What benefits? As the owner of a home that has been on the historic registry for some time, I've only experienced headaches from the city of Palo Alto.

Good on the owners fighting back against this bald-faced attempt to limit SB-9's impact on Palo Alto. You really don't want to be on Amy French's list.

Mayfield Forever—Could you describe briefly your headaches so the city can make this a positive “membership”? Without having more details, the opposition/fear seems driven by realtors with conflict of interest. There is no doubt the city should look into improving incentives for those wanting to be on the historic registry. From an outsider (who lives in a very old, depression-era Rube Goldberg home), these are the benefits that come to mind:

1. Protecting historically significant architecture/craft from being destroyed by extremely wealthy—and too frequently, investor-only—builders lacking historical design knowledge and a sense of belonging to the city.
2. Preserving some areas for historical reference. Eg, a professorville area is gorgeous, and speaks to an earlier time when people could include hand-carved ornamentations.
3. Maintaining some areas of stability to maximize the personal connection people (and their offspring) have to their community. Known physical places provide comfort in a sea of swift social and physical change.
4. Protecting the trees which often get removed when a builder claims “it's diseased!"

What would make your experience better?

Somewhat amusing…well-off, oft virtue-signaling Palo Altans, certain of whom are notable individuals, suddenly don’t want to do the politically correct thing…when it may impact them in the pocketbook. Hey, let’s make exceptions for some. That said, the City should have a coherent policy and stick to it - otherwise what’s the point of having a registry??

Maybe people see this less about protecting their / our pocketbooks and more about the inconsistent poorly managed political process and the continued costly use of consultants with little or no local knowledge?

By my count we've got 3 retail consultants with no local knowledge. We've got the super costly consultants for the faltering PA Junior Museum and Zoo who thought charging outrageous entrance fees would make this a unique and profitable tourist attraction with buses coming from all over to a facility near one of the busiest intersections in the city.

I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting.

Look no further than the city manager and his bloated staff who ignore local expertise and experience and employ consultants who have neither local knowledge or experience. But come to think of it, the city manager and his staff don’t seem to have much local expertise and experience either. I can’t count the number of times the director of planning is asked a question by members of the planning commission or council and responds that he doesn’t know the answer and will get back to them later. Or staff reports that contain, sometimes important, inaccuracies because our employees at city hall are ignorant about Palo Alto.