After a controversial city council vote on February 19, the residents of Saratoga aren’t any longer mechanically informed about certain forms of proposed housing estates of their neighborhoods.
The takeover of those standards implies that the town's staff can immediately approved these housing developments with out a planning commission.
In recent years, state housing assistants have encouraged more living space to be built to eliminate the growing real estate crisis in California. At the local level, Saratoga lawyer Richard Taylor said, which suggests that the California Ministry of Housing and Community Development (HCD) was immune to proceedings that might decelerate the event of housing, including mechanically notifying residents or obtaining public input on recent projects The planning commission level.
“From the perspective of the state, every minute that has spent something other than the house contradicts the hammers and nails and concrete into the ground, the state's apartment goals. That seems to be the direction, ”said Taylor on the meeting on February 19. “I don't wish to suggest that that is something that can’t be done. It is just that I also have to know that HCD was very aggressive when it comes to what they see as stress. “
The city planning commission approved the target design standards in a 4: 3 vote in January, whereby the disadvantages should continue to be informed about the proposal of 500 feet from the location of a proposed development within 15 days of submission.
Instead, the council voted to use the city's website to publish these new projects so that the residents have to decide to be informed about these projects.
The residents have largely spoken out for the maintenance of the automatic notification procedures.
“Public contributions help to recognize security concerns that may have been overlooked. It promotes the dialogue between applicants and neighbors, promotes cooperation as conflicts and improves transparency and trust in the city's decision -making process, ”said Mona Kaur Freedland, based in the meeting.
Part of the reason for the Council in relation to the notification procedures is based on consideration that HCD would retaliate against the city if they are informed about the notification procedure.
While Saratoga was waiting for the state approval of his apartment element, he received applications for over a dozen construction programs that enable developers to propose projects in any size and size in cities without approved apartment element.
If the state officials were made aware of a remarkable procedure during an examination of the city's progress to implement its housing element, with which they have taken problems in the city in the Portola Valley peninsula. Community members in cities such as Saratoga, which are particularly susceptible to forest fires, have refused against these projects, especially for suggestions for denser living space, in the interest of public security.
“This is not because I don't want to notice it. It is only because I don't want to be the type that has reopened the agent of the heir, ”said Chuck Page, Vice Mayor Chuck Page, who voted for the approval of the new standards. The only “no” vote came from the council member Yan Zhao after her application for the introduction of the 500-foot labeling procedure failed.
The chairman of the planning commission, Jojo Choi, who risked the maintenance of a notification process for maintaining the maintenance of the city council members to implement the 500-foot guideline, because even if HCD has problems with it, Saratoga's housing element would not be immediately decertified.
“Through the ministerial review, the state legislature created this example wherein developers can construct up no matter the area people,” he said of this publication. “This might be a nationwide problem, and I had hoped that the town of Saratoga would have the courage to be one among the primary cities within the state to really say no that public participation is so necessary a part of the democratic government, and We still should make public to note. “
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