Who We Are:
We are a Citywide organization of residents concerned for our City’s future. We are actively involved in issues that are in agreement with our Principles and Goals as we strive to keep Palo Alto a unique place for raising families and fostering business innovation.
Our Mission:
Palo Altans for Sensible Zoning (PASZ) is a grass roots, political action committee dedicated to a high quality of life for Palo Alto residents and the innovative spirit that has made Palo Alto unique. We are for sensible land use planning and development and will continue to be advocates for mitigating the negative impacts of excessive development.
Our Vision:
We envision a dynamic Palo Alto that remains a family-oriented community with excellent schools, infrastructure and community services. Technology and business innovation are part of Palo Alto’s heritage and should be fostered. We envision a City that is not overwhelmed by excessive development. We value diversity, our historic resources, our neighborhoods, parks and open spaces, and support projects that enhance our quality of life
Our Goals:
- Ensure that the pace of development does not outstrip our infrastructure, schools and City services, or compromise the beauty and character of our City.
- Encourage Housing that Allows for a Diverse Economic Population
- Maintain our Community as a Great Place to Live
PASZ NEWS
EDITOR’S NOTE: The opinions expressed in the news items cited here do not necessarily represent the opinion of Palo Altans for Sensible Zoning. We try to present a balanced picture of the news on the subjects of housing and legislation.
Rooting out local government corruption in California starts by ending pay-to-play
BY Steve Glazer
A new California law takes aim at the practice known as “pay-to-play” in which special interests make campaign contributions to local officials to sway a decision. The state senator who authored the law calls for its preservation and expansion after a judge tossed out a lawsuit trying to prevent it from taking effect.
How the game is played in Sacramento
By SUSAN SHELLEY | opinion@scng.com | Los Angeles Daily News
The California Legislature is a waste of money and space.
Every year, the Legislature goes through the motions of passing laws through its regular process, appearing to be a deliberative body. Actually, it’s a dead body. The real decisions are made in back rooms and regulatory agencies, where the public is excluded or ignored.
Imagine a Renters’ Utopia.
By Francesca Mari
Photographs by Luca Locatelli
It Might Look Like Vienna.
When Eva Schachinger married at 22, she applied for public housing. Luckily, she lived in Vienna, which has some of the best public housing in the world. She grew up in a public-housing complex in the center of the city, where her grandmother lived in one of five buildings arranged around a courtyard. Eva played all day with friends from the complex.
Is the housing shortage overblown? This California analyst thinks so
By JONATHAN LANSNER
Southern California News Group
John Burns’ real estate research shop has become one of the housing industry’s top analytical firms by taking a more holistic view of what drives homebuying.
For two-plus decades, his eponymous Orange County-based company has become a critical cog in homebuilding thinking because its research looks far beyond real estate basics to encompass broader economic and demographic changes
Dick Spotswood: Support for 50-story apartment building in Sunset District should concern Marin
By Dick Spotswood
No matter the issue, there are always those who push ideas to their logical extreme. That’s happening now in the ever-controversial topic of housing.
Beleaguered San Francisco is facing attempts to build a 50-story, 712-unit apartment tower in the city’s Sunset District. The behemoth would be erected in a neighborhood with mostly single-family homes near Ocean Beach across Sloat Boulevard from the San Francisco Zoo.
CITY-STATE RELATIONS AT AN ALL-TIME LOW
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
In California’s 172 years as an American state, relations between its government and the more than 400 cities within state boundaries have never been as contested and hostile and litigated as now.
Power Players’ Problematic Playbook For Housing
by: Sharon Rushton
Since 2008 and accelerating in 2016, State lawmakers have been following the same playbook, which has been largely written by the lobbying efforts of Big Real Estate, Big Tech, and Big Wall Street Investment Firms in order to augment their investments in residential properties.
The state housing secrecy just keeps getting worse and worse
By ZELDA BRONSTEIN
Ben Metcalf directed the California Department of Housing and Community Development from November 2015 to September 2019. In February 2021, Metcalf, now managing director of the Terner Center of Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley, said that the state’s new housing laws had given his former employer “the potential to be moving like the CIA. Most of the time, HCD’s work is done below the waterline.”
He meant that as a tribute to HCD’s effectiveness.