Editorial

County residents would benefit by annexation

In the late '50s and early '60s, the Valley of Heart's Delight began to change in dramatic ways. Suburban tract sections replaced orchards; the high-tech industry was in its infancy, and the handwriting was on the wall. Those were the days when the city of San Jose began gobbling up land through the annexation process.

At the time, the town of Los Gatos had its eye on the area that eventually incorporated as the city of Monte Sereno. Residents there didn't want to be gobbled up by Los Gatos, but then Los Gatos was only trying to keep itself from being gobbled up by the avaricious San Jose.

Small wonder that annexation has taken on a negative connotation. It's a word that inspires a strong self-preservation reflex.

Now Los Gatos is looking to annex unincorporated areas that dot the town like little islands. This time, however, the motivation for the annexation attempt isn't a hunger for growth.

Quite the opposite. It was the county that asked the town to annex these areas because the county no longer wants the responsibility for providing services to them.

At first, there was a hue and cry from county residents. By maintaining the status quo, they said, they have the best of all possible worlds--a Los Gatos address and a county planning department that pretty much lets them add on or renovate their homes without bureaucratic interference.

Opponents painted a picture of the town's planners as a bunch of uptight busybodies who would hover over them every time they wanted to replace a window.

There's no question that as full-fledged citizens of Los Gatos, residents who now live in the county will have to jump through more hoops to get additions and renovation projects approved.

But there is a trade-off. More stringent regulations will help neighborhoods maintain property values and discourage any one individual from creating a neighborhood eyesore.

After weeks of meetings to allow for protests to the annexation, other voices have begun to rise in favor of the process. And the reasons are obvious.

Right now, residents in unincorporated areas live in a kind of no-man's land; it takes two jurisdictions to make many decisions, and often the result is that problems don't get solved.

With annexation, residents in unincorporated areas become voting citizens in Los Gatos. Instead of complaining about what the town is doing, they'll be able to do something about it.

Without annexation, they will continue to be disenfranchised in the community where decisions are made that affect them every day.

The most convincing reason, however, for approving annexation is that the county no longer wants to be bothered. For Los Gatans living in the county pockets, that can only mean diminishing services.

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