This November, Los Altos voters should reject a proposal that could take away local decision-making power when it comes to planning the future of their City. Proposed Measure D would require a citywide vote before any change to a parking plaza, whether it’s housing or a theater, or adding bicycle or EV parking.
The No on Measure D Los Altos campaign highlights multiple reasons to reject the proposal, including:
- Measure D Would Trigger a Lawsuit and Millions in Legal Fees
- Measure D Risks Losing Local Control Over Zoning
- Measure D Would Eliminate Over 200 Parking Spaces, the Opposite of Its Goal
- Once Passed, Measure D Can Only Be Fixed by Another Costly Vote
Learn more about the campaign and get resources here.
This measure takes away the City’s ability to implement critical policies that have been vetted through years of planning for the downtown’s future, and threatens progress for affordable housing and climate goals.
Why It Matters
The measure would take decisions out of the City Council and planning commissions’ hands on how to best plan new housing and critical infrastructure. Measure D weaponizes the initiative process to stifle infill housing and prevent improvement of existing use of urban space.
According to YIMBY Law, Los Altos risks falling out of compliance with its Housing Element and puts the city at risk of litigation if this measure were to pass. Falling out of compliance with the Housing Element would trigger the “builder’s remedy,” which removes local decision-making over land use at the local level.
Decisions at this scale should not go to a citywide vote every time, and should remain at the discretion of the City Council. For example, even with parking lots that would remain in current use, voters would have to approve minor additions such as bicycle or EV parking. Because of this barrier to building infrastructure for low-carbon modes of transportation, the City’s own analysis of the measure highlighted that if Measure D passes, the City would be in a difficult position to meet its goal of Carbon Neutrality by 2025.
As examined in SPUR’s 2024 White Paper, Planning by Ballot, measures like these often hamper housing production and have additional negative externalities, in this case preventing the City’s ability to meet its climate goals.
A similar measure is currently being proposed for Menlo Park; Learn more about No on P in Menlo Park.
Advocates for No on Measure D see a better path for planning for downtown’s future (without a ballot freeze): “The city has spent over a decade engaging residents on downtown’s future, balancing housing obligations, merchant parking needs, and community gathering space. Measure D forecloses that balancing process, locking in one outcome “for any reason” with no way to adjust as circumstances change. Change is coming to downtown, driven by changing consumer behavior, vehicle technology, and state housing law. The real choice is whether it happens through adaptable planning or a rigid measure that can’t respond to what’s learned along the way.”
Vote no on Measure D this November.
