Ro Khanna Joins the NIMBY Club of Sunnyvale

The NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) contingent of Sunnyvale has a new cheerleader in perennial unsuccessful congressional candidate Ro Khanna.  The Sunnyvale Public Lands for Public Use Act lists Khanna as an endorser of the initiative that would require a public vote on routine land use decisions.

The initiative, whose supporters are currently trying to gather at least 5700 signatures to get it on the 2016 November ballot, would require an election for decisions on the sale, lease, land swap or other transfer of public land in the City.   The City staff and council makes an average of more than a dozen such decisions every year, and at the cost of close to a million dollars for a special election, we have to wonder if Khanna thinks the City of Sunnyvale is made of gold.

Mayor Jim Griffith opposes the idea, naturally, because it’s his job to make those decisions.  Griffith told The Left Hook, “The proposed initiative will turn routine city decisions into expensive ballot measures and costly special elections, costing the city significant revenue and lost opportunities to acquire more land for parks and services.”

The average special election in Sunnyvale totals about $700,000.  If the ballot measure is put on a general election ballot, the cost is $40,000 for a decision the City Council could, and should, be making for free.  Councilmembers Whittum and Meyering are backing the NIMBY proposal, whose supporters want to block the city from making public land use decisions. If supporters collect 8500 signatures, they could force a $700,000 special election in 2015.  Wouldn’t that money be better spent building a park?

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