The Loma Prietan
January/February 2005
Working for a sustainable future
By Irv Dawid, SLU Committee Chair
The September/October Loma
Prietan article, "Sustainable Land Use
(SLU) Committee Tackles First
Challenges", described many of the
accomplishments to date for our growing
committee. Our major policy accomplishment
was taking a position on a
political issue that will appear on the ballot
in the City of Cupertino in November,
2005.
While SLU did not advocate a position
on the recent referendum in
Redwood City on the proposed Marina
Shores Village development proposal
(defeated on a 57% to 43% vote), this
issue was evaluated in depth by the chapter.
SLU let Club members decide for
themselves by presenting "pro and con"
articles in Election Insight 2004:
October/November, 2004 (available in
the SLU website archive).
We already have a full plate of issues
to be evaluating next year. Most notably
is the Mayfield Mall/Hewlett Packard
office park redevelopment proposal in
the City of Mountain View. See accompanying
article on this exciting proposal
by SLU member Shiloh Ballard.
Our members have expressed interest
in evaluating a new proposal to intensify
development on the North First
Street/Guadalupe Light Rail corridor in
San Jose. We hope to be meeting early in
the year in San Jose to hear from Club
members, as well as San Jose planning
staff, about what appears to be a preferable
alternative to the development of
Coyote Valley.
Finally, thanks to volunteer chapter
webmaster, Paul Hsieh, SLU's website,
(lomaprieta.sierraclub.org/slu/) is
becoming more comprehensive.
However, the time has come for our committee
to have our own webmaster as we
have placed to great a burden on Paul. If
you have webmaster skills and would like
to see more sustainable land use in San
Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Benito
counties, please contact SLU chair, Irvin
Dawid, irvindawid@hotmail.com.
Your help is desperately needed if the
Sustainable Land Use committee is to
have a sustainable future!