Local farmland is a critical natural resource that is continually under threat of development. As Santa Clara County updates its zoning rules for development in rural unincorporated areas, Green Foothills is urging the County to ensure that these zoning amendments preserve important farmland, support local agriculture, and prevent oversized development from creeping into rural communities....
San Bruno Mountain, just south of San Francisco, is an example of the type of landscape that most needs environmental advocacy: a fragile ecosystem at risk from a proposed manufacturing facility. Green Foothills, a conservation nonprofit that has been a champion for nature on the Peninsula since 1962, is working alongside local environmental partners to...
The City of San Jose is about to start studying the environmental impacts of a massive proposed development on open space at the former Pleasant Hills Golf Course. But while that review hasn’t even started, the landowner has already begun cutting down and removing trees—destroying wildlife habitat before the city can evaluate or address the...
Over the past two months, the Santa Clara County Planning Commission has rejected appeals for four residential sprawl projects on rural land. These developments would have destroyed farmland and wildlife habitat and would have put homes in wildfire hazard zones, flood zones, and areas subject to seismic hazards. Thank you to the Planning Commission for...
Update 10/23/25: The Planning Commission has postponed its vote on this topic until November 20. Thank you to everyone who emailed the Planning Commission in response to our action alert. Your comments will be included in the packet that Planning Commission staff provide to the Commissioners for their November 20 meeting. To anyone who hasn’t...
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...
In June, the California legislature passed a deeply flawed bill that stripped away critical protections for our state’s environment and communities. Leaders in the legislature acknowledged the bill’s flaws and promised to fix them before the legislature adjourned for the year, but they failed to uphold that promise. This leaves California’s lands, wildlife, and people...
Update: We’re pleased to report that on September 25, the Planning Commission voted to deny both appeals. The votes were 4-3 and 5-2. Thank you to everyone who emailed the Planning Commissioners! On Thursday, September 25, the Santa Clara County Planning Commission will consider whether two development applications for residential sprawl on open space outside...
Earlier this summer, in an unprecedented rollback to California’s fundamental environmental and community protections, the California legislature passed a deeply unpopular, flawed bill called SB 131. At the time, progressive leadership promised to clean up some of SB 131’s most damaging provisions. Now we must hold them to those promises and demand the legislature pass...
Green Foothills was founded by people who were alarmed by the rapid destruction of nature that occurred in the Bay Area in the 1960s. At the time, there were plans to fill in much of the Bay, run freeways over mountain ranges, and destroy natural areas along the coast to accommodate auto-centric sprawl. While many...
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