The Loma Prietan
January/February 2006
Update - Sustainable Land Use Committee
By members Rod Brown, Stephanie Schaaf,
Martin Dreiling, and Irvin Dawid
Cupertino
The Sierra Club helped lead a diverse
coalition to victory by defeating three
sprawl-inducing ballot measures in the City
of Cupertino. Measures A, B, and C were all
defeated Nov. 8, and the only city council
candidate to support the measures came in
last and lost decisively. The Sustainable Land
Use Committee (SLU) and our Citizens
Action Network (CAN) worked hard over
many months to inform Cupertino residents
about the harmful effects of these measures.
Thank you very much to all the Sierra Club
members who made this victory happen!
Defeating the measures is a big win for
livable communities and our environment
right here in Santa Clara County and the Bay
Area. The support of groups like the Sierra
Club was key to showing that voting ‘No'
was the right thing to do. We have definitely
set an example for the rest of the Bay Area by
showing that unduly restricting land reuse
within the urban core is as sprawl inducing as
encouraging new development in "greenfield"
(undeveloped open space) areas
San Mateo
The San Mateo City Council unanimously
endorsed the Bay Meadows Phase II
Specific Plan on Nov. 7. The Sierra Club
applauded the council's bold leadership in
approving a development plan to create a safe
and healthy community for San Mateo's
future. In the Sierra Club report "Building
Better: A Guide to America's Best New
Development Projects," Bay Meadows was
recognized as one of the nation's top twelve
smart-growth projects. "Building Better" is
currently available on the Sierra Club homepage:
www.sierraclub.org or at: www.sierraclub.
org/sprawl/report05
Neighborhood activists opposed to the
redevelopment plan have gathered signatures
to challenge its approval with a referendum.
Our task force, which includes the League of
Women Voters, Greenbelt Alliance, and the
Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo
(HLC), as well as Club activists, signed a
joint letter to San Mateo voters in support of
the project. We also co-authored an editorial
with HLC that was published in the San Jose
Mercury News. For more information, and a
link to our editorial, see our new Loma Prieta
Chapter Bay Meadows web page:
lomaprieta.sierraclub.org/BayMeadows.htm.
October SLU Meeting
One of the goals of SLU is to support
infill development in our cities to discourage
urban sprawl. This goal requires us to
become increasingly familiar with the ways
cities and neighborhoods are planned. To
showcase some of the emerging trends in
city planning, SLU hosted an evening of
images and discussion during our October
2005 meeting. The presentation, led by
member Martin Dreiling, took place at the
offices of CSS Architecture in Burlingame.
Committee members attended, as well as
prospective members who were curious
about SLU.
Dreiling presented images of both good
and bad urban-design solutions. Various
types of neighborhoods, densities, and public
spaces were shown in an effort to focus discussion
on the need to build not just infill,
but good neighborhoods. The message:
Building good neighborhoods that serve
individuals' needs will draw people back
from the suburbs and ease the pressure on
our larger natural environment.
Housing Leadership Day
On October 21, 2005, Sierra Club organized
a panel that participated in the annual
event for the Housing Leadership Council of
San Mateo County, a nonprofit affordable
housing advocacy group. The event was held
at the Oracle Conference Center. Aptly
named "Protecting Open Space and Creating
Affordable Housing," the panel included:
• Melissa Hippard, Director, Sierra Club
(Loma Prieta chapter)
• Kate O'Hara, Regional Issues
Organizer, Greenbelt Alliance
• Zoe Kersteen-Tucker, Vice President,
Committee for Green Foothills
• Moderator: Terry Trumbull, League of
Conservation Voters, Santa Clara County.
Perhaps the most provocative question
was when Terry asked the panelists to
respond to a stinging letter by an irate Sierra
Club member incensed that the Club had
taken a pro-Bay Meadows redevelopment
position. Zoe commented that this criticism
was one of the reasons why CGF has chosen
not to advocate for good infill development,
even though they know that it's in the best
interests of the environment to support transit-
oriented, mixed-use projects. Kate
explained that Greenbelt Alliance was the
first environmental organization to advocate
for livable projects and they were happy that
Sierra Club had joined them.
Duane Bay, former mayor of East Palo
Alto and current housing director of San
Mateo County, thanked all the participants,
with special words for the Sierra Club: "The
Club has really stepped up to working on
both sides of the Urban Growth Boundary in
San Mateo this last year."