May 18, 2026
San Jose City Council
200 E. Santa Clara St.
San Jose, CA
Re: Item 10.2, 5/19/26 Council Agenda (ER26-045 - Environmental Review Policy)
Dear Mayor Mahan and Councilmembers,
Green Foothills, the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, and Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter wish to express our support for the recommended revisions proposed by Planning staff to the Environmental Review Handbook.
As noted in the memo from the Planning Director, we commented on the draft Environmental Review Handbook and Environmental Standard Permit Conditions in a letter to staff submitted on April 16. In that letter, we noted concerns with the original version of the Handbook that failed to adequately address the potential for impacts to wildlife movement in Coyote Valley and the Almaden Valley Urban Reserve, or for impacts stemming from artificial light at night (ALAN) or from disturbance due to human sources of noise. We appreciate the revisions made by Planning staff to the Handbook to address our concerns, and we support the Handbook as revised and submitted to the Council.
We wish to re-emphasize, as stated in our letter, that the Environmental Standard Permit Conditions constitute a “floor,” not a “ceiling,” in terms of potential mitigation measures for projects with significant environmental impacts. As stated by David Keyon at the Planning Commission meeting, any project that has the potential to result in significant environmental impacts that are not adequately mitigated through the Standard Permit Conditions will still be required to comply with project-specific mitigations to address those impacts.
Thank you for your attention to these comments.
Sincerely,
Alice Kaufman
Policy and Advocacy Director
Green Foothills
Shani Kleinhaus
Environmental Advocate
Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance
Gita Dev
Chair, Conservation Committee
Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter