Recommendation to Approve a Commercial Streets Two-Year Work Program to Improve the Park Street and Webster Street Striping Plans; Improve the On-street Parklet Program; Maintain the Alameda Avenue Street Closure; Resume Pre-COVID Parking Management, Fee Collection, and Enforcement Activities; Adoption of Resolution Approving Precast Concrete Traffic Control Safety Barricade Standards for Parklets; and Adoption of Resolution Amending the Capital Budget by Transferring $630,350 in American Rescue Plan Act Project Funds from Capital Improvement Project (CIP) C90300 to Commercial/Slow Streets CIP (C12100) and Increasing Appropriations for the Commercial/Slow Streets CIP (C12100) by $630,350. (Planning, Building and Transportation/Public Works 310C1210)
Take a breath. And the reason we have long titles is that we can get all of our city staff in place. Councilmember Desai, you have your hand up. Yeah. Just quickly as a point of order. Well, not really. One where I had inquired as to the city attorney if I have to recuse myself, since my house is close to Webster Street and have been informed that for a variety of legal reasons that I actually don't have to recuse myself on the matter of the commercial street . So I, I just, I won't pretend to, to tell those legal reasons. Ah, but if the city attorney would like to add more. Great. Thank you. Sure. Mr. Chan, city attorney. Sure. I'm happy to share. I'm an American council member. So the the FTC in recent years have loosened the public generally exception. One of the additional exceptions has been, I guess, enhance in favor of participation is one where there are limited neighborhood effects is what it's called. And in that case, when the city undertakes public safety or street improvement or nuisance abatement or any or street work, and either a 5% or more than 50 residences are being affected. The public generally exception would apply, and in this case, the public works director had informed me that more than 50 homes are adjacent to the proposed work. And in that case, we have advised Councilmember de SAC that he is not required to recuse for this item. Okay. Thank you for that. All right. So, Staff, welcome. And who's going to lead out, Mr. Ramesh? Yes, I am going to lead off. I'm going to be joined by Rachelle Wheeler, who's sharing her screen while we are here today. We are here tonight to introduce our recommendations for the next two years of your Commercial Streets program. You started this two years ago in response to the pandemic. We received a newspaper article today from one of the friends of Alameda reminding us that this is not a new conversation. What you see here is a front page article from 1972 Alameda Times where they're talking about what should we do about Park Street? So this has been a multi departmental effort planning, building, transportation, of course, with Rochelle sort of leading and coordinating the team. But it couldn't have happened over the last two years without public works, without your city attorney's office, without a ton of work from your economic development department. So we've all been working on this together. And of course, we have two other really important team members, downtown Alameda Business Association and Webster Avenue Business Association, who are both here tonight. So before I turn it over to Rochelle to present the staff's recommendations for the next two years for this program. I'd also just like to say that the executive directors from both the business associations are here tonight. They would love to follow speak after the staff presentation. If it's possible to give them each four or 5 minutes, that would be great, but I'll leave that up to the council. I know you have your rules of order. So with that, let me turn it back over to Rochelle. Rochelle, why don't you complete the staff presentation for us? Welcome, Ms.. Wheeler. Thank you so much. Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council Members. The commercial STS program was created at the request of our commercial districts over a year and a half ago to help the businesses and our communities safely get through the incredibly difficult period of the pandemic. And in partnership with the Business and Improvement Association, staff developed a five pronged commercial streets program. One was the reconfiguration of both Park and Webster streets to make space for Parklets. Two Streamlining the Parklets permit process to allow for outdoor dining and retail. Three Converting parking along the commercial corridors to short term spaces for quick pickups, for allowing for private parking lots to be used for outdoor commercial uses. And five the closure of portions of Alameda Avenue off of Park Street to allow for outdoor dining and gathering. And this package of programs was endorsed by the City Council in May 2020 and later extended by the Council through October 2021. But the end of the program quickly nearing. Staff undertook a full evaluation of the program over the summer and found that this program has really been essential in helping many businesses survive the pandemic, the business and the overall commercial district. The businesses are still very much in recovery mode today and continue to need support. The pandemic is still influencing how people dine and shop, and the need for outdoor dining out at speeds along Park and Webster streets have slowed, which is beneficial for safety. There has been no increase in collisions that we've seen so far. Through a community survey, we found that about 60% of respondents support this program, and we have planning efforts underway for walking, biking and transit, which will be looking at plans for these commercial corridors. With this information and more that was described in the staff report, our staff recommendations are to approve a two year extension to the Commercial Streets program, adopt safety barricades, standards for parklets, and to allocate American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA funds to implement the recommendations at a cost of $630,350. More specifically, the recommended two year extension is to do the following on Park and Webster Streets to retain the existing striping for the next two years. Immediately, though, we would make needed improvements to the parking bollards and striping in order to more efficiently and effectively provide on street parking and to improve transit speeds along these streets by removing bottlenecks. Over the next two years, staff would develop and bring recommendations for final configurations for each of these streets, including a process of community engagement for parking. We recommend the city reestablish the pre-pandemic parking rates and time limits for on street parking along Park and Webster Street, while also retaining some short term parking and adding parking for people with disabilities. And we also recommend the city reestablish parking enforcement as soon as feasible to ensure an equitable use of available on street parking and to strive to achieve the Council adopted policy of 85% occupancy on any given block. We're recommending the city maintain the closure of a half block of Alameda Avenue, which was closed to provide outdoor space for dining and gathering and is maintained by the harbor. This closure would remain for the next two years or until Adobe are no longer wants to manage the space for Parklets staff is recommending and extending the PARKLET program for another two years by issuing two year permits to those parklets that would like to remain and to any new ones. The two main issues that we see that need to be addressed with this extension are esthetics and safety. The city's role in this will be to include higher esthetic and safety standards as part of the permitting process in order to improve the look of the commercial areas and safety for those using the PARKLETS. Also to address these two issues, staff would replace the existing water, fill barriers as seen in the middle photo here with new decorative concrete barriers that would form a solid line along two of the three sides of each parklet, including the roadway side as described in the safety standards included in the resolution. The lower right image shows the concrete barricade design type that we would use, which would be stained most likely a green color. The cost for the city to purchase and install barricades for 30 parklets is $323,000. Parklets for the for the businesses with parklets, they also have an increased responsibility instead of just an encroachment permit. They would sign a license agreement with the city. And while initially all parklet fees were waived by council, businesses would be asked to pay a 20 $400 deposit to cover staff costs to approve the parklet and inspect it. Businesses would have three months from now until February 3rd to submit this package, and once approved, they would need to make any upgrades to the PARKLETS to meet our new safety and esthetic standards. Finally, they would need the businesses would need to pay any increase in costs for higher insurance level, which are being levels which are being proposed to reduce the city's liability should a collision occur. The current standard is 1 million per occurrence and 2 million aggregate staff are recommending a 2,000,004 million policy for all parklets except those within 50 feet of corners, which are at a higher risk. And so would need to have a $5,000,005 million policy. And make these recommended changes. The budget request totals $630,000, insert 300, the $630,350 for a two year extension to come from ARPA funds. This includes the 323,000 to cover the costs for the concrete barricades around Parklets. $157,000 to maintain an upgrade. The street parking $150,000 to do the long term planning for the street designs for parking Webster Streets, including with community engagement and the final line here show in Orange reflects an option which is not included in the total cost for the city to pay the businesses, the incremental increase in costs for their insurance to meet our new insurance requirements. The city could issue grants to businesses or the base for this, and it's hard for us to estimate the total cost, but we do think it would likely be between 30 and 40 $50,000 and would also come from ARPA. So in summary, our recommendations are to approve the two year extension of the Commercial Streets program, adopts a new safety standard to guide how to install the barricades we purchase allocate funds from ARPA to cover the program costs. And finally, we know you'll be hearing from the business community about the insurance costs. And so staff are asking also for direction on this issue. Thank you. She? Thank you, Miss Wheeler. And look at that. You came down with one minute and 29 seconds. So you okay. And you mentioned Mr. Thomas mentioned that both of our executive directors from both Downtown Media Business Association and West Hall made a business association, would like to make comments. Would that be as like a continuation of your presentation or during public comment? Help me understand. I think it would be great if it would be possible to hear from the two directors. They are really partners in this program with us and I think they have very specific concern about some of our recommendations that they'd like to talk. To you about. Okay. So let me pull the counsel. Counsel, this is one that, if I recall incorrectly, if we have a vote of four individuals, we could take some more time to hear from our two business association directors. What I would like in a motion, if you're so inclined to make a motion, is how much time should we allocate to the business directors? I, I would not make it as many as 10 minutes the piece how. They, they each think they can do it in less than 5 minutes. All right, Councilmember. Not quite. Yes. Here's notes as they already have. Three, I'm happy to as they're speaking on the behalf of many, many business owners, and I don't see them all here. I'd be happy to give them 5 minutes each. All right. Is that. Is a motion that the. Motion and Councilmember Spencer, I saw your hand go up. Would that be a second? Yes. Okay. We've had a motion. We've had a second. We're not going to take time for discussion because this is about extending time. May we have a roll call vote, please, Madam Clerk. Some British I Herrera Center. I know. Quite well. By. Mayor as Ashcraft High. That carries by five eyes. All right. Thank you. So do we go alphabetically? How do we? Miss Wheeler, who are we going to hear from first? Oh, I'm actually not sure. Sorry. Okay, we. Ready? We are, Cathy. Ready to go. We can put. All right, so we have Ms.. Weber. Miss Kathy Weber is the executive director of the Downtown Alameda Business Association. Welcome. We I'm sure we'll see her any minute now. And of course, that's Darva. That's the Park Street area. There she is. Greetings. Hello. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor. Council member city staff. I'm Kathy Webber. I'm the executive director of the downtown Alameda Business Association. And it was at the business district's request all those months ago that the Commercial Streets program was put into motion, and we hope it will continue. The street reconfiguration parklets Alameda Avenue have provided positive benefits to our business districts and given us an opportunity to rethink how we interact with public space as a community. And to be sure, this conversation is not simply about 27. Individual parklets. It is about the vitality and the vibrancy of our entire business districts. The benefits are felt beyond the parklets it's stopping to get a book on your way to dinner and grabbing a gift after enjoying lunch. They have helped us rebuild a sense of community and we hope to establish a long term parklet program with design, safety and fee. Guidelines that we can rely on as we're moving forward. Safety is a shared priority and we look and support the installation of the decorative concrete barricades. They'll offer an added level of safety, create a unifying look, and with the enhanced safety that the concrete barriers provide and paired with our district wide umbrella insurance policy, we are asking that you reconsider the increased insurance coverage or that you create a fund to offset these increased insurance expenses. Depending on carriers, these increased costs will vary, some doubling and others more so that there will be increased. Cost incurred by our businesses. In one instance, it will cost a business 70 $500 over the two years for the additional insurance alone. And when you add permit fees, it's nearly $10,000 to continue in a program that was designed to help businesses. And I don't think that. That is anyone's intent. To help streamline this process. We can assist and work one on one with our businesses and. To help with help the city navigate the administration of that. We're here to help you help us. And we are eager to look at parking, usage, needs, signage and work with the city to reinstate a much needed parking compliance program. Businesses are still in need of support and our road to recovery is just beginning. And it has been said that you invest in what you value and a vibrant, lively business districts are vital to our community and your investment in the program will pay dividends far into the future. And I do want to thank again Andrew Thomas and Rochelle Wheeler and Russ Thompson and all of the Commercial Street's team for getting us to this point. So thank you very much. Thank you, Ms.. Weber. And actually, Mr. Thomas, may I just take a minute and ask you to introduce Mr. Thompson, who's on the screen? Yes, I am so sorry. Yes, Mr. Thompson, Russ Thompson is our acting city engineer. I think that's his correct title. But whatever his title is, he's been instrumental in and helping this program really come together over the last year and helping us think about how to move forward over the next two years. So any any actual technical tough questions, ask him. They get to him. Thank you and welcome. Mr. Thompson, was there anything you wanted to add about this program? No, I'm just here to answer any questions. And it's been a long process to get to this point. You know, I think my title as a previous interim city engineer who we know now, Robert Mansell's in that position. So I'm here still supporting public works in whatever way they need. Well, we're happy to have you. Thank you so much. And stand by for this. Tef technical questions. I see that we are now joined by Linda Asprey. Linda is the executive director of West Alameda Business Association on the west end of town. Welcome, Ms.. Astbury. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Mayor and City Council. I'm Linda Asbury, as you said, executive director of the West Alameda Business Association. Our parklets are so important to the entire district for every one that comes to a parklet and they eat or there's sometimes some shopping, they I see them. Then they're going off to other spaces. They're going to the new thrifty kitty. You know, they'll come for lunch and they're doing that. So it's far beyond just the parklets. Our mission is to keep Webster safe, clean and inviting, and the proposed cement barriers will do that for enhanced safety. What we do want to cover is the insurance cost. I know Kathy got some quotes. I've got some quotes. It doubles their insurance to meet that new threshold. And coming we're coming out of recovery. And I suspect many of them are trying to catch up from last 18 months of the shutdown. So we're in the recovery mode and any cost that we can not put on to them so they can survive is so important. So I much could have a much quick talk quicker than Kathy, but that is what we want. Thank you for your consideration and concern. Continued support, Val and me, just business districts. And as Kathy said, we are here to help you on this whole process. Thank you. Well, thank you for your remarks. All right. My goodness. I don't think they even needed the time. We a lot of them, but well-said, everyone. So, Madam Cook, do we have public comments on this item? We do. We have three so far. Okay. Four, five, the other here. They keep coming in. So before we go to our public comments, were there any clarifying questions council wanted to ask or should we go straight to our public comments? We will go to our Councilmember Knox White. And I'll just ask this this quick question. I'm just wondering for prior speakers and whatnot if we can quickly get an answer to if we are going to put in concrete barriers, which are essentially, you know, built for freeway speeds to keep cars from crashing. And why are we also then going to ask businesses to double or even quintupled their insurance rates if we're making things safer than they currently are? We're right now we have sidewalks all around the city that have six inch curbs that people can crash off and whatnot. Okay. Who wants to take that with you, Mr. Thompson? Mr. Thomas. Thompson and Thomas? Hmm. Yeah. I was going to see if I could ask city attorney Shan to help me out with this one, if that's okay with you. Even more than happy to. We've consulted with our insurance carrier, the city's insurance pool, with respect to what are the appropriate levels of protections for outdoor dining spaces on streets. And as you can imagine, there is a wide range of uses in the Bay Area and in California and really nationally. The our carrier had informed us that their recommendation was to deploy concrete barriers and their recommended insurance limits were to five and five. And I understand that. And I believe the minimum they recommended was the two and four limit. And I believe staff struck somewhere in the middle by recommending the two and four limit for middle of streets, and then the five and five for the more potentially more risky areas, which are the intersections at the five and five location. And part of the reason for some of these requests have to do with the the uncertainty around what liability might result with respect to sidewalk collisions that might occur. As a matter of example, we the the carriers have pulled a number of recent verdicts on sidewalk collections, not with respect to outdoor dining. And some of them go back as far as 2007 and the range of verdicts on essentially cars jumping curbs or and resulting injuries resulted in anywhere from a $1.3 million verdict to a over $10 million verdict with a number and with a few in the four some million dollar range. And I think that may have informed their recommendations for the five and five. Hey, Councilwoman Marks White did that. And that's it's a bid right now. It's because the insurance companies are suggesting it, not because it's. Yeah, okay. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Right. And and based on jury verdicts as well. Okay. And Mr. Thompson, did you want to add anything to that? No, I think that's the crux of it. Just I did want to and we've talked about this at a staff level, is that concrete barriers are not an insurance policy. They don't prevent injury, but they are a step up and definitely provide more protection than the waterfall barricades. And so we're just trying to elevate, you know, the safety level along the streets. Thank you. Okay. Other clarifying questions. Counsel for her, Spencer. Human error. So other jurisdictions have required the concrete cross this entire time and but from the picture. But you all are proposing it do the do this cement. Barricades, if you will. Do they connect with each other like the cranes do? But they're not Carol's son trying to figure out why we're not doing Carol's. Right. So these these are vehicular traffic barricades made for that purpose. They are decorative. So, I mean, you could have good interlocked cranes like you'd see along a freeway construction project out there. But this was used in other jurisdictions and it has a little more of a decorative lot because there's not a huge cost difference. And these come in four foot segments, so they're a little bit easier to manipulate in the place. So those are some of the factors that went into our recommendation, but it was mainly a decorative work. I understand. And I think Mr. Miller wanted to just add something to that. Yes. There. I would just add and correct me if I'm wrong, Russ, but I think these these four foot long barricades do interlock and they connect. And the and that per the standard that's included in the resolution, they would they would not look like that picture I showed where we just had a couple of water filled barriers that would be a solid line of barriers along the roadside and then along kind of what you would think of as the oncoming side, it would be completely solid. But the concrete, interlocking concrete barriers. Tell them, Harry Spencer, go ahead. I want to make sure, though, that they do provide similar protection to the crowds because that's why this is being proposed as safety. And as much as I appreciate decoration. Then I want to make sure that, yes, in fact, this speaks to the how how do they compare for safety purposes to the crowds? Who would like to take that? Mr. THOMPSON. I'm thinking. Yeah. So again, they're they're made for that purpose. And after we reviewed it at the low speeds that are existing along the street segments that these there are £150 apiece. And then they do get connected with a cable system, interlocks them. So they're secure and they're they're made for this purpose. So we feel comfortable that this is a suitable safety enhancement. Thank you, counsel for her, Spencer. I appreciate that you feel comfortable, but is there no data that actually speaks to what force these can endure versus the carriers? I didn't have real data that says that they are the same or. I don't I don't have it with me tonight to provide to you. But there is there is data out there for these types of systems that exist. And we did review some of that. I have a suggestion. We're going to take public comment, perhaps forward. We're taking public comment. People could avail themselves of the Internet or whatever accessing files and get an answer to that question. I would think that that wouldn't be too difficult to do. Any further clarifying questions, Councilmember Harry Spencer, before we get to our public comment. Thank you and I appreciate your comments there. Thank you. Yeah, we'll get that answer. Any other clarifying questions for council? And I'm not seeing any. So let's do public comment. Okay. And we have six speakers. Okay. So that means. Everyone gets. Yeah they'll still I'll get 2 minutes and then if somebody I mean 3 minutes and then somebody else raise their hands, it'll go down to two. So the first is James Johnston. All right. Welcome, Speaker Johnston. Hello. One, two, three, four, five, six. Six lanes were dedicated to the automobile on the so-called Park Street before covered for traffic into parking. You know, I thought it was. Better named Automobile. Street than Park Street. There was only a relatively narrow. Sidewalk that could not accommodate. Businesses and no bike lanes. Not much in the way of greenery either. It's an obsolete design, relatively hostile to anyone, not an automobile. The Bay Area is well known for its usually fantastic weather and I love spending time outdoors. And what's more, like it or not, COVID is here to stay. Breakthrough infections and long COVID. Will always remain a risk, even with vaccines. So redesigning and improving the concept of parklets is a good idea. And I encourage council to it, at least at minimum, follow. These staff recommendations. However, in the long run, I suggest we bring the. Park back in Park. Street. It's terribly missing and let's dream big. And completely. Transform the street. Into a park. Let's build some more elaborate landscaping that makes the place feel like a park. Imagine more trees, native vegetation. Hearts, gaping. Fountains and so on. Let's have first. Class protected. Bike lanes and wider sidewalks. And very importantly, let's allow all of the businesses to expand outdoors onto the street with permanent and attractive dining and shopping facilities with first class outdoor facilities for these businesses to use that feel like they were designed for that not tiny parklets that fit in the shadow of automobile infrastructure as if. It was an afterthought. And suffer from loud and dangerous automobiles that spew toxic exhaust gases only a few feet away. This whole debate about insurance and what would happen if a car hits a parklet would be. Moot if we didn't have them there. So, you know, to help make room for this, let's close the road to private automobiles. If San Francisco can do it on Market Street, why can't we busses only if even that use other roads to get around and off the island. But not this one. If someone needs to drive to this area, we have a big parking garage. We don't need gratuitous amounts of street parking. Let's give that to our businesses permanently and in an attractive way. So I. Encourage council and staff to. Pursue this ambitious, ambitious vision for the future and come up with some really amazing plans over the next year or two. And let's completely transform and rebuild Part Street for the better. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker. Marilyn Rushman. Good evening, speaker. Amen. Hello again. I actually am one of the 40% who do not care for the current commercial streets. I do not go near Park Street anymore. The traffic is horrible with one narrow lane each way. I see the only benefits of the parklets is for outside dining, whose popularity is surely going. To decline during. The winter. I think that the 600,000 ARPA money could be much better spent on, say, the FDA office pilot program. Thank you. Thank you to our next speaker. Zach Bowling. Good evening. Speaker Bowling. Hi there. Can you hear me? Yes, fine. Awesome. Yeah, I'm a big fan of road diets. I've probably said that before. I think. I think the of situation that we've got on Webster and Park are great additions to the city. I do have concerns around biking infrastructure because we do ban bikes on the sidewalks in our commercial areas in front of our stores. So we really don't really have a place to ride anywhere near there in any kind of safe way. In the current configuration, one of the ideas is thinking is we do have at the end of a policy, the Memorial Parkway. At the very end, we built that shared space. And I know some agencies probably get a get upset that we're converting like a hub and a state Highway 61 into a shared space. But I think we can make the case that that kind of infrastructure of having a pedestrian friendly space and moving cars off of those two roads predominantly, but using it for like local traffic or deliveries would make sense. But thinking about that on the barriers, I was also thinking concrete barriers there. People already complained about the 71 barriers, the white ones. I'm not a fan of the white ones. I know they're more reflective, but they just you see scuff marks. I'm more of a fan of the 72 that we have them on on Otis. They're they're a little bit more fancy, for lack of a better term, and they look a little nicer. And I think the brown ones are a little bit better. But if that's being considered, instead of having if we can get people to drive slower on that street through just behavior modification of changing design elements, shrinking the road's any way possible to get people to drive slower? Do we really need to go up to concrete barriers also reducing some of the width of that space and if we could replace that with other bollards that could be used instead of a concrete barrier. I know it's temporary. The 7270 ones are really good for that kind of temporary infrastructure and they're very inexpensive. Those are some of my thoughts. I think if we can improve the biking situation on both of those roads, I think it would make it a better interconnect with the rest of the community. I think I'll leave my comments there. So thank you very much. Thank you. Our next speaker. Herman Reid. Good evening, Speaker Reid. Good evening again, Madam Mayor, and city council members. I do appreciate the city staff's report and I and I strongly support our local businesses. I am a bit concerned, however, how the reduction of lanes on both Park Street and Webster Street may affect residents in the event of an emergency evacuation. And I'm wondering if the city has considered this this impact in there and if there is some some plan to address that. I do support the closure of Alameda Avenue, but I think that more investment should be made to beautify the area and perhaps create a structure of some sort. Like we like some structures that you see in Europe and maybe where it could serve as a farmer's market, as well as the picnic tables that are and that are utilized by Alameda High School students. And with some additional creativity, the space could be very flexible for multi uses. Thank you. Thank you. Our next. Speaker, Aaron Miller. Good evening, Speaker Miller. Just done meeting myself. Hi, guys. I am I am very frustrated in your and in the city's response to cars. I'm 72. My husband's 77. He can't he can't ride a bike. I'm not riding a bike. We're all going to be driving electric cars in the near future because it's mandated by the state. And so this environmental emphasis on cars to me is very misplaced. I have not spoken to one person that I know who is in favor of what's going on in Webster and Park Street as far as the striping. It's a disaster. You can't park. I always I have a four year old granddaughter. I always frequent a toy safari. I do not go to Park Street anymore. I go to Target over on West End because I can't park there. I I'm surprised that the businesses are supporting this on both Webster and Park Street because I read the results of the the traffic and Webster, the average traffic reductions are down. How can that help the businesses? Park Street right now says that the traffic isn't down, but it's slower. But it's slower because it's an obstacle course. I go to rise, ladies. And he is he was very upset. His two parking spots in front of his business were taken away. He had no choice. He now has a parklet there. He did not want a parklet there. He wanted the parking spaces. And what is he going to do as a gym owner with his parklet? He's built it. He had to pay for it. He's now got to insurance costs. He didn't want it. So I get it for restaurants. I totally understand it for restaurants. They needed it during the pandemic because no one could eat inside. It was mandatory. You had to eat outside. I totally understand that. And I know that some people are more comfortable still eating outside. But but to disrupt the business districts on the two main business corridors that we have I think is just really wrong. And again, everybody I spoke to, I looked I looked at your survey. If you look at how many people actually answered that survey, it was all the people who were interested in it's bike Alameda. It's all the people who want it to be that way. But it's a very, very small representative of what this town is. We've got 80,000 people and what, 2000 people maybe answered that survey, and I think they all had an agenda. So I just really want to represent the people who are not being represented today. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker. And we now have two more speakers. So we are over the seven or more limit, so to speak. Your time will go to 2 minutes and the next one is true. Dara Abrams. Good evening. Speaker Dara Abrams. Hi. Good evening. Andrew Dara Abrams here. Speaking both as an East End resident on Calhoun Street and also a co-owner of a small business park in Blanding. So I want to thank city staff and the business districts for acting really quickly, really creatively over the last 18 months. Lots of cities around the Bay Area in the country have done similar programs. But I think it's to almeida's credit that Alameda has done an above average job and is now in a position to consider what to make permanent. So I can say as a resident that walking to Park Street with our two young kids, it's a more pleasant it's a safer experience. Would love to make permanent some of those improvements. As a resident, you know, also. Walking with we. Were not in a a line of business where we have our clients coming into the office. But those of us who do work out of the office certainly appreciate being able to also walk down, park, use a parklet and so on. The I you know, I will you know, I think it's worth acknowledging that the experience for drivers has changed. And now I walk, I ride a bike, I do drive as well. And so I do hope that part of making these changes permanent, that some some work can be done to improve signal timing and intersections for cars , signage for folks who just want to find a parking lot and ditch their car. And I think actually through through making these permanent, the the the quality of the experience can be improved for people no matter what mode they're arriving by. And finally, let me just point you all to bike ped informed from University of North Carolina and Nak Doh staff members already know this, but there's a lot of info on here. I think. Thank you for your time, Zach, and we'll go on to our next speaker now. Jim Strelow. Good evening. Speaker Stellar. Good evening. Not all businesses support this program. Your program picks and chooses winners. While there are many businesses that are losers, some businesses have lost parking spaces. More importantly, loss of visibility to some businesses hidden behind the temporary parklet structures where their entrances or signage has been blocked. Some businesses were closed. They could not even open their doors due to county rules because of touching prohibitions such as the tactile galleries, gyms, bars, etc.. So businesses need deliveries, particularly day shipments. Amazon, FedEx and disabled need access. So do not restrict vehicle use. Now, the question I know you don't answer questions about will the county increase tax rates for businesses who are taxed by square footage of usable space? And then now, since the city is going to be paying for insurance, will the city pay for increased county taxes based upon square footage usable space ? Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker. Ginny Sanderson. Good evening, Speaker Anderson. Good evening. I find myself in an odd position. I'm actually disagreeing with my friend Marilyn and somewhat agreeing with Carmen Reid. I would like to see a little bit more build out of Alameda Avenue right there. I felt like that was a useless street beforehand. You know, something a little bit more robust. Infrastructure would be great. A farmer's market would be amazing. And as far as I understand, nobody is quite getting rid of cars on Park Street right now. But, you know, maybe someday in the future, that would be great. Perhaps we could have a trolley system like they're implementing out at the point to kind of ferry people up and down it. I understand the businesses need deliveries. But I you know, prior to the pandemic, it was just all cars, all parking. And I would like to see a little bit more pedestrianized I agree with Zach and other other speakers about bike access. I never ride to businesses over there because I can't. There's hardly any bike parking and it's just not safe to ride on Park Street the way people drive. So I just want to say that I, I support keeping the parklets I as far as I know. I don't understand why someone was forced to build a parklet. Those are public spaces, not their spaces specifically. But perhaps I'm misunderstanding the implementation of Parklets, but that's not my understanding. Anyways, yeah, I just fully support keeping this system and keeping it safer for pedestrians. Thank you. Our next speaker. Ron Mooney. Good evening. Speaker Mooney. Good evening. How are you? Well, thank you. Great. Mayor, council members here to support the staff report and the work that our association and WADA has put in to do this. Very excited to see a continuance. We have other members that are looking for this longer term vision and then they both are planning on improving their parklets and looking for a few more applicants to come in. And as I think everybody knows. No business was required to build a parklet. Everybody that wanted to applied, including the mentioned one. But more importantly, I am so happy that Park Street is slower. I have to say living on Park Street, having a business on Park Street, it is so nice. I would love to see it drop down to 20 miles per hour, but I think that's a discussion for the next over the next couple of years. So I'd love to see the supported in having parking compliance put in place is another important thing. I'll just remind people we have a fantastic parking garage and as I walk cooky around I've yet to see it under 100 places available. So there's always spaces available in one of the city. Lots in the core of the downtown and also. But it's been reduced by five blocks to one lane to two lanes or 2 to 1 lane. It's five blocks. It's not that huge. And I just would love to see it extended. I know that's not in the works, but we'll see how it goes. So support the staff report. Thank you. Staff and council. Thank you. Our next speaker. And that's our it'll be our last speaker. It's Denise Trapani. All right. Good evening. Speaker champion year. Good evening. Thank you, Mayor and council member. My name is Denise Trapani. I'm the board president. I walk alameda and I just wanted to provide our enthusiastic support for staff's recommendation tonight to continue the Commercial Streets program, even though the original program really didn't do much. Honestly, for biking and walking, it was needed for our businesses to survive. But in terms of pedestrian and cyclist, other than some bike corrals, there really wasn't much done for us. But what it did give us was a chance to really reimagine what our business districts could be like. And I think using this time the next couple of years to continue the analysis and to continue to have the conversation about what this could look like. I mean, just tonight, we've heard from closing them to, you know, closing them on weekends to just all these types of different modifications. This planning work takes a lot of time. And what I would hate to do is go back to a configuration that we had before, put people through that change, and then come up with a better, more robust design and then have to go through all the work again and the change for folks to get used to the final configuration. So let's use the next couple of years to continue the conversation and do the analysis and the work and get the design right by continuing this program. Thank you. Thank you. And Madam Quirk, you said that was our last speaker right there. That was our last speaker. All right. So with that, we will close public comment on item seven B and we will open it up to the council. All right. Who would like to go first? Councilmember Knox. Right. And nobody else raise their hand. I'm happy to go first and that's fine. So thank you to staff. I think this is very exciting. The staff presentation reminded us that we started this in May. I think during that conversation we had a conversation about how well, first off, we thought we were coming out of this thing a lot earlier by COVID, but we all said we're talking about how this could be back. Back at that time could be the beginning of how we start thinking about our business districts and the changes that COVID is going to write and the fact that we're going to have more work from home folks in Alameda looking for places to have lunch, etc., and that we're going to need to rethink public space. And I think that chamber event the the economist who came out that was his prediction also for the future. So I think that approving this and moving forward is very important. You know, I'm going to I'm going to I'm not going to spend too much time on the whole design and what the insurance companies want. It is true they are looking at jury jury awards as a jury awards for people jumping curbs in specific instances and not for running into kiwirail. And I do think that we are probably being based on what other city, a lot of other cities are doing, exceedingly cautious and exceedingly risk averse. And I think that that is fine for the city to do that. But if we're going to, I think we should also then take on the burden of covering the the delta between the what folks are currently paying for for their liability insurance and what we would be requiring for the future of liability insurance. I think also that instead of looking to just do what those parklets that are out there right now, we have striping on just a few blocks in both of our business districts that have been striped to allow for public space, parklets, etc.. And I think that we should look at actually just putting the K rail or whatever we're going to call that, the decorative cement barrier that is equally as good as K Rail, the length of all of our streets and really create that space to make that space so that if somebody six months from now wants to create a parklet, we're not then going back out and readjusting the existing K rails that are around some of the parklets and whatnot, and really rather just that that space is going to be dead space. One way or another, it's not going to be a parking space between the partnership, between the parklets because we've striped it. So so let's just really, if we're going to require carry ons instead of real stops, let's, let's just do that. My guess is the incremental cost of doing it once and doing it the full length and really supporting our business community and thinking giving them easy flexibility for the future would be well worth it and I think would actually lower hurdles to other businesses as we're coming out of this, opting to step into these spaces and make them more active. I'm not quite sure. So we're proving that, I guess there's language about improving the Commercial Streets program for two years, but I really see the only place in any resolution that we're that we're doing that that really relates to just extending the temporary permits for two years. So know I think we should do that. I really appreciate that. Staff has in other presentations I've seen really talked about the iterative nature of what this is going to look like as well, how this will give us the opportunity to kind of see what's working and make changes along the way. And then two years from now, when we're looking to really make a more permanent decision, we can we can put those in place at that point in time. But really, I'm just here to say thank you to for all the great work. I'm really looking forward to seeing this. Like I said, I would really like us to at least our staff to come back with either to move forward with a cost for putting up the barriers, the length of each of these these blocks so that we have a uniform each uniform block. And it's not these weird in and out, you know, every every 60 feet there's a new parklet with with with concrete barriers. We can ask them to come back or we can give the direction to just do it right. What I would say, do it right the first time. So thank you. And. Thank you. Councilmember knocks White Castle her desk. Well, thank you. You know, I think it's because of the Parklet program and the street reconfiguration. Businesses on Webster Street especially were given a fighting chance to survive through this incredibly difficult time. And, you know, all you need to do is during the daytime and sometimes even in the evening, early evenings, there is a certain liveliness on Webster Street that I have just never seen before. And, you know, as I said from the outset of this thing, you know, I live practically close to Webster Street, so I'm there all the time. And I think I think the success of this this program speaks for itself. You know, the the flip side of this is it slowed down traffic on on Webster Street. That's true. And, you know, I mean, but is it a bad thing that their cars are now traveling 25 miles per hour instead of 33 or 34 miles per hour on what had always been kind of a narrow street anyways. I mean, I get the concern that residents have raised about, you know, the ability of vehicles to transit through Webster Street. But you know, what I'm seeing in Webster Street because of the Park Parklet program and the street reconfiguration is a certain liveliness that just far outweighs the downside of slower traffic. People just seem so much more excited about what's the street, you know, local residents who live nearby, they're always like counting all there's going to be a restaurant opening pretty soon, you know? Thank you, Leslie. A neighbor or. Oh, look, there's a new coffee shop that just opens, like you said, your coffee shop. And thank you. Continuing coffee shops with Miguel and Monica and Bob Echo there on the corner. And it's just I just I like what I'm seeing in terms of the other commercial streets. And, you know, I'm a West End guy, so that's why I'm, you know, talking on and on about Webster Street. Park Street looks great, too. I'm just kidding. It is so. So I'm in favor of it. I think the other thing, though, I'm not a fan of of the neighborhood. Blocked off Slow Street program though. I think we're out of a. Councilmember days like if I could ask you to and I think it'll make the city attorney happier if we could just confine our remarks to the agenda item. No, this isn't the residential streets. This is. Commercial. Oh, the commercial. Okay. Sorry. Thank you. Good idea. Oh, well, in that case, yeah. Well, then, yeah, I think I said. I said my piece. Thank you. All right. Thank you. I was going to ask vice mayor of L.A., Councilmember Spencer, vice mayor of L.A.. So I think, you know, I'm in support of continuing this. I think, you know, it's one of the few ways that we see a lot more people out and about is by having these parklets on in our commercial districts. And I think that it's really helped businesses. Many of them have invested time, money, resources in terms of these setups. And I think we we should continue it. I would like to see, you know, when we erect the structures that they're erect, the barricades that they're erected in a way to Councilmember Knox White Knight Point, that we can we can add parklets or change them as needed where it's not going to be a huge construction issue. I also think that our our parklets have created a really nice sense of space in our business districts, especially on Webster Street. We don't we don't drive there. I live a few blocks away, you know, and I walk over with my children. I think in my family, I think it's you know, we've we've made our business districts much more welcoming to folks to come in in a number of different using different types of modes, whether it's walking or biking . And and for folks that are driving, we certainly have a number of parking lots at both business districts that are being utilized and they're being well utilized in parks. In terms of Park Street, that parking garage certainly has much more capacity, but I think it's really opened up and made these streets much more welcoming for folks that are traveling by foot. And the pandemic is not over yet. So we keep talking about recovery. But, you know, we last year saw a huge COVID surge starting at Halloween that took us through the winter. And so I think it's important to be focused on recovery, but also focused on continuing safe practices and opportunities for people to socialize in a safe way. And that's what we can do through these parklets. Thank you. Cast over her, Spencer. Thank you, Mayor. I want to get back to the survey. It had I think it was about 1700 respondents, but there seems to be inconsistency. Yes, 1759. Inconsistency in regards to surveys that the city is putting out, that sometimes it has demographic data, sometimes in regards to like age and race. But I didn't see that included in this survey. And it did say, do you live in Alameda? Or what is your connection to Alameda? And I don't know. It was a very high percentage was living in Alameda, which is great. But I don't know if there's a way for the city to know that these respondents actually live here or if they are unique response respondents. And I think it's important for the city to come up with a consistent way that we survey, because it is you know, we have 1759 and then we're looking at that, too, if if we are looking at that to impact how we vote and, you know, using it, then I would like us to figure out. How how how does the city do surveys? And I think that sometimes we ask for demographics. Sometimes we don't. But I do think it's important that we try to ensure that these are our immigrants in some way in the city. You know, asked for the address of where they live. It doesn't, of course, if there's a way to do it. So, of course, is that part is always kept confidential. But I want to make sure that I'm hearing actually from people that really are Algerians. So I wanted to share that the turning lanes and middle line impact up because we've lost those now. Right. And so things traffic does get backed up. So, yes, I agree it is slower. But in deliveries and the busses we have, we have all of that happening. And I want to make sure. So first for me is safety. When this issue came before. Earlier, I had I had concerns about not having the crews. And so I'm happy to have that. But I do want to make sure that whatever this alternative is, that it is, in fact, as safe, because that's actually the purpose of what it's about. And I think it is very important that if we're going to be offering outside space and I'm also one of those I, I still believe safer outside. So I, I do like the idea of offering these spaces, but I think it's incumbent upon the city to actually be as safe as possible. So and so, you know, these are some of my concerns and right to make sure that whatever we're using is, in fact, as safe as the kiwirail's. That has to be the priority for me. I want to make sure that in regards to. These are our main roads to get out of town. If we have to, we need to evacuate. Do we have a plan? Paradise, sadly, had two lanes. And that's what we're down to at this point. So I think we do have to make sure that these are safe to evacuate if we need to do that, but also for emergency vehicles. Where do they go? And traffic and the impact on the alternate streets that you can see right off and eighth and constitution is completely backed up all. The way. Down. And it's not just on weekends. It can be any time all the way down. I went to one out on Webster Monday night and it was all the way down to the water. So I think we're seeing a lot of cars avoiding Webster and that's what we hear as well as part. And then we have to figure out how to make these alternative streets, be aware of the traffic. Then they have to accommodate and not just focus on. Park, Hagen, Webster. How do we make the other streets safe also to make sure that we're not just shifting and creating problems on our other roads. But it's obvious that people are going to be. Broadway on the park side. So and then, you know, to address where do our fireplace go? Then how do we get out of the way? For those of us that are in cars? I think, you know, we've heard from bicyclists. You do see bicyclists on the sidewalk. And how do we come up with like this is a two year plan. A two year plan is actually a long time. I feel like we should actually if I personally would prefer holding back at this point, keeping it the way it is for another 3 to 6 months and see how do we address these issues that have been raised to make sure we're doing it safely for all users there. But I'm concerned that we're doing this for two years and in fact, we're going to be doing it permanently. And we really haven't addressed the the concerns of bicycling, which really should should be addressed that we're. You know, it really should it should be addressed for all of our users. I do agree with you, two Avenue. I think that was a great idea to close that to car traffic. And I think we I love that. I will agree with Carmen Reid's comments, suggestions to make that area more useable. The insurance costs that I, I do support the city attorney's office of adding the K rails as well as requiring additional insurance. I am concerned about how our business is going to be able to pay for that, though. And I'm also concerned in regards to this is a chunk of this is going to be ARPA monies at least. And I don't know if it can be ARPA money for two years and staff can address that. Mm hmm. How are we funding that for the two years? And then if and if, in fact, we're using $630,000 of ARPA monies for this, and I don't think the additional 40,000 or whatever for the insurance to support the businesses really makes a difference at that point. So I would think we should include that from the ARPA monies, if we can, to make to make this work. But I am concerned that we're not really addressing the safety issues. And I do want to hear about, you know, are these barriers really going to work? Because they really should be. Thank you. Thank you. And Councilor Spencer, I did want to come back to our technical experts to ask, so did you have a chance to look into the question that Councilmember Herrera Spencer asked earlier? Mr. THOMPSON. Yes, I did. So there's you know, Caltrans has research available on it. Caltrans Division of Research and System Information has published documents on K rail and temporary concrete traffic controls. F each way, the Federal Highway Administration has portable concrete transition plans, research barrier guide and the ASTRO also has a roadside design guide that has the full research . And, you know, there's a multitude of guardrails, k rails, concrete blocks, you know, water field barricades. It's a very wide range of products. And so this this is, you know, it can without getting into the weeds of that, I mean, this is definitely an upgrade from the waterfall barricades where we saw a collision a few months ago , where the water filled barricades do slide, you know, more than what we anticipated. And so I think these concrete barricades will definitely provide a higher level. And it's a wide range. And I want to emphasize that putting up even Caltrans freeway style highway barricades does not guarantee that a car collides with it. And, you know, something bad happens. But it's it's a oftentimes you hear things about reasonableness. You know, when you what extent did you go to and was it reasonable? And so. Some cities do nothing. You know, some cities require for Caltrans highway trails, you know. So we are, you know, on that spectrum. But towards the K rail and the fence. I heard your comment about is it as safe as Kitty Rail? And my answer to that would be, you know, 25 foot long, heavy, interlocking rails would be safer than what what is proposed. Again, it's a continuum. We're trying to be reasonable. And I think at these low speed locations, the traffic data that we have shows very low speeds in these areas. But these are an appropriate concrete barricade for the situation. Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Counsel for Harry Spencer. Okay. So I appreciate that answer. I, I know other counties and cities are requiring the crowds throughout the state, and, and I don't want to compromise our safety. Sally there have, in fact, been at least one death I'm aware of. We were fortunate. It hasn't happened here, but we have had accidents. And you're right, we've had so so I. I don't think it's appropriate to compromise our safety. I think we we need to do what everyone else is doing. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So I will go last with my comments. Thank you so much to staff and members of the public and council colleagues for all of your comments. I am a fan of the reconfigurations, but I also want to recognize and we heard this evening there is a range of opinion and so we need to take that into consideration. I think we're doing some of that by changing the parking, you know, the 15 minute limited parking times and making it a little easier for people to get to Park Street. I would also repeat what I think Vice Mayor Vella mentioned, that if you're coming to Park Street by car, we do have the Civic Center parking garage. I think people forget about it. It almost always has spaces available. And as has been noted, there's a little marquee at the entrance and you can see just how many and the rates are really reasonable and I think we don't charge after 6 p.m.. So remember that I'm a bicyclist, my husband's a bicyclist. We ride up to Park Street, we ride all over the island, especially on the weekends. I do. Sometimes I ride to city hall for work. I don't go down Park Street and I don't go down Webster Street, but it's really easy to get around if you just go one parallel street over. So for Park Street, we've got Oak Street that has SROs all the way down, and it also intersects a couple of our slow streets, San Jose Avenue and then Pacific Avenue. And you again are just one block over from Park Street. So you can ride up or down Oak Street and then just turn at whatever your side street is where you need to go. We've always found places to lock up, you know, across from the Almeida Theater and all along Park Street and Webster Street, there's parking. In fact, I was just on Webster on Sunday. It was Halloween and the kids were out trick or treating. It was sweet, but they've put in a nice row of bicycle parking by parking at no. Miss Wheeler knows what intersection that was. I think it was maybe Haight and Webster or wherever I was. But anyway, so, so just think in terms of don't be afraid to ride park. Just think in terms of an alternate route. And you know, once upon a time and I hope we're still publishing it. Bike Work. Alameda I think I collaborated on a great map of the city and bicycle rides that probably we do need to update it because, well, new streets will be opening soon, you know, with some of the work that's being done on the northern waterfront. So anyway. But let's also find a way to to realize that people have different abilities and different comfort levels of getting around. And we do want to make the downtown districts welcoming for all, which is what I love about seeing walking down Park Street, walking down Webster and seeing the people just out enjoying being outdoors. It's a time to be social and yet feel safer when you're outdoors. And so I think it's something worth continuing. My two criteria are safety first, but I'm satisfied with what our staff has talked about and then esthetics. So I do expect I know there's going to be a staff level design review. I expect Parklets to also enhance the the the visibility of the street or the the the streetscape. So I don't want to. See. Parklets that are kind of an eyesore. So just set that bar high. It just makes the downtown more attractive. And I was really happy to hear from Ron Moody because not only are they he and his family business owner on Park Street, they are not the owners of a restaurant. They're owners of a retail shop. Daisy's And so one thing I've been concerned about is, you know, do these parklets hamper the the ability of some of these retail businesses that also had had to limit their indoor capacity? One creative thing that I know that Daisy's did is they put in a little parklet outdoors because sometimes they have a pop up event or some sales event, but I believe they share it. After they closed in the early evenings, they allowed the restaurant next door, which is Burma Superstar, to use their parklet as the place where the DoorDash and the Uber eats. Delivery people can come. So there's a lot of nice cooperative ventures, I think, that are going on, you know, shared spaces and whatnot. And then let's see the, you know, the farmer's market that's been talked about for a while, enticing idea and. Alameda Avenue. Just remember, for those of you who go to the farmer's market on Haight Street on Tuesdays and Saturdays and CALS everyday said knows this. Those farmers that they have to or the people bringing the produce, they've got to get there with their trucks, with their vans. They've got to park somewhere. So, you know, staff will take that into consideration in thinking of what we're going to do next with that space. But I think that it would be a shame to discontinue the program now because it takes a while to get used to anything new. I think we've gained a lot of insight, lessons learned, what you know, how could we treat this to make it better? So I would actually like I don't mind funding the project for two years. I would like a check in with the council in a year from now just to see, you know, with implementing these changes that have been suggested, where, you know, where we are, how the businesses are feeling about it, how respondents are feeling about it. We could do another survey. So I would I would suggest that. So I believe we've got a couple of resolutions we need to pass, Madam Clerk, or. And our city attorney. We can do those. Well, do you want us a motion? You can. Great motion. All right. Councilmember Knox. What? I believe I saw your hand somewhere in the air. Did I? Yes. Yeah, I'd love to. I'd love to try a motion. I'd like to move that. We approve the commercial streets to your work. Work plan with direction to to return to council with a with the costs for the proposed concrete barriers in all locations to approve the precast concrete traffic control barricade standards as as as the standard . And and hold off on the on approving the money because I think we should come back as well since we're having to move money from one place to another that we will need the full cost in order to be able to do that. But so I'm sorry, help me understand hold off on the money. That we can't approve the money because we don't have the cost. So as far as the transferring. Well, that's the capital budget plan. Are you? Yeah. So essentially, they would have to come back with a capital budget plan for for approval unless somebody has a way that we can move forward with moving them, not knowing the exact cost. So you want. Okay. Help me understand, if you would. You want your proposal to be costed out and included in the budget proposal. Right now, there you have given us a proposal on the costs and are asking us to transfer those funds based on that cost. I would like them to come back with a slightly different plan that that uses the I'm going to call it Carol. I know it's not Carol. The concrete barriers. Identified Gabriel on all and all the area, all the striping, so that each block is fully railed so that we don't have individual spotty broken teeth along along along each of our business districts. So I don't believe the cost is going to be that much more. But given that we don't know what it was, I would ask staff to come back and come on content with with the with the budget request. All right, there's a motion to have a second. Also. I do have a question of whether staff can can bring it back just as a budget request. The Budget request on consent or if it would need to be fully agenda go. Okay. We've had a second and then we have a question from Seth, but I think we need to have a discussion about whether that's the direction we want to take. But let's go first to staff who wants to address whether we can just bring it back on consent for budget item. Oh. That's Mr. Levinson's question. Yeah. And the city manager Eric Levitt has said that. Mr. LEVITT. Yes. So you could bring if you decide to, to narrow to the budget request, you could we could bring that back if that's what the council monitors do. All right. So we have a yeah, Tony. So Councilmember Desai, you have your hand up your muted for you partly. Media question for staff does staff have any comments with regard to the way that the motion is is framed, particularly with regard to any possible cost above and beyond what's already kind of estimated? Yeah, I think as I understand, you know, what we did is we looked at the fact we assumed about 30 parklets we looked at and then Rust did all the heavy lifting on this kind of assume looking at where the existing parklets were thinking it might happen two or three more. But basically what we've got is essentially protecting each parklet how many how many barricades would we need sort of wrapping each parklet at least on two sides, what Councilmember Knox White is suggesting as well. What about a different approach instead of three or four parklets on a block each individually wrap, what have you just did? A continuous line of barriers and my my sense and Russ jump in here if I'm wrong is yes if what we'll have to do is we'll have to come up with a new barrier plan for the blocks, which won't be hard because it's going to be a continuous line just on the blocks where we have parklets on and the reduced language. And it will be an incremental increase in the amount of. Barricades we will need to purchase. I don't think it's going to double the amount. I think it's going to increase it. But. Russ, do you do you think. Am I right about this? Mr. Thompson I don't want to weigh in. I also think there's other things we're going to need to do. We're going to need gaps between those barricades so that people can go from the park cars to the sidewalk. We also want to get in some space for, you know, transit to be able to pull over. So, I mean, there's it's not going to be necessarily one long contiguous row is what I'm thinking. Councilmember Cost. But the cost will go up. Back to Councilmember de SAG and then I'll go to you, Mr. Thompson. Okay. Thank you. So the follow up question is so as I'm understanding the motion that you're going to come back to us. Is that correct? Councilman, you're not quite that. I was going to come back to council and then we'll make it. Well, I mean, we're like approving the concept, but the the final cost of which we will make a determination when you come back. I think that's the motion. Yes. Okay. Okay. So I'll get Mr. Earthy, Mr. Levin and Ira. Mr. Thompson, you had anything else you want to add? Just quickly. Yeah, go ahead. And then you. Mr. Levitt. Mr. Thompson. First. Okay. So the price that we included in the staff report was based on the roughly the existing number of parklets and protecting them in accordance with the detailed parklet barricade detail. So it was not to create, you know, long lengths of unoccupied, you know, security, unprotected park, whether it was just for the parklets that exist. So that's a little different than I think what I'm hearing from Councilmember Knox White is that we want to make some kind of a uniform corridor for potentially unused parklet space. So that's not the way that cost was calculated, as I'm saying it was. Yes. Thank you. Okay. And Mr. Leaven in the back to you Councilman de so. So I guess I would recommend an alternative approach might be to approve the funding from the ARPA if if the council wants to move forward, approve the funding with GA. But with the direction to bring back this alternative approach, I think it won't be doubling. I would agree with Mr. Thomas and we'll be doubling to bring back the alternative approach. And then at that point the Council could go one way or the other. That way we could start to design it and we could start to have it start to be implemented, and then that we would come back relatively quickly with that alternative approach so that we can move in one direction or the other. But you you could appropriate the funding now being recommended by staff because I don't think it would be less than that. I think will be a minimum of that. I'm happy to amend my motion to. Okay. And we haven't had a chance. Okay. Let let us get to the discussion. We'll go back to you for amendment, if that's necessary. Councilmember Desai, did you finish? Because I wanted. To I think the city manager, Levitt, laid out a reasonable and it sounds like Councilmember Knox fight. Yeah, I thank you. I, I actually couldn't support that proposal at this time. I think let's work with what we have if we are going to increase the cost of what we're spending rather than this. Long. Line of concrete barrier corridor for parklets that may or may not come about in the future. Why don't we use that money to help pay and underwrite the insurance costs so that our businesses aren't burdened with that? But I just I think that it's it's a little more complicated than, as Mr. Thompson just noted, and just putting this long line of of barricade down all the blocks that have parklets now, because you do have to have some openings to to get through. And I think I just think that we we can always add to it. But I think at this point in time, we're probably spending enough ARPA money and let's, you know, we're trying to make adjustments to this existing program. So anyway. But back to Councilmember Knox White for you. Did you want to. I like I said, I well as a councilmember her expenses Hancock's of the. Park. Oh, I'm sorry. I looked down for a minute. Councilmember Herb Spencer. I just wanted to point out that the resolution speaks specifically to Carroll, so we're not going to do that. I think it should be clear that we're not doing that, but we're using a lower standard. And then I would be concerned about giving up even more parking. And if you have a continuous line, thanks. Thank you. Okay. So is. Well, I believe the resolution, if I'm reading the same phrase, talks about this would be I'm on page one the last whereas before the now they're. At. Their for be at resolve. Whereas the installation of continuous precast concrete safety barricades, parents, creoles or equal are commonly used and accepted as a means to separate living vehicles. So maybe I don't need to toss that one to the city attorney. So then any further comments, council scene and back to you. Councilmember Knox Way I was simply going to just amend my, my, my motion to what the city manager recommended if if vice member was going to support. Okay. So to recap that was to to go ahead and approve the. Current funding and give direction to return with the alternate, the alternative and any additional funding request for further consideration. Thank you, Madam Seconder. Vice Mayor, would you consent to seconding that amended? Sure. Okay. Any further comments seeing then? May we have a real cover, please, Madam Clerk. So everyday. Yes. Please, sir. Spencer. No. Not quite. Yes. Vella? Yes. Mayor Ashcroft. Yes. That motion carries 4 to 1. Okay. And now we need the resolutions, right. No. I think the Russian. Government expert is. Saying that we could have proven adopt all at once. I'm good with that council over not. I would just I was trying to I did have a second motion I want to make I wanted to make a motion to actually for the city to cover the differential and the insurance given the high standard of protection that we are providing at the at the parklets that the differential between what they're currently paying and what we are required are requiring them to cover. I'd like to see the city cover that. Um, do we have a second for that? Councilmember Spencer. And secondly. Yes. Happy the second. I was about to read lips there. But yes, thank you. And I will just it's more of a question that a comment. Is it possible I realize that the business owners carry insurance now, but is there possibly something that can be done or perhaps staff to look into doing something about a purchase on a, you know, on a group basis there might be better rates or I'm not an insurance expert, but I'm sure staff will look into that. So we've had that motion by Councilmember Knox White, seconded by Councilmember Harry Spencer. Madam Quick, may we any further discussion? No. Both Mayor Vella has a hand. Oh, you did? Okay. Sorry. I just wanted to. To hear, hear back what the motion was. And from the maker of the motion. And the maker, the maker of the motion says to talk about it, talk about myself. But does he. Mean. The motion was for the city to cover the differential between current insurance coverage rates and any additional coverage the city is requiring? It's different on different, different parklets. So I'll leave it at that. And so if we can if they can find a way to save everybody money, great. Doesn't preclude that. And you can. That's fair. I just wanted to make sure that that motion would allow for city staff to look into the mayor's suggestion of some sort of umbrella plan or something. Okay. Thank you. Thanks. And Mr. Thompson, Thomas gave us a thumbs up. So good. Let's have a roll call vote then. Could you please help me? Yes. All right, Spencer. I looked like. I. Mayor by mayor as the Ashcraft High. That carries by five. Thank you, everyone. Okay. We have completed item seven be whenever council members start speaking in the third person. I think it's time for a break. So we are going to take a break. We've been at this council almost 3 hours, exceeding my two hour zoom limit. So let's be back at it's 954. Could we be back at 1010? Okay. 10:10 p.m. everyone, we'll see you back. All right. Thank you. It's. And the gentleman. Good evening, good lady. Now it's 3 to 1. Right. So we have guys. A full house, I think the sea. Okay. So, Laura, are you ready for us? It's my cell phone. Okay. All right. Good evening, everyone. We are back from our break. And as we have finished, item seven and 17, I just want to check in with the clerk. We have one item that is time sensitive this evening. E. I'm sorry. I might be saying that. Seven. I think it's seven. That is right. Thank you. I'm wondering whether we might be well advised to move that up to hear it now. Do you want to just explain briefly? Yes, sir. This this item is an ordinance that needs to be introduced tonight and finally passed at the next meeting in order to have the 30 days to become effective before the end of the year. So it is time sensitive. Okay. And do I need a motion to move it up to hear it now? Sure. That would be great. Okay. Councilmember Harris Spencer. I'm happy to move seven e up to. Here and now. Thank you so much. I have a second. Councilwoman Knox White. Thank you. May we have a roll cover, please, Madam Clerk? So I'm ready. Thank I. Harris Spencer. I. Knox Light. Hi. Bella. Hi. Mayor. As yet get high. That carries by five. Okay. And I realized that I just did. That was completely no notice to staff ahead of time. But they are nimble. Is Madam Clerk, do we have the necessary staff? Let's see. With that. We. Do. Yes. Yes. We've promoted Mitchinson Hall, I believe, giving the presentation and we've got a couple more that'll be joining her. Good evening, Mr. Vincent. Welcome. And Mr.. Green. Hello. Hello. Yeah, I. We just. I know this, like we said, as the clerk mentioned, we do need to to get this done tonight. So if you're ready, we're ready. Good evening. Thank you. Just a quick point of clarification. Rob Helton from HFA Consultants is going to be giving the presentation and myself. Angela Vincent from Zero Waste Program and the Public Works Department and Mark Green will be here for questions. And also if Liz Acord and Elizabeth. McKenzie could be elevated as well. The more, the more the merrier. Yes, sorry. Mr. Cord was texting that she was frozen, but I think we're trying to get her in and then we don't see Mr. Helton, so I'm not sure what happened. Perhaps someone wants to just text him. Yes, right now, madam. Thank you so much. And I apologize for the lack of advance warning. It's just that I realize, you know, when to keep this moving so well. So you're not prepared to tell us anything about this item that. We'll get to the city staff here in a minute. Yes. Yes, go ahead. So, Ms.. Vincent, you are with the city, correct? Yes, I am. Apologize to our viewers. Yes, yes, yes. Good evening, Madam Air Vice Mayor and Council. My name is Angela Vincent. I am with the city's. Public works department in our zero waste program. And looks like we have Liz Acord and we will also be getting on Rob Hilton. From HFA consultants. This is an and proposed ordinance to comply with a state law Senate bill 1383 designed to. Divert organic waste. From infill as part of the state's climate strategy. Welcome this accord. Okay. And this accord, if you want it, I Newt and I think most people know you, but you can tell us who you are. Good evening, Madam Mayor and members of the City Council and with the Court of Public Works Coordinator, with the major technical difficulties this evening. So apologies. Sir. Is that a department or a division of division? No worries. You are here now. Take a deep breath. It's all good. Do you want to introduce this a little bit? We? Sure. He went to Mr. Hilton. Yeah. I'm going to see if we can get our consultant, Rob Hilton, with an H to join in the room. And he's still not on. We we still. He's still not. As an attendee, I can't even. Could he have another name or perhaps. What we can do. Laura, hopefully you have the presentation. I think you're going to bring it up. We can have our one of our wonderful program specialists, Angela Vincent, jump in and take the lead and we'll see. If we're on the line. Let's do that. Okay, here we go. Great. Thank you all for your flexibility. So as I mentioned before, the item before you tonight is a proposed ordinance to comply with a state law Senate Bill 1383. Go on. Please go on to the next slide. Thank you. So a. Quick overview. I'll provide an overview of the requirements of Senate Bill SB 1383, California's short lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy Strategy designed to divert organic waste from landfills to reduce methane emissions. Provide an overview of the proposed municipal code updates and then summarize with our. Recommendation to council. Next slide, please. Thank you. So in summary, SB 1383 was passed in the state legislature in 2016 designed to reduce methane emissions. Landfills are a large source of methane emissions, so this law's ultimate goal is to reduce organic waste going to landfill by 75% by 2020. There is also a 20% edible food recovery. Reduction goal as well. Next slide. So SB 1383 requires all jurisdictions in California to. Adopt an enforceable, unenforceable ordinance to implement the requirement by January 1st, 2022. You can see here there is a number of items that cities are required to implement. The first one is to require recycling and organics recycling for all generators and to establish an edible food recovery. Program to implement the Cal. Green building standards, to have an enforceable ordinance, and to have to update any additional policies to remove any restrictions prohibited by 1383. Next slide. Please. So the ordinance before you has three main categories of code updates. The first one is to ensure the city's compliance with SB 1383. The ordinance is modeled after Stop Waste Ordinance. Stop Waste is the Alameda County Waste Management Authority. They have developed a countywide ordinance called the Organics Reduction and Recycling Ordinance for ORO, as it's a now referred to as. And the city has. Used that the county's template ORO as a model. To update our code to comply with state. Law. The ordinance also designates additional implementation and enforcement entities as allowed by SB 13 three to help the city comply. Then the next category of code updates is to conform with the recently approved. Franchise agreement. With ASI, Alameda County Industries. The city's waste hauler, which became effective July 1st, 2022. There's some revised definitions removal of provisions that no longer apply and adds additional requirements to the code that are in the franchise agreement, including enhanced reporting. Requirements. Related to 1393, as well as contamination monitoring requirements again to comply with SB 33. And though the last bucket of updates is to provide legal basis to implement strategy, four of the Council approved 2018 zero waste implementation plan update Strategy four is related to construction and demolition debris diversion. These code updates include codifying the California green building standards, increasing the diversion rate of concrete and asphalt to 95%, and requiring contractors to consider deconstruction and use approved facilities. Next slide, please. In summary, the recommendation to the Council is to update the excuse me adopt the ordinance to comply with SB 1383. To reiterate, cities are required to adopt an enforceable ordinance by January 1st, 2022, and failure to comply could result in penalties. The ordinance would also conform the city's code with the franchise agreement with ACI and implement strategy for related to construction and demolition debris. Of the Council approved. 2018 zero waste implementation plan. Update That includes my presentation. We will open it up to questions. Thank you. Thank you, Ms.. Vincent. Admirable job at being tossed in feet first, as it were. There. You did great. Thank you. Madam Cook, do we have any public speakers on this item? Nobody has raised their hand yet. And we do have Mr. Helton in now. Yes, I see that we do. So what council do we. Hi, welcome. Do we have any clarifying questions of Mr. Vincent or any of the staff before us? Yeah. Okay. Not see any hands up. Mr. Helton, Ms.. Vincent just did a nice job taking us through the slide presentation. What would you like to add in the remaining 4 minutes and 22 seconds? Just my apologies. I was in the middle of a identical item with another city council on another zoom and jumped over as quickly as I could. So my apologies. But it is, as was described in the presentation and Angela did a great job. As long as you assure us that we're your favorite city. But now that. I abandoned them and came right over here. Well, that's all we want to hear. Okay, so anything else? Mr. Green. Ms.. Acord. Ms.. McKenzie, anything you wanted to add? Nothing to add. I think we're ready for questions. All right. Well, I'm Councilmember Harris. Spencer. I believe you represent the city on subways. Is that correct? Do you want to lead the discussion? So make a motion or anything. I want to commend staff for bringing this. It is obviously very important and it has to happen sooner rather than later. Right. So I appreciate the mayor moving to that. I think it's critical. Obviously, our our community is extremely supportive of this work. And I am happy to move the item for approval. And I also want to thank Angela and Vincent. You did a great job, didn't she? Sometimes you don't expect to be the lead speaker, but hey, now you can do it any time. Okay, well, we have a motion. Thank you for that information. Councilmember Harry Spencer, do have a second. Councilmember Knox. Right. All right. And any further discussion, council. CNN, may we have a roll call vote, please? Rotation? Yes. Herrera Spencer. I knocked. White. With appreciation. Staff Yes. Melissa Yes. Mayor As the Ashcraft and ditto. Councilmember Nice words. Thanks. Yes, I guess I'd say that's unanimous. All right. Well, thank you, counsel. Thank you. Staff and consultants, everyone, for for doing this work. And then we look forward to the second reading next meeting. Correct? Adam Kirk. Yes. It will come back on consent. I think it's perfect. All right. Thank you so much, everyone. All right. So now we will move back to what will we move back to? Is that seven.