My Vision for the City
On April 26, 2024, I delivered “State of the City” address. The title of my speech was “Change and Transformation in Los Altos.” My goal was to explain my view of the City – where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. The text of that speech is below.
2024 State of the Cities
Hello.
Before I begin, I want to say thank you very much to the Chamber of Commerce, its President, my friend Kim Mosley, and its Board of Directors for arranging today’s gathering and for doing an excellent job serving our cities.
I also want to extend a very special thank you to Congresswoman Eshoo for her leadership and advocacy during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in helping Los Altos and Los Altos Hills secure the financial assistance we needed from the federal government to maintain the high level of services our residents have come to expect and which they deserve.
CHANGE AND TRANSFORMATION
Los Altos is a City undergoing exciting changes and transformations. The challenge before us as a City – as a community – is how to plan for the future without sacrificing the needs of the present. I hope when I’m done with my remarks, you’ll all agree that our community is working together to meet that challenge.
NEW MISSION STATEMENT
Let me start with a simple but thoughtful change we made just a couple of months ago. The Council changed the City’s mission statement to better reflect our modern values. Our old mission statement focused on Los Altos being a great place to live and raise a family. And it still is! But we’ve expanded that scope so that our residents, City staff, businesses, visitors and others understand that our values have expanded. To me, the most important adjective in our new Mission Statement is inclusivity. No matter who you are, no matter your background, your aspirations, your race, religion, or ethnicity, you are welcome in Los Altos and there is a place for you here.
EMBRACING OUR DIVERSE COMMUNITY
In February, I was honored to give a proclamation recognizing the lunar new year. In March, I gave a proclamation in honor of the month of Ramadan. And earlier this month, I gave a proclamation in honor of Arab-American Heritage month. As far as I know, this is the first time Los Altos has honored Ramadan and Arab-American heritage month with proclamations.
In June, for the second year in a row, the City will raise both the Progress Pride flag and the Juneteenth flag.
The City has also hosted events, including a celebration of the Chinese New Year, and – for the first time – an iftar at which I was honored to speak. Later this year the City will host other celebrations, including a holiday tree lighting, and a menorah lighting. We are united as a community, but we are also diverse. I believe that we draw strength from our diversity. By sharing our cultural celebrations and inviting others to join us, we build understanding, respect, and trust. These three – understanding, respect, and trust – are the foundation for the changes we have already seen take place in Los Altos, and the transformations that are yet to come!
MEETING OUR COMMUNITY’S HOUSING NEEDS
In January of last year, the City Council adopted an update to our Housing Element for the sixth RHNA cycle and we wasted no time in fulfilling our promises to the community.
Even though 90% of Los Altos is zoned R1, we decided as a community not to upzone our single-family residence districts. That means we expect to grow along El Camino, along Foothill, and in our Downtown triangle. The Council envisions housing in accordance with our values as expressed in our new Mission Statement. We want housing that is sustainable, vibrant, and inclusive.
One of the most exciting projects is a 100% affordable complex on Distel Circle which is right off El Camino Real. Not only will this development house upwards of 90 families at below market rates, but it will be a showcase for modern construction techniques including the use of mass timber. I want to thank Supervisor Joe Simitian for his stewardship and advocacy for this project; it wouldn’t have happened without your support.
The City itself will create even more below market rate housing. As promised in our Housing Element, we will transform one of our parking plazas into a multi-family development of all BMR units.
More market rate and below market rate housing continues to be developed along First Street and in other parts of our Downtown Triangle.
All in all, in what can be described as nothing less than a Herculean effort by City Staff, and with critical contributions by our Planning Commission, the Council has rewritten more than half of Los Altos’ zoning code to accommodate the development of almost 2,000 new homes. In the past year and-a-half, the City has implemented 27 of the programs we promised to perform in our new Housing Element. Another six programs are in progress, and more are forthcoming. In particular, I want to acknowledge and thank Nick Zornes, our Assistant City Manager for Land Use, for his hard work and dedication to guiding us through the process of staying true to the promises we made in our housing element.
INNOVATING PARK SPACES
As more people move into our community, they need more places to play, to gather, and to enjoy. To accommodate those needs, the City committed to renovating and modernizing our parkland. A new playground is about to be installed at Shoup Park along with playgrounds and playscapes in other parks. After a frustrating delay, the Grant Park community center is poised to get new HVAC and hot water.
We’re also planning to make improvements to our nature preserve, Redwood Grove. The caretaker’s house will be removed and replaced with a public restroom. The City will install a natural playground, and perhaps we can finalize making a connector trial from the preserve to Los Altos Hills.
The City Council is meeting other needs of our growing community. We striped six pickleball courts at the McKenzie Tennis Courts. And a brand new, enclosed dog park is coming to the Hillview Community Center.
The Los Altos Library Endowment is moving forward with plans that envision an outdoor patio attached to our main library. And to honor the City’s agricultural heritage, we have partnered with the History Museum to revitalize our historic apricot orchard.
INVIGORATING DOWNTOWN
Some of the most exciting and transformative changes the City will experience are coming to the downtown triangle. Let me show you one of the most exciting projects City staff and the Council are working on:
This is what parking plazas 1 and 2 currently look like.
This is what they might look like in a few years.
Our City’s staff is currently working on a feasibility study to see what resources are needed to build a one- or two-story underground parking garage with a beautiful park on top. Imagine: all that asphalt could be transformed into trees, open green space, patios, benches and picnic tables, a playground, and a community gathering space with public restrooms and other amenities Downtown has needed for decades.
And at the north end of the park might be a new theater where people can gather to enjoy the performing arts.
To be sure, there’s a long way for us to get from here to there. These are conceptual ideas. And a lot of questions have to be answered; the community has to give its input, and we have to allocate our resources wisely. But the process is in motion, and I am confident that the City will present our community with terrific options.
We’re taking other steps to modernize and beautify our downtown. Earlier this year I had the honor of accepting a $200,000 grant from our State Senator, Josh Becker, in support of our Downtown Green Projects. With this generous contribution, the City will be able to move forward on key downtown sustainability initiatives, such as lighting improvements and electric bicycle parking. These lighting improvements will allow the streetlights in our downtown to use less electricity from the grid and the electric bicycle parking improvements will encourage residents, employees, and visitors to ride their bicycles whenever possible to downtown.
Both of these projects will move Los Altos forward in achieving our community’s sustainability goals.
SAFEGUARDING OUR NEIGHBORHOODS
Our changing community requires that we re-evaluate the way we protect one another, think critically, and both adapt to the needs of the present, and prepare now for Los Altos’ future needs.
In 2022, the Council adopted a Complete Streets Master Plan. The heart of that plan is safe routes to school for our children and their caretakers. This doesn’t just mean that we provided a set of maps. Safe routes to school means that the Council adopted a policy of providing the resources necessary to protect our children. From having enough crossing guards on duty, to properly striping our streets, the City has put its money where its mouth is.
Another critical part of our Complete Streets Master Plan is to make Los Altos safer for cyclists. Within the next year, El Camino Real will be repaved and restriped. For the first time in the City’s history, we will provide protected, Class IV bike lanes along El Camino Real. Last year, the City was awarded a One Bay Area grant of $7.3 million to restripe San Antonio and include protected Class IV bike lanes. And, while the project is still only in the conceptual stage, the VTA plans to improve Foothill Expressway in the coming years. That will be another opportunity to calm traffic and provide safe bike lanes along the Expressway.
Next week the City will hear a presentation from the VTA on its project to redesign the Homestead Corridor. Reimagining and improving this corridor is critical to provide safe routes to school for our residents who attend Homestead High School and Cupertino Middle School. The Homestead corridor, including the scary intersection of Foothill, Homestead, Grant, and Vineyard, is one of the City’s most dangerous intersections for children going to and from school. Guided by our Complete Streets Master Plan, the City, in conjunction with the County, has an opportunity to prove our commitment to our children’s safety.
We are also investing in our police department. Last year, after a careful and thoughtful series of meetings, the Council approved the use of automatic license plate readers. We also purchased brand new police cruisers and this year we approved the department’s request to acquire and use drones. Later this year we will open a police substation in the Loyola Corners neighborhood. I am pleased to report to the community that we are fully staffed with sworn officers, and earlier this year the City hired its second police captain, Joe Ledoux. Captain Ledoux and Captain Katie Krause will lead our department until we bring aboard a new chief – which should happen within the next several weeks.
Our police department has made a commitment to work with the community and to keep us safe. But now it’s time for the City to make a commitment to the Police Department. In its current condition, our police station does not meet the needs of the community. The station is prone to flooding, lacks adequate air conditioning and heating, and lacks other necessities that our police need to perform their duties professionally and efficiently.
Both of our firehouses also need extensive repairs or replacement of their roofs and other parts of their structures. We cannot expect our first responders to serve us properly if we do not provide them with the facilities and equipment they need to do the job.
Make no mistake. The single, most important thing this Council can do to protect our community is to both find – and fund! – a viable solution to fix our public safety infrastructure.
WHERE WE’VE BEEN
The new Hillview Community Center, which was finished three years ago within budget, proved that this Council and this City Staff, when working together with our community, can accomplish great things. In the past few years, we have positioned ourselves for more success. We have extricated ourselves from the burden of costly litigation against wireless carriers and developers – putting to rest disputes that were costing us millions of dollars and delaying the installation of amenities long demanded by our residents, businesses, and property owners.
We’ve tackled some very difficult issues like the removal of shade trees along the Hetch Hetchy trail. And we have controversial issues in front of us, like the future of Halsey House.
We’ve made some mistakes along the way. And that’s OK. We aren’t perfect. We’re going to make mistakes in the future, and then do our best to correct problems. But I am very proud to be a member of this particular City Council and to work with our outstanding City staff. We are professionals. We are committed to working together with all of our community. We debate passionately, but also with thoughtfulness and care. We don’t always agree. But we respect the commitment each of has to work diligently and collaboratively to move the City forward so that we can plan for the future without sacrificing the needs of the present.
CLOSING REMARKS
In closing, I would like to thank my colleagues on the City Council, Vice Mayor Pete Daily, Councilmember Sally Meadows, Councilmember Neysa Fligor, and Councilmember Lynette Lee Eng. It is a pleasure serving with you. I would also like to thank our City’s staff who work tirelessly to implement the policies and directions from the Council, and I would especially like to thank Mr. Anthony Carneseca, the Assistant to the City Manager, and Ms. Sonia Lee, the City’s Public Information Officer. Anthony and Sonia worked very closely with me on this speech and they are responsible for the graphics you see on the screen. Our City Manager, Gabe Engeland, has assembled a terrific team and I’m grateful for the positive relationship he has built with the Council.
Again, I want to thank Kim Mosley and the Chamber for doing all the hard work to arrange today, and I want to extend a very heartfelt thank you to the Fremont Hills Country Club, its membership, its officers and directors, and its staff for hosting this wonderful afternoon.