SJ hosts workshop Saturday to gather public opinion on three
alternatives
As plans for a high-density, multi-story city for the Coyote Valley proceed, the City Council stepped up its attempts to change the direction of what Mayor Dennis Kennedy describes as “a train that has left the station.”
By the end of Wednesday’s meeting, a South Valley coalition of agencies had heard a status report and strengthened the emphasis in a letter to reach the planning task force before a public workshop scheduled for Saturday.
County Supervisor Don Gage, particularly, has been vocal in encouraging the South Valley group to be more forceful, using stronger language.
“Be friendly but firm,” Gage told the group.
He suggested using the word “demand” instead of “interest in.”
Kennedy said the letter would be useful.
“It will set the stage and asks questions,” Kennedy said.
Besides traffic and schools – including worries that a required Gavilan College campus will also be too small – the coalition is concerned about transportation and housing, public facilities such as libraries, air quality – San Martin is downwind and already has the worst air in the county – and regional health care.
With Morgan Hill only now beginning to rebuild health services absent since Saint Louise Hospital closed in 1999 and moved to Gilroy and its physicians and services followed, the city council wants to ensure that new facilities in Coyote Valley not compete in a way that kills both, which is what happened with Saint Louise and Gilroy’s South Valley Hospital.
When fully developed, Coyote Valley is expected to provide 50,000 housing units, 25,000 jobs and 80,000 new people to the area directly north of Morgan Hill. The coalition also worries that the houses will arrive before the jobs.
“People will move in who don’t work there and then what will you have,” Gage said.
According to retired Director of Community Development David Bischoff, who is helping the city develop its resistance to the Coyote Valley plan, some progress has been made since the first meeting in May.
First, he said, the City of San Jose said they will do traffic modeling before the environmental impact report study is begun – a change from previous plans. One joint concern of the south valley coalition is the traffic it expects to pour through the area on the way to jobs in Coyote Valley. With modeling, planners can see what would actually happen, especially if its original numbers were false.
“When they have the results,” Bischoff said, “they will invite the city and other stakeholders to review the numbers.”
Secondly, he said, they have hired a consultant to give advice on how to handle the greenbelt. Property owners there are up in arms because, while people who own land in the industrial and residential areas of the valley stand to make large amounts of money when they sell to developers, those who own greenbelt land will not.
Other cities have found ways of making the divide more even – as Morgan Hill is attempting to do with its own greenbelt – and the consultant could provide some answers, Bischoff said.
MHSD Superintendent Carolyn McKennan, who is a member of a task force subcommittee, also said she saw progress.
“In my opinion, they are listening,” McKennan said.
Her concerns, and those of the school board, largely concern the size of land set aside in the plan for schools – MHSD boundaries include all of the valley – and the lack of a bus yard or lunch facilities. She said San Jose planner Susan Walsh had called to talk about the issues.
McKennan mentioned a letter board president George Panos had sent to Gonzales on Aug. 5, comparing the San Jose estimates of the number and size of elementary, middle and high schools and the size of the expected student population with numbers generated by the district using state guidelines.
The differences were so great, Panos in the letter suggested the need for serious discussions before final plans are made. Panos did not attend the meeting.
Bischoff commented that the 50,000 jobs did not include service jobs so the number could be far higher, increasing the effect on the area.
“They don’t include baristas at Starbucks, for example,” Bischoff said.
Kennedy said he thought the coalition’s letter was strong enough but Councilman Greg Sellers agreed with Gage. Bischoff said he would beef up the language and circulate the letter for members’ signatures in time for it to reach task force members before Saturday’s public workshop.
The 7,000-acre site is divided into three areas: industrial closest to Bernal Road, residential in the middle and greenbelt space closest to Morgan Hill. It is largely bounded by Highway 101 and the foothills west of Santa Teresa Boulevard. The area south of Palm Avenue is to remain greenbelt and, according to the plan, will not be developed.
The third meeting of the South Valley coalition, composed of the city, the Morgan Hill School District, Gavilan College, the Open Space Authority, San Martin Neighborhood Association and the City of Gilroy, meet Wednesday to fine-tune a draft letter to be sent to San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales.
Gilroy officials were not present.
The group was formed because it felt San Jose was planning a huge development that would greatly affect the South Valley, seemingly without consideration of its neighbors to the south.
Gage and Russ Danielson, both on the Coyote Valley Specific Plan Task Force, the primary planning body, also attend each meeting.
Saturday’s workshop will be followed by a full task force meeting Monday. The task force is scheduled to consider one of three separate plans for the valley and public opinion gathered Saturday. When a plan is chosen, possibly after an Aug. 30 task force retreat, it will be sent to the San Jose City Council, which will have the last word.
