⚠ Your neighborhood is being rezoned. The vote is June 8th. You have days to stop it.
The San Carlos Liberty & Preservation Front
OUTSIDERS ARE DESTROYING YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD FOR THEIR OWN GAIN.
People who do not live in San Carlos are using your land, your streets, and your community to advance their careers, their ideology, and their financial interests. Read what they are doing. Then show up and stop them.
Time remaining until the June 8th vote
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1,890
New Residential Units
Forced into a neighborhood that currently has zero — an overnight transformation
145
Acres Rezoned
Without your consent, your meaningful input, or adequate public process
10
Days Notice
The bare legal minimum — by design. Most residents had no idea until now.
They are rezoning your neighborhood. In one night. Without your consent.
The Northeast Area Specific Plan covers 145 acres of East San Carlos — your streets, your businesses, your neighborhood. It proposes to transform everything from light industrial and working community into a dense urban development zone. On June 8th the City Council votes to make it permanent — all four irreversible actions in a single meeting.
The people driving this plan are not from East San Carlos. Many are not from San Carlos at all. Outside consultants built it. Outside ideological and financial interests are pushing it. And your neighborhood will pay the price for their ambitions.
The small, quiet, light industrial character of East San Carlos has coexisted with our residential neighborhoods for almost a century. This plan will destroy it. Thousands of cars will clog our streets. Speeding will worsen. Parks will overflow. And everything you took for granted as the San Carlos way of life will be gone. Once this vote passes, it cannot be undone.
The Traffic Problem
The city's own consultants admit Holly Street already exceeds capacity today — before a single new unit is built. Their own report states the plan is "unlikely to appear favorable through an LOS analysis."
The Flood Problem
Highway 101 culverts are already undersized and routinely blocked by 18 inches of sediment. New density displaces floodwater into existing East San Carlos streets and homes.
The Process Problem
10 days public notice. Planning Commission unanimous rubber stamp on May 18th. Four irreversible actions crammed into one council meeting on June 8th.
The Bigger Picture
State housing mandates give the council political cover. They are not fighting for you — they are using RHNA as an excuse to impose an agenda they already wanted.
Take action now
Five things you must do before June 8th
I
Show Up
600 Elm Street, 7PM June 8th. Fill every seat. Be loud. Make them understand there is a personal cost to every yes vote.
II
Write the Council
Email every member tonight at CityCouncil@cityofsancarlos.org. Tell them you know what they are doing and you will hold them accountable at the ballot box.
III
Speak on Record
Submit written comments before June 8th. Written comments create a permanent legal record. Your silence now may mean no right to challenge this in court later.
IV
Tell Neighbors
Knock on doors tonight. Share this page. Post on Nextdoor and Facebook. Every person who doesn't know is a missed voice on June 8th.
V
Join the Front
This fight goes beyond June 8th. Procedural. Legal. Electoral. Register below and stay in it.
⚠ YOUR SILENCE NOW = NO RIGHT TO CHALLENGE LATER
California law is explicit: if you do not raise your objections at this hearing — in person or in writing delivered to the City Clerk before June 8th — you permanently lose the right to challenge this in court. This is stated verbatim in the city's own notice. Submit written comments now. Show up and speak. The legal record closes June 8th at 7PM.
The Northeast Area Specific Plan was designed by Plan to Place, Perkins & Will, and Nelson Nygaard — outside consulting firms hired to impose a regional development agenda on your neighborhood. It was unanimously rubber-stamped by the Planning Commission on May 18th without a single dissenting voice. Now five City Council members will vote to make it permanent on June 8th.
City Council — these five people vote June 8th — know their names
Pranita Venkatesh
Mayor — stated affordable housing as her top political priority upon election. At Feb. 2024 meeting, praising outside consultants: "I really feel like you listened to the residents and to us" — while East San Carlos residents had no idea this plan existed.
Adam Rak
Vice Mayor — Rak received campaign contributions from Carpenters Union Local 217 and IBEW Local 617 — the same unions whose members stand to pocket millions in construction contracts the moment this vote passes. These entities were listed as official endorsers on Rak's own campaign website.
John Dugan
Council Member — dismissed displaced East San Carlos businesses: "Some may say we're disrupting them. I just want to say the disruption is happening right now." (Feb. 2024)
Neil Layton
Council Member — joined December 2024, former County Prosecutor and School Board Trustee
Sara McDowell
Council Member — "I really do think of this process as an opportunity, not a threat... it's a great opportunity." Said while simultaneously acknowledging known groundwater contamination in the area — then voted yes anyway. (Feb. 2024)
Planning Commission — voted unanimously to rubber-stamp this plan, May 18, 2026
Kristen Clements
Chair — described this wholesale rezoning as "something a little new" for the community. Not one word of concern for existing residents.
Summer Bundy
Vice Chair — voted yes without a single dissenting question about traffic, flooding, or the people who already live here
Jorge Tapias
Commissioner — voted yes
Follow the Money — A Documented Conflict of Interest
Vice Mayor Adam Rak's own campaign website lists Carpenters Union Local 217 and IBEW Local 617 as official endorsers. These are the Peninsula's primary construction trade unions. Their members are the contractors and laborers who will build every single one of the 1,890 units this plan authorizes. They stand to receive MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS the moment this vote passes. Rak votes to approve the plan. His endorsers collect the money. This is not a theory — it is on his own website. Ask yourself: who is this council really working for?
In their own words — from the public record
"I really feel like you listened to the residents and to us" — said about the outside consultants who built this plan, while East San Carlos residents had no idea it existed.
— Mayor Pranita Venkatesh, San Carlos City Council, February 2024
"I really do think of this process as an opportunity, not a threat. We do need a lot of infrastructure in this area and it's a great opportunity." — Said while simultaneously acknowledging known groundwater contamination in the area.
— Council Member Sara McDowell, San Carlos City Council, February 2024
The plan is "unlikely to appear favorable through an LOS analysis" — Holly Street already exceeds traffic capacity before a single unit is built.
— The city's own hired consultants, Nelson Nygaard, NEASP Transportation Analysis (Appendix G)
Fund the fight
Support the San Carlos Liberty & Preservation Front
Every dollar funds flyers, legal coordination, and the sustained campaign to hold this council accountable — on June 8th and at every election that follows.
Donations support the San Carlos Liberty & Preservation Front, an unincorporated civic association. Not tax-deductible. Powered by Stripe — secure payment processing.
Join the Front
Register to stand with your neighbors. We will contact you with rally details, the latest updates, and coordination for June 8th and beyond.
✦ You are registered. We will be in touch shortly. Thank you for standing up for East San Carlos. ✦
Contact
About the San Carlos Liberty & Preservation Front
The San Carlos Liberty and Preservation Front is a grassroots organization of East San Carlos residents founded in May 2026 in direct response to the Northeast Area Specific Plan. We are neighbors, not politicians. We are organized and we intend to fight this on every available front — procedural, legal, and electoral.
Any council member who votes yes on this plan will face organized, persistent opposition at the ballot box. This is not a one-night protest. We are a Front.
San Carlos Liberty & Preservation Front
East San Carlos, San Carlos, CA 94070
Web: www.sclpf.org
For media inquiries and coalition building, use the registration form above.
