SAN MARTIN
– A hangar project at the San Martin airport has been approved
by county supervisors but may face a legal challenge from area
residents who say environmental studies on the project are
inadequate.
SAN MARTIN – A hangar project at the San Martin airport has been approved by county supervisors but may face a legal challenge from area residents who say environmental studies on the project are inadequate.
Supervisors voted 4-0 Tuesday to approve design plans and adopt the results of an environmental study for 100 new hangars planned for South County Airport.
The San Martin Neighborhood Alliance won’t decide until early next week whether to file a legal challenge over the project’s environmental studies, but leaders say it’s a strong likelihood.
“There are all kinds of problems with the way they did this,” said Richard van’t Rood, a San Martin resident and volunteer attorney for the alliance.
But county officials say the hangar project has been discussed several times and it was time to move on Tuesday.
“If they want to pursue (a lawsuit), they certainly can,” said Edwin Chan, a transportation aide to District 1 County Supervisor Don Gage. “I feel the county went through the process and all of the protocols. … It’s an issue that’s been discussed many times before in different forums, and it’s time to move forward.”
The county originally was expected to approve the environmental review for the hangars last year. However, the county retooled and recirculated those studies to address comments by the county fire marshal and also added a section on noise impacts from planes expected to use the new hangars after the lack of one drew fire from residents.
The updated analysis is a so-called “mitigated negative declaration,” a level of environmental review that suggests there won’t be significant noise or other impacts from the 100-hangar project if the county takes specific measures in its design.
But alliance members have said the noise analysis is out of context because noise will have greater impacts in quieter, rural San Martin, and the county needs to do a better job of analyzing air pollution impacts from the additional planes.
They want the county to analyze the hangar project within the scope of a full-blown environmental impact report planned for the airport’s new master plan, which outlines provisions for growth there over the next 20 years.
While the county is in the midst of that update, officials approved and justified the new hangars under the last master plan, which was passed in 1982.
Meanwhile, residents have expressed frustration at what they consider a flawed public input process on the hangar project.
They note that a county supervisors committee made key recommendations on the updated study before the close of a shorter-than-usual public comment period.
Although copies of the updated study were hand-delivered to San Martin residents the second time around, the official public comment period fell between scheduled meetings of the county-formed San Martin Planning Advisory Committee – meaning they couldn’t formally review it the second time around before a supervisors’ recommendation.
Alliance members asked for access to county files on the hangar project, but said they did not get a formal response until they petitioned a judge.
And before it was altered, the initial environmental study was sent to Gilroy and Morgan Hill last year but never submitted to the advisory committee for review – when the airport is in San Martin.
“The board made their decision without input from SMPAC or airport commissioners,” said Sylvia Hamilton, president of the neighborhood alliance.
Chan said the San Martin advisory committee was established to advise the county mostly on private development, and committee members were given a “heads up” on the project as a courtesy.
The updated hangar project and environmental study was put on the Airport Commission’s agenda for review, but the group did not have a quorum at recent meetings where it could officially take action, he said.
County staff also reviewed and responded in detail to a comment letter sent by the alliance, he said.
“It’s not like it’s a top-secret project,” he said. “It’s been out there.”
The input process took another odd turn Tuesday when San Martin residents who drove to San Jose to comment before the board missed the opportunity.
Hamilton said she appeared at the beginning of the board’s afternoon session and, noticing a large amount of people present, asked airports officials when they thought the hangar project would be considered. They estimated it would be at least 3:30 p.m. She asked whether they thought she had time to visit the downstairs cafeteria, they said yes and she notified them she was going to do so.
Shortly after 2:20 p.m., an airports official came into the cafeteria and told her the item was over.
Hamilton noted it’s not county officials’ job to make sure she’s in the board chambers when the issue is considered.
“I don’t know what happened,” she said. “I wasn’t there so I can’t complain about anything they did or said.”
Still, since county officials had given her information on the expected timing – and knew she was going to be in the cafeteria – it would have been nice if they’d contacted her, she said. She said that’s what she would have done if the tables were turned.
“It would have been a nice thing for them to do, but I can’t fault them …” she said.
Chan said another supervisor had put the hangar item on the consent agenda – where several items are voted on in one motion – but Gage asked that it be removed so residents could comment.
It went before supervisors as the last item on the agenda. When another aide was sent to the hallway to look for speakers on the issue, he did not find them. And no one had filled out a speaker card on the item, so the vote proceeded.
“Don can’t have all of the other supervisors and staff wait,” Chan said. “It was the last item on the agenda.”
