The Loma Prietan
September/October 2003
Sustainable Land Use Committee Seeks Members
by Irvin Dawid
The Sustainable Land Use Committee (SLU) is slowly making progress. The article that ran in the July/August issue of the Loma Prietan, "Sustainable Land Use Committee Wants Your Help", resulted in SLU increasing its number of members to 3. Cynthia Denny of San Mateo and Maria Nilva Potapov of Redwood City responded to the article. In addition, the Chapter's new Conservation Representative, Melissa Hippard, is on board and ready to provide support. Our first meeting was held July 30 at the Barnes & Nobles cafe opposite the Hillsdale Caltrain station. Melissa attended and strongly encouraged us to focus on membership building.
Irvin Dawid reported on a successful "administrative" meeting held July 17 with the City of Palo Alto planning staff to discuss the specific area planning behind a controversial, downtown mixed-use development in that city known as 800 High Street. This 61-unit condominium project is the subject of a referendum on the November ballot. The meeting was jointly held with the Political Committee in order to shed some light on the planning process for the neighborhood, known as SOFA, or south of Forest Avenue. This meeting helped the Political Committee become better informed on some of the land-use issues in this section of Palo Alto, and thus better prepared to ask questions of City Council candidates as the Committee prepares endorsements for the November election.
While the focus of the committee will remain to "encourage, support, and influence" smart growth within the Chapter's three-county area, there was not unanimity as to what encompassed smart growth. For example, "Should we support height limits?" was a question left unresolved. More participation by interested Chapter members would increase our ability to effectively educate our community about the value of smart growth principals, and provide a forum for sharing ideas about how to implement these critical development concepts.
Currently, the SLU is considering evaluating three development projects:
- Bay Meadows, San Mateo
- 800 High Street, Palo Alto
- Tamien Place, San Jose
In September a forum on Tamien Place will be held at the Chapter office at the Peninsula Conservation Center. Call the office for more details.
If you have any interest in these development proposals and/or in working on smart growth in your community, we would like to hear from you. Depending upon response, the next SLU meeting will focus on one of the three above projects, at a time and place convenient for those who have expressed interest.
For more information on the Sustainable land Use
committee please contact Melissa Hippard at 650/390-8414 or e-mail
<melissa.hippard at sierraclub.org>.