On December 14, Santa Clara County Supervisors voted unanimously to designate the part of Coyote Valley under its jurisdiction a Climate Resilience District. This new District will strengthen protections against monster estate development that is a significant cause of farmland loss in rural areas. This action matches and supports the decision by San Jose to...
Last week, San Jose took a historic step by declaring Coyote Valley a place for open space and farmland. The unanimous vote by the San Jose City Council reversed decades of misguided planning policy and declared over 3,000 acres of open space off-limits to urban development. We thank the City Council, staff, and all our...
We did it! Last night, the San Jose City Council unanimously voted to change the land use in North Coyote Valley from industrial to open space and agriculture, and to remove the Urban Reserve designation from Mid Coyote Valley. Now, our efforts move to Santa Clara County where the Planning Commission will consider the Coyote...
As 2014 comes to an end, the other Legislative Advocates and I thought it would be fun to share a few epic wins with you. I hope these stories will inspire you to join us and make a year-end gift today. If you donate before 12/31, your donation will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $5,000....
Nice article in the Mountain View Voice: a proposal to move a historic building to Cuesta Annex, a rare, undeveloped open space area that is not along the Bay and the foothills, has ended. We have no problem with the history museum or historic preservation, but don’t want the Cuesta Annex damaged. The article cites...
It’s hard to figure out how many points you can get across in the very limited time for public comment at various agency meetings. In the case of Monday’s San Jose Task Force meeting to revise its General Plan, they gave us two minutes. I decided to make two points and get in a third...
(We’re happy to note that the letter we wrote and found co-signers below resulted in a two week extension of time to file comments by anyone, greatly helping the role of public participation. CGF Intern Kelsey Grousbeck did great work to help make it happen. San Jose staff also deserve credit for being willing to...
Yesterday, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to enact a ban on single-use takeout bags. With reasonable exceptions, it bans plastic bags, bans paper bags with less than 40% recycled content, and requires a 15 cent fee on paper bag use to encourage the use of reusable bags. We thank Supervisors Shirakawa, Cortese,...
(We submitted the comments below as part of a long-running CGF campaign to protect the natural habitat near the Santa Clara San Jose water plant near Alviso. You can watch the San Jose discussion here, and I spoke at the 2:40:00 mark. The City Council appears to have listened and will include an “Environmental Alternative”...
Yesterday I attended the County Board of Supervisors meeting, where they were considering a new landscaping water conservation ordinance. The Planning Commission had recommended several steps to weaken the ordinance proposed by County Planning staff, which was strange because the staff version basically followed the state model ordinance, and state law says the alternatives must...
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