MORGAN HILL
– A dispute over the 7,585-yard Fry’s golf course in southeast
Morgan Hill escalated when the Committee for Green Foothills and
the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society filed formal complaints with
the city.
MORGAN HILL – A dispute over the 7,585-yard Fry’s golf course in southeast Morgan Hill escalated when the Committee for Green Foothills and the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society filed formal complaints with the city.
“Letting the golf course operators use the course and especially to maintain the course prior to getting permits is rewarding them for their illegal behavior,” said Brian Schmidt, legislative advocate for the Palo Alto-based CGF. “They are harming their neighbors and the environment.”
“If they eventually get a permit to use the expanded area, they will be free to return it to a playable course, but right now they have no right to impose the environmental impact they’re having.”
Steve Sorenson, a partner of John Fry, of Fry’s Electronics, in the Math Institute and Corralitos Creek LLC, says a letter has been written to the city in response to the allegations.
“There were good points raised by the Committee for Green Foothills, but on greater analysis one might come to a different conclusion,” he said Thursday.
The American Math Institute has responded to the city in a July 18 letter from Randall Long, writing for AIM.
“All the issues raised in the letter are being addressed in the (Environmental Impact Report),” Long wrote. He also states that the Draft EIR is flawed.
“Without enough information to reach a conclusion,” Long wrote, “the writers of the DEIR assumed a worst-case analysis regarding the issues referred to in the complaint.”
Long is from RCL Ecology, the firm hired to oversee issues concerning water and wildlife habitat. RCL defended the DEIR before the City Council in March.
Is golf still being played?
According to city Planning Director David Bischoff, letters were sent Thursday ordering that golf not be played until permits are acquired. In response to the latest complaint, new letters will be sent asking that Fry’s prove that golf is not being played there.
Without the permits, there can be no construction on the site and golf is forbidden. In a letter dated June 25, Rowe says that “the golf course cannot be used until the (EIR) for this project is completed and certified.”
He goes on to say that the course cannot be used until the endangered species are protected.
The new complaints assert that golf is still being played. Sorenson would not comment other than to say that AIM is currently resolving a dispute with the city over the old temporary use permit.
Mayor wants the golf course
“Obviously, endangered species need to be protected and the city needs to fulfill its responsibility to protect them,” said Mayor Dennis Kennedy, who has used the site in the past for a campaign fund raiser. “The administrative response to the work that was done is that they stop until the Environmental Impact Report is done.”
He went on to say that he would like to see the course finished. But the proper steps need to be taken.
“It would be a good thing to get the golf course finished,” he said. “It’s more of an improvement for AIM. I would like to see it go up.”
In response to the complaints, the city will meet with various agencies including the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, the Army Corps of Engineers, California Department of Fish and Game and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Planning Manager Jim Rowe says he will coordinate the meeting.
“The meeting will be two-fold,” said Rowe. “The first is how to react to the complaint and the second is how to deal with the request for a temporary use permit.”
On July 8, Sorenson applied for a new temporary use permit. According to Rowe, because there are so many agencies that have jurisdiction in the case, the timeline for a new permit is unclear.
Rowe says that in most cases where complaints are filed with the city the violators don’t know that they have done anything wrong. He says that the city typically offers to work with the owner to settle the complaint.
“We set a timeline for the owner to complete the work,” said Rowe. “All we look for is progress (by the deadline). We will work with the owner to get the complaint resolved.”
Deadlines are made on a case-by-case basis depending on the amount of work needed to comply with city regulations.
How Fry’s problems started
Problems began back in 1998 when AIM along with Fry’s Electronics decided to build a conference building on the former 9-hole executive Hill Country Golf Course on Foothill Avenue southeast of the city. As part of the project, they received a permit to improve the existing 40-acre course, but the full course could not be completed until the EIR was finished. According to Rowe, despite the restriction, AIM went ahead and improved the course to 18 holes or a total of 150 acres.
According to City Manager Ed Tewes, a temporary use permit was issued with the intent that it would expire after the EIR was completed. The permit expired without the completion of the EIR.
Sorenson has claimed that he was issued a verbal extension from Rowe via voice mail. Rowe denies this.
“I have no memory of having left such a message,” Rowe said. “I don’t have the authority to do that.”
The municipal code states that temporary use permits may be extended for six months only and then only by the city planning director, currently Bischoff, not a planning manager. Rowe said he has worked in planning for 24 years and knows the rules.
“In any case,” Rowe said, “even if there was a six-month extension, it would have expired on Nov. 26, 2001.”
As a result of these allegations, CGF and SCVAS filed a complaint with the city on July 11.
Fewer nitrates in the ground water
In March, a revised DEIR was made that issued concerns for the water supply. The CGF and SCVAS claimed that nitrates found in fertilizer could contaminate the water supply. Sorenson says that AIM has completed studies on creeks and the aquifer. According to Sorenson, the water is clean and has not been affected by fertilizer.
“We found that there were less nitrates in our creeks and ponds than there was already in the underground water,” he said. “So if our water gets down into the aquifer, it will actually make it better.”
While protecting the ground water is top on everyone’s minds, Schmidt asks that the latest claim be taken with a grain of salt.
“It defies common sense that fertilizing won’t bring any contamination,” he said.
A new DEIR is in the works. According to Rowe, the information gathered will be in by the end of July and the report will be circulated by September.
In Long’s letter, he says that AIM has made proposals to reduce the impacts described in the DEIR to less than significant. He says that most of these are in place, and they are working with the city to address all the issues.
“Unfortunately, the people who filed the complaint have not read these more in-depth studies and are still assuming the worst.”
The golf course is a part of AIM’s conference center, built from the old restaurant building on the site.
Sorenson told the council in March that AIM will hold 24 conferences of one-week duration a year at the site, each with 24 participants. The course is designed to be part of the athletic attractiveness of the center which also includes hiking trails.
Sorenson says that the center will be used to bring mathematicians from around the world.
In his July 18 letter, Long contends that the course does not pose a threat to the environment.
Despite all that has gone on, Sorenson is still hopeful that it will all be worked out and the conference center will be opened.
“My hope is that AIM and the city can expeditiously conclude the EIR process, so that we can build a conference center, because I think it is something that will benefit Morgan Hill.”
