MORGAN HILL
– The Institute golf course faced an environmental challenge at
Tuesday’s Planning Commission meeting and came out – temporarily –
ahead.
MORGAN HILL – The Institute golf course faced an environmental challenge at Tuesday’s Planning Commission meeting and came out – temporarily – ahead.
On a 7-0 vote, the commission denied an appeal by the Committee for Green Foothills and the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society to revoke or modify a Temporary Use Permit to operate the course given to John Fry’s American Institute of Mathematics.
The TUP was issued with a list of 27 conditions under which Corralitos Creek LLC, the formal developing group, would be allowed to continue maintaining the course and, for a short time, limited play. Brian Schmidt of Green Foothills and Craig Breon of Audubon Society challenged the TUP, wanting to relieve the area’s ecology from winter applications of fertilizer and pesticides, to reduce mowing and more clearly delineate punishments should Corralitos fail to meet any of the 27 conditions.
Planning Manager Jim Rowe said Wednesday that the commission denied the appeal because, during the off-season, course management will cut back on fertilizer and pesticide applications on the acres of turf. Course Manager Steve Sorenson told the commission that he plans on only two applications between this week and the expiration of the TUP on March 31, 2004, Rowe said.
Schmidt and Breon asked in their appeal, that the areas to be mowed be delineated.
“They will also cut back on mowing, from almost every day to as long as two weeks,” Rowe said, allowing the turf to grow longer since rounds of golf are now forbidden until the EIR is approved.
“Besides, they will be removing turf from buffer areas, resulting in less area to be mowed,” Rowe said. Buffer areas are sites between the greens and the extensive creek area.
As a third point of appeal, Schmidt said he wanted any violation of the TUP to automatically trigger shutting down the entire course. The commission also rejected this, 7-0.
Schmidt, who attended the meeting, said he had not changed his opinion at all.
“They (the city) did no environmental analysis prior to approving the permit,” Schmidt said Wednesday. “We lost that battle but could still win the war. The city has said they will revise the whole TUP process so giant projects like this one don’t get through.”
