Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

City Councilmember Ann Marie Burger reacts to televised returns on election night showing voter approval
of Measure G. The City Council had opposed the measure.

What to expect from Measure G

City looks at ramifications of initiative

By Clarence Cromwell

The Saratoga City Council opposed it, community groups derided it and the papers editorialized against it. Then Saratogans quietly went to the polls and approved Measure G, the neighborhood protection initiative.

Opponents called the vote an expression of residents' unhappiness with recent changes in the city--changes they said are inevitable.

Proponents of the initiative said its passage is partly a rebuke to a City Council that hasn't done enough to protect Saratoga, but mostly it's proof that Measure G was a good idea whose time had come.

"This council has been anti-environment, anti-open space and anti-neighborhood interests," said Jeff Schwartz, a member of Save Our Neighborhoods Initiative Committee. "I think the message is that most residents weren't willing to wait until November [for the next City Council election] to change the direction the city's been going in."

Schwartz said the measure passed mostly because it was a good idea.

"You shouldn't underestimate Saratoga residents," Schwartz said. "The main reason this passed is Saratoga residents liked this idea.

"It's very good news," he concluded. "It means a jurisdiction can protect itself from this type of runaway development."

Jim Shaw, a co-founder of the initiative committee, agreed that the measure passed because voters share SONIC's philosophy. He called on the council to implement Measure G fairly.

"It seems to me that between now and November the people on the City Council have an opportunity to get behind what Measure G has laid before them. They can pick at it if they like," Shaw said, "but they should say, 'OK, Saratogans have spoken, let's get behind it and run with the ball.'

"To me, it's a call for cooperation and to work within the system. Those people profess to want Saratoga to remain a single-family residential community. If they would just support that and keep an eye on the issue, I think it would be much better for the town."

Mayor Paul Jacobs said he plans to put the measure to work as SONIC intended, but he defended the council's policies on development. "I don't think that it's specifically dissatisfaction over this council," Jacobs said.

"I think that a lot of the people who voted for it were expressing their dissatisfaction with change. The thing about Saratogans is most of them like it like it was. If you want to keep Saratoga the way it was 20, or 30, or 40 years ago, government hasn't done that. It's impossible to stop change."

More specifically, Jacobs blamed Highway 85 for renewing Saratogans' anger over progress.

"I think that [Saratogans] fear that continued growth is coming and they need to find a way to express their desire that it not come," Jacobs said. "My view is that you can't stop change; all you can do is manage it."

Jacobs said he expects backers of Measure G to repeat their charges against the City Council during the November election, when Ann Marie Burger and Karen Tucker will be up for reelection. He also guessed that the same people will accuse the city of trying not to implement the measure at some time before the next election. But the council won't go against the people's vote, Jacobs said.

"It's our job to enforce the law," he said. "I intend to do the very best to apply [Measure G] in an evenhanded fashion."

Vice Mayor Gillian Moran agreed.

"I think right now it's up to the council to make this work," Moran said. "I think what we want to be doing is working with the citizens." Moran added that it's time to "listen to the people, who have now spoken."

At City Hall, officials are already preparing to implement the measure.

City Manager Harry Peacock said he'll schedule a meeting with Community Development Director Paul Curtis and City Attorney Michael Riback to outline the policy for applying Measure G.

The result would be a resolution for the City Council to adopt.

Peacock said the city needs to spell out what types of projects are subject to the measure and the steps to be followed in gaining city and voter approval.

The city will need a policy on appeals as well, Peacock said. If a property owner thinks the city incorrectly applied Measure G to a piece of property, he or she will be able to appeal the decision to the Planning Commission or City Council.

Peacock said he asked the city attorney to find out the applicable policies in Napa County, where similar laws have been adopted.

The election outcome may already have sent its message to property owners. Preston Wisner, CEO of Our Lady of Fatima Villa, said the new facility the villa wants to build might end up in another city because of the measure's passage. Before the election, he had said he'd prefer to build in Saratoga.

"We'll still go on with the project, but I might look at land outside Saratoga," Wisner said.

He said the villa doesn't want to fight a campaign for building permits, nor would he like to spend additional money on the project, including the possible costs of putting a measure on the ballot.

At least one parcel in Los Gatos is suitable for the project, Wisner said.

Measure G garnered approval from 4,984 of Saratoga's 19,580 voters in the March 26 election. A total of 4,138 opposed the measure.

In general, the measure will require the city to put to a public vote any development projects that change a parcel's general plan designation to a more intense or dense category. That includes changing residential or park land to commercial use, converting parks to residential land, or increasing the number of houses allowed on a residential tract.