Palo Alto Online: Election 1999

Palo Alto City Council candidates
Four-year City Council seats

BERN BEECHAM
Age: 50
Residence: Cowper Street
Occupation: Management consultant
Background: Palo Alto Planning Commissioner, 1989-present.

Historic preservation: As a planning commissioner, Beecham helped draft the homeowner incentives included in the ordinance. He supports the ordinance and will vote to retain it in the March referendum.
Design review: "Palo Alto needs mandatory design review to ensure neighborhood compatibility. But the process must be light-handed."
Development: "I would like to see the (Rickeys) proposal changed by the applicant to reduce the number of units and change the nature of some housing units to senior housing." The Peninsula Creamery project as proposed will likely be too dense to fit with the surrounding residential neighborhood, Beecham said. The appropriate density will be determined in part by the final zoning for the South of Forest Area, Beecham said, to be completed in April or May at the earliest.
Traffic: "I've talked to hundreds of people, and the universal concern is traffic, both citywide congestion and cut-throughs. The solution has got to be mass transit." Beecham supports improving Caltrain and Santa Clara Valley Transit Authority service and creating a local network of shuttles or buses to take people from Caltrain depots to employment and residential centers.

MIKE COBB
Age: 63
Residence: Dixon Place
Occupation: Owner, advertising/marketing agency
Background: Palo Alto City Council, 1982-93: chair, council Finance Committee; member, council Policy Committee, Mayor, 1986, 1990; Palo Alto Planning Commission, 1979-81; Cubberley Advisory Committee; Cable Co-op "Newswatch" program host.
Historic preservation: Cobb opposes the new ordinance, saying it includes far too many houses. However, he will vote to retain the ordinance in the March referendum. "I believe that government works best when issues like this are resolved through the legislative process," Cobb said.
Design review: Cobb supports mandatory design review for major renovations of single-family homes and the establishment of neighborhood-specific design standards. The review process, Cobb said, would be conducted by a professional design review board and would include incentives for homeowners. "Neighborhood protection ... must be resolved quickly and without the obscene costs of the historic ordinance."
Development: The proposed Hyatt Rickeys redevelopment, Cobb believes, is too dense and would create traffic problems. "I would begin by saying 'No' ... with the result that the developer would be encouraged to meet with the affected neighborhoods and work out a project that would be acceptable." Cobb also thinks the Creamery project is too dense, and anticipates that when developer Roxy Rapp brings the proposal back to the City Council in April or May, the project will be much smaller.
Traffic: Cobb supports a regional approach to traffic problems. He suggests that transportation hubs be built near the train station and Stanford Research Park to reduce commuter traffic.

VICTOR FROST
Age: 51
Residence: Homeless
Occupation: Homeless advocate
Background: Producer, "Street Side" television show.
Historic preservation: Frost opposes the historic preservation ordinance. "It should be up to homeowners to keep their jewels maintained. Where do we draw the line about government interfering with our lives?"
Design review: He supports design review for single-family homes. "It should be done on a case-by-case basis, neighborhood by neighborhood."
Development: He is undecided on the proposed Hyatt Rickeys or Peninsula Creamery projects. "I want to see the blueprints before I make any decisions."
Traffic: Frost thinks the city should direct resources to the most dangerous intersections in Palo Alto as determined from accident reports over the past 10 years. Devices to slow traffic should be put in the most dangerous areas. "Throwing money at a problem doesn't always fix it."

MARK HEYER
Age: 51
Residence: Marion Avenue
Occupation: Customer communication director, ISP Channel
Background: Founder, Silicon Valley World Internet Center; founder, Palo Alto Cable Modem Club.
Historic preservation: Heyer opposes the historic preservation ordinance and will vote to repeal it in the March voter referendum. "My position is not based on opposition to historic preservation per se but to the process by which it was implemented," Heyer said. "A significant number of people felt left out of the process." Heyer thinks any guidelines on how historic homes are preserved should be strictly voluntary. "Voluntary incentives would be as effective and far less contentious," Heyer said.
Design review: Heyer supports a voluntary design review program for builders putting up new homes, such as the city already has in place. He added that unhappy residents should be allowed to plead their case to a design review board if they object to a new home being built in their neighborhood.
Development: Heyer says he would vote against both the Hyatt Rickeys project and the proposed Peninsula Creamery project in their current form. "The proposed number of housing units ... and the general impact on traffic and schools must be resolved before approval" of the Rickeys project, Heyer said.
Traffic: Heyer recommends several high-tech approaches, such as traffic simulation software than can analyze the impact of traffic circles, shuttles and other proposed traffic reduction systems. Traffic trips, he added, can be reduced by e-mailing documents instead of printing out paper copies--as city government does now--that people drive downtown to pick up.

JUDY KLEINBERG
Age: 53
Residence: Ashby Drive
Occupation: Executive director, Kids in Common children and family advocacy organization.
Background: Business/land use attorney; board member, Santa Clara County Council of Nonprofits; former president, Committee for Green Foothills; former president, Safer Summer.
Historic preservation: Kleinberg opposes the historic preservation ordinance passed by the City Council in June. She is undecided, however, on how she will vote in the March referendum because of concern that, if the ordinance is repealed, the city may not enact any other protection for historic homes. Kleinberg said a voluntary system with strong incentives to encourage owners of historic homes to follow preservation guidelines would be adequate, though she favors some mandatory preservation guidelines for developers. "I think a tainted (legislative) process produces a tainted product, and a tainted product only produces disrespect for the law," Kleinberg said of the ordinance.
Design review: She supports a voluntary program with strong incentives to encourage participation by homeowners making major renovations or building new homes. For developers, however, Kleinberg would support mandatory design review. She also supports a mandatory design review process for developers or homeowners building a second-story addition, in order to ensure the privacy of neighboring residents is protected.
Development: "I believe the (Rickeys) project as currently presented would have an unacceptable impact on the residential neighborhood across Wilkie Way and in surrounding areas as well." She also opposes the Peninsula Creamery proposal because it is too dense and would create too much traffic.
Traffic: Kleinberg supports improving Caltrain service, creating more affordable housing near public transportation, increasing subsidies for carpools and vans, and developing a mass transit system around the bay. She supports an expanded shuttle system in Palo Alto and adding roundabouts (or traffic circles) and canopies (tree overhangs into the street) to slow traffic on residential streets.

NANCY LYTLE
Age: 44
Residence: Primrose Way
Occupation: City planner, Redevelopment Agency of San Jose
Background: Palo Alto chief planning official, 1992-97; member, Friends of the Palo Alto Library; member, YMCA Palo Alto board of directors; coordinator, All Saints Child Care, 1996-98.
Historic preservation: "There are many misconceptions about what the ordinance does and does not do. After reviewing it, I find it to be reasonable, fair and moderate. It must be administered by reasonable and fair-minded people as well."
Design review: Lytle supports establishing different zoning rules for different neighborhoods and making the current voluntary guidelines mandatory rather than optional for new houses and significant remodels. "I'd like to give (the city's voluntary incentives) every opportunity to succeed. I suspect, however, that they will not be sufficiently effective to protect residential quality and character."
Development: On Rickeys, Lytle said: "The developer's current plan is not a pedestrian- and transit-oriented design." She recommends "village residential" housing for the site, which Lytle said is far less dense, at roughly five to 20 units per acre. Regarding Peninsula Creamery, Lytle said, "The scale is too large."
Traffic: Lytle believes programs to slow traffic in residential neighborhoods, often through the use of street trees and changes in sidewalk configurations, should be funded in part by money going to infrastructure and street tree program financing.

DENA MOSSAR
Age: 53
Residence: Emerson Street
Occupation: Incumbent
Background: Palo Alto City Council, 1997-present; director, San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority; liaison, Palo Alto shuttle system; director, Bay Area Air Quality Management District; liason, Palo Alto Housing Corp.
Historic preservation: "The historic preservation ordinance is fair and flexible with an impressive array of incentives for owners of historic homes. ... I believe this ordinance will become a model for other cities across the nation."
Design review: Mossar supports the city's current voluntary design review program for single-family homes and thinks it could be extended to cover second-story additions as well as tear-downs. She supports adding incentives for homeowners to encourage participation. Voluntary design review should be conducted by city staff and use clear guidelines, Mossar said.
Development: Mossar says she will wait until staff reports and the environmental impact report is complete before weighing in on the proposed Hyatt Rickeys redevelopment project. "I am open to housing on the site, as long as it can meet stringent environmental impact tests and is designed and sited in such a way so as not to intrude upon the neighboring single-family residential areas." In its current form, Mossar said, she would vote against the proposed Peninsula Creamery development, but she notes that no decision on the project will be made until the SOFA study is completed.
Traffic: Mossar thinks the city's new shuttle bus service will help ease traffic. She favors its expansion to East Palo Alto and Stanford. She notes that the city has recently completed a study of residential arterial streets to develop strategies for slowing traffic and that it had budgeted money to improve the Caltrain station transit center.

ED POWER
Age: 81
Residence: Dartmouth Street
Occupation: Retired tool designer
Background: Active in College Terrace drive in 1960s to prevent local parks from being bisected by streets connecting Stanford University to Stanford Research Park; active with Sea Scout Mariner organization.
Historic preservation: Power opposes the city's historic preservation ordinance. "The City Hall-generated ordinance does not reflect the will of the populace."
Design review: He has not taken a position on design review but says any mandatory design review plan should be "subject to a waiver if so indicated by the neighbors near the development site."
Development: Power does not support the proposed Hyatt Rickeys development plan. "As I understand it, the Hyatt Rickeys redevelopment plan proposes too high a population density for the area involved." He offered no opinion on the Peninsula Creamery project.
Traffic: Efforts to reduce traffic, Power said, should be "worked out on a piece-by-piece basis."

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