Friends of Stevens Creek Trail's Weblog
29 04 2009
Wed, 29 Apr 2009
I am happy to report that last night in a 5-2 vote Sunnyvale Council did in fact strike policy 2.2.C.5 prohibiting any creek corridor alignment from the General Plan. It was a two part motion: part one to strike the old policy and a somewhat unclear part two to create a Mayoral subcommittee of three council members to work on resulting issues, including a new policy for creek side (and other) private property protection, potential trail alignments, get community input, and report back with a recommendation before the end of 2009. All council members supported part one; 2 opposed part 2 as presented, hence the 5-2 final vote.
Our count of speakers showed 18 to keep the old policy and 18 to remove it. They were limited to 2 minutes each to keep things moving. People on both sides were mostly considerate and respectful of the their opponents. What especially caught my attention was that many of those speaking to keep the old policy were in favor of Stevens Creek Trail in general and open to amending the old policy. However, it became increasingly clear as the night went on that any meaningful progress on the trail in Sunnyvale, including cooperation with Los Altos, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale at 4-city talks in early May, required immediate action to remove the policy.
It also became very clear that many people along or near the creek between Fremont and Homestead were very worried about losing their privacy and security. Apparently 300 signed a petition opposing removal of the old policy. Most had only heard about the council vote 10 days earlier from a city mailing, and felt it was too rushed. Statements that a trail alignment along the creek there was very unlikely were not very reassuring to them. Part two of the motion that passed is an attempt to respond to those concerns.
The Friends of Stevens Creek Trail fully supports the efforts of the city of Sunnyvale to come up with a new policy to address these concerns that also allows consideration of new trail alignments that make sense. A lot has to happen. Sunnyvale needs to work out its new policy to protect property owners, come up with good ideas for possible trail alignments, go through all the required public hearings and environmental reviews, respond to feedback, and then find funding. This will take a while. We will keep you posted as developments come up, and will continue to work with everyone concerned to find the best trail solution possible. If you would like to be more closely involved with this as a member of our board of directors, please contact me.
Thanks for your work!
Written by Aaron Grossman, Executive Director on 2009-4-29.
posted at: 12:03 | path: | permanent link to this entry
