Update: We’re pleased to report that on October 7, the Planning Commission voted 4-2 to deny this project. Your emails made a difference!

Over the past few weeks, the Santa Clara County Planning Commission has denied appeals for three residential sprawl projects on open space where the developers missed important application deadlines under the builder’s remedy law. Next Thursday, October 7, the Planning Commission will vote on another appeal, in the Santa Teresa foothills east of Almaden Valley, that also failed to meet the deadline. Please email the Planning Commission using the form below and ask them to deny this appeal.

Thanks to all of you who emailed the Planning Commission in August and September asking them to deny the three previous appeals for harmful sprawl projects. Please keep sending in your emails, because they really matter – and we expect more appeals in the coming weeks!

What’s Happening

Developers have submitted more than 40 applications to Santa Clara County under California’s “builder’s remedy” law. Nearly all of these projects would be built on open space or farmland and many would be in FEMA flood zones or wildfire hazard zones. 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. Several of these developers have failed to submit all the required information by the deadline, and the County has determined their applications to be incomplete – meaning these projects cannot proceed under the builder’s remedy law. Now, the developers are appealing those incompleteness determinations to the Planning Commission.

In August, the Planning Commission heard the first of these appeals, and then in September, heard two more. The Commission denied all of those appeals because the developers failed to provide all of the required information by the deadline.

Now, another developer has similarly failed to provide the required information for a builder’s remedy application. Other builder’s remedy projects have also been deemed incomplete and may appeal those determinations to the Planning Commission in the coming weeks.

Why It Matters

This builder’s remedy project, on Vista de Almaden in the Santa Teresa foothills east of Almaden Valley, is located on a steep hillside slope in a landslide hazard zone and fire hazard zone. This project would destroy chaparral habitat, a native ecosystem that provides habitat for many native bird and insect species. Because of its location in the Santa Teresa foothills, it is connected to a much larger area of important habitat that supports a diverse suite of plant and wildlife species.

Santa Clara County has received dozens of builder’s remedy development proposals totalling nearly 7,000 units. 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 email the Santa Clara County Planning Commission using the form below and ask them to deny the appeal.