transportation Commission calendar review of 35 the parking strategies. Every year until no one shows up because I think there’s a lot of 36 individuals who want to share input. And they’re just… they’re not given a chance and coming 37 to a meeting and speaking in public comment is worthless in my opinion. I’ve had too many 38 school district public comment experiences in the last 18-months to realize that those are really 39 Page 35 _______________________ 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. not useful comment sharing opportunities. And so, I’d really like to give that suggestion to all of 1 you. That’s all of my comments are. 2 3 I would support the bulk of the changes because I think we’re going in the right direction and I 4 just would encourage the City to have a process where there were more frequent, regular 5 reviews, of… in City ordinances. So, that we didn’t always have… I think the Planning 6 Commission and the City Council struggle to pass… to change ordinances because we’re so 7 worried that they’ll never give an opportunity to reflect upon them again. And here’s a clear 8 opportunity if you created an annual opportunity where the Planning Commission can make 9 recommendations to City Council on what changes could be implemented. That would be very 10 helpful. That’s all I have to say. 11 12 Chair Hechtman: So, I’m going to start my comments actually with a point on the process. 13 When you are crafting a law, whether it’s a stand-alone law or an ordinance or section of a 14 code or amending any of those, I think it’s been easily shown that the more dialog there can be 15 on the specific language, the better product you’re going to get and so it’s disappointing to me 16 that we may not have an opportunity to participate in the dialog for this amended ordinance. I 17 think that there’s risk when… I mean we don’t have a draft ordinance tonight, it’s the 8th, and if 18 one’s going to be presented to the Council for their meeting on the 27th, that means it has to be 19 at the Council probably a week before that, the 20th. So, there’s 12-days to put all that 20 language… take our feedback and create language and that’s not very long. And the risk that I 21 see is when you daylight that modified ordinance for the first time on about the 20th, you’re 22 going to get comments from the public, we have a group of interested citizens, [unintelligible – 23 audio cut out] 24 25 Mr. Baird: I’m losing you're (interrupted) 26 27 Ms. Tanner: Did Chair Hechtman freeze for others? 28 29 Commissioner Lauing: Yes. 30 31 Mr. Baird: Yes. 32 33 Ms. Tanner: Chair, I’m not sure if you can hear us. You may try to turn your video off. That 34 might (interrupted) 35 36 Commissioner Lauing: It looks like it's off and he’s still not with us. 37 38 Commissioner Summa: So, can someone text him maybe? 39 40 Page 36 _______________________ 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: And you’re going to have to [unintelligible – audio cut out] 1 2 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: I can text him. I’ll text him. 3 4 Ms. Tanner: And Vinh, can you turn his video off because you’re the host? Maybe that will help 5 him. 6 7 Chair Hechtman: Can you hear me now? 8 9 Ms. Tanner: Yes, we can. 10 11 Chair Hechtman: OK, alright. So, let me try it with the camera and if… I don’t know what 12 happened. I just lost connectivity. So, I don’t know where I lost the thread. 13 14 Ms. Tanner: We heard I think about up to where you were talking about just the challenge 15 overall of not having the ordinance in front of us today and kind of some of the time to turn the 16 comments tonight into the ordinance or incorporate into the ordinance. 17 18 Chair Hechtman: Yeah, so I think it’s short which puts a burden on Staff. And I have great 19 confidence in Staff to take all the feedback we’re offering and try to put that in language. But I 20 think it’s a better process if we look at that language first and if we can hear… if we, the 21 Planning and Transportation Commission, can hear public comments on that language. Because 22 then I think we can give Staff more focused direction on the language which will allow Staff to 23 bring a more polished product to the Council where a lot more bugs have been removed. So, 24 and that’s usually what happens here. I understand Mr. Baird that we’re trying to get this is in 25 place by January 1st and so if it needs to go this way, I understand it, but if there’s an 26 opportunity for… I think it’s beneficial to the process if we can comment on the language and if 27 the public can comment with us on the language because that makes I think the Council’s job 28 easier. 29 30 Alright, now I just want to talk about parking programs generally and I’m not a huge fan of 31 them. I appreciate their utility but I look at them as an accommodation from the City. As an 32 extra service, not as an essential service, and so when I think about providing extra service that 33 is not… that does not uniformly benefit the entirety of the community, I want the benefited 34 community to take the laboring oar and I want the impact on my City Staff to be minimized. 35 And so, that’s why I am attracted to going virtual here because my impression is the steps that 36 we are taking are going to reduce Staff time. And if in doing that, and that will reduce cost of 37 the program to the City, and if in doing that it requires the neighbors, the residents who are 38 actually directly benefiting from the project to spend a little more time, maybe it’s registering 39 cars or going online for a minute or two and saying what cars you want what permits to apply 40 Page 37 _______________________ 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. tomorrow, to me, that’s a reasonable price of admission to have the City make this 1 accommodation for your neighborhood. So, I’m supportive of those things even though that 2 might be an unpopular position. 3 4 And then the last point I want to make and incidentally, I like the direction of the bullets that 5 are in the Staff report. And I’m generally supportive of those, but I do want to talk just for a 6 minute about the reality of human error as we shift into this virtual permitting process and I 7 have a great example. My wife is a teacher at SF State and they have just transitioned this 8 semester from hang tags to virtual permits. And so just before the semester started, she went 9 online and registered her car and paid for parking which is a great aggravation to her, that she 10 has to pay for parking at the place she works, but she did it. But that aggravation was nothing 11 compared to what she felt yesterday when she came back after spending the day teaching 12 students and found a $73 parking ticket on her car. Well, so trying to get to the bottom of it, 13 this morning she figured out that in registering her car she had transposed a couple of the 14 digits. And this is somebody who edits writing pretty regularly but it can happen to anybody 15 and so what I learned from this is these kinds of mistakes are going to happen. And I don’t think 16 this is part of the ordinance but I think as we roll out these virtual permits, we might want to 17 think about some period as we roll them out in a neighborhood of a call it a grace period. 18 Where for the first month perhaps instead of giving a ticket, it’s a warning and that will allow 19 people to work out the bugs if they’ve done what happened in our household and they typed in 20 the wrong license plate number. And also, it’s just a way to ease people into the process so 21 that’s really a suggestion. It wasn’t… pick up the flavor of that in the Staff report so I… that 22 would be my suggestion. Otherwise, I think we’re headed on the right path. 23 24 Alright, other Commissioner comments? I am not seeing any hands. If I don’t… OK, 25 Commissioner Summa. So, again our request tonight was to provide feedback, so we won’t 26 need a motion to conclude this one until all the Commissioners feel that they have passed on 27 the thoughts that they wanted to to Staff. Commissioner Summa. 28 29 Commissioner Summa: Thank you very much. I just wanted to mention that I think 30 Commissioner Chang put into very clear language what was the intention really of my 31 comments. That’s there’s really two buckets and I appreciate that and agree with her. 32 33 And also, I think Commissioner Alcheck’s idea of an annual PTC parking roundup is a superb 34 idea and I really appreciate it. And I think most of my specific comments I’ve made. I just 35 wanted to thank those two Commissioners in particular. 36 37 Chair Hechtman: Alright, any other Commissioners with comments? I’m not seeing any other 38 hands. Staff, let me ask you if… yeah, Mr. Baird? You’re muted. Still. 39 40 Page 38 _______________________ 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. Baird: I just wanted to say that your comments have been really invaluable tonight and I 1 really think it will have a good impact on the ordinance that we’re working on and the Muni 2 Code update. You know we are going to Finance next but I… right now that’s the current plan. I 3 will talk to leadership about potentially adjusting the plans. I have some ideas myself too what 4 that could entail but I’ll air those out with my leadership to figure out how we move forward. 5 But I do think there’s a lot of good options and good thoughts tonight and I really appreciate 6 that. 7 8 I do want to say to that my job really is to listen to all of you and to our residents. So, I really do 9 listen very closely to our resident input as well. You know I get the sense that there’s a lot of 10 impatience with the implementation process and the impacts of COVID the last year. And we’ve 11 had a lot of planning work for the last 4-years regarding parking. So, I think we’re going to 12 figure this out and think folks will be satisfied with what we put forward. So, thank you all for 13 your input and feedback and I’m certainly interested in coming and talking to you all more 14 often as well. So, I will also look into that as well. 15 16 I think certainly once a year is more than reasonable and I think more often than that probably 17 makes sense too as we get some of the details worked out. 18 19 Chair Hechtman: Thank you again Mr. Baird for the Staff report and the answers to our many 20 many questions. Alright, next on our agenda would be Action Item Number Three. 21 Action Items 22 Public Comment is Permitted. Applicants/Appellant Teams: Fifteen (15) minutes, plus three (3) minutes rebuttal. 23 All others: Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 24 25 3. PUBLIC HEARING / QUASI-JUDICIAL. 985 Channing Avenue [21PLN-00167]: Request 26 for Public Hearing of a Preliminary Parcel Map to remove a recorded height 27 restriction on the underlying Parcel Map. Environmental Assessment: Exempt from 28 the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in accordance with 29 Guideline Section 15315 (Minor Land Divisions). Zoning District: R-1 (Single Family 30 Residential). 31 Chair Hechtman: A public hearing/quasi-judicial matter regarding 985 Channing Avenue. For 32 those couple of members of the public who are in attendance, if you weren’t in attendance at 33 the beginning of our meeting, we voted to continue that item to a date certain of September 34 29th. 35 Approval of Minutes 36 Public Comment is Permitted. Five (5) minutes per speaker.1,3 37 Page 39 _______________________ 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. 4. June 30, 2021 Draft PTC Meeting Minutes 1 Chair Hechtman: So, we will now move to approval of minutes, and tonight we have two sets of 2 minutes from our prior meetings to approve. June 30th and July 4th. I have submitted revisions 3 for both of those and so I’d like a motion to approve the minutes for those two meetings. 4 5 Commissioner Lauing: I think it was July 14th, not 4th. 6 7 Chair Hechtman: I’m sorry, July 14th, thank you. Vice-Chair Roohparvar. 8 9 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Can we break them up because Commissioner Alcheck and I weren’t 10 here for the 30th. 11 12 Chair Hechtman: Sure. Can we have a motion for June 30th? 13 14 MOTION 15 16 Commissioner Summa: So, moved. 17 18 Chair Hechtman: Thank you. Second? 19 20 SECOND 21 22 Commissioner Lauing: Second. 23 24 Chair Hechtman: Thank you, Commissioner Lauing. 25 26 Commissioner Lauing: Second. 27 28 Chair Hechtman: Mr. Nguyen, will you conduct a roll call vote? 29 30 VOTE 31 32 Mr. Vinh Nguyen, Admin Associate III: Commissioner Alcheck? 33 34 Chair Hechtman: He was absent. 35 36 Commissioner Alcheck: Aye, aye, aye. 37 38 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Chang? 39 40 Page 40 _______________________ 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 Chang: Yes. 1 2 Mr. Nguyen: Chair Hechtman? 3 4 Chair Hechtman: Yes. 5 6 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Lauing? 7 8 Commissioner Lauing: Yes. 9 10 Mr. Nguyen: Vice-Chair Roohparvar? 11 12 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: I’m going to abstain. I wasn’t here for June 30th. 13 14 Commissioner Lauing: Wasn’t that also the case with Commissioner Alcheck? 15 16 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: That’s what I thought. 17 18 Commissioner Alcheck: Yeah but I watched the meeting. 19 20 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Oh. 21 22 Commissioner Lauing: Oh. 23 24 Commissioner Alcheck: I mean after the fact and didn’t have any problems with the minutes 25 which I didn’t review as closely as maybe some of you did but I watched the meeting. So, I think 26 the record reflects what probably was stated during the meeting. 27 28 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Summa? 29 30 Commissioner Summa: Yes. 31 32 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Templeton? 33 34 Commissioner Templeton: Yes. 35 36 Mr. Nguyen: The motion carries 6-0 with one Commissioner abstaining. 37 38 MOTION PASSED 6(Alcheck, Chang, Hechtman, Lauing, Summa, Templeton) -0 -1 (Roohparvar 39 abstain) 40 Page 41 _______________________ 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 Hechtman: Thank you. 1 Commission Action: Motion by Summa, seconded by Lauing. Pass 6-0 (Roohparvar abstained) 2 3 5. July 14, 2021 Draft PTC Meeting minutes 4 Chair Hechtman: Can I have a motion for July 14th minutes, please as revised? 5 6 MOTION 7 8 Commissioner Summa: So, moved. 9 10 Chair Hechtman: Second someone? 11 12 SECOND 13 14 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: I’ll second. 15 16 Chair Hechtman: Thank you, Vice-Chair Roohparvar. Roll call vote, please? 17 18 VOTE 19 20 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Alcheck? 21 22 Commissioner Alcheck: Aye. 23 24 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Chang? 25 26 Commissioner Chang: Yes. 27 28 Mr. Nguyen: Chair Hechtman? 29 30 Chair Hechtman: Yes. 31 32 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Lauing? 33 34 Commissioner Lauing: Yes. 35 36 Mr. Nguyen: Vice-Chair Roohparvar? 37 38 Vice-Chair Roohparvar: Yes. 39 40 Page 42 _______________________ 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: Commissioner Summa? 1 2 Commissioner Summa: Yes. 3 4 Mr. Nguyen: Commissioner Templeton? 5 6 Commissioner Templeton: Yes. 7 8 Mr. Nguyen: The motion carries 7-0, thank you. 9 10 MOTION PASSED 7(Alcheck, Chang, Lauing, Hechtman, Summa, Roohparvar, Templeton) -0 11 12 Chair Hechtman: Thank you. Committee items? 13 Commission Action: Motion by Summa, seconded by Roohparvar. Pass 7-0 14 Committee Items 15 Chair Hechtman: Commissioners, any of you have committee items to bring forward? 16 Commissioner Lauing. 17 18 Commissioner Lauing: I would just mention that the Housing Element Working Group has been 19 working very hard this summer. And I think it’s going to… it’s been quite productive and I say 20 that addressing it to this Commission because I think that some of the processes that are in 21 place when it gets to us it will have already been a very productive dress rehearsal. And the 22 folks are really engaged in it and continue to work. There’s been some off… smaller groups as 23 well so I just… I’ve been really pleased with the way it’s going. I think it’s productive, it’ll be 24 productive for us and for the Council. 25 26 Chair Hechtman: Thank you. Other Commissioners with Committee items? Moving then to 27 Commissioner questions, comments, announcements or future agenda items. 28 Commissioner Questions, Comments or Announcements 29 Chair Hechtman: Commissioner Summa. 30 31 Commissioner Summa: I was going to mention that the NVCAP is going back to Council and I’m 32 trying to find the date. I think in September. 33 34 Chair Hechtman: 20th I think. 35 36 Commissioner Summa: 20th, yeah. OK, that’s what I thought it was but I was trying to verify that 37 for anyone that’s interested. 38 Page 43 _______________________ 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 Hechtman: And I am the PTC liaison for that meeting with Commissioner Chang as my 2 backup. Alright, Ms. Tanner, do we know yet, other than the deferred item from tonight, 3 whether we have anything else set for our September 29th meeting? 4 5 Ms. Rachael Tanner, Assistant Director: At this time, we don’t have any other items that are 6 planned for that evening. And so, we could look into some other topics to discuss if we wanted 7 to that evening but right now there’s not any Staff reports. I will check with the Office of 8 Transportation to make sure they don’t have anything planned but they haven’t reached out 9 about any forthcoming items. 10 11 Chair Hechtman: So, at our last meeting before the break we talked about the possibility of a 12 retreat and ultimately my conclusion was that there wasn’t a really strong desire to do 13 something of that magnitude. But that doesn’t mean that there might not be a topic or more 14 that the Commission wants to be able to talk about. Commissioner Alcheck, in our last item, 15 brought up an example of an annual review of our parking requirements and how they’re 16 working. And so, September 29th would be an opportunity I think with a single item on the 17 agenda to have a study session of our own choosing rather than something that’s been brought 18 to us for discussion. And so, I’m wondering if any of the Commissioners have something that 19 they’d want to… the group to chew on, on September 29th? And if not, I would encourage the 20 Commissioners to think about that issue on a longer-term basis. I know I’ve put you all on the 21 spot here but if something occurs to you that it would be good to have a Commission discussion 22 on some of our own initiative, then let me know and I see your hand, Commissioner Summa. 23 So, I’ll call you in a minute but we can… we’ll look for an opening on a future agenda to 24 schedule that. Commissioner Summa? 25 26 Commissioner Summa: Would that be a discussion that we had amongst ourselves without a 27 Staff report because or are we asking Staff to do an extra Staff report? 28 29 Chair Hechtman: Given the shortness between now and the 29th, unless it was something pretty 30 simple, I was envisioning it would be a discussion that might lead to some… Staff looking into 31 something but that we wouldn’t be asking them to prep us in advance. Again, unless it was 32 pretty simple. 33 34 Ms. Tanner: I might offer Commissioner or Chair Hechtman another idea. Whether it’s for the 35 29th or to the Chair’s point could be in the future or maybe you don’t have anything in your 36 mind right now. Sometimes you’ve had guest speakers come in to talk on different topics. So, in 37 particular, if you know of a speaker who has a topic that may be of interest to the Commission. 38 We can certainly see if they’re available and if not, put it in the queue for a future Commission 39 date too. 40 Page 44 _______________________ 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: I have a question maybe for the Chair and also Assistant Director 2 Tanner. Can we use a Planning Commission when we don’t… time when we don’t have other 3 things on our workload to do to schedule a time to hear from resident experts? Like the people 4 that came tonight concerned about RPPPs or is that somehow not… does that not fall into the 5 category of what you just mentioned? 6 7 Ms. Tanner: I don’t know… unless there’s something Mr. Yang would tell me, I don’t know that 8 there would be anything that would prevent that from a procedural standpoint. I think we 9 would just want to be thoughtful about what they’re coming to talk about and kind of the 10 setup. We do… typically if we have a guest speaker need to notice or when we publish an 11 agenda it would include their bio or just who the person is. We’d also probably want to make 12 sure that they didn’t have any type of conflict of a… something coming before the Commission 13 for discretionary approval. Well, you know, there’s just some things we’d want to check but 14 generally speaking, I think it would be fine. 15 16 Chair Hechtman: Commissioner… you go, Mr. Yang. 17 18 Mr. Albert Yang, Assistant City Attorney: I don’t have any specific concerns about that. Subject 19 to what Assistant Director Tanner mentioned just about providing enough notice in advance 20 and being able to notice what they’re going to speak on. 21 22 Chair Hechtman: So, Commissioner Summa, that may have answered your question but I 23 actually, I understood your question a little differently. I thought you were really asking can we 24 take an issue like our parking program and just have a public forum where we take comments 25 and say how’s it going? We don’t necessarily have a speaker. We just have a dialog with the 26 public. It’s not tethered to an agenda item or an ordinance or anything. Is that what you had in 27 mind? 28 29 Commissioner Summa: It’s kind of what I had in mind and I wasn’t sure it was available to us 30 legally, to be honest. 31 32 Ms. Tanner: Oh, OK, I think yeah, I was understanding it differently. I think part of what we 33 would have to look more closely at are the procedures that we have. I think part of what can be 34 a little bit stiff about our setup and this is common for many Boards and Commission. Is that it 35 is not a dialog except among the Commissioners and those whom they chose to call upon on. 36 You know, certainly, it’s discretion of the Chair if Commissioners do call upon members of the 37 public or applicants to engage in more questions and answers. And so, certainly, it can take on 38 the forum of a dialog. What I think I’d have to look closely… closer with Albert would be how 39 that dialog would be shaped and how people would just be notified of the interaction. With 40 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. that said, so I’m just thinking on the fly here. It may be a little too soon to do it on the 29th. I 1 mean bodies sometimes do host workshops and we’d just have to set it up in a way that 2 ensures that the Brown Act is not being violated. And so, which we can do, we just have to be 3 mindful and be thoughtful about how to do that. 4 5 Commissioner Summa: So, my question was is there a way we can find… we can invite the 6 public to opine. Like if we look at Mr. Buchanan and how much time he’s spent, over 10-years. 7 He’s a real expert on downtown… on RPPs in general and downtown. And it’s a way to give the 8 public a chance to speak and other people to hear them, including Commissioners, without 9 giving Staff more work. That’s kind of what I’m looking for and whether that’s legal and how we 10 would do it. 11 12 Ms. Tanner: I would want to talk with Albert a little bit about it and see what we would need to 13 do to set it up. Because I don’t want to say no but I don’t know that it’s just a oh yeah, just you 14 know, you know what I mean, like that simple so. 15 16 Mr. Yang: I do think it’s something that we could figure out and get sorted. Probably just need 17 to have a short conversation though to sort out the details. 18 19 Commissioner Summa: OK, thank you. 20 21 Chair Hechtman: Commissioner Chang. 22 23 Commissioner Chang: I apologize for turning of my video. I’m having connectivity issues so I will 24 turn it off again if I run into that problem again. And again, I don’t know if this is in the realm of 25 possibility necessarily but in terms of topics that I’m interested in. I think about what motivated 26 me initially to become involved in the parking… in the Planning and Transportation Commission 27 and it was actually more around the transportation side. So, I would actually be really 28 interested in hearing more about where… I mean I’m not quite sure how to structure this but 29 I’m interested… what I always hear about are where the accidents are and [unintelligible – 30 audio cut out] 31 32 Chair Hechtman: You’re frozen. 33 34 Ms. Tanner: Commissioner Chang, I think you froze. Can you hear us, Commissioner Chang? 35 36 Chair Hechtman: So, she’s turned off… oh, nope. OK, she’s turned off her camera. 37 Commissioner Chang, we heard you say where the accidents are. 38 39 Page 46 _______________________ 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 Chang: Great, I don’t know where you… so where I’m interested is in areas 1 where there’s a lot of accidents or congestion. And so, I would love to hear more information 2 about our roadways. That’s a topic that I would be interested in. It’s a very broad topic. I am 3 also sensitive to wanting to make sure we’re not creating a bunch of extra work our Staff. So, 4 I’m not quite sure how do to that but I did want to raise it as a topic of interest for me. 5 6 Chair Hechtman: Alright, so I think that we don’t have a clear doable concept for September 7 29th but Staff will look at what flexibility we have to have and I used the term dialog. That may 8 have not been the best word to use but to have some kind of forum for the public on a topic, 9 whether it’s parking or transportation, and so perhaps we can hear what our options are on the 10 29th. And then continue this discussion and look for a date in the future with a light calendar 11 where we can do something. Commissioner Lauing. 12 13 Commissioner Lauing: I was just going to comment, no need to respond, but the other side of 14 the question is sort of defining the problem here which is that with all the issues going on in the 15 City. We don’t have some things coming to our agenda. Tonight, was lite, we’ve been off for 2-16 months, next week is we only got one thing that we pushed from tonight. So, the obvious 17 question is there anything that can be accelerated so we can get ahold of it, get our teeth into it 18 and get stuff done and shoot it on to Council? So that’s just for not necessarily for debate but a 19 question relative to what Staff could do to bring us more meaty stuff sooner. Thanks. 20 21 Ms. Tanner: Thank you, Commissioner. At this time there’s not anything that can be 22 accelerated. A lot of our projects are long-range and so they kind of simmer in the background 23 before they come to the Commission and onto Council. At this time, a lot of our projects… we 24 do have some Staff that are unfortunately out and not able to fill. But we did have… this is the 25 announcement I forgot. This is what I forgot earlier. We do… we just hired and just started this 26 week… last week maybe? Our new principle planner in our long-range planning team. So, we’re 27 very excited to have him on board. His name is Sheldon Ah Sing. He was with us as a consultant 28 for a number of years at M Group and now is on Staff and so we are super excited. So, maybe 29 I’ll give Sheldon the job of accelerating some things to bring them to PTC since he doesn’t have 30 a full workload yet. So, that will hopefully help us get some more things out the door. 31 32 Chair Hechtman: That is a great addition to the City Staff. He is a very talented planner so I’m 33 really happy to hear that. Commissioner Alcheck. 34 35 Commissioner Alcheck: I’ll just say, I feel like I’ve been to many Planning Commissions in many 36 cities and I was kind of reflecting on this while I was listening to all of you speak; which is that… 37 and this have been a common thread on our Commission. And which is to just highlight that 38 there are really very few instances, I can’t think of any other than this Commission, where a 39 Commission expresses an interest in further engagement and hosting further dialog. Which I 40 Page 47 _______________________ 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. think is either a testament to just how motivated the Commissioners are on this Commission or 1 it’s a reflection of the work schedule that may be being lite. I don’t know but it’s interesting. I 2 mean there should… this is a period of introspection for my people right now this week and just 3 listening to this conversation, I was thinking to myself what is… why are… why is it a common 4 theme that we are trying to host more conversations about more topics and circling that 5 bullseye if you will. So, interesting… because I’ve literally never heard it at any other 6 Commission. Not that I go to every Commission every week but I’ve been to a number so I just 7 wanted to put that out there. Hopefully, something will come of it. 8 9 Chair Hechtman: I think that’s an excellent last word for this meeting. So, with Commissioner 10 Alcheck’s comments, I will declare us adjourned. Thank you. 11 Adjournment 12 8:20 pm 13