John Fry and his Institute golf course will be allowed to water,
mow and feed their 110 acres of greens but will have to satisfy the
city and state and federal agencies before they can step on those
greens to play.
John Fry and his Institute golf course will be allowed to water, mow and feed their 110 acres of greens but will have to satisfy the city and state and federal agencies before they can step on those greens to play.
David Bischoff, city director of community development, said Wednesday that he decided to issue the Temporary Use Permit requested by The Institute so it can keep the greens from deteriorating while it works to meet the environmental requirements of four agencies.
But he wants all “i”s dotted and “t”s crossed before allowing any golf play on the course at 14830 Foothill Ave. along the eastern foothills, near Maple Avenue.
Two conservation groups, the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society and the Committee for Green Foothills, are reviewing legal options.
The Audubon Society’s Craig Breon said Wednesday that they would consult with their attorneys in San Francisco to decide their next step. In the past, the environmental have cited court action as a possibility to shut down the course until questions are resolved.
“The TUP and the city’s actions are thoroughly illegal,” Breon said, “and we have more than one legal avenue.”
Breon said fodder for additional legal action could come from the final hearings on the environmental impact report, due before the Planning Commission on May 9, and the City Council on June 2.
The Institute has 10 days, beginning April 20, to appeal the city’s requirements. Bischoff said he did not know whether The Institute would agree to the stipulations of the TUP.
“There are six items they must satisfy before we can allow play,” Bischoff said. “They said they would move the evapo-transpiration monitors (a weather station) and they haven’t.”
The evapo-transpiration monitors control how much irrigation is needed. The amount of water applied to the greens has been a matter of interest to the regulatory agencies because surplus nitrate-and pesticide-carrying water can end up in creeks and wells downstream.
“They were told to install a certain type of screening over the intake in a pond but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service disagrees that what they did was sufficient,” he said.
The Institute must reach agreement with the Santa Clara Valley Water District over the riparian restoration plan (returning the area bordering Corralitos Creek to its natural state) and they must have a plan for monitoring wells.
Two other agencies, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board and the California Department of Fish and Game are also regulating the course’s development.
Bischoff said that, in his opinion, The Institute can better meet these requirements if allowed to continue maintaining the course than if it was not. He cited removal of predatory bullfrogs – which prey on the protected red-legged frogs, as an example.
Before play on the course will be approved, the city and The Institute must receive a letter from each regulatory agency involved, stating that agency’s satisfaction with The Institute’s actions.
The TUP will be valid through April 19, 2005, Bischoff said.
Once conditions are met, play not to exceed 16 rounds of golf a day during daylight hours, will be allowed until Sept. 30, 2004.
In a letter to Steve Sorenson, golf course spokesman, Bishoff noted that comments from the regulatory agencies were incorporated as conditions in the temporary use permit “to avoid adverse impacts to federal and state threatened and endangered species, water quality and other environmental resources.”
The tussle between the city and The Institute began six years ago after Fry bought the old Hill Country property from Irv Perlich, including his Flying Lady restaurant and an 18-hole golf course. Fry, and his partners in an investment group, graded large chunks of the course and planted turf close to Corralitos Creek, which runs through the property and is home to several listed and endangered plants and animals.
They began watering and fertilizing, mowing and planting trees and dug new ponds. The work took place without obtaining all but a few basic and early permits from the city. Nor did they commission an environmental impact report (EIR), necessary in such a massive project with implications for plants and animals on site, not to mention neighbors downstream.
Once the city noticed, it began to work with the four agencies to protect the species, the water and, ultimately, to allow The Institute to use the course.
Fry’s American Institute of Mathematics, now located in Palo Alto, is planning to move onto the Foothill Avenue site once the golf issue is settled and a building is constructed – or renovated – for them.
www.aimath.org
