Missing the mark
Alan Cohen misses the mark in blaming the failure of Measure O on “the same people” who protested his effort to develop six-bedroom housing at the former site of Healdsburg Lumber. (“Open Mic: GMO strikes again,” Aug. 20) Measure O failed because the City Council ignored its own poll showing that Measure O would lose pivotal electoral support if the City Council were to overreach by crafting the measure to exempt any portion of the city’s downtown core from the GMO—which is precisely what happened. The City Council’s overreach is what killed Measure O.
Jon Eisenberg, Healdsburg
Doing nothing not the answer
I agree 100% that the Healdsburg GMO needs to change, but Measure O was not the answer. Yes, 30 units of housing per year is not enough new housing, but Measure O would have excluded single-family homes from any additional new development with no annual cap number for multi-dwelling units. Can you picture the 80 acres south of the bridge with only apartments and condos? Or how about the city plans for 852 apartments downtown with only one parking space per unit?
It’s been two years since Measure O and there is no GMO modification on the upcoming ballot. Rather than spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for a GMO plan no one wants, why can’t we just change the GMO annual limit to an acceptable higher number?
Doing nothing is not the answer, but don’t blame the Hudson Street project on the vast majority of voters who said No to the very flawed Measure O.
Finally, as to the idea of building five communes where the Hudson project is slated, this is not Berkeley. We need more families and should adjust our GMO accordingly.
Dan Pizza, Healdsburg
