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On June 18, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors unanimously accepted the certified Empower Voters to Make Land Use Decision Initiative and called for it to be put on the Nov. 5 ballot.
The measure seeks to require voter approval before any land use designation in unincorporated parts of the county can be changed from agricultural, rangeland or rural to commercial, neighborhood or public/quasi-public. Currently, those decisions are made by the San Benito County Planning Commission, whose members are appointed by the Board of Supervisors.
The initiative also seeks to change the designation of four areas slated for commercial development in the county’s 2035 General Plan—which was adopted in 2015 and serves as the blueprint for future growth.
The four areas, known as “nodes,” are located along Hwy 101 and include San Juan Road (Rocks Ranch), Betabel Road, Hwy 129 and Livestock 101.
The initiative seeks to change their General Plan designation to agricultural or rangeland.
According San Benito County Senior Planner Michael Kelly, the current land use designations, which set the guidelines for development and differ from the General Plan’s designations, are:
- Rocks Ranch: agricultural rangeland and agricultural productive (2,613 acres of the ranch was acquired by the Land Trust of Santa Cruz for habitat preservation and management)
- Betabel Road: agriculture rangeland; commercial thoroughfare
- Searle Road/Hwy 129: commercial thoroughfare
- Livestock 101: neighborhood commercial
Francisco Diaz, San Benito County clerk-recorder and registrar of voters, said in order for the initiative to qualify for consideration by the Board of Supervisors to either adopt as-is or call for an election, proponents needed to collect at least 1,980 valid signatures from registered voters. The initiative’s proponents, led by Andy and Mary Hsia-Coron with Campaign to Protect San Benito, submitted 4,380 signatures on May 21. Diaz said based on a sample of 500 signatures, the elections office determined 2,875 were statistically valid.
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Francisco Diaz, San Benito County clerk-recorder and registrar of voters, says the board could either adopt the initiative as written or put it on the November ballot. Photo by Noe Magaña.Andy Hsia-Coron said the group collected the signatures in 35 days though they had 180 days to do it. “There’s substantial support for this initiative in our county,” he said.
Second effort to reform land-use planning
In 2022, Campaign to Protect San Benito spearheaded an initiative requiring voter approval of land use changes, and removing nine commercial nodes from the general plan. That initiative failed at the ballot box with 56% of voters rejecting it.
Andy Hsia-Coron said the 2022 Board of Supervisors “put their thumb on the scale” in opposing the initiative. He said they did that by calling for a “biased” Elections Code 9111 impact report, which is an analysis of a measure to inform the Board of Supervisors and the voting public of potential consequences if it is adopted.
“It assumed that supervisors would approve every project that came in front of them and the voters would turn down every project that came in front of them, which is a ludicrous assumption,” he said.
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Andy Hsia-Coron says the previous Board of Supervisors illegally sent out “mailers” against Measure Q. Photo by Noe Magaña.
” data-medium-file=”https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1″ src=”https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600.jpg?resize=780%2C520&ssl=1″ alt=’Andy Hsia-Coron says the previous Board of Supervisors illegally sent out “mailers” against Measure Q. Photo by Noe Magaña.’ class=”wp-image-103723″ srcset=”https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&ssl=1 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C200&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C512&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1024&ssl=1 1536w, https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1365&ssl=1 2048w, https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?resize=1200%2C800&ssl=1 1200w, https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?resize=1568%2C1045&ssl=1 1568w, https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?resize=2000%2C1333&ssl=1 2000w, https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?resize=706%2C471&ssl=1 706w, https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-scaled.jpg?w=2340&ssl=1 2340w, https://i0.wp.com/benitolink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/566A8600-1024×683.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w” sizes=”(max-width: 780px) 100vw, 780px”>
He also said the supervisors approved sending residents a “mailer under the guise of a newsletter” trying to persuade voters to reject the measure. He said this action was illegal, and that he filed a complaint with the Fair Political Practice Commission for distributing it. According to the FPPC website, the complaint was submitted in January 2023 by the Hsia-Corons, Brian Schmidt, Carly Robles and Karl Broussard. The case is still pending.
Campaign to Protect San Benito also has FPPC complaints against it that are pending.
On May 14, the supervisors unanimously approved a proposal to conduct a 9111 impact report for the current initiative for an amount not to exceed $50,000.
In his presentation, County Counsel David Prentice said the report will include an impartial analysis of:
- Fiscal impacts
- Effect on internal consistency with general and specific plans, housing element and zoning
- Effect on use of land and the ability to meet the region’s housing needs
- Impact on infrastructure funding, such as transportation, schools, parks and open space
- Impact on ability to attract and retain business and employment
- Any other matters requested by the Board of Supervisors
Diaz said the report must be presented to the supervisors within 30 days of its acceptance of certification.
San Benito County Principal Administrative Analyst Dulce Alonso said the report is being worked on by consultant Economic and Planning Systems.
Mary Hsia-Coron said the measure is based on others passed in Ventura, Sonoma and Napa counties and that requiring developers to gain the support of voters would yield better quality projects.
“Napa told me that they recently approved a project and the community wanted parks, they wanted Whole Foods and they got it,” she said.
Since 2018, the Hsia-Corons have worked to stop projects on the Hwy 101 nodes through a successful referendum of the commercial thoroughfare (C-3) development guidelines, and later unsuccessfully challenging the Betabel Road node’s rezoning with lawsuits.
Four additional public speakers voiced support for the measure.
Resident Elia Salinas spoke against the measure, saying it would negatively impact economic development and that it did not make sense to compare San Benito County with Ventura, Sonoma and Napa counties.
“You don’t need to build in those counties, because the majority of those counties are avocado orchards, they are vineyards, they are different kinds of things and that brings tourism,” she said. “We don’t have tourism with the wine industry to compare that.”
She described San Benito County as “wide open space” where “only less than 6% of the entire county, including the cities, is constructed with some kind of building on it.”
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