RE: EPC and "healthy villages" concept

[Bruce England]

Hello all:
I've been attending EPC meetings related to the General Plan visioning process, and you should be aware that the commissioners are collectively fairly cool on the "healthy villages" concept. One person in the room (not a commissioner, however) even called the idea "nostalgic." One commissioner described a true village as being the kind of thing he's seen in Bavaria.
If you are interested in the future of healthy villages implementation in Mountain View, you ought to be attending some or all of these meetings.
My two cents,
Bruce E

[John Carpenter]

Bruce,
Thanks for the heads up. I did make it clear that there needed to be some
representation (nonvoting) at the EPC meeting so things like this would not
happen and this became one of the ESTF recommendations. I did not realize
that something was placed upon the agenda that would get to this.

Traditionally, this is one of the commissions for which potential
politicians can achieve public office (Council membership). This should not
be the case for the most part as a commission that is supposed to be expert
can at times be downright political and can hurt the city and the region.

John Carpenter

[deb henigson]

Hi Bruce -

Unfortunately, I can never attend these meetings. I have a standing
committment on Wednesday evenings that I've had for the last, oh,
8-ish years, and it isn't gonna be changing any time soon.

Hopefully our report and our interactions with City Council members
serving on the CESC will be influence enough for now! In the meantime,
if anyone else has time to attend either the EPC meetings or the CESC
sessions, that would be wonderful...but they both meet on Wednesday
nights, so that pretty much counts me out indefinitely.

alas,

--deb

EPC: http://www.mountainview.gov/city_council/bcc/environmental.asp
CESC: http://www.mountainview.gov/services/learn_about_our_city/environmental_sustainability_program.asp

[Kal Sandhu]

The most important thing is to get someone on the EPC who is not there for political aspirations but to get the work that needs to be done on the fore front.


cheers,

--
Kal Sandhu

[Bruce England]

FYI: The key argument from the EPC against the viability of "healthy villages" in Mtn View is a strong attitude against the kind of density that would be required to support services that would need to set up shop.

I will be at as many of the EPC and CESC meetings as I can get to, which will be most, if not all, of them. If you want me to put some "healthy village" counterarguments out there, please let me know and tell me what you want to be said.

Bye for now!
Bruce

[deb henigson]

Key points:

We are not looking to create *new* village centers. We are suggesting
targetting EXISTING shopping centers as cornerstones for re-vamping
into healthy village centers. That is, take a strip-mall that is
super-car-oriented and turn it into a mixed-use pedestrian-friendly
shopping, services, and housing combination.

Also, higher-density does not have to be vertical! You don't have to
pile housing on top of retail to be mixed-use; they can merely be
co-located in a way that encourages walking & biking, rather than
driving & parking.

Look at the MV adult school for example of the second point; its
parking is located in the back and it is very close to the sidewalk,
so it makes walking on that block much more pleasant. There is still
parking, certainly, but it's not a huge gulf to cross; anyone living
in the higher-density condos and apartments nearby can easily cross
the one driveway on the side street to access the building.
Furthermore, the bus stops quite near the front door, again
emphasizing easy access for pedestrians. Compare that to the mini-mall
across the street, which puts parking in front of the retail shops and
cuts into the sidewalk twice for driveways, making walking much more
cautionary and dangerous -- not to mention having to walk across the
whole parking lot to get to the retail shops. The adult school is
sidewalk-building-parking-housing, all horizontal in that order; the
mini-mall is sidewalk-parking-retail, with no way for the housing
behind it to get to the retail.

just some things to bring up, thanks Bruce!

--deb

[Cliff Chambers]

I will able to attend some of the CESC and General Plan meetings to
advocate for the healthy villages concepts. It is a critical
recommendation and will hopefully receive more traction by the CESC
and the full City Council.

Cliff

[Kal Sandhu]

Apart from attending meetings it is important to meet up with each of
the EPC and Council members regularly. My two cents as I do this with
the council.

Cheers

Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 11, 2008, at 6:47 AM, Cliff Chambers