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Health & Fitness

Learning From History, Even Recent History, re: Albright (aka “Netflix Expansion”)

Ed Bellezza, Neighbor
I’ve made no secret of my extreme prejudice against real estate developers, or, as I like to call them, “land speculators,” a term I might have picked up watching old 1950s cowboy movies.  I have paid an appreciable amount of attention to several real estate developments in the past few years, here in Los Gatos.  As I’ve watched projects proceed through the approval process, I’ve become aware of a burr under my saddle, a discomfort.  I’ve come to suspect that the town staff isn’t so much advocating for the residents of town but more for the developers.  Considering my prejudice, such a suspicion has my thinking taking on a very cranky tone.  I do know that I can get pretty cranky when discomforted.  

I had been discussing my discomfort, my burr, with attorney John Shepardson, he told me he had a similar suspicion regarding town staff, but he expressed it with an entirely different tone than mine, a non-cranky tone.  John recently forwarded a letter to me which he had sent to the Town Manager, the head of the Town Staff, and to the Manager’s boss, the Town Council.  I offer, for your information, John’s level headed letter rather than my cranky ramblings. 

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LAW OFFICES OF
JOHN A. SHEPARDSON
59 N. Santa Cruz Ave, Ste. Q
Los Gatos, CA 95030
Tel (408) 395-3701
Fax (408) 395-0112

June 18, 2013

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Greg Larson, Town Manager
Town of Los Gatos
110 E. Main St.
Los Gatos, CA 95030

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Re: Reliance on Developer Feasibility Information in Rejecting Environmentally Superior Alternatives

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Dear Greg:

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I’m following up on our brief and cordial chat after the hearing last night. It seems to me that we can avoid further miscalculations on what is feasible or not for developers if we stop having Staff making recommendations based on them. Since the Developer’s feasibility numbers were incorrect, it put the Staff in the now awkward position of rejecting the 350K EIR best option based on flawed data.

Garbage In, Garbage Out. The recommendations that Staff make are powerful determinants of what ultimately gets approved. The Staff serves the TC, which in turn serves the People. Developers have a bias for providing feasibility information that will serve their interest in maximizing profits, which can undermine the best interests of the Town. Albright is a case in point: . . .

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