Pollsters will quiz residents on the issue of paid parking

By Jeff Kearns

It's not quite the family feud, but the Town of Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce wants the top 10 answers on the board before work starts on a new downtown parking garage.

Chamber director Sheri Lewis and Councilmember Linda Lubeck submitted a proposal to hire a polling firm to find out what ways voters would be willing to help pay for the garage--or if they would at all.

Councilmembers authorized Town Manager David Knapp to hire a firm that will put together and conduct the survey. The town is already looking at three bids for the job, all asking about $15,000. Community Services director Regina Falkner will interview the three finalists and make a recommendation to Knapp.

Chamber Chair-elect Diane McNutt pushed for the survey in a letter to the mayor.

"This research will give all of us insight into the sentiments, values and choices of the entire population, not just those who vocalize their opinions at Town Council meetings," McNutt wrote. "Random sampling methodology will ensure that those who participate in the poll represent the viewpoint of the whole community."

The Chamber wants answers on a variety of questions:

* How much residents will resist paid parking;

* How much residents are willing to pay;

* How often residents come downtown;

* Whether residents park in lots or on the street.

At the meeting, McNutt said that the town can't make decisions on paid parking if it just gets input from the same group of downtown business and property owners that show up at council meetings when parking is on the agenda.

"We really feel that it's time to have some statistically valid data to work with here," she said.

Councilmember Randy Attaway (who has said he opposes paid parking) said he wasn't convinced polling was a good idea, especially because the surveys in the Cat's Meow (the town's quarterly newsletter) have been coming back with about 65 percent of respondents opposing new downtown parking structures.

"It might be a risk you don't want to take," said Attaway.

Joe Pirzynski said he agreed with Attaway, but at the same time acknowledged that the town needs more hard data on the topic.

Lubeck said that the survey wasn't a "yes or no answer," but rather a good way to find out what kind of programs people might be willing to support, such as, would residents be willing to pay $10 to be able to park downtown all year?

Sensing that the council was bending toward authorizing the surveys, Attaway requested that councilmembers have a chance to review the surveys when they're done.

But that won't be until later this summer--the money to pay for the survey will come out of the manager's contingency fund, which won't be budgeted until the next fiscal year begins in July.

Other Action

In other action, councilmembers handed a subdivision application by District Attorney George Kennedy back to the Development Review Committee, and directed staffers to look into the possibility of a variance for the application.

Kennedy wants to subdivide his property on Johnson Avenue into two lots, but when the Planning Commission heard the application April 14, it decided that the division would violate zoning laws that dictate the minimum frontage of lots in that area.

In addition to Kennedy's house, there's a 600-square-foot cottage on the property. Kennedy says he wants to preserve the cottage and make minor upgrades to its electrical and plumbing systems. He says he hasn't decided whether he wants to develop the new lot himself or sell it.

After earlier meetings with town officials, Kennedy's architect, John Lien, submitted a plan that jogs the proposed property line between the lots to one side, giving the new lot more frontage, but the commission didn't think it was the right solution. The lot also backs up to Foster Road, but the commission wouldn't let Kennedy apply the frontage on that road toward the other side.

Kennedy appealed the decision to the Town Council, which has more leeway as a decision-making body on zoning matters. But even though Lien insisted that his plan followed town code, councilmembers said they couldn't justify it--unless Kennedy applies for a variance.

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