City Council Preview – SummerHill Project Returns 
By Robert Haugh
Tomorrow’s Council meeting should be another brief meeting.
The most heated topic will likely be the return of SummerHill Homes’ project at 2232-2240 El Camino Real. The project failed by a 4-3 Council vote in March. The original plan called for building 151 apartment rental units at the site of Mayuri Restaurant, Verizon, Calmar Cycles and Academy for Salon Professionals – it was met with a bevy of opposition. Project opponents called for more affordable and/or senior units and more retail, as well as reducing the height of the project.
Since that meeting, SummerHill revised the plan, as we suggested would happen. The project dropped the fifth story, made the entire 151 units market rate senior housing and increased the retail component substantially from 10,000 to almost 18,000 square feet. The developer also agreed to additional conditions of approval requested by the Planning Commission, which included: 25 electrical vehicle charging stalls, an annual parking survey; an occupancy survey to verify residency of all senior residential units for the first year and every other year subsequently; annual review of the project’s conformance with its Transportation Demand Management, a provision of a free six-month VTA pass as an incentive for new lease holders to use transit and eliminating parking along the project’s El Camino Real street frontage.
We’re hearing rumors that SummerHill doesn’t have agreements with important existing tenants and that could be a major issue for approval.
The City Council will have visitors from Limerick, Ireland, one of the City’s Sister Cities. Yvonne Daly, the Business Improvement Department for Limerick City and County Council will a make a brief presentation and will introduce the visiting delegation, including 12 exchange students.
Budget Surplus Transfer

The Council will approve transferring Fiscal Year 2016-17 Operating Budget surplus: $34 million to the Electric Rate Stabilization Fund, $6 million to Working Capital Reserve, $7 million to Capital Projects Reserve, $7 million to Pension Trust Fund, $5.4 million to Special Liability Fund Reserve, $3.5 million to Pension Trust Fund, $1.9 million to Special Liability Fund for ongoing legal services and $402,549 to Building Inspection Reserve.

Closed session
During closed session, Council will review the performance of interim City attorney Brian Doyle. There are also items on the litigation between the 49ers and the City and also the recent police settlement. 

Editor’s note: this post is a tad later than usual. We apologize for the delay.