April, 2006 editor: Larry Ames
May General Meeting
Wednesday, May 10, 6:30 PM
(on
Candidates Forum!
Come and ask questions
of the five major candidates for
Mayor of
Meet the candidates for District Attorney,
and for the
~also~
Election for the WGNA Board,
and a Membership Opinion Survey.
We look forward to seeing you and your neighbors at the WGNA Spring 2006 General Membership Meeting on Wednesday, May 10th, from 6:30 to 9 PM, at our new meeting location Willow Glen Baptist Church, 1292 Minnesota Ave. at Hicks. We will be having a full evening of political discussion and debate:
· Starting at 6:30: Meet the Candidates. The candidates for Santa Clara County District Attorney and for Santa Clara County District 4 Board of Supervisors have been invited to make a short presentation, after which they will all be available to meet you and your Willow Glen neighbors. You will have an opportunity to ask the candidates individual or follow-up questions.
· 7:15 - 8:45 pm: San Jose Mayoral Candidate Debate. We should be able to ask 6 - 8 concise questions of the candidates during the debate. Please send us your questions for the Mayoral candidates by email to debate@wgna.net, or use the form on the ballot in back. We urge you to submit them in early: we will have more questions than debate time, but we will try to select questions that cover the important topics.
WGNA continues to
focus our volunteer efforts on the very significant neighborhood, business
district, and school issues, issues that could substantially affect the quality
of life and could change the character of Willow Glen and the surrounding
neighborhoods. We continue to work on, and are making progress with, both
the Illegal Tree Removal and the
Volunteers from WGNA and adjacent neighborhoods have been reviewing the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the proposed Baseball Stadium, and initial responses to the many issues we raised will soon be published. The process required, as by state law, calls for the developer (the City of San Jose in this case) to document all potential problems in a DEIR and to propose mitigations. Agencies, officials, and the public then review the DEIR for completeness and can ask questions and make comments, after which a revised EIR is published that is supposed to address all issues that were raised. (If it doesn't, there is an appeal process outlined.) We are coordinating and working with many other neighborhood associations in District 3 and 6 so that the planned stadium will not negatively affect our neighborhood quality of life. The process will continue until at least November 2007 when a public vote on the stadium is scheduled.
We are also working with Willow Glen Business and Professional Association (WGBPA) on a comprehensive business district parking solution. We will have a joint committee to study the complex property / parking issues and propose possible solutions, after which we will hold 1-2 public meetings probably in the summer to discuss the issues.
And there is Dancin' on the Avenue on June 17th, 5 - 10 PM, and Founders Day on September 24th, from 7 AM - 6 PM: details coming soon (check the wgna.net website and/or sign up for the eList for the latest information).
We have four Board members leaving the Board, and we look forward to introducing to you our new candidates for board membership at our spring membership meeting. We encourage all our members and Willow Glen residents to become more involved in WGNA and to participate in improving our Willow Glen community.
Sunday September 24th 2006 will mark the return of
the Founders Day 10K Race. The Founders Day Race is more than just a 10K
run, it is a community and family-focused event where everybody wins! In
the morning you can enjoy the 10K race, 5K fun Run/Walk, or kids run, a pancake
breakfast, and a kids activity zone. There will be walking historic home
tours all day long. In the afternoon you will have a chance to taste the
best
By participating in the Willow Glen Founders Day Race, you are taking steps toward a brighter future for children and the Willow Glen community! This event will benefit:
· Willow Glen Middle School PTA (www.wgmpta.org)
· Lucile Packard Foundation (www.lpfch.org/) and
· WGBPA (www.downtownwillowglen.org/).
Please join us in making this a community
wide success!
The eList (WGNA's free electronic
"chat with your neighbors over the back fence" service) continues to
grow, now with nearly 800 subscribers.
(To join, write to
Hugh Graham has been helping this past couple years by extracting recommendations (only those "okay to quote"!) and collating them in the Community Recommendations webpage on the wgna.net website. Hugh is now passing the torch to Stuart Moore, long-time eList contributor and new candidate for the WGNA Board, so that Hugh may have more time to follow the numerous Planning and Land-use issues now impacting Willow Glen. Thank you, Hugh, for your years of service, and Welcome, Stuart!
It's interesting to hear how the eList has helped out in everyday life. One story I heard recently was from someone who was sitting at home, working on his computer. In comes an eList post describing a loose dog wandering the streets. The person thinks "hey, that dog sounds like it looks a lot like mine. Hey, it's wandering the streets quite close to here." He then checks his backyard and finds the gate ajar: the dog was found before he even knew it had escaped!
The Willow Glen Neighborhood Association has always respected the privacy of our members and has been meticulous in protecting the membership database. The WGNA Board has now taken action to "put it in writing": the policy is adopted and posted on the wgna.net website.
WGNA has also had a long-standing, unwritten policy on endorsements: this too has now been put in writing, adopted, and posted. In summary: WGNA will not endorse, support, or oppose any individual for any office. (It can only be divisive to our membership, and hey, we might have to deal with people other than the ones we supported!). The WGNA President is also not to make endorsements, as he/she is often seen as the embodiment of WGNA. The policy specifically does not exclude anyone else from making personal endorsements, so long as they are not attributed by affiliation to WGNA.
WGNA can, and often does, take positions on other matters in fact, it seems like we're doing so nearly every day now. WGNA regularly speaks out on planning and land-use issues before City Hall, works with business owners on Lincoln Avenue, and sometimes even takes official positions on relevant Measures placed before the voters (see the next article).
We in the South Bay are blessed with an extensive system of
parks and trails that reflect and showcase the diversity of the region: parks
both large and small, urban and rural trails, near-desert to near-rainforest,
from sea-level to the mountains. Some of
these parks and trails are built and maintained by the City of
Sometimes it is obvious who runs a
given park (the
For over thirty years now, much of
the County's contribution to our system of parks and trails has been funded by "the
Park Charter Fund". This is not a
tax, but rather a mandate of the voters that roughly 1% of the existing
property tax revenue is to be earmarked for the expansion, enhancement, operation,
and maintenance of the
The WGNA Board has voted to endorse Measure B, and we encourage your support: help maintain and enhance our wonderful network of local parks and trails!
For more information, check out www.YesOnParks.com.
Yves Zsutty, City of San Jose Trails Coordinator, reports
that the City has awarded the contracts for the Los Gatos Creek Trail, Reach
4. This will extend the trail in
northeastern Willow Glen from
The City is also working on an Environment Impact Report for the section between Auzerais and Santa Clara Streets. This is being done in coordination with the EIR for the proposed baseball stadium, which is also being carefully tracked by the WGNA Planning and Land-use Committee. We will also continue to pressure the City to construct a trail under-crossing at Auzerais (which will become ever more important, given all of the increased development in the area!): this appears to be requiring an ongoing discussion.
Relatedly, the City is scheduled on
May 9th to vote to increase a contract for the planning of the Guadalupe River
Trail in the
For additional information, contact Yves Zsutty at Yves.Zsutty@sanjoseca.gov.
WGNA and several other nearby neighborhood associations are supporting the institution of a "Fly Quiet" Program at the Minetta San Jose International Airport. The Program is to lead to the preparation of a quarterly report by the Airport Noise Department that records the various airlines' successes and failures in cooperating in reducing airport and flight noise.
We are also supporting the installation of air-quality monitoring stations around the airport. The Air Quality District now maintains six sampling stations in the County, but none are near the airport. If it found that the airport is a significant air polluter, actions may be taken that could lead to better overall air quality.
Both of these proposed projects could be funded by the fines now levied for curfew violations.
We are listening to you. Thanks for the survey information which you published in your October 2005 newsletter. Just to let you know, we are working on improving parking and facilitating the ability for businesses especially retail and restaurants to look at downtown Willow Glen as a great option to locate their business. The survey indicated that these are important for you.
As for parking How many of you know that the Bank of America parking lot is designated as a public parking lot? We have yet to see this lot heavily used. On another front, we are evaluating how to get the property owners to look at a shared parking plan. Our vision is to create a "park once" shopping and dining district which is pedestrian-oriented. You can help by starting to use the B of A public parking lot. This gives us leverage with the City and property owners to demonstrate that we have a real parking problem.
In order to attract the types of stores you are looking for and to create a thriving downtown Willow Glen we have requested that the City re-evaluate the current parking codes. The current parking requirements are outdated and based at a time when urban sprawl was the norm. As an example, the current code requires a 1000 sq.ft. dining area provide 25 parking spots or 8750 sq.ft. of parking. That's only 10% of the site for dining area and 90% for parking. It's not much better for retail. Your survey indicates that you would like more retail and restaurants and less services. However, the current parking codes have discouraged retail and restaurants and we have seen a trend of prime retail/dining frontage being used for service businesses. We are working with the neighborhoods and the City to look at changing the parking requirements. On 4/28/06 we held a community meeting for the surrounding neighborhoods to get input on our recommendation to the City to remove the parking requirement.
We look forward to working with the neighborhoods to make our downtown a vibrant district. Your suggestions are always welcomed call me at 298-2100 or e-mail norma@downtownwillowglen.org
The Willow Glen Business and Professional Association (WGBPA) is proposing that the city remove all parking requirements for establishing new businesses on Lincoln Avenue between Minnesota and Coe. Similar proposals are being initiated in other older business districts in the city.
The WGNA wants to
work cooperatively with the WGBPA, but we are concerned with the potential
impact of such an ordinance change on residential areas an easy walking
distance from
The WGNA is
especially concerned given the number of property owners along
Many of us feel
the ideal would be to open the parking lots behind the businesses on
So, what do Willow Glen residents think? see the survey questions below.
An off-leash dog park has been proposed for Wallenberg Park. The
WGNA applied for a CAP (Community Action and Pride) Grant this year, and we were awarded a grant of $1,500. A small portion of this ($300) is to go for mailers to those who have fallen off of our membership database to see if they might be enticed to rejoin WGNA.
The majority of the CAP Grant is to go for a revision and enhancement of our Walking Tour of Willow Glen book. We will be updating the information (a number of houses described in the book may have been replaced by newer structures), and hopefully adding new stories and information about life in Willow Glen. We will be seeking permission from residents to include photographs of various houses, both current and past (if available). The $1,200 grant is to go for professional printing and binding of the resulting book.
We hope to have the book updated and available for sale at the Founders' Day Festival that is planned for this September, and we are seeking volunteers to help write, collect information, or to provide stories about your own homes. If you have a good story to share or can help, please contact our Historic Coordinator, Joan Bohnett, at history@wgna.net.
There are a number of large high-density housing proposals for the areas surrounding Willow Glen, including:
· Tamien Station development by Freeway 87,
· Southwest Expressway/Fruitdale (the old K-mart site),
· Curci at Meridian,
· The KB-Homes development on the former Del Monte cannery, and
·
Sabrato is proposing several thousand homes on
the site of the R&D buildings around
The WGNA Planning and Land-use Committee is monitoring all of these proposals. Check out the Planning Update tab on the wgna.net webpage, and feel free to contact us at Planning@wgna.net.
This seems to have become a tradition we're receiving suggestions in the mail! (If you have an article you'd like to contribute for a future WGNA newsletter, just email it to me at editor@wgna.net. BTW, I apologize for not having any articles this time from the elected officials I neglected to say when this edition of the newsletter was coming out. editor)
As a onetime budget-conscious college student cooking just for myself and now a very busy community leader and parent with a family to feed, the following recipe has been a mainstay at my dinner table.
HOT POT
Ingredients:
1
pound of ground beef or ground turkey
1 can of Campbell's Golden Mushroom soup
1 can of Campbell's Cheddar Cheese soup
1 bag of frozen tater tots
Grease a small pan with cooking spray. Using your hands, flatten meat so that it covers the bottom of the pan. Spread both cans of soup on top of meat. Place tater tots one by one on top of soup layer to provide a cover. Cover pan with tin foil. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove tin foil and bake for another 15 minutes.
Serves 3-4 hungry people.
The WGNA Board and I give a big "THANK YOU" to our four fellow boardmembers who will be leaving our Board in June:
· Helen Solinski, our former President who lead us on many, many issues Tamien Project, Del Monte/KB Homes, Granny units, D's (formerly "The Glen"), saving the hose wagon at Station 6, Airport Issues, and working with the WGBPA and Ken Yeager's office (to name a few).
· Margaret Hardy, who, as Treasurer, watched over our finances and wrote many successful grant applications that will underwrite Founders Day, the San Jose Marathon, and many other projects. Margaret has been a resident of Willow Glen for more than 42 years.
·
Ellen Santomauro, our 1st VP and our eList administrator,
who worked many hours on Dancin' on Avenue and on land-use issues at the northern
half of
· Carol Rossebo, our out-going Secretary, who kept great minutes even when we sometimes all tried to talk at once! Carol kept us on the agenda schedule and served as liaison with the Willow Glen Business & Professional Association
We will miss everyone, and we look forward to seeing them frequently. They were great to work with, even when they at times contributed to the "spirited discussions": they always helped us arrive at a consensus about improving WGNA and Willow Glen. Thanks especially for their support and understanding on many challenging issues.
Again, a big "THANK YOU" to our Nominating Committee for the hours of interviewing and nominating our new Officers and Boardmembers. The Nominating Committee's work every year is the start of our great volunteer work that makes WGNA a great neighborhood association. Without great Boardmembers we can not continues the 33-year tradition of working with our neighbors to improve Willow Glen.
Soon after I moved to Willow Glen, I contacted the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association. Little did I know I would spend the next 10 years working with the Association and its members. At first it was difficult, not quite understanding the "lingo" and afraid to speak up for fear of sounding stupid. Well, that didn't last long! Thanks to a wonderful mentor (and President at the time), Kris Cunningham, I learned my way around City Hall. I became familiar with the different departments, such as Code Enforcement, Planning, Dept. of Transportation, etc. I learned the "lingo" and applied it! Before I knew it I was working my way up the ranks, becoming President of the WGNA in 2003. Rags to riches? No, just a regular 40‑something with a full time job, husband and a now-two year old, who just wanted to get "involved". Unfortunately I now have too many demands on my time and so I will be leaving the Board in June, but I had ten years of getting involved, and loving every minute of it.
I want to thank all of you for the incredible memories. It's been a pleasure serving with all of you, and I wish you all the best.
The Nominating Committee has put forward a slate of candidates for WGNA Board for 2006 - 07 (see below). Again this year the slate is uncontested. We still request that you cast your ballot, either by mail or (better still) in person at the May General Meeting. Your vote gives the incoming Board legitimacy: it shows them that they have your support, and enables them to speak on your behalf on all the various issues that affect Willow Glen.
And, as always, please feel free to contact the Board to let them know of your issues and concerns. The email of the President is President@wgna.net, and the email for First Vice President is 1st‑VP@wgna.net. Other email addresses: 2nd-VP@wgna.net, Treasurer@wgna.net, and Secretary@wgna.net. (You can also write to admin@wgna.net to join the eList, or history@wgna.net to arrange to share an oral history or story about Willow Glen.)
The WGNA Nominating Committee (Jim Gardner (Chair), Kris Cunningham, Sharon Fierro, Vern Ladd, and Lynn Repetsky) puts forward the following slate for the WGNA Board 2006 - 2007:
President: Ed Rast
1st VP: Joan Bohnett
2nd VP: Jim Spence
Secretary: Judith Enright
Treasurer: Steve Kaylor
Board of Directors:
Harvey Darnell
Hugh Graham
Charles Luckhardt
Stuart Moore
Nominating Committee
(to select next year's slate of candidates)
Helen Solinski (chair)
Kris Cunningham
Sharon Fierro
Jim Gardner
Lynn Repetsky
As per the bylaws, the incoming President is to appoint between two and four additional members to the WGNA Board. Ed Rast says he intends to appoint Larry A
to the Board, and he has a list of several others he wishes to consider. If you would like to become more involved in WGNA, please contact Ed at President@wgna.net.
The Nominating Committee is very pleased with the slate that we are presenting to the WGNA membership and congratulates this year's Board on a job well done.
I was born and raised in Willow Glen and have lived here for most of my life. I'm still active on the Palm Haven Restoration Committee, and have been a member of the WGNA Board for the past two years. I'm very interested in preserving the historic charm and the quality of life in Willow Glen, and am involved this year with updating the WGNA Historic Walking Tour Book in preparation for Founders' Day.
I have been serving the Willow
Glen community as Board member of the WGNA since 2002. During this time I have been involved with
Like many of us, I am a long-time resident of Willow Glen who has seen the changes in and concerns of our growing neighborhood. With experience as an officer and director for my local ceramic artists' guild for the past four years, I hope to bring my familiarity with group organization to the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association. I am committed to ensuring that Willow Glen and its residents continue to enjoy the unique community we've created here, and look forward to serving you!
Steve Kaylor, Treasurer
Steve is a mechanical engineer at
GE who moved to
I have enjoyed serving on the Board of WGNA during the last year. My interest has been mostly in Planning and Land Use issues. I have been involved in helping protect our City's mature trees, planning for more parks and working for street improvements. I worked with the planning department and City Council, giving the neighborhood perspective, while trying to make housing and business development in and adjacent to Willow Glen compatible with the Willow Glen charm and lifestyle. Thank you for supporting me for another year as an elected board member.
Retired urban planner. Board member for three years. As board member, focuses on environmental and land use issues. Maintains "new development proposals" page on WGNA website. Interested in quality land development that enhances rather than detracts from the livability of Willow Glen.
Charles has lived in Willow Glen for more than 40 years. This will be his 3rd term as a WGNA Boardmember. His passion is airport noise, and is also very interested in traffic. He is a retired attorney with real estate and land use experience.
I'm a stay-at-home dad who's lived in Willow Glen for 7
years but has been a
· Helen Solinski, chair: past President of WGNA (2003-04 and 04-05) who played a lead role in the large Founders' Day event WGNA ran in 2002; works at Campbell Metal Company
· Kris Cunningham: past WGNA President (1997-98 and 98-99); staff to County Supervisor Blanca Alvarado.
·
Sharon Fierro: past WGNA Boardmember; planner
for City of
· Jim Gardner: past WGNA Treasure, past chair of the WGNA Nomination Committee; works at Phoenix Publishing Co.
·
Lynn Repetsky: past WGNA Secretary; teacher at a
As mentioned above, the incoming President is to make at least two, and up to four, appointments to the new Board. The appropriate bios will be included in the next newsletter.
The election of incoming WGNA Board is again uncontested, but important nonetheless. Last year we also asked a number of non-binding opinion questions which gave us insight into the concerns of our membership, and which have proven quite informative and helpful. (The results were published in the October 2005 newsletter, which is available online at wgna.net.) We'd like to ask you a few more questions, if we may: Please mark your ballots (on p. 11) and let us know how you feel on these issues. We'll share the results with City Planners and with the Willow Glen business district (and with you, of course: they'll be posted on the website and discussed in a future newsletter).
Part of the charm of Willow Glen is in the variety of boutiques, specialty shops, and unique restaurants. Yet, last time you told us that there is also a need for stores that sell everyday "useful stuff" and for family restaurants. Big-box stores and outlet malls may best be located adjacent to the freeway off-ramps, but should all chain-stores also be exiled to the strip-malls and shopping centers?
Chains are chains because they are successful they sell what people want, profitably, at a price they'll pay. But too many chain stores can make for a mind-numbing sameness inside the mall, Milpitas looks the same as Maine or Miami. Carmel is a tourist destination in part because of the unique shopping experience: there are no chain stores there.
And what, exactly, is a "chain store"? Is it a multi-national corporation? Franchise? Out-of-state? Anything not operated by the founder or a direct heir? If you oust any store that has more than one outlet, then we'd lose Aqui (they opened a second store on Snell) and Willow Street Pizza (they have a couple stores in the area.) So, what do you think?
· No chains allowed whatsoever: if you open up another store anywhere else, you must leave Willow Glen. (Farewell, Aqui! Goodbye Longs and Starbucks.)
· All existing stores can stay, but no new chain stores. (Sorry, Trader Joes or Whole Foods, but you're not welcome.)
· Chain stores are welcome, provided they are designed to fit in: traffic, storefront appearance, signage, and hours of operation. (Sorry, McDonalds, no golden arches over Lincoln!) or
·
It's a free-market system: the landlord should
be able to rent out to any business, provided it meets the City land-use
codes. (If Starbucks wants to open a
third or fourth store on
The current
Parking Policy is limiting the choice of businesses that can open in some of
the existing storefronts on
· Remove all parking restrictions: we'll walk (or we'll park on a nearby neighborhood street)
· Change regulations so that the number of required parking spaces can be adjusted: since many people will walk to the District, they don't need as many spaces as they would if the shop was in the suburbs.
· Share the existing parking lots: the City and/or the WGBPA should form a Parking Improvement District (PID) if need be to acquire, maintain and operate all the parking lots within the PID for the common use. Enable "one park shopping".
· Don't change the rules: if a business can't provide adequate parking on-site, then they should not be allowed to locate in that storefront.
The "urban forest" adds a lot to the desirability of Willow Glen. By some estimates, a mature street tree adds $20,000 to the value of a property, and it also helps cleanse the air, provides shade, and cools the air on hot summer days. But trees also drop leaves (and sometimes branches), and roots can disrupt sewers, sidewalks, and foundations. "Property Rights" would say one can do whatever one wants on his/her own property, so long as it doesn't bother anyone else, but the removal of a tree on an adjacent lot does impact others.
The City of San Jose currently has a policy on the appropriate means of trimming or removing trees: a permit is needed for the trimming or removal of any size street tree (between curb and sidewalk), or any tree anywhere in the yard if over 18" in diameter. Sometimes the rules are followed, other times not: if developers want to build a monster house and there is a tree in the way, they may think it is better to not ask permission and just go ahead and remove the tree, as it is easier to pay a small fine than to get the permits. And some of the larger trees can be sold for lumber, bringing in much more than the fine for the removal. Many of the illegal tree removals have been done by companies that know better, and they know the tricks, too: cut the tree down quickly on a Saturday morning when the inspectors aren't around and Code Enforcement doesn't answer the phone. What are you going to do call 911 and report a tree murder?
The City is proposing a number of steps:
· Double the time a tree-removal notice is posted (go from 7 days to 14);
· Double many of the fines: the $300 fine for a small street-tree goes to $600, the fine for an 18" private tree goes from $500 to $1,000. (The fine for removing a "Heritage Tree" remains $5,000); and
· The Code Enforcement will respond to calls on Saturday mornings, and will instruct the 24/7 phone responders how to react at other times.
So, what do you think?
· It's my land, I can do what I want, to h--- with the neighbors: there should be no fines nor need for permits.
· The current policy is just right: don't change it.
· The proposed changes are just right: implement them.
· The proposed changes do not go far enough: fines should be higher still, especially for multiple offenders. Contractors should have their licenses suspended for 30 days for a second offense. Design homes that fit between existing trees rather than building monster box houses.