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Santa Clara County Farmland

Santa Clara County was once known as "the Valley of Heart's Delight" for its fertile soils and flowering orchards. But much of Santa Clara County's farmland was lost long ago to sprawling development. To change how growth occurs, we need to make sure developing farmland is not convenient or free, and the true cost of greenfield development is apparent.

North San Jose Revitalization

North San Jose is home to more than 1,200 of the world’s best-known technology companies, including eBay. But North San Jose is showing its age, with an outdated land-use pattern that does not reflect the innovation and creativity one might expect from Silicon Valley. Instead, North San Jose is full of two- and three-story campus industrial buildings surrounded by vast parking lots, connected by wide streets that are built for speeding cars.

Morgan Hill

Morgan Hill has an Urban Growth Boundary that protects the land outside the city from development for 20 years, but speculators who own land outside the line have proposed an Urban Limit Line to expand the existing boundary and open protected land up to development.

In the November election, Morgan Hill voters passed Measure F, taking an important step to direct new development into the city’s downtown, rather than its outskirts.

Bay Meadows

The San Mateo City Council approved replacing the aging horse-racing track with a vibrant, mixed-use community that is within walking distance of the CalTrain Baby Bullet stop. A group opposed to the redevelopment of the racetrack mounted a referendum campaign and filed suit against the City and County of San Mateo, with the goal of putting the issue on the ballot. Greenbelt Alliance has endorsed the plan and will continue to be a vocal supporter of the project as it moves forward.

Coyote Valley

In the planning of Coyote Valley, 6,800 acres of farmland at the southern edge of San Jose, Greenbelt Alliance continues to advocate for smart growth policies developed from our report Getting It Right: Preventing Sprawl in Coyote Valley. Greenbelt Alliance also has been advocating that the triggers for development should not be relaxed to accommodate housing before jobs. It is in San Jose’s best interest to focus on the city-wide General Plan update and the redevelopment of North San Jose prior to making any further decisions on the development of this fertile valley west of Highway 101.

Sargent Ranch

Sargent Ranch is 6,500 acres of unincorporated farmland and wildlife habitat south of Gilroy. Several times over the last few years, developers have made proposals to develop Sargent Ranch with luxury homes and golf courses. Building in the unspoiled foothills of Sargent Ranch would require a zoning change in the County’s General Plan, setting a dangerous precedent for other such projects to follow suit. We will remain on the lookout for proposals to develop Sargent Ranch, and to support the County’s General Plan policies that promote development within existing urban areas, and work with our allies toward permanent protection of the Sargent Ranch lands.