Virtually all the correspondence Santa Clara has received about development impact fees endorsed raising them – in some cases exhorting the Council not to abolish or reduce the fees, which wasn’t under consideration – because developers should ‘pay to play’ and “we need parks, plain and simple,” as one resident wrote.
Some correspondents took the opportunity to recapitulate other gripes: “It is inexcusable that the [soccer] fields are being destroyed [for the Super Bowl] in order to have a place for the press to hang out.” “It is ridiculous that after 20 years of no major improvements, finally this summer there are plans for all the classrooms district wide to receive hvac systems.” “Parks belong to the people and not to be sold to the corporations who destroy and rape the land for sheer profit.”
“I am extremely distressed to read how much more of Santa Clara you are planning to give away to developers,” wrote one resident. “Selling out the City for decades of debt, paid for by raised utilities & services is one unscrupulous thing, but now cutting off income from developer fees is absolutely ridiculous. If Santa Clara is indeed ‘The Destination City’ … developers should be beating on our doors, with cash IN HAND, and a lot of it … Please …take care of all the residents of Santa Clara, NOT the business developers who are greasing the wheels of your personal interests.”
Only one correspondent thought the fees were too high, writing “Please show us that you don’t always have your hands in someone’s wallet. Lower the fees.”
You can read it all in the Jan. 26 Council meeting packet and at tinyurl.com/jc5mm6v.