Math Institute files request for temporary permit until impact
report is completed
A dispute over the Fry’s golf course in southeast Morgan Hill escalated recently when the Committee for Green Foothills and the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society filed formal complaints with the city.
“Letting the golf course operators use the course and especially to maintain the course prior to getting permits is rewarding them for their illegal behavior,” said Brian Schmidt, legislative advocate for the Palo Alto-based CGF. “They are harming their neighbors and the environment.”
“If they eventually get a permit to use the expanded area, they will be free to return it to a playable course, but right now they have no right to impose the environmental impact they’re having.”
Steve Sorenson, a partner of John Fry, of Fry’s Electronics, in the American Math Institute and Corralitos Creek LLC, says a letter has been written to the city in response to the allegations.
“There were good points raised by the Committee for Green Foothills, but on greater analysis one might come to a different conclusion,” he said Thursday.
The Institute has responded to the city about the allegations through a letter dated July 18 by Randall Long, writing for AIM. Long is from RCL Ecology, the firm hired by Corralitos to coordinate the biological issues concerning water and wildlife habitat and who defended the DEIR before the City Council in March.
“All the issues raised in the letter are being addressed in the (Environmental Impact Report),” Long wrote in the letter. He also states that the Draft EIR is flawed and that it made assumptions without any information.
“Without enough information to reach a conclusion,” Long wrote, “the writers of the DEIR assumed a worst-case analysis regarding the issues referred to in the complaint.”
According to city Planning Director David Bischoff, letters were sent Thursday ordering that golf not be played until the permits are acquired. In response to the latest complaint, new letters will be sent asking that Fry’s prove that golf is not being played there.
Without the permits, there can be no construction on the site and golf is forbidden. In a letter dated June 25, Rowe says that “the golf course cannot be used until the (EIR) for this project is completed and certified.”
He goes on to say that the course cannot be used until the endangered species are protected.
The new complaints assert that golf is still being played. Sorenson would not comment on this other than to say that AIM is currently resolving a dispute with the city over the old temporary use permit.
The new AIM center could be a good thing for the city; although, city officials are intent on making sure that the Institute plays by the book.
“Obviously, endangered species need to be protected and the city needs to fulfill its responsibility to protect them,” said Mayor Dennis Kennedy, who has used the site in the past for a campaign fundraiser. “The administrative response to the work that was done is that they stop until the Environmental Impact Report is done.”
He went on to say that he would like to see the course completed. Kennedy wants the proper steps to be taken but thinks that it would be a good thing to have.
“It would be a good thing to get the golf course finished,” he said. “It’s more of an improvement for AIM. I would like to see it go up.”
In response to the complaints, the city will meet with agencies that will have an interest in the matter including the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Army Corps of Engineers, California Department of Fish and Game and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Planning Manager Jim Rowe says that he is still in the process of coordinating the meeting and no time has yet been set.
“The meeting will be two-fold,” said Rowe. “The first is how to react to the complaint and the second is how to deal with the request for a temporary use permit.”
On July 8, Sorenson applied for a new temporary use permit. According to Rowe, because there are so many agencies with jurisdiction in the case, the time line for a new permit is unclear.
Rowe says that in most cases where complaints are filed with the city, the violators don’t know that they had done anything wrong. He says that city typically offers to work with the owner to settle the complaint.
“We set a timeline for the owner to complete the work,” said Rowe. “All we look for is progress (by the deadline). We will work with the owner to get the complaint resolved.” Deadlines are made on a case-by-case basis depending on the amount of work needed to comply with city regulations.
Problems began back in 1998 when AIM along with Fry’s Electronics decided to have a conference building on the former Hill Country Golf Course on Foothill Avenue southeast of the city. As part of the project, they received a permit to improve the existing nine-hole, 40 acre course, but the full course could not be completed until the EIR was finished. According to Rowe, despite the restriction, AIM went ahead and improved the course to 18 holes and a total of 150 acres.
According to City Manager Ed Tewes, a temporary use permit was issued with the intent that it would expire after the EIR was completed. The permit expired without the completion of the EIR.
Sorenson has claimed that he was issued a verbal extension from Rowe in the form of a voice mail. Rowe denies the allegation, saying he doesn’t have the ability to do so.
“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.”
As a result of these allegations, CGF and SCVAS filed a complaint with the city on July 11.
In March a revised DEIR, was made that issued concerns for the water supply. Sorenson says that AIM has completed studies on creeks and the aquifer. According to Sorenson, the water is clean and has not been affected by fertilizer. The CGF and SCVAS claimed that nitrates found in fertilizer could contaminate the water supply. Sorenson says that the water is fine.
“We found that there were less nitrates in our creeks and ponds than there was already in the under ground water,” he said. “So if our water gets down into the aquifer, it will actually make it better.”
While protecting the ground water is tops in everyone’s minds, Schmidt asks that the latest claim be taken with a grain of salt.
“It defies common sense that fertilizing won’t bring any contamination,” he said.
A new DEIR is in the works. According to Rowe, the information gathered will be in by the end of July and the report will be circulated by September.
In Long’s letter, he says that AIM has made proposals to reduce the impacts described in the DEIR to less than significant. He says that most of these are in place and they are working with the city to address all the issues.
“Unfortunately, the people who filed the complaint have not read these more in-depth studies and are still assuming the worst.”
The golf course is a part of AIM’s conference center, built from the old Flying Lady restaurant building on the site.
Sorenson told the council in March 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 says that the center will be used to bring mathematicians from around the world.
In his July 18 letter, Long says that through studies of conditions of the area, issues that were deemed important in the DEIR were not. He also says that the course does not pose a threat to the environment.
Despite all that has gone on, Sorenson is still hopeful that it will all be worked out and the conference center will be opened.
“My hope is that AIM and the city can expeditiously conclude the EIR process, so that we can build a conference center because I think it is something that will benefit Morgan Hill.”
