Sunnyvale’s City Council met for nearly six hours on January 24 to hear public input on the city’s study issues, adjust the Housing Mitigation Fee, approve neighborhood grants, and sign off on the city’s Legislative Advocacy Positions.

Corporation Yard Master Plan

Before the Regular Meeting, Public Works presented a Study Session for a master plan to renovate the Corporation Yard (“Corp Yard”) on Commercial St. Several city departments use the yard for vehicle fleet maintenance and storage.

Most buildings at the 8.72-acre site were built in the 1950s. The structures are sound, but the old buildings will need replacement as the city grows. The master plan, split into three phases, is projected to run near $100 million. This project is not yet funded, and the city will pursue various funding options once the Council approves.

Councilmember Russ Melton noted that, during a site tour, he wondered whether the city could rehabilitate the existing structures. But the need for expensive seismic retrofits made a strong case for rebuilding the site.

For Public comment, Kristel Wickham, Chair of the Sustainability Commission, cited the need to plan for additional electrical needs as the city’s large vehicle fleet electrifies. Former Councilmember Tara Martin-Milius emphasized that “Cutting GHGs now has a tremendous impact.”

Board and Commission Recruitment

Councilmember Alyssa Cisneros reminded the public that the city has several vacancies on our Boards and Commissions and invited residents to apply. The application deadline is Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023, at 4 p.m.

Current vacancies:

• Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (1)
• Board of Library Trustees (2)
• Heritage Preservation Commission (1)
• Sustainability Commission (1)

Dark Skies

Rani Fischer of the Santa Clara Audubon Society gave a short presentation for Oral Communications on the hazards of excess night lighting. She sought to raise public awareness of safe night lighting practices and encourage the city to adopt a Dark Sky Ordinance.

Study Issues and Budget Proposals

Council next opened a public discussion on Potential Study Issues and Budget Proposals for 2023, which brought a large volume of public comment.

Bridget Watson highlighted the increased number of children at Sunnyvale’s Homeless Shelter. She encouraged Council to consider funding a dedicated staff position to address homeless concerns. She advocated hiring someone who could immediately look into reconfiguring the city’s shelter to provide for family needs, including privacy and kitchen access.

Anya Gajula, a Fremont High School student, spoke in support of a potential ballot measure to fund bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and in favor of Bike Lanes on Hollenbeck. Said Gajula, “only 5% of Fremont students bike to school, compared to 15% at other schools. The area around Fremont High School is especially dangerous: cars regularly drive 50 miles per hour across seven lanes of traffic, and there are no protected bike lanes. Our Vision Zero Plan lists Sunnyvale-Saratoga as a high-priority project for protected bike lanes, but there has been no progress made due to a lack of funding.”

Several members of the public spoke in favor of investigating an on-demand shuttle service to address the safe transportation needs of Sunnyvale students. Peggy Shen Brewster introduced Sunnyvale for Equity in Education (SEE), which is focused on the underserved transportation needs of Fremont High School students. Fellow SEE member Laurie Thomas explained that she sees students in Sunnyvale leaving the public school system in their high school years because Fremont can not reasonably be accessed by bicycling or public transportation. “We need a path for children to be able to get to Fremont High School, or we need a high school in North Sunnyvale.”

NOTE: As I wrote this article, the city website un-published the index of study issues it had previously advertised at https://sunnyvaleca.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=11587462&GUID=4A76E51B-8396-4D4E-B4AD-FD23DE83E510, so I am unable to find and link study issues referenced after this point in this post. -danny

Several residents spoke in favor of installing bike lanes on Hollenbeck and against adding a second right-turn lane from Fremont onto Bernardo, as a second turn lane would make the intersection–identified by Sunnyvale’s Vision Zero policy as a “high injury” intersection–even more dangerous. Many regarded their advocacy as especially necessary, as Public Works staff recommended against a bike lane on Bernardo due to the need to remove parking from one side of the street and because staff favor adding a double right-turn at Bernardo in order to facilitate increased car traffic. “Adding an extra lane for car traffic is only going to induce more car traffic, and we’re going to end up with a fatality,” explained resident Nick Brosnahan.

Councilmember Murali Srinivasan proposed a study issue to implement a shuttle service for North Sunnyvale students to access Fremont Highschool, in addition to creating an app for residents to access city services. Councilmember Alyssa Cisneros introduced a study issue to prohibit right turns on red at Fremont and Bernardo and for improved homeless shelter services focused on the needs of families. Councilmember Richard Mehlinger proposed a ban on gas-powered leaf blowers and a budget allocation for a pilot program to contract a consulting firm to investigate the next three road collisions in Sunnyvale that result in death or serious injury. Councilmember Linda Sell proposed a “Bicycle and Walking Safety Metrics” study issue to better guide the city’s efforts at implementing Vision Zero, Safe Routes to Schools, and Active Transportation. Councilmember Russ Melton proposed a budget allocation to improve enforcement of the Short Term Rental ordinance, citing a recent shooting on Navarro. Each of these proposals received multiple co-sponsors.

The City Council will prioritize and rank 2023 Study Issues at the Study Issues and Budget Proposals Workshop, to be held on February 16.

Non-Residential Housing Mitigation Fee

The Non-Residential Housing Mitigation Fee is charged on new office, R&D, retail, and lodging developments to support new affordable housing development. Given that new commercial development brings workers into Sunnyvale, the city has a greater need to ensure affordable access to housing. Stephanie Hagar of Bae Urban Economics presented a summary of the Nexus Study Issue to help the city adjust this fee based on economic factors. Based on the results of the Nexus study, citing economic circumstances, staff recommended increasing the Office/R&D fee but not increasing the fee for retail, lodging, or industrial uses.

Councilmember Richard Mehlinger proposed slightly higher fees for Office/R&D than the staff recommendation in order to zero out retail fees. His motion was supported by Councilmember Omar Din, who explained that lowering the fee on retail would improve the economic feasibility of mixed-use housing development. Mayor Larry Klein explained that the retail fees are already relatively low, saying, “I don’t think that the fees are what’s keeping retail from expanding. And the majority of retail coming to the city is replacing existing retail, so they are paying none of these fees.”

City Council unanimously approved the staff recommendation to increase the Office/R&D fee to $11 for the first 25,000 square feet and $22 per square foot over the first 25,000 square feet.

Neighborhood Grant Program

The city funds various community events and provides financial grants to neighborhood organizations to host events. The Community Events and Neighborhood Grant Program Subcommittee previously worked through the various funding proposals, and the City Council unanimously signed off on their recommendations.

Priority Advocacy Issues and Long-term Legislative Advocacy Positions (LAPs)

The city maintains an advocacy document that allows the mayor and city staff to advocate for policies at the state and federal levels on Sunnyvale’s behalf.

Councilmember Richard Mehlinger expressed concerns about the advocacy document’s process and contents. “This document has substantially been on autopilot.” Mehlinger cited various strong positions the city has taken over the years, including positions on controlled substances and the use of non-lethal force and local control of housing policy, where public discourse has since shifted. “As an elected official, the most important thing you have is your name, and what you put your name to matters a lot, and that is not an authority that I’m willing to give up lightly.” Mehlinger concluded, “I think a Council subcommittee to review the content of these positions would be very helpful to help us make sure that what we have in here is something that the whole council feels very comfortable supporting.”

Councilmember Linda Sell spoke in favor of the city’s ability to rapidly engage in advocacy. “I’ve seen how these letters work: a good environmental bill is out there, and then suddenly, all this opposition comes toward it. Supporters need to rapidly get city support. I do believe that these letters are very important, and being nimble is very important.” Sell explained that almost every year, Community Choice Energy comes under attack, and Sunnyvale is able to stand for it.

Mayor Larry Klein and Vice Mayor Omar Din thought it was reasonable to omit the names of council members on advocacy letters, as not all council members necessarily took those positions. Din: “it makes sense to me that when these letters go out, they are going out on behalf of the city, not on the behalf of seven individuals here.”

Councilmember Mehlinger proposed two amendments to the Policy document: first, to retain the city’s position on opposing Internet content filtering, pending further review, and second, to tweak the wording on the proposed 2023 Priority Advocacy issues to better reflect the need to balance between local control and expanded housing opportunities. The first amendment succeeded, whereas the second failed.

City Council adjourned at 11:50 pm.