Round three of the on-going tussle between the city and the
Institute Golf Course on Foothill Avenue will open at 6 p.m.
Wednesday. The City Council has scheduled a public hearing on the
Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) at which they will hear
from the public on issues raised by the course
’s existence. Planning Manager Jim Rowe said the public can
comment in person at the meeting or by letter or e-mail to City
Hall, to 5 p.m. Feb. 4.
Round three of the on-going tussle between the city and the Institute Golf Course on Foothill Avenue will open at 6 p.m. Wednesday. The City Council has scheduled a public hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) at which they will hear from the public on issues raised by the course’s existence.
Planning Manager Jim Rowe said the public can comment in person at the meeting or by letter or e-mail to City Hall, to 5 p.m. Feb. 4.
“It’s best to submit comments in writing,” Rowe said, so to avoid possible misunderstandings. So far the city has received no public comments and has heard from only two agencies, Caltrans and County Roads.
“They usually all come in right at the end,” he said.
At issue will be mitigations, or fixes, The Institute will have to do satisfy a slew of agencies looking out for the area’s water quality, wildlife, riparian (river) habitat plus the need for building permits.
Resident Mark Grzan, is a longtime critic of the golf course and of what he claims is the city’s apparent easy treatment of Corralitos, LLC, the course’s property owners that include local resident John Fry of Fry’s Electronics.
“The golf course has destroyed natural habitat, endangered wildlife and added a number of problems from depleting the area’s water supply to adding nitrates to what remains. Its placement and design does not blend, complement or integrate with the surrounding area. It violates many precepts of our general plan. Many natural trees defined by ordinance have been removed. In fact, 27 major issues were raised by the EIR which is jam-packed with alarms. All of this and more was incredibly done without approval, review and an authorizing permit, ” Grzan wrote in a column published in the Jan. 27 edition of The Times.
The applicant told the Planning Commission Tuesday, Rowe said, that they disagreed with the EIR’s view of the potential for downstream flooding, with the need to reduce irrigation levels, the interpretation of nitrate levels differing between ponds and wells.
Interestingly enough, Rowe said, water moved from the wells on site to the ponds used for irritating acres of greens showed significant lower levels of nitrates after the move than before, an unexpected finding.
“No one has yet determined what causes this denitrification,” Rowe said.
Morgan Hill and The Institute have been at odds ever since the planning department discovered in 1998 that The Institute had gone way beyond the scope of permits in renovating the golf course on Foothill Avenue, formerly the site of the Flying Lady Restaurant and Hill Country.
The course was built as the recreational arm of the American Institute of Mathematics by Corralitos Creek, LLC, the property owners, including local resident John Fry.
AIM, now based in Palo Alto, plans to move to the site.
Substantial revisions were made to five sections of the revised draft EIR, including the project description.
• Geology and soil: a mitigation for erosion and siltation on the course is suggested by the EIR but not proposed, so far, by The Institute. The document also questions the seismic safety of the existing Flying Lady building and wants structural stability before it could be used.
The building, according to Institute officials, will be fully renovated – or even replaced – before use.
• Vegetation and Wildlife: On-going golf course use has, the EIR claims, adversely affected native animals and the original waterway. Rowe said that, where the original draft EIR wanted a 200-foot buffer around Corralitos Creek, that runs through the course, the revised version reduces that space. Instead, The Institute would be required to purchase other property off-site as a mitigation.
• Hydrology and Water Quality: 31 downstream wells were monitored and most showed high levels of nitrates (a component of fertilizers used on grass and agricultural products). Tests showed that the levels in these wells have been going up over the past 13 years.
• Water supply: Rowe said reducing turf area will lessen the course’s drain on its wells and the underground aquifer, shared by others.
“They must reduce their consumption of water,” Rowe said. He also said the one area that might not be mitigated is the cumulative loss of agricultural area.
Randy Long, The Institute’s environmental consultant, said there are some signs to be optimistic about.
“We found 32 red-legged frogs breeding in all ponds and in all age groups, and only one bullfrog,” Long said. “The frogs are finding this just a dandy home.”
Long said because only one bullfrog was noted, they should be able to control the habitat without draining the ponds.
“That could expose the young to predations from raccoons and birds,” Long said. “(The U.S. department of ) Fish and Wildlife said this is now one of the larger populations anywhere in Santa Clara Valley.”
The EIR is available at City Hall, 17555 Peak Ave., at the library at Peak and West Main avenues and online at www.morgan-hill.ca.gov/ More details: 779-7271.
