DEAR EDITOR:
To Mayor Al Pinheiro and City Council members, I wish to express
my sincere thanks for your time and energy in dealing with the Mesa
Ridge Development hearing on Tuesday.
DEAR EDITOR:
To Mayor Al Pinheiro and City Council members, I wish to express my sincere thanks for your time and energy in dealing with the Mesa Ridge Development hearing on Tuesday.
As a five-year resident of the valley, I have seen great changes in the landscape of our beautiful area. To those of us that are lucky enough to own properties here, we know what an absolute blessing it is to live in such a fabulous part of the country.
Gilroy represents the absolute best of South County living. We are close to Silicon Valley while still enjoying quite, clean, safe and rural-like lifestyles. We can go to sleep at night listening to crickets and the wind, not cars zooming by. We can wake up and see beautiful, mist-covered hills with the sun streaming over the horizon, not rooftops. We can go for walks, confident that traffic and hooligans will not disrupt our promenade. These are only some of the reasons why we live here, we live here because of the quality people as well. We know our neighbors, they know us. We are a community, a group of people living in harmony with our environment. We have all paid a premium price and tried hard to keep this our reality.
Now, there are some that seem to want to turn this area into a little San Jose. Houses packed and stacked on top of one another, congested streets, lines at traffic lights, litter on the ground, sound pollution, light pollution, etc. This is not my vision of Gilroy. I doubt this is your vision of Gilroy either… This is what is happening, bit, by bit, by bit.
If we are not very careful, diligent and responsible, this will turn into a little San Jose. I believe that establishing bed communities, is not in the best interest of anyone in Gilroy. We are moving towards establishing clots of homes that are conducive to just that, bedroom communities. Tracts like this will house folks that work in San Jose, buy food in San Jose, buy fuel in San Jose, shop in San Jose, etc. We are willing to compromise our quality of life, our natural beauty, our precious community, our lives as we know them …
It is hard to remain objective whilst writing this, but the easy way is never the right way … I want a future for Gilroy that includes my children and grandchildren playing and exploring in the hills, learning about nature, being outside without me worrying about traffic or unsavory people. I am truly sad that the Council voted to approve this sham of a development. We need to keep developments out of the foothills, period.
We need to think long term. We need to lay the foundation for the responsible growth of Gilroy. We need to close our eyes and envision the Gilroy we want to see in five, 10, 50 years. Again, like life, the development of our area is a marathon, not a sprint. We need to sacrifice short term satisfaction for long term excellence. This will be your legacy, what do you want it be?
Conrad Bortz, Gilroy
Submitted Thursday, Jan. 22 to ed****@****ic.com
