SAN JOSE
– Santa Clara County Supervisors’ Housing, Land Use, Environment
and Transportation Committee will consider the following items of
interest at meetings this Wednesday and Thursday:
SAN JOSE – Santa Clara County Supervisors’ Housing, Land Use, Environment and Transportation Committee will consider the following items of interest at meetings this Wednesday and Thursday:
• A study session to help decide whether to loosen rules that restrict development of large churches, schools and other so-called “large group assembly facilities” in rural unincorporated areas.
Current county land-use policies generally discourage such buildings in rural areas unless they serve strictly a local, rural population and do not result in large traffic increases or environmental impacts. But District 1 County Supervisor Don Gage commissioned a study on the issue after being contacted by several groups in the last year that were having trouble finding adequate places to expand.
• A recommendation from the county’s Roads Commission to pass a resolution asking that 50 percent of certain Proposition 42 funds – up to $10 million a year starting in 2009 – go to roads. Current plans would use those monies for mass transit.
• A recommendation to rename Mt. Madonna’s Sprig Lake day-use area.
• A revised list of land uses that are compatible with the Williamson Act, a state program that gives farmers property-tax breaks in exchange for resisting development of their land.
• A recommendation to accept the Coyote Valley Specific Plan and a Morgan Hill greenbelt study into the county’s work plan.
The committee is made up of Don Gage, who represents South County’s District 1, and District 3 Supervisor Pete McHugh, who represents portions of east and north county. The supervisors make recommendations on land-use issues to the full Board of Supervisors.
Both meetings begin at 9:30 a.m. in the Issac Newton Senter Auditorium at the County Government Center, 70 W. Hedding St. in downtown San Jose. The study session on assembly facilities is scheduled for Thursday; other items will be heard Wednesday. For information, call 299-4321.
