In a meeting Tuesday night that lasted almost seven hours, the City Council killed a proposal for a community garden between Bonnie and Beatrice streets, adopted standards of measurement for green buildings and discussed the Day Worker Center’s new building.
After several years of pursuit by the city, the proposed community garden was stopped in a 5-2 vote, with council members Matt Pear and Ronit Bryant its only supporters. The garden was supposed to ease the high demand for the two existing city gardens, which have a waiting list several years long.
City staff had recommended that the garden be rejected after the Parks And Recreation Commission voted 3-1 in opposition in January.
“It’s the wrong place for a garden,” said resident Nora Rudin.
Neighbors of the site said there was almost unanimous opposition there, with 92 neighbors signing a petition opposing the garden. They said they didn’t oppose gardens in theory, but that the neighborhood of single-family homes would not be served as well as a more high-density neighborhood would.
Council member Ronit Bryant said she supported the garden because open space was limited in the city. But others on the council used the same argument to say that the piece of land, currently a “weed patch,” should be turned into a community park instead, something everyone in the neighborhood could use.
Five public speakers opposed the garden, but 14 were supportive, many of them Willowgate gardeners.
“I know people who say they would love to garden, but the list is so long,” said resident Judy Leavey about the 140-person waiting list for the Willowgate and Senior Center gardens.
Several neighbors of the Willowgate garden spoke in support of the garden. “I find it to be the greatest neighbor,” said one woman with a view of it through her window.
Many were shocked that anyone would oppose the garden, saying that neighbors were simply “afraid of the unknown.”
Neighbors had raised concerns about traffic, but at Willowgate, which has more than 80 plots, neighbors said gardeners trickle in and out and they never see more than three cars parked there at a time.
Mayor Tom Means said he agreed that the pictures they had shown of the Willowgate garden “didn’t look very nice,” and that the new garden would have to look better.
Means and council member Laura Macias supported pursuit of another site which staff has looked into, also on the Hetch Hetchy right of way, adjacent to Stierlin Road. But city manager Kevin Duggan said the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission doesn’t want a garden there because it already has a good tenant, a nearby Buddhist temple that uses it for parking on occasion.
The council voted 6-1 to discuss a new location for a garden, with one possible site being the open space between Highway 85 and Stevens Creek just south of El Camino Real. The heritage farm, which also has been proposed for that site, will be discussed as well.
Worker Center reaches first funding goal
While Mountain View’s council met Tuesday night, the Los Altos council approved $50,000 in funding for a new Day Worker Center at 117 Escuela Ave., bringing the center to its goal of $350,000 to purchase the building. Neighboring Los Altos Hills had approved $25,000, conditionally, last week.
Mountain View did not provide money last night, which would have had to be over $200,000 to meet the conditions of the donation from LA Hills. But in closed session, the council discussed a long-term lease for the small city-owned lot next to the building which would be required for parking. A conditional use permit will also have to be issued for the building, because it is currently zoned for residential use.
“It’s zoned residential for a reason,” said a neighbor who said he lives on the 100 block of Escuela. He and another speaker alleged that the Worker Center increases crime rates wherever it goes, and that it is simply illegal for it to provide work for illegal immigrants, citing state and federal law.
City attorney Michael Martello assured council members that “there’s nothing illegal about a Day Worker Center.”
Council member Nick Galiotto, a former police officer and lawyer, concurred with Martello.
“There’s no way I could support an illegal organization with my background,” Galiotto said.
Council member Jac Siegel seemed convinced that the building would have to be demolished and rebuilt, but supporters of the center said they were confident it could be restored — for another $350,000.
City’s green checklist
To familiarize local developers with green building techniques, builders will now have to fill out a checklist as part of a building application that will ask questions about things like open space, natural light and energy efficiency.
The council passed the proposed rating systems from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, put forth by member Ronit Bryant, in a 6-1 vote. Member Nick Galiotto said the ratings should go the environmental sustainability task force for analysis first, but other members said it was time to move forward because the rating systems have already become industry standards.
The new checklist does not make green building in Mountain View a requirement.
E-mail Daniel DeBolt at ddebolt@mv-voice.com
