2026-11-09 - City Council Regular Meeting

15:17Good evening. We'll call the November 9th, 2026 regular city council meeting to order. If the clerk can call the role. >> Vice Mayor Stone >> here. >> Council member Burton >> here.

15:28>> Council member Lithods >> here. >> Council member Lou. >> Council member Rectal >> here. >> Council member Lowing >> here. >> Mayor Vinker. for the record, five present.

15:41>> Wonderful. Thank you. And you may have noticed that Mayor Vinker is is not here. So, I'll be uh I'll be taking over the meeting tonight. Mayor Vinker is out

15:51of the country and will be unable to attend tonight's meeting um because she is in Turkey attending the 31st UN climate change conference. She asked me to just share this quote from the

16:03conference press release. says, "Today, America is allin. The US climate alliance and climate mayors announced a US delegation of more than 120 state, local, and cross- sector leaders who

16:17will participate in the 31st UN climate change conference in in Turkey from November 9th to November 20th. The delegation, which includes US governors, mayors, and other top city and state

16:28officials, will be led by America is allin chair Gina McCarthy, Governor Michelle Luhong Gryom of New Mexico, Mayor Vicky Vinker of Palo Alto, California, and Mayor Janet Coell of

16:39Raleigh, North Carolina. So, that is where [clears throat] Mayor Vinker is tonight. And um we will then continue on. So, we have item one, special order of the day, a

16:54proclamation recognizing National Police Records and Support Personnel Week. I've asked Council Member Rectal to read the proclamation. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Yeah, this is for Law

17:05Enforcement Records and Support Personnel Week, November 8th through 14th, 2026. Whereas law enforcement agencies throughout the state depend on law enforcement records and support

17:17personnel to provide them with vital services. And whereas law enforcement records and support personnel are crucial to help helping law enforcement identif a agencies identify, pursue,

17:29capture, and process suspected law breakers. And whereas these professionals continually use their expertise and experience to assist in tracking felons, maintaining criminal

17:41statistics, and improving apprehension strategies. And whereas the California Law Enforcement Association of Record Supervisors held as annual training and

17:53technology conference on November 2nd through 6th, 2026. And whereas it is important to recognize the city's city of PaloAlto's law enforcement records and support personnel for their valuable

18:07contributions to our law enforcement system. Now therefore, Vicky Vanker, mayor of the city of Powalto, on behalf of the entire city council does hereby

18:17proclaim November 8th through 14th, 2026 as Law Enforcement Records and Support Personnel Week. Thank you. Thank you. And do I know we have some of our um our record specialists and

18:34support personnel we uh sorry support personnel here in chamber which is wonderful. Do we have any from anyone from the city speaking on this item? >> Yes. Wonderful. Welcome.

18:49>> Good evening. Nicole Frasier, technical services uh deputy director for the Palo Alto Police Department. Uh, thank you, Council Member Rickd Doll, members of

18:57the council, Vice Mayor Gerstone. Police records professionals play a vital role in public safety by ensuring that accurate, timely, and secure information

19:06is available to officers, investigators, prosecutors, and the community. Their work supports everything from emergency response and criminal investigations to

19:15transparency, accountability, and the protection of individual privacy. We are proud to recognize the dedication, professionalism, and the central service

19:23of our police records team. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. And if you and your team would like to come up for a photo with the with the council, we'd be happy to have you. >> Thank you.

19:58I'm not sure. All right, let's move on to agenda changes, additions, and deletions. City manager. >> Uh, no changes other than to note uh for perhaps just public awareness. We will

20:27end your evening this uh tonight with a closed session. >> Thank you. All right, we'll move to inerson public comment for anything that is not on the agenda. Madame Clerk,

20:40>> we have one request this week. >> Ken H. >> Thank you. >> One, I want to thank the city for a wonderful Veterans Day event that was just held at MacArthur's Park. Um, the

20:59speakers were wonderful and uh the food was even better. Um, number two, um, I want to say how, as a PaloAlto, I was pretty upset last week with the language

21:13that was used by another citizen of our city and um, just just so um, upset by the whole thing and I apologize. I can't speak for that individual, but I apologize for the

21:27rest of the city over that kind of language. And number three, I I wanted to play a a little video clip. It's about a minute and uh I'm not going to talk about

21:38Measure J, but I'm I just want you to listen to it and and I'll leave after that. Thank you. >> My policy headline is Cubberly will be the hub of Southside and I chose that.

21:54Obviously, there's so many issues. We want a headline in every single thing um that happens. But for me, Coverly is an example of a topic that is gnarly and

22:04intersected. We can figure it out. It's going to, for example, provide a wonderful place to gather and be for all the folks we've identified might go on the south side of Palo Alto in our

22:16housing element. Um, so it addresses housing, it addresses wellness, it addresses nonprofits, and the imperative that on uh in South Palto that we have amenities and opportunities that are as

22:31gleaming and beautiful as we come to expect in other parts of Palo Alto. Thank you. >> Thank you for that. Member Lowing, >> that's it. And that concludes public comment for

22:46in-person comments on items not on the agenda. >> Thank you so much. All right, then council member questions, comments, and announcements. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um, just want to

23:09give an update. As everyone knows, the city placed Measure J on the ballot. The voters voted last Tuesday and here we are 7 days later and as of a few hours ago or within the hour actually

23:24um we are at a yes vote is 51.08%. And in order for this to pass, the city needs to be just over 50%. There's still a lot of ballots still to be counted.

23:40Our county is big and has a lot of other things to do besides count our ballots, but we hope to have an answer before long. Thank you. >> Thank you. And hey, there are some wider

23:53margins in some Senate races right now. >> Any others? Seeing none, I'll just say that uh myself and council members Rectal and Bert just came from a wonderful Veterans

24:09Day celebration that was hosted at MacArthur Park. Uh I I appreciate Dr. Horowitz your your comments. I agree food was better than my comments. Although the colonel might might have

24:20just beat the uh the the steak that was on the menu. So, but it was a wonderful wonderful event and um a great time to be able to celebrate the veterans who

24:30have given so much to this city and our nation. And so I appreciate everybody who attended and as a reminder to everybody on Wednesday on Veterans Day to do what you can to be able to honor

24:39our nation's veterans who have sacrificed everything for for us and our freedoms. And with that, we'll move on to our our first of two study sessions. So the first one is 720 San Antonio

24:53Road. Turn it over to staff. All right. Thank you, Vice Mayor. >> Two words. Um, >> good evening, city council. Um, Jonathan Le, director for planning development

25:28services, here with Kristen, I'm sorry, Claire Rael. I don't know where Kristen came from. Um but uh we're here to give a presentation on the study session items once that gets loaded.

25:58>> Good evening council members. Claire Rael, manager of current planning. Uh project before you today is a study session pre-screening for 720 San Antonio Road. Next slide.

26:11Uh council pre-screening process requires uh a study session in front of the uh council for any legislative changes. Uh so that's why we're here tonight. Uh this is intended to solicit

26:23early feedback on the proposed project. It cannot result in any formal action. Uh so city council should refrain from forming firm opinion supporting or opposing the project. Next slide.

26:36So the conceptual project is uh a proposal to reszone from service commercial to planned home zoning to allow for construction of 200 rental units in an eightstory structure with

26:49two levels of parking. And uh there's a third story courtyard open space uh on two sides of the building. Next slide. Uh the project is located at 716 to 720

27:04San Antonio Road. Uh the current uses is a crossroad specialty foods and other small commercial uses. This is within the San Antonio Road area plan area. Um

27:17some of the nearby uses include AC Hotel and Hotel Catrine to the north. That's a five-story building. uh Coverly Communic Community Center across uh San Antonio

27:28Road. Um some recently approved projects including 762 San Antonio Road um that was approved uh just north of um the plan area. And um projects under review

27:43include 690 San Antonio Road, 788 San Antonio Road, and 808 San Antonio. Next slide. Um this is just a brief comparison uh for zoning purposes. Uh so the height um

28:02I won't go through all of these but just uh for context if we want to come back to this um the height is 89.5 ft which is slightly more than uh some of the

28:13other housings that have been uh housing projects that have been proposed along San Antonio. Uh, and they're asking for some exceptions to floor area, parking,

28:24um, and open space, um, typical of other planned home zoning projects. Next slide. Uh, so some of the key design considerations. This is within the San Antonio Road area plan. It is consistent

28:40with the special setback requirements um along San Antonio Road of 24T. Um, as I mentioned, this is a slightly taller than some of the other projects that are being proposed in the immediate

28:53vicinity. Um, for utilities and refuge disposal, they will need to accommodate on-site transformers outside of the front setback. Um, and they will need to

29:05accommodate on-site refuge staging and pickup, including a Kturn within the garage, which, um, staff does expect will change the design to some degree. Next slide.

29:18So just some of the public benefits of the project. Uh they're proposing 50% 15% on-site BMR units. So a 30 total of 30 units. Um and they are providing it

29:31at uh lower income levels. So eight very low income and 12 moderate income to meet the 20 20% weighted minimum um based on the income level restrictions. Next slide.

29:45Um some of the other public benefits that are not proposed right now but that staff is considering for this project um would be an opportunity to connect to

29:56Wando Street uh in Mountain View. Office of Transportation was interested in having some sort of bike or andor ped connection um through the site from San Antonio Road to Wandote Street at the

30:10rear of the property. Um, and then the uh easement that's been requested for several other planned uh home zonings uh along San Antonio, we're interested in

30:22requesting a 24 foot required setbook um easement um within that setback area for uh future transportation improvements um consistent with the San Antonio Road

30:35area plan. Next slide. Uh so this isn't a formal project under the California Environmental Quality Act because no action is proposed. Uh full review in accordance with SQA would be initiated

30:48with the formal filing of a development application. Next slide. and staff recommends that council conduct a pre-screening, provide informal comments regarding the

30:59applicant's request to reszone the properties at 720 San Antonio Road uh from service commercial to planned home zoning. And comments provided during a pre-screening process are not binding on

31:10the city or the applicant. And with that, I'll turn it back to um the mayor and uh recommend that you hear from the uh applicant. All right. Thank you. Yeah, we'll invite

31:25the the applicant forward. Leave 10 minutes. All right. Welcome. How you doing? Thank you, Claire. A little bit. Great. Um, thank you, Claire. Uh, good evening. Um, mayor or

31:52vice mayor, council members, my name is Brian Schmidt. I'm a vice president with High Street Residential. Um, thank you for your time this evening. Um, as Claire mentioned, we're here to

32:03introduce 720 San Antonio Road and to get your early feedback on the project and the planned home zone process. Um, and we prepared a presentation which

32:15I'll take you through. Yeah. Um, so, uh, to start with the project team. Um, High Street Residential is the developer and applicant. That's who I represent. Um,

32:25our architect is BDE and John Cozy, who's a principal, will be speaking at the second half of this presentation. Um, and our civil engineer is Kieran Wright. Um, also with us this evening is

32:37Brian Pianca, who is the head of our Bay Area residential um for High Street Residential, and Bryce Costley, also with DD. Uh, next slide, please. Um before we get to the project, just

32:51wanted to give a little bit more background of of who we are and what we do. Um so High Street Residential is the development arm of Traml Crow Company. Um and we're we're a very active Bay

33:04Area multif family developer. Um and across the company, we are currently we have more than 11,600 units uh in process and more than 3,000 in our pipeline. And then in the Bay Area

33:18specifically, we're currently developing three buildings. Um, uh, one in one Meadow Glenn, which is in Milbury. It's a 278 uh, podium style multif family project. And we're developing two

33:31buildings in Redwood City at Elco Yards, uh, totaling 501 units. And um both of these projects are mid-rise podium style developments, which is the same uh

33:45product type that we would um build here at 720 San Antonio. So with nearly 800 homes currently under development in the Bay, we are one of the most active multifamily developers

33:57here in the Bay Area. Uh next slide, please. So, we've covered some some of this uh with Claire, but just to touch on it, the location 720 San Antonio Road, we're across the street from the

34:10Summerwinds Nursery and directly south of the AC Hotel. Uh, next slide, please. So, these photos show the site conditions uh of of the of the site currently today. Um the 1.36

34:26acres as Claire mentioned home to the crossroads specialty foods um and two singlestory office kind of R&D uh warehouse type buildings and serve a surface paved parking lot in between. Uh

34:40in short, it's a well occupied but ultimately underutilized um site and one that doesn't reflect the uh vision of the San Antonio Road area plan. And the next slides will show how our

34:57project um aligns with the vision of the San Antonio Road area plan. Um so a couple highle project statistics echoing a lot of what Claire said. We're proposing an eight-story podium with 200

35:08homes um and about 169,000 rentable square feet. 30 of those homes would be um designated as affordable units um or 15% of the project. of the 15, 9% would

35:21be very low and 6% would be moderate, which uh blends to over 20% um affordability percentage. Um and the project will also include 214 parking stalls. Parking was a key focus

35:37of ours as we designed this project. We wanted to make sure we had at least uh one stall per per one um housing unit. And with this count, we're a little bit over that. We're at 1.1.

35:48Um, I will now turn our presentation over to John Cozy um with ED who will walk through the design in a little more detail. Thank you. >> Thank you, Brian.

36:03Uh, next slide, please. Hi, my name is John Coy. I'm with BD Architects. Um, thank you for having us tonight. We're really excited about this project. It's a really um you know when we when we

36:15really took it on we looked at we looked at the the San Antonio area or S San Antonio road area plan and and really while it's still in progress you know we

36:24we took the overall design strategies and really embraced them in in our design and and we really agree with them a lot that you know those four overall

36:32strategies really have to do with taking the underutilized land and turning it into the much needed residential in the area. The second creating these community nodes um that you know really

36:42promote walkability and convenience within the area. And then um the third big one is is really to deemphasize the vehicle and um encourage biking and walking which is which we really agree

36:56with. And then lastly is is really providing that access to to Cal Train and you know establish that convenience for for transit and help take help take

37:05cars off the road. Uh next slide please. Um, as Claire had mentioned that there are currently within within a block there are currently four projects that are all much much uh, you know, there

37:19same typology that we're prop that we're proposing today and and uh, it's really exciting to see and and uh, we're using those kind of they're a little bit ahead

37:28of us. So, we're looking at them and taking ps and cues as it comes to the design so that we create this whole holistic kind of feeling along that as as San Antonio Road get starts to um

37:39starts to grow. Uh next slide, please. Um this is a a ground floor plan of the the first floor. You can see along San Antonio, we have that 20, you know, nice

37:5024 foot step back along the frontage. Um because this is really an urban infill site, we don't have we really have exposed garage on three sides, but on the main frontage um we put as much

38:02active use as we can. We have our kind of lounge or not our lounge, but our um our leasing office, our main leasing office with a main lobby. Really inviting, but we also have a co-work

38:13space at the ground floor. The co-work spaces for the residents to be able to to to do the work from home in in this whole new era. um they could have meetings there. They can there'll be

38:24different offices in there. They'll have all the stuff that they need to to really run their business when they are working from home. So, we'd have that there. Um we also have along there for

38:35it's actually at the second level, but we have our our bike room which would be a place to securely storage to store all the bikes and they'd have all the

38:42facilities to fix your bike, fill them up with air, fill your water bottles, things like that. Um it's placed at the second level for safety. people, a lot

38:49of people have these really expensive bikes and they don't want them at the ground floor where, you know, where they can potentially get stolen or mess with.

38:55So, so we intentionally put them there from a security standpoint. Um, so we move up the building to to the which is going to be now the third level. So, the

39:05first two levels is really a lot of double height space and then two levels of parking. That's all above grade. Again, it's all none of the garage is none of the parking is exposed from the

39:14second level. Um, can you go to the next slide, please? at the third level. Um, again you can see we start to step the building back from from San Antonio. So

39:24the building steps back about another six feet um at a portion of it again to create promote that kind of base middle top. Um along the along the hotel we have a setback of about 20 feet from

39:36face to face to building at the closest point. But then we also carved in a courtyard which gives you about uh 50 feet of of relief from the other buildings. Those would all be sight on

39:46units. So, a lot of the the hotel units are are side on, so they're not facing our building for those ones. And where the the ones that do face, there's that

39:53courtyard to give that relief. The the courtyard will be landscaped and and uh and create a nice little buffer between the two uses. Um at the bottom courtyard, we opened up this this

40:06greater courtyard that is a much more active courtyard. off that courtyard, we're going to have our our main residence lounge as well as a fitness and gym inside of there with a pool that

40:16and again that that would be open up kind of the southwest and it uh and it's it's open to the it's open to the out so they get you know long views and and also it helps when we get into the

40:29massing of the building it helps break down the massing so we don't have these long continuous frontages of building so we intentionally break down the building

40:37so that it's much more relative to the scale that we see in the area. Um if we go to the next slide, um this one, this one is just a you can see that the buildings do stack as they

40:49go up, but um there will be at the eighth floor. It's not shown in this slide, but there is going to be a a lounge at the top is a sky lounge that's going to be at the eighth floor,

40:59which will also have a small outdoor space for the residents to to relax, have go up there and take advantage of the views. Um, we go to the next slide. Um, in this slide you can see that this

41:11is this is the massing of our building. You can see on the left side that's one of the the new projects that's in that's in design review right now. So from a

41:19scale standpoint you can start to see the we're starting to suggest the the ins and outs that they're doing there. You can see that there's a a a strong like kind of top middle base to it. And

41:30then you can see that there's a an old um commercial building in between. And then you have the the hotel. So you can see from a scale standpoint there's some

41:37breakdown. We started looking at the breakdown when we when we're looking at ours into how do we break our building scale it so that it doesn't feel so massive. And you can see you can see

41:47from this view there's the the courtyard that we that we created that opens up to the to the hotel. And you can see a strong base middle and top to that. And

41:56then at the corner which would be the the furthest I guess kind of um east we're looking to the right. we created a a strong kind of iconic marker which this is really the the heart of the

42:06whole San Antonio road area plan. So that's kind of the the the gateway feature that we're looking at. And then again you can see that we there on the the the the east facing side we have

42:19that big court that opens up to that. Again a lot of this is done to help break up the massing. When you're looking at this you can see that um it starts to if it was a solid building it

42:28would feel much too massive. So, we're starting to be to break it down to be much more sensitive to the area. We go to the next slide. >> You unfortunately you're you're past

42:37time, but we if we have questions, you're you're here and council members can can follow up. Okay. >> In our discussion, right, thank you. >> Okay, let's go to public comment on this

42:48item and then we'll bring back to council for questions and and comments. Uh, >> no hands are raised and there are no requests to speak. All right, then we're bringing it back to the dis

43:08council member. >> All right. Um, thank you. Uh, a couple questions. Uh, Claire, I think you said something on the ground floor retail, but can you clarify what would be

43:20happening here on that? This is exclusively residential. So no retail is proposed. >> And within our intended San Antonio road area plan or syrup, um we would be developing retail guidelines

43:39and as I recall specific node areas. Um I don't know if we had tentatively identified that this is one area that has been retail for a long while. it even though it's a specialty market,

43:52it's the only groceries and uh short walking distance for these um communities and we'll definitely uh you know that building will be replaced. But um I'm I'm concerned that we are

44:07developing or approving projects because they're coming forward before the SARP plan and uh undermining whatever uh uh requirements we might put in place on uh ground floor retail. Uh so and

44:26then do we know the distance of this to the San Antonio uh Cal Train station and whether it would potentially um be under any of the uh laws that might apply there.

44:43>> So just while Claire's looking up the distance if you have that just the the laws and and perhaps you're you're thinking of AB 2097 with parking or other both that and SB79

44:56uh at some future date. Uh and one thing that uh just make sure everybody's aware of under SB79 if we had adopted what were the recommendations for instance for the

45:08greater Calav and um university areas SB79 does not allow us to require retail and we would be basically abolishing our ground floor retail districts uh in

45:22those areas. Now, this is less of a um a retail uh oriented area, but still um as we're building this new neighborhood, we have a a really important question of

45:35what are going to be the services that are uh pedestrian oriented. >> Y understood. And I think um just drawing from memory when the hotels were being uh reviewed, I think this is more

45:48than a half mile um from Cal Station. Y >> it's close. So >> it's8 miles it looks like. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And then on the open space um I saw on the slide it says open space 130 square

46:05foot per unit. Is that the rooftop that is the primary open space? >> Yeah. Uh there's the rooftop and two courtyards at the third level. >> Okay. Um so those are the common open

46:21spaces and if there's any um balconies that those would be included as well. >> Okay. So um it's 20 square ft less than requirement. So just on kind of comments, um I we've all been supporting

46:40intensification on this corridor and and doing so ahead of beyond what we had set in place for our housing plan and uh ahead of our San Antonio road area plan.

46:54And what we're seeing is that the density and the height, it's almost every project creeps up a little bit. and now we're 89 feet. Um, one of the things that's been important to me is

47:08that kind of the new urbanist um concepts of what's most important uh is what what does it feel to human beings on the street? And that's why on the San Antonio

47:22uh uh housing priority area uh uh we were able to put in upper floor uh stepbacks. Um and I am very interested in some form of that whether it's the same as what we have on the San Antonio

47:39core corridor or slightly different. Uh do you recall at what was it five stories we had it or six? Yeah, on on El Camino uh real roughly uh at about 50 feet there was a 10- foot step back.

47:52Maybe it was like 55 or or 60, but it was that threshold. >> Yeah. And just for colleagues, it has having that step back is the difference between this feeling like it is a a

48:03tunnel of we say mid-rise, but for our concepts, you know, eight stories is really historically a very tall building for our community. and you have an entire corridor that way and with just

48:17the step back it has a completely more human scale and that's been one of the the guiding principles Peter Peter Calthorp who was one of the founders of new urbanism uh who had proposed the uh

48:33densification of the El Camino corridor in that case he was actually proposing four to five stories up and down the corridor and just 3 four years ago that

48:42was thought to be a huge densification So we're talking about almost double that in height of what was being advocated by strong development and housing advocates at the time. So um

48:56want to put those things on the table. Thanks >> all. >> Yes. Thanks. Um this is meant to in this initial design have all the exit and uh entrance on San Antonio. Do we think

49:13that's a good idea versus is there any other option that's not going to slow down traffic on El Camino? Sorry, on San Antonio or have we looked at that yet?

49:22>> There would be no other option for this because that's the only access to the site. Uh it's not at a corner. >> Okay. I thought I saw a side street there. [clears throat] Um

49:36yeah, thanks for pointing out that the transformer and utilities has to has to be adjusted. kind of be surprised if you can come back that way, but that's going

49:44to have to be redesigned as you say in the um in the packet. Um the as council member Bert said, you know, there setbacks are not matching with what we had originally designed uh

49:58and envisioned on the uh El Camino Riale focus area. And there's a whole litany on page 12 of other um relaxations, shall we say, that we want in these that

50:11the the developer wants. And when it gets down to like a 6'9 setback instead of a minimum 10, I mean, really, we still have to even negotiate about that. Why don't we just put in there 10 ft

50:23that we that we like there? So, um there's just a lot of asks here. I'll just I'll just put it that way. Um, and [clears throat] then I get the math and I get the ratios and I understand the

50:35BMR housing very well, but the net net is that there's about I think there's about a dozen fewer affordable housing units there. So, there's a dozen fewer

50:46um folks that are going to have a below market rate home. So, I would always like to optimize uh to as much possible for the the number of units and we're not getting that here. So, that's

50:58something I'd love to have uh folks take a look at. Um, and that's it. Thank you, >> Councilman Rectal. >> Okay. Thank you. In general, I'm supportive. It's a big building. We're

51:15talking 90 ft. That's like one and a half times as large as the JCC. And so, JCC feels very massive at times. And when this is built, it's going to be also be massive.

51:26You know, that said, we are short of housing. And so, I appreciate this is a good place for density. I I do think ground flooror retail really is essential in this area. We don't want to

51:35have a retail desert here. So, I think we really do need to find some way of putting in ground flooror retail here. That's going to be an asset for the people who live there and also in the

51:43neighborhood. We don't want you there's some parts of the city up by like Gun where there's no retail at all. If you want to go anywhere, you have to get in

51:51your car. And we don't want this area to do that. We really want to have this walkable, bikable, and have retail nearby. Uh the El Camino focus area has

52:00been mentioned. Uh a question for staff. How does this compare? Is it consistent with the El Camino focus area guidelines? >> It has not been fully compared to the El

52:12Camino Real focus uh or El Camino Real um guidelines. Um we could evaluate that typically. um we would look at it as any formal application. We would look at it

52:26against the typical objective design standards um and could provide additional input about how it relates to the El Camino real focus area, but technically the Elamino realal focus

52:40area doesn't apply here. So, >> but that's kind of become our blueprint for high density. >> Yeah. And it's close. I mean, I think the the focus area talks about 85 feet

52:49in height and a 4.0 F. And I think this comes under at about a 3.5 F 90 ft. So it's it's in the ballpark at least as to the form. >> Yeah, the 90 ft is the top of the

53:01parapit. I think for class three, you only can have the average roof be 85. So I assume that the average roof on this design is is a class 3 construction.

53:11>> They they mentioned that it was had they have a rooftop deck. Um so I assume that it's they can maybe provide that. The project is type 3A which would be it

53:22would be 85 ft to the top of the of the roof, >> not the parapit. The parapit's not included in that. >> Understood. What do we do for El Camino focus area? Do we specify the rooftop or

53:33do we specify the top of the parapit? >> We do actually uh specify the rooftop is where we measure specifically all other um heights measurements in the city are

53:45typically to the top of parapit. >> Okay. So, we're in the ballpark of the Elchina folks here at least for height. Um, let's see. The 24 special 24 foot special setback. That's really

53:56important. So, I appreciate that you're following that. That is also going to help the neighborhood. Um, I like the potential for the bike ped connection to Mountain View. That will have more

54:05interopility. Do we have any option of using that back culde-sac followed uh council member's question or car access? We can certainly look into it. I I'm not sure how complicated that

54:21would be to use another city's kind of streets um as a primary access to lots in Palo Alto. >> Yeah. And I'm not sure if transportation thinks that's a good thing or a bad

54:33thing. That would be at least a good question to ask. Uh bike parking. We have 280 bedrooms in this and we only have 128 bike spaces. And this is 3/4 of a mile from the California. That's a

54:48little too far to walk, but perfect to bike. So I think there's going to be bike demands today. And as ebikes develop more and more, there's going to be even more. I think a decade from now,

54:57are you going to wish you had more bike parking? So I would revisit the bike parking and say, what is our real demand for bike parking? Uh, you know, I always say that when we lived in a a

55:08two-bedroom apartment, my family of four had four bikes and we took up four bike spaces in that bike room. And there are going to be families like that living in your neighborhood or in your

55:18development. So, uh, a half per bedroom, we're less than that, 4/10en of a bike spot, bike space per bedroom is, I don't think, enough. Uh and then the trash

55:31staging you mentioned uh they that means that the trucks will be going in and picking up there. We will not be hauling out trash into the front. Is that correct?

55:42>> Yeah. So, um, staff just noted that, uh, if they were to pull out trash to Matt to San Antonio Road, um, because the trash bins would be set back so far, uh,

55:56there would be pull out charges which are often pretty, um, difficult for housing projects to meet. Um, and so it is anticipated that they need to revise

56:06their design to have a Kturn on site for that trash pickup. Um, additionally, we don't want the bins to be located in our right of way on San Antonio, especially

56:19as we're looking at potential bike lanes and whatnot. >> Exactly. >> Y >> Okay. Thank you. Overall, good project. If we can make some improvements, I think we can build this.

56:29>> Council member Loop. >> Thank you. I'll basically second uh Council Member Rectal. I think uh it's similar enough to existing projects. I think the floor

56:40area and the height are fine. I think the setbacks are fine and certainly appreciated in the front. Uh because we do want to respect that. Uh I think massing is something that we'll just uh

56:52get more feedback on I'm sure through the process. Uh, I similarly had some questions and rather than just sort of hash them out, I'll just sort of plus one. Council member Rectal, I think

57:06exploring ways to use Yando uh street um either for trash or uh as an uh some sort of entryway would be uh I think interesting and beneficial. I do like the idea of a PO. I think in the

57:24long-term development of a neighborhood, having some sort of access to Y and dot street and uh a shortcut through that would uh uh be actually really beneficial uh as

57:35this neighborhood actually gets built out. Um I am a little bit unsure about the bike parking situation. I've not seen bike parking moved to the second floor for the purposes of uh security.

57:54I would generally think that that is an inconvenience, but something that I'm open to. I am also concerned about the volume of like of bike parking and uh if in the process like throughout the

58:06process I hope we really sort of critically examine where that bike parking actually should belong to maximize uh both use and convenience. Um, let's see. Uh, the last point I'll make is just

58:21that, uh, I think having some sort of engaging ground floor is really important. I understand that there's a leasing office and a co-working space. That's maybe okay, but not good, per se. I

58:34think retail is great, but just having something that uh and activate the street in some way in terms of landscaping as you figure that out uh or sort of non-traditional forms of or like

58:47non retail uh forms of engaging uh ground floor use like a dentist office or something would be uh anything that's sort of better and uh more inviting to the public would be

59:02appreciated there. So, those are the sorts of things that I'd look out for as this moves along. But overall, um I think this is uh a good outline and a good uh first step.

59:15Council member Liths. >> Thank you, Vice Mayor. Uh first, I want to just thank the applicants for your efforts regarding multif family housing in the Bay and your interest in being a

59:26provider here in Palo Alto. We welcome you. Thank you. I'm very much in favor of this project. not concerned about the height. Uh we're not going to put this

59:34height anywhere else. This will be a neighborhood of multif family homes. Uh agree with the concerns about ground floor retail for that reason. We want to

59:41be sure that people can walk and bike uh to shops and services near where they live. We'd rather them shop in Palo Alto than a mile up the road in Mountain View

59:50uh at the plentiful shopping available right there in El Camino and San Antonio. Um, I agree with the point that we've got to try to really align this with the San Antonio area plan um,

1:00:03objectives. We are, that process is underway. We've got to take care to uphold those standards rather than make exceptions here and exceptions there. Uh, because we might end up with a

1:00:14corridor of buildings that feel incoherent in the context of one another. And I realize this is tricky because you're coming forward now, which is wonderful, and yet the San Antonio

1:00:25area plan process is underway and not complete. Um, so it's sort of like you're approaching the tarmac and we're still building the airport. Um, which is

1:00:34terrifying, but also exciting. Uh, we know we'll get there. Uh, we just want to be deliberate and thoughtful about your project in the context of everything else that is to come. Um I

1:00:45had a question about the below market unit allocation. Um I saw that the applicant is uh proposing very low income and middle income or moderate income I should say but no low income

1:00:58whereas our housing element opportunity designation did have some units there in the middle. Uh perhaps staff can explain to me and if not the applicant, what

1:01:07would be the reason that um the mix from the applicant's perspective is better the way that they proposed it versus the way that you had articulated it in the housing element opportunity

1:01:21list. Um so the way our uh regional housing needs allocation works the low income and very low income are actually mixed in terms of reporting. And so uh from that

1:01:39perspective um having the very low income would be better than having the low income. it restricts it further um making it more affordable to um those with lower income. Um in terms of we

1:01:56still have a signed arena that we are looking at. Um but right now uh low income isn't a particular area where we um are you know not meeting what we're

1:02:10expecting to and so some of the moderate and the very low income um are units that we're looking for. So >> great. Thank you. That's all for me. um question on I'm so trying to

1:02:26understand the estimated capacity of the entire site under the the housing element. I was a little confused by one thing in the in the staff report on

1:02:34packet page 11 states that the that it's a housing opportunity housing element opportunity site with an estimated capacity of 43 units. But that seems to be the estimated capacity of the

1:02:47affordable units there. or is that is that the was that the total capacity that was estimated that can you clarify that? So, I'm just reading um to try and remind myself. Um

1:03:08and well, I was looking at that. My recollection when we were doing the housing element is that the sites were conservatively estimated at about 40 units per acre um to uh evaluate the

1:03:22number of units that would be generated [clears throat] um so that we weren't overstating how much could be built. I don't think it's necessarily a reflection of just the affordable.

1:03:32Does that sound right? >> Yeah, it might have been a site where we were only looking at um below market rate too. So, I was just uh what? So, we can we can do a little bit more

1:03:53digging on that, but I think for now that's sort of our take. Yeah, just and and yeah, I don't need I don't obviously don't need an answer to tonight. Just struck me. I was I was trying to

1:04:04understand that. Okay, thank you. Um, so there there's no there's no loading space here. Does that I can't remember does that is that do we count loading space as also like ride share

1:04:17space as well? >> So objective standards require one car loading space. Um, so we only require a full-on um truck size loading space uh if there's a retail or office component.

1:04:34Uh, residential doesn't require that under our code. Uh, but when we develop the objective standards, we require one car space that's meant for um services

1:04:45like um pickup services or drop off uh door dash, etc. >> Okay. And was that included in the in the plans as of yet? No, they're not proposing that. >> And yeah, I mean, overall, I I agree

1:04:58with what most my colleagues have have said. I mean, obviously, it's a great location for housing. I I agree. I think it's close enough in the in the context

1:05:08of the surrounding of the surrounding buildings and other projects that we've that we've uh approved. It's not a perfect project. I think there are some

1:05:17issues with with massing. I I I have a concern that this is an underparked project with 217 spaces where 276 would be typically required. And I I think at

1:05:31times given the context of a project or its proximity to public transportation, then I think that's fine to kind of have that um to not be as concerned about a

1:05:41project being being adequately parked. I think given a lot of the concerns with with this project, I mean, the too few bike spots, not having a a loading zone

1:05:54for ride share companies, not being easily accessible to public as easily accessible to public transportation as other areas. I think this is going to be

1:06:05a very car centric project. I as of now I can't remember the the comment about the the loss of retail along San Antonio. I think many of these residents are going to be relying on cars to be

1:06:17able to get to jobs and retail and and everything else. And so I'm I'm concerned about that that piece to this. Um and yeah, absolutely much sorry on the on the special setback. Is this now

1:06:33is this in compliance with the San Antonio corridor that we're looking for? >> Yes, it is. >> Great. So glad about that. I think that was an absolute must. I also really

1:06:44appreciate that this is a rental project. I know that's one that we've been trying to get get more rental units within the city. I love the mixed number of unit sizes ranging from studios to

1:06:56three bedrooms and the and the focus on uh very low income housing is a is another um another strong need for for the community. So, I think this uh addresses a lot of those, but um I'm

1:07:09hopeful it will be tweaked as it continues to move through the city process to address some of the other concerns that were raised tonight that I share. Uh all right, I see Council Rectal.

1:07:20>> Yeah, just one followup. I was asking about the loading zones also. So, Door Dash and Uber, where would they park in this current configuration if we have no loading spot?

1:07:34It's a good question. Uh be one for the applicant. >> Yeah, I mean this is again a preliminary plan set. So okay, we flag this for the applicant as an issue and this is

1:07:44something that we would want would want to take a closer look at because >> so we'll be addressing this during planning. Okay, thank you B. >> Thank you. Uh well just following up on

1:07:54that uh so currently we require one space per 50 units for common. I if anything I think in our where we are today and where we're heading uh that may be uh a lower requirement than we

1:08:09should have between the proliferation of common carriers and ride share. Look at the the trend we've had over the last 101 15 years in those directions. Um we

1:08:21have such a higher percentage of car trips that are that way. It's even before we we see what is the transformation from autonomous ride share which we're we're witnessing in

1:08:33the community but it hasn't uh gotten to its its uh the whatever adoption it's going to to see. So I would say that we should be looking at uh do we need more

1:08:47than that one space per 50 not whether we need up to it. Um, second, uh, as I noted before, for me to be supportive of this height, it would have to have a

1:09:01step back so that it doesn't feel like eight stories from the street. It feels like closer to five stories. Um, as far as on the transit, I actually, you know,

1:09:11we're I guess it's 08 miles from the Cal Train station, which now has strong service at the San Antonio location. And at VTA on our new, now that we've passed the

1:09:22regional transit measure, um, one of the areas that the uh, North County Cities is advocating is increased bus service on this San Antonio corridor. It's the

1:09:34only corridor that affects all four cities in the north county. Um, and we're all building housing, even Los Altos Hills with student housing. Every city is adding thousands of housing

1:09:48units in aggregate there. Um, and then um I I think it is an important question. What's in our housing element? What's on packet page 12? after it lists 43 units,

1:10:02it lists a breakdown in a of affordable housing units adding up to 43. So it may be, as Clare said that we were envisioning this as an affordable only site, but that appears to be the number

1:10:14of units and then there's another question of whether we were designating them designating them of certain income levels. So if it's a if it was only that number of units, we'd be greatly

1:10:28increasing the total units of market rate units, but are we even meeting the number of low and very low and moderate that were in the housing element? So

1:10:38those are important considerations. Um, and lastly, I I do want to say on uh I'm I'm not it's not the fault of these developers uh that this rental housing,

1:10:49but actually what we've been getting is overwhelmingly rental housing. The only models we had that is working for um uh housing uh ownership are ADUs and three-story town homes. And that's

1:11:05because the state has not yet reformed uh the condo uh liability laws, which they almost did this year. Uh but my understanding is that's that's a big part of the barrier from developers

1:11:17really having mid-rise condos in California, uh including us. So hopefully that will change and hopefully there'll be a strong market for that because we've been we and other cities

1:11:30have been approving disproportionately rental housing and very little ownership housing. So thank you. >> And we will close this item and move on to our next study session. So thank you

1:11:43to the applicants. Thanks to staff. Moving on to item three. review and provide feedback on 60 on 60% design plans for the Quarry Road Transit Connection. Turn it over to staff again.

1:11:57>> As we have our staff uh switching uh positions here, I want to note that I will be recusing from this item uh given the Stanford University's involvement in

1:12:07this project and my wife's employment with Stanford Healthcare. >> Thank you. And I believe Council Member Lou, you have a recusal as well. Uh, I similarly need to recuse. My uh wife

1:12:18works at Stanford. All right, don't go far. We'll see you soon. Good evening. I'm Sylvia Starlac, transportation planning manager with an update on the Corey Road Transit

1:13:05Connection Project. I'm joined by Lesie Lowe, Stanford University transportation director and tin design team members Aaron Vaka and Manuk Narwhal. The project is the first step in

1:13:19retooling the PaloAlto Transit Center for enhanced efficiency and safety. Next slide. The goals of the project are to enhance public transit efficiency, reduce

1:13:31traffic congestion, improve safety and convenience for cyclists and pedestrians, and increase active transportation mode share by extending Corey Road to create a direct connection

1:13:42between the PaloAlto Transit Center and El Camryal for use by public buses and shuttles and by constructing a protected intersection at Cory Road and El Camino

1:13:52Rail. This project has many constraints that restrict the degrees of freedom the city has to design uh to design the project. These have to do with CALR standards and for elimin

1:14:05utility conflicts. The city's several roles include obtaining and managing grant funds, sharing costs with Stanford and MTC and partnering with Stanford on

1:14:14design and community engagement. Council will ultimately approve the design and construction contract that must be compliant with CALR and city requirements. Next slide.

1:14:23Palo Alto transit center is a key regional transfer point with the second highest ridership in the CALR system served by multiple transit service providers. This Corey road project is

1:14:34occurring in the context of several regional efforts listed on this slide. staff is collaborating with Calrans on the El community rail comprehensive multimodal corridor plan with MTC on the

1:14:44regional mapping and wayfinding pilot at the transit center to improve signage and wayfinding and with VTA and other transit service providers on the forthcoming Pelo Alto mobility hub plan

1:14:55which seeks to improve the transit cent's efficiency, layout and comfort and convenience to users. Ahead of the mobility hub work, we met with the transit providers to discuss a long-term

1:15:05vision for bicycle circulation through the transit center. As a result, maintenance responsibilities for the pathway along El Camino Rial between University and Corey have been clarified

1:15:15and the pathway and adjacent landscaping within this portion of El Camino Park have now been added to the city's park maintenance efforts. This Corey road

1:15:23transit connection is the first step of many in improving the transit center for all modes of travel. Next slide. As background, the project was included in the 2017 comprehensive plan and

1:15:34beginning in 2024, steps were taken to place a ballot measure before PaloAlto voters to undedicate a portion of El Camino Park to create a transit connection to the transit center. The

1:15:44project began in late 2025 and the project has reached 60% design. Next slide. This is a graphic of the project's main elements. The project includes first the

1:15:56transit way at the top of the screen. Second, the large median between the transit lanes, which is needed due to utilities located in that space. Third,

1:16:04the realigned multi-use path in white at the top right corner of the intersection. And fourth, the new protected Dutch style intersection on El Camino Rail. The bus only transit way

1:16:14supports the goal of more reliable and faster transit travel times. The dedicated transit way reduces the number of signals for exiting buses from three

1:16:22to one. And over half of daily movements in or out of the transit center could be shifted to the transit way, which is nearly 700 buses. Next slide. The other design feature I wanted to

1:16:33highlight is the protected or Dutch style intersection. Pictured here is an example at the Mountain View Google Plex. The design uses corner islands, protected bicycle space, bike specific

1:16:44signals, and pedestrian head starts. Together, these features slow vehicle turns, reduce conflicts, improve visibility, and provide clearer crossing locations. Next slide.

1:16:55The project is now at the 60% design stage. As the design has progressed, several unanticipated tasks have arisen, increasing the original design budget of $878,000 to 1,5,000.

1:17:08The new scope items listed here are required to complete the design and will be funded by medical center development agreement funds, Stanford University funds, and an MTC grant. Next slide.

1:17:21To obtain CALR acceptance, roadway features along or connecting to the state highway system must conform to CALR design standards. However, where an existing or proposed feature does not

1:17:33meet those standards, a design standards decisions document or DSDD is used to document and evaluate the non-standard condition and support CALR's decision on

1:17:43whether it can be retained. One of the additional scope tasks includes a DSD to retain trees. The existing receiving lanes on the west leg of Cory Road are

1:17:53approximately 10 ft wide, which is less than the CALR standard lane width. Bringing these lanes up to standard would require reconfiguring the median and would likely result in removal of

1:18:02several existing trees. The design team will need to generate a DSD in order to retain the existing lane widths, the median, and avoid tree removal. Next slide.

1:18:17As design advanced, the project team also took a closer look at how the bike lanes transition through the northwest and southwest corners of the intersection. The bottom two corners in

1:18:25this image. They evaluated two configurations. Option A keeps the bike lanes at street level, while option B raises the bike lanes to sidewalk level. The main difference between the two is

1:18:36how each option balances the pedestrian and bicycle experience with constructibility, cost, and project delivery risk. Tonight, we are asking for council's preferences between

1:18:46options A and B. Next slide. Option A maintains the bike lanes at street level through the northwest and southwest corners. One of the primary advantages is that this option fits

1:18:58within the established project footprint, minimizing the need for additional utility investigations, relocations, and adjustments. From a drainage perspective, option A allows

1:19:08the project to maintain a more conventional layout and avoids triggering additional storm water treatment. The smaller disturbance area also helps limit environmental and permitting risk.

1:19:18The trade-off is that pedestrian crossing distances are slightly longer than under option B. There is also a less direct bicycle connection at the southwest corner. An eastbound cyclist

1:19:30connecting to the Stanford perimeter trail would need to make a relatively sharp right turn onto the corner ramp to access the sidewalk. Next slide. Option B raises the bike lanes to

1:19:43sidewalk level. This creates additional pedestrian refuge space and shortens the pedestrian crossing distances. The raised configuration can also make

1:19:52bicyclists more visible as they approach and move through the intersection. However, these benefits come with additional cost and schedule impacts. Based on the current estimate, it would

1:20:01add approximately $284,000 in design and construction costs and at least three months to the project timeline. Option B would also have greater utility impacts which could require additional

1:20:11investigation, relocation, and or adjustment. Because the bike lane is raised, drainage becomes more complex and would require a less conventional layout as well as additional storm water

1:20:21treatment. The larger disturbance area would also increase environmental permitting risk. Both payback and PTC straw poles selected option A and details from committee feedback are in

1:20:33the staff report. Next slide. Tonight, we're here to receive your feedback regarding options A and B. Does council concur with payback and PTC on option A. Next slide.

1:20:46Through October and November, standing committees, council, and the VTA ad hoc will review the 60% concepts. Coordination with CALR is ongoing. After plan revisions this winter, we hope to

1:20:57finalize design with another round of engagement in the spring for eventual submission and likely resubmission of the CALR encroachment permit. Pending

1:21:05CALR approval, construction could begin in late 2027 or early 28. Thank you. Thank you. And no other presentations, right? Okay, then let's turn it over to public comment.

1:21:29>> No hands are raised and there are no requests to speak. >> Right, then bringing it back to the D. >> Council member, not because I necessarily want to go first. Um,

1:21:47so thank you. Uh this has been uh an exciting project uh to see moving forward and I really want to express appreciation that the the plan now seems to really embrace uh the need to improve

1:22:03the u the bike circulation to and through the station from all directions. uh it's a bit of a challenge because this scope of work is kind of within a box and but it needs to anticipate the

1:22:21flow throughout the station area and what we now have on packet page 27 u laying out the additional uh uh routes for biking uh is really a step in the

1:22:36right direction. when it went to the VTA committee, we had only the the new bike crossing on the east side of El Camino crossing the quarry extension. And my

1:22:49understanding is that's still uh planned to be uh part of this plan. Is that crossing at that location, a signalized crossing >> or not? >> I'm not sure which one you're talking

1:23:04about. talking about if a bike is coming from Menllo Park on along on the um east side maybe I spoke spoke I might have said west east side of El Camino. Um

1:23:17there was a uh uh the plan was to have a a bike stop at that signal there to cross quarry. >> Yes, we still have that >> that there. So that may still be a right

1:23:35approach. My concern when we first heard it was that it'll be bikes who take that route and they may be if we do this other extension looping behind the

1:23:47quarry dead end. Um bikes that are going to the station or through the station southbound. I would think will probably take that route depending on how it is

1:24:00able to trans uh uh pass through the station area. But if you're going to Stanford coming from the north there, um then uh it would be more likely this this one right at uh El Camino and

1:24:16Corey. My concern is that bikes would do one of two things. So have to wait for a whole bunch of signals on on El Camino or more likely because bicyclists may

1:24:28not wait. They will go and run that light and create either so we've either with that light we've done two things for biking at that location. One of two.

1:24:39We've slowed down biking through that area significantly or we've made it significantly less safe. So, I I don't know that we have a good solution, but one possibility is that we

1:24:52would move uh and put a a a pedestrianon signal somewhere in between El Camino and uh the the new bus loading area. Uh, and would there be if can we model it to

1:25:09see that we could have a signal that's triggered by pedestrians and bikes would hold buses or would the bus traffic be too heavy to allow that and risk backing

1:25:21up on El Camino? And I don't know if we've looked at that yet, but either way, I would really encourage that to be evaluated whether it's feasible because

1:25:32that would mean that the bicyclist could have a quicker signal to cross that quarry extension uh and they wouldn't be prone to run it. Uh and uh and there we

1:25:43get the the safety and the u and the the better bike flow. Leslo, um, Stamford University Executive Director of Transportation. Um to respond to Pat's question, um we can

1:26:03definitely look into it, but there's a couple concerns I would have right out the gate is that it would because the signal at El um El Camino itself would

1:26:13be um triggered when there were buses approaching, it would be very similar if buses would still be in the corridor the same way in the same manner as if they

1:26:23were in the midblock crossing as well because most of the time the the light on El Camino will be green Unless the the vehicles the buses are approaching.

1:26:33>> No, I I appreciate that question. How many buses will come through in a signal cycle? And if it's one or two, they could be queued up at this pedestrian

1:26:42crossing. Maybe even if it's three. Um, and that's what I I I I don't know the answer to, but would suggest it be modeled. But the the fact the question is do you have uh buses wait for the

1:26:57pedestrians or vice versa? >> We're asking our design team if >> and I'm not necessarily expecting an answer on the fly. >> Okay. I will say we've done the traffic

1:27:19modeling for this you uh assuming the maximum number of buses. So you know that number has not been settled ongoing discussions with the transit operators. So >> thank you

1:27:40>> yeah thank you. This is a good project. I hope we can build this soon. You mentioned utility investigations. What does that mean? >> Um, so in the context of uh option B, we

1:27:57option B actually is beyond the footprint of what we were originally looking at. So we would need to do like potholeing and figuring out where is the stuff under the ground. So, it would

1:28:08just add more cost because we'd have to expand the zone that we're interested in. >> Is it primarily storm sewer or what other utilities you're worried about?

1:28:17>> Everything that's under there. Yeah. >> Okay. And we don't have knowledge of what's under our streets. >> Um, typically we do potholeing. We have we have maps of where things are.

1:28:29Sometimes it turns out that things are not quite where they say that they are in the maps. The the depths may be different and the locations may be slightly off. So, it's always good to

1:28:37verify. >> Okay. Can you bring up slide five? I mean, this is a really wide intersection. [clears throat] And one of the concerns I have is the pedestrian refuge islands.

1:28:55So slide five is a good and on the left side there on El Camino, it looks like that's wide enough to have a person stand on it if they could don't make it all the way across. But on the

1:29:10right side that doesn't look wide enough. Can we somehow make that wider? we could look into that. Um, but it's already we're using the right of way that we already have. So that would

1:29:34require more of those investigations and and and the land that we would well >> well I mean [clears throat] even if you look on the right side here there's a a

1:29:45rather thick separator between the straight line in the far right >> and the rest of the roadway. Could we shrink that down and add more so that >> we have a pedestrian refuge island in

1:29:56the middle? >> Yeah, we can we can see what we can do. We have to have the the lanes going across the intersection have to kind of line up. So that's generally the thing

1:30:07that we're trying to make sure that we don't end up with confused drivers when they get across if we've shifted the lanes over too much. But yeah, we

1:30:14>> understood it. But we're going to have seniors crossing here and that's a long crossing for a senior and I don't want it all or nothing. If they have a refugee island that's much better.

1:30:25>> Thank you. >> Can you go to slide five please? Or slide three. And I'm worried about the bike routes through the and particularly on the right side. So

1:30:40I'll bike up on the right side coming from the south and during rush hour that university circle. There's a lot of traffic there. And is there some way to we follow along

1:30:52the top of that university circle? Can we first of all widen that path for the bikes, but then can we also have some better way of crossing that because you're crossing that and

1:31:06a lot of cars people are busy. They want to they're late for the train, they're dropping their spouse off or something and they don't always uh drive carefully. And so what can we do to

1:31:17improve that crossing both on the right side and the left side of the circle? Yeah. Um, so one of the key interactions in this location is actually not so much

1:31:29the cars dropping off, but the Margarite services that uh drop off and pick up in this location. So, what we could look at is some of the VTA's bus bike

1:31:41uh facility recommendations and see how those might be adapted to this kind of location. >> If there are no B buses at the top of the circle, I'll just go along the

1:31:50loading platform. But when there's a a bunch of people coming from the train, you can't do that. Now you have to cross the >> Mhm. >> Right. Anyway, I think that's a weakness

1:32:00here. If if we can address that and improve the crossing because a bike has to cross that circle twice and both times they're vulnerable. >> Okay, that's all I have. Thank you. others.

1:32:22Council member B. >> Uh, yes. Just following on to Council Member Rectal. Um, as you pointed out, the circle on both sides of Cal Train creates choke points where we we lose a

1:32:37bike path on on Elma uh just before that area and then we lose it currently uh in the um on this side. what uh what I think is being represented here is a

1:32:54future need to address the issue you're describing and whether that can be done and fit with allowing the Margarite buses to remain there or the entire bus

1:33:07bay area bay set of bays is the next step in redesigning that whole area and so uh the That's something that uh is yet to be worked out, but I fully agree

1:33:23that we need a safe uh two directional protected bike lane through that general space. Thanks >> all. >> Uh thank you. I'm I'm very impressed with the obvious [clears throat] team

1:33:39effort that went into this u and particularly when it came to the votes and you got unanimous from PTC and uh good support from payback and Stanford's not giving us any objections here and

1:33:50[clears throat] so um and amazing progress on really a crucially important project that we've already been working on for a couple years but it's it's it's making really good steps here. So,

1:34:02I'm [clears throat] I'm I'm really pleased with the adjustments I'm seeing and also hearing that as we go forward, there's other adjustments that we're going to make for safety and and

1:34:10transport uh fluidity. So, I'm I'm strongly in support of this and would be happy to make that kind of motion. >> Just a study session. Oh, right. Sorry.

1:34:20All right. Can I make a motion that I like it? [laughter] All right. Record reflect. Thank you. and council Lithu Scott Hayes. >> I have no questions. Appreciate the work. Thank you.

1:34:33>> All right. And I will just second council member Lowing. Great work. I support the recommendations of uh of advancing option A and um would appreciate the ability to be able to

1:34:43address concerns raised by Council E Doll and seconded by by Bert, but I understand the limitations in this in this space is going to make that challenging. And with that, looks like

1:34:53we are done then with this item. We will close it out. listed staff see a little dialogue >> just want to understand is option A the thing that everybody wants or did someone want B

1:35:10>> that's why I was thinking motion [laughter] >> I didn't hear any >> yeah I didn't speak to it and I'm I'm fine with the recommendation of a >> the footprint to me is the big thing and

1:35:22if we don't have to expand the footprint then that makes sense but If we find that there's some flaw that we expanding the footprint helps us then maybe we want to reconsider that.

1:35:35>> Thanks. Thank you staff for seeking that clarification and wonderful. Then we are done. We'll now move on to our consent calendar and take a minute while city manager and council member

1:35:50Lou rejoin us. While we're doing that, do we have any public comment on the consent calendar? >> No hands are raised and there are no requests to speak.

1:36:05>> Thank you. Then back to council. Do we have any no votes or request to pull on the consent? Seeing none, do we have a motion to move the consent calendar? >> I move the consent calendar.

1:36:19>> Second. And the clerk is ready. We can take the vote. Reminder, the voting is on the screen now. Motion carries six to zero with council member Mayor Vinker absent. Thank you.

1:37:12>> Thank you, city manager. >> Okay. Well, vice mayor, you're going to put the mayor to shame with the efficiency of this meeting. Uh, and >> keep you on pace. Uh, just have a few

1:37:23comments this evening. Can I get the city clerk's assistance? Let's go to the next slide, please. Just a couple of notes uh for community awareness. Uh we will have our annual

1:37:39emergency alert test on December 10th at noon. It's still a few weeks out, but want to put this on folks radar screen. Expectation that it's coming up. And

1:37:50again, this will be our opportunity to test our alert system uh as we enter into the winter season. Uh again, December 10th at noon, I encourage all community members to sign up for Alert

1:38:02SEC. And next slide, please. And then just looking forward to upcoming agendas. Next week, we have a joint study session with the utilities advisory commission on the topic of

1:38:16water supply reliability. We have the return of the 470 Olive Avenue uh proposed uh resoning continued from a prior meeting and uh your council appointed officer employment agreements.

1:38:29That's the action agenda for next week. Then there's no meeting on Thanksgiving week. So your following meeting will be on November 30th. This was a special

1:38:37added meeting. Uh again, on November 30th, we'll have two closed sessions and one open session action item that's related to a public hearing on the proposed development at 4550 Littton

1:38:49Avenue or also known as lot T, our uh parking lot. Then looking forward to December 7th, action on grid modernization as well as accessory dwelling units. Again, a continued item

1:39:01from a prior uh council meeting. Then uh noting several items uh on listed as December 14th and beyond. Not all of those will be on December 14th. Uh obviously more than could fit on that

1:39:13agenda. So we're finalizing, but we do expect to have the ALPR uh flock topic as well as uh OSV next steps uh on the tenative agenda. With that, uh vice mayor, back to you.

1:39:26>> Thank you, city manager, and thanks for being a good team player on the efficiency tonight. Uh to my colleagues, we have our break scheduled right now. Um that we're an

1:39:39hour or about an hour and 40 minutes ahead of time on that break. Is there desire to take the break now or get through our action item that way we can, you know, figure out our break and and

1:39:50close session and try to be more counciling, any thoughts? >> Could we shift to the first close session which doesn't involve the public? >> Yeah. Is that is that an option?

1:40:05>> It's certainly an option. We need to juggle a bit with staff, but uh suspect we can accommodate that if that would be your preference. >> Okay. If staff is Yeah, if staff can can

1:40:17accommodate that, that'd be great. Why don't we do that? >> Okay. >> Yeah, sure. I I think we're good to go. I I think you just need a motion to go into close session. >> So move.

1:40:36>> Oh, in public comment. >> Sorry. You need to take public. >> There's a motion. Second. Okay, perfect. Got the motion and let's take public comment. Then we'll take the vote.

1:40:51>> There are no requests to speak and no hands are raised for a close session item. Okay. >> And we'll take the vote. Motion carries. Uh 6. >> Okay. Thank you. Then we will go into

1:41:32close session and then we'll be back for our final action item, item 11. Um thank you. We are coming out of close session. Thank you for your patience. We have no

3:06:34reportable action. And now we will be moving to our one and only action item. Item 11, an authorization to advance the Brian Street Bike Boulevard and Lincoln

3:06:44Avenue traffic caling project to its final design. Turn it over to staff. [laughter] >> Hello, I'm step on their feet uh this evening. chief transportation official. And we I have with me

3:07:03>> Aussie Ace, senior transportation planner and Sylvia Starlac, transportation manager. And Aussie will take it from here. >> All right, I will jump right in. Uh,

3:07:27good evening, council members. My name is Aussie RC, senior transportation planner with the city of Palo Alto's office of transportation. Tonight we are presenting on the authorization to

3:07:38advance the Bryant Street bike boulevard and Lincoln Avenue traffic calming project to final 100% engineering design. This is about an 8-minute presentation. The recommendation, next

3:07:49slide please, is split into three parts. First, direct staff to advance all the elements listed on the slide to 100% engineering design. Second, direct staff

3:08:02on a preferred phasing approach, if any. Uh, third and last, direct staff to return for approval of the construction bid package on the consent calendar in 2027. Next slide, please.

3:08:17The Bryant Street traffic calming project helps the city effect efficiently deliver on several goals simultaneously. First, as many of you know, Bryant Street holds a historic place in our

3:08:28community as a nation's first bicycle boulevard established in the 1980s and later named the Ellen Fletcher Bicycle Boulevard. Protecting and enhancing this

3:08:37vital school commute corridor is a core priority reinforced in both our 2030 comp plan and the recently adopted 2026 bicycle and pedestrian transportation plan.

3:08:48Second, this project directly responds to a neighborhood traffic calming petition submitted by residents along this portion of Bryant Street and Lincoln Avenue who raised concerns

3:08:59regarding vehicle speeds and cut through traffic. And lastly, this is also a test case for a more streamlined approach to deliver traffic calming improvements in

3:09:09preparation for considering a potential update to the city's 2001 neighborhood traffic calming petition process. Next slide, please. The project area covers

3:09:20Bryant Street from Embaradero Road down to Homer Avenue and Lincoln Avenue between Waverly Street and Emerson Street in Professorville. Key goals are to enhance the boulevard

3:09:32as it approaches downtown and discourage cut through traffic and like I mentioned consider ways to improve the traffic calming process here in the city. Next

3:09:43slide. So how do these streets measure up to our goals and best practice targets? So, in May uh 2026, our project team collected new volume and speed data

3:09:56and current conditions on Bryant Street exceed best practice targets for bicycle boulevards. For volumes, we are currently seeing about 2,000 vehicles per day, which is well above the best

3:10:07practice of 500 to a,000. And for speeds, the 80 85th percentile sits at 28 miles an hour, higher than the 15 to 20 target recommendation for a bicycle boulevard.

3:10:23Next slide, please. Also, for collisions and cut through traffic, vehicle volume suggests drivers are using Lincoln Avenue to cut through and avoid arterials like Embaradero Road and

3:10:34University Avenue. And between 2016 and 2024, there were 10 reported collisions along this corridor segment. Notably, 30% of those collisions involved bicyclists and half were broadside.

3:10:50Next slide, please. So, how are we propose proposing to tackle these issues? Effective traffic calming, bike optimization, and safety enhancements relies on three pillars. reducing

3:11:02vehicle speeds, reducing traffic volumes, and improving the streets bicycle boulevard identification so everyone knows it's a bicycle priority corridor.

3:11:14Next slide. To address these challenges while balancing community needs, we've developed a comprehensive package of proven safety counter measures. This includes traffic circles at key

3:11:26intersections, curb extensions, also known as bullouts, high visibility crosswalks, bicycle boulevard pavement markings, a short-term parking zone outside of the Palo Alto subacute and

3:11:39rehab center, and a pilot left turn restriction from eastbound and Barkadero Road to northbound Bryant Street using interim materials to better understand impacts.

3:11:54Next slide, please. This package is shaped directly by robust community engagement, including an online survey and well-attended in-person neighborhood meeting on September 10th here at city

3:12:05hall. There was a strong desire to accelerate implementation as a complete package and crucially, neighborhood feedback prompted a major refinement. While initial concepts included a

3:12:16diagonal diverter at Bryant and Lincoln intersection, community members expressed strong concerns that a diverter would restrict local access and diver traffic onto parallel streets like

3:12:28Waverly and Emerson. So in response, staff replaced this diverter with a traffic circle at Bryant and Lincoln, and that's what you see reflected on the concept plans before

3:12:40you tonight as attachment A. And lastly, on September 30th, staff presented these updated concepts to the planning and transportation commission, who voted unanimously to support the staff

3:12:51recommendation, raising the balance between safety and community access. Commissioners also recommended a phased rollout approach starting with the most challenging intersections.

3:13:05Next slide, please. And just to focus a little bit on this uh uh phased approach, we have structured accordingly. Uh if council wants to direct staff to take on this phase

3:13:17approach, here's a potential one that we've thought through with uh phase one being the initial pilot with the installation of traffic circles, high visibility crosswalks, and including

3:13:27that left turn restriction from Embaradero with a phase 2 interim uh focusing the uh improvements on Channing and Homer intersections. And lastly, uh looking at making some of those pilot

3:13:42and interim improvements into permanent installations post evaluating key performance indicators. Next slide. I believe this is my last slide. Uh in summary, these design

3:13:55concepts aim to bridge communitydriven neighborhood safety petitions with our long-term citywide bike and ped master plan goals. They would enhance safety

3:14:04and the commute for school children and vulnerable road users and directly incorporate resident feedback on access and parking. Staff recommends that council direct staff to advance these

3:14:15conceptual plans as a package to final 100% construction engineering design and return with a construction bid package on the consent calendar in 2027. Thank you. I'm available to answer any

3:14:31questions. Great. Thank you so much. Let's turn to public comment. We have two requests to speak. Our first speaker is Barbara H. Good evening. My name is Barbara

3:15:10Hazeslet. I'm a resident in the 1100 block of Emerson Street, just north of Embaradero in the Professorville neighborhood of PaloAlto. First, I want to thank council city

3:15:22staff and the Elgrady Construction Company for this past summer's Embarcadero Road improvements project. The project located at Embarcadero Road turning north onto Emerson Street

3:15:35carries tremendous bike and ped traffic to and from PaloAlto High School, Town and Country, and Stamford. This $3 million project provided critically needed safety enhancements, included

3:15:48including upgraded crossings and calming measures. Having lived at this location for over 40 years, I have witnessed a child riding a bike hit by a car, heard

3:16:00about our neighbor's dog being killed by a speeding car, and I watch multitudes traverse this crossing daily. I know this project is a tremendous safety improvement and I thank you.

3:16:13[sighs and gasps] Please do not de degrade this project by an unnecessary closure at Bryant Street which will force more traffic onto Emerson and Waverly. We live in a busy urban

3:16:26environment in North Palto and need all of the artery streets open, not selectively closed. This creates neighborhood inequities and unintended consequences.

3:16:39Just when you completed a desperately needed safe zone, you would immediately be diverting more danger to the area you just fixed. This is dangerous and incomprehensible.

3:16:53If the objective is traffic calming and increase safety, the number one need is speed enforcement on Embaradero. Cars are driving 50 to 60 mph or more in

3:17:0525 mph zones with three schools directly on its border. This clearly should be the focus of the city's traffic calming efforts, not street closures. Therefore,

3:17:18I respectfully ask council to not approve a Bryant Street closure either east or westbound off of Embarcadero as part of this project. Thank you. Our next speaker is Tom K.

3:17:38>> Hello, I'm Tom Kellerman. I am a neighbor of Barbara. We live on the same block and I echo all of her comments about the improvements to the Embaradero

3:17:47Emerson Street intersection. Uh work took a long time coming, but it's very big improvement over what it was before. So, we really all appreciate it. Uh with

3:17:57respect to the plans for Bryant Street, also we're very much in favor of traffic calming. There's no doubt that anything that can slow down the traffic in

3:18:06probably any neighborhood, but certainly Professorville is very welcome. So, we very much are in favor of that. With respect to um changing or closing partial or full closures of streets or

3:18:19intersections, I think we would ask that the department and the council look at that very very carefully before making any decision to do that. Uh because

3:18:28clearly any closure is going to divert traffic to adjacent streets. Uh the way if people aren't familiar with it, most of you probably are. Um on Embaradero,

3:18:37if you were heading eastbound, uh you can currently turn left at Bryant or you can turn left at Waverly. There's no ability to turn left onto Emerson Street. But then her heading westbound

3:18:50on Embaradero, you can turn right northbound on on any of those streets. Uh the Emerson corner is, I think, the busiest as far as the uh pedestrian and bicycle traffic. And so adding

3:19:05additional traffic turning right onto Emerson Street would enhance the hazard there. And so I think it's in my view and I think our neighborhood's view uh spreading traffic across all the

3:19:19available streets to just keep it to as minimum as one can uh is probably far safer than concentrating the traffic onto a relatively smaller number of streets particularly the two adjacent

3:19:31streets. So that would be our request. Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Jack T. >> Good evening. Um I'm just here to uh speak out in support of this measure.

3:19:49Although um I live at uh on Bryant Street between Kingsley and Lincoln. And uh while I would love for there to be less volume of cars on Bryant, I think

3:20:01that what these other folks are saying makes perfect sense. And if I were in their shoes, I would be hesitant as well to close off Embaradero. Uh because I do think that it would

3:20:12divert traffic over to Emerson and Waverly. And I think that would just kind of shift the location of the problem. So, uh, I'm in support of slowing traffic, but I am not in support

3:20:24of, uh, closing Embaradero either, in spite of the fact that I think it would make my little stretch of street, uh, more hospitable. So, thank you. >> Our next speaker is David E.

3:20:46>> Hi, thank you. Uh David Epstein. I'm uh a resident of Emerson Street, which is a part of the Clover Leaf uh that goes from Alma to uh to Embaradero. Um I I

3:20:57also want to just uh ask you to consider carefully when you are closing parts of streets uh for the uh action that happens on the other streets. Um on Emerson, uh we're very grateful for the

3:21:11changes that were just made. um they have uh they they've significantly improved the issue of where our um a lot of students going to pi and going to all

3:21:23the different uh schools where there's a crossing um in front of um Embaradero at Emerson. That's helped a lot. Um, we ask you not to change the uh the right-hand

3:21:36turn onto uh onto um Bryant Street. Um, which I know isn't isn't on the plans right now, but I know that there's some requests to do that. Um, we would like

3:21:47that to not be considered because of the additional traffic that you just uh started to fix on our propert on our uh street and uh that would just make it

3:21:57worse again. So, um I would just like to register my uh support of the changes that were recommended but not uh any additional things that might uh increase

3:22:08the traffic on our on our street again. >> Thank you. >> And that concludes public comment for action item 11. >> Okay. Thank you to all the members of

3:22:17the public and let's return back to the to city manager. Vice Mayor, I just wanted to note I believe we have Bart Hecman who uh rep may be representing our PTC this evening. PTC heard this

3:22:29item and uh I think is available as a resource for your discussion. >> Great. Thanks for being here, Commissioner Hecman. Okay, back to Das. Council Rectal.

3:22:55>> Yeah, overall I like the project. Um, this taken a long time. The neighbors have been complaining for a long time and we finally getting around to it. So,

3:23:03I don't want to slow it down. Uh my biggest concern though is I really don't think traffic circles are very effective. The current traffic circle that Addison and Bryant the cars zoom by

3:23:14that and they hardly slow down. And now I look at the what is slide five. They have a whole bunch of traffic circles we're putting on Bryant. And are we solving the problem or are we just

3:23:26creating a solemn course for cars? I mean, broadly speaking, it's a known traffic calming device and best practice used by other cities as well as recommended the National Association of

3:23:47City Transportation Traffic Officials under their bikeway design guidelines. So, it's one of the tools in our toolkit. >> Yeah. What about speed tables? I would

3:23:58think speed tables be a lot more effective than the because the traffic will slow down for the speed tables and they're not really slowing down at least not at Addison.

3:24:08>> Um if council would like to add speed tables, we would recommend them midlock rather than at the intersections. Uh because at the intersections there's also uh drainage considerations. So

3:24:21>> okay. And so how do we get speed tables added? that can be direction if that's of interest. >> Yeah, we actually yes. So I should mention that we we did go through a

3:24:34process with the with the neighborhood in terms of um appetite for different types of treatments. So something to consider. >> Okay. But when I went to the public

3:24:50meeting and we didn't talk about speed tables at all at that public meeting. So did we have was that part of the options that were given to the neighbors?

3:25:00>> Not the initial concept designs we some a comment that we have heard from community members is a sense that they don't want projects to feel overengineered. So we landed on the

3:25:11traffic circles uh not really entertained the speed tables for that reason but we can go back and have those conversations internally as well as with the fire department.

3:25:24Sylvia Starlac, transportation planning manager. I think also that the the rationale for the circles is that collisions are happening at the circles. I mean at the intersections and so the

3:25:35circles really clarify what is happening. Um we do also believe that the Addison circle that you mentioned is not >> well not >> it's not ideal. Yeah, it's not ideal for

3:25:49the amount of traffic that is now there. So, um, that would be upgraded. Yeah, upgraded. >> But I know when I when I'm biking on Bryant and I come to Lincoln, there's so

3:26:01much traffic there and quite often the cars are just coasting through the the stop sign. And quite often I'll be coming up and they'll be coasting through and have to put on their brakes

3:26:10at the last minute. And I could see that being a dangerous intersection there. If we had elevated crosswalks there, would that that [clears throat] deter people from

3:26:21rolling through the intersection? Well, while staff is uh contemplating their response to your question, I did want to note one element that I don't think was addressed specifically, which

3:26:39was this concept of quick build and really trying to get through uh both the neighborhood process and to implementation of improvements as quickly as possible. I think the uh PTC

3:26:50acknowledged uh uh through its discussion uh and staff presented that all of these issues and the methods uh used for traffic calming can be subject to debate and they can be subject to

3:27:04debate forever. And so it was really from that perspective that staff was moving as quickly as they could to bring forward recommendations that could be implemented quickly. I think the

3:27:15specific discussion was around um uh treatments that would cause a traffic diversion and a recognition that if any of the treatments used would cause a

3:27:25traffic diversion then there would be a need for additional outreach. So I offer that as you know the council is considering it quite frankly if you're

3:27:33putting new things on the table that uh it does beg the question of how quickly it can be implemented what additional community engagement should be undertaken uh so that uh those can be

3:27:44fleshed out. I understand not wanting to overengineer things, but I would think a a speed table isn't any more complicated than a traffic circle. And at least in my

3:27:54opinion, I think speed tables would be much more effective at cutting down speed than the traffic circles. To be honest, council member, what I'm suggesting is less about the device than

3:28:04the process used to get to this point and really a question of whether the council wants to reopen that uh that discussion all over again. >> Okay. Council member Bert.

3:28:20Um so let me first go to that issue on the traffic because and I I doubt that too many of my colleagues are familiar with the difference between modern

3:28:33roundabouts with the full set of safety features like we see on um uh on Stanford campus uh versus what we're able to do in a very constrained area. uh staff said that acknowledged the one

3:28:49at Addison really has problems. We didn't hear anything about what would be the design improvements that you could actually fit in in a constrained area. And my understanding there there

3:29:03may be some but there's not a lot and there's a difference. So on on roundabouts there we really have separations that that uh p protect pedestrians. We have low impact and uh

3:29:18low speed movements. Uh but there are issues with two-way uh traffic circles. And what I found on research was just what I've observed uh that twice a day that on average that I

3:29:36ride this very area. And at Addison, uh, with a two-way stop on a traffic circle, uh, I'm I am scared every time I ride through there and I look and get eye

3:29:49contact with a car that has cars that have stop signs and I will not go in a traffic circle where they have a stop sign and I'm unimpeded in theory. I will

3:30:01not go forward without eye contact with them because they do one of two, well, they do one of three things. They obey the stop sign and see me. That's the

3:30:10ideal. The other two things that aren't good is they roll through it and they treat it as a yield sign in part because they at a a two-way they're also assuming that the other direction has

3:30:22some kind of a stop or just that somehow intuitively at a traffic circle they tend to roll it through there that stop sign as much or more than they do a full

3:30:33stop sign. I'm not saying nobody elsewhere rolls a stop sign. Um, or the other thing is, and this is in the literature, is at a two-way stop, they're assuming it's actually a

3:30:45four-way stop. And so they're thinking this car or this bike coming is also has a stop sign, and they don't. And so I I am really nervous about going all in on

3:30:58the traffic circles. one, I am we I didn't see anything in the presentation on how this is going to be a more effective traffic circle, significantly more effective than what we have at

3:31:09Addison. They're with two-way stops. They're the same basic design. Um, and so I I'm really interested in uh the other set of things we could do in a in the major first phase and

3:31:26whether we should reexamine whether we utilize traffic circles, diverters, which I don't think we want to do, or u raise uh speed tables and raised crosswalks. Um, as far as the

3:31:42other issue that was examined on diverters, um, you know, the staff report said this item will not advance as discussed below. I I'm a little taken back by the

3:31:54staff report saying it will not advance because that's up to us here. Uh, the recommendation may be for it to not advance, but then the reasoning is that

3:32:05there was neighborhood push back because a diverter would divert traffic. That's exactly what they do by definition. So the whole notion that we wouldn't

3:32:14consider a diverter because it does what it's supposed to do is a little nonsensical. It is a valid question of would it overdiver traffic and is that therefore not what we want to do and

3:32:26that's a valid question but not whether diverters should be rolled out because they divert. Um, so then as far as the issue on whether we use a diverter at Lincoln or

3:32:40we we have the uh no eastbound left turn at Bryant from Embaradero. Um if concentrating on just that one movement on Embaradero, um I I am very sympathetic to the

3:32:57concerns of the people on Emerson about not wanting to undermine those safety improvements that I've battled for for the last several years and am really

3:33:07pleased that we've done done them and they were as well designed and executed as they were. I just didn't think we'd get as good outcomes as we did. And um but um

3:33:20if you're going eastbound on Embaradero, the proposal in the staff report is only that eliminate that no left turn. There's nothing about eliminating the no

3:33:30right turn on Embry. So that would not add traffic to Emerson. It would add traffic to Waverly and potentially other streets downstream, but nobody can make

3:33:41a left turn on Emerson. So, we'd still have the same condition of making southbound right turns from Emerson onto Embaradero. Um, and uh and you could right turn in to Emerson, but nothing

3:33:57else would change. And um but if if we in any case have diversion to Waverly or Emerson that is problematic, then that's where we could also look at speed tables

3:34:12on those streets because so often neighbors say, "Well, it's the volume of traffic I'm most concerned about." And they're really concerned about those

3:34:20outlier speeders. That's the danger. Not a bunch of slowmoving people are riding at driving at proper speed. So, um I think that would be something that we'd

3:34:31have to anticipate we may need to do going forward, perhaps even on Waverly, uh maybe on Emerson if it's needed. Um but I would uh I would support um the recommendations

3:34:47except perhaps I'm depending on our discussion whether we hold off on the traffic circles which are a high expense. I mean these are not simple to do. Um and look at whether that the best

3:35:00alternative to achieve the ends that we have. Oh, and the other thing is um I didn't see any data on the current traffic volume on Emerson and and Waverly and where does it stand? Uh and

3:35:13so if we're going to be diverting some traffic because of no left turn and some because we've calmed things on Bryant, uh where might it go and what's the volume on those streets today?

3:35:27>> Um would you like a response on a few of those? Um so we actually have one of our consultants online, Hugh, and um perhaps he can speak to the question. There were

3:35:36a couple of questions that I heard in there. uh one of them was to do with the performance of traffic circles and then the other one was to do with the volume on Emerson and Waverly.

3:35:51>> Yeah, thanks Ria and thanks members of council. Happy to be here. Hugh Louch Fair and Pierce. Um so on the traffic circles, but I guess uh to note a couple

3:36:01things. One of which is that the plans do include a proposal to upgrade the traffic circle at Addison today to make it more like a true roundabout. That is

3:36:11to cause more actual kind of deflection of the vehicles as they go around it. So they can't just travel in a straight line or sort of very minor deviation through it. Um and that would be by

3:36:21adding kind of a truck apron around the outside of the existing circle. uh so that a larger vehicle could use that space if needed, but smaller vehicles would would not. Um and the other uh

3:36:33traffic circles or or sort of mini roundabouts um are all kind of conceptually designed in the same way where they would have more of that kind of uh horizontal deflection uh effect on

3:36:46vehicles which would both slow them uh as they kind of approach into that um uh into that space. Uh so they are different than what you have out there

3:36:54today. uh and and should perform uh much better from a safety uh and a slowing vehicle perspective. Um on that um and happy to take any of the further questions about that. Um we already

3:37:07noted that the idea of because there's a lot of cross traffic at Lincoln and Bryant in particular doing speed tables while it certainly could uh reduce speeds uh wouldn't have any actual

3:37:19impact on that kind of cross traffic at that specific location. Uh so that's something to to take into account. Um and then we do have data on uh the traffic on Waverly uh which I can pull

3:37:31up. Um but we don't have uh anything on Emerson. Um and as uh Council Member Bert correctly observed uh the proposal is only a left turn restriction on to

3:37:44Bryant, not a right turn restriction. That's that's the only thing that was evaluated. And so we did not anticipate that that would yield specific uh you

3:37:53know diversion onto Emerson necessarily. Um and as you say entirely any change in any street will yield unexpected unexpected changes. So certainly something that could be evaluated but um

3:38:05but I uh do have the ability to pull up um some data if you're interested in in what the counts are uh on Waverly and we did look at that and think about that in

3:38:14the context of of that left turn uh restriction. Yeah, I don't want to hold things up more, but if uh subsequently we could see that data, that would be great.

3:38:28>> Great. We'll circle back when you have that data available. Councilman Liths, >> thank you, Vice Mayor. Thank you very much for the presentation. You know,

3:38:36sort of ironically, I was at an event at was it First Presbyterian Church, uh the YCS and Project Safety Net event, sort of announcing that they're now working

3:38:48very closely together. And I'm not in that area of the city very often. And so I ended up being on Addison at Bryant and having to navigate this thing. And I

3:39:00was really confused. And you know, the sign said through traffic does not stop. And I was like, but I'm so familiar with roundabouts from having lived back east.

3:39:07So I approached what looked like a circle and then was told by a sign that there's different rules than what my instinct was telling me. So, you know, I

3:39:14stopped and I proceeded very cautiously, but I just found myself thinking, "Wow, I bet there's a lot of accidents here." Turns out it's not the greatest number

3:39:21of accidents. I'm looking at your figure one that shows greater to the right and the left um on Lincoln and Channing. But um uh and then I read the staff report.

3:39:31I was like, "Oh, wow. Okay. I just experienced, you know, the vicinity of what we're talking about. Um, so I found myself curious as to why we're looking at traffic circles instead of what I

3:39:41would call a traditional roundabout. And actually, your consultant just mentioned when Addison and Bri and Bryant are improved, it will be more like a roundabout. Um, but this notion of not

3:39:52everybody stops and instead only the cross traffic stops, um, still concerns me as a matter of safety. Now you guys the experts. I'm not. But I just having been confused at one of these just

3:40:04yesterday. Uh I just wanted to check and uh actually I guess it was was it Saturday? Yesterday. >> It was Saturday. Anyway. >> Yeah. So why why was this the preferred?

3:40:17Is this the you know state-of-the-art the traffic circles are considered safer on a bike boulevard than a roundabout? >> Um so I think um roundabouts are

3:40:27considered safer. However, they require more geometry and perhaps you can speak to that a little bit further. >> Yeah, sure. Um, so these are more than

3:40:39traffic circles. Uh, you know, a traffic circle is typically a, you know, just as like what you have at Addison today where it doesn't actually necessarily

3:40:48require the type of again sort of shift of a vehicle that kind of horizontal deflection. Um and and what we have or we're looking at out there might be thought of more like mini roundabouts.

3:40:59So there are actual sort of formal classification of roundabouts, but they're smaller than the ones that were referenced on Stanford campus where you have a lot more space to put kind of a

3:41:09full-size roundabout in. Um and because the dimensions are smaller, you can still get, you know, that same kind of behavior. Um and they can work in residential areas or in in sort of lower

3:41:21uh volume streets. Well, but you know, they wouldn't work in a higher volume street. Um, so it's a little bit like of a a more restricted version of that, but

3:41:29the whole idea, the same um concept is is being applied where you're getting folks in um and they are are deflecting. Um and then yes, it's it's a little bit

3:41:39atypical, although um maybe not totally uncommon to have them have stops on any of the approaches. So, a normal roundabout, right? Everyone enters and yields to the traffic at the left. Um

3:41:51and they and you could sign them that way. Um I think the stop signs really reflect the sort of bicycle priority of the street more than the um necessarily

3:42:02the design of those intersections. So you have a lot of people biking on Brian. That is the objective is to build up the bike boulevard nature uh of that

3:42:09street in this segment. And so you know that sort of again signals to folk that like this isn't really a way that's meant for vehicles as much. It's really meant to prioritize the through

3:42:19bicyclists. And just the piece that I would add is there is inconsistency in Palo Alto. There are uh some roundabouts with no stops and then there are some traffic

3:42:32circles with the two-way stop as Hugh mentioned. Um so our community should be used to seeing both. Well, I think that last comment with respect ignores the fact that we

3:42:51all take different routes and not every one of us is traversing every street and encountering every round thing or roundabout or traffic circle, you know.

3:42:59Um, I mean, I drive a lot of places in the city and I I don't think I've been on that particular segment before. Um, so I I don't know that that's a compelling argument. >> Yeah.

3:43:11>> If there is interest in having it function more like a roundabout, uh, that's something that we can explore. >> Definitely. Um, and just what I would just add is I think it's also

3:43:24depends on the neighborhood and the feedback that we received from residents. Uh the city has installed roundabouts in the past with uh all yields and because of neighborhood

3:43:39feedback, we have shifted those to two-way stops. Um and uh so it it varies and I think it's just based on neighborhood feedback. So I I definitely hear that folks travel uh different

3:43:53ways. Um, and as the director noted, uh, we can look into the feasibility of the all yields as part of this project, too. >> Thank you. That's it for me. >> Council Lowi,

3:44:08>> thank you very much. [clears throat] I know this has been many, many years in process. Uh, and in the last four years, I've heard about it frequently from

3:44:18folks that want this thing done. Uh, and and still am. So, I hope we can move forward here as as appropriate and and get these things done. When you're talking about the phasing plan here,

3:44:29[clears throat] um I think again speaking for the neighbors, they want to make sure that this is not um you know, we'll put this up and we'll come back and do the next

3:44:38traffic circle in three years and then we'll take a look at it and take the this is a whole project for the whole boulevard that we're we're approving, but of course, we're not going to

3:44:46construct it all at the same time. So that's what you mean by phasing, correct? Yeah, I just want to I want to get this out in the public. Yeah. If we could go to I believe it's slide

3:45:0610. Yes. The potential phasing plan. >> Yeah. >> Um so as you mentioned uh staff's recommendation is to move forward with a complete package. Um however PTC had

3:45:20suggested to consider this phasing approach and first focus on uh the the most concerning areas or intersections. Uh so we've presented this potential

3:45:34phasing plan that focuses on the traffic circles improvements uh at the various intersections as well as that left turn restriction. following PTC's recommendation of

3:45:48focusing on those more most concerning areas and then the second phase uh looking at the curb extensions just at Bryant and Channing Bryant and Homer. So

3:45:59it's that's more location specific. Then the third phase being the uh installation of permanent uh improvements based on KPIs such as speed, vehicle volumes, collision bike

3:46:13volumes and public feedback. So that would in involve a another community engagement process. >> Okay. So yeah, thanks for referencing slide 10 because it ties exactly right

3:46:24in here which I noted when you were going over that slide. Um [clears throat] but the the um you you report out that the community members uh provided the following

3:46:36feedback in the initial design concept. strong support support for one to five and a desire to accelerate implementation and obtain PT recommendation to move to 100%. Uh and

3:46:47then another another recommendation below is to lower speeds now which I'll comment on later. [clears throat] Um what would be what would you be evaluating and permanently installing at

3:47:02in phase three? We would be looking we'd be looking at uh permanently installing the left turn restriction as well as the curb extensions. >> Okay. And that was actually going to be

3:47:16um my next question which what you say that that's a pilot and that's fine. What are the criteria that you're using to evaluate is this successful or not?

3:47:26the the KPIs that we listed or the ones that we would be looking at the speed volume, collisions, bike volumes, public feedback. >> Okay. And typically in transportation,

3:47:40we like to say that a pilot is at least six six months to a year to at least a year to really understand the movements um and let people settle into the new

3:47:55street improvements um and really start to learn about those outcomes. >> Yeah, that's exactly the next comment I was going to make. Do you think there

3:48:02are any downsides to this or risks other than that which is that it's going to be all new to people? So, they're going to make some mistakes. But is that the only kind of risk of this pilot?

3:48:12>> Right. As with any other street improvements, just trying to get the neighborhood to understand um what the new movement will be. Um so, yep, that's part of the educational campaign.

3:48:23>> Okay. And it'll be signed, of course, to tell people exactly what to do. And Okay. the um you also made a decision not to review the speed limits right now

3:48:34and you sort of punted this down to the next trunch of speed surveys. Could you comment on why and also when that happens? >> Um so it's it's a slightly different

3:48:45kind of a process. So this that would be um so I think last year council approved the latest version of the um speed surveys for a lot of our streets that

3:48:55didn't include any of the neighborhood streets. So, um, we do plan to have like a separate process where we go through and look at the next group of streets. I

3:49:04think that there's a little bit of cleanup on part of our rastero. And as part of that, we were proposing that we would also add some some local streets that serve as bike boulevards to

3:49:15consider the potential to lower the speed limit below the existing 25 mph um in line with AB43 kind of exploring what's possible as uh as a result of that new legislation um

3:49:30for reducing speeds along there. So it's it's a different kind of a process to the design project that we're doing for this. But um what that also may tie in

3:49:41with an update to the traffic calming policy and program which we're also learning from as a result of this project. >> Okay. Um I'm over I don't have too much

3:49:52more. Should I just continue? Okay. Thank you. Um, and then you also mentioned that PTC had some reservations on curb extensions for cycle travel paths, pushing them into

3:50:03the lanes, which I totally agree with. And sometimes when you have those bulbouts on the corner, you not only push the the U bikes into the cars potentially. You book push the cars when

3:50:16you're making a right-hand turn, you push that car way out into the intersection for the cross for the cross for the crosswalk for the cross street, sorry, that is in the right hand lane.

3:50:27Uh I I drive down one of those most days and I I mean you talk about I mean I'm [clears throat] stopped to try to get around there and usually wait when I

3:50:34don't have to um because it's just so tight. So those I think those really need a close look in sort of intersection by intersection. Um, and I I I do hope we can get u vice mayor the

3:50:48uh perspective of commissioner Hecman uh on this. Uh I highly respect the work that they put into it in many meetings and I know that they've listened to a

3:50:58lot of neighbors and then we have a unanimous decision. So I'd like to s suggest that we that we hear from him as part of our deliberations. That's all. Thanks.

3:51:10>> If you have a question for Commissioner Hecman, go ahead. No, just just overall some of the things maybe as he hears all the comments. Okay. You know what what

3:51:19he might comment on the traffic circles or some of these other speed uh limitation devices. >> Sounds good. We'll invite Commissioner Hecman after uh we go get through our

3:51:27first round. Commissioner Lou. >> Sorry, Council Member L. >> Thank you. Uh a few questions. Um on Lincoln and Bryant, it seemed like the feedback was mixed. There were 15 people

3:51:40who wanted a diverter. 15 people wanted traffic circle. I guess the people who didn't want a diverter felt strong more strongly about that presumably. Um, so to me it seems like there's

3:51:54a lot in between a or potentially a lot in between a diverter which really meaningfully changes traffic patterns and reduces traffic and makes the street

3:52:04much more safe I think than a traffic circle which I understand these traffic circles are somewhat better but still not maybe that different from the condition at Addison. So is there

3:52:17anything in between a diverter and traffic circle that we considered or could consider >> a diverter as well? >> We're going to call in the consultant to

3:52:36speak on the toolkit of items. Um the the one that we considered as mentioned was a diverter and the traffic circles here. Uh but yeah, there's there's an expansive toolkit.

3:52:49>> Yeah, thanks. Oi. Yeah. And so I mean there there are kind of a variety of tools, but they all kind of do sort of a few similar types of things, right? And

3:52:59so so typically we talk about and and you've kind of covered the the basic ones here tonight. You talk about things that cause horizontal deflection that

3:53:07cause vehicles to shift, you know, uh horizontally and vertical deflection like speed humps or or speed tables. Um, and then there are a variety of other

3:53:16kinds of things you could use. You know, sometimes you'll see chicanees where the whole like road sort of shifts uh and things like that. Uh, but you know, traffic circles, mini roundabouts,

3:53:26things like that um really are meant to kind of shift traffic uh uh you know, sort of slow traffic and cause that sort of deflection of vehicles as they travel. Um, and so there are other

3:53:36various things. And then the the third category is really, you know, things that actually restrict, as you mentioned, the volume of vehicles. And there are a variety of ways you could do

3:53:44that, you know, directly with uh traffic diverters or, you know, in some places on Bryant, you have modal filters, right, that prevent uh vehicles from

3:53:52traveling through uh uh across a street, which helps of course restrict the amount of vehicles traveling through on maybe more minor streets uh in the way

3:54:00that you'd be trying to achieve with a bike boulevard network. So, there are like variations, but I would say a lot of them are kind of variations on a

3:54:07theme, right? Different kinds of things that you might do in various places. Um, and then there's a whole category of like other treatments you do to streets

3:54:15like bike lanes and other uses of space that aren't really what we're trying to do with a bike boulevard type treatment, right? Where it's about shar about how

3:54:24do you make that space shared and feel safe for people who are biking and who are are traveling in vehicles. One intervention I'm curious if we've considered at all is something like what

3:54:35San Francisco does for its designated slow streets where they have ballards with a sign that says sort of slow streets. uh you know drive 50 miles per hours and but the ballards are sort of

3:54:44placed in a way that makes turning onto the street and leaving the street extremely inconvenient such such such that we could put that on the entrances to Lincoln and Brian and uh on the

3:54:56Lincoln side or potentially other parts of Lincoln as well so that Lincoln is really sort of designated more for local traffic and it's very inconvenient to

3:55:07try to cut through on Lincoln. Have we considered anything like that? Is that part of the toolkit? That's or is that just not well studied or understood?

3:55:16>> Um that is part of the toolkit. It's something that they use in some locations. Um in terms of this location, I think the 911 Brian that it actually gets a lot of emergency vehicles going

3:55:29there. Um and so we would want to consult with uh colleagues from the fire department to to ensure that that that those types of features are suitable for um fire trucks getting around them.

3:55:43>> Okay. So sort of thinking about what's next. Uh quick build was said a few times. Are these traffic circles planned to be quick builds for the 6 to 12 month pilot

3:55:56period? And how much would they cost? How flexible could we be to piloting a diverter if we needed to uh after the traffic circle implementation? >> The idea is to install the permanent

3:56:14installations of the traffic circles. >> Okay. >> Those are not >> those are not the the only pilot that staff is recommending is the left turn restriction uh from Embaradero. >> Okay. and

3:56:28and the bullouts at Kalper and uh >> Channy. >> And did I miss this or were there any costs associated with the permanent traffic circles in the staff report?

3:56:42>> Are there costs associated with >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Yes, there would be. We would come back to council um with with the costs associated with them. >> Okay. And they're not the engineering

3:56:52point where we know what they cost yet? No, not yet. Okay. Um uh okay uh just in my last minute on Embaradero you mentioned that the right turn that restricting the right turn was

3:57:10maybe not thoroughly considered. Uh, I'd like you to elaborate and sort of pick up on that point and talk more about the left turn versus right turn and uh,

3:57:22yeah, what we expect would happen or why you picked one and not the other. >> Yeah, I can speak to it at a high level and maybe I'll pass it over to Hugh to

3:57:31speak more on the specific traffic counts because I know they vary by time of day. uh but roughly high level it's about split uh between eastbound and and

3:57:43uh westbound uh the highle thinking uh for a uh eastbound north onto Bryant restriction is that folks can still make that left and access downtown from

3:57:57Waverly that also has a left turn pocket and is signalized. Uh so staff felt like that was appropriate. Uh and hence why then we coupled that with a recommendation to install a traffic

3:58:11circle at Waverly and Lincoln to mitigate the speeds that could be happening from folks making that diversion. And to add one other thing, my understanding of the speeds that we

3:58:26noticed was that there was speeding coming from Embaradero. And so that was kind of the key direction um that we were concerned about. I guess you could address that with a right turn

3:58:39on or a left turn on. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Selected one. >> Okay. So there's not like a specific thesis about like a school or a hours or traffic patterns. it it we just

3:58:53thought that doing the left turn there was not going to be or blocking left turn was a reasonable option. So you want to pilot it and see what happens.

3:59:03>> I I might just add I think there's a little more left turn traffic from Embaradero or at some of the peak periods and so so we did want to capture that. Also there is a sort of relatively

3:59:16easier to restrict a left turn. Um, and then there's no restricting a right turn. That also isn't also restricting a left turn really because once you once

3:59:24you do that, uh, there's, you know, if you there's no would be nowhere for the left turn really to go in the way you would restrict the right turn. So, if

3:59:31you're talking about sort of bringing traffic volumes down, you're going to start with the left turn in any event. >> Okay, that makes more sense. Thank you.

3:59:43>> Commissioner Hecman, would you like to weigh in on the conversation from the PTC's perspective? Absolutely. Uh thank you for inviting me to do so, uh vice mayor. Uh so I think

3:59:54really three items that as I've listened to the presentation, public comments and council u deliberation tonight. Uh first uh among the council there's been fair

4:00:05amount of discussion about the efficacy of the various tools. Um, I would say that there was some of that um at the PTC, but but not as extensive uh as I've

4:00:16heard tonight uh from the members of council that that um while in isolated areas and and in fact the existing traffic circle at Addison was um mentioned a couple of times as a I guess

4:00:28a worrisome example. Um really the the u a bigger focus of the PTC was uh to provide some relief. you know, we have this uh series of intersections where I

4:00:40think there have been 10 accidents in eight years. And um uh we were I think as a group struck by the fact that the as this came to us uh with this complete

4:00:53package uh installation concept. You know, we were informed by staff that that some aspects of this package require further modeling. And so if you're going to wait to put anything in

4:01:04until you put everything in, that could delay um some much needed relief perhaps unnecessarily. And so that was really the the genesis of the concept of phasing. And of course uh we didn't

4:01:18design in any way the phasing. We asked uh staff to do that and and from you know my review of your staff report I think they've done a a thoughtful job of

4:01:27that. Uh the last thing I'll mention is on the um uh the no left turn off Embaradero uh that had some discussion at the PTC and uh one of the things we noted was that the the staff in

4:01:43describing sort of the the volume problem on Bryant and noting that there were you know perhaps uh at least twice the volume of cars um if not more than

4:01:54what's desirable for a bike boulevard. hard. Um, our staff report had peak volumes um from Embaradero left onto Bryant in the AM and PM, but it didn't have a daily uh number. And we were

4:02:13thinking since we're talking about a street that has something approaching 2,000 daily trips um uh traveling on it, it would be useful to know the number of daily left turns that we would be

4:02:27eliminating through this possible restriction. Um and um we're hoping that uh the staff and the consultant might be able to provide that to you when it uh

4:02:39uh came to you so that you'd have that uh additional information and members of the public who you know a number of whom tonight have expressed concerns about

4:02:47how much traffic is being diverted to um other nearby streets. So those are I think the highlights of the PTC deliberation which as mentioned in the staff report uni uh resulted in a

4:03:00unanimous recommendation to you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you for your insight. City manager, >> vice mayor, if I could add one more comment. Uh, and uh, Commissioner Hecman

4:03:09can correct me if incorrect, but I I will tell you having watched the PTC discussion that I was also struck by the level of both consensus and support from

4:03:18neighbor uh, from residents uh, at that meeting that uh, for whatever reason have chosen not to come to your council meeting tonight. uh as well as uh the quite frankly the the complimentary

4:03:29discussion uh that the PTC had on uh as it relates to the staff implementation of this effort and I got to tell you that hasn't always been the case. So uh it did strike me and uh again

4:03:43Commissioner Hecman if if that's uh an overstatement please feel free to correct. No, actually I was kind of struck tonight. We had six public speakers and

4:03:54I always expect that we get the the short end. People want to save their powder for council, but tonight I think you had four. Um so so I agree with the city manager. >> Hard to explain.

4:04:07>> Thank you. >> Yeah, just to elaborate on that, I think it was Bryant Street residents that were at the PTC and again strongly in support of the recommendations uh that were

4:04:17coming forward. That's helpful. Thank you. Uh, all right. Let's see if we can maybe get to a motion and then we can work off of that off of that motion to

4:04:27get to a conclusion here. Council member B. >> Yeah, I just have a couple items then I beame to make a motion. I I do want to comment on that consensus. Um, and I,

4:04:38you know, I've had numerous discussions over the last couple years with Bryant Street residents, and their concerns are not about being bikers on that street. Their

4:04:50concerns are about the undue traffic and the accidents that have been happening. So, it's good that they had consensus, but it was around that point of view as

4:05:00opposed to what makes it the best uh, and safest biking street, per se. um we may have alignment on those things, but I I just want to make that distinction. Um and then one of the

4:05:13things we didn't talk about when we one of the big one of the big problems on the street uh is the cross traffic and the accidents that happen there and the dangers there whether it's at our

4:05:26existing traffic circle at Addison or Lincoln or um other locations like Channing where I will say at Channing cars really roll through there and what I've noticed for a long time and been

4:05:40brought it up multip multiple times is that when cars approach the Bryant Street bike boulevard, including in old PaloAlto and elsewhere, they unless they are conscious that they

4:05:55from their own knowledge are crossing a bike boulevard, they generally are intuitively looking for cars. They're not saying this is exceptionally a bike street. I need to look for bikes. And

4:06:06that's a different different caution. If I'm a car rolling up, I can just easily see another car and I know I shouldn't go out in front of it, but I'll miss the

4:06:15bike. And what we don't have is signage that says you are crossing a bike boulevard. And it is an awareness to drivers to look differently. And I know that just intuitively and it is, I

4:06:28think, a real missing link uh that we have not just here, but in old PaloAlto where we have uh similar circumstances. And so I plan on offering that as part

4:06:38of the motion. Um I do like the idea of eventually getting to a lower speed limit. Um we did have uh the staff report noted this issue on daylighting.

4:06:50I'm glad to see that part of the plan is to have the 20 foot um red marking at I think all the crossings. I do want to say that at where it was put in at

4:07:01Lincoln and Bryant, it went from no red marking to 120 ft. And on three different, if people don't know it, on three of the four corners, you have shrubs that are there. The 120 ft does

4:07:14zero good. And yet the staff report relies again on some national standard that is completely irrelevant when you can't see past 20 feet or whatever it

4:07:26is. So there's no point in having a red curb that is blocked for 100 of those feet by shrubs. And we went from no red curbing to overkill. And I just do not understand.

4:07:39I think it undermines our credibility when we do things like that. and uh and undermines the neighborhood goodwill. So, let's fix that. There's really I I

4:07:48it should have been fixed immediately after it was done. And I and I was one of the people saying we need red curb, but we didn't need to red curb 120 ft. Okay. Uh so, I would Oh, one last

4:08:01question. As we were talking about phasing, um the traffic circles and the curb extensions look to be the the primary capital expense. do we have that in the budget and are we going to be

4:08:13held up until we can put it fund it whereas uh most these other items seem like they're relatively low cost and so I'm really wondering whether we really do by nature of the funding have two

4:08:27phases not that we wouldn't desire to do them all at once >> um yes so we do have this we this project has been placed on the program of projects for local streets and roads

4:08:40measure funding. Um, and so we're planning on utilizing that for for this. >> So, you think you'll have enough? So, if there was any hold up, um, I wouldn't

4:08:50hold up the other things to be able to do those measures. Great if you can do them all at once, but I don't want to say that we will only do them if we can do them at once. U, but a high

4:09:02preference and and encouragement to do that. Okay. So, I would move um the staff recommendation uh for the six items and add uh a seventh to um add signage

4:09:20on uh perpendicular streets to warn of crossing a bike boulevard to uh and then um eighth is to uh remove uh excessive um red curbing uh at the Lincoln and Bryant intersection

4:09:43and then ninth to um pursue the lower speed limit on Bryant >> second to speak to your motion. >> Uh no, I I've spoken enough. Thank you, Council. >> No. All right.

4:10:04Any further discussion? Council Luke, were uh for Council Member Bert, were you referring to the uh daylighting on Lincoln and Bryant or Lincoln or or I just want to confirm the

4:10:20uh intersection. They didn't they weren't able to paint all directions there, but most of both Lincoln and Bryant to that intersection has had the uh long red curve. Okay.

4:10:36Okay. Just confirming. Um, would you be open to consideration of speed tables or uh uh I guess uh sort of designs like that along Bryant or perpendicular streets?

4:10:53>> Well, I was open to it at the beginning of this discussion and actually inclined to do so. I was glad to hear although we haven't seen any really design elements

4:11:03that we're not proposing a repetition of the existing Addison traffic circle >> and um I'm taking on good faith that those improvements will be adequate. I I

4:11:17do have trepidation but I think uh at this point in time with u three traffic circles which is a lot um I I I I don't think that we need that except um I

4:11:33would what do you have proposed again at Channing? >> That's the co the curve extensions. >> Okay. Uh am can I ask thoughts on a raised crosswalk uh crossing Channing?

4:11:50It would be only on the on the west side there which is where the cars roll through and so it would be both a ste serve as a speed table and a raised crosswalk. So they just don't roll

4:12:01through it which they do today. >> I mean that's that's a possibility but we would need to look at it in an engineering design to affect drainage. Uh, Council Member Lou, I'd be um glad

4:12:13to ask staff to explore um speed tables or raise crosswalks where they would be advantageous with a focus on Channing and Bryant uh uh as a priority. Uh would you be open to also considering

4:12:35those as needed for Lincoln and Bryant? Just thinking about um >> well it would be included there. I I you know if we have a traffic circle there I don't quite Are you saying instead of a

4:12:48traffic circle? >> Uh I'm thinking in addition sort of at the uh entrances and sort of ends of the block and sort of like you would have in a roundabout uh where you might have a a

4:13:02raised crosswalk uh preceding the entrance to the roundabout. So, uh, I that would be something to ask staff to explore as opposed to stipulate at this time.

4:13:14>> Yeah. And I think the last thing is just that signage on perpendicular streets. I think that's important. I think it's also nice to have signage on Brian

4:13:22itself so that if you turn onto Brian from Boradero or on it, you sort of know that you're on a you also know if you're not just coming off from perpendicular

4:13:30street. So maybe number seven could just be add signage uh to warn of uh crossing a bike boulevard. Um so it's not just perpendicular streets or signage on perpendicular streets and Bryant.

4:13:48Um okay I I I'd be fine to ask staff to explore that. I I guess the I think we already have signage telling people they're on a bike boulevard. So, I'm not

4:14:01sure what Yeah. Okay. I am still have this picture in my head of like these very obvious purple signs they have in San Francisco on slow streets as you sort of go through them. Uh there are

4:14:14just sort of ballards you >> Okay. >> We're just like signage you can't miss. Then I would I would describe what you're saying as enhanced signage on on uh the bike boulevard.

4:14:26>> So we we'll just add um add perpendicular signage to seven and uh explore enhanced signage on Bryant. >> Great. And the only clarification question I have is there was around the

4:14:44exploring of the uh speed tables uh you mentioned with a focus on Channing and Bryant and we're also recommending the curb extensions at Homer and Bryant. So would we add Homer

4:15:00and Bryant also to that list? So it would be advantageous with a focus on Channing and Bryant and Homer and Bryant. >> Sure. Okay, thank you. Thanks. You guys are allowing you to accept

4:15:17those. >> Yes. >> And the language is captured correctly. Is the the language is captured correctly. Great. Any further discussion? I >> have one question for staff. Council rectal.

4:15:34>> I mean a separate issue is Lincoln itself. There's a lot of traffic on Lincoln cutting through And especially by Addison School, there's no, you know, speed bumps or anything to slow down

4:15:44traffic there and to encourage them to not use Lincoln and to use Embaradero or some other route. Uh why do we evaluate that or is that something that we just

4:16:00>> So the traffic calming process is kind of petition driven and we focus on those those neighborhoods. We we had a whole study on Lincoln and Middlefield and that was um

4:16:14an extension extensive discussion over the last oh must have been this two years or so ago maybe a little more. >> Okay. But I would think that a school

4:16:22would be you tug on the heartstrings and we would want to really slow down traffic by the school. >> Lot lots of different ideas on what should be done.

4:16:30>> City manager. Didn't we focus though on the hazards of the Middlefield and Lincoln intersection area? >> Yes. >> And I think what um uh Council Member Rectal may be talking about is given

4:16:45that Lincoln we have those problems at Middlefield and Lincoln because it's a cutthrough. Should we be looking at speed tables on Lincoln wherever that to to both slow the traffic and uh

4:17:00everything that slows it in a way acts as uh to a degree as a diverter a limited degree. I I think this does relate to what uh uh director Low was referring to as the trafficcoming

4:17:13policy, which this this project is really intended to poise uh an update to that policy to bring back to council on set those priorities >> potentially would be a followup. >> Yes.

4:17:25>> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> See the further discussion, let's take a vote. motion carries 6. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on [clears throat] now to our final uh

4:18:02item, our virtual public comment. Do we have any virtual public commenters? >> No hands are raised on Zoom. >> Great. Thank you. And uh just a point of

4:18:15personal privilege, I'd like to adjourn tonight's meeting in honor of my father-in-law, Jose Orreza, who passed away sadly last week. Uh he's a great man and birthed the most incredible

4:18:26woman that I've ever known. So like to adjourn the meeting in his honor. With that, we're journ. Good night.