As part of a push to bring more attention and resources to the land beyond Silicon Valley’s tech-heavy metropolis, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has unanimously approved a new office meant to coordinate business efforts outside of the county’s cities.
Proponents say the effort could help offer an economic lifeline to a region and a population that has been historically left behind.
“We really need to take advantage of our own backyard. “I’m hoping to really continue to elevate our south county,” said Supervisor Sylvia Arenas, who proposed the new office and whose district covers much of the southern, agricultural region of the county. “South county has been underserved. There needs to be more resources allocated to my district than other districts because we are so far behind.”
The unincorporated regions of the county host over 20,000 jobs according to 2022 data from the US Census Bureau — similar to Los Gatos, and more than Gilroy or Morgan Hill, and agriculture in the county produced over $371 million in 2023.
While most cities have an office dedicated to bolstering their economic development, the unincorporated areas including agricultural land and towns like San Martin and Los Altos Hills lacked that service. The new office would help helm and coordinate efforts to promote business in the unincorporated areas, especially agriculture and agritourism.
Previously, the county had an office meant to coordinate efforts in unincorporated areas, but over the years, that office dwindled to a single person, mostly focused on managing the county fairgrounds.
Several who lived and worked in and around the unincorporated regions argued that the new office could be essential to revitalizing the southern end of the county as a whole by attracting tourists to farms and wineries and drawing traffic to the cities and open spaces around them.
Joe Raineri, owner of Terra Amico farms in San Martin and developer of a year-round farmers market and food hub coming to Morgan Hill, argued that the region’s agritourism was an “untapped opportunity” in the area that would “strengthen our local economy as a whole.”
Many harkened to the region’s history as “The Valley of Heart’s Delight” — named for the abundance of flowering trees that filled the agricultural heart of Santa Clara Valley before it became known as Silicon Valley. (Prior to the 1960s, the region was one of the primary fruit producing and canning hubs in the world.)
“While we’ve embraced Tech, we cannot afford to let our agricultural roots remain unheralded,” said Laura Chmielewski, vice-president of Visit San Jose. “(This office) would give us the tools to ensure these roots flourish.”
While the move was met with some initial trepidation given the potential cost of starting up a new office, Arenas noted that the county had committed to economic development for agriculture as part of its 2018 Agricultural Plan.
Supervisor Joe Simitian held that the office could serve as an extension of the county’s social safety net services. “Ag provides a lot of the jobs that folks at modest means can use to generate at least an honest income, and maybe have hope for their family to hang in and hang on,” said Simitian.
Arenas argued that with president-elect Donald Trump’s commitment to deporting immigrants, the office could provide another economic boost to ag workers — who are disproportionately immigrants and often undocumented — be in line with the county’s commitment to push back against some of Trump’s policies.
The Board is expected to revisit the plan by February to outline the details and the potential financials for the new office.