A government agency that will ultimately decide whether San
Martin can incorporate instructed its staff to determine what to do
with thousands of acres of land as it considers the town’s
boundaries.
SAN JOSE
A government agency that will ultimately decide whether San Martin can incorporate instructed its staff to determine what to do with thousands of acres of land as it considers the town’s boundaries.
The controversy over the lands pitted incorporation proponents against activists who want the county to preserve farmland.
Neelima Palacherla, executive officer of the Santa Clara County Local Agency Formation Commission, expressed concern during a meeting Wednesday to consider the town’s boundaries that more than 2,000 acres of agricultural land could no longer be under the county’s discretion. For that reason, she recommended that lands extending to the north and south ends of the proposed boundaries be excluded from the draft of the incorporation study.
The proposed boundaries submitted by incorporation proponents roughly encompass a 10,473-acre area bounded by Maple Avenue on the north, New Avenue on the east, Masten Avenue on the south and Watsonville Road on the west. If added, the boundaries would extend north up to Maple Avenue and the south to Fitzgerald and Masten avenues.
LAFCO commissioners Don Gage, a Gilroy resident, and Susan Vicklund-Wilson, a Morgan Hill resident, said the the lands shouldn’t be considered agricultural. Gage said he believes the land is “rural residential” and needs to be within the proposed boundaries as leaving them out would “disenfranchise” residents who identified with San Martin and would like to be residents of the new town, he said.
Joe Rosa, a longtime Gilroy resident who moved to a house in San Martin located within the controversial lands in the south, said he feared being in “no man’s land” if LAFCO excludes his property. There are 40 acres of orchards behind his property, near Center Avenue between Church and Masten avenues, that have been abandoned by farmers and dried grapes hang on the vines, he said.
“I was satisfied that (commissioner) Gage represented us well down here,” Rosa said. “My main thing is: don’t change those boundaries.”
Rosa, a general contractor by profession, said LAFCO staff was “just trying to protect everybody that doesn’t need protection.”
Attorney Rick Vantrood, a San Martin resident and newly elected vice president of the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance, said LAFCO staff was unfamiliar with the area, which he described as “sporadic parcels mixed in with rural residential.”
San Jose resident Jim Foran, a self-described advocate for preserving agricultural land, said he prefers the lands remain under county oversight. “Incorporation would exempt farmland conversion from LAFCO’s review,” he said.
Michelle Beasley, of the Greenbelt Alliance, said the group was concerned that if San Martin incorporates, its leaders could green-light development on the lands.
LAFCO commissioners voted 5-0 to have its staff determine whether the land in question is agricultural or rural residential. While they voted to exclude the land pending staff recommendation, the commissioners amended the boundaries to include a chunk along Easy Street. LAFCO’s Palacherla said the agency was in negotiations with Morgan Hill officials on parts of the land within city boundaries, she said.
According to a study under review by LAFCO, incorporation would create a Town of San Martin that spans 16.5 square miles, an area slightly larger than Morgan Hill but smaller than Gilroy, Palacheria said. The new town’s population would be approximately 7,000.
Making changes to the boundaries presented in the study would require the consultant that prepared the study to reevaluate the analysis, Palacheria said. The staff will report back to LAFCO during its Feb. 16 meeting.
Incorporation proponents would have to pick up the tab on the additional consultant work, which has already cost between $100,000 and $125,000, Vantrood said. SMNA raised the money through various fund-raisers, including spaghetti dinners and a classic car show.
Ultimately, in addition to determining boundaries, LAFCO would need to determine whether there’s a sufficient tax base to support incorporation, or “revenue neutrality.” That study is in the beginning stages and was to be discussed at a meeting of the San Martin Planning Advisory Committee Wednesday night, Vantrood said.
