By Candace Pratt and Helga Ruby
The League of Women Voters of Los Gatos-Saratoga-Monte Sereno has taken a position in opposition to Measure G, the initiative to alter Saratoga's planning process. The League feels strongly that representative government is the cornerstone of our American system, yet Measure G would remove some of the most important decisions of local government from elected representatives and substitute a lengthy, cumbersome and expensive process of citywide elections every time such an issue arises.
The League is also concerned that despite the name given it by its supporters, this measure would remove one of the most important protections which neighborhoods now have in controlling development in their own area.
The present process, which requires extensive public hearings before the Planning Commission and City Council, guarantees that concerned neighbors will have the chance for a full hearing. Under Measure G, decisions about neighborhood land use would instead be by citywide election, with choices made by those living miles from the proposed development.
An issue of particular concern to the local League is the need for affordable senior housing in Saratoga. If Measure G were passed, building such housing would become prohibitively complicated and expensive, and either have to be abandoned or succeed only after additional months and years of effort and ultimately at much greater cost to seniors than under the present process.
Saratoga's present general plan and land-use regulations have been developed with years of citizen input and include numerous safeguards. If citizens are unhappy with decisions made by their elected representatives in carrying out this plan, they have a simple remedy every two years at the ballot box.
We urge voters not to abandon this system in favor of one that would remove our representatives' ability to respond quickly and with flexibility to citizen concerns and needs. Measure G does not allow for the unknown changes which will occur over the next 30 years in society, in state law, in the economy. It could turn out to be a prime example of the Law of Unintentional Consequences.
Read the initiative itself carefully, and we feel certain that you will join us in a no vote on Measure G.
Candace Pratt and Helga Ruby are co-presidents of the Los Gatos-Saratoga-Monte Sereno League of Women Voters.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 13, 1996.
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