MORGAN HILL
– There was no disputing that the American Institute of
Mathemics would be a good addition to Morgan Hill. However, the
Institute’s golf course was a highly debated issue at Wednesday’s
Morgan Hill City Council workshop to review the golf course’s
environmental impacts.
MORGAN HILL – There was no disputing that the American Institute of Mathemics would be a good addition to Morgan Hill. However, the Institute’s golf course was a highly debated issue at Wednesday’s Morgan Hill City Council workshop to review the golf course’s environmental impacts.
A dozen people tried to convince the Council that the AIM moving to Morgan Hill from Palo Alto was a good thing for the city.
Council did not need convincing, being well aware of AIM’s reputation and benefits.
“I don’t need convincing,” Councilwoman Hedy Chang said. “They are wonderful; we would love to have the Math Institute here.”
However, on the agenda was a review of the revised draft environmental impact report for the 110-acre golf course on Foothill Avenue, developed by Corralitos LLC and John Fry, owner of Fry’s Electronics, largely without sufficient and timely permits.
The golf course and proposed math institute are on the former Hill Country complex that included the Flying Lady restaurant.
“The Math Institute and the golf course are two different things,” Chang said. “We would welcome AIM but also want to make sure the golf course is a good neighbor and fits into the environment.”
Mayor Dennis Kennedy also seemed puzzled that the matter was even in question.
“AIM would be a wonderful thing for Morgan Hill,” Kennedy said, “but, nonetheless, we have to ensure the golf course and its facilities do have proper permits and meet all the environmental requirements. That’s the number-one issue.”
“This isn’t about math,” said Brian Schmidt, legislative advocate for the Committee for Green Foothills. “I have no objection to the Math Institute. The issue is the golf course and the need for it to cause no harm.”
Discussion of the draft environmental impact report’s adequacy took more than two and one-half hours. Council chambers were full of speakers, testifying for or against the golf course and the AIM. No one spoke against the AIM.
Proponents had submitted a stack of letters praising AIM’s work in mathematical research, with local school children, presenting public lectures and its plan to tutor students and train local math teachers when and if it comes to town.
Other letters detailed residents’ problems with the golf course, mostly environmental.
Several neighbors of the golf course told of a dense row of Italian cypress trees planted on an elevated berm completely surrounding the property’s perimeter.
“I’m concerned about our views,” resident Rich Gamboa said. “The EIR didn’t mention it. It was nice to look at the hills, but soon the view will be completely obstructed.”
Council directed the city’s environmental consultants, Michelle Yesney and Demitri Loukas of David Powers Consultants, to look into the view issue.
“We may have to recirculate the draft EIR if significant new scientific information is received,” City Attorney Helene Leichter said.
The next step is for the city to take comments from fish and wildlife agencies who have asked for additional time, the consultants from Powers will review public and agency comments and prepare responses, and the final version of the EIR will go first to the Planning Commission and then to the Council.
Planning Manager Jim Rowe said the review may take about four weeks.
The draft EIR presented a list of 27 problem areas that the course is said to inflict on resident animals, vegetation and neighbors off-site.
Kennedy said he was encouraged that on this second go-round with a now-revised draft EIR, The Institute has agreed to mitigate 24 of 27 issues raised by the city’s consultants, several regional, state and federal fish, wildlife and water agencies and at least two environmental watchdog groups.
“Only four remain to be resolved,” Kennedy said.
If the problems – or impacts – can be mitigated to the city’s (and agencies’) satisfaction, the Council will be able to certify the EIR and play can resume on the course. Play and work were ordered to cease when a Temporary Use Permit expired last fall. The city padlocked the gates when work continued without permits and threatened to go to court.
The Institute’s backers, however, challenge some of the 27, saying either that they have already been fixed or that they are not a problem. Flooding onto Foothill Avenue is one such conflict; increased nitrate levels in downstream wells is another. The DEIR claims the course causes flooding into the street and onto neighboring property during heavy rains.
Steve Sorenson, a co-founder of AIM and in charge of the golf course, told the Council that the flooding occurred during one season when a drainage culvert was omitted from a new entrance road.
Denise Matulich, who lives near the course, differed.
“I’m here to impress upon you the impacts this golf course is having on the community,” Matulich said. “The culvert is not adequate; we have extensive flooding that comes from the course.”
Matulich said nitrates in her well have risen over the past three years – since the course has been fertilized with nitrate-loaded chemicals.
Sorenson said nitrate levels in grass and irrigation water are so carefully monitored that it was almost impossible for nitrates from the course to end up downstream.
Tom Richardson, who has lived in the neighborhood for 11 years, said he is not worried about the nitrate levels and is enthusiastic about the golf course and AIM.
“The Institute looks great, and it will help our property values.”
The Institute has said it intends to renovate or replace the Flying Lady Restaurant building, red-tagged since before Fry and his associates bought it, and re-use it as AIM headquarters and an international mathematics research conference center. The golf course would be a recreational offering for visiting mathematicians.
