Friends of Mill Valley

Dear City Council Members and Planning Commissioners:

I've attached a letter by Burton Miller that I think makes some very good points about the kind of planning missteps that have characterized the process in Mill Valley for more than a decade. It's a good time to get it right.

At this time I will only add this one comment for your consideration: It is somewhat axiomatic that public policy tends to lag real time events, and bureaucracies always tend to be passing legislation to fight the last war. The economic downturn we have experienced in the past few years is a case in point.

After the downturn of 2008 and 2009 there has been a tendency everywhere we look to throw out the social and environmental accomplishments of the past decades in order to promote immediate economic growth at all costs. This knee jerk reaction will prove to be as misguided as type of economic growth that brought about the crisis in the first place.

I would urge you all to show restraint and steadiness in the face of all this. Please retain and even enhance the participation of the public's voice in planning and zoning and public policy making decisions and refrain from hampering that in the name of "administrative streamlining" or "promoting economic growth." Doing that will come back to haunt us sooner than we might think.

Best regards,Bob Silvestri