Dear Editor:
The Santa Clara County Land Conservation Initiative is being supported by a broad array of concerned citizens, environmental organizations, and elected leaders, as well as Greenbelt Alliance. It should not be confused (as Cynthia Walker’s column did, 4/11/06) with the County Board of Supervisors‚ push for design review guidelines for hillside homes.
The Land Conservation Initiative was also mischaracterized in an editorial on April 18. I’d like to avoid any further confusion.
The goal of the Land Conservation Initiative is to keep Santa Clara County a great place to live.
The initiative will protect hillsides, watersheds and wildlife habitat, safeguard our air and water quality, and preserve our county’s ranchland and working farms. It will prevent poorly planned, haphazard development of rural lands, and encourage new growth in our existing communities.
Santa Clara County will grow by 440,000 people in the next 25 years. If we want to accommodate that growth while keeping our high quality of life, we need to strengthen our land protections and do a better job of investing new growth in our cities and towns. The alternative will be far worse traffic and air quality for all of us, and a loss of the open space that makes this a beautiful place to live.
For more information, please visit www.openspace2006.org.
Michele Beasley
South Bay Field Representative, Greenbelt Alliance
