City Council Mid-Year Update

At the City Council Retreat in February, the Fremont City Council launched new priorities for this year, which center on economic development, financial sustainability, public safety, environmental sustainability, and homelessness response. Every year, the City of Fremont staff across different departments and divisions engage in various initiatives and activities to support these priorities and address community needs.

This month, City Manager Karena Shackelford released the City's Mid-Year City Council Priority Progress Report to identify notable achievements and outcomes that the City has produced during the first half of this year. The information included in this report pertains to priorities that the Fremont City Council approved in February.

The City is pleased to report that significant progress has been made since the start of this year to benefit Fremont businesses and residents, such as:

• Supporting major expansions of electric grid infrastructure to support continued advanced industry growth, grid resilience, and infill redevelopment in Fremont. This includes two new 75 megavolt-amperes transformers in Bayside and Warm Springs, an 18-megawatt Bloom Energy microgrid, and one gigawatt of regional capacity through LS Power's "Power the Bay" project. Collectively, these projects represent a more than $500 million investment in electrical capacity in Fremont.
• The Fremont City Council's approval of over $700,000 in grant funding for use by the FPD to purchase front-line equipment, including additional drones, crime mitigation technology, and safety equipment. In direct support of crime reduction and safety objectives, the City Council has also approved over $800,000 of a $2.5 million grant to initiate the build-out of the FPD's state-of-the-art Real Time Information Center (RTIC). Additionally, the FPD utilized approximately $75,000 from a traffic safety grant to conduct special traffic safety enforcement missions.
• Beginning Fremont's transition to 100% renewable energy, while maintaining affordable choices, Fremont residents will transition to Ava Community Energy's Renewable 100 service plan in August, or they can opt for another plan.
• Adding First United Methodist Church as a sixth site to the Safe Parking Program to increase capacity. The program assisted 26 residents in Fiscal Year 24/25.

The City is poised to continue efforts to ensure that Fremont is a great city to work, play, and live in. "The achievements noted in this report would not have been possible without the hard work of our dedicated City staff. As we enter the second half of 2025, the City of Fremont remains committed to focusing existing resources in support of the City Council's policy interests, maintaining the current level of programs and services, while ensuring a balanced Operating Budget," wrote City Manager Shackelford in the introduction letter of the report.

View previous City Council Priority Progress Reports published by the City.