Saratoga Village Blog

Title: Saratoga Barn Award Presentation
Location: 20640 3rd Street, Saratoga, CA 95070
Link out: Click here
Description: The State Bar of California’s Construction Subsection will be presenting its 2008 Sustainable Building of the Year award to the Saratoga Barn (sometimes called the Sam Cloud Barn) in recognition of its re-adaptation of commercial and office space. This event will start with tours of the Barn from 3-4pm, to be led by members of the Saratoga Historical Foundation. There will also be a Green Seminar, as well as a reception starting at 6pm. The artifacts found during the construction and excavation will be showcased. Please RSVP by January 5th to Rachael@jsconner.com / 415.357.1401.
Date: January 9, 2009
Start Time: 3:00 pm
End Time: 7:00 pm

Share on Facebook

Dear All,

My family and I have lived on Oak St since March ’08. Last September at a BBQ, a friend and neighbor mentioned that it would be a good idea for me to learn about plans for the future of the village after I expressed my interest in opening a business in Saratoga. Since then, I’ve been reading up on all of the participant inputs and suggestions with great pleasure.

I teach basic engineering skills to school age children (1st – 5th), which I’ve been doing for the last 2 years. Initially, I taught in various school Enrichment programs; this lead to successful offering of classes in several city community centers. After receiving great feedback from parents, repeat students, schools and community centers, I decided to open my own workshop.

Naturally, our charming village was very appealing and my first choice of location for my business; I found a vacant location on BBW. I called the city to discuss my plan; however, I was greatly disappointed when the city planner told me about a $4,500.00 non-refundable fee just to review my plan.

I have seen very interesting postings from the majority of people who are interested in having non-franchised, specialty and unique businesses to be added to existing village shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, the high fee for reviewing business plans will create an obstacle for most small businesses, prohibiting them from doing business in Saratoga and this is not in line with what SVDC strives to achieve.

Naima

Share on Facebook

Hurray! We, and that includes you (after you register under Meta), can not only write text but can also upload photos to this blog! If you’ve never written in a blog before, don’t be afraid, you really can’t mess anything up! And if you need to edit or reedit your post (or if you decide you want to delete it altogether) you can do that anytime even after publishing. For those new to blogging here is a video on how to post a message using WordPress. Go for it!

The photos used by this site were taken (and generously donated to us) by Jerry Venz of Venz Fine Photography. He and Kathy have their studio in our beautiful Village. They will be hosting a photo contest so don’t miss this opportunity!

I’m Kathi Venz. My husband, Jerry, and I own Venz Fine Photography in the Saratoga Village. We’re hosting a photo contest titled, “My Town!” The contest will run January through March, with a Gala Party in April 2009. There will be a first place prize for each of the seven age categories and a grand prize winner will be chosen from the first place winners. There will also be a Community Choice award. The images will be displayed in the community at various locations and at our studio. Would you like more information? Contact me directly at 408-872-0358. I’ll be happy to go over all the details of the contest and your participation.

Share on Facebook

Hi,

I wanted to test this blog as well as bring up an idea about how Saratoga residents could participate in potential Village renewal efforts. Saratoga may be able to use public financing mechanisms (which are both state and federal tax exempt) to fund Village improvements that would act as the backbone for future public/private partnerships. Public financing mechanisms structured properly could allow us to keep our monies local instead of sending so much off to the state and federal governments, in which we have been donors for decades. (If I had to guess, Saratoga gets back less than 50 cents on the dollar of what we send off to Sacramento and DC) In the long run, if we were to assist in the creation of viable, cash flow generating businesses that meet our community’s needs and desires, Saratoga could become less dependent upon housing development (or the selling of city lands) for our general revenues.

Is the first step towards Village renewal the establishment of a redevelopment agency? (Which begs the question of how to pay for that?)

Here is a link describing Sunnyvale’s effort.

From the Sunnyvale site:

Redevelopment Basics

One of the key tools available to assist in rebuilding and improving portions of a city is redevelopment. The State of California established the redevelopment process to aid local governments in improving areas of physical blight or economic distress.

Perhaps the most misunderstood aspect of redevelopment is its impact on taxes. Redevelopment does not increase taxes. It redirects property tax monies generated by new developments within the project area to the redevelopment agency for reinvestment in the project area.

Another common misperception is that redevelopment funds are simply given as a gift to private developers. The fact is that funds are used as an investment in the redevelopment area. A private developer typically would not invest private funds in the redevelopment area if the redevelopment agency did not make this investment. The agency investment is for a public purpose, such as construction of streets, utilities and other public infrastructure to support the new development.

Share on Facebook

Hi,

I hope you will use this new online venue to share your thoughts on the Village. Please click on Register in order to post to this blog.

Thanks, Brian Berg, SVDC Secretary (brianberg@gmail.com)

Share on Facebook

Welcome to the Saratoga Village blog for Saratoga, California! We’re just getting started with this.

The plan is to have some photos to pretty up this blog, as well as a link to an archive of the messages posted to the SVDC listserver in which many residents and business owners discussed their perspectives on how best to create a thriving Saratoga Village.

The next event affecting the Village is the Village Streetscape Improvement Meeting on Monday, October 27, at 6:30 pm at the Saratoga Senior Center at 19655 Allendale Ave. Full info about this event is at
http://www.saratoga.ca.us/current%20projects/VillageStreetscape/index.html

Thanks very much to Bob McMahon for setting up this blog for us all to use.

Share on Facebook

On Sunday, September 19 2010, the Bonnie J. Addario Lung Cancer
Foundation will host the first ever STRIDE FOR SUSIE beginning at
Saratoga High School and ending with a celebration at Saratoga Village
in Saratoga, California. This is a stroll, stride or jogathon in honor
and loving memory of Susie Vedantham Nagpal. 5k or 10k option. Here are the details

Share on Facebook

Another free event for the Village brought to you by SVDC. If you plan to attend and can RSVP here that would help with the planning.

Share on Facebook

Come join the music and dancing at Saratoga Swings Saturday, July 17th being held at the Bank of America parking lot in our Saratoga Village. The event will feature Richard Keane plus One, a Classic PoP ‘N’ Roll band that will be playing from 5:30 pm until 7:30 pm. The price you ask? It’s free! Sponsored by SVDC.

Share on Facebook

The City of Saratoga’s 2010 Independence Day event will be held at Saratoga’s Kevin Moran Park.

Date: Sunday, July 4th, 2010
Time: 2:00-3:30 pm

(The McCartysville Volunteer Band will begin playing at 1:30 pm for early arrivers).

For more information visit the event’s website here.

Share on Facebook