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News, data, commentary and connections to help Palo Alto residents get informed, get involved, and speak up about community concerns.

Category: Headlines

Palo Alto faces legal challenge over budget transfers

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City’s practice of moving money from utility funds to General Fund may also hinge on Redding case

Palo Alto Weekly – by Gennady Sheyner / January 19, 2018

For more than a century, Palo Alto’s municipal utilities have served the city as both a provider of critical services and a revenue-generating asset from which the city can transfer money to pay for basic services like public safety, libraries and park maintenance.

Now, that long and at times controversial practice is facing a legal challenge. Downtown resident Miriam Green has filed a lawsuit against the city, charging that the transfer amounts to an illegal tax. At the same time, the state Supreme Court is preparing to hear an argument over a similar case in Redding, where an appeals court has recently struck down by a 2-1 vote the city’s transfer policy.

Mountain View Council won’t insist on new neighborhood school

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LASD to decide whether to put Bullis charter at San Antonio site

Mountain View Voice – by Kevin Forestieri / January 18, 2018

Despite concerns about traffic and a desire to bring a local neighborhood school to families living in the San Antonio area, a majority of Mountain View City Council members agreed Tuesday night to let the Los Altos School District decide whether to relocate Bullis Charter School to Mountain View.

The council was split on a 5-2 vote, with members Margaret Abe-Koga and Pat Showalter opposed. The council majority said district officials should decide what kind of school would occupy a future campus in the San Antonio area, despite the major financial support from Mountain View to ensure that the densely populated neighborhood gets a local school and acres of park space.

Combo parking structure and theater likely to move up on Menlo Park’s priority list

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Palo Alto Daily Post – by Emily Mibach / January 18, 2018

A parking garage with an entertainment center — such as a movie theater — may be catapulted up the Menlo Park City Council’s to do list.

Polling released to the city on Tuesday revealed that 74% of polled residents would support seeing a three-story “multi-use parking structure” downtown. City Councilman Ray Mueller, has been calling for a structure like this since 2014 and said he was excited to see the poll results.

Meeting set for Tuesday on Stanford expansion

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Public comment period winding down for university’s large-scale expansion plan

Palo Alto Weekly – by Gennady Sheyner / January 18, 2018

Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian will host a public meeting on Tuesday regarding Stanford University’s 2018 General Use Permit (GUP) application. As the public comment period is ending Feb. 2, the meeting will be one of the last opportunities for residents to make verbal public comments regarding the GUP.

If the permit is approved, the permit will allow Stanford University to build up to 2.275 million square feet in academic space, 3,150 housing units and 40,000 square feet of child care space and other supporting facilities between 2018 and 2035.

Palo Alto prepares for massive downtown ‘upgrade’

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City’s plan to replace utility and water mains, add street improvements to launch this spring

Palo Alto Weekly – by Gennady Sheyner / January 18, 2018

The streets of downtown Palo Alto will transform into a hive of construction activity this spring, when the city launches an ambitious, yearslong plan to replace utility pipes, upgrade traffic equipment, widen sidewalks and expand its fiber-optics network.

The construction frenzy is set to launch in April and May and crawl block-by-block along University Avenue and surrounding streets, where roads will be torn up to accommodate new pipes, cables and equipment relating to traffic signals and utilities.

Should there be any limit on Stanford’s growth? How dense should campus become?

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Palo Alto Daily Post – by Allison Levitsky / January 17, 2018

As Stanford seeks Santa Clara County leaders’ approval to build nearly 2.3 million square feet of new academic facilities, one question lingers. How much should the university be allowed to build on its campus? How high? How dense? How wide?

Because Stanford occupies an unincorporated part of the county, the Board of Supervisors signs off on all major expansions.

But the land isn’t subject to zoning limitations on density per parcel, so the county has been approving the university’s growth in increments. The county issued Stanford’s last General Use Permit, or GUP, in 2000, allowing for more than 2 million square feet of academic facilities and 3,018 housing units.

San Mateo: Citizens group urging height, density limits before measure ends

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San Mateo City Council asked for ballot measure ahead of general plan update

The Daily Journal – by Samantha Weigel / January 15, 2018

As communities across the Bay Area strive to balance disparate viewpoints while navigating the effects of growth, the impassioned debate over height and density restrictions in San Mateo may reach a critical point sooner than some anticipated.

A citizens group that originally spurred San Mateo’s voter-approved limits more than 25 years ago has returned. Members are now urging the City Council to place a measure on the ballot that would keep in place 5-story height limits in most parts of the city, and restrict how dense housing and commercial developers can build.

While the city is about to initiate an extensive community outreach effort for its General Plan update — the most comprehensive land use and zoning document in San Mateo — concerns have arisen about Measure P sunsetting at the end of 2020.

New accessory-dwelling units law brings hope, confusion

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City’s 2017 ordinance sparks big questions about little dwellings

Palo Alto Weekly – by Gennady Sheyner / January 15, 2018

The city has seen some modest successes with the new law since its passage in April. Traditionally, the city has seen only about four accessory-dwelling units constructed per year, according to staff. Last year, planners had issued permits for nine new ADUs. Another 14 applications are currently under review, according to a report from the Department of Planning and Community Environment.

But as the commission learned on Wednesday, the new law is also riddled with kinks and ambiguities, which at times lead to confusion and unintended consequences.

Cupertino: Citizens group fears new laws could open door for Vallco developer

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Mercury News – by Keith Menconi / January 12, 2018

As Cupertino begins a new planning round for the 58-acre Vallco Shopping Mall site, some residents are warning that the state’s recently enacted housing legislation could lead to a skirting of city reviews and pave the way for “massive development.”

A Change.org petition by citizen advocacy group Better Cupertino, which has collected more than 1,000 signatures, calls on the city to examine the consequences of the new laws and create “clearer objective standards” for the city’s General Plan.

The new laws aim to tackle the state’s housing crisis, in part by limiting the ability of local governments to reject housing development applications–including projects that are mixed with non-residential uses–that comply with all “objective” local standards, according to a legal analysis prepared for the city by attorneys from Goldfarb & Lipman LLP.

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