Willow Glen Resident
News
Supporters of Measure A regroup, haven't ruled out 2008 initiative
By Eli Segall
Measure A, the Santa Clara County Land Use Initiative, sought to increase the minimum lot size needed to build new homes on unincorporated county hillsides, ranches and agricultural land, but after a fiercely contested battle, the efforts of rural preservationists fell just short in the Nov. 7 election. Now both sides are already bracing for round 2.
Both sides spent combined $1 million.
The measure was defeated by 6,000 votes, a margin of 1.5 percent. People for Land and Nature, the group that put Measure A on the ballot, met on Dec. 15 to discuss where it went right, where it went wrong and what to do next.
This was not the group's first meeting since the election, but it was the first time that the group had gathered with the official tallies, released a month ago by the county.
The meeting was closed to the public, but before it took place, Measure A campaign coordinator Peter Drekmeier said his group would look at "potential next steps" for the 2008 election. At the present time, however, the group would primarily "focus on this campaign and what happened."
Voting patterns followed a predictable path, he said. Drekmeier pointed out that cities with high environmental activism like Palo Alto and Mountain View supported it, while more rural areas such as Gilroy and Morgan Hill rejected it.
"A lot of people want us to try again," said Drekmeier, a Palo Alto city councilman. "There's a lot of energy from our group and from people in the community."
Clarence Stone is not one of them. Stone was a member of the Alliance for Housing and Environment, Measure A's organized opposition. Prior to the election, the alliance claimed PLAN wrote the initiative in secrecy and without the input of affected parties. According to Stone, while the group has "no plans at this point" to mount another defensive campaign, they'll be ready.
"If PLAN uses the same approach and writes another initiative behind closed doors, we'll bring out the troops again," said Stone, president of the Santa Clara County Hillside Association.
Stone is not opposed to working with PLAN on future preservation projects. In fact, he worked closely with its coalition members in crafting the county's viewshed policy, adopted on Aug. 29 by the board of supervisors. The policy seeks to minimize visual impacts of hillside development.
While Measure A's opponents and proponents already have 2008 on the brain, some community members are also looking down the roadbut for slightly different reasons.
Doug Kimball has lived in unincorporated Santa Clara County for 30 years, in plain view of the South Almaden Valley Urban Reserve. In a few years Kimball plans to move from the area, and when he comes back to visit, he hopes the neighborhood will be just as he left it.
"We're used to seeing hills," Kimball said. "I'd like to come back and see it looking nice, not just a bunch of big houses."
