No compromise for 800 High St. No compromise for 800 High St. (May 14, 2003)

Developers' poll says project will succeed in November election

by Don Kazak

An effort to find a compromise for the proposed 800 High St. project has failed, the developers say, leaving the matter to Palo Alto voters Nov. 4.

"We made a good-faith effort to reach a compromise, but the referendum people don't have the ability to negotiate their positions," developer Doug Ross said. "So that's over."

The City Council approved the 61-unit housing project in February, but opponents gathered enough signatures to qualify the decision for a referendum.

The council then had to choose between overturning its earlier decision or letting the matter go to an election. Instead, the council tried to find a third choice -- telling developers and referendum backers to come up with a compromise project.

Now, with thoughts of compromise set aside, the battle turns to winning over Palo Alto voters. According to a poll commissioned by Ross and co-developer Curt Peterson, the project would win handily if an election were held tomorrow.

The poll surveyed a sample of 450 people most likely to vote in November, when the 800 High St. referendum would be on the Palo Alto ballot.

The poll, which asked voter preference on the referendum three times -- once after no information was given about the project, a second time after some basic information was provided, and a third time after the pros and cons were listed -- had a "yes" vote of between 54 and 59 percent.

"They're outstanding numbers," said political consultant Ed McGovern, who will be running the 800 High St. campaign.

In particular, McGovern noted the poll "over-sampled" the five immediate precincts around the project to find out if opposition was neighborhood-based. The poll found it wasn't.

Instead, the "definite yes" votes were stronger in the immediate neighborhood each time the question was asked. When added to the "probably yes" votes, the project got a 50 percent positive vote the first time, 60 percent vote the second time, and a 59 percent vote the third time.

Proponents of the referendum weren't surprised the poll turned out favorably, given the fact it was funded by the developers.

"They had questions posed to get the answers they wanted to get," said Larry Hassett, owner of the Palo Alto Hardware store and an organizer of the referendum effort. "The objective of the poll was to create a positive spin for the project."

."It's their opening salvo for the November campaign," Hassett said. "There's no doubt they'll spend a lot of dollars on this. But dollars don't equate to votes in Palo Alto. Voters are smart here."

Don Kazak can be e-mailed at dkazak@paweekly.com