Planning Commissioners will be asked at tonight
’s meeting to approve a temporary use permit (TUP) for The
Institute Golf Course, in the face of opposition from environmental
groups who ask for a delay.
Planning Commissioners will be asked at tonight’s meeting to approve a temporary use permit (TUP) for The Institute Golf Course, in the face of opposition from environmental groups who ask for a delay.
The TUP would allow limited maintenance of the course on Foothill Avenue until an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is complete and the course, built largely without proper permits or environmental studies, can be made legal. The property also needs to be rezoned.
David Bischoff, director of community development (planning), said in the staff report that he believes a new TUP and its particular requirements are the best way to limit adverse effects on plant and animal life in the area.
“Maintenance of the golf course and continuation of the present environmental conditions, will have fewer potential impacts to endangered species than would be true without the TUP,” his report said.
The city and The Institute, owned by John Fry of Fry’s Electronics, have been wrangling over the permits for years and the end – a completed EIR – is in sight. The EIR is scheduled to go to the commission on May 9, and to the City Council on June 2.
Last summer the city allowed limited play on the course through September and maintenance to continue through March 31, 2004; Steve Sorenson, representing The Institute, is asking for permission to extend the maintenance permit to April 16, 2005.
Resuming golf is not an option with the TUP; that, the planning department’s staff report says, will not happen until – and if – the EIR is certified and rezoning is complete.
Two of four agencies involved in the EIR and determining what The Institute must repair, replace or improve, weighed in, advising that The Institute is not in compliance with several conditions from the 2003 TUP.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District wants to see revised plans for installing monitoring wells and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to see results of bullfrog surveys and a riparian buffer restoration plan.
The Institute’s landscapers replaced significant area surrounding Corralitos Creek, which runs through the property, with turf. USFW wants much of the wild area restored to provide safe habitat for area wildlife.
Staff recommends that the new TUP not become effective until details of the former one are complied with and requires two immediate actions.
• Water quality impacts will be minimized by limiting irrigation, checked with sampling and following the water district’s approved Irrigation and Fertilization Management Plan.
• Potential impacts to listed (not quite endangered) species will be avoided by restoring the creek’s buffer area, limiting hours that mechanical equipment operates to those when the animals would be disturbed the least.
With these controls, city staff is recommending that the Planning Commission grant the TUP. However, the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society and the Committee for Green Foothills, two groups keeping a close eye on the golf course, have objected.
“A TUP is not necessary in order to prevent adverse environmental impacts at the site and cannot be legally granted without CEQA compliance,” said a letter to the commission from Brian Schmidt of Green Foothills and Craig Breon of the Audubon Society.
City Attorney Helene Leichter said CEQA will be complied with before the TUP can go into action.
“We will keep to the status quo pending finalization of the CEQA review,” Leichter said.
Schmidt and Breon asked the commission to delay its decision so the public can be heard on Bischoff’s proposed changes.
“As proposed by The Institute,” the letter continued, “the TUP is both legally flawed and not sufficiently protective of human health and natural resources on this site.”
The Institute plans to move The American Institute of Mathematics, now based in Palo Alto, to the property when the golf course and its worries have been resolved and when the old Flying Lady restaurant building is either renovated or replaced with a new Institute building.
AIM is a mathematics research institution with a worldwide reputation. Its executive director, Brian Conrey, has been instrumental in starting Math Counts in Morgan Hill arrea schools. He wants to expand the program, which brings to joys of math to middle school-aged students and exposes them to the rigors of regional math competitions.
Fry has underwritten the program.
The Planning Commission will meet at 7 tonight in City Council Chambers, 17555 Peak Ave. The meeting will be broadcast live on cable channel 17. Details: www.morgan-hill.ca.gov or 779-7271. The Institute: www.aimath.org/
