Did You Know Sunnyvale: November 2014

Saturday, November 29, 2014

City Council Should Stop Marginalizing the Balanced Growth Profile

Andy Frazer

June 2014

Note: This was an opinion piece published by the Sunnyvale Sun, August 2014.

Sunnyvale’s 2013 City Council election hinged on the rapid growth of commercial and residential construction. The conflict was clearly between residents who want to protect the quality of life in Sunnyvale, and the developers who want to build multi-million dollar projects

Sunnyvale’s master plan, The General Plan, defines a planning tool called the Balanced Growth Profile (BGP). The city describes the BGP as ”a planning tool which can be used to monitor growth and to determine the relative balance … between population growth and job growth, and between development and the infrastructure which supports it.” The Balanced Growth Profile relates land-use decisions to the impact on schools, parks, utilities and transportation infrastructure.

By 2014, Sunnyvale’s rapid growth in Moffett Park (north of Hwy 237), and along Mathilda Ave. developed 95% of the 7.6 million sq. ft. of the office space envisioned by 2025 in the Balanced Growth Profile. Short-term, this rapid growth is a recipe for more traffic congestion. Long-term, it will create increased demand for more housing, and further overcrowding of our schools.

Concern over this Balanced Growth Profile metric resulted in a Joint Study Session last May between city staff, the Planning Commission, and the City Council (“Sunnyvale officials debate merits of Balanced Growth Profile”, Sunnyvale Sun, June 4, 2014). In this meeting, City staff presented some of the problems with the BGP, and identified steps that could resolve these problems

City Staff indicated a need to re-calibrate some of the BGP metrics such as parks, traffic and infrastructure. Staff also revealed the city has been under-reporting new improvements to traffic capacity. Many attendees agreed the various school districts may not be reporting their school capacity metrics consistently.

But instead of developing an action plan to resolve these problems, many council members chose to continue ignoring the warnings of the BGP. Some council members took the opportunity to dismiss the relevance of this tool which was created with input of many residents.

In the next few years, Sunnyvale will see a huge increase in commercial construction in Moffett Park and along North Mathilda Ave. Next year, the City Council is expected to approve the new Peery Park Specific Plan, which will allow millions of square feet of new office space between Maude Ave and 101. The Lawrence Station Area will bring thousands of high-density housing units to the neighborhood around Lawrence Expressway and Kifer Road, and residents near El Camino Real and Wolfe Road are already preparing for a huge housing project at Butcher’s Corner.

It’s easy for the City Council to approve applications for huge office and residential projects. It is very difficult to allocate millions of dollars necessary to fund necessary increases for city services, schools and transportation infrastructure. The Balanced Growth Profile was designed specifically to prevent these imbalances.

The City Council should represent the concerns of the residents when making major land-use decisions. The Council has an obligation to all of our residents to acknowledge the importance of the Balanced Growth Profile as a development tool, and to work with city staff to correct any bad or missing data in the profile.

Anyone who is interested in the growth of Sunnyvale should carefully read the transcript of the Joint Study Session.

Further Reading

Did You Know AboutSunnyvale’s Balanced Growth Profile?

A short, animated video explaining the role of the Balanced Growth Profile in city planning.

8 Things You Should Know About Sunnyvale’s Balanced Growth Profile

A brief white paper about the Balanced Growth Profile

Did You Know: Sunnyvale

A website of short, animated videos and brief papers on some important challenges facing Sunnyvale.

Andy Frazer is a former Sustainability Commissioner, and former candidate for City Council. He is also co-founder of Sunnyvale Pension Reform.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

4 Reasons Why Residents May Always Be Under-Represented

March 2014
By Andy Frazer

For a PDF version of this page, click here.

In our report 6 Reasons Why It Is Urgent That Residents Be Informed, we explained that Sunnyvale will undergo some huge changes in the next decade. Unfortunately, the residents’ needs will often be under-represented in the policy-making arena for two reasons.

First, the process of providing policy making information puts the residents at a disadvantage because of the huge volume of information, as well as short five-day interval between the date the information is posted, and the meeting date of the officiating body (this refers to either the City Council, or the appropriate city commission).

Second, residents face an unlevel playing field due to a phenomenon known as “concentrated benefits and dispersed costs”. We’ll discuss this phenomenon at the end of this report.

#1 Residents Are Only One Of Five Major Stakeholders In The City

Most cities, such as Sunnyvale, have five major stakeholders:

● City employees
● Developers who build in the city
● Employers and investors who operate businesses in the city
● Employees, volunteers and students who work in the city
● Residents

We like to believe the city operates primarily for the benefit of the residents. Unfortunately, the residents’ needs are often over-shadowed by the needs of special interests such the city’s labor unions and the developers who want to develop the city..

This is not because these special interests have any sort of evil plan. It is due to a well-studied phenomenon called Concentrated Benefits and Distributed Costs.

#2 “Concentrated Benefits and Dispersed Costs”Work Against The Residents

This theory states the interests of a concentrated minority will be over-represented, while the interests of a diffused majority will be diffused and under-represented.

For example, in a city such as Sunnyvale, a small number of developers and labor unions stand to make a very large financial gain from big development projects and favorable labor contracts, while the impact of these projects and contracts is dispersed among a large number of residents.

City employees are represented by labor unions who collectively negotiate with the city for labor contracts. During the City Council elections, labor unions actively support candidates through endorsements, campaign volunteers and financial donations.

Developers don’t usually offer the candidates endorsements or campaign volunteers. Instead, developers can invest huge sums of money to promote candidates who they believe will support large office buildings, and high-density housing.

However, the impact of these changes is dispersed across tens of thousands of residents, Each resident cannot justify either large financial donations or large amounts of volunteer time to support candidates who may support the residents’ needs.

This imbalance is known as the phenomenon of “concentrated benefits and dispersed costs”.

#3 Each Developer May Reap Large Benefits Which Are Absorbed Across A Large Number Of Residents

Suppose one developer may profit millions of dollars from the City Council approving a new project. The financial cost to the residents is usually zero, because the developer pays for the permitting and construction costs. But the impacts of this project (e.g, traffic congestion, construction noise, and demand for new housing and school capacity) is spread across hundreds of residents, each of whom shoulders a smaller burden of the costs. It’s very common during an election year to hear many residents complain about too much about high-density development.

The developer will be willing to make a huge investment in a new project, including working with city staff and contacting elected officials. But very few residents can justify the commitment to appear at the bi-weekly Council or Planning Commission meetings to study or understand new development projects.

#4 Labor Unions Operate With A Similar Advantage

Suppose the City Council considers awarding the labor unions a raise that totals $850,000 dollars. Each full-time employee would receive an average raise of $1,000. But the cost to each resident would only be about $6. In this case, each employee would be motivated to campaign for the Council to approve this raise. But most residents, would not bother to even think about this agenda item. In fact, most residents would never be aware of this agenda item.

Obviously, employees deserve a competitive compensation package. And, an annual raise of $1,000 per employee is not unreasonable. But the compounded cost of a difference of 1% or 2% per year can make the difference between a balanced budget and a structural deficit.

While the concentrated benefits of these decisions are recognized almost immediately, the impact of the dispersed costs may not be felt for many years into the future. The developer may profit as soon as he finds a tenant for the new building. The labor unions receive their benefit as soon as the salary increase appears in their pay check. But the dispersed costs, such as postponed repairs to roads, sidewalks, sewage pipes or the main library, may not impact the residents for years, or even decades, into the future.

This doesn’t mean that all concentrated benefits and dispersed costs are a bad idea. Obviously, a large number of residents are expected to share the dispersed costs of the city employees’ salaries and benefits. But during the decision-making process, the concentrated interests of the minority will be over-represented, and the payer of the costs (usually the residents) will be under-represented, partly of their own choice.

In a city such as Sunnyvale, the end result is the residents are usually unaware of most Council decisions, even though they will carry the burden of the costs over the long-term.

6 Reasons Why It Is Urgent That Residents Be Informed

May 2014
By Andy Frazer

For a PDF version of this page, click here.

#1 Residents Take A Very Small Role In The Decision-Making Process

Sunnyvale is facing many challenges, including housing and office development, transportation and school capacity, and a limited budget to address these challenges. Sunnyvale will see some significant changes over the next few years, and the next decade. These changes will impact everyone’s quality of life.

Unfortunately, residents are only taking a very small role in the decision-making process for the reasons discussed below.

Did You Know: Sunnyvale? tries to bring more residents into the decision-making process by providing news and brief reference information about the most important issues facing Sunnyvale.

These topics focus on land use, development, budget, transportation, schools and sustainability.

#2 City Information Is Difficult To Access

Most of the information regarding development, transportation and infrastructure is available from the City of Sunnyvale website.

Unfortunately, most of this information is difficult to find, and it is buried in documents that are too long for most residents to read.

For example:

● The Budget and Resource Allocation Plan for fiscal year 2014/2015 is over 1,100 pages.
● The Draft Climate Action Plan is over 220 pages.
● The entire 2013 Report to Council and attachments associated with the development application for the Moffett Place project is over 230 pages.

To further complicate matters, whenever the City Council is scheduled to discuss an item, the reports are not made public until only five nights prior to the Council Meeting.

The bottom line is very few residents have the time, or interest, to research these topics. This lack of involvement results in decreased voter participation in the democratic process.

The purpose of this project is to make information more accessible to everyone.

This website distills the most important information into short, animated videos no longer than two to three minutes.

For visitors who are interested in more detailed information, each topic also has an accompanying report that explores the topic in more detail, along with links to city resources and other external websites.

#3 There Is Often A Conflict Between Economic Growth And Preserving The Quality Of Life

Sunnyvale is facing many challenges. Many companies want to locate their offices in Sunnyvale in order to tap into a pool of world-class employees. This drives developers to build large office buildings within the city. More jobs lead to more traffic. It also increases the demand to build more high-density housing.

To further complicate things, the State of California requires each city to plan for hundreds of new housing units each year in order for each city to absorb their “fair share” of projected population growth. This is called the Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA). It’s not clear if these “fair share” numbers are accurate, but each city is required by law to plan for enough new housing to meet these numbers.

Many people believe that new housing further leads to more traffic. It also puts a strain on basic city services (such as water, sewage, solid waste, libraries, park and Public Safety), and especially schools. They’re correct.

Some other people believe that if Sunnyvale doesn’t attract new businesses, the city misses the opportunity to bring in more revenue to fund city services. And if Sunnyvale doesn’t plan for their state-mandated share of high-density housing, the city may lose federal and state funds the city needs for road improvements. They’re also correct.

It has become a battle between economic growth versus preserving the quality of life.

#4 The City Budget Is Pulled In Two Directions

In the middle of this battle is the city’s budget. The largest share of the city’s operating costs are salaries and benefits for city employees. The city struggles to balance the ability to attract and retain good employees, while containing compensation costs, which have been growing faster than General Fund revenue for over a decade. At the same time, residents want the city and county to spend more money maintaining and improving city infrastructure.

#5 The Three Biggest Stakeholders Have Opposing Needs

Unfortunately, the needs of the developers are often opposed to the needs of the residents. When the city’s labor unions come to the bargaining table, their needs are opposed to the residents’ needs to fund essential city services.

Since the developers and the city’s labor unions have a huge vested interest in the decision-making process, the residents often do not get a fair share of the City Council’s “policy-making bandwidth”.

#6 There Is A Huge Force Working Against Most Residents: The Phenomenon Of “Concentrated Benefits And Dispersed Costs”

This conflict is explained in more detail our report 4 Reasons Why Residents May Always Be Under-Represented, which explains how Sunnyvale, as well as all levels of government suffer from the phenomenon of “concentrated benefits and dispersed costs”.

Basically, this phenomenon says that a small number special interests have a very large stake in the decision-making process because they receive a very large benefit. While a large number of residents and taxpayers each have a small stake in the decision-making process because they each absorb a small, distributed share of the costs.

Values

The project Did You Know: Sunnyvale? is built around the following values.

What Do Residents Need To Know? There are so many issues facing the city, it’s almost impossible for residents to keep informed of everything, and be prepared to speak up when these issues come before their elected representatives. Residents need a source of reliable information that is well-researched, prioritized and presented clearly.

Resident Representation: There is an entire industry of special interest groups who stand to benefit from maximizing development. These organizations make a huge investment to understand, and influence, the decision making process. Unfortunately, the residents shoulder the biggest impact of these decisions, yet they have the least amount of time available to understand these complex issues.

Fact-Based Decision Making: Policy documents make great reading. But they often reference a plethora of facts and studies that are rarely challenged. Effective decision making requires that all stakeholders, especially the residents, are aware of all facts.

Sensible Growth: We need to revisit the concept of “Smart Growth”, which is often used to justify accelerated office development combined with high-density housing. This usually benefits the developers, but it does not always benefit the existing residents.

Created By

Many people contribute to the research, videos and reports on this website. I take sole responsibility for the final content and accuracy of everything we publish.

Andy Frazer
didyouknowsunnyvale@gmail.com

Sunnyvale's Wolfe ECR Intersection - 5 Things You Should Know

By Andy Frazer, September 2014

For a PDF version of this page, click here.

#1 The Intersection At Wolfe Rd, El Camino Real And East Fremont Is One Of The Most-Congested Intersection In Sunnyvale

The El Camino Precise Plan refers to this intersection as the Eastern Node. It is one of the busiest intersections in Sunnyvale (1)

The El Camino Real and Wolfe Road intersection currently has long stoppages

(more than 60- seconds) and low operating speeds. The City has determined

that no changes are to be made at this intersection

#2 It is known as the “Little Monster” Intersection.

Many commuters who pass through this intersection refer to it as the “Little Monster” intersection as an homage to Sunnyvale’s busiest intersection: the Mathilda/237 intersection.

On Dec 17, 2013 the Council discussed action on the city’s Transportation Strategic Plan. The Report To Council RTC 13-232 pointed out the El Camino/Wolfe intersection:

The City currently has a deficiency plan in place because traffic

volumes at build out conditions show that not all intersections in the

regional Congestion Management Plan meet level of service goals.

[Updated transportation forecasting models show] the intersection of

Wolfe Road and El Camino Real/Fremont Avenue is projected

to fall below regional standards in the future. (2)

#3 The City Has No Solution To Fixing The “Little Monster” Intersection

RTC 13-232 further says,

… no feasible mitigation has been identified.

In other words, congestion at this intersection will fall below acceptable levels, and the city says there is no way to fix it. Since there was no way to fix it, a previous City Council voted to adopt a Deficiency Plan.

A Deficiency Plan allows the city to complete transportation improvements (such as public transit, bicycle lanes, and pedestrian improvements) in other locations to compensate for the deficiency. This way the city can improve the overall transportation congestion metrics, without solving the congestion at this specific intersection. It may benefit travelers across the city, but it does not help residents who travel through the El Camino/Wolfe intersection.

The traffic study referenced in RTC 13-232 was conducted back in 2001, twelve years before Cupertino approved construction of the Apple II campus only one mile south of the Little Monster Intersection.

In 2014 the City Council agreed to merge study issues DPW 14-14 (Wolfe Rd Reconfiguration and Signalization) with DPW 14-17 (Optimization Alternatives to Wolfe Rd/El Camino Intersection). At the June 2014 Budget Workshop, the majority of Council decided not to pursue studying a grade separation (i.e., a bridge or tunnel) at the intersection.

#4 Congestion At Wolfe/El Camino Will Increase From Three New Large Development Projects.

In the next few years, the Little Monster Intersection will draw additional traffic from at least three new major developments along Wolfe Rd and El Camino Real.

1. Landbank Investments LLC is proposing a 770,000 square foot office campus located at 280 N. Wolfe Rd (at Wolfe Rd and Central Expressway) 2.5 miles north of this intersection. This project is expected to generate more than 3,000 daily car trips. Most employees heading south from this campus will likely pass through this intersection.

2. Essex Properties is building the Gateway Village high-density housing project one mile directly east on El Camino Real (at El Camino and Lawrence Expressway). Gateway Plaza will contain 420 housing units. Residents heading west out of this complex will pass through this intersection.

3. The new Apple II Campus will be one mile directly south on Wolfe Rd. This 2.8 million square foot campus will accommodate 13,000 employees. Most employees heading north out of the campus, including those headed to the El Camino Real area, Downtown or other Apple sites in Sunnyvale, will pass through this intersection.

#5 One Developer Is Proposing A High-Density Housing Project Directly At The “Little Monster” Intersection

Developer John Vidovich (De Anza Properties) is proposing a high-density residential development on the site of the former Butcher’s Orchard to the west of the Little Monster Intersection (871 East Fremont Ave). The current proposal is for 151 residential units, including six- and seven-story buildings.

Driveway access to this property would be impractical from either El Camino Real or Wolfe Rd. The developer’s only option is to build both driveways on East Fremont Ave. Traffic destined to drive either north, east or south would be required to exit west on to East Fremont Ave, then U-turn back towards the intersection.

This development would contribute two problems to the El Camino/Wolfe intersection. First, most of the traffic entering and exiting the project would pass through the intersection. Second, the entrances and exits to the property would increase the backup onto East Fremond, and back onto Wolfe Rd.

The city has a web-page with more detailed information about the Butcher’s Orchard project.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Sunnyvale's Balanced Growth Profile - 8 Things You Should Know

By Andy Frazer, May 2014
Last Update: July 2014

For a PDF version of this page, click here.

Sunnyvale’s Land Use and Transportation Element (Chapter Three of The General Plan) lays out the policies related to future land use, transportation improvement, open space and the economy. The General Plan defines the zoning which describes what sort of buildings and facilities can go in each neighborhood (for example, office buildings, housing, retail, schools and parks). The zoning also defines the maximum density of office buildings and housing for each parcel of land.

However, if developers build too much new office space without any new housing, the region will suffer from traffic congestion on the freeways. If developers build too much housing without building new schools, the schools will be over-crowded. The same applies to increased transportation infrastructure, increased city services, and parks. This is where the Balanced Growth Profile (B.G.P.) fits in.

#1 The Balanced Growth Profile Is A Planning Tool. It Is Not A Policy.

The city’s website describes the B.G.P as ”a planning tool which can be used to monitor growth and to determine the relative balance … between population growth and job growth, and between development and the infrastructure which supports it.”

THE CITY'S WEBSITE DESCRIBES THE BALANCED GROWTH PROFILE AS ‘A PLANNING TOOL WHICH CAN BE USED TO MONITOR GROWTH AND TO DETERMINE THE RELATIVE BALANCE …BETWEEN POPULATION GROWTH AND JOB GROWTH, AND BETWEEN DEVELOPMENT AND THE INFRASTRUCTURE THAT SUPPORTS IT’

So, why is Sunnyvale approving new office space and new high-density housing, while we still have traffic congestion, crowded schools and a shortage of park space?

Unfortunately, the B.G.P. is not a policy. Neither the Planning Commission nor the City Council (or the developers) are required to follow the B.G.P.

#2 Sunnyvale Is Required To Plan For More Housing

The State of California requires Sunnyvale to plan for a specific amount of population growth. The population growth number is handed down to Sunnyvale every 8 years through an often-hated agency called the Association of Bay Area Governments.

'AN IMPORTANT FACTOR THAT MUST BE KEPT IN MIND WHEN CONSIDERING LIKELY AND/OR DESIRABLE POPULATION GROWTH IS THAT THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA REQUIRES ALL CITIES AND COUNTIES IN THE STATE TO PLAN FOR THEIR FAIR SHARE OF GROWTH. THE POPULATION PROJECTION FOR THE BAY AREA IS PREPARED BY THE STATE. THE STATE THEN REQUIRES THE BAY AREA'S REGIONAL PLANNING BODY, ABAG, TO ALLOCATE THAT POPULATION GROWTH TO EACH CITY BASED UPON A "FAIR SHARE FORMULA" DEVELOPED BY ABAG'.

Here are two important points. First, Sunnyvale does not forecast its own housing growth. This number comes from the State of California. Are these population projections accurate? And does the state have a reasonable system for dividing up that number among all regions? Could these projections be subject to political pressures? Second, what happens if the city refuses to plan for enough housing to meet the ABAG numbers? Nobody seems to know. The State may withhold federal and state funding for other projects. But it’s not clear if they would actually do that.

The General Plan spells out the most important projections for the 20 years between 2005 and 2025: more residents, and more jobs.

...the future challenge posed by the above projections is the ability and
the willingness of Sunnyvale to accommodate more than the 20 years
between 2005 and 2025 an additional 18,000 residents and 24,800 jobs.
This translates into a net increase of approximately 7,200 housing units
and 7,600,000 square feet of office/industrial floor area.

o - p.2-31 General Plan.

Remember this: Sunnyvale projected to add 18,000 new residents and 24,800 new jobs between 2005 and 2025. Imagine if the city approved all that housing before the school districts could add more school capacity? Or imagine if the city approved new office space for all these new jobs, but not enough new housing for the new employees? That would create traffic congestion, especially along the freeways.

#3 The Balanced Growth Profile Is Designed To Ensure That New Jobs And Housing Do Not Exceed The Infrastructure Required To Support It

More jobs and more housing requires more city services and more infrastructure, such as roads, public transportation, parks, city services and Public Safety.

The … challenge is to maintain a reasonable balance between
population growth and job growth, and between development
and the infrastructure which supports it.

o - p.2-45 General Plan

SUNNYVALE HAD PROJECTED TO ADD 18,000 NEW RESIDENTS AND 24,800 NEW JOBS BETWEEN 2005 AND 2025. IMAGINE IF THE CITY APPROVED ALL THAT HOUSING BEFORE THE SCHOOL DISTRICTS COULD ADD MORE SCHOOL CAPACITY?

In 2006, the city held a Community Visioning Festival where residents helped design a plan for the amount jobs, housing and infrastructure for the next 20 years.

The Community Vision and the Long-range Planning Goal seek to achieve
this growth while sustaining an outstanding quality of life; and to
accommodate growth in a balanced manner, so development of
new housing units generally keeps up with development of new jobs,
and infrastructure capacity improvements keep up with the growth overall

o - p.2-44 General Plan

Pages 2-47 and 2-48 he General Plan contemplates a “Balanced Growth Profile” (“BGP”).

“..a planning tool which can be used to monitor growth and to determine
the relative balance among the factors cited above. The Balanced Growth
Profiles [began by showing] the first five years of the 20-year planning period.
The profile is extended one year each year, adding on the incremental growth from the preceding year. This profile assumes that Sunnyvale is in a reasonably
balanced state in 2005. This is supported by the high level of satisfaction
expressed by the population in the 2005 Resident Satisfaction Survey, by the adequate functioning of utilities, by the satisfactory level of service in
traffic operation and by the lack of severe overcrowding in the schools.”

- From “Balanced Growth Profile” City webpage

#4 The Balanced Growth Profile Chart Is Easy To Interpret

The above example of the BGP is from the March 25, 2014 City Council meeting.

In this chart, the 0% column represents capacity for year 2005. The 100% column represents capacity for the year 2025. The 40% column (dotted line) represents year 2013.

#5 The Balanced Growth Profile Indicates That Sunnyvale’s Office Growth Is Out Of Balance With The Infrastructure

Source: CalTrain

In the chart on the previous page, notice the bar to the right of “Office/Industrial floor area”. It extends out to the 90% column. This means that by 2013, the city had either built of approved all the office/industrial space forecast through 2023. Notice the bar to the right of “Housing units”. It indicates the city has already approved the housing that was forecast through 2017. But notice the bars in the three bottom rows: Transportation, Utilities and Parks. They indicate the city has added practically no transportation, utility or park capacity. Sunnyvale’s Balanced Growth Profile indicates that Sunnyvale’s development and infrastructure are out of balance.

In December 2013, one member of the city’s Planning Commissioner appealed to the City Council to consider this imbalance. In his letter “Discussion Of Potential Joint Study Session With The City Council Regarding The General Plan And Balanced Growth Profile”, he wrote:

“Notably, for the entire 20-year planning period of the General Plan
(2005 to 2025), it was contemplated that 7.6 million square feet of
office/industrial floor area would be built. As of late 2013 (eight years
into the plan), nearly 95% of the 7.6 million square feet had either been
built or been entitled to be built (“approved-not-built”). Why: In only
eight years, we have built or have approved to be built nearly the
entirety of what was contemplated for office/industrial floor area for
the full 20-year planning period of the General Plan. No other
metric in the BGP has experienced such a high rate of growth
in recent years as has office/industrial floor area, and no other
metric is as out of balance to the BGP.”

#6 There Is Debate About The Relevance Of The Balanced Growth Profile

Some people believe the city has approved too much new development. This group does not want to revise the BGP because they want to maintain the growth rate guidelines that were designed in 2007. It is important to have a discussion of the relevance of the BGP because the Planning Commission and City Council have been prone to ignore the planned growth rates.

On the other hand, some people support more office development because it brings money into the city. They support more housing development for a number of reasons that we’ll discuss in the future. These people want to revise the Balanced Growth Profile because they see it as an impediment to their plans for development plans.

#7 The Balanced Growth Profile May Be Revised, Or Ignored

At the 2014 Study Session Workshop, the Council discussed whether to conduct a study session to discuss the relevance of the Balance Growth Profile (CCD-1418 - Understanding the Relevance of the Balanced Growth Profile as it Relates to the General Plan).

We have provided a transcript of this discussion. Below is a synopsis of the Council discussion.

City staff supported studying revising the BGP since the city will also be revising the Land Use Transportation Element of the General Plan.

● Mayor Griffith said, “The goal here would be to set expectations for how the Balanced Growth Profile is to be used as it currently exists as a precursor to redoing the visioning and possibly redoing what it means and how it is integrated into the General Plan”.

● Councilmember Whittum said, “The Balance Growth Profile did not take the General Plan as an input and by means of some algorithm produce an outcome for a number. It was a result of community visioning. I will be ranking that low, because I think we’ve already ranked highly the idea of having another community visioning. “

● Councilmember Hendricks said, “I’m interested in a discussion; I’m not interested in redoing the Balanced Growth Profile and changing the numbers and changing the scale”

● Councilmember Martin-Milius said, “If we’re going to have a decision-making process, then we need to have something that has better metrics, and I think this study session addresses the issue of getting better metrics so we can look at what we’re doing from a more strategic level”.

● Councilmember Larsson said, “It would be worthwhile to actually update this tool to be more useful and to be clearer.”

#8 Many Council Members and Planning Commissioners Disagree About The Relevance Of The Balanced Growth Profile

In May 2014, the City Council and the Planning Commission held a joint study session to discuss the role of the Balanced Growth Profile.

You can read a transcript of this meeting. Most council members were very clear on whether they thought the Balanced Growth Profile was relevant, or whether they wanted to dismiss it.

I was very uncomfortable with the Council’s and Planning Commission’s reaction at the Joint Study Session. I felt that many of them were more interested in looking for an excuse to outright dismiss the Balanced Growth Profile, instead of working with city staff to fix the small problems that were discussed in the meeting. In August 2014 I wrote an op-ed in the Sunnyvale Sun outlining how the majority of the city could seemed eager to dismiss the Balanced Growth Profile.