Consultants seek permission to enter local landowners’ property
to evaluate potential train route
More than a dozen San Benito County landowners were sent letters
by the California High-Speed Rail Authority asking permission to
enter their property to conduct engineering, environmental and
other surveys as the group studies potential environmental impacts
of the planned high-speed train system.
Consultants seek permission to enter local landowners’ property to evaluate potential train route
More than a dozen San Benito County landowners were sent letters by the California High-Speed Rail Authority asking permission to enter their property to conduct engineering, environmental and other surveys as the group studies potential environmental impacts of the planned high-speed train system.
The letters, dated Feb. 10, say the information gathered “will be used to determine the best location for the project and the steps necessary to mitigate for its environmental impacts.”
The nearly 800-mile California High Speed Rail System, expected to be fully operational by 2020, is slated to have routes from Southern California to Sacramento and to the Bay Area, transporting passengers at speeds up to 220 mph. A 123-mile stretch from Merced to San Jose would run through the Pacheco Pass with a proposed station in Gilroy.
A revised environmental impact report released in March said the rail line should access the Bay Area through the Pacheco Pass, rather than the Altamont Pass.
Landowners on Pacheco Pass Hwy. and Lovers Lane in San Benito County were among those to receive the letters, which seek permission for engineers, biologists, archeologists, hydrologists and other environmental resource specialists to conduct studies. A number of rural Gilroy residents received the same letter.
“Their work will primarily consist of observation,” read the letter, which goes on to say that any disturbances of the ground, if necessary, will be repaired immediately.
“No digging, trimming of brush, removal of crops, or other damage will be done,” said the letter from Dan Leavitt, deputy director of the High-Speed Rail Authority.
The letter stated that nothing would be removed from properties during the evaluations and that homes, apartments, office buildings and industrial complexes would not be included in the surveys, scheduled between April and July.
Enclosed with the letter was a form that property owners were asked to sign and return granting consultants permission to conduct the field surveys. The letter noted that landowners “are under no obligation to provide the consultants access” to their property and that not returning the permission form would indicate an unwillingness to have a property surveyed.
A Lovers Lane property owner, who asked not to be identified, said he did not grant the High-Speed Rail Authority’s consultants access to his property because he doesn’t believe a railway would choose that route anyway because nearby “Soap Lake is a bird refuge and it’s so swampy out here.”
A representative of a landowner who owns abutting parcels in San Benito and Santa Clara counties said he received and returned the letter and that he’s “excited about the project and in favor of it.”
CirclePoint, a communications and environmental planning firm, is coordinating the outreach to landowners on the stretch of proposed railway from Merced to San Jose.
The letters seeking permission to enter private properties are part of a plan to look at biological, hydrological, geological and historical conditions as part of the planned environmental impact report for the bullet train project.
Researchers are considering potential alignments for the rail system, so seeking permission to enter a property does not necessarily mean that property would be part of the rail line.
Aerial surveys of proposed routes have been conducted as well and surveyors will study proposed rail alignments without accessing private property whenever possible.
The High-Speed Rail Authority met this week in San Jose to release a report with information about a San Francisco station as well as other route and station alignments.
The report is part of the environmental review process that is expected to continue into next year, with construction scheduled to start in 2012.
