Candidate for
Director; Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District; Ward 3

As a Candidate for re-election, I see three major issues facing the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MPROSD)in the near term.

The first one is the process of expanding the District's boundaries to the San Mateo Coast. The District is currently deeply involved in acquiring public input while it develops the Environmental Impact Report prior to moving the proposal forward to the San Mateo County LAFCO. This has been a two-year process so far, and will take up to another year before the District can go forward with annexation. Personally,I have been involved with many public meetings on the Coast, as well as continuing to develop the personal contacts with coastal residents, which I believe is necessary to allow this very exciting expansion of the District to take place. This expansion would about double the area within which the District could purchase and/or manage land which otherwise might be suject to development.

The second major issue facing MPROSD is that of rapidly escalating costs of land. While the District has been able to leverage its income from property taxes by issuing bonds, the cost of land is increasing at a much faster rate than had been true for several years. It seems to me that this would indicate even more cooperation between the District, a public agency, and private organizations such as Peninsula Open Space Trust, a private fund raising organization which purchases land, is required to be able to protect land in the future. The extremely complex and ultimately successful purchase of Bear Creek Redwoods Preserve outside of Los Gatos within the last year is probably the best example of this type of cooperation. Personally, as a member of the Board, I have consistently voted to move forward with these purchases even though the costs are skyrocketing.

The third major issue facing MPROSD is resource protection and allocation. This area has many elements. I will briefly note two of these. First, attempting to balance differing uses by the public on the preserves is callenging. While my initial leaning when becoming a member of the Board four years ao was for multiple-use of the Trails, my experience has modified that position somewhat. I now believe that some limitation of multiple uses in certain areas is necessary both to allow for differing uses and for resource protection. Second, the rapid expansion of feral pigs in the South Skyline area has an increasingly devastating impact on the resources, both on District lands, and on those of our neighbors. I voted to spend some District funds this year to begin the processs of trying to find a successful and cost effective way to manage this problem. I believe a regional approach including as many of the neighboring properties as possible, has the greatest chance to be truly successful.