Category: News

A few items of interest to CGF members and friends: A local television report on the Measure A campaign. House prices increased 1.6% in Santa Clara County last year, which is a decrease when inflation is considered. San Jose’s fiscal analysis for Coyote Valley depends on prices increasing 3% above inflation consistently, and a shortfall...

The Santa Clara County LAFCo is developing a policy on requiring preserving farmlands somewhere in Santa Clara County to mitigate for the loss of farmlands when cities expand. It’s a good start, and CGF provided the comments below. -Brian (We provided similar comments to San Jose for its policies, here.) — September 18, 2006 Ms....

We have had two very encouraging decisions in the courts this week. First, San Mateo Superior Court Judge Beth Labson Freeman upheld LAFCo and County Elections on their conduct of the protest process for the MROSD (Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District) coastal expansion. And today, the California Supreme Court rejected Big Creek Lumber’s petition for...

Yesterday, Santa Clara County enacted improved viewshed protection for hillside development (Agenda Item 66) in the County, limiting the aesthetic impact from new development and giving people incentives to construct smaller, less intrusive homes. CGF asked for even stronger protections which were not granted, but developers’ efforts to weaken the protections also were rejected. Overall,...

CGF wrote the following short message of support to the Santa Clara Valley Water District, urging them to sponsor the public television special, “Saving the Bay.” This program will be a very useful method for public education. -Brian——— Dear Santa Clara Valley Water District Board Members: The Committee for Green Foothills urges the District to...

One of the San Jose Insider bloggers posted a great editorial supporting the Land Conservation Initiative, and a spirited discussion is in the comments section. -Brian

As we reported a while back, San Jose expects to make money off of Coyote Valley development only because it expects housing prices to increase exponentially faster than income, every year for sixty years. We think this reasoning is flawed, and the problems are already showing. The National Association of Realtors just released its national...

Below is a presentation I made to a Chamber of Commerce policy committee, explaining why we thought businesses should support the Land Conservation Initiative in Santa Clara County. -Brian——–The Land Conservation Initiative protects working rural landscapes from conversion into suburban low-density, monster mansions with lawns. Where that conversion has already happened or is inevitable, the...

(Guest posting by CGF volunteer Annie Ryan.) On June 5th of this year, a four-thousand gallon mixture of volatile and­­ semi-volatile organic compounds exploded inside a tanker truck at the East Palo Alto Romic toxic waste facilities, and subsequently escaped from the tanker into the air (the press release avoided the word “exploded” and said...

Several weeks ago, the California Supreme Court issued fairly broad protection to counties attempting to regulate logging in their jurisdiction. It had been unclear whether state law superceded the normal right of local agencies to regulate land use. With additional clarity, there may now be reason and ability for counties in our area to restrict...