Council members are getting restless after repeated requests to
be part of planning Coyote Valley development were rejected by the
City of San Jose and school board trustees are beginning to jump on
board.
Council members are getting restless after repeated requests to be part of planning Coyote Valley development were rejected by the City of San Jose and school board trustees are beginning to jump on board.
At the behest of Councilman Steve Tate, the council will take a look Wednesday at what can be done to change Mayor Ron Gonzales’ mind about shutting out the city and to some extent the district.
“Probably a lawsuit is not an option,” Tate said Monday, though he thinks there may be other paths to a seat at the table. One possible way might be for council members to contact San Jose council members individually instead of just sending messages to Mayor Gonzales.
Tate has asked City Attorney Helene Leichter for an opinion and hopes to hear before Wednesday’s meeting.
San Jose plans to develop the area between the two cities with an eventual 80,000 new residents, 50,000 new homes and 25,000 jobs, all of which will affect Morgan Hill significantly.
So far, however, Gonzales says, through his communications director David Vossbrink, that Morgan Hill is “appropriately represented.”
No one from Morgan Hill sits on the Coyote Valley Specific Plan Task Force although Russ Danielson, who was appointed by Gonzales during Danielson’s short, appointed term as a district trustee. While he owns a business in Morgan Hill, he lives in San Jose.
Supervisor Don Gage, who represents South Valley, does sit on the task force.
Morgan Hill is represented on a Technical Advisory Committee by Planning Commissioners Joe Mueller and Bob Benich, and Scott Plambaeck and Rebecca Tolentino of the planning department. District Superintendent Carolyn McKennan is also a member but has not attended many meetings because they conflict with Monday night school board meetings. McKennan said she will try to have other district employees attend in her place.
Morgan Hill School District is involved because its boundaries extend north to Bernal Road in south San Jose, and include Coyote Valley.
Although the school board has not discussed the possibility of a lawsuit, individual trustees mostly expressed their reservations about taking such an action.
“I think, if we do that, their hackles are going to go up,” Trustee Mike Hickey said Monday. “I don’t know the effort that’s been put in, personally, to gaining a spot on the task force, I don’t know if we’ve exhausted all our resources on that. But I do think, if you come at them with a lawsuit, they can say, ‘This is exactly why we didn’t want you on it.’”
Trustee Del Foster said last week that he believes it is important to keep the lines of communication open, and that a lawsuit would effectively shut communication down.
Board President George Panos did not return calls seeking comment.
Without a board discussion, Trustee Jan Masuda and Superintendent McKennan were not willing to comment.
Masuda said she didn’t know enough about the situation.
“I would need to get some more information before commenting,” she said. “I would imagine this would be something for our City/School District Liaison Committee representative … This is not something I had considered.”
McKennan said initiating a lawsuit would be a board decision, and since the board has had no discussion on it, district staff had not discussed it.
Trustee Shellé Thomas also indicated last week she would need more information, but did say that she felt strongly that the district needs to be represented on the task force. Perhaps, she said earlier, a lawsuit would make Gonzales and the San Jose City Council sit up and take notice.
Trustee Amina Khemici was not available by press time.
The Gavilan Community College District, which includes Coyote Valley up to Bernal Road, would also be directly affected by 80,000 new residents.
Gavilan President Steve Kinsella said he was about to send a letter to Gage and Forrest Williams, San Jose City Councilman for the Coyote Valley and south San Jose areas.
“The letter will indicate to the city (San Jose) planning department that Gavilan Community College district is responsible for providing services to Coyote Valley,” Kinsella said. “They need to recognize that Gavilan will not be able to serve the area with existing facilities.”
Fortunately, Measure E which squeaked by to pass in the March 2 election would provide resources for some additional facilities if needed, Kinsella said.
“As they look at zoning there should be some accommodation for a community college,” he said. “If there are 80,000 people in the area, Gavilan will have to do something in the area.”
The state Department of Education would also be involved in the decision.
He said he found Gage and Williams to be responsive in the past and expects communication to continue. Williams’ term expires in December 2004.
Because community college district boundaries are structured in conjunction with K-12 districts, potential students living in Coyote Valley and attending other colleges – West Valley, Evergreen and San Jose City are within easy driving distance – will not bring funding with them.
“The state allocates money for growth to Gavilan in Coyote Valley,” Kinsella said. “It does not give money to other districts even if Coyote Valley students go there.”
Kinsella said he attends as many Coyote Valley planning meetings as he can and intends to be involved in the Environmental Impact Report process and will provide comment.
“It’s in everyone’s interest to bring higher education components into the plan,” he said. “There will be great dividends to doing so.”
This is not the first time the city considered suing San Jose over development. Former councilman Bob Foster dug back in his memory and came up with previous experience.
“In the early 1960s San Jose tried to annex parts of northern Morgan Hill,” Foster said. “That’s why we have extended the boundaries out to Jackson Oaks, Holiday Lake Estates (on the east) and Woodland Acres (on the northwest).” This, he said, is why the greenbelt was established between the two cities.
In Coyote, Foster said, nobody wanted to develop the flatland because, at the time, agriculture was still making money and the Committee for Green Foothills shut down plans.
“We may have even asked the city attorney to look into suing but there was no legal basis for it,” said Foster, who is an attorney.
“Every time the City of Morgan Hill attempted to negotiate with the City of San Jose, it was pretty well rejected,” Foster said. “San Jose is not one to negotiate. They have the power and nobody else does.”
