Sustainable growth to ensure long-term livability

To ensure that we'll all be able to enjoy Santa Clarita for decades to come, we need strong leadership that will make the hard decisions our city needs to thrive. As a councilmember, I will work to make sure that the city:

• · Invests in our existing city and remove barriers to redevelopment that slow growth there.
• · Creates an infill incentive package that will encourage redevelopment and revitalization of older areas. Encourage planners to identify and evaluate blighted and passed over sites.
• · Accommodates more buildings that are a mix of stores, offices and housing.
• · Promotes a net work of roads so that traffic impacts are not focused on any one neighborhood, but instead spread out equally through the whole City.
• · Promotes alternative transportation such as "safe routes to schools" that will reduce congestion
• · Promotes public transportation
• · Works with state and local agencies to plan rapid clean up of abandoned industrial sites and old contaminated gas station properties.
• · Works with state and local agencies to steer more state water and park bond money into older neighborhoods to create parks and upgrade old plumbing that contaminates water supplies.
• · Works with local entities on creative continued funding measures to stop proposed park and nature center closures.
• · Works with state and local governments to provide incentives to install solar power systems on residences and businesses and to provide incentives to retrofit commercial buildings for energy and water savings.
• · Promotes watershed protection, permeable paving and other water saving measures to protect our water supply and promote the aesthetic and recreational values of the Santa Clara River and its tributaries.

Protecting our river safeguards our community

The Santa Clara River is the centerpiece of our community. Along with its tributaries, it links all the neighborhoods in our City from Canyon Country to Valencia. It provides drinking water for our community and recreational opportunities for cyclists, walkers and bird watchers. It deserves our attention and protection.

The area along the river is designated as a significant ecological area by the City in our general plan and was designated as such by the County before we became a City. Planners recognized the importance of protecting the river, but the current council has allowed changes and variances to this designation. I support following our general plan because it makes good sense.

Among the many reasons to protect the Santa Clara River is flood and earthquake safety. Moving housing out of the flood plain and leaving a wider greenway along the river will eliminate the hazard from flooding. But also the sandy soils along the river are often designated as "liquefaction hazard zones" by the State Dept. of Mines and Conservation. This means that in an earthquake, these areas could turn to "liquid", causing the collapse of housing built on top of them. Of course, building codes require extra re-enforcement for housing in such areas, but this does not always ensure safety. I will discourage building in the flood plain to ensure the safety of future residents.

Ignoring Mother Nature is also an expensive proposition. Building bridges with insufficient spans (such as Bouquet Bridge) can require huge taxpayer expenditures and traffic disruption when the river floods. The partial collapse of the Bouquet Bridge in the 1994 floods cost taxpayers $695,000 to repair and many lost hours in traffic. I will object to public infrastructure that reduces the expense for developers and leads to greater expenditure of taxpayer funds in the future.

I support a greenway along the Santa Clara River because it will have long term benefit to our water supply. Much of our drinking water comes from the Santa Clara River. Protecting the water recharge areas (places where water can sink into the ground) will ensure that this water supply is available in the future. When it rains, pollutants from cars and other sources wash off our streets and into the river. Plantings along the river will serve to cleanse this polluted run-off before it reaches the river and our water supply.

I support a greenway park along the river for its huge recreational value. Cyclists, walkers and bird watchers already extensively use the river trail system. I support increasing this trail system.

The Santa Clara River is an environmental treasure trove. It is home for many endangered and threatened animals. It provides a wildlife corridor for movement of these animals between the mountain ranges that surround our city. Providing a greenway will also protect the habitat that these animals depend on so that they can continue to survive. I support protecting the habitat of the animals and birds that live in the Santa Clara River by providing a greenway along the river that will also serve as a buffer zone.

Energy independence begins at home

A Healthy City Cares About Its Children

Schools

Our community cares about our children. We want safe and healthy schools. Ours schools are, of course, the purview of their respective elected school boards, but the City can help make their job easier. I will work to coordinate and partner with other agencies and organizations including School Boards, PTAs, Sheriff's Dept., facilities managers, environmental groups and anyone else that is interested to accomplish the following goals:

• · Safe Routes to School – I will form a task force of interested community members and responsible agencies to designate routes that children can take to walk or ride bikes to school safely. Walking and cycling is healthy exercise for children. Getting kids out of cars will also reduce traffic and energy use – but they need routes that will not put them in harm's way.
• · Safe Neighborhoods, Safe Schools – Neighborhoods around schools must be safe for our children. Parents will insist on delivering their children to school in cars if they are not confident that the neighborhood is safe. A Safe Routes task force will address this issue.
• · Cool Schools – schools should be a healthy and "green" place to send our children. I will facilitate issues panels and discussions on the effects of air pollution on the health of our children and how we can avoid exposing them to bad air. I will promote green building standards and convene a panel to provide information on sustainable energy sources and use and reducing water usage and costs with landscaping.

Parks

All of us, and especially our children need parks for recreation. I will require a five-acre per 1000 people minimum of park space for new development.

The City has developed trails along the Santa Clara River and some of its major tributaries. I strongly support this effort and will promote continued acquisition and grant funding for the river trail system. Additionally, we need information kiosks along the trails to share community facts and news.

All of us, and especially children, need nature. I will facilitate the formation of a citizen's task force to recommend a financial mechanism for the acquisition of open space. I will require open space dedications for new development.

The flood plain along the Santa Clara River and its major tributaries should be preserved as a greenway park. This will reduce flood earthquake hazards my moving housing out of dangerous areas and enhance the beauty and recreational opportunities of our community.

A Healthy City Is A Caring City

Senior services

Caring for the homeless

We have homeless people in the Santa Clarita Valley. This is a fact. They live in the river and in the creeks. They live behind stores and in alleys. Sometimes they are homeless as a result of simple hard luck, but other times it is due to mental illness, or a drinking or drug problem. But whatever the reason, the question for our city is how do we address this growing social problem in our community?

We must address homelessness out of compassion for those in need and for the health and safety of our community.

For the last several years we have had a temporary shelter. This shelter compassionately provided food and housing during the cold months of the winter. It kept the homeless out of harms way from the flood flows of the river and out of cold temperatures that sometimes dipped below freezing. Local churches provide food and personal items for the shelter, taking turns cooking hot meals in the evening. Homeless have the opportunity to bath, shave, etc. The shelter closes during the day and residents are bused to the location of their choice – a job, a coffee shop, the library.

In the past, the shelter did not have a permanent home. Neighbors complained that homeless people were a nuisance during the day when the shelter closed, so they did not want the shelter near their homes. They were concerned about instances of homeless coming into their back yards or approaching children on the way to school. These are legitimate concerns that the city tried to address.

Finally, with the help of the county, a shelter was located in an industrial area, away from homes. But this is still a temporary location. The trailers must be vacated and set up again each year. This costs tens of thousands of dollars and a lot of time and effort. Setting up the shelter anew every year strains funding sources and community efforts.

I will support city funding and assistance to maintain a permanent shelter location that does not impact existing neighborhoods in order to avoid the high cost of yearly set-up.

I will work with county and state agencies to address the root of the homelessness problem.

I will publicly honor those groups and individuals that have helped the homeless in our community.

Affordable housing

People that need affordable housing include students, seniors and the working poor.

I support mandatory inclusionary housing in new development approvals. Providing some housing at affordable levels in each neighborhood allows people that work in our community to live here too without commuting. This reduces traffic and air pollution. Spreading inclusionary housing throughout the city will eliminate the problems of concentrating lower income housing into one area.

I will support aggressively pursuing federal community block grants and other funding to help developers provide inclusionary housing.

A Healthy City Is An Ethical City

Clean Money

On January 30, 2006, in a historic vote, the California Clean Money bill passed through the Assembly by a vote of 46 to 24. This Clean Money victory marked the first time a public financing bill has been passed by a floor vote of either house of the California Legislature.

We all know why we need to get big money out of politics. Business interests know that funding a particular candidate is a good investment. The high return they will receive when contracts or favorable legislation is steered their way will more than make up for the dollars spent to ensure that "their " candidate gets elected. Candidates supporting long-term sustainability or community interests that may not necessarily support the interests of a big business funder face an uphill race against enormous odds. This is not democracy.

Of course business interests should be heard. The economy is an important part of our community, but they should not be the ONLY voice heard. Where this situation has become the status quo, communities are run on the short term financial interests of big campaign contributors. This is what has happened in Santa Clarita. Check the campaign reports of local candidates and you will see developers, their contractors, lawyers and other related businesses, donating huge sums to certain candidates.

That is why I support the development of a local "Clean Money" Ordinance for the City of Santa Clarita. We need a level playing field for our local City Council. Without such an ordinance, our City will continue to be run to benefit local developers without adequate attention to existing residents and long-term sustainability.

Laws without loopholes

In 1991 the City Council passed a Hillside and Ridgeline Ordinance. Like many communities, residents of Santa Clarita had become concerned about the massive grading and loss of their local vistas. The intent of the ordinance was to ensure the safety of future residents by strictly regulating the grade on which a house could be built. The intent was also to preserve our local ridgelines because of the beauty and definition they give to our community.

Since that ordinance was approved, members elected with money from development interests have controlled the City Council. Not once has this ordinance been enforced. Instead, the Council votes that some aspect of every development that comes before it is "innovative" and that the developer therefore does not have to follow this ordinance and preserve the hillsides and ridgelines in his project.

Our City has a protected "Significant Ecological Area" overlay in our general plan for areas next to the Santa Clara River. Abiding by this overlay would improve flood protection and protect the Santa Clara River. But development approvals consistently ignore this designation.

These are only a few examples of decisions made by our current and previous city councils. There are many more. These actions are an insult to the community leaders that worked long and hard on the City's General Plan and the Hillside Ordinance.

I will support not only the letter of our local laws and ordinances, but also the intent of those laws, especially where they pertain to the long-term sustainability and protection of our quality of life.

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