The LGCA advocated for years for the Town Council to first complete the Housing Element since:
1) it would identify the exact number of parcels required to be rezoned to accommodate the RHNA numbers and
2) there was a statutory deadline to accomplish this. There was no statutory deadline to complete the Land Use Element. If the Town missed the deadline to adopt a compliant Housing Element, the Town would be subject to the Builder’s Remedy as well as other penalties.
Every jurisdiction in Santa Clara County except Los Gatos completed their Housing Element first and used the site inventory in the HE to properly inform the Land Use Element as to the amount of land to be rezoned to meet RHNA. That is the purpose of a site inventory – to identify the amount of land to be properly zoned for future development.
Just so you are fully informed, the site inventory in the Town’s certified Housing Element totals approximately 80 acres of land. By rezoning the 80 acres (eg Housing Element Overlay Zone) the Town was able to accommodate the full RHNA allocation of 1,993 units plus a buffer of 15%. There was no need to go beyond this requirement.
The Land Use Element, which was subject to a referendum signed by over 3,000 residents, upzoned over 800 acres Town wide. That’s rights- 800 acres! Does that strike you as remotely thoughtful with regard to land use planning? We don’t.
The Land Use Element provided a clear path to massive future development substantially beyond what was required by the State – namely 10x! We believe, as did 3,000 fellow residents, that this was irresponsible land use planning, and was clearly excessive. If developed it would be disastrous in terms of traffic, pollution and quality of life. Worse, the voting block of Rennie, Ristow Moore and Sayoc refused to do a fiscal impact analysis of that level of development. How is that being responsible?
The referendum had nothing to do with the timely development of the Housing Element. Laurel Prevetti and Mayor Rennie and Mayor Ristow controlled the legislative agenda for 2022 and 2023. They chose to spend time and resources to first develop a deeply flawed Land Use Element that was not required to draft the Housing Element.
If they had done what the cities of Campbell, Mountain View, Los Altos Hills and Milpitas had done, and completed the Housing Element first, there is no doubt the Housing Element would have been approved significantly sooner than it was. For the record the Town received certification of the Housing Element by the State on May 3, 2024 after Badame became the mayor. The cities of Campbell, Mountain View, Los Altos Hills and Milpitas were all certified in May 2023 – a year earlier!. How do Ristow, Rennie and Moore explain that inconvenient fact?
It was because of their incompetence, coupled with the block voting of Ristow, Sayoc, Rennie and Moore as a majority during 2022 and 2023, the Town was exposed to Builders Remedy development applications until May 3, 2024 – a total of 16 months! The state gave this Council 2 years to get certified and it took them 3 1/2 years! When you’re sitting in traffic, or looking at 7 story to 13 story buildings, you know who to hold responsible.
And for the record, the most egregious Builder’s Remedy development applications such as NewTown and the Arya, both 7 or more stories tall, were filed between November 2023 and March 2024! If the Town, after missing the statutory deadline, had obtained certification at the same time as Campbell, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View and Milpitas, these two Builder’s Remedy applications could not have been filed. The failure to get a Housing Element certified by the statutory deadline rests entirely on Prevetti, Ristow, Sayoc Moore and Rennie. This is the inconvenient fact.
Lastly, the LGCA did not force the Council to do anything. Once the referendum qualified by securing the necessary number of valid signatures, under State Law the TC had to either put the Land Use Element to a democratic vote of residents or repeal the Element. That’s how a referendum works which is guaranteed by the State constitution. We thought it better to have the citizens vote on such a massive up zone
If Rennie, Moore and Ristow were so convinced the Land Use Element was “good work”, they should have had the conviction to put it on the ballot, campaign for passing it and let the residents decide. Rezoning over 800 acres of land Town wide is a radical move that is too important not to have residents directly vote on this. That’s how a democratic process should work. They obviously didn’t have the conviction that they could convince voters that this was “good work” and chose to repeal the 2040 Land Use Element.
As far as spending $100,000 to facilitate a vote of the people, we can’t think of a better use of the people’s resources than to pay for an election. It costs money to hold an election. It isn’t a serious argument to claim saving $100,000 by not holding an election is a good trade off. If that is the argument, there goes democracy.
What is disgusting is the $300,000 that was spent on a Housing Element consultant who worked for 18 months on drafting a compliant Housing Element and failed to obtain certification. Since when has the Town we become accustomed to paying consultants for incompetent work? Did the Town ask for a refund?! Where is the outrage over that use of the people’s money for a business that failed us?
In closing, the Town has an excellent Land Use Element that has served us very well. It is the one that was in place before the 2040 Land Use Element was drafted. You might want to read it if you haven’t.
Now you have the complete picture of what actually happened.
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