For the Los Gatos Weekly Times
By Khalida Sarwari
“Town, not city!” cried a group of children lined on the sidewalk in front of the Los Gatos Town Hall on Tuesday night. They wore white T-shirts that had their message emblazoned across the front and back.
Behind them, their parents and their friends and neighbors, most of them wearing the same T-shirts, were gathered in a large circle to rally before the town council meeting. Their objective: send a unified message to their elected officials who would once again consider a proposed plan that would allow 580,000 square feet of commercial and retail development and up to 364 homes to be built on the last large parcel of undeveloped land in Los Gatos.
It was Tony Alarcon’s second protest of the day. Just a few hours earlier, he and a few others were on the corner of Highway 9 and Los Gatos Boulevard with banners informing their fellow residents about the plan. Like the other members of the newly founded group, he said he’s concerned that Los Gatos’ leaders are not acting in the best interest of the town.
“In the last eight years, our town council has approved more high-density development projects that even they have admitted have been mistakes,” said Alarcon, a venture capitalist and asset manager who lives on Johnson Avenue.
Echoing the sentiments of his fellow protesters, Alarcon said he believes the plan is flawed and should be sent back to the drawing board to address the potential impacts on traffic and schools.
“The schools are way overcrowded,” agreed Los Gatos resident Coby Bennette, adding that traffic “is only going to get worse if this gets put in development.”
Tom Thimot co-founded the Town Not City group with Rod Teague to unite residents who want “responsible” development.
“It just reached that point where we had to do something to get people to pay attention,” Thimot said. “Our hope is that now that we’ve awakened the town, people will come and get involved.”
As of Tuesday night, the group already had more than 300 members on Facebook, according to Thimot.
To learn more about the group, visit townnotcity.com.
Link: ‘Town, not city’ the battle cry at the Tuesday protest over North 40 plan
