Club's Loma Prieta Chapter fights sprawl in Peninsula and South Bay

For the Club's Loma Prieta Chapter (covering the Peninsula and South Bay), as for the Bay Chapter, stopping sprawl is a chief concern.

Sprawl in the Bay Area is largely due to the lack of affordable housing in the urban core. According to the Association of Bay Area Governments, Silicon Valley would need to build 82,500 homes to allow everyone who currently works in the Valley to live there. At the current pace of home and job development, by 2010 that deficit will grow to 150,000 homes.

As long as the population of California continues to grow, as it will for the foreseeable future, there will be increased development. In addition to saying "no" to sprawl development which threatens our open spaces, we must heed the words of Sierra Club President Lisa Renstrom and "move to yes." The key to reducing sprawl is to achieve mixed-use, transit-oriented development that includes a range of types and prices of residential units. The Loma Prieta Chapter has taken the lead on saying "yes" to thoughtful, environmentally friendly redevelopment in existing urban areas.

Endorsing projects that demonstrate our values

The Loma Prieta Chapter's Sustainable Land Use Committee has developed criteria for an endorsement process for development proposals. In the last two years the Chapter has endorsed three developments: the Calabazas project in Cupertino, the North First Street redevelopment project in San Jose, and the Bay Meadows II project in the city of San Mateo. Bay Meadows II is the second phase of the Bay Meadows project begun in 1997. It was included in the Sierra Club report "Building Better: A Guide to America's Best New Development Projects".

In addition we are developing strong working relationships with housing advocates. In San Mateo County, we and other environmental organizations (Greenbelt Alliance and the Committee for Green Foothills) have been meeting monthly with the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo to develop a shared vision. The goal is to create opportunities to support each others' work, to gain strength through our combined efforts, and to engage our respective constituencies. In May we co-sponsored the Communities of Today and Tomorrow forum as part of Affordable Housing Week.

Coyote Valley - sprawl or smart growth?

One of the most controversial development proposals within the Chapter's jurisdiction is the current effort to create a new community of 80,000 people in Coyote Valley. The land, just south of San Jose, is zoned for a mix of commercial, industrial, and agricultural uses. The land ownership is a mix of housing developers and long-term property-owners. All are eager to see the specific-plan process come to a conclusion so that they can realize their investments. This is especially true for the housing developers, who need the city to rezone and change general-plan triggers to allow residential development to occur earlier than it would under the current restrictions.

The San Jose City Council laid out a smart-growth vision for this planning effort in 2002 and created a 20-member task force to help develop the plan. The Sierra Club was not included in the original Task Force but due to our active engagement for over two years in the planning process, we were recently appointed to a seat at the table. We would prefer to see San Jose absorb growth within its existing urban footprint, but if it is going to expand into Coyote Valley, we must ensure that the specific plan actually reflects and enforces smart-growth design guidelines.

Fighting sprawl at the ballot box

The Loma Prieta Chapter has campaigned actively on sprawl-related ballot measures. In 2004 the Chapter helped defeat three pro-sprawl initiatives on the Cupertino city ballot. We stand ready to fight future ballot measures in our jurisdiction that prevent smart growth from occurring. Another way we are fighting sprawl is by supporting the Santa Clara County Land Conservation Initiative. In May the campaign turned in more than enough signatures to qualify a ballot measure to protect areas zoned ranchlands, hillsides, and large-scale agriculture. The measure is carefully drafted to preserve opportunities for suitably located affordable housing and is similar to Alameda County's Measure D, which the Bay Chapter championed in 2000.

We have frequently needed to explain our actions to Club members and to people in the general public who don't understand why the Sierra Club is endorsing development and density. We have therefore held "Environmentalism and Growth" forums in San Mateo, Palo Alto, and Cupertino, and write frequently about these issues in the Loma Prietan, our Chapter newsletter.

At the national level, the Sierra Club has recognized that our urban and suburban areas have an inextricable relationship to our agricultural regions and natural landscapes, and has launched a campaign to stop sprawl and promote smart growth and sustainable land use. Our work on the Loma Prieta Chapter's Sustainable Land Use Committee is a local effort to support this Club-wide initiative. For more information please visit the Loma Prieta website

Melissa Hippard, director, Loma Prieta Chapter