A San Martin family's livelihood could be on the chopping block as the Santa Clara County Planning Commission deliberates its fate in three months.
The San Martin Planning Advisory Committee had unanimously agreed Wednesday to recommend that the matter involving a use permit for Antonio and Albertina DaSilva's 31-acre slaughterhouse be continued when it went before county planners Thursday afternoon.
Planning commission members voted unanimously to continue the item until December.
Committee member Jack Bohan, who also sits on the county's planning commission, said there was a good chance the commission could revoke the DaSilva's permit for their slaughterhouse, partly because the county fire marshal expressed concern.
The issue was reignited after Assistant County Fire Marshal Judy Saunders recommended that the planning commission pull the DaSilvas use permit saying they have "abandoned any attempts to meet the conditions" of their 2002 approval.
"My most pressing concern is the illegally built four-unit apartment complex that puts families at risk because it was built without permits," Saunders said. Further, she said the ranch has access issues, no fire protection water supply and lacks a sprinkler system in the apartments.
Planning Manager Michael Lopez said in a memorandum to the planning commission that the DaSilvas initiated the applications for several building permits in 2003 but then allowed them to expire.
The applications never resulted in the issuance of a building permit or the legalization of any the structures, which include the butchery and a multi-unit apartment complex, he added.
The DaSilvas said the buildings on the property, including the apartments, were already on the property when they bought the ranch on the 12000 block of New Avenue in 1975 and started their custom butchery business.
Since 2002, the family said they've spent more than $50,000 trying to appease county officials, which included installing a 10,000-gallon tank with a fire hydrant, but now the fire marshal's office wants a larger water distribution system.
"They want this, that and the other," said their daughter, Noel Furtado.
She said the family, as well as the engineers working on the project, are at odds with the fire marshal's office because they don't understand why the ranch needs a 65,000-gallon tank for the small area that the business and buildings encompass. The installation of the new system is estimated to cost more than $250,000.
"The system they're asking for is what you find in a small town," Furtado said.
Committee member Bob Cerruti agreed saying one fire hydrant tied to a 10,000-gallon tank and a well pump services five homes in his San Martin neighborhood.
"They're asking for something like five to six times the capacity of what I have on my street," he said.
In 2007, the DaSilva's ranch was quarantined for 30 days after state officials discovered that half their pigs contracted pseudorabies - a virus transmitted between feral pigs that rarely affects humans, the Gilroy Dispatch reported.
However, Jay Van Rein, a spokesperson for California Department of Food and Agriculture, said that was the first and only incident of a quarantine at the ranch.
Randy Kalp Got a question or a comment? Send us an email.
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