planning commission rejected<\/a> the project on July 8, saying that the benefits didn\u2019t outweigh the significant effects on the environment, according to a staff report. Within a week, the developers submitted an appeal, arguing that under the builder\u2019s remedy provision of the Housing Accountability Act, the project cannot lawfully be disapproved. Attorney Gabe Roth said there are very narrow reasons why the city council could deny the project, specifically if it was inconsistent with health or safety standards; however, there was no such standard based on evacuation time or wildfire risk that could qualify as a reason for denial.<\/p>\n\u201cI want to make it clear: Approving this project does not mean we dismiss the fire and evacuation concerns raised by our residents,\u201d said Councilmember Yan Zhao. \u201cAs elected officials, we have responsibilities to follow the law, even when the choices are difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
Student films honored<\/p>\n
Two films created by Saratoga High School Media Arts Program students were tapped as official selections at the 2026 All American High School Film Festival, according to a school district press release.<\/p>\n
The films that were recognized were \u201cDon\u2019t Brake,\u201d a 10-minute drama made by 2026 graduate Alex Sinton, and \u201cComing Up Roses,\u201d an eight-minute drama by Ian Johnson and Christina Labban.<\/p>\n
The All American High School Film Festival receives thousands of student film submissions each year. The official selections are chosen by a panel of industry judges. The films will be screened at the AMC Empire 25 Theaters in Times Square in New York City during the annual festival on Oct. 16-18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Masson Estates approved The Saratoga City Council voted to unanimously approve a hillside builder\u2019s remedy project that was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[380,184,387,7,8,1011,1336,1337,181,23,100,388,88,90,89,198,199,200],"class_list":["post-444924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-affordable-housing","tag-bay-area","tag-business","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-housing","tag-housing-crisis","tag-housing-development","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-real-estate","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-saratoga","tag-south-bay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}