By Julie Mehta
Two weeks ago, Saratogans went to the polls and passed Measure G, but city officials are still wrestling with the task of figuring out how this will affect city government and potential development.
The Neighborhood Preservation Initiative, commonly known as Measure G, garnered almost 55 percent of the votes cast in the March 26 election. But only 9,122 of Saratoga's 19,580 voters cast ballots on the matter. The measure requires approval through a public vote before parkland can be rezoned as commercial or residential land. It also requires voter approval for any changes to the city's general plan that would replace a parcel's designation with one more dense.
In a letter to the City Council and Planning Commission, Jim Shaw of the Save our Neighborhood Initiative Committee (SONIC), which spearheaded Measure G, requested that open hearings be held to discuss the measure's implementation. Shaw reiterated his request at the council's April 3 meeting. He says he thinks workshops would promote understanding of Measure G's impact. "I think it's useful to have open hearings to thrash out stuff. We all want to cut down on the possibility of developers being misled," Shaw says.
Mayor Paul Jacobs says Shaw's suggestion has been referred to the city attorney for evaluation. But Jacobs says he believes implementation of law isn't something that should be determined through public hearings. He encourages people who want to register their views to attend an April 20 Town Hall meeting.
Jacobs says his view is that when someone comes in with a development application, staff should determine whether it would fall under Measure G. If so, he thinks it should go directly to the ballot with no Planning Commission or City Council consideration. But he stresses he does not know if such a scenario is permissible under the law.
Shaw says he believes the planning process should remain unchanged. But if the project includes a zoning change covered by Measure G, it should go through a final step of being "ratified and validated" by the voters. "I don't contemplate either the Planning Commission or the City Council throwing this right to the voters. That would be abdicating their duty."
Measure G was mentioned in connection with a proposed house addition at the April 3 City Council meeting prompting Mayor Jacobs to comment that he believes that the council will hear that Measure G or the spirit of Measure G applies to nearly every application that is contested from now on. "I think there will be lots of confused and disappointed people . . . people who thought Measure G would apply and it didn't and people who thought Measure G wouldn't apply and it did." Jacobs also says he thinks there will still be lots of construction despite the measure's slow-growth aim.
The first case Measure G may affect is an application that involves moving a boundary line between two parcels of land. It will likely come before the city council sometime in May.
Meanwhile, city staff members are continuing to examine applicable state laws and policies in Napa County, where a law similar to Measure G was passed earlier. They hope to soon come up with a resolution on Measure G implementation for the City Council to adopt.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, April 10, 1996.
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