Land owner says he is being treated unfairly, while open space agency says development would ruin rural character
The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority says a plan to build an 8,465-square foot home on 4.6 acres — outlined here — in Coyote Valley would wreck the rural character of the farmlands and open space preserves that the public has spent millions of dollars to protect.
But the open space authority, a government agency based in San Jose, said the development would damage the rural character of Coyote Valley, an area that was proposed as the world headquarters for Apple in the 1980s and Cisco in the 1990s, but where the taxpayers and environmental groups have spent $120 million to preserve 1,500 acres of open space and farmland in the past decade.
Although it has been used occasionally by parks and open space agencies, including in the Bay Area and by the National Park Service, eminent domain is seen as a last resort because it can spark political controversy. Under the law that established the open space agency, Andrade was allowed to appeal to the board of supervisors.
“This piece of property is part of a greater effort,” Arenas said. “I’m proud at this moment to be able to protect it. There have been a lot of efforts to protect Coyote Valley.” “If they didn’t want a single family home built on the property,” she said of the open space agency, “then they should have purchased it when it was on the market.”
“Coyote Valley is vital to the health and welfare of residents of Santa Clara County for food, for flood protection and for the recharge of our underground aquifers,” said Larry Ames, a former board member of the Palo Alto environmental group Green Foothills.
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