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...
Category: Victories
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Lennie wins the Cox Conserves Hero’s Award!
(Below is a wonderful email we got to send out last week to folks signed up on our Action Alert list. -Brian) Dear Friends! We are so very delighted to announce CGF Advocate Lennie Roberts was awarded the Cox Conserves Hero’s Award today!!! CGF is honored to have Lennie’s support, dedication, perseverance and generosity working...
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News Alert: Success in Gilroy and great progress in San Jose!
(CGF sent out the News Alert below about victories in Gilroy and San Jose. -Brian) We’ve had great news in Gilroy and San Jose that we want to share with supporters. All four sprawl proposals in Gilroy that we’ve been fighting have now been defeated or withdrawn! Since 2008, Committee for Green Foothills fought the...
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Great news from Gilroy – last two remaining sprawl proposals defeated
(I just wanted to put a link to this Gilroy Dispatch article, and we’ll add more later. -Brian) Article: Citing uncertainties over environmental reports, the council voted 4-3 – with Council members Dion Bracco, Bob Dillon and Craig Gartman dissenting – against two annexation requests that would eventually lead to residential development. Gillmor’s Lucky Day...
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One victory and possibly more for the environment
1. San Jose City Council’s Committee on Economic Development voted 4-0 to recommend the City Council pass a ban on plastic bags from retailers and groceries (with limited exceptions) and a ban on paper bags with less than 50% recycled content. The City Council will also consider a 10 to 25 cent fee on paper...
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The great news keeps rolling in, and we can take some of the credit
Last week we could celebrate the purchase of 966-acre Rancho San Vicente, an important link in a chain of protected land extending immediately south of San Jose. Environmental opposition to sprawl in Coyote Valley was crucial for stopping the sprawl proposal that the developers originally tried at San Vicente: Tom deRegt, a partner in New...