The Planning Department is taking public comments on the Housing Element until August 26th. I wrote more about this topic here, along with instruction for submission.

Public comments submitted to the record are the normal way for the public to share their desires, but possibly that method was working too well for those of us who want to keep high-rises out of our low-rise neighborhoods.

So City Planning decided to put up a poll and it sucks, to put it mildly. The questions are vague and poorly drafted, and anybody with an email address can fill it out. There are so many ways this poll can be manipulated.

While we’re all submitting our public comment the accepted way, please take 60 seconds to fill out the poll, too, so that we can make our voices heard over there, as well.

Find the poll here

If you share our philosophies about keeping high-rises out of low-rise neighborhoods, we have suggested responses for you to speed you through the process:

1. Residential areas where more housing can be added — [ ] Major Corridors or Streets (I don’t like “streets” but this is the best response of what is offered)
2. Would you like to see more housing in areas zoned for single-family uses? — [ ] I wouldn’t like to see more housing in single-family zoned areas
3. Do you have other ideas? — [ free text ] The city’s own numbers show that we don’t need high-rises in our low-rise neighborhoods yet. Don’t destroy our mature low-rise neighborhoods until we are out of other options.

By the way, this  poll seems to be shape-shifting. Question number 3 is different than when I filled out the poll a few weeks back. 😵

What are your thoughts about the poll? Drop a comment below after you fill it out.