When the Palo Alto City Council adopted in January its top priorities for 2023, its goal of the exercise was to identify areas that would need significant attention this year and determine exactly what the city could and should accomplish before the end of the year.

Since then, however, the council has stretched the definition of "priority" toward its breaking point as its list of pressing issues ballooned to 61 separate projects, all of which relate in some way to the four official priorities: economic recovery and transition; climate change and the natural environment; housing for social and economic balance; and community health and safety.

The list includes everything from evaluating new parking facilities in the downtown areas and restoring library services to their pre-pandemic levels to constructing a "transitional housing" project for unhoused residents and adopting strategic plans for economic development and electric vehicles.

On Monday, April 10, the council voted to finalize its list of priority objectives for 2023 and to further expand it. Over two separate votes, council members backed the addition of more than a dozen other items. Despite broad acknowledgement about insufficient staffing and resources to get everything done, the council unanimously agreed to increase funding for programs that support youth mental health, determine next steps for addressing sea level rise and engage youth in implementing climate change initiatives.

Council members also agreed to develop by the end of the year a schedule for launching coordinated areas plans for San Antonio Road, California Avenue, downtown and El Camino Real and to complete the state-mandated process of identifying sites that could accommodate 6,086 new dwellings between 2023 and 2031. They cemented their commitment to implement a rental registry; hire a consultant to help them transition the city away from natural gas; reach an agreement with the school district about the long-term use of Cubberley Community Center and approve a streetscape plan for University Avenue.

And by a 6-1 vote, with council member Greg Tanaka dissenting, council members added to the list of objectives the exploration of new dewatering requirements for commercial developments, expansion of a grant program that supports local nonprofits and assistance for the nonprofit La Comida in finding a north Palo Alto location to serve meals to low-income seniors.

Much like in their prior discussions, council members struggled to find the balance between their ambitions and staff capacity. At various points of the discussion, City Manager Ed Shikada reminded council members that most of their newly considered priority objectives don't have identified funding sources and more than half would not get started until 2024 at the earliest.

In a few cases, Shikada made it clear that staff would be able to initiate the projects this year but would need additional time to complete them. This includes the exploration of new strategies for protecting natural habitats with bird-safe glass design and regulations on light pollution in wildlife habitats.

"I think we're reaching the point of discomfort," Shikada said at one point, when council members were debating whether to tack on the creation of policies on habitat protection to its priority list, which now features more than 70 items.

Tanaka suggested that the list is too long and urged the council to carry some projects over into future years. He also said he supports dropping the city's plan to partner with the nonprofit LifeMoves to build a shelter for unhoused individuals on a San Antonio Road site near the Baylands. He cited an recent report by the Mountain View Voice, the Weekly's sister publication, that found myriad problems with a similar LifeMoves facility that currently exists in Mountain View, including a low rate of client placement into permanent housing, inconsistent case management and a restrictive environment that one client said made them feel like an inmate.

"It looks like a very troubled program and that should probably get pushed out," Tanaka said.

Council member Pat Burt pushed back and called the LifeMoves development a "critical project."

"We're all aware that there are issues relating to successful operation of that project, and I'm counting on our staff working with LifeMoves to get concrete responses on how they'll be able to achieve the operational services that we and they want to provide," Burt said. "But that's no reason to throw out such an important project."

While the council rejected Tanaka's suggestion to halt the LifeMoves project, members agreed to defer other programs that they otherwise support. This includes a new vacancy tax in the downtown area on retail buildings. Vice Mayor Greer Stone and council members Vicki Veenker and Julie Lythcott-Haims all said they would support the new tax, with Stone and Veenker advocating for a housing vacancy tax. Lythcott-Haims said she supports adopting a tax on downtown properties that have been vacant for a long period of time.

"It is obviously a potential revenue source, but it is also a way to force people to put up or shut up," Lythcott-Haims said. "Do you want to run a business in this city or do you not? Because we need a vital city. You can't sit and hold a place vacant for too long. It harms the city."

Stone also said he would support a vacancy tax for housing as well, with proceeds going to the city's affordable housing fund, which subsidizes below-market-rate residential developments.

"We really need to increase our affordable housing fund as much as possible," Stone said. "If we're serious about some of these goals, we need to move with a little more urgency on those. I'd like to see vacancy tax on housing being included."

Others were more cautious about new taxes. Burt said he is still feeling "healing wounds" from the business tax that city voters passed last November, an endeavor that required significant negotiations to address opposition from the business community. Tanaka, meanwhile, opposed it altogether.

"A lot of those places are empty because the businesses are not doing well and they laid off a bunch of people," Tanaka said. "A vacancy tax seems like you're throwing salt in the wound."

Among the most time-sensitive items that the council added to the city's workload is finding a new facility for La Comida to serve meals to low-income seniors in north Palo Alto. The nonprofit, which was forced out of the Avenidas building during the redevelopment of the building in 2017, currently offers dining in a congregate setting at Stevenson House in south Palo Alto. In the north, it is limited to distributing takeout meals to seniors near First United Methodist Church. That setup, however, will expire in July, leaving La Comida with no locations for meal distribution north of Oregon Expressway.

Mayor Lydia Kou, a longtime supporter of La Comida whose husband serves on the nonprofit's board of directors, advocated during her "State of the City" speech last month for finding a new home for the nonprofit to serve its meals. She reiterated this position on Monday and said she would like the city staff to take a close look at its agreement with Avenidas, a senior-services provider whose Bryant Street building is owned by the city.

"I'd like to see first a review of the contract we have with the senior center, to see if (La Comida's programs) can fit under the city-owned building, which has been given a contract to provide senior services," Kou said.