October 22, 2004

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Publication Date: Friday, October 22, 2004

Stephanie Schaaf

Stephanie Schaaf doesn't like the term "gadfly." But the civic activist and self-described "council groupie" has been attending city council meetings for the last two years, ever since an outcry over the impact of toxic air strippers motivated her to run for a seat.

Then political chair of the Sierra Club's Loma Prieta chapter, Schaaf was among those who said the air strippers, essentially large vents connected to the contaminated wells, were cleaning ground water at the expense of local air quality.

"I saw that one of the biggest things the council does is make land use decisions, and that has a major impact on how people live," said Schaaf.

Schaaf said her vision for Mountain View can be summed up as creating a "sustainable city." It's a concept that encompasses city finances, environmental policy and neighborhood preservation.

Schaaf, a software engineer at SGI, said she is "cautiously optimistic" about the budget, and believes that declining sales tax revenues have finally stabilized. She would like to see further implementation of money-saving green building technology included in construction of the new senior center and downtown parking garage.

The key to making the city sustainable over the long-term, she said, lies in good land-use planning, specifically making it possible for people who work in Mountain View, which has 30,000 more jobs than residents, to live here.

When it comes to redeveloping the former Mayfield Mall site, Schaaf is the only candidate for council who has publicly supported the medium-high densities expected to be proposed for the site.

"It's one of the last big sites we have in Mountain View to put housing, and it's on the Caltrain line," she said.

She said neighbors' concerns about impacts on traffic and crime are valid ones, adding, "The good news is that all of those can be mitigated with good design on this project."

Schaaf also believes the new council will need to revisit the issue of historic preservation, which she called, "the worst-handled issue on the council I've ever seen."

Schaaf said that preserving neighborhoods and building quality housing can reduce crime and increase property values, but the key is the quality.

"All of these things can be done well or be done poorly, and we've all seen examples of both," she said.

The youngest of the six candidates in the race, Schaaf has already compiled an extensive resume as a volunteer and activist. She is a founding member of Mountain View Voices for Peace, was a precinct captain on the Measure J parcel tax campaign and continues to be involved in the Northeast Mountain View Advisory Council, a group of residents who helped force companies responsible for polluting their neighborhoods to remove those air strippers.

"The biggest thing I've gotten out of the process is that citizens groups can and do have an impact," she said.

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