Showing off an urban core with a man-made lake surrounded by
mixed-use residential development, city planners have unveiled a
working draft of the
”
Planning Area Detail Appendix
”
of the Coyote Valley Specific Plan.
San Jose – Showing off an urban core with a man-made lake surrounded by mixed-use residential development, city planners have unveiled a working draft of the “Planning Area Detail Appendix” of the Coyote Valley Specific Plan.
Planners had hoped to release a working draft of the Coyote Valley Specific Plan with its appendix on June 12, but are now delaying the plan’s release until August because parts of the overarching planning document, which is hundreds of pages long, haven’t yet been finalized.
City planners said last week they decided to release the appendix anyway to give the public as much time as possible to give feedback at a series of community meetings planned this summer.
The purpose of the appendix is to detail 12 planning areas north of Palm Avenue in Coyote Valley. A proposed greenbelt between Coyote Valley and Morgan hill is not included.
Area “A” includes the suburb’s urban core, with streets circling around a lakeside promenade, and other roads, such as Bailey Avenue, extending outward like “spokes.” Three Highway 101 freeway connections, including the existing Bailey Avenue link, are envisioned overall.
The planning Appendix uses color codes to show four domains: Residential, commercial, industrial/workplace and mixed-use. Different shades of each color denote different densities.
The Appendix shows most residential development being assigned to southerly regions. Maps also show 245 acres of new city parks serving the future Coyote Valley community, exceeding minimum neighborhood park requirements in the San Jose General Plan.
San Jose Deputy City Planner Laurel Prevetti hopes the visually enticing Appendix prompts more public feedback on Coyote Valley development.
“It’s important to remember this is a document in flux,” Prevetti said, alluding to both the Appendix and the Specific Plan.
City officials recently started a new series of community meetings to discuss the planning effort. At the first meeting in Almaden on Wednesday, some residents said they were concerned about the amount of auto traffic the new suburb would generate on Almaden Expressway and Highway 101.
“My concern is with what kind of impact this will have on the surrounding infrastructure” of roads, said Bob Boydston, a retired IBM employee and longtime Almaden resident. “Here you have 25,000 new homes. Those people are going to be going somewhere in their cars.”
San Jose City Councilmembers Nancy Pyle and Forrest Williams were among those in attendance at the meeting.
They each told the crowd that Coyote Valley would ultimately stimulate the local economy by attracting new companies to an attractive suburb.
Economic forecasts, however, are still being debated.
When fully built-out, perhaps in 40 or 50 years, Coyote Valley is expected to house up to 75,000 new residents. It may resemble a suburb such as “Mountain View,” Pyle suggested.
Currently, much of Coyote Valley’s 3,200 acres are owned by more than 200 private property owners. San Jose city officials hope the Coyote Valley Specific Plan is adopted by the city council in 2007, which up amend the General Plan and allow the land to be annexed. But even after annexation, Prevetti said, residential development may not start for 10 years.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill for The Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or tb*******@*************es.com.
