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Greenbelt Alliance In the News
May 8, 2007
Editorial on
Coyote Valley EIR on the Money
'We Have to Get
a Better Handle on Development'
Michelle Beasley
Dear Editor,
I agree wholeheartedly with your April 25 editorial alerting South County
residents to pay attention to the Coyote Valley draft environmental impact
report, especially
this: "If it's poorly planned, development of Coyote Valley would clog
our roads, reduce farmland, pollute our air [and] drain our water supply."
Coyote Valley isn't the only place to watch out for bad development. Plans
for a mega-mall on farmland in Gilroy, would do the same thing the editorial
predicts
for Coyote Valley. The sprawling retail off Pacheco Pass has created traffic
nightmares and polluted air. Let's protect our remaining farmland from a
similar fate. One way to do that would be to strengthen Gilroy's agricultural
mitigation
policies, which so far have done little to mitigate for farmland lost to
development.
Coyote Valley will have an enormous impact on South County, and so will South
County development decisions. In Morgan Hill, San Martin, and Gilroy, we
have to get a handle on development with better planning. It's time to stop
annexing
land and pushing development out to the edge, and start protecting our farmland.
One positive note: finally, Morgan Hill and Gilroy are starting to invest
in their downtowns - it's long overdue, but well worth it.
Michele Beasley, South Bay Field Representative, Greenbelt Alliance
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