Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Editorials

A little sugar helps medicine go down

The saga of Arlie Land and Cattle Co. in the Santa Cruz Mountains continues, this time with an intriguing plot twist. The environmentalists and the developer appear to be jumping into bed together.

Strange bedfellows, perhaps, until one remembers the Middle Eastern saying, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Local boy Pete Denevi is the odd man out in the current plan, which gives environmentalists what they want--1,000 acres of open space at an affordable price and no golf course--and gives Arlie what it wants--the environmentalists on its side.

Denevi, of course, is not taking this lying down. He's already filed a notice that he intends to bring a lawsuit against Arlie for not honoring an agreement he hammered out with the Oregon-based company several weeks ago. Arlie claims it's Denevi who hasn't honored the agreement.

Meanwhile, credit Arlie with a slick move.

Ordinarily, a developer who's trying to entice buyers for high-priced home lots would welcome a golf course. What better incentive to prospective buyers than a prestigious country club just around the bend in the road?

Except that in the case of Denevi's proposed Los Gatos Country Club, the golf course was already the focus of intense opposition from environmentalists when Arlie bought the 1,130 acres from Hong Kong Metro Realty.

Denevi had an option on 210 of those acres. It probably didn't take Arlie long to figure out that the proposed country club was baggage it didn't need.

So even while the developer was fighting with environmentalists--most notably with the Greenbelt Alliance in a lawsuit recently dismissed by a judge--alliances were being forged. There was, after all, a common enemy.

For the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District and other environmental groups, the development of 55 lots in the mountains across from Lexington Reservoir is certainly a bitter pill to swallow.

Still, 1,000 acres of open space is the sugar that helps the medicine go down.

The open-space strategy also enjoys the advantage of being "for the people." It's just what the environmentalists were pushing for when they pointed an accusing finger at Denevi for his plan to turn God's country into one more exclusive domain for the rich.

Will the county buy the strategy? It remains to be seen, of course, if Denevi is really out.

But we'd guess that a plan for 55 homes clustered on a small portion of 1,130 acres has a good chance when it's presented in tandem with 1,000 acres of open space for hiking and horseback riding.

The same number of homes bogged down with a country club that's wildly unpopular with environmentalists just doesn't go down as smoothly.

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