SB-472 has been cancelled!!!!

SB-472 has been cancelled. However, it is still very important that you contant your local representatives to express you concern about development on the BAREC site. The City of Santa Clara and the State are still pursuing selling the property, and it is critical that you express your views. Below are good people to contact as well as some details about the bill that is no longer in circulation.

Please email and phone Alquist's, Cohn's, and Lieber's office (they need to hear your views):
- Senator Elaine Alquist:
Email: Senator.Alquist@sen.ca.gov
Phone: (916) 651-4013
District Office: (408) 286-8318

- Assemblywoman Rebecca Cohn:
Email: Assemblymember.Cohn@assembly.ca.gov
Phone: (916) 319-2024
District Office: (408) 282-8920

- Assemblywoman Sally Lieber:
Email: Assemblywoman.Lieber@assembly.ca.gov
Phone: (916) 319-2022
District Office: (408) 277-2003

Brief History of SB 472: Last fall Santa Clara's City Clerk decided to work on getting SB 472 introduced into the State because of the passing of SB-1102 of 2004 requiring State property to be sold at fair market value until July 1, 2005. The City of Santa Clara had been working with the State Department of General Services to get a reduced rate so it could build low income housing on the front six acres of BAREC. This bill made it impossible for the City to afford to purchase BAREC. It was introduced by Senator Elaine Alquist on February 18, 2005. It was only with good luck that we discovered this bill in April. We have not had the luxury of knowing about it since it was conceived last Fall. We believe it was written by housing lobbyists. We missed stopping the bill in the the second committee, the Senate Appropriations Committee by one vote. On June 1, 2005, the bill passed after a third attempt because it could not pass with a two-thirds vote. The Senate Republicans opposed the bill and the Democrats voted for it because our local Democratic Senator Alquist introduced the bill. The week of June 6, 2005, the bill was sent to the Assembly Business and Professions Committee. We have gone to Sacramento twice to lobby senators and are getting better at knowing how to stop the bill

Politics of SB 472: This is an excellent time to inform our State legislators about the issues surrounding BAREC. We should thank our pro-housing opponents for allowing this to happen. We were told we have a much better chance to stop the bill in the Assembly. We were also told that it is important to send the Assembly Business and Professions Committee many letters from organizations. These organizations will then be listed as opponents as the bill passes through the Assembly. Last September before the November election, we believe Santa Clara's City Clerk, the Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group, Charities Housing, Dan Potash (the State's consultant in charge of selling BAREC), and the City Councilmen who Potash gave campaign contributions to (Jamie Matthews and Rod Diridon, Jr.) decided to introduce SB 472 in January 2005 when Senator Alquist was sworn into her new office. Although Mayor Mahan has stated publicly on Comcast television that she supports keeping BAREC as open space, she has recently changed her position without any public meetings. After she appearing at a Senate hearing in support of the bill (April 26, 2005), she has publicly announced her plans to be a one-term mayor and to run for County Supervisor, Jim Beal's seat. She will be running against San Jose City Councilmember Ken Yeager who supports saving BAREC and Yeager has written a letter opposing SB 472. Yeager, whose district abuts BAREC on two sides and is deficit in open space by about 18 acres, met with Mayor Mahan shortly after her Comcast television (October 21, 2004) comments: "If the county would step forward and say we will join with the City of Santa Clara and purchase some of that [land] or if the City of San Jose wanted to contribute...it would be marvelous...To have 17 acres reserved as open space would be magnificent." The Mayor did not follow up on her BAREC television support comments and does not appear to be willing to work with Councilmember Ken Yeager. The developer industry supports housing on BAREC as does Mayor Mahan.

Here is a copy of the bill and information on where to send the letters: SB 472
Here is a letter from a Santa Clara citizen and an email response from Santa Clara Deputy City Manager, Carol McCarthy to the Santa Clara City resident.
...Keep writing so they hear you and understand the issues!!!

BAREC was placed on the agenda by request of Kirk Vartan. Many people spoke and a lot of perspectives, suggestions, and information was shared with the Council.

We have made the entire 36 minute section of the meeting available via video below. Additionally, we have broken-up the video into multiple segments, allowing you to easily see specific testimony from citizens and Council members, making it easier to hear the information you are interested in. However, in case there are any questions about the context of the statements, we are providing the entire video for viewing.

City Introduction:
> City Manager Introduction (3 minutes - 800KB)
> Planning Director Introduction (4 minutes - 1MB)
> City Manager Introduction (1 minute - 400KB)
Citizen comments:
> Kirk Vartan/Marguerite Lee (6 minutes - 1.8MB)
> Master Gardener Sharon McCray (3 minutes - 1MB)
> Lauren McCatchen (2 minutes - 600KB)
> Suzie Kiehls (1 minute - 300KB)
> Andy Grammet (2 minutes - 700KB)
> Bill Romano (2 minutes - 500KB)
City Staff/Council responses and comments:
> City Staff response - Goodfellow (2 minutes - 400KB)
> Councilmember Caserta (2 minutes - 500KB)
> Councilmember Mathews (2 minutes - 600KB)
> Councilmember Moore (2 minutes - 700KB)
> Mayor Mahan (3 minutes - 800KB)

Videos require: Microsoft Window Media

Four documents were shared with the City Council and the audience:
1. Kirk Vartan's Introduction, 2. Pre-meeting notes and information, 3. BAREC's supporter list, and
4. The San Jose Park's Committee letter, showing complete support for keeping BAREC as open space.

The following quotes can be clicked on to hear and see the actual video from the following people:

Planning Director Goodfellow:
"Those decisions [current development discussions] are merely preliminary, and the project will have to go through the full Environmental Impact [Report] review, General Plan amendment re-zoning, and probably sub-division maps before any final decisions can be made on the site."
"Closing on that [sales agreement] is contingent on the approval of the plans, just as it would be for the senior portion."
"Yes, the property is contaminated...the worst [soil] contamination will be physically removed."
Councilmember Caserta states:
"I just cannot stand here and say let's just have it [BAREC] all open space."
"Where's the money to do this?"
Councilmember Mathews states:
"I'm a fifth generation, native Santa Claran. My great, great, great, grandfather went out and fought; he's one of those Civil War people."
"The history that I'm going to make is going to be made today...to get this site developed..."
"We're not going to resolve Santana Row's issues of traffic or Valley Fair's traffic by not developing this site..."
Councilmember Moore states:
"I know there's a park. I'd like to see it a little bit bigger. That neighborhood needs a park."
Mayor Mahan states:
"The reality is, the property is going to be developed... and there's nothing we can do to stop it. We can't withhold zoning arbitrarily, unless you want to subject this City to a lawsuit that will bankrupt it...and, it's just not going to happen, and I'm sorry to say, that's just the reality of it."

Entire video of the Council meeting:
Complete video (36 minutes - 9MB)

Environmental Concerns with David Bonasera
Where: Comcast Community Television
When: October 12, 2004
Guests:
> Santa Clara City Mayor Patricia Mahan
> Terry Trumbull (environmental lawyer)
> Shiloah Ballard (Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group)
> Kathryn Mathewson (SaveBAREC, Secret Gardens)
> Cameron Colson (California Compliant)
> Joe Cernac (Sierra Club Guadalupe Group in Santa Clara Valley)

This Comcast TV program has two half-hour segments. If you would like to see it in its entirety, we would be happy to share it with you and/or your neighborhood and friends. Please contact us at: info@savebarec.org or 408-292-9595.

See/hear two minutes in her own words.
Microsoft Windows Media: Click here (3MB - 2min)
Apple Quicktime: Click here (4MB - 2min).
Requires Microsoft Window Media or Apple Quicktime

What Santa Clara City Mayor Mahan said on TV:

"To have 17 acres reserved as open space would be magnificent. I do not know that anyone of us sitting here today would argue that fact." Listen to her

"If the county would step forward and say we will join with the City of Santa Clara and purchase some of that [land] or if the City of San Jose wanted to contribute...it would be marvelous." Listen to her

"There is no [BAREC] plan yet....The conceptual plan is, is just like a placeholder. The City Council has done nothing to approve a plan. We have not even seen a plan." Listen to her

The program was one hour long. So, in order to save space and show highlights, we captured certain passages, capturing the essence of the statements above; the Mayor disagrees. You can see her comments as seen the following email she sent to SaveBAREC.org on April 8, 2005.