Letter to the community

By Karen Holman

Yet our great community is being harmed by over-development and traffic and by a disconnect between City decision-making and public interests. As a City Council member I've been the strongest voice to protect residents from these impacts, often standing up against the council majority over development projects and issues of transparency. I need your help to continue that job in representing you and your concerns. Our next City Council will make critical decisions about how we manage growth and change for many years to come. This election is about the future of our Palo Alto.

Development and Traffic: Issues of traffic and parking, building design and scale, protecting our retail and environmental assets, and contending with state housing mandates have reached critical points and need to be addressed in a strategic and timely manner.

The current Comprehensive Plan update (Our Palo Alto) should provide a strategic plan to manage change in a fair and balanced way across our city. It should provide a vision for our future rather than allowing piecemeal decisions that cumulatively impact congestion, parking, density, air quality, and noise. It is imperative that the residents of Palo Alto are listened to and your concerns addressed in this process.

As a Council Member and previously on the Planning & Transportation Commission, I have fought for slowing the rate of growth and preventing development impacts. I will continue to advocate for only reasonable development and for protecting our environment.

Dollars and Sense: Serving on the Council Finance Committee this year, I successfully reduced staffing increases that would have worsened our structural budget deficit. I advocated that impact fees paid by commercial development must be adequate so that residents are not unfairly paying for costs associated with office growth. I also successfully pushed for an audit to determine whether parking in lieu fees and parking assessments are being correctly applied, collected and tracked.

The Public Trust: One of my first acts as a Council member was to initiate a Council directive for early release of staff reports on large projects, continuance of any project with late submittal of information, and discouraging private Council member meetings with interested parties prior to final ARB and Planning Commission recommendations. The public records regarding 27 University demonstrate my criticisms about the poor public process used on that project. Going forward I will continue to advocate for open process and meaningful engagement with the public.

There's much at stake in this election. The voices of the people of Palo Alto have recently had impacts on our City. That's the way it should be. I will continue to listen, continue to lead, and continue to work on behalf of the people who live, work, raise families, pay taxes, and enjoy the qualities that make living here in Palo Alto so desirable.

Please visit the campaign website at KarenHolman.org

Thank you for your support.

Karen