 |
|
|
|
|
Editorials
Sometimes one more home is just too much
The planning commission did the right thing when it continued the application of three homes on Francis Oaks Way. In asking for a CEQA report on the cumulative effect of three proposed homes--and of continuing development--the commission acknowledged that sometimes the total is greater than the sum of its parts.
This is particularly true in the hillsides where development often endangers wildlife habitat and has the potential to change the atmosphere of an entire community, especially one whose character is tied to the hills as it is in Los Gatos.
It's unfortunate that the commission didn't ask the developer for the report earlier; now there is some justification to the claim that the developer satisfied all the commission's demands, only to have more thrown at him.
Still, the whole point of public hearings is to give the community an opportunity to weigh in on issues, and if the commission is swayed by points brought to these hearings, then the system is working just the way it's supposed to work.
When hillside neighbors turn out to object to further development in the hills where they had the good fortune to get in early, there is always a tendency to suspect selfish motives. They got theirs, now they want to deny someone else the same opportunity.
In the case of hillside development, however, selfish motives or not, without limits, the hillsides would soon look like suburbs on hills--and there is ample evidence in communities where this has happened.
As unfair as it may seem to those who want to build in the environmentally fragile hillsides, there has to be a point where the planning commission says one more house would be too much.
That may not be the case with the proposed three homes on Francis Oaks Way, but by requesting a CEQA report, commissioners will have additional information to help make that decision.
Beautiful People
The community owes a debt of gratitude to the Town Chamber of Commerce Beautification Committee. From its battle to keep the town's sidewalks clean to its development of a quarterly beautification award for local businesses, this group of volunteers has worked tirelessly to help the town put its best foot forward.
We'd particularly like to single out Shirley Henderson and Gary Schloh who kept the torch burning after the demise of the Downtown Association and before the Town Chamber organized and became a force in the community.
When there was no real beautification committee, there was Shirley Henderson nagging officials to keep the town clean and organizing her neighbors to pitch in. And there was Gary Schloh dragging his Lions Club cohorts out at the crack of dawn to clean out and weed planter boxes on N. Santa Cruz Avenue.
|
|
|
|
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
