Committee for Green Foothills - Our mission is to protect the open space, farmlands, and natural resources of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties through advocacy, education, and grassroots action.Committee for Green Foothills | Our mission is to protect the open space, farmlands, and natural resources of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties through advocacy, education, and grassroots action.

“Why don’t you advocate for housing?”

At Committee for Green Foothills, we are often asked why we don’t support specific residential projects given that our region is in a housing crisis. The most succinct answer is that our mission – the promise that we make to our members – is to protect open space and natural resources in San Mateo and […]

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Action Alert: Ask Supervisors to Fund Farmland Preservation (This Action Alert is now closed. Thank you to all who responded.)

We have been championing the preservation of farmland for decades. Now we have an important opportunity to secure funding for threatened farmland. On Monday, May 13, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors will begin budget discussions. This is when the Supervisors will decide if they will allocate money to help protect local farmland at […]

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Vallemar Bluffs: Building Safely out of Harm’s Way – a Success Story

By Lennie Roberts Vallemar Bluffs is the last remaining undeveloped blufftop in the Midcoast area of Moss Beach. In addition to its sweeping coastal views, rocky cliffs and erodible bluffs, the site supports environmentally sensitive Coastal Prairie Grasslands where four rare plants are found, including the endangered Coast Yellow Leptosiphon. There is an informal trail […]

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2018 Annual Report

We’re pleased to announce the release of our 2018 Annual Report. We celebrated many victories for nature in 2018, from defeating Measure B and passing Measure C in San Jose, to advocating for restorable wetlands along the Bay, to mobilizing Half Moon Bay citizens to protect the coast from hotel development. Watch some of […]

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Update on Stanford Development Proposal

The saga of Stanford’s proposal to expand its campus continues. This week, the County of Santa Clara announced that it was suspending talks with Stanford over the Development Agreement. However, it’s important to note that the General Use Permit (GUP) process is still ongoing. This means that we can still expect the approval of potentially huge new […]

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Lennie Honored as Bay Nature’s Citizen Hero

On March 31, Committee for Green Foothills’ advocate Lennie Roberts met a standing ovation as she accepted Bay Nature’s 2019 Citizen Hero Award. Introducing Lennie that evening was Reed Holderman, a veteran environmental conservationist, who praised her extraordinary work to save the San Mateo coast from rampant urban development. Lennie recounted for the guests at […]

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County Recommends 99-Year Protection for Stanford Foothills

Good news! Planning staff for Santa Clara County have recommended protecting the Stanford Foothills from development for 99 years, and requiring a supermajority vote from the County Supervisors to modify that protection. If the County ultimately approves this, it would extend the current protection from development, which expires in 2025, through the end of the […]

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Packed Audience for Sea Level Rise Event

On February 26, over 70 people, including local elected officials, attended Committee for Green Foothills’ Flooded Out: Development in the path of sea level rise event at the Redwood City Public Library. The event featured presentations by Jeremy Lowe of the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI), Dan Ponti of Redwood City Neighbors United (RCNU), and […]

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Time to Turn the Tide on Cargill’s Saltworks

Thank you to those of you who have already signed our petition to stop the Cargill “Saltworks” project and urge that the salt ponds be restored to wetlands. There are many other sites on the Peninsula where new development can be located, but there is nowhere else where 1,400 acres of former wetlands can be […]

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Save the Redwood City Cargill Salt Ponds

What’s Happening A decade ago, Cargill proposed a vast city-size development on the 1400-acre Redwood City salt ponds – 12,000 residential units (for a population equal in size to the city of San Carlos), 1 million square feet of office, and additional retail and other uses. The proposal was so controversial that eventually the City […]

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Action Alert: Cargill is back

What’s Happening A decade ago, Cargill proposed a vast city-size development on the 1400-acre Redwood City salt ponds – 12,000 residential units (for a population equal in size to the city of San Carlos), 1 million square feet of office, and additional retail and other uses. The proposal was so controversial that eventually the City […]

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Honoring Joe Cotchett at the 2019 Nature’s Inspiration

We are very excited to announce that Green Foothills will be honoring the legendary Joe Cotchett at our 2019 Nature’s Inspiration. Our master of ceremonies will be Congresswoman Jackie Speier. Nature’s Inspiration will take place on Sunday, September 22 from 1-4pm at Wickett Ranch in unincorporated Woodside. Featuring beautiful pastures, surrounded by old growth redwood […]

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