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The accusations don't line up with the facts
By Steve Blanton
My friend Pat O'Laughlin's opinion piece in the May 10 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times was not so much a serious critique of town planning policies, but a formal commencement of the campaign season. Pat laments the direction the council has followed in recent days (although it is not all that different from the course we took together when he was on the council). As proof of his assertion, Pat cites three instances which he feels illustrate his point. However, upon closer examination we see that each of these examples is filled with either factual inaccuracies or logical fallacies, and have set the course for others who exhibit an even greater disregard for the truth.
First, Pat takes issue with the building of a new hotel across from Los Gatos High School. He indicates the council overturned a denial by the Planning Commission in approving this project. Actually, the commission had recommended approval of the plan submitted to the council, after nine years of project evaluation and plan adjustment.
Acknowledging the need for a new hotel somewhere in the town, or a complete renovation of the Los Gatos Lodge, Pat disagrees with the site of this hotel, yet offers no alternative. Further, it is conveniently forgotten that discussions about renovating the Los Gatos Lodge have been ongoing for the last 20 years, thus far without result.
By Pat's own admission we are left with a need, and no apparent way of addressing it, save one: the one the council chose. In the very next breath Pat worries about placing a hotel so close to the high school and adjacent to a residential area. Again we fall victim to a convenient memory which forgets that the placement of the very Los Gatos Lodge mentioned above also meets this description. The Lodge has been in place for roughly 40 years, thus far without horrendous results.
Pat concludes by fretting over the teenagers who will be loitering, talking, smoking and littering near the new hotel. In other words the same conditions which have always existed for businesses operating in front of the high school. For those who are concerned with our town's youth, it bears noting that the new hotel will stand where Sir Toby's and Foster's Freeze once served as a hangout for some of the most notorious drug traffic in town.
Our second example concerns the selling of premium wines in the boutique at the Lark Avenue Car Wash. The car wash has run a boutique since its inception. Perhaps noticing the fact that the boutique largely enjoyed the support of its neighbors for its expanded use, Pat concedes that: " ... the decision itself is probably not a big deal," but asserts that his true concern is for precedent.
In place of argument we are then treated to an appeal to fear complete with images of drive-through tanning booths and nail salons.
In Pat's view the last egregious error that the council made was, in fact, not made at all. Pat worries that the proposal to place a gas station/minimart near Highway 85 at the corner of Burton Road and Los Gatos Boulevard was not defeated by a wide enough margin. Ignoring the fact that a defunct gas station already sits on this property, one of the most heavily trafficked in town, Pat asserts that this constitutes proof that the town is ignoring its governing documents such as the Charette and the General Plan.
However, in preparing for this issue as it approached council, more than two pages of findings were developed which passed legal muster with the town attorney illustrating how this project is in fact in agreement with the town's governing documents.
Pat's commentary was apparently the opening shot of a well-orchestrated "spontaneous" uprising. Using Pat's thesis as a touchstone, a parade of writers to this publication and visitors to the council chambers display an equal ignorance of or disregard for the facts on a myriad of issues.
Lacking real arguments, they rely on invective. With preparations for next fall's council elections well under way, and the likelihood that there will be no incumbent running for the two open seats, it seems clear that the purpose of these missives is to build support for a no-growth candidate cut from the remnant cloth of the "Enough is Enough" group that rode to power in the late 1970s.
After 12 years of frequently being denied the right to use their own property, Los Gatans decided that enough was too much and sent the council on a more moderate course in 1990. There it has remained ever since.
Councils since then have demonstrated a respect for private property rights, but demanded high standards from those who would develop here. Indeed, the most consistent complaint over the last 10 years has been that Los Gatos is too hard on homeowners wishing to remodel, and developers wishing to build.
If yet another election campaign is under way, it is incumbent upon all of us--citizens, past office holders, current office holders and office seekers--to insist on an honest discussion with the highest ethical standards. Los Gatos deserves nothing less. If candidates need to manufacture issues, one must wonder about the need for their candidacy.
Steve Blanton is mayor of Los Gatos and a lifetime town resident.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
