Planning Panel Gets New Member

Nora Aidukas, a crusader against urban sprawl and tall cellular antennas, will become the city’s newest planning commissioner, the City Council has decided.

Approval came Tuesday after Councilwoman Linda Parks nominated Aidukas to the post. Aidukas will replace Dave Anderson, who has served as chairman during the past year. Councilman Ed Masry has yet to make his appointment to replace John Powers, who was appointed to the post by former Councilman Michael Markey.

Parks and Anderson have clashed publicly since she appointed him in 1996. The most notable clash occurred in 1998 when Parks tried to remove Anderson in midterm after he ran for a City Council seat.

Anderson said he believed Parks wanted an activist as her appointment to the five-member commission.

“We’re supposed to be a nonpolitical body,” he said.

Anderson said he was not surprised to have not been renominated by Parks, but added he believes Aidukas will be a good commissioner.

Aidukas has worked with Parks on the councilwoman’s plan to save a grove of oak trees from a proposed dam near Lang Ranch.

She is a member of the Hill Canyon Conservancy and helped draft the city’s Wireless Telecommunications Ordinance to protect views from cellular phone antennas. She thanked the council Tuesday night for its unanimous “vote of confidence.”