MORGAN HILL
– One more roadblock to golfing on a controversial course went
up when two environmental groups appealed the city’s decision to
allow watering, feeding and mowing this summer.
MORGAN HILL – One more roadblock to golfing on a controversial course went up when two environmental groups appealed the city’s decision to allow watering, feeding and mowing this summer.
The Committee for Green Foothills and the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society sent a letter April 30 asking the city to revoke a temporary use permit issued by David Bischoff, the city of Morgan Hill’s community development director.
The permit allows The American Institute of Mathematics to maintain the course built in the eastern foothills while officials work to meet the environmental requirements of four agencies. Play, Bischoff said, would not be allowed until the requirements are met, which was planning staff’s recommendation. Several planning commissioners , however, recommended allowing play along with maintenance work.
“The Planning Commission’s first responsibility is to protect the city’s interests, not golfing,” said Brian Schmidt, the Committee for Green Foothill’s legislative advocate. “The Institute doesn’t need to be given a reward for doing something it was obligated to do anyway.”
The course, located at 14830 Foothill Avenue, is planned as the future home of John Fry’s American Institute of Mathematics, once the course meets standards set by an environmental impact report, expected before the commission on May 25.
Schmidt said The Institute had repeatedly broken the law by building the course without permits and balking at repairing the environmental damage caused during construction.
Audubon Executive Director Craig Breon and Schmidt summed up their objections in the April 30 letter.
“The Institute consciously decided to break the law when they built their golf course without permits and they have repeatedly broken the law since then by operating (and sometimes playing) on the course in periods when they had no (permits).”
Before he retired last month, Bischoff said he had sufficient reasons for issuing the permit.
“There are six items they must satisfy before we can allow play,” Bischoff said, including moving weather station monitors that control irrigation, installing proper screening over the intake in a pond, returning the area bordering Corralitos Creek to its natural state and presenting a plan for monitoring wells.
Bischoff said that, in his opinion, The Institute can better meet these requirements if allowed to continue maintaining the course than if it was not.
He cited removal of predatory bullfrogs – which prey on the protected red-legged frogs, as an example.
Schmidt took issue with the commission making decisions on environmental matters asking that the appeal go directly to the City Council.
“We think our appeals should be heard by the City Council and not by the Planning Commission,” Schmidt said Tuesday.
A further issue arose Tuesday when Schmidt predicted The Institute had not even signed the permit, as it was required to do. City Planning Manager, Jim Rowe said golf course manager Steve Sorenson had begun the process.
“We received a fax with Steve Sorenson’s signature on one of two required lines and a promise that the original would be sent by mail,” Rowe said.
The original has not yet been received nor a second signature.
