An environmental group has proposed the purchase of the
development rights to 1,200 acres of land straddling northern San
Benito County and part of southern Santa Clara County.
The Nature Conservancy has plans to use a $3.27-million grant
from the state’s Department of Water Resources to buy three pieces
of property made up of 800 acres, 230 and 166 acres. The properties
include land that runs along the northern section of Highway 25 and
stretches east across the Frazier Lake area and north to San Felipe
Lake, Conservancy spokeswoman Jody Williams said.
An environmental group has proposed the purchase of the development rights to 1,200 acres of land straddling northern San Benito County and part of southern Santa Clara County.
The Nature Conservancy has plans to use a $3.27-million grant from the state’s Department of Water Resources to buy three pieces of property made up of 800 acres, 230 and 166 acres. The properties include land that runs along the northern section of Highway 25 and stretches east across the Frazier Lake area and north to San Felipe Lake, Conservancy spokeswoman Jody Williams said.
“We’re doing this for three purposes: land conservation, the preservation of wildlife and flood plain maintenance,” Williams said.
The conservancy has been in talks with local landowners for several months regarding the proposal before the group applied for the grant from the DWR.
“There are a number of species of wildlife in that region that would be protected by this,” Williams said. “There are several species of birds that use San Felipe Lake and other animals that use lands in the surrounding area as their natural habitat.”
Annalena Bronson, a representative of the DWR’s Division of Flood Management, said the proposal would also keep intact the natural flood plain for the local portion of the upper Pajaro River.
“This is one of 45 proposed projects that the Department of Water Resources considered for funding,” Bronson said. “And it is one of 15 that will receive funding.”
The conservancy would not purchase the 1,200 acres outright. It would instead buy the title to only a 166-acre piece of property and then would purchase conservation easements on the two remaining pieces of property, 800 acres and 230 acres respectively.
“A conservation easement would restrict certain rights on the property,” Williams said.
One of the rights would be the landowner’s ability to build housing subdivisions on the land, which Williams said could disturb the natural habitat of several species in the area and alter the flooding pattern of the Pajaro River.
Keeping the area free of large subdivisions “would maintain the flood plain downstream so that the flooding would be reduced,” Williams said.
The DWR grant is part of Proposition 13’s flood management mechanism. The proposition set aside about $30 million for use in various flood control or maintenance efforts throughout the state, Bronson said.
“This project just happened to have the added benefit of protecting wildlife,” she said.
A large portion of the land in the proposal is still part of working farm operations. The landowners who run those farming operations will still maintain the right to live on and work the land, Williams said.
“All of this has been strictly voluntary on their part,” Williams said. “The grant says that it has to be willing sellers and completely voluntary.”
The proposal was met with serious reservations from local officials who said they were dismayed the conservancy has moved so far forward with its plans without discussing it with county officials.
“The county government should be better integrated and better informed about these plans,” San Benito County Planning Director Rob Mendiola said during the first public hearing on the proposal Thursday.
“Some of what’s going on seems to be going on without our participation,” Mendiola said. “It sounds like, let’s put all our flood water in San Benito County, and that doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.”
He said there was no need for the conservancy to buy the conservation easements on much of the property in the proposed area because it is already in an area zoned for flooding.
“Yes, there’s development pressure here, but rational and reasonable people don’t want to build in a flood plain,” Mendiola said.
He said there have been developers in the past who wanted to build major subdivisions in that area, including one proposal nearly a decade ago to build 10,000 homes.
“But each time the Board has adhered to the General Plan and turned them down,” Mendiola said.
Williams said the conservancy is making efforts to talk to as many people as they can about the proposal.
“I completely agree with Rob, that we should be talking to more people,” Williams said.
She said the conservancy has already been in contact with several community and land-use groups, including the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority, the Santa Clara County Water District and San Benito Land Trust.
In order to reach more people, Williams said the conservancy will hold another public hearing on the proposal at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 30 at City Hall.
