Environmentalists demand more review before development
begins
Gilroy – Local environmentalists are demanding additional environmental review before homes rise in the Hecker Pass corridor, Gilroy’s scenic western gateway, arguing that property owners hoping to cash in on the development potential of the land failed to disclose the possibility that dozens of historic cedar trees would have to come down.
The approval of the Hecker Pass Specific Plan early in 2005 cleared the way for hundreds of new homes along the scenic corridor. Over the summer, city officials disclosed that developments plans calling for two new intersections along Hecker Pass could require chopping down dozens of the 115 historic Deodara cedars lining the south side of road.
On Monday, city officials will vote on competing alternatives for the road widening – one that would mean cutting down 30 cedars on the south side of the road, just west of Santa Teresa Boulevard, and a second that would spare 26 of those trees but require a 1,600-foot retaining wall on the north side.
Members of Save Open Space Gilroy favor the latter option but are demanding a supplemental Environmental Impact Report before any housing projects move forward. The demand could stall development for months and cost landowners thousands of additional dollars.
“The Hecker Pass Specific Plan says all through it that the cedars should be saved, but it does not talk about the need for road widening or the secondary effects of having those intersections,” SOS member Connie Rogers said. “It doesn’t of course note that the trees are eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. There’s quite a bit of information that was not addressed.”
The specific plan references the possibility of trees coming down in section 4.4 on Circulation and Transportation: “By avoiding future widening along most of the corridor, the existing stands of Deodara Cedar trees that add to the scenic quality of this corridor can be preserved to the greatest extent possible.”
City officials rejected a proposal to widen the scenic road to four lanes, but now face state requirements calling for turning lanes and wider shoulders along the stretch of road approaching both future intersections.
City Planner Melissa Durkin defended the specific plan, saying that such “program-level” documents do not include engineering studies capable of forecasting detailed impacts. She said the city is “doing supplemental environmental work tiered off that program-level work that we believe will be adequate.”
Joel Goldsmith, a member of the specific plan task force, said that he and fellow Hecker Pass landowners were not aware of the full extent of road widening needed to connect housing developments with Hecker Pass at two intersections – one by the Gilroy Golf Course, and a second to the east, facing Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
“I was involved in that specific plan process and I didn’t have any understanding that would be necessary. That didn’t come to my attention until after the plan was approved,” Goldsmith said. “It’s being portrayed as the desire of the developers, but we are simply doing what Caltrans told us to do.”
Goldsmith pointed out that the road widening plan favored by SOS members poses its own problems.
“If they save the trees (on the south), they are absolutely going to butcher the hillside and lose about 17 trees,” he said.
During a study session earlier this month, a majority of council members expressed support for the southern option favored by developers, citing the desire to avoid the retaining wall. At the same meeting, officials expressed support for state plans to shift the eroded Uvas Creek Bridge to the north – a move that would spare 15 historic cedars but require a 1,500 retaining wall.
Either option would cost the city nearly half of a million dollars, but the option favored by council would save landowners more roughly $2 million.
The final decision on a widening plan rests with state transportation officials at Caltrans, who control the right of way on both sides of the road.
SOS member Carolyn Tognetti hopes to convince Caltrans officials to side with them on the northern widening option – even if it means defying the wishes of city council.
“I got the sense that the opinion of city council would weigh more heavily than that of environmental groups,” Tognetti said following an information session with Caltrans officials. “But if there’s a great groundswell of support from the community, they may give us greater consideration.”
Caltrans officials did not return calls for comment.
