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Is the process getting in the way?
By Dale Bryant
At the most recent meeting of the General Plan Committee--a session where the topic was the hot-button issue of land use--only two Los Gatans were in the audience. But when Larry Arzie, Joanne Rodgers, Joanne Talesfore and Lois Hanson put out a distress signal and invited Los Gatans to a Sunday afternoon discussion about how to make sure their voices are not ignored in the general plan update, close to 100 Los Gatans turned out.
And most of them were frustrated. Frustrated and angry.
Many of those who attended the gathering on Aug. 8 on Larry Arzie's lawn, believe the town has an agenda--that the town wants more and more development, because it will help keep town coffers fat; those who turned out to voice their frustrations say the town's "pro-development" stance contradicts the wishes of its citizens.
Frankly, I think most of the town's leaders are as anti-development as most local residents. After all, no one moved to Los Gatos in hopes of seeing chain stores replace one-of-a-kind shops, and I think it's safe to say the town manager would rather see hills than towering structures when he rides his bicycle through town. I also think town leaders try very hard to be responsive to the community.
But somewhere between the town's efforts to be responsive and the community's perception, there's a major disconnect.
I sometimes wonder if the town's efforts to involve citizens in the process doesn't backfire by creating false expectations that their contributions will have more impact than the system allows. In other words, if you ask people to commit a year or two to attending meetings and interviewing their neighbors and reading reports because you want them to tell you what the community wants, you'd better not ignore them when they tell you what they think the community wants.
That's what some members of the General Plan Task Force think happened to them, and that's why they've been getting together to create strategies for ensuring that citizens' voices will not be ignored. They call themselves the Neighborhood Alliance, and they're the ones who organized the Aug. 8 meeting.
So how come close to 100 people showed up at this meeting while only two showed up at the last General Plan Committee meeting? I've been on my soapbox for years to encourage citizen participation in the process. Go to meetings; voice your opinion; become involved in the process, I've been telling readers on these pages. Now I'm beginning to think the reason so many people turned out on a Sunday afternoon at a private home to talk about the general plan update is precisely because it was outside the process.
Although there were some town officials on hand to answer questions, they mostly listened. They were away from their home turf--the place where all the rules and documents reside, the place where the process is designed and monitored.
Certainly, there need to be rules, and there needs to be a process. But when growing numbers of citizens believe the process is what's keeping them from being heard, it's time to step outside the box and rethink the process.
That's what happened on Aug. 8, and it was a healthy and productive exercise--and more than a little illuminating. The discussion focused on one part of the general plan--the North Forty Specific Plan, a detailed blueprint for development in the approximately 40 acres near Los Gatos Boulevard and Highway 85. Task Force members complained that they wanted to weigh in on how that property should be developed--if and when the various parcels are sold--but that they were told the North Forty was not in their purview.
The town goes to great pains to put together a representative committee to find out how residents really feel about future development in the community, and then tells the committee, don't trouble yourself with the only significant piece of property in town where there could be major development?
The North Forty Specific Plan, now in the form of an administrative draft, features mixed-use commercial zoning and includes business parks, retail and entertainment. Those at the Aug. 8 meeting wanted to know why there couldn't be some residential, perhaps a theater for live performances. What about playing fields for kids?
The answer came from Mark Brodsky, a veteran of another community-participation process that produced a Vision of Los Gatos Boulevard. During that process, said Brodsky, residents recommended mixed-use residential and commercial for the North Forty, but they were told it wouldn't fly because the area was zoned commercial in the general plan.
This is the same general plan that is in the process of being updated--with considerable effort by the town to involve citizens in the process. But the North Forty Specific Plan is being created not under an updated general plan, but under the current general plan, which includes the Commercial Specific Plan adopted in 1993. The North Forty Specific Plan now being finalized says that the goal of the plan is to be "responsive to the Town's goal of encouraging economic stability by providing opportunities for mixed-use commercial development within the North Forty area."
Economic stability is certainly not to be brushed aside lightly. Still it's not hard to see that the process is sending out mixed signals that the town wants to hear from its citizens, but that it doesn't really matter what those citizens think.
The Neighborhood Alliance has scheduled another meeting for Sept.8 at 7 p.m. in the Neighborhood Center. Organizers remind those who are concerned about having their voices heard that the General Plan Committee meets at 6 p.m. that same evening in the Town Council Chambers.
Dale Bryant is the editor of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
