Upfront
News Digest Time-out for ‘planned community’ zone
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On Monday, Palo Alto’s City Council acknowledged that the system isn’t working and voted 7-2, with Larry Klein and Gail Price dissenting, to suspend the city’s planned-community zoning — whereby developers can exceed zoning limits in exchange for public benefits — while city staff considers possible reforms. Intended as a way to give city leaders more flexibility when it comes to new developments, planned-community zoning has been derided by land-use watchdogs as “wildcard zoning,� “ad hoc zoning� and a “sham.� Last year, a PC-zoned project sparked a community revolt, with voters overwhelmingly overturning in November the City Council’s June approval of a housing development on Maybell Avenue. The civic unrest led to the demise of another PC proposal — an offer by Jay Paul Company to build two office buildings at 395 Page Mill Road and a police headquarters nearby. A month after the November election, Jay Paul withdrew its application, citing the “political climate.� The council also voted 5-4 to apply the “time-out� to the sole PC project currently in the development timeline — a 33,000-squarefoot office building proposed by the Pollock Financial Group for 2755 El Camino Real. Specific reforms won’t be put forward until summer. N — Gennady Sheyner
Police release sketch of purse snatcher Palo Alto police released a sketch Tuesday of a bike-riding man who they said attempted two purse-snatchings, one successful, in the span of 15 minutes downtown on Jan. 29. The incidents happened just before 7 p.m. In the first case, the man allegedly stole a purse from a woman who was dining at an outdoor table in the 400 block of University Avenue. Police said the victim, a woman in her 60s, was having a meal and had placed her purse under the table. Police said the man walked up to her, said, “Excuse me,� reached down, grabbed her purse and ran eastbound on University Avenue. He then jumped on a dark bicycle and rode away. One passerby heard the victim calling out for help and tried to give chase on foot, police said. The person saw the bike-riding purse snatcher ride eastbound on Lytton Avenue from Cowper Street. A second incident occurred shortly before this at a bus stop on Quarry Road near Palo Road. The victim in this case was also a woman in her 60s; however, she held on to her purse. Victims described the thief as possibly white, Hispanic or Asian and in his late teens or early 20s, between 6 feet and 6 feet 3 inches in height, with a thin build. He was described as clean shaven and wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and possibly a white hat. Police said there haven’t been any recent crimes in Palo Alto involving suspects with this description. The most recent unsolved purse-snatch case occurred on the afternoon of Sept. 28, 2013, on the 500 block of Middlefield Road. Anyone with information about these crimes is asked to call the department’s 24-hour dispatch center at 650-329-2413. Anonymous tips can be emailed to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent to 650-383-8984. N — Gennady Sheyner
Wojcicki takes over as YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, a Palo Alto native known for renting her Menlo Park garage out to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin 15 years ago, is leaving her post at Google as senior vice president of advertising and commerce to take over as CEO at YouTube, which Google acquired in 2006. The move was first reported as likely by The Information, a relatively young technology-focused, subscription-based online publication. She’s replacing Salar Kamangar, who is expected to move into another role at Google, The Information reports. Sridhar Ramaswamy, who previously shared Wojcicki’s ads and commerce title, will now head the division. Google CEO Larry Page confirmed the report in an emailed statement to the website: “Like Salar, Susan has a healthy disregard for the impossible and is excited about improving YouTube in ways that people will love.� Wojcicki also confirmed the job switch in a tweet Wednesday afternoon. “Excited to join #YouTube - wonderful team, amazing community & inspiring creators,� the tweet reads. “I look forward to watching a lot more videos during work.� Wojcicki, who grew up on the Stanford University campus while her father taught physics there, convinced Google high-ups in 2006 to purchase YouTube for $1.65 billion. She’s known as “employee number 16,� joining Google in 1999. N — Elena Kadvany