League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
Santa Clara County, CA November 4, 2014 Election
	A.C. Johnston Answers Questions Candidate for Council Member; City of Palo Alto

The questions were prepared by the League of Women Voters of Palo Alto and asked of all candidates for this office.
Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

Questions & Answers

1. How would you balance neighborhood and city-wide concerns?

We must stop making development decisions on an ad hoc basis. Rather than focusing on individual projects, as in the current PC zoning process, we must take a holistic view of development and engage residents in establishing a broad vision of the future for our entire community.

The Comprehensive Plan is our community's blueprint for guiding and controlling both commercial and residential development. The update to the Comprehensive Plan that is currently underway will govern development to 2030. Making the process by which we update the Comprehensive Plan more inclusive, more transparent, and more responsive to the needs and concerns of community members is essential to creating true consensus regarding future development in Palo Alto.

To balance neighborhood and city-wide concerns, both the City Council and the City Staff must reach out to neighborhood groups and individuals across the city. Obtaining vitally important input from residents is far too important a responsibility for the council to delegate entirely to the staff. Instead, members of the council must (a) listen to the entire community, (b) give all residents meaningful opportunities to provide detailed input, (c) make sure that the concerns of all residents are fully considered, and (d) demand that any impacts of further development be both mitigated to the fullest extent possible and shared equitably across the city. The updated Comprehensive Plan should clearly specify the type and extent of the development we want, where it should take place, and the circumstances under which it may occur. Specific zoning changes can then be implemented to realize the community-wide vision articulated in the updated Comprehensive Plan. A properly updated Comprehensive Plan -- based on broad-based, community-wide input from residents -- will successfully strike the right balance between neighborhood needs and city-wide concerns. It will accurately reflect our collective vision of our city's future. And it will help us all work together constructively to build a Palo Alto in which our children will want and be able to live.

2. Palo Alto and surrounding communities are under economic pressure to grow and environmental pressures to live and work closer together. How do you envision Palo Alto responding to these pressures?

While I believe that Palo Alto should work closely with surrounding communities on issues affecting the region, Palo Alto's responsibility is, first and foremost, to enhance the quality of life for its own citizens. Thus our responses to economic and environmental pressures must be for the benefit of and responsive to the needs of Palo Altans.

I know that we cannot ignore the reality of climate change, and I also recognize that we must work with other communities to reconcile regional economic and environmental pressures. Palo Alto has earned a well-deserved reputation across the world for both technological excellence and environmental responsibility. When we listen to and work effectively with one another, we are intelligent enough and wise enough to devise creative and innovative ways to solve the problems that we all confront.

Palo Alto can enhance the quality of life for its own citizens while fulfilling its global responsibilities by acting sensibly. We can and should take active measures to make it easier and safer for people to enjoy the pleasures and benefits of walking and cycling. We must especially protect children biking to school. We can also expand local shuttle services and support and improve coordination and integration with regional transit systems. By enhancing alternatives to driving, we can reduce congestion. Similarly, by using technology to help drivers looking for parking spaces identify open spaces and by providing commercial property owners and others with surplus parking spaces better ways to make unused private parking available to those who need it, we can cost-effectively improve parking availability. These are some of the ways in which we can balance economic and environmental pressures to meet the needs of Palo Altans.

In addition, Palo Alto would benefit if more moderately-priced and affordable housing were built and made available to young people, to seniors who want to downsize, and to teachers and city employees who want to live here. We should make it easier for homeowners to build more "granny units," particularly near regional transit hubs, without worsening parking problems. Locating moderately-priced and affordable housing close to jobs, stores and services can also make it easier for residents to shop and to run errands without cars. Well-planned housing would reduce car trips and help alleviate the traffic and parking problems we currently face.

Finally, Palo Alto must continue its long and proud tradition as a global leader on environmental and sustainability issues. Our incinerators are outmoded and at the end of their useful lives. We should replace them with a state-of-the art system that would eliminate the need to incinerate our organic waste or to ship it out of town, that would provide clean energy, and that would make our regional waste treatment plant completely sustainable. We cannot combat climate change alone, but by adopting sensible development policies, expanding alternatives to driving, and dealing with our own waste responsibly, Palo Alto can demonstrate to the entire world how an innovative city can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop responsible plans to adapt to rising sea levels and other effects of climate change.

3. What proposals do you have to alleviate the traffic and parking situation in Palo Alto?

We must begin by not making the traffic and parking situation worse. We should insist that all new development projects provide full parking for the expected occupants. We should also both demand that developers detail what measures would be taken to counter any traffic impacts caused by occupants and hold developers accountable to what they promise.

Next, as noted in response to question two, locating additional moderately-priced and affordable housing near jobs, shops and services can reduce car trips and help alleviate traffic and parking problems.

Palo Alto should also increase the number and frequency of shuttles to make getting around town using public transit more attractive for everyone. We can learn from Stanford's successful Marguerite shuttle system and should explore partnering with Stanford to provide fast, frequent, and friendly shuttle service, especially in areas of Palo Alto most burdened by traffic.

In addition, we should implement, as rapidly as possible, both a residential parking permit system in areas adjacent to downtown and new technologies to make available parking spots easier to find. We should also investigate adding new parking capacity downtown and near California Avenue -- where non-resident parking has created particular problems -- and seek ways in which businesses without adequate dedicated parking for their employees can help bear the expense of expanding parking capacity.

Finally, I support the City's Transit Demand Management program. As discussed above, we must find creative ways to encourage both residents and people who work in and visit Palo Alto to use single occupancy vehicles less frequently and instead to walk, cycle, or use public transit to move about and enjoy all that our great city has to offer.

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Responses to questions asked of each candidate are reproduced as submitted to the League.  Candidates' statements are presented as submitted. The answer to each question should be limited to 400 words. Direct references to opponents are not permitted.

Read the answers from all candidates (who have responded).

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 20, 2014 13:39
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