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...
Category: Victories
Post
CGF letter gets extension of time to file comments on San Jose General Plan EIR
(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...
Post
More good news! Santa Clara County joins the ban on single use takeout bags
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,...
Post
Good news! CGF successfully urges San Jose and Santa Clara to provide an Environmental Alternative at the Water Plant
(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”...
Post
Good news – Santa Clara County Supervisors reject Planning Commission advice to weaken water conservation standards
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...
Post
Good news from the Water District’s Environmental Advisory Committee
Yesterday, the Environmental Advisory Committee of the Santa Clara Valley Water District approved five policy recommendations made by a subcommittee that I chair, all designed to improve the District’s handling of erosion and the impact on streams and habitats. Three of the recommendations were somewhat controversial as District staff felt they were too specific for...
Post
Good news for improving environmental funding by the Water District
A potential environmental victory may be in the works at the Water District, fixing a defect in the current Clean Safe Creeks measure, if the measure gets renewed. The current CSC funding is supposed to dedicate 14% of the parcel tax to environmental enhancement, while most of the remainder is dedicated to flood control. While...
Post
Good news – Water District to support Extended Producer Responsibility
On Tuesday, the Santa Clara Valley Water District reconsidered a recommendation to pull sponsorship and funding from the California Product Stewardship Council. Several environmental leaders wrote into the District to ask them to continue their support. I went to the budget meeting on Tuesday and pointed out that Extended Producer Responsibility – the idea that...
Post
Victory for riparian protection in San Jose
Good news from the revision process for the San Jose General Plan – staff has included a 100′ stream buffer from development in all but “exceptional circumstances” in the draft to be sent to the City Council. This protection was originally omitted, but I pointed out the omission at Monday’s Task Force revision, and staff...
Post
A CGF quarry victory I didn’t even realize had happened
Some good news from the Lehigh-Hanson Quarry in the hills above Cupertino and Los Altos: on CGF’s suggestion, they have changed the night-time lighting to decrease the light pollution offsite. We suggested this years ago, and on a recent visit the quarry operators told me they had taken us up on the suggestion. They said...