On Wednesday, the Morgan Hill City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for Juristac/Sargent Ranch to be permanently protected in its entirety as open space. Please thank the City Council for their vote using the form below!

Check out news footage of Green Foothills’ Legislative Advocacy Director Alice Kaufman speaking at the rally!

The evening began with an inspiring and emotional rally in front of Morgan Hill City Hall. The Smoky Bay Drummers opened the event followed by heartfelt remarks from a number of speakers, led by Chair Valentin Lopez of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. Both at the rally and at the City Council meeting afterwards, tribal members and allies spoke passionately of the need to protect the sacred landscape of Juristac from the proposed sand mining operation. 

Committee for Green Foothills staff Alice Kaufman and Julie Hutcheson spoke about the potential impacts to wildlife, the pristine landscape, and the community if the sand mine is approved.  Since Juristac is a critical wildlife corridor that species such as mountain lions rely on to migrate in and out of the Santa Cruz Mountains, a sand quarry here would cut off those migration routes with potentially devastating results to those vulnerable populations. The quarry would dig 4 pits hundreds of feet deep, pump about 76,000 gallons of groundwater per day and create hundreds of truck trips along Highway 101.

The Morgan Hill City Council supported our position, unanimously passing a resolution calling for Juristac/Sargent Ranch to be permanently protected in its entirety as open space. Although Morgan Hill does not have jurisdiction over this site and the final decision will rest with the County of Santa Clara, this resolution will send a strong message to both the County and the landowners that the local residents don’t want to see this landscape destroyed by an open-pit sand and gravel quarry. 

Next Steps

The Draft Environmental Impact Report on the quarry proposal is expected out soon, and we will be advocating with the County to deny the project. We will also be sure to let you know how you can weigh in on this part of the process.

For now, we ask you to please thank the Morgan Hill Councilmembers for voting to support the protection of Juristac!