The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters on Nov. 27 certified that proponents of the Saratoga Neighborhood Preservation Initiative collected enough signatures to qualify the measure for the March ballot.
A random sampling of 500 signatures showed that about 91 percent of the signatures are valid. That translates to 3,501 of those collected. The group needed 3,155 signatures, equal to 15 percent of registered voters in the city, to put the measure on the ballot.
Now the City Council has the choice of either making the initiative an ordinance or placing it on the March 26 ballot.
The initiative is on the council's Dec. 6 agenda.
Councilmembers are expected to ask for a staff report that evening and and then discuss the initiative again at their Dec. 20 meeting after reviewing the report.
It's unlikely the council will adopt the initiative as an ordinance, since its members have spoken out against the initiative.
The initiative proposes that certain development decisions be placed on the ballot rather than be decided by the Planning Commission and City Council, as is done now. It would require a citizens' vote if the city decided to sell or rezone existing parks for commercial or residential use or to rezone residential areas for commercial or higher-density residential use.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, Wednesday, December 6, 1995.
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