From:
To: City Council
Cc: , City Clerk; , City Manager; "Leslie Friedman"
Subject: Endorsement of Silja Paymer for appointment to EPC Date: Monday, November 28, 2022 11:55:16 AM
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City of Mountain View City Council
City Hall, 500 Castro Street
PO Box 7540
Mountain View, CA 94039-7540
November 28, 2022
Re: Silja Paymer for EPC
Dear Mayor Ramirez and City Council members:
As long-term residents of Mountain View, including individual members of both the local parks advocacy group GreenSpacesMV, and Santa Clara Valley Audubon, a county-wide conservation organization, we would like to endorse the application of Silja Paymer to serve as a member of the Environmental Planning Commission (EPC). We believe that her expertise and fresh perspective on issues impacting the future of Mountain View will complement the makeup of the EPC and aid its decision making as it discusses and implements its Workplans and policy goals for Fiscal 2023 and beyond. Specifically, we feel that:
Her leadership in conceiving of and coordinating the volunteer effort to reshape a parcel within Cuesta Park as a pollinator habitat demonstrated valuable community engagement that will enhance the City environment and livability for its citizenry.
Importantly, her efforts required effective collaboration and coordination with City parks and Community Services Department staff, a characteristic essential for an EPC Commissioner in dealing with complex issues involving multiple professional managers advising on topics as diverse as zoning amendments, transportation, and historic preservation ordinances. More specifically, this experience will aid the EPC in its consideration of strategies to incorporate development plans that optimize the ratio of housing, to office and retail space with essential esthetic features such as privately-operated, publicly-accessible parkland.
Her experience as a parent and local school teacher provides a fundamental grounding in the realities of needing to balance housing element planning with the need for sufficient complimentary school and services infrastructure to achieve the mandated housing density goals confronting the City. This background will enable important input to ensure planned development efforts are consistent with the current and updated local Precise Plan reviews.
Furthermore, her understanding of the operation and management of local School Districts and the challenges they face regarding pursuing both educational goals and safety considerations will be critical, as increasing housing density requirements will necessitate building of new schools. This requires planning their associated open space and playing fields that are used by the community as de facto recreation corridors and parks.
In addition, her involvement with Santa Clara Valley Audubon’s Dark Skies Initiative provides her with a grounding in the fundamentals of optimizing lighting requirements for all new development projects that will preserve and reduce the impacts on biodiversity while maintaining safety and accessibility for all communal and public spaces as Mountain View grows.
Finally, her outreach and recruitment of various community organizations and individuals to
volunteer for the afore mentioned Pollinator Habitat project, points to an attitude valuable for a prospective Commissioner, namely willingness to solicit a diversity of opinion from the public on issues and actions to be undertaken on their behalf.
In summary, we believe that Silja possesses an informed background and proactive personality that will contribute to effective involvement in the EPC and a judicious role in providing the Commission’s best recommendations to the City Council members and Staff.
Sincerely,
Howard Higley
Leslie Friedman
cc:
Kimbra McCarthy, City Manager
Heather Glaser, City Clerk
GreenSpacesMV