Update: We’re pleased to report that on August 28, the Planning Commission voted 4-3 to deny the appeal of this project. We’d like to thank Commissioners Cohen, Escobar, Hetterly and Levy for their vote to uphold the proper process and deny the appeal.

On Thursday, August 28, the Santa Clara County Planning Commission will consider whether a development application for residential sprawl on open space outside San Jose has expired and should be denied. The development would destroy wildlife habitat and put residents in harm’s way, and the developer missed the deadline to complete the application. Please use the form below to ask the Planning Commission to deny the developer’s appeal.

What’s Happening

The “Gavallo Glen” sprawl development proposal on Harry Road outside San Jose was submitted under California’s “builder’s remedy” law. The builder’s remedy law says that if a city or county doesn’t have a state-approved plan for building enough homes, developers can ignore local zoning rules and build anywhere they wish, as long as the project fits certain criteria. The purpose of the law is to make sure cities and counties don’t shirk their responsibility to build housing.

However, builder’s remedy projects must adhere to strict legal deadlines for submitting completed development applications. The builder’s remedy project on Harry Road failed to submit all the required information by the deadline, and was determined by the County to be incomplete, which means the project cannot proceed under the builder’s remedy law. The developer has appealed this determination to the Planning Commission.

Why It Matters

This project is a textbook example of residential sprawl. It would put 173 single-family homes on open space outside San Jose between Alamitos Creek and Calero Creek, both of which are important wildlife corridors. The property has been identified by wildlife experts as important habitat for threatened and endangered species, and local residents have observed bobcats, coyotes, deer, foxes, herons, owls and other birds on the site. In addition, this site has numerous hazardous conditions: one end is in a FEMA flood zone and liquefaction zone (meaning that in an earthquake the ground could liquefy), the other end is in a fault rupture hazard zone, and the entire site is in a high fire severity zone.

Santa Clara County has received dozens of builder’s remedy development proposals totalling nearly 7,000 units, nearly all on open space or farmland and many in FEMA flood zones or wildfire hazard zones. If all of these residential sprawl projects were to be approved, County resources would be severely strained by trying to protect and provide services to thousands of new homes scattered throughout the rural countryside.

Our region needs to build more housing, but we need to build it in urban, infill locations – not in rural areas, on open space or wildlife habitat, and definitely not in areas where people would be put in harm’s way.

What You Can Do

Please use the form below to email the Santa Clara County Planning Commission and ask them to deny the appeal of the “Gavallo Glen” project on Harry Road.