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Health & Fitness

San Carlos Newsletter received today.

All San Carlos residents are currently receiving the October - December San Carlos city newsletter. It highlights the Proposed San Carlos Transit Village development. Unfortunately the city is trying to "sell" its residents this development based on false, and misleading information. This is the largest proposed development in San Carlos History and will have a major impact on all city residents. Please check back over the next few weeks for future posts. Here is the text of my email sent to the city council:

Council Member,

After receiving the current San Carlos newsletter in the mail today, I was shocked and appalled as to its contents. Specifically the blatant "advertising" for the San Carlos Transit Village and complete misrepresentation of the facts.

The illustration street view of building 2 is completely misrepresented and factually wrong. The rendering depicts building 2 as three completely separate buildings with nothing but air and clouds between them. It also shows stairways up to the railroad tracks implying that these buildings will be right where the station is. This could not be further from the truth. This rendering actually depicts what I was asking both the city council and planning commission to consider: smaller buildings with more space between them. If that was the case and this rendering actually depicted what is truly being proposed, and with the buildings slightly lowered, I would have a lot more desire to support it ……

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Furthermore, the "Good Notes" section on the last page are not "Good" at all. Again the misuse of facts is apparent in almost every talking point. Nowhere does it mention the impacts on traffic from this development including the existing traffic conditions on Holly and Brittian as being well over capacity for the que lines at every major intersection in the development area. It also omits the proposed project warranting at new signal at Cherry and El Camino. Nowhere does it sate that to mitigate traffic for this project, both the right and left hand turns from El Camino onto Holly will be removed. As mentioned in the newsletter it is inferred that all these issues will be solved by the developer throwing in $500+K in traffic fees. 

The newsletter goes on to infer that the developer will either provide at least 15% BMR units or pay a $8 million housing impact fee. Why is this information being provided to city residents when the developer is requesting a complete waiver for these fees and even threatening to sue the city for this waiver? 

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The fallacy that this project will create open space by providing a tiny public plaza is a complete slap in the face to city residents. This project is going to completely close off both pedestrian and bicycle access in all directions and create a towering development that completely takes away any potential for open space that both GESC and other city residents asked for in this development area. Many people asked for some kind of greenbelt path that ran through this development from north to south. The ratio of open space to structures is laughable. Even for a so called TOD.

Another complete lack of facts includes the statement that there will be no significant noise bounce back according to the EIR. The newsletter fails to mention that the EIR study on noise slap back was based on the use of exterior sound absorbing materials and trees being planted along the berm. The sound expert hired by the developer later admitted that there are no such materials that exist and that trees only create a "psychological" sound barrier without any true sound absorption.  

This is just another example of city staff overstepping the boundaries of a neutral body giving information to it's residents and blatantly supporting a project by trying to sell it based on outright false information and misleading images. There is no doubt  this newsletter was planned and worked into its current form to "sell" this development to the public. There is no mistake about it. Whoever participated and approved it's contents should be fired or at the very least severely reprimanded.

I am requesting that the city rewrite, re illustrate and resubmit this newsletter to the city's residents in a fashion that depicts the reality of this proposed project and what it's true impacts will be regardless of whether or not they are deemed significant. 

I will await your reply,

Sincerely,

Tim Hilborn

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