Los Altos Hills Open Space
	"Value Beyond Price..."
	Dedicated to protecting our open space assets for the future

E-Mail Bulletin #20 - 20 December 2002

• Unanimous Vote for Open Space
• What's Next for Open Space & Public Recreation
• Serendipity

Unanimous Vote for Open Space:

At the Town Council meeting on December 19th, with a packed house of supporters still in the council chambers despite the late hour (caused by an agenda covering many other items), our open space initiative came before the Council for action. The Council could either adopt it into law on the spot or choose to send it to the voters in a special election.

One of our staunchest supporters on Council was advised after consulta- tion with the Town's attorney and the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) that he should recuse himself from dealing with this issue, due to a potential conflict of interest. So Dean Warshawsky reluctantly stepped aside so as not to endanger the validity of any vote.

Under "Presentations from the Floor" preceding our agenda item, a few individuals spoke in favor of our open space initiative. Jane Turnbull, Co-President of the League of Women Voters for Los Altos-Mountain View, read the League's Resolution supporting the Citizens' Initiative. To view this resolution, click on http://www.lahopenspace.com/LWV_Resolution.htm

When the actual agenda item came before Council at around 10:20 PM, the Town's Attorney, Steve Mattas, summarized the options and the procedures that would be required.

Craig Breon of the Santa Clara Audubon Society commented on the process - pointing out that the Council should rescind their previous and conflicting initiative. It turns out that will have to go on the next agenda as it couldn't be voted upon at this meeting.

Elaine Nelson of our Open Space Committee pointed out that Steve Mattas was in error when he said that an election would be held on June 3rd, 2003, if the Council elected to put the Initiative before the voters. Elaine also commented that she thought the FPPC ruling was not necessarily correct. After Elaine concluded her comments, Steve Mattas agreed that Elaine was correct about the timing of the election - that, as she pointed out, it would have to be a Special Election and it would occur well before June 3rd.

After a few brief additional presentations from the floor, the issue finally was put to the vote. A motion was made to accept the initiative - thus removing the necessity for a special election, and causing the provisions of the initiative to be adopted directly!

Motion passed.   Unanimous.   4-to-0.

This was the successful culmination of a long road for all of you who helped to bring it to this point - with hard work, with money, and with unflagging encouragement and support.

What's Next for Open Space?

A number of you have expressed a desire to further enhance our open space assets for the future. Our sister communities of Portola Valley and Woodside are well along this path already. We would like to join them - even work together with them. Just recently the Town Council of Woodside established the Woodside Open Space Committee. Portola Valley has had such a committee for decades. A few of us have been in communication with the folks involved in the Woodside group and have learned a great deal about the tools available for land preservation.

We plan to start by assembling a small group of like-minded people to explore the ways in which we might accomplish this.

What's Next for Public Recreation?

Due to the efforts of our LAH Parks & Recreation Committee a number of summer recreational programs for residents' children have been created, This Town Committee has done an amazing job putting together a very successful on-going program for our children.

Many of these activities are centered at Westwind Community Barn, which for years has been the home of Westwind 4-H Riding for the Handicapped and more recently the Pacific Ridge Pony Club. Interest in Westwind Community Barn has grown enormously during the past year, partly because of the controversy surrounding town-owned properties. Residents have recognized how important the Barn is as a Town-owned asset and many have expressed interest in helping ensure Westwind Barn's future long-term use.

We are looking into forming a 501-C-3 non-profit organization that could provide necessary funds for future preservation and current restoration needs - a Westwind Community Barn Endowment Fund. If you have skills, or experience in building such an organization, or expertize in creating a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, please contact either Val Metcalfe at metcalfes@att.net or Nancy Couperus at couperus@mindspring.com. With some help, we could get this going right away!

Serendipity

While the successful outcome of our primary mission is of course very satisfying, there were also a number of serendipitous side-effects that we hadn't expected - at least not in the measure we encountered.

We got to meet or renew our acquaintance with a wide set of the residents of our town. Some have lived here since the town was in orchards, others were relative newcomers. But all pitched in and volunteered for critical roles just when we needed them the most. We got to really appreciate the meaning of "community", and best of all - we made a lot of new friends.

Our website was also an eye-opener in terms of its impact. We have received calls from across the country from other organizations preparing to wage similar campaigns, seeking our advice or asking permission to use some of our materials.

While the huge majority of visitors to our web site came in via the larger providers (Pacbell, AOL, MSN, etc.) we also enjoyed regular visits from browsers in surprising places. Somebody in Finland clearly has more than a passing interest, and we had regular readers ranging from Australia to South Africa to Costa Rica and points in between. From traffic patterns, it also looks like we were the subject of a school project somewhere in the State of Washington. At the peak immediately before and after the November election, the site had over 400 distinct visitors per day involving over 3000 page accesses.

While we have mentioned elsewhere our gratitude for all the financial support as well hard labor we received from so many people, we were also astounded by the team-work that the volunteers brought to bear. Whenever a job needed doing, as if by magic yet another helper with just the right skills would surface to fill the breach and pitch in with sleeves rolled up. From driving strategy meetings, to informal assistance on legal questions, to validating and tracking the signature collection process, and countless other tasks, the team-work aspect was truly amazing. You know who you are - and all of us are indebted not only that you helped - but also in the way that you did it. Thank you again!

E-mail distribution list:

If you have friends or neighbors in Los Altos Hills who would like to be placed on this e-mail information list, please have them contact either Nancy Couperus at couperus@mindspring.com or Val Metcalfe at metcalfes@worldnet.att.net