Saratoga News

New Measure G policy will be hammered out Sept. 8

By Sarah Lombardo

The Saratoga City Council next week will discuss specifics of its new policy on Measure G--about two years after it implemented its first policy on the slow-growth ordinance. The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 8, at 7 p.m.

The new policy, proposed July 7, will require all applicants seeking to change a land-use designation to go through the city's Planning Department process first, then to a public vote. The previous policy, adopted in late 1996 after the measure's passage in March of that year, let applicants decide themselves if they wanted to go through the city's approval process first or to the voters first.

The City Council decided it needed to reassess its policy on Measure G earlier this year, when San Jose-based builder Barry Swenson applied to have his land-use designation change for property on Quito Road sent to the ballot this November. The land-use designation change would have been necessary for an assisted-care facility Swenson was proposing for the property. Sending the land-use change to the voters before going through the city process, Swenson said, was a good way of finding out if locals were even interested in an assisted-care facility before spending money on the city process.

But councilmembers disagreed, saying that without having gone through the city process, the project would not be complete enough for residents to vote on.

The council decided to reverse its policy on Measure G and revoke the ability of applicants to decide whether to go through the city or to the voters first. But councilmembers said they also wanted to form a new policy that took into account applicants who were "caught in the rule" of Measure G, according to councilmember Paul Jacobs. Such applicants, who are technically subject to Measure G but whose projects would not result in increased density, would have a way to get approval without the lengthy Planning Department approval or a costly election under the proposed new policy to be discussed next week.

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