The planning for development of the Coyote Valley just north of
Morgan Hill continues to proceed at a breakneck pace.
The planning for development of the Coyote Valley just north of Morgan Hill continues to proceed at a breakneck pace. The Coyote Valley Specific Plan Task Force, which held its first meeting less than two years ago, will meet Monday night to review and possibly adopt the infrastructure recommendations of its consultants.
Those infrastructure decisions will have a great deal of influence on the final look and feel of the upcoming development, which will feature 25,000 homes, 80,000 residents and 50,000 jobs at build out.
We urge as many South Valley residents as possible to attend the task force meeting to be held on Monday, Aug. 30, from 5:30-9pm at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, 150 E. San Fernando St., in downtown San Jose.
Anyone who plans to attend would do well to study the issues facing South Valley as a result of the development of Coyote Valley. The Coyote Valley Specific Plan Task Force’s Web site (www..sanjoseca.gov/coyotevalley) is a good place to start. Research stories on our Web site (www.gilroydispatch.com).
There are many points of contention with the way the task force has handled its work – more than we have room to detail here – but two planning errors are so egregious that they demand detailed attention.
First is the composition of the task force. The City of San Jose has stubbornly insisted on an arbitrary cap of 20 members for the specific plan task force. This means that two key stakeholders, the Morgan Hill School District and Gavilan Community College, have no representation on the task force.
MHSD takes some of the blame for its lack of representation. Trustees appointed Russ Danielson to the task force. When Danielson failed to retain his trustee seat in an election, the district reportedly declined an offer from the task force to replace him with an elected member.
That was a mistake, and one that the school district ought to correct immediately. In a matter of this importance, with such long-range and broad implications for the taxpayers, parents and students of the district, ought to be handled by an elected trustee who is directly accountable to voters.
As for Gavilan Community College, they’ve asked for a seat at the planning table but have apparently been rebuffed. San Jose’s lack of foresight in shunning the agency responsible for post-secondary education of Coyote Valley’s students is nothing short of stunning.
The oft-repeated yet still lame excuse that there are plenty of “other ways” for the MHSD and Gavilan College officials to participate in the planning process isn’t good enough.
The second egregious error is a repeat of the Cisco planning days: The mistaken assumption that 80 percent of the traffic into Coyote Valley will come from the north an 20 percent will come from the south.
That notion was so patently ridiculous that it inspired a lawsuit over the Cisco environmental impact report by the City of Salinas and others. The lawsuit failed on a technicality, but never mind, San Jose planners are sticking with their patently ridiculous 80/20 assumption for the latest Coyote Valley planning incarnation.
It seems that the City of San Jose is doing everything in its power to exclude and offend South Valley residents who will be most affected by Coyote Valley development.
Rather than choosing an inclusive approach that fosters cooperation and acceptance of a Coyote Valley plan, the City of San Jose has instead chosen confrontation and contention.
Rather than welcoming the input of those responsible for the education of the Coyote Valley’s children, it has shunned them.
Rather than make valid assumptions about the impacts Coyote Valley development will have on its southern neighbors, San Jose planners choose to whitewash them.
Let’s call them on it. If you can, consider attending the task force meeting Monday night. Let those who did manage to snag places at the planning table know how you feel about their plans and how they will impact South Valley’s environment, economy, traffic and lifestyle.
