In the July 28 edition of the Los Altos Town Crier, it may have escaped the attention of some readers that the Los Altos City Council has approved an increase in the local utility-user tax.
This tax will be an increase from 3.5 to 6.25 percent per year. It will be put to the vote in November The cost to each user will be $100.
The council is not only arrogant and self-serving,but downright out of touch. Los Altos has a large population of retired people who are on a fixed income and contribute their time volunteering in the community. Slipping in another tax is not on.
The council has rejected industries as a tax base like other progressive cities, and is squeezing out shopkeepers on Main Street. I suggest to the council that they find more enlightened solutions to their problems instead of trying to gouge the taxpayers.
B. H. HauserLos Altos
Beware of losing your family home
You have paid taxes that could exceed $80,000 over 36 years. Your children and family have moved back home through necessity and cost of new homes. You have expanded or remodeled your home and helped pay the bills. You have a Living Trust to leave your home to your children, but when you die your children must sell the family home to pay taxes over and above what you are allowed by trust. But increased prices make paying the IRS the difference prohibitive.
And where do they live? The only solution our children have is to relocate to an area many miles away to another home they can afford, which could totally devastate them and their loved ones.
If there are no jobs in the new area. It means putting two more autos on the road plus the family, adults and children, moving away from their friends. Changing schools can be very disruptive and can be very traumatic to the children, to say the least.
The only solution is for everyone to write their legislators, Democrats and Republicans, demanding that you be allowed to pass along your home tax free to your family and correct this unjust thievery of your lifetime labors and dreams. It has nothing to do with sale and profit. They should be allowed to live in their home, their sanctuary, without worry or fear as long as they live.
A few minutes of your time and the cost of a stamp could make our legislators think twice about changing this legislation to make it fair and take the worry out of us as we age in this already highly-taxed society. We, the taxpayers and voters, are the only ones who can change this law, so let us join hands immediately in this endeavor.
Blaine PutnamLos Altos
Traffic problems around Loyola School
School opens August 25, and residents and parents are concerned about the ever-increasing number of vehicles transporting students. Loyola School drivers park diagonally at corners, or close to driveways, and/or join the queue on Berry Avenue, waiting to get into the limited parking area to drop off or pick up students.
The only way to get past the vehicles is by driving on the wrong side of the street, often going in-between vans parked along the narrow adjacent streets. Unsafe at best. Parents and children crossing to school and back to their cars are also at risk. Emergency vehicles would be seriously hampered. Adding to the day-long congestion is a private, for-profit preschool on the Loyola School property, with apparently flexible hours.
We believe the best way to get some corrective action to alleviate these hazards is through the Los Altos Elementary School Board.
We are encouraging nearby residents to attend the board meeting on August 16.
Carita KlevickisLos Altos
Size really does matter
A 14,540 square-foot building is too big for any Los Altos neighborhood. Why are Los Altos City Councilmembers so willing to place a major sports arena in the middle of peaceful residences not adjacent to major thoroughfares? (Aug. 4 Town Crier)
A win-win situation would be for the City Council to allow the Miramonte Seventh Day Adventist community to have what they claim to want, a sheltered play area for children. Allow the homeowners their right to a quality neighborhood. At one-fourth the size, the building would exceed a typical elementary multipurpose room size. At 3,635 square feet, it would still give each child 20 square feet of space.
The Miramonte recreation center is grossly oversized for elementary school use and will reduce the property value of every neighborhood home. Consider, also, the reduction of quality of life a 14,540 square foot sports arena portends for all Los Altos residents, who will experience increased traffic, noise and congestion, day and night, every day of the week when nonresidents invade quiet neighborhoods. Miramonte School has never even been open to the residents of Los Altos. It sits behind a locked gate with a "No Trespassing" sign.
"I might not want it next to my fence either," said Miramonte School board member Dunton.
His board also cited St. Simon and Los Altos Baptist Church schools as locations with similar structures. They are not similar. They are both on major arteries. They are both on church campuses. The Baptist structure cannot be seen from Magdalena, and is not visible to residences.
Mr. Dunton omitted the fact that the school board expects to open the recreation center to the "memberships of eight churches," just feet from neighbors' yards.
Citizens must work together to stop the construction of this building the size of seven two- story homes. The size, location, and proposed use are unprecedented and not appropriate in any residential area of Los Altos.
A sheltered play area for children would be just fine; a major sports arena plunked down in the middle of a residential area would be just plain out of proportion. It would set a precedent for similar development in other quiet Los Altos neighborhoods.
Nancy Gail Goebner
Los Altos