Saratoga News

Policy or rule, council's call was bad form

In the Peanuts comic strip, good old Charlie Brown has his hands full keeping one jump ahead of his nemesis Lucy. Just when he's convinced he can trust her, he finds out she has one more trick up her sleeve.

In one classic encounter, Lucy convinces Charlie Brown that he can trust her to hold the football steady while he punts. Sorry, Charlie Brown!

Last week, the Saratoga City Council, after promising to hold the football steady, yanked it away just as Barry Swenson Builder was in the middle of a punt.

Sorry! We changed the rules at the last minute.

The city attorney says the rule giving a developer the option of asking residents to approve a change in land-use designation prior to going through the planning process isn't really a rule; it's a policy. And the council can change a policy whenever it wants.

One can quibble over the difference between a policy and a rule, but it's hard to deny that what the council did last week was bad form.

Councilmember Jim Shaw says if the developer wants an apology, he's willing to apologize. Let's hope an apology is sufficient.

The job of determining whether to amend the general plan to allow greater density in a specific area is a task that normally falls to a city council. In Saratoga, with the passage of Measure G, voters took that power away from their elected officials, requiring that developers go directly to the people instead.

In determining how best to implement Measure G, the council decided to allow developers to choose their approach: Get approval for a project from the Planning Commission and then ask voters to approve a change in land-use designation, or go directly to the people and ask them to approve higher density in a specific area prior to going through the planning process.

It's common practice for a developer to get the zoning change out of the way before pursuing the planning process. If a city is unwilling to change the zoning, why spend the money to go through the planning process?

In most cities, that means the developer goes to the council, and the council decides whether higher density is appropriate. The council does not decide the merits of a project. That's the responsibility of a planning commission.

By refusing to act on a resolution to place the general plan amendment on the ballot, the council has violated its own policy and called into question the intent of Measure G.

When they passed Measure G, we don't think voters really intended to judge the merits of individual development proposals. They wanted to determine whether it was appropriate to allow higher density in specific locations.

Barry Swenson Builder did the logical thing when the company put up $9,000 to put the zoning change on the ballot before investing in application fees, architects and the assorted consultants required to bring a proposal to a planning commission.

Now the council has yanked the ball away. Sorry!

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