TO: Development Committee and Board of Directors, San Lorenzo Village Homes Assoc.
FROM: Howard Beckman
SUBJECT: San Lorenzo Economic Development Committee
This memo is intended to be a basis for discussion; it is general rather than specific about the future work of the committee. It is based in part on the committee's experience over the past half year.
The premises underlying my original proposal for this committee were:
2. All questions of development are public issues and all residents are entitled to have relevant information and a genuine opportunity to be heard.
3. Ideally, the SLVHA should be the strongest and most credible voice of the community in matters of development.
4. The regular meetings of the association board are not sufficient to study and discuss specific proposals for development.
5. The community can only exercise control over development if consensus on the direction of development is first achieved. The association, through its board of directors, should take the lead in developing that consensus.
6. In order for the community to have an active and effective role in shaping economic development, it must have relevant information in advance. The association should receive timely notice from county agencies, nearby city agencies, and private developers at the earliest stages of development proposals. The association should also be proactive in getting information in advance.
7. Issues of economic development are complex, controversial, and of vital importance to the community and cannot be resolved satisfactorily by the limited time available to the associations's staff, nor can the board alone reasonably be expected to have adequate time to thoroughly address issues of development.
COMMITTEE FUNCTION
The committee would make recommendations to the association board. Its functions should be to:
2. Identify and archive information significant to our planning, e.g., demographic data, traffic circulation studies, local business inventory, photographic record of the area, general plans of Hayward, San Leandro, and the county, etc.
3. Open formal working relationships with existing commercial property owners, business owners, and appropriate government agencies, including San Leandro and Hayward as well as the county.
4. Evaluate specific proposals for development (including construction or relocation of business, traffic design, housing, parks, change in land use, etc.), identifying issues in terms of the community's general plan, and make formal presentations to the association board.
COMMITTEE STRUCTURE
The committee should be composed only of members of the association, with no more than one association director, and have identifiable members. If the committee is to make any progress, there must be continuity in its membership over a long period. Members of the committee should contribute actively to the committee's work beyond meetings.
The committee should have a chair, who speaks for the committee at association board meetings and set meeting agendas. I don't believe the committee has functioned optimally without a chairperson.
The committee would rely heavily on information gathered by the association's staff and board (either through routine notifications or personal networks) but committee members should actively seek information on their own.
COMMITTEE MEETINGS
The committee should meet at least once a month for the purpose of identifying issues to work and act on. When specific development proposals are discussed, the committee should have as much information before the meeting as practical. Committee meetings should be announced publically and any association member should be able to attend, but committee discussions should be confined to members of the committee; the committee can schedule open forums when appropriate.
To be effective, the committee should follow an agenda supplied before each meeting.
Meetings should be summarized in minutes, which should be sent to the committee before the next meeting.