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December 30, 2002
Los Altos Hills
Open Space initiative adopted!
The Town of Los Altos Hills recently took a
big step forward to protect both public open space and the Town's trails,
thanks to the new Town Council and a cadre of dedicated activists -- "Los
Altos Hills Open Space," led in large part by Nancy Couperus
and a handful of other dedicated volunteers. Nancy's update is a great
summary of the outcome of this recent campaign, in which CGF
joined Santa Clara Valley Audubon
in supporting this organized group of local environmentalists commited
to protecting open space. (For background on this issue, read our action
alert.)
Congratulations to all the residents of Los Altos Hills who worked hard
to ensure that open space and trails will remain part of the Town's legacy.
A win for local open
space
by Nancy Couperus
• Unanimous vote for
open space
• What's next for open space and public
recreation
• Serendipity
Unanimous vote for open
space
At the Town Council meeting on December 19th,
with a packed house of supporters still in the council chambers despite
the late hour (caused by an agenda covering many other items), our open
space initiative came before the Council for action. The Council could
either adopt it into law on the spot or choose to send it to the voters
in a special election.
One of our staunchest supporters on Council was advised after consultation
with the Town's attorney and the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC)
that he should recuse himself from dealing with this issue, due to a potential
conflict of interest. So Dean Warshawsky reluctantly stepped aside so
as not to endanger the validity of any vote.
Under "Presentations from the Floor" preceding
our agenda item, a few individuals spoke in favor of our open space initiative.
Jane Turnbull, Co-President of the League of Women Voters for Los Altos-Mountain
View, read the League's Resolution
supporting the Citizens' Initiative.
When the actual agenda item came before Council at around 10:20pm, the
Town's Attorney, Steve Mattas, summarized the options and the procedures
that would be required.
Craig Breon of the Santa
Clara Valley Audubon Society commented on the process -- pointing
out that the Council should rescind their previous and conflicting initiative.
It turns out that will have to go on the next agenda as it couldn't be
voted upon at this meeting.
Elaine Nelson of our Open
Space Committee pointed out that Steve Mattas was in error when he
said that an election would be held on June 3rd, 2003, if the Council
elected to put the Initiative before the voters. Elaine also commented
that she thought the FPPC ruling was not necessarily correct. After Elaine
concluded her comments, Steve Mattas agreed that Elaine was correct about
the timing of the election -- that, as she pointed out, it would have
to be a Special Election and it would occur well before June 3rd.
After a few brief additional presentations from
the floor, the issue finally was put to the vote. A motion was made to
accept the initiative -- thus removing the necessity for a special election,
and causing the provisions of the initiative to be adopted directly!
Motion passed. Unanimous. 4-to-0.
This was the successful culmination of a long road for all of you who
helped to bring it to this point -- with hard work, with money, and with
unflagging encouragement and support.
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What's Next for Open Space?
A number of you have expressed a desire to further enhance our open space
assets for the future. Our sister communities of Portola Valley and Woodside
are well along this path already. We would like to join them -- even work
together with them. Just recently the Town Council of Woodside established
the Woodside Open Space Committee. Portola Valley has had such a committee
for decades. A few of us have been in communication with the folks involved
in the Woodside group and have learned a great deal about the tools available
for land preservation.
We plan to start by assembling a small group of like-minded people to
explore the ways in which we might accomplish this.
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What's Next for Public Recreation?
Due to the efforts of our LAH Parks & Recreation Committee a number of
summer recreational programs for residents' children have been created.
This Town Committee has done an amazing job putting together a very successful
on-going program for our children.
Many of these activities are centered at Westwind
Community Barn, which for years has been the home of Westwind 4-H
Riding for the Handicapped and more recently the Pacific Ridge Pony Club.
Interest in Westwind Community Barn has grown enormously during the past
year, partly because of the controversy surrounding town-owned properties.
Residents have recognized how important the Barn is as a Town-owned asset
and many have expressed interest in helping ensure Westwind Barn's future
long-term use.
We are looking into forming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that could
provide necessary funds for future preservation and current restoration
needs -- a Westwind Community Barn Endowment Fund. If you have skills,
or experience in building such an organization, or expertize in creating
a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, please contact either Val
Metcalfe at or Nancy Couperus.
With some help, we could get this going right away!
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Serendipity
While the successful outcome of our primary mission is of course very
satisfying, there were also a number of serendipitous side-effects that
we hadn't expected -- at least not in the measure we encountered.
We got to meet or renew our acquaintance with a wide set of the residents
of our town. Some have lived here since the town was in orchards, others
were relative newcomers. But all pitched in and volunteered for critical
roles just when we needed them the most. We got to really appreciate the
meaning of "community", and best of all - we made a lot of new friends.
Our website was
also an eye-opener in terms of its impact. We have received calls from
across the country from other organizations preparing to wage similar
campaigns, seeking our advice or asking permission to use some of our
materials.
While the huge majority of visitors to our web site came in via the larger
providers (Pacbell, AOL, MSN, etc.) we also enjoyed regular visits from
browsers in surprising places. Somebody in Finland clearly has more than
a passing interest, and we had regular readers ranging from Australia
to South Africa to Costa Rica and points in between. From traffic patterns,
it also looks like we were the subject of a school project somewhere in
the State of Washington. At the peak immediately before and after the
November election, the site had over 400 distinct visitors per day involving
over 3000 page accesses.
While we have mentioned elsewhere our gratitude
for all the financial support as well hard labor we received from so many
people, we were also astounded by the team-work that the volunteers brought
to bear. Whenever a job needed doing, as if by magic yet another helper
with just the right skills would surface to fill the breach and pitch in
with sleeves rolled up. From driving strategy meetings, to informal assistance
on legal questions, to validating and tracking the signature collection
process, and countless other tasks, the team-work aspect was truly amazing.
You know who you are -- and all of us are indebted not only that you helped
-- but also in the way that you did it. Thank you again!
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Page last updated
July 24, 2003
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