BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
Los Altos City Council clashed with a resident who is worried that 5-year-olds and people from out of town are weighing in on the city’s plan for the next 25 years.
A consultant set up a table to get feedback during an Easter egg hunt at Hillview Park on April 4, and attendees filled out egg-shaped Post-it notes about what makes Los Altos unique and their wishes for the city’s future.
Resident Jon Baer said 20 to 30% of the Post-it notes were put up by kids under 7.
A photo of the Post-it notes show many of them were family-oriented, mentioning the library, friends and Cheeky Monkey Toys.
Mayor Sally Meadows said young families shouldn’t be ruled out of the discussion on the general plan, which outlines the city’s vision until 2050. “If a 5-year-old puts a Post-it up, their parent is sure paying attention,” Meadows said at a meeting on Tuesday.
The consultant hosted an open house with free shaved ice at Grant Park on April 11, setting up five stations with display posters, Post-it notes and comment cards for feedback.
Attendees could get a stamp at each station, and then get free shaved ice from a food truck if they collected all five stamps.
About 100 people went to the open house. Baer told City Council that many of them were from Cupertino, Sunnyvale and Mountain View.
“The big attraction was the free ice cream,” he said.
Meadows, Vice Mayor Larry Lang and Councilman Jonathan Weinberg questioned Baer about how out-of-town comments should be weighted in the plan.
“When we define a community and the input we want on this, that goes beyond residents,” Lang said. “That includes business owners, people who work here.”
Baer said council should listen to people who visit Los Altos, but they shouldn’t have major input. Weinberg asked Baer if he believes council can identify which comments are the most relevant.
Baer said council is getting bias in the consultant’s data and estimated that 25% of the comments weren’t from residents at the open house.
“So what? So what?” Weinberg asked.
Sarcasm starts
Then Baer and Weinberg started to get sarcastic with each other.
“Maybe we should just go and talk to everybody in Cupertino,” Baer said.
“Thank you for the input,” Weinberg said. “That’s an interesting idea, and I’m sure the council will give it all the consideration that it’s due.”
Meadows asked Baer if he checked where people lived when he gathered signatures for a ballot measure to stop the city from developing downtown parking lots.
Baer and other residents gathered more than 3,000 signatures for the measure in April. The Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters counted 2,600 signatures from registered voters in Los Altos, enough to put the measure on the November ballot.
The measure would upend the city’s plans for a downtown park, parking garage and performing arts theater.
Baer said he asked all of the signers where they lived. Some people slipped through from Los Altos Hills because they weren’t listening, campaign volunteer JoAnne Estill said.
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