Zoom

Attendees: Leia Mehlman – Sunnyvale BPAC/Casa de Amigos, Nipurna Shah- Sunnyats, Dennis Ng- Transportation City of Sunnyvale, Valerie Suares- SNAIL, Kristel Wickham-Sustainability Commission, Doug Kunz- Sustainability Commission/Washington Park, Delphine Ng- Brawly, Lillian Tsang- City of Sunnyvale BPAC, Bev Woidyla- Lakewood, Marco Vasquez- SNAIL, Elaine Manly, Cindy- Cherry Chase, Murali Srinivasan- Ortega Park, Larry Klein- Mayor- Heritage District, Madeline Wilett- Sustainability City of Sunnyvale, Kathy Besser – Cherryhill, Elaine Manley- League of Woman Voters/Birdland, Chip Taylor- City of Sunnyvale Public Works, Mei-Ling Stefan – Panama Park, Jaqui Guzman- Deputy City Manger, Barbara Fukumoto, Ed Lau- Cherry Hill, Sara Grassman- Cumberland West, Srikanth Chari – Cherry Hill

7pm – Welcome/Brief Introductions, Reid Myers

7:10 – 7:40pm – Presentations by Sustainability &  BPAC Commissions,  Kristel Wickham & Doug Kunz (Chair/Vice Chair-Sustainability), BPAC – Leia Mehlman

Environment and sustainability commission advises the council.  Meets the 3rd Monday of every month. Why do we need this commission? Drought, wildfires, flooding, extreme heat affecting our quality of life. Actions that our city takes now can help the future. Scope- Make recommendations to Council. Climate Action Playbook recommendations and input, budget recommendations based on sustainability and study issues. Sustainability speaker series for the past 4 years. 4 topics/speakers per year.

Water/wastewater, updated area plans (ie: downtown, lawrence station, moffett park- make recommendations). Green building, Reach Codes. Waste reductions.

Climate action playbook- goals and actions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 2019- adoption. Like a sports playbook (sports themes). Six strategies. Clean electricity, decarbonizing buildings, decarbonizing transportation and sustainable land use, managing resources sustainably, Empowering our community, Adapting to a changing climate.

Emissions 2019 transportation 48%, commercial industrial 20%, residential gas 14%, commercial electricity 4%, residential electricity .2%, solid waste/off road equipment 7%.  Reduce by 56% by 2030. And 80% reduction by 2050.We have “next moves” for the city to do to reach these goals.

Doug Kunz: Speaker Series. Past- Jared Blumenfeld, Secretary of CA Environmental Protection Agency, closer to home in May- “Talking Trash” very well attended. Climate Action Scoreboard on the city website– how are we tracking to our city goals? How did we make progress and where did we not see progress.

Silicon Valley Clean Energy– Greenhouse gas emission free power. Most people didn’t opt out (cheaper than PG&E). Covers surrounding communities as well- Cupertino, Mountain View. Green building program. Incentives for new construction if developers make their buildings greener they get incentives.

Reach Codes all new construction is being built all electric- zero emissions. Water heating, food cooking in new buildings.

Study Issues: Policy incubator. Policy proposals to council. SV Clean Energy was one. Polystyrene ban. Heat pump water heater (electrifying is a big win for appliances). Single use plastics ordinance.

Neighborhood and Individuals can do a lot to support this cause!

1. Transportation green house gas emissions in city- how do we account for that (boundary)? A. Tricky to measure. Trips made within the city and half the trips going in and out of the city.
2. What if people come into our city or through our city to work? A. There are some ways to calculate–  our methodology is to do all the emissions within our city and half of trips coming in and out of our city. Many cities do it this way.

Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Commission: Leia Mehlman

She used to ride her bike a lot for exercise which is how she got involved. BPAC looks at new development, how friendly to cyclists and pedestrians. How well does it mesh with public transit? Meets 3rd Thursday every month. Purpose: Create a safe connected and efficient city wide walking and bicycling network. For a happier healthier and more sustainable city!

Vision Zero Goal: achieve a 50% reduction in fatalities and serious injuries by 2029. Would like to have zero. Acknowledges that traffic deaths and serious injuries are preventable. Engineering: Safe Routes to School included.

Active Transportation Plan- Increase active transportation mode share to 10% by 2030. We have buses and trains that go through our city. We want to use those. Advise the council, propose study issues. Improve bicycle and pedestrian access at Caltrain station. Tasman Drive from Fair Oaks to Lawrence. Complete mission gaps of sidewalk on east side of Poplar ave between El Camino and Peterson Middle School.

SNAIL- connectivity improvements. Want to improve bicycle network, pedestrians, and traffic calming. Want to do it by 2024.

We want the community to get involved! Search boards and commissions at sunnyvale.ca.gov. Staff Liaison: Dennis Ng, Lillian Tsang, Nabilah Deen.

There is an El Camino real improvement plan with the VTA.  bpac@sunnyvale.ca.gov

1. SNAIL asked about a new bike lane on Ahwahnee between Borregas and Fair Oaks and Boregas and Mathilda. Any new info on this? Where will parking go? A. This is a proposal at this point. We would need additional right away on this corridor to implement. No timeline yet.

7:40 – 8:00pm –  Civic Center Update, Chip Taylor- Sunnyvale Public Works

Sept 2018 master plan was created for the civic center including city hall, library, dept of public safety. 2019- approved for Phase 1. Public Safety building and site improvements.

Ultimate plan- a lot of green space. New library, new city hall, new public safety, and site improvements all approved. City Hall phase 1. Will include 6 new acres of open space. 17.5 acres at the end of the project. Civic center plaza for all kinds of functions with an amphitheater. Trying to retain the redwood trees for a nature walk.

Sustainability- will be a LEED platinum city hall, net zero energy usage, all electric, outdoor terrace decks.

Improved quality of service (consolidation of buildings, dedicated emergency center, public safety renovations). Accessible to the entire community- bike pedestrian friendly, usable open space, retained charles street garden, encourage civic engagement- expanded city council chambers. Improved community meeting spaces.

Four stories 119,000 GSF, single level underground parking 89 stalls, two outdoor terraces

Emergency Operations Center- top floor, offices on bottom floor.  13,000, LEED gold, Adjacent to existing DPS, mechanically independent of DPS.

Tenant improvements for DPS- renovation of 11,200 interior space, new locker rooms, shower facilities and offices.

May close Olive for events, etc.

Amphitheater by the annex building where you pay utility bills.

Where we are: City Hall: reclocated 12 trees, excavation of garage and poured foundation, completed steel erection, poured first level concrete floor.  EOC: foundation and grade beams poured, working on second level walls.

Project Schedule: 2021 contract award— 2022- 28 month construction Nov/Dec 2022 for City Hall/EOC.

1. what about the Library? A. Doing a feasibility analysis. Will try to get a bond measure…
2. What about the Superior Court A.  it’s owned by the court system and they won’t sell that to Sunnyvale.
3. Any money savings on new building vs existing A. that was part of the calculations and we will save money.
4. How many underground parking will have E-vehicle parking? A. Not sure the number but many!

8:00 – 8:15pm –  Cherryhill Overview of their Everyday Sustainability Grant, Kathryn Besser

Brainstormed ideas for sustainability. CherryhillNA.org. 8 week challenge! Go under grants. Came up with 8 ideas. Go paperless, gardening and composting, transportation and travel, pets, diet and cooking.

Example: Gardening and composting: Each week had a topic and activities and challenges. Some simple, some complex with the focus on everyday sustainability. Small ways to make incremental changes.

70 families participated.  Worked with Cherry Chase NA and did activities together!  Grand prize was raffle tickets and they had home composters as grand prize and lots of smaller prizes ie: led lights, etc.

People did many small steps like collecting water from the shower as it heated. Online they gave people a lot of options for things they could do.

Time Banking- maybe Sunnyvale could all do it. The concept of sharing skills. Write down any skills or services you could loan. Even tools, etc.

1. What about water savings as some homes continue to over water? A Mayor Klein answered and said that everyone needs to reduce by 15%, irrigation schedules will be published based on address.

8:15 – 8:20pm –  Redistricting Update, Jaqui Guzman 

Communities of interest for redistricting project. We need to redraw our 6 district boundaries using the new 2020 census data which should be coming out this month. This is to keep our districts relatively equal. Will be overseen by 7 commissioners who were appointed by council. They will be recommending 3-5 maps and the city council will choose one of these maps. This will last until March of 2022 when we submit the final map.

In 2019 we asked the community to identify communities of interest. Neighborhood Asso, Mobile home parks, school boundaries, physical boundaries. They would like to invite community members to talk about your community of interest. You can go to the online tool.

Help Draw the Map! (fill out demographics so we know we are reaching people!)

sunnyvale.ca.gov/redistricting click on “draw your own map”

Questions Jguzman@sunnyvale.ca.gov and she can come to your neighborhood meeting!

Sept 9th is next meeting… will be on zoom (reviewing community input).

8:20 – 8:30pm – Upcoming Neighborhood Grant Cycle/Website Manger, Tracey Gott

Grant Cycle will be opening up in September for Jan-December. Can be whatever can bring neighborhoods together.

Centralizing our individual neighborhood meetings (send them to Reid/Tracey)– so people can see when they all are!

WE NEED A WEB DEVELOPER – Kathy Besser agreed to help out!!

Adjourned 8:30PM

Respectfully Submitted by Reid Myers