The debate over the future of the O’Keefe Open Space Preserve in Los Altos Hills continues after a local nonprofit sent the town a demand letter questioning the town’s actions on the topic.
A Dec. 16 letter to Los Altos Hills from Safran Law on behalf of its client, Sustainable Housing Initiative for Environmental & Land Defense Coalition, claimed the Los Altos Hills City Council “secretly formed and operated an unagendized ‘Alternative Sites Committee,’ held closed-door meetings and preselected the preserve as a housing site in violation of California’s Brown Act. The council then openly chose a strategy to evade the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by directing the City Attorney to draft and orchestrate a sham ‘citizens’ initiative’ specifically designed to avoid environmental review, while simultaneously using public resources to promote, strategize and advance that ballot measure.”
The Brown Act requires local agency meetings to be open and public, while the CEQA requires agencies to consider the environmental impacts and damages of an action.
The coalition, based in Los Altos Hills and composed of residents, is seeking to preserve the entire eight-acre vacant parcel adjacent to Highway 280/Junipero Serra Freeway and El Monte Road. The town owns the land, and it became open space in 2002 when voters adopted the Los Altos Hills Open Space and Public Recreation Initiative. However, the Los Altos Hills City Council at its Nov. 17 meeting discussed a potential ballot measure, potentially citizen-led, to redesignate a portion of the O’Keefe property from its current open space preserve to multifamily residential and to remove the voter approval requirement for conveyance of the land for multifamily housing. The November discussion raised concerns among some residents about how potential development would affect the area’s environmental and rural aspects, along with traffic impacts on nearby roads. The town is considering zoning changes at O’Keefe to maintain adequate potential sites in the future to meet its state-mandated housing obligations under its Housing Element and to avoid state penalties.
“The SHIELD Coalition is demanding immediate cure and correction of Brown Act violations, full CEQA compliance before any further action, an end to all publicly funded campaign activity, a complete accounting of public resources expended, and production of public records. Absent swift corrective action, litigation will follow to enforce open government laws, environmental protections, and the voters’ express mandate to preserve the O’Keefe Preserve,” according to the letter.
Rajesh Shakkarwar, one of the members of the coalition, said the organization is a proponent of affordable housing and protecting open spaces and the environment, and he believes there can be solutions that meet state housing requirements but don’t compromise the environment.
“We believe one doesn’t have to happen at the cost of another,” Shakkarwar said.
Los Altos Hills Acting City Manager Cody Einfalt said the town had received the letter, and the city attorney was in the process of reviewing it.
“At this time, we don’t believe any member of the town violated the Brown Act or CEQA,” Einfalt said in an email statement to the Town Crier. “The letter also included a public records request, which our city clerk will be processing in accordance with state law.”
Los Altos Hills Mayor Rajiv Bhateja said the formation of an Alternative Sites Ad Hoc Committee that discussed the issue was done consistently with the Brown Act and that at no time were there three members of the city council on the Ad Hoc Committee.
“The committee was formed to review potential alternative sites within the town for potential multi-family development in the event the town ever needs to add sites to the currently certified Housing Element or future housing elements,” Bhateja said in an email statement to the Town Crier. “Any consideration of additional sites, including the O’Keefe property, would require public hearings before the planning commission and City Council.”
Bhateja also said the City Council has taken no action that would require compliance with CEQA or taken action on any potential ballot measure to modify the 2002 Open Space Initiative. He noted the Nov. 17 meeting on the topic involved public testimony and receiving an information report, but the City Council took no action on a potential ballot measure at the meeting, and the work done by the city attorney in that context was informational only.
“Any future action on a possible ballot measure is up to the residents,” Bhateja said.
To change the property’s zoning, a ballot measure would be required to amend the town’s Open Space Initiative. The demand letter and further information about the Sustainable Housing Initiative for Environmental & Land Defense Coalition and its arguments can be found at saveopenspaces.org/home.
