By Khalida Sarwari
In response to the pleas of residents, Saratoga city officials recently agreed to send another letter to the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, this one focusing on legal agreements made 25 years ago.
The decision was made at the May 21 Saratoga City Council meeting where the members met to discuss not only the contents of a draft letter to the VTA, but to clear up the air about various misconceptions about the project and give the public yet another chance to speak.
Following the comments of a handful of speakers, Councilman Howard Miller recommended that the city draft a letter asking the VTA to uphold the provisions of the original Highway 85 freeway contracts with Caltrans and the Santa Clara County Transportation Agency. In 1989 the cities of Saratoga and Cupertino and town of Los Gatos, and VTA’s predecessor, the Santa Clara County Traffic Authority, entered a “performance agreement” stipulating that the highway would remain a six-lane freeway with the median reserved for mass transportation. Cupertino and Los Gatos both have taken action to emphasize the obligations.
Saratoga’s draft letter alludes to the section of the agreement relevant to the VTA’s commitment, and states that “the city and VTA have a long history of working collaboratively in the public interest and the city trusts that VTA will continue its past practice and fully comply with the performance agreement in all its planning for Highway 85.”
Miller’s motion included the addition of a paragraph reiterating that the VTA continue to look for ways to fix the freeway soundwalls. The councilman said he sees the project as an opportunity to press the VTA on reducing noise issues that have resulted from choices that were made in the original design of Highway 85.
“The goal that I publicly stated was a 10-decibel reduction in noise,” Miller said. “This is the singular best opportunity that we’ve had for that since I’ve been here in the city and you can characterize half of it by saying ‘Howard’s in favor of it,’ but no, Howard’s not in favor of the plan and the way it’s stated, Howard’s in favor of a plan that would give us the one thing that our citizens most unanimously ask for and that’s for us to reduce the noise on Highway 85.”
The council’s decision to file the letter was made just days after the VTA announced that it was now leaning toward turning the existing single carpool lane into a toll lane and scratching the second express lane.
The proposed change was referred to in an internal VTA memo dated May 9 in response to criticism expressed by many West Valley residents.
The proposal is only a recommendation at this point and would still need to undergo approval by the VTA board of directors later this year.
City agrees to send a second letter to VTA regarding Highway 85
