HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-09-10 Planning & Transportation Commission Verbatim Minutes_______________________
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 ten (10) 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
Draft Verbatim Minutes: September 10, 2025 2
Council Chambers & Virtual 3
6:00 PM 4
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Call to Order / Roll Call 6
6:00 pm 7
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Chair Akin: Good evening, everyone. I call to order the September 10, 2025, regular meeting of 9
the Planning and Transportation Commission. 10
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ROLL CALL 12
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Chair Akin: Mr. Tavera, would you call the roll please? 14
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Administrative Associate Samuel Tavera: Chair Akin? 16
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Chair Akin: Here. 18
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Samuel Tavera: Vice-Chair Chang? 20
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Vice-Chair Chang: Here. 22
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
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Samuel Tavera: Commissioner Hechtman? Commissioner James? 2
3
Commissioner James: Here. 4
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Samuel Tavera: Commissioner Ji? 6
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Commissioner Ji: Here. 8
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Samuel Tavera: Commissioner Peterson? 10
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Commissioner Peterson: Here. 12
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Samuel Tavera: Commissioner Templeton? 14
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Commissioner Templeton: Here. 16
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Samuel Tavera: We have a quorum. 18
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Chair Akin: Thank you. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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
Oral Communications 2
Members of the public may speak to any item not on the agenda. Three (3) minutes per speaker.1,2 3
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Chair Akin: Do we have any public comments for items that are not on the agenda? 5
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Samuel Tavera: Through the Chair, I’ve received no requests to speak online and no public 7
comment cards at this moment. 8
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Chair Akin: And no one on Zoom? 10
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Samuel Tavera: Correct. 12
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Chair Akin: Very good. 14
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Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions 16
The Chair or Commission majority may modify the agenda order to improve meeting management. 17
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Chair Akin: Assistant Director Armer, do we have any agenda changes, additions, or deletions? 19
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Assistant Director Jennifer Armer: We do not. 21
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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
City Official Reports 2
1. Director’s Report, Meeting Schedule and Assignments 3
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Chair Akin: All right. Then it is time for city official reports. Ms. Armer, would you lead off? 5
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Jennifer Armer: Yes. Thank you. And good evening. We will quickly run through the Director’s 7
Report. Next slide? Your upcoming meetings are going to be on September 24 and October 8. 8
On September 24, we will be returning to you with a revised version of the project at 4075 El 9
Camino Way based on direction from Council. And we will be returning to you with the 10
Crescent Park Traffic Calming Project that was previously continued. On October 8, we will be 11
returning to you with the revised application for 660 University Avenue in response to previous 12
comments and a new zoning code amendment request. This has to do with the shrink-wrap rule 13
that I think some of you may have heard about but you will hear more about it at that meeting. 14
And next slide? A few upcoming meetings of City Council with relevant items. Some of these 15
have been mentioned in the Director’s Report before because there have been some shifting 16
items moved to later meetings. At this time, on September 15, we expect to have the 400 17
Mitchell Lane CUP listed on the Consent Calendar for Council consideration and the PHZ 18
prescreening for proposal at 414 California Avenue. And then on September 29, we have the 19
work plans for PTC, ARB, and HRB as well as on that same Consent Calendar the Rental Registry 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Year One Report and the 70 Encina Tentative Map. None of those will be discussion items. Just 1
interesting information for your review if interested. And that concludes the Director’s Report. 2
We also have our transportation director here. Transportation official, right? Chief... 3
4
Chief Transportation Official Ria Lo: Yes. 5
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Jennifer Armer: ...transportation official. 7
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Chair Akin: May I just say CTO? CTO Lo? 9
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Ria Lo: We have a number of updates. South Palo Alto Bicycle and Pedestrian Connectivity 11
Project. We had a community meeting for that last night, the 9th of September, and got a lot of 12
feedback. At the moment, there’s 8 alternatives which we’re hoping to narrow down to 1 or 2. 13
Crescent Park Traffic Calming will come back to PTC on the 24th of September. The grade 14
separation projects for Churchill, Charleston, and Meadow, we have community meetings on 15
the 30th of September. One is at 4 p.m. and then one is at 6 p.m. And then the Bicycle and 16
Pedestrian Transportation Plan update will come to PTC on November 12 and go to Council on 17
the 1st of December. And Quarry Road extension, there’s an MOU with Stanford that going to 18
be going to Council at the end of the month on the 29th of September. 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 Akin: Thank you. Commissioners, do we have any questions for either Ms. Armer or Ms. 1
Lo? It appears that we do not. Thank you very much. 2
3
Action Items 4
Public Comment is Permitted. Applicants/Appellant Teams: Fifteen (15) minutes, plus three (3) minutes rebuttal. 5
All others: Three (3) minutes per speaker. 6
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2. Discussion of the Urban Land Institute Initiative with Palo Alto, Valley Transportation 8
Authority (VTA), and Stanford related to the Palo Alto Transit Center and 9
Designation of a Representative(s) to participate on behalf of the Commission in the 10
Urban Land Institute Initiative. 11
12
Chair Akin: All right. I believe we are ready for Item #2, the Urban Land Institute Initiative for 13
the Transit Center. And we do have a presentation? 14
15
Deputy City Manager Chantal Cotton-Gaines: Good evening, Chair Akin and members of the 16
Planning and Transportation Commission. My name is Chantal Cotton-Gaines. I’m the deputy 17
city manager here with the city of Palo Alto. Thank you for having me today. The project that 18
I’m very briefly going over with your Commission today is related to the Palo Alto Transit 19
Center. A little bit of background there, the City Council is working with the Valley 20
Transportation Authority as well as Stanford for thinking about the Transit Center, the future of 21
it, how we can reactivate the space both short term and long term. There’s an ad hoc that 22
meets about once a quarter. They had their most recent meeting a few weeks ago. And that 23
group has decided that we’ll be working with the Urban Land Institute to help us in thinking 24
about some of the longer-term, how we activate that space, what the space looks like long 25
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
term. It’s an exciting effort. We’re able to work with the Urban Land Institute who has done 1
similar projects nationally. They bring professionals from all over the country to Palo Alto. We 2
provide them with a lot of local information, probably more than one of us could read in one 3
sitting, so I hope that they will spend a lot of time going through that. But they will be here for 4
an entire week with us in Palo Alto. 5
6
They’re coming on October 19 and throughout the course of that week, on Monday it’s sort of 7
just taking a tour of our Transit Center, getting able to see it themselves. On that Tuesday there 8
will be a lot of stakeholder interviews that they’re doing throughout the day. And they’re group 9
interviews, sort of more like a focus group workshop. And that will be with up to about 100 10
stakeholders in Palo Alto. We are looking at members of the Planning and Transportation 11
Commission. Obviously you have a subject matter that really overlaps with this area in the City. 12
We’re also having representatives from a few other City boards and commissions as well and 13
members of the City Council, some City staff, Stanford, advocates, a lot of other people that 14
we’re recommending [inaudible 23:21] reach out to to participate in the focus group. On that 15
Tuesday, October 21, they will be doing a series of those focus groups and as you choose your 16
representative, I’ll be able to provide more information as we get closer to the date in terms of 17
times, etc. And then the Urban Land Institute folks go back on that Wednesday and Thursday 18
and are working through all the information they’ve received through those interviews as well 19
as the briefing book and their tour. And that Friday, October 24, I believe, if I’m counting the 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
dates correctly, they’ll make a presentation right here in this room of their findings and 1
recommendations for us as a city. It’s a really exciting opportunity bringing the partners 2
together for this really important area of our community. 3
4
So my ask of you this evening is 2 things. One, that you can let me know how you want to 5
choose a representative of the PTC and/or choose this evening. I leave that to you, Chair Akin, 6
to let us know the process there. And then also, I included the questions that ULI will be posing 7
to participants in those focus groups. It’s on the second page of the staff report. If you’d like to 8
talk through any of those, I can provide as much as I can. Miss Lo as well has been pretty active 9
in this project. And so really just thinking through other things you want your representative to 10
really carry into that space. Obviously they can speak as an individual or individuals as well but 11
we really want to make sure they’re saying that this is information from the PTC, that it’s 12
actually reflecting your actual Commission. That is it for an overview and I can take any 13
questions. 14
15
Chair Akin: Clarifying questions from anyone? One for me just to make sure that we’re on the 16
same page. My understanding was that we should discuss these questions tonight so that the 17
PTC’s sense is captured in the public hearing. 18
19
Chantal Cotton-Gaines: That works for me. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 Akin: Okay. 2
3
Chantal Cotton-Gaines: You don’t have to go deep into them, but yes. 4
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Chair Akin: Right. Just guidance. All right then. Do we have any public comments on this item? 6
7
Samuel Tavera: Through the Chair, I received no public comment cards or requests to speak on 8
Zoom. 9
10
Chair Akin: Thank you. All right. We have 2 choices before us. The first is to determine 1 or 2 11
Commissioners who will represent us in these interviews. And we have quite a bit of freedom in 12
how to do that. I would be happy simply to ask for volunteers and then appoint people if the 13
Commission is comfortable with that. If you are not comfortable with that, then we will need to 14
hold an election. Comments? 15
16
Vice-Chair Chang: I think that’s fine unless there’s overwhelming interest in this, in which case 17
maybe an election’s the easiest way to – or not the easiest but the most transparent way to do 18
it. 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 Akin: The necessary way. Yeah. Commissioner Dr. Peterson? 1
2
Commissioner Peterson: I’d be happy to volunteer on this just because the innervation of the 3
different organizations is pretty interesting. 4
5
Chair Akin: Commissioner Ji? 6
7
Commissioner Ji: I’d also like to volunteer myself. I have a background in transportation 8
planning and I think that would – that’s one of the reasons why I joined the PTC. And so I think 9
that would be relevant experience based on the discussion here. 10
11
Chair Akin: Very good. Any other comments? Vice-Chair Chang? 12
13
Vice-Chair Chang: I was just going to – I did speak to you briefly about this beforehand but I 14
thought that Chair Akin could be a very good representative because he’s participating in the 15
downtown Community Advisory Group and I think that that interaction is actually really 16
important and he has perspective from that as well as kind of like foot traffic background and 17
retail background from serving on the retail committee. And I know that we’re not talking 18
necessarily about retail here but I thought that his experience actually would be really valuable. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 Akin: Commissioner Templeton? 1
2
Vice-Chair Chang: One more thing. Sorry. And that Commissioner Ji could be very helpful 3
because he knows lots of people. And I don’t know who else here knows a lot of people who go 4
up to San Francisco or use that train station. I think Forest, Commissioner Peterson, may as 5
well. 6
7
Chair Akin: Commissioner Templeton? 8
9
Commissioner Templeton: I think it’s really important for us to develop the newer 10
Commissioners and make sure they have leadership opportunities. We did miss out when we 11
chose the leadership of this body inviting them in so I’m really glad to hear that we have 2 12
people who are newer looking for leadership opportunities and we should support that. 13
14
Jennifer Armer: And through the Chair, I have gotten clarification that we could accept up to 3 15
participants if that was desired. But 2 would be plenty depending on the Chair’s preference. 16
17
Chair Akin: Yeah. My inclination is the 2 would be sufficient. I will entertain other suggestions 18
but that’s my inclination. All right then. I have not heard a strong preference for an election so 19
in the interest of time, perhaps I can simply appoint 2 representatives? 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 ten (10) 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 Templeton: Sound great. 2
3
Chair Akin: And I think Commissioner Peterson and Commissioner Ji are both excellent choices 4
here. Commissioner Peterson because of his connections with 2 of the institutions that are 5
involved here and his experience with transportation issues in general. And Commissioner Ji 6
because of his superb experience in transportation planning. So my inclination would be to 7
appoint the 2 of them as representatives for the ULI interviews. Gentlemen, do you accept? 8
9
Commissioner Ji: Accept. 10
11
Commissioner Peterson: Accept. 12
13
Chair Akin: All right. We have our representatives. And now we can talk a bit about the 14
questions that have been asked and provide some guidance to our representatives. Those of 15
you who have questions or comments, please light up your lights. Commissioner Ji? 16
17
Commissioner Ji: Yeah. I just wanted to start off with a question. Going through here, it talks a 18
lot about the Palo Alto Transit Center. I’m curious. Are we talking about the land itself as it is 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
today? The potential lands around it? What is the scope for the area that we’re talking about 1
here? 2
3
Chantal Cotton-Gaines: Great question. It is the Transit Center itself sort of as an entryway both 4
to Stanford and downtown but not stretching to the downtown uses in terms of the different 5
commercial and retail that’s along University. The map that we are sharing with the panel is 6
dealing more with the strip of the actual station and then going towards the bus transit area 7
behind that [inaudible 31:24] a little bit of the MacArthur Park because that’s right there but 8
not coming into the downtown area if that helps. 9
10
Commissioner Ji: Thank you. 11
12
Chantal Cotton-Gaines: Mm-hm. 13
14
Chair Akin: Commissioner Peterson? 15
16
Commissioner Peterson: One of the questions I have is I saw the word gateway. And usually 17
when people say gateway, they mean the train station. But Palo Alto is gifted with 3 train 18
stations. We’re the only one that has 3. I know everyone thinks San Antonio is Mountain View 19
but we all know it’s South Palo Alto. At least that’s how I get to South Palo Alto. And so I want 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 just put out the thought that if we thought about it as the gates of the gateway, that Palo 1
Alto has 3 gates in that gateway, and it is an expanded concept of how do we encourage people 2
to use public transportation through Palo Alto? And I did make the commute to San Francisco 3
for 2 years from California Avenue so I’ve made that trip quite a few times. 4
5
Chair Akin: Thank you. If anyone... 6
7
Ria Lo: [Inaudible 32:34] respond to that. I think that this analysis is specifically for the 8
downtown mobility hub and transit hub but we note also that there are 3 gateways in terms of 9
Caltrain. 10
11
Commissioner Peterson: That what I assume when I saw Stanford’s name because I was like oh, 12
this is the station that goes to Stanford. 13
14
Chantal Cotton-Gaines: Yeah. And if I can just add a small piece. Part of it is because it’s the 15
second-busiest station in the Caltrain corridor, specifically this one downtown, and then that 16
gateway to both Stanford and downtown. 17
18
Commissioner Peterson: Which one’s the busiest one? [Inaudible 33:04] or San Francisco? 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Chantal Cotton-Gaines: San Franciso. Yeah. We’re still winning. 1
2
Chair Akin: All right. If there are no other comments from the Commissioners, I have a few. If 3
you do have observations you’d like to make, I’m happy to let you proceed. Commissioner 4
James? 5
6
Commissioner James: I just had a question about a discussion I had. It was before my time here. 7
I think at one point – sorry. I think at one point there was some discussion about Stanford 8
agreeing to build a midrise housing complex there of some sort? I don’t know the details on it. 9
It was in casual conversation with one of the City Council members. And I’m just wondering if 10
that is presumed to be dead or if that’s something that could figure into this? 11
12
Chantal Cotton-Gaines: I don’t know that I have all the history on that particular project but if 13
the Commission did want to share through this effort interest in seeing some sort of housing at 14
this site, I think that’s fine for you to offer as an additional piece of information. I don’t know 15
what that will equate to at the end of the day but I do think that if it’s an interest of this 16
Commission that it should be shared. 17
18
Chair Akin: Commissioner James, do you have a follow-up? 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 James: I did. And, I’m sorry, it was part of the same somewhat casual 1
conversation so I’m sorry to be referring to it so much. But is there also consideration long term 2
for raising the tracks? I believe there is, right? Or a study, I should say, that would impact... 3
4
Ria Lo: At this stage, there is no plan for raising the tracks at Palo Alto Avenue. 5
6
Commissioner James: Okay. 7
8
Ria Lo: Yeah. 9
10
Chair Akin: Vice-Chair... 11
12
Commissioner Templeton: Can... 13
14
Chair Akin: ...Chang? 15
16
Commissioner Templeton: Oh, I’m sorry. Can you clarify? You mean that’s because there are 17
plans and they don’t raise or because we haven’t tackled that section yet? 18
19
Ria Lo: Because that’s not in conceptual planning stage. 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 ten (10) 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 Templeton: Right. I think that’s really important for us to know because – yeah. 2
Saying that we don’t have plans is affirmative but saying we haven’t made any plans one way or 3
the other is slightly different. Thank you. 4
5
Chair Akin: Vice-Chair Chang, then Commissioner Peterson. 6
7
Vice-Chair Chang: Really quickly, one of the questions that’s posed is successful models. And 8
the 2 that come to mind – I’m sure you’re aware of them – also are Redwood City and 9
Mountain View, just our neighbors. I think that for whatever reason, how the train station is 10
laid out or visible or something, it’s different and seems to like funnel people into downtown in 11
a much different way from ours. And both cities have done quite a lot of work around that. 12
That’s just a piece of feedback for you guys to take to them. 13
14
Chair Akin: All right. Seeing no lights, I’ll delve into my list. Oh. Commissioner [____ 36:20]. 15
16
Commissioner Peterson: On the – I don’t know if we’re calling it the trench or the berm or what 17
ends up happening but as soon as I heard the concept that yeah, there is some discussion about 18
a reprofile – I guess that’s the technical term – of the railroad alignment. I did have the honor of 19
being on the team that did the realignment of the other end of this railroad line where it 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
crosses through Reno, Nevada, for that 3½-mile stretch and we put it under the city of Reno so I 1
am familiar with a lot of the challenges. As soon as we brought that up, some old memories, 2
but it does change the way you think about things because we had to deal with challenges that 3
had been made by the city of Reno before they realized they had the bonding to actually 4
reprofile the alignment. And some of that was not very friendly to the final design. So if there is 5
any guidance like preliminary plans that just says like we need this much width – 60' x 30' is the 6
number that reminds me of what we ended up with there. [Inaudible 37:26] I think we needed 7
64'. So that would be helpful. Or if not, we can just build away. 8
9
Chair Akin: Gentlemen, I have a dozen specifics or so here. Rather than make you write them all 10
down, I will send them to Ms. Armer so that she can distribute them to you or to the 11
Commission as a whole. Starting with Question #1, some comments on uses and features. 12
Covered train waiting areas. Perhaps an arcade would be an architecturally appropriate 13
addition to the art deco. More physical access points for last mile transportation of various 14
types so that the connections are easier to make. Additional secure bike storage. With regard to 15
events, there is possibly an opportunity for sports and entertainment events at El Camino Park 16
which could be tied into the Transit Center. And related to that and Commissioner Peterson’s 17
earlier comments, coordinated events that cover wider areas. And I’m specifically thinking 18
about downtown, things like the art fair, but that could also be extended to campus, the 19
shopping center, and Cal Ave. station, so coordinated events for which the Transit Center is one 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 ten (10) 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.
node. Finally, a negative note. I think it will be important to avoid competing with the 1
downtown businesses. What we elect to put there that’s semipermanent should be chosen 2
with that in mind. Question #2. What could be done to make the transit center more 3
accessible? Here’s the big one. Bike/pedestrian access from Everett to Quarry. This is essentially 4
replicating what was done for the Homer tunnel. But the passageway through from Everett to 5
Quarry. That generates access direct from downtown north and from people coming in from 6
Menlo Park on either Middlefield or El Camino and Alma. 7
8
The goal there is to seek more capacity, more comfort, and possibly more security than the 9
University underpass. All right. Related to that, friction-free access to the shopping center. 10
That’s a very open-ended suggestion but one which in casual conversation I’ve heard come up a 11
few times. All right. I have nothing really to offer on Question 3. On Question 4, I will revisit the 12
issue that Commissioner James brought up. What mix of uses would be most feasible? I don’t 13
know how feasible it is currently but that immediate area has long been regarded as a target 14
site for dense housing. Now, the ownership of the land complicates jurisdictional matters there 15
but it should be brought up especially since Stanford is involved in this process. And I have 16
nothing to offer on Question #5. That’s it for me. Do you have any further questions of us? 17
18
Chantal Cotton-Gaines: I just didn’t want to interrupt. There was so much good thinking 19
happening. This is great. I think this is definitely some guidance for your 2 representatives that 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
will be participating and I think it covers the full scope of the work that your Commission does. 1
As a representative of our city manager’s office here right now, I just want to again thank you 2
for all the work that you do in general and for helping with this effort. 3
4
Chair Akin: Thank you. We’re encouraged by this and we certainly hope to get some good 5
results. All right, Commissioners, anything further we’d like to add? All right then. That 6
concludes this item. 7
8
3. San Antonio Road Area Plan: Provide Feedback on Existing Conditions Analysis and 9
Land Use and Mobility Priorities. CEQA Status: Exempt under CEQA Guidelines 10
Section 15262. 11
12
Chair Akin: All right. Now we’ll move on to Item #3, the San Antonio Road Area Plan existing 13
conditions, land use, and mobility priorities. This item is listed as an action item but at the 14
premeeting, we decided we could treat it a little bit more like a study session. We want to be 15
sure to get everyone’s thoughts in detail but we don’t really need a vote on a detailed motion 16
so let’s just concentrate on getting the information there. Ms. Armer? 17
18
Jennifer Armer: Thank you. I’d like to introduce the project planner for this effort, Robert Cain, 19
and then he will introduce the consultants who are supporting us in this work. 20
21
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Senior Planner Robert Cain: Good evening, Chair Akin, Vice-Chair Chang, Commissioners. My 1
name is Robert Cain. I’m a senior planner on the long-range planning team and I am the project 2
manager for the San Antonio Road Area Plan. Staff is really excited about this plan and the 3
potential that it might have to help us reimagine land use and mobility in an important corridor 4
in South Palo Alto. And we’re really eager to get your thoughts and feedback that will help us as 5
we develop the next phase of this project. And with that, I would like to turn it over to our 6
partners from Raimi + Associates who will be providing a presentation tonight. 7
8
Senior Associate Mitali Ganguly: Thank you, Commissioners. Thank you for giving us this 9
opportunity to present some initial ideas and a summary of the existing conditions report. 10
Robert, will you be advancing the slides? Sorry. Yeah. Go ahead. In terms of a brief agenda, I’ll 11
just give an overview of the project, where we are with some of our key findings and then what 12
are upcoming steps in the process. And after a round of clarifying questions, we can go ahead 13
to discussing some of the key questions. I’ll try and make it short because we’ve been told that 14
you were given some advance materials where they show that you’ve been through all of them 15
and I’m sure you have lots of questions so we look forward to the discussion. Jumping straight 16
in, just an overview of what the project is about. What is an area plan? Just to set everyone’s 17
expectations, an area plan is a comprehensive planning and zoning tool for a defined area 18
within a community. Overall, it’s at a finer level of detail than a comprehensive plan but it has 19
to be consistent with an adopted comprehensive plan for a community. It establishes the vision 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 the guiding principles for the area with very active and hopefully comprehensive 1
community input and it would provide guidance for future development by establishing land 2
uses, implementation policies, priority projects, as well as development standards. 3
4
With that in mind, the San Antonio Road Area Plan will also be delivering some of these key 5
components as part of the plan deliverables. It will provide a land use program which will be 6
derived from land use and mobility alternatives. It will also provide development standards or 7
recommendations that can be used to inform future zoning updates. It’ll include policies for all 8
the various plan components such as mobility, sustainability, climate resilience, land use – all 9
the good stuff – as well as a recommended list of public improvements and priority projects. 10
The implementation section will also include recommendations for zoning standard changes 11
and updates as well as other strategies and incentives that can spur development. Next slide? 12
I’m not going to read out everything on this slide because it’s similar to what you’ve read in the 13
report already, but the current project is a City-led initiative to create a 20-year vision for this 14
Plan Area. And again, community input is a very vital part of the project and as you’ll see soon 15
in a slide that I’ll show, this is a key component of every phase of the project. We want to get 16
feedback and then proceed to the next phase and, again, get our work checked and vetted by 17
the community. Overall goals of the project so far are to create a more livable community. 18
Now, the word livable means different things for everyone but right now, San Antonio Road is 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
perceived more as a transportation corridor and we want it to gradually over time evolve into 1
being more of a neighborhood. 2
3
How can that happen we’ll explore over the next few months but that is the overarching goal, 4
that this should be a more livable community by improving the mobility and safety aspects 5
within the Plan Area. All our plan initiatives would be in support of the City’s goals regarding 6
sustainability, economic vitality, mobility, and other like City goals related to the plan. A little 7
bit about the project area. Most of you may be familiar with this part of town. The Area Plan 8
covers an area of approximately 275 acres and it lies literally on the border between Mountain 9
View and Palo Alto. And the project area covers most of the boundary that is for the Bayshore 10
Alma San Antonio Priority Development Area. The PDA boundary and our current Area Plan 11
boundary are almost the same but not exactly the same. The length of San Antonio Road is 12
roughly around 1.8 miles across this Plan Area. And as you can see from the graphic, it’s kind of 13
long and skinny so San Antonio is very much the focus of this Plan Area and the planning effort. 14
The lower part of the Plan Area is adjacent to the San Antonio Caltrain station. And in terms of 15
land uses, currently the Plan Area has a mix of industrial, service commercial, office, and 16
residential uses. Adjacent neighborhoods on either side in both cities are primarily lower-17
intensity residential. A little bit about the project timeline. We initiated the project earlier this 18
year in 2025 and across 5 phases we hope to complete it by early 2028. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 across these 5 phases, you can see that each of these phases will result in a comprehensive 1
set of very key deliverables. In a way, we are kind of completing out each phase with something 2
very cohesive and like something very actionable with community input and obviously input 3
from Commissioners and the various City boards and Council. And you can see the 2 arrows 4
over there. The different color dots indicate the types of engagement that we are going to be 5
having. It is very robust engagement to the community in the form of workshops, surveys. Also 6
various meetings with the advisory groups. And of course with the various boards and 7
commissions and Council. The next, please? Our current stage is Phase 1 since we just got 8
started and we’re in the process of understanding existing conditions, trying to derive some key 9
findings, and this will help us to try and establish the project goals, the project vision, again with 10
community input. There are 9 analysis memos that are currently in the process of getting 11
finalized and you have been provided the summary report that takes the key findings from each 12
of these memos, these individual memos. And you can see that they cover a wide variety of 13
topics that all very important to the Plan Area including land use, zoning, housing and related 14
topics, transportation and mobility, market and economic analysis, hazards, parks, open space. 15
We’re trying to cover every aspect that would be important [inaudible 50:23] making this more 16
of a community in the future. Next slide? 17
18
In terms of location and context, as we know and as we just described, San Antonio Road is a 19
key transportation corridor. It’s one of the key connectors not just for the city of Palo Alto but 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
for the region as a whole. And it has a number of amenities and other community destinations 1
in its close proximity. And that is what makes this area very viable for change. The current mix 2
of uses within the area is also seeing a slight transformation. Some of these existing industrial 3
and commercial uses are starting to transform to residential and mixed use. There has been a 4
lot of emphasis on behalf of the City to make this area basically a set for gradual evolution to 5
more residential uses. And a very large percentage of the housing elements, housing 6
opportunity sites, have been located with the Plan Area as well. This is an aerial graphic that 7
just shows the extent of the Plan Area, all the various amenities which are nearby, and also 8
some of the rather large concentration of housing element sites that are within it. We carried 9
out a pretty robust set of analyses by topic. And I’m just going to give a brief overview. We can 10
always come back and discuss these slides in more detail. 11
12
But in understanding built character and open space within the Plan Area, the built character 13
right now is a pretty diverse mix of different uses. And across the entire Plan Area, there is a lot 14
of variety in all aspects of built form whether it’s parcel sizes, building typology, the form and 15
scale, the way the different buildings address the street and sidewalk. But as you can see in the 16
graphic which is in the middle, there are certain character areas which are within the [inaudible 17
52:14] area where there is a little bit more cohesion in terms of compatibility of use, parcel 18
sizes, just the scale and form of development, etc. So in a way, this gives us a sense of what are 19
potential future neighborhoods in a way to think about as we start planning out the entire Plan 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 ten (10) 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.
Area. And in terms of open space, an interesting finding of the analysis was that while we have 1
a large variety of open spaces within Palo Alto as a whole, and there are a number of parks and 2
open spaces which are within a 10 to 15-minute walking distance from the Plan Area, but there 3
is a significant area within the Plan Area extent that is park deficient. That means a person 4
would have to walk more than 10 minutes to get to even a nearby open space. And this area’s 5
also where a large number of the housing element sites are concentrated. In a way, kind of 6
opens up or starts giving us some clues as to where the design decisions might steer us. The 7
next slide? 8
9
In terms of zoning and related development activity, we know the City has been very proactive 10
in thinking about the future of this area. The 2023-2031 Housing Element identifies 53 11
opportunity sites in the Plan Area that are shown in the middle map in a blue outline. Also, 12
there are several zoning districts that have been designated as focus areas by the Housing 13
Element. Again, housing is an allowed use and an encouraged use within these large portions of 14
the Plan Area. And then the Housing Incentive Program of the City applies to a significant 15
portion of the Plan Area as well. And all these initiatives have automatically started to show 16
results already. There is a lot of recent development interest in the area and there are a large 17
number of projects which are at different stages in the approval and assessment pipeline. Not 18
all of them have been approved but they’re in various stages. And there is a potential for at 19
least 750 new housing units should all these development proposals go ahead as proposed. 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 ten (10) 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.
Also, the RHNA allocation on behalf of the City for the Plan Area is about 1,559 housing units 1
and they’re mostly in the low-income, moderate-income, and above-moderate-income 2
categories. In other words, the City’s already looking at around at least 1,500, potentially many 3
more, housing units that can be realized within the extent of the Plan Area. 4
5
In terms of just understanding the situation of the existing housing and job situation within the 6
Plan Area, currently there are 800 housing units, which is about 3 percent of the City’s total 7
housing stock. Now, a lot of this housing dates from the 1970s. In fact, just a couple of projects 8
have been built since 1990. And predominantly these housing units are in the form of 2 to 3-9
story, low-rise rental units and small condo units and 2-story attached single-family or 10
townhouses. And an interesting fact that we found was that 30 percent of this housing, so 11
almost like 252 units including 80 senior housing units, are deed-restricted affordable units. 12
That is an important consideration as you think about what happens to these units and as well 13
as to a large number of what we call naturally occurring affordable housing units in the Plan 14
Area as this area starts to transform. This area also has a significant number of manufacturing 15
jobs. It has just 4 percent of the City’s jobs but 40 percent of all the City’s manufacturing jobs. 16
And a lot of it is concentrated in one part of the Plan Area around the Commercial 17
Street/Industrial Avenue neighborhood, or at least that area of the Plan Area. And again, an 18
elaboration on this is that the situation is starting to change. The largest number of job losses 19
over the last 6, 7 years has been in the manufacturing sector. And an increase overall has been 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
in the healthcare sector. These are vital jobs but some of them are starting to transform into 1
other sectors. 2
3
The market analysis shows that there is a very strong potential for several kinds of future uses. 4
We know that the housing market is very strong for rental and ownership products not just in 5
the Plan Area or Palo Alto but, frankly, the whole region. And the most typical kind of 6
development that’s likely to happen here is mid-rise multifamily based on recent development 7
proposals and also the City’s zoning initiatives. There is opportunity thereby of trying to 8
advance housing at various income levels and there is the potential that as the population 9
grows that there can be more local-serving retail and amenity services, even small scale like 10
light industrial uses or maker labs, flex spaces. There’s a possibility for having many different 11
kinds of supporting uses that can support this new growth and these new housing units and the 12
increase in population within this area. We talked to several [inaudible 57:28] real estate 13
brokers and some of the key areas where they see retail and other similar nonresidential uses 14
working best are areas that are highly visible, that are near these anticipated areas of housing 15
growth, and where they’re easy to get to, so basically the intersections of San Antonio with 16
some of the major streets such as Middlefield and East Charleston. 17
18
We also took a closer look at multimodal connectivity because as we think about the area 19
transforming into more of a mixed-use community, being able to at least perform some of the 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
daily trips by not driving; in other words, either by walking, biking, or rolling in some form or 1
the other; would become very, very important. And this is one of the aspects of the Plan Area 2
that we really need to spend a lot of effort on because existing bike facilities are very limited 3
and the bicycle level of traffic stress, which is measured on a scale of LTS 1 to 4, carried out for 4
the Plan Area showed that most of the places where this was evaluated came in at a very high 5
level of biking stress, which is not surprising. And there are significant gaps as well not just in 6
the biking network but also in the pedestrian network such as missing sidewalks, inadequate 7
crossings, unprotected crossings, and other such conditions that make it not very safe and 8
definitely not very enjoyable for someone to walk or bike in the Plan Area right now. And safety 9
can – or rather the lack of safety in the Plan Area can be shown by this graphic as you’re looking 10
at this map. This shows where there have been some recent collisions. And over the past 10 11
years, there have been a total of 143 collisions. 12
13
And we did do a little bit of checking based on one of the questions that was asked, I think by 14
the Chair and the Vice-Chair. This area accounts for almost 5 percent of the fatal and severe 15
injury crashes for the City as a whole. This is also a place where there have been a couple of 16
fatal results. People have died because of collisions so this is definitely a key concern that we 17
need to address when thinking about future development in the Plan Area. And unsafe speeds, 18
particularly on the stretch of San Antonio between East Charleston and the highway, so 19
basically as people are going on the on-ramps, accounted for the highest speeds, highest 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
number of violations. And these unsafe speeds have accounted for the vast majority of these 1
collisions that have happened in the Plan Area. There are several streets within the Plan Area 2
that have been allocated as part of the key corridors to look at as part of the City’s SS4A Safety 3
Action Plan for ameliorating conditions over the high-injury network. Basically, all the key 4
streets within the Plan Area need to have significant safety improvements to make them viable 5
for the kind of community that we envision. We also looked at hazards and climate change 6
because a significant part of the Plan Area is pretty close to the Bay. Overall, this part of the 7
Plan Area, which is north and east of East Charleston Road, falls into the FEMA flood zone AE. 8
And that means this is a special flood hazard area where there are slightly more stringent 9
conditions for certain kinds of development, for constructing basements and other such 10
development considerations. 11
12
And this is, of course, under – this area will be prone to inundation and excessive seepage from 13
the ground in the event of a sea level rise scenario of 36'', which is forecast as a potential 14
scenario within the 50 to 100 years. There are also portions near the Bay and the streams in 15
proximity to the Plan Area that are at risk of ground liquefaction as the water table rises. The 16
Plan Area is not located in a fire hazard severity zone but we know that wildfires are becoming 17
a new reality for almost all parts of the Bay area. And even areas that don’t have wildfires 18
happening within them will be impacted by wildfire smoke and other related impacts. Noise 19
and air-quality issues will need to be mitigated. We do have an airport nearby. We have 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 ten (10) 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.
Highway 101. We also have through traffic on the rail line and on Caltrain. These are all 1
considerations as part of future development. And in terms of the physical opportunities for 2
development, this graphic tries to show where would be some of the key focus areas for change 3
and potential transformation. We know that the site has a mix of both challenges and 4
opportunities. 5
6
In terms of challenges, purely from the development aspect, we know that there are limited 7
areas for meaningful placemaking, as we want to put it – the opportunities for creating new 8
open space, new retail space – given that most of the land is privately owned and a lot of it is 9
built upon. It’s not like a very obvious choice in front of us as to where we can provide some of 10
these community amenities. The redevelopment areas where we anticipate development 11
happening are not all contiguous. There are gaps in-between so how do we encourage more 12
placemaking and kind of knit all these areas together within the overall Plan Area? And the fact 13
that many of these development projects are already in some stage of design or approval 14
means that they’ve already set some kind of a precedent for what may happen in the Plan Area. 15
These are all considerations that we need to keep in mind as we think about what the design 16
strategies might be. But there are many opportunities as well. The very fact that there are so 17
many development projects in the pipeline means that there is development interest. It’s 18
better than a situation in which no one’s interested in doing anything so that’s a big positive. It 19
shows that there’s a market interest. The housing market, we know, is very strong and there’s 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 ten (10) 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.
opportunity to, again, provide a variety of different uses in support of this anticipated new 1
housing. 2
3
We also know that there are significant properties under single ownership and we are also 4
aware that there are a couple of developers or developer entities in the area that are trying to 5
assemble parcels. That comes with both positives and negatives but if there are larger 6
development projects then the opportunity to leverage that development to get more 7
community benefits is also higher. Again, something that we can discuss and think about how 8
to address. And there are ample opportunities for improving just general connectivity and 9
safety conditions on all of the City streets, especially along San Antonio. In summary, here are 10
the opportunities and challenges that we have identified so far. This is just a summary of 11
everything that I talked about. Good access to jobs and amenities. Good auto access from both 12
El Camino Real and obviously U.S. 101. There is the proximity to Caltrain. Again, right now, 13
connectivity to Caltrain is pretty constrained but at least we have a station nearby so that gives 14
us another design opportunity. We have a diverse mix of uses to build upon which is much 15
easier to think about evolution as an area will transform. The City is definitely trying to push 16
certain kinds of development in this area and address the regional housing crisis through all the 17
recent zoning initiatives. And again, the pipeline projects, they are key to thinking about what 18
can happen in the future. 19
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 ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
The challenges are also very clear. We know that pedestrian and bike safety, connectivity, 1
specifically along some of the key corridors within this Plan Area, are absolutely essential to 2
address. Similarly, improving access and making it safe and convenient to access Caltrain can 3
greatly improve transit connectivity and improve other transit service within the area as well. 4
We, again, have opportunities to provide community-serving benefits and those will need to be 5
resolved. And one thing to keep in mind is that almost all the development is going to happen 6
on privately held land so there are market uncertainties. We can’t absolutely be 100 percent 7
sure that everything is going to develop the way we hope it will. Next, please? That was my 8
summary presentation. If there are any clarifying questions, I’ll be more than happy to answer 9
that along with support from my colleagues here. And in looking ahead to next steps, this is a 10
summary of the upcoming meetings. We had the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee 11
meeting yesterday and we are here today on September 10 at his particular meeting. Next 12
week we have a similar meeting with the ARB and with the CSTSC on September 25. We also go 13
to the City Council presenting all the cumulative things that we’ve heard from all these various 14
boards and commissions on October 6. And we have a community workshop that we are very 15
excited about. This is going to be on October 23. And we’ll also organize a pop-up around that 16
time just to spread more awareness about the plan and other related issues. Do you want to 17
talk about the PABAC [inaudible 1:07:06]? 18
19
Robert Cain: Sure. 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 ten (10) 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
Mitali Ganguly: Yeah. Thanks, Robert. 2
3
Robert Cain: We presented at PABAC last night. This was a discussion item so there was no 4
motion or consensus that was provided by the committee but we did hear certain things from a 5
lot of committee members that I wanted to pass along to you all. First, there were a lot of 6
support for improving connections to Caltrain for both cyclists and pedestrians. There was 7
support for improving the plan to explore different ways to improve cycling along the length of 8
San Antonio Road by either rebuilding the road with improved facilities and/or creating a 9
parallel route through the neighborhoods adjacent to San Antonio Road and improving the 10
crossings across San Antonio Road and Alma to reduce crossing times as well as add additional 11
safer crossings at some of the smaller streets as well instead of just at the major intersections. 12
There was support for creating local-serving retail that is in a short distance or within the Plan 13
Area or a comfortable walk/roll to. And we heard from them that the retail should be clustered 14
to avoid vacancy issues if it was disbursed retail. And then the last thing that we heard was they 15
wanted the plan to explore ways to mitigate increased traffic from both the new development 16
within the Plan Area as well as other nearby projects such as the VTA project to upgrade the 17
101 interchanges. 18
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 ten (10) 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.
Mitali Ganguly: Before we jump into the feedback questions, any clarifying questions that we 1
can address? Yeah. 2
3
Chair Akin: Yeah. I need to jump in there. Based on the discussion at our retreat, we’d like our 4
first round of questions, the clarifying questions, to be reasonably quick and to some extent 5
enabling public comment so that we’re focused on that. And then we’ll have an opportunity to 6
get into the more detailed clarifying questions during our discussion. I have Commissioner 7
Peterson and then Commissioner Templeton. 8
9
Commissioner Peterson: I heard sea level change and climate change. That’s fascinating. It was 10
6 years ago I worked with Joe Simitian’s office on a regional model – early looking at a regional 11
model of the whole area and we had extra budget. And we ended up putting in a sea level 12
change component of the model to see what it would look like in the future and now we’re 13
more in the future. That was 10 years ago. Can you just elaborate on what’s the plan? Is it to 14
put levees in there, to roll back, abandon land, nature buffer zones, all that? No plan? 15
16
Female: [Inaudible 1:10:08] 17
18
Mitali Ganguly: That would be the shortest answer but not the best one. We do know that 19
there are regional efforts dealing with how to address sea level rise and I think maybe the City 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
could talk about that. So if you want to take that, Jennifer? And we can talk more about the 1
implications for the Plan Area after that. 2
3
Jennifer Armer: What I would say in terms of this evening’s discussion is that is something that 4
going to be part of the consideration as we’re looking at this plan. There aren’t specific plans 5
yet but it is something that’s being talked about, whether Palo Alto needs to proceed or 6
whether it’s something that we can do in collaboration with other agencies in the area. But no 7
details to provide you this evening. 8
9
Chair Akin: Commissioner Templeton? 10
11
Commissioner Templeton: Just keep in mind we’re just trying to keep this part short for the 12
purposes of informing the discussion that we will have later. I apologize because I’m giving you 13
a loaded one. It’s more a question because I could’ve missed it, but I did not hear a lot of talk 14
about including Mountain View as part of this discussion. To what extent are you reaching out 15
to adjacent cities? 16
17
Mitali Ganguly: Yeah. That’s – actually, Robert, you may have more of the numbers? 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Robert Cain: Sure. We have included some Mountain View residents in Monta Loma – which is 1
the neighboring part of Mountain View to the plan – on the Community Advisory Group. And I 2
also meet with the long-range planning manager from the city of Mountain View to discuss this 3
project specifically on a regular basis. I know our chief transportation officer also talks to her 4
counterpart in Mountain View about the mobility portion of the plan. We recognize that it’s 5
important that whatever improvements we’re proposing work in concert with our neighboring 6
jurisdictions. Some of these cross streets continue on into Mountain View and we don’t want – 7
we would prefer not to have a jarring effect to people that are walking or biking along those 8
routes. 9
10
Commissioner Templeton: Excellent. 11
12
Robert Cain: We also talk to the county and Caltrain as well. 13
14
Commissioner Templeton: That’ll be great for now and we’ll get into it in more detail but I just 15
wanted make sure that that was information that was highlighted for any potential discussion 16
with the public. Thank you. 17
18
Chair Akin: Thank you. Vice-Chair Chang? 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Vice-Chair Chang: Quick question. Has the Community Advisory Group seen this yet? This 1
existing conditions report? And did they have broad feedback? 2
3
Robert Cain: Sure. We met with the Community Advisory Group and the [inaudible 1:13:06] 4
advisory group before the full document was finished. They were given a presentation on the 5
highlights that’s similar to the presentation that you received tonight. And we did have 6
discussion and received general feedback on things like what they like and don’t like about the 7
Plan Area. I don’t know if you want to provide some more information? 8
9
Vice-Chair Chang: Presumably this document in terms of its opportunities and challenges 10
incorporates what the Community Advisory Group has said. 11
12
Mitali Ganguly: Yes. There was nothing that came out of that feedback that was not captured 13
already in our opportunities and challenges. There is more detail. In fact, we have a summary of 14
the feedback that I believe is also on the project website like some of these finer details which 15
are included in that. But we had a pretty robust discussion with a longer set of slides so we kind 16
of went into some of them and discussed in more detail and we got some pretty good 17
feedback. Yeah. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Jennifer Armer: And in addition to that, when it was published on the website last week, we did 1
send email outreach to the members of the CAG, the TAG, and the community who have signed 2
up to be notified of ongoing issues with this and the City Council as well so that they’re aware 3
of the new information available and inviting any comments. 4
5
Vice-Chair Chang: My second question is how are the school districts, the 2 school districts that 6
are impacted, being incorporated in the process? Are they also on the CAG or the TAG or is 7
there a different method? Because in the chevron chart, I didn’t see them listed. 8
9
Robert Cain: Sure. I can answer that. We did not include members from the school districts in 10
either the CAG or the TAG. We decided that the best way was to do individual outreach to them 11
to talk about the school-specific issues. That is part of our plan as we’re developing alternatives 12
is to have one-on-one conversations with all 3 school districts. There’s also the Mountain View-13
Los Altos Unified High School District which also would serve as potentially students in the Plan 14
Area if the boundaries remain as they are. 15
16
Vice-Chair Chang: And final questions. I had asked a proportionality question about the serious 17
injury and casualties and I was wondering if you also happen to have proportionality 18
information regarding the pipeline units, like the 750-odd pipeline units, and how we’re doing 19
on affordability with respect to the pipeline units if that makes sense? Then the second 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 ten (10) 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.
proportionality question has to do with open space. I know we are short but do you guys know 1
how short we are with respect to the smalls parks? Not the big open space but the Palo Alto 2
goal is, I think, 2 acres per thousand for the local parks? And we don’t have any so what does 3
that mean in terms of the population for this area? If you don’t know, that’s okay but I figured 4
you guys know so much because the report has so much. 5
6
Jennifer Armer: That you for identifying that as something we should take a look at. I don’t 7
think we’ve got any details on it but it’s something we can look into. 8
9
Mitali Ganguly: Yeah. We just know there is a deficiency because as you said, there are no 10
current parks in the Plan Area at all. And as we work on the land use and mobility alternatives 11
and we have a closer sense of what the final population might be, that is when we’ll get a 12
clearer picture of exactly what the deficiency is. But this will definitely be looked at as part of 13
the – not just the CEQA analysis but even prior to that in the alternative stage. 14
15
Vice-Chair Chang: What about the pipeline projects? That question. 16
17
Mitali Ganguly: Yeah. That, we’ll need to do some calculations because not all the projects have 18
– like some of them have – it’s not a uniform percentage of the units. And again, not all of them 19
may result in the exact same distribution of units. But one thing to keep in mind is that the 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
RHNA number is something that is more of a target for us, which is like 1,559, so around 1,600 1
units, at a minimum. And the proportion within this RHNA chunk of housing units is all within 2
the low-income and moderate-income and above-moderate-income categories. Like workforce 3
housing and slightly more affordable housing units will definitely be addressed as part of trying 4
to meet this need. 5
6
Vice-Chair Chang: Thank you. 7
8
Chair Akin: Okay. Just a process note. We are going to try to structure our discussion later a 9
little bit more than usual. We will have opportunities to talk specifically about what additional 10
information we would like to see for the next phase. Commissioner Ji? 11
12
Commissioner Ji: Yeah. Thank you, Chair. I’d like to zoom all the way out and talk a little bit 13
about the project timeline. I guess I’m wondering can you clarify a little bit more at the end of 14
Phase 1 what the outcomes look like and how we can help participate specifically? I know that 15
you’ve provided a list of questions on Packet Page 12 but I’d love to also know specifically what 16
that looks like so we can provide you accurate feedback and the public can also give 17
appropriate comment. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Mitali Ganguly: Understood. Our Phase 1 basically is looking at – we’ve already developed an 1
engagement strategy, discussed it with the City, and we are in our existing conditions analysis. 2
And what will happen as a result of that will be that we’ll move into Phase 2 in which we are 3
going to be looking at land use and mobility. Basically design alternatives, plan alternatives. 4
We’ve provided you a list of questions but what we’re hoping to understand is what are the 5
various project ideas or alternatives or concerns and issues that you all have that we must 6
consider in the land use phase? And at a more granular level, are there issues and opportunities 7
that you notice that are not included in the materials that we have prepared for you that we 8
should look at? In a way, it’s more about guidance for the next phase, which is getting into the 9
alternatives, because that’s where we will really look at a wider range of possibilities. We want 10
the alternatives to address different ideas and concepts so that when we bring you those 11
alternatives for discussion, we’re looking at a realm of possibilities and we can even mix and 12
match to try and come up the final alternatives. That’s a rough way of saying give us your 13
feedback on what we’ve presented right now and help us formulate ideas [inaudible 1:19:58] 14
list of concepts that we will be exploring in the land use and mobilities – the alternatives phase 15
which we’re going to start very soon. 16
17
Commissioner Ji: As a follow-up, are you implying that there are also – in addition to the 18
existing conditions report, the alternatives are in Phase 2 but... 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Mitali Ganguly: Yes. 1
2
Commissioner Ji: ...are you going to collect a separate set of alternatives that you just collect as 3
feedback for Phase 1 to inform what you’re going to do in Phase 2? Is that an accurate way of 4
describing that? 5
6
Mitali Ganguly: I don’t know, Chris, if you want to chime in? 7
8
Associate Principal Chris Sensenig: Yeah. Hello. Chris Sensenig, Associate Principal with Raimi + 9
Associates. The feedback we’re really looking for – to maybe describe it slightly different, we’re 10
going to go in and we’re going to look at a number of alternatives over the next few months 11
and then come back to you with these alternatives and describe their opportunities, their 12
constraints, their positives, their benefits. And so if there are certain things that you are really 13
looking for this plan to have, you know, it might be pet peeve, it might be something you’re 14
very passionate about that you want to make sure that we explore when we work through 15
these alternatives, that’s what we want to hear today. And I think you’ll see when the questions 16
come up, they try to kind of focus in on that. Does that... 17
18
Commissioner Ji: That’s it for now. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Chris Sensenig: Okay. 1
2
Commissioner Ji: I can ask more specifics in the next round. 3
4
Chair Akin: All right. As I said, we’re going to experiment a little bit and I’m modifying the plan 5
dynamically so we’ll see how that works out. Yeah, public comment will be next. The intent of 6
this round was to ask clarifying questions to enable and support public comment. So if we are 7
done with our questions on this end, Mr. Tavera, do we have any public commenters? 8
9
Samuel Tavera: Through the Chair, I have received no public comment cards and if there’s 10
anyone on Zoom that would like to speak, I request that you raise your hand? I see none. 11
12
Chair Akin: Well, that’s surprising. I thought we’d have more public participation tonight. At the 13
premeeting, we observed that this item was likely to generate a lot of discussion so we spent 14
some time talking about how to organize that discussion. And the way that fell out is that I’d 15
like to try structuring the discussion for the first round. Then we can follow up with more 16
traditional detailed rounds. But before I do that, I wanted to make sure that there were no 17
more clarifying questions and state a little bit about what we hope to get out of the first round 18
of discussion so you know how to draw the distinction between the two. The goal for the first 19
round of discussion will be to cover as many of your main topics as possible so make just a short 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 ten (10) 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 high-level comment on each one. Don’t necessarily get into detail. But staff needs your 1
initial thoughts and a list of things that you’d like to know more about. For an example, here’s 2
one of the things on my list. I think we have plenty of good ideas for improving bike and ped 3
infrastructure but I’m worried that we are not dealing with the likely increase in vehicle traffic. 4
I’d like to know more about ways we could improve the vehicle infrastructure as well. That 5
would be the entirety of that topic for me. And the hope is that as each of us goes through the 6
top items of this sort on our list that staff will be able to consolidate replies and use all of our 7
time most efficiently throughout the rest of the meeting. 8
9
And there will, as usual, be rounds for more detailed questions and we can drill down into the 10
issues that are important to us in depth. What I would ask for now is if there are any other 11
clarifying questions that haven’t already been addressed that don’t fall into the category of 12
expressing interest in your main topics, which we will then cover in detail. All right. I see 13
agreement generally so no more clarifying questions. We are ready for the first round. Again, 14
please cover as many of your topics as possible in a concise way and make sure staff knows 15
what you’ll need to hear later in the more detailed round. Commissioner Peterson, then 16
Commissioner Templeton. 17
18
Commissioner Peterson: All right. We have – is it 45 minutes each to speak? I’m just going to 19
stay on the climate topic because I think this one – I’ll take the big picture. And then the climate 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 ten (10) 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.
is biting us on both sides here too when we have sea level rise. We also have a wild and urban 1
interface which is quickly encroaching on the City. And from my best understanding is nobody 2
has even had a chance to study where is the wild and urban interface with Palo Alto and 3
Mountain View? But you just look out the window, you know it’s there somewhere. And so one 4
of the things is that Highway 101, I think, certainly has to be raised. And I know that from my 5
experience on the bond oversight with the Water District, we found out that there is no climate 6
change. It’s not certain and that the federal government’s current policy is that – we got 7
defunded on the Baylands project which would have solved some of these problems. And we 8
have to wait until we are more certain about climate change before we can come back and 9
reapply for that funding. I assume the Federal Highway Administration is probably in a similar 10
situation so maybe Highway 101 is also waiting for funding for an uncertain future that right 11
now is apparently not the future. 12
13
If we change Highway 101 to raise it, I assume – that’s the easiest one to get above the water – 14
then that changes maybe the ramp there with San Antonio? Or maybe not. But maybe it could 15
change the clearance for the overpass. Is there an overpass there? No, there is an overpass. 16
Yeah. So the overpass clearance could start becoming an issue if you start raising things. Now 17
you’ve got to raise the overpass and then you start raising all the connecting roads. Where I’m 18
going with that is trying to look at the plan just with the immediate stuff – that’s probably kind 19
of clear – that we know is already probably well past due and is probably just waiting for a short 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
time until all of a sudden we realize, yeah, we do need to have funding to change these things. 1
But of course it’s all around the Bay too. It’s not just where we are. But I think our section of 2
Highway 101 is more at risk than even like Redwood City’s section of Highway 101, which 3
doesn’t seem quite right but that’s how I understand it. And then of course the wild and urban 4
interface. We don’t normally think of San Antonio Road as being a wildfire hazard area but I 5
don’t actually know if it’s not. Because if you go across El Camino, it’s pretty wooded in there 6
actually. 7
8
As Commissioner Templeton mentioned earlier, my home was in Paradise and in 2018, 9
everybody woke up one day and opened their front door and there was embers blowing in their 10
door and that was their first notice that there was a problem. So I always want to be the first 11
one to say let’s put some thought into where is the wild and urban interface and at least draw a 12
line. And we know we’re well away from it but we do know that we are certainly getting our 13
ankles wet if we’re not getting our hair singed. If that’s a good example. Sorry. Thank you. 14
That’s it. 15
16
Chair Akin: Thank you, Commissioner Peterson. Commissioner Templeton? 17
18
Commissioner Templeton: Well, now I’m going to cry. That’s really so morbid and interesting 19
food for thought so I appreciate you bringing it up but it’s tough to face that reality that we’re 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
talking about. As far as just sharing the topics, one of my very first discussions on the PTC many, 1
many years ago was about that intersection there at Charleston and San Antonio and we 2
wanted to make it safer. I vividly remember this discussion. I had just left Google where I had 3
worked for 10 years and went through that intersection every day. I started on my bike. It was 4
terrifying. I did not continue with my bike even though I live less than 3 miles from work. That’s 5
something to think about. At that time, we did have an underpass that was under the highway 6
that was closed half the year so you’re not going to be able to use that at other times although 7
we’ve changed and we have a different overpass but it’s not in the same location. We need to 8
think about that. That’s something I’m thinking about, safety for the bikes and the pedestrians. 9
There’s a community center there on that corner as well where the former Pal One office 10
building for the headquarters of Sun Microsystems used to live, the little network, the dog 11
house out front. 12
13
The thing is, when we had this problem, why I’m sharing it with you, is the other side of the 14
street, on the other side of San Antonio, is Mountain View and we received a lot of pushback 15
from our staff that well, we can’t improve the safety of that intersection because the other 16
part’s Mountain View. And so I really want to encourage our awesome staff here to push back 17
and reach out and let’s make this intersection, which is really highly used, a major focus for our 18
safety, our traffic flow. We may find, as Vice-Chair Chang mentioned, children crossing there, 19
elderly people crossing there. How do we provide the refuges that we need to on a big street 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 ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
like that, on 2 big streets, with people coming at high speeds off the highway? There’s so much 1
to think about. I really want to be proud of that intersection. And we’ve made some 2
improvements but I think it could be so much better in terms of flow and that means reaching 3
out to our neighbors. I think that is also true in terms of our understanding of the Caltrain 4
neighbor. That’s a neighborhood. It is very close by. It’s a area that many pedestrians in that 5
part of Palo Alto near it prefer to go to. I know my kids have used it. Forest uses it all the time. 6
It’s very convenient. And so we can’t think about the artificial boundaries of our cities because 7
that’s just where we meet someone else with the same needs. Their our neighbors. They’re 8
right there. They’re using the same space. 9
10
And so I hope that we do a little bit more, maybe a little heavier hand, with the outreach to 11
Mountain View especially with what we know is going to be happening. There’s a tremendous 12
high number of housing units and homes that will be built in that space and so even the nature 13
of it as we understand it now and what we’re studying now and what feedback you’re getting 14
now will necessarily change. The closer in step we can be [inaudible 1:32:48] the safer and 15
happier everybody’s going to be. And yes, we want people to use that train station instead of 16
the highway, right? All of this stuff goes together. Safety, transportation, biking, pedestrians. 17
That’s my list of all the same things but in different perspectives. Thank you. 18
19
Chair Akin: Thank you very much. Vice-Chair Chang? 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 ten (10) 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
Vice-Chair Chang: Okay. I’ve said some of this in premeeting but I think it bears saying just to 2
share with the whole Commission. On the really big picture side, this is the first area plan that I 3
know of in Palo Alto’s history that essentially is along most of the length of one of our major 4
arterials. And so because of that, it brings up many of the issues that my fellow Commissioners 5
have already mentioned. But as I was reading this Area Plan, the perspective was very much we 6
need to focus on improving safety and traffic within the Area Plan area. Actually, it’s more 7
safety than traffic. That’s a separate point. But the bigger issue is it’s not just within the area. 8
It’s through in this case. Because if we only did within, we’re going to cause a cascading mass of 9
problems that will affect other cities, the freeways, our whole city. And so this is a little bit 10
different from, say, NVCAP or SOFA. It’s very different in the sense that we need to think about 11
the interaction with outside of the Area Plan. The second issue is – safety is very well-covered in 12
the report. In your final slide, you did insert the word traffic but it wasn’t on the slide. And I will 13
venture to say that this may be the – I know that you don’t have the level of service data but 14
this may be the worst traffic in Palo Alto. And it has safety implications, no doubt, but the traffic 15
itself is also a problem because it’s almost a standstill for most of the waking hours. 16
17
And I just did some quick back of the envelope where you said it was 5 percent of the fatalities 18
and severe injuries today. It’s a good baseline to have. And it’s only 2½ percent, 2.7 percent of 19
the housing units today. And so if we continue the ratio, it’s going to be a disaster, as you well 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 ten (10) 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.
know, which is you emphasize safety, safety, safety. But the traffic’s very much part of that. The 1
next issue that I thought needed to be examined is the RVs. I know there’s no mobile homes. 2
That’s zero in one of the report pages. But there’s a whole lot of RVs. And that’s actually a very 3
recent phenomenon. There have always been some RVs but it has just really bloomed and 4
that’s a hot spot area right now in our City. But because of the displacement of RVs from El 5
Camino and Redwood City doing more and it pushing RVs into our area so we really need to get 6
that in baseline too. And then the next issue is on schools. You certainly mention schools and 7
their ability to – the districts are underenrolled and that they have the capacity but that next 8
level of detail – and this is why I had asked to what extent are you involving PAUSD as well as 9
Mountain View-Los Altos District in this. We have had a fairly recent example where 30 percent 10
of the children in the Palo Verde neighborhood were overflowed to other schools. Some as far 11
as Nixon and Addison. 12
13
And so again, we need to think mobility through the area and how we’re actually going to get 14
there. And this is not as simple as just having the district redraw the lines. It's like a massive 15
cascading problem. One elementary school is 400 to 600 students or even 200 to 600 students, 16
depending, in this district. And if we’re talking about 1,500 units of housing, we may have 17
brought a couple of elementary schools depending on what type of housing that is. And then 18
finally the affordability issue. And again, I don’t have the data. You don’t have the data. You 19
haven’t done the calculations. But based on the few projects and PCs that we’ve seen come 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
through the PTC recently on San Antonio, we’re getting nowhere near the number of affordable 1
units. And Palo Alto’s always had that challenge and probably every jurisdiction has had that 2
challenge where if we meet anything, it’s the market-rate housing. But if we don’t want 3
displacement of people here, that’s certainly going to have to be a big focus and the incentives 4
for that. We might have to think really creatively about that, partnering with for-profit 5
corporations, for example. Thanks. 6
7
Chair Akin: Gentlemen, anyone up next? Commissioner Ji? 8
9
Commissioner Ji: Thank you, Chair. I apologize a little bit because it turns out that in preparing 10
what I wanted to say I came up with some questions. So I apologize [inaudible 1:38:31] get 11
included in the last section. One of my questions is about the setback. I know that on Packet 12
Page 12, I believe, you ask about the use of special setbacks. Can you talk a little bit more about 13
them? If I saw them mentioned, I must have missed it. Can you talk about where the special 14
setback are, what the current state of them is? 15
16
Chris Sensenig: Yeah. I can address that. Basically along San Antonio Road, basically from the 17
Toyota dealership north, there’s generally a 24-foot special setback. Now, we’re just diving into 18
the details on the effects of this. We have a work session tomorrow where we’re beginning to 19
dive in more detail. I’ll note just because there’s a 24-foot setback does not mean it’s really 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
usable. For instance, on the east side of San Antonio Road there’s lots of infrastructure already 1
there and there’s pinch points. We’re going to be doing that analysis of what can you get, 2
where can you get it, and what is going to be the cost to get what we really need? We’re 3
looking in detail on that. And then there’s some other kind of modest setbacks of 15' on some 4
of the – like Fabian and Commercial and Industrial. And then along East Charleston there’s a 10-5
foot. We’re really scoped to look at this safety, pedestrian, bike, vehicles in a lot of detail so 6
we’ll be getting into what those setbacks mean and what truly can we do with them, if 7
anything? 8
9
Commissioner Ji: Yeah. I guess this dovetails into – I guess it’s more of a comment. The PHZ 10
projects that I’ve seen so far in my short tenure on the PTC have asked to remove the special 11
setback. And so if we think that we want to use the special setback as part of the transportation 12
and safety initiatives, I think it’s incredibly important to make sure that we don’t have these 13
pinch points. Imagine you want to install a new bike lane but a new project has decided to 14
remove the special setback. All of sudden it becomes a lot more complex to build out what 15
we’d like to see there. I guess I’d like to particularly call out that you have listed some of the 16
existing projects that are in the pipeline. I think it would be really important to closely examine 17
whether or not there are any setback changes to those projects in particular. Next, I also want 18
to emphasize the safety aspect in regard to transportation. San Antonio, as you’ve identified, is 19
simultaneously a truck route and a safe route to school. I think that’s a little bit contradictory in 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
its current state. I know our lovely folks from Transportation are out in the audience here but 1
I’d just like to note that this is something that’s near and dear to my heart. I biked to school 2
every day growing up, K through 12 here. Would never have dared to go on San Antonio in its 3
current state. 4
5
I think there’s a lot of exciting work. I know you’ve identified a couple different interesting 6
points like a class 4 bikeway. I think there’s a lot of creative solutions to be done here but I just 7
wanted to call that out again. And I don’t want to spend too much time on it because other 8
Commissioners have mentioned that. I also want to bring up, as I am part of the CAG, some of 9
the points that – I just want to share with our fellow Commissioners as well what I heard there. 10
One is the bumper-to-bumper traffic. I think that was a pretty common theme amongst the 11
folks that live there. In addition, I want to talk about Commissioner Templeton’s point about 12
engaging Mountain View. We had some great residents from Mountain View who offered a lot 13
of great perspectives. I think it was really interesting. Specifically one thing that, I guess – I 14
don’t go to this part of Mountain View very often but a lot of overparking because a lot of the 15
areas don’t have enough parking and so residential overflow in its current state is already a bit 16
of a problem. And so I think that’s something to think about as we continue to expand in this 17
area. In addition, when thinking about transportation infrastructure, right now – I took my first 18
ride on the bike lane that [inaudible 1:43:02] on El Camino and there are lots of driveways that 19
are there on El Camino. I think that’s also something to think about as we add pedestrian and 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
bike infrastructure on San Antonio. With large projects, we expect lots of in-and-out traffic and 1
how do we manage the intersection between these as well? 2
3
One other comment I had is, I guess, kind of related to Commissioner Peterson’s comment 4
which is one of the public comments that came before the CAG was that the water table is only 5
10' deep. I was wondering if you all as experts could talk to me a little bit more about what the 6
implications of that are? Because the public comment mentioned that it would be difficult to be 7
building larger infrastructure projects because it’s difficult to build the foundation because of 8
the water table. Would just love some clarification on that. 9
10
Chris Sensenig: Yeah. Generally it’s a matter of cost. You’ll find in some areas because of the 11
water table certain developers are unlikely to go below grade because you’re basically building 12
a bathtub. You’re going to find – and I think you’ve seen this on the projects that have already 13
been presented on San Antonio Road where there are some developers that are willing to go 14
below grade and some developers that are going to stay above grade for parking. It’s 15
fundamentally cost. It’s still possible. You can do it. It’s just a matter of cost. 16
17
Commissioner Ji: Thank you. Would also like to comment on that since we saw something 18
similar for 660 University which is in the same flood zone plain type, there had also some 19
interesting difficulties with the parking situation and I’m worried about underparking for lots of 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
these areas here. One thing I did notice that isn’t quite mentioned – and I’m not really sure 1
what the future looks like – is about the public transit. There is mention that it’s pretty 2
infrequent and I would agree as someone who has been there quite often. Not sure what we 3
can do about it but it’s just interesting to think about as there is more density, as we have a 4
Caltrain station on that corridor [inaudible 1:45:20] we could potentially partner with VTA and 5
others to work on that space as well. Would also like to echo Vice-Chair Chang’s comment 6
about the schools. One other comment. I noticed on Packet Page 57 where you talk about the 7
fire engine, one thing I’m worried about is folks in the City know that Fire Station 4 right now 8
doesn’t have their engine. And I believe that would be the closest fire station to this area and so 9
I think it’s very important if we’re going to be adding lots of units over here to manage the fire 10
safety risk there appropriately. That’s all for now. 11
12
Chair Akin: Thank you. Good observations. Commissioner James, do you have anything you’d 13
like to add at this point? 14
15
Commissioner James: Just a few observations. I am struck a little bit. I don’t see a creative 16
solution for it but gradual evolution, evolution is going to happen based on market demand and 17
a whole host of things. You point out that this – [inaudible 1:46:33] 50 small businesses. It 18
strikes me that there are some moderate-income jobs and businesses that support moderate-19
income jobs that are going to be displaced to create moderate-priced housing. And that does 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 ten (10) 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.
seem like sort of an odd paradox. I’m not sure I see a solution for that but it’s a little troubling. 1
You did mention some of the deed-restricted units and I’m not sure I fully understand. I feel like 2
there’s something implied in there. Is it that they might be displaced or replaced through 3
redevelopment? I just feel like there’s something implied in there and I’m not sure I fully grasp 4
what it was and I’d certainly like to. I am curious what the mechanisms by which green spaces 5
and gathering places – what are the ways of doing that? Is that land that can be sort of – I 6
imagine land required by the City or is it sort of incentives to developers to create that in 7
exchange for more height? I just don’t think I fully understand how we get from knowing 8
there’s a deficit there to what are some of the cures for that? I would be curious to know what 9
the range of options are there. I did also notice that there are – it seemed to me in my reading 10
that there are certain safe routes that seem to, in my mind, overlap with other high risks. And I 11
just wondered if those had ever been mapped on top of each other. Because I got the sense 12
that they were both, right? And that was certainly concerning to me. But yeah, I think those are 13
just my observations. 14
15
Jennifer Armer: Through the Chair, there were some questions among the observations from 16
Commissioner James that might be helpful for us to provide some context. For example, the 17
question about how do you get open spaces. If that would be helpful to the Commission at this 18
time. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 Akin: Let’s do that. And then I’ll wrap up this round with my overview and then we’ll be 1
able to get into more detail for the next round. 2
3
Chris Sensenig: All right. There are a lot of different ways to get open space. I’ll run through a 4
list here and let you know that as we go into the alternatives phase we are going to be looking 5
at any and all of these as possible ways. One is the City could purchase land. There could be 6
dedication by a property owner. There could be agreement with a property owner to develop a 7
publically accessible, privately owned open space. You can use the collected park fees to either 8
fund the purchasing or partially fund the development and maintenance of an open space. Of 9
course, like many of you have mentioned, there’s also Mountain View. This might be an area of 10
collaboration with Mountain View to get like one larger consolidated open space between the 11
potential – if you saw, there’s a large development site just across the border where the 12
PetSmart currently – or has been. There’s potential to work with Mountain View on that. And 13
then there’s also development agreements that may come about because a certain land owner 14
wants a certain type of land use or such so you can kind of extract potentially community 15
benefit out of that. But there’s limited space in the Plan Area so I think this is going to be 16
definitely one of the critical questions and critical puzzle pieces as we work through 17
alternatives. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
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2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Jennifer Armer: And if you would like additional information about traffic volume and growth, 1
as was observed, we do have Transportation staff if there’s anything that would be helpful on 2
that topic as well. 3
4
Chair Akin: Commissioner James, does that cover you for now? 5
6
Commissioner James: Yes. Thank you. 7
8
Chair Akin: All right. I’ll run rapidly through my overview to make sure that you’ve captured all 9
of these things. And then in the next round I’m sure many of us will have the desire to drill 10
down into a few topics. All right. Just since perhaps we haven’t said this strongly enough, this is 11
a really outstanding piece of work so thank you very much. You have posed some very 12
challenging open-ended questions but we expect to talk about that more tonight and to follow 13
it up in the future as well. I used the vehicle infrastructure and traffic issue earlier as an 14
example so I won’t repeat that. You asked about office allowances. With the exception of 15
neighborhood-serving businesses, I’d resist larger office allowances. We already have a huge 16
jobs-housing imbalance and I really don’t want to get trapped in a feedback loop that makes 17
that worse so that’s the general concern there. Regarding distribution of retail, some kinds of 18
retail work best if they’re clustered. And some work fine if they’re spread out. I wonder if we 19
can develop estimates for how much of each of those types we’d like to plan for, if we can 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 ten (10) 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.
come up with some basis for making those estimates? Thank you for the insight from the 1
PABAC discussion on that point as well. We’ve already relaxed development standards in much 2
of the Plan Area and I’d just like to know if we have any sense of where within the Plan Area it 3
makes the most sense to go beyond those? 4
5
This has been discussed already but I’ll reinforce it. There’s a lot we’d like to do along the 6
streets but we can’t really see how much space is actually available, so a map that shows us 7
how much space we have from the curb until we hit a building, a driveway, or a setback line is 8
great for developing an intuition for what we can do there. I don’t know that I’ve seen this 9
phrase used before but I’m kind of worried about business gentrification. As we lose some of 10
the light industrial and other commercial uses that are currently supporting midrange jobs, 11
what are we going to get in return and what does that do to the distribution of incomes in the 12
households in the area? And also, this has been touched on but I’d like to know how the 13
potential for sea level rise affects the different construction types. And I appreciate the 14
distinction made between things that are impractical physically and things that are impractical 15
economically. But any guidance we can get about how to generalize that is well-worthwhile so 16
that we don’t go down unproductive paths. All right. That’s it for my overview. I’ll be happy to 17
talk about a few of those things in detail in the next round but it’s time for my fellow 18
Commissioners to get a shot. Commissioner Peterson? 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
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Commissioner Peterson: All right. I’m going to drill down and try and tie together what I’ve 1
heard from the other Commissioners regarding the climate change. One with Commissioner 2
Templeton, when you talk about talking with other organizations, there’s also – the Googleplex 3
is across the street. And Google, I think, has a general-use permit with Mountain View. I don’t 4
know how their general-use permit agreement overlays with our corridor plan but having been 5
involved with the Stanford general-use permit, I know there’s definitely overlays on that and 6
they probably have some agreements relating to environmental impacts and community 7
mitigations that somehow tie into this. And then Commissioner James talking about the 8
economics of the buildings or what’s feasible, I did notice that the planned developments 9
actually go up to basically that flood boundary and I’m wondering if that’s because maybe 10
there’s a flood map there and already we’ve already got a decision made nobody’s building past 11
that line. It could be that that industrial area that we’re talking about being gentrified, it could 12
become swampland very quickly as it floods a few times and there goes your industrial usage as 13
everybody essentially has to leave and now we’re left with a postapocalyptic industrial zone 14
with unknown soil contaminations that we now have water flowing over to clean up so it would 15
be nice not to throw that in there. 16
17
I guess I was thinking I wouldn’t hold this up but for lack of a better graphic, we basically have 2 18
zones we’re planning there. We’re planning one zone that’s in the watershed and one zone 19
that’s not. And I think there are 2 different plans going on there and one of them might actually 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
be what I heard earlier was land purchases and actually recreating wetlands there along 1
Highway 101 on this side of it. I don’t know if that’s economically a good idea for Palo Alto or 2
displacing jobs but the other option is are we going to raise that entire industrial zone 3' and 3
come in with haul trucks and dump dirt? Because that’s how it’s done. That’s my detailed is I’d 4
like to look at this as 2 zones. 5
6
Chair Akin: Thank you. 7
8
Chris Sensenig: Are we to respond to these or we...? 9
10
Chair Akin: This is a good time for that, yes. 11
12
Chris Sensenig: Okay. Great. You make some great points about the 2 different zones and the 13
sea level rise zones. And I think one thing, it may just be time-based since you changed the HIP 14
in that area, it only allows up to 50' so it’s kind of like – to kind of go to your thing, that’s an 15
area where a 50-foot height limit isn’t going to get you the new residential buildings. They 16
really want right now to maximize midrise construction, which is 7, 8, sometimes 9. But in this 17
case, because of sea level rise it’s probably 7 stories, to be honest. But it's getting up. In 18
general, what we’ve seen around the South Bay in these areas, there is interest to develop in 19
these areas and you’re going to see larger aggregation of land to make it feasible and to make a 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
more cohesive place because of that sea level rise stuff. Because you generally need to have the 1
finished floor of the building above like 11'. It’s about. It might be 12 here. I don’t have the 2
number exactly. But basically 11' and you’re currently, in that area, between, I think, 5 and 10' 3
in grade. There are ways to do that. There are ways still to have retail and have that work. It’s a 4
little bit more complex and that’s why you’re not going to see much of like a one-off 5
development; say, I’m going to come and I’m going to take my 10,000 ft2 lot and build 6
something. It takes a larger piece of infrastructure like that. But you can see it in the Mountain 7
View site. There’s interest. There’s economic interest in redeveloping that area and making it 8
happen. The larger sea level rise question, it’s really a regional question. And I don’t have all the 9
details in this but the biggest economic engine is probably 101 so with this being upstream from 10
101, you fix 101, presumably you kind of fix this area too. That’s why I think you’re going to 11
continue to see economic interest in these areas because there are bigger problems and solving 12
those bigger problems will help these areas. 13
14
Male: Yes. 15
16
Commissioner Peterson: I think that’s a perfect example of knowing from your expertise that 17
yeah, it is probably economically viable the value of the land. Somebody will come in there and 18
they’ll figure out the problem just to be able to have this space. But that also brings up another 19
one. As Planning, have we decided that that’s what we want to allow or do we want to do a 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
retreat? Because that’s a policy decision as well. Do we want infill up to the water line – which 1
I’m always fan of. I’m an engineer. I like to build stuff – or do we want to go in the earth 2
2:01:23]? Like they’re doing in the South Bay. A lot of it is they’re opening up the old salt ponds 3
and returning them back to the Bay. 4
5
Chris Sensenig: I would say in a way, a certain policy decision was made by identifying housing 6
element sites within this area. 7
8
Commissioner Peterson: Thank you. 9
10
Mitali Ganguly: And if I could give another example? Like San Rafael. San Rafael downtown gets 11
flooded right now even before sea level rises at the levels that we fear. And especially when it 12
coincides with king tides, you have flooding very much to the core of downtown San Rafael. But 13
there is still a very high level of development interest. And one of the most recent projects that 14
is currently getting evaluated and likely to go ahead is in the Canal Neighborhood which 15
includes remediation for the fact that that area will definitely get inundated. It involves a 16
mixture of raising the ground floor, having nonresidential uses on the ground floor, having an 17
elevated walkway next to the Canal. In a way, what’s actually a constraint is being spun around 18
by that project to almost like think of 20 years down the line and using that almost as an 19
amenity. Because otherwise, the location is proximate to a lot of other good things including 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 ten (10) 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.
transit. So it’ll be a mix. We’ll see how the City’s policy aligns with some of these but the 1
technology is very much out there and not just in the Netherlands. It’s being tried out in 2
different parts of our very own region right now. 3
4
Commissioner Peterson: This is going to be the Venice of Palo Alto. 5
6
Mitali Ganguly: Oh, my god. You can compete with Foster City now that they’re going to get the 7
dike. 8
9
Robert Cain: Also, policies are always subject to change based on the elected officials and other 10
leadership in the City. But there was a purposeful decision not to put housing element sites on 11
the other side of 101 but there [inaudible 2:03:24] also a decision to put them right along 101 12
on this side of it. That’s what the current policy is, subject to change always. 13
14
Chair Akin: Thank you. I see no lights but I expected more discussion. Does anyone have more? 15
Well, I feel like many of the things that I wanted to mention have already been covered. 16
[Inaudible 2:04:01] skim them quickly to see if there are any details that would be of general 17
interest. Would you like to go before? Give me a moment to look this over in the meantime. 18
Please go ahead. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Vice-Chair Chang: Okay. In premeeting or prior to premeeting, I had asked some questions 1
about whether Transportation, because you’re here, whether you guys can do some context 2
setting for us in terms of the traffic volumes that we see for San Antonio relative to the other 3
east-west arterials that we have? Is it more? Less? Do we know? If we don’t know, that’s fine. 4
And similarly, if we know with respect to the different 101 and 280, the freeway entrances and 5
exits that we have, which ones are the most heavily used? The ones that feed Palo Alto. I would 6
say like University, Oregon/Embarcadero, San Antonio, [inaudible 2:05:11] Charleston, and 7
Page Mill. If you don’t know, that’s fine. But I wanted to – it’s good background. 8
9
Ria Lo: Hello. Ria Hutabarat Lo, Chief Transportation Official. We actually don’t have recent 10
counts for each of the corridors in the City. I think that there would be some recent counts for 11
the interchanges because of the VTA project. That’s in planning stages. We could request those 12
from VTA and if it’s of interest, we could conduct counts along the different corridors using our 13
on-call contract if that’s helpful. 14
15
Vice-Chair Chang: My reason for this, as I said in premeeting, is there’s – sometimes I think that 16
the southern part of Palo Alto gets kind of neglected or I think that we – as Commissioner 17
Templeton mentioned, there is a big intersection problem at Charleston and San Antonio and it 18
was like well, this is bordering Mountain View so we can’t deal with it on our own and this 19
whole Plan Area is now bordering Mountain View so I think some context setting is really 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 ten (10) 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.
important to ensure that the right attention and resources get put on this given that it is an 1
area that’s targeted to have like 25 percent of our RHNA. And so I think that data like this is 2
helpful and important. That context setting piece about the percent of fatalities, when you level 3
set it relative to the population or the number of housing units here, it makes you realize oh, 4
my gosh, this is one of the most dangerous parts of the City. And so similarly, is this one of the 5
traffic-intensive parts of the City? We could use LOS, level of service, data. How long are these 6
wait times at the traffic light? Because I’ve personally gone through 4 cycles and not moved an 7
inch. That kind of a thing. And if that’s today’s baseline, then we know what we’re facing and 8
how aggressive we need to be regarding public transportation, regarding whatever other levers 9
we can pull. 10
11
Because one of the levers that was mentioned already, for example, is heights for housing. 12
That’s a housing lever. There must be levers that we can pull with respect to mobility and 13
traffic. But if we don’t know the size of the problem relative to the rest of the City, then we 14
don’t know heavy-handed we should be with respect to addressing those challenges. And my 15
sense is, as I said before, this area is very unique compared to the other area plans that we 16
have looked at in recent memory in Palo Alto. That’s it. Thanks. I mean, I think it would be 17
lovely but I don’t think that I get to make the budget decisions here. I would love that data. I 18
kind of throw it back to the project team. And to me, it seems it would be wise if we want to 19
get Council and the powers that be to really focus on this and throw the resources or the mind 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
share. Because otherwise, without – yeah. I’ve talked to multiple Council members who are like 1
what do you mean? I don’t go over there. For the public and for the powers that be, the 2
decision-makers, we need to do some context setting, I think. Thanks. 3
4
Chair Akin: Mr. Ji, if I could follow up on that and then return to you? Yeah. I will jump in with 5
yet another budget-breaking suggestion. The thing I’m always after is origin-destination studies 6
because I really want to know where people are going. And I’d like to think that that can drive 7
some improvements that we suggest for the area. If we know that a lot of the traffic is through, 8
then perhaps we can optimize for that improving both safety and throughput. Some of the 9
things that I would consider would be should we make some streets one way? Should we 10
prohibit left turns off San Antonio? Should we limit access to some streets? We could even do 11
something really exotic like making a lane reversible. But we can’t do any of those things 12
without knowing a little more. Not just counts but also directions. What are the paths that are 13
being taken? As I said, that’s my budget-busting request. Couple of other quick comments in 14
the way of details for things that I mentioned earlier. When you look at the jobs-housing 15
imbalance, people often assume 250 ft2 of office per person and the surveys that I’ve been 16
reading for the last few years are arguing that that is no longer realistic, that 150 ft2 is probably 17
closer. So the rule of thumb I use to discuss this with interested residents is if you can fit a 18
worker in a 450 ft2 one-bedroom apartment, then you’ve covered 150 ft2 of office space, so you 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
need about 3:1 ratio of floor area, housing to office, to be balanced. Just as a rule of thumb 1
people can use to evaluate proposals. 2
3
Let’s see. I think I covered my concerns about retail earlier. We’ve covered potential locations 4
for new development standards. We might also want to look at gathering information for things 5
like spaces where lot consolidation might be attractive. I have in mind a color-coded map in 6
which color indicates parcel size so I can see where the big areas are, where the small areas are, 7
and maybe get some ideas from that. We’ve covered space along the streets, and I think we’ve 8
covered my concerns about business displacement and sea level rise. Commissioner Ji, you’re 9
next and then Commissioner Templeton. 10
11
Commissioner Ji: Thank you, Chair. I actually was also going to talk about origin-destination 12
counts. I’ll allude to Item 4 but the Transportation team created a very detailed origin-13
destination document for the other project so I’m very excited about that and I would like to 14
echo that as well. A couple other miscellaneous points I want to bring up. One is I want to echo 15
Vice-Chair Chang’s comment about the RVs. I believe last time during the CAG meeting, the 16
conversation got derailed even for a little bit because a lot of the folks who live in or near the 17
Plan Area were worried about the RVs specifically on Fabian, I believe. Fabian, East Meadow, 18
kind of the areas around there. I also had a quick question about the gateway project that’s 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
mentioned on the oblique map that’s in the Mountain View side but not quite in Palo Alto. Do 1
you know what that is? What kind of project it is? 2
3
Chris Sensenig: Yeah. We do know. It’s called a gateway project, I believe, because it’s going 4
through their gatekeeper process in Mountain View which involves a change of zoning and 5
other aspects. Let me get the – I think I have the – yeah. I believe it’s about 450 units in total 6
and I forget – they have a considerable amount of commercial use on-site too, about 480,000 7
ft2 of commercial area and 450 units so this is a large project that will have a lot of impact on 8
this project. 9
10
Commissioner Ji: That’s kind of where I was going with that. 11
12
Chris Sensenig: Yeah. 13
14
Commissioner Ji: For the commercial use, do you know if it’s more like office type or is it more 15
like retail type or undetermined at this time? 16
17
Chris Sensenig: It’s a mix. There is an office component to it. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Robert Cain: I’ll also add that it was approved by Mountain View to go through their gatekeeper 1
process. The last time I checked in with their planning team, they had not yet received the 2
actual application. It’s still very much in the conceptual stage. But they did share with us what 3
they’re hoping to develop on that site. 4
5
Commissioner Ji: Okay. Thank you. I think it’s important to consider what is happening 6
immediately adjacent to the Plan Area as well. I also just want to take a step back and just really 7
commend the team on the report. I thought it was very detailed. I really enjoyed reading 8
through it. I think the team did an excellent job. One comment I have is I think it’d be nice to – I 9
love the oblique map. I’d love to see that in the report. I think that really gives a good sense of 10
the Plan Area. Also, because the map on Packet Page 68, which I believe is supposed to be a 11
very large map, ended up being actually really small on the PDF version. Just a side note about 12
that. I also want to talk a little bit about the intersection between what’s existing there for 13
businesses. At the CAG meeting there was discussion about this ramen place, Dohatsuten 14
Ramen, and it’s a fan favorite, I’d say, for a lot of the folks that are over there. One might say 15
it’s the Happy Donuts of San Antonio Road. It’s very popular. And it also is on a HIP site. I think 16
it’s just really important to think about because as we saw with the El Camino area, there’s a lot 17
of these businesses that sit on HIP sites [inaudible 2:16:28] a little bit unclear about their future 18
even though they have a lot of community support. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
In addition, I actually hadn’t been here before last month to I just wanted to kind of learn a 1
little bit more about the area and one of the things that the owner had said was that it’d be 2
potentially difficult to afford rent if they were to have to rebuild. And so talking about business 3
gentrification and I saw the term naturally occurring affordable housing. This is something I 4
mentioned at the CAG where I feel like there’s naturally occurring affordable retail for retail 5
spaces that may not be able to afford new rent if we were to redevelop the area. I think that’s 6
something to really consider as we think about protection for retail in the space. I also want to 7
reemphasize the traffic impacts. I think safety is mentioned a lot. I think that’s very, very 8
important but I also think that as a major arterial road, as a major truck corridor, I think it’s very 9
important to consider the traffic implications as not an oversight that is mentioned as 10
[inaudible 2:17:42] presentation but also very much involved as part of the discussion. I really 11
like Chair Akin’s comments about creative solutions for how we might manage this. And those 12
who know me about the bike plan know that, for example, I’m not as strong on having the bike 13
and ped infrastructure on the main road but on side roads. For example, instead of San Antonio 14
Road, you could have San Antonio Ave., the little small parallel street. 15
16
In talking about origin-destination pairs, you would probably expect that lots of folks [inaudible 17
2:18:20] trying to go to schools and so how do we think about that in terms of making safe 18
routes to school? San Antonio Ave. might be an easy way that we carve out this to be primarily 19
bike lane. Or we add a bike lane as a significant component there or on other side streets, I 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 ten (10) 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, could be a really interesting, creative way to think about that. I also want to quickly 1
address some of the other questions that you’ve identified on Packet Page 12. Going kind of 2
order here. Preferred location for retail. I think that on San Antonio between Middlefield and 3
Charleston is one of the areas that I think is quite interesting for retail. Neighbors have 4
mentioned that the Crossroads Market, I believe, is also in this segment here which one specific 5
neighborhood mentioned that with the increase of the hotels over there, they’ve seen an 6
increase in traffic of the market. That could be really interesting to collect more qualitative data 7
or possibly quantitative data about the direct impacts of having more people on the local retail 8
specifically. And then willingness to increase housing density/height for office space. I’d like to 9
echo Chair Akin. I’m a little bit reserved about changing the office space allowances. The project 10
that’s coming before us again at some time, 660 University, I believe the Commission as it 11
stands was also not super supportive of increasing the office allowance. 12
13
That being said, I’d like to see more of the current situation of the housing density and height 14
comparison. That way, as Chair Akin mentioned, we can then make a judgment call about 15
whether it’s necessary to increase because I don’t really know exactly where it is right now. And 16
same with Item 4, the special setbacks. If I knew what the current state was, I could provide a 17
little bit more feedback on that. And then I also want to quickly address the topics that you had 18
on your slide on the requested feedback section. Personally, for outdoor spaces I think that 19
that’s something that we could have some of the retail in conjunction with the outdoor spaces I 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 could be a really excellent idea. And then for the idea about locating outdoor space 1
[inaudible 2:20:42] Commercial Street, Industrial Ave., I’m a little bit wary about that 2
specifically given Commissioner Peterson’s comments about that area being under water 3
potentially. I think that we might need to reinvestigate whether or not – what we should be 4
putting over there. Those end my comments for now. 5
6
Chair Akin: Do you need any response? 7
8
Commissioner Ji: I think I mostly gave specific comments, not questions. I don’t know if the 9
team would like to respond? You’re happy to respond as needed. 10
11
Chair Akin: Okay. Commissioner Templeton? 12
13
Commissioner Templeton: Thank you. First I’m going to ask the CAG and the TAG, are they – I 14
still am unclear. Is it in the packet? Did I miss it? Like a list of people who you’ve consulted, 15
who’s working on the project? 16
17
Jennifer Armer: I don’t think we provided those details in the packet. 18
19
Commissioner Templeton: Okay. 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 ten (10) 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
Jennifer Armer: It is posted online. 2
3
Commissioner Templeton: I’m sure it is. 4
5
Jennifer Armer: It is available but thank you for that comment. 6
7
Commissioner Templeton: Yes. I think that’s why I’m asking some of these questions and I felt a 8
little bit of well, why don’t you know this when I asked earlier? Well, that’s why. Because I only 9
read the packet. Okay. I’m going to ask again and you’re welcome to pull it up as an axillary 10
resource if you want to, if I can even pronounce it. But are you working at all with Google Real 11
Estate and Workplace Services? You said that there is a Google facility involved in this space. 12
Yeah. Check and I’ll tell you why while you’re looking it up. Thank you for looking. Seems like 13
Commissioner Ji and I are sharing a brain again. The reason why it’s important is we have an 14
incredible resource with how they have redesigned the Mountain View Google campus that 15
could be applicable if we do bring them in for us to think about how to look at the design and 16
flow of traffic in the area. Particularly pedestrians and bikes. Which the design – if you haven’t 17
walked the area, I encourage you to over on the Charleston campus – really completely 18
separates people and bikes from cars. And this is great. Remember back when I was telling you I 19
used to try and bike in and the bus would hit the bike and hit the pedestrians and now that 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
collision is minimized and it’s really quite wonderful. However, they don’t have as a big a road 1
as San Antonio running through their campus. Yeah, they do have Shoreline and Charleston but 2
at those sections it’s a little different. I don’t know to what extent we’d be able to minimize our 3
roadways to make space for larger pathways but I’m tying this all together because one side 4
effect of the way they designed this space that is for transportation, pedestrian and biking and 5
cars, is that it became a park. The pedestrian and bike space became a park. You had this 6
beautiful little paths through what was a formerly industrial area and it really changed 7
everything about how you felt to be there. You didn’t feel overwhelmed. You didn’t feel the 8
noise. It was mitigated by the plantings. It’s been an interesting experience to watch it change 9
over the last 20 years so I would encourage you to take a look but also to invite them in. I see 10
we have an answer so let’s hear to what extent they’re involved. 11
12
Robert Cain: Sure. We did not receive any applications from Google Real Estate team for the 13
CAG so we identified them as a partner we want to reach out directly to and have 14
conversations with. 15
16
Commissioner Templeton: That is fantastic. I don’t know if he’s still there but we did have a 17
former Office of Transportation director move into that space and so they’re familiar with 18
working with the city of Palo Alto and might be a valuable resource to incorporate into your 19
feedback system. 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 ten (10) 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
Chris Sensenig: Commissioner Templeton, can I get a clarification? Are you talking about the 2
greenway specific or you talking about the Shoreline improvements? 3
4
Commissioner Templeton: For San Antonio Road? 5
6
Chris Sensenig: No. For your comparison to North Bayshore. 7
8
Commissioner Templeton: I’m talking about the Plymouth. It’s between... 9
10
Chris Sensenig: Yeah. Okay. The greenway. 11
12
Commissioner Templeton: ...San Antonio and Shoreline down along Charleston. 13
14
Chris Sensenig: Okay. 15
16
Commissioner Templeton: Between Charleston and 101. 17
18
Chris Sensenig: Great. Thank you. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 Templeton: Yeah. And I’m happy to – if we want to share, if you want to set up 1
an excursion where we can all go and take a look at it and get a personalized tour, I think it 2
would be very inspirational for this particular project as we’re trying to take something that’s 3
been there forever and turn it into our vision of the future of this area and incorporate it into 4
the community. That’s just planting that seed. Of course we wouldn’t do it exactly. That’s a 5
work space. We’re talking about something different. But the ideas they used about having a 6
separate bike path but then incorporating the ideas of community there, safety and barriers to 7
noise and visuals, greenery, all of those things, can be something we can aspire to. Anything 8
else? I see people looking at me like you might have something to say. Did you have – are you 9
all good? Okay. The other thing I wanted to ask staff about was we had some Commissioners up 10
here opining about the numbers that we should be using to understand the balance of office 11
space and housing. What is the City’s official position on that? Do we have numbers that we use 12
or should we take Chair Akin’s numbers? I want to make sure we’re using the right numbers 13
when we understand it. 14
15
Jennifer Armer: Thank you for that question. I don’t have an answer. 16
17
Commissioner Templeton: Okay. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Jennifer Armer: But I think posing the question so that as the consultants look into these 1
details, they’re aware that they should be questioning those numbers and then provide us a 2
recommendation is very helpful. 3
4
Commissioner Templeton: I think it’s part of that and it’s also a question for you about every 5
project because this comes up on every project. And what we need to do is come to – there’s a 6
source of the current truth and then how we want to shape it. And that’s part of the 7
conversation that the Chair brought up that we’re trying to have with you guys is how do we 8
adjust that to the current times and bring it up to speed and all that. But we need to be on the 9
same page so I just wanted to throw that out there as well. I’m trying to find the slide. I’m 10
having a hard time reading the light green on the printout. These are gorgeous printouts, by the 11
way. But what’s the slide with the questions you had? Requested feedback? Is that the one? 12
13
Robert Cain: Slide 18. 14
15
Commissioner Ji: Slide 18. 16
17
Commissioner Templeton: There’s like 3 of them. Okay. By the time we get through all 6 of us 18
it’s going to be covered but I hope that was useful. A little bit of a ramble but the point is aim 19
bigger. This is not going to be merging some lanes on Charleston Road. This needs to be a 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
bigger project. It’s a lovely project. I’m not trying to diminish it. But we can do more to make 1
that particular area safer especially as we look forward to all the types of people that are going 2
to live there, what they’re going to do. And everybody who lives in this area, last time we had 3
this conversation, they’re just literally worried that children are going to die crossing this street. 4
And I’m looking at each one of you in the eye because I will come back and talk to you about it 5
and find out do you think we did enough? That’s the question. That’s the question we all get. 6
That’s the question that Council gets. And that’s the question you guys get. We need to really 7
understand that this is a great opportunity for housing. It’s also a very high risk at the current 8
moment so we have to measure how much progress we’re going to make and what the price is. 9
The price in increasing the safety. All right. Thank you. 10
11
Chair Akin: Thank you, Commissioner. Any further questions or comments? All right then. I 12
believe we have given you all the feedback we have for you tonight. Once again, thank you very 13
much. This is an exciting project. A lot of people are going to benefit from it. We appreciate the 14
work. 15
16
Jennifer Armer: Thank you. 17
18
Mitali Ganguly: Thank you. And we appreciate all the comments that we’ve heard from you. 19
This has been great. Thank you. 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 ten (10) 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 Akin: All right. I think before we move on to Item 4, we should take a break. Let’s return at 2
8:30. 3
4
Study Session 5
Public Comment is Permitted. Three (3) minutes per speaker. 6
7
4. South Palo Alto Bike/Ped Connectivity: Provide Feedback on Conceptual Design 8
Alternatives. 9
10
Chair Akin: Welcome back, everyone. We are ready to begin Item #4, the South Palo Alto 11
Bike/Ped Connectivity Design Alternatives Study Session. 12
13
Senior Transportation Planner Charlie Coles: All right. Good evening, Commissioners. My name 14
is Charlie Coles, Senior Transportation Planner with Office of Transportation. I’m very happy to 15
be here this evening talking about the South Palo Alto Bike/Ped Connectivity Project. I’m joined 16
here with Ria Hutabarat Lo, Sylvia Star-Lack. Ria, Chief Transportation Official. Sylvia, the 17
Transportation Planning Manager in the Office of Transportation. And we also have Amanda 18
Leahy and Hermanus Steyn on the line as well from Kittelson & Associates. They’re part of the 19
project team supporting the City in this effort. We do have a staff presentation. Is that up? 20
Thank you, Samuel. You can go ahead and advance to the next slide. This is our overview for the 21
study session this evening. The staff report provides an update on the project and the work 22
completed to date. And then we have recommended that PTC review and provide initial 23
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
feedback on the 8 potential crossing design alternatives and alternatives analysis. Staff plans to 1
return to PTC in November 2025 with a request to recommend up to 2 conceptual design 2
alternatives to Council. This is our agenda. Next slide? I’ll spend a few minutes here just 3
reminding everyone of the bigger-picture objective of this project. Just to reiterate what’s 4
shown on your screen, the objective is to identify additional locations and develop 15 percent 5
design concepts for 2 additional grade-separated bicycle and pedestrian crossings, particularly 6
rail crossing, in the southern portion of the City. 7
8
Our approach as approved by Council and our scope of work with Kittelson & Associates 9
involves a step-by-step process that starts with a comprehensive look at the whole corridor in 10
our study area and identifying where there may be opportunities for future bicycle and 11
pedestrian grade-separated crossings. This included an initial screening process of over 25 12
design alternatives that aligned with the project goals and design priorities. And the purpose of 13
the initial screening was to identify the more feasible alternatives. That initial screening process 14
resulted in the 8 conceptual design alternatives which were advanced through the initial 15
assessment of alternatives and that’s really the focus of this evening. Our scope of work 16
provided the City with some flexibility to advance up to 2 alternatives [inaudible 2:48:14] the 15 17
percent design level for further refinement and it’s possible that these 2 design alternatives 18
could be in the same location or next to each other. Just wanted to make that a little bit clearer. 19
Thinking longer term, our expectation is once we’ve gone through this preliminary design 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
exercise of getting down to 2 designs that have the most promise, we sort of suspect that one 1
would be built. Just wanted to frame that and make that a little bit more clearer. That’s also 2
described a bit further, if you’re interested, in the alternatives analysis which starts on Packet 3
Page 95. Just wanted to reemphasize again that the Council approved this effort as really just 4
the conceptual planning phase of a much bigger project, so this effort is just to get to that 15 5
percent design level and there’s much more work to come. 6
7
I would also like to make clear, as it’s shown on your screen, that this effort is separate from 8
the Rail Grade Separation Project. That’s looking at grade-separated crossings at Churchill, 9
Meadow, and Charleston for vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians. These would be additional 10
bike/ped-only crossings. Next slide, please? This is our project study area focusing on the 11
southern portion of the City which we’ve defined as south of Oregon Expressway. Happy to talk 12
more about this if you like during Q&A but we can go ahead and proceed. Wanted to spend a 13
little bit of time talking about the background for why we’re here, why we’re bringing this 14
project forward through the community at this time. The reason is because there have been 15
several Council-supported plans and studies that have identified a critical need for additional 16
grade-separated bicycle and pedestrian crossings, particularly in the southern portion of the 17
City. This comes through in the City’s Comprehensive Plan and the current 2012 Bicycle and 18
Pedestrian Transportation Plan. There was a 2013 Rail Corridor Study. There was also the 19
recently adopted Safe Streets for All Safety Action Plan. And there are others that mention this. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
In addition to the City’s plans, there’s the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, or the 1
VTA, and their county-wide bike plan which identified the Caltrain tracks in the southern 2
portion of the City as a key barrier to bicycle movement in the county. This project is really 3
implementing the recommendations of previous Council-supported plans and other plans to 4
address those mobility gaps for walking and biking. 5
6
In addition to some of the things shown on your screen here, there are many other ongoing and 7
future projects that’s happening in this part of the City. This includes updating the Bicycle and 8
Pedestrian Transportation Plan. That’s a citywide project looking at the future bike/ped 9
network but that also includes southern Palo Alto. There’s the Housing Element Update and the 10
recently approved housing growth [inaudible 2:51:13] be occurring in the southern portion of 11
the City along El Camino Real and San Antonio Road in particular. There’s the – as you just 12
heard – the San Antonio Road Area Plan which is just kicking off which is implementing the 13
Housing Element Update work and reimagining that San Antonio Road area. There’s also the 14
Cubberley Community Center Project. That’s also just getting going. There’s the Rail Grade 15
Separation work that’s happening. That’s really just a long-winded way of saying there’s a lot 16
happening in the City and all these things go together. That’s important just to mention that 17
this Bicycle and Pedestrian Connectivity Project is another project that will help to support all 18
those other things that’s happening in the City in that broader context just to help maintain the 19
quality of life as the City continues to evolve. Next slide, please? This is our project timeline. On 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
September 9, 2024, exactly 1 year and 1 day ago, Council approved our scope of work with 1
Kittelson & Associates to provide the support on this project. 2
3
In early 2025, we completed the review of the existing conditions and published our existing 4
conditions report. That existing conditions work was used to identify crossing opportunity 5
locations and develop our design priorities and evaluation criteria which were shared with the 6
community including PTC for review and feedback during the first phase of engagement in 7
spring of 2025. In summer of 2025, the project team updated the design priorities and 8
evaluation criteria. More information on that is found on Packet Page 73 if you’re interested. 9
And those updates were based on the feedback that we gathered during Phase 1 which were 10
then used in the development, initial assessment, and comparison of design alternatives. We 11
are now in Phase 2 of community engagement that’s happening fall of 2025 and we’re 12
gathering feedback on the 8 preliminary concept alternatives. And the goal for Phase 2 is for 13
Council to select 2 alternatives for further development and analysis. Following Phase 2 we 14
anticipate there’ll be some refinement of alternatives before packaging everything together in a 15
public draft report that goes out for Phase 3. And then for Phase 4 we’re looking for Council 16
adoption of a final report as we’re looking to secure grant funding or other funding sources for 17
the next phases of work. Next slide, please? I won’t cover all this but this slide just presents the 18
tools and activities, some of the things that were part of Phase 1 of community engagement. 19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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’m happy to talk more about what we did or what we heard but for the time being we can keep 1
going. 2
3
Same thing here. There’s more information on the updated design priorities and evaluation 4
criteria. Again, that starts on Packet Page 73. Happy to go through those definitions or how 5
they’ve changed since we were last here during the Q&A. Just let me know. We can do that. For 6
now, we can keep going. I wanted to spend a few minutes talking about the complexity of 7
transportation projects and especially projects of this magnitude. We, again, are at the very 8
early stages of a very complex, high-profile project that involves many stakeholders, such as 9
yourselves, as well as many other public agencies including Caltrain, the city of Mountain View, 10
county of Santa Clara, in some cases Valley Water, and all of these agencies have their own 11
designs and standards. The 8 alternatives were developed in accordance with the design 12
standards of those agencies but there are still many complex engineering challenges that will 13
still need to be worked through. While all the designs are technically feasible, the alternatives 14
are still very fluid at this stage. And you can even think of them as modular in a sense so they 15
can still be moved around. Further, I’ll also just note, as I’m sure you noticed, all alternatives 16
have right-of-way implications that need to get worked out once that list is narrowed down, 17
once we get down to maybe those 2 alternatives. This we have known from the very beginning 18
will be a very big challenge for this project due to just the physical nature of the land use 19
characteristics on both sides of the roadway. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 to address this challenge as a public agency, we want this to be a public process and we 2
want to be transparent about the trade-offs when you’re looking at these different alternatives. 3
All that being said, there’s a lot more community engagement, a lot more technical design work 4
that’s to come. Next slide, please? Okay. Here’s a slide that shows all 8 preliminary design 5
concepts that the City commissioned for review and feedback from the community as part of 6
this project. As a reminder, these are all very high level. They’re very flexible, modular. I want to 7
point out that these drawings were drawn to scale to provide a level of detail that’s probably 8
more than what’s needed at this stage in the project. However, we wanted to include these 9
details to give the community a sense of what these could start to look like, how they might 10
function, what they might feel like, and particularly how much space would be needed to 11
actually build these. You will notice that some locations have multiple concepts under 12
consideration. This is due to the crossing location priorities described in previous Council plans 13
as well as some of the feedback that we gathered during the first phase of engagement. You 14
will also notice that the alternatives have a wavy path. This is really the amount of space that 15
would be needed to accommodate some kind of a ramp and that length that would be needed 16
to connect and provide an accessible path from the roadway level down to the tunnel. 17
18
Finally, you will notice that there are many consistencies between designs. The ramp width, 19
ramp grades, tunnel widths, heights, these were all generally kept consistent to keep things 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
simple at this point or simpler, if I may. Except for Alternative H at San Antonio Road which uses 1
existing structures to cross the railroad tracks. As you’re reviewing the conceptual designs, I 2
would just recommend focusing feedback on the basic design concepts associated with each 3
alternative, which from our perspective is really the location and what do you do at Alma? Do 4
you grade separate or do you do some kind of a signal or some other type of treatment to cross 5
at grade? As I mentioned earlier, there are many variations associated with each alternative. A 6
lot of those variations are documented in the alternatives analysis but the goal for this project 7
at this stage is really to get community consensus on the basic design concepts. Hopefully that 8
helps to focus your attention and I’m happy to walk through each of these alternatives during 9
Q&A if that would be helpful. Next slide, please? This slide summarizes the results of the 10
assessment of the alternatives. That’s described in your packet starting on Page 79 and in the 11
alternatives analysis which was attached. Happy to describe and talk through this in more detail 12
or any elements here. Just let me know during the Q&A portion. Next slide, please? 13
14
Quickly, just next steps. Continuing to check the project webpage for updates. There is an 15
online survey that’s available through September 12, that would be through this Friday. Look 16
out for pop-up events over the next few months. And then much like we’re here today, we do 17
have presentations scheduled at standing community meetings over the next few months to be 18
gathering the feedback for this stage of the project. And I believe I have one or two more slides. 19
Also just wanted to end on – this is stated in your packet this evening as well – next steps. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Thinking bigger picture, what are some of the major things that will need to happen once we 1
complete this project? There are many more steps to come including securing a Caltrain service 2
agreement. Similar to the work that’s being done in the grade separation process, eventually 3
Caltrain would take over as basically the manager for this project once the City has decided on 4
their preferred designs and gotten to that 15 percent design concept. There would be grants 5
and fundings that would need to be identified to help to pay for these efforts. Additional 6
engineering. Environmental documentation. Final design. Interagency coordination. Right-of-7
way acquisitions. Construction. And then once all of that’s completed, the project’s then 8
handed back over to Palo Alto. Many more years of work to come for this project. And I believe 9
that’s it. I have one more slide as just questions for PTC consideration to help guide your 10
discussion this evening. We’re really looking for input on any questions or suggestions that you 11
have on the 8 concept design alternatives. Then of course any questions or feedback that you 12
have on the alternatives analysis we’d be happy to entertain. That’s it. Thank you. 13
14
Chair Akin: Thank you, Mr. Coles. Do we have any clarifying questions? Commissioner 15
Templeton, then Vice-Chair Chang, then Commissioner Ji. 16
17
Commissioner Templeton: Forgive me for asking this question. I think I know the answer but I 18
feel like it’s worth stating. We can only choose one? 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Charlie Coles: No. 1
2
Commissioner Templeton: We can only build one? 3
4
Charlie Coles: I think it’s up to Council to decide, right? But I think the idea is that there’s a need 5
for one, at least one. Or one at a minimum. And so the study the way we’ve scoped it is we’ve 6
provided some flexibility in our scope where we have 8 that we’re coming forward with now. 7
We want to try to get that 8 down to 2 and advance those further. 8
9
Commissioner Templeton: But not necessarily to have both. 10
11
Charlie Coles: But necessarily to have both. Right. 12
13
Commissioner Templeton: Okay. 14
15
Charlie Coles: But I guess it is possible and it sort of depends on the combination of the two. 16
Right. Because there are some that are located at the same location but then there are some 17
that are much further away from each other and so it might make sense to have two. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 Templeton: I assume the number of bikes going to cross Alma are equivalent for 1
the different areas? Is this high schools only? Is it middle schools? Is it elementary schools? We 2
biked across Alma to get to elementary school. Are we just looking at the design or... 3
4
Charlie Coles: Yeah. As part of the... 5
6
Commissioner Templeton: Seriously we could literally be here all night so I’m just trying to 7
figure out what exactly you want us to say. This one’s prettiest? Or I want the kids going to this 8
school to be able to safely reach without crossing but I don’t care about that other school or...? 9
10
Charlie Coles: Yeah, so... 11
12
Commissioner Templeton: And I’m sorry I’m putting you on the spot. 13
14
Charlie Coles: No. 15
16
Commissioner Templeton: I’m not being very generous with my phrasing so please reflect back 17
in a way that is how you’re looking at it. I’m a little tongue-in-cheek here. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Charlie Coles: No. Absolutely. I appreciate the question. Samuel, if you wouldn’t mind, can we 1
open up slide 12, please? As part of this process, we – as I described, there was a process that 2
we took where we were looking at – we started with a comprehensive look at the entire 3
corridor to look to see where there were potentially opportunities for future bike/ped 4
crossings. That effort started with – we ended up with around 25 to 27 different options and 5
through an initial screening process, we ended up getting down to 8 crossing alternatives and 6
so those are the 8 preliminary crossing design alternatives that are presented here this evening. 7
Once we got down to our 8, we applied the design priorities and evaluation criteria that are 8
discussed in the packet. We also shared those with PTC when we were here last time to get 9
feedback. And what that evaluation criteria is is essentially a series of metrics that we use to 10
evaluate each alternative so you sort of start to see how each of the alternatives compare. On 11
your screen is really the summary table from the alternatives analysis and it’s one of the 12
elements that we think is useful in helping to compare the different alternatives and trade-offs. 13
14
Commissioner Templeton: I understand all that but thank you for going over it. I guess I will say 15
that the rest of my commentary is not clarifying, it is response. Thank you. 16
17
Chair Akin: Vice-Chair Chang, then Commissioner Ji. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Vice-Chair Chang: Can you help me understand – kind of stupid question – about option H 1
which is the enhancement at the San Antonio one? Am I understanding correctly that the 2
proposal would be for the bikes – first of all, where do the peds go? Where do the pedestrians – 3
how do they cross? Are they using the existing crossing? And then second question is is the 4
vision right now – I know that this is just preliminary – that the bikes would go up and over the 5
same way cars do up? Which is kind of steep. That’s why I’m won-, I mean, it ends because you 6
need coordination with Mountain View. Maybe we can pull this up so that if members of the 7
public are listening or for the recording. Packet Page... 8
9
Commissioner Ji: One thirty. 10
11
Vice-Chair Chang: Thank you. 12
13
Charlie Coles: Slide 25, Clerk, if you wouldn’t mind pulling that up? We have some backup slides 14
with the exhibits in the presentation as well. We can use that to take a look at it. 15
16
Vice-Chair Chang: Perfect. 17
18
Charlie Coles: And while that’s coming up, I can – yeah, I think you generally have the sense. 19
Again, this is one of the 2 designs that would require additional coordination with Mountain 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
View as half of it or a big portion of it would be in their jurisdiction. As shown, the alternative 1
would construct – or would install a 10-foot-wide, center-running, 2-way – I’m sorry. No. Keep 2
going to Alternative H, please? 3
4
Vice-Chair Chang: Perfect. That’s it. 5
6
Charlie Coles: That’s the one. Yeah. Here, the yellow line represents the 2-way separated cycle 7
track and so this would go from Nita Avenue in Palo Alto to California Street in Mountain View. 8
And you’re correct in your understanding. It would be along the existing bridge, the same 9
elevation as vehicles currently travel. It would not – or at least it’s described here, it would be 10
for cyclists only. The way pedestrians are accommodated is enhancing the connectivity to the 11
existing bike/ped tunnel at the Caltrain station in Mountain View, the San Antonio station, by 12
utilizing the existing San Antonio Avenue and the sidewalks there with a crosswalk at the 13
intersection of Alma and San Antonio Avenue and then connecting along the pathway, or the 14
sidewalk really, that connects San Antonio Avenue to the Caltrain station. 15
16
Vice-Chair Chang: Okay. Thank you. And I know this is kind of not what we agreed to during our 17
retreat but because this is up here and I don’t want to have to backtrack to it, first of all, thank 18
you for an amazing packet. I loved the fact that you guys had kind of looked at all the options. 19
And there’s that table in there that says why you didn’t advance, I don’t know, the tens, 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 ten (10) 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.
hundred options that you had and how you boiled it down to 8. And I have to admit to not 1
reading all of the options. But why not use the existing bike – enhancing the existing bike 2
crossing here? Because right now, the bikes would go the way the pedestrians do, correct? Or 3
they could also just travel along with cars. 4
5
Charlie Coles: Just a point of clarification. Is the question why not enhance connections to the 6
existing tunnel at the Caltrain station? 7
8
Vice-Chair Chang: Yes. 9
10
Charlie Coles: I think that would be part of this design as well. 11
12
Vice-Chair Chang: But it’s not sufficient for bikes is what you’re saying. There’s no way to turn 13
the existing pedestrian route into the route for bikes as well. 14
15
Charlie Coles: I think there could be. Yeah, I think that’s good feedback. 16
17
Vice-Chair Chang: Okay. Cool. 18
19
Charlie Coles: Yeah. 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 ten (10) 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
Vice-Chair Chang: I just didn’t know if that was already eliminated. Thank you. Yeah, that’s it. 2
Thanks. 3
4
Chair Akin: Thank you. Commissioner Ji and then Commissioner [Inaudible 3:10:02]. 5
6
Commissioner Ji: Questions covered. 7
8
Chair Akin: Ah. Okay. Commissioner Peterson, you’re up. 9
10
Commissioner Peterson: It’s going to be a similar question. First, a question is you don’t show 11
the baseline, the current situation with no option just as a way to start comparing? I think 12
Option H is probably – almost is the baseline and the reason is why is because Option H, which 13
is the bridge... 14
15
Vice-Chair Chang: Sorry. Just point of clarification. Do you mean baseline for the map that 16
you’re looking at? 17
18
Commissioner Peterson: I mean baseline for the current situation. If we had nothing... 19
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 ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
Vice-Chair Chang: Okay. Thanks. 1
2
Commissioner Peterson: ...no option at all so we can see the improvement. So H, I think there is 3
an issue because not only does H not look like it includes fully the underpass, the walking, but 4
even once you add the bike path, unless I’m not understanding the map – maybe this is my 5
question. Why doesn’t it show greater access to San Antonio Road if you have biking over San 6
Antonio bridge? 7
8
Vice-Chair Chang: Which map are you looking at? [Inaudible 3:11:16]. 9
10
Commissioner Peterson: I’m on H. Maybe we should bring it up. 11
12
Vice-Chair Chang: Packet page maybe? 13
14
Commissioner Peterson: Yeah, 172. 15
16
Vice-Chair Chang: Thank you. 17
18
Commissioner Peterson: Samuel, can you bring up 172? 19
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 ten (10) 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.
Charlie Coles: Commissioner, Chair, I’m happy to weigh in here. The reason for – on Packet Page 1
72, this is part of the accessibility analysis. If you remember when we were here last time we 2
did the accessibility analysis as part of the existing conditions, so that was the baseline analysis. 3
This is now applying if you were to assume a new crossing, what would the change in 4
accessibility be? And so for Alternative H, on Page Packet 72, this is showing how walking 5
accessibility would change. And since we’re not adding a new pedestrian pathway, another way 6
to cross the railroad tracks, there would be no change in... 7
8
Commissioner Peterson: I think we’re on different... 9
10
Charlie Coles: ...travel times. 11
12
Commissioner Peterson: Are the packets different? Because I’m on 172. Yep. There you go. 13
Okay. And then we don’t have it up on the screen. That would help. Then we’re all looking at 14
the same thing. There we go. At the top of the map – there we go – it seems that if you had the 15
bridge enhancement you would have greater access to the San Antonio corridor. But this is 16
showing minimal – in fact, it just shows it goes up to the Google X Development and basically 17
stops right there. 18
19
Chair Akin: This is for pedestrians. Do you care about bikes or just peds at this point? 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 ten (10) 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 Peterson: I use the pedestrians kind of as a proxy because I know the bikes are 2
going to do better than that. I see what you’re saying. Because with the bike path, it will give 3
the greater access. Okay. This is showing pedestrian just with the underpass. 4
5
Commissioner Ji: The bike diagram’s on Packet Page 180. 6
7
Commissioner Peterson: Okay. Yeah. I think this one here, because of that, this almost does 8
show the current situation because it doesn’t show the bike access. That’s where the two come 9
together. This one here is probably the closest to what we have right now. Thank you. 10
11
Chair Akin: Further clarifying questions? Vice-Chair Chang? 12
13
Vice-Chair Chang: So sorry. I did have one more. I noticed that all the bridge options were 14
eliminated. Does that mean – it mentions cost as well as comfort for the pedestrians and bikes 15
crossing. Cost-wise, would it end up being more expensive than any of the current – cost-wise, 16
is the construction of a bridge, we think, more expensive than even our most expensive options 17
right now among the 8? 18
19
Charlie Coles: That’s a really good question. 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 ten (10) 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
Ria Lo: Perhaps I can respond to that. 2
3
Charlie Coles: Yeah. 4
5
Ria Lo: The difference between a bridge and an undercrossing is that for an undercrossing, you 6
need a clearance of maybe 8 to 10' for the height of a person or a person on a bike. If you’re 7
using a bridge, you need to get up to the overhead catenary-wise and then you have to have a 8
10-foot clearance from that. I don’t know how high that is, 25' or something. And to do that 9
with an ADA accessible path, you’re traveling a very long distance so sometimes it might be 10
infeasible technically because you wipe out a whole lot of properties in order to get the ramp in 11
front of their driveways, etc. 12
13
Vice-Chair Chang: Thank you. That’s super helpful to understand that it’s kind of a steepness 14
issue that then drives the cost and the associated issues. Thank you. 15
16
Chair Akin: Any further clarifying questions? Commissioner Peterson? 17
18
Commissioner Peterson: Looking closer at this, I think there is a problem on Page 172. I was 19
confused a little bit between the pedestrian and the biking issue but now I’m looking at it 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
clearly just as pedestrian. If there is a way to zoom – is there a way to zoom in on just the top 1
half of the map? Okay. If you look closely at the top of the map here, it shows the pedestrian 2
underpass at San Antonio and then it’s showing a pedestrian route around the on-ramp, which 3
is a little bit weird because pedestrians aren’t going to walk on that on-ramp. But more 4
importantly, it also doesn’t show the connection that you can walk across. Because you walk up 5
Alma and there’s a crosswalk there underneath the bridge. And I don’t know if it’s just you 6
don’t see that because the bridge is, quote, unquote, hiding it but I don’t think this map is 3-7
dimensional like that. I think there’s actually a missing connection of crossing – I don’t know 8
what the road is. It’s probably Old San Antonio, something – to get to South Palo Alto. Because I 9
would think that that underpass, you can walk pretty far up into – like towards Cubberley and 10
stuff. Just wanted to point it out. 11
12
Charlie Coles: Yeah. We can look into that as well. 13
14
Commissioner Peterson: Yeah. 15
16
Charlie Coles: I’ll just add that... 17
18
Commissioner Peterson: Yes. I’m trying to say there’s a better connection than what your map 19
is showing. 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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
Charlie Coles: Than what’s currently shown. Yeah. 2
3
Chair Akin: Any further questions, Commissioner James? All right. Mr. Tavera, do we have any 4
public commenters on this topic? 5
6
Samuel Tavera: Through the Chair, I have received no public comment cards and if there’s 7
anyone on Zoom who would to request to speak, I would request that you raise your hand now. 8
Seeing none, through the Chair, I have none. 9
10
Chair Akin: Thank you. We are open for discussion rounds and I see Commissioner Templeton 11
would like to speak. 12
13
Commissioner Templeton: Yes. Thank you. I want to look at the chart and I want – your pretty 14
black and gray chart, and I wanted to just check and see. Parcel impacts? Does that mean 15
removing a home? I’m trying to translate that. Can you answer that, please? 16
17
Charlie Coles: Yeah. In some cases, it does. Yeah. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
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Commissioner Templeton: And are all these roughly the same number of homes? Is that why 1
they’re all – how are we to interpret the different shades of gray? Could you put a number 2
there of how many homes will be impacted? 3
4
Charlie Coles: Yeah. We do have that information in there. I’m happy to pull it up if that would 5
be helpful. 6
7
Commissioner Templeton: You have it as a chart? That would be great. What page is it on 8
because I missed it. 9
10
Charlie Coles: If someone from Kittelson on the line could help try to point us in the right 11
direction? Or I can try to look that up as well. 12
13
Commissioner Templeton: Thank you. Yeah. I guess I was memorized by our chart there. While 14
you’re looking that up, I want to go to the graph on Page 77 and I want to look at this. And I’m 15
concerned about the potential general assumptions in the guidance that staff has received from 16
the project so far in that I feel like the difference between A and H is so very, very vast. I have 17
walked – I used to live a block over from Matadero and I walked my kids to Preschool Family 18
once. It was an interesting experience. The railroad track. Having an underpass would be really 19
nice but that was so long and I don’t think that I went – it didn’t go all the way to H. I think it 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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went down there to Charleston. Imagine if you’re living over here on Loma Verde and you’re 1
trying to get to Gunn, H makes no sense at all for that perspective. Now, on the other hand, 2
there are people who do live down here in the San Antonio area, Ferne Ave. We’ve got some 3
friends over on Ferne. That would be really ideal for them. In that context, though, I’m thinking 4
back to our previous item that that’s an area that’s currently understudied and we’re hoping 5
that we can fit something good there in through that avenue if we do have to limit ourselves. 6
So then I come back to how do we split the difference? 7
8
Given the rail crossing projects, how does that play into your chart? Let’s put it that way. Let’s 9
say we did do something down here on Charleston, so D, E, or F, for the rail crossings. How 10
does that show up in your chart in terms of would it be throwaway work if we were to build 11
something like this? 12
13
Charlie Coles: I think I understand what you’re getting at. 14
15
Commissioner Templeton: Thanks. 16
17
Charlie Coles: I think you’re speaking about – correct me if I’m wrong – the rail grade separation 18
work at Meadow and Charleston, recognizing that the construction footprint could be quite 19
large especially if the City decides on the hybrid alternative? 20
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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1
Commissioner Templeton: Not even that. Those projects incorporate already some bike 2
crossing. Not sure I love them either. That’s the dilemma. For example, I like these better. I like 3
what you’ve proposed better than what we’ve been looking at for the rail grade separation. But 4
if we go with this, does that mean 10 years from now it’s all going to be thrown out if we finally 5
– ha ha – have a rail grade separation? 6
7
Charlie Coles: I really appreciate that perspective. Something that we talk about in the analysis 8
is how 3 of our alternatives, so Alternatives D, E, and F... 9
10
Commissioner Templeton: Yep. 11
12
Charlie Coles: ...are all within the proposed construction area for the Meadow-Charleston 13
hybrid alternative. If the hybrid alternative were to be selected, the crossings at D, E, and F 14
would really need to be delayed until the construction... 15
16
Commissioner Templeton: Oh. Delayed. 17
18
Charlie Coles: ...for the rail grade separation [inaudible 3:23:14]. 19
20
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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Commissioner Templeton: [Inaudible 3:23:14]. 1
2
Charlie Coles: Because you need to coordinate the 2 projects. We wouldn’t want to – as you’re 3
pointing out – build something that then gets torn up [inaudible 3:23:21]. 4
5
Commissioner Templeton: I mean, it could be 20 years though. You’re going to delay it 20 6
years? 7
8
Charlie Coles: I think the challenge here is just recognizing that there is the overlap and then... 9
10
Commissioner Templeton: Okay. 11
12
Charlie Coles: ...you kind of sort of start to add some complexity. 13
14
Commissioner Templeton: I spent several years working on that project, just so know, so I’m 15
familiar with these things. And I really like the work you’ve done and I think it is providing some 16
superior alternatives. However, I will also add that in the world we discussed earlier tonight, if 17
parts of the train were to change elevation, then you’d have every one of those crossings. 18
That’s not what you asked us tonight and we’re not going to get into it tonight but it’s really 19
important and I’m saying it just for the record because hopefully somebody from Council will be 20
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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reading this. But every one of these is a great location and a great suggestion. The ones in 1
general that I’m concerned about are the houses that will be lost. Did we get that pulled up? 2
3
Charlie Coles: Yes. 4
5
Vice-Chair Chang: It’s Packet Page 82 also. 6
7
Commissioner Templeton: Eighty-two. 8
9
Vice-Chair Chang: It talks about parcel impacts. 10
11
Charlie Coles: Yeah. Parcel impacts. Commissioner, your question was what is each shade of 12
gray associated with? If you go to Packet Page 161... 13
14
Commissioner Templeton: One sixty-one. 15
16
Charlie Coles: ...there’s Table 18 that shows how we scored the parcel impact criteria. 17
18
Commissioner Templeton: Okay. 19
20
_______________________
1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
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Charlie Coles: It’s a range from no parcel impact to full impact of 2 or more parcels, again 1
recognizing these are high-level conceptual designs but generally drawn to scale. 2
3
Commissioner Templeton: Thank you for that. That is tangential to what I’m asking. I’m asking if 4
you could please improve this chart for community consumption by using numbers in that row 5
and not 0, 1, 2, and more than 2 but actual numbers. Because you know. You’ve already looked 6
at it. May as well tell it. Because this is dominating the conversation about this in the 7
community. I see it multiple places. Facebook, neighborhood chats, my friends texting me. It is 8
causing suspicion and distrust and so since you have the information, you should provide it. I do 9
love a good chart. I love this chart but that particular piece of information needs to be 10
numerical. That’s all I’m going to say for now. I’ll get into more detail but the bottom line is we 11
need all these crossings but I don’t want to take all that many houses. Thanks. 12
13
Chair Akin: I have no other lights at the moment. Anyone else care to weigh in? Commissioner 14
Ji. 15
16
Commissioner Ji: Thank you, Chair. I have to say this report was awesome. I really delved into 17
every single page. I did spend way too much time reading lots of appendices and I think this is 18
probably not directly impacted by our PTC retreat that we had recently but I know that’s one of 19
the things we talked about was having more detailed staff reports. And I want to say both this 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 ten (10) 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.
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packet and the previous agenda item really delivered on that, so thank you, staff, so much. Yes. 1
I want to say – I just want to ask Chair. Structuring conversation, are we just kind of talking 2
generally now or we want to talk about options or what’s the format we’re looking at right 3
now? 4
5
Chair Akin: It’s entirely free-form. 6
7
Commissioner Ji: Okay. It’s free-form now. Okay. Thank you for all these options. I’m 8
particularly impressed with the analysis of the 27 different options. I think it was really helpful 9
in trying to hone in on the logic that we got to the options that we have today. One note. When 10
reading through the Packet, it said like Option A, which is El Dorado Avenue tunnel, and then, 11
for example, C is Loma Verde tunnel with signal. I think it would just be helpful to clarify that 12
some of the options that say tunnel also still have the signal. For example, Option A, El Dorado 13
Avenue tunnel, my understanding based on the drawing is it also comes with a signal. So for all 14
the options that have a signal, just to label that. Which gets me to my next point which is I’m 15
very strongly against having a signal on Alma. It took me 40 minutes today to get here from 16
Mountain View on Central and my office is 1 block off of Central. And the only thing – there was 17
no accidents. There was nothing. It was just traffic lights at each of the different places. And I 18
think specifically in South Palo Alto if you drive through this area, you can – I’ve been trapped 19
between Meadow and Charleston for so, so, so many signals, of it not moving. And I would like 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 ten (10) 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 not see a light. Which probably is going to indicate where I’m going to comment on for the 1
discussion items. 2
3
But I also, being interested in the data myself, dug into the calculation as well. Wait. Sorry. Let 4
me find it. On Packet Page 149, Chair Akin may be interested to know that there are origin-5
destination pair data that is discussed here. Oh, sorry. I specifically mean on Packet Page 150 6
about the weekday trips. I think it’s really helpful to have this discussion about how many more 7
trips are going to be created and using the distances as part of the calculation. The idea being 8
that if a distance gets shrunk a lot, then more people will be traveling. But for me, one of the 9
reasons why – when I looked at this, I saw that Options B and C, for example, Loma Verde 10
tunnel with signal and without signal, are considered equal. But in my mind, they’re very much 11
not equal so I went to Fairmeadow. Stopping – from the El Camino side of the train tracks, the 12
traffic light was more than 50 percent of the total amount of time to get to the place. Or when I 13
went to Gunn, crossing at El Camino was more than probably 40 percent of the amount of time 14
I would spend on my bike trying to get there. We can talk about the benefits of – I love the 15
table. I have to say I love the color table. But also, having these 2 options being considered the 16
same, I think it’s a little bit misleading to the reality. For example, if I had to wait at Loma Verde 17
for a traffic light, that probably adds a significant portion of time to the crossing. 18
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 ten (10) 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.
If we’re talking about connectivity, I think it’s really important to be aware that these are pretty 1
different from a day-to-day lifestyle change even if from a distance calculation perspective 2
they’re about the same. That’s something that is important to me when thinking about the 3
options. The other thing that I want to call out about Packet Page 150 is the demand impact. 4
And I want to say that I am not very supportive of building a tunnel in places with very low 5
demand. It’s pretty clear based on the analysis here and I think from people’s lived experiences 6
living in South Palo Alto that adding a tunnel between Charleston and Meadow is probably 7
excessive. And I think 450 trips is being pretty generous. If there’s a signal there, it’s unclear to 8
me about how much usage that will get. And also, I really appreciate the diagrams that are 9
appendices towards the back, whichever diagram that Commissioner Peterson had mentioned. 10
I think that was really helpful because the highlighted areas that are nice and thick can really 11
call out exactly where there’s additional connectivity. And I think just for the public, that would 12
be interesting to surface earlier. I know there’s already a lot of information in the main part of 13
the packet but this way, when I talk to my friends, I can say hey, if you live in Loma Verde, now 14
you have better connection to X, Y, Z place. Not like oh, hypothetically I have this tunnel that 15
can now get me somewhere. What does that actually mean for my day-to-day life? 16
17
For example, if I look at Packet Page 174, the bike with Loma Verde, you can actually see that 18
the darker area includes Gunn. What that means is if I live on the 101 side of Alma near Loma 19
Verde, I will be able to get to Gunn closer. And that’s an easier story to tell for the people who 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 ten (10) 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.
live there than to say hey, do you want a tunnel at El Dorado? In fact, these people don’t know 1
what’s over there on the other side of the train tracks because it is very difficult to get there so 2
having this kind of description is really helpful. And I would also like to echo Commissioner 3
Peterson’s comment, which is I think it would be – I guess like effectively H – oh, sorry – the 4
pedestrian diagram on Packet Page 172 is the baseline. But I think it could be nice to have a 5
baseline as well for the bikes to say hey, this is how it was before so now on the Loma Verde 6
tunnel I see that the time is – it’s bright which means there is an impact but I don’t know – like 7
now it’s less than 5 minutes but before what was it actually? And so being able to say the 8
savings is 15 minutes or whatever could be nice. I’ll let other Commissioners speak at this point. 9
10
Chair Akin: I have Vice-Chair Chang and then Commissioner Peterson. 11
12
Vice-Chair Chang: Okay. I couldn’t agree more with everything that Commissioner Ji has said. In 13
particular, really appreciated his comment about how the 2 options at Loma Verde [inaudible 14
3:34:06] have approximately the same demand really might not have the same demand. As I 15
was looking at this, my favorite was B because of the centrality, because of the demand. 16
Unfortunately it’s expensive. But I was really trying to optimi-, when I was looking at this and 17
thinking if we’re going to be spending all this time and effort and interruption, it’s actually got 18
to serve a whole bunch of people. And so for that reason, D through G, were sort of not – it just 19
doesn’t – I don’t think we get the bang for the buck. Those connect out of Green Meadow and 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 ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
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3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
The Circles. Green Meadow and The Circles are designed such that they are not commuter 1
routes because people don’t really go through them. I can see why bikes might but it’s designed 2
as a series of dead ends. That’s why the demand is lower, as you all know. The other thing I was 3
looking at is the lights on Alma. And I completely agree with Commissioner Ji on that. We have 4
potentially a giant development coming in in Menlo Park. We have tons of development coming 5
in in Mountain View. We ourselves are developing a ton. And I know that we don’t want all 6
these housing units to come with cars but when you talk to the real estate developers and you 7
say well, how about you just don’t park your project? Well, they have told us in this room nope, 8
that’s dead in the water. 9
10
Same thing with the retail landlords. Nope, we are car-centric down here in the Bay area. 11
They’re all coming with cars and so if we add lights, we’re essentially taking the one arterial 12
that we have that actually kind of works right now – kind of. It did take Commissioner Ji 40 13
minutes – and then we’re actually causing impediments. I know this is not popular for bike 14
advocates and stuff but when you look at the numbers of people that would be benefiting – 15
let’s take a look at Loma Verde, which 2,500 crossings a day. How many people would we be 16
slowing down by how much? It’s going to be exponential, I think, with the train traffic. I just 17
think a light is almost a nonstarter. Maybe I am not imaginative enough and maybe there’s a 18
way to execute it such that it would work, but I really think we would be cutting ourselves off at 19
the knees with lights and that’s why I think B. And then H might be a far second. I don’t think it 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 ten (10) 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.
solves that big connectivity gap that we have but when we look at – because it’s relatively 1
inexpensive and when we look at the Area Plan and all the housing that going to go in there and 2
our hopes that those people hopefully will come in with fewer cars per unit, then it might be 3
really necessary to have that and so maybe we’ll get 2? Thanks. 4
5
Commissioner Templeton: [Inaudible 3:37:28]? 6
7
Vice-Chair Chang: Yeah. 8
9
Commissioner Templeton: You said that G was a nonstarter and it has this slightly more but 10
same large number as the other things you liked? What was your objection to it? 11
12
Vice-Chair Chang: The demand. I didn’t think... 13
14
Commissioner Templeton: How is that demand different? 15
16
Vice-Chair Chang: Oh, no. You’re right. Maybe there’s a hole there. I think it was just further 17
away though from the central part of – yeah. I was also looking at trying to – Council, when 18
they had said go with this project, said let’s focus on crossings from Cal Ave. to East Meadow 19
and so that’s part of the reason because it’s just at one end. I thought it wasn’t as powerful. 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 ten (10) 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 Akin: Commissioner Peterson? 2
3
Commissioner Ji: Mic. 4
5
Commissioner Peterson: Oops. Sorry. Screen share. Start broadcast. Action. 6
7
Commissioner Ji: Sounds like we have an instructor for our technology portion. 8
9
Commissioner Peterson: Need our class. Okay. We’re looking at H here and what I’m going to 10
do – and the reason why this is going to tie back into G is because essentially I’m also going to 11
fix Option G in way. I’ve had to work with some tedious software like this so I can see, I think, 12
where some things came apart, where I think you can tighten things up in the next iteration. Is 13
it still possible to run these – maybe I should ask that first – or is the simulations all done for the 14
walking paths? [Inaudible 3:39:22]? 15
16
Charlie Coles: I think we’re open to hearing your comments. 17
18
Commissioner Peterson: Okay. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
Charlie Coles: Yeah. 1
2
Commissioner Peterson: Whoever the consultant is that does these [inaudible 3:39:29]. 3
4
Ria Lo: [Inaudible 3:39:30] to look at our scope and budget and just check. 5
6
Commissioner Peterson: Okay. I should have the ability to draw now. Is it this one? Somewhere 7
in here. Give me one second here. I’m on the wrong – [inaudible 3:39:59] draw. Hm. There it is. 8
Draw. Found it. Drawing tool. Okay. Here’s my edit. First, there’s a walking path there. It’s 9
through private property. It goes through a parking lot but it looks like – I’ve never walked that 10
actual path myself but I’m pretty sure you can walk between those 2 points which really 11
changes that dark blue street into a light blue and probably transitions and reaches further into 12
that neighborhood. Which is exactly what Option G was reaching as well, that you can basically 13
reach it from the Caltrain station though it’s a little bit of a walk. But then when you get to the 14
Caltrain station, the underpass is also not properly represented. I had to look more carefully 15
and realize I think I jaywalk across Alma and I risk my life each time I – [inaudible 3:41:07] talk 16
about you can walk under the underpass. You actually can’t. It’s not a continual walkway 17
anymore. There is a crosswalk here. And then it’s not really clear but there’s a small walkway 18
underneath the – there’s a hole in the fence, so to speak – someone’s actually made a – that 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 ten (10) 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.
you can walk across the street, walk along the tracks, and you’re back at the Caltrain station 1
and then you can walk back underneath here. 2
3
I think those 2 revisions to the model to allow it to better represent – because now you can see 4
that you very clearly – we’ll use yellow, I guess. Oh. Well, it’s all going to be yellow. I won’t try 5
to be fancy with this. Obviously now you can go up – I found it. It’s called North San Antonio – is 6
going to light up. And then you’re going to get these branch streets off North San Antonio are 7
all going to light up. Anyways, you get the idea. And I think that’s going to give us a better 8
representation that it’ll probably look a lot like Option G does but we actually have it under H 9
without knowing it. There you go. Thank you. 10
11
Chair Akin: And that is the kind of technology use that I was hoping for. Very useful. Thank you. 12
Commissioner Templeton? 13
14
Commissioner Templeton: Thanks. I really appreciate the comments we’ve had so far. I want to 15
agree with the commentary about do not add lights to Alma. We will all agree to that. That’s a 16
bad move. If that helps you eliminate half of these then more power to you. But the bottom 17
line is where you stand, I think, may depend on where you live. I’m thinking that this is a part of 18
town I live in. I think I would be preferring D, E, or F. And the part of town that other 19
Commissioners live in might prefer something closer to them or areas that they frequent. That’s 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 ten (10) 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.
something for us to think about and this is why I’m trying to say we’re going to be pitting – 1
what is it? The Sharks and Jets? No, from – I’m trying to remember from West Side Story. We’re 2
going to have people [inaudible 3:43:49] this part of town and this part of town kind of on 3
opposite sides because it’s just where their haunts are. I bet we could get down to 2 options for 4
you tonight but then you’re stuck because there’s no rational way to deal with that because 5
they’re about the same in terms of usage and it just depends on which one you think would be 6
easier for you. That’s sort of what I was getting at with my earlier question about what do you 7
want us to use? And yes, we have your chart and if the chart enough, you wouldn’t be here. 8
9
There are some other things, some judgment that you’re looking for from us. I guess I like El 10
Dorado, so A. And I like – which one of D and E doesn’t have the light? So D? And I like G 11
because G gets a lot of use. But as we just discussed, we hope that that’s going to be 12
incorporated into another imminent project. Is there someone here on this panel of staff that 13
can say yes, indeed, that’s no longer relevant because we’re absolutely going to put that into 14
their project that presented last? Any chance? Are you a CAG or a TAG? 15
16
Charlie Coles: Oh, you mean the San Antonio Road Area Plan? Yeah. I think it’s just important 17
to, yeah, recognize that we have this scope of work, 8 designs. We’re trying to get down to 2. 18
What happens there... 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 Templeton: Right. 1
2
Charlie Coles: Right. 3
4
Commissioner Templeton: I’m trying to help you. I’m trying... 5
6
Charlie Coles: Yeah. 7
8
Commissioner Templeton: ...to say if that’s already taken care of, we can just eliminate it. 9
10
Charlie Coles: Right. Yeah. I think you’re bringing up a really great point that these projects have 11
already shown up or will show up in other plans and other studies, right? There’s the San 12
Antonio Road Area Plan. There’s the current Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan that 13
shows a crossing in the Loma Verde vicinity. And City’s currently going through their update of 14
the Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan. It would also show where future crossings could 15
be or what could happen at San Antonio Road and the interchange. Yeah. These designs or at 16
least the project, so to speak, to do the work and advance the work could show up in many 17
different plans and studies. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
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Commissioner Templeton: Okay. So A versus B, looks like A takes fewer houses than B? Am I 1
interpreting our colors right? I’ve lost the numbers page. But I know I’m going to get numbers 2
next time, right? If it came down between A and B and we – it looked to me like – how many 3
houses do we have to take? I didn’t think we do on A. What page was it? Do you remember 4
what the chart – about the number? Eighty-two? 5
6
Commissioner Ji: One hundred and sixty-one. 7
8
Commissioner Templeton: You guys are... 9
10
Ria Lo: Just to clarify, we actually don’t need to get down to 2 options tonight. We’re looking for 11
feedback. We expect to get down to 2 in the several months. If there are things – I think we’ve 12
heard tonight that you’re not preferring things that add additional signals to Alma so that might 13
be some feedback that helps us to eliminate a couple. If there are ones that you definitely want 14
to eliminate, like one or two, then that helps us kind of to streamline [inaudible 3:47:49]. 15
16
Commissioner Templeton: Thank you. That is exactly what I was trying to ask. If we can 17
eliminate H or G and H because of the Area Plan, then you’re down to 3 and then we’re done. I 18
tease a little. But I assume you want more from us. I don’t know. But if you did, it’d be great to 19
specify and say well, you’ve given us enough to narrow it down to 3, I agree, but I’m curious 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 ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
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2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
about X, Y, and Z. That’s fine. Anyway, being more transparent about the houses. And I assume 1
people are living in these houses? And that makes it tough. Are all of these equally lengthy in 2
terms of – it sounds like H is not going to happen anytime in this decade or the next in terms of 3
the difficulty. Everything there is – well, okay. Is black the best? It’s the easiest one to do. Okay. 4
5
Ria Lo: Although it does involve interagency collaboration and this project was removed from 6
the 5-year CIP on the Mountain View side because they’re focusing on their grade separations 7
first. So they’re not anticipa-. 8
9
Commissioner Templeton: What about that? That’s an interesting approach. Wow. It’s almost 10
as though we mention that tonight too and it’s great we’re talking about it. This is such good 11
stuff. We should definitely do it but it is – for me, the only people I’ve ever heard talking about 12
this are the same people that sit on the rail committee because we understand how 13
desperately interconnected they are. And so I’m just a little nervous about getting excited and 14
getting people excited about being able to cross when I know that if their children are already 15
born, they’re not using these tunnels to go to school. Right? This is long-term planning. Anyway. 16
I think one more reaction to share with you, not that you necessarily specifically asked for this 17
but it is my assessment of how these are coming across, is this looks so cheerful to me. When 18
I’m reading this packet and I’m reading – I read the survey, I read this packet, I’ve listened to 19
your presentation. Everything sounds so good. One of the things that I’m hearing when I’m 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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.
hearing from the community is not that. Not that. There are a few, of course, bike activists that 1
were really excited about it and those are the people we generally are trying to please, right? 2
This is our community. But there’s people who don’t want their neighbor’s house torn down 3
and there’s people who don’t want to deal with new signals and people who don’t want to deal 4
with 10 years of construction. 5
6
We have to figure out how to – there’s more to it than this chart. There’s a bit of a sentiment 7
measure that we may want to figure out how to incorporate so that when we’re appealing to 8
the community to get excited about these things that they know what the trade-offs are. And 9
I’m not saying it’s not in here. I’m saying we’re doing a really good job of talking about the 10
things that are exciting us and we’re not doing a good job yet of reflecting the way people are 11
experiencing the concerns shown in the chart. If that makes any sense. Okay. I’ll stop there. 12
Thanks. 13
14
Chair Akin: Thank you. Commissioner Ji is waiting patiently but if I can [inaudible 3:52:06]. 15
16
Commissioner Ji: Oh. No. I’d like actually, Chair, for you to go first because I realize you haven’t 17
gotten a turn yet. 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 Akin: In fact, I was going to request that but you anticipated me. Yeah. It’s enlightening to 1
hear the interpretations that my fellow Commissioners are placing on the project, touching on 2
some issues that had not occurred to me. But I wanted to go ahead and give you my 3
impressions with qualifications anyway. Personally, I thought this was really coming together 4
well. The analysis is deep and thorough. I particularly like the methodology discussion which 5
managed to answer most of the questions I had without having to pose them to you tonight. 6
My thinking about this, assumed that we will have the grade separation at Meadow and 7
Charleston with bike and ped capacity, yes, timing is an issue. That’s one of the things I’m 8
hearing from the rest of you. But I assumed that we would do that. Given that assumption, then 9
the crossings that are nearby Meadow and Charleston have too little value to pursue. So if you 10
buy that assumption, then I don’t find them compelling. I definitely am interested in Option H 11
because of the connection with the San Antonio Area Plan. And I feel like the pedestrian option 12
down there is workable, perhaps as Commissioner Peterson has suggested, but it does need to 13
be described more clearly in the documents that go to the public. I really, really, really wanted 14
to have Option B but I just can’t support it. The construction complexity and the cost and also 15
the impacts on the Loma Verde properties. There’s a whole lot of driveways that are going to 16
become right in, right out there as well as some interesting constraints on how people use that 17
intersection. 18
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 ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
In addition to H, that leads me to A and C. And I had a hard time rating the two of them because 1
they each have different strengths. Lower impacts on adjacent houses, shorter paths, better 2
connection to demand, particularly school-related demand. There were just too many trade-3
offs there for me to make a choice between one of those two. I’m leaning towards H and one of 4
A and C. About the lights on Alma, that’s something I hadn’t really considered because my 5
initial thinking was we have a real problem with speed on Alma and a few lights might not be 6
such a bad idea, or perhaps even some lane narrowing might not be a bad idea, so we could get 7
some of that as a side effect. And I will reconsider that based on the comments that I’ve heard 8
tonight but I did want to point out that in our packet it mentions that there are many signaling 9
options for these crossings. We don’t have just a choice of signal or none but we have multiple 10
types. And it may be that some of those are more viable than others. That’s it for me. 11
Commissioner Ji? 12
13
Commissioner Ji: Thank you, Chair. One of my comments about H is I’d love to explore utilizing 14
the underground tunnel at the Caltrain a little bit more. I think there are lots of creative options 15
in which we can formalize the path that Commissioner Peterson has been talking about. And in 16
particular, in relation to our last agenda item with the San Antonio Road Area Plan, I had talked 17
about turning San Antonio Avenue, the small little street, potentially into a biking path of some 18
kind. And I think that that in conjunction with formalizing the Caltrain tunnel, I think, could be a 19
very beautiful synergy there. That’s my comment on that. I also want to quickly respond to 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 ten (10) 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.
something that Commissioner Templeton had said which is I believe my understanding is all of 1
the options have some kind of signal except B and H. Are you aware of that when you made 2
your comments about signals and also choosing options? 3
4
Commissioner Templeton: Yeah. I thought D was also without but... 5
6
Commissioner Ji: Oh, sorry. Yes. 7
8
Commissioner Templeton: Yeah. 9
10
Commissioner Ji: I had mentally eliminated that because thought – I personally agree with 11
many other Commissioners that the area between Meadow and Charleston, I think, doesn’t 12
quite make sense for a location. But G, A, and C also have signals, I believe. That’s my 13
understanding. 14
15
Commissioner Templeton: Yeah. That’s why I thought it would simply things a lot. 16
17
Commissioner Ji: Yeah. I think that, zooming out, Option B is a very strong – it’s by far my 18
favorite option for a couple of the reasons I alluded to in my first series of comments. But the 19
way I think about it is the way in which I would use a tunnel where I don’t have to wait at Alma 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 ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
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2. The Chair may limit Oral Communications to 30 minutes for all combined speakers.
3. The Chair may reduce the allowed time to speak to three minutes to accommodate a larger number of speakers.
vastly outweighs the having to wait at the light. If we’re going to go through with this process 1
and spend a lot of money, I think I would like to make it such that as someone who lives 2
moderately close to there would actively use it a lot of the time. And as someone who also 3
drives on Alma a lot, if I think about the trade-off between additional cost and the additional 4
traffic that builds up on Alma – I guess we don’t have all the numbers and I think that that 5
would help allude to some discussion, like orders of magnitude and things like that for the cost. 6
But I still think at this time that the simplicity for the pedestrians and bikes to have a smooth 7
way to get between the 2 places without having to worry about a signal is very important to 8
me. I also want to comment on Chair Akin’s statement about the different signal options and I 9
think that’s a really interesting idea. 10
11
That being said, I think El Camino currently has a variety of different signal options. I dislike 12
most of them from both the car persp-, I think that folks still haven’t really figured out the 13
triangle shape, the 2 reds and one below it. I think people driving down, especially if you’ve 14
never seen one before, still haven’t really gotten handle of that one. And as a result, it’s still 15
dangerous for pedestrians. If I’m trying to cross a street, I don’t quite still feel comfortable to 16
say hey, they’re going to stop for me. Who knows? Maybe by the time this project is done, we’ll 17
have the world’s best signal and there’ll be amazing ways for us to cross at Alma. But at this 18
time, I’m not super confident on that. And then I also want to address the location. I admit that 19
based on our conversation about San Antonio Road Area Plan that that’s an important area but 20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 suggest that we look into the alternatives previously mentioned about H as a way to 1
resolve that. And then on the north end, I’m supportive of B for the reasons previously 2
mentioned. 3
4
Chair Akin: Thank you. Commissioner Templeton, then Commissioner James. 5
6
Commissioner Templeton: Thank you. Since we’re talking about the grade separation as a 7
reason we don’t need to have D or F, let me throw out a conjecture here that might change 8
your mind. If you’ve looked at those options that are being considered right now, there’s a 9
significant amount of time and space that is being dedicated to making sure that bike and 10
pedestrian access is included in those crossings and some of those are pretty controversial. This 11
might make those things easier if we had another way for bikes and peds to cross that didn’t 12
have to be tied in with the grade separation project. I wouldn’t eliminate it out of hand just 13
because the grade separation project exists because the grade separation project is difficult, 14
challenging, problematic at times exactly because we don’t have this. I’m going to throw that 15
back in for you guys. Thanks. 16
17
Chair Akin: Commissioner James? 18
19
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
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Commissioner James: Well, I realize you’re asking for feedback and not votes but [inaudible 1
4:02:20] some voting. Nothing is without trade-offs. I liked the Loma Verde when you came to 2
visit us last time. I like it even more now. I think there’s a lot of benefits there in so many 3
different perspectives. There are some drawbacks that I didn’t think of before this meeting that 4
I also want to go back and consider and I appreciate those comments too. But I don’t live near 5
there. I like the way it connects both sides of the streets, the bicycle pathways. I like the way it 6
connects to Gunn. I highlighted the routes and it fills in a very nice gap just on a very sort of gut-7
level eye check. I love the report and how it drills down on all these different perspectives on 8
looking at it and I think it looks like the best choice for me. 9
10
Chair Akin: Commissioner Ji? 11
12
Commissioner Ji: I didn’t mean for this to be a back-and-forth conversation with me and 13
Commissioner Templeton but I did want to... 14
15
Commissioner Templeton: [Inaudible 4:03:42]. 16
17
Commissioner Ji: ...ask staff if – let’s suppose that for the sake of this discussion about South 18
Palo Alto crossings for bike/ped that we decided not to go with one of Options D through F. But 19
can we suggest that the rail committee look into that as an alternative option? How does that 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 ten (10) 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.
intersection look like? Yeah. So one of the comments that Commissioner Templeton had said is 1
we should be wary about ruling out D through F just because there exists the grade separation 2
project. However, is there a world in which we decide for the South Palo Alto Connectivity 3
Project that we don’t pursue this but we suggest to the rail committee that they should look 4
into this in conjunction with their grade separation project? 5
6
Ria Lo: The grade separation has been through a very extensive process so I don’t think that 7
we’ll be changing those alternatives. There is one alternative on the Churchill where there is a 8
separate pedestrian/bicycle undercrossing as part of the Churchill grade separation project but 9
at this stage, Council has already weighed in and selected their top 2, Charleston and Meadow, 10
and then the top one for Churchill with a backup as well. I think that we’re settled on narrowing 11
it down for the grade separation at the moment. 12
13
Commissioner Templeton: I will also add that this project was spun out of the grade separation 14
project, so no. 15
16
Chair Akin: Commissioner Templeton, did you have something else to add? Okay. 17
18
Commissioner Ji: Actually, I had one more thing. 19
20
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1. Spokespersons that are representing a group of five or more people who are identified as present at the meeting at
the time of the spokesperson’s presentation will be allowed up to ten (10) 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 Akin: Commissioner Ji? 1
2
Commissioner Ji: Which is, Chair Akin, talking about mitigation measures for the neighbors for 3
Option B, there also are quite interesting ones on Packet Page 105. That’s it. 4
5
Chair Akin: All right. Well, we may be winding down. At least in attentiveness if not 6
creativeness. All right. I think I’ll make this the last call for comments on this item. And, staff, do 7
you have any further questions for us? 8
9
Ria Lo: This is excellent feedback. Thank you. 10
11
Charlie Coles: Yeah. Really appreciate it. Thanks a lot. 12
13
Chair Akin: Thank you. And like I said, I really do believe this is coming together. No problem is 14
simple. All right, then. I will declare this item closed. Thank you all. 15
16
Commissioner Questions, Comments, Announcements, or Future Meetings and 17
Agendas 18
Members of the public may not speak to the item(s). 19
20
Chair Akin: And that leads us to Commissioner questions, comments, and announcements. 21
Anyone have anything tonight? No? Then we are adjourned. Thank you, everyone. 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 ten (10) minutes at the discretion of the Chair, provided that
the non-speaking members agree not to speak individually.
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1
Adjournment 2
9:51 pm 3
4
/ad 5