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
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
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