South Bay Foothills Protected from Precedent-Setting Development
by Kathy Switky

A proposed 35,500-square foot conference center complex in the eastern foothills of Santa Clara County has been soundly rejected by the Board of Supervisors, who recently took a strong stand to protect the foothills.

Committee for Green Foothills worked with neighborhood groups and concerned citizens to oppose the Amana Conference Center, proposed to include overnight accommodation for 256 people, bus and car parking, and a sewage treatment plant. The massive complex would have destroyed open space and viewshed in the fragile foothills east of San Jose, above Casa Madeira Lane and Clayton Road.

CGF Legislative Advocate Denice Dade applauded the Board of Supervisors — and the Planning Commission — for their unanimous vote to reject this development and uphold the General Plan. The Amana Center would have created a terrible precedent of allowing destruction of this region's scenic foothills.

Because the applicant had requested a reinterpretation of the County's policies to protect the foothills, approval of this project would have significantly weakened the County's hillside zoning designation and opened the door for further large-scale development in the tightly zoned hillside lands. The proposal also conflicted with the Santa Clara County General Plan.

The project would also have had immediate negative impacts. Planned for an exposed site at 1,400 feet in elevation, the project would have been visible from the valley floor as well as from portions of Silver Creek and surrounding neighborhoods throughout San Jose. In addition, the Center would have doubled traffic and increased the risk of fire in an already fire-prone area.

With the creation of Urban Growth Boundaries (UGBs) throughout Santa Clara County, cities are looking increasingly to the Board of Supervisors to protect the hills outside these UGBs from inappropriate development. This is the very responsibility for which the County's hillside zoning policy was designed.

The Board's action this May to deny the Amana project reinforces the San Jose Greenline, and reaffirms the Board's commitment to protection of the foothills, some of the region's most environmentally sensitive and scenic lands.