An unusually harsh set of comments by conservation groups and federal, state and local government agencies threatens to send San Jose's environmental review of Coyote Valley back to the drawing board.
The city has received a 1,300-page mountain of comment letters on the environmental assessment issued in April. State law requires a valid assessment before the city can consider a plan to allow 25,000 homes and 50,000 jobs on Coyote's farmlands.
While city planners say they won't decide until later this month whether the report needs to be redone, the collective weight of so many key environmental players and the wide scope of their critiques make it likely the city will do so. If not, and if the city council certifies the existing analysis, one or more of those agencies or organizations is likely to sue over its adequacy.
The only bad aspect of the coverage is that we were planning to do a press release around the same issue, and now it's much less likely to get media attention. The press release would have focused more specifically on our objections.
Still, we're glad this is getting the attention it deserves.
-Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment