First we would like to say Happy New Year and thanks for turning out to vote in the 2018 elections. We are excited about the historic all-woman Council and we hope that they can work cooperatively to get important things done in 2019. We are cheering them on!
As residents, most of the time we are in react mode. The City Council has something on their agenda and we have to show up at Council meetings to voice our opinion if we agree-or disagree with what is being proposed. Or, worse yet, we read about what the Council did decide on a specific issue in the Town Crier and we’re frustrated because it’s not what we think is right. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to help decide what the Council focuses on instead? Well, now we all have our chance. The Council is asking residents to take a survey to help them set priorities for the upcoming year.
Regardless of what the final list of priorities contains, we are hopeful that the Council will take a serious look at a number of hot-button issues including:
- Protect neighborhoods:
Balance increase in affordable housing while protecting neighborhoods from the impacts of large-scale developments. - Understand downtown trade-offs:
Think through what residents really want for downtown development and the tradeoffs we are willing to make. Prioritize what next steps really make sense. A professional survey with trade-off questions may be helpful, instead of getting the same feedback from downtown developers and their supporters. - Add parking supply:
Address parking supply in downtown before loosening parking requirements for new developments. The city needs to protect neighborhoods from downtown employees using those residential areas for parking. - Traffic-calm our streets:
Find ways to address the impact of increased traffic on collector streets such as San Antonio Road, Magdelena/Springer, Cuesta/El Monte as well as on residential streets.
That’s our list of priorities and we’re sure you have yours as well, so please help the Council, and more importantly, our City, by filling out the survey.
Below is the link for that survey. Please take the survey and invite your fellow residents to take the survey as well. The deadline is January 16, but best if you can do it by Sunday, January 13th.
Los Altos City Council Survey:
https://www.losaltosca.gov/com