I don't know Belmont city councilmember Coralin Feierbach. We may have met on the hotel chicken council circuit, but I absolutely love the piece she wrote in the Daily Journal about the over-development being rammed down the Peninsula's throats by a bunch of bureaucrats with control over our money. Here is a pretty lengthy excerpt. Please do click through this link and read the whole thing.
This is in response to the May 1 article in the Daily Journal, “What is Plan Bay Area? Region Adopting Strategy for Future Growth.” The article states that San Mateo plans to add 10,000 new housing units by 2040. To paraphrase futurist Paul Saffo when he spoke before the Council of Cities 10 years ago, San Mateo County is in the process of loving itself to death.Peninsula cities are continually inundated by pro-growth voices from the San Mateo County Economic Development Association, the Association of Bay Area Governments, building trade unions, developers and Realtors, “building more new housing” proponents, state legislators and their lobbyists and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.
If it were only voices, that would be one thing. But now the deck is being stacked so if cities don’t build more housing then grant money may not available for road or other infrastructure improvements. In the post-Proposition 13 era, property taxes on housing units have not been sufficient to pay for all city services, including infrastructure maintenance, used by residential property owners. So adding more housing comes at a cost to cities’ infrastructures — a cost that is not funded by state or regional agencies.
ABAG issues mandates for each city for a number of additional housing units they must enable via zoning increases. These mandates have so far not been enforced, but proposed state legislation may soon change that. The very qualities that attracted us to Belmont are threatened.
Will local cities be forced to convert suburban single-family neighborhoods to urban multi-family condos and apartments? Will we be forced to sell our open space to developers to make up for sales tax money the state can potentially deny us? Will we be forced to build high-rise apartment buildings and condos along the “transportation corridor” as ABAG and MTC wants, destroying the view of the Bay for many Belmont households?
......
Belmont has about 350 acres of open space. Previous and present councils made that happen with strength, courage and conviction. Yes, there will be some new development in downtown Belmont on El Camino Real but not the kind of massive development some cities like Millbrae, Redwood City and San Bruno have generated and San Mateo is about to generate. Massive housing is not a sustainable solution. New Belmont development will be done with care and with consideration of long-term sustainability, consultation with residents and in cooperation with neighboring cities as well.
We moved to the San Mateo Peninsula because it was suburban, not urban. Yet outside agencies continually pressure us to urbanize. It’s time for our voices to be heard in Sacramento. Let us not die of a thousand cuts.
Right on, Coralin. I'll go a step further and suggest that the Peninsula city councils need to band together in a similar fashion to the PCC group that formed to stop the high-cost rail monstrosity. This group should get themselves a good lawyer and start now on prying the grant money, tax money and any other funding source away from the likes of ABAG and the MTC.
Hats off to Ms. Feierbach for having the guts to tell it like it is and not be afraid of any repercussions from doing so. Some of our council members should be so bold and firmly back their convictions. Open space? It will all disappear. I can recall pasture land paralleling 280, which is now totally built up from Hillsborough to the south. Take heed, council members.
Posted by: alittlebird | May 14, 2013 at 12:29 PM
Let's just call her Fear-less-bach. Coralin, you are welcome to move to Burlingame anytime. I call on Mayor Kieghran to put Joe's idea about the money on the agenda. What are we waiting for?
Posted by: hillsider | May 14, 2013 at 09:30 PM
Kieghran would never put herself on the line like that. She is FEARFUL.
Posted by: alittlebird | May 14, 2013 at 10:08 PM
The Daily Journal had another LTTE from Ms. Feierbach on Friday:
Editor,
The state of California is forcing cities like Belmont and other communities as well to zone land for thousands of additional housing units in the next few years. Meanwhile, Gov. Jerry Brown has just declared that we are in a drought.
Does anyone see a contradiction in this? If California doesn’t have enough water for its existing population of 38 million, what will future droughts be like if California grows by 20 million to 30 million, as currently planned?
The Belmont City Council, and other city councils in our neighboring counties, should consider this the next time they deal with the Association of Bay Area Governments and the state complaining that our “housing element” doesn’t add enough new residents.
There is talk of building more dams and desalination plants, but these are extreme and expensive solutions mainly needed to enable the state’s future growth. Besides, the taxpayers will be saddled with more taxes to support such measures. At our current population level, we can get by with some temporary conservation measures.
Dams and desalination plants are very expensive, not to mention eco-unfriendly. I don’t want to pay higher water fees and hurt the environment just so that land developers, in league with ABAG, state planners, real estate lobbyists and construction unions can make more money while overcrowding our communities.
I’m not talking about new single housing units or home remodeling expansions but the massive stack and pack multi-stories that have and are going up in our San Francisco Bay Area.
Thank you for reading this. It’s your water!
Coralin Feierbach
Belmont
The letter writer is the former mayor of Belmont.
Posted by: Joe | February 02, 2014 at 12:59 PM
The sad thing is simple common sense is in such short supply these days. Just like the water. Keep up the good work Fear-less-bach.
Posted by: hillsider | February 02, 2014 at 11:48 PM
Canary in the Cage Alert:
ABAG/MTC Plan Bay Area is about to get legitimacy from the Legislature with this latest twist...
http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_25038802/plan-bay-area-opponents-see-new-legislative-threat
Posted by: pat giorni | February 03, 2014 at 03:12 PM
Guys, I gotta tell ya, Bruce Dickinson would be in favor of voting for Coralin Feierbach for US President at this juncture, so thrilled I am to be reading this. What a diamond in the Peninsula's veritable rough! Makes me almost want to buy a house in Belmont just on principle because I know there is real passion to protect and preserve. Yes, while I have also considered buying a house in Hillsborough in the past due to the beautiful natural landscape, I personally am a man of action and like the downtown walkable feel but still be in the midst of beautiful trees, sunlight, and architecture with character and history. You can spot me walking down Burlingame Ave mingling with the crowds, sometimes relaxing outside enjoying my coffee (which, by the way I have discovered the true bliss that is 'Blue Bottle' coffee… WOW, that stuff is great!)
The problem, as I see it, is that the balance of nature and urbanism in Burlingame is being tilted in the favor of urbanism, and I gotta tell ya, I'm not liking what I'm seeing. Burlingame is bookended by the worst looking multifamily new build apartments in San Mateo and Millbrae. No character with fake brick and weird colors that will be outdated in 6 months, reminds me of strip mall faux architecture in the San Fernando valley. We have got to fight these types of developments and meaningless housing 'quotas' from irrelevant State agencies tooth and nail. Yes, I must admit the cookys in Marin and Berkeley have got the right idea in being aggressive and I would be remiss if I didn't say they were doing dynamite job with the activism. Something that I'd like to see a LOT more of in Burlingame and San Mateo county.
Alas, I will not be standing idly by watching the landscape scarred by the dial-a-development attitude so prevalent here. In fact, I will be on the horn tomorrow calling our local Cali reps Leland Yee and Jerry Hill, to make sure this crazy State Bill gets cut off at the knees. Yes, I will be shameless in using the Bruce Dickinson name to throw my weight around, but I know its for the greater good and everyone wins because of it, so I don't mind, really. Then I will call Coralin congratulate her on the fantastic letter she wrote. Now THAT is what I call exploring the space!!
So folks, a friendly reminder from your groovin' neighbor : stay ACTIVE and write or call your California representatives!
Posted by: Bruce Dickinson | February 05, 2014 at 08:03 PM
More...for your reading pleasure-
City of Burlingame- Draft Housing Element 2015-2023
http://www.burlingame.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=11274
FYI- Burlingame has 52% rentals as of 2014, with the County average at 41% (2010)
Posted by: Jennifer | June 20, 2014 at 08:29 AM