Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Editorials

Timing is right for assessment

If Los Gatos ever needed a general plan task force, it needs it now. Residents have been up in arms about the appropriateness of a number of planning issues, including: a compressed-natural-gas filling station, a Jiffy Lube near a residential neighborhood and development along Blossom Hill Road.

To their credit, council members saw the handwriting on the wall. When they put out a call for volunteers for the general plan task force, councilmembers specified that they would look to the group to assess current community attitudes about what's appropriate for in-fill projects in the town.

Like many communities in the Santa Clara Valley, Los Gatos is running out of room. These days, growth usually means filling in the remaining bare spots around developed areas.

And there's the rub.

What's an appropriate addition to an established neighborhood, be it residential or commercial?

The town currently is sorting through the names of those who volunteered for the task force. A matrix is being used to ensure that there will be a broad spectrum of representation.

Town officials need a new assessment of community standards and tastes. People's attitudes may have changed over the years. And with the current rush to develop throughout Silicon Valley, the timing is right for such an evaluation in Los Gatos.

Because space is a rare commodity, developers work harder to push projects through, while those who are already here band together to maintain the status quo.

The difficult issue in developing in-fill is always how to separate the predictable "not in my back yard" response from the legitimate concern that a project will change the character of a neighborhood for the worse. Timing is everything, and the timing for a new look at this community's values and tastes couldn't be better.

Boundary Dispute

For those who don't live in one of the pockets near the Los Gatos, Saratoga and Campbell borders, the ongoing dispute about district transfers may have seemed like somebody else's problem.

Now that the county Office of Education has decided to settle the boundary dispute once and for all, though, the border squabble has taken on dramatic new proportions.

The committee studying the problem is considering six possible scenarios, some of which could have a dramatic impact on local schools and how they're administered.

Options range from leaving things pretty much the way they are to turning 11 West Valley school districts into two.

Those who are interested in the outcome of the study--and that should now include far more people than before--can have their say at a public meeting June 19 from 4 to 8 p.m. at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino.

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