Planners release basis for environmental impact report
San Jose – Coyote Valley planners have released an updated, detailed description of the development that will be used as the basis of the project’s environmental impact report.
Under state law, the city must prepare an EIR detailing the project’s influence on transportation, air quality, noise, geology, water use and public facilities, and offer feasible solutions for any detrimental impacts.
The city must also propose reasonable alternatives to the proposed project, which envisions an eventual community of 25,000 homes, 50,000 jobs and 80,000 residents. One alternative will be to abandon the project.
Some critics of Coyote Valley development have suggested that the city is rushing the EIR and should wait until the specific plan for the development is fully formed.
“We understand this is a work in progress,” Morgan Hill Mayor Dennis Kennedy said. “Only with an accurate and complete description can decision makers make a balanced judgement on the benefits of the project and its environmental costs.”
Joe Horwedel, the San Jose planner preparing the EIR said that it’s important for the document to move forward. He had originally hoped to have it finished this year.
“We’re trying to get the EIR rolling,” Horwedel said. “Rather than waiting for the plan to get finished we needed to get the best approximation and put words to it to describe it.”
The full description is at www.sanjoseca.gov/coyotevalley/docs/CVSP_Project_Desc_.pdf
