City tells owners to stay off course until permits secured
The city planning department has told the owners of the former Hill Country golf course that it must stay out of bounds for use until proper permits are secured.
In a letter dated June 25, city Planning Manager Jim Rowe notified Leonard Sabatini, director of store development for Fry’s Electronics, that use of the course would be a violation of the current zoning.
“The golf course cannot be used until the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for this project is completed and certified,” Rowe’s letter states. “A Temporary Use Permit that allowed limited use of the golf course expired on May 26, 2001. No extension or new TUP was requested or approved.”
Rowe said he had received complaints from two environmental groups – the Committee for Green Foothills and the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society – concerned that the course on the future American Institute of Mathematics Research Conference Center site at 14830 Foothill Ave. near Maple Avenue in the eastern foothills is in use without having addressed the effects on endangered species or the surrounding land.
The AIM in Morgan Hill is a project of AIM in Palo Alto and John Fry. The property is owned by Corralitos Creek LLC, of which Fry is a principal.
“Craig Breon (of the Audubon Society) advised us that the golf course was being used,” said Rowe. “There is no environmental clearance yet. We have requested a letter acknowledging that the course is not in use and will not be in use until the environmental and zoning concerns are met.”
On Monday, Steve Sorenson, partner of John Fry, of Fry’s Electronics, in the Math Institute and Corralitos Creek LLC, said in a letter to Rowe that it was his impression the temporary use permit had not expired.
“In January 2000, the City of Morgan Hill and the Institute agreed to exchange a TUP for funding of an EIR,” the reply dated July 3 said. “The intent of this agreement was to bridge the gap in time, while the EIR was being completed, until the Conditional Use Permit could be approved.”
Any attempt to imply an expiration of the TUP, Sorenson wrote, is a breach of the agreement.
Sorenson said he was concerned over the length of time that the EIR had taken and said the city has failed to complete the EIR in a “reasonable time.”
Sorenson also mentioned a voice message in which Rowe gave verbal permission for a day-to-day extension of the permit.
“I have no memory of having left such a message,” Rowe said. “I don’t have the authority to do that.”
The municipal code states that temporary use permits may be extended for six months only and then only by the city Planning Director, currently David Bischoff, not a planning manager. Rowe said he has worked in planning for 24 years and knows the rules.
“In any case,” Rowe said, “even if there was a six-month extension, it would have expired on Nov. 26, 2001.”
On Monday after a meeting with other city officials, Rowe said they agreed that the temporary use permit has indeed expired.
“The city is looking into the matter of an extension or a request for a new temporary use permit,” Rowe said.
Sorenson, Rowe said, offered to come to the city and fill out an extension request.
“The city will approve the extension of the TUP,” Sorenson’s letter stated. He also suggested that a representative of the city call the environmental organizations with an explanation.
It is possible that a complaint form could be filed on the incident, Rowe said, but that was not discussed at Monday’s meeting.
A draft Environmental Impact Report, presented to the City Council in March, has gone back to the drawing board since the city’s experts did not agree with the Math Institute’s experts on what the impacts were and what is required to mitigate them.
Rowe said the revised EIR would deal with drainage, water quality, endangered species and plant and animal habitat. He estimated the review would take until mid-to-late August at which time it will return to the council for discussion.
Brian Schmidt, a legislative advocate for the CGF, said last week that his concern over the lack of environmental mitigation revolves around a threat to public health and the possibility that endangered species habitat, including that of the California red-legged frog, a turtle and salamander, has been destroyed.
Applications of nitrate-based fertilizers keeping the golf course green could pollute Corralitos Creek and private wells downstream. The EIR also worried about the amount of water pumped from the underground aquifer.
The golf course, on property that included the Flying Lady Restaurant and the aircraft museum and sold by Irv Perlitch to the Institute group has been under fire since it was built without going through the appropriate planning process.
The golf course is private and is intended to complement the research and conference center to be operated by the AIM, now based in Palo Alto, from the rebuilt restaurant building. Sorenson told the council that AIM will hold 24 conferences of one-week duration a year at the site, each with 24 participants. The course is designed to be part of the athletic attractiveness of the center which also includes hiking trails.
Sorenson’s letter, Rowe said, did not say whether or not the course was in use. Most of the course is hidden from sight on Foothill Avenue and the gate leading to the course is locked, Rowe said.
The Fry family supports a broad spectrum of public efforts, including a recent campaign to return physicians and medical services to Morgan Hill. The Math Institute, itself, is expected to benefit the town economically and school children, educationally.
“A company’s good deeds are no excuse for bad deeds,” said Schmidt.
