Posted by Wow, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 13, 2012 at 7:58 pm

Did you miss this?

As we've been reading in all the papers, Palo Altans may soon be asked to vote on a massive Arrillaga development, ushering in a high density vision for Palo Alto. Whose vision is it?

Residents before us have wrestled with this before, you have to love the passion.

The near fistfight in City Hall, in 1996 is a must read.

Posted by Ducatigirl, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 14, 2012 at 8:29 am
Ducatigirl is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

As you said, whose vision is this? NOT that of the residents! I can't imagine that any of us wants to live in another Manhattan. Do the city fathers want us all to move elsewhere so they can turn PA into one big business center? What in the world are these people thinking?

Posted by uber-development, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Nov 14, 2012 at 9:02 am

Have you been by the huge new development at the San Antonio Shopping Center on El Camino and San Antonio? Granted this is in Mountain View, but it will affect our south Palo Alto with much more traffic. These are multiple massive buildings for condos with the first floors slated for shops. Talk about Manhattanizing! These dense projects are a huge change to our environments. We've already overbuilt on El Camino with very dense townhouses that go up to the curbs (replacing Rickey Hyatt and the old bowling alley, huge areas).

Looks like the planners want to move to high density, never mind what those of us who live here think and pay taxes.

Posted by Who is in favor, a resident of the Crescent Park neighborhood, on Nov 14, 2012 at 9:22 am

>Council members so far have indicated cautious interest in the Arrillaga project

But the staff seems highly enthusiastic and they are pushing the plan on the city agendas ahead of more important matters. For example, next Monday night. They hired THREE commissioners to plan it and got our $$ to pay for them.

Posted by curmudgeon, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Nov 14, 2012 at 9:31 am

"But the staff seems highly enthusiastic..."

Of course staff is enthusiastic. Shepherding large developments looks good on their resumes, helps them get that next and bigger job in Scottsdale or Vegas. Do not expect commitment to the community from city staff; almost none of them live in Palo Alto.

Posted by wow, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 14, 2012 at 9:34 pm

curmudgeon

"But the staff seems highly enthusiastic..."

So enthusiastic, two former city staff work for Arrillaga to get this project done. It would be interesting to know how this all happened. Was it over a cup of coffee, a lunch, ten meetings, two dinners. I don't buy that it was immaculate conception.

Posted by Curious, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Nov 14, 2012 at 10:26 pm

Which two former city staff work for Arrillaga?

Posted by wow, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Nov 15, 2012 at 12:21 am

Curious,

I thought it was staff, but it's board members and commissioners, lovely.

from an article

"Two members of the city's land-use boards, former Planning and Transportation Commissioner Daniel Garber and former Architectural Review Board member Heather Young, resigned earlier this year to work on the Arrillaga proposal."

and from a related thread -

Posted by Sky's the limit for making money, a resident of the Greenmeadow neighborhood, on Oct 8, 2012 at 1:02 am

(Clare Malone) Pritchard lives in Cupertino. (Palo Alto Architectural Board member)

"Also she is now a member of the Garber - Young firm, composed mostly of members of the ARB and Planning Commission. So these boards which are supposed to make independent decisions about proposals to the city are rife with moral conflicts of interest. Corruption has become so open no one even notices it or remarks on it.

City Manager is busy cozying up to Arrillaga and Stanford, can't count on him to care."

Actually, now I'm curious

"Garber" went to work for Arrillaga, and Pritchard, Palo Alto ARB member works for Garber?

It's definitely not immaculate conception.

Google for the threads