Hi Orinda Watch Members,

A quick note...

As we wrote in a recent newsletter, since the Orinda City Council has not done what they should have done, which was to create an ad-hoc citizen committee to properly update the city's Housing Element, Orinda Watch has decided, on behalf of the wonderful citizens of Orinda, to create our own citizen effort to create a proper draft to the substantive points of the housing element.

Let us know if you would like to be involved! This process will be open and public.

Because time is so short, we will send an initial draft of the Housing Element by this weekend with suggested edits to anyone who would like to review it, and offer edits of their own. We will then take the combined work to come up with an edited draft that we will publish on our website (HERE) and make available to all Orinda citizens for their review and editing suggestions.

After we gather that input, we, together with you, will present our edited draft, with all changes from the City staff’s June 4, 2013 draft clearly identified, to the Council for their consideration at their September 17, 2013 meeting. We will provide an executive summary of the edits to the draft to both the Orinda public, and to the Council, before the September 17 meeting, so that everyone can see in an open and transparent fashion the edits that all of us, the Orinda residents, feel are necessary to have a Housing Element that will work for all Orindans.

We will also be having an Orinda Watch general meeting on Monday, September 9, from 6:00-8:00pm (Room 9, Orinda Community Center) to discuss the editing work all of us are doing together on the Housing Element, as well as other items of importance and all are welcome! (Bring a friend!)

Hey, when the city incorporated back in the 1980s, it was a citizen committee that wrote the General Plan that still stands today, almost 30 years later!

That's it. Plain and simple. So, join us, won't you? Just send us an email at orindawatch@gmail.com and let us know if you would like to be involved, and we'll send you the first, edited draft for your review and suggested edits this weekend. Any involvement you are able to put in--however much--will be an important contribution to this effort!

How's that for representation?