In his commentary about his North 40 website in the Feb. 24 issue of the Los GAtos Weekly-Times, Mark Brodsky paints an appealing vision of what the North 40 could be--actually the North 60 since he covers both sides of the north end of Los Gatos Boulevard in that vision. More of Los Gatos and less strip mall/urban sprawl.

Like Mark, I too participated for many years in the Boulevard Vision process, and this is the first concrete, complete, integrated concept I have seen come out of it, beyond general planning goals and design guidelines, since the design charette several years ago.

Actually, Mark has synthesized the best of the creative ideas born in the charette exercise and subsequent public planning meetings into a very appealing and doable vision.

Of course, it is at this point one man's vision, but it can serve very well as a starting point for community dialogue. One issue in particular that will need to be nailed down is that we must be sure to develop a design and land-use pattern for La Rinconada de Los Gatos (I like that name Mark referred to better than North Los Gatos) that will not compete with Los Gatos' downtown, but rather complement it to the benefit of both areas of town.

I am convinced that can be done, but we must be conscious of it as the dialogue proceeds.

Mike Abkin
Los Gatos