October 3, 2025
Santa Clara County Planning Commission
70 W. Hedding St.
San Jose, CA
Via email to planning.commission@pln.sccgov.org
Re: 10/7/25 agenda, item 5: Vista de Almaden project appeal
Dear Chair Rauser and Planning Commissioners,
The undersigned organizations respectfully urge the Planning Commission to deny the appeal of the Vista de Almaden project. As with previous appeals to the Commission in the past few weeks, this project did not meet the 90-day deadline for complete applications and was appropriately deemed incomplete.
The Planning Commission should uphold the staff incompleteness determination for the Vista de Almaden project and deny the appeal.
The Project Application Is Incomplete
The project application was missing 10 items as of the 90-day deadline. These include, among other things:
- A complete site plan with boundaries of parcels, gross and net lot areas, and street right of ways, information on existing structures, and easements, among other information
- A complete tentative map showing easements and geologic hazard areas
- Onsite wastewater treatment system (OWTS) information including site assessment, soil profiles, and percolation tests to determine OWTS feasibility for the proposed dwellings/parcels. As noted in the staff report, “[c]ontrary to the Applicant’s assertions, the Applicant has not contacted DEH to schedule the site assessment, soil profiles, and percolation tests to complete this item.”
Since the application was not complete as of the 90-day deadline, it was appropriately deemed incomplete and the appeal should be denied.
The Project Is Residential Sprawl on Unincorporated Hillside Habitat
This site is inappropriate for this project both because of the impact to hillside habitat and because of the hazards present on the site. According to the plans, this project would destroy hillside chaparral habitat, a native ecosystem that provides habitat for many native bird and insect species. Because of its location in the Santa Teresa foothills, it is connected to a much larger area of important habitat that supports a diverse suite of plant and wildlife species. In addition, the site is located in a landslide hazard zone and a wildfire hazard zone. The steepness of the hillside raises questions about the feasibility of the site for the onsite wastewater treatment systems that the project proposes to construct to deal with wastewater.
For decades, the County’s land use policies have directed residential growth to infill areas within cities, rather than on rural open space or farmland. The reason for this is not just to protect wildlife habitat and agricultural resources, it’s because residential sprawl on rural lands and open space is much more expensive for taxpayers than infill growth. This has been recognized by smart-growth housing experts as well as by the State of California’s Strategic Growth Council. In addition, California’s Housing Crisis Act (Gov. Code § 65589.5) states the following:
The Legislature also recognizes that premature and unnecessary development of agricultural lands for urban uses continues to have adverse effects on the availability of those lands for food and fiber production and on the economy of the state. Furthermore, it is the policy of the state that development should be guided away from prime agricultural lands; therefore, in implementing this section, local jurisdictions should encourage, to the maximum extent practicable, in filling existing urban areas.
There are approximately 30 applications that have been submitted to the County for new residential development on rural unincorporated land. Cumulatively, these proposals total nearly 7,000 residential units, almost all of them single-family homes on farmland or hillside habitat areas. Thousands of these homes would be located in FEMA flood zones, in wildfire hazard areas, in landslide hazard zones, or in fault rupture hazard zones. Development on these sites would destroy prime farmland and oak woodlands, and would impact habitat for species ranging from mountain lions to California red-legged frogs.
These developments are scattered throughout the rural unincorporated County, from the hills east of San Jose to farmland south of Gilroy to the forested Santa Cruz Mountains. Providing services to these far-flung developments would strain County resources at a time when the County’s fiscal situation is already constrained.
Conclusion
For all of the above reasons, we urge the Planning Commission to uphold the staff determination of incompleteness with regard to the Vista de Almaden project appeal.
Sincerely,
Alice Kaufman
Policy and Advocacy Director
Green Foothills
Shani Kleinhaus
Environmental Advocate
Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance
Katja Irvin
Guadalupe Group Conservation Chair
Sierra Club Loma Prieta Chapter
Judy Fenerty, Conservation Chair
California Native Plant Society, Santa Clara Valley Chapter
Jordan Grimes
Resilience Manager, State & Regional
Greenbelt Alliance