The attached PDF file is a letter from Neighborhood Coordinating Council President Eleanor Loynd to the Mayor and City Council members listing problems with the way the January 29 Planning Retreat was conducted. Loynd noted lack of appropriate public notice and failure to recognize the opinions of attendees other than seven City Council members. She also complained that City Council members had been “polled” in violation of the Brown Act when it was clear the results of the “straw vote” would be used to further develop public policy directions.

The meeting was a noticed special meeting of the City Council described in the notice as “Planning Retreat to Discuss Changing the Development Review Process.” There was no mention that a straw vote would be taken of only City Council members as a way of validating further development of proposals to change the development review process.

Although this series of workshops and retreats has been characterized by the Planning Department as a rational movement toward a more efficient project review process that can produce the same quality of results as the present process, I am increasing troubled that it is a thinly-veiled attempt to construct a new system that can railroad through projects that have the support of certain city council members while diminishing the opportunity for public input.

rncc_plannning_letter.pdf