Mayor draws ire for letter supporting state housing bill

San Francisco state senator’s bill has long been controversial for slow-growth cities such as Palo Alto

PALO ALTO » As a controversial housing and zoning bill makes its way out of state committee and onto the Senate floor ahead of a Jan. 31 voting deadline, ideological cracks have been widening in one of the slowest growing communities in the Bay Area.

Palo Alto Mayor Adrian Fine has fomented displeasure among residents and council members after writing a letter in support of Senate Bill 50, a measure that would allow higher density development in historically single-family neighborhoods and force local governments to approve larger residential buildings near transit stops.

In the letter — which was written on city letterhead — Fine thanked State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, for his leadership in promoting “affordable, secure and abundant housing across the state,” a hotbutton issue for the slowgrowth city that has not kept up on its promise to build 300 to 400 new housing units a year.

“While Palo Alto has always been expensive, things have truly gotten out of hand,” Fine said in the letter. “The community is no longer affordable to seniors on fixed incomes, long-time renters, young families hoping to put down roots, or even double-income professional households.”

Without a radical change in the city’s housing marketplace, Fine goes on to say, the Bay Area and Palo Alto will “rapidly lose young families, hardworking innovators, dedicated civil servants and many more… essentially, the lifeblood of what makes our state so special.”

Given his years of experience on the council and as a city planner, Fine said Palo Alto is “incapable of solving the housing crisis — we simply have too many rules, too much process, too much engagement (and I know it’s impolitic to write that!) and too little progress.”

On social media and in person, residents of Palo Alto expressed ire over the mayor’s letter, which appeared to be an endorsement from the city for Wiener’s

controversial bill. Fine apologized for the confusion in a later tweet.

Council member Lydia Kou — who three weeks ago expressed reservation in supporting Fine as mayor because of his position on SB50 — said that though he is free to express his opinion, there was no disclaimer in the letter saying that these were not the opinions of a council divided on the issue.

“The act of copying and pasting the logo of the City of Palo Alto kind of gives the perception of intent to deceive,” Kou said. “There’s a certain extent to which elected officials have to act to a higher standard.”

One Palo Alto resident who spoke up at Tuesday’s city council meeting said the letter “appalled” her.

“This is difficult because I don’t want to scold the mayor,” said Rita Vrhel.

“But all of a sudden you’re in office for three weeks and this letter goes out. It appeared to represent the city. You have a lot of experience, I would think you’d know how to send a letter which represents your own opinion and not the city or council’s.”

Fine told the Mercury News that the letter was in no way representative of the council, which has long been divided over the issue of increasing the housing stock in a city with a massive jobshousing imbalance.

He said he may have ruffled some feathers for his support of the bill, but to him, it makes “eminent sense” to build more housing near transit and force cities that have been sluggish to build to invite more development.

Still, people like council member Kou don’t believe that the bill has enough protections for local control in deciding what should be built where. She said a dramatic increase in residents to Palo Alto will force the council to spend more money on social services and increase its budget and finances, the burden of which, Kou said, “is placed not the people who live” in the city.

Disappointed by what he called a “questionable” use of city letterhead, Vice Mayor Tom DuBois said he spoke with Fine about “nipping this in the bud” and not having council members use the city’s logo when representing personal opinions.

DuBois also pointed out that in a vote a year ago on whether the council should send a letter of support for SB50, the council voted 4-2 with one abstention not to vouch for the bill, which included a vote against from Fine.