CERT PRESENTATION
I'm Robert Maitland. I am your office of Emergency Services coordinator for the City of Mountain View and I want to talk to you about an exciting program we have called cert or the Community Emergency Response Team . T he City of Mountain View belongs to this program where in our city we have 18 recognized neighborhood CERT groups that cover the entire city for any kind of disaster preparedness and response. Is anybody here a cert member, for example? Yes. That's what I like to see.
So, with that said, I want to recruit you to have you come out to one of our cert academies coming up in the near future . Now, I'm very excited about this because just yesterday I put on Eventbrite two more CERT academies in 2025. I've got an academy started in April and I've got an academy starting in September of next year, and then I've got one in 2024 coming up in October.
What we do is we talk about basic disaster recovery. We talk a little bit about the program. It's from FEMA, and it's part of their program for the Citizen Corps. Kind of like the neighborhood watch program. We work with the other groups within our operational areas. I'll teach you about what to do in case of a disaster, b asic medical operations, some search and rescue, and how to use a fire extinguisher. Just for my own edification, does anybody here never used a fire extinguisher? I will help you fix that. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to use a fire extinguisher confidently.
So, our cumulating activity is at the fire station at the tower . We put everything into motion. We're going to have people that are simulated having injuries and you have to triage them.
I've got a fire pan with real-life fire. I put you into a dark tower and you have to do a search and rescue through it. It's a really good time. It takes a lot of your time because it's going to be five nights and one Saturday, but it's very rewarding . So, with that said, I hope to see you there . Come get a pamphlet from me for the cert program and I hope to see you. Thank you.
COMMENT
I did have a comment, may I answer it now or address it now? So, it says, as a resident of Rock Street and a member of Monte Loma CERT, I had been talking about extending the neighborhood to support my area. Kudos! Interested in a discussion about satellite CERT locations tied to Monta Loma.
So again, we have defined certain neighborhood boundaries throughout the city, but I want you to imagine Mountain View all being covered by CERT. Irrespective of where you live, I can have a CERT volunteer go out and help you. So, if you're interested in the conversation, you want to know more about it, I'm your boss. Come see me. Alright, thanks again.
PRESENTATION
Hi, good evening . My name is Arn Andrews and I'm one of the Assistant City Managers for Mountain View. I'm here this evening to just provide information on an upcoming measure that will be on your ballots when you receive them in the mail or when you go to the voting booth in person. We're in what's referred to as a post -adoption period, which means on June 25th our council moved forward to put an initiative on the ballot. And that means legally staff is now in a position where they're not allowed to perform any type of advocacy.
So, the information I'm going to present to you tonight is information that can be found on our website and it's been cleared through our city attorney's office per election law. So, as with most municipalities, repairs, maintenance and eventual replacement of facilities and infrastructure will continue to be an ongoing need in the future. In addition to funding other needs like affordable housing, new parks, and active transportation projects. So, this is the genesis of where our council even started considering a revenue measure because they know Mountain View has a lot of needs and our community has a lot of priorities that they would like to see addressed.
So, over the course of the past year, the council basically came to a consensus after multiple meetings, after convening an Ad hoc committee, they came to a consensus that the property transfer mechanism would have the least impact on the average resident and would help to maintain critical services and plan for future needs.
When we talk about future needs, what are we talking about? You can see at least some, you can see this is smaller than I thought, but following our examples of some of the future needs, public safety, improving pedestrian and cyclist safety, expanding parts and open space, investing in facilities and infrastructure, advancing sustainability goals and developing and preserving affordable housing. These are all priorities that the community has spoken about, our council has spoken about, and yet they all have deficiencies in funding.
So, Measure G, as I mentioned on June 25th, our council under unanimous vote took the action to actually place it on the ballot and move it to the registrar of voters at the county to make sure that it became part of the balance that will ultimately reach your households. It was approved by a majority vote, but if approved by a majority vote with qualified voters, Measure G will enact and the updated transfer tax, and the reason we say updated is one currently exists, but it will update it for properties only above 6 million.And we'll talk about that in a second. So that's the actual measure. This is what you'll see in your ballot.
Shall the measure to provide additional funding for services that protect local property values, including 911 emergency, medical/disaster response, street, sidewalk, pothole repairs, affordable housing support, all the things we discussed, those funding needs and priorities to earn almost nine and a half million a year by increasing for properties above $6 million, up to $15 per $1,000, locally controlled funding. That is because if you do an initiative locally, Sacramento is not allowed to touch it.
And then with independent audits if approved by voters. I didn't read it verbatim, but basically that's what you'll see in your ballot.
So once again, if approved by majority of voters, this is what's referred to as a general tax, and even though we have priorities in the community, it is a general tax that will go into the general fund.
But I'll speak to a second action our counsel actually took this week on Tuesday. The real property transfer tax. Some people get confused, they think it's part of your property tax bill, it is not.
It only happens when you go to closing and you're sitting there and deeds and things are changing hands. It's a transaction tax at one day at closing. It is not something that's recurring throughout the year as you get your property tax bills.
Who will be impacted by Measure G? Fair question. Is this something that's going to impact you? Our research indicates in the last five years we went back and looked at every transaction over $6 million. There were actually only two residential transactions that occurred. The majority of them, 60 were commercial transactions. And so this tax in our current economic environment is primarily going to impact commercial transactions and have very little impact on residential. That's why we say on the average resident. The average house value in Mountain View is currently 2.4 million. Some are a lot
higher, some are lower, but on average currently it's about 2.4 million. That's why we state that we think it will have little impact on the average resident.
I mentioned that our council took action this week. Over the course of the past year, we've been hearing a lot of feedback from the community. We sent mailers, maybe some of you got the mailers, you were able to give us feedback. We met with community groups, we met with corporate interests, we met with the chamber, we met with anybody that actually wanted to meet with us. And at the end of the day, our council took that feedback and on Tuesday they passed a resolution that identified the following funding priorities for the next 10 years. In addition, they added part of the resolution to create a super majority, which means if future councils want to change this direction, it will have to be approved by five of the seven council members, a super majority.
So you can see the priorities they identified public safety facilities, parks, open space and biodiversity, affordable housing, and other general governmental services including road maintenance, active transportation, small business support, and homeless support services among others.
And so they've made that decision on Tuesday. In addition to the super majority, they also adopted what they referred to as a windfall provision. So we think the tax will generate about nine and a half million dollars a year. Part of that has been identified for public safety facilities, but we don't need much more for the public safety portion of these funding priorities after the nine and a half-million. So, they created a windfall provision that if in a given year there's $12 million, public safety will stop receiving funding and all the rest of the funding will flow to the other priorities to make sure that they get overfunded in years when there's more tax revenue than we anticipated.
In addition, they created a shortfall provision, which means what if one year we're in a bad economy, things aren't good and there's not a whole lot of money for any of these priorities. They have directed that in years like that this will become a publicly noticed part of our normal budget process and there will be a dialogue including the community on how we should go about deciding how to allocate funds to which priorities and when.
And with that, I think I have a slide that says, okay, so what's next, vote, questions. So, it says questions, but as I mentioned, I'm in a post-adoption environment.
Depending on the question, I might just have to refer you to our website where there's factual information that you can see.
QUESTION
Who pays the buyer or seller?
Great question. Thank you, Councilmember. So, I mentioned that in closing, this happens, a lot of times some fees are paid by the buyer, some fees are paid by the seller. In Santa Clara County, it's traditional to split 50/ 50. Now granted a property transaction is a negotiation. Anything could be negotiated, but traditionally it's 50/50. Let me give an example. Recently there was a sale at the quarter of El Camino and Castro, a large development sold for roughly a hundred million dollars. So, a hundred million dollars transaction would've equated to one and a half million in this new format at 15 per thousand, split 50/50 that would've been $750,000 per participant on a hundred million dollar transaction. All right, thank you all.
ANNOUNCEMENT
I actually have an announcement today. I am Jennifer Cutter, the Solid Waste Program Manager.
I j ust wanted to let everyone know we have a really exciting event coming up this weekend. It's the Citywide Garage Sale. It's going to be Saturday and Sunday the 14th and 15th from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM. It's going to be households throughout Mountain View hosting the garage sales at their homes.
We have over 175 participants. This is a great way to find good deals, help us reduce waste going to landfills, and to support our zero waste goals. Something we're excited about this year is we have a new interactive online map that you can check out and plan before you shop to learn more about the categories of items, figure out your route for which day you want to go. You can go Saturday, Sunday, or both days of the sale. We also have maps available outside the city hall, the library or on our website. So, the new interactive map and the change of date for this year, we're looking for feedback.
We'll be sending out a survey post-event to get your opinion on these changes and hopefully continue to improve on this great event.
So, hope to see you there. I have flyers at the back table if you'd like to grab one to find out where our website is so you can learn more.
QUESTION
So, the question was how many times has the City Manager actually met in person or on Zoom with the superintendent of the schools to negotiate the shoreline agreement in 2024? Thank you for the question. So, the City Manager is not the lead negotiator on the EERJPA, actually I'm one of the lead negotiators. In 2024, the City Manager did not meet directly with the superintendent or on Zoom to negotiate the EERJPA for Shoreline. That being said, there have been multiple communications between staff, myself, and both district staff. There have been communication between the superintendents and the City Manager and there has also been communication between our elected officials. I will say that it's a great question and I know the press does a good job of trying to identify our differences. At the end of the day, we have a lot more in common than we don't. We work together on a lot of different fronts, not just the EERJPA and at the end of the day, we will end up with an updated agreement at some point. Thank you.
QUESTION
My name is Robert Gonzalez. I'm a Principal Civil Engineer in the civil infrastructure group in the Public Works department. So, the question here is, are there any plans to improve street/pedestrian lighting on Sterling Road? It's uncomfortably dark walking home from work in the fall/winter, even with the existing lighting and this person regularly uses a flashlight to better see the walking path. I very much appreciate some improved visibility and feeling less vulnerable to being crime-d upon.
So, first of all, we've had this comment before. Over the past couple years, we've already increased the lighting in this area. So, the existing lighting infrastructure, you turn that up as best you can. However, we can't increase it further or change out the bulbs because in that particular area it would impact the residents. There are two-story buildings in that area so it would impact the residents who were actually trying to sleep in that area. Within the last three weeks, I could also add that the city's forestry team trended the tree canopy on Sterling, which should help with the existing lighting conditions . Moving forward, the good news, the additional good news is that Sterling Road i mprovement projects, which is one of my projects , include new pedestrian infrastructure, including improved lighting along Sterling between Jackson Street and North Shoreland Boulevard.
So along with the improved lighting, we also have additional improvements including high visibility crosswalks, and a new mid -block crossing at the north end of Sterling where it crosses north Shoreline Boulevard. This project is currently in design and it's awaiting approval of $4 million in federal funding and construction is anticipated in early 2025 . I'd also like to point out that in the back of the room, we're calling it a citywide update document . That has additional information about the Sterling Road Project, if you want to go further into that.
QUESTION
Good evening everybody. Russ Hansen, Urban Forest Manager within Community Services Department. The first question I had presented to us this evening was, is the C ity open and able to donate trees to the Wiseman School District? Why or why not? Please print, please paint a path for how we can make that happen so we can achieve our canopy goals.
There are a lot of places to plant trees at schools.
So, the short answer on that one is our nonprofit tree planting Group canopy has actually been engaged with both school districts to plant trees. They have a grant from the state as well as the federal government that allows them to accomplish that. The City of Mountain View also has some additional funding. So, if there are specific locations or other schools that you really want to get trees planted, we would always encourage you to reach out to the school itself as well as to the district offices to kind of express those wishes. Once they hear more from the community, etcetera, that might kind of move that process forward with Canopy and we can get some more trees planted.The City of Mountain View is doing everything we can to support that effort through funding or resources to get trees planted at our school districts.
QUESTION
The second question that I had for this evening. They wanted to suggest that we prune some branches in front of the yellow caution sign at the corner of Tilford and Rock. It is blocked from View as you turn right on the rock from Tilford.
So, on that one, absolutely what we'll do is we'll get somebody out there in the next week or so to take a look at that, not only that specific location but kind of that immediate area and make sure there isn't
anything else that's right there in that area. We will get that addressed as soon as we possibly can through our cruiser, and through contractors afterwards, as soon as we identify what the issue is.
Above and beyond that if there are other issues like that that need to be recorded you can either call our office or you can report them through the City of Mountain View.
QUESTION
What is the status of the Rengstorff funded crossing under Caltrain tracks? Similar question for Castro and Caltrain Crossing . So, many of you know this, that the C ity has two great separation projects that would separate R engstorff Boulevard from the Caltrain crossings where we would drop Rengstorff Boulevard, so it's an undercrossing and the Caltrain tracks would stay at the same elevation . At Castro, the proposed project would create an underground passageway for pedestrians and bikes and close at the crossing to street traffic, including vehicles. So, both of these are important for the City and both of them have been fully funded through the design process . As of the beginning of 2024, both of those were moving forward through the design process. One of them was in final design and the other one was just starting the final design process . We got updated and unfortunately bad news on one of the gr ade crossings. The Castro Great Separation project came in significantly over budget to the point where as staff we had to reach out to City Council and ask them to prioritize one of the projects over the other . So, it's a very difficult decision because up until then they have been equally prioritized. So, we recommended to City Council and City Council agreed with staff's recommendation that we would move forward with the Rengstorff grade separation project. It has more safety issues, it's got more traffic issues, it's got a lot of challenges at that grade separation, and the Castro location had already been partially closed. So, a lot of the short-term impacts such as traffic had already been mitigated. Folks that kind of learned to live in that context with the pedestrian mall in place. So as of today we are moving jointly forward with VTA and with Caltrain into the final design process for Rengstorff. And we are pausing the final design for a Castro, the permanent Castro grade separation improvements. And we're going to do an interim improvement for that location, which will include some improvements at the expressway intersection with Moffett to make that safer and also some changes to Evelyn Avenue. We're going to make that a one-way instead of two way.
So, I would suggest that you go into your update. We'll have a write up there for the grade separations and also the City's website has a lot of information on both of the great separation projects. Thank you.
QUESTION
Hello, this is Ela from P lanning D epartment. We received a question. This quadrant is expecting significant residential growth- Palo A lot’s plans along San Antonio and also the CMV Charleston Plaza development. What planning is being done and should there be a precise plan for the are in the safe streets, retail, parks etc.
While we are not able to speak in detail about Palo Alto's plan along that area, we don't know that they have released an RFP for that area for their housing element implementation which includes the area along San Antonio near the 2400 Charleston project proposed property and have committed to engaging with the City of Mountain View along that process. As for the Charleston Gatekeeper project itself, the mixed-use project, the city council has authorized the applicant of that mixed-use project to submit a formal application in 2025 which will include a general plan amendment for that.
QUESTION
Hi everybody, I'm Mike Canfield. I'm the P olice Chief. It's a pleasure to be here tonight. I see some familiar faces, but if not, afterwards, if you'd like to talk to me, I'll be here . By all means, come talk to me. I've got two questions tonight so far . First question is, how many moving violations were issued in 2018 and in 2023? And why was there a decrease ? What are we on pace for, given the first nine months of 2024? And there are some requests for how to do the math.
I'm going to take the first eight months based on data that was entered already through our system.
The ninth month isn't completely updated. Roughly the 2018 numbers we had 1 ,700, and 69 moving violations.And those started dropping down essentially too in 2020 during the pandemic to 628 moving violations, which is dramatically lower. That is similar to what we're seeing our peer agencies. So, we're not unique, but traffic enforcement during the pandemic definitely reduced. It has been a priority line as a Police Chief traffic safety, although citations are only one component, traffic safety is significant to the community and to the police department. It's something we take very seriously. We are trending upwards. Currently we are at 984 moving violations for the year and that's projected to be 1,470
moving violations, which is very close to the pre-pandemic number in 2019, which was 1,643. So, I'm optimistic, although the goal is not to write more tickets necessarily, it's really to do enforcement that changes behavior and that can be education enforcement working with traffic engineering, who we work very closely with. But I believe that it is a very important component. We are set to receive electronic ticket writers, which will write citations and print them out significantly quicker, much more efficient for our officers as well as an official warning citation process that allows officers to pull back and track how many warning citations somebody may have received. So, I think we'll see those numbers tick up continuously over the next couple of years.
I'm optimistic and it is an organizational priority as well. Hopefully, that answers that question, but happy to answer it or any follow up offline afterwards.
QUESTION
The next one is kind of long, but it's frequently large RVs and the neighborhood ignore the 72-hour restrictions. Large RVs are difficult to drive around, block, block the neighborhood businesses lighting at night and are an eyesore. What is the city doing to help large RVs comply with the 72-hour restriction? Is there a proposed site or area for large RVs? Our neighborhood has a different look and feel in the last almost three years because of this.
I agree that there definitely is a different look and feel to many neighborhoods and areas in the City, but it is not just Mountain View, it is really a regional statewide and really realistically probably West coast wide problem that we are actively pursuing. We work specifically to answer the question, we work to notify folks who are in RVs that are in oversized vehicles of where they're allowed to park and where they're not allowed to park, and what those 72-hour restrictions are. We have a team that goes out and looks for and Marks, kind of surreptitiously marks the vehicles to make sure they are moving.
Now it's the time that we mark that vehicle and then we circle back, it doesn't mean that we're going to be there exactly in 72 hours . They need to move a thousand feet . It is impossible to know where everybody is going. So, the more information we get in from the community members, if you're seeing issues arise, if you're seeing vehicles move into a new area, going through Ask Mountain View is very helpful. We have a comprehensive program both with our community outreach officer and the human services depa rtment of the city . We looked at bridging services, finding opportunities and access for
folks who are living in RVs to help them transition out of those . So, that helps if you want to ask MV and let us know where you're seeing folks. It helps us send that community outreach officer, but it also helps with our enforcement component as well, and those are two things that go hand in hand.
Hopefully yo u're aware the city does have a safe lots parking program. In fact, it is, I think the second largest in the region and I think the San Jose is larger than us, but obviously their population is significantly larger. It is new. The City has invested a lot of money and time into making an effective program. The goal is always to look for alternatives when we're doing our outreach and engagement, funneling folks into more permanent housing, including those safe lots. So that is one of the things the city does related to large vehicles and RVs. There are also areas that oversized vehicles are not allowed to park in that's different than 72 hours, so those should be marked clearly. But if you're seeing that there's an oversized vehicle parked where there is a notification, a sign that says no oversized vehicles, again go to Ask Mountain View, let us know, that's a lot quicker and a lot easier to address than a 72 hours obviously, because there's not a time delay. Our goal is to both meet the needs of folks who are housed in homes, but also in vehicles and m ake sure that we're really paying attention to what everybody needs. If you feel like we're missing something, if there's a problem, please reach out and let us know. It may be that there's an RV that's not moving, or there may be a problem with someone in an RV or you might feel like they need our help and they need those resources. We work very hard to bridge those resources and connect folks through the police department who are living in RVs with a lot of services that the city both supports and from a larger kind of regional area. Hopefully that answers that question, but I will be here afterwards.
QUESTION
Good evening everyone. Lorenzo Lopez, T raffic Engineer. I have quite a few questions here . So let me make my way. Safety at Independence, Middlefield, high speeds on Middlefield Road.
Reduced visibility from independence, traffic lights needed or four-way stop signs.
This is one where we can do a stop warrant analysis to start. And then we will work with, as the Chief mentioned, we work with them all the time on these types of issues . We can beef up some police enforcement out there . And also with our Forestry Department tree trimming, a lot of times tree trimming causes some visibility concerns and we can work with them or code enforcement to get the
trees trimmed back from the flashing signs . We do have pedestrian flashing signs at that intersection that you're aware of. And sometimes if they're blocked by trees, they're pointless because they can't be seen. So we can do all three of those things for that intersection.
QUESTION
Thompson, Central Expressway traffic lights synced with Rengstorff traffic lights, reduced visibility left at Thompson high-speed traffic. I'm going to try to interpret what this means . There's no real question here, but I think what it's asking for is a traffic light at Thompson and Central.
There's not one there now . That's a county jurisdiction. But we have been working with the county specifically on that location. So I guess the discussions have stalled because the county has backed out of the discussions. But we will reinitiate those discussions on whether a signal will be installed there or not. There's a lot of different options. We can look at a half signal, a full signal. They considered closing the median at one point completely . I don't know if you guys would like that. I doubt it. So these are the kind of things that we would come back to the community once the discussions with the county are reinitiated.
QUESTION
The pedestrian signal at Montecito/Jewell needs to be reconfigured for safer passage. Currently when crossing from the fire station towards Jewell Court Pedestrians cross when cars can turn right. I have been almost hit multiple times if I had the crossing light when the cars leaving Monte Loma have the green, the drivers would see me waiting. Why the current configuration and why does it seem more dangerous than the other way around?
So, this is interesting. This is actually a location where you have the no right turn on red restriction.
And this is a right turn on green problem. So what we can do here is look at the timing. Maybe there's some timing adjustments we can make to allow the pedestrians to possibly leave before the cars get the green light. But we'll evaluate the intersection and see what kind of improvements we can make here.
It is an offset intersection, as you know. The two streets don't align, and that's the reason for the existing signal timing and the restrictions. And there are bike boxes on both sides. So again, we'll take a
look at the timing and figure out if there's a way to make it safer for the pedestrians crossing. As I mentioned earlier, we work with Forestry and Code Enforcement.
Often when we get these types of complaints depending on if it's C ity’s right of way, City Street trees or if it's private property, determines who would go work with the resident or the C ity crews would do the actual tree trimming to improve the visibility . So, this is one that we can collaborate with, with either one of those sections within the city and improve the visibility.
QUESTION
Good evening. My name is John Lang. I'm the Economic Vitality Manager, and I'm phoning a friend, our new Community Development Director Christian Murdock will take the second part of this question.
This question deals with both economic development and zoning questions. So, the first part of the question is the City helping the Midwife and Baker reopen the coffee pot? The C ity team, including our planning teammates and the E conomic D evelopment teammates have been working very closely with the Midwife and Baker to permitize the space. Unfortunately, the space was built without the benefit of permits, so we've been working very closely w ith them to get that resolved and then also working with the county to allow for food use outside of their building. So, that is something that we have been engaged with them now for a couple months and getting that resolved. So as much as the community's looking forward to having that reopen we're working as diligently as we can to make sure that happens as well. Over to Christian for a second.
Good evening everybody. Christian Murdock, Community Development Director. The second part of the questions on here. Why is the city allowing a smoke shop two blocks from a middle school? The qu estion didn't specify the location. I assume it may relate to 1313 West El Camino real the city? No. So, if that's not the answer. So, I believe that is one of the unpermitted business locations that the city became aware of. And to my knowledge there is still a red tag, which is a mechanism that the city's building official can put in place to shut down locations that may have opened without proper permiting or have unsafe conditions inside.
So we are working through an enforcement mechanism right now and the City has not authorized a smoke shop to, that location to my knowledge at this point in time.
QUESTION
We have a new Airbnb on Fay that is not following the rules/law. It has been reported, but the third party managing the process seems disconnected. Can we revisit the oversight of Airbnbs in the City? So, there are a couple of elements to this question. We do have a firm that we contract with called Host Compliance . And compliance is a little misleading . They manage compliance from a financial perspective. They work with our finance department to make sure that an Airbnb gets the proper permitting and then starts contributing the proper amount of TOT . Currently, code enforcement questions, which this would really be more of is a combination between the finance department and our city attorneys . And they're currently working on a process that will help make this more efficient and address more of the problems that we get related to Airbnbs.
QUESTION
Next question is a policy question, but I'm going to go ahead and answer it because I'm familiar with some of the history. And the question says, will Mountain View become districted for C ity C ouncil elections? If so, will residents have probably something to the effect of a say in the process when it does occur?
So, in recent history, most conversions to district elections happen because cities receive what's referred to as the letter. There's a law firm that in the state has specialized in basically bringing lawsuits against cities where they feel there's a disproportionate ethnic diversity on the council versus the communities they're representing. And so usually when a City gets the letter, they should probably start moving in the direction of moving to district elections. Because this law firm has been very successful. In Mountain View, we are fortunate that we have a well -represented council that is reflective of our community . We have never received a letter, and therefore, in Mountain View, we've never really had discussions about district elections in any artist.
QUESTION
Good evening, everyone. I’m Wayne Chen. I'm the City's Housing Department Director.
I have two questions . One is another Airbnb question . And it is, multiple Airbnbs in this neighborhood are hosted in apartments that qualify for rent control taking needed housing off the market and
enriching landlords or renters . Some Airbnb hosts circumvent City laws by listing apartment managers as onsite owners even though apartments are not inhabited, thus at most should be rented 60 days a year.
So that is not allowed. If you have any information about the specific properties or units maybe we can connect after this meeting. I'll also be following up with our Rent Stabilization Division to look into this a little bit further.
QUESTION
The second question is, why didn't the postcard for this event include a link for submitting questions? So, in the postcard that was mailed out in the upper right-hand corner, there was a link and a QR code to provide the opportunity for folks to submit questions that way. However, the card is possibly small.
So, what we can do is in the future, take a look at revamping the format of the postcards and make this opportunity a little bit bigger and easier to read. So, we'll go ahead and take a look at that.
QUESTION
Hello again, I want to supplement part of the answer that Economic Development Manager John Lang provided. I learned from Amber B linzinski, A ssistant Community Development Director midwife and the baker is actually scheduled for a public hearing at the zoning administrator on October 9th to be considered for a conditional use permit for the business use. So, our permitting process on the City side is moving along, and as John mentioned, they do have some permitting requirements as well with the county.
QUESTION
Colin James, Recreation Manager. The question I have is about field use.
It has been hard for adults to play pickup games as all the fields give priorities to youth leagues and for the current season in Shoreline athletic fields, all nights are fully booked. In addition, the booking information is not public, so no one knows when the field is available. How do we find fields to play? So, thank you very much for your question. While it is true that athletic fields are highly utilized and in high demand for our youth leagues and also our adult softball league there is typically some times in
the later evenings that are available for reservation. Also, back in 2021 in the fall, we opened up Monta Loma on Sundays. Monta Loma school athletic fields for non-permitted use. So, there is no permitted use out there on Sunday. It's open for drop-in any Sunday. And then additionally, as part of the parks and rec strategic plan we are looking at field usage in general. for more information on field reservations, you can visit mountainview.gov /reservations. And then also if anybody wants the direct contact of the team member who oversees Field Reservations, come see me afterwards . I'd be happy to give that to you. Thank you.
QUESTION
Good evening. I'm Ed Arango. I'm the Acting Public Works Director. And the question that I have is are we wondering what the plan is for the property, the city purchased in 2022 on Thompson at the MLNA?
I think that's a Monte Loma Neighborhood Association meeting. Kimbra stated planning would begin in 2026. The document today, I'm guess referring to the citywide update states it will start this fall, which is right. Great question. Kimbra McCarthy, is the City Manager. She's my boss. So, she told me in 2026, then it's 2026. I just want to clarify that there are two updates regarding park sites and playgrounds in the update. The first one was the Monta Loma School playground, and that's the renovation project. At Monta Loma School there's a playground that is on one side of the school.
It’s about sort of the residential properties that is going to get renovated. That's in here in the update.
It talks about the renovation's going to start happening, the planning portion in fall of 2024.
So, this fall we're going to start that planning effort to do the park renovation. And then the very next update in the document, it's the new park site acquisitions.
That's th e Thompson site. Actually, there are two acquisitions that took place. The one at Thompson, which is the intersection of Thompson, and then there's a budding property that's front of Middlefield.
It has also been acquired by the City. And so again, that's probably the one that she told you the 2026 planning effort will start. So, we'll be sure to put that on our calendars. Thank you.
QUESTION
Good evening, Robert Gonzalez. Principal Civil Engineer in the Public Works department.
This is more of a comment, I'm going to see if I can formulate it into a question. Safety at entering and exiting MLN Monta Loma neighborhood.
Rengstorff and Jane Lane, Rengstorff and Junction traffic lights, pedestrian initiated, synchronized with Middlefield and Rengstorff.
So, I think they're asking for some sort of pedestrian improvements at both Jane Lane and at Junction.
If you look at your handout that you've got on your chair or in the back, you'll see that there is a pedestrian improvements project for this neighborhood that does include the junction crossing at Rengstorff. So, it was identified. We were already in design for another project, and eight other intersections across the city, and I think there's at least three in this neighborhood were identified as priorities for improved pedestrian crossing. So, the one injunction will get a pedestrian hybrid beacon.
And if I'm correct here, there's already a pedestrian hybrid beacon at Rock, is that correct? The one at Rock is an LED flashing . So, the hybrid beacon is actually an improvement over that . It's much more visible. So, that is proposed for the junction intersection, and that is currently in design. We're hoping to get that into construction early next year with the two intersections already having these pedestrian crossings at Rock and at Junction. We did not identify an improvement for Jane at this time, but we can continue to evaluate that. And if necessary, we can do an improvement there . But the project will include a crossing at Junction. Thank you.
QUESTION
Good Evening. I'm Sylvia, Assistant Community Services Director. Got a question about signs.
Mountain View has a rich history. How can we get historical marker panels placed in City parks? Marker panels can explain who the park was named for and detail the history in the immediate area.
So, the C ommunity S ervices D epartment established a process for groups or individuals to donate a sign to be placed in a park. So, basically, the individual group will offer to donate a sign to the city.
They will come to us with a proposal with a kind of assigned content, thoughts, ideas, and location.
The City will review and consider this. If the city moves forward with the proposed signed donation, the City will design a sign to reflect the intent and spirit of the proposed sign while observing the City
identities and format, things like that. We'll also determine a suitable location for the sign. And if the individual and group still wants to move forward, they can donate the sign or donate the fees for the sign production installation. We will produce, install, and maintain the sign. If you have your pens and pencils ready contact info for this will be [email protected]. The phone number is (650) 903- 6326. And you can see me after if you need that again. Thank you.
QUESTION
Hello again. I have a few more questions. One I wish I had a better way to answer it. The question is, I live on Rock Street and I drive a van, which falls under the oversized category. I use it both as a primary vehicle as well as equipment in it to serve as our C ERT group. I currently have to park on O ld Middlefield, but even there parking pressure makes finding a spot hard and I have been hit. Is there anything to be done to keep me from having to park further away? Unfortunately, I wish there was a carve-out. There is no carve out for oversized vehicles. It's in Measure C and it's part of the settlement agreement. So, our hands are really tied. I looked it up quickly.
It's 22 feet long, 7 feet wide and 7 feet high, which intentionally covers quite a bit of vehicles, but I'm sorry if that one falls outside then there is not an easy answer. I wish I had a better answer for you or a different answer for you.
QUESTION
The next question is, occasionally and in varied locations around Mountain View, trailer devices are placed on city streets, which appear to display approaching vehicle speeds. My question first, other than displaying speed, what other capabilities do these City devices possess? These are city radar trailers. We have two of them that we place. Right now, the ones that we have are only displaying the speed of vehicles that are approaching.
The second question is, is it a public record available for the asking why a device is placed and information it is collecting? We don't collect data from them . So, if I had data to share, we would certainly share that if requested from a PRA or if there was an interest in general, we'd be happy to share it, but we don't have that data to push out. The purpose of those is really to impact in the
immediate, the speed the drivers are driving, and it works very well . So, we'll place them both to someone to answer that question. We'll place them because of both neighborhood or community concerns, but also in areas where we know they work . So, we might not think that the speed is a big issue in an area, but people really want them there or want to make sure that it's being mitigated .
We'll absolutely put them out there. We've even put them on the trail, Steven Creek Trail. But we'll put them where people want them, but also we know places where they're very impactful so we'll put them there as well.
QUESTION
And another one that I wish I had a better answer for, we hear cars on Middlefield, we hear cars with modified mufflers making excessive noise, driving too fast on Middlefield. Can anything be done? Absolutely. Traffic enforcement is important. Like we talked about. The loud muffler problem is what is unfortunate. It has become kind of a subculture, a racer subculture . We write a lot of citations . The citation numbers that I gave you were only moving violations . Modified exhaust do not qualify for moving violations . We have a lot of equipment violations more than double the number of moving violations, and that includes modified cost . But this culture is growing in popularity for whatever reason, this kind of racer-type vehicle, it doesn't mean they're necessarily racing. Sometimes as loud as they are, they're not even driving at an unsafe speed, but it always sounds like they are. And it certainly is noise pollution. So, we can issue citations, we do issue citations, but it is again a larger kind of subculture and a regional problem, at least the West Coast. I don't know if it's in other parts of the country, but I share the frustration of modified exhausts. There are some street legal cars that have louder exhaust too, but really predominantly what you're hearing are people who are modifying their exhausts. If you know where one is you can Ask Mountain View, if you hear it every day, if you have a car in the neighborhood that is particularly obnoxious and it comes by at a predictable time, please tell us. I'd like to send that officer out and say hello.
QUESTION
Lorenzo Lopez, T raffic E ngineer. As I drive northbound on Montecito towards R engstorff, there's a blind spot at the Montecito Montebello pedestrian walkway on the side of senior housing. Can the City
paint a red zone on the side of senior housing? It would require eliminating one car parking spot on the corner of Montecito and Montebello.
Yeah, we'll take a look. Easy enough we looked it up while I was waiting and it seemed like a easy fix.
So that should be no problem. I do want to make a clarification on the pedestrian hybrid beacon. I forgot the flashing yellow light. Here's the sequence. All black, nobody's there. The pedestrian pushes the button flashing yellow, then a solid yellow, solid red while the pets get the walk sign.
So, it doesn't just go walk right away . It has to go through the sequence . As the pedestrians are finishing their walk, it goes alternating what's called wigwag flashing reds to finish the pet clearance and then it goes darkened.
So this configuration, it's universal? All of these lights that we encounter countywide, statewide, wherever we see them.
They're supposed to be.
QUESTION
They're all supposed to operate in the same fashion, correct? There's what's called a California M-U-T-C-D Manual and Uniform Traffic Control devices, which we're required to follow. It's national. And then California tightens it up a little more and gives even more restrictions. But they should all follow the same pattern.
QUESTION
This one says, crossing at Craig Court and Thompson. Everyone jaywalks crossing lines. So, the question I think is why are they doing that? This is right across from Monta Loma school.
And so those of you that have kids, I imagine you've taken your kid to school and parked and crossed.
At this intersection, even though it doesn't have a marked crosswalk, it's not jaywalking to cross the street. So, I just want to make that clear. Any intersection, unless it has signs specifically saying no crossing here, you can cross . This is something that I can work with our transportation team on. They have what's called safe routes to school and we can work with the parents and if any of you are those
parents, stop it . But we can work with the parents and the school on a education for the parents and the students. Thank you.
QUESTION
We did receive a question regarding Shoreline and some of our staffing out there in some changes that we're going through.
So, Shoreline, we do have a full -time biologist. Our full-time biologist went on leave unexpectedly, and so there was a gap of several weeks that we did not have a biologist. What we have done in the interim is hire a firm, a contract biologist firm. We had a takeoff meeting with them today to take over the responsibilities of the biologist. We would like to have a full-time biologist but currently, the person on leave is in that position and holds that position. So, we can't hire for that position at the moment until we have some next steps related to the leave.
So, we are doing what we can to bring in the additional resources necessary and then depending on the outcome, either the biologist will come back or will be able to rehire a biologist to take over for Shoreline. So if you have any other questions, I'm going to be available at end. Thank you.