Publication Date: Wednesday, January 21, 2004
'Eye of the beholder'?
'Eye of the beholder'?
(January 21, 2004) Commission wants developers to help fund public art
by Bill D'Agostino
Many well-known examples of public art gild Palo Alto's two main shopping districts. Metallic sunflower sculptures celebrating solar power adorn California Avenue, while surrealistic space alien murals enliven the blocks around University Avenue.
Similar art pieces have been installed throughout the city, year after year, despite a minimal public-art budget -- less than one dollar per resident per year.
To bolster that fund and to take some pressure off the city's ailing budget, Palo Alto's Public Art Commission wants to make 2004 the year that the City Council adopts a "Percent for Art" program.
However, the proposal will likely face opposition from real-estate developers, who will bear the financial burden of the program since it would impose a 1 to 2 percent fee on new real-estate developments in Palo Alto.
"It's a horrible idea," downtown developer Chop Keenan said. "My feeling about public art is architecture is the modern-day public art."
Forcing the developers of new projects to give a percentage of their budget to create an art project -- whose appeal is "in the eye of the beholder" -- would lessen the amount of architectural detail in a new building, Keenan said.
Commissioner Gerald Brett argues the program would benefit real-estate developers because the art raises property values.
With only a $55,000 annual budget, Palo Alto public art is poorly funded compared to neighboring communities, Brett said.
"It's forced us to always have our hand out," he said.
Nearby cities Mountain View and Menlo Park have similar "Percent for Art" programs.
In Mountain View, all projects with a $1 million or more budget must devote 1 percent to art. Developers can either purchase and install public art at the site of their project or put the money into a fund to purchase art for the general community.
The commission's proposal comes at a time when the city is weighing and adopting various new fees and taxes.
Last week, the council formed a Business Improvement District for the downtown, which will charge businesses an assessment to revitalize the blocks around University Avenue. Some council members would also like to begin charging all businesses a license tax. And on Tuesday, after the Weekly went to press, the council was planning to consider options for a new developer fee that would be used to offset new buildings' impacts on traffic.
The commission is currently hammering out its formal recommendation and hopes to reveal it to the City Council in April -- aiming to have its official bid coincide with a "Public Art Weekend" that is in the works.
The proposed weekend would simultaneously unveil new pieces of public art, including a series of murals on 12 downtown utility boxes, designed by various artists around the theme of energy conservation.
Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com
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