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| Photograph by Robert Scheer | Photograph by Robert Scheer | Photograph by Robert Scheer |
| Gillian Moran, Vice mayor of Saratoga, has spoken in opposition to Measure G. | Mayor Paul Jacobs says proponents of Measure G are trying to take control of Saratoga away from the City Council. | Planning Commissioner Dick Siegfried has been active in the No on G campaign. |
Opponents and proponents of Measure G hashed over the issues at a March 10 forum, hosted by the Save Our Neighborhoods Initiative Committee at the Saratoga Community Center, and during a March 7 online debate sponsored by the Saratoga News and Virtual Valley, an online service owned by Metro Newspapers.
With more than 40 attendees and a KSAR (Channel 6) TV camera looking on, debaters took questions scrawled on green index cards by audience members and formulated questions for one another.
Measure G opponents attacked the workability of the initiative. They said the requirement to let voters decide on projects increasing density or intensity would stop home-improvement projects such as pools or patios, would result in $60,000 special elections, and wouldn't affect the nonresidential properties the Save Our Neighborhoods Initiative Committee (SONIC) points to as proof the measure is needed. They added that the measure bypasses representative government by taking the decision away from the City Council.
Proponents maintained that the measure will change little, except that it will give voters the decision to approve or deny general plan changes for large developments that would increase housing density or intensity of land use. They say the change is necessary because the City Council consistently ignores the wishes of residents and approves large developments. They dismiss the city's opposition as an attempt to keep complete control of development decisions.
Public discussion of those issues started three days earlier, during the online debate, in which the groups exchanged barbs from keyboards in the Saratoga News offices for about an hour. Departing frequently from a mutually agreed-upon list of questions, they tossed charges around Virtual Valley ranging from evading questions to lying. The participants also drubbed one another equally for hiring out-of-town consultants and attorneys.
At the SONIC forum, limits on speaking time kept the speakers on topic most of the time. But SONIC representatives continued their attack on the No on G ballot argument, bringing a chart containing "the seven lies" they say it contains. Measure G proponent Jeffrey Schwartz derided the ballot arguments and a No on G ad that included some unwilling "supporters" on a list of Saratogans opposing the measure.
"Is there no integrity in elections any more, even at the local level?" Schwartz asked.
No on G maintains that its ballot argument is accurate.
Historical rivals
For those who have been around Saratoga more than a handful of years, the battle may not come as a surprise. The groups facing down over Measure G have been at odds, about one issue or another, for at least two decades.
They've clashed over Measure A, the initiative that limited hillside growth; the Greenbriar subdivision; athletic events at West Valley College; and most recently, expansion of the Odd Fellows home on Fruitvale Avenue.
Mayor Paul Jacobs said the rift is about who's going to run the city. Some members of SONIC are neighborhood-firsters--Jacobs' name for NIMBYs (Not in My Back Yard) who oppose a big development in their part of the city--who seek to wrest control from the City Council.
Other SONIC members, said Jacobs, are people defeated in the previous two City Council elections and want to find other ways to take control of the city. They would include Meg Caldwell, Willem Kohler, Vic Monia and Morris Jones. Jacobs also points to the opponents of the Odd Fellows expansion and development on the Nelson Gardens Property.
Jacobs said SONIC's members are "all coming from the same place. That's not a coincidence."
SONIC organizer Jim Shaw said his side sees the council as "bought and paid for" by developers. After receiving campaign contributions from development interests, former members of the council can return to City Hall as lobbyists representing developers' interests before the city, Shaw said.
"This is not a coincidence," Shaw stressed.
He cites former Saratoga Mayor Linda Callon, who successfully steered the Odd Fellows expansion through City Hall, and Virginia Fanelli, a former mayor who tried and failed to peddle to city officials a commercial development on the Kosich family's property at Saratoga Avenue and Lawrence Expressway. The Kosich family withdrew their application after the Planning Commission voted against the project in February 1995.
Shaw said those in power invariably represent large community groups, such as the League of Women Voters and the Good Government Group. They're well off and see themselves as the natural leaders of the city "from the advantage of their superior background," he said.
That would include Jacobs and City Council members Ann Marie Burger, Karen Tucker, Don Wolfe and Gillian Moran.
SONIC is not after power, Shaw said flatly.
"It's people who are interested in keeping their neighborhood character close to what it is now," he said. Shaw said people like himself and Don Whetstone, president and cofounder of Friends of Santa Clara County Creeks, "were forced into action because the city was mistreating our neighborhood."
Projects in the balance
Mistreatment of neighborhoods is a major reason Saratogans need to pass the measure, according to Shaw. After the passage of Measure G, he said, the City Council and Planning Commission would find it "politically very difficult" to approve high-density projects.
The measure is also calculated to send a message to potential developers. If the measure passes, Shaw said, anyone who wants to build in Saratoga ought to know "he's going to get turned down."
A few large proposed projects apparently would be subject to a vote if the measure passes.
The expansion of Our Lady of Fatima Villa, a retirement home on Saratoga-Los Gatos Road, is one of those. The owners plan to build additional units somewhere in Saratoga before the year 2000. Fatima CEO Preston Wisner said he has kept the plans a secret, waiting out the March election and approval of the Odd Fellows development.
But the Villa gave $5,000 to No on G. And Wisner is a charter member of No on G.
For other proposed developments, the prospect of a vote is not as certain. Some could go on the ballot--depending on how the initiative is interpreted--because they require a conditional use permit. Any project requiring one of those could potentially be subject to a vote, Community Development Director Paul Curtis said, because the measure says all permits must comply with its intent.
One such project is the proposed expansion of the Saratoga library. Officials want to double the size of the library and add 25 parking spaces over the next few years. The new wing of the library would be built on the city's historic orchard. The residential zoning of the historic orchard allows a library or other government building, but requires a conditional use permit.
Villa Montalvo needs a conditional use permit for plans to add seats and electrical improvements to its indoor Carriage House Theatre, add seating to the outdoor Garden Theatre, improve parking and build 10 new artists' cottages. Montalvo is trying to raise $3 million for the work now, but hasn't filed an application at City Hall.
Safe from the ballot
On the other hand, development will not cease if voters approve the measure. Some projects that are on the way through the city's application process, or that are now being discussed, can be built without any public vote whether or not the initiative passes.
* The Kathryn Kennedy Winery wants to build 12 houses on a strand of property that starts at 13905 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and stretches west to Pierce Road. The project doesn't include a general plan change or use permit.
* On the seven-acre Spaich property along Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, a 15-lot subdivision is planned. The initial subdivision map will go before the Planning Commission by the middle of April. The owners aren't asking for a general plan change or use permit.
* Eight new homes are already approved on a 10.79-acre Douglas Lane parcel. Pinn Brothers Construction Co. is reportedly waiting for spring to begin building there.
When those projects are finished, several properties already zoned for residential development await construction. No one is eyeing them yet. But, a vote wouldn't be required for any potential project unless owners propose to change the general plan designation.
The largest of them are open-space parcels on the western edge of the city.
Land preservation contracts once entirely locked up three large tracts of land there totaling 147 acres. (The five-acre Nelson Gardens property was recently freed from a Williamson Act contract, but isn't connected to the three larger parcels.)
Contracts on 111 acres of that land expired or were not renewed by the landowners during the past seven years. When the contracts expired, the agricultural preserve "overlay" zoning expired with them.
Now the properties have reverted back to a "hillside residential" designation. That means the owners can build a house on every two acres, without a change to the general plan. The maximum number of new homes on those properties would approach 55, but houses could be subtracted to limit building on steeper slopes.
Since no general plan change or use permits are needed to build on the hillside properties, development probably would not be subject to a public vote under Measure G.
Unused portions of the Mountain Winery property, off Pierce Road, have the same hillside residential designation as the formerly preserved properties. The winery's new owner hasn't announced plans for the land.
The Kosich property, near Saratoga Avenue and Lawrence Expressway, is zoned residential. The owners have no plans yet for the property, according to Virginia Fanelli, their spokeswoman. They could build about 10 houses on the lot under the current zoning.
At least 15 other parcels scattered across the city are large enough to subdivide, although each is now occupied by only one house, planner James Walgren said after a quick check of city maps.
Napa paves the way
For other hints of what lies ahead if Measure G passes, Saratogans should look to Napa County, where voters passed Measure J in 1990 to require a vote on general plan changes from agricultural to residential designations.
Two property owners have already asked for voter approval of projects, and a third has two related measures on the March 26 ballot.
The first applicant, the Bistro Don Giovanni restaurant in Napa, collected 5,000 signatures to put on the ballot a change in its conditional use permit. The restaurant needed the permit changed to put extra seating on an outside deck, because the county zoning ordinance limits the number of seats in restaurants. The restaurant won on its second try in November 1993 and installed the seating.
Tom West, on the other hand, got turned down by voters in June 1994 after asking for a rezoning of 27.5 acres of open-space land to rural-residential designation.
The third Napa project to go to a vote under Measure J will be decided March 26. It's the one that had No on G members in Saratoga composing a last-minute ad campaign last week to rub the collective nose of SONIC in a mess Napa County officials may soon confront.
Measures W and X on the March ballot in Napa both apply to a 1,700-home project Richland Interests wants to build there. Measure W would change the zoning and general plan designations for property owned by Richland Interests. It seems to be the type of request framers of Measure J intended to put before voters.
But Measure X goes a little further than the framers of the 1990 measure asked. It contains exactly the same zoning and general plan change as Measure W, for the same piece of property. It also asks voters to approve every aspect of the developer's project, except the environmental review. A conceptual plan included in the ballot measure even shows where the project's golf course will go. That approval would normally be granted by the county supervisors.
The developer also typed into Measure X a clause exempting the project from county limits on building permits; Napa County currently only issues 120 permits a year.
The county retains the power to approve or deny the project, said Napa County Counsel Robert Westmeyer. The final, specific plans for the development must be approved by the board, he said. But a court battle may be on the horizon for the county if Measure X passes.
"I'm going to wait until it passes to decide what we do next," Westmeyer said. "There may be a legal question as to whether the voters can approve the conceptual plan."
Measure limits growth
Saratoga could encounter inhibited growth from Measure G, if nothing else, according to Terry Christensen, chairman of San Jose State University's political science department.
"It's very extreme," Christensen said. "Growth-control measures are common in California, but for voters to decide on specific land use issues is rare."
Christensen said that although the measure would give ultimate yes-or-no authority to voters, it could eliminate the political give-and-take that most city decisions require.
"In the council process, there's a tremendous amount of negotiation," Christensen said. "My guess is there would still be some range for the council to make conditions, but I think it will make the whole process more rigid all the way through."
Christensen said the measure may block growth, although proponents don't call Measure G a growth-control initiative.
"Voters don't vote as framers of laws intend. That's why it comes out growth control. The voters may be anti-development and nothing is allowed to happen at all. All of us vote on gut reactions. I bet you not too many things pass."
The following guide was compiled from interviews with leaders on both sides of the debate about Measure G.
Jim Shaw is an organizer and spokesperson of the Save Our Neighborhoods Initiative Committee.
Vice Mayor Gillian Moran and Mayor Paul Jacobs coauthored the arguments against Measure G. Planning Commissioner Dick Siegfried is outspoken against the measure and, along with Jacobs, has represented its opponents in public debates.
Election costs
Opponents charge that election costs could be excessive if Measure G passes. Putting an item on the Saratoga ballot costs $3,000 to $6,600 if an election is already scheduled, according to City Clerk Betsy Cory. If the city sets up a special election to decide just one question, the cost is $60,000.
Opponents contend that the measure will result in standalone elections because the city is required by state law to approve projects within six months, or within a year if they require environmental impact reports. General elections take place every two years, so a project application filed just after an election would have to be approved 12 months before the next one.
Shaw said developers should pay for any elections pertaining to their projects. He said the cost isn't important.
Pools and Patios
Shaw said he expects that only very large developments would be subject to a vote.
Saratogans won't have to campaign to build a second bedroom, he said.
Since the initiative is mute on that subject, Shaw said, the planning commission can grant variances to homeowners when their projects are reviewed. A variance gives city approval to buildings and structures that don't comply with city codes.
Opponents, however, say the initiative could require a public vote on a new pool, patio or home expansion. The reason, said Moran, is that the general plan limits impervious coverage--like a pool, patio or house--to 60 percent of a piece of property. The measure further states that all use permits and building permits must comply with its provisions. No variances, she concluded, could be issued.
Odd Fellows and Nelson Gardens
Siegfried said he and other opponents of the measure believe the Odd Fellows expansion and the nine-home Nelson Gardens development could be put to a vote because of the initiative. A passage of the measure negates general plan text changes made between August 1995 and adoption of the initiative, opponents said. Both projects received approval of a change to the general plan that increased their housing density.
Shaw said that since the projects have already been approved, the initiative won't affect them. Opponents misinterpret that passage of the measure, he said.
Representative government
Moran said the measure would take power away from elected representatives. She said voters should elect councilmembers they trust to represent them if they're dissatisfied with the current council.
Shaw said SONIC doesn't want to undermine the council's power. He emphasizes that the only decisions the measure would place in the hands of the public would be questions of increasing housing density or intensity of land use and of changing the general plan. SONIC's mailers allege that the council is influenced by developers. The literature says Measure G would let Saratogans determine the rate of their community's growth.
Unwieldy process?
Jacobs said the process for implementing Measure G is unclear.
The initiative doesn't specify whether the council can deny a project once voters approve a general plan change, Jacobs said. It also doesn't say whether the council could overrule the voters' decision if it wanted to.
Moran said the city might object to a development--before or after the special election--based on fine-print details unavailable to voters.
Shaw said the council should undergo its usual approval processes for a development and then put the general plan change on the ballot. If the council turns down a project, Shaw said, it shouldn't go on the ballot.
Endorsements
Measure G received an endorsement from the Sierra Club.
Opposing the measure are the League of Women Voters, Good Government Group, the Peninsula West Valley Association of Realtors, Mayor Paul Jacobs, the City Council, and 13 former Saratoga mayors.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 20, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved