Planning & Transportation Commission
Application
Submitted on 15 March 2024, 9:08pm
Receipt number 46
Related form version 10
Name Ashish Bhattacharya
Cell Phone Number
Home Phone Number
Email Address
Are you a Palo Alto resident? Yes
Address
City
Postal Code
Do you have any relatives or members of your household who are employed by the City of Palo Alto, who are currently serving on the City Council, or who are Commissioners or Board Members?
No
Are you available and committed to complete the term applied for?
Yes
Fair Political Practices
No
Excluding your principal residence, do you or your spouse own real property in Palo Alto?
No
How did you learn about the vacancy on the Planning and City Website Personal Information
1 of 3
Transportation Commission?
Read the code, and check only ONE option below: I request that the City of Palo Alto redact my home address, phone numbers, and email address from the attached Board and Commission Application prior to posting to the City’s website.
Consent to Publish Personal Information on the City of Palo Alto Website Occupation Engineer
Please list your relevant education, training, experience, certificates of training, licenses, and professional registration.
If describing work experience, please include
company/employer name and occupation.
I'm a Computer Engineering graduate and have taken management courses at Stanford and USC. I manage a large team at my cyber security company. I'm involved in planning, strategy and execution of large initiatives
Please describe your involvement in community activities, volunteer and civic organizations, including dates and any offices held.
I am an active member of Canopy which is spearheading the green revolution. I have assisted my daughter to run a farm to table non profit which helps farmers conney with local communities. I've been a model PA citizen for the past 17 years having put my children through education and participated in all relevant community activities.
Personal and Job Experience
1. Why are you interested in serving on the Planning &
Transportation Commission and what experience would you bring to the position?
I want to improve the infrastructure in the city. The roads are in a very bad shape. There is a very big homelessness issue and we will need to build reasonable accommodations. Also I'm worried about the pedestrian accidents that happen regularly. I will find new means and ways to improve all of this through technology and outreach
2. Please describe an issue that recently came before the Commission that is of particular interest to you and describe why you are interested in it. If you have never been to a Commission meeting, you can view archived videos from the Midpen Media Center.
Pedestrian safety
Biking lanes.
Overbridges on train intersections
Senior housing and safety
3. If appointed, what specific goals would you like to see the Planning and Transportation Commission achieve, and how would you help in the process?
Better infrastructure
Use latest technology to improve driver and pedestrian safety Address homelessness and plan development of residential and commercial units
Improve roads and manage traffic congestion.
Children safety
4. Planning and Transportation Commission Members work
with the documents listed below. If you have experience with any of these documents, please describe that experience.
Experience with these documents is not required for selection.
Palo Alto zoning code
El Camino real master plan
Application Questions
2 of 3
If you'd like to provide any additional documents, please upload below.
Please confirm that you have read the Boards and
Commissions Handbook.
Yes
Signature Name of signatory: Ashish Bhattacharya
Link to signature
Date Completed 3/15/2024
3 of 3
Planning & Transportation Commission
Application
Submitted on 27 January 2024, 10:14am
Receipt number 41
Related form version 10
Name barton hechtman
Cell Phone Number
Home Phone Number
Email Address
Are you a Palo Alto resident? Yes
Address
City
Postal Code
Do you have any relatives or members of your household who are employed by the City of Palo Alto, who are currently serving on the City Council, or who are Commissioners or Board Members?
Yes
Are you available and committed to complete the term applied for?
Yes
Fair Political Practices
No
Excluding your principal residence, do you or your spouse own real property in Palo Alto?
No
How did you learn about the vacancy on the Planning and Other: I am a PTC Commissioner who's term is expiring.
Personal Information
1 of 4
Transportation Commission?
Read the code, and check only ONE option below: I give permission for the City of Palo Alto to post to the City’s website the attached Board and Commission Application intact. I have read and understand my rights under Government Code Section 6254.21. I may revoke this permission at any time by providing written notice to the Palo Alto City Clerk.
Consent to Publish Personal Information on the City of Palo Alto Website Occupation Attorney
Please list your relevant education, training, experience, certificates of training, licenses, and professional registration.
If describing work experience, please include
company/employer name and occupation.
I am a California-licensed attorney, specializing in land use, zoning and eminent domain law, since 1987. I am a member of the law firm Matteoni, O'Laughlin & Hechtman.
I have appeared before Planning Commissions, City Councils, and Boards of Supervisors well over one hundred times, primarily within Santa Clara County, but also in surrounding counties.
I was the assistant City Attorney for the City of Scotts Valley for three years ('91-'94) where my principal responsibilities were to advise the Planning Commission and Planning Staff.
I have been a PTC Commissioner since January of 2020.
Please describe your involvement in community activities, volunteer and civic organizations, including dates and any offices held.
Served on the Crescent Park Neighborhood Association Board of Directors for perhaps three years approximately twenty years ago.
Was a member of the Site Council for one or two years at Ohlone Elementary School more than fifteen years ago.
Was an AYSO referee for two or three years, an assistant basketball coach for NJB one year, and volunteered for various tasks with the Greenmeadow swim team and Palo Alto little league during the years our three kids were in those programs.
Served on the Board of Directors at Congregation Etz Chayim from 6/10 until 1/18, including two years as president of the Board. Active before, during and after my Board duty as a class parent, design committee member and in a variety of other roles.
Have been a PTC Commissioner since January of 2020
Personal and Job Experience
1. Why are you interested in serving on the Planning &
Transportation Commission and what experience would you bring to the position?
I have spent most of my career in work related to urban development.
The kind of planning issues faced by the PTC are at the core of my law practice.
In my land use work, I am often retained to assist with new residential and/or commercial projects, or use permits for new businesses. I frequently study the local jurisdiction's planning documents to help shape the project to fit the regulatory scheme, and sometimes seek to change the regulatory scheme to fit the project. Most of this work includes interaction with planning staff, and often, appearances before the local planning commission.
Application Questions
2 of 4
Similarly, planning issues are at the heart of my eminent domain practice, because a condemnation case requires an analysis of the uses to which the land is adaptable under applicable regulations to determine its value.
I enjoy this work and for the past four years, I have used my knowledge to help Palo Alto make wise planning decisions. I would like to continue to do that for four more years.
2. Please describe an issue that recently came before the Commission that is of particular interest to you and describe why you are interested in it. If you have never been to a Commission meeting, you can view archived videos from the Midpen Media Center.
Since Castilleja last passed through the PTC on its way to completing its epic journey through our use permit amendment approval process, certainly the most important issue the PTC has wrestled with is the updated Housing Element.
I have no illusion that 6087 new residential units or anything remotely approaching that will get built by 2031, and I share the belief that the methodology by which the HCD arrived at that number is flawed. But the planning that is now legally required to make that volume of development a possibility is a Herculean task that has and will continue to occupy the PTC, the City Council and our planning staff.
I'm interested in this issue because this city is my city, these housing pressures are going to dramatically change my city, and the leaders of this city are going to have to decide whether we want that change thrust upon us, or will we shape that change by planning in a way that incentivizes and makes feasible the kind of change we want.
3. If appointed, what specific goals would you like to see the Planning and Transportation Commission achieve, and how would you help in the process?
If appointed, I would like to see the PTC achieve decision-making authority. Palo Alto is the only jurisdiction I am aware of (both in this County and in all the other Bay Area cities and counties I have worked in) where the planning commission is a purely advisory body. Providing the PTC with decision-making authority for appropriate types of decisions, subject to appeal to the City Council, will empower the Commission and provide a more rewarding experience for its commissioners. Additionally, I believe that the City Council will find that it results in a reduction in the City Council's workload (because most appealable decisions are not appealed) and more robust public participation at PTC hearings (since the decision might be final), without any reduction in the City Council's power (because PTC decisions can be appealed). I would help in that process by creating a matrix of the "review authority" in all other jurisdictions in this County to illuminate the options available.
4. Planning and Transportation Commission Members work
with the documents listed below. If you have experience with any of these documents, please describe that experience.
Experience with these documents is not required for selection.
During my time as a PTC Commissioner, I think that the two areas to which the PTC has devoted the most time are zoning code amendments and the new Housing Element, which is part of the 2030 Comp Plan, we apply CEQA to every discretionary project, and I believe I have interacted with the other listed documents to a lesser extent.
Additionally, I have analogous experience with similar documents in numerous other Bay Area jurisdictions. I have worked extensively with general plans, specific plans, zoning codes, design guidelines, and overlays, and understand the hierarchy of these planning documents, how they work together, how to harmonize inconsistencies between them, and what happens when you can't.
A substantial part of my law practice involves representing applicants for discretionary governmental approvals; those require CEQA review. I have worked on projects involving every category of CEQA document and have defended governmental CEQA decisions in court on four occasions.
If you'd like to provide any additional documents, please upload below.
3 of 4
Please confirm that you have read the Boards and
Commissions Handbook.
Yes
Signature Name of signatory: Barton Hechtman
Link to signature
Date Completed 01/27/2024
4 of 4