GGS Meeting Minutes from November 20, 2021

We held a thorough discussion of the pros and cons of the new statewide initiative designed to override state mandates in zoning and land use. The new name for the initiative is: Our Neighborhood Voices. Carol, Connie and Carolyn have attended three Zoom meetings by the Santa Clara County organizers. The website where the text of the initiative and more information can be found is: www.ourneighborhoodvoices.com

Carolyn had done good research about several of the state laws which many cities object to. See the accompanying document for a list of these laws. The main reason for our objections is that methods which suit large cities with good public transportation do not fit smaller and medium size cities. Although there is an urgent need for more housing, especially for affordable housing, these new laws have not produced a lot and have not provided more funding to cities to service this housing. If passed the initiative would allow cities who do not wish to follow state law to revert to their original ordinances, such as Gilroy’s Residential Development Ordinance.

Here are the pros and cons for Gilroy Growing Smarter officially support this initiative:

YES – We are very opposed to many of these new state laws. See list in the document.

NO – Green Foothills which has supported GGS and Shute Mihaley Weinberger, the law firm which wrote our Urban Growth Boundary initiative, have reservations. They think the initiative may undermine the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)

In a split decision we decided not to take a position at this time. Of course individual members may exercise their own opinions and decide whether they want to sign or help circulate petitions in order for the initiative to qualify for the Nov. 2022 ballot.

Our second decision was to send a letter/email to Bill Brand and the main organizers asking them to have environmental attorneys craft better wording for the initiative and include CEQA in the list of exceptions.

After we receive a response from Bill Brand we plan to send out a Mail Chimp newsletter to our large list of GGS supporters informing them about Our Neighborhood Voices.

Connie Rogers, Acting Secretary

RECENT CITY COUNCIL ACTION

On Dec. 5th the Gilroy City Council adopted a Resolution supporting the Our Neighborhood Voices Initiative. The vote was 5-1-0 with Zach Hilton opposing and Rebeca Armendariz absent.

You should also know that several people in Gilroy are collecting signatures on the Our Neighborhood Voices petition to help this initiative qualify for the Nov. 2022 ballot.