A new year brought a new expel and a new truth to a Palo Alto City Council, though a chronically dire issues of land use and travel will continue to pull a lion’s share of courtesy during City Hall in 2015 underneath a devise that a legislature adopted during a shelter Saturday.
The dual hot-button topics were related by a legislature into one priority that after many word-smithing finished adult reading: “The built environment: multi-modal transportation, parking and livability.” The council’s 2015 priority list also includes infrastructure devise and implementation; healthy city/healthy community; and a execution of a Comprehensive Plan update, with “increased concentration from council.”
This year’s list of priorities has a few pivotal differences from a one that a legislature adopted in 2014, with “technology and a connected city” dropping totally off and a infrastructure priority removing uninformed diction to simulate a city’s new swell in that area.
The legislature also motionless not to reason itself to a new goal to extent a list to 3 priorities and concluded to adopt 4 in 2015.
Held during a newly non-stop Mitchell Park Community Center, a council’s annual eventuality had a decidedly opposite feel from final year’s, that took place in a cold and close classroom in Ventura Community Center.
With a new legislature weighted with a slow-growth infancy and a mint state-of-the-art assembly room portion as a setting, a legislature intent in a prolonged discuss about what issues should consecrate priorities, a tenure that connotes “particular, surprising and poignant attention” from a council.
Yet one thing remained a same: Land use and travel surfaced a list, with a legislature unanimously adopting a priority of a “built environment.”
Vice Mayor Greg Schmid forked to a recently expelled National Citizen Survey, that showed residents giving low ratings to city services regarding to travel and growth and expressing stress about new buildings.
“What (the survey) identified is that a 3 areas of land use, formulation and trade have capitulation scores half of those of many of a other handling units in a city,” Schmid said. “This is an area for pivotal regard and it’s been loyal now for dual years in a row. we consider this unequivocally would pull for that as a priority.”
There was some feud over a accurate diction of a priority, with Councilman Tom DuBois arguing in preference of replacing “livability” with “land use with a concentration on a peculiarity of life for residents.” This would meant prioritizing residents over businesses when their interests clash, rather than anticipating an even balance.
“We only had an election. This was a outrageous discussion. we was unequivocally transparent on my position and we unequivocally would like to see that being pithy in a priorities,” DuBois said.
When his offer didn’t advance, DuBois eventually voted with a rest of his colleagues to accept a priority with a some-more epitome judgment of “livability.”
He and Councilman Eric Filseth also finished a box for separating a execution of a updated Comprehensive Plan, a city’s central land-use bible, from a other land-use item. The city has been updating a request given 2006 and hopes to hang adult a routine by subsequent year.
“I consider a concentration on a Comprehensive Plan and in sold a need for a legislature to take a unequivocally active purpose in a routine — we consider that’s applicable adequate that it deserves a possess category,” Filseth said.
While both priorities relating to land use upheld unanimously, other equipment on a list generated substantial discuss and some dissent.
Mayor Karen Holman and Councilwoman Liz Kniss both lobbied tough for a “healthy city” priority, for that Holman has also argued in before years. This time, a idea carried by a 6-3 vote, with Councilmen Filseth, Greg Scharff and Pat Burt dissenting.
“It’s about amicable services; it’s about girl programs; it’s about a whole garland of equipment that understanding with mental health as good as earthy health,” Kniss said.
Councilman Cory Wolbach strongly upheld this priority, quite a inclusion of additional services for seniors, girl and homeless people.
“These are a things a legislature needs to get a hands on this year, to get a round rolling and unequivocally get adult to speed,” he said.
The infrastructure priority is in some ways rolled over from 2014, when “infrastructure devise and funding” was a settled priority. The legislature strike a pivotal miracle on this front when it adopted a new devise final Jun that identified a indispensable infrastructure projects.
Another boost came in November, when electorate authorized a hotel-tax boost that would assistance compensate for a projects, that embody a new military headquarters, downtown parking garages, one revamped glow hire and several bike projects.
The new priority, “infrastructure devise and implementation,” aims to both acknowledge a new swell and publicly announce a council’s fasten to staying a course. Councilman Marc Berman, who before fasten a legislature worked on a citizen charge force that surveyed a city’s infrastructure needs, finished a offer to keep infrastructure atop a council’s work list this year. The legislature unanimously agreed, with Scharff highlighting a city’s new struggles to build a new military headquarters.
“I consider it’s been 20 years in a village during slightest that we’ve been articulate about a public-safety building,” Scharff said. “For whatever reason, during a final notation it always falls apart. The plea for us is: Let’s not let it tumble detached this time. Let’s indeed get it done.”
The legislature voted 7-2, with Schmid and DuBois dissenting, to support a infrastructure priority. Though everybody concluded that a subject is critical, DuBois argued that it’s been a priority for several years and a time has come “to palm off a round to staff and administration.”
The majority, however, concluded that with a devise in place it’s vicious for a legislature to keep a movement going. Burt pronounced accomplishing a list of projects on a list will be “a useful achievement, and we consider we have to not take a eye off a ball.”
By contrast, a city’s bid to build a citywide fiber-optic network that would broach high-speed Internet to each home was deemed on Saturday to have adequate movement on a own, but wanting to sojourn a legislature priority. The legislature voted 8-1, with DuBois dissenting, to mislay record from a priority list. The opinion came after city Chief Information Officer Jonathan Reichental presented his devise to enhance Wi-Fi during city comforts and to ensue with a ongoing business devise for a intensity fiber network.
“I consider broadband is unequivocally a application of a 21st century,” DuBois pronounced in creation a box for gripping fiber-optic network as a priority. “It’s about providing access; it’s about a rival inlet of Silicon Valley. We’re unequivocally descending behind in terms of broadband.”