Let’s don’t sell off town property just because we need short term profits

I am not in support of selling off the Ditto Ln nor the Winchester properties.

It wasn’t that long ago that Berry School was sold by the school district because they did not forsee a need for another school in the future. Land in this area is in short supply, and this is an opportunity for the Council to keep something useful for the residents.

There is a tsunami of buildings happening on the north side of Lark avenue. It’s time to think about enhancing the ambiance and the beauty of Los Gatos instead of developing every piece of property that becomes available. Town owned property is one of our last opportunities.

If you have been reading Next Door or the weekly times, all you hear is how everyone is dissatisfied with the intensification of Los Gatos. Build on either of these properties and you will add cars to two extremely busy intersections. Ditto is over the top expensive, but may be considered a steal by 2036. We need to do more long term thinking and perhaps pass by the immediate dollars that would be generated by these sales.

We need islands of mini-parks, parking spaces or neighborhood meeting places all around the town. These types of developments can reduce the chaos of additional traffic from commercial business or apartments, and we can add to the serenity of the town that we all feel has been lost in the past 15 years. Over the horizon, we have more mega projects coming at the intersection of Alberto and Hwy 9. We need something to make us feel better, not worse.

Winchester is a whole other story. As I understand it, we’ve owned that for a long time. The price is right. Adding commercial business there is the wrong thing to do. Coming soon will be the North 40 and 3 MM sq feet in Campbell, less than a mile from this site.

In the future, I could see the property used for our proposed circulating bus system that circles the town. It could be a shuttle stop for people coming from outside of town needing to park and catch the shuttle. It could be a driverless car stop for Uber or Lyft whose new business model is to shuttle people from their homes to mass transit drop off points. People at Winchester could shuttle into town or ride to Campbell with this Winchester property as a drop off point. These are just a few ideas of what the property could be used for, but I suggest another ad hoc committee to brainstorm uses for the town.

This Council has the opportunity to take a step back towards the town we all envisioned when we moved here. Not everything needs to be developed.
This is a unique opportunity for us to hold onto some precious land that is in short supply. This is an opportunity to regain some of the serenity of a small town that will benefit the citizens rather than a developer. This is another opportunity to reduce the intensification of Los Gatos.

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