Dear Orinda Watch Members, We ask you to join us tomorrow at 7pm in the Orinda Library Auditorium as the City Council discusses the Housing Element one more time. We provide you with speaker bullet points (and we need volunteers to read the comments into the public record.) We also point out that the Montessori school project has been appealed....

One Simple Action

Orinda Watch has taken the Citizens' comments from our own ad hoc committee for the Housing Element and overlaid this on top of the Planning Director's latest report to make it easier for the citizens and the city council and staff to see the changes. The Planning Director's changes vs the prior edit from August 20th are those in BLUE, while the Citizens' Edits are those in RED.

Orinda Watch is proud of the collaborative citizens' work here and is asking the city council to deliberate on EACH edit and give an up or down vote on EACH edit.

Again, the City Council MUST look at these citizens' edits (which were overlaid on top of the City Staff's report for ease of reading) rather than the staff report from the City Staff if they want to show that this Housing Element has the true backing of the citizens of Orinda.

HERE is the Cover Letter (Memorandum discussing each of the Citizens’ edits by type of edit, and why the edit is essential.)
HERE is the Bullet Points for Tomorrow Night's Meeting (more detailed than the cover letter.)
HERE is the entire draft Housing Element (All six chapters with the Citizens’ edits, plus section by section memo describing edits.)

If you cannot attend tomorrow night's City Council Meeting (and we encourage you to attend, we are asking you to make your voice heard in one simple action which is this (thank you goes to the folks at Save Orinda for this idea):
If you agree with the latest version to the Citizens' Edit to the Housing Element, please send an email (heck, you can forward this one if you like) to any member of city council (they all get cc'd when member receives a copy) saying "I approve of the Orinda Citizens' Edit of the Housing Element, dated September 17th, 2013".

Anyway, here's the Orinda City Council members' email addresses, so please send them a note. And of course, you can both email AND attend the meeting. That would be the best course of action.

aworth@cityoforinda.org Mayor Worth
sseverson@cityoforinda.org Councilmember Severson
sglazer@cityoforinda.org Councilmember Glazer
dorr@cityoforinda.org Councilmember Orr
vsmith@cityoforinda.org Councilmember Smith

Of course, should you disagree with any of the attached, you can say "I approve of the Citizens' Edit of the Housing Element, dated September 17th, 2013, except for part X and part X." Well, we think the edits are perfect but we also believe this is a free country and and we encourage you to do your own research and to question the work of others (including ours!)

For those just tuning in, the Orinda Housing Element is a State-mandated policy on Orinda's housing-use and zoning, just one piece of a city's General Plan. All of the cumulative work that the citizens have done on the Housing Element can be found here.

Bullet Points for Tomorrow Night's Meeting

For those planning on speaking, here are our suggested bullet points to use tomorrow night. We would ask that you print out a copy and bring it with you. Since City Council will not allow us to speak for more than 3 minutes, we are looking for folks that are willing to pick an bullet point, and then speak to it so that we can ensure all points are covered. Please email us back if you'd like to help us with that. We need about 10 volunteers, so please go ahead and raise your hand. Of course, if there is something you feel is more pressing, please do not hesitate to address the council on this topic at your preference.

Here are the bullet points once again...

Montessori / Phair's Site is being appealed

It appears that someone is holding up the 12-year vacant Phair's site from being turned into a school for young children as well as a retail establishment. It was announced last week that the Montessori school's application has been appealed.

It wouldn't be a development-centric group blocking a free-market transaction would it?

Evidently, the appeal will come before the Planning Commission tentatively around November 5th. Stay Tuned.