League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 7, 2006 Election
	Ronit Bryant Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Mountain View

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Los Altos/Mtn. View Area and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. What would you do to insure that the City's park facilities and future increases in the City's population are distributed throughout the City to fairly serve all geographical areas of the community?

As Parks and Recreation Commissioner for eight years, I rewrote the City's Parks and Open Space Plan so that it provides a vision for parks in Mountain View and a detailed analysis of park and open space needs on both the neighborhood and the City level. The Plan identifies areas in town that are deficient in parks and open space and generates a prioritized list of needs. Park in-lieu fees that are collected when a development occurs in a neighborhood are used to acquire and develop parks in that neighborhood. The process has served us well for several years, with a number of new parks either acquired or developed in under-served neighborhoods.

The issue of parks and open space has recently gained more visibility in Mountain View and the time has come to move more aggressively on this issue. We have areas in town where parks and open space should be added, whether or not more development occurs. As your Councilmember, I will make the addition of parks and open space (particularly in under-served areas) a key priority. I will push to study additional funding mechanisms, move more aggressively to spend the park in-lieu fees that have been accumulating for several years, and request a list of all City properties in town. My experience with Mercy-Bush Park in my downtown neighborhood is that even a small park (0.6 acres, in this case) can be a gem and a great community-building resource for the neighborhood.

As for increases in the City's population, I believe that our focus in Mountain View today should be to renew our vision for what we want the City to look like in the next five to ten years. As your Councilmember, I will advocate for an inclusive and responsive process to achieve such a vision and update our General Plan based on it. The issue of population increase is a regional problem and we should work with our regional partners to resolve it. An interesting concept that is being looked at regionally is the idea of a "Grand Boulevard" on El Camino Real, which would turn it into a site of "meaningful destinations" with great potential for housing and urban development.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' responses are not edited or corrected by the League.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: November 4, 2006 21:51
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