|
 News
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Sign up for Email Updates
CGF In the News
Press Inquiries
Past Articles
Calendar
|
|
|
Where are we going in Santa Clara County?
The State of the County, Summer 2003
by Brian Schmidt
On one of my first weekends after starting work as Committee for
Green Foothills' Santa Clara County Legislative Advocate, I brought out my camping gear and hiked to
the Black Mountain backpack camp in the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve. The campsite
perches on the inner edge of the Santa Cruz mountains, where one can look down east at the foothills and flatlands of the county, and look back west to the rolling green mountains heading to the coast. Just as the
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District advertised, the campsite rewarded me with a beautiful sunset, the colors coming and going as winds ripped clouds across the sun. The view made sleeping on the ground
completely worthwhile.
However worthwhile that view was, my best view of the state of our county happened when I couldn't exactly see it - at night. By 8 p.m. it was dark and I had finished dinner, but I wasn't quite
ready to sleep. I got up and carefully walked a half-mile along the ridgeline, where the view opened up to see east and south over what seemed to be the entire county. What I saw is what we all
have seen while flying into the Bay area at night: lights, grids and ribbons of lights extending everywhere. It feels different, though, so much more immense, when you stand there on the ground and
see the lights in front of you, instead of peering out, detached, from an airplane. This part of my view showed the state of the county to be strikingly, almost blindingly, full of humanity with all
its needs and desires.
But the lights weren't really everywhere. The dark bulk of the eastern foothills and Coyote Ridge; the diminished, scattered
lights in the southern farmlands; and of course the hills and mountains where I stood all showed nature and open space to be as much a part of Santa Clara County as the artificial lighting.
Within the same county I could look at the bright lights of San Jose while knowing I had to remember basic facts of mountain lion awareness. The physical state of the county is a place where
human light and noise coexist, sometimes uneasily, with the dark quiet of open space that we can all still enjoy. The political state of Santa Clara County, and the chance to be proactive
The political state of the county can't be seen from Monte Bello Ridge, but it can be seen in the daily newspapers. So much in politics is driven by economics, and we all know the Bay Area to
be mired in an economic downturn. But this economic misery does have a silver lining. It slows, for a brief moment, the tide of bad development projects threatening the open spaces and
natural resources that the Committee has fought to protect for the last 41 years
. This state of the county is an opportunity to consider what we need to do next, instead of simply having the choice made for us by the proposal of yet another monster development.
Unfortunately, the recession has only slowed - not stopped - bad development. As Jeff Segall reports in his article
on page 6, too-loose zoning in Stanford foothills may permit destructive projects in the future. Further south, Coyote Valley needs monitoring, and attempts to eliminate required access to some
public-private golf courses - and to build new courses - all ratchet up the development pressure. Add a proposed 23,000 square-foot house here and there, and CGF could easily spend all
of its time and resources fighting bad ideas. That strategy will only leave us overwhelmed, however, when the economy recovers and starts pushing still more development into farmlands and open space.
The current state of Santa Clara County gives us a choice about how to move forward. We can and must spend a great deal of time
reacting to proposals for bad development - stopping them outright when possible, and minimizing their impact whenever that
is not possible. As just one example, we have opposed and will continue to oppose efforts to add new dams and reservoirs in southern Santa Clara County.
However, we must at least match the time spent on these kinds of efforts with proactive efforts
to push land use policies in the right direction, and to seek permanent protection of the most important places in the county. One example is a proposal to create a
riparian protection ordinance in the county, which would protect rivers, streams, and creeks and their associated habitats. Time spent on improving this single proposed ordinance could prevent
dozens of projects (or more) from encroaching on riparian habitat. The Committee has been carefully monitoring this proposal and researching ways to strengthen it. Strong
environmental protections like this can redirect developers away from sensitive areas and point them towards more appropriate urban infill projects. We can seize other opportunities to be
proactive, moving beyond fighting individual development battles to change land use rules that may not provide sufficient environmental protection. The
Santa Clara Valley Water District is increasingly interested in environmental protection - and rare for these cash-strapped times, it has money to spend on
environmental protection. Committee for Green Foothills is helping encourage and direct these efforts, and I expect to represent CGF on the Water District's Environmental Advisory Committee.
Santa Clara County and the City of San Jose are considering Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) to manage effects of
development on endangered species. Depending on the outcome, these HCPs could significantly benefit the environment, or they could trade away the strong protections of the federal and state
Endangered Species Acts for minimal mitigation that does little to help the species or the environment. CGF and other environmental groups have been tracking this possibility, and by working with the
best scientific experts available, we expect to ensure that if the HCP is passed, it actually accomplishes the goal of helping rare species. Finally, we cannot forget the role of the County General Plan and
the protections it does or does not provide. Now could be an excellent time for everyone, including CGF, to review the General Plan policies and consider whether they could be improved.
Opportunities from diversity
In choosing our future priorities, we also have to keep in mind the changing social perspective in this county - a highly diverse county
in a highly diverse state. Fifty-six percent of the people in Santa Clara County are from communities of color. The opportunity that this diversity presents is immense. Poll numbers have consistently
showed minority support for initiatives to protect water, parks, and open space is generally stronger than that from white voters, and this support could be increased still further by developing ties
within communities of color. Minority communities often tend to be younger and have upward economic mobility, which has important implications in the short-
and long-term. Today's working class Hispanic families can easily recognize the need for clean air and adequate government services for their children, needs that can be helped by good land
use planning. Those families will also be a source for the next generation of Silicon Valley millionaires. Increasing connections with the environmental community can make them future
champions for open space, while decreasing connections could result in more golf courses and giant homes overrunning county foothills. Obviously, the physical, political, and societal state of the county
are interrelated and constantly changing, and that change brings opportunity for new involvement in environmental issues. Future views of the county
I hope to make repeat trips to that backpack camp every year, where night-time views will give a kind of report card of the county's state. More lights may appear in the urban areas, but
good development that preserves the environment is to be applauded. I hope to see few additional lights in the current dark areas, but not because we want to exclude people's interests in
the land. The places where farm plants grow, cattle graze, and nature thrives are all part of the coexistence between development and open space that benefits us all, and Committee for Green
Foothills will continue to make sure that this coexistence stays balanced. I am very glad to do my part in that work.
Published July 2003 in Green Footnotes.
Page last updated July 7, 2003 |
|
