GILROY
– Attorneys for both the city and local open space activists
agree that a more stringent version of a farmland preservation bill
is necessary to pass environmental muster and save Gilroy up to
$100,000 in consultant and lawyers fees.
GILROY – Attorneys for both the city and local open space activists agree that a more stringent version of a farmland preservation bill is necessary to pass environmental muster and save Gilroy up to $100,000 in consultant and lawyers fees.
But this latest twist in the city’s year-old effort to develop an agriculture preservation policy is not sitting well with a specially formed task force charged with creating the plan. At the task force’s Wednesday night meeting, after the city attorney’s opinion essentially killed critical aspects of the group’s original proposal, task force member and farmer Ralph Santos stepped down from his chairman role.
“This is too emotional for me,” Santos said. “We based our policy on something we’re now being told we can’t do. To me, that’s a waste of time.”
The city’s lawyer also says those land purchases – or the payment of a fee in lieu of a purchase – must be made at full market value, rather than a specially reduced price.
