Honorable Mayor and Council Members:
I suggest a couple priorities for the Council: and regret that I will be unable to speak at your meeting due to a conflict.
1. Modify the city mission statement so it includes support of a high "residential quality of life". That concept used to be in our citys mission statement and needs to be returned as part of the overarching vision..
2. Safety and support for neighborhood-serving businesses are worthy goals that underpin a high quality of residential life.
3. Establish a measurable objective for measuring the cumulative jobs/housing ratio and then measure all projects - and the zoning rules - against whether they support attainment of this measurement. The current rules exacerbate an imbalance.
* Immediately update the Zoning Ordinance so that office growth cannot continue to outpace the creation of housing. Do not delay - there are large projects that need to adhere to sensible restrictions on office.
* Bear in mind that the work on the Housing Element will be for naught if zoning rules allow the addition of jobs to outweigh the creation of housing.
* Consider that the current zoning rules do not properly reflect changed business practices. It is time to modify the zoning regarding non-residential FAR, particularly for offices.
* Recognize that current rules related to non-residential development need to be modified to allow housing to catch up. Current zoning allows continuation - and aggravation - of the current and growing imbalance.
* Remember that the General Plan identifies the envelope of what is allowed; the zoning rules can be more stringent - and should be until a better ratio is attained. Modifying zoning rules within that envelope should not require an EIR or extensive study.
Thank you for your adoption of these suggestions.
Patti Fry
former Planning Commissioner
