Why we need to Preserve Measure A

Measure A, the Building Height Freeze was passed by Voter Initiative in 1985.  It requires a  a vote of the electorate before the City Council can approve projects that exceed the height limits in place at that time.  

Height limits are also specified in the City’s General Plan.  Sometimes they match the Measure A limit, sometimes they are lower.  Measure A was a quickly thrown-together and imperfectly written citizen’s backlash in response to the City raising height limits to approve 10-story office buildings north of the BART station.  The General Plan, on the other hand, was developed over several years with a lot of thought and citizen input going into it.  The General Plan is the City’s vision of what it should become.  Measure A was more of a reflexive swipe by the voters against a 1985 City Council that went too far ... but it matters, because nothing much has changed since then.

If the City Council simply followed the General Plan, Measure A would be irrelevant.  But the City Council can’t restrain itself from it’s pro-development crusade.  Newell Promenade is a case in point.  The little shopping center across from Kaiser got special attention in the current General Plan.  After and extensive public hearing process, it was decided that this would be a good location for mixed use development that was primarily commercial in nature, with residential apartments above.  Accordingly, the General Plan land use category was changed to MU-C, and the General Plan height limit was raised from 35 to 50 feet.  (The Measure A limit is 60 feet.)

At the recent pre-application hearing for the proposed Newell Promenade, the developers sought City Council feedback as to whether the Council would be amenable to raising the General Plan’s 50 foot  Height limit, which was just set in the current General Plan, to 54 feet.  Only Council member Kevin Wilk expressed some reservations.  The others had no problem with overriding the General Plan.  Council member Cindy Silva even offered that the project could go all the way up to the 60 foot Measure A limit.  Clearly the City Council gives little consideration to the General Plan height limits.  All they respect is the Measure A limit, which they are prohibited by law from exceeding.

If Measure A is ever overturned this City, I hate to think what Council members like Cindy Silva will turn this town into.