Palo Alto Matters - Community voices for sustainable solutions
News, data, commentary and connections to help Palo Alto residents get informed, get involved, and speak up about community concerns.
Palo Alto Weekly – by Sue Dremann / May 9, 2017
Residents who oppose Castilleja School’s proposed expansion and even some who support the school told Castilleja officials during a Tuesday night neighborhood meeting to hit the reset button on their plans. But in an email to the Weekly on Wednesday, school officials said they won’t go back to the drawing board.
Palo Alto Weekly – by Gennady Sheyner/ May 9, 2017
From expanded shuttles and transit subsidies to new garages and improved grade crossings at the rail tracks, Palo Alto has no shortage of projects on its transportation wish list.
But on Monday night, the City Council abruptly backed away from one proposal that would have paid for some of these projects: a business license tax that the council has been contemplating for well over a year.
Palo Alto Weekly – by Palo Alto Weekly editorial board / May 5, 2017
Palo Alto Matters – April 24, 2017
Last month, in a last minute policy shift, a divided City Council voted to allow the construction of second homes (known as accessory dwelling units or ADUs) on any property in single family neighborhoods, within six feet of side and rear property lines and with no on-site parking or design review requirements.
In doing so, Council rejected a publicly vetted and broadly supported staff recommendation in favor of a final hour proposal that reduces privacy protections and creates additional parking impacts. Most residents, including those objecting to portions of the new ordinance, support more ADUs. But many thought abandoning the compromise recommendation amounted to bait and switch policy-making that invalidated years of public participation.
Read More “Hundreds protest bait and switch tactics on “granny units””
Compare City Council’s April 17 Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU/JADU) ordinance to pre-existing City rules, State law, and staff’s publicly vetted compromise recommendation.
Palo Alto Weekly – by Gennady Sheyner / April 12, 2017
Seeking to bring some order to downtown’s chaotic parking scene, Palo Alto officials signaled on Tuesday night their intent to abolish the existing system of color zones and to bring back paid parking.
The details of downtown’s new parking program are yet to be hashed out, but members of the City Council indicated Tuesday that they generally support the recommendations of a newly released study, which surveyed downtown’s parking landscape and urged a switch to paid parking.
Palo Alto Weekly – by Palo Alto Weekly editorial board / April 7, 2017
We hope the City Council enthusiastically supports these initiatives, which cap years of discussion and are consistent with adopted city policy to expand supply, create incentives to reduce solo driving, reduce the impacts on surrounding residential neighborhoods and fund a transportation-management program to encourage people to use transportation alternatives.
The Mercury News – by George Avalos, Bay Area News Group / March 30, 2017
“It turns out that we were wrong about millennial preferences, the stories were wrong that millennials wanted to live in a hyper-urban environment and that it would be OK to raise families in a condo,” said Micah Weinberg, president of the Bay Area Council’s Economic Institute. “Millennials are putting off family formation, but when they have a family, they want what their parents had: a house on a nice lot pretty close to work.”
Palo Alto Weekly – by Gennady Sheyner / March 28, 2017
In an unusual move that reflected Palo Alto’s shifting political dynamics, the City Council reversed on Monday night its December decision to significantly raise the fees that office developers must contribute to support affordable housing.
Palo Alto Matters – March 24, 2017
Moving quickly to assert itself, the new Council majority used a fast-track voting process to limit debate and sideline the Citizen Advisory Committee’s Land Use recommendations – only to retreat after two months of public backlash.
Read More “Facing sustained public outcry, Council reverses course”