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Agenda Item # 11.4 - Brian Schmidt | Received 08/15/2022CAUTION This email originated from an External Source. Please use proper judgment and caution when opening attachments, clicking links, or responding to this email. From: To:City Clerk Subject:EXTERNAL - Please include attached letter from Green Foothills for Item 11.4 Sargent Ranch for Monday Aug. 15 meeting Date:Sunday, August 14, 2022 7:44:55 PM Attachments:Gilroy Item11.4 GreenFoothills JuristacResolution 8.15.22.pdf July 2022 Gilroy Juristac Resolution DRAFT.docx Please include the attached letter for Agenda Item 11.4. The letter references a draft resolution for the Council's consideration, and that is also attached separately to this email. Please contact me with any questions. Sincerely, Brian Schmidt -- photo Brian Schmidt Policy and Advocacy Director ( greenfoothills.org Celebrating 60 years of protecting local nature. Get tickets for our Nature's Inspiration extravaganza on September 25th! 1 August 15, 2022 Gilroy City Council Re: Item 11.4 – Please oppose Sargent Ranch Quarry, Support the Amah Mutsun , and support protection of Sargent Ranch/Juristac as open space Dear Mayor Blankley and Council Members, On behalf of Green Foothills1, I am contacting the City Council to ask you to take action on an issue of great importance for Indigenous cultural and spiritual heritage and for open space and wildlife in Santa Clara County. Together with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band2 and our many partners in the Protect Juristac campaign, we ask you to approve a Council resolution calling for the permanent protection of the sacred landscape known as Juristac, and for the County of Santa Clara to reject the application for an open-pit sand and gravel mine on Juristac, known as the Sargent Ranch Quarry. A draft resolution is attached for your consideration, the same one that was sent on Au gust 12. Similar resolutions have already been approved by the City Councils of Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Morgan Hill. We respectfully request that the City Council take action to pass this resolution to support the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band in the protection of their sacred landscape, and to protect the critical wildlife linkage and habitat at Juristac. Background on Juristac Juristac lies at the heart of the ancestral lands of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. The portion of Juristac known today as “Sargent Ranch” encompasses 6500 acres located at the very southern border of Santa Clara County, southwest of Gilroy (see image below). For thousands of years, the Amah Mutsun people held sacred ceremonies at this location -- the home of a powerful spiritual being known as Kuksui. Juristac translates to “Place of the Big Head,” and the Big Head dances associated with Kuksui and other healing and renewal ceremonies took place here over the centuries. Juristac was a gathering place for many tribes in the area, and its spiritual and cultural significance is unique in our region. (For more details on the history and the cultural and spiritual significance of Juristac, please visit ProtectJuristac.org.) 1 Green Foothills is a nonprofit organization that has been working since 1962 to protect the open space, farmland and natural resources of San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties for the benefit of all through advocacy, education and grassroots action. We envision a resilient region where wildlife thrive, everyone has natural beauty to enjoy, and communities live in balance with nature. 2 The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is comprised of the descendants of the Indigenous peoples forcefully taken to missions San Juan Bautista and Santa Cruz. 2 In addition, Juristac is a critical wildlife corridor that links the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Gabilan Range to the south and the Diablo Range to the east. This area has been identified as an important migration route in all habitat connectivity assessments for the region since the year 2000.3 The Santa 3 See, e.g., Penrod K, Hunter R, Merrifield M (2001) Missing Linkages: Restoring Connectivity to the California Landscape. South Coast Wildlands Project, Los Angeles; Spencer, W.D., Beier, P., Penrod, K., Parisi, M., Pettler, A., Winters, K., Strittholt, J., Paulman, C. and Rustigian-Romsos, H., 2010, California Essential Habitat Connectivity Project: A strategy for conser ving a connected California, report prepared for California Department of Transportation and California Department of Fish and Game; Bay Area Open Space Council 2011, The Conservation Lands Network: San Francisco Bay Area Upland Habitat Goals Project Repor t, Berkeley, CA; Penrod, K., Garding, P.E., Paulman, C., Beier, P., Weiss, S., Schaefer, N., Branciforte, R. and Gaffney, K., 2013, Critical Linkages: Bay Area & Beyond, produced by Science & Collaboration for Connected Wildlands, 3 Clara Valley Habitat Agency recognizes several landscape linkages running through the Sargent Ranch property (linkages 12, 18, 19 and 20 on this map). The Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority considers the “Sargent Hills” area to be one of its top 10 conservation focus areas (number 8 on this map). The Threat: an Open-Pit Sand and Gravel Mine The current owner of the property, the San Diego-based Debt Acquisition Company of America, has submitted an application to the County of Santa Clara for a sand and gravel open-pit mining operation on 400 acres of pristine hillside grassland at Juristac. According to documents filed with the County, the Sargent Ranch Quarry would operate for 30 years, would dig 4 pits hundreds of feet deep, and would pump about 76,000 gallons of groundwater per day for quarry operations. The quarry would permanently alter the Juristac landscape, turning hillsides into deep pits and scarring the landscape with truck haul roads, conveyor belts, and a 14-acre processing plant. Further information about the quarry proposal and the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the proposal can be found on the County website. The ecological impact of the proposed Sargent Ranch sand and gravel mine on Juristac would be severe for species such as mountain lions, which depend on the ability to migrate through this site for healthy population dynamics. Heavy industry such as mining causes disruption to animal movement due not only to the disturbed footprint of the project but also due to the daily noise and heavy vehicle activity, which can drive away sensitive wildlife species and prevent them from utilizing their usual migration routes. In this case, the proposed footprint of the mining operation lies directly across the main migration route for animals out of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Highway 101 is a significant barrier for wildlife movement, and there are only a few undercrossings beneath the highway where animals can travel. Since the proposed sand mine would potentially operate for 30 years or more, the continuing impact on the viability of these animal populations in the Santa Cruz Mountains could be severe and irremediable. The Sargent Ranch Quarry could also severely impact the local watershed. According to project plans filed with the County of Santa Clara, the quarry pits would excavate the hillsides on both sides of Sargent Creek. This creek is a tributary to the Pajaro River, which is already heavil y impacted from runoff and illegal dumping. The Sargent Creek watershed encompasses over 1200 acres and is estimated to provide hundreds of acre-feet of groundwater recharge and runoff. If the pits excavate below the water table, the integrity of the Sargent Creek watershed would be affected and its ability to recharge groundwater significantly impaired. Sargent Creek supports a rare stream-dwelling population of California red-legged frogs, a federally listed threatened species, which could be significantl y impacted by the disruption, increased sediment, and other impacts to the creek and the watershed. Fair Oaks, CA [www.scwildlands.org], in collaboration with the Bay Area Open Space Council’s Conservation Lands Network [www.BayAreaLands.org]. 4 The DEIR released by the County found 14 separate significant and unavoidable impacts from the mine, including to tribal cultural resources, wildlife movement, air quality, and aesthetics. These significant and unavoidable impacts will occur even with attempts at mitigation. In particular, the DEIR found that there would be “permanent and irreversible alterations” to the Juristac Tribal Cultural Landscape, and that no reclamation activities could ever restore it to a condition that reflects its cultural significance. The DEIR also found that the mine, due to its location directly across a major wildlife corridor in and out of the Santa Cruz Mountains, would interfere substantially with wildlife movement, which could reduce genetic variability and make animal populations more vu lnerable to local extinction. T he proposal will at peak production bring hundreds of truck trips back round-trip each day. (DEIR at 2- 13 (one-way haul load of 24 tons per truck, up to 2,880 tons removed daily, and trucks need to return)). These trucks will drive through Gilroy on Highway 101 heading north, stalling traffic, shifting traffic to surface roads, damaging road infrastructure, and creating accidents. Gilroy residents will face increased traffic problems both from northward movement and when they attempt to drive south on Highway 101 and find the highway backed up, with southbound backups possibly extending for miles into Gilroy when accidents happen. T his project both damages the region and damages the quality of life for Gilroy residents. Please Approve a Council Resolution Calling for Protection of Juristac Opposition to the Sargent Ranch Quarry and support for the tribe’s efforts to protect Juristac has been steadily growing. The City Councils of Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Morgan Hill have already approved resolutions on this issue (text of resolutions at above links). Numerous local and state elected officials, as well as over 50 nonprofit organizations, have signed on to support the Protec t Juristac campaign. We request that the City Council approve a resolution calling for the County to deny the application for the Sargent Ranch Quarry and for Juristac to be permanently protected in its entirety. 5 Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Brian Schmidt Policy and Advocacy Director, Green Foothills (Draft Resolution included as a separate attachment) RESOLUTION NO. 2022-__ A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF GILROY IN SUPPORT OF THE EFFORTS OF THE AMAH MUTSUN TRIBAL BAND TO PRESERVE SARGENT RANCH/JURISTAC AS OPEN SPACE BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY OF GILROY AS FOLLOWS: WHEREAS, the City of Gilroy is located on the ancestral lands of Mutsun-speaking Ohlone peoples, whose descendants today belong to the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and other tribal nations; and WHEREAS, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band survived two centuries of violent persecution and displacement during the Spanish, Mexican and American periods and today are working diligently to restore their Indigenous practices, regain stewardship of their lands and heal from historical trauma; and WHEREAS, the Debt Acquisition Company of America, doing business as Sargent Ranch Management Company, has applied to the County of Santa Clara for a conditional use permit for a proposed sand and gravel mining operation with aggregate processing facilities on 317 acres of Sargent Ranch, within an area known as Juristac to the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band; and WHEREAS, Juristac is the location of numerous historic ceremonial and sacred sites, comprising a landscape of paramount cultural and spiritual importance to the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band; and WHEREAS, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band maintains that the 317 acres of proposed mining pits, overburden piles, roads, and processing facilities would irreparably harm Mutsun cultural resources, landscape features, and the spiritual integrity of Juristac; and WHEREAS, the Tribal Council of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band has taken a unanimous stand in opposition to the Sargent Quarry Project and is requesting the support of surrounding communities in efforts to protect their sacred grounds; and WHEREAS, local organizations have signed on to or submitted formal letters to Santa Clara County supporting the protection of Juristac/Sargent Ranch including the Gilroy Historical Society, departments and instructors at Gavilan College, and the Interfaith Clergy Alliance of South County; and WHEREAS, the city councils of the City of Morgan Hill, City of Sunnyvale, City of Santa Cruz and City of Santa Clara have unanimously adopted resolutions supporting the efforts of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band to preserve the entirety of Juristac as open space; and WHEREAS, in November of 2021 the Santa Clara County Human Rights Commission voted unanimously to recognize the desecration of the Amah Mutsun sacred site of Juristac as a significant human rights issue and to recommend that the County of Santa Clara deny approval of permits for the proposed mine; and WHEREAS, Sargent Ranch/Juristac is an open space area of exceptional regional significance and habitat value as recognized by the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency, the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, and regional conservation organizations; and WHEREAS, the Sargent Ranch area is identified in the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan and other regional habitat connectivity studies as a critically important wildlife corridor linking the Santa Cruz Mountains, Gabilan Mountains, and Diablo Range; and WHEREAS, the proposed quarry could result in daily traffic of hundreds of truck trips through Highway 101 in Gilroy, significantly adding to traffic congestion, accidents, infrastructure degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, and local air pollution; and WHEREAS, the Gilroy General Plan cites the importance of the regional multi-jurisdictional conservation strategy of the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan and sets multiple goals to work in concert with Plan objectives, including to “develop and apply a variety of preservation tools to protect open space areas in and around the city” (NCR 1.6); and WHEREAS, the Gilroy General Plan emphasizes the importance of natural resource conservation and specifically cites the crucial role of open space access and management, including but not limited to encouraging the management and maintenance of “private open space areas in a manner that ensures habitat protection” (NCR 1.5); and WHEREAS, the Gilroy General Plan aims to “encourage public and private efforts for the preservation of historical and architecturally significant buildings and sites, archeological sites, and other landmarks” (NCR 5.4) and Juristac constitutes a highly significant cultural and historical landmark in the region; and WHEREAS, the Gilroy General Plan asserts a commitment to environmental justice and the inclusion of those most impacted by environmental problems in environmental decision making (EJ-9); NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Gilroy as follows: 1. That the City Council of the City of Gilroy supports the efforts of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band to preserve Sargent Ranch/Juristac as open space in perpetuity and to regain access to their cultural and spiritual sites at Juristac. 2. That the City Council of the City of Gilroy urges the County of Santa Clara to deny approval of permits for the proposed Sargent Quarry Project. 3. That the City Council of the City of Gilroy urges the County of Santa Clara to find funding for a conservancy agency to purchase and preserve Sargent Ranch/Juristac as open space. 4. Effective date. This resolution shall become effective immediately.