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News Briefs
City Attorney defines Measure G
Saratoga City Attorney Richard Taylor briefed the City Council and Planning Commission regarding the interpretation and implementation of Measure G at their joint meeting on Sept. 7.
Both boards earlier this summer had asked the attorney for a definition of the measure and how it relates to the city's General Plan.
Taylor, who helped draft the initiative in 1996, said that Measure G essentially readopts and reaffirms policies that are already contained in the General Plan as they relate to density of land use in the city. The difference is that voters must now approve many drastic density and land-use changes.
In his definition, Taylor said the city can decide when to hold a special election, either before or after a project is considered by the Planning Commission and the City Council. So far, no development projects subject to Measure G have come to the city requiring a citywide vote.
Additionally, Taylor said, neither the council nor the Planning Commission can amend the measure because it was adopted through the initiative process. Any changes must be approved by voters, as Measure G was.
In a memo to the two boards, Taylor wrote that the council and Planning Commission have "considerable discretion" in interpreting the provisions of Measure G, but they must be consistent with the General Plan. In making those decisions, the "City Council must rely on reasonable judgment in concluding that the action in question is consistent with the plan as a whole."
Avoid the 13 busts drivers
Law enforcement agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area arrested 286 people on suspicion of driving while intoxicated during the four-day Labor Day weekend.
Police logged 18 alcohol-related injury crashes, but no deaths resulted, officials said.
Avoid the 13 in the Santa Clara Valley, Avoid the 23 on the Peninsula and Avoid the 21 in the East Bay began at 6 p.m. Friday and ended at midnight Monday.
The effort involved police departments from the three regions and featured nine sobriety checkpoints.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
