Orinda City Council, Jul 15, 2025
The council took up a traffic signage item on Ivy Drive and Ardith, took no action on it and gave staff direction to return with a study session, and held a study session on an inclusionary housing ordinance.
3 h 58 min in session · date on the body’s own agenda listing
Plays here, from the first word spoken (7:23). Every chip below jumps the video to its second.
Posted as “Orinda City Council Meeting - July 15, 2025 - 7PM”
The meeting, in short
The council took up a traffic signage item on Ivy Drive and Ardith, took no action on it and gave staff direction to return with a study session, and held a study session on an inclusionary housing ordinance. 1:47:36
Written by one AI reader from the transcript and checked against it by a second, which read every line it cites. An independent reader checked 122 summary lines from across the site against their full meetings: 122 were right.
How we know
Written by one AI reader from the transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it by a second. Each chip plays that moment here. More on how we count
What members said, in order
I mean, it does— the traffic study does seem to indicate that there were some left turns contrary to the sign, but sure, obviously you don't know how many left turns there might have been had there not been a sign.Cara Hoxie · Councilmember31:53
Can I ask one more question? Are you also looking at the sidewalk from down Coral to Moraga Way that needs to be finished there as part of that?Cara Hoxie · Councilmember36:58
You know, there are other arguments being made that aren't based on numbers. But if you just look at the strength of this survey, these observations, I'm, I'm, um, I, I, I, I don't think they're reliable, even though I'm not an engineer.Janet Riley · Councilmember1:11:22
I do think we need to look at a sidewalk and a long-term capital improvement plan there. I am concerned about all of our students walking. We do have students walking on Ivy between 7 and 8 in the morning.Cara Hoxie · Councilmember1:18:27
I really want to talk to the traffic, the people who did the survey. I mean, this is their business. They must have a good explanation for giving us numbers when the sign says you can't turn left. Yeah, I don't know.Janet Riley · Councilmember1:44:17
Well, I think talking to the superintendent about sort of what she views the needs are, her students and staff getting to school at what time. And, you know, so we have a better understanding of how many students exactly are actually trying to get to OIS before the 8:45 official start.Cara Hoxie · Councilmember1:46:05
I don't, I don't think they need to. I disagree on that. I don't think they need to be part of the study session. I think I would like some more data, like how many kids over this next school year at Miramonte High School arrive, you know, have a reason to be at school before 8:30, right?Latika Malkani · Mayor1:50:35
I understand we can't go over 15%, but our neighboring communities seem to be as low as 10%. And so I'm just trying to understand why we would either have 15% or 10% or 5%.Cara Hoxie · Councilmember2:49:43
I'm trying to understand. I know you said that it should apply to both for-sale and rental units, but is it MTC policy that keeps us from separating those 2 categories? Because it seems like I think the 15% affects the feasibility of for-sale units at a much higher rate than it does rental units.Cara Hoxie · Councilmember2:51:53
Can I ask a follow-up to the— because it goes to the percentage. Are we seeing, or are you seeing trends trends of any other jurisdictions looking to amend their inclusionary ordinances, in particular the percentage or the pieces that— to be compliant with TOC policy?Latika Malkani · Mayor2:54:13
I'm clearly not an expert and the newest to all of this, but I was thinking, uh, as we were hearing the presentation that the building costs seemed very low to me. I'm not a builder, and I was very concerned about sort of just impacting the feasibility of building anything.Cara Hoxie · Councilmember3:08:30
I mean, okay, I, I don't really understand the case-by-case basis, because the inclusionary housing ordinance, if we're gonna develop one, which I think we should, applies. But I think where we get more flexibility is by some of these choices we're asked to make within the ordinance, to the extent I understand it. Yes.Latika Malkani · Mayor3:09:17
Provided it, it is still— I, I do want to develop an inclusionary ordinance, and I also want it to be compliant with MTC TOC guidelines.Latika Malkani · Mayor3:09:54
It's not even low-hanging fruit, it's just possible. So many of those TOC guidelines, I think, are just— they're— they don't work.Latika Malkani · Mayor3:25:34
I mean, we, we've I— to reframe, I think the question should be, do you want to move forward with an inclusionary ordinance or not? And if so, I'm just saying the 15%, like, my view is 15 rather than 10 because of the MTC TOC policy. That doesn't have to be everyone's view.Latika Malkani · Mayor3:30:17
The only project I know of that actually has— like, the Orinda Grove project had 8 units that they built for teachers. It was a school district property, and that was about 10%, and that was feasible, obviously, because they built it and they sold it.Cara Hoxie · Councilmember3:30:43
I'm not so clear either, okay, to be quite honest, but I'm in favor of the conversation, um, and, and understanding it better. I'm concerned about the percentage I don't think we want to be on the top of the in-lieu fee scale. I don't think we want to be at the bottom.Cara Hoxie · Councilmember3:35:22
How we know
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Members we named
How we know
Of the speech we named for Latika Malkani here:
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- 0% name said in the same meeting
How we know
Of the speech we named for Cara Hoxie here:
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Of the speech we named for Darlene K. Gee here:
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Of the speech we named for Brandyn Iverson here:
- 100% name said in the same meeting
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Of the speech we named for Janet Riley here:
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How we know
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