Chasing Fool's gold
Video: Points of view expressed by Rishi Kumar at the Saratoga Housing Element city council meeting of January 20th
Highlighting below a few words from our neighbors expressed based on their observation with the housing element progression:
Flailing leadership
Equity!
Going around in circles
Let us put it here, well, let us put it there…no. Well let us push it around somewhere else
Defeatist attitude - are we going to move forward with a plan that will fail and not do anything to stop it?
We expect our city council to fight these draconian laws
Not smart
Go Big and Go Bold
Time for Leadership and Action
New housing sites pulled out of air at 11pm
Consensus insanity by the mayor. Does she have a thought of her own?
Decisive leadership is totally lacking
Why can’t the city council organize these meetings instead of coming up with random meeting dates and times?
Ad hoc approach
So here is the latest status from our January 20th meeting:
The Housing Element has been placed again on the agenda, but at an all-day city council meeting that begins at 9am on Friday, January 28th - 9AM to 5pm. Tina Walia’s idea from this last meeting, that was approved by the city council with a 4-1 vote.
New housing sites are now in consideration as proposed by Yan Zhao: Montalvo Center and increased density at Friendship Park located at the corner of Quito and Pollard. Yan has stated her agenda loud and clear “place all development on the periphery of Saratoga - not inside the core of Saratoga” and she is sticking to it. Kookie has proposed Saratoga Country Club and the Prospect Center.
Note that on Friday, January 28, along with the above new sites, we will likely have many more new sites proposed by city council that will be up for review and discussion.
I didn’t support the above approach for reasons stated below:
Transparency: The discussion of additional sites should take place during the evening, NOT during the day when residents are at work. This is the most critical agenda item on the city council going back a few decades. We need to engage our citizens! Having a meeting in the middle of a work day is NOT transparency and I cannot support such actions. Our council leadership should develop a clear plan for these meetings, agendize them and schedule them during a time when residents can participate. Residents are not being served by this negligence.
Let us stop the ad hoc approach and consider every possible site, after all the situation is dire. : Unfortunately, individual councilmembers have proposed sites based on emotion after a long meeting for both the Council and Residents. We are not considering equity and balance - schools, traffic and other urban plan strategies.
Are we staying away from sites where councilmembers live? The Argonaut shopping center next to the Saratoga Bagel property was changed from mixed use to commercial at 2AM on January 11th. Many community members have sent letters to the city council stating that Tina Walia happens to live next to Argonaut and have questioned the motivation to take Argonaut center out from the site list and “protect it.” We all know that nothing is protected. We can lose Argonaut anytime to SB-35 or other new state laws, just like we lost Quito Village and Genes.
Why are we picking random sites? How can this be done properly if only a partial list of sites are considered? Or worse, pulling out sites from a magic hat - like we did at 11pm on January 20th - based on Yan Zhao’s attempt. This is not a game show, the future of our neighbors is at stake. Just because of Saratoga bagels, the council pulled the entire Saratoga bagel shop location from the site list - with no substantial reason.
Process considerations:
How about forming a new Neighborhood Housing Element Ad-hoc Task Force that will include members of every neighborhood - to see how we can bring Saratoga together, collaborate towards a better approach?
Can we organize a better city council housing element meeting calendar- and not add meetings ad hoc and at the last minute? We are not looking good in front of the world right now.
It is clear we don’t have a plan today. We need a holistic plan without dividing up our city and residents: Should the city council just respond to neighborhood pressure or sway to staff recommendations, playing along to make tactical adjustments without any major fixes, or should we develop the holistic plan our city. The housing element modus operandi so far has successfully divided up our city pitting neighbors against neighbors? Is that good? There is enough of this going on in Washington. Can we figure out a collaborative approach?
There is no rush to chase fool’s gold: My job is to see the forest for the trees. I am not sure with the rest of my team. This is perhaps the most consequential decision any council has made since incorporation of Saratoga in 1956. Take the time necessary to do it right. Our neighboring cities are doing their due diligence, despite the really trying circumstances of these outrageous state mandates. As your elected representatives, we owe that same due diligence to every Saratoga resident. Slow this train down!
The decisions that we make today, will impact each of us tomorrow. Let us be smart about this. I repeat: decisions that we make today, will impact each of us tomorrow - there is no escape.
BE ADVISED, HOWEVER: Although we should give this our best effort, AT THE END OF THE DAY, Saratoga as we know it now, will be fundamentally changed by the implementation of these ill-conceived laws, and not for the better.
BE ALSO ADVISED THAT The RHNA numbers have been set up for Saratoga to fail: Should we follow the herd based on an ill-conceived Sacramento push that is turning over the state to land-developers. There is no way Saratoga will have built the required 1700 housing units in 8 years, when we barely built 200 in the last 8 years. We will fail the housing element test at the midpoint i.e 2026. What then? The land-developers swoop in - armed with the SB-35 legislation - to operate with gay abandon, claim any and all properties - including the Village - within our city circumventing city council jurisdiction. We ain’t seen nothing yet.
I am afraid our current path continues our train wreck. We need a better approach - and seemingly no one on the council has the appetite to consider other options.
We need to fight the inflated RHNA numbers with the audit.
We need to make the laws such as SB-9, SB-10, SB-35 null and void with the ballot measure. Email me if you want to get involved.
We need to come together as a city, led by decisive date-driven leadership.
We need to explore every option that is out there.
Our city council needs to do right thing for our citizens and protect the future of our city and our citizens! But we need the help of each of our neighbors. Everyone!
- Rishi
Visit our city website https://www.saratoga.ca.us/housing for the housing element details.
Visit RishiKumar.com/managedgrowth to educate yourself on the facts
My blog on the housing element that has all my posts :
Email me at Rishi<at>RishiKumar.com if you want to help collect signatures for the ballot measure