Important meetings and announcements week of May 21st

[Bruce England]

Notices

• Comment letters in development for this week:
  No comment letters in play right now that I'm aware of, though verbal comments are anticipated for some of the agenda items listed below as red text as applicable. If you have comments/suggestions for any of those, please share them by replying to this email and/or posting to the the related Mountain View Advocacy Slack channels here.
• Photos from recent SVBC MV events:
  For the last community bike ride and during Bike to Wherever Days. We keep all our event photos that we have in the Events folder here. 
• August 19, 3rd Annual El Camino Real Ride:
  From Sharlene Liu, Sunnyvale local team leader:
  We'd like to invite you and your teams to join. Our vision is eventually we'll ride the entire length of El Camino Real in Santa Clara County. For now, we'll aim to traverse 3 cities: Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Mountain View. Here's the plan.
  - Saturday, August 19, 2023, 10:30-12:30.
  - Meet at Santa Clara Caltrain station. Caltrain: Northbound train arrives at 9:37 am. Southbound train arrives at 10:19 am.
  - Ride north on El Camino Real to Pinkberry, stop to enjoy frozen yogurt, free for attendees. SVBC local team budget will cover the cost.
  - Continue to Mountain View. To avoid Hwy 85 interchange, turn right on Sylvan, go through Sylvan Park to Dana St. to downtown.
  - Caltrain: Northbound train leaves MV at 1:17 pm. Southbound train leaves MV at 12:52 pm.
  Plans at this point are tentative and may change. I want to let you know about it so, if you'd like to provide input, you can join us for the next planning meeting, Monday, June 5, 1 pm.
  
• May 23, Sustainable Silicon Valley Air Quality & Sustainable Mobility (AQSM23) workshop:
  From Liza Kirby from Sustainable Silicon Valley:
  I would like to invite your members to the Sustainable Silicon Valley Air Quality & Sustainable Mobility (AQSM23) workshop on May 23, 2023, in Palo Alto. Participants will have the opportunity for discussions, collaborations, and networking with diverse leaders working in air quality, transportation, climate change, public health, and equity.
  See below for a preview of several industry leaders who will be participating at this inaugural workshop on May 23rd at the Mitchell Park Center in Palo Alto.
  - Davina Hurt, California Air Resources Board (CARB) Board Member, and San Mateo County cities representative to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board (BAAQMD), where she serves as Vice-Chair of the board and Chair of the Community Equity, Health, and Justice Committee. Davina will kick off the workshop with a keynote framing the intersection of air quality and sustainable mobility.
  - Tim Menard, Founder and CEO of startup LYT, an intelligent connected traffic technology providing cloud-based platform that orchestrates Intelligent Transportation Systems.  Tim will be leading the session "Post-Pandemic Transit Innovation: Will AI make tech affordable for every city and equitable for all citizens?"
  - Dr. Anthony Strawa, Chief Scientist at SSV, and former NASA Atmospheric Scientist, specializing in the effects of aerosols (particles in the air) on climate and air quality. Tony will be leading the session "Hyperlocal Data: How will the low-cost air quality sensor revolution help us get a grip on congestion and empower communities?"
  Find more information and register here: tinyurl.com/AQSM23
• Next City meeting on Bernardo undercrossing project:
  From Angela Obeso with Sunnyvale Public Works:
  it was scheduled for tonight’s Council meeting [5/16] but it got bumped due to other items and schedules.  I was unaware until the agenda came out, so we are working with the City Clerk’s and City Manager’s offices to figure out when it will get rescheduled.  As of right now, we’re thinking it will either be next week (5/23) or the following meeting (6/6).
  We are working to get the webpage updated, but due to the tight timeline it may not get done in time.  As soon as we have a rescheduled date, we will update the website and also send out an email blast to the Bernardo UC subscription list.
• Active Transportation Plan survey now available:
  From Brandon Whyte, City of Mountain View active transportation planner:
  I welcome you to take the Active Transportation Plan survey at www.MountainViewATP.com. Now is the best time to be heard and make lasting change.
  Do you have a:
  - Policy improvement you want?
  - Big project you want prioritized?
  - A small project?
  - Maybe a complaint without a solution?
  - Maybe a solution without a complaint? (I’ll be happy with either)
  - A bike rack you want ?
  ANYTHING BIKE OR PEDESTRIAN-RELATED?
  Please click the link above and use the survey. There is a handy mapping function that will allow you to show us exactly where to fix it. You can also see what other people have requested by turning on a layer of the map. That said, just because one person requested it does not mean you should not. The more requests we have for one thing, the more likely we are to prioritize it.
• City of Mountain View debuts new website:
  As of May 19th. See the press release with details here.
• State of California bills just went through the two Appropriation Committees:
  A number of them passed through, but not all According to April Webster these (of particular interest to us) went through:
  
  SB-50
  AB-527
  AB-7
  AB-73

Continued Notices

• April Webster green complete streets comment letter:
  You can read her draft and add comments to it here.
  From Sandhya Laddha (san...@bikesiliconvalley.org) at SVBC: These are some comments SVBC will be sharing on the draft DIB-94. If you have any suggestions, let me know by 5pm on 5/15. Or feel free to send your comments directly to "Complete...@dot.ca.gov"  They are accepting comments until Wed 5/17.
  April says: In order for your comments to be "accepted," you must use the spreadsheet Caltrans shared. I've uploaded it to a Google drive for convenient sharing: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1roC7WpTjvGNho8FNuZ-LoktvLj7wiEnm/edit?usp=drivesdk&ouid=111799708366841777475&rtpof=true&sd=true
• VTA/county BPAC update to the county-wide active transportation plan:
  From Brandon Whyte:
  I just wanted to share the opportunity to learn more about the County’s on-going update to their Active Transportation Plan.
  This is the detailed presentation given to the VTA/county BPAC on the update to the county-wide active transportation plan: http://santaclaravta.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=4&ID=11633&MeetingID=3834
  The website with more information and the opportunity to submit feedback is: https://activesantaclaracounty.org/
• The City still doesn't fully have a public-facing hybrid meeting process in place 😢:
  For example, the Parks and Recreation Commission, Public Safety Advisory Board, Senior Advisory Committee, and Youth Advisory Committee, and the DRC and Administrative Zoning hearings have not been doing this so far.
  If you care about this, please contact City Council to urge them to expedite the solution. Adequate public access is being compromised through this until it's fixed.
  Similarly, you can sign this petition to tell the county to reinstate virtual public comment.
  What the City is saying on delays to public-facing hybrid meetings:
  Thank you for your inquiry regarding hybrid public meetings. This email was forwarded to me for a response on behalf of the City Council. The Council is blind copied on this response.
  Meetings of the City Council and the Environmental Planning Commission are currently accessible in person, on Zoom, and on the City’s YouTube page. Additionally, meetings of the Rental Housing Committee will also be accessible in person or on Zoom beginning with the Committee’s next meeting on March 27. Members of the public who wish to participate in these meetings can choose between attending and commenting in person or via Zoom.
  The City is committed to community engagement, including enhanced access to public meetings, and recognizes the importance of remote participation options to our community. City staff is working on enabling remote public participation at Council subcommittee meetings and all other Council Advisory Body meetings. This includes upgrading meeting rooms, identifying and assigning additional staff members to attend advisory body meetings to manage the expanded tasks associated with supporting both in-person and remote meeting elements,  writing policies and procedures, and training staff to ensure consistent and effective meetings.
  Recent upgrades at City Hall will allow us to begin piloting remote public participation for in-person meetings next month with a small number of meeting bodies in which community members have expressed particular interest for a hybrid option. Staff is continuing work on upgrading meeting rooms throughout the City, though this work is taking longer than expected due to delayed receipt of equipment orders and a need to integrate the new technology with existing AV systems and room configurations.
  Staff will be testing the technology and building capacity to run meetings that support meaningful and organized participation for in-person and virtual attendees to pave the way for the increased adoption of remote participation through June and widespread adoption in Fall 2023, following the summer hiatus. This phased approach is intended to minimize technological errors, facilitate consistency between meeting bodies, and ensure sufficient staffing and staff training for effective hybrid public meetings.
• Want to talk (either one person or in groups)?
  If you have anything related to SVBC MV you'd like to talk with Bruce about, contact him anytime at bken...@gmail.com, and we'll set up a call or video session. We can discuss anything, by the way, not just related to SVBC MV. There's a lot going on, and I want to be there for you, whatever you need. Seriously.

Meetings and events this week

• Tuesday, May 23rd, 6:30 PM: City Council meeting. City Hall, Council Chambers (2nd floor), 500 Castro Street and see remote access details in the agenda file.
  For information on the City website:
  https://mountainview.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1063196&GUID=D1404D8E-FDFB-48BF-9ED7-790113832483
  Including:

  4. CONSENT CALENDAR
  4.2 Downtown Outdoor Patio and Sidewalk Café Ordinances (Second Reading)
  4.9 Safe Routes to School Program-Professional Services Agreement
  4.10 Colony Street Connection to Permanente Creek Trail, Project 18-48-Increase Project Budget and Award Construction Contract
  4.15 Mountain View Transportation Management Association Contract Amendment
  7. PUBLIC HEARING
  7.1 189 North Bernardo Avenue Office Project
  
• Wednesday, May 24th, 4:00 PM: Administrative Zoning meeting. City Hall, Plaza conference room (2nd floor), 500 Castro Street.
  For information on the City website:
  https://mountainview.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1074251&GUID=29C29D3B-A4AA-418F-A717-C437215DA4E8
  Including:

  7. PUBLIC HEARING
  7.1 749 West El Camino Real, Leland Low for Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
  A scoping meeting to take public comments regarding the scope and content of the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for a request for a Planned Community Permit and Development Review Permit to construct a new six-story, mixed-use development with 299 residential apartment units, 22,422 square feet of ground floor retail-commercial space, and at-grade podium parking above two levels of underground parking, including a State Density Bonus Request with development waivers, and a Heritage Tree Removal Permit to remove 26 Heritage Trees, replacing an existing bank and vacant restaurant buildings and surface parking lot on a 3.1-acre site.