Action Alert: Oppose Electronic Billboards in San Jose

The San Jose City Council has instructed the Airport Commission (for a second time) to review the proposal to allow digital billboards at the San Jose Airport near the Guadalupe River. Though the Commission’s vote is only advisory, a second NO vote by the Airport Commissioners would hopefully help convince the City Council to abandon billboards at the Airport and to reconsider the entire plan to allow 22 or more digital billboards on public property.

Unfortunately the Airport staff is still pushing their narrative in favor of billboards, and wants the Commission to support their recommendation. Your many emails and live comments during the last Airport Commission meeting helped them understand why digital billboards at the Airport are a bad idea. They need to hear from you again. You can weigh in prior to the meeting or during the meeting. Details for each option are listed below.

Why This is Important

• Digital billboards attract attention, distract drivers and are thus hazardous. Installing them at the airport at the 101/87 interchange puts the public at risk. This proposal runs counter to the city’s Vision Zero policy to eliminate traffic fatalities.

• Light pollution is unhealthy for humans and the environment, and interferes with bird migration. The airport billboards proposed adjacent to the Guadalupe River will negatively impact wildlife and the ecosystem.

• The work of the Lick observatory, one of the most respected scientific institution in the known universe, will be disrupted.

• In allowing these first digital billboards at the airport, San Jose may be opening the floodgates for dozens of additional billboards along the freeways.

• Waste of energy - Although LEDs by themselves may be energy efficient, these massive billboards require constant cooling and computer systems to operate continuously, and would be giant symbols of disregard for the City’s Climate Smart and Carbon Neutral 2030 policies.

What You Can Do

• Email the airport commissioners

To: AirportCom1@sanjoseca.gov, AirportCom2@sanjoseca.gov, AirportCom4@sanjoseca.gov, AirportCom6@sanjoseca.gov, AirportCom7@sanjoseca.gov, AirportCom8@sanjoseca.gov, AirportCom9@sanjoseca.gov, AirportCom10@sanjoseca.gov, AirportComCW@sanjoseca.gov, mkazmierczak@sjc.org

Subject: My Opposition to Electronic Billboards at the airport

Email:

(Please say a little about yourself). I oppose the installation of electronic billboards on airport property or anywhere in San Jose. (Please explain in a sentence or two why you are opposed). I encourage the Airport Commission to reject this proposal again and send a clear message to the City Council that the community wants a healthy, safe environment and no electronic billboards.

• Participate in the virtual meeting

When: This Wednesday, January 26, starting at 6pm.

Join by Zoom here

Join by phone: (408) 638-0968, Webinar ID: 958 5104 4793

Agenda: https://www.flysanjose.com/node/8626

Thank you,

Shani Kleinhaus

Environmental Advocate

Action Alert: Lighting of Creekside Bicycle Superhighways - Where is the balance?

When: Wednesday, January 19, 10AM-12PM
What is happening? Santa Clara Basin Watershed Management Initiative is hosting a workshop to discuss Creekside Bicycle Superhighway, lighting and “the many benefits and challenges of implementing these active transportation facilities along creeks and other water bodies in our urban areas.”
Speakers include:

• Lauren Ledbetter, Valley Transportation Authority

• Shiloh Ballard, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition

• Shani Kleinhaus, Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society

• Liz Sewell, City of San Jose

• Lisa Bankosh, Valley Water

• Rob Stanley and Brenda Blinn, California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife

What can you do? Please participate and ask questions about the effects of trails on riparian ecosystems, noise generated from electric mobility vehicles, how to best enjoy nature while protecting wildlife and birds, the adverse effects of lighting on habitat quality, biology, and animal movement in the riparian corridor, and how we should measure successful projects. Use comments to express: What do you use trails for? What does a good trail look like for you? Have you experienced conflicts among users on creekside trails?

Register Here After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Thank you,

Giulianna Pendleton

Environmental Advocacy Assistant

More Protection for Coyote Valley!

On December 14th, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a Climate Resilience Combining District in Coyote Valley. This decision, along with San Jose City Council’s recent zoning protections for Coyote Valley, are critical steps forward to protect this ecological landscape. Thousands of acres now offer opportunities for birds, wildlife habitat and agriculture to thrive. We hope this legacy will persist into the future and provide us all with the resilience our region needs to withstand climate change and the loss of biodiversity. 

This decision follows years of advocacy for Coyote Valley! Read this article from the San José Spotlight, which quotes our Environmental Advocate Shani Kleinhaus discussing the next steps for protecting Coyote Valley and its birds.

Winter Conservation Corner

Shani Kleinhaus, Environmental Advocate and Giulianna Pendleton, Environmental Advocacy Assistant

Gschwend Residence: SCVAS has opposed the Gschwend Residence Project in the Santa Teresa Hills, San Jose since 2018. The location of the proposed residence is within a critical wildlife corridor linkage between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range. The driveway from Santa Teresa Blvd. to the planned house is adjacent to the Coyote-Alamitos Canal where it crosses Santa Teresa Blvd. This is one of the most important road undercrossing culverts for wildlife to safely travel across Santa Teresa Blvd. The residence site has been identified as a critical linkage in the Conservation Lands Network Linkage as well as the Valley Habitat Plan. We believe that the residence and its driveway could permanently sever wildlife connectivity for the American Badger and Mountain Lion. In addition, the site is included in the Critical Habitat Map for the endangered Bay Checkerspot Butterfly, and includes stands of milkweed that are important if migratory populations of Western monarch butterflies are to persist.

The City of San Jose has prepared an Environmental Review (Mitigated Negative Declaration) for the project. We provided substantive comment letters and secured expert testimony from Pathways for Wildlife—a wildlife connectivity research group that has been studying wildlife movement and safe crossings in Coyote Valley and its vicinity for over a decade. We asked the City of San Jose to deny the Conditional Use Permit for this project, or require a full Environmental Impact Report for the project.

Tideline Ferries Protest: Earlier this year, we filed a formal protest along with the Sierra Club and the Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge, against Tideline Marine Group, a private commercial ferry operator. Tideline filed an application with the California Utilities Commission seeking approval for unlimited on-call boat service throughout the Bay and its navigable rivers and tributaries.

We were concerned that this service could disturb rafts of migratory diving ducks as well as bay marshes and the birds that depend on them. The company claimed that since there was no physical construction associated with this service, environmental review was not needed. We disagreed! The operations would have significantly increased the geography of Tideline’s service area, allowing ferries to venture into waterways running through or adjacent to the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The proposed change to Tideline’s service area and routes would have allowed unlimited regular or daily charters to employment centers and destinations in the South Bay, resulting in many ferry trips on certain routes in smaller waterways with adjacent sensitive tidal marsh and mudflat habitat, including habitat of the endangered Ridgway’s Rail, which has previously been found to be impacted by ferry wakes.

Our formal protest succeeded! Tideline Marine Group withdrew the application for bay-wide service. Instead they applied for permission to add only South San Francisco to the cities they currently serve.

PG&E Retrofits Power Poles: A pair of Great Horned owls has been nesting at Rancho San Antonio year after year, providing birders with a wonderful opportunity to watch the parents raise their young. In June 2021, the single owlet fledgling was electrocuted at one of the power poles at Deer Meadow. Birders have asked PG&E to retrofit the power poles so that owlets, and other raptors, will not meet a similar tragic end. PG&E responded promptly and retrofitted the poles.

If you notice dead raptors at power poles in Rancho San Antonio (or elsewhere), please take pictures, note the location, and let us know so we can follow up with PG&E.

California 30x30: In October 2020, Governor Newsom called for an increase in the use of nature-based solutions to reach California’s carbon neutrality goals. Known as California 30x30, the plan aims to protect 30% of all public lands and water in California by 2030. SCVAS has been working with a large number of environmental, wildlife and open space groups to identify lands, waters and wildlife connectivity priorities and advocate for their inclusion in the plan. Our focus areas have been the San Francisco Bay, Coyote Valley, and wildlife connectivity at Pacheco Pass between Santa Clara and San Benito Counties. In San Benito County, we also highlighted rangelands surrounding Panoche Valley and Pinnacles National Park. Protecting habitat for birds and wildlife and migration corridors is critical at this time, as we are facing a global sixth mass extinction. We must protect biodiversity by protecting and expanding habitat and connectivity.

Newt Mortality: The day after the first winter storm on October 24th, “Newt Patrol” volunteers led by Dr. Merav Vonshak counted 100 dead newts, as well as many other species run over by cars. The Newt Patrol has been studying the newt population around Alma Bridge Rd. for several years, alerting us to the massive roadkill and to the threats to Pacific Newt populations in the area. Advocacy with Santa Clara County, POST, and MROSD has resulted in the commission of a 2020- 2021 study by a consulting firm. We now look forward toward a long-term solution to reduce mortality and provide safe passage across the roadway.

Update: See our December Conservation Corner and Help Save the Newts articles for more updates!

Boston Properties: In September San Jose City Council approved the Almaden Office Project adjacent to the Guadalupe River. With an 18-inch setback from the river’s dripline and no feasible mitigation strategy, we are disappointed in Council’s decision. Council prioritized downtown development over riparian habitat protections, weakening the city’s riparian corridor setback policy. We thank our friends at the Sierra Club for filing a lawsuit against the City of San Jose on this travesty.

RWF Outfall Lighting: The San Jose-Santa Clara County Regional Wastewater Facility Outfall Bridge is adjacent to Artesian Slough and the Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge, critical wetlands for migratory birds. San Jose was planning to add lighting to the bridge—bright, white light turned on 24/7. This type of lighting would harm insects, confuse migratory birds, and make wildlife more visible to nocturnal predators. Along with the Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge, we asked San Jose to install a switch so light can be used only when needed. Our request was accepted!

Los Gatos General Plan: Earlier this year Los Gatos included our recommendations for bird-safe design and dark sky policies within their General Plan Update. We are now calling for riparian lighting setbacks and considering habitat value of tree selection. Look out for Action Alerts for upcoming public meetings on this issue!

Cuesta Park Pollinator Garden :This year, we have been collaborating with GreenspacesMV to advocate with the Mountain View Parks and Recreation Department and create a pollinator garden in Cuesta Park. A motivated community is getting involved and, working with the California Native Plant Society, we have come up with a plant palette for the garden. Look for announcements for volunteer opportunities! We look forward to this community-led restoration project in a popular Mountain View park!