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.
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