By Jon Wiener
A group of local residents is organizing for one final attempt to preserve the Grant Road farm, at least in part.
Summerhill Homes has been meeting with neighbors of the site since news broke in January that the Palo Alto developer was planning to build 55 homes there. A number of those neighbors have latched on to the idea that the company could build a denser development on part of the site in exchange for setting aside enough space for a working farm.
“It’s not a pipe dream,” said Vicki Moore, who lives on the Los Altos side of the property. “The resources are here. It’s happened in the past. There are examples all over the country and here in California. But the issue is, does the city council view some element of farming and the agricultural past as something that’s important to the city.”
Neighbors say they have long ago given up on even imagining that the 15-acre site would become anything other than housing. The city council pre-zoned the land (which is actually located in unincorporated Santa Clara County) for single-family housing, and followed that up by striking language from the city’s parks and open space plan that advocated the preservation of Mountain View’s agriculture heritage. But the announcement that Summerhill Homes was in exclusive negotiations with the daughters of Paul and Anne Mardesich, original owners of the land, capped years of speculation over the fate of the property.
Katia Kamangar, the project manager for Summerhill, said the company is considering every option and weighing neighborhood input carefully, but that it bought the property with an eye towards the 6-units-per-acre pre-zoning.
“We’re going off what [city] staff has also told us is the most appropriate zoning to go forward with this,” said Kamangar. “To change that would be a departure from what the public has already weighed in on.”
A deal could require an outside party, such as a land trust, to contribute millions of dollars to buy a conservation easement on five acres of the site. The denser the project that Summerhill is allowed to build elsewhere on the property, the lower the price of that easement and the greater the chance that a family farm could prosper.
The high cost of land is one of the main reasons for the decline of small family farms across the state, according to Reggie Knox of California Farm Link, an organization that works with land trusts to preserve viable agricultural land.
“If a developer gets to develop part of the land a little more densely, they’re not going to lose money anyway,” said Knox.
City council members have been bombarded with e-mails from residents about the pumpkin patch, though not all of them support the alternative plan. Council members say they don’t want to get involved yet, and will only step in if the community and the developer can reach an agreement first.
“We haven’t received an application. It’s private property. And it’s not in Mountain View,” said council member Matt Neely.
Judging from Mayor Nick Galiotto’s inbox, neighborhood opinion runs about 2-to-1 in favor of some type of preservation. But Galiotto said he’d rather see people focus their energies on preserving nearby Cuesta Park Annex, which is owned by the city. He also expressed concern about building a denser development that could adversely affect the homeowners around the property.
But neighbors say they need the council’s help before the developer submits a plan and the momentum of the bureaucratic process builds behind it.
“The chance of getting agricultural land back at that point will be zero,” said Martha Young. She pointed out that the city’s own parks and recreation plan seems to call for this kind of involvement. The 2001 plan states that, “Where possible, the City should support efforts by other agencies, private organizations or nonprofits to preserve agricultural lands if they become available.”
After years of waiting and preparing, Moore has begun working with another neighbor, Robin Iwai, to craft a petition to take to the Sunday Farmers Market, held every Sunday downtown and a haven for small farmers from throughout the state.
“It’s time,” said Moore. “This is make it or break it. If nobody speaks up now, it’s gone. That’s it. It doesn’t come back.”
E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener
