WEBVTT 1 00:00:07.111 --> 00:00:11.231 This is CivicFM, with the week at San Jose City Hall. 2 00:00:12.071 --> 00:00:27.086 The downtown plaza named for César Chávez is now Plaza de San José. The council reworks a city loan to keep a housing complex for foster youth afloat. And the Planning Commission backs an Apple deal that carves out land for PG&E. 3 00:00:27.086 --> 00:00:33.271 This episode was produced with AI from the public recordings of the week's meetings. Links to the sources are in the show notes. 4 00:00:36.749 --> 00:00:50.184 Our top story: on Tuesday the City Council voted unanimously to rename Plaza de César Chávez, the downtown park that hosts Christmas in the Park and Jazz Fest. Its new name is Plaza de San José. 5 00:00:50.184 --> 00:01:02.829 The park took Chávez's name in 1993, after his death. In March, after a New York Times investigation reported allegations of sexual abuse against him, the council's Rules Committee ordered a renaming. 6 00:01:02.829 --> 00:01:34.563 City staff ran community surveys that drew more than ten thousand responses, and they recommended Plaza de San José. The councilmember who moved it said it was the most suggested name by more than two to one. Not everyone agreed. The Parks and Recreation Commission had recommended Plaza del Pueblo de San José. And of roughly sixteen public speakers, about a dozen, many of them with a group called Friends of Guadalupe, asked for Plaza de los Inmigrantes, or Immigrants Plaza. They pointed to the city's large immigrant population. 7 00:01:34.563 --> 00:01:37.109 Here's that councilmember, making the motion. 8 00:01:37.759 --> 00:01:50.285 It will reaffirm that this really is a park that belongs to the people of San Jose and where everyone in our community is welcome. So all of that said, and for all of those reasons, I'm proud to move the staff recommendation and formally move to rename the Park Plaza De San Jose. 9 00:01:50.685 --> 00:02:07.805 The council also waived the policy that normally keeps a long-standing name in place unless there's a sponsorship or contribution. Next, staff plan to seek a conservancy for the plaza at the end of the year, and to seek a contract in spring 2027. 10 00:02:11.202 --> 00:02:36.137 Next, the council stepped in to keep a youth housing complex from running at a loss. Parkmoor Community Apartments, on Parkmoor Avenue in District 6, was built by Abode as permanent supportive housing for foster and transition-age youth. On Tuesday the council voted unanimously to change how the city's loan can be spent. It was meant for construction costs. Now it will pay down the project's Capital One construction loan. 11 00:02:36.137 --> 00:03:07.837 City staff said Abode drew only about four percent of the city loan during construction. Staff also acknowledged that the housing department missed a math error in the project's budget in early 2023. District 3 Councilmember Anthony Tordillos asked why the city only learned of the problem in May, eight months after construction finished. Staff said the developer was still renting out units before it converted the loan and turned in a final budget. Vice Mayor Pam Foley objected that paying down a private loan wasn't what the council approved the money for. 12 00:03:07.837 --> 00:03:12.162 She asked what happens if the council doesn't approve it. Here's city staff with the answer. 13 00:03:12.642 --> 00:03:30.812 In the event we do not provide this funding, the property will be in a negative cash flow status by probably beginning of next year, 2027, and will struggle to operate itself, likely resulting in a zombie building, whereby it's cash flow negative. 14 00:03:31.692 --> 00:03:48.372 Foley said she would support it, reluctantly, to protect the young residents. Staff said they had checked, and have no indication that any other Abode property is in a similar situation. On November tenth, staff are to bring other struggling affordable housing projects to the council. 15 00:03:51.850 --> 00:04:14.705 Our third story is from Wednesday's Planning Commission meeting. Apple's development agreement covers about eighty-six acres on Orchard Parkway in North San Jose. The commission recommended an amendment that takes nine point seven acres along North First Street out of that agreement so Apple can sell them to PG&E. Staff said it has become apparent publicly that PG&E intends to build a substation there. 16 00:04:14.705 --> 00:04:30.210 The amendment also anticipates closing a stretch of Orchard Parkway, which the City Council decides separately. In return, Apple would pay two and a half million dollars toward a bike and pedestrian crossing at Trimble Road and install protected bike lanes on Component Drive. 17 00:04:30.210 --> 00:04:51.850 All five public speakers were opposed or critical. A VTA planner said a substation next to the light rail station conflicts with transit-oriented plans, and that closing Orchard Parkway removes a low-stress bike route. Three speakers tied the deal to data centers. One, from a Sierra Club chapter, said the substation would power a data center proposed on Charcot Avenue. 18 00:04:51.850 --> 00:05:16.170 Staff said Apple isn't proposing a data center. They said the data center raised in public comment hasn't been approved and is a separate project several blocks away, and that PG&E is largely exempt from city land-use review. All eight commissioners present voted yes; three were absent. The recommendation now goes to the City Council, and the chair urged residents worried about the street closure or the data center to contact their councilmember. 19 00:05:19.647 --> 00:05:43.192 Now a few shorter items from around City Hall. The council unanimously accepted an audit of its abandoned-vehicle program. The City Auditor found the program closes ninety-eight percent of cases within two weeks. Still, councilmembers said residents are often told a case is closed while the car is still there. A new 311 app is due in March 2027. 20 00:05:43.192 --> 00:06:10.732 The council also unanimously approved three-year contracts with the Municipal Employees' Federation, which is AFSCME Local 101, and with the unions for city engineers and managers. Their last contracts expired in June. As described at the meeting, the new deals include three percent raises each year and safeguards on artificial intelligence. Members of the maintenance supervisors' union didn't ratify their tentative deal, and it goes to closed session next week. 21 00:06:10.732 --> 00:06:22.547 The consent calendar included up to one point two million dollars for HomeFirst to run overnight warming sites this winter at Roosevelt Community Center and Cambrian Branch Library. 22 00:06:22.547 --> 00:06:41.992 The council unanimously approved a phased ban on watering decorative grass with drinking water, which state law requires. Who will enforce it isn't settled. The proposal has each water retailer enforce in its own service area. Staff said San Jose Water, in a letter to the council, wants the city to enforce citywide instead. 23 00:06:41.992 --> 00:07:17.167 At the Planning Commission, a neighboring RV business lost its appeal against Valley Recycling. The permit lets the site take up to two thousand four hundred fifty-one tons of construction and demolition debris a day, up from just under one hundred seventy-five, and run around the clock. The business described dust and odor that it said harms its staff's health. The permit won't take effect until the operator gets a permit adjustment that either raises the perimeter fence to twenty-five feet or lowers its piles. Staff said the operator chose the taller fence. 24 00:07:17.167 --> 00:07:26.647 And the commission put off approving its 2027 meeting schedule after a commissioner noticed that the packet held the 2026 calendar instead. 25 00:07:30.125 --> 00:07:53.660 Before we go, a look at the week ahead. The council meets Tuesday. Its agenda includes a four hundred thousand dollar lawsuit settlement, a torch relay agreement with the organizers of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, interviews for the city's retirement boards, and a status report and interim ordinance on a temporary moratorium on detention and custodial facilities. 26 00:07:53.660 --> 00:08:15.565 On Wednesday, the Planning Commission hears an appeal of a seven-story, two hundred sixty-four unit Builder's Remedy apartment building at 741 South Winchester Boulevard, and takes up its 2027 schedule again. On Thursday, the council holds a special joint meeting and site tour at the regional wastewater facility on Zanker Road. 27 00:08:19.442 --> 00:08:25.442 Hear something we got wrong? There's a link on the episode's page to report it, and corrections are read on air. 28 00:08:25.442 --> 00:08:29.122 That's the news from City Hall. See you after the next meeting.