I (Brian) just came back from a meeting in Morgan Hill to discuss the City's proposed "Greenbelt", which is unfortunately linked to a proposal to establish a new and expanded Urban Line Limit for the City. While a protected greenbelt could be a good idea, the proposal to create a 50-year, Urban Line Limit beyond the current Urban Growth Line could be a recipe for sprawl.
The issue we were discussing is the unincorporated, southeast area of the City. While most of the discussion was about a greenbelt, another concept under consideration is a 200-acre industrial campus, plus vaguely-defined residential development. We at CGF have heard this before - it sounds like Coyote Valley, complete with a sales pitch for a greenbelt, but vague on how to finance environmental protection. What's ironic is that Morgan Hill, unlike San Jose, is alarmed about the impacts of Coyote Valley development, but then may be poised to make the same mistake.
We can't completely rule out the idea that something beneficial will result from this process, but we will have to follow this issue carefully.
(Morgan Hill staff claimed some information is on their website, but I couldn't find it. I'll put up a link when I do.)
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
With additional residents, traffic, households, etc. planned for the proposed areas in the Coyote Valley I feel it will have a negative impact. Why? As a resident for the last 50 years I have seen the smog settle in the Coyote valley due to it being the narrowest section in the Santa Clara Valley. It will just get worse. Certain areas north of Wright Ave. in Morgan Hill all the way to Coyote were and still are swamp land. Let me sell you some swamp land! We just seem to get the roads in because of the impact on them for the last 15 years and now we want to put in another 25K homes? How can the cities afford to pay these farmers a fair market value on their properties and then spend zillions on developement? It has been sad to see all the fruit orchards disappear, once this was a beautiful valley,now it's a another urban spawl. I feel you should wait to see what happens in Coyote before doing the same to Morgan Hill.
ReplyDelete