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Photograph by Sarah Gaffney
Designing Woman: New Willow Glen Neighborhood Association board member Sharon Fierro is no stranger to community planning.
Planner brings ideas to neighborhood group
Sharon Fierro signs on as WGNA's newest member of the board
By Sarah Gaffney
Sharon Fierro is a workhorse. Not only does she need to heed her daily responsibilities as a senior planner with the City of Campbell, she now does double duty as a new Willow Glen Neighborhood Association board member, a special appointment by WGNA president J. Michael Gonzales. As part of her training, she will have to attend workshops on traffic and neighborhood blight.
Apparently, being overworked is not in Fierro's vocabulary. "As a matter of fact, the workshops start at 8:30 and I said, 'Oh good. That sounds interesting,'" she says.
The former teacher and law student has worked for Campbell for the past two years. Prior to that, she was a planner for Daly City. When she heard of the opening in the Campbell Planning Department, she was eager to return home.
"This was kind of a coming back home for me. I went to Campbell schools and have lived in the West Valley area, so it's a lot of fun to be able to plan in a community where you have so much history," Fierro says. "It's fun shaping the future, improving the quality of life and making the world a better place for people."
Fierro and the planning staff are working on updating Campbell's General Plan, a blueprint for how the city will grow in the next 20 years. Fierro sees a future of more home-based businesses, which will strengthen neighborhoods and the services surrounding them.
"There's a lot more people operating out of their home doing consulting work. I think that's going to have an impact on the way we live," Fierro says. "We're going to see a little less commuting ... more focus on neighborhoods and quality of life issues.
"I read in the Willow Glen Resident a letter that someone wrote saying, 'Gee, why can't we be like downtown Campbell?'," Fierro says. "And I thought, well, that's neat. ... I work in Campbell, and Campbell is really coming around. ... We're making change that will affect the future, and that's exciting."
Naturally, she would like to devote some of that same energy to the evolving face of Willow Glen. "San Jose is getting big, and the challenge is to keep what we have and how we should grow," says Fierro, a one-year resident and long-time fan of Willow Glen's charm.
Her drive to affect the future and people's lives as a city planner is the same fire that pushes her as a WGNA board member. A child of the '60s, she's a self-proclaimed idealist.
"When I was in school, it was in the era of the Peace Corps and Kennedy. My generation was really inspired by public service," Fierro says. "We thought we could make a difference, and I still feel that way. It's why I taught and why I was attracted to planning. ... I really wanted to make a difference on a global scale. Now I realize that the most important thing I can do is make a difference in your life ... and make the world a good place for people to live."
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
