Jim Janz to run again for Atherton council Jim Janz to run again for Atherton council (June 23, 2004)

By Andrea Gemmet
Almanac Staff Writer

Atherton Councilman Jim Janz said that Caltrain service and finding new revenues are two of the big issues facing the town that he wants to tackle in a second term on the City Council.

Mr. Janz announced Monday, June 21, that he will run for re-election in November.

In recent months, he has become the town's point man on rail issues, heading the Caltrain Corridor Subcommittee, the group that looks after Atherton's interests in the face of some major changes to rail service. Besides lobbying hard to make sure trains would stop in Atherton when weekend service was restored earlier this month, the group is also investigating renovations to Atherton's historic train station, grade separations, and the potential impacts of electrification and high-speed rail.

A major concern is the impacts on trees on private property lining the rail corridor through town. An arborist's report for the electrification project recommended that 26 percent of the trees be cut down.

It will take at least three or four more years until train-related issues settle down, he said.

"I definitely want to see that one through," Mr. Janz said. "We're also struggling with finance issues. We need to come up with more long-term solutions."

The town needs to find alternative revenue sources to make up for its lack of sales taxes, he said. Because it doesn't have the sales tax revenues that other towns do, Atherton has relied on the special parcel tax, he said.

Before being elected to the City Council in 2000, Mr. Janz served 10 years on the Atherton Planning Commission, including three as its chair, simultaneously serving as chair of the General Plan Committee.

Mr. Janz has been a real estate and land-use attorney for the past 25 years and is a managing partner of the Palo Alto-based Tomlinsons Zisko L. L.P.

Besides holding a law degree and an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago, he has an master's degree in urban planning from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Purdue University. He is a licensed civil engineer in New York and a certified urban planner.

He said his career has long been oriented around urban affairs and development; he worked with the Los Angeles bureau of engineering early in his career, serving as a VISTA volunteer with a community council in Cincinnati, and later working as a policy analyst for the Mayor's Commission on City Finances in New York City during fiscal crisis of the mid-1970s.

An 18-year Atherton resident, he lives in Lloyden Park with his wife Kathryn and their two teenage children, Elizabeth and Bill.

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