By Julie Hutcheson
Responses to the long awaited Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for Morgan Hill’s Southeast Quadrant (SEQ) Plan expose what Committee for Green Foothills has been saying all along – the plan is indefensible.
Our 20-page comment letter is one of many pointing out the major flaws in the City of Morgan Hill’s EIR for its Citywide Agricultural Preservation Program and Southeast Quadrant Land Use Plan. The EIR lacks credible disclosure and analysis of the significant environmental impacts to farmland, viewsheds, special status species, greenhouse gas emissions, growth inducement, and a riparian corridor just to name of few.
The very basis for the Plan – that of County policy encouraging the demise of agricultural in the SEQ area – is completely discredited by facts provided in the County Planning Department’s response. Even more devastating is the legal opinion contained in the Local Agency Formation Commission’s (LAFCo) letter to the City. Among other questionable legalities of the Plan, it establishes that the City’s decision to separate this Plan from the current General Plan update process does not meet legal requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act. (You can access some of these responses to the City’s EIR on our SEQ current projects page.)
Finally, the Citywide Agriculture Preservation Program is nothing more than a plethora of contradicting policies accompanied by an insufficient mitigation fee. The Program coupled with the SEQ Plan has little chance in achieving its goal of agricultural preservation within Morgan Hill.
It is time for the City of Morgan Hill to rethink its plan and direction. Logic and the realities of sensible planning demand it. We can only hope they will hear and heed.
We will keep you posted with updates and opportunities to get involved should the City decide otherwise.
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