The Committee is Watching...

Committee for Green Foothills’ Legislative Advocates and volunteers juggle multiple projects to protect the environment in Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.

In addition to those projects described in this issue's articles, the Committee is watching:

... Santa Clara County Supervisor Liz Kniss, who recently hosted an environmental forum on protecting open space and promoting infill development, including a panel discussion of the 'four layer cake' of open space, housing, jobs and transportation.

... the trail and bluff restoration projects at Mirada Surf, for which permitting is almost complete and construction should begin sometime in 2006.

... ecologist Stu Weiss and native plant enthusiast Don Mayall, who led a group of CGF hikers up to the spectacular wildflower display at Coyote Ridge this spring.

... Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, with gratitude for their pro bono services from attorneys Karen Johnson-McKewan (San Francisco) who wrote an excellent Amicus Curiae brief supporting the County of Santa Cruz in a lawsuit challenging Timber Buffer Zones, and Daniel Yost (Menlo Park), who interviewed Roger Craig about the importance of San Mateo County parks for the spring issue of Green Footnotes.

... the Wavecrest property in Half Moon Bay, where the Cabrillo Unified School District is examining alternative sites for the Middle School but developers are still targeting this important wetland habitat.

... the San Jose Planning Commission, which has requested a presentation from the Committee for Green Foothills on its report for tracking and mitigating the cumulative impact from impervious surfaces.

... the Ritz-Carlton's blufftop golf green in Half Moon Bay, where Ocean Colony Partners has not only withdrawn their application for an after-the-fact permit for a 270-foot-long seawall (fought vociferously by CGF and others) but also agreed to remove all the rip-rap rocks (placed without permits) from the face of the bluff and move the green away from the coastline, allowing natural erosion to continue.

... The City of San Jose, to see if officials will adopt Santa Clara County's progressive system for managing Environmental Impact Reports, rather than continue with the outmoded and harmful system of letting developers prepare preliminary versions of EIRs.

... The San Mateo Board of Supervisors, who have tasked Supervisors Rich Gordon and Jerry Hill to "align" the Planning Commission's recommendations for Amendments to the Local Coastal Program for the Mid-Coast with a "Statement of Principles" drafted by the Board.

... Shute, Mihaly, and Weinberger LLP, the law firm representing CGF in a lawsuit to stop an urbanized sports complex in San Jose's rural Almaden Valley.

... Marcia Raines, San Mateo County's Director of Environmental Management, who recently appointed David Holland as Director of County Parks and Recreation and Lisa Grote as Community Development Director.

... San Benito County, which has discouraged a growth-inducing and Santa-Clara-County-traffic inducing casino proposal, and brought the casino backers to withdraw their proposal (for now).

... the Horse Park at Woodside, which is now operating under a new Use Permit issued by San Mateo County that is designed to ensure compatible use of the equestrian property with environmental protection.

... San Mateo County Supervisors Adrienne Tissier and Jerry Hill, who are working with 20 cities, MROSD, Highlands and Ladera Recreation Districts, and parks support groups to develop a 2006 ballot measure that would give voters a chance to fund parks.

... new CGF office volunteer Kelley Wood, who will be helping on a variety of projects throughout the summer while she is on break from the University of Puget Sound.