Rules for thee, but not for me

Scott Knies of the San Jose Downtown Association gets a shocking lesson in how local government--in this case Santa Clara County--can purchase or lease property in your neighborhood without complying with city land-use laws--and with hardly any public outreach. From an SJ Mercury op-ed.

On March 10, 2020, without any outreach to the neighborhood, the County Board of Supervisors approved a 20-year lease of the former senior living facility on Pedro Street for homeless housing. The project was not presented publicly until a community meeting on November 4.

The neighborhood largely supported the project but felt betrayed by the process. We expected the county would obtain a required conditional use permit from San Jose—a public engagement process that would codify an operations plan and other accountability measures for the project.

Despite repeated attempts for status updates from the county, the neighborhood did not receive a response until four months later….Instead, on April 26, the county sent a memo invoking “intergovernmental immunity” and the Shelter Act to bypass local planning requirements.

Every neighborhood and municipality in the county should shake in their boots over the Pedro project where the county claimed “sovereign immunity” to avoid city zoning laws and local public processes.

Read the whole thing here.

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