Campaign should focus on four primary issues
By Paul Dubois
As I see it, four major issues face Los Gatos: lack of affordable housing; hillside development; traffic; and parking.
I'm a local business owner with nine employees, none of whom can afford to buy or rent in town. This is true of other employees who serve Los Gatos. Because of our valley's economic success, I believe there is an economic apartheid, which disturbs me and it should you, too. The next time we have a major earthquake, would you want off-duty police and fire personnel responding from homes in Tracy? Can teachers, town and business employees work effectively after long commutes? And how long will we be able to retain them? Affordable housing is not just a local issue, but a regional one, and will take a regional partnership of both government and private companies to develop workable solutions. My suggestion is to develop a Housing Trust, modeled after the Open Space Trust, putting deed-restricted housing into trust, keeping it affordable and peppered throughout the valley.
Los Gatos has a very strict hillside development plan, being refined into a specific plan. I support this as well as continued dialogue with the county to ensure that their regulations are concurrent with ours. A strict hillside plan will become more pertinent over the next few years from a factor no one is taking into account. The hills are an urban forest of oak, manzanita, eucalyptus and brush surrounding houses accessed by narrow roads, many times with only one way in and out or with deadends. Much of the land is on steep grades, making fires difficult to control.
There is also a lack of sufficient hydrants and water storage to protect structures. During the Lexington fire, had it not been for a wind shift, we would have had to evacuate close to 3,000 people, and it would have been difficult to keep the fire from spreading to town. Furthermore, there is a new disease attacking oak trees, with no known cure. Couple that with a disease that has already attacked eucalyptus, and we are even more susceptible to fire, not to mention the resulting loss of ground stability and possible mud slides.
Our new General Plan addresses some of these issues. But I believe this should be a joint public and private project with the town taking the lead requiring arborist inspections, a reforestation plan, and encouragement for residents to improve private roadways. Additionally, any new hillside development must also improve the infrastructure of its neighborhood by increasing water capacity and/or pressure, as well as access.
To approach the issue of traffic, let me present this analogy. A man goes to the doctor; the doctor examines him and reports that he has good news and bad news. "The good news is that you have a clogged artery and with an operation it could be unclogged." The patient replies, "If that's the good news, what's the bad news?" "We can't operate, you don't own the artery." We don't own one of our major arteries (Highway 9 through the downtown) and, consequently can't correct traffic flows by enhancing and retiming the traffic signals at major intersections. It's time to take steps to obtain this artery.
I am opposed to the closing of the town on-ramp to Highway 17 at S. Santa Cruz Avenue. The way to discourage cut-through traffic is to delay it through use of metered signals. Additionally, there are other areas where traffic-calming devices, education, enforcement and a little common sense could solve problems.
Finally, it's encouraging that there is dialogue for parking solutions taking place. However, there could be a better utilization of some of our current lots through restriping and valet parking. I believe the newly created lot on Miles Avenue would be better utilized as a valet lot rather than expecting employees to park at the bottom of a dark, steep hill. With the exception of creating timed parking on University Avenue with stop signs to slow through traffic, I am opposed to opening the neighborhoods to parking, unless through sale of a limited number of permits. If these measures do not solve parking issues in our community, then I would support building parking structures. My logic--it will be cheaper to build today rather than the future--with one caveat, let's build only what we can afford.
With my background in law enforcement, I have a firsthand knowledge of public safety and other issues that affect a community. I believe that, armed with this experience, I can do the best job for all of Los Gatos.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
