This morning I woke up to the single thought of how awful would it be for Saratoga when these housing projects go live
This is the city I love and served with integrity and pragmatism….I have taken on sharp arrows, fought tough battles while no one from the city council joined me… ...:and I feel the hopeless failure today on behalf of our 30,000 residents… In the future, as folks are driving into Saratoga, they may see…..
... a 10 story building at Prospect and Lawrence with 400+ housing units. They will remember our disdain for the 10 to 14 story San Jose's El Paseo de Saratoga - how did Saratoga do the same in Saratoga? …and then they arrive at Saratoga Avenue's pumpkin patch - now packed like sardines with 350 housing units.. that will be another visual imagery of our amazing city ….or perhaps the Gateway (Peets, Jakes Pizza area) with 270 housing units.
But wait…it will take them forever to get here as they will be stuck in crazy traffic!
But wait - this is only a start. You know what will follow once such projects go live....exponentially bigger mega housing projects will follow!
Let us ponder over how this will play out for the future of our city and our families?
What will happen when we fail with building adequate units and the builder swoop in circumventing city council public hearings to build anything they want and anywhere?
I could NEVER vote for such a plan and I am glad I have held my ground.I was the only one pushing the council for equity, asking that we do a data-driven metrics based plan and distribute our population across the school districts 2-story buildings only, based upon a good urban plan and other general plan elements such as traffic and open space.
I kept asking for ALL sites to be considered via a criteria based model - but it fell on deaf ears. I believe we were in a terrific hurry and bending over backwards for our staff.
Someone had told me back in December the council will fall upon the postcard sites. I didn’t believe that. I was sure our council would take the feedback and come up with an equitable solution that will address our general plan elements. But, seemingly, after weeks of gyrations and public posturing, the council came back full circle and picked up only the postcard sites: All new sites that had been added in January were discarded with illogical facts “classic neighborhood appeasement maneuver” - back full circle. I never expected that to say the least!
I would not want to look back on my legacy that includes rejecting water rates, hosting 100+ neighborhood meetings to drop burglaries, stopping the 300 room Mountain Winery hotel, rejecting a road repair tax increase asking for optimization of city dollars and….always willing to take up a good fight on behalf our citizens and…...approving this abomination??? NO WAY!!
I quote an email that was sent to all the city councilmembers "Congratulations. Your 10 story housing proposal for the Lawrence/Prospect site will be this Council’s finest legacy, remembered as a towering NIMBY middle-finger salute to all of Saratoga’s neighboring cities. At least the El Paseo de Saratoga housing project has the decency to place a small park in the middle of its competing towers. What does the Saratoga Projects tower have to offer? McDonald’s, Togo’s, Chase bank and a Church. Bravo. And the impact to Prospect High School with both these projects? NIMSchoolYard. Let the poor have their overcrowded public school. And what of the repeated calls for more equity, and the Council’s own professed desired to redistribute some of the housing down south?" It has been a tragic few weeks for Saratoga and our city will cease to be what it is today.
Here is another email Saratoga Mayor and members,
I hope this message will be added to the official record for the housing elements.
I addressed the council during meetings as well as by email several times in the past, and I thanked you for your effort in trying to find a solution to the Housing Element topic, willing that I was, against all odds, to believe that you were there, faithful to your oath, to serve the population of Saratoga.
I don’t feel like thanking the council would be appropriate, now that the masks have finally come off.
You asked for feedback from the community and you received a lot of feedback, mostly pointing out some of the most egregious aspects of your proposal.
In hindsight, the process went as follows:
· You came up with an astoundingly outrageous but conveniently self-serving proposal, complete with 10-story (appropriately named by someone else) middle-finger salute tower at Prospect and Lawrence
· You requested feedback (mandatory)
· You heard the feedback (mandatory – and probably painful, but listening was optional)
· You came back with the original, insane proposal and called it a vote
Given all the opportunities you had to listen to feedback, sheer carelessness and incompetence cannot, alone, explain the result that was reached. Other people looking at the process and results might call it abuse of power or, simply, corruption.
Nothing is further from my mind, though, and I know that legal terms should only be used by lawyers, as the laws of the land are designed to protect people in power, lest they have to face the consequences.
With that, your job is done and, if you don’t have any conscience, you will sleep well at night.
In a final note, I will thank council member Kumar for his tireless energy in service of the community.
From: Rhon H
Date: February 18, 2022 at 10:24:09 AM PST
To:
Cc:
Subject:Re: Housing Element for Saratoga = RESPONSE REQUIRED
Hi Council Members:
Thanks for your message, however, you seem to miss the central point.
The point of our message along with so many other Saratogans is you and the rest of the City Council should be fighting this edict from the State. You stated “…. the Housing Element Update is not something that the City entered into voluntarily.”
This means Saratoga’s capitulation, resignation and acceptance of this Housing Element from the State.
The message from your residents is clear. Find ALL means and measures you can use legally apply to fight this at the State level. What specifically is the City of Saratoga doing to fight back against this at the State level?
The Council claims to “care deeply” about residents’ perspective, and yet you are ramming this through over tremendous, unprecedented resident objections. Legal injunctions filed at the State level is what needs to happen prior to recalls and measures to repeal this. There is absolutely no reason to start changing the character of Saratoga prematurely without significant effort to push this back.
With regard to a formalized, measured and professional suburban planning process… where is that in this mishmash of sites that are cobbled together without regard to:
- neighborhood infrastructure,
- increased traffic,
- burdens to some schools far outweighing those to others, and
- dramatically and irrevocably damaging the character of Saratoga life and our neighborhoods forever.
Where is your leadership on this issue Mayor and City Council? The only Council member pushing back on this is Mr. Kumar but he can not do this alone. When are you all going to get on board with Mr. Kurmar and the vast majority of your constituents and push back at ALL levels against this debacle?
We ARE subscribed to the Housing Element info channels. That is why we are asking for answers to questions resulting from the Council’s continued push to prematurely settle on sites and not listen to the will of the People.
Best regards,Rhonda
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