[Sosfbay-discuss] [GPCA-MediaComm] New Santa Clara Rural Development Fight

[civillib at cwnet.com]

Are we (Greens) part of this coalition? If so, if we can get some quotes
from you or other Greens active we could toss this out statewide.

Cres

At 10:52 AM 2/14/2006 -0500, alexcathy at aol.com wrote:
>Dear Green Friends,
>
>  F.Y.I. A new fight is brewing in Santa Clara County over rural 
>development. See pasted below the lead front page article in 
>yesterday's San Jose Mercury News.
>
>  This is a perennial issue where I live in Milpitas. Overwhelming 
>majorities of our local voters have expressed the desire to maintain 
>our beautiful green hills for twenty years.
>
> No matter.
>
>  A big problem with our money-driven politics is that dumb ideas never 
>go away so long as there are rich people who support them. And since 
>there are plenty of "Silicon Valley" millionaires with fantasies of 
>play-acting as Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With The Wind" 
>out of a big ugly mansion on the hills looking down on "micro-slaves" 
>in the valley, this issue never completely goes away.
>
>  Please note that (who else?) Wes Rolley's dear "friend," the corrupt 
>Congressman Richard Pombo, is mentioned.
>
>  Also note how the issue has already been "framed" in the language of 
>the familiar rightwing Republican phony "populism." The bullshit pits 
>us "elite" city folks with "401(k) plans for retirement" against po' 
>little ranchers and farmers with "their life savings tied up in land."
>
>  Can't you just hear the sound track with the country fiddle and the 
>banjo?
>
>
> Alex Walker
>
>
> = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
> Published in the San Jose Mercury News, Monday, February 13, 2006.
> DRIVE TO CURB RURAL GROWTH
> SANTA CLARA COUNTY RANCHERS VOW FIGHT
> By Paul Rogers
>
>  Setting the stage for a major land-use battle, a coalition of 
>environmentalists plans to begin collecting signatures today for a 
>ballot measure to set strict new development rules for hillsides, 
>ranches and large farms across Santa Clara County.
>  The Sierra Club, Greenbelt Alliance, Santa Clara Valley Audubon 
>Society and other members of the coalition -- which already has 
>$300,000 in the bank -- must collect 36,040 signatures from registered 
>county voters to qualify for the November ballot, something they and 
>their opponents expect will happen.
>
>  The measure, which farmers and ranchers fear would drive down the 
>value of their land, would affect nearly half of Santa Clara County's 
>839,000 acres.
>
>  The complex proposal would essentially do two things. First, it would 
>reduce the number of homes that could be built in unincorporated, rural 
>areas along the east foothills of the Diablo Range from Milpitas to 
>Gilroy, the Santa Cruz Mountains from Gilroy to Los Altos and east of 
>Mount Hamilton. On lands zoned for ranching, for example, it would 
>allow only one home per 160 acres, down from up to eight homes per 160 
>acres now.
>
>  It also would set limits for new development in those areas: curbing 
>the amount of square footage that could be built per parcel, reducing 
>building on ridgelines and banning building unless adequate water is 
>available.
> Only outside cities
>
>  The measure would not affect land within city limits. Nor, supporters 
>say, would it affect proposed development in Coyote Valley, which would 
>be annexed into the city of San Jose before the development was built.
>
>  Supporters say the changes are needed to reduce the risk of sprawl, 
>particularly as Silicon Valley's population grows in the decades ahead.
>
>  "Part of what makes California such a special place is the rural 
>areas, the oak woodlands, the ridgelines,'' said Melissa Hippard, 
>executive director of the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club. 
>``We're trying to keep urban areas in urban areas.''
>  But farmers and ranchers are up in arms. They say the county's general 
>plan already does a good job of protecting rural landscapes by limiting 
>development. They say the proposal, if approved by a majority of 
>voters, would reduce their property values.
>
>  "This is going to be one of the most controversial land-use issues to 
>be raised here in a long time,'' said Jenny Derry, executive director 
>of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau.
>
>  Derry noted that while city residents have 401(k) plans for 
>retirement, rural residents have their life savings tied up in land.
>  "I am personally dead set against it,'' said Don Silacci, a Gilroy 
>cattle rancher and past president of the Santa Clara County Cattlemen's 
>Association. ``We've got all kinds of restrictions now. We just don't 
>need a bunch of environmentalists putting a lot of new regulations on 
>us.''
>
> Help from ex-professor
>
>  The measure was drafted with help from Robert Girard, a Stanford 
>University Law professor from 1958 to 1994.
>  Over the past 20 years, Girard has been a low-profile author of a 
>number of ballot measures to limit growth across Northern California.
>
>  He was one of the primary authors of Measure T, for example, which San 
>Mateo County voters passed in 1996 by 74 percent, endorsing a tunnel at 
>Devils Slide on Highway 1 instead of a new highway through a state 
>park, as Caltrans wanted. The $270 million tunnel is now under 
>construction.
>
>  A slow-growth measure drafted in part by Girard was rejected by voters 
>in San Benito County in 2004. But he also was key in helping write 
>Alameda County's Measure D, approved by voters in 2000, which placed 
>new restrictions on rural development stricter than those now proposed 
>for Santa Clara County. The Sierra Club and real estate developers 
>spent a total of $3 million during that campaign.
>
>  "There is a real public interest in preserving the rural nature, the 
>natural qualities of the county,'' Girard said. ``To strike some kind 
>of reasonable balance between the rural areas and the urban areas is 
>very important to the public. If you are going to do that, you do have 
>to impose some limitations on development.''
>
>  Although there have been no huge new subdivisions approved in recent 
>years on unincorporated ranch land and farmlands in Santa Clara County, 
>Hippard and other environmentalists said they are concerned about 
>potential development proposals. They cite properties such as the 
>6,500-acre Sargent Ranch near Gilroy, along with development that could 
>result if Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Stockton, ever is successful with his 
>plan to build a freeway over Mount Hamilton from the Central Valley to 
>San Jose.
>  Since the 1970s, Santa Clara has been the most populous county in the 
>Bay Area. Santa Clara County grew by 695,000 people from 1970 to 2005. 
>The current population of 1.7 million is projected to grow to 2.25 
>million by 2040, according to state estimates. That increase is the 
>equivalent of adding the current populations of Oakland and Tracy.
>
> Some endorsements
>
>  The measure already has won endorsements from Assembly members John 
>Laird and Sally Lieber, Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss and 
>former supervisors Dianne McKenna, Rod Diridon and Rebecca Morgan.
>
>  It also is endorsed by former San Jose mayors Susan Hammer and Janet 
>Gray Hayes, along with Dennis Kennedy, the mayor of Morgan Hill, and 
>Judy Kleinberg, the mayor of Palo Alto.
> But opponents say they will be mobilizing, too.
>
>  "Owners have been taking care of their land all these years knowing 
>that at some point they'd be able to sell a piece or two and be able to 
>retire on their land,'' said Derry of the farm bureau. ``We see it as a 
>property rights issue.''
>
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>
> For more information, go to www.openspace2006.org.
>
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>
>
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