HomeMy WebLinkAbout08 17 2026 - Item 8.1 - Carolyn Tognetti1
Stefan Mercer
From:Carolyn Tognetti <clyntognetti@aol.com>
Sent:Friday, August 14, 2026 8:02 AM
To:All Council Members
Subject:EXTERNAL - Draft comments on new ordinance Item 8.1 on 8/17/26 Agenda
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Re: Public comment on Item # 8.1 IntroducƟon and First Reading of an Ordinance amending Chapter 30, ArƟcle L
On the August 17, 2026 City Council Agenda
To: Honorable Mayor Bozzo and council members.
I would like to see you uphold and approve all of the recommendaƟons sent to you by the Gilroy Planning Commission
regarding this new ordinance.
My concern is that projects such as the data center we now have as well as other similar high-impact industries that
come forward in the future will only have to go to the Planning commission for approval and only if the EIR shows
significant unavoidable impact. It would be beƩer and more transparent to require large projects like these that require
an EIR be required to have both Planning Commission as well as City Council approval with public hearings by both.
Having read quite a number of the EIR’s in the past 30 years on different projects in Gilroy, I found that in more than one
instance informaƟon that is used in EIR’s is not always accurate. Much of the informaƟon relies on what the project
proponent gives them as far as projected usages. And projected usages were not always accurate.
One instance was regarding the Hecker Pass Specific Plan area. The EIR consultants hired a tree expert, who stated that
the Deodar cedar trees that line the highway, only had a lifespan leŌ of about 40 to 50 years so therefore it would be OK
for them to remove about 30 of them for a project that was being proposed.
But the group I belonged to at the Ɵme-Gilroy Growing Smarter- hired another tree expert, who stated that those trees
can live to be 1000 years old or more and that they were sƟll healthy.
In that case, what might’ve been a significant unavoidable impact was reduced to a miƟgable impact based on
inaccurate or at least differing expert opinion.
And someƟmes even a miƟgable impact is sƟll not good for our city and should be discussed at public hearings by both
Planning Commission and City Council.
This is why I believe that the Planning commission made the right recommendaƟon on making sure that any project that
required just an EIR should go before the Planning Commission as well as the city council. I really believe both legisla Ɵve
bodies need to hold hearings on these types of projects.
I also highly recommend that a temporary moratorium be put on any future data centers un Ɵl the city creates new
development standards using public input and public hearings to do so. Data centers are relaƟvely new with very high
impacts that have come along in the recent past. Who knows what other technology will be coming along in the future
with even greater impacts? Also, they have not been around long enough to really know the long-term effects they might
have on public health and the environment. It would be wise to move slowly and get it right in the beginning and do your
best to protect your residents as well as our environment.
2
Sincerely,
Carolyn Togneƫ
Gilroy resident.
Sent from my iPad