Santa Clara County and the grassroots San Martin group that
doesn
’t want its small rural town’s airport to expand have settled
their differences out of court.
Santa Clara County and the grassroots San Martin group that doesn’t want its small rural town’s airport to expand have settled their differences out of court.
Charles Logan, a lawyer and San Martin resident representing the group, said Thursday night a deal that drops a lawsuit which could have delayed San Martin airport improvement at least six months has been reached with the county.
Logan made the announcement at a regular meeting of the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance, but did not give any details to the group that sued the county over its future airport plans.
“A joint statement will be coming out in the next week or week and a half,” Logan told alliance members. “All I can tell you is we’ve reached a settlement and you will be pleased.”
The announcement of the settlement, even without its details, garnered applause from neighborhood alliance members.
At issue is whether Santa Clara County should conduct the most stringent of environmental reviews – called an environmental impact report – while it doubles the amount of airplane hangars at South County Airport in San Martin. Community activists also want to see stringent environmental review while the county updates the airport’s 20-year-old master plan which could potentially bring longer runways for larger aircraft to the San Martin airfield.
San Martin activists have felt disenfranchised by what they believe was a less-than-public process to expand the number of hangars at the airport.
The county has held firm that it has done everything required under the law, including holding public meetings, in regards to the San Martin airport hangar expansion.
District 1 Supervisor Don Gage said Friday he had not yet been given the details of the settlement by county staff. However, discussions he had two weeks ago with San Martin representatives and the county’s director of roads and airports were agreeable to him.
“In general, they wanted things done to enhance (vegetation around the airport) and for us to do an environmental impact report for the extension of the runway,” Gage said.
“Anytime you can settle things amongst yourselves it’s better than going to a third party. In a court trial, there’s always someone that loses and a lot of cost involved,” said Gage, echoing Logan’s sentiments from Thursday night.
The settlement is yet another political victory for the community of 5,800 residents in just the last few months. San Martin recently earned more say over land-use decisions when the county chartered a local advisory panel that will make recommendations on future planning in the town’s commercial and industrial cores. The 6,700-acre community also learned recently it could afford to become independent of the county and make itself a city, if residents there approved such a change.
