You find out a relative has left you a good-sized parcel of land in Los Gatos. What's your first reaction? Is it a) let's sell it as fast as we can, or b) let's think about it?
The Los Gatos town council is faced with this situation. It turns out the town of Los Gatos owns 13 prime acres in the middle of Vasona Lake County Park. The county is leasing it for $1 a year and the lease is up in 18 months. The council, meeting in secret, has repeatedly voted to pursue selling the parcel to the county for as much cash as the county will give us. This has been going on behind closed doors for several years, a new staff report reveals.
The staff report shows that county is telling us the land is worthless, couldn't be built on, couldn't be accessed. They agree with a lowball appraisal, but want to deduct a half a million for easements no one plans to get. They are making us look like cash-starved neophytes.
Since we don't need cash (we have a rainy day fund of some $60 million, easily) and we do need sports facilities like soccer fields, the Observer and others have questioned the rush to sell the parcel. Alone on the council, Steve Glickman stands opposed to selling the land, while Mike Wasserman has emerged as the designated spokesman for the effort. The Weekly-Times has just one thing to say: sell, sell, sell!
Why? Why not extend the existing lease on a monthly basis while we think it over? County Supervisor Don Gage seems to be an obstacle to a more equitable deal, and he will be term-limited out in 2010. We don't have to fence off our parcel to get the county to understand that they don't own that land, we just have to be willing to do so.
Mike Wasserman says that a few million dollars and a promise to keep the parcel parkland forever is good enough and maybe the best deal we can negotiate. The Observer and others think we need a new negotiator.
What do we want? A sports complex, adjacent to Oak Meadow Park. The county doesn't make much use of the lawn next to Blossom Hill Rd.; that'll do nicely. Vasona can have a new entrance a few hundred feet up the existing drive. The county has $6 million on the table, and they can use it to rearrange the roads and gatehouse to facilitate our new soccer fields and parking.
Vasona is the county's crown jewel, easily its most popular park. County Executive Pete Kutras' insistence that our needs are incompatible with the county's notion of "passive use" are hardly worth a response. The lucrative Fantasy of Lights that snarls our traffic and burdens our police officers is hardly passive, and neither are the festivals, summer music program, and other events that net the county money.
A separate sports complex keeps Vasona as passive as it is today, and the county could use our new parking lot when we don't need it.
The Brown Act requires all public business to be conducted in public. An exception is made for real estate negotiations, but we think the council has taken it too far. If we had had a public hearing on the very idea of selling our precious land several years back, we could have saved everyone a lot of trouble. The only currency we should accept from the county is land for the sports complex that we need so desperately.
This matter is on the agenda for the public council meeting Monday, June 2. Please consider attending and making your voice heard.
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